Squall
March 16
8:00 p.m.
My life is really cool. In the past couple of days I've gotten, like, personal e-mail from two writers I really respect, and they're not just responses to the driveling fan e-mails I occasionally send, either; they've got some substance. This is deeply weird and fulfilling. Life is nice.
That said, I've been miserable in the midst of my nice life for the past couple of days. I'm definitely sick; I feel completely sapped of energy. Counting a long nap yesterday evening, I've slept 14 hours out of the past 24. I didn't get out of bed until late afternoon today, and I'm still tired. Presumably my body is fighting off some dreadful ill, and all this rest is fuel for the healing fire. I've been grouchy, too, because I'm listless (wholly lacking in listfulness!), and nothing seems fun or interesting. I'm coming out of that a bit this afternoon/evening, though I can feel the gravitational drag sucking at me even now...
To attempt some coherence: Last night I slept a lot, but against all odds I also managed to write 1300 words of the Frog story. It's 8400 words now, and no end in sight, but it's also rambly and can be trimmed; definitely going to be a novelette, though.
(Because this came up in conversation today, and some people mightn't know, here are the definitions (as used for the Nebulas, anyway, which is as good a standard as any). Short story: up to 7,500 words. Novelette: 7,501 - 17,500 words. Novella: 17,501 - 40,000 words. Novel: over 40,000 words.)
Today I woke far, far too late. Found a rejection from Strange Horizons for one of my favorite stories, which no one wants to buy (it's earned me a couple of "close-but-not-quite"s and a personal rejection from Asimov's, but while somewhat heartening, that ain't publication). I'm running out of possible prozines for it, too... I've basically exhausted all the possibilities in the U.S. So it's off to the UK! I think it's too good to sell to Jim Bob's Sci-Fi Home Page, you know? Sigh.
I sent out a few stories. Color me productive. I've got 20 or so stories out now, and a few short horror pieces that I should either find new places to submit or trunk. Can't decide. I have four stories to revise and one to rebuild from the ground up. Plenty to do, as always.
Heather culled her CDs this afternoon, so she could sell some. I did the same, but only found five I really wanted to get rid of. We went to Rasputin's in Berkeley, where they pay good money for crappy music, and better money for good music! Made a nice bit of money (Heather made three times as much as me, but she sold more, so). So Heather dropped me off at Au Coquelet. I answered the snail mail submissions I had for Star*Line, and had a chicken sandwich (that's what happens when I get money in my pocket! yee-haw!), and read a bit in the 6th annual Year's Best F&H, which I bought in Indiana over Xmas. Still reading Threshold, slowly, drawing it out; it's a truly wonderful reading experience. I revised "The Sea a Deeper Black", and I'll send it out on Monday. Whee!
Going to do work, now. More later.
1:14 a.m.
I worked for a few hours on organization and revision. I pulled an old story, "In a Glass Casket", out of my Trunk of Ineptitude, and read through it, and revised it a bit, and sent it off to a few people with a request for crits. We'll see what they have to say about it. I also finally got around to revising a science fiction story, "Birch Stakes", cutting a couple of stupid scenes in the middle and generally tightening it, and I sent it off. I cleaned up my filing system some, too, and generally improved my organization. So no new words tonight, but I did other necessary stuff I'd been putting off, so I feel pretty good about the night's work.
Heather came home, and we watched To Die For, which she'd never seen. I watched it ages ago with Scott, and we were disappointed that Nicole Kidman didn't have any nude scenes. That was still disappointing tonight. But it's a pretty good movie anyway.
Tomorrow I plan to finish another story that's been sitting around awaiting revision for a few months; it'll be nice to have another one in the mail. I should clean my room, too, as it's beginning to look like the inside of a laundry hamper. I have a mound of chapbooks and broadsides I should sort through, too. I need a shelf for Stuff To Review. Maybe my inner life is feeling kind of squalid because my milieu is messy. If so, that's easy enough to fix. It's worth a try, anyway.
Words written since February 1, 2002: 30,400
Words written since last entry: 1,300
Send me some kinda spring tonic. Preferably absinthe-based.
Tim Pratt Read about my current publications.
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