Saturday morning

It's been a good morning so far. Leftovers for breakfast, and a big cup of English Breakfast tea with milk and honey, and the November issue of Vanity Fair, and a mixed CD that a good friend made for me a few months ago. It's been quiet, and relaxing, and good for my sanity. Maybe eventually I'll do the dishes, take a shower, get dressed, and do all those things I want to/should do today. But not yet. Right now I'm just enjoying my solitude.
It's time for some new music, I think. I've been listening to the same few CDs over and over again lately. Time to branch out a bit. But branch out with what? I don't listen to the radio much, so I'm not finding new artists that way. I do read Rolling Stone, and look up artists and bands that pique my interest, but generally I'm not really impressed with where more commercial music has been going. I'm still waiting for Tom Hayes to release some sort of recording so I can listen to him obsessively. (My dears, if you haven't listened to this man yet, look him up on myspace NOW and prepare to be utterly blown away.) I think that what I need right now, what I'm looking for musically, is something more organic. Something a little earthy, a little more real and true than a lot of what's available right now. Not asking for much, am I? If anybody out there has any good recommendations, I'd be much obliged if you'd share.
So, it's brainstorming time. I've been working on this novel for a few months now. I'd like to wrap it up in time for the first of the year. That, however, involves knowing the rest of my plot. I know I've talked briefly about this before, and what a problem it is that I don't know where I'm going. So, here we go: Essentially, my book is about a small group of slaves who escape from their owner. (Bear in mind, fantasy novel, so it takes place in an alternate world.) My characters flee through the desert, into the jungle, where they encounter some primitive tribal people. These tribal people are convinced that two of the escaped slaves are actually jungle goddesses and try to kidnap one of them. The escapees flee further into the jungle and are found by an envoy from the jungle emperor. He and his retinue "convince" my characters to go to the secret city in the heart of the jungle to meet the emperor. From here, I'm not sure what to do. Do the slavers from the desert city show up and demand their property back? Do my characters go back to the desert city and lead a citywide uprising against slavery? And what happens with the jungle emperor? Why does he want to see them? I think he tries to keep them; it goes along with the whole escaped-slaves-confused-for-jungle-goddesses idea. How do they escape? What do they do? Where's the climactic moment? Maybe there's no big showdown, no uprising. Maybe they just escape from the jungle city and decide to go their separate ways to find the homes they lost when they were captured by the slave traders. But a book without a climactic moment is lacking something. Maybe the climactic moment should be an inner struggle, not an outer one. I do focus on one escapee in particular. Her name is Nor. She has a really difficult time with the concepts of freedom and family since she's never had either. So maybe the climax is just her learning how to make decisions for herself, learning how to want, allowing herself to feel what she wants to feel. Hmmm. Thoughts?
On a further writing note, I was sitting on my stoop reading the other night and got an idea for another book. How many of these are floating around in my head at this point? Quite a few, I have to say. Sometimes I wish I didn't have to do anything except sit around my apartment and write. How amazing that would be . . .
Unfortunately, reality intrudes. I've got some things I'd like to do, so I'd best go do them before the BF gets home. But first, more relaxing, more reading, more music . . .

Autumn

Autumn is desperately trying to reach New York City right now. It happens in fits and starts. A chilly morning here, a rain squall there. It's creeping in, slowly but surely. And it's lovely.
I've been feeling pretty anxious over the last couple of days. Somehow half of October has slipped past me and I haven't DONE hardly anything! There's so much I wanted to do with this month, and I just don't think that there's the time for all of it now. I suppose that's what I get for being an overachiever, but still, I'm disappointed with October, so far. And I foolishly accepted a freelance project for this weekend (I've got to learn to say NO!), so there's not much hope of working on things in the next couple of days either.
What else is there to say? Things have gotten all twisty and complicated in my head and my heart. I'm pretty confused, and a little scared of the intensity of what's in my mind right now. I'm seriously contemplating some pretty big changes. Hard changes. We'll see.
On a lighter note, I did manage to visit my sister, and learn the Saint-Saens Sonata, so that's at least a little progress on my to-do list for this month. And a friend of mine just got a new job at Simon & Schuster that she's going to love. Congrats, D!
There's a lot more that I'd love to say, but right now I just don't have the time or the words. And since I'm sneaking time at work, I'd best get to it . . .

Busy, busy

Obviously it's been a busy couple of weeks. I keep meaning to write but somehow the time just slips away from me and it keeps not happening. I also no longer have internet at home, so I must sneak in my blogging time at work. Poor me, poor me . . .
This last weekend my boyfriend and I went upstate to visit my sister before she moves to Las Vegas for her fabulous new job. We had a great weekend, I think. A long bike ride on a couple of stylish Del Sol cruisers, an afternoon shopping in Kingston (across the water in Canada), a long walk, a two-hour boat ride on the St. Lawrence River. I have something terrible to admit, however. I would have had a better time had my boyfriend not gone along. Now, I promised myself when I started this blog that I wouldn't be one of those bloggers who only talks about her love life, and I intend to stay true to that. So I won't go into details. I will just say that it would have been even more relaxing and fun without the testosterone present.
That said, I'm very excited for my sister! This new job is a great opportunity. It's closer to our family, focuses on a number of things she's very interested in, the pay is better and so are the benefits . . . There's really no downside. Thank goodness for Las Vegas!
I've been lacking in motivation lately, and I can feel it. I've been a little sluggish, a little nonproductive, and that tends to make me cranky. So I've made an ambitious to-do list for this week, and a larger one for the month of October. Can I do it? Who knows! But I'll do my best, that's for sure. Last month I accomplished some of my list. We'll see if this month I can do a little better. The current list, as it stands:

--write forty pages
--brainstorm the plot for the rest of my book
--learn the Saint-Saens Sonata on my clarinet
--visit my sister
--clean out the drawers in my old map-drawer roll-top dresser
--make two collages
--submit my book to Tor and Simon & Schuster
--learn three new songs on bass, and work on my slap technique

Did I post my September list? I honestly can't remember right now. If I did, then it's obvious that there's some overlap between months. But we'll see what I can do.
And now, I should run home so I have an hour to myself before the partner-in-crime arrives . . . But don't worry, I won't be so neglectful in the future. No long silences, no absence from my cyberhome.