News round-up time.
First, on the personal front:
I've had another of those short seasons of discontent with my novel, but I'm feeling really good about it again, thanks to last night's writing group meeting. Braveheart and Tomasina listened to my whole plot, which includes subplots and secondary characters, and wow! I do have a story, and I don't really need the flashy upping-the-stakes idea I had and worked on for a few weeks.
It was very affirming and helpful. It feels good to be back on the original track, and okay that I spent time exploring what turned out to be a blind alley. All writing is good practice and I did learn something important about one of my main characters that I'll use in a toned-down way.
Something else I'm concerned about these days is an impending new commercial development in Acton, my little high desert town. Here' s a Daily News article, which kind of tells what's going on. What I don't get is where they get their statistics on the size of Acton. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, there were 2,390 residents of Acton, which means that--even given the expansion of the town in the past few years--with 1,000 signatures, at least 1/3 of households are opposed to the high density of the development. When they say there are over 9,000 residents, I believe they are using statistics that describe the entire Acton/Agua Dulce area, which is more than 80 square miles!
The local group that has sprung up to fight the developers, who have not been up front with the town council, is SORTIE (Save Our Rural Towns from Inappropriate Expansion.) What we are saying is not that we don't want any development at all--sadly, it's impossible to close the doors on paradise right after you arrive--but that it should be appropriate to the community's needs. There are also drainage issues that aren't reasonably addressed, which is a BIG deal in a dry climate like ours.
I've written a personal essay about development issues that's supposed to be published in the fall issue of Weber Studies. Sigh. I feel the fall slipping away between my fingers and no fall issue has been issued. Sigh again.
Turning to the ongoing WGA strike:
Check out this Not the Daily Show video from the writer's strike front lines. I love writers. Funny and smart.
And if you have just endless amounts of time to devote to this subject, this letter from creative producers to Variety explains that they are not opposed to the writers. This is why I've referred to the AMPTP opposition as executives rather than producers here.
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