Hey ho, squiders. I did sit down and do some thinking, and it doesn’t make sense to continue with the World’s Edge revision in its current state. So I’m going to treat the critique marathon (and my in-person critique group) like beta readers (and, to be fair, I never had anyone beta this story) and gather data, and start on a more in-depth revision in, say, August.
I’m frustrated with myself, but it doesn’t make sense to do a half-ass revision only to do a full revision later. So here we are.
But that does make two failed revision attempts for the year, which is. Well. I’m annoyed at myself and my poor planning.
That does mean that my writing time can be rerouted to something else for the next six-ish weeks (I mean, I still need to do my critiques for the marathon, but other than that), and I think I’m going to focus on my side goals. I’m not going to go into another revision for another project because that’s madness.
And my side goals haven’t really been getting done, so.
I may also outline a few new projects which we may or may not get to writing.
But let’s not talk about that anymore.
Let’s talk about…personalized license plates.
These are fairly common here in Colorado. Not sure about other states/countries, but I see at least a few each day, and they’re always a little distracting because most of them you have to decipher.
For example, yesterday I saw one that said “4E4EVER.” ??? And also “LITTLE1” on a decidedly midsized SUV. Both a mystery.
When I was 16-ish, my dad got me a car (he did not buy me a car, but he did drive to my grandmother’s house in Washington state to get her old car), and as part of that he bought me a new aftermarket stereo system with a CD drive (the original one had a cassette player) and a personalized plate, which I think was, like, $60 or something. Or maybe now they’re $60. I don’t know.
I was (and still am, to some extent) super into Star Trek as a kid/teenager, and I very much wanted a Star Trek license plate. Something like “NCC1701” or “WERBORG” or along those lines. My father hated all my ideas. We fought about this for weeks, and in the end, he put in a submission for what he wanted, which was “KITSKAR.”
Ew. I still hate it. The k for car. The putting of my name on my car, which is not necessarily safe when you are a teenage girl. The complete lack of anything clever about it.
And, squider, do you know what?
The plates never came.
And I don’t know if I just never told my dad, or what, but we never did anything about it. Which was great, because I would have hated those plates forever, and I really, really liked the car. It was an ancient Ford Escort that I affectionately named Bob (because it had the personality of a grouchy old man, and he hated my friend Eli, which is still funny to this day).
Bob, wherever you are, I hope you are still kicking ass and taking names.
Oh, and that stereo system my dad bought me? Shorted out the electrical systems in the car. I would carry a box of fuses around with me to replace them when they invariably blew, which was in shorter and shorter increments each time.
Poor Dad. 0 for 2.
Do you have personalized license plates where you live, squider? Any you particularly like? Able to help me interpret the ones I saw yesterday?
