Lately...

These days my work has been pretty consistent. I spend the first half (or maybe two-thirds) of the day on editing, which I do on a freelance basis. I set a number of pages I have to do for the day, determined by how many pages are in the book and when the deadline is. A typical day is about seventy pages for developmental editing. I've done as many as 175 in a single day. That day hurt, but it was worth it to get the book done early; thus an early pay check. Today I'm going to finish editing a novel, I hope.

Once I've hit my page count for the day, I get to do some research. Right now I'm working on a short academic article about Santa Claus. I take notes on one article a day. I'm eventually going to figure out how to conduct some fieldwork for this project, hopefully planning for this winter. I'm also reading through some academic journals that I've accumulated over the years--getting through one a day so I can get rid of them.

I read at least one story a day. Right now I'm working through the complete stories of Dorothy Parker. She's got a good style. Her stories are more like character sketches. Often they're a monologue. In others, one character talks over another. She began writing in the twenties, and her stories are set in New York. Before Parker, I read Harlan Ellison's Can & Can'tankerous, also a collection of short stories.

If I'm not in the mood for a short story, I mix in a lot of folktales and other stuff collected by folklorists. I'm also working through a novel at any given time. Just finished Virginia Woolf's Orlando.

If I get through all that, I work on my own stories. At this moment, I'm about half way through typing up one right now. I try to type 2000 words a day, which takes 20-30 minutes. I type pretty fast.

That about does it. I'm going to add writing on this blog every morning, if I can. 

Another All-Star 10 essay

It's called "How Superman Saved my Life," written by Alice W. Castle for the website Panels.net, which I like quite a bit. It includes a scan of the page from All-Star Superman 10.

Says Superman: "You're much stronger than you think you are."

Castle writes:
Those words were like a firebrand in my mind, scorching away the pain I’d been suffering through. In one page, I felt like I was the one being held in Superman’s arms and being stopped from taking that fatal plunge because, of course, he was right. I am much stronger than I thought I was and it was never as bad as it seemed. For every terrible night, there was the dawn of a new day that let me try again. That let me seek out help and friendship, comfort and warmth. Those words stopped me from doing something terrible and set me on a course that, in so many ways, brought me here today.

I tell you this to give you context to my relationship to Superman. It’s a pretty emotional one. I’m not the kind of person who loves Superman because he’s a cool character or because I like seeing him punch Brainiac in the face or what have you. I love Superman because, for a time, Superman was all I had. And, sadly, it felt like that was being taken from me as I watched Dawn Of Justice.