Whoops!

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!

Growing Momentum

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.

Really, I did have a title...

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.

Bouncing Topics

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!

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

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

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/

Reviews - Losing their Value?

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

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:

Writing Essentials

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?

Happy Canada Day!

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

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!

Not My May

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!

And Just Like That...

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

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...

Brunch & Stubbornness

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

Letting the Dust Settle

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...

Finding a New Normal

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

Rewriting When You Shouldn't Be Rewriting

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

When Lag is a Good Thing

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