Cold

Frickin' cold this morning -- 27 degrees. Yowza! Lots of wind.

Good writing weather, though, so I'm not complaining. And it's sunny, so it's at least pretty. And the radiators are on, so it's actually warm in here. Amazing to think that March is nearly over.

7100 words.

Then again...

Cracks me up that somebody did this as an oil painting.

I decided that I might as well write the sequel for the SF book I just finished, while the universe, ideas, and characters are still fresh in my head. I started work on it this morning.

4168 words.

Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011)

Rainy Daze

It's been rainy/stormy the past few days, but that particularly unpleasant cold rain, the early spring rain that half-wishes it were still snow.

I started the new book this morning, cranked out 2000 words on it. This one'll be "contemporary" ("real world"), a kind of black comedy/satirical piece. Nothing even remotely genre about it, unless satire qualifies as a genre, and in today's waning literary market, lord knows how the publishing doyennes would classify it. This'll be the first contemporary kind of piece I've done in years. I think the last one I've done was back in 2005, so it's kind of funny to revisit it.

Done.

Alright, I'm done with the second draft of the SF novel. It's at 71,000 words. Now I'm going to read through it again, do a synopsis for it, and decide if it's where I want it to be. I think it's there, but it always takes another few read-throughs to know for sure. That's always the "eat your broccoli" part of writing. But I'm three days short of a month in the length of time I spent writing this one, which is a speed record for me. I've never written anything quite this quickly, which is funny, because the story never felt rushed to me -- if anything, quite the opposite. Despite the rising action in the narrative, the story feels expansive and well-paced. I don't think anybody'd guess that I wrote it in under a month.

Once I get this one fully finalized and queried to agents, gee, what'll I do next? Hmmm, oh, I know: write another book. Baha! That's what I always laugh about: the "reward" for writing is more writing.

Howling winds today, and it's getting colder. Now that spring is officially here, it feels like we're going to get some more wintery bluster.

Manic Monday?

I witnessed not one, but two acts of assholery today, at opposite ends of the economic spectrum:

1. Had a guy begging bus fare off me two times (I passed him going one way, and he asked me for bus fare; I told him I had nothing). Then, on my way back, I saw him again, waiting at the bus stop, and he asked me again if I had bus fare for him, wanting $2 for the bus. I again said I had nothing for him, and, as it happened, the bus was approaching, whereupon I stopped and watched the guy take out his bus card and board the bus without difficulty. Asshole.

2. While ordering a sandwich, I saw this shitbird with a Bluetooth come in (the guy had that on his ear, and a cell phone in the other hand, leather jacket, pointy cowboy boots, shades. Haggard face that called to mind Nick Nolte in his geriatric bender days). He strolls in, supposedly talking on the phone, and then uses the restroom at the shop (which has a clear sign indicating restrooms are for paying customers only). Then he gets out of the can, again with his cell phone on, mutters how he decided he's not going to get something after all, holding either his real and/or pretend phone conversation on his phone, and when the store owner said "Sir? Sir?!" the guy does the universal "On the phone right now, can't talk" finger in the air sign, then walks out the door without a backward glance. He then crosses the street and hops into his Mercedes coupe, drives off. The owner of the store, an Indian guy, and I, exchanged looks and commented on the assholery of the guy. Asshole.

Must be the close proximity to the supermoon or something, bringing out the assholery in spades today.

Moonshine

Man, the supermoon was a bust over here -- I didn't see squat last night, thanks to overcast skies. Sucks. B1 was all excited to see it, but there was nothing to see.

Speaking of exciting to see, I'd watched "Casino Royale" again, after a long time not seeing it, and recalled that Caterina Murino is frickin' hot in her small role as Solange, Bond's expendable girl (since there always seems to be an expendable babe in a Bond movie in the first act)...

Caterina MMMMurino.

Caterina Murino.

Virgo sun, Libra moon, so she's more than likely batshit crazy, but she's sure one fine lookin' babe.

70,000 words.

Sunny Delight

Sunny day, lovely stuff. Cold today, but the sunlight makes it alright. Nothing fancy to report at the moment. Just writing.

I am looking forward to seeing the "supermoon" tonight. Hopefully it'll be a clear night.

67,000 words.

Winter's End

Went to pick up some groceries, and saw this exuberant Airedale Terrier with some gals who were talking by the bike rack. I'm not a fan of terriers, frankly, but this dog was very friendly, and really wanted to be petted, so I said hi to it and petted it. Although I never owned a dog, I love dogs, and we always get along. The dog was still there when I got out of the grocery store, and its own was saying "Oh, he likes you; you want to ride on his bike?" The dog's tail was wagging a mile a minute. Cute doggy, for a terrier, anyway.

