zoe_w

This sums up my feelings perfectly right now, but then I know why it is. I finished writing a story, and I'm cranky because I have nothing in me right now. Since there is no one source for this frustration, the emotion wanders, trying to look for targets. Most often, I won't let it settle on anything, so I spend most of the day making pathetic little sighs of discontentment.

However, I'm not really unhappy. I've been told the business tax forms were mailed off to finish registering the publishing label with Lightning Source on Monday, so I'm expecting word back soon with the confirmation of the account.

I've got "Redemption Lost" back from my editor, and last night I paid her and asked her to provide a basic critique. And yeah, there are some problems. I'm just not sure how to fix them yet. My editor and I came to terms over the term magi, and so that will end up staying, even if it is technically wrong. *shrug* I just think magi sounds nicer than mages. According to the Firefox dictionary, neither are words. ^_^

I guess this funk isn't so bad though. The day before yesterday, the cat ruined one of my USB keys by chewing the connection. This key was the secondary backup of all my work files. Instead of shouting at the cat, I was checking his teeth to see if he was having plaque problems on his back teeth. Then I went to the store the next day to pick up another key. Meh, I still had another backup, and now I have two again. So, no harm done. I wouldn't be quite so proud of myself over this, but I'm in a pissy mood, and I didn't shout at the cat. That's a new level of calm for me. ^_^

So, moving to writing news again, obviously this next few weeks will be dedicated to going over my editor's recommendations and merging her changes into the final draft. I think this will end up being my main project for the next few weeks, though I plan on getting back to recording podcasts too, and I'm going to start live readings of "Trail of Madness" in SL.

Finally, in non writing news. I'm going to start editing the photos from the Amsterdam trip. It's just that there's 2700 pictures, and out of those, I'll only select 100 or so for the tour. And once I've selected them, I'll take them into Photoshop to clean them up. THEN I can upload them to Photobucket and torture people with my boring vacation pictures. ^_^

And that's the news for now. I'll get to work on those piccies now.

Later...

I'll have to go with a short update, as my brain is crispy from fatigue. I finished the rough draft of the vampire story, and I've tinkered with it somewhat before having hubby start a test reading. He had some suggestions for one section, and I changed those and had him check over the changes before he moves on with the rest of the story tomorrow. I'm not sure how to gauge hubby's reaction here. It seems to me like he's not as enthusiastic about this one, probably because it's a vampire story, and he's not that big on vampires. (He's more of a zombie guy) But he is making good suggestions, and durring today's reading, he went through five chapters pretty quickly. We shall see what he thinks as he get closer to the middle.

I got "Redemption Lost" back from the editor, and for the most part, I like the changes. Except one, and I'm going to have an in depth discussion with her on the rules of mages versus magi. I think it's okay to use magi as the plural for mage, and I think the dictionary is backing me up on this one. She claims that to use magi, I have to shift all the singular forms to magus, a term which I don't care for. I shall be pleading my case later and presenting my evidence, and hoping she won't mind too much if I ignore her on this one point. Everything else I've seen makes sense, so hopefully she can forgive me for being stupid on this one point.

Anywho, we're having a weather shift which is kicking my ass, which is why I'm going to bed really early tonight.

Later...

In part four, Roger arrives in a new city and takes shelter from a storm in the sub-levels of a residential building. Roger is nearing the point of total collapse, and still he struggles to understand the mysteries of the alien's technology. His curiosity pulls him deeper into the building, but the journey only creates more questions about the plans of the aliens.

Part Four

I worked on my new story for most of the day, bringing me up to 27K on the word count, and fifty-one pages. The tension is starting to ratchet up in both the the present, where Amber has been taken prisoner by a wyrm and poisoned; and in the flashback chapters, which are detailing Vicky's first relationship with a halfling.

Dimitri is confusing the hell out of me, and as an antagonist, he's hard to pin down. I think that's the point. What he says is the truth, to a certain degree. But he'd bending the truth around to suit his needs, and his agenda is difficult to sort out.

I also have a problem problem of how to handle Amber's illness. I mean, I'm pretty much making this poison into something really bleak and icky, and I'm having the antagonist offer Amber a sense of hope, only to yank it away from her repeatedly. Which makes it seem like he's enjoying mentally torturing her. The thing is, I'm not sure if he is enjoying it or not. Maybe he's just so good at being evil that he confuses me too.

Anyway, I'll get back to work on it tomorrow, and maybe I'll hit seventy pages. ^_^

Later...

I didn't get much done today because we went to Fnac, and then out to see The Dark Knight. Fucking MEH. I could rant a lot more, but I'll just say this. While several performances were stellar, the script was shit. Good acting cannot save bad writing. Flashing explosions and cool fight scenes cannot save it either. And this movie had a LOT of lousy writing. Like four baboons bashing on a typewriter bad. You can't tell me the Gotham police are so stupid to leave the Joker uncuffed and alone in an unlocked room with only one guard? No, no cop is that stupid, and this is only one example of the gaping logic holes in this movie.

I say again, fucking MEH.

Okay, so once I got home, I didn't start writing. Instead, I read over what I'd written and made some minor corrections. Then I wrote one and a half chapters. Which sounds great, but one of those chapters is only two pages.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day, and I'm definitely not running out of creative steam for this story yet. I just got distracted, is all. =^P

Later...

