Wib wib wib!
Nice afternoon so far. Went to have coffee (or at least a bottle of water) with Jai, and hung out with her for a couple of hours, then went to the gym and now I'm all wibbly. Ted went to the gym, too! Yay Ted! Yay me!
Cost of going to the gym this month: $11.37 per visit. We shall try to do better in March. :)
Time to edit!
Okay, pretty cheerful me this morning. I got another 1650 words written on TQB and finished up chapter 4. So far I like the end of ch. 4 best--well, I donno, I liked the end of ch. 1 a lot too. :) Anyway, enjoying writing this a whole lot! I hope I continue to enjoy it!
I have also launched a cemurphy.net redesign. It's still a little shy on content, but I'm v. pleased with the new look, which takes it away from being a blog-shaped site and turns into an informational site. So, yay!
ytd wordcount: 82,300
Gacked this meme from matociquala at LJ: where were you on this day last year?
Frankly, Feb. 28th was pretty damned boring in 2002. I advise checking out Feb. 27th, which was much more interesting.
A year ago today, on the other hand, was an exciting day.
Oh! And 2001 was good, too! I went to work with a shaved head 3 years ago today! Who knew? *laugh* (The photos linked from that entry now reside on this page.) And this is the best I can do for Y2K (Deborah, you must go read that last link), unless I went and dug out my paper journal, which I'm not going to do.
Okay, that was fun!
I got up this morning and pounded out another 1650 words on TQB, which is STILL going very well (it can't last, but oh how I enjoy it while it does!) and now I have broken 80,000 words for the year! 20% of my goal! Woo! *happy dance, happy dance*!
Off to have French toast now. Yum. Hungry Kit.
ytd wordcount: 80,650 (YAY!)
At the end of the day (you're another day older! and that's all you can say for the life of the poor!), it turned out to be a good writing day after all. I got 1900 words written on TQB and I enjoyed the hell out of writing them. This makes me insanely happy. *beam*
I also went out and bought paperback copies of When True Night Falls and Crown of Shadows, because my hardback copies are somewhere in the garage in a box and it was easier to go buy new copies than try to find them. Also, they're just that good. Also, this way if I ever need to lend people copies, I have copies that I can lose, and that's good too. :)
~o It's a struggle, it's a war, mumble mumble mumb mumb, what is it for? One day less to be living! o~
I apparently need to dig out my Les Miz CDs. :)
Cheerful me!
ytd wordcount: 79,000
This afternoon my agent asked, on her blog, what the most frustrating thing about rejection was. I ended up saying that it's not really rejection that I find frustrating, but rather the amount of time it takes to get rejection letters, which has nothing to do with the rejection itself.
Jenn then asked, So....what do you think is a reasonable amount of time for consideration and reply? I know on initial queries I'm usually good at answering within two weeks now (though not during holidays). On requested partials and manuscripts, I take much longer and my response time varies wildly.
My response got very long indeed, and I thought I'd post it here as well as in her comments. Behind the cut, because it really *is* long. :)
It's a hard question. I'd love to see responses -- whether from editors or agents -- within a month. It reduces the angst and the chilled hands when you go to check the mailbox. Above all, though, I think what I'd like best is for the guidelines for individual houses/agents to be posted and to be *accurate*.
If somebody's guidelines say they'll take 4-6 months to reply, okay, I can live with that. It's when the stated response time passes six months and hits nine, or twelve, without any kind of answer, that panic sets in. One doesn't want to *nag*, but good *God*, what's going *on*? Has the building imploded? Have several key people died? Is your partial so very good that they keep passing it around the office, but have somehow failed to actually ask for the whole book? Worse, is it so bad it's been turned into kitty litter and forgotten about? What's going *on*?
It's not having any understanding what 'a quick turnaround' is, if someone in a publishing house tells you they want to do a quick turnaround on something. It's seeing that a query letter/partial submission will be (at least theoretically) responded to in 6 months, but having no equivilant information on how long it might take to get a response on a requested manuscript.
It's the utter lack of control. As an unpublished/unagented author, when you're sending things out, you're completely out of control. You write the best story you can, of course, and you format your manuscript properly, and you put it in the mail and at that point someone has the ability to break your heart and crush your dreams. You're desperate not to offend anybody, but you don't *understand* the process that's going on, on the other end. You hear about hideous slushpiles and know your manuscript is in there somewhere, but even if you appreciate the fact that editors and agents have a lot more to do than just read the slushpile, when the stated time for a response comes and goes ... and goes... and goes... and *goes*... and there's not a great deal you can really do about it.
We all read TNH's blog and see that once in a while someone does something clever like sends her manuscript an anniversary card, but -- well, that's been done now, are you really sure you want to be the next in a flood of anniversary cards? At what point does that cease being a clever way to get attention and become an irritating gimmick?
Literally the only thing you've got, as a beginning writer, are the times claimed, either on a website or in the Writer's Market or -- those are really the only places I can think of -- as to how long it's going to take to respond to your submission. If the publishing house or agent, for whatever reason, doesn't respond within that time, you feel like you've got *nothing*. It may be a very weak contract, but it's all a beginning writer has, and if it's broken, you really have no idea how to respond. *That's* the frustrating thing about rejection, to me, and it's not really even about rejection.
How to deal with it? That, I'm not sure about. In a perfect world -- well, in a perfect world an editor or agent would always be able to get responses out within the stated time period. :)
In a slightly less perfect world, a system that allowed for, "Hey, Jr.'s book has been here 5 months and 2 weeks, send him a postcard to let him know the ms hasn't been lost, at least" would be *so* much better than the uncertainty. I do understand the flaws with this -- it requires manpower to flag incoming submissions -- but boy, from the writer's side of thing, which feels very powerless, it'd be nice to have something like that in place. Anything that says, "You have not been entirely forgotten, grasshopper."
If you know your response times vary wildly on requested mss and partials, as the person sending those in to you, I'd *much* rather hear, "It will probably take three months for me to respond to this; it may take six (or whatever the absolute upper limit of your response time is)," than to hear nothing or to just not know. Without the information you (or an editor, or whomever) gives me, I have absolutely *no* way to reasonably guess at what point it might be okay to send an email or a letter or a phone call (and which of those is most appropriate is also a piece of information that, for a writer, is invaluable) to say, "I submitted X to you on Y date; could you tell me its status?"
And once more, from the writer point of view, you feel terribly out of control and out of power. It's *desperately* important to Not Offend The Agent, or The Editor (even if that importance/chance of offense is mostly in the writer's mind, it's still *there*). You *want* to build a good relationship, and you also want to know what's going on. Because all the power (percieved or otherwise) is on the editor/agent's side, literally *any* information I'm given is going to be tremendously important to me.
Apparently what I'm coming down to here is: I will accept almost any sort of response time as being legitimate, but when I'm given that response time as my window of expectation, I will *believe* that it's the amount of time it will take. If it turns out, for any reason, that it's going to take longer, I'm all right with that -- but I want to be told. It's the *not knowing* that's worst, so *any* communication makes me, as a writer, less frantic and more willing to take the deep breaths and practice the mantras and accept that, yes, okay, agents and editors have other things to do besides answer query letters and read manuscripts. I just need the bone, to know what's going on.
Don't read this if you haven't taken the quiz yet! :)
1. What name do I go by IRL?
Kit (3 points) 4
Catherine (2 points) 0
Cathy (0 points) 0
Catie (4 points) 26
C.E. (1 points) 0
Correct answer: Catie. 3 points were given for 'Kit'. Some people were stymied by not knowing the acronym 'IRL', which I hadn't thought of when I posted the quiz. It means 'In Real Life'. If you did not know that, give yourself an extra point. :)
2. And who, pray tell, is my favorite X-Man?
Cyclops (1 points) 0
Rogue (4 points) 30
Wolverine (2 points) 0
Gambit (3 points) 0
Storm (0 points) 0
Can you imagine? Nobody got this wrong! *laugh*
3. What's the title of my first published novel?
THE QUEEN'S BASTARD (1 points) 0
RIGHT ANGLES TO FAERYLAND (3 points) 2
URBAN SHAMAN (4 points) 23
THUNDERBIRD FALLS (1 points) 1
HEART OF STONE (1 points) 4
URBAN SHAMAN is the first novel I've had accepted for publication.
