10.22.2008
So, first of all, I should give an update on my novel progress. I haven't written much since the beginning of October for one very good reason and one really stupid reason. And those reasons are:
1. GOOD - I moved! I am no longer living in ye olde Manhattan. I moved out of the East Village and my ten-by-ten studio apartment. I am now a Brooklyn resident in the sunny, brownstoned neighborhood of Carrol Gardens. And with that, I moved into a fairly massive one bedroom.
I lived in the East Village for about eight years. Before that I lived for six or eight months on Wall St but before that lived in a simmilarly sized studio in San Francisco. So for just about all of my adult life I've lived in a space only a little bigger than the rooms I grew up in in my father's house.
Because of this I have zero furniture. Well... not zero but only enough to populate a bedroom. I had a desk, a futon, and two chairs both of which were found for me by Lev. In a one bedroom apartment, this furniture hasn't gone far and it felt like I was rattling around in someone else's place. So I got myself a couch (ouch) and have been planning out the rest (very expensive) just to make the place feel homey. Last week, I even had the place painted by another friend of mine and that really made it start to feel as though it was coming together.
How does this affect my writing? Well, I know a writer should be able to write anywhere. All it requires is a pen and paper. But I'm one of those people who needs a home base. I need that one place I can retreat to. I can do temporary for a little while, hence the amount of writing I got done in California, but when I get back, I'm home. And without a home I can't concentrate on anything else.
2. BAD - I also got a 40-inch flat screen TV. Connected to that is my upconverting DVD player an Apple TV and the NetFlix streaming box. Between these three things, I literally have enough video entertainment to keep me occupied for the next two years.
And, boy, have I been taking advantage of them. It's so great being able to watch my entire iTunes TV collection on my big screen that that's pretty much all I've been doing, sitting on my new couch with one of those fancy Logitech universal remotes in one hand and a glass of whiskey in the other.
And, of course, this means that I've done no writing because of it.
But, the novel still stands at 79,000 words and is almost complete. Well... the first draft is almost complete. But I'm still really happy with it and do plan to get back to it shortly.
In other news, and pertaining to the title of this post, I got a rejection via email from IGMS for Matriarchy, my little ditty about women going crazy. It took them one hundred days to respond which is just over their average of eighty-nine.
This makes rejection number fifty-seven for the project and twenty-three for the year. My stuff has been out for a total of 811 days for submission for the year and it's been responded to in thirty-five days on average.
I don't know how many submissions and thus rejections I'm going to get for the rest of the year but I'll try to sneak a few more in so that I can build my lead over last year and set a new high water mark for next.
And that's what's been going on. Hope life has been good on you, kids. And remember, it's cold out there today. It's cold out there everyday.