Reporting on my Monday

I'm back. Yes, I was gone for a few hours, but don't worry. Breathe easy.

So it's late on this Monday night, but I had a goal to reach and I actually did it. Here's how the day went.

Taxes
I got them done in a few hours. There was a lot of data and worksheets and forms and deductions to get through, but I found that TurboTax really is all that it is touted to be. Good news came of it. As I said, I had expected to owe money, mainly due to the large chunk of cash we took out of our refinance.

We are owed a good refund! I was wrong! I love being wrong sometimes, but don't quote me on that.

Anyway, so no worries there. I e-filed and we are all set for the year.

Helium.com
I wrote two articles for www.helium.com today, as I said I would do. They took a little longer than I had wanted: about 45 minutes each, but that was really okay. Here are links to both of them:
http://www.helium.com/items/963713-hollywood-others-hollywood-simply
http://www.helium.com/items/963553-heard-ubiquitous-clubs-found

The first one is a rewrite of an article that they deleted because it was lame and way too short. The second is an article for a contest I am trying to win in, but one of my articles is doing shockingly bad! Sheesh.

Anway, as always, you can see all of my articles if you go to:
http://www.helium.com/users/45690

I rated for probably a total of thirty to forty-five minutes. I also spent a few minutes on the community boards, trying to regain my presence there after a few months' absence.

The Cabin
So I then had my goal for The Cabin. But it was already late. So we got the kids to bed, then I watched the Jazz cream the Wizards on TV. That was fun. I watched Perry Mason, then got to work.

I did 2500 words tonight. It felt good. I really have a strong image of this story. I feel invested in it.

But the lack of investment I feel in The Mars Betrayal seems to be showing through. I got word today that the latest draft is nearly as crummy as the first. I don't actually get it. I really felt good about this latest draft, but then I also felt good about the first.

So I'm a little dumbfounded.

I've been told that I need to get it right, and that I should take the time to do so. They say it won't make it into the first launch, so I guess we're looking at next year probably.

I will do exactly that. In fact, I'm not gonna do a darn thing with it for a week or two. In the meantime I will finish my first draft of The Cabin. I will also try to find a workshop that can help me with my graded reader troubles. I will also try to get a hold of some of the graded readers the editorial team suggested that we read so that we can get an idea of what they are looking for. Clearly I need to be doing more homework for The Mars Betrayal.

That's fine. I still feel like I'm a good writer, despite what this editorial team appears to think. Maybe one of us is right. Who knows, maybe we're both right and I need to adjust my writing more for the graded reader audience. Although I must admit that I probably am more in tune with the audience than any of them, since I have been a teacher of ESL/EFL as recently as seven months ago!

Anyhoo, such is life. I'll do more homework.

As I said this morning, no more mucking about. I will become a good novelist. I will do what it takes to learn. No more mucking about. I'm going to be a bestselling author.

carpe somnium meum

right now