Tuesday, February 02, 2010
An Italian Scandal
Oh, isn't it pretty? If you speak Italian and want to buy it, Italian eHarmony
Labels: Scandal, Translations
posted by Carolyn @ 2/02/2010 05:59:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Feeling a bit overwhelmed -- in a good way
Right. So In February, Berkley published my historical Scandal. And recently, Scandal was on three of Dear Author's reviewer lists of top reads for 2009, including Jane's. Indiscreet made a couple of those lists, too. I was really really flattered by that.
Today, Scandal was included on Dear Author's list of Top 100 Romances. Not Top 100 for 2009. Top 100 ever. Take a look at the names and books on that list. I would hyperventilate if I were to meet some of those authors. Probably all of them. The way I did when I met Mary Balogh. She probably thinks I'm a total dork -- Thankfully, I doubt she remembers me by name.
This is quite an emotional moment for me because Scandal was almost the book that wasn't.
I am flattered beyond words that Scandal would show up on a list like that.
Today, Scandal was included on Dear Author's list of Top 100 Romances. Not Top 100 for 2009. Top 100 ever. Take a look at the names and books on that list. I would hyperventilate if I were to meet some of those authors. Probably all of them. The way I did when I met Mary Balogh. She probably thinks I'm a total dork -- Thankfully, I doubt she remembers me by name.
This is quite an emotional moment for me because Scandal was almost the book that wasn't.
I am flattered beyond words that Scandal would show up on a list like that.
Labels: Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 12/22/2009 07:18:00 PM Permalink
Monday, January 26, 2009
Scandal - Reviews. Oh my gosh.
Reviews of Scandal are starting to show up and I want to share parts of two of them here. There are links to the full reviews if you're interested.
Read the full SBTB review
Read the Full RNTV Review
Needless to say, I hope, I am thrilled and really glad to know that my vision of the period and of my hero and heroine worked so well for theses two reviewers. Really.
Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books
...there's a richness and a poignancy that elevates the entire book to a whole other level of "good."
...
It's impossible to sum up this book in mere tropes. It's a story of two people who had to grow up to appreciate each other, and it's a story of survival and strength, trust and renewal. The characters are older than the standard hero and heroine you encounter in romance. It's difficult to read at times, and bleak in others, but throughout, both in the past and the present of the story, Jewel weaves a furious sexual tension between Banallt and Sophie that reaches and maintains scorching levels.
...
Banallt, on the other hand, is more than he seems, while also being less than he seems. In the past, he’s a creature with an empty life of drinking, humping and lather, rinse, repeat. Sophie introduces him to the idea that he may have something more to offer, and that he is worth more than the life he's choosing to live. It's not at all a typical, "I see her! Due to her nobility and artless grace, I see my life is meaningless, and without her I am nothing! Commence pining!" type of moment. Banallt is too stone cold cool for that nonsense. Banallt recognizes his own potential and discovers his own worth as slowly as he is revealed to the reader. His discovery is not at all due solely to Sophie; Banallt starts to wake up on his own. That said, he resists behaving honorably as long as he can, and he's ambiguous in a way I'm definitely not used to seeing in a romance hero. He's a character that walks that line between nobleman and nobility, and doesn't eagerly embrace the latter.
...
This book took my breath away.
Read the full SBTB review
Romance Novel TV - Grade: 5 +++++++ stars
WOW. Simply, wow. That is the only word I can use to describe this masterpiece. It has been such a long time since I have read such a rich, emotional and tension filled romance. Not only did Scandal have me hooked from the very first page, but this is the first book, in a very long time, where I had to read straight through into the wee hours of the night because I couldn't put it down. When an author can write such a book, that book is destined for greatness. I wouldn’t be surprised if Scandal becomes one of the favorites of 2009, and perhaps placed on most reader's lists for all time favorite historical.
...
Both Banallt and Sophie are very complex characters who have such intense feelings for one another. What I loved most about Banallt, is the way he sees Sophie. She is known as not being a great beauty, rather petite and very plain looking, but because Banallt has such intense feelings for her, he thinks she is the most gorgeous woman he has ever known. There were times I expected him to fall on his knees before Sophie and kiss her feet because he adores her so. The one thing that makes Banallt so different from other rogues is the deep respect he has for Sophie. Not only does he cherish her body, but also her mind. Their conversations and discussions are when he first fell in love with her. Sophie also respects Banallt and truly does care for him, but she can't get passed her own bias towards men who are unfaithful, she places Banallt in that category, because he too was married, and cheated on his own deceased wife.
...
Usually I tend to look down upon a hero that has so many lovers they're tripping over one another. But the way Carolyn has written Banallt, and they way he treats Sophie and his feelings for her, I couldn't help but feel for him, especially when it came to claiming Sophie. And when Sophie allows him to, you may just break down in tears.
...
Scandal is a must read book that should not be passed by. Carolyn Jewel has written a mature and emotional romance that has everything from passion, love and most importantly respect. The respect that a man and woman can have for one another.
-- Kate Garrabrant
Read the Full RNTV Review
Needless to say, I hope, I am thrilled and really glad to know that my vision of the period and of my hero and heroine worked so well for theses two reviewers. Really.
Labels: Book Reviews, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 1/26/2009 08:46:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, January 25, 2009
One of Those Days
Can I start with a Sigh?
Today I finally transferred my paper copyedits for My Forbidden Desire to my document. It took just about all day, but it needed to be done so I'll have an eARC to send when the time comes.
I also finished my RITA reading. Now I'm going to jump back into my TBR.
Can I also say I am tired of this sucky economy? I've had enough of stressing. Seriously. My sister, who works at Home Depot Express, is losing her job in April as they shut down a fairly large number of stores. She has time to get her ducks in a row and figure out what to do, but the uncertainty is no fun. Sigh.
I'm starting to get a bit anxious about Scandal. Reviews are stressful, too, but considering the official release date is February 3, I haven't seen all that many and there are none at Amazon. Like I don't have enough to get me all worked up. Sigh.
But, off to bed with another book. Except, you know, I'm getting anxious about the writing. It may be time to start work on The Dark Elf Project.
Today I finally transferred my paper copyedits for My Forbidden Desire to my document. It took just about all day, but it needed to be done so I'll have an eARC to send when the time comes.
I also finished my RITA reading. Now I'm going to jump back into my TBR.
Can I also say I am tired of this sucky economy? I've had enough of stressing. Seriously. My sister, who works at Home Depot Express, is losing her job in April as they shut down a fairly large number of stores. She has time to get her ducks in a row and figure out what to do, but the uncertainty is no fun. Sigh.
I'm starting to get a bit anxious about Scandal. Reviews are stressful, too, but considering the official release date is February 3, I haven't seen all that many and there are none at Amazon. Like I don't have enough to get me all worked up. Sigh.
But, off to bed with another book. Except, you know, I'm getting anxious about the writing. It may be time to start work on The Dark Elf Project.
Labels: Book Reviews, My Forbidden Desire, reading, Scandal, stressing out
posted by Carolyn @ 1/25/2009 08:47:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Booktrailer for Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 1/18/2009 09:51:00 AM Permalink
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Review for Scandal
From Romantic Times
So really, come on. Can you resist? Places to pre-order
Still not sure? Read Chapter 1.
Jewel plays readers' emotions like a virtuoso, ensuring they will eagerly follow her characters into dramatic, intensely passionate and gripping love stories that will steal your heart and make you beg for more. She grabs you at the first word and never lets go.
Summary: The Earl of Banallt takes pride in his status as a rake, but even a rogue can fall in love, and he does -- with his friend's wife, Sophie Evans.
Unconventional, smart, witty and yet filled with quiet reserve, Sophie takes his breath away. But she won't fall into his arms even after her husband's death. Banallt is determined to prove to Sophie he's a changed man. He no longer thrives on debauchery, but he has no idea of the secrets Sophie hides nor the deep passion he awakens in her and the longing she denies. If she surrenders, Sophie fears she'll lose her independence and her very soul.
-- Kathe Robin
So really, come on. Can you resist? Places to pre-order
Still not sure? Read Chapter 1.
posted by Carolyn @ 12/23/2008 09:09:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Indiscreet! Scandal! My Forbidden Desire!
I've updated my website with fresh content including the first two chapters of Indiscreet which are, at this point, still subject to revision.
The first chapter is very short so I decided, after some thought, to also include chapter 2 since Chapter 2 depends on Chapter 1 for a great deal of its impact. There is a major reveal in Chapter 2, but not one that directly impacts Foye and Sabine's story.
Let me know what you think.
There's also some fresh and new (both and separately!) content for Scandal and My Forbidden Desire. Less for Indiscreet since the cover copy isn't even final yet and it's not even available for pre-order yet.
The first chapter is very short so I decided, after some thought, to also include chapter 2 since Chapter 2 depends on Chapter 1 for a great deal of its impact. There is a major reveal in Chapter 2, but not one that directly impacts Foye and Sabine's story.
Let me know what you think.
There's also some fresh and new (both and separately!) content for Scandal and My Forbidden Desire. Less for Indiscreet since the cover copy isn't even final yet and it's not even available for pre-order yet.
Labels: Indiscreet, My Forbidden Desire, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 12/21/2008 08:20:00 PM Permalink
Friday, November 14, 2008
Reporting In on Stuff in General
The Next Historical is picking up steam, which is awesomeness in the nick of time. I'm liking my hero a lot. League play for my son's soccer team is over (they won league!) which means I have my weekends free again. Less sitting in the car to write. I need them. Now it's just practices and the occasional scrimmage until the big tournament in January.
Scandal is officially on sale February 3, 2009. And I've seem some preliminary indications of good opinions. ARCs arrived Thursday and I've started reading through to make sure there's nothing terribly amiss with the copy. Wow. I was surprised by how strong the story seemed. Lord Ruin has a special place in my heart for being the book where I learned how important it is for me to write from a state of instinct. I am, I've come to realize, almost frighteningly analytical. (Stop laughing!!) But I cannot analyze myself into the kind of emotion a story requires. Lord Ruin was the book where I learned to let go.
Interestingly enough, there have been other times in my life when I have been under enormous pressure -- the kind where there was not time to analyze. I could only let go. The first time involved geometry. I needed under some rather dire circumstances to calculate an angle so as to end up with a precisely drawn triangle of a certain shape. And I stared at this bit poster board (this was for a court hearing the next day -- if I failed I'd probably be fired) and for a moment thought Carolyn, you got a D in geometry in High School. (The only grade I ever got below a B) How in heck are you going to get this triangle correctly drawn? I took a breath and had to let go of my fear and doubt and I swear that I suddenly knew EXACTLY how the formula worked. I got to work and holy heck if it didn't come out exactly and precisely the way Pythagoras said it did.
The second time also involved a court hearing, with the added bonus that the messenger was waiting for the exhibits which the copy service had just brought to the office incorrectly bound. Miss your filing and you notify the company's malpractice carrier, and of course we were right at the edge of maybe not enough time for the messenger to get to the courthouse. I looked at the copy guy and said, that's not how I asked for them to be bound. (All the exhibits had to be bound in one HUGE insanely thick stack, and they had divided them up according to the height of the two-hope top prongs.) And he says I didn't know how! Well heck, me neither because that was his job. A legal copy service is supposed to know all the tricks. So with my job and the company's future flashing before my eyes, I let go of the panic, looked at the exhibits and the little fasteners and just knew how to fix it. And did. In the nick of time.
The same thing happened with Lord Ruin I was sitting there knowing that the book currently had spots that were just dry and boring, and I was feeling kind of panicky about that. So I just let go. I just started writing, without caring about what was coming next. I fixed what I was looking at right then.
Oh, long digression there. I need to get cracking! Off to work.
Scandal is officially on sale February 3, 2009. And I've seem some preliminary indications of good opinions. ARCs arrived Thursday and I've started reading through to make sure there's nothing terribly amiss with the copy. Wow. I was surprised by how strong the story seemed. Lord Ruin has a special place in my heart for being the book where I learned how important it is for me to write from a state of instinct. I am, I've come to realize, almost frighteningly analytical. (Stop laughing!!) But I cannot analyze myself into the kind of emotion a story requires. Lord Ruin was the book where I learned to let go.
Interestingly enough, there have been other times in my life when I have been under enormous pressure -- the kind where there was not time to analyze. I could only let go. The first time involved geometry. I needed under some rather dire circumstances to calculate an angle so as to end up with a precisely drawn triangle of a certain shape. And I stared at this bit poster board (this was for a court hearing the next day -- if I failed I'd probably be fired) and for a moment thought Carolyn, you got a D in geometry in High School. (The only grade I ever got below a B) How in heck are you going to get this triangle correctly drawn? I took a breath and had to let go of my fear and doubt and I swear that I suddenly knew EXACTLY how the formula worked. I got to work and holy heck if it didn't come out exactly and precisely the way Pythagoras said it did.
The second time also involved a court hearing, with the added bonus that the messenger was waiting for the exhibits which the copy service had just brought to the office incorrectly bound. Miss your filing and you notify the company's malpractice carrier, and of course we were right at the edge of maybe not enough time for the messenger to get to the courthouse. I looked at the copy guy and said, that's not how I asked for them to be bound. (All the exhibits had to be bound in one HUGE insanely thick stack, and they had divided them up according to the height of the two-hope top prongs.) And he says I didn't know how! Well heck, me neither because that was his job. A legal copy service is supposed to know all the tricks. So with my job and the company's future flashing before my eyes, I let go of the panic, looked at the exhibits and the little fasteners and just knew how to fix it. And did. In the nick of time.
The same thing happened with Lord Ruin I was sitting there knowing that the book currently had spots that were just dry and boring, and I was feeling kind of panicky about that. So I just let go. I just started writing, without caring about what was coming next. I fixed what I was looking at right then.
Oh, long digression there. I need to get cracking! Off to work.
Labels: inspiration, Scandal, The Next Historical, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/14/2008 06:47:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Catching up is hard to do
Good news! We got our Internet back Saturday night. Major kudos to Wildblue Satellite engineer Peter Pigeon, who arrived at 7:00pm and stayed until everything wrong was fixed. He said he'd come and he did. And he came with everything he needed to make things right. It's just too bad that the companies they outsource to were liars and incompetents and basically didn't care at all about Wildblue's actual customers.
Ah. You Tube, how I missed you. No new AuthorTalk vids but I watched the man-slave episode a few times, and then some others because I way needed the laughs. And then Jill Monroe actually friended me on Facebook. Squeeee!! And then she even messaged me! We are now BFF forever, I can feel it.
Anyway, yesterday, the page proofs for Scandal arrived and since there was no soccer, I was able to get through the entire book in a day and return the fixes.
Of course that meant I wasn't working on The Next Historical but I did get some stuff done last night. Today there was soccer so I didn't get as much done as I wanted to. And, as it happens, I ended up cutting more than I wrote. But the dreck needs to go and that's what happened. Tomorrow, I think I need to whack a whole chapter or else figure out where it needs to go. Right now it's totally in the wrong place. But I'm up to chapter 16 in this unbelievably slow process of fixing stuff. Painfully, painfully slow.
