Day Five (and the beginning of Day Six).

No, the fact that there was no entry yesterday (Wednesday, September 5) does NOT mean that I missed a day - just that my hour was split 30/30 and by the time I finished up it was 11:45 last night, and I didn' t feel hardly at all like journaling, though I did feel a lot like sleeping. No work on the novel yet; I did a few more revisions on the story. Then I took it to my weekly critique group and read it aloud, and did the last of the fixing late last night. Shadow went out this morning and I was glad to see it go.

My weekly group is a beginning fiction class that became an advanced fiction class that became a critique group. We've been together for at least ten years, though I've only been part of it for the past eight. People have come and gone. We have satellite members in Mesa, AZ and Austin, and one in "the great beyond." Several of us are published in different genres - we've got romance writers and children's writers and mystery writers, and of course science fiction and fantasy. And we're thorough, with the emphasis on making the stories work so that we can sell them. Most of the serious goofing off gets saved for our several times yearly box-o-wine parties, or as Guiseppe likes to call it, vin au cartin. No politics allowed. Well, no personal writing/ego agendas, anyway.

Will get some more keyboard time in this afternoon and tonight in between errand running to get ready for my workshop weekend. Tonight's mission: to get my heroine Cait to the Summerland and make contact with whoever is likely to screw her over the most. The rest of tonight's mission: put up a pot of homemade tortilla soup and make up some blueberry crunch granola. Gotta feed peoples this weekend!

Yesterday's trax: VH1 Rock Across America video countdown, listened to from the other room.
Tonight's likely trax: VMAs, same deal.

I am a video junkie.

Later,
Les.

Day Four.

Yes, the fact that there was no entry yesterday (Sunday, September 3) means I fell down on the job, literally (well the job part, not the falling part). No writing yesterday with all of my overtime, a good dinner with friends, and a couple of beers. Workshop planning: finished.

I made up the writing time today and logged 2 hours. Shadow is finished. I'm going to take a last quick peak at it tomorrow and send it out. Tomorrow, I'm going after the novel.

Mega congratulations to Frank Wu for his win at the Hugos, and to Toby Buckell and Melissa Yuan-Innes for their many Campbell Award noms! Next year, final ballot.

Today's trax: the rain and thunder outside, the construction on the 39th floor, and the incessant *!?#*! phone.

Later,
Leslie

Sunday night, September 2, Day Two.

Writing, etc: Very pleased to have done my writing! I got a good, solid scene and a half in on Shadow. For my skinwalker/shapeshifter and her guard, THINGS GET WORSE, of course. I'm on target for finishing up tomorrow. Which I will have to do at work since the partner I work for has Exceptions due on Wednesday and I've been drafted to work on the, um, draft. Seven and a half hours today on class planning, a little L-O-N-G to stare at the computer screen on my day off. But we *did* plan three, 3-hour sections of the Elements of Magic workshop.

Recent (and future) reading: Just finished up (finally) reading Greg Bear's Darwin's Radio, with which I started mildly intrigued and ended utterly captured. Fabulous! And I'm eagerly waiting for the new sequel to The Talisman to hit my mailbox, for unlike my friend Glenn, Straub and King didn't challenge my suspension of disbelief with those machine-gun wielding werewolves.

Tonight's trax: Aaliyah (RIP) mix and the soundrack for Magnolia. Aimee Mann is a goddess.

Ciao for now -
Leslie