I started off the day getting an oil change and all the other check the car stuff that seems wise before a cross-country driving escapade. Then I proceeded to the coffee house, where I occupied their lovely leather couch (very comfy), ate a piece of blueberry coffee cake about half the size of my head, and drank my bottomless cup of coffee. Adrianne and Allison showed up while I was there, so on one of my breaks I got to spend some time with them, which was nice. I like having friends to bump into at the coffee shop.

Then I came home with fantastic intentions of doing all the laundry, which didn’t happen. And after some reading, I came back to work on the novel. It’s been a good day. Low stress, fair to high productivity, and generally a good vibe. I’ve hit 40% on the revisions, though I do have to go back and finish a scene in chapter 11. It seems to be flowing better when I bounce back and forth to it rather than pounding on it, trying to make things happen. One more scene to tweak in chapter 13, and then I’m on to chapter 14 for tomorrow. Still a touch behind, technically, but I’ll be ahead by close of day tomorrow.

Here’s another bit of teaser from the novel:

Hoshea’s body twisted in another violent convulsion and then lay still. Lemuel knelt to comfort him, but I could only stare in rapt horror at the spot just above the priest and the boy. Dark as fresh ink and swirled with sick yellow tendrils, the shadow writhed in the air. A heartbeat later, it dissipated. A wave of hate and black rage rolled over me and a shiver ran through the crowd, and then everything lay calm.

Cool, eh?

Finally, this might be one of my favorite signs ever. I took this picture myself. The sign really exists–it’s in the parking lot of Panera Bread on Montgomery Road just east of I-71 in Cincinnati. And I just wonder how many people backed into the pole before they put this up:

Deadline work continues. I really dislike rewriting scenes. Some edits are quick and easy, and others are rather like slogging through knee-deep mud with two feet of water on top of that. I’m currently working through a section of the latter, which means I suspect I’ll be turning in ten chapters instead of twelve as I had hoped. But we shall see. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll develop mudshoes (like snowshoes only for mud, get it?) and start moving faster through this bit.

I just downloaded the latest Third Day album and all I have to say is that they’ve got another one on my immediate ‘favorites’ list. ‘This is Who I Am’ and ‘Revelation’ are my current favorites, but I’m sure it will all even out over time.

If you were condemned to a life of only listening to the music of two artists for the rest of your life (if they’re still producing, you would have access to new albums as they came out), who would you choose?

For me? Third Day and Billy Joel. I think all life circumstances can be encountered appropriately with one or the other.

How about you?

I was just making a list of the things I need to do in the next few months (and the things I’m doing whether I need to or not, like driving to central New York) and I feel a distinct knot of panic settling somewhere in the vicinity of my stomach. The next month is particularly panic-inducing.

Someone (*coughcough* Will *cough*) suggested that I might have to curtail my reading for a while. Can you hear me wailing like the Wicked Witch of the West in the shower?

Remember how we’re out of chocolate chips and potatoes? Harbingers of the apocalypse? Clearly, I was not exaggerating.

. . . for the lack of posting lately. One might assume that I’ve been busy editing away at my manuscript, but one would only be partially correct. My parents are in town visiting, and between getting ready for that and a few other things, the weekend was rather busy with cleaning and other various whatnots.

Not to say that I haven’t been editing, just not as much as I had hoped.

Today Mom and I are going down to the outlet stores for some SHOPPING. Whee!

The inestimable Jim Hines, author of the Goblin books I really need to read, has provided the speculative fiction world with a gem. For anyone who’s not familiar with the song to which this obviously should be sung, just go to YouTube, look up Pirates of Penzance and listen to The Major-General’s Song.

