Tweets for Today

• 08:16 Gonna take Blood, Sweat and Tears to get my stuff done today. The band, I mean. And caffeine. Lots of caffeine. ♫ blip.fm/~1wk6g #
• 08:26 Recently abandoned but still interesting: Words I Learned From Reading David Foster Wallace dfwwords.wordpress.com/ #
• 09:17 Wrote another paragraph but every time I looked away, I saw my skoolwork. It's calling to me. #
• 10:37 Don't feel good about the current WIP. Feels like I'm writing like an Etgar Keret wannabe. #
• 10:52 Got coffee and a table near an outlet. Need writing music: El Michels Affair, Air, Huey Lewis & the News #
• 11:45 twitpic.com/19n5l - Not sure where to go with this at this point. #
• 15:26 Gonna tackle the wreck that is the home office, desperate to procrastinate from the current WIP. Or as some might call it: "taking a break." #
• 16:01 Frak! Of all the times to be without a car!! JCVD (the film, not the person) is finally in town! www.imdb.com/title/tt1130988/ #
• 16:42 twitpic.com/19t59 - Biggest accomplishment in the home office: getting these books off the floor. #
• 18:30 Evening writing playlist: Chick Corea, Jacky Terrasson, Eliane Elias #
• 18:45 One of the reasons I still bother with a LiveJournal account: tinyurl.com/cvs5f #
• 22:38 Am >this close< to wrapping up Draft 1.0 of the latest WIP! #

Via LoudTwitter

Tweets for Today

• 08:16 Writing playlist this morning: Sons of Champlin, Menahan St. Band, dZihan & Kamien. #
• 08:26 twitpic.com/192f4 - The morning working space, where not a whole hell of a lot of work has been done so far. #
• 09:07 Holy crap! Am I...done?? :) #
• 09:34 I'll give this last story a few hours to cool off. In the meantime, let's see how far we can get with the next story. #
• 10:47 Would've treated this advice (from Thelonius Monk to Charlie Rouse(?)) like Gospel during my jazz-playing years tinyurl.com/dma8wf #
• 11:39 Life imitates a Raymond Carver story community.livejournal.com/abandonedplaces/1616826.html #
• 13:27 Starting to resent having to cram my lunch down my throat on skool days. Yet, I still find time to check email...? #
• 14:46 $350 for the lock cylinder. Motherfrakker! #
• 15:54 Y'know, I don't care if I'm stuck here for another 2.5 hours. My weekend starts now. #
• 17:14 Gonna pull a John Henry tonight and see how many words I can write tonite before I drop dead from exhaustion. #
• 18:56 I will not procrastinate by looking over new books. I will not procrastinate by looking over new books. I will not procrastinate by looking #
• 19:30 Gah! I'm supposed to be adding words, not cutting them!! #

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Tweets for Today

• 08:23 "Feelin' stronger every day (you know I'm all right now)..." ♫ blip.fm/~1v30d #
• 08:24 Wish I could be writing instead of going to my study section :(. But at least I'll have my lunchtime (I hope). #
• 08:55 I had a few minutes before section. *Four lines left* to fix on the WIP. Now, on to skoolwork. #
• 10:55 Pondering my own discount Flip cam tinyurl.com/cgsoh3 #
• 13:33 Shrewd Writing Advice From Some of Science Fiction's & Fantasy's Best Writers tinyurl.com/ahqusl #
• 13:42 Two lines. I just need to rewrite two more goddamn lines, and I can put this beast to bed. #
• 17:33 Wiped out. Tomorrow's Friday, but it's gonna feel like Wednesday to me :( #
• 20:26 Evening routine derailed by the starter failing on the car :(. Knew I should've just went straight home after work! #
• 20:26 Oh well...I got 2 sentences to rewrite. Will worry about the towing costs, etc. later. #

Via LoudTwitter

Tweets for Today

• 08:13 A little Do As Infinity piping thru the headphones to get me going on my 1st day back in the saddle. ♫ blip.fm/~1uaex #
• 08:50 The writing's finally coming along again. Almost done with Draft 1.99! #
• 09:38 2 lousy paragraphs left! Oh well, something to do at lunch, I suppose. #
• 11:51 Gah! Almost forgot--no lunch for writing today, 'cos of skool :( #
• 13:30 Current weather condition: A big wintry mix of suck. #
• 17:41 1st day back could've gone worse. Not by much, tho ;). #
• 18:08 Anticipating my slipping and sliding on the way home. #
• 19:21 Staring at the 2 paragraphs from this morning, waiting for the Chinese food to arrive. #
• 19:37 RED DWARF is back! There is a God! news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7851989.stm #

Via LoudTwitter

Tweets for Today

• 08:20 Today's agenda: breakfast, write, get my back cracked, write, write, skoolwork, write, sort out office full of bequeathed stuff, write, etc. #
• 09:02 My two writing children have formed a connection tinyurl.com/b4uagh #
• 11:50 Got distracted by email, feed reader, bookmark, MonkeyGTD cleanup. I think I'm back on track. #
• 12:08 twitpic.com/17uto - Desperately attempting to get work done. #
• 14:02 Just had my back adjusted. Feels soooo good. Didn't realize my neck was in such bad shape, either. #
• 14:10 @strikethru From working w/someone who's been using voice recognition software for awhile, I shudder to think how my drafts would look. #
• 14:15 RT @NewsHour Author John Updike has died of lung cancer. He was 76. #
• 16:00 RT @AletheaKontis Wow. Realms of Fantasy bites the dust: tinyurl.com/c2wesw #
• 16:02 The two major things I've accomplished today, other than getting my spine adjusted, are "jack" and "crap." #