So, the mental masturbation story petered out. Heh. Well honestly, I liked it, but somewhere after the fourth chapter, I had the silent editor sneak up on me and comment, "It's not very original is it? You're just retreading old themes and tossing yourself in as an overly powerful Mary Sue."

I'd no sooner agreed and tossed it aside when the editor and the muse ganged up on me. They reminded me that I did have a story I was ready to start. And 27 pages later, I took a break. Yes, 27 pages in one day. It's not a personal best for me, but it is something to feel proud of.

I'm working on a story about Amber McKenzie and Vicky, whose relationship is starting to heat up after two stories. Amber and Vicky meet in "Touched," and their relationship continues to evolve as a side story in "Redemption Lost." Here in this book, their relationship becomes the focus, while the side stories are about day to day life in a vampire coven.

There will be appearances by characters from other stories, and rather than plan out a trilogy for each set of characters, I'm instead writing a group of stories which all take place with different characters around the same time span. This is kind of like a choose your own adventure story where readers will choose who they want to follow to learn about the world. The current teams being planned for books are:

Dimitri, Erick, Luthar...etc. (it's a big cast for a fantasy story): Erick's Journey (working title)
Erick is a daoine sidhe, a black elf tasked with a mission to stop a war before it can start between the orcs and the lycanthropes. He is joined in the task by a rhyndarhim royal guard, a daoine sidhe mage, and a half orc, half dwarf paladin who has been wandering in a monastic quest through the harshest environments Lissand has to offer in search of nightmare. But what should be a simple mission becomes horribly complicated when Erick catches the attention of Dimitri, a wyrm who has just been released from his prison inside a tree. Dimitri offers to train Erick in shadow magic with no strings attached to his offer. But even if Dimitri is telling the truth, the training begins taking a toll on the young black elf, and soon Erick must decide who he can trust. His friends? Dimitri? Or no one at all?

Amber McKenzie and Vicky: Blood Relations
After being on the run for months, Vicky stumbles onto a vampire coven in San Antonio. The leader of the coven tells Vicky she's been rendered sterile by the damage she suffered in her battle with the rogue soldiers, and Amber suffers guilt bordering on physical pain for having a part in Vicky being wounded. So Amber leaps at the chance to become a surrogate mother without considering the cost to her humanity. Now Amber has become a blood drinker, and the urge to hunt is taking over. Amber and Vicky are confronted by an ancient creature of shadow, a wyrm who has taken an interest in Amber and the child growing inside her. Terrified for the safety of her partner, Vicky must unravel Dimitri's agenda and find a way to save Amber and her unborn child before Dimitri's manipulations transform Amber into something far worse than a vampire.

Jobe McKenzie and Gavin Lebowitz: Berserker
Jobe and Gavin are finally recovering from their wounds at the hands of the rogue soldiers and their magi leaders. They're still hiding out under the "protection" of the FBI, remaining locked in a safehouse on the outskirts of San Antonio. But their respite is interrupted by a portal opening, bringing with it a huge bear-like beast which wounds Gavin. The wound heals far too quickly, and suddenly, Jobe can't stand Gavin. The taint of the lycanthropic curse is changing Gavin, and in spite of his medications, Jobe is unable to prevent his darker half from emerging. Can the two still work together to hunt down the werebear tearing through the countryside? Or will their unique cursed natures push them apart?

Davis Briggs, Stephanie Callaghan, Cora Collins, and Wendy Stoffel: Witch Hunt
This is the only book I don't have a proper blurb for yet. I'm still not sure how to sum this one up. But I can say the halfling and the wounded mutant vigilante will be tangling with daemons from Heil. In the absence of her partner Joel, Cora will try to take Wendy as her partner, only to be rejected harshly. Wendy and Cora both have different ideas about how they should be dealing with the daemons. Cora favors a form of cautious diplomacy, while Wendy is angry enough to go with "Shoot first and ask questions later." But ultimately, both must work together to banish the daemons on Earth, or else Mammon will be encouraged to send in more than just a handful of scouts.

Joel, Miguel, and a whole slew of other magi: Magi (like you didn't see that coming)
Joel wakes up from his coma to discover the world is slipping into chaos. Starting first in San Antonio, wraiths begin appearing seemingly from out of nowhere. Then attacks are being reported all over the world, and Joel realizes he must act to halt the flood of living shadows pouring into their world. With only Koontz, Cora's feline familiar to guide him, Joel hitchhikes to San Antonio and joins forces with a group of familiar magi who are also attempting to investigate the origins of the wraith invasion. But once they discover the answer, the magi must decide who their loyalties lie with. Do they side with the mystical races, their allies? Or do they offer their aid to the humans, who are woefully unequipped to deal with the full horror of a hungry screeching wraith? Joel remains convinced of their need to maintain a neutral role, but he's fighting a losing debate against a band of children who are confused, angry, and ready to lash out at the first signs of trouble. So what else can go wrong? Everything.

So, some pretty exciting stuff coming next year. Or, rather, I'll finish the drafts next year. No telling on how long it will take me to find a publisher. But I think I might have a shot because all of these stories will be stand alone, and can be sent out to publishers without bothering them about the details of a larger series.

