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Archive for August, 2007

One Done, On With the Next

Friday, August 31st, 2007

Yesterday evening, I printed out my synopsis and took it out on the deck to read. It was a glorious evening–not too hot, not too cold, not too humid. Rare for Minnesota.

I went through the hard copy twice, and I found some mistakes that I never saw on the screen. (For example, I said herself not himself in relation to the hero.) How does something like that slip past? I know, the mind fills in what it should be, but still….

Anyway, I made my corrections and printed the darn thing out. Final count: 20 pages. Gah! I really did try to cut, but I do I do a detailed synopsis with fewer pages? What do I leave out? I figured 10 pages counted as detailed, but well, it wasn’t enough. I’ll get this out to my agent today and I’ll have a guilt-free weekend. There’s a family wedding Sunday, so not trying to cram in work on the synopsis is a good thing. I’m still going to be working on some world building, but that’s thinking, not computer work.

World building is a funny thing–for me at least. Some of the details come fast and furious and it’s all I can do to get them down. Other details don’t come and I have to spend a lot of time thinking about them. This is great take a pad of paper out on the deck stuff and I wish I was going to be able to do that this weekend.

This is the idea that had me reading up on quantum mechanics, and at last, I’m free to think about it. Actually, information started coming in this week, probably because I had the first draft of the synopsis down and all that was left was fine tuning it. I’m even starting to get details on the characters for the first book and that has me even more excited. No matter how cool a premise is, I know it’s going nowhere until I have both a hero and a heroine and a general idea of their story.

Now, though, I have more research to do. I swear I’m reading non-fiction more widely for this book than I have for just about any idea I can recall. Of course, some of what I’m looking at is to see if a thread in the world building will work or if I have to keep looking, but it’s interesting to have an idea that’s so wide ranging.

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Restructured and Rolling

Thursday, August 30th, 2007

Yesterday, I bit the bullet and restructured the synopsis. I was not looking forward to this, but it ended up being reasonably painless. Not quick or easy, but not horrible. I managed to finish that just as my lunch hour ended and then I cleaned it up when I got home from the Evil Day Job (EDJ). That probably was more time consuming than the restructuring.

I also worked on cutting. I was up at the 24 page mark and that was just too long. Besides, giving too much info isn’t necessarily a good thing. I got it down to 21 pages. Still too long and I have one section I’m thinking about, but haven’t decided what I’m going to do about it as yet. My inclination is to cut it or be more vague, but I’m not sure that’s a section I can do that without raising questions.

I’m beginning to think my goal of printing this out tonight and sending it off to my agent tomorrow isn’t going to be met. Might have to be next week.

Is anyone else watching Design Star? It’s on HGTV and the winner gets his own decorating show. I accidentally found it last summer and loved it! This year, though, they eliminated a whole slew of contestants in one fell swoop. I didn’t like that. I’d rather see the show eliminate people more slowly, no more than two at a time, like they did last season. It’s like they’re trying to hurry through this run of episodes or something.

My favorite designer is Todd. I fell in love with his style when he decorated his space by painting a great big ocean wave on the walls and on one side, tearing up the furniture. It totally rocked!

I’ve missed a fair number of episodes which kind of bums me out. They run first on Sunday nights, and I always forget. The replays don’t seem to be on very often and it’s more of an accident when I actually see one. I wish they’d do a marathon where they played episode after episode. That’s how they hooked me last year.

Tags: TV
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Glamour Don’ts and Crimes of Fashion

Wednesday, August 29th, 2007

The storms that rolled through on Monday night didn’t cause any damage by me, but less than 10 miles to my east, they sure picked up steam. When I drove into work on Tuesday morning, NWA had about half a dozen trees down and some big branches as well. That was my first intimation of how severe the weather was.

Then that afternoon, one of my tech writers was telling me the storm woke him and his wife up. They saw the large tree in their backyard at a 45 degree angle and headed for the basement. Wow. Last night, the news was full of damage reports from the Twin Cities. The weather guy said the straight-line winds were around 71 mph when they went through. Double wow. Since I fell right back asleep after noting the storm, I’m glad it wasn’t severe like that in my area. Yikes!

Before I went to bed last night, I turned on the Weather Channel. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to have another middle of the night wake up call.

It’s really odd. We were in a draught for most of the summer. People kept walking around saying, “when are we going to get some rain?” Now we’re walking around going, “I can’t believe we got another storm.” Rain totals for August are 9.29″. The all-time record for the month is 9.31″ and average is 4.something”.

Enough about weather, right?

I stop by my parents’ house almost every day to see them, check in on them, etc. I usually stay about an hour or so and then go home to write. Last night, my mom asked me if I had time to give her my opinion on what she wanted to wear to the wedding and rehearsal dinner this weekend. I knew this wasn’t going to be quick and I was right.

Picking out the outfit for the wedding actually ended up being pretty easy. Time consuming, though, because my mom has slowed down so much in the last six months. If only it had been that easy with the rehearsal dinner choice.

She comes out in this awful dress. Now I’m not exactly a fashion maven, but I took one look and said, “no.” That wasn’t good enough. I had to zip up the back all the way because clearly that was the only reason the dress was hideous. NOT! It didn’t look any better zipped. Talk about a Glamour Don’t! I told her so and she argued with me.

