Don Pizarro's Manual of the Seven Wudan Tiger Shaolin Monkey Kung-Fu Style o' Death
Leave it to me to lose writing days on the month with the fewest…
No, I’m not having a pity party. I’m just saying that not only did I miss a couple of days, I even low-balled some of my goals just to make sure I had Xes to make. Still, better to light an inch than curse the dark, eh? I did make progress with the seekrit nonfic WIP and even started a new flash story. Which reminds me, I should find something to do with my last flash, huh…?
I spent last week with the rest of Karen Joy Fowler’s new collection What I Didn’t See and Other Stories.
[Edited to add: My Working Writer’s Daily Planner says it’s KJF’s birthday today–Happy Birthday!!]
“Familiar Birds.” It’s funny how I keep coming across these “Back when I was a kid” stories lately. I liked this one even better than I liked Mark Rigney’s “Portfolio” from LCRW 22. 5 out of 5.
“Private Grave 9.” A detailed account of a character’s slow almost(?)-descent into… something. 5 out of 5.
“The Marianas Islands.” It had my favorite passage in the book so far, and one of the more interesting main characters. The ending was a little too abrupt for me. 4 out of 5.
“Once when I was four or five I asked my grandmother to tell me a secret, some secret things only grown-ups knew. She thought a moment, then leaned down close to me and whispered. ‘There are no grown-ups,’ she said.”
“Halfway People.” Probably has my second-favorite line in the collection, but I’m pretty sure it’s my favorite story overall. 5 out of 5.
“But a story never told is also a danger, particularly to the people in it.”
“Standing Room Only.” One story with John Wilkes Booth, dancing around his most infamous performance in the Ford Theater? Okay. Two? I don’t know. 3 out of 5.
“What I Didn’t See.” Loved the ending, but it just took a little too long to get there for me. 3.5 out of 5.
“King Rat.” This was in the Trampoline anthology, but I hadn’t gotten that far yet. A nicely solemn riff on the Pied Piper story. 5 out of 5.
I’d been looking forward to seeing Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings since they were here two years ago. It was less of a straight-up concert than it was a real soul/R&B revue. It was a party!
Two nights ago, my evening started a bit early in a new(-ish) bar and on Facebook with my new “friend,” Binky Griptite…
 |
| (Yeah, could’ve been a Daptone Records intern, but who cares?) |
Binky and The Dap-Kings started off with one of my favorite songs of 2010, “The Reason.” A couple of tunes later, Binky introduced the newest rising star in the Daptone soul universe, a “young voice,” Charles Bradley! As in, 62 years young and still kicking ass! I was too far away (and dancing) to get any decent shots. But I did get him to sign his No Time for Dreaming CD I bought at intermission.
Afterward, the Dee-Kays warmed us back up. By this point, I was down near the front!
After this point, I just remember a blur of funk and dancing…
 |
| Sharon & Charles showing us how it was done back in the day. |
I got to hang around for autographs at the end. I didn’t have anything for Sharon to sign (I already got her the last time she was in town), but I did get to thank her for coming back. In return, she says, “Give me some sugar” and plants a kiss on my cheek!!
 |
| I will NEVER wash my cheek again! |
And then, brother Charles did me the honor…
The Mrs. had the honor of becoming a 3rd Dapette…
…while I snagged autographs from Bosco Mann and Cochemea Gastulem, who were giggling uncontrollably for some reason. Probably because some woman snagged my pen to get them to sign her ticket, and then I went, “Hey, as long as you’ve got my pen…”
I have to say, my con experiences have paid off. I wasn’t half as fanboy-ish and starstruck as I could’ve been. Of course, the Daptone Records folks always seemed like cool, friendly folk all around, and approachable, which made it easy.
I didn’t get much done last weekend. It was pointed out to me that I do tend to overdo it a bit during the week, and that maybe it’s worth taking a night off during the week. I’m starting to agree–better to lose an evening or two rather than two whole fucking weekend days! And I gotta tell you, as evidenced by the fact that I’m not going to be able to check off yesterday and probably not tomorrow, this week isn’t looking so good, either.
Although I’m willing to cut myself a break tomorrow. Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings are coming to town!
For starters, I finally got around to those last two stories in Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet 22:
“Portfolio” by Mark Rigney. In the continuum of “when I was a boy…” stories from Steven Millhauser and Peter S. Beagle’s “Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel” this one was (thankfully) closer to Beagle. Rigney’s & Beagle’s stories both involved painting. Hmm. 5 out of 5.
“Dearest Cecily” by Kristine Dikeman. The narrative got me over my initial “Oh god, not another story told in letters!” reaction PDQ! 4 out of 5.
