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January 2023

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I posted a 'lite' version of this on Facebook, but expand here because the audience there has a lot of my Siberian Husky friends who aren't interested in writing. Just dogs.

11:10 and I have yet to accomplish anything besides putting up my tree and cleaning the kitchen and making bacon. Haven't even written a word either. Yesterday I attended the NTRWA meeting for what, the fourth time? Or third. I'm joining as soon as membership opens again (January) as I had a lot of fun, and kinda am in needs of a support system for writing. Not that I don't have support systems but this is on a professional level. I'm not a romance writer, but Aneli's story DOES fall into the realm of romantic fantasy, or close enough I think. Just as in other genres and the publishing world itself, so much has changed with RWA since I left it that I feel good about being a part of it again.

Added for here: AKA that they now accept gay fiction, self-published authors are treated as equals, all the old guard have been pushed out by more accepting individuals, etc. etc. This next month this chapter is hosting a talk by Damon Suede who is well-known in m/m romance circles. I met him once years ago and didn't think much about him but he has been a huge part of why RWA has loosened its morality and judginess. I look forward to this talk!

Back to FB version:

As for writing itself, Nano was a success (53k words) and the momentum is rocking along still. The first week of December I continued to write on the fanfic to get to a certain point - 62k of that now(!), but now will pick up on Kian's story, book 2 of my Sirensong trilogy.

Added for here: OMG I LOVE HIM SO MUCH! HE IS MY HEART AND SOUL! I love love LOVE writing from his POV!!!!!! Book one is only Aneli, and I debated adding him but HELL YES I LOVE HIM!!! Ahem. Owl's pov is also part of this book, the #1 stakes character, and whom around all this ultimately revolves but we don't know it yet.

Back to FB version:

For the Nano fic, I had no real outline except roughly in my head. Talk about fun - I'm such an outliner, this nanofic is a heavy challenge to write like this and I absolutely loved it. So I am going to put the nerves aside, and tackle Kian's story in the same manner--no outline save for the loose one in my head. I have been frozen on this book for awhile because though I know the end goal, everything else in between for the three POV characters is up in the air. Writing from the pants for a month (lol) definitely has helped put aside that frozenness. (Frozenness is a word, isn't it?).

I am itching to go back to the first book though and rework the opening - on the drive home from RWA yesterday, it hit me finally on how to rearrange the first two chapters so it opens where it really needs to open. BAM - after almost a year after finishing it... :) Too funny, Brain. But thank you!

MORE WORDS FOR HERE ONLY:

Moving - I own my house, and I hate it. Except for my tree, that is, and that isn't enough reason to stay. I am selling it and moving to a much nicer area. I am a very fortunate person in that I can afford to do this, and selling the house will put a huge chunk into the bank to draw from over the coming years. My retirement from Lockheed kicks in next March, too, so though I will still be working, I plan to retire at 62. My personal goal is to have 3-4 books in this world done by then. That's six years or so from now. I am not a fast writer by any means but I do write long so that is the goal. May or may not self-publish - honestly want the traditional publishing experience but we'll see. Now I am just focusing on writing as much as possible and having fun doing it.

All my published books are now out of print. Kinda sad about that. It was a good ride though.

I do GYWO (getyourwordsout) on here every year and 2018 chose to the habit tracker - pretty successful but not as much fun for me as getting wordcounts down so I am going back to that, upping my goal higher than I've ever done, 250k for the year.

Otherwise that is about it for life - working, having fun with local friends when I can, living the single-life-with-dog life.

Oh and now it is time to go walk the dog almost so I need to take a shower. He is my everything! ;)

Current Music: some epic Soundtrack or something
Crossposts: https://paragraphs.livejournal.com/190424.html

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My son's birthday is Sunday - he will be 26. My daughter's next birthday she will be 28. No. 29. OH MY STARS 29? LOL. Both are doing amazing - they both have wonderful partners, and my son's gf's little sis lives with them - and she is adorable ( she is 15 and the best). All of them have jobs that are going very well - Tiff especially - and everyone is fairly healthy. Her boyfriend has a rare and as yet blood disease causing issues that apparently spawned with him and his brother (whose little girl also has it). I doubt they'll have kids. But they have a corgi! He is BRUCE! He is awesome!

Writing is going wonderfully! Actually, more like editing is going wonderfully. I am ripping apart my ms which finished at a whopping 204k words thereabouts. It is out to betas but I am charging forward on my own edits and will follow through when the others' wise words get here. I am passionately, completely, thoroughly in love with my story and world. My characters are my besties. And I miss actually writing them, SO MUCH! I keep realizing things though that I need to go back and change/punch up/delete things, but I haven't felt this confident about something I've written since writing Red, and that was 12 years ago.

It is absolutely true you can't really know what you need to do until you finish the damn first draft. I just hope NEXT one doesn't take the 3 years this one did.

Can't wait to get started on Book 2 - I have the first scene already and love it. I'm going forth with adding both Owl's and Kian's pov to Aneli's pov. I end book 1 with everyone deliciously torn apart, though not without hope. I'm starting, too, to see the evolution of how I want this storyline to go - for the first time tonight, I considered the possibility that I will write in this world the rest of my life. After this trilogy I plan to write Gwion's story - a minor, minor, very minor character in the first story (who I plan to weave in aka go back and do so). That story is actually started - I workshopped it years and years ago at Fencon. The Angry Robot editor who led the workshop loved it - even gave me the title (Blackthumb) - but I just didn't have the writing skills to do what needs to be done in this story. I. Cannot. WAIT. But first, Aneli's story must be finished. I hope to have the final draft of her first book (of 3) done by end of March, with plans to let the story marinate while I work on Book 2 - I'd like to get at least a good ways into it before the agent hunt begins. And yes, for now - that is the route I will take. In the end if it all gets self-published, I will go for it but for now, I want that experience. I believe I can do it.

