Planning to plan to pray
Yesterday, I had day one of my vacation and took a break... from blogging. Sunday was a bit hectic; I attended the second to last wedding on the horizon and spent the rest of the day seeing other friends before I sped home and commenced to the Sunday night editing I still haven't completely meshed with my weekly routine. Yesterday morning, with fresher eyes, I finished that up, along with more careful drafting of the chapters I squeezed into this past weekend. A bit sleepy and somewhat worn down, I put doing this off until today. It seems hardly the time or place to congratulate someone publicly (I also only have seven readers I'm aware of), but it was a very nice ceremony at a local park, followed by excellent barbecue and a prayer circle to ward off rain.So congrats to Daniel and Kandis.
Today has been much more relaxing. I committed to doubling the writing pace, using this week to do three chapters, and this weekend to do the three that I'd be doing anyway, and applying that regimen to this week and next. I was very pleased that this first week had training wheels on it, though, because I wasn't sure how comfortable I was to just declare I would do something, and then do it. Last year, finishing up the previous three books in the series (also at the same time; no I did not learn my lesson) I penned an epilogue which I mistimed. Fortunately, a friend helped me realize that that was not the time to tell that part of the story. I saved it, and kept it in mind, because I felt strongly that it belonged in the telling somewhere, and low and behold it's time has come. At least I think it has. Either way, I stuck it into the story and looked at it from multiple angles, tightened and sharpened it and let it be until I look at it again, hopefully on Thursday. That was an interesting experience, because I work very hard on telling things in a prescribed order. I think about the story in great detail, then I try to pick the most exciting part, and I try to tell it in a way that makes sense. If that makes sense.
Before a writer friend left town for job training, I cornered him in his apartment and forced him to read my query letter for my sci-fi novel. He avoided using hackneyed and trite, but synonyms did come out of his mouth. I wasn't taken aback, though I was a bit surprised. We talked about it, and I got some good feedback about why he thought that way. I gave him the low down on the story in an effort to get his opinion on how I could present the book in a better way to an agent, and he gave me a lot of confidence regarding his opinion that the story wasn't typical or predictable at all, which made me feel good. I did not, however, get around to changing much of the letter before sending it off to a handful of agents. So I guess I'll be crossing my fingers when it doesn't inconvenience me. About those queries, and about the latest round of short stories I submitted. And I guess about the requests my publisher told me they received from a few review sites.
Also, I am formerly announcing my goal this year to finally attend Dragon Con, with a plan in mind to attend the convention next year and actually have an author table. A friend sent me a link to a page where authors can register for Gen Con, and using the super power of laziness I applied that idea to the convention that wouldn't require plane tickets or tanks of gas. Hopefully the double-edgedness of my amazing ability will not come back to bite me come this and next August. I guess that's the price of power.
Today has been much more relaxing. I committed to doubling the writing pace, using this week to do three chapters, and this weekend to do the three that I'd be doing anyway, and applying that regimen to this week and next. I was very pleased that this first week had training wheels on it, though, because I wasn't sure how comfortable I was to just declare I would do something, and then do it. Last year, finishing up the previous three books in the series (also at the same time; no I did not learn my lesson) I penned an epilogue which I mistimed. Fortunately, a friend helped me realize that that was not the time to tell that part of the story. I saved it, and kept it in mind, because I felt strongly that it belonged in the telling somewhere, and low and behold it's time has come. At least I think it has. Either way, I stuck it into the story and looked at it from multiple angles, tightened and sharpened it and let it be until I look at it again, hopefully on Thursday. That was an interesting experience, because I work very hard on telling things in a prescribed order. I think about the story in great detail, then I try to pick the most exciting part, and I try to tell it in a way that makes sense. If that makes sense.
Before a writer friend left town for job training, I cornered him in his apartment and forced him to read my query letter for my sci-fi novel. He avoided using hackneyed and trite, but synonyms did come out of his mouth. I wasn't taken aback, though I was a bit surprised. We talked about it, and I got some good feedback about why he thought that way. I gave him the low down on the story in an effort to get his opinion on how I could present the book in a better way to an agent, and he gave me a lot of confidence regarding his opinion that the story wasn't typical or predictable at all, which made me feel good. I did not, however, get around to changing much of the letter before sending it off to a handful of agents. So I guess I'll be crossing my fingers when it doesn't inconvenience me. About those queries, and about the latest round of short stories I submitted. And I guess about the requests my publisher told me they received from a few review sites.
Also, I am formerly announcing my goal this year to finally attend Dragon Con, with a plan in mind to attend the convention next year and actually have an author table. A friend sent me a link to a page where authors can register for Gen Con, and using the super power of laziness I applied that idea to the convention that wouldn't require plane tickets or tanks of gas. Hopefully the double-edgedness of my amazing ability will not come back to bite me come this and next August. I guess that's the price of power.
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