Category Archives: Blog

I like science and writing. Duh.

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Attended the third of three mandatory unemployment workshops yesterday. The theme was “Occupational Choices” with a focus on identifying what sort of work and what sort of working environments you’re best suited for. They gave out a little test that asked you if you liked, disliked, or were ambivalent about 180 jobs/work activities, and based on your answers you got scored on six classifications: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. I scored high in “Investigative” (i.e. science and research) followed closely by “Artistic” (i.e. creative writing and editing), and then trailing a bit behind them, “Conventional” (i.e. programming and systems analysis). Well, duh. That was a complete waste of three hours.

On a much more worthwhile note, jim0052 is exploring the concept of found poetry–“the notion that poetry can often be found unconsciously lurking in people’s everyday prose”–which is pretty damn neat. Even spiffier, he made one of my recent LJ posts into a poem! Is that not the coolest?


Writing Stuff

Spent the evening laboriously reworking the obsession short story. Added the beginning scene, revamped the personality of the secondary character, and modified the ending, which brought back in the speculative element. Whew. Did pass after pass, and then, sick to death of it, I sent it out. Yep, I skipped the critique step and just lobbed it out the door. I suspect I will regret that in the not too distant future. At which point, I’ll toss it up to Critters. But the way I figured it, there’s still another week to go on this batch, and I’m hoping to have a folktale up for critique next, which means a good several weeks before I could get this story into the queue. May as well hurl it a someone during that time. Hmm, I might be getting a bit cavalier on the marketing front . . .

Next up, I can either finish the rewrite I’ve been poking at, or roll up my sleeves and get to work on the new folktale. Well, Muse, whatcha wanna do?

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Blood-sucking bitey bugs

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Went blackberry picking again yesterday, and the mosquitoes honed in on me as soon as I stepped foot outside. They know, somehow, that I’m particularly sensitive to their nips; if they prick me even for just a second before I smack ’em, I swell up into huge hives. They know this and out of sadistic glee, flock to me. I got half a dozen bites and was out for less time than fosteronfilm and they only nailed him once or twice. *grumble grumble itch*


Writing Stuff

I figured out what the new scene needed to be, as well as where it should go: at the beginning. Brilliant. *facepalm* I also figured out that the way to bring out the protagonist’s motive is to have him address the audience, narratively. Rah. Several editing passes and now I’m sick of looking at it. Want to do a couple more before I put it down, but I’m already dwelling on my folktale notes. Must. Focus. One thing at a time, dammit.

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Firefly–not the Joss Whedon variety.

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I saw my first firefly of the year last night! There were tiny golden flashes coming from our Faerie circle in the backyard. Glowbugs don’t seem as commonplace down here as they were in the Midwest. I wonder if that’s actually the case, or if I simply don’t see them as much because I don’t spend as much time running around outside after dark as I did when I was a little girl.


Writing Stuff

Oof. Publishing karma giveth, and it smacketh me on the head.

Received:
26-day “enjoyed it but . . .” from Aeon with invite to submit again. Fooie. All the cool kids are getting published in Aeon; I wanna get published there too! *whine*
90-day pass from the McElderberry imprint of Simon & Schuster on my middle-grade novel. The novel rejects are hitting me harder and harder. The editor had nice things to say, but a “no” is feeling pretty much like a thwack in the gut, regardless of how nicely it’s phrased. Where did I put my skin thickener?

There’s still another week for this batch up at Critters and I am totally inundated by crits. I am very, very behind on my thank you notes, and I’m ready for the flood of feedback to stop so I can finish my rewrite. Gleep. An embarrassment of riches. But, on an up note, it’s been extremely well received.

New Words: 900
Short story ground to “the end,” and I’m supremely dissatisfied with it. It didn’t go where I thought it was going to, and for a dark tale of obsession, it’s downright subdued. Not to mention my speculative element fizzled into virtual non-existence. It’s coming in at 3K, so I’ve got plenty of room to grow it, but I’ve been spinning my wheels. I think it needs a really pivotal scene that it’s currently missing, but I don’t know what that scene might be. Matthew first readered it and his main comment was: “Err, what were you trying to do with this one?” Which pretty much confirms that it’s unfocused and I lost control of it in there . . . somewhere. So frustrating! Bad story. No biscuit.

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Tagged again!

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I ducked, I dodged, but amberdine tackled me, fair and square. I have been tagged.

List 5 reasons why you are a geek. And make them good reasons. Justify them. Explain them. Be loud and proud about how big of a geek you are! Then pick the 5 biggest geeks you know and have them do the meme.

1. I think men in stormtrooper uniforms, tights, cloaks, chainmail, and fangs (not necessarily all at the same time) are sexy. Even better if they can also quote scenes from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and use “grok” in a sentence. Likewise, men who can tear duct tape without using a knife, can set up a computer network from scratch, and who sew their own costumes turn me on.

2. The idea of a weekend long D&D gaming marathon makes me happy.

3. An afternoon spent at the Office Depot, spending a $20 gift card, is my idea of a fun outing. I like fondling Sharpie markers and went “squee” when fosteronfilm got me a USB flash drive for Christmas.

4. Editing is teh fun. I have grammatical pet peeves and become insufferably smug when I eradicate (someone else’s) tyops.

5. I went to a high school where the only winning teams were chess and math club. It also didn’t even have (and still doesn’t have, and probably never will have) a football team, although it routinely earns the distinction of the school with the highest class average ACT scores in the country. Go, Uni!

