Again, it's been a while since I posted. Let's just say, I'm a bit too pleased that May is coming to an end. I have good reasons for not blogging, really I do.
Oh, if you want the good news, scroll down to the end of the post.
Well, as stated in my last post, I had my wisdom teeth removed. That sucked. About two weeks ago my husband got sick, and in turn, I got what he had, but three times worse. Not over-exaggerating. He had a fever for one day, whereas I had a fever for three days. Just as I was getting over all of that junk (and I still have a nasty cough and some lovely phlegm), it was time for WisCon. I just returned from WisCon yesterday, and I would have posted while I was there, but I again had patchy internet. I swear it's my laptop.
Well, WisCon was fun. I think in future years though I need to make sure at least one friend is there as well. I am socially inept to begin with - wandering through the parties by myself just makes me feel lost, especially since everyone is in their groups and conversations. No way am I bold enough to interject myself into a conversation.
I especially enjoyed the panel "Make Shit Up." It reconfirmed to me that I need to shut up that little voice in my head, which makes me consider what others would think of what I'm writing, when I'm working on the first draft. Nicolla Griffith called it The Parrot. Perfect comparison. I need to make sure I am writing for the shear joy and eagerness to get a story that's in my mind down on paper. In other words, I need to get back into writing for myself first. And hearing that everyone else on the panel does just that made me feel a hell of a lot better. I don't know if it was the two years at Seton, or that I have become a bit more touchy to critiques, but I have been focusing too much on if others are going to like what I'm writing, and it freezes me up, and then I don't finish the first draft.
So, I think I have to set a new rule for myself. No one is allowed to see what I've written until I have a full first draft done. I had the beginning of Daina's Dance critiqued for the WisCon Writers' Workshop. I was so excited with the idea and the novel, and now after the crit I feel as if it is all really pointless and I'm not going to be able to do it the way I wanted to. I am discouraged to finish the first draft even to see where it's all going. Now if I had that first draft done, revisions suck anyway, so I wouldn't need the excitement I need for a first draft to propel me to the end. That make any sense? Hopefully I'll get over it and finish the first draft of Daina in the future. Perhaps I'll work on the sequel to Mind Behind the Mind now, especially since Tessa and Bastian are giving me a headache, insisting I return to them and tell their damn stories. I wish Daina was a more insistent character, but then she wouldn't fit in with my vision.
Goals for this week? Update my website. Figure out how to inform Luna of my change of address, since I have yet to hear back from the query I sent months and months ago. Catch up with my online writing groups. Figure out LiveJournal (only so I can connect with friends and communities on LJ - this blog is still where I will post, and I will never leave it because LJ is already frustrating me with figuring things out). Finish that "Hell" story...I won't call it a short - I might not have typed up all the handwritten pages yet, but it's well over 25 typed pages now I'd say. E-mails - oh man I am so neglectful. And way too many other things.
*** Here is the good news I mentioned way at the top. I know, this should probably have been posted first. It was going to have its own post earlier this month, but that didn't happen. The anthology Modern Magic: Tales of Fantasy and Horror is now available to purchase. My story "Kindled Morphogenesis" is the first one in the antho, among many other excellent stories (and awesome artwork). You can purchase a copy online at Fantasist, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble. Now go buy it. ;)
Okay, that's all for now. Happy writing! :)
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Wisdom Teeth
First, I want to thank Mike for the two book reccomendations. :) I'll be sure to add those to my list of books to buy.
Next, I will extrapolate about wisdom teeth because this is my blog, and I can. Got to love freedom of speech...sometimes. Well, my wisdom teeth are going to be yanked out (dug out in the case of my two impacted ones) on May 2. I had been trying to avoid this, hoping that none of them would be impacted, but no such luck. The doctor prescribed a valium for me to take right before the surgery - he must have easily seen how freaked I was.
Now, if I lose my wisdom teeth, will I be less wise? Okay, I'm being silly, but let me be silly - sometimes it's the only thing I can be good at. I mean, I know I'm not the wisest of people to begin with, so will this make it even worse? Will it have any impact on my crappy decisions and ability to do anything? I'm average at everything now, so will I be less than average at everything (including writing)?
