Man, times have changed around campus.

I’m doing some researching on Norway House, Manitoba for my story “The Wendigo Killers” that has about 1200 words to it so far. Norway House was a fairly major fur trading post in the early twentieth century and is the location of my story. Unfortunately, I’m finding it exceedingly difficult to find out details about Norway House, small but very important things. Like how long it took get there from Winnipeg and what mode of transport would have been used in 1907. Did Norway House have a telegraph? How many people lived there, and were they all trappers or was it a bit more sustantial with a variety of merchants?

These things may not seem like much but they are absolutely critical for writing a realistic story. I supposed I could simply make it all up but it would be so much better to have concrete details. There are lots of books in the UW system about outposts for the Hudson’s Bay Company but very few mention Norway House in anything more than passing.

With a little help from the librarian, I happened across an article entitled “FAMILY MEMORY, PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE FUR TRADE: THE SINCLAIRS AT NORWAY HOUSE, 1902-1911.” Hmmmm. Sounds suspiciously like exactly what I was looking for and, according to a somewhat odd record in the UW library database, it appears as though it was available in the State Historical Society Library. To make a long story short, the UW system has a book of bound journal articles from “Manitoba Magazine” but its the wrong volume. Drat!

Thanks to technology, however, I put through a request to libraries which have the correct volume. They’re going to find the article, scan it, and email it to me. Free of charge. This kind of service ain’t available at the Madison Public Library, I’d like to note. And it wasn’t available way, way back when I went to college and email had only just become common.

I’m still suspicious of anything this good, though. I’m waiting to hear that the article doesn’t exist, or it can’t be found, or it’ll cost me $450, or something to dump on my parade.

But I’ve got my fingers crossed.

Today is a perfect fall day. Sunny, crisp, and the trees in all their colors. We’re going out to the country get our free pumpkin thanks to UW Hosptial. In exchange for lousy hours, deceitful hiring practices, and needlessly restrictive vacation policies, the good folks at UW Hospital give hard working nurses like Amy one free pumpkin annually.

We just celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary this past week on Wednesday. We dropped about $150 on a big dinner at Johnny Delmonicos Wednesday. It was a lovely night about but we just didn’t feel like we got our money’s worth. Last time we dropped that much dosh on dinner was at Cutters Bayhouse in Seattle but there the food was fantastic and the restaurant looked out across the Puget Sound to the Olympic Mountains. We feel like the high quality, relatively low cost of nice dinners in Chicago may have forever spoiled us. (sigh)

Reality check: Wisconsin football 8-0. Yes, that’s 8-0. Road wins over Purdue and Ohio State. Once again, that’ s the University of Wisconsin-Madison football team, eight wins, zero losses.

Good conversations going on the Convoluted Albatross and Yahoo! group from the Clarion alum. It’s nice to see what people have to say about our time together now that we’ve all had some time to digest the experience.

I also picked up Jeff Ford’s “The Physiognomy” and “The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque” at the Half Price books. He was listed under Fiction instead of Fantasy/Sci-Fi. I wonder where the good folks at Half Price would file “The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant” then?

The bad news is that this blog came under attack earlier this week. Some Texas Hold ‘Em poker site spamming the replies to the post with pithy quotes from the ages. The bastards don’t even the decency to cite the quotations–and some were actually quite good.

I also found Clarionette Marjorie Liu’s blog and website, where she proclaims to be shy but then blogs about ogling the moving guys. Shy? Marjorie, some of us know you too well…

Just got back from the dentist’s office where my six-month cleaning went extremely well. The dentist yukked it up with the hygenist, teasing her that her job was too easy with teeth as clean as mine. They gave me a free toothbrush and floss because I was in such good shape. Amy informs me that they give these items to everyone. Perhaps…but with such aplomb?

I’m over 1,000 words into “The Wendigo Killers” and came to a crashing halt as I realized that I started the story in the wrong place. If I have one massive problem writing (and I have a sneaking suspicion that I have more than one) it’s beginnings. I always want to start three or four beats after the song has begun. Why is that? I guess it’s good that I at least recognize it.

For a good read (especially about writing) check out my Clarion compatriate John Schoffstall’s blog. John received a great post-Clarion-depression shot in the ass when he arrived home to find out he’d won the L. Ron Hubbard Writer’s of the Future Contest. A few short weeks later, he had a story published at Fortean Bureau. It’s called Clockwork Dragons Must Die and it’s good stuff.