You all should know I am madly in love with Geralt, the Witcher. I even BOUGHT A POSTER OF HIM. I am on the last book - final one was just translated into English and won't be out until May - and I am SO SAD. I will miss this wild, inspiring series so much (and I have yet to even play the game - but Netflix is producing a tv version of it and I am all kinds of bouncy!)

A friend sent me this and I keep it on my tv at all times when I don't actually have it on. LOOK AT HIM. OH MY STARS, WANT. LOL. Oh my that ended up kinda big... I will do a cut.
( Read more... )
And now to go to my 2nd favorite obsession after writing (and Geralt ha ha) - SKYRIM. I am so addicted.

Current Music: The Witcher - Geralt's Story
Crossposts: https://paragraphs.livejournal.com/189779.html

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It has taken me three years, and in 2017 almost a complete rewrite of the first half, but I have finally finished my beast of an epic fantasy, and on Christmas Eve no less.

I cried. Really. Sat in my chair in disbelief, and cried. I wrote about 6k on Christmas Eve to finish it, was exhausted and emotional and it probably is a little bit sappy as a result but the feeling of finishing? Wow. Just wow.

This is the first book I have finished since 2011, and finally finishing the 'first' draft has fulfilled a 15-year promise to myself I would find a way to bring my beloved characters to life. That it took creating an entirely new character, and relegating my beloveds to secondary status with no POV is something I fought. HARD. But in the end, letting Aneli, a refugee, tell the story of what happened to her country of birth, the family she wanted to deny because she didn't feel worthy of their love, was the best decision I ever made (even though as a result I put aside some of the best writing I did, back then - I think I will find a way to use more of the old writing, though, as casual side-stories. Not sure yet. Am thinking about a patreon for those, for myself even if I never get followers. We shall see.)

The ms has been shipped off to two betas, and

queenoftheskies if you are still interested in wielding your mighty red pen at my story, pop me your email to cparagraphs at the gmail place. I would be absolutely thrilled to have your eyes and thoughts on it.

I have closed the scrivener and the word document, and forbidden myself to look at any of it for a month. I need to let the story go for a bit - of course it has issues, and there are parts I know can and should be cut out, but I want to do it with fresh-ish eyes, and a clear head. The story is just about 207,000 words long and I would like to cut it down mean and lean to 170k. It took me forever to figure out how I wanted to handle Aneli's magic ability, too...but I will iron that out on the next big pass.

One thing I do want to do is update my outline spreadsheet, so I will let myself do that this next month. It is mostly the final third I have to deal with.

So, here we go! It is time to start thinking about book #2! I have never written a second book, and I do want to add a 2nd pov in this one--a boy of about 10, who at the end of book 1 I put into an impossible, horrible position. So that will be even more challenge - 2nd pov, 2 in a series, and I REALLY don't want to take three years to finish this one!

This past year I participated again in

getyourwordsout the LJ/DW year-long writing group, and had chosen 200,000 words as my goal. I made it Sunday, though very messily between writing, rewrites, writing prompts, articles for the group, and a couple shorts I did. But I did it! I'm choosing a different goal for 2018 since a huge chunk of the Spring will be devoted to revisions. But wow, I did it. I wasn't sure if I would make it, but it happened. Wow. I love this group - we won't be on LJ in 2018 because of all the changes, but if anyone out there is interested in an awesome year-long challenge, you might want to take a look. This is year 10! Crazycakes and awesome.

Anyway, I am at work, the phone has rung 5 times, my boss stayed home with his grandkids, and I am supposed to be typing discovery, so I better get to it.

Current Location: My office - sshhhh
Current Music: The Witcher 3 soundtrack of awesome
Crossposts: https://paragraphs.livejournal.com/189520.html

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I never write on here except for my GWYO group, mostly writing all my writerly thoughts on Facebook anymore. I have more of a sense of people out there than I do here or LJ - gosh I miss the good ol' days over there. Good things always seem to come to some sort of end, and that is true of LJ pretty much. Also true of my publisher, Loose-Id, who announced this weekend that they will be closing their doors after 13 years. That means on May 18, 2018, I will no longer be a currently-published author, but a former published one. My books A Red Tainted Silence - the book of my heart (until now, the one I am working on now fits that), and The Long Way Home join my Amberquill failure (but a book I love--they too closed) and my first published book, Home is Where the Murder Is (lol still love this one though I write nothing like it now), on the Past Books shelf. I am not truly sad about it as I have moved on, and Red has been out there for 10 years and bought an awful lot of tanks of gas for me. Still, it is the end of an era, and I will no longer publish any similar titles to it. I won't epub again, either, as far as I know.

( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://paragraphs.livejournal.com/189394.html

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writing

I always feared games like this, as I feared it would derail my writing. But out of desperation and a true need to get away from politics and all the awful going on these days, I decided to play Skyrim, which I always enjoyed watching my son play, and really - I was desperate for some distraction.

What I have found though is, to my surprise, I am writing more, and getting more ideas, and inspiration from this game than I ever could've fathomed. I love love love LOVE it.

Book is up to 148k. There's been lots of working and reworking this section to get it right - I wrote all day last Sunday and actually ended up with less words than I started. Crazy!

Now to bed. Am very tired and kinda feel like a cold may be coming on, which ticks me. off.

Crossposts: http://paragraphs.livejournal.com/188656.html

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skyrim,
writing

Separate creativity - aka working on other kinds of creative endeavors separate from writing. I am positive this has been lacking in my life. I have been struggling to find peace and quiet in my mind, aka the ability to zone out, and it finally clicked in my head that most all the writers I know do other things as well that capture other areas of their creativity.

