Okay, it's not quite up. Soon, soon...

Yes, I'm going crazy.

Okay, it's back up. Time to upload the latest Vision and be done with it!

The Gods of the Internet are laughing at me....

I have worked damned hard all day to make sure that Vision went up on time tonight. It's done. Most of it is already up.

But the site where it's hosted is down.

There are days when you just have to wonder. Personally, I think I'll just go watch some TV for a while and hope for the best....

Oh, and I cant' do my journal entry until a different site is done uploading to that server. With my luck, it'll go down too.

But you know what? I got this issue done. Its ready. And considering the month I've had, that's pretty good!

I am working on Vision today. It's going together well enough, even though I don't have all the material yet. Six hours to go. Ack.

However, what I do have is going together well enough. I'm thinking good thoughts...

Last day of the month. I need to get some writing done, as well.

Wrote a bit over 2000 tonight. Hard work... I can't seem to lock in on what I'm doing. I am very close to the end, though. I should have it done tomorrow, if I don't get too bogged down with the last of the Vision work. Which I will because I'm not as far along as I should be.

But right now... off to bed and hope I'm still all right tomorrow!

I am doing considerably better today. I've even managed to get some work done. Not enough... but I'm getting there. I hope to have Vision done pretty much on time, though who knows? The way things have been going with me the last few weeks, I'll be lucky if I can get out of bed in the morning.

My back is still giving me twinges, but nothing like yesterday and the day before. I have not touched an actual pain pill today, though I have taken a couple asprin. The fact that I've survived so far without going mad is a good sign.

My writing, as you can imagine, has been odd. I did 1000 words yesterday, but it was in bits and pieces and I admit that some of it wasn't entirely coherent when I copied it over from the Visor. So I straightened it up and then went on with today's work. And I've managed about... 300 words. It's post drugged brain syndrome. I can't focus. I'm going to force myself to get to 1000 tonight and maybe finish this piece tomorrow. It's close.

I did do two rewrites, however. One short story of barely 1100 words went off in email to Strange Horizons. The second is just done printing and will be in the mail to Asimov's tomorrow. Do I expect either to sell? Not really. But you never know when I might finally hit the right story to the right place.

And in the mean time... well, I'll keep writing, I guess. (grin)

Bad back, strong pain pills... zette has spent a couple days in bed. I'm lucky I have the Visor so I can write a bit between pain pills knocking me out. I'd go crazy.

But this is it for today. I've already been up in this chair too long.

Just wrote 1000 words on Mars Run. I have about 800 words on an article. Looks good for the day ause I'm dead tired!

Today has been work on Vision. I got quite a bit sorted out, and now at nearly 1AM... oh hell. Journal. Must go do journal. brb.

And here we are, ready to attack another round of ... something.

I got quite a bit of work done last night and ended up with 4111 words for the day. I need to do that more often. I might actually get something done. But right now I'm off to work on Vision stuff for a few hours. Time is running out on that one! I can't believe how fast this month has gone!

The good thing is that I've gotten a lot of the stuff done already. It's jut a matter of organizing it now. I fear I am still going to be short of material for genre sections, but we did very well over all. Okay, so I'm off to work on that right now. Really.

I made dinner. We ate. I had an epiphany about this scene I'm working on... but I made dinner and I ate. Now I just want to nap a bit.

11,682

11,487

Slowed down to help Russ for a little bit. Slowed down to walk around and think out this part. Going to walk around a little bit more again.

But it is going well.

11,112

It's going well. They're finally out of the ship and about to make a dangerous slide in an untested smaller craft. And my, they're in for a surprise.

Let's just say that this crew always lands on its feet. (grin)

10,600

Russ came home. I fed the animals. Back to work!

10,456.

Good. They've left the ship. Crew of seven pushed into a small craft. They refuse to leave anyone behind for fear that they'll never find the ship again. They are in totally unmapped space. And besides, they've been through hell together before. If they 'go' they are going together. The Captain will not leave anyone behind to wait and wonder...

Hello....

I'm having one of those days where I just can't seem to sit down and concentrate on anything. I think it must be the wind, scattering all my thoughts. I would like to just sit down and write, maybe even finish Mars Run today and keep it from inching up from a novelette to a novella. I need (of course) to do work on Vision, but most of the material is finally falling into place for it, at least.

