Walking Wounded

Right now my right knee is bruised and swollen, there's a spot just below my ribcage that I can't even touch, and the lacebite on my left foot makes me wince with every step I take.

Dammit, I LOVE playing hockey.

Seriously. I had an absolutely blast in our game last night. It was the big 'grudge match,' so to speak, except that I still like most of the guys on the team. We had two new subs show up, a pair of brothers that have been friends with Jeff forever, and they were fantastic. As a team we shook off 14-1 and 8-0 losses and made a tam that was 2-0 work for a 6-3 win. They had a 5-1 lead but we chipped away, getting it to 5-3 before ringing one off the post and having another instance where a rebound just sat in the crease for a good three seconds. So, so close.

In the second period, when we were defending the goal closest to the other team's bench, I heard Tom yelling for his players to dump the puck deep on me. Clearly this was a strategy, as I was perceived as a weakness. How did that work out for them? Well, let's see. For the game I could be cheap and say I was even, but it's technically accurate to give myself a -1. I was on for the first goal of the game, when I managed to keep one of their really good skaters to the outside like I'm supposed to, but he kept going around the net and beat Charlie with a wraparound. The second goal occurred as I had just stepped out on the ice after serving a roughing minor - deserved - and technically I gotta take the rap for that. I was credited with an assist - my first point - on our second goal, which maybe involved me making a 10 foot pass to one of the Lifriere brothers before he skated through the other entire team for a goal. So, -1. I had a slew of blocks, as my injuries indicate, and I just had a great time. Jeff and Ken did well as well, although Jeff is no doubt beating himself up for getting his pocket picked for a goal - it happens to all of us. Especially me. After the game our former goalie Alex - who had a great game and was probably the difference, not that Charlie played badly - said he thought we outplayed his team. I wouldn't go that far, but I'd say it was an evenly matched game with a few of the bounces going their way. Our forwards are starting to get comfortable with one another and we had sustained pressure in their zones numerous times.  All in all it was very encouraging and I hope we can keep improving, although we have another good team waiting for us next week. We need our practice to get some forechecking schemes set, working on faceoffs, etc. And I need to not catch slapshots with my ribs.

Ah, who am I kidding? I love blocking pucks and diving to break up plays. No talent, all heart. Although that might be bruised as well.

Writing: edit edit edit. 10 chapters down, 1 eliminated, about 32 to go.

Slash! Hack! Gut! Gore!

Almost 25% through an edit of the book. I just mooshed two chapters into one and cut close to 3K words, which I know is a good thing but it killed me to nuke some of the dialogue. I'm sure later I'd realize it was as self-indulgent as the stuff I cut from the guys playing poker, but I remember how long it took me to settle on six pickup lines to be used (there was a contest. The protagonist and his GF had Met Cute in a bar and taken part in a pick-up line contest that had sprung up. The world will not suffer for it being edited). Such is life. I'm being quite the brutal editor on myself as I wait for authors to work on the comments I gave them on their book so we can move that project along. They haven't looked at it in over a month and I'm wondering if it's professional to give them a nudge or not. Ah, we're working at their schedule.

Hockey game against our former teammates this Sunday. Sheq's MS is flaring up - can we postpone the game until he feels well enough to play? Probably not. Rats.

Embracing the Suck

I'm not sure what to make of our new hockey team. We got smoked again last night, although it was a much better team effort and except for a lamentable 5 minute span in the second period in which Things Fell Apart, it wasn't totally horrible. The question is, are we a bunch of players who just need to shake off rust and get used to one another or are we at our maximum talent level already?

I'm leaning toward the former. i mean, it makes sense. We have guys who were on skates for the second time in 20+ years, and it's unreasonable to expect their timing to be back already. On defense I am the most experienced player we have, which speaks volumes about the growing pains we're experiencing. I did sorta okay in a defensive outlook last night - in an 8-0 loss I was only a -2, with one goal being a weird deflection off a blocked pass and the other being me able to dive and hit the puck on a  breakaway but not hard enough to get it away from him - but my offensive attempts aren't so great. I stink at keeping the puck in. Practice will help, but meanwhile we'll keep absorbing bad losses. It's still fun and I still enjoy every shift. There's a rumor my wife took pictures and so there will be evidence of my fashion transgressions. I throw myself on the mercy of the court. Or rink. Whatever.

writing: 6 chapters edited, lots and lots to go. Plod plod plod.

Update - the Sequel! MAXIMUM UPDATING! IN YOUR FACE!

Uhm, yeah. So, chugging along on the novel edit. Should finish Chapter 6 tomorrow, and I figure that somewhere in the 20s I'll hit more recent writing and be able to move more quickly. Started a short story as well for a market I found - I like the premise and the scene, but I have to give it an ending because that seems to be the thing these days, stories with endings. Foo.  Still waiting on my authors to go through my edits so I can re-edit, but that'll happen at some point. I need to set up a fancy-pants official 'Kit Yona is a Goddamn Editor' website to see if I can draw in some more work. I just need some more of that, uhm, spare time stuff.

New hockey season, new team, same ugly results. This time the house team was given a bunch of really good players, and a few of them skated roughshod all over us as we tried to find our way having not practiced together yet. Defense is an issue - we need a solid four, and the best skater we had with us belongs at forward, but we'll figure it out. I managed to sew up the arms on the gorilla-length sleeves of my sweater - we not have played well, but we looked good (except for me with my black sweater, bright blue pants and iridescent purple socks I AM A HOCKEY FASHION MAVEN

writing: I'm writing, I'm writing. Female protagonist and all!

What is a Writer Who Does Not Write?

Howdy, gang. Been a little busy lately and ignoring this blog. I've been doing a lot of editing lately: I've finished a first pass through a book I was hired to edit and am waiting on the authors to resolve comments/suggestions/clucking before I make another pass through; I took a few hours to go over a friend's story that's anthology-bound. He agreed with about 75% of my recommendations - and there were a lot - which I think is a pretty good ratio; and I'm digging into a first edit on my revised novel. That's going slow as I'm working with stuff I wrote three or four years ago, as opposed to the more recent chapters which seem much, much better written. Heh.

But what I'm not doing much is writing, and for me that like exercising - the more I do, the easier it is. So I need to start carving out some time for that. I have a novella or novelette or whatever the hell 10,500 words is that I love but damn it's difficult to find a home for something that big. So I need to balance finishing my novel while being ready to do more editing on a hired job while also working a demanding full time job and keeping a wife happy while raising two kids while co-running a hockey team while GMing a weekly Pathfinder game while whining and complaining on this blog. Yeesh.

Scurvy Dogs hit the ice Sunday. Number of practices: zero, although that's the league's fault. Number of regular goalies there: zero, but he's gotten us a sub. Number of people besides myself happy with playing defense: zero, but some people are willing to give it a try. I have no idea what we'll be like. Between the five of us coming from the Raiders we have 1 goal and 1 assist. The majority of our new pickups are guys who haven't played since high school, although we also have one guy who has a backyard rink and another who coaches. In this division you really only need two or three good players and have the rest of the team play cohesively to win, or so I've observed. In any case, once more into the breech, my friends.