Blog Musings

This blog will be on hiatus this month as I consider how best to manage it and what it will be about.  It needs to be reinvented.  As you can tell, I've had many ideas, but few of those have I stuck with.  I need to decide what this blog is about, and that will take time, especially as I take on other tasks during this last quarter of the year.  So, please bear with me while I do some blog musing.

Thanks,
Jodi

New Paths, New Blog

I haven't been writing fiction much lately because I have been working some things out.  As my writing-related dreams go down different paths, so too must my blogs.  I will be working on separating out my fiction from this blog.  The new home is Weirding Out Fiction.  Once I get both blogs tweaked, I'll let you know my thoughts about my fiction and other things.  For now, bear with me, please, as some things get moved about.  Thanks!

Blog Notice

You might have noticed I didn't post a snippet yesterday, Sunday.  The reason was I was sick.  Although I'm knocking back the Zicam cold melts, I don't foresee being up to par by Wednesday.  So, the Wednesday post will be skipped this week.  Hopefully, I'll be ready with a new Roderis/Letters of the Dead snippet on Sunday, though.

Update on Publishing Goals

I had intended to get Letters of the Dead's grammar edits done this week, but I ran into a chapter that needs a little more help, and it affects other chapters.  So, as nanowrimo and November nears, I've decided to make some changes.

1. I am pushing LotD's go live date to early January.  I will continue editing on it during nano time.
2. I am going to proof the One Who Sees novelette tomorrow and work on its formatting and such this weekend.  I will continue editing on it during nano time.  My goal is to have it go live early December.

I still plan on posting the first few chapters of LOTD on Sundays.  I even know a good point to leave it off on, for it's kinda hooky.  Also, I still want to post OWS on the blog, but I'm no longer sure if I will post the entire piece on the blog for a week before it is published or just post a good chunk and leave it up.  I'm leaning toward the last option.

Anyway, I am a little disappointed that I can't reach my original goals, but I'm certain this will work out.

Update: One Who Sees

It is official.  I have pulled One Who Sees, my mythic fantasy novella; it will not be published with Drollerie Press after all.  I have mixed feelings about it, but we parted on good terms, so there is that.  But I am behind schedule on Letters of the Dead, my first short fantasy novel that I plan to self-e-publish.  So, I cannot work on OWS yet.  It still needs one edit pass, a proof, formatting into ebook with cover, and one final look-see-over.  I hope to get it up mid-November, though.  Just as I hope to get LotD up by either Halloween or, more likely, by October 8.  I do know that when I get OWS up, I'll briefly post it for free on this blog.  Briefly meaning it should go down in January.

It's a plan, anyway.    

Update on Anthology Story: Knock

Awhile back I mentioned I had a story accepted for the Mother Goose is Dead: Modern Stories of Myths, Fables and Fairy Tales‏ anthology.  "Knock" is a story inspired by Franz Kafka's tale "The Knock at the Manor Gate."  It's about a world where something so simple as a rap on the wrong door could have lasting consequences.  It's an original fable, I guess you could day.

Well, there has been some recent news on the anthology.  We have a cover, as you can see.  Also, we have a new publisher, Damnation Books, which will release both print and ebook versions.  And I have signed and sent in my contracts and W9.  

Anyway, everything seems to be moving along nicely, and it all seems to be going well.  I'm looking forward to working with this publisher, and I can't wait to have a copy in my hands.  This is a great bunch, editors included, to work with.

Finding My Zeal as a Writer

To get back into the groove of things, I've been writing shorts. Why? For two reasons.

First, it's easier to start out small and build big. After all, isn't the Wii Fit always telling me I need at least 10 minutes of exercise for it to matter? If I start out with scheduling in 10 minutes and keep that routine for a week, then adding 5 minutes to it next week won't seem impossible. Before long, instead of wanting to do yoga but never seeming to find the time, I will be doing yoga half an hour a day. The same for writing. It's like I'm out of creative shape. Why try to run a marathon when you haven't been exercising in a long time?

Progress Report 3-2-11 so far

Progress Report:

• Walker Novel 1: 2062 words edited on KPP1, this pass done.
• Walker Novel 2: 1088 words edited on KPP1, pass incomplete ('tis long).
• Monthly Fiction: 4 handwritten pages (and twice that many notes), done yesterday.

Not bad for being depressed (partly because of writing expectations not met; mostly because an oppossum raided our chicken pen last night and killed several chickens, including one of my favorites).  Although being depressed is the worst time possible to make decisions, I decided that I'm going to give Dole this weekend yet to see how far I can get.  I tend to overestimate word count, after all; it may not be 30,000 words.  My insane goal?  To get it half written before the weekend is up.  If I can manage that, it might still make it as a March fic.

Quick Progress Report

Walker Series: 

• 1178 words written on Novel 3, KPP1.  Is done for this pass.
• 1593 words written on Novel 4, KPP1.  Is done for this pass.
• 2351 words edited on Harem/Prequel, KPP1.  Is done for this pass and posted to crit group.

