Writing with Zette

A little work here, a little work there -- it adds up after a while. Draw the Line is up to about 97,000 words. Writing out a few notes to direct me in the story has been the best thing I could have done. It's also adding more to the story than I had expected, but that's okay. If it goes to 120,000 words, I don't mind, as long as it tells the story I want.

And it is, finally, focusing better. I also know a lot of where the rewrite needs to focus. The plotline is there, but needs tightening up -- another reason why I'm not worried about it going long. It also needs far more care in building the alien races and their cultures. I have the notes of what I want, but I need to work that into the story better.

Obviously, at 500 words a day, it is still going to be a while before I get the first draft done.

I am also working on the massive rewrite of the much older book, Rat Pirates. This one is such fun that I really like working on it, and wish I had more time to devote to it. It is over 40,000 words already, though, so it's moving along quite nicely. I probably have at least another 100k to go on it.  LONG book. 

I sent off a query this afternoon, too. You never know if it will work until you try. And these days, it doesn't even cost you anything to try -- many agents and publishers work online. I find it kind of fun, to be honest -- but then, we all know I'm a bit odd!

Better to think it fun, though, than fearing and dreading it. 

For me, there is nothing more exciting than working on a story and watching it grow, page-by-page, on the screen. That's where my focus is and that's what I love to do. It's not work. And, like many good writers, I certainly don't do it for the money.  Publication is a nice addition when it happens, but it's not why I write.

I've discovered that many people who go into writing thinking that they're going to make a lot of money are badly disappointed. All authors have to do some marketing, of course. That's a given in any side of marketing -- you have to draw the readers. If you are lucky, and if your material is good enough, the readers will gladly pay for it.

But I'm starting to see some really bitter people out there who are not making what they feel they should. Sorry, guys, but this has never been a great profession for money -- not from the very beginning. It's something that draws fanatics who love the writing itself, and discourages those who think money is the goal. Some people are very good at marketing their material and do reasonably well, but I've also seen marketing turned into begging for money, which just looks unpleasant. There has to be a good, middle road somewhere.

I am lousy at marketing. I can't seem to get my brain around it much at all. I write. I love to write. I write every day and I can't imagine doing anything else. I know that marketing is an important tool in the writer's box, but it's one that keeps falling into a hole at the bottom, covered over by Excel sheets and notes on 'remember to try this' stuff. 

It also doesn't help that I devote a lot of time to working with writers or working on sites that benefit other writers.    Thankfully, I have wonderful moderators at FM, and Mar is fantastic at keeping the site up and running. I probably fret about the site more than I work on it these days.

So, what am I going to do to change? I don't know yet. I'm going to try different things, I think. Explore the wonders of the Internet again, for instance. I was selling online clear back in 1998, and doing fairly well.  I still do pretty well, really, but I am looking at the next step. I think it might be way past time to focus on reaching readers again.

It might even be fun.

I love those moments when the little things you planted earlier in a book suddenly fall into place and give you the answer you need to finish out a story. That happened today with Draw the Line, which is up to 90k and I had started to think it would wander for another 90k before I found the path to the end. Today I wrote part of my 500 words in notes so I could plot out the last few steps -- and there it was, the answer I needed to draw several things together and create both more trouble and a way out of it. I'm going to write more notes tomorrow and finish out the plot to The End -- I already know the ending scene --  and then once I get those notes done, I'll start replacing them with real words.

I'm very happy. I see maybe another 5 to 10k for the book, which is a good size for a first draft. 

I am also very nearly done with this issue of Vision: A Resource for Writers. (http://lazette.net/vision) This is the 52nd issue. That's eight years worth of great articles and advice by authors. I am also coming up on the sixth year I will have been in charge of Forward Motion (www.fmwriters.com) -- and eleven years of working with the site.

There have been a lot of changes in the world of publishing during those years -- though, if your dream is to see a book on a shelf in a store, it's really very much the same in some ways. And the work, despite what some seem think, is still very much the same. Writing well is the bottom line for all of it.

And one other point -- don't give up your dream for something else just because it's easier. Easier is rarely the best answer. If you have a publishing dream, don't let anyone else tell you that it's stupid and useless and not worth the effort. It's your dream. That could be traditional publishing or being the top Internet author. It doesn't matter. Just go into it all wisely.

