Crappy

That didn't take long, did it? Actually, I'm just super-tired from a couple nights of little sleep and I also have a bit of a cold, probably caught from my daughter and probably because my resistance is low. Good news is that I have tomorrow off and I'm crashing early tonight.

The Italian Federation Goes Off A Cliff

I know I said I wouldn't talk about what I was working on, but it might not matter in this case. The story was to be a submission for John Joseph Adams' Federations anthology, but that deadline was up weeks ago. I thought I'd try outlining it, which is something I never do, but I like to change things up and see what happens. After I outlined and plugged in the few pages I had, I sent it to the AlphaSmart and worked at it on my lunch breaks at work. I wrote it like I wrote Maisy's Many Souls, which is to say . . . to be honest I don't know how to explain it. You could say I let the characters take over. That sort of writing is the exact opposite of outlining. I know, but that's okay. Anyway . . .

You know how some writers say they wrote themselves into a corner? Well I wrote myself off a cliff. Yesterday, maybe halfway through the story, my protagonist had a revelation which makes the second half of the story pointless. I wrote it and turned my AlphaSmart off. I'll look in on it again in a couple of weeks, see what I can do with it. The story has to be fundamentally different now to be a story. Ah well, these things happen. The story is called "The Italian Federation." I say this so that if I bring it up again you'll know what I'm talking about.

The next thing I'm going to work on is--

Nope. Cant tell you.

Anyway, it's been a day leaning toward crappy. I've been sick, as I said. I got a few important things done around the house, but I got a feeling to which I shall now refer as "The Empties." It's what I felt before I used to go into a depression. I try not to do that anymore, but The Empties are still there. I'll be over it tomorrow, I imagine.

Back at it.

Tooth and nail.

Sunshiney day.

Sigh

Sick again, this time the nicer kind of sick in which stuff comes out of my nose rather than other places. Sleep has been awful the last three nights. I'm happy that I was off today so I could sleep during the day.

I had four rejections in the last couple of days.

Sigh.