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cat post |
[26 Jun 2009|12:50am] |
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For those of you uninterested in kitty doings, move along, nothing to see. This is the thing though. My brother's cat has come to visit me over the summer while he and his new bride (Hi Caro! Welcome to the crazy family!) do the whole wedding/honeymoon/set up new life type of things. This is not a hardship. The trick is, this is a cat with Personal Boundary Issues. He does not want you to touch his feet, his belly, his tail. . . . The problem is Milo is a cutie! He's fluffy and orange with fat white feet and a furry fluffy white belly and a curling plumy tail. All of these things demand touching, especially when he rolls over on his back, wiggles his feet in the air and tempts you to rub his belly. But that road only leads to Certain Doom. . . . Cats. So difficult. And it's not just me. My littlest, oldest wraith of a cat, Rikki, has decided that Milo is an ambulatory plushie. He spends many hours waiting for Milo to lie down, so Rikki can pounce on him, knead his belly, and clean his face. Milo, unsurprisingly, objects. Not in any aggressive way, no. He just lies there and howls piteously while Rikki purrs and cleans his whiskers, until I come and take Rikki away. The girls are remaining aloof, slinking by the room with their heads turned away muttering "This, too, shall pass." It has forged a temporary alliance between them so that I find them seated together in small spaces instead of ignoring each other from separate rooms. And Merlin, my sweet (but not too bright) grey cat thinks Milo is his new best friend. He follows Milo around and doesn't try to groom him so maybe someday his affections will be returned. Other than that, I've been slow-writing (building new worlds, new stories, new outlines, new, new, new!) and blitz-reading. I just read Martha Wells' Stargate Atlantis books, ENTANGLEMENT & RELIQUARY, thus breaking my self-imposed ban on tv tie-in books. (This is not out of any weird snobbery--it's mostly because my brain gets confused about what I've seen and what I've read and then I start going through all my discs looking for episodes I remember, but can't find, and my life is confusing enough on a daily basis.) They were great fun! If she had others, I'd buy them too! Really, people, I can not stress this enough: READ MARTHA WELLS! Death of the Necromancer is something I re-read every year, no matter how busy I am. Craving murder mysteries though, and I've got a Border's coupon burning a hole in my pocket. Give me some suggestions? I like police procedurals, but not doctors/lawyers books. I also like cozies and amateurs. |
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talking about writing |
[11 Jun 2009|03:41pm] |
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Originally published at lanerobins.com. You can comment here or there. The good people at BSC were kind enough to let me ramble on a bit about the process behind Kings & Assassins. Go on over and check it out, and stay to play on the site! It's a great place to spend some time. http://www.bscreview.com/2009/06/lane-ro |
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Writing misc |
[05 Jun 2009|09:50pm] |
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While trying to organize my study again (and again and again and again--it is the Augean Stables of my house) I found a notepad with the following written on it: New Story! (note the exclamation point. I was, apparently, excited about it.) Start w/aftermath: When the hotel failed to be devoured by a nightmare-headed god-thing, there And THAT'S IT! There's a note beneath that about curious maids versus incurious maids. I have no idea if that belongs to the story or not. I presume yes, since the word hotel appears above it, but I have zerozipzilch memory of this. Ugh, writer head. Other things in the notepad tell me I was in Gainesville at the time, in a hotel at the time. And I remember there was a maid of extreme personality who cleaned my room. Obviously some sort of inspiration, but for what? Sigh. I think I will just crumple it up and pretend I never saw it. |
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Caffeine addiction |
[05 Jun 2009|04:45pm] |
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Sigh. So it's been one of those days--busy, choppy, and full of ringing phones--and I just was not dealing with it well. My head felt disconnected and logy; my general mood was blah, and my brain--well, what brain. So. Sitting here, desperately trying to keep from crashing under my desk and passing out, and it dawns on me that hey, I haven't had any caffeine today. Dragged my butt across the street to Z's Espresso, land of wonderfully bitter mochas and chocolate covered espresso beans, and suddenly? I feel human and wonder how I allowed this terrible situation to ever arise. (got up too late to justify turning on the coffee maker, have quit drinking sodas). I am so buying a coffee grinder and an espresso machine. Of course, then what will drive me to leave my home? Oh yes, the need to buy cat food. Took a sidestep from Valente's book to read The Demon Lexicon & The Spy Who Haunted Me. Two quick and fun reads. |