Though I love all my knitterly and crochetery friends, that is something that my hands just have never been interested in doing. Instead, I will be quilting. I've bought all my material (this is not going to be a cheap project, for sure, but it is for my bedroom so that is okay), and the pattern, and all the supplies I need to do it. I originally envisioned hand-sewing this but screw that. I'll save that for the other quilt I really liked. :) So warning - there will be much ahead about this quilting adventure I am starting!

Just look at this thing!

Jamaican Quilt Project

I also started to play Skyrim. I needed/wanted just something to truly immerse into, and I tried a couple other games but this is the one that steals me. I am playing a Breton named Jayanti (one of the characters from my book) and having a blast. My son is enthusiastic too, giving me hints of things to do and try out. Mostly I am just wandering around doing the basic plan, but will take my son's advice and go for the Thieves quest thing. I'm only playing on the weekend though. No time during the weeknights. Oh, fantasy! Skyrim incorporates all the best - dragons, warriors, mages, evil beasts (I really don't like having to kill the wolves though), and puzzles, and I just like it.

Writing-wise things went pear-shaped-crazy but everything has smoothed out, and I have a plan which, oddly enough, was what I had initially meant to do with this story: a trilogy, the first one strictly Aneli's POV, the second adding Kharis' POV to Aneli's, and the third _______ (haven't decided her name yet lol), with all three, and wrapping it up.

I will take the original, old fantasy (that yes, I took back out of Aneli's) and finish it for myself, maybe post it eventually via Patreon. It is another side of this tale, but adding it to Aneli's story pretty much killed my dream (that I lost sight of for some reason) of writing a girls' adventure fantasy. I am back on track and having a blast. I am writing it as YA, but honestly, it is already at 130k with a good 7-8 chapters to go. The rewrite will determine whether I will go ahead with it as YA (and thus traditional publishing) or say screw it, write the other two, hire a Damn Good Editor to go through all three, and self-publish. I am in no rush. Right now it is the journey that I am in love with, not being published again.

I have a ton of platy babies in my tank and they are so adorable, I don't want them to grow up. They finally got big enough to put with Waldo without worrying he would eat them.

Crossposts: http://paragraphs.livejournal.com/188344.html

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Yesterday I attended a crafting afternoon I'd been invited to, even though I am not a crafter. Not sure what I would do with myself for several hours among strangers (though one person who would be there I've known for years, and used to write-in with), I grabbed my old, original notebooks for my story, thinking I could at the very least spend some time rereading my old notes and such. The semi-dreaded event, because STRANGERS, turned into a heck of a lot of fun and very entertaining. Everyone else there is involved either as artists (milliner!) or actors/teachers of Scarborough Renaissance Fair, which I've never been to (but will now - I comped a freebie ticket to go with a solemn promise I would come next year). Through my friend who plays one of the characters there, I know a little bit about the training and devotion these people have. They were so much fun! And heck no, not interested in becoming involved - I have never wanted to act, thanks (and the TIME involved is outrageous, but they love it so), but it was fun to just listen to the stories, learn about quilting (I'm gonna!) and just...be with creative people, many of whom also write fiction(yay).

While one person worked on a costume, another worked on really cool microwave bowl holders (I want one now), others knitted. Watching one of my new acquaintances frog her entire piece of knitting because she found several errors, it truly struck me how casual she was about it. "Oh well! Happens!" Someone else stated that sometimes, you have to take a project to a certain point to realize the right path to take with it, then rip it apart and start it all over again. Her words hit me like getting struck with a case of lightbulbs.

Knitters are fearless, in other words. They know that a whole project scrapped is a bit of a pain, but only means better is to come next time. I watched not just this person, but two other people frog their work back to a certain point before continuing onward. Just part of knitting, I was told, and I had a sudden burst of envy for this attitude, then realized -- why not adopt it for myself?

And so I have. Rereading my old notebooks, all geared toward the YA I ended up merging with the big fantasy story, made me realize that it is possible I took that path for a reason -- and that it is also possible that I will be going back down that path again, armed with the new understanding of the behind-the-ya-scenes of what is happening in Aneli's world, but that I don't necessarily need to show it all. I needed to go through it, yes, I needed to knit all that information together, but to tell Aneli's story, as I had originally planned - and which I honestly, truly love -- I don't need to share everything I've written.

This doesn't mean I have deleted a thing. Instead, I made a new Scrivener, made a copy of the conjoined version, and removed everything but Aneli's storyline. I'm going to finish her storyline and then at that point decide -- keep her separate? Or go ahead and finish the other storylines and mesh together? Or, what I am feeling strongly is the right thing to do (for me), finish the other storylines for myself, sharing later perhaps on a Patreon.

Or at the very end I may decide hey to put them all back together again which is easily enough done! For now though I am excited to finish Aneli's storyline. Then we will see what happens!

Crossposts: http://paragraphs.livejournal.com/187942.html

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This has been a strange writing year. I wrote Tons and Tons the first couple of months, then hit a wall when I finally accepted my YA fantasy was not YA, but was in fact just one character who's storyline belonged with my old epic fantasy. So the next two months were spent weaving those two stories together. I finally accomplished that at end of May. Damn hard work because first I had to rewrite Aneli's story (the YA-not-YA) back into third person. INSANITY. But I did it, and am extraordinarily, thoroughly, wildly pleased with the result.

Then June happened - work on my house - my dad getting sick (he is doing great yay) - and work slaying me - and insert 20 more excuses - and I didn't get any writing done. July has been better but I am still way behind the goal I set for this year (like 145k behind) in the GYWO group I am involved in. I figure about 60k of that will finish this draft of my current novel. Seems about right. The rest would go into a book I haven't even started plotting yet. I may need to start playing with that soon - by October at the least.

Anyway - I calculated what it would take to still hit 200k by December 31st. 179 days are left in the year, after today, so all I would have to do is write 810 words a day every day for the rest of the year. There is, honestly, no reason why I can't do this. So I am making a new challenge as of this very moment (and Camp Nano is a huge way to kick it off) of getting those 810 words a day. I can do this. I want to, too.

