I'm being lazy about posting again *sigh* So I'm going to cheat a little today and do a first-of-the-month update on all my projects. I'll do an actual substantive post later ;-)
The Stars Cry Out No More
-I've finally started sending out queries (yay!). One rejection back so far. Now I need to finish up my synopsis and send it out to more agents.
In the Twilight Between
-Still editing, but things are going very well so far. All I need now is a few more beta readers >.>
Lend Me Your Tears
-Dead. I tried to force myself to write it during SocNoc when I really didn't want to. The consequences were fatal and now the story is dead. Seriously bad stuff, but I was looking at it and I think I know where things started to go wrong. So now I know how not to write a story like that (and not to force myself). I'll still keep the main plot idea in the back of my mind for a possible redo later, but for now the story's going to the chop shop of my mind. I've already taken a few of the small ideas from there and used them to patch up and embellish other stories.
In Griffin's writing land, nothing ever truly dies :-)
What the Night Keeps
*New!* This story was SocNoc Plan B. I was planing on saving this story for NaNoWriMo or something like that, but I decided to pull it out early to finish off my word count.
I. Love. This. Story. It's as good as the other one sucked. As soon as I figured out that the story should be told from the Hero's POV everything started to fall into place. I had wanted to do it from the Heroin's POV, but looking back the Hero's POV lets me weave plot secrets much better.
Goals for next month:
-send out at least ten more queries for Stars Cry Out.
-Make progress in editing Twilight Between.
-I'm tempted to write "finish What the Night Keeps" but I think that may be a little ambitious. We'll see, but I'd be happy with just about any progress.
Any progress is good progress :-)
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
I've been christened…
…into writerdom. I got my first rejection letter this afternoon :-)
Now the fact that it's a rejection isn't necessarily a happy thing, but the fact that I have a book done and am starting down the road to publication is :-D
So here's to rejections and progress!
Now the fact that it's a rejection isn't necessarily a happy thing, but the fact that I have a book done and am starting down the road to publication is :-D
So here's to rejections and progress!
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Write or Die!
All right, today was my Write or Die marathon! Here's what I have to show for it :-)
*Collapses in exhaustion*
 | 606 |
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21  | |
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| Wickeds Writing Lab">lab.drwicked.com | |
| 317 |
| |
| 10 | |
| |
| Wickeds Writing Lab">lab.drwicked.com | |
| 367 |
| |
| 10 | |
| |
| Wickeds Writing Lab">lab.drwicked.com | |
| 372 |
| |
| 12 | |
| |
| Wickeds Writing Lab">lab.drwicked.com | |
| 741 |
| |
| 20 | |
| |
| Wickeds Writing Lab">lab.drwicked.com | |
| 836 |
| |
| 20 | |
| |
| Wickeds Writing Lab">lab.drwicked.com | |
| 393 |
| |
| 11 | |
| |
| Wickeds Writing Lab">lab.drwicked.com | |
| 442 |
| |
| 11 | |
| |
| Wickeds Writing Lab">lab.drwicked.com | |
*Collapses in exhaustion*
Friday, June 12, 2009
Creepers
[Puppy update: Repeat after me: "Mommy is not a chew toy."]
Well it's been a while since I've written up a decent post. I really have no excuse for that except for sheer laziness and a lack of something interesting to say :-P But I'm back now, though I'm still not sure I have anything interesting to say.
I actually glanced at my blog reading list for the first time in weeks (bad me) and I came across Zapkilikan's post about things that scare her. I started to write a comment and soon realized that it was too long and decided to just do an entire post on the subject.
So what scares me? It's an interesting question actually. Reading about other peoples fear and looking at my own makes me realize how personal fear can sometimes be.
As a small child I was scared of the dark. More precisely I was scared of what was in the dark. My parents told me the old adage of "There's nothing in the dark that isn't there in the light." I remember nodding and thinking to myself "I know, that's the problem." Since then I've gotten over that fear and now I actually like the dark, as long as I'm the one doing the creeping ;-)
As a rule I don't watch horror movies. Not so much because they scare. I just don't like watching a movie where I know that all theses people are probably going to die. I don't really care to get to know and like a person just to watch them die in some bloody nasty way. I also find horror movies very predictable and a touch dull.
For those of you who don't know, my day job is taxidermy (making bear rugs and dear heads, etc.). To be perfectly clear to everyone, taxidermy is our family's business. I didn't wake up one day and decide I wanted to cut up dead things for a living. And no I don't skin puppies alive to make a coat for some crazy dichromatic haired woman.*
I degrees.
So, being a taxidermist, I'm around blood and (animal) body parts all day. I have been since I was a kid, so none of that is scary to me. I've actually never met any animal that has scared me. Snakes, spiders, lions, tigers, bears (oh my! :-P ). Nothing. So as an adult I find that monsters in movies (dinosaurs, yetis, aliens, whatever) really don't scare me at all.
So what does scare me?
Naming what kind of movies that scare me is easy. Zombie movies, for one. The idea of work crawling out of the trashcan creeps me out. But what really scares me is normality. Bad guys that look perfectly normal, but are actually going to sneak up on you and slit your throat. I always thought it silly in fantasy movies when they made the bad guys so ugly (though I do understand why). It seems to me that they would be much scarier if they were just like you or me, or that kid next door.
