Man Bites World Revise-down!

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Today I am a dumb person.

I started late this morning–waking at 6 am–and caught a bus to the Starbucks. I worked until 11, had a quick lunch, then hit the library at 11:45. I worked there until they closed at 6 pm.

How much work did I do? I was five pages from the end of the stinking book when they threw us out. I couldn’t wrap up for the day so close to the end, so I went *back* to the Starbucks, bought a little food, and finished writing the new (much less dark) ending.

Success! Finish! All I had to do was note the changes I made in the change file, and cross off the notes I’d accomplished in my revision file, and I could call it done!

Except I opened the revision file and found one last note I need to address. One huge note. It’s not something I can fix in one scene; it’s spread throughout the whole book.

This shit wasn’t almost done. I still have an assload left to do. And I worked nearly 14 hours today. Jesus. I don’t mind having work to do on the book, I just wish I hadn’t convinced myself I was almost at the finish line when I came around the bend and saw a long stretch of road ahead. That shit is demoralizing.

I’ll try to post something interesting tomorrow.

Apropos of nothing at all

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How to fold a fitted sheet:

And I’m back

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Thank you, Mac Freedom! At about 8:45 this morning, I set it to block internet access from my laptop for 6 hours. Then I got down to work.

With interruptions, of course. My local library branch is closed on Fridays due to budget cuts. I ended up working at home instead, which was fine because I’m still not feeling so hot. And for once, my family let me work relatively undisturbed. Also, the Mac Freedom timer stops when the laptop goes into sleep mode, so I get a genuine six hours of temptation-free work time. :D

Also, our local atm no longer uses envelopes when making a deposit. Who knew? You slip the check into the machine, it scans the numbers and asks you to confirm the deposit amount. Easy, right? Except that it’s slow as hell and completely annoying.

Anyway, I tore off a big chunk of the end of this book. I also rewrote 8 critical pages that my agent told me weren’t working (and she was so very right). I kept a lot, changed a lot and generally wrote a spookier, crazier scene than what I had before.

Tomorrow, the ending. Well, as much of the ending as I can manage. I have a bunch to change there, too.

Nebula Awards

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The Nebula Award nominees are here.

Watch me

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Find more videos like this on AdGabber

via Jet Reid Lit Agency

Obsessive behavior

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I’m at the library, working on my book at the moment. (I just couldn’t stay in my apartment any longer). The guy sitting at the table with me is apparently concerned about hanging boogers, because he has been exhaling sharply ever 5-20 seconds.

And he’s been doing it for 45 minutes oh I am so not even joking. Time to get the hell out of here.

(NB: I had a productive day.)

Not day-jobbing today

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In truth, I feel like crap. Yay! The sun is bright, though, and I’m told it will be warm later. I’ll try to spend a little time outside in it.

Instead, I’m plugging away at Man Bites World. Why not? What else am I going to do with my time, read Facebook?

Let me put a question or three to you before I log off: How do you guys feel about a book that has the same title as another book? Does it matter if they’re in different genres? If the previous one is out of print? Still in print? And how would you go about judging the popularity of that older book to determine how well-remembered that title is?

Ugh. Not braining well today, but it’s time to log off and get back to my revisions.

Federal Stimulus

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Independent economic analysts–organizations unaffiliated with the White House or the national Democratic party–have put forward their conclusions on the federal stimulus bill.

It has worked, and will continue to work.

Just look at the outside evaluations of the stimulus. Perhaps the best-known economic research firms are IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody’s Economy.com. They all estimate that the bill has added 1.6 million to 1.8 million jobs so far and that its ultimate impact will be roughly 2.5 million jobs. The Congressional Budget Office, an independent agency, considers these estimates to be conservative.

But those aren’t the sound bites you hear in the media, are they?

Two political links

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First: Andrew Sullivan points out that Dick Cheney confessed to a war crime in a recent interview.

In fact, the attorney general of the United States is legally obliged to prosecute someone who has openly admitted such a war crime or be in violation of the Geneva Conventions and the UN Convention on Torture. For Eric Holder to ignore this duty subjects him too to prosecution. If the US government fails to enforce the provision against torture, the UN or a foreign court can initiate an investigation and prosecution.

These are not my opinions and they are not hyperbole. They are legal facts. Either this country is governed by the rule of law or it isn’t. Cheney’s clear admission of his central role in authorizing waterboarding and the clear evidence that such waterboarding did indeed take place means that prosecution must proceed.

Cheney himself just set in motion a chain of events that the civilized world must see to its conclusion or cease to be the civilized world. For such a high official to escape the clear letter of these treaties and conventions, and to openly brag of it, renders such treaties and conventions meaningless.

Not that anything will be done about it in this country. A former Republican can confess to war crimes on TV and nothing happens to him, but Obama administration has to respond to frivolous birther lawsuits.

Second: Here’s an essential breakdown of the insanity of the current American political situation. You can skip the lengthy analysis that comes after the five steps–it only reiterates the opening in more depth.

But I still find it astonishing that the DC media continue to insist that Democrats must do more to reach out to an opposition party that has refused to abandon discredited ideas and are determined to obstruct governance. I also find it hard to believe that the media keeps calling this a “center-right country” when it simply isn’t true.

Things that aren’t a secret

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It’s no great secret that Man Bites World is way past deadline. What startled me though was that I looked through my “goof” file for this project, and I realized I started writing it over a year ago. A quick glance at my LJ from that time shows that I was struggling with the outline back in early Jan. ’09.

Now, the revisions for Game of Cages took up a bunch of last year, but reviewing my progress notes suggest that it didn’t take that much time. I’ve just been struggling with this story.

::shakes fist at Word document::