Hello everyone,
Sorry I've been so quiet lately. This is a special blog since this is the 100th entry. YAY! It's kind of hard to believe I've written on this blog 100 times. It makes me feel good to know that I kept up with it for so long. I do enjoy blogging, and hopefully I'll write at least 100 more.
As you know, this month is National Write a Novel Month (NaNoWriMo), and I'm pleased to say that I've finished "Blood Moon." I still need to proof it and send it to my test readers, but it came out to a decent 90,000 words and I'm pleased with it. I also have enough notes to officially begin "Blood God," the final book of the trilogy. I wrote 30,000 more words in "Blood Moon" this month. Hopefully, I'll reach my 50,000 word count by the end of NaNoWriMo, but I don't plan to stress out over it.
It was never my goal to "beat" NaNoWriMo this time. It was my goal to finish the second book of my trilogy, and I did reach that goal. (If I can "beat" NaNoWriMo as well then even better, but I believe in quality over quantity in my writing, so I was taking my time instead of rushing through it.) I really like my "Blood Rain" trilogy and I really like the main character. I want to see her through to the end of her journey before I begin anything else; to do anything less would seem like abandoning her.
I feel that if I start on the third book, I'll probably come up with more ideas and at the very least be able to finish the notes by the end of December. My goal is to have the final book done by the end of January or February. I think that is a realistic goal, especially if I finish the notes.
This has been a good Thanksgiving holiday. I spent time with my family, some quality time with my husband, and USC beat Clemson. I took a little break from writing and that was enough to rejuvenate me, making the day that I decided to work hard on my ending for "Blood Moon" a very good one. I am a firm believer in occasionally taking a little break so that you don't burn yourself out, but not a break long enough to make you lazy Still, I do plan to take another during the Christmas holidays if at all possible.
There are many things I'm thankful for this holiday. I'm thankful for my baby's health and for my husband's constant love and support. I'm thankful that my Mom is still free of breast cancer. I'm thankful for everyone in my family. I'm thankful for my good friends. I'm thankful that I was able to finish my book.
And, above all, I'm thankful to Jesus for his sacrifice and for looking after me and those I love. I know that despite our financial strain this year, things will work out with prayer, patience, and hard work. We've been given many blessings, more than we deserve.
As for the next project after the "Blood Rain" series is over, I'm not sure. I have a lot of different ideas, though. We'll just have to see. I was planning on writing my changeling urban fantasy story, but I've come up some different concepts in the last few weeks that are promising. I'll keep you posted.
I also might start doing a little bit of data entry work in my spare time to make a little extra money. Since the baby will be here in April, any extra money I could get between now and then would be helpful. Still, no worries. I'll find time to write. I always do. (Also, after my appointment on December 10th, I should actually know the gender of the baby. That's exciting. I'll keep you posted...)
Even after the baby is born, I still plan to write when I can. I believe changes in our lives strengthen us and make us better writers because they give us more experiences to draw on for our stories. Having a baby will be a great adventure.
In the meantime, as per my usual advice, keep reading and writing! I hope that you had a happy Thanksgiving holiday.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Surprise! I'm pregnant.
Well, I promised to blog about the "surprise" so here it goes. I'm pregnant and am almost done with my first trimester.
After the unfortunate incident with my first pregnancy, I was trying to wait to tell anyone the news. That was incredibly difficult. Still, I can spread the news now, so I will. We're not out of the woods yet, but I still think the chances are better that this one will work out, especially now that the first trimester is nearly over. Even if it doesn't, I'm not going to give up, but I'm hoping and praying that everything will go smoothly this time. We don't know the gender of the baby yet, but from what we saw on the ultrasound he or she certainly is active.
Currently, we have a few names that we like for girls and boys, but we may end up changing our mind when the time comes. Disclaimer: none of these names are after something/someone in particular. They're just names that we've always liked. Many of them were on the list years and years ago. Any family names will probably be middle names and we have a few ideas for those, but that will be a surprise if we decide to do it. Our current favorite first names for boys are, "Christian", "Nicholas," "Roman," "Skylar," "Caleb," and "Abel." The current favorite girl names are, "Evangeline," "Lydia," "Ariel," "Gabrielle," and "Alyssa."
Truthfully, we've had more trouble thinking of names for girls than boys for some reason. Evangeline and Lydia are my two top choices for a girl for now. As for the boys, I like all of those names, but we have some time to think about it since we won't know the gender until another ten weeks.