Readers won't have to read the first trilogy to get into these books. They won't have to read all of these books to get into the world either. Each one is meant to be a ride all its own, and if I can get the mixture of action to information just right, I think I can convince people to take more than one ride in my world.

We'll see what happens.

Later...

It shouldn't be a surprise that I got back to work once I came home. I started writing, and I'm not sure if this is something to take seriously, or just something I'm doing as mental masturbation. The main character is a total Mary Sue, and I'm borrowing a lot from my time with Luche to make a story about a psychic living abroad. The story is starting to shape up as being in the same modern fantasy world as my other characters, and while I like it, I think it might be kind of close in theme to other stuff I've written.

Still, I like the story, and if I decide to shelve it after I finish, well it doesn't hurt every once in a while to write fluffy crap intended only for my own personal amusement. ^_^

Okay, I'm off to bed. It's been a long night.

We just back home and settled in, which of course means we are both in front of our computers less than ten minutes after getting home. Both of us did very good not to think about random surfing much...much. I'm getting ahead of myself.

First, let me warn you, this is going to be a long post. I'm discussing 6 days of activities, so yeah, it's going to be much longer than normal.

Okay, the flight to Amsterdam was good as far as smoothness of the flight was concerned. However, upon our arrival, we were told that we had to pay an extra fee for our suitcase. The lady at the ticket counter flat out lied and said it was an option we hadn't checked on the web site. That is pure bullshit, because I had hubby go over the form with me, and we'd even gone so far as to select our meals for the flight.

And that turned out to be another lie. Partway through the flight, the crew served cold sandwiches AND charged us for it. My sandwich was so crappy it tore up my stomach with the first few bites, so during the flight, hubby and I were both grumbling that we'd be looking at a different airline for future trips to Amsterdam.

But the flight itself was smooth, and we arrived at the Central Dam Station about a half an hour sooner than Luche was thinking. We got a map from a snack shop, and after consulting it, we started walking. Despite not being to the city in three years, I found it easy to get back to our hotel, the Quentin England.

Once we arrived and dropped our bags off, we turned around to head out for a bar first, where I sucked down a half a Guinness before my stomach said, "What, are you fucking kidding me?" So we left and went a block down the street to a coffeeshop. I picked up a pre-rolled joint to puff and get my appetite back. Then we went to a kabab shop for dinner and pigged out. We returned to our room, and while hubby read House of Houses, I switched back and forth between three different books until I was tired enough to sleep.

For day one of our stay, we decided to head out to search first for a bookstore Luche had noticed on the way to our hotel. Only we couldn't find it, and instead we went to another bookstore. I tried to avoid picking up anything at first, but then Luche pointed out the store was having a sale on two books about magic, one titled Defense Against the Dark Arts. Well of course I need that for research purposes, so I picked those up.

We spent most of the day walking around without coming to a decision on where to go until after the museums were close to closing time. Well, most of them, anyway. While wandering around randomly, we stumbled across the Torture Museum, and we toured it before going to another coffeeshop.

At each place we stopped at, I picked up a pre-rolled joint and puffed about half. By the time we got back to the hotel, I had two half joints on me, plus another half in the room.

Oh, but before we went back, we wandered in search of the bookstore again, and we tried to visit the Pink Floyd, which it turns out is no longer in business. This was very sad for me, but we went to the Popeye instead, where I picked up a gram of pot which was called Bubblegum. The flavor was just about right, and it was a nice mellow smoke.


We finished out the day by napping and reading, and then we went out to dinner at a "pancake house" which also served spare ribs as an all you can eat deal. I had those, though I was only able to eat the first two racks on my plate. Hubby had a steak and a baked potato, and it was pretty good, all told. We both had more beer. Yay!

Then we went to another coffeeshop, and I picked up another joint. We puffed that and returned to the hotel, and hubby passed out pretty quickly while I stayed up and finished reading Twilight, another few chapters of Tarzan, and another few chapters of Heart-Shaped Box.

Day two saw both of us devoted to the idea of making the rounds in the museums, so we walked out early and went for breakfast to another pancake house. I got a chocolate pancake, and hubby's pancake was apple. Then after taking some pictures around the area, we walked to Anne Frank's house.

I cannot tell you how weird that was for me. Maybe it was just that one group we went in with, but I didn't get the feeling that anyone really gave much thought to being trapped inside this cramped set of rooms, nor did it really seem to affect anyone when the museum showed a video of Anne's father, who concludes his short segment by saying, "Even with as close as I was to my daughter, I didn't know her. And because of that, I don't think any parent knows their children."

That affected me, and I had to watch the sequence over. But everyone else in both showings just shuffled on to the next part of the tour. I heard someone point out a set of height markers on the wall. I'd noticed them and felt sad, because those kids never got to finish growing up. And yet, not a minute later, I heard someone say "Oh Look, height markers! Isn't that neat?" Another side comment that irked me: "Oh look, this is Peter! You know, Anne had a crush on him."

I dunno, maybe I'm a cynic, but I got the impression that a lot of people took Anne's house as just another attraction to tour and view something from the past. I don't get the feeling that many people spent much time thinking about Anne's fate. I suppose it's best not to dwell on such things, and I admit my own melancholy didn't last that long. But while I was there at the house, I felt the gloomy past of the house deserved a somber attitude, and it felt odd to see how many people didn't.

