| You need to start bottling that cuke water and selling it. I'm getting jealous! mmmMMMM!!! |
| Hit the library today to research literary agents. I'm following the procedure outlined by Victoria Strauss's article and figured it'd take about an hour to go through the Literary Marketplace listings. (ahahahaha!) After spending almost two hours on the listings the library was closing and I had just reached the G's. Granted I'm writing down any agency that sounds like it would remotely handle an alternate earth/paranormal/mystery/coming-of-age novel.
Returned home with a list of 88 agents and spent another two hours going through the AW archives and P&E; for the skinny on the agencies. Even though I have a working knowledge on how to spot a scam, I managed to get two from the SFWA Beware's 20 Worst Scammers on my list, as well as some other undesirable, fee-chargers. I'm printing out the top 20 list to take with me when I go back to the library on Tuesday. Also managed to cross out some agencies that I had heard from friends would not be a good fit with me. That left me with 73 agencies. Right now I'm looking for reasons to not query an agency so I'll be sorting my list first by those agencies/agents I would love to have represent me, then those that have "$/recommended" in their P&E; listing, then the rest (of about 30 of the agencies I couldn't find anything good or bad). Then I start looking up guidelines and sending out queries. |
| 12:26 am.
Made vest for sister. Made chickenless chicken jumbalya. Made cucumber tonic. Made more cucumber water. Made cucumber hors d'oeuvres. Made dinner. Went to gym. Washed clothes. Made ebook file for Lawrence. Read feedback from beta-reader. Stole sister's chocolate stash from back of freezer to combat depression brought on by feedback. ---- I would like to put in for a change of personality type. This whole A-type just isn't working out for me. I got so much accomplished today and three pages of feedback has me wallowing in misery, convinced that I'm wasting my time with this novel. Publishing was sooooooooooo much easier than this. *grump*whimper*cries* I'm going to bed. And tomorrow I'm making me a skirt and critiquing a story for critique group in the evening, and yes, I will even dig out that pickle recipe and make me some comfort food. |
| Or instead of cream cheese, you can also use dill dip for those little cucumber sandwiches -- very spreadable but not too runny. I'm thinking Mazaratti's (sp?) brand, which doesn't have preservatives so it's with the cold produce, not with the bottled dressings that aren't chilled.
However, Mazaratti's may use MSG -- can't recall. But they may be alternate brands that don't use MSG, if that's a concern. -- Amy S. (not logged in) |
| Raechel, you're a sewing demon! I can't believe how fast you sew garments! You go, girl!
As for cukes...thinly sliced, placed on a bed of cream cheese spread on those teensy square slices of pumpernickel bread? mmmMMMMmmm...classic Danish fare! You could add a dab of pickled herring... |
| Congratulations to your sister!
Mmm, pickles... |
| You going to try pickles?
law |
| Hmmm...eggs and cucumbers? Maybe the next Sunday morning my sister makes breakfast (she makes awesome french toast) I'll request she give it a try.
Oh yeah, my sister got a new job! Finally, no more dealing with bridezillas. She's working at a jewelry store/warehouse, answering phones, taking orders, filling them. The pay's good, it's full time, although no benefits. This means she'll be going to tradeshows too. So I'm making more clothes for her. I finished up a skirt for her today and started on a vest in matching material. I really need to take pictures of all these and post them somewhere. |
| A friend recommends thinly (paper thinly) slicing the cucumber and adding them to scrambled eggs. She eats eggs no other way. (I think she said she adds them at the end so they don't mush up. I have been meaning to try it. Sounds good.)
SueO2 |
| So the cucumber onslaught continues. I have several baggies loaded with them and more coming in every day. I pulled the first few tomatoes from the garden yesterday. Looks like I'll be harvesting green beans again in the next day or two. The sugar snap peas seem to have finally given up the ghost. And I've collected a few seeds from the bok choy to try another planting this month on the theory that they are a cold season crop, which is why they went to seed so quickly.
Thank goodness for neighbors, friends, critique group members and the occassional stranger else I would have died from cucumber poisoning now. (That's a joke, I don't honestly think there is such a thing as too many cucumbers but my family disagrees. The fools!) I found a recipe for making hors deurves by cutting a washed, unpeeled cucumber into one inch pieces and coring out the seeds to make little bowls. The recipe suggests filling them with chicken salad, but I think I'd rather try something else, something fruit chutney maybe? Anyway, I also found recipes for cucumber tonics so I shall be cucumbery inside and out! Writing has not recommenced. I am waiting for a couple more critiques back before I do the final spit-n-polish and start querying. Still no title in sight. |
| Roach, it's funny, most hotels in North Dakota all have fancy, indoor pools with plenty of kid stuff -- one hotel in Fargo even has this huge pirate ship with slides and stuff.