Anyway, that's the big news. Please be praying for me. I'm allowing myself to be excited now. Seeing that baby move was amazing and he/she is beautiful. I'm very, very happy, and truthfully a little bit nervous. Still, I think I'm ready for this now.
After the unfortunate incident with my first pregnancy, I was trying to wait to tell anyone the news. That was incredibly difficult. Still, I can spread the news now, so I will. We're not out of the woods yet, but I still think the chances are better that this one will work out, especially now that the first trimester is nearly over. Even if it doesn't, I'm not going to give up, but I'm hoping and praying that everything will go smoothly this time. We don't know the gender of the baby yet, but from what we saw on the ultrasound he or she certainly is active.
Currently, we have a few names that we like for girls and boys, but we may end up changing our mind when the time comes. Disclaimer: none of these names are after something/someone in particular. They're just names that we've always liked. Many of them were on the list years and years ago. Any family names will probably be middle names and we have a few ideas for those, but that will be a surprise if we decide to do it. Our current favorite first names for boys are, "Christian", "Nicholas," "Roman," "Skylar," "Caleb," and "Abel." The current favorite girl names are, "Evangeline," "Lydia," "Ariel," "Gabrielle," and "Alyssa."
Truthfully, we've had more trouble thinking of names for girls than boys for some reason. Evangeline and Lydia are my two top choices for a girl for now. As for the boys, I like all of those names, but we have some time to think about it since we won't know the gender until another ten weeks.
Anyway, that's the big news. Please be praying for me. I'm allowing myself to be excited now. Seeing that baby move was amazing and he/she is beautiful. I'm very, very happy, and truthfully a little bit nervous. Still, I think I'm ready for this now.
50 Shades of...Oh My!
Well, I promised that I would write this review about the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy before I thought better of it, so here it goes. I'm going to try to explain what is good and bad about these books, and I'm going to try to, above all, be fair. Initially, I was going to make this more amusing and poke a bit of fun at it, but I've noticed from others who have read these books that the reviews tend to totally trash them. There are actually good things about these books and I think being that harsh with a new writer is rude. So, here is what I hope is a fair assessment. Let's get the bad over with first...
First of all, I'm not sure what all of the fuss is about. These kinds of stories have been around for a very long time. Just look up BDSM short stories on the internet and see what comes up. I assure you it'll be ten times worse than the 50 Shades of Grey series. I think the "big deal" is that this one was marketed towards a normal book store as opposed to where you would normally find a book like this. Also, many people never were exposed to this lifestyle before reading these books. However, despite the fact that the books are mildly pornographic, the scenes are no worse than those of any other trashy romance novel. There's a lot of sex in the trilogy, to the point it eventually gets to be repetitive, almost boring, but clearly there is a market for that sort of thing.
The biggest problem I saw with this series are problems that stem from the fact E. L. James is a new writer. She repeats words and phrases throughout the entire book series. Word variation is one of those things that's important because a reader literally gets bored when you use the same words over and over again, and it makes it seem that you don't have an extensive vocabulary. I think E. L. James can do better due to the use of words like "mercurial." (Though, I have to admit, "mercurial" got on my nerves. I had never heard that word before I got these books and by the end of them it was ingrained in my head.) Also, let's just say George Takei ruined the phrase "oh my" for me. Every time there was an "oh my" in a love scene, I heard it in the George Takei voice and saw him saying it. Kind of a mood killer...
There was another problem with the third book that the other two didn't have that I feel needs to be mentioned. At the beginning there are a series of flashbacks. The flashbacks occur every other chapter until about page eighty. Never put that many flashbacks in a book, especially in the beginning of one. It was hard to get into "Fifty Shades Freed" because I was interested in what was happening in the "now" and when we backtracked it derailed my interest. Too many disjointed flashbacks is a common problem for new writers as well. I've done that before, but not every other chapter like that. Truthfully, there is a long flashback in the opening of my new book, but it isn't disjointed. It's jarring to go from flashback to present, flashback to present, flashback to present.
Finally, I do take issue that this was a Twilight fanfic. I somehow managed to look at it from an unbiased perspective, but occasionally, I just couldn't. I felt more needed to be changed for me to appreciate it as a work that stood alone.
