Being an author is like being in charge of your own personal insane asylum.

- Graycie Harmon

Monday, February 15, 2010

Monday

Well, it's Monday, as you're all probably well aware. Monday is actually a holiday for me, some silly provincial holiday they decided to call Family Day. In any case, since it is a holiday, I'm not actually anywhere near a computer. That means this post was actually written Friday. That's right, Friday. Friday morning at 10:30am in fact. So, there might be some things that happened on the weekend that are missing from this post. It's not very likely, but there's the possibility.

In any case, I'm pretending that this was written this morning (Monday) and not three days ago (today). Follow me?

Right.

I didn't do any writing on Friday, so now I'm 6 000 words behind target. That means I have to pull some major overtime, and I intend to spend all of this coming Sunday at the computer catching up. I don't know what's come over me, but finishing this novel is killing me. Sometimes I want to gouge my own eyes out (though, I have to say, the final battle scene is really exciting)! But I must, I must finish!

Saturday was the same as every Saturday. I woke up, went to Lion Dance practice. I didn't teach Kung Fu in the afternoon though, as it was also Chinese New Years on Sunday and the academy had given the students the weekend off. That was refreshing.

I met Dad to see a movie and stayed over his place Saturday night. That is always lovely.

Valentine's Day/ Chinese New Years came and went, and I stayed in my house, in my pyjamas, and marked papers. I occasionally correct papers and exams for the Celtic Studies programme at the University of Ottawa. I went through there, taking all the available Celtic Studies classes except the language ones (I still want to learn Welsh, though). They've since turned Celtic Studies into a minor... and I'd love to take the extra classes that have arisen. Le sigh. All the same, marking the papers is just as good. It keeps me relatively up to date on my favourite academic subjects.

Due to the fact that I am now marking papers, and getting that done on schedule takes precedence over my hobby (since I'm getting paid for it), my word count target has been reduced to 1 500 a day. I will still strive for 3 000 a day, but being realistic, I probably won't get there, so I'm not going to stress about it. That does mean, however, that I won't be finishing The Seraphimé Saga this month as planned. Ugh.

Perhaps I'll take to writing on the weekends as well, just to keep up. As if life wasn't busy enough.

Last bit of news (which I saved for last because I'm finding it exciting), my sister, who has started a business called Green Cemeteries (it's a brilliant concept. Check out their Facebook page here), has asked me to help her write some of her web content for the site she's building, and also to continue to contribute to the website via freelance articles. The articles will be about burial practices across space and time (hello Anthropology and Archaeology degree finally coming into use!). I may also be employed by her to help her write an eBook on the subject of Green Cemeteries and burial practices. It's still in the planning stages, but I'm finally getting the opportunity to be paid to write! It's a very teeny tiny step, but hugely important for me.

Sure, I haven't received an offer on any of my novels, but this is the next best thing!

So, that was... uh... will be... uh... was my weekend.

2 comments:

g said...

S&M! I enjoyed reading this! Hey, my dad was my best friend (he's asleep just over 12 years now) - there was nothing better than watching a movie with him, so please - enjoy every moment with yours ...for me!

Yes, PLEASE DO lower your daily target word count!! I have enough reminders of my own shotcomings and inabilities without my friend S&M's "6K-a-day" target to kung-fu kick me right in the family jewels each morning! (lol). Besides, I found in my own experience that setting that bar too high makes us begin to hate what we love - which is to write. It's like, if you like CHEERIOS cereal but you now have to eat a large box of those toasty oat circle every single morning - if you're like me you will hate them by tomorrow (if you're like my #3 son Jordan, it won't affect you at all, that boy goes through a box a day! ...but I digress)

"...A sister ...YOU have a SISTER!" 9-) But of course your sister would start a business called, "Green Cemeteries" ...BRILLIANT!

I can only imagine the mystical S&M writing SEO content for your sister's site, now THAT should be entertaining!

Kudos on getting paid for your talent and your craft! We are all brothers and sistas in this - so I'm proud of my sister S&M ...YOU GO GIRL! 9-) Peace, g

S.M. Carrière said...

*tee hee hee*

Thanks g,

I do enjoy movies with Dad. It has become a fortnightly tradition and is always entertaining! We saw Percy Jackson. A great movie for young audiences (so, of course, being all of three years old, I enjoyed it).

Meh, I enjoy writing, and usually 3 000 words a day is no problem. Takes me about 3 hours or so of solid writing time. The problem arises when I have seven hundred other things on the go at the same time. Alright, seven hundred might be an exaggeration.

Yes, I have a sister. Two of them, in fact... and one brother. All of them amazing people.

"Mystical" me? Oooh, I think I like that!

Thanks again, g! I'm quite excited!