Looking forward to dev edit

My developmental editor has warned me that there’s LOTS of comments on the manuscript she’s turning in to me this week. LOTS.

I think she doesn’t want to freak me out. My only worry is that there’s going to be so much to process I don’t know where to start. But it’s exciting to be able to delve into improving my work.

Note: this is going to be short because I’m typing it on my phone. I’m typing it on my phone because my cat is on my lap cleaning itself. Oh, the hardships I go through …

Taking a vacation

Feeling a little down. That happens at the end of every semester. I think it’s because I’m always in high gear to get through the semester, and then nothing. I don’t know what to do with myself. I’m tired yet antsy. I suddenly have no goals. It’s hard to deal with.

Too much time to think. I suddenly have to fight a bunch of negative self-talk, I don’t feel inspired to write. I get grouchy.

The solution: get up, do something. Go to the cafe and perhaps try something new. Conversely, get lots of sleep and meditation. Do something different for a change of pace.

In other words, take a vacation.

Dear Santa:

I dream of getting published by a major publishing house. Think of it as my visions of sugarplums for the season. I have no idea if my wish is overly ambitious, or if you can grant it.

I don’t know if you answer adults’ wishes. I suppose if you did, you’d have to have McMansions and Maseratis in that big bottomless sack of yours. And I don’t know if you answer everyone’s wishes, because there are children starving and children separated from their families, and you haven’t granted their wishes. To be honest, if you have to choose between me and those children, I’d prefer you give them comfort and peace and all good things.

But I still wish, because I’m superstitious. I hope that it’s possible for you to hook into that ephemeral luck and catch its attention for a fleeting second so my manuscript gets a second look.

So if you’re listening, Santa …

Waiting for the Snow

I love keeping up with weather forecasts when a winter storm is coming.

Yesterday, the National Weather Service said our area was to get 2-4 inches, then 4-6. This morning I wake up to find out we’re going to get 1-2 inches. Hardly enough to justify putting the snow boots on, and certainly not enough to justify an emergency trip to the store to buy bread and milk.

I’d like some picturesque snow, enough to cover drab lawns and make for a cozy evening. But I don’t want too much snow, or else I won’t be able to get dug out in time to go to Starved Rock for Christmas.

I should know better than to expect the weather to conform to my wishes. I’ve been stuck in my house during blizzards only to watch the snow melt the next morning, driven into a half-mile wide blizzard on the interstate, snowed in for two-three days when a storm dropped 36 inches of snow overnight.

But still, I hope the snow doesn’t ruin my plans for travel.

That feeling that something’s going to happen

The feeling like something is about to happen.

It feels like an itch between the shoulderblades, so deep that no amount of itching could get rid of it. Like a target is painted there and I can feel where the arrow is going to land, but it hasn’t landed yet.

Most of the time I feel like this, nothing happens.

If anything prompts this feeling, it’s the belief something should be happening and frustration that it’s not. I’ve just got off for break, I don’t go back in until the second or so week of January, and I don’t know what to do with myself.

I could work (I have a poster to do) but my brain is still tired from finishing up the semester and it’s Saturday.

I could rest, but that’s the sort of thing that brings up this feeling something should be happening.

I could write — I probably should write. That would likely get me out of the house, because I write better at the cafe. A short story awaits.

My semester is over! Now what to do?

I’m on break and I already don’t know what to do with myself.

I’m too bored to surf and not motivated enough to write. Or do anything that uses my brain.

This will definitely not do.

What I’d really like to do is spend a day or two at a spa. As I’m 120 miles from a spa, that is not happening.

So I’m probably going to go to the cafe and see how much I can get written on Kami today.

Short note — so sleepy, cannot brain.

So sleepy. Cannot brain.

My last final is today, and after that I’ve only got internships to grade, and grades to turn in, and I’m done for winter break.

I just need coffee to get through this. Luckily it’s on the brew.

**********

The coffee has arrived.

It might take two cups of coffee to get through this.

Or maybe even three.

***********

After break, stories to write. I’m a little torn at the expansion of Kami, because my writing is filling the background up — with Barn Swallows’ Dance, with its magic. I’m afraid it will be too strange for the contest I want to enter it in. Ah well, I knew I’m not that standard.

Have a great day!

Counting the words

I am trying to extend a 1200 word story into a 7000 word story for a writing contest. I’ve written 300 words so far; so I only have to do this 22 more times.

I tend to like short, concise writing, even in novels. I wonder if it’s because I’m relatively impatient, or whether I have a short attention span, or whether I really really can get everything I want done in fewer words. I’ve been told the latter by my dev editor, who doesn’t want me to lengthen things. On the other hand, I have a short story that an editor would like to see as a novel. He’s absolutely right, and it would make a great prequel to Prodigies, but I would have to immerse myself in Poland for a couple weeks to get the feel for it.

So, back to the story. The story is Kami, and it’s about death and afterlife. It also features Jeanne and Josh Beaumont-Young, one of my favorite couples. Jeanne at this point is 80 and has just lost her 55-year-old husband of 27 years. I like the couple because they defyour common notions of love and attraction, and because they have a chemistry despite their bookishness.

I need to take a deep breath and set myself a writing goal, and just write, then edit. Luckily I have a vacation to do it.

Pandora’s FedEx Package

I have a mystery box coming to me.

I found this out via a text from FedEx. One package to arrive on this Thursday before 5 PM. I love packages!

The problem is that I have no pending merchandise orders from anywhere. My husband doesn’t have any pending orders from anywhere. And, as far as I know, the cats don’t have any pending orders from anywhere.

In examining the FedEx text, I can discern the following: The package originated in Berlin, CT. The shipping path began in Northborough, MA. The package’s dimensions are 20x12x4, and it weighs 4.2 lbs. It has been in package jail in Odessa, MO for two days.

What can I deduce? I’m failing. My fantasy life has many guesses:

A present from family? (From Berlin, CT? I have no family there.)
A marked-up copy of my novel with a book offer? (I’m pretty much sure that’s not how it’s done.)
A package bomb? (By FedEx? Highly unlikely).
A sweepstakes prize? (“Here’s a grocery sack with our logo!”)
An inheritance from a long-lost relative? (“Here’s a grocery sack with a logo!)

I will know soon. It will likely be something I ordered six months ago that I can’t remember. But I can dream, can’t I?

The semester is winding down …

It’s finals week, and after I do some wayward grading, all I have left is the finals, which are multiple choice and computer graded. And then I will be done with the semester and get some quality time with my brain.

I wonder if I will feel possessed to write a new novel? I said I would back down from noveling because I have five I can release to the querying process. I could query — I think it’s been enough time. I could write short stories or poetry. I can’t just sit around and do nothing.

So my break will be at least partially a writing break. It will also be a research break, a class-tweaking break (most of this is, however, done). A sit and pet kitties break. A big coffee break. A sit at the massive fireplace at Starved Rock with a mug of Irish coffee break.

I’m looking forward to it.