Maggie’s Blog

It is too hot. I do not function well in excessive heat, particularly with no air conditioning. I’ve been trying to be productive, but in the end, I just end up laying on the carpet moaning “why? why is it so hot?!”

It was 108 in the car on the way home today. How do you like that?

Writing Stuff:

I’ve got a second chance at being productive this week, since tomorrow is Write Nite #2! Today, I got out “Memories of Hope City” for a shot in an anthology. I’m crossing my fingers, but hey–what happens, happens, and no matter what, just submitting this will cross a threshold I haven’t attempted before.

Currently writing “Faith, In Layers”, a fantasy short story. We’ll see how this one turns out. Finally untied some of the knots in my head, and I’m just going for it with what it’s got to offer me. Saving some other details for some later story. Hoping to keep this one under the 5k limit, but we’ll see. >.O

It was 104 degrees on the drive home from work today, with no air conditioning because it’s leaking condensation into the cab, for some inexplicable reason. 104 degrees is simply too hot for me. My brain shuts down and I just want to sleep.

Also, I get grumpy. Looking forward to taking out some of that rage on Xbox Live tonight playing a little halo with Andy. I’m not very good, but every so often I’ll get a kill.

I think I’m melting. Also, probably a little buzzed from a cold beer at the Wooden Chicken. It’s a little dive down our street. A dive. Just like everything else “hip” in Portland. Have you noticed that? There’s a dive fetish here.

Writing Stuff:

Tried to embrace my new focus on fantasy writing today. It failed, thus making me more grumpy. I realize it’s likely just an issue of not having fully thought out what I wanted, and of being intimidated by my own ideas. That’s annoying. :-\

Andy and I have been watching more of The IT Crowd, a bizarre and funny sitcom-style BBC show about an IT department in a large corporation. The first season was a blast–so odd, and yet so hilarious– that we actually rented it twice from Netflix, so we knew we had something good. This last week we got season 2, and while it’s different, it’s been a lot of fun. Hence, the bizarre quote. XD There are lots of them.

It’s been an excellent weekend so far. Last night, we hung out with Nate and Sadie, made spaghetti over at their place and then went out for gelato. Caught some live music in the process, which was delightful, and then headed back here to watch a few episodes of Futurama. ^_^ All in all, an excellent evening.

Today has been pretty laid back. I kept meaning to play a bit of Grand Theft Auto, but just never quite got around to it. (HAHA! I didn’t “get around” to playing video games! XD Love that.) Did watch some of my guilty reality-TV-show pleasure, Australia’s Next Top Model (I’ve been through most of America’s NTM, and Project Runway). It’s a fun show for just mind-vegging on.

Also got some quick editing in on the still as-yet untitled “DYSTOPIC SF SHORT STORY” and sent it off to meh mum, who’s my regular editor. Switched it to present tense, which I think works a lot better for the flow.

Then I topped off the afternoon with some painting. This face is slightly more realistic, I think, than the first one, but I still need to go back and add a little more peachy-orange to the left side of his face in places, just to warm up the lighting.

Then Kaku and Andy’s classmate Leon are coming over for pizza and to watch Solaris, which I’ve heard is very good. Should be a good evening! ^_^

My contributor’s copy of FANTASTICAL VISIONS IV arrived Monday! It’s a lovely little book. I’m so proud to be a part of it. ^_^

Writing Stuff:

Not much to report, at the moment. Still working on the edits for the “Dystopic SF” story, and trying to untangle the mental knots of the UNTITLED NOVEL. Actually, since Monday, I’ve banned myself from writing fiction until tomorrow at noon. I was getting so worked up and so frustrated with myself–the evil editor in me was throwing a royal tantrum about EVERYTHING–that my brain was set to self-destruct unless I pulled the plug for a while. So I banned myself from writing for three days.

It’s working brilliantly. I’m thinking, but my hands are tied, so I can’t rush into anything. The fact that I “can’t” write makes me want to, which is a nice change from earlier this week when I was banging my head into a wall.

Note to self: I need a spiral notebook and some index cards. I’m hoping that’ll be a little Rx for the mental wall I’ve built for myself.

Long story short, the number of chapters I peg this month is going to be much lower than I wanted. Next time, I’ll make sure I have a better idea of what I *actually* want to accomplish, and specifically *where* in the story I want to get to. Will do my best to untangle the knots thus far and hopefully that will put me on course for next month.

