Them Apples

September 25

Hmm. Not writing much this week -- only about 300 words since the last entry. I'm having a hard time connecting with the story I'm working on; it feels like pointless events strung randomly together, no real depth or resonance, which is a shame, since it has great potential. I spent a little time writing bad poetry tonight, trying to dredge up some emotional stuff, trying to figure out what my current deep preoccupations are -- with luck, I'll hit a vein, and some life will flow into my fiction.

I'm reading, at least; finished White Apples, which is not my favorite of Carroll's books, but in the top five. It has some lovely moments, and actually ends quite well, unlike some of his stuff. A surprisingly upbeat novel, too, in the final analysis.

Also reading New Genre, issue #2, and quite liking it. Perhaps I'll send them something...

Work is work, not too exciting. I may be doing more writing and less production, which is both nice and sad. I quite like doing layout, but I like writing even more, so it's a good thing, all-in-all. Mostly filing things lately, and catching up on little odds-and-ends. I didn't go to work yesterday; I woke in the middle of Monday night with some intestinal distress, which continued well into the morning. I took a long nap, and drank tea, and read a lot. Heather and I watched the Buffy premiere (which I think was quite marvelous), and the Smallville premiere, which was okay. The show's pretty lame in a lot of ways, but I like Lex Luthor. Watching it won't ever be a priority for me, but it's pleasant if I don't feel like doing anything else.

Oh, in case you don't read Heather's journal, she revealed the big expensive trauma -- over a thousand dollars' worth of dental work, which she'll get over the next ten or eleven months. This on top of grad school applications... hello, poverty, my old friend... But we'll get by.

I won't get much writing done this weekend, either, but for the best of reasons -- we're going to Santa Cruz to visit Scott and Lynne! There will be beer, and the beach, and cooking out, and the Saturn Café, and Pergolesi, and perhaps hot-tubbing, and scooting to and fro, and la! I miss Santa Cruz a lot this week, but then, I'm on a total-nostalgia kick anyway, going so far as to listen to lots of Lisa Loeb...

On to the dare updates! First, from Sean:

Did you ever get a scene in one of your stories that took forever to get through? Like you couldn't get you characters off the beach no matter what? That happened to me. Days and days of trying to get the Moes off the beach. I finally did it last night.

Anyway, progress on the story is slow right now, plus real life got a bit chaotic in the last week due to an arbitration hearing at work. But I think things are settling for a short while. I figure I'm halfway done with Five Guys Named Moe and still have about 5000 words left. I may skip around and write the ending next then backfill later. Otherwise, this may become the Moe dare and not a story dare.

And now, Heather!

I got a rewrite request from a magazine I very much want to be published in. At first I thought the editor was whack, but now that I've thought about it and decided how to change the ending, I think this might end up being very, very good for my story, taking it to a whole new level. Thus inspired, I sat down and wrote a new scene in "Famishing" and changed the ending (the ending still needs obvious work, but the main idea is there). I love nights like this, when I'm all inspired to work and I come home, do a bit of research, and write for an hour or so. If only every night could be as productive as this one. I even managed to swim tonight (ok, so that wasn't writing-related; sue me).

And that's that. Everyone's doing better than I am. Ah, well. More later...

Words written since February 1, 2002: 168,000

Words written since last entry:
300

Send me your animatronic monkey gods.

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

Donate money to Heather's apocalyptic dental fund!