Category Archives: LJ

Okay, I’m fanatical about keeping records when I write.

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I had Matthew do first reader duties on my catharsis story the other day. Everything I write goes through him first before it gets sent through my critique groups gamut. He’s got a better eye for pacing and tone than anyone I know and my stories don’t graduate from zero draft to first draft status until after he’s had a go at them.

But, get this, my horrific little tale made him go squick. Hee! Matthew watches movies like Hellraiser and Poltergeist that send me cowering under the covers (yes, I’m a timid girlie-girl, shut up) and I wrote something that gave him the willies!

Rah!

Well, I believe the nail has gone into the coffin of the Halloween story. At the Shakespeare Tavern on Saturday, I had an idea for a light little SF tale, a bit of Picture of Dorian Gray meets Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I jotted it down in my idea file with the intention of back burnering it until after I’d finished up the other stuff I was working on. Well, the “catharsis” story is done and waiting for critique, but I still couldn’t get back into my Halloween tale. However, I’m 1500 words into my humorous SF ditty.

Sigh.

Ah well. The important thing is that the words flow. It’s irritating that they don’t always flow where I want them to, but at least they’re not bottlenecked behind some logjam.

I also wrote a 1000-word essay for the hell of it. Non-fiction is so much easier to write. I should start looking into more non-fiction markets, I suppose. They pay better and there’s a bigger demand for it. It’s just not where my interests lay. But it’s really so much easier. Argh.

In other news, Paul is coming down to visit next week for the traditional Foster Halloween fête. Hurray! And next week Nick will join him. And I still don’t have a costume. I think this weekend we need to make a trip out to Party City for some Halloweeny goodness.

Finished up my “catharsis” story and then went back in to cull. Managed to lop off around 1000 words, leaving it a nice, manageable 6500. Yay!

I’ve queued it up at Critters. I debated using an MPC, but I think I’d rather try to finish the Halloween story this week rather than mull over the critiques coming in.

According to my logs, this is the first story I’ve completed since early August–calculations based upon completion of zero draft, not finished product. Glah. That’s too much time. Way too much time.

But, looking at the big picture, I’m well within my goal of twelve short stories a year. This one makes my eleventh for 2002. Rah. Sort of.

Yesterday, Matthew and I did our part in getting money circulating into the economy. We bought a matching ottoman for our new couch! Yay! Okay, maybe not everyone finds the prospect of new furniture as exciting as I do. Moving right along . . .

We also went to the Shakespeare Tavern to see their late night play “Tales of Terror and Fancy.” They did a storyteller’s version of three shorts: “The Book of Blood” by Clive Barker, “The Happy Prince” by Oscar Wilde, and “Sikes and Nancy” by Charles Dickens. Very Halloweeny. I liked “The Happy Prince” the best. I’ve loved that fairy tale since I first read it as a wee lass, and Oscar Wilde is one of my favorite authors. “The Book of Blood” was nicely eerie. Clive Barker does a distinctive brand of horror that has great ambiance, although like a lot of writers, I think he’s extremely variable. I was less impressed by “Sikes and Nancy” as I thought it ran a bit long, but I’m not really big on Dickens, so that might account for it. It was still all very well done, an enjoyable show. And they’ve added sour cream coffee cake to their late night menu. Mmm.

This late night thing is new for the Shakespeare Tavern this season. Show time is 11 PM after a regular-timed play. The next one is another Wilde play, “Salome.” Again, one of my favorites. I’m curious to see how they’re going to do the Dance of the Seven Veils. “Partial nudity,” they warn in their write-up.

This week has been chock full of brisk days and chilly nights. I’ve gotten soft, my friends from the Midwest tell me. They’re already getting frozen precipitation. I’m not sure if they mean snow or hail; I’m afraid to ask. But I’ve started piling on the sweaters and pulling the covers up around my neck.

Hobkin’s loving it. With the house this cold, he’s gotten downright frisky, prone to tearing around doing “skunk laps” with his tail straight up behind him. Occasionally he stops to stomp whatever happens to get in his way–me, Matthew, the couch–before galloping off again. Absolutely adorable. He’s also picked up a few new tricks. He’s discovered how to pry the speaker covers (that cloth mesh stuff) off the big speakers in the living-room and how to sneak into the fish tank cabinet. The former problem we have temporarily resolved by tying the speakers with string. I suspect we will need to move them out of his reach. As for the latter, we need to move the fish tank+cabinet closer to the wall so he can’t squeeze in behind it, which is where he’s getting access. I keep expecting him to figure out how to open the refrigerator next, a talent that skunks are renown for.

We rented and watched Scooby-Doo last night. Surprisingly, it didn’t suck. Again, I probably would have felt less generous about the film if I’d seen it at the theater, but I guess I had lower expectations for this one, ’cause I actually enjoyed it. A pleasant surprise. And SMG continues to be a cutie.

Managed to crank out 1500 words on my catharsis story. My DC2K writers group decided at our chat to push the deadline back to the 21st on the Halloween story. So maybe after I finish the catharsis one, I can get back on track. However, 1500 more words is more than I had expected the other story needing. And it’s not done yet. I’ve written everything except the very apex of the climax so I know exactly how it’s going to go. I can almost taste finished story. But it’s at 7500 words.

