Thursday, April 01, 2004

I'm currently reading the novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It was recommended by my friend Dandi, though she hasn't read it yet herself. She tells me she's started it, however. At this point I'm about half-way through it. I find it a very intriguing book, though written in a style I would not choose to use myself. Gao Xingjian's One Man's Bible which she gave me for Christmas was also a very unusual book from the stylistic standpoint. It's the first novel I've read that used 2nd person. It was an effective technique, differentiating his present from his past.

At the moment I'm not reading any science fiction books, which is unusual for me. Well, except for my own stuff, which I'm in the middle of rewriting. I have such a backlog of stuff to rewrite that I've stopped writing except for my journal and emails and now this blog. I have about five books inside me though waiting to get out. But I need to finish the stuff I've already started; I've been lazy in not finishing the rewrites and getting the book proposals done. Of course, I'm in waiting mode with the various editors who are looking at my stuff so I really have nothing else to be doing, really, but rewriting.

Allergy season is really awful at the moment; makes it hard to sleep and hard to concentrate. And then I keep having the distractions of life eating at my time; Jerry Pournelle refers to some of his days by saying they were "consumed by locusts." That's how it's been of late; taking my daughter to the orthodontist, helping friends with computer problems, consulting work that takes up more time than I'd like (though it pays well, so I shouldn't complain). Then I've got classes to tech, exams to give; there are tests I need to grade. Ugh. All I really want to do is write and rewrite.

Of course there's fun stuff, too, like nights at the movies with my wife, or watching Star Trek: Enterprise. I'm not all work and no play.
I decided to begin a blog; I don't know how often I'll update it. I'll use this to post any odd thoughts that might pop into my head.