My to-do list for the weekend had seven items on it, which was a little on the ambitious side, but I managed to make a dent in it and cross off five of the items completely.
First, I had to write my installment of a round-robin short story I’m participating in. First, I had to get up to speed with the story-to-date, almost thirty pages. I made character and plot notes so I wouldn’t screw up the continuity. Then I made several false starts. Each time I got going, it felt like I was wrestling with the story, which is never a good sign. I probably deleted close to a thousand words before I found my stride. Once I got into it, I knew it was right, and I finished 1700 words and passed it on to the next contributor. Don’t know if anything will come of it, but it’s fun.
Then I had to edit an interview I conducted for a not-yet-announced project. I’ve had the interview in my INBOX for a few weeks, unopened. Six pages that I tweaked and toned and got into shape before sending it back to the interviewee and the editors.
Next up, I finished the first draft of my Storytellers Unplugged essay, which will be posted on Thursday morning, and made a few editing passes through it. It’s in pretty good shape, though I’ll probably review it a couple of more times before it goes up.
I have nearly twenty short stories that are still looking for the right home. Many of them are in submission, but some of them have been lying dormant for a while. One of them I’ve only submitted to two markets, and none in almost two years. My goal is to get every one of these stories out somewhere and to keep them all in submission once I get the whole lot out. I think I have about six left to send somewhere, and I want to find potential markets for them by the end of the week.
I also need to catch up on my review writing. I posted a new one last night: Obsession by Jonathan Kellerman. Not a rave review by any stretch of the imagination, and have at least three and maybe four more to write.
While I’m traveling next week, I need to finalize my Cemetery Dance column for #59, due at the end of the month, and start thinking about stories for three or four anthologies that I’ve either been invited to or want to tackle. The closest one has an August deadline, so I have some breathing room there, and I’m hoping that two fourteen-hour flights will give me lots of time to get started on at least one or two of those.
Last night was Survivor finale night. I almost wish they would extend the season by one week. Leave us with a cliffhanger and then spend two hours with the live reunion, because that program is endlessly entertaining and always too short. I was disappointed that Yao-man didn’t make it through to the final three. If he had won the last immunity challenge, he would have had the million dollars in the bag, but he couldn’t pull off a win when it mattered the most. I don’t begrudge Earl his victory—he was a smart player. I think Cassandra’s insight into Dreamz was revealing, as was Yao Man’s. It shows how the selected depiction we saw of him may not have been terribly accurate and that he was more of a player than a doofus. We are led to believe that when they make confessional statements to the camera, they’re being honest, and that may not always be the case.
