Man, I should really update more often
1. I worked two weekends ago, I spent last weekend mostly on my back because I hurt it the weekend before, and I have to work all weekend this weekend. In other news, I'm pretty sure I'm going to take the Thursday and Friday after the 4th off.
2. I sat down after work and decided to write out the plot so far in the Sucky Novel of Doom. Imagine my surprise to discover that there is no plot! This may be why it sucks. I have premise, characters, backstory and stuff-that-happens. I believe I might profitably spend a couple of days thinking about the plot.
3. I finished converting 'What Makes a River' to past tense and cutting a little though perhaps not enough. Why I am working on this story I don't know since I can't sell it unless I sell 'How to Hide Your Heart'.
4. Started a new story, which may turn out not to be a story and almost certainly won't be finished for awhile and got (what I hope is) a decent idea for how to make 'Interacting with the Neighbors...' work as a story.
5. While I was lying on my back I watched 42- and 49- up. Someday I will have an actual post about these movies. For now, I'll just say that though I identify most with the Yorkshire farm boy gone to academia, I fear my life most resembles that of the not actually crazy (probably) guy, except that I have mostly always had a job.
6. Since I gave a talk a couple of weeks ago on social networks, I've started playing with Facebook and LibraryThing. It's extremely telling that the thing I like the most about LibraryThing is that I can go in and select the 'right' book cover for my books. Because if they don't have the right cover, it's as if they aren't even my books.
It will come as no surprise to learn that my inner book locater is completely visual and spatial.
7. The Ames School District closed two elementary schools two years ago and now are proposing to bus elementary kids five miles out of town to another district for a couple of years so they can remodel and relieve overcrowding.
8. They are also proposing to build an aquatic recreation center on the flood plain (which, while weirdly appropriate is stupid and annoying) and to tear down 8 houses to build a left turn lane. The people whose houses are being offered up for sacrifice are really, really annoyed (and in many ways it's hard to blame them because they will go from having a decent centrally located home to in all likelihood being unable to afford to buy another home in the city at all). Also, I go through this intersection every day at 5:00 and, really? Not the traffic problem of the century.
9. I actually don't have a number 9 (or a number 10 depending on how you think of it), but by the time I got to about six things I decided to see if I could get to 10.
10. If I were on LJ and could lock posts, I'd tell you other things, but one of them is sad and the other one is whiny so consider yourself spared.....
Comments
1. Your poor back! I hope it's better.
2. I'd send you some plot, but we're all out.
3. Why can't you sell it first? Or are you saving it for Asimov's?
4. Yay, new story! You are a wonder.
5. I don't really have anything to say about this one, though I'm glad you're not the crazy one.
6. Facebook's sorta scary, isn't it? I keep hearing about MySpace and feeling guilty that I started one and then did nothing with it.
7. Stupid Ames!
8. Stupid Ames again!
9. It's only 8 random things, anyway.
10. Sorry for the sad and whiny...
Now this had better post.
Posted by: SarahP | June 29, 2007 08:14 PM
Haha! You are the Queen of comments!
1. My back mysteriously got better, like--poof!--agony one minute and pretty much all right the next. I am hoping it stays that way.
2. I feel better knowing that that's my problem (plot). And I think if I can figure out where things actually start to *move* instead of being backstory, backstory, character development I can get back to writing it. Unfortunately when I say I have to work this weekend I mean that I will be working from 7AM until, like, 11 PM tomorrow and 7 to 4 on Sunday so probably won't get much done this weekend.
3. 'What Makes a River' is more or less a sequel to 'How to Hide Your Heart.' I hope it works alone, but I need to find an unsuspecting person who hasn't read HtHYH to read it
4. Yeah, I would be a wonder if I ever actually sold more than one story a year.
5. The whole series is really fascinating. The academic (who is a physics prof, btw) said that he really wanted to be more famous for his science than the documentary, but was finally realizing that probably wasn't going to happen.
6. I keep wondering what it would have been like if they'd had Facebook when I was in college. I'm pretty sure I found plenty of ways to waste my time without it (of course the drinking age was 18, then).
7, 8, 9, 10. Yes to all :-)
Posted by: debco | June 29, 2007 08:41 PM