Writing on the Side

I had big plans for this week, but the whole constant sleeping thing has really thrown a wrench in my timeline. Hopefully the fuzz from Denvention (and, perhaps, the leftover fuzz from summer school) will wear off soon so I can get more done.

Meanwhile, 

 

quixhobbit has done a most excellent WorldCon wrap-up here. Since we spent most of our weekend together, please refer to her lj for the general play-by-play of our weekend. My mileage varied only slightly (okay, I totally slept in on Saturday and missed all the 10:00 panels). I think it also goes without saying that it was soul-nurturing to hang out with my tribe this past week, and I already miss all of you terribly.

For the specific coolness of my time at WorldCon, I would only add that getting to be a part of the Hadley-Rille Books panel and reading my short story "The Librarian of Talimbourne" (at WorldCon!) was the height of awesome. ericreynolds, the editor of Ruins Metropolis, the anthology in which my story appears, is an incredibly gracious and interesting person, as is his beautiful daughter. Eric allowed me to participate in the panel AND sign books at WorldCon, which was not only cool, but very motivating. I now feel like I ought to write more short stories. It was neat to feel so authorial at my first WorldCon.

I met so many cool people at the Con! Highlights were meeting the VP Xers, jax_9898, and the XIIer who stopped in at our VP party, as well as seeing tnh and mac_stone again! Meeting camillealexa and alyciachristine at the reading was also a highlight, and I enjoyed seeing saycestsay and her writing group peeps again-- all wonderful people! I overcame my fear of feeling stupid and introduced myself to davidbcoeand john scalzi and said hello again to jpsorrowand pnhProbably one of the best memories I'll take away from the con is meeting kenscholesat the elevator post-VP party and enjoying a little mead-klatch upstairs, which was inspirational to say the least.

Probably the most terrifying (and exhilirating) thing I did was introduce myself to my dream agent. Yes, I was wearing my brand new Volde-Mart shirt, but I hope she won't hold it against me. In fact, the conversation went well and she encouraged me to remind her of our meeting when I query her later this month. 

Oh, and I went to great panels.  And met many more people whom I haven't mentioned, including KC, Cheryl and PJ!  

Advice for future WorldCon attendees:

1.  Drink Beowulf mead.  It's GOOD!
2.  Don't leave your damn walking shoes at home.
3.  Bring an umbrella, even if the weather looks sunny.
4.  Bring air freshener to the Tor party.
5.  Reward yourself with jewelry and elvish dishes when you push out of your comfort zone.
6.  Go out of your comfort zone!  It's worth it.

 

And last, but not least, buy the ladies fitted tee.  And wear it.  You'll be glad you did.
 

 

 

First off, thanks so much to everyone for your congratulations and support!  I don't think writing really is as solitary an exercise as we like to believe.  I know I really value my community of writing friends, and I couldn't have gotten through this novel without all of the pushing, prodding, nagging and cheering of all of you every step of the way!

But now that the time-suck that was this novel is done (at least until I begin the revision), I am trying to come up with a list of other ways to fill that time.  For I find that I spent much of yesterday and this morning following the lead of Mr. Earbrass (as 

jeffsoesbe most excellently suggested in yesterday's comments):   

"The next day Mr. Earbrass is conscious but very little more. He wanders through the house, leaving doors open and empty tea cups on the floor. From time to time the thought occurs to him that he really ought to go and dress, and he gets up several minutes later, only to sit down again in the first chair he comes to. The better part of a week will have elapsed before he has recovered enough to do anything more helpful."
 
This is good enough for now, but I would go nuts if I spent the better part of a week wandering aimlessly through my house.  Instead, these are the projects I've got on the to-do list so far:

- finish "The Thief of Names," a short story I started approximately 100 years ago that still isn't finished.
- finish "Under the Leaves of Orpheus," the short story I started at VP last October (hello, my homework STILL isn't done!  I suck!)
- finish Book Two (aka The Northern Queen), the as-now approximately 26,000 word sequel to the pile of paper I lovingly refer to as Book One.
- revise (and retitle) The Rat's Tale (but it's not time yet-- needs to sit).
- begin my as-yet-untitled PTA novel (yeah, baby!  It's cooking in my brain-oven as we speak!)

My main writing goals this year were to finish two books (Rat and Queen) and finish and send out my two short stories.  My marketing goals are to continue pimping out Book One to agents first, then a couple of editors, and begin marketing Rat.  I don't have any firm plans to attend writer's conferences this year at this point, although I am looking into attending Worldcon and perhaps Baycon.  I may also hit Comic-Con, because it's practically in my backyard.

Wow, look at that really intimidating list of things I could be working on!  And hey, time for lunch. . . maybe a nap. . . does that cat need waxing. . . ?

 

Only 147 words today.  However, thanks to 

quixhobbit (who plays a most excellent game of verbal handball via IM in the middle of the night), I have sorted out important issues regarding pirate hideaway logistics and why there are pirates in my story at all.  

More importantly, I have reaffirmed the importance of bouncing ideas off of other writers.  Sometimes, as was the case tonight, the end result of the conversation is less important than the conversation itself.  In other words, just talking about whether or not it's possible to build pirate shanty towns in tiny sekrit coves right under the nose of the city led me to discover the problem that was preventing me from moving forward in my story: I was trying to handle via exposition what I needed to cover in a scene.  

It all seems so simple now, but two hours ago I was completely at a loss.  This is why writers need other writers in their lives; I believe that discussion, the give-and-take that happens about story, characters, and setting, is crucial to the creative process.  This is one of the aspects of my in-person writing group that I find so invigorating and helpful (plus, we have fabulous shouting matches about each other's work).  This is also why I found VP such an amazing workshop.  But it's also cool that this can happen via online chat in the middle of the night.

So thanks to quixhobbit, tomorrow thar be pirates.  Arrrr.

Happy Thanksgiving!