Writing off Saturday

So let’s see…what did I do today? If this gets at all rambly or incoherent, I apologize. I appear to have ingested the world’s entire supply of caffeine.

I woke up around eight o’clock this morning and realized something: while I had packed copies of Kaleidotrope‘s latest issue into envelopes last night for contributors and subscribers, I had neglected to do the same for the couple of people who had so far bought copies of this issue alone. So I got up out of bed and addressed a few more labels, and then about an hour later I was at the post office mailing them all out.

It’s funny how they recognize me at the local post office, but seem to forget the reason they recognize me is that I’m the crazy one mailing out multiple packages both hither and yon, two or three times a year, often with dozens of envelopes in hand. Today I had far fewer packages, since this issue has only three contributors total, and I haven’t really pushed to increase my subscribers in several months, what with the upcoming move to becoming a webzine and all.

Although, seriously, if you haven’t bought a copy yet, or have let your subscription lapse, please do check this issue out. Or consider donating. I’m paying contributors a cent a word in 2012, so every little bit helps.

After the post office, I went to get a haircut, then went to the bank, then bought some allergy meds, then went back to the post office to drop off an envelope for my mother. (Hey, any excuse to walk past those charming folks outside with the Obama-in-Hitler-mustache posters again, right?) And then I spent the bulk of the day writing. And I do seriously mean the bulk of the day.

There was some goofing off involved, including an episode of Enterprise on Netflix, but I spent most of today working on a short story I’ve got percolating. It all started about a week ago when I was reading a story submitted to Kaleidotrope and noticed a striking similarity between the story’s opening sentence and this past winter’s prompt for The First Line. The wording was slightly changed, and I didn’t call the author on it — there’s no harm at all in submitting a story somewhere else if the first venue passes — so I don’t know for sure if that’s where the story originated. But I noticed it because I, too, had submitted a story for that issue and had also been rejected. And it got me thinking, “hey, I haven’t visited their site recently. I wonder what the prompts are for their upcoming issues.”

Oh, if only I’d done that several weeks earlier. Because the current first line — “Edwin spotted them the moment he stepped off the train.” — got into my brain something fierce and suggested a story, which I’ve been struggling to finish ever since. And the due date, of course, for this Fall 2011 issue is August 1.

So I’m going to make a mad rush to finish it tomorrow. I did this sort of thing earlier this month for another deadline I probably should have known about earlier, and it seemed to work. That story might very well still get rejected, but I’m proud of it, and moreover proud of finishing it. This story is a little less tied to a particular venue, and would be easier to rework if The First Line rejects it or if I can’t finish by August 1. But I really want to finish it in time. I’m a little nervous I’ll let it languish if I miss the deadline.

Either way, this is all probably a good mental workout for the 3-Day Novel Contest, for which I finally signed up. Heather ultimately convinced me, both by signing up herself and by clever use of ALL CAPS in her suggesting it. And it is the project I said I would be working on in my application to the Banff Centre, so it probably doesn’t hurt to make good on that promise. It still seems like a bit like madness, for which I might need the rest of my stay there just for recovery. But a crazy deadline does do wonders for one’s focus.