Came down to Cork yesterday. Met a nice American couple on the train and chatted with them all the way, thus ensuring I wouldn’t get any work done. Current wordcount: 2000 words behind schedule.

Ted has done a massive job of packing up. There is no living room, there are only boxes. The bedroom is by and large a mass of suitcases. The kitchen is…actually, right now it looks like a disaster area, but it’s the sort of disaster area that, with about an hour’s work, will be entirely packed up. I’m going to do that today. That, and take the art down and spackle in the holes we’ve left in the walls.

I also need to upload the last two weeks’ worth of Project365 pictures. I’m torn on whether to use a photo from the Eric Clapton concert last night or the great shot I took of a redhead on the LUAS for yesterday’s photo… (eta: I’m an idiot. I only brought one camera down with me. Most of the Project365 photos are on the *other* one…)

The concert was great. It wasn’t the best I’ve been to, in part because I don’t know Clapton’s music (I knew two songs, and one of them only sort-of), but man that guy can play a guitar. He looks like he’s just somebody’s dad, but man, he can play a guitar. :) We had a very good time. :)

And now I’m either sicker than a dog or badly affected by the dust and stuff in the air here, which reminds me I should take allergy medicine in case it’s that and not illness, but I’ve also got two canker sores (side by side, the little bastards), which is often an indication of illness in me. Of course, it’s also an indication of stress. Anyway. I need to take a shower, leave the house to get something to eat, buy spackle, come back, pack the kitchen, take the art down, fill in holes in the walls, and…do laundry. I’m not getting /any/ writing done this weekend, am I? Well, that’s why I figured if I got another 10K done by Thursday next I’d be doing really well. Oh well.

Onward.

currently: determined

Upon entering the house this morning, I was greeted with a sharp “BIP!” from the smoke detector, which was clearly possessed of a failing battery. Sadly, I could not cause it to stop BIP!ping, so I called my daddy and asked if he was a hero.

He came over with a ladder and a screwdriver and took it down and took the battery out while I wailed, “I’m an artist! I can’t work under these conditions!” Smoke alarm dismantled, I admired my Heroic Daddy. He looked modest. He prepared to leave. The de-batteried smoke alarm went “BIP!”

We stared at it. We stared at each other. We stared at it some more. It went, “BIP!” We examined it, and saw no visible sign of the electronics upon which it no doubt relies to make it go BIP! when the battery is dead.

It’s in the refrigerator now.

I am narrowly going to miss the mark of writing as much from January-June this year as I wrote in the entirety of 2007. The next week is incredibly hectic. I’m going back down to Cork tomorrow and coming back Sunday. The movers are packing up the house on Monday and will be here either Monday night or Tuesday morning. Aberdeen will be here Tuesday morning(ish) through…Thursday morning, maybe, or maybe only through Wednesday night. My sister’s coming out for a photo shoot Tuesday afternoon. I figure if I get 10K written in the next week I’ll be doing really, really well, and that’ll put me…about 20K short of last year’s total. Which I could theoretically make up in the remaining few days of the month after that, but I don’t think I’m really going to try. :)

I did, however, pass through the 33% mark on the book, and forged on to 40K. I’ll be really, really happy to make 50K by this time next week. That’s the next big landmark.

40,123 / 110,000 (36.5%)

ytd wordcount: 241,500
miles to Isengard: 18.4

currently: busy

hlp i m pinnd don by cts on my rms. cnnot use lft hnd t ll or reech fr sde of keybord. ish someone ould tke picture of mmmlin ssistnce.

hlp, hlp (xclmtion point)

currently: giggly

I know I’m talking about nothing but metrics, but I swear, that’s all that’s going on. Ted’s doing all the heavy lifting (literally) for the move and I’m just up here trying to get this book written. And doing a reasonably good job of it:

28,271 / 110,000 (25.7%)

But that’s about all there is in Whoville.

ytd wordcount: 229,900
miles to Isengard: 10.9

currently: working

I’m trying to figure out a schedule that doesn’t totally wipe me out at mid-day. I don’t seem to have enough stamina, right now, to get up and swim in the morning, then write. I fall asleep during the writing part, and then end up not getting my words done until 6 or 7pm, which feels Very Late Indeed. OTOH, yesterday I started writing early so I could go see The Incredible Hulk (which delivered, I thought. It wasn’t as good as Iron Man, but I thought it pretty much gave you what you wanted out of a Hulk movie) and got 2K in pretty easily. It’s harder to convince myself to go swim in the middle of the afternoon than in the morning, but I think I’ll have to do that for a while, at least until I’m used to swimming and it doesn’t *exhaust* me so much. I tell you what, even on days when I do very little other than write and walk a few miles, I’m sleeping nearly 9 hours at night. I have got *nothing* left in my reserves.

