One Square Does Not Make the Cut

I’ve been fiddling around trying to figure out what my next couple of afghans are going to be like. I auditioned three squares this evening.

So, this is the one I ended up not liking. I like the idea behind it, that you have an off-center square, but I didn’t like just how not square it ended up. You really would need to block every square individually to be sure you were sewing them together right. No thank you.

This one is very simple, very similar to the other square I used for, like, the jaguar afghan, but smaller and not quite the same design. I like it and I think it’ll be interesting to see how the yarn behaves with smaller squares.

This one is really hard to see beause of how dark the yarn is and, when I work up a whole afghan, I’ll remember that I need a lighter yarn. But peer in there at those ridiculous stitches. Now imagine a groovier yarn. Now imagine my tie-dye loving friend with trippy yarn and that kind of organic swirl. I’m going to have to fight with those squares, when I sew them together, but tell me if it doesnt look like the rounded right edge might sit nicely into the bottom? I may just need to sew four together to get one square square.

Full Member!

I became a full member of the SFWA yesterday! They accepted my forthcoming stories as proof of professional sales.

That makes it sound more precarious than it was, but I did wonder if the contracts would be enough or if I would have to have stories in hand.

I think it’s good to have something tangible to show yourself–like your SFWA membership–when you’re shopping a story or looking for an agent. The hardest part is that you work so damn hard and then you just have to hear “no” a lot and you wonder, shoot, does my writing suck? I don’t think it sucks. Does my judgment suck? Oh god, if my judgment sucks, then how can I know anything is true? Should I be living on a boat? I never even once considered living on a boat, but what do I know about anything?!

So, it’s good to have something indisputable to look at to say, “Hey, you did well enough to earn this.”