SSS and Call For Historical Authors

Welcome to one of the final Six Sentence Sundays! Please visit the official site for more wonderful snippets than you can handle.

I've been sharing bits from my medieval epic, The Seven Noble Knights of Lara. Six revised sentences from the very important chapter where everything starts to go to hell are below. There was a lot of concern over the horse portions. Please tell me if this is any more realistic than before (first draft here). And keep reading after the snippet for an idea for all my historical novelist pals!

* * *

Gonzalo drove his fist into Don Álvar’s face so hard that he collapsed at the feet of his horse, which reared with an almost human shriek. With nowhere else to land in the crush of people, its sharp hooves came down on its rider’s flesh. It reared again and again in terror and confusion as knights and pages darted under it, trying to pull Don Álvar to safety. Finally Muño Salido seized the reins and led the horse, still kicking, away. Don Álvar’s teeth bounced and rolled on the soft earth or landed on people’s pointed shoes like fallen pebbles. Shining blood sprouted from his body and raced outward, covering the ground with a steaming red plague.
 

* * *

Now that the official SSS is nearly over, I've been wondering if it would be a good idea to start a new, more specialized blog hop, for those authors in the audience who write historical fiction. Historical would be defined as fiction that takes place in a time before the author was born. Would you hystericals -- I mean, historicals -- like to hop around the centuries and share short excerpts of your work? Please comment below if you're interested in participating, and I'll ask around, too. Results of this question and full details will appear next Sunday.

Thanks for stopping by! Thanks for Six Sentence Sunday! And thanks for your comments and ideas!

SSS: A New Fiancé

The cover of the program of an academic congress about the medieval epic poem upon which The Seven Noble Knights of Lara is based.

For today's excerpt of my revisions of The Seven Noble Knights of Lara, I thought I'd do something new and give you a dialogue-heavy snippet. It's still the first chapter, and the Count of Castile, Doña Lambra's cousin, has come to tell her he's going to marry her off to his most valuable vassal. She is none too pleased.

* * *

“He’s completed his thirty-fifth year.”

She couldn’t help but wring her hands at the thought of a grey beard and broken teeth, worms sprouting out of every orifice. Maybe he wouldn’t live that long, then she would administer all the territory they had between them.

“Is he landed?”

“He has a few parcels in the region of Lara, called Vilviestre.”

“A few parcels?”

* * *

That's not the last piece of her mind she's going to give him!

Thanks so much stopping by! I trade comments for comments! Get a lot more wonderful excerpts today at SixSunday.com.

Six Sentence Sunday: Beginnings

For my little contribution to the farewell of Six Sentence Sunday (click on that for a lot of other great excerpts!), I thought I'd share some of the revisions I'm working on for The Seven Noble Knights of Lara. It can still be improved, I'm sure!

These are now the first six sentences of the novel. Do they grab your attention, or are they too calm?

* * *

           The sun began to relent from its long day's punishment of Busto de Bureba. The fish in the river sought out the barely forming shadows cast by rocks and branches. Inside a stone house, under a thatched roof, twenty maidservants and their lady planned a cool evening meal, brought in the washing, and put away the day's sewing without bumping into each other.
           Doña Lambra looked out the open door at the fields where her vassals were setting down their scythes and pitchforks for the day. Most of the serfs would return to their tiny homes in town, but some of the overseers lived on the estate, and would come to the main hall for supper. If nothing went wrong, in another seven mornings or so, Lambra would have to provide some kind of reward for successful haying, and the laborers would all expect meals at the haystacks in the meantime. 

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Thanks so much for stopping by! I return comments for comments!

SSS: Medieval Sleeping Derangements

Last week, a few of you wondered why Lambra woke up so hot in the middle of the night. Although it's September and the weather is moving into autumn, and the fire has gone out, she's just had a disturbing dream about her nephew-in-law Gonzalo with a bizarrely erotic element that I have not included in any snippets because I'd hate to give the wrong impression on my blog. Those tidbits (turn-ons? turn-offs?) are for the readers of the complete book, whenever it comes out.

This snippet from Chapter Six of The Seven Noble Knights of Lara comes right after last week's. I hope you enjoy!

* * * 

They were trying not to wake anyone, but Lambra could tell that the muffled sound was coming from her side of the hall. She turned onto her stomach and faced the spot where she knew the vassal and his wife slept.

