06/17/00 -- I don't know why you say good-bye, I say hello

Hello, hello!

Well, it was time to say good-bye to Suzy today.  We had our last critiquing session this morning and it went pretty well.  Everyone survived. :)

And we made plans for a bar-b-que for dinner.  We left three guys with the money and a (mostly complete) list of things to get from Meijer for this event... the g'bye Suzy, h'lo Sean dinner.  We shuffled the bar-b-que a little later than I think we'd initially planned for because Lister was going to have Sean on campus by 8pm (if his flight was on time -- I guess it was, but I didn't have a watch).

I came back to my room afterwards and wound up skipping lunch.  I don't know what I was thinking, but I did.  I skipped lunch and contemplated "Mockingbird Girl".  I realized, too that one of Sean Stewart's (next week's instructor) novels is called Mockingbird.  I just want y'all to know that I haven't read it.  I'm not sucking up.  It isn't inspired by anything related to the novel.  It's actually inspired by a song off the Tank Girl soundtrack (have I mentioned I get a lot of my story ideas from song lyrics or titles or whatnot?).  It's a title I've wanted to use for quite a while and never had a story to go with it.

So I did some web research on mockingbirds.  There's not much out there.  But there was enough.  It was pretty keen what I did find.  One of the pages I found gave me a grounding in what I wanted to do, too, which was nice.  And I started the story.

I skipped a nap.  (But I am going to mention that I haven't taken this many naps since I was, like, seven and it was summer and I didn't have anything better to do during the day than ride my bike, roller skate, play with my Barbies and nap.) I worked on my story a bit more, or tried to.  I had about half a dozen false starts.

Then it was time for my conference with Suzy so I grabbed my little spiral notebook, my pens, my SoBe Lean, and headed over to Van Hoosen.  I must be used to how long it felt like it took to get to classes back at LC because I got across the parking lot to Van Hoosen with almost 15 minutes to spare.

While I was waiting for Suzy to finish up the previous conference and to get some water, I pulled out the little spiral notebook and wound up writing the start to "Mockingbird Girl."  It's weird.  I've noticed more and more over the past year or so that if I'm blocked and can't do anything on the computer that if I pull out a pen and paper, I can get something... even if it has to be changed in some fashion when I type it into the computer.

So I had my conference with Suzy.  We talked about a lot of stuff... Anthrocon (I had an Anthrocon t-shirt on), my writing (and just how dark it is), my novel (and how dark it is, even though I thought it was kinda light and rompish), conventions (and how to make initial moves toward networking while at one), Egypt (I need more books about Egypt!), mummies, and bog people (eeew, these guys are *creepy*.  If you don't know what they are, they're kinda like mummies in the same "these guys are dead but they still look very human and almost sort of alive" disconcerting way.  Peat bogs will preserve things by tanning them so you wind up with these almost perfectly preserved people, still in their clothes, and everything is a uniform sort of brown color and all of their bones have disintegrated and so it's like they're a big person-shaped sac of goo.  I was really grossed out when she told me about these guys.)  The bog people may make it into a story, at some point, but I've been tasked with trying new things while I'm here ... something I'd planned on doing anyway ... and something new is to write a story that's not all gloom, doom, angst and darkness.  So I'm going to try and write something lighter, something happy, something upbeat, something uplifting.  And I hope I don't give myself a toothache trying. O:)  "Mockingbird Girl" might actually end up being that story... maybe. 

Back in my room, I typed the start into my computer and tried to write s'more, and lost track of time.  Next thing I knew, it was 7:30 and I was late for the bar-b-que.

Thankfully, there was still food when I got there.  *snicker*

We had a delightful time: eating, chatting with Suzy, eating food, meeting (sorta) Sean.  We got Suzy a box of chocolates and signed a thank-you card for her.  (I had voted for the stuffed rat or the stuffed squid, but that didn't happen -- we really need to plan better for next time and not try to shop after 5pm on a Saturday!)  She's going to miss us, and I think the feeling is mutual.  She wants to see what we do with ourselves... She should be careful what she wishes for.  We may tell Lister to ship her the rest of the manuscripts we write over the next five weeks and won't she be sorry then! ;)

I can't wait for Stuart to finish up his digital camera "roll" and dump the pictures my way.  When he does, I'll get them up on the ce2k pages in a photo gallery of sorts and then you'll see all of the folks I've been talking about... And you'll see my hair.

Did I mention that my hair is growing?  I've got a sort of goth neapolitan hair color going right now.  Black on top, blond in the middle, brown roots starting to be really visible.  It's weird.  And I think it's too long.  It doesn't stick up quite the way it did a week ago.

Back in my room, I picked up the spiral notebook and hand-wrote some more of "Mockingbird Girl".  I'm really excited about this story.  It really is something different for me.  And I think my muse only tapped me lightly with her sledgehammer ... if she even touched me at all.  It's weird making myself write without the sort of inspiration that writes a story itself.  And I'm writing the way I would if I did have that sort of inspiration, pushing to finish a story quickly because I want to get it done and start something new, try something new... different.  And I want to catch up with Karen and Linda. ;)

(Not really, but they seem to be the most prolific of the bunch!  With me, apparently, in third place.  Or maybe I'm tied with Jennifer.  I'm not sure.  I think I'm losing track!)