Also remember that it doesn't have to be one or the other. Many authors pursue a traditional career but also work through Internet publishing. If you do it wisely, there are some fun opportunities out there. Remember, though, that everything you put up is going to draw -- or repel -- readers. If you want to build a good fan base on the Internet, make certain that the material is very good. And make certain that it is showcased in a way that will draw good attention. Joining a larger group only works if everyone is as serious about the work as you are. Bad material can drive readers away before they ever see your story, and may even label you as 'one of that group' with readers. So be very careful.

Funny -- I am working on an Editor's note for Vision that is about the same thing. I think I'll just adapt some of this over to it, too! Obviously my brain is kind of on one track today.

I have done some experimentation with publication and I will likely do more. It's fun. But I also hope to see some work on the shelves in stores. I might not make it -- but that doesn't mean that I -- or others with the dream -- should give it up because it is harder to achieve.

So get out there and have fun and follow the paths that you want. Sometimes the harder journeys have the best rewards, especially when it comes to personal achievements.

Much like working hard at a novel -- and finally seeing that golden, wonderful moment where it all starts falling together and everything works.

I'm off to do more writing!

It's Monday. I'm actually not working very much today. I have most of my writing done already, and I think I'll just play around with some fun stuff for the rest of the day. I am almost done with both Badlands and Draw the Line -- yay! Badlands is much better for the rewrite. It needs some depth in a couple places still, though. I'll take a look at the overall story when I'm finished.

Draw the Line is a good, basic story (most of the first drafts are like this), but I want to expand the material on the aliens and draw some of the more important aspects out more often. It has a good base to work with, though, so I'm happy. Good characters, though one of my MCs needs to be more assertive. That will be easy to fix.

We finally have heat here and it is supposed to be worse tomorrow. I'll just hide out in the house for a while.

It's also our wedding anniversary. Russ is in Maine, but we plan to both order Pizza Hut and have dinner together via Skype. We're nothing if not inventive!

I almost let Monday get past me. I've been very busy -- and some of it has even been fun. I spent part of the day working with a new graphic program, and I have to say it is much faster than the older version which is always nice! (DAZ Studio 3 versus DAZ Studio 2)

I had an amusing time this weekend from an unexpected source. The people across the street were having a very loud party, so I decided I needed some noise of my own. I started with music, but it just wasn't working for me. I pulled out a nice little nature sounds CD instead, and that went really well -- right until the howler monkeys kicked in and unsettled the cats. I probably shouldn't have laughed... but it was funny!

I don't think the cats trust the computer quite so much now, though!

The work on Badlands is going very well.    The changes I've made make the story considerably stronger and the prose much better.    I can't believe I was ever satisfied with the way it was before -- please don't let me ever be that immature again! LOL. Okay, the novel is several years old, but I think I should have known better than some of the stilly stuff I wrote at a the time! I'm just grateful that not very many people have seen that earlier version!

I'm willing to mature as a writer. I know a lot of people who won't -- not that they can't, but that they aren't willing to take the time or they think they're as good as they're going to get. Why would anyone convince themselves they're never going to be any better than they are now? Why wouldn't you try to work harder and improve your writing?

Well, sure -- if you are doing stuff just for fun sometimes you might not care. And if you don't want to ever change what you're doing... but doesn't that get boring?

So, I guess there's a good reason why I stick around Forward Motion. There are people at the site who are always asking why, how, what can I do to improve.   It's amazing what you can learn if you are willing!

And now back to Badlands!

The novels are all moving along very well right now. Draw the Line is now up to nearly 80k and a major 'toward the end of the novel' problem has reared its head for the characters. I'm pretty happy with the movement for the last couple weeks. I think this came from finally facing and addressing the problems I was having with the 500 words a day. I'm still writing at that rate, but having realized that I wasn't really focused before has helped. It's going a bit better now.

Badlands is up to almost 63k which puts it past the halfway mark. I am still considering a major cultural change for the novel. Once I get all the way done with this version, I'm going to sit down, outline and world build for it and see what I can come up with. I think it can be a far stronger novel. Why not do it now? Because right now I'm working out plot problems, and I would rather have them settled before I work on redoing the culture. That will affect some of the plot, so I don't want to have to sort out if this is old plot, new plot, reworked plot or whatever.

I am in no hurry. I can take my time and get it right.

I have just begun research on a book I hope to write for NaNo this year -- In the Shadow of Giants. Some 2YN people may recognize that title from the class. It's the book I worked a few notes up on but never went any farther -- always too much else to do. The research so far has been wonderful. I'm using SuperNotecard, which I adore, and getting some of the basics for the background done. The plot is at the mere basics at the moment, but I am getting some wonderful ideas.

