4; 40,000; 2009

Four consecutive days off from work has meant four consecutive days of writing and boatbuilding, with lots of coffee and naps too. It's tricky to apply epoxy when it's 40 degrees outside, but an electric blanket and some work lights are (I hope) keeping things warm enough for the glue to cure.

I've reached 40,000 words on my work in progress, crossing the arbitrary but significant-feeling line this morning in a 2,000-word frenzy. I'm still not nearly as far into the story as I thought I would be, and I'm beginning to think that 60-70,000 was WAY OFF as an estimate. This thing may crack 100,000, which should make revising (pruning) interesting.

Also, you may have noticed that it's 2009. A new year! I've often thought that years, like academic papers, should have subtitles ("Readings in Dialectical Metaphysics: An Excursus in Longing and Polar Epistemologies.") Here are some possibilities for 2009:

2009: Agents Fall to Their Knees After Reading My Manuscript
2009: The Year of Cheese and Crackers
2009: It's Payback Time.
2008: Last Year Decides It's Not Going Anywhere.
2009: The Cows Finally Do Come Home. And They're Hungry.
2009: Reality Finally Cracks Open and Things Come Scuttling Out of the Darkness
2009: More Vegetables This Time. Leafy Greens Would Suffice. Seriously.

And now, as a cold-but-not-nearly-cold-enough-considering-it's-January-consarn-it dusk falls and I worry about my epoxy curing in the chilly garage, I'm off to build a fire (in the fireplace), pour a glass of wine, and settle into an armchair to read mountain climbing books (research for the book).

Happy New Year!