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May is for Migraine. |
[31 May 2009|10:11pm] |
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So, ten days out of thirty-one lost to either migraines or to the wonders of migraine meds which take away the brain as well as the pain. Productivity level? Regrettably low. I started three separate stories, got about halfway through and sort of petered out. I am reminded again why I don't write science fiction very often. I only have two modes in sf: great sweeping space opera, not conducive to short storyhood, and hard sf, where I rail against my lack of education and end up making notes and interrogating scientists instead of writing the stories. Either way, it leads to frustration. But hey, at least I've got three half-done stories. That's something. And I think I've harassed enough marine biologists to get one of the stories done, so there's that as well. Deadline's coming up soon! The CSSF short story workshop with Jim Gunn is in June! I'm looking forward to it. I'm also working up a new novel idea, about 6k written in prose, and double that in rough notes. Ah, brainstorming. The fun part. I even get to dig out the post-it notes and the posterboard to storyboard things. The only thing better would be a smart board. Books read: Here, I was productive. Given the low level grind of my brain, this was probably the best use I could put it to. Went through quite a few books on the TBR list, and for the first time, managed to read more than I added. A Match Made in Hell - Terri Garey Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth - Simon R Green Hell to Pay - Simon R Green O' Artful Death - Sarah Stewart Taylor Psycop: Property - Jordan Castillo Price Badlands - Selina Rosen & Laura Underwood Blue Diablo - Ann Aguirre Motor Mouth - Janet Evanovich Invention of Hugo Cabret - Brian Selznick (young adult) The Ghost Feeler - Edith Wharton Deeper - Roderick Gordon & Brian Williams (young adult) Coming up? June is new story month--MUST finish the half-done stories. June is new fantasy novel started and outlined. June is revising the Beasts. June is the CSSF workshop, and being surrounded by writers. Currently reading: The Orphan's Tales: in the Night Garden. Am about halfway through and am entranced. |
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surfacing. . . . |
[24 May 2009|09:54pm] |
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So I promised you all cut scenes from Kings and Assassins, and promptly fell down on the job. Problem is, I'm a big writer. Tell me to write 100K, and I'll write 140K. Tell me to write 120K, and it just gets ridiculous. This is the sole reason I moved to novel writing in the first place: my "short" stories were all clocking in at 7K, 10K, 25K, and the first Sylvie "short?" reached 40K at the 3/4 mark before I got disgusted and decided she needed to be a novel character. The point of all this rambling is, it took me a little time to find a fun snippet to show, and not a 10K monstrosity. Have a fun bit of potential magic I really hated to lose. Rough, as it was cut from the first draft. ( Janus & Rue, deleted scene ) |
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First post! |
[06 May 2009|10:11pm] |
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Originally published at lanerobins.com. You can comment here or there. Whee! First post on the shiny new site! Crossposted from lanerobins.com Coming soon? Some fun cut scenes from Kings & Assassins. |
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So, April! |
[02 May 2009|11:54pm] |
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Thanks to everyone who entered the drawing: the winners have been notified and your books are on the way! I've sort of lost the last week. One moment, it was April, the next it's May. Gallop or crawl and nothing in between. Accomplishments this month have been sort of scattered all over the map. Both books out in stores! Whee! Kings and Assassins, Sins & Shadows on the shelves! It's a pretty sight. The revision on the second Sylvie book continues. Slower than I'd like. I've done the first fifteen chapters twice. Changed something, then had an epiphany, slapped myself in the head, and then went back and started again. Some revisions are just harder than others. Roughly outlined three stories in my usual mishmash of technical