Main goal - sell some writing.

( goal post here XD )

Ya, it's going around so I thought I'd share. Going through my writing files and papers, it's high time to organize. Yikes.

Novels
Alternate Romance: (I decided to start this earlier in time for the revision)
First draft opener - Jake stared straight through the windshield, trying his best to see the road through the driving rain.
Revision opening - Jake stood next to Sylvia in his own living room, arms crossed over his chest. Why the hell had she spent that much?

Magical Fantasy first draft (which needs a bunch of world building - nano 08): In the time before time, magic and the people were one.

Nano 06 (still first draft, started with the MC's so-so novel): Elwin smirked and stared down and the movement on the wall below her.

Shorts
Plant Romance (first draft yet unfinished): Sandra stood in her office glancing down at what had been one aloe plant she had brought into her office.

Yet unnamed SF: Once humanity could no longer survive in the open practices accepted for centuries suddenly became treason, funny how that worked.

Short set in a world I'm building for 2yn, their history still set in the future: Hania Mirela had always wanted to go into space, to see what was out there, beyond the confines of Earth.

The other night I made yet another necklace, using flower beads from my mom and some pretty matte green seed beads I picked up Friday.

Click for bigger.



And yes, that's me modeling it, taken with my cell phone. Unlike my previous phone, this one doesn't show the camera view when the phone is closed. But I used a mirror to see what the camera saw, so no phone in picture.

Catherynne M. Valente, author of the two Orphan's Tails books and Palimpsest is releasing a novel on her website, posting a chapter each Monday. The first chapter is up on her site, and I'll be reading it soon. As the blurb reads on her site, the novel is powered by donations. The whole content will be on the site, nothing is locked up for subscribers only, people simply pay (donate) what they think it's worth.

Click here to check the novel out - The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.

(Yes short post, I want to get this up before my computer freezes again and or Fire fox crashes)

David's post about clowns got me thinking about fear as an emotion. Some things can be pretty obvious as a fear, things which pose a threat to us in some way. Things like big wild animals (when someone is out around them), come to the top my mind, though I'm sure there are other examples that fit this. Other fears can be more personal, feared for different reasons for those who fear that specific thing, and not feared at all by others. Like the post about clowns, some people fear them, others don't. And those who don't fear them don't always see how clowns can be frightening.

Some fears can be irrational, or at least fearing something more then what the average person would. Take the wild animals example. Someone could fear grizzly bears to an extent they didn't want to leave their house, even though they live in an area where the likelihood of running into one is relatively low. Now if someone was out in the woods in an area where the bears are more likely to be present, the fear response would match more. In that case fear is helpful, to help us survive in specific situations.

When it comes to writing, and we put our characters into different situations some readers will share the character's fear, while others won't. And in other cases, some readers may feel some fear about the character's situation when the author hadn't intended it. I guess it's one (of many) things to think about while writing, especially if it's a case where you want your reader to pick up on the fear. With one of my novels I'm planning there is a strong mystery element, which will bring some suspense and danger to the main character through the course of the story. While I'm writing my character in the more suspenseful scenes I'll have to go through her thought process, and also think about the various scene elements that may or may not convey the suspense and fear to the reader. Of course engaging them with the character will be helpful, failing to do so and they won't care either way what happens to her, no matter how much fear is played with.

Twelve, that's the number of folders in my novels folder. Each novel gets it's own folder, though the magical fantasy trilogy might share - not sure as I'm only working on book 1. There are a few Nano folders, which my first few years didn't amount to much except writing practice.

But ya, I need to update my website as some of these novels aren't listed there, and some statuses are old. Though I guess it show's that I've made progress since my last website update.



I was doing some more thinking today for my magical fantasy novel today. I didn't really write much down except for random scribble notes in the margin of some paper. But I have a bit of a focus on what areas of worldbuilding will help for the moment to get more inside my character's head at the start of the novel. Things like society law and order, general taboos and such. Like people who decide they don't want to play along with the "inherit your family trade and work your butt off" bit end up as outcasts. I am also planning or reading through the worldbuilding section of my year 1 book from the 2 year novel class.

Speaking of 2 year novel, I'm still behind in the character section, but I did do a bunch of lessons over Memorial day weekend. Last weekend was shot with me not feeling so great (eye, ear and sinus infection). I'll have to make sure to do a lesson tomorrow before heading off to see Star Trek. Half day Fridays are nice in the summer, even if it means working extra the rest of the week.

Hubby had other stuff going on today, which gives me some internet time over lunch today (working at the same place we usually eat lunch together). I picked up a salad at the campus cafe, not just a pre-made one, but a salad bar salad. Lots of toppings, including chicken, bacon, onions, broccoli, raisons, tomatoes, sunflower seeds, and a creamy dressing. And ya, I'm only trying to increase my veggies, I'm not calorie counting.