There are far too many geeks on my flist to pick five. Do the meme if it floats your socks, I sez.

And, for Monday fun, check out The Brick Testament, Bible stories illustrated with Legos. (Link ganked from the lovely and talented patricia_kirby.) And for something more secular, the award-winning “Blade of the Bunny” by dsnight, again illustrated with Legos. (Monday’s theme?)

Feeling much better today. Yesterday’s sale was just the thing to perk me right up. I’m such a sales junkie.


Writing Stuff

Started a new short story, a dark thing. It promises to be longer than flash, but relatively short. I’m hoping less than 4K.

New Words: 1000

Club 100 For Writers
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French convergence

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Still wrestling with my brain. It is unrepentant and surly. Did not go the caffeine route since it was so ineffective yesterday, which resulted in a midday nap. When I woke up, we watched Immortel (ad vitam), a collaboration between Japanese and French filmmakers that was totally shot green screen. I’ve heard that it was the very first completely green screen movie, but I understand there’s some argument about that. Regardless, it was very strange and very beautiful. The storyline was baffling, and there seemed to be no attempt to explain any of the questions the movie poised–which, if you think about it is pretty much what you’d expect if you fused a French movie with a Japanese one–but it was gorgeous, full of lush imagery and fanciful characters. I liked it.


Writing Stuff

Woohoo! I sold French reprint rights of “The Storyteller’s Wife” to Faeries, a French fantasy magazine. It’s slated for either the September or November issue. My first French language publication!

fosteronfilm first readered my two flash stories, although he was at something of a loss with both of them. I don’t think he knows what to do with something so short. He liked them both, he said, which works for me. Spent much of yesterday’s writing time polishing them up: editing, rewriting, and tightening. Then debated whether I wanted to upload them to Critters. Decided not to. I don’t usually run my flash through the critique gauntlet and these, coming in at about 1K, were on the edge, but still too short. Printed them out, prepared submission packages, and will mail them tomorrow, which brings the number of new works I have in circulation back above thirty again.

Club 100 For Writers
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Moody foo

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Woke up feeling rather on the crappy side of things, emotionally. No reason. Just the vagaries of my chemical system. I know the Prozac needs to take a while to build up before it kicks in. Obviously, it hasn’t yet. I tried to self-medicate with copious caffeine, but it didn’t help. Instead I ended up feeling jittery as well as depressed. Lovely.


Writing Stuff

Channeled my vile mood into my writing. Apparently my muse was feeling goth, because she just ate up my blue funk. Good for her. I wasn’t up to picking up any of my WIPs–deficient attention span to go with my grim emotional state–so I did some flash. That worked surprisingly well. I actually started and completed two <1K pieces. Cathartic success. Twisted little things, the both of them. I handed one over to fosteronfilm to first reader. The second one I think needs a tweak or two at the end to punch it up before I show it to him.

I may feel like a cement mixer rolled over my soul, but at least it’s pumping ye olde writing bellows. Yay?

New Words: 2000

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Serenity Preview – Spoiler-free

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fosteronfilm and I began our Serenity experience by having dinner at Little Szechewan with our host, Steve Eley (the man behind Escape Pod), his wife Anna, little baby Alex Eley, and a cadre of other eager Firefly fans. The food was excellent and copious–so copious that our boxed leftovers promise to be enough food for another meal. And the company was wonderful. I’m hoping we get to hang with these fine folks again soon as I enjoyed myself immensely.

And then it was off to the theater to stand in line for an hour and a half with other eager Serenity-goers, including one lass who was hoping to get a spare ticket–willing to sing and barter artwork (and, of course, cash) for the privilege. I’m happy to report that her ticket quest was successful, although if she had to serenade someone to get it, I missed the performance. Someone also ordered a pizza in line, resulting in a perplexed pizza-delivery guy. But eventually, pizza and hungry line-stander were united.

As far as the movie goes, go see it as soon as it comes out! It was really good. Not as good as the best episodes of Firefly, but better than the mean, which is pretty damn good on the entertainment scale. Everything in the movie is bigger and shinier than the TV series, and Joss Whedon’s dialogue, especially in the opening scenes, is nothing short of genius. And the fights! Joss’s choreography a la Buffy and Angel has always been amazing, but what he did for Serenity with River . . . It was a thing of beauty and awesome to behold. I have tons more to comment upon and geek about, but the content of my effusive gushing, and yes, a few railings, contain mongo-ass spoilers. So that’s all I’m going to say.

If you want to read more about the preview screening, check out fosteronfilm‘s review.

Many thanks to Steve for sponsoring the trivia contest which allowed us to partake of the preview experience. If you haven’t yet, go check out Escape Pod and download some SF podcasty goodness as well as Steve’s very funny Serenity review.

And, while I’m in full plug mode, go take the MIT weblog survey:
Take the MIT Weblog Survey

Tagged!

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I’ve ducked, dodged, and hidden. But alas, I have, at long last, been tagged by the fleet and agile nmsunbear.

List your current six favorite songs, then pick six other people that have to do the same…

1. “Montagues and Capulets” by Sergei Prokofiev (part of the Romeo & Juliet ballet suite).
2. “The Peach Yard” a guqin solo.
3. “Eurydice” by the Cruxshadows.
4. “All Souls Night” by Loreena McKennitt
5. “Ain’t No Sunshine” performed by Sting
6. “The Sounds of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel

Tag! You’re it!
britzkrieg
rigel_kent
keesa_renee
jackzodiac
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jinzi