4. Where was I born?
Kotlik (3 points) 2
Kansas (0 points) 1
Kenya (1 points) 2
Kenai (4 points) 23
Cordova (2 points) 2
I was born in Kenai. Partial credit was given for managing to put me in the right state (Kotlik and Cordova), and one point of credit was given for Kenya because it amuses me, although *really*, people. What, do I look like a white African, or something?
5. Who's my favorite poet?
Dylan Thomas (3 points) 6
Lord Byron (1 points) 8
e.e. cummings (1 points) 8
Shakespeare (1 points) 6
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (4 points) 2
This was a total ringer. The correct answer is Tennyson. Dylan Thomas is my second favorite poet. Someone pointed out that all the quotes on my website are, however, the other three, so it's just as well I gave partial credit for those. :)
6. Who's my favorite author?
Get real. Like I could choose one?... 15
Guy Gavriel Kay (2 points) 12
Barbara Hambly (1 points) 1
C.E. Murphy (2 points) 0
C.S. Friedman (2 points) 2
I find it amusing that *nobody* said 'C.E. Murphy'. *laugh* Correct answer is 'Like I could choose one?' The three authors listed who aren't me are the ones I buy in hardback, which to my judgement makes them all my favorite authors, and so they are all worth partial credit.
7. What is it about Peter Wingfield?
The nose. (4 points) 8
The eyes. (1 points) 0
The voice. (1 points) 0
All of the above. (3 points) 9
It's not him, it's Methos. (1 points) 13
The nose. Although apparently many people felt very strongly that it wasn't him, it was Methos. Nope, it's the nose. :)
8. What do I want to be when I grow up?
A rock star (1 points) 0
A writer (4 points) 26
A comic-book artist (3 points) 1
A Republican (0 points) 0
As sexy as Ian McKellan (2 points) 3
While 'a writer' is the correct answer, and 'a comic-book artist' is something I would dearly love to do, I'm surprised more people didn't go for the giggle and choose the Ian McKellan answer, which also happens to be a correct answer. :)
9. What does the E. in Catherine E. Murphy stand for?
Ellen (0 points) 2
Emily (0 points) 1
Elaine (0 points) 2
Elizabeth (0 points) 7
Eileen (10 points) 18
This was the only all-or-nothing question. My middle name is Eileen. :)
10. What's my favorite fairy tale?
Tam Lin (3 points) 12
Sleeping Beauty (2 points) 0
Beauty and the Beast (5 points) 18
Cinderella (0 points) 0
Snow White (0 points) 0
Nicely done. Most people chose the correct answer, BatB, but everyone else chose the second-most correct answer, Tam Lin. Nobody went for the fake-outs at all. :)
Ted shaved! He has a bare nekkid face today! And he was wearing his contacts! Tomorrow he's getting his hair cut! I'll hardly recognize him!
That's all I know today. :)
I just finished re-reading Black Sun Rising. *God*, I love that book. I like the ending of that book better than any other book I've ever read in my entire life, and, as Sarah said, I've read a lot. The entire book is, in one way, a glorious, huge, wonderful setup for a punchline that I will never get over the glee of, no matter how many times I read it. Every time I read the book, I re-read the last several pages several times in a row, just because it's *so* *wonderful*. I just can't get over how amazingly perfect it is. *laugh* *God*, I love that book! *laugh*
I was a lot more aware, in this reading, of *how* the book is written. Noticing on an active level things like POV changes and sentence structures, and how one character's perceptions are different from others and the kinds of language they use. Thank goodness this does nothing to dilute my delight in the book. :)
I was going to say a lot more, but I've gotten caught up talking about Sarah's book with her, and now whatever I was going to say has fled my head. Bai bai thoughts!
Okay, this is Ellen's fault: How well do you know me?
EDIT: there are 46 possible points. :)
Yesterday was a pretty good day, overall. I actually *did* go to the gym, made myself sort of sick by biking too much, I guess (5 miles), and am mildly sore so I guess I did ok with the upper body weights. Came home after that and read for three hours, and I don't know if I'm just not used to reading that much anymore or if I was actually quite tired and stayed up reading too late, but boy were my eyes burning with exhaustion by the time I put the book down.
I didn't exactly leap out of bed this morning, but I managed to get up and write 600 words, which is better than nothing, on TQB. That puts me at something like, um. 22K for the book. Only another 128K or so to go!
...yeeeeaaaaah. I think I won't do that again for a while. *laugh*
Food now. Starving! Meow! Meow! MEOW!
ytd wordcount: 77,100
ytd miles biked: 12
Is it a bookstore accident if you *intend* to buy books? What if you only intend to buy one and end up with three?
To celebrate finishing TB, I went to buy the new GGK book last night. While I was at it, I got the Luna books, too, Catherine Asaro's and Sarah Zettel's. Much satisfied with this, I came home and started reading...
Black Sun Rising, which I've been promising myself I could re-read when I was done with this book. :) Besides, it was 9pm and I couldn't start the GGK because I'd have been up all night reading.
This morning, I did not get up to write. I figure I get a day off. Tomorrow, though, it's back to the grindstone. If I'm *terribly* clever, I'll finish ch. 4 of TQB this week, although I'm only like 800 words into it, so it's probably not likely.
I am, God Damn It, going to the gym tonight.
Dramatically edited from Rill's original, well-written, thoughtful, and heart-felt letter, my own letter to the editor regarding the completely absurd idea of a Constitutional amendment defining marriage:
Dear Editor:George W. Bush believes that a Constitutional amendment to define marriage as the unique province of "a man and a woman" is what "the people" want.
One of the most crucial functions of our Constitution is to make certain that the minorities amongst our citizens do not suffer because of what "the people" want.
Not so terribly long ago, "the people" wanted to discriminate against people of African-American descent.
Not so very long before that, "the people" wished to restrict the right to vote to men.
And yet, guided by our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, the United States of America decided that the rights of a citizen should not be restricted based upon his or her race or gender.
I believe that the decision of whether to grant the fundamental right of marriage to persons of the same gender is no different than the decisions we have faced in the past. I believe, too, that when our children and grandchildren look back at today's furor, they will hold, as we do,
"these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, [...] endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness--"
and they will wonder what all the fuss was about.
Sincerely,
Catherine E. Murphy
I'm v. proud of myself. I have participated in *three* social activities outside of my immediate family this month. The RWA meeting last night was pretty fun, although somewhat scattered, as usual. I came home and watched Law & Order and ate chili-cheese fries after that.
I got up this morning and discovered I'd once more written myself into a corner. Or, rather, I'd once more written myself into a sufficiently wrong place that going forward seemed pointless. What I ended up doing was writing a synopsis of how it was *supposed* to go, and now I'm extremely tempted to just tack the synopsis onto the end of ch. 33 (as that was the point at which things began to go wrong) and call the book done. In fact, I'm almost certain I'm going to. The book needs enough rewrites already that at this point, going back and rewriting the end when there's tons of stuff to do before that, too, seems utterly fruitless. The funny thing is that I don't even mind the prospect of going back and doing all those rewrites. I just want to be done with *this* *damned* *draft*.
And I think I am.
Yeah.
Yay me! I'm done writing THUNDERBIRD FALLS! Yaaaaaay!
o.o
*giggle*
Okay. Course of action: finish writing the (beginning of the) synopsis. Print out the book so I have a copy to write on. Talk it over with Sarah. In the meantime, work on TQB for the next month and, oh, see if my revision letter for US is anything like on the way. And, um. Yeah! I'll come take another look at TB in April. Yay!
ytd wordcount: 76,500
If I could figure out how to arrange the other three or so X-Men comic art pieces that I have on this wall nicely, I would do so. However, it's on the stairs and so the angle is odd, and one does want to be able to *see* one's artwork, so for the moment...
