Countdown

Okay! One and a half days until I'm on holiday and surgically separated from the Internet.
Oh. My. God.
I can cope. I can!

Just tidying up my workspace in case I get moved to my new office while I'm away. I have (now irrelevant) paperwork going back to 2001 - the recyclers are going to love me!) I will leave the windowledge until I get back, no point in overdoing it!

I'm really looking forward to the holiday. I'm going to do some writing, but I'm also going to take the opportunity to catch up on some trilogies I haven't read yet. Ah, books.

Liaden Universe

Support Steve Miller and Sharon Lee by reading their work in progress - Fledgling - set in the Liaden universe. It's a side book that takes place parallel to the main action in the book (not yet written) that is to come after I Dare. You can also listen to each chapter via podcast, the links are on the Fledgling page. So far, they're up to chapter 19, which was loaded on the 18th of June.

Read, enjoy!

On this day...

in 1815, the Battle of Waterloo was fought.

I read a fair number of novels set in and around this time period and it's not unusual for any given character to refer to the 'war' or for a hero to be scarred by his experiences on the Peninsula. Even if you don't read any of the accounts written by eyewitnesses of the time the cold, hard statistics are enough to provide a rough (and horrific) idea of what it may have been like.
According to the British Battles website:

The British, Belgians, Dutch and Germans lost 15,000 casualties or 1 in 4 engaged. The Prussians lost 7,000. The casualties of the French army are estimated at 25,000 dead and wounded, 8,000 prisoners and 220 guns lost.

This may not seem many in light of modern warfare's capability for destruction, but for one day's fighting when your main weapons are cannon, rifles and swords (and horses!) it's quite a sobering achievement.

It's raining, it's pouring...

It is, in fact, wazzing it down. Fully accompanied by thunder and lightning and flickering fluorescents. Hopefully the power won't go off as I've only got another 27 minutes to go. Driving home is going to be sooooo interesting as every nutter and his uncle decides that driving rain, standing water and the perils of aquaplaning are no reason to avoid driving at 95 miles an hour. Sigh, sigh.

One more week and I am on holiday! yay! But, on holiday I have no computer so any writing I do will have to be done by hand and then typed up when I get back. Oh noes!! How easily we are lured by the joy of tech.

The shifter novella is taking shape, although I need to get more speed on.

Music: none

Weather: Biblical


Dream of the Day: One day I will have a laptop of my very own.

Samhain & Kensington get hitched.

Jane, over at dearauthor.com, has learned that Samhain and Kensington are set to create a new imprint - this to be announced at BEA sometime today. The new imprint will consist of 1-2 releases a month, both available in trade and mass market paperback editions.

Click here for the full post.

Even with only 1-2 releases a month, it will be interesting to see whether this makes a significant difference in the number of Samhain books available in stores. I'm presuming that Samhain will also continue to release titles in print, apart from the new imprint, so perhaps we'll see more titles (some/ any Samhain titles) in UK bookshops? (Apart from Murder One in London which is already very good about having print titles from Samhain, Ellora's Cave, New Concepts and others). My local Waterstones (formerly Ottakers) is small but also appalling in its range of stock; my local independent tried to be too like them in order to hold onto the market and now is just as bad and we won't mention WH Smiths at all. Grrrrr. (Borders - please don't go!)

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Listening to: Drink Up Me Hearties from PotC3

Temp in office: 23.1˚C

Mood: Tired and cranky

Aaar, matey!

Well, I've seen Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and I love it! Will definitely be going to watch it again. Not only is there (lots of) Captain Jack Sparrow, but Chow Yun Fat is playing Sao Feng! Haven't seen him in anything since Crouching Tiger so it was good. (Puts me in mind to watch all of the Hong Kong movies with CYF that I bought years ago - so long ago they were only available in VHS not DVD format. Thankfully, they were subtitled rather than dubbed. I hate dubbed films. )
Anway, I digress. Although I did/do love PotC3, I have to say that I love the soundtrack more (by Hans Zimmer). Gorgeous, sweeping music that makes me want to have a sailing ship of my own and stand at the wheel whilst sailing east of the sun and west of the moon!

