In the sun in San Francisco.
Progress Report May/June 2024 from Jeff Baker
Decided to write up a scene for a story I have half-assed plotted out. After I did that, I found that I already had a version of the same scene in a file from a year ago! So I combined and revised them. Looks good! (And now I can’t remember the title! Oh yeah; “Hi, I’m Hector And I’ll Be Your Waiter This Evening.”)
Wrote up a poem based on a line I just zipped out on Facebook late one evening. I’ve been doing that lately; letting a poem breeze out of me occasionally. A couple in the last three months alone. For this one I channeled Garrison Keilior and “Writer’s Almanac,” which I miss!
Piddled around and started another story or two which may be something I’ll finish.
Surprised myself and worked on a story I had barely looked at in ten years, after starting it in 1999 or so! Another historical mystery.
Did some unexpected work on at least a couple of other stories I had in my files. Time does help in seeing how to progress on a story.
And I worked on “Love’s Not Time’s Fool,” the story I told myself I would finish before diving into another long story or something with a deadline. I had a bunch of chunks and scenes but had to pull them together. So I did that, revised some and now I just have to write more on it and tie up some loose ends.
Wrote one (maybe two) of the QSF Columns and posted one way, way early.
And that’s the thing; I took a trip out to California, driving through Arizona and New Mexico to see a few places I knew in the Southwest during the 1970s when I had family there and I really didn’t work on the writing. I wrote the Flash Fiction Draw Challenge story early and posted it when I was heading back to Wichita.
I took a break from writing the weekly stories, I think from the end of May until about June 16th when I got back in town. But I’d posted a picture for the 21st (one I took on vacation!) and wrote the story up in an hour or so! It felt good to be back in harness doing that and the column for next month (July.) I thought I was going to do some writing but I didn’t! Actually got a rejection out there in California and took a bunch of notes. The drive was long but the stay in Livermore was very much a largely non-working vacation, even if I did piddle around on the internet a lot! (Research? Har-har!)
Re-read a story Darryl had given me background for (and he didn’t want his name on it so if we were paid for it it wouldn’t mess up his Social Security!) and found a couple of big gaffes I had in the story when I submitted it a few years ago. Fixed it. Found market, sent it off, with Darryl’s and my names on it.
I’ve been doing pretty good at my pledge to finish stuff in my files that I can send off. I have a project I’ll be co-writing coming up later in the year. Maybe two!
So I have more stuff to finish and polish, even after taking a much-needed break.
That’s about it for now!
—-jeff baker, Wichita, KS June 20th, 2024.
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