Category: Uncategorized

When life gives you lemons

I no longer know what to do with all these damn lemons!  I’ve made lemonade.  I’ve put them in my tea.  I’ve preserved them,  and pickled them, and grilled them, and dried them.  I’m all lemoned out.

This has been, hands down, one of the worst stretches of bad luck I’ve had in a long while.  I’ve now been sick for a month – one nasty cold virus after another.  Coughing, hacking, phlemy misery.  I dragged my sorry behind in to school to teach classes on Thursday and paid the price.  Two whole days with no voice whatsoever.  My fever came back.  I had to cancel my trip to San Francisco, where I was supposed to present a paper at the American Anthropological Association and meet up with one of my best and oldest friends.

I am, without doubt, feeling very sorry for myself.

A few upshots, though.  My foggy head has cleared enough the last few days that I’ve been able to tackle a little writing.  I’m making some progress on my revisions to ABSENT and have also resuscitated an old novelette about post-apocalyptic treasure hunters — sort of Indian Jones meets Tomb Raider meets Firefly.  That’s been fun.

While Sid and I are both suffering (he’s been ill too), Mr. Ramses is in heaven.  He’s delighted that someone other than himself seems to want to spend all their time in bed.  He’s been a fat, snuggly companion while I recuperate.

Sad to say, but that’s all the news from here.  Sick. Minimal (but improving) writing progress.  Happy cat.

What’s new with you?

A weekend writing prompt

For those of us here in New York, the last seven days have been one long, claustrophobic weekend as we’ve been trapped in our neighborhoods and homes waiting for power and subway service to be restored.  In fact, just thinking about it is giving me ideas for a horror story (plus an itchy desire to rip off my skin and run screaming through the streets).

For the rest of you, though, maybe you’d like a little writing prompt to help with a weekend project.  Look no further!

  • Plot element: an outbreak occurs
  • Setting: orbiting an unknown planet
  • Character: a one-armed lion tamer
  • Wild card: a robot sidekick
  • Mood: gritty

Oh, yeah.  That’s a keeper.  Have at it!

No More Excuses

We were out to dinner with some friends last night (yes, our neighborhood bounced back from Hurricane Sandy pretty darn quick).  While we were waiting for our food, they asked how my writing was coming.  I proceeded to make noncommittal noises and launch into a stuttering explanation of why progress had been slow lately.  My friend winked.  “I’ve got about six months of excuses ready myself,” he said.

Light bulb.

He’s absolutely right.  I have been making excuses.

I was sick.  There was a hurricane.  My father-in-law died.  These might be good excuses, but they are still excuses.

There is very little writing advice that everyone agrees on, but one tenet I think most would say is reasonable is this:  you should write even (maybe especially?) when you don’t feel like writing.  If you only write when the muse strikes or the planets are aligned or life is good…well, you won’t get very far.  And lately I haven’t been getting very far.

Sure, I’ve set deadlines and made pronouncements, but those things have not changed either my attitude or my behavior.  It’s one thing to assert that you’ll finish your revisions by the end of the month.  It’s another to believe that’s true and act on it.  I’ve done the former but not the latter.

This brief conversation with my friend made me realize that I don’t need a bunch of sticks (or carrots) to get going again.  I need a perspective change.  I love writing, and I love the projects I’m working on.  Why am I letting a bunch of circumstances external to that love get in my way?  The things that have kept me from writing lately have nothing to do with insufficient time and everything to do with my state of mind.  Unacceptable.

So.  No more excuses.

Time to write.

(and, to my friend who probably had no idea his comment would have such a big impact on me…thanks!)

Cabin fever

Like everyone else on the entire Eastern Seaboard, the Suri household is hunkered down for Hurricane Sandy.  We’ve got enough food to feed a small army (actually, this one is fairly normal for us), the bathtub is full of emergency water should the power go out, our flashlights are at the ready, and — of course — we’re bored as hell.

Times like these should be a good opportunity to catch up on work and to enjoy the luxury of just being at home with nowhere to go and nothing to do.  But instead they feel like a waiting game.  You sit down to work on a project but the ability to focus is devastated by a need to get up and look out the window.  Have the winds gotten stronger?  Is that rain coming down just a little harder?  Maybe you should check the NYTimes live updates.  Is there more flooding?  Where?  Wow — look at those pictures from Queens!

Oh, right.  Project.  I should get back to that while I still have power…

The same thing happened last year during Hurricane Irene.  We even had friends staying with us who had to evacuate out of Zone A and all we could do was sit around and stare at our laptops and mobile devices, searching for “new information” about the storm.  It was almost funny.

What is it that makes us act this way?  Is it the unknown?  In a world where we have so much information at our fingertips, we can’t fathom situations where we really don’t know what will happen.

I don’t know.

I do know, though, that I have a lot of work to do.  With school likely to be canceled tomorrow (and a lost day last week because I was sick), my syllabus is in disarray.  I’ve also got a mountain of midterm exams to grade —  oh, and two novels that are begging to be finished.  So, I will do my best to stop checking live updates on the storm every five minutes and get down to it.

But…if you want to Google chat, or Skype, or text…please do.  I’m bored!

Writer’s Workspace: 10/17

Welcome to this writer’s workspace.  Here’s what’s happening liiiiiiiiiiiiiive at Miranda’s desk:

What I’m working on:  This month is my finish-ABSENT-come-hell-or-high-water month.  So, that’s what I’m trying to do.  Based on feedback from all my fabulous Beta readers, I’m working on the third (and hopefully final) round of revisions.  Honestly, progress is a little slower than I’d like, though–probably cause I’ve got a huge stack of midterm exams to grade 😦

Snippet from the screen:  “Reid Rencher stood in the hallway, the flickering bulb casting his handsome face half in shadow.  Emily stared at him, horrifically aware she’d neither brushed her hair nor changed out of the I heart New York T-shirt and pair of old boxers she’d slept in the night before.  Reid grinned, taking in the half-empty glass clutched in her hand.  “I know you’ve been avoiding me, but I braved the G train to get here and I didn’t come empty-handed.”  He waggled the wine bottle he carried.  Like Reid himself, it looked expensive.  “Can I come in?”

Keeping me company: Mr. Ramses has been surly lately and retreated to the bedroom.  At least it looks like he’s having sweet dreams 😉

https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/?ui=2&ik=9e4adc5084&view=att&th=13a702f1487bcb0c&attid=0.1&disp=inline&realattid=44b189efbced48d4_0.1&safe=1&zw&saduie=AG9B_P8VIlAPcHFKXrogtX_FxaC5&sadet=1350501906138&sads=NqvT0HQXc6N0K8BsioiOlnL763A&sadssc=1

On the iTunes: Tangled up in Blue by Bob Dylan

In my mug: a cup of Harrods #14 tea

Out the window: Fall.  It’s officially arrived in Brooklyn, replete with browning leaves, a chilly wind, and cloudy skies.  Sigh.

A little procrastination never hurt anyone:  well, that’s not really true, but whatevs!  Here’s a post from Amy Sundberg taking a frank look at social media and writer priorities.  Check it out.  Also, an interesting look at the whole Reddit thing from John Scalzi over at Whatever.  And, finally, because who doesn’t like a cookie that’s really a brownie (or a brownie that’s really a cookie?) a yummy looking recipe from Food and Wine.  If you’re going to waste time and procrastinate, at least you can have some baked goods to show for it.