description, character analysis, and random snatches of sentences. Now, it's time for the research. These are hard sf stories, not my usual kind of thing, and require new info to be fed into the brain. It's both daunting and exciting. I love writing novels, but the short stories allow me to play with styles or ideas I wouldn't normally try. Chance of utter failure is a lot more acceptable when it's 20 pages long instead of of 400. Did manage to catch up on some books: ferocious insomnia is good for that at least. Read: Phantom of the Opera, which I enjoyed in a oh, you crazy turn of the century writer kinda way. In the Dark by Brian Freeman The Vampire of Ropraz by Jaques Chessex Night Shift by Lilith Saintcrow The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks by Josh Lanyon Psycop: Partners by Jordan Castillo Price Turn Coat by Jim Butcher Unnatural Inquirer & Paths Not Taken by Simon Green I'm about halfway through Patrick Rothfuss's Name of the Wind. It was an interesting assortment. I wouldn't have picked up the Vampire of Ropraz on my own, but I read about it on fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com and it sounded interesting. It turned out to be a very slim book with a really gruesome tale packed between the covers. It left me with the same queasy sensation I got after a marathon of Forensic Files, the sense that something dangerous and predatory had just brushed by. Psycop, bought on a whim, turned out to be a lot of fun with a delightfully voiced main character. And Turn Coat was Harry Dresden at his wizardly best. I devoured it in one sitting. Next month plans involve frantically finishing up the revision. Actually fleshing out the rough ideas of the stories, and starting the revision of the pet project. Reading: Name of the Wind, obviously. |
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Book Release Day! & Giveaway. |
[21 Apr 2009|09:49am] |
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Yay! Kings and Assassins should be in the stores today!!! To celebrate, I have fumbled my way out of bed after far too little sleep and come to work with the bottommost layered shirt on backwards. Sigh. I am such a spaz. Apparently being a published author is no defense against innate dorkiness. I am now counting down the time to lunch when I can rearrange my shirts. Yay? Also, I have some beautiful copies of Kings for the taking. Or the requesting as the case may be. I have 5 copies of Kings to giveaway (autographed, natch) and 3 copies of Maledicte. All you have to do? Drop me a note through www.maledicte.com telling me whether you want Kings or Maledicte. It'd be nice if you told me how you heard about my books, but hey, I'm a minimalist at heart, so just a name to throw in the pot will do. I'll pick the winners by next tuesday. Now, I'm off for more coffee. Happy book day to me! |
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writer clutter. It's a disease. |
[10 Apr 2009|07:43pm] |
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Revising. And I've given up on the actual desk and started working on the dining room table as per usual. It's bigger, don't you know. Sadly, not enough. I'm beginning to wish wistfully for telekinetic powers that would allow me to just float things around my head, easy to reach when I wanted them, and out of the way when I didn't. Though, with my life, even if that miraculous day occurred, I'm pretty sure it would be followed by the cats rising up to chase all the floating paper, and dive-bombing my head. Some of the things I can justify being on the table/desk. The manuscript. The red pens. The black pens. The post-it notes. The copy of the previous book in the series. Some of the things on the table that there is no justification for: The 10 oz can of coffee that I have yet to put away. It's somehow comforting to see it. The OTHER manuscript that I am currently not revising, because who has the time? Except every now and then I just have to jot a note. Or two. Or a page and half, but who's keeping track? Three cookbooks. I think they're there because I am getting tired of easy-eat food. I look up lovely recipes, sigh happily, and then go nuke a lean cuisine. A spatula. I don't know why. It's a clean spatula, though, so that's something, right? A copy of Dr Horrible. For moral support. And of course, a cat or four. Usually sprawled ON THE MANUSCRIPT, or fighting to lie on the ms. On the far end of the table, out of reach, is the pile o' books I'd rather be reading. Corambis, In the Dark, The Unnatural Inquirer, the Skull Mantra, and Tales of Mystery & the Macabre. Sooner or later, I'll make my way to them! |
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plush dogs, puffy kitties, new world. |
[02 Apr 2009|06:08pm] |
