So, I got home today with the darling child and the electricity was out. And stayed out for about an hour and a half at least. Let's see, no electricity means no water (the well has an electric pump) no laundry (aww) no washing dishes, no turning on the computer, no checking email, no answering email. For the DC, no TV, no wii. So we talked a bit, prepped for a school project he has due and then I read a book for the duration. Talk about roughing it.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, relaxing, ripping to shreds
posted by Carolyn @ 5/29/2007 07:12:00 PM Permalink![]()
Yes, I'm working on Magellan's Witch. It's slow going. Sigh. But I'm making progress.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, Navy SEALs, reading, Wii
posted by Carolyn @ 5/28/2007 01:39:00 PM Permalink![]()
I got a lot of work done on Magellan's Witch today. I think I got the middle messiness fixed, plus I was looking at this one particular chapter that I realized was headed in a truly awkward direction what with my having materially changed the preceding chapters, plus added a whole new one a while back, and after trying for a bit to fix it as it was, had no success whatever until I told myself that, really, what they were doing made no sense. (Try and say that without taking a breath!) So I changed it around so that it did make sense and it was much, much better. As in, well, to be honest, now it makes sense. Nuff said, huh? Anyhoo, so now I think I can proceed with more paper read through and tomorrow start another fresh.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/26/2007 11:18:00 PM Permalink![]()
Mostly, I've been busy working on Magellan's Witch. Some parts are going well, others need work. I've moved some stuff around and now I've just discovered that a whole section is not in the order I thought I put in in, but I'm busy fixing this other chapter and now I'm irritated that I have to go fix that next when I thought things would be OK after that. me. frowning
Labels: Magellan's Witch, Rants, ripping to shreds, romance genre
posted by Carolyn @ 5/25/2007 09:13:00 PM Permalink![]()
Here's this from the ThrillerFest. Need I point out that Lee Child will be there? Lee Child! This sounds like a great opportunity to learn and mingle.
ThrillerFest is the most exciting event of the year for fiction's most popular genre. Over 150 of beloved and best selling authors will be in New York City to mix and mingle with fans during this unprecedented four-day celebration. Attending writers will include Clive Cussler, James Patterson, Jeffery Deaver, Heather Graham, Vince Flynn, Lisa Gardner, Lee Child, Gayle Lynds, Tess Gerritsen, David Morrell, Jim Fusilli, John Lescroart, M. Diane Vogt, M.J. Rose, Steve Berry, Doug Preston, Joe Finder, David Hewson, Jim Rollins, Michael Palmer, Christine Kling, D.P. Lyle, Christine Goff, Robert S. Levinson, Jon Land, Shirley Kennett and many more.
CraftFest, a day of intensive, interactive presentations the day before ThrillerFest opens, is for writers at every level. They'll learn from the best, a truly awesome group of thriller professionals assembled for one day to teach and inspire!
Registration for ThrillerFest is open to everyone, with three separately-priced events packages: CraftFest on Thursday, July 12; the ThrillerFest Conference from Thursday, July 12 - Sunday, July 15; and the Thriller Awards Banquet at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 14. Day passes are available.
ThrillerFest 2007. July 12 - July 15 2007
Grand Hyatt Hotel New York City
For more information: thrillerwriters.org and www.thrillerfest.com and this video.
Labels: Conferences
posted by Carolyn @ 5/23/2007 09:46:00 PM Permalink![]()
Well. Another Sunday gone. I slept late and -- I just remembered. I'm interrupting this blog to post an important message:
Waah! Clyde Jasper, if you see this, the AOL email address you gave me is bouncing!! Please send me the right address! I wrote you and everything. Sniff.
Labels: Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/20/2007 09:56:00 PM Permalink![]()
Miss Snark is retiring. Darn it.
Labels: agents, Miss Snark, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 5/19/2007 07:03:00 PM Permalink![]()
The thing I love about Dorchester is they do the absolute coolest books. They're not afraid to try new things. I thought the SHOMI series sounded totally awesome the moment I heard about it. My friend Liz Maverick is heading yet another genre-pushing line. This is a Publisher's Weekly starred review.