Via LoudTwitter

Tweets for Today

• 08:17 In-laws gone. Place to ourselves, at last. Two more days off work...time for my "weekend." #
• 08:22 D'oh! Almost forgot I have skool today!! #
• 08:25 The no-nos that "geeks" make when writing fiction tinyurl.com/8ecwac #
• 08:27 Need a god? "Browse the pantheons of the world" at www.godchecker.com #
• 15:32 Sometime, in the week since I checked the mail last, my textbook finally arrived! Now I can attempt some skoolwork. #
• 17:02 Okay, that's enough skoolwork for now. Gonna have some dinner and hit the writing hard! Maybe. #
• 17:23 Hooking my new monitor up to my old laptop is like putting spinning rims on an '88 Toyota Corolla. #

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Because I Can

"Out with the old, in with the new?" Nuh-uh!



3000 + Acer Aspire One = No fucking excuses!!

Tweets for Today

• 10:27 10 hours of sleep last night! Could still probably use another 2. #
• 10:28 You know you've crossed the age Rubicon when you own and use an automatic blood pressure monitor. #
• 10:41 20 Rules for Writing Detective Stories from 1936 (or, Why Don's Woefully Incapable of Writing Detective Stories) tinyurl.com/ca4vla #
• 10:44 File for WIP No.1 open. What's this story about, again? #
• 11:18 Hooked the AlphaSmart up to the netbook and dumped 3 files full of neglected notes. Then installed GetIt. Because I can. #
• 12:20 Time for one last task, then we can finally take the time to claw our way back to normalcy. And writing. Well, editing really... #
• 16:18 All done, finally! Got two ancient computers and a monitor to fiddle with, now. Gonna throw Linux on them and see what they can do. #
• 16:19 Um, now how does one throw Linux on an ancient computer? #
• 16:26 Something to do for the next couple of days as family and friends start filtering away. #
• 17:49 Catching up on the @meetthepress podcast while sleepily looking over my WIP. Probably too tired to get too far tonite. #

Via LoudTwitter

Tweets for Today

• 06:58 Getting ready to leave for funeral a couple towns over. Expecting the day to be very, very long. #
• 17:56 Funeral went well. More love than you could shake a stick at. Sooooo tired, but there's 1 day left of stuff still to do. #
• 18:14 @GigiVernon Woohoo on the 1st draft!! I got a couple or five to finish... #
• 18:24 Some writing advice+stark realism from JA Konrath tinyurl.com/b7rfl7 #
• 21:48 1 last mom-in-law related task to attend to tomorrow. In the meantime, making my plan of attack for wrapping up the final draft of last WIP. #

Via LoudTwitter

Tweets for Today

• 09:10 Sleep cycle is so screwed, I feel like I'm back to my old undergrad MUD-playing days. #
• 09:12 Think there's enough room in today's agenda to go to skool. It'd be sad if I fell too far behind in the first week of classes. #
• 12:09 Waiting for the start of dinner theat...I mean, class. #
• 13:53 Enjoying a brief respite before returning to the business of sifting thru belongings. In the meantime, scribbled down start of 3rd new WIP. #
• 18:30 Will wait until my dinner digests to see if the Brooks Bros. suit still fits. If not, then there'll be time to run to the mall :(. #
• 18:37 Pondering muay Thai workouts again. Dunno if I still got that Eye of the Tiger, though :(. #

Via LoudTwitter

Tweets for Today

• 01:55 To my mother-in-law: 'Til we meet again. tinyurl.com/afzf6o #
• 09:56 Will be intermittently off and on the grid for the next few days. #
• 10:33 I know there are arrangements. Just don't know exactly what they are, yet. #
• 16:03 Day spent sifting thru belongings and finalizing arrangements. I'm lucky--I get to take a catnap while the blood relatives make phone calls. #
• 19:27 3 hours--that's still a catnap, right? #
• 19:49 Indulging in a little bit of normalcy, surfing the web actually looking for things rather than just killing time. #
• 19:49 So, what've I missed the past couple days? #
• 21:56 Private viewing and funeral Mass on Saturday. Have one day to get a new shirt. #
• 22:06 Another island of normalcy in watching BURN NOTICE 2x10. #

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'Til We Meet Again

You were the best mother-in-law I could've ever asked for.

I love you.

-Your Son-In-Law

Tweets for Today

• 07:29 Mother-in-law still with us. Expect the rest of the family in later this AM. Well-wishes still coming in from every channel. #
• 07:32 Haven't had to function on so little sleep since my first go-round at grad school. They won't do caffeine IVs here--I checked. :( #
• 13:52 Almost made it to class today, but had to turn back at the last second. More relatives have arrived; other folks to take the night shift. #
• 14:16 Mark Waid on pitching comics scripts. His succinctness never ceases to astound and amaze. tinyurl.com/8t756y #
• 15:20 Decided, come what may, I'm off work for the rest of the week. #
• 15:24 Accumulated about 5 pages of notes, observations, and other misc words to be filed away until I need them. I'm a writer, sue me. #
• 15:38 Main priority--find a place to take a nap. #
• 17:22 A writing exercise from Jeff VanderMeer. I've done the first 1/2 of this quite a few times. tinyurl.com/94mev8 #
• 17:24 I suppose I could be working on my 2 WIPs or reading stories, instead of dicking around on the interweb. #
• 20:12 @GigiVernon Never ceases to amaze me how the first couple pgs a good story looks typed out in MS format. I like the sense of shape it gives. #
• 20:23 Why Alan DeNiro (one of my faves!!!) writes sci-fi tinyurl.com/8c7sju #
• 20:28 Still at the hospital, along with all the family who needs to be here. ♫ blip.fm/~1py17 #