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So, to appease my dog-greed (I don't have one but I want one) my mother brought me a plush dog from the Melissa & Doug line. The Jack Russell Terrier. It's great. Made me yelp when I first saw it unexpectedly. Very lifelike, except of course for the fact that it doesn't move. But it looks pretty good on a quick, first glance. Especially since she posed it and gave it a collar. My mother is nothing if not thorough in her presentations. Comes of being an artist. The cats sure think so. They reacted to it exactly as they do to real dogs. Rikki, the sensible cat, approached cautiously, sniffed, dismissed it. Siggy, the dog-lover, went into ecstatic purring, licked its ears, its muzzle, its shoulders, then its eyeball. Tasted glass. Looked betrayed. Stalked off, tail lashing. The other two? Puffballs. Chibi calmed down after a time, rushed up, bit it on the nose, and when she didn't immediately die, decided it could stay. Merlin's still upstairs. Under the bed. Looking like a porcupine. I'd feel bad for him, but I'm laughing too hard. Other than that, I have now braved the facebook world. I'm utterly at a loss. But everyone assures me I can't break anything. I'm beginning to think of that as a challenge. I am, after all, the woman who kills lightbulbs, watches, cameras, and most electronics that are foolhardy enough to be touched by me. Revisions continue. Elizabeth Bear described the stages of revision in the best way I've ever heard. Suicidal, despair, despair, distress, despair. I'd add one floaty stage that struggles up every so often before being beaten down. This weird sort of oh hey, this isn't that bad, I'll be done in no time at all, wait what the heck is that, oh god I need to revise everything I just revised. . . . and then we're back to despair. After all, if you can't occasionally get a glimmer of hope, despair loses its edge. Things that make it all worthwhile? Getting my hands on the actual copies of Kings and Assassins. I'd been told there was going to be some artistic tweaking. The cover was pretty before. It's gorgeous now. Happy April to me! |
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March 2009 |
[31 Mar 2009|10:50pm] |
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So March utterly got away from me. This is beginning to sound like a familiar refrain. I had wanted to write 40,000 words this month, but failed to calculate the difference between writing novels and revising novels. It's easy to watch word count go up, up, up when you're writing. There's no good way I've found to calculate wordage while revising. So for my 40K goal? I got 22K written to finish up the rough draft of the Beasts. I got 3K to finish up the Devil story, which needs a title. And I wrote 2K in the new novel. Then I got sick and discovered (again!) that my brain is purely incapable of thinking while coated in mucus. I'm such a wuss when it comes to colds; I retire to my bed, trailing tissues, live in my pjs, and do nothing but watch television, sleep, and be buried in cats who keep testing that I'm alive. (Can we eat her yet? Nope, not dead yet.) Did I mention I watched the ENTIRE SEASON THREE of Criminal Minds? That show is addictive. I just wish it had subtitling. Actually I wish all television shows had subtitling. I didn't even manage much reading, but luckily what I read was choice. Deathwish by Rob Thurman Living with Ghosts by Kari Sperring The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale Other than that I've been reading Alpha submissions--a lot of talented teens out there! Alpha workshop, for those interested, is a writer's workshop geared for teenagers, held annually in PA. I wish I'd had the option for things like that when I was a teen. So the plan for April: Do a lot of happy dancing! Both Sins & Shadows and Kings & Assassins are due out this month. I may explode with joy. I may also take up carrying the books with me wherever I go and accosting people on the streets. Be afraid. There was just a poll in Kansas City that asked 12 people what they liked to read, and 3 of them said they didn't read. At all. I figure this is as close as I will ever come to understanding that half-pitying, half-aghast expression that shows up on bible-thumpers faces when they start pitching religion to me. Finish the revisions for Sylvie 2, including a new title. Dead & Gone sounded so nice, too! But the new Sookie book beat me to it. So new title to go with lots and lots of new prose. Ah, revisions. I also need to get off my butt and finish up two short stories for the CSSF workshop deadline (April 15). And I need to get 2 more chapters done in the new book. Plus get the outline for the new pet project finished up so I can start working on that in my spare moments. Don't really have a word count goal to shoot for. Revisions take precedence over pretty much everything else. But I'd still like to hit at least 20K. Read more. The TBR shelf is getting out of control again. |