I need to get back to the novels. I've barely started book 3...

But instead of any of this, I've walked around the house, bothered Russ, ate lunch, bothered the cats, and walked around the house some more. I should at least have picked up the house while I was walking around, but that would have been too much to ask for. No. I'll just wander around and do nothing.

Okay, enough of that. Time to work on MR for a little while. I'm setting at 10,000 words even. Let's see how much I can get done. My crew is about to abandon their ship for a very untrustworthy smaller craft in hopes of reaching help. They're lost. They know they have enemies.

This is the 7th story with this crew. They range from short stories to novellas. I don't think one of them quite reaches novel length, but together they turn into a hefty bit of work. And they're fun. I need fun right now.

Okay. On to work. Stop wandering around!

I've had a couple busy days here, including one with company! Right here, at my house. Will these fools never learn?

Needless to say, it has put me even farther behind in my work, but that's all right. I watched both of the Mummy movies with our friend. That was fun.

Today I'm finishing up work on the class for tonight. I'm also trying to get past feeling pretty lousy -- started last night and has knocked me out for most of the day. I am really enjoying the material on the culture class. There's so much fun stuff to cover!

Let's talk about writing in different genres.

Some writers -- like me -- do it for fun, and some do it for fun and money. That, of course, is the difference between me and a professional like Holly Lisle. Holly has a family to feed, clothe and house, and she does it with her writing. At the moment she's trying her hand at a different genre from what she had previously published -- because she has both the talent and the drive to give it a try.

Holly is writing the proposal for a six book romance series -- and she had obviously been working on this for awhile since she already had the critique and notes back from Sheila on the day she got the bad news on her latest fantasy proposal. As it happens, for those who haven't read the material on her site, romance was the first genre she ever wrote a novel in -- at least that's how I remember it. The book didn't sell, but reading Holly's published work, I can see that romance is often an important part of the plot. I suspect she has many romance-sans-fantasy stories in her.

I also know many writers who publish in different genres, and there seems to be a large crossover between the fantasy/sf crowd and the romance group. Sheila Viehl, Rosemary Edghill... It's late and I really can't think of any others right now, but it is not uncommon.

Writing a story is writing a story -- either you have the inspiration and you believe in that story, no matter what the genre, or you aren't going to get very far. I envy the authors who can write romance, for which I have absolutely no talent or interest, which is a huge market. I do try my hand at mystery and YA and children's stories. I would hate to think that being published in one genre meant I could never write in another, or that somehow I would lose all interest in it.

Genre is just a tag. If Holly didn't have an idea for a six book romance series she might have had one for a six book mystery. Or a six book horror, or western... whatever. Stories come from within us, and they don't come with a tag that says 'Oh, I'm not in the genre you've published before. You can't try your hand at me."

I hope Holly does well with the romance books. Reading her blog, I can tell that she's already enjoying the change. I would love to see her blossom into a second career with another income. I know she'd enjoy it.

And I'm running behind on everything today. I have a list of four things to get done, not including any writing or editing of the novel. I have not done any of those four yet, although I do keep thinking about them. Does that count?

The first thing I probably need to do is get the agenda for the city put together and out. The meeting is not until Monday, but if I put it out I'll be working on it Sunday, which I don't want to do.

So the Agenda comes first, then editing a couple more articles for Vision, followed by work for the Checklist on Culture class for Monday, then material for the After the First Draft on Tuesday. Then editing of the novel, and then writing. Somewhere in there we'll have dinner, and watch the last of the Sharpe episodes which ought to be just depressing as hell.

I guess I have the rest of my day laid out for me. Although I may be in luck. The agenda doesn't look nearly as bad as usual! Yay!

Off to do work I don't want to do....

Writing has not been going all that well the last couple days again. I've been in a boon or bust mode, I guess. Today's news at Forward Motion about the trouble with Holly's latest book proposal has not inspired a lot of writing either, but it has kept me thinking about what it takes to go pro. Russ and I talked about it -- how the money would be nice, how having a book on a shelf at a store would be very nice... how I would not do well at all with the kind of pressure Holly goes through.

But I love to write. I even love learning to write well. I'm just less and less sure that I want to step outside the relatively quiet, peaceful (no money) field of epublishing to stand as fodder on the front lines of paper publishing.