Via LoudTwitter

Tweets for Today

• 01:08 Mom-in-law xferred to hospice; things stable enough for us to be able to get some sleep at home. Will go back in a few hours. #
• 07:54 Phone calls being made to relatives. Will be spending the day back at the hospital. #
• 09:40 Things look a bit better at the hospital this morning. Relatives were called & our on their way down. Taking 3 seconds for coffee. #
• 09:41 RT @warrenellis "I think I might just turn Twitter off until after the Obamascension." #
• 11:37 Catching snippets of the Obamascension! #
• 12:17 Mom-in-law (understandably!) slept thru the Obamascension. #
• 12:18 Me, I can't remember the last time I was so Proud to be an American. #
• 12:19 Now, I'm kinda hoping the ceremony gets wrapped up quick so he can get to work! :) #
• 15:10 Lack of sleep catching up with me. No change in anyone's condition...for better or worse. #
• 15:25 First round of well-wishers have come and gone. More expected tomorrow. #
• 16:03 I've noticed that while doctors and nurses vary like most people, some ancillary pallative-care staff seem like trained diplomats. #
• 18:47 Spending the night at the hospital. Called off for tomorrow. Will likely skip skool. #
• 21:55 Lost track of how many times I've discharged/recharged the netbook battery today. #
• 21:59 Situation quiet for now. At least we've got LEVERAGE, thanks to the hospital's cable TV. #
• 22:13 As if I needed another reason to love LEVERAGE--Doctor Who namecheck x3!!! With Sarah Jane, to boot! #

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Turning on a Dime

What's interesting about this last set of tweets is the stark illustration of how quickly a day can turn with one phone call.

Tweets for Today

• 07:19 Back to skool today! Gonna see if this old dog can learn some more new tricks. Now, where did I put that abacus? :) #
• 09:00 Hm...I think I fixed 2 competing critiques of the end of my last WIP by rewriting 3 words. That, or made it worse. #
• 11:38 Joy of having the same prof as last semester= being able to download the syllabus & first set of notes before setting foot in the classroom. #
• 13:31 Boggles my mind when I compare last fall's registration runaround to the ease of this time around. #
• 13:34 Love hearing *other* people get the "waiting list" speech for a change. Yeah, I'm petty--deal. ;) #
• 17:24 This day wasn't really that hellish--so why do I feel so damn exhausted again? #
• 22:57 Not sure what to make about having free WiFi access at the hospital ER. #
• 22:58 Here in support, waiting to see what happens. #

Via LoudTwitter

Tweets for Today

• 08:42 Slept in a little today to stay healthy for my upcoming hell week. #
• 08:53 "Musings to Myself" - the perfect title and the perfect groove to get me in the writing headspace this morning. ♫ blip.fm/~1no6j #
• 09:08 Currently flying thru teh Intarweb: This about wraps up one writer's career tinyurl.com/9jrrpt #
• 18:24 Sitting with a glass of wine, ready to pore over today's group critiques of the WIP. #
• 18:43 I will not read my latest batch of comics until I finish processing my critiques. I will not read my latest batch of comics until I finish.. #
• 19:54 Done reviewing the scars...I mean, my critique from group :). tinyurl.com/8sv2bo #
• 19:55 Now, I've got two months of DMZ, X-FACTOR, and JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA to catch up on! :D #
• 21:57 Is it decadent to run my music off my netbook at the same time I work on my old laptop? #

Via LoudTwitter

Tough Love

Time once again to process my latest batch of critiques from my biweekly crucifixion session that is my critique group. The points are pretty brief. The passages I read totaled a mere 1,025 words. The important thing is that I finally managed to write an ending to this last WIP, and as soon as I figure out which of these critiques to use and finish up some rewrites, I can put a wrap on this beast.

The Good

• This story (thanks to a revised intro) is now solidly and unequivocably involves a faerie--really an ex-faerie--which enabled me to emphasize her "faerie-ness" in ways people seemed to like.
  
• The end had a "convincing twist." One person used the words "O Henry-like," but I'm pretty sure it was meant in a positive way.
• There was suprise the ending was happy, even "sweet." Not my usual fare, it's true. (Note to self, next story should include some "extreme horror" elements.) ;)
• Folks liked my juxtaposition of worlds where the mundane world of people in a dead-end job mixes with the world of faeries.

The Bad

• Some narrative problems describing some physical mechanics involving a truck poised on the edge of a bluff, a rope, and the best place to tie...well, I could say more, but I'd be giving away plot.
• I gave some (too) vague hints that the faerie in question had put herself in a LITTLE MERMAID-type situation. But folks needed/wanted more.
  

The Ugly

• Since I created a setting where the workaday world of grocery-store employees mixes with the world of faeries, some readers needed to know the extent to which the main characters' co-workers were aware of that particular reality. (I kinda, sorta addressed this in a rewrite no one's seen yet.)
  
• People wanted a little more about faerie mechanics in this little world I've set up, specifically where it relates to a plot point about faerie anatomy.
• There was some lively debate about the ending, the implications of which were strikingly clear to some who read it exactly as I intended, and strikingly unclear to others for whom questions were raised. I admit, I wasn't prepared for that.

I'll worry about that last point once I polish off the middle section of the story. Should take me another day or two if work and school (which starts tomorrow--ack!) doesn't get in the way too much. It'll put me behind schedule, but at least I've already started my next story!!

