Steppin' Out

Well, I did something as a writer I've never done before: I interviewed a practitioner of my main character's profession as background research for my novel, "A Double Yellow Line". My main character, Blake, is a successful personal and executive coach. Although I have a lot to draw on personally for painting the character, I wanted to interview some professionals. I checked the phone book, but no one was listed, which didn't surprise me in this smaller area where I live. But there are business consultants, so I called a few of them. They all had answering machines where I left messages, except one gentleman answered his phone, and we chatted for 15 minutes or so.

I told him I was doing research for a novel and that I wanted to interview some personal coaches, and did he know anyone I could call? He referred me to Eileen, a woman he knew (and thought highly of) in San Francisco, and he gave me a number to reach her. I called the number, left a message, and promptly forgot about it. That was last week.

To my shock yesterday morning, the phone rang and it was her! She was between meetings, but was able to give me ten minutes at least. So I asked Eileen a few of the prepared questions I had, we chatted, and because I still had more questions, she invited me to call her again in the afternoon when she had more time. I did so, and we had a really nice conversation for about thirty minutes, talking about her and her profession. She was really nice, helpful, and insightful. And when we finished up, she gave me the number of a colleague to call for additional perspective. So I'll follow up with him today or next week.

Anyway, it was really cool to get some real-world feedback on some of my fictional ideas, and I am so grateful to Eileen for giving me so much time and help. Thanks, Eileen!

And with that, I've completed 5.5 hours towards my goal of 50 hours of editing in March. (Yeah, I'm a little behind...)

Sheepish Re-Entry

Well, so much for the editing madness of March...We're halfway through the month, and I've done a whole...(drumroll please)...four hours! Let's see, that works out to about 16 minutes of editing a day. But it's not like I've been doing nothing. Let's see, here are some of the things I've been doing, aside from my full-time job and responsibilities as a family man:

• Built a new computer for myself


• Spent tens of hours, long into the night, playing Microsoft Flight Simulator on this spankin' new computer. (After years of wishing and pining, Flight Simulator runs like a dream, now that I've finally got the horsepower to really drive it. What an addictive blast that is.)


• Created Hot Wheels Air, a new website to showcase some of my recent flights. (Trust me, flight sim enthusiasts do this sort of thing.)


• Figured out how to record and publish the sounds of my flights as MP3's, and posted them online at the site above. Some of them include not only the cockpit sounds, but cabin announcements from the flight attendant! (I thought I was really pushing the flight-sim enthusiast envelope here, but nobody on the forums seemed especially impressed. My lady just shakes her head, but what do you expect from a civilian?)


• Making friends with the luminary who runs a killer Boston Legal fan site and lives in one of my favorite places in the world, Seattle. She's a busy, clever lady.


• Created a "web portal" for my stuff (www.JuddM.com)...a front page for people to access my various online stuff.


• Filed my taxes. (Early!)

So it's not like I've been lounging...But I don't mean to present these as excuses.

I have managed to get four hours of editing in...And I find that I really enjoy the editing process. Can't understand why something so enjoyable is so hard to sit down to do. My only guess is that I feel guilty doing something so relaxed and enjoyable...kinda like the unspeakable luxury of reading an in-depth historical work which serves utterly no practical purpose in my relentless modern life (though historians would disagree). Reading a book like that, or editing my own for that matter, seems more sinfully recreational than even watching a movie or playing flight simulator. (Even my simulator is an ongoing piece of "work" with all the research and tweaking I do.) EdMo is nothing but a free dive into the vast pool of creativity and possibilities. It feels too indulgent. I think WriMo is easier for me because it's full of pressure and challenge and difficulty. I seem to be so much better at work than play. But then, I wouldn't want to make my editing into "work" so I'll do it...I love the way it feels, even if I don't do it very much.

Anyway, I really have enjoyed my four hours so far...I love my story more every time I sit down with it, which is a great sign. I'm coming up with some great plotting, and raising the dramatic threat level for my characters with each session.

Now, here's hoping I can stay off flight simulator long enough to keep editing!