Thank you, Australia Day

Why do long weekends always seem so short?  Here I sit, on the evening leg of a public holiday, wishing I had more time, even though I was quite productive with the time that I had.  

I'm coming to grips with the idea that writing is never done.  I don't run out things I need to do!  I have ideas I need to get down on paper!  I need to edit things that I've written!  I need to continue writing things I've started!  Three days is not enough. A life time is not enough.

I've made good progress (good progress for me anyway.  I've started giving myself pats on the back for any sort of progress because my butt's too sore from being kicked) on Vert Glace.  There was this part that I had to re-write around the Chapter 7 area that I've been stuck on.  This weekend, I managed to push through the last part I *had* to write for it to join back to the rest of the story.  It's not my best work, but at least it's down and I can edit it later.  The idea of having to do another whole story edit freaks me out.  I'm not even halfway through the second edit, for heaven's sake!  I don't know if I've ever put so much effort into a story.

I also revisited Vert Glace's sequel, which I almost finished at 125k (I remember writing over 100 000 words  in under 2 months while waiting for people to get back to me about their Vert Glace thoughts... scary), but couldn't find the will to close.  I made some progress on it this weekend, and I hope that I will be able to manage with a fresh eye after a 3 month break from it.  It would be great to finish either editing Vert Glace or writing Lordchaser by the end of February.

Highlights of January

A couple of days ago, the ants in my apartment got so bad that I declared chemical warfare on them.  I'm not usually one to go to such extremes, because of how poisons travel through the food chain and such.  But after writing down the pros and cons, and doing some deep soul searching, I finally installed some ant baits.  

Things were ok for about 2 days.  

Now they are back.  I was ok with the old ants - the little red ones were tenacious little critters which I admired.  It's these large black ants that I've gone to such extremes to eradicate because they bite!  And it's an international policy not to negotiate with terrorists!  I'm fine with you eating all the food scraps in the bin and scurrying around on the floor, but do you really have to mob the gentle giant that walks among you, preparing meals and just trying to relax after a day at work? 

Ok, enough about the ants. 

Entries for the January contest are in.  The two that I'd like to mention are:

The Invocation by Tante Liz.  

This story is another installment of something which I will nickname Adventures About Persephone.  It skips several thousand years into the future from A Careless Kiss of Frost. 

The other story that I found interesting was JustJazzyD's Aeternitas.

For one reason.  There's this character in there called Sir Reinald that has so much potential.  I think that he is a character with an interesting story to tell.  Maybe I see a bit of myself in him.  I don't know.  For some reason, the bit character really made an impression on me.  

Hello Blackbird

Tomorrow I'm going for a blood test.  I fricken hate blood tests.  There's something that's just not right about having sharp metal things penetrate your skin.

Tonight I pulled in some extra hours and managed to get Hello Blackbird somewhat decent.  No doubt when I read it tomorrow, my mind is going to contort into the 'scream face'.  I haven't read the other entries yet, but I have read the titles.  And the titles already sound pretty flipping awesome.  

But for now, here it is. 

As I mentioned before, this piece started as a character building exercise.  Here's my notes:

HELLO AVERY BLACKBIRD

ELEVATOR PITCH

Avery’s photographic memory makes her bold and angry for a blackbird.  The Wolfman that saved her life uses her for these qualities.

CHARACTER PROBLEM

She is not of the world of men, but neither does she completely fit in with her kind.  Her photographic memory has given her a rage driven bloodlust that sets her forever apart.

CHARACTER’S SOLUTION

Finish the Wolfman’s orders and go back to her life as a cushy bird.

PROBLEM

She can’t forget the atrocities she saw, and so she will never be able to be free to find another mate, have eggs, and fly in the spring... like normal birds.

LIMITATIONS

Photographic memory.

COMPLICATIONS

Her memory of her mate and eggs, killed by humans, makes her unable to find peace.

GREATEST FEAR

That she will become like the humans

DESCRIPTIONS

The cold assassin who regards humans with distain.

My Internal Struggles Continue

WHAT IS IT WITH ME AND FOOD POISONING?  The paramedics that came to my work today (it was embarrassing beyond words, by the way) gave me the choice between being taken to hospital and going to see a doctor tomorrow.

When I got home, I promptly tried to forget the whole thing, but my intestines had other plans.  Thanks for the excruciating pain, innards, I love you too.

After reading this I was compelled to work on the January Labyrinth Contest, though I'm surely too late to enter it, given that it's due tomorrow.  Being in Australia, I suppose I have a bit more time than my US counterparts because I could technically work on it tomorrow night as well and still have it in on time.  :) Is that cheating?

Here's a part I just wrote:

Only one man dared meet her gaze.  Avery knew him as the Wolfman, for underneath his handsome, young mask, that was what he was.  Perhaps he had been human once, but something had broken him beyond repair.  She understood the crazed lithe look in his eyes, for there were times when her own pain drove her to those depths of maddening despair.

She perched on the barstool next to him and had to remind herself that she had no feathers to fluff for warmth. 

 “Of all the taverns in all the towns, fancy meeting you here.” The Wolfman raised his mug to her, then drank to his content. 

Avery’s eyes narrowed. “I am here because you called.” 

“And so you are,” he agreed.  “Do you want something to drink?”

“What is it that you want done this time, Wolfman?” she demanded.  “Twenty four times you have called me now, and twenty four times I have come without fail.  After I do for you this task, I will have what was promised to me, and I will gladly forget you along with the rest.”

Depending on whether my insides throw another tantie, I may or may not finish the rest in time.  Though really, I have no one to blame but myself if I don't, for I'm working on it the night before it's due when I've had weeks... but hey, look, an excuse!

It has begun

The conversation I had when I linked up with DJ on twitter:

DJ: Yay I have a follower.

Me:  I not only follow you, I absolutely adore  you.  Develop your page, and we will build twin platforms to authordom.  You will call yours Isengard and I will call mine Mordor.  Wait... has someone already done that?

DJ: I certainly hope not.  I like how you automatically assign yourself Mordor.

Me: As if you'd know what to do with Mordor.  

Ooooh.  And the google pictures are just priceless. I'm going to have to repost more than one.

Some days, the path is a meandering one

At 10:30pm I tried to atone by doing something useful.  I began editing Manifesto so that it wasn't so wordy.  An hour later, I have reposted the chapter and I feel like my evening has not been an entire waste of time.

I had such high hopes for Saturday in terms of writing, but at the same time, I regret nothing.  Twitter sucked up a lot of writing time today, but I also learnt a lot of cool new stuff.  Like #tenqueries was a thing.  I haven't ever approached any stage where I'm ready to start querying.  Reading through the tweets in that category has put in perspective just how much further I have to go.  Rather than feeling deterred, I feel kind of excited, because it's more real now.  I have more of an idea of what agents are looking for (well, what they're not looking for).  I have a direction.  

Procrastination at it's finest

So after some hours of fartarsing around, I've just made my first twitter post.  It is a strange place, but I'm going there because I want to document, as much as I can, my journey into writerdom and some of my thoughts are barely a bite full.

I also get to follow my favourites.  Comics.  TV shows. Matthew Reilly.  The possibilities are endless.

Oh, and I thought Union J was a parody of One Direction that existed purely so that Mindy could experience her first girl moment in Kick Ass 2, but thanks to Twitter, I now know that they are a real thing and that the world is a scary place.  Thanks, twitter.

I'm due to hang out my washing soon.  The sun is ablaze and the wind is ablowin here so it's the perfect day to get that stuff done.  The beach is across the road, too, so I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to resist its siren song.