I don't have a thing to write about, but I haven't posted since Sunday, so I'm posting now. Hmm. I'm still working on that bag of Smarties. The inside of my mouth feels sort of raw. I estimate I've eaten 10,000 Smarties since I bought them Saturday.
I see from the wrapper that Smarties are made in Canada. I got a rejection this week from a Canadian publisher. Coincidence?
I reached 26,000 words on my NaNo book yesterday, but I haven't written a single word tonight. But the online Boggle site is down and I got bored with the internet at work this afternoon, so I guess I'll do some writing now.
Just in case you're my brother, who is 2,000 words ahead of me in his NaNo book, here's a hilarious link to a conversation about our robot overlords, which I got via Making Light. I recommend you read it over and over and over until it's too late to do any writing.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Why I'm not at 25,000 words yet
I meant to write all day long today. I got 2k done yesterday, and that was with me having to do all my weekend chores, like laundry and shopping.
Then this morning I woke up with a fully-formed story idea. I hate when I do that, because the story always seems much better in the dream than it does when I write it down. But I have to write it down, of course. So I wrote a 1,000-word flash piece this morning, and revised it, and sent it off to Coyote Wild.
I hadn't had anything to eat at that point and it was getting on to lunchtime, so I went ahead and made the white ziti recipe posted a few days ago on Making Light. I used ground turkey instead of sausage, and added about a quarter cup of feta (I didn't have more than that), and forgot to cover it when I stuck it in the oven, but it turned out really, really good.
After I stuffed myself, it was important that I keep my Monopoly skills honed, so I played a game of computer Monopoly (courtesy of winning it in the McDonald's contest last month). And then I had to go to my brother's house and show off my new laptop. And then--then I came home and opened up my NaNo document and thought I'd better finish up this chapter and really get down to bringing my wordcount up.
That was the plan. But the TV is right by the computer and I turned it on, and there was a show on about comets destroying the dinosaurs, and then I watched a Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode On Demand that I hadn't seen, and then I came across the end of Shrek, and then after that the same channel ran Chicken Run, and now I'm watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas before the Wizard of Oz comes on.
I really need to drop down to basic cable so this won't happen.
Anyway, I'm at 21,320 words. And it's not as if I don't know what I'm going to write. It's just more fun to stare at the TV screen and eat Smarties (I got a huge bag for 40 cents, after-Halloween special). Blame it on animation. And, um, comets.
Then this morning I woke up with a fully-formed story idea. I hate when I do that, because the story always seems much better in the dream than it does when I write it down. But I have to write it down, of course. So I wrote a 1,000-word flash piece this morning, and revised it, and sent it off to Coyote Wild.
I hadn't had anything to eat at that point and it was getting on to lunchtime, so I went ahead and made the white ziti recipe posted a few days ago on Making Light. I used ground turkey instead of sausage, and added about a quarter cup of feta (I didn't have more than that), and forgot to cover it when I stuck it in the oven, but it turned out really, really good.
After I stuffed myself, it was important that I keep my Monopoly skills honed, so I played a game of computer Monopoly (courtesy of winning it in the McDonald's contest last month). And then I had to go to my brother's house and show off my new laptop. And then--then I came home and opened up my NaNo document and thought I'd better finish up this chapter and really get down to bringing my wordcount up.
That was the plan. But the TV is right by the computer and I turned it on, and there was a show on about comets destroying the dinosaurs, and then I watched a Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode On Demand that I hadn't seen, and then I came across the end of Shrek, and then after that the same channel ran Chicken Run, and now I'm watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas before the Wizard of Oz comes on.
I really need to drop down to basic cable so this won't happen.
Anyway, I'm at 21,320 words. And it's not as if I don't know what I'm going to write. It's just more fun to stare at the TV screen and eat Smarties (I got a huge bag for 40 cents, after-Halloween special). Blame it on animation. And, um, comets.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
November book of the month: Goblin Quest
I just finished reading my November book-of-the-month, Goblin Quest by Jim C. Hines. Imagine a D&D adventure told not from the warrior prince's point of view, or the dwarf cartographer's, or the mage enslaved to dark magics, or the elvish thief with the haunted past--no, not any of these, but from one of the monsters the adventurers encounter. And not Tiamat, either. It's Jig the goblin, nearsighted and runty, and his pet firespider Smudge.
It's a clever idea, but it could have been so very badly done. I almost didn't buy the book because it's marketed as some sort of laff riot and I expected fart jokes and stupid puns. But Jig is a sweet guy, while still being thoroughly a goblin, which I appreciated (and which made for the funniest bits); his introduction to the world beyond his own is fascinating and well-done. The book is longer than it probably needs to be, but then I think that about most fantasies these days (hell, Baen won't even consider manuscripts under 100k).