Next up was something that caught my eye in my RSS feed. “Taking Flight” by Ben Tanzer at Metazen. I’ve introduced you to Ben before. I dug Ben’s narrative of what future generations from the late 21st century onward will eventually call “the same old story.” 4 out of 5.
The rest are from Karen Joy Fowler’s collection What I Didn’t See and Other Stories.
“Booth’s Ghost.” John Wilkes is in it, but he’s not the main character. Brilliant. 5 out of 5.
“Last Worders.” Nice story with great setting description. The end was a little telegraphed for me, though–maybe not the detail, but the fact of it. 4 out of 5.
“The Dark.” Great story but with too many narrative threads that left me unsure which character or situation to really invest in. 4 out of 5.
“Always.” This one was more my speed–a character I could sympathize with in a situation, while weird, I could still understand. 5 out of 5.
I won this, and now I’m about to pay it forward.
The rules say (and we all know how good I am about rules, right)…
When you win:
1. Post the picture above to your blog. You can link here if you want. It doesn’t have to become part of the permanent clutter of your sidebar. Goodness no.
2. List at least three writers who you feel live up to the “write hard” spirit. Think: writers who work at their craft, writers who never give up despite the odds, writers who constantly turn out quality work. Writers you admire. Optional: explain why you think they are awesome.
3. Include these rules or a link to them.
4. Notify said writers of their victory. Ask them to pass on the torch.
5. Continue being awesome.
Hey, I’ll do one better. I can give you four.
Mercedes M. Yardley. You know how I idolize all those big-name writers whose writing wisdom revolves around, “There are no excuses, the muse is a myth, there is no writer’s block. Just sit down, STFU, and write!” But the thing is, when I fail at getting writing done–and I often do–there’s a subconscious comfort in knowing that I’m not my heroes. No, I’m not Ray Bradbury, so of course I couldn’t just churn out a story this week, I subconsciously think. It’s all good.
Then, I look at Mercedes.
Seriously, just read her blog. With everything she has going on, no one would ever blame her for missing a writing day. Except she almost never does. Or when she does, then she’s slushing or doing other writerly things–or, she’s doing wifey/motherly things. What she doesn’t do is give herself the excuse to whine about how there’s no time. No playing the world’s smallest violin for her!
If she has no excuses, I sure as hell have no excuses, not by a damn sight.
 |
| This is what Mr. Pink thinks of your writing excuses–and mine. |
Calista Taylor. I joke about my ADD-like inability to focus on writing anything longer than a 5,000-word short story. As most of you know, the thought of writing something novel length has always scared the piss out of me. Dedicating yourself to a project that big is one thing. But knowing that even if you succeed in cranking it out, it could all still go down the drain if you can’t find an agent…? Or, even after you find an agent if no one buys it…? Or, even after someone buys it, it gets gutted or even axed for no good reason…? All that time and thousands of words… *shudder*
Yet, you know who’s been sticking it through all of those stages, and more than once? Cali. And that’s why I know she’s within a hair’s breadth of it. She’s given me a front row seat as to exactly what the ups and downs of novel publication looks like, and you better believe I’m taking careful notes.
There’s a two-way tie between Regan Leigh and Layna Pimentel. These two write as hard as anybody, but how they have time for that and still keeping up with their network of friends and contacts, to say nothing about the stuff going on in their lives, I have no idea. It’s all I can do to keep from turning anti-social to the point of misanthropy (Some might tell you I’ve failed miserably). The thought of hosting something like Query Chat? Damn, Regan. Beyond me, I tell you. And if anyone I’m following on Twitter is a real social butterfly–and I don’t mean just perpetually pinging them on #followfriday or #writerwednesday, but actually interacting with folks–it’s Layna.
Now, I don’t want to obligate anybody. Merc, Cali, Regan, and Layna have better things to do than pass this thing forward. I didn’t, but I love ’em all and I would’ve done it anyway.
As I said last time, I’ve had my head up a project, so this is a day late. I think I’ve made up for being sick a couple of weeks ago. Just gotta keep the chain going, right? Or at least try to, what with the beginning of the semester at the dayjob.
I’ve promised that I’d actually go into what it takes for me to put an X through a day. Well, here it is…
Everyone knows how much I love A Working Writer’s Daily Planner, so much so that I’ve resolved to buy one a year for as long as Small Beer Press continues to sell them.
But I have a confession to make. After a strong start last year, I didn’t even open up my 2010 planner after October, when life just got too damn busy. My writing suffered. Oh, not just I stopped using the planner. Other things just got in the way, despite my best efforts to keep on track.
This year is going to be different. Not because I made a New Year’s resolution, but because I’d given a lot of thought to revamping my writing workflow in general.
