Sunday, June 28, 2009

Back...

Almost exactly 16 hours later...

*yawn*

Yes, I shall answer the siren call of my bed now.

*Blink Blink Blink*

It's absurdly early (for a non-work day), and I'm off to my grandpa's house.

My bed is calling me, but I shall ignore it. Yes... really, I'm not going back...

...maybe just for a minute...

NO... no no.

Have a great Sunday!

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Encouraging News!

I'm getting some positive feedback on the new opening stuff. I've been concentrating on two major sections, and the bits I've shown around are going over well.

Then, last night Jenna was kind enough to read through everything I have. She said some very encouraging things and it looks like I'm definitely going in the right direction with these changes.

It'll be a while before I finish everything and smooth it out, but hopefully it will be soon. I'd love to send out the opening chapters to see what people think. I'm feeling really good about everything right now, and the gaps are slowly filling in. If I can get through this opening -- with all the cuts and losses -- I think I can definitely make it through anything. It was hard to let this stuff go, but in the end, it was likely for the best.

YAY.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Bum-bah-bum, Bum-bah-bum

That is the sound of the music emanating from my downstairs neighbor's apartment.

Bum-bah-bum, Bum-bah-bum.

It's inside my skull and slowly driving me insane.

I don't mean to be a fuddy, but wtf is up with rap music? It's noise. How can a person listen to the same repeating beats over and over for hours and NOT go insane? Obviously, _I_ can't do that.

Bum-bah-bum, Bum-bah-bum.

Someone send me an advil.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Jealousy

I'm jealous -- of who?

Scott Westerfeld.

I love his books. I love them so much that I can't get them out of my head once I'm immersed in his world.

I've been listening to the UGLIES series -- right now, I'm about a third of the way through SPECIALS. I swear, I haven't been able to get the books out of my mind all night. When I should be writing, I'm thinking about what will happen with Tally...and Zane...and David...

Funny, because I've read the books before and I KNOW what happens. LOL.

What I want to be thinking about are my own characters. My own world, and what happens next in the scene I'm working on.

You have to wonder. Why do certain books just hit that spot with you? While others, while good, don't stick with you for more than a day? These books just stick.

Like lightning in a bottle, I want to know his secret.

Le sigh.

Take a bow, Scott Westerfeld. I'll be honest, I want to be you. :)

So, what authors really do it for you?

Whoot Whoo!

Just wanted to pop in to share my excitement.

As I've mentioned earlier, I'm rewriting the beginning of FI. It's a decision that was hard to come to -- as I love my beginning. But inevitably, I had to face the fact that it just wasn't working as is. The writing isn't at the level the later stuff is, and it just didn't match the rest of the book quite the way I wanted it to.

So, begrudingly, I began a rewrite. I still wasn't 100% convinced I could let go of some of the original scenes. Some of them I LOVE...some of them are, let's face it...my darlings. And I didn't want to kill them.

When I was on my morning walk, that all changed. I started flipping through the possibilities and eventually I started seeing how the current scene I'm working on could play out...how it would affect this and this scene and make THIS scene fit better... How I could plant the seeds for some later stuff and, in the end, everything would tie together SO much better.

Why didn't I think of all this before??

Simple. My brain was. I just wasn't listening. :)

So yay. Here's to taking the leap even when you don't want to.

Kill your darlings. Kill 'em.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

YES!

My new bookshelves have arrived. I LURVE them and spent the entire evening putting them together and pulling out all of my books. It looks fantabulous, but I'm not finished yet! I'll try to post some pics when I am.

One of the best things about this is that I now get to unpack books I haven't seen in several years. There are some real crap books in that heap...and there are some real treasures.

Case in point:



POLITICALLY CORRECT: THE ULTIMATE STORYBOOK by James Finn Garner

If you haven't heard of or read this book, you must, must go get it. It's a "PC" version of all the classic fairy tales and they're flippin' hilarious.

A brief excerpt from CINDERELLA:

There once lived a young wommon named Cinderella, whose natural birthmother had died when Cinderella was but a child. A few years after, her father married a widow with two older daughters. Cinderella's mother-of-step treated her very cruelly, and her sisters-of-step made her work very hard, as is she were their own personal unpaid laborer.

