November writing & December writing goals
Dec. 1st, 2019 08:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerMy writing goals for November were to get started on Honeytrap revisions and to make some headway planning my next novella, and sadly I was not terribly successful on either front. The first few chapters of Honeytrap are VERY rough: this book is the first time that I’ve written a story with an investigation (unfortunately, the premise made the investigation unavoidable) and there’s been a definite learning curve, or at least so I hope, because otherwise it’s just been whacking through thickets without any actual improvement.
(I found an article about how Charles Finch plots the Charles Lenox mysteries. That would have been useful advice back when I was first drafting Honeytrap.)
For December, my goals are:
1. Publish The Wolf and the Girl. This can happen whenever my cover artist gets me the cover.
2. Complete a draft of a short story to submit to Silk & Steel: An Adventure Anthology for Queer Ladies.
3. Continue revisions of Honeytrap. Once I get these first few chapters into better shape, it should go much more smoothly. Unfortunately, one can’t skimp on the first chapters because otherwise people will never get past them to get to the good stuff.
I think I’m going to have to cut the perfection salad bit, which is killing me inside, so I’m putting it here so at least someone will get to appreciate it.
***
“What is this?” Matskevich prodded a carrot- and cabbage-flecked lump of yellow Jell-O.
“Perfection salad,” Daniel said. He peered at it. “I’ve never seen it with cabbage before.”
“But what is it?” Matskevich persisted. “What is the…” He prodded it with his fork. “The wiggly part.”
Daniel’s mouth twitched. “Lemon Jell-O,” he answered gravely. But he couldn’t resist asking: “What did you think it was?”
“Zalivnoye – how do you say – meat jelly.”
“Aspic,” Daniel said, and muffled a guffaw behind his hand so the good church ladies wouldn’t see him laughing. “Well, lemon Jell-O must have been a disappointment,” he said. “Aspic would be an improvement, actually. None of the sweet Jell-Os are worth eating unless they’re red.” Matskevich looked bleakly at the perfection salad, and Daniel added, “Here, put it on my plate. I’ve got plenty of practice eating perfection salad.”
(I found an article about how Charles Finch plots the Charles Lenox mysteries. That would have been useful advice back when I was first drafting Honeytrap.)
For December, my goals are:
1. Publish The Wolf and the Girl. This can happen whenever my cover artist gets me the cover.
2. Complete a draft of a short story to submit to Silk & Steel: An Adventure Anthology for Queer Ladies.
3. Continue revisions of Honeytrap. Once I get these first few chapters into better shape, it should go much more smoothly. Unfortunately, one can’t skimp on the first chapters because otherwise people will never get past them to get to the good stuff.
I think I’m going to have to cut the perfection salad bit, which is killing me inside, so I’m putting it here so at least someone will get to appreciate it.
***
“What is this?” Matskevich prodded a carrot- and cabbage-flecked lump of yellow Jell-O.
“Perfection salad,” Daniel said. He peered at it. “I’ve never seen it with cabbage before.”
“But what is it?” Matskevich persisted. “What is the…” He prodded it with his fork. “The wiggly part.”
Daniel’s mouth twitched. “Lemon Jell-O,” he answered gravely. But he couldn’t resist asking: “What did you think it was?”
“Zalivnoye – how do you say – meat jelly.”
“Aspic,” Daniel said, and muffled a guffaw behind his hand so the good church ladies wouldn’t see him laughing. “Well, lemon Jell-O must have been a disappointment,” he said. “Aspic would be an improvement, actually. None of the sweet Jell-Os are worth eating unless they’re red.” Matskevich looked bleakly at the perfection salad, and Daniel added, “Here, put it on my plate. I’ve got plenty of practice eating perfection salad.”
no subject
Date: 2019-12-01 06:31 pm (UTC)(Also that salad sounds scary. 0_o)
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Date: 2019-12-02 12:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-01 07:37 pm (UTC)'Silk & Steel' sounds like the BEST ANTHOLOGY EVER. I love the idea!
Also, perfection salad is hilarious, I'm sorry you have to cut it.
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Date: 2019-12-02 12:17 am (UTC)I'm so sad that I had to cut perfection salad, but it just WOULDN'T fit. Sometimes things just won't even though they would obviously be a delightful and hilarious thing to include.
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Date: 2019-12-02 12:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-03 02:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-03 02:11 am (UTC)(Is this type of salad really called "perfection salad"?)
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Date: 2019-12-03 02:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-09 04:41 pm (UTC)I love the perfection salad bit and, along with your other commenters here, will mourn its absence from the finished book. Not the looming horror of aspic, though. You can never have too little aspic.
Good luck with the anthology story!
no subject
Date: 2019-12-09 10:18 pm (UTC)