I need Didi from the Jetsons
March 12th, 2010 at 1:50 pm by Himani

I’m pissed at my memory. When I was driving this morning, I managed to work out most of Chapter 26 of “Tayce” in my head. It worked well, it was dramatic, it was exactly what I wanted.

I often work scenes out in my head while I’m driving (don’t worry, I also drive ;) ). But, between driving, getting home, making myself breakfast, etc., etc. I forgot to write the scene down. You know how it is, you get into other things and you overestimate your ability to remember things. When I sat down in front of the computer, I tried to shuffle through my memory and found very little from my brainstorming left. Sure, I ended up with something good, acceptable, but not as great as what I was thinking this morning. :-|

I’ve decided what I need is something that will record all my musings. Something that’s hands free, that I don’t need to switch on and off, and doesn’t involve the embarrassment of hearing your own recorded voice. I need Didi, Judy’s digital diary from the Jetson’s…except, you know, with less backtalk and snarky replies. And maybe looking like something other than giant floating lips (it would be a little creepy to have ruby red lips floating towards you).

jetsons-judy-didi

I think I’ll add that to “inventions that would really help a writer” right after “completely waterproof laptop/netbook.” (hey! I know I’m not the only one who gets really good ideas in the bathtub!)

0
Tags: , , , , | Posted in Journal, Writing |
Ugh, I’m going back to bed
March 8th, 2010 at 9:08 am by Himani

I think I’m coming down with a cold. My throat feels like hamburger, but what’s worse is my ear aches too. I have to be careful that I don’t get an ear infection (I’m prone to those). I’m such a wimp when it comes to sore throats. :-| Give me stuffy noses and wet/dry coughs any day, but sore throats and I’m done.

I feel like I’ve been hit by a sack of wet oatmeal. I’m going back to bed after taking some Advils. See you in two hours. :-((

0
Tags: , , | Posted in Journal |
This is just embarrassing
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:49 pm by Himani

It’s stuff like this that creates the stereotype of “uneducated American hicks” and shows like Smarter than a Fifth Grader. Ugh, “What’s 9 meters in English?” *wince* Painful (but I’d also be lying if I said it wasn’t funny).

0
Tags: , , , , , | Posted in Randomness |
A Week Gone Impossibly Fast
February 26th, 2010 at 9:45 am by Himani

I don’t even know where the last week went. I can’t believe it’s Friday already. :o I’m desperately trying to finish the next two chapters of Tayce since I won’t have time this weekend, but it’s slow going, mostly because I had a horrible night’s sleep and my brain feels mushy inside my skull. Though, lately, I’ve been having really vivid, strange dreams. I’ve found that my creativity coincides with the time I have vivid dreams at night; it’s like my brain doesn’t shut off when I close my eyes, it wants to keep writing. Mom would say my brain is just going through “a bit of spring cleaning.” I actually like dreaming, some of the stuff my brain comes up with leaves me flabbergasted in the morning, wondering where the heck that came from (and no, I don’t usually have sexy dreams, unfortunately(?), usually it’s just really weird stuff like flying carpets and camping trips in the middle of my university and mysterious escalators and Green Men).

Anyhow, last week I’ve been listening to Faunts a lot, a band that John and I found through the Mass Effect video game. The ending credits song is “M4 Part II” by Faunts, and we loved the song so much we got the soundtrack. I then found the music video online and I got to say it’s pretty awesome. Kind of sad and full of crustacean blood, but still pretty awesome.

John and I now refer to the crab as “Flag Crab,” and we’ve decided we don’t care what the music video implies, Flag Crab is only sleeping at the end. ;)

0
Tags: , , | Posted in Journal, Writing |
Just a Quick Friday Post
February 19th, 2010 at 6:36 pm by Himani

Thought I’d quickly post, a quick “Hi!” as it were. I didn’t get a lot done today, yet it was a busy day. I spent a lot of it trying to outline “Tayce” and get my background information together and in one place. Along with some other chores (the list is long and boring). Anyway, I did find a great new song that I listened to while writing a pretty steamy scene in “Tayce.” I’m going to track it down on Amazon and see if I can buy the track.

And now, I’m off to read a chapter of IT (which is one of the few Stephen King novels that I love and tend to read again and again. And, it’s a story that always manages to creep me out big time. *shudder* Clowns) while my homemade guacamole cools. Then…yup, you guessed it. Champagne and the next 4 episodes of Supernatural. :grin:

0
Tags: , , | Posted in Journal |
A collection of Lolita covers
February 19th, 2010 at 9:26 am by Himani

A Flickr user set up a challenge: design a cover for Lolita. The result? 164 covers for a story all about pedophiliac love. Or, you know, whatever theme you want to argue. :P

Lolita Covers

Some of the covers are disturbing, some downright artistic, and some look like they were slapped together in five minutes using Adobe Photoshop and stock imagery. However, it is interesting to see what people think of when they think Lolita. I tried to pick a favorite and couldn’t, although this one might win for sheer “Eeew” factor.

