Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Reporting In
Just a couple of things, actually. So far Ransom Seaborn is brilliant. I don't expect that to change. Wow.
I started blocking out Xia's story. The due date is May 1. Yikes!! After Christmas I'll start writing.
Did I mention that the official title of Magellan's Witch is My Wicked Enemy? I've sent an email to my contest winner. But if I don't hear back from him by end of December, I'll select an alternate winner.
Going to bed.
I started blocking out Xia's story. The due date is May 1. Yikes!! After Christmas I'll start writing.
Did I mention that the official title of Magellan's Witch is My Wicked Enemy? I've sent an email to my contest winner. But if I don't hear back from him by end of December, I'll select an alternate winner.
Going to bed.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, My Wicked Enemy, reading, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 12/18/2007 09:31:00 PM Permalink
Monday, November 26, 2007
Frantic x 2
Working on Scandal, of course. I reordered some chapters and have blocked out a new one, which I was hoping to write tonight, but re-setting the chapters took longer than I hoped.
My editor at Grand Central Publishing loved Magellan's Witch. I'm confirmed for an August 2008 release, which means they're fast tracking everything. They need a new title by the end of this week and some minor revisions ASAP. Urk. I can do it though. The revisions aren't big, I can probably get through them in a day. But that will have to wait for the weekend. I hear the cover will be on the sexy side, photographic as opposed to artwork which sounds pretty cool to me.
If you have a title suggestion, send it on. I have a contest going (which you would know already if you were a newsletter subscriber hint hint) If you send a suggestion, you're in the contest.
Off to bed.
My editor at Grand Central Publishing loved Magellan's Witch. I'm confirmed for an August 2008 release, which means they're fast tracking everything. They need a new title by the end of this week and some minor revisions ASAP. Urk. I can do it though. The revisions aren't big, I can probably get through them in a day. But that will have to wait for the weekend. I hear the cover will be on the sexy side, photographic as opposed to artwork which sounds pretty cool to me.
If you have a title suggestion, send it on. I have a contest going (which you would know already if you were a newsletter subscriber hint hint) If you send a suggestion, you're in the contest.
Off to bed.
Labels: Book Titles, Magellan's Witch, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 11/26/2007 10:25:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Progress Report -- Panic with a Chance of Hysteria
Things are developing as I edit like crazy. Trying to combine a read-through with regular editing. At least I get a lot done during soccer practice. It's not been cold at all lately, so I'm OK sitting in the back seat with the laptop. Very few distractions.
Any hoo - I need titles for the novel formerly known as Magellan's Witch. Fiends. Mages. Witches. They all hate each other. People fall in love anyway. Warlord Fiend. Witch who can't use her magic. They shouldn't get together but they do. Any and all suggestions appreciated.
Any hoo - I need titles for the novel formerly known as Magellan's Witch. Fiends. Mages. Witches. They all hate each other. People fall in love anyway. Warlord Fiend. Witch who can't use her magic. They shouldn't get together but they do. Any and all suggestions appreciated.
Labels: Book Titles, editing, Magellan's Witch, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/14/2007 10:17:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, November 08, 2007
heading into the weekend
With Scandal, I feel like I'm sliding into editing which is always more fun than the writing. I have a chapter to redo tonight, so we'll see what happens to the word count. I'm at about 75,500, so I'm not too worried. I'm only worried about crap and getting it fixed.
I got some preliminary cover copy for Magellan's Witch. Wow! Sounds a like a great story! They want to change the title, to which I say, Thank goodness! I was never all that wild about MW, but it worked OK enough. Only now I need to come up with some title ideas, some that lend themselves to a series Ishouldbesolucky. I have no ideas whatever. Zero. My head's in Scandal. Anybody got any suggestions? Which Witch is out. So is The Little Witch Who Couldn't. So are The Fiend Who Loved Her, Fiends and Lovers, Big Bad Boys Who Aren't Human, No Fluffy Bunnies Here. . . I'm a wealth of unhelpfulness to myself. Somebody save me.
I got some preliminary cover copy for Magellan's Witch. Wow! Sounds a like a great story! They want to change the title, to which I say, Thank goodness! I was never all that wild about MW, but it worked OK enough. Only now I need to come up with some title ideas, some that lend themselves to a series Ishouldbesolucky. I have no ideas whatever. Zero. My head's in Scandal. Anybody got any suggestions? Which Witch is out. So is The Little Witch Who Couldn't. So are The Fiend Who Loved Her, Fiends and Lovers, Big Bad Boys Who Aren't Human, No Fluffy Bunnies Here. . . I'm a wealth of unhelpfulness to myself. Somebody save me.
Labels: Book Titles, Magellan's Witch, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 11/08/2007 07:06:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Done Gone! Or do I mean Doggone?
Magellan's Witch is off to my editor. I'm in a state of whatever right now. Just to give you-all a flavor of what it's been like, yesterday I decided that I should listen to the nagging voice that kept saying Carolyn, why do all the villains have Latino names? Answer? Because the names sounded cool. Santiago and Magellan. Totally cool names. But, still, that's one of those things that could be open to bad interpretations. So I decided to change one of my antagonists from Brazilian to Danish. This meant I could make my villain, Magellan, Brazilian! Brilliant! I said to myself. Now all the Portuguese lines can go to him. But that also meant I needed a Danish name.
Lucky me, my sister-in-law is Danish. So I called her up and said, hey, Christina, I need some cool Danish names. Anyone who's been put on the spot before can guess what happened. She could hardly remember her own name let alone Danish names for men. But my brother got on the internet and we got a quick list put together with Christina's help. Her brother, it turns out, had the absolute perfect name -- Peter Nikalaj. I would have used just Nikalaj, but I couldn't because my hero is Nikodemus. Rats!! I really liked Rasmus, but Magellan's first name is Ragos, so that was out. And since I have some quite unusual names, I needed a Danish name that seemed Danish without being TOO Danish. Hans, for example was out. I tried Henrik. Yuk. Did not work. Then I tried Jakob, but cool though it was, it didn't look right on the pages. So then I tried Iver and that stuck all the way until about two hours ago when I decided my Danish mage had to be Rasmus, and therefore Magellan was getting a new first name. He got Alvaro. So then when I did the search and replace for Iver 244 replacements. Wow, I thought. I had no idea I mentioned him so often. Um. No. Actually, I didn't. I merely neglected to select Whole Word when I did the replacement which meant for a time words like shiver became shRasmus. Oops. And I didn't even realize it at first.
Yikes!
But it wasn't too late and an undo fixed that and Iver became Rasmus and shRasmus went back to shiver. Then I had to reassign the Portuguese lines, only three or four, to Magellan and change my descriptions of Santiago to reflect that he was now Rasmus, the Danish mage. He went from black hair to white-blond hair. And that meant that my lady-fiend, Fen, who had white-blonde hair became a red-head, and that also meant, as it turned out, that her bra became red instead of black. Who knew?
And, also last night as I was falling asleep feeling smug about being done and needing only to transfer my very last edits (right) that damned little voice said, Carolyn, how come you're not listening when I tell you that you need to take Iskander out of Chapters 27-29 and put in your hero?
Rats. F-you little voice!
So today I also did that, but it was a really fast change and much easier, actually, than deciding on a Danish name for the mage formerly known as Santiago. But that change totally rocked. So then I spell checked everything, and made sure I didn't have any pages with one word on them or blank and I fought the good fight with Word. Have I maybe mentioned before how much I hate Word? and sent my MS to my editor.
One last little remark -- I have Word Perfect set up to convert /N to the word Nikodemus along with several other handy shortcuts, with the odd result that I can do longer spell my hero's name. And in fact, when I am not in WP, I'll type /n and sit there wondering why it doesn't change to Nikodemus.
On to Scandal.
Lucky me, my sister-in-law is Danish. So I called her up and said, hey, Christina, I need some cool Danish names. Anyone who's been put on the spot before can guess what happened. She could hardly remember her own name let alone Danish names for men. But my brother got on the internet and we got a quick list put together with Christina's help. Her brother, it turns out, had the absolute perfect name -- Peter Nikalaj. I would have used just Nikalaj, but I couldn't because my hero is Nikodemus. Rats!! I really liked Rasmus, but Magellan's first name is Ragos, so that was out. And since I have some quite unusual names, I needed a Danish name that seemed Danish without being TOO Danish. Hans, for example was out. I tried Henrik. Yuk. Did not work. Then I tried Jakob, but cool though it was, it didn't look right on the pages. So then I tried Iver and that stuck all the way until about two hours ago when I decided my Danish mage had to be Rasmus, and therefore Magellan was getting a new first name. He got Alvaro. So then when I did the search and replace for Iver 244 replacements. Wow, I thought. I had no idea I mentioned him so often. Um. No. Actually, I didn't. I merely neglected to select Whole Word when I did the replacement which meant for a time words like shiver became shRasmus. Oops. And I didn't even realize it at first.
Yikes!
But it wasn't too late and an undo fixed that and Iver became Rasmus and shRasmus went back to shiver. Then I had to reassign the Portuguese lines, only three or four, to Magellan and change my descriptions of Santiago to reflect that he was now Rasmus, the Danish mage. He went from black hair to white-blond hair. And that meant that my lady-fiend, Fen, who had white-blonde hair became a red-head, and that also meant, as it turned out, that her bra became red instead of black. Who knew?
And, also last night as I was falling asleep feeling smug about being done and needing only to transfer my very last edits (right) that damned little voice said, Carolyn, how come you're not listening when I tell you that you need to take Iskander out of Chapters 27-29 and put in your hero?
Rats. F-you little voice!
So today I also did that, but it was a really fast change and much easier, actually, than deciding on a Danish name for the mage formerly known as Santiago. But that change totally rocked. So then I spell checked everything, and made sure I didn't have any pages with one word on them or blank and I fought the good fight with Word. Have I maybe mentioned before how much I hate Word? and sent my MS to my editor.
One last little remark -- I have Word Perfect set up to convert /N to the word Nikodemus along with several other handy shortcuts, with the odd result that I can do longer spell my hero's name. And in fact, when I am not in WP, I'll type /n and sit there wondering why it doesn't change to Nikodemus.
On to Scandal.
Labels: Danish, Magellan's Witch, Names, Red Bra, Revisions
posted by Carolyn @ 10/28/2007 09:28:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, October 27, 2007
All Revised Out
I think I'm done with revisions to Magellan's Witch. I got through it today without anything major. I'll put in the paper changes tomorrow and send it off. I need to get back to work on Scandal. Yikes.
Got pumpkins today. Carving tomorrow.
To bed now.
Got pumpkins today. Carving tomorrow.
To bed now.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, Revisions, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 10/27/2007 09:56:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Wow, 1,000 posts old Plus Reporting In
This is my 1,000th post. All the way from April 2001 to October 2007. That's six years of blogging. Allow me to step into my Way Back Machine. I was following the always fascinating Dave Winer and he was talking about blogging like it was the best thing since sliced bread. Hmm, I said. I think he's right. So I tried Radio UserLand, but (sorry Dave) it wasn't as easy as I needed it to be on the crappy equipment that I had. Full time job, very young child, and I think I was in grad school then, too. Plus the writing. But Blogger (before Google) was dead easy, so I did that and Dave was right. Blogger had some growing pains, but eventually Goolge bought them out and sent all the paid subscribers a free t-shirt AND later when things were NOT smooth a free Google hoodie. And I was extremely cute in my hoodie so all was forgiven.
And now it's today. 1000 posts later. Lots of writers blog now. Blogging is no big deal, but it's still fun for me. I like doing it. Happy 1,000th post Writer's Diary!
OK, reporting in. Somehow I made it through Magellan's Witch. There were three, make the four really truly ugly chapters. I cut one, rewrote another and wanted to slit my wrists over one just this afternoon, and then there's the one that I rewrote, and when I re-read it realized I needed to put most of it back the way it was because I'd actually made it worse not to mention totally boring. So for the first time practically ever, I went into my archives and pulled out the previous version and replaced the back 4/5ths with the old version. Today was brutal. Really. I was up until 11:00 last night, slept until 5:30 this morning(no gym, rats! but I needed the coherence of an extra hour's sleep) then skipped the lunch hour walk for the 3rd day in a row-- those poor guys I usually walk with think I hate them--- to sit outside by my car to read through MW. Then home to get my son to a soccer scrimmage. I sat in the car and worked... Then my sister picked him up to take him to my brother's for a birthday party for the twins, and I went home and worked on MW. The bit I thought was dreadful at lunchtime turned out not to be quite so bad. But I got through all the changes and have conformed everything I think. And since I told my editor I would have it to her in a week or so I decided what with discretion being the better part of valor and all, that I can email it Monday morning, thus giving me another weekend. And putting me behinder yet on Scandal. But that's a panic for another day.
And now it's today. 1000 posts later. Lots of writers blog now. Blogging is no big deal, but it's still fun for me. I like doing it. Happy 1,000th post Writer's Diary!
OK, reporting in. Somehow I made it through Magellan's Witch. There were three, make the four really truly ugly chapters. I cut one, rewrote another and wanted to slit my wrists over one just this afternoon, and then there's the one that I rewrote, and when I re-read it realized I needed to put most of it back the way it was because I'd actually made it worse not to mention totally boring. So for the first time practically ever, I went into my archives and pulled out the previous version and replaced the back 4/5ths with the old version. Today was brutal. Really. I was up until 11:00 last night, slept until 5:30 this morning(no gym, rats! but I needed the coherence of an extra hour's sleep) then skipped the lunch hour walk for the 3rd day in a row-- those poor guys I usually walk with think I hate them--- to sit outside by my car to read through MW. Then home to get my son to a soccer scrimmage. I sat in the car and worked... Then my sister picked him up to take him to my brother's for a birthday party for the twins, and I went home and worked on MW. The bit I thought was dreadful at lunchtime turned out not to be quite so bad. But I got through all the changes and have conformed everything I think. And since I told my editor I would have it to her in a week or so I decided what with discretion being the better part of valor and all, that I can email it Monday morning, thus giving me another weekend. And putting me behinder yet on Scandal. But that's a panic for another day.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, panic, Revisions
posted by Carolyn @ 10/24/2007 10:12:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Totally Cool -- hyperventilating! -- stuff
1) From the Romantic Times newsletter:
ohmygosh I can hardly breathe!! RWA is in San Francisco this year so will I have the money to finally go to an RT? Better question: I have a book due May 1, will I be able to take that much time off when a deadline is so close?
2) Is this the future of news delivery? NY Times River. Take a look. Make sure you click on the pluses to expand. This is from Dave Winer who pretty much brought us blogging and RSS. And now this. Expect what he's done here to start showing up in how content, particularly feeds, gets delivered and aggregated. And not just news. Neat.
3) ohmygod, I'm not quite done with revisions to Magellan's Witch. sound of whip cracking
My big news this month is all about our upcoming Pittsburgh convention, April 16-20, 2008. We just received word that hunky Highlander Adrian Paul will definitely be there.
ohmygosh I can hardly breathe!! RWA is in San Francisco this year so will I have the money to finally go to an RT? Better question: I have a book due May 1, will I be able to take that much time off when a deadline is so close?