“Ermenegildo Antolínez,” Lambra called out into the marred silence. “Someone is on the wrong side of the hall.”

Sounds of shuffling arose from multiple corners as sleepers woke, the couple abruptly stopped their sensuous movements, and Ermenegildo Antolínez fumbled in the dark to light a beeswax candle. In the slow-growing amber flare, Lambra witnessed a bulk scurrying to collapse toward the floor and Gonzalo’s, definitely Gonzalo’s, chest heaving amidst the steady line of his brothers’ even breathing.

* * *

Thanks so much for stopping by! I just love your comments that let me know what you enjoy or don't like as much about each snippet. I always write back. Many and varied clips await you at SixSunday.com.

SSS: Medieval Sleeping Arrangements and Derangements

Last week, we experienced the layout of the crowded hall and got rid of the spiders so we could sleep on our straw pallets. It's not going to be a night of uninterrupted sleep for doña Lambra.

* * * 

Her eyes snapped open into profound blackness. She heard the normal sounds of people breathing around the perimeter of the hall and shifting on top of their crackling straw ticks. A bead of sweat ran over her ear. She felt as if the fireplace she lay next to contained a roaring blaze even though the flame must have died hours before. She threw a blanket off to her side and her nostrils were assaulted with her own scent as she felt where the wispy chainse was stuck to her wet skin.

           Then she heard it: the rhythmic soft moaning of a man and woman. 

* * *

Uh-oh, I don't think the new lady of the manor is going to like that!

Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate your comments so very much and always respond in kind. Check out all the great clips at sixsunday.com.

SSS: Medieval Sleeping Arrangements

It wasn't all four-poster beds and brocade curtains in the tenth century. This segment from The Seven Noble Knights of Lara, which comes shortly after last week's, shows that a thousand years ago, people had never heard of "comfort."

* * * 

“I don’t think I’ve ever hosted this many people before,” explained Ermenegildo Antolínez.

After a supper of stew with onions, leeks, and carrots, the landholder and the seven brothers moved the table against the wall in order to make more room for two long rows of bodies to sleep side by side. Lambra claimed the spot nearest the fireplace and set Justa’s bedding next to her for insulation from everyone else. Lambra was glad that Justa knew to direct that the sexes be segregated just like they were in Bureba, with women all in Lambra’s row and all the men in the other across a cleared aisle, although Ermenegildo Antolínez’s wife quietly took her place next to her husband, directly across from Lambra. Toward the end of the hall where they’d placed the chamber pot, it was found that there weren’t enough bed pallets, so Little Page and Lambra’s other male servants followed Ermenegildo Antolínez to the barns to get more hay. Once every last person had a straw tick of some sort to lie atop, and all the spiders that ran out of the straw had been stepped on, swatted, burned, or drowned, travelers and hosts could finally rest.

* * *

Thanks so much for stepping into my historical Spanish world for a moment. I appreciate your comments so much! I return the favor in kind. The official Six Sentence Sunday site is here. Can't wait to see all the great snippets next week!

SSS: Arriving to Play in the Fountain

Imagine this big enough for seven guys to splash in.

I only meant to be away for a month, and now that I'm finally back I find the official Six Sentence Sunday has announced that it will soon come to an end. I've not only got all my stuff but moved across the country, so changes are everywhere.

This segment picks up a bit after the last one. The travelers have come to Barbadillo and Lambra is meeting the head of the estate, Ermenegildo Antolínez:

* * *

He kissed her hand deferentially. “You have my fealty, doña Lambra.”

“Thank you, don Ermenegildo. We’ve come all the way from Burgos. Would you be so kind as to show us where we will be eating and sleeping?”

Before she had finished her last sentence, the seven brothers had abandoned all solemnity and darted to the fountain, where, like dogs, they washed the dust from their faces and drank out of their cupped hands, then splashed each other and made such a noise that the hunting hounds emerged from the hills, barking and howling.

“You would never know that the oldest of them is a score and five years old,” Ermenegildo Antolínez said, waving the rest of the travelers toward the farmhouse. 

* * *

Not to spoil anything, but this is the calm before the storm.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I return all comments as I'm able. 

SSS: Maybe She's Crazy...

I've been participating in Six Sentence Sunday (follow the link for more mind-blowing excerpts) for an entire year. It's done wonders for my blog in ways I never imagined. Thank you to the organizers and the participants!