One day an invitation arrived at their house. The prince was celebrating his exploitation of the dispossessed and marginalized peasantry by throwing a fancy dress ball. Cinderella's sisters-of-step were very excited to be invited to the palace. They began to plan the expensive clothes they would use to alter and enslave their natural body images to emulate an unrealistic standard of feminine beauty. (It was especially unrealistic in their case, as they were differently visaged enough to stop a clock.) Her mother-of-step also planned to go to the ball, so Cinderella was working harder than a dog (an appropriate if unfortunately speciesist metaphor).

...and on it continues. I must really thank my friend Amy for giving me this book. It has provided many, many laughs.

Okay...pictures soon, promise. :)

Friday, June 12, 2009

Eeeeee.

I'm skerred.

I'm attending my first writer's conference. Someone needs to hold my hand so I don't make a complete jackass out of myself. (g)

It's not until September so hopefully I can build my courage before then.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

A Few Random Thoughts...

My apartment is a disaster, and quite frankly, the remainder of the unpacking is dead last on my to-do list. It seems like every time I get my living room cleared of boxes, etc., I somehow come up with another load of stuff that gets dropped off...in the living room. Of course. It's beginning to drive me nuts, but seriously, I have no time. (But I think I've officially moved _everything_ at this point. So...whoot whoo! At least there won't be any more clutter added to the mess.) In addition, my bookshelves are still on back order. They should be shipping mid to late June, but goodness, that's a long way off. My mother is coming to visit about that time and I can just hear her now if my office is still in its present condition. Come on bookshelves...get thee here.

**

I love my neighborhood. There's a private college a few blocks away and it's a nice, well-established area. (That equals trees. Lotsa trees.) Walking outside at night is just so dang peaceful. I loved my family's neighborhood, but this is more my style. There, the houses are super big and really spaced apart. Here, they're smaller and a lot closer together. In some ways, it reminds me of living in Chicago with all of it's cute two-flats all snugly packed together. (I LOVE Chicago!)

Last night I saw the weirdest thing ever. I was walking Chloe and we ran into a couple walking their dog....and their...CAT. *blink* LOL. I've never heard of such a thing. And no, it wasn't on a leash -- it was just trotting along with them down the street. Needless to say, it freaked the crap out of Chloe. It bristled up to about twice its normal size (which was BIG) and copped an attitude with her. Chloe, bless her, totally cowered before the Great Feline. *shakes head* Poor pooch.

**

I'm running this month's exercise over at Compu. I have no idea what I'm going to do. *thinks hard* Yeah, I got nothing. But never fear...I'll come up with something by Friday. I hope.

**

I'm slowly reading through FI -- taking lots of notes about possible changes. As I said in an earlier post (actually, I think I've been saying this for a while), I plan on changing the front end. Last night, I discovered that I'm just not that happy with the first four chapters. I'm thinking a complete overhaul is in order. I've been brainstorming how to go about it. I definitely want to have it figured out before I start writing, and I think I've got a preliminary "idea". I'll see how it develops over the next couple of days. It does "keep" some of the scenes I have now, but if they stay, they'll all be getting a major face lift.

And yanno, I love that I can still surprise myself. There are some bits in the MS that I've just forgotten about, and they just keep taking me by surprise. When I can get a giggle out of myself, I know I've hit it big with something. There's one moment that I wrote while in SC, and man, it's golden. Not only is it funny, but it's really well-written. *blink* Yeah, I said it. I gave myself props. (g)

**

I hate insurance companies.

**

I'm super excited to beta read for one of my peeps. Hopefully I'll be on the other end of the deal soon. Then you and you and YOU and you and YOU can plow through my book. Aren't you excited??! :) It could get ugly. Prepare yourself.

But yeah, looking forward to this book. I know it's gonna be good.

**

Watched Wolverine the other night. Hugh Jackman is beautiful. There should've been more naked Wolverine scenes. (vbg)

**

Chloe and I both miss Bailey. :( We need to have more sleep-overs.

**

I'm so glad American Idol is over. I can now have my life back (erm, well, that 2-3 hours, anyway.) Yay Kris.

**

Shout out to my gnomies.

**

That is all.