David D. LevineScience Fiction Author

Word count: 79593 | Since last entry: 606 | This month: 945 Still haven’t got Jason out of the UN — it’ll be another thousand words or so at this rate. The situation is sticky; it’ll be difficult to get him out in a plausible way. But this also means that the situation is fraught with dramatic tension, which is a good thing. Emotionally, too, Jason’s in a quagmire, but I hope to keep him so busy he hasn’t got time to cope with it. I got my critique comments on chapter 7 yesterday. Sara pointed out that there needs to be a big, specific reason in the Taurans’ history for them to do one of the things they do — an excellent point that I had not considered, and incidentally a possible hook for “making the aliens more alien” in the second draft. Even though she has threatened to beat me with a sack of oranges, I’m still so glad to have her comments.

Word count: 78987 | Since last entry: 339 | This month: 339 I am ashamed. This is the first time I’ve written a thing in almost three weeks, and I only managed five paragraphs. I’m clearly not going to have a new chapter done for Saturday’s crit group meeting. Woe. What have I been doing instead? I had a reading and signing (with Jay Lake) at a local bookstore, which went well. I attended a friend’s wedding. I went to Phoenix for a square dance convention. I had relatives in town for a couple of days (my niece’s having surgery at a local hospital — which was postponed, so they went home but will return next week). I’ve gotten some reading done and seen some movies. Not much, really — I’ve kept up with the writing through busier times. Mostly I’ve just been feeling mopey — lacking the energy to start anything either at home or at work. This feeds on itself, of course: not accomplishing anything leads to a sense of futility, which makes it harder to accomplish anything. But they say it’s easier to “do” yourself into “feeling” better than it is to “feel” yourself into “doing” better. So thanks to Kate for encouraging me to write tonight — something is better than nothing — and I will try to write something tomorrow as well. Excelsior!