I guess I'm done being silly now. It was amusing while it lasted. To me at least.
So, I wrote 1 page today. Progress - yay. I received my check for "Kindled" last week. :) I'd frame it, but the money will likely get used for the WPF Alumni Retreat in June - heh. The anthology is due to be out at the end of this month - woo hoo!
Not much else in writing news. I am at least hoping this week will be the week things will be mostly unpacked and organized so I can actually find all the stuff I need to start my tarot cards. I just feel I need to draw one before I can think of a story to go with it. Not like I don't have plenty of other things to work on for writing. Like maybe sending out more queries. That would be a thought.
Okay, I think that's all my brain can put together right now. Better than not posting for over a month again. ;) Happy writing all!
Next, I will extrapolate about wisdom teeth because this is my blog, and I can. Got to love freedom of speech...sometimes. Well, my wisdom teeth are going to be yanked out (dug out in the case of my two impacted ones) on May 2. I had been trying to avoid this, hoping that none of them would be impacted, but no such luck. The doctor prescribed a valium for me to take right before the surgery - he must have easily seen how freaked I was.
Now, if I lose my wisdom teeth, will I be less wise? Okay, I'm being silly, but let me be silly - sometimes it's the only thing I can be good at. I mean, I know I'm not the wisest of people to begin with, so will this make it even worse? Will it have any impact on my crappy decisions and ability to do anything? I'm average at everything now, so will I be less than average at everything (including writing)?
I guess I'm done being silly now. It was amusing while it lasted. To me at least.
So, I wrote 1 page today. Progress - yay. I received my check for "Kindled" last week. :) I'd frame it, but the money will likely get used for the WPF Alumni Retreat in June - heh. The anthology is due to be out at the end of this month - woo hoo!
Not much else in writing news. I am at least hoping this week will be the week things will be mostly unpacked and organized so I can actually find all the stuff I need to start my tarot cards. I just feel I need to draw one before I can think of a story to go with it. Not like I don't have plenty of other things to work on for writing. Like maybe sending out more queries. That would be a thought.
Okay, I think that's all my brain can put together right now. Better than not posting for over a month again. ;) Happy writing all!
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Er...
So, I see last post I said I would be posting the following Tuesday. Well...it IS a Tuesday. Hold on. Yup, not midnight yet, so definitely a Tuesday.
This could be an extremely long post, unless I get sick of typing, and realize I should maybe go to bed and not get only four hours of sleep before getting up for work. hell, with me not posting for over two months, I'm sure I've lost the few people that do read my blog once in a while...
So, what has been going on with me? Moved. House needs more work than I thought (okay more work, right away now before things degrade beyond repair). We had to buy a new washer and dryer. :( And then a new stove. :(( (Is it possible to double frown, or is that just a frown with an oddly shaped chin?) Yes, I'm a bit kooky right now. Perhaps it's the adreneline rush of actually blogging. No, we are not fully unpacked. Yes, the house looks like a tornado, hurricane, and monsoon hit it all at once - minus wetness, I will admit it's at least quite dry in here, which is good because there is no way we can replace the roof right now.
Also, by the way, I have decided not to make excuses anymore. I haven't written for over two months. And I'm not going to say it was the moving, starting the part-time job, my grandmother dying, my desktop computer losing it and Dell's tech support being CRAP (Couldn't Rip-themselves-out-of A Paper-bag - so I had to fiddle with that acronym...that's what writers do), swollen and painful gums because of an infected wisdom tooth. No, not going to use any of those as excuses, even though all of them happened. It is my own fault, my own lack of ambition, my laziness, all my fault (I did say that already) for not writing. It hurts not to be writing, but I'm the only one to blame for not doing it. I need to make time, even if life is throwing everything and the kitchen sink at me (um, I mean frozen kitchen sink pipes - yes we had those the weekend it got in the teens and below in Wisconsin, around the same time my grandmother died, the comp gave me the finger, and I could barely eat because my mouth hurt so much).
I said I would stop making excuses, not stop whining and complaining. I can't stop that. I'm good at that. And we all know we shouldn't ignore stuff we're good at.