Other goals for the rest of the year:

1. Diet. 17 down, 16 to go. That will put me, at 55, at a nice 172 lbs. at 5'8". This has always been a good weight for me and my build. The goal is for it to be gone by Sirens, which is the end of October. Totally doable. CICO rules.

2. Exercise. Kettlebells thrice weekly, treadmill thrice weekly, 6k regular steps a day thereabouts, no trauma if I don't hit that. I have opted to be more relaxed on exercise as when I stopped stressing about it, I started to enjoy it more. Hmmm. That also coincided with finally starting to lose, so go figure that.

3. Reading. My gosh I am behind on reading! By now I should have TONS of the books on my Sirens booklist read but I don't! I find it really difficult to make myself just Sit Down and Read Dammit. LOL. So I am going to pick four from the list and work on reading those by the time Sirens comes around, including the GOH's books.

4. Budget. I have a big bill to pay off (rest of the roof), a plane ticket to buy, property taxes to save up for, and I'm a bit nervous about being able to do all this. I can, if I stick to my budget hard-core.

I cannot wait for Sirens. It is like a shiny beacon in the future, calling to me. I am sad though that one of my friends I made last year now can't come - she and her friend (one of the few guys in attendance) were a lot of fun, but her workload is just too much to take off. Pout. On the other hand, on Reddit I met two more Sirens attendees who I didn't get to know last year, so we're already making plans. This year I will know so many people! I am ecstatic about this! Attending that con fills me with possibilities, and hope, and not necessarily just hope about the writing future. Hope in people, good people, women and men, diverse and intelligent and creative and determined. I love that, need that. It is already sold out but if anyone is out there reading this, there may be other slots opening up later. If not this year, how about next? I'll be going for sure.

Current Location: My table
Current Music: Some soundtrack, not sure - pretty though
Crossposts: http://paragraphs.livejournal.com/187661.html

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My 20 gallon long tank is finally cycled, and I love it! I have wanted to start a betta sorority for ages, and today is the day! I will be looking for 4-5 female bettas to join my girl Bette Midler lol. I keep calling her Poppy though so I guess that is her nickname. These silly fish (3 tanks now) have truly brightened my life, and I love them. The 20g long, the 20g tall, and 2.5 though that one needs an upgrade as fighting the ammonia is hard. It spiked horribly yesterday and I don't want Thor to get ammonia burns. There was a cute little 5 gallon at my new favorite pet store for 10 bucks so I think I will get that for him today, which means an empty tank, which means... I am going to get another baby! I loved growing a baby betta. I'll get a female this time though so she can go in the 20 long.

Enough fish talk.

Writing - limping along. I hope to make some more progress this weekend. I fell out of the habit of writing during lunch, but I am working to get back to that. This weekend my plan is to outline what scenes I have left to fill in to get to where what was YA's main character's 'mirror moment' - that moment when she (Aneli is her name) finally realized that it was up to her to take the plunge, possibly sacrificing herself, to save her half-brother and his people (who she always felt apart from, but has finally come to realize they have been her family all along, she was the one who held back). It was a fabulous ride getting her to this point, but I don't want to continue on with her journey until I get the others to their moments. (not all at once, that would be boring). Getting everyone in the same country is the main goal, I think! And I am super excited about having Aneli meet Milandria at long last. My two favorite women characters ever! Especially Milandria - she has been with me for almost 17 years.

Dogs are great. LOVE MY DOGS.

I wish, wish so bad, I could find one person, male or female I don't care, who is local to me who would happily meet up with me on a regular basis for writing sessions. Everything is so crit-oriented and frankly, that doesn't interest me. Sorry. I want to WRITE WITH PEOPLE. Like, over lunch or breakfast! On the weekends, not during the week - everything is during the week, and I just can't do that. I love when my friend Anthony is in town as we always have such a great time meeting up and writing and dinner and talk and such. Everyone I know either has families, or lives in Dallas, so it isn't possible to meet regularly. Sigh.

I have paid up my Sirens registration and cannot wait to go again. It is in Vail this year! HIGH HIGH SO HIGH in the mountains!! I love this con so damn much. It is women-focused, Sci-Fi Fantasy, and this will be my second year. THIS year I go knowing a bunch of people which makes it even better. One of the women I met there is also local to me - and clear up north of Dallas. We've met up a couple of times, and it was awesome, but again - she has family, so it isn't a regular thing.

I never made it to Scarborough Faire - again. I meant to, but the $$ wasn't there, and the roof drama--just too much, and too much going on. I could go today I guess but again, not gonna happen.

Other stuff - I am loving my house, my backyard, my dogs, my world. I wish sometimes there was someone with me to experience this, but the one person I'd want is firmly planted, and happily, in England and will stay there. He has a dog now too - a husky! She is adorable. I plan to get back there next year. It has been a couple years since we saw each other :(. Sadface.

I suppose I could try dating, but... Not feeling it. LOL. Meh!

I suppose I could go do errands now - dry my hair, throw on pants and go. Then come back and spend the rest of the day with the dogs - tonight after it cools I am taking Maddox to the washadoggery to blow all his fur off. That should be fun!!

Current Music: Torn
Crossposts: http://paragraphs.livejournal.com/187169.html

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I finally found a DW style for my DW that I really like a lot. Played around with the colors to match my Come... Travel with Me icon, which is my favorite, but that particular Tardis is David Tenant's Doctor's Tardis, thank you very much.

