A few days ago, I joined the Online Writing Workship for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. Yes, it is quite a mouthful, but I liked the structure for it better than I liked Critters. Thanks to jpsorrow for mentioning the workshop in a post a few weeks ago. I've done a couple of reviews now, building up my points and stalling on subbing anything to the group.

I stopped stalling last night and put the first chapter of OAL out there. This morning, it has a review - excuse me, just rechecked - two reviews. I'm definitely not looking at them this morning - I'd rather keep a clear mind while I'm out on the route. And, well, I'm nervous as all get out about reading them.

I know, I know, the worst can happen is they don't like it and tell me where it can be made better. I've still got stagefright.

Tags: gabby, oal, writing

I've spent the last week glaring at the MS for Scythe and Poppy. Miniscule progress if any. (I am amused to note Firefox's spelling dictionary doesn't know the word 'miniscule.') For me, this indicates there's a problem with the scene I'm writing - something inherently wrong with it. Last night, I talked it over with Joy and figured it out. The scene didn't advance the major plot in anyway, bogged it down and prevented progression, actually. So, the whole chapter's gotta go and the one before it needs some minor modification. The final solution: I needed a humiliation element for the plot and I found one in my research. Yes, the whole "torture your characters" thing works.

However, I pretty much wasted the last week muttering "write through the difficult parts and fix it in post" mantra to myself. For me, it's the wrong solution. If the scene won't play, that's my clue I'm on the wrong track. I need to remember that as I'm still discovering my writing process. It's different for each of us (which is why I don't get into the outliner vs. pantser debate) and there are still bugs in mine. Once I've ironed out the bugs, I'll be running on flat bugs.

Tags: addy, scythe and poppy, writing

Oak, Ash, and Lilac - Being submitted to agents. So far, no interest.
Serpents - In revision.
Scythe and Poppy - Rough draft approaching 20K words. So, it's about 25% done.
Aedyll: The Girl with the Centaur Braid - Resting.
Aedyll: The Boy with the Goblin Sword - Being outlined.

And I had another idea for a novel yesterday while delivering the route. So, I'm adding Tarry Not to the project list . . . somewhere . . . this list is kinda long.

Tags: addy, aedyll, gabby, oal, writing

1) To the person who decided to run the Palmolive mailing with the samples inside through the DPS machines: NOT your brightest idea ever. But my LLV smells nice now.

2) Conversation snippet from Isaac:

Me: Are you being contrary?

Isaac: No.

Tags: isaac, post office

Like afraclose , I succumbed to the pressure and recently got a Facebook page. It seemed like half our church was on there anyway. Almost immediately, I found several folks from HS I haven't seen since shortly after graduation. Kinda nice to see familiar faces.

I've been reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Pretty bleak stuff, thus far. I may not finish it and not because it's not well written. There's only so much unrelenting gloom I can take. I keep craving something sweet and light whenever I read it.

Oh, and I've replaced the words I cut from Scythe and Poppy, so I'm ahead again on it.

Tags: scythe and poppy, the reading list

Intrepid editor missy_chan continues working her way through OAL for me. I need to do some work on a particular section of chapter 3 and the fresh set of eyes has really helped!

Meanwhile, I've made some progress on S&P . . . but I'm about to go backwards on it. The scene I've been working on isn't working and the problem is a character I'm trying to introduce. She refuses to develop a personality and I'm thinking she's really only meant to be an walk on part near the end of the book. So, cutting a few hundred words out to get the scene restarted doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

Joy tells me that last week, while driving by the credit union, Zac looked out the window and pointed to the bank sign. "Credit?" he said. "Credits!" Why is this amazing? Well, first, we never call it the credit union, we call it the bank. So, the only way he could have known the word 'credit' was there was to read it. He's three and a half. I figure he's pull my trick of teaching himself to read. A big thank you to Children's Television Workshop and PBS for this one. Were it not for their websites, he'd be stuck with was Sesame Street videos we could find. As it is, he watches clips from the show whenever he gets computer time. I should note that some of these clips are the same ones I watched as a kid.

Elizabeth's latest trick is sitting in the kitchen floor and spinning herself in circles. She finds this great fun and it's funny to watch, too.

Tags: elizabeth, isaac, oal, scythe and poppy

I want to say it was December when I found an article about companies that had already succumbed to the recession. We all knew about Circuit City, KB Toys, and Mervyn's. Some of the companies on the list surprised me - Mother's Cookies in particular.


If you don't know what these are, you can't possibly understand the cry of anguish I let out. These are Mother's Cookie's Circus Animals. They're basically animal cookies with icing and nonpareils and they've been a childhood favorite of mine . . . and just about every other kid growing up wherever Mother's Cookies were sold.

ClothMoth Clothing + Kindness even did a tribute t-shirt showing the cookies with the caption "Lights down, Little cookies."

However, someone at Kellogg's saw an opportunity and the company bought out the Mother's brand along with all their formulas. The result? I have a full bag of Circus Animals in the pantry. So, big thanks to Kellogg's for rescuing a part of my childhood. Oh, I know the folks at "Eat This, Not That" would have a heart attack over the nutritional information. Read my lips: :P

Keebler has started producing a clone of these cookies. They aren't the same. They're not as good. Stick to fudge cookies, Ernie, it's what you're good at.

Tags: childhood, food

Monday evening, our AC stopped working. We've had problems with it for the last few years - mostly freezing up. Now, the main reason AC units freeze is because they're low on coolant, but the tech I called out to inspect the system last year swore it was fully charged. Anyway, Joy noticed the air coming from the vents wasn't cold in any sense of Webster's definition - except maybe "cold day in Hell." We open up the house Monday night and bugged out to Mom's in the morning to hunt for a new AC company.

No one could get a tech out to us until Wednesday. But, the main problem turned out to be a fried wire on the external unit and - Holy Obvious Plot Point, Batman! - extremely low coolant levels.

The AC ran for ten hours continuously yesterday bringing the house back down to a decent temperature and never once showed any ice on the coils.

Last week, signs appeared on the main road I use leaving out neighborhood warning of construction. Maricopa County's Department of Transportation (Yes, MCDOT - go ahead, laugh - I think it's funny, too) planned on repaving the road. For those unfamiliar with the definition of "repaving the road" in the Arizona desert, you can just read "cracking windshields and wedging warm asphalt into the tread of your tires." They're pretty much the same thing here. Further, the signs indicated this would continue until August. Yes, my normal route was about to be nasty for almost two months. I changed my route.

Two nights ago, I forgot about the construction and went my normal way.

The road's done. Smooth arrow-straight blacktop stretching into the distance, white and yellow lines blazing in the desert sun. All I can say is: I guess August comes early on MCDOT's calendar.

Tags: stranger than fiction

Yesterday, I spent a highly productive day curled up in bed trying to keep down what little water and Gatorade my stomach would tolerate. I don't get truly sick often, but when I do, it's like getting hit with a ton of bricks. I'm not the whiny type when I get ill - I just put myself to bed and sleep it off as best I can. I'm spending today re-hydrating myself.

However, one good thing from yesterday, I got to watch Elizabeth crawl her way from one side of the living room to where I was sitting on the floor. It took her half an hour to make it, but she investigated all the toys along the way.

Now, regarding the unplaced scene I mentioned in the title: For several years, I've had a particular scene kicking around in my head, but no story for it. Two night ago, while running music for our VBS program, it claimed it's place - in Aedyll. One character in the scene changed, but other than that, it's a seamless integration. (And the character who changed was always kinda fuzzy to start with.)

Tags: aedyll, elizabeth, sicksicksick