I'm back--I think
Feb. 29th, 2008 01:56 pmI wish I had a lovely, calm photo to put up like ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cynthialorddoes at the moment, but I don't. But ooh, such a lovely jewel of blue and calm.
Thank you all for your well wishes! I have yet to feel feverish today, which is the first time all week, and while I can't talk without spastic coughing, at least my mind seems to be back to normal. I can, you know, remember my name and all. I actually don't get sick very much, but this was a new virus, apparently, and it wiped me out. My son reports that now that it has swept through the kids in his class it's starting to hit his teachers. Ugh. It did provide a realistic backdrop as I read throughjenny_moss's ms about the 1918 flu epidemic, however. Not sure when her book is coming out (2009??), but look for it when it does. Sad, but good.
Anyway, besides getting acquainted with the insides of my eyelids, I've learned that chaos does indeed erupt without the presence of Mom. Some of my children (and it doesn't seem to relate particularly to age) would starve with a fridge full of precooked food. We are starting microwave lessons as soon as I'm completely well. And it's a good thing no one came over to do a cleaning check, because they might not have been able to find the floor. And I think my three-year-old now knows every single jingle to every single show on the children's channel. At least TV is a better pastime than playing with knives or walking the kitchen counters, both of which she's also shown interest in. So it's probably good that everyone is still in one piece. Huge thanks to my husband for staying home mornings so I could sleep without worrying, and to the parents of my kids' friends for taking some of them to play. I hope I don't get sick again for a long, loooooooooong time.
Anyhow, aside from sleeping I've been able to read a bit. Control-Shift by Nick Manns (called something else in the American edition) was easy to read in German, fast-paced, and a good boy book/spy book/ghost story. And then we had total indulgence for me to read Deathly Hallows again. There are some passages in there towards the end that I have a feeling have been revised very little since their original inception. They are too fresh, emotional, and honest to have been worked and reworked. At least, in my experience, it's always better to write the emotional scenes when they're close and save them instead of holding them out like a carrot until one is there in the text, by which point they've gone stale. The spots least likely to be pulled apart in critiques are those very scenes.
Finally, I'm eager to get back to writing. My feverish mind has been mulling over my story in between sleep and waking, and I hope to have the stamina to work on some of the ideas I've gotten.
I know some of you have had good weeks, some difficult ones, and some are just in a holding pattern. But I wish a very healthy and happy weekend to all of you!
cynthialorddoes at the moment, but I don't. But ooh, such a lovely jewel of blue and calm. Thank you all for your well wishes! I have yet to feel feverish today, which is the first time all week, and while I can't talk without spastic coughing, at least my mind seems to be back to normal. I can, you know, remember my name and all. I actually don't get sick very much, but this was a new virus, apparently, and it wiped me out. My son reports that now that it has swept through the kids in his class it's starting to hit his teachers. Ugh. It did provide a realistic backdrop as I read through
jenny_moss's ms about the 1918 flu epidemic, however. Not sure when her book is coming out (2009??), but look for it when it does. Sad, but good.Anyway, besides getting acquainted with the insides of my eyelids, I've learned that chaos does indeed erupt without the presence of Mom. Some of my children (and it doesn't seem to relate particularly to age) would starve with a fridge full of precooked food. We are starting microwave lessons as soon as I'm completely well. And it's a good thing no one came over to do a cleaning check, because they might not have been able to find the floor. And I think my three-year-old now knows every single jingle to every single show on the children's channel. At least TV is a better pastime than playing with knives or walking the kitchen counters, both of which she's also shown interest in. So it's probably good that everyone is still in one piece. Huge thanks to my husband for staying home mornings so I could sleep without worrying, and to the parents of my kids' friends for taking some of them to play. I hope I don't get sick again for a long, loooooooooong time.
Anyhow, aside from sleeping I've been able to read a bit. Control-Shift by Nick Manns (called something else in the American edition) was easy to read in German, fast-paced, and a good boy book/spy book/ghost story. And then we had total indulgence for me to read Deathly Hallows again. There are some passages in there towards the end that I have a feeling have been revised very little since their original inception. They are too fresh, emotional, and honest to have been worked and reworked. At least, in my experience, it's always better to write the emotional scenes when they're close and save them instead of holding them out like a carrot until one is there in the text, by which point they've gone stale. The spots least likely to be pulled apart in critiques are those very scenes.
Finally, I'm eager to get back to writing. My feverish mind has been mulling over my story in between sleep and waking, and I hope to have the stamina to work on some of the ideas I've gotten.
I know some of you have had good weeks, some difficult ones, and some are just in a holding pattern. But I wish a very healthy and happy weekend to all of you!
