Nothing But Net

March 26

9 a.m.

I meant to make it back last night for this update, but I didn't manage it-- I fell asleep while watching Exposure on the SciFi channel. If the cat hadn't started walking on me, I probably would have slept on the couch all night.

I was productive yesterday. I figured out a lot of stuff about Rangergirl, and even wrote about 2000 new words. I was having a real conceptual problem with the book, with disassociating myself from the scenes I'd already written in the novella. Every time I tried to think of writing the beginning of the novel, I automatically thought of the story's beginning-- which is wholly inappropriate for beginning a longer work. Finally I decided to start a little farther down the line, and to write a scene including the first major divergence from the short story's plotline. That worked really well, and now I think I can write backwards from that scene. This writing process might have some big bits of non-linearity, but I'm finally comfortable with that idea-- before I was just dealing with it. The book's going to be good.

I felt pretty crappy after writing, though. Nothing seemed interesting. I finished Dreamcatcher (final assessment: Eh, it's okay), tried to watch television, tried to start Cyteen. Thought about taking a walk or going to see a movie, but it all just seemed like too much trouble. Finally Scott suggested we go play basketball. So I put on my shoes and we drove to a little park up near the university. Santa Cruz is a rich town-- there are all these nice parks with good playground equipment.

I hadn't touched a basketball in years, though me and Scott used to play a lot in high school-- not for teams or anything, just playing one-on-one (and two-on-one) at our friend Tony's house. Back then we'd take a boom box out by the goal and blast Stone Temple Pilots or Temple of the Dog or Pearl Jam or Soundgarden, and we'd have a big three-liter bottle of Fresca to drink from. We'd play for hours in ninety-degree heat. No wonder I used to be so skinny.

We spent about an hour playing yesterday, I guess. I'm a sucky basketball player, but it was a lot of fun, and it felt unbelievably good to exercise, to do something physical. I'm way too sedentary. We talked about playing regularly. I hope we do.

After all that exercise, of course, we had to go to the Pontiac and eat stuff that's bad for us. So I had a cheeseburger and a shake and fries (and half of Scott's fries, I must admit). We flirted with the new, very lovely waitress.

Woke this morning to a rejection from Strange Horizons. Ah, well. I have another I can send them tonight.