Since Angel got sick, I haven't done any writing at all. No, wait, I did write a little bit yesterday morning. I believe it was about one and a half sentences.
So yeah, basically I'm totally stressed out and can't concentrate on much of anything. I've decided to just allow myself to read other people's books until the issue with Angel is resolved one way or another. She's improved from Monday, but she's not better by any means and she's not really eating. I'm going to call the vet tomorrow and see if her lack of appetite might be due to the steroids and if the steroids are important enough to keep giving them to her. I plan to do a lot of cooking this weekend for her, to see if I can tempt her appetite. I resorted to giving her ham soaked in milk this evening. She drank the milk but hardly touched the ham.
I need comfort reading. Maybe I'll reread Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief, one of my favorite books.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Good and bad
I got the email from my editor this morning: Jack of All Trades is now available from Ancient Tomes! I thought it was an ebook download available, but it looks like you can go ahead and order the print copy.
I made a trailer for it that you can watch, although mostly I suspect people who watch it will think, "That's a terrible trailer." At least it has good music (by the awesome Danny Birt) and illustrations (by the equally awesome Richard Svensson; the illustrations are from the book).
All this is good, of course. The bad is that my cat has picked up something that's affected her neurologically. She's a lot better than yesterday, when she couldn't stop turning in circles, but apparently this is not uncommon in cats and there are umpteen things that could cause it, from a brain tumor or head trauma to an ear infection or lung cancer. I declined to take her to the UT Vet Hospital for Every Test Known to Man and instead brought her home from the vet's with four medications: an antibiotic, a steroid, an ear flush, and ear drops. She's still wobbly; I think she may actually have vertigo, poor thing.
So in between getting the email from my editor and writing up this post, I had to stop and give Angel her morning meds, and she bit my finger. Which makes it hard to type. But I'd rather she bite my finger than turn in circles incessantly.
[I have no idea what I did to the font in this post.]
I made a trailer for it that you can watch, although mostly I suspect people who watch it will think, "That's a terrible trailer." At least it has good music (by the awesome Danny Birt) and illustrations (by the equally awesome Richard Svensson; the illustrations are from the book).
All this is good, of course. The bad is that my cat has picked up something that's affected her neurologically. She's a lot better than yesterday, when she couldn't stop turning in circles, but apparently this is not uncommon in cats and there are umpteen things that could cause it, from a brain tumor or head trauma to an ear infection or lung cancer. I declined to take her to the UT Vet Hospital for Every Test Known to Man and instead brought her home from the vet's with four medications: an antibiotic, a steroid, an ear flush, and ear drops. She's still wobbly; I think she may actually have vertigo, poor thing.
So in between getting the email from my editor and writing up this post, I had to stop and give Angel her morning meds, and she bit my finger. Which makes it hard to type. But I'd rather she bite my finger than turn in circles incessantly.
[I have no idea what I did to the font in this post.]
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Introducing the Vampirometer
I've been reading a lot of urban fantasy lately, and they all contain vampires. It seems to be a basic requirement of the subgenre. I'm going to start rating urban fantasies with the Vampirometer. Here's how it works:
Choose one of the following:
Anne Rice-esque vampires: sexy, decadent, and well-dressed. (1 point)
Dracula-esque vampires: powerful, horrific, and fascinating. (1 point)
Nosferatu-esque vampires: grotesque, scary, and non-sexy. (1 point)
Pratchett-esque vampires: driven, unhappy, and really just regular guys despite the blood-drinking thing. (1 point)
Additional points gained or lost from the following list:
Here are Vampirometer ratings for the two urban fantasies I read last week:
Maria Lima's Matters of the Blood Vampirometer rating: 2
Kat Richardson's Greywalker Vampirometer rating: 1
So what did I miss? How can I improve the Vampirometer?
