(Venice, last fall)
A quick update, after a rocky few nights, sleep-wise (I think better in lists these days):
–Talassio is roughly revised, and I think everything that has to be in there is now in there. I’m sneakily running it off at work, so I can do a full line edit, flag things for fact-checking, etc. Much of it feels clean and solid and good, but I have this lingering feeling that some scenes are really just, ah, patched-on. There’s a bit of a tonal disconnect too between sections. Time to smooth out, prettify, fit in some details, etc.
-“Julie” got revised again and is floating around in various submission piles. This one might be one that doesn’t make it out into the world, at least not by the usual paths, so I’m stewing over alternatives in the back of my mind.
-I have been slacking on both workshop critiques and the library, though in regards to the latter I am still picking through Peter Ackroyd’s London, and I have notes to copy over on both that and the Sarti. So I may not get back to the library until June.
-June, because . . . I will be at Wiscon this year, even reading (!!) I think. I blithely said I had no problem reading and then remembered that the last time I read was seven years ago. So I might be a bit shaky. Also, my French is atrocious, and we’re not even attempting to sing. If this all comes about and you’re in the audience be merciful, I beg you. 🙂
-Other stories are starting to emerge . . . a flash thing about a bad night in New York I had many years ago, and a novelette about little men. Little men with knives. Think the Seven Dwarves as roughnecks. First draft is nearly done.
-On Sunday Monday! the 7th! I will be participating in a blog hop on writing process; you can see the questions here, Rhonda’s fine answers, and the list of stellar participants.
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Lots of small, but significant firsts this year so far. I am choosing to see them as the first signs of a sea-change, with fairer winds and weather to come.