The one thing I probably love more than my writing planner is Getting Things Done. I owe whatever minuscule amount of success I have to that system. But I was sort of defeating myself. I like to compartmentalize, you see. There are ultimately two areas of my life: “writing” and “everything else.” But my planning and execution of my tasks didn’t reflect that. I kept my “writing” list of next actions together with my lists of “everything else” in a planner that I try not to consult when I’m writing.
 |
| I love my “everything else” planner, though. |
My solution: I saw that even when I consulted my 2010 Working Writer’s Daily Planner daily (mostly to check out prompts and note upcoming deadlines), I wasted a lot of the calendar’s space. This was, after all, why I switched from medium-sized planners to something pocket-sized (i.e. a weekly pocket-sized Moleskine, around which I’ve wrapped a leather 3×5 index card case).
It finally hit me that I have all this space in my writing planner and not a lot of date- and time-specific things (‘cos I don’t log every submission deadline of every market under the sun), so why not use that planner, in large part, to keep a running next-actions list?
You know, for as long as I’ve been writing, I’ve struggled with a metric to track my progress. Word count works, but only when you’re drafting. What word count do you track when you’re editing? Time? I can waste an hour doing nothing, as a famous writer (Hemingway?) suggested, but stare at the blank wall until you start typing–which doesn’t always work for me.
Enter minimal GTD. I define the two or three goals per week, and the two or three steps I can take every day to move any or all of my given writing projects forward–and then do them–then I can focus on, as Seinfeld suggests, not breaking the chain.
Every writing session now, it sits open to the current week. There are pages at the beginning of each month with enough space to list some projects I might want to consider for the month in question, as well as ticklers for things coming up in the next month. And I can tell myself that “all I need to do are these two or three things.” Actually doing them, however, is a different issue. For now though, it’s enough for me to know by my chain of Xes that I am.
I’ve had my head up my seekrit nonfiction work-in-progress this week, so most of my reading has been devoted to that. But, I’ve resolved to make room for the fiction. I tried to make time for the rest of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet 22, but I ended up two stories shy.
“Vinegar and Brown Paper” by Becca De La Rosa. I thought this piece was going to be completely predictable, if quirky, until about halfway through. I love it whenever a story takes me by surprise. 4 out of 5.
“Self Story” by Carol Emshwiller. You know why they say writers should never write stories about being a writer? It’s because you won’t write one as good as this. 5 out of 5.
“Snowdrops” by Alex Dally MacFarlane. Very nice wintry fairy tale. 5 out of 5.
“The Honeymoon Suite” by Jodi Lynn Villers. Great flash fiction piece! 5 out of 5.
“To a Child Who Is Still a FAQ” by Miriam Allred. A touch too experimental for me. 3 out of 5.
I’m sure I’ll finish the ‘zine this week. After that, I dunno… maybe some of Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life and Others and a bit of Karen Joy Fowler’s What I Didn’t See.
I spent an evening with a Klingon (not Maltz) and a Sagan! Actor/writer J.G. Hertzler (aka Klingon General Martok on ST:DS9, and Ithaca resident apparently) and author Nick Sagan (The Idlewild trilogy) spoke at a local Science Cabaret presentation.
It’s a sad picture, I know. I didn’t have the best vantage point, which was my own fault. Speaking briefly with Hertzler afterward, he was surprised with the standing-room-only turnout. I wasn’t.
The main focus was on Star Trek and its reach. I wasn’t disappointed by any means, but somehow I expected something a touch more than a panel I could find at almost any convention I’ve attended. Still, Sagan (whom I’ve seen speak before) and Hertzler were very engaging and open. I got to talk bat’leths with Hertzler afterward, and told him a little bit about the Ithaca thing of people randomly knitting in audiences.
I even managed to sneak in a question during the Q&A! I mentioned the huge spate of sci-fi TV shows since Trek, none of which had an influence that even came close. I wondered, both of them being well-versed in sci-fi literature and television, if they had an inkling what a future sci-fi show would have to do to attain that.
They didn’t know. To be fair, it’s a difficult question; not like I had anything close to an answer. But as a friend pointed out, “You stumped a Sagan!”
Well, thanks to my sick days, the writing chain was broken. As you can see from last week’s progress, I’m a couple of days behind. I’m off to a good start this week, though. I’ve made some major breakthroughs with my seekrit nonfiction project–in fact, that’s going to be my main focus this week, and next week as well, more than likely. I don’t want to let the progress I’ve made with my fiction slide, but one deadline is a month before the other.
I have to say that I’m only recently getting over how ticked I am at missing two days of progress, sickness aside. But all I can do is keep calm and carry on, right?