Library of Andunien

I've Moved!

2012-01-09T13:31:00.002-05:00

Decided to switch blogs, so please come and join me at Dreamscapes and Nightpaths, my new blog. I'll be bringing some posts from here to there, but I won't be updated here anymore. I need a new home base. This will stay up for awhile, but please update your follows if you'd like to continue following me. Which I hope you will :)

Well It Isn't The Polar Express...

2011-11-30T11:53:00.013-05:00

But it was a great train all the same. The Holiday Train travels across Canada every year around this time, so this year we decided to brave the cold and the rain and check it out. Quite convenient when the tracks are literally right behind your house! Enjoy!

Review Monday: Bunraku

2011-11-28T11:36:00.003-05:00

I'm still working on reviews for two other writing stuff, Yarny and Liquid Story Binder, so they'll have to wait until next week. So instead I thought I'd review a movie :) I'll try not to spoil too much, because you really should see it :)

Bunraku
Starring: Josh Hartnett, GACKT, Woody Harrelson, Ron Perlman, Kevin McKidd. Also features Demi Moore.

Rating: R

Summary: In a world without guns, a mysterious drifter (Hartnett), a young samurai (GACKT) and a bartender (Harrelson) find themselves working together to overthrow the ruthless leader who controls the town (Perlman) and his Red Suit army.

My Thoughts:
First, for all the hype the company behind this movie gave it, it was completely underpromoted. Not a lot of effort was put into trying to promote this to the public which I think did the movie a huge disservice.

Bunraku's not your typical movie. Set in similar style to movies like Sin City and Kill Bill, it's a very different ride. Director Guy Moshe draws heavy inspiration from origami and bunraku, which is an old Japanese style of puppetry. It's bright and colourful and doesn't always takes itself seriously, which makes it rather fun. The storyline is rather good, the fight scenes are spectacular and the acting's superb. I've never been a fan of Josh Hartnett and I don't tend to go out of my way to see his movies but I really enjoyed him in this one. Ron Perlman is not your typical bad guy, doesn't encompass the "evil" archtype as much as you might expect. Woody Harrelson's character in the bartender is the wise guide helping the two protagonists along and sometimes is very much a father figure. Kevin McKidd, as Killer No. 2, IS your typical bad ass and embodies it well. With a rather stylish form of fighting more reminiscent of dancing than combat. And GACKT, even if you've never heard of him or think him just a singer, he's going to surprise you. For these guys alone, the movie's worth checking out.

Demi Moore's character of Alexandra is unfortunately kind of a useless character. Moshe, who also wrote the script, could have easily written the same story without her character. She plays her part well, it's just a shame that Alexandra doesn't have a more firm anchor in this story as she could have.

Yes, it does have a few shortcomings. In many ways the story showed a lot of potential that Moshe didn't quite reach. For example Alexandra's relation to the bartender could have been better developed. Their whole time in this movie especially at the end seemed kind of anti-climatic. The movie is also a little over-narrated; I'm not opposed to movies with narrators, unfortunately Moshe used the narrator to tell just a little too much of the story, instead of the characters. I would have eliminated it entirely, or at least kept it to the beginning and the end. But despite those things I really loved this movie. Visually the movie is stunning and unique like a blend of stage and movie. The fight scenes are well choreographed and entertaining to watch. There are no slow or dull moments in this movie, no lulls in action or dialogue as Moshe has set a very good pace between action and acting. And everyone's acting in this movie is supurb. It's hard to go into much more description without spoiling the movie itself, but please definitely pick this up and check it out. You won't be disappointed!

Bunraku can be ordered from Amazon.com, or buy it at Wal-Mart. Bunraku hits theatres in Japan January 2012.

NaNoWriMo

2011-11-22T11:18:00.003-05:00

It's winding down now, only about nine more days left. I'm so woefully behind, but this year for me's been rather different. I'm accustomed to having loads of free time around this time of year which meant I could pretty much write whenever I want. This year, very different. Having the nephew with me during the day for nine hours takes about thirteen hours out of my day when you factor in traveling and getting ready. He's nine months now, so he's at that stage where he's on the move a lot and constantly getting on his feet. So far he can only stand on his own for about seven seconds so he uses furniture to help him walk around and that really divides your attention. Plus all the other fun stuff that comes with babysitting and his fascination with my laptop - fun times. It doesn't bother me to have him, but boy does it turn your schedule upside down! Everyone doing NaNo this year with kids, I salute you. Seriously, because it's hard work! And it really draws on one's energy when you're not in the greatest of health, and trying to fix that is a job within itself. Throw in a dog amongst all that...you learn a few things about good time management, opportunity and being flexible.

I actually ended up changing my NaNo story about a week in. My original story (which I'll probably continue after this story is finished) was The Bone Witch, a fantasy with Norse, viking, barbarian inspirations. I temporarily petered out on it because of lack of clarity about how the world works. I'm not much of a pantser, I have to at least have a basic idea of how my world functions before I dive right in and this one kept shifting on me. At least enough to affect story outcome. It's bubbling just under the surface right now and when I can get back to it I'll work it all out. So this year's story switched to another fantasy called Dragon Eggs. It's coming about in a much different format than I'm accustomed to writing; each chapter alternates between current events in the story and past events that led up to it. I'm not quite sure how well this is going to work out, but we'll see how it goes. It's certainly fun to write, and for the first time I overwrote a chapter by about three thousand words. I usually manage to keep them around the five thousand mark, give or take a few hundred words, because it helps me keep a tab on my overall word count. Plus it seems like a good length, not too long and not too short. Well see how it fares in the rewrite. New territory is always fun to explore.

Word count unfortunately is sitting at a sad 13000 words (though I'm kind of proud at landing on such an even number). I'll post tomorrow how much that's changed.

Review Monday: PangurPad

2011-11-21T09:13:00.001-05:00

I think this will become a regular feature on the blog. I'll review all sorts of stuff, but for now I think I'll start with writing programs. I got the idea a few weeks ago to use NaNo as a time to test drive some new ones I found, and see how they shape up to what I use now (Liquid Story Binder, which I'll also be reviewing). If you have any suggestions for future reviews, feel free to let me know in the comments. So this week, I'll start with PangurPad.

What is it?
PangurPad is web-based writing software created by Pangur Pty, Ltd., so you don't have to download anything to your computer. Built on open source software it's a writing program designed to be sleek and clean with functional tools and an uncluttered interface. But PangurPad isn't just writing software; there is also a large community where you can find writers who share your genre and it also acts as a self-publishing platform.

How It Works?
All your writing is done in the browser. PangurPad backs up all your work on their servers as you write, so you will always have the most current version of your work everytime you log in. There is a feature that allows you to go back through all the versions that have been saved, so if there was something you wrote three days ago, deleted but decided you wanted to bring it back, it's retrievable. There is a word count feature, a timeline feature and a notes feature. The notes have their own subsections for characters, places, things and general. You can also download your work to your computer, and there is an offline mode which allows you to continue writing if for whatever reason you're unable to connect to the internet and PangurPad's servers. At the top right of the interface is a button with an eye on it, and this button hides all the features so all you have is your writing space. Pressing it again brings up all your tools.

The Basics:
It should be noted that PangurPad ONLY works in Firefox or Chrome. It does not work in Internet Explorer whatsoever, so if you're stubborn like me and still use IE as your primary browser you will have to download either of the others. I personally like Firefox. When you sign up you're given a free trial account, with space for 1 work with a 10k word limit. All the features are avaliable to you including the secure online backup. Right now, if you are a NaNoWriMo participant you can sign up and get a trial account with a 1 work, 100k word limit by proving you're a participant. All that really involves is showing them the link to your NaNo profile. The third account is the paid account. This gives you unlimited works and unlimited word count. There are many features and details about Communities, Publishing etc, but that would be pretty lengthy to go through so please visit here to see the rest. The paid account has two options: $20.00AUD yearly subscription or a once off payment of $45.00AUD.

The Pros:
So far I'm really enjoying this site and program. The backup is pretty seamless, it doesn't give my computer any hiccups or issues while saving. I like that since it is online as opposed to a downloaded program I can bounce between computers and just pick up where I left off writing. The word count feature seems quite accurate, only a hundred or so words off from Microsoft Word. The interface is very clean, and I enjoy having the option of having the tools all easily displayed or hidden as I feel the need. It has a very small learning curve, if any, so if you're taking the plunge from Word you'll have little trouble getting accustomed to the format. Anyone who uses different writing programs should have no trouble at all with this. The site itself is very clean, very easy to nagivate and appealing. No crazy animations, nothing to slow the computer down, enough graphics to make it interesting but without the overkill. Nothing puts me off more than a website that looks like it was created in five minutes in a web editor.

The Cons:
There is no FAQ, which I would have liked to see. They're sort of a prerequisite in my books. There's also next to no information on the people behind PangurPad - not that that's a con per se, but it would be nice to at least know something, what brought about the idea. There does seem to be a few bugs, I can't seem to get the word count goals to stay when I log off, but it's unclear whether they're meant to only be present during your session or permanent until they're deleted. Again, a FAQ would have helped here, the small note they give you when you first start with PangurPad is not as informative as I would have liked it to be. I can't seem to get the section break or page break to work properly so I don't use them. With regard to the publishing, there's little info on that as well. You have to actually click on the publishing link beside your story to find anything out with that. It does bother me some that there is no information on the publishing experience of the people behind this format, and as of right now the epublishing option and the print publishing options are not avaliable. You can publish on the web, but it also kind of bothers me how they don't stipulate that should you choose to post most or all of your story this way, you lose your first publish rights. Though this only matters if you plan on going the regular publishing route, but if the idea is to be helpful to writers this info would help. At least those newer writers who may not know this, I know I sure didn't at first.

My Thoughts:
As a writing program, I really enjoy it. Despite the cons this is still a program worth checking out, at the very least. This year they're sponsoring NaNoWriMo and donating part of the proceeds from paid accounts to NaNo. I do like that they give you all of the program features and some of the access to the community, that for me gives me more incentive to want to buy a full account. It's a very fine line you got to walk to offer people enough of a preview to get their interest, but not so much that there's no incentive to upgrade to paid account. I feel PangurPad gives a nice even balance. Even being in beta it's pretty bug-free for the most part, and it's such a huge bonus that you can access your story anywhere you go, on any computer. For someone like me who bounces between two comps, this is fantastic for me.

As a publishing platform, I'm undecided. It could show lots of promise, depending on the experience of the folks behind it. It's not the first site I've seen that claims it'll be a place for authors to expose their work to a large scale audience, and as of right now the community is all writers. If the site is promoted well, it could in fact become a good platform. Simply making a website thinking that it'll expose you/its members to the global audience is not one that's panned out so far as I've seen, and I hope PangurPad doesn't fall into that pitfall. Though new it does have potential, only time will tell how it pans out for self-published writers, and it is still in its early development. I'll be watching it.

Life: That pesky thing that gets in the way

2011-11-14T10:30:00.000-05:00

I'm too scared to even look at my last entry. I'm sure the dates between today and then are very far apart.

Well life, as it's prone to, got in the way. Again. My mother's health took a bad turn and I spent about half the summer caring for her. She's gotten much better since then, but she will still need surgery next March. Spinal conditions are terrible things. And I have a baby nephew now, he's nine months and I've been helping my sister out by watching him while she settles into a new job. So busy busy busy! But all that coupled with my own illness and issues...it's been a lot to try and sort through. Just have to keep at it.

So my plan for this blog. To keep it, obviously. I have preplanned entries which should help me stay on top of things. I'm also thinking of doing a serial story for the fun of it. I won't post the whole thing here for anyone who might not be interested in reading it, but I'll link it here definitely. Should be a weekly post. Aside from trying to keep things interesting around here, I'll make my rounds again. I missed so much, I have a lot of catching up to do! So please stay tuned :)

Not Sure I Buy It Yet

2011-06-08T10:05:00.000-04:00

It’s an old argument by now. Publisher gatekeepers are keeping good writers out of the game, dictating to the public what they should and shouldn’t like. We need ways around them to reach readers and let them decide for themselves. On the surface it sounds appealing, both to readers and writers. Not every publisher book is a hit, and every once in a blue moon a good writer strikes out on their own and is very successful (I want to highlight the ‘once in a blue moon’ part because though there are those who DO make a success of self-publishing, there are thousands who don’t) doing it that way. But are gatekeepers really all that evil? Are they really keeping out good talent because the writing world is a snobbish elitist place full of big time writers who don’t want the new guys to come and play? Okay that’s probably a bit of an overexaggeration, but you get my drift. I don’t want to get too much into the topic because I think for the most part we’re pretty familiar about how valid the anti-gatekeeper arguments are and how unrealistic it really is right now to expect readers to take the place of gatekeeping. Not many have that kind of patience, and until self-published writers overall raise the standard of how much work they put into their books people are always going to have a negative view of self-pubbed books. Anyway, there have been some interesting attempts to try and bridge the gap between readers and writers but this one that Writer Beware posted about seems almost plausible to the right set of conditions. I still have questions about it though.

It’s called Unbound, and it’s an initiative called crowdfunded publishing. You can read the full article here. Basically, the initiative is a website where writers pitch their ideas on the website and if readers like the idea, they contribute money and when the set amount is reached the book is written and published. Initiatives vary, and seems to follow the same sort of thing you find when you fundraise for a charity and the amount you raise earns you certain rewards. If the author fails to raise the set amount for one project before the deadline, the money will either be refunded to the donators or set for them to be used on another investment. Now in certain circumstances this could work. For example, authors with a substantial following, or someone writing in a niche market. But to a new writer? I still have my doubts. For one, just because a pitch sounds good doesn’t guarantee that the book will be. People take a huge risk investing into a new writer, it could pay off or it could be a complete waste of money. And if you’re a new writer who blows it on the first attempt, I don’t think you’d get a second shot. People seem to forget that publishers risk a whole hell of a lot as well. Another thing that makes me hesitant is that this is a venture by writers for writers and supported by a publisher who sounds like they’ll soon get into selecting and publishing ideas that get enough pledges and are moved from a soon-to-be new area onto the main site. That opens up all sorts of potential for skewed results, because it’s not always the best-sounding idea that gets the most votes, but the most popular. And really, your odds probably won’t be any different than if you were to query the publisher directly, so it also has the potential to give writers false hopes. A comment near the end of the article by Amy Jenkins also bothers me. She says that what she didn’t like about her commercial publisher was all the publicity she had to do and that by being on Unbound she’s in charge. It, kind of didn’t make sense to me the way it was said, but that’s not what bothers me. Publicity is par and parcel of the writing game and it’s something us writers have to expect to do. And without publisher support, you should probably expect to do more than a writer with a publisher. The way it was all put together kind of gives the impression that going with Unbound makes it sound like it makes all that easier, but it’s not yet demonstrated that it can actually do that.

Publishing is especially tricky for us unpublished ones to try and navigate. We all know publishing is shifting and that things are changing, but sometimes I think those changes are more talk than actual change. I think some things could probably stand to change, but I don’t think we’re ready to actually go for the readers-as-gatekeepers initiative. Not at least until self-publishing improves.

Don't Limit Yourself

2011-06-07T09:59:00.000-04:00

Being crafty lately got me thinking.

I remember when I watched the movie “Miss Potter”, Beatrix not only wrote but she painted also. I wonder at what point we started focusing on one thing and one thing only, especially us creative types. It just seems very natural to dabble in more than one venture. We hear all the time that most writers (usually the midlist) don’t make a living exclusively on their books alone and need something to supplement an income. Maybe it’s just the ones I’m seeing but that tends to be another creative pursuit. Photography is one, painting is another. I enjoy making jewellry personally. I wonder if by limiting ourselves to just one pursuit we’re kind of stunting our own creativity in a way. If you’re capable of creating one form of art who knows what else you’re capable of, and you’ll never know unless you explore and try. It’s not just about alternate sources of income, but satisfying the creative spark inside.

I have a few favourite examples, like GACKT’s guitarist, YOU. Everyone knows him as a guitarist and he’s a very good one. He’s been playing professionally for like, eleven years, he’d have to be pretty good to pull that off :) What a lot of people haven’t realized until recently is that he’s also an incredible photographer! He recently took part in a photography gallery and by the looks of things he did really well there. You can see here and here. GACKT is another (obvious to those that know me :D) example. Aside from music (which he’s quite accomplished in on its own – writing, composing and playing) he’s also written a novel Moon Child Requiem (still trying to find a copy, it’s long since sold out), wrote and acted in Moon Child, acted in the taiga drama Fuurin Kazan and is one of the lead actors in the upcoming Bunraku. Maya Angelou is another – novelist, poet, actress and singer amongst many other things. She has a great quote I keep amongst my faves: “We've done ourselves a disfavor to say, "You can be a jack of all things and a master of none." You can be a master of everything you do. Everything you do may not be a masterpiece, understand that then do the best you can with what you've got.” I think it really illustrates the point of my entry rather well, so thank you Ms. Angelou!

Long Post is Long

2011-05-23T21:10:00.003-04:00

I should really update this more. So much to say and I keep forgetting to note it down. Not sure where to start, so I'll just go randomly I guess.

YFC Europe DVD
I love it I love it I love it! I love seeing so much downtime and all of them all relaxed and having fun. It's a nice balance to the constant exhausted reports and seeing GACKT collapsed after a show. Some great moments there - like the one lady in France who was checking him out (or his backside, rather XD), Taya trying to hitchhike (knew that wouldn't work) and him getting admonished by G afterwards, girl-seeing in Spain, eating in Spain, both times Taya and CRAZY D were forced to eat spicy stuff, getting stopped by police in Munich, and of course G's english. Compared to the TIFF event it was a far better example of his skill, though to be fair he was pretty nervous at TIFF (still pissed that NO ONE aired any of the interviews he did!!!!). YOU's french was pretty good too, and I still chuckle over the idiot translator's french fail. He's not saying "jutem" even though it kinds of sound like it - he's saying "je t'aime". Translator, google basic french phrases next time.

Plannar
I got my 2011 diary from shinimegami21 awhile ago! I made a booboo and realized I gave her my old addy by mistake, but the post office misplaced the package. Wasn't worried about getting it but the lady at the post office was just as perplexed that it wasn't where it was supposed to be, especially as the computer acknowledged that it was in the office and filed where it was supposed to be. She found it later that night, and I picked it up the next day, but I was worried for a bit. But now it's in my possession where it belongs :) I am using it, but very carefully. I put it on my keyboard drawer which is slid under the desk to protect it from getting wet (my desk faces the kitchen counter, so I sometimes get sprinkled by water). And instead of writing in it, I got little stickynote pads which I use instead. I use the week by week section, so there's enough space for them. I make it work :) And when the year's up it will go on my GACKT shelf with everything else ^_^

Broke it
I broke two toes last Sunday. OMG it was the stupidest thing in the world XD My mom had JUST left to go visit her sister, so I was home alone. One of Dalila's toys was beside my desk and I thought I would kick the toy away to start a game of fetch. Well my aim was more than terrible, because I caught the desk with my right foot, specifically the two last toes. And I really put a lot of power in that kick. Now, I usually have a pretty good pain tolerance - not that I don't feel pain, but I get over it pretty quickly and can tolerate it without much obvious discomfort. This had me doubled over in pain on the chair for five minutes. It just would not subside. Swelled up really fast, and throughout last week changed all sorts of interesting colours. And walking? Oh fun times XD Just taking Dalila for a pee saw me hobbling along behind her. I think though if Mom had been home, we would have been laughing ourselves silly because it really was that stupid. She's pretty sure both those toes are broken now, but they don't look it so I'm not too concerned. Right now only the little toe sort of hurts, and it pops funny when I try and flex it. Otherwise I'm pretty much back to normal state now. Note to self though, no more toy kicking unless I am away from stationary objects.

en francais?
I started my new project! Inspired some by the YFC DVD, I decided to pick up french again. We had to learn it in school but I stopped after it was no longer mandatory and now I wish I hadn't. So I thought hey, why not translate G stuff into french and learn that way? So I did: gacktenfrancais. I have so much stuff planned to translate I think I'm good for the next five years lol. I'm going to tackle all of his blogs and the GACKTionary, and possibly song lyrics as well. I have to finish translating the profile into french too. And add some tags. hanachan007 has graciously offered to check my french for me until I start improving my skill. So far my writing skill is about 50%, which is better than I thought it would be. Grammar was always my demon.

