Friday Glorious Friday

Is there a sweeter word than Friday in the English language? Saturday? We all know what the sweetest phrase is: three day weekend. Right now, I am really wishing that I could go home and have a hard cider after work. Unfortunately, my medication prevents it. That's the downside to being crazy--no booze.

I'm looking back at February, and it's giving me the hairy eyeball. Still, I feel like I accomplished a large amount of progress. I wrote a story 3 out of 4 weeks. All of the stories are material that I am proud of. None of it surpasses my last best story, but I'm not focusing on that. I'm focusing on marathon skills. I'm developing discipline. Discipline is what I will need to write my first novel. Which I still think will be in the Otakuverse, but after the story last night, I think I might be able to write a few more Tin Man stories and then turn them into a fix-up. Anybody out there want to buy a fix-up of adventurous pulp starring mad scientists, beautiful jewel thieves, and robot henchmen--but with pathos? Roughly half of the EscapePod listeners who commented liked it. That's worth something, right?

Oh--I was wrong last night. The latest story "As Good a Man as Any of Them, and a Better Man Than Some" is the first direct sequel I've written. "The Society for Cryptozoological Corrections:Lake Champlain Division" is an indirect sequel. Apparently, I am digging up my own material a lot lately! Perhaps that's why it has been easy.

I've always been kind of iffy on the idea of sequels. For instance, I can't imagine myself writing those massive 5 or 7 book series that some authors do, even though I am sure they come with a certain amount of job security. I'm not sure I could remain interested in a setting and group of characters for hundreds of thousands of words. I wouldn't even know how to stretch a character's arc out that fast. I have trouble telling an arc in more than 4k right now.

Anyway. I'm happy with the work I've done, because it feels like progress. I may not suck any less today, but at least I'm writing and submitting. I am on track to not sucking. That's the first step.

I had intended to try and binge-read 40 classics this weekend as part of my regimen to get better, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to put it off for a weekend. It's going to be 70 here tomorrow. There is no way in hell I am gonna spend it indoors. I might even have to charge the camera's battery tonight...