I’ve been doing my Project365 photography (if barely, some days), but it seems I’ve forgotten the camera cable, so I can’t upload any pictures. Nice girl. Not too bright, but a nice girl.

Happy birthday to LAURA and, just so I don’t forget, a slightly advance happy birthday to JOCELYN! *snorgles you both*

thinks to do today:
- call about
» phone
» fuel
» cable

thinks to do in general:

- discard bryant’s smart-asserycarefully-considered editorial suggestions and revise “frwl” my way :)
- get the “frwl” *contract* signed, it seems
- write THE IMPERATOR’S HEIR proposal
- figure out which other grant to apply for

ytd wordcount: 225,200
miles to (damn, it’s hard not to type ‘Minas Tirith!’) Isengard: 8.5

currently: contemplative

thinks i gotta work out the time to do while continuing to write a chapter a day:

- revise “frwl”
- get the “frwl” *contract* signed, it seems
- write THE IMPERATOR’S HEIR proposal
- email scott re: covers
- work on bursary grant application
- figure out which other grant to apply for

swear to god, at some point this headlong rush is going to all be over and i will have *no idea* what to do with myself.

I had at least two more things to put on that thinks list, and cannot remember them anymore. Bah humbug.

ytd wordcount: 223,100
miles to Isengard: 3.1

currently: drained

Marith made a comment yesterday about fish not noticing water, with regards to me and how much/what I do. I tend to think if I can do it, it must not be all that impressive, really, and that anybody can do it.

I’ve been thinking about that the last couple days in the context of writing music. No, I haven’t begun writing music. I haven’t got the foggiest idea how, not music nor lyrics. Instead I boggle at how musicians can evoke emotion and tell stories in three minutes with a repeating chorus, and wonder how the hell they do that. I’d *love* to be able to write music. I just wouldn’t even know where to start.

Presumably there are people who feel this way about writing books. It’s an interesting thought.

ytd wordcount: 219,200

currently: thoughtful

I took myself on a walk this morning and reached Minas Tirith for the third time, thus completing the outward leg of the hobbits’ journeys there and back again. Next I’m backtracking (magic reset button, I don’t have to walk back) to Rauros Falls, and taking the trip from there to Isengard with Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, a journey of 484 miles. This is good. I’ve been typing “miles to Minas Tirith” for nearly nine hundred miles now, and my fingers will be pleased (if confused) to get to type “Isengard” for a while. :)

So I’ve walked 517 miles since January 4th, which is by far the most I’ve walked in such a short period of time over the last several years. I’ve mostly been managing around 500ish miles a year, with a total of…3229 miles around Middle Earth since April 2003. I need to figure out how to check my pedometer, though, ’cause Mom thinks it’s under-counting the distances, which is very possible, ’cause it’s counting them at right about 20 minute miles and I think I walk about 17.5 minute miles, or possibly a bit faster.

Now I will go shower, and then write a lot. :)

miles to Minas Tirith: 517

currently: accomplished

ytd miles swum: 2
ytd wordcount: 215,700
miles to Minas Tirith: 514

currently: exhausted

The first book I wrote, NO SONG BUT SILENCE (which I presume is terrible, and am afraid to look at), I wrote sitting at the end of my parents’ living room couch in Alaska, a word processor balanced precariously on the arm while I typed away.

Sixteen years and sixteen novels later, I’m sitting at the end of my own living room couch in Ireland, a laptop computer balanced on precariously on the arm while I type away.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

ytd wordcount: 212,000
miles to Minas Tirith: 508.7

currently: satisfied