Gakupo Cosplay
I'm really digging the new pic of GACKT for the new singles! I love that the wig is subtle and the whole outfit is more subtle than the actual Gakupo, I just feel it suits more. Like it's Gakupo 2.0. I'll be a little honest though, I kind of get and don't get the disappointment over it. One, it's not the first song he's done that wasn't one he wrote and composed himself and I can understand that taking some of the wind out of the sales, but he's never been the type of artist to bow to any sort of commercial pressure when it comes to music. And really there's nothing wrong with an artist covering a song they like - many of them do it. So I don't really see why some fans treat it as a huge terrible event that he's covering someone else's song - and yes I realize not everyone's seeing it that way :). I can see the disappointment though. I was and still kind of am bummed that the english version of Mind Forest was done by a translator and not him. Though now I wonder how much was the translator and how much was him to be honest, if it was like 50/50 or if it was just a matter of him coming up with attempts and the translator sort of checked it over. I don't know, maybe it's because I love that song so much the idea that he translated the whole thing into english himself really touched my heart and I truly believe his english skills are good enough that he coud have pulled it off. But maybe there wasn't enough time. Maybe he wanted to be sure it was absolutely perfect and brought in a second pair of eyes to ensure that. I don't know and I'm not judging. It's still beautiful and he still sounds amazing singing it, and I pray that he'll keep it in the setlist when he comes to Canada. I'm still very much looking forward to this though, new music is new music :) I'm going to soon need more shelves... And I still find it hilarious that he's essentially cosplaying himself ^_^ That would almost be like Steve Burton cosplaying as Cloud, or Steve Blum cosplaying as Vincent Valentine.

Overachieving Nephew
The little one is 3 and a half months old now, and either is too long for some clothes or too short for others. Baggy looks cuter on him :) His monkey sweater sill fits, and I'm going to try and get a picture of him in it before he outgrows it. It has monkey ears on the hood and a little monkey in the front pocket ^_^ He's still trying to sit up on his own (been trying for a month) and get this: he's walking. Not on his own mind you, but that little turkey is actually taking steps! Already! If you hold him around his torso facing you but at your arm's length, he'll slowly put one foot in front of the other and actually move toward you! Mom and my sis are like 'you're not supposed to be doing that!' but I encourage him. Hey if he wants to walk at five months, Auntie's going to let him! We had an almost fun outing on Saturday with him too. We picked him and my sis up, then went up to my friend's store which I haven't been to in so long. It was nice seeing her again :) Nephew just stared at everything with the biggest eyes possible, and smiled when my friend fussed over him. Sis says he'll always smile at a girl, but guys he just kind of stares at haha. And he does plenty of smiling now. The store is so amazing, and she had all sorts of new goodies to oogle over and wish I had money for. Afterwards we went to William's Cafe by the pier for lunch but that was nephew's limit and after he woke up all he did was fuss and cry. And I laughed at my sister, because I'm sympathetic like that ;) Next time we'll throw a nap inbetween though, he's happier after a sleep and a bottle. Still love being an auntie, and he's not growing up too fast yet. I'm sure in a year I'll be like 'where did the baby go?!'. Enjoy the time while it lasts.

Always Remember

2011-03-16T12:19:00.002-04:00

Obviously the situation in Japan right now isn't news really to anyone. The devestation is enormous and worse yet, the catastrophe is ongoing. Crisis at the reactors, powerful aftershocks and the threat of another earthquake looming is all still present. I've been constantly following it since last Friday because I do have friends there, some of my favourite artists are from there and it's a place I've wanted to visit for years. But all that aside people are suffering and they've lost so much, and I'll be honest it bothers me that people here seem to have no reaction to it. Their lives go on while the deathtoll somewhere else rises. It's not to say we should completely stop our lives and mourn but people seem to have a certain detached sympathy when it comes to tragedies around the world away from us. We should never forget any tragedy that happens anywhere, and we should try and do all we can to help even if it's only a little thing. We should move past our old habit of only caring for our own and open ourselves up to helping each other. We're all on this planet together. I don't buy into the notion of 'I can't do anything'. Even just spreading information for donating is doing something - every person had the potential to spread the information to someone who could use it. Not even a day after the quake GACKT blogged and announced he was starting a charity called Show Your Heart to help with relief efforts. In the time between then and now he's not only started the charity, established a charity account with the help of NHN Japan (an online game and internet company who worked with him on DRAGONEST), raised 101,100,893円 ($1.25 million US) and gathered a list of support from fellow Asian artists. He's not the only one - various idol groups and talent agencies have also donated substantial amounts of money for relief efforts, and many Japanese artists have turned their personal twitter accounts into information sources and constant well-wishes. It's really admirable how the whole country is coming together.

So what am I doing, you might be wondering. I started a charity effort awhile ago called A Dream We Chase which right now I'm tring to get the word about and drum up support so I can support various charity efforts any way I can. Right now, obviously, we're aiming to help support Show Your Heart. I've linked up my ArtFire store which has several bracelets for charity efforts and most specifically this one - My Heart for Japan. I'm also looking to do online auctions in the near future and aid and donations are always welcome there :) I also gave a small hand to Dog Bless You who are sending search and rescue dogs to Japan to help find survivors. And lastly, a list of links I hope people will check out, pass on and contribute to:

Japan Earthquake Animal Relief
Animal Refuge Kansai
Animal Miracle Foundation Network
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Perspectives

2011-03-11T15:32:00.000-05:00

I went to bed last night/this morning with a much different post I was going to put up here when I woke up today. I don't feel quite right posting that right now, so I'll save it for another day. It just doesn't feel quite appropriate with what's going on in Japan right now. I woke up to the aftermath of the whole earthquate and tsunami and GACKT having just blogged and fans could stop fretting. The whole situation is just devestating, it's awful. I've had BBC UK streaming on my comp since I woke up and it's just mind-boggling what's happened. Sendai looks so devestated, and the whole reactor issues, it's scary. I'm thankful that a lot of the tsunami warnings around the world are going down and one streaming camera I was watching went offline, probably because nothing was going to happen. Someone had set up a camera so people could see the effects of the coming tsunami on the Cali coast. So much going on in the world, seems like it's slowly but surely rippling all around. Everyone was counting on this year being a good year, I hope it's just a really late starter.

It makes me happy though that one of the first things a lot of jrockers and idols and such seemed to do was find a way to let their fans know they were all right. Jpopasia has a list of all JRockers accounted for, and Arama has a list of other artists accounted for. That's quite a list. I sometimes wonder if something like that happened in North America if celebrities here would be as eager or quick acting to let fans know they were okay, or if they'd be more focused on themselves. Probably not a fair assessment, but it just seems like a lot of artists here maintain that gap between fans and themselves and keep themselves at a distance. Meanwhile Asian celebs seem to make more of an effort to reach out and shrink that gap some. This isn't the time for that though, I'm just glad that a lot of them are okay and alive.

I hope the earth settles soon, so the people can really start recovery and rebuilding efforts without worrying about the ground shaking beneath their feet. My heart goes out to them, especially to fellow Dears in Sendai.

Return of the Writer

2011-02-27T10:36:00.002-05:00

Wow, what happened :)

Too much would be the answer. A bit of a nosedive in health, a spike in stress, a move on Hallowe'en...it's been something these past few months. I almost expected to find no followers when I came back (wouldn't have blamed anyone, to be honest!) but it's nice to see you still around. So thank you guys for sticking around.

So, where do things stand now. Well I'm getting back into a continuous writing habit so I can finish off the stories I've already started, and write the ones I want to start. I'm also working on my own health so I can finally have some sort of semblance of a normal life again. I miss being 'normal'. I've also hit the reset button on my 1 million words challenge and am going to attempt it again this year. I did a lot of thinking on it, and came to the conclusion that things that happened last year just made it too difficult. I kind of knew it, but I thought I could manage anyway. I know I can do it, and I am going to do it so I'll be adjusting the sidebars in the very near future. Next month I'm going to kick it off into high gear with a 150k words month next month! Which gives me...one day to prepare. Fun. I must be nuts :) You can track me on Twitter, if you'd like. I finally caved and got one. And I have to admit it's pretty fun. You can also find me on Formspring and WeHeartIt.

It's good to be back again!

Closed Minds Let Nothing In

2010-09-14T14:37:00.000-04:00

It never fails to amaze me, really. This is the situation. I saw a posting on FB from Cesar Millan's page that Massachusetts banned debarking surgery. I don't agree with the surgery myself, even though sometimes I've considered it for Dalila but I don't think I'll ever do it. I've got a better handle on her bark these days so I know I can manage her. I also don't agree with it out of convenience; if you get a dog, train it. Simple. But I also understand that sometimes it can be the lesser of evils. For example my breeder has usually 7 shelties in her home at once. Now one sheltie is loud - imagine 7. And I don't care what anyone says, when one gets going the others will follow. That's just the way they are. And they are hard to calm down. It can be done, but it's hard. And she's now experiencing health problems, which compounds the issue. One of her seven (Dalila's great grandmother to be precise) is debarked. The bark isn't gone, it just sounds really raspy like she has a cold. She has neighbours and doesn't want to trouble them, and having one less loud barker helps. Okay, her dogs her decision. Maddie doesn't seem to notice, she barks alongside everyone else. But everyone on this page considered every dog owner who did this surgery to be horrible people. I threw in my two cents pretty much saying that while I don't agree with the surgery, I don't agree with judging people either. Of course I got jumped on (anticipated that) but I stood my ground. I'm not ashamed of my opinions, and I'm not ashamed of speaking them even when 90% of the people are being a little close-minded in their passion. People don't listen when they're on that high.

One lady saw fit to tell me that I and my sister were bad dog owners because I wasn't agreeing with the masses and pointing out a few real realities. I was also called stupid.

Haha, I'm a writer honey. You want to take a hit at my feelings you're going to have to hit a lot harder than that!

She gave up, I guess she didn't want to admit that she wasn't reading what I was writing properly. I guess it's hard to admit that things aren't always fair to dog owners and some people have to make ugly decisions. I'm not saying that shouldn't be changed, because it should, but it's stupid to ignore the reality here and now. If any of those dog owners commenting there could honestly say that if they were ever faced with the decision of getting their dog debarked or removed from them, they would let their dog go they're stronger people than I am. I hope never to be in that situation, but I'd rather debark Dalila than lose her. If that makes me stupid fine, but I knew what I was getting into when I got a sheltie. I know what a barker she can be and I know I have to work to curb that. And I just can't bring myself to give her up and then someone who's unaware of that adopts her only to get rid of her. She'd get euthanized. And she is just far too happy and far too wonderful of a dog to have that happen to her. Not everyone is lucky like me to have neighbours and a super who would work with me if she was ever a problem. Some people have neighbours who complain over the simplest, stupidest things and sometimes the law sides with them instead of resolving it. That's reality. It's not always fair, and there's not always happy endings and rainbows. I'm all for people being more responsible dog owners, but I'm also for people not being so anal retentive about a dog just because they bark on occasion.

And I'm also for people not being so damn judgemental when they haven't been there and done that.

Festival Goodness

2010-09-11T16:13:00.000-04:00

Back home and settled, with an ice cap and goodies :) I'm a hopeless addict, haha.

It was absolutely perfect weather for a festival. Lots of new booths, a fairly good crowd but considering there was also a festival going on at Locke street this weekend it wasn't surprising. But still, good crowd. Lots of folks with dogs, from little guys to Irish Wolfhounds. I caught up with my friends Michelle and Kelly who were both vending this year. It's always good to see people who are all glad to see you and not 'where the hell have you been?'. And saw some more of my friends who showed up a little after I did, which was nice. I forgot to ask if they were going lol Shannon brought Ruby along who was happier to see Dalila than Dalila was. Pup actually did pretty good at the festival, it was quite overwhelming but she loved it. And I love showing her off because she gets so many compliments. I think people see how happy a dog she is though too.

I didn't bring my camera this year, but I did get goodies and I did take pictures (please ignore my fugly desk >.> ):

Both mine and my mom's stuff. The dream catcher and the first two pairs of candles are mine, and the purple ball and the last two candle pairs are mine. The candles my friend Kelly makes. The first pair at the top is called Egyptian Dragon, the next Witches Brew, the third Dragon's Blood, and the last pair is Witches Cauldron. They smell sooooooooooooo good, I'm surrounded by scent.

As for Dalila:

Whoops!

2010-09-11T00:47:00.002-04:00

Almost let this blog slip. My apologies!

I forgot about NaNo ML signups this year >.< So officially, I'm not ML-ing for my area but I can act in an unofficial capacity, if it's okay with the girls who are this year. I'm sure it will be, one has been my co-ML for a few years and the other has been in the group probably as long as I have. They're both cool. Even if my involvement is minor, it might be nice to relax a bit this year. 50,000 words in one month can get kind of nuts.

I have no idea what I'm going to do for NaNo. It has to be a new project so that means none of the seven stories I have in progress qualify. Not that I'm short on ideas, haha. I have one idea that I haven't quite fleshed out yet that was inspired by this art:

I couldn't read the title or artist's name (幽魂之地 - 李一丁 if anyone on my list can translate?) but I have a good idea of the 'story' of it. It's an undead warlock, most likely in Andorhol at night. Or it could be a farm in Tirisfal which always looks that dark but none of the silos glow green. It kind of looks like she's taking revenge which is what spurred the idea. Of course, another idea is inspired by this pic:

Not entirely sure what this one will be about either. Either vampire or shapeshifter, but leaning towards shapeshifter. I love vampires but I already have one on the backburner and right now I think the vamp market needs to cool some. Thanks Stephenie >.< Glittery vamps can go die now plzkthx.

Speaking of writing I didn't do any yesterday. Bad me, I'm going to fall so far behind on my target. I've been doing...well not great, but not bad either. I know if I can just get in one 7k day, I can stick to it. The Dragon King is almost at 30k (1,761 words short to be exact), which is sooooooooo cool. I think I'm just going to make it straight out asian fantasy in the rewrite. Well, maybe not completely asian fantasy because I have another story idea set in this world, and nothing of it is asian-based. Watching Fuurin Kazan is providing lots of good visual aid ^_^ Still need a subbed version of the whole show, it'd be nice to know what's going on. My untitled dark fantasy, which is kind of leaning towards Demon King as a tentative title at least, has clocked in currently at 10,433 words. I think I'll finally start working on chapters now that I'm out of spontaneous scenes. Revenant is at 4,056 which I think will be the first one I tackle later today, going for 5,944 words; Redemption is at 6,213 and still has plenty of spontaneous scenes left to write; my untitled historical is back on the backburner at 1,136 words; my untitled warlord story is also on the backburner at 1,000 words; and A Game of Nobles remains at 1,000, which was actually kind of a spontaneous addition. I had two scenes I didn't want to forget, and figured I'd add it to the tally.

So current wordcount total: 65,729. For anyone doing the math, those counts above don't include the 13,652 I added to a three-year-old manuscript back in January. As that story is done now, nothing more gets added to it.

Now for some sleep, then off to the Harvest Festival! I'm debating whether to take Dalila - on one hand the socialization would be good for her, and she loves people. On the other I kind of don't want to divide my attention between saying hi to friends, doing a bit of shopping and calming the nut. Guess we'll see. I'll post later about it either way!

EDIT: so this is the room GACKT is staying in at the Casa Loma. All I can say is OMFG I WANT. I've decided that if I ever make enough money I'm renting this room for a week either monthly or bimonthly to work in. I've never really thought about what my dream workspace would be before, but damn I'll take that!

What a Week

2010-08-29T10:43:00.000-04:00

So glad it's over. Friday Dalila hit her head and had a dizzy spell for like 30minutes after we came in. Then Sunday she was sick. Monday she seemed to be getting better. Monday night and Tuesday morning I was writing like a fiend, and stayed up until 3:30am writing. Felt sooooooo good. Unfortunately Dalila had another 'bout of the runs, so I spent another 30 minutes cleaning that and her up and wasn't asleep an hour before being woken up by Dalila. She spent all of Tuesday morning vomitting, I couldn't get to the vet until 10:30am and I pretty much was operating on no sleep (not that I'd been sleeping well before Tuesday either). We were so frantic we didn't think to keep her in the kitchen where cleaning would have been easier until like 9am, but once we did I went to lay down for a bit. A bit being like 30 minutes but I managed to grab 10 minutes of sleep. The vet tested for parvo (she's been innoculated against that, but the vet said sometimes they can still get it) which thankfully was negative, it turned out she had a bug. So three different meds later, we went home and I kept her in the kitchen for the rest of the afternoon. Not ten minutes after being home she pooped a whole lot of blood. Called the vet again and the receptionist asked the vet about it for me, and he said it would be normal for the next 24 hours. So long as she didn't get lethargic (I had her explain that to me just to make sure I knew what to look for :) ) she would be fine. Thankfully there was no lethargy and by Wednesday she was back to her old self again. Of course then I got a little sick, my wisdoms decided to move which was kind of agonizing - I usually have a pretty good pain tolerance but this had me ready to take a lorazepam or two just so I could sleep through it. I didn't though, and I think I found a dentist I can go to. It's hard when you're not covered by insurance. Also on Tuesday I found out that GACKT's coming to Toronto for TIFF, and I of course can't go. The setup at the venue doesn't allow the public to get near the red carpet, and even in the very unlikely event tickets are avaliable to the public I now haven't got the money for one. So close and yet so far. Ugh.

Some good news though! Cesar Millan is doing a seminar tour, and one of his stops will bring him my way which I think is totally cool! I have no idea if he's bringing any of his dogs, I hope they let him bring Junior though. I say hope because my stupid city has a pit bull ban which I think is by far the stupidest thing in the world. Dogs are work, big dogs are a lot of work and if you aren't prepared to exercise them right you have no business owning one. I'm sick of dogs being penalized for people's stupidity. Anyway, I'm going to try and get tickets to see him, but at the very least I'll be scooping out downtown :D He's the only reason I actually made that step to own a dog. I'd love to thank him for the great tools he gives dog owners and for giving me the confidence to even own a dog.

Wordcount Update

2010-08-28T10:06:00.000-04:00

Yay, I passed a milestone! The way I calculate it, if I keep to 7k every day until my deadline I can easily make the 1 million goal. Until then, this is where I stand:

Path of the Hunter - 13,652

The Dragon King - 19,390

A Game of Nobles - 1,000

untitled warlord story - 1,000

untitled historical - 1136

Revenant - 4,056

Redemption - 4,634

untitled dark fantasy - 8,000

Grand Total: 52,868

August Blog Chain - The Colour of Writing

2010-08-22T01:35:00.000-04:00

I wasn't sure if I was going to dive into this one, but I like the topic so thought I'd give it a go. Even though the idea is supposed to be a fun topic, it's kind of got me thinking and all insightful and such. Mainly because I've never actually given any thought to what colour my writing would be. If I were to look at it from a story point of view, that would so differ from story to story; Path of the Hunter for example would mostly be a dominant green, with hues of blue or sickly red depending on the scene. Revenant would be a much darker, almost sinister sort of colour with just hints of light. Then there's Redemption, which is fairly colourful but always bright in its colours. My mood kind of changes depending on the story I'm sitting and writing to, I'm of the type who can't work on a certain story if I'm not in the mood for it. I just end up frustrating myself. But if I had to pick based on my writings lately, I'd have to say my writing colour is grey. Not a dull grey, but that stormy grey thunderclouds are. I'd say my whole mindframe can be sort of like a thunderstorm. The darkness varies, and you can never be quite sure just how it's going to turn out. Either really dark with an amazing show as a result, a misleading little shower, nice steady downpour or completely uneventful. Got to love the joys of writing dark fantasy :)

Do be sure to check out the other participants in the awesome blogchain - you might find some new ones to follow!

Aheïla - direct link to her post
Ralph_Pines - direct link to her post
AuburnAssassin - direct link to her post
semmie - direct link to her post
Anarchicq - direct link to her post
CScottMorris - direct link to his post
PASeasholtz - direct link to his post
LadyMage - direct link to her post
orion_mk3 - direct link to his post
DavidZahir - direct link to his post
aimeelaine - direct link to her post
FreshHell - direct link to her post
sbclark - direct link to her post
Bettedra - direct link to her post
Guardian - direct link to her post
M.R.J. Le Blanc - You Are Here
Alpha_Echo
laffarsmith

Growing Momentum

2010-08-17T11:47:00.000-04:00

Was feeling very off-kilter yesterday, but the reason why was so worth it. I was up late (as usual), trying to work on this untitled dark fantasy I've got going. I really shouldn’t be, but I don’t want to forget the scene ideas. Usually if I can just get them out of the way, I can return my focus back to the stories I’m working on. So around 3am...I don't know what happened, but I just starting writing. Between then and nearly 5am I managed to belt out just over 2000 words like it was as natural as breathing. Today, another 2k, not quite as easily but easily enough. That is the writer I remember myself being. That is how I spent my Novembers when I first started NaNo, pouring out words like that daily and reaching my word count goal a few days before the end. I wish I knew how I let that slip. Not this year. 5k a day, I’m coming for you. And if it kills me this year I will achieve a 20k word weekend.