And all because the Canadians come down every weekend to shop, and tire their kids out in the indoor pool in the dead of winter, so it's actually become a popular weekend mini-vacation. Who'd have thought North Dakota would be a vacation destination in winter, esp. considering as it's flatter than a pancake so no downhill skiing (and you'd freeze to death anyway)? Another note: due to the high taxes in Canada, Canadians are often unaccustomed to tipping in restaurants. Just in case you're ever considering being a waitress in North Dakota..... That's one of those weird things you learn from experience, that you realize you probably didn't want to know from experience.... -- Amy S. (not signed in) |
| Back from the wedding in PA. Best moment: watching Charlotte learn that bad things happen when she's riding the moving walkway and tries to lick the glass. Second best moment: dancing at the reception with both Matt and Charlotte to Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer. We discovered that staying in a hotel with a pool is essential. Charlotte got to swim around and tire herself out, which meant we were able to put her down for naps and bedtime with a minimum of drama. |
| I've had bok choy. Good stuff. Gai lan sounds good too. |
| Well....shoot. |
| Clyde, I think you're thinking of bok choy, which is also called chinese cabbage. Gai lan is called also called chinese broccoli. Both are very tasty. I like to steam gai lan, drizzle it with oyster sauce and serve. It's good it stir fries as well. The bok choy didn't do so well this summer. I don't like the variety that I planted, it went to seed very fast.
No world con for me this year. In fact my convention going days are over unless I can hustle up the funds myself. |
| Gai lan is an asian vegetable -- well it is here in Australia. You can use it in all sorts of things from stirfrys (as a replacement for cabbage) to soups and the like. Quite tasty with a distinct flavour that doesn't leave a bitter after taste as cabbage sometimes does in those sort of dishes.
Anyway... Happy eating from your garden Roach! Clyde. |
| Sugar snap peas...Mmm...I didn't have any this year.
What's gailan? |
| You going to worldcon, me dear? |
| To date I've pulled about 30 cucumbers, 3 pounds of green beans and a pound of sugar snap peas from the garden (some bok choy and gailan as well). In the next week or so the tomatoes should be ready for picking too. I'm thinking of expanding the garden next summer and trying my hand at canning.
Lisa, the cucumber water is delicious! It looks like EP has become an inadvertant honeypot for scam/inept agents. I got my second e-mail from an agent last week in regards to placing clients' work with EP. Blah. |
| Terry's got the right idea for cucumber water. I don't add lemon, but I can see it working.
|
| "Quam graviter peccent quacrentes auxilium a maleficis" - I think that means "How gravity and quarterly rent help in evil-doing." |
| That's it...I'm learning how to read Latin.
So I'm reading this book, The Attitude of the Catholic Church Towards Witchcraft and the Allied Practices of Sorcery and Magic. It's pretty darn fascinating (For instance: at one time a couple could claim that a witch had cursed the husband with impotence and the couple could then divorce and remarry. I'd love to know how they investigated that claim!) but it is frustrating at the same time since the author quotes whole sections in the original Latin. The deciding factor has been this bit: "...Jacob von Hoogstraten, in 1510 wrote a pamplet, Quam graviter peccent quacrentes auxilium a maleficis, which he devotes to a discussion of this theme only, and does not mention the witches of his time." I'm presuming the Latin title lays out the theme, but I have no way right now to be sure. So I think it's time to find a local college that teaches Latin and apply for a few courses. Terry, that sounds delicious indeed! |
| I think you make cucumber water by slicing a cuke real thin and putting the slices into a pitcher of water with a couple lemon slices, and refrigerating it ice cold. Put it in a glass with ice cubes and *bliss out*.
I think. Sounds good, anyway. |
| Lisa, what's cucumber water?
