Blog

At the book store today: Hot Guys and Baby Animals, the calendar. Their motto? “It’s hard to choose between studly men and adorable fuzzy cuteness. We say, why choose?” That said, many of the animals still need forever homes. The guys seem to be unavailable for adoption.

***

Not white-washed SF cover: I saw two covers today at Barnes and Noble. One was featured a decidedly African woman, which looked like an urban fantasy. She had the right facial features, and a beautiful afro. Another was an Asian woman without the usual Kung Fu accoutrement. Inch by inch.

***

Never being done with your story: Draft 5 is done. Man, I can’t proofread. Betas, I apologize. However, I went through it and caught nitpicky stupid mistakes. I…um…am dissatisfied with the last vampire scene, so I will be climbing back into it from the mind of young narcissistic vampire William, and see just what he *would* lay out for a “vengeful death trap.”

***

Taking work home over break. Not an idea whose idea has come, exactly. But something that *is*.

***

Fantasize about turkey, and I’ll see you later.

Cath

…So that happened. As of this morning, about 11:30.

What happens next? Draft 5 is a read through, out loud, of the printed Word Document. This is meant to put the best polish on the version as it exists now, while I wait on feedback for the next month.

Then there’s a query letter, gathering of agents, and some summaries of various sizes to crank out. We are well on track to the send off.

But yes, we’re rounding on it.

Catherine

My absence? Registration + Novel + End of Semester = BUSY.

However, here’s an election day story from one week ago today, overheard by my husband in our actual town.

***

A wife and husband scout out downtown MY TOWN in search of a parking space. Apparently, the election is big doin’s, and it is hard to find a handicapped spot near the community center/voting site. This is important, because the husband has one leg.

The car parks down the block a bit, right next to Bryon’s car. The husband is disgruntled; the wife slightly dismayed. She heads down the sidewalk to the community center. The husband fumes for about fifteen minutes. During this time, Bryon goes to get our mail from our post office box and arrives back to our car before the wife gets back to her husband, although he can see her approach.

The wife returns to the car. She informs the husband that a couple of people will assist him from the car to the voting place so that he can caste his vote.

The husband growls, “I ain’t going. Mitt Romney doesn’t need my vote that bad.”

And the two of them both get in their car and leave.

***

I leave posterity to draw its own conclusions.

I’ll be back when Abigail Rath goes out to her betas, which will be tomorrow, so you will see me in these parts again perhaps once more this week.

Cath

Forge ahead.

Before I get too deeply into today’s topic, I should mention that I will be spending a large chunk of this summer in Viet Nam, from June 17-June 29. I will be leading 4 students from my college to and from Viet Nam, and working with the Global Education Network as the students undertake service learning. I’m not sure what the nature of our service will be yet. I will also be spending a little time in Singapore undergoing orientation.

Yup. Pretty excited on this end. Now what I need is a short course in Vietnamese, something like Vietnamese through osmosis or something.

***

Yesterday was a pretty rewarding day. I had an hour long reading, and I kept everyone entertained with the WiP. I am moving along toward the beta send out. I feel like I’ve come a long way on the road to completing this novel.

As a writer, it is SO tempting to be diverted from the road you are on. Lots of writers take lots of turn-offs and slip roads on the road to completing a longer journey. At the end of my road would be publication of my book via traditional means. What sorts of alternative routes have tempted me so far?

Continue reading “Avoiding the Exits”

Hi guys! I’m a little crispy. We’re decompressing after a weekend–a GREAT weekend–at Icon. As you know, we had our first Paradise Icon this time around, and it was really, really good. Friday the authors (all two of us!) workshopped and talked writing references. We had a great time bonding and I feel like I got some good input.

But Saturday, Saturday made it. We had 3 great hours: a discussion with Jim Hines about fantasy characters and avoiding stereotypes; an information packed lecture with Steven Erikson regarding the writers toolbox, and an instructive and entertaining hour with Sarah Prineas on protagonists, specifically in YA. Man, that was so good! I plan to start recruiting earlier next year, to get more writers in on this, because we had so much fun! While I know who the Icon guests are going to be next year, I won’t confirm Paradise Icon lecturers until I get them lined up for sure.

Next year, Icon will be November 15-17, with Paradise Icon being on the 15th and 16th. Just so’s you know.

***

Shout outs to lots of people. The coolness that is Jim Hines for toast mastering our con and just hanging out. Jim really made our Saturday night reception. Thanks to Josh, Lindsay, and Athena for making the whole gig happen. Thanks to Sarah Prineas, who makes writing in Iowa cool. Thanks to Steven Erikson, who lectured for us even though his throat was sore, and also thanks to Steven for being such an awesome fellow panelist on Sunday. The biggest shout out of all goes to fellow participant Shannon Ryan, for whom I only have two words: Wolfman! Wolfman!

