Random ramblings

The imp and the pixie have started playing together more and more, instead of constantly fighting.  They created their own little version of Marco Polo--only, their shout-out is "didur" (diaper).  They play it in one of their bedrooms in the dark, hiding around furniture from each other.  One yells it, and the other says it very softly, then they giggle, trade ends of the room at a dead run, and then switch who yells.

The imp has started randomly telling me "I love you!!!"  Usually, he uses third person with the full nouns ("[Imp] loves Mama!").  Using pronouns and first person is a huge step for him.  Not to mention melts Mama and Daddy right into their socks. 

Last night, after their bath, both kids were on the couch watching The Lion King.  The pixie was sitting in the corner of the couch with the imp beside her.  Then, the imp flopped down on his stomach, not quite across her lap, but close.  She leaned forward, and wrapped one arm around his chest, and the other around his back, with her cheek laying right between his shoulders, then goes "Aw...kiss [imp]." 

He went "Aw!" sat up, and wrapped one arm around her.  And they sat there, snuggling, until it was time for the pixie to go to bed.

Of course, Mommy nearly imploded from the cuteness. 

I've kind of given up on writing new work while I'm teaching.  Unless I'm absolutely inspired to the point that the story completely takes over, I just can't do it.  The little idiots ahem, students sap my energy and creativity worse than anything else.  So, I'm going to focus on editing and rewriting what's done, but there are a few things I need to do/get before I can do that. 

First off, we need to get a new toner cartridge for our printer...the first completed draft of The Godshead nearly used it up.  It's 196 pages, single spaced (with an extra space between paragraphs), in 11 pt font.  I'm considering cutting a couple of the short stories out of the collection to be expanded and published separately, or to be put on a different site for free, to drum up interest in the book.  I don't know, though.

I've been reading over it, and revising it a little--adding a bit here and there to connect more of the stories to the plot a little better, moving one of the stories forward in the collection to improve the pacing, improving wording here and there--and once I'm done with this draft...I'll print it, set it aside for another month, then go over it again.

I also need to print The Last Pendragon to read and revise it.  I'm going to have to make notes as I go to make sure there's no huge, gaping plot holes.  The Godshead is only a novel by the loosest definition, since it's comprised of a set of short stories that (mostly) fit into an overarching plot.  The Last Pendragon is a novel in the classic definition.  Plot holes...yeah, they'd need (mostly) fixed before I let anyone else see it.  Right now, it's still a first draft.  No one sees my first drafts. 

I've got about four more novel concepts that need outlined and then fleshed out.  The outlining I can do over the semester, but the writing takes more time and energy than I'm likely to have.  Too bad my students seem to be a particularly helpless bunch this semester--that tends to kill first draft creativity. 

And helpless they are.  I don't particularly blame them for their blogging problem--none of them have any experience blogging, and Blogger has made it harder with their new dashboard.  This semester, maybe half of my students in both classes combined have chosen to use Blogger.  The other half are using WordPress--two-thirds of my 102 students are using WordPress.  And having problems.  And I don't know anything about WordPress, so I signed up for an account so that I can help at least a little. 

Starting Monday, I'm going to be posting a couple of posts on each of my class example blogs,  and maybe adding various news outlets to the sidebars to help students know where to look for stories. 

Today and tomorrow, I've got a butt-ton of grading to do.  I have discussion board threads and blogs for my classes, and a daily post for my colleague's American Literature class.  I'll probably be a little light on the blogging until I get that done.