I now dare you to try not to think about what a weird word “caboose” is. The OED says it’s a Dutch word, and they make a compelling argument, but that “oose” sound always reminds me of the places my brother’s lived–“Tallapoosa” “Chattanooga” etc.–which are all Indian words.
In the work realm, which is going to drift back off blog here shortly, there’s both a lot to be done and a lot of time to do it in, which is really weird. I will probably feel freaked out more the closer we get to the start of April, but right now, I’m just wishing I had a large wall calendar, which I can get procured for me today, I imagine. And some colored pencils that really erase. I wonder if those exist?
In the writing realm, my goals for this little bit are modest. I have two stories that I’m shopping–“Sarah Clark,” which was once accepted into an anthology and then the publisher went belly-up (so it’s never seen the light of day, but someone else once liked it), and “The Letters that Laurel Sent Maggie about that Thing in the Woods” which got rejected last year from someone who had it most the year, and the feedback I got from them suggests to me that, if it strikes your fancy, it really strikes your fancy, and, if it doesn’t, you still think it’s a good story, you just can’t put your finger on why it doesn’t do it for you. So, I’m going to try to find someone for whom it really does it.
I’m waiting to hear back from a Moll & Sue beta reader, so that’s just simmering there on the back burner, nothing I can do about it at the moment. Project X is doing whatever it’s doing and the children’s story is chugging along.
And I am going to start working on a story for an atypical outlet! I’m still in the mulling-over stage on that one but, if I can talk the Butcher into going Super Bowling all Sunday afternoon, I might have time to start to see what shape it might take.
Holy shit, honestly. For as shitty and unproductive as last year seemed to live through it, I’m glad I kept working, because it means I have a lot of little fires to tend now.
Lately, all my characters run around singing “Wild Hog in the Woods,” because I find it creepy as fuck.
It sound like this, when it is sounding particularly English:
And like this once we get a hold of it:
Tiny Cat Pants 