There's a sequel available, Goblin Hero, which I'll be ordering, and a third book, Goblin War, is due out in March, I believe it is. I plan to read both. I also recommend checking out Jim C. Hines' blog; reading it was what made me decide to pick up the book. He's a funny guy.
To meander away from my book review, I started reading Jim C. Hines' blog because he's participating in an interesting project that CatsCurious Press is running. In January they're taking submissions for a retold fairy tale project. They'll choose one story told from the protagonist's point of view, and then Jim will write the story from the antagonist's point of view. The two will be published together in one slim volume. It sounds like fun, particularly since the emphasis is on humor.
So of course I had to check out his writing style, to see how well his humor jibes with mine. And not only do I like his humor and his writing, but it's kind of eerie how his approach to story echoes my own. Just a fortnight ago I was complaining (publicly, I'm ashamed to admit, in a writer's forum I frequent) that I can't find books on the shelves that are a bit like mine. Well, now I have.
You'd better believe I'm subbing to CatsCurious on the stroke of January 1. I've actually started the story, and it's really, truly awesome and funny. I was hoping to have finished by now so I could spend the next two months rewriting and polishing it, but NaNo intervened. I guess I'd better get back to writing so I can finish my novel and go back to work on that short story. I'm still just at 16,135 words, and I see that MY BROTHER has written over 17,500! Where's my keyboard?! I need to start typing!
It's a clever idea, but it could have been so very badly done. I almost didn't buy the book because it's marketed as some sort of laff riot and I expected fart jokes and stupid puns. But Jig is a sweet guy, while still being thoroughly a goblin, which I appreciated (and which made for the funniest bits); his introduction to the world beyond his own is fascinating and well-done. The book is longer than it probably needs to be, but then I think that about most fantasies these days (hell, Baen won't even consider manuscripts under 100k).
There's a sequel available, Goblin Hero, which I'll be ordering, and a third book, Goblin War, is due out in March, I believe it is. I plan to read both. I also recommend checking out Jim C. Hines' blog; reading it was what made me decide to pick up the book. He's a funny guy.
To meander away from my book review, I started reading Jim C. Hines' blog because he's participating in an interesting project that CatsCurious Press is running. In January they're taking submissions for a retold fairy tale project. They'll choose one story told from the protagonist's point of view, and then Jim will write the story from the antagonist's point of view. The two will be published together in one slim volume. It sounds like fun, particularly since the emphasis is on humor.
So of course I had to check out his writing style, to see how well his humor jibes with mine. And not only do I like his humor and his writing, but it's kind of eerie how his approach to story echoes my own. Just a fortnight ago I was complaining (publicly, I'm ashamed to admit, in a writer's forum I frequent) that I can't find books on the shelves that are a bit like mine. Well, now I have.
You'd better believe I'm subbing to CatsCurious on the stroke of January 1. I've actually started the story, and it's really, truly awesome and funny. I was hoping to have finished by now so I could spend the next two months rewriting and polishing it, but NaNo intervened. I guess I'd better get back to writing so I can finish my novel and go back to work on that short story. I'm still just at 16,135 words, and I see that MY BROTHER has written over 17,500! Where's my keyboard?! I need to start typing!
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
13,746 words. And read my story over at EDF!
My story "Bad Luck" is up at Every Day Fiction, so go on over and read it! I like EDF. There's a new flash fiction story every morning, and the quality is high. While you're at it, of course, you can also go read "Sawmill Road," which EDF ran back in September. They've accepted a third story of mine, but I don't know yet when it will run.
My NaNo book is going great! I'm having a lot of fun with it, which is what it's all about--and even better, I think the writing quality is pretty high. I may change my mind once it's all done and I go back and reread it.
I got my cute little tiny laptop, the Asus eee, and the keyboard is just big enough for me to type on without pulling my hair out with frustration. My only real difficulty is occasionally hitting enter instead of the apostrophe key, but I can live with that. Mobile typing! We're living in the space age now, baby!
My NaNo book is going great! I'm having a lot of fun with it, which is what it's all about--and even better, I think the writing quality is pretty high. I may change my mind once it's all done and I go back and reread it.
I got my cute little tiny laptop, the Asus eee, and the keyboard is just big enough for me to type on without pulling my hair out with frustration. My only real difficulty is occasionally hitting enter instead of the apostrophe key, but I can live with that. Mobile typing! We're living in the space age now, baby!