Still, there are several good things she did to make it stand apart. The back story for Christian Grey was good (it actually reminded me a good deal of the back story for "Dexter," making me wonder if she was inspired by that as well). The characters weren't as annoying as those in Twilight either. I could actually identify with the main character, even though she was VERY naive for her age, something I had trouble doing with Bella, Edward, or Jacob when I read that series. (I'm not even going to bother to review that one. The story falls apart when you realize that Edward is over a hundred years old and falls in love with a teenager. I'm thirty and I hate angsty teenagers now. Also, he's practically starving on the animal blood, and she smells like a steak--he would've eaten her.) Anyway, Christian Grey was a very interesting character that had emotional depth. Even though we're seeing things through Anastasia's eyes, Christian is the main character of the series, which I thought was a kind of interesting twist.
Also, for being a "dominant" Grey actually is a pretty likeable character. If you've ever read anything else like this, most of the time the men are complete and utter scoundrels with no redeeming qualities. If you are just learning about this sort of thing from these books DON'T read Anne Rice's "Sleeping Beauty." I've read stories like this before, and I couldn't get sixty pages into that book because the man was such a jerk I wanted to kill him. Grey is different. He actually does have redeeming qualities, but you do need to keep an open mind and give the series a chance for them to come into play. Also, this is a story about redemption and overcoming the things from his past that make him the way that he is. By the end of the series, he's changed a good deal and so has Ana.
The stories themselves were actually pretty addictive. There was enough action going on in the background that I found myself skimming some of the sex scenes because I wanted to see what happened next. Even though it was "convenient" for one of the villains from Christian's past to come up randomly by crossing Anastasia's path, I think that's a plot device that all of us are guilty of using every now and again. And, I know from experience, the world is a lot smaller than I'd like it to be, so that's one of the complaints about these books I don't agree with and found actually plausible.
Long story short, I actually liked these books. The action (I mean the story not the ahem...action) kept my attention and I read all three. The writing style needs work, but I think E.L. James could be a much better writer with more practice. By the third book many of my complaints except for the additional one were already getting better. She's extremely lucky to have her books catch on like wildfire, but I think she knows that, and I'm happy for her. I'm legitimately happy for her. It was a pleasant surprise at the end of the series that she had a large, all caps "Thank you so much for reading," blurb. She appreciates her fans, and that's a good quality in a writer.
J.K. Rowling said, when she found out how well this book sold, "maybe I should've had Harry be more creative with his wand." What a smarmy thing to say about someone else's work when Rowling was just as lucky to have her work catch on like it did. The witch and wizard school concept has been done before. The first time I was exposed to it was from the Disney movie "Worst Witch." I swear, the more I hear about that woman the less I like her...don't get me started on the "resource book" case. She's a good writer, but I'm becoming convinced that fame has gone to her head and being a good writer isn't everything.
My point is, I think we're all being a little harsh and I think it stems more out of jealousy than legitimate complaint. We try and try to do everything right so that our books will get published. We strive to make our books less cliche, make sure our grammar is impeccable, not repeat our words, and someone came along who broke those rules and is now a millionaire with the biggest audience base a book has gotten in a very long time. It actually gives me hope. I think that means that if there's a market for a certain type of story, your audience will forgive you for your stylistic shortcomings. Thank goodness for that, because I know I have a long way to go.
And that's my review. This has been pretty long...oh my!
First of all, I'm not sure what all of the fuss is about. These kinds of stories have been around for a very long time. Just look up BDSM short stories on the internet and see what comes up. I assure you it'll be ten times worse than the 50 Shades of Grey series. I think the "big deal" is that this one was marketed towards a normal book store as opposed to where you would normally find a book like this. Also, many people never were exposed to this lifestyle before reading these books. However, despite the fact that the books are mildly pornographic, the scenes are no worse than those of any other trashy romance novel. There's a lot of sex in the trilogy, to the point it eventually gets to be repetitive, almost boring, but clearly there is a market for that sort of thing.
The biggest problem I saw with this series are problems that stem from the fact E. L. James is a new writer. She repeats words and phrases throughout the entire book series. Word variation is one of those things that's important because a reader literally gets bored when you use the same words over and over again, and it makes it seem that you don't have an extensive vocabulary. I think E. L. James can do better due to the use of words like "mercurial." (Though, I have to admit, "mercurial" got on my nerves. I had never heard that word before I got these books and by the end of them it was ingrained in my head.) Also, let's just say George Takei ruined the phrase "oh my" for me. Every time there was an "oh my" in a love scene, I heard it in the George Takei voice and saw him saying it. Kind of a mood killer...
