between the rock and the cold, cold sea

An hour's work today has given me a respectable -- somewhat -- damnable presentation.

(Scholars tend to agree that Isaiah 11:6-9 is probably a Deuteronomistic addition to the text. I have stated this is several different ways, and made stuff up about kingship, Ahaz and Isaiah, in the case that it is an Isaianic original oracle.)

I have also written.


Progress, Tuesday 15 January, 2008

The duellist of Alusind

New words: 560
Total words: 6,020

Reasons for stopping: college
Darling du jour: Not today.

Tyop du jour: N/A
Words Word doesn't know: N/A
Mean things: uncomfortable witnesses, interfering politicians.


I'm not entirely sure the scene I wrote today justifies its existence in the narrative. But perhaps thirty or fifty or eighty thousand words down the line hindsight will surprise and reward me.

Or, you know, I'll take it out in the second draft.


I was thinking about my process today. I get maybe three hundred words down in an hour when I concentrate, less if I'm being fussy. That's not slow, though I'd like, you know, to be a faster (and better) writer. I don't usually have more than an hour to devote to writing, so those three hundred need to be the right words, or at least not the wrong ones. I can't say, It's a first draft: fix it later. Because I don't want to waste what little time I have.

I look forward to seeing how this works out when I finish this and go back to revise it.

---

Climbed. Sent one route -- the easiest one, of course -- and fell off two more. My upper arms do not like me right now.

But I wandered up to the outdoorsy shop up off Grafton St., and asked a very nice lad to set aside a harness, carabiner, and belay device for me, so I'll pick that up tomorrow. Then I won't have to pay for equipment rental anymore, and possibly I'll get to do some more climbing. (Twice or three times a week, maybe. If I can find someone to climb with regularly.)

Tomorrow, at least, I have no physical exercise -- beyond running for the train -- scheduled. So I need to do some printing, and get a good start on this next essay, and write up that review I owe the SR. And get the application form for Schols. And figure out a budget, and maybe have myself an evening of curled-up introvertedness. (But probably not, since I have quite a bit to get done.)

Expect to see less of me until March. Much less of me. (I'm typing this on the train, since by the time I get home, I'll have the energy to post this, eat, conduct the most necessary of necessary emailings, and then fall over. Thud. Like that.) There is so much in my life that is just not getting done lately.

(I should see how much more of my society responsibilities I can push off onto the rest of the committee. Because stress, it does not agree with me. And I refuse to repeat 2006. Ever. Again.)

Tired now.

I have a damnable presentation due Thursday. Isaiah 11:6-9, social and historical location thereof. Tomorrow, I have a date with the library in all its glory, and I'm not coming home until it's all-but-done.

Damnit.


Progress, Monday 14 January, 2008

The duellist of Alusind

New words: 730
Total words: 5, 460

Reasons for stopping: college work
Darling du jour: He swallowed, pride like thorns in his throat.

Tyop du jour: N/A
Words Word doesn't know: N/A
Mean things: noon, interfering politicians.

---

Gymmed this morning. Barely a twelve-minute mile, bah. On the other hand, not bad for someone who, in the end, achieved perhaps three complete hours of sleep last night.

Good things: government gave me monies (earlier than expected, woo!). Still not dead. Family worries slowly subsiding.

Undone things: plane tickets need alterations. Doctors' appointments, arranging thereof. Accomodation for Calgary. Reading stuff for people.

...Must get climbing kit with nice monies. That would save money in the long run.

Going to fall over now.

Progress: Saturday, December 29, 2007

The duellist of Alusind


Words today: 460
Words total: 1500

I may be warming back up to this.

Reason for stopping: quota, meatpuppet needs sleep.
Exercise: a walk
Darling du jour: She licked the juice -- sweet, with the faintest undertone of tartness -- from her fingers. It worked its stinging way into a crack in her upper lip, and so her half-smile turned into a half a wince.

I spent long enough working on this sentence. And asked for enough help with the taste of peaches. I ought to love it.

Tyop du jour: N/A
Words MS Word doesn't know: overthought
Research: seasonal fruits, the taste of peaches
Mean things: Hello, politics. You'll behave for me, won't you?

Books in progress: textbooks, Louise Bruit Zaidman and Pauline Schmitt Pantel (English translation by Paul Cartledge), Religion in the Ancient Greek City, Tobias Bucknell, Crystal Rain.

The glamour: More essay. Conquest of the sink of doom.

Progress: Thursday, December 27, 2007

The duellist of Alusind


Words today: 351
Words total: 1,100

I did some on the 25th, too, but didn't track that.

Reason for stopping: quota
Exercise: some jogging
Darling du jour: if they don't suck, that's the best that can be hoped for.

Tyop du jour: N/A
Words MS Word doesn't know: chairleg
Research: code duello
Mean things: Recent violent bereavement.