After this, we went to another coffeeshop, and I got the munchies, so we found a frites shop and picked up chips. I had barbecue sauce on mine, and hubby had chili cheese.

Then we walked to Rijksmueseum and rented the audio tour headphones. I haven't been to an art museum since I was eight, and that was the Dallas Museum of Art. I was just blown away by everything I saw there. The Rembrandt paintings alone were worth the price of admission, but there were lots of other displays that blew me away, like the two huge dollhouses, and the marble sculpture of John the Baptist's head.

We returned to the hotel, and while hubby napped, I read and smoked, keeping my eye on the growing pile of half smoked joints. Somewhere around then, I started thinking "I should stop buying pot and finish what I have." Heh.

For dinner, we went to De Blonde Hollander, and I had a sausage with mashed potatoes and kraut. Hubby had beef stew with potatoes and carrots. Now what was fucked up was, in both cases, this kind of food has been a regular part of my diet since I was a kid. I never knew how much of my folks' cooking could be described as Dutch, but eating "exotic" instead turned into eating comfort foods for me. Not that I'm complaining. That was good sausage and kraut. We both had beer again. You'll notice I don't list brands. This is because I can't spell half of what I ordered. =^P

We returned to the hotel room and I read and smoke a LOT. So this may explain why I bought a box of 4 pre-rolled joints from another coffeeshop the next morning. Hehe. Our plans were to go with a light breakfast, since the days of gorging left both hubby and I feeling a bit bloated and uncomfortable. Then after eating, we would go to the Van Gogh museum.

And here again, I reached a point of feeling weird. Van Gogh was not a master painter, and his studies in various styles are often copies of prints which he made variations on. Fan-fiction, in writing terms. The audio tour also made it clear how little of his work sold in his time. People were somewhat unimpressed with him, and he ended up killing himself because he saw himself as a failure and a burden to his brother.

Later on during the night, I started thinking about how much of Van Gogh's work influenced later generations, and I felt a sort of kinship to him. In writing, I'm largely self taught, and like VanGogh, I don't see myself as a genius. Rather, I see myself as studying the tools used by other creators, and I try to create a form of art that uses the same tools according to my own darker and slower style. And maybe that might never work. Maybe someday, I'll come to see myself as a failure in writing and give up. The inkling of this thought was nagging at me in the museum, and I guess that's why it felt so weird for me.

Day four was going to be another day of tours, starting first with Begijnhof. But before we got there, I spotted the hidden logo for the American Book Store, and at last I understood how we kept missing it during daylight hours. The outside of the building was covered in scaffolding and dust clothes, so the logo was hard to see in daylight. We saw the lighted sign at night, and didn't register the coverings at all.

The bookstore was huge, and it put every book store in Italy to shame with the selection they had available. Hubby went nuts and bought a whole bunch of books, but I was good and only picked up Duma Key during that visit. But we would end up returning again later, and I wasn't so good the second time around. I'll get to that later.

We wandered around and hit another coffeeshop, where I accidentally ordered a gram of Nepal hash. Honestly, I didn't think I was going for hash, but once the lady set it down, I couldn't asked her to take it back.

Then the fatigue I'd been trying to ignore for the last two days knocked me down, and I dropped in the hotel for a nap. This messed up my stomach, which was a shame, because we went out for Mexican, and the chicken enchilada was awesome. But I ate about half and couldn't touch anything else.

Well, you'd think after all of this, I'd have been done with drugs, but on the way back to the hotel, I picked up mushrooms. I was exhausted when I took them, and so what happened was I spent most of the night laying awake with my eyes closed, tripping out on different dark halucinations while my mind rattled on and on about the emptiness of human beings.

The overall logic of the trip worked like this: humans are always left feeling hollow and unaccepted in some way. For some of us, we try to fill that void with addictions, while others try to fill that hollowness with faith or religion. Others try to fill it with money, or with words. But at the end of the day, we're still empty, and still not quite satiated. And it's the need to fill that void which both causes humans to strive for greater things, and to sink to their lowest levels.

This drug fueled thought began to kick over story ideas which I filed away and will hopefully be able to recall them when I'm looking for inspiration in my next writing session. But when the shrooms finally left my system I wasn't tired despite not sleeping all night. Or so I thought. Once we got out for the day, I needed to rest a lot more frequently.

After eating a very light breakfast at the hotel, we made an attempt to visit the Amsterdam historic museum, but the air conditioning in the place drove me outside, which frankly wasn't much better. So we wandered around to the bookstore again, and I went nuts. I picked up five books and hubby picked up four. So once again, our biggest expense on vacation was books. I really would have thought my pot smoking would win out, but the books did by about five euros. We wnt back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit. Then we went out to the pancake house again, where I had fish and chips, and hubby took a turn ordering the spare ribs.

The next morning, we checked out of the hotel and headed back toward the station, and only then did I remember that I had to ditch the remaining pot. We went to the Doors coffeeshop and smoked two half joints before I called over the guy behind the bar.

I said, "We have a small problem. See, we're about to leave, and I need to get rid of this pot."

