Adventures du jour!
So I sent a request to a certain editor to see if she would beta-read the WIP in progress for me a couple of days ago, with an eye to editing it. I desperately need a sensitivity reader, and I really like this editor, and whenever I see her in person she always asks me questions that are so logical (and that I completely missed) that it cracks me up. I respect her opinion, and even though this book isn’t normally what she edits, I need someone who edits SF/F in order to pull this off. Fingers crossed.
Getting materials ready for her kept me up until 2 a.m. my time, because I had to write All the Warnings about the story to come. I think all my fears about having this go public bubbled to the surface. Also, I went over the first 5K one more time, decided it needed to be one serial-type section instead of two, and adjusted some of the structure accordingly. I also changed the little stuff that had changed…for example, I had no memory that Mr. Assassin had a goatee at one point. But he did. I shaved it. Sorry, Dan, I’m sure I thought it was fetching at one point…
Mr. Assassin: [Rubs fresh-saved chin] I think I’ll grow it out.
Me: Not until after the end of the book.
Then yesterday I got up at seven, because that’s what you do when you’ve inherited the genetics that say “wake up at sunrise.” UGH.
I made myself do yoga, then sat down to try to write, because the first song in the playlist was playing on my mental radio station (which is constantly playing if I don’t have music on anyway) was playing VERY LOUDLY, ON REPEAT.
Did I write anything yesterday? No. Did I get anything else I wanted to do done yesterday? Also no. But I did figure out a way to take down human civilization without using a nuclear war or a plague.
I’m hoping that it’s plausible enough for the story but not plausible enough to actually put in place. This is literally the first time in the story that I’ve researched something horrible and not found real-life examples that are ten times worse. Still working on how to handle the really upsetting (to me) part of the plot twist; I had a discussion with a friend yesterday that I hope is a thread out of that particular maze. (It’s hard to be more specific here without being all spoilery.)
Ray’s turning 21 soon; she requested that I make her a cocktail and drink a fancy cocktail with her on her birthday. I figured out the perfect one for her, a taijin margarita. I haven’t had mescal, but I think I might do that instead of tequila, because it’s smokier and that’ll have meaning. This is a young woman who eats like Shaggy Norville is a mere starting point. I told her that I want to make her drinkable Takis (the chips) and she has permission not to like it, but that the drink was not up for discussion. She just laughed.
After I got what I needed in order to destroy the world (although of course now I also have to save it), I went out for a walk. I’m really, really lucky that I didn’t fall; I was very distracted and got “lost” several times. By “lost,” what I mean is that my subconscious made me miss the turn back to my apartment twice and dragged me back to the little free library that I wasn’t sure where it was, then–because I didn’t learn my lesson–grabbed me again and made me look at the shortcut through an alley to get there. But eventually I stopped getting “lost” and made it back to the apartment.
We watched the first ep of season 3 of Marimashita! Iruma-kun yesterday; it’s a Three Idiots Who Have to Get Along story (which I particularly like). I’m also pretty sure that it’s a Journey to the West story, and, now that I think about it, they’re also setting up the same thing I am with my plot twist on the WIP (not that anyone but me will ever see the similarity). I’ll be done with my WIP before I find out how Iruma handles his situation, though. At any rate, everything else got dropped to watch it together.
Then I went to bed and slept almost 12 hours. I feel like I should have slept longer…but 7 a.m. hit and sunrise shouted at me like a mutant rooster on cocaine.
This morning: muscles sore, particularly in lower back, but also nicely woobly rather than stiff. Every time I got stuck on the research yesterday I’d unplugged the headphones and danced like a fool for a few minutes, and I think it was probably the dancing around and not the Power Walk Lost in Tampa that did it.
Part of me wants to go to dance classes; the rest of me is like, “You’re going to want to learn flamenco so you can stomp around to EDM in shoes with nails on the bottom and do NOT do that in your apartment; that’s just ADD talking.” I’ll let it bubble.
The walk this morning, I left the house, made it half a block, then turned around and picked up a book to leave at the little free library. I successfully dropped it off, too. It was either that or get dragged around again, I’m sure.
While I was out yesterday, I barely took any pictures. I was just pushing too hard. This morning, too, I struggled to take photos, but it was more “who do you even think you are?” stuff that was coming barfing out. “Who do you think you are? Why are you here? What do you think you’re doing? Who do you think you’re trying to fool?” I had to catch myself a couple of times and remind myself that I am not my thoughts. I suspect believing in myself is going to be challenging as I work through this section of the story. I just have to remember that I don’t have to feel like I’m doing good work in order to actually do good work.