Choose one of the following:
Anne Rice-esque vampires: sexy, decadent, and well-dressed. (1 point)
Dracula-esque vampires: powerful, horrific, and fascinating. (1 point)
Nosferatu-esque vampires: grotesque, scary, and non-sexy. (1 point)
Pratchett-esque vampires: driven, unhappy, and really just regular guys despite the blood-drinking thing. (1 point)
Additional points gained or lost from the following list:
- Vampires are undead (no pulse or breathing) and act undead (no food, no sex, may smell kinda bad, etc.). (+1 point)
- Vampires are undead (no pulse or breathing) but act more like goth kids who are pretending to be vampires. (-1 point)
- Vampires are not undead (they have a disease that renders them vampiric, are a separate species, are aliens/ghosts/from another dimension, etc.). (+1 point)
- Vampires are considered alive rather than undead, but they gain all their nourishment from blood and do not eat. (-1 point)
- All vampires are evil except the one the heroine/hero interacts with most. (-1 point)
- Vampires have a complex and hidden hierarchical society with elaborate rules, frequent gatherings of powerful members, and members who are businessmen or nobles, but somehow no one except the heroine/hero has ever figured out that vampires exist. (-1 point)
- Vampires can transform into bats, wolves, rats etc. at will. (+1 point)
- Individual vampires may have different talents. (+1 point)
- Vampires consider humans as prey animals barely worthy of any compassion, even though vampires are former humans. (-1 point)
- Vampires consider humans as prey animals barely worthy of any compassion, but a vampire falls in love with the heroine/hero, who is human. (-1 point)
- The viewpoint character is a vampire and is cool with that. (+1 point)
- The viewpoint character is a vampire and angsts about it all the time. (-1 point)
- Vampires are immortal and nigh-invulnerable except for a secret vulnerability the main characters learn over the course of the story; this secret is not known to anyone else. (-1 point)
- Vampires are immortal and nigh-invulnerable, but ways to destroy them are common knowledge, or at least not secret. (+1 point)
- Vampires are magical beings that cannot be harmed physically under ordinary circumstances. (+1 point)
- Vampires are magical beings that cannot be harmed physically, but they still have sex with physical beings. (-1 point)
- Vampires absorb energy instead of drinking blood. (+1 point)
- Vampires are all about the blood. (+1 point)
- Vampires seem to be vampires in name only, without any apparent need for blood/life force/etc. (-1 point)
- The heroine/hero falls for the vampire even though he/she is a real dick/has no personality/is portrayed as repugnant or evil, etc., and this seems out of character for the heroine/hero. (-1 point)
Here are Vampirometer ratings for the two urban fantasies I read last week:
Maria Lima's Matters of the Blood Vampirometer rating: 2
Kat Richardson's Greywalker Vampirometer rating: 1
So what did I miss? How can I improve the Vampirometer?
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Four reviews
I got my copy of Catherine J. Gardner's chapbook "The Sour Aftertaste of Olive Lemon" yesterday and read it today. It's brilliant! Her writing is surreal and full of amazing imagery and wordplay; her brain must be full of interesting thoughts. I can't tell too much about it without giving away some of the plot, so I'll just say that Olive Lemon lives in a town without a name. If you haven't already ordered your copy, I highly recommend it!
I saw Ponyo today at the theater. There's another surreal story, but in this case it's also charming, sweet, and gentle. It's about a little boy who lives at the top of a cliff above the sea, and a goldfish whose father is a strange sort of magician who used to be human. After the fish gets stuck in a jar and is saved by the little boy, she wants to become human herself. I haven't seen such gorgeous animation in years--it's old-fashioned hand-drawn animation, and I'd forgotten how organic and alive that feels. The story itself reminds me a lot of My Neighbor Totoro.
Yesterday I had to have a tire repaired, with a ridiculous two and a half hour wait. I didn't have a book with me so I bought one, Kat Richardson's Greywalker, and ended up staying up till 1am this morning to finish it. I liked the main character, Harper Blaine, who after a terrible accident discovers she can see and interact with a realm of spirits that she calls the Grey. The plot was solid and interesting, although I was disappointed that the romantic subplot was given so little emphasis. I liked the way Harper's relationship with the Interesting Guy was progressing, and then boom, it was the morning after with no transition. I really thought my copy of the book was missing a chapter or something. Other than that, I liked the book pretty well.