2) Is this the future of news delivery? NY Times River. Take a look. Make sure you click on the pluses to expand. This is from Dave Winer who pretty much brought us blogging and RSS. And now this. Expect what he's done here to start showing up in how content, particularly feeds, gets delivered and aggregated. And not just news. Neat.
3) ohmygod, I'm not quite done with revisions to Magellan's Witch. sound of whip cracking
Labels: Adrian Paul, Magellan's Witch, Revisions, technology
posted by Carolyn @ 10/23/2007 04:46:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Today, I revised.
That pretty much says it all.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, Revisions
posted by Carolyn @ 10/21/2007 09:57:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, October 20, 2007
The end is near! I mean nigh. The end is close, er twenty feet away?
I finished the chapter revisions for Magellan's Witch. I have the thing printed out so I can read it through tomorrow for typos and other ickiness. I have lost all sense of the story at this point.
Going to bed.
Going to bed.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, Revisions
posted by Carolyn @ 10/20/2007 10:27:00 PM Permalink
Friday, October 19, 2007
Friday has been Revised to Day of Fri.
Still revising Magellan's Witch. I just chopped an entire chapter. Whack!
I'm trying not to freak.
I'm trying not to freak.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, Revisions
posted by Carolyn @ 10/19/2007 10:18:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Today I -- Wait Wait! Let me Revise that...
Maybe I should say no more? Still revising Magellan's Witch. Not because it totally sucked, but because I'm only up to Chapter 19 of making everything conform to the actual revisions. Weekdays I don't get so much done, plus revisions require that I be at the computer, so there's really no sneaking it in during the odd seconds of time here and there. I've been doing that with Scandal, though. This morning at the gym, for example. I'm kind of hoping to do a paper read through of MW this weekend. And then MW has to be off my plate entirely. I have to freaking finish Scandal!
What else? Um, who the heck knows?
What else? Um, who the heck knows?
Labels: Magellan's Witch, Revising, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 10/18/2007 05:51:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Just call me a Revisionist
Still working on Magellan's Witch revisions. Making progress. What else? It's late, I'm tired. Nothing new. I'm just a revision machine.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, Revisions
posted by Carolyn @ 10/16/2007 10:12:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, October 14, 2007
A Helping Paw
This is my cat Jake, helping me revise Magellan's Witch. 
The bulk of the MS is at the bottom of the pic, but he's lying on the done pages from my last pass through last night when I was checking a things to make sure I'd hit all the specific pages. My work space isn't big enough to put the pages anywhere else. Fortunately, at the moment I can work around that. But he was helping me like that all day yesterday when I couldn't work around it. And he's a big, fluffy cat. Now it's on to the bigger picture items, which involves mostly making sure my previous changes are seamless to the rest of the MS.
The bulk of the MS is at the bottom of the pic, but he's lying on the done pages from my last pass through last night when I was checking a things to make sure I'd hit all the specific pages. My work space isn't big enough to put the pages anywhere else. Fortunately, at the moment I can work around that. But he was helping me like that all day yesterday when I couldn't work around it. And he's a big, fluffy cat. Now it's on to the bigger picture items, which involves mostly making sure my previous changes are seamless to the rest of the MS.Labels: Helping Cat, Magellan's Witch, Reviions
posted by Carolyn @ 10/14/2007 10:28:00 AM Permalink
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Sometimes I Wish I Were My Cat
Right now, my cat Jake is asleep on my copy of the edited MS for Magellan's Witch. I wish I was him. Sleeping with no cares. He looks so comfy.
Anyway, I'm done going through the MS for the changes. Tomorrow I'll do a read through to make sure I've hit everything.
I slept until 8:30 this morning, skipped my RWA meeting, had to, rats. And worked from 9:00 to 3:00 when I had to take my son to his soccer game. I bought us pizza on the way home and have been working since about 6:30. I took a few breaks, once to scrub some paper off the windows (left over, I'm ashamed to admit, from when they were installed) and, no I DO NOT want to talk about why I so desperately needed to scrape old labels off the windows right then, and another break to make my son S'mores for breakfast. Yeah, I'm a Bad Mom. My son had chocolate, marshmallows and Graham crackers for breakfast. For a while I was frantically wracking my brain to figure out how to put my villain into this one scene and I swear, I was doing the patented Sandy Schwab Head: Desk move for way too long. Then I got up to pick up the dog and he licked me (ick! I wish he wouldn't do that) and suddenly I knew how to do it. So I went back and fixed that scene which was the last major fix, I think.
Now off to bed.
Anyway, I'm done going through the MS for the changes. Tomorrow I'll do a read through to make sure I've hit everything.
I slept until 8:30 this morning, skipped my RWA meeting, had to, rats. And worked from 9:00 to 3:00 when I had to take my son to his soccer game. I bought us pizza on the way home and have been working since about 6:30. I took a few breaks, once to scrub some paper off the windows (left over, I'm ashamed to admit, from when they were installed) and, no I DO NOT want to talk about why I so desperately needed to scrape old labels off the windows right then, and another break to make my son S'mores for breakfast. Yeah, I'm a Bad Mom. My son had chocolate, marshmallows and Graham crackers for breakfast. For a while I was frantically wracking my brain to figure out how to put my villain into this one scene and I swear, I was doing the patented Sandy Schwab Head: Desk move for way too long. Then I got up to pick up the dog and he licked me (ick! I wish he wouldn't do that) and suddenly I knew how to do it. So I went back and fixed that scene which was the last major fix, I think.
Now off to bed.
Labels: Bad Mom, Magellan's Witch, Revisions
posted by Carolyn @ 10/13/2007 10:21:00 PM Permalink
Friday, October 12, 2007
Should I Revise This Title?
Working on revisions for Magellan's Witch. I'm almost done with the initial pass through. Then I have to read it to make sure it hangs together still. I can't tell anymore.
It's started raining here and that means soon the grass will be a lovely green.
Off to bed.
It's started raining here and that means soon the grass will be a lovely green.
Off to bed.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, Revisions
posted by Carolyn @ 10/12/2007 10:50:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, October 11, 2007
The Gym Elf!
Things are crazy right now. I'm working on revisions to Magellan's Witch while trying not to get too behind on Scandal. Yikes! Crazy. I'm going to have to skip my RWA chapter meeting this Saturday. Rats. Too late to get my money back. But I need those Saturday hours for writing.
Today, I went to the gym after work, with my binder of Scandal (How many people do you know who have a binder full of Scandal? I'd like to know!) and as I was pedaling away, even though I should have been doing resistance work, who did I see but the Gym Elf. Sigh. The Gym Elf, in case you don't know, is a gentleman of pulchritudinous attributes. Not sure if you can say that about a guy, but I just did so I guess you can. I used to see him all the time when I was working on the Dark Elf story, and he was my inspiration for the hero. Which is why I took to calling him the Gym Elf. Any way, it was nice to have a sighting.
OK, off to bed.
Today, I went to the gym after work, with my binder of Scandal (How many people do you know who have a binder full of Scandal? I'd like to know!) and as I was pedaling away, even though I should have been doing resistance work, who did I see but the Gym Elf. Sigh. The Gym Elf, in case you don't know, is a gentleman of pulchritudinous attributes. Not sure if you can say that about a guy, but I just did so I guess you can. I used to see him all the time when I was working on the Dark Elf story, and he was my inspiration for the hero. Which is why I took to calling him the Gym Elf. Any way, it was nice to have a sighting.
OK, off to bed.
Labels: Gym Elf, Magellan's Witch, Revisions, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 10/11/2007 09:28:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Collision Course
So, the darling child did not properly plan completing his homework and some projects that were due. The result is that over the last two days, chaos has reigned in the Jewel household. Mostly he's been good about not wasting time with hysterics about the unfairness of his teachers and how his poor planning is not his fault. Mostly because I looked him in the eye and warned him, in a very stern voice, that he didn't have that kind of time to waste and I didn't have the patience to listen to it. Tomorrow should be the last day of panicked work for him.
In the meantime, I managed, just barely, to keep my minimum words per day on Scandal, only today, my revisions came for Magellan's Witch. The changes center around two basic elements and I'm about 1/8th of the way through, I think. So, I think I'm going to print out Scandal so I can work on that during the odd downtimes and then work on MW at night. Arghh! Only tomorrow is Chocolate Mousse night after soccer practice...
Oh, also, I have to write a book review, I'll explain how that came about later, and also read a book for a blurb. Someone actually wants me to do that. Weird. I almost asked my agent if there was some mistake. But apparently not.
In the meantime, I managed, just barely, to keep my minimum words per day on Scandal, only today, my revisions came for Magellan's Witch. The changes center around two basic elements and I'm about 1/8th of the way through, I think. So, I think I'm going to print out Scandal so I can work on that during the odd downtimes and then work on MW at night. Arghh! Only tomorrow is Chocolate Mousse night after soccer practice...
Oh, also, I have to write a book review, I'll explain how that came about later, and also read a book for a blurb. Someone actually wants me to do that. Weird. I almost asked my agent if there was some mistake. But apparently not.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, On being busy, Revisions, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 10/09/2007 08:38:00 PM Permalink
Friday, September 14, 2007
The weekend.... Not a moment too soon
First off, my sister's dog has been found. Someone called her this morning and stayed with him to make sure he didn't run off again. Meanwhile, one of my brothers who lives nearby went to get him. So her dog is home safe. Thank goodness. And thanks to the woman who found him, called and stayed with him. He's skinnier and dehydrated and a bit wigged out by his experience, but he's OK.
I gave blood today and when I went for my lunchtime walk I was feeling very, very tired. But Fridays are Taco Fridays! There's the best taco place just about ever very close to where I work. Every Friday I get two soft tacos, one chicken, one whole beans and cheese. A very good choice, as the only extra on them is salsa. The cheese is a splurge but they don't use much, it's mostly beans and salsa. Excellente! So, I got a big dose of protein for lunch and felt much better. I went to the gym while the Darling Child was at soccer practice and did resistance work. I figured it wasn't really the weight lifting the nice blood lady warned me against. Low key enough. Cardio today would have done me in I think.
While I waited for practice to end, I notebooked some on Scandal. I need to rework last night's chapter.
In other news, my Grand Central Publishing Editor, Melanie Murray, has been put in charge of the entire Forever line, and so won't be doing much editing, which is why Magellan's Witch has been unreviewed for 6 weeks. A great promotion for her. Every writer hears terrible stories about editors acquiring a project then departing for whatever reason, leaving the author with an editor who dislikes her work. So, as you can imagine, while I was pleased for Melanie Murray, I wasn't sure what to think for myself. But the editor who'll be taking on MW seems really nice, and she read the proposal way back and really liked it, so I can say that my style works for my new editor. I should be hearing something in 2-3 weeks.
I was in meetings when my agent called to give me the head's up and make sure I didn't think she wanted to give me bad news, which, I tell you, for the seconds between her saying (in her message) that she was conferencing in Melanie and then saying "It's nothing bad!" all I could think was on my god, she hated MW so much she needs my agent just to stay calm about it. But that wasn't it. (Yet.)
Tomorrow the DC has an early soccer game so I'm going to bed very soon.
I'm going to try to get some work done on Scandal before I fall into bed.
I gave blood today and when I went for my lunchtime walk I was feeling very, very tired. But Fridays are Taco Fridays! There's the best taco place just about ever very close to where I work. Every Friday I get two soft tacos, one chicken, one whole beans and cheese. A very good choice, as the only extra on them is salsa. The cheese is a splurge but they don't use much, it's mostly beans and salsa. Excellente! So, I got a big dose of protein for lunch and felt much better. I went to the gym while the Darling Child was at soccer practice and did resistance work. I figured it wasn't really the weight lifting the nice blood lady warned me against. Low key enough. Cardio today would have done me in I think.
While I waited for practice to end, I notebooked some on Scandal. I need to rework last night's chapter.
In other news, my Grand Central Publishing Editor, Melanie Murray, has been put in charge of the entire Forever line, and so won't be doing much editing, which is why Magellan's Witch has been unreviewed for 6 weeks. A great promotion for her. Every writer hears terrible stories about editors acquiring a project then departing for whatever reason, leaving the author with an editor who dislikes her work. So, as you can imagine, while I was pleased for Melanie Murray, I wasn't sure what to think for myself. But the editor who'll be taking on MW seems really nice, and she read the proposal way back and really liked it, so I can say that my style works for my new editor. I should be hearing something in 2-3 weeks.
I was in meetings when my agent called to give me the head's up and make sure I didn't think she wanted to give me bad news, which, I tell you, for the seconds between her saying (in her message) that she was conferencing in Melanie and then saying "It's nothing bad!" all I could think was on my god, she hated MW so much she needs my agent just to stay calm about it. But that wasn't it. (Yet.)
Tomorrow the DC has an early soccer game so I'm going to bed very soon.
I'm going to try to get some work done on Scandal before I fall into bed.
Labels: editors, Magellan's Witch, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 9/14/2007 08:19:00 PM Permalink
Friday, August 03, 2007
I have returned -- Reading List
I got something icky and came home from work Wednesday and pretty much slept the rest of the day. I pried myself out of bed to take the son to soccer practice then got us home and went back to sleep. Slept most of Thursday, too. When I wasn't sleeping, I was reading. This morning, I went back to work and even made it to the gym. Just 45 min of cycling, nothing hard. I have my make-up rowing class tomorrow so I'm going to bed in just a bit.
What else? I tried to write some on Scandal but I couldn't get Nikodemus, the hero of Magellan's Witch, out of my head. But now it's been a few days and I've read a lot, so I think I can start fresh this weekend. I have two scenes mapped out and I've started thinking about how my heroine is going to move through this story.
About Magellan's Witch: I don't think I've actually ever mentioned what the book is about. There's a witch. And a mage named Magellan. And there's fiends who have been known to destroy the lives of humans they possess. And Magellan's witch needs to figure who the good guys are.
Those of you who know me, take a guess, is the hero a mage or a fiend?
Recent Reads
- MaryJanice Davidson, Sleeping with the Fishes, Half-mermaid, half-human heroine. Very funny.
- Cait London, On the Edge, an empath coming into her powers. Billed as Romantic Suspense. Liked it.
- Liz Maverick, Wired, This gets a big WOW. Really interesting, absorbing.
- Janet Evanovitch, Metro Girl, Very funny. I laughed a lot.
- Angela Knight, Master of Dragons, Liked it. Kept me up too late
- Mary Balogh, Simply Love, What can I say? I love Balogh, and I loved this book.
What else? I tried to write some on Scandal but I couldn't get Nikodemus, the hero of Magellan's Witch, out of my head. But now it's been a few days and I've read a lot, so I think I can start fresh this weekend. I have two scenes mapped out and I've started thinking about how my heroine is going to move through this story.