Well, under the wire, I was able to get a ticket for WisCon, and I sent in the first 8k of Daina's Dance for the WisCon Writing Workshop. I miss the sweet music of my words and ideas being ripped to shreds by one person in the space of five minutes. Didn't I go over the masochist in me in a past post? Anyway, I'm hoping it will get me writing again, although I still intend to attempt to do so before then. Blogging is a start. If I'm not too late, I will also try to sign up for the Broad Universe Rapidfire Reading.
The query to Luna is still out there. I might have received an e-mail rejection for a story somewhere in the madness of the last two months (and that was the last story I actually had out there - oh my, am I a bad, bad girl).
I have been reading lots because it is the only way I can relax during lunch while at work, and also on the bus on the way home. Here is my list of read it, or know you will die without having known the wonders of these novels (this was supposed to come out sounding like a curse - I don't think I quite managed it well enough this time): Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder, Play Dead by Mike Arnzen, Pyramids by Terry Pratchett, Sometimes After Sunset by Tanith Lee. So, I've only read good books lately - that IS a good thing.
While I was reading Play Dead, I came up with this wild idea. See, I love it when stuff I read gives me ideas. It is not so good when I become so obssessed with the idea at work that it's hard to concentrate on work. Why is it I always want to write the most when I'm at work? :p Anyway, Arnzen's book has to do with making a deack of playing cards (note that this statement is an UNDERstatement - read the book and find out), and he also has some Tarot mixed in. Well, being Wiccan and all, and attempting to make my own Tarot deck (not like in Arnzen's book - colored pencil and pens work just fine for me) numerous times in the past, I was thinking it would also be interesting to write a novel or stories one day surroundin the Tarot. Then as I read this novel, the gears started moving (that hamster in my brain needed to be overfed maybe, it was hard to get him to run on the wheel - but once he gets going...just think of the run to the hills song). Maybe I could mix Wicca (since I feel I have been lacking on the spiritual need end lately), the drawing of the cards, plus writing. A short story for each Tarot card! Yes, that means 78 stories. And to top it off I thought it would be great if each story stood alone, but in the end they all wove together in this beautiful connected web - having a world that seeps into our own world, so I can have urban fantasy as well as high fantasy stories in that mix of 78! And the world's name will be Fate, and there are these 3 cats where you will see at least one in each of the stories (one of the connectors), but they are of course not just cats (see my Tarot deck I have been attempting to do is called Cat Enchantress - cat eyes in the background and an all female figure deck)...I was thinking the one with red eyes should be a calico (yes, Amara is still a brat). And I also have this flower design for the cards, and that could somehow be another connector. Yes, I am nuts. No, I have no idea what any of the 78 stories will be about yet. Yes, this is a monumental project. One of those epics, like Stephen King's Dark Tower series, except that I'm likely to die before I complete it. And again, yes, I am nuts. But I really want to try it. I just have to make sure it isn't the only thing that takes over when it comes to writing. It is a nice way to touch many parts of my inner self. Bah, that's sounds way too philosophical. That must mean it is getting late and I should go to sleep.
I promise not to go two months again before I update. And here's hoping I can get back into writing soon again - I really need to, otherwise that hamster in my head is going to have way too many screws loose (hm, that could be a double metaphor...). Happy writing all!
This could be an extremely long post, unless I get sick of typing, and realize I should maybe go to bed and not get only four hours of sleep before getting up for work. hell, with me not posting for over two months, I'm sure I've lost the few people that do read my blog once in a while...
So, what has been going on with me? Moved. House needs more work than I thought (okay more work, right away now before things degrade beyond repair). We had to buy a new washer and dryer. :( And then a new stove. :(( (Is it possible to double frown, or is that just a frown with an oddly shaped chin?) Yes, I'm a bit kooky right now. Perhaps it's the adreneline rush of actually blogging. No, we are not fully unpacked. Yes, the house looks like a tornado, hurricane, and monsoon hit it all at once - minus wetness, I will admit it's at least quite dry in here, which is good because there is no way we can replace the roof right now.
