This past week has, sadly, not been a writing week.

I last worked on the novel last Thursday. Part of the problem is that I'm at the end of the story, and I know what has to happen, but I still haven't worked out how it's all supposed to happen. So although I haven't been putting words to paper (words to screen? words to file?) I've been going over the plot resolution in my head over and over, which is a necessary part of the process. But part of me still has that nagging feeling that if pages aren't getting written, I'm not making any progress -- even though in another way of measuring it, perhaps I am.

However, the other reason I haven't gotten much writing done is because of personal life stuff.

Last weekend my new niece Abigail had her baby-naming ceremony. Nomi and I weren't able to attend, sadly, because it was held on shabbat and we couldn't travel. But I did get to attend Abby's dipping at Mayyim Hayyim last Friday in the middle of the day. Which took precedence over writing, being a family event.

Monday I had to go over the galleys for "Sanctuary," because the deadline for getting corrections into Analog was on Tuesday. Again, a necessary part of being a writer, and it was a good thing I had the chance to go over the galleys, because I found a few vital corrections. But Monday being Patriot's Day meant it was also occupied with seeing the Marathon, which I've done every year since 1996. I watched for a few hours with magid and fynixsoul, and I also ran into other people I knew, including ffoeg. But it meant no writing.

Tuesday morning was occupied entirely with Library Trustee stuff; I'm the Secretary of the Nominations Committee, and we had a few issues to deal with in order to understand exactly how to run our officer elections next month. Actually, I enjoy being a Library Trustee a great deal, and my recent role meant that I got to dive into our bylaws, Robert's Rules, and state statutes, to come up with our elections procedure. But it did mean no writing.

And of course, who can even think of writing while watching a new Pope be announced? :-)

Tuesday also went down the drain because of my back pain. I have a chronic back pain condition, and some days it feels worse than others. Yesterday the pain was concentrated in the lower left hip region, and kept me lying in bed reading most of the afternoon. (Do people really want to know this stuff?) Today the pain is much less, thanks to Aleve and perhaps my body's natural cycles, but I'm still not 100%.

And then for some weird reason, last night I couldn't get to sleep until well after 3 AM. I'm having insomnia again tonight, which is why this is being posted around 1 AM. It's a good thing I'm not working a regular schedule this year (thanks again to gnomi).

The other reason I'm not getting any writing done -- Passover cleaning. As gnomi points out in this post, we've done some cleaning but there is stil some to do. On my own list, I need to finish clearing the clutter off the dining room table, and I need to run two loads of laundry. Nomi's done much of the kitchen and the oven and stove already, and tomorrow we have to do the counters and the sink. So once again, I doubt I'll have time to work on the novel tomorrow.

As for Friday -- ha ha! The day before the shabbat before Passover? Anyone actually expects me to get work done? It is to laugh.

At least we got to hear Sarah Vowell tonight, and it was nice of ckd to join us. I'll try to post a fuller report later, if I have the time.

Tags: brookline, jewish, novel, politics

In my last post, valancy expressed interest in our custom of cleaning for Passover. Before the holiday, gnomi and I, along with many other people we know, clean our apartment quite thoroughly. The best source for Jewish customs and traditions on the web is http://www.jewfaq.org, and for those who are interested, the following is quoted directly from their page on Passover (or Pesach) at http://jewfaq.org/holidaya.htm.

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Tags: jewish

In this post, fjm referred to a responsum from the Conservative branch of Judaism regarding the observance of shabbat and kashrut in outer space. The ruling was requested by Col. Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut and one of the seven who died when Columbia broke up on re-entry. In a response to her LJ post, I mentioned my experiences with trying to write observant Jewish characters in science fictional settings, and a few people expressed interest in knowing the details.

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Tags: jewish, science-fiction