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lazy monday |
[16 Mar 2009|04:13pm] |
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So the great mid-western plague has struck me down. All I want to do is lie on the floor, drink cold liquids, and be entertained. Luckily for me, I get to do just that! At least for one more day, before work drags me back under. Caught up on the last two episodes of Dollhouse. I am still enjoying it, though less for plotting, and more for the characters. I like how all the people at the Dollhouse are individuals with their own opinions and wants; that it's not a seamless corporate face. I also generally like the casting choices. The show continues to entertain, even though the premise is iffy at best. If you have all the money it costs to rent a doll, why not just hire an expert in the field? Privacy concerns only go so far. But that's the premise and I accept it. Also caught up on Lie to Me. I'm ridiculously fond of that show. But the best entertainment? My friend ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} l_prieto was kind enough to send me her novella, Cooking with Ergot. It's great fun, full of sexy guys--witches and witch hunters, crazy relatives, just plain nosy relatives, and a talking stuffed tiger familiar witha yen for grilled cheeses. And then there are the recipes. (none of them with ergot, so breathe). It's available at Aspen Mtn Press if it sounds like your cup of tea. http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/new-re Up next to read: Night Shift by Lilith Saintcrow. |
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Beasts. |
[11 Mar 2009|11:19am] |
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The draft of the pet project is done. 100,000 words of modern knights, mayhem and romance: the Noble Beasts. It's ugly--the last quarter was written at speed, more sketched than illustrated. It's incoherent--plot threads snarl, snap, and start out of nowhere. It's a blank 'verse--the world-building comes and goes, mostly goes. But it's done. And my big thing, the main character's emotional arc, is solid and there. So I'm content. I'm also a little at a loss. This has been a pet project for multiples of years. I sketched the first character outlines over the holidays in 2005. Committed the first chapters (which all need to be cut or drastically reworked) to paper in the summer of 2006. It's been a good friend, the go to pleasure writing when every thing else got to be a little too much like work. And now it's done, and I'm not ready for it to be done. For one thing, I have to decide: revise, try to turn it into something worth selling? Or accept that I've made something utterly fun, probably unmarketable, and just set it aside? But mostly, I have to find a new pet project. Something long-running. Something that won't suffer too much from being set aside time and time again. Something that is always coaxing me to pick it up. Oh, and something with a high proportion of slushy romance. Just 'cause. My first instinct is the happy spaceopera with psychics that I've dabbled my toes into, expanding on the character of Fairman Greg deWildt, last seen roaming around in the Phobos anthology All The Rage This Year. I like Greg, like him enormously, and oh, does he have a traumatic history. . . . But in a lot of ways the Fairmen world is only a sidestep away from the Beasts, and I have this thing about always moving forward. 3 years there's been a tiny voice agitating in my brain, working away on the Beasts, a familiar murmur. And now it's quiet. Weird. Sometimes finishing a book is a little like a loss. Something you've given away. Best to fill that hole again. So far the likely candidates are: More Beasts, write a second book, using a different POV character. Lethal, blonde, petite. With a secret. Psychic space cops! Really, crime & romance with telepathy, what's not to like? Did I mention alien lovers? A chick-lit thing about an accidental arsonist and the fire fighter who loves her. (Do I even know HOW to write chicklit? No. Would it turn into a story about a pyrokinetic who burns things down? Most likely. Would it be interesting/fun? Maybe/maybe not but it'd be something different for me to try.) In the meantime, there are work things to do. 3 stories so I can attend the CSSF workshop in June. The revisions for Sylvie 2. The new actual book; political mayhem and enemies in love. There's a whole world I've barely started thinking about there. It's not like I won't be busy. But life is just more fun with a pet project to fall back on. Just finished reading: The Suspicions of Mr Whicher. Eyeing my bookshelf warily for the next selection. |
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February |
