Writing News, June 2001 (part 2)

michaeljasper.net

"Another Wrecked Web Site"

June 13, 2001

Will you still need me, will you still feed me...?

Today's Quote:

Lina tried to remember the Words of Binding from the book, but she couldn't remember if it had been chapter five or eight. She hadn't eaten in over a week, and the sparrow looked fat and juicy. The book was on the other side of the barn, sitting where she'd thrown it. Before she could stand up and get it, the sparrow began to talk.

"I heard you were here," the sparrow said in a high-pitched, stuttering voice. Its last word was repeated five times - "here-here-here-here-here!" The sparrow stretched its short neck closer to Lina, as if inspecting her. "You're not much to look at, are-are-are-are-are you?"

What I'm Reading:

Stranger Things Happen, Kelly Link

What I'm Listening To:

"Binaural" & "Vitalogy" - Pearl Jam

Hey there. I turned 31 today. Wow. I wonder when I'll start growing up?

Hopefully never.

In any case, I got a bunch done on the new story, and also had some more ideas for the Buddha story, as a sort of unconscious birthday gift to myself (maybe it's from reading all those wild Kelly Link stories, with all their great imagery and situations). So I'm feeling pretty darn good about things. I also have some stories and novel chapters to look over for some friends -- Tim, Paul, and Derek -- and I think I'll do that instead of getting much work done today. As I've been telling Lizzie all day: "You know why? 'Cause it's my birthday!

I have all the fixes entered into the fourth book story from when I read it over yesterday and scribbled all over the hard copy. Those first five pages should be quite strong, from all the times I've reread them, which is good, as I need to get an editor through that and hooked by that before the story can have a chance. Of course, the rest of the story needs to be just as good, remember...

So after fixing up that stuff, I added more to the section when Lina starts to lose her mind, and the paragraphs I quoted on the left there take place. Talking sparrows. Anyone know the mythic quality of sparrows? Do they have any significance? All I can remember is something from the bible about the death of a sparrow. Whether there's any significance to that bird, I like the scene when he starts talking to her.

I'm feeling pumped up about this story and the next two. I'll follow the books story with the Buddha story, and then finally, five years later, I wanna finish the Beasts story. I may simply have to start over on the latter 2 stories, but I know they're inside me somewhere and need to get out.

I read three more Link stories last night, and my favorite was "Survivor's Ball, or The Donner Party," about a reunion of all the survivors of various disasters at the end of the world, or New Zealand. Best image was the lone musician sitting at his music stand, eating his music. Weird stuff. "The Girl Detective" was good as well, especially the last section that to me sort of subverts everthing that's happened before it and makes it all seem made-up, which of course it is. And I finished "Vanishing Act," which was good, but a bit light, maybe? I think I need to reread this book. A lot of this stuff sometimes goes over my head on first read, and the stories aren't so much reliant on plot as image and subtle character shifts. It's very interesting stuff, though. I also liked "Most of My Friends are 2/3rds Water," but again, it was full of wild images (blond cloned aliens in New York City?) and not much in the way of plot. The stories just require a totally different mindset. Pretty cool, and challenging, which is always good.

I'm thinking about reading Neil Gaiman's Stardust next, then jumping into The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I can't wait any longer! Elizabeth is almost done with The Two Towers, and I ask her constantly for an update -- "What's happening now?" Should be fun.

Well, guess I'd better get to work. Later.
mjj

June 12, 2001

New things and plans underway

Today's Quote:

Joseph sat on the first passenger car behind the coal car, and his lungs filled with an ashy taste that would return to him over a decade and a half later.

What I'm Reading:

Stranger Things Happen, Kelly Link

What I'm Listening To:

"Charlotte, NC, August 4, 2001" & "Yield" - Pearl Jam

Another Quote:

Six years later he would be pounding nails into the roof of the new church, balancing shingles on a borrowed ladder as a storm approached.

Good morning. I've been hard at work this morning tightening up the first section of my "Fourth Book" story, and having some fun doing research and fact-checking for it, almost to the point where the research is taking up too much of my time. But it's fun.

I'm definitely going to have to do more with the orphan trains at a later date. This story just touches on them, and there's lots of fascinating stuff about them. But not right now! Maybe in a couple months...