Daily Ideas:

• Nada.

Monthly Story:

• Nope.

So, some progress is done.  Though, I wrote over on Walker Series, at the expense of exercise and Monthly Story/Dole, it was worth it.  Tomorrow, I hope to edit Walker 1 and 2.  Then lightly edit all of KPP1s the next day.  Then Saturday, a day ahead of schedule, I hope to implement my new method of revision.  That is, in one week I write, say, all KPP1s.  The next week I go over them, revise them, make them good.  (Which is when I can post them too.)  Then the week following, I rinse and repeat with KPP2s.  The only area where this will really get tricky is when I get on the events, what I call tertiary level (with KPPs being primary).  But I'll simply give myself more time to write, and I should be good.

With my new schedule?  It looks like likely October is a more likely post date.  Not bad.

Anyway, as I have to leave in a bit, I'm going to save writing on the Monthly for tonight. It's a story I am struggling with.  One hand I like the idea and the story works, but it is different for me and it is . . . well, I'll save that for another post. 

That's what I've got so far.  Hopefully, by early next week, the revised Novel 2 KPP1 and the new-to-the-blog Novel 1 KPP1 can be posted.  Cross your fingers, anyway.

Not So Bad

Today is my official start on goal for my Walker Series as well as for my monthly fiction.  I had a late start, because of the evil free Starz channels.  Even so, I wrote about 700 new words on KPP1 (Beginning block) of Novel 3.  Then I revised Harem's KPP1 (about 1600 words).  There should be one more part to Novel 3's KPP1.  Harem needs one more look over on its opening.  It feels a little . . . stark, not quite finished.  Then Harem goes off to my crit group for an edit.  Tomorrow, I hope to finish up both of those KPP1s, so that on Thursday, I can get a move on to the KPP1 for Novel 4.  I know right now any of my key plot points are going to have another full-fledged edit at a later date.  They are the hardest to write, but the most important.  I'll have to revisit them after I get in the groove of later writings.

As for monthly fiction?  Nada so far.  Despite my late start on the Walker series, I managed to write over my allotted two hours.  So, I will have to take a break then get some words down on it.  It too is a vampire story, just like Harem is.  But Blood and Bread (aka Dole) won't be as "fun" as compared to Harem.  In fact, it is rather bleak.

That's all I have time for.  Let you know how it goes later.

Walker Series Outlines

I'm further behind than I thought on the Walker series, but sometimes you cannot force ideas.  No matter how hard you try, sometimes you just can't.  Today I have to make my changes to Novel 2, the one I was posting on the blog.  But once I am done with that, I believe I will be at a step where I can organize and print out my outlines.  I'll likely save that step for Monday, the last day of this month.  Today, I'll focus on last tweaks to my outlines' content.  So, maybe they will not be quite as ready as I wanted, but they will be strong enough where it counts to start writing and revising on them come March 1st.

Update: Walker Universe

Phew, what a day for updates.  But I do have one more to make on Walker Universe.  I've been busy this week, especially this four-day weekend, working on the outlines of Walker Novels 1 - 4 and two side-stories/novels.  I have a rough outline for novels 3, 4, and side-story Harem.  I need to flesh those out and do a firm write up on key plot points and events for all of those.  I also need a firm outline on novels 1 and 2, which mostly need organized into a clean outline.  Finally, I need to start the rough outline of side-story two, Valor's Tale.  Valor is the vampire who once owned Walker, which is shown in Harem.

I am cutting it close, but I feel I can get enough to start working on the key plot points at least starting in March and complete the lesser events later if need be.  I'd prefer the whole six story series to be plotted and ready to write come next month.

Update: A Story a Month

March is soon approaching, and do I have my story chosen for it yet?  Not quite.  I have several possibilities though, based off ideas from my 2011 Ideas Project.  The following are the possibilities so far:

• Meso - A younger son checks on his brother's distant colony; but when he arrives, the party is captured by the natives who have taken over, and he is enslaved, bled for his magic-filled blood.  Native culture is inspired by ancient Meso-American civilizations, especially the Aztecs and Maya.
• House - A man wakes up in an inn/boarding house and discovers that the exit door leads not onto the courtyard but upon its own foyer.  Kafkaesque story.
• Book Club - A man discovers whatever you write in this book about yourself comes true--but there are consequences.
• Mage-For-Hire - A mage is blackballed by his temp agency and thus by all employment sources--but he cannot find out why.  Kafkaesque story.

I haven't settled on one yet, and still expect to add to this list up until this weekend, at which point I will make my final selection.

