Monthly Archives: October 2006

ESTC Update

Gah.

Current word count stands at 46,746 and page count at 206 after tightening and polishing Chapter 4, which isn’t fully polished to my satisfaction but could be handed in like this. It’s something I can go back and fiddle with if I have time after everything else is done, and if I don’t, I’ll get it in the rewrites. (I hate thinking that. I want it done right the first time.)

Also, something I wrote in Chapter 4 today inspired a ritual that got written in Chapter 6. I orignally thought this ritual had to go into Chapter 7, but I was evidently on another planet at the time. So that’s been crossed off the list of things to do for Chapter 7, even though it shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

Tomorrow: Chapters 5 and 6. And since 6 is such a little thing, maybe some of 7. (The actual stuff that needs to be done in 7, I mean. Wow, I’m tired.)

I need to go find dinner. I think there’s leftover chili.

Woe And Teh Sad

Things are kind of tentative around here. Liam has his first gastro thing happening, and is now living on toast, a bit of juice, and Pedialyte. He’s cheerful and playful during the day, although with a low appetite and he’s operating at a less breakneck speed than usual. He’s sleeping a bit more (I could get very used to this part!), and does that throwing up thing once or twice at night, although he has no temperature. We’ve done more laundry in the past day than we’ve done in the past two weeks. He’s so good: once he’s been sick he just wants to sit in someone’s lap and lean his head against their shoulder, while the other parent changes sheets or washes his bunny or finds new pyjamas. If he’s awake enough he even wants to play a bit, or coo softly to us while he cuddles, or read a book until he drops off to sleep again.

It will be over soon. In the meantime, there’s lots of love going around.

ESTC Update

Things are rolling along nicely. Adequately. Well, not badly.

The total word count currently stands at 44,730, and there are 201 pages. Chapters 1 through 3 are pretty much complete, with only a couple of highlighted sentences to be rephrased when I have more of a brain. Chapter 4 is seventy-five percent finished as well, although that final 25% is going to be a pain in the neck to complete because it’s lists and correspondences and will likely take most of my day tomorrow.

Then it’s Chapter 5, where I have to write a set of instructions for basic meditation, expand a ritual, clarify and expand the breathing meditation, outline a basic circle-cast, and cover basic shields (can’t I just say “read this other book I wrote”? — only I won’t do that because I hate it when someone deliberately leaves something out so that I have to go buy another book in the middle of the book I’m reading). All these things seem huge in my brain, but they’re really only a paragraph or two each. And then in chapter 6 there’s only one thing I have to fix/tweak/expand.

Which brings me to Chapter 7, the chapter of grief and sorrow and the icky things one doesn’t want to have to think about, which only needs three rituals and some polishing. If I don’t finish it on Friday, then it, Chapter 8 (which needs some moderately substantial things added to it), and Chapter 9 (two rituals need to be created in entirety) will be handled Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday will be the final finicky bits and read-throughs and checking of appendices. Oh, and I have to fit looking for visual references for the art department in there somewhere too.

‘Cos next Wednesday’s it. By five o’clock it has to be in someone else’s inbox on someone else’s desk in another country. The End.

I’m looking forward to November. Odd to say that, but I am. It will be nice to have some time to myself.

Orchestra tonight, and yet another week has gone by where I’ve been working so much during the day and being so wiped at night that I haven’t rehearsed anything. This is yet another reason to be looking forward to November: I’ll actually be able to practice.

Every Day We’re Dumping The Body

Yes, we’ve reached the hack and slash part of the game, where I wade through the MS and am merciless with the cut-and-paste-into-a-Deleted-Materials-file sequence of mouse clicks. Get rid of those useless paragraphs and those vague thoughts! Make room for the rituals and meditations that exist only in the [insert ritual here] sense! And since I’m also at the low self-esteem I-hate-myself-my-writing-is-awful point of the process (right on schedule, I must add), cutting things out to make it as focused as possible isn’t being hindred by any sense of maudlin attachment.

This is where I stop counting words. The final count will be what it is when the dust settles mid next week.

Nothing Last Year, And Now:

You would not believe the volume of email I have been receiving about the Anna Valerious costume I made for Hallowe’en 2004.

For public edification and reference, the corset pattern I kitbashed was Simplicity 9769. I can no longer find the pattern I used as a basis for the coat, but something easy like Simplicity 4323 would work very well as a basis, if you lengthened the body a bit and cut the ends of the sleeves wider.

You’re welcome.

PS: No, it’s not for sale. Didn’t you read the bits about the hot glue, and safety pins?