Yesterday was the sleepiest day ever. I read the last Myth book, which wasn't very good, and watched the SAG awards, which wasn't very interesting, and helped Ted clean the kitchen some, which was satisfying because wow the kitchen looks nice now. But Ted did most of the work, so all hail Ted. And I did some laundry.
I got 1200 words written this morning and I'm about to go into the Final Conflict, which will answer questions and cause dreadful things to happen before I wrap up. All is well.
Tonight if I am a good and wise Kit, I shall go to my RWA meeting. It's possible I'll finish writing this book instead, but I'd like to go to the meeting, so we'll see.
Food now.
ytd wordcount: 75,500
*LAUGH* Oh yeah. I just remembered. So last night after gaming we were talking, and Christopher said the first time I came into the comic shop after he started working there, I intimidated the *hell* out of him.
Now, Christopher is an ex-Marine. Christopher's like 6'1" and burly. This is not a guy you think of as being easily intimitable (although really he's a pushover, but I probably shouldn't say that where people can see it).
He said, "You were wearing your Rogue jeans jacket with all the Rogue pins, and you had your hair done with the stripe, and you said, "Hey! I haven't seen you here before!" and I was like, "Um. Um. Um. I'm sorry. I'll be good. I'm sorry. Oh look. The phone's ringing. Thank God. I'm just gonna answer this now. *run away, run away*"
And then Coby said to Christopher, "I had a lot of warning before I met Catie."
*O.O*!
This is not turning out to be a "finish the book in one last big push" day. This is a "I got 450 words written and dammit, that's better than nothing at all" day. :) I'll try to finish out my 1100 words later this evening, but man, SOOO SLEEPY today.
Last night there was gaming. We had a ridiculously good time, although we didn't *get* very far at all. We have, at the moment, four players: me, Shaun, Coby and Christopher. I'm playing Perry, a 5'2" female paladin of St. Cuthbert; Shaun is playing Tomu (I think that's the name) a 7.5 foot half-orc ranger (he's sneaky!); Coby is playing a (6') cleric of Pelor, but with an African theme to his character (whose name I haven't learned how to spell yet), and Christopher is playing a (6'1" -- I'm very, very short!) wizard named Thorin Methos. Yes, Methos. I said, "Oh, I love you!" and he peered at the name and said, "Huh?" and we said, "Don't you know Highlander?" and after a minute he said, "Oh! Is he the dark haired cool dude?" or words to that effect, and we said yeah, and it was all very funny.
My favorite quote of the evening:
Perry, to Thorin: "Thanks for your help back there."
Thorin: "It was the least I could do."
Perry: "Yes, but thank you anyway."
Perhaps I'll do a game writeup later, if anybody's interested. Or even if they're not. :)
It's been a surprisingly busy day here at the Murphy-Lee-Sandness household. Ted staggered out of bed at 7am (on a *Saturday*) to finish making danishes for all of us to have for breakfast. And they were veeeeeeerrrrrrry good. Yum. *tuds of the yumminess* I staggered out of bed a while later to shower and write. Finished ch. 33 in a satisfactory manner, stopped, had danishes (did I mention the *yum tud*?) and sat back down to write some more.
At 10, I stopped writing and went with Ted to deliver some *yum tud* danishes to Mom and Dad, who also went *yum tud*! We hung out there for an hour or so, but then we had to come home again because I was getting horribly antsy. Must! Finish! Book!
No sooner had we arrived home and I had turned on the computer than Emily called to regale me with the unlikely hell that her work is turning into. She needed somebody to vent and rant at, and so at me she did. But then the siryn call of the keyboard spoke loudly to me, and I went to write some more. Finished ch. 34 in a semi-satisfactory manner; I sort of suspect the first 500 words of ch. 35 will end up belonging at the end of ch. 34. One way or another, I wrote 3750 words, which makes me v. happy.
I *still* don't know if I've got one or two chapters left. I'm sort of hoping for one, because I'd be smug to have called the # ahead of time, but there may be slightly too much story left to fit into just one more chapter.
By that time I was quite light-headed from having eaten nothing but danishes all day, but I cleaned up half the kitchen and Ted finished it before we went to the store to buy chicken strips and jojos as well as the stuff we needed to buy to make pizzas for gaming tonight.
My plan was to come dink around online for twenty minutes and go make a cake at 3. Well, now it's 3:20 and I'm typing this instead of making a cake, so when I'm done with it, I need to go do that.
Also: I need to take pictures of the TOTALLY AWESOME Rogue and Gambit posters. *beam*
And now, to bake. *zum*
ytd wordcount: 73,850
Chipper! Which, at this hour, can only mean one thing: I got up and wrote this morning. I did not, sadly, get up at 6am and write 2000 words as my fond dreams would have me doing, but I did get up and write 750 words and put myself at v. slightly over 70K for the year.
*ha cha cha cha cha cha!*
There is no other news yet this morning. Except we're now out of cat food and we really must get some today so the cat doesn't starve over the weekend. (Yes, we still have two cats, but Lucy has taken to eating the dog's food in preference to her own food. Dumb cat.)
ytd wordcount: 70,100 (yay!)
Not...writing...more!
Ted and I, let's see. Ted very, very sweetly went to a movie with me instead of going over to Harry's Grillpub or whatever it is and having a beer with some former coworkers, which I appreciated a lot. Getting out of the house was good. We went and saw Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! which was as cute as Sarah said it was. We liked it. :) We came home, Ted made a *really* good steak dinner, and I sat down and slammed out another 950 words in about half an hour. Hooray for knowing where a chapter is going!
Then the art gallery called and told us that the Rogue and Gambit posters we'd brought over last week were finished, and because I am weak in the face of framed art, we went dashing over to pick them up and OH MY GOD THEY LOOK SO COOL! Smug! Pleased! Delighted! Also, having NO idea where I'm going to put them up. They're huge. :) Like, 18x40 or something. But they look SO AWESOME! I'll take pictures tomorrow but the pictures won't do 'em justice. :)
Thence to dessert, where we talked some about the third Walker Papers book (have I mentioned lately that I have the coolest husband in the universe? I do. He had some terrific ideas for the third book, just starting places, and some of it's going to work out really well, I can already tell. I have such a cool, cool husband.), and then home again, where I am writing this instead of writing more on TB. Even if I only have 650 words to break 70K for the year. o.o
And now to bed, because I'm v. sleepy and must get up and write in the morning, even if it is Friday.
ytd wordcount: 69,350
Okay, I got this from here, and I just thought it was a wonderful idea.
Today a coworker of mine had a thought to send flowers to a random couple waiting in line at SF city hall.He called a florist and they agreed to do it. He told them to deliver to any couple -- it didn't matter who -- standing in line to get married, with his blessing. The card will read simply "With love, from Minneapolis, Minnesota." (or where ever you are from).
Call your local florist, if you're in the least inclined, and have an FTD bouquet delivered to the San Francisco City Hall tomorrow at noon Pacific time.
CITY HALL
1 CARLTON B GOODLETT PL
SAN FRANCISCO CA 94102-4603
I went to bed last night and my mind starting going *churn churn churn* on this book and I tried to store the thoughts away for this morning, because they were good thoughts but I didn't want to stay up all night writing them. I'm not sure if I stored them all well enough, but I managed to hang on to some of them, and consequently got 1500 words written this morning and although I still feel that I've got a whole lot of work to do on this book, I am at least *quite* pleased with the end of chapter 32, and feeling fairly confident that the book will wrap up in ch. 35 as anticipated.
I had quite a lot of hair-pulling and not exactly florning but going *glghtlght* about the whole stupid book last night, and Sarah and Trip were very good about listening to me and petpatting me and assuring me I didn't suck as much as I thought I did. :) So thanks, guys.
I also decided that I was going to make a Big Push and finish writing this book this weekend. This seemed more dramatic, mind you, when you bear in mind that I thought yesterday was Thursday and today was Friday and that I wouldn't have two more days of not-weekend to write in. Given that today is in fact Thursday, and that unless something goes horribly wrong with the day, I will spend some time this evening writing, it actually seems more inevitable that I'll finish this weekend than dramatic. I'm very close to the end and this is the point at which I usually start feeling like I Can't Stop Writing Until It's Done.
