So, I’m listening to Warren Olney talking about guns and school shootings with some dude who thinks that there should be more guns in society. Everyone should be armed, he says, because school shootings and crimes with guns have worse casualties when they occur in “gun-free zones” (and, wow, what a lovely euphemism from hell that is). I give the guy a listen, tamp down my rising gorge, and think: has this guy ever been held up? ‘Cause I have, and I’m pretty sure that being armed would’ve made a weird situation a downright bad one.
Really. Is there any way we can remove Florida while keeping the Keys?
So, for the past week, every time I get on or off a train at the Green Line Aviation station, I get the same announcement from the conductor: “Please be sure you have read and understand procedures in the event of an emergency.” This doesn’t happen at my other stop, and it also doesn’t happen when I get on the bus at the station.
Now, I normally wouldn’t think anything about this except a) it’s only at trains at this station and b) no one’s made this announcement before. I’ve been taking the train since December, and never has the conductor reminded me to know what to do if something horrible happens.
The paranoid part of me thinks that someone in Homeland Security has passed one of those nebulous warnings to the MTA that this train at this station is a target for Bad Shit, and that this announcement is the MTA’s way to prepare. Not with, you know, beefed up security, but with pre-emptive ass-covering. ‘Cause it’s always easier for a bureacracy to apologize for a disaster than to prepare for it. Jackholes.
How much editing did I get done this weekend, you ask? Jack-all squat. But I’m almost done with Strange & Norrell after a few marathon reading sessions by the campfire and in the SAGmobile, so that’s a plus, right?
Right.
Anyway, I got to cracking on Monday night, and I’m about a quarter of the way in. The pages are bleeding with new ink, and whole sections are vanishing. Move the story forward, baby. Anything that gets in the way has to go.
It’s time. It’s been well over six weeks since I finished my novel thingie, which means the advent of Editing. I got a big weekend planned for me, a red pencil, and my trusty copy of Strunk & White’s. I’m a little nervous because I’ve never done editing like this before. I know I have to be brutal and honest and keep in mind that, yes, that bit about riot at the ASB forum probably is funny, but it also doesn’t move the story forward. And I need some tension in part 4. My two guiding principles for this will be:
1) Always up the ante
and
2) Move the story forward
I’ve gotten much better at number 2 since I’ve joined the Fictionados, but 1 still eludes me sometimes. I must put my characters in danger, and they have to work it out for themselves.
Stay tuned, gang. I’m going to have this beast beaten into shape by the end of April and then it’s Submission Time!