26 June 2011

Draft finished!

I finished the first draft of The Novel and sent it off to some friends who volunteered to read it and give me feedback. Which means for the next six weeks, or until I get all their replies, I don't have to write!

I'm going to
- start making a dent in my to-read pile (which is about three feet tall, seriously)
- organize the disaster that's my sewing room
- sew a dress I've been meaning to for a couple years
- make the chiton I'm supposed to for the Greek gods costuming group at DragonCon
- come up with panel suggestions for my guests in the literature track at ConTemporal
- figure out what I'd intended to do with a bag full of fabric I bought 3 years ago
- finish crocheting the fingerless gloves I'd wanted to have done for LAST winter
- play Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3
- rewatch Gundam Wing
- go to ReaderCon

I should probably also work on the synopsis, and I may think about outlining Novel Two. I'm going to be spending about 30 hours in trains in a couple weeks, and that'll give me a LOT of time to get through several of the things here.

20 June 2011

Writing, anime, travel.

It's been close to a month since I last posted. Time flies...

I finished my review of Germline and sent it off to BullSpec. I'll let you know when that issue's available. I really liked it, though it was a tough read at times. Like military science fiction? Pick it up.

What I've been focusing on the last few months is finishing this draft of my novel. I'm just a few scenes from the end, and I found something I have to add in to an earlier scene to make something make sense, but other than that, I'm close to the end. I have a few friends who've volunteered to read it for me and let me know where it falls down, and while they have it, I'm going to do other things. Like clean up the terror that's my sewing room, maybe actually SEW SOMETHING, and play Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 (which comes out 6/28).

I'm rewatching Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory and the 08th Mobile Suit Team (which Ben's never seen, somehow). I might move on to Gundam Wing afterward and see if it makes more sense now and if I like some of the characters better. I wish Bandai had better prices on their US DVD sets, because I don't want to spend tons of money for a 52-episode series on 10-12 DVDs at $20-30 each. They also take up a ton of space. More thin-packs, please!

I'm going up to ReaderCon in Boston again. This time, I'm not driving (that was a bad idea) but taking the train. I'm stopping in DC both ways and staying with my sister overnight. I wish it didn't take 6 hours plus delays to get to DC by train, then another 8 plus delays to get to Boston, because we don't have good public transit in this country.

The Economist (British newsmagazine, leans economically conservative with a dash of laissez-faire) ran an article about how terrible it is, and they said that Raleigh-Durham to DC is as far as Paris to London, which is a 2.5-hour trip on Eurostar. It takes over twice as long--plus inevitable delays-- to go the same distance, because we don't have high-speed rail, or even dedicated passenger rail for that matter, and bills to make HSR are being fought tooth and nail because, apparently, communism. (So says George Will, anyway.)

A woman wants to avoid the War on Liquids and the untested radiation/naked scanner or grope on airplanes, and her travel time is multiplied by six to eight (it's about 2 hours direct to Boston Logan from here) plus an overnight stop. Go us! USA number one! It's 700 miles as the car goes from Durham to Boston, which is about as far as Berlin to Vienna. I've done Berlin to Vienna by slow overnight train. It stopped in the Czech Republic for over an hour, and it still took less than 12 hours to get there (left around 7:30 pm, arrived at 6:30 am.)

Er, that got a little on a tangent. Oops. Now I have to make dinner. More later.