I especially appreciate John’s frank admission (see his Oct. 7 blog) that he has no clue how to write a story. I have been suffering from similar myopia since returning from Clarion. I have no problem producing fluff writing but I’m having a much more difficult time trying to get something out that carries any weight.

My guess? Clarion raised the bar. I can see the problems in my writing much more clearly now and I can try to fix them. But when I hold it up against the stuff I think is good, the kinds of stories I find moving and impressive, the kinds of stories I want to write, I find my own stuff lacking in so many ways. I’ve got a much better idea of what makes stories good. It’s much harder to make my stories that good.

After the away win at Purdue (alma mater of brothers and sisters-in-law) Wisconsin (alma mater of self and wife) is now 7-0 on the season and 4-0 in the Big Ten. Let us all hope Michigan gets a bad case of botulism and can’t finish the season. Even though the Badgers avoid them this season they can still muck it up. Of course, all Wisconsin has to do is finish the season undefeated and they don’t need to worry about it. Small matter of beating Northwestern (which the Badgers usually make a mess of), Minnesota (another team that seems to have UW’s number) and then Iowa and Michigan State on the road. Piece of cake, right?

The Pack finally had a good game over Detroit. Ahman Green throwing a touchdown pass to put the Pack up 28 points in the 4th makes me giggle. It almost makes me forget about the rest of the season.

Finished “Jomsviking Saga” two nights ago. A lot of it was slow until the founding of the Jomsviking community, which was a group of vikings that were kind of a cross between “Fight Club” and militias living in the hills of Idaho. The warrior clan were the most fearsome fighters of their day. The final battle scene goes on for quite some time and there are some good gory parts but not one of my favorite or highly recommended ones.

“The Wendigo Killers” is going slowly. Written four pages so far and I’m not sure the narrative structure will hold the weight of the story. Currently it’s in the first person with the story being told to the narrator but I’m not sure this is going to work. The person telling the story must be unsympathetic for the overall story to work yet I don’t want it to become a story told by an unlikeable narrator. We’ll see. Blogging is keeping me from it.

The US looked pretty good last night in the 6-0 route of Panama although they still are wasting way too many chances. It should have been a done deal a lot sooner–Berhalter, McBride, Wolff, and Bocanegra all missed great chances. The only ones to routinely make the most of their opportunities were Donovan and Eddie Johnson who accounted for 5/6ths of the scoring. True, Johnson benefitted from the game opening up with Panama being down 2-0 already, but he had four good chances and scored on three of them.

Sadly, I think Chris Armas’ time as midfield enforcer may have ended. Arena’s hot on Kerry Zavagnin and his assist on Donovan’s second was sublime and he cracked a shot just wide in the first half. I hope Mastroeni gets some more time because, like Johnson, he made the most of his minutes.

Bocanegra is awesome–it doesn’t matter where he plays. He devours attackers and when he does go forward he’s dangerous in the air and with his crosses. In stark contrast, Frankie Hejduk sucks to high heaven and is only a danger to himself unless he’s attempting one of his “patented” two-footed, studs-up tackles that usually ends up with him either getting burned or being guilty of a horrible foul. Berhalter continues to play…average, I guess. Pope did well but both of these guys tend to get lazy with distribution out of the back and are prone to giving the ball away cheaply in the penalty area.

Beasley had a quiet night, probably because he was afraid he’d be booked after getting fouled again. (sigh) What’s something nice I can say about the referee crew from Trinidad & Tobago…they kept me watching, I guess. Totally unpredictable. Beasley’s card was ridiculous but at least the Panamanians didn’t resort to bloodletting the way Guatemala usually does.

Speaking of those devils, it’ll be the US, Mexico, Guatemala, and T&T in the final six. The next games are 11/17. Costa Rica needs a draw at Honduras, Jamaica needs Panama to lose or draw or they need to win against the US second string. A Jamaica loss would mean the winner of Panama vs. El Salvador would move on and that’d be sweet. The most realistic scenario is a Jamaica loss and a Panama win at home, but I think two draws are more likely. Keep the fingers crossed! Not sure which poison is worse, Costa Rica or Honduras–probably Costa Rica only because the US always manages to have a rough go of it in San Jose and managed to get three points at Honduras last time ’round. Although they did lose at RFK to Honduras…

Ugh. The Packers have reached a new low. You could feel the ship beginning to take on water a few years ago and now, since Mike Sherman didn’t do enough bailing, the thing is swamped and sinking. I couldn’t even bare to watch the entire game on Monday night, it was so bad. Mike McKenzie should be strung up by his toes and pelted with dead rodents for his selfishness–his holding out helped usher in the end of an era in G.B.