Update: 2011 Ideas for Year 2011

Unexpected success cropped up from my 2011 Ideas Project:  I am feeling more creative, and I am coming up with more ideas all the time.  Before I used to get so focused on my current project that I was lucky to come up with one or two new viable ideas a year for any kind of writing project.  Now, I'm coming up with a couple a week!  And I no longer fear not being able to write them.  Why?  In part because of two inspirational people:  Dean Wesley Smith and Dan Miller.

Update: The One Who Sees

Well, the news is better than I expected. :-)  The book has passed the frightful hurdle of editor-requested edits.  Now, it is moving on to the next stages of formatting, cover development, proof, and release.  That is the greatest thing about ebooks: a 18,000-word story can sell based on its own merit and not be rejected out-right because of the word-count.  That, I love.

Update: The One Who Sees

I turned in my edits.  Regrettably, the most I could do was touch it up, clarify things that needed it.  I couldn't add extra plot, which is the only way I see to add more word count.  Long time ago, I considered expanding this story into a novel, but it never came about.  This week, I hit the same wall.  Sometimes a story is the length it is.  We'll see how this goes over with the publisher; hopefully well, since they seem like a nice outfit with gorgeous covers.  If not, well . . . I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Walker Updates: Changing Things Up

I've been busy changing things up on Walker Universe series.  As I work on the outline of one novel, I find plot, world-building, and even characters to change in another.  That is why I am holding off on any writing until all four planned novels and two novelettes are outlined. 

Plot-wide changes are not the only thing I am changing up.  Since these will be self-published novels, I am free to break certain rules I couldn't before.  Normally, a writer must keep the same format for each novel in a series.  In this series, I don't have to.  For example, in novel two, much of what happens to Walker in Paradise isn't shown.  In novel three, he is being interrogated and has to make the story of what happened to him good for a reason.  In other words, novel three is like a giant flashback.  This simply isn't done in a series meant for traditional publication, but you can experiment and play more when you are self-publishing.

Over all, I'm very excited about these changes.  I hope you, readers, will be too.

Update

Long time, no write.  I've been busy with prep for my job--as a writing lab tutor--but last week I began to work my way back to writing, especially Walker Universe.  This week will be spent on organizing my notes, so I pick back up where I last left off. 

Update and Musing

Despite your best intentions, I have learned that intent cannot compare to emotion.  Both excitement and disturbance upset the emotional balance necessary for writing.  Writing must be like growing for a plant.  If your pH is out of whack, you produce, but at greater expense of effort and the result will not be as it should. Writing comes from emotion, focused emotion.

What is throwing me out of whack?  Well, I'll share the positive.  I had a job interview on the ninth.  Then I had another scheduled on Monday, and it sounds like a sure thing.  I'd say I'm about 90% hired.  Perhaps would have been 100% today if everyone wasn't snowed--or iced--in.  It is a part-time job relating to writing. 

Even good changes upset your balance.  But, finally, this week I had time to think on the Walker Universe, and I believe I have shortened the number of books in the series to five.  This is quite a change from my once-upon-a-time, fanciful ten.  Today, I hope to resume work on it.

In the meantime, I am also brushing up on grammar from basic to advanced in preparation of my job's start date.  I have good working knowledge, but it has been a while since I thought in terms of subjects and objects and all that.  It is time to start; it'll be good practice.  You may see a few posts on this, dissecting some of my own writing into its grammatical components.  If they are of help, great.  If not, I hope after this week to start truly writing again.

Thanks for your patience, but if I do not see you again, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays.

No progress

No progress this weekend, due to happy and not-at-all events.

Happy events included a Christmas walk where my mom, aunt, and I got to ride on a horse-drawn wagon.

The unhappy events involved falling prey to a sneaky virus-like program. I assumed it was part of Windows Vista and telling the truth that my computer was about to go kaput. It took me about 12 hours to backup my data and remove 40 GBs of pictures from the harddrive. Then I scan disked. Then I let the program run. It did a few things. Claimed other things were still unfixed. The minute it asked for money, my spidey-sense began to stir. I went back into safe-mode, eventually stumbled across my Temp folder. Inside it, were several exe/applications that went into the trashcan. Why? Because it is extremely unlikely for any legit program to run from Temp. Once I did that, I was ok. Well, except a harddrive free space discrepancy--in safe-mode, I have about 82 GBs free. In regular mode? 70 something. Can't quite recall but I believe it is about 78 or 79. Where did they go?

Anyway, lesson learned. Any program that claims critical problems? Check out where it is running from. At least something else was gained from this. First, I cleaned up my harddrive some, because these newer computers hate for you to dip under half-way mark on free harddrive space. Second, I have several backup copies of important files. Third, I had to pull out my older computer. It is slower but more reliable--love Acers--and is now my writing computer. My other one, which seems to get a couple viruses a year is now my Internet/Movie watching computer. Even so, internal harddrives are about the most reliable form of backup media. So my writing files and like are going to be backed up from Old Reliable to Panic-Attack Computer from time to time.

So, those are my excuses. Should have time to write today and snippet tomorrow.