Year: 2009

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03/09/2009

Where did the weekend go?

Our first non-basketball weekend disappeared in the blink of an eye.  I didn’t get much of anything done that I’d hoped.

Friday night, I bought some plastic window-box containers, Miracle Grow potting soil, and lettuce seeds.  Yes, I’m going to try to grow things again this year — this time in containers instead of hay bales.  However, we were too busy to get anything planted, so I need to do it tonight.  This is the perfect time to plant lettuce, before it gets too warm!  I’m going to try tomatoes and zucchini in containers, too, but can’t plant them until May or so.

Sat. we slept in (bliss!) and then made a big pancake and bacon breakfast.  After catching up on all the dishes, (a theme for the weekend) I escaped the house ALONE to go on my first “Artist’s Date” ala Julia Cameron.  I went to a small local Art Show and Book Swap.  Other than work (which is here at the house because I telecommute), I’m ashamed to say it’s the first time I’ve been anywhere alone since I took off all that time in Nov.  That Man tried to stick me with a kid on the way out, but I managed to escape, although most of the books I bought were for them, including the much beloved “It’s Not Easy Being a Bunny”, about PJ Funnybunny.  That used to be Princess Monster’s favorite book — to the point that we sheepishly hid it for awhile because we were sick of reading it.  It was damaged in a basement flood, so I was glad to find a copy of it again.

Then I rushed off to Wal-Mart and home to begin cooking for an impromptu get-together with Aunt BB and Uncle J.  We had brisket (that I couldn’t get done — it was HUGE!), potato salad, salad, and mixed roasted veggies.  More dishes.

Sunday was the time change, but we managed to crawl out of bed in the dark and get off to church.  Papa surprised us with a trip down and met us for lunch at Macaroni Grill.  He watched Middle Monster play her new horse game on the Wii for hours while we visited.  Dinner was leftover brisket (finally done–but not much was left!), more roasted veggies, leftover salad and potato salad.  The two littlest monsters had hotdogs instead of meat — Middle Monster was devastated when she found out that my “barbeque sandwiches” weren’t those formed rib sandwiches but “real” meat.  She loooooves McRib sandwiches!

More dishes, then baths, while That Man worked on the laundry.  Before I knew it, it was time to get the monsters in bed and I’d accomplished very little writing, or so I thought.  I did manage to get the blurb doc back to Angie for Dear Sir, and I’ve gotten through nearly 150 pages of edits on Road.  The first chapter took the most work — as always.  Once I got through it, the rest has been easier.  I’m hoping to finish the rest of the edits today, look them over the next day or two, and then get them back to Deena.

Meanwhile, I also need to polish The Shadowed Blood and get it up for E-Book Week.  I’m going to include a sneak peek of the first chapter or two in Road, so stay tuned!

Nothing on Revision Xibalba, but we did catch the end of Game Plan, a movie starring The Rock, last night, which totally inspired me to get back to NSR (since Ruin is played by The Rock).

How about you — did you have a crazy weekend?

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Cookie Monsters

It had sounded like such a good idea….

To thank the Upward Basketball coaches for a great season, I thought we’d make homemade cookies.  Aunt Molly (my beloved Sis) made really cute decorative boxes for the monsters this Christmas, which inspired me.  I could totally see lovely painted boxes filled with delicious homemade cookies!  Oooh, we could put the Upward star on the lid, too…

The first hitch was that the two coaches liked different cookies (peanut butter and chocolate chip).  And of course I didn’t have time to start any of this until the night before the last get-together.  And I didn’t have enough brown sugar — so we all trooped to the grocery store.  I also didn’t have a tried and true peanut butter recipe, so I decided to use the one off the Jiffy jar (I was making Tollhouse cookies anyway).

Meanwhile, we had the decorative boxes to paint.  Two coats because I wanted to be fancy.

One monster opened the paint when I wasn’t looking.  I’m sure you won’t need three guesses to say it was Middle Monster (and you’d be right).  Immediately, she got paint on my island, her shirt, and her toe.  Don’t ask.

Then I forgot and used my Air Bake pans.  I don’t bake cookies often enough to remember that I despise those @Q#&$* pans and I can’t bring myself to throw them out because they cost so much.  I can NEVER get cookies done!  The peanut butter ones didn’t do too badly, but the Tollhouse ones smooshed as soon as I tried to take them off, even after I let them sit a few minutes (and even though I added an extra 1/2 c. of flour).  Grrrrr.  I barely had enough that didn’t look like monster mud pies to include in the box.  The pb cookies aren’t the greatest, either, although they’re not bad.