I am in fact listening to it right now - and we loves it, we do. Ahem. The theme melody that runs through the previous two soundtracks is present again, but there are some new variations that really get your heart racing especially in the tracks: At Wit's End, Up is Down, and Drink Up Me Hearties. The (brief) first track Hoist the Colours is quite emotive (and horribly addictive in the sense that it's short enough and rhythmic enough to get stuck in your head for days! It's been three days and I've still got the words running through my head!)

Listening to: Singapore from PotC3

Mood: Quite chirpy, thank you!

Have you got that Friday feeling?

I haven't... yet.

Partly because BB keeps waking me up, wanting to go outside at ohGodo'clock in the morning - so much so that I had to shut him downstairs at 0430 this morning because I just had to sleep, and it was the third time he'd woken me up. B was never like that as a puppy, maybe it's a boy thing?

The other reason for my lack of Friday Wootness! is that I'm working tomorrow until 13:00hrs. Erk! But, I am off for the Bank Holiday and not back at work until Thursday - yay!

I've decided I'm going to have a stab at the Cat Shifter novella for Samhain so I will hopfully get a good run on in those few days. I'll outline this weekend and then go from there.

baby!

Simon & Schuster come under fire...

The Authors Guild has alerted its membership that S&S's new contract language would mean that the publisher would 'retain rights to a book for the entire length of copyright' (Milliot, PW, 5/17/2007)

Following on from this, the AG reports that S&S have backtracked slightly, accusing the AG of overreacting but also saying that the rights reversions issue will be looked at on a book-by-book basis.

Read your contracts carefully, talk to a contracts lawyer (or your agent) if you don't understand something and don't sign something if you don't understand what everything means or you're not happy with what's on the contract.

Thanks to Alison for the heads-up.

Also, for a different take, have a look at Juno Editor/ Paula Guran's blog entry on this.

Last day before the weekend

I'm off tomorrow (work, that is) while the car is being done to and then I'm off to the pater's all things being equal.

I had an unpleasant series of thoughts last night. I'd finished typing up what I'd done so far on the short I'm working on and then thought of how it could go better in first person, with completely different characters and set in a completely different country! Does this mean it's not going well? ;-) Sigh. I'm not changing it. I'll finish it, then if I think it's unmitigated crap I'll either do a re-write or stick it in the drawer of 'work to draw lessons from, but that should never see the light of day'!

On a happier note, the visit to my papa's will mean plenty of reading time so I can get stuck into Lara Adrian 's 'Kiss of Midnight' (and hopefully the new Jayne Ann Krentz (The River Knows - writing as Amanda Quick) that I swore I wouldn't buy in trade size, but would wait for the mass-market version will arrive tomorrow, in trade format, before I go.

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Side Note 1:
There've been posts and comments pinging their way across the blogosphere about the e-publisher Triskelion and their un-invitation to attend RWA here. Quite a bit from both sides of the debate at DearAuthor (all the entries are from the 16th of May) and the comments on SmartBitches are quite interesting as well.

Side Note 2:
Jessica over at BookEnds, LLC has put together a (brief) sub-genre encyclopaedia to 'give you a better idea and understanding of what publishing professionals are talking about when they mention a specific sub-genre.' Click here for the full post. (the comments are pretty interesting too.)

Birthday Tribute to Alan Johnston

It is 66 days since BBC correspondent Alan Johnston was abducted by a group of armed men in Gaza. Thursday is his birthday.

- By John Williams, World Editor, BBC News, Jerusalem

Read the whole entry here

Tired, precioussss.

So. Glorious, relaxing Bank Holiday + 2 days?

Well, initially.

The BH itself went well. It was the two extra days I took that completely left my control. Pseudo-nephew no.2 was ill and I was recruited to hold the fort while p-n no.1 was collected from school. Then I helped out round the house and got home late.

Following day, same pattern (but I started earlier) although I did manage to read half a book and do another page of my short.

My respect for those who run their lives round children has increased. Hats off to you ladies & gents!

