author: Nicole J. LeBoeuf

Hey-checkitout-lookover-here. Someone else made some resolutions for the coming year. And they're pretty good. A goodly helping of writerly resolutionnessage, right over there, along with a lovely dollop of total anal-retentive "We Love Outlines" structural organization. Man after my own heart, that.

Not that I can totally adopt any particular one of those resolutions, of course. Everyone's got different goals. But the important thing is to make one's own goals concrete, solid enough to throw numbers into it and wrap it up in an outline. I'd do the same at the moment, only it's late at night and I'm totally chicken. Were I well-rested and more gutsy at the moment, I'd probably say something like "1,000 words of fresh new prose or 2 hours of revision every day, 5 days a week, just like Carolyn See says to do; also, toss three old stories back in the slush this month and at least one new one next month. And then there's the two novels I'm editing...."

The problem with me when I'm gutsy is, I'm stupid. Who the hell can do all that crap on top of 15,000 contracted words of researched and interviewed nonfiction?

It's something to try for, sure. Just not something to beat myself over the head with.

I do know I can't do 3 critiques a week. More like one and a half, to take care of both Critters and my local writing class. But I can at least resolve to do that much. The nice thing about manuscript critiquing is, every manuscript I read puts me in mind of manuscripts of my own. Usually the sort that are languishing at the back of a drawer, or maybe a third of the way down the directory file listing when sorted by date in descending order. I should probably add "Putting Down Roots" to my list of stories that ought to go back into the slush, for instance. And "Somewhere Else Red And Green."

(Caution: Short story titles subject to change without notice.)

A new New Year's resolution for me: I shall be prolific. Primarily in my finishing of work and submitting of work, and secondarily in my beginning of new work, I shall be prolific. I shall totally be able to apply that adjective, "prolific," unto myself.

With a straight face, even.

No, really!

This is not an Actually Writing Blog Entry. This is merely an Announcement. The Announcement goes something like this:

"Hey you! Yeah, you. You know who you are. I gotcher RSS right here."

That is all. Check back tonight for your regularly scheduled Actually Writing Blog Entry. Well, your several-days-late Actually Writing Blog Entry. Theoretically, that passtime known as "Writing" will have happened by then. It bloody well ought to have, anyway.

Oh my Gods it's a book it has a lot of words in it and like a million things to keep straight like subplots and character development I mean look at the sheer freakin' mass of notes I'm taking and--

*wheeze*

Yeah. And that's just the first few scenes. Er. Yikes?

In other news, "Trilobite" has a word count. With actual words in it. Go me.

Also, I am inches closer to having a new laptop. WAC called Comp Ren back and OK'd the buy-out. Only, they OK'd it based on the price of the Averatec 3250 I was eying the other day, not at the price of the actual laptop I'm replacing. That's a $300 difference, and rather obnoxious given that I've actually decided on the 3360 model which is, while still less expensive than the broken 5110H, $200 more expensive than the 3250. So Comp Ren has called WAC back, and I hope to hear from them by, oh..... spring.

Note to self:

A thorough critique of a 6500-word story takes a Lot Of Time. Do not, in future, save it for the last minute.

Do not, likewise, save work on one's own writing for last minute.

So there.

Resolution the First: To submit the first few chapters of The Drowning Boy as my application to Viable Paradise. This will happen before my Mardi Gras train trip home, or by the time I've finished the current rewrite, whichever comes first.

Resolution the Second: To submit The Golden Bridle to the National Novel Publishing Year process, and to submit it to Delacorte no later than October 31, 2006. To that end, I have printed out the manuscript and am now beginning the first read-through.

Resolution the Third: To renew my commitment to One Professional Submission Per Month. To that end, I will put "Turbulence" and "Heroes To Believe In" back into the slush by the end of this month, and I hope to finish and submit "Threnody For Trilobite Blue" by the end of next month. (Speaking of "Trilobite," can anyone tell me whether any part of the mountain ranges now in Oklahoma were peeking up above sea level during the Early Devonian? I'm having a hard time finding this out.)

Resolution the Fourth: To be a member in good standing of the Critters community, faithfully submitting at least one critique per week, and submitting "Trilobite" unto their tender mercies by the end of this month.

Resolution the Fifth: To engage in more reliably money-seeking writerly behavior alongside my fictional pursuits. To that end, I have, as has already been noted, accepted a couple new work-for-hire projects, one due late January, the other mid-February.

