Bits of this and that
A few years ago, a friend gave me an aloe vera plant. I kill plants. I do not intend to - it just happens. This does not stop other friends having me take care of their gardens while they're away. Apparently I don't kill other peoples' gardens. I did, however, kill that aloe vera, or so I thought. The roots rotted. I couldn't face throwing it out, so I put it and the pot on the wall, next to each other. The wind blew them over, but I didn't know, for I don't go out that way, or have the curtains open, because it's on a major road and I got tired of people looking in at me on their daily walk. (There used to be bushes protecting me from such intrusions, but that's another story). Anyhow, just now, I looked out and noticed that, over a year after I thought it was dead, the aloe vera is thriving. It's planted itself next to the wall, on the pile of leaf trash that accumulated there. The rotted roots are in the pot, next door to it. I shall continue to leave it alone, for it obviously thrives far better without me than with me. I'll admire it from a distance from time to time.
I'm slowly getting through the nightmare workload of this month. The number of blogposts I need to write for others is growing. This is good. It means news about my books will get out there. And Katrin is writing some of them, which is even better. The total is now 27, though, which is an impressive number. I've decided to make up for this by having more guest posts here. The next one is from Ian Sales, and will appear when I have my next breather (probably late tomorrow).
I'm partway through editing chapter 8 of the research book. If all goes well, this is the next to last edit. If all doesn't go well I shall rent my clothes and don sackcloth and ashes.
Teaching starts tomorrow, and I have an evening course (just the one, due to date confusion) that lasts most of the term as well as my Wednesday class. I start tomorrow, then from next week I have two classes a week until the final week of term when I only have a Wednesday class. This works. And the Tuesday class is one heroes and magic and stuff - very medieval, but all the sexiest elements of the Middle Ages. The moment I finish this edit I get to do my course handbook. There are still vacancies in the class, if you know anyone who wants to have fun-filled Tuesdays.
It's not a lot of teaching, but it is enough to keep the wolf from the door. Any other paid work I get will see me safely through summer. For the first time in years I won't have a big NF project for summer, for the Beast is out and the other project is about to be. This means I can focus on fiction. It's going to be a hot summer, probably full of bushfires, but no summer is entirely miserable when I have novel to write. I have novel to write and novel to research, for somehow I'm working on two at once. This is a lovely thing. I do not know why I suddenly have two novels to write, when one is not one I had planned. But I do, and that's that. If I do well enough on everything else, I might try Nanowrimoing half the novel, for there is one element that can be written quickly and I've never played nanowrimo before. The rest will take a lot longer. I'm not sure I'm ready for the quick writing stage. I'll see.
This is a novel about being alien and about the effects of gendering and age on everyday life. When I looked at my three novels on different parts of women's lives, I realised I'd missed one and that it's an important one and that it gives me an excuse to play with questions of gender. I have the sneaking suspicion it's going to be terribly snarky. If I can just exorcise the snark demon, then i can write a much more serious historical novel. We'll see. I know at least two exorcism techniques (I know the theory, not the practice) but I'm honestly not sure if snark demons respond to either.
For my next trick, I shall get dressed for a meeting. I got through a chapter and a half by refusing to get dressed until I finished. Only half a chapter to go today, I think and all the rest is guest posts for interesting blogs. When they're all up, I'll do a guide to where to find them. It's fine to say "Look, a blogpost!" for a few guest posts, but if I did one for each and the number will probably be 30 by the time everything's done and dusted, it would be really annoying.
Clothes. Cuppa. Blogpost. Blogpost. Meeting. This list will take me until 4 pm.
I'm slowly getting through the nightmare workload of this month. The number of blogposts I need to write for others is growing. This is good. It means news about my books will get out there. And Katrin is writing some of them, which is even better. The total is now 27, though, which is an impressive number. I've decided to make up for this by having more guest posts here. The next one is from Ian Sales, and will appear when I have my next breather (probably late tomorrow).
I'm partway through editing chapter 8 of the research book. If all goes well, this is the next to last edit. If all doesn't go well I shall rent my clothes and don sackcloth and ashes.
Teaching starts tomorrow, and I have an evening course (just the one, due to date confusion) that lasts most of the term as well as my Wednesday class. I start tomorrow, then from next week I have two classes a week until the final week of term when I only have a Wednesday class. This works. And the Tuesday class is one heroes and magic and stuff - very medieval, but all the sexiest elements of the Middle Ages. The moment I finish this edit I get to do my course handbook. There are still vacancies in the class, if you know anyone who wants to have fun-filled Tuesdays.
It's not a lot of teaching, but it is enough to keep the wolf from the door. Any other paid work I get will see me safely through summer. For the first time in years I won't have a big NF project for summer, for the Beast is out and the other project is about to be. This means I can focus on fiction. It's going to be a hot summer, probably full of bushfires, but no summer is entirely miserable when I have novel to write. I have novel to write and novel to research, for somehow I'm working on two at once. This is a lovely thing. I do not know why I suddenly have two novels to write, when one is not one I had planned. But I do, and that's that. If I do well enough on everything else, I might try Nanowrimoing half the novel, for there is one element that can be written quickly and I've never played nanowrimo before. The rest will take a lot longer. I'm not sure I'm ready for the quick writing stage. I'll see.
This is a novel about being alien and about the effects of gendering and age on everyday life. When I looked at my three novels on different parts of women's lives, I realised I'd missed one and that it's an important one and that it gives me an excuse to play with questions of gender. I have the sneaking suspicion it's going to be terribly snarky. If I can just exorcise the snark demon, then i can write a much more serious historical novel. We'll see. I know at least two exorcism techniques (I know the theory, not the practice) but I'm honestly not sure if snark demons respond to either.
For my next trick, I shall get dressed for a meeting. I got through a chapter and a half by refusing to get dressed until I finished. Only half a chapter to go today, I think and all the rest is guest posts for interesting blogs. When they're all up, I'll do a guide to where to find them. It's fine to say "Look, a blogpost!" for a few guest posts, but if I did one for each and the number will probably be 30 by the time everything's done and dusted, it would be really annoying.
Clothes. Cuppa. Blogpost. Blogpost. Meeting. This list will take me until 4 pm.
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