It’s that time again, and thankfully, things *have* started to get a little better this week. The short story I *wanted* to edit, of course, is still languishing in the “I don’t wannas” but I did go over it a bit, pinned down a better climax, cut a uselessly long ending, and now it’s just a matter of retyping from scratch and weaving the changes in as organically as possible. But I also got the aloud read-through done on “Circles,” which I think may be very close to ready to go (maybe by Wednesday! EEEEE!)
This week, I’m working on: Finishing “Circles” for submission by EoD Wednesday. It’s practically ready. A few minor tweaks, a little clipping here and there, and honestly, I feel fairly confident that it’s solidly competitive. Once that’s done, then at least start the retype on the superhero lady business story. XD HA! Lady business. Ok, but seriously, I need that one wrapped pretty soon, so I’ve got to buckle down on it.
What’s inspiring me this week?: Health. Me and the Little Guy got sick as dogs Tuesday-Thursday, and it’s been enlightening how much smoother life normally is. Regular sleeping hours, time in the evening to read (and write) and relax like an adult, how good we normally feel without heads stuffed with mucus or the Little Guy’s puke on our clothes. SO MUCH BETTER. So I think that’s given me a little wind beneath my wings (that, and the total lack of focus for the past week because YUCK.)
I also just started reading Why Call Them Back From Heaven by Clifford D. Simak, which is 1960s Sci-Fi-licious. There are *so many* things in this book that would be totally frowned upon by today’s standards (“As you know, Miles…” and the “Oh, we have everything related to the issue of immortality, faster-than-light travel, terraforming, food consumption fixed, but we just don’t have enough LAND on Earth for everybody (so we’re going to send people back in time to colonize THAT land)!”–seriously, you can molecularly simulate as much food as anyone will ever need, and you *can’t* figure out a basic housing problem? They have FASTER THAN LIGHT TRAVEL, and they haven’t thought about space-stations?!), but honestly, I’m still LOVING THE HELL OUT OF IT. It’s got that dreamers and thinkers quality, that willful obsession with idea beyond all else, and it’s fantastic, even if one of the first lines is: Perhaps, she thought, a woman had no right to defend a man in a court like this. In the ancient days, when the Jury had been human, it might have been all right. But not in a court where a computer was the Jury and the only point at issue was the meaning of the law. Yowch, because obviously women can’t defend someone on any other basis than the “heart” of the law, because…because…vagina. XD Still, it’s kind of magical. Reminds me a bunch, obviously, of Day of the Triffids and a lot of John Christopher’s stuff, too (which I also love).
What I’m avoiding: “Any Day But Today” retyping. For some reason, I am just so unenthused right now. I loved it as I wrote it, and I think I managed to capture something fairly fun, but there are a lot of tweaks it needs, and I think I’m just feeling overwhelmed about successfully incorporating them. And I really just need to bite the bullet and get to work.
Maggie Slater 