squeequeg | (no subject)

Today could have really sucked.

I got to work late and missed a meeting because of it. I was damp and cold and having wardrobe difficulties. I'd just gotten over a really lousy cold and still felt a little muffled around the sinuses. I was lugging my gym bag even though I really didn't want to go on account of I'd missed gym time due to the cold and I didn't really want to deal with body issues just now.

Worse, yesterday I'd tried to do some brainstorming for both Yuletide and Book #3. It had failed. Book #3 was, I realized, missing one major element: the central plot. And as for Yuletide, I was so swamped I didn't know where to begin. (Last year, I didn't have much of the "I signed up to write what?" feeling that is apparently a major feature of Yuletide. This year makes up for it.)

So I got to work and glared at the screen for a while. And then had coffee.

Read my recipient's requests again, and a couple of things latched on. Nothing I could put a word to (and still can't, quite), but something shifted at the back of my mind.

Started poking at the brainstorming for Book #3. Made a couple of small notes, then felt another shift at the back of my mind. You know how when you have an idea that isn't yet formed, it seems to take over all your thoughts? It hovered there, like a weight pressing against the backs of my eyes, and I thought almost, almost.

And then I looked up a few things on a total tangent, thinking that I'd at least work out this part of the plot, and --

click.

It's like the tumblers in a lock all coming into alignment, like everything coming into focus, like a crystal into a supersaturated solution. I needed to ~~retool the teleporter, crash the Dave Conspiracy, and buy a bucket of fried chicken~~ reread Ovid's Metamorphoses, check on a couple of nautical references, and retitle the novel.

Obviously it'll seem incredibly stupid halfway through the first draft, but right now it feels right. And if my muse is dancing up and down waving pom-poms, I'm not going to argue with her.

Yuletide's still uncertain, but I've got time, and the canon will show me the way. Or distract me for a while. Whichever.

And then I came home tonight and found that my editor really liked Book #2. Really, really liked it. ALL CAPS liked it.

Oh yeah. It's a good day.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

retool the teleporter, crash the Dave Conspiracy, and buy a bucket of fried chicken
< sporffle >

It made sense at the time!

Awesome. I've had that feeling about academic papers more than fiction, but yeah. I know what you mean.

I don't know that "inspiration" is the word, not when it seems to have always been there and I just now saw it. But yeah.

Yay! Yoo r serius auther!

SRIUS AUTHAR SEES WHAT YOU DID THERE

Awesome!

Ya!

...totally off-topic, but we watched the "Total Eclipse of the Heart" video last night. And all I could think was I REGRET NOTHING.

WIKTORY!

Yay! \o/

woot!

That is marvelous news on book #2. And to think, here I am still waiting to buy a signed copy of book #1.

End of January, baby. End of January.

W00T! Yay you!

missing one major element: the central plot.

You have all my sympathies (and you just made me feel a little better for having failed to notice that about my book for about... three years.) But as your second book just proved, your muse ROCKS (I just spelled that as ROCS, which could work too :-) and all will be well.

*hug*

I had all these other cool things I wanted to happen, but they were like Christmas ornaments without a tree. And now...I'm slowly learning to trust my muse.

Really, really liked it. ALL CAPS liked it.

W00T!!!!!

*\o/*

indeed WOOT!

*happy dance*

But we knew your editor would love book 2 :)

I'd been terrified -- I'm still so deep inside it that I can't see what it looks like from outside. But oh, this feels good!

Congrats. Glad your editor loved book #2 and you've found your way into book #3. Personally, I'm still itching to read book #1.

Available soon at all local *smack* okay done now.

Thanks!

Woohoo! Ride that muse like a rabid donkey!

Yay! Honking, braying, snorting, and getting bitten a lot!

...Actually, that's more accurate than I'd like.

So glad your editor has taste! :) And yay on coming up with the thirdbookmagic!

Yay! And oh, it just clicked. (And I sent out the Professora for her first rejection!)

rejection

I do not think that word means what you think it means - at least not this time. Anybody who rejects the Professora is utterly on crack.

Yay, for editor love!

Yay, for the plot tumblers falling into place!

Yay!

(By the way...when can we see yours?)

Scheduled release for book #1 is October 2009.

And book #2 is giving me royal fits. (deletes long whiney rant)

But a completely different, uncontracted book is coming along just fine. *g*

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I'm not sure. Spatial stuff is something I have to work out carefully, so I suspect she doesn't bother with it.

That's awesome! I love when I day has such a positive turnaround like that. It makes the good stuff even sweeter. Congrats on the review of Wild Hunt!

Thank you! And go you on being awesome for another year and more awesome and...yeah!

And then I came home tonight and found that my editor really liked Book #2. Really, really liked it. ALL CAPS liked it.

That is the awesomest feeling of awesome. Go you!

With awesome sauce on top!

Oh, and will you be making it up north now that you're out here? Want!

Absolutely!

YAYAYAYAY.

WOOO!

Love that feeling of OMG YES EUREKA. Am thrilled to hear all the goodness.

Apropos of not much, I feel like I should come up and hang out with the Boston people some weekend or something. Would that be a reasonable idea?

I feel this is not only reasonable, but fantastic. Email me -- we'll work out times and suchlike.

::dancedance::

*wigglywigglywigglywiggly-wigglyDANCE!-wigglyDANCE!*