1. Very little sleep last night
2. Banged my knee on my desk
3. Busy day at work. No lunch
4. Grilled cheese for dinner
5. Off to bed a few minutes after Zachary

End message.

The thing is, I’ve been reading Connie Willis‘ new novel, Blackout, which has been very good.  Last night, it started to get really good and today at lunch, it got phenomenally good.  So good, in fact, that I simply have to pass on writing this evening and read more of the book.  If I tried to write, I’d be constantly distracted, thinking about what was happening in her book (as opposed to my story) and I would simply be fooling myself.  I’d make no progress.  So why fool myself?  I’ll delay my writing until tomorrow morning and settle down for the next 2 hours or so with her book.

I wonder if this book is merely part of Connie Willis’ ploy to take over science fiction completely by distracting all other writers in the business with her amazing ability to tell a good story, to say nothing of her skills as a Writer.

To that end, I have tried to make commenting simple and painless.  If you already have a LiveJournal, Facebook, Google, Blogger, WordPress or OpenID account, you can use those accounts to authenticate here and leave comments.  Simply click on the comment link and follow the instructions to sign in using one of those accounts.

And let me know if something isn’t working.

I’ve got nothing against South Carolina.  My problem is with the way this advertising campaign has become a production that you simply can’t avoid.  It’s everywhere in the food court, and in the early morning, before the mall opens, I have to listen to the workers shouting at each other while they try and get things set up just right.  The cost in labor for this thing must be tremendous.  Maybe it’s needed.  Frankly, when I think of vacation spots, I don’t think of South Carolina.

Of course, when I think of South Carolina, I’ll forever have this annoying advertising campaign in my mind.  That is enough to make me want to go somewhere else for my vacation.

I started with 1 bathroom when I lived in Maryland.  We moved up to 2 bathrooms when we moved to Arlington, Virginia.  When we bought our house, we moved up to 4 bathrooms.  The dotted, yellow bar is the projected number of bathrooms in our next house.  Cleaning four bathrooms is a chore enough; I don’t even want to think about eight.

Of course, some of that confidence was wiped away with the second rejection I received today.  It was from another professional market, one to which I have already sold a story, and in which my fiction has already appeared.  It was a form letter rejection slip.  In the past, I have received quite a bit of editorial feedback on stories I’ve submitted to this market, and so a form letter rejection felt like a step backward for me.

At the same time, it makes me want to try even harder to sell there again.  Rejections are always disappointing, but over time, you learn that you can’t dwell on them too much; you learn what you can from them and move on.  In that light, I’ve already submitted one of the rejected stories to another market.  For the other, I am making a few minor changes, based on what the editors pointed out as possible problems, before I sent it off tomorrow.

Despite writing only 10 days in February, they were 9 consecutive days, the last 9 days of the month.  Then, too, when you look at overall hours spent on writing, or writing-related activities it breaks down to 16 hours in January (just shy of 1.5 hours for each day worked) and 17 hours in February (1.8 hours for each day worked).  As of this morning I have written for each of the last ten mornings, spending a total of about 2 hours each morning either writing or revising.

I’ve gotten myself back into a good schedule.  During the week, I get up at 5am and write until 7am, when Kelly and the baby are still asleep.  On the weekends, I write from 7-9 am.

I have completed 2 stories this year, one very short, the other, a good sized novelette.  This morning, I started my third story of the year, which I hope won’t exceed 6,000 words, and with luck, will be turned into a completed first draft by Saturday.  I didn’t write as much this morning, as I have been, because I am taking this story a bit more slowly, writing a little more deliberately, and not planning things out as well as I normally do.  I want to see where this one takes me.

At present, I’ve got two stories "out" at various markets, and a new one being reviewed by trusted critiquers and fellow-writers before sending it out.  My goal was 20 new stories this year.  I’m 10% of the way there with 16% of the year gone by.  With some shorter stories in the spring, I should be able to pick up the pace a bit.