Musings

My leg is still cramping, and my whole body is vibrating in time to the road after drving for four hours to get home. I probably should have spent another day in Farmington, but I couldn’t find a hotel. This ugly little town (in a beautiful setting on the Animus River) is a boom town right now because of the San Juan Basin oil and gas industry. I’ll be heading back the first of the week, and calling for a reservation tonight so I can be sure of getting a room. I took the laptop and had every intention of writing, but trying to retool the accounting for my company proved to be pretty damn stressful.

I’m worried about my bookkeeper (I’ve known this woman since I was 16. My father hired her as his assistant and taught her how to keep books), but I had to put that aside, and cope with the tsunami of paper that fills her office. When I took over the company I purchased a computer and an oil and gas accounting program, but I could never get her to overcome her allergy to computers. I finally got her to use the internet last month. All of this being a way of saying that my bookkeeper is still working in big green ledger books by hand. I’m sure all these piles of paper make sense to her, but it was daunting.

I unearthed all the bills and got them paid. I pulled in a marvelous woman who had run an audit for me on the company that was purchasing our gas. Thanks to her expertise and deep understanding of the oil and gas business she established that this company had been skimming money from us for years. I fired them, brought in a company that she recommended, and things have been much better. Diane immediately started getting us into the twenty-first century, but it was touch and go. There’s a tremendous amount of paperwork associated with this industry. State and Federal taxes have to be paid every month, and a sheaf of papers filed. We managed to get to Fed X fifteen mintues before they closed so we wouldn’t be delinquent.

I spent a hour at the bank getting us set up to handle payables by wire transfer. I kept sending faxes to our accountants to make certain these notices from the Feds weren’t anything I had to worry about. Diane is someone with deep understanding and a love of her work. She is also a terrific teacher, but she was drowning me in details that I just couldn’t absorb. I finally raised my hand and said feebly — “I’m the big picture person. The manager. Remember?” Still, I feel like we have the right person to help us. The plan is to get the office automated, and then Diane will find us a permanent person for the job.

Next week I will probably start trying to create a filing system for the carbons of the checks and the invoices. At least it’s summer and the wells working — no compressors going down. No freezes in the lines. I just hope I will have the mental energy to write when I get back to the hotel room. I feel strange admitting that I didn’t write while I was in Farmington. I was making fairly sweeping decisions. Maybe when I’m doing a boring task I’ll have some reserves for writing.

My bookkeeper was moved out of ICU this afternoon and I was able to visit her before I headed home. That helped. She was very weak, and I was struck by the deep affection between her and her brother. (The brother is my pumper. My father hired his father for the job, and Tom took it over after his dad’s death. You have to say we’re loyal to our people.) It also left me a bit shaken as I contemplated a modern world in which we don’t have large, extended families. I’m an only child who married late in life, and never wanted to have children. I can’t imagine anything worse then being old and sick and alone. My friend Victor Milan says that science fiction is more than just fandom it’s a family. That people look out for each other. But that’s a lot to expect of friends. Ah, well, to quote another friend — “When the time comes I plan to just fall down dead all at once.”

I have to report on one exchange between Tom and me. Tom is a self-described “conservative”. I told Tom that if his sister can’t return to work I intend to pay her a hefty severance bonus. He was very pleased, but said gruffly that he would not say anything because that decision was between me and the board of directors and we didn’t have to do anything. I gently reminded him that I’m a liberal. He finally admitted he was really glad I was a liberal.

So, now I’m going to watch the end of Olbermann’s newscast and go to bed.

Melinda

I’m off to Farmington tomorrow. I’m taking the laptop, but I’m not certain I’ll be able to post.

Melinda

Saturday I spent working on Wild Cards. I completed another interstitial section, and am debating about a sub-sub plot that may get dropped out of my story. It’s a space thing. I feel like I’m well on my way to writing a short novel for short story money. But I’m having fun, and if it’s all about the money writing is the wrong game.

