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July 6th, 2009

05:59 pm - Words on paper I finally managed to write today. After a long, thought-filled hiatus. I managed 2,600 words on the first, rough draft of a new story, tentatively titled, "Wear Life Like a Eulogy." It felt good to get out and write. I'm in Starbucks in Chapters, comfortable, excited, and filled with the promise of "the new." I've been so blindsided by life over the last few weeks. Writing is what I love to do, and I'm glad I'm finding a way to fit it back into my life again. Could it be that the block is lifting? I will give myself the space to watch, wait, and see. Current Location: Starbucks Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: their piped in stuff Tags: personal, writing

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June 17th, 2009

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May 20th, 2009

01:35 pm - It happened It's a miracle, you're thinking to yourselves. Yes, I drove to the Starbucks in Chapters today, and YES, I worked on the novel. I wrote a new chapter one and half of the new chapter two. Both of these chapters will appear before the original chapters one and two, for those of you who have read the previous drafts. I'm feeling good, so far, though I know these are very rough drafts. I have plenty of work ahead of me, but at least I've found the stamina to begin! Current Location: my office Current Mood: accomplished Tags: writing

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April 21st, 2009

10:14 pm - Home, for a change I have been extremely busy of late. Things I have done: - drove to Arlington for reddherring1955's mom's funeral - drove to Toronto for my cousin Jonathan's wedding - drove to St Catharine's to help my sister pack up her life for the move - with my mother's help, finished the rough draft of my income tax return (will take the pack to my accountant tomorrow) - had one wickedly nasty bout of stomach flu (or food poisoning? either way, BLEH!) I've also been reading David Morrell's The Successful Novelist, and though I'm not far in, it's been useful already. It actually guilted me back into writing again. I've done a couple of days of Club 100 which isn't much, but considering how little time I've actually been home (and not behind the wheel of my car), it's a miracle, IMHO. The kids are in bed, and my sister is hanging with me at the moment. She goes back to Alberta soon, which is a total drag. I will now return to burying my head under a pile of "to-do". Current Location: in bed Current Mood: exhausted Current Music: the sound of kids snoring Tags: personal, travel, writing

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March 26th, 2009

09:24 pm - A submission, you say? It's true, I swear! I mailed "Cold Feet" to Writers of the Future today. Woot! That puts my number of submissions for the year at four. It's sad, but it's all mine. The shiny counter: 4 / 52 submissions. 8% done! I figured I would dabble in my financials, starting the business statements for my tax return. I planned to work for about an hour then do some other submissions. Five and a half hours later, I was rushing out the door to pick up my older son and hadn't even gotten as far as I wanted to get. Did I mention I loathe tax season?? Current Location: in bed Current Mood: exhausted Current Music: the sound of my kids reading Tags: financial, personal, submissions, writing

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March 25th, 2009

08:44 pm - Almost in the mail I made a few last minute changes to "Cold Feet" and sealed it in an envelope ready to head out to WotF. Tomorrow, I will mail it on the way home from driving my older son to school. I am DAYS ahead of the deadline. Go me. Current Location: in bed Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: the sound of the kids horsing around Tags: writing

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March 19th, 2009

11:11 pm - edit, edit, edit Spent some time at Urbana Cafe today, editing. "Cold Feet" is closer to ready and I finally had a chance to work through a good chunk of reddherring1955's crit of "Flight." But now it is late and I am spent. Current Location: watching TV Current Mood: exhausted Tags: writing

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March 18th, 2009

10:37 am - Did I mention... I've received a couple of rejections in the last few days: a 38-day pass from Strange Horizons and a 32-day nope from Interzone. Now I have absolutely no stories out at any markets. Is this intentional? Yes Will I be changing it soon? Yes (with a WotF entry) Will I be discussing the why's and the strategies soon? As soon as I can get around to it. Current Location: the dining room Current Mood: busy Current Music: silence Tags: rejection, writing

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10:29 am - How did that giant pile of work end up on my desk?? Yikes. It's Wednesday already and I haven't accomplished very much of anything yet. Sure, I've done the dishes and washed the bedding and tidied my house. Sure, I've printed the stories I need to read over. I've even met with a few people who I haven't seen in a while to catch up on things. While I was doing all of those things...no writing of my own has taken place. I must find time to work through reddherring1955's comments on "Flight." I must make time to read through, "Cold Feet" before the WotF deadline. Gosh I hate it the way those deadlines just fly closer by the day! Someone invent me a time turner! Current Location: the dining room Current Mood: busy Current Music: silence Tags: personal, writing