Lori, I've been thinking of trying melons next year. I wanted to stick with what I knew we'd eat. I had planted zucchini which did really well but then got some sort of Wrath of Khan, earwig type infestation. I didn't want to deal with that because 1) I don't have much time for the garden 2) I was afraid it would spread to the cucubers and 3) Charlotte turned her nose up at the first zucchini I picked and since I had planted them with her in mind there was no reason to keep them around. So I pulled all the plants. |
| We're kinda disappointed in the garden this year. Gary tried a couple of new types of beans and peas and neither did very well. We don't do cukes (I don't like 'em, and he doesn't care) but our melons are really just sitting there. I don't know if the heat blasted them too hard, or what.
I think we do need to spend more time preparing the bed before they go in, but that's just me.... Tomatoes are doing okay. Not wonderful, but okay. law |
| Wow, what a bounty! I'd be jealous, but since I'm too lazy to even take care of the yard I have, let alone a veggie garden, it's obvious you're the better woman and deserve all your riches. Save one of those cukes for cucumber water...MMMM!
|
| The veggies are coming in! I picked a pound and a half of green beans and pulled seven cucumbers out of the garden tonight.
Sooooo tasty! |
| And really funny! |
| Those are really weird, Roach. |
| In other words, just come up with a spiffy title.
Indeed. So I came across the Lifetime Movie Title Generator in which you type in your main character's name, the setting, and choose a supporting character, plot point and character development point from drop down menus. Filling in the blanks gave me these titles: * The Homicide That Love Made: The Truth About Dana * Leave My Dead Sister Alone: Dana's Story * Dana's Story: Slain for Life * Love's Hidden Death After a while of hitting the Generate Title button I played around with the drop down menus. One of the plot point choices was "Scurvy" which gave me these great titles: * The Shameful Lesion of Dana Carmichael * Love Me, Love My Sore: Dana's Story * God, Don't Leave Me Vitamin-Poor: The Dana Carmichael Story (this is my personal favorite) * What My Sore Taught Me: The Life of Dana Carmichael |
| Keep in mind that convention song that has lyrics about the title of the book, the ray gun on the cover, the sexy bimbo on the cover not having anything to do with the story but that they're just the title, a ray gun on the cover, and a sexy bimbo on the cover. ;)
In other words, just come up with a spiffy title. |
| Oh and thanks for the mention of Kristen Nelson's blog Sue. I think I'll go see what I can dig up there. |
| Haha...thanks Cliff. :P
I'm aware that the title will probably change if/when it gets picked up for publication. The problem is that the working title I have now "Impressions" is not only uninspired but it doesn't really fit the novel anymore since I purged about all references to "impressions" in the text. Alas, the best title suggestion so far, from the text brought to my attention by Cliff, would certainly gain attention but for the wrong (for this book) reasons. I won't post that title suggestion here as I don't want to get picked up by the wrong text searches. |
| The title does often change, but when submitting, a good title can make the difference between being read eagerly and being read with a sigh of effort before lifting the manuscript off the pile of slush. I can make the difference between being asked for a full manuscript and not.
The working title you choose may not be the eventual one, but for a first time novelist, it may be even more important than the eventual title. It could get you in the door. Not to put any pressure on you, Roach. Cliff |
| It is my understanding that the title is often changed once the book heads for production. Kristen Nelson blogged on this (there is a link to her blog at Snark Central.) She talked about how editors and agents work together for the best title and also talked about those repetitive titles that keep popping up. (That was about the only bad thing I recall from her posts.) Perhaps you could review what she says in her archives.
SueO2 |
| So while I'm waiting to get critiques back I'm playing around with titles. I s-u-c-k at coming up with titles. Either I get one early on or my stories spend most of their lives as "Untitled".
I queried Google and came up with a couple of different Random Title Generator webpages: * Title Generator by Aabashenya * Serendipity's Fantasy Novel Title Generator * And even a Abstract Art Title Generator. I haven't had much luck in using any of them to come up with a title yet. I still got a few weeks, though. The goal is to start querying in September. |
| Thank you mystery guest. I shall endeavor to keep doing. |
| Great site. Keep doing. |
| Charlotte just keeps getting cuter! |
| I think the dress is better looking than the hair do. But that's because I sewed it. *beams*
The newlyweds are Matt's cousin Stephen and Catherine. It was a really nice ceremony and reception. They had asked Charlotte to be a flower girl but she's not quite ready for that kind of gig yet. She's more suited to hamming it up for the cameras. I have no idea about the sash and the flower. That was part of the tea ceremony which we missed because Charlotte needed to nap between the wedding and the reception. But there was a lot that I didn't understand due to most of the proceedings being conducted in Cantonese most of the time. The stuffed animals are caimons maybe? I can't remember exactly what they were. |
| I envy you your haircut, Raech! I have an ugly scar on the noggin else I'd have mine short-short too. Who's the happy newlyweds? And what's the significance of the red sash & giant red - chrysanthemum? And...are those *dragons*??? Or alligators. Looks like a fun time!