I am the Very Model of a Modern SF Novelist

I am the very model of a modern SF novelist,
I’ve manuscripts space opera, anime, and fantasist,
I know the kings of fandom and the best flamewars historical
From Andrew Burt to LiveJournal, in order categorical;
I’m very well acquainted too, with matters editorial,
I keep my cover letters brief and never too suctorial,
About rejection etiquette I’m teeming with propriety,
With many cheerful facts about your online notoriety,
I’m very good at worldbuilding and proper use of ansibles;
I know the hyphenated names of beings unpronounceable:
In short, in matters space opera, anime, and fantasist,
I am the very model of a modern SF novelist.

I know our genre history, from H. G. Wells to Arthur Clarke,
I’ve read so much time travel, I’ve a pretty taste for paradox,
I quote in panel talks the wise advice of Crispin and Miss Snark,
I study wormholes, galaxies and theories about matter dark;
I can tell a work professional from books Publish America,
I know the Eye of Argon from Conan of Cimmeria!
Then I can hum the melody from every last John Williams score,
And whistle all the airs from that infernal film Fantastic Four.
I’ll write you books of goblin war and princesses who won’t conform,
And tell show you every detail of a goblin warrior’s uniform:
In short, in matters space opera, anime, and fantasist,
I am the very model of a modern SF novelist.

In fact, when I know what is meant by “grok” and “droid” and “FTL”,
When I can tell at sight the sword Excalibur from Anduril,
When twists in stories I perceive by reading just one paragraph,
And when I know precisely how to pen a clever epigraph,
When I have followed breakthroughs yearly in e-book technology,
When I know more of grammar than my profs from University–
In short, when you run out and buy and read every last book by me–
You’ll say a better novelist has never writ a fantasy.
My works even appear in many dialects European,
Thanks to the perserverence of my agent JABberwockian;
In short, in matters space opera, anime, and fantasist,
I am the very model of a modern SF novelist.

Fantastic job, Jim! Bravo!

Originally posted here.

I have officially hit the Panic Threshold for finishing my novel tomorrow.

To hold you over (since Shiloh has been banned from posting until I’m done) I’d like to take you back to the 80s for a few minutes.

Now, I have to admit that because we didn’t have cable when I was growing up, this is the first time I’ve ever seen the music video for this – how is it that Mr. Big managed to make this look like a sing-along? I mean. . . really? Four guys hanging out clapping along while they try to make their song of seduction sound kid-friendly? Four rocker hair band guys? Really?

And does the super-blonde bass player kind of freak anybody else out? I’m just sayin’.

Sleep now.
Novel tomorrow.
Love, luck, and lollipops.

I’m almost done with all the extended deadline stuff. If today goes well, I’ll be even more well on my way.

Tomorrow’s pretty busy. At the very least, I’ll be baking a dessert and shopping for a wedding shower gift for one of my friends, then going to said shower in the evening. If I get my 8 pages written early, I’ll also hit up several graduation parties for high school youth group kids.

In order to ensure reaching my goal to finish the manuscript by the end of May, I’m committing to writing 8 pages (roughly 2k words) a day between now and then. That’s more per day than during NaNo, but it’s only for two weeks, so I figure I should be able to pull it out.

I woke up this morning and couldn’t open my mouth all the way. Guess this means I have to resume my TMJ therapy exercises, because I’m pretty sure it was a new knot that restricted my jaw movement and I had to work it out. Things are cool right now, but I’d rather not flirt with the possibility of waking up one morning and not being able to open my mouth at all. Cuz that would stink.

Turned several pieces of laundry spotted pink this morning, for the first time in my life. Luckily, they were all Matt’s. No, wait. That’s unlucky. I’ll be breaking out the bleach and oxyclean to see if I can get them sparkling white again.

I talk in my sleep. I don’t mention it often because nobody can ever tell me much about what I say. Apparently I mumble most of the time, and you can’t make out words, or else the person who hears me can’t remember what I say in the morning. For the record, these people are generally either my mom, with whom I share hotel rooms fairly often, or Matt, for obvious reasons. At any rate, Matt couldn’t sleep last night and this morning he finally came through with something I said. So here you go, a dramatic recreation of my mid-night babbling:

Betsy (asleep): And they say we don’t have world class . . .
Matt (awake): Waits for a few moments, wondering how the sentence will finish. Food? Music? Books?
Betsy (finally): . . . golf.

