Big Lazy No-Pants Sunday

August 3

7:20 a.m.

Ah, yes -- the quote Terri Windling sent me for Little Gods. It says "In the field of fantastic literature, there's an exciting group of new young writers poised to take us into fascinating new directions. Tim Pratt is among the best of them. His stories have moved me, enchanted me, frightened me....and always leave me wanting more." And in her e-mail she calls it a "terrific collection." It's amazing to get something like this from someone I admire so.

Why, oh why, am I up at 7:20 a.m. on a Sunday? I was actually up well before 7. Last night I fell asleep on the couch -- with my glasses still on! -- and woke up around 6:45 when the cats started trying to eat my toes. I probably would have just gone into the bedroom and back to sleep, but I couldn't find my glasses, and had to search for them bleary-eyed -- I remembered falling asleep with them on, so I was worried that they'd been ground into wire and glass-dust. I finally found them deep in the couch cushions, slightly bent but not much the worse for being slept on. By that point I was completely awake, so here I am, in my customary morning fashion, tapping away at the keyboard.

Yesterday was pretty grand. After all the errand-running I mentioned yesterday, I went grocery shopping, and then Heather and I settled in for a pleasant, romantic, all-about-the-two-of-us, not-about-scrubbing-toilets-or-packing-boxes night. We needed it very much, and I don't think it could have been better.

This morning I critiqued a synopsis for a friend -- not that I know anything about synopsizing, of course. But perhaps my comments were remotely helpful. And, anyway, it's another thing I'd promised to do that I finally got around to doing! Slowly, I bring my workload under control! I have another story to critique, and then it's all fiction writing, all the time!

12:10 p.m.

Ha! I went back to bed after writing the previous! Take that, you bastards!

Today I shall indulge in the great writerly pastime of sitting around in a bathrobe all day!

Unless I get bored and want to go out.

11:16 p.m.

So, I actually put on pants today. Wow! Such achievement! Heather was in the hammock out back, and I got bored sitting inside, so I took a big pile of Star*Line stuff outside and answered a bunch of snail mail submissions and started to put the next issue together. That was about it for productivity, though, since this was officially Big Lazy Sunday. We lolled about. I read some of A Fine and Private Place. I started thinking seriously about the book that comes after the Frog novel, since the first draft of that one should be finished in a couple of months. We went to see Legally Blonde 2 at the Parkway. Seeing that movie with Heather was my penance for making her go see Hulk -- at least we didn't have to pay full ticket price this time, just $5 each. Hulk was worse than Legally Blonde; the latter was just irritatingly naïve, while the former was stone dull. Somehow I'm not in the mood for cornball patriotism, given the current political situation in the country, and in my adopted home state... But, hey, it was the Parkway, and any movie you see on the big screen while sitting on a couch drinking a pear cider is made a bit better by virtue of its environment, you know?

Best of all, we walked to the theater! It's less than a mile from home. La! We love our new place. Sitting in the courtyard out back with my coffee, rejecting poems (and accepting two or three) was just lovely. Life is better by the moment.

I am also playing Diablo II: Lord of Destruction over again from the beginning, because I haven't found any other computer game that I like as well. That ate up a couple of hours.

This week, I get back into a regular writing schedule. Expect wordcounts to straggle ever upward!

I hope you're all well. Happy August, yo.

Words written since February 1, 2003: 77,500

Words written since last entry:
0. Just Star*Line stuff.

Flytrap hungers for you. Submission guidelines and reading period for Flytrap 2 will be announced soon. Watch this and other similar spaces.