strange radiation: the pool of radiance archive

Adventures with an unreliable narrator.

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Sep 18 05: baby steps

Huh. Okay, so I just got accepted into an SF/fantasy writer’s group here in the city. Meets once a month, that kind of thing. This is kind of exciting. (Thanks to Dave Kirtley, who is off doing big exciting things on the West Coast, for vacating the chair.) Joining such a group has been high on the to-do list for, oh, months and months. And now that I’m starting this new project, I think it’ll be especially helpful to have regular contact with other writers.

See, I turned 35 a couple of weeks ago, and I decided that it was time to stop screwing around. My plan for the upcoming year is to write a novel. Right now it’s just a pile of random notes and a catchy title—but I’ve been going back and forth along the general track of it in my head for weeks, and I think it’s a winner.

On the other hand, the idea of this makes me want to hide under the bed and cry. I’ve never done anything on this kind of scale before. I look at Charlie Stross’s livejournal postings as he bangs out truckloads of words every day, and I think, Andrew, you’re delusional. What can I do, though? I’ll start at the beginning, and we’ll see what happens. Right now I’m trying to get myself up to speed on a couple of specific fields of information (alchemy; shamanism; the NYC blackout of 1977). And then I figure I’ll take the crazy pile of notes, and string it out into a kind of order, and chop that string into twenty-or-so bits, and then. And then I start putting one foot in front of another. Light a candle for me, my friends. Two, if you got ‘em. Tonight I painted an eye on the Daruma on my desk with black ink and a Q-tip.

I’ll let you know how things go.

Commentary

Ever since I stumbled over your blog I´ve been trying to figure out just what texture/theme your book would have. Still wondering but I´m patient.

posted by jc, Sep 19 05 2:23 AM

A belated happy birthday to you, Sweetie! You realize that you’re really getting old now. Almost a grownup …. nah!
I will think good book thoughts from this side of the globe.

posted by Heather, Sep 23 05 12:29 AM

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