Books in progress: textbooks, Rosalind Thomas, Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece, Tobias Bucknell, Crystal Rain

The glamour: about 700 words of essay, spending A Lot of money on plane tickets.

So sleepy now.

Progress: Saturday, December 22, 2007

The duellist of Alusind


Words today: 342
Words total: 400

Yeah, I started again. From scratch. Hopefully with a better idea of where I'm going, this time.

Reason for stopping: quota
Exercise: some walking
Darling du jour: "Bad night?" Jolay leaned on the doorframe, hands folded loosely over the belt of her long trousers. Deliberately in view.

This year's lesson: how to make sentences do more work.

Alas, I fear it'll be next year's lesson, too.

Tyop du jour: N/A
Words MS Word doesn't know: stickily. (I'm not joking.)
Research: Renaissance dress styles, Georgian dress styles. Bones of the wrist.
Mean things: Scars, old wounds, unexpected visitors.

Books in progress: textbooks, Rosalind Thomas, Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece, Tobias Bucknell, Crystal Rain

The glamour: Family. 300 words on the social organisation in dark age Greece essay. Holiday madness.


One good thing about the long fallow period with regard to the novel: I know a few things about Santander Cray now that I didn't before. I knew she drank too much. I knew she didn't like to be touched. I knew she pulled reckless stupid self-destructive stunts even though she's old enough to know better. But I didn't know why.

Now I think maybe I have an idea as to why, and things fit a little better.

(You didn't need to know this. But I'm sharing anyway.)

Progress, week ending Sat 13 Oct:

Goal/week: 2,100
New words: 2,335
(Excess carried over: 235)
Total words: 12,900
Typo du jour: if indead

12,900 / 100,000 (12.9%)

This isn't counting the 20K or so I've been gradually cannibalising in the service of the new story. Cannibalised words, to trick me into thinking I'm more productive than I am.

300 words a day is a nice, easy number. Perfectly manageable, even with everything else. And still enough to (with luck) turn out a draft of this bugger within the next ten months or so.

Current reading includes Oswyn Murray, Early Greece (and boy does the man have preconceptions, if not prejudices, about 'primitive' versus 'civilised' societies) and Paul Cartledge, Sparta: An Epic History (in love with the Spartan myth, but making the attempt to be fair and balanced). Neither, yet, assigned reading, but I comfort myself with the thought that it's best to be prepared.

My future involves close readings of Amos and Jeremiah, an Anchor Biblical Dictionary, and yet more readings in the history of Ancient Greece.

Fortunately (and man am I fortunate), I read at least one of the main texts for one of my courses over the summer. Though I did not know this at the time. So having a broad familiarity with Marc van de Mieroop's A History of the Ancient Near East, I believe I shall refuse to panic about re-reading him in more detail.

I do like the Blackwell History of the Ancient World series so far, though. They're clearly organised and well-presented, and they dry out quickly when you're caught out in a rainstorm with one. Which is always a plus. The only downside is that they're about A4 size, which makes them not exactly optimum travel reading, but that's a really, really minor complaint.

Fiction 12, 13 & 14, Books 13, 14, 15:

Lilith Saintcrow, Working for the Devil and Dead Man Rising.

Yes. Just yes. These books were exactly what I wanted when I was reading them. Juicy worldbuilding, a broken-in-interesting-ways main character, a sufficient amount of violence, explosions, a slight leavening of angst, and just the right degree of fraught-ness. (Fraught-ness is not a word. If anyone has the right word for what I'm describing here, please let me know.)

Overall, I think, Dead Man Rising is a better book than Working for the Devil - it certainly worked better for me - but both of them are solidly good.

Brian Jacques, Triss.

I hadn't picked up a new Redwall novel in five years until this one, and I don't think it's the warm fuzzies of youth at work (considering that I reread Martin the Warrior and Mariel of Redwall only last year, and did not find them terrible) when I say that this is the worst Redwall book I've ever read. Truly. The jacket blurb is the most interesting thing about it.


January 14, 2007 Progress Notes:

The duellist of Alusind

Words today: 1,002
Words total: 5,000
Reason for stopping: Study. Bah.
Exercise: No exercise today for me. Bad me.
Tyop du Jour: N/A
Words MS Word Doesn't Know: swordhanger, smallsword
Mean Things: wrongfully accused of murder
Books in progress: Jim Butcher, Storm Front, Henry Chadwick, The Early Church.

Yes, Storm Front is still in progress. I do not think I like it, much.

Today, 700 words.
Total: 12000 words. Approximately.

I wish I had more words. I'm doing the writing-out-of-sequence thing, and though it's helping, it's confusing.

Yegods. Head, meet desk. Desk, meet head.

Coherence later.

zzzzzzzzz