Honestly, though, in spite of the babbling, the workshop was great and I’d like to see more great writers, both new and ones that I know, give it a whirl.

***

Random thoughts and then I’m winding down for the night:

1. Icon had 200 percent more cardboard submarines this year than in previous years.
2. The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists is a book you should read RIGHT NOW.
3. Bryon and I didn’t get into Harry Knowles’ BNAT film festival, but if there’s one thing being a writer does, it’s train you for rejection. 🙂
4. I had an hour long reading from Abigail Rath at the convention, and people are laughing in all the right places, so we must be doing something right.

***

Happy election week. It’s also registration week at Kirkwood, in which I am so busy I cannot see straight, even with the glasses on, so I will be scarce. I’ll pop in as I can.

Until then, vote well and vote often.

Catherine

After a couple of errands, tonight will be helping Bryon finish his Halloween extravaganza, handing out candy, and either checking papers or continuing to edit my novel. A nice quiet evening.

I’ve finished 109 pages of the beta edit. But those were the easy pages.

***

I’ve seen some really interesting criticism of the president for “taking advantage of the incumbency” during the Hurricane Sandy crisis. I dunno. I guess I’d rather have a president who’d do his job without taking the campaign into account. Kudos to Chris Christie as well. I gotta say, I’m kind of respecting him at this moment. Yeah, it’s unlikely. No one is more surprised than me.

All righty. I’ll be back when I have something interesting to say. That could be tomorrow.

Catherine

Stay safe out there, East Coasters! My God, the weather can humble us all. Perhaps my favorite news item of the day is Chris Christie praising Obama for his handling of Super Storm Sandy, a reminder that leadership matters for both men, and when the chips are down, taking care of people matters more than taking sides.

***

Recently, an Iowa minister made the news for writing an anti-gay letter to his small town newspaper, suggesting to people who they should vote for. The controversy in this case is that the church where the Pastor serves is a polling place in the small town of Dunkerton, and now people are not certain this is an appropriate polling place.

This isn’t the first I’ve heard about something like this. A friend of mine in Texas stopped going to her church because clergy in the church were telling people how to vote based on candidates’ views on birth control. My mother-in-law recently stopped attending her church based on a similar maneuver on the part of her minister censuring gay marriage in their local paper.

It would be incredibly naive of me to suggest that the church has always stayed out of politics, but it’s been a long time some clergy have pushed their congregations toward certain agendas. I think that might technically violate some non profit status or something. Equally cringe-worthy this campaign are the employers who suggest to their employees that there “might have to be some changes around here” if one candidate wins. I’ve not seen a pro-Obama memo on the part of the employers yet, by the way.

While free speech is something we respect in this country, we’re not terribly wild about coercion. And we’re not into the idea of telling people how to vote. Both of these trends tend to smell like yesterday’s cod. Which parties seem to be benefiting from these corrupt tactics, or are trying to? Could I suggest that this might be conservative bullying?

There’s another facet of this. While the above tactics suggest to people that they must be careful to protect their own interests and beliefs, another tampering tactic seems to be this idea of prohibiting voters by vote monitoring, or the passing out of false information that targets voters you don’t want to vote. This is a rarefied technique that can’t even try use “good morals” or “self interest” as its justification. The only thing that’s going on, pure and simple, is that the parties involved want to stack the cards in their favor as “concerned citizens” who have no official capacity in a process comprised mostly of volunteers.

One of the ideas about our democracy is that people get to vote. The popular vote doesn’t always win the day, but people need to vote, and have the chance to sway the electoral votes in their state their way. Anything that meddles with that decision, regardless of how convinced the meddler is that it must be done, is less than American.

Let’s just take a moment to appreciate that I did make my deadline, and I am through Abigail Rath draft 3. I will now go through some smoothing and some correcting, and I should have it out to betas no later than November 9th. While they have it through the 7th, I’ll be reading it out, making editing changes, and getting my materials around for submission.

It’s nice to have met that goal.

***

Of course, the biggest news of the day is Hurricane Sandy. Please stay safe and stay inside. It’s no laughing matter. We had flooding in Cedar Rapids in 2008, and this is much, much worse than that. If you’re an east coaster, please post something after as soon as you can, so we know you’re safe.