I'm anxious to get to the back half of the book which is good because I'm finally feeling my hero and heroine the way I need to. The emotional points are starting to pull together. And I know what I need to do. What I don't know is how many existing chapters need to bite the dust. I suspect a lot of them. Way a lot.
Anyhow, tomorrow I am doing the day job from home because they sprang for a wireless card with decent enough speed to actually work from home. Satellite is way not fast enough. So, we'll see. My son doesn't have school tomorrow, but he's catching up on 10 days of no World of Warcraft, so I don't expect he'll be out of bed much before noon. I will be getting up at the usual time but without the driving to work bit, I should be done with the EDJ by 2:00 or so.
We shall see. Wish me luck.
Ah. You Tube, how I missed you. No new AuthorTalk vids but I watched the man-slave episode a few times, and then some others because I way needed the laughs. And then Jill Monroe actually friended me on Facebook. Squeeee!! And then she even messaged me! We are now BFF forever, I can feel it.
Anyway, yesterday, the page proofs for Scandal arrived and since there was no soccer, I was able to get through the entire book in a day and return the fixes.
Of course that meant I wasn't working on The Next Historical but I did get some stuff done last night. Today there was soccer so I didn't get as much done as I wanted to. And, as it happens, I ended up cutting more than I wrote. But the dreck needs to go and that's what happened. Tomorrow, I think I need to whack a whole chapter or else figure out where it needs to go. Right now it's totally in the wrong place. But I'm up to chapter 16 in this unbelievably slow process of fixing stuff. Painfully, painfully slow.
I'm anxious to get to the back half of the book which is good because I'm finally feeling my hero and heroine the way I need to. The emotional points are starting to pull together. And I know what I need to do. What I don't know is how many existing chapters need to bite the dust. I suspect a lot of them. Way a lot.
Anyhow, tomorrow I am doing the day job from home because they sprang for a wireless card with decent enough speed to actually work from home. Satellite is way not fast enough. So, we'll see. My son doesn't have school tomorrow, but he's catching up on 10 days of no World of Warcraft, so I don't expect he'll be out of bed much before noon. I will be getting up at the usual time but without the driving to work bit, I should be done with the EDJ by 2:00 or so.
We shall see. Wish me luck.
Labels: editing, Scandal, The Next Historical
posted by Carolyn @ 10/19/2008 08:24:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Cover Deliciousness!
I got the final cover for Scandal yesterday: feast your eyes, peeps!
Berkley Books, February 2009
ISBN: 978-0-425-22551-6
Cover Blurb
The earl of Banallt is no stranger to scandal. But when he meets Sophie Evans, the young wife of a fellow libertine, even he is shocked by his reaction. This unconventional and intelligent woman proves to be far more than an amusing distraction-- she threatens to drive him to distraction. Unlike the women who usually fall at Banallt's feet, and into his bed, Sophie refuses to be seduced. And soon Banallt desires her more than ever-- and for more than an illicit affair.
Years later, the widowed Sophie is free, and Banallt is determined to win the woman he still loves. Unfortunately, she doesn't believe his declaration of love and chivalrous offer of marriage-- her heart has already been broken by her scoundrel of a husband. And yet, Sophie is tempted to indulge in the torrid affair she's always fantasized about. Caught between her logical mind and her long-denied desire, Sophie must thwart Banallt's seduction-- or risk being consumed by the one man she should avoid at all costs...
Berkley Books, February 2009
ISBN: 978-0-425-22551-6
Labels: Book Covers, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 9/13/2008 06:06:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Catching up
Quick update in case anybody missed me. (Well, there must be at least one of you, right? Mom? Fact: my mother doesn't read my blog. Oh well.)
Copyedits for Scandal got mailed off Monday the 21st.
I've been doing revisions for His Wicked Witch with the goal of being done before RWA. I think I'm on track. I've been on coughVacationcough since Thursday working on them. Funny, but the stuff my editor seemed to think was a big deal (comparatively) I dealt with by using the delete key or changing a sentence or two and the little throw away could you do this instead here? have been major whack a chapter, write a new one lots o work efforts. Good stuff though, I think.
My Wicked Enemy has started showing up in bookstores because I'm getting emails. I can't tell you how exciting that is! I love nice emails from readers!
Here's an excerpt from another review:
Back to work!
Copyedits for Scandal got mailed off Monday the 21st.
I've been doing revisions for His Wicked Witch with the goal of being done before RWA. I think I'm on track. I've been on coughVacationcough since Thursday working on them. Funny, but the stuff my editor seemed to think was a big deal (comparatively) I dealt with by using the delete key or changing a sentence or two and the little throw away could you do this instead here? have been major whack a chapter, write a new one lots o work efforts. Good stuff though, I think.
My Wicked Enemy has started showing up in bookstores because I'm getting emails. I can't tell you how exciting that is! I love nice emails from readers!
Here's an excerpt from another review:
Carolyn Jewel takes readers on a dangerous journey with Carson, an untrained witch who finds strength through Nikodemus. Together they can stop the mage who threatens their existence and fills Carson with fear. My Wicked Enemy unfolds at a steady pace and offers up a host of characters that keep the deadly action flowing. The storyline is fresh, the characters are entertaining, and the romance is delightfully steamy.
Kimberly Swan, Darque Reviews
Back to work!
Labels: His Wicked Witch, My Wicked Enemy, RWA, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 7/26/2008 10:16:00 AM Permalink
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Quickie Update
I'm sitting here at Starbucks doing day job work. Right now files are transferring and I can't do anything until that's done. So here I am!
I've finished the copyedits for Scandal. I just have to make copies of the MS then get it into the mail. Now I'm starting in on the revisions for His Wicked Witch
All done with the day job stuff... Bye!
I've finished the copyedits for Scandal. I just have to make copies of the MS then get it into the mail. Now I'm starting in on the revisions for His Wicked Witch
All done with the day job stuff... Bye!
Labels: copyediting, His Wicked Witch, Revisions, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 7/19/2008 10:21:00 AM Permalink
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Cause for Glee plus a Secret Marriage
I'm blogging early because I suspect I'll end up too tired later tonight. So, it's an early post.
In writing news, Scandal is being moved to February 09 from January which I am actually happy about. A February release is better. Holiday sticker shock is wearing off and there's Valentine's day. Romantic book for a romantic month. That totally works.
I have another review for My Wicked Enemy The reviewer picked a very intense scene as an opening excerpt-- No WAY am I showing it to anyone at work! -- but here's the review part:
Donna Doyle, Romance Reviews Magazine
This will post in the August 2008 issue, so I can't give you a direct link yet. But that's a good review.
No, I am not performing stupid web tricks. My publisher sent the review to me.
In other writing news The List desperately needs a new name. There's no list in the story whatsoever. And speaking of new names, I changed some more names. My heroine's name is now Sabine. And my hero's late wife is named Camilla and before she didn't have any name at all. She was just, you know, dead.
Book Title, Book Title, Who's Gotta Book Title?
Not me. But the best title, the one I really like is The Philosopher's Daughter only that's never going to make it past marketing. But maybe I should just call it that because I like it.
What do you think?
Oh, and here's my current favorite line so far:
The reason it's my favorite so far, aside from being new and shiny cuz I wrote it today at lunchtime, is Crosshaven is talking to my hero, Foye, about the heroine, and Foye just happens to be married to her, which nobody knows. It's a secret marriage story!!
It's quite possible it won't be by the end, but it is right now, and speaking of which, I need to go write it.
In writing news, Scandal is being moved to February 09 from January which I am actually happy about. A February release is better. Holiday sticker shock is wearing off and there's Valentine's day. Romantic book for a romantic month. That totally works.
I have another review for My Wicked Enemy The reviewer picked a very intense scene as an opening excerpt-- No WAY am I showing it to anyone at work! -- but here's the review part:
Wow. This is powerful stuff and I don't like many paranormals. I may not understand every bit of it, for authors of paranormals tend to make up the rules as they go along (and why can't they list these rules and enlighten us?), but it held me captivated from the first page to the last. There are some pretty amazing characters in this story and I am hoping that we can read more of them in the future. Good going, Carolyn Jewel!
Donna Doyle, Romance Reviews Magazine
This will post in the August 2008 issue, so I can't give you a direct link yet. But that's a good review.
No, I am not performing stupid web tricks. My publisher sent the review to me.
In other writing news The List desperately needs a new name. There's no list in the story whatsoever. And speaking of new names, I changed some more names. My heroine's name is now Sabine. And my hero's late wife is named Camilla and before she didn't have any name at all. She was just, you know, dead.
Book Title, Book Title, Who's Gotta Book Title?
Not me. But the best title, the one I really like is The Philosopher's Daughter only that's never going to make it past marketing. But maybe I should just call it that because I like it.
What do you think?
Oh, and here's my current favorite line so far:
"If she's married, Foye," Crosshaven said, "I hope to God her husband is a neglectful ass and that she hates him soundly."
The reason it's my favorite so far, aside from being new and shiny cuz I wrote it today at lunchtime, is Crosshaven is talking to my hero, Foye, about the heroine, and Foye just happens to be married to her, which nobody knows. It's a secret marriage story!!
It's quite possible it won't be by the end, but it is right now, and speaking of which, I need to go write it.
Labels: My Wicked Enemy, reviews, Scandal, The List
posted by Carolyn @ 7/01/2008 08:11:00 PM Permalink
Monday, June 16, 2008
Having A Quickie
Just a quickee post before I fall into bed. I hit my minimum plus a bit. Yes! And my Berkley editor sent me the initial cover for Scandal and boy is it gorgeous. There's one little tweak to do and then hopefully I'll have a cover to show off. It's hot. It's better than a clinch. It's totally my hero and heroine.
All done! Good night all.
What? What did you think I meant by that post title?
All done! Good night all.
What? What did you think I meant by that post title?
Labels: Book Covers, Scandal, The List
posted by Carolyn @ 6/16/2008 10:36:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Freak Out! Get a Bookmark, too.
I'm writing like mad. Things are going OK with Xia. Doing a combo-read through and edit. So far no disasters. The machete has stayed in the closet. I need a title for the book though. A few ideas have occurred, mostly lame ones. My Wicked Lover, A Wicked Kiss. Good gosh, I need ideas and have none. Help!!!
In other news, I heard from my editor at Berkley on Scandal which I was panicking about since I'm in the home stretch of finishing Which Wicked Witch Kidding!! and was having nightmares about revisions coming at the same time I'm in the last days of finishing the Work In Progress. (WIP). And, yay! She loves Scandal and has no revisions for me.
I got a wonderful cover blurb for My Wicked Enemy from author Lara Adrian who writes the awesome Midnight Breed vampire series. I don't know if it's okay to share the blurb here, but if I find out it is, I will share.
My bookmarks came for My Wicked Enemy. If you want one, and really, how could you live without one? send me an email with your name and mailing address in it.
Back to work.
In other news, I heard from my editor at Berkley on Scandal which I was panicking about since I'm in the home stretch of finishing Which Wicked Witch Kidding!! and was having nightmares about revisions coming at the same time I'm in the last days of finishing the Work In Progress. (WIP). And, yay! She loves Scandal and has no revisions for me.
I got a wonderful cover blurb for My Wicked Enemy from author Lara Adrian who writes the awesome Midnight Breed vampire series. I don't know if it's okay to share the blurb here, but if I find out it is, I will share.
My bookmarks came for My Wicked Enemy. If you want one, and really, how could you live without one? send me an email with your name and mailing address in it.
Back to work.
Labels: My Wicked Enemy, Scandal, writing freaking writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 3/27/2008 05:11:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Friday!!!
Tomorrow is Friday. Yippee!! Xia is still coming along. I have 66K words now. A goodly amount. Can I be at 70K by the end of the weekend?
My agent has been nicely nudging my historical editor for revisions on Scandal. They better come soon given the May 1 deadline for Xia. I'm told they are. Also, my Berkley editor sent me a cover (not mine!) by the guy she'd like to use to do the cover for Scandal. He's a wonderful artist. That was pretty exciting, actually.
I now have my artwork-only jpg for My Wicked Enemy which I need for bookmarks and I have my preliminary order in. I'm on the fence about a book trailer. Does anybody know if they make a difference? Readers, do you like them? Do you care? Does anyone have hard figures on what the ROI might be?
It has occurred to me that it would be nice to have a title for Xia. Probably with the word Wicked in it. I have no ideas right now. Wicked Tired?
Off to bed.
My agent has been nicely nudging my historical editor for revisions on Scandal. They better come soon given the May 1 deadline for Xia. I'm told they are. Also, my Berkley editor sent me a cover (not mine!) by the guy she'd like to use to do the cover for Scandal. He's a wonderful artist. That was pretty exciting, actually.
I now have my artwork-only jpg for My Wicked Enemy which I need for bookmarks and I have my preliminary order in. I'm on the fence about a book trailer. Does anybody know if they make a difference? Readers, do you like them? Do you care? Does anyone have hard figures on what the ROI might be?
It has occurred to me that it would be nice to have a title for Xia. Probably with the word Wicked in it. I have no ideas right now. Wicked Tired?
Off to bed.
Labels: My Wicked Enemy, Scandal, writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 3/06/2008 10:23:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Today was, well, a day.
Right. Tired. Goes without saying. As you-all may know, I turned in Scandal in December -- early even. And my editor can't read it until March. Well, golly! Sigh.
My chapter with Kynan didn't go so well last night. I wrote it and all, but after the first paragraph in his Point of View (POV) it was clear that his wasn't the right POV. It should have been, but it wasn't. The feeling was boring and wrong practically from word one. So I gave up quickly and instead wrote it from the future-girlfriend's (FG) POV and that went better but it still didn't feel quite right. Better, but Not Quite Right, and the problem with POV is that you have to get it right or you're sunk.
My motto these days is to leave nothing around that can stink up the joint, so today during various mental downtimes of the day, I mulled over my situation. Eventually a refined approach popped into my head, which is that the FG needed a bit of danger, and that could be supplied by having her talking to the antagonist, Christophe, instead of Kynan. And since Kynan is still there, only now in stealth mode, I can put the scene back into his POV. Great!
While I was sitting in the car during soccer practice this afternoon I started rewriting the scene. Much better. Plus this switch solves another problem with the old version, which was, why would FG go off with Kynan? Well, she will now because Christophe will do something creepy like try to kill her or something, and Kynan will step in and whisk her away, and then they can go look for Xia.
Cue the creepy music though, because this was chapter 10 and in My Wicked Enemy chapter 10 was the chapter from Heck. I rewrote that dang chapter about a billion times. Am I facing a similar struggle here? Just what is it about Chapter 10's? Any theories?
My chapter with Kynan didn't go so well last night. I wrote it and all, but after the first paragraph in his Point of View (POV) it was clear that his wasn't the right POV. It should have been, but it wasn't. The feeling was boring and wrong practically from word one. So I gave up quickly and instead wrote it from the future-girlfriend's (FG) POV and that went better but it still didn't feel quite right. Better, but Not Quite Right, and the problem with POV is that you have to get it right or you're sunk.