Thank God. o.o :)
ytd wordcount: 68,400
Got out of the house for the first time since Saturday. o.o Working at home has its perks, but man. The whole housebound thing can really get on my nerves sometimes. It wasn't actually so bad this time because I've been *sick* and not inclined to do anything, but still. Blah. So Ted and I went to dinner at TGIFriday's, which was fine, and bought new milk because ours had soured, and that's about it. Went to the comic shop, but there were no comics. Snif.
It's amazing how much more satisfied I am with myself if I do a couple thousand words of writing. I came home and sat down to do another 1K and accomplished it (probably could've done more, but, well, opted not to), and I really feel like I've gotten a lot more done today than I feel like I have on days when I haven't written. It's just a couple hours of work, but psychologically it's big, I guess.
ytd wordcount: 66,900
Feeling a lot better today, which may or may not have something to do with having gone to bed at 10 minutes to 8 last night. Still a bit snorfly, but generally a lot better.
Sarah pointed me at this site, a conference called Mythic Journeys, which is convening for the first time this June. It looks incredibly interesting. Some authors I admire hugely will be there -- Jane Yolen, Guy Gavriel Kay, (also Robert Holdstock, author of Mythago Woods, which I mistakenly held against Charles deLint for some fifteen years), Midori Snyder, whom I'm not really familiar with enough to admire hugely but whose book Beldan's Fire I enjoyed tremendously, Charles deLint whom I still haven't read (see above note about Holdstock), Terri Windling... and that's just in the authorial section. It looks like an amazing conference. Wow.
I also discovered (finally!) an official GGK site, Bright Weavings, via Mythic Journeys, and now I know there'll be new GGK next month. YAY!
Woo. Dizziness and illness suddenly slamming through me. I suspect too low blood sugar. *drinks water carefully, prepares to go downstairs equally carefully to get some cereal*
I got up and wrote this morning, which makes me feel like a much more useful human being. Funny how that works, isn't it?
ytd wordcount: 65,850
God damn it. I am a stupid, *stupid* rat creature. Know how I mentioned I'd cleaned my desk on... whatever day that was? Yeah, well, I cleaned all our 2003 tax stuff right into the garbage. God *damn* it.
It's not that much of a travesty. I've been able to get 75% of the information I needed off the net and the rest of it through some phone calls or emails (except Ted's stupid former company won't ANSWER THE PHONE), but god *damn* it.
I had some sort of odd dreams this morning, including that I was sort of semi-dating Adrian Paul (hey, it's a rough job, but somebody's gotta do it!), who was working at a local comic shop. There was some kind of Highlander contest going on, only the only way you could win was if Adrian sold you the trading cards, which I thought was sort of ridiculous, and I'd already bought some cards, and one of the other comic shop guys accused me of wanting to get close to Adrian just, er, because he was famous, basically, which *really* pissed me off, but possibly pissed him off even more, which caused there to be some angst that had to be made up, which was followed by driving around in an old Mustang with Stan Kirsch. (One might think I'd been watching too much Highlander.) We ended up at a train station or something like it and my ex boyfriend was there, and he told me that his new wife had filed a restraining order against him that morning. He was working as a trash collector. His wife apparently felt she'd taught him everything he knew. I said, "Getting a divorce, then?"
It was really a very weird dream. :)
A couple of cool stories for the day: 72-year-old taught to read by 95-year-old Orange County tutor, and an account of volunteering at the San Francisco City Hall on Monday.
Pleasant surprise this evening during a Luna chat with Catherine Asaro. One of the Harlequin editors who was online asked if there were any other Luna authors there and I said I was one. It took her a moment to place me/Urban Shaman, but then she said, "Oh! We all loved your book! The marketing department is very excited about it!"
I actually blushed. *laugh* So that was pretty neat to hear!
Oh, and apropos of nothing, I caught up on reading Sarah's WiP yesterday, and I'm really enjoying it. It's cool having writer friends! I get to read things long before they hit the shelves! *beam*
I've noticed that when I'm writing a lot, I'm much less enthusiastic about reading. I'm wondering a little if the two tasks use the same part of the brain, or something, because I keep going to my TBR shelf, staring at it a while, even picking a book up, and then going "glglgh" and putting it back down again. I've found myself far less willing to go ahead and plow through a book I don't think is very good. I'm even inclined to re-read more than tackle new books, possibly because it's already familiar. None of this, of course, is any good for my TBR shelf, which has gotten to be over a hundred books again.
It's not that the good stuff can't draw me in, because when I sat down to read SUNSHINE the other day, I really didn't want to do anything else but read it because it was so wonderful. But boy, it's a lot harder to curl up with a book, if I'm writing a lot. If I need a break, I keep finding myself thinking, "...or I could watch some Highlander instead," and doing that.
Do other writers have this problem? Sarah said she did.
Skipping work today. I'm not as sick as I was yesterday, which is good, but I'm still pretty blah and tired. So I slept in until 8:40 or so and got up and showered and wrote my words for the day. I think I finished ch. 31 and I still think it'll be a 35 chapter book, so I think I've got about 10-12K left and I should be done. I hope. :)
ytd wordcount: 64,650
I would try to make an onomatopoeic word for how the inside of my head and lungs feel right now, but if I succeeded, you might get this cold too, and that would be sad. Suffice it to say: I don' feel v. good. :p
Yesterday. Can I remember that far back? Yesterday...oh yeah. I ended up shoveling for another couple hours yesterday afternoon, since it was 40 degrees out and melting like crazy. I did this despite having a cold, but didn't really feel any worse for the wear. And we went and saw, um. 50 First Dates, which started out badly but ended surprisingly well. I was quite pleased with it. And Sarah says Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! was surprisingly good. I'll have to go see that, too, then. Hm. I wonder if I can talk Ted into going this afternoon. Sitting at home moping about being sick isn't really doing any good, after all. I could go out and infect other people! That'd be fun!
*laugh* Mom and Dad just stopped by to pick up their camera, which had been left here. Upon hearing I was sick, they smiled pleasantly and left immediately (they just got over this cold, too). Such nice, kind, caring parents I have. :)
Uhm. Oh, so our exciting Valentine's evening involved sitting around and watching 4 hours of Law & Order: SVU on the USA network, because we didn't have to get up and change any DVDs or anything, so it was easier to do that than watch Stargate. :) Ted made chicken quesadillas and we got an apple cobbler to heat up and actually it was a very nice evening for us two sickos. I sensibly went to bed at 10, after the 4 hours of watching L&O:SVU, instead of allowing myself to get sucked into the *next* 4 hours of L&O:CI which were coming up. :)
I actually got up this morning and wrote, which astonished me not so much because I managed to get up, but because I was able to put together 1200 reasonably coherent words that advance the story in the fashion they're supposed to. Given that I feel like somebody's sludge pot, I'm pretty satisfied with that accomplishment.
Ted made strawberry waffles this morning that were tremendously yummy. Then I took a nap. Oh, and yesterday I did clean my desk! It's a thing of beauty! :)
ytd wordcount: 62,900
Okay, back in the saddle. Wrote 1100 words this morning and I'll probably write more later (especially since no one's around online to distract me). I think I'm coming down with the cold Ted caught, which seems like a v. bad idea. Plans today include going to the gym, maybe writing more, cleaning the kitty litter... maybe going to a movie if Ted's feeling up to it. Reading some more of Sarah's book, which I think I'll do as a procrastinatory technique. Oh, and I was going to clean the office, too, as a procrastinatory technique. :)
It's raining.
ytd wordcount: 61,700
Tired. I did go to the gym, which was good, and then I came home and watched 3 episodes of Highlander and an episode of Law & Order. I probably would've watched more L&O and less Highlander, except weirdly, after the one ep of L&O, there wasn't anymore on tv anywhere. o.O Anyway, only two episodes left in season 1 of Highlander now. Richie sure was annoying in season 1. :)
ytd miles biked: 7
Kit has such a hard time typing rouge. I always type Rogue.Trip thinks Kit should spend her money on making the movie _Moulin Rogue_.
