Year: 2009

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1/15/2009

 

  • NSR: Reworked the opening scene into Ruin’s POV.  Tough.  I actually ended up with negative words today, but it was a good change.
  • SFR:  brainstormed while sitting through basketball practice.  Got some good backstory for the heroine, but I have no character names yet.
  • Participated in Drollerie Chat tonight.  Sorry, I forgot to advertise it here!

And to prove that I’m really REALLY insane, I think I’ll be writing something new in the Blood and Shadows world to giveaway.  By 3/8 for E-Book Week.  *dies*

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Color Me Intrigued

Color always plays a huge role in writing for me, which may seem rather odd.

Think about it.  The Blood and Shadows world colors are appropriately black, red, and white.  The Trinity is based on that color scheme, and the main characters reflect those colors as well.  With the Sha’Kae al’Dan, color is part of their individual honor.  The Blood, the personal guards, all wear red to symbolize their willingness to sacrifice every last drop of blood in Khul’s defense.

In Beautiful Death, Isabella’s trademark clothes are based on a simple color scheme:  black and indigo.  Hades is silver, to match his hair and eyes.  Their power signatures also match the colors, and Isabella’s aura manifests as sweeping indigo butterfly wings.

Now the brand new project I’m working on suddenly shouted out its color scheme to me.  Purple, mainly, with emerald green, and just a touch of black and red.  What makes this hilarious is I have to use folders, papers, and pens that reflect those colors.  Of course I have a black and red speckled composition book for the Blood and Shadows work.  now I have a purple folder and purple legal pad for the new project.  I have no idea what those colors MEAN yet, but creatively, those are the colors that are speaking for this project.

How about you — does color play a part in your world or character building?

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01/14/2009

  • NSR:  next scene revised; 1373 words
  • Read first three chapters of Debra Dixon’s GMC over lunch.
  • NSR:  Began making notes on how to revise the opening.
  • SFR:  watched The Crow for inspiration, tone, etc.
  • SFR:  researched nanotechnology and autosomal recessive inheritance.  Jotted tons of worldbuilding notes and major backstory.
  • Received two new research books via Amazon today thanks to rec’s by Jenna.  Should make the other possible new novella in March/April very, very interesting!

SFR is the “bright shiny” I mentioned in Dec.  SFR=science fiction romance, series/titles unknown.  Brand new world.  Tons of cool stuff.  Lots of research and planning.  I plan to get multiple projects out of this world, timing TBD.

NSR = Mayan Fantasy

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Changing It Up

I’m going to experiment with how I post for awhile.  I was using “RX Day xx” before, but quite honestly, this year is going to be craaaaazy.  I won’t be working on only one project at a time, at least not for more than a couple of days at a time.  I just have too much to do.

For instance, things I’ve worked on in the past week that I didn’t mention much here if at all:  an entire hardcopy pass of The Road to Shanhasson before Deena begins ripping it apart (400+ pages); a full critique/read for a friend; worldbuilding for the next project; research for the next project; detailed prep and GMC work for the Mayan story as well as revisions.

It keeps me accountable, and right now, I need that.

So on working days, I’ll record progress similar to what I did for NaNo, but it will be across multiple projects.  I’ll try to mix it up with detailed posts on writing, reading, movies, TV, etc. so it’s not a boring progress report, too.  If things do get too boring, I reserve the right to dump this method and try something else.  :mrgreen:

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Dilemma

I find myself in a most unexpected problem. 

Because I’ve been sick, I haven’t had the brain power for hard revision, so Revision Xibalba is very much behind where I wanted to be by mid-month.  I’ve also been reading more blogs and groups to pass the time, which has led me to stumble across several submission calls.

Tempting ones.

Saying no has never been one of my strengths, nor is balance.  I’d really like to do all three of these submissions.  (One is already finished, at least the first draft; the other two, I don’t even have ideas for.  Yet!)  But I can’t do both of these others and get the Mayan fantasy revised like I wanted, nor finish worldbuilding and plotting the other idea I had.

Something’s gotta go.  And I don’t wanna.

And yes, at the root of this dilemma is a reluctance to work on the Mayan story.  It’s a hard revision.  I’m juggling more POV threads than I’ve ever attempted before.  I also realized that I’ve got a serious flaw at the beginning.  (What helped point this out was Debra Dixon’s GMC — although I knew it, I’d chosen to ignore it, thinking I could work around the problem.  But I really can’t.)  I need to eliminate one rather useless POV, or at least rewrite the beginning entirely into Ruin’s POV and put this other one in later.

As I said, some hard decisions that have significant impact on the story.  I’m torn between finishing this draft, and going back to fix the beginning.  I’ve decided to continue forward progress, but that beginning is nagging me like a sore tooth.  I’d hoped to send out a few queries once I’m close to the end of the revision, but I can’t do that if the opening is wrong.

It’s really time to buckle down, press my nose to the grindstone, suck it up, and just do it.  The Mayan story is my highest priority.  So I committed.  So I shall do.  Lord help me if I get solid ideas for the other two temptations.  One, I think I could probably handle.  Not both.

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Oooh, Pretty!

The various imprints of Drollerie Press now have their own websites!  Take a look — they’re very pretty.  Of course, you can find *everything* still at the Bookshop, which also received a new look.

Pen Flourish (Romance & Erotica)

Quadrivium (Science Fiction)

Kettlestitch (YA)

Grotesqueries (horror) (I always think of really horrible queries.  Ha.)

