Elizabeth Moon's Blog, page 57
December 11, 2010
Saturday Already???
A writer's life is not bound by the same work conventions as others...it's not a M-F job unless you're one of the very unusual, perfectly organized writers (I know one or two. I am in awe, but I don' t have time to be in awe very long, so...moving on...) Depending on deadlines, illnesses, etc, etc., etc., most of us seem to work very long hours and every day of the week...or close to it.
So not realizing it's Saturday already is normal. Unless I have an event scheduled, Monday-through-Saturday is all the same, dawn (or before) to midnight (or a little after.) Not all sitting at the keyboard (sometimes, but not always)...there's cooking, laundry, cleaning, shopping, and the business side of writing (correspondence, phone calls, etc.) If I'm not sick (or too far behind on a book) Wednesday evenings and Sundays are taken up with choir. Sometimes, when we have a big performance coming up, that includes some other rehearsals as well.
This is work I chose to do, so I'm not actually complaining...it takes as long as it takes to write a book, and I want to write books, so...that's just a fact writers must come to grips with, the same as people wanting to be farriers coming to grips with what this means to their backs, day after day of bending over with a horse leg clamped between their knees while they trim and shoe. But it does mean losing track of time, of days of the week, and numbers within the month, because the writer's head (this writer's head, at least) is deep in the book being written, living alongside of, and within, all the characters. Very much not in this world.
But somehow it got to be Saturday, when my temporal faculty was still stuck in Tuesday (it's been stuck in Tuesday all week, because had I not been behind on the book, and sick for several weeks of November, I'd have been singing MESSIAH with my choir and the Austin Symphony on Tuesday--the date had been stuck in my brain very firmly since summer.) So on Tuesday night, I was working on the book with most of my brain, while one small part was doing a White Rabbit imitation over in the corner, jumping up and down and saying "Late--late--late--too late--they've started--" and I was trying to shut it up. I put Rachmaninoff on the player (very un-MESSIAH-like, Rachmaninoff's 2nd piano concerto) and worked until sometime after midnight, when I fell into bed I've missed, of course, all the big MESSIAH rehearsals, and I've also missed singing with the choir at services (coughing your lungs out on your fellow singers just before and during the holiday season is not appreciated and besides, my voice was nothing anyone would want to hear in between the coughing fits.) So that further extended the temporal disconnect.
It's Saturday already. The book is waiting. All the chapters are laid out in a row, and deep combing has dealt with most of them. Gaps are marked for filling. I've been up since dawn and will be up until the brain shuts off, whenever that is.
Just in case anyone thought "Oh, it's easy, you just crank them out in a few weeks." Some (lucky!! talented!!) writers have minds like that. Not me. And--if you haven't already discovered that you're one of the fast-writing fraternity--probably not you, either.
So not realizing it's Saturday already is normal. Unless I have an event scheduled, Monday-through-Saturday is all the same, dawn (or before) to midnight (or a little after.) Not all sitting at the keyboard (sometimes, but not always)...there's cooking, laundry, cleaning, shopping, and the business side of writing (correspondence, phone calls, etc.) If I'm not sick (or too far behind on a book) Wednesday evenings and Sundays are taken up with choir. Sometimes, when we have a big performance coming up, that includes some other rehearsals as well.
This is work I chose to do, so I'm not actually complaining...it takes as long as it takes to write a book, and I want to write books, so...that's just a fact writers must come to grips with, the same as people wanting to be farriers coming to grips with what this means to their backs, day after day of bending over with a horse leg clamped between their knees while they trim and shoe. But it does mean losing track of time, of days of the week, and numbers within the month, because the writer's head (this writer's head, at least) is deep in the book being written, living alongside of, and within, all the characters. Very much not in this world.
But somehow it got to be Saturday, when my temporal faculty was still stuck in Tuesday (it's been stuck in Tuesday all week, because had I not been behind on the book, and sick for several weeks of November, I'd have been singing MESSIAH with my choir and the Austin Symphony on Tuesday--the date had been stuck in my brain very firmly since summer.) So on Tuesday night, I was working on the book with most of my brain, while one small part was doing a White Rabbit imitation over in the corner, jumping up and down and saying "Late--late--late--too late--they've started--" and I was trying to shut it up. I put Rachmaninoff on the player (very un-MESSIAH-like, Rachmaninoff's 2nd piano concerto) and worked until sometime after midnight, when I fell into bed I've missed, of course, all the big MESSIAH rehearsals, and I've also missed singing with the choir at services (coughing your lungs out on your fellow singers just before and during the holiday season is not appreciated and besides, my voice was nothing anyone would want to hear in between the coughing fits.) So that further extended the temporal disconnect.
It's Saturday already. The book is waiting. All the chapters are laid out in a row, and deep combing has dealt with most of them. Gaps are marked for filling. I've been up since dawn and will be up until the brain shuts off, whenever that is.
