... congrats to all the S&S'ers ...
May 16, 1999
2:43 p.m.
For a good, recursive entry about an entry, check out John Savage's entry on his views on the Mellenkamp/Springsteen thing I wrote a few days back.  In regard to John's comment on Jimi Hendrix, I was watching VH-1's History of Rock and Roll bit on guitar heroes yesterday (I've always been enthralled by the guitar, you know?), wherein Pete Townsend said of Jimi, "He was an alchemist." Personally, I thought this was about the greatest description of Jimi Hendrix that I've ever heard.   Brigid is all packed up and ready to go to Washington D.C. with her school mates tomorrow. She'll be gone a week. I took her to pick up a couple items from the store this afternoon--pens and note pads and disposable cameras. She wore a pair of sunglasses, and whenever she wanted something that wasn't on the list she pulled them down over her nose and batted her eyelashes at me--with her cutest smile pasted on her face, of course. She tried to by an extra notebook (which I let her) and a pile of candy (which I somehow managed to say 'no' to). She got cold in the department store's air conditioning, and had me drape my arm over her shoulder and rub vigorously to generate heat. A little later, we somehow found ourselves at the ice cream shop. And on the drive back she held her hand out the car window, making it like an airplane's wing. Tomorrow she wakes up at 4:30 or so to leave. It's going to be a really long week, I can tell. I slept late Saturday morning--didn't get up until 10:00. Spent most of the afternoon catching up on the last bits of short fiction--down to my last story in the last issue of SF Age and I'll be able to say I'm completely caught up. Grass is cut. Grill cleaned. I made dinner last night, and will do cheeseburgers this evening. Just what you wanted to know, huh? Just to prove to Myke that the time machine is still working . . . The second draft of the sweeping story is pretty much done. The good news is that I think about two-thirds of it is actually doing what it needs to do--which is a lot better than the first draft. The bad news is that it hasn't shrunk any. In fact, I think it will remain a short novelette barring some unforseen lightning bolt in the editing process (thanks for the prodding, Steve). The problem here is that in writing this story, I've needed to pretty much design a space pod, develop a planet, its people and their culture (and its changes over several generations), then plop believable characters down into that culture--all while trying to keep the chemistry, metrology and geology of this new planet consistent with the changes that I'm inflicting on it. Oh, yeah ... and try to keep it entertaining, will ya, Ron? There's just too much to it to keep it short. Overall, I shouldn't complain. I figure I need a little more character motivation in the last third of the story, then the rest is smoothing out prose and letting a few folks read through it to tell me how far I missed the mark. Have a good one.  What are you gonna write about without Brigid around? Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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"When designing the electronics for your spacecraft, you must not forget the fact that there is more to outer space than just a lot of vacuum." Bob Metzger |
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