There was another problem with the third book that the other two didn't have that I feel needs to be mentioned. At the beginning there are a series of flashbacks. The flashbacks occur every other chapter until about page eighty. Never put that many flashbacks in a book, especially in the beginning of one. It was hard to get into "Fifty Shades Freed" because I was interested in what was happening in the "now" and when we backtracked it derailed my interest. Too many disjointed flashbacks is a common problem for new writers as well. I've done that before, but not every other chapter like that. Truthfully, there is a long flashback in the opening of my new book, but it isn't disjointed. It's jarring to go from flashback to present, flashback to present, flashback to present.
Finally, I do take issue that this was a Twilight fanfic. I somehow managed to look at it from an unbiased perspective, but occasionally, I just couldn't. I felt more needed to be changed for me to appreciate it as a work that stood alone.
Still, there are several good things she did to make it stand apart. The back story for Christian Grey was good (it actually reminded me a good deal of the back story for "Dexter," making me wonder if she was inspired by that as well). The characters weren't as annoying as those in Twilight either. I could actually identify with the main character, even though she was VERY naive for her age, something I had trouble doing with Bella, Edward, or Jacob when I read that series. (I'm not even going to bother to review that one. The story falls apart when you realize that Edward is over a hundred years old and falls in love with a teenager. I'm thirty and I hate angsty teenagers now. Also, he's practically starving on the animal blood, and she smells like a steak--he would've eaten her.) Anyway, Christian Grey was a very interesting character that had emotional depth. Even though we're seeing things through Anastasia's eyes, Christian is the main character of the series, which I thought was a kind of interesting twist.
Also, for being a "dominant" Grey actually is a pretty likeable character. If you've ever read anything else like this, most of the time the men are complete and utter scoundrels with no redeeming qualities. If you are just learning about this sort of thing from these books DON'T read Anne Rice's "Sleeping Beauty." I've read stories like this before, and I couldn't get sixty pages into that book because the man was such a jerk I wanted to kill him. Grey is different. He actually does have redeeming qualities, but you do need to keep an open mind and give the series a chance for them to come into play. Also, this is a story about redemption and overcoming the things from his past that make him the way that he is. By the end of the series, he's changed a good deal and so has Ana.
The stories themselves were actually pretty addictive. There was enough action going on in the background that I found myself skimming some of the sex scenes because I wanted to see what happened next. Even though it was "convenient" for one of the villains from Christian's past to come up randomly by crossing Anastasia's path, I think that's a plot device that all of us are guilty of using every now and again. And, I know from experience, the world is a lot smaller than I'd like it to be, so that's one of the complaints about these books I don't agree with and found actually plausible.
Long story short, I actually liked these books. The action (I mean the story not the ahem...action) kept my attention and I read all three. The writing style needs work, but I think E.L. James could be a much better writer with more practice. By the third book many of my complaints except for the additional one were already getting better. She's extremely lucky to have her books catch on like wildfire, but I think she knows that, and I'm happy for her. I'm legitimately happy for her. It was a pleasant surprise at the end of the series that she had a large, all caps "Thank you so much for reading," blurb. She appreciates her fans, and that's a good quality in a writer.
J.K. Rowling said, when she found out how well this book sold, "maybe I should've had Harry be more creative with his wand." What a smarmy thing to say about someone else's work when Rowling was just as lucky to have her work catch on like it did. The witch and wizard school concept has been done before. The first time I was exposed to it was from the Disney movie "Worst Witch." I swear, the more I hear about that woman the less I like her...don't get me started on the "resource book" case. She's a good writer, but I'm becoming convinced that fame has gone to her head and being a good writer isn't everything.
My point is, I think we're all being a little harsh and I think it stems more out of jealousy than legitimate complaint. We try and try to do everything right so that our books will get published. We strive to make our books less cliche, make sure our grammar is impeccable, not repeat our words, and someone came along who broke those rules and is now a millionaire with the biggest audience base a book has gotten in a very long time. It actually gives me hope. I think that means that if there's a market for a certain type of story, your audience will forgive you for your stylistic shortcomings. Thank goodness for that, because I know I have a long way to go.