About Magellan's Witch: I don't think I've actually ever mentioned what the book is about. There's a witch. And a mage named Magellan. And there's fiends who have been known to destroy the lives of humans they possess. And Magellan's witch needs to figure who the good guys are.
Those of you who know me, take a guess, is the hero a mage or a fiend?
Labels: Magellan's Witch, reading, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 8/03/2007 08:46:00 PM Permalink
Monday, July 30, 2007
Cue the Triumphant Music!
Photo by
Amodiovalerio Verde
I sent Magellan's Witch off to Grand Central (Warner).
Up next: Scandal
Labels: Magellan's Witch, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 7/30/2007 05:45:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Is it possible??
that Magellan's Witch is done?
Today, I did a read through on the computer and did not make a single major change and very few moderate ones. I did change the POV of one chapter, which I will take a look at tomorrow, but honestly, I'm at the point now where I'm likely to make things worse instead of better.
I think.
That's what it seems like now.
But all my trouble spots of late, that pesky chapter 10, the vexing chapter 17, both I just read right through with bated breath...
Is it time for the fork? I'm going to sleep on it. We'll see.
Today, I did a read through on the computer and did not make a single major change and very few moderate ones. I did change the POV of one chapter, which I will take a look at tomorrow, but honestly, I'm at the point now where I'm likely to make things worse instead of better.
I think.
That's what it seems like now.
But all my trouble spots of late, that pesky chapter 10, the vexing chapter 17, both I just read right through with bated breath...
Is it time for the fork? I'm going to sleep on it. We'll see.
Labels: editing, get the fork out?, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 7/28/2007 09:51:00 PM Permalink
Friday, July 27, 2007
Working away
The good news is I can email Magellan's Witch to my editor. The bad news is it has to be in Word format. arghh!! Word is just so awful. I'm going to spend July 31 trying to get the darn thing to work. Stuff that is an absolute breeze in Word Perfect is a nightmare in Word. Oh well. I think it's coming along. I got through this last round of edits without ripping anything to shreds. I have my list of Action Items to go through now. These are issues, details and plot points that feel like they're dangling unresolved or unaddressed. I got through two of those tonight and have 3-4 more to deal with tomorrow. I'm not going to row tomorrow, I'll do the make up class on August 4 instead. I'm hoping to push through an entire read through tomorrow. But only if I get to bed pretty soon.
In other news, um, is there any?
In other news, um, is there any?
Labels: editing, loose ends, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 7/27/2007 10:37:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
I'm a Sculptor (Pronounced Artiste)
So, last night as I was reading chapters 16-18 I was bored. Yuck. So I cut a bunch of stuff and had a sort of a glimmer of an idea but wasn't sure what to do about it. Today I cut even more. A sea of red ink, I tell you. Took the Darling Child to soccer practice and since they had a scrimmage tacked on, I had extra time at the OTHER Starbucks, although just to be safe I ordered hot mint tea. While there, I cut all but 3 pages of chapter 18. Fortunately, Chp 17 was kind of long so I did my find a good chapter ending trick and stuck the rest of chapter 18 onto it, then around page 7 started looking for a place that had high tension. Found it on page 8. All the rest went into a new and improved Chapter 18. Then I re-read what I had starting from chapter 16 and it was good. Darn good.
Yes, today I was a sculptor in that I carved away all the hooptedoodle and left only the good parts and then brought other parts into better relief, with a sort of chiaroscuro effect. Only on paper. The 3D shadows and art part happens in your head.
Now I'm home, I have a dirty rotten headache, but the DC has been fed, the laundry is started and I've printed out the new chapters 16-18 and can only pray they hold up they way they did when I was reading them on the laptop. I used to get all depressed about cutting crap, but today, not at all. The crap needs to go, and fast. So it was really easy and painless to do.
Yes, today I was a sculptor in that I carved away all the hooptedoodle and left only the good parts and then brought other parts into better relief, with a sort of chiaroscuro effect. Only on paper. The 3D shadows and art part happens in your head.
Now I'm home, I have a dirty rotten headache, but the DC has been fed, the laundry is started and I've printed out the new chapters 16-18 and can only pray they hold up they way they did when I was reading them on the laptop. I used to get all depressed about cutting crap, but today, not at all. The crap needs to go, and fast. So it was really easy and painless to do.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 7/25/2007 08:49:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
On the bright side
My changes from yesterday seem to be pretty awesome. After two days of writing and rewriting chapter 10, I made it to chapter 11 and couldn't stop. I had to read chapter 12. Thank goodness. Hopefully nothing else major. That would be nice.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 7/24/2007 05:10:00 PM Permalink
Monday, July 23, 2007
The Final Stretch Plus The Worst Starbuck's Experience Ever
Over the weekend, I totally ran into a problem that resulted in me making some changes to chapter 9 and significant changes to that pesky chapter 10. Today I got some good feedback that resulted in me re-doing chapter 3 from my hero's Point of View (POV) which I did after MORE significant changes to chapter 10 while I was waiting for the darling child's soccer practice to be over (and hey, see below about the Worst Starbuck's Experience Ever!) I got home from the WSEE, transferred my changes to chapter 10 to the computer, though I ended up dropping a big chunk of the changes, but I knew that about 20 minutes after I wrote them (long hand - I was in the car at the soccer field on account of the WSEE.) Right. So blah blah. Then I rewrote chapter 3 and reprinted the 1st 100 pages since I already transferred my weekend changes to the computer. Now it's 10:41 and I'm going to try to read some.
So, my Worst Starbuck's Experience Ever: After I dropped off the DC at soccer practice I drove back to the new Starbucks that used to be my favorite local coffee shop (sniff). So, I'm willing to admit that I was saddened by the demise of the old place and struck by the irony of a Starbucks opening in the exact location, since Starbucks is part of why the old place went under. My son could walk from practice to the Starbucks though. Very close. I asked for a Mint Iced Tea. Please say this to yourself, perhaps out loud, Mint Iced Tea Mint Iced Tea Mint Iced Tea and then imagine that you are an earnest young Barista who is perhaps deaf or partially deaf and also distracted by something going on behind her involving someone rushing out from the back with a large pair of rubber handled pliers. And imagine that I repeat this several times. My Mint Iced Tea cost me $2.50 and I think to myself that if they're charging that much just for the ice I'm never getting an iced tea from them again.
Behind the counter, everyone's bending around the guy with the pliers including all the people who should be making a Mint Iced Tea. But as I'm looking around for a place to sit with me and my big green binder containing Magellan's Witch, I see 1) everyone huddling around another barista and looking at me, waiting for my Mint Iced Tea. They go back to watching the guy with the pliers. 2) I also see there are 6 small tables each with two chairs with people in them. And one empty table with no chairs. Plus 4 ugly chairs that look like torture devices in the sun. Two of which are occupied. And over in the corner are these scary looking high chair things with poles in front of them. The poles have a metal surface about the size of a cup of coffee and no bigger. There's no way my big green binder is going to fit on the poles. So, there is an empty table, but no chairs because obviously they didn't buy enough chairs for the number of tables in the store.
There is no sign of my Mint Iced Tea. I go back and ask if they can make it to go, since they have no place for me to sit and work (and buy food or more tea later either.) Only they start trying to hand me this tall cup of iced black gunk and I look at it and say, "That's a Mint Iced Tea?" And the earnest barista says, "No, that's an Iced Venti." Right. She totally missed a syllable. Several times. So they make me my Mint Iced Tea only it's hot, the boiling water having melted all the ice. I pointed out I'd been overcharged for my hot Mint Iced Tea. They gave me a card for a free beverage, not so useful for me, instead of my money back. I tossed my NOT Mint Iced Tea on the way out and returned to the practice field and worked in the car.
Some days it's hard to be a writer.
So, my Worst Starbuck's Experience Ever: After I dropped off the DC at soccer practice I drove back to the new Starbucks that used to be my favorite local coffee shop (sniff). So, I'm willing to admit that I was saddened by the demise of the old place and struck by the irony of a Starbucks opening in the exact location, since Starbucks is part of why the old place went under. My son could walk from practice to the Starbucks though. Very close. I asked for a Mint Iced Tea. Please say this to yourself, perhaps out loud, Mint Iced Tea Mint Iced Tea Mint Iced Tea and then imagine that you are an earnest young Barista who is perhaps deaf or partially deaf and also distracted by something going on behind her involving someone rushing out from the back with a large pair of rubber handled pliers. And imagine that I repeat this several times. My Mint Iced Tea cost me $2.50 and I think to myself that if they're charging that much just for the ice I'm never getting an iced tea from them again.
Behind the counter, everyone's bending around the guy with the pliers including all the people who should be making a Mint Iced Tea. But as I'm looking around for a place to sit with me and my big green binder containing Magellan's Witch, I see 1) everyone huddling around another barista and looking at me, waiting for my Mint Iced Tea. They go back to watching the guy with the pliers. 2) I also see there are 6 small tables each with two chairs with people in them. And one empty table with no chairs. Plus 4 ugly chairs that look like torture devices in the sun. Two of which are occupied. And over in the corner are these scary looking high chair things with poles in front of them. The poles have a metal surface about the size of a cup of coffee and no bigger. There's no way my big green binder is going to fit on the poles. So, there is an empty table, but no chairs because obviously they didn't buy enough chairs for the number of tables in the store.
There is no sign of my Mint Iced Tea. I go back and ask if they can make it to go, since they have no place for me to sit and work (and buy food or more tea later either.) Only they start trying to hand me this tall cup of iced black gunk and I look at it and say, "That's a Mint Iced Tea?" And the earnest barista says, "No, that's an Iced Venti." Right. She totally missed a syllable. Several times. So they make me my Mint Iced Tea only it's hot, the boiling water having melted all the ice. I pointed out I'd been overcharged for my hot Mint Iced Tea. They gave me a card for a free beverage, not so useful for me, instead of my money back. I tossed my NOT Mint Iced Tea on the way out and returned to the practice field and worked in the car.
Some days it's hard to be a writer.
Labels: editing., Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 7/23/2007 10:34:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Harry Potter (No Spoilers)
I finished last night about 12:30 (or would that be this morning?). It was exciting the entire time. I loved it. I cried, smiled and gasped. I'll write more later when the book has been out longer.
Back to work on Magellan's Witch, which I think may just have come together. In the nick of time, too. We'll see. I'm starting another read-through now.
Back to work on Magellan's Witch, which I think may just have come together. In the nick of time, too. We'll see. I'm starting another read-through now.
Labels: editing, Harry Potter, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 7/22/2007 09:12:00 AM Permalink
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Progress Report
Well, so far so good. I got the last round of changes in and have started rereading from the middle forward. Nothing major to fix yet and I'm up to chapter 28. So, we'll see.
I've been working hard to avoid spoilers to Harry Potter 7. So far so good on that, too. Discussions abound in the house about what we think will happen.
Off to work.
I've been working hard to avoid spoilers to Harry Potter 7. So far so good on that, too. Discussions abound in the house about what we think will happen.
Off to work.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 7/19/2007 06:42:00 PM Permalink
Monday, July 16, 2007
Eye been workin' on the Man-u-script
Well, you're supposed to read the post title to the tune of I've been Working on the Railroad. Pretend, OK?
Went to see Harry Potter 5 last night. I was mentally broke from working all day. Great movie! Loved it. A lot. Got to bed at 11:00 pm. Urk.
No soccer practice for the kidlet this week, so I thought, great! I'll get home, abandon all my parental duties and get all my changes from the weekend into the computer and I can resend to one of my readers who just started and will much appreciate having the better middle version. But then at 7:30 I remembered I had to go the soccer board meeting (that's my volunteer job) and I couldn't blow it off because the team gets fined $25.00 if there's no rep at the Board Meeting. Got home from that about 9:00pm, worked for an hour and ended up sending off the revised 1-23. I'll finish up tomorrow.
Sigh.
I had to stop at 23 because the new 24 needs more of an overhaul, and I didn't want to start that this late at night. I have to get enough sleep --- Crud. It's 10:48 pm. Rats. 4:30 is early. I'm off to bed.
Went to see Harry Potter 5 last night. I was mentally broke from working all day. Great movie! Loved it. A lot. Got to bed at 11:00 pm. Urk.
No soccer practice for the kidlet this week, so I thought, great! I'll get home, abandon all my parental duties and get all my changes from the weekend into the computer and I can resend to one of my readers who just started and will much appreciate having the better middle version. But then at 7:30 I remembered I had to go the soccer board meeting (that's my volunteer job) and I couldn't blow it off because the team gets fined $25.00 if there's no rep at the Board Meeting. Got home from that about 9:00pm, worked for an hour and ended up sending off the revised 1-23. I'll finish up tomorrow.
Sigh.
I had to stop at 23 because the new 24 needs more of an overhaul, and I didn't want to start that this late at night. I have to get enough sleep --- Crud. It's 10:48 pm. Rats. 4:30 is early. I'm off to bed.
Labels: deadline, editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 7/16/2007 10:41:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Still editing
Well, I had to fix another couple chapters. Sigh. By fix I mean eviscerate. I chopped out four pages at least. Possibly more. I'm not sure right now. I'm working on it between sentences of this blog. Still, any time you take out the boring stuff and improve what's left, that's reason to celebrate. I just wish it were June 14th instead of Bastille Day. (Vive la France!) Oh well. Off to do more work.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch, ripping to shreds
posted by Carolyn @ 7/14/2007 09:54:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, July 12, 2007
More Editing
So, I got to chapter 17 of Magellan's Witch before I had to really massively rewrite chapters 17 and 18. I've been fixing a lot of stuff. Sigh. The problem was shut up stupid nagging voice those chapters where my hero and heroine weren't together enough. I thought I'd fixed those, but I didn't shut up fix them quite enough. So today I was right, wasn't I? Shut up. You should have listened to me.
Actually, stupid nagging voice, I did listen. It just took a few days to know I needed to listen even harder. I need you, but you're really irritating to the right brain side of me.
Left turn people. I'm off to see if I need to make an even sharper left.
Actually, stupid nagging voice, I did listen. It just took a few days to know I needed to listen even harder. I need you, but you're really irritating to the right brain side of me.
Left turn people. I'm off to see if I need to make an even sharper left.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 7/12/2007 10:01:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
I'm not In Dallas
No RWA conference for me this year. Nope. I have my nose to the grindstone, working hard on polishing Magellan's Witch. I'm up to chapter 14 and so far no disasters, rewrites or deletions. I've corrected a few continuity issues, caught another typo or two and am generally continuing to deepen and improve.
In Other Writing news, I was saddened to hear of the death of Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. Her website hasn't been updated with the news yet, but take a minute to visit the site of a literary pioneer. Thank you, Ms. Woodiwiss. We'll miss you.
Other news includes upcoming books I'm itching to read. Harry Potter 7, of course. We had a lively discussion over dinner tonight about who we thought is the character mostly likely to die. My son said Snape or Hermione. I said, what if it's Hagrid? Others thought perhaps Harry. -- If it is, I can see the book flying to the wall right now.