Terry |
| Lisa, Charlotte has flown to Boston, Wyoming and Los Angelos. She's a really good traveller. This time around she has her own seat (you strap the car seat into the plane just like you would a car). I worried the first time about her being fussy and screaming and making everyone around us hate us. But the only time that happened was when we were coming back from Boston and got stuck on the tarmac for about 45 minutes /after/ they had shut off the air conditioning. At that point she was just expressing what everyone around us was feeling.
For the most part people seem to be very understanding when you're travelling with little ones. And when said little ones are cute--like yours for example :D--they're even more understanding. This will be Charlotte's first plane ride since she mastered walking so we'll see how she does. It should be a short trip in case she gets cranky. |
| Has Charlotte been on an airplane before? If so, how does she like it? My baby is 2 and I'm a chicken about flying with her.
Thanks for the link to the picture! I'd begun to wonder how much she'd grown. She looks like a fairy. |
| Don't let the fancy dress fool you. She's still a baby at heart. Terry you can definitely still boop da nose.
Slowly recovering from the trip. We have another one coming up at the beginning of August. That trip we'll be flying out to PA for another wedding. Charlotte is becoming a well travelled little girl. Terry, I'm in a couple of those pictures but I won't post links to them. Charlotte's a much more interesting photo subject. |
| The acid test of that young lady's identity is: Can you still *boop* da nose?
Terry |
| What happened to that baby in the picture on the bedspread with flowers? (You used do have it posted here.) Clearly aliens or fairies have replaced your baby with this young lady.
-- Amy S. |
| OMG, what a gorgeous child! And hey, that Matt cleans up pretty good, don't he? And what a handsome bunch of people! But - I just paged through about fifteen of them - where are YOU in there, Raech? |
| Just got back from Toronto. We attended a family wedding there. From everything I have seen a good 45% of the pictures taken were of Charlotte (like this one). |
| While the ms is winging its way to various beta-readers I have taken the time to catch up on my sewing. We're heading to Toronto tomorrow evening for a wedding. I don't know what it is but whenever we have a get-together with Matt's family I go through this frantic I-have-nothing-to-wear-all-my-clothes-are-awful phase. So, I've sewn a new shirt and a new dress to wear. I might get a skirt or another shirt done today. I had finished another dress Monday but it didn't look good so I gave it another try. It might sound like a lot of work to do all this sewing, but it is preferable to going clothes shopping, which gives me heart palpatations. |
| Goodness knows I'm familiar with that trap. ;)
Trimming is such a tricky business. I've cut bits containing crucial information, because my mind fills in the blank spots. "Well, of COURSE the gun was loaded. I said so back on page...Oh. Oops. Sorry." |
|
Yes > Hey Cliff, did you get my e-mail message? > I sent it from my soon-to-be new e-mail address. |
| Well seeing how I already cut the getting office supply scene and axed the secretary character I think I've trimmed most of the fat from this puppy. (We'll see what the beta-readers have to say about that.)
Dang nabbit. Look up there. Another one of those sneaky little thats. Ahem. Anyway. I agree with Stanley Schmidt on this matter. I think it's one of those traps writers can fall into starting the story too early with all sorts of background writing, etc. I know I've done that before. Hey Cliff, did you get my e-mail message? I sent it from my soon-to-be new e-mail address. |
| Took me a moment to fully appreciate that. ;)
That's good advice most of the time. Then again, I once quit readng a book before I finished the first chapter. It started with what was supposed to be an attention-grabbing, fierce battle. I had no idea who these characters were or why they were fighting, and I couldn't care less what happened to them. For one of the few times in my life, I tossed a book. Then again, the author wasn't Stanley Schmidt. ;) |
|
> start with your character already hanging > from the cliff.... Ouch. Cliff |
| The unfortunate thing is that you write something that you think is absolutely beautiful -- and it may be. But it does nothing for the story. I believe it was Stanley Schmidt, who, in an essay on writing, suggested you start with your character already hanging from the cliff.... |
| I've been trying to cut a novel, and my BRAIN's cramping up. ;) |
| Melissa, you aren't kidding. My hand was cramping up before I had even made it a quarter of the way through the manuscript. |
| Sometimes it's harder to take words out to put them in. |
| Spent all day today on a search and destroy mission. My goal was to weed out all the extraneous thats in my manuscript. Good golly but there were a ton of them. I actually cut out about 600 words and 2 pages from the manuscript. They're sneaky little buggers too. I'd add a sentence here and there and find them creeping back into my writing. Yeesh! |
| Well Charlotte didn't mind the chocolate milk that my sister gave her today so I'm going to presume it was just a phase or something that she was going through.
