between the rock and the cold, cold sea

Karate seriously takes it out of me. I'm going to have to hit the gym more often to improve aerobic fitness, I think.

#

Books 109-111, Fiction 104-106.

104. Liz Williams, Precious Dragon

Wow. And I mean, wow. Yet another weirdly mythic excellent adventure in Heaven, Hell and Singapore Three. Really, really good.

105. Timothy Zahn, Night Train to Rigel

For my money, Zahn does space adventure like no one else in the business. This isn't a thinky book, it's not a particularly stunning book, but what it is, pure and simple, is fun.

106. Sonny Whitelaw, Stargate SG-1: City of the Gods.

Reading Stargate media tie-ins to decompress may not have been my best idea ever. This one hits a notch above 'meh' on my personal scale: it was on the nose in terms of characterisation, but it had some definite pacing and structure issues. I mean, seriously. And the peril? Lacked punch.

#

In other news, Duellist stands at 5.5K new words, and 20K hopefully-reuseable-at-some-point words. I'm behind in my aims, but it happens. The main thing is that I'm making some kind of progress, right?

Wednesdays, this term, I leave the house at half past six in the morning and don't get back until half past seven at night. I only have two lectures: trouble is, they're at opposite ends of the day, and when you throw in commuting times, that's my definition of a loooonng day.

*

Today, the nine o'clock lecturer was a no-show, so I had a bit over seven hours to amuse myself in. Two of them were spent in the gym. I'm out of condition, but perhaps not quite as badly as I thought I might be: it still takes me nearly twenty minutes to make 1.5 miles, but I believe I see hope for me yet.

*

The theology lecture...meh. Not worth waiting for, but I believe the good professor - a new one, this term - is something of a hardliner when it comes to attendance. Hell. Theology is interesting enough, don't get me wrong, but I'm slowly remembering why it was that 'religion' classes back in school used to get under my nerves. I remain convinced that God/gods is/are an unprovable hypothesis, and the institutions of organised religion - communal and ceremonial - are handy forms of social control.

Then again, the absence of evidence is not in itself evidence of absence. I do accept that. But you won't catch me believing in Iu Pater any time soon.

*

I appear to have recovered somewhat from whatever malaise afflicted my writing muscles last week. I'm generating words again these past two days - 700-800 each day. Not all on the same project: it breaks down something close to 60:40 untitled -pace-opera-thingy : new-story-that-was-going-to-be-short.

And it was going to be short. But it's at 1K now, and showing all signs of rapidly growing into a monster.

*

Tired now. I should probably sleep.

watching LA burn through the night.



January 14, 2007 Progress Notes:

untitled space opera thingy

Words today: 1,300
Words total: 9,800
Reason for stopping: Close enough for horseshoes and handgrenades.
Exercise: Still injury. No exercise today for me.
Tyop du Jour: N/A
Words MS Word Doesn't Know: conn, medkit
Mean Things: the possibility of future unpleasantness draws closer
Books in progress: Jim Butcher, Storm Front, Henry Chadwick, The Early Church.
Books finished: Scott Westerfeld, Midnighters: Touching Darkness and Midnighters: Blue Noon. Thoughts below.
The glamour: Self-injury, as recounted above.


Day 9:

9,800 / 67,500 (14.5%)

Week ending Jan 14

7,770 / 5,500 (141.3%)

*

Fiction 7&8, Books 8&9, 2007: Touching Darkness and Blue Noon.

You remember where I said a couple of days ago that Westerfeld writes absolute crack?

Well, my opinion hasn't changed.

In Touching Darkness, the Midnighters discover that the darklings can do worse things to them than kill them. This is much more Rex's and Dess's and Melissa's book, much like The Secret Hour was Jessica's, and the fate Rex faces out in the desert has the potential to change him utterly.

In Blue Noon, the Fate of the World (tm) is at state, but the execution is a hell of a lot less clichéd than I just made it sound. After the events of Touching Darkness, the five Midnighters could do with a chance to regroup. But with the blue time coming - unexpectedly and unprecedentedly - during the day, that's exactly what they don't have.

Pleasant light reading. Westerfeld's YA stuff is habit-forming.

and his face grew grey to hear

January 13, 2007 Progress Notes:

untitled space opera thingy

Words today: 1,400
Words total: 8,500 by MS wordcount
Reason for stopping: quota and more than quota. Also, tired now.
Exercise:

I have a shoulder injury. From sitting typing in a comfy chair. I exaggerate only slightly when I say: Can't. Move. Torso.

No exercise today for me.

Tyop du Jour: Caba sleinty willed him not to interrupt. The word is silently, fingers, silently.
Words MS Word Doesn't Know: unmodded, ident
Mean Things: the unpleasantness has yet to gather force, but there is much distrust to spread around.
Books in progress: Jim Butcher, Storm Front, Henry Chadwick, The Early Church.
Books finished: Scott Westerfeld, Midnighters: Touching Darkness and Midnighters: Blue Noon. Thoughts forthcoming tomorrow.
The glamour: Self-injury, as recounted above.

