Jul
1

To the Sea

Posted in mermaid, writing | 4 Comments
I’m off to the shore tomorrow and for most of next week, so my blogging will be spotty, at best. (Although I’m playing around with the idea of using blogger’s timed posts to throw up some beach-themed man-candy, but we’ll see what kind of time I have.) In the meantime, I thought I’d put up this bit of a short story I wrote last year. It’s rough in places, for sure, but I’m rather fond of it and I’m feeling a little down tonight. As an aside, if you’re not familiar with the original telling of The Little Mermaid, I suggest you take a quick refresher, since this is essentially a slightly alternate ending. The Mermaid’s Rose The princess was singing again. Her voice hovered, fragile and shimmering, a hummingbird lifted away by the breeze creeping through the portholes. The words of the song prickled my skin, sweet and brimming… Read more
Jun
30

The Fog of War

Posted in pantster, writing | 2 Comments
We had a weird sunset the other night, lots of strange clouds stretched out like a big ocean in the sky. I don’t think I was really able to capture it on my little camera (though you can see the moon there too in the right corner). It was actually a bit overwhelming to look at . In some ways plotting is like this for me. (Which is relevant since I’m working on that outline for CoD.) I have all these ideas, swirling around in a big pile, but they move and change shape, even as I try to capture them. It’s frustrating in some ways because I have to force the issue in my head a little bit. The publisher requires a 10 to 15 page outline to make sure we’re on the same page as far as the direction is going. And that’s not to say its set… Read more
Apr
22

How Many Stars?

Posted in reviews, writing | 4 Comments
I’ve been told that it’s general wisdom for an author to not read their reviews on Amazon (or wherever the general population can leave an opinion.) I don’t know how many authors actually do or don’t, but I’ll admit I’ve seen a fair bit of griping about the occasional bad apple review spoiling a set. And even if the author *does* read them, it’s considered good manners to not say anything directly to the reviewers. After all, everyone is entitled to their opinions, even if they’re lousy. (Although it can be pretty irritating to see people reviewing things that they haven’t actually read or seen yet – basing their entire “experience” on what they imagine the book to be. And there are always armchair jockeys that review everything from music to art with absolutely no idea of what it is they’re talking about.) For an author to try to enter the murky waters of… Read more
Apr
20

Inside Jokes

Posted in writing | 3 Comments
I’ve talked before about not using real people in books. I mean, to a certain extent you have to write what you know – and probably what you see every day. So if one of your characters just happens to have the same hairstyle as the administrative assistant at the front desk, for example – that’s probably fine. But what about fake people? In my book, Abby has a secondary job running something called the Midnight Marketplace. It’s a sort of storefront that sits between worlds and all kinds of crazy creatures come in to buy things. Some of these characters actually end up being in the story proper, but most of them are just there to fatten up the scene. Many of them are characters I’ve made up specifically, but a few are cameos of characters I’ve either played in online pbp games or written up in unrelated stories.… Read more
Mar
21

Worldbuilding & Procrastination

Posted in craft, revisions, writing | 3 Comments
I’m procrastinating on my revisions tonight, although given this is the first amount of time I’ve felt almost human in the last 48 hours, I’m willing to give myself a bit of a pass. And really, there’s only so much of lying around in one’s own filth that I can take, so eventually I managed to haul my sorry carcass into the shower and that helped. (And honestly, I slept until noon yesterday, got up for an hour to find something to eat and then went back to bed. NyQuil is my friend. Mr Myn was good enough to take the day off from work and escaped somewhere with the children for most of the afternoon, and for that I am utterly grateful.) Sadly, my head seems to be waking up quite nicely, although I’m still feeling pretty weak overall. You wouldn’t think something as simple as snot would be… Read more