Writing and rewriting

I have been reading a lot of author interviews the last few days, looking for the fuel to build a new story out of a (month) old one. Three writers have been the most interesting: Ursula K. LeGuin, Patricia McKillip, and Mary Pope Osborne. The last of these is really touching--

I had a child come up once in a group of children — he sort of stood off to the side — and finally he leaned over and whispered in my ear and said, "Mrs. Osborne, you may not realize this, but I'm an author, too."

Ursula K LeGuin is immensely refreshing, with the authentic practicality she shares about life as a writer. She talks about having raised children, and the hard work needed to write. McKillip, for her part, describes creating towers of spiral bound notebooks, because she still writes everything out by hand.

Cheetahs and Zombies

I must recommend Emile's favorite ASL music videos: Jonathan Coulton's RE: Your Brains and Portal, Still Alive.

Now on to something more serious: cheetah sketches. Which one is more alive?

Halloween, Harvest, Harps, and other H's

After a semester of statistics, I find myself about to be crushed by a backlog of fabulous kid photos. Here are a few of them. And some tomatoes.

The end of NaNoWriMo

In this last month of hasty writing, I learned that 2k words per day leaves no time for studying statistics. I also learned that I know nothing about character and plot development.

And, by accident, I learned that there is something called "fanfic," and that is is peopled by Mary Sues. They both sound like something I want nothing to do with but by which I am completely fascinated. A Mary Sue is a kind of superhero, written as an alter ego of the author, but in an already created science fiction world. So a writer rights her most bad ass self into her favorite shows or books. I love this idea. No desire to read it, but the thought is riveting. I spent a while wallowing in this weird world, instead of writing or studying. Can't even call it research.

Less riveting is the novella I completed. I finished about 10k short of the 50k goal. Now to make it readable...