Sunday, November 4, 2007
7625 words. Gimme pizza.
I've been writing steadily--in between Boggle games--all day. My goal is 10,000 words by tonight. If I can make 10,000 words, I can have a pizza. If I make 9,999 words, I can't have a pizza. Except I can, because at that point I'll just type the word "dammit" and I'll have 10,000 words.
I've already changed the outline. Chapter 3 is so short I'm going to have to tack it onto the end of chapter 2. That's fine, but I'm a little concerned that the wasp man in the former chapter 3 is so strange that he's going to have to come back later in the book. I actually have him scheduled for another appearance in chapter 12, but that's an awful long time to let him hang fire. Well, I'll just take it as it comes. No time to stop and rethink the plot!
I've already changed the outline. Chapter 3 is so short I'm going to have to tack it onto the end of chapter 2. That's fine, but I'm a little concerned that the wasp man in the former chapter 3 is so strange that he's going to have to come back later in the book. I actually have him scheduled for another appearance in chapter 12, but that's an awful long time to let him hang fire. Well, I'll just take it as it comes. No time to stop and rethink the plot!
Thursday, November 1, 2007
1,160 words
Not much, but it's a start. I confess that I already had the prologue and chapter one already written (months and months ago), but I jettisoned them and started over! I've now rewritten the prologue, and you can read it on my NaNo profile. The site's really slow right now, though.
I'm pleased with the quality of my writing so far. Each time I do NaNo I try and concentrate on some new aspect of writing or the process of writing. In 2005 I experimented with outlining, and it worked so well I've continued to outline ever since. In 2006 I tried various methods of increasing my writing output, in particular dictating my novel during my commute; that worked, but the results weren't all that impressive. This year I'm working on the quality of writing, with an emphasis on description. For years I've tried to make my prose lean and spare, but I think I've gone overboard. Time to revel in the poetry of words--without losing focus on the story or the characters.
As an example, the original version of the prologue was only 315 words long. The new version is 925 words even though it covers very little more ground than the original.
49,000 words to go. 29 days. Tomorrow I can stay up as late as I like, because it's Friday! My weekend goal: 10,000 words. I'll do it too, because I plan to reward myself with pizza.
I'm pleased with the quality of my writing so far. Each time I do NaNo I try and concentrate on some new aspect of writing or the process of writing. In 2005 I experimented with outlining, and it worked so well I've continued to outline ever since. In 2006 I tried various methods of increasing my writing output, in particular dictating my novel during my commute; that worked, but the results weren't all that impressive. This year I'm working on the quality of writing, with an emphasis on description. For years I've tried to make my prose lean and spare, but I think I've gone overboard. Time to revel in the poetry of words--without losing focus on the story or the characters.
As an example, the original version of the prologue was only 315 words long. The new version is 925 words even though it covers very little more ground than the original.
49,000 words to go. 29 days. Tomorrow I can stay up as late as I like, because it's Friday! My weekend goal: 10,000 words. I'll do it too, because I plan to reward myself with pizza.
Journey to the Center of the Earth, without spacesuits
One of my new year's resolutions was to read one book every month that I would not otherwise have read. I've kept that resolution, too, and I've read some wonderful books and discovered some wonderful authors as a result. For October I was planning to use Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell or whatever it's called (I keep wanting to make it Dr. Strange), but it's 1,000 pages long and while I like it so far, I'm only twenty pages in and keep getting interrupted by shorter books.
I almost decided not to do an October New Book, because I've read lots of other books this month. Mostly Terry Pratchett. But then I decided that skipping a month would simply make a mockery of the whole resolution, and on Monday I grabbed the thinnest book on my "to read" pile (which I keep carefully stacked up all over the house). That happened to be A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Vernes. I loved the movie when I was a kid and I thought maybe the book might evoke the same dreamlike sense of being lost somewhere unlike any other place in the world.
Monday night I read the first 50 pages. Tuesday night I read the next 100 pages. And I am proud to relate that last night I read the last 100 pages and finished my October book in October!
I didn't dislike the book--it was interesting, if kind of sloppy. The characters were, well, just types. The main character was a hysterical coward, the uncle was a lunatic, and the "imperturbable Hans" of course was a robot--nothing else could explain how he acted. It's easy to smile indulgently at the silly science, but that's not fair; it's not like the author could get online and look up the Wiki article on plate tectonics and volcanoes. I confess, though, that I kept thinking, "How did this get to be such a classic?" Especially when the writing was slipping from past to present tense and back within the space of a few sentences.