My motto these days is to leave nothing around that can stink up the joint, so today during various mental downtimes of the day, I mulled over my situation. Eventually a refined approach popped into my head, which is that the FG needed a bit of danger, and that could be supplied by having her talking to the antagonist, Christophe, instead of Kynan. And since Kynan is still there, only now in stealth mode, I can put the scene back into his POV. Great!
While I was sitting in the car during soccer practice this afternoon I started rewriting the scene. Much better. Plus this switch solves another problem with the old version, which was, why would FG go off with Kynan? Well, she will now because Christophe will do something creepy like try to kill her or something, and Kynan will step in and whisk her away, and then they can go look for Xia.
Cue the creepy music though, because this was chapter 10 and in My Wicked Enemy chapter 10 was the chapter from Heck. I rewrote that dang chapter about a billion times. Am I facing a similar struggle here? Just what is it about Chapter 10's? Any theories?
Labels: My Wicked Enemy, Point of View, Scandal, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 1/16/2008 09:12:00 PM Permalink
Monday, December 31, 2007
Happy 2008!
For a lot of you, it's already 2008. Not yet here, but I'll be in bed before the year ends. Now that I've gotten the rant out of the way, I can reflect a bit. First off, I expected to be watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer with my son, but his cousin ended up inviting him over, so I'm all alone tonight. With no further ado, here's my imitation of Samuel Pepys.
Considering there was a period when I thought my writing career might be over, 2007 was good for me, writing-wise. Of course, in late 2006 I signed with my agent, Kristin Nelson, and boy. I'm in the right place. In 2007, she sold two more books for me one of which was Scandal. For anyone who thinks once you're published all your worries are over, let the history of this book put that myth in a well-deserved coffin. Nail it shut, people.
I sent Kristin 4 proposals, one of which, yes, was Scandal, then called The Rake, and before that called The Heir. She loved one of the 4, really liked My Wicked Enemy (which she quickly sold in at auction in a two-book deal) didn't know what to make of Shift (Me neither, but it will be cool when I turn my attention to it.) As for Scandal? That proposal almost sunk me with her. She told me if that's all she'd seen, she'd have rejected me out of hand. Ouch. And, she also told me, Just start over. So, okay. I did, and when she blogged about editors looking for historicals, I sent her the revised stuff and she sold it, too. A book that went through two really wretched drafts and one misbegotten rewrite hash of the first chapters. My rewrite went back to what I loved about Sophie and Banallt. The final result this time was, I really do think, pretty spectacular. And let me tell you, around November or so, I thought I'd never finish on deadline. Impossible. I turned it in early. Go figure.
So, as far as I'm concerned, writing-wise, the sale and completion of Scandal ranks as one of my biggest accomplishments of 2007.
Another, naturally, is finishing My Wicked Enemy and then revising the hell out of it in something short of three weeks to turn it into something totally neat.
Starting Xia's story is another.
Finishing my MA is English. That was huge. Yay!!
Have a wonderful 2008 everyone. Now, back to Xia, I haven't hit my minimum yet.
2007
Considering there was a period when I thought my writing career might be over, 2007 was good for me, writing-wise. Of course, in late 2006 I signed with my agent, Kristin Nelson, and boy. I'm in the right place. In 2007, she sold two more books for me one of which was Scandal. For anyone who thinks once you're published all your worries are over, let the history of this book put that myth in a well-deserved coffin. Nail it shut, people.
I sent Kristin 4 proposals, one of which, yes, was Scandal, then called The Rake, and before that called The Heir. She loved one of the 4, really liked My Wicked Enemy (which she quickly sold in at auction in a two-book deal) didn't know what to make of Shift (Me neither, but it will be cool when I turn my attention to it.) As for Scandal? That proposal almost sunk me with her. She told me if that's all she'd seen, she'd have rejected me out of hand. Ouch. And, she also told me, Just start over. So, okay. I did, and when she blogged about editors looking for historicals, I sent her the revised stuff and she sold it, too. A book that went through two really wretched drafts and one misbegotten rewrite hash of the first chapters. My rewrite went back to what I loved about Sophie and Banallt. The final result this time was, I really do think, pretty spectacular. And let me tell you, around November or so, I thought I'd never finish on deadline. Impossible. I turned it in early. Go figure.
So, as far as I'm concerned, writing-wise, the sale and completion of Scandal ranks as one of my biggest accomplishments of 2007.
Another, naturally, is finishing My Wicked Enemy and then revising the hell out of it in something short of three weeks to turn it into something totally neat.
Starting Xia's story is another.
Finishing my MA is English. That was huge. Yay!!
Have a wonderful 2008 everyone. Now, back to Xia, I haven't hit my minimum yet.
Labels: agents, My Wicked Enemy, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/31/2007 09:54:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Well, now what?
Now that Scandal is done and off to editor-land, I don't know what to do with myself. OK, I have a few ideas:
But first I have to calm down. I'm totally still hyped up.
In two weeks, on to my bad boy Xia.
- Christmas shopping
- Update my website
- Reading
- My Sword Hand is Singing (will finish tonight, awesome so far)
- The Reincarnationist by MJ Rose
- Plain Truth, by Jodi Picault
- A bunch of Lee Child
- The Yiddish Policeman's Union, Michael Chabon
- The Immortals series (I've got them all, I hope I can find them!)
- What Came Before he Shot her, Elizabeth George
- And lots more
- Sleeping
- Spending time with my family
But first I have to calm down. I'm totally still hyped up.
In two weeks, on to my bad boy Xia.
Labels: reading, relaxing, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 12/12/2007 05:17:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
YesSSSSS!!
posted by Carolyn @ 12/11/2007 09:59:00 PM Permalink
Monday, December 10, 2007
Down to the Wire
Today I hit 95,066 words so I'm golden tonight. I'm up to chapter 23 in the final read through. I fixed my two trouble spots and it rocks completely. Put a bit more on the line in a couple chapters tonight. Tomorrow, I'm pushing on.
Tonight, I'm going to bed.
I've been listening to a lot of James Blunt as I finish up. I really love the emotion of his music. Plus sometimes he uses a bad word or two and it's really kind of nice knowing the work wasn't sanitized for consumption. I have three of his CD's now and when I have the money I'll be on a quest for everything else he's done. I can sing along to the music and get myself in a good mood for writing. Which is pretty much the whole point. Yet another artist discovered from MySpace. But not from his profile. From someone else's profile music. So, let's see. Someone has a song of his playing on their profile. Carolyn hears it, and now owns three of his CD's plus an Amazon download of a single he did on some other album. So, why do artists delete their songs from MySpace profiles?
What else? Killer headache. But I can't get sick so I won't. That's it. At my son's soccer practice the temp was 53 with about an hour to go and by the end it was 44. Yeah, people who live with real weather are wondering why I'm complaining about a heat wave but for here, that's just darned cold. I was thinking about putting on my socks.
OK, off to bed.
Tonight, I'm going to bed.
I've been listening to a lot of James Blunt as I finish up. I really love the emotion of his music. Plus sometimes he uses a bad word or two and it's really kind of nice knowing the work wasn't sanitized for consumption. I have three of his CD's now and when I have the money I'll be on a quest for everything else he's done. I can sing along to the music and get myself in a good mood for writing. Which is pretty much the whole point. Yet another artist discovered from MySpace. But not from his profile. From someone else's profile music. So, let's see. Someone has a song of his playing on their profile. Carolyn hears it, and now owns three of his CD's plus an Amazon download of a single he did on some other album. So, why do artists delete their songs from MySpace profiles?
What else? Killer headache. But I can't get sick so I won't. That's it. At my son's soccer practice the temp was 53 with about an hour to go and by the end it was 44. Yeah, people who live with real weather are wondering why I'm complaining about a heat wave but for here, that's just darned cold. I was thinking about putting on my socks.
OK, off to bed.
Labels: editing, Scandal, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/10/2007 10:07:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Making Progress!
Today I got through all my action items for Scandal. Yay! By the time I was ready to print out the MS for a final read through I was up to 94K. I'm doing the read through now, and it's going pretty well so far. Nothing major. So far.
I'm posting early because I promised my son months ago that we'd see the Golden Compass when it came out. The movie's out now. We're just waiting for my sister to get here, since she gets off early enough on Saturdays that she can come with us. Then we're off to the movie.
At the moment, I'm really tired. Don't know why but I am.
I'm posting early because I promised my son months ago that we'd see the Golden Compass when it came out. The movie's out now. We're just waiting for my sister to get here, since she gets off early enough on Saturdays that she can come with us. Then we're off to the movie.
At the moment, I'm really tired. Don't know why but I am.
Labels: editing, polishing, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 12/08/2007 06:06:00 PM Permalink
Friday, December 07, 2007
Closing in
I think I'm just about done with Scandal. No fork quite yet, but I finished having it read to me. I have a list of action items, going through the MS for phrases I think I've repeated or overused, some continuity etc. There's only 8 things on the list. I'll get through that in the mornning, then print it off and start reading.
At the gym in the AM, I've started blocking out the next paranormal. That's been fun. Sort of.
OK, off to sleep.
At the gym in the AM, I've started blocking out the next paranormal. That's been fun. Sort of.
OK, off to sleep.
Labels: editing, Scandal, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/07/2007 11:14:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Catching up
Looks like my (very) brief post from yesterday got munched. Oh. Well. It went like this: Working on Scandal. Back to it.
That is still a true statement. I'm having it read back to me. Catching a lot of pesky typos and fixing a lot of continuity stuff. I have this habit of (need to?) moving stuff around, and then I forget where things are and either don't delete or don't conform enough to the new (for now) home. There's a lot of that in this one. To quote my favorite TV show ever (::Adrian Paul::) Highlander: There can be only one. Meaning, typically, your characters can only meet for the first time once, not once in each of 5 to 6 chapters. Sheesh. Looks bad, you know? So I'm fixing that.
The best part is that little things are getting settled and elicited. Things that make a story resonate. Which is better than if it sucks. Back to work.
That is still a true statement. I'm having it read back to me. Catching a lot of pesky typos and fixing a lot of continuity stuff. I have this habit of (need to?) moving stuff around, and then I forget where things are and either don't delete or don't conform enough to the new (for now) home. There's a lot of that in this one. To quote my favorite TV show ever (::Adrian Paul::) Highlander: There can be only one. Meaning, typically, your characters can only meet for the first time once, not once in each of 5 to 6 chapters. Sheesh. Looks bad, you know? So I'm fixing that.
The best part is that little things are getting settled and elicited. Things that make a story resonate. Which is better than if it sucks. Back to work.
Labels: editing, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/05/2007 04:44:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
keeping up
Working on finishing up Scandal. That's pretty much it. Back to it.
Labels: Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 12/04/2007 04:51:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, December 02, 2007
No Drama, Please.
You know, I wish there was a button somewhere that said No Drama Here. If there were, I'd have pushed it several times today. I don't have time for drama. How the hell can I finish a book with all this freaking drama exploding around me?
Deep breath, Carolyn
I'm ignoring it.
My son's brain is going to melt from all the TV he's watching. No drama from him at least.
Deep breath, Carolyn
I'm ignoring it.
My son's brain is going to melt from all the TV he's watching. No drama from him at least.
Labels: No Drama Here, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/02/2007 11:45:00 AM Permalink
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Typing Typing Typing
Keep those doggies typing
Raw Nerves!
Fix it up
Cut the crap
Add some in
Edit more!
Raw Nerves!
That's me. Working on Scandal. I'm writing a new chapter right now. But I finally got to a spot where I wasn't fixing the crap out of, er, crap and was just fixing typos and polishing, which was SUCH a relief. Then I got to a spot where I realized I needed a new chapter, just to add a certain element of suspense that was missing. But I thought of a good one and after this post I'll be back to it.
What else? In all of November, I think we had exactly 1 day of rain. It's cold (for here) and when I went out this morning to snap some pics, I had to wear shoes instead of my sandals. Geez! My cat Jake finally got tired of trying to push me off my chair and is now back to sleeping on the printer.
Random Pics from this morning:
Raw Nerves!
Fix it up
Cut the crap
Add some in
Edit more!
Raw Nerves!
That's me. Working on Scandal. I'm writing a new chapter right now. But I finally got to a spot where I wasn't fixing the crap out of, er, crap and was just fixing typos and polishing, which was SUCH a relief. Then I got to a spot where I realized I needed a new chapter, just to add a certain element of suspense that was missing. But I thought of a good one and after this post I'll be back to it.
What else? In all of November, I think we had exactly 1 day of rain. It's cold (for here) and when I went out this morning to snap some pics, I had to wear shoes instead of my sandals. Geez! My cat Jake finally got tired of trying to push me off my chair and is now back to sleeping on the printer.
Random Pics from this morning:
The first Snowbells of the Winter
Leaves Frozen In the Birdbath
Labels: editing, Scandal, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/01/2007 08:39:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Can you say -- well never mind, it's not polite
Right. I have the joy of a cold. But I'm feeling better than I did yesterday or this morning. At least I can breathe through my nose.
The Great Title Search is coming down the to wire. I think my agent and I have sent close to a hundred suggestions. No exaggeration. They would like to put flames or fire on the cover somehow, which actually sounds pretty cool, so they want a title that suggests fire. They'd also like an active title, so we need a verb of some sort. This is actually much, much harder than it seems. They need a title by tomorrow. That would be Friday, November 30. Ack!!
Don't think I got much work done on Scandal today. Rats. I will be busting my butt this weekend.
The Great Title Search is coming down the to wire. I think my agent and I have sent close to a hundred suggestions. No exaggeration. They would like to put flames or fire on the cover somehow, which actually sounds pretty cool, so they want a title that suggests fire. They'd also like an active title, so we need a verb of some sort. This is actually much, much harder than it seems. They need a title by tomorrow. That would be Friday, November 30. Ack!!
Don't think I got much work done on Scandal today. Rats. I will be busting my butt this weekend.
Labels: Book Covers, Book Titles, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/29/2007 09:33:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Early Exhaustion
I'm exhausted so I'm doing an early post. That allows me to build up a good level of anxiety before I start working as well as fall straight into bed when I'm done for the night. Which may be early. At lunch time I started writing the new chapter and it went OK. Then on the drive home I thought of this totally better setting that for it. Yay! I'm going to go do that.
posted by Carolyn @ 11/27/2007 04:53:00 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
Sunday, November 25, 2007
where does the time go?
I actually have the answer. Time flies because it's a hurry to join all your lost socks. They put on a great party, you see. And whenever time seems like it's slowing down? That's what happens when someone discards all their onesie-socks. The time-space continuum flexes when the missing socks are returned to the poor fool. Inevitably some other schmuck gets stuck in one of the creases. For him, or her, time inexplicably slows. This is most noticeable at the dentist's office or fifteen minutes before it's time to go home from someplace boring. Mostly we don't notice. But it happens, I assure you.
What, you never read A Wrinkle in Time? I'm sure that was in there.
Working on Scandal. Not looking forward to going back to the day job.
And sorry, despite the tag, this post has nothing to do with Navy SEALs. I just wish it did because that would be better than just about anything, including fixing that wretched chapter 8. Plus, you know, why not think about Navy SEALs now and again? I'm sure it's good for me.
What, you never read A Wrinkle in Time? I'm sure that was in there.