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March 13th, 2009

03:53 pm - Writing Time! Hoo-rah! The cold seemed to have passed enough that my younger son made it to school today. Yay! So I was finally able to look over the crits of "Cold Feet" and make some changes (especially to the beginning) of the story. I printed it off and will give it to Michael to read tonight. Hopefully, fingers crossed, I can get it out the door to WotF on time this year. In other news, I gave up almost all desserts for Lent. No, I'm not catholic, but it's a long story. Suffice it to say, today was very hard. I ended up eating a few pieces of a chocolate bar (I refused to give up chocolate) and that helped. Whew! Current Location: my office Current Mood: cold Current Music: The guitar heros Tags: personal, writing

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February 18th, 2009

10:41 pm - It's that time of year again... Yes, it's time for me to start blogging, and sorta complaining, about financial paperwork. As my first T slip arrived from beyond, I realized I need to get some financial paperwork together for the taxation year. Blah! I did the first round of sorting, but haven't done much in the way of data entry. The novel has been ignored for several days. Oops. Tomorrow, I hope to put some novel time in and get some paperwork done. It'll be a multi-tasking day, fingers crossed. Current Location: the dining room Current Mood: cranky Tags: financial, personal, writing

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February 10th, 2009

09:58 pm - One chapter closer After another successful editing session at Starbucks, I edited about a chapter and a half of "Flight." The end creeps ever closer. On the submission front, I sent "Destiny Lives in the Tattoo's Needle" to Interzone. Holy cow, postage to the UK is expensive! That puts my total subs for the year at 3. The shiny counter: 3 / 52 submissions. 6% done! Go me. :) Current Location: in bed Current Mood: accomplished Tags: submissions, writing

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February 6th, 2009

04:12 pm - Hope -- I'm feeling it AND reading about it I made time to read my friends' list today. You can climb back into your seat now, and enough with the roaring laughter. I earned the time. But I digress... I've been feeling out of touch lately. Mostly wondering if all of this work is getting me somewhere, if I'm going to make something of myself. I began this writing notion in July of 2000, and now, eight and a half years later, I've been in Cicada (among other good mags and anthos) and will soon be in On Spec and Tesseracts 13. And I'm working on the novel, and it's good, and I'm pretty sure I can sell it. Not easily, but with persistence. So after putting a full day into this job called "writer", I stumbled across what ladnews a.k.a. Sean Williams wrote about his success via pure persistence after being inspired by Jay Lake's post on psychotic persistence. And I felt it: HOPE. Yes, boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen. I feel hopeful for my future as a writer. It's about f-ing time. Check out both posts, if you are so inclined (or if you've been feeling blue/uninspired of late). A special nudge to YOU: reddherring1955. (The two posts speak to some of the things we were IM-ing about last night.) Current Location: Urbana Cafe Current Mood: inspired Tags: persistence, writing

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03:53 pm - Looking in the rear view mirror Today, I finally slogged my way through the "ugly middle" section of "Flight." The one character's big change has finally smoothed over. I'm now settling into the section of the book dedicated to the OTHER character. Yay! I wrote about 1000 new words today, and deleted at least a chapter's worth of old ones that no longer fit with the new plot. The following 8 chapters were pretty much a-ok, allowing me to fly through them and make some decent headway. I've left off editing at page 301, having crossed the threshold of the three hundreds. That's a huge step for me, and I'm feeling particularly celebratory. I only have about 6 chapters left to edit, and then maybe one or two new ones to write. Go me! Is that the light at the end of the tunnel? I think it is, by golly! This puppy is one huge step closer to moving out the door. I. AM. PUMPED! Current Location: Urbana Cafe Current Mood: accomplished Tags: flight, writing

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12:15 pm - First two of the year I finally did it. I put submitting above editing the novel, and sent two stories out the door (and I've decided where two more will go, once I'm near a printer and can get them ready for mailing out). "Courting Ice" is off to Strange Horizons and "Puddles of Melancholy" to the antho Quantum Genre on the Planet of Arts. Thanks to reddherring1955 for the antho tip. Two subs for the year, and counting. This is week #6, so I'm behind, of course. No where to go but up. The shiny counter: (which assumes a 52 sub year, and not the afore resolution-based promise of 64) 2 / 52 submissions. 4% done! Now I must cease with the procrastination and work on the novel. Current Location: urbana cafe Current Mood: accomplished Tags: submissions, writing

