Great Weekend

The dreaded glug notwithstanding, I had a great weekend. Spent Thursday with my non-writer friends--I do have a few. We had a delicious meal and a lot of laughs. The way you're supposed to spend Thanksgiving.

The rest of the weekend was a nice melange of writing, reading, doing housework (not a lot, just enough) and watching television. Not a bad way to spend three days. Especially since I managed to avoid stores altogether.

Last night was the last Sunday dinner with Pirates plus. Again, good food and lots of laughs, although on different topics than those discussed Thursday. I had to leave early to pick up my sister from the airport. It would have been much more fun staying around with the gang, but I guess I needed to do one family-related thing this weekend.

So, back at work this morning. It's still very quiet. Four coworkers are off today, because they covered on Wednesday. D.B. is off so no one to talk writing with. Bummer. But also not many to interrupt me if I should decide to write a bit while here. Groovy. Think I'll do just that. And maybe find a place in Vesta to use "melange."

Not an Auspicious Start

This morning did start well. I woke up early and worked out. Read some blogs and email. Put a load of laundry in the washing machine and got things organized to start writing. Then the glug. The dreaded glug. The glug that means my drain in the basement is backing up. Sigh.

So the guy from Doc's Drain Cleaning is here. He thinks he's got it all, but is going to run the washing machine just to make sure that it isn't the floor drain. Then he's out of here and so is about $150 bucks. One of those things you just have to do when you own a home with mature trees around it. Making a note to myself to call them in September next year so maybe we can avoid the glug.

Then it's off to Target to pick up a couple things I forgot yesterday on my rush back home after dropping my sister off at the airport. Yay! And back to start the turkey (I'm eating elsewhere tomorrow but still want my own leftovers) and write. Dammit.

Deeps breaths. Better to get the glug out of the way the day before Thanksgiving than ON Thanksgiving.

Update to Intrusions

What did I tell you?

I sent my acceptances and rejections out. Almost immediately, one of the guys I rejected came back and said that he'd be happy to revise but he didn't understand my comment that the story was spotty. Did I mean uneven? And if so, he needed clarification. This is a person who has supposedly--I didn't take the time to Google him--been nominated for a couple Edgars. Right.

I now know why agents and editors can be so terse in their rejection letters. They are saying, "No, thank you." That's it. Once you throw in the "Your writing has promise" or "Maybe with a little work", you as the editor are screwed. Because they just keep coming back. I have taken the line with "please keep submitting" out of the rejection letter. It is now simply, your story doesn't work for us. Period.

The other response I got to a rejection was another story. Immediately. Okay, let's get this straight. You sent me your best work two weeks ago. I have sent a rejection to that work and your second (or third or fourth) best work is going to impress me? I did read it. Two typos and 3 POV shifts in the first 6 paragraphs. It doesn't get any better.

So to quote the much missed Miss Snark, "No means no."

The good part of this is that I am now SO ready to start working on my own stuff. And reading things from the Pirates. You guys don't know how good you are.

Intrusions

I'm a big one for lecturing people on not letting too much intrude on their writing time. Looks like I need to sit down and have a heart to heart with myself.

This is always a pretty slow week for me at work. We've done all the mid-month stuff and it's not yet time to gear up for end of month. So what to do today except, oh I don't know, write?

Except I have some other commitments to see to. So I've been reading submissions for Apollo's Lyre and responding. I am definitely seeing a trend. People submit, are accepted and immediately submit something else. Not a bad thing if second submission is as good or better than first (and that means you, Frank!), but if the first acceptance was pretty much because we had to have something to publish and said author's didn't exactly suck, well....the next one is never better, let me tell ya. I believe this is a similar phenomenon to the people who are rejected and immediately send in a different story with all the same flaws. Frustrating. And tiring.

And then I had some clean-up work to do for PPW. Submit my volunteer hours. Have a Sweet Success story published on the web because, somehow, it didn't get included in the November print edition. Apologize to person who achieved the success, profusely. Send out a reminder of the deadline for the January issue. And think about what my editorial will be for January. Should probably write a draft. Ain't gonna happen today.

