| Good deeds and whinging and life ... |
[Apr. 7th, 2008|09:41 am] |
I have a sign over my house, I must do. Where ever that house might be, I have a sign. Or maybe it's over me. Anyhow, it says: Waifs and strays, come see her!
I walked out of the house yesterday afternoon to put some rubbish in the big bin and this frantic, well-fed and collarless Staffy bitch rushed up to me, eyes rolling, panting. I'd never seen her before, and neither had various neighbours. So she stayed the night. She was lovely, very friendly, the most gorgeous eyes. Obviously loved by someone, but the stupid someone had neglected to give her a collar and tag with a phone number I could call. I took her to the vet this morning and luckily she was microchipped, so she'll be going home.
Of course, now I'm worried that she was dumped for some reason, and even with a microchip no-one will claim her. She's too lovely to die a week from now in the pound. I'll have to make sure she's okay. I can't keep her, she's not cat friendly, but I'd like to make sure she's okay.
In the past I've kept the waifs and strays that have found me, but that's not feasible at the moment. After a quarter century of having many, many animals, I'm looking to stay permanently downsized.
And for my whinge, I'll just say that while I'm sure Ron Moore loves his wife very much, I wish she wouldn't get involved with the Battlestar Galactica podcasts. I want to hear him talk about the show without her interruptions and observations which, quite frankly, are not what I buy the dvds to hear.
Over the weekend I wrote the Stargate story for the magazine, and I'm pretty pleased with it, given I really don't do short fiction. I also finalised the outline for the next Stargate novel, Consequences, and that I am pleased with. Although the slash fans are going to hate my guts, if they don't already. Because -- shock horror! -- I intend writing about a relationship that is canon within the series. So shoot me!
In the next two days I have two manuscripts to read, for various reasons. And then I knuckle down to pick up with the next Rogue Agent novel, Witches Inc.
Busy ... busy ... busy ... |
|
|
| Oh, wow! |
[Sep. 11th, 2007|09:09 pm] |
I got my mojo back.
You didn't know it was gone, did you? Well, it was. But it's back -- I think, I'm pretty sure -- and I'm in a far better mood tonight than I was this morning, I can tell you.
I was thrilled to finish The Riven Kingdom. Thrilled ... and exhausted. As ever (cue laughter from my nearest and dearest) I underestimated just how exhausted. As in, if I sit down now I might never get up again. I've been there before upon finishing a manuscript, and you'd think I'd learn. But no. I am SLOW. Like cold molasses. My brain box was empty, my neurones were on strike, and yet -- because of self-inflicted deadlines -- I tried to start writing again straight away.
No. No. And again I say, no.
Because I was tired. And because my head was deep in Godspeaker territory, not Stargate territory, and that's the story I need to tell next. And it's taken me a week to get my head back on straight so I can do that. I already had some 25000 words down. And many of them are good words. Most of them are. There's even -- gasp -- some humour. But yikes!!! The structure to that point was crapola with a capital crap. And I didn't really have a clear enough idea of what I was trying to do. But I started writing anyway and I knew it wasn't working and I kept on pushing when what I needed to do was stop and think. And the harder I pushed the slower I was writing and it was all wrong and I was fast heading into a Bad, Bad Place.
Yesterday, I stopped. I re-read. I thought. I made notes. I worked out. (It'd been a while. Can't ever underestimate the importance of getting sufficient oxygen to the brain. Yeah.) And today I started shifting stuff around. Getting the structure right. And I reminded myself of another important lesson learned.
Trust the gut. Trust the subconscious. When things get this hard it's because I've gone Off The Rails and faaaaar away. I was so far away not even a compass could help. But I'm back now, and I can see what I'm doing and I'm in love again with what I'm doing and I believe I can do it.
Because it's these times, the times when you've lost your way (and I think it happens to all writers at some point) that you can't see the way ahead and you stop believing and you fall so damn far out of love with the whole writing thang that it's hard to imagine ever feeling the love again.
Tonight, I'm back in love. Thank God. And suddenly I believe again that I can finish this book and get cracking onto Hammer of God.
Wow. I got my mojo back. And only just in the nick of time ...
In other news:
Here's the first overseas review for The Awakened Mage (aka Innocence Lost):
http://www.thefantasyreview.com/2007/09/10/the-awakened-mage-review
And here are details of a fantastic Orbit book give away, but you need to be a North American resident to enter. The website's full of great news and info, though, plus a review of me. So there you go. *g*
http://www.fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com
There's other stuff to natter about and I will at a later date, but right now I need to save tonight's work, unwind with Numbers then go to bed, because my cat Harley refuses to give up sitting on top of me at 7 am and gently reminding it's Time For Breakfast Now, Mum.
And no, I couldn't lock him out of the room. I'm his Mum!
Oh yes -- and I'm 1 for 1 on who got booted from Australian Idol. But I bet my winning streak won't last. |
|
|
| On we go ... |
[Aug. 4th, 2007|02:51 pm] |
So that's another chapter finished of Do No Harm. So we're looking like this:
If you drop by this blog, don't forget the Conflux virtual mini-con running this weekend. Check out the website for the full rundown: http://www.conflux.org.au.
Saw the last 3 eps of Dr Who season 3 last night (thanks Elaine and Pete!)
Wow. Gosh. Wow. Stay tuned for my Who ramblings, coming to an LJ near you soon ... |
|
|
| Back on the horse ... |
[Aug. 1st, 2007|12:47 pm] |
Sigh. Suffering from a chronic illness is so bloody boring. (In my case, chronic fatigue syndrome, going on 7 years). But at least I can honestly say that overall, I'm much better. I fell over a bit last week but wasn't completely debilitated and so was able to do the entirely necessary Stargate watching for Do No Harm. The refresher course was so appropos! I've been able to slip two sly little ep references in already today! I so love doing that. I'm a pathetic fan geek girl, no two ways about it.
Anyhow. I'm back on the writing horse, and here's the current progress:
Now I *say* it's going to be 90,000, but at this stage that's a bit of ballpark figure. I'll see how it goes.
Much more stuff to come for the LJ this week ... I am so determined to get more focused with this damned blog, especially since my US launch is ... gulp ... next! month!
Now, for some lunch. |
|
|
| The Conflux virtual mini-con! |
[Jul. 30th, 2007|08:33 pm] |
As I emerge from my pink cloud of Stargate-watching, to get my head back in that space again ... (no pun intended! *g*):
This Saturday, August 4th, at 8 pm Oz time, I'll be appearing at the Conflux spec fic convention virtual mini-con, one of a fabulous line up of authors and spec-fic folk gathering to chat live with readers and writers and fans in general.
For the full skinny, visit the Conflux website here: http://www.conflux.org.au
And if you're somewhere that's not Australia, and you'd like to join in but you're fuzzy on time conversions, try this great site: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock
As for the writing, well, I realised I needed to go back and do a big Stargate binge (while getting over a lurgy) and I've done that and I've backtracked a bit and the story is on much firmer ground.
Yee haw! |
|
|
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
karenmiller's journal
bitchy