Tweets for Today

• 08:19 Weather for this morning says "Fair -6F." Fair?? #
• 09:20 Gonna brave the cold (because it's all old hat by now), get breakfast, & get s'more writing done. I can finish this story today, I know it!! #
• 11:35 Got my tankard of coffee and a table next to an outlet. Must resist temptation to take a "writer pr0n" picture of my setup. #
• 11:36 Of course, I totally would if it wasn't such a pain to remove the MicroSD chip from my cell (I'm much too cheap to pay data usage). #
• 11:38 A sampling of this morning's writing music. Will probably be followed by Toto later. ♫ blip.fm/~1n7yp #
• 12:39 Line edits are going slowly and painfully. Should've ordered a red-eye. #
• 13:06 Jeezus, did I say the last 5 pgs were as good as they were gonna get, too? Yeah, no. #
• 13:56 Slightly revised intro + complete ending = probably have enough for group tomorrow. Still have a lil' ways to go to be 100% done. #
• 14:26 Resolve waning. I edit one paragraph for 5 minutes and spend the next 5 reading RSS feeds. #
• 14:28 Been to enough cons to know more people should read this Guide to Wearing a Corset at a Con. Just sayin'. tinyurl.com/7at2qu #
• 15:57 Back in the cold apartment, printing out pages for copying. #
• 16:00 Of course that means I'll be stuck with what I have. And you know I'll end up rewriting things. Gah! #
• 16:53 Feeling woozy as I go out for groceries and copy-making. Hoping it's just due to the horribly skewed coffee-to-food ratio in my body. #
• 19:10 I will not look at the copies of the WIP. I will not look at the copies of the WIP. I will not look at the copies of the WIP. #
• 21:08 7 minutes in and I can tell THE IMMORTAL VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN DRAKE is gonna be so craptastic. #
• 21:09 Funny how Adrian Paul, like Chrisopher Lambert, keeps finding ways to keep doing HIGHLANDER without calling it HIGHLANDER. #

Via LoudTwitter

Tweets for Today

• 08:07 Writing from the backup site this morning. Couldn't resist allure of bagels and cream cheese. #
• 08:09 And, they've got something funky playing on the house system! ♫ blip.fm/~1mhy9 #
• 08:44 Feeling disturbing twinge in my back as I sit here editing... :( #
• 08:49 Did I say the 1st 5 pgs were as good as they were gonna get? Yeah, no. #
• 10:38 Edited 8 pgs this AM. I'm at work with no long-ass meetings scheduled. I'm being treated to lunch. Life is good! #
• 10:39 Waiting for the "fit to hit the shan", now that I've said that. #
• 10:53 Given peer review forms for coworkers' annual reviews. Thinking I'll just write the same set of vague Barnum statements for all of 'em ;). #
• 11:17 Hahaha! Every "Extreme Horror" story ever written. So true! tinyurl.com/86989x #
• 12:38 Coworker has fallen victim to office Andromeda Strain :(. Gotta get some Vitamin C in me. That or Red Bull--either one. :) #
• 13:50 Spent my lunch coming up with the first 100 words of my *next* story!! #
• 17:24 No early escape from Alcatraz tonite :( #
• 17:38 Hm, that might've been a premature assessment, after all.... >:) #
• 18:39 Staring at the WIP. Possibly too fried to write. Hope a mocha and some 80s AOR will help. #
• 19:40 @noells If you like Bill Champlin, you'll probably like his old band The Sons: tinyurl.com/9fokhj #
• 20:29 Cleaning up the WIP, one scene at a time. Might even be done by tomorrow! Maybe. #
• 21:28 Was never a huge, huge fan, but I'm almost interested in the new BATTLESTAR GALACTICA tonite. Kinda, sorta. #
• 22:01 Praying the final Cylon turns out to be Dirk Benedict. #
• 23:05 BSG: Two years for that? I know that if I'd liked the show to begin with, I'd be pissed. #

Via LoudTwitter

"I got one thing to say to the fool on the hill"

Finally, one of my favorite bands in the universe gets YouTubed!


Sons of Champlin, "Rooftop"
(x-posted from the Tumblr)

Tweets for Today

• 08:31 Need some Menahan to get into the writing zone this morning. ♫ blip.fm/~1ltml #
• 09:38 I need to shoehorn a mere 500some words of character, setting, and background details into the WIP before I can finally declare it done. #
• 09:43 Now I know why the WIP depresses me. Working on it has been a clear example of Zeno's Dichotomy Paradox of Motion. tinyurl.com/2hyc3e #
• 10:37 Ack! Another 2.5 hour meeting after lunch! I'll be fine as long as there's WiFi. If not, I won't be responsible for what happens ;). #
• 12:10 I should not be feeling as exhausted as I am right now. #
• 12:11 Dammit, I better not be coming down with something this close to the start of classes. If I am, I'm clearing my weekend calendar & sleeping. #
• 13:33 Staked out a prime seat for my long-ass afternoon meeting. Saving all lunchtime writing until then ;). #
• 13:38 WTF? No more development for Google Notebook anymore??? tinyurl.com/7nqpcb #
• 13:49 Opened the file, but can barely stand to look at my Zeno's Dichotomy Paradox of a WIP :(. Almost think I'd rather pay attention to the mtg. #
• 14:01 Motherf...being made to move up to the front...goddammit! #
• 17:08 Survived the meeting *and* still got internet time during the most boring bits. Otherwise, I would've strangled myself with my 12' scarf. #
• 18:29 Escaped from Alcatraz. Shhhh. Let's see if I can't get closer to done, here. #
• 18:31 Let's see if Eliane Elias playing Bill Evans tunes will put me in the zone. #
• 19:17 1st 5 pgs & last 5 pgs of WIP are as clean as they're gonna get. Still need to cram 300 more words of background/setting. #
• 19:18 I hereby grant myself permission to screw around for the rest of the night. :P~ #