These six follow on in Chapter Six of The Seven Noble Knights of Lara several pages after last week's. The seven, their mother, and doña Lambra have agreed to travel to Barbadillo, ostensibly to see if there is any good hunting. We're inside Lambra's head, on the road.

* * *

The second day, as they entered narrow passageways between rocky outcrops shaded by pines, the seven brothers surrounded Lambra on their horses as if they were her personal guard. She looked at the wispy brown hairs moving with the breeze on the back of Gonzalo’s neck and imagined using a shining copper razor to get rid of that ridiculous stubble on his chin, holding the smoothed face in her hands, bringing the round red lips toward hers. No: not even finishing the friendly shave before – accidentally, of course – making a sudden strategic slit under his ear, all the way across to the other ear.

She cleared her throat and said loudly for Gonzalo to hear, “Oh, Justa, do you think there are robbers hiding in these hills? It’s doesn’t matter anyway, with my nephews here to protect me.”

Every one of the brothers grinned, baring white teeth, and sat up a little taller in his saddle. 

* * *

Thanks for stopping by! I have eternal gratitude for those who comment!

I may be taking a short hiatus from SSS in the rest of April, for reasons that I hope will be really great. Stay tuned.

SSS: Quick Healers

This is the bird Suero takes with him everywhere. Imagine sitting across the breakfast table from this guy!

We're still with doña Lambra at that breakfast, following last week's post.

* * *

She slid her gaze to Gonzalo’s face and saw that he had healed much more quickly than Ruy Blásquez. Five faint reddish spots were the only reminder of the cut that had made him lose so much blood. Doña Sancha sat next to doña Lambra and looked up at her eagerly. Lambra seized the goblet back from Gonzalo and took another swig.

“Ruy Blásquez must abandon me to my fate. Don’t you leave me, too, dear sister,” she said.

* * *

I think some scheming is taking place...

Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving comments! I appreciate it sooooooo much and will return the favor.

Charmaine Gordon, I always enjoy your snippets, but I just can't comment on your blog. Sorry!

SSS: Desire for the Enemy part 2

We're still in doña Lambra's head. These lines follow directly from last week's.

* * *

That young, sinuous arm pushing the flap open did not belong to her husband. Her eyes snapped open. They alit on Suero, sitting across from his mother, with that ever-present goshawk perched on his specially padded shoulder. He handed bits of bread up to its sharp beak. She wondered at his audacity to carry the bird with him after what it had done to her husband’s face. The count should have had it killed. 

* * *

Thanks so much for stopping by! I appreciate your comments more than I can say. I will definitely return the visit!

Check out all the great sentences at SixSunday.com.

SSS: Desire for the Enemy

It's a big Sunday!

Daylight Savings is taking place all over the world -- but not where I live, this crazy land, Arizona. (We really don't have any use for it, I understand now, the second time I've gone through this process here.)

The Tucson Festival of Books is in its second day! Come one, come all! Don't miss it! I'll be sure to blog about it as soon as I recover.

And of course, it's Six Sentence Sunday! Thanks for stopping by. These lines don't follow on directly after last week's. In the interim, we've discovered that the husbands are going to survey the lands with the Count, leaving Sancha and Lambra to fend for themselves. Together, the aunt, the sister-in-law, and the nephews go to the inn to get some breakfast.

* * * 

The innkeeper and his wife served day-old white bread, olive oil, and wine they poured out of a skin into two wooden goblets. Lambra took a sip and set her goblet down, only for Gonzalo González to reach across her for it, thoroughly bumping his tempered steel arm against hers.

“Excuse me, Aunt.”

           How had he managed to sit down by her? Doña Lambra closed her eyes to shut out the anger, but in the dark she saw herself naked, in the bridal tent, alone. Who was coming through the door to quench her desire? 

* * *

Hmm. I fear I may be giving away a bit too much about Lambra's mental state here... I really appreciate all your comments. Due to the Book Festival, I probably won't get to visit any sites today, but I'll visit you all at the crack of dawn on Monday. All the great sentences are at SixSunday.com.

SSS: Self-Control

Not to give too much away, but this is what Lambra would like to do to Gonzalo. 

I had my writing group this week, so I'm really geared up to share The Seven Noble Knights of Lara with all of you. Thanks so much for all the comments over these weeks. I visit everyone whose site I can find!

