Sigh. Five days off, and now back to work in the morning. It’s been fun. I’ll do a holiday wrap up soon, but the Unfocused family had a very nice Christmas. Some quick stats:
On Running: Nothing today, but only because I put in 7 miles on the treadmill on Friday and 6.32 miles dodging ice and giant puddles outside on Saturday when it hit 60. By the end of my run yesterday, the arch of my left foot was killing me, and despite Tylenol and some ice, it’s still sore. I’m pretending it isn’t plantar fasciitis, and will try to run on the treadmill in the morning. I’ve been slacking and it’s time to knock it off.
On the iPod: Most of the podcasters I listen to regularly seem to be on vacation for the holidays, which left me with some space on my Mini for the 9-hour audiobook Metatropolis, edited by John Scalzi. I have listened to the stories by Jay Lake and Tobias Buckell, and I’m partway through Elizabeth Bear’s entry. I’m enjoying it; I’ll try to post a review when I’m done.
On Writing: The usual excuses — work during the lead up to Christmas, family time during and after — abound, but I’ve gotten a little done on both of my works-in-progress since last Sunday. I moved the needle on the revision of Meet the Larssons, if only from 107 to 110 pages revised. Those three pages of the first draft now have eight pages of new, handwritten material sandwiched between them, though, so it’s more than it looks. The outline of Project Hometown is up to 10,587 words. My next step is an expanded plot synopsis, which I’ve essentially already done, so now I’m moving on to detailed character charts, although I’m not entirely sure what that means beyond figuring out the birthdays and descriptions of the main characters — I wrote up their goals, motivations, and storylines a couple of steps ago.
I’m thinking through my New Year’s goals and resolutions, and will of course post them when they’re ready, sometime around Groundhog Day. I saw fellow Absolute Write forum denizen Jen at Scribbling has already posted her ambitious writing resolutions for 2009; maybe I’ll just copy hers, but cut everything in half.
The Unfocused Life 
Going back to work after a long break isn’t fun. I’m going back Wednesday after 10 days off; I’m dreading it.
Hope your foot is okay. Take it easy so you don’t make it worse.
Strassburg Sock, Strassburg Sock, Strassburg Sock
I’ll be looking for your New Year’s resolutions, whenever you get them up. :D
I didn’t think my goals were too crazy, but ask me again in about six months, and I might be changing my tune, lol.
BTW, I’m adding you to my blogroll, if that’s all right with you…
Mike – I hope your first day back hasn’t been too bad so far.
Jenn – thanks for the recommendation. I think my arch was just bruised (I wore old shoes for my outside run), because it feels much better and I ran on Monday without much trouble. We’ll see.
Jenifer – your writing goals are fine, it’s that you have a life beyond them that makes them difficult. Same here. I’ll post mine tomorrow. And please feel free to add me to your blogroll — I added you to mine without checking (sorry).
Oh, don’t worry about that! I’m always happy when people link to my blog. :) I’m just very self-concious about doing it myself, so I tend to ask first. And you’re added, btw.
Not always, though. I’m kind of bad about that. :D