Just in case anyone thought "Oh, it's easy, you just crank them out in a few weeks." Some (lucky!! talented!!) writers have minds like that. Not me. And--if you haven't already discovered that you're one of the fast-writing fraternity--probably not you, either.
From Twitter 12-10-2010
11:03:58: Shameless self-promotion time: http://www.goodreads.com/award/choice#41637-Fantasy OATH OF FEALTY is a nominee!!
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December 10, 2010
From Twitter 12-09-2010
13:16:50: RT @SpaceXer: Picture of the Dragon spacecraft carried by three main parachutes to a gentle soft landing in the Pacific Ocean. http:// ...
18:03:03: RT @KSmithSF: Analysis: GOP Senators Represent More Than Four Times As Many Unemployed People As Wealthy Household… http://t.co/CKAB9fC ...
18:17:42: Revision and revision and revision...creeps in this petty pace from day to day...#writing
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December 9, 2010
From Twitter 12-08-2010
07:43:39: RT @NASA: The Falcon 9 launch is now scheduled for 9:06am EST. SpaceX Webcast of launch should start momentarily. http://go.nasa.gov/hyOk2z
07:55:34: Drat. NASA TV just went black for me. Other internet bits working OK, so probably not me, but NASA. #Falcon9launch
08:00:15: Aha...screen back up on Media Channel @NASA_TV (not public channel yet) so hopefully will get to watch launch.
08:01:39: Still no sound or anything but a 'cover logo' on @NASA_TV. (Wait--SOUND! T-minus 5 minutes!)
08:09:26: Launch aborted at T-minus 2min48 sec. V. interesting to hear abort safety sequences.
08:12:22: Back to work on book. Decided to dump one POV sx, use someone else's reaction to someone's disappearance. #writing
08:26:36: RT @SpaceXMissions: Countdown clock is recycled and held at T-13 minutes. We have 2 more launch opportunities today. 10:38 - 10:42 AM ...
08:36:41: RT @NASAKennedy: SpaceX controllers have resumed liquid oxygen loading. Working towards 10:42 am launch depending on resolution of issue ...
09:36:19: RT @NASA: The SpaceX Falcon 9 launch countdown has resumed. Launch is at 10:43am EST.
09:36:42: Listening to SpaceX Falcon 9 countdown at T-minus 7 minutes.
09:37:26: Discovered can write fantasy while listening to countdown...will go to NASA window when we're closer to launch. #writing.
09:41:32: Hearing "Go for launch" sends me straight back to visual on @NASA_TV
09:43:42: LIFTOFF!
09:49:26: I do like to see those birds fly....
10:10:58: RT @AlanStern: Way to Go SpaceX-- Falcon 9 is two for two! Now Dragon's turn to debut! Already a good day for Commercial Space!
10:29:39: RT @BacklisteBooks: RT @authorterryo: 50% off When Danger Calls at Smashwords. Check here for coupon code, my washer disaster, and more: ...
10:29:46: RT @BacklisteBooks: RT @LLBartlettbooks: My #ebook Murder On The Mind was featured by @FrugaleReader. Weeee! http://tinyurl.com/2clzzdn
10:30:01: RT @BacklisteBooks: Welcome to PATRICIA ROSEMOOR -- Patricia Rosemoor Writes Dangerous Love
10:30:15: RT @NASA: See a video of today's launch of SpaceX Falcon 9 for NASA's COTS Program: http://go.nasa.gov/hISqBZ
12:02:41: RT @samuelpepys: My discourse with Sir W. Coventry was upon the unhappiness of having our matters examined by people that understand the ...
12:06:48: RT @RebeccaYork43: At http://getlostinastory.blogspot.com, I'm also talking about how I overcame dyslexia to become a published novelist.
13:20:48: RT @NASA: The SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft has successfully splashed down in the ocean. Mission success!
13:21:18: RT @NASA: The SpaceX post-mission news conference is scheduled for 3:30 pm EST and will be carried on NASA TV. http://www/nasa.gov/ntv
15:47:22: RT @SpaceXer: Recovery crew has put the floats on the Dragon already.
15:48:32: RT @jasonpinter: As you get older, you realize being that nerdy kid who read all the time was the best thing that could have happened to ...
15:49:01: RT @green_knight: Writing: when you're so caught up in 'how will protag get tea' that you drop two teabags - different flavours - into y ...
15:50:04: RT @NASA: Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Telescope have found a huge, hot, egg-shaped planet unusually abundant in carbon: http://go.n ...
21:38:39: RT @JodyLynnNye: And loud snorting was heard through the household at John #Scalzi's spot-on and evilly funny misleading fantasy reviews ...
