cafenowhere: envelope with heart on it clipped to a clothesline (love envelope)
I can barely believe that Valentine's Day was earlier this week. Already it feels like forever ago. I guess that's what happens when you're busy.

José has always been enthusiastic about Valentine's Day. This year, he took the day off without telling me, although he made clear that if *I* wanted to work, I was free to do so without interruption. Which I did. (We both work from home.) He brought us fancy doughnuts for breakfast, gave us cards, gave me a beautiful flower arrangement and a box of chocolates, and made a special dinner. I don't know how he can stand me, as each year it's a struggle for me just to get him a card on time. 

Yesterday it snowed quite heavily. The weather report said we got ten and a half inches of snow, but I think it was closer to a foot. That's how high it was stacked on my patio table. Today was below freezing, but the sun was bright, so now we have icicles hanging from the eaves. This weekend it's supposed to be warmer, so we may see some melting then. That would be good, since our driveway and road are still snow-covered, though José shoveled and the city plowed, respectively.

Workwise, I finalized my picks from the Strange Horizons submissions pile, and I've already gotten signed contracts back from some of the poets. I posted my weekly poem recommendation on Patreon, and last week's book review is now available to the public. I broke 30K on the novel and feel pretty good about where I am. I'm looking forward to tackling a pivotal scene next week, a conversation between the protagonist and a person from her grim past. Hopefully over the weekend I can finish reading Duende by Tracy K. Smith. It includes the poem "Flores Woman," which I recommended on my Patreon a while back. It's been very hard to finish reading any poetry collection while I was also reading for Strange Horizons, but now that I'm in a different stage of editing, maybe I'll get my brain back.

I'm still watching Hot Skull, but I took a break to see the movie Piggy, a Spanish horror flick I've been aching to see for maybe a year now? I'm so glad Hulu picked it up. It's such a neat play on slasher-movie tropes, and I appreciated the fat protagonist. Her weight was crucial to the storyline, but I didn't feel like the director was judgmental about it. Of course there are the obnoxious popular girls who tease the protagonist relentlessly, but their behavior never felt endorsed by the movie and, boy, there are consequences. I might watch it again this weekend.
 
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!


 

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