Oh well, I'm glad I read it. But it wasn't a bit what I expected. My vague memories of the movie involve: someone tapping Morse code through a network of strange white tunnels in response to sounds that turn out to be made by a duck, dinosaurs fighting each other, and a volcano that was induced to blow up with gunpowder. The movie apparently was only loosely based on the book, because there were no ducks, no land-walking dinosaurs, and--well, the gunpowder and volcano are sorta kinda linked in the book, only not really. But my real confusion was the book's cover.
I wish I could scan the edition I have. It's a paperback that I picked up at a library sale. I'm (ahem) posting from work so I don't have the book to look at, and I couldn't find this particlar cover online, but I'm guessing it's a late 1950s, maybe early 60s edition. The cover shows four men in white spacesuits on the bow of a futuristic-looking boat--it's got antennas that sort of look like rayguns and things--and the boat is sailing through a cavern, on lava. I mean the boat is sailing on lava, through a cavern. That is also filled with lava. In the background are some shadowy human figures apparently watching the spacesuited men.
Where did the artist get all this? From another book, I suspect, because in this book there are only three men on the expedition, and they don't meet any other people. Well, except for a glimpse of a gigantic caveman watching a herd of mammoths. (Really.) They don't have spacesuits. They don't have a boat, although they build a raft of semi-fossilized wood to sail across the underground sea. (Really.)
I kept wondering, as I read, when I would get to the part where they meet the center-dwellers who live in lava caves and wear spacesuits and sail lava-ships. Instead, the party walks through a lot of empty lava tubes, sails across the sea despite a raging storm and sea monsters, blows up a rock blocking their way, and end up--well, I don't want to spoil it for you. Spacesuits are not involved.
I'm glad I was able to share this with you now, because the second I get home I'm all over my NaNo book. Word count to be posted late tonight.
I almost decided not to do an October New Book, because I've read lots of other books this month. Mostly Terry Pratchett. But then I decided that skipping a month would simply make a mockery of the whole resolution, and on Monday I grabbed the thinnest book on my "to read" pile (which I keep carefully stacked up all over the house). That happened to be A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Vernes. I loved the movie when I was a kid and I thought maybe the book might evoke the same dreamlike sense of being lost somewhere unlike any other place in the world.
Monday night I read the first 50 pages. Tuesday night I read the next 100 pages. And I am proud to relate that last night I read the last 100 pages and finished my October book in October!
I didn't dislike the book--it was interesting, if kind of sloppy. The characters were, well, just types. The main character was a hysterical coward, the uncle was a lunatic, and the "imperturbable Hans" of course was a robot--nothing else could explain how he acted. It's easy to smile indulgently at the silly science, but that's not fair; it's not like the author could get online and look up the Wiki article on plate tectonics and volcanoes. I confess, though, that I kept thinking, "How did this get to be such a classic?" Especially when the writing was slipping from past to present tense and back within the space of a few sentences.
Oh well, I'm glad I read it. But it wasn't a bit what I expected. My vague memories of the movie involve: someone tapping Morse code through a network of strange white tunnels in response to sounds that turn out to be made by a duck, dinosaurs fighting each other, and a volcano that was induced to blow up with gunpowder. The movie apparently was only loosely based on the book, because there were no ducks, no land-walking dinosaurs, and--well, the gunpowder and volcano are sorta kinda linked in the book, only not really. But my real confusion was the book's cover.
I wish I could scan the edition I have. It's a paperback that I picked up at a library sale. I'm (ahem) posting from work so I don't have the book to look at, and I couldn't find this particlar cover online, but I'm guessing it's a late 1950s, maybe early 60s edition. The cover shows four men in white spacesuits on the bow of a futuristic-looking boat--it's got antennas that sort of look like rayguns and things--and the boat is sailing through a cavern, on lava. I mean the boat is sailing on lava, through a cavern. That is also filled with lava. In the background are some shadowy human figures apparently watching the spacesuited men.
Where did the artist get all this? From another book, I suspect, because in this book there are only three men on the expedition, and they don't meet any other people. Well, except for a glimpse of a gigantic caveman watching a herd of mammoths. (Really.) They don't have spacesuits. They don't have a boat, although they build a raft of semi-fossilized wood to sail across the underground sea. (Really.)
I kept wondering, as I read, when I would get to the part where they meet the center-dwellers who live in lava caves and wear spacesuits and sail lava-ships. Instead, the party walks through a lot of empty lava tubes, sails across the sea despite a raging storm and sea monsters, blows up a rock blocking their way, and end up--well, I don't want to spoil it for you. Spacesuits are not involved.
I'm glad I was able to share this with you now, because the second I get home I'm all over my NaNo book. Word count to be posted late tonight.
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