Patti O'Shea's Blog

I added code to bring in my most recently saved Del.icio.us sites at the bottom of the right hand column. I tried to do this once before, but it didn’t work right and I had to scrap it, but this time it did. Del.icio.us is a social bookmark site where you tag web pages. That means your bookmarks are available online, which is handy when you’re away from your computer, but need one. And it also gives you the option to search through other people’s tags. I found some cool sites that way. My 15 most recent are largely reference sites right now.

It’s kind of funny how many people are obsessed with the Minnesota Twins right now. (Baseball) That includes me, of course. One of my tech writers stopped by my cube to drop something off and shared a website that had updated game info on it. So I pulled it up after he left, checked what was going on and headed down to 3rd floor to drop something off. That guy had the game summary up on his computer, so I was able to check in before I went upstairs to 5th floor to drop off more stuff. And was updated on the game there too. Unfortunately, the Twins lost 1-0 and our fab rookie pitcher is out for the season.

I seriously need to clone myself. Sigh. I have too much writing to do to waste time at the day job. Three clones, is that too much to ask? One can go to NWA, the second can work on the futuristic proposal and the third can work on the RS proposal while I write the next book. Oh, wait, maybe I need four clones. One to handle email and other personal assistant chores. I always seem to get backed up on email.

I did start the next book I have due yesterday. It was more of an exploratory foray than a commitment to this particular scene as the opening, but I learn so much by writing–both about my characters and about their story–that it’s always a worth the time spent. It proved to be interesting yesterday too because I learned some stuff about Creed and his situation that I hadn’t known before. And it got my brain thinking, working, wondering. Always a good thing.

But now I’m torn. I seriously need to finish two proposals before I immerse myself in Creed’s book, but on the other hand, I really don’t have time to work on both of them, let alone finish them. I won’t even mention all the things I need to take care of outside of writing. Yep, all I need are five clones.

My parents drove with me down to Chicago. They’re usually not too bad to travel with, although they have one habit that makes me absolutely insane. When they give me directions.

It’s pretty easy getting down to Chicago, but once we reach the outskirts of the city, I need someone to tell me where to go to reach my aunt’s house. On one of our previous trips, I’m tootling down the express way, we see a sign that says Golf Road 1 Mile and they proceed to argue with each other as to whether or not that’s the exit I should take to get to the hotel. I’m like, uh, guys, make a decision. Then, at the very last second, they say exit. Argh! I get angry because I’m stressed and traffic is heavy. I need advance warning. They get angry because they haven’t lived down there for a while so how are they supposed to know which exit to take? Hey, I’m driving, I’m not the one holding the map. Gah!

So anyway, knowing my parents have done this last minute instructions thing to me a few too many times, I asked them when we were about midway through Wisconsin if they knew how I needed to take it to get to my aunt’s house. Oh, yes, I’m assured, they know exactly which way to go.

I believed them. I shouldn’t have.

As I’m going down I-90 in Chicago, we come to a split where I-290 breaks off. They start arguing with each other about whether I should get off there or keep going straight. If I wasn’t enmeshed in heavy traffic and going about 65 mph, I would have banged my head against the steering wheel. My dad told me to keep going straight.

And a few minutes later we pass over Mannheim, but there’s no way to exit onto it. That, of course, was our road. Gee, he says, maybe we should have taken 290.

Okay, Dad, that’s good, but you want to tell me what the heck I should be doing NOW?

So I ask at the next toll booth. BTW, Illinois has raised their tolls considerably for cars not using I-Pass. Instead of 5 tolls at 40 cents each, there are now 4 tolls at various prices ranging from 80 cents to $1.60. Yikes! First toll was $1. So of course, we’re digging for more money at the toll because we weren’t prepared at all. I hate tollways. Grrr.