Henry oh *god*.
Henry says "The fact that Hugh Jackman can sing only makes it worse when I've got Wolverine looking at Rogue and singing, 'We should be lovers!' and Rogue saying, in her Southern accent, 'We can't do that.'"
Happier now! :)
You know how I said I was aiming for such and so? I should just not say that, when it comes to writing, because it's a kiss of death. I keep not only not making the mark when I post I've got one to make, but I also seem to just not write at all. I'm too tired to care today, or something. It was very busy and stupid at work.
But I did go to the gym.
ytd miles biked: 5
Whew! Contract is not lost in the mail, but rather had to go back for some further negotiations. That's cool, I just like knowing where it is. :)
Other than that, had more epiphanies last night about the state of this book, and I'm suddenly getting all the threads tied together. The last question is whether or not it's going to end where I think it's going to or ... if it's not. :) I thought I was on the last day, story-wise. There might be one or even two more, in which case... well. It's for the rewrites. Anyway, didn't write this morning, we all got up late, so I must do extra-more writing tonight. I'm basically aiming for 2200 words a day at this point, because if I make that, even if I've got more days left in this story than I thought I did, I'll finish by the end of the month. And then I'm going to have to gut it during rewrites, but that's okay.
The real state of the union, link via Peg Kerr.
Off to find breakfast now.
*yawn* Went to the gym, yay me! Had a pretty nice workout, in fact. I needed it. We went to dinner at Aladdin's because I was too starved to wait the hour and a half it'd take to cook ribs, and then trundled home where I sat down to write some more. Ended up with a total of 2800 words for the day, 2500 of which were useable, so overall I'm pretty pleased with that. And I've fixed the Horrible Mistake which was slowing me down, and I had a small epiphany about something in the book, and the end might just be in sight. Yay!
ytd wordcount: 60,600
ytd miles biked: 2
Wah. No contract. Must email Jennifer.
Email at work today announcing the merger between my parent company, AdvancePCS, and Caremark, has been approved by the FTC, which means... not a great deal to me personally. Eventually when the deal closes it'll mean some retention bonus money here and there, which is always nice.
I ate a truffle after lunch and spent the next forty minutes or so fighting with cravings for more sugar-sweet stuff. I discussed it some with Starling, whose theory is that cravings are triggered by eating something your body neither needs, wants nor expects, which makes a fair degree of sense to me, since I've observed that loop in myself before. Stupid human. (Me, not Starling.)
DELETE DELETE DELETE.
Sat down to write this morning, got 300 words written and realized Jo doesn't *have* her car for the rest of this book, so I had to go rewrite the entire end of the last chapter (not done with that yet) and change a bunch of stuff around which is probably okay because the things I'm putting in are things I was thinking last night needed to go in during rewrites, at least, and well, hey, look. Rewrites. o.o Anyway, so I made my quota but it's a mess. A mhess, I tell you. I sort of suspect the original end of ch. 29 is going to end up being in ch. 31, because... because that's what I think will happen. :)
Hey! It was GETTING LIGHT at 8am this morning! YAAAAAY! *dancie dancie dance*!
I actually *went* to the SinC meeting last night, and it was pretty nifty. With one exception, a woman in her ... it was hard to tell. Thirties, probably, but a hard thirties. Anyway, with that one exception I was the youngest person there by at least fifteen years, maybe twenty. :) They seem like a bunch of nice people, and they have a lot of cool projects that they support and participate in. Including a fundraiser at the Fly By Night club on April 10 -- anybody want to go see Springtime in Spenard with me then? Non-smoking night at the bar! *hopeful look*
(this is the part where it'd be useful to know more than two locals, huh?)
I want to buy a Toyota Prius. Anybody got twenty grand to spare?
ytd wordcount: 58,900
This book is such a mess. Not the disasterous mess it was at the beginning of this year where I had to rewrite eighty quazrillion words, but still a mess. I just finished ch. 29 and I think I'm pretty close to right on schedule for wrapping up at ch. 35, but there's a whole *lot* of fixing that needs to be done with this book. I've been taking notes on what I need to fix. It's questions of pacing and timing, mostly. Motivations, somewhat. Possibly I need to add another character to the book. *fuss fuss* The final draft of this book is not going to look much at all like its first drafts, I suspect. But at least I know what needs fixing, and how to fix it. I'll finish it up, put it away for a while and work on something else, and come back to it maybe this fall before I start the third book. September. That'd be a good time to come back to it. Aaah, the joy of writing! Mess! Mess mess mess! But a mess I feel more or less in control of, which is good. :)
ytd wordcount: 57,800
mood: chipper, despite it all!
Went and bought a new season 1 Highlander. Am feeling v. smug about it, too. :) Ted got some game which will doom him for all time (Star Wars: An Empire Divided) and we had dinner out, all luxurious-like. Other than that, I've been doinking around on the computer all evening, so here, behind the cut tag, are a couple more interviews from Laura and Mary Anne.
questions from Laura:
1. Assuming cost is no concern, where are the top 5 places you have never been to before that you would like to visit?
The pyramids. Australia. New Orleans. Antarctica. The moon.
2. If you could meet any one person currently living and talk with him/her for 2 hours, who would it be and what would you talk about?
...I would like to be morally superior and say something like, "Jimmy Carter, about the state of the world," but I'd probably rather talk to Bill Panzer and pitch Sarah's and my Highlander series, or maybe pitch Legion.
3. If you could be any mythological creature, what would it be and why?
*blinkblink* Um. Jeez. Um. Something that can fly! A gargoyle or a gryphon! (I considered saying a pegasus, but the whole idea made me cringe with the girliness of it all. And I don't really want to be one.)
4. Do you think the world is a better place now than it was in the past? Do you think the world of the future will be better or worse than the world today? Why?
Yes, I do think it's a better place, overall, than in the past. It's a far cry from perfect, but it's better. And I think the future will ultimately be a better place than now is, because I think society evolves. I fear it'll take another few hundred years to evolve into a relatively ideal world, and maybe that won't ever happen, but I think the future will be better than today. (Optimist, anyone?)
5. What that you have personally experienced filled you with an intense sense of wonder (it doesn't have to be a comprehensive list)?
Wild Horse Monument. Whales breaching. Thunderstorms. Denali. Redwoods. Stonehenge.
questions from Mary Anne:
1. If you could have one "do-over" in your life, what would it be and why?
Mmph. Tough question, because I'm pretty happy with my life as it is and any do-overs would probably change things pretty significantly. But probably if I were going to choose something, it'd be to have not screwed around in college as much as I did. If I hadn't screwed around and done poorly I'd have graduated before I turned 21, and I think that would've been kinda cool. Would've changed things a lot, I think.
2. Sometimes we meet people and we know we'd like to get to know them better, but never get the chance to, for whatever reason. Who is one person like that for you and why?
My Grandpa Malone. It's not that I didn't know him well. It's just that I'd like to have known him better.
3. What was the hardest thing about not living in Alaska, one from your first foray out here to the DC area, and one from your second foray down to CA?
The bloody *crickets* in DC. I *hate* crickets. Can't freeping *sleep* with the stupid damned cheep cheep chirp chirp squeak squeak bugs going off all the damned time! And the heat in CA. I'm just not good with heat. I missed my quiet cold nights, darn it. :)
4. What are three things, not including writing, on your life "to do" list?
Bike across the country. Live in Ireland for a while. Visit New Orleans.
5. What is the average airspeed of an unladen swallow.... Oh, wait, no, that's not the real question.... Who is the one writer you most admire?
*stares* That's a doozy of a question. I would kill to be able to write just one book like Guy Gavriel Kay. I'd love to write one villain as utterly delicious as Gerald Tarrant in C.S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy. I'd like to be able to get down into the nasty psyche of humanity the way Warren Ellis does. I'd like to write something as memorable and telling about our culture and society as Huck Finn. And while we're at it, let's throw in the lasting power of Shakespeare. There are too many authors I admire to pick just one!
Interview from Jai! Wow, good questions.
