Woke up this morning and noticed that the hummingbird feeder on the porch was frozen solid. I think it got down to 20 degrees last night. Of course, my first thought this morning was – excellent, I’ll go out and take pictures of frosty autumn leaves! Which I did. I think my hands are frozen since I stubbornly refuse to wear gloves while taking pictures (makes the camera harder to handle).
But now I’m back inside with a hot cup of coffee, feeling much warmer and quite …
Well, I wrote about 2.5k words this weekend to finish off the not-so-alternate-history story that has been plaguing me for several weeks now. I’m thrilled to have it hammered out–it kept trying to turn into a novel, but I showed it who was boss. Now all I have to do is tidy it up a bit and then I can start collecting crits on it!
I’m officially a Flickr junkie–I caved and payed for a full-featured account. The ever-so-smart people who designed the site rate the photos on a random mishmash of things (how many times it’s been viewed, comments, who calls it a favorite) to give it an ‘interestingness’ score. Competitive person that I am, I want my photos to get recognized as ‘interesting.’ So I spend way too much time finding groups in which to display said photos. That and I like to look at all the purdy pictures other people are posting. The whole thing is highly addictive. But it’s relatively harmless …
One cool thing about hanging out with physics/astronomy grad students is that they have some fun toys. For instance, the party I just got invited to will have a Ruben’s Tube.
Music AND Fire. How cool is that?
I’m eligible for Clarkesworld again (can’t submit for seven days after a reject), so I sent another one their way. I’m hoping that Nick will like bloody-throated birds better than giant spiders.
My not-so-alternate-history story continues to grow at a steady pace, I’m up to 3000 words now. This is the point at which it has fallen apart before, but I give myself permission to write the rest as complete crap if necessary, just to get it done. I’m also trying to resist the urge to start over and tweak the beginning–this is what got me into trouble the first …
I’ve re-started my vaguely alternate history story about seven times now, but I’m finally optimistic that this one will take. I switched the POV from third person to first, which has gotten the words flowing, and I think I’ve shaped it such that it no longer involves much history (which, for me, is also a good thing). In any case, I’m determined to force the story through to the end no matter how badly this version sucks because, dammit, I want to finish something. Then I can inflict it on one of my many writing groups and they can tell …
It might be time to do some additional revisions on those spiders…16-day rejection from Clarkesworld, with some nice comments about what wasn’t working.
From JJA at F&SF. I’m feeling relatively happy about this particular rejection because it contains the phrase “there’s nice writing here,” which is a step up from the standard didn’t-grab-my-interest letters that I’ve been getting.
What I learned in my first hour on the beach: (1) Rocks covered in green slime are slippery, (2) climbing onto said rocks to avoid errant waves is a bad idea, and (3) hiking back to the car in wet jeans & shoes is cold.
Other than that (and a bit of rain Friday morning) I managed to stay dry. Friday night the sun came out just in time for sunset, which made for some nice pictures that are now up on my Flickr site.
Have to head to the dentist this afternoon to have a filling replaced. Shudder.
In more cheerful news, tomorrow I’m heading out to the coast for a few days. There are some gorgeous beaches with nifty rock formations and tidepools, so it should be a good place to play photographer. And I’ll also be able to hit the Dungeness Crab festival in Port Angeles. Yum!
I have to assume that when I come back from my little jaunt all rested and recovered, I’ll be bursting with energy to work on one of my three new stories. I keep starting them, …