He asked where we were going and when I said Italy, he grinned from ear to ear and said, "Take it with you." When I gave him an incredulous look, he burst into laughter and said, "Don't worry, just put it in your bag. That's such a small amount the dogs can't smell it. If they do, they would laugh at you!" He then proceeded to demonstrate a dog braying laughter at me. And then he wandered around the shop to repeat the joke again for the benefit of the other smokers. I'd be annoyed, but I was still laughing over the line, and I told hubby "That's going in a book somewhere." Then I got serious and said, "But if I end up detained at the airport, it's his fault."

But we weren't detained. In fact, the flight home and trip back to the house was smooth and very relaxed.

So that is my road report for the holiday in Amsterdam. I'm already missing the place, and I'm looking forward to visiting again. I lost count of the number of times I talked about wanting to live there, but I would have to be selling a LOT of books to afford the cost of living there. Still, it is a nice pipe dream.

And so with this report done, I think I'm ready to get back to work...I know, sad, isn't it?

Later...

This will be my last entry, and tomorrow we are going on holiday. I mentioned that I was likely to hold off on adding in the investigation to chapter 8, but I ended up coming up with a good way to tie everything together last night.

Problem is, I still need to work on breaking up sections of dialogue, but this will be a task for later. Once I get back from holiday, it will be time to do edits on "Redemption Lost" and start getting it ready for a proof copy run.

But enough rambling. ^_^ I'm off to bed. See you next week.

Later...

Well the temperature is now consistently warm enough to be causing health problems for me. This means swollen legs and feet, back pain, and fatigue. Yay, whee. This means I have to lay down a lot, so I'm taking the e-book reader with me, and I'm doing one chapter at a time before switching to other books.

In between reading sessions, I edited Part 3 of Wake Up With the Kimellians, and I posted it up on my site here.

I got my ISBN publisher prefix, my SAN, and my block of numbers today, so I took the first steps in applying for an account with Lightning Source. Much cheering ensued, followed by worried hand clenching and questions like "Will it work?"

I went online to read something for the other crit group I've joined, and I read the story and liked it. But I was writing the review before I caught the twist. So I go back and read it again and was really impressed on the second reading. It's a good idea, and very subtle.

Then after that, I finished up revising chapter 7 and moved into chapter 8. Funny thing about getting an idea that seems simple: sometime a small change early on has a major effect on conversations for the rest of the book. This one change I've made has a massive ripple effect, requiring many conversations to be truncated greatly. I consider this a good thing.

Chapter 8 is where I intend to dedicate 2,500 words or so to the FBI investigation, or more specifically, I have to explain why the investigation got derailed so quickly. I know why, so it's not hard to sort that out. Instead, it's working out how to explain the background on certain characters without getting overly wordy, or relying entirely on dialogue. So I may end up not working on this until after I get back from my vacation next week.

Anyway, I need to lay down again. I'm going to bed early, but in spite of the extra rest breaks, I think it's been a productive day.

Later...

I'm still working on chapter 4. This is because I went to bed still feeling like something was missing. I've felt this way every time I read through this section, but until today, I didn't notice what the problems were. So I read through again and told myself to be really picky and keep asking questions during every scene. So by asking who was doing what at every POV shift, I noticed how I neglected to mention a key detail about one of the distant family members, and I'd taken it as a forgone conclusion that readers can guess it happened.

I know what to fix there, but I'm trying to sort out if this information needs to go in 4, or if it makes more sense to reveal it in chapter 5, or possibly even 6. So my work progress was a bit slow today.

I'd also left a side character out of a key scene, which didn't make sense. There's also another problem. I hadn't spelled out why she didn't speak up earlier. Once I've addressed the issues, I think I'll be able to move on. Or that's the working theory.

Later

Okay, to be fair, that isn't entirely true. First, we went out today to do some shopping. I picked up a few new t-back shirts, which have become my favored clothing over cami tops. I picked up a long sleeve hoodie with grey and white stripes, as well as a pair of black suspenders...I'm not even sure why on that last item. I haven't worn suspenders since I was 7, and I've kind of associated them as a "boy's item." Yet there they were in a girl's only clothing shop, (because of my size, I have always shopped in junior petites shops for my clothes. The alternative is to swim in yards of extra fabric.) and I thought, "Okay, so it's cool to wear them again." So I got them, and only later realized I don't have the right kind of shirt to wear them. Hehe, I'm finally learning to accessorize. Took me long enough. @_@

On a long side note, I've decided my style of dress can best be described as punk. I like black, but I could never pull off being a goth. I'd always just be a poser in black clothing. I adore goths, and I think most every form of gothic dress is hot. I just can't wear it myself without feeling like a fraud.

So, I wear mostly jeans and t-back tops with black vinyl boots. My favorite "armor" is a torn orange sweatshirt with is now two years old and looking in need of a third set of repairs. Every pair of jeans I own are naturally scruffy, and suggestions that I need new clothes are met with bitter resistance.

Hubby still wants me to dress in skirts and dresses, and on special occasions, I don't suppose I mind getting fancied up for him. But for everyday life, I prefer jeans and a shirt. I keep trying to explain to him, "Lover, you can take the redneck out of Texas..." ^_^ Let's get back to our story. (I just figured I'd take the time describe myself, since lately, all I seem to do is talk about writing or reading in this blog. That's dull even for me to go back over. I digress.)