The guy said get off at the next exit and do this, that and the other thing to get to Mannheim. So two more lanes of traffic come in after the toll booth and I have to try to cut across these darn things in the rain in heavy, bumper to bumper traffic while my parents are arguing over the toll guy’s instructions. They stop discussing it just long enough for my mom to tell me that I need to get over. You think, Mom? Another bang-the-head-against-the-steering-wheel moment because I was trying to get over.

Once we got onto Cumberland, though, they remembered enough to get me to my aunt’s house without too much more discussion. Until I parked the car, then I was told I had to make sure I was close to the curb. Do you think two inches qualifies as close? I do and that’s about how far out I was, but to make them happy, I repositioned the car until the wheels were practically scraping the concrete curb.

Let’s just say I was really happy to be able to turn off the engine and call it good.

Title is a quote from Howard Carter as he talked about the discovery of King Tut’s tomb.

I’m back from Chicago and my visit to the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum. I don’t know where to start when it comes to recounting my trip, but maybe I’ll just focus on the exhibit itself for right now.

I went with my dad and one of my cousins. Cathy drove–thank God!–and we arrived at the museum about an hour before it opened. We had tickets for the first time slot. I just about died when I saw it was $15 to park at a museum! I don’t remember it being that high when we went to see Cleopatra about five years ago or so. Since it would involve a train, two buses and a walk of several blocks to take public transportation to the museum, you’d think they’d have inexpensive parking to encourage visitors to come down.

Since we beat many of the employees to the museum, we were the first ones in line for the exhibit. People started showing up about 20 minutes later and we all stood around until 9am. Then we went up a flight of steps, rented the audio tour and the adventure began.

Most of the items in the first half of the exhibit were from tombs other than Tutankhamun’s, and while they were interesting, they could have been from any exhibit of Ancient Egypt. I did learn that the experts are uncertain if the previous pharaoh–the heretic king–was Tut’s father or half-brother.

The second half of the exhibit contained actual items from Tutankhamun. This was more interesting to me, although I’m not sure why. Maybe because from the time I was a small child, wonder always surrounded King Tut in a way that it never touched other pharaohs or important persons.

Most of the items from Tut were small things. One of the most fascinating pieces IMO, was a diadem that he’d worn when he was alive–or so they believe. It features a cobra and a falcon(?) in front. The images are all copyrighted or I’d post a few here, but if you’re interested, the official King Tut website has a gallery of images including the diadem.

The other thing I found very interesting was the room where they had the floor marked out, showing the different layers over the coffin. There were like three nested sarcophagi and then five or six other boxes around it. National Geographic did an animation showing the different layers that had to be removed to reach the actual mummy.

They also showed the results of a CT scan done in 2005 and disproved a lot of theories. It seems a lot of the breaks to the bones were done after death, most likely by the archeological team in the 1920s. They also showed that the so-called spine abnormality wasn’t something Tut lived with, that curvature was a result of the way the mummifiers had positioned him. That blows a theory I saw on Discovery Channel or History Channel or somewhere that his death came because of this genetic flaw. The current theory is that a severe break to the femur had become infected and killed him. The scan showed that Tut was largely healthy and well-nourished.

The exhibit ended in the gift shop–of course–and while I tried to be good, I ended up buying the official exhibit book (complete with a CD of the audio tour). That was $50! Gulp! I also picked up a DVD of the exhibit for my mom to watch and some postcards. They had gorgeous hand-blown Egyptian glass perfume bottles and I debated buying one of those for the longest time, but decided I’d spent enough. When I checked out, I discovered right I was.

The gift shop was amazing–and not in a positive way. There were King Tut kleenex boxes where the tissue came out of his nose. There were key chains, shot glasses, men’s ties, pens, pencils, head dresses, cards, etc. The list of items goes on and on and on. I honestly stood in that store with Steve Martin’s King Tut song going through my head, particularly the phrases: “He gave his life for tourism” and “they’re selling you.” There were a number of items like the tissue box that made me wonder “what were they thinking?” It was simply TTFW–Too Tacky For Words.