[01 Mar 2009|01:19pm] |
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So February, short month, not a lot of time to waste, and how did I spend it? Obviously, not updating my LJ! Books read: Casebook of Carnacki the Ghost-Finder - WH Hodgson. I'd started this long ago, set it down, finally finished it. Heart of Light - Sarah Hoyt Flora's Dare - Ysabeau Wilce Midnight Never Come - Marie Brennan Mean Streets - Jim Butcher, Simon Green, Kat Richardson, Thomas Sniegoski Tales of Unease - Arthur Conan Doyle Agent to the Stars - John Scalzi Unclean Spirits - MLN Hanover Dead Man's Knock - John Dickson Carr Deathwish - Rob Thurman I'd somehow missed Carr's mysteries before. I have to admit, after this one, I'm not sorry. The characters made me crazy. I wanted to smack them all with a stick. I don't know if Dead Man's Knock is a good example of Carr's storytelling or if I, with my usual mad skills, managed to pick up the least of a writer's works. My three faves for the month, and how nice I actually had to think about it!, were Flora's Dare, Midnight Never Come, and Deathwish. What I have to show for myself: Well, I didn't finish the Beasts, but I did put in 23K, and brought myself to 82K for the book, putting me within six scenes from the end. So given that I have seven days before gwyndolin and kijjohnson descend upon my house for a YAY, WE FINISHED OUR BOOKS party, I think it can be done and I can join in on the festivities with a free heart, rather than be banished, sulking, to a corner.I wrote 3500 words on the Moon & the Devil, but didn't finish the story, mostly because I lost sight of the character, which is utterly devastating for me. Character is the one thing my stories hinge on. I am one scene from the end, and then I'll yank the sucker apart and make into an actual story rather than a collection of crazy words. Plus, I named my character Sally? What the heck was I thinking? I can't get enthused about a character named Sally! (It makes me think of Sallie Mae and Sally Forth, neither of which are particularly inspiring.) I wrote two more synopses, one for Lives Light as Thistledown, one for Threads. I wrote a few more lonely words (one scene) on the Burlesque story. I outlined and wrote the opening scene for a SF story. So, ultimately I came up just short of 30K for the month. Which is all manner of sad and pathetic. It's not that I want to be able to do Nano quantities of words each month--I know myself well enough to know my brain would explode into mush, and I'd spend all my time at the day job just gibbering--but I would like to aim for 40K a month. Life in General: The day job was hellish busy; end of year tasks, plus finalising inventory. (It's genuinely awesome how much clothing can be shoved into one building.) Got ARCs for Sins & Shadows! Who knew! It's a real book! More than Maledicte, more than Kings, it's surreal to see Sylvie in book format. She's a character I've been playing with for years. I am horrifically terrifyingly behind on dealing with my taxes, so that's one real world thing that has to come first next month! I've also been watching Dollhouse. I know there are a lot of people with problems with the show, but I have to admit to being hopelessly intrigued. It's an appalling world he's created (as well as utterly implausible, but that's his gimme, and I'm allowing that!) and there are some clunkers in the pacing, but overall, I watch the show and come away from it feeling. . . intrigued and speculative. That's always been one of my favorite things about Joss. His writing is weirdly energizing to me. There are shows I like but when they're over, it's like the brain comes back online, screaming about being shut down without permission. There are shows that leave me with a weird lethargy and general irritation--sort of my own personal kryptonite. And then there's Joss--televised energy bars for my brain. This isn't to say I think he's perfect--there are many many things he has done that make me shriek with irritation and rage--but somehow his stories just generally work for me, on a level that's not even conscious. Currently reading: Living with Ghosts by Kari Sperring. Should be: working on Beasts. |
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good books! |
[07 Feb 2009|02:33pm] |