Now, naming what well and truly scares me in real life is a little harder to pin down. When I was a kid my bedroom was upstairs and the door to the attic was right across from my bed. I would put my bed snug against the wall, as well as all my chairs and anywhere I was going to be sitting or lying. I never wanted my back to that door. Though at the time I couldn't say exactly why.
Fortunately my new place doesn't really have any truly scary spots (though I don't like the idea of someone from the street looking in my front window, so I normally keep that closed). Work on the other hand... There's one spot in the back where the air compressor is. I have to go back and reach through this dark nasty little hole up to my elbow to reach the valve. Then when the compressor turns on I keep thinking how perfectly the rattling engine would hide the sound of footsteps behind me. I'm normally a wary person. People don't just sneak up on me unless I'm wearing my headphones, or something like that. But as soon as that compressor kicks on I can just feel something right behind me. There's no way around going back there, but I'm always quick to high tale it out of there, glancing nervously back over my shoulder as I do.
So fear. Evey one has it in one form or another, rational or not. Now I just need to figure out a way to transfer that to my story...
*Sorry to be so defensive sounding, but I get really annoyed when people look at me like I'm some disgusting villain when I tell them what I do.
Well it's been a while since I've written up a decent post. I really have no excuse for that except for sheer laziness and a lack of something interesting to say :-P But I'm back now, though I'm still not sure I have anything interesting to say.
I actually glanced at my blog reading list for the first time in weeks (bad me) and I came across Zapkilikan's post about things that scare her. I started to write a comment and soon realized that it was too long and decided to just do an entire post on the subject.
So what scares me? It's an interesting question actually. Reading about other peoples fear and looking at my own makes me realize how personal fear can sometimes be.
As a small child I was scared of the dark. More precisely I was scared of what was in the dark. My parents told me the old adage of "There's nothing in the dark that isn't there in the light." I remember nodding and thinking to myself "I know, that's the problem." Since then I've gotten over that fear and now I actually like the dark, as long as I'm the one doing the creeping ;-)
As a rule I don't watch horror movies. Not so much because they scare. I just don't like watching a movie where I know that all theses people are probably going to die. I don't really care to get to know and like a person just to watch them die in some bloody nasty way. I also find horror movies very predictable and a touch dull.
For those of you who don't know, my day job is taxidermy (making bear rugs and dear heads, etc.). To be perfectly clear to everyone, taxidermy is our family's business. I didn't wake up one day and decide I wanted to cut up dead things for a living. And no I don't skin puppies alive to make a coat for some crazy dichromatic haired woman.*
I degrees.
So, being a taxidermist, I'm around blood and (animal) body parts all day. I have been since I was a kid, so none of that is scary to me. I've actually never met any animal that has scared me. Snakes, spiders, lions, tigers, bears (oh my! :-P ). Nothing. So as an adult I find that monsters in movies (dinosaurs, yetis, aliens, whatever) really don't scare me at all.
So what does scare me?
Naming what kind of movies that scare me is easy. Zombie movies, for one. The idea of work crawling out of the trashcan creeps me out. But what really scares me is normality. Bad guys that look perfectly normal, but are actually going to sneak up on you and slit your throat. I always thought it silly in fantasy movies when they made the bad guys so ugly (though I do understand why). It seems to me that they would be much scarier if they were just like you or me, or that kid next door.
Now, naming what well and truly scares me in real life is a little harder to pin down. When I was a kid my bedroom was upstairs and the door to the attic was right across from my bed. I would put my bed snug against the wall, as well as all my chairs and anywhere I was going to be sitting or lying. I never wanted my back to that door. Though at the time I couldn't say exactly why.
Fortunately my new place doesn't really have any truly scary spots (though I don't like the idea of someone from the street looking in my front window, so I normally keep that closed). Work on the other hand... There's one spot in the back where the air compressor is. I have to go back and reach through this dark nasty little hole up to my elbow to reach the valve. Then when the compressor turns on I keep thinking how perfectly the rattling engine would hide the sound of footsteps behind me. I'm normally a wary person. People don't just sneak up on me unless I'm wearing my headphones, or something like that. But as soon as that compressor kicks on I can just feel something right behind me. There's no way around going back there, but I'm always quick to high tale it out of there, glancing nervously back over my shoulder as I do.
So fear. Evey one has it in one form or another, rational or not. Now I just need to figure out a way to transfer that to my story...
*Sorry to be so defensive sounding, but I get really annoyed when people look at me like I'm some disgusting villain when I tell them what I do.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
A project for SocNoc
[Puppy update: Where's the off switch on this dog?]
So I've been pondering what story to work on during SocNoc and I think I've decided to get Sleeper's Garden done. It's one of my first attempts at Sci-fi and I don't think it's going well. I like the idea and I want to get it all down, but I have this mental block when it comes to Sci-fi. Every time I try to write it this little voice keeps whispering in my head "What are you doing?! You don't know anything about science or machinery. Anyone who knows anything will be able to spot in a microsecond that you have no idea what you're talking about."
