January 11, 2007
A Busy Chicken Little
Snow. Oh, yes. There is snow. I don't like snow. Not if I have to drive in it. Not if I have a road trip planned. It looks like the road trip to see Heather for her birthday is off. I keep watching the cameras for WA, OR and CA. Many of the roads look OK now but a couple of the trouble spots are still expecting more snow or to heat up during the day today but freezing again tonight. There are a lot of hazards, black ice and accidents. Caution is the better part of valor and I am feeling wimpy. I am most sad about this. However, on the good side of things, it means that I can extend my DDC road trip to include some visit time with Heather and extend her birthday out.
On the bad side, it makes me feel like a wuss. However, sliding all over Redmond and almost crashing my car has made me one very big Chicken Little. Yes, I did drive today. I had to. First, my cat needed fresh litter. OMG, did she need fresh litter. I thought I had some. Nope. Second, I needed a litmus test to see how the roads were to figure out if I could do my road trip. Yeah. No. There is a stark difference between the roads that are in the sunlight and the ones in the shade. Fine. Fine. Fine. Whoa. Shit! Black ice! Slide. Slide. Brake. Slide. Traction. Fine. Fine. Fine. Shit!
So, now, instead of a birthday party and research in Sacramento for Novel #1, I'm going to be home, working on the Novel #1, putting in placeholders for the research areas and wishing the white stuff would go away.
I've been a very busy freelance writer over the past two weeks. You see, I am my own boss but my boss is a bit of a slave driver. We are still finding the appropriate balance of work and life. So far, I'm ahead of schedule.
Except for the fact that I have just realized that I fucking overwrote Grants Pass Final document with Regresser's Evolution final document... discovering that "All Grants Pass Final" was actually Regresser's Evolution. Sometimes, I just hate myself. That was a good six hours of work that I need to repeat. Right now.
Three hours later, all of the stories are back in a single document and the over all edit begins again. The one thing I have going for me right now is the fact that I'm doing all of this for a reason. An agent asked me for the full manuscript. There is purpose in this re-edit and that makes me happy and keeps me going.
Six hours later, the full manuscript is completely re-edited and sent off to the agent. I have high hopes for my baby. Grants Pass was my project from inception until now. I really want to see it in hardcopy print.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with my productivity. Though, I have to admit I'm very nervous about the queries to the agent and the call into WotC. We will see what we will see with it though. Hope for the best, expect the worst and you usually land in-between.
I've been sick since Christmas. Only just now am I finally almost well. I'm still occasionally coughing and my ears still pop now and then. I've very glad that I'm over being sick but now the fact that all my illness has keep me from going to the gym all this time is coming home to roost. I am a good two weeks behind on the training I wanted to do for my mini-triathlon.
You know, it is far too easy to skip the gym. Far too easy to stay at my computer and work or mess around on my computer. Or to work on home projects. I'm alphabetizing my library right now. I'm up to "L" right now. I have an awful lot of books. But, it will be really nice to have them in order again so I can find the books I'm looking for. One of these days, I'm going to get barcode scanning software and itemize my library.
But, I digress. It is far too easy to not leave the house and to not go to the gym. This surprises me. I was all gung-ho about the gym. I'm hoping now that I'm well again (and if the snow melts soon), that enthusiasm will return. Especially with my need to get out and see people even if I'm not actually talking to them.
Tarot Card for the Day: Death, Inverted