On Sunday I finally found the nerve to open up book two of the EDGE series, and look for a scene to rewrite in first person. Ian had the very good suggestion that I not launch into the entire book without running a controlled test first. I picked a scene in the middle of the book, and pulled it out. It was my guinea pig for major surgery. It’s an important and fairly dramatic scene and as I reread it I realized I hated it. It sucks. Now this is worrying to me. I’m convinced a book sucks when I finish it, but usually when I’ve gotten some months distance on the work I decide it isn’t that bad. Well, I still don’t like this book. Or at least this scene in the book.

I’ve pretty much finished the test rewrite, but it feels awkward, and I think it’s because I’m not starting at the beginning. I’m trying to jump into the head and voice of my main character literally in the middle of this adventure. So for me to have an answer about whether I rewrite this book I think I’m going to have to run another test and rewrite the first scenes of the book. I don’t think I’m crazy to be contemplating this move. These books are very important to me, and might be the thing that establish me once more as a prose writer. I want these books to be as good as I can possibly make them.

Melinda

It’s been an intensive four days of writing related work. On Friday Walter Jon, Victor Milan, Ty Frank, Ian Tregillis and I met at Daniel Abraham’s house to help him plot Book One of a new supernatural thriller series. Daniel had provided us with a broad strokes look at the world and a few of the characters, but the “what happens” part was nonexistent. As usual the process began with swirling chaos as we all threw out ideas and asked questions, but eventually it began to spiral in towards an idea of a story, a character arc, character interactions, until we had a planet… er sorry, a plot/book with a beginning, a middle and an end.

We didn’t have a white board for this one, but Daniel was making notes on post-it’s and sticking them up on the wall. We generally break a novel into three acts, and from my experience in Hollywood I find it’s a lot easier to plot if you know the final scene in each act. Then you can fill in the scenes that you know will carry you to that concluding and climactic scene.

I love this process. We laughed, and paced the living room, and the sense of support and freedom is great. You’re allowed to say something stone stupid, or make a really boneheaded suggestion. We used to call this “Holding the Dumb Stick” when I was on Star Trek, and I still have the glitter filled wand that became the dumb stick when I was working the show. The nice thing about the freedom to make any kind of off the wall suggestion is that sometimes they have merit. They just have to be twisted and tweaked a bit, and you’ve got to put them out there for that to happen.

At the end of the session Vic asked me if I thought it worked. I knew something was bothering me, niggling at me like an itch you can’t quite reach. I stood and studied the wall full of notes, and kept poking at it. I tried moving two scenes from act one into act two, but that didn’t work, and then Daniel nailed it. He said “what if I put in a B story?” That clarified what was bothering me. The plot we had was too straight ahead, a little too easy and on the nose. As we fiddled with the B story Daniel saw a way to have that smaller plot dovetail back into the A story in act three in a significant way. And then it was cooked. All in all a very good day’s work and a lot of fun spending time with my incredibly bright and talented friends.

Melinda

Last night was our monthly meeting of Critical Mass. I had hoped to have part of book three in the EDGE series, but I had only written the prologue because I was so busy writing the interstitial material for BUSTED FLUSH. Since I had to submit if I was going to come and play (we have a rule that if you don’t write you may not attend. We do give a one month grace meeting after you’ve submitted. Otherwise we would drowned in pages to read.) Anyway, I digress, I decided to submit the opening two sections of the Wild Cards material.

As I mentioned George had suggested that I write it in first person. I knew I had been having a lot of fun, and it felt pretty good, rather like sliding into a really comfortable pair of old shoes. It’s just felt _right_. It gave me the same feeling of exhilaration that I experience when I write screenplays. But of course I had no idea if it was just an illusion/delusion. Last night answered the question. I got a lot of raves and the strokes felt really good. Daniel Abraham told me I must never, ever write in third person again. He also pointed out that not only am I writing in first person I’m writing in present tense as well and it’s working.

My biggest problem as a writer is that I don’t evoke the senses well enough, and my third person prose seems to be “distancing” for people. All that goes away when I write in first person.