My state of knackeredness was not improved by BB - who decided that he wanted to go outside 4 times on Monday night, Tuesday night and Wednesday (I'm dreading tonight - but it's not as if I can ignore him - I'm the one who has to clean the carpet if I do, so getting up is the lesser evil (but eeeevil it is - the only time you should be up at 04:40hrs is if you've stayed up (to read/ write or party), you're going on holiday or you've got a hot date. Toilet duty - no.))

Le sigh.

I will try to post during the weeks that follow (weekends will be out as I'm away and Internet access is unlikely)

Donning super-attributes to

attack recalcitrant storylines!



Link courtesy of Patti O'Shea's blog - create your own superhero(ine) here

No music today, no temperature (warm inside, windy outside)

Mood = shattered, but more about that later.

All authors are not (apparently) created equal

Going round the blogosphere in the last couple of days have been posts about the treatment of Laura Baumbach (NB: site is for over-18's only) at the RT (Romantic Times convention) in Houston.

Laura seems to be getting a lot of support from authors and readers across the blogosphere (irrespective of whether they like m/m romance or not); unfortunately, she apparently didn't get the same support from the organisers of the convention. The ones she'd paid good money to.

On a different note, more insanity sprang up at the start of the week - directed at Karen Scott. You can read DearAuthor.com's take on it here.

Have the Sith Lords taken over, or something?

On Nano: Track 15 of Enigma's MCMXC a.D. (yes, I loaded it onto iTunes without being online/ typing in the track titles - I was in a rush ok?!)

Mood: Tired because BB got me up four times in the night, but looking forward to the Bank Holiday Weekend (#1 for May!) I won't be back at work until Thursday so that's cool.

Tired

I am looking forward to the Bank Holiday weekend - 3 1/2 days and counting! I need more bookshelves so furniture will have to be moved round to make way.

I'm tired at the moment, because I'm still recovering from Sunday night (or rather, Monday morning). A lady lives across the road from me, and she has a habit of locking her man out so it's not overly unusual for me to be wakened (or kept awake) by him wailing her name, swearing, and demanding to be let in while pounding on the front door/ back door/ windows. Sometimes, I get to hear the police asking her to open the door. Sunday night/ Monday morning I was kept awake until c. 02:30hrs and the police came twice. It could have been worse - she didn't actually say anything this time, normally she screeches back like a fishwife.
Unfortunately, the yelling made B.B. want to bark so I had to keep telling him to be quiet (especially now that we have neighbours on both sides).

So, now I'm tired. Hopefully I'll have caught up by Wednesday as I have a half day and visitations to make and I want to work more on my short.

Computer Update

I have discovered why the pc is sooooooooo sloooooooow.

Apparently, it only has 256MB of RAM. My father was amazed that the damn thing actually got as far as allowing itself to be turned on, let alone ran programs. It is a miracle of hardware. (Thank you Compaq - you are obviously gods among computer manufacturers!)

So that will have to be taken care of soon. Yay, more jobs.

Temp in office: 22.7˚ (still no window control)

On Nano: Spaceman by Babylon Zoo

Mood: Tired, hungry (it's nearly lunchtime and breakfast wore off hours ago)

My Daemon

Writing compared to making love...

Robert Gregory Browne from Murderati wrote a post on the 18th April about Reaching the Climax and how writing can fit into the pattern of Seduction, Foreplay and Climax. It's an interesting piece, and the comments add to that by highlighting some of the potential differences between male and female readers and what they want out of a novel i.e. more inclined to go for the 'relationship' rather than requiring a mind-blowing climax to every novel. (More forgiving of performance issues perhaps? lol)

Let's talk about sex. Those of you who are uncomfortable with the subject, feel free to bail out now -- I'm likely to get pretty raunchy.

Still with me? I thought so.

When we make love, most of us have a particular goal in mind: that moment when our entire body seems to stem from one central point, every nerve-ending tingling wildly as fireworks assault our brain.

That moment, of course, is orgasm, and anyone who has experienced one (or two or three) -- especially with a willing and enthusiastic partner (or two or three) -- knows that it can be an exquisitely pleasurable sensation.

