(Cover by Sal Trapani, all rights with current holder) Well, this week was definitely a drop from last week’s performance, but I’m still pleased.
The obstacles to being productive were a morning of errands Monday, and then a dental appointment Tuesday. Just deep cleaning, no surgery, but it was very easy to lose focus afterwards with my lips feeling like they were encased in boxing gloves. And both days there was the vanishing time (“We’ll be leaving any minute, no point in starting something.”) that comes when two people have to work around using one car.
Despite which I did well on my fiction. I made some minor but necessary edits to an old story, The Wodehouse Murder Case; the magazine it sold to is defunct, so I might as well look for a reprint market. I also made some changes to my as-yet unpublished End of the World on the Cutting Room Floor, replacing tough movie thug William Bendix (it’s set in a movie world) with blacksploitation star Jim Brown. I’ve been bothered by how white the story was, and this gives it at least one decent black role. Though of course re-editing required changing the dialogue and then I realized I’d have to replace a minor blacksploitation character in the story (switched him to Tor Johnson from the Ed Wood films).
And I read the first chapter of The Impossible Takes a Little Longer to the writing group. I’ll go into detail on their reactions (generally favorable, but several interesting suggestions) more next week. While I’ve no intention of rewriting the whole book (especially when I only get three hours fiction a week) I do want the opening as strong as possible for any editors or agents who deign to read it.
I did reasonably well on my Demand Media stuff, though not where I should have been. And I submitted a story, but also got one back (with a complimentary send-us-more letter). And published a new And column, on claims refusing to obey court decisions allowing gay marriage is just like refusing to obey pro-slavery rulings 160 years ago.
Plus I got lots of viewing done for my time-travel book.
I’ve also come to the conclusion that getting up and working before my morning routines (stretching out, checking email, breakfast, watching TV) really doesn’t product any soaring burst of productivity. Though I may keep doing it once a week or so just for variety. Or perhaps not.
I may have mentioned we’ve been taking Trixie and the Plush One to obedience class. I’ve added a little bit of training for Trixie to my morning routine, though probably not enough. The dogs are getting much better about sitting together without grappling, so Plushie gets out of his pen much more. Unfortunately, this makes him want out that much more: he’s much more voluble about being penned up now. He goes silent if we feed him, but sometimes he gives me a look like “Food? You think my searing loneliness can be assuaged with FOOD?” Yeah, I’m probably anthropomorphizing.
Another side effect is that I find myself spending more time in the evenings dog-wrangling as it still takes some effort to have them both running loose and not play-fighting. Perhaps they’ll calm down more and then it’ll be less effort. One can dream.