Leaving the Pimkie, we headed a block up the street to Fnac, and I finally replaced my Logitech Revolution mouse with a Microsoft Habu. If you don't know about this, the Logitech Revolution has abysmal accuracy, so much so that I had trouble selecting sections of text in Word. It's even more useless in Photoshop, and don't even get me stared on 3d applications. Fantastic laser tracking, my ass.

In addition to the mouse, I also picked up an SD memory card for my Cybook, so I now have 2 GB of space for books, or room for...well, for a fuckload of books, really. I doubt I'll need a new card any time soon, even with my recent uptick in reading. (Long time readers of my blogs will surely have noticed how I'm mentioning more book titles from other people these days.)

I got a micro SD card for my new Nokia Cell phone, and I've already tossed few MP3s on it as test files and ring tones, which rocks. The Nokia 5200 I picked up on Thursday had no sample files. Nothing, not even a spare ring tone. Even worse, I can't hear the default ring tone with the phone set at max volume. Now that that problem is solved, I'm much happier with the phone. Pity there aren't that many people who call me, because I've got The Fratellis song Chelsea Dagger as my default ring tone, and I need to hear that song more often. But anywho... ^_^

Also on the shopping list was a new headset microphone with noise canceling capabilities. This, I hope will eliminate roughly 75% of the hissing present in my first "season" of podcasts. The new microphone has an amazing response, and unlike my old headset, it allows me to speak in a normal voice. I've had to speak up to get proper results with the old headset, and then I was still having to amplify the results. I doubt that will be a problem when I start doing new episodes in August. My test recordings today sounded fantastic even with low volume or with me dropping to a whisper. So this will hopefully mean a major improvement in the readings for Part 2 and up.

Somewhere early during the trip, I got something in my eye. I'm not sure what it was, because every time I went to a mirror to look, I found nothing. There wasn't even any redness in the area of the eyelids which felt irritated. So we made a side trip to a pharmacy for eye drops. This didn't work until after I got home, so for most of the day, I was winking and digging at my eye, whining like a little girl because it hurt so bad. Well...actually, on the bus ride home, whatever was in my eye jabbed in hard, and I growled. I made a few heads swivel doing that, because it was a low, angry snarl that put a lot more bass in my voice than I'd intended. So yeah, that was a tad awkward. I finally washed my eye out with the drops, but I never did figure out what was hurting so bad.

We got off the bus, and then hubby remembered that he wanted to look for sandals and buy a new suitcase in preparation for our trip to Amsterdam from the 1st to the 6th of next month. We got the suitcase, but no one had sandals in hubby's size. I ended up getting a new set, and shock of shocks, I've gone down from a 42 to a 40. This is the same brand of sandal I bought last year, and even the same type. I got it from the same shop. So the shoes didn't get bigger, you see. Somehow, I'm still shrinking. I'm not sure what to make of that, but I don't suppose I can complain. It isn't just my feet either. I've love a couple of inches in height, and I'm now walking off the heel of one of my pairs of jeans. Losing weight, I could understand, but losing height? Yeah, that's still confusing me.

So we finally got home, but before I could think about writing, I had to move in all of my new computer goodies and swap out the old stuff. Hubby took the Logitech for his older Mac, and so far he hasn't complained too much. We'll see if that changes when he has to work in one of his graphic apps any time soon.

Then after I got everything sorted out, we went to a new Greek place that opened around the corner. Their grand opening was generous, to say the least; everything was free. Yeah, no shit. I stuffed myself on cold cuts, fried eggplant, stuffed crab cakes, meatballs wrapped in olives, crochette, pizette, and fresh fruit. They served a fantastic citrus punch with lots of fresh fruit and ice tossed in, and when we went to the bar for coffee, we didn't need to order or pay. They just set out cups and walked away. This is a very classy way to open a place for business, and the whole neighborhood turned out to sample the food. And no matter how much people packed down, they just brought more food from the back. I reiterate, very classy.

So, I got home, fully intending to get back to writing. But I ran across a food blog called Il Forno (The Oven) which was all about different Italian foods. And I was trapped like a rat for close to three hours until I read EVERY SINGLE ENTRY. I know I've got a food addiction, but this is ridiculous. I bookmarked the site halfway through, and not even that could convince me to leave and get back to work.

So, I'm sipping an imported English Ale right now, puffing a ciggie while I finally contemplate getting back to work. That will require another entry after I get done, but I wanted to post about my awesome adventure outside today. Okay, now I'm ready to get to work.

Later...

Okay, I went through chapter 3 and fixed all of the problems that were nagging me. I know the word count is going to be a tough sell if I keep this up, but my last edit reduced this book to a lot of talking head monologues where nobody moves, or reacts much. They emote a bit, but that was it.

And then, chapter 4. Wow. I was already happy with this before, but I got ideas here and there to help flesh out the scenes more, and I think I struck a happy balance between being descriptive, and being purple. I'm going back through 4 again tomorrow to look for any typos I might have added in during the revision, but I'm really liking how everyone's motivations are clearly explained without anyone getting emo on people. I think once events play out, people should understand why the main characters do such crazy, awful things. They have their reasons, and they aren't quite good. But they are logical, and should make sense.