But are all orgasms created equal?

Of course not. The quality of our orgasms is directly related to the quality of the fun and games that precede them, not to mention our emotional bond with our partner, and our willingness (or unwillingness) to surrender ourselves fully to the moment.

So what, you're probably wondering, does any of this have to do with writing?

Check out the links for the full post and thanks to Alison Kent for posting about it.

On Nano: Tia Dalma from Pirates of the Caribbean II

Mood: Just had lunch, followed by chocolate, so really, I feel quite... shiny!

Temp in office: 25.1˚C (and the windows are still not in our control!)

Monday has arrived again.

Okay, weekend recap!

Went well in the allotmenteering sense (runner beans, squash and sweet peas planted); the reading sense (re-read Glass Houses and Touch the Dark and then read the Dead Girl's Dance and Claimed by Shadow - I wish I could forget I'd read them so that I could re-read them all over again I enjoyed them so much!) Weekends are too short for a bibliomaniac.

Didn't get much writing done, but had a couple more ideas for short stories so we'll see what will come out of that.

I'm off this afternoon as I have a little talk to prepare for this evening, but if I can get the prep work done in short order then I'll have the house (and the computer) to myself.

On Nano: Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean II

Mood: Quite chirpy, and looking forward to lunch. Mmmm - lunch.

It's nearly the weekend!

And what joy do I have in store?

Murderous trees (I will finish you off now that I've changed the start), digging the allottment and stripping the bathroom walls. Bathroom - wallpaper - steam... not a good combination.

I am also going to finish re-reading Glass Houses by Rachel Caine (the Morganville Vampires - love them!) so that I can read The Dead Girl's Dance.

I have also just (last night) finished reading Lover Revealed by J.R. Ward. Now I want to re-read the series so far. If it weren't for the money to buy books and paper for the printer, work would be a serious PITA! (whinge/ whine/ moan - I'll stop now!)

On Nano: Ikke noget

Mood: Glad it's the weekend (but I don't want to do digging or DIY - not shiny, no it's not.)

I'm baaaack!

And it's Monday. phhhhht!

Ah well, can't have everything. Managed to get a good start on a 'hungry trees' story (I seem to have issues with murderous trees at the moment - I'd better cut down on the cider and try something else!) I'm wavering on the voice of the narrator so that will need to be tidied in edits as sometimes he comes across as a normal 17-year old and sometimes as if he's swallowed a dictionary!

Sun is shining, I'm indoors wanting to be outdoors, but, nose to the grindstone and off to do more work.

Temp in office: 24.3˚C (and we can't open the windows!)

On Nano: None, I'm boring today.

Mood: Okaaaay.

Brief return...

and then I'm off again!

I'm taking annual leave for the rest of this week. One's chum has a job interview tomorrow morning (for her own job bizarrely enough, and at an ungodly hour of the morning as well which seems a bit cruel and unusual) so once that's done we will be consuming chocolate, taking the dogs out and basically having a bit of a jolly.

I've got a couple of shorts (flash/ drabble pieces) ticking over in the back of my mind that I want to tease out, and yesterday I had (what I thought was) a great first line. (Bathtime is just full of inspiration!) So that's all jotted down and waiting for continuance.

I have had great difficulty reading in the last couple of weeks, re-reads or new books. I just can't concentrate. Where I have managed to read a couple, instead of taking me 2-3 hours as per usual, I've been taking 2-3 days. And not caring! It's just not right. I hope I'm not going through another down phase. The last one lasted for about three months and it was awful - I didn't read anything, didn't buy any new books. Maybe my brain just needed a rest, but it was quite - distressing is too harsh a word, but it was along those lines. (Although, one book I did manage to read was Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing[1877741094]. Lots of mini-essays & very good).
I shall visit my papa this weekend, so perhaps the quiet at his house (and lack of interruption) will help. We shall see.

Enough whining! The sun is out. I'm off this afternoon, and there is work to be done.

Hej, hej.

On Nano: Nothing - it's still in my locker.

Mood: Lergified (again!), but relatively positive!