Wired
Liz Maverick. Dorchester/Shomi, $6.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-505-52724-0
If Maverick's fast-paced, genre-bounding novel is any indication, Dorchester's new imprint, Shomi—which aims to hook a younger generation of readers—should catch an audience quickly. Maverick grabs readers from page one, throwing together romance, science fiction and cyberpunk—a mash-up hinted at in the anime-style packaging— to tell the story of L. Roxanne Zaborovsky, a high-strung freelance computer programmer whose reclusive life gets tossed on its head when two men show up looking for her. Appearing mysteriously one night, the pair immediately set to fighting over Roxanne; before long, she realizes one is an old college acquaintance, Mason Merrick. Taking off with Mason, Roxanne learns that the men are each after a valuable bit of her work—a piece of code she hasn't even written yet. When even stranger things follow— like close friends showing up with entirely different lives—Roxanne discovers that her pursuers are playing with the threads of reality, trying to gain advantage over the other. Maverick's roller-coaster ride doesn't always stay grounded, but it's easy to get drawn into her world of twisting realities and shifting identities, especially with superb heroine Roxanne handling narration. This excellent piece of genre fiction shows much promise for both Maverick and the imprint she spearheads. (July)
Labels: Book Covers, Book Reviews, romance genre
posted by Carolyn @ 5/19/2007 10:16:00 AM Permalink![]()
From the Author's Guild:
Simon & Schuster has changed its standard contract language in an attempt to retain exclusive control of books even after they have gone out of print. Until now, Simon & Schuster, like all other major trade publishers, has followed the traditional practice in which rights to a work revert to the author if the book falls out of print or if its sales are low.
The publisher is signaling that it will no longer include minimum sales requirements for a work to be considered in print. Simon & Schuster is apparently seeking nothing less than an exclusive grant of rights in perpetuity. Effectively, the publisher would co-own your copyright.
The new contract would allow Simon & Schuster to consider a book in print, and under its exclusive control, so long as it’s available in any form, including through its own in-house database -- even if no copies are available to be ordered by traditional bookstores.
Other major trade publishers are not seeking a similar perpetual grant of rights.
We urge you to consider your options carefully:
1. Remember that if you sign a contract with Simon & Schuster that includes this clause, they’ll say you’re wed to them. Your book will live and die with this particular conglomerate.
2. Ask your agent to explore other options. Other publishers are not seeking an irrevocable grant of rights.
3. If you have a manuscript that may be auctioned, consider asking your agent to exclude Simon & Schuster imprints unless they agree before the auction to use industry standard terms.
4. Let us know if other major publishers follow suit. Any coordination among publishers on this matter has serious legal implications.
Feel free to forward and post this message in its entirety.
The Authors Guild (www.authorsguild.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest organization of published book authors.
posted by Carolyn @ 5/17/2007 09:13:00 PM Permalink![]()
My MA project is done. Signed off. Handed in. Now I wait three weeks or so and hopefully they tell me it's fine to file the final one for binding. I'm done with grad school. No more tuition. No more classes. No more papers to write. I had my last meeting with my prof today, too. It was a long haul and a lot of work but going to Grad School was one of the best things I could have done for my writing and my life in general.
Labels: Graduate School, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/17/2007 07:12:00 PM Permalink![]()
I'm so close I can almost smell it! To being done with my MA in English, that is. Oddly enough, the scent reminds me of toner and hot paper. Yesterday, I did my Public reading for my final project. Some people from work came, which was really nice, I must say. I was reading to the students in my Prof's class. Yes, I was nervous at first, but then I had to pay attention to the pages and my reading. Luckily, since I read to my son just about every night, I am a pretty good read-out-louder. The room was very quiet while I read. Which I hope means they were interested in what they were hearing. No talking or shuffling or what have you. Well, whatever, I guess. I can drive myself crazy trying to guess what people were thinking.
Labels: Graduate School, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/16/2007 09:27:00 PM Permalink![]()
Labels: meme
posted by Carolyn @ 5/15/2007 07:54:00 PM Permalink![]()
I should have known when I woke up exhausted and decided to skip the gym that I wasn't well. But I got my extra hour of sleep and went to work. 2 hours later I came come. The really good news is our Koi are parents. Four of them between 1.5 and 2 inches long. We know it's the Koi and not the goldfish because the babies look like the Koi: Orange, black and white. One of them is mostly orange. A while back they were doing a lot of breaching the water. I think they were "flirting." Sometimes I'd hear the splash from my room (the koi pond is right outside my sliding glass door) or I'd look just in time and see them pretending they were whales. Anyway, big excitement here today.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch, Pantsing
posted by Carolyn @ 5/14/2007 09:20:00 PM Permalink![]()
Today, my son and I went to see Hot Fuzz. I thought this was going to be a film along the lines of Naked Gun, you know, painfully sophomoric humor, but my son really wanted to see it, so, with heavy heart, I went.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/13/2007 07:55:00 PM Permalink![]()
1. Lately when I check my spam trapper (Postini, via my webhost) there's either practically nothing (only three today) or a flood. Why?