Working on Scandal. Not looking forward to going back to the day job.
And sorry, despite the tag, this post has nothing to do with Navy SEALs. I just wish it did because that would be better than just about anything, including fixing that wretched chapter 8. Plus, you know, why not think about Navy SEALs now and again? I'm sure it's good for me.
Labels: editing, Navy SEALs, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/25/2007 07:01:00 PM Permalink
The draft is complete
I finally pounded out my replacement chapter and despite the original's deletion ended up almost 1200 words ahead. Not to mention at 80K words. Which is within spitting distance of done. Tomorrow, more editing -- or, technically, later today, more editing. No fork yet, but maybe some soft trumpets?
Well, whatever, I'm going to bed on a happier note than I expected.
Well, whatever, I'm going to bed on a happier note than I expected.
Labels: Scandal, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/25/2007 12:45:00 AM Permalink
Saturday, November 24, 2007
A Whole New Chapter
Literally, I'm afraid. It's the next to last chapter of Scandal and I knew there were some issues because my outline contained the words This is a mess. Fix it. So yeah. The fix was to start completely over. Sigh. Had to happen. It's going slow, because, like, has anything about Scandal EVER gone quickly? Answer: No.
So, yeah. I'm procrastinating like heck. But it's getting done. Slowly.
Back to it.
So, yeah. I'm procrastinating like heck. But it's getting done. Slowly.
Back to it.
Labels: polishing, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/24/2007 08:44:00 PM Permalink
Friday, November 23, 2007
Friday. Now it seems like you came TOO soon!
Well, golly. I've been working away at Scandal. It's going sloooooww. So, now it seems like Friday came too soon because I could use another few days before the weekend and back to work. Anyway, got to work. Hopefully I'll post again later in the evening or something.
posted by Carolyn @ 11/23/2007 10:35:00 AM Permalink
Monday, November 19, 2007
Snail's Pace
I wrote a lot tonight, but then I got to an older chapter and had to cut a bunch so my net word gain is only a couple hundred. But, the old stuff has to make way for the new. Tired. Looking forward to some time off, during which I will probably ignore my family as much as I possibly can so I can write.
Edited to add: I forgot, today I was sitting staring into the ether and suddenly I was channeling Patti O'Shea because my heroine for the next book started talking to me. OK, like I don't know how it happens with Patti, but I know the character wasn't really talking to me, despite my being more than happy to listen, but there she was in my head and I knew all kinds of stuff about her that I didn't before. She will be referred to as FH which stands for Female Heroine until somebody coughs up a name. She kind of kicks ass.
Storywise, Scandal is done, so I don't have any notebooking to do. Just writing, freaking writing, which I did a lot of tonight notwithstanding the low word count. I think I have two maybe three chapters to get through before I can even think of some one reading it raw.
OK, off to bed.
Edited to add: I forgot, today I was sitting staring into the ether and suddenly I was channeling Patti O'Shea because my heroine for the next book started talking to me. OK, like I don't know how it happens with Patti, but I know the character wasn't really talking to me, despite my being more than happy to listen, but there she was in my head and I knew all kinds of stuff about her that I didn't before. She will be referred to as FH which stands for Female Heroine until somebody coughs up a name. She kind of kicks ass.
Storywise, Scandal is done, so I don't have any notebooking to do. Just writing, freaking writing, which I did a lot of tonight notwithstanding the low word count. I think I have two maybe three chapters to get through before I can even think of some one reading it raw.
OK, off to bed.
Labels: Next Book, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/19/2007 09:55:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, November 18, 2007
The weekend's ended. Rats.
Today was a very busy day. I slept later than I wanted to but given my typical sleep deficit, it's probably a good thing. The Darling Child spent the night at his uncle's house (that would be Uncle Geography for readers of this blog) so I worked all morning but wasn't as productive as I hoped. Then I had to go shopping and then make cookies because today was the DC's end of League Play party, and I said I'd make cookies. Then I had to call the uncle to bring the DC home, and off to the party. And, the party was pretty fun, there were parents this year who like to talk about literature! One of the parents had met Michael Chabon. Whoa. Golly, I love talking about books so for once I wasn't standing around feeling like a dork. The kids had a good time, they ran around outside and when it was too dark to see they came in all sweaty and hot and ready for cake.
When we came home I got some good work done, though.
Now I just get to buckle down and polish and hopefully have time to send it out for outside reading.
What else? Nothing. I have to go to work tomorrow and that's always kind of depressing, especially when I wish I had 10K more words than I do. Although, come to think of it, I always wish that. And the words I have I've beginning to suspect are quality. Let's hope.
When we came home I got some good work done, though.
Now I just get to buckle down and polish and hopefully have time to send it out for outside reading.
What else? Nothing. I have to go to work tomorrow and that's always kind of depressing, especially when I wish I had 10K more words than I do. Although, come to think of it, I always wish that. And the words I have I've beginning to suspect are quality. Let's hope.
Labels: editing, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/18/2007 09:10:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, November 17, 2007
In Which Things Get a Little Better
Tonight, I wrote my ending chapter. It needs a little work, but it's there where yesterday there was nothing. I also made back the word count I lost from cutting the two sucky chapters yesterday. Yay for me. I have one or two more chapters that I know need some work. I hope to get that done tomorrow. And then I'll have a crappy draft. But, as every writer knows, crap can be fixed.
In other news, my brother was supposed to come over to give my son a man-to-man talk that would reinforce The Talk that I've had with him about S. E. X. I consider this especially important now that girls have discovered him. So, pretend for a minute, that this girl who is interested in my son and who my son is (supposedly) just friends with has a name that sounds like the capital of a country. This is true. Pretend that it's Paris. Her name isn't Paris, but pretend. My brother's conversation with my son went like this:
I am not kidding. I was in the kitchen at the time, and I overhead it and while I may not have the exact words, this is pretty darn close. I did not ask my brother to talk to my son about geography. We have an enormous map of the world on the wall in the hallway. My son and I often stand in front of that map and talk about geography. He's actually very good at geography.
The conversation should have gone like this:
Geography. Oh, for crying out loud.
In other news, my brother was supposed to come over to give my son a man-to-man talk that would reinforce The Talk that I've had with him about S. E. X. I consider this especially important now that girls have discovered him. So, pretend for a minute, that this girl who is interested in my son and who my son is (supposedly) just friends with has a name that sounds like the capital of a country. This is true. Pretend that it's Paris. Her name isn't Paris, but pretend. My brother's conversation with my son went like this:
Uncle: Hey, I hear you really like France.
Son: Yeeahhh. Why?
Uncle: I hear one city in particular is your favorite.
Son: What?
Uncle: Yeah, it's the capital of France. Paris.
Son: (whispering to self) I gotta talk to my mom.
I am not kidding. I was in the kitchen at the time, and I overhead it and while I may not have the exact words, this is pretty darn close. I did not ask my brother to talk to my son about geography. We have an enormous map of the world on the wall in the hallway. My son and I often stand in front of that map and talk about geography. He's actually very good at geography.
The conversation should have gone like this:
Uncle: Never have sex. But if you do, use a condom. You know what a condom is, right?
Son: Yeeahhh. Why?
Uncle: Do you know how to use one?
Son: Umm.
Uncle: [Manly talk that women never hear, but that conveys respect for women and mastery over the use of birth control.]
Son: Thank you. But I'm going to listen to my mom and never have sex.
Geography. Oh, for crying out loud.
Labels: editing, Geography, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/17/2007 10:26:00 PM Permalink
The Nerve! Honestly.
Now, as some of you may already know, I have a lot of fun with my MySpace Page. I've met some great people, readers, artists, photographers, musicians and even a writer or two. Sometimes I find myself with two copies of a book and I've sent off the extra to one of my MySpace friends. So it's been just really fun. I don't mind friending writers, sometimes I'm kind of giddy. Barry Eisler friended me!! So, you know, yay! and all that.
But when a writer leaves me a comment that is an nothing more than an ad for their new release? That's spam. That's despicable. That's no different from those stupid, spammy here's a new ringtone for you (that probably hits some server in China all ready with malware, just for me!) comments.
I have no problem with getting MySpace email from writers announcing releases. Hey, that's why I friended them. I often click on bulletins announcing releases. But I don't want your spam comment. If you want to sell something, go use your own site. Don't try inserting an ad on MY MySpace page. I'm so glad I turned on comment moderation, because that spam comment never made it to my page. I denied it. And I'll deny any one else who tries it too.
If you're a writer, please, don't do that. I'll un-friend you and hate you, too.
OK, back to work on Scandal.
But when a writer leaves me a comment that is an nothing more than an ad for their new release? That's spam. That's despicable. That's no different from those stupid, spammy here's a new ringtone for you (that probably hits some server in China all ready with malware, just for me!) comments.
I have no problem with getting MySpace email from writers announcing releases. Hey, that's why I friended them. I often click on bulletins announcing releases. But I don't want your spam comment. If you want to sell something, go use your own site. Don't try inserting an ad on MY MySpace page. I'm so glad I turned on comment moderation, because that spam comment never made it to my page. I denied it. And I'll deny any one else who tries it too.
If you're a writer, please, don't do that. I'll un-friend you and hate you, too.
OK, back to work on Scandal.
Labels: bad marketing, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/17/2007 12:10:00 PM Permalink
Friday, November 16, 2007
Bad Poetry Day (no, there's no meter)
Panic, how do I love thee?
Let me count the ways.
You turn my stomach into a rock
When I'm cutting pages.
(Don't worry, that clunk is just the sound of bad writing when it hits the worm hole to the bad writing universe behind my monitor)
You're the ice that runs down my spine
When I play whack a chapter.
(Once yesterday, twice today!
Whack!
Whack! Whack!
At the gym!)
That squiffy feeling in my elbows?
That's you, Panic.
All that writing that came from nowhere
And might even be halfway decent?1
That's from you too.
But I still don't love you.
1. If you're not, you're going into the same black hole you came out of. And yeah, that's a threat and a promise. Try not to Panic about it.
Let me count the ways.
You turn my stomach into a rock
When I'm cutting pages.
(Don't worry, that clunk is just the sound of bad writing when it hits the worm hole to the bad writing universe behind my monitor)
You're the ice that runs down my spine
When I play whack a chapter.
(Once yesterday, twice today!
Whack!
Whack! Whack!
At the gym!)
That squiffy feeling in my elbows?
That's you, Panic.
All that writing that came from nowhere
And might even be halfway decent?1
That's from you too.
But I still don't love you.
1. If you're not, you're going into the same black hole you came out of. And yeah, that's a threat and a promise. Try not to Panic about it.
Labels: Bad Poetry, Scandal, worm holes, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/16/2007 09:10:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Forecast:: Same as Yesterday
posted by Carolyn @ 11/15/2007 09:47:00 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
Friday, November 09, 2007
Picture This
I wish a had a picture but I don't. I had to do some day job stuff tonight. But at home, there's no bandwidth, so I have to drive to a Starbucks, buy some tea and use their internet. So, picture this:
Carolyn arrives at Starbucks with two laptops and two mobile phones. One for work, one for me. I get my tea and sit down and begin to set up the command center. The work laptop is on the table, eventually VPN'ed to work and connected to the first server I need to work on. My work phone (a smart phone that does REAL email) is next to it waiting for the go ahead call. My laptop is on a chair and I am typing away on Chapter 19 while I wait for the phone to ring... I got some good work done on chapter 19 actually. A small but huge bit of work that brings things together nicely.
The work phone rings. It's a go. I kick off SQL job number one and then transfer a file from one server to another. During the file transfer, I go back to working on Chapter 19. When the transfer is done, I disconnect from the COLO facility and connect to my work domain and then connect to the next server. I kick off that SQL job and while I wait for that to finish I fish out my phone, call the pizza place and order a Margarita for my son's dinner. Then I go back to work on chapter 19. When the job is done, I grab the work phone, call the work guy and tell him to check while I back up my Chapter 19 and start to shut down my laptop. All is hunky dory so I can also disconnect the work laptop, pack up and go pick up the pizza.
Come home, feed the child, shoot the breeze with said child, and wonder if I should ask him about the girl who keeps texting him and who he texts back. Too controlling, I decide. They're just friends he says. I've been told by parents of other boys that I must understand this is not necessarily the exact truth. Uh-oh. We've had The Talk but now I need my brother to have The Talk with him, too. Just to make sure.
Oh, and part of the reason for this post is to demonstrate that writing time can be found anywhere. I did some important work there, and I was only there 45 minutes. So no whining about time for writing. If you're a writer, you find the time. More likely, the time finds you, because that's what you're looking for. Those moments when you can write. If you don't look for them and use them, you may never finish your book.
In 45 minutes I drank some green tea, worked at day job stuff, ordered dinner for the child, and made important progress in chapter 19.
Just saying.
Apparently, I can't get over the Whiner from Grad School. Honestly. (TWFGS couldn't find time to write because she couldn't write during lunchtime at work because it was too noisy, and outside at work was too distracting and the car was too whatever, and she had schoolwork and a boyfriend and SO much reading to do. Right. Oh, please. But I'm sure none of you are that way. Right?)
Carolyn arrives at Starbucks with two laptops and two mobile phones. One for work, one for me. I get my tea and sit down and begin to set up the command center. The work laptop is on the table, eventually VPN'ed to work and connected to the first server I need to work on. My work phone (a smart phone that does REAL email) is next to it waiting for the go ahead call. My laptop is on a chair and I am typing away on Chapter 19 while I wait for the phone to ring... I got some good work done on chapter 19 actually. A small but huge bit of work that brings things together nicely.
The work phone rings. It's a go. I kick off SQL job number one and then transfer a file from one server to another. During the file transfer, I go back to working on Chapter 19. When the transfer is done, I disconnect from the COLO facility and connect to my work domain and then connect to the next server. I kick off that SQL job and while I wait for that to finish I fish out my phone, call the pizza place and order a Margarita for my son's dinner. Then I go back to work on chapter 19. When the job is done, I grab the work phone, call the work guy and tell him to check while I back up my Chapter 19 and start to shut down my laptop. All is hunky dory so I can also disconnect the work laptop, pack up and go pick up the pizza.
Come home, feed the child, shoot the breeze with said child, and wonder if I should ask him about the girl who keeps texting him and who he texts back. Too controlling, I decide. They're just friends he says. I've been told by parents of other boys that I must understand this is not necessarily the exact truth. Uh-oh. We've had The Talk but now I need my brother to have The Talk with him, too. Just to make sure.
Oh, and part of the reason for this post is to demonstrate that writing time can be found anywhere. I did some important work there, and I was only there 45 minutes. So no whining about time for writing. If you're a writer, you find the time. More likely, the time finds you, because that's what you're looking for. Those moments when you can write. If you don't look for them and use them, you may never finish your book.
In 45 minutes I drank some green tea, worked at day job stuff, ordered dinner for the child, and made important progress in chapter 19.
Just saying.
Apparently, I can't get over the Whiner from Grad School. Honestly. (TWFGS couldn't find time to write because she couldn't write during lunchtime at work because it was too noisy, and outside at work was too distracting and the car was too whatever, and she had schoolwork and a boyfriend and SO much reading to do. Right. Oh, please. But I'm sure none of you are that way. Right?)
