An Exchange of Words: David B. Coe’s Weblog

Spent a bit of time looking at a calendar the other day and realized that I’m going to be away for a big chunk of time at the end of July and beginning of August.  It’ll be fun:  visiting friends in New Mexico, camping in Canyonlands National Park in Utah, visiting Nancy’s folks in Idaho, and then going to WorldCon in Denver.  But that’ll have me away from home from July 21 to August 10 or so.  That’s a long time, and it threatens to put me behind schedule on the work in progress.

So for the past two days I’ve kicked it up a notch.  I’ve written 2,000 words instead of 1,500; eight pages instead of six.  I intend to keep this up for the rest of June and the first three weeks of July.   That will have me back on track to finish the book in September, which is my current goal.  I’m not sure I could have done this a few years ago.  I was a slower writer then and was much more prone to ups and downs; on some days I’d get six pages, but on other days I’d only get three.  I’ve gotten more consistent, which is kind of cool.

Anyway, I’m more tired than I usually am at the end of a writing day, and I wonder if I’m going to burn myself out this way.  I’ll guess we’ll see.

Today’s music:  Jim Hall (Concierto)

Road weary.  Long day of driving.  

But I had a great weekend at RavenCon, catching up with old friends — Ed Schubert, Jana Oliver, Jagi Lamplighter, John Wright, Tony Ruggiero, Stephen Cobb, Dennis Danvers, Kelly Lockhart, Michael Pederson, Allen Wold, Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Mike Kabongo, Jan Finder, Stuart Jaffe, Steve White — and making some new ones — Gail Martin, Jeri Smith-Ready, Bryan Prindiville, J.T. Glover, Philip McCall, James Maxey, Jean Marie Ward.

Good panels, some VERY fun Koffeeklatches (minus the Koffee, plus the alcohol….), and a few excellent room parties.

It’s nice to be home, but I’m also looking forward to ConCarolinas next month, LibertyCon in July, and WorldCon in August.

 Well, I’ve made it to the con hotel in Richmond — 590 miles or so.  Glad I left last night and split up the drive.  It would have been a bear to do in one day.  Of course I’ll be doing the return trip all on Sunday, so…..

Car time is great time for thinking, even if it’s thinking about nothing.  Did a lot of station surfing on the radio, listened to a lot of old music I hadn’t heard in years (Simon and Garfunkle!  Loggins and Messina!  Yikes!).

Heard the song “Mrs. Robinson” and got to thinking about great lines in rock ‘n roll lyrics.
  
“Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you;
What’s that you say, Mrs. Robinson?
Joltin’ Joe has left and gone away.”

The evocation of nostalgia, the brilliance of using DiMaggio’s name, which, as it turns out, is so utterly musical.  This would be in my top ten.  So would this line from Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ In the Years”:

“You’ve been telling me you’re a genius since you were seventeen;
In all the time I’ve known you I still don’t know what you mean…”

What others?  Nominations?

Another good week, abbreviated though it was.  6000 words; 25 pages.  

I leave tonight for Richmond, Virginia where I’ll be attending RavenCon.  I have a panel tomorrow at 4:00 pm and I lose an hour to a time change along the way.  So it’s either leave tomorrow morning at about 5:00 am, or I get part of the drive out of the way this evening.  I don’t like waking up that early….

Tune in to http://magicalwords.net tomorrow for a guest post by Alethea Kontis, Ingram buyer by day, New York Times bestselling author by night!

And, yes, I will be giving away a BOW Award on Saturday.

My panel at the Virginia Festival of the Book went very well. It was moderated by Chris Oakley, owner of Oakley’s Gently Used Books in Charlottesville, and she did a fine job of introducing my fellow panelists (L.E. Modesitt and Steve White) and me. Each of us spoke briefly about our work and what drew us to science fiction and fantasy, and then we threw it open to questions from the audience. We got great questions, which generated enough discussion to fill the rest of the hour and then some. After that, Chris and her husband, Jim, took the three of us plus Steve’s wife, and author Peter David to dinner.

I had been thinking about staying in Virginia for the Author’s Reception Saturday night. It’s apparently a big event with great food. But I wound up driving back home on Saturday instead. I have a lot on my plate for the coming week, and getting home late Sunday would have left me exhausted and tense. And besides, I really wasn’t up for an evening of shmoozing with people who, for the most part, I didn’t know.

I got home in time to read to my younger daughter before she went to bed, to catch up with my older daughter and hear about the end of her school week, and to watch the UNC-Louisville game with my wife. None of these things did much to further my career, but they made for a perfect Saturday night. It’s good to be home.

Not much to write about today.  I have a panel later this evening with L. E. Modesitt and Steve White at the VA. Festival of the Book.  Not sure yet what our discussion will cover, but I’m sure it will be interesting.  I’m staying with friends here in Charlottesville, enjoying their company and hospitality.  I should be working, but that will have to wait for next week.