Had a great time out last night hanging with Sadie and Nate and their friend Shirley! Andy and I brought over the fresh salmon, and I did my best to make the Whiskey-Maple recipe I’ve got. In the end, I think it came out a little more cooked than Andy and I normally have it, but it still tasted pretty good. ^_^

It was a night of good food, good friends, and great conversation. And there was some beer/wine, which probably made all those things more boisterous! But hey, you gotta cut loose sometimes, and we didn’t go over the top. ^_^ We ended the evening with a few games of pool at a nearby pub. I’m apparently not that bad at pool, though I don’t know how much the wine helped keep me, if only by keeping me from getting too competitive.  Had some amazingly lucky shots, though they didn’t always go where I was expecting (AT ALL), so I think of the games I played, we won one and we lost one (due to an eight-ball in the middle pocket, not the far corner pocket. >.O Yeah, that was me.) They were all close games, though, and I think everyone had a good time. I know I did!

Writing Stuff:

This week–due to a number of meetings at work–hasn’t been that great for writing. Lunches were usually busy, and evenings were spent catching up on Apex work, or various other things that needed to get done around the house. I did get out on Thursday with Sadie, so I got about +1000 words from Write Nite, but it didn’t quite make up for the time lost during the week.

Did get Andy’s overview of the “Dystopic SF” story–still untitled… I need to learn how to come up with titles like Eugie Foster! Her titles are brilliant–so I’ve got a few tweaks to make before sending it back to my mom for another more in-depth edit. I did a lot of big organizational editing early on in the process, so I think *that* should be pretty solid. I’m still very much an amateur in so many ways, this probably will be a bit of a stretch for me to get in, but if nothing less, I’ve had a great time writing it and polishing it. It’s been a nice break from novel work!

On the novel front, did get those 1000 words Thursday, which is at least something. I think I’ll push the chapter forward instead of cutting it off at 2000 words (at least, that’s my gut feeling at the moment). The crap-o-meter’s needle is still wobbling on whether or not I’ve done in this last scene what I needed to, but I do think the beginning is right. May just change the execution of the later part to be a little more forward-moving…

So I’m at Palio’s right now, not writing. I *was* writing, but now I’m done. Got about a thousand words down, though I don’t know if they’re good or if I’ll keep them or what. I blame the margarita I split with Sadie earlier at Cha Cha Cha’s. 9_9 <–Rolling eyes face. It was good fun, though, so I don’t regret it at all. Still, think it pretty badly impacted the writing. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see how it *really* turned out tomorrow or Saturday. My Hydeditor has been kicking in pretty viciously of late on the rough drafts. I keep trying to shut her up, but she just keeps making me want to cut every word I’ve got on the page. I think, ultimately, the perfect story for my inner editor would be a blank page of unmarred paper. Trimmed to absolute perfection!

Oi.

The goal is to get 2 hours of writing done on Saturday. IF this 1000 words is useable, that will close off the TO DO LIST line for Write Chapter 5 of UNTITLED NOVEL. If not, it’s back to the drawing board. It’s probably too fast. Probably not enough atmosphere/setting/etc. It’s better than the others, but not by perhaps as much as I’d like. At the moment, if I cut it here–which is where I’m feeling the cut–the chapter will be a grand total of 2,000+ words. Short, but that’s not something I’m against. I like short chapters. *shrug*

Made my order of FANTASTICAL VISION IV books for family/friends yesterday, though, so that’ll be nice to get in. ^_^ Trying not to be too overly critical of my rough drafts.

So! It’s been a busy few weeks! Work’s been picking up, but I think (I *hope*) I’m settling into the new, faster pace. Apex has been pretty busy too, what with opening back up for submissions, marketing Gene O’Neill’s new collection of short dark fiction TASTE OF TENDERLOIN, and with Apex becoming SFWA certified! YAY! GO APEX! Now, officially, if you sell something to us, it will count toward your SFWA membership (and Pro status! ^_-). It’s quite exciting, I must say! Even as just a humble submissions editor. Congrats to Apex! ^_^

Meanwhile on the home front, I’ve been trying to write more, paint more, and keep the house clean, besides making sure to make good, relatively healthy meals to eat. Went to see Food, Inc. last weekend, and boy, does it make you want to cook your own food and know your own personal poultry farmers! ^_^ Some of the info in the film I already knew, either from my mother who seems very food/health-forward, or from relatives in the farming industry, but it’s always eye-opening seeing video of it. And–as always noted–it is a documentary, which if I learned nothing else in college, I learned that there is no such thing as an objective documentary. They’re all biased–but that’s not a bad thing. Most documentaries are *trying* to convince you of some truth, and therefore, their opinion does shade their portrayal of the facts, even if only by how they select to edit the film.

