Winteriness

We had our first snow of the winter here today; all gone by lunchtime, sadly. I had an email from a delegate for a conference in February asking if it would be cold - it's 25 degrees Celsius where he is.

I don't think I'd like a warm winter. Much as I may complain about the cold, it still seems the designated order of things, to me, and I'd be absolutely bamboozled by warm sunny days in December. I like my seasons, and I like them at the correct times, thanks.

For anybody counting, I've now gathered four rejection letters for my novel. It's not actually surprising, and I can't really be upset by it. More a feeling that this is the process, and it's a learning one. I like the idea that I'm still taking steps forward, however small they may be. Actually submitting anything at all was quite a reasonable one, in fact, and I'm still a little bit proud of myself for it.

Anyway, I have new and better things to work on. So Far and Out of Sight was proving particularly stubborn with regards to POV. After a few attempts at the opening, I stepped back, and am now scribbling away in long hand. Somehow I've found the tone I want much easier to reach if it's handwritten. Perhaps it's something about the story. Or perhaps it's something about my beautiful fountain pen and new ink...

While I was trying to fix whatever it was that had gone 'bang, crunch' with that story, I started absently writing another one that was hovering in the background, and that's chugging along at a reasonable clip. Also a couple of articles, and a short story. Sometimes I forget that I get much further, overall, if I can shift my focus when something isn't coming together, rather than just staring at the screen and waiting for it to right itself. Often, when I come back to the problematic piece after working on something else, everything is miraculously resolved. I think it must be pixies, or aliens, or something.

Thanks, guys. New hats with bells on for you for Christmas.