This is going to be an extensive amount of work -- far more than throwing a few names together and pretending that's world building enough. It's going to be wonderful working this up -- and I am beginning to wonder if I even have enough time before NaNo. We'll see.

There are some stories you can leap into without much thought and work up along the way. But if you want something with depth and coherence -- and not a lot of rework to make things fit once you are done -- then you need to take the time to really look at your story world and explore it -- and all the time asking 'why' things are as they are. Most things will have simple answers and the fun is making certain everything remains consistent. If you have 'this' what else does it affect? 

You can get all caught up in that kind of stuff and never get to the story, of course. Even I have to make myself remember that there is a story at the end of all the work. I just want to make certain it is the best story I can create.

So, back to work on more research. Right now, my desk is piled with mythology books. Always good to brush up on what you know -- and to explore pantheons that you don't know much about at all.

Fun stuff. It's calling to me. Back to work!

And it is Monday again! 

Amazing how that works, it being Monday so often. 

I'm in a good mood today, and I can't even really pinpoint why. Maybe it's that it hasn't dropped below freezing for a week or so. I'll go with that answer for a while. 

My writing went very well today, too. The two novels moved along wonderfully, with surprises on both sides. People are starting to see that the one character is far more trouble than they first imagined. It's also made me realize that I need to do some drastic changes and more descriptive work off the start of Draw the Line -- but that's not a real surprise. I often find a lot of things I want to change, expand, etc., was I work my way through the first draft. It's an exploration of the story -- it has a long ways to go before it will be in final form.

It is fun getting there, too.

I am still considering a major change to Badlands. As I work on this rewrite -- which is clearing up some major plot problems I hadn't seen before -- I am looking at how this change would impact the story. I would have to create something to take the place of a major part of the culture -- and doing so might actually give me a wider range to play in than what I have now. So there is a real draw to working out that kind of change. Most of the plot would remain much the same, but the nuances, and some of the incidents, would work differently.

I think this is beginning to appeal to me. I'll have to think about it still, and it won't happen until after I clean up the plot in this rewrite anyway. Once I have that all down, I'll see if the changes I'm considering would work within the frame I have now, or if it would mean some major plot changes, and either way, if it would improve the book.

Fun stuff.

No, really, fun stuff. 

And another query letter has gone out today. Good. You never know when one of them might just do the trick. Or not. But it's kind of fun game to give it a try.

Russ is going to be home this next weekend. This is unexpected -- first, that he would be home again so soon, and second that he's daring to try to make it on a holiday. Holidays have not been our friends for the last year and a half. If all goes well, we'll have three full days together. Yay! Funds are tight, but we should be able to have some fun!

Draw the Line is still moving along at its little 500 words a day pace. Odd way to write. I don't think I'll be doing it again, though it was a good experiment to try once. The problem is that the story meanders too much. It never really gets to the point -- any point, really -- and this is because of a two-fold problem. The first is that I'm not allowing myself to run with the story as I normally would, so I just get moving on something and then leave it for about 24 hours and by the time I come back, I'm not always able to pick up the real feel for what I was doing. The second is that, though I have pages and pages of notes, I did not do more than a few lines of outline.

This was all a purposeful experiment to see if changing the way I worked changed what I wrote. It has, and not for the better.

I am going to stick with it for a while longer, though. It is possible that part of the problem is attitude. I also plan to write out a little bit more outline and see if I can get some real direction in the story. I'm not interested in writing -- or reading -- that never really gets anywhere.

I will have to do some extensive work with the story if I ever really do reach an ending. (grin)    I think I'm going to end up outlining from the original, saving all the good spots -- there are some really nice bits -- and then see if I can rework it into something a bit more complex and coherent.

But that's later work. I may find, when I get it done, that it has a lot more going for it than I think. That's happened before.

Experimentation in writing is good. Otherwise, al you are ever going to do is tell the same story and never grow.    Even when it doesn't work as well as you thought it might, it can teach you something about how your work and what to avoid in the future.

The other work is going fine, by the way. I'm about to finish a short story today, I think. So, off I go to get it done!

I have finally, after far too long, updated my Henry Doorly Zoo website again (http://zettezoo.blogspot.com/ ). The pictures I'm putting up now are from back in 2006! I have sets from each month all the way through October of 2007, but I haven't been back since then. I hope to get a chance to go again soon, though. I need to get back in touch with some of the people there who were interested in some of the photos, too. And I've already gotten a few letters and some comments on pictures. I'm surprised that people found it so quickly, since I haven't updated in so long!

