Woodenosity

My time travel short-short “Fiddle” is up at Daily Science Fiction.

I am on the very edge of the very cusp of the very rim of the very precipice of my vacation, and the view from here is glorious. (As my wife says: “Damn, how much vacation do you get?” Well, my workplace is fairly generous. After several years of loyal labor they start giving us extra vacation time each year, gradually accruing into a snowball of freedom. And since I only work four days a week anyway, I can string together nine consecutive days off — counting weekends — by using a mere four vacation days.)

Will I be jaunting off to Rio or Monaco or an island paradise? Well, not so much. My wife doesn’t have any more vacation for the year, for one thing, and solo island jaunts aren’t as fun. So I’ll be staying close to home. (I might take my kid on a day trip to Santa Cruz, if the weather stays so nice.) Mostly I’ll be trying to finish the first draft of the Snake novel. It stands at 50,000 words or so, with an ideal total length of 80,000. I hope to complete major narrative operations in about 75,000 words, living me a little room to expand things here and there during revision. I should be able to write 25-30K in nine days, when I don’t have to do anything else but play with my kid and hang out with my wife. Assuming I don’t pursue my napping career too extensively instead.

My 5-year anniversary is coming up (the traditional gift for the 5th wedding anniversary is “Wood”! The jokes just write themselves!). We’re getting overnight babysitting for the kid from my sister-in-law, and I’m taking Heather out to the Wood Tavern (the thematic name is pure coincidence) for a wonderful and lavish meal this weekend.

(And for those wondering: I got her a nice bokken as her wooden gift. Pervs.)