I am Superman

Where did January go?

Unlike the last few years when the metro-DC and northern Virginia areas have had pretty significant snowstorms, February is starting out milk. It was in the mid-60s yesterday and so it is once again today. It’s a bit disconcerting, wearing a light jacket to work on February 1.

I finished January with 13,213 words of new fiction written, a little more than 2,000 words short of my goal. In February I need to turn up the heat a bit. My best opportunity for getting my writing done–between 5-6am–is being squandered because I am being lazy. I need to choose between laziness and writing and during the day, that choice is easy. It’s when the alarm goes off that the choice becomes more difficult.

But I’m giving myself a firm deadline. The first draft of the novella I’m working on (story #3) must be finished by February 22. That’s 3 weeks from today, and 22 days of writing (if you count today). It’s about time I got to work and wrote this thing. I’m excited about the story, but I can’t seem to overcome that laziness. We’ll see how things go tomorrow.

The February Locus is out and included in the issue is their recommended reading list for 2011. None of my stories made the list (I didn’t expect them to) but I know several people whose stories did make the list, as they should because they were good stories. Ken Liu is particularly impressive. He had stories everywhere in 2011, 3 of which appeared on the recommended reading list. He’s like a new incarnation of Robert Reed–prolific and quality all wrapped into one. If you see a Ken Liu story somewhere (and you pretty much can’t pick up an SF/F magazine without seeing his name) be sure to read it. (At the moment, I’m reading his novella, “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary”.)

I finished A Feast for Crows a few days ago and started right in on A Dance with Dragons. I’ll have more to say on the former some time soon. On that latter, I may take a break. There’s a ton of short fiction reading I have to do and my time is limited. But I’ll get back to it eventually.

Writers group tonight. It’s a critique night, the first of those I’ve been to in a while. I’ve read both pieces up for critique, one a long time ago, and the other early this morning. It’s nice to spend an evening with a bunch of writers.

Superbowl Sunday is coming up. I’m not a real football fan. Baseball is my thing, but with the Giants in the Superbowl, I’d be almost tempted to watch–if I could spare the time, which I can’t. That said, I’d take a team of 2-year-old’s over the Patriots if that were possible. That New York/New England rivalry is just too deep in my blood to think about it rationally. (Back when I lived in L.A., I used to go to Disneyland on Superbowl Sunday. No crowds.)

At work, I’ve been dealing with fallout from various changes that have been made so that I’ve been acting in a support capacity much more than a developer or business analyst lately. In many ways, it makes me long for those days when all I did was support. I was very, very good at it. People used to ask for me by name. It’s nice to be so good at something that people ask for you by name. It makes you feel like Superman. I look forward to the day when my writing is good enough that people will ask for it by name.

But it feels pretty good to still be able to delivery good support. Like I said, I am Superman.