Swimming in a Sea of Words

I've had this feeling lately. It's a good feeling, but tinged with a bit of awe, like looking out at the ocean or the sky and feeling dwarfed by it. But the ocean I've been gazing at is made of words.

With no less than four serialzed audiobooks going on my commutes, and one for the days when those have no updates, Escape Pod, a print novel, random stories I feel the need to read, news, blogs and then of course, writing, I sometimes feel adrift in story. It never quite gets to being overwhelming except when I start thinking about all the other things I want to read, too.

It's easy enough to turn away from the words and play WoW or watch a movie, but lately I have been enjoying the drift. The last two nights I worked on edits for my tale Blood, Roots, Thorns that might make it into Flashing Swords, because I wanted to. It was a good feeling.

The whole thing, from the vast number of books I want to read just in my own genres, to taking a list of editorial advice and chewing through them, is a tremendous challenge, one that I really want to undertake. Criticism can be hard to deal with, but now I want to make the story so much better, because the editors have given me a path to do that. The community of writers, especially the forums for SF Reader and ISBW, inspire me to become more well read so I can participate more, to write more so I have more news to share and more experience with which to help others.

I am sure there are rough seas in the future and that sometimes it will get overwhelming, but right now I am in love with the vast ocean of words before me, with the process, and with my fellow writers.

Cheers!