Alas, poor Enzo

They broke his heart! Found this on the way to work yesterday. I love the damage to the heart; not sure what happened to it. But it was a good find.

Freitag

Another sunny, mild day. False spring, served up Chicago-style. Yesterday was gorgeous, too. But don't be fooled. I'm certainly not. We're supposedly due for snow over the weekend, which is no surprise. It happens. But the past couple of days were very pleasant.

I calculated that at my standard writing pace (not even pushing it), I can get six novels done this year, so that's my project. I was originally going to bang out a short story a week, but I'm getting frustrated chasing down the ever-elusive markets for my short fiction, which have dried up in a lot of the areas where I write (it really is quite remarkable -- even six years ago, there were so many more speculative fiction outlets -- not sure if people are just increasingly e-publishing or what, but the old hard-copy publications are largely evaporating).

I know the Great Recession has bitchslapped the publishing industry as it has everything else, and the whole industry is taking a beating, but I think there remains a more vibrant market in long fiction relative to the short fiction market -- at least for what I write. So, I'm putting more emphasis on that, figuring that even if I can't find homes for the book drafts I have, I'll at least have them "in the can" and done.

So, I made my list of titles, the ones I'm going to do. Basically, there are two "literary" (i.e. adult contemporary and/or general fiction), one fantasy, two science fiction, and one thriller. That's a lot on my plate, but I can handle it, and without having to entertain Exene (and, indeed, with the Great March Forward [GMF] in progress, even more creative time opening up for me), it'll be actually doable.

I'm also going to work on a horror screenplay -- I was inspired when I stumbled across a link to the Oklahoma Horror Film Festival, and I had a ready-made idea for a horror screenplay that I can enter into that competition. A longshot, but anything that is profile-raising, so much the better.

Gonna be good, get those fucking taxes filed this weekend, and I'm going to look hard for another job -- I'd like to find something in the Loop. That would make so much far easier (including the GMF). I realize that I should have focused on finding that better job last year, to jumpstart the GMF last year -- I had a lot on my plate emotionally last year (both with Exene and beyond), but this year, I have much more clarity, and that heartbreak isn't in my mix -- it's all squarely in my head, what needs to be done. So I'm just getting it done and moving on. I gave Exene way, way more time than she deserved, but she can't fault me for that, can't say I sprung it on her, with 15 fucking months logged from point of outright emotional departure.

Did you notice that I've had 15 toe stubs since 3/10? (sidebar, below blogroll) I really, really need steel-toe slippers!

Texass

The reactionary gorilla in the room, Texas, thumping its chest. This is problematic -- the politicizing of history for the ideological ends of the Republican Party.

Judging from the updated social studies curriculum, conservatives want students to come away from a Texas education with a favorable impression of: women who adhere to traditional gender roles, the Confederacy, some parts of the Constitution, capitalism, the military and religion. They do not think students should learn about women who demanded greater equality; other parts of the Constitution; slavery, Reconstruction and the unequal treatment of nonwhites generally; environmentalists; labor unions; federal economic regulation; or foreigners.

Thanks to the movement reactionaries, this skewed view of history will be spread into textbooks around the country. Infuriating.