These lines follow on right after last week's.

* * *

She resolved never to accept the González family as her own. She would regain control of her situation, even if it meant deception. “I accept your apologies and the Count of Castile has arranged for there to be no disputes on either side. You have nothing to worry about from me.” Justa, Gotina, the other maids, and Little Page had come up to stand beside her. She felt comforted to have as many people with her as her sister-in-law. 

* * *

These lines look a little flat right now, but in the context I thought they worked really well -- what do you think? Lambra is all about quiet composure here. The rage is all under the surface... for now.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Check out the other great sentences here.

SSS: Smoldering Coals

Take the ribbon out of the picture and wipe the smiles off their faces for a better idea of what's going on in this snippet. 

Thanks for all the compliments over the past couple of weeks. I'm so happy to be able to share these sentences with you! These take place just after last week's six from The Seven Noble Knights of Lara.

* * *

Young Gonzalo surged forward from the crowd of brothers and knelt before Lambra. “I’m especially sorry. Can you ever forgive me?” He took her hand and kissed it deferentially.

           Doña Lambra pulled away: the touch burned her like smoldering coals. She had not chosen him to be her nephew any more than she had wanted to marry. 

* * *

It was really hard to keep this to just six sentences. Lambra's head is an interesting place to be for me, and I hope for you, too. Check out all the sentences at SixSunday.com.

SSS: Concern for Lambra's Wellbeing

Thanks for the enthusiasm last week! This is the part in The Seven Noble Knights of Lara after the inciting incident that could be pretty dull if not written properly. I'm hugely thankful for your feedback and comments! This segment follows on directly after last week's.

* * * 

Doña Lambra’s muscles tensed when doña Sancha and her sons appeared with their tutor Muño Salido, approaching in a procession that recalled the funeral of the day before. Lambra focused her energy on wiping away new tears and twisting her braid in her hand as she waited for them to arrive. Doña Sancha stayed several paces away and the men all stayed behind her. Lambra set her jaw, thinking that any normal person would have come up and clasped her hands in concern for her wellbeing.

“We’re here to express our condolences once again,” Sancha said across the space between them.

The young knights and their tutor made sweeping bows. 

* * *

Hmm... is all forgiven, or not? Check out the other great sentences at Six Sentence Sunday. Thanks for stopping by!

SSS: The Party's Over

The bank of the Arlanzón River in 2005, more than 1000 years after the events in this novel.

Thanks so much for the comments and visits last week! I enjoyed your snippets, too!

Although the wedding celebrations were expected to continue for several more weeks, the tragic events in Chapter 5 of The Seven Noble Knights of Lara have called everything to a halt. This segment comes a few sentences after last week's.

* * *

When doña Lambra was ready, they left the tent. Justa went to fetch the other maidens and her lady looked down the riverbank. For five weeks it had been festooned with tents and banners and people in all manner of occupations. Now, the multitudes that had arrived in Burgos with such pomp for the wedding festivities had quietly dispersed over the last three days, returning to their own lands. Each morning a few more of the man-made features had disappeared, until finally the entire bank was plucked bald. All that remained as evidence of the merriment was a lamentable groove in the dust where men and horses had proven their worth against a wooden castle. 

* * *

Don't forget to check out all the other wonderful sentences at Six Sentence Sunday. Thanks so much for stopping by and helping inspire me as I try to finish this novel.

SSS: Eternity without Teeth

Doña Lambra is having trouble relating to her new husband and has sent him after her maid and close ally, Justa. This segment follows right after last week's:

* * *

She licked her chapped lips and coughed, wondering if she could ever bring balance to her bodily humors after such a day. She had wailed and beat her chest for hours after they laid Álvar Sánchez’s body into the ground wrapped in linen, so close to other knights who had died defending Castile. With Justa’s help, she had collected all of Álvar’s teeth in a leather pouch and drawn the string tightly closed. After the blessings, she had set the pouch on his chest, so that it almost looked like he was holding them in his folded hands through the cloth.

“It isn’t right that someone so handsome should have to meet eternity without his teeth,” Lambra whispered aloud. 

           “We did our best for him, my lady.” 

* * *

Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your comments so much! I'm glad to see many of you remember the story, too! I'll definitely be by to visit your blogs!