I added about 400 words to the story so far, sort of tweaking the first few sections and doing research, along with figuring out the timeline, as the story jumps from the past to the present (which is still in the past, if that makes sense!) in a fluid way. Well, in a way that I hope is fluid! ;)

I'm enjoying the process, even though it's about time to take the dog for a jog and then on to a quick workout before work. I'm trying to get more exercise lately, to not only lose the extra weight I've been carrying around for much, much too longer, but to get back the energy I've somehow lost. I know I feel much better when I exercise, it's just sometimes (all the time???) easier to sleep in or skip the workouts entirely, like we did with our yoga class last night for the umpteenth time!

But no more. I like to exercise in the morning and get it out of the way (that way, if I do something else in the afternoon, like go for a long walk or play tennis with Lizzie, it's just extra icing on the cake... wrong analogy, really, but you get the picture).

So I'm going to jog every day, if possible, do weights twice a week, cut lawn, walk the dog, play tennis. And eat less! This is the hardest. I love eating. And drinking beer. Will power, I know. We'll see how it goes...

Still reading Kelly Link stories, but didn't get much read yesterday. I was reading "Vanishing Act," which is quite good, but I was beat and fell asleep. No fault of the story, just my lethargic mind. Not for any longer, tho. Gotta go jog. Later.

Later today:

Went over all of the story again over lunch. I'm feeling quite good after a good jog with Whit followed by a quick half-hour of weights (mostly upper body to get circulation back into my arms and hands and just to get everything else into shape again). And now I'm finishing up my lunch break, having made lots of notes on the story. I've got the timeline down now, running from 1854 to 1870 or so, then skipping over all of the 20th Century and into 2001.

Should be cool if I can pull it all off. I can't wait to write Uncle Mo's scene. And I think I'm closer to figuring out how it ends. It's pretty cool putting something like this together. It's not really a prequel to the novel, but more of a linked story. And I like that Lina turns out to not be a villainess so much as a guardian. Like my writing pal Tim, I find villains fascinating characters, as long as they're three-dimensional and not pure eeevil (say it like Dr. Evil, you know, babee!)

I think I can keep getting up at 5 as long as I continue to jog and feel good. It's weird, but the more you exercise, the less sleep you need. Talk at you later.
mjj

June 11, 2001

Procrastination, Monday, and a hero sandwich

Today's Quote:

His first sight was of the slow, muddy Mississippi framed by the dull brown banks of Illinois to the east and the skeletal railroad bridge to the north, and Joseph wished for the familiar desperation of the orphanage walls. Luckily, the sensation lasted only as look as it took him to walk onto the platform to meet the strangers who had paid for his trip west.

What I'm Reading:

Stranger Things Happen, Kelly Link

What I'm Listening To:

Still "Songs from an American Movie, Vol. 2" - Everclear

Hello. It's Monday. Just great, huh? After a nice, relaxing weekend (well, with one major exception!), it was a little hard getting motivated this morning. But I'm slowly starting to get some stuff done.

I'm ready to get back to my short story. I did some fiddling with it this morning, adding some more details to previous sections as a way of procrastinating. I'm still -- in the back of my mind -- worrying about what to do with the ending. But I guess I'll get there when I get there, right?

Oh, I have to tell you briefly about our interesting night last night. Elizabeth and I met our friend Clarke for a quick dinner at Wellspring, then we went to a very cool discussion group at the local independent bookstore, Quail Ridge Books. The topic was "Why Read the Classics?" We were late, as usual, and the discussion area was full. But we found a seat and I found myself pretty excited about the entire discussion -- Barry, the leader, talked about the lack of reading done by young people, and how nobody reads anymore to answer the Big Questions about life. If people read at all, it's for entertainment, not insight. I'm guilty of that myself.

In any case, I liked it a lot, as did Lizzie and Clarke, and our first assignment is to read The Adventures of Huck Finn, which I've read at least four times and taught three times to my eighth grade class in Bancroft. Should be a lively discussion. I'm glad Elizabeth is getting interested in reading, and getting me interested in reading the classics, as I'm very weak in anything before 1990!

I read a couple more Kelly Link stories yesterday - "Specialist's Hat," "Travels with the Snow Queen," and one "Flying Lessons," and I liked "Snow Queen" the best. Cool thoughts about maps, gender roles and stereotypes in fairy tales, and just wild imagery. Some of the stuff is a bit over the top, but overall the stories hold together. I liked the updated mythology of "Flying Lessons" as well. So yeah, though I have a feeling I'll have to read the whole collection again to truly get it, I'm enjoying her work.