(I love me a good pb cookie.  One time I lived on them an entire weekend when my high school band teacher dropped me off alone at an All-District Band concert with no transportation and everything on campus was closed.  Thank you, Lord, for Grandma’s PB cookies in the vending machine.)

Then Princess Monster drew the Upward star on top with a black marker and wrote the coaches’ names out.  I wanted the star bigger, but it looked cute the way she did it.  The boxes didn’t look half bad at all.  Even messy monsters can sponge paint!  Hopefully the cookies were a big hit with the coaches.  I know That Man and the monsters looooooved the messy, sticky lumped up Tollhouse cookies, even if it did look like something they made out of clay!

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RX 3/5/2009

I’ve got a lot to get done this week beyond Revision Xibalba, some that I forgot about.  Like E-Book Week.  So I’ll be working on that frantically this weekend too.

Meanwhile, I did finish the next section in the Maya story.  It was more than a simple polish, since a major side character’s motivation changed, but I finally broke 70K (72,659 words now).

To do list by Monday:

  • Write new Quinn section for the Maya story.  If I’m on a roll, write Tara’s section too.
  • First pass edits of Road.
  • Final blurb/tag line doc on Dear Sir (Letters).
  • Polish The Shadowed Blood and pull together a pdf to give away next week.

Snippet: 

He stood close enough that she got a whiff of his vest.  It smelled… she couldn’t even form the thought in her mind.  The color was fleshy, tanned, some kind of leather.  Still… wet.  She swallowed hard, the bile burning her throat.  Something dripped from the inside of the vest, dark and wet.  Blood.  The vest was…

She gagged, turning away quickly, her hand over her mouth to hide her reaction.  He was wearing skin.  Human skin.  Her mind clamored and her jaws ached to keep back the shrill scream that roared in her throat.

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RX: 3/4/2009

So yesterday and today I got up semi-Dark & Early to continue working on Revision Xibalba.  It’s still slow going.  Taking a couple of weeks off certainly didn’t help.  I reread the last chapter first, smoothing a few more things (can any writer read a “complete” chapter and be 100% happy with it?) and then edited the three sections I had finished but not connected to the main draft, which is now just under 70K.

Yesterday, I grabbed the next few sections in Jaid and Ruin’s POV from the first draft and began polishing.  I think I did 2.5 pages yesterday, and finished the rest of the section this morning.  Bad things, dude, very bad things.  Hopefully I’ll build some momentum and grind through these last few horrible scenes quickly.

Tally: 

  • 14 13 revision sections
  • 4 new sections to complete Tara and Quinn’s threads.

That’s it!  I know I can do this by the end of March.

However, I did receive the first pass of edits on The Road to Shanhasson last night!  Wheeeeeee!  They’re pretty light, thanks to the terrific job Soleil, Ann, and Bethanie did of beta-reading.  I’ll get those back to Deena by Monday.  She didn’t even kill me for all the horrible things I did in that story. *wicked laugh* Although one comment totally made me laugh out loud about increasing the boys’ ages…

I also have to get the blurb and tagline stuff filled out on Dear Sir, I’m Yours (the story formerly known as Letters).  That will be tougher.  So that’s my first goal.

RX Snippet:  This section takes place in a cave, so it’s absolutely dark.  They’re in an underground pool of water.

“Which city is this?”

“Iximche.”

Surprise splintered through her, followed by a tsunami of dread that nearly dragged her back down to the depths of Lake Atitlan.  This is where her father had made his greatest pre-Chi’Ch’ul discovery.  This is where her mother died.  “Why?”

A new voice echoed in the darkness.  “Because he knew I’d come here.”   

Ruin tensed and whipped his body around toward the speaker, pressing her back from the threat.  Something slammed into him with the dull sound of flesh on flesh and ripped him away.  Water splashed violently, but she couldn’t see what was happening.  If she charged after them, she’d be killed, yet standing here, doing nothing…

She heard a wet, heavy thunk, and Ruin grunted.  God, he must have been stabbed.  Who was it?  It didn’t sound like a demon.

