Back to it...

I'm herding my ducks and in theory, they are in the process of scurrying back into line...  though some seem to be laying down on the job from time to time... but still laying is better than some other things they might be doing...

Let's just hope one lays the golden egg, though I won't hold my breath as... they're ducks... not a goose among 'em.


I suppose I could wax poetic about how badly I hate January, and how GLAD I am to be seeing its backside, though you all KNOW how I am about back sides, and that hating something isn't necessary for me to be pleased to see it...

So all I've got at the mo is a little news:

MY LAPTOP IS HOME!!!!  I had a NASTY virus/worm/parasite thing that each time I'd finally succeed in getting rid of would morph into some other form, so I took it to the vet... erm... computer version of the vet anyway... you know... for computerized ducks... and they reloaded my hard drive... Then it took me ages to remember how to reconnect the wireless to the DSL...

My Husband is Home

Note that was NOT all caps like the computer... you see, a fixed computer has no downside (even gave me an opportunity to reorganize my files).  A fixed husband who is trying to quit smoking is improved, but not without its drawbacks...  I REALLY want him to succeed and be healthy.  I REALLY want him to live a good long time (spent some time this week consoling a daughter who worried he wouldn't see her graduate from college or get married)--those are real fears if he doesn't succeed.  He may be 47, instead of old, but he had been VERY hard on himself for a LONG time.

My Deadlines are Met

In addition to the sick husband which meant I had to take a total of 2 sick days (one and two halves, but I know how to add fractions) I also have a deadline Monday that my boss will prefer to see the product on before I submit, so today was the day.  I made it (barely) but it meant that I've been absent from the internet until NOW.

It doesn't mean next week I can get back to playing at my desk for some portion of the day by any means--I've let other stuff fall to the side to get this done, but at least it helps.


The Wonky Duck

The writing is going to take a while to get back in line.  The book was going slow and I realized it was because I'd forgotten so many details, so before I finish, I am reading the first and second and making a brief outline (about two sentences per chapter) plus making notes on things I know I intended, but have forgotten to include until now.  It will all be better for it.

Oddly, there was a blog today on the agent view of this... just write the first and don't bother with the later ones unless someone wants them.  ARE YOU INSANE?  It is completely infeasible in my mind that three books could flow as a trilogy unless they were ALL done before the rewrite starts.  The point is taken--that if one of these doesn't cut it, you don't want to lose all three, but I refuse to believe a GOOD trilogy can possibly be written in isolation of it's counterparts. 

I recognize I am revealing reading and writing snobbery here (on probably a grandiose scale), but any trilogy written so disconnected from its brothers can't be written WELL (it might be entertaining).  I suppose those super-outliner types might succeed--or a VERY experienced writer--someone super-organized.  But I think most efforts undertaken this way are just books, not literature. 

There... my foot's in it now.  But I suppose if it weren't, you might not believe it was me...