Labels: Scandal, writing, writing time
posted by Carolyn @ 11/09/2007 07:13:00 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
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
My Cup of Tea
My son's school did this fund-raising thing that involves holding parents up at guilt-point and forcing them to buy stuff that costs too much for what you get. (sarcasm alert) But the kids get prizes!! -- that are broken five minutes later or else unusable straight from the plastic bag (which is NOT a toy, by the way) and (sarcasm over) now I have to report on one of my purchases. It's a visual report, too. Grin.
I bought this coffee mug, see, but the surface is a chalkboard. So if the cheap chalk that comes with it was any good, you could write stuff on it over and over. Like this:
Yeah, it's kind of hard to read, but I wrote I am not a rat -- Banallt on one side and Yes, you are -- Sophie on the other because that's the essence of my hero and heroine in Scandal. Or you could write other stuff. Which I'll do tomorrow. It's kind of fun.
In writing news, even though the above qualifies as writing news, Scandal is going almost all right. I've fought my way through several chapters, reordered several more and am reasonably pleased with the result. I wrote two new ones, which was good because I deleted a bunch of crap, too. Now I'm closing in on the ending. I'm hoping that by next week sometime I'll have a crappy but complete draft and a month to tear it apart and put it back together. It's funny how I always have an ending in mind but it keeps slipping away; like a wave, it's there, and then it's gone and I keep trying to pin it in place and I just can't. Then somewhere around 60 or 70 thousand words I realize that the ending of my story is actually in the "middle" (those are air quotes, by the way) and all the time I've been spending stressing over the fact the my middle is moving further and further away from the actual middle just means the "middle" is actually more like the end. Which is what happened with Scandal two days ago. My outline had an ending blocked out, a good thing because it gave me a direction, but the book would have to be 175,000 words in order to get there. And then I realized I'd already written everything but the end, which was just at a different place than I thought. And it's a gosh-darned relief, too.
Back to work.
I bought this coffee mug, see, but the surface is a chalkboard. So if the cheap chalk that comes with it was any good, you could write stuff on it over and over. Like this:
Yeah, it's kind of hard to read, but I wrote I am not a rat -- Banallt on one side and Yes, you are -- Sophie on the other because that's the essence of my hero and heroine in Scandal. Or you could write other stuff. Which I'll do tomorrow. It's kind of fun.
In writing news, even though the above qualifies as writing news, Scandal is going almost all right. I've fought my way through several chapters, reordered several more and am reasonably pleased with the result. I wrote two new ones, which was good because I deleted a bunch of crap, too. Now I'm closing in on the ending. I'm hoping that by next week sometime I'll have a crappy but complete draft and a month to tear it apart and put it back together. It's funny how I always have an ending in mind but it keeps slipping away; like a wave, it's there, and then it's gone and I keep trying to pin it in place and I just can't. Then somewhere around 60 or 70 thousand words I realize that the ending of my story is actually in the "middle" (those are air quotes, by the way) and all the time I've been spending stressing over the fact the my middle is moving further and further away from the actual middle just means the "middle" is actually more like the end. Which is what happened with Scandal two days ago. My outline had an ending blocked out, a good thing because it gave me a direction, but the book would have to be 175,000 words in order to get there. And then I realized I'd already written everything but the end, which was just at a different place than I thought. And it's a gosh-darned relief, too.
Back to work.
Labels: endings, plotting or the lack thereof, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/07/2007 07:39:00 PM Permalink
Monday, November 05, 2007
Reporting In Grumpily
I admit it. I'm grumpy right now. First off, my web host, which hosts two domains of mine, including this one, moved their operations to a new facility. I knew when I heard about it that it would not go smoothly. And it didn't. My writing site was down from Saturday night to some time this morning. There was a brief period when it was up, but mostly, not. My other domain is still down. I'm peeved, but if this site were still down, I'd be transferring to a new host right now, actually, probably I'd be done by now. That's the beauty of separating your domain registration from your web host. I can repoint my name servers any time and be up and running in a new home in about the time it would take me to ftp the files. Anyway, I've been steaming about since Saturday. No fun.
Sigh.
Scandal is torture right now. I'm fixing crap and panicking, too. Oh joy. Not. At the gym this morning, I think I worked out the ending. Back to it.
Sigh.
Scandal is torture right now. I'm fixing crap and panicking, too. Oh joy. Not. At the gym this morning, I think I worked out the ending. Back to it.
Labels: kvetching, Scandal, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/05/2007 06:22:00 PM Permalink
Friday, November 02, 2007
friday..... at last. But you were late damn you!
Today: Friday aka, the day before the day before Sunday.
Me: Exhausted.
Scandal: Still needs massive editing and lacks an ending.
Tomorrow: Busy. Soccer and writing. That's it.
Sunday: More of the same.
Me: Exhausted.
Scandal: Still needs massive editing and lacks an ending.
Tomorrow: Busy. Soccer and writing. That's it.
Sunday: More of the same.
Labels: Scandal, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/02/2007 08:28:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Boo! Goaaaan Creaakkkk Eeek! mwahahaha
Happy Halloween to everyone!
Well, I took my son over to my brother's house -- where we live, we have exactly 3 neighbors.... There's no Trick or Treating here. So off we went. I admired a few costumes (they were cute and/or scary) said Hi to friends and family and then I took the laptop into the living room and started working on Scandal. I had to fix my outline so that it's useful as I try to find the right home for everything. When I'd finally done that, I wrote a new chapter and it came out pretty good, I think.
Then home, at which point my son complained about having any portion of his 5.6 pounds of candy confiscated. I was going to put in picture, but it's taking too long and I have to get up early.
So, anyone who thinks they can't find time to write, hey, if you're rude and anti-social of course you can. And let me add that I did this work while a truly wretched series of remakes of halloween songs was looping on the sound system. I plugged in Aretha and managed to mostly drown it out while ignoring the kids and various trick or treaters. You take your time where you can.
Well, I took my son over to my brother's house -- where we live, we have exactly 3 neighbors.... There's no Trick or Treating here. So off we went. I admired a few costumes (they were cute and/or scary) said Hi to friends and family and then I took the laptop into the living room and started working on Scandal. I had to fix my outline so that it's useful as I try to find the right home for everything. When I'd finally done that, I wrote a new chapter and it came out pretty good, I think.
Then home, at which point my son complained about having any portion of his 5.6 pounds of candy confiscated. I was going to put in picture, but it's taking too long and I have to get up early.
So, anyone who thinks they can't find time to write, hey, if you're rude and anti-social of course you can. And let me add that I did this work while a truly wretched series of remakes of halloween songs was looping on the sound system. I plugged in Aretha and managed to mostly drown it out while ignoring the kids and various trick or treaters. You take your time where you can.
Labels: halloween, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 10/31/2007 10:37:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Eve of All Hallow's Eve...
I've always wanted to write that. And today is my big chance!
All righty. Got that out of my system. I'm exhausted. It's been a long day and for some reason I didn't sleep all that well last night. Sigh.. I worked on Scandal at the gym and right as I was in the midst of a huge reorg of material involving musical chapters and parts flying all over, my 45 minutes was up. I actually sat on the bike a few more minutes, dripping sweat all over the pages as I worked, but then realized I'd need twenty more at least to get through that so hosed down the bike and went to stretch out and do push ups and sits up before I showered. Sigh. Hopefully I can make some sense of it tonight.
I got a delightful email today from someone who read The Spare in Dutch! That was exciting. I'm so glad she emailed to let me know. Wish I knew what the cover looked like...
OK, off to work on Scandal and go to bed early I think, on this, the Eve of All Hallow's Eve.
Boo.
All righty. Got that out of my system. I'm exhausted. It's been a long day and for some reason I didn't sleep all that well last night. Sigh.. I worked on Scandal at the gym and right as I was in the midst of a huge reorg of material involving musical chapters and parts flying all over, my 45 minutes was up. I actually sat on the bike a few more minutes, dripping sweat all over the pages as I worked, but then realized I'd need twenty more at least to get through that so hosed down the bike and went to stretch out and do push ups and sits up before I showered. Sigh. Hopefully I can make some sense of it tonight.
I got a delightful email today from someone who read The Spare in Dutch! That was exciting. I'm so glad she emailed to let me know. Wish I knew what the cover looked like...
OK, off to work on Scandal and go to bed early I think, on this, the Eve of All Hallow's Eve.
Boo.
Labels: editing, flying chapters, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 10/30/2007 06:34:00 PM Permalink
Monday, October 29, 2007
Marching onward
For good or ill, I'm on to Scandal now. I'm pushing through the read-through I was able to do only sporadically for the last 3 weeks or so. I have little memory of how things hang together with what I've read so far, but what I've read today isn't awful. I know I have a chapter to write. So, back to it.
Labels: Scandal, writing, writing fast
posted by Carolyn @ 10/29/2007 07:50:00 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
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
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
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Today, my life is just about perfect
Last night I took my son, the Darling Child, to a French restaurant. He has to write a review for his French class. He did try escargot. He had a soccer game in the morning and then went over to a friend's house and jumped on a trampoline for 4 hours. And when I picked him up, we got a ride in a Porche. I want one.
Anyway, at the restaurant he was actually fading fast by the time we were having dessert. Today's soccer game isn't until 4:00 pm which means we both got to sleep in this morning. Yay! I didn't even open my eyes until 9:00 am.
When he got up he made me crepes, also a project for his French class. They were very good. Yummy. With only a few reminders, he even cleaned up afterward. Then he started on his science project. He's making a model of a cell. He's using clay and we ended up wrapping the clay in a paper bag and running over it with the car a couple of times to get it nice and flat. Which was just funny. Now it's out drying in the sun and he's working on his French reports. We went outside to check on the model, and in the sun, the temperature was perfect. Not too hot, perfectly warm after the slightly chilly inside. He threw the frisbee for the dog. In between all that, I've been able to get some writing done.
So here's the thing. I've had a wonderful morning. Perfect. Having children is a lot of work and sometimes it's just frustrating or even scary. But days like today make life perfect. Because in return for all the hard times and days when you want to put them in the closet or trade them in for a Porche you get days like this.
Scandal is still going well. I'm in edit mode. After I go shopping, and probably after the DC's soccer game, I think I'm going to work on smoothing out the ending. Right now, the parts where my hero and heroine are coming to terms with their sexual compatibility is fragmented and needs to be brought in line with everything else.
Anyway, at the restaurant he was actually fading fast by the time we were having dessert. Today's soccer game isn't until 4:00 pm which means we both got to sleep in this morning. Yay! I didn't even open my eyes until 9:00 am.
When he got up he made me crepes, also a project for his French class. They were very good. Yummy. With only a few reminders, he even cleaned up afterward. Then he started on his science project. He's making a model of a cell. He's using clay and we ended up wrapping the clay in a paper bag and running over it with the car a couple of times to get it nice and flat. Which was just funny. Now it's out drying in the sun and he's working on his French reports. We went outside to check on the model, and in the sun, the temperature was perfect. Not too hot, perfectly warm after the slightly chilly inside. He threw the frisbee for the dog. In between all that, I've been able to get some writing done.
So here's the thing. I've had a wonderful morning. Perfect. Having children is a lot of work and sometimes it's just frustrating or even scary. But days like today make life perfect. Because in return for all the hard times and days when you want to put them in the closet or trade them in for a Porche you get days like this.
Scandal is still going well. I'm in edit mode. After I go shopping, and probably after the DC's soccer game, I think I'm going to work on smoothing out the ending. Right now, the parts where my hero and heroine are coming to terms with their sexual compatibility is fragmented and needs to be brought in line with everything else.
Labels: children, cooking, on being happy, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 10/07/2007 01:03:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Still nervous....
The writing went well tonight, too. Hit my minimum, and now I'm going to bed so I can maybe catch up on my sleep. The dog is asleep on the chair, curled up behind me and the big fluffy cat is on my lap. Kind of nice, but I'm having to sit with a very straight back so as not to disturb any one.
That's it. Kind of boring. Except for my impending sense of doom about the writing. Freaking a bit about deadlines. Urk.
In other news, my website redesign is going along quite well! Can't wait until it's in place.
That's it. Kind of boring. Except for my impending sense of doom about the writing. Freaking a bit about deadlines. Urk.
In other news, my website redesign is going along quite well! Can't wait until it's in place.
Labels: Scandal, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 10/04/2007 08:47:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
World's most boring post title removed from this space
Moving right along. I went to the gym while my son was at soccer practice, then home etc. I exceeded my minimum tonight because last night I kept waking up to find myself dreaming about Scandal and that resulted in a proper ending for last night's chapter and a new chapter today. Mulled it over during the mental downtime of the day and then while I was waiting for practice to be over notebooked it a bit which meant I was prepared to write tonight.
I'm still kind of freaked that Scandal seems to be going well at the moment. I have to decide now if I go over earlier chapters and get them conformed to its new emotional tenor. I'm trying to avoid saying gravitas again, but I think that's the right word. I think that's the right thing to do because that way when I get to the back chapters I'll know exactly where they're headed and will have undoubtedly (Patti O'Shea, close your eyes now!!) ripped out, reordered and rewritten a good deal of the front two thirds.
Oh, boy. Ripping to shreds. I can hardly wait.
I'm still kind of freaked that Scandal seems to be going well at the moment. I have to decide now if I go over earlier chapters and get them conformed to its new emotional tenor. I'm trying to avoid saying gravitas again, but I think that's the right word. I think that's the right thing to do because that way when I get to the back chapters I'll know exactly where they're headed and will have undoubtedly (Patti O'Shea, close your eyes now!!) ripped out, reordered and rewritten a good deal of the front two thirds.
Oh, boy. Ripping to shreds. I can hardly wait.
Labels: editing, ripping to shreds, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 10/03/2007 09:57:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
I'm getting nervous
Scandal is going well and that's making me nervous. I wrote more than my minimum tonight but had to delete half an older chapter, so I'm only ahead a couple hundred words tonight. I have a bit over 60,000 words and that's typically critical mass. Now there's much more editing and a lot less first draft writing.
I've nailed down the gravitas of the book which is good. It means I can start editing with that in mind. I imagine over the next month, I'll be moaning and groaning about the pain of it all, but right now, I'm feeling OK about things and that makes me nervous. Tonight's chapter went especially well.
In cooking news, my son is going to be making chocolate mousse for family and his French class. And then crepes and ratatouille for us. My brother who has been a pastry chef for a fancy restaurant sent us instructions and gotchas that included warnings like if the chocolate isn't cool enough, it will seize up... I have no idea what that means. Turn into a lump in the pan? He advised us to practice, so tonight I helped the DC make chocolate mousse using cheap chocolate. We'll use the good stuff for when he's practiced enough. I don't think the chocolate seized up. We'll know tomorrow. I'm up first, so we agreed I get the first taste.
I've nailed down the gravitas of the book which is good. It means I can start editing with that in mind. I imagine over the next month, I'll be moaning and groaning about the pain of it all, but right now, I'm feeling OK about things and that makes me nervous. Tonight's chapter went especially well.
