Joystick

January 19

2:15 p.m.

Friday my song was "Toil and toil and toil, and toil unto the grave." All I could see ahead of me was mounds of not-very-pleasant work. I was in a grievous bad mood. So I didn't do a lick of work. I watched the last of the Buffy stuff with Heather (who recently updated her journal, btw), and even ordered pizza, because I didn't have the energy to cook. A real no-brainer night... and, I think, the last night of my impromptu vacation from writing. By bedtime I was less annoyed by the prospect of all the writing-work ahead of me, and even getting excited again, which is nice.

Saturday, I cleaned house a bit, which eased my psyche significantly. Heather's cousin Peter came over in the afternoon, with his son Tupac and his newly adopted son Trevon. Tupac ran up and down the stairs and threw my toys on the floor, and we chatted with Peter, who is a very nice guy. He brought us this cool-ass toy -- an Atari-style joystick, with an RCA cable dangling from the base. You plug it into your audio/video jacks on the VCR or whatever, and it's got 8 old-school Atari games on it -- Pong, Adventure, Missile Command, Asteroids, etc. It's so funny that 8 games can fit on a chip in a joystick base, when they used to require cartridges and a console... Peter might be throwing some freelance work my way -- which would be very helpful with the dental bills -- but I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement (AKA "NDA", AKA "California Handshake"), so I can't go into details. Could be fun, though. He left me with a ton of material to look over, so I did that in the evening. In the afternoon, though, I ambled with Heather up to Piedmont for our weekly walk-and-browse session. I also deposited a great lot of money -- I got paid on Friday, and I also got my check for "Captain Fantasy", which was almost as much as my paycheck. I have four digits in my bank account! This is nearly unprecedented! Shame it's all earmarked for bills... Later last night we watched The Godfather, which Heather had never seen. Such a great film. And then, to bed.

Today I got up and started doing some of that work I was so stressed about on Friday.

What work? Well, Friday afternoon I queried an agent about Rangergirl. Last time I was looking for an agent -- about 18 months ago -- I was pretty clueless. I didn't know who the good agents were, who represented what sort of writers, or anything. Now, after a year and a half at A Certain Magazine, I'm a bit more clueful about all that stuff, though still far from really knowledgeable. But anyway, I queried an agent who's had lots of success marketing beginning novelists, and who I have good reason to think will like my work, and about a minute and a half after I sent the e-mail she replied and told me to send in three chapters and a synopsis marked "Requested Materials." So, la. One of the reasons I queried was to give myself some external motivation to send out the book. Too often I let marketing-stuff slip by the wayside, because it's not as fun as writing. The first three chapters needed some tweaking (based on the very helpful critiques I got from lots of people who will, natch, be mentioned in my acknowledgements if I ever publish this book), so that had to be done this weekend. More dauntingly, I had to write a synopsis, which longtime readers will know is a bane and a horror to me. So that's what I did this morning. I fixed up my beginning chapters, and after much gnashing of teeth and many false starts, I wrote a synopsis. I think it's pretty good -- reasonably concise, reasonably complete, interesting, intriguing. Let's hope the agent thinks so.

Heather's off gallivanting this afternoon, and I have to read a book to review. Then, tonight, I have to write two reviews -- which isn't daunting at all, after writing my synopsis. Everything seems easy after that. I think Heather and I are going up to Berkeley this evening, to check the PO box and sit in a coffee shop (it's hard for me to read the first chapters of Rangergirl without craving some coffeehouse time). Should be nice.

10:33 p.m.

So, what's the news... looks like I might be a "featured author" on Ideomancer, meaning they'd run an original story and a couple of reprints. Details to follow... Fresh Blood definitely has a publisher now, 3F, and they're actually paying 3 cents/word for stories, whoo. Only one of my stories is going to be in it, though, the previously-unpublished "Stray" -- no great loss, since the two reprints they were going to take are available free online anyway. That's due to come out December 2003. I think that's it for news.

Didn't write my reviews -- well, I started, but didn't finish. Should be okay; I'll do them tomorrow night. We didn't make it to Berkeley, either, choosing to run errands instead.

This afternoon we went shopping at Trader Joe's, and got some super-yummy stuff. We made quesadillas for dinner, drank divine chocolate stout, and watched John Q, a rather blatant tear-jerker that, oddly, had some very funny moments.

Otherwise... I paid bills. Got paid for my story that's coming up in Ideomancer. Played games with Heather. Sorted through pictures we took with the digital camera (yes, Mom, I'll send some soon -- just have to reduce them for e-mailing).

Not much else to tell. Hope you all have a good week-to-come.

Words written since February 1, 2002: 206,100

Words written since last entry:
1,500

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