between the rock and the cold, cold sea

For Tor.com:

Read and review:

27/3 Gratton, Tessa, The Queens of Innis Lear 800 words
3/4 Killjoy, Margaret The Barrow Will Send What It May (Danielle Cain #2) - 580 words
10/4 Bledsoe, Alex The Fairies of Sadieville 700 words
17/4 Morris, Cass From Unseen Fire 800 words
17/4 Newman, Emma Before Mars (Planetfall universe) 700 words
4/18 Malka Older, Marie Brennan, Michael Underwood, Cassandra Khaw Born to the Blade
24/4 McDonald, Ian Time Was - 600 words
24/4 Caruso, Melissa, THE DEFIANT HEIR - 700 words

Sleeps With Monsters columns
- topic a Calvin and Sinclair F/F, 700 words
- topic b six hotly anticipated books, 1000 words (mostly blurbs)
- topic c Annihilation film, 650 words
- topic d Professor Marston and the Wonder Woman, 600 words
- topic e Bujold and Mackenzi Lee, 600 words


For Locus:

Read and review:

Gareth L. Powell, Embers of War (review)
Nicole Kornher-Stace, Latchkey
space opera by Baen? - Drake and Weber collaborators out soon 3100 words


Politics:

Meeting 15th March
agenda
minutes


Friends:

text Faith, set up lunch date?
boardgames March 10? next month
contact Connor?
contact Jane?
contact Christine?


Miscellaneous:

Log books read

Read
Rati Mehrotra, MARKSWOMAN
Alex Wells, BLOOD BINDS THE PACK
Kelly Robson, GODS, MONSTERS AND THE LUCKY PEACH<
Spencer Ellsworth, STARFIRE: MEMORY'S BLADE
John Kessell, PRIDE AND PROMETHEUS
Sue Burke, SEMIOSIS
Dhonielle Clayton, THE BELLES
Tom Miller, THE PHILOSOPHER'S FLIGHT

also read:
Aliette de Bodard, THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE
Claire O'Dell, A STUDY IN HONOUR

Write:
For Locus: review ARTIFICIAL CONDITION, ROGUE PROTOCOL, Kelly Robson, VOID BLACK SHADOW, THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE(Jan 20 deadline) review complete 3000 words

For Tor.com:

MARKSWOMAN review 1500 words
SEMIOSIS review 720 words
THE BELLES review 800 words
PRIDE AND PROMETHEUS review 800 words
THE PHILOSOPHER'S FLIGHT review 750 words
STARFIRE: MEMORY'S BLADE review 600 words

4 columns for SWM
- topic a Robson and de Bodard novellas, 700 words
- topic b Wells novellas, 700 words
- topic c Alex Wells and Claire O'Dell, 600 words
- topic d pregnancy and childrearing in SF, 800 words

politics
Meeting agenda
Meeting minutes
sort out email

travel
to New York
to Philadelphia

1. Events outside the house:

a) Gym, Wednesday

b) Meeting friends, Wednesday

c) cycling at least once

d) Gym, Friday - fail because weasels.


2. Review work with deadlines:

a) DUSK OR DARK OR DAWN OR DAY, Seanan McGuire, for Tor.com, January 10. - 700 words approx

b) THE COLD EYE, Laura Anne Gilman, for Tor.com, January 10. - 700 words approx.

c) WINDWITCH, Susan Dennard, for Tor.com, January 10.

The following are optional this to-do list:

d) PASSING STRANGE, Ellen Klages, Patreon, January 15. - 700 words approx

e) MARTIANS ABROAD, Carrie Vaughn, for Tor.com, January 17.

f) TREMONTAINE S1, for Locus, January 20.

g) BOOKBURNERS S1, for Locus, January 20.

h) DREADNOUGHT, April Daniels, for Tor.com, January 24.

i) 2xSWM column, Tor.com.

j) rewrite on OF FIRE AND STARS piece.


3. Politics:

a) Read county council service delivery plan

b) write letter re: homelessness

c) write TDs about moral imperative to support refugees

d) write TDs about green energy vs. carbon bubble

e) figure out how to join the Irish Council for Civil Liberties


4. Emails:

a) Email CT

b) Email EH

c) Sort out business of SBW email.

d) Message JC re: meeting in Jan.

e) check in with FM re: thing.


5. Internet business:

a) update booklog if applicable

b) write blog post - politics? ROGUE ONE?


6. Miscellaneous/household:

a) laundry!

b) healthy fooding?

c) paperwork re: unemployed now - acquired

d) tax paperwork

e) laundry again.


7. Personal academic renaissance

a) Latin, chapters 1-3 of Wheelock.

b) Greek, some pieces of the Shield of Heracles.

---

List of things to review

For Locus:

March 20:
Winter Tide, Ruthanna Emrys

January 20:
Tremontaine S1
Bookburners S1

For Tor.com
January 10:
Dennard, Susan, Windwitch
Gilman, Laura Anne, The Cold Eye
McGuire, Seanan, Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day

January 17:
Vaughn, Carrie, Martians Abroad

January 24:
Daniels, April, Dreadnought

February 1:
Palmer, Ada, Seven Surrenders

February 14:
Carey, Jacqueline, Miranda and Caliban

February 28:
Lewis, Erika, Game of Shadows

March 14:
Murad & Shurin, eds, The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories

---

Politics links:

CoCo Meetings; CoCo Data; CoCo Councillors; CoCo Committees

---

Further dates:

Social Group Open Mic Night: 1900 Wednesday 11 January

Dáil returns 1400 Tuesday 17 January

ARC Open Meeting: 1900 Wednesday 18 January

LGBTQ+ Book Club: 1830 Thursday 26 January (HUNTRESS)

1. Events outside the house:

a) gym, Thursday

b) ARC meeting, Thursday evening @1900, Outhouse.

c) gym, probably Saturday

d) meet AO'R probably Saturday.


