Wow, time got away from me this weekend, at least as far as posting to the blog. Let's see if I can do a succinct recap. (Chorus - "We've heard that before. . . " Me - "Hush, you.")

Friday night, the Writer's Octave got together to review the weeks submissions. We had six members there, but only five submissions for the week. (Tsk, tsk.) However, I got some REALLY good feedback on my second chapter of Dragon Couchant and although I normally only do my edits after I finish the story, I wanted to get these incorporated into my story before I forgot all the good points. I have the first half of the edits done and it reads a lot smoother now.

If I had any doubts about this group, the session we had last Friday has more than paid for the time it takes to participate. Everyone has been really good about being able to give advice and take advice in a calm, respectful manner. I think it helps that most of us know each other in real life, so even though we're scattered all over the US, we can see the person on the other side of the computer screen. Some internet critique groups tend to bring out the "Flame Warriors", because they don't see the author as a real person, just a bunch of words on their computer monitors.

Saturday was a "do family stuff day". Found some new furniture we would like to add to the house as well as going shopping for some accessories for wishweaver's new iPod. Went back and caught Hoodwinked again at the theater. After listening to the soundtrack a few times, it was fun spotting where this or that music came from in the movie. Yes, if you hadn't guessed, I liked this movie and definitely hope they make a sequel or two. I spent more time working on the outline to my potential podcast bible on Saturday night. It's starting to come together and wishweaver is talking about how to set up a space in the guest bedroom that would be quiet for a podcasting studio. If nothing else, working on the outlines of the shows is helping me focus what I think is the "craft" of writing vs. the "art" of writing. Sunday, the daughter-unit was a bit under the weather, so we stayed close to home and watched movies. Finished watching the last DVDs of Noir, which is La Femme Nikita done right and while the daughter-unit was off doing something else, we put in the George Pal version of War of the Worlds and had fun watching all the special effects from the 1950s.

Which brings us to today. I had my Intro to Fiction, Poetry and Drama class this evening. Looks like its going to be a lot of fun. Much more a reading/critiquing class than a writing class, which suits me fine. The drama we're covering this semester is A Midsummer's Night Dream by William Shakespeare (not the Neil Gaiman version). The professor is pretty laid back and seems to know her stuff, which should make this class even more fun.

Being the first night, we got out early, so I got some writing on Dragon Couchant done. Added 1448 words and finished Chapter Four (which introduces the last major protagonist character). I can't wait until the Writer's Octave group gets to this part.

I have my Creative Writing class tomorrow night and my Central Missouri State Alumni Banquet in D.C. on Wednesday. I doubt I'm going to get any serious writing in over the next few days, but all things considered, I'm pretty happy with my production for the month of January. While I'm obviously not up in kradical's league and definitely not in queenoftheskies's league, for me, 17,338 words in a month is a pretty good start and puts me well on my goal to finish Dragon Couchant by 30 June.

Current CSD: Dragon Couchant status:

17,338 / 95,000 (18.3%)