(moving stuff to behind cuts, because these are way long.)
1. What person do you admire most, and why? This can be a historical figure or someone that you know, but a real person, not a fictional character.
Hm. Used to be I admired Peter Wingfield tremendously for quitting med school shortly before taking his boards in order to pursue his acting dream, 'cause he didn't want to be able to fall back on medicine. Then I read some bio somewhere with a less glowing spin and got the impression he was going to bomb out of med school anyway, so the decision to quit wasn't so dramatic and impressive to me anymore.
I greatly admire Margret Sanger, an early 20th century proponent of birth control. Also Ernest Gruening, who was ... many things in Alaskan history. Territorial governor, state senator (one of two who voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to attack Vietnam), and before coming to Alaska, newspaperman and doctor, but he quit the doctor job because he thought telling the truth in papers was more important and more influential. Didn't go over well with his father the doctor.
I admire the hell out of Elizabeth I and Eleanor of Aquitaine, women who held positions of tremendous power in times when women weren't supposed to, largely through force of personality. Oh, lots of people, clearly. But I guess those are some of the biggest. :)
2. What's the most important thing you ever forgot (and later remembered that you forgot)?
I don't remember!
3. If you had the power to go back and change the outcome of one historical event, would you use it? Why or why not? If yes, what event would you change, and how do you think it would impact the present/future?
Woooow. Oooh, I think I probably would, nevermind the paradox aspect of it all. I think I would go back and save the Library at Alexandria. Legend (I hesitate to say history, because it's so poorly documented) suggests that invaluable records, including medical practices and knowledge, were lost with the Library. Maybe without the sacking of the Library, we wouldn't have had the Dark Ages in Europe; maybe we'd be hundreds of years more advanced than we are now.
4. How is your life now different than how (as a child) you imagined it would be?
Well, I'm not a movie star, but I'm about to be a published author, so I got half of those things right. Um. I don't have kids, which I thought I would by now, but I remember distinctly thinking that 28 was very old and would be a good time to have kids, and by the time I got to 28, it really didn't seem that old at all and kids seemed like something that'd be better another several years down the road. :) I wasn't sure if I'd be married, and I am. Hm. Let's see. I think, overall, I'm pretty much where I expected to be. Aside from the not being wealthy beyond my wildest dreams part, anyway. :)
5. Of all the novels that you are working on (actively or not) do you think will be the most successful?
RIGHT ANGLES TO FAERYLAND. I think it has the potential to become a classic (ah, the modesty of me!), so with an eye to long-term influence on the literary field or staying power, that's my guess for most successful.
oh. mygod. so sore. *laugh*
My hamstrings hurt. My entire back hurts. My hands hurt. My lats hurt. My whole darned self hurts. Oooowwwwie. Whiiiiiine. *laugh* Ted is laughing at me. Mean Ted! Oooowwwwie! I was going to shovel more today, but I don't know if my hands can handle it. Owwwwie!
1200 words this morning. I'm surprised I got to my quota. I'm *really* tired. Oooowwwwie! *zonk* *tud*
ytd wordcount: 55,500
I had intended to make a stab at hitting 4500 words again today. Then it turned out to be FORTY-FIVE DEGREES out and I spent three and a half hours shoveling snow just for an excuse to be outside in the beautiful day, instead. :) I took a couple of hours and went to Title Wave to have hot chocolate with Jai and Tori and John, which was very pleasant, and we went to dinner and Mom & Dad's house (mmmm, baked ham, mmmm), and then home again. I did get 2200 words written, 1200 on TB and another thousand on a completely frivolous but fun little thing that has nothing to do with anything. :)
ytd wordcount 54,300
*mutter* My Highlander season 1 DVD with The Lady and the Tiger is all mucked up. I suppose it's a little irrational to go buy the entire first season all over again because one episode doesn't play well, but it's extremely likely that's what I'm going to do anyway. Phooey. And I was so enjoying my Highlander Night.
Christopher came over, we made up characters and ate cake and spaghetti and talked a lot. When he went away, I thought 'eh, well, another 550 words and I'll be 10K ahead of my ytd goal, might as well write a bit', only then at 550 I wasn't done and in fact at 850 I wasn't really *done*, but I put a note in so I know what my next thought was when I start tomorrow, and stopped anyway at 4500 words for the day.
I'd really like a repeat performance of that tomorrow, please.
ytd wordcount: 52,100
Swiped this idea from Dave, aka BangBang, and looked up myself (mizkit) at Merriam-Webster.com.
1. miscut
2. Mesquite
3. misact
4. mesquite
5. miskick
6. Miskito
7. miskicks
8. Miyazaki
9. Misti
10. miasmic
Hee hee hee.
I actually went to the gym. *waves a little flag* That's 3 times this week, which is 2 fewer than hoped for but 3 times more than any previous week this year, so it balances out, or something. :) Now if I were really morally superior, I'd go write some more, but I'll probably clean off the kitchen table instead so we can make up gaming characters. Yay!
Go me! Prodded by Janne and Emily, I hauled myself off to write some more, and wrote another chapter! 3050 words, for a total of 3630 today (so far. maybe I'll write more later. maybe not.), and I broke 75K on the book and 50K for the year. Yay!
ytd wordcount: 51,250
I got up at more or less the crack of dawn (bear in mind the sun is rising around 9:05am right now) (actually, by that figuring, I got up a good solid half hour before the crack of dawn, although it was distinctly light out when I got up) and did the usual morning things; showered, put the dog out, dressed, did laundry, and wrote, although not necessarily in that order. Finished my chapter and now I'm procrastinating on going forward. I should write a whole 'nother chapter today, because I've been pretty slackerly this week (where slackerly apparently equates to about 5500 words. Maybe I'm weird.), and I want to both make my weekly quota (which would be 7700 words) and hit 50K (which is 1800 words away, at this point). Also it would simply be good to get another chapter done this weekend. I need to be doing about one every two days if I want to finish by the 20th. Okay, if I want to finish by the 20th I need to be doing one every day and a half. Every two and a half to finish by the end of the month. And the thing is, if I don't keep my act together, I'm going to have to take days off work at the end of the month, because This Book Will Be Done On March First. Dammit.
So I guess I oughta stop screwing around online and go write. Whiiiiine.
ytd wordcount: 48,200
"But what if this virus can be transferred across corporations? This is ABC's horror scenario. The network has instituted its own five-second tape delay for the telecast of the revered Academy Awards Feb.29 lest Meryl Streep attempt to pull a Jackson."
*howls of laughter* More here, courtesy of the Toronto Star. *howls*
From Fred.
1. You take a side-step into the land of mythology and encounter the personification of one of the big abstracts of your life. What is it, and how does the resulting conversation go?
I'm literally sitting here staring at a dictionary definition of 'abstract' and trying to work my way into an answer of this question. It's a bloody great question. I'm just not very good at the introspection that leads to people being aware of unanswered questions in their lives. Either that or I haven't got any, which is possible. I don't tend to recognize a need to answer questions like, I don't know, "What happens when we die," or "why am I here?" The act of being is pretty much sufficient for me.
In a mythological landscape, I...would expect, perhaps, to meet Beauty's Beast, as a personification of ... maybe myself. Of what I want out of the world. Maybe a sphinx. The conversation...
Right angles to faeryland. *sigh* If there's an abstraction in my life that I'm aware of, it's a desire for that which is not. A wish for wings that work. It's a lot of why I write: the world fails me in its lack of magic. I have a need to correct that failing. I want the 'Here Be Dragons' on ancient maps to be accurate in that description; I want the kraken on the sea bottom to be real; I want to walk through a faery circle and come out in another world where magic is as much a backbone as science is in our world. What I write almost always follows those lines: worlds like ours where, upon taking the moral equivilant of a sharp right turn, the characters discover there's a great deal more to the world than they previously saw. I suppose if I were going to sit down and have a talk with my inner mythology, what we might talk about is how to bring magic into the world.
But, y'know. *shrug* That's what I'm trying to do already. It's not much of a secret to me.
