The Undiscovered Country

95,578 Words Later

And I'm done!

With three days to spare.

That's right. I finished the latest rewrite of my novel. Boy does it feel good.

What happens now? I print it out, let it sit for a week and skim through it for spelling and grammar errors. Anyone wanna help, say a few chapters at a time? There's a present in it fer ya.

2nd on my list of to-dos: Gather a list of agents/publishers. So far I found one publisher that I really, really want to take me, but I admit to some ambivalence. What if they reject me, er, my manuscript?

I know, I know. Only one way to find out.

I shall keep you apprised.

3rd on my list: Because I made my deadline, my reward is a new camera. I spent the last month searching, reading reviews, comparing features, and decided on a Canon Powershot SX10IS. It's what they call a prosumer (professional/consumer) fixed-lens superzoom. Got all that? Anyway, it has high megapixels, 20X zoom with the ability to add an external flash and other gotta-have features. For a mere $350. All I can say is I love birthday money!

The camera reviews I paid most attention to were the negative ones. I soon discovered that in many cases the problem wasn't with the camera, but the buyer's expectations.

We're in a gotta-have-it-now-don't-make-me-have-to-work-for-something society it seems. I noticed when novices (and I don't imply that as an insult, because I are one) bought one of these prosumer cameras with a slew of manual settings (it'll take months to figure it out myself) they expected it to act like a simpler point-and-shoot.

Not every camera will take the same kind of pictures, and two different people using the same camera with the same settings will never take the exact same picture.

Example: My husband used to take his two-wheel drive Toyota Corolla places people who drove 4-wheel drive Jeeps wouldn't dare go.

He also used to take pictures with a Minolta waterproof 110 film camera. The quality of photos he took with that thing always left me in awe and a twinge of jealousy. I couldn't touch the excellence of his pictures with my more expensive 35mm.

It's not always the camera that allows a person to take amazing photos, but the user. A camera in its simplest form is a tool.

Some people can use a hammer and create beautiful, sturdy furniture. For others, it's a way to make wood look like a hailstorm attacked it. The reason Dave could drive to scary places in the mountains is because he pushed his car to its limits and learned what it could do. As for picture taking, I believe he has a natural eye for composition. He also pushed the little camera to its limits. Not being afraid of damaging it also helped, I'm sure.

Will this camera help me to take better pictures? Perhaps, perhaps not, but it's always a joy to learn how to use a new tool. With enough practice, I may take envious photos.

In the meantime, I plan to keep up with my writing. I've kept a decent schedule for the past month, and I don't want to let it slide.

What to write? For starters, I want to finish the book I started in the 2007 Nanowrimo (national novel writing month). I at first thought about editing another manuscript, but I need to set editing aside and write something new. It's like doing pushups for a month and nothing else. Time to work a on a different set of muscles so I don't burn out.

You will likely see me around more. Lucky you *snicker*.