Trying to get writing done during the day is getting a little frustrating though. Pup can’t seem to entertain herself for more than a few minutes before she’s whining at me. My brain feels like it’s ready to implode from the sheer frustration. I wonder how many ice cubes it’s going to take to trigger her nap – that would come in handy right now!

A journal I just started following (over on Blogger) had an interesting entry. The author was talking about how she was cheating on her current story with another story. I don’t know why it stood out to me considering it’s something I do all the time. Hmm. Maybe that’s why it stood out to me. I’m a story serial cheater. And I’m pretty lax about that. On one hand that isn’t such a good thing because I’m not focusing on one project at a time, and that sort of affects my discipline. On the other, my big goal for this year is to hit the one million words mark so if I’m inspired to write several thousand on another story, why not go for it you know? Maybe it’s an excuse, but at this point because of how far behind I am I’m in more of a ‘whatever works’ mode than ‘pick one and stick to it’. Maybe once I catch up some and am closer to where I want to be I’ll settle and focus more, but right now it’s the All Words Are Good Words mantra.

I’m going to need a lot more caffeine.

Clothing Love

2010-08-14T19:56:00.005-04:00

Just saw these at HolyClothing.com, which I found on FB awhile ago. I'm a fan of the more unique things, which you just can't find in a lot of the stores (and when you can, they're more for the tiny population!) These are some of their newest, and I am in LOVE:

Ariana

Persephone

Roxy

Mona

Alyssa

Meriel

Oh I should stop there, before the wishlist gets any bigger. Have a look if you want something a little different. Judging by the customer pics their stuff looks and fits just perfectly. I so need to do some shopping soon...

Dog Days

2010-08-14T14:57:00.001-04:00

I think my summer cold is back. I'll never understand why a winter cold is so much easier to shake, but I'd love to know why. This thing has been off and on since June. Blech.

Despite that, it’s been a beautiful few days. Well, aside from the water being off for about seven hours for repairs on Thursday, but that's been happening so often in this building you hardly notice when you prep for it. The muggy heat is still kicking around, but there has been a gorgeous cool breeze that actually made it pleasant to be outside. Plus mostly clear blue skies with some beautiful sunshine...yes, very lovely day. It was a little easier keeping Dalila out longer, when it's muggy I don't enjoy being out there and she gets too easily overheated, so I limit it to 30 minutes. Less if she's constantly stopping. Today we were out almost an hour mostly waiting on my mom who we ended up missing anyway. She was later than I thought she'd be. Anywho. While walking around the building I came upon this guy who owns a rottweiller wandering around the back grass behind my building. That in itself isn't unusual, there's a few dog owners in the general area who pass through there and so long as they pick up after their animals no one minds. And I've seen him around, and he has by far the best behaved dog out of all the dog owners I see. His dog doesn't pull, doesn't try to wander, doesn't try to go up to people uninvited and is always right beside him.

So we approached and I tried to get Dalila to just walk since she's started a habit of barking her goofy head off at any dog around, and I'd like her to learn that we don't do that. She was good until the rottie saw us and started sort of rearing up and getting all excited. Not aggressively, not all that excitedly but you have to admit, when you're a dog that barely stands 15 inches tall a rottie doing the dog equivalent of 'hey you're another dog! I want to come say hi!' can be a wee bit intimidating. He's a good owner though, made his dog lie down and kind of chuckled at Dalila's barking as I tried to calm her down - it's comforting when you see another owner who kind of 'gets it' and doesn't try to just walk away - and tried to coax her over to see her. Of course he gave me the standard 'oh you don't have to worry about my dog' but I could tell even before we walked up to them that it really was okay. Some owners will give you that line will either being clueless or ignorant that their dog actually is something to be worried about. I didn't realize just how big this rottie is! I stand at about 5'5, 5'6 and the top of his head came to my abdomen. Really friendly dog though, immediately sniffing out the treats in my pocket that I use for Dalila's training. The owner and I chatted a moment, and then we both went our own ways. Naturally when the rottie starts walking away from her, Dalila kind of looks at him like 'where are you going?' If anyone can tell me how to say ‘learn to properly meet dogs and they won’t leave early, silly’ in dog I’d be so grateful.

Quiet Again

2010-08-11T11:43:00.003-04:00

Been a bit silent around the old blog, but I have reasons I promise :) Cleaning off the hard drive, as I've been steadily losing disk space especially over the past year. WoW is slowly eating up space on this very old thing, I don't think it's going to take the next expansion very well. There'll be Cataclysm all right - in more ways than one. I'm going to miss vanilla Warcraft though. The only issue I have with the next expansion is that it's going to permanently change the landscape, so there's no going back to the old version if you ever wanted to reminisce. The changes have their perks - new quests, high-level zones brought down to low level zones (and vice versa), the ability to use flying mounts anywhere, previously ignored zones getting new life, and even a heroic Deadmines. Though, you kind of have to be a longtime Alliance player to sort of get why a heroic Deadmines is funny. But anyone who says Blizzard doesn't pay attention to its players needs to go have a look at the Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeroy Jenkins! achievement and the story behind that. One player's stupidity becomes a popular achievement. Go figure. Though I learned that Baron Rivendere, the last boss in Stratholme (undead side) is going to be removed permanently from the game upon Cataclysm's release. Probably because something is finally going to happen with that city (I heard that there's a possibility the Plaguelands is going to end up restored to its original state before the plague, which would include Stratholme). On the downside this means his mount will no longer be ingame, and it's hard enough to get as it is. I've killed him 3 times, still haven't seen it in the loot table. Hopefully there's still time. Blizzard's established a sort of tradition of releasing expansions in November, but considering this is now August and Cata is still in beta, a release this November sounds like a bit of a rush. I guess we'll see, and it'll depend on how many issues (if any) show up in the beta.

My daily writing momentum is picking up. I'm getting closer to maintaining 1k a day, which isn't bad. Isn't where I'd like to be, but it's a start. I have to keep that balance of pushing myself, but not pressuring myself. Is that even possible? I don't like pressuring myself because I have a hard time maintaining myself when I stumble while trying to be where I want to be. I have to kind of 'trick' myself psychologically, like I did with my 'resolutions'. I hate using that word, I don't know anyone who's ever kept their New Year's Resolutions all the way through. It's funny how a simple change of words can affect you, and I'm proud to say I'm nearly halfway through my goals/resolutions list. You do what works.

Ah, the culling continues. Maybe I should rename my computer to Stratholme :) A lesson from college, renaming the computer and the admin account. It makes it a little more difficult for hackers to find your system and hack into it, as most count on a generic name and the standard Administrator name to access your system. It isn't 100% foolproof, but it was a layer of security added to many layers. That and good passwords. I always make sure mine are extra-lengthy, anywhere between 19-29 characters. Though I make sure to have a hard copy of all of my passwords near the computer in the event that I forget them (and I often do!)

Really, I did have a title...

2010-08-03T13:32:00.001-04:00

I have new hair colour!

I've been a redhead for YEARS, I love being a redhead. But now that I'm growing my hair out red is just going to be too costly to keep up, so I went back to my natural colour. I nearly forgot what that was lol It's dark brown, but it's so dark that it almost looks black (and does in some light). I actually quite like it - hopefully I won't get bored of it anytime soon (like I did with blonde oh-so-long-ago).

Tried to take a pic, but the damn camera won't stay on long enough to do so. Damn cheap batteries.

Samhain has an open call for an anthology they're publishing next spring. I think I'm going to go for it. Max wordcount is 25k, I think I can manage that. Novellas were never my strong suit, but Samhain is one of my dream publishers and it would help any future submissions I make to them. Plus their covers are gorgeous! Deadline is November, so I do have time. I don't want to waste it though, I want plenty of time for edits and hopefully to have a few beta readers look it over.

Just checked the status on my CDJapan order, and it is officially in Canada now! I love tracking numbers. I'm going to hope it'll be delivered today, but considering yesterday was a holiday and the post offices weren't open it might not be until Wednesday. Which is still fine, I'm not going to lose sleep over a day. But if they do what they've done in the past, deliver the notice without having made any attempt to deliver the package I'm heading over to the post outlet and complaining. I don't understand why a delivery person would even do that (or rather not do that), but they've done it to me before. Once I even got the delivery notice with my regular mail - the day after it was 'delivered'. Such bullcrap. At least that day I was able to just walk to the outlet and pick it up, but it still bugged me.

Wordcount Update

2010-08-03T13:10:00.001-04:00

Path of the Hunter - 13,652

The Dragon King - 18,668

A Game of Nobles - 588

untitled warlord story - 450

untitled historical - 1,136

Revenant - 1,528

Grand Total: 36,022

Yes, I am woefully behind.

Bouncing Topics

2010-07-27T23:58:00.001-04:00

I haven't forgotten about my blogs. I don't know if it's been the weather or something else, but I haven't had the energy to do much of anything. Totally killed any inspiration, it was like I spent the last week in a fog. It does happen every once in awhile, but I hate it. I lose so much time. But at least I'm starting to make up for it.

Yesterday I pulled out all my NaNoWriMo stuff and started sorting through that. I organize the events for NaNo in my area, which I love doing but I kind of bombed it last year. It was an awful year though, I was pretty sick. This year's going to be much better though. I had hoped to be done by now, but considering NaNo doesn't begin until November I still have some time. Plenty of time, actually. This year, come hell or high water I am not going to be rushing around at the last minute trying to get things together! October and November are stressful enough, and I'm still waiting for my Wrimo-From-Hell year. Seems like everyone gets at least one, and it usually gets handled better when you're not stressed out of your mind. Everything's been cleaned out, I made my list and boy do I have a lot to do. I'm giving some things a revamp also, I think people are getting bored of the same thing time and time again. I know I kinda am. I do already have my story idea for November based on a dream I had last night, dark fantasy as usual. No title yet, but it looks like it's gonna be so much fun. My goal is to finish at least 2 stories before then though. Maybe going into it with that achievement will give me some additional boost. I'm back up to 1667 words a day, almost!

I can't believe the chefs on this season of Hell's Kitchen. I'm no chef, but I know what different meats look and feel like when they're done. These are supposed to be professional chefs - how the hell do you constantly serve up raw food and not know it?! Granted the last four are getting a little better, but they're still pretty pathetic for what are supposed to be professional chefs.

By week's end my EVER cds ship from CDJapan! I'm so freaking excited. Not only is one the limited edition, but both are First Press Editions which have since sold out. I usually miss First Press (thought I managed to snag a First Press copy of Setsugekka, but no such luck). That should be here by next week, whenever the regular edition arrives and they can ship the order. Also coming this week is a $100 gift certificate to Chapters - shopping fun! New GACKT music, new books...yes I be a happy girl.

Now if puppy would learn to occupy herself I'd be even happier...

Happy Birthday to Me!

2010-07-20T23:31:00.002-04:00

Woo, today's my birthday. Pretty quiet, I'm holding off really 'celebrating' until next week when my mom's on vacation. Hard when the day is during the week. I did get cake though:

Ice cream cake rocks so much. Of course it melts fast, so it's kind of beat-the-dessert.

Well The Dragon King is all nice and caught up. I feel so much better about the connection between Amaya and Celios, he's such a charmer. So now I'm going to write another scene later in the book before jumping to Fallen, writing up some scenes for that and see where I go from there. Might be chapter 4 of Dragon King, or perhaps starting my historical. I love Liquid Story Binder, but the one fault it has is that if the computer shuts off due to a power outage or a reset you lose any updates unless you turn on the 30second update. The only problem is that it messes with your system. So Microsoft Word is my first processor of choice.

Next week I hopefully get to do some birthday shopping, though I still haven't decided where. I could use a stack of new books, but I'd also like to do some shopping on CDJapan (for GACKT stuff, of course :) ). Of course, what I'd really like is those photocards from the YFCz concert - not the sex ones, the other ones. Wish I knew someone going to a show, and how much it would cost to (hopefully) get an entire set.

Now to catch up on blogs!

Warm Fuzzies

2010-07-17T04:12:00.001-04:00

I should do blog chains more often. It’s been fun not only reading about other writers’ antagonists (the theme being not only to talk about them, but cast them in a sympathetic light), but seeing what folks had to say about my own. It was a nice exercise too, because it allowed me to flesh out some story I hadn’t known before. Really got me thinking about who Kieran actually is, what he does and more importantly why he does what he does. Most of what I wrote will be hinted along the storytelling, some might change but I think I’ve garnered some sympathy for him. Though I think more pathetic-sympathy rather than poor-him-sympathy. You can read it here, and judge for yourself.

I love hinting at things. Almost as much as I love getting comments about my writings. I sometimes wonder if I get too hung up on feedback, but I suppose so long as I can make sure it doesn’t get in the way of things it can’t hurt. Besides, they make me feel all warm and fuzzy :)

Man I really need to do an update on my total word count. Add that to the list of Things To Do This Weekend. Right now it’s 4am as I’m typing this up. Off to grab some sleep.

Blog Chain - Sympathy for the Antagonist

2010-07-13T03:19:00.001-04:00

This is my first time doing a blog chain from AbsoluteWrite, but it sounded like fun so I went for it. The topic for this chain is: Cast your antagonist in a sympathetic light. This was a bit of a hard pick for me; I can't choose from The Dragon King, since the antagonist is a bit of a mystery until The Dragon Queen. So I went with my as-yet-untitled historical fantasy. I'm kind of shocked myself that I'm even writing a historical anything, but it should be fun. I'm taking a page from IrishAnnie and ad-libbing, hopefully I've managed to inspire some sympathy for Kieran. I'll let you decide:

Some men have all the luck.

That was what Kieran thought every time he had the misfortune of being reminded of Byrne. Though both gentlemen and thus of equal class, it always seemed to him that Byrne had more. More wealth, more company, more everything. True Kieran was no country gent; at three thousand pounds a year he lived rather comfortably and wanted for nothing. But it seemed measly compared to Byrne’s four thousand pounds, even though it was only a slight difference. And while Kieran’s lands were well enough Byrne’s were far more fertile. Even the ladies seemed to favour the shy but pleasant Byrne over Kieran, and he had no shortage of admirers. It wasn’t until Kieran met Caelie that he finally felt like he was beginning to get on top.

Caelie was the daughter of a rather wealthy gentleman, but even without her thirty thousand pounds Kieran still would have pursued her. With her warm smile, refined beauty and hair like sunlight Caelie was a worthy catch, and he had fallen completely in love with her. For weeks he would court her, though she was shy and reserved he was certain of her affections for him. However in the back of his mind he was always wary about Byrne coming around and stealing Caelie from him, so when Lady Anne announced yet another ball Kieran knew he had to find a way to stop Byrne from attending. It took a great deal of convincing but Byrne was trusting enough and took Kieran at his words, so by the time the night arrived he was sure that there would be no interference.

The night started well enough. Caelie arrived shortly after him and he spent all his time by her side. He tried to make sure everyone could see them together, though getting her on the dance floor was a challenge. She didn’t seem particularly interested; he thought perhaps the talk she was surely hearing floating through the room about their romance had probably made her nervous. But everything seemed to change in an instant the minute Byrne showed up in the ballroom. Kieran fumed, and not just because of the warm reception Byrne was receiving. How dare he show up here, after he had worked so hard to ensure that his rival didn’t attend at all! He should have been at home, at his estate in the country, anywhere but here! The man seemed oblivious to his glare as he made his way slowly through the ballroom and, unfortunately, towards Kieran and Caelie. Quickly his anger turned to desperation as he tried to subtly steer both himself and Caelie away from Byrne’s approach but there was no where to go. Right then he caught sight of the couple and the moment Byrne’s eyes met Caelie’s Kieran ceased to exist. He seethed as he watched the new couple converse as easily as if they had known each other for months, watched as Caelie smiled and laughed like she had never done with him. And when Byrne managed to whisk her out on the dance floor it was all Kieran could do not to break something and cause a scene. He left that night in a fit of anger with the bitter realization that no one had noticed and the gossip of an impending engagement between Byrne and Caelie ringing in his mind. He had lost out to Byrne for the last time.

When Caelie died not long after Byrne had withdrawn almost completely from good society. It had crushed him to his core, and for the next few years no one saw much of him at all. Finally Kieran was on top; he began attracting some of the company and admirers that had once been Byrne’s, and a handsome inheritance from a distant relative saw him with more wealth as well. He had grown so confident in his new status in town that even when Byrne emerged back into society he didn’t feel the least bit threatened. He was sure that things wouldn’t be the same for Byrne, but he was more than shocked to be proven wrong. Not only had Byrne been welcomed by society, and not only had many of his old admirers, whom Kieran thought had forgotten or lost interest in favour of him, resumed their interests…the man had fallen in love! Again! What right did he have to any sort of happiness after what he had done to him? Was it not bad enough that Kieran had to work so hard for what came so easily to Byrne, that Byrne would come back to bring ruin upon him once again?

He wasn’t going to have it this time. This time it would be different. When Byrne went down, Kieran would make sure he stayed there for good.

Did I succeed? I'm not sure, I liked the original better. Unfortunately blogger ate it. Yeah I was pretty miffed.

Check out these other links in the blog chain:

CScottMorris: http://cscottmorrisbooks.com/ and direct link to his post
Aheïla: http://thewriteaholicblog.wordpress.com/ and direct link to her post
AuburnAssassin: http://clairegillian.wordpress.com/ and direct link to her post
DavidZahir: http://zahirblue.blogspot.com/ and direct link to his post
IrishAnnie: http://superpenpower.blogspot.com/ and direct link to her post
Anarchicq: http://anarchicq.com/ and direct link to her post
Proach: http://everythinghistorical.wordpress.com/ and direct link to her post
devero: http://mysticcrossroads.wordpress.com/ and direct link to his post
hillaryjacques: http://www.hillaryjacques.blogspot.com/ and direct link to her post
LadyMage: http://www.katherinegilraine.com/ and direct link to her post
M.R.J. Le Blanc: You are here
Mariekeme: http://www.mariekenijkamp.com/
aimeelaine: http://www.aimeelaine.com/writing/blog
Fokker Aeroplanbau: http://rightfarright.blogspot.com/
Irissel: http://irissel.blogspot.com/
CowgirlPoet: http://frontnotes.blogspot.com/
Collectonian: http://collectonian.livejournal.com/
Amb The Creative: http://ambthecreative.blogspot.com/
defyalllogic: http://tavialewis.com/hyperbolicallyspeaking/
Alpha Echo: http://writersramblings81.blogspot.com/
cryaegm: http://enigmainklings.blogspot.com/

Happy Early Birthday to Me (sort of)

2010-07-11T20:46:00.006-04:00

I sort of gifted myself with an early birthday present today, even though technically it won't get here until early August.

The release date isn't until the 28th of this month, but I wanted to order early. The first disc is a special edition version and I didn't want to run the risk of it selling out. I can't wait now!

Some Fun

2010-07-10T13:47:00.006-04:00

I was inspired by Falen's post a few days ago, where she made some cool business cards. I've noticed that business cards seem to be growing in popularity lately with authors, which while I was initially skeptical about them they actually kind of make sense. They're versatile little things, and I remember getting asked for one a couple of years ago when I was looking for NaNo meeting places which was another situation I didn't think would even merit them. So I gave them a try and this is what I came up with. Some have backs while others don't; Vistaprint's designs didn't always thrill me:

What do you think?

To See The World

2010-07-09T10:03:00.000-04:00

I've always wanted to travel, not so much for writing but my own pleasure. I especially love places with history, feeling like then and now coexist in the same place. I visited a place like that once, Crawford Lake Conservation area. It was a school trip that we took in the winter, which added to the atmosphere methinks. One (possibly two) of the Iroquois longhouses had been fully reconstructed as if the natives still lived there. One was merely framework at the time, and with the reconstructed burial site not far from it it was delightfully haunting. Standing there truly felt like stepping back in time. I loved it. Since then I've racked up a list of places I'd like to eventually go out and see:

-Vancouver, British Columbia (okay not much in the way of history, but an old penpal was from Vancouver and sent me a booklet. Since then it's been on my list)

-Ireland

-Scotland

-Japan

-Egypt

-Morocco

-Tibet

Other places have sort of come and gone, but this is my core list. It's really cool to see what's out there in ways of festivals and celebrations especially, that's probably the best time to travel. I hope one day to update this blog with tales and photos of these places from a first person view, but until then I'll bide my time planning my future vacations :)

And what parts of the world are you itching to see?