SSS: Emotional Aftermath of the Bloody Wedding

The Seven Noble Knights of Lara is back! You may remember Chapter 5, in which male egos got out of hand and caused the death of Álvar Sánchez. (Check out almost all the excerpts in this link.) A legal compromise has apparently satisfied all concerned parties, but now it's the opening of Chapter 6, and we focus in on doña Lambra -- the bride as well as the cousin of the dead man.

* * *

Doña Lambra woke to the brightness of the tent with a bitter taste in her mouth and dried tears crusting her eyes. She rolled over and saw a figure moving about in silence.

“Justa?” she croaked.

Ruy Blásquez moved next to the bedstead, nearly thrusting his bandaged nose in her face. “It is I, my dear wife.”

           “Bring Justa.” 

* * *

Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your comments hugely, especially as I get back into writing this novel after a hiatus. I'll visit you all in return! Check us all out at Six Sentence Sunday.

NaNoWriMo Update: Where I am with The Seven Noble Knights of Lara

As I learned after making a goal of 25,000 new words on a novel I'd already more than started, I was a NaNo Rebel this year. The only time I tried to do NaNoWriMo officially, I failed miserably. But being a rebel seems to help: a few days ago, I met my goal of where I wanted to be in the story! (It turned out to be the end of Chapter 12.) Yesterday, the very last allowable day, I finished Chapter 13 and started Chapter 14 and surpassed my word count goal (just barely).

The first draft (maybe technically second, since this is the same book I started for the official first NaNo) of The Seven Noble Knights of Lara now stands at 50,960 words, 25,061 of which emerged out of my laptop during the month of November 2011. I'd say I'm three quarters of the way through the plot, and since I'm not prolix, especially in the first draft, a lot of details need to be added, so it may end up in the 100,000 word range, which is pretty astounding.

It's also been happening astoundingly slow. I started this draft in February 2011, so my average is only 5,000 a month. I've always believed I was a low-output writer, but only recently has that become less than acceptable to me. A few months ago, I wrote 9,000 words of my other project, "Middle Awash in Talent," over the course of two or three days (hard to remember specifics when so much creativity is coursing through you!), so I know it's possible. If I want anyone to read my completed SNKL before the end of the world next December, I had better get serious.

Here are some things I think will help me finish before the Mayan apocalypse:

1. Write every day. (This is tough when my job has become unbelievably demanding... but no excuses!)
2. Write a consistent amount every day.
3. When I run out of the plot I have sketched out, take the time to sketch out the end of the book in some detail.
4. Keep enjoying the writing as much as I did in November. Yep, even though I had work and holidays and ten million things to think about other than the psychology of Gonzalo González, sitting down to immerse myself in his (and his aunt and uncle's) world was pure pleasure.

Roni Loren, Rachel Aaron, Susan Kaye Quinn, and Zoe Winters seem to have had success with similar notions. This bodes very well, indeed!

Six Sentence Sunday: The End of Chapter 5

These are the last six I'm posting from Chapter 5 of The Seven Noble Knights of Lara. I hope you've enjoyed the extended excerpt! This takes place soon after where we left off, with just a few words in between showing that both parties have agreed to the Count's arbitration.

* * *

With dutiful nods, six brothers each knelt at Ruy Blásquez’s feet and kissed his hand. Doña Sancha said, “Gonzalo will do it some other time since if he kneels now, he may not be able to get back up.” She dabbed at his head wounds with her maid’s handkerchief, although they were beginning to stop bleeding at last.

And with this, the men seemed well pleased. Sancha looked at Lambra, who refused to look back at her, but crouched down and began collecting Álvar Sánchez’s gore-covered teeth in an improvised pouch of her skirt. The blood and soil seeped through the yellow silk, spattered sinister flowerlets on Álvar’s tunic and sank deep into the earth.

* * *

I expect that's sufficiently creepy or gory for Halloween tomorrow. Thanks so much for stopping by. I so appreciate your comments! Don't miss out on the other excerpts here.

NaNoWriMo and Things To Do

NaNoWriMo is about to come roaring down the highway at us. At least it doesn't sneak up.

These are the items I need to get done in November, in no particular order:

1. Write 1,667 words per day of The Seven Noble Knights of Lara as an unofficial NaNoWriMo. If I don't make a really big push now, the project could languish for a few more years, and no one wants that. 1,667 words a day is a lot for me, and I'll probably have to rigidly schedule a time to sit down and do it until it's done. I've resisted rigid schedules because I now have so many demands on my time, with priorities that change more often than I'm used to.