And that's my review. This has been pretty long...oh my!
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
So close to sending query letters...
Hello all,
I know I promised an amusing book review, but I'm not quite done with the last one of the series yet, so it'll have to wait. In the meantime, I thought I would blog a quick update about what's new.
First of all, I finished making the changes on "Blood Rain" and am almost done with a one page synopsis. I feel better about this synopsis since it focuses on the main plot and seems to flow pretty well. We'll see, though. I think it still needs a little work, so I'm going to run it by my friends who have read the book and those who haven't.
I still have a good feeling about "Blood Rain." I might even be able to start submitting my query letter to agents early next week. That would be nice. Either way, I need to hear the opinions of my test readers first to make sure the changes I've made are adequate. Once I've submitted it to as many agents as I can that are into young adult fantasy stories, then I'll probably finish up book two. If I work on book two again soon enough, I really might be able to finish it before NaNoWriMo and then work on book three during that time. Wish me luck.
No luck on the Tron costumes for the Halloween party. Long story short, we've run out of time to order a costume, try it on, and then send it back if it doesn't fit. Also, none of the Halloween stores around here are selling them this year. Ideas that I'm throwing around now are Sweeny Todd and Mrs. Lovett, Luigi from Luigi's mansion and a ghost, or a zombie bride and groom. Still, I'm trying to be flexible. We still have a little time to buy a costume, so we'll probably go shopping this weekend. I'll figure something out even if I have to recycle a costume from a previous year. Still, I'd rather get a cheap new one if possible.
Looking forward to Halloween as always. I've got lots of fun things coming up. There's my a birthday party for one of my friends, Rifftrax Live, the Doobie Brothers in concert at the fair (I grew up listening to the Doobie Brothers, and I haven't been to the fair in years), and my Halloween Party. I'm also planning to cook up some new treats this year such as caramel coated apples, deviled eggs, and two new flavors of punch. Totally psyched. :-D
Anyway, I should have that review for you by the end of the week or the beginning of next week. In the meantime, I'll be writing, proofing, and sending query letters. I also have a surprise to announce later this week. I might send something out about that tomorrow...
I know I promised an amusing book review, but I'm not quite done with the last one of the series yet, so it'll have to wait. In the meantime, I thought I would blog a quick update about what's new.
First of all, I finished making the changes on "Blood Rain" and am almost done with a one page synopsis. I feel better about this synopsis since it focuses on the main plot and seems to flow pretty well. We'll see, though. I think it still needs a little work, so I'm going to run it by my friends who have read the book and those who haven't.
I still have a good feeling about "Blood Rain." I might even be able to start submitting my query letter to agents early next week. That would be nice. Either way, I need to hear the opinions of my test readers first to make sure the changes I've made are adequate. Once I've submitted it to as many agents as I can that are into young adult fantasy stories, then I'll probably finish up book two. If I work on book two again soon enough, I really might be able to finish it before NaNoWriMo and then work on book three during that time. Wish me luck.
No luck on the Tron costumes for the Halloween party. Long story short, we've run out of time to order a costume, try it on, and then send it back if it doesn't fit. Also, none of the Halloween stores around here are selling them this year. Ideas that I'm throwing around now are Sweeny Todd and Mrs. Lovett, Luigi from Luigi's mansion and a ghost, or a zombie bride and groom. Still, I'm trying to be flexible. We still have a little time to buy a costume, so we'll probably go shopping this weekend. I'll figure something out even if I have to recycle a costume from a previous year. Still, I'd rather get a cheap new one if possible.
Looking forward to Halloween as always. I've got lots of fun things coming up. There's my a birthday party for one of my friends, Rifftrax Live, the Doobie Brothers in concert at the fair (I grew up listening to the Doobie Brothers, and I haven't been to the fair in years), and my Halloween Party. I'm also planning to cook up some new treats this year such as caramel coated apples, deviled eggs, and two new flavors of punch. Totally psyched. :-D
Anyway, I should have that review for you by the end of the week or the beginning of next week. In the meantime, I'll be writing, proofing, and sending query letters. I also have a surprise to announce later this week. I might send something out about that tomorrow...
Monday, September 17, 2012
CRAZY BUSY!
I know, it's been over two weeks since I've said a word. There's a reason for that.