So, I have definitely made peace with the Chromebook. The lightness, the way it fits in my purse (I do have a big purse), the battery life, the keyboard, the monitor without lines, all add up to a winner. I now have Googledocs working in my favor, and am pleased. Zero drafting in this, then moving it over to Scrivener, will work just fine. When it comes time to hit the rewrites, I will worry about that then. I've got a little bit of outlining/planning to do, but will dive in again by the weekend. I am super excited to be writing this character for awhile - her name is Milandria, and she is one of the characters who has been with me for about 15 years. She is a strong, amazing young woman, a gifted healer, and is half of the romantic thread that runs through the story - she and her almost-husband, and father of her unborn child, were brutally separated by the attack on their village the day before they were to be married. I put these two through amazingly horrifying hell and back again, and I love every minute of it. Taking a character, destroying them and rebuilding them even stronger is one of my favorite things to do in writing, and these two have waited over a decade for this. I love them both so much and they are a huge part of my life - I use her name for a lot of different account names. :)

It is good to be feeling back in the groove again. Until today, really, I've been in a post-vacation blues funk. I haven't felt like talking much with people, either, until today. I have been considering talking to my doc about going back on Welbutrin, but I always found antidepressants killed my writing mojo so I really have no wish to go that route. Will try to get back on the walking train again - and back on the weight loss train. I only (only!) need to lose 25 lbs. but it has been a very stubborn 25 lbs. So, thinking back to what worked before was Whole 30 - and so that is what I am going to do, starting Saturday. My daughter is doing it too, as is my boss Desiree who is very tiny, but has a real problem with eating right, and eating too much sugar. Hopefully that and dropping my step count goal to 5500 (from 7500 steps a day) will help - I need some positivity. That should help in keeping the evil blahs away, I hope.

This pointless post will now draw to an end. I intend to write a 'this is my book, this is where I am, this is what I have left to write' post soon, but I want to watch The Americans right now.

Current Location: my table where I write
Current Music: my water fountain

Tags:

Been thinking about this for awhile. I have a LOT of computers - 2 dead ones too - and the ones that are running are either very old (my Netbook, still running but pre-Vista), one Vista computer, my Toshiba which is a piece of junk, seriously I hate it but I use it to stream onto my tv, my desktop which is offline and only for the music and watching running videos. It is in front of my treadmill in the kitchen.

I also have an ipad with keyboard which is okay but clumsy (I am clumsy), and this computer, a very sturdy HP but the monitor is toast (lines lines and more lines) so I use it as a desktop.

But despite having all these older, cranky computers, NONE are what I truly need right now - a light, portable, writing-dedicated computer that can go with me everywhere, anytime, always, to get the rest of this story drafted.    Enter the Chromebook! For $193 I have this little guy coming to me:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EGBAQXY/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I will be putting Scrivener on it either through adding Ubuntu or utilizing WINE so I can just use the Windows version of Scrivener. Probably will try WINE first and no I have no idea what all this truly means - I've just been reading about it all this evening. :)

In any case - this will give me a light, super-spiffy writing computer that I will be able to easily tote anywhere I want without having to resort to packing up and packing and hauling a big ol' laptop around. I am super excited!!

And I will NOT be using it for Facebook!  Dreamwidth! Twitter! NO! NONE OF THAT! This is for WRITING!!!!!

SO SAY WE ALL!

(that makes no sense typed up but I heard it in my head).

Now though it is time to watch The Americans. Woo!

Current Location: my table where I write
Current Music: Opening to The American (which is very short so gotta run)

Tags:

chromebook,
writing

I swiped this from queenoftheskies (how do I do a person on DW when using the hTML editor?) who got it from Nanoing, and I love it so I am seeing if it works for me! I desperately need a title for this thing. DESPERATELY. Nothing makes me happy!!! THAT DID NOT WORK TRYING AGAIN:

209503 / 325000
(64.46%)

YAY IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Current Location: my table where I write
Current Music: The Cure - that song about lovecats

Tags:

wordcount,
writing

I got home today from a week in Seattle. I wish I could boast that I wrote thousands and thousands of words while I was gone, but that would be a total lie. That was my intention, but that isn't what happened. I went to support a friend who had surgery - he needed help with that, recovery, and walking his doggie, a wonderful Lab pupper named Cooper. (I am really happy to be back with my huskies - how I missed them!)

So that is what I did - after the surgery we relaxed at his beautiful apartment in downtown Kent, WA, ate Arby's (really!) and seafood - most notably at Wally's Chowder House. I even brought a huge thing of the chowder rue home -- frozen, it passed TSA's test (lol they know about travelers and clam chowder, apparently - but do freeze it first if you ever do this). I will make it Saturday morning - it takes both whipping cream AND half and half, and low-and-slow cooking for an hour. Then I'm taking half to my son and his girlfriend so I won't eat it all myself. Which is very tempting. But also LOTSA CALORIES. I cannot wait - then I will be on a quest to find the perfect recipe since I can't fly up to Wally's anytime I am hungry for real awesome clam chowder.

While I was gone, I started the process of moving all three of my old livejournals over here - the oldest one, Crimsonspin - 13 years old! My first! - is in the queue now.   Then except for postings for GYWO and checking on friends who are staying there whose posts I enjoy, I am done with it and will delete the other two lj's, and the paragraphs one will be stripped to super basic only. It was fun while it lasted, and I treasure all the friends I made thanks to LJ. It changed my life - and I don't at all say that lightly. It absolutely, completely, and thoroughly changed me, especially after my spouse died. I am grateful for those years!

So now what?  I rested SO MUCH for a whole week, that even though I got up at 4:00 to catch my flight, I am feeling dark perky. Back to work tomorrow, back to routine, and back to dealing with general aggravations of everyday life - like my MIL. LOL. She was a bit pissed apparently that I didn't respond to her Easter message (because she is a hardcore racist homophobic Southern Baptist is why and it was just horrifying to me what she wrote, but hey, that was no surprise). I also am still wrangling with my old insurance company to get all my house repairs done so I can move on from this madness. Ugh. I'll think about that later though.

