It's not exactly news to me that I'm not interested in doing research, whether it be in math, physics, or some other field. I read about the process, nod to myself, and have no inclination to go through any of it myself. Grants? Papers? Conferences? I just don't see the point. I mean, it's great that others do, but I can't muscle up any enthusiasm for them whatsoever.
So then I start researching the publishing process. There are definite similarities. Instead of grant proposals, there are query letters. Instead of papers, there are stories and novels, etc. And there are still conferences. But when I look at the publication process, I get interested and excited, and start thinking things like "That's not too bad. I could manage that." I suppose one major difference is that you don't need grant money to get started. In theory, all you need is a pen and a piece of paper (though personally I prefer my laptop). But, still, the idea of getting my writing published fascinates me. The idea of getting funding for research, presenting research, redoing research, bores me to tears.
I suspect this is why I've never made any actual effort at getting my doctorate. I still take classes now and then, but the classes interest me more as chances to solve strange and abstract puzzles. I'm not all that interested in pushing the envelope to puzzles that haven't been solved yet. It's not something I'd want to put a lot of effort into. Yet I'll spend an entire day just thinking out plot elements and character development, and not consider it work. So...conclusion? I'm a writer who'll never make it as a scientific researcher. Kudos to those who enjoy that, just keep it away from MY desk. ;^D
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*sighs* Got my manuscript back today, with a rejection form letter. Well, there's one. In the next week I need to decide whether to submit someplace else or try to get an agent to submit for me (and, hence, start submitting query letters to agents). There aren't that many publishers who will even look at unsolicited manuscripts, unfortunately. So...happy? No. Not surprised either. It seems to be pretty rare to make it on your first go. Ah well. The stamps are pretty. Now to find something to impale the rejection letter on...
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The package I referred to last week arrived in New York on Thursday. It's my first attempt to publish anything I've written. The submission guidelines say it may take up to 3 months to process a manuscript, so I figure 'round about the beginning of next year, I should be seeing my first rejection slip. :^) Yeah, I might luck out. Who knows. And the stamps I included on the SASE are pretty cool, so if nothing else I'll get to keep those if they return the manuscript. I wonder what happens to the SASE if they don't reject it...? *shrugs*
Also, this weekend, fun at flea markets.
There was a flea market advertised on signs all over town, and I decided to wander by on Saturday. Mostly it was a bunch of local antique stores with booths set up, but there was a book-seller from Twin Falls and some apparent independents. The book-seller also had some cool dish towels he'd brought back from Australia. Wrong material to be of any use as a dish towel, but the design was the perfect color to put in my yellow hallway. Also, I'm rather fond of Aboriginal art. :^D At some point, I may try to stretch it over a bit of cardboard and find a better way to hang it up. The pushpins work, but they're not the most attractive things in the world.
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Going in reverse order, a random fact: A stack of 360 8.5 x 11 inch papers will not fit in a 10 x 13 inch envelope. However, such a stack will fit in a 12.5 x 18 inch bubblewrap envelope. Also, postage on such a stack is rather steep.
I've got stew, er, stewing on the stove. I call it "Cheating Stew" as I did not chop any vegetables for it. I found two frozen packages of chopped bell peppers and onions and used them instead. I shall see how it tastes in an hour or so. (UPDATE: Better than I expected. Not quite as good as with fresh veggies, but still quite tasty.)
And I got the rest of my shelves up. So here are the pictures with all but one of my Peña dragons on them, a Peña gargoyle, and a bottle that probably came from a dollar store. Oh, and entirely unconnected, my mom's old lava lamp! :^D
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Hmmm... I need an event. I've got two scenes worked out, which make great sense on their own, but there's something missing in between. I'm not sure exactly what needs to go there, except that it needs to draw two characters closer together. *sighs* I'm probably going to need a few more of these right after the scene I'm working on as well. Otherwise the timing is going to be all screwy. *sighs* I have a few ideas for what sorts of events I can use. Basically, the one unifying theme for the section I'm currently on is a series of murders. So I can expand on that. Another option is to plant some seeds for future plotlines. Problem is, those plotlines don't involve the characters I need to bring together. Ah well. I'll figure it out.
