(I am completely unemployed thanks to a canceled contract and have lots of nervous energy to burn, so blogging will be daily until one of those things changes. If you’re a blog subscriber and the email notifications get irksome, there’s an “Unsubscribe” option at the bottom of every email. I fully support anyone’s quest for peace and quiet, including in their inbox.) I don’t remember what I was looking for in the manuscript the other day, but I tangentially noticed the first four people the heroine interacts with are dudes. “This world is a sausagefest” is not the precedent I …

It was a pace-scribble-transcribe day. I made good on my goal to write the bandit fight—if you can call three petty crooks getting owned by a superior strategist a fight. It’s a Princess Bride-style scuffle that makes everything look ridiculously easy for her so there’s a baseline of comparison when the difficulty escalates and she has to break a sweat, then sustains a minor injury, then a more severe injury, then faces the final boss who’s capable of killing her.

I got peace and quiet today! 🥳 I didn’t produce many new words because I spent all day whipping a sample submission into shape, but that is now winging through the ether to its destination, so tomorrow, bandit fight! I don’t ordinarily do a nitpicky revise-as-I-go. My first drafts are usually half the length of my final drafts because I use just enough words to give me an idea how well the structure holds up. I can always add descriptions, emotional nuance, and fully formed sentences (look, there’s no point making the lines pretty while the whole chapter might be …

There are four people in this house, all on different sleep schedules. I get up at 3-4 a.m. Generally, the person in the living room at that time turns off the TV and goes to bed soon after, leaving me in peace and quiet until the next person gets up around (fingers crossed) 10 and peace and quiet take their leave for the day. On a good day, I can get five hours to myself. Sometimes, however, people don’t go to bed or get up when they’re supposed to, and peace and quiet don’t put in an appearance at all. …

Let me begin by saying I love a good fall from grace. I know all too well it’s hard at times to find any virtue in being noble when the ignoble are thriving all around. I understand the narrative allure of a good-hearted character who finally says, “Fuck it, I’m going rogue.” The issue for me is that a good fall from grace is an Act I event, to be followed by consequences, struggle, and redemptive ascent, whereas several recent media examples center and glorify the fall itself and then stop, by necessity, because they’re the stories of characters known …