I finally, finally finished the first draft of the WiP yesterday afternoon. It came in at about 5700 words, but that was after a total renovation of the first 2/3 of the story. For the second time I had to play with the chronology because I found myself having to make up excuses for why things were happening the way they were, and that’s never good. I shifted one event back a day and made all the rest happen on a single afternoon, and now it works perfectly. Or so I believe. Sent it off to my first reader and got back a very favorable report. Now I just have to edit it to death, especially looking for inconsistencies that I may have introduced by mucking around with the timeline. Twice.
It was a productive weekend. I finished our taxes. One more review pass and they’ll be ready to go. Got two short stories back into circulation. Renovated a proposal for my agent and got it back to him. Wrote my Storytellers Unplugged essay for Thursday. Now I can concentrate on the essay I need to write.
Had my cholesterol tested last week: down to 164 from 202 this time last year.
I caught up on the first few episodes of season 2 of Law & Order: UK, too. I didn’t realize it was back on, but thanks to OnDemand, I was able to see all but the first one. The older partner, Ronnie, reminds me a lot of my Ph. D. advisor.
Tuned in to the first couple of hours of the Grammy Awards last night. I was misled by the word “awards” into thinking it was supposed to be an award show. During the first eighty minutes, I saw only two statues given out. Got a hearty chuckle out of Cee Lo Green’s performance. The second I saw him, I knew exactly what he was doing: channeling Elton John’s Muppet Show appearance. Kudos to Gwyneth Paltrow for climbing on the piano in those heels, too. Some good performances. Mumford & Sons were a blast to watch, and Muse rocked their song, too. Missed Arcade Fire, but saw an article in the morning paper that Suburbia was inspired by the Houston suburb where I live. Win Butler apparently grew up here.