I've said before, and I'll say again, the editing is rewarding work. We do put out some really useful information in the PPW NewsMagazine. And when I get a so-so submission to AL and give feedback to the author who then turns it into a great piece of short fiction, what a high! And I love when an awesome piece shows up out of nowhere. But editing is not my passion. That's my writing. And I need to remember to protect my passion.

I'll be finished with the other stuff in less than an hour (mainly because I'm not writing my editorial right now). That leaves two hours to work on Vesta before I go home. And, if I tape Chuck and Heroes, I'll have a couple more hours tonight.

Okay, I feel better now. I did my have-tos and can still get some want-tos done.

Lecture over.

Friday Ramblings

It's a beautiful day here in Colorado. Sunny, mild, clear skies. Just the kind of weather the rest of the country thinks we don't have in the fall and winter. But we do have a lot of them. A perfect day for a walk, and people seem to be taking advantage of it. I plan to go hiking tomorrow and Sunday to refill the well as it were.

There's a regular daycare center at the end of the street and another one closer to the building for developmentally disabled adolescents and adults. There are also a lot of medical offices on our street. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but my office is sort of 'garden level'. My window is high in the wall, but just above the ground outside. It gives a unique perspective on the world outside when I'm sitting at my desk. I see lots of sky and treetops until someone walks past. Some of the adolescents and adults walked by this morning with a couple of the attendants. They all seemed to be having a great time, enjoying the warm day.

A little while ago a woman in a smock--looked like she works in one of the doctor's offices--walked by. She kept glancing in the window with a really sour expression on her face. Now maybe she's got the cold that's going around. Maybe she hates her job. Maybe she got some bad news or didn't like her lunch. Maybe she just didn't like the looks of me. I wanted to make faces at her, but resisted the urge. I do represent the company after all. But it was tempting. It's a gorgeous day. Enjoy it!

Now if the little kids walk by, the day will be complete. It's fun to watch because they hold hands in a long line so they're actually walking sideways. They always seem to be enjoying themselves too. Even when it's a dreary day.

I know Ali's challenge to get outside was last month, but I'm going to issue it for this weekend. Get out of the house. Enjoy the pretty weather. Clear the cobwebs. Watch some people walking and see if you can figure out their mood.

Heckler

Although I'm still making good progress on the Vesta story (really need a title for this, but don't think it will happen until the end) I am beginning to hear that inner Heckler. "You should put more in about the story cards early on" and "You need more setup with the great aunt." So far I've been able to tell him to shut up. And that is the point of the whole NaNoWriMo exercise. To shut off the Heckler (or editor or critic) so that you just get the story down.

I do know it's a pretty bare bones story right now--with a few flashes of great (if I do say so myself, and I do) evocative writing. The benefit of having written one novel is that I also know that's how I work. The first pass is to build the skeleton of the story. I may know what the end is, but rarely how to get there. That's what is both fun and frustrating about my process.

Ali just posted about Freshman Comp. students and their inability to just let go and brainstorm. To have fun with writing. I was lucky to finish high school before they went to so many standardized programs. I had some fantastic English teachers. I also had the martinet who was more interested in even margins than what was between those white spaces, but she was in the minority. I took Creative Writing from a man who taught us to journal and to free associate. Our high school College Comp. teacher played music and showed us paintings as prompts. Funny how often I hear the voice of the one bad teacher, though. But I'm learning to shut her up, too.

And on a totally different note, I just looked outside and it's starting to snow. Should be a good day for writing.

Hitting Stride

Almost two weeks in and I finally feel like I'm hitting my stride. Comfortable with the pace, even if it's not as fast as others, I know I can maintain this one. So 5-10 pages a day seems to be what I can do. This means that I now have 36 pages of a book that only existed in my head until November 1st.

Another nice thing? I'm having fun with it. The words seem to flow easier than when I first started. Not that everything is planned in advance. On the contrary, characters are showing up who I didn't expect. An eighty-year-old black woman who may be hinting at secrets about Vesta's parents' deaths. Hmmm. And a gray tabby cat just walked out of the swamp on Thursday. That last one may be because of Ali's new cat, but still, I didn't expect Vesta to have a cat.

Anyone else hitting a stride? Just letting go and writing? I hope so.