Swan Sister Update

How long has it been since I’ve posted a book update? Long enough that I’m practically turning somersaults as I write this.

Total word count, Swan Sister: 7,911
Total words today: 3,071

I love Mousme with much love, for having her here while I wrote meant that I dragged my clunky little laptop out of the closet instead of working with the desktop, recopied my files to a second floppy that worked in the laptop, and wrote all day instead of fiddling around on the internet or with photo files or music or other shiny things that distract me.

It was Liam’s day at his grandma’s, and I deliberately planned a writing jam so that I couldn’t do anything else but write — no errands, no naps, no kicking about. I wrote/thought about/planned/discussed the novel all day. Between elevenish and fiveish I was a writer again, even during the breaks for food and discussion and phone calls and visitors. And ye gods, it worked. I almost doubled my existing word count. I wrote the proposal scene that I couldn’t write until I had at least two straight hours to handle it, and now things are moving in the story. I now have writing momentum, too. I want to keep going.

All I needed was an uninterrupted day doing it and the discipline of someone with me to get that scene written in its entirety. Now I think I can count on the hourish nap Liam has in the early morning to keep writing this book scene by scene. Instead of doing the correspondence/newsreading thing when I turn the computer on, I’ll write as much as I can for as long as his nap lasts, and I’ll handle e-mail and such during his second shorter nap. I will unplug the modem so that I can’t just hop online and lose half an hour. I may go back to writing on the laptop in another room, if that’s what gets the job done. It doesn’t matter how slow the laptop is if it’s not used for anything except word processing. The smaller regular keyboard is a bit hard to use after using the ergonomic board exclusively for a few years, but it’s a challenge I can handle.

Today has been such a blessing, and such a gift.

Although, I’d forgotten how much tea I go through during a writing jam. I haven’t had this much caffeine running through my body in almost two years.

Yay

The car is well again, hurrah! It was more than we’d expected, mainly because the part that needed replacing was not the part we thought needed to be replaced, but it was not as bad as it could have been. Or ought to have been, either, because HRH gets along famously with the mechanic, and so was not charged for labour. Let’s hear it for gregariousness. (Gregariousity?)

Wednesday Morning

Slept acceptably well. Woke up in a slightly better mood. We shall see what the day brings.

HRH and the car are off at the garage, theoretically making everything better.

The humidity is already stifling, and the humidex is supposed to hit 42 Celsius today. There had better not be any obstacles to the car being fixed, because there’s a trip out to get ice cream in my future this afternoon, yes indeed, or else.

Luanna called last night and made me envy her all the more for studying groovy book stuff. I’ve never been so grateful to hear anyone say “Scholastic” and “Anansi Press” in such an excited voice. I miss that part of being in the book trade. My position is completely different now.

The only thing that comes close to receiving cool mail is sending cool mail out and hearing back that people are receiving it.

Oh: Liam has finally learned to wave. Now he waves at everything.

Note To Self

Putting on Invisible’s Zombie Chickens Live! at a highish volume goes a long, long way towards counteracting a bad mood. A half-glass of Dad’s Pinot Grigio helps too. (It’s a half glass because I only have one bottle left and I’m making it last as long as I can…)

I shouldn’t be surfing in a mood like this because I want to order lots and lots of books. Online ordering is so seductively simple, curse it.

Silver Linings

So very cranky. It started yesterday around Liam’s bedtime, and it hasn’t gone away. Every time anyone says anything I feel as if I’m going to snap, for absolutely no reason.

The mechanic can’t do anything about the car till Wednesday morning.

However, there’s a house Liam and I pass on our way to the river whose front yard is completely covered in lily of the valley, and they’re all in bloom now. You can smell it a block away. Heavenly.

And I’ve just learned via a sidebar note on SciFi Wire that Helena Bonham Carter will be playing Bellatrix Lestrange in The Order of the Phoenix.