Music Bugs

2010-07-08T18:32:00.007-04:00

I've had this in my head for two days now:

I love the song, it's one of the ones whose story really stuck out to me. A very unique love song. However it was soon replaced with this:

Not that I'm complaining. I LOVE this song, it's second only to "Malioumba" for me. And for laughs:

Heat Wave

2010-07-07T13:51:00.002-04:00

Day three of scorching heat. Supposedly this is supposed to break in my area by week's end, but we'll see. I miss the nice warm heat that we had last week - this muggy heat is terrible. It also doesn't help being on the 6th floor as the heat rises, so the past few days I've been maneuvering around fans and one of the air conditioner (we have one portable one, and one that stays in the window) to try and keep everywhere cool. The living room is proving to be the hardest, right now I've got the window a/c down to its lowest setting and just stuck the fan on, plus the ceiling fan is on just to my right. I don't like using so much energy, and I'd grin and bear it but with a puppy with long fur and a chinchilla you just can't do that. C'est la vie I suppose. I hope the mugginess passes, and leaves us with just the warmth. It's nice to open the windows to cool evening air.

Dalila went for a vet visit yesterday evening. The usual checkup and shots, she's not unwell. It was a new vet for her and us but she did really well. I was glad that the vet's office was empty of patients, Dalila's still a little unsure of other dogs and tends to get a bit aggressive. Her first experiences haven't been good ones (you'd be a little scared too if the first barking dog you ever encountered was not one but two Old English Sheepdogs), but I'm working on that. She was great in the car once I got her to sit, and was a mix of unsure curiousity in the office itself. I was glad I brought the training treats because that helped also :) We got her weighed (18.3 pounds, luckily this is a healthy weight for her), did a full physical and got her shots updated so she's good for the year. She did better than I thought she would especially with the needles, I was afraid she would start squirming and make it difficult but she didn't. The vet is great and overall a good experience.

Time to get Dalila another ice cube. Stay cool everyone!

Reviews - Losing their Value?

2010-07-06T10:36:00.000-04:00

They're sort of a staple in both the book world and the movie world. But honestly they seem to be losing their value - at least to me.

Let's take movies, for example. I've seen a handful of reviews in the paper by critics who admit somewhere in the review that the movie they're reviewing isn't their sort of movie. Puzzles me why they'd bother, but whatever. The thing is they seem to have a problem with remaining objective, which to me makes the whole review completely useless. Just because you don't like the genre, doesn't mean the movie itself sucks. Not all reviews mind you, but you can tell who's ragging on a movie because they think it's stupid as compared to someone who's saying a bad movie really is that bad. Then there's the review comments on movie trailers. Every single movie since June has been dubbed the summer's hottest movie. Seriously, I highly doubt that. Especially with a movie like The Last Airbender which is getting a lot of bad reviews (which is a shame - it sounded promising when it was first announced).

Then there's the book world - most specifically I'm talking about Amazon reviews. In theory they're a good idea; people sharing what they thought of a book can often be a determining factor for some readers as to whether they'd give that book a chance. The problem is they've become so subject to abuse now. Look at how many people will post a review that essentially says nothing more than it sucked. Or how many people will get family and friends to post favourable reviews just to make their book sound good. Or how many writers are resorting to sockpuppet accounts to either provide favourable reviews to their own books, or rip on their competition. Sure you do get some reviews that are detailed, but their value seems to be overshadowed. Reviews aren't high on my will-I-buy-this-book checklist, but I have to admit I give a book that has lots of trade reviews more weight than one with a bunch of Amazon reviews. I've heard quite a few tales of self- and vanity-pubbed authors especially who spent a lot of time on Amazon trying to build up reviews and hype and it's not worked out for them. Unrealistic expectations or putting too much merit on an any-review-is-a-good-review? Probably a bit of both, I suppose.

From what I've gleaned researching, Amazon reviews don't hurt sales but they don't necessarily improve them either. I guess the smartest way to go about them is if you get nice reviews on Amazon, fantastic. Be happy. But is it worth wasting valuable writing time trying to aquire reviews from members? Eh, probably not.

E-Readers

2010-07-05T11:01:00.001-04:00

Writer Beware has posted a couple of times about competition in the e-reader market, and I've been trying to keep up with the e-pub market in general. I think it's important to be well-informed on what's really going on in both print and e-pub if you're going to go into writing; that's the only way to make the right decisions as to which way you're going to take your career. I'm totally lost with e-readers though - the Nook, the Kindle, the iPad, and I'm sure there are others. How do you pick the best? Everyone who uses an e-reader has their preferences, and you do have to take things online with a grain of salt when you do research about anything. That daunting research isn't the only reason I'm still hesitant about actually getting one though. Aside from the fact that I can't afford one right now and it just feels like a tease to look, I'm not always good with portable technology. I'm still surprised my digital camera works after all this time (and drops - what a trooper it is!), and my mp3 player has gone through such a beating that it no longer works quite right. Thankfully it still actually plays music, but it gets annoying when you're trying to change songs and the volume goes up. E-readers are just a little too expensive for my klutziness right now. Also there's my biggest fear: dropping it in the tub. A book you can sometimes save, or it's easily enough to replace. An e-reader? Not so much.

It does bring up some interesting conversation about ownership of e-books. I believe it's Amazon who has been known to remove e-books from peoples' devices without notification, which has miffed people. And understandably so, as ebooks aren't always that much cheaper than their physical counterparts. So should books be viewed and treated differently because of their formats? Is a book more 'yours' when you buy it as a physical product as opposed to a digital one? Personally my answer is no. Aside from the price point, I'm the type of reader who enjoys my favourite books over and over. If I read a book only once it's because I didn't enjoy it. So when I click on that 'buy' link, that's under the insinuation that I'm purchasing goods. To keep. If Amazon or anyone else wants to adopt a 'borrowing' model that's their right. I'm sure there are readers out there who might actually like that model and I can see the good in it. But it has to be clear to the customer just under what conditions they're getting the book. And from the sounds of what people have had to say about books being unknowingly removed from their devices, it doesn't sound like that's happening. Things have to be defined now while the industry is still young, or they're going to cripple a growing industry before we really get to see its potential. My two cents anyway, for what it's worth, and subject to change :)

In a perfect world where it was just a matter of picking one I think I'd go with the iPad. I have to admit the commercials have me pretty impressed, and if I could I would totally get this for it:

Birthday Wishes!

2010-07-04T14:20:00.001-04:00

Wishing all my American friends and followers a happy Fourth of July! Hope there's lots of fireworks, lots of fun and good weather for all. Be safe, be happy and enjoy the company of friends and family.

And a Happy 37th Birthday to GACKT. Congratulations on all that you've accomplished and here's to many many more. Hope your day is spent surrounded by those you love most. Now get some rest ;)

Writing Essentials

2010-07-03T20:03:00.000-04:00

Brief post, because I'm not sure about what to write today.

I'm sure many writers have their essentials, like I asked Cindy when I interviewed her. We can't always have our perfect ideal setting, but I personally have some things that just make the setting for me:

-things for Dalila - ice cubes, cookies (she knows that word now), toys, etc. It's very difficult to focus when a puppy is whining for your attention. Even better is getting her to nap by either rigorous playtime or a walk.

-music - absolutely a must-have. Major contributors to my current playlist are the World of Warcraft soundtracks, GACKT, Alessandro Safina, Tears for Fears, Shakira, the Crisis Core soundtrack, and a random assortment of single songs from all sorts of genres (really too many to list).

-iced cappuccino. Other caffine drinks will substitute.

-internet. For inspiration, research and procrastination.

-World of Warcraft access. For inspiration or de-stressing.

-a clean desk. I can't write with clutter.

So what are some of your writing essentials?

Dalila (P.S. - She's not a Miniature!)

2010-07-02T22:51:00.001-04:00

Thought I'd do a post about her, since she's just too cute not to :)

Dalila is a purebred Shetland Sheepdog. Her father is Ch. Highledge Irish Cream ROMC and her mother is Can Ch Bonnyville's Prismatic CGN, and I got her from her father's breeder. I met with the breeder 3 times before I brought her home, and it was worth it - just to see her beautiful dogs if nothing else! I totally advocate adoption from shelters, but if you're going to go for a purebred, make sure you at least get them from a quality breeder.

Things you have to know about Shelties:

-They're loud. I don't say that because she's my dog, they really are that loud. Coming from the Shetland Islands they had to develop a bark that could be heard over the high winds and crashing waves. They succeeded.

-Shelties are a herding breed, so expect lots of energy. Dalila can most definitely be calm, but when she goes she really goes! Good ways to channel their instincts are herding classes or agility classes. Dalila seems to show more of a natural tendancy towards agility (she loves jumping off things, weaving through dining room chairs, etc.) so we're going to go that way once she's 100% obedience trained.

-They're fast learners. Dalila was learning sit when she was like 8 weeks old - and got it too. She picked up potty training well too, as well as crate training and it took around a week to nail those. Now she knows sit, come, off, up and she's starting to get come and lie down. I say starting because she only does it about half the time - but we're getting there.

-And lastly, they're not miniatures! I have to rant a bit, I am so sick of people asking/saying 'oh so she's a miniature'. She's not a miniature anything! Collies are large dogs, shelties are small. There are no such things as miniature collies or miniature shelties - it's just people trying to pass on very small dogs as something they're not. So if you ever see a sheltie on the street, please don't call it a miniature. Think of my sanity :)

Happy Canada Day!

2010-07-01T21:08:00.003-04:00

It's July 1st, so I'd like to wish all my followers a Happy Canada Day from me, even if you're not from Canada. I'm sitting comfortably at my desk watching amateur fireworks displays that other people are currently blasting off, beats going to the city display for the most part. Naturally that show is amazing, but at least I don't have to deal with crowds, cold (it's chilly tonight!), mosquitos and crowds. Yeah, I don't like crowds. I don't have that kind of patience lol

I have a new challenge set for this month. One blog post, every day. I want to get back into that habit, so what better way than a challenge? I'm even typing up blogposts ahead of time, so at least on those days when I don't feel like a spontaneous blogpost, something still goes up. Not only that, but I'm hoping it'll help with my writing habit also. Blizzard (the company behind World of Warcraft, Diablos and StarCraft) is hosting a short story contest and I intend to enter it this time. Right now the toss-up is a story centering on either Blood Queen Lana'thel or The Dragonqueen Alexstrasza. Both have potential, really. I guess I'll see which one sticks. So hard to choose!

Summer Begins

2010-06-21T00:01:00.005-04:00

Today is the third anniversary of my grandpa Fingernagel's death. He passed away at 91 from cancer. I still find it a shame, because he was always in fine health all his life. Both he and my grandmother, I hope to be so lucky when I get that old. He loved to joke and tease, and he was sharp; you couldn't get anything over on him. I always remember his teasing, and it wouldn't be until we were on our way home that I'd think of some whitty response (isn't that how it always goes?), but in those rare moments when I could be just as sharp and quick as he was he'd be doubled over laughing. It always made me happy when I could do that, because it was so damn hard! lol I wish I had spent more time with him, but I guess everyone feels like that when they lose someone they care about. It's also the anniversary of a Japanese musician, Ukyou Kamimura. Kami was the drummer of Malice Mizer, who I actually didn't get into until well after they had broken up though. It's almost surreal to watch performances by someone you find out is no longer here, but he was a great performer to watch. The world will always miss the good ones. Don't cry because they're gone; smile because they lived.

So what's been going on in my end while I've been quiet? Not much, working on therapy mostly. It's hard finding the motivation to get out and do it, but I feel good when I do so that's helping some. I think maybe I need to invest in a bus pass. The city's got to stop jacking up the bus fare, it's just discouraging people from actually riding the bus. I know they've got expenses (especially since all the buses are now new ones), but they've got proof that the rising of the bus fare is actually leading to a decrease in ridership. Just one more reason why I don't like our city council. It's like no one's using their brains down there. And an even bigger city council brainfart: they just invested a bunch of money redoing the farmer's market downtown. Which is great, but now they're taking away the free hour parking because supposedly the city is losing several thousands a year thanks to it. Yeah sure. What they're really saying is 'we can't seem to manage our money properly, so we're just going to take away whatever we can to make up for it'. Folks say you shouldn't complain about politicians if you voted for them or if you didn't vote at all, but I did vote and I didn't vote for any of them so I do have a right :D

Rain's rolling in tonight. I hope the thunderstorm they're calling for is actually worthy of the name. It's back to The Dragon King and Fallen planning for me now, so Happy Solstice everyone!

Author Interview - Cindy Pon!

2010-06-07T17:01:00.005-04:00

Woo! I'm so excited to finally post this! Cindy Pon, author of Silver Phoenix: Beyond the Kingdom of Xia, was kind enough to do an interview with me. I really love this book, and the cover art is just gorgeous. So without further ado, the interview!

Okay, let’s get the first routine questions out of the way first. How long have you been writing?

Cindy: Thanks so much for having me, Michelle! I started with poetry as a tween. then moved on to short stories in high school and college. I wrote infrequently during college and then stopped writing altogether for over a decade! Silver Phoenix was the first novel I had written.

Was publishing always your goal?

Cindy: It was a goal in the back of my mind, I think. Publishing a novel was always a "dream goal" from when I was a girl. But when I started the novel, it was more as a challenge. Can I do this? And after I was finished, it seemed like such a waste
not to at least try and get an agent.

Tell me a little about what the process is like after acceptance? What’s in store for an author once their story is picked up by a publisher?

Cindy: I queried 121 agents in about four months time and probably received over 100 rejections. After I signed with agent Bill Contardi, we subbed to eight major publishing houses first. It can take months or even years to hear back. but once one
editor is interested, it all goes down like a stack of dominoes. In the end, Silver Phoenix sold in about five weeks at auction. I spoke with all the editors that were interested in the manuscript and was thrilled to go with Greenwillow Books and (my editor) Virginia.

So what inspired ‘Silver Phoenix’?

Cindy: Fantasy was and will probably always be my first genre love. At the time, I had just started as a chinese brush art student and learning more about the history and culture of China. I thought I'd combine my two interests and the result was Silver Phoenix.

You’ve got a sequel coming soon, ‘Fury of the Phoenix’. Can you tell us anything about it?

Cindy: Yes! I'm working feverishly on the revisions now with my editor. It is two storylines. One of Ai Ling and Chen Yong and the other taking three centuries earlier of Silver Phoenix and Zhong Ye.

Even though your book is fantasy, did you have to do any kind of research?

Cindy: I did a lot of research for both books. Architecture and clothing of ancient
China, the imperial palace, myth and folkore. I won't say what research
for the sequel. =)

Now for some fun stuff. What’s essential to your writing space?

Cindy: Hmm. A drink! Usually a coffee one.

What’s something you just can’t live without?

Cindy: Internet access. Tissues. (ha!)

Favourite food and/or drink to have while writing?

Cindy: I love vanilla lattes and chai lattes and also chinese green teas and milk coffees.

How do you balance family life with your writing?

Cindy: I'm fortunate in that my bubs are both in school most of the day, so I write a lot in the mornings. Also, my husband is so so supportive. Saturdays are all mine too to write or do whatever I need to do!

Lastly, if you could go on a writing retreat anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Cindy: Oh, China of course. Beijing or Hang Zhou.

You can keep up with all the latest about Cindy at her website, check out her profile at HarperTeen, and pick up a copy of "Silver Phoenix: Beyond the Kingdom of Xia" anywhere you buy books. "Fury of the Phoenix: Beyond the Kingdom of Xia" comes out April 2011!

Picspam: Puppies and More

2010-06-01T23:34:00.009-04:00

First, some Dalila pics:

She adores watermelon, as well as cucumbers and ice cubes. I didn't let her eat the rind.

Nosy bugger.

Happy smile during playtime.

Clearly too tired to eat :) She's since outgrown those bowls.

Being entirely unhelpful while I was cleaning out some files.

Eating grass. Because it's good fiber apparently.

I was waiting for this to arrive before I blogged about it. I entered a contest awhile back on Nene Thomas' fanpage to redesign the website. I didn't win, but I got an email saying that she liked my design so much I could choose a print of my choice and Nene would sign it!

This is the print I chose. It's called 'Whispers' and it's so gorgeous. Right now it's staying rolled up in the safety of the packing tube until I find the right frame and matting to put it in. I'd love to own an original of hers one day. You can see it on her website here.

Disappointment

2010-06-01T01:14:00.003-04:00

Rain storm? HAH! Some rain storm. Sunny all day, got a little cloudy in the afternoon, and didn't start spitting until late evening. I waited all day for that darn storm, it didn't even last that long. I was so looking forward to opening the windows and letting some nice rain-washed air in, but no such luck. So I changed around the furniture in my bedroom, since it underwent a spring cleaning (washed the walls and the carpet) I figured it was as good a time as any. And I like it much better this way. Everything seems nicely spaced out, not so cramped. Later I'll put my room back together and maybe take some pictures. I'm planning another picspam post tomorrow :)

Speaking of disappointments, I watched Avatar a few weeks ago. James Cameron, What. The. Hell. He spent ten years on this story and that's what came of it?! Don't get me wrong, the graphics were amazing and I was totally impressed, but that's the only good thing I can say about the movie. The storyline was completely unoriginal. Granted the basic premise isn't new, it's been done at least three times over that I can think of. But still, it didn't seem like he tried much on the storyline side. Ridiculously predictable. It was just original enough that he wasn't blatantly ripping off from someone else. I expected better. It was hard to keep watching because the cliches just made me so angry I couldn't stand it. Plus as I was watching, I kept feeling like there was a prequel to it that I had missed. I don't know if there actually is one, if there is then that would make some sense. Really a damn shame, because those graphics are just cool. Avatar perfectly illustrates the problem with a great deal of movies today though; too much emphasis on effects, not enough emphasis on story. There needs to be a nice balance. Kind of glad I didn't spend the money seeing it in theatres; I don't think even seeing it in 3D could have made up for that poor excuse for a storyline.

Not My May

2010-05-30T23:25:00.004-04:00

Yeah, this wasn't a terribly good month overall. Ah well, it's over now. I've got some major catching up to do with regards to writing, I think I needed that break. Plus I got my World of Warcraft account back just over a week ago, and usually when I have gaps between activity I go on a gaming binge :) I'm such a game addict. But it's been one of my bigger inspirations so it's not all that bad. In total it's inspired nine stories to some degree, which is a pretty good chunk for a single source. One I'm working on alongside The Dragon King, which now I don't seem to hate so much anymore. I think I just had overall frustration, but the romance isn't as undefined as I had thought it was. Mind, how fickle you be. Anyway, the new story is called Fallen though whether that title sticks I have no idea. A lot of lore is going into it which likely won't see the light of day, but that's okay. Even hints of lore I find gives the world more realism. I don't feel ready to actually delve into the actual writing of the story just yet, so far it's just plotting various scenes while I work on backstory. One of those no-rush deals. Might be easier to work on once I get The Dragon King all straightened out.

So. This blog. This makes entry #70, so I think I'll be doing a contest once I hit 100 posts. Everyone loves a contest :) Not sure what the prizes are going to be just yet, but I have some ideas. I know popular ones are books, gift cards to B&N and such but I like being a little different. Also I've got some other cool things coming, like author interviews! Okay it's just one so far, but hey it's a start! I'm not announcing who in advance, it's a surprise. So stay tuned for that.

Rain is in the forcast for my area tomorrow. Should be a good writing day! Good thing I took Dalila out twice today (what happened to my little puppy?! She got so big all of a sudden! ;_; ) because I'm probably not going to get a chance with the rain!

Really, I Don't

2010-05-18T14:15:00.002-04:00

It's always the same. New agent or publisher rolls onto the scene with no reason for a writer who's serious about their career to bother with. But according to their defenders, we should.

Because he/she is a nice guy/girl.

Usually this common defense is coupled with things like 'well he/she actually takes time for their authors' or 'they give authors a more personal experience than other agencies/publishers' or something similar. And to be honest, defenders of the inexperienced, I don't care. Not that I don't care in the sense that it doesn't matter whether my agent or publisher is nice or a total jacka--, but that it's not much of a determining factor for me. It's not even in my top three. Mine are:

1.)Do they rep/publish my genre?
2.)Do they have relevant experience?
3.)Have they been making good consistant sales to commercial publishers?/Are they selling to the general public?

There's also a fourth, are there any conflict of interests, which I won't go into here. That one aside, I think that's the most important top three a writer should stick to when they're ready to shop a manuscript. In my eyes, if you can't meet ALL of those top three the consideration ends. How nice you are becomes irrelevant. This is a business, and I for one am not here to be someone's guinea pig to learn from. Qualities like niceness, how easy they are to communicate with, etc. should only come into play AFTER meeting the top three. Not before, because then you're just wasting your time. I'll never understand this defense, just like I'll never understand why people query first and ask questions after.

Research. It's your friend.

And Just Like That...

