Somehow this week became very busy.
Work. My job has been more hectic than usual. Lots of activities, meetings, presentations, and getting food. We also had a college student “externing” with us, and I wanted to make sure he wasn’t bored and that he was able to make his way through the wilds of San Francisco without getting mugged by a meth head.
And oh yeah actual writerly work! I was pooped by the end the end of the week.
Travel. MB will be teaching a one-day class in L.A. in a couple of weeks. Normally he does all his own travel, but since I’m joining him – and wanted to fly in and out at non-crazy times and not stay at a random hotel (and I have control issues, apparently) – I made the flight and hotel reservations.
I’m excited! I’ll be missing my brother, who won’t be around that weekend, but our hotel should be nice. I paid eight more dollars a night to get a corner room, and put us on the “upgrade standby” list, meaning if upon check-in a better room is available, we get it for just five more dollars a night, as opposed to $20.
There’s not much in the area except a mall, but I imagine while MB is teaching I’ll have a leisurely day, work on my writing, work out, do a little shopping. It’s just nice to go someplace different.
Fall anthology. Last week I turned in revisions for a piece that’s in an anthology coming out in the fall. The editors had awesome feedback, and it took me a while to figure out how to do the revisions. I’m happy with the changes though.
And this morning I just handed in copyedits for a piece that’s coming out in a literary magazine May.
Memoir. Remember my memoir? I’ve still been working on it all this time, and to remind everyone, I plan on selling it on Lulu this spring!
Recently I entered the LAST revisions, and have been in talks with my pal Eva about cover designs. She’s a talented letterpress card designer – check out her cards! they are adorable – and I’ve been so excited to see her draft designs for my memoir cover. You’ll get a sneak peek (and perhaps a chance to vote on your favorite) early next week!
I’ve also decided to liven up the title pages for each section of my memoir, of which there are five:
- The Rat and the Horse
- The Rat and the Monkey
- The Rat and the Rat
- Rat, Horse, Rat
- Rat
The section titles refer to the Chinese horoscopes of the main characters, and I thought it would be cool to include drawings of the animals on the mostly blank title pages. Eva liked that idea too, and made the great suggestion of putting some action in the section titles, both to help her with the art and to give the reader a preview of what’s going on in that section.
Then I thought, What if I put pseudo-horoscopes instead? Just a few short sentences pretending to be a Chinese horoscope but really giving a subtle hint to the reader of what’s to come.
This has been much more difficult than I anticipated. I’ve been combing the web for the right descriptions of both animals and how they get along. Now I need to boil all that down in a few sentences.
MB thinks I should go even shorter with three words. For example, for The Rat and the Horse section, A complete disaster. I’m not sure about that. I’m toying with the idea of a six-word subtitle, in the tradition of six-word memoirs and novels, supposedly started when Ernest Hemingway was asked to write a novel in six words:
For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.
How incredibly sad is that? Just those six words.
The Nervous Breakdown. Oh, and I’ve so been running around like a headless chicken, it took my bud Gloria to nudge me to check out The Nervous Breakdown – where I’m the featured author this week!
And of course I need to actually catch up on TNB reading, as well as post a piece before the month is out.
And now, the gym!