Well. Of course working on the Spare. Above 70K now. Things marche bien or not. Am doing a hard-copy read-through. Characters are beginning to make themselves better known and are falling into their natural places. Also, I wrote two new chapters and I'm zeroing in on the mysterious Mr. Verney. I thought he was a nice man when he appeared, but, gee, he's not. He has much for which he ought to be ashamed! I've been working out my idea for the Barbarian (Well, it's a code name, like MS calling it's document server Tahoe, before they settled on a really boring name, all right?) Anyway, I'm excited about this, I think this will be the next project instead of The List, which is still percolating but not speaking to me as this idea does right now. I have more books on Scotland and I think I've narrowed the time period to probably not medieval and almost surely not Regency. Pre-Culloden, I think. Depends. Also, I am learning Gaelic because my Barbarian doesn't speak English right now. The other day, I saw someone I used to work with and he was showing off his cute new baby, and as I was leaving, I touched his upper arm and said goodbye and congratulations. Well, I know what's it's like having an infant but that man has time for the gym! (How?? Oh, his wife must be the tired one...) It was like touching a rock. Anything more than a touch and I'd have hurt myself. Naturally, the sensation was immediately followed by "I can use this for the Barbarian!" Yay!
posted by Carolyn @ 9/26/2002 09:19:00 PM Permalink
The galleys for Lord Ruin arrived Thursday, along with some covers. The cover is absolutly stunning. I love it. The artwork is beautiful, the colors rather unusual for the genre. I've done a read-through of the galleys. Pretty clean, but there are a couple of rough patches with pov that I'm hoping can be fixed. In all honesty, Anne's character surprised me, I didn't realize she came across so well. Ruan, hmm. He works well, but not exactly what I'd hoped. In what way? Well, I'm trying to get a handle on it. The Spare is going well enough, just about to 70K words. Plus, I've had a splendid idea for a Scottish set story, which I have always wanted to do. I'm thinking medieval, and imagining the Highlands and the kind of people who would live in such a stark and beautiful land, but I need to do research. Am reading about medieval Scotland now - I made some good purchases on vacation! Plus I've ordered some books on Scottish Gaelic because I'm hoping the language can be a major plot point. Lately, I've been distracted by the strength of the idea. I'm getting down my preliminary ideas.
posted by Carolyn @ 9/07/2002 04:17:00 PM Permalink
Well, I'm at 68K now, within 100 of 69K. Also, long moments of total despair. It doesn't hang together! Arghhh!!!! SA and OW are still not together enough. I ignored working yesterday except last night, when I added several hundred words and re-ordered some chapters and then the stuff I fixed after I moved chapter 17 to become chapter 6 I think is going to work well. The basic problem is there's too much dream stuff and not enough real-life stuff. But now it's better, just not all better. Worked on the website today, added a lot of stuff about the characters from Lord Ruin.
posted by Carolyn @ 9/01/2002 06:15:00 PM Permalink
Liz Maverick
Jennifer Ashley
Sandy Schawb
Patti O'Shea
Marjorie M. Liu
Megan Frampton
Kristin Nelson
Miss Snark
Dystel & Goderich
The Rejecter
Evil Editor