But, the book I can hardly wait to read is J.R. Ward's next Black Dagger Brotherhood book, Lover Unbound. Michelle Buonfiglio over at B(u)y The Book is reading an ARC right now. Waahhh! I want an ARC too! I have the email from Amazon assuring me my copy is coming. It better be here September 25th! Sigh. Vishous.Sigh.
All righty. Back to work.
In Other Writing news, I was saddened to hear of the death of Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. Her website hasn't been updated with the news yet, but take a minute to visit the site of a literary pioneer. Thank you, Ms. Woodiwiss. We'll miss you.
Other news includes upcoming books I'm itching to read. Harry Potter 7, of course. We had a lively discussion over dinner tonight about who we thought is the character mostly likely to die. My son said Snape or Hermione. I said, what if it's Hagrid? Others thought perhaps Harry. -- If it is, I can see the book flying to the wall right now.
But, the book I can hardly wait to read is J.R. Ward's next Black Dagger Brotherhood book, Lover Unbound. Michelle Buonfiglio over at B(u)y The Book is reading an ARC right now. Waahhh! I want an ARC too! I have the email from Amazon assuring me my copy is coming. It better be here September 25th! Sigh. Vishous.Sigh.
All righty. Back to work.
Labels: books, editing, Magellan's Witch, polishing
posted by Carolyn @ 7/10/2007 06:38:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Sunday Bliss - More or Less
At last! I got through the rest of Magellan's Witch. The read-back caught a lot of typos I probably never would have found on my own. I hit some boring patches and either deleted them or fixed them -- I hope. I deleted a chapter, split another in two and changed the POV (point of view) on one of them. This morning I added in the stuff to support my Fantastic Solution To A Nagging Issue. I have about 92,000 words. Which is about where I tend to up up no matter what, give or take a couple thousand. So, now this thing goes out to readers. My wonderful printer that does duplex (on my gosh, I am SO IN LOVE with this feature!!!) saved me a couple hundred sheets of paper when I printed it out for my neighbor who's a journalist. And how I'm going to get it into Word (can I just say YUCK! here?) and email it to my agent and a writer acquaintance. We'll see if I get feedback in time, since RWA is right in the middle of this. Rats.
OK, so what do I think about this book? I'm so close it's hard to say. I'm pretty sure the first 10 chapters totally rock and I'm hoping my work of the last two weeks has gotten the rest to match. I crossed some lines in this book, to which I say, so freaking what? That's just how this book had to be. My heroine has multiple encounters with characters who are not the hero and I'll also just put it out there that sometimes the hero is present during those encounters, and he's not just sitting around on his hands either. And, there's some inter species shape shifting stuff, too.
I have three more weeks to work on this. I'll start another read-through tomorrow sometime.
What else? I'm going to relax for what's left of the day. I've done the shopping and I'm going to read and surf the net and maybe play around on MySpace.
OK, so what do I think about this book? I'm so close it's hard to say. I'm pretty sure the first 10 chapters totally rock and I'm hoping my work of the last two weeks has gotten the rest to match. I crossed some lines in this book, to which I say, so freaking what? That's just how this book had to be. My heroine has multiple encounters with characters who are not the hero and I'll also just put it out there that sometimes the hero is present during those encounters, and he's not just sitting around on his hands either. And, there's some inter species shape shifting stuff, too.
I have three more weeks to work on this. I'll start another read-through tomorrow sometime.
What else? I'm going to relax for what's left of the day. I've done the shopping and I'm going to read and surf the net and maybe play around on MySpace.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch, relaxing
posted by Carolyn @ 7/08/2007 03:42:00 PM Permalink
Friday, July 06, 2007
It's a Red Stripe* Day -- or finding info in the oddest places
Coupla things before I succumb to another day of panic mode. So, I have this day job. In the words of Patti O'Shea, an Evil Day Job or EDJ. Yeah. I have one of those. I have to explain the EDJ in order for this post to make sense, sorry. I'm a SQL Server Database Administrator (DBA). As such, I work with Enterprise level databases that run on expensive hardware and software. Yada yada yada. As with most things that involve the need for the development of expertise, there are mailing lists. For the EDJ I belong to one such SQL Server mailing list. Mostly people post questions and answers about, well, yes, SQL Server. The list members are from all over the world. Literally. Not so interesting and not so relevant to the writing, you'd think. Au contraire!
For quite some time I have been jotting down the many cool and awesome names these people have. I've probably got at least 100 names. Some of which I am using in Magellan's Witch. Not complete names. There are very few that are cool and awesome on a total name basis. Like, Harsh. There's some DBA somewhere whose name, I think it's his first name, but I'm not sure, is Harsh. Then there's Kynan. Both of them are in Magellan's Witch. So, I've been really pleased to be building up such a solid list of cool names. Today, I hit the motherlode. Not of names, but alcohol.
I'm not much of a drinker and I don't watch TV or read many magazines that have liquor ads in them. This makes me clueless when it comes to choosing alcoholic drinks that alpha males might sit around drinking. This morning when I came to work there were already 150 emails from the DBA list, and fully half of them were of the subject Select unique records or something like that. Easy, easy thing to do in SQL.
So, like, 150 emails about this. Uh, no. 150 emails about what to drink on Friday nights, with amusing and even insightful comments. Like these:
See? The motherload. I have like a page and a half of alcohol from around the world wisdom.
*Red Stripe, as probably everyone but me knows, is a Guinness beer, and it's probably mentioned at least once a week. Big in the UK it seems.
OK, off to panic mode.
For quite some time I have been jotting down the many cool and awesome names these people have. I've probably got at least 100 names. Some of which I am using in Magellan's Witch. Not complete names. There are very few that are cool and awesome on a total name basis. Like, Harsh. There's some DBA somewhere whose name, I think it's his first name, but I'm not sure, is Harsh. Then there's Kynan. Both of them are in Magellan's Witch. So, I've been really pleased to be building up such a solid list of cool names. Today, I hit the motherlode. Not of names, but alcohol.
I'm not much of a drinker and I don't watch TV or read many magazines that have liquor ads in them. This makes me clueless when it comes to choosing alcoholic drinks that alpha males might sit around drinking. This morning when I came to work there were already 150 emails from the DBA list, and fully half of them were of the subject Select unique records or something like that. Easy, easy thing to do in SQL.
SELECT DISTINCT [SomeFieldName] FROM [SomeTable]
So, like, 150 emails about this. Uh, no. 150 emails about what to drink on Friday nights, with amusing and even insightful comments. Like these:
Vodka... made by the French who we all know have been purveyors of fine Vodka since Czar Louis XIV was on the throne of Ireland....
What!!
I bloody well hope not!
As they're [Boddington's] canned/bottled in Manchester I 'm assuming they're using Imperial measurements... but then the UK measures stuff in that Froggy invented metric system... so god only knows...
Zut alors!
However, I do know that it just fills a pint pot fashioned after a German beer steinl [sic], whereas when I use a US standard beer glass I have to drink down the first third of the glass before topping it off... boo shame...
On a cold day you need Laphroaig or Lagavullin... perhaps Macallan or Dalwhinnie, Cragganmore or Talikser or Glenkinchie Single Island and Highland Malt whisky laddie!!!!
Yeah, I used to get Lagavullin for $40.00, not it hovers around $80, so at the bar I get Laphroaig for 6.50 (happy hour) or around $8.00. Lagavullin is $15.00 for a measured shot. Out of my league.
Of course, to be fair, I can get Lagavullin for $10.00 at other bars...
but still...
See? The motherload. I have like a page and a half of alcohol from around the world wisdom.
*Red Stripe, as probably everyone but me knows, is a Guinness beer, and it's probably mentioned at least once a week. Big in the UK it seems.
OK, off to panic mode.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, research
posted by Carolyn @ 7/06/2007 04:57:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
The Joy of Sleeping
It's a holiday today (Happy Birthday USA!) and I slept until 10:30 am. Whoa. Guess I was exhausted. I feel rested right now. There are various festivities today and a child to entertain and spend time with. We're going to the movies and then he has a party (I'll be working!) and then fireworks at my brother's.
Day before yesterday I deleted a boring chapter from Magellan's Witch and rewrote the boring beginning of another. As I was in bed trying to keep my eyes open while I was reading a book about Structure and Plot, this great idea popped into my head about what my heroine had done. It solves quite a few issues for me. So I had to notebook that because I was so tired I was afraid if I didn't I'd fall asleep and forget. The read through continues, but slowly because I've had to stop and fix several things.
Anyhoo, off to celebrate and spend time with family.
Day before yesterday I deleted a boring chapter from Magellan's Witch and rewrote the boring beginning of another. As I was in bed trying to keep my eyes open while I was reading a book about Structure and Plot, this great idea popped into my head about what my heroine had done. It solves quite a few issues for me. So I had to notebook that because I was so tired I was afraid if I didn't I'd fall asleep and forget. The read through continues, but slowly because I've had to stop and fix several things.
Anyhoo, off to celebrate and spend time with family.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch, ripping to shreds
posted by Carolyn @ 7/04/2007 12:11:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Reporting In
I've been having Magellan's Witch read back to me (using Text Aloud). It's a great way to catch typos, repetition of subject matter, words, phrases and other awkwardness and just plain boring parts. When it's working, you can feel it. While I'm listening, I have my file open so I can fix things right away. I've got one spot I need to go over and fix up a bit, and last night I added a kind of unexpected bit. I'll have to have that chapter reread today. And I swapped the order of two chapters. I'm pretty sure things are coming together. Back to work.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch, Text Aloud
posted by Carolyn @ 7/01/2007 09:25:00 AM Permalink
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
freaking, freaking, maybe not, freaking
So here it's pretty much the end of June. Magellan's Witch is due August 1. I seem to be spending most of my time massively rewriting. Sigh. Right now I'm going through some comments and addressing those-- if I haven't already deleted or re-written the chapter -- and last night as I was reading this one particular chapter which even when I wrote it I knew was pushing things, I thought to myself, hey, this is good! This is actually fascinating. So for the first time ever I went to bed thinking maybe I don't have a total disaster on my hands.
OK, moment over. Back to freaking. Um, yeah. Definitely that.
OK, moment over. Back to freaking. Um, yeah. Definitely that.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 6/26/2007 05:08:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Not a Sleep over but a Wake-Over
Today is my son's birthday. He's 12. Ohmygoshhowdidthathappen? Last night he had a sleep over, which, in point of fact, was actually a wake-over since I got up at 4:00am to tell them to go to bed, please. But others in the household reported variously that said boys were up at 5:00am and having waffles at 5:30am. I got up at 10:00 am and the boys were sprawled on the couches in pretzel-like positions. I woke them at 11:20 because we were going to the Fair. Between 10:00 and 11:20 or so I worked on editing Magellan's Witch.
To the Fair we went. At 12, they can run around on their own without constant supervision. And, as I discovered, there was no need to worry about losing contact with them as they phoned me whenever they ran out of money. They knew the location of the ATM's, too. Imagine that. I got a free massage and a $10.00 airbrushed tattoo of a dragon. It'll wash off in a few days. I now know that when I get my real tattoo, I will not get black as my skin is too pale, and will get something perhaps a square inch or less in size. So, we were all fried about 4:00pm and the various 12 year olds went home with parents etc.
Then I picked up a cake for my son's party with family and went home. My present to him, besides the Fair, was to take down his share of the garbage. This is a big deal on account of the garbage needs to go down to the bottom of the driveway. See the Driveway Torture post for more.
He was asleep on the couch at 8:30pm but when I woke him to to say perhaps he should go to bed, he refused. It's summer and he just can't bring himself to go to bed early. By which I mean, being in his bed. Crashing on the couch is completely involuntary and doesn't count.
I've been working on editing Magellan's Witch since I got back. Some progress is made. At least so far it's editing, not massive rewriting. I'm going to go to bed a bit early tonight,as I am tired from all the walking at the Fair and the rowing and the summer heat.
One big fat ick for Monday.
But, for once I feel like I got some good away time. I feel mentally refreshed. Which store of freshness I will need in order to get this book into shape. It's going to have to go to other readers in whatever shape it's in by, say, mid week. Urk.
To the Fair we went. At 12, they can run around on their own without constant supervision. And, as I discovered, there was no need to worry about losing contact with them as they phoned me whenever they ran out of money. They knew the location of the ATM's, too. Imagine that. I got a free massage and a $10.00 airbrushed tattoo of a dragon. It'll wash off in a few days. I now know that when I get my real tattoo, I will not get black as my skin is too pale, and will get something perhaps a square inch or less in size. So, we were all fried about 4:00pm and the various 12 year olds went home with parents etc.
Then I picked up a cake for my son's party with family and went home. My present to him, besides the Fair, was to take down his share of the garbage. This is a big deal on account of the garbage needs to go down to the bottom of the driveway. See the Driveway Torture post for more.
He was asleep on the couch at 8:30pm but when I woke him to to say perhaps he should go to bed, he refused. It's summer and he just can't bring himself to go to bed early. By which I mean, being in his bed. Crashing on the couch is completely involuntary and doesn't count.
I've been working on editing Magellan's Witch since I got back. Some progress is made. At least so far it's editing, not massive rewriting. I'm going to go to bed a bit early tonight,as I am tired from all the walking at the Fair and the rowing and the summer heat.
One big fat ick for Monday.
But, for once I feel like I got some good away time. I feel mentally refreshed. Which store of freshness I will need in order to get this book into shape. It's going to have to go to other readers in whatever shape it's in by, say, mid week. Urk.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch, plugging away
posted by Carolyn @ 6/24/2007 09:02:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Bleary Eyed Writer
I've been trying to get all my paper edits into the computer and things were going OK for a while. I got through a fairly rough patch blah blah edit cut etc.I have maybe 30 pages to go. But my gosh. I have some major fixing and no inspiration at the moment. This morning I had my first rowing lesson. It was really fun. Can't wait for more. I got home and started working and found myself falling asleep in my chair since I had to get up early for the rowing instead of sleeping in to catch up from the work week deficit. I could have pushed through, but this nagging little voice I am NOT a nag! Yes, you are. kept saying, Carolyn, you can't keep writing chapters without the hero and heroine both in them. Shut up, I'm fixing this just fine without your help, thank you very much. No you're not. So I took a nap when my eyes drooped closed for the bazillionth time and just when I was in the nirvanah of napdom the phone rang. So now I'm awake. Carolyn, go rewrite those chapters with your hero in them. Just do it, OK? All right all right! Sheesh.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 6/23/2007 03:36:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Nudge Nudge Wink Wink
Boy, did I need to read this interview with Lemony Snickett:
It's a good interview, too.
Back to work. Editing crap.
Say n'more.
Since that time, I sort of love it when things are going badly because I know that means that soon things will go well. I just stay at my desk, and I say, "There's no shame in writing crap," knowing that it's good for the brain because meanwhile, in some corner, something is getting nudged. And I've used that strategy ever since.
It's a good interview, too.
Back to work. Editing crap.
Say n'more.