I am horrifically behind my wordcount! BEYOND BEHIND!!!! IMPOSSIBLY BEHIND!!!!!!   But while I didn't do much (any) writing (like none), I did a lot of work before I left, getting everyone (characters) moving toward the eventual resolutions. I have TONS to write, so I think I am going to adopt the wordcounter fun on here and start keeping track, and making regular posts about it. I also still have some major planning to do - I spent a lot of my dog-walking time thinking about the ending, and what I want to accomplish, and if I want to continue on to another book or two or not. I am just not completely sure what I want to do, other than finish THIS one.

One last thing/comment - moving over here has made me want to post again. That's not a bad thing, I think! I'll continue to cross-post over at LJ though - comments either place are fine and dandy.

(Oh, and though we had tickets to go to Norwescon, my friend's surgery recovery was a little rougher than planned, so we opted out of going. It is what it is - I could've gone by myself but.... I really just enjoyed the quiet, dog-walking-thinking time. I need that more than attending more panels).

Current Location: my table where I write
Current Music: Something dramatic from some movie or other

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I am so excited duikermeisie and used_songs and E (not on LJ) and I are going to have a biking and writing weekend in San Antonio the first weekend in February. I LOVE having adventurous writerly friends!

Now to drag my bicycle, which is a very good one thank goodness, out of the garage, dust it off, make sure it is good to go. I plan to take the Friday of the 5th off work so I can drive up early and find a lovely place to write the afternoon away until Helen arrives, then we'll bike adventure the next day, and then have writing time, then go home on Sunday.

This last week was well spent hammering out the last ten chapters (THE OUTLINE, NOT THE CHAPTERS) of my current novel. I have to write them still, but this hammering-out the plot helps tremendously. I have got to step up the production now and get this thing done! Now that I have a map to guide me to the end, I am confident I can make it happen, stick with the Hodderscape synopsis (mostly--my character doesn't seem to want to be magical in any way, so I am letting her win on that), and it will be way too long in the end, but I'll address that problem later. I estimate hitting 130 words, dammit. DAMMIT. Way too long for YA, but perhaps because this is 'crossover' I can get by with 110,000. I shall not worry about it! Nay!

And now it is time to go to bed. I'm doing 100 days of keto on reddit and can't wait to weigh in the morning. Work tomorrow, but because of hte banks and court houses being closed, we should, SHOULD, have a relaxed day. Better.

I had a good day, a good weekend, especially with my puppies. I bought Shelby (the red) two new clouds. She loves them! Maddox has no wish to lay on them. He does, after all, have the couch.

EDITED FOR CLARIFICATION of what I hammered out. :)

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: My table.
Current Music: Deep Space 9 Episode 1

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It has been many months since I wrote a post, except for the GYWO community posts I write now and then. I just came back online last night after almost 2 months without internet. The first 3 weeks were great! I got so much done! I got into a good treadmill habit, cooked, read a lot, hammered out words... And then it started to get dark earlier, and though the cold isn't here yet, the darkness made me feel lonely. So next thing you know I am using all my data up on my phone. Not good.

So got back on the internets and here I am watching netflix, some documentary about water. This is however research, for real! Water and the lack and manipulation of plays a big role in my ms so I thought this would be interesting. In fact it is, and has given me some ideas, but it sure is frightening too what parts of the world do with precious water. (Focus on a tanning factory in India made me nauseous, watching that chemical-laden brackish water pouring into a river where people bathe and wash and I don't want to know what else).

I am waiting to hear from Hodderscape. Decisions started going out on the 29th of September. Nothing yet. Will they want more? Will they say thanks but no thanks? Who knows? Whether or not they want the rest, I'm having so much fun with this story. I'd like to have it finished by end of the year but we will see.

I also pulled out my ancient fantasy I stopped working on about 15 years ago. I have no wish to pursue self publishing with it, or traditional publishing (as I am pursuing that with the current ms). So I am seriously considering having fun with Wattpad with it. I've got quite a bit of it and I'd like to finish it. It is funny, rereading that which I wrote long ago makes me realize just how well I wrote back then. Would that I had never let those who destroyed my belief in what I was doing get near it. But I am happy with what I am doing now. YA fantasy aka A Girl's Adventure Story is my jam. As is writing in first person. SO MUCH LOVE.

Otherwise not much else going on. Kids are good (and both have serious partners! oh my stars), work is good (busy as always), getting my treadmill time in almost every day. I'm doing Couch to 5k but took off last week. Why did I do that? Got to get back into it. My son is staying with me a couple nights a week which is nice, and that is all.

Now to curl up and reread what I wrote by hand at lunch today. I only meant to jot a few things down and ended up writing six handwritten pages.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: my couch, dog at feet
Current Music: Watermark (documentary)

Tags:

How many of you writerly types make and keep up with writing notebooks? As in organizing notebooks, specific to the story you are working on currently. For the first time, I am preparing one to drag around with me instead of relying on keeping things straight in my head. Am curious for those who do use them, what you put in them and why you decided to use one in the first place.

I do have Scrivener thoroughly organized, but due to work and craziness I have been doing some handwriting as well when I find a few quiet moments. I don't like dragging my laptop with me, and can't have Scrivener on my work computer (not that there is any real time to write during work, not with work as crazy as it has been the last few months okay ever since I started work there) so I've been mostly writing in a purple Moleskin notebook, then transferring whatever later to Scrivener. It is getting rather tatty now though. jealousofstars gave me a huge and awesome notebook that I intend to transfer all the notes currently in the Moleskin, along with other notes I have on Scrivener, and write first draft scenes in.

There isn't any real reason to do this, I suppose, just in order to have it with me, but I like having it all with me. I like the thought of being able to grab my book and go to the right tab and have all the tidbits there about my characters, cities, etc. etc. It is also very satisfying to me to hand-write this stuff over again, simply for the sake of doing so as it helps sort things in my brain (which needs all the help it can get). I do have another, smaller notebook - I may put all the notes stuff in that one and write in the big one. Oh, decisions!

