RDF/RSS Feed
Atom Feed
Could not resist. Could. Not. Resist. So what do the next ten days have in them, besides waiting for Oath of Fealty’s release? Not an orgy of anticipation, because Lifestuff rolls on, ignoring a writer’s desire to wallow for even one day in the joys of authorship. Here’s a sample:
Today is a good friend’s birthday, someone I’ve known for over forty years. I write her a poem every year for her birthday. It’s not written yet, because when I turned on the computer, up popped some email that drove rhyming words out of my head. That’s dealt with now. After the poem, I’ve got to work on revisions. I also need to make bread (one dry crust of homemade bread is left.) Also need to get horses’ hooves trimmed. Also need to schedule spring vet visit, which means guessing which day the land will be dry enough for the vet’s truck to get near the barn (hollow laugh about that, this year.)
Whatever day the farrier comes will eat up an hour or so because I have to get the horses fed and at least rough-groomed before he arrives and then hold horses while he trims. Whatever day the vet comes will eat up at least a couple of hours, because at least one of them will need to be floated (teeth worked on) and that means the horse gets a tranquilizer shot, we wait for it to take effect, and then they start grinding away on the teeth. Each horse gets spring immunizations, dental checkup and floating if required, and worming with a different set of drugs than I use for feed-through wormer.
And I need to do a blog post at the other blogs, not just this one.
Tomorrow, friend and her husband are coming up here to celebrate our birthdays (hers is the 5th, mine is the 7th) so before they arrive it would be nice to have stuff off all the kitchen chairs and the kitchen table, and stuff ready. Which means today should include laundry, including tablecloth and all dish towels. Also today or tomorrow, I need to work on the music for this Sunday. (And revisions.) May do blog post.
Sunday, my birthday, I must head for church at 7 am, because we’re singing the 9 am service this week…which is good, because in the afternoon another friend is coming up (maybe, weather permitting) to celebrate my birthday, someone who couldn’t come on Saturday. Reminder to self not to put stuff back on the chairs that I took stuff off of before the first visit. May do blog post.
Monday, revisions much of the day, and a meeting with the focus group on regional transportation in the late afternoon/evening. Inevitably I’ll also need to answer business email. Depending on how revisions go, I may get an hour or two to work on Book III. There will be post-party laundry to do, too. Tax work is underway but not finished. Blog post here.
Tuesday, up at five to drive M- 20 miles to the bus so he can go to class. Revisions and Book III (must not neglect it too many days in a row) and whatever other business stuff comes up. If I get hold of farrier today or Monday, trimming of horses’ hooves could happen any day after that. About 5:30, drive to the bus terminus to pick up M- from classes. Blog post here.
Wednesday, revisions, Book III, email, blog post here, plus laundry, etc. Cooking happens most days, and that means dishwashing (by hand) but at least one day a week I do a big cook thing, so I don’t have to every day. (I may add that to today’s, too.) Drive to city for choir practice Wed. evening, come home and fall into bed because….
Thursday, up at five to drive M- 20 miles to bus for classes. Choir practice usually wakes me up so it’s hard to go to sleep when I should, and I start Thursdays in a braindead state…often now napping when I get home from the morning trip. Work on revisions later, then go all the way to the city in the afternoon to take M- his ice skates so he can skate at a rink there until 8 pm, when I pick him up and we head back to our place.
Friday, pushing on revisions to get them done before the launch, unless of course the vet’s here or I spend the day on tax prep. Plus laundry and the other household stuff.
Saturday before launch, same old same old.
Sunday before launch. Our choir doesn’t sing, so I’m off the hook there. OTOH, I’m having a voice lesson that Monday, so I need to have been doing vocal exercises (oops, forgot to put that in) every day and working on my “pieces.” My instructor comes back from vacation Sunday.
Monday, day before launch. Voice lesson in afternoon.
Tuesday, launch day. Up at five to take M- 20 miles to the bus for classes. Afternoon, clean up and dress for evening event. At 4, online chat with Editor and another writer, John Hemry (writes as Jack Campbell, as well). At 5, dash away from that to the city. Meet up with M- at place he finds easy to reach by bus at about 6, take him to eat and eat a snack. Rush-rush-rush, because at 7 I should be at Book People, ready to read, answer questions, and sign books.
