May 4, 2010

Under Pressure

Gulp. I'm feeling it. It's taken me a month to fine tune the first 100 pages of novel#1. Although, it's going well, it's taking longer than I anticipated. A lot is getting chopped. It's getting tweaked and channeled down some different subplots. They're the same subplots, they're just taking on different directions.

I feel like I'm constantly wading through a mud bog. I don't know why. That's what the editing phase feels like to me. In the end, it is a much better product. So, I'm pleased with the results the effort gets me.

At any rate, work begins at the observatory in two weeks. Working nights slows me down as I tend to sleep later as a result. I go away for a week at the end of June. I don't have a laptop. I was hoping to be done by then, but I doubt I will.

I need to get the presentation ready. I need to do my homework. Most of all, I need to get the novel done in a form in which I can send it out to agents.

I hope to get my tumbleweed short done in the next two weeks, so I can focus on the novel only. It leaves me to think that I have to get the ready work for the interviews done before I start on the second novel. Yup, that's what I must do. I can do some of that on my trip. So, I don't have to waste all that time.

Video genius and I want to do videos for the novels soon, so I can hand discs to the agents in August and include them with my packets that get mailed out. They will not be going on the website or YouTube as the slant will be toward the business end of this gig and not toward enticing readers. It will be more like a video synopsis than a tease. Video genius wants to do two per novel. Whatev. Her vision is fab, so I'll let her handle that for me. I still need to write the copy and track down some stockart, though.

Working at the observatory reenergizes me. It seems to recharge me and balance me. I feel such a great sense of peace standing on the summit. Relaxed. Ready to tackle what's next. I feel renewed under a blanket of black and stars. I love lying on my back on the picnic table when the crowds are gone and just staring at the sky. I love getting lost in the twinkle of the Milky Way. It inspires me. Keeps the creative furnace churning.



As everyone else gets out their shorts and sandals, I go digging out my long johns, thermal socks, gloves and hats. LOL I'm never sorry to have two sweaters and my winter coat, a scarf, two pairs of gloves and a hat. Never. Sometimes I'm still not warm enough. I drive all the way home shivering with the heat cranking. The next day I forget the heat is on and wonder why the car is so hot. LOL It never fails.

After eight months of work and little else, I need some spark. Spark away universe, spark away.