Okay, sorry. It's just that I had a lot of goals for this summer, and a lot of them are not half completed yet. But Kevin's move ate up a lot of time, and I'm hoping the next half of the summer will be calmer. (Only, it's not actually half, since fall semester orientation starts in mid-August -- suddenly I've gone from having a whole summer to having one month left. How did that happen?)
Part of the frustration is looking over the stories in this cycle as I put them up. The total number of seventeen is deceptive. I mean, yes, there are nominally twelve stories written, two half-written, and three plotted. Which might even be the full set. But how many of those are actually done? Well, of the twelve, two of them may not end up fitting in at all. Two are really skimpy. At least three needs serious re-writes and deepening. I guess I'd say that only five are really solid and close to done. Five is a lot less impressive than seventeen, or even twelve, lemme tell ya. I may need to give up that idea of having a full first draft by the end of the summer (which, as noted above, is only a month from now). I had hoped to do that, revise in the fall, do second round revisions in the spring, and start sending it out next summer. And maybe even start a novel then. Well...we'll see. No point rushing it and doing a bad job...it's already taken a few years to get even this far; what's an extra year or two, eh? I put out Torn Shapes in '97 -- if I can get this out by '02, I'll be pretty happy. One book every five years is a pace I can live with (though I'm not nearly as patient with my favorite authors :-).
Spent the morning catching up some on e-mail and making plans for a CS fund drive. No, really this time. We're going to make a big push for getting donations for CS (which could sorely use them). What I'm trying to do right now is brainstorm prizes. I could offer to write a short story for someone? Or send one of my bras? A batch of my special hand-roasted, homemade curry powder? I really don't know what people would like...well, aside from the nekkid pictures, which aren't going to happen. Any suggestions?
Also finally did laundry and some dishes. The bedroom and kitchen are looking closer to civilized. Huzzah! But I can't avoid my real work much longer -- so as soon as this load of laundry is done, I get dressed, go to B&N, and work. Work work work. Maybe I can convince Carol to go see X-Men with me tonight. Though I'm not sure if it's playing in Salt Lake. Better go check...