I completed my (how shall we count?). Let's count fair. I completed the first draft of my third novel over a week ago. I still have other rewriting work (on other projects) and I also just turned in the revisions and other improvements I needed on a Rosen nonfiction book for high school students/libraries. 
I haven't done anything here for a while because as you see here, I can relate to this picture. No, it's really not that bad.
I wasn't functioning very well earlier this year -- I was probably at my lowest mental ebb ever and I suffered the real, frightening symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Maybe this crisis was not so bad as my spending 8 years going to the gym after work and reading Jackie Collins, attending auto races weekly, following pro wrestling and Beavis and Butthead avidly, and listening to heavy metal so . . . there's that for that. I did do a lot of volunteer work at that time and did Family Service so there was some activity there, I guess.
I keep trying to upload my fire pictures and I'm getting nowhere. Like, my Blackberry is too sophisticated for me. They are nowhere near as dramatic as the newspaper and other pictures. I saw the fire in Lake Arrowhead/Running Springs start Sunday afternoon when I took Meredith up to Running Springs to pick up her friend Alex. I told Alex's lovely grandmother -- "We saw smoke up by Crestline on the way up." And we talked about her evacuating, where her son was, what her plans were, etc. The neighborhood is listed in the burned locations in Running Springs. However, not all houses have burned there so hopefully it is okay. Her grandmother did evacuate okay the next a.m. Because that tiny smoke plume had exploded into the big fire overnight. Meredith's school has been cancelled most of the week. I knew the fire wouldn't come into Redlands. But I was torn up inside reading the scanner and talking to people. It seemed as though everything that did not burn up the hill four years ago burned now. And so many homes were lost. It was just volunteers too, at first. With so many fires -- many of our personnel had gone to Malibu and then to Orange County. When this fire broke out Sunday afternoon, getting back was really difficult. I'll try to write more later of some of the fire adventures and heroism I've learned about. Also - the mysterious marauding white truck with "10 to 15 hispanics" up the hill - it was seen everywhere, but never apprehended.
So much for fire. It is just extremely smoky now. With over 2,000 firefighters up the hill now and the help needed, the fire will be overcome. The crisis is over. (Yes - I know how San Diego has suffered and how brave my friends have been there. My heart goes out to all of them. What a horrible, horrible thing).
I don't know what to say about this book. I am revising now. It's a completely different feeling and different process than I've ever done before. A "voice" seems to be emerging more and more that I recognized last week really was a character. It had been there all along, of course, but I'm just approaching it more overtly as I rewrite. The story has gone through many iterations, and the book represents four years of work at least. I had begun the book prior to Anthony's death, and picked it up last year again. I guess I've been working diligently on its present version and completion about 18 months now.
And I am the same person who wrote a novel in 3 days.
So. If nothing else, I can point to having written so many different things, at so many different lengths, and in so many different time frames, using many different methods of work.
I've often thought of when Jim Blaylock wrote that I was "the most competent writer he ever knew." At work - which I was going to write about, but became distracted by the fire - I've written more in this past year than I ever have, for any job-related purpose. The same week as I completed this novel, I completed a major grant proposal to the county of Los Angeles, and basically revised and wrote another in about 18 hours. (No - Grant #1 was not done in 18 hours - it took weeks to organize, create, set up the program and do the legwork). I needed to step in and finish the other one quickly so that both could be turned in on time. I mentioned Jim's assessment because of course that touched me, and over time, it's about the best thing I could ever ask for somebody to say or think who knew me and my work - how I worked, and what I did. But that was a long time ago and I guess what I'm saying is that, it makes me feel great that Jim thought that then. Now, I know I've gotten a lot stronger and more capable. So I feel perhaps that I can live up to what he said after all. I've sure written a heck of a lot in recent weeks and months - and done well with it.
features 16 original, all-new stories continuing the tradition of Marion Zimmer Bradley's beloved Sword & Sorceress anthologies.
