24 September 2004

The front page of the Strib this morning notes that the current Iraqi Prime Minister thinks the current state of Iraq is nifty. Umm...yeah. See, this is not what we call an unbiased observer. He could be right that Iraq is doing well and getting better all the time, or he could be wrong, but him saying it is just not all that...credible, is I think the word I'm looking for. I think the head of state or high-up government officials are almost never the people to ask how things are going in a country. I don't think this is rocket science.

I'm enjoying Superluminal, and it's a good thing I am, because I had more time than I would have liked to read it at Walgreen's last night. I'm very glad I've acquired the habit of sticking a book in my purse. It makes waiting in line comparatively painless. Just now, however, the technobabble has crossed the line into "I don't think you know what those words mean" territory, and I hope it gets out again. Soon. Because there's a level of not making sense that's gratuitous: it doesn't make the story flow any better to have a lengthy nonsense explanation. Just do what you need to do, for heaven's sake, and only explain if the explanation is plausible (or, I suppose, funny -- but deliberately funny).

I finished Chapter 51 yesterday and the Epilogue this morning. I will likely work on Chapter 43 next and then maybe Chapter 30, just because 30 is the earliest chapter I haven't finished. And let me tell you, if I had to work on chapters sequentially...well, I don't know where I'd be stuck still, but Chapter 30 is probably the latest possible point for my stuckness. I am so glad we don't all have to do this stuff the same way. Having to write the last page last would scare me to death. Even in short stories, I almost always write the last few paragraphs first.

I'm afraid the story I'm writing at some point because of Leah is going to be yet another fantasy novelette. At some point, I will release a collection called Stupid Fantasy Novelettes Again, Dagnabbit. Not that novelettes are all that easy to market in SF, either. Is "Swimming Out of Hell At Night" a title? "Swimming Out of Hell By Moonlight"? "Swimming Out of Hell"? "Orpheus Returns By Sea"? "What the Hell Do I Care What You Name This Story You're Not Even Writing Yet Because of the Stupid Book"? Oh, wait, the question mark probably belongs inside the quotation marks on that last possibility. Would the fact that the main character is not actually Orpheus (being a female picture book illustrator from Chicago; nor is anyone else in the story actually Orpheus) make a difference in whether you liked the Orpheus title?

Anyway, back to the book. I've got Blues Traveler's "Truth Be Told" in the CD player again. "Sweet and Broken" and "Let Her and Let Go" are poking my brain periodically, so I'm just letting that part of my brain have its way so that I can do other things with the rest of my brain. It seems to be working so far.