Via LoudTwitter

Tweets for Today

• 07:19 Looks like it's a day--a *week*--to bundle myself up in the Doctor Who scarf. Yes, all 12' of it. #
• 07:21 For my back's sake, I'm temporarily going back to Mead 5-star 9-1/2 x 6 notebooks for my journal instead of my 600pg leather-bound beast. #
• 09:17 Sometimes the best writing music is really craptastic music. Case in point this morning, CHICAGO 13 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_13 #
• 09:44 Very productive writing morning, and I didn't even need a red-eye! Now to work, where I'll probably regret not having one :). #
• 11:31 Note to self: pick this up at the comic shop next month jerseygods.blogspot.com/ #
• 11:31 Note to self: for that matter, pick up the stuff you've neglected over the holidays, too :( #
• 13:11 I don't mind the frigid temps. I mind having to suit up like I'm going on a spacewalk just to go to lunch! #
• 13:26 According to a study, I'm likelier to see dead people! SWEET! tinyurl.com/a2625f #
• 14:22 Lots of needed brainstorming at lunch. Why is it the hardest part of finishing a goddamn story is that last tiny little bit? #
• 17:27 No escaping from Alcatraz early today :(. S'pose I might as well get used to it now. #
• 17:28 Let's see if the crappy music mojo keeps working for after-work writing. Tonite's selection: Chicago's HOT STREETS tinyurl.com/8asrhe #
• 17:41 Damn. Both The Prisoner and Khan/Mr. Roarke have passed on :(. #
• 19:24 Okay, HOT STREETS isn't cutting it. Time to fall back on a tried and true standby, CHICAGO 16. #
• 20:23 I edited one paragraph, but you know what? I wrote/edited before work and at lunch. I deserve a bit of a break today, right? #

Via LoudTwitter

Tweets for Today

• 08:13 I'm so bad. First tweet this morning from the job's all-staff meeting :D. #
• 08:29 Meeting hasn't started yet, and I'm already through today's RSS feeds. Bad sign. #
• 08:33 No YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR this year??? lcrw.net/wordpress/?p=768 #
• 08:34 A couple of surrounding coworkers just noticed my jaw drop. #
• 09:16 Most of the meeting's been on financial stuff. Forecast is mostly a lot of gloom, but not necessarily doom. #
• 11:53 Survived the meeting relatively unscathed, thanks to wireless internet access :D. #
• 12:53 Just saw the price of a USED copy of next semester's textbook. I think I'm having a coronary. #
• 13:27 Went with amazon.com. It was either that or a heart attack. #
• 13:38 Not in the writing mood this lunch time. Will be leaving work early again; I'll get something done then, I'm sure. #
• 17:18 Escaping from Alcatraz early. I kinda actually do feel like writing tonite. #
• 17:24 @strikethru The Flip is very, very nice. Combined with a netbook, transferring and posting video is almost too easy :) #
• 18:15 Funny how motivation can just evaporate for no real reason... :( #
• 21:06 Jamming to old Huey Lewis & the News tunes. Like, pre-"I Wanna New Drug" old. #
• 22:42 Trying not to let my enjoyment of tonite's LEVERAGE be colored by the fact that Jonathan Frakes (ST:TNG) directed ;). #

Via LoudTwitter

Tweets for Today

• 08:19 Forgot my schedule changed. Almost got to work 90 minutes early. Luckily, coffee drew me into the coffee shop near my place. #
• 08:21 Bad news: not fully awake yet, so I succumbed and had my first red-eye of 2009! First sip felt like The Quickening from HIGHLANDER. #
• 09:13 I've got a 0.999 Draft!! Just one section to potentially cut, a paragraph to rewrite, and just a tiny bit of backstory to cram in somewhere. #
• 10:30 Body's at work. Mind's on the WIP. #
• 11:48 Must've hit just the right amount of caffeination this morning. Getting a LOT done today. I expect the inevitable crash right after lunch. #
• 13:29 Domme Lois Lane/subbie Superman, illustrated by Joe Shuster himself (NSFW): tinyurl.com/7t778e #
• 13:33 Okay, too turned on now. Maybe writing will take my mind off it ;). #
• 13:44 Amy Winehouse getting divorced? I'm shocked. Shocked! ♫ blip.fm/~1jy3e #
• 16:41 Might get to escape early today...fingers crossed! #
• 16:47 Planning to bring my netbook to the big staff meeting tomorrow. If I see yarn or knitting needles, nobody better say a word to me, either! #
• 17:06 Got work approval for next semester's class!!! #
• 18:20 Can't get a lead on next semester's texbook yet. Wanna get a jump on a used one. Damn, I thought those things were pricey back in the day! #
• 18:24 Now that the crit group roll call's gone out, I can see exactly how much work I have to do on the WIP, yet :*(. #
• 19:57 Old laptop is taking longer and longer to start up. And having to run scandisk more often... :( #

