My three-year-old son has a unique kind of logic. You can’t always follow it, but it’s sure fun to go along for the ride. Here’s a conversation the other morning between he and my wife:
Son: I love everyone! I love everyone in the whole world.
Mom: Oh, that’s very nice, honey.
Son: Even you, Mommy.
Mom: Oh. Don’t you mean especially me?
Son: I love my teeth. I brush them.
Mom: That’s very good.
Son: It’s good to brush your teeth.
A conversation with my three-year-old son this morning, when he was eating a donut (something that rarely happens):
Me: I don’t want to hear any whining, though. Whiners don’t get donuts.
Son: I’m not a baby. Babies cry like a baby.
Me: That’s true. It’s okay to cry sometimes, though. Just not when eating donuts.
Son: Yeah. Babies don’t get to eat donuts.
Me: No, they don’t.
Son: I like donuts.
If you’re into Twitter, I broke down and finally created an account. You can find me at http://www.twitter.com/scottwcarter. With my crazy life, I’m not sure how much I’ll be on there, but I figured I should at least try it. I also found a nifty WordPress tool (the open source software I use to update my website and my blog) that I can use in conjunction with with Ping.fm that will automatically send my blog posts (truncated appropriately) to all the social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace. So if you want up-to-the-minute news on my writing, or you want occasional musing from my over-caffeinated mind, now you have your choice.
My website and blog: http://www.scottwilliamcarter.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Scott-William-Carter/600351984
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/scottwilliamcarter
I’ve been experimenting with posting a little more, though I’ll never be one of those people who blogs about what he had for breakfast. The key, for me, is to do it in a way where the cost doesn’t outweigh the benefit. I find the Internet in general very addictive, and since I have so little time for my fiction what with the day job, two kids, and everything else, I have to go to great pains to make sure I don’t spend an excessive amount of time sitting in front of a computer not writing fiction. That said, I find the social networking sites to be a fun way to connect with both good friends and casual acquaintances, as well as to network with people in which you have a common interest — like writing!
Speaking of writing, my productivity is back where I want it to be, which took me a long time to achieve after my son was born. Most of this had more to do with me finding the right approach, since the “write in the evening” method was no longer working. Now I just squeeze it in whenever I can, withholding all those guilty pleasures I love so much (like the Internet) until I’ve met my daily word count. It’s not ideal, but it’s getting me to write (translate: practice) as much I as I need to, and that’s what matters.
About two-thirds the way through a mystery, with a character I wouldn’t mind writing a while slew of novels about. After that, I have to finish the YA book that would be a good follow-up to Water Balloon Boys; I’d already written the first 50 pages and a proposal, so that one’s well on its way. I just mailed off another short story featuring a character that’s appearing in Analog next month — a sort of Travis McGee in space named Dexter Duff. It’s the first time I’ve written a short story with the same character and I really enjoyed it. I’ve also committed to writing one short story a month. I’d been focusing a lot more on novels the last two years, writing only a handful of short stories, thinking this was necessary because of the demands on my time, but I was cranky from not writing them. Plus I can experiment and stretch in ways that are easier. There are lots of benefits; I just have to maintain the balance between the two.
And, on the personal front, our house remodel is nearly finished. It’s been a crazy couple of months living with my mother (I never thought that would happen again), but we’re a week away from moving back in, and it’s going to be a great house to raise our family in. There’s a long list of projects waiting for us even after we move in, but that’s all right. It’ll be nice sleeping in our own beds again.
What else? Kat just turned six. Can you believe? She’s almost in first grade. Calvin’s three and growing up fast. Me, I realized I’m now twice the age of the kids graduating from high school. Ouch.
My five-year-old can’t tie her shoes. This didn’t bother me until she informed me that all of her friends can tie her shoes. Then I spent most of the morning worrying that I’ve failed her as a father because she can’t tie her shoes. She’s going be thirty years old and on her way to accept a Pulitzer Prize but then her shoe laces will come undone and she won’t be able to do anything about it, so she’ll sit down on the curb and sob about her lack of good parenting, which will make her miss out on a Pulizter Prize. These things matter.