2010-05-15T20:10:00.002-04:00

Life returns to some semblance of normal.

It kind of feels like someone pulled the plug on all the stress, and things are a lot calmer now. So needless to say I've been enjoying that for the past few days, as well as getting my energy back. My mind's also cleared which has helped me get back into my writing. I'm still unhappy with how the first few chapters of The Dragon King is working out - well, moreso from Chapter 3 on. Chapters 1 and 2 just required a bit of addition to establish some things I forgot so that's no big deal. I noticed I kept repeating stuff from earlier chapters which is probably part of what drove me nuts that I couldn't pinpoint down. That's a first for me. I'm a little disappointed because I usually have a much better handle on my stories than that, at least enough to not repeat something a few times over. I'm still amazed that this story is giving me so many issues, though that only seems to make me all the more determined to make it work :D I guess every writer gets at least one that's a super challenge which requires a little more work than normal but you do what the story needs you to do. In this case it involves a lot of unincluded back story, worldbuilding, and reading the previous chapters repeatedly.

So I'm back, and immersing myself in stories. And reading - lots of reading. I have quite a bit of blogposts to catch up on, so don't be surprised if I'm showing up on old blog posts ;)

Onward and Upward...Again

2010-05-08T14:21:00.004-04:00

Well when the stress won't go away, there's only one thing to really do - persevere. And that means (as the blog title says) going onward and upward.

So what have I been up to lately? Well I'll spare you the personal stuff because it's personal and really it's nothing to bore my blog readers about ;) But I have managed to accomplish a few great things. First and most importantly I've completed the gutting of my room. Finally. I couldn't believe how much room I managed to discover by tossing out the crap that was just cluttering up spaces. I also have a small collection of stuff I'm planning on selling. It's too good quality to toss out or give away, but I have no desire to keep it either. It's mostly some of my Lord of the Rings memorabilia back when I was a fanatical fan. Oh I still love it, but a lot of the stuff I can do without now :) So if anyone on my followers list is interested let me know. I'll show you what I've got and we can discuss payments and such. I'm willing to go a little lower for blog followers. So now it's just a matter of packing up the unwanted clothes and tossing out the recycling which is nothing really. There's a non-profit group in my area for cerebral palsy that periodically goes around neighbourhoods picking up donated clothing which is where all the clothes will be going. No sense letting it go to waste, and I like supporting a cause when I can. I'm a huge supporter of that. I know some people have certain causes or charities they prefer, I'm just more of a help-where-I-can-when-I-can type. Every little bit does help.

Dalila update: progressing well. Training has been kind of interrupted, but she sleeps from 11pm-11:30pm to 6am! You have no idea how excited that makes me! And she walks on the leash when I ask her to. I let her sort of run off most of the energy she has in the morning, usually a couple laps around our buildings (takes about 30min) then I shorten the leash and make her walk beside me. She's got the hang of it though. And I also taught her how to walk up and down the stairs, although going down takes longer. It's new, she's still getting used to that one. But she's just getting too big to carry around now, so no choice. Additional exercise though, which I wouldn't do if she couldn't handle it.

Dragon King has finally started progressing. I managed to close Chapter 3 which came out a lot better than the previous attempts. It's always getting down that attraction that gets me. Building it over time is easy to show, but I wanted the attraction between Celios and Amaya to be purposefully sudden. Because dragons are fantasy creatures I didn't want it to be that typical gradual build, I wanted it to be a different dynamic and experience. I think a lot of us have that fantasy of being swept up in a sudden romance, especially one that's not just physical attraction or a fling. And hey, this is fantasy so why not :) It's nice to move along though, and I started plotting its sequel already too. I couldn't help it, this story just doesn't want to end revealing Amaya's talent and how it affects Celios' dilemma. I could try and cram it all into one story I suppose, but I'd be overshooting the average wordcount for fantasy stories. Or trying to put too much story into too little a space. Two books works better. I wish I knew what it is with me and dualogies lately, this makes 3 stories that are too big for 1 book but not enough story to go past 2.

Also on the subject of writing I've finally managed to bring some sort of organization to the many story ideas I seem to manage to accumulate. They're divided into two groups; story summaries which actually have a plot, and story ideas which are just concepts. Helps me to remember them without having to worry about keeping them all in my head :) Concepts eventually become summaries, and there's some fun ones I'd like to eventually work with. So far I'm up to 24 story summaries and 17 story concepts. Well at least I have plenty to work with, I won't have to worry about running out of stories anytime soon!

Now to end, wordcount updates on the right are current as of today. I'm going to sort of attempt to reach 500k by August 1st. Sort of as in I'm going to give it my best shot, but with my current pace we'll see. I should set a nice reward as incentive...

Still Alive

2010-04-30T18:45:00.003-04:00

Just wanted to pass a quick blog post saying that I'm still around :) Things have been INCREDIBLY stressful on my home front, so blog updates haven't exactly been at the forefront of my mind. One will come as soon as possible, I haven't abandoned the blog. So please bear with me as I play catch-up on blogposts - and welcome to my two new followers!

The Ones We Miss

2010-04-17T21:55:00.005-04:00

After my little mini-rant I think it's only right I balance it with one that's a little more positive :)

The culling of the bedroom crap continues. I came across a little memory-box type thing I have that I keep things like cards and such in. Most of them I got rid of, some I kept. There were a few names in there of people who I've missed terribly, that I allowed myself to fall out of touch with. I know it was in part due to depression (which I still suffer from), but I still feel horrible that it happened. I keep coming across their names once in awhile and mean to connect again, but it always falls to the wayside. Not this time. This time I'm pulling out their addresses (hoping all the while they still live there!) and am going to do some good ol' fashioned letters. They were good friends, I wish I had been a better one to them. Hopefully I can reconnect.

I also came across some old letters from my grade 11 year in high school. That year a group of us grade 11 students did a 3 day leadership camp, in which we were going to be there as counselors. A big selling point was 3 days off school ;) But anyway. We'd be overseeing a group of several grade-school kids from the elementary schools that fed into our high school, and were guided by a couple of teachers. It was a great three days, the kids were a lot of fun to be with. On the last day, everyone from the kids to the teachers had a period where we had to write letters to everyone who was in our groups and the teachers who organized the camp would mail them out to everyone. I don't remember how long before I got mine, but they really touched me and I kept them, making sure they were somewhere safe so that they wouldn't get lost. I just found them now, re-reading them brought a little tear to my eye. I know that sounds cheesy, but it's true. One girl had even said that I had inspired her, which still affects me today reading it as it did when I first got the letter. It's one thing to hear a young kid tell you that you made camp fun; it's something else entirely when a young kid tells you that you inspired them. I hope she went on to do really well in her life.

Past is Past

2010-04-15T21:58:00.001-04:00

This is probably going to turn into a mini-rant, but here it is :)

Lately on Facebook I've started getting friend requests from people from my past. Ordinarily one would think this isn't bad, sometimes it's nice to catch up with people you lose touch with. But there's a few people who I never expected to hear from again, and in all honesty didn't want to. Without going into too much detail, my parents split up several years ago. It was pretty ugly for a few years. The thing though is that all these people I had known pretty much all my life, some family and some really close family friends, seem to suddenly become completely non-existant after my parents split. Nobody ever came to either my sister or I and asked us how we were doing. There was no neutral party to rant to, to get away from the stress of the split, to have a shoulder to cry on. It was like all those years didn't matter anymore, and they didn't give a damn about us. Some I tried to keep in touch with, but one clearly had ulterior motives and another clearly wanted nothing to do with me, so eventually I moved on. I stopped thinking and caring about all of them and quite frankly, my life is just fine without them. So I don't know why all of a sudden they care so much about what I'm up to that they're looking me up on FB to try and add me. Maybe I'm a little bitter, but I can honestly say I really don't care what they're up to, and I have no desire to find out. If they couldn't make time for me then, they have no place in my life now.

So if they ever read this (they know exactly who they are) I have only this to say: I don't care about you. I have no desire to re-connect. Trying to get back into my life will only be a waste of your time, because I am perfectly happy without you in it. Stay in my past where you belong, because I only have time for the people who truly care about me. But thanks for showing me what a person who doesn't care about me look like, so I can tell the difference :)

Editing My Life

2010-04-14T16:08:00.004-04:00

My room's been a hazard zone ever since I emptied that thing in my room called a closet. I'm being far more careful about what's going back in there than I usually have been in the past, as I'm done having crap piling up. Plus I think the last time I did a cleanout was a couple of years ago. It's really amazing how much things accumulate over even that short period of time! But this time, sentimental feelings are going to have to take a back seat; anything that sticks around better have a good, useful reason for being here. It kind of got me thinking though how similar this is to editing when you think about it. You take the product - in this case the mess - and just start slashing away at the unnecessary stuff until you get a clean, neat finished product. And it's not just a one time edit (my room would be my room again if it was), but re-edits over and over. I guess it's life imitating art. Good practice for when I eventually start tackling my stories, I should think! I highly recommend it :)

Marketing or Stupidity?

2010-04-13T11:47:00.002-04:00

Last week my sister came over from work and told us about this thing she saw downtown where she lives. Apparently the public health and safety board was putting up notices that there was a siberian tiger roaming around downtown, and that people should be cautious and not go downtown at night. Yes, I know what you're thinking. I didn't believe it myself, and even she wasn't entirely sold. But she lives downtown, you know? There's some concern. But notices were all that was being put up, no announcements or anything. That was the first thing that screamed 'bogus!' to me. I figured it was someone pulling a stupid prank thinking it was funny. Then came Saturday, and in the paper was a section talking about this tiger downtown complete with an alleged picture caught of it that was claimed in the article to be authentic. I still wasn't convinced, something wasn't sounding right about it. Basically if this tiger was ever caught, then I'd believe it. Turns out I didn't have to wait that long.

In the local section of the paper there was an article talking about the tiger and that it was in fact all a hoax, and the other section that was included in this paper was in fact completely fabricated. No I wasn't surprised. Turns out the management of our city football team is trying to increase season ticket holders and attendance in general (since it's been dwindling for YEARS) with what they call viral or 'guerilla' marketing. This whole tiger thing was designed to get people talking, though no one's been able to explain just how this is supposed to be so positive. The spokesperson for the team claim there's been a lot of positive response, but all I've ever heard is from people who are pissed. And rightly so. The presence of a tiger is no laughing matter, that's a dangerous animal. A lot of people took this seriously. There is no public health and safety board (well there is a real one like it, but that's not the name of it) and the website is registered to the team head office. Were this some ordinary moron, the police would have been on that person's case in a flash. I think the same should apply here, because this was completely irresponsible especially for a company. Hiding under the 'this is marketing' excuse just doesn't cut it.

So what do you think? Marketing or stupidity?

Great Friday

2010-04-10T22:39:00.006-04:00

I haven't had a really good day in a long time, so it was nice to have such a great Friday after a few funky days. Which always seems to get worse at night. Ever notice how anything not great (depression, flu, headache, etc) always seems to get worse at night?

Anyway, it started with a REALLY good dream concerning something Tessa and I had been discussing the days previous. Basically I was really troubled and down about something that she refused to allow me to give up on, and that dream seem to only illustrate what she was trying to tell me. Might sound silly but it really felt more than a dream and ever since then I've been re-motivated. Feels really nice :) That was followed by a pretty good walk with Dalila. Yeah we're still working on the walking thing, we have our good days and our bad days. Slept well all morning, got ready for my appointment at the clinic and for the first time I wasn't anxious at all. Not even jittery, which is really unheard of for me these days. Panic disorder makes life very hard, and even simple things like a short bus ride can completely set me off. Good moments like this kind of add to the hope that this isn't going to be forever. The appointment itself went really well, we came up with a lot of good ideas that are hopefully going to really help. You know something's right when you feel like you're right where you're supposed to be, and that's how I'm feeling here now. After two years of this I'm finally going to start getting better.

Despite the cold I stopped at Tim Horton's on the way home and grabbed myself an ice cap. It's usually hit or miss how well it gets made, I love it when it's really full. Which this one was, so that was nice. Nearly froze my hand off on the way home since I forgot my gloves (better than forgetting something important though!). Dalila handled the extra crate time well - no whining, no pacing and most importantly, no accidents. Huge bonus. Then I even got around to the task of gutting out my closet. I have a floor in there! And I found a whole bunch of stuff I had been looking for, including stuff I had forgotten about. Lots of crap to get rid of, and hopefully this time I won't bury my floor again. Feels nice to clean up these little corners, and it may sound weird but sometimes focusing on something else gets ideas going. I guess because you're not so focused on the writing, it's easier to see the forest for the trees as it were.

Books and Goodies

2010-04-07T18:13:00.007-04:00

I finally sorted my books! These are the ones I'm keeping:

This doesn't include my Tolkien collection, which was already on the bookshelf when I took these pics. These are ones I've read, but not sure if I still want them:

And the monumentous number of books I either need to finish, or start reading:

Guess I should get on that.

I went and finally picked up my package today! Waited almost a half hour, someone was shipping off like 6 boxes >.< I think cdjapan gets a little paranoid when they ship things, because this box was twice the height it really needed to be and there was no way I was going to be able to stuff it in my purse to carry.

At least everything was wrapped nicely :)

A Day of Murphey's Law

2010-04-06T15:50:00.008-04:00

I don't really enjoy the 6am walks (I don't think anyone does), but I'm generally tired enough to just take Dalila and go. Walks are kind of rocky, but that's another post. This morning I was more gung-ho than usual and...no walk. It was raining this morning, though I did take her downstairs to see just what it was like outside. I figured if it was just wet out, we could at least do the walk and play inside. But no, full-blown rain and cold which I wasn't willing to keep her out in. Her being so young, I don't want to get her sick. Needless to say I had to work really hard to keep her from making a ruckus inside. I think I found the answer in ice cubes though. She went nuts for that.

Then my long-awaited package from cdjapan came today. I waited all morning, even napped in the living room so that I'd hear the door. Nearing 1pm, I decided to shower and...you guessed it. I missed the delivery. I could have napped comfortably in bed *shakes fist*

And of course, the one time I don't phone my mom at work to remind her of things she needed to grab before coming home...she didn't grab before coming home. Seriously people, when that little voice inside tells you to do something, do it.

I wonder why everything happens in threes...

Brunch & Stubbornness

2010-04-05T20:46:00.006-04:00

I hope everyone had a good Easter :) We tried something new in our house, an Easter brunch.

Nothing like homemade waffles, orange juice, cheese & bacon muffins and a bowl of fruit to start the day.

I finally found a way through Chapter 3 of The Dragon King. I don't know why it was giving me such a hard time, but now I've languished on it for so long I can't 'get into it' like I usually can. Most writers would probably move on and come back to it later but I seem to be too damn stubborn for my own good on this one :) It's not the whole chapter per se, but I just can't seem to lay the attraction between Celios and Amaya down in any sort of acceptable way. There's a problem when even I'm not buying the attraction. So since I couldn't get into Amaya's head and figure out what she'd be thinking and feeling, I did the next best thing - I got Tessa to do it. Easy enough when Celios was inspired by someone we both admire, certainly makes it easier to picture him ;) It's not perfect prose by any means, but it's enough of a starting point that I can explore the relationship further. Then finally get as far away from Chapter 3 as I can.

And since I can't seem to stop watching and listening to this:

Music of the Moment: Alegria

Disillusioned

2010-04-03T20:47:00.005-04:00

So today I got a jumpstart on one of those things on my To-Do list, namely clean up my bookshelf. It was somewhat forced, since my mom decided to move it which required the entire thing be emptied in order to do so. But that's okay, because now I can actually get to the task of sorting my books. It's been far too long since I actually did any sort of cull that I think it's now long overdue. A few I'm ready to toss, the story just doesn't grab me anymore but when I came to my Anne Rice books I was kind of on the fence. I still enjoy the stories, one I still have to read, but a big part of me isn't as enchanted with them anymore. Why? I no longer love the author.

Anyone who's familiar with Anne Rice knows she's prone to having some rather negative reactions. A couple of her well-known tizzies were about Tom Cruise being cast as Lestat (and later publically raved about him after the movie did well), and the poor reviews Blood Canticle received. She reached a point where she was obviously unable to take criticism, as it seemed after Queen of the Damned her books - at least her vamp ones - started to be less and less well-received. Memnoch the Devil was especially poorly received. Maybe this shouldn't affect how a reader views the work of an author, but it does to me. Especially when said author all but accuses her fans of being stupid. How does that endear you to my money? Fans deserve a little more respect than that I think, though I'm sure there are fans who can look past the childish stupidity and still enjoy the books for what they are and kudos to them. Really it's all personal choice, but I just find it so hard to continue enjoying someone's work when they decide to publically be such a jerk. I just don't look at them the same anymore.

Have you ever lost love for books when the author has had some rather ugly public displays?

Letting the Dust Settle

2010-03-31T22:26:00.003-04:00

My writing swing is quickly coming back, which I'm hoping means I'm getting used to this new schedule. I sleep about 3 hours at a time right now before I'm up for something with Dalila. We're so close to getting on a regular, predictable schedule it's almost frustrating :) I want it perfect now, but have to be realistic in that she's still a baby and still learning. And testing. Testing like you wouldn't believe. I think most of it is boredom so some new toys are in order. Plus I'm going to freeze some wet wash cloths. Some people recommended them for when she starts teething, but I think she'll like them anyway right now. She loves the puppy treats I bought, after I strip the rawhide off. Don't know if we'll ever give her any, probably not, but no sense letting perfectly good treats go to waste :)

My cdjapan order has finally shipped! (click to see full image)

I'm going to be bouncing until it gets here. Maya and Colleen already have their copies (lucky), now Tessa and I are just waiting for ours. If it doesn't arrive tomorrow, we'll have to wait for next week since Friday is a holiday. Cross your fingers!

Must wrap up chapter 3 of The Dragon King. Writing sometimes feels like weaving, which is sort of a funny similarity seeing as how I've never weaved anything in my life. But it really does. You're trying to bring together these personalities and scenes and words, but sometimes you have to unravel the threads and re-weave until you get the right flow. That's how it feels to me, anyway - your mileage may vary. There'll be many re-weavings in the future I know, but that first complete weaving at least gives you an idea of the pattern, and from there it's just refining until you finally reveal the story for the beautiful tapestry it is. And there's my insightful thought for the day :)

Now, to finish that chapter and rework some of the sidebars...

Coming Soon and Week One over

2010-03-27T19:09:00.006-04:00

Was real excited to see this:

Weeeeee I'm so excited! It's finally coming!

There are many reasons why I admire this guy so much - beautiful and powerful vocals, moving lyrics, a hell of a lot of creativity, and the fact that he's not afraid to say what's on his mind (even if it's to tell someone off, which he's done many times). This concert is just another reason to add to the list because it just goes beyond that of a simple concert - it's an event. Well, all his concerts seem to be events (the last few, at least) but this one topped them all I think. Early praises perhaps, as I haven't seen the whole thing yet (some of it was on YT for awhile after WOWOW aired it) however this preview and what I saw on YT before it came down is enough to satisfy me on that point. A bunch of lucky Japanese fans got to see RRII in theatres today (or maybe it was yesterday considering the time difference) and Tessa, Colleen, Maya and I have to be content with imagining how much fun that would be. We mused about the idea back when it was just an idea but in our case there's two problems with that: 1.)we all live miles and miles apart, as in we'd need trains or planes to visit each other, and 2.)one of us would have to die and the others use the insurance policy to pay for it. Yeah we have great and wacky conversations - when we're not confusing each other that is. Which seems to be a little easier than it probably should :)

I managed to survive the first week, though this sleep schedule is making me nuts. At least it's regular, get up at the same time and go to bed at the same time. Dalila's pretty much crate-trained now, she's only had a few accidents in there but she doesn't whine or anything when she's in it. Big plus, because I want her to recognize it as 'her' space. She's about 95% housebroken now too which is another plus. I take her out every morning but trying to catch her before she wakes up is hit or miss. My hope is that with consistancy she'll learn to hold it until we get outside; she's quick to pick up how I praise her, and that when I don't it's because she hasn't done something or done the wrong thing. We're not having any major issues, which is good. Overall we're doing well.

I really should get back to writing instead of working out other summaries...

Picspam - Dalila

2010-03-24T23:36:00.002-04:00

Here are the long-awaited puppy pics. Just links this time, it's easier than trying to resize them all. I lazy.