Via LoudTwitter

Tweets for Today

• 09:26 Might have to stay in today. My home Inbox barely got touched. #
• 09:27 Breakfast first. Then I'll decide. #
• 11:00 Depressed by MEET THE PRESS. Not because of the issues of the day, but because Cosby noted THE COSBY SHOW was 25 years ago!!! #
• 11:55 Loading more writing music onto the netbook. Easy to do when it's got 3x the HD space of my old laptop. #
• 15:03 Wow, I've really blown off the day in a serious way. At least when(!) my dying laptop bites the dust, 95% of my tunes are already backed up. #
• 17:01 Head's killing me for some reason. Advil, food, and coffee have been no help so far. #
• 17:14 Alan Moore parody of Frank Miller tinyurl.com/83vq8s #
• 18:20 Speaking of Moore: the sci-fi underpinnings of V FOR VENDETTA tinyurl.com/73c5a3 #
• 19:42 Home inbox and tickler files processed. To do lists in order. Office still a mess, but somehow, I feel better. Maybe I'll edit the MS a bit. #
• 19:44 I think the tea w/a shot of Jameson's helped :). #
• 21:28 Got precious little writing done. Got a lot of non-writing things off my plate, though! #

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Tweets for Today

• 07:47 This would make some of my romance writer pals chuckle (I think): tinyurl.com/9jscxc #
• 07:52 Where I rave a bit about "Other Cities" by Benjamin Rosenbaum. tinyurl.com/83kol4 #
• 08:04 Today's agenda: Rewrite! #
• 09:23 Gonna brave the cold and go out for breakfast. *Then* to the rewriting!! #
• 11:23 Whaddya get when you put the indoor Farmer's Market across from the indie bookstore? Impulse buys of books by Lydia Davis & Etgar Keret. #
• 11:28 Sequestering myself at the library. Will make myself write as penance. #
• 11:40 Sure, let's just add a Joy Williams collection to my vast mountain of a reading pile. Why not? At least this one's a library book. #
• 12:24 One thing's clear after one read-through. I haven't had nearly enough coffee yet. Heading back uptown, I think. #
• 13:12 Fresh caffeine. All is now clear w/the WIP. And I've already succumbed to the new-book temptation, so I'm safe where I am. #
• 14:16 2 pgs of rewrites! WIP setting more well-established. Fantasy element a little more front-and-center. #
• 14:18 Gonna get more coffee and peruse the Davis, Keret, and Williams collections I added to my already long reading queue. *headdesk* #
• 15:01 Time to blow this burg, I think. Got a neglected inbox full of non-writing stuff on my desk. #
• 17:26 Totally missed lunch watching TV while cutting lines from the MS. Only reminded when I flipped the channel to IRON CHEF AMERICA. #
• 18:00 Does the challenger ever win on IRON CHEF AMERICA? I've never seen it. #

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Tweets for Today

• 07:45 Reviewing scenes cut from the WIP; at least one of them needs to be put back in. I'm so close to a "shitty first draft," I can taste it. #
• 08:10 Two more scene beats, and I'll have my "0.9 Draft." #
• 09:57 Brainstorming at my desk. Just some backfill for the WIP intro that should solve 2 problems with one stroke. #
• 11:47 Cleaning up my TiddlyWiki and MonkeyGTD wikis. I did end up finding uses for both after all. #
• 13:13 Draft 0.9 is done!! I think I'm actually going to put the story away for the rest of today. Well, the rest of the afternoon. We'll see. #
• 14:17 Okay, maybe I don't need to write much after work. I do need to work out all the details I need to add to make my WIP changes make sense. #
• 16:18 I have a bad feeling about Monday. #
• 17:47 Trying to put depressing work discussion about the economy aside and focus on after-work writing. #
• 18:04 RT @NewsHour Nanoscale 'Levitation' Discovery Could Lead to Better Nanomachines twurl.nl/8zomsp #
• 18:15 You know what? It's just not working right now. Guess this morning's progress will have to be enough for now. At least until after dinner. #
• 18:23 I want! I want!! tinyurl.com/8qbnpj #
• 18:50 Forced myself to write a paragraph, so my ennui can just suck it! #

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Tweets for Today

• 07:54 Walking on snow is so much easier than the impromptu ice skating I was doing yesterday. #
• 08:06 Cleaned up 2 new pgs from last nite. I figure I'll finally have a completed 1st draft by Sunday. Fingers crossed! #
• 09:21 Note to self: make sure any .rtf you save in OpenOffice looks okay in MSWord at some point. :( #
• 09:59 Don't know why this song suddenly appeared in my head. ♫ blip.fm/~1hd5v #
• 11:09 1st new piece of valuable writing advice for 2009: Cory Doctorow on Writing in the Age of Distraction. tinyurl.com/8n5kox #
• 11:10 This'll immediately solve a couple of tiny problems I've been having lately, too! I smell a blog entry...? #
• 11:50 One way or another, I'm going to get more done at lunch today than I did yesterday, dammit! #
• 13:14 Lunch definitely more productive today. Transformed some scene beats into 1.5 pgs! #
• 17:59 @GigiVernon The hardest piece of advice for me is "Leave yourself a rough edge," esp. when it feels like I'm on a roll. #
• 18:40 Got another 1/2 page in. Could stop for the day. Probably should stop for the day. We'll see what happens after dinner. #
• 20:29 Got PageFour set up on the netbook and imported WIP drafts/notes. Why, oh why, did I have to discover TreeDBNotes? tinyurl.com/6wkom8 #
• 20:37 Eh, I'll figure it all out tomorrow. Back to writing (on PageFour) www.softwareforwriting.com/pagefour.html #