My overall impression of the exhibit was that it was interesting, but that it fell far short of the exhibit that toured the US in the 1970s. Okay, so I was really, really young when I saw that, but I remember it being very impressive and so did my cousin who went with me. It wasn’t only that the large funerary mask was not there (it won’t be allowed out of Egypt any longer), it was that a lot of the impressive pieces were missing and the presentation was mundane. In the 70s, they replicated a pyramid to house the exhibit and that made it like extra cool. I’m not sure this current exhibit was worth the drive to and from Chicago–especially since we did it in 2 days.

My overall rating is go if this is something you’re absolutely fascinated by, but don’t expect the magic of the 1970s tour of artifacts.

This is the same time I’m up on weekdays, yet it somehow seems worse–much worse–on a Sunday. I keep trying to remind myself that I’m doing this to see King Tut, but all I really want to do is crawl back into bed for another 3 or 4 hours.

The book signing was a little slow, but the store was tucked away in a corner of the mall with a children’s play area almost right there, so there wasn’t much casual traffic walking by. The assistant manager of the bookstore was hugely nice to us and I enjoyed talking with my co-signers, Michele Hauf and Lois Greiman.

I got home from the book signing as little after 2:30. The plan was to write, but at some point I turned on the TV and got hooked on a History Channel show about a 1938 hurricane that hit the Northeast United States. The people had no warning because the National Weather Service just assumed it would turn and go out to sea like they always did that far north. No radar then. A young weather guy tried to tell the old guard that he thought the hurricane was going to slam into Long Island, but they pooh poohed him and told him they had more experience than he did. Turns out the younger man was right.

I did get work done yesterday on the J9 proposal. Not as much as I would have liked and I won’t get anything done today or tomorrow, I know that already. No laptop since it’s such a quick trip and because I don’t think my aunt would appreciate me taking over her phone line. :-/ If I can find a notepad, I’ll take that with me and work on writing down some info on one story or another.

And in case you’re wondering about the title to this post, it’s a line from a Steve Martin song, King Tut. It seemed appropriate.

If you’re in the Twin Cities area, you’re cordially invited to a book signing today:

When: Saturday, September 9th
Time: 12:30 to 2:00
Where: Waldenbooks
Ridgedale Center
12401 Wayzata Blvd
Minnetonka, MN

I’ll be signing with Lois Greiman and Michele Hauf, please stop in and say hey.

I still get nervous before book signings. It’s something I don’t do very often and I’m really glad to have two other authors with me. I’m hoping today goes well.

I’m also heading down to Chicago to go see the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum. I bought my tickets months ago and tried to pick a date and time where the place would be less crowded. Of course, it’s probably all sold out so there won’t be a less crowded time, but at least I made a stab at it. Kids are in school, and hopefully, it’s too soon in the year for field trips and I chose the first time available in the morning on a weekday. Fingers crossed that it’s not too bad. Of course, I didn’t factor in a few things. Like Chicago traffic since it is a work day.

I’ve always had a fascination with things from ancient Egypt and it’s always cool to be able to see them in person. A few years back I went to the Cleopatra exhibit at the Field Museum and the main reason I wanted to be an archeologist when I was in 4th grade was my interest in the pyramids, so I’m really looking forward to this exhibit. Too bad, though, that it’s not in Minneapolis.

Yesterday, I worked on the J9 proposal. I should have been revising the proposal my agent wanted some changes on, and I did try, but I’m so disconnected from those characters right now. I spun my wheels for a while, then decided to see if I was stuck or if it was just the story. Since I was able to get a few pages of stuff for Flare and Sasha, I decided I’m okay, it’s the distance from that story. The thing is, I know the only way to close that gap is to keep fighting to write those characters, but it seems like such wasted time and I’m so short of that right now. Did I mention I seriously need a clone?

My novella is now titled! Yea! My editor liked “Dark Awakening” the most out of the suggestions I sent him. Thank you, Joely! And now with revisions officially over, I’m finished with this project until galleys arrive.

