Wynderlon

So, I was explaining to John the extensive list of edits on The Blood Queen I’ve made so far, most of which he replied with “uh huh.” He hasn’t read the book yet, and only knows that it’s an urban fantasy and there’s vampires. Anyway, I went down the long list and at the end, I said:

“Oh, and I edited the sex scene a little…just edited, though. I didn’t try to increase the length or anything!” Eh? Get it? Get it? *elbow nudge* (John’s reply was to groan and say, “I didn’t hear that.” Never did appreciate a good pun.)

I’m still snickering. I don’t care, I think I’m funny.

I have to wonder what Jane Austen would say if she traveled to the modern era only to find she’s been nearly deified as an author of wild talents; her book Pride & Prejudice adapted multiple times for the screen (as well as many others); a movie about her life taken from letters and conjecture; books by subsequent authors creating sequels to her worlds (some good, some involving Mr. Darcy turning into a vampire *gag*); finding that Elizabeth Bennet has been turned into a zombie hunter; realizing that her [supposed] hair is being auctioned off…

And perhaps most overwhelming: that her characters, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy have become the example of the perfect couple for hundreds, if not thousands, of women and probably quite a few men.

What would that be like? Especially for someone who had to struggle to even get her name on her own work without people disbelieving that she wrote it. Probably better we’ll never find out, she may just keel over from the shock of it. But I’d like to think she’d say something incredibly witty and go off to take a vacation in Bath.

I went to my favorite used bookstore. I had won $5 store credit there a while ago and was ready to spend it (I got Tanya Huff’s The Enchanted Emporium). Anyway, the guy at the front desk was awesome. He would say in this deep baritone sing-song voice, “I am free for the next in line!” When I was paying he said, “I have a special task for you. You have to think ‘let there be rain!’ all day.”

I replied, “Trust me, I’ve been thinking about that all week.”

He gave me a beautiful smile as he put my book in a bag and told me to have a lovely day. I walked out of the store feeling happier than when I had entered it and thought how nice it was to meet kind people.

Yesterday I drove out to S.’s house for our critique group meeting. The views to her house are beautiful. Despite the horrific heat that makes me feel like I’m being baked alive, this time is one of the most beautiful because it’s also one of the few times in the year when there’s big, fluffy clouds in the sky. Pair that with the desert landscape, ringed with mountains, and it really can be breath taking.

During my drive, the sun was setting and I had to pull of the road for a moment to enjoy the view.

Taken on my cell phone camera, so it's not a great picture, but still the colors!

On the way back, the odometer of my faithful Saturn turned to 100k. Honestly, this is the first time a car of mine has hit 100k (well, I’ve owned two cars, but since the first was stolen, I don’t really count that) and a part of me was worried it would just break down the moment the numbers rolled over. It worries me a little, considering that I now have a job 75 miles away and will be commuting quite a lot. I hope the Saturn will be able to take it.

Don’t worry, I didn’t take the picture while I was driving.

Ugh, I’ve been so unproductive over July 4th weekend that I’m dreading my work load over the next few days. I just have so much to do! I’m exhausted too; didn’t sleep a wink last night. I’m so exhausted that it took me two attempts to sing the “ABC” song to figure out where “V” is on the alphabet. Yeah, I felt dumb. The first time I skipped “R” and had to slow down so my befuddled, sleep deprived, caffeine starved brain could keep up.

I spent a good portion of the day having lunch with a friend and then walking around Barnes & Nobles afterwards instead of…you got it, editing. So, now, I’m playing catch-up this evening. I hate editing in the evenings since that’s when John’s home and it’s harder to concentrate with someone else puttering around, especially in an apartment. In the mornings and afternoons, the apartment is blissfully quiet and I can really concentrate (although I often have to leave because while the house is empty, there’s all kinds of things to do there, like catch up on my DVR recordings, clean, my various arts & crafts, reading, playing video games, etc. — just to name a few).

Blah, I can’t even concentrate on this blog post. I’m going to pour myself another cup of raspberry lemonade, read for a little while, then start editing The Blood Queen.