I have a new friend, btw!! He is an Australian Cattle dog named Clanger. Don't worry, it's a stuffed dog, my Reddit Secret Santa gift from a very sweet Australian university student. Anyway, for grins, have a picture of the notebooks in question, and Clanger. :)

PLANNING NOTEBOOKS

And now I must get back to this blasted summary thing I am trying to figure out for this book. Bah! I know it will change, and change a lot, but I have this crazy need to get it right, now. For now.

I don't want to go to work tomorrow. Dammit.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: My table in my dining room
Current Music: A Knight's Tale - my daughter is watching

Tags:

I have no idea why the banner isn't working for me. BUT ANYWAY. I committed to 200k for 2015. Pretty daring considering the last 4 years I haven't even written 100k. But I am moving along with this story, I have real, firm goals, and know what I want. And I miss community, I miss people, and I really am looking forward to that. Oh look, the banner mysteriously decided to start working.

Current Mood: optimistic
Current Location: chair

Tags:

Hello Livejournal. Been two months since we spoke last - about the time I got super busy with my MIL after her foot surgery. Man that has been a beast, getting her over that and there is still a long way to go. She goes for another checkup tomorrow and I really do hope she gets a good report even though one of the evil screws is working its way loose. Dammit. And on top of all this, work has been super busy--the more I do, the more I have to do! If that makes sense? I didn't leave work until 6:30 tonight. Sigh.

Yesterday though I had off work - and that was lovely even though it made today more difficult Spent the afternoon at Starbucks with my daughter, me working on my ms and she working on work. Then we went home, she made dinner for me before taking off for the boyfriend.

So life has been nutsy busy, been devoting lots of time to my MIL, her dog, and working on my writing stuff - I'm sorta doing nano, but really only as a way to keep the focus going. More important to me that I just keep working on storyline (which has changed dramatically - VERY dramatically). Why is writing so HARD? I have to admit though, doing extensive structuring has helped a heck of a lot. I've gone from 6 pov's to one. LOL. I've completely changed the focus of the whole kit and kaboodle. Oh well. I wish I was one of those who had the time to write about process, as I'm approaching this in a way that is a it different than what I tried before...because what I did before did not work. AT ALL. (which explains why nothing I had before is being used now). Because... because... Yeah. Talking to myself. yeah

I miss all you people not reading this. You know who you are.

Watching Sons of Anarchy. Very different world. My eyebrows are raised!! LOL. Do people live like this for real? They do don't they? And yet... these guys are good guys at heart. I think. I'm only on episode 5...

Current Mood: amused

Tags:

Been over a month since my last post but the last month has been busy. This creates a problem - a post stuffed full of Things that Happened. So to cram stuff in quickly:

Work. Work is BUSY. We have a very huge, very $$$$ case that will be going to arbitration (rather than trial) the first week of May. We've had a lot of depositions, lots of discovery to organize, etc. -- I will be soooo glad when this is done. My job consumes me. it would be very easy to make my job my everything but I just can't do that to myself. It sure seems like it is everything at times! LOL. Thankfully, I really do love my job and the people I work with, the environment, and my boss. Working in law can be super frustrating, challenged, and awesome. We won an enormous case this week through summary judgment (hearing with just the judge) - I wasn't at work Friday but our client sent champagne, gift cards, roses, donated to St. Jude's in the firm name... I've known this client since I was in college and he was a friend of my spouse's, he was in the fraternity Kel was in and I was a little sister in, so am super happy for him that we blew this out of the water.

Writing. Continuing to work on merging the two storylines together - about halfway there. I've never used such an intense, thorough outline before, on anything. It freaks me a bit to have done it this way but the story is so complicated, even though I know it so well, that having a backbone down just seems essential. I meant to start the actual writing today but my sister came into town this week so I've put this aside all the past week. So therefore! My goal this week is to get the rest of this put together.

Reading. My sister gave me her unused Kindle Fire, which is connected to her account, but she has such an interesting library I'm going to keep it connected. I've not read mystery in awhile but she has the first three books by Jeff Abbott's Sam Capra series. I'm in total love. I love the character (he does parkour!! and makes it work!) and I love the adventure, the adrenaline (which is the title of the first book lol), and the storyline has me excited... just... Yessss... happy reading.

Rainbow Con. April 17- 20, in Tampa, Florida! This is as it says a very rainbow-colored conference, focusing on LGBTQ fiction. I'm going with mand_r. I'm not really active in m/m anymore but I'm looking forward to just getting away to somewhere for the weekend, meeting Mandr at long last, meeting other online friends, and eating Dim Sum. :)

Niece. Alexandra aka Lexie aka Lex Cox is my sister's daughter - she's a senior in high school, is a National Merit scholar, and she has five universities so far that want her. She's going to study Physics. The wee child has the smarts but is funny and goofy. Very. I want her to go to OU...because then she could take the train to visit here whenever she wanted to. But we will see how that goes. She has a huge decision to make.

Daughter and Son. Daughter still in Orlando, now will graduate with her masters in July. I have no idea if she will stay there, move home, go elsewhere - got to get graduated! I miss her lots. Son is struggling a little right now with school - he is frustrated by a couple of the classes required for his degree in Biology. I am frustrated for him but all I can do is encourage him and if he decides to go back to take those evil non-major classes at the junior college then he has my blessing, without doubt.

Health Stuff. Forever working on this. Am about to do my second Whole 30 starting tomorrow. I am excited! The first one went great - Sigh - if only I'd kept it up! If I am concentrating hard on eating right, plan ahead, have good stuff stocked in the fridge I do great, but I fall apart so easily and I've realized that dammit, growing older DOES make losing weight and being in shape harder. VERY HARDER. LOL. WHINE MOAR. It is what it is, I'm almost 52, gonna stay focused on eating right and getting more exercise in - my daughter bought me a Fit Bit and I am STILL WAITING for her to send it to me. ARGH. Send it NOW... She is so busy she hasn't had time to send it. (grrr - she should never have told me lol I would've bought it myself).