We went out for dinner tonight to Fang Jong. I ate way too much, and I regretted it even during the walk back home. I might have been able to do more work in chapter 5 tonight if I hadn't needed time to lay on the couch groaning "Oooooh, so good, but soooo painful!" Chicken still remains my one weak point. I can practice restraint and keep myself from having stomach problems with most any other food. But set any kind of chicken dish in front of me, and it's like the cavewoman in my had bashes common sense with a club. Then I'm completely lost to Nom lust...NOM NOM NOM! =^P

Anyway, I'm off to bed. Oh wait. I should mention that I'm reading "Every Dead Thing." So far, it's been good with the exception of the portrayals of the cops. I don't care if Charlie Parker's dad was some kind of killer or not. When a cop calls up the station sobbing and wailing because his wife and 3 year old daughter have been brutally mutilated, no one, not even a cop with fucking ice water for blood is going to stroll into the house and demand, "Yo bird, you wanna tell me what happened here?" I know this is just back story and has little to do with the plot of the novel, but I was half tempted to stop reading right there at the prologue for the sheer stupidity (and callousness) of the cops who would look in the kitchen on this gruesome scene and think, "Yeah, a cop would do that." Yeah, fucking right.

Oh, and we've already had one random act of police brutality as well, so apparently, I'm being set up to think of the cops in the book as either 1)idiots, or 2) assholes. Either way, I'm having trouble buying it.

The rest of the writing hasn't been bad, and I'm hopeful that some of the other cops in the story will help balance out these sticking points. But if it turns out every cop is a walking penis looking to hold a pissing contest, I'm making this a one star wonder, and the rest of Charlie's books are going to be cheerfully ignored.

Okay, now I'm going to bed.

Later...

I whipped through a second edit of chapter 2, and then I read through chapter three without doing much in the way of edits. I wanted to see first what should be changed, and I have a better idea of what I need to do. This is a really dialogue heavy chapter, and I need to break it up a bit to help prevent reader fatigue. Most of the dialogue is not fluff, so it can't be cut much. But I need to work more on describing the scenes and the character's emotional states.

Aside from that I spent a few hours partying in SL with friends, so I didn't get quite as much done as I would have liked. But eh, I need a break sometimes, and I haven't been taking weekends off lately. Anywho, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow I expect to fix chapter 3 and do a quick pass through chapter 4. I like working this way, since it gives me a chance to abosrb all the little details and decide what's relevant.

Okay, bed time.

Later...

Okay, today I had to record a new podcast, and a new promotion to pass out for other podcasters. I got the podcast done, which brings me to a close on Part 1 of the book. But the promo podcast wasn't quite right, something I didn't discover until I got back and email from the podcaster I was swapping with. I'd forgotten to give the address for my site. Whoops. I can add that tomorrow, so it's no problem.

Hubby called me ad we went to the store to pick me up a new cell phone, a Nokia 5200, which I've been drolling over for a few weeks. I now have a complete nerdy collection of devices. I have an MP3 player, a digital camera, and e-book reader, and a cell phone which combines all three functions. ^_^

Tonight was of course another live reading, but my microphone tossed a slight kink in my plans near the end of my reading, and it cut out. I'm not sure when it did, so I have no clue where to take the reading from next week. Sigh.

BUT, right after I finished that reading, I was sent an invite to attend a writing meet and greet, where I could read a story and get some feedback. And it went REALLY well. I read "Walking Home With Strangers, and then I got interviewed for almost two hours about all kinds of things. I left with a raw throat and sore cheeks from smiling so much.

Then I finished editing chapter two of my current project. I'm not done with it, though. After I finished, I thought about two of the conversations and realized I could cut them down a lot without sacrificing anything from the story. So that will be my goal for tomorrow, along with fixing up my promo with the web site address. So productivity wise, this has been a very, very good day. I have absolutely no complaints...and don't know what to do with myself. ^_^

All right, to bed with me. I hope tomorrow will be just as productive.

LAter...

Twice today, I got hit by waves of fatigue. The first came right after I finished uploading the new story to the web site, and after I got up from resting, it completely slipped my mind to post a link here.

I mostly goofed off after that, but I tried to record a promo clip for my podcast, and I tried to work on chapter 2 of "In the Grasp of the Devil." Alas, neither project worked out, and now the second wave of fatigue has struck.

Tomorrow, I will have to record a new podcast and do my live reading, so there isn't likely to be much editing or writing getting done. I'd complain, but honestly, I'm just too tied to bother. So I'm off to bed early tonight. -_-

Later...

Roger leaves his apartment to explore the city and meet Phillip and Nicole, who explain more about the aliens and their lives in the factories. Roger recives yet another rude shock when he discovers he's not in Houston anymore, and he begins tentatively making plans to return home to search for his wife and son.

Part 2

Today I got the money in the bank account to buy my block of ISBN numbers, and with this, I'm another step closer to having my own publishing label set up. I went with regular application processing, and I bought a bar code, as well as paying for a SAN. Once I get all of this set up, I can apply at Lightning Source and register my ISBN prefix with them.