I'm going to finish up the SF novel this weekend. Should be about 20,000 more words to write for it, which I ought to be able to do in around 10-20 hours, depending how quickly I write. Then I'll read through it a third time and query it to agents. This one'll beat all previous speed records for me, but the quality is there -- I think it's one of my best. This story was just one that flowed smoothly from concept to execution for me. And best of all, there's a sequel locked into it -- I mean, it's complete unto itself, but it begs for a sequel. Three of the books I've written would accommodate sequels, including this one. I don't ever plan for that (or even want it), but a couple of them just lend themselves to it, this one most of all.

Laundryman

Took care of the laundry today, with B2 as my wingman. Today's shaping up to be even nicer than yesterday, tempwise, although it's overcast, so that takes away some of the loveliness, although it's still so nice and mild. Just a tease, really, I'm sure.

I've got a bunch of stuff to do today.

60,000 words.

Springing

Beautiful day; the first truly beautiful day of the year: mild and sunny, just lovely. The city is waking up, as ever, and lots of people are out and about. I love when the city revives from its wintery hibernation. Everything's fun and possible and joyful.

I sent out another tightly-targeted query to a literary agent. Fingers crossed, as ever.

I have the boys for the next couple of days, and with the good weather, am looking forward to getting them to the playground for some quality runaround time. It's kinda funny -- in early spring, on the good days, the parents with boys are always the first ones at the playgrounds. Gotta wear out the lil' scamps! B1 and B2'll love that -- instead of pounding on each other, they can be running around in circles and what-not on the playground. I'm a firm believer in unstructured time for kids -- not one of those hyperscheduling types. One of the joys of childhood is being able to enjoy that kind of free time. I think a lot of the hoverparents who overschedule their kids are seeing them up for breakdowns in adulthood, as you get these people who've never known a real transition from childhood to adulthood, and are just accustomed to constantly living "on the clock." Sucks.

My boys understand about chores and getting stuff done, but I always try to give them room to breathe and just play as they like.

57,000 words.

Madness

Looks like March Madness has begun -- in this case, nothing basketball-related, but, rather, the time in Chicago when landlords aren't required to have their heat on (or at least are permitted to radically curtail it). It's always in March, which, in Chicago, is always a cold-ass month. It's the time when one has to have plenty of blankets on hand, and flannel jammies, because otherwise you're gonna freeze! Sometimes the weather'll be bad enough that landlords have to turn the heat back on, but routinely cold weather won't deter them from scaling it back. *SHIVER*

The ONION came out swinging this week (below). Bahah!

Dead Teenager Mainly Remembered for Great Handjobs

I love the ONION's horoscopes (the Scorpio one had me laugh out loud, among others)...

• Aries You're starting to think about settling down, finding a nice little place, starting a family, maybe eventually even getting some clothes.
• Taurus Don't worry: There's absolutely nothing wrong with your goals, as long as you realize they're unrealistic and you can never actually achieve them.
• Gemini Rescue personnel will stretch the English language, the human voice, and the average person's constitution to unprecedented limits while trying to describe the horrible sounds you'll make next week.
• Cancer This is a good month to take long trips, as long as you travel in a slow, ground-based vehicle without all that much fuel in it.
• Leo The habit is certainly awkward for your friends and family members, but this would actually be a bad time to discontinue your practice of carrying a battle-ax to church.
• Virgo The constellation Virgo has seen you gazing at her in silent supplication, and she has this message for you: Her eyes are up here.
• Libra You'll be astounded to learn this week that, in certain less-than-legitimate circumstances, monkeys do come in barrels, but they are no fun whatsoever.
• Scorpio You've succeeded in breeding pandas in captivity, but the hard part will be getting them to breed with each other.
• Sagittarius You always wanted to die peacefully at home in your sleep, but look at it this way: You'll be at home, all right, and the flames will spread so fast you'll only be awake for a few seconds.
• Capricorn You're spending less time considering your future these days, which, all things considered, is only appropriate.
• Aquarius Sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do. Push your grandmother in front of a bus this week.
• Pisces Time and space are both illusions, making it even more frustrating that you're always in the wrong place at the wrong time.

54,000 words.

Yeahhh...

Couldn't help but notice this part of the NYT's travel slide show, touting the easy snorkeling in Jamaica...

Sadly, I couldn't snag the photograph, so I had to snap a picture of it with my camera, but this is a pretty good shot. Of course, this makes me wonder if this is a stock photo shot -- having worked in a stock photography library in antiquity, I can imagine somebody choosing the shots, and saying "Two bunsalicious babes in bikinis snorkeling in a tropical wonderland? Definitely have to go with that one. Print it."

Not that I'm complaining, mind you....