2. Fireship Press: Acquisition work. At a meeting this week, the new COO said we needed to shift acquisitions to someone with fewer qualifications than me so I could get back to higher-level editing. The thing is, I love acquisition work! Deciding whether a piece has what it takes to make us request a full MS, and then deciding how much editing the full MS would require before it was ready for publication can be the most thrilling part of the entire publishing process. So far, if I've had a hand in approving a book, it's then been assigned to me for the aforementioned high-level editing, and it's tremendously satisfying to take a book all the way through, from MS to the exit gate. Acquisitions is probably the least time-consuming of all the tasks here, but it does mean that much less time to do everything else.

3. Fireship Press: Editing work. Currently, I have four books I need to pay huge amounts of attention to in order to ensure their overall quality. I prefer to do them one at a time or I'll become distracted and irritable, because I typically have intense consultations with the author in order to better understand his or her vision and shape it as changes come through. I also love this part of the process because it's where the real metamorphosis takes place. Needless to say, it's the most time-consuming aspect of my Fireship work.

4. Fireship Press: Copyediting. Exciting, higher quality standards and a severe dearth of staff mean I have to take on a lot of the tasks Tom taught me how to do, although they aren't officially in my job description. We already have a new copyediting system in place that should eliminate misuse and mistakes, but if I see a mistake myself, I can't help but correct it. Hopefully, that instinct will lessen the work load of the official copyeditors.

5. Fireship Press: Production. This includes all aspects of formatting. I don't mind this at all and would gladly keep doing if it weren't so time-consuming. Again, the company is working on offloading these tasks, but for now I either have to do it myself for the books I'm editing or work closely with the other staff members to get it done right. One important task this month is to "teach" everyone how to upload the book for the printer. Which brings me to:

6. Fireship Press: Admin. We're working most of the time from our own home bases, but meeting once a week to update each other and teach each other about all the little details no single one of us has complete control over. Yet. At these meetings I also tend to be assigned more tasks.

7. Blog. In November, I will have to reduce the blog to excerpt days on Saturdays and Sundays and the occasional book review I'm already preparing. I'd love to provide much more exciting content for you, but as you can see, I'm stretched a bit thin at the moment.

8. Açedrex Publishing. My company isn't the cash cow I was promised, but my theory is that hard work will pay off eventually. My strategy is to keep increasing the catalog with irresistibly fascinating titles. Of course, the timing is perfect (not!) and I'm now working on a couple of especially intensive projects, which I will unveil when the time is right. In the meantime, you can always help by purchasing inexpensive but high quality titles! Acedrex.com

9. Publicity. In a perfect world, I would have the financial and time budget to promote my writing and my company. I don't need to point out that this is no perfect world.

10. Keep reading good books in order to keep gaining exposure to good writing for my own uses. I also enjoy being of some help to talented writers by putting my reviews out there.

11. Taking care of my husband. He doesn't literally need taking care of, but mainly emotional support as he works just as hard as I do, but at a job he doesn't feel drawn to, just to keep a roof over our heads. And save to get our stuff in storage back to us some day. He's easy to please: he's thrilled just to spend time with me. For that reason, I can't be working on any of these other items at the same time I'm taking care of him. No, all that other stuff has to be done when he's at work. Such "rules" help to keep me grounded. I love my work, but it's important to work to live, not live to work. Also during November is my husband's birthday. I wish I could seize the moment to show him how much he means to me, but a card and a restaurant visit will have to do.

12. Thanksgiving. We'll probably be pretty pathetic. We can't travel to be with loved ones, but at least I assume my husband will have some time off to cook a turkey breast and give thanks for all our blessings. It's a great opportunity for calm and attention.

13. Staying sane. Under this umbrella fall eight hours of sleep per night, going to my writers' group meeting, keeping a private journal, and taking a moment to cook a nice meal once in a while. Some kind of contact with my actual friends would help, too, but I guess I'll put that off until December.

If we could assign a universal effort unit to each of these tasks and total them up, I think we would be looking at several months of work. The effort I put into each task is pretty intense, with the result that I'm a slow writer and a pretty slow editor. I always want to get it right the first time, which obviously doesn't apply to the writing process. Oh, the incessant push and pull of my different instincts!

So, November will be an experiment in quantity/quality balance. Wish me luck!