the code of the ocean

I'm getting a lot of writing practice in -- I wrote several pages in my journal today, and I also just finished another post for zee romance blog. If I'm going to start writing book number two while keeping up with both blogs, I'm going to have to cut some mindless internet surfing out of my day and shift it into writing time instead.

Today was v. lazy. I stayed up until after two a.m. yesterday reading THE GRAVEYARD BOOK by Neil Gaiman, before deciding that I would enjoy the ending more if I got some sleep before reading it. I was right; while I hit the snooze button for an hour this morning because I had no real need to get up, I finally dragged myself upstairs, made a cup of tea, and finished the book. It was absolutely lovely, and I highly recommend it -- while it's more young-adult than, say, AMERICAN GODS or NEVERWHERE, the writing is still lush, the story is still highly imaginative, and the characters are still a weird blend of absurd and heartrending. I'll write more on zee romance blog in a few days, so I'll leave it at that.

I spent the afternoon doing nothing, unless you count a two-hour nap as something. Then I wrote in my journal for awhile before the family decided that we should all stop taking alternating naps and do something together. Some of us were not in the mood to play games, so we ended up watching FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL. It was totally awesome, knee-deep in my favorite type of bizarre humor (particularly the weird British rocker boyfriend and the main character's Dracula-themed, puppet-performed rock opera musical). After the movie, I reverted to adulthood for half an hour to take care of my finances, then spent some more quality time journaling in an attempt to brainstorm some of the plot arcs for book number two.

I'm getting antsy to start writing again -- 2009 is just days away, and I intend to start writing book number two in January, even as I restart the process of querying and being rejected by agents for book number one. But I'm excited about book number two, and feel like I've learned so much from book number one that number two will be even better. But time will tell -- and I should go to bed, so that I can spend some more quality time with the family tomorrow. Only four days left in Iowa :( And then it's back to my regularly-scheduled city life, where I will attempt to reprioritize so that I can have ample time for writing over the next few months. Goodnight!