It seems there’s always a joker in the deck (#SFWApro)

The joker this week being car trouble Thursday. Which lead to arranging towing, arranging a rental car, going to get rental car … so Thursday afternoon was largely shot and I was too exhausted by evening to make up for it.

Despite that, however, this was a really productive week.

•I made my Demand media quota except for one article.

•I got in 90 minutes of fiction (I wanted another 90, but the Thursday mess erased that). I used them to rewrite the opening of Impossible Takes a Little Longer so I can read it to the writing group next week. I’m satisfied with the novel as is, but tightening up the opening couldn’t hurt when shopping it around.

•Watched 10 movies for the book.

•Submitted a nonfiction query… which got a Thanks But We Just Did That One response (annoyingly I’d had this idea in mind for months, just couldn’t get to it).

•Got a Please Send Me More Stories from the new editor of F&SF. Now I just have to write a story that fits the magazine … Still, that’s a more favorable response than I’ve gotten from them before.

•Submitted for two new freelance gigs.

And all that’s despite taking extra time to walk the Plush One (when TYG couldn’t get to him) and some crazy late nights: TYG’s schedule kept her out late, and it’s no longer possible for her to slip into bed without waking me, not with the dogs. So I try staying up late and writing, which gets the work done, but I just don’t sleep very late in the mornings, no matter when I stay out.

I did try some new things in my schedule. One was to start work the minute I get up, on the theory it’ll get a jump on the day. I can’t say it really helps much, but I may try it again.

Another was to block off 30 minutes every morning and do non-writing stuff. This worked quite well. It didn’t hurt my schedule much (I incorporate my fifteen-minute mid-morning break into it) but it did allow me to tackle several things I needed to do for Mum, and a couple for myself.

I suppose that in a sense good, productive weeks are inevitable, just like bad days are. Except that bad days just sort of happen; even though statistically I’m bound to have an above-average week every so often, that doesn’t negate the fact I have to work to make that week happen. It’s just not as random as the bad week. So I’ll take pride as I knock off for the week in having done darn well.

(Cover art by Jim Mooney. All rights to current holder).