So, now I’m faced with a dilemma. I’m quite happy with EDGE OF REASON, the first book in the series. but the second book, while it has some great moments, and while I like where it takes my protagonist — just didn’t work as well for me. One problem is that I jumped up to five view point characters, and this is a really emotional book for my main character, but it felt somehow flat.

I’ve got this wild notion to rewrite the book in first person. I have time. The first book is coming out in early 2008, and I want this series to be really strong. I sent an email to my editor Patrick Nielson Hayden at Tor asking what he thought of my idea. Also, I haven’t looked at book two since August 2006 when I delivered the book. If I rewrite it might help catapult me into book three. My friend Ian (watch for his novels. He’s really good) suggested that I take a pivotal scene in book two and rewrite it in first person and see how it feels. Very good advice, and I’m going to follow it.

This is one of the hard things to learn when you’re a writer. Sometimes when it’s not working you have to make the agonizing choice. _Throw it all out and start over._ But when it’s right the high is unmatched.

Melinda

So, I just watched the season finale of HEROES, and I confess I was pretty disappointed. I’ve really enjoyed this show, and have loved Hiro in particular, but I thought from the beginning there were too many characters, and I think that problem came to roost tonight. The big emotional finish just didn’t work for me because the number of characters meant that I didn’t really believe the emotional connection that led to the emotional turn on the part of Nathan. I’m sorry, I just don’t think one rather inarticulate speech by the cheerleader was going to change Nathan’s mind.

Then there was all of Hiro’s sword training that he never had to use. He just stabbed the guy.

I was anticipating a real box office ending with all the various heroes being drawn together to deal with Syler, and instead it was really easy and didn’t really utilize the various characters and their powers. I got whiplash because they didn’t pay off Peter’s journey. He begins the show as this insecure man, unable to act or trust his own decisions. At some points here toward the end of the season he was presented as the leader of these people. He had all these powers, and then suddenly he can’t control this one power when he could control all the others? I didn’t buy it.

And what was the whole Sphinx moment with Richard Roundtree? (For those of you who don’t get the Sphinx reference rent MYSTERY MEN. It’s great.) Which brings me to my final bitch. This is supposed to be so secret that these powers are developing, but _every single friggin person_ is involved with the supers. Mom, a patient Peter is caring for, the guy to whom the stripper owed money, Claire’s daddy. Sheesh!

I’ll keep watching because it’s something different on television, and I like superhero franchises (obviously), and I love Hiro, but this left me feeling letdown.

Oh, I cooked dinner while I watched the two hour finale of 24, or as I’ve dubbed it “The right wing torture fest”. Last season with the Nixonian president was pretty cool. This season was a mess, and now Jack has graduated from torturing strangers to torturing family. Where do you go from there? I’m afraid to find out.

Melinda

I went out to dinner and the movies last night. It was a good group, Steve Stirling and his wife Jan, and George and Parris (who is using a cane since the Maine Coon cat tripped her on the stairs and she sprained her ankle, our friend Chip. We began with dinner at India House a very good restaurant in a converted fast food joint down on Cerrillos Rd. For once we didn’t order too much food so there weren’t leftovers. My only regret was that there was no spinach or eggplant, but I’m in the minority in my love of these vegetables. Oh well,

Then we headed off to the _new and nice_ theater at the south end of town. Stadium seating, clean floors, big screens as opposed to what we have been used to, low seats, sticky floors and small screens with rips in them, and one poor high school kid trying to sell tickets, take tickets and man the concession stand.

We saw SHREK III which, while it was a rather a muddle, I liked better than the second movie. The second film had so many pop culture references that it’s going to be inexplicable in 50 years. Actually probably in 20 years. This movie had fewer of those, and they were trying to explore the theme of parents and children, particularly fathers and sons, but they kept getting pulled away for the quick laugh so the thread got a little thin in places. There wasn’t enough Puss in Boots with was a downside for me.