Speaking of stories, the new story at Strange Horizons is up, and I liked it a lot -- it's called "With the Dawn and it's by Jon Hansen. It shows how the effects of a goddess's curse on a warrior can have earth-shaking results on a simple man who happens to meet the warrior one day. It's almost a time-travel story, and it's quite well-done. The warrior is exiled to a new world with each dawn, and it made me think of how a traveler like this would affect a common person. Cool concepts. Could be a story there...

And finally, I wanted to tell a little bit about the "one major exception" from this weekend that was not relaxing. Elizabeth and I went to the mall (gag) to return something, and ran into what could've been a life or death situation. At the Belk's counter, a lady in her mid-to-late fifties passed out right as we walked up to the desk. The clerk was freaking out, and nobody did anything to help the lady, who was now lying on the floor. So Elizabeth hurried over, helped the lady onto her back, and held her head. I think the lady stopped breathing for a little bit there. It was surreal. But Elizabeth and another woman were there to help out, and luckily the lady started breathing, and after five very long minutes she opened her eyes and groggily sat up. I was just hovering the whole time, not sure what to do, and afraid to do anything. I was really proud of the way Elizabeth jumped in there. We think the lady probably had a stroke. Finally the firemen got there, followed by EMTs a few minutes later, and we slowly got back to normal. It definitely made me wish I'd had a class recently in CPR or advanced life-saving. I don't like feeling unsure about going to help someone -- I'd want others to act with confidence and help out immediately if it were Lizzie or me or someone I loved there on the floor. I've got to take a class. You never know when you'll need it.

So I owe my wife a big hero sandwich. I'm proud of her. She does stuff like that without even thinking about it, while I just sort of stand there like a bump on a log. Maybe it's because I'm so used to dealing with conflict only on the page, and not in real life, that I've become unable to react anymore... Sheesh, I hope not! Have a good day, and stay safe!
mjj

June 9, 2001

Why weekends rule...

Today's Quote:

The only piece of darkness Joseph felt was his inability to talk about his life before coming to Iowa at the age of ten. Included among the facts of that time that he kept from his Anne-Marie and his family was the book from his great-uncle Mo and the three almost-forgotten Words he had learned from it.

What I'm Reading:

Stranger Things Happen, Kelly Link

What I'm Listening To:

"Songs from an American Movie, Vol. 2" & "So Much for the Afterglow" - Everclear

Soundtrack to "O Brother Where Art Thou"

Happy Saturday -- what a lovely weekend. I got up early, walked the dog and then got busy getting all my miscellaneous writing stuff underway.

And it's about 3 p.m., and Elizabeth is almost done studying, and I just finished up another 1400 words or so to my new story. I foresee some homemade pizza in our future, along with some "Back Porch Music" and Garrison Keillor on the radio, and maybe a video or two. What a great way to spend a Saturday. This is why weekends rule!

I'm feeling pretty good about my current story, "The Fourth Book of Inner Magic," (tentative title) which I've been plugging away at the past 2 days. I even made some notes during a dull meeting at work yesterday, along with a nice drawing (well, as nice as my drawing ever gets!) of "great-uncle Mo" from the story. I have the story all outlined, and I really like it, except for the very end, which feels a bit forced. I need to work on that, but I think everything else is falling into place nicely. Like I told Lizzie (we're out here on the back deck, she in the adirondack chair with her feet up, me at the cafe table with my laptop) -- this story is pretty much writing itself. That's a great feeling.

I think I can fix the ending up once I get through the middle. I've got a really good start, with Lina finding the book in the barn, then flipping over to her father as a child and how he takes the train to his new home in Iowa, going back and forth like that from scene to scene. Right now I'm thinking of adding one scene with "great-uncle Mo" right before the end, but that may get cut as I figure out what this story's all about. It's cool how each story I write sort of comes out in its own process. It's fun. I'm thinking I have one more story in me -- maybe the Buddha story, maybe something else -- before I kick it in gear on the fantasy novel. I think I'll be ready for the novel by July at the latest.

