Joyously Prolific

With only about twenty-one days left in the year, I find myself scrambling through the lists of things I need to get done. That picture is to a bunch of notes, still sitting here beside me, for A Plague of Rats, which I still need to finish. I'm not certain what the hold up is for it. I need to write it and be done with it, instead of messing around like this. I have the next scenes in mind, in fact. I may not quite see the ending yet, but I have a clue of where it is going. And since I know this is just the first book in a set, I know that I don't have to tie up every little tiny thread. In fact, there are one or two small threads that I want to explode into larger, and unexpected, problems in the next book.

But my interests keep getting drawn to other things, like black and white digital photography. I have a really nice book on it, and I've been reading up on some techniques and trying them out, which means fiddling around with photos for hours on end. It has been great fun, but I really should be doing other things sometimes.

I also pulled out my copy of Steering the Craft by Ursula K. LeGuin (ISBN 0933377660). I want to work my way through it and do the exercises this time. I've read bits and pieces of it before, but I never applied myself to it. So far, I've done the first exercise. I'm curious to see where and how it goes by the end.

I believe a person ought to be open to learning new things at all times. I try to read a new writing-related book each year (or more than one if I can), just to see if there is anything that catches my attention, that I think helps.

Russ was unexpectedly home over the weekend, which was really nice and improved my mood. He's been up in Minneapolis for training, but he'll be heading back to New York in a couple days. I hope that he'll be able to come home for Christmas, but there are no guarantees.

In general, things are going all right. I'm getting used to spending days alone. Russ being home for a couple days helped relieve the monotony of my own company. We were able to grab a few more can goods and frozen foods, too.

So really, the last problem is my inability to focus on work. I'll have to work harder on that part, because I'm running out of time.