And apparently that’s all I said. I have NO idea where it came from. I’m not even reading a book at the moment that even remotely involves golf. Who knows? It’s good to know I’m still loony in my sleep. I’d hate to think I was more coherent asleep than awake.

Now, since it’s been too long since I told you anything about Shiloh, I’ll say that she’s entered her “teenage” weeks. She pretends not to hear our commands, and likes to do whatever she pleases, thank you very much. We are disabusing her of the notion that this is acceptable. Also, she’s still darn cute:

Here’s a morsel from my last critical theory text on religious fantasy and science fiction, one that resonates deeply with me. A quote from Robert Seigel:

[In fantasy] we may discover something that can be represented in no other way, that otherwise would remain unseen. Fantasy ought to be important to Christians because we are concerned with the unseen world. A novel presents the visible world, the world that we see, quite literally. But there is no way directly to present the unseen world, whether it’s the world of the spirit, or the world of our own psyches, except through symbolic images. And fantasy does just that. It provides us with the images, the symbols, the archetypes to grasp what’s going on within us psychologically and spiritually. Without the ability to imagine the unseen, our spiritual lives are impoverished.

And now it’s time for me to write my eight pages. Have a lovely day.

Some people go above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to stupidity.

First of all, we have the folks down in Florida who want to split the state in two.

And then there’s this guy. I’m laughing so hard it hurts, and I can’t stop replaying this.

http://view.break.com/469591 – Watch more free videos

And that’s all in the stupid news tonight.

. . . for neglecting the blog these past few weeks. In truth, it feels like I’ve been neglecting a fair number of other things, as well, which means I have fewer interesting things to talk about here. Aside from the inch of snow we got earlier this week, it’s been lovely weather… several days in the high 70s and low 80s, which makes for lovely afternoons reading out on the patio. Unfortunately, I’ve been reading fluff instead of my required school material, but I’m working on changing that. It’s just that fluff is so. . . fluffy.

Most of the 9:30 service’s praise team is on the women’s retreat this weekend, so I’m filling in there before attending our usual service at 11, and then I think we’re having lunch with friends. Hopefully, after a nap, I’ll be in some kind of condition to clean the apartment and finish last week’s laundry….

I have officially hit the pre-travel AAAAAH! phase.

Astute observers of my last week’s activities might put forward the idea that I hit the AAAAAH! phase quite a while ago, but a girl’s allowed to live in denial now and again, and apparently last week was a denial week. On the up side (humor me here) I have made lists. One is a list of Things I Need To Remember To Take To Ohio On Thursday. There are 12 items listed, none of which are things I would normally pack (there’s another list for that). These items are things like gifts and books I’ve borrowed and books I’m taking to let my parents borrow and all the info for me to file our taxes (who? me? procrastinate? never!).

The other major list is the list of Things I Need To Do Before I Leave. This includes “RSVP to everything” (two weddings and a baby shower so far, unless I’ve lost something) and “do the laundry”, which has officially moved to high priority since Matt informed me that he only has one pair of clean underwear left. I was hoping I could hold out on laundry until Wednesday night, giving me the greatest range of clean clothing to pack, but alas and alack, I will have to dress strategically for the next three days instead.

I also need to write the whole month’s worth of pages for the novel, but who’s counting? There’s something to be said for a time crunch… we’ll just hope that this time around, that something is positive rather than negative.

On the up side, Thursday is both my nephew William’s 6-month birthday AND the day I will meet him for the first time. Happy happy! I’m looking forward to the chance to spend time with family in the next week, even if there will be less down time than I originally expected. It will be worth it.

Even if there is a lot of AAAAAH! beforehand.