MUCH better now.

Finally got hired for a paraprofessional position over at Lafayette HS. And the very same day I got an e-mail from somebody asking if I'd be interested in writing some articles for a horticultural business. So now I'm breathing more easily. I'm still a little on edge -- I still can't quite shake the feeling that I'm going to somehow get the rug pulled out from under my feet again -- but I'm hoping that as I get details ironed out that the feeling will subside.

In the meantime, I'm making good progress with Symphonians. I'm on the second-to-last chapter, which is somewhere around the 300-word mark (the novel at this time is 320 words long -- I'm going to need to cut stuff).

It just struck me that I've sped up the pacing in this last bit. Like I'm getting close to the end, and the closer I get, the more I go, "Hurry up, let's finish it!" and the scenes move faster than they should because of that.

I was also wondering if I should drop a lot of money and have Eileen at Firstpages give me an overview of the MS. To have her expertise would help. But I keep telling myself, "Why spend all that money if I can do it myself?" Or I could send it back to FSG and get another reader's report for free, though it would take a while. And I want so badly to move on to another novel. I'm sitting on so many stories I'd like to work on. And there' s one story I want to get started on.

I want to retell Dante's Vita Nuova from a different framework -- not the usual medieval European fantasy backdrop, but from a different worldview, like from a Native American view. Ages ago, there was a huge Mississippian city near where St. Louis is today. Why not set up a fantasy on this side of the ocean? But I'm going to mix up the mythological backgrounds somewhat, so I can play around with stuff more. And I'm going to make all the characters black or tan. I want to bust up all the fantasy cliches I can.

But boy, it's hard to write up a fantasy when you move outside the template. My mind keeps wanting brick buildings and narrow cobblestone streets like they have in Europe. And I'm like, No, I want to do it differently!

So we'll see how that goes.