There was a wonderful feminist theme with all the various fairy tale princesses, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, etc., but I won’t say more because it would be a spoiler. I also liked the fact that Fiona never once reverted back to the beautiful princess in this film. She stayed a plump, dumpy, sweet faced ogre.

It was a fun two hours and I didn’t feel like I had lost part of my life that I can never recover. Later this week I want to go see THE LIVES OF OTHERS. Since this film beat PAN’S LABYRINTH for best foreign film at the Academy Awards it must be fantastic. All in all the summer is starting to look pretty dismal.

Melinda

Today was something of a waste. I couldn’t get to sleep last night so instead of being up at 6:30 I slept until almost 8:00. I then stared into the vast wasteland that was the refrigerator, and realized I needed to go to the market. Sounds simple, right? But no, you end up running to multiple stores and they’re not charming like the little meat market or bakery or fruit stand the way it is in Europe.

I drove into town and treated myself to breakfast at the Chocolate Maven, a wonderful bakery and restaurant in an industrial park. Usually you can look in and watch the bakers at work, but they are remoldeling so I didn’t get to watch the croissants being made. Bummer. I selected the build your own omelet and I had them put in creamy spinach. It was great. I exhibited inhuman self-control and didn’t buy a chocolate/almond croissant. Then it was off to three markets to find what I wanted. I like to squeeze my own orange juice, but only Wild Oats has Valencia oranges. Then I needed currants for scones, and I can only find those at Whole Foods. I needed walnuts for the Black Forest pork chops I was planning to cook, but they only had packages of organic walnuts at Whole Foods and they were almost _eight dollars_!

So then I hit the local market for walnuts and inexpensive sour cream for the Hungarian chicken I’m planning to cook tomorrow night. I stuffed the groceries in the fridge in the lounge at the barn, and rode Pi. He broke me again, but by the end we were starting to get a balanced canter and he wasn’t slamming into my right leg. Considering I was riding him in the snaffle and not the double bridle that wasn’t too bad. I was a good girl and cleaned and oiled all my tack. (My saddle only gets cleaned about one a month.) The bridles every day, but god saddles are a pain.

I ended up trying to cook without concentrating on what I was doing, and it didn’t turn out as well as other meals. I realized tonight that cooking requires your constant presence in the kitchen and total attention to the preparation. I just didn’t want to give my mind over to toasting walnuts and thickening a sauce of dark cherries, spices and lemon jest. It felt like my ability to create was draining away with every stir of the whisk. Now I’m exhausted, my dinner wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, and I haven’t written a word today. Grump.

Melinda

Okay, so Gabriele is the bad girl who tagged me with this game. Apparently I’m supposed to post eight facts about myself. I’ve never been able to back down from a challenge so here goes:

1.) I hate potatoes.
2.) I collect carousel horse figurines
3.) I’m scared of motorcycles and could never learn how to ride one
4.) When I listen to certain pieces of music it makes me cry (Violetta’s farewell to Alfredo in Act two of La Traviata for example.)
5.) My best friends have always been men.
6.) My favorite food is green chili
7.) I say the line of dialogue in a movie or tv show before the actor and I’m almost never wrong.
8.) I hate clutter.

Whew, that was actually rather hard. So Gabriele wanted me to head over to George’s blog and tag him. I wonder if he’ll play?

Seriously, that was an interesting exercise because it makes you pause and really think about yourself. The only other time you really do this is when you are just starting to date someone, and you’re offering each other these little insights.

Melinda

I thought I’d give folks a break from all horses, all the time. I started the new Edge book, and after writing in first person for Wild Cards it felt very awkward to try and return to traditional third person. I thought about doing first person, but I have to point of view characters, and I haven’t much liked the books I’ve read where they tried to switch between characters in first person.

Then I remembered the story Michael Cassutt had written for Wild Cards where it’s third person, but in present tense. I started the prologue that way, and so far I’m liking the result. We’ll see if it lasts. If not…. well, that’s what rewrites are for.

Melinda