2. Review work with deadlines before 20 December:

a) GATHER HER ROUND for Locus - 620 words

b) TREMONTAINE S1. for Locus (probably not actually possible since I have read one ep, may have to do January)

c) AFTER THE CROWN for Tor.com - 700 words approx

d) THE MOUNTAIN OF KEPT MEMORY for Tor.com (still haven't finished reading, probably NOT GONNA HAPPEN)

e) Two columns for Tor.com - total 1500 words probably?

f) EMPIRE GAMES for Locus. - 850 words


3. Collection

a) edit email for Aqueduct.


4. Politics:

a) investigate powers of county council

b) read Dáil transcript at the weekend

c) possibly summarise i) most interesting bits, ii) activity of local TDs

d) write TDs about moral imperative to support refugees

e) write TDs about moral imperative regarding homelessness this winter.

f) join Irish Refugee Council with money


5. Emails:

a) Contact JC.

b) Contact JB.

c) Contact ST.

d) Locus recommended list email


6. Internet business:

a) update booklog

b) write blog post

c) sort out Patreon

d) research consulting editor/proofreading rates


7. Miscellaneous/household:

a) order giftmas gifts

b) laundry

c) bed linen

d) foodstuffs

e) update catalogue

f) tidy shit up

g) laundry that you missed the first time

h) take parent to cinema?

This is the first year where, as of January, I'm not in the middle of any large undertaking. (Like a degree.) It feels very peculiar, and a little disconcerting.

This is also the year in which I turn thirty. If three-score-and-ten holds true, that means I've forty years left in which to do shit. Forty years... doesn't sound as long as it used to.

Instead of dwelling on my lack of externally imposed structure and upon my mortality, though, I will see if I can't write out some goals to aim for.

---

What do I want to do this year?

I want to get a job that pays a regular wage, preferably a living one. But I can't control that.

I want to spend more time learning languages.

I want get back into a reliable exercise schedule.

I want to return to martial arts and/or climbing.

I want to see my friends.

I want to keep in touch with my friends.

I want to write a book that is fiction.

I want to write a book proposal to turn my thesis into a Real Book.

I want to write a book proposal for another nonfiction book at the intersection of my interests.

I want to follow up the MS of the review collection I submitted for consideration.

I want to keep reviewing books and writing columns.

I want to discharge my responsibilities as an Arthur C. Clarke Award juror.

I want to be less sick and be sick less.

I want to not die.

I want to make a difference, somehow, in some small way.

I want to be a better person. (I always want to be a better person.)

---

I guess that'll do for going on with.

Six point five hours' sleep last night, between 0400 and 1030: I remember when six hours' sleep used to be all I needed five days a week. (But I was younger then. I did not appreciate nearly enough the benefits of being seventeen at the time.)

Today I managed to go to the gym, thus checking off the "Do not completely give in to the sloth" box on my mental list of accomplishments. I am a sad, sad athlete, but I think I'm probably going to have to let a lot of things, bar a minimum amount of maintenance, slide until late April/first full thesis draft. There are limits to human capacity, and I'm about at mine.

I was counting up what I'd accomplished in February. It is rather a lot, considering how little it feels like at the time:

Approximately 2000 words of thesis;
Seven reviews averaging 750 words each (say 5000 words approximately)
One 1000-word column
One paper polished and presented to the general public
Books read to a number I don't have to hand, but certainly more than half a dozen.

That's not nothing. Maybe I count as a reasonably productive human being after all.

What do I have to do before Monday?

1. Translate 40 lines of Greek.
2. Advance conference paper to first draft completion stage. (2K words from now approx.)
3. Make some inquiries about reviews.
4. Exercise.

Remind myself that I will not have enough time to read any of the library books I requested this week (the two by Ian McDonald, the one by Catherine Bush that leahbobet was talking about) and so shouldn't fret myself about going to the library: the books can go back to stacks, and all will be well.

Things I am not going to do:

1. Worry about how I will survive from August 2012 if the funding doesn't happen.

Today's total of accomplished things stands at: two Greek classes attended, one modern, one ancient. Soon I will go to the gym for a short run and some climbing.

Then tonight and tomorrow the plan is to finish a draft of my seminar paper, finish a review, prep both sets of Greek for Friday, meet someone for coffee, and go to jujutsu. I may have to accept the fact that the Greek will not happen until Wednesday. Which is also supposed to have climbing. Thursday is scheduled Friend Geek Time, and Friday is for classes and making the seminar to have a presentation with pictures, because otherwise my words will make little sense.

This is all I am doing this week. It doesn't seem like a lot.

I refuse to worry about more. (Although, dear universe, it would be nice if I were to be paid this week? It would be very pleasant indeed?)

(Universe: *resounding silence*)

Things to do next week:

Give seminar paper.
Write more conference paper.
Greek.
Evening talk to attend.
Climbing.
Travel funding form.
Review.

Saturday will be a Day Off. Completely.

Now all I have to do is survive that long.

(Class. Gym. Essay. Guest lecture. And then it will be seven p.m. and I will entrain for home, and sweet, sweet bed. I can hardly wait.)

It's Friday.

At last.

So tonight I can make food, do housework, organise my writing files, and watch Criminal Minds, in that order.

Tomorrow, I can write 1000 words of assignment and draft please-employ-me letters for summer archaeology fieldwork. And on Sunday, I can write another 1000 words of assignment and do two hours' web-based study.

Hello, willpower. Welcome back.