Another 1500 for today.  That’s a grand total of 6813 words net for the month of October (on Divine Fire).  And just shy of 10K average over three months.
And tomorrow, NaNo. 
What the hell am I thinking?  Maybe it will jump start me.

Eric has tomorrow off since he thought the we were flying to Austin tomorrow instead of Thursday.  It will be nice having him home, just to have him home.  Nine years ago right about now, our first date was ending.  Who’da thunk it that we’d be writing novels together?

I spent too much of the afternoon and evening feeling sorry for myself.  Therefore, 1500 for the day.  Ending now ’cause I’m tired.

Funny.  If I start thinking about Neltiar with glasses, I start picturing him like, well, this.  I guess I should go back and describe Neltiar as ginger.

Got another rejection of Model Species.  That makes three in eight days.  Nice.  Great kick to the head when the other novel is stalled at around 27K.  Also got the Discover bill which includes a bunch of WFC expenses.  It all seems like such a fucking waste of time and money.  There’s a junkie aspect to writing, but the thrill of doing something right or well is getting to be too far in the past.  Is that when you know it’s time to quit?  When you’ve been working for so long and so hard at it, but the thrill, the hit doesn’t come anymore?

I’m not saying I’m there.  I haven’t worked long enough or hard enough to be there.  I’m just saying that I’m having a bad day.

The Ricard and Marie scene wasn’t going anywhere.  It had to go.
The Tilly scene I wrote was not close to the realm of good or within the bounds of plot.  It had to go too.
On the 30th of October, this is my monthly Divine Fire progress:

3,775 / 10,000 (37.8%)

That’s 3113 needed today and tomorrow.

NYC May Ask (fast food) Restaurants to List Calories right up on their big menus, next to the $ cost.  Will it, and the trans fat prohibition, happen?  I hope so.  I think the general public has shown that we can’t handle making smart health choices.  But will listing the calories really help, will people not buy that triple cheeseburger and super-huge fry if they see how many calories it is?  Don’t know.  But they can’t go around saying, “I didn’t know.”  On a personal level, I’ve been counting my calories since late July and looking for trans fat info since before then.  Many of the restaurants that have nutritional facts available don’t make them very easily available.  I’d love to be able to look at a menu–any menu–and know exactly what I can eat when I only have 1000 calories left in my budget.  (Every time I consider my eating habits in terms of budget I remember that the general public in the US have problems with money as well…)

And hey, even if the proposals don’t follow through in NYC, Kentucky Fried Chicken to switch to no trans fat frying oil.  Pressure can be a fabulous thing.

In unrelated linkage, Snopes has a great Halloween page up.  Down with urban legends.

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Eric returned safe and sound and not too burnt after nationals.  Actually, it sounds like the fields were browner than usual and it was too cool to do much swimming.  Eric informs me that I didn’t miss much, but along with the usual swag, he brought me a Furious hat.  A perfect gift indeed, because as much as I would have wanted one, I wouldn’t have bought it myself.  And my Nebraska hats are looking pretty ratty.

Must. Work. Today.  …

Book #23:
Resurrection Dreams by Richard Laymon.
I was in the mood for a little horror considering the season, and I can’t go wrong with a little Laymon.  The book went in a direction that I was not expecting, which is great.  But with twenty pages left I was wondering, “Just how is he going to end this thing?”  And the answer was, “Oh.  Okay.  I guess that works.” 

One half of the ending, involving the protagonist, is pretty lame.  Didn’t care for it at all.  The other half is just…great…in my opinion.  And I think Laymon gave the protagonist an ultra happy ending to balance the really good part of the ending.  A shame.  What can I say?  I think unhappy all around works better.

Just spent three hours of my life watching Nebraska lose another game.  They’ve only lost the games I’ve watched.  I am Nebraska’s irrational curse.

My mother has watched Torchwood and says it’s good.  Time to hunt down that bandwidth sucker myself.

After I finish filling out my early ballot.  I kinda like doing this at home where I can Google the candidates.

Then work.  No, really.

Looks like Ironwood is playing for 7th place after a painful loss against Surly.  And wow, Old and in the Way lost in semis.  No championship for them.  I wonder if Throwback is that good or if Old was a little cocky after winning handily against everyone else.

It was a nice day at the library yesterday.  I perused works by the WFC guests of honor and the nominated novels.  Yes, I suck as a current reader.  Checked out Bret Easton Ellis’s Lunar Park and Glen Cook’s Bleak Seasons.  I hadn’t read any Black Company books, but I like the gritty aspect thus far.  Also checked out Perez-Reverte’s second Captain Alatiste book.  Now for the hours in which to read…