I had an okay day today, and any failure from a productivity standpoint has been more than made up for by how good my hair smells. That's surely going to help sell some books, right?
So I got out of bed sometime after eleven, made some oatmeal, and showered (thus the sweet-smelling hair - the shampoo I got for home almost rivals the stuff I use at the gym). Then, I took care of some stuff online before making myself lunch (at 2:30 p.m., which is the consequence of breakfast at noon). I used my steamer for the first time and steamed a sweet potato, which I would never have tried had I not enjoyed my first steamed sweet potato experience at John and Jess's house a couple of weeks ago. The combo of steamed sweet potato and some chicken made for a winning lunch. Then, I placed my usual Sunday afternoon call to my parents, who seemed reasonably chipper - it's been sunny in Iowa and the snow is starting to melt, which makes for a much happier tone of voice (at least for my father, who actually has to venture out regardless of the weather).
After talking to my parents, I sat down at my desk to work on zee romance novel -- and I'm stuck. There's something about the scene that isn't working, which is why I'm avoiding it, and I know from bitter past experience that I have to figure out what's wrong rather than trying to muscle through it. So, after cleaning my desk and doing any number of things to try to give my subconscious a chance to work, I ended up deciding to print out the entire rest of the manuscript so that I can edit it thoroughly and, in the process, try to figure out what the problem is with the end. I'm going to have to edit the rest of it anyway, so I might as well be editing while I'm mulling over the end, right?
Somewhere in there, my brother called to discuss graduation plans, and we had a v. early-phase discussion on a possible road trip the midwest (either Oklahoma or Iowa) back to California. The southern route would enable us to visit the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam, and we could also drive through Tucumcari (a v. rare destination on the Rail Baron board); the northern route would likely take us to Yellowstone. Given that we each spend approximately 5% of our time outdoors, I'm not entirely sure why we're planning a trip that involves neither shopping (for me) or restoring cars/remodeling houses (for him), but I would like to see more of the Great American West than the boring stretches of I-80 that I've driven five times. So, if all goes according to plan, perhaps I'll have some exciting blog posts to share in May, since I fully expect one of us to drown if we take my suggestion to raft down the Colorado River (and in case I'm the one who drowns, I'll write an appropriately maudlin post in my honor and leave it for someone else to put up).
While we talked, I printed out my entire manuscript, and then hole-punched it and put it into a notebook for ease of reference. By the time I finished that and ate something, it was well after eight o'clock - and rather than start editing then, I decided to quit for the night with the goal of getting to bed by midnight so that I can get up and edit with the whole day ahead of me tomorrow. It would help to read the whole thing in one sitting, and it would be better to do that when I'm not on the verge of falling asleep. So, I put the manuscript away, and then spent a couple of hours playing with my romance blog; I drafted a post for Wednesday, since I've realized that I'm going to have to draft those posts ahead of time. They're too involved to write at the last second before posting them, since they require research and much more editing than I do here if I'm trying to get people to think that I can write.
Speaking of that blog, though, please check out my romance blog today - it includes some utterly ridiculous valentine's poems from 1812 (including one that compares a lady to the softest kid-leather), and in honor of the occasion (and because I'm going to try to jumpstart some readership by mentioning it on twitter), I'm giving away a $15 amazon giftcard to a random commenter on the romance blog. So, leave me a valentine there to be eligible to win, and I will love you forever for it. (I'll probably love you forever anyway, but if you've ever had concerns about the fickle nature of my heart, here's a way to assuage your fears).
And now, goodnight! Happy Valentine's Day!
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