Critique Group John is moving away, so we had a goodbye dinner at a Mexican restaurant. It was nice to see him again, since he’s been “taking a break” from the critique group for about 6 months. This leaves just three active members in our critique group, all of them women, two are erotica writers, one (me) an action-adventure writer (currently writing urban fantasy). I think we were all hoping to tempt Critique Group John back, since he was our remaining male perspective. I’ve been meaning to do some recruiting, but just haven’t had the time. Critique Group John, probably now that he has no worries about offending anyone, talked candidly about the structure of our group and I couldn’t help but agree with most of what he said — in fact, I’d broached similar concerns often.

The problem with critique groups is it’s a bunch of people trying to find the same schedules to work on creative material. Unless all of you are in the same place with that creativity, then you’re going to have problems. When I mean “the same place,” I don’t mean talent-wise, I mean with where you see yourself with your writing. Is it a hobby? Are you doing it for eventual publication? How seriously do you take it? And of course, on top of that, how well do you take direction? How much time can you put into critiquing? A lot of the time, it seems very few people in our group had serious plans for publication, and then there’s been a few people (luckily all gone now) that have been unable to take critique direction.¹

Critique Group John also talked about our one-chapter-every-two-weeks format, which is also something I’ve had problems with. It’s very hard to get through a novel when you’re sending two chapters a month (and when we had eight members, that number dropped to one chapter a month). After all, that means for an average 80,000 word novel, with every chapter being…oh, say 4,000 words, you’re looking at finishing the last chapter of that novel 10 months later (20 months if you’re just sending in one chapter). For a lot of us, that means the novel has completely changed by the time the group reads the end. Or, it means that the group has difficulty remembering some of the finer details that happened in the beginning. For my own novel, I had a quick “outline guide” ready. Granted, after all this chapter-by-chapter critiquing, there’s the beta read at the end. That’s a whole novel critique instead of line-by-line edits. The beta read is to look at the overall picture, point out things like characterization and weak plot points. But, sometimes I wonder whether it wouldn’t be better to just do a beta read from the get go?

It was pointed out that submitting it chapter-by-chapter makes one stick to a writing schedule. I can’t deny that I’ve often used the excuse “Well, I have to send something into the group” as a way to produce something when I’m particularly busy. However, many professional authors will tell you that the way to become a writer is discipline. Write every day,² much like people say “20 minutes of movement/activity/exercising a day.” I try to do both — exercise and write. And, at the risk of sounding snobby, if you’re serious about writing for publication, you really should be writing more than 4,000-or-so words every 10 days.

However, in the end, we didn’t come up with an answer to Critique Group John’s concerns, or our own. The critique group will continue as it has always continued, and I know that our current schedule tempts newcomers easier than my secret preference³ not that I’m complaining. I think I’ll be very happy for the one-chapter-every-two-weeks process when I start my new job.⁴

The holiday has always held a special place in my heart because it was one of the few holidays my family used to do anything for. We’d never been a very “celebrate-y” family, so the fact my father would pile us all into the car and head over to the capital where we’d stand waiting for the show to begin was a big deal. As a result, I’m one of the lucky people that can say they’ve seen a fireworks show within spitting distance.

However, like all good things, it eventually came to an end and so when I got my driver’s license, I began going to fireworks shows myself. Perhaps it was fitting that this first step of freedom was used to celebrate America’s Independence Day? Or maybe I’m waxing poetic for no reason? Anyway, one of John and my first dates were actually spent on a picnic blanket next to a man-made lake watching the fireworks. I remember we had found a spot next to the train bridge and the train had stopped to also watch the fireworks with the crowd. When the show finished, it blew its horn and everyone cheered.

This year, although John and I couldn’t see the fireworks together, we saw the same ones at different locations. I went to S.’s house and had a wonderful meal. Her backyard is huge — it can probably fit my entire apartment with room  to spare — and from this vantage point that overlooks the city, we saw the fireworks. Maybe not within spitting distance, but still a marvelous time.

When I think of the 4th of July, I have a lot of wonderful memories.

If you celebrate Independence Day, I hope yours was filled with good food, good people, and a good show.