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December 8, 2010
From Twitter 12-07-2010
09:45:14: RT @patinagle: RT @bookviewcafe: BVC releases Lori Devoti's LOVE IS ALL AROUND ebook. http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Devoti-Love ...
09:45:19: RT @patinagle: RT @bookviewcafe: Today's Special from Susan Wright: California Demon - read it for free at http://www.bookviewcafe.com
09:45:25: RT @RebeccaYork43: High excitement. DAY OF THE DRAGON is out today! And I'm celebrating w/ a blog at http://terryodell.blogspot.com/
09:59:41: RT @NASA: When you're sending holiday greetings this year, don't forget the people living on the space station: http://go.nasa.gov/hOuaAI
10:12:48: It is possible to put Too Much Stuff into a book. (Eyes mass of words chock-full of Stuff and dives back in to work on them) #writing
14:43:21: RT @JodyLynnNye: Today's the day! My new book DRAGONS DEAL is out from Ace! Third in the series begun by Robert Asprin, takes place duri ...
14:52:18: Untangled another chronological mess. Sliced and diced a slow section. Added in some much-needed continuity markers. #writing
21:14:49: RT @JodyLynnNye: Second piece of news: the check arrived. Ace Books bought two more Myth Adventures and another Dragons novel from me. S ...
21:15:24: RT @NASA: The Falcon 9 launch is go for tomorrow. The window opens at 9 am EST. Watch it on NASA TV : http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
23:50:09: RT @patinagle: FTW! RT @kob4: Safety drill saves child from kidnapping - A quick-thinking 12 year old was able to protect himself http ...
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December 7, 2010
Paying Taxes on Pearl Harbor Day
I was writing checks for property taxes and realized that today's feelings about that were different from other years on other dates.
A lot of thoughts came up about that, some relevant to current political issues. So...here, in what will probably be a less than ideally organized arrangement, they are.
The United States entered WWII immediately after that attack--an attack that cost something over 3700 American lives (counting deaths at other locations than Pearl Harbor itself.) I was born in the last year of WWII (early 1945.) Pearl Harbor was in the immediate background of my childhood--a formative cultural memory. The parents I knew as a child (all, not just mine) had all experienced the Depression and all remembered Pearl Harbor. Their ideas about citizenship were shaped by both--and their ideas shaped ours, whether we agreed or rebelled.
So the sour, resentful, negative attitude about taxes, including property taxes, just wasn't as common as it is now. The Teapartyers would've been run out of town on a rail as ungrateful, unpatriotic whiners. Like everyone else, I can think of things to do with my money other than pay taxes. But unlike the whiners, I recognize that what I have comes in large part from being born and raised in a nation of other taxpayers whose honest contributions provided far more for me than I have yet paid back. Some of it's obvious--the benefits I personally got from public schools and libraries, from state-supported universities, from public roads and safe city water and sewer (yes, I paid a user fee--gladly--but the infrastructure for water also came from property taxes someone else paid in the past) to tax-funded city, county, state and national parks which provide incredible recreation opportunities for all. Some of it is less obvious--the tax-funded services that give us weather information, accurate maps, health and safety data...and on and on.
It really torques me that those who have benefited the most from all the opportunities this nation provides are demanding extended tax cuts when their fellow citizens are still hurting, still unemployed, still losing their homes. It really torques me that they seem to feel no gratitude for what they've received--that they clearly feel no fellowship with other citizens, no sense of owing anyone anything.
Paying taxes is both a duty and a privilege...and a thank-you to those who fought for our freedom and those who built and taught in our schools, and built and maintained our roads and bridges, and studied how to preserve and conserve our national res
A lot of thoughts came up about that, some relevant to current political issues. So...here, in what will probably be a less than ideally organized arrangement, they are.
The United States entered WWII immediately after that attack--an attack that cost something over 3700 American lives (counting deaths at other locations than Pearl Harbor itself.) I was born in the last year of WWII (early 1945.) Pearl Harbor was in the immediate background of my childhood--a formative cultural memory. The parents I knew as a child (all, not just mine) had all experienced the Depression and all remembered Pearl Harbor. Their ideas about citizenship were shaped by both--and their ideas shaped ours, whether we agreed or rebelled.
So the sour, resentful, negative attitude about taxes, including property taxes, just wasn't as common as it is now. The Teapartyers would've been run out of town on a rail as ungrateful, unpatriotic whiners. Like everyone else, I can think of things to do with my money other than pay taxes. But unlike the whiners, I recognize that what I have comes in large part from being born and raised in a nation of other taxpayers whose honest contributions provided far more for me than I have yet paid back. Some of it's obvious--the benefits I personally got from public schools and libraries, from state-supported universities, from public roads and safe city water and sewer (yes, I paid a user fee--gladly--but the infrastructure for water also came from property taxes someone else paid in the past) to tax-funded city, county, state and national parks which provide incredible recreation opportunities for all. Some of it is less obvious--the tax-funded services that give us weather information, accurate maps, health and safety data...and on and on.