Evil little voice.
If I'm working on a Fantasy then I just fling a spell at it and it goes away, but I can't seem to hit it with a Sci-fi blaster cannon to save my life.
I won't say that writing Fantasy is necessarily easier, but it is (in my opinion) more malleable. Even though I'm a very organic writer (ie. I make it all up as I go along with little true plotting) I'm also a control freak. I like having everything in the story exactly how I want it to be. That includes the laws of nature, space, time, magic, government, even history. Of course this means that I have to create all of those things from scratch. Like a blank canvas, if I don't paint it in then it wont be there.
I find this aspect of Fantasy very freeing and exciting. I can mould the story to frame the exact theme or idea that I want to highlight. That alone is probably my most favorite thing about Fantasy.
So long story short, for me Fantasy=awesomeness. And on the good chance that I finish Sleeper's Garden before I hit 50k in June, then I have another story (Fantasy this time), titled Lend Me Your Tears to work on. I'm very excited about that one :-)
So I've been pondering what story to work on during SocNoc and I think I've decided to get Sleeper's Garden done. It's one of my first attempts at Sci-fi and I don't think it's going well. I like the idea and I want to get it all down, but I have this mental block when it comes to Sci-fi. Every time I try to write it this little voice keeps whispering in my head "What are you doing?! You don't know anything about science or machinery. Anyone who knows anything will be able to spot in a microsecond that you have no idea what you're talking about."
Evil little voice.
If I'm working on a Fantasy then I just fling a spell at it and it goes away, but I can't seem to hit it with a Sci-fi blaster cannon to save my life.
I won't say that writing Fantasy is necessarily easier, but it is (in my opinion) more malleable. Even though I'm a very organic writer (ie. I make it all up as I go along with little true plotting) I'm also a control freak. I like having everything in the story exactly how I want it to be. That includes the laws of nature, space, time, magic, government, even history. Of course this means that I have to create all of those things from scratch. Like a blank canvas, if I don't paint it in then it wont be there.
I find this aspect of Fantasy very freeing and exciting. I can mould the story to frame the exact theme or idea that I want to highlight. That alone is probably my most favorite thing about Fantasy.
So long story short, for me Fantasy=awesomeness. And on the good chance that I finish Sleeper's Garden before I hit 50k in June, then I have another story (Fantasy this time), titled Lend Me Your Tears to work on. I'm very excited about that one :-)
Thursday, May 28, 2009
It's coming! *cue dramatic music*
The Southern Cross Novel Challenge time is upon us. Just like NaNoWriMo we're going for 50,000 word in a month (except it's in June, not November).
Now that I think about it I really don't know how I got involved with SocNoc. I live in Idaho. A long ways from the Southern Hemisphere. But it's a great group and a wonderful atmosphere.
This will be my third year of SocNoc and I almost thought of passing this time around, but I really have no excuse not to do it. I just need to sit down and do it :-P So I've signed up and have the little picture to prove it:
Now that I think about it I really don't know how I got involved with SocNoc. I live in Idaho. A long ways from the Southern Hemisphere. But it's a great group and a wonderful atmosphere.
This will be my third year of SocNoc and I almost thought of passing this time around, but I really have no excuse not to do it. I just need to sit down and do it :-P So I've signed up and have the little picture to prove it:
Now I'm off to see if I can bring in more SocNoc converts...
Monday, May 25, 2009
The new puppy
So I've been wanting to get a dog since I finally moved into my own place, but I didn't think I could fit one in. I do have a nice back yard, but inside it's kind of... cozy.
Then I discovered Shelties (Shetland Sheepdogs). Beautiful little dogs that could actually fit fairly well in my house. So I've been looking for one and finally found my new little baby.
I've named her Calypso, from Greek mythology (I can't stand normal dog names), I call her Cally (pronounced: CAL-ee) for short.
So far she has done brilliantly. First night she didn't whine at all. Second night she whined once when she needed to go potty, then was quiet the rest of the night. Over all very well mannered for a puppy and very smart.
My cat doesn't like this new little pest and Cally learned the hard way that the kitty really doesn't want to play with her. Just a couple little scrapes. She'll live (and hopefully learn to leave the cat alone).
And now the pictures. I had a heck of a time getting her to stand still long enough to take theses and after a dozen tries only one came out:
She's a lot easier to take a picture of when she's sleeping:
Then I discovered Shelties (Shetland Sheepdogs). Beautiful little dogs that could actually fit fairly well in my house. So I've been looking for one and finally found my new little baby.
I've named her Calypso, from Greek mythology (I can't stand normal dog names), I call her Cally (pronounced: CAL-ee) for short.
So far she has done brilliantly. First night she didn't whine at all. Second night she whined once when she needed to go potty, then was quiet the rest of the night. Over all very well mannered for a puppy and very smart.
My cat doesn't like this new little pest and Cally learned the hard way that the kitty really doesn't want to play with her. Just a couple little scrapes. She'll live (and hopefully learn to leave the cat alone).
And now the pictures. I had a heck of a time getting her to stand still long enough to take theses and after a dozen tries only one came out:
She's a lot easier to take a picture of when she's sleeping:
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