Beautiful veins and bloodshot eyes

Recap of the week, in part to remind myself where the hell it went:

Monday: Untangled several tangled scenes in the next section of Crowmaker. Wrote down a few more lines of the creepy buffalo story. (Which really doesn't feature buffalo at all, oddly enough.)

Tuesday: More scene untangling in Crowmaker. Finished a really rough draft of creepy buffalo story and sent it off to my beloved first readers. The oldest son compared it to something from a Tad Williams' story--"You know, one of the parts where it's from the point of view of some really crazy person." Also spent 1.5 hours picking up a group of juniors from the closest Catholic high school and bringing them to our school for a presentation. Went back to school later for a tutoring session.

Wednesday: Did some research into a couple of markets I'd noticed in passing a while back, which do podcasts of previously published stories. Dug up a couple of my previously pubbed fictions, gussied up the formatting to suit the markets, and submitted them. Sighed heavily when one came back with a rejection less than 6 hours later. Yay for prompt replies? Also carted boys back and forth to their programming class.

Thursday: Spent more time than I should have pouting over the latest rejection and playing the "I'll never be published again" mind game. Caught up on reading the latest short fiction at some of my favorite ezines. Pouted more because either a) that story is so much better than anything I'll ever write so I may as well just give up now or b) my stuff is so much better than that I can't believe they bought that one and not mine. Remembered with fond nostalgia the good old days when I could just read a story and either liked it or not and didn't spend an hour or longer picking it apart later. Also put in an hour on my last tutoring session.

Friday: Caught up on more reading, convinced myself to pick up on Crowmaker again next week, and spent 4 hours subbing at the school's extended care. Crashed in my big comfy chair for a 20 minute catnap when we got home, because preschoolers, while adorable and wonderful and really a pretty good bunch of kids, still drain my brain. Did a blog entry listing my accomplishments for the week in order to convince myself that the week was not a complete waste. Ignored the husband who came in and started talking to me, completely oblivious to the fact that I was pretty obviously in the middle of something, give me a sec to finish it up, mm'kay?

Saturday: Will drive my oldest and a couple of other middle schoolers to the local Catholic high school for an academic competition involving (so near as I can tell) mostly written testing and which lasts over 4 hours. Will pack my Sudoku books and a handful of pencils and find a book to take along.