0
Tags: , , | Posted in Books, Randomness |
If it’s romance, don’t skip the sex please
February 17th, 2010 at 1:33 pm by Himani

Maybe I just like my romance books smutty, or maybe I will freely admit that, to me, there’s little point of reading romance books unless there’s a sex scene or two. I mean, it’s not like they’re particularly unique as far as plot or characterization goes. There’s a few exceptions — just like in any genre — and I’m sure a lot of women have “that” romance book, the special one that holds a special place in their heart because it was the first or the best or something (for me, that’s A Patriot’s Heart by Stobie Piel. It was my first romance genre book. I still have the copy I bought), but lets be honest people.

Where am I going with this? I picked up a book by an author that I like, although I’m beginning to wonder why I like her. Her premises and ideas are awesome, but the execution always leaves me desiring more. When I picked up this book, it was a lesser known one. I didn’t even know she’d written a romance, but I decided to give it a try. Listen to this premise (in my words, cause I’m trying not to name names here) and tell me it doesn’t scream “romance genre”:

The main heroine is a librarian who, one day, witnesses a demon scarf down a child. After that, she vows to hunt the demon sucker down and manages to do just that by finding a treasure trove of demonology books in her library, making a sacred knife, and hunting the demon through the sewers. Unfortunately, making the knife and killing the demon causes a chain reaction of magic that not only piques the interest of the demon world, but the Order, a bunch of people who are fighting the good fight against demons to “keep humanity safe.” The Order sends two field agents to investigate, one is a hot, half-demon guy. Apparently, these half-demons will bond to one mate, to the point of getting rather territorial. Except the Order doesn’t allow their half-demons to bond. Oh, yes, and the demons want to sacrifice the heroine and use her blood to rend open a hole in to the demon world.

I’m sure you can guess where this is going. The amount of times it’s mentioned that hot, half-demon guy just wants to “drag her to bed” and do a lot of bonding (if ya get what I mean and I think ya do ;) ), I was waiting with baited breath. Because, well, he was hot.

…And then the book ended sans lots of bedroom-bonding. WTF? I thought. All that build-up?! Damn tease! Sure, everyone survived. The dude I knew from page 20 was going to betray everyone betrayed everyone. The fight between demons-trying-to-sacrifice-heroine and main characters lasted a page or two (there wasn’t even an epic last battle, just an escape), and suddenly we’ve got an epilogue with the mention of meeting the folks and marriage…and no sex.

So if any romance genre author is reading this, please don’t tease the poor reader. If you’re going to go on and on about how hot-broad-shouldered-conflicted-hero really wants to drag heroine to the bedroom multiple times, then deliver on the goods.

Nobody likes a tease.

1
Tags: , , , , | Posted in Books, Journal, Writing |
The mysterious world of semicolons
February 12th, 2010 at 2:41 pm by Himani

LOLZ and Learn-alicious!

I found this comic through Inky Girl. It’s great, I made a note about it for when I actually find a teaching position and have to teach a semicolon lesson. Not only is it a good lesson but it’s amusing to boot. I mean, how can you go wrong with example sentences like, "The ice cream truck man drove by my house today; he had big hairy knuckles" or "I gnaw on old car tires; it strengthens my jaw so I'll be better conditioned for bear combat"? :grin:

I’m going to have to explore this website more, there’s other pages that look like they’ll provide an afternoon of amusement. But, I’m off to the gym and then I have to finish writing a sex scene and then go to movie night with a friend (Disk 3 of Season 1 of Supernatural the TV Show! With champagne! I can’t wait! :love: )

1
Tags: , , | Posted in Journal, Randomness, Writing |
Using Macros to find specific word occurrences
February 10th, 2010 at 8:43 pm by Himani

Recently I found two useful macros that count word occurrences. I had been wondering how many times I used a specific word in my story, then realized there was no way in Word to check this. Installing these two macros was fast and easy (once, I figured out how to install macros on Word ;) ) and they create interesting reports on word occurrences in your document.

I’ve been playing around with both macros to much amusement. It’s handy for writing; for example, I’ve checked to see how many times I’ve used certain adverbs, ones I definitely want to cut down on, like “loudly” or “softly.” If the number is high, I know it’s something I need to work on in editing. Using the macros, along with something like AutoCrit provides a good “map” of one’s writing and gives a good indication of things that need to be changed or worked on in the editing phase.

For those who, like me, had never tinkered with macros in Word, here’s a quick tutorial on how to get these word occurrence macros up and working:

Read the rest of this entry »

1
Tags: , , , , | Posted in Tips Tricks Tools, Writing |
Note to self: in future, don’t create a character who doesn’t curse…
February 6th, 2010 at 2:57 pm by Himani

…especially when you, yourself, tend to curse like a sailor when in pain or frustrated.

I never knew it would be so difficult to write dialog when a character doesn’t curse. I think the worst thing Tayce has said so far is “goddamn” and “hell.” That’s not because she’s prudish, it’s just not something that she naturally falls back on to voice her frustrations (like I’m known to do :P). After all, the character was born in Victorian times, when nearly everything even remotely scandalous would equal “there are ladies present!”

Although, I shouldn’t say it’s difficult, it’s just annoying at times because my gut-reaction is: In that situation, a lot of people would lay down the F-bomb. I know I would. And by Tayce not cursing, it seems to draw attention to the fact that she’s…well, not cursing.

Or maybe I’m over-thinking it? This is a possibility, I have been doing that a lot lately.

2
Tags: , | Posted in Writing |
« Older Entries