In cooking news, my son is going to be making chocolate mousse for family and his French class. And then crepes and ratatouille for us. My brother who has been a pastry chef for a fancy restaurant sent us instructions and gotchas that included warnings like if the chocolate isn't cool enough, it will seize up... I have no idea what that means. Turn into a lump in the pan? He advised us to practice, so tonight I helped the DC make chocolate mousse using cheap chocolate. We'll use the good stuff for when he's practiced enough. I don't think the chocolate seized up. We'll know tomorrow. I'm up first, so we agreed I get the first taste.
Labels: chocolate mousse, editing, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 10/02/2007 09:38:00 PM Permalink
Monday, October 01, 2007
Wildly Inappropriate Thoughts In The Grocery Store
I had to go grocery shopping today because of Soccer-Mom weekend. Rats. I really hate that. One of my fondest desires is for food to magically appear in my kitchen... It does for everyone else in the house, I guess. So, I put on my headphones and some tunes and did my best to grocery shop without starting to sing. Let me set the scene a bit; at the market where I shop, the average age of the shoppers is about 85 I think. Harried moms are common, though. (Is there any other kind of mom?) Occasionally a college student sneaks in. Usually, they're in the liquor aisle. Or buying chips.
There I am in the produce section and I'm studying the the pineapples and singing under my breath. (I hope.) I'm smiling all dorky because I like the song etc. I look up and a twenty-something god is walking right past me. He's tall with dark hair and tanned arms, wearing a white short sleeved t-shirt with and carrying his basket high to avoid bonking some old lady in the head. He has muscles bulging all over the arm holding the basket. And it's obvious he's the kind of god who doesn't realize he's a god. He was looking at me because, alas, I'm pretty sure I wasn't really singing under my breath very well. I'm pretending he was thinking I'm hot for Soccer Mom singing dork. Wildly inappropriate thoughts flashed through my head. I think I was mentally worked up on account of Sunday we took the kids to see Game Plan in which The Rock displays a damned awesome physique. Trust me, there's no other reason to see that movie.
Anyway shopping today wasn't so bad.
Now I'm trying to work on Scandal. I had a great idea for a new scene pop into my head today. I'm going to rewrite a chapter to add that, but time's a wasting...
There I am in the produce section and I'm studying the the pineapples and singing under my breath. (I hope.) I'm smiling all dorky because I like the song etc. I look up and a twenty-something god is walking right past me. He's tall with dark hair and tanned arms, wearing a white short sleeved t-shirt with and carrying his basket high to avoid bonking some old lady in the head. He has muscles bulging all over the arm holding the basket. And it's obvious he's the kind of god who doesn't realize he's a god. He was looking at me because, alas, I'm pretty sure I wasn't really singing under my breath very well. I'm pretending he was thinking I'm hot for Soccer Mom singing dork. Wildly inappropriate thoughts flashed through my head. I think I was mentally worked up on account of Sunday we took the kids to see Game Plan in which The Rock displays a damned awesome physique. Trust me, there's no other reason to see that movie.
Anyway shopping today wasn't so bad.
Now I'm trying to work on Scandal. I had a great idea for a new scene pop into my head today. I'm going to rewrite a chapter to add that, but time's a wasting...
posted by Carolyn @ 10/01/2007 08:14:00 PM Permalink
Friday, September 28, 2007
Friday... I love you madly, if only you came after Monday....
What a long week. The happy news is I've hit or exceeded my minimum every day, including today. I'm closing in on the ending for Scandal which is still going well. Only I know I have a lot of fixing to do...
This weekend my son has a soccer tournament in a town far enough away that it's an overnighter for us. So, I'm freaking a bit about whether I'll be able to get enough writing done. The laptop is coming with me, naturally.
I'm going to bed now. One person has requested my patented Vishous Dish, any other takers? Isn't it great there's a book people care about so much? This is me. Waiting for Phury...
This weekend my son has a soccer tournament in a town far enough away that it's an overnighter for us. So, I'm freaking a bit about whether I'll be able to get enough writing done. The laptop is coming with me, naturally.
I'm going to bed now. One person has requested my patented Vishous Dish, any other takers? Isn't it great there's a book people care about so much? This is me. Waiting for Phury...
Labels: Scandal, writing, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 9/28/2007 09:15:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Been Readin'. . .
Yes, I have read Lover Unbound by J.R. Ward I read it yesterday. A lovely day married only by the fact that I've picked up my son's cold. I'm trying hard not to spoil anything, so actually, it being this early on, I'll only say that the story was larger than life which is exactly what I so love about the series. Big bad boys. Really BIG bad boys. I love bad boys.
Anybody who would like Carolyn's patented inside scoop can email me privately, and I'll dish you some Vishous dirt. I'd love to compare notes!
I also recently finished reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyers. This book has been out long enough that I don't think I'll spoil anything by talking about it. For anyone who doesn't know, this is the first of a now prominent YA series. The protagonist is 17 year Bella who moves from Phoenix AZ to Forks WA and meets the gorgeous and mysterious Edward, who is her classmate. So, yes, the characters are teenagers, but the story is quite complex and utterly compelling, as any good novel is, regardless of target market.
Edward is a vampire.
The book is quite long, but yay for long stories that need to be long! Bella, Edward and their developing relationship is brilliantly rendered. When the villain shows up the story is absolutely impossible to put down. He's scary. Legitimately scary. The guy is probably one of the best villains I've ever read.
I also read Night Play by Sherrilyn Kenyon Lucky me! I haven't read all the Dark Hunter novels. Naturally, I enjoyed this one. The hero is one of the were-people, so no actual Dark Hunters. Fun story.
Scandal is going well enough. Maybe not fast enough, but well enough. I'm heading for bed early tonight since I'm not really 100%.
Anybody who would like Carolyn's patented inside scoop can email me privately, and I'll dish you some Vishous dirt. I'd love to compare notes!
I also recently finished reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyers. This book has been out long enough that I don't think I'll spoil anything by talking about it. For anyone who doesn't know, this is the first of a now prominent YA series. The protagonist is 17 year Bella who moves from Phoenix AZ to Forks WA and meets the gorgeous and mysterious Edward, who is her classmate. So, yes, the characters are teenagers, but the story is quite complex and utterly compelling, as any good novel is, regardless of target market.
Edward is a vampire.
The book is quite long, but yay for long stories that need to be long! Bella, Edward and their developing relationship is brilliantly rendered. When the villain shows up the story is absolutely impossible to put down. He's scary. Legitimately scary. The guy is probably one of the best villains I've ever read.
I also read Night Play by Sherrilyn Kenyon Lucky me! I haven't read all the Dark Hunter novels. Naturally, I enjoyed this one. The hero is one of the were-people, so no actual Dark Hunters. Fun story.
Scandal is going well enough. Maybe not fast enough, but well enough. I'm heading for bed early tonight since I'm not really 100%.
Labels: Black Dagger Brotherhood, reading, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 9/26/2007 08:17:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Thoughts on Writing
I've been in correspondence with some young writers lately, met through various methods. MySpace, emails to me, the Little Owl Mentoring program, contest judging etc. Which is why I think I'd be really happy teaching one of these days. I seem to do a lot of that. Be that as it may, as anyone who's had the opportunity to read work by writers working toward publication knows, there are a lot of writers out there who need to read more and study more about writing. The case is somewhat different with younger writers as they are still learning the building blocks of fine writing, not to mention building up life experience so you'd naturally expect their work to have some issues. All of which is a long way of saying I read a lot of work that needs work.
One of the biggest issues (after plain grammar and language skills) is a story that is being told rather than revealed. There's a big difference between rough writing in which the story is being told to me and rough writing in which the story is being revealed. The second case is rare and it's exciting when you come across it. Grammar can be learned, typos can be fixed. You can teach someone how to identify Point of View problems. But it's really, really hard to teach someone to start their story smack in the middle of something tense happening to a character.
But today, I did read something like that. The talent is there. And it's really exciting!
Now I have to go back to work on Scandal. I hate first draft writing. Hate it hate it hate it hate it. But now I have to go do it.
One of the biggest issues (after plain grammar and language skills) is a story that is being told rather than revealed. There's a big difference between rough writing in which the story is being told to me and rough writing in which the story is being revealed. The second case is rare and it's exciting when you come across it. Grammar can be learned, typos can be fixed. You can teach someone how to identify Point of View problems. But it's really, really hard to teach someone to start their story smack in the middle of something tense happening to a character.
But today, I did read something like that. The talent is there. And it's really exciting!
Now I have to go back to work on Scandal. I hate first draft writing. Hate it hate it hate it hate it. But now I have to go do it.
Labels: Scandal, writing, writing craft
posted by Carolyn @ 9/22/2007 07:24:00 PM Permalink
Friday, September 21, 2007
It's a plot, I tell you!
Hopefully I can keep this short and sweet. (Right. I write novels!. I went to the gym while my son was at soccer practice. His practice lasts longer than my workout, so I notebooked while I was waiting for him to finish up. I worked out a lot of stuff. Folks, I think I have a complete plot! I worked through what issues I need to deal with in the remaining chapters. I wrote the first half of one of them tonight.
Tomorrow the Darling Child's soccer game is 40 minutes away and he has to be there at 8:00 am. Sigh. Which is why I'm going to bed now. I have to get up early. But I'll have the afternoon to work, plus I'm not dead tired like I was last weekend.
Off to bed.
Tomorrow the Darling Child's soccer game is 40 minutes away and he has to be there at 8:00 am. Sigh. Which is why I'm going to bed now. I have to get up early. But I'll have the afternoon to work, plus I'm not dead tired like I was last weekend.
Off to bed.
posted by Carolyn @ 9/21/2007 10:00:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, September 20, 2007
That Old Panicky Feeling
Yesterday was my son's Jr. High Open House so that's what I was doing last night. I didn't get much writing done. Maybe three hundred words, and then it was really just too late. I don't want to get behind on my sleep. With soccer season on, I don't think I have any weekends for quite some time during which I can sleep in.
This morning I went to the gym and while I biked I notebooked and mapped out the ending for Scandal. I have that blocked out in my chapter outline and now I'm working my way there. I want to be done by Nov. 15 so I have a month to edit and polish. Meanwhile I have some chapters to fix, and one that is currently homeless, but soon won't be.
Back to work.
Oh, and I guess one last thing. People want to live their lives and be happy and avoid conflict and unpleasantness. But there are events that must not be left unremarked and wrongs that cannot be met with silence or inaction. It's not enough to think someone else will surely be more eloquent or is better placed to act. Quite probably that's true. But the point isn't to wait for someone else's eloquence or the action. The point is to add your voice somehow so that your silence doesn't add itself to evil. Forget eloquence. Act if you can, but speak out. So I'm speaking out.
It really makes me just spitting mad when people say or do things that insult, demean or denigrate another race or gender and then remark, with all seriousness, that gee, they didn't mean it that way. Don't you get that it was a joke? You know, like those white kids in Jenna, Louisiana thought those nooses were a joke. Or the adults who actually said people are overreacting to a prank. Well, it wasn't a joke to the black kids. Right now the legal system in LA is failing all of us. A felony charge? Those nooses were powerful symbols of hate. And quite frankly, if the people of Jenna are really the non-rascists they claim to be, why the hell were they glaring from their porches (as was reported) instead of marching? That's another symbol and I understand it loud and clear. And that's just something I can't let go unremarked.
This morning I went to the gym and while I biked I notebooked and mapped out the ending for Scandal. I have that blocked out in my chapter outline and now I'm working my way there. I want to be done by Nov. 15 so I have a month to edit and polish. Meanwhile I have some chapters to fix, and one that is currently homeless, but soon won't be.
Back to work.
Oh, and I guess one last thing. People want to live their lives and be happy and avoid conflict and unpleasantness. But there are events that must not be left unremarked and wrongs that cannot be met with silence or inaction. It's not enough to think someone else will surely be more eloquent or is better placed to act. Quite probably that's true. But the point isn't to wait for someone else's eloquence or the action. The point is to add your voice somehow so that your silence doesn't add itself to evil. Forget eloquence. Act if you can, but speak out. So I'm speaking out.
It really makes me just spitting mad when people say or do things that insult, demean or denigrate another race or gender and then remark, with all seriousness, that gee, they didn't mean it that way. Don't you get that it was a joke? You know, like those white kids in Jenna, Louisiana thought those nooses were a joke. Or the adults who actually said people are overreacting to a prank. Well, it wasn't a joke to the black kids. Right now the legal system in LA is failing all of us. A felony charge? Those nooses were powerful symbols of hate. And quite frankly, if the people of Jenna are really the non-rascists they claim to be, why the hell were they glaring from their porches (as was reported) instead of marching? That's another symbol and I understand it loud and clear. And that's just something I can't let go unremarked.
Labels: editing, hate, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 9/20/2007 08:59:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
The hassles of modern life
There are several actually. But the one on my mind right now is Credit Cards. I try never to use them anymore. There are some things, however, for which a credit card is a necessity. Hotel reservations. On line purchases, certain bills. But I have those amounts budgeted and I am working on being debt free ASAP. So, the hassle is that the other day I had to reserve a hotel room for a soccer tournament and my credit card was not in my wallet. Uh-oh! I hadn't shredded the old one and so was able to get the number and reserve the room. But then I had to call and cancel the missing card.
I have no idea where the card might be. I haven't used it for a physical purchase in months and months and months. I don't really know when I saw it last. So today the new card arrived and I had to spend a couple of hours updating my card info everywhere there's a recurring charge. I still don't have them all yet. What a hassle. And the biggest hassle of all turned out to be Amazon! Completely hidden and unintuitive.
Right, so I'm blogging early tonight so I can wrap up the night's work on Scandal and fall straight into bed. Today was a dumb, boring day full of hassles. Blech. Yesterday's work on Scandal went well, but I'm starting to feel panicky about the amount of work that is, or isn't, getting done.
Off to write.
I have no idea where the card might be. I haven't used it for a physical purchase in months and months and months. I don't really know when I saw it last. So today the new card arrived and I had to spend a couple of hours updating my card info everywhere there's a recurring charge. I still don't have them all yet. What a hassle. And the biggest hassle of all turned out to be Amazon! Completely hidden and unintuitive.
Right, so I'm blogging early tonight so I can wrap up the night's work on Scandal and fall straight into bed. Today was a dumb, boring day full of hassles. Blech. Yesterday's work on Scandal went well, but I'm starting to feel panicky about the amount of work that is, or isn't, getting done.
Off to write.
Labels: Scandal, writing, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 9/18/2007 07:53:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Some post title here
Yikes. Didn't get much done today, word-wise. Soccer in the morning in a city about 45 minutes away, then back to town where I did the grocery shopping before heading home. Kidlet not happy about that, but pretty much, tough tootles for him. No way was I going to go back into town to shop later. Too much stuff is out or picked over. I gave him $5.00 and send him over to the yogurt place to wait for me while I shopped.
Came home from shopping and fell exhausted into bed and slept hard again. When I woke up, I fuzted around and thought about Scandal but didn't actually do anything about it. Then I took the DC to the movies. We saw The Brave One which was better than I expected. I like moral ambiguity and that was present for sure. And, I'm embarrassed to admit that I totally missed a subtle yet key point of a pivotal scene that my son totally picked up on. He liked the movie, which I actually didn't expect. I thought it might be too cerebral for his tastes, but no.
