Deadlines Whoosh Past

But they’re not firm, and I may get to those projects tomorrow.

I’m listening to the latest Björk release, Volga. I shall have to buy it, it’s quite cool. There are always a couple of tracks on every one of Björk’s albums which are, for me, perfect SF-writing fodder. In this case, it’s both mixes of “Earth Intruders,” the tuen “Declare Independenc”, and the Mark Stent mix of “Innocence.”

So what I’m working on is a rewrite of my novelette “Ogallala,” which was too long and slow, and was turned down by Analog a while back with a plain old form letter that indicated to me it was, indeed, too slow. I figured it was the most appropriate story for me to rework into something to submit for the Mundane issue of Interzone. Which requires it to be 5,000 words or less, which is cool — it’s a good exercise for me to turn a 9,000-odd word novelette into a short story of half that length.

If I were drafting this from scratch right now, I wouldn’t have a hope in hell, but since it’s a rewrite, I’m more solid. I can probably get it in range in the next few days, and really fine-tune it before the deadline.

I’m currently at 2,500 words and most of the characterization and background has been compressed into it. There’s another 2,500 words leeway, and I’m pretty close to the climax. Still need to work in more explicit references to the Big Dimming Stacks, which are important but never really foreground; to Illingsford’s ex-wife, who’s so far only mentioned but will probably turn up in a small flashback; gotta figure out a few things about disrupting the structure of ocean-floor methane clathrate, though thank goodness no so much as I would if Ngunu actually went through with his plans; and a few more words of Portuguese would be nice. (But I can always ask my friend Jessie for help there. I think I’ll rename the inspirational ex-wife Jessie in her honor, as the character’s a little like her in idealism.)

Anyway, barring any big surprises, I should be done the redraft by the weekend, so I can let it be and then come back to it for some tidying next week, which is, gloriously, midterms week!

By the way, the new title is, “Dhuluma No More, Brothers, and the Rains Will Come Again.” Shorter story, longer title… I don’t know why, except to say I like the way  James Tiptree [/Allice Sheldon?] titled [her] stories, length and evocative. And yeah, “dhuluma” does mean what I think it does. Whew.

And now, it’s bedtime.

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