I also read Maria Lima's Matters of the Blood this week, another urban fantasy. This one was good too, if a little too dependent on coincidences to move the plot forward. I kept wondering when the main character, Keira Kelly, was going to open up and whoop some ass. This book was published by Juno Books, which focuses on urban fantasy with strong female main characters, but Keira basically never whoops anything. She just gets hit in the head a lot and has to be rescued. I liked her, but she needed to stop telling us she's been trained in kicking butt and just show us.
I saw Ponyo today at the theater. There's another surreal story, but in this case it's also charming, sweet, and gentle. It's about a little boy who lives at the top of a cliff above the sea, and a goldfish whose father is a strange sort of magician who used to be human. After the fish gets stuck in a jar and is saved by the little boy, she wants to become human herself. I haven't seen such gorgeous animation in years--it's old-fashioned hand-drawn animation, and I'd forgotten how organic and alive that feels. The story itself reminds me a lot of My Neighbor Totoro.
Yesterday I had to have a tire repaired, with a ridiculous two and a half hour wait. I didn't have a book with me so I bought one, Kat Richardson's Greywalker, and ended up staying up till 1am this morning to finish it. I liked the main character, Harper Blaine, who after a terrible accident discovers she can see and interact with a realm of spirits that she calls the Grey. The plot was solid and interesting, although I was disappointed that the romantic subplot was given so little emphasis. I liked the way Harper's relationship with the Interesting Guy was progressing, and then boom, it was the morning after with no transition. I really thought my copy of the book was missing a chapter or something. Other than that, I liked the book pretty well.
I also read Maria Lima's Matters of the Blood this week, another urban fantasy. This one was good too, if a little too dependent on coincidences to move the plot forward. I kept wondering when the main character, Keira Kelly, was going to open up and whoop some ass. This book was published by Juno Books, which focuses on urban fantasy with strong female main characters, but Keira basically never whoops anything. She just gets hit in the head a lot and has to be rescued. I liked her, but she needed to stop telling us she's been trained in kicking butt and just show us.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
ew what am I drinking?
I've gone through like a gallon of lemonade in the last two days. I poured the last half-glassful tonight and looked in the fridge to see if we had anything to top it off with. My mom, who's one of those people who buys icky flavors of food that no one actually likes, had brought home blueberry-acai juice. I topped off my lemonade with that, and of course it tastes (and smells) sort of like I'm drinking medicine. Ew. Eww. Gag. I don't like to throw out food (or lemonade), so I'm making myself drink it. It also seems to be giving me a headache. Maybe I'm allergic to acai, whatever it is. I thought it was something spammers had made up.
As for writing, I got the outline sort of written for the new untitled project. It's going to change a lot. If it doesn't, it will suck as badly as my lemonade-blueberry-acai concoction. But I suspect it'll end up pretty good--or if not good, at least it'll be fun to drink. I mean write.
But Iron Chef is on so I'm going to forget about outlining and lie back to watch people cook.
As for writing, I got the outline sort of written for the new untitled project. It's going to change a lot. If it doesn't, it will suck as badly as my lemonade-blueberry-acai concoction. But I suspect it'll end up pretty good--or if not good, at least it'll be fun to drink. I mean write.
But Iron Chef is on so I'm going to forget about outlining and lie back to watch people cook.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
WIP Wednesday: still no title
No title yet, and no words written, but I did read over what I've already written on the new untitled project today. It's good! The first chapter needs work--I wasn't sure what tone the main character's voice would take, and I didn't settle into it until the second chapter. Then again, the first chapter is only 500 words long so it won't be hard to rewrite.