Found this site today while looking for maps of Chicago and Illinois online: David Rumsey Collection of Maps Online. It's a very cool site. It requires a plugin to see the maps, but installation is harmless. The best part is you can download the maps (and the viewer) and zoom in real close to see all the details. |
| That's quite possible. I had a chocolate shake today that wasn't very. It was nice and cold, though which is what was needed at the time. |
| Maybe she thought it needed more chocolate. |
| At least we know her mom's normal. *w* |
| I turned down chocolate once.
ONCE. |
| Presented here are the thoughts that ran through my head last night:
1) Score, more for me! 2) I don't know if she can be my child if she doesn't want a chocolate shake. 3) Maybe she's sick? 4) Nah, she gobbles up the M&M;'s that her grandmother gives her. 5) Hmm...better finish off this shake before it melts. |
| ...even scarier...are you sure she's YOURS??? |
| Charlotte refused a chocolate shake? Did you check her temperature? You might want to take her in to see the doctor and make sure everthing's okay... |
| I heard ice-cream and chocolate being mentioned here. Need a fix, just completed a short story...
Congrats Roach! Clyde. |
| A greasy cheeseburger and chocolate shake was the reward for my diligence. I offered to share some of my chocolate shake with Charlotte but she turned her nose up at it. *boggles* |
| YeeHAW, girl! That is TERRIFIC! Whee!
Did someone say "ice cream"??? |
| Woo hoo! Time for ice cream :-) |
| Yay Roach!
-Linz |
| Congratulations! |
| 89,700 words. The last two being "The End."
*does the happy dance of joy* I still need to clean it up a bit (got lots "[Jerk Reporter's name here"] that need to be replaced. But it is done, done, done ba-bee! That gives me two weeks to polish and find beta-readers. We leave the 29th for a wedding in Toronto. I want it out of my hands by then so I can enjoy the trip. 89,700 words. 431 pages. Yowza! |
| Woohoo! Hang in there! |
| Go, Roach, go! |
| 85,800 words. Sooooo close. I can almost taste it. |
| 62,500 words so far. I'm still in the midst of all new material and I'm about 3/4 a way through. One thing I've learned is that I have to work on some of my names. I have a rival aethereal consulting agency that made only a brief appearance in the first draft so naming them The Aethereal Detectives wasn't so bad. But now that I've expanded their role I find myself hating that name. Every time I have to type it out a little piece of me dies inside (only to be resurrected to die all over again in the next sentence).
I also wrote a 1,400 word short story last night. It's a one-trick-pony sort of story so it really needs to be less than 1,000 words. I'll let it sit for a while and see what I can do with it later. Got the pergola posts up now. I didn't realize this was going to take so long. Digging the post holes has been the hardest part. Two feet of fighting rocks and clay is not the funnest way to spend a Sunday. On the upside I feel very buff. And it seems the magazine subscription sales for points scam is alive and well. Just had a young man knock on my door telling me he was selling magazine subscriptions for not only experience with public speaking (?) but also to earn points for a trip to Burmuda and $1,000. The first thing he said when I opened the door was "I must marry you!" Man I felt so sorry for him, trying to sweet talk me when right now I look like an overweight, adolescent boy (my hair is growing back in so now I look like I have a crew cut). Still, no matter how badly I felt I had to send him packing to some other house to scam. |
| I really liked The Dress Lodger -- reviewed it a few years back, in fact. I love the gray areas, the fact that the characters have complex motivations in many cases. And although it took me a bit to get used to the way the reader is addressed, I kind of liked it after a while.
I haven't read her other books, but have them on my list..... -- Amy S. |
| So this is why I should read fiction while I'm writing fiction. I finished Sheri Holman's The Dress Lodger which is wonderful (her other novel A Stolen Tongue is great as well). The prose is complex and evocative and all sorts of other wonderfulness. Then I look at my own writing and get all discouraged, thinking my prose is mediocre and my sentence structure boring, etc. ad nauseam.