Well here she is. You'll notice the super stylish gate I'm using to keep her out of the dining room ;) She kept going under the dining room table and peeing so we thought it best to keep her in the living room.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f258/andunesilverleaf/Blog%20Pics/dalila01.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f258/andunesilverleaf/Blog%20Pics/dalila02.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f258/andunesilverleaf/Blog%20Pics/dalila03.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f258/andunesilverleaf/Blog%20Pics/dalila04.jpg

she's taken to her crate really well:

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f258/andunesilverleaf/Blog%20Pics/dalila05.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f258/andunesilverleaf/Blog%20Pics/dalila06.jpg

and more playtime:

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f258/andunesilverleaf/Blog%20Pics/dalila07.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f258/andunesilverleaf/Blog%20Pics/dalila09.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f258/andunesilverleaf/Blog%20Pics/dalila10.jpg

Here she's seeing her reflection in the mirror at the back of the cabinet. She thinks it's another puppy and barks at it:

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f258/andunesilverleaf/Blog%20Pics/dalila13.jpg

Inconvenienced

2010-03-24T23:09:00.004-04:00

This was not a productive day at all.

Woke up to take Dalila out at 6am and made the wonderful discovery that we had no water. The only thing worse than not having water is not having water and not knowing why. I was too tired to think so I just went and took the pup outside. It turns out a water main burst and they were already working on it. So naturally I thought 'bonus! Water should be back soon.'

I was very wrong.

The water didn't come back until 9pm. Yup, pm. By about 7pm I had enough of wondering what was taking so long and actually went out there to investigate. It was educational to say the least! The one guy who was standing at the site was really nice about answering my questions about what was going on, and basically told me that they had to cut the pipes out and replace them which is why they were taking so long. Usually they just put a clamp around the pipe and seal it all back up, then turn the water back on. Honestly, I think the city needs to start monitoring what work gets done where, and when. I know pipes have a certain life expectancy so to speak, maybe they should replace them before they burst like this. I've heard of long repairs but this was completely ridiculous. At least with advanced warning you can save some water but this totally disrupts your life. You can't do much of anything without water.

We're getting better with the potty-training thing. Dalila goes all night in her crate without an accident, she usually wakes me up at 5am to pee though. I just put her back in her crate once she goes. Only a couple accidents, and she's learning to stay in her crate for 2 hours. I finally went and asked on the forums on Cesar Millan's website what others did with their pups and went from there. Things just clicked after that, that I have to be the one to teach her when to go, when to hold it, everything. But she's smart though, she's taking to a leash really well without too much teaching from me. It's work, but not as much as people seem to think it is when you've got a plan :)

Tomorrow? Writing. Lots and lots and lots of writing.

Finding a New Normal

2010-03-22T09:50:00.003-04:00

It was a very emotional weekend, things didn't seem like they were going to go right with the potty training and all that. Emotional dreak doesn't even begin to cover it lol I think these first few weeks are going to be a little rocky as we get used to her and she gets used to us. And so long as I stay consistant during that time we should come out okay and problem-free. She naps quite a bit, so my writing will be okay (thank goodness!) but I'm also looking forward to going out for walks. Surprisingly Dalila walks on the leash despite never having one on her before I brought her home which is so great. She gets hesitant every few feet, but I stay patient and don't let her back up and she gets it quickly. I think overall we're doing good!

I'm all caught up reading all the blog entries I missed. The Dragon King has taken a slight shift in chapter 3 which is good, because now it works :) And now I have my energy back to write so I'll be making sure all my wordbars are updated today. I'm trying to stop the habit of updating one and not the other, then it gets confusing as to just where exactly I'm at. My notes are all over the place, when I get a plot or dialogue idea I have to just jot it down on the nearest paper or I'll lose it. They're not as bad as they can get, but I hate messes. So whip that into shape, and also maybe work on another at the same time. So many to choose. Ah cross that bridge when I get there.

And last but not least I have an award! Given to me by Sonshine Thoughts (thanks again!). I'm supposed to share 7 interesting facts for this award, so here they are:

1. I can pick stuff up with my toes - and often do
2. I tend to favour old shows like M*A*S*H and Golden Girls over a lot of the newer stuff, though I do enjoy the occassional House MD, Mantracker (which needs new episodes!), NUMB3RS, Ghost Hunters and pretty much anything on Discovery Civilizations channel
3. I can come up with a new story idea often at the drop of the hat. This isn't always a good thing - I averaged four in one day
4. Many things I hate or dislike at first I tend to come around and like to some degree
5. Animals and I seem to connect really well, I can usually tell what they want and how they're feeling. My mother says it's a gift, I think it's kind of cool.
6. I like being crafty. I make jewellry, flower arranging, and I'm even going to give candlemaking a go
7. I can make pretty good cheesecake, and this year I'm endeavoring to make more than just pretty good cheesecake

Yes It's Another - Contest That Is!

2010-03-21T18:52:00.002-04:00

A real entry IS coming I promise! Until then, go here and enter Southern Princess' 100 followers contest. GREAT prizes await! Go! And be sure to tell her I referred you!

Another Quick Post

2010-03-20T03:31:00.002-04:00

Hello lovely followers (and lurkers - I know you're out there!)!

Just another quick note to say I'm feeling much better now, and will be back within a day or two. Turns out it was the flu. Lovely. Flu and Panic Anxiety Disorder do NOT mix, let me tell you. But I won't bore you with that. Thank you for the well-wishes, and after some rest and some errands I will be catching up and commenting on all that I've missed. Dalila comes home today, I'm so excited! And nervous! And outright terrified! It's my first dog, what can I say. Pictures will come I promise!

Take care everyone!

Night From Hell

2010-03-17T23:47:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to leave a quick note, because I've been pretty good maintaining blogging every day or every second day. To spare the unpleasant details I had a super bad night last night. Lots of pain and discomfort, nausea and worst no sleep. I think the worst of it is over now, thank goodness but I think it might be another day before I'm feeling more normal. So it'll be a little quiet until then, but I promise I'll catch up on everyone's blogs when I can.

Hope everyone had a great St. Patrick's day and stayed safe!

Rewriting When You Shouldn't Be Rewriting

2010-03-15T23:33:00.000-04:00

Yes, this be a writerly rant :)

The way I see my first drafts is that they're my foundation. I don't aim for amazingly perfect or even Really Good (although they have their moments - whose first draft doesn't at least have a few?) but I do aim to try and give myself a good structure to build on when I go in for the first rewrite. Some people edit as they go, and if that works for you then by all means work with it :) If I go back and edit nothing gets done. Anyway, I'm tangenting here. Chapters 1 and 2 for The Dragon King came around okay, but this is looking to be a stubborn ms. First, I've renamed the one female character once and am looking at doing so again. The names I chose just don't thrill me, and it's hard to write a character whose name I hate. Now I'm about midway through Chapter 3 (I think) and I've rewritten this several times already! It's just not coming out right, and eventually the writing dies off. Usually starting with a blank page and reworking the part that isn't working so that I can continue writing works, which is something I've had to do a few times with earlier chapters but this is ridiculous. I don't know if it's because this is a major plot point or my first go-round with fantasy romance but I am Not Pleased. I think I've got it this time now though. It's not perfection, but it's enough that I can continue on with the chapter now. I'm just hoping this isn't a bad omen of sorts, because I don't want to see this book become a trunk novel. I love it way too much, and I'm going to work my butt off to make it good enough for a publisher (hopefully an agent first though!)

I have some new followers I see, big welcomes to you :) It's always fun to see a new stalker (and I mean that nicely I promise) and meet people in the writing industry, although I don't feel like I'm truly 'in' it just yet. Just a note, if you've followed my blog and I haven't followed you back within a day or too just comment and let me know. I'm a stickler on returning the favor and I like finding new blogs to follow. Hmm, that sounded kind of creepy. Ah well.

Music of the Moment - Ulduar - Cranius and Summergale

Quick! Get thee to these Blogs!

2010-03-14T04:11:00.000-04:00

More contests! Late notice I know, but there's still time!

Okay, contest one is here at Elana Johnson's blog. She's giving away seven great books, signed. You can't get much better than that!

And contest two is here at the Shooting Stars blog. They're giving away five prizes, one of which is a 40-page partial and critique by Suzie Townsend at FinePrintLit!

So what are you waiting for?! Go and enter! NAO!

Puppy Tails

2010-03-13T03:28:00.001-05:00

The requested puppy pictures. Click on them to see them in full, and remember all pictures are property of me - so no stealing! Enjoy the cuteness!

Yup, that's my baby girl under the chair.

This is the only little boy in the group. He goes home Monday.

There's my girl!

When Lag is a Good Thing

2010-03-12T22:45:00.000-05:00

I seem to be writing more easily in my notepad than on the computer lately, I'm not sure why but I'm just rolling with it. It makes it a little easier to multitask too since I don't have to constantly flip between my programs. Plus Liquid Story Binder doesn't really like that (or maybe it's the computer, who knows). Anyway, some of the things I do especially on places like Facebook have a habit of lagging, sometimes for several minutes before I can continue (FarmVille is usually that culprit; Vampire Wars lags but not quite that long). If you don't know what lag is, it's basically a delay in the process, most common in online games like World of Warcraft but also in things like Facebook applications and is incredibly aggravating. Nothing's worse than when something's trying to kill you and the program stops. For me there's only one way to deal with it - writing. I can average nearly a page of writing for every spot of lag I seem to hit while playing FarmVille and Vampire Wars though not so much with WoW - long flights make up for that though. It's free time, there's no excuse not to use it productively in some way. I should have resorted to the notepad earlier, so much I could have gotten done!

Which reminds me, I really should update my word bars. And post indicating that they've been updated fully. So many things on the to-do list, I get so lax sometimes. I blame the excitement of Dalila's pending arrival :D

Drop Everything - It's a Contest!

2010-03-11T19:05:00.000-05:00

Found about this one through Falen's journal.

Sonshine Thoughts is hosting a contest celebrating 100 blogposts, and the prize is this cute little amigarumi owl (say that out loud, it's kind of fun :D ). So go and check it out, I compel you! And follow her blog, because it looks pretty cool.

Writers - Expect the Best From Yourself

2010-03-11T13:31:00.000-05:00

While I was making my morning rounds to my favourite websites, a comment on AbsoluteWrite got me thinking. Vanity publishers are always touting their 'we're so much better because we let you be in control, you keep all the profits', 'you'll get royalties' and just basically play up on all the misinformation there is out there on publishing. And those who go with vanities think they're getting a better deal because hey! they're seeing royalties! But when you get published by a commerical pub, you are seeing royalties - you're just seeing them all at once. Your advance is the amount of royalties the publisher expects your book to earn. Compare that to vanity publishing, are you really going to waffle at a four-digit advance? If anything the advance is better; all your royalties at once vs. the vanity route which can take months and all the work's on you?

So if you're a writer, an honest-to-goodness writer ask yourself how much you value your work. Ask yourself if your work is worth a four-digit advance (at the very least - gods know we'd all love to see those six figures or more!) and make the decision to work your craft beyond the drivel that comes out of vanity publishers. I know what I would pick.

The End Cometh

2010-03-11T01:14:00.001-05:00

Just the end of the month, to be specific :) I still have Christmas presents coming which haven't shipped yet. One of the items is the RRII dvd I've blogged about before, and unless Gackt announces yet another deadline pushback my order will ship on the 31st of this month! Another pushback is unlikely, he's pretty much done now. Or at least done enough that there won't be another delay. The wait's finally coming to an end! This is the bigger of the two orders I had made, and the eagerness is not only that the dvd is coming but also the Setsugekka single, RE:BORN, and the December edition of ARENA37 (no I can't read it, but one day I hope to) that's coming along with it. I'm not sure if I managed to nab a first pressing of Setsugekka before it sold out, but I'm hoping. RE:BORN is the one I'm most looking forward to after the dvd. Bah, the release date can't come fast enough.

Another ending is the puppy waiting period. Dalila comes home next week! I'm all excited and nervous all at the same time. Two weeks ago we went and actually visited with the puppies - the four puppy litter was five weeks old, and the single pup was six weeks. The four was comprised of three girls and a boy, but one of the girls wasn't growing with the others and she was sequestered to the bedroom. Everyone was very klutzy on their feet, they were so adorable. The oldest pup was a little more adventurous and curious. Unfortunately last week the one girl who wasn't growing right took a turn for the worst and passed away last Friday, the poor thing. This evening we went for another visit, the pups are a lot older and everyone's getting ready to go to their new homes. Our breeder picked up a puppy from a co-litter she did with another breeder, and it's this puppy who's coming home to us! She's roughly the same age as the other pups, same colouring and is just the sweetest thing. A really lovely energy, she sat when I held her in my arms and would often sit beside my legs - not clingy or dominant, just being. I was nervous about potentially taking this pup because she was pick of the litter, and pick of the litter usually means the one who most exhibits the breed which is usually the highest energy one. Shelties are herders, so they can be really high energy. But our breeder breeds more for the beauty of the breed instead of their skill and I just fell in love. Pics to come when she comes home!

Bits and Pieces

2010-03-08T15:24:00.000-05:00

The Dragon King looks like it's going to be one of those stories that doesn't quite write itself in a linear fashion. It's not bad per-se, my mind generally doesn't work in a linear fashion after all but it can get me a little worried. Worried that I might have a hard time later down the road linking all the scenes together if I'm jumping all over the place and resulting in a crapload of tweaking in the first draft alone. Redemption is somewhat writing that way, I'm not even sure if half the scenes I come up with will even work in the story but I guess we'll have to see. I was working my way through chapter 3, but suddenly got inspired to write the grand feast held at Celios' palace which likely won't happen for another several chapters. But it's coming freely, so I'm not going to complain. It looks to be giving me a good couple thousand words at least, and I really love writing this scene. More importantly, I'm liking what I'm writing. I know, like the rest of the manuscript it's going to need tweaking and editing but it's a really great scene. Kind of it's-good-and-can-be-made-better, as opposed to some of the this-is-crap-but-I-can-fix-it-later scenes. Well no first draft is perfect ;)

I wish ideas would stop coming to me at the wee hours of the morning, just as I'm going to bed. Early this morning it was a major plot point for The Heart Beneath (written in 2007, I think) and the morning before it was the start of the wedding scene for The Dragon King. Stupid evil muses, come around when I'm awake!

Looking for an Agent or Publisher?

2010-03-08T12:10:00.000-05:00

Jessica Faust over at BookEnds LLC blogged today about a great way to start that hunt for a good agent or publisher. You can check it out here. Really helpful stuff. Another thing I would sugguest is to follow agents' blogs, especially ones who rep your genre. It can also help give you some insight into just what they're looking for. Happy hunting!

Vampires and Dragons

2010-03-03T18:23:00.000-05:00

Woo! I'm up to ten followers! Thank you to you all!

The Dragon King is coming along, albeit slowly. Again. I think I need to pull out my fantasy romances and reread them to kind of help me get into that right frame of mind to write characters falling in love. Or at least spawn a decent amount of dialogue. Right now Celios and Amarante are meeting for the first time in her family's gardens and it's very much turning into a secret rendevous. I'm not trying to make the scene perfect mind you, but I do want to at least lay a decent groundwork to work from later when I revise. Nothing bugs me more than looking back and thinking 'crap, that needs way more'. I did that with Path, there's a couple whole scenes missing that I meant to throw in. But that one's got some bigger things to be focused on first, so I can kind of ignore it for the time being. Sometimes judging pace can be tricky; you don't want to rush, but you don't want to drag it out either. I find the latter harder to manage than the former sometimes. Maybe I need to cut down on the distractions some, or change around my day to get me to settle more. I need more productive BIC sessions.

Beautiful Nightmareis calling me again. Sexy vamps, they're hard to resist. The biggest challenge of any vampire writer is to give her vamps a spin or something that makes them stand out from everyone else's vamps. Not always easy, when you think about it. There's seldom anything that's been done before, and if you plan to introduce something new there has to be a reasonable explanation for it. I want my vamps to be complex, monsters and lovers at the same time. The mopey vampire a la Louis or Edward in my world is a weakness; someone would put you out of your misery fast if that's how you thought. At the very least, a vampire accepts that they're a creature that relies on blood to live. Most don't have much qualm about taking it from humans, but there are many ways to do it. Some will do so secretly, others will raid a blood bank, some make a sport out of it. My main character vampire is one of those last ones, but he's not evil in the sense that he's incapable of feeling anything for humans. He falls in love, after all :) Okay I should probably stop there before I start spoiling plot points. Needless to say I'll be doing some worldbuilding inbetween Dragon Kingsegments.

Music of the Moment: Future - Gackt

Farewell Olympics

2010-03-01T14:55:00.000-05:00

And so the 2010 Olympics come to an end. Big congratulations to every competitor that competed, no matter your country. Just making it that far is a feat within itself, and everyone should walk home feeling accomplished. This is the standings, for anyone who's interested from the official Vancouver 2010 Olympics page:

Country Gold Silver Bronze
Canada 14 7 5
Germany 10 13 7
United States 9 15 13
Norway 9 8 6
Korea 6 6 2
Switzerland 6 0 3
China 5 2 4
Sweden 5 2 4
Austria 4 6 6
Netherlands 4 1 3
Russian Federation 3 5 7
France 2 3 6
Australia 2 1 0
Czech Republic 2 0 6
Poland 1 3 2
Italy 1 1 3
Belarus 1 1 1
Slovakia 1 1 1
Great Britain 1 0 0
Japan 0 3 2
Croatia 0 2 1
Slovenia 0 2 1
Latvia 0 2 0
Finland 0 1 4
Estonia 0 1 0
Kazakhstan 0 1 0

I believe if I heard the reports right, Canada now holds the record for the most gold medals won by a host country. That's not too bad. Plus we came in third overall this go round, with Germany in second with 30 total medals and the United States with 37 total medals. The only thing I didn't enjoy about these closing ceremonies (I didn't enjoy this during the openings either) was the french speaking being done before the english. Yes we are a bilingual country, but our french speakers are the minority and the Olympics aren't being held in Quebec. Not to say that french speakers are second class citizens because they're not, but I would bet good money that choosing the french before the english was purely political so that Quebec didn't complain. It was great to see Michael J. Fox there, and of course William Shatner. The musical lineup could have been better. The only ones I enjoyed were Nickelback, Neil Young and the french act whose name I didn't manage to catch. But the Olympics are about the athletes, not the ceremonies and overall I think they were pretty successful.

Contest! Everyone Loves a Contest!

2010-02-26T18:38:00.000-05:00

My first pimp-a-contest, and this one sounds like a lot of fun.

Dark Wyrm reads here on blogger is holding a great contest called Your First Time - and for clarification, your first time cracking open a fantasy/thriller/insert-your-genre-here book. This is me referring you to enter, so please let him know I referred you if you choose to enter. Which you really should, the prize sounds like a great book. It's going on my TBR list for sure. So go and enter already!

Revenge of the White Stuff

2010-02-26T11:32:00.002-05:00

It really doesn't want to go away, does it? It snowed again last night, all the side streets that I can see from my window are white and I heard trucks going all night long. Mostly salt trucks, but there were some plows out too. A friend of mine didn't have to go in to school today, I remember those days. I lived for those days. It's still lightly snowing now, and there were some snow warnings about but it really doesn't look like we're going to get dumps of snow. Then again I could be wrong; Mother Nature is so fickle. At least I don't have to shovel it!

I remember one year it started snowing one evening, and we were living in a different place so it was likely three or four years ago. I'm a night owl so I was up late and slowly the snow just kept building and building and building. The snow drift in our little backyard was literally climbing up the back fence! I have some pictures of it somewhere on my computer. By morning it had gotten so high we couldn't open either the front or the back door! Well you could, but you really had to push. Needless to say no one was going anywhere that day, but shoveling out that stuff was tough. It wasn't the heavy packing snow, but any large amounts of snow hurt after awhile. Plus I wanted to get the driveway shoveled out so that when the large plow came through it wasn't a huge cleanup. What I wouldn't have given for a snowblower.

I think I'll play in the snow later. I haven't done some fun photography in awhile.

Coming and Going

2010-02-24T23:26:00.002-05:00

Seems there's a few things coming and going aside from my muses. I really hate when they do that, by the way.

Monday we had quite a snowfall in my area. I wouldn't be surprised if it was nearly half a foot. I took some pictures which I'll post in a day or two. I felt bad for everyone who had to go out in that, but since I didn't have to go out in it I let myself enjoy it just a little. The next day went up a couple degrees and it all started melting. I wouldn't be surprised if the run-off from some of the balconies looked like a waterfall, I could hear it melting all day long. So I figured that was that. Mother Nature gave us our annual snowstorm (though this was mild compared to others) and that was the end of it. Well, not quite. Today we got yet another snowfall - not quite what was falling Monday but it was consistant and those beautiful big snowflakes that just lightly drift on the wind to the ground. I got some pictures of those too, it's my favourite kind of snowfall to watch.