Dogs. Maddox gained 5 pounds over the last year. He is now on a diet. No more stealing bits from my plat (meaning I am no longer allowed to give him the last bits from my plate). So sad! I feel awful I made him gain weight. Too many treats!

Otherwise this month I did a lot of fixing of things - from cars, to house to buying new furniture, buying new clothes I checked through my long list item by item and got it all done. Life is expensive! But am very pleased with things.

The last thing I had on my list was to get new contacts. About six months ago, I suddenly realized that with my contacts in, it was super hard to see my computer screen whereas distance-seeing was fine. Sigh, yes, it finally happened - my vision had flipped and the only way I could see the computer was to have glasses with my contacts up close. I made do with this for the last few months but got so sick of it so yesterday I got a pair of monovision, with my left contact for up-close and the right for far seeing and somehow they are blending together so that though there is a smidge of unfocusing when I go from far to near (like from Face Off on the television to my computer screen) I think this will work great! I hope so anyway.

Not much else here - I've had so little time for things! I'm behind on watching all the shows ever, I hardly am on twitter because of Life, and all that good whiney stuff, but am ready to start April with a good kick in the right direction. Yeah baby.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: the couch
Current Music: Interview with RA Salvatore

Tags:

I want to start keeping tabs on myself regarding progress on my story (ok stories) I am working on, so figure the only way to do that, is to actually do that. LOL.

1. Altered Fates - part one of my epic fantasy - current word count is just over 100k. The outline is about 15k, and at this rate this first book is going to be 400k... a wee bit long, yes? LOL. I don't care - this is my 'for me' book that I really am enjoying sinking back into, the one I've had around in different forms for around 15 years. Who knows what I will do with it in the end but it makes me very happy to think about these characters again. :) The outline is just in Word right now which is difficult to work with so I'm going to start plugging it into Scrivener tomorrow. I realized though as I read through the outline again that my other story (2. below) weaves into it in several important ways, and now I am wondering if I shouldn't weave the two together, removing some of the silly stuff that one writes out of this... Going to consider that, and ponder that further.

2. Song of the Siren - the one that dovetails into the above. Hmmm. The more I think about this, the more I like the idea... Hmmmm... Ponder. Only 6,173 words written so far in this one. Hmmmm....

3. Wayward, my poor dear science fiction story. At 41,292 and complete for now, it is a wretched wordcount, but I do have it figured out how to get the story bumped up into a better wordcount. Science fiction aka the science fiction world continues to freak me out but is freaking me out less with all the good that is coming out of the bad. There are some great people out there determined to make changes, and that is a good thing. I love this genre, have been an avid fan since I was a kid (thanks Dad) but the genre itself has always been such a turnoff because of well, many things. Lots of things. Things I never experienced in the mystery genre, but my heart just isn't in writing mystery. But this story... I love it so much and it WILL get out there eventually.

4. Stage - my first person story I refuse to talk about anywhere because I am guarding it so fiercely - currently going back through my massive dissertation I bought on the particular subject at the root of this story. I finally realized what was wrong with my plot - things happened TO my character. That was it. He did nothing, was just along for the ride! No wonder I just went meh. This one is heavily influenced by my love for Jacqueline Carey's work, will be in first person, and wicked, and has been in my head not as long as 1. above, but about 6 years or so. It needs to live.

Tomorrow the plan is to watch a movie with Nick and Klaudia (we are making our way through all the Oscar nominations and tomorrow is my turn to choose so I am choosing Captain Phillips) then I will walk Maddox for a good hour, then dash to the store and then go hide out in Starbucks, maybe, or somewhere. I need a table to spread out on, and a comfortable chair. Starbucks has new chairs and I question whether they will be comfy - am disappointed they redid the store and took out my favorite bench seating. Will be seeing the son later on...just spent 926 bucks to get his car fixed. SIGH. Not exactly the birthday present he envisioned (and the one he envisioned would've been much cheaper for me! LOL).

Otherwise, that's it - was sick last weekend and Monday and it is gorgeous this weekend, so very much looking forward to the next two days.

Current read: finishing up (I read so slowly) a trilogy written by Stephanie Dray about Cleopatra's daughter, Selene, pretty much set in Rome. I love it. It is supposedly historical fiction but to me it reads historical fantasy because hello, magic, and lots of it. But I love the author's voice (first person) and love stories set in this time period, and am impressed with many things about the storyline and characters... so much so may have to tap thoughts down later. Then I have a friend's book to read next, also about Rome, I am looking very much forward to. :)

Also, I keep thinking of things - will start another Whole 30 next Saturday - my sister and her daughter are coming for a brief visit and well, you know, gotta look good! Plus I just loved doing it before and I have found myself slipping into laziness and eating processed foods again and way too much bread bread beautiful bread how I love you bread... which always makes me feel like crap. LOL. So yeah, a week from tomorrow, whee! Can't wait!

And that is all from me.

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Carolyn

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. ~

Entries tagged with writing

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January 2023

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Pondering more! and writing stuff.

Current State of Me and Mine!

And so it is done.

It's been such a long time...

Skyrim

Writing and Separate Creativity. And fish.

The Magical Knowledge of Knitters

On Reaching Goals

Killing Time before I go Fish Shopping!

And on writing... And the Chromebook

Bought myself a Chromebook

Testing this wordcount thingy

Home from Seattle! Okay really Kent, WA. :)

A biking and writing weekend!

Catching Up

The Writing Notebook

So I just committed myself to insanity - GYWO. :)

Nano yo yo yo and other stuff

Relaxing, Planning, Contemplating, Creating... And doing laundry.

Progress Report... The writerly side of things

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