Comment by Rachel — March 5, 2010 @ 3:00 pm
That is a crazy schedule. I just have a note in my calendar to go to the bookstore after work on the 16th to buy the book…it’s more a reminder of which bookstore I have the gift card for than which day to go
I am really excited about the book coming out. I have been waiting patiently since you mentioned it in the email interview I did with you for Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market a few years ago. I’m looking forward to my patience paying off!
Comment by elizabeth — March 5, 2010 @ 4:14 pm
Actually it’s worse, and getting tighter. I screwed up when I did this–on Friday the 12th, I’m driving from here to College Station to speak at the opening of an exhibition of their science fiction holdings, staying the night, and driving back Saturday morning. That Thursday (eeek! NEXT Thursday) is going to be a scramble of getting ready for it.)
In the past two hours I’ve been scheduled for a phone interview on Tuesday the 9th and a studio audio thing on Wednesday the 10th. And I’ve been asked for more blog entries for the Orbit blog, and I owe at least one to the Del Rey blogsite.
I’m also over halfway through the revisions, this time doing the fast ones first (after checking that those little fixes wouldn’t be unfixed by any of the big fixes.) I need to wash my hair, do a light wash so I have a cotta to wear with my choir robe (which I washed yesterday) and keep chugging on. No goofing off or things will go very wrong very fast.
Comment by Adam Baker — March 5, 2010 @ 4:28 pm
Yikes! Sometimes I have enough trouble trying to plan out what Im going to do the next day, let alone 10 days in advance.
I usually end up waiting until the afternoon to make my lesson plan out for the classes I teach on Monday & Thursday evenings, and I generally wait until the night before to do the homework that is due in the math class I take.
Procrastination is my middle name, haha.
Comment by Craig — March 5, 2010 @ 7:48 pm
On the 14th, we change our clocks. Spring forward. Which means we lose an hour. Which is one less hour to enjoy the book.
Life is unfair.
Comment by Cyndi — March 6, 2010 @ 4:05 pm
With a schedule as busy as hers you tell her she just lost a hour? O.O
Elizabeth… maybe find a vet with a heliocopter? or a swamp buggy, lol! I dont know how you fit so much into a week, AND write! AND Blog! Color me amazed.
Comment by elizabeth — March 6, 2010 @ 9:06 pm
Very. I hate Daylight Savings Time with a passion that grows every day I’m stuck with it. It makes our already very long hot summer afternoons longer and worse. Someday I’ll be old enough to ignore it and just go with sun time. It upsets my body for at least 2-3 weeks every spring.
Comment by elizabeth — March 6, 2010 @ 9:08 pm
My natural inclination is much the same, Adam, but there are times I have to run on a firm schedule and every time I mess up, it bothers people a lot (at conventions, for instance, if I’ve managed to double-schedule something like an interview at a time I’m supposed to be at a panel.
Blankety-blank Daylight Savings Time makes it much worse.
Comment by elizabeth — March 6, 2010 @ 9:10 pm
My mother told me that her father, every time he found her sitting down, said “While you’re resting…” and provided a chore that could be done sitting. More or less. By the time I knew her, she was never idle for more than five minutes, it seemed. If she sat down to have a cup of coffee, she had a book, or some handwork going (mending, knitting, crochet.) I was lazy as a child, but gradually caught on to how much can be done if you just don’t stop…you don’t have to work fast, just steadily.
Comment by Adam Baker — March 6, 2010 @ 11:18 pm
Yea, now that Im teaching (man, never would have thought this would be something I’d be doing) Ive come to learn how dependent others can be on my making sure that I get my scheduling correct.
This is the first semester Ive ever taught anything, and Im teaching machining tech. classes at the local comm. college. Thankfully most of the semester has worked out good as far as making sure I got things planned out ahead of time.
However, the very first night was an unmitigated disaster. I didnt find out till about 9pm the night before classes started, what I was teaching. So needless to say I was exceptionally unprepared for class. I had no clue what I was going to teach or how I was going to teach it. It wouldnt be so bad, but Im teaching multiple sections at the same time, so being prepared is even more important, and that night didnt go very well.
Comment by elizabeth — March 7, 2010 @ 5:48 pm
You didn’t know what you were teaching until the night before??? Yikes. That would drive me nuts.
Comment by Adam Baker — March 7, 2010 @ 6:33 pm
Yea, it was rough. I had thought that most of my classes had been canceled, and that I would only be teaching 3 sections. Then the night before did some searching on the college website and much to my surprise found out that all 7 sections were still open.
Comment by elizabeth — March 7, 2010 @ 7:14 pm
Yikes again. Surely someone should have notified you directly…