Day 8:

8,500 / 67,500 (12.6%)

Week ending Jan 14

5,770 / 5,500 (104.9%)

*

So, after 5K of flailing, the book finally has a vague direction. I cross my fingers, knock on wood, spit on the hearth, and hope this trend continues.

January 12, 2007 Progress Notes:

untitled space opera thingy

Words today: 1300
Words total: 7,000 by MS wordcount
Reason for stopping: quota
Exercise: none. I am weak.
Tyop du Jour: N/A
Words MS Word Doesn't Know: Word does not know 'ain't'. This does not surprise me.
Mean Things: possibly a death
Books in progress: Jim Butcher, Storm Front, Henry Chadwick, The Early Church (which is history, and for college).
Books finished: Scott Westerfeld, Midnighters: The Secret Hour.
The glamour: I still haven't organised my college notes, and I'm into the second term.

Day 7:

7,000 / 67,500 (10.4%)

Week ending 14 Jan

4,370 / 5,500 (79.5%)

*

( Fiction 6, Book 7 2007 )

I think tonight is holiday night from the writing quota. Too much theology class is bad for my brain.

Also, my day started when the wind woke me up at 0430. 0530, I could live with. But as it turned out, I ended up with four and a half hours sleep. I do not function well on less than six hours, at this point in the week.

I'm ahead on points, but I'll catch up another thousand words over the next three days. (1350 words a day. When I'm awake again, can do.)

Day 6: 0 (zero) words.

5,700 out of 67,500.

it smells like gasoline


January 10, 2007 Progress Notes:

untitled space opera thingy

Words today: 1011
Words total: 5,700 by MS wordcount
Reason for stopping: quota
Exercise: Gym. 1.5 miles treadmill (17 mins.). Weights. Pathetic attempt at pullup.
Tyop du Jour: Oh, the typos! The horror!

There were too many to count, because I am tired, but no funny ones.

Words MS Word Doesn't Know: underlit, yottabytes
Mean Things: arrested!
Books in progress: Jim Butcher, Storm Front, Henry Chadwick, The Early Church (which is history, and for college).
The glamour: I am behind with my college reading. Boo.

5,700 / 67,500 (8.4%)

Week ending 15 Jan:

3,070 / 5,500 (55.8%)

*

I've just realised. My college trip to Poland falls in the middle of this 90 day writing commitment thing. That's a week out of writing time.

I'd better write a bit faster, hadn't I?

with the angels of passion

January 9, 2007 Progress Notes:

untitled space opera thingy

Words today: 1040
Words total: 4,700 by MS wordcount
Reason for stopping: quota
Exercise: none. Maybe situps and pushups later. I dunno.
Tyop du Jour: N/A
Words MS Word Doesn't Know: microbodies, planetfall
Mean Things: self-wounding for the cause
Books in progress: Jim Butcher, Storm Front
The glamour: commuting. It is with the horror.

I need to figure out a proper plot for this thing soon, don't I? Not just fling Jekal Bryn, man-machine extraordinaire, from one explosion to another. *sigh* Writing is hard.

4,700 / 67,500 (6.9%)

week ending 15 Jan:

2,055 / 5,500 (37.4%)

*

College today. My two lectures are at opposite ends of the timetable. 0900 and 1600. That's a lot of empty space in between, and shoves me right into the rush hour coming home. (I miss the morning crush and the fainting trains by going for one at quarter to seven.)

While I was supposed to be doing study-type things I achieved words, instead.

...I think I'll just lie here quietly until the feeling returns to my brain.

January 8, 2007 Progress Notes:

untitled space opera thingy

Words today: 1015
Words total: 3650 by MS wordcount
Reason for stopping: quota and then some
Exercise: Gym: 15 mins treadmill (1.3 miles), weights
Tyop du Jour: N/A
Words MS Word Doesn't Know: headware, glidecar
Mean Things: ambush
Books in progress: Jim Butcher, Storm Front
The glamour: There is no glamour here. There may be trad music later, but that has no glamour. It is the anti-glamour.

3,650 / 67,500 (3.9%)

And because it is Monday:

week ending 15 Jan:

1,015 / 5,500 (18.5%)

January 7, 2007 Progress Notes:

untitled space opera thingy

Words today: 1055
Words total: 2,630 by MS wordcount
Reason for stopping: quota and then some
Exercise: Short run. Later there will be situps and pushups.
Tyop du Jour: N/A
Words MS Word Doesn't Know: eejit, androgyne
Mean Things: the copilot is still dead
Books in progress: Jim Butcher, Storm Front
Books finished: Judith Herrin, Women in Purple: Rulers of Medieval Byzantium.

( Nonfiction 1, Book 6, 2007 )

The glamour: Killed the essay that will not die. Ran out of fruit juice.

2,630 / 67,500 (3.9%)

Things to do tomorrow:

1. College.
--(a) library
--(b) deliver essay
--(c) lecture.
2. Gym.
3. Deliver CVs in order to find work. ETA: gods and little fishes, what happened to my memory? No, don't answer that.
4. Sort shit out for the rest of the week.
5. Write 1000 words.
6. Thoughts on Gentle's Ilario.