Came home, took down the garbage and recycling and I swear by the time I walked back up the hill, I was ready to fall down in a heap. I'm exhausted now, and this, obviously by now, isn't normal. I wasn't anemic when I gave blood, so that's not the problem. So, we'll see how things are tomorrow. I must be getting something. I did work on Scandal though, and ended up rearranging the chapters. But I need an unexhausted brain to think about where things are going.
To bed for me.
Came home from shopping and fell exhausted into bed and slept hard again. When I woke up, I fuzted around and thought about Scandal but didn't actually do anything about it. Then I took the DC to the movies. We saw The Brave One which was better than I expected. I like moral ambiguity and that was present for sure. And, I'm embarrassed to admit that I totally missed a subtle yet key point of a pivotal scene that my son totally picked up on. He liked the movie, which I actually didn't expect. I thought it might be too cerebral for his tastes, but no.
Came home, took down the garbage and recycling and I swear by the time I walked back up the hill, I was ready to fall down in a heap. I'm exhausted now, and this, obviously by now, isn't normal. I wasn't anemic when I gave blood, so that's not the problem. So, we'll see how things are tomorrow. I must be getting something. I did work on Scandal though, and ended up rearranging the chapters. But I need an unexhausted brain to think about where things are going.
To bed for me.
Labels: movies, Scandal, Writting. freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 9/16/2007 08:58:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Rats.
So, I was writing along, in between bouts of emailing, turning on the laptop and getting stuff updated etc. (where by etc is meant anything not writing-related) and things were going well. Until it turned out I had to delete all of Chapter 18, which was the most recent chapter, and substitute a different chapter that needed to be conformed to its new home. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad I did it. No sense keeping a chapter that turns out not to be pulling its weight. And, I like the way this section is now coming along.
More soccer tomorrow morning, so I need to get to bed, down 900 and something words. Coulda been worse.
More soccer tomorrow morning, so I need to get to bed, down 900 and something words. Coulda been worse.
Labels: editing, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 9/15/2007 09:26:00 PM Permalink
exhaustion
This morning I was soccer Mom. When we got home from his game, I futzed around a bit, answered emails etc, and then took a nap and fell fast, fast asleep. Not one of those lovely afternoon naps in which the mind is working for you, but a deep, dark completely comatose sleep. I'm still groggy from that. But I'm working on Scandal, in fits. This whole book is getting worked on in fits. I keep worrying that it's too vanilla Regency and I'm worried that it's boring.
The thing is, I have to have enough written to know in my bones what the deal is with the story and the two characters. But I'm not there yet, and so here I am in the painful writing stage. Sigh. Which I hate. I'd much rather be editing a substantially complete book. At the moment, I have just short of 50,000 words, which is not quite critical mass for me. Almost, but not quite. 70K is about where the story is essentially done, the other 20-30K comes from editing and polishing. But I'm not there. Wahhhh! I'd rather clean my desk than do this. OK, I'll stop complaining and go back to work.
My son is off with a friend tonight for a bit, so I don't have to cook dinner. It'd be cool to hit my minimum early and read or relax or something. Which isn't going to happen if I'm blogging. Rats.
The thing is, I have to have enough written to know in my bones what the deal is with the story and the two characters. But I'm not there yet, and so here I am in the painful writing stage. Sigh. Which I hate. I'd much rather be editing a substantially complete book. At the moment, I have just short of 50,000 words, which is not quite critical mass for me. Almost, but not quite. 70K is about where the story is essentially done, the other 20-30K comes from editing and polishing. But I'm not there. Wahhhh! I'd rather clean my desk than do this. OK, I'll stop complaining and go back to work.
My son is off with a friend tonight for a bit, so I don't have to cook dinner. It'd be cool to hit my minimum early and read or relax or something. Which isn't going to happen if I'm blogging. Rats.
Labels: editing, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 9/15/2007 05:38:00 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
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Reporting In
Well, I'm awfully tired these days. I'm trying to get myself into bed with the lights out at an earlier hour, but it's tough to wind down enough. I need to find a way to catch up on the sleep, though. This is nuts.
My sister's dog is lost. He's an elderly Rat Terrior, going grey, mostly deaf, who recently had surgery and needs his stitches out. She was at my brother's house and left him in the back yard, securely fastened in they thought, while they took the kids to McDonald's. But he was gone when they got back, and now he's been missing since Tuesday, which is why I didn't get any work done that day. I went over there to help look. She's had a couple of calls and near-catches by others. It's awful. She's loves her dog dearly, and it's horrible to think of him wandering around. We're all hoping he's found soon.
Yesterday, I got a lot done on Scandal and now I need to go get to more. Off to work.
My sister's dog is lost. He's an elderly Rat Terrior, going grey, mostly deaf, who recently had surgery and needs his stitches out. She was at my brother's house and left him in the back yard, securely fastened in they thought, while they took the kids to McDonald's. But he was gone when they got back, and now he's been missing since Tuesday, which is why I didn't get any work done that day. I went over there to help look. She's had a couple of calls and near-catches by others. It's awful. She's loves her dog dearly, and it's horrible to think of him wandering around. We're all hoping he's found soon.
Yesterday, I got a lot done on Scandal and now I need to go get to more. Off to work.
Labels: life in general, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 9/13/2007 06:26:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Weekends are never long enough, are they?
My brother's wedding was really lovely. My son was very handsome in his white shirt and dress pants. I even managed a few pictures of him. The drive up north was winding, but gorgeous. The coast in this part of California is rugged. The wedding was at a house with a back yard (where the ceremony was) that looked directly over the ocean. 
There was a beach within sight of the house full of Sea Lions. Their barking was a constant background noise. Later, I grabbed a pair of binocs and got a closer look at them. Got home about five, made dinner and then everyone went to bed early, including me. My brother will probably be mad if he reads this (I don't think he does, most of the family pays very little attention to my writing) but this time he married the right woman. They're wonderful together.
Here's a picture of the Darling Child in Full Pout Mode. He didn't want to leave and the chair was comfy, too. Those are not the dressy clothes, by the way.
Turns out my son's Saturday soccer game that he was supposed to miss because of the wedding got canceled. Today's game went very well. They won 4-0 and looked like a much different team than before. Then we went to Art In The Park where Balou, the ceramacist/potter gave my son a gorgeous pottery mask. He's getting quite a collection of her work. She was telling everyone that he's her oldest customer. We've been seeing her every year now for 6 years. It's really wonderful for him. We had a great time. Then home, and then I had to go shopping.
My dog fell in the pond. One part of it is so covered with duckweed I think he thought it was solid. Fortunately, I was there to pull him out. I'm not sure he could have gotten out on his own. He's quite traumatized over it. Me too, actually.
At last, though, I got to work on Scandal. I finished re-ordering the chapters and wrote a new one. But I'm still behind. Now I have to go to bed.
Last night I finished Lisa Gardner's Survivor's Club. It was really good.
There was a beach within sight of the house full of Sea Lions. Their barking was a constant background noise. Later, I grabbed a pair of binocs and got a closer look at them. Got home about five, made dinner and then everyone went to bed early, including me. My brother will probably be mad if he reads this (I don't think he does, most of the family pays very little attention to my writing) but this time he married the right woman. They're wonderful together.Here's a picture of the Darling Child in Full Pout Mode. He didn't want to leave and the chair was comfy, too. Those are not the dressy clothes, by the way.
Turns out my son's Saturday soccer game that he was supposed to miss because of the wedding got canceled. Today's game went very well. They won 4-0 and looked like a much different team than before. Then we went to Art In The Park where Balou, the ceramacist/potter gave my son a gorgeous pottery mask. He's getting quite a collection of her work. She was telling everyone that he's her oldest customer. We've been seeing her every year now for 6 years. It's really wonderful for him. We had a great time. Then home, and then I had to go shopping.
My dog fell in the pond. One part of it is so covered with duckweed I think he thought it was solid. Fortunately, I was there to pull him out. I'm not sure he could have gotten out on his own. He's quite traumatized over it. Me too, actually.
At last, though, I got to work on Scandal. I finished re-ordering the chapters and wrote a new one. But I'm still behind. Now I have to go to bed.
Last night I finished Lisa Gardner's Survivor's Club. It was really good.
Labels: editing, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 9/09/2007 09:51:00 PM Permalink
Friday, September 07, 2007
Friday, and not a moment too soon
It's going to be a busy weekend. I didn't get any writing done yesterday, for one thing. sigh. I skipped the gym this morning because I was so darn tired. Instead, I went this afternoon, while my son was at soccer practice. I did some good notebooking. I had a bunch of little errands to run today, too. I mailed off the signed contracts for the two historicals, I bought new windshield wipers since mine have deteriorated to the point of being non-functional, and since it's September there's bound to start being some mornings of heavy mist with perhaps some rain, though it won't start raining (if it does at all) until November, but still. Gotta be prepared. Then I had to get gas so I have a full tank for the drive to the wedding tomorrow.
So, now I'm looking at my chapters and conforming my outline and I've had to delete one chapter for being repetitive. I wrote a better version the other day. And in doing this I can see I have stuff in all the wrong order, so tonight will be fixing that. No writing, probably, given the time. No writing tomorrow, what with my brother's wedding and all. Soccer and Art In The Park Sunday, so I'll have to fit the writing in sideways. No rowing, obviously. Rats.
Anyway, back to getting my chapters in order.
So, now I'm looking at my chapters and conforming my outline and I've had to delete one chapter for being repetitive. I wrote a better version the other day. And in doing this I can see I have stuff in all the wrong order, so tonight will be fixing that. No writing, probably, given the time. No writing tomorrow, what with my brother's wedding and all. Soccer and Art In The Park Sunday, so I'll have to fit the writing in sideways. No rowing, obviously. Rats.
Anyway, back to getting my chapters in order.
Labels: outlines, Scandal, writing process
posted by Carolyn @ 9/07/2007 09:13:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Some days are just . . . not my favorite
Like today. Today was not my favorite day. I got to work and there's servers crashing every time I blink. Then I was cleaning up some untidiness from that and other issues and dealing with developers who really should have been more chilled but weren't. Then more work, you know, crap and stuff. I left the office a bit late and went to pick up a game for my son, he'd pre-paid and pre-ordered the thing and today was The Day, which meant I got home later than usual. My brother and his wife were visiting, which was nice, except I was hoping to get some work done, which didn't happen. Nice visit though. My sister-in-law and I love the same tea so it was nice to chat and drink Yogi Egyptian Licorice Tea. Then I had to cook dinner only I got distracted and there was this alarming little fire for a brief period. Remarkably, nothing actually burned. Dinner got cooked, the Darling Child got fed, then I thought, Yes! At last! I can sit and get some work done. Which I would have done only there were all these bills to pay (I pay mine and my parents) and wouldn't you know, some bills were complicated because billing addresses had changed, and other bills were ending so I had to make sure no more payments were sent and others had been paid but never credited, and I had to deal with all that. Sheesh!
So now it's 8:34 and Rats! I forgot!! I have to go start the laundry.
> > > >
OK, so now the laundry's started. Anyway, then my other brother called, the one who's getting married Saturday and said he hoped my son had Khakis and a collared shirt for the wedding. Well, the answer is no, he doesn't. But the DC has a soccer scrimmage in another town on Thursday and practice Friday evening and we have to leave by 9:00 am Saturday to get to where the wedding is, so when exactly I'm supposed to get clothes for my son I really don't know. Not that this town has 16 or 18 slims anywhere. I guess tomorrow evening sometime. Note: Please do NOT point out that I should have realized my son should have had wedding-suitable clothing long before now. I didn't even know until yesterday exactly where the dang wedding was going to be held. Well, that was an amazing bit of sleight of hand, conflating an unknown location with an inability to obtain wedding clothing. To be honest, the days just all got away from me, and besides we were at the soccer tournament all weekend.
Right. So now it's 8:43 and I'm going to try to get SOMETHING done on Scandal. Yesterday went well.
Oh, wait. Yesterday I finished Julia Quinn's The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever and I LOVED this book. Quinn at her amusing best. Everyone go read this romance and next week we'll all have a chat about it.
Now I'm going to write.
So now it's 8:34 and Rats! I forgot!! I have to go start the laundry.
> > > >
OK, so now the laundry's started. Anyway, then my other brother called, the one who's getting married Saturday and said he hoped my son had Khakis and a collared shirt for the wedding. Well, the answer is no, he doesn't. But the DC has a soccer scrimmage in another town on Thursday and practice Friday evening and we have to leave by 9:00 am Saturday to get to where the wedding is, so when exactly I'm supposed to get clothes for my son I really don't know. Not that this town has 16 or 18 slims anywhere. I guess tomorrow evening sometime. Note: Please do NOT point out that I should have realized my son should have had wedding-suitable clothing long before now. I didn't even know until yesterday exactly where the dang wedding was going to be held. Well, that was an amazing bit of sleight of hand, conflating an unknown location with an inability to obtain wedding clothing. To be honest, the days just all got away from me, and besides we were at the soccer tournament all weekend.
Right. So now it's 8:43 and I'm going to try to get SOMETHING done on Scandal. Yesterday went well.
Oh, wait. Yesterday I finished Julia Quinn's The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever and I LOVED this book. Quinn at her amusing best. Everyone go read this romance and next week we'll all have a chat about it.
Now I'm going to write.
Labels: reading, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 9/05/2007 08:25:00 PM Permalink
Monday, September 03, 2007
Alas, poor Holiday Weekend, I knew you well and Labored Not
Today I was supposed to catch up on Scandal but I didn't. I slept until nine (heaven!) then took my son to breakfast. He was so tired from soccer he want to bed at 9:00pm last night and actually managed to be out of bed before me this morning. After breakfast we went to the bookstore. Yeah. Uh oh. More books in the TBR.
I need to at least pretend to look at Scandal tonight, so I'm off for some work.
Sigh.
I need to at least pretend to look at Scandal tonight, so I'm off for some work.
Sigh.
Labels: avoidance behavior, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 9/03/2007 08:32:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, September 02, 2007
overheated
Today was day 2 of my son's soccer tournament. As expected, they got their butts kicked by the Under 14 teams. We were missing one of our bigger players and another good mid, too. Some of those U14 boys were, no fooling, six feet tall, at least one was at least a foot taller than my son, who's coming up on 5'3" They made a much better showing against the U13 boys. They have some offensive issues, but they dominated most of the time (they just couldn't get it in the goal). Against the U14 boys, my son made two absolutely stellar defensive plays, one came with the goalie too far out of the box. The giant boys blew past the goalie but my son blocked the shot in the goal (no hands since he's a fullback). Awesome play. He made another similar play in the next game. He played a little offense but not for long, since they soon needed him on defense. Interesting, though, to see him on offense. Still, there's signs of the team coming together. They should win some league games.
Today's games were deadly hot. 100+ degrees. Yuck yuck yuck. I'm wiped out completely, and that was just from watching. My brain is fried. I managed to get through 2-3 books this weekend so far. More on that later.