I watched the US get a deserved 2-0 win away from home against El Salvador over the weekend. I’m not going to bother writing a full match report but suffice it to say that, while being less than a complete performance by the US, a 2-0 victory in Central America is nothing to sniff at, no matter how bad El Salvador may be nowadays. The attack continues to sputter. Mathis brought some life to the game but faded quickly in the second half. McBride scored a beaut but wasn’t at his best. Could it be because of bad service? Donovan and Beasley had forgettable games except for their brilliant combination that set up Johnson for the tap-in goal to put the game on ice. Hejduk sucks.

The qualifying round could be potentially pretty tricky. Mexico looks to be in good form, pasting St Vincent and Grenadines 7-0. While St. V & G are no world beaters, I don’t think the US is capable of putting that many in the net right now. So it’ll probably be the US, Jamaica, Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago and who else? Of Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Honduras, two will go. It’d be sweet if Panama could snatch Jamaica’s spot but I’m not counting on it.

The real winner this weekend, however, was brother Troy for finishing the Chicago Marathon in under four hours. We cheered for him at mile ten and again at mile twenty-three. Looked like he was skating at mile ten and skating up hill at twenty-three. I have a new appreciation for marathon runners and a renewed disinterest in ever trying it myself. Remember what happened to the first guy to run a marathon?

That’s right, he fell over dead.

I knew the day was coming. Things have finally started to settle down and I’m finding a routine. Get up at 6:30, take dog for walk. Shower, dress, eat, walk to work, start work at 8:00. Read or edit at lunch. Punch out at 4:30, home by 4:45. Between 5:00 and 11:00, I need to make my lunch, exercise the dog, finish off any remaining household chores, and write. Not bad, as far as routines go.

Just sealed the envelope on “Change of Seasons” and it goes out tomorrow. That’s probably the third or fourth revision since I wrote it at Clarion but it’s much, much better. I’m rereading Andy Duncan’s “The Pottawatamie Giant” (first mentioned here). Deconstructing is probably a better word for it. I’m reading it with a highlighter and a couple of colored pens, underlining phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that I like. It’s amazing how breaking a story down helps expose what stands out. I think the vast majority of my stories have decent plots that move at a good clip, and I think that’s why I’ve gotten complimentary rejection notes. The reason why I’m not getting contracts, I’m guessing, is that my stories seem a bit thin. I’m realizing that stories (or at least my stories) need to be written, and then they need to sit and settle. Then they need a rewrite, sit, and settle. Then another rewrite and probably a fourth time before it’s really ready to go. Even with this story, I think it could use a fifth pass but I’m tired of looking at it. Six weeks in an editor’s slush pile should solve that.

Ack! Maybe blogging is only a weekly habit after all.

Rehashing “Change of Seasons” for about the fourth time before I send it off. What I really want to do is start writing a bunch of stories–I have about three on deck right now, the last one stemming from Bruce Springsteen’s excellent song “Atlantic City.” I miss the days of just hammering out whatever stuck in my head. Too many things eating up too much time.

Speaking of things eating up time (amongst other things) we’re 2/3rds done with our Intermediate dog training class and it looks like we’ll probably be taking a break until 2005. We need to spend some time “proofing” Athena to make her stays more solid but we’ve come to the conclusion that her raging puppy hormones undo her more often than anything else. She wants to obey but the puppiness coursing through her veins simply won’t allow it sometimes. We found a new dog park in Middleton with agility equipment and, as expected, Athena loved it, especially the steeple-chase type jumps. Those courses are definitely in her future.

Trying to get outside at least once or twice more before the year ends. If the weather stays mild, I could easily push backpacking into December. Not sure when I want to put the canoe away for the season. Too much fun stuff begging to get done and too many things standing in the way. Like work.

In case you haven’t noticed, the Packers suck. The Badgers suck too, but at least they’re 5-0. Spurs round out the sucking trio but they’re 3-4-1 with 13 points to their credit, tied with a certain team from Manchester who undoubtedly sucks to high heaven. And poor Blackburn. They deserve better than yet another relegation battle.