A rather nice Monday

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

And indeed it was -- in addition to doing some very necessary laundry (clean underwear is always a goodness, particularly after a shower), I critiqued three stories for my writing group and got my story "Lusts of the Cat Queen: A Dash Manning Adventure" critiqued tonight. And yes, "Lusts..." is just as pulpy as it sounds, except for one eensy twist: my hero, Captain Dash Manning, is tall, blond, square-jawed, handsome, smart, brave, resourceful, helpful to little old ladies, and is the poster boy for the Galactic Rangers. He's also gay as an Easter frock. This causes some consternation in the Ranger's PR arm, much amusement to his girl sidekick Ginny Mardon, and rabid delight among well-endowed male aliens everywhere.

And no, he bears no resemblance whatsoever to Captain Jack Harkness. I wrote the first half of this story two years ago, well before I ever set eyes on the beauteous and talented John Barrowman. But I digress.

Our group meets twice a month in a local Chinese restaurant, mainly because they're tolerant of us sitting there for a couple of hours and talking loudly about SF and fantasy geekery, so the critiquing took place while devouring a lovely dish of lemon chicken with some egg drop soup on the side (hmm -- maybe Nessa and Fairy Princess Holly have a point about Walt speaking Chinese when he starts talking about comic books and such...). In addition to getting useful feedback on my stories, the other nice thing about these meetings is that I always feel mentally pumped afterwards; there's just something about talking shop with a bunch of irreverent genre writers that kicks my brain into high gear, which translates nicely into creative energy. So, after slinging my butt around the complex for 40 minutes to get some physical pumping action as well, I'm about to head to the Office of Doom and see if I can finish a story before hitting the hay.

So how was your Monday?

Monday's total mileage: 519.87 miles to Isengard.