And this is why I should read fiction while I'm writing. I started Simon Green's Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth and Holy As You Know Bob, Batman! All of a sudden I don't feel so bad about my writing. Yeah, I'm a petty roach. |
| Yup. And I gave the wrong URL (although the below link has a link to it): here it is, with the creative commons license detailed. Share away.
An Author RPG? I think I play that all the time, only it takes forever to get to the next level, and I'm often tempted to blame the dice. |
| Alex, thanks for the heads up! (CCLed = Creative Commons Licensed right?)
And for a giggle tonight you might want to check out Author: The Role-Playing Game. (It's a pdf.) |
| Hey Raechel. Thought you'd be interested in at least knowing it exists:
Waiting for the Zephyr by Tobias S Buckell (story originally appeared in Jackhammer) as free CCLed audio. |
| Ah yes, the good old interwebnet. There's nothing like it to distract one from getting anything done.
Last Monday we had a major thunder/rain storm. My sister and I came home from a movie at nine o'clock to find the power out. The power came on around 11 o'clock and then went out again at 3 in the morning. By the time we woke up it was back on again. However, the outage managed to mess up our internet connection. Something no one realized until Matt was at work. I spent the whole day without internet access. In that time I: mowed the back lawn, planted the garden, finished a shirt for my sister, tackled a couple loads of laundry and dishes, cleaned the bathroom AND finished reading a book. I got no writing done as I had to look up a few things and without my internet connection was stuck. Matt told me there are programs you can install that will disconnect your internet connection at certain times. He offered to install such a program. Needless to say I declined. |
| Hah. We don't have cable either. But we do have DSL, and somehow I find that surfing eats up a shameful amount of time.... |
| Hi Clyde. I think the only reason I get any writing done is because we don't have cable. We don't even have our television hooked up to the free stations out here. (Although I probably should hook it up for Sesame Street.) While I miss The Daily Show, Animal Planet and the various Law & Order shows, the increase in my writing/reading time over the last two years has been more valuable by far.
The book fair was all right. There was a heavy crowd meaning I had little chance of getting to the books and browsing. I did find several books on my wants list, however they were well into the $100+ range. Since I've been seeing these titles on ABEbooks.com for $45+ I'll save my pennies and order online. I found a couple of bookstores that I'll swing by for another visit when I don't have Charlotte to distract me. Back to writing. |
| You make writing look easy... LOL!
Clyde. |
| 54,300 words. Things are moving faster now. Which leads me to worry that they're moving too fast. But that might just be me needing something to worry about. I keep cutting lots of dialog that I love but that doesn't fit anymore. Which is a shame since I usually suck at dialog.
Tomorrow we're heading to the Printer's Row Book Fair. Yay! The last time I was there was in 2002 when Neil Gaiman read from The Wolves in the Walls and sign books. At that time I didn't get to visit any of the bookseller booths. This time we're gonna visit them all! This is all part of the 2006 Roach Summer Bookstore Tour. There's a slew of used/antiquarian bookstores in Chicago and I've never visited any of them in the nearly 10 years I've been living here. So I'm making up for that this summer. |
| 38,900 words. Hrm...the long weekend turned into a busy weekend. Didn't get the pergola up due to issues with digging. There's a hotline you can call to find out what lines, if any, run under where you'll be digging. It turns out that you have to wait 24 hours after making the phone call for various services to come out and mark where there are lines. Instead we tilled up the space for the garden. I start planting tomorrow. Yay!
As I sat, finishing up the last scene and getting ready to start on the next, the pile of books next to me started bugging me. "Don't you think," they asked, "that you should read us before starting on the dispensation business." They pointed out that they had been sitting there for days, after being requested by me and travelling who knows how far to reach me. They also pointed out that I had been busy reading Jim Fisher's Ten Percent of Nothing which didn't have anything to do with the work in progress. (Although I will say that it has been interesting companion reading to all this Barbara Bauer business. As I read through canon law and irregularities (ex delicto and others), censures, etc. I keep thinking I need to learn Latin. Some of these books print large chunks of Latin to support authorial statements without any translation. Sure I can figure out most of it from context, but I still feel like I'm missing half the conversation. I hope everyone had a good weekend. |
| 38,000 words into the rewrite. It goes in fits and starts. When I hit a scene that I can just retype all goes well. But then I run into a scene that requires editing and I have to grapple with the ghost of the first draft. Especially when I need a scene to do something new, convey some new information, take the novel into a new direction, while still keeping the good stuff from the first draft. I've moved several scenes around, cut one character, and strengthened a couple of subplots. It's like writing the thing all over again. Not that I mind really.
