Category Archives: Writing

Entertainment

According to the ongoing preschooler-provided narration coming from the next room, there is some sort of Tragik Drahmah going on in the Isle of Sodor, AKA the train set laid out on our coffee table. There’s lots of “Oh no!”, “Thomas, are you okay?”, “Help, I am falling!”, “You did it, yaaaaay!”, and “AAAAAH! UUUURGH!” done in a fake whisper-scream, accompanied by the clunking of wooden trains and the click of magnets and the occasional train whistle as enthusiastically rendered by the boy.

And then I heard him say, “Oh, James, what has occurred?” I missed whatever James may have said in reply because I was too busy trying not to laugh. Someday I will teach him about five-cent words, ten-cent words, and twenty-five-cent words, and when it is appropriate to use them. But not today.

Inbox Joy!

Contract! Which means I print it out, sign and initial it, and send it back via post today, and then my invoice for last month’s work can get processed! On today’s list of things to do was to pen and send off a firm and polite reminder that I had submitted the original invoice exactly one month ago, and had yet to see a contract that would enable that invoice to be acted upon.

I like not having to wave business terms in people’s faces. Business is business, but it’s rarely the contact who is the one holding things up, and it’s never fun to lean on them to get them to lean on the proper people.

Now I get to whip out my Official Contract Signing Pen, and look for an 8×10 envelope. And evidently refill my ink cartridge, because these pages are looking awfully pale…

Checklist

All the day’s correspondence handled (responses, business, weekend planning, proposals): done.

Edits on the anthology essay submission (all three of them, ha!): done.

Contract for permission to consider/use said submission ( “We are pleased to inform you that your story submission has been selected as a finalist for publication consideration”): done.

New manuscript evaluation assignment received and downloaded (this one is YA, hurrah!): done.

Planning meals etc. for the boy’s birthday weekend with family: done, with help. (Parents arrive tomorrow night, more hurrah!)

And now, the boy has been asleep for almost two and a half hours. I will check on him again.

Now What?

Today has been busy. I dropped the boy off at daycare, drove through traffic to the West Island, got my hair trimmed, picked up groceries (managing to forget liquid laundry detergent, fabric softener, and iced tea yet again), drove home, checked news and such, sent out queries regarding final details for both projects, ate lunch, and finished/fixed/polished/proofread everything.

It’s one-thirty, and I have just uploaded/submitted all of my work to the various editors and co-ordinators. Yes, all of it. I appear to be done. Pending any further tweaks requested by the clients, that is.

So now that my work time is my own again, naturally my brain is rebelling at actually working on my own writing, which it has been thinking about longingly all week while I’ve been working on things for other people. It has specifically been tugging at me to work on the newest YA novel I outlined last month. Oh, wait; there’s that essay for the anthology I should finish up for Monday. And there’s the workshop outline I need to plan out as well as a bio to submit for the Hamilton festival this fall, also due Monday. Maybe I’ll work on those this afternoon.

Cautiously Optimistic

I think I may have just finished fixing the previously-known-as-the-hearthcraft book to reflect the title change.

And apart from doing some creative paralleling (see me verb your nouns!) in the introduction, it’s pretty much intact and has preserved its dignity. As for mine, well, chances are good no one will even suspect there were changes made. Even you, faithful readers, should you ever read it in published form.

I’m so tired, and the damn headache is killing me. I’ve been taking Tylenol on and off all day, and I can’t bear to listen to music, which is somewhat appalling. It will also make orchestra tonight very interesting.