The goal is to get through at least half the book this weekend for rewrites, and so far all signs point in favor of this happening.

We’re going camping next weekend, and Chicago the weekend after. I promise after the book rewrites are done I will get back to actually going to aikido and cleaning my house and paying attention to my friends and cats. Honest.

In the meantime, I’ve begun writing down elements for ‘Binder’s world. I’ve pretty much decided that’ll be the next book I write. Unlike Myr’s, it’ll be stand-alone. I hope.

been a long road to follow

been there and gone tomorrow

without saying goodbye to yesterday

Some changes in 7 and 8 led to changes in 9. With those fixed, ch. 9 has now been reprinted and is awaiting the Bloody Royal Treatment.

Hopelessly tired, and thinking that I’m going to burn lots of oil this weekend so I can get as much of the Monster done as possible. I just gotta sleep.

All that said, I finished reading two books this week. Take a Thief and Wolves of the Calla. Need to find someone who’ll loan me Song of Susannah, though I may wait for revisions to be over. Or not. I benefit from good writing while I’m trying to make mine just as good.

i want it now

i want it now

give me your heart and your soul

And the award for the most heavily edited page of the night goes to….

Yes, all those red marks are corrections. (No, there isn’t a bigger version.) But in case you’re wondering why this process is slow…pages like that are why. (And large chunks of 7 and 8 had to be overhauled.)

My manuscript is bleeding.

Now that I know I have a ways to go before the anthology story is due, it’s settled back into my head and is allowing me to work on the Monster instead. This is good. I want the story to percolate.

Well I’ll be damned

Here comes your ghost again

Got up to Chapter Seven on rewrites. Then I sat down and let the story out for a little bit.

It’s coming off as light-hearted. I did a read-through aloud of what I have done (ten pages so far) and rather enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, it is now nearly 3 AM, and I will once again be exhausted tomorrow even if I go to bed now. Such is my life.

Yarrr.

No actual work on the book, as I am beating out a short story idea at the moment. I’m hoping to hear back from the editor and be told that the deadline is a good ways off so I can let the character develop in the cookpot in my head, but I know my luck…. :)

My phoneline died last night, much to my imagination’s shock and confusion. Discovering at 11 PM that your phoneline is dead is an invitation to wonder if the killer is already in the house.

I also watched The Hours on Saturday. It was a film with great period sets, fine actors, and very little soul, and I was fine with that — until I watched the commentary by the director and the author of the book it was based on, and then I wanted to fling things at the television. It was the romantic notion that Virginia Woolfe was “completing” her life with her suicide that truly made me roll my eyes in derision.

She was clinically depressed, probably bipolar. She killed herself, and turned up a bloated corpse in a river. Wonder why you didn’t show us that image, hm?

The tragedy is people who’ve convinced themselves that it was a beautiful thing. I call bullshit on that, and so speak my peace on the subject.

Amidst heavy email flurries I burned through that bitch Chapter Four. Huzzah!

I may be writing for an anthology. We’ll see what we see. I have a bit of an idea, but I’m waiting to hear from the editor before I go forth with it.

Go write!

I wrote about six pages of plotlines tonight, and revised Ch. 1 – 3 again in spots, taking care of a major speedbump. yay.

Assuming I can continue to shirk chores, I’ll spend most of the weekend working on the monster.

Night.

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond

any experience,your eyes have their silence:

in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,

or which i cannot touch because they are too near

I sat on my couch last night hand-editing things and hating one particular thing and ultimately came up with a solution (I hope).

That’s really vague, I know.

Rewrites are going slow, sorry. There are a few key items that need to be dealt with, and unfortunately it’s slow going.

Well, some not so major changes to 2, but some important clarifiers in 3, and more cabochons! (Say it with me: cabochon!)

Yes indeed. Cabochon.

Yes, Adam, my leg muscles are killing me. The 500 sword stroke workout, boys and girls. It builds character!

Even though I started this book a year ago, and the maps of my world were labeled even before then, the unfortunate truth is I happened to name one of the more important countries in my world “Giljad”, and though I like the name I will change it. Else Roland of Gilead may show up at my house and ask me if I’ve remembered the face of my father lately. Or not, I haven’t hit the last book yet, so for all I know he’s rose fertilizer.

And ja, I know it’s a word for a real place; this gives me further incentive to change it.

i won’t let you smother it

i won’t let you murder it

our time is running out

Applied the hand-written notes for Chapter One, so it’s now in a “done” state. It seems chapters 1-3 are sorely in need of attention. Chapter 4 needed hardly any.

I think I’m going to go upstairs and read Wolves of the Calla. Night!

There