First of all, DragonCon was awesome. It was everything I hoped it could be. I have tons of pictures of people in interesting costumes, a few pictures of celebrities (though admittedly not many in comparison), and I saw some really awesome panels. I got to see a question and answer session with various stars of Lord of the Rings, a question and answer session with Burt Ward and Adam West, and a very awesome panel of voice actors from various cartoons that I love. My husband and I dressed in steampunk regalia for one day and that was fun as well. We also got to visit my mother and father in law. They seem to have settled into their new house in Georgia. It was nice seeing them.
The writing workshop was very, very useful. I found out that my dialogue style leaves something to be desired, so I'm going to have to rework several sections of Blood Rain before I send it to anyone. Also, I discovered that my main character doesn't come across as sympathetic enough in the first chapter, so I've reworked that chapter as well. From my test readers, I found out that the end of the book kind of fizzles, so I'm currently reworking that section. I hope to have my revisions done by the end of the month so I can send it back to my test readers and then start sending out query letters. I still have a good feeling about this book. Jody Lynn Nye's review of my work was very insightful.
It was very inspirational meeting Jody Lynn Nye and Todd McCaffrey. (Todd McCaffrey rescued me by showing me to my class. I was hopelessly lost as usual. He's a very nice guy.) The other two guest speakers also had useful information. They helped me realize that I really need to work on my synopsis. An editor from Bane books explained that a synopsis is basically what sells your book to the publisher. I've always had trouble writing a good synopsis, but I'm going to try to change that for Blood Rain. I'm going to trim and rework the entire synopsis before I send it out. That could take me a few weeks in and of itself.
When I got home from DragonCon, I was exhausted and had lots of laundry and housework to catch up on. Still, as soon as I was done, it was time to babysit my niece and nephew for over four days. I had a lot of fun spending time with them. We should do that more often. We swam in the pool, watched lots of movies they hadn't seen yet, and it gave me a small taste of what parenting will be like. Still, I was also exhausted (again) when I got back home and had just as much laundry and house work to catch up on. I was going to see Neil Gaiman speak this weekend, but my husband got sick and I wasn't feeling too good myself, so I didn't get to go. Long story short, I desperately need a break, but I'm not going to get it anytime soon.
Currently, we're getting the house ready for renovations. We're getting new carpet, new linoleum for the bathroom, a double vanity, and painting the bathroom as well as probably part of the front porch. We're going to have a deck built in the back yard and the front porch screened in, hopefully before the Halloween Party. This involves reducing the clutter in the house--enough said. I am going to try my best not to go insane.
And, that catches us up to today. If I seem quiet, now you know why. I hope to have more to tell you about renovations, revisions, and (hopefully) relaxation in the future. Until then, keep reading and writing.
Oh, and I might have an amusing review for you in the near future about a certain trilogy of books that have gained a lot of popularity recently. 50 shades of popularity in fact...
First of all, DragonCon was awesome. It was everything I hoped it could be. I have tons of pictures of people in interesting costumes, a few pictures of celebrities (though admittedly not many in comparison), and I saw some really awesome panels. I got to see a question and answer session with various stars of Lord of the Rings, a question and answer session with Burt Ward and Adam West, and a very awesome panel of voice actors from various cartoons that I love. My husband and I dressed in steampunk regalia for one day and that was fun as well. We also got to visit my mother and father in law. They seem to have settled into their new house in Georgia. It was nice seeing them.
The writing workshop was very, very useful. I found out that my dialogue style leaves something to be desired, so I'm going to have to rework several sections of Blood Rain before I send it to anyone. Also, I discovered that my main character doesn't come across as sympathetic enough in the first chapter, so I've reworked that chapter as well. From my test readers, I found out that the end of the book kind of fizzles, so I'm currently reworking that section. I hope to have my revisions done by the end of the month so I can send it back to my test readers and then start sending out query letters. I still have a good feeling about this book. Jody Lynn Nye's review of my work was very insightful.
It was very inspirational meeting Jody Lynn Nye and Todd McCaffrey. (Todd McCaffrey rescued me by showing me to my class. I was hopelessly lost as usual. He's a very nice guy.) The other two guest speakers also had useful information. They helped me realize that I really need to work on my synopsis. An editor from Bane books explained that a synopsis is basically what sells your book to the publisher. I've always had trouble writing a good synopsis, but I'm going to try to change that for Blood Rain. I'm going to trim and rework the entire synopsis before I send it out. That could take me a few weeks in and of itself.
