Wasted Days and Wasted Nights

Well, tried to get work done this weekend, and did a lot of little things, but not anything major. Rewrote parts of "History of Lightning" (yes, it's not done, but I cleaned up some of the language getting back into the story).

Kristin Nelson is spilling the beans about young writer mistakes. Here, and here, once you get over those there's this, a riff on titles, and don't do first chapter info dumps. I've been guilty (and continue to be guilty in some ways) of all of these. Including my favorite, substitution of dialog for action (including the recent "History of Lightning", yeah, part of what I fixed).

John Scalzi takes the Whatever on summer hiatus and then promptly reminds us all that Tor.com is finally open for business including a new short story by him and a Laundry story from Charlie Stross. john goes off to work and finds the rest of us another time sink. So there was another hour of not getting work done (I love me my Cthulhu/Laundry universe, Atrocity Archive is one of those books I was halfway through and thought, "Damn, I wish I could have written this."). Patrick Nielson Hayden gives a sort of mission statement.

Next weekend is Confluence, which (as long as the waters don't rise) I'll be attending. If you're in the Pittsburgh neighborhood and want to attend a very cool writing (and filk) focused con, Confluence is some great fun. I need to rewrite some poetry with notes from the critique group in case they have an open poetry session (like last year). Also I get to catch up with some very cool people I know who attend (and whom I met there a few years ago).

I need to write a bio for ConClave. Was going to do that this weekend, and I've had some ideas (yeah, like I'm going to write a serious one). It also would be good to have since most of the magazines I've submitted to recently have asked for one as well (you know, like if I get published).

Finally watched "Pan's Labyrinth" last night. Wow. There is so much going on in that film, and it looks fabulous. I mean, really, it's gorgeous. The story travels some well worn paths of fairy taledom, lost princess, special sight, rules not obeyed, magic, and finding your true way through the world. It is by no means a children's story, although it revolves around a child. It is brutal in some places, and implicates more brutality off screen. Just like Hamlet, most of the main characters find themselves dead at the end. Still, I recommend it.