July 2, 2004
It. Is. Done. My lyric permission requests have been sent. Now, the power belongs to someone else, and yet I feel liberated. I celebrated my independence on the roof of my condo tonight. I watched a fireworks display, and I thought how appropriate it was to see a pyro display at the end of my big KISS task.

Now, on to fixing plot holes...

July 4, 2004
I'm at the home of my beloved pop. We met up with a gaggle of Shaws for an Independence Day parade, where I received lots of encouragement. Who knows - maybe next year I'll be waving to the crowd from one of the convertibles that rolls through horse poop and has a hand-scrawled sign that says "Miss Writer Lady Princess." I returned home and read and article on how to end book scenes effectively (no problem there, chumps) and another on punchy word choices (ugh - I'm always wanting to write snappier descriptions). Now, I'm about to dig in and review my manuscript again. I've already had far more passive verbs than I want to admit pointed out to me and now I need to eliminate needless adverbs.

But this is still way more fun than beating myself up about my copyright requests.

July 6, 2004
Every. Word. Counts. That's where I'm at in my work. It's pretty cool. With the help of my editor, I feel like we're eliminating what I call reading hiccups - spots where you have to reread a sentence or pause for awkwardness. I may solicit volunteer readers as it's often easy for someone to tell you a snippet of prose doesn't quite sound right, but it's another thing altogether to fix it. Ugh.

I sang at a really cool karaoke bar last night. It was built into an old movie theater. I felt like such a diva. Too bad my date was cuter and more talented than me. What happened to the ugly lame guys who fed my ego?

July 7, 2004
Why must I have a day job? I'm diligently working from my latest set of editorial notes, but I want more than stolen hours here and there to do nothing but write. Won't Get Fooled Again must achieve financial viability so I can pay off my mortgage and secure my intellectual freedom.

Yes, I recognize the irony that I work at a liberal arts college whose mission is to free students' minds. How is it that the anti-scholarly tome is the key to liberty?

Quiz: What do vagabonds learn when they settle down for more than 5 years?
Answer: Drivers licenses only last 4 years.

Oops.

July 9, 2004
I've made it through 100 pages of my manuscript this week. My goal is to complete 100 tomorrow and 100 more the following day.

In more exciting news, President Bush rolled past my condo this afternoon. I decided quite a while ago that I was going to keep my political ideology out of my KISSfiction world, but I will say that I went out to greet the Commander with a salute. You can't get any more patriotic than that, America.

July 10, 2004
Was it the dream I had last night about Bill Clinton sitting down with me for a heart-to-heart? Was it Bush's drive-by yesterday? The bigot who sat next to me at McDonald's this morning who said (I swear to God), "I don't read books, but if I did, I'd read something about Ronald Reagan instead of Clinton's autobiography"? Maybe it was Michael Moore's over-the-top-but-potent new film. KISSfiction.com is no longer the Switzerland of rock 'n' roll authoress websites. If you don't want to buy my novel because I support presidential candidates who actually do read those crazy newfangled things called "books" then F you. I'll drown my sorrow with the knowledge that I probably doubled your SAT score.

Meanwhile, no healthcare package in the world can help me finish the remaining 70 pages of manuscript I hoped to complete today.

July 11, 2004
In boob book news, I was overly ambitious with my editing goals, but I made tremendous progress, and I love my prose even more. I think I've officially fallen behind in terms of my upcoming deadline, but I'm loving the task, so I'm sure I'll catch up this week.

To the mysterious Olivia, I express my sincerest gratitude. I must confess hypocrisy because I have been known to voice annoyance when rock stars forget they're rock stars and they spout off about politics. I want them to get up on stage and sing about sex and parties - not the rainforest. Still, I've decided to quietly endorse Kerry/Edwards on my website while I loudly support them in my life. I expected a few hostile (and perhaps well-deserved) guestbook entries, but the first person who took the time to write gave me goosebumps.

I do have one gripe about Kerry already. Like many KISS venders, he sells shirts that only look good on men. As long as I'm fairly young and thin, I want to look like a va-va-va-voom kinda woman, so I'm afraid I've gone and designed my own. When Victoria Secret introduced the Miracle Bra so flat chested women like me could sport cleavange, I considered it a victory for all feminists, because it allowed me to have options. I am a highly educated woman and a proud feminist who's not afraid to use her breasts to get rid of the two boobs currently in office. (continue)