The tomatoes are starting to come in and it's heaven. Tonight I parboiled a couple of tomatoes with the pasta, then skinned them, mushed up the innards with garlic and butter and mixed in the pasta. Yummy! I like cooking that doesn't require a recipe. And garden tomatoes. Oh, to have tomatoes that taste like tomatoes. Heaven, indeed.
So, I read books during the tournament in-between times (they had games at 9am and 2pm both days) one book I won't mention by title or author because I didn't much like it. It was Romantic Suspense by a NYT author and included everything I consider cheap parlor tricks. I intensely disliked the heroine, too. She was a whiner. But mostly I despised the deliberate inclusion of tricks, just plain authorial tricks, to make it look like one of the characters was the villain. There's a difference between a red herring and an authorial lie. Like, suppose you have two characters whose names are, say, Fredericka and Felicia and everyone calls Fredericka "Freddie". So, when the psycho has a conversation with "Freddie" who could it be but Fredericka, right? No. Turns out Felicia has a secret nickname of "Freddie" which isn't revealed until the last few pages. This book went straight into the garbage.
I also read Lori Foster's Simon Says which I enjoyed a lot. It was well written, internally consistent, mostly worked against stereotype and cliche, and was fun. I've started Tess Gerritsen's Mephisto Club. Pretty good so far. I read a page or two of Cormack McCarthy's The Road, realized it was going to be depressing as heck and set it aside for a time when my brain isn't fried from heat.
I'm going to bed now. I'm going to sleep late tomorrow morning and then get myself caught up on Scandal.
Today's games were deadly hot. 100+ degrees. Yuck yuck yuck. I'm wiped out completely, and that was just from watching. My brain is fried. I managed to get through 2-3 books this weekend so far. More on that later.
The tomatoes are starting to come in and it's heaven. Tonight I parboiled a couple of tomatoes with the pasta, then skinned them, mushed up the innards with garlic and butter and mixed in the pasta. Yummy! I like cooking that doesn't require a recipe. And garden tomatoes. Oh, to have tomatoes that taste like tomatoes. Heaven, indeed.
So, I read books during the tournament in-between times (they had games at 9am and 2pm both days) one book I won't mention by title or author because I didn't much like it. It was Romantic Suspense by a NYT author and included everything I consider cheap parlor tricks. I intensely disliked the heroine, too. She was a whiner. But mostly I despised the deliberate inclusion of tricks, just plain authorial tricks, to make it look like one of the characters was the villain. There's a difference between a red herring and an authorial lie. Like, suppose you have two characters whose names are, say, Fredericka and Felicia and everyone calls Fredericka "Freddie". So, when the psycho has a conversation with "Freddie" who could it be but Fredericka, right? No. Turns out Felicia has a secret nickname of "Freddie" which isn't revealed until the last few pages. This book went straight into the garbage.
I also read Lori Foster's Simon Says which I enjoyed a lot. It was well written, internally consistent, mostly worked against stereotype and cliche, and was fun. I've started Tess Gerritsen's Mephisto Club. Pretty good so far. I read a page or two of Cormack McCarthy's The Road, realized it was going to be depressing as heck and set it aside for a time when my brain isn't fried from heat.
I'm going to bed now. I'm going to sleep late tomorrow morning and then get myself caught up on Scandal.
posted by Carolyn @ 9/02/2007 08:34:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Uh oh. I've been goofing off
Playing with photos. The roses and dahlias here are in bloom and I've been going out in the late late afternoon to take pictures. I'm getting better and better at it. I figured out how to get fewer blurry shots.
Now I really have to go work on Scandal. I have a cool chapter to write and a work minimum to meet.
Now I really have to go work on Scandal. I have a cool chapter to write and a work minimum to meet.
Labels: procrastination, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 8/30/2007 08:45:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
The Big Sigh
Sigh.
I have got to stop staying up until 11:00 pm. So, yeah, I'm tired. Let's see... skipped the gym this am because I was too freaking tired. Went to work. Came home from work. Family stuff. Take son to soccer practice. I got some writing done. I wrote my emotional pain chapter last night; that came out good. In the car at practice, I spent some time staring at the laptop, then I realized I needed to move a chapter, so I did that and felt happy about about 20 seconds. Then I started working on the next chapter in which things get worse for my heroine Sophie. I wrote a paragraph, deleted it because it was stupid and boring and started with a different paragraph. I wrote some stuff and left off when I realized I had written mostly narrative and I needed to start putting people in the chapter. Practice was over.
Then we went to the bookstore because, well, my son has never been the world's most avid reader and for quite sometime I despaired. How, I've long worried, was I going to communicate with a boy who doesn't like to read much and who's good at math? Sidebar: Today, he was singing (a nonsense song) as he was doing his math homework and darned if he can't carry a tune! If he can sing, and it appears maybe he can, that's not a talent that comes from my side of the family. Sidebar Over
So, there was these series of books that enthralled him, the first book of which he HAD TO READ to himself for school. Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver. And he loved it enough to want to read the rest of them. Then came this series based very loosely on Greek mythology only set in modern times which he loved even more. He has a friend he admires very much, and they have quite a book club going between them. Because of all the books I've read to him, he and his friend had an amazing number of book-loves in common, and they recommended books to each other.
At his school, every day from 12:00 to 12:20, EVERYONE spends 20 minutes reading a book; the principal, the janitors, teachers, students, everyone. So, we found a book for him to take (after much complaining from him) and he finished it the other day, and begged to be taken to get the next one. And THEN, this was the most exciting part for me, he started reading it in the store and as we were walking back to the car. I had to hold his hand when we crossed the street because I didn't want him to trip or something. Suddenly, I seem to have reader on my hands, and this delights me even more than his being good at math and soccer. I'm just jealous about the singing thing. Rats. I've always wanted to be able to sing.
What these books have in common is lots of fighting, he says. Makes sense. He's a boy.
All right. I have to go meet my minimum word count. My heroine is about to find herself obliged to write to the hero to beg for assistance. Or something like that, I won't know for sure until I write the scene. Then I'm going to bed.
I have got to stop staying up until 11:00 pm. So, yeah, I'm tired. Let's see... skipped the gym this am because I was too freaking tired. Went to work. Came home from work. Family stuff. Take son to soccer practice. I got some writing done. I wrote my emotional pain chapter last night; that came out good. In the car at practice, I spent some time staring at the laptop, then I realized I needed to move a chapter, so I did that and felt happy about about 20 seconds. Then I started working on the next chapter in which things get worse for my heroine Sophie. I wrote a paragraph, deleted it because it was stupid and boring and started with a different paragraph. I wrote some stuff and left off when I realized I had written mostly narrative and I needed to start putting people in the chapter. Practice was over.
Then we went to the bookstore because, well, my son has never been the world's most avid reader and for quite sometime I despaired. How, I've long worried, was I going to communicate with a boy who doesn't like to read much and who's good at math? Sidebar: Today, he was singing (a nonsense song) as he was doing his math homework and darned if he can't carry a tune! If he can sing, and it appears maybe he can, that's not a talent that comes from my side of the family. Sidebar Over
So, there was these series of books that enthralled him, the first book of which he HAD TO READ to himself for school. Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver. And he loved it enough to want to read the rest of them. Then came this series based very loosely on Greek mythology only set in modern times which he loved even more. He has a friend he admires very much, and they have quite a book club going between them. Because of all the books I've read to him, he and his friend had an amazing number of book-loves in common, and they recommended books to each other.
At his school, every day from 12:00 to 12:20, EVERYONE spends 20 minutes reading a book; the principal, the janitors, teachers, students, everyone. So, we found a book for him to take (after much complaining from him) and he finished it the other day, and begged to be taken to get the next one. And THEN, this was the most exciting part for me, he started reading it in the store and as we were walking back to the car. I had to hold his hand when we crossed the street because I didn't want him to trip or something. Suddenly, I seem to have reader on my hands, and this delights me even more than his being good at math and soccer. I'm just jealous about the singing thing. Rats. I've always wanted to be able to sing.
What these books have in common is lots of fighting, he says. Makes sense. He's a boy.
All right. I have to go meet my minimum word count. My heroine is about to find herself obliged to write to the hero to beg for assistance. Or something like that, I won't know for sure until I write the scene. Then I'm going to bed.
Labels: reading, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 8/29/2007 08:15:00 PM Permalink
Monday, August 27, 2007
In A Mood
I didn't sleep well last night. I stayed up too late, for one thing, and then didn't really sleep. Rats. I read Janet Evanovich's newest Stephanie Plum story Lean, Mean Thirteen and laughed pretty darn hard. Very funny. I bought a bunch of books, I couldn't resist them. More on that later. In the middle of not sleeping well, I woke up going, Oh my gosh! Sophie's brother dies. Sophie being the heroine of Scandal. On my way home from work today, the notion solidified even more, so now I'm off to cause my heroine tremendous emotional pain.
Labels: On Being Mean, Scandal, writing, writing scenes
posted by Carolyn @ 8/27/2007 05:12:00 PM Permalink
Friday, August 24, 2007
Late Night With Carolyn
So all right, it's 9:50pm, but for me that's late. I'm done with my writing day, having hit my minimum, and now I can stay up long enough to blog about it because I don't have to get up at 4:30 in the morning tomorrow. (Can you say Yippers!?) I can.
Took the DC to soccer practice and worked in the car with the headphones on listening to some tunes while I wrote the first of the two scenes I notebooked last night. A few things I intended turned out to be contrary to my characters, so I did it differently. I bought a pizza for dinner, and the DC ate on the way home so all I had to do was start the laundry and procrastinate for a while before I wrote the second scene for the new chapter.
So now the minimum is taken care of and I'm happy and tired. Going to bed now. I was going to write some really amusing text here, but this is the best I can do: Pretend this is really amusing text.
Night!
Took the DC to soccer practice and worked in the car with the headphones on listening to some tunes while I wrote the first of the two scenes I notebooked last night. A few things I intended turned out to be contrary to my characters, so I did it differently. I bought a pizza for dinner, and the DC ate on the way home so all I had to do was start the laundry and procrastinate for a while before I wrote the second scene for the new chapter.
So now the minimum is taken care of and I'm happy and tired. Going to bed now. I was going to write some really amusing text here, but this is the best I can do: Pretend this is really amusing text.
Night!
Labels: Scandal, writing, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 8/24/2007 09:49:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, August 23, 2007
It's Friday's Yesterday!
Thanks, Margaret, for coming up with that keen replacement for Thursday.
Blogging earlier in my writing day is tough. I feel like I'm taking up time I could be using to do things that feel like writing but aren't -- like email and MySpace and now Facebook and, uh, blogging -- but lately I've been so tired that blogging at the end of my day just hasn't been happening. The previous day's writing is at this point pretty much immaterial since that was yesterday and this is today or, if you will, Friday's yesterday. Be that as it may, yesterday, I worked in the car while my son was at soccer practice and ended up resurrecting an old chapter which needed some pretty minimal work in order to fit in around its new home. Which meant I had 5,000 "new" words yesterday. But now it's today and yesterday doesn't matter. Except if I hadn't written anything, I would be panicking.
Last night I finished Blackburn by Bradley Denton. OK, look. This isn't a book for just everyone, so if you read it and hate it or can't get past the first few chapters, well, all right. But I have to say it's a damn good book. The protagonist (Blackburn) is completely real. It isn't a book I'll forget anytime soon. If you're interested in seeing how an author makes a protagonist consistent within that world, this is a good book to study.
Here's why I recommend this book: Yesterday at the Day Job cube-room there were HVAC guys all over because the HVAC in the server room is getting fixed so as to avoid another server meltdown. One of the guys, the boss, I believe, goes in the server room, shuts the door and proceeds to have a cell phone conversation with a co-worker. His end is all yelling so everyone outside the server room, which is all of Systems, can hear him quite clearly. Part of his yelling included the phrase (remember, he's yelling) You HAVE to OVERESTIMATE every job! and a bunch of other stuff related to why this particular job should have been overestimated. The moment, the very moment I heard that phrase, I thought If Blackburn were here, he'd kill that guy. And it would have been the right thing to do in a sick and demented kind of way.
So, that's why you should read Blackburn.
But if you're the squeamish type, don't (only, you know, maybe you should just try to get over that for this book). Bradley Denton has written SFF and Horror, it looks like, which probably accounts for why his literary novel is so good. Genre writing teaches you a lot about getting a story to hang together. You have to leave out all the self-indulgent MFA crap. I should know, right?
For the geekish, here's my twitter stream: http://twitter.com/cjewel I don't post to it all that often, but hey, if you're a writer or a reader, you can jump right in and we'll be the first authors/readers on twitter. Right now I think it's mostly geeks. Basically, it's kind of a way of shouting over the fence hey! I'm going to cook dinner, then write?.
Blogging earlier in my writing day is tough. I feel like I'm taking up time I could be using to do things that feel like writing but aren't -- like email and MySpace and now Facebook and, uh, blogging -- but lately I've been so tired that blogging at the end of my day just hasn't been happening. The previous day's writing is at this point pretty much immaterial since that was yesterday and this is today or, if you will, Friday's yesterday. Be that as it may, yesterday, I worked in the car while my son was at soccer practice and ended up resurrecting an old chapter which needed some pretty minimal work in order to fit in around its new home. Which meant I had 5,000 "new" words yesterday. But now it's today and yesterday doesn't matter. Except if I hadn't written anything, I would be panicking.
Last night I finished Blackburn by Bradley Denton. OK, look. This isn't a book for just everyone, so if you read it and hate it or can't get past the first few chapters, well, all right. But I have to say it's a damn good book. The protagonist (Blackburn) is completely real. It isn't a book I'll forget anytime soon. If you're interested in seeing how an author makes a protagonist consistent within that world, this is a good book to study.
Here's why I recommend this book: Yesterday at the Day Job cube-room there were HVAC guys all over because the HVAC in the server room is getting fixed so as to avoid another server meltdown. One of the guys, the boss, I believe, goes in the server room, shuts the door and proceeds to have a cell phone conversation with a co-worker. His end is all yelling so everyone outside the server room, which is all of Systems, can hear him quite clearly. Part of his yelling included the phrase (remember, he's yelling) You HAVE to OVERESTIMATE every job! and a bunch of other stuff related to why this particular job should have been overestimated. The moment, the very moment I heard that phrase, I thought If Blackburn were here, he'd kill that guy. And it would have been the right thing to do in a sick and demented kind of way.
So, that's why you should read Blackburn.
But if you're the squeamish type, don't (only, you know, maybe you should just try to get over that for this book). Bradley Denton has written SFF and Horror, it looks like, which probably accounts for why his literary novel is so good. Genre writing teaches you a lot about getting a story to hang together. You have to leave out all the self-indulgent MFA crap. I should know, right?
For the geekish, here's my twitter stream: http://twitter.com/cjewel I don't post to it all that often, but hey, if you're a writer or a reader, you can jump right in and we'll be the first authors/readers on twitter. Right now I think it's mostly geeks. Basically, it's kind of a way of shouting over the fence hey! I'm going to cook dinner, then write?.
Labels: reading, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 8/23/2007 05:38:00 PM Permalink