In the first five chapters that are already written, I've introduced all the main characters along with the first broad strokes of their personalities and interactions, I've introduced the main themes of the book, given the main character some issues to work through, and hinted at some plot complications that are going to show up real soon. At the end of chapter five, one of the characters has just shot a spy (with an arrow, and he's not dead).
I'm dangerously attracted to the title Adventures in Zoology. If I was browsing the SF/fantasy shelves in B&N and saw a paperback with that title, I know I'd pick it up.
Tomorrow I'm going to rough out an outline--just a sketchy one, not a jot-and-tiddle everything-plotted-out one. I think this book will work out best if I write it fast and throw in all the ideas that pop up as I write. It's got some serious themes, but I want it to be fast-paced, fun, light, and as inventive as I can manage. If I pre-plot too much, I'll lose the spontaneity.
Friday I'm going to start writing, whether or not the outline is done and whether or not I've settled on a title.
In the first five chapters that are already written, I've introduced all the main characters along with the first broad strokes of their personalities and interactions, I've introduced the main themes of the book, given the main character some issues to work through, and hinted at some plot complications that are going to show up real soon. At the end of chapter five, one of the characters has just shot a spy (with an arrow, and he's not dead).
I'm dangerously attracted to the title Adventures in Zoology. If I was browsing the SF/fantasy shelves in B&N and saw a paperback with that title, I know I'd pick it up.
Tomorrow I'm going to rough out an outline--just a sketchy one, not a jot-and-tiddle everything-plotted-out one. I think this book will work out best if I write it fast and throw in all the ideas that pop up as I write. It's got some serious themes, but I want it to be fast-paced, fun, light, and as inventive as I can manage. If I pre-plot too much, I'll lose the spontaneity.
Friday I'm going to start writing, whether or not the outline is done and whether or not I've settled on a title.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Title help needed!
I had some downtime this evening while I was waiting for slowpoke testers #1 and #2 to finish their freaking stupid math tests. Um, anyway, I spent the time brainstorming title ideas for my new project that I'm about to jump back into. Then I went and left the list at work, where it will confuse my coworkers utterly if I don't get at it before they do in the morning.
This is the book that's going to be a fun swashbuckling adventure, about a woman who's invited on an expedition to another world. The working title is--ick--Elfland by Accident, which isn't even accurate.
I think I can remember some of the better titles I came up with. I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions. For some reason, I got stuck on using Gray Dancer as part of the title--the gray dancer in question is a horse the main character is going to end up with, although it's not very important to the plot. Although I could make it important.
Possible titles:
Adventures in Zoology
A Land of Rain and Daggers
Gray Dancer and Dagger
Gray Dancer and Dragon
Hmm, I had a ton more than that. I don't remember any of the others. Obviously, I need a lot of help. Once I get a title, I'm going to finish the rough outline I've already started.
What do you expect from a swashbuckling adventure? The main character is a zoologist, but she's going to end up a lot more than that. I know I want her to rescue someone from a dungeon, although I'm not entirely sure how the someone gets into the dungeon in the first place, or why. Details, details.
This is the book that's going to be a fun swashbuckling adventure, about a woman who's invited on an expedition to another world. The working title is--ick--Elfland by Accident, which isn't even accurate.
I think I can remember some of the better titles I came up with. I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions. For some reason, I got stuck on using Gray Dancer as part of the title--the gray dancer in question is a horse the main character is going to end up with, although it's not very important to the plot. Although I could make it important.
Possible titles:
Adventures in Zoology
A Land of Rain and Daggers
Gray Dancer and Dagger
Gray Dancer and Dragon
Hmm, I had a ton more than that. I don't remember any of the others. Obviously, I need a lot of help. Once I get a title, I'm going to finish the rough outline I've already started.
What do you expect from a swashbuckling adventure? The main character is a zoologist, but she's going to end up a lot more than that. I know I want her to rescue someone from a dungeon, although I'm not entirely sure how the someone gets into the dungeon in the first place, or why. Details, details.
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