Once More Unto the Edits

Please remind me to never do my edits on paper again.

BaW and I have had a long, long relationship. I wrote it *muffled noise* years ago, submitted it, was rejected (but given feedback). And then proceeded to get distracted. Go figure.

Then I started working on it, in spurts and fits. I gave it to beta readers for feedback, added pieces to the end. Read a book about plotting. Considered reworking it completely. Re-read it. Removed and reorganized pieces, but left it mostly as it was. Printed it out and did edits by hand.

I just finished entering in those changes. And I don't think I can read this story again with anything near clear vision.

So I need a beta reader again. Anyone interested can drop me a line (alexdwhitehall at gmail). It's possibly the softest, most mellow apocalypse you will ever read.

In other news, I've been hitting my word goals (somehow), and my reading goals (go me!), and am looking forward to spring.

In February I read Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. It's done in illustrated/comic form and while it was good, it wasn't really my cup of tea. I found the beginning to be too disjointed and often vague. I had trouble following some plots--or else being completely lost as to why this information was being shared. I struggled through that part, and it could be that as a child, we were shown things like a child would share things, but it didn't work for me. I didn't connect with the main character and, in fact, I was generally kind of annoyed with her a fair amount of time.

In contrast, as she aged, I found her more likable. While she was a trouble maker and cause stress for her family, everything felt realistic and more alive. Her struggle felt more real and as a person she blossomed into a real being rather than...whatever it was that was on the page before. I liked the change and while I was still annoyed with her at moments, it was in the way that I'm generally annoyed with people doing stupid things. But the circumstances and her life seemed more real.

I don't regret reading this (it was a gift from a friend), but I doubt I'll return to it again.

And since I read that super quickly, I read volume 2 of Crimson Spell.

And for March, I'm reading Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris. This is a collection of essays, but also also an interesting thing he hasn't done before where he writes at essay from a kooky perspective. It's been a while since I've read his other stuff, but I think this is my favorite of his books so far (not that I don't thoroughly enjoy the other stuff). This one just resonates with me more, for some reason.

The essays that are biographical are also entertaining, though they feel more hit or miss to me. But as with any time you're trying something new, that's the risk. I haven't quite finished it yet (four or five stories to go, I believe), but I'd recommend picking this one up.

And that about catches me up, book and editing wise. Writing...well, I was going to continue working on one of my old pieces, and actually wrote 900 words. And then...something happened. The file was...damaged. All the writing I did (and edits earlier in the piece) were gone. I plan that I was saving directly to the flash drive on my Mac using Office Libre. I'm not sure which one is to blame, so they each get one third.

So I lost motivation for that piece and instead decided to start writing one of those post-it note stories that I've had hanging around. So now I'm working on trans cowboy story, which I have sort of plotted out and as long as I can get over the next hump, I think will be pretty awesome.

Spring is coming soon!!!