I spent my afternoon at a local coffee shop which is co-owned by a friend of mine and John’s, David2 (since I know so many Davids…). There are definite pluses to knowing someone who co-owns a coffee shop, mostly in the form of a free cup of coffee. I don’t know if I can keep milking this connection of mine, but I intend to go back. The place has huge windows, something I always love, and instead of the usual crowd of loud soccer moms with their frolicking children, there were quiet students. *blissful sigh* This may be the start of a beautiful relationship.

Like the photo? Notice all the red pen and pink highlighter on that page (yes, an actual page from The Blood Queen, in case you were starting to think the book was all in my mind)? Today was a tough day of editing, mostly because I had to rewrite 90% of a scene, which means I got a lot of editing done but not much page count. I’m going to keep going this evening, then end the day with a trip to the gym.

My brain feels pretty mushy right now. Near the end, before I had to pack it in and pick up John, I started getting distracted. Then I noticed the albino pigeon…staring at me through the side door (I was at the table closest to it)…watching. We had a staring contest. I won, a fact I boasted to John through text message.

His answer? “While dubiously impressive, get back to editing.” Ah, now that’s love.

(Tried to take a picture of the pigeon, but it flew away)

Yeah, I’ve been busy. I got a new job, which starts in a month and a few days, so I’m preparing myself for that. I’m also feverishly, fiendishly, desperately trying to meet my deadline for edits with The Blood Queen. I’m sending it to my beta readers (my lovely critique group, as well as some other wonderful volunteer individuals) by July 9th, but that means I’ve got a horrific 35-pages-a-day editing schedule (40 is even better). (Okay, I know some people out there are probably going, “What? 35 pages a day? Does someone want the whaaa-mbulence?” To these people I say…”Want to edit my book for free?” )

Anyway, that is my life in one glorious nutshell. I haven’t done anything really interesting. And besides a terrifying nightmare I had last night that involved a baby doll that came to life and crawled over my face while cooing “Ma-ma, ma-ma” in a creepy little kid’s voice, I have nothing much to report. Hopefully that’ll change in the next few days as my editing starts reaching the hilt. Who knows? Maybe I’ll go crazy and make a blog post where I say “I am a fish” over and over again, or maybe “I am the lizard queen!” Although I think if I’m going to go insane, it’ll probably be around mid-August when the new job “honeymoon period” should wear off.

ANYWAY, since there’s not much to say…have a music video!

I really like this song. And I think I like the music video too. There’s a frenzied feeling to it that I think illustrates what I’m feeling a lot of the time.

All I want to do is finish the edits for The Blood Queen, but my muse keeps throwing ideas at me like mashed potatoes in a food fight. My story idea folder is getting rather fat, let me tell you, and the sad thing is I don’t know when I’ll have the time to work on anything in there. I’m already jotting down ideas for the second book in the Tayce series. I tried to tell my muse to shut up…but she promptly bitch-slapped me. I think we all know who the boss is (I showed her…yeah).

I whimpered about losing in a fight to my muse to my very good writer friend, S., who told me that she’s been having similar problems. I think there’s a muse union somewhere and they get together over Frappachinos and chortle about how to make life difficult. Although S. mentioned her story involved hot firefighters and I can always go for a guilty pleasure read that involves hot firefighters. Maybe S. needs to weaken, after all, doesn’t the muse know best?

Don’t worry, I’ve been good with my editing. I managed to get quite a lot done today. If I buckle down and get into the editing “zone,” I’m actually quite good at zooming through editing, but getting into that zone is a chore. Oh, and sometime soon I need to upload some of my pics from Phoenix Comicon.

In other news, I’d just like to say to the shockingly huge amount of spambots that have been trolling my site lately: F-you. I will not approve your comment, no matter how much it may mimic real people speak. I see the URLs, I notice that they all go to BuyMyUselessCrap.com or whatever. If there are real people behind those annoying spam comments, please think of my poor bleeding eyeballs and overtaxed Askimet and stop posting. Real comments make me shiver with pleasure, but you spambots make me wanna kick something.