cafenowhere: blue grey mittens wrapped around a steaming cup of black coffee (mittens and mug)
It snowed about four inches over last night and this morning. At about 4pm I went outside to shovel the porch and sidewalks. In a "never tell me the odds" moment, I flung myself outside without checking the temperature. In the first ten minutes, I thought I might have a heart attack--thanks, Covid!--but I persevered at a measured pace and got the job done. Not well, mind you, just done. JJ came out to clear the driveway and urged me to go back inside, but I hung around the garage, out of the wind, and watched him work in case *he* had a heart attack. He had to take a break inside because he couldn't feel his fingers or nose. After we were done, I checked the temperature and it was -11F. Add in the wind chill and it was -35F. I'm glad I didn't know while I was outside, or I never would've made it.

Yesterday and today I worked on a poem recommendation for my Patreon. Yesterday I was really dissatisfied with it and frowny-faced because it was over 1000 words, whereas I usually aim for 500-750 words. Today I pared down my purview and sharpened my analysis. It's still over 1000 words, but now I feel like my recommendation does the poem justice. It's not going to appear until January 6, because I'm taking a two-week break over the holidays.

I also worked on the novel today. I keep picking at a particular flashback scene that isn't cohering as I'd like. It really irks me to be having so much trouble with it, because it's all old material (from a trunked novel), just refashioned. At least I added about 500 words of new dialogue before I returned to the flashback scene. My new planner has plenty of room for notes each day, so instead of simply recording the word count, I've been including a note about what I did. Like, I unraveled a plot knot or I revised the flashback, etc. This helps me realize how much I've accomplished even if the word count doesn't change much. Before, I was a little paranoid that I was entering a new writer's block if I didn't make a certain number of words per day. Now I have some evidence to the contrary.

Tomorrow we're supposed to be under blizzard conditions. Not much new accumulation, just a lot of wind blowing the snow around and frigid temperatures. We might get up to 0F!


 
cafenowhere: filled coffee cup surrounded by coffee beans and packets of sugar labeled WTF (Default)
This has been a good week for me. I got to do a variety of work things, which keeps me on an even keel. I prepared two of the poems that I selected for Strange Horizons for publication on the 5th and 12th. I chose a poem for recommendation on my Patreon and wrote up my essay early, posting it around noon today. And I cracked the 10K word mark on my novel today. This last is not as impressive as it sounds; I had a good number of those words written years ago and I started adding words two weeks ago. But I'm still pleased with the progress.

Our family had a few dinners together, which is less common now than it was last year, when Ash was still in high school. These days he spends most evenings with his friends, so it feels like a treat when he is available to eat with us. J has done a lot of cooking this week, saving us from takeout. We eat way more takeout than we should, just like we used to eat out too much before the pandemic. In fact, tonight J is picking up Indian food.

In the evenings, I have been making slow progress on reading Fantastic Americana, a collection by Josh Rountree from Fairwood Press. Reading these stories is not a struggle, it's all good work that I've enjoyed. It's just that as my novel progresses, it takes up more and more of my mind and I can't concentrate on fiction. (I still read a lot of poetry for my Patreon.) On nights I haven't read, J and I have watched Wednesday on Netflix. It's kind of like a cross between Nancy Drew (girl sleuth) and Sherlock (probably autistic protag). I have some Concerns about the show and how it deals (and doesn't) with race, but I like Jenna Ortega in the role of Wednesday Addams. We've watched all but one episode and Wednesday hasn't smiled once. It's refreshing, in a way. Most shows go out of their way to make the heroine likable, but there's all kinds of stories to be told with an antiheroine.

I don't have any weekend plans, except to get to the post office to mail a package. What about you?
 

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cafenowhere: filled coffee cup surrounded by coffee beans and packets of sugar labeled WTF (Default)
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