Labels: angst, editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 6/19/2007 07:49:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Driveway Torture
Rats. It's Sunday and I need it to be Saturday or for Monday to be a holiday. Nice father's day. Yesterday I told myself that if I got through the rest of the manuscript read through, I could take the evening off to read. Which I did. I finished off Chuck Pfarrer's Warrior Soul which is a memoir of a Navy SEAL. Good book. I really enjoyed it. Apparently, nobody in D.C. has learned anything since Beirut in the 80's or Iran-Contra. That was kind of depressing.
Worked today. One of my brothers came over and played poker with my son. I think one of them is rich now. Then I had to go shopping and today, shopping included shoes and shirts. My sandals are falling apart and one pair of my work shoes is worn through. Also, I needed new running shoes. The sole of my current pair is now separating from the shoe. I also needed summer shirts. I believe I've mentioned I despise shopping. Yuck. But mission accomplished. Then grocery shopping. Then had to make cookies for lunches tomorrow. Not mine. I am on a cookie free diet. (Rats!)
I've changed up my work out on account of a couple weeks ago as I was heading back to the house after taking down the garbage I was dying jogging up the driveway. The driveway is roughly a quarter mile uphill (depending on your point of view, I guess, it was uphill for me at the time.) I should have been able to jog up the freaking driveway without dying. I was wearing my sandals, at the time, but still. So, now 2 days a week instead of going to the gym I run up and down the driveway for 45 minutes. Torture. Horrors. Sweat. Then one day I cycle for 45 because I'm not able to add a third day of driveway torture yet and the other two I do free weights and resistance training. I added in 10 push ups between every set, and am happy to report I'm up to 12 push ups between sets. The good news is my arms are getting some cuts and by the third morning of running I was still dying but at a slightly faster speed. Really slightly. Next weekend I start the rowing so that should help, too. All of which is my way of explaining that I really did need new running shoes. And, lucky me! The Nike outlet carries Men's size 6, which is the size of running shoe that fits me best. Before grad school, I could do 100 push-ups and run a mile in 7:30, which I thought was pretty sad since in college I ran 5:30's. Now I'm in the double digits for roughly a mile. Of course, 45 minutes of driveway torture is something like 3 or 3.5 miles. Maybe grad school wasn't all good for me.
I figure if SEALs can do what they so, I can run up and down the driveway for 45 minutes and do a few measly push ups. I hope to swap out the cycling day for more driveway torture but right now I need that for recovery so I don't get (too) sore. See, reading is good for you!
In comparison, writing is --- well, a completely different kind of torture. Which I've been doing all weekend. And will be doing more shortly.
Tomorrow morning, driveway torture. Yay. Not.
Worked today. One of my brothers came over and played poker with my son. I think one of them is rich now. Then I had to go shopping and today, shopping included shoes and shirts. My sandals are falling apart and one pair of my work shoes is worn through. Also, I needed new running shoes. The sole of my current pair is now separating from the shoe. I also needed summer shirts. I believe I've mentioned I despise shopping. Yuck. But mission accomplished. Then grocery shopping. Then had to make cookies for lunches tomorrow. Not mine. I am on a cookie free diet. (Rats!)
I've changed up my work out on account of a couple weeks ago as I was heading back to the house after taking down the garbage I was dying jogging up the driveway. The driveway is roughly a quarter mile uphill (depending on your point of view, I guess, it was uphill for me at the time.) I should have been able to jog up the freaking driveway without dying. I was wearing my sandals, at the time, but still. So, now 2 days a week instead of going to the gym I run up and down the driveway for 45 minutes. Torture. Horrors. Sweat. Then one day I cycle for 45 because I'm not able to add a third day of driveway torture yet and the other two I do free weights and resistance training. I added in 10 push ups between every set, and am happy to report I'm up to 12 push ups between sets. The good news is my arms are getting some cuts and by the third morning of running I was still dying but at a slightly faster speed. Really slightly. Next weekend I start the rowing so that should help, too. All of which is my way of explaining that I really did need new running shoes. And, lucky me! The Nike outlet carries Men's size 6, which is the size of running shoe that fits me best. Before grad school, I could do 100 push-ups and run a mile in 7:30, which I thought was pretty sad since in college I ran 5:30's. Now I'm in the double digits for roughly a mile. Of course, 45 minutes of driveway torture is something like 3 or 3.5 miles. Maybe grad school wasn't all good for me.
I figure if SEALs can do what they so, I can run up and down the driveway for 45 minutes and do a few measly push ups. I hope to swap out the cycling day for more driveway torture but right now I need that for recovery so I don't get (too) sore. See, reading is good for you!
In comparison, writing is --- well, a completely different kind of torture. Which I've been doing all weekend. And will be doing more shortly.
Tomorrow morning, driveway torture. Yay. Not.
Labels: editing, exercise, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 6/17/2007 08:33:00 PM Permalink
Friday, June 15, 2007
What Publishers can learn from my Cat
This quote is from Publishers Lunch:
Anyone who checks out the A-list bloggers of the Tech Altiverse (I just made up that word since the Uber-Geeks do, in fact, inhabit an alternate universe: see e.g., Tech Crunch, Guy Kawasaki or Robert Scoble) knows that the geekish are rolling their eyes at newspapers for not understanding what's happening to their business model. For the most part, the Uber-Geeks are right. Newspapers moan about Craigslist taking their revenue without making the leap to gee, maybe readers want want ads that work like Craigslist so we better do that! It took me about 2 minutes, maybe three, to post my old printer on Craigslist and within 2 minutes, I kid you not, I had a taker. Could I have done that, as easily or as quickly on any newspaper want-ad site? No. Do I go to newspaper websites that are behind a pay wall? No, I do not. I go get my website news somewhere else, and by the way, view someone else's ads when I do. Lest you think that there's no money in Google's ad-sense, I've seen creditable reports (but not proof) that many of the the A-listers make a few thousand a month in ad sense revenue. (A-list bloggers have hundreds of thousands of impressions, not a few hundred. For comparison's sake Miss Snark, despite her avid fans, would not have been considered an A-lister, though before her retirement from blogging, I was starting to think she might get there.)
The cat analogy is coming up, by the way.
Have people become news averse? No. They're just consuming it in places where it's convenient for them. But I still look through 2 print newspapers at home, too.
So here's the cat analogy. My cat Jake loves to sleep on my printer. My brand-new printer! So I keep it covered with two thin-ish kitchen towels. The other day I thought, hey, I'm going to cover the printer with this much bigger and vastly thicker cloth! The printer will be even more impervious to cat hair and Jake will be comfier, too!
That's not what happened.
Jake refused to sleep on the printer. Instead, my big, fluffy 15 pound cat decided to sleep in the space where I put my manuscript binder when I am transferring paper edits to the computer. At first, I thought, man, this is just so inconvenient to have him trying to sleep on my MS! We spent a couple of days irritated with each other about that. And then I removed the big cloth from the printer and Jake got up on the printer and went to sleep on the two thin cloths.
Oh. There was no abandonment of cat-napping behavior, merely a displacement of its location.
See where I'm going with this? If this publisher is right, the medium is changing. But the need for stories people want to read is not.
So authors have no need to panic. Publishers do, if they don't wake up to the translocation.
In writing news, I've deleted two chapters from Magellan's Witch. But things are getting better.
There is a slow but steady worldwide decline in the sales of printed products, roughly matched by growth in sales of electronic media, and gravity is reasserting itself in the UK trade. In 2006, it became clear that book publishers should probably expect medium and long-term sales stagnation and decline in their printed products, just as newspaper publishers do.
Anyone who checks out the A-list bloggers of the Tech Altiverse (I just made up that word since the Uber-Geeks do, in fact, inhabit an alternate universe: see e.g., Tech Crunch, Guy Kawasaki or Robert Scoble) knows that the geekish are rolling their eyes at newspapers for not understanding what's happening to their business model. For the most part, the Uber-Geeks are right. Newspapers moan about Craigslist taking their revenue without making the leap to gee, maybe readers want want ads that work like Craigslist so we better do that! It took me about 2 minutes, maybe three, to post my old printer on Craigslist and within 2 minutes, I kid you not, I had a taker. Could I have done that, as easily or as quickly on any newspaper want-ad site? No. Do I go to newspaper websites that are behind a pay wall? No, I do not. I go get my website news somewhere else, and by the way, view someone else's ads when I do. Lest you think that there's no money in Google's ad-sense, I've seen creditable reports (but not proof) that many of the the A-listers make a few thousand a month in ad sense revenue. (A-list bloggers have hundreds of thousands of impressions, not a few hundred. For comparison's sake Miss Snark, despite her avid fans, would not have been considered an A-lister, though before her retirement from blogging, I was starting to think she might get there.)
The cat analogy is coming up, by the way.
Have people become news averse? No. They're just consuming it in places where it's convenient for them. But I still look through 2 print newspapers at home, too.
So here's the cat analogy. My cat Jake loves to sleep on my printer. My brand-new printer! So I keep it covered with two thin-ish kitchen towels. The other day I thought, hey, I'm going to cover the printer with this much bigger and vastly thicker cloth! The printer will be even more impervious to cat hair and Jake will be comfier, too!
That's not what happened.
Jake refused to sleep on the printer. Instead, my big, fluffy 15 pound cat decided to sleep in the space where I put my manuscript binder when I am transferring paper edits to the computer. At first, I thought, man, this is just so inconvenient to have him trying to sleep on my MS! We spent a couple of days irritated with each other about that. And then I removed the big cloth from the printer and Jake got up on the printer and went to sleep on the two thin cloths.
Oh. There was no abandonment of cat-napping behavior, merely a displacement of its location.
See where I'm going with this? If this publisher is right, the medium is changing. But the need for stories people want to read is not.
So authors have no need to panic. Publishers do, if they don't wake up to the translocation.
In writing news, I've deleted two chapters from Magellan's Witch. But things are getting better.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch, publishing
posted by Carolyn @ 6/15/2007 05:14:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
This N That
Galley Cat on one of my favorite authors Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart was my intro into African literature. Mind opening.
Interesting blog post about imprints from a publisher who always has interesting insights into the business.
Even more interesting blog post about imprints. I TOTALLY agree with this. Readers just don't care about imprints. File this under the publishers should be doing market research...
Physicists blog about Being in Love. Read it. You'll be surprised.
Saving myself 15 years of bad luck. Maybe. I was cough cough mumble on mySpace cough working hard when I came across this, which unlike most horoscopes, seems to describe me exactly. Please read the foregoing and following, with no sense of being serious at all, okay?
In writing news, Magellan's Witch is going okay I think. I got to chapter 10 this time before I had to massively rewrite and that only took a day. Last night I got through a lot.
And now, I really do have to go work hard.
Interesting blog post about imprints from a publisher who always has interesting insights into the business.
Even more interesting blog post about imprints. I TOTALLY agree with this. Readers just don't care about imprints. File this under the publishers should be doing market research...
Physicists blog about Being in Love. Read it. You'll be surprised.
Saving myself 15 years of bad luck. Maybe. I was cough cough mumble on mySpace cough working hard when I came across this, which unlike most horoscopes, seems to describe me exactly. Please read the foregoing and following, with no sense of being serious at all, okay?
TAURUS: The Freak in bed
Aggressive. Freak in bed. Rare to find! Loves being in long relationships Likes to give a good fight for what they want. Extremely outgoing. Sexy as ...u no!..... Loves to help people in times of need. Outstanding kisser. Very funny. Awesome personality. Stubborn. Sexual as ......... Most caring person you will ever meet! One of a kind. Not one to fuck with. Are the most sexiest people on earth! 15 years of bad luck if you do not repost.
In writing news, Magellan's Witch is going okay I think. I got to chapter 10 this time before I had to massively rewrite and that only took a day. Last night I got through a lot.
And now, I really do have to go work hard.
Labels: Authors, Magellan's Witch, marketing, publishing
posted by Carolyn @ 6/13/2007 05:28:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Behinder yet
Sigh.
I was stuck at Starbucks until 12:00. Got some work done, not much, and not much of it very cheerful work. Rats. Then I went to my nephew's birthday party and was there until three. At one point I went back to the car and got my binder and very rudely did some editing. Honestly. When do people think I get all this done? Anyway, we left at 3:00 which was just in time for me to remember my son had soccer practice and I hadn't done any grocery shopping. So, got home, he changed and we were off. Only the field was being used and I drove my son and two other boys to the alternate location and got lost. My town has an old Jr. High of a certain name and a new Jr. High of the exact same name. I went to the old one only to realize then that everyone must have been talking about the new one. Sigh. I have never been to the new one and don't know the address. But we managed to find it. Then I had to get groceries. I was able to get in half an hour of editing. Now I'm off to do more.
Sigh.
I was stuck at Starbucks until 12:00. Got some work done, not much, and not much of it very cheerful work. Rats. Then I went to my nephew's birthday party and was there until three. At one point I went back to the car and got my binder and very rudely did some editing. Honestly. When do people think I get all this done? Anyway, we left at 3:00 which was just in time for me to remember my son had soccer practice and I hadn't done any grocery shopping. So, got home, he changed and we were off. Only the field was being used and I drove my son and two other boys to the alternate location and got lost. My town has an old Jr. High of a certain name and a new Jr. High of the exact same name. I went to the old one only to realize then that everyone must have been talking about the new one. Sigh. I have never been to the new one and don't know the address. But we managed to find it. Then I had to get groceries. I was able to get in half an hour of editing. Now I'm off to do more.
Sigh.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 6/10/2007 07:28:00 PM Permalink
Catching up and falling behind
I'm at Starbucks right now (alas,the local coffee shop closed its doors) having just finished doing work for the day job. I have to hang out for a bit to make sure every thing's OK. It's been a crazy week. I attended my son's 6th grade graduation on Thursday -- he won a President's Award for Outstanding Academic Excellence (the Secretary of Education may need some remedial lessons there, but whatever). And a school Outstanding Citizenship Award. Both were unexpected and of course I was proud as anything. Friday was the graduation party for him and my nephew.
All week I've been trying to get organized for my son's birthday party for his buddies, yesterday. Today is my nephew's birthday party, so I'm hoping I get out of here in time. Oh my gosh. So, this week I did not get as much done as I wanted to. I went to my local RWA chapter meeting Saturday morning because they had a bookseller's panel and I wanted to know that kinds of things a writer can reasonably and effectively do (besides writing a good book). Most trinkets are a waste of time and money. And even for the few that were clever or cute, I didn't hear anyone say that made them buy more books. Things that work;
Regarding signing stock, it's not true that signed books don't get stripped for return. Sorry, that's a myth. It might keep your book around a little longer, but it doesn't prevent returns. However, signed books always sell before unsigned ones.
I got home from the chapter meeting and worked frantically to get in some edits on Magellan's Witch before it was time to get over to Scandia and the party location. Made it by the skin of my teeth. I was able to get some work done. Not much, but some. Home from the party frazzled and tired by 7:30.
At 8:30 I went to bed with my MS and fell asleep. I woke up at 9:00 (the binder was poking me) and decided it was better to just turn off the light and sleep. OK.
