The Various Downfalls of My Innumerable Cousins

July 17

I talked to my Dad tonight. I love and respect him very much, but sometimes it hits me, how very different our lives are. He doesn't have a computer; the internet is an uninteresting mystery to him. He lives a mile from his parents, and most of his siblings live in the same town. It's hard for me to talk to him, sometimes; how can I explain why it's exciting that I got invited to Not-A-Webring, or that I wrote a query letter to an agent today... he understands that it's a big deal that I sent my novel out, at least. And I try to be excited about his pool tournaments and so on... there's a divide, though, that makes me kind of sad. He loves me, however, and always catches me up on the family info, the various downfalls of my innumerable cousins...

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I was very productive tonight. Here's what I did:

• Typed my edits on Chapter 5 of Genius. To clear up any confusion: Yes, the novel is written. The novel has been revised several times. The final polish has been done-- but I did the last tweaks with a pen on a hard copy, and now I'm going through and typing them in (and tweaking further, of course, because it's hard not to). So while the book is done, the grunt work is not. I'm going to look over the chapter tomorrow morning, when my head is clear, and then move on to Chapter 6...

• Revised "Fable From a Cage." This is the fantasy I wrote during the Masochism Dare in February, a high(ish) fantasy, 9500 words. I'd gotten some good crits on it, with suggestions ranging from the small (more description in the final setting) to the macro (grind the story down to the bare metal and start again). I took a compromise approach, dealing with things I thought were problems. I'm very happy with the result. We'll see if anyone wants to publish the thing, now. I'll send it out tomorrow.

• Revised "The Witch's Bicycle." Another story from the Masochism Dare, and I think one of the very best things I've ever written. It's... well... it's a very Tim Pratt kind of story. It typifies the kind of story that I love, that I want to write. It's 12,000 words long. I don't think there's a lot of fat on it, though... I mean, I could trim it further, but not without losing a lot of the things I love about it. So I'll just try to sell it at this hard-to-sell length. If it's as good as I think it is, it'll end up seeing print somewhere, right?

• I wrote and mailed a query letter to an agent. Only one agent, because I'm not really actively looking for agents. An incredibly wonderful friend of mine suggested that I write to her agent, and I did so. So we'll see what happens. The worst thing that can happen is that he doesn't want to see the manuscript, and I'm out 68 cents. And, hell, that postage is tax-deductible...

And that's about it for productivity, and that took all damned night, and I'm very happy with my writing right now. I love the stuff I revised tonight. I always put up a good front, I always make it clear that I have confidence in my abilities... but sometimes I look at my fiction and think "Wow. I've got something here. I can really do this." That's how I felt tonight.

Yeah, I know. I'm king of the world and so on. It's a good feeling.

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Because I plan to start Rangergirl soon, I'm trying to read completely un-Rangergirl-like books. So I decided to re-read Joe Lansdale's wonderful Hap Collins/Leonard Pine novels, which I brought back with me from my last trip to N.C. I was reading Savage Season today, enjoying it greatly... until I dropped it in the toilet. Sigh. I should put the book down when I flush, I s'pose. So the book's all wet and rather icky and probably best disposed of. It's not too bad; Savage Season turns up a lot in used bookstores, actually, unlike many of Lansdale's books, so I can replace it. I moved on to the second book, Mucho Mojo. It's okay. It's not like I don't know what happens in Savage Season, and I like the later books better anyway...

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The kind and generous Zak sent me the new Shriekback album. I've played it a few times, but mostly while I was revising, so it didn't get into my head too consciously. It seems quite cool, though, and many thanks to Zak for sending it on...

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Talked to Heather for a long while tonight. She's very excited about her book, and I'm excited for her-- it seems to be coming together remarkably well, and every time I talk to her she has new ideas for enriching the story.

And she is, indeed, the best girlfriend ever, and her journal entries for the past couple of days have been so sweet... she makes me feel good. That's an understatement, but I'll let it stand. She makes me feel good.

Though I wish she hadn't reminded me that she was singing "This Old Man" yesterday morning. I'd nearly successfully blocked that shit out of my mind, yo.