Saturday, January 6, 2007
Waning Moon
Epiphany/Twelfth Night
Saturn Retrograde
Rainy and warm



So, there’s the receipt evidence from my boss that the money was paid – yet it’s not in my account. I don’t really care where it got screwed up along the way – I want it fixed. AND, I will invoice the company for any late fees I’m given if any of my bills are late. AND I’m complaining to the union. At least it wasn’t just me – it was everyone on the show. Which is unacceptable, because it happens regularly.

Speaking of complaints to the union, they’ve screwed us on our health coverage yet again. Four years ago, I was proud to be a part of the union, part of the work, part of a progress. Now, health care wise, they’ve bowed to all the crap Bush has done and they’re screwing their membership. Not a happy camper.

On top of it, problems with the Sequel took up far too much of the day.

So I didn’t worry about writing. I dealt with what had to be dealt with and went back to bed with books.

I tried to post a picture on the WordPress version of Ink, just to learn how. Well, I know how – but I don’t know how to edit the photos in order to crop them. Yet. They look darned good, they’re just too darned BIG.

I really like WordPress, and, if I can just iron out this photo thingy, I’ll move the whole thing over by the end of the month. Slowly I’m adding my links over there – but they automatically alphabetize, which I don’t get to read my daily list in the order I like to – but I’m sure I’ll get over it. I still get to everyone eventually, right?

Finished Conceived with Malice and I have mixed feelings about it. It is an excellently written book. Louise DeSalvo’s research is wonderful, her arguments are well-laid out. I simply think that her examples of writers writing for revenge – by choosing ONLY a quartet of sexually abused writers – paints too narrow a picture. I think that there are other reasons writers put people they know, in whatever form, into their work. The book is well-done, but I think it offers a skewed perspective. Also, she’d just finished the book she wrote on the effect of Virginia Woolf’s sexual abuse on her work and life – one would think she’d like a break from the topic. Instead, she gravitated immediately back. In summation, I think it’s a very good book, but I found the scope too limited for the topic.

I’m now reading Looking Back: A Panoramic View of a Literary Age by the Grandes Dames of European Letters by Shusha Guppy. It’s quite interesting, although I can’t say I’m fond of many of her subjects of choice. I found Lesley Blanch far too impressed with herself, and the more self-impressed she grew during the interview, the less impressed I was with her, and I lost my desire to read her work. Lady Diana Cooper prattles a lot in her interview, but, reading along, I got the feeling it was deliberate, and there was plenty to see/hear between the “prat” and the “tle”. I thoroughly enjoyed the interview with Joan Haslip – I think I’ve read some of the biographies she’s authored, and the interview makes me want to hunt down more. I just started the interview with Juliette Huxley – which covers some of the same ground as DeSalvo’s book, but from an entirely different perspective.

I SHOULD be reading the research books for Assumption, but I have a feeling that they’ll be quick reads.

Today will be spent taking down the Christmas decorations and putting up the Mardi Gras decorations.

And the rest of the weekend will be spent doing some more tweaks on the Plum essay as requested by my editor. We’re almost there.

End o’Week Check In:
13 in Play: 10 out there; need to get out 3 more submissions as soon as I can
Pitches submitted: 2 (but, by accident, I stumbled across a really cool company for which I’d like to write, so I’m going to get a pitch out today.

I moved A Biblio Paradise from Blogger over to WordPress – complete with my own photo of a Montauk sunset in the header. Check it out here. I also have a new piece up today about the demise of Coliseum Books, an independent bookstore here in New York, whose loss has shaken me badly.

I did some good work on Token and Affections this morning. I have about two and a half chapters to go – less than 25 pages – and I’m done with the first draft. I like it. It needs work, but I like it.

The next few scenes of “Illuminated Nude” are shaping themselves in my head, so I hope to get them done this weekend, too.

Still feel pretty lousy; but at least the cats are better (except Elsa, who’s pretty miserable) We’ve all been pathetic for the past few days!

Devon



Token and Affections – 40,116 words out of est. 35,000

40 / 35 (114.3%)

If you haven’t received the latest issue of Devon’s Random Newsletter, sign up here.