Robynettely

First Draft “Limering”. Around 59,000 words. Editing “Wind/Water/Salt”. Sometimes I feel guilty that I ignore this wretched thing for days on end. Then I have an epiphany and I can work like crazy. This month’s epiphany was who the real bad guy is, so I had to go backward and seed that in a bit. So so much for this being a “don’t look back” draft. I am 2/3 through, though. Now I’m trying to work that character into the end of act II. Connecting -- Circulating -- Knitting This month I came up with a stupid new rule for myself so I would finish some things. That’s because I’ve got three projects hanging around since 2013 (two I started in December, but still). If I finish one thing and finish a stage of another, I can start a new project. Here’s how it went: “Portree” (Martin Storey Scottish Collection). Finished. Ran out of the main color (black) so I did the neck in pink instead. It looks fine. Probably better, actually, since I don’t really...

“ China Mountain Zhang” by Maureen McHugh . It kept winding up on my list, which is stupid, so I just requested it from the library. Problem solved! The trigger actually was an Atlantic article about other literary references that might better explain the NSA/Snowden thing than Orwell. In Orwell, everyone is surveilled pretty much equally. In Zhang’s world, only certain people really have to worry about surveillance, which is more true of our current situation. Zhang was a really well-drawn character, and I was happy to see him come to an optimistic end. “The Blue Blazes” by Chuck Wendig. His blog is one of my daily stops. I had meant to read “blackbirds” by same, but I didn’t buy it, and then this one was on (one day only!) for 1.99 on kindle, so I bought it instead. Twice actually, by accident. I started it, then I got some library books so I set it aside, then I started it again. If I read this to see if his advice was worth taking, um, yes, yes it is. The plot moved along...

One of the problems with teaching acro to adults, I gather, is finding coaches. We tend to wear them out quickly. Spotting kids is easy. Grownups weigh a ton, and our  brains get in the way of being able to do moves our bodies could do. Hence, it was a wonderful thing when I was doing "bouncy cartwheels" on the air track last night and I said to my coach, "I really feel like I could do an arial on here," and he said "Next turn I'll spot you." He doesn't normally spot unless he knows you can do a move already, and just need the little bit of confidence to push you over. Not like it helped. One of my hands still insisted on going on the ground. But, it didn't touch hard. Next class it will go better! Here's a drawing I did during a meeting last week. That's what my hands should do. Alas.

“Arctic Rising” by Tobias S. Buckell. When I saw Ed had gotten it out of the library, I asked if I could read it too. It was on my list because Twitter often sends links to commentary TSB has written, and also I have part of a near-future SF set in the Arctic, so I was curious what he did with it. If I was a copy editor, I’d have a very hard time with this book because his writing is stylistically so different from mine. I use past perfect way more than he does, and tend to comma things together rather than using sentence fragments. Nevertheless, it was an entertaining thriller with a strong female lead and I had no trouble getting through it. “War Reporting for Cowards” by Chris Ayres. Ed bought this at a book fair and loved it, and forced it on me. The humor was a little too British for my taste (like it was trying too hard, and I’m not sure Wodehouse is a good role model for everyone) but the story itself, of how a guy finds himself an embed in Iraq was pretty entertaining...

First Draft “Limering”. Around 50,000 words. “As light as a bird”. So I had written a couple of thousand words (!) of notes, while sitting in teleconferences and the like. I typed them up into something like a draft of a short story.  Editing “Wind/Water/Salt”. Still working on “don’t look back Draft 2: Plot/gross story structure.”   Maybe half done. In the first draft, the middle is the hard part. In the second draft, not so much. It’s mostly deleting.  Connecting -- Circulating -- Knitting “Kaffeklatsch” (self-designed).   Now have 6” of body; should just push and finish the wretched thing. It’s not like I can wear it until fall, but whatever. “St. Anthony’s Ribbon” (self-designed). Occasionally knitted two rows while standing around. Considering the rows are 12 stitches each, this was not a big time commitment. I’m still on the first sleeve.   “Ceremonial Armour” (Kaffe Fassett, knit from a photo). ...