Anyway, in the works right now, I FINISHED my NOVEL. That's right. Well, the first draft anyway. Finally. It's only taken me, oh, FIVE YEARS. That's just sad. So all writing energy recently has been funneled into editing and revising, a process I've never had to do on something so, well, long. I have resorted to reading a book called "Revising your Fiction", since I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. It has actually been really helpful, even if the examples aren't always. I mean, I respect F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, but what I've written ain't exactly Gatsby, you know what I mean? It's a fantasy novel. Not exactly Great American Novel material. Not that a fantasy novel can't be that. Just not this one. But the advice has worked very well so far. Extraneous words are being excised with abandon. Passive voice abolished. Narrative structure reaarranged. All so that I can get my husband off my back about this and move onto something new.
He thinks it is publishable. I think he's cracked. I have a very good friend who has written two fantasy novels that I have read for her. She is an amazing writer. Her books are both wonderfully written and quick to read. She remains unpublished, even after having an agent for a short while. So I prefer to be realistic about my chances.
In knitting news, I finished something a while ago, took pictures, and never blogged it. So here it is, for the first time ever, the Canteen bag!
Isn't she a beaut? I've actually been using it as a purse for a while. The pattern is from Interweave Knits, the yarns are Merino Style from Knit Picks, and Lion Brand Landscapes, and it was felted in a front loader. Ta da! I loved making this, even if the knitting was "Extreme Knitting". I think I finished it in two days, and then spent a week recovering. My shoulders hurt so bad I couldn't turn my head. I don't know what I was thinking.
I even lined this bag, which turned out all right, even though I made the lining from old jeans, so the purse weighs six tons. I've had to tie a knot in the strap because it has stretched so much. It seems to be stable now though.
So that's that, update about my accomplishments. And yes, someday I will actually post photos of my new house.
Just not today.