Anyhoo -- As mentioned before, I ran into trouble at chapter 7 on the last read through and had to stop reading to fix that. I ended up adding two new chapters. Next week it has to go out to some other readers. I've just realized that RWA is early this year and my agent will be there and, naturally, unable to read MW for me so, well, whatever. Right now, I just need to keep working on it. I hope to get past chapter 7 this time, but now I'm thinking it's just boring. Sigh.
All week I've been trying to get organized for my son's birthday party for his buddies, yesterday. Today is my nephew's birthday party, so I'm hoping I get out of here in time. Oh my gosh. So, this week I did not get as much done as I wanted to. I went to my local RWA chapter meeting Saturday morning because they had a bookseller's panel and I wanted to know that kinds of things a writer can reasonably and effectively do (besides writing a good book). Most trinkets are a waste of time and money. And even for the few that were clever or cute, I didn't hear anyone say that made them buy more books. Things that work;
- Bookmarks. Put the release date on them. Sign them.
- Coming in to sign stock (see below)
- Sending ARCs - at least 2 mos in advance of release
- Mail a copy of your newsletter to chains - Borders stores don't have internet access. Only limited email
- Make your own shelf talkers. The width of a book, about two inches long below the fold -- too long and it hangs too low. Include title, author, blurb.
- If you have a pseudonym, let booksellers know.
Regarding signing stock, it's not true that signed books don't get stripped for return. Sorry, that's a myth. It might keep your book around a little longer, but it doesn't prevent returns. However, signed books always sell before unsigned ones.
I got home from the chapter meeting and worked frantically to get in some edits on Magellan's Witch before it was time to get over to Scandia and the party location. Made it by the skin of my teeth. I was able to get some work done. Not much, but some. Home from the party frazzled and tired by 7:30.
At 8:30 I went to bed with my MS and fell asleep. I woke up at 9:00 (the binder was poking me) and decided it was better to just turn off the light and sleep. OK.
Anyhoo -- As mentioned before, I ran into trouble at chapter 7 on the last read through and had to stop reading to fix that. I ended up adding two new chapters. Next week it has to go out to some other readers. I've just realized that RWA is early this year and my agent will be there and, naturally, unable to read MW for me so, well, whatever. Right now, I just need to keep working on it. I hope to get past chapter 7 this time, but now I'm thinking it's just boring. Sigh.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, marketing
posted by Carolyn @ 6/10/2007 09:32:00 AM Permalink
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
With Slavish attention
Yeah. I'm slaving away on Magellan's Witch. Chapter 7 was boring so I'm fixing that as soon as I finish this post. I need serious help with chapter endings. That's three people who've noticed I have a problem with that: me, my prof and my current reader. Sigh.
In other news, hmm. There is no other news. I have to go write my new chapter.
In other news, hmm. There is no other news. I have to go write my new chapter.
Labels: Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 6/05/2007 06:46:00 PM Permalink
Monday, June 04, 2007
Monday Again
But not for much longer eh? As my neighbors to the north might say. I'm doing another paper read through of Magellan's Witch. I'm up to chapter 5 and I'm not massively redoing anything. Yet. Lot's of polishing and layering. I have this draft out for an early read. I need to get back to work.
What else? The sale of Scandal is totally official now. It just posted to Publisher's Lunch. Yipee!
Tired, but what's new?
What else? The sale of Scandal is totally official now. It just posted to Publisher's Lunch. Yipee!
Tired, but what's new?
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 6/04/2007 09:35:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Weekend Report
Working. That's what I'm doing. I woke up this morning with a notion for Magellan's Witch that involves a new chapter. I'm writing it now. My son and I went kyaking for the first time. They were having a free water sports day on the Petaluma River so we went and kayaked. Fun! But what I want to do is row. So I'm going to pony up the bucks for the Rowing for Beginners class and do that. Now that I'm home I'm back at work on the new chapter.
What else? Seems like there ought to be something interesting, but, gosh, I guess not. Here's a random picture:
What else? Seems like there ought to be something interesting, but, gosh, I guess not. Here's a random picture:
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 6/02/2007 04:36:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
What do you mean there's no email?
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.
You must have guessed by now that the electricity came back on. Would have been nice to read a little longer. I could have read hard pages or notebooked, but I didn't want to. I'm actually feeling kind of relaxed right now.
I had the MS with me at the gym this morning. Things are smoothing out a bit. But I'd like to get through it once in a short period of time without ripping things to shreds.
You must have guessed by now that the electricity came back on. Would have been nice to read a little longer. I could have read hard pages or notebooked, but I didn't want to. I'm actually feeling kind of relaxed right now.
I had the MS with me at the gym this morning. Things are smoothing out a bit. But I'd like to get through it once in a short period of time without ripping things to shreds.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, relaxing, ripping to shreds
posted by Carolyn @ 5/29/2007 07:12:00 PM Permalink
Monday, May 28, 2007
miscellanea
Yes, I'm working on Magellan's Witch. It's slow going. Sigh. But I'm making progress.
Yesterday I read Warrior Elite, the making of SEAL class 228 by Dick Couch. It was a really good read. Sometimes I had to remind myself that I wasn't reading fiction. Couch got permission to observe the class through to the end, and it was riveting. The attrition rate is incredible, and I got attached to some of the guys who, ultimately, didn't make it. I'm almost at a loss for words to express my admiration for what these men go through. Amazing.
I think my only negative reaction is to the apparently obligatory apologia for why there's no women in the SEALs. Honestly, men just don't get it. The essential answer was, no women because even the ones who could hack it, it would destroy the chemistry. I do think that's true, the chemistry, which demonstrably works, would be changed.
The issue isn't really gender. It's exclusion. So, why not train women separately? Why not take advantage of the things women do well and better than men? Upper body strength isn't everything. You don't need testosterone to be a good shot. And endurance is assuredly a desirable trait, no? I think more women would get through Hell week. And I think a woman's typical excellence at multi-tasking should be leveraged. Interesting thoughts anyway.
And now, I want to gush about the Nintendo Wii. My son has one and I finally broke down and played Wii sports with him. What a blast! I was working up a sweat, by the way. Then we discovered that it has a mini-card slot (the kind that fits in an MP3 player or digital camera.) I quick snapped some pics, stuck in the card, and voila. Pictures that he could alter and play with. The Wii is fun, fun, fun!
Ok, back to work.
Yesterday I read Warrior Elite, the making of SEAL class 228 by Dick Couch. It was a really good read. Sometimes I had to remind myself that I wasn't reading fiction. Couch got permission to observe the class through to the end, and it was riveting. The attrition rate is incredible, and I got attached to some of the guys who, ultimately, didn't make it. I'm almost at a loss for words to express my admiration for what these men go through. Amazing.
I think my only negative reaction is to the apparently obligatory apologia for why there's no women in the SEALs. Honestly, men just don't get it. The essential answer was, no women because even the ones who could hack it, it would destroy the chemistry. I do think that's true, the chemistry, which demonstrably works, would be changed.
The issue isn't really gender. It's exclusion. So, why not train women separately? Why not take advantage of the things women do well and better than men? Upper body strength isn't everything. You don't need testosterone to be a good shot. And endurance is assuredly a desirable trait, no? I think more women would get through Hell week. And I think a woman's typical excellence at multi-tasking should be leveraged. Interesting thoughts anyway.
And now, I want to gush about the Nintendo Wii. My son has one and I finally broke down and played Wii sports with him. What a blast! I was working up a sweat, by the way. Then we discovered that it has a mini-card slot (the kind that fits in an MP3 player or digital camera.) I quick snapped some pics, stuck in the card, and voila. Pictures that he could alter and play with. The Wii is fun, fun, fun!
Ok, back to work.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, Navy SEALs, reading, Wii
posted by Carolyn @ 5/28/2007 01:39:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, May 26, 2007
The Saturday Evening Post
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.
Meanwhile, I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 tonight. Very entertaining. Just when I thought it was going to start dragging something funny and unexpected would happen. Good movie. Jonnny Depp was wonderful and so was Keith Richards.
To bed.
Meanwhile, I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 tonight. Very entertaining. Just when I thought it was going to start dragging something funny and unexpected would happen. Good movie. Jonnny Depp was wonderful and so was Keith Richards.
To bed.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/26/2007 11:18:00 PM Permalink
Friday, May 25, 2007
Catching up
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
Also, just as a side rant, I am really really REALLY sick of people making snotty comments about romance. I was reading an agent's blog the other day and in the comments, someone said, basically, how horrible a particular situation would be if people were gasp! horrors! reading a Harlequin romance instead of something else. Why? Just freaking why would that be so horrible? Oh, I'm just not going to get going on that. Reading is reading. And Francis Bacon himself noted famously that books are to be digested in different ways. If I'm at a point in my life where I want to have a guaranteed happy ending at the end of my book, why the heck is that a disaster that will, apparently, bring down Western Civilization as we know it? I believe the commenter managed to insult Comic books, too. me. rolling eyes and trying hard not to bust a gut.
Oh, just Sigh. I have to go back to fixing crap.
Also, just as a side rant, I am really really REALLY sick of people making snotty comments about romance. I was reading an agent's blog the other day and in the comments, someone said, basically, how horrible a particular situation would be if people were gasp! horrors! reading a Harlequin romance instead of something else. Why? Just freaking why would that be so horrible? Oh, I'm just not going to get going on that. Reading is reading. And Francis Bacon himself noted famously that books are to be digested in different ways. If I'm at a point in my life where I want to have a guaranteed happy ending at the end of my book, why the heck is that a disaster that will, apparently, bring down Western Civilization as we know it? I believe the commenter managed to insult Comic books, too. me. rolling eyes and trying hard not to bust a gut.
Oh, just Sigh. I have to go back to fixing crap.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, Rants, ripping to shreds, romance genre
posted by Carolyn @ 5/25/2007 09:13:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Sunday Rats
Well. Another Sunday gone. I slept late and -- I just remembered. I'm interrupting this blog to post an important message:
Ok. So. I slept late and then started working on Magellan's Witch and hit a part that needs some work. Rats rats rats rats. I have to go work on it now because I've been avoiding it all day.
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.
Ok. So. I slept late and then started working on Magellan's Witch and hit a part that needs some work. Rats rats rats rats. I have to go work on it now because I've been avoiding it all day.
Labels: Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/20/2007 09:56:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, May 17, 2007
I done did it
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.
In other news, Magellan's Witch seems to be going pretty well. I'm layering in elements, deleting the boring parts, and working my themes. I like this part much better than the straight writing. Except deleting the boring bits is humbling.
Today when I was interrupting various professors in order to get signatures, I was telling one of my committee members that I'd substantially revised the work since I gave it to her two weeks ago and that I'd deleted any of the boring parts. I spoke partly in jest, but in fact, that's a lot of what I did. The student in her office asked, also joking of course, how I did that. Well, we all know that Elmore Leonard just doesn't write those parts. Mere mortal writers do what I did. In your word processor:
My committee chair also mentioned that she had comments, but that since I'd given it to her two weeks ago I'd pretty much rewritten it. Yes. That's true. I simplified the stuff I'd made too complicated. I deleted boring bits, including scenes I really liked. That's how it has to be. No writer with a deadline can afford to wait two weeks for input when the book's not done yet. You write and keep writing.
I had a bunch of fascinating stuff I was saving up for when I had a breather, but I can't remember any of it right now. Tomorrow my son and I are going to take my sister to see Hot Fuzz.
In other news, Magellan's Witch seems to be going pretty well. I'm layering in elements, deleting the boring parts, and working my themes. I like this part much better than the straight writing. Except deleting the boring bits is humbling.
Today when I was interrupting various professors in order to get signatures, I was telling one of my committee members that I'd substantially revised the work since I gave it to her two weeks ago and that I'd deleted any of the boring parts. I spoke partly in jest, but in fact, that's a lot of what I did. The student in her office asked, also joking of course, how I did that. Well, we all know that Elmore Leonard just doesn't write those parts. Mere mortal writers do what I did. In your word processor:
- Highlight the boring bit.
- Hit Delete.
My committee chair also mentioned that she had comments, but that since I'd given it to her two weeks ago I'd pretty much rewritten it. Yes. That's true. I simplified the stuff I'd made too complicated. I deleted boring bits, including scenes I really liked. That's how it has to be. No writer with a deadline can afford to wait two weeks for input when the book's not done yet. You write and keep writing.
I had a bunch of fascinating stuff I was saving up for when I had a breather, but I can't remember any of it right now. Tomorrow my son and I are going to take my sister to see Hot Fuzz.
Labels: Graduate School, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/17/2007 07:12:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Close so very close!
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.
Tomorrow I will get the last signatures and turn my copy into the graduate affairs office. Then I think I get to wait until they tell me I'm good to turn in the final expensive paper one. And then I'll be done at last. I'll have a Master's degree. . . in English. (you have to pretend like that was Buy Nye the Science Guy saying that, only dorkier but with better diction).
I didn't work today, at least not on paper or computer. But I had some fairly long moments of down time when I was thinking very hard about Magellan's Witch, particularly about the fellow who will be the hero in the second book.
And now, to be with a few minutes to spare for reading.
Tomorrow I will get the last signatures and turn my copy into the graduate affairs office. Then I think I get to wait until they tell me I'm good to turn in the final expensive paper one. And then I'll be done at last. I'll have a Master's degree. . . in English. (you have to pretend like that was Buy Nye the Science Guy saying that, only dorkier but with better diction).
I didn't work today, at least not on paper or computer. But I had some fairly long moments of down time when I was thinking very hard about Magellan's Witch, particularly about the fellow who will be the hero in the second book.
And now, to be with a few minutes to spare for reading.
Labels: Graduate School, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/16/2007 09:27:00 PM Permalink
Monday, May 14, 2007
Monday for sure
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.
I got some work done today despite the foggy brain. I decided to work on my missing chapter. I picked a good spot and started and after a bit I went If this keeps up, Carolyn, this will be boring. So I stared out the window for a while and then got back to work and now my antagonist is with my heroine and there's some stuff going down. And I've got to go find out out that ends up...
I got some work done today despite the foggy brain. I decided to work on my missing chapter. I picked a good spot and started and after a bit I went If this keeps up, Carolyn, this will be boring. So I stared out the window for a while and then got back to work and now my antagonist is with my heroine and there's some stuff going down. And I've got to go find out out that ends up...
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch, Pantsing
posted by Carolyn @ 5/14/2007 09:20:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Insert Post Title Here
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.
I haven't laughed so much and so often at a movie in ages. First off, it's a British film. It riffs off American cop films, martial arts movies, Westerns and the traditional English mystery setting all in the context of the British countryside. I'm not sure I can do this movie justice. The main character plays it totally straight (he also co-wrote the screenplay.) Intelligent with moments of slapstick that aren't stupid. And then it descends into the absurd and is just side splittingly funny. Go see this movie. The IMDB entry is pretty far off the mark, in my opinion.