But what does all of this mean, really? Well simply put, by going to LS, I can have a standard return policy and offer retail discounts. Getting the SAN is a requirement for folks like Barnes and Noble and Borders. So while it might not be likely to see my books in stores right away, it will be possible for my books to be carried through brick and mortar stores. Part of my plan for the future includes picking up some international calling cards so I can start calling CRM's at various Barnes and Noble shops, and I'll try to talk them into stocking my titles. Admittedly, I don't yet know how I plan to sweet talk them, since I can't go with the "local writer" pitch.

Of course, before I can sell my first two books to the brick and mortar places, I have to put out new versions under this label. But while I'm tempted to just ship them out as is, I will be taking my time to fix them first. After talking things over with my editor, I'm planning on cutting around 3-6K from "The Lesser of Two Evils" to streamline it and fix my dialogue problems. She told me the second book doesn't have the problem, although it does need a better edit. I totally agree on all the points she's made. And on a side note, I have to say, I really like my editor for her ability to explain problems in a way that I can understand them. I had a fellow writer offer to help edit this same book, and they hacked it up badly. I won't disparage their name, since I read their book and thought it was fantastic. But damn, the end result of their edit was a book so retarded it drooled on itself. I told them so, and I said that they didn't write like that in their own book. They said they'd just picked up some new editing book and learned how wrong they were in their writing style. All I can say is that if he applies that books advice to his own story, he's done himself a great disservice.


So, getting back to the changed on my first two books, I think I'm going to try and improve the cover of TLoTE as well, though I'm not sure on this just yet. I love the cover on "Trail of Madness," and the cover for "Redemption Lost" is fucking awesome...or, it is in my opinion. But the cover of the first book needs a little something extra to give it "oomph." I think maybe a silhouette outline of the killer in front of the car might work, but I'll have to play around with it and see what I can come up with.

Anyway, moving to other news, I did manage to finish work on "Little Monsters" today, which is now 197K, and which is a damn fine reading experience from beginning to end. Nothing makes me cringe or think "I could have written that better." Of course, I'm sure it will still be rejected a few times, but I feel like I have a solid story here that's every bit as good as "The Witching Hour" by Anne Rice. (which is what I'm using to compare it to for proposals)

I started tonight on "In the Grasp of the Devil," and I've only had to make a few minor changes here and there so far. I was able to finish the prologue and chapter 1 tonight, and if I can keep up this pace, I'll have the revision finished before August. Of course, I'll need to do another round of edits later, to make sure my additions are typo free, but eh, it's not so hard when the writing doesn't make me cringe every three or four sentences.

I mentioned to hubby tonight how the second novel is 50K shorter than the first, and 55K shorter than the third. That's a whole novel by itself! ^_^ I will be adding some to the count when I include more information about the FBI, but with the book being so much shorter than the other two, I don't think I'll feel much guilt in adding instead of subtracting like I normally do.

Tomorrow I have to pause on this project to edit another part of "Wake Up With the Kimellians." I'm happy to say that the new e-book versions have been received well. There were downloads for all three versions, with the Microsoft LIT files being the most popular. Next was the PDF version, while the Mobipocket version is sucking hind tit with only two downloads. I'll still offer it on all of my subsequent releases, since the whole point is to pick up readers every way I can. It is a lot of extra work to make these different formats, but I consider it a worthwhile effort if people are checking my stuff out.

Okay, that's the news for now. Once again, I'm off to bed recharge my batteries.

Later...

I have been up for two days straight, thank in part to stomach problems. Despite this, I have chopped the book down to 197K. Yay! ^_^ I'm still going to go over the last three chapters again. I want to put this one down and feel confident that it's worth trying to sell as is. And now it almost is, but not quite there in the last 3 chapters.

But that can wait until monday. Now I'm going to bed to sleep for a LOOOOOONG time.

Later...

I'm finished going through the book, but I'm going to go back over the last three chapters again just to be sure. The current word count is 198,534. I want to try and get the book down to 197K, but I don't think that will be too difficult.

So tomorrow, I'll take the day off, and then Monday, I'm getting to work in editing and revising the sequel.

I have to say, as I've been reading through the story this time, I'm really happy, and if I can't sell this story in its current form, I don't think I'll ever be able to sell it. It's still not a fast paced book, but then it never will be an "action" story. When I try to sell it, I'm going to be comparing it to the Mayfair Witches Chronicles, because it has a similar tone and pacing. I don't think I'm quite as purple with my prose as Anne Rice, but the Collins family could definitely give the Mayfairs a run for their money in the "creepy department."

I've already been through the sequel a few times, but I've made some style changes to the first book that will need to be made to the next two books as well for the sake of consistency.

The third book, however, is still a rough draft, which means I need to do a LOT of work to get it ready. Still, I think once I get the first two cleaned up, I'm going to start asking around for advice on finding an agent for the first book at the very least. I would really like to find an agent willing to sell the trilogy as a set, and what's more, I'd like to have them sell it to a larger publisher. Sure it's a tall order, but I think I've finally got the first book polished up enough to take a bigger risk on it.

And so that's it for now. I'm gong to work for a bit more, than see if my stomach is finally calm enough for me to get some sleep.

Later...