Labels: Magellan's Witch, procrastination
posted by Carolyn @ 5/11/2007 08:35:00 PM Permalink![]()
I went through the first 6 (now 7) chapters of Magellan's Witch and made my edits and worked on switching things around with my heroine. This morning at the gym I wrote a big note at the top of some chapter or other that I needed to flip hero and heroine. No, I don't mean physically. In that chapter, my hero was convincing my heroine that he was not a regular human. And that wasn't working for me. It was boring and stupid. One of my strategies for dealing with this is to do the opposite. If they're fighting, have them make love. If they're disagreeing have them agree. If they're making love, put them in a car chase instead. Like that. So, I flipped the roles and had the heroine convincing the hero he wasn't a regular human.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/09/2007 09:58:00 PM Permalink![]()
I now have my own 128-bit integer1. Here's the little beauty for you to admire:


Labels: Magellan's Witch, writing craft
posted by Carolyn @ 5/09/2007 06:58:00 PM Permalink![]()

Labels: Magellan's Witch, Office Supplies
posted by Carolyn @ 5/07/2007 09:25:00 PM Permalink![]()
Oh no. It's off to work I go. I'm not in the least bit tired because I spent the last week on my normal sleep routine which is up late morning and evening. So I'll be quick about this. Magellan's Witch went well today. I rewrote all of yesterday's new chapter because when I woke up this morning I had a much better idea for it. I'm getting in the fixes for this in the subsequent chapter right now. Almost done. Took a bunch of new garden photos today. Here's a couple of my favs:



Labels: Magellan's Witch, movies
posted by Carolyn @ 5/06/2007 11:04:00 PM Permalink![]()
Today I worked with my paper copy of Magellan's Witch. I had to do a lot of fixing of chapter 3 and 4. They were messy. I simplified things and that helped a lot. Then I reprinted chapts 1-4 and started over with the read-through. Things were improved. Some of the chapters after that are darn good. No fixing needed. But there's an issue I need to resolve which is that things happen too fast. I need to find a reason for my heroine to fully trust my hero and right now, it's just not there to my satisfaction. I see a couple of ways to solve it. Right now I'm mulling over the possibility that I'm missing a sub-plot. Oh. Brain Flash. Wow. And right here in the blog, too. I need to go notebook that. Must go.
Labels: Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/05/2007 10:00:00 PM Permalink![]()
Today I went to my favorite place for breakfast and had my favorite breakfast, did the crossword, walked around and shopped, then got a massage (an hour and half of bliss). I picked up my son from school. He still loves me because I walked into the Game Store the other day to ask my usual question When do you think you'll get any wii's? (Usual Answer: we're not sure, come back tomorrow really early.) But this time they said, We have one. My son's birthday isn't for 6 weeks, but of course I got the wii for him. Early. Now I am the greatest Mom ever. I must say, the wii is pretty awesome. It was ridiculouly easy to set up. I think it took five minutes. And the motion sensing is wow. So, my son really loves me. (Awwww).
Labels: Magellan's Witch, reading, relaxing, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 5/04/2007 07:57:00 PM Permalink![]()
The MA project is in the hands of my committee. They get to read it and then after a bit, one hopes, sign off on it. So, tomorrow I have a free day. Massage - yes. All for me.
Labels: Graduate School, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/03/2007 03:44:00 PM Permalink![]()
Oh. My. Gosh.
Labels: I hate Dell
posted by Carolyn @ 5/03/2007 09:59:00 AM Permalink![]()
So, today I slaved away on Magellan's Witch and for a while there I thought there was no way I'd get through and fix what needed fixing. Good golly. But I kept on fixing and deleting and adding and I'm up to 75K now. Then I had to make an e-copy for my MA version because the formatting has to be completely different and get that reformatted correctly and paginated etc. Tomorrow I have one more scene to look at because it feels like it's in the wrong place. And then I'll print this out, get a copy made and to my professors for review. Office hours converge at 3:00 pm.
Labels: Graduate School, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/03/2007 01:08:00 AM Permalink![]()
I cut 9,400 words from Magellan's Witch today. The mess was bigger than I thought. But now it's not. Now it's more straightforward and the messy stuff is gone. Now, I think, I can do a read through (not paper) and get from page 1 to page-the-end without having to redo everything. That's what I'm going to try to do tomorrow. Or maybe I'll concentrate on the back end, because the replacement stuff is thin right now, and that has to be fixed. That's a bigger priority right now.
Labels: editing, Graduate School, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/01/2007 11:40:00 PM Permalink![]()
Work on Magellan's Witch has been going like gangbusters. Yesterday I was at 83K and feeling pretty good about things. Probably it was the sugar rush from all the birthday cake. I knew I had a couple of problem chapters coming up but hey only 7 chapters between me and a solid draft. Whoa. Today I am massively fixing. I've deleted two chapters so far and broken up two others that were too long (so no net loss of chapters). At the moment I'm down to 79K, most of which I should make back,depending on the state of the other chapters. I'm working with chapter 20 right now -- the new chapter 20. I keep thinking that any day now I can print this darn thing off and do a read through and that keeps not happening. Sigh.
Labels: editing, Graduate School, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/01/2007 12:36:00 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