Wednesday, April 28, 2004

New lease on life

mood: relieved
music: Jerk by Kim Stockwood
------------------------------------------
Ah, the end of income tax season approaches, and I feel a new lease on life! A couple of days of printing and filing and I'll be free again! Thank goodness we didn't have much homework for the workshop this time, or I'd be in trouble.

I needn't have hurried too much to get that story done for the last workshop session, as we didn't get to them anyway, but at least I didn't have to try and write it in the last two weeks. I haven't read it lately so don't know if I still like it or not.

I sent out "Little Green Men" today for the first time, to a magazine I swore I wasn't subbing to again. Oh, well, it's been over a year and it's only postage, right? If it comes back my resolve will be renewed and I'll write them off for another while. So now I just have to finish the editing on two more stories and I can turn full attention to the novel. Will I even still be interested in it? One can only hope...

Friday, April 16, 2004

Still critiquing

mood: getting tired
music: Holst, The Planets
------------------------------------------
I'm currently on the third-to-last critique of the ten I had to do for the workshop tomorrow. They are getting easier, which has me somewhat worried. Am I slipping into the well-remembered "BS" mode from university, churning out erudite-sounding paragraphs with little or no substance to them? I hope not. I was really trying to offer comments that would be helpful.

Once I finish those, I really want to have another look at the story I'm taking with me tomorrow. Not sure how "finished" they are supposed to be (mine won't be for a long time yet, regardless), but I've had some more ideas I want to work in/play around with. The page limit is stifling some of what I want to do with the story; once I'm finished with it for workshop purposes it will expand a little more. I still like the story, however, which is good. No doubt I will fall out of love with it soon enough.

I found this an extremely interesting article about the "dumbing-down" of works of children's literature: ABRIDGED TOO FAR by Hilary Flower: There is a happy-face, Disney-esque conspiracy to rob the classics of children's lit of their drama, their passion, and their soul.. Find it at http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2004/03/29/willows/index_np.html. If you don't subscribe to Salon.com, you can choose to watch a short ad and read it on a "day pass." Worth it, I thought, especially for those of us with young children. While I think there's a place for well-done abridgements that stay true to the original works as far as possible, apparently there's an entire other class of them that I was not even aware of...

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Getting organized

mood: upbeat
music: Colin James
------------------------------------------
Getting organized--is it really possible, or just a dream that writers have once in a while? I'm trying to juggle so many projects right now that my head is spinning--and I just got a new idea that I've spent a few minutes jotting down. Of course, as is my weakness, I want to just start right in working on that, but I'm trying not to let myself. Not until I have a few more things cleared off my desk. Speaking of which, it's a disaster. Didn't I just tidy it up a couple of days ago?

I guess the first thing to do is make a list. If there's one thing I am, it's a champion list-maker. A list will get me organized. Right? Right? I just have to make sure I don't lose it...

Saturday, April 10, 2004

Weird blogger activity...

mood:
music:
------------------------------------------
Blogger is doing something extremely weird when I try to post an item--seems like it's posting it a zillion times and then it turns out that nothing was posted after all. I have no idea if this is going to work or not...

Trying to go over the new story and get it in some kind of shape for the workshop on Saturday, but it isn't easy. I really don't like trying to do stories in that much of a hurry. I know, I know, it's probably an exercise in teaching us to write to a deadline--but I wouldn't otherwise get myself into a situation where I had to write a story that fast. Oh, well, I think once the course is over I can rewrite it into something submittable.

So, back to work...

Story sale

mood: super
music: Jane by The Barenaked Ladies
------------------------------------------
Just had an email from The Martian Wave accepting my story "Accidents Happen" for the July issue. Cool! I always enjoy adding another credit to my list. :-)

Yuri's Night

Are you celebrating space and space exploration on April 12th? Maybe you should be. Check out this site to find out about Yuri's Night. If it's clear, I might just do a little stargazing myself...

Sunday, April 04, 2004

Taking stock

mood: contemplative
music:
------------------------------------------
Start of another week, so let's see. I did finish the first draft of that story the other night and I'm pretty pleased with it. I mean, it's only a first draft and needs major work to be share-able, but I should be able to whip it into some kind of shape. Got my problems fixed with OpenOffice, thanks to a little brainwork on my part. So far I'm quite enamoured of this free office suite. It's extremely easy to start using and has all the features I'm looking for, and it isn't as pushy as SOME WP's I could name.

Didn't get any more of the income tax returns done, although I may go and do one now. Not really any further on my homework, either, although I did set up a form to write the critique comments on.

Hmmm...it's still going to be a BUSY week!

Thursday, April 01, 2004

I think it's working

mood: tired
music: none
------------------------------------------
Well, my story is half-written and I hope to finish the first draft later tonight. I think it's going to be too long. However, that's how all my stories turn out the first time around.

Here's one interesting thing someone has decided to do with spam: turn it into poetry. Some of them are quite interesting.

And if you'd like to take a spooky trip through the dead zone of Chernobyl (vicariously, of course), this site belongs to a young woman who likes to ride her motocycle through and take photos. Fascinating but sad.

New Month, New Look

mood: hopeful
music: Harder to Breathe - Maroon 5
---------------------------------------------------------------
I've updated the look of Under the Stars to match my personal site. This means I'm more coordinated on the Web than I am in real life. :-) If you're reading this and it doesn't look any different, it means there was a problem and I'm back to the old look until I get it fixed.

Of course, I'm supposed to be writing the short story for my workshop right now...but a blog is a heck of a time-waster if you do it right!