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One foot in sea, one on shore
A post in which to say the novella writing is going well... very well. Too well. 9K in four days is pretty much the most I've written in one go in, oh, two years? It has nothing to do with time, since there's hardly enough of that to go around these days.
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Burning down the house. Again.
If you’ve been following this blog for any amount of time, you may notice that I occasionally redecorate. Well, I did it again. The last template was okay, but I wanted something cleaner that had a similar look without the clutter. I’m happy where it is, now! It’s not finished completely, as I’m working on a nice custom header graphic and whatnot. But the layout works, the fonts make me happy (which is a big deal) and… I even changed the blog’s tagline. It’d been a long time coming, and I wanted something that represented the multitude of things I write and post about. So, voila! Writing has been slower,…
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‘Cause I’m Short On Time, I’m Lonely and I’m Too Tired to Talk
The above lyric is from Keane’s “Can’t Stop Now” and it’s apropos for more reasons other than I just like the song. Life, in short, these days, has been nothing short of OMGWTF. I really don’t want to go into the details, ’cause honestly, this blog ain’t that sort of thing. We’re okay. We’re managing. But I hadn’t been able to write a lick in the last almost three weeks due to the insanity of life as of late but… BUT! (Oh, shit, she’s whippin’ out the caps) I wrote last night and came close enough to the middle mark in the novel that I will call it 50% finished.…
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On Feminism and Women Who Rock
The Spark I was sitting in the bleacher seats in one of the music classrooms at UMass, and sort of staring top-down at the Music 101 professor. She walked around the podium and said, “Now, some of you have been asking why we’re not covering the sections of women composers, the ones listed in the book. Well, the truth is that they’re just not very good.” My breath caught in my throat. She continued with a smile, “And it’s just more important that we cover the influential composers.” This was roughly twelve years ago, my freshman year. At the time, I was still hellbent on becoming a singer-songwriter. Hearing the professor–a…
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Jonathan Wood’s No Hero and Yesterday’s Hero are FREE at Wired!
Okay, so granted I had a little something to do with this. But seriously, folks. I’ve known Jonathan since, oh, 2008 or so. He was one of the first writers I “met” doing the spec fic thing through Twitter. We’ve been in a writers group since that time, and I’m consistently amazed by his imagination and writing skill. Not to mention he has a fantastic taste in video games, and we’ve got a shared appreciation for the magic of DragonAge and other epic fantasy RPGs. Also, he’s just a kind, sweet, often hilarious person. It doesn’t hurt that’s he’s also English. 😉 Anyway, a few months ago we serialized his…
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The Middle Eight Manifesto or; Behold! The Secret to Writing!
Well, I’ve reached the middle eight. Almost. At least, I’m cruising just about to the 30K mark, a little more than a third of the way through Rock Revival. Musically speaking that might be where I put a bridge. Or a pre-chorus. Or something interesting. Certainly we’ve established the verse and chorus, and now we’re shaking things up. And hoo-boy are we. It’s been so long since I’ve been this deep in a novel (I did the math; it’s been over two years, between day jobbery, health issues, and pregnancy…) that I’ve absolutely forgotten how characters can throw you for a loop. I had this planned, damnit. WTF?! Maybe part of…
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You built it up brick by brick…
Well, Rock Revival is officially at the 1/3 mark. 25K isn’t a novel, true, but it’s more than I’ve written in quite some time. In spite of crazy busy baby stuff, job hunting, and a visit to the beach with the husband’s entire clan, I’ve been crawling along. Some days have been painfully busy and writing hasn’t been an option, but I usually make up for it. If I could actually type for long periods on the laptop, it might be a way to bolster the word count; but alas, that’s likely never going to be unless Apple actually starts designing products with ergonomics in mind rather than the “ooh, shiny!’…
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I can’t stay here to hold your hand, I’ve been away for so long
That's a Neko Case lyric, from "The Next Time You Say Forever" from Middle Cyclone. It sums up things nicely for where the book is going right now.
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ConTemporal Bound!
So, ConTemporal starts tomorrow! Before you go thinking how crazy-pants I am to go to a convention after having a baby so recently, keep in mind that I can actually walk to this one. No joke. It’s less than a mile from my house! ConTemporal is a celebration of steampunk and other speculative fun times, and I’m really excited to be a panelist. More than anything, though, I’m looking forward to acting like a writer again for a while (at least the kind who isn’t practically attached to her little newborn). Not to mention, quite a few friends are going to be there, both from near and far. The delightful…
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As Graceless as a Three-Legged Baby Elephant
The title of the post comes from the last scene I worked on last night. Kate’s first night with Tom, as she falls out of bed with no memory of finally snagging the guy she’s been pining over for years. Ah, rock and roll. So yes: writing continues apace! And with seven hours of sleep last night, not to mention a most fantastic wine discovery (the tannat grape is one of my new favorites, and ideal for sipping in the summer for those of us who really can’t deal well with white wines–I drank the unoaked Pueblo del Sol, 2009, and it runs only ten bucks… I want to buy a…
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Look, Ma! I’m Writing!
I had a post written up a few days ago that I never managed to get published. Which kinda sucks, except that I’ve increased my word count in a major happy way. I hit the 10K mark which, as I mentioned on Twitter, is really not reason to celebrate for some folks but, for me, considering the pregnant brain block and the fact that I have a four week old, is pretty damned awesome. I feel like my brain has been restored, and once again, I’m walking around with a book writing itself. It’s been a long time since that happened, and it’s reminding me just why I love writing…
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Rock-a-Bye and Rock ‘n’ Roll
So! I had that baby I was talking about.