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Tweets for Today

• 07:54 "And I'm going insane / And I'm laughing at the frozen rain" that almost killed me on the walk to the bus stop. ♫ blip.fm/~1gn8i #
• 07:56 Finished reading my first novel of 2009 last night! Now, back to my backlog of story collections. #
• 09:53 Bunch o' staff out due to ice. Glad I had my morning coffee before getting to work :(. #
• 09:53 At least I got my USB drive back! #
• 10:35 Part 1 of podcast of Cory Doctorow's SOMEONE COMES TO TOWN, SOMEONE LEAVES TOWN tinyurl.com/8ycmbq #
• 10:52 Gonna take an early lunch, just 'cos. Hope I can walk to cafe without splitting my head open on the ice. #
• 11:25 The one day I don't make my lunch this week is, of course, the day the cafe next door's closed, probably due to ice, motherf...! #
• 11:26 Oh well, I made a few notes. Guess I'll just have to write a few lines at my desk after lunch, won't I? #
• 12:36 This was the single most craptastic lunchtime experience of my current day job. #
• 13:34 Every episode of THE PRISONER online!! tinyurl.com/a7m6y2 #
• 15:28 Set a more solid writing agenda this evening to make up for my lunchtime debacle. #
• 15:51 I will not leave my USBdrive at work. I will not leave my USBdrive at work. I will NOT leave my USBdrive at work.... #
• 17:45 Good news: did not forget the USB drive. Bad news: blood sugar too low. Need dinner. Always something, isn't it? :) #
• 19:44 Defiantly wrote about 1 pg of notes/draft, despite a day of icy roads, bad lunches, last-minute work nonsense, and broken down buses. #
• 19:45 And now that I've had dinner, I'm gonna write some more, so everything that's conspired against my writing today can just suck it! :) #

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Tweets for Today

• 07:24 Determined to write an ending--any ending--to my WIP today, just to have something to work with later. #
• 09:18 And work is off and running with the first Code Blue of the year :( #
• 09:22 Sad that F&SF is going bi-monthly :( tinyurl.com/a37yo3 #
• 11:54 Manning the con solo. Great time to brainstorm. #
• 13:17 Finally at lunch. Managed to cram a sandwich down my pie-hole. Too wiped to accomplish much, but at least I've got the WIP file open :). #
• 13:43 FINALLY figured out the end of my WIP!! Now, I've got two weeks to try and make it work!! #
• 13:44 Of course, tune back tomorrow when I tweet, "WTF was I thinking?" :) #
• 19:20 Bad news: left my goddamn USB drive at work again. Good news: reconstructed my work, and then some. I've got my ending!! #
• 19:20 Now to connect it all (from a backup). #
• 19:40 Backup is one day too old. Feh! #
• 19:50 I'm not gonna sweat it. Just gonna eat dinner, read some more novel, and end the nite with LEVERAGE. #

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Tweets for Today

• 07:12 @kajamarie A genre fiction critique group. #
• 07:15 In fact, here's the summary of yesterday's (kind) evisceration: tinyurl.com/9czmor #
• 07:21 December's submissions scorecard. Really, don't bother clicking... tinyurl.com/ayfhjz #
• 09:11 Highlite of my 1st day back: being forced to change all my passwords. Thank God for password algorithms :). #
• 10:54 Already planning time-off for around Spring Break. Gotta have something to look forward to. #
• 11:33 Definitely feeling a low-level First Circle of Hell malaise at my desk today. #
• 12:57 New netbook is now registered with the University's wireless network...muah-ha-ha-ha-ha! >:) #
• 14:26 Cat Valente's ORPHAN'S TALES now a podcast series!! www.catherynnemvalente.com/podcast/ #
• 16:12 Looking forward to after-work coffee and writing time! (i.e. building a routine that's gonna change in a week) :( #
• 20:01 Writing progress was extraordinarily slow tonight :( #

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December Scorecard

Pathetic, I know. This is what happens when I allow finals, work, and holidays to interfere.

Rejections:
Submissions:
Acceptances:
Publications:
Circulating:

1
0
0
0
2

I've got a list of markets that have opened up and some "You Gonna Publish My Story, Or What?" emails to send. This'll actually be a good week to get cracking on those.

Tough Love

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to make this here blog more than reposted tweets. Here's a start, the return of the play-by-play of my biweekly crucifixion session that is my critique group.

My current WIP has been a bitch and a half to write. I wrote my last story in two weeks (and it's gotten one good personalized rejection so far). My trauma with this piece has gone on for over two months! I've rewritten the intro about five times, fleshed out characters before removing them completely, and removed scenes I really, really liked.

Finally, there was nothing left to do but bring it to the group last night.

It's been so long since my last dissection. Let's see if I remember how to do one of these.

The Good

• The usual positive comments, the story "intriguing," the prose "smooth," and the characters "well drawn out."
  
• One member enjoyed how the main characters, a couple, argued "fairly."
• One liked the "ordinary setting" of the story (a grocery store), going with what the group sees as my pattern of stories of ordinary people in extraordinary situations (Note to self: time to break the pattern, maybe?)

The Bad

• How many drafts of the fucking thing did I write/rewrite and still not catch "two-gallon milk jugs" instead of gallon jugs?
• Might be too much focus on the wrong details, esp. in some conversations between the main characters.
• "Cut page 4." (Similar to John Rogers' advice that "You Don't Need pg. 11.")
• I sort of (playfully) rip on a particular recording artist and her fans. Only two out of the eight readers in group got it.
  

The Ugly

• I've got the right POV character, but maybe not the narrative focus on the right character's actions/plans.
• The kinda-sorta-maybe fantasy element I've got going--I've got to be clearer about it either way.
  