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So, I decided to give myself a lazy Saturday morning, and finally got to Flora's Dare in my TBR pile. Flora's Dare, subtitled lengthily as : How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room). If the subtitle doesn't charm you, stop reading. This book is not for you. Which would be a terrible pity. This is an amazing book. It is a sequel to Flora Segunda (also lengthily subtitled, but I'm too lazy to type it all in) and I suggest reading that one first--hardly a loathsome chore. I enjoyed the first book--since her world is very vivid, very distinctive, and rather complicated. Wilce does a nice summation of the first book in the first chapter of Flora's Dare, so you might be able to skip the first book, but why would you want to? Wilce gives Flora such a crazy, distinctive voice that it's a pleasure to read. Flora Segunda was crazy fun, a nice start to a series. Flora's Dare is amazing. This is a book written exactly for the squeehappy part of my brain. It involves a girl who has magical abilities learning to use them, giant squid, Spring-Heeled Jack, secret family history, and oh. . . the dialogue. I have a particular fondness for an old-fashioned style of language, where the character names themselves for effect, claiming nicknames, and making others up on the spot, all to make themselves more impressive. There is a particular term for that but I've forgotten it--if I've ever known it. I've been crazy for it ever since Cyrano de Bergerac. And Wilce does it up right; I had goosebumps. If all of that doesn't entice you--what's wrong with you?--there are bird-headed quetzal guards, flayed aztec sorcerers, houses run, maintained, and protected by daemons, loud music, a girl named Tiny Doom, and revolutionaries roaming the night clubs and streets. C'mon, a girl named Tiny Doom! Go read it. It's in your bookstore waiting for you. Unaccountably in YA. |
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bullets |
[03 Feb 2009|02:44pm] |
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Cats eating cereal? Very cute, heads down in the bowl, taking turns gnawing soggy corn flakes and slurping milk. Also? Very unwise. Cats eating cereal leads to being up at three am spot cleaning the carpet. Winter. You can go away now! Really. I've gotten the message. You're cold, you're blustery. You're bad-tempered and play tricks. I get it. Move on. The three am clean up led to the four am inspiration, so maybe I should feed cats milk more often. I figured out what was keeping a plot from working. Yay, inspiration! You make my life easier. You can stick around. As long as you want. I promise not to yell at you when you wake me up in the middle of the night. Or keep me from falling asleep. Or make me pull the car off the road so I can jot notes on random napkins culled from the bottom of the car. Coffee is my friend. Cue Brendan Fraser in George of the Jungle singing the Javajavajava song. The rest of the movie is worth it for that one moment. Currently reading Heart of Light. I like 3 out of the 4 POV characters. I want to like the last one, but she's so . . . I don't know. Plot's fun though! And hey! Were-dragons. Flying carpet ships. Magical rubies and the british empire. Someone tell me it's lovely and warm where they are. Today I desperately miss the tropics. I'm thinking of a day in Sanibel where I sat beside the pool and just felt the sun melting over me. Watched the waves hit the beach only a hundred feet away. When I just threw on shorts and shoes when it was time to go out to lunch, instead of three layers of shirts, coat, scarf, hat, all weather boots and gloves. I really hate gloves. |
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January. |
[31 Jan 2009|08:36pm] |
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Lists of dubious interest to anyone but myself. But my life is full of tiny amnesiac moments when I look back and say what the hell have I been spending my time on? Books read in January (all urban fantasy, no matter what they're marketed as.) Once Bitten, Twice Shy - Jennifer Rardin Another One Bites the Dust - Jennifer Rardin Biting the Bullet - Jennifer Rardin Bitten to Death - Jennifer Rardin Plum Spooky - Janet Evanovich Vicious Circle - Mike Carey Blood Sins - Kay Hooper Black Oak: Winter Knight - Charles L Grant Unfallen Dead - Mark Del Franco What I have to show for myself: A first pass revision of Dead & Gone. There will be others, I am sure. A proposal/synopsis written for A Winter's Tale (Hey, considering how much I sweat these things, it's definitely an accomplishment) 12K words on the pet project novel Such Deliberate Disguises AKA Beasts, bringing me to 58K. A whopping 500 words on the story that's becoming the bane of my existence: Burlesque Girl Golems. I just have expectations of it, y'know. A sketched out outline, extraordinarily rough, but with a beginning, middle, end of Lives Light as Thistledown. Soon to be turned into something looking more like a synopsis. Life in general: A trip to Indianapolis to help KM move. A lot of fun, despite the incredibly steep stairwell (21 steps to the bottom! An apartment full of books! You do the math!). DocMock came also and it was sort of the three musketeers reunion. If the 3 musketeers moved a lot of boxes and rewarded themselves with cake frequently instead of randomly challenging people to duels. |
