In Process -- April 2015

First Draft
“The Top of the Volcano”. Wound up with a 6000-word draft for a 3000-word planned story. Wrote an outline halfway through, think that helped.
“Spinnerette”. Short story, exercise in pastiche. It was planned to be 2000 words, but I wound up with 4000. Of course. Dean Wesley Smith would hate me. I think I went a couple of pages past the end.
“Before Breakfast”. Probably a working title, but anyway. I wrote 500 words and then realized I needed characters and interaction, and it turned out they were both women not men, which changes everything. Who knew!

Editing
“Wind/Water/Salt”. Chapters 28 to 34 edited. Also made some minor changes to earlier spots to make the later stuff make sense.
“Lucky Kate”. Typed up the middle that I rewrote a while ago, culled some bits out to make it make sense.

Connecting
Went to workshop day at ad astra. If I’d stayed longer I might have made some friends. I did three workshops. The first one was Getting out of the slushpile, and it was really good. Then was lunch, and then was Writing Diversity, which was also good but not all about me. This workshop made me like Leah Bobet more. She came across as very human. The third one was fixing your Story Gremlins, and I would have gotten more out of it if I hadn’t done three workshops, or even if there had been a break between 2 and 3 maybe.

So I learned a couple of things:

1. I should build some empty space into my conventioning, rather than try to pack everything tightly together. Go to the con suite, chill, not have a plan. The best things happen when I don’t have a plan.

2. My novel doesn’t suck, it just needs more editing down.

Circulating
2

Knitting
“Ceremonial Armour” (Kaffe Fassett, knit from a photo). 26 rows to go on the body.
“St. Anthony’s Ribbon” (self-designed). Ignored.
Vinterlys (Norsk Strikkedesign). Second sleeve now 7 inches long, did a couple more inches on the body.
Rust Damask Jacket (Takle & Kolstadt). Finished two inches bottom ribbing in the car. Will work on this seriously when vinterlys is done.
I have too many projects right now. Two of them need to be done.

What I read: September 2025

LHC #295: "The Last to Leave the Room" by Caitlin Starling. Audiobook. Workplace horror? Loved it. "Careless People" by Sarah Wynn-Williams. Hard copy, for office Data Ethics book club. The stories about Sheryl Sandberg really made me like my boss better. LHC #296: "The Fated Sky" by Mary Robinette Kowal. Hard copy. This got moved up the list because Ed had read book 1 in the series and got the rest out of the library. Loved it. He's got the next one in the series upstairs, I suppose I'll read it when he's done. LHC #297: "Bluegrass: A History" by Neil V. Rosenberg. Hard copy. No idea why it was on my list, I don't care that much about bluegrass. Nevertheless, the second half was interesting. I guess the first half was necessary, as it described in great length the way people came and went in Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys band, and also how technology and social pressures affect how music is made and performed. LHC #298: ...

What I read -- October 2025

"The Moomins and the Great Flood" by Tove Jansson. eBook. I read this because Marissa Lingen loves them. It was fine? This was the first one in the series and the only one available online; maybe the later ones are better. Maybe they're better if you read them as a child. "The Relentless Moon" by Mary Robinette Kowal. Hard copy. Read it because Ed had the whole series out of the library. It took a long time to get going, and sometimes I find MRK exhausting. Her white main characters all seem oddly aware of the Black experience. "The Martian Contingency" by Mary Robinette Kowal. Hard copy. Read it because Ed had the whole series out of the library. I don't often read subsequent books in a series in quick succession, and my reaction to this one is a lot of why: I found Alma's voice too similar to Nicole's -- sure, Nicole obsessed about food much more, but they both went on and on about "must support black guy in management" an...

In progress - January 2026

Wind/Water/Salt Chapters 39-51: Nothing Persephone (probably not its real name): NOthing Vinterlys: Worked on Chapter 2 some more. Critted 4 Got back 1 Submissions 0 Out there 0 Rejects 0 Knitting Georgia (Norah Gaughan). Started the month with one sleeve and half a front to go. Finished. Love this sweater. Aberlady (AS Celtic Collection). Did a few rows while listening to podcasts. Summer in Tokyo (Isager): Started. I was looking at the pictures and the charts, and the pattern as written is not what is in the pictures! So odd. I am going to finish up two cones of yarn with this project! Pretty exciting. I hope I don't run out of light blue. I was working along on it, and if you go and look at the sweater, it's knit bottom-up, and I was at the part where I only had two colors, about 5" maybe. And I was thinking, "wow, this is pretty ugly! Maybe I should stop...

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