Hi again!

I didn't quite realize it had been since mid-January that I last posted. Oops.

I successfully wrote a 3500-word story from an outline, but I haven't heard back on its submission yet.

I started outlining a novel, using the same Mary Way as above, based on the events surrounding "Something There Is," and I've got 30-odd scenes notecarded (in Scrivener, not on real paper), plus a few backstory vignettes. There are things I still need to work out, like what happens with the characters who sort of disappear halfway through, but hey. Outlining and planning. I feel like I should add more detail into the scene cards. One benefit of Scrivener is that I'm not limited to a 3x4" piece of paper.

Which may mean I end up splitting some of the scenes into multiple scenes, but that's probably good?

I've been reading stuff, some in German, some in English, some fiction, some non. Planning means research! I may or may not end up writing up reviews for the blog. We'll see.

Ben and I have embarked on a housecleaning mission. We're spending one afternoon a month focusing on one room (or one part of a room) in the house. We *might* get through the whole house by the end of the year, and no, we don't have 12 rooms. We just have a lot of stuff accumulated in chaotic stacks. And half a dozen old computers. But I can actually reach my bookshelves again, and I rearranged them so they're no longer double-stacked, and I made the not-SF side somewhat more organized, though it's still fairly chaotic and not alphabetized. I shoved some books I still have from college together, because they were from the same class, for example. I can find things, anyway, and that's the important part.

The SF side is mostly alphabetized, and series are in chronological order. Except the oversize or hardback books that don't fit on the paperback shelf; they're separate. But I know where to look.

I have many boxes of old photos that I should really scan, but that will be a lot of effort. And the computer that supports the scanner I have (which only runs on OS 9) is 8 years old, and Photoshop Elements likes to crash because it eats up all the RAM. And also there are like thousands of pictures. And old family photos in albums. I should scan those, though, so they don't completely fade. It'll take months, probably.