In other news, making progress with Magellan's Witch. I've deleted one plot element that was making things too complicated and isn't necessary now that I'm clearer on what's really driving the plot. I'm fixing stuff and then having to solve some major issues as I continue -- which basically involves me thinking that I'm stuck, then going off to do something else and have the solution occur to me.
This whole book has been that way. Brick wall with me thinking, geez, I'll never solve this one, then seeing the path continues this other way. Frustrating, but in a way, not. I deleted about 3000 words yesterday. I think I'm still missing a plot element, and I believe I know what that is, but I want to get through the rest of the read through (which I have started and restarted 3 times now) to be sure.
Anyway, off to read to my son.
Go see Hot Fuzz
Hot Fuzz is Hilarious!
I haven't laughed so much and so often at a movie in ages. First off, it's a British film. It riffs off American cop films, martial arts movies, Westerns and the traditional English mystery setting all in the context of the British countryside. I'm not sure I can do this movie justice. The main character plays it totally straight (he also co-wrote the screenplay.) Intelligent with moments of slapstick that aren't stupid. And then it descends into the absurd and is just side splittingly funny. Go see this movie. The IMDB entry is pretty far off the mark, in my opinion.
In other news, making progress with Magellan's Witch. I've deleted one plot element that was making things too complicated and isn't necessary now that I'm clearer on what's really driving the plot. I'm fixing stuff and then having to solve some major issues as I continue -- which basically involves me thinking that I'm stuck, then going off to do something else and have the solution occur to me.
This whole book has been that way. Brick wall with me thinking, geez, I'll never solve this one, then seeing the path continues this other way. Frustrating, but in a way, not. I deleted about 3000 words yesterday. I think I'm still missing a plot element, and I believe I know what that is, but I want to get through the rest of the read through (which I have started and restarted 3 times now) to be sure.
Anyway, off to read to my son.
Go see Hot Fuzz
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/13/2007 07:55:00 PM Permalink
Friday, May 11, 2007
Random Observations
1. Lately when I check my spam trapper (Postini, via my webhost) there's either practically nothing (only three today) or a flood. Why?
2. I was being driven to Hertz this afternoon (after someone assumed I would be running a stale yellow light and was unprepared for me actually stopping -- he, one supposes, intended to run the red one) by a nice young woman who is an artist and is working 60-70 hours a week at her day job. Basically, she has the wrong day job since she does not love it. If you have a creative passion such as writing or art or what have you, and life does not provide you with a trust fund or some other circumstance that allows you not to have a day job, then it is my belief and observation that it's best for the day job to be one that doesn't suck up your real-life. I actually think that's true no matter what, but particularly for the artistic.
3. I like the color gray. I think that means I'm mentally unbalanced. I also like green, but I like gray best.
4. MySpace is a really neat place to meet people. Who'd have thought? I really didn't expect to have some really nice exchanges with people, but I have. I've found people who love to read (yay!) and want to talk about what they read and some fantastic music.
5. The middle of Magellan's Witch is boring. I have two chapters in the wrong POV and I'm hoping that fixing that will fix the boringness. There's exciting stuff going on, only it's boring. Because it's in the wrong Point of View.
6. Today, I observed that someone took it upon themselves to wash my sheepskin slippers for me, which was very nice, only they weren't dry when they were replaced in their usual spot. Damp wool is unpleasant for one's feet.
Anyway, now I need to stop procrastinating and actually get some work done.
2. I was being driven to Hertz this afternoon (after someone assumed I would be running a stale yellow light and was unprepared for me actually stopping -- he, one supposes, intended to run the red one) by a nice young woman who is an artist and is working 60-70 hours a week at her day job. Basically, she has the wrong day job since she does not love it. If you have a creative passion such as writing or art or what have you, and life does not provide you with a trust fund or some other circumstance that allows you not to have a day job, then it is my belief and observation that it's best for the day job to be one that doesn't suck up your real-life. I actually think that's true no matter what, but particularly for the artistic.
3. I like the color gray. I think that means I'm mentally unbalanced. I also like green, but I like gray best.
4. MySpace is a really neat place to meet people. Who'd have thought? I really didn't expect to have some really nice exchanges with people, but I have. I've found people who love to read (yay!) and want to talk about what they read and some fantastic music.
5. The middle of Magellan's Witch is boring. I have two chapters in the wrong POV and I'm hoping that fixing that will fix the boringness. There's exciting stuff going on, only it's boring. Because it's in the wrong Point of View.
6. Today, I observed that someone took it upon themselves to wash my sheepskin slippers for me, which was very nice, only they weren't dry when they were replaced in their usual spot. Damp wool is unpleasant for one's feet.
Anyway, now I need to stop procrastinating and actually get some work done.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, procrastination
posted by Carolyn @ 5/11/2007 08:35:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Another Victory Against the Opposite of Interesting
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.
It worked great. Suddenly, there's layers of stuff going on. They're both saying one thing and meaning quite another. Even though I cut quite a bit of the boring parts, I only ended up a few hundred words in the hole. I'll know soon if it really works.
Off to bed.
It worked great. Suddenly, there's layers of stuff going on. They're both saying one thing and meaning quite another. Even though I cut quite a bit of the boring parts, I only ended up a few hundred words in the hole. I'll know soon if it really works.
Off to bed.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/09/2007 09:58:00 PM Permalink
random crap
I now have my own 128-bit integer1. Here's the little beauty for you to admire:
What else? I cooked trout tonight. The neighbor caught it. Came out good.
Magellan's Witch is boring, I've decided. I need to re-work the opening few chapters. My heroine needs more backbone. I'm going to work on that tonight.
Here's some Columbine:
1. If you followed the geekish ho-ha over DVD encryption keys, this is very funny.
And here's a really pink rose:
And now I'm off to do some surgery.
37 3B BB 00 92 3F 96 32 92 8E C6 2D 99 85 60 32
What else? I cooked trout tonight. The neighbor caught it. Came out good.
Magellan's Witch is boring, I've decided. I need to re-work the opening few chapters. My heroine needs more backbone. I'm going to work on that tonight.
Here's some Columbine:
1. If you followed the geekish ho-ha over DVD encryption keys, this is very funny.
And here's a really pink rose:
And now I'm off to do some surgery.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, writing craft
posted by Carolyn @ 5/09/2007 06:58:00 PM Permalink
Monday, May 07, 2007
My Love Affair
Ok, I admit it. I am in love with my new printer, an HP LaserJet 3005dn. 1) It's blazing fast (yes, this is relative to my old printer, but it's still fast. 2) It prints lovely crisp text; 3) It can print duplex. 4) It doesn't have the fugly impossible to remove label that defaced my 4200 5) It's reasonably attractive 6) Holds a ream of paper 7) Does not have to be told to use the tray with paper in it when there's only one tray with paper in it. 8) If I had time to set it up, I could connect wirelessly.
Duplex, people. Who would have thought this mattered? But it's like when your boyfriend brings you flowers just because. I have a bazillion pages of lectures from this on-line writing course I took and I printed them off duplex. That's when I knew it was love. That and when I didn't have to sit there worrying that my Master's project would print off all smeary and dotted.
I fixed up the rest of the issues from my new chapter in Magellan's Witch and then reprinted the first 11 chapters (hardly took any time at all!) so I can start reading through again.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, Office Supplies
posted by Carolyn @ 5/07/2007 09:25:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Hi Ho, Hi Ho....
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:
Saw Spiderman 3. Somebody on that movie has never read a Romance novel. If they had, they would have fixed the broken boring romance. The actor who played Harry is a total hottie, so it was worth it for that. Three great trailers: Silversurfer, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Transformers. Movies I really want to see. Off to bed.
Tomorrow's going to be no fun.
Saw Spiderman 3. Somebody on that movie has never read a Romance novel. If they had, they would have fixed the broken boring romance. The actor who played Harry is a total hottie, so it was worth it for that. Three great trailers: Silversurfer, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Transformers. Movies I really want to see. Off to bed.
Tomorrow's going to be no fun.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, movies
posted by Carolyn @ 5/06/2007 11:04:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, May 05, 2007
feels like I'm back at work
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
Friday, May 04, 2007
Good Day!
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).
I messed around on MySpace for a bit, caught up on some emails for a bit, read for a bit. Now I'm doing this. The only thing is I can't find a book I'm eager to read. But, I did find out that Michael Chabon is going to be in Petaluma on May 19th! Since I bought his latest, I have a card to get me in and my books signed.
Maybe, I might take a look at paper copy for Magellan's Witch, but I might sort through my TBR for a book that really calls to me...
I messed around on MySpace for a bit, caught up on some emails for a bit, read for a bit. Now I'm doing this. The only thing is I can't find a book I'm eager to read. But, I did find out that Michael Chabon is going to be in Petaluma on May 19th! Since I bought his latest, I have a card to get me in and my books signed.
Maybe, I might take a look at paper copy for Magellan's Witch, but I might sort through my TBR for a book that really calls to me...
Labels: Magellan's Witch, reading, relaxing, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 5/04/2007 07:57:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Ahhhhh
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
Tommorrow already?
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.
Mostly I was feeling not so hot about things, but when I was in 2-page view mode on the MA, I started thinking, hey, this isn't so bad. I was feeling excited about reading it. I'm going to bed on that note.
Friday I'm getting a hand massage AND a back massage.
Mostly I was feeling not so hot about things, but when I was in 2-page view mode on the MA, I started thinking, hey, this isn't so bad. I was feeling excited about reading it. I'm going to bed on that note.
Friday I'm getting a hand massage AND a back massage.
Labels: Graduate School, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/03/2007 01:08:00 AM Permalink
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Oh, the carnage, the carnage
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.
The update on the MA is that I can't officially file anything until after my public reading, which is May 15. So I have to live with this for another two weeks because now it's due May 18. I have one more form to file, too. I still have to get my committee members copies of it to read this week so they can sign on the dotted line. Which will have to be Thursday on account of office hours. Which gives me tomorrow and maybe a little of Thursday to finish fixing. Except in a way it doesn't really matter because I need to keep fixing for the real deadline anyway.
Anyway, off to bed before it's tomorrow.
The update on the MA is that I can't officially file anything until after my public reading, which is May 15. So I have to live with this for another two weeks because now it's due May 18. I have one more form to file, too. I still have to get my committee members copies of it to read this week so they can sign on the dotted line. Which will have to be Thursday on account of office hours. Which gives me tomorrow and maybe a little of Thursday to finish fixing. Except in a way it doesn't really matter because I need to keep fixing for the real deadline anyway.
Anyway, off to bed before it's tomorrow.
Labels: editing, Graduate School, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/01/2007 11:40:00 PM Permalink
Well, I knew this would happen
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.
At least I'm in the middle of an interesting solution to one of my issues and to be honest, I'm not broken up over the chapters I sent off to the Recycling Folder for Wayward Writing. They were boring and belonged to the previous version anyhow. But still.
In an hour, I'm off to get signatures on the MA project and see about my actual due date. I'll report back later. I'm going to use my new printer for the first time and print off my sig pages.
Updated to add: My pages printed beautifully and oh so fast. I had to do it twice though because the first time I forgot they needed to be numbered with lower case roman numerals at the bottom. Sheesh.
At least I'm in the middle of an interesting solution to one of my issues and to be honest, I'm not broken up over the chapters I sent off to the Recycling Folder for Wayward Writing. They were boring and belonged to the previous version anyhow. But still.
In an hour, I'm off to get signatures on the MA project and see about my actual due date. I'll report back later. I'm going to use my new printer for the first time and print off my sig pages.
Updated to add: My pages printed beautifully and oh so fast. I had to do it twice though because the first time I forgot they needed to be numbered with lower case roman numerals at the bottom. Sheesh.
Labels: editing, Graduate School, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/01/2007 12:36:00 PM Permalink
Monday, April 30, 2007
Today is my birthday!
Picture courtesy of musingorchards.
Yes, indeed. I am another year better. And, since I am home from the day job working on getting my final project for my Master's all done, it's been a very nice day. First off, I got to sleep in, then I got a lot of writing done. I was right yesterday that my last chapter for Magellan's Witch wasn't the actual last chapter. I wrote/re-wrote that today, so now all the chapters are done and I'm going through chapters 19-25 getting them more up to speed. So, I think I might be able to call this thing done on Wednesday. Tomorrow I get signatures and go visit the grad dept to clear up a bit of ambiguity on my project defense. All should be good.
In birthday news, my sister bought me a cala lily, which I love and will plant outside my window, and some sparkling water, my favorite kind. I got a free smoothie at the smoothie place downtown (I got Protein Power), my son got something with too much sugar in it, and my sister got something or other and I used the rest of the gift card for them so 3 smoothies cost me 40 cents. Awesome, no? My son got me a scented soaps which I love. So nice in the shower. Then we came home and had birthday cake more or less for dinner.
This morning the dog rolled in something disgusting and so I was forced to give him a bath. He was not happy with me, but he forgave me.
Last night I finished reading Addicted by Zane. Somehow, and this is distressing to me, I had never heard of her. She writes erotica and apparently started out self-published and sold 250,000 (!!) on her own. Now she's with a major print publisher, as she should be. Zane is African-American. I found out about her from My Space, as she was often mentioned as a favorite author by others, at least some of whom I could see were persons of color. Addicted is written in a very deft, very culturally specific style. It's a far more complex story than most erotica, and I really, really enjoyed it. I'll be reading more of her.
Got to get the son to bed...
Labels: Graduate School, Magellan's Witch, reading
posted by Carolyn @ 4/30/2007 07:46:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Weekend Report
I've been working on the last chapter most of the day. It's not done yet. At this point, I'm not even sure it's the last chapter anymore. I may need to continue it to another chapter. It's going well enough, I guess. I also worked on the requirements for the Master's final project. Very tedious, let me tell you. But the title page is done, copyright page, authorization page, and abstract, which took longer than I wanted, plus the acknowledgment. That makes all the parts done.
My new resolution is to stop stressing over whether Magellan's Witch is crossing some lines. I'm transgressing some genre rules and right now I just say too darn bad. There's going to be a HEA** because without that I'm not transgressing, I'm writing something that's not romance. This book is definitely romance, but some conventions I've just thrown out the window for now.
**Happily Ever After
Lastly, I'm listening to Paolo Nutini's These Streets and I'm just loving this album. Every once in a while his Scottish accent comes out and it's just awesomely sexy. Not to mention I've always had a fondness for being able to hear the voice and lyrics, too. The best part is the lyrics are quite nuanced so it's not painful to hear them more than once. Makes me wonder what his music will be like when he's actually got some maturity on him.
Here's a just a portion of a longer song (mindful that this portion is acoustic guitar, minor key and sung slowly, also that these particular lyrics are, for some reason, not in the liner notes, so if they're not accurate, that's my fault.)
For me, that pause after the third passing is chilling. The images are gorgeous, and the final replacement of passing makes these lyrics reach meaning far beyond the words. Not to mention the use of the word poesy. Now, it's quite possible he's saying poetry but I listened several times and that's what I kept hearing.
In fact, consider this my latest sharing of poetry.
Back to work.