Lunch chatter aside, I'd been wanting to update here for awhile. Earlier this week I was thinking about my fantasy novel, and how the main character is traveling around with no particular place in mind, or specific "quest" if you will. If anything its more of a journey of self discovery (she left home and has to figure out where to go/what to do). Because of lack of destination, the story line is sort of boring. More world building will help, to highlight the various locals she visits, but I'm going to have to work with the conflict more. The novel isn't meant to be a quest style fantasy, I'm fine with that. Some conflicts in fiction are more inner character driven as opposed to external. What I have to do is concentrate on all the various facets of her personality, and how they interact with her situation at various points. Her culture is very work related, when she leaves home, she also leaves her occupation behind (temporarily at least, permanently possible), so her leaving takes away what she would see as her purpose. I'll have to set up the conflict early on with how she's dealing with this, and also have it drive her physical journey through the different towns/cities in the country to the south. And of course to there is plenty of opportunity for conflict with cultural differences as she travels.

I can't believe it's June already. This month over at FM there is the science fiction dare, and also the Dvorak challenge/marathon. I'm pretty happy with my typing speed over all, but I might join in the Dvorak fun and concentrate on the not so common keys. I keep getting < and > mixed up while typing (though I did a bit with Qwerty to).

Ya, my upper sinuses are bothering me today, the right side specifically. I took a 12 hour decongestant this morning, which lasted only part of the morning. But I've been meaning to update about stuff here anyways, and don't want to dwell on the throbbing pain (a dull throb not anything sharp).

House news: We had the inspection done last week Monday, and that went well. Lots of little things to take care of, but nothing more then we'd expect from a house built in the 1950s. We signed off on the inspection and the process continues. In my excitement I started a garden blog to update as things garden wise progress. Right now I'm mostly blogging about random ideas I like and such.

Last weekend was the Lilac festival (the second weekend of it). Mom P (Hubby) and I went on Saturday, getting to enjoy the food, flowers, and crafts. And I took 144 pictures, most of them flower related. Mom and I did find the poet's garden though, which was nice. I took a close up of the plaque, which has a bit of history about the garden.





When I do get to design the garden at our house, it'll be nice to have a winding path through it, and a bench or two.

For all the cat people out there:

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Thought that would be fun to share. Hubby and I are going to look at a house early this afternoon, then do some quick shopping - especially taking cans back.

Well, I'd told myself no more new novel drafts until I made it through an edit pass of at least one. But with me being a bit lax (read: lazy) over the past two months with my writing, a first draft might be the thing I need. Plus to it's March Madness over at FM so I figured why not this afternoon. Writing 1k a day for the rest of the month along with others who are furiously writing sounds like fun. Plus to I can use an idea I already have in my ideas notebook. It's the Wizards of Time and Space on, about the all female acting group back from September.

What's one more first draft novel sitting on my hard drive? It'll be in good company with the other 3, the most recent having been finished this past January.

Oh noes an adverb.

So I've been working on this on and off for a few days now, probably about 3 hours or so if I add up the actual work times. And a note to self that Painter doesn't like it when Hoyle card games resizes my monitor. (I have the card games set to full screen). Whenever I finish playing cards I have to drag the pallets and such back to their original locations in Painter.

This is very much a work in progress, she still needs lips, hair, background, and more shading. And eyebrows. But I thought it might be fun to post what I have so far, it has been awhile since I posted anything artsy. I'm using the acrylics for this one - I feel more comfortable with opaque media. The watercolors and colored pencils are fun, but I end up getting places of to dark a color.


So, I have about 17 days left in the trial, and am debating if the program is worth the $400 price tag. It is pretty powerful, plus it has pressure sensitive brushes if I ever get a graphics tablet. It is cheaper the Photoshop. But that's still a bunch more monies then I have handy right now. Though I could buy less beads over the next few months. I spent a bit much online for beads last week, but the bulk of the order was for a few gifts.

Linking to a wonderfully worded post about the sorts of representation in fiction for different sorts of people. She focuses mainly on people of color, but touches on other areas as well.

http://yuki-onna.livejournal.com/450101.html

(thumnail)

Speed "paint" (virtual colored pencils and chalk)

I decided to try out Corel's Painter 11 today, and downloaded their free trial. I did a quick image simply to try out some of the different brushes, and it works pretty well. The selection of media types is amazing, both the types of media and the brushes within each medium. Though if they had salt for the watercolors that would be great, but they at least have sponges, and water droplets. You can even watch the colors shift a bit while the paint dries (the water color more so then the oil).