***

I have taken two xanax so far, one on Saturday. That one wiped me out, although I may have been wiped out and the xanax made me rest. 🙂 Today I took one at work. And here’s what I did–I sat down and finished Abby Rath at work. Hey, I reasoned, I spent all last weekend on papers. I can take a couple of hours. Apparently, xanax makes me fight authority while being easy going about it. Woot.

So, yeah, I gotta get some Kirkwood work done. And I’m on track to get the new orientation format under control. Expect, soon, some commentary about Paradise Icon (this weekend) and religion and politics.

Stay cool. Stay dry. Stay safe.

Boy. Wouldn’t life be easier if you gave up the whole getting published thing? Wouldn’t that just be one less thing for you to worry about? Well, what do you think, Professor Girl? One less thing on your plate?

I went in to talk to the doc, yet again, about the heartache of ringworm, which, for the uninitiated is really fungus, not worms. More cream, more aggression. More laundry! As part of that, you always drop some random health stuff. Yeah, I’m dieting now. Clean eating. Note the pounds I’ve lost. Yeah, my blood pressure is always high at urgent care. Nothing to worry about here? Good. Oh…sometimes I’ve been having incredible moments of stress when I feel overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to do. My chest gets tight, I get angry.

Cue the screeching halt. The word xanax is mentioned.

Xanax? Hey, that’s more medicating than I want, right? ‘Cause that’s not Wellbutrin, which is my personal Jiminy Cricket. That’s like a name brand with a big ad campaign medicine for people who have…issues. That means that the Furies have their claws more in me than I thought, that I can’t just will it away. I am not that person! I mean, I’m okay with other people being that person, but I’m the person who supports people, not the person who needs help. (Cath finds out where her biases about depression and anxiety, and where her insecurities about not being perfect and in control, really begin.)

No, says the doc, moving me away from my biases and prejudices. It’s not addictive, you don’t have to take it all the time, only when you need it. Here’s a super low dose. You can choose when you take it. You seem like a person who is very concerned with what you put in your body. I know you won’t abuse it. But see how you do with it

And just like that, I have the modern mother’s little helper in my medicine cabinet. Just in case my life gets too rough and I can’t get my worry and anger under control. And I have to say it makes me think about the amount of stuff I’m doing and the pressure I’m putting on myself.

Continue reading “The Great Give Up Conundrum (or Cath’s Anxiety Post)”

About two years ago, I pledged to myself to write twelve hours a week, so I could continue to work toward the 10,000 hours of doing something that would get to an expertise level, a la Malcolm Gladwell. I used to post periodically about this. You may be asking yourself, during those sleepless moments around 3 am, how is Catherine doing on that project?

Well, steadily would be the right answer. Right now, I am not keeping up with my twelve hours a week. I am currently a little under 30 hours behind. So, what’s up with that? Well, let me tell you.

1. Two writing classes. That’s about, I dunno, twice as much checking time as one writing class. 🙂 Also, a writing class is about 2 times as much time as a grammar class. It goes without saying that I’m doing more teacher stuff this semester, and that will continue into next semester.

2. The whole arthritis lifestyle shift. You would never guess how much time shifting your eating habits takes. I mean, really doing it. You tell me where I can find amaranth in Cedar Rapids! All joking aside, cooking better and eating better means menu planning, longer shopping hours, and more food prep time. And this is also a wise thing for my future, but yeah, that’s about 5 hours of time that I no longer have a week, and that’s at a basic level.

And those two things are about it. I’m happy to report that I haven’t allowed anything to creep into my life that I can’t avoid, so I am more or less about to get in about 7-10 writing hours a week at this point. There is one more thing that will eat my time as I work my way back to it, and that’s more exercise, again, important.

***

This means a couple of things. I expect the amount of time I can spend writing a week will really vary from year to year. I also expect to still make my goal of achieving those extra 6000 hours I need (really closer to 5000 now) for expertise by retirement. While I hope to retire earlier than the standard 30 year career, changes in the state pension my husband has will mean that I am solely responsible for my own retirement if I outlive him, so I must plan to make sure I have what I need. I am saving hand over fist at this point, so I am hoping to get a little of that time back. What this means though is that I’ll be working longer, so if the writing slows down, that 6K is still doable.

Unless the commercial god of writing smites me with her magic money wand, in which case retirement will come much earlier. The only way I would leave my job to write is if writing became more cost effective than my job. Behold my pragmatism!

So, that’s where we’re at. Writing steadily, working hard, eating well. How’s about you?

***

STILL trying to get that last scene written in Abby Rath draft 3. So close! STILL want to get that to betas in November. That’s my goal. Yours?