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Crowded house: writing a party
Nah, not the kind with ale and food and wenches, though that happens from time to time. More like a party of people. At the moment I’m struggling with some of my chapters, as there are just too many damned people there all the time. Up until this point most of what I’ve written has been fairly straight-forward, with a handful of people doing fairly straight-forward things. Two, maybe three people in conversation, nice tight little story arcs… It was particularly comfortable in The Aldersgate because, well, every chapter was a new point of view, and helped me keep things neat and in a row. Now, in Peter of Windbourne,…
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What the heck am I doing?
The answer is writing. Writing and writing, and podcasting a little. In spite of the failure of last week, which isn’t really a failure at all but a disappointment, I’ve been busy putting the oldest story I think is worth telling back in order. It’s a bit like turning a 50-piece puzzle into a 1,000 piece puzzle. The picture is similar, but the pathways are different, and there’s lots more to the whole. I call it editing, since it’s technically a rewrite, but honestly it feels more like writing. Writing characters I created when I was still a teenager can be a little surreal though. I had the concept early,…
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Thursday poetry, 5/7 “Delight and the Word”
To keep my brain nimble and, um, creative, I’ve decided to start a Thursday poetry tradition here. I can’t promise the poetry will be awesome, or inspiring, or even good. But once upon a time I fancied myself a bit of a bard. So, here goes. Delight and the Word Delight and the Word met in a fever dance under the shadow of the ship’s mainsail– the creak of weathered wood and the hum of the engines played counterpoint. When the Word’s mouth opened, all was softness and breath, the hushed moist maw of the Beginning and End. But Delight was wilder and her hands were fleur de sel; her…
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Textual nightmares: or, some ways you can not suck at editing by learning from my mistakes
Writing novels is not my problem. My output has only improved in the last few years, and I’ve finally moved beyond the whining about not having time, or making every excuse in the world not to write stage. Those were big hurdles for me, and I’m proud of the accomplishment. I generally make my 1K goal every day, with a few exceptions, and I love telling the stories. So what’s the problem, right? Unfortunately, what’s resulted is lots of first drafts, and not completed novels. As a writer who fumbles around in the dark putting pieces together, this is truly problematic as editing, the next step in the process, just…
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Dreams and revelations.
I have written lots of stuff over the years, but my problem is always finalization, finishing. The first finished novel I ever wrote is a prequel, of sorts, to The Aldersgate, occurring in the same world but some 400 years before. It’s called Peter of Windbourne, and it has been sitting in stasis for… oh, three years or so. First novels are a tricky business. Writing them is like having your first crush; it’s a hectic, messy, emotional process, and the outcome isn’t necessarily something you hold onto for the rest of your life. Peter isn’t that bad, but it’s had a major, central problem that has taken me a…
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WIP excerpt from Blue Heron
First draft caveats, but I liked this bit. Aboard the Vagrant, approaching a dead Earth. — Sacha sputtered as she came to, gagging again on the tube down her throat. She had not got the hang of it, even eight trips in. Her first thought was: Shit, not even remotely helpful. “Calm down, just a second,” came Dr. Sten’s voice, low and comforting enough to convince Sacha to stop sputtering. She felt the tube slide out, taking phlegm with it, and she gagged a few times, seeing spots. The lights were dimmed in the room, but she could still see the screen blinking to her right, the images of the…
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Let’s give her something to write about…
There are likely a series of posts I could do stemming from my trip this past week to the West Coast, but I’m finding I just don’t have the distance I need yet. Still having trouble sleeping, mostly due to the time change, and feeling generally spent. The short rundown is that I spent a week visiting two relatives who are both fighting cancer… as you might well imagine, this has left me a bit dazed, to say the least. In the mean time, my focus is on writing, not the blog, for the moment. I’ve got to get my groove back before I start pondering long posts again. And…
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Judge a book by its title
Having somewhere around four titled works, I often feel like a total newbie. Hell, I feel like a total newbie most of the time with the whole publishing thing. I was once told I could sell anything, and that would help me in life, yet for the life of me I can’t figure out why trying to “sell” my own novel is like getting splinters shoved under my fingernails. Now that you have that image, let me get back to what I was talking about. We toil in the dark, writing our novels and minor opuses. We think we’re doing amazing things, powerful things, and maybe we are. But we’re…
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The Lady of the Lake is a blacksmith: an excerpt from Queen of None
From Queen of None. I wanted to find a spoiler-free section, but that’s almost impossible. But here’s a bit of description I rather liked, as Anna and Lanceloch (who have just been married…) approach the Lake, after Anna has struck a deal to visit her imprisoned Aunt Viviane. A note: this is not an attempt at a historical take (technically, this world is not our own). I decided, after consideration, to take Malory’s approach: tell a story with the threads that are there, but warp them as I like. From the dark sandy bank, I could just make out the island, a wisp of smoke rising from the center—a chimney,…
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I haven’t lost to February.
And February was so long that it lasted into March And found us walking a path alone together. You stopped and pointed and you said, “That’s a crocus,” And I said, “What’s a crocus?” and you said, “Its a flower,” I tried to remember, but I said, “Whats a flower?” You said, “I still love you.” – Dar Williams, “February” I usually hate February. I drown in this sunless, useless, brown month quicker than Jimmy Hoffa in concrete shoes. At least, up until this year, that’s how the game’s gone. While I’m sure it’s seasonal depression, I’ve never done much about it except get through it. And eat chocolate. That…
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Gender and fantasy: a missed opportunity
Because fantasy literature is derived from a mythological tradition steeped in masculine strength and honor, it is often cited as one of the worst offenses when it comes to gender biases. I mean, heck, you don’t have to look much further than SF/F aisle to know that boobs and bodices are really one of the hallmarks of the genre. I’ve talked about this at length before, from a feminist perspective, but the last few days I’ve been thinking about this in a much broader sense. I mean, it was hard enough for me as a woman to find characters to identify with in fantasy. By and large, even in adult…
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Medieval and medievalesque armor @DRB
Medieval suits of armor. – Beautiful, beautiful! I have an unabashed love of suits of armor, which is helpful considering my current project is Arthurian. And although, as is pointed out in the comments, not every single one of these is authentic medieval, they are still one barrel of eye candy. The artistry, regardless of the provenance, is really astounding. What a fun thing to wake up to!