Speaking of stories and June, every now and then I get a Clarion flashback -- maybe it's because I've been reading the journals of the 3 Clarionites who are keeping journals, or maybe it's because the weather today reminds me of Michigan. I'm a little nostalgic for that time, I admit, though I don't want to be in their shoes by the time Crazy Week (week four) rolls around... Good luck folks!

In between writing and messing with webpage stuff, I've started reading Kelly Link's story collection. The first story was quite cool -- "Rose, Lily, Lily, Carnation" -- very imaginative and sort of sad and a bit creepy, just the right mix. I'm gonna read another story or two as soon as I post this entry. Then I think we're going to fart around and enjoy the rest of our day, now that our work is done! Later.
mjj
June 8, 2001

All righty-then!

Today's Quote:

Lina Schueller would remain in the barn for the next one hundred and five years.

What I'm Reading:

Year's Best Fantasy and Horror -- vol. 13

Success! I got up this morning after waking up around 4:30 (thanks to Pumpkin the cat licking my hands, wanting me to get up and feed his obese orange self) and thinking about my new story, "The Fourth Book of Inner Magic" -- always a good way to wake up, thinking about a story.

So I hopped out of bed at 5, sat down, and put together almost 1200 words on a new story! Freakin' awesome, huh? This story is coming together pretty quickly, now that I've given some thought to it. And it's been fun, 'cause I know what happens in the end, so all I have to do is build up to it. Awesome. I feel much, much better. I am no long a space-waster!

Another nice bit of news came in the e-mail today. My story is going up at Strange Horizons sooner than we'd expected, and... drumroll please... it is going to be ILLUSTRATED! I'm so pumped. It'd be way cool if Frank Wu was going to do it -- he went to the Writers of the Future thing and won it as the Illustrator of the Year, and he's part of our e-mail list. And his art rocks! But I'm pumped just to have an illo with mine. Thanks, Jed and the SH crew.

Of course, I also have to edit my story first! I'm hoping to do most of it today (um, at work, um... don't tell, 'kay?) and get it back to the editor as soon as possible. From what I saw on the first run-through, there aren't a huge amount of edits needed. Mostly tweaking and tightening, the usual. Fun stuff.

So I'm hoping the angst is behind me, and I'm forging ahead. Take care.