I have several thousand pictures to go through for the zoo site yet. It's really been fun to look them over again and sort out the good ones. Also to see how many of them I still can name without having to look anything up. So far, I've done pretty well. Good to know the brain is able to retain anything at all these days.

I need to update the picture index, though. (Puts that on the Never-Ending-List from Hell.)

Today, however, I am working on a new short story. I hope that it will stay relatively short since it's basically a single scene story -- though the characters already intrigue me enough that I might consider writing more about them, especially the first person POV character.  

I am rewriting Badlands, too. It's going slower than I expected. I don't like the opening. Don't like it much at all, and I've been trying several different scenarios to get it up and moving faster off the start. It's difficult with such an older book, but only because the story is so firmly set in my brain that I'm having trouble moving it to something else.

I am also renaming one of the main characters, though I haven't quite chosen the name yet. Something more Latino this time, to fit with the theme of the story.

I've also decided to start working up outlines for NaNo. Yes, this early. I haven't really had good outlines the last couple years, and I didn't enjoy the writing as much for that reason. I want to outline one story that has been stuck in my head for a couple years, and I think starting early will help. Yes, that's a good plan. (Jots it down ... yes on that damned list.)

Weather is somewhat better here, which has been nice. I let the guys out on the front porch during the day, and they're in kitty heaven, watching the birds and such. It's nice to air the house out, too. Looks like we're due for storms in a couple days again, though. It is really clouding over today and I get the feeling we might have some rain, even though we're not slated for any.

The yard is looking a bit scruffy. They'll be by to mow this week, they said.

And that's it. Cats are still cats and I'm ready to get back to my short story!

Hello.   Almost forgot it was Monday.

I really don't have much to say. I've begun the rewrite of Badlands and I've done considerable work on the first chapter. I like the changes and I think it filled in the world far better, but I think it might still be a bit dry. I'll let it sit for now and look again when I get the rewrite done.

I'm also working on a short story for the May Challenge at FM. I had hoped to get a few short stories into my files this month, but things are conspiring against me again. Part of it was being very ill for the last few days. I don't think my brain has completely come back yet. Maybe it's on the vacation that I need. Though I wish it would come back and help me finish up a short story or two.

I have notes all over my desk again. I need to get them sorted out and see what I still need to get done. I'd like to feel as though I'm getting caught up on something.

And that's it. Really. Quite obviously, there is nothing going on here!

Russ left at about 3:30 am this morning and he's now somewhere south of Boston, I believe. We had a great nine days together, though -- as always -- it was not enough to really get everything done. Still -- got out for a couple great photo opportunities, despite the weather turning cold again. Spring? What spring? It's supposed to be down to about two degrees above freezing tonight.

Russ hopes to make it back home in about a month. And he's applying for local jobs, too, which might actually come through. We'll have to see if they want him and if they can afford to hire him. It sure would be nice!

One of the nice parts of the week was the Friends of the Library book sale where we picked up more of those things most people wouldn't think we need -- books. Lovely books. Fun books. And I have already gotten ideas from just glancing through two of them.

I did get quite a bit of writing done in bits and pieces over the week, mostly while Russ was off teaching and lecturing. I also got some notes written for various things, and I think Draw the Line is going to move far better for it. It was good to step back and take a look at where the story is going. I don't intend of it to go on forever in a circle of actions that don't quite find any conclusion.

But, as you can guess ... I am way behind on things that need to get done! So off I go ...

Oh. Note on the High Dynamic Range stuff for Greenknight:

The book is Complete Guide to High Dynamic Range Digital Photography by Ferrell McCollough. And yes, sometimes the HDR pictures do look artificial -- but sometimes that is the intention. And yes, RAW files can work, though I think they need a bit of conversion. I don't have that high end of a camera, but for what I'm doing, JPG will be fine.

So far, I'm getting okay results, but I haven't really had a chance to go out and do any serious testing with high contrast scenes. It's been gray and dull here for days!

Russ is home. We're having a great time. I am not getting nearly enough done around here, though -- but that’s okay. I'll get caught up eventually.

Russ is at a meeting right now, but he'll be home soon. I'm getting a few things done around here, and then I'll see what we are going to do later.

Oh, and there is Russ again! Yay!

Really, had a nice day. Drove around and took pictures of lots of things. I bought a neat new photo book yesterday on High Dynamic Range pictures, so I'm taking multiple shots of things and figuring out how to do this with Paint Shop Pro (which has an HDR melding tool), and I've started to get the hang of it. It's also made me find a couple different controls on the camera and on the program which is good all the way around.