I also uploaded my Shards of Crimson pages on my website last night, including an excerpt. I’d been planning to wait until October 1st, but I decided I don’t know if I’m going to have time then to mess with the site. I’ve still got revisions for In the Midnight Hour coming and I have a book due in less than 4 months. Since it seemed like a better idea to get the Shards Pages up now, I went ahead and did that.

The revised and final cover is up on my website too. I emailed to ask for that and got it promptly, but I was at work and I wanted to see it. It wouldn’t open on my computer and I’m guessing it’s because of the file size. I tried downloading it, got an error message. I tried emailing to my work address, it wouldn’t open. I tried emailing it to my gmail account and I was able to see a miniature of the cover–in blue. I was like, huh? Did they change the color of the cover? It seemed odd. I spent a lot of time goofing around with this, but nothing worked. I finally emailed it to my POS laptop email. (Yes, each computer has a its own email address.) It took forever to download on that slow connection, but I finally saw the cover and it was still red–just like I figured.

I have to keep this note short this morning. I hit the snooze on the alarm and then slept really, really hard until 4:20 which not only left me cotton-headed, but really cuts into my morning time as well.

I’m awful at titling my stories, so when I wrote the anthology and had the novel due at the end of the same month, I never gave it a name. I turned it in as “Crimson City Anthology.” Hey, I had to save those brain cells.

Yesterday, though, the time had come where the story needed a title. I didn’t have a clue. I figured, okay, the whole thing (with the exception of the epilogue) took place in one night, so how about something with Night in the title? I proposed:

I worked on revising my proposal yesterday. I didn’t get very far, but then I’m rewriting an entire scene with characters I haven’t worked with in at least a year. It might possibly be longer than that. This is the story that every single time I tried to work on it, I received revisions or galleys or something else that took precedence. Since I write by listening to the characters and since Sloan and Tyler are pretty far away right now, it was a struggle. Part of it is what I was seeing was boring and I had to skip ahead to when something happened. But. But that left me trying to ground the reader in time and place. Hmm. Maybe I will back it up. A couple of paragraphs might go a long way toward making the rest of the story write easier.

On one of the few boards I visit (This one is mostly writers), the question was raised if you knew you could only write three more books in your lifetime, which stories would they be. This proposal that I’m working on is definitely one of them. I’ve wanted to write Sloan and Tyler since I first had them come in and start talking to me–over fifteen years ago. Of course, I wasn’t a good enough writer then to do them justice and I was smart enough to know it. I wrote a few pages, but quickly put the story aside and said I’d pick it up when I thought I could handle it. Considering how many times I’ve rewritten and revised this proposal, I might have been overly optimistic about being ready now, but I want to write this story so much.

I see it as the first book in a series, one with an infinite number of stories, and I have a clear vision of what I want this series to be. And yet I can’t seem to get the story right on paper. It’s very frustrating to me.

And while I’m trying to work on this, I can hear this clock ticking away in my head. I have to get this proposal done ASAP because I can’t afford to sacrifice too much more time. I have a book due in less than 4 months that I haven’t started yet. I’ve got a ton of ideas flowing in for this one right now and that’s part of what’s interfering with hearing Sloan and Tyler, but I don’t want to stem the flood because I need to hear Creed and Maia.

Like I said, I need to clone myself. So many ideas, too little time.

Well, guess what? Ravyn’s Flight is no longer purchasable at either BN.com or Amazon. The book was available for the grand total of about 8 hours or so.

Once again, if you’re looking for the book or know someone who is, it can be bought through the publisher–Dorchesterpub.com There’s also an 800 number listed on the site if you’re not comfortable ordering online.

I’m at work, but I had to give a quick update. Ravyn’s Flight is available online once more at Barnes & Noble.com and at Amazon.com! Yea! Now if Ingram will carry it, all will be right in the world.