Well, I would have to have something accepted by a print publisher first, wouldn't I?

I've actually gotten a few things done. Amazing, considering we had two major storms, a lot of rain and power outages. But I got the editing on Seri Ember done and I'm waiting for an answer to my email to the editor before I send it off.

And I did considerable editing on Vision. So things are looking good!

Well, except for that writing stuff, but I'm going to get to that now. If I can stay awake.

I'm going to do the first part of Living in Caine's Hold tomorrow. That one really shouldn't be too tough. I just need a solid time where I can work on it without anything else hanging over my head. I think I'm getting there.

I went to the zoo.

Then I came home, watched some shows, did web work, wrote.

And now I'm so tired I don't think I can stay awake.

I have a ton of work to do tomorrow. I got an email for me to check over a story that will be up in May. I have not looked at Living in Caine's Hold yet.

Did I mention that I'm tired?

Thunk...

I've not done much at all. And I intend to do less. I'm going to the zoo tomorrow or the next day. That will put me in such a much better mood. (grin)

But for now... here's a rather odd thing I put together!

My timing is pretty good. I got Brendan's Song off last night, and this morning I got the final edits to go over for Living in Caine's Hold from Embiid. I have not started them. I wrote about 500 words so far today and have done very little else. I have a couple web things to get done, but even that is taking some time.

My mind might kick in a little later, but I suspect not. I think I'm just going to have one of those days where I get very little done and just shouldn't worry about it now. I need a break.

I also need to come up with an on-going Blog subject that I can cover that's more interesting than just... wrote, didn't write, wrote some more. Finished something.

Hmm...

I'll work on it.

At 4:10pm today I finished the rewrite of Brendan's Song. That was about four minutes ago. I'm letting it sit for a few hours, and then it is going off to the publisher.

And then I'll be on to book 3.

But I thought I would mark some good news instead of my usual bit of nothingness...

Good evening. Pretty fair day so far. I've written over 2000 words and I've gotten some interesting stuff done on Brendan's Song, which is suddenly over 80,000 words. Good. I did a fun scene this afternoon clearing up one of those loose little plot threads that I realized I had not addressed by the end. I'd found two of those in the last reading, but I think I have all of that kind of trouble taken care of now.

My big problem at the moment is that I'm tired. Tired and hungry. I think I'll go forage for a while, and then come back later and see how close to the end of the novel I can get.

I have twice -- or mabye three times -- written something up and then closed the window without posting it.

Not for any good reason, of course. I would just forget and off it would go. Sigh. This has been going on for a couple days now. It has to do with stress, I think, and general frustration with the world. I don't know what else to think.

I have decisions to make about the only paying job I have... granted, it doesn't pay much. And I could practically make more money writing, if I could sell a little better. Hell, one good sale to a print publication would be nice -- short story or novel. Novel would be better, of course.

But here I am. Decisions to make. Ah... and a thunderstorm rolling in. I think I'll call it a night...

And I will post this time.

A reprieve!

The editor for book 1 is falling behind and won't get to Aubreyan until June! Ha! I can breathe again! I'll get Brendan done as soon as I can still, but I don't have to feel as though I'm going to let anyone else down if book 3 isn't out by the end of the month. In fact, I had the feeling that they might appreciate it if I slowed down somewhat.

Which is good, because I'm only up to page 266. A number of things happened, none of them bad, around the house. It slowed me down. Again.

But you know, know I feel like doing it. (grin)

I am not a good pressure person.

Today... Today I plan to have Brendan's Song finished.

Yes, I've had this plan for several days now, but this time I really hope I'm right. I am up early, after about four hours sleep. I have and Banana nut muffins. My cats are all around me, for support. (Well actually it's try to convince me it's about four hours later than it is, so that I'll feed them. But still...)

I have a class to teach in about seven hours. Do you think I can have the novel done by then?

Time to get to work!

I'm on page 261 of 381. Huh. It used to be 376.

Off to work!

Made great progress on Brendan's Song. Also started a short story and got it very nearly done in one sitting. And thought of a sequel to it, as well. In fact, I think I see a series of little short stories based around this character. Short ones! I don't want to write a bunch of novellas again!

But it's going well enough tonight that I'm going to bed and sleeping for a few hours with good thoughts in my head, and the belief that I can get Brendan's Song done tomorrow, and go on with Crystal. It looks pretty good.

