That Ben Franklin Sure Liked to Keep Busy

So, Philadelphia was flag-freakin'-tastic! The conference was great. Not only was the convention center itself aesthetically appealing, but the sessions were informative, well-organized, and practical. Maya Angelou rocked the house as keynote speaker, by the way. She's saucy + wise, which is a winning combination. I can't even explain how great she was. The word "profound" will have to suffice. And the session that my colleague Wood and I presented went perfectly well. 200 people signed up to attend, which had me a bit worried, but of course thinking about it is far more stressful than acutally doing it. We put a lot of work into our presentation, so are happy with its success. And that it's over.

Dave joined me in Philly so we could twist a mini vacation out of my free time, and we tacked on a couple extra days after the conference as well. We're so glad we did! I'm not sure if it's because Philly is that amazing, or merely because we've been starved for fun, but we had a bu-last! A BLAST! Even walking around the olden graveyards, we were like "this is the best old graveyard EVER! This is so FUN!" I felt like we'd been living on gruel for a year and were finally given a cookie or something. Not even an especially nasty bout of food poisoning tainted our experience. I think someone could have shot me in the leg and I'd still have hobbled my way over to the Liberty Bell, exclaiming "This is the best bell EVER! I love it here!" So regurgitation be damned...we were gonna enjoy Philly! We ate cheese steaks (more delicious than expected), saw a crazy number of "first American" things, like the first bank, first post office, first fire department, etc., visited Independence Hall, and even passed Danny Bonaduce (and his posse) on the street. Dave also got to visit the Ordinance Musem at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Maryland. In case you're wondering, his favorite tank there is the Grizzly.

Meanwhile, I'm left to ponder Ben Franklin. I suspect people secretly hated him and all his "I'm going to start this up, I'm going to do that, I'm in charge of all this here!" I thank him and everything, but I also think if I knew him in person I might want to slap his glasses off and yell "calm down, already!" Nevertheless, here's to you BF.

Strategic Procrastination

So, how's HP going? I was progressing pretty well, but then decided to start at the beginning again. I'm just not happy enough about those earlier chapters. They need further refining. Part of me thinks I'm procrastinating about moving forward to the really difficult chapters...the chapters that really need work. It's like someone who maybe has an entire garage to clean, but instead spends their time polishing the already-shiny silver. But the other part of me thinks I'm being strategic. The first chapters set the stage for everything that follows, and if the first third of the novel isn't really tight nothing else will work. Adding to the "smart" category is the fact that whenever I change something in the beginning of the book, it has to be followed through during the rest of the book. So if I'm really happy with the first third, then revision in the rest of the novel will go that much smoother because I won't have to re-tie all my literary knots. Whatever it is, I'll be patient with myself. As long as I'm writing, and as long as the novel is improving, then why worry.


Also, quite a while back my super-smart writer friend -- known as JoJo -- read and critiqued my earlier revisions. I read and printed her critique, but then put it aside...thinking I would finish the entire revision first, and then go back and make updates based on her wise critiques. I recently re-read her critiques and decided I should make some of those revisions right now. I'm going to take most of her advice because she's so perceptive, creative, and also because in my mind she kind of represents my ideal audience.


Anyway. Part of me feels I'm spinning my wheels, part of me thinks it's important I take my time with the all-important first third of the novel. No matter what happens or how far I get, soon I will need to start learning about publishing. I don't need to have the whole novel totally revised to start trying to gauge interest. This April I'm attending a class at The Loft on publishing, since I really am clueless about selling my work. I hate selling things! I've been published before, but I'm so lazy about the whole process. That's one thing I will for sure need to correct this summer.

Nothing else going on. This weekend I was sick, Dave spent the ENTIRE weekend hunched over close to 100 student papers, and we watched my parents' cat...whose favorite passtime is watching water drip out of a faucet.