Post-Thanksgiving summary

Hope everyone had a fabu Thanksgiving!

yukinooruoni swung by on Thursday with spicy mashed sweet potatoes (yum!) and ice cream, and I made a veggie pot pie. Feasting was had, and vacuous entertainment was enjoyed a la The Incredibles and The Emperor’s New Groove, with a couple episodes of The Gummi Bears to start things off. Yep, Thanksgiving was all about the Disney.

fosteronfilm and I ventured forth on Black Friday to The Mall, and although the parking situation was conducive to trepidation and alarm, the shopping thoroughfares within weren’t that crowded. I guess those rows upon rows of SUVs and minivans only transported single passengers to the Mecca-o-buying-stuff? And we even made some progress on our shopping list.

   


Writing Stuff

Did much Tangent work, a smattering of outstanding The Town Drunk undertakings, and a dollop of writing. A productive weekend, all-in-all. Not as productive as I’d hoped, but they never are.

New Words/Editing:
– 1000 words on my December Writing for Young Readers column: “Writing Talking Animal Tales.” I wanted something I could rattle off fairly quickly, and anthropomorphic critters hold a special spot in my writer’s heart. I just like ’em. Several editing passes, and it’s sent off. I really need to plan out the next three months’ column installments so I don’t gak myself during the legislative session.
– A bridging paragraph on “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” and I’m at zero draft. Yay! It clocked in at 8900 words, solidly novelette-length, but at least I kept it under 9K. Going to run it by fosteronfilm to first reader and then probably toss it up on critters.org.

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10 Responses to Post-Thanksgiving summary

  1. jimvanpelt says:

    Eugie, I see you’re working on a writing for young readers column (which I didn’t know about). Have you seen Ted Hughes book on instruction to young writers, POETRY IN THE MAKING? It’s a transcription of programs he did for the BBC for young writers. It’s about poetry and story writing. In many ways, it’s one of the most influential books I’ve read for my own writing. Of course, I’m simple minded that way *g*. I’m also heavily influenced by Ralph Fletcher’s book, WHAT A WRITER NEEDS, which uses all elementary school writing for his examples.

    You can see the Hughes book at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0571090761/103-6062660-4885453 and the Fletcher one at http://www.amazon.com/What-Writer-Needs-Ralph-Fletcher/dp/0435087347/sr=1-1/qid=1164674843/ref=sr_1_1/103-6062660-4885453?ie=UTF8&s=books

    • Eugie Foster says:

      Ooo, thanks for the recommendations! I hadn’t heard of either of these. Definitely a pair of books I plan to hunt down.

      I see you’re working on a writing for young readers column

      Yepper, for Writing-world.com. My column is relatively new, and usually I link to it when I mention it in my blog, but I was too lazy to this time around.

  2. orig_ladycat says:

    Oh do I lament my lack of perfect productivity every weekend too. At least I’m in good company.

  3. dream_wind says:

    Pardon my Australian ignorance… but what’s Black Friday? I’ve seen a few references to it, and it sounds kinda ominous.

    • yukinooruoni says:

      Black Friday is generally considered the single busiest shopping day of the year. It’s the Friday after Thanksgiving, and traditional the start of the Christmas season.

      It’s also often the best day to get the best prices on things. As you can imagine, everyone wants to get the best deal, so stores can get rather nasty with overcrowding, people fighting over deals and such.

      Imagine Times Square at New Years, only in stores, and everyone is trying to buy stuff all at the same time.

      • dream_wind says:

        Ah! Boxing Day or June Long Weekened sales, I completely understand!

        Our financial year ends June 30, so in the middle of June you get all the stocktake sales, and after Christmas come the half financial year sales.

    • Eugie Foster says:

      What said. Also, the designation is from how the date (supposedly) marks the economic turnaround for shops as their books go from being in the red to profitable black.

      • dude_the says:

        Like Boxing Day, Maybe?

        Black Friday: The only day of the year when non-geeks are permitted to line up in front of a store at 3 a.m., waiting for the store to open.

        I saw several suggestions from British and Canadian commentators that the sales on December 26th there are sort of the equivalent to Black Friday here. Don’t know if it’s true, don’t know if a similar thing happens in Australia and/or New Zealand, but thought I’d bring it up.

  4. Eugie Foster says:

    Gleep! Um, The Incredibles is a thoughtful and eloquent treatise on the virtues of non-conformity in a conformist society. *peeks out from behind the couch* Ok, now?

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