“At last.”

Involuntarily, she backed away into the water.  That voice did sound like a demon.  Her teeth hurt and her muscles tensed so hard and fast that she shuddered.  She couldn’t even call it a “voice” when it grated like metal on metal, screeching to the point of pain.

“Give me the White Dagger, lady.”

Until then, she didn’t even remember that she held it in her hand.  The thing felt slick and foul on her palm as though it were coated in rotted, feculent scum.  Gritting her teeth, she forced her fingers to grip it, not to sling it away.  It pulsed with a heavy, steady throb like a living heart.

“Jaid, don’t you dare–“  Ruin’s ragged voice cut off on a strangled, bubbling sound.  She didn’t need to see him to know that his throat had been slit.

 

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The Magicians and Mrs. Quent

I’m still reading, slowly, and since I just finished “book one” (not quite half way) I thought it would be a good time to capture some of my thoughts.  I’m torn about this book.  It’s well written and I’m definitely enjoying it — yet there’s something not quite complete in my satisfaction of it.

As some of the scenes unfold, they seem familiar.  Perhaps too familiar.  Many of the characters are like old friends I once knew.  Mrs. Lockwell is very much like Mrs. Bennett of Pride and Prejudice, very loud and shrill (although not as improper) at times and concerned with marrying off her daughters just as any proud mama would be.  There are three daughters, very much like the Dashwood sisters.  Even Mrs. Baydon, Mr. Baydon, and Lady Marsdel remind me of the gossipy neighbor and her married daughter in Sense and Sensibility, with Hugh Laurie’s dry, cynical comments.  Mr. Bennick reminds me of Colonel Brandon. 

Miss Ivy Lockwood counts the pennies and worries constantly about providing for her family, just as Elinor Dashwood did.  She went to a fancy party at Lady Marsel’s house and took sick, similar to Jane’s trip in Pride and Prejudice.  It gave her the opportunity to meet Mr. Rafferty’s family and acquiantances — and now they’ve turned their backs on her, just as they did to poor Jane, because Mr. Rafferty is now going to marry someone else of a more proper standing and fortune.  Even the annoying Mr. Wyble is remarkably similar to Mr. Collins, and the Lockwell’s house is entailed to him.

So while the scenes are amusing in that I try to compare and contrast with the Jane Austen works I’ve read, it also makes The Magicians and Mrs. Quent seem…derivative. 

My other complaint is the pace of the book.  Here I am on page 198 of just shy of 500 pages, and I still don’t know who Mrs. Quent is or who, exactly, the magicians are and what great occurence is supposed to happen.  A Mr. Quent was mentioned about 10 pages ago for the very first time.  Ivy Lockwell has been working on a vague riddle for most of the book, when she wasn’t walking and chatting with Mr. Rafferty, and she finally figured out one small thing — but she (and so I) still have no idea what’s going on.

Not all the characters or story lines are derivative (or if they are, I haven’t read that particular Austen story to recognize it).  I think Mr. Garritt’s story is quite unique, and while he’s slowly slipping into nefarious dealings, his choices have totally made sense and are well motivated.  He’s extremely naive.  Mr. Rafferty is rather unique, too, and I’m assuming one of the “magicians” although he knows nothing about magic and has just recently acquired a magical ring.  Mr. Lockwell is sort of an invalid.  Something horrible happened and he lost his mind, and we know it’s related to the story, and we have his riddle he left for his daughter, but dang it all to Invarel, it’s all unfolding so slowly!

(Oh, for those who can’t stand it, magic is spelled MAGICK.)

It’s an enjoyable read — but slow.  Nothing is happening — except familiar Austen-esque scenes.  The characters are entertaining — in an Austen-esque way.  Although slow, I am intrigued, and I have no cause to cease reading, but I’ve definitely been taking some mental notes about how I will proceed with my own “Austen” fantasy.  This is just too slow, really, and a little too derivative, for what I’d hoped, although it’s an enchanting if slow-paced story.

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News Flash

We’ve really been working hard on a new title for “Letters to an English Professor.”  We’ve been back and forth through all sorts of ideas and had tentatively settled on “Make Me.”  It does have a signficant meaning in the story, but sounds rather childish and didn’t really convey the BDSM aspect of the story.  It didn’t SING. 