2. You're given an opportunity to choose (and to some extent define) a writing assignment that terrifies you, challenges you, excites you, and once completed, will have grown your toolset as a writer significantly. What's the assignment
Ye gods. Writing a comic book with, or for, Warren Ellis. Or, hell, anything with or for Warren Ellis. But comics are his main forum.
3. Using each of the six senses (you pick what the sixth is), give me a sentence of how each one perceives regret. (e.g., Regret tastes like...)
Regret ...sounds like a loon call from the lake on a quiet morning ...looks like bright blue eyes in a sun-browned and wrinkled face; grey-white hair that's a little wild; knotted hands and a cup to put cash in while you walk by on a foggy San Francisco evening ...tastes like a smoky kiss at three in the morning ...smells like the cake that just overflowed and burned on the bottom of the oven! argh! ...feels like a churn of sickness boiling in your belly ...seems like such a waste of time
4. Name your top three "Never"s. Interpret this however you see fit.
Never give up! Never surrender!
Never is a very long time.
Second star to the right, and straight on til morning.
5. You've been given a chance to write a script for your favorite comic book. The latest issue you write is supposed to end on a cliffhanger. Share the script for that final page (and that final page only) with us.
Christ. You bastard. Actually... wow. At the moment, I'm so disgusted with the X-Men that although they're my gut reaction for 'favorite comic', I can't say they are right now.
So I'm giving you CHANCE.
PAGE 022--
1--We're looking down into the construction site; either we're seeing it through Chance's eyes, or we're looking over her shoulder. There in all the brightness, Black is trussed up in chains and dangling from a crane hook. Cops are swarming below him. No copy.
2--Immediately below #1. The cops are taking Black down. No copy.
3--Immediately below #2. Murkowski, who is among the cops, turns away from Black and looks up into the lights with a little smile.
4--This frame takes up the whole right half of the page. Chance stands up in a three-quarters profile as they take Black away. She's backlit, coat whipping around her, her hair flying as she looks down into the construction area.
TEXT BOX (TOP): The SUPERS don't hide their faces. They're NEW and BRASH and think they're KINGS.
TEXT BOX (TOP THIRD): But not even a KING is above the law.
TEXT BOX (MIDDLE): I'm not LIKE them. They've got POWER.
TEXT BOX (BOTTOM THIRD): I've got EXPERIENCE.
TEXT BOX (BOTTOM): Maybe I'll stay in the game.
TEXT BOX (BOTTOM RIGHT): Maybe I'll take a CHANCE.
THE END
More interviewing! Today may have a lot of long posts. :) These questions from Cam.
1. Is Alaska really it for you, state-wise?
Yeah, probably. I think I'm more likely to move out of the country than to another state. (I was almost certain you'd ask this question.)
2. Is James Marsters shorter than he looks?
Er. How tall do you think he looks? I didn't think so. He's about 5'10", which is what I expected. Amber Benson, however, is taller than I imagined.
3. What do you look for in a roleplaying session more than anything else? Tabletop or online, either way.
Hm. Depends on the type of game. The Champions game that Carl ran that I guest starred in a few times had a lot of actual roleplay, which was a blast. My all-time favorite D&D game I've been in was run by my roommate Shaun and we had a very small group of people who were IC *all the time*, and it was hysterically fun to play. Other D&D games I've been in have been less about the RP and more about the hitting things, which is fine, too. I would always rather play dungeon crawl and hit things than have a group whose purpose is split, where some people are all about negotiating their way out of situations and others are all about, well, hitting things (I like playing fighters).
Mostly? I look for the opportunity to hit things. :)
4. How has knowing me affected you?
At the risk of sounding somewhat corny, it's made me aware that there are genuinely gentle people in the world.
5. Will you send me a copy of your books if I asked nicely?
No, but if you send me copies you've bought, I'll sign them. :)
The interview meme. I did this once on LJ, but since I've stopped using my LJ, I'll re-post everything, including the rules, here.
Questions from Deborah are behind the cut tag somewhere down there. Stupid MT layout doesn't let you open and close cut tags as tidily as LJ does. :P
And, the rules:
1 - Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2 - I will respond; I'll ask you five questions.
3 - You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers.
4 - You'll include this explanation.
5 - You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.
My LJ interviews are here (from Tracie), here (from Russ), and here (from Dave).
1) Imagine ahead: you've just gotten your first royalties check. Whatever are you going to do with it?
Party like it's 1999! Um. Actually, wow. Good question. (You ask good questions.) Let's see. Since the soonest I could possibly get a royalties check would be, hrm, probably early or mid 2006... hopefully I won't be working the day job anymore at that point. What would I do with it. *think think think*
Well. I'd go out to dinner, at the very least. :) Um. Possibly go on vacation? You know, I honestly and truly don't know! It'd depend on what else was going on!
2) What does your dream house look like?
oohhhehehhehe. *clears throat* Victorian style with a round library tower. An entertainment room that had nothing to do with the living room, so there wouldn't be a goddamned tv in the main room of the house. A big kitchen, not just to satisfy my husband's culinary whims, but because I actually think the kitchen is the heart of the house, and there should be room in the kitchen for a big wooden table that's virtually impossible to damage, so that everybody can sit around it and game or talk and hang out or do whatever, while the cook does his (or, one supposes it's vaguely possible, her) thing and yet still participate in the conversation.
A study/office thing for me, preferably with a view which will distract me terribly from writing. It will be littered with the completely ridiculous number of comic-book art pieces that I've collected over the last several years, and with my book covers. This will make me tremendously happy. There will be tremendous piles of books sitting around so that I can look up whatever it is I need for the book I'm currently working on.
What there will not be in this room is a computer with a net connection. It's very likely the only computer in this room will be Little Little, the teeny Vaio laptop I do my writing on. It's vaguely possible I'll upgrade that computer, but it doesn't seem likely, at least not until the point at which it is no longer compatible at all with the desktops in the house.
There will be a dance studio/gym sort of thing in my dream house. The house will have probably five bedrooms. There will be a lot of walls to put art on, because we have a lot and we keep seeming to get more. It will be southern-facing. Ted would like a hot tub, so it will have a hot tub. It'll be on at least a couple of acres of land.
3) What was the smartest thing you did in your twenties? The most silly
I swear to God, the first thing that leapt to mind for 'smartest thing' was 'I married Ted'. How saccharine. However, that's gotta be right up there. :) Um. Also travelling Outside to visit all my net friends. Moving to CA for the job I currently hold. Buying a house, although that's more fortuitous than smart, perhaps.
I cannot possibly delineate the silliest thing I did in my twenties. Or at any other point in my life. There's too much silliness. :)
4) Having both as you do: cats or dogs?
Both! No, really. I love 'em both. Cats are small and warm and purry and aloof and crawl into your lap, and dogs adore you unconditionally and romp and play and wriggle. They're both eminently satisfactory in their own way.
5) What is it about guitar that appeals to you?
I am dented. My goodness, but the hygenist was a talker.
I also got to talk to an extremely cool old lady! Her name is Evelyn, and she moved up here with her family in 1949. Her husband was a carpenter and somebody told him if he came up here, he'd have a job, and Evelyn thought they should do it, but he just didn't know how they could afford to. So one day at lunch he was talking to a friend of his, an older man, about this job in Alaska and how Evelyn was just set on going, but he just didn't know how they were going to afford it.
And his friend took out his wallet and took out five one hundred dollar bills and reached over and tucked them in the husband's hatband and said, "You go to Alaska. It'll be the best move you ever made."
Later they were back for a funeral, and the husband tried to pay the guy back and he refused to take the money. He said it was the best thing he'd ever done, that the husband looked like a whole new person. So that was how they came to Alaska. Isn't that cool? *beam*
And she told me a story about her husband's parents. His father was French and apparently spoke seven languages, but English wasn't particularly one of them. He spoke enough that she could understand his stories, though, or at least they managed to get by. He told her about his first marriage and the twins and the daughter he'd had, but the twins and his first wife died of smallpox and the daughter died in her twenties, and apparently none of his children knew that story, because they never talked to him. They all knew about the daughter, but they had no idea there'd been twins or anything.