But now... back to work, actually. I do have things that have to be done and Russ is doing a bit of work too, so we're both just typing away.

Russ will be home in another four days. I've been making lists. That's the extent of preparation this time. Both of want some calm for a few days, and I'm thinking that means not moving to the other house. That's okay. I'm not all that ambitious.

I have been doing pretty well on the stories.    Vita's Vengeance is going along wonderfully. My main character just found out he's fallen in with an unusual group of people. The real problem is that he fits in far too well. It's going to start worrying all of them before too long.

It's fun to have a story like this to work on right now. Interesting, complex (several POV characters), lots of things going on. Fun to write and rewrite, and really, that's what I'm going back to right now.

Sometimes it's good just to go have fun with the writing.

I just posted the last of the short story classes. Last week, I linked to a previous class I taught years ago as well, since it covered things a bit differently. It really was an interesting series to write, and it has gotten me back on track for short stories as well.

But that is the best that can be said for the last few days. I'm waiting for word on Lady Jane Pudge'ums, my 17 year old cat. It will not be good word -- I already know that much. She did better for one day, and then worse again, and the vet doesn't give any real hope now. She had a good, long life, though, and never had a bad day. That counts for something.

I am working on a rewrite of a science fiction novel and that's going pretty well, all things considered. Draw the Line is going well, too. I'm at the half way point on the novel, I think, and things are starting to move at a faster pace again.

And there, finally, is the news I've dreaded. We have lost our beloved Lady Jane.

And we survive to another Monday!

I didn't forget to post this... I have just been trying to come up with something interesting to write about! It's difficult to think about anything else when I'm having so much fun with the current book. I am nearly done with Kat Among the Pigeons. This was such a fun book to work with again! I am going to go straight into a final edit with it, too. This book will be done by the end of April -- actually, far before the end of April, if all goes well.

I love the feel of diving into a story and examining all the pieces, pulling them apart and seeing what you can do to make them better. If I am going to present the story to anyone to read, I want it to be as good as I can make it, not just something I dashed off and move on -- never mind if it's good or bad, as long as it's done. I've seen far too many writers of that type. And while I have a great deal of fun writing the first drafts, and I'm always happy to leap up and down when I get done with one, I know that the work is not finished. 

This has been a good month for art work, too. Not so good on photography because the weather just isn't going to cooperate yet. It was warm enough today, but it looked like it would pour at any moment, so I wasn't going to take the camera out. It didn't rain, of course, but it looks like it will now.

I think spring is helping. This winter was very long and brutal for me, but I've survived it -- and though it's supposed to snow tomorrow, I still know it's really past. Now I just have to dread the really hot weather of summer. And the bad storms. And maybe floods.

I know, there's just no pleasing some people.

We just had a lovely little spring storm; a bit of wind, thunder, rain. Nothing serious, and it was nice to see it arrive, even though I watched the temperature drop ten degrees in ten minutes -- never a good thing.

It has mostly passed. We might get a bit more tonight, but I think the Tornado Watch is a bit excessive. Probably just trying to get us trained for a busy season. It has that feel. But the rain is already turning things nice and green, so I think we'll have a lovely spring.

A shame about that snow we're supposed to have on Wednesday.

I had just posted the Week 4 set of short story class material before the storm hit, so I was feeling pretty good about that part. I wanted to post it about midnight last night, but I decided to hold off and rethink how I wanted to approach this week's writing exercise. I am glad to have it done. Only two more weeks of the class, and the last one is going to be on specialized stories, so that should be fun.

My own writing is going very well. I'm quite pleased with the work on Kat Among the Pigeons, even though it gave me fits over the weekend. Ask the people in chat (grin). I got past that part, though, and it's moving along much better again. I get annoyed when a story gives me problems like that, but it feels great once they're worked out.

I am still not certain what I am going to do for the March Madness challenge at FM. That's coming up pretty fast, too. It start's on Wednesday. I better get a clue soon!

I went out for my first walk of the spring. Gah. Need to do that more often now that the white stuff is gone. I was waiting for the 60's, because cold and I do not get along. It's actually up to 70 today -- just leapt up there. Nice for the walk, too.   And I took the camera, of course, even though all I got pictures of were a few robins and some dead, brown plants.

Soon it will be green again. That will be nice.