My new resolution is to stop stressing over whether Magellan's Witch is crossing some lines. I'm transgressing some genre rules and right now I just say too darn bad. There's going to be a HEA** because without that I'm not transgressing, I'm writing something that's not romance. This book is definitely romance, but some conventions I've just thrown out the window for now.
**Happily Ever After
Lastly, I'm listening to Paolo Nutini's These Streets and I'm just loving this album. Every once in a while his Scottish accent comes out and it's just awesomely sexy. Not to mention I've always had a fondness for being able to hear the voice and lyrics, too. The best part is the lyrics are quite nuanced so it's not painful to hear them more than once. Makes me wonder what his music will be like when he's actually got some maturity on him.
Here's a just a portion of a longer song (mindful that this portion is acoustic guitar, minor key and sung slowly, also that these particular lyrics are, for some reason, not in the liner notes, so if they're not accurate, that's my fault.)
a great sense of passing through
a great sense of passing through
a great sense of passing. . . . through
Oh, for once there was beauty
here for me
Under these wide Northern skies
I felt the green was blacker
And the blues darker still
My roots are lying deeper than I ever think they will
I know
Heartache and poesy under these Northern skies.
a great sense of passing through
a great sense of passing through
a great sense of ..... you
For me, that pause after the third passing is chilling. The images are gorgeous, and the final replacement of passing makes these lyrics reach meaning far beyond the words. Not to mention the use of the word poesy. Now, it's quite possible he's saying poetry but I listened several times and that's what I kept hearing.
In fact, consider this my latest sharing of poetry.
Back to work.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, Paolo Nutini, Poetry
posted by Carolyn @ 4/29/2007 10:06:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Poetry and Progress
What's National Poetry Month without some Shakespeare? Here's Sonnet no. 146, which I had to memorize when I was in High School. I still know it and occasionally recite it to myself.
In non-poetical news, I bought a new printer today. My HP LJ 4200 has, alas, been something of a disappointment. It no longer prints clean copies, even with brand new toner. A repair estimate is $600. Well, that doesn't make economic sense since I've already put $300 into a previous repair. So, now I have an HP LJ 3005dn (who on earth makes up these names?) which prints 35 pages per minutes (oh, I will bow down at your feet if this proves true!) and can do two-sided printing, which would be pretty handy, I think. There's a $150 rebate too, but we'll see if it actually comes. It holds a ream of paper. So, smooth sailing ahead for printing out the MA project, and considering how many books I have to write in a pretty short period of time, I'm looking forward to happy printing.
In writing news, well, I should be writing. I've started on the last chapter and then I'll go back to fixing the middle ones.
Sonnet 146
Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,
Thrall to these rebel powers that thee array,
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body's end?
Then soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss,
And let that pine to aggravate thy store;
Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;
Within be fed, without be rich no more:
So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,
And Death once dead, there's no more dying then.
In non-poetical news, I bought a new printer today. My HP LJ 4200 has, alas, been something of a disappointment. It no longer prints clean copies, even with brand new toner. A repair estimate is $600. Well, that doesn't make economic sense since I've already put $300 into a previous repair. So, now I have an HP LJ 3005dn (who on earth makes up these names?) which prints 35 pages per minutes (oh, I will bow down at your feet if this proves true!) and can do two-sided printing, which would be pretty handy, I think. There's a $150 rebate too, but we'll see if it actually comes. It holds a ream of paper. So, smooth sailing ahead for printing out the MA project, and considering how many books I have to write in a pretty short period of time, I'm looking forward to happy printing.
In writing news, well, I should be writing. I've started on the last chapter and then I'll go back to fixing the middle ones.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, Poetry
posted by Carolyn @ 4/28/2007 07:48:00 PM Permalink
Monday, April 23, 2007
Ballast unloaded, Cap'n!
Tonight I got to about the middle of chapter 14, having cut a fair amount from chapter 13 because I was thinking, isn't this over yet? So right before that point I deleted all the stuff after that point and got it to a chapter end, sorta. That put me about 200 words ahead for the night. So then I went and deleted my two ballast chapters, whose main purpose I think was to sit around in the word count whispering Hey, you might need us! And I did, for moral support. Until I did a little arithmetic and realized that with 13 chapters yet to slog through (more about that later) and adding at least 1000 words a night (well, yeah, except for tonight) I'd be at 93K before I even got around to writing the last chapter, and I have (setting aside the MA madness for a moment) at least 3-6 more rounds through this thing. So, I put them in the recycling in case I really do need some of those 3,400 words back. They're sitting there with the rest of the guests in the green room. Maybe they'll get back on the show. Who knows?
In the meantime, this book is unusual for me in that I am going through these chapters and it's torture to see all those flat emotions, missing detail, stuff and I just keep writing and fixing and fixing and fixing. I get all panicky about how sucky it all is and then the muse kicks in and things are off in some direction I wasn't thinking about on purpose. I just follow along, hoping the fingers hold out while I keep fixing stuff and dealing with the new stuff.
There have been a couple of sparks of life, so I have hope that as an MA project this will not reek too badly. But it will not, as I have represented to everyone, be the finished product.
All righty. My next goal is to get into bed before 10:00pm. I have 6 minutes.
In the meantime, this book is unusual for me in that I am going through these chapters and it's torture to see all those flat emotions, missing detail, stuff and I just keep writing and fixing and fixing and fixing. I get all panicky about how sucky it all is and then the muse kicks in and things are off in some direction I wasn't thinking about on purpose. I just follow along, hoping the fingers hold out while I keep fixing stuff and dealing with the new stuff.
There have been a couple of sparks of life, so I have hope that as an MA project this will not reek too badly. But it will not, as I have represented to everyone, be the finished product.
All righty. My next goal is to get into bed before 10:00pm. I have 6 minutes.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 4/23/2007 09:35:00 PM Permalink
Update! Plus Other stuff
Delivery estimate: September 26, 2007
* 1 of: Lover Unbound (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 5)
Sold by: Amazon.com
Well, just yay, of course. That's less time waiting.
Other stuff is mostly writer's angst about Magellan's Witch and my MA. Cue ominous music: Things That Need To Get Done. Dun dun dunnnnnn!
Back to work.
* 1 of: Lover Unbound (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 5)
Sold by: Amazon.com
Well, just yay, of course. That's less time waiting.
Other stuff is mostly writer's angst about Magellan's Witch and my MA. Cue ominous music: Things That Need To Get Done. Dun dun dunnnnnn!
Back to work.
Labels: Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 4/23/2007 04:46:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, April 22, 2007
pretend there are cymbols clashing
Yeah. I'm that annoying energizer bunny. I'm fixing up chapter 13 now. Had two cool things happen. I have 80K and a bit which is where I wanted to be by now. Turns out one of my characters is an oncologist. I knew he had a secret. So, by Friday, I hope to have fixed up the rest of 13 on through 26 or so. I think I have to call the project done by the 30th (in terms of the MA) so I can work on formatting it etc. Well, we'll see. I actually have no idea where things will stand by Friday. Wherever, I guess.
Usually, I've done a lot more read throughs than I have on this one so far. My changes have been so big, there's been no point. Many of my chapters are too long. I've chopped a few in half, but long chapters, for me, are an indication of a pacing problem. I still haven't written the last chapter. I definitely have to get around to that.
I didn't get quite as much done as I'd hoped because my son has a science project due Thursday and he has been procrastinating despite my nagging because he's just positive nothing will go wrong. He's doing a paper airplane flight test thing. Anyway this morning I had to deal with several tearful episodes as imagination hit reality. He was upset because he didn't like his data. Explanation about scientific process and not imposing one's expectations and hopes onto method in order to achieve the desired data.
Interesting observation: the tween brain appears to shut down when a parent starts talking about school work and the Right Way To Do Things. Just noticing, that's all. Eventually, he went off to fly paper airplanes and measure the distance traveled. Later, there was a mess in the living room. How, he wanted to know, was he supposed to clean up ALL those models that didn't work out? His brain shut off again, but it didn't get him out of cleaning up.
Ok, it's late. I'm off to bed.
Usually, I've done a lot more read throughs than I have on this one so far. My changes have been so big, there's been no point. Many of my chapters are too long. I've chopped a few in half, but long chapters, for me, are an indication of a pacing problem. I still haven't written the last chapter. I definitely have to get around to that.
I didn't get quite as much done as I'd hoped because my son has a science project due Thursday and he has been procrastinating despite my nagging because he's just positive nothing will go wrong. He's doing a paper airplane flight test thing. Anyway this morning I had to deal with several tearful episodes as imagination hit reality. He was upset because he didn't like his data. Explanation about scientific process and not imposing one's expectations and hopes onto method in order to achieve the desired data.
Interesting observation: the tween brain appears to shut down when a parent starts talking about school work and the Right Way To Do Things. Just noticing, that's all. Eventually, he went off to fly paper airplanes and measure the distance traveled. Later, there was a mess in the living room. How, he wanted to know, was he supposed to clean up ALL those models that didn't work out? His brain shut off again, but it didn't get him out of cleaning up.
Ok, it's late. I'm off to bed.
Labels: Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 4/22/2007 10:22:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Just call me the garbage lady
Today I wrote pretty much all day. I fixed up to chapter 11 and then had to reorder, which meant pulling out the chapter outline and conforming that so I wouldn't mess up.** The fixing also included deleting a lot of garbage. I was going to knock off at 7:30 but it turned out I was only up 1600 words or so, so I went back to work and for a while there I was deleting more stuff. But then I had this totally awesome idea for my twins and that made the deleting easier. Anyway, now I'm up 2009 and my back hurts and my shoulders are sore because my dog and my cat insist on sharing my lap and I have to keep my legs together and my thighs straight so the dog doesn't slide off. This MUST be giving me awesome back muscles, right?
** For a long time, I used to give my chapters long descriptive names, but that got to be too much of a hassle because I was constantly having to fix my master document. I have a master document with the main formatting etc and I keep the individual chapters as sub documents. When I need to (like when I'm printing off the whole thing or need to know the total word count) I merge my chapters into the master document. And then, automagically, my chapters number themselves sequentially and the pagination of each chapter picks up from the last page of the previous one. So, I eventually took to naming my chapters 001. 002, etc. This does mean I have to be careful about inserting a chapter somewhere in the sequence, but I have a system that works for me. Maintaining my master document is now a total breeze. My chapter outline is also auto numbered by chapter, but with an internal reference to the actual chapter number. That makes it easy to do virtual moves of the chapters in the outline and lets me know that, say, chapter 16 needs to be renamed chapter 12, with 13-15 being renumbered accordingly. Believe it or not, this is a lot less error prone and much less work than my descriptive names for chapters (and yes, I also started those names with a number.) I spend a lot less time now fixing chapter order errors than I used to.
The thing is, I'm constantly moving chapters around. I'm sure there are writers out there who don't have to do this, but I do. I try to write my stories front to back, but stuff always happens in the middle that changes everything and events need to move around chronologically to accommodate a better story arc.
Now I'm going to bed.
** For a long time, I used to give my chapters long descriptive names, but that got to be too much of a hassle because I was constantly having to fix my master document. I have a master document with the main formatting etc and I keep the individual chapters as sub documents. When I need to (like when I'm printing off the whole thing or need to know the total word count) I merge my chapters into the master document. And then, automagically, my chapters number themselves sequentially and the pagination of each chapter picks up from the last page of the previous one. So, I eventually took to naming my chapters 001. 002, etc. This does mean I have to be careful about inserting a chapter somewhere in the sequence, but I have a system that works for me. Maintaining my master document is now a total breeze. My chapter outline is also auto numbered by chapter, but with an internal reference to the actual chapter number. That makes it easy to do virtual moves of the chapters in the outline and lets me know that, say, chapter 16 needs to be renamed chapter 12, with 13-15 being renumbered accordingly. Believe it or not, this is a lot less error prone and much less work than my descriptive names for chapters (and yes, I also started those names with a number.) I spend a lot less time now fixing chapter order errors than I used to.
The thing is, I'm constantly moving chapters around. I'm sure there are writers out there who don't have to do this, but I do. I try to write my stories front to back, but stuff always happens in the middle that changes everything and events need to move around chronologically to accommodate a better story arc.
Now I'm going to bed.
Labels: craft, Magellan's Witch, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 4/21/2007 09:45:00 PM Permalink
Friday, April 20, 2007
Almost tomorrow
I'm still working on Magellan's Witch, but I'll have to knock off soon or else fall asleep over the keyboard. I'm fixing bit of a mess in this chapter. It's going well enough, considering it's mess fixing and more to do of it tomorrow.
I've listened to all my new music. I am now a total MySpace convert because I found about about Paolo Nutini from someone's MySpace music. He's a 19 year old Scot, totally gorgeous and an amazing talent.
Back to work.
I've listened to all my new music. I am now a total MySpace convert because I found about about Paolo Nutini from someone's MySpace music. He's a 19 year old Scot, totally gorgeous and an amazing talent.
Back to work.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, Paolo Nutini
posted by Carolyn @ 4/20/2007 11:24:00 PM Permalink
Gasping to the finish line.
Oh, yes. It's Friday. It's been a long and heck-ish week. Ick. I have two complaints, in no particular order:
Now I'm home, it's the weekend, I have new music to listen to, and I have to get cracking on the writing. Off to it
Oh, this morning at the gym I blocked out the ending for Magellan's Witch, which was kind of a relief.
Last thing, I think. Last night I finished reading Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series to my son. I'm in awe. Here's an interesting quote from Pullman's website: I thought it would be hard to find an audience for this story....
All I can say is that some books make a mark on you for life, and this series has done that for me and my son. I am grateful to have read this to him. The series is profoundly great, and belongs in the canon.
- Hard plastic wrap around electronic gizmos -- that stuff makes me hate the product before I get it out of the box
- The shrink wrap and plastic tape on CD cases. -- I hate the music company before I even listen to the cd
Now I'm home, it's the weekend, I have new music to listen to, and I have to get cracking on the writing. Off to it
Oh, this morning at the gym I blocked out the ending for Magellan's Witch, which was kind of a relief.
Last thing, I think. Last night I finished reading Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series to my son. I'm in awe. Here's an interesting quote from Pullman's website: I thought it would be hard to find an audience for this story....
All I can say is that some books make a mark on you for life, and this series has done that for me and my son. I am grateful to have read this to him. The series is profoundly great, and belongs in the canon.
Labels: Magellan's Witch, Philip Pullman
posted by Carolyn @ 4/20/2007 05:58:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Son, I totally agree
My son ended up with more homework than usual (he says) and it was not done when I picked him up from school. Consequently, he is now in the kitchen moaning and whining: This is torture! This is taking forEVER! Owwwhhh.
And I'm sitting here at the computer, working on Magellan's Witch, thinking, This is torture! This is taking forEVER! Owwwhhh.
Back to work.
And I'm sitting here at the computer, working on Magellan's Witch, thinking, This is torture! This is taking forEVER! Owwwhhh.
Back to work.
Labels: Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 4/19/2007 04:51:00 PM Permalink