Also, by the way, I have decided not to make excuses anymore. I haven't written for over two months. And I'm not going to say it was the moving, starting the part-time job, my grandmother dying, my desktop computer losing it and Dell's tech support being CRAP (Couldn't Rip-themselves-out-of A Paper-bag - so I had to fiddle with that acronym...that's what writers do), swollen and painful gums because of an infected wisdom tooth. No, not going to use any of those as excuses, even though all of them happened. It is my own fault, my own lack of ambition, my laziness, all my fault (I did say that already) for not writing. It hurts not to be writing, but I'm the only one to blame for not doing it. I need to make time, even if life is throwing everything and the kitchen sink at me (um, I mean frozen kitchen sink pipes - yes we had those the weekend it got in the teens and below in Wisconsin, around the same time my grandmother died, the comp gave me the finger, and I could barely eat because my mouth hurt so much).
I said I would stop making excuses, not stop whining and complaining. I can't stop that. I'm good at that. And we all know we shouldn't ignore stuff we're good at.
Well, under the wire, I was able to get a ticket for WisCon, and I sent in the first 8k of Daina's Dance for the WisCon Writing Workshop. I miss the sweet music of my words and ideas being ripped to shreds by one person in the space of five minutes. Didn't I go over the masochist in me in a past post? Anyway, I'm hoping it will get me writing again, although I still intend to attempt to do so before then. Blogging is a start. If I'm not too late, I will also try to sign up for the Broad Universe Rapidfire Reading.
The query to Luna is still out there. I might have received an e-mail rejection for a story somewhere in the madness of the last two months (and that was the last story I actually had out there - oh my, am I a bad, bad girl).
I have been reading lots because it is the only way I can relax during lunch while at work, and also on the bus on the way home. Here is my list of read it, or know you will die without having known the wonders of these novels (this was supposed to come out sounding like a curse - I don't think I quite managed it well enough this time): Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder, Play Dead by Mike Arnzen, Pyramids by Terry Pratchett, Sometimes After Sunset by Tanith Lee. So, I've only read good books lately - that IS a good thing.
While I was reading Play Dead, I came up with this wild idea. See, I love it when stuff I read gives me ideas. It is not so good when I become so obssessed with the idea at work that it's hard to concentrate on work. Why is it I always want to write the most when I'm at work? :p Anyway, Arnzen's book has to do with making a deack of playing cards (note that this statement is an UNDERstatement - read the book and find out), and he also has some Tarot mixed in. Well, being Wiccan and all, and attempting to make my own Tarot deck (not like in Arnzen's book - colored pencil and pens work just fine for me) numerous times in the past, I was thinking it would also be interesting to write a novel or stories one day surroundin the Tarot. Then as I read this novel, the gears started moving (that hamster in my brain needed to be overfed maybe, it was hard to get him to run on the wheel - but once he gets going...just think of the run to the hills song). Maybe I could mix Wicca (since I feel I have been lacking on the spiritual need end lately), the drawing of the cards, plus writing. A short story for each Tarot card! Yes, that means 78 stories. And to top it off I thought it would be great if each story stood alone, but in the end they all wove together in this beautiful connected web - having a world that seeps into our own world, so I can have urban fantasy as well as high fantasy stories in that mix of 78! And the world's name will be Fate, and there are these 3 cats where you will see at least one in each of the stories (one of the connectors), but they are of course not just cats (see my Tarot deck I have been attempting to do is called Cat Enchantress - cat eyes in the background and an all female figure deck)...I was thinking the one with red eyes should be a calico (yes, Amara is still a brat). And I also have this flower design for the cards, and that could somehow be another connector. Yes, I am nuts. No, I have no idea what any of the 78 stories will be about yet. Yes, this is a monumental project. One of those epics, like Stephen King's Dark Tower series, except that I'm likely to die before I complete it. And again, yes, I am nuts. But I really want to try it. I just have to make sure it isn't the only thing that takes over when it comes to writing. It is a nice way to touch many parts of my inner self. Bah, that's sounds way too philosophical. That must mean it is getting late and I should go to sleep.
I promise not to go two months again before I update. And here's hoping I can get back into writing soon again - I really need to, otherwise that hamster in my head is going to have way too many screws loose (hm, that could be a double metaphor...). Happy writing all!
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