Minor Notes

Some disconnected notes:

I’ve started Elizabeth Hand’s novel Generation Loss and I’m loving it so far.  I mean, don’t take my word for it, take PW’s and Peter Straub’s and numberless other awesome reviewers’, but this as of page 40 or so this is a cutting, well-crafted book.  And it looks like there’ll even be a mystery thrown in, so that’s cool.
Focusing on word count has become a distraction for me.  At worst I was checking my word count every few minutes.  I haven’t been an egg-timer writer before, but I’ve started working with timers, forty-five minutes at a stretch and go.  I have a more or less constant rate of productivity, so I end up doing the same amount of work (if I write for the same amount of time) but I spend more of that time thinking about story and less about word production, which removes stress.
On that note, I’m falling back in love with my Alphasmart Neo.  Scrivener, I do appreciate you, but there’s nothing quite like a purpose-built device.  (Also, 700 hours of battery life!)  The small screen isn’t a problem for most of my work, but does make it harder to keep track of complex conversations.
Karin Tidbeck’s short story collection is phenomenal and you can read more about it on NPR.
One major effect of writing full-time is that I’m more focused on work and less on, well, the internet.  As a result, I get even more impressed by writers who manage to handle both at once.  Though, admittedly, I’m working hard on the next novel now.  Maybe in the future I’ll be able to get back to my usual diet of cat .gifs.  For the moment, though, exposure to random internet news has dropped precipitously.
If you’re in San Francisco, come to my signing at Borderlands on Saturday!  If you’re in Los Angeles, come to my signing at Mysterious Galaxy on Sunday!  More about both of these on my events page!