Dear Diary . . . day by day

Thursday, August 16th, 2001 - The Novelist Within
(my house)

Hi, it's me again. Just taking a break from the mounds of writing work I have to do to say hi to all of you. I hope you enjoyed Tim's guest entry.
Speaking of Tim and writing, I finished his novel, Genius of Deceit yesterday and it was a very satisfying read. I was so thrilled that it was a good book, as I wasn't going to lie to Tim if it wasn't and it's hard to hurt your lover's feelings. But it was well-written, full of cool shit with good setups and neat pay-offs later. In fact, once I was into it, I found it hard to put down. I keep saying this, but damn my boyfriend is cool! I hope this book sells soon; I'm already planning a book-release party for it :-)
Let's see, Tim covered much of Tuesday, except for the books I bought, but those are mostly listed in my "what I'm reading now" log. Yesterday we went to the comic book store, where Tim finally got his copy of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (and, I believe, finished it last night). I bought Jill Thompson's The Little Endless Storybook as well as a porno comic that was well beneath my usual porno comicbook standards (yes, there are good types of this genre; I just didn't pick carefully enough last night).
After comic booking we went to Gaylord's where a blended vanilla latte somehow quenched the nausea that had been plaguing me all day yesterday. I suspect that it wasn't a decaf and that I was lacking in caffeine.
At home Tim made dinner while I lounged about. We watched Buffy, had a lovely shag, then Tim went off to work in his garret. I found myself unable to keep myself from joining him upstairs. I dunno, yesterday was one of those days when I really appreciated what a wonderful, amazing boyfriend I have; perhaps this has to do with my enjoyment of his novel, perhaps with how damn cute he is. I'll tell you one thing about reading your boyfriend's novel: all those questions I usually get about characters or plot that novelists don't answer in the course of their book? I can just say, "honey, what happens to X?" or "is Y doing this because of Z?". It feels wonderfully indulgent, even if he wouldn't answer any questions until I was done with the whole thing.
I don't usually do a quote for the day, but this quote from Nalo Hopkinson makes me feel so much better about my own methods of writing that I thought I'd share:
"I wish I had a routine! I'm trying to establish a routine! I have a routine of writing-avoidance, in which I do anything else but write! And when it gets to where I'm doing the tasks I hate the most, I know I've hit the bottom of the barrel. Someone in my writing group phoned me one day and asked me what I was doing. I said, "The dishes." He said, "Oh, got a writing deadline, have you?" I am trying to get a routine going. I've discovered that I write best early in the morning when my energy and enthusiasm are still high. Unfortunately, that's usually when I turn on my email. But I have my whole apartment set up so that it is very easy to start writing every day. My computer is right outside my bedroom door. I do not listen to music because it scrambles my brain to try to do two things simultaneously. I have not owned a television for about six years, so it's very easy for me to sit down in the mornings, theoretically, and start writing. Some days that never happens!"
From a chat with Nalo Hopkinson.
Anyway, I should send off my Midnight Robber edits and work on something else. Long to-do list still! Sigh. Have a lovely day-before-Friday, y'all!

Exercise log:
Walking to and from Piedmont, as well as back from David's house. Physical Therapy exercises. Sex. Housework.
Writing log:
Finished the final draft of my Midnight Robber article; now it needs a good title. Goals: finish SF Guide, collab with Tim; start on novel, write Goat Girl.
I'm currently reading:
The Legacy of Luna by Julia Butterfly Hill
Out of the Everywhere by James Tiptree Jr.
The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
As well as various books on San Francisco and a couple books on Fairies.
My new PO Box is:
Heather Shaw
P.O. Box 13222
Berkeley, CA 94712-4222

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