Okay, well so much for my plan to get lots of writing done this week! It's Wednesday already, and I haven't worked on my novel since Saturday at World Fantasy. I've been busy with job-hunting and following up with various folks about the con, and just sort of getting back on track again. Plus I just mailed off 2 story submissions along with a set of chapbooks to the Ratbastards and a set to the Flytrappers. So all that stuff is off my desk, at last. Hey, I can see my desk again!

I did, however, rework the outline for the novel, and I pretty much know how the new chapter opens up. I also know how the next few chapters play out, and if all goes according to plan, I really only have 6 more chapters to draft! Maybe that's what's holding me up -- I'm worried about finishing this monster! Mostly I think it's just that I've been really distractible. So I figured I'd do a little free-writing in here to get warmed up, as I did while on the morning I wrote while I was at the con this past weekend. It seemed to work pretty well. That, and having a deadline -- I'm giving myself until 4 p.m. to work, and we'll see what I can come up with in that time.

As a little motivation, I pulled out the ol' cappuccino maker from the cavernous lower cabinets of our kitchen and made myself a super-sized iced latte, and as it's 80 frickin' degrees outside today (in November!), I'm sitting at our back table on our deck with the dog at my side, on my Lucky Laptop (it's lucky 'cause it doesn't have internet connection, so I have no choice but to WRITE on it, instead of surfing and visiting journals of my friends or goofing off otherwise). It's almost hot back here! Very strange weather. Judging from the looks of the clouds overhead, we may be having a storm tonight. It's muggy, and there are still some stubborn-ass birds hanging around, chirping away.

One last note or two before I dive into writing. Apparently the last Matrix movie comes out today, so Lizzie and I rented Reloaded last night. What a disappointing movie! At least I got a better idea of who the goatee guy was (they really didn't do a good job of conveying who he was at all), and the freeway chase was pretty stunning (although at one point I said to Elizabeth, "People sure flip a lot in this movie."). Bad storytelling all around, and I really think they should've done just one sequel and not had the bloated talking scenes early on. The first act sorta sucked. And you can really tell when they switched over to CGI for the big fight scene with all the Agent Smiths. Overall, very disappointing, and it made the first movie just look awesome in comparison.

While I was in Blockbuster, I got a total impulse movie rental (I shouldn't have even been in there at all, as an honorable NetFlix person) and picked up "Dreamcatcher." I know it's supposed to be bad, but I'm interested in the mix of horror and SF in this one, and there were some scenes I saw in the trailer that looked like they'd been pulled right out of my Wannoshay novel (scenes with the military mustering and gunships, etc.). I remember almost croaking when I first saw that trailer, thinking the film had trumped my novel. Now I know better (though I haven't watched the film yet) -- even if there are similar scenes, nobody saw or liked the movie, and the big-ass scenes I had at the end of my novel have all (or will soon all be) changed drastically.

Still, this should be a guilty-pleasure viewing as a reward for finishing chapter 28 of the novel. Which I need to do as soon as I get a refill of my latte...

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Okay, got some work done this afternoon, and feeling pretty good about it. Also got a rejection on the job front -- after two phone interviews and an on-site interview and about 5 tests, the job went to someone else. Ah crap.

So I'm still in the job hunt, unfortunately, and I'm trying not to stress about it. Got to be Zen-like, remember. Just have to keep sending those resumes out and forgetting about 'em, just like story (and novel) submissions. Later.

Now Playing:
"Bramble Rose," Tift Merritt

Now Reading:
The Fantasy Writer's Assistant, Jeffrey Ford

Today's Words:
1,100

Words for '03:
139,000

Today's Quote:
The soldiers recognized Joshua immediately, and they nodded him through the various checkpoints. Wiping sweat from his forehead, Joshua had the mother ship on his right and a fifty-person-strong group of masked protestors coming up in front of him. Now what did Private Petersheim from the Waukegan site call them?

The name clicked when Joshua saw the bathrobes and rubber monster masks. "ET freaks," he whispered, moving in a wide arc to his left to avoid them.