Word count: 2122 | Since last entry: 774

The day job’s been really intense so far this week. I haven’t been to the gym but once in the last week. And, ever since Halloween, traffic has been absolutely abysmal. I’ve been spending as much as three hours a day driving to and from work. This is getting really tiresome. Can I retire yet?

Also, my novel was rejected by Ace. “I’m sorry to say it’s not the kind of science fiction we’re doing well with right now.” Oh well, at least it was quick, and as rejections go it’s very straightforward and professional — nothing to make me question the book’s quality, it was just the wrong novel for this market at this time. We have several good candidates for the next place to submit it; I’ll be talking with my agent soon.

But the news on the political front has been refreshing, of course. We spent Election Eve at a Capitol Steps concert, with friends. Interesting that the audience refused to applaud even for a comedian pretending to be Bush. It was great to laugh about politics for a change, and even nicer to read the results after the show. I find I’m even more pleased about seeing the back of Santorum than Rumsfeld.

It’s been very hard to make time for writing lately, with all the political news to keep track of, and I’ve fallen 600 words behind my target for the month so far. I hope to be able to catch up tomorrow. I also hope to write out an outline (one one- or two-sentence bullet point per chapter) when I get a chance; I have a general sense of the book’s structure but it feels weird to be writing without a concrete plan.