The Dragon King seems to have hit another lull, and I'm having a hard time working out of it. Oftentimes with my stories I have a 'trigger' of some sort - a movie, a book, a song. And employing that trigger usually works pretty well in getting me back into the groove. For example if I want to work on Beautiful Nightmare all I have to do is put on Twilight (which doesn't work the way you're probably thinking - I'm not at all a fan of Twilight. And yes I have read the books. But it gets my competitive spirit going). I haven't yet been able to find anything that gets The Dragon King going in the same sort of way. I could really use one. I think what I may do (which sometimes also works) is scrap chapter 3 and just rewrite it. Sometimes a second go-around clears the clogs so to speak. Maybe I could force the muses back. I really need to tie them down or something.

Artistic Appreciations

2010-02-22T12:01:00.003-05:00

I saw Cirque de Soliel's Alegria on t.v. last night. WOW is all I can say! I knew Cirque always puts on an amazing show, but I admit that was my first time actually watching them. Amazing doesn't even begin to cover it, what some of those people are able to do! I was trying to write while it was on - big mistake. You can't help but be entranced, and the music was just perfect. If someone could get me that music or soundtrack, I'd love you forever :) I still have the finale playing in my head.

I managed to belt out another chapter last night, not quite 5k words but it was 2:30am by the time I ended the chapter, my eyes were literally shutting at the computer and damnit it was close enough. The end got a little awkward and weird but I'll fix it some other time. Not my best introduction of the two main characters, although the setting really worked. It was just the dialogue I crumbled on. Onward and upward. I'm really loving how easily writing's coming to me again, maybe I'll be able to belt out The Dragon King before Dalila comes home at this rate. Still need to get my hands on a damn black ink cartridge! I could edit it on the computer, but that first edit on hard copy is far easier in many respects. Plus Path of the Hunter has some continuity errors and a missing scene - that's a lot easier to fix off the computer than on. I guess in the meantime I could always write the plot points on index cards, tape them up on the wall with the worldbuilding stuff and organize it from there. It gives my walls purpose until I redecorate :)

Gackt updated his blog today (well yesterday in Japan) excited about finally reaching the end of editing the RRII DVD, which made me excited because I have it waiting on preorder. It's always fun for me to read about someone's journey to completing something they've worked so hard on, it gives you a greater appreciation for the finished product. It does for me, anyway. And he and his team have been putting in a lot of effort into making the DVD as good as it could possibly be even to the point of sacrificing many many nights of sleep. Those are troopers. You have to be built for that, because I know me I simply don't function once I've hit that point of exhaustion. Kudos to those who can, because I think we've all at some point wished we didn't have to sleep or had more hours in the day to work on a project. But this, this is one of the main reasons why I love reading his blog (thanks to uranus_sama @ Livejournal for taking the time and effort to translate):

It's something that each respective person has.
Time that is, at best, limited.
Lives that will run out someday.
Even if you do nothing your whole life, your light will go out someday.
And if that's the case, then isnt it best to decide on your own for yourself how you want it to burn
and try and light up your surroundings so they're more radiant than anyone else's?
I think so.

The Culling of Stratholme - My Version

2010-02-19T14:24:00.002-05:00

The Culling of Stratholme is an event in Warcraft history where Prince Arthas (as he was descending into madness) declared that the people of Stratholme had to be killed as they were infected with a dangerous plague. It was an attempt to preserve the rest of his kingdom of Lordaeron - didn't work, by the way. It was madness mostly because Arthas refused to try and find another way, refused to listen to his mentor Uther and disbanded every paladin from service to the crown. Really, getting the chance to off Arthas now is a good thing :)

My version isn't so drastic and has much more positive results, as my 'kingdom' will come out better instead of worse. I'm usually a go-with-the-flow type of person, at least in some respects. If I feel the need to sit and write, I write. If I feel like five hours of WoW, I play WoW. If I feel the need to do some cleaning, off I go. And that's exactly what I've been doing. Last night I tackled the linen closet, removed all the crap out of there and found some toys I had bought for Mirage that I hadn't yet given her. Bonus! No more shoveling stuff around just to get at other stuff. Today I tackled several cupboards in the kitchen and cleaned it up, and emptied the fridge of all the stuff that needed to go. And despite the very stiff back I'm dealing with now (at least there's no pain) I feel really good. It's extremely theraputic! It's like I just removed a huge weight from my life and things are a little nicer as a result. Now if I lived closer to a dumpster, I could get rid of the garbage bags now. All in due time of course. Like maybe next week when I fully recover :D Tomorrow I'm going to tackle the rest of the kitchen, then my bookshelf and then that last peak - my closet! That'll feel REALLY nice.

Wednesday night we went for visit number 2 with the breeder. The puppies are now 5 and 6 weeks old, respectively. Unfortunately one of the three girls isn't doing so well. She's not developing as quickly as her sisters and brother are which is worrisome. Hopefully she's all right. It's funny how the time just flew by when we were there, I think it was at least an hour and a half hehe. The three 5 week olds aren't very good on their feet, they kind of stumble around but that's typical. The 6 week old is much better, but tile floors are a challenge for any pup. They were fairly playful, a little shy but the world is still all big and new to them. We go back again in another two weeks, when the pups will be bigger. Oh I can't wait. Hopefully we'll also have an idea of who's coming home with us. Five weeks is still a little too early to tell, but I've read that puppies and dogs can recognize a returning scent, so when we go back I'm sure the pups will be less shy and more like the breeder's older dogs. There isn't a single adult dog who doesn't love a visitor.

The end of the Path

2010-02-16T11:58:00.001-05:00

Early this morning, Path of the Hunter finally came to an end. It's finished, closing in at just over 93k (total's on the right bar there) which is almost 7k less than I had anticipated. That's okay though, 100k was an average ballpark number. I would have gotten a little worried if it was heading into 110k and still not finished, lol

While I was printing it out (which I couldn't finish, btw - my inks died) I got to thinking about the past couple years since I start researching the publishing industry - and what kind of trouble I could have gotten into. As much as I'd like to think that I'd be smart enough to avoid scammers, it's easy for me to say that I would right now. I know better. I know the warning signs, I know who the vermin in the industry are and I know that experience and a track record trump all. But when I started POTH I didn't know squat in comparison. It would have been very likely that I might have actually fallen for one of those scams or thought someone inexperienced was really going to do something for me, and end up with a story I can't do anything with. Not to mention I very likely would have been rejected by every agent and publisher on the planet at the same time because I didn't know squat about query letters either :P For a long time I hated that there was that three year gap between NaNo '06 when I first wrote it and these past several weeks when I actually went back to it and finished it, but now I'm grateful. Because I didn't have anything worth querying but wanted desperately to be published the only thing I was really left with was researching. I ended up being spared learning a lot of things the hard way (as is usually my way) thanks to all that research I ended up doing. Now I don't know everything, and I'd never say that, but now that I do have a finished manuscript I think I can safely say I'll be able to at least give it a good shot to agents and publishers. At the very least, my editing skills will definitely improve :D I'm trying not to focus on the querying part too much right now, but I feel really good about it. And enjoyed the chocolates I treated myself to.

I'm feeling really 'wow, it's really over' though. Kind of like I don't know what to do with myself. Well, I know what I should be doing, the enthusiasm just isn't there. I could easily push into another story, but I was actually pretty productive today in the absense of my writing drive. Most importantly I got my balcony tidied up, we have a fire inspection coming up. Plus it'll be easier to get all of that crap out now. This year we're decking out the balcony for sure - outdoor carpet, plants, a little bistro set and a couple of wind chimes. Tomorrow night we go back to visit the breeder and see the babies. Hopefully pictures will come!

Back In The Saddle (Metaphorically Speaking)

2010-02-12T16:13:00.001-05:00

TGIF! And what a pretty good Friday it is.

My anxiety is mostly down these days, which I'm thankful for. Life's a lot easier to get through when you're not absorbed by it. I'm not tired anymore, not physically weak, and aside from a slight dizziness (which may be from the cleaning I was doing earlier) I feel a lot more normal.

Path of the Hunter is winding down, finally. The major conflict is about to end with a character death (wouldn't you like to know who ;) ) and then I can move on to the epilogue-ish final few thousand. I say epilogue-ish because it kind of has that feel, but it's essential to the story as it sort of winds up all the loose ends. I guess it's because there'll be a rather large time gap between this part I'm finishing up and the end of the book, that makes it feel like it's more of an epilogue. It'll be nice to finally bring this story to a close after three years of lounging around on my harddrive. May not be the first thing I sell, but I'll be damned if this becomes a trunk novel. I already wrote that one ;) The Dragon King will likely be next. The characters have been chatting to me again which was both good and bad - good, because it's been far too long since I got so excited about a story and managed to ignore that pesky inner editor long enough to get dialogue down. Wow did it feel good to write like that again! The only bad thing was I couldn't get to the computer and turn it on fast enough! Must keep the notebook nearby next time.

And last but not least, let the Olympics begin! I wasn't sure I was going to get into it this year, I usually don't. I catch some of the opening ceremonies, and periodically check the highlights of who's winning medals and leave it at that. Beijing's opening ceremonies were spectacular I thought, it kept me watching after the parade of countries entered the stadium, but I think the Vancouver opening ceremonies outdid them. Not to disparge on Beijing's, because that WAS an amazing show! It was innovative and riveting and really set a high standard. But what they've doing here at the Vancouver ones...that's something. Makes me glad my desk faces the computer so I don't have to constantly turn around to watch! Enjoy everyone!

Music of the Moment: Olympics music - think they'll release a CD?

Time Flew By

2010-02-09T22:28:00.002-05:00

It's funny how days can suddenly disappear and you have nothing to show for them, or at least it feels that way. I sort of fell off the good-eating wagon and reverted back to pre-New Year, and I think it was worse than the first time. I guess you get so used to being in a certain physical state that when you change it, then revert back, you feel it more the second time around. That or my body just really enjoyed being a little healthier, which I really can't blame it for. I'm going to get back into that better habit though, as puppy comes home in exactly 30 days from now. Well, perhaps not exactly 30 days, it would be more accurate to say she'll be ready to come home by then. Still have lots to do, and I want to have a set schedule already in place by the time she gets here. This'll already be a big shift to her, no need to shift it more by having to change my schedule at the same time. I'm still debating whether to have the crate in my room for the first three nights and then move it to the living room where it'll stay, or sleep out in the living room for her first three nights. Both have their pros and cons, I suppose it's just a matter of which cons outweigh the pros.

I've been absorbed in WoW again, another world event. It always happens, I get absorbed in the celebrations and I get lost for awhile. I like them because the rewards from accomplishing the seasonal quests give a huge boost to leveling, and anyone who's played an MMO like this one knows what a pain in the arse leveling can be after awhile. Plus for the most part the events are pretty fun. Right now the event going on is Love Is In The Air, and they improved it actually. Last year it was very simple, wear perfume or cologne and flirt with the guards, and you received various tokens to put together items for turning in. This year there's charm bracelets, all sorts of achievements and one of the most annoying daily quests Blizzard ever thought of. You either get a quest to spray perfume on 10 targets, or get 10 targets to sample some goodies. Targets can be either the guards and merchants in the city or players, but they should have been restricted to the computer characters. Nothing's more annoying than the stupid buff FINALLY disappearing only to get hit again by some other idiot. Other than that the event's much improved, and the much sought-after pet is much easier to acquire this year. Last year you had a 1 in 1000 chance of stumbling on him - this year you can buy him for 40 Love Tokens. Yay!

Time to force myself back into the writing grove. I have to stop letting myself get so disheartened by what's coming out. I used to have pretty good discipline in that I could just push ahead when things weren't coming out exactly as I wanted them to, and eventually words start coming that make me go 'whoa that was really good!'. Now it's like I lost that discipline and have to try and get it again. I don't generally make excuses for myself, but I think having the fog of depression (and sometimes lorazepam) is really a huge handicap. And even after all this time, I don't think I like admitting that. I don't like admitting there's something that I can't do something about on my own that makes it difficult for me to do the things I love. It can get scary, I've been at the point where I completely lose the desire to write and it feels like I've been robbed of something precious. Probably time for another trip to the doctor, or at least a phone call. In the meantime I'll just have to do my best. And get through this damn battle scene before I find a way to eliminate it lol

World of Warcraft Picspam

2010-02-05T01:33:00.000-05:00

I really love this game, so I'm devoting this entry to it :)

I've been playing for four years now, a friend at college got me into it. She eventually dropped out of it, but I really got hooked. It's a real virtual world in the sense that things will sometimes change to reflect the passage of time. For example, the ruler of the human capital of Stormwind at the beginning of the game was young Anduin Wrynn, a boy barely ten years old whose father was missing. Highlord Bolvar Fordragon and Lady Katrana Prestor helped him rule. Now Anduin's father Varian has been found and restored to his throne, upon which now Lady Prestor no longer stands in the throne room. You'd have to read the comic series to really appreciate the reason why. Also when he returned Bolvar was relocated to Northrend, but now he's MIA. After the Wrathgate attack (one of many scripted ingame moments which plays like a movie when triggered) his body goes missing. The only one who knows for certain is the Dragonqueen, and she's not talking. My money is that he somehow survived the attack. Anyway, have a glimpse into Azeroth:

The throne room in Stormwind Keep. The actual throne was installed when Varian was restored.

One of my mages in the Temple of the Moon in Darnassus, the Night Elf capital.

Lianaria, who is one of my Death Knight characters, in the Stormwind Canal district. If you talk to the little girl in the flower shop and tell her you like flowers, she showers you with rose petals.

The results of an escort quest. The player has to escort the guy on the left to Uther's Tomb, in Sorrow Hill in the Plaguelands. The floating figure is the spirit of Uther the Lightbringer.

Best anyone ingame can figure, this is a pimp. This is Murder Row in Silvermoon City, and he'll stand there all night with the succubus minion but he disappears into one of the buildings during the day.

Arrrr, Pirate day in Booty Bay. We partied on top of the bank.

Winter Veil (Christmas) in Ironforge.

Elunirra, my highest level Alliance character. Here she's at the docks in Borean Tundra with Pengu, the pet penguin beside her. Looks a little demonic, doesn't he?

Kandreline, my highest level Horde character. I've been level-grinding her lately so that I can go to Northrend and see it from the Horde's side. Tirisfal Glades is so depressing.

Kandreline's venomhide raptor. I'm on a quest to train that little guy to be a mount.

Ups and Downs

2010-02-02T23:20:00.002-05:00

Just once I'd love to have a day that's all Up and no Down :) But I can't complain too much, because the Downs are minor and within my control. Mostly.

Had a very good dream, and restful sleep. Yesterday I was ridiculously tired and not ENTIRELY sure why, but I just shrugged it off. Woke up to a beautifully sunny morning, and even though I block off the sun from my apartment I still like those clear sunny mornings. They give a good energy to the day (though I feel the same about a snowy morning or a good rain). Slept a little longer than I like, but when I walked out of my room I saw those brown envelopes that have become so familiar now. More packages! One was strictly Mom's stuff (two more bracelets filled with Pandora beads) and one was both mine and her's. Her component was a dragonfly pendant which is actually quite lovely. I'm not into dragonflies myself, at least not like my mom is, but it's a cute thing. My parts were a butterfly pendant and a beautiful set of obsidian prayer beads. I was excited about the prayer beads especially because I just fell in love with them when I first saw prayer beads and decided to start collecting some. They're bigger than I thought they'd be but I'm not complaining! I've got a couple more sets coming, and I'm going to start hanging them on the wall where my closet is. Start a 'collection wall' of sorts :) Got a good deal of writing done, I decided to skip the battle scene and get right to the end conflict so I can move on to the end of the story. The battle scene is just bugging the crap out of me way too much, I'll let it sit until something comes to mind. I've already had to change one dynamic, but I can fix that in the edit. All words are good, must remember that!

Now the downsides. Minor, like I said. The first one was as I was changing for bed, I was in the bathroom and managed to whack the top of my right hand on the towel bar. I bruise far too easily, so that'll probably be a nice big purple mark tomorrow. The second - my wisdom teeth. I still have them, never had the opportunity to get them pulled (think I'll put that on my goals list) so I've just been tolerating them. For the most part they haven't been TOO bad, I generally have a high pain tolerance and so I just ride the pain out, but sometimes even I hit my limit. When they move, they press against the rest of my teeth who have nowhere to go and it's awful pressure. They've been quiet for months and now they're moving again and I just have no patience this time around. The tylenol's kicking in now thankfully, it's dulled enough that I can tolerate it easily but I know this is going to go on for a few days at least. Le sigh. Thank goodness for tylenol and yogurt. I don't swallow tylenol whole, I have to crush it. Win-win though.

I'll post pictures a little later.

Happy February!

2010-02-01T11:44:00.000-05:00

Because I lack an original title today :D

January wasn't too bad, goal-wise. I improved my eating habits, lost a bit of weight (not sure how much, I can't find the damn scale!), got back into a writing habit somewhat, and even managed to improve my sleep habits some. Definitely room for improvement of course, but I got a start on some of my goals, so that's a good thing.

Two more story ideas to add to the long list of story ideas. Thankfully though I have a lot of fleshing out to do in order to just get a plot out of them, so I won't really be troubled by them for awhile. One was spurred by an episode of Mantracker (I think) and one of the guys reminded me of the prince from The Last Unicorn and it got me to thinking...you don't see much of what I dub as 'classic Fantasy' anymore. Mythical creatures, enchanted forests, wizards, medievalish culture, people who accept fantasy creatures as easily as they accept the presence of squirrels and deer, princes slaying dragons to prove their mettle and impress a princess. I watched that movie almost religiously as a kid, I miss those classic stories. So I'm going to try and bring back that nostalgia. I'm sure it's probably not a new attempt (in fact I'm certain it isn't) but then again what is, really. Sometimes nostalgia can be fun so long as it's done right. I wish Hollywood would keep that in mind when they remake things. I saw the television series remake of He-Man as well as the new movie, and both made me cry. The show RUINED the original He-Man! Adam went from a noble nice-guy prince to a spoiled teenager, I wanted to stab him. I hope the movie ends up a little better, the trailer didn't reveal much of anything to tell, but given Hollywood's track record I'm not optimistic. If they touch She-Ra I'm REALLY going to cry. Stop destroying my childhood!

I should really update all my wordbars to reflect what I've written so far. I've gotten to the battle in Path of the Hunter, but it's coming out really crappy. Granted it's my first battle scene but I think I've achieved the worst battle scene in history. Too many characters running around I think (or else I'm more out of practice than I thought!). Just have to keep telling myself Fix It Later. Like a mantra. I'm not THAT far from the end anyway, and I can worldbuild to my heart's content while Mirage is running around my room. I have the perfect wall to tape up my index cards and papers and pictures :D Of course if anything lands on the floor while she's out, that could get messy really fast. That would make a funny excuse though, wouldn't it?

"I'm sorry Mr/Ms/Mrs. Agent/Editor, my chinchilla ate my story."

Yeah I don't think anyone would buy it either, but it is pretty funny!

Back on the Path

2010-01-31T17:20:00.001-05:00

It feels good to have characters talking to me again.

I pulled out Path of the Hunter Thursday, a NaNo manuscript from back in 2006. I won that year at 80k (gods I wish I could go back to being able to crank out that kind of steady writing!), but for a long while after that I stopped working on it. I got stuck on a battle scene, couldn't go any further and next thing I knew three years went by. Now I'm finally back to it and so far not too bad. I wrote just over 2k of it yesterday, and if I can keep that up I could finish this manuscript in nine days! Maybe a little sooner, because all those extra bits of writing do add up. Nine days seems to be a reasonable goal for the pace I'm going now. Hopefully I can build up my pace in a few months' time. I do have a word goal, after all!

I'm working on getting myself into a more productive routine. Ordinarily I go for my daily walk after 3:30pm on the weekdays, usually later though (weekends I usually don't go at all). I was out just after 10:30am and...it was pleasantly different. First of all, I'm typically just getting out of bed at that time (it's a very bad habit I'm trying to break) so my body's not used to being up and about like that. Second, I've been covering the windows in my bedroom and the living room/dining room for over a year now because of the glare from the sun and that's a fair bit of shade. By the time afternoon rolls around the walk takes up whatever energy I have and things are slow the rest of the night. Probably why I've had such a hard time getting back into my writing grove. It felt nice to get those errands done early for a change though, and I actually felt more energetic during the rest of the day. If I can keep it up, maybe getting back to 5k a day and writing 150k in a month will be achievable again. The spirit's willing, just have to get the body to catch up with it.

A Cluttered Home is a Sign of a Cluttered Mind

2010-01-27T19:22:00.003-05:00

I know I've heard that somewhere. It's a feng shui quote, isn't it? I tried Googling it, but I'm still tired and I think my Google-fu is off still. But it's very true.

