“The Nearby Death” The nearby death is an EMP. You go dark and silent. You, and you, and everyone in range. Your functions shut down. This is simple. The simplest. All the noise goes quiet. Remember where you were. Remember where she was, at the epicentre. Her loss, the pulse. Here is the pause. Remember where you are. Your generator, here: You left it ready for this. You knew this dark would come. Fire it with your arm. Its fuel is old and stale. It makes noise and light. You make light, with your body, with your old and filthy fuel. Start up again. […]
Sun goes down, temperature drops
With the turning of the year I’m entering my most productive phase, in my day career, my writing and even in my random personal business. This time is the best time to do all of the things I normally avoid, like making medical appointments, getting my pants hemmed, and painting that bit of trim I never finished during the last reno (okay, I actually still haven’t done that one, but it might happen). A tally of what I get done in a typical day now would seem insurmountable during a day in the opposite phase of the year. Why? Well… it comes down to sleep. When the days get shorter, my circadian rhythm seems to be disrupted, and I adapt by sleeping less, for a while; or at least by feeling more awake during my waking hours. On the weekend, 1028 words on the Pie Story, which still has no name–though it is about to have a sex scene. As interested as I am in writing the sex scene, I’m afraid Thanatos wins out over Eros tonight: I am even more interested in writing a scene for the Not-a-Werewolf book, a scene which came to me in a dream the […]
Sisyphus finally gets a cup of tea
I don’t mean to imply that the Day Career is generally Sisyphean. But at the moment it’s requiring 12-hour days just to stay afloat, and the backlog hasn’t really decremented, and the results aren’t visible to anyone who can’t see all the crossed-off items on my gargantuan to-do list. At the end, or beginning, of those 12-hour workdays, I seem to be managing to post to the photo blog and this blog, managing to write the Pie Story, and managing to plant the seed file. I haven’t yet managed to critique anyone else’s stuff, catch up with any of my groups’ posts, or most importantly, make any progress on either of my novels. I’ve also managed to hurt my best friend’s feelings inadvertently, neglect my husband, overcrowd my social calendar and skip almost all of my workouts. I think it’s time for some ruthless decisions about just how I spend the coin of my days. […]
In which I sit myself down for a Talk
I am reading a book given to me by my boss. It’s entitled Getting Things Done. I have come to recognize that I am in need of such a book (and apparently, unfortunately, my boss has come to recognize the same thing). I am behind in all of my to-do lists. At work: fifty unactioned emails, a presentation due at the end of the week that I haven’t yet begun to write. In the house: the dinner dishes unwashed, the door of the study closed upon a mountain of clutter, and my mother is coming for dinner tomorrow. In my personal business: contact lenses about to expire and I haven’t even ordered the new ones yet, and the banking was late last month, and I haven’t done my expenses either. In my relationships: I owe someone a thank-you note, someone else a birthday call, someone else a reciprocal dinner invite. In my larger objectives: good God, I’m thirty-three years old and I haven’t even got an agent, let alone sold a book. This is rather new to me. I am beginning to get a sense of myself as a person who doesn’t always get things done. And yet I am […]