Someday, I think I’d like to have a micro-bakery/micro-brewery. I’ve been thinking that a lot lately, but it’s sticking in my head. Ah! Too many hobbies, too many interests! ^_^ Plus, watching Kiki’s Delivery Service just kind of emphasizes the bakery side. haha

Writing Stuff: (more…)

Haven’t had a whole lot of time to paint lately, so today I snuck in a little oil on canvas.

Yay for progress! ^_^ I forgot how much I enjoy painting.

Yesterday, when Andy and I went to the Boeing Museum of Flight up in Seattle, I saw the small oil-paint gallery they have of specifically spectacular World War II dogfights. O.O I was in heaven. And also shocked by the amount of detail on even relatively small canvases! It was intense, and inspiring. Can’t help but love that! ^_^

I need to work on backgrounds soooooooooo much. >.< But doing any kind of still life just doesn’t interest me. Maybe I should take a class sometime that will *make* me do still life for practice. I sure could use it.

*Ahem.* Chapter 17 of Thief Dilemma is now OFFICIALLY finished and posted. I ended up reworking the last half of the last scene again today, and I’m so glad I did. MUCH better. Now my inner gut isn’t writhing in pain thinking about it. ^_^

And subsequently, it’s time for July’s WRITING TO DO LIST OF DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM:

1. Finish and submit “UNTITLED DYSTOPIC SF SHORT STORY”
2. Write Chapter 4-10 of “UNTITLED NOVEL PROJECT”
3. (Optional) Thief Dilemma Chapter 18. (I say optional, since I’ve never actually been able to turn a chapter around in a month, and this month is going to be particularly orig-novel-heavy, but I’m leaving it on the table for something I’d like to do, but won’t guilt-trip myself about if it doesn’t quite happen. This story is particularly susceptible to my gut-meter, and it’s a hard meter to please sometimes. I need to play thief more often…)

Extra orig-novel-heavy this month. I want to make serious progress on it, and the only way I’m going to do that is to really focus my attention on it. At the same time, I *really* need to finish and get out the “Dystopic SF story* ASAP, so it’s going out to its first reader tonight for the first run of an edit. I could also stand to give it a proper title, since the one it’s got now is boooooooooooring. >.O

Happy side note: I love Apex! Apex is great! ^_^

And thus begins the re-life of Apex Magazine! Got my first few submissions to go through today in my inbox. Ah, what a delightful sight to see! ^_^

Writing Stuff:

It’s also the first of the month, which means a re-cap of my writing goals from last month. I would normally post the new-and-improved! list for this month also, but I haven’t actually had a chance to think about it! O.O

JUNE’S LIST:
1. Finish Chapter 17 of the Thief Dilemma – [I'll comment on this below]
2. Finish Chapter 3 of the “UNTITLED NOVEL PROJECT” – DONE!
3. Query about “Mimicry” – DONE!
4. Get an editable draft of the “Untitled Dystopic SF short story” – DONE!

Okay, so Chapter 17 of The Thief Dilemma is *technically* done, rounding out at about 6,200 words. I like some of it, maybe most of it. It came out in a rush and I had a blast writing it, but now I’m not so sure. I think it’s all so fresh in my mind still that I can’t tell if it’s what I want or not. What this means, of course, is that I’m going to sit on it for a day or two. I’m not going to think about it. Not going to touch it. Maybe once I get away from it a little, I’ll be a better judge of whether or not it’s good to go.

I hope it is. I want it to be done. Not just for those patient saints who still read it–chapter by chapter–but because I’m ready to move forward, to dig in my heels to the next phase.

But I don’t want to rush it. And I’m just not sure…

*sigh* If only it screamed “I’M READY!”, I’d post it and get it out of my mind, but yet it lingers, asking “Is this what you want?” Once it goes down, it goes down, and I’ll have to work with it from then on. ARG. I’m frustrating myself. >.<