My test image: (Click for bigger - the pink/purple/blue is the water color, and the gold is oil and the black is charcoal).

Ya, in going through my folders I came across some pixel art I'd made for someone on commission (for forum points), who never got back to me with the final ok if she like the icons or not, and no payment. It is only forum points, for a forum that no longer exists, so I don't care about that so much. I decided to use them since she's not. No use letting the pretty Tardis just sit on my hard drive. I uploaded the other one as well, which is supposed to be the Tardis tucked away on some random space station. Figured I'd use this one for the post though as I love how the gradient turned out for the grassy field. It did take awhile to color in all the various colors and patterns for the grass. (Yes, I used the pencil tool in MS paint to dither - it's not Paint Shop's gradient fill).

Just got around to posting this over at FM, and reposting here.

Well, first goal: update my wall calender. (I realized it's still on Jan when looking over at it to spell Feb lol)

Anyways, for Feb I'm concentrating on nano - going to be world building, and working on an pre-edit pass outline. Pretty much outlining what I have, and using that to see what can stay, what I need to add, and what needs to shift around.

Also doing Haikuwrimo over at Deviant art, so writing a Haiku a day.

And 2yn of course.

For January the only thing I really got done that I'd set out to do was finishing the Nano draft. I also did some 2yn lessons, though I'm a week behind now.

And Trixie is a bit sneezy today, poor kitty is congested. She's got a vet appointment the 17th, and if she gets worse before then we can take her in earlier. It's just a bit of congestion though, she's eating normally and playing normally. Except for licking her nose she's acting like her usual self.

I was looking at my website and realized I need to update my works in progress page.

The 08 nano will need it's status updated from first draft in progress. I'm not ready to edit yet, so I don't want to put that down for a status. What I'm going to be doing is more world building, what I skipped over so I could start writing in November. Maybe a status of "post draft planning" might work. I can always update the blurb to be more specific.

Also the 2008 2yn will have to be updated to 2009 2yn since I'm starting that novel over for this year (only did 3 lessons last year). I'll also have to update the tag on my webpage to reflect the tag on it here.

I may also put Sunday Afternoons on the back burner. I'm not doing much with it right now, focusing on my fantasy, my 2yn, and possibly my alternate romance. I can only do so much multitasking at once.

At least my beads came in today. I ordered from artbeads.com the Friday before last, and they shipped the order a week ago. I did the free shipping option, which is standard US mail, shipped cross country. Me thinks I'll have to do some jewelry tonight after dinner.

Speaking of dinner I want fish. Hubby and I picked up fish from Wegs Friday since they had their chef doing a handy recipe. Handier still was the fact they had everything needed for the dinner right next to the chef. Even the veggies. I wonder how catfish would taste like that.

I'm trying to get all my Livejournal friends' locations plotted on a map - please add your location starting with this form. Username: (Then get your friends to!)

Because it looked like fun.

I really should be working on my novel, putting off that very last scene. meep.

Random break from the current scene I'm currently writing.

Answer in one word:


1. Where is your cell phone? pocket
2. Where is your significant other? sofa
3. Your hair colour? brown
4. Your mother? strong
5. Your father? dead
6. Your favourite thing? books
7. Your dream last night? weird
8. Your dream/goal? publication
9. The room you’re in? livingroom
10. Your hobby? beads
11. Your fear? fire
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? house
13. Where were you last night? home
14. What you’re not? petty
15. One of your wish-list items? warmth
16. Where you grew up? lake
17. The last thing you did? drink
18. What are you wearing? sweater
19. Your TV? on
20. Your pet? grooming
21. Your computer? glowing
22. Your mood? sleepy
23. Missing someone? no
24. Your car? shared XD
25. Something you’re not wearing? shoes
26. Favourite store? crafts
27. Your summer? warm
28. Love someone? yes
29. Your favourite colour? purple
30. When is the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? week

For the first time I've decided to sign up for one of the dares over at Forward Motion. The novel one was tempting, but I don't have enough left on this draft to do for the challenge. But I noticed there are world building dares as well. I chose the apprentice level, which means I'm aiming to get 4000 words written for world building over Jan and Feb (dares always last for two months). I need to finish my draft first so I can call that done, and once I do I can really dive into the world building. Yes, the draft is really rough, and there are plenty of details needed to be worked out before I get into the editing phases.

My Dare thread (link only works if logged into FM)

Maybe for the next dare I can do novel writing, or maybe editing. They also have poetry and short stories as well.

I've also decided to start critiquing others work. I don't have any novel length stuff of my own to have critiqued, but it might be nice to critique in the mean time. (which reminds me - must get back to David on the general feedback for his 3 chapters).