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| [27 Jan 2009|11:05pm] | |
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So I've got a bit of free time, if there is such a beast, and I'm trying to catch up on my To Be Read Pile o' Doom. It's been kind of bugging me, how behind I've gotten. I've always been an enormous reader, and of late. . . not so much. Part of it can be blamed on writing: writing takes up reading time, writing makes me crazy editor on other people's books, writing makes my eyes hurt until I want to pull them out of my head and find a hobby that just doesn't require them. But, I think most of all? Reading is not a multi-tasking event. And this is a multi-tasking world. In high school, college, etc, I used to grab a stack of books, and hurl myself into the comfy chair, sprawl on the bed, the floor, wherever there was light and space, and go for it. Now, unless the book is wildly hard to put down, I can't help myself. I think about what I should be doing, what I need to do, what I could be doing. I try to do other things while reading, and really--the only thing you can do with any degree of success while reading, is eat. On the other hand, while watching TV, you can successfully, do your laundry folding, check email, check newsfeeds, play with the cats, make dinner, talk on the telephone (if I'm being terribly rude to the caller), even hit the treadmill. Reading doesn't allow for any of that without disruption. Writing, oddly, does. I'm a fit and spurt writer, a hundred words here--flee the desk--a hundred words there--flee the desk. Things get done all around me. But you know? I really miss reading. I learned to set aside writing time; maybe I need to set aside reading time. I can steal time here and there, but it's just not the same experience at all. I miss the immersive days, where my body might as well have been a carcass while I read. Nothing distracting me, nothing disrupting me, and if I got up at all, it was with the book glued to my face. (Yes, I was that reader. The one who wandered school hallways with a book open and a dazed expression.) Fantasy and science fiction, even horror, more than any other genres require that kind of immersion. Mysteries, you can set down. Chick lit, romance, lit, adventure. All of it can be put down, generally without distress. But fantasy. . . I put down a George R R Martin book and there's a need for transition from his world to mine and back again. It's hard to let go, harder to get back into it. Science fiction's the same, at least any SF book with an Other World setting. And Horror? It's all about atmosphere. You lose that momentum and make a trip back to the real world--you're in danger of gaining perspective, of stepping back in at just the wrong moment where the whole thing just seems sort of. . . silly. This may explain why out of all the books bought last year, the ones that remain unread are 90% high fantasy or elaborate SF. And the ones that I've been picking up are now-world settings, for the most part; quick paced adventures with a modern feel. I want to read the books malingering on my shelves. I've been drooling over Marie Brennan's Midnight Never Come for so long that she's finished the sequel to it. Yeah, it's past time to add reading to my schedule. How do you guys do it? Can you read high fantasy in spurts? Currently reading, or attempting to--I put it down last week and haven't picked it up again: Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road. |
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Light! |
[12 Jan 2009|03:35pm] |
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I think it is time. I can no longer put off redoing all the lighting in my study. Can no longer consider it an indulgence and a crazy expence at a bad time. The final straw? I have been working downstairs in the middle of the living room table for most of the winter, but the paper problem is getting ridiculous. As well as the running upstairs every time I want to use the printer/research books/find a post-it/paperclip/etc. But I've been working in the study for a week now, and EVERY SINGLE TIME I COME IN, I TRY TO TURN ON LIGHTS THAT ARE ALREADY ON. This is how inadequate the lighting is. I think it's off, when it's on. That kind of light deficit can not be fixed by strategic use of desk lamps. Not to mention, the architect obviously had something against outlets. There are TWO in the study. Two. I thought there was some unspoken rule about one per wall, at least. Which means it's time to call the electricians. Sigh. In the meantime, I'm revising Sylvie 2 (aka Dead and Gone) in the dark, which is, at least, appropriately atmospheric. Currently reading: Vicious Circle by Mike Carey. |
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