It was pretty neat talking to her. She was an old liberal. She said something about not liking the President, and I said, "Oh, don't get me started," and she lit right up and said to her daughter, "I've got a buddy here!" *more beaming* She said she'd been talking politics a couple of years ago with a friend of hers who was about her age, and the woman admitted she'd never voted and wasn't even registered to vote. Evelyn said, "Well, what're you complaining for, then!" and grabbed the woman's PFD application and turned it to the voter registration page and made her fill it out. And know what? The next election, the woman voted! And told Evelyn, and said, "*Now* I can complain!" *beam* Isn't that *cool*?!
I had this bit in this chapter that wasn't going well, and I got through it and whilst getting through it had a Small Revelation about how it ended and stuff and now, darnit, I have to do daytime hours work instead of writing work. Fnrt!
Dentist appointment this afternoon.
ytd wordcount: 47,600
My agent is so cool. *laugh*
Besides being an Agent Extraordinaire, she's also a cook. A couple of days ago, I printed out one of her recipes from her food blog. I have the recipe sitting on my desk. Ted just wandered by and read the site name -- The Spice Must Flow -- out loud.
Not until he read it out loud did I realize it was a phrase to be recognized, and recognize it. It actually made me laugh out loud. I have *such* a cool agent. *laugh*!
(For the three people who read this who are *not* science fiction geeks, the phrase stems from Frank Herbert's epic science fiction novel, Dune. Did I *mention* how cool my agent is? Talk about the right sort of person. *laugh*)
There've been a lot of good posts the last couple weeks about writing. I've been meaning to link to some of them, so now I am.
Neil Gaiman on, well, on writing.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden on why rejection isn't personal.
Peg Kerr on just how wretched copy editing really is.
That's all, for right now.
1150 words this morning, not quite as productive as I'd hoped but better than a kick in the teeth. I want to get through this bit I'm working on, so I'll probably write more on TB tonight. I may need to print the next hundred pages out so I can read them. Er. Not, like, the next 100 that I haven't written yet, although *damn* that'd be useful. Rather, the 100 pages that I've written since I printed out the first 200 pages. The right first 200 pages, as opposed to the old, wrong first 200 pages, which weren't 200 pages anyway.
I'm going to stop now before I injure myself somehow. o.o
thinks to do:
1. remind Ted to call his practicum person
2. passport pictures
3. gym
4. laundry
ytd wordcount: 46,450
Thud, kinda. Got 850 words written on TQB, feeling sort of uninspired by them, but my brain wasn't really in a writing mood. They're good enough for the moment and they mean ch. 4 is underway, which is basically what I was after. It also means I broke 45K, which is something else I wanted to do.
I tell ya, this getting up at 6 thing is killing me. Well, not killing me, but certainly making me want to go to bed at 10pm. OTOH, the 2K a day thing is working really well for me, so, y'know, you makes your choices. I'm not doing 2K *every* day -- my ytd daily average is about 1330 for all days and about, um. 1800ish for days of actual writing, I think. So I'm pretty pleased with that. And I'm babbling, because I don't have a lot to talk about.
Went over to the comic shop and made Christopher blush. *laugh* I guess he does comic book artwork, which Ted told me a week or so ago and I hadn't seen him since, so today I said, "So I hear you've been holding out on me," and he actually blushed. *laugh* Donno if I'll hit him up about Chance or not. Once more I wish I were a good enough artist to do it myself.
And, um. Ted cooked dinner because I'm lame, and we watched an episode of Stargate. I didn't go to UAA to walk. Oh well.
Um, yeah. Okay. Bed now. Night. :)
ytd wordcount: 45,300
After writing nary a word yesterday (*and* not going to puppy class, because Ted had homework and was exhausted), I got up this morgle and ARGH MUST PUNCH DOWN THE BREAD! made bread and wrote 1300 words.
Do you ever have this thing where you just can't get through a chapter and so you finally grunt and end the chapter and then blow through a few hundred words and tag them onto the end of the last chapter because that's where they really belong but there was this like huge psychological barrier to writing them there? Or is it just me? Anyway, that's what I did this morning, and got 1300 words written, so that's good.
There are still some flaws with this book. (*gasp* You mean I'm not writing something PERFECTLY? WOE!) Nothing that can't be fixed, and even nothing that needs to be fixed so that I can finish the draft, but definetely things that *do* need to be fixed. I've even been taking notes on them. Aren't I clever? :)
Not much else to report this morning, probably since it's, y'know. Only 8:30.
Oh. I should make a list of thinks to do.
1. finish bread
2. walk at der gym
3. go get new passport pictures taken
4. email allison
5. change kitty litter
ytd wordcount: 44,450
Okay. I was a bad Kit and didn't write, but I was a good Kit and went to the gym, so it balances out somehow. I don't particularly want to go to puppy class tonight but I suppose we ought to. If I write, do we have to go to puppy class? Yeah, I was afraid of that. Plblbht.
I'm trying to find a balance between working out hard enough to have effect and not working out so hard I screw up my back again. I have certainly managed, today, to work out hard enough that my arms are all wibbly. :)
That's about all I know today. I'm going to go pick up frozen dog poop now.
This has been a completely awesome day.
I got up around 8 and got 500 words written, which isn't, y'know, earth-shattering, but it's better than 0 words written, and I ought to be able to slodge my way through the rest of this chapter tomorrow morning. I think. Anyway, the point is I got some writing done, which, given how much else I did today, is quite amazing.
We did our weekly shopping, only Fred Meyer didn't have any good sports bras and my last one exploded, so I needed another. We went to Sports Authority where they had the right kind of (v. expensive, curse them) bras, and I bought two, and we bought a yoga mat and a yoga DVD. I'm going to dig out my Yoga For Weenies tape and do it for a couple of weeks and then try some of the stuff on the DVD that says it's basic stuff. Yup.
Um! So armed with all our shopping stuff we went home for a couple minutes and Ted couldn't find his kerchief for his class tomorrow, so we went back out to see if we could find one. We couldn't. We hit Habitat and I did find some kitchen cannisters I liked quite a lot, but they didn't have the color I wanted and they said it would take FOUR MONTHS to do a special order. Thafu? I thought that was unacceptable and didn't order any. Oh, and we had lunch at Bear Tooth, and that was pretty good.
Uh. Right, and then we talked about going to the gym and the convienently close location of the Alaska Club and whether or not we thought we'd actually go to it if we bought a membership, and Ted said he would go if I reminded him that he said he would go, and that he wouldn't be grumpy if I told him to go, and I *really* want to be able to go to the gym at a regular time, and the Alaska Club is 5 minutes instead of 15 away and right, so we ended up buying a membership there. So I *must* go to the gym several days a week now. I'm still gonna go to the university to walk (and to swim, if it moves me) a couple nights a week, because I really don't like using treadmills and there's nowhere to walk at the Alaska Club. So. That's my plan.
We went home to let the poor puppy out, and then I went back to the gym and actually worked out. Go me! 4 more times this week, that's the goal!
Then we went out to dinner, 'cause Ted'd earned a bit of money by doing some work on a friend's computer. We went to TGI Friday's where we ate Entirely Too Much (I've been eating too much all weekend, sort of with a deliberate and malicious intent, and then we went to Peter Pan, which was *WOW* magnificent! Wow wow *wow*! I might have to go see that again! It was really *wonderful*. The kid who played Peter, my God, wow. And Wendy was wonderful, and Hook was wonderful, and you all must go see it right now if you haven't already. :)
And on the way home Ted mentioned that the friend whose computer he'd worked on had come up with a title for the third book in the Angles trilogy, and my *God*, yes, she did. It'll be called A WITCH IN THE FOREST and it will be *absolutely perfect* to end the trilogy. I know what's happening with the trilogy as a whole now and *yeah*. *Yeah*! It's so perfect I got all emotional and giddy in the car. *God* I love my job! *helpless, happy laughter*
So that was the day! It was a truly excellent day, and now I'm going to take my tired, tired self off to bed!
ytd wordcount: 43,150