Other writing-related news... James from my Saturday taiji class also writes. I found this out yesterday during push-hands (which means we were talking too much, but Don worked us both hard to make up for that). He acted a lot like I do when mentioning my writing to people I don't know very well (shy, a bit embarrassed, not sure he should be talking about it). So I immediately had to ask, "Do you get stories that stay stuck in your head until you write them down?" He does. We both agree it can be annoying at times.
If you've never experienced this, imagine that you have a series of events running through your head. When you're directly concentrating on something, they'll recede into the background for a while, but in every quiet, unoccupied moment they come creeping back into your awareness. Sometimes they're a complete story in and of themselves. Sometimes they're just a scenario, begginng to be completed. But until they get written down, they just stay there in your consciousness, and won't let you think about anything else without a great deal of effort. Don says that's the sign of a true writer: when you can't not write.
A side effect of this (for me at least) is an instant ability to come up with backstory for a character who only appeared in the story as a convenience to further an unrelated plot. Which sometimes means I have to start over, as the character's backstory doesn't mesh with anything else. It can be very strange, though, to leap from "Hmm... I need a female character in this scene" to "Ah, yes. She's one of the Brethren who came over with Valdren's father." Further details emerged from there, and somewhere along the way she named herself "Hannah." Fibonacci helped me work out some of the consequences of the backstory she came with.
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Four more lectures to go, one for each class. And, really, all that's left is review for all of them. In Math015, I had to quickly go over percentages on Monday (because somehow chapter 7 hadn't made it onto the syllabus), but I just presented them as another type of proportion problem. The book also goes through the more usual method of decimal multiplication, but as I was short on time, I wanted the material to have as little new stuff in it as possible. Hence, I showed them how to do everything as proportions. But today we can just review.
In Math025, we started reviewing Monday, and made it up to polynomial arithmetic. In Math123, we finished up the chapter on the normal distribution last night, and then I did a brief overview of that chapter. On Thursday we'll review the probability chapter. Since that class isn't a prerequisite for anything, I chose not to do a cumulative final, so their "final" exam is just over those chapters. Much to my surprise, I've enjoyed teaching that class. It's a fun mix of topics. My only frustration is that the students really don't have the math background to appreciate some of the topics.
I think between my grandma's death and everything else that's happened this semester, I'm just burned out. Especially on grading. I've been spending most of my extra time writing, and once again I'm getting plot elements to mesh (including one that I'd more or less discarded as extraneous; it turned out to be the key in making two other plotlines fuse together). This weekend, I plan to get the Math123 final written, but then I think I'll read through Parsival's Test again, and then see about getting Kinkos to print it for me on nice paper. I would like to get it submitted sometime soon. Fibonacci pointed out one place where the reasoning behind a character's actions is not clear. It wasn't supposed to be crystal clear, but it looks like I need to do a touch-up so that it's not completely obfuscated.
The differences between projects can be rather amusing at times. Parsival's Test is nearly all from the POV of only two characters. The sequel that I'm working on now does not have a primary POV character, or even characters. There are three intertwined plotlines that will soon collide, then there probably will be a more unified feel, since all but one of those will be resolved (for the purposes of this project) at the collision. Anyway, I need to get a Math015 test changed up enough for a student to take it this morning. So I've got a slightly different writing project to work on.
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I started looking up manuscript submission guidelines (in the hopes of getting something published). From Daw Books' submission guidelines: "Very important: Please type your name, address and phone number in the upper right hand corner of the first page of your manuscript. Right under this, please put the length of your manuscript in number of words."
They also request a cover letter, so I looked for some tips on writing one. Here's part of what one page had to say: "Never, never, never list the word count. Not even on short stories. It's says, HACK, in bold letters. It is a lie perpetuated by Writer's Digest Books. No one cares about the exact word count. Editors and agents can see that a 300 page manuscript is, well, a 300 page manuscript."
:^) I think I'll go with the actual publisher's guidelines if I submit... (And if that publisher won't take it, and another publisher requests something else, I'll go with that publisher's guidelines).
On the bright side, all the cover letter info agrees on the basic format:
Paragraph 1: Brief introduction to the manuscript, including title and and a very very short description.
Paragraph 2: Publication credentials / Personal history (ideally relevant to the manuscript you've sent)
Paragraph 3: Contact info and closing remarks. Should also contain preferences about what to do with your manuscript when the publisher is done looking at it. (Same place that said NEVER include the word count says NEVER ask for the manuscript to be returned; *shrugs*)
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