News

mjj

	michaeljasper.net *"Another Wrecked Web Site"*
June 13, 2001 Will you still need me, will you still feed me...? *Today's Quote:* Lina tried to remember the Words of Binding from the book, but she couldn't remember if it had been chapter five or eight. She hadn't eaten in over a week, and the sparrow looked fat and juicy. The book was on the other side of the barn, sitting where she'd thrown it. Before she could stand up and get it, the sparrow began to talk. "I heard you were here," the sparrow said in a high-pitched, stuttering voice. Its last word was repeated five times - "here-here-here-here-here!" The sparrow stretched its short neck closer to Lina, as if inspecting her. "You're not much to look at, are-are-are-are-are you?" *What I'm Reading:* Stranger Things Happen, Kelly Link *What I'm Listening To:* "Binaural" & "Vitalogy" - Pearl Jam	Hey there. I turned 31 today. Wow. I wonder when I'll start growing up? Hopefully never. In any case, I got a bunch done on the new story, and also had some more ideas for the Buddha story, as a sort of unconscious birthday gift to myself (maybe it's from reading all those wild Kelly Link stories, with all their great imagery and situations). So I'm feeling pretty darn good about things. I also have some stories and novel chapters to look over for some friends -- Tim, Paul, and Derek -- and I think I'll do that instead of getting much work done today. As I've been telling Lizzie all day: "You know why? 'Cause it's my birthday! I have all the fixes entered into the fourth book story from when I read it over yesterday and scribbled all over the hard copy. Those first five pages should be quite strong, from all the times I've reread them, which is good, as I need to get an editor through that and hooked by that before the story can have a chance. Of course, the rest of the story needs to be just as good, remember... So after fixing up that stuff, I added more to the section when Lina starts to lose her mind, and the paragraphs I quoted on the left there take place. Talking sparrows. Anyone know the mythic quality of sparrows? Do they have any significance? All I can remember is something from the bible about the death of a sparrow. Whether there's any significance to that bird, I like the scene when he starts talking to her. I'm feeling pumped up about this story and the next two. I'll follow the books story with the Buddha story, and then finally, five years later, I wanna finish the Beasts story. I may simply have to start over on the latter 2 stories, but I know they're inside me somewhere and need to get out. I read three more Link stories last night, and my favorite was "Survivor's Ball, or The Donner Party," about a reunion of all the survivors of various disasters at the end of the world, or New Zealand. Best image was the lone musician sitting at his music stand, eating his music. Weird stuff. "The Girl Detective" was good as well, especially the last section that to me sort of subverts everthing that's happened before it and makes it all seem made-up, which of course it is. And I finished "Vanishing Act," which was good, but a bit light, maybe? I think I need to reread this book. A lot of this stuff sometimes goes over my head on first read, and the stories aren't so much reliant on plot as image and subtle character shifts. It's very interesting stuff, though. I also liked "Most of My Friends are 2/3rds Water," but again, it was full of wild images (blond cloned aliens in New York City?) and not much in the way of plot. The stories just require a totally different mindset. Pretty cool, and challenging, which is always good. I'm thinking about reading Neil Gaiman's Stardust next, then jumping into The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I can't wait any longer! Elizabeth is almost done with The Two Towers, and I ask her constantly for an update -- "What's happening now?" Should be fun. Well, guess I'd better get to work. Later. mjj
June 12, 2001 New things and plans underway *Today's Quote:* Joseph sat on the first passenger car behind the coal car, and his lungs filled with an ashy taste that would return to him over a decade and a half later. *What I'm Reading:* Stranger Things Happen, Kelly Link *What I'm Listening To:* "Charlotte, NC, August 4, 2001" & "Yield" - Pearl Jam *Another Quote:* Six years later he would be pounding nails into the roof of the new church, balancing shingles on a borrowed ladder as a storm approached.	Good morning. I've been hard at work this morning tightening up the first section of my "Fourth Book" story, and having some fun doing research and fact-checking for it, almost to the point where the research is taking up too much of my time. But it's fun. I'm definitely going to have to do more with the orphan trains at a later date. This story just touches on them, and there's lots of fascinating stuff about them. But not right now! Maybe in a couple months... I added about 400 words to the story so far, sort of tweaking the first few sections and doing research, along with figuring out the timeline, as the story jumps from the past to the present (which is still in the past, if that makes sense!) in a fluid way. Well, in a way that I hope is fluid! ;) I'm enjoying the process, even though it's about time to take the dog for a jog and then on to a quick workout before work. I'm trying to get more exercise lately, to not only lose the extra weight I've been carrying around for much, much too longer, but to get back the energy I've somehow lost. I know I feel much better when I exercise, it's just sometimes (all the time???) easier to sleep in or skip the workouts entirely, like we did with our yoga class last night for the umpteenth time! But no more. I like to exercise in the morning and get it out of the