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07/22/2003 Entry: "Beating the block, and other news...."

So it's been a little while. What have I been up to?

Shanti's been out on vacation, so I've been minding the fort alone at work for the last couple of weeks. It hasn't been too bad, other than having to get rid of the most annoying author ever, and getting two books off to the printer in two days, and then turning right around and getting nine articles edited, put into Quark, and sent to the proofreader in just *one* day. And of course discovering the most awful typo in a book that's already been printed and shrinkwrapped. ("garb of immortality" became "garb of immorality"--gah!) So at the moment, somewhat *thud*.

I've been dismally blocked in writing, but my inner resistance finally got too overconfident. It had gotten to the point where it wasn't even bothering to come up with lame excuses, but instead would just start screaming "NO! NO! NO! DON'T WANNA!!" whenever I started thinking about the possibility of writing. So I had to recognize that it was really nothing but a part of my own brain being stupid. Over last weekend I actually managed to start working on stuff again, and got a couple of pages done in one of the ongoing Weiss things. (K-chan, it's the long-haired Ran one. *meow* ^_^) This seems to be the fic that jumpstarts me back into writing whenever I start flagging. I'm not sure why. But I'm hoping to parlay this momentum into some progress on "Sakura" once I get this scene and maybe a couple more done. On Monday I was all set to start writing on the train in the mornings again (I'd just been sleeping for the last several weeks), fired up the laptop--and AppleWorks hosed on me, munching one of its own libraries in the process. This isn't the first time AW has spontaneously committed suicide for no good reason, and it's really annoying. It's a freakin' word-processing program, people. It's not even shareware. And I'm using minimal formatting. So why does this thing blow up in my face? By evening I was able to download an updater and reinstall AW so I could pry open the file again, but by then I was overheated and blah, so I just did a little work and then went to bed. Tomorrow is press inspection though. A whole day in a little air-conditioned room with nothing else to do but play on the laptop! I'm looking forward to it.

I'm trying to decide right now if I'm going to go to Otakon. I kind of want to--people to see! fun to be had! swag to buy!--but on the other hand I'm feeling a bit strung out and wanting some quiet time at home. So major waffling going on here.

Other than that? Watching RahXephon. Having major D&D pangs. (I found a group, and they're pretty good, but I still feel like I'm looking for something.) Feeling some inner pokes to write a unicorn book of my own after reading "The Birth of the Fire-Bringer," which was neat but not entirely satisfying. Having world-building cravings in general. That's about it, I guess.

We just had a *wicked* storm here a few minutes ago. Cool. ^^