It really torques me that those who have benefited the most from all the opportunities this nation provides are demanding extended tax cuts when their fellow citizens are still hurting, still unemployed, still losing their homes. It really torques me that they seem to feel no gratitude for what they've received--that they clearly feel no fellowship with other citizens, no sense of owing anyone anything.
Paying taxes is both a duty and a privilege...and a thank-you to those who fought for our freedom and those who built and taught in our schools, and built and maintained our roads and bridges, and studied how to preserve and conserve our national res
From Twitter 12-06-2010
07:43:38: Ch-ch-chilly morning, v. clear and still. Ice fringing pond. V. beautiful soft colors w/bold red of last oaks flaming in early light.
07:47:39: Twitter is fun/ but I must run/ there's work to be done/ by setting sun. And so I say/ have all a good day. (back to book: #writing)
09:44:50: RT @RebeccaYork43: Tell your Senators to oppose ANY extension of tax cuts for the rich - http://bit.ly/h4j7Ig @Boldprogressive #p2
10:51:53: RT @NASA: Get the latest on the first commercial launch licensed to orbit and reenter Earth today at 1:30 PM ET on NASA TV. http://altu ...
10:52:02: RT @marjoriemliu: Such a great tip. RT @legalnomads How my safety whistle has saved me (3 times!) on my round-the-world trip: http://bit ...
13:13:56: Twitter is not the worst temptation. The worst temptation is the live feed from the ISS.
15:28:40: RT @KSmithSF: The Reagan Tax Hikes--oh yes, he did. And no, the Bush tax cuts did not help the economy. http://t.co/MuxjBN9
15:29:40: RT @KSmithSF: Social Security cuts and class warfare http://t.co/s8Sbo3n
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December 6, 2010
From Twitter 12-05-2010
08:29:59: Flock of white-crowned sparrows (winter-resident here) watering/bathing in back yard water garden.
08:30:46: Other two backyard red oaks have peaked this morn: one more orange-golden, one more rich red.
10:31:43: RT @Quotes4Writers: 2 steps to complete a novel: Think up a story. Write it... Pitfalls to overcome: Not thinking it & not writing it: h ...
12:43:03: RT @KareneSmith67: @TanyaHuff Please go to www.findbane.com. Missing Michigan K9 dog cop. Family and force grieving please help raise aw ...
13:19:36: Ever notice that large % of those asking advice don't want advice but approval of whatever they've already decided to do?
14:07:15: Second day soup: OMG. Flavor even better today and gravy like velvet.
14:08:36: Still thinking of getting immersion blender, though.
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December 5, 2010
From Twitter 12-04-2010
07:45:02: The "late" red oaks are now (in past day or two) turning their brilliant reds. One's outside study window. Yum!
10:43:20: Stubborn knot in scene resisting any fix. #writing
11:39:29: RT @NASA: The Emerald Isle was painted white by snow this week. The big-picture view from our Aqua satellite. http://go.usa.gov/19a
14:08:06: Soup now in larger pot...I hope I can keep it in the 12 qt pot. Red, yellow, and orange pepper strips went in, also mushrooms & mustard.
15:24:31: And soup's done (for now--is any soup ever "done"?) Finished with juice of one lime. Too bad it's not suppertime yet.
21:50:45: RT @KSmithSF: Tell Secretary Sebelius to listen to women, not Catholic Bishops: Help ensure women's reproductive health is covered: http ...
21:58:39: RT @KSmithSF: Rachel Maddow on Ronald Reagan's Failed Trickle-Down Voodoo Economics http://t.co/br5zUrs
22:11:35: RT @KSmithSF: Baby hummer http://j.mp/gLUQhn
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December 4, 2010
From Twitter 12-03-2010
08:17:42: RT @LRO_NASA: Wow. This is such a cool image. http://fb.me/CEghbalv
08:17:47: RT @LRO_NASA: So beautiful. Pause a moment to enjoy a picture of another fabulous moon. http://fb.me/uvk5gEzr
11:28:14: RT @ArsenicMicrobes: We come in peace
11:28:26: RT @patinagle: RT @bookviewcafe: Today's Special from Patricia Rice: Much Ado About Magic - read it for free at http://www.bookviewcafe.com
16:15:35: Neighbor's cow wants hay mulch on roses.
16:16:14: Neighbor said would fix fence sometime in summer. Never did. Too bad freezer already full...
17:24:29: Now I know why character decided not to have boy he hired to carry packages come with him all the way. Connections!
17:46:39: Or rather, foreshadowing, kind of. Still too much stodge in story (snip, snip, snip) #writing
21:41:52: If cow doesn't make it through fence tonight, we have a plan for tomorrow. (Or, why you should always have an 10' gate lying around.)
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