That means I cleaned up almost 40 pages IN ONE DAY. I might finish this edit (#7) by Halloween! The main (modern day) character just met some dream guy at a party and he had a very special story to tell her about the gnostic gospels. That was just a brief interlude for fun. And to demonstrate how hopelessly single she is, lol. Which is sort of important to the overall plot. The novel is now 322 pages long. I like it. Not as much as I did this morning, haha. But I do like it.
Tag: Second novel
I Got My McSweeney’s Lunchbox!
I finally opened yesterday’s mail and it was NOT a friggin’ COVID test! YAY!! I feel like I’m 10 years old again and it feels great! Author cards and everything! I wonder if they’re anything like Whacky Packs. I wonder if there’s gum inside. I wonder if the authors have haughtily arched eyebrows or big crusty teeth?!
Yesterday I slogged and skimmed through the Middle Ages. My character Giselle should be able to learn to read because her dad is very progressive and with the decline of the feudal system and the increase in capitalistic town wealth which benefited royal coffers, the time was favoring individual endeavor to some extent. Good King Louis the IX had helped start the Sorbonne when he heard some whining about poor kids not being able to become doctors. So I don’t see why, as a vintner’s daughter, Giselle could’t learn to read. So, we got that taken care of. Now. Does the plot require her to read? I bet I could think of a great reason for her to read. It’ll come to me. If I could just work Wacky Packs in somehow. That would be fun! And easy. This book goes back and forth between contemporary time and 15c cuz, baby, it’s about reincarnation. I can do WHATEVER I WANT!!!!!
I Retired So Now I Have to Hurry the Hell Up and Write Before it’s Too Late
It’s totally bizarre not to be driving around suburbia knocking on doors for The County anymore. I left in July. And was very busy with family obligations for awhile there. But. But now I just want to become more and more myself until I metamorphosis into a psychedelic butterfly. I was always secretly a psychedelic butterfly. I finished the sixth edit of Don’t Get Burned. The next day I read through the first three chapters really quickly and said, “Woah, Bessie, this is reading for fun, not edit #7. You have to Start Over and Slow Down.” But the fact that I COULD just read three chapters so quickly is heartening. It means I’m almost done! Which I’ve been lamely saying for years. But I AM ALMOST DONE. I REALLY AM. And if I don’t finish this book by July then I am just a sad sack of procrastination that deserves no literary whipped cream. Or whatever. But damn it, I DO deserve literary whipped cream. I have been sick for several days, but maybe tomorrow I will be able to get myself moving. I have to because I am officially OLD. I could die at any moment. Barbara Kingsolver has written a bunch of books and I am barely at 1.75 books. It’s terrifying. For someone who always knew writing was her passion, I’ve had a very poor output. Phoebe, do not shame yourself. Angels Carry the Sun was a really good book. Maybe luck just wasn’t on your side with some things. Luck changes. I keep thinking about that Tom Petty song, “Even the Losers.” It resonates cuz everyone feels like a bunch of losers, lol. I dreamed I accidentally walked off with someone else’s Nobel Prize in Lit, and I was just pressing this medal against my forehead in a state of extreme angst. So silly. There is hope for me yet. Maybe not Nobel Prize hope, but hope. I AM NOT DEAD YET.
Phoebe Wilcox, Writing Like the Deadline is Death 