Sunday, April 22, 2012

Moving On

Yesterday i took The Guide binder to work.  i realized very soon that there wasn't much i could do because of the "You Are Here" post-it note.  this post-it reminded me that on wednesdays, long ago, i used to go to the coffee place and have an iced coffee and work on editing.  the "You Are Here" post-it (which also has the N,S,E,W cross on it as well... just in case i needed to know) made it sorta impossible for me to do any work on anything leading up to that point.

but i did spend some time on the outline, fleshing out for fleshing out later.  like making sure to eat breakfast on thanksgiving so your tummy doesn't shrink and you have plenty of room for my mother-in-law's sweet potatoes and beef loaded stuffing...mmm... stuffing...

what?

I also recalled while i was working yesterday that i had put all the edited chapters, which i was editing one by one, back into a document.  apparently i named this document "rerecompiledagain" because once before i had compiled it when i realized all the chapters were in the wrong order.  my overredundancy make me giggle.

so i just finished rerecompilingagain more because there were more things i hadn't added to that compilation and then i printed it out.  and i put all the old stuff in one of my handy white envelopes where all my old words live.  now i just have to find my 3 hole punch.  i used to know where it was before a baby lived in this house, but i just can't remember where i put it to keep it safe from those tiny little fingers.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Caterwauling

the story has gone caterwauling, bouncing off the walls of an empty room and i sit in the middle of the floor thinking to myself, "I don't feel like chasing you anymore."

that's the signal. it's time to move on. i really like the way i'm doing it now. working a little here, a little there, till something draws me away. it doesn't get forced.

but what do i want to work on next? The Pilot is the logical choice, it's the only one that hasn't been looked at yet. but i would also like to get both Shade and Shadow and Third Bed on Smashwords. and there's always the two past years of unfinished Nano stories. I'd love to see more of Darbin and Dax, but then again, i want to know what Vincent does with his books...

decisions, decisions.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Mix CDs and Crushing Novels

Because sometimes writing about other things helps too.

Today I finished The Lovely Bones and the thing on the cover was right. don't read it unless you are going to read it all. I haven't written anything to be proud of in days because i've just wanted to read instead. And now i don't want to see the movie. not for a while at least. at least until the little book shaped hole in my heart is all healed up. words, they kill me.

I'm so sick of my music. i went searching through the crazy collections of my CD holders in my car and came up with one i have named Uber Mix, Mixy Mixiness.

I remember this CD. and it is always nearby. Anyone who has ever ridden with me and allowed me to control the music, any one who has been given a mix CD i made knows how they are. a little chaotic, but with a flow that can make an entire drive disappear. This may very well be the first one.

I know i made it for my 9 hour trip to Bemidji MN to see the boy who gave me a name which means She Who Misbehaves in the language he was studying. But i don't remember him about the CD, because it was later that year that i played this CD out delivering pizzas. that summer that i met the husband.

And i don't listen to it often anymore. and between listens i lose track completely of what's on it until i put it in. because no matter if i can't remember what's on it, the name, Uber Mix, Mixy Mixiness, tells me that it is a good cd. and I listen... and skip... and smile, and listen and smile and skip and listen:

Michelle Branch - Breathe
Jason Mraz - Sleep All Day
Rainer Maria - The Imparatives
Sugarcult - Bouncing Off the Walls Again
Saves The Day - Through With Being Cool
The Get Up Kids - Mass Pike
Further Seems Forever - Just Until Sundown
Shawn Mullins - This Time/Last Time
Something Corporate - Punk Rock Princess
Something Corporate - Ruthless
Gavin Degraw - I Don't Wanna Be
Shawn Mullins - Baby Blue
Kyle Fischer - If Your Way Should Need Finding Back
Counting Crows - Long December
Foo Fighters - Times Like These (acoustic)
Finch - What It Is To Burn (acoustic)
Julianna Theory - If I Told You This Was Killing Me
Incubus - Megalomaniac
Rufio - Dipshit
Rainer Maria - Ears Ring
Dashboard Confessional - Vindicated

And I'm amazed at what this list of songs tells me about me from what? eight years ago? seriously?

There are the standard favorites, the shawn mullins (this time/last time is broken... it plays the first several seconds then goes back and plays it again... for like four minutes. it's the reason why i always skip that song no matter what cd i'm listening to) and there's Something Corporate... Ruthless being a song i was just readdicted to only last week.

There's the stuff that comes from other people, or things on the radio at the time i made them that i liked. megalomaniac, gavin degraw, and vindicated. there's me hanging on to the old stuff from hartford (and were honestly the most frequently skipped tracks), saves the day, the get up kids, sugarcult, and there's the bands that i found by threading out from them, rufio, rainer maria, finch.

I never realized that Just Until Sundown was a waltz... or maybe i did realize but have forgotten. but that's probably why i still love it so deep down in my soul. i love me a rock song written to a waltz beat.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

A Pile O Books

After I finished We Were the Mulvaneys i really didn't have much to read. there's another Joyce Carol Oates book that is an anthology for writers; full of short stories that are on her reading list at Princeton - Telling Stories. But i'm no good with short stories. When i settle down to read i intend to read for hours. i want a book that will eat me up and that i can devour in return. i don't like to start over every few minutes. I have actually managed to read some of the stories told on breaks and things at work since i've been writing so much while actually in my cube.

Anyhow, i went on Amazon and ordered The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Dexter in the Dark, and another of Joyce's books that i chose at random, The Gravediggers Daughter: A Novel (PS).

But that really didn't help me with the problem that i have no books to read until they arrive. so yesterday, after getting to a good stopping point in my writing rather early in the day i ran over to Half Price Books and scoured the clearance section. I got Water For Elephants and The Lovely Bones both of which i've wanted to read because i want to see the movies. My cousin told me to see Water For Elephants, but i recently found out that Stanley Tucci is in The Lovely Bones and boy do i ever love him. I also managed to find a tall paperback version of Wicked which is awesome because i have the mass market paperback of that one but the rest of the series is the tall one. now they're all the same!

So, for the next, what? maybe three weeks i'm set on things to read. and i'm so excited to read them all that i don't even know where to start. except that i started with The Lovely Bones for no particular reason. and laundry day is coming up and that's 20 and then 40 minutes of uninterrupted reading. Though really, i should finish Anna Karenina already...