I already have the short story class posted and the DAZ work done. I've done the write ups for the new pages, and my 500 words on Draw the Line. Interesting weave of problems there. And about 40k already. I'm happy.

Kat Among the Pigeons is giving me grief here and there. I can feel where the connections between the written word and what I want it to do are not being fully realized. I've been reworking two scenes several times now... to the point where I start wondering if I couldn't just cut them instead and save myself a lot of grief. (grin)

But... I learn something when I have to work with a scene like this. I could, instead, write something easy and go on, and forget it. I want it as close to write as I can get it, though. When I can see problems, I'm going to keep at them, and I'm not letting this go until I think it's ready.

There will always be occasional scenes that are going to be a problem -- at least there are if you are pushing yourself as a writer. If the story is too easy to write, it probably means you are taking the easy way, and eventually that means boring. Boring for you as the writer and boring for any potential reader, too. Not every scene or story has to be a problem, though. Some stories don't require more and they are perfectly fine. Don't create problems just to show how hard you are working. Occasionally, though, you should push harder.

It's easy for me to write 3k words a day. I do it all the time, in fact. Writing words is the easy part for me. Finding stories to tell is not difficult, either. I have to stop thinking up ideas, in fact. I don't have time to write everything I want to.

But telling those stories well is more than just writing the words.  It's more than sitting at a computer for X number of hours and typing X number of words, strung together to make something coherent, and calling it good enough.

Writing is easier for some than it is for others, but every author has some spot where they have trouble. If they don't... well, they're not trying very hard, and after awhile it shows. Eventually, it shows.

And here we are back to Monday. I hope I can get this to post again! Yes, it's let me in!

I survived another birthday, which, as Russ points out, is better than not doing so. I started a new short story, and it's going well. Normally I start a novel on my birthday, but I just don't want to get into another one right now. The short story is going well. Just a cute little thing and it should be really short. I've been trying to write one short story a month, so if I can get this one I'll be doing fine still.

The rewrite of Kat Among the Pigeons is going quite nicely. I didn't realize the book needed so much work. It's good to let it sit for a while like that and then look again. Things I thought I had explained obviously stayed in my brain rather than translating to words in the story. That happens sometimes, at least with me.

The story is fun, though. Really great lines by the cat.

I am, unfortunately, suffering from a weather-related headache tonight. The weather is turning back to winter mode again. I keep thinking there is going to be spring... but then I see that the high for Wednesday is only 19f, and I guess I still have a ways to go.

I want spring! Unfortunately, nature isn't listening to me!

Anyway, I'm about a third of the way through the book, so it's going well enough. Draw the Line is moving along fine as well, at its little 500 words a day. And the new short story shouldn't take long to write if I can sit down and concentrate on it. 

I posted the new short story class today, too. So I've gotten quite a bit done despite the headache. It's amazing how having a headache can make you feel as though you aren't making headway when you really are. 

And that's it. Time to go get other things done. I'm sure they're important things. Really. I just have to figure out what they are.

Russ is on his way back to Long Island now. We had a wonderful weekend in which virtually nothing went wrong. Compared to the last time he was home, four months ago, this was very nearly perfect. The worst problem we had was that we took Edmond and Zaphod to get their shots, and Edmond had a reaction and had to go back this morning to get another shot. He's pretty much snapped out of it now.

The weather could have been a bit warmer, but we managed anyway.

We went to the De Soto Wildlife Refuge on Saturday. It was lovely in snow. (See picture below)

We got very nearly everything done that we needed to do, which after four months was quite a bit. Now Russ is sitting in Chicago with a delayed and possibly canceled flight, but he has a friend there (who is visiting from somewhere else as well!) and they'll get together if it goes that way. (Just got a call... they're boarding and, one hopes, on their way!)

And I am back to normal. I've gotten most of my writing done. I postponed the posting of Vision until Wednesday because I just ran out of time before Russ showed up and I knew it was going to take me a day or two to get back into the swing of things after he left. I didn't want to feel rushed. 

I am teaching a class on short story writing over at Forward Motion for the next six weeks. It's interesting to try and break down the process into six individual steps. For me, writing a short story is almost always a single, flowing event. There is never any truly easy well to divide it all up, so you have to paint with a broad brush and cover as much as you can think to cover. 

Writers being individuals with their own story ideas and needs means that no class is going to be able to hit all the levels that each person taking it needs or wants.  Still, It's nice to try and help others now and then.  You never know when something you offer is just the right thing to help someone else.

And now I'm going to post this beast, then go in and fix the email address and the password...