Resolution The Highest: To act like a friggin' writer, dammit! I mean it this year!

...Wish me luck.

Nearly got to sleep on time last night, for a change. Took the Ancient Decrepit Laptop to bed with me and fell asleep around 9:45 rereading the first Amy's POV chapter. Woke up again not much later, though. Tried to really get to sleep but no go. Started working on the novel again around 2:30 AM instead.

I think I'm turning nocturnal.

I'm not sure how useful it was that, as a result of reading too many reviews of the Narnia movie and critiques of the books, as I fought to stay asleep between 10 and Midnight last night, I drifted in and out of dreams that conflated Amy and Todd from The Drowning Boy with Peter and Susan from The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe.

In any case. I'm skipping Chapter Thirteen for now because I'm not entirely sure what the Amy-and-Todd-in-Gasworks-Park interlude should consist of, and I've gotten as far into Chapter Fourteen as a description of the Depths of Ereshkegal. We haven't actually met the Shark Goddess Herself yet. I'm still deciding how that will go down. Again, trying very, very hard not to end up sounding like I'm ripping off Diane Duane (who, by the way, has a most excellent blog over here; if you are at all interested in ever seeing a sequel to To Visit The Queen, you should read this particular post). It'll be hard, if only because in Deep Wizardry she really nailed the description of a larger-than-life Great White, so that every time I reach for the right words I end up grabbing a handful of hers.

I suppose the key to this is characterization. I mean, duh. The two characters might share the same species, but they're two different characters nevertheless. I don't know that I'm looking forward to meeting mine.

Mwahahaha. My web interface works now. It lives! It lives! Well, the manuscript addition and edit bits of it, anyway. Hence the as-yet-unwritten short story linked to this entry. Mwahahaha!

Disclaimer: Science fiction alert. Research needed. Title and setting of short story subject to change without notice. You have been warned.

Sorry for the cliche, but it's not. It's an announcement that I'm working on a new short story--yeah, I do that sometimes--but that it doesn't have a title yet or has even been added to my manuscript-and-submissions-logging database, because I've been all hell-bent to get the web interface for said database up and running so I can finally use something easier than phpMyAdmin across several tables to enter new records.

Ah, HTML. HTML, PHP, MySQL. Those lovely procrastination tools that keep on justifying themselves.

Just to keep this entry from being a total waste, behold! I give you an open call for submissions to an anthology: She Is Such A Geek. Gals only. Personal essays requested. All forms of Geekdom welcome. I think. Don't ask me, I'm just passing on the link. Same with the person whose web page I've linked to. So, make sure you note the email address of the actual editors of the actual anthology; don't bug Jed Hartman about it.

Woke up quite late today, toddled down to the mailbox, and found my official form rejection letter from Wizards Of The Coast regarding The Drowning Boy. Reactions?

1. Darn! I could have sworn my three-chapter excerpt was irresistable!
2. Figures. My synopsis and chapter outline were teh suxx0r.
3. Whew! Now I don't have to worry about racing the phone call with my rewrite!
4. Whoo-hoo! Another number located! Mine is 166! ...I have no idea what that means.

Like I said in the AW thread, I'm going to keep working on this one through December, hoping to have the rewrite close to finished. Then in January I'm going to primarily do whatever the NaNoPubYe Plan says to do with The Golden Bridle, making sure to schedule time for other projects as well. Like short stories. And work-for-hire projects. Etc.

So. Time to hit chapter 13. More later tonight. Probably.

This is a public announcement that Chapter Twelve is done. It contains things that were not planned as part of the original chapter outline, even considering that I've diverged from the structure of the original chapter outline already anyway. There's the potential beginning of a "keep swimming or die" theme, and the achievement of oceanic satori, and a cameo by the fabled Leviathan.

Next up: A conversation with the Shark Goddess, and an interlude with Amy and Todd back on land. I'm not quite sure in which order these will appear. If one sequence doesn't work out, the other probably will.

I'm a little worried. We just met the great beast Behemoth, and now I have to establish that the Shark is in fact all that and twice the bag of chips. I mean, it's pretty easy to say "it could have eaten the Leviathan in two bites," right, but how the hell am I supposed to convince anyone of that? I mean, it would be like C. S. Lewis trying to describe Aslan after having the children meet King Kong. Divinity, yes, it's divine and all that, but we're comparing it with Frickin' Huge here.

Of course, pretty much everything seems impossible when you're sleep deprived. With your permission, I think I shall collapse now. G'night.