When I got home from DragonCon, I was exhausted and had lots of laundry and housework to catch up on. Still, as soon as I was done, it was time to babysit my niece and nephew for over four days. I had a lot of fun spending time with them. We should do that more often. We swam in the pool, watched lots of movies they hadn't seen yet, and it gave me a small taste of what parenting will be like. Still, I was also exhausted (again) when I got back home and had just as much laundry and house work to catch up on. I was going to see Neil Gaiman speak this weekend, but my husband got sick and I wasn't feeling too good myself, so I didn't get to go. Long story short, I desperately need a break, but I'm not going to get it anytime soon.
Currently, we're getting the house ready for renovations. We're getting new carpet, new linoleum for the bathroom, a double vanity, and painting the bathroom as well as probably part of the front porch. We're going to have a deck built in the back yard and the front porch screened in, hopefully before the Halloween Party. This involves reducing the clutter in the house--enough said. I am going to try my best not to go insane.
And, that catches us up to today. If I seem quiet, now you know why. I hope to have more to tell you about renovations, revisions, and (hopefully) relaxation in the future. Until then, keep reading and writing.
Oh, and I might have an amusing review for you in the near future about a certain trilogy of books that have gained a lot of popularity recently. 50 shades of popularity in fact...
Friday, August 24, 2012
Halloween Party
Okay, I couldn't wait until I got back from DragonCon to think about the Halloween Party. Joel and I have decided that, assuming the costumes fit, we're going to be "programs" from Tron this year. We're going to get the costumes for Tron Legacy, some glow paint from a craft store and paint the white strips within the costume either blue or red to glow under black light. We would love to actually buy the strips of light that you can use to light up your costume, but that's just too expensive. We think the glow paint will get mostly the same effect. We're also going to buy Frisbees and paint them to look like data disks. The inflatable data disk that comes with the costume just didn't look good enough.
The general theme of the party will be 80s, (though no one has to dress that way or use that theme for their costumes) so we'll primarily be watching 80s horror movies. Still, I do want to watch Trick R Treat, a very good independent horror film that came out fairly recently. I might make an exception to the theme for that movie. Still, there are plenty of good ones from the 80s to choose from. I'm thinking "Poltergeist" because it's so damn scary, "Gremlins" because it's campy and classic, "An American Werewolf in London" because, honestly, I haven't seen the whole thing yet, and "Evil Dead" or "Evil Dead 2." And of course, the "Lost Boys."
I like to vary it by scary, not scary, scary, etc. Still, nothing is set in stone yet. I just want to actually have a list this time because last year we couldn't decide on anything to watch. I kind of let people put on what they wanted, which basically meant that nothing stayed on for a long period of time. Someone would be like "this reminds me of that movie" and then we ended up not watching anything at all. Not again.
I'm going to try to think of ideas for 80s themed pumpkins as well. If anyone has a good one, please leave your ideas in the comment section. I could use them. I've seen some very good carvings of gizmo from "Gremlins" and David from "The Lost Boys." Whether I actually have the skill to pull off those designs, though, is yet to be seen. I like to think I'm pretty good at pumpkin carving. I've had some very good ones in the past, but I'm nowhere near competition level, so those designs might be too challenging. If they come out well, maybe I'll post the pictures on the blog.
Other than that, probably we'll do the usual. Rock Band will be set up in the blue room, the kitchen will be for refreshments, movies will be in the main room, and people can mill around as they see fit. Hopefully it won't be raining if anyone wants to sit on the porch to talk. I would like to have access to board games and table top role-playing games, but we might not be able to because we actually have a room-mate in the extra room this year. Maybe we can clean up the office and put the games in there. That might be better anyway so that if people want access to the extra computer. We'll see.
Anyway, Happy Haunting. Keep reading and writing.
The general theme of the party will be 80s, (though no one has to dress that way or use that theme for their costumes) so we'll primarily be watching 80s horror movies. Still, I do want to watch Trick R Treat, a very good independent horror film that came out fairly recently. I might make an exception to the theme for that movie. Still, there are plenty of good ones from the 80s to choose from. I'm thinking "Poltergeist" because it's so damn scary, "Gremlins" because it's campy and classic, "An American Werewolf in London" because, honestly, I haven't seen the whole thing yet, and "Evil Dead" or "Evil Dead 2." And of course, the "Lost Boys."