We're going to attempt setting up the pergola this weekend as it's supposed to be hot and not rain all weekend long. Sarah and I'll go to X-Men III Sunday night. It's probably going to suck hard-core, but I'm a sucker for Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. I'm watching with a special kind of glee as the word about Barbara Bauer spreads through the web. I write a few words, edit a few words, and then see what people have posted. It's heartening to see people rallying around AW and doing their part to shine light onto the dank, sticky underbelly of scam agents. |
| Just doing my part to make things harder for scammers. It's not like they're working hard actually selling clients' manuscripts. :D |
| ::Grins:: |
| Posted a link to Writer Beware's 20 Worst Agencies List on the front page of Eggplant just now. I thought of posting it to my journal but since that's not accessible through the website it'd be a lost cause. If anyone wants to help spread the word about scammy agents and help thwart the attempts of one such agent at silencing her critics, you might consider posting a link as well from your own blogs/journals/websites, etc. |
| Only 29,400 words into the rewrite. Real life stuff keeps coming up and getting in the way.
For instance my brother, his wife and their 4 month old son are stopping by tonight on their way to Michigan. At least I think they are. They were supposed to be here yesterday but got caught up visiting family in Arkansas. Well at least the house is all cleaned up. I need to entertain more, because that's the only time the house gets a thorough cleaning. The head got a little Spring cleaning as well. Sunday I was feeling very shaggy and unkempt and got a little too overenthusiastic with the clippers. Once I viewed the results I decided "eh screw it" and sheared it all off. Now I remember why I shouldn't shave my head. I look like a bowling ball. Well I wasn't planning on keeping it shaved anyway so it'll be hats and kercheifs for the next month. I should have a respectable bit of hair by the time we head out to our first wedding of the summer. I see that people are busy hitting coventions and the like so I hope everyone is having a fun time. |
| So now I'm worried that the pace I've set in the story is too fast. I keep having to remind myself to just get the thing written and worry about that later.
On the good news front I heard from the wonderful Sarah B, who helped out with some Jintsu promotion last year, that her experience with EP helped land her a job editing a book for a professor. Good to know that EP was good for something. :> On the gross front I couldn't write at all today as I discovered a mouse in a trap in my library. Found it this morning by the smell. Hadn't checked the trap in forever. Meant I stayed out of the library all day until Matt came home to dispose of the body. And I've run out of fronts. |
| 20,500 words into the rewrite. Hit two sections of the story that didn't need any edits so they got typed up fast. Now I'm back to rewriting and working in new material. The main plot conflict (the murders) is now showing up earlier in the novel. I'm still uncertain if it is showing up early enough. I just can't see shortening the beginning any more than I already have. But I guess that will have to be a question for the beta-readers.
Sent my sister out on a snack run in exchange for dedicating the novel to her. heh. |
| Since Matt's mom moved last month I didn't get any time to myself on the weekends. Today, Matt took Charlotte over to his mother's new condo (his mother is in California for the week) to install a few things. Which means I've spent another couple hours on the final settlement of royalties for Jintsu authors. I'll be honest...I will not miss royalty statements! I still have a couple of things to take care of, but I'm in the final stretch of shutting down. It's taken four months now. And it took all of one caffiene fueled night to come up with the idea of Jackhammer E-zine which started it all. |
| Whoo - you'd be a perfect Tonks, Raechel! lol |
| I have been following this thread once in a while, and my initial assessment may have been wrong. I can see you are doing your research...always a good thing. |
| This weekend it's going to be too rainy to build the pergola so maybe I'll just hole up in my office and write. I'm supposed to be finishing up two original scenes in the rewrite. Instead I'm watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and getting my fan girl on. Checking out what's been posted about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I'm pretty happy with the casting for new characters. Although if the producers would like to have an understudy for Natalia Tena (who is playing Tonks), one who might be short and dumpy but is cute on the inside and willing to dye her hair pink, I'm available. :D
I think I better stop with the fan girl stuff now, though, as I just had the urge to write a nasty e-mail to Yahoo! for posting erroneous information and misspelling a character name. |