way (that way, if I do something else in the afternoon, like go for a long walk or play tennis with Lizzie, it's just extra icing on the cake... wrong analogy, really, but you get the picture). So I'm going to jog every day, if possible, do weights twice a week, cut lawn, walk the dog, play tennis. And eat less! This is the hardest. I love eating. And drinking beer. Will power, I know. We'll see how it goes... Still reading Kelly Link stories, but didn't get much read yesterday. I was reading "Vanishing Act," which is quite good, but I was beat and fell asleep. No fault of the story, just my lethargic mind. Not for any longer, tho. Gotta go jog. Later. Later today: Went over all of the story again over lunch. I'm feeling quite good after a good jog with Whit followed by a quick half-hour of weights (mostly upper body to get circulation back into my arms and hands and just to get everything else into shape again). And now I'm finishing up my lunch break, having made lots of notes on the story. I've got the timeline down now, running from 1854 to 1870 or so, then skipping over all of the 20th Century and into 2001. Should be cool if I can pull it all off. I can't wait to write Uncle Mo's scene. And I think I'm closer to figuring out how it ends. It's pretty cool putting something like this together. It's not really a prequel to the novel, but more of a linked story. And I like that Lina turns out to not be a villainess so much as a guardian. Like my writing pal Tim, I find villains fascinating characters, as long as they're three-dimensional and not pure eeevil (say it like Dr. Evil, you know, babee!) I think I can keep getting up at 5 as long as I continue to jog and feel good. It's weird, but the more you exercise, the less sleep you need. Talk at you later. mjj
June 11, 2001 Procrastination, Monday, and a hero sandwich *Today's Quote:* His first sight was of the slow, muddy Mississippi framed by the dull brown banks of Illinois to the east and the skeletal railroad bridge to the north, and Joseph wished for the familiar desperation of the orphanage walls. Luckily, the sensation lasted only as look as it took him to walk onto the platform to meet the strangers who had paid for his trip west. *What I'm Reading:* Stranger Things Happen, Kelly Link *What I'm Listening To:* Still "Songs from an American Movie, Vol. 2" - Everclear	Hello. It's Monday. Just great, huh? After a nice, relaxing weekend (well, with one major exception!), it was a little hard getting motivated this morning. But I'm slowly starting to get some stuff done. I'm ready to get back to my short story. I did some fiddling with it this morning, adding some more details to previous sections as a way of procrastinating. I'm still -- in the back of my mind -- worrying about what to do with the ending. But I guess I'll get there when I get there, right? Oh, I have to tell you briefly about our interesting night last night. Elizabeth and I met our friend Clarke for a quick dinner at Wellspring, then we went to a very cool discussion group at the local independent bookstore, Quail Ridge Books. The topic was "Why Read the Classics?" We were late, as usual, and the discussion area was full. But we found a seat and I found myself pretty excited about the entire discussion -- Barry, the leader, talked about the lack of reading done by young people, and how nobody reads anymore to answer the Big Questions about life. If people read at all, it's for entertainment, not insight. I'm guilty of that myself. In any case, I liked it a lot, as did Lizzie and Clarke, and our first assignment is to read The Adventures of Huck Finn, which I've read at least four times and taught three times to my eighth grade class in Bancroft. Should be a lively discussion. I'm glad Elizabeth is getting interested in reading, and getting me interested in reading the classics, as I'm very weak in anything before 1990! I read a couple more Kelly Link stories yesterday - "Specialist's Hat," "Travels with the Snow Queen," and one "Flying Lessons," and I liked "Snow Queen" the best. Cool thoughts about maps, gender roles and stereotypes in fairy tales, and just wild imagery. Some of the stuff is a bit over the top, but overall the stories hold together. I liked the updated mythology of "Flying Lessons" as well. So yeah, though I have a feeling I'll have to read the whole collection again to truly get it, I'm enjoying her work. Speaking of stories, the new story at Strange Horizons is up, and I liked it a lot -- it's called "With the Dawn and it's by Jon Hansen. It shows how the effects of a goddess's curse on a warrior can have earth-shaking results on a simple man who happens to meet the warrior one day. It's almost a time-travel story, and it's quite well-done. The warrior is exiled to a new world with each dawn, and it made me think of how a traveler like this would affect a common person. Cool concepts. Could be a story there... And finally, I wanted to tell a little bit about the "one major exception" from this weekend that was not relaxing. Elizabeth and I went to the mall (gag) to return something, and ran into what could've been a life or death situation. At the Belk's counter, a lady in her mid-to-late fifties passed out right as we walked up to the desk. The clerk was freaking out, and nobody did anything to help the lady, who was now lying on the floor. So Elizabeth hurried over, helped the lady onto her back, and held her head. I think the lady stopped breathing for a little bit there. It was surreal. But Elizabeth and another woman were there to help out, and luckily the lady started breathing, and after five very long minutes she opened her eyes and groggily sat up. I was just hovering the whole time, not sure what to do, and afraid to do anything. I was really proud of the way Elizabeth jumped in there. We think the lady probably had a stroke. Finally the firemen got there, followed by EMTs a few minutes later, and we slowly got back to normal. It definitely made me wish I'd had a class recently in CPR or advanced life-saving. I don't like feeling unsure about going to help someone -- I'd want others to act with confidence and help out immediately if it were Lizzie or me or someone I loved there on the floor. I've got to take a class. You never know when you'll need it. So I owe my wife a big hero sandwich. I'm proud of her. She does stuff like that without even thinking about it, while I just sort of stand there like a bump on a log. Maybe it's because I'm so used to dealing with conflict only on the page, and not in real life, that I've become unable to react anymore... Sheesh, I hope not! Have a good day, and stay safe! mjj