Those last two points are gonna take some fixing. My biggest worry, before I even brought the story to group, was that kinda-sorta-maybe fantasy element, which was really evidence of things I haven't quite decided on yet.

Can I fix it in two weeks and have an ending by the next group session, so I can keep another New Year's Resolution of writing one story a month in 2009?

Tweets for Today

• 08:05 Gonna head out for food, coffee, and one last pass through the WIP to make it readable for crit group today. It may be a lost cause. #
• 08:20 Rather, I *was* gonna head out now--it's only 2 degrees??? #
• 08:43 @kajamarie I read 1/2 of that book about a year or so ago. It's still in my reading queue. Good stuff in there! #
• 09:23 2 degrees, my ass. It's gotta be at least 17, maybe 18. Balmy! Okay, to work! #
• 10:21 I think what I've got is as good as it's going to get. Still, I fully expect to be crucified at group. #
• 18:34 Crit group today was the gentlest crucifixion I've ever experienced ;). #
• 18:44 Unlike yesterday, I'm gonna eat and rest before I dive into edits. #
• 22:44 Finished processing the group's critiques. Have a *very* rough map of the changes to make on the WIP this week. #
• 22:49 I'm really, really not ready to go back to work tomorrow :(. #

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Tweets for Today

• 08:28 Have to sneak in a haircut and other sundry errands between writing. I know it should be the other way around, but group's tomorrow! #
• 08:30 Will have to be online, too--the 11th Doctor Who will be announced today!! #
• 08:48 Bruce Holland Rogers on writing expressionistic short-short fiction: tinyurl.com/7q23jn #
• 09:02 Classic Marion Zimmer Bradley essay on writing commercial short stories: mzbworks.home.att.net/what.htm #
• 09:03 Okay, I'm done. No more interweb surfing...well, after I find out who the next Doctor Who is going to be. #
• 12:39 I've never, ever felt so frustrated by a WIP. #
• 12:43 Will start by cutting...the story, that is, not myself. #
• 13:09 Change of writing venue for coffee and that lost-in-a-crowd feeling. #
• 14:14 Edits made, but I'm really doubting the wisdom of reading at group tomorrow :( #
• 14:16 These Doctor Whos are apparently getting younger and younger: tinyurl.com/85w9rv #
• 15:05 Will keep my ass in this chair and continue analyzing scenes from the WIP and not walk around to look at books I have no business buying ;). #
• 17:17 Body in pain for sitting 3 hours writing in a comfy chair. Too busy to think about ergonomics or food; now I'm paying the price. #

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Tweets for Today

• 08:12 Spent evening cleaning out my TiddlyWiki and learning MonkeyGTD. Still trying to decide if I want/need to run both. #
• 08:20 Yes, "Cleveland Rocks," but I'm ready to go home now. ♫ blip.fm/~1e0k3 #
• 08:24 Planning to be lazy during my last morning here. So, why do I have the WIP up on my screen? :) #
• 09:07 Do I still need Google Notebook if most of my stuff is now on personal wikis? Hmm.... #
• 11:19 My year-in-review blogmeme: tinyurl.com/8hzje4 #
• 11:19 Now, I gotta pack. #
• 12:19 Hittin' the road back to I-town! #
• 19:26 Yes, "Home Again!" ♫ blip.fm/~1eakl #
• 19:28 Good thing I got a new laptop, 'cos the old one doesn't seem to be running right... :( #
• 19:33 Okay, old laptop sorta functions--if you can call taking 15 min. to start up "functional." #
• 19:52 Now that I've pretty much unpacked, time to figure out where I'm going to write tomorrow. What's open around here, anyway? #
• 20:56 Okay, I think--think--the old laptop is back to normal. I hope. Almost forgot what a normal size screen looks like :) #

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2008 Year in Review

Since I'm too chickenshit to post my yearly submission stats (I'll do last month's later), I'll do this first-line-of-the-month blogmeme thing instead.

January - "Self-Esteem Issues"

February - Last year I tried to keep a running tab of submissions, rejections, and pubs.

March - Anyone have an opinion on the wisdom (or lack thereof) of writing while pursuing a (non-writing) graduate degree?

April - The editor of Six Sentences reminded me that I have a Twitter account.

May - I can't believe I haven't gotten to this.

June - Perhaps there was a deeper, more subconscious reason I haven't blogged in weeks...

July -


August - This is on my goodreads "to-read" list and should be on yours, too.



(B. - it's on my list, dude, I swear!)

September - 07:35 As usual, I'm going to spend Labor Day laboring.

October - 07:25 Back in the saddle today. ♫ blip.fm/~bgys

November - 08:09 TONIGHT! Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings!!! ♫ blip.fm/~mbbw

December - The subs period for a few of the mags I like to try closed last month.

Tweets for Today

• 00:23 HAPPY NEW YEAR!! #
• 08:19 And now, the New Year's Day clean-up :).... #
• 08:23 @strikethru Good luck with that! INFINTE JEST would be waay too big for me :). BRIEF INTERVIEWS w/HIDEOUS MEN is in my reading queue. #
• 08:23 I really, really need to be better with monitoring my @ replies :( #
• 13:01 Glad I'm a little ahead on my "Read more novels" resolution 'cos I've already behind in my "Don't buy as many used books" one. #
• 14:06 I think I'm a mere one scene away from finishing my WIP. #
• 14:15 Still one problem with the WIP, and I still haven't figured out the damn solution. #
• 19:25 Half-done with the first novel I planned to read in 2009. Sure, I got a head start but still. #

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