I am really thinking about quitting right now. So what? I can turn a phrase a little. But the thing that sets me apart the most is also my biggest liability and keeps my writing for the specialty press(AKA the writer short bus)

Clever. I hope it's more than that, too.

I've seen something else like that. Looks like it's a new creative style.

Seems like you could write some crime/detective stuff erika. From what I've read you have a good style for that.

Clever. I hope it's more than that, too.

It seems like a shake-up is on the radar with e-book and e-readers. I don't think it's eminent, but it one really good and affordable e-reader plus a consensus or emergent standard on rights management and things will change pretty quickly.

I am really thinking about quitting right now.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, erika, every month I read several stories in Ellery Queen that are not as good as the not-completely-finished-polishing betas I've read for you. I can understand if not getting the luck component is frustrating.

It's cool, though. Maybe it'll be groundbreaking to be the first Lutheran Schlemiel. Not exactly the barrier-busting I'm after, though. And it's harder to cope with because the whole blessing-counting thing is filled with so many more pauses...I'm not even sure I can count "my health" strictly speaking, although I usually do because it's not really a disease to be wired like a Fiat(Tony is apparently not a researcher in neurology)

I am really thinking about quitting right now. So what? I can turn a phrase a little. But the thing that sets me apart the most is also my biggest liability and keeps my writing for the specialty press(AKA the writer short bus)

erika, I have admired your sharp wit and your ability skewer with one twist of phrase since I first started lurking here. I think many of your columns are spot on. I think you have the potential to be a killer procedural writer, true crime writer, script writer, political writer or professional snarker. If you can use the "short bus" press as a springboard, do it. If you think it's holding you back, we can brainstorm about approaches you can take to break out. But please don't stop writing. I can hunt you down. I know where you live...

Thanks...I don't know that I would really stop(or even how much of option that is past the first week or two) I'm just in an annoying phase at the moment. Because I feel like I've learned too much to just make a mess like a newbie and feel okay about it, but I'm not quite a pro, either. Especially since I started in a new form and get to be stupid all over again. It's just another place to not-quite belong, and where do I feel like that, besides, I don't know, *every* place else. And, with my new ethic to try to do it every day, I have lost my Shiny Fun Hobby too,(Keith Olbermann used to feel that way about sports too, but I don't make enough to get jaded like that. Also, he used way more words than that.Naturally.) and these Script Frenzy people are so*stoked*...they are the people that buy all the mugs with the sayings on them, and they go over their scenes with multicolored pens, even though it's been pointed out that that's insane. And I think they are tremendous dorks...Inner Billy Walsh is already planning how to take their lunch money and spend it at the racetrack. But. They are having fun with their fingerpaints and I am not. And I know there's tons of crap I don't know, but quite frankly, if I could afford to take courses and be mentored, I doubt I'd apply myself this much. And besides, in every group or class I've ever been in, I make the facilitator Good Daddy or Bad Mommy and spend most of every class kissing their asses.(um, not literally)

Still cleaning up 59,60,61,and 62. Hopefully tonight I'll get the suckers knocked out, then the read-through which might take too long for tonight.

By Thursday I'll be working on the conclusion.

After that, I'm be digging in on the next revision which will probably not be linear. I'll almost sure I'll add a sequence toward the start where A & M get isolated from the rest and take an excursion into the subplot. That'll help flesh out the subplot and give A & M a real relationship instead of the hurried one that doesn't bring them together enough for later developments to have any impact. I think it can be a good addition.

I got 59-62 cleaned up. Now I'm working on the conclusion, I have the whole conclusion that I'm tweaking and filling in the gaps of right now. Once I've not it all cleaned up--no easy task--I'll be done with this revision.

Then it's chop, rephrase, and tweak time. I have a couple of new bits to do and at least three significant chops. After that, I'll see what the word count is and see if I should chop or expand. I have a few places where there could be some interesting expansion.

Also, I redid my map. See as the original looked like a diagram and is now wildly inaccurate.

Map with grid.

Map without grid.