In the meantime, I’d urge you all to go over to http://magicalwords.net and check out the discussion we’re having there under the thread titled “Today the Delete Key is My Friend.”  The thread was started by Misty Massey and it has developed into a pretty interesting discussion on writing.  Check it out.

On the road today, making my way up to Charlottesville, Virginia for the Virginia Festival of the book.

Too bad, too.  Because I have a full-blown rant in my head that I wish I had time to type out.  John McCain likened withdrawing troops from Iraq to a “betrayal?”  “A stain on our character?”  So basically anyone who disagrees with him on Iraq is betraying our country.  Does he realize that this includes about 60% of the country according to recent polls?  What nerve!  What a tool!  What a buffoon…..Hey, maybe there’s a BOW Award in his future!

Stay tuned.

Woke up to a spring snow this morning.  Just a dusting, but still everything looked beautiful.  There’s something about seeing snow and forsythia together.  Funny thing is, the local schools were open.  Had the same amount of snow fallen in February, school would have been cancelled.  But the state’s standardized tests are right around the corner, so it’s all testing all the time in the classrooms right now.  They can’t afford a snow day now.  Gotta teach to that test!  It’s really quite infuriating….

As a loyal Democrat I never thought I’d say this, but could someone please — PLEASE! — put a muzzle on Bill Clinton?  Make it a big, strong one.  Because he doesn’t seem to have any trouble speaking around the foot that’s already lodged in his mouth.

Have to finish revising book II of Blood of the Southlands this week, and then I have to start writing the third book of the series.  I also have the opening reception for my photo exhibit on Wednesday.  On Thursday I drive to Virginia for the Virginia Festival of the Book.  I’ll be doing a panel there on Friday with L. E. Modesitt, Jr. and Steve White.  Busy week.  Time to work.

Was on the road with my family for 10 days, and though I left with every intention of posting along the way, it was nice to get away from writing for a little while.  Saw many friends and spent time with family (mine and Nancy’s).  Lots of driving, but we had Harry Potter books 2 and 4 on cd with us and that kept all of us, including the girls, happy and entertained for 2,400 miles.

Now we’re back, and aside from sitting beside a fire, watching a little football, and taking care of a few small chores around the house, we have nothing planned for today.

I have resolutions for the New Year, of course.  Some are obvious — write more, blog as often as possible, be more efficient with my work time, continue to exercise, etc.  Others I’m less willing to share.  I know the things I need to do to make myself a better person, a better Dad, a better friend.  And I’ll try to do them.

My wishes for 2008 (aside from happiness and good health for my family and friends, and an end to the war):

1) A pennant for the Mets.  Yeah, I know.  But I can dream, can’t I?

2) A bestseller.  Not really; I know better.  But I would enjoy a year of good reviews, improved sales, and big fat book contracts.

3) A Presidential Campaign that addresses real issues, rises above the politics of ”swift-boating” and  wedge issues, mud-slinging and personal attacks, sound bites and pandering.  If we’re going to stretch out the political season, let’s at least have a debate that edifies, that makes people think about the issues and about the real sacrifices we will all have to make in order to solve the problems facing this country.

Happy New Year to all of you.  May 2008 bring you joy, love, prosperity, and good health.

As in, I’ve written one.  

I’ve mentioned before, on one or the other of my blogs, that I don’t usually write short fiction.  But an idea for a story came into my head as I was driving back to Tennessee from World Fantasy in Saratoga Springs. (That’s about 950 miles, for those of you who are curious about such things — lots of time for creative thinking.)  The story is done now.  I put the finishing touches on it last week and then put it away.

I don’t know if others do this — and I put the question to the writers out there — but after I finish something — anything, really — I put it away and let it sit for a little while.  With a novel, if I have the time, I’ll let it sit for three weeks or so.  For a story of this length (6,500 words) just a few days will do.  Then I pull it out and read it through again.  The point is to see it fresh, to find awkward dialogue or repeated phrases that I might have missed earlier in the process.  It works very well for me.  But it can also be a little scary.  I’ve been known to discover, upon completing this later read-through, that I hate the thing I’ve written.  I’ve also been known to fall in love with pieces that I’d barely even liked earlier.  Seems I’m a fickle SOB….

Anyway, I’ve printed out this new story and am looking at those fresh white pages with some trepidation, wondering how I’ll feel about this latest creation.  It’s a different kind of story for me:  contemporary, subtle fantasy element, very small cast of characters.  But I like it, or at least I did when I finished it.  We’ll see how I feel about it this week.  I’ll keep you posted, as it were.

Today’s music:  Bruce Cockburn (Speechless)