Angie suggested “Dear Sir,” which we’d sort of touched on with “Dear Conn” or “Dear Conn, With Love” like the famous “To Sir, With Love,” but “Conn” didn’t do much for the title.  Google is my friend (as Rae would say) and I saw the formal “Yours Faithfully.”

So combining, we have approved the final title:  “Dear Sir, I’m Yours.”

Rae doesn’t really call Conn “Sir”, but it definitely implies the right mood as well as conveying the theme of “Letters.”

Woo-hoo!  Now to come up with a catchy tag line….

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February Recap

I need a do-over.

Other than the terrific news from Samhain, Feb. was pretty much a bust.  I didn’t finish Revision Xibalba — and I should have been able to do so.  I can’t even blame it on a new project, because I only finished one section in the new sfr project.  I was rather scattered.  I spent days brainstorming a new title for Letters, tenatively “Make Me.”  I spent days angsting about an agent.  Then poof.  I looked up and the month was gone.

So today, I cleaned my desk.  I made a consise list of what I need to do in order to complete Revision Xibalba this month.  I have some items to complete for Samhain this week, but otherwise, Revision Xibalba is my number one priority until I get editor revisions on either Road or Letters (MM).

My mood hasn’t been the greatest the past week or so.  After I turned in my “year in review” status report this past week (performance appraisal time is just around the corner), my boss at the Evil Day Job said she thought I was going to quit.  Not hardly, but reflective of how off my game I’ve been. 

Oh, and I also broke my teapot.  With tea in it, of course.  And one paper towel left in the entire kitchen.  Don’t even ask about the dumb thing I did to Bethanie!

So I’ll be shopping for a new teapot — and hoping for a better month!

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Drollerie Press Blog Tour

This month our Drollerie Press blog tour theme is “origins.”  Please welcome Angela Cameron!

~ * ~

Hello everyone in Burkhart land! *waves*

Angela Cameron here. As a part of the Drollerie Press author blog tour, I’m stopping by Joely’s to share the story of my beginning as a writer. I always think it’s so interesting to hear how others started out. We each have our own twisted tale of how we either embraced what we were from the beginning—or fought it back with a stick like I did.

 Mouth of the South

In all honesty, I knew that I was a storyteller from a young age. I rattled on so much that my parents and aunt literally nicknamed me “Mouth of the South”. In grade school, I wrote stories for my friends and journaled every day. They were often a little dark for my age. I blame it on my dad who is a huge fan of horror and vampires.

I didn’t publish anything until high school, and that was only because my English teacher threatened me into entering a poetry contest. I won, and that victory was almost tempting enough for me to abandon my chosen career as an artist to try writing.

 Me…a tech geek? Nah.

But life jumped in my path. I married early on and had a daughter, giving up any hope of ever being the next Stephen King or Anne Rice, who were my favorites. Then, in 1998, I found a guilty pleasure that started that dream right back up—Vampire: The Masquerade. I was such a role playing geek, but I really kicked some ass online. *smiles*

That level of character creation and writing really started an obsession. Still, I fought it and worked as a website designer until 2005, when I went back to college to finish my degree in psychology.  I’d done little more than outline a vampire story until 2006, when I finally gave in and sent off a few pieces of flash fiction. They were accepted and published, which started the whole crazy obsession with becoming a novelist.

 Regrets?

The next year, I wrote a novella that sold to Drollerie Press and published under the title Nocturne. Of course, it was a vampire story. By the end of this year, I should have four novels and two anthology stories with my name on them. I’m so ecstatic. I’ve never been happier, now that I’ve allowed myself to follow this path. I haven’t “arrived” by any means. No, there are still a whole lot of rungs on that ladder above me. My only regret though is that I’d have done this a long time ago. Seeing your name (or pen name, as in my case) on a published piece is the greatest feeling in the world.

For more information on Angela Cameron and her stories, check out Angela Cameron.

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Survive My Fire Review

Soleil has given a terrific review of Survive My Fire!

For such a short read it was jam packed.  Romance (Read: Warm Fuzzies and Hot sex). Fantasy (Read: Magic, Suspence, And Dragons, oh my!). Hell I even got a nice juicy battle to chew on, and I looove battle scenes. Two thumbs way way up!

You can read her whole commentary here.  Thank you, Soleil!  I’m thrilled you’re enjoying your gift certificate from the Character Clinic!