It's been more than a month since my last Burning Update Experience. For my new readers, the Burning Update is where I come clean (or dirty) about how much writing I'm doing (or not doing), let you know what I'm working on (or not working on), and generally let you know what's going on my life ("To your tents, oh Israel!"). If you're familiar with Mur Lafferty's I Should Be Writing (which I heartily recommend to everyone, especially you), then you should be familiar with the concept. The only difference is that Mur podcasts once a week or so, so she can afford to be more frequent with her personal updates. I blog every day, and if I tried to work a personal update into every post you'd all be bored to tears.
What's been going on here on the Burning Zeppelin? Too much and not enough, all at once.
I've had a lot of other matters pressing on my mind, starting with two deadlines - a final draft for White Wolf that I can't say anything about at all and a first draft for part of a supplement to Green Ronin's Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying Game - sneaking up on me and continuing with my application to the Oakland Teaching Fellowship, which has involved speed-writing several essays, taking the CBEST, and preparing for an interview on Saturday. A grueling day-long interview on Saturday. Further compounding all this is that yesterday my computer's power cable finally melted all the way through, my ipod (which is essentially my second soul) is on the fritz in a really frustrating way (it uploads everything - podcasts, music, everything - and then decides that it isn't audio after all and won't play it), my glasses broke, and I need a haircut.
More to the point (you know, of this blog), I haven't been writing very much. My writing has been suffering ever since January, when I lost my last stable job. The time between September - when I first got the job - and then was a real renaissance for me. That was when the Burning Zeppelin Experience got started properly, I began building my career as a freelancer, and I started listening to I Should Be Writing. Stress has angst has a way of sucking the creativity out of a person, though, and it's been rough ever since.
Which is not to say that I haven't been writing. Rat and Starling is unfortunately on the back burner, but I've got a great project on the writing desk, a short story based on a fake cover letter for an entry level necromancy position I posted a ways back. Fear not, Rat <3 style="font-style: italic;">Rat and Starling will eventually be finished. The Abigail doesn't take any crap when it comes to that sort of thing.
The best news I have recently, though, really is my three new favorite podcasts: Escape Pod, PodCastle, and Pseudopod. It's hard to find time to read, with so much going on, but it's relatively easy to find time to listen. I just plug my ipod into the car as I drive or into my head as I walk, or I turn on my computer's speakers and listen while I clean or do the dishes or play Angband. It's great to feed my writer brain with stories, and much more convenient than reading.
Speaking of which, the relevant update material is the Burning Humility Experience, in which I read Stephanie Meyer's Twilight and, as it turns out, try not to gag. I cannot stress this enough: I am reading it, actually experiencing the words on the page, and it is very, very bad.
Let that suffice for now. More when I've finished the thing.
And on that cheery note, I will bid you farewell for now.
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