7%

September 8

Okay. It's Sunday. About noon. I've written just over 3,000 words so far this weekend. The plan is to do a lot of work on Rangergirl today, to stay at the computer cranking away for a long time. I'll stop when I can't bear to type anymore, or when I get through the climax of the novel, whichever comes first. I will, of course, take frequent breaks to wander in circles, check e-mail, add things to this entry, and so forth, but I'll try to avoid, like, playing Diablo or watching DVDs or reading whole novels. At some point I'd like to wash my car, and Heather and I are supposed to meet a friend in Berkeley at some point, but otherwise, it's a writing-day.

I'd say "wish me luck," but since I won't post this until the end of the day, that seems a little pointless. Ah, well.

Ha! Someone found my main page by searching on "sensual haiku". Hee hee hee. I find that inordinately amusing.

I just ordered Tales from the Lucky Nickel Saloon by Ken Rand from Yard Dog Press, because it looks like good weird-Western, tall-tale stuff. I read a review of it today, and it sounds like something I'd like. We'll see.

I'm thinking of adding Tropism Press to Project Pulp. We've got a handful of our first chapbook left, and we're going to do another chapbook this December, and we're toying semi-seriously with the idea of doing additional projects, perhaps one in time for World Fantasy next year -- if these things materialize, it'd be worth joining, I think... Project Pulp is a fabulous resource, by the way. One of my favorite things about the web is that it provides access to all sorts of esoterica; stuff I never could've found as a teenager in Eastern North Carolina, but now it's all there, all obtainable!

Seth has left Gothic.net after years of editorial service. I'll miss him, but I'm happy to hear he's concentrating on his own writing; he's very talented in that direction, too.

John has a new journal format, and is updating regularly again, and saying amusing and interesting stuff, as is his wont.

I wish I had a copy of Ween's Twelve Golden Country Greats. That would go really well with finishing up Rangergirl. It's been ages since I heard "Piss Up a Rope."

Nick Mamatas did an article about Small Beer Press for Poets and Writers, and interviewed me about my experience with selling them "Annabelle's". So there's a few lines by me in the article, which is in the September/October issue, available now. Pretty cool!

I'm, oh, over a 100,000 words into Rangergirl, and I just figured out something very important about a major character's personality. See, it's the surprises that I love.

Wow. I just went back and found the first journal entry where I talk about Rangergirl. It says:

"I'm currently working on a story that's going to be long, and probably will be a landmark story. It feels important. I'm stretching my writing muscles, trying to do some pretty intricate stuff, plot-and-character wise. I love the people in this story, and I'm deeply interested in their problems... I've only got about 2000 words so far, but I'll let you guys know how... um... let's call it the cowgirl story... how the cowgirl story turns out."

I wrote that entry on August 15th, 2000. Over two years ago.

I find it literally difficult to believe that I've been working on this story for so long. Originally it was a short story, and it took me months to write that, and then I decided it needed to be a novel, and I diddled around for a while, writing a scene here and there, and finally got around to working on it seriously. I didn't work on it non-stop for 2 years, but the essential idea, and the characters, have been around (and written down!) for that long. And now, I'm almost done.

You know... it is a landmark story, and it's stretched my muscles like nothing else, and I still love the characters. Which, after two years, is pretty good.

And I will let you know how it turns out.

Heh. Just got a 9-hour rejection from Jack Fisher at Flesh and Blood on a short-short. Wish I had more weird/dark stuff under 4,00 words -- even if Jack doesn't want a story, he never makes you wait very long.

I did other stuff besides write, this weekend. Heather and I hung out with Susan a bit on Saturday, and last night Heather and I watched Heat (one of my favorite movies, though Pacino's "Hoo yahs!" do get a bit over the top at times), and we grocery shopped... we frolicked... Heather made me a lovely breakfast of fancy eggs this morning, and she's been very good about me ignoring her and writing so much... A very well-rounded weekend, actually. The only things I need to do that I haven't are answer Star*Line submissions and wash my car, and neither of those is hugely important (I caught up on Star*Line subs a couple of weeks ago, and my car can be filthy for another few days).

As you can see in the sidebar, I got a good bit of writing done this weekend; one of my most productive weekends in a while. I did about 3,000 of those words yesterday, the other 6,000 today. As for what's left to do on the book: I've got one more scene, then the major climactic scene, then resolution, falling action, happily-ever-afters, happily-ever-nevers, etc., and I'm done! Except for three small scenes I need to write and insert into earlier portions of the story; backfill, you know. I really should finish it next weekend, barring the unforeseen. Whoo!

Words written since February 1, 2002: 152,800

Words written since last entry: 9,000

I want some punk-country music. Reader's choice.

Tim Pratt
P.O. Box 13222
Berkeley, CA 94712-4222

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