Friday, October 28, 2011

Friday Filler! Mountains and Manuscripts!

Last night Mighty Reader and I went to see Ed Viesturs read from his new book and talk about his experiences climbing the 14 highest mountains on Earth. It was pretty swell. Mighty Reader knows a lot about expedition climbing and the history of mountaineering, if you're wondering why we went. Anyway, Viesturs gave an interesting and engaging talk, showed lots of photos and told the story of his three attempts (and eventual success) to climb Annapurna, which he'd dreamed of climbing since he was a boy in Illinois. I will say that my favorite thing about Viesturs is that on his website he calls himself a "high altitude adventurer." I'm putting that on my business cards, I am. See if I don't. Though perhaps mine will say "Low altitude adventurer."

What's going on in my writing life right now is that I'm waiting to hear back from my agent about the manuscript I sent her a few days ago. I admit to some impatient fidgeting. I'm also officially procrastinating on the novel I'm allegedly currently writing. Possibly I've decided to take a break because I know the new one is going to be really hard to write and I just don't feel up to that level of concentrated effort just now. It's dark and cold and I'm sleepy all the time and have a strong urge to hibernate until springtime. Or to wrap myself in a blanket, drink cocoa and watch BTVS on DVD until springtime. In any case, a strong urge not to dive into another long writing project just now. Though I continue to think about the novel and I keep making notes and doing research reading. So who knows what I'm really doing?

What are you really doing?

Happy Friday!

7 comments:

  1. What I'm really doing is not "w"ing on my WIP's. Got any good excuses I can use on my wife and my critique group?

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  2. I am:
    1. not writing.
    2. not thinking about not writing.
    3. not worried about not thinking about not writing.

    Then again, I'm an outlier here, and not sure why I post here, since I haven't written in years and have devoted my life to watching birds. Would that be a low altitude (me) or a high altitude (the birds) adventurer?

    On the other hand, I do have a book coming out in March and just finished looking over the proof for what were incredibly minimal typos so there's that. But really, writing is totally a back-burner kind of thing for me.

    What I'm doing in a Filler Kind of Way:
    1. getting pumped for Game 7 of the World Series tonight.
    2. keeping the hot cocoa supplies well stocked.
    3. watching Gonzo (the Red-breasted Nuthatch) at my bird feeder.

    It always comes back to birds.

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  3. Chuck:

    "I'm outlining."
    "I'm doing research."
    "I reconceptualizing the formal schema of the narrative; that takes time."
    "Did you see that I fixed the porch window? Hey, have you lost weight? You look great! Is this my round? What are you having?"

    Alex: I happen to know that you have ideas for at least two new books. Nice scrub jay icon, though. And I hear Game 6 was amazing.

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  4. Game 6 was the best championship series game I have ever seen in over 35 years of baseball viewing. EVER. Seriously. I could write a book just about that game!

    -Alex

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  5. Scott, maybe you should hibernate until spring. I'm not joking. Sometimes a nice long break from writing can do really amazing things. :)

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  6. Hibernating sounds great. Or maybe just naps when I need them. Like right now.

    But I have to go to the bank and the library and buy food for a 11-yo birthday party tomorrow and shop for snow boots and snow pants for two kids who suddenly decided to grow and then to the school to collect spelling homework to grade....

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  7. Did you know that a bear can lose as much as 25% of its weight during hibernation. The preferred position is to curl up into a ball and tuck your nose in toward your feet to conserve heat and minimize moisture loss. Isn't it cool that I didn't have to look any of that up? I remember reading about it. And in the article, they actually used a picture of a bear curled up into a ball as Figure 1. That was awesome.

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