Robynettely

First Draft “Evening Glory”. 13000 words and draft? It’s a mess, and writing the last page I sort of felt like I’d written the first portion of a novel, rather than a short story. This might be a disappointment I’ll never look at again. “The Top of the Volcano”. Short story, 3000 words of what was meant to be a 3000-word story, and it’s only half done. I need to accept perhaps that my writing process involves writing twice as much as I need (though some of that is really notes to my future self that I can take out once I know I’ve hit those points) and editing is all about carving away the excess to get to the good story underneath. I did write myself a lovely outline (at about 2500 words) so I can get to the end. Editing “Wind/Water/Salt ”. Last edits for this draft to chapters 9 and 11, and then moved on to 14-17. Then things started picking up and I didn’t have to move so much and the process started being a bit more like I imagined it should be, going through d...

“The Brides of Rollrock Island” by Margo Lanagan. The first section was a challenge. You know sometimes you read something and you think “I wish I’d written that”, and other times you read something and you think “I could never write that”? This book was the second type. I have a hard time being mean to my characters. Margo does not have this problem. The sense of place was brilliant as well – so well drawn, and yet it could be Scotland, or Newfoundland, or Maine… This was a different way of coming at lovecraftian horror, really. Wow. “Authority” by Jeff Vandermeer. So I read http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/01/from-annihilation-to-acceptance-a-writers-surreal-journey/384884/ and thought I should read on in the series. And then my library got flooded. “Red Spikes” by Margo Lanagan. I needed some short stories, and she had some! Short stories are always a mixed bag, I never connect with everything in a book, but the one about the budgie was truly fantast...

The centennial anniversary (is that a redundancy? I don't know) of the Migratory Bird Act of 1918 is in three short years! This is the act that protects the odious Canada geese that live on the street where I work, and in the parking lot, year-round. My idea is that, in celebration of this anniversary, we remove the non-migratory (is it the greater or lesser?) Canada goose from this protection act, so that we can get rid of the nuisances. I don't hate the birds, really I don't. They're really cool when they're flying. It's just that when they know about the protection act, and so they don't feel obligated to be, you know, scared when I walk up on them on the sidewalk or something. And they peck at my hands, nasty beasts, and hiss. Let them be proper afraid animals again!