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Last week I think I had a week from hell. I didn’t really notice at the time because I was so focused on digging in my fingernails and holding on.

Last week included:

Way too much work, and some tight deadlines.
12 hour work days for Drew.
Several days of basecoating for me. (The most horrible part of painting.)
A monotonous gray basecoat that would not die.
A monotonous gray sky that would not die.
A snowstorm. In March.
Two colds and a sinus infection.
An adverse drug reaction.
Failing to eat because of busyness and illness.
A mini that fell apart, literally, during the last critical stages of its construction, during the last hour of a 12 hour work day.
An underbuzzing of stress from other events that are quickly approaching.

Despite all of that we managed only to get into one very small fight. That is a major accomplishment. (We only fight when we’re both stressed by other things.) We managed to laugh through most of the week. (Not that mini falling apart, though.)

This week, I’m shooting for normal.

This week, I’m hoping for nine hour work days. (The work list for this week is thankfully lighter.)

This week, I’m going to finish the giant critique I’ve been working on, and those Christmas presents that are so long overdue.

This week, I’m going to do dishes. (Yeah, that didn’t happen last week.) I’m going to keep our apartment in some semblance of order.

This week, I’m going to take some pictures. I’m going to relax.

This week, we’re taking a day off.

I’m not even going to stress about that revision I’m supposed to be working on. Because there’s always next week.

This week, I’ve earned the break.

Today I read a very good post about why editors are important. It connects to a bunch of thoughts I’ve been having lately about being able to conceptualize technique.

I am a person who does not learn skills well through trial and error. This applies especially to artistic skills. When I’m learning to paint, I can tell I’m doing something wrong when my effects don’t turn out well. ("Well" so often means "as good as Drew’s." This is an unfair comparison, but also an inevitable one when my stuff has to sit in the pretty glass case right next to his.)

I can experiment, I can try different things, but only rarely will I figure out what I’m doing wrong. I’ll just get frustrated, and be unhappy, and still paint badly. The end.

If I can find someone to explain technique to me, however, I’ll be able to visualize what is wrong. And once I can see it, I can fix it. All the work after that is easy.  (Luckily, Drew seems to have endless patience with my sitting next to his table pointing and saying, "but HOW did you do that?"

I’m the same way with writing. I can mess with my draft all I want, but it’s not going to get any better until I can find someone to explain to me what I’m doing wrong. And once I can see it, I can fix it.

This is why I’m grateful for my readers. Especially the practiced ones who have honed the skill of finding the problem and explaining it in a way that enables me to see it. Because then I can fix it. (Kristy, you are among the very best at this. I love you.)

Some people can sit by themselves and hammer out problems. Some people are adept at learning by trial and error. I am not one of these people. So I’m grateful for my agent. I’m grateful for my writing group. I’m grateful for my alpha readers. I’m looking forward to working with editors.

Because without them, I’d spin my wheels until I gave up.

The end.

It’s been three months since I finished a book. I’ve started several, and I’m working my way through a very long critique, but reading isn’t something I’ve been doing a lot of over the last few months. (Or the last year. My reading list for 2009 is sadly short.)

What the list doesn’t reflect, though, is the journalism reading I do. I read a lot of blogs; I read a lot of news. I can’t bring myself to privilege the novel over all those other things (or even, *gasp*, over the stories I absorb via video game), so I’m not too worried about my reading habits.

Here it is, though. The reading list for 2010, currently with all of one book.

Books read in 2010:

Resident Mad Scientist by Howard Tayler
Pain of Glass by Dan Wells
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Thwonk, by Joan Bauer
Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Curious Case of the Dog in the Nighttime by  Mark Haddon
Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements
The Magician’s Wife by Brian Moore
Joshua’s Song by Joan Hiatt Harlow
Walker’s Crossing by Phillis Reynolds Naylor
The Last Chance Texaco by Brent Hartinger
The Good Master by Kate Seredy
Trickster’s Queen by Tamora Pierce
Sabriel by Garth Nix
Street Magic by Tamora Pierce
Cold Fire by Tamora Pierce
Shatterglass by Tamora Pierce
Vodnik by Bryce Moore

2009 list is here.

2008 list is here.

My awesome doctor taught me some stuff which will help me avoid sinus infections in the future.  (I’ve had a sinus infection for 50% of 2010 so far.)  I have possession of a host of over the counter drugs that really seem to work.  Yay!

And now I have a cold.

It’s a virus.  There’s NOTHING I can do about it. 

All I want in the world is to be able to function at some level of normal.  But no.

So.  Freaking.  Miserable.

We play a lot of video games around here. One of my very favorite things in the world to do is system link with friends and shoot zombies and aliens. Drew and I do a fair amount of co-op shooting at home. We also play through turn-based RPGs, with one of us holding the controller and the other helping with strategy etc. This works particularly well when one of us has to do something else with half a brain.

I’m linking this list off my sidebar, because I like to keep track of these things.

Games Played in 2010:

• Persona 3: The Answer *****
• Gladius **
• Halo: Reach  ****
• Bioshock *****
• Blue Dragon ****
• Borderlands ****
• Final Fantasy XII *
• Left 4 Dead 2 ***
• Left 4 Dead: ***

2008-2009 video game list is here.