I really didn’t think this concept merited 7500 words. Part of it, I console myself, is that the story is very heavy with dialogue, which bumps the word-count. But perhaps I got a bit self-indulgent in the graphically violent scenes. I definitely need to go in and see if I can’t do some chopping. But I think I’ll finish it first.

On a slight tangent, I got an email from a person I’d never met before who has been lurking at my journal and website. She has shared interests–a pet skunk, sci-fi, writing/reading–and is sad that I’ve gone friends only ’cause she doesn’t have an LJ and isn’t planning on starting one. But she also understands why I did it, and sympathizes. She just wanted to drop me a note of support and best wishes.

Sigh. I like meeting new people this way, dammit. It’s not fair that I have to put up with abuse if I want a public blog.

May all stalker’s have their eyeballs spontaneously combust and their hands rot off with gangrene. Actually, let’s just broaden the scope of my little curse there to “all assholes” and have done with it.

Okay, my brief foray into going caffeine-free has ended, dismally and with little fanfare.

After three steaming cups of Java last night:
4000 words on my “catharsis” story.
200 words–kicking and screaming and spitting in my face, on the Halloween story.

Woof.

I’m a better writer as a caffeine addict. Or, at least, a more prolific one. Sigh.

On an up note, I am within 1000 words of finishing a story (not, mind you, the one I have a deadline for), something I have been unable to do in more weeks than I’m comfortable speculating upon.

Buffy last night was . . . okay. It didn’t suck, although the ** Minor Spoiler Alert!** “Cassandra as the prophetess whom no one believed” has been done before. A lot. But it wasn’t all that memorable either. I think I’ll lump it into that selection of episodes that were fun, but not all that deep. Although I liked Cassie’s final words to both Buffy and Spike. The implication that Buffy did or would love Spike in the future was nicely titillating. Go, Spike! If I haven’t said this before, I’m an uber Spike fan. ** /Minor Spoiler Alert!**

And I got a note from the publisher of Planet Relish. I didn’t get the Fiction Editor position, but he said he’d like to keep my info on file for future openings. Apparently, the other candidate wrote more encouraging rejection letters than me. *Sigh* But I can only be so bummed about it. While it would have been lotso fun and fabu experience, it would have been a huge drain on my time, not to mention the no money part. Oh well. Maybe next turn of the wheel.

And the 15th has come and gone, and I haven’t heard a peep out of Phobos! Yesterday was when they were supposed to let us finalists know who made the final cut and who didn’t. I’ve checked their website (something like a hundred times yesterday) and checked all my writers groups/networks/boards ad nauseum, and no one’s said anything. And I’m thinking I would have gotten wind of something if there were any updates. I know two of the other finalists who frequent the Rumor Mill and a few of the others are friends with someone in my DC2K writers group. So I’m thinking that since the culling to the final twenty was late by about four days, it bumped this deadline by the same time frame. Maybe? Urg.

And so the waiting continues. Wah!

Yesterday we meant to go to the Fantasm director’s meeting. Apologies to yakdog et al. for missing it. Between one thing and another, we lost track of Sunday and by the time we realized “oh wait, wasn’t that supposed to be today?” it was too late. Bad Fosters. No Biscuit.

We did rent and watch the Scorpion King . Um. Again, I’m glad we didn’t pay to see this one at the theater. It was very Conan-esque. And, while both Matthew and I liked Conan, this just didn’t work for me. I think Matthew liked it better than I did. Scratch that. I’m sure Matthew liked it better than me. Guess I had a hard time getting over the questionable plot holes in the writing. The sorceress was lovely, though.

I believe it was J. Michael Stazinski who said that being a film director means that you will never be able to sit back and enjoy a movie ever again. You’ll forever be analyzing what’s happening, either criticizing it for its flaws, or trying to figure out why the parts that worked did. I’m feeling like that about the script writing whenever I watch movies or TV shows these days. I find myself going “Now that’s just awful. I could do better than that” or “Wow, that’s really inspired. What’s he/she doing that’s so right?”

New episode of Angel last night. Is it me, or is Joss’ Buffyverse getting a bit crowded? Vampires, demons, werewolves, and witches. Okay. Fine. **Minor Spoiler Alert!** But now we’ve got mutants? Between X-men, Mutant X, and now Birds of Prey, I’m getting a bit tired of the whole “meta human” thing. They’re certainly doing more with Fred’s character, though. I like that she’s such a dichotomy: frail and strong. But I’m worried they’re going overboard with her. I liked her best when she was a quirky thing with a hidden backbone of steel. Her burst of hysteria after Gunn’s brush with death, while understandable, didn’t feel right. **/Minor Spoiler Alert!**

On the writing front:
Argh! Maybe 100 words? The Halloween story is just jammed and does not want to come out. Part of it is that I’m waffling on styles. It starts out as a fairly traditional dark fantasy tale: an eldritch night, a spell, and fey folk. Then it turns into some fluffy YA thing. And now it’s metamorphosed into a horror story, complete with evisceration and gore. I need to finish something. I haven’t completed a story in weeks and weeks! *kicks muse*