One of my goals this year is to basically purge my apartment so to speak. There's a lot of crap sitting all over the place, stuff I don't need and stuff that needs to go somewhere. One of my goals for this year is to eliminate the packed junk once and for all. Much of it is stuff I don't need, so in comes a package of garbage backs and out will go the junk. Except for paper stuff, that will go into recycling. I'm big on recycling, what can I say. I did make a bit of a start on it, getting one area nicely cleaned up in my room. It's funny how fast Mirage will go from fast asleep to wide awake when I step into my room. And always gets the same look.

Let. Me. Out.

I've had this chinchilla for two years now, and it's funny how things changed. Mirage used to guilt me into letting her out by jumping up on the top level of her cage, stuffing herself into a corner as much as she could and look at me with the most pitiful look. And of course I gave in ^_^ She was deceptively cute. What I didn't realize was that if something she did to get what she wanted worked once, she'd keep doing it. Now that I'm immune to it she does her best to annoy me into letting her out. Bar chewing, lots of bouncing around, kicking out her woodchips (and everything that's in them), even teeth grinding. I HATE the teeth grinding. Most times that doesn't work, but she's got a lot of patience that one and every once in awhile I get fed up and let her out. There's other things too, like the word No and my use of barriers. I don't care what anyone says, chinchillas are smart little buggers. If I put something that will block what I don't want her to chew on she WILL find a way around it. She doesn't see it, figure 'okay it's out of my reach' and go find something else. It's more like 'if I can't get to it that way, I'll just find another way'. Many are accidental and so funny I can't help but laugh at her. No used to work once upon a time, but not anymore. She doesn't even move, and if I continue to tell her no she gets angry at me for telling her no! Heaven forbid I prevent her from chewing on a wire or my baseboards! Haha I do love her though and she can be affectionate. You just have to have patience - and catch her at the right time ;)

Fourty-two days until Dalila comes home. Man I've got a lot of shopping to do. Tomorrow I think I'll attack all my craft stuff and clean house there. If I haven't used it by now, I probably never will. Plus it'll give me an excuse to buy some better jewellry supplies.

Think I Abused Brackets Just A Bit Here...

2010-01-26T20:35:00.001-05:00

Blog revamp again! The old background just wasn't working for me anymore. I like this one, hummingbirds have always been a favourite of mine. Speaking of revamp, I noticed that blogger now keeps the gadgets you add to your blog, so you don't need to uncover their code in the html or remake them from scratch. Thank goodness, it's about time (unless I just never noticed before which is entirely possible :) I guess I really should read updates!). Rearranging the gadgets is a lot easier than making them all from scratch!

Sunday I was beat-exhausted, but for good reason - I'll be getting a puppy (and yes, that is the big news I was supposed to blog about on Sunday)! We visited the breeder Sunday, I only slept a few hours and was so nervous it was setting my anxiety off and I ended up taking a lorazepam. I try not to take those, they're in a very low dosage but they really knock you on your butt, but sometimes the anxiety just gets so high I'm not sure I can bring it down on my own. I do try to use them very sparingly because I could literally sleep the day away on just one. Anyway, I think the excitement was more the cause for exhaustion than the lorazepam alone. The breed I chose is a Shetland Sheepdog, a small breed that looks identical to the collie (think Lassie). The breeder had seven, and they're so beautiful! They all had beautiful temperaments, were very friendly dogs and not obnoxious or wanting to jump all over you. We even got a peek at the newborn pups from a distance, right now they're too young to be held. So now the countdown is on, in 45 days the baby comes home. We visit again in February when the pups are a bit older and we can interact with them more, and I'll take pictures. Hopefully by then I might have an idea of which one is coming home with me!

Writing is back in full swing after a couple lull days (okay, maybe it was more than a couple >.> ). I actually have a full, detailed plot outline of Beautiful Nightmare at last. I had a vague idea of where it was going to go, how I was going to set up things that would happen in later books, etc. Now I actually have the roadmap, though there's been some tweaks. Originally Matsu was going to leave for a time and come back for Adelyn at the end of the book, who he had sent to stay with his Italian friend Lethos so that she'd be safe (reason irrelevant now). That's been shifted to book two, and I've made Lethos a Spanish vampire as opposed to Italian. Twilight kind of ruined that for me, but I think Spain will work out better. Besides, the Spanish language is pretty damn sexy - Antonio Banderas anyone? :D There's been other new changes, but that would spoil future stories >:) Chapter two, here I come.

Gackt updated his blog a few days ago, apologizing another dozen times about the Requiem et Reminiscence II dvd being pushed back again. I really admire his ambition and his ability to work on multiple projects at once, but when you start getting sick and your staff starts getting sick and the workplace starts looking like something out of Resident Evil (his description)...well you have to expect one of your projects just isn't going to make the deadline. Poor guy works too hard, I'm glad he's had some downtime though even if it did come at the expense of the changed release date. But Gackt, dear, it's probably not a good thing when you can't remember the last time you had that kind of downtime ;) We love that you do so much and work so hard to bring us amazing projects but please do take some downtime every now and again. You could do something more relaxing - like visiting the international fans who you wish you could see more of! Perhaps a future Platinum Box theme? That would probably be a lot of fun.

Going to try to write some more before bed, but will probably just procrastinate watching Operation Repo instead. Reality check peoples: it's not yours if you stop making payments!

Does It Say 'Open for Business' On My Brain?

2010-01-23T22:44:00.001-05:00

Because it should be reading 'closed to submissions'.

I've gotten not one but three new story ideas in the past week and they just won't stop buzzing around my brain. Makes it really hard to concentrate on the other stories I'm trying to work on and finish. One that I'm fleshing out right now is inspired heavily by the Norse and Celtic cultures, and a little bit on the Vrykul from World of Warcraft (who are also based on the Norse - so I guess a double Norse inspiration?). The story starts out as a single people that will eventually degrade into two seperate cultures. It'll have many fantasy elements, of course - the mythos of both the Norse and Celtic have plenty of it - and will probably be a little Romanesque in that gods sometimes manipulate key mortals for their own purposes. It's still a work-in-progress, but I have a beginning and an ending. It's all that middle fodder I'll need, but later. I think it could have potential for a series, but the book could hold its own as a standalone too. Unlike other series that I've started though I have no precise number as to a possible number. It's the first time I've been confident enough to say that if people liked this book and wanted more stories from these people, I could give it to them. And I promise not to pull a LKH/AR and butcher characters and plot. I'll quit while I'm ahead I promise ;) I still mourn the loss of the true Brat Prince.

Speaking of princes, I'm back on Beautiful Nightmare as I work on The Dragon King. Tessa and I jokingly refer to Matsu as the Aristocratic Prince, I just hope he lives up to the title. Knowing my beloved vampire I'm sure he will - I mean this is a guy who killed several important figures in a town in 1800s London and caused a panic across the countryside because it amused him. The story took a bit of change, and I decided to incorporate some magic into it to spunk it up some, and I think it's going to work well. Not predominate the story, but heck if you're going to have vampires and all sorts of 'fantastical' creatures showing up magic abilities have to make SOME kind of appearance. I can't wait to get to the first physical fight scene, it's going to be fun writing a scene that highlights Matsu's sadistic streak. It's funny how two characters who were inspired by the same person came out so entirely different.

Now, note to self: Take the Christmas music off your playlist already!!! And change the mp3 battery; Random Shuffle tends to work better with a charged battery.

Tomorrow I should have exciting news to post, so stay tuned!

Music of the Moment: Future - Gackt

It's Always Those Nasty Pirates...

2010-01-22T10:15:00.001-05:00

According to an article in my local paper, piracy is still a big issue in the music industry. Okay, we all know there's a large pirating community out there, but I think those crying 'it's all the pirates' fault we're losing money!' might be giving them just a wee bit too much credit.

Unless you assume dwindling sales = piracy, which no one yet has given any data to support it.

I'm sure piracy's a big problem. But maybe if the music industry starts asking the consumers they'd get a surprising answer. Because it's not just the pirates - it's the artists. I'm just speaking as a consumer, but I stopped buying a lot of artists' cds (and stopped listening to them altogether) because the music sucked. It got to be the same old thing every cd. Sure, there might have been two or three songs I liked, but that doesn't justify a $30. Sorry. I'd rather buy digital. I've never been in the position where I could splash money, but I remember when I was a teenager it was pretty easy to have at least a small collection of a favourite artist's music. Singles were cheap, albums ranged between $15-$25 depending on who it was. Then the prices started going up, and with it went my ability to walk into HMV or the other indie shops and buy two or three cds at a time. I think one of those shops has long since gone now. Should an artist be paid for his/her craft? Absolutely, my answer is yes every time. But you have to make it worth it. Because unfortunately, Big Rich Musicians, you are part of your own problem. Step out of your music box, give listening fans something new. Stop with the same old, same old, it's boring. If you want us to pay $30 for your cd, you darn well better make it worth the money.

A Helpful Writerly Post

2010-01-21T19:05:00.000-05:00

I'm a big believer in the pay-it-forward concept, and I think the more people getting good info out there perhaps it'll drown out all the misconceptions about publishing and agents. I'm by no means any sort of 'expert' by a long-shot; there are many but I'm not one of them. And though I'm currently unpublished (but 20k from my first finished manuscript, yay!), I've been doing research since November 2008. You notice things after thirteen months of research, and I can definitely say I've learned a great deal in that span of time. So from me to you, here's what I've learned:

-Research is important. Ridiculously important. Everything from knowing what a legitimate agent or publisher looks like to who's selling or publishing what, and everything inbetween. You should get familiar with it. Knowledge is definitely power, and the best way to avoid the pitfalls of the industry is to know what to avoid. You can't do that if you're not aware of them.

-Patience is a virtue. Publishing is a slow business and things take time. Agents will be slow to reply, some you won't hear back from. Taking a book from acceptace for publishing to the publishing date can take roughly a year on average. It's life. And in that vein, be wary of anyone advertising a quicker route. Aside from good self-publishing avenues (Lulu and CreateSpace are good examples) there are no shortcuts.

-There IS a difference between self-publishing and vanity publishing. I bow to the ever-knowledgable Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware for the definitions on that, which you can read in this entry. Bookmark this blog while you're at it; it's one of the many excellent resources all writers should have.

-Very few bashers are 'disgruntled'. Many who speak out warning about bad ventures are people with experience in the industry, and they're worth listening to. Sure, you'll probably come across as 'they suck!!!1!' bashers, but pay attention to who is saying what, not just what they're saying.

-Good intentions don't sell books! In the thirteen months that I've been researching publishing I've seen a disturbing amount of scammers and inexperienced setups that have gone belly up, and Absolute Write has a HUGE list of publishers and agencies that have gone bust years back. 99% of those outfits have either been scammers or people who didn't know what they were doing. And one of the most popular defensive arguements people come up with is that they're well-intentioned. Well that's nice, but it doesn't sell books. Experience wins out every time.

-Promoting isn't marketing. Your publisher markets your book. You help promote it. There are many easy and good ways to help promote, but they'll be worthless unless your publisher is doing their job.

-Networking is good. Lots of agents, editors and publishers blog, and they're an invaluable resource to the new writer. Many of their writers blog too, and the agents and publishers will often link to them on their own blogs. Connect with them, they can be another valuable resource inside the world of publishing.

Gifts from the Mail

2010-01-20T20:49:00.000-05:00

Four o'clock came fairly quickly, and I took my walk to the post office to pick up my package. I've been expecting a few things in the mail, so I wasn't entirely sure what it was going to be. I think the lady at the post office had a long day, because she asked me for proof of my address which was on the back of the I.D. of mine she was looking at >.> Ah well, got my package (click on the pics to see the full):

And it turned out to be my Christmas gift from YesAsia.com! I actually wasn't expecting it so quickly, but I'm certainly not complaining! This is what was in it:

The middle and right side mags are actually the same ones, I ordered two and used them to show front and back cover. One is a belated Christmas gift for Tessa, so I have to get that shipped out to her. Japanese magazines are a bit of a culture shock, majority of them are read what would be 'backwards' to us. And they're HUGE, they're bigger than ours for the most part. The ripped parts on the book is just a tab wrapped around the book, I'm not too concerned about it. The actual dustjacket isn't ripped, that's all that matters to me :) I'm so happy it's here! Now I just have to figure out how to get the CdJapan order sorted out and I'll be golden. Gackt just pushed back the release date of the RRII dvd again, this time to March 31st, so CdJapan won't ship the rest of the order until then. So hopefully customer service will seperate that as a new order and send the rest of the stuff, or we cancel and reorder. I'm hoping for the latter, I opted for free shipping on everything so there wouldn't be any changes.

These were some other gifts that came in the mail on Monday:

Full Pandora bracelet, Mom's order

Free gift with the Pandora bracelet

My lapis lazuli bracelet. All the beads are real lapis lazuli ^_^

Rolling Along Nicely

2010-01-20T15:07:00.002-05:00

I finally got chapter one of The Dragon King down! What's on the goal to 1million is what was actually written in 2010 but the chapter closed in on 5k exactly. The first main character, Celios, has been introduced and the problem is set. He and his dragon kin are dying, and no one seems to know why. All he can find are hints of the answer, but not enough of a picture to actually devise a solution. Now he's consulted with the oracle and is off to Taimai. The journey begins at last.

I like going 5k per chapter; substantial, not too long but not too short. At least it feels that way to me. Plus it makes general wordcount tallying easy :) I created a spreadsheet based on one I got from someone else who made it for a Facebook App, which helps to keep all that sort of info straight in one place. Though I probably should put it in my writing folder so it gets backed up on Syncplicity. I also did one for agents, which I'd be happy to share once I really get it going. Right now it's heavily fantasy-based, but this year I decided to expand it. I've got a few story ideas that deviate from what I usually write, like romance, and some distinct subgenres of fantasy like urban fantasy. I notice some agents will only rep a certain subgenre, or won't rep a certain subgenre, so I've been really making sure my stories all fit in the right genre. That way once I finally query them I'll be sending them out to the right people. Nothing will get you rejected faster than querying the wrong people.

I think today I'll move on to Redemption, I've got some scenes from that story that just keep hanging around my head. Will probably also go for a Tim Hortons run as well, I had a packaged delivered today which I missed by about sixteen minutes and I pass the post office on the way. Sound doesn't travel well in the apartment, and although I'm not usually a heavy sleeper I can't hear a thing in my room. Mom's pretty understanding about it, she knows I'll call back if I miss the phone. I don't think the postman cares too much ;)

Slow Night

2010-01-17T18:34:00.000-05:00

As I sit here typing away at The Dragon King, I find myself...really placid. The writing is coming along okay, but I'm missing that spark, that drive. When the imagination's going and the character's at the forefront of your mind telling you what they're saying and doing. I miss that feeling of not being able to get to the computer or a notepad fast enough because everything's just buzzing in my brain. Which usually happens at the most inconvenient times, like in the shower >.> It's annoying as hell really, I haven't yet worked out a way to get it all down when that happens that doesn't result in getting my notebook soaked. Maybe I should get one of those portable laptop trays and work something out with that. But anyway, I'm sure the placid feeling will pass eventually, it just stinks going through it in the meantime.

I'll probably not do any late night writing tonight, turn on the PS2 instead. I had to exchange a couple of christmas gifts today, and picked up a new game while we were out. I'm not the avid gamer I used to be, but I still enjoy them when the mood strikes me :) I haven't played Dirge of Cerebus in awhile, but I might play Soul Calibre II first. I THINK I've played it before, but that might have been Soul Calibre IV. I can't recall, it was a few years ago on my cousin's XBox. Fighter games tend to be pretty similar on most levels, but I really liked the Soul Calibre storyline. I'll let you know when I play the game :)

Tonight's goal: Get chapter one of The Dragon King to 5k. I'll edit this post if I succeed or fail.

EDIT: Fail, but I came close at around 3k. And I suck at Soul Calibre II lol Ah well, practice makes perfect!

Music of the Moment: For The Reunion - Nobuo Uematsu

Words Are A Comin'

2010-01-16T20:36:00.000-05:00

Now with my writing folder all settled once again, and Liquid Story Binder all set up the way I like it, I'm finally feeling nice and inspired again. The story with the first words of 2010 goes to The Dragon King, which is looking to be a two part story. It's very asian-inspired, which has been a heavy influence lately. I adore the culture, it's so timeless and elegant and steeped in traditions. And it lends itself so well to fantasy ^_^ I have to make a little shout-out to Cindy Pon, author of Silver Phoenix. I got her book for Christmas after months of waiting and started reading it, and aside from being a really amazing read (seriously go get it!) it got my drive to work on The Dragon King again. So thank you Cindy! And a thank you to Gackt, whose portrayal of Uesugi Kenshin in Fūrin Kazan also helped to inspire the story. Gacktありがとう

Though, I'm really wishing I had a laptop right now.

Computer Glitches and Good Dreams

2010-01-16T01:05:00.000-05:00

The adventure of exploring my computer files continues. Still trying to clean the harddrive, and bring some order to the mess. It's kind of like having a filing cabinet and some of the drawers are a complete mess. That and trying to salvage some space on my harddrive. I almost lost the info in LiquidBinder I had for one of my stories when the info wasn't saving! Scary moment, but luckily I still had the duplicate folder. Now the only thing I need to try and figure out is how to delete an error-ridden folder. It's empty, but everytime I try and delete it I get an error telling me it either can't find it or can't read it. Error on the harddrive I guess, or maybe there's a way to remove it that I've forgotten. My computer knowledge has faded some. I think this year I'll try and save up for a new computer. This one's served me well, but it's an old girl now and not worth repairing or replacing parts. I'm still on the fence about Windows 7, a lot of what I read about Windows Vista I didn't like and thus never upgraded to (not that this comp could have handled it! lol), but I wonder if Windows 7 panned out better or worse. Or maybe I should just get a Mac. Seems like in movies people are always using Mac laptops, I don't recall ever seeing an Acer or HP laptop in a movie before so there must be a reason why it's always a Mac. Any suggestions are most welcomed :)

Lately the dreams I've been having have been really kind to the writing department. I don't usually get inspired by dreams, I either don't remember too much or any of them or they're too weird and unpleasant. I did have one in June which gave birth to Chasing Dreams, and many nights of having a notepad near the bed paid off finally with that one. I don't think I would have made it to the computer and still remember it. Anyway, I just figured it was a lightning-strikes-once type of thing since it was so unusual and didn't think much on it again. Then once December rolled around I started having them a few times a week, though most were just small ideas I was able to use to advance stories I already had in progress. A few have spawned full-out stories, as if I needed more ;) My roster is rather full as it is, but I can't turn down a good storyline, especially when it's something that seems different and unique. Last night I had a nap (yes I think I'm one of the few people on earth who'll nap at 7 or 8 pm in the evening) and had this really great story idea play out while I slept. I don't know if I'll get to writing it out for awhile, but I will say this, it's nice to have another dragon story :)

Time to dive back into the filing cabinet.

New Year, New Start - Again

2010-01-06T21:44:00.000-05:00

Well November and even December didn't work out as well as I'd hoped. I suffer from depression, panic & anxiety disorder and agoraphobia and have for a few years now, and I suppose this year it just got beyond my control. I had a lot of bad nights, a lot of panic attacks in short periods of time which was really unusual. It's scary and really makes you feel very isolated sometimes, but I have a really good doctor who's helping me through it and now I start the road to getting better. It's not fun living this way - especially when it affects my writing :) That's beginning to come back though, slowly but it's coming. I decided one of my goals for this year was to write 1 million words by January 8th, 2011. Ambitious? Sure. But it may help to motivate me to keep writing. Sometimes you have to push yourself through the lulls to get to the good stretches. I like goals as opposed to resolutions. New Year's Resolutions has such a stigma attached to it now, and very few people ever seem to see their resolutions all the way through. Goals has a different sort of ring to it, there's a certain drive to accomplish a goal that just doesn't seem to be there with resolutions. So goals it is. Whatever works I say ;)

Now I must set about to giving the computer its yearly clean up. Toss some files, organize others, try and get some room so it's not so sluggish. And backups. If you're an artist of any kind and you have your stuff on the computer, back it up. I use Syncplicity to back up my story files, but I also plan to get an external harddrive to back up the entire computer and some memory sticks to back up my fiction. Seriously, it's better to have multiple backups than losing even some of your hard work. So if there's no other goal you have for this year, make a good backup one of them!

Music of the Moment: As - Chachamaru

And So It Begins

2009-11-01T15:23:00.000-05:00

NaNo has officially started, as does my quest to have a complete first draft (finally) under my belt. I'm starting with The Dragon King, and so far so good. I just wish I could figure out how to turn on the typewriter mode so I can't backtrack...