I like to vary it by scary, not scary, scary, etc. Still, nothing is set in stone yet. I just want to actually have a list this time because last year we couldn't decide on anything to watch. I kind of let people put on what they wanted, which basically meant that nothing stayed on for a long period of time. Someone would be like "this reminds me of that movie" and then we ended up not watching anything at all. Not again.
I'm going to try to think of ideas for 80s themed pumpkins as well. If anyone has a good one, please leave your ideas in the comment section. I could use them. I've seen some very good carvings of gizmo from "Gremlins" and David from "The Lost Boys." Whether I actually have the skill to pull off those designs, though, is yet to be seen. I like to think I'm pretty good at pumpkin carving. I've had some very good ones in the past, but I'm nowhere near competition level, so those designs might be too challenging. If they come out well, maybe I'll post the pictures on the blog.
Other than that, probably we'll do the usual. Rock Band will be set up in the blue room, the kitchen will be for refreshments, movies will be in the main room, and people can mill around as they see fit. Hopefully it won't be raining if anyone wants to sit on the porch to talk. I would like to have access to board games and table top role-playing games, but we might not be able to because we actually have a room-mate in the extra room this year. Maybe we can clean up the office and put the games in there. That might be better anyway so that if people want access to the extra computer. We'll see.
Anyway, Happy Haunting. Keep reading and writing.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Glad to Join the Wrimos
Hello all,
I finally got to meet up with a few of the SC writing group involved in National Write a Novel Month and I'm pleased to say that it went very well. It turned out that I had a good deal in common with them, and I think this is going to be a very good and rewarding experience. It's very nice making new friends, especially those that are involved in writing.
Being part of this group has also has made me get into the spirit of "competition," (I only say that loosely...we try to beat each other on word count, but that isn't the main reason we do it. It's just another motivation that helps us continue to write.) and I'm actually working harder on my writing than I have in a very long time. It'll be nice to have more people to run ideas by and it feels very good to try to help other people come up with ideas as well. Getting stuck in writer's block is very easy to do.
"Blood Moon" is up to 80 pages and around 25,000 words. I think that I can probably hit thirty thousand by Monday if I set aside a little time to write and finish up the chapter that I'm working on and start the next. If I continue to write at this rate, I'll definitely be done with "Blood Moon" by the time I go to DragonCon. It's hard to believe that will be coming up so soon.
This month has flown by. It occurs to me, I've been so preoccupied with preparing for DragonCon and with writing that I haven't even thought about the Halloween Party. I usually start planning it several months in advance, but I'm not even sure what I want to be this year. We'll just have to see. I'll try to concentrate on that as soon as I get back from DragonCon. By then, most of the annual Halloween shops should be open, so hopefully I can find a costume ahead of time. Wish me luck.
Well, I guess that's about all that's new. Anyway, take care and keep reading and writing.
I finally got to meet up with a few of the SC writing group involved in National Write a Novel Month and I'm pleased to say that it went very well. It turned out that I had a good deal in common with them, and I think this is going to be a very good and rewarding experience. It's very nice making new friends, especially those that are involved in writing.
Being part of this group has also has made me get into the spirit of "competition," (I only say that loosely...we try to beat each other on word count, but that isn't the main reason we do it. It's just another motivation that helps us continue to write.) and I'm actually working harder on my writing than I have in a very long time. It'll be nice to have more people to run ideas by and it feels very good to try to help other people come up with ideas as well. Getting stuck in writer's block is very easy to do.
"Blood Moon" is up to 80 pages and around 25,000 words. I think that I can probably hit thirty thousand by Monday if I set aside a little time to write and finish up the chapter that I'm working on and start the next. If I continue to write at this rate, I'll definitely be done with "Blood Moon" by the time I go to DragonCon. It's hard to believe that will be coming up so soon.
This month has flown by. It occurs to me, I've been so preoccupied with preparing for DragonCon and with writing that I haven't even thought about the Halloween Party. I usually start planning it several months in advance, but I'm not even sure what I want to be this year. We'll just have to see. I'll try to concentrate on that as soon as I get back from DragonCon. By then, most of the annual Halloween shops should be open, so hopefully I can find a costume ahead of time. Wish me luck.
Well, I guess that's about all that's new. Anyway, take care and keep reading and writing.
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