Hello...

I am mostly working on Brendan's Song right now, with very little writing on the side. It's gone much better today than it had been for the last couple. I wish I had gotten this done sooner, but at least I'm well over the half way mark finally. I think there's a chance I can have this done before Monday.

Which would make me very happy, of course.

They're calling for thunderstorms tomorrow. I love storms, but it would be just my sort of luck to have the power go down just when I'm finally reaching the end of this run. I've had that kind of luck lately.

I've let Russ know what I want to go to the zoo as soon as things get straightened around here. That had been my plan for my birthday, and it seems as if nothing has quite worked out since then. Really, that's not too bad. Their new desert dome just opened about a week ago, and I am looking forward to seeing it.

Not that I'm looking for something that will take me away from this computer for a few hours. Of course not...

Back to work!

Sleep? Yeah, right...

Actually, I stayed up for a good cause, even if I should have gotten to it long before now. I repaired a bunch of photos to give to my mother for her birthday today. Her graduation class shot, a picture of her and one of her sisters and and one of her brothers, taken in the late 30's -- that one had been torn in half and I had to do a lot of work on it. Pictures of her family.

I did get some writing done, though not enough. I hope to get to more of it tonight. But right now.. .well, it is coming up on 9am, so I think it'll go crawl off to bed for awhile and see if I can get my shoulders to stop hurting before I go back at it again...

Okay, do I have something to stay today?

Well, no. Not that I can see. I did edit over 100 pages of Brendan's Song, and I've really enjoyed it! I hope to have it all done by tomorrow night. But to do that I really have to sit down and get to work, don't I?

It's going well, but it's just hard for me to focus right now. Which is bad news, of course. I need to get this done, and really I have no good excuse not to.

Except that I'm not doing it. (grin)

All right... back to work!

Ah. Finally. For some reason I had trouble getting to this page and updating.

Not that I have anything to say, but it's nice to know I can get here.

And here we are at another month. Pant, pant, gasp. Glad that dare is over! We're now into the regular two month dare, and that looks so much better!

Tonight is the first night of the Checking on Culture class that I'll be presenting at Forward Motion. I'm really excited about this one. When I showed Holly some of the notes, she said it even sparked some ideas for her. So, with luck, I'll be handling this well enough to help some others. This is the type of material I love to work with, and I used the checklist extensively for Ada Nish Pura.

Ah, that reminds me. I need to go and cut out a huge chunk of the novel and rework something. After I finally went to bed last night (about 8am, actually), I found the answer to something that had bothered me with the book, and I want to rework it right now before I get caught up in anything else. So, off to do that, then maybe some of the rewrite on Brendan's Song and then... the start of Crystal and the Stars.

Amazing. I still look busy, don't I?

Ah, and let me tell you about my Easter...

Instead of going off to some nice, quiet wildlife refuge, Russ and I went to my parents' house. My mother is in a nursing home since a severe stroke a couple years ago, but my father had brought her home for that day. My neice was there.

My neice is 27, I think. She's on her second marriage. And she has her mother's habit of never being quiet. Talk, talk, talk... it was fun to listen to her -- but then my father, who is hard of hearing started in on an entirely different conversation. And then my father decided to call my sister in Tuscon. And gave me the phone. On Becky's end there were two or three conversations almost as loud as the discussion between Becky and me. Well, discussion isn't the word. Becky talked. Erin talked. My father talked. Becky's husband daughter and son talked.

I had such a raging headache by the time we left that I couldn't even think straight. I don't believe we stayed more than two hours but it seemed a lot longer.

And you know what? Aside from the fact that my neice is on fertility drugs and my sister had her gall bladder out... I'm not entirely sure what anyone said.

I should have posted earlier that I did make the dare. 40,700 and some odd words of the dare. I was dead tired by the time I got to the end of it... and then I couldn't sleep at all. I think I rushed part of the scene that I shouldn't have, but I'll fix that when I go back.

I worked on material for the class tonight. I'm looking forward to that one. There is a lot of stuff to cover. I have no idea how many classes it will take to go through the entire list. But it should be fun.

Ah, and then there is another class on Tuesday that I need to collect more material for.

But first, I think I maybe out to sleep. Russ has just left with a friend and won't be back for at least twelve hours. It's going to be a long day.