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February 4th, 2009

04:18 pm - A great word count day I spent more time at Starbucks today, writing 2181 new words for "Flight" and taking out a chapter that didn't fit any longer. I'm nearly through the number two climax of the book and heading back into territory that might not need nearly as much editing. Fingers crossed that my progress continues. I started club 100, worked for about 5 days, then missed a day (too sick to even remember to write before bed or to get to any edits) yesterday. But I figure, it's all relative, it's all just a way to keep me motivated. And 2181 words is well above the 100-a-day, so I figure, I'm still on track. It's all about the discipline, not about the specifics. Feelings pretty great today. I hope the high of getting back into the novel continues to stick with me. Current Location: Starbucks in Chapters Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: The Flight playlist Tags: writing

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February 2nd, 2009

08:20 pm - Housekeeping and writing new words Last night, I watched the Superbowl with Michael. He's a Pittsburgh fan, so not only did he explain the game (which made it much more interesting), but I got to experience the concept of cheering for a team that actually won a championship. (For those of you scratching your heads at this point, I'm a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. Need I say more??). I thoroughly enjoyed the evening. Today, I made my way to Chapters and worked on the novel for a couple of hours. The first half hour or so, I was struggling to get into it, so I did some housekeeping, doing word counts for each chapter and ensuring that my scribble notes were up to date with the latest changes. That got me into a proper writing mood and I got a good 1000 new words into the novel and deleted at least that many (maybe more) that didn't belong (from the old storyline). Then my writing buddy Pat Forde dropped by and we chatted about SF, the state of novel publishing, the coolest new magazines, and many more interesting and complex topics. After, I took the Jeep in for an oil change and was treated to some other procedure that "had to be done" which set me back a couple of hundred bucks. I soooo wish I knew more about cars -- enough that I could be more confident that I don't have a big "mark" on my back! In the update-on-my-health department, the doc gave me antibiotics Friday which are working now. But they're knocking me out. It's only 8:20 and I'm thinking about calling it a night. Ah well, sleep heals. Current Location: in bed Current Mood: exhausted Tags: football, personal, writing

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January 13th, 2009

04:10 pm - Getting it together I wrote a big pile of words on Wednesday and Friday last week, getting about 4500 words into a brand new story called, "Cold Feet." I'm not sure how it'll end, yet, so I haven't finished it. But it was sweet to finally write something new for a change. It's SF humour, a sub-genre I've had success with and that's actually FUN to write. Go me. In other news, my older son was sick last night so he missed school today. I took my mother in for her pre-op exam with the cataract surgeon today, plus a service tech was in looking at the fan on my stove. Needless to say, no writing done today. But I did fill in the rebate paperwork for the kids' computer that I bought for Christmas. Yay! A cheque will slowly make it's way back to me. My desk is still a mess, and now I'm behind on financial paperwork, but I'm making progress in some areas, be it so humble. Looks like Tesseracts 13 will launch at Anticipation in Montreal, so I've got to fork out the big bucks for that con. *sigh* Current Location: my office Current Mood: thoughtful Tags: personal, writing

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January 9th, 2009

11:32 am - Writing Resolutions for 2009 Every year, I make resolutions/goals for the calendar year. ( Read about my successes/failures in 2008 ) My goals for 2009: 1. Finish revising/editing "Flight" and get it out to market. 2. Write, edit, and submit to market at least four NEW short stories. 3. Continue the sub-a-week challenge. Since I was 12 subs short last year, I will aim for 64 total subs in 2009. 4. Sign up for National Novel Editing Month in March to get me into a rhythm with the "Flight" edits. 5. Sign up for National Novel Writing Month in November because it's just so much darned fun. 6. Write OR edit every day, even if it's only a journal entry, to re-establish and maintain the habit. Current Location: Urbana Cafe Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: A new mix for the new year Tags: personal, writing

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January 4th, 2009

08:40 pm - Small accomplishments Today was about getting back into a routine as the kids go back to school tomorrow. My older son got his notebooks/backpack organized and finished his homework. My younger son did his bit of work, too. Yay. We ate tons of chicken soup and garlic-enriched pizza, in the hopes of chasing this nasty cough away that we all have. My younger son has sounded terrible since Christmas eve, with no end to the hacking in sight. Perhaps tomorrow they will bypass school in favour of a doc visit? I will see how we all feel in the am. I finished with the copy edits and sent them to the Tesseracts editors. I also typed up my witness statement from the accident I witnessed on December 23. The laundry is pretty much caught up, and I am about to get us all to bed early. Tomorrow, when the kids return to school I will finally sit in this chair and do some writing. I know, it's about *%#$-ing time! Current Location: my office Current Mood: lethargic Current Music: J playing guitar hero Tags: health, personal, writing

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