Gauffer (mystery)

Chrysography (literary)

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Catching Up

Sorry I’ve not been posting as regularly as usual.  I’m running so low on energy that it’s an effort to do anything, and this has been a very busy weekend.

Yesterday was not only the first day of Upwards Basketball for all three monsters (all playing at different times), but it was also Middle Monster’s 7th birthday.  All three girls had a great time at the games, and as I went with each kid after her game, waited through the “award” ceremony, snacks, etc. then the three hours on the bench went by very quickly.  The two youngest monsters’ games were scoreless — every kid is a winner — but they do keep score on Princess Monster’s games.  Last year, her team lost every single game (8 weeks) and it was so hard to keep upbeat and positive.  It was a terrible — but great — experience for her.  She had to learn to play anyway, even when there’s no hope of winning, and still do her best, as well as losing gracefully.

This year, she had an excellent game from what I saw of it (she played second, so I missed part of it while helping Littlest Monster after her game).  She made several baskets, and thanks to her height (even though she’s one of the youngest on her team), she made several key rebounds and blocks too.  Her team won their game by about ten points, against some really great athletes we’ve met over the years.

Since it was Middle Monster’s birthday, Papa from Mexico made it down, and then went with us to Branson for her birthday dinner at Famous Dave’s.

She asked for a Build-A-Bear for her birthday — gasp, a trip to the dreaded mall! — and she picked out a Scruffy Puppy who’s adorable.  I’ll try to take a picture later.

We planned to go to church this morning.  We’ve missed a couple of Sundays because I’ve been sick.  Unfortunately, I was up most of the night coughing, this time bad enough that I got up and dozed on the couch so everyone else could sleep.  Three doses of Vicks 44 and half a dozen cough drops, I finally got the spasms down and went back to bed around 4 a.m.  Needless to say, we stayed home again.  My cough is even worse today, very chesty and nasty.  The clinic called to see how I’m doing, and she admittted I still sounded bad, but to give it another day or two.

I don’t know how I can possibly work if I’m not sleeping.  I’m exhausted today, despite sleeping in this morning.  I guess I’ll see what kind of night I have again.  I hate calling in to work for a sick day because of a “cold” but this is getting ridiculous.  Even though I won’t infect anyone (I telecommute from home), my brain power is just not there for the level of work I need to be doing right now.

Writing has been beyond me, but reading has been fine.  So I finished the paper-pass on The Road to Shanhasson and got that back to my editor today.  I’m reading a critique for a friend today while watching football.

And trying not to cough up a lung.

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Doctor Visit

After so many of you advised me to go to the doctor — and That Man kept nagging me — I went this afternoon.  It was an utter waste of time, though.  You got it — it’s viral.  My lungs are clear, my sinuses and ears are unaffected.  She told me to quit taking Mucinex since the congestion had gone out of my sinuses, and that if I had difficulty sleeping at night thanks to feeling wonky after decongestant, to take Benedryl instead.

So basically a $20 copay to be told to take Benedryl. 

On the bright side, my blood pressure was good, and it was nice to get confirmation that it’s not pneumonia or bronchitis.  However, I am starting to run a low-grade fever now and I feel “sick” where before I just had a cough and no voice.  This is some “cold” let me tell you.

I’m sure I’ll feel even better after sitting through three hours of basketball games tomorrow.  :wink:

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Book Chat with Cindy Lynn Speer

Continuing our chat about The Chocolatier’s Wife and Beautiful Death, here’s the next questions I asked Cindy and her response.  Head over to Cindy’s blog for my questions/answers re: BD.

How long have you been writing, and where does TCW fit in your bibliography?  And what’s in the works for you next?

I’ve been writing since my teens…about 20 years.  The Chocolateir’s Wife is my third completed book.  Of my first two, Blue Moon is, ironically, my second book.  The first I wrote, Balancing Act, will be out in a year or so.  I’ve also written a lot of short stories and poems.  I wanted to write longer works, but when I was a teen I was more interested in expressing myself…my emotions, what I was going through…in a descriptive way, and I loved poems because I could finish them.  Then I did short stories…when I finished my first novel, it was really a relief! 

And since I missed a week or so over the holidays, I’ll post another.

What’s next for the world of Chocolatier’s Wife? 

As for what’s next for that world…I have several plans.  Someday, I think William is going to have to face the sea…I imagine a mystery, perhaps, happening while he and Tasmin go on a voyage, perhaps to visit cocoa plantations?  I’m not sure.  But I am working on a story set in the “enemy” empire of Pandroth.  I don’t know if I ever will truly write about William and Tasmin again…but I love them so much, it gives me comfort to think I might just.   

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Calling All Gregar Fans

All these threats of making me go to the doctor might be helping me feel better.  Or maybe it was simply eating the first real food of the day.

Or maybe it’s just getting some excellent news!

Tomorrow, “Prometheus Unbound” will be included in the weekly newsletter at All Romance E-Books.  This is a great opportunity to reach new people and let them see a bit of the Mythomorphoses world.  Hopefully they’ll be intrigued enough to come visit Athens with Isabella. 

In pulling together my backlist and coming soon items for the newsletter, Deena and I agreed to target: 

The Road to Shanhasson, March 2009

Which I often called “Gregar’s Book.”

I’ll be making my final pass on paper tonight to make sure all the loose ends are tied up now that I know exactly how the trilogy ends, and then I’ll work with Deena the next few months to ensure the story shines as brightly as Gregar’s ivory rahke.

Oh, and over lunch, I finished the first draft of the short story, which came in just under 2,400 words.  Yes, Virginia, it is possible for me to write something less than 100,000 words!