June 9, 2001 Why weekends rule... *Today's Quote:* The only piece of darkness Joseph felt was his inability to talk about his life before coming to Iowa at the age of ten. Included among the facts of that time that he kept from his Anne-Marie and his family was the book from his great-uncle Mo and the three almost-forgotten Words he had learned from it. *What I'm Reading:* Stranger Things Happen, Kelly Link *What I'm Listening To:* "Songs from an American Movie, Vol. 2" & "So Much for the Afterglow" - Everclear Soundtrack to "O Brother Where Art Thou"	Happy Saturday -- what a lovely weekend. I got up early, walked the dog and then got busy getting all my miscellaneous writing stuff underway. And it's about 3 p.m., and Elizabeth is almost done studying, and I just finished up another 1400 words or so to my new story. I foresee some homemade pizza in our future, along with some "Back Porch Music" and Garrison Keillor on the radio, and maybe a video or two. What a great way to spend a Saturday. This is why weekends rule! I'm feeling pretty good about my current story, "The Fourth Book of Inner Magic," (tentative title) which I've been plugging away at the past 2 days. I even made some notes during a dull meeting at work yesterday, along with a nice drawing (well, as nice as my drawing ever gets!) of "great-uncle Mo" from the story. I have the story all outlined, and I really like it, except for the very end, which feels a bit forced. I need to work on that, but I think everything else is falling into place nicely. Like I told Lizzie (we're out here on the back deck, she in the adirondack chair with her feet up, me at the cafe table with my laptop) -- this story is pretty much writing itself. That's a great feeling. I think I can fix the ending up once I get through the middle. I've got a really good start, with Lina finding the book in the barn, then flipping over to her father as a child and how he takes the train to his new home in Iowa, going back and forth like that from scene to scene. Right now I'm thinking of adding one scene with "great-uncle Mo" right before the end, but that may get cut as I figure out what this story's all about. It's cool how each story I write sort of comes out in its own process. It's fun. I'm thinking I have one more story in me -- maybe the Buddha story, maybe something else -- before I kick it in gear on the fantasy novel. I think I'll be ready for the novel by July at the latest. Speaking of stories and June, every now and then I get a Clarion flashback -- maybe it's because I've been reading the journals of the 3 Clarionites who are keeping journals, or maybe it's because the weather today reminds me of Michigan. I'm a little nostalgic for that time, I admit, though I don't want to be in their shoes by the time Crazy Week (week four) rolls around... Good luck folks! In between writing and messing with webpage stuff, I've started reading Kelly Link's story collection. The first story was quite cool -- "Rose, Lily, Lily, Carnation" -- very imaginative and sort of sad and a bit creepy, just the right mix. I'm gonna read another story or two as soon as I post this entry. Then I think we're going to fart around and enjoy the rest of our day, now that our work is done! Later. mjj
June 8, 2001 All righty-then! *Today's Quote:* Lina Schueller would remain in the barn for the next one hundred and five years. *What I'm Reading:* Year's Best Fantasy and Horror -- vol. 13	Success! I got up this morning after waking up around 4:30 (thanks to Pumpkin the cat licking my hands, wanting me to get up and feed his obese orange self) and thinking about my new story, "The Fourth Book of Inner Magic" -- always a good way to wake up, thinking about a story. So I hopped out of bed at 5, sat down, and put together almost 1200 words on a new story! Freakin' awesome, huh? This story is coming together pretty quickly, now that I've given some thought to it. And it's been fun, 'cause I know what happens in the end, so all I have to do is build up to it. Awesome. I feel much, much better. I am no long a space-waster! Another nice bit of news came in the e-mail today. My story is going up at Strange Horizons sooner than we'd expected, and... drumroll please... it is going to be ILLUSTRATED! I'm so pumped. It'd be way cool if Frank Wu was going to do it -- he went to the Writers of the Future thing and won it as the Illustrator of the Year, and he's part of our e-mail list. And his art rocks! But I'm pumped just to have an illo with mine. Thanks, Jed and the SH crew. Of course, I also have to edit my story first! I'm hoping to do most of it today (um, at work, um... don't tell, 'kay?) and get it back to the editor as soon as possible. From what I saw on the first run-through, there aren't a huge amount of edits needed. Mostly tweaking and tightening, the usual. Fun stuff. So I'm hoping the angst is behind me, and I'm forging ahead. Take care.
News	mjj