Old Stomping Grounds

I could really just dispense with saying "busy weekend" ever again. Weekends are always busy, and they probably will be from here on until the last of the kids can drive herself around, at which point I will find things to fill them up out of sheer habit. Saturdays have the farmer's market for a few more weeks, eldest's dance class, errands to run and cleaning to do. Sunday mornings are lately for bread baking, watching Agents of SHIELD (giving it a B so far), writing and/or critiquing.

The afternoon on this particular rain-drenched Sunday was occupied by a trip to Worcester and the Higgins Armory Museum, soon to close for lack of funds. We haven't been back to Worcester much since moving. I never really did bond with the place, and I don't have any emotions about the Higgins closing beyond a rueful shrug. The visit was pleasant. I took some pictures of things that might come in handy for the novel, but mostly shepherded the kids around the play area. The enormous vinyl building blocks, from which endless castles could be constructed for summary destruction, were a big draw.

I feel like I should say something profound here about cities and identity, given that Worcester's main identity has always seemed to be "that city with an identity problem." It continues to muddle along with much change, at least not much visible from a car window.

I've been slightly battered of late by ideas for things I can put into this book. I only hope to do a halfway competent job of it.

The Prometheus Tapestry

13,044/100,000

First mile marker

Someone keeps clicking the Cool button, so I guess someone is reading this.

It's been a good week for writing. After a long period that felt like I was hammering rocks into slightly smaller rocks, the characters seem to have clicked for me. I've made some choices that I needed to make in terms of the magic system and imagery. I've hit the 10k mark and then some, with 88 days left before the end of the year.

I'm doing any number of things with this book that worry me a bit. It's the first book I've ever written with a single POV straight through. That POV is one that doesn't have much in common with my personal life experience. There is a fairly large and diverse cast to juggle and to do justice to. There is the matter of introducing and reinforcing that system and that imagery in ways that register as significant (and hopefully interesting) without planting a flag and yelling, "Hey, look over here! SYMBOLISM!"

But challenges are good for us, right? I've also been doing some critting, which is always useful to me (and hopefully to them) as I turn a sharper eye on my own output.

The Prometheus Tapestry

11,000/100,000

Tiny little pile of words, getting bigger every day.

The Prometheus Tapestry

7,000/100,000

Momentum

Now is the time on Sprockets when we post a lot, just so we can see the tiny bar get bigger.

The Prometheus Tapestry

4,000/100,000

Slow, slow, slow

Still working on that second thousand words. I hope that once I get through revising this first scene, this will feel less like engraving stone. I'm pretty sure it's a better scene than it was the first time around, so that's something.

In random other news, one of my goals for this year was to lose ten pounds, and I actually did it! I'd like to repeat this trick next year. Perhaps counter-productively, I've been trying to get back into baking, especially bread. As was perhaps inevitable, I've drifted away from the fandom pursuits that were taking up a lot of my time last year. Prolonged observation has cemented my suspicion that I'll never really belong to that kind of community. I did "meet" some nice people.

Today is rainy and cool, and I'm making cinnamon scones while I work on this scene. Life is good. 

Starting Over, Over

I will make no promises this time, but I suppose I ought to keep my accountability somewhere. Starting the next draft of the next book, which is going to mean a lot of layering, a lot of rewriting, and probably a lot of hard decisions. Also poetry. I'm excited about it.

The Prometheus Tapestry

1,000/100,000

I have hesitated over what to do with this blog, the way I hesitate over pretty much all social media. I'm a cautious person, and I tend to keep my thoughts to myself. Better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool, etc.--the Internet makes it awfully easy to make an ass of oneself, and who cares about my opinion anyway? It seems not even de rigeour but an outright requirement nowadays to do so, though. We shall see what eventuates.

Summer slipping away

July was a blur, though that might have been due to the heat.

The book stands at just over 75k words, so still pretty far from goal there. While visiting Erie last weekend, I had some productive thoughts on what I need to do in the second draft, which is great, but doesn't help much for right now. The only thing I can do for it at present is get through the basics of the plot. I still plan to have it beta-ready by the end of this year.

Other than that, I've sent out a couple more query letters for Fury, read a bunch of comic books and an actual book, saw a movie with D*, and that's about the end of my ambition.