First of all, it was far too big for her, especially on top. Secondly, it was too long, almost coming down to the floor. If it had been a straighter cut on the skirt, it might not have been a problem, but it wasn’t and it just looked wrong with that style.

The worst problem, however, was how ugly the pattern on the dress was. It looked as if she’d stolen someone’s brocade drapes and had them made into a dress. I told her it was like the Carol Burnett take off on Gone With the Wind. Mom didn’t find that funny.

She went and asked my dad for a second opinion–I guess she really wanted to wear this dress because she kept saying, but I like it. My dad told her it was too big, too. She argued a bit longer before conceding.

Rehearsal dinner outfit two was better, but it was slacks and a matching blouse with a pattern on it. It was far too much pattern. She gave up this argument faster. I told her to wear wedding outfit 1 as the rehearsal dinner outfit, but she didn’t want to do that. Sigh. She said she’s going to keep looking, which will probably mean more fashion shows for me. I ended up spending two hours over at the house and didn’t get the amount of work done on the synopsis that I was hoping for. Sigh.

As I was winding down for the night, I found a show on E! called Crimes of Fashion. It was about celebrity Glamour Don’ts. Definitely ironic timing.

Tags: parents, weather
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I Hate Titles or This Blog is Untitled

Tuesday, August 28th, 2007

I read through the synopsis again–all 23 pages of it–and I didn’t think it was bad. I tightened up a few things and rephrased what didn’t make sense or seemed repetitive. Unless my writing buddies come back with something big, I can’t imagine not having this new story ready to go to my agent by the end of this week. (Note to the universe: Please don’t let them find anything major.)

The big bummer? I didn’t cut much. Maybe a couple of sentences. And I couldn’t see where I could delete a whole lot. I’ve heard authors say that it’s never a good thing to give too much information in the synopsis before writing the book, but I’m not sure what I can leave out.

Anyway, I just want the synopsis done so I can move on to other things. I’ve got too much I need to do and not enough time to do it in and I’m just talking about my writing, not the gazillion other things that are on my list. (And I seriously want to find out if I have a story to go with all the research I did on quantum mechanics!)

My new shoes came yesterday! The left one is completely comfortable, the right one rubs against my heel. Grrr! I’m going to keep them and hope that as I break them in the rubbing stops. They’re so comfortable otherwise. Plus, they make my feet look small! That’s always a good thing.

There were more computer issues to solve yesterday. I couldn’t get MySpace to pull up in Firefox on the laptop. That was no biggie while I didn’t have high speed on that computer, but once I did, it didn’t take long before I got tired of using IE. Besides, how long could it take to solve this issue? It had to be cookies or one of my add-ons, right? I cleared all my blocked cookies. Nothing. I turned off all my add-ons. Nothing. I cleared all my cookies, even the ones I wanted on my machine (and that meant reentering passwords later). Nothing. So much for quick and easy. I finally figured out it was some third party cookie issue, but that took time and I don’t have it to waste. How do computer issues expand from simple to time consuming?

The storms rolled through at 2:55 this morning. I’m exhausted.

Tags: computer, shoes
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The Nearly Eternal Synopsis

Monday, August 27th, 2007

The first draft of the synopsis came in at 23 pages. Not 22 1/2. Exactly 23 pages. One more line and I would have been on page 24. I sent it off to my writing buddies for their feedback, and with a little luck, I’ll have this fixed and ready to mail to my agent before Labor Day weekend. I guess, though, that’s going to depend on how much work I need to do on it.

You notice there’s no picture of my flower with the three blooms on it posted here. That would be because the oldest one lost all its petals before I could get down there with a camera. For one bright, shining moment there was one plant with the trifecta going on. Bummer that I didn’t capture it for posterity.

I didn’t get much done besides the nearly eternal synopsis (geez, I thought that thing was never going to end and I was going to have to drive a stake through its heart), but I did get some more of my stuff put away in the new cabinet.

I also tried to set up my other laptop with it’s wireless card to work on my network, but it won’t. I can’t figure out why and it’s making me nuts because I want to update that particular laptop and not over dial up. This is the computer that was wiped clean, so I have like 3 years of updates for Windows and then there’s antivirus and firewall too. Plan B was to plug it in directly to the Ethernet cable, but I couldn’t hook it to my cable system, and the disk wouldn’t install on that laptop either. What’s up with that? At the rate I’m going, I might be dragging the POS laptop home from work and taking that with me because at least it’s set up and up to date.

Um, what else. I did a quick little update to my website and also updated my personal website where I keep the pictures of the characters I’m working with. I don’t have permission to use those pictures so I can’t post them anywhere they’re likely to be spotted, but my personal website doesn’t appear in any search engines and I need access to the pictures sometimes while I’m working away from home–like at the EDJ (Evil Day Job).

And last night was frustrating. First, this bizarre dream about kittens wakes me about about 11:45, then, about 2 hours later, the thunderstorms rolled through. I’m tired!

Tags: computer
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Synopsis Sunday

Sunday, August 26th, 2007

I’m on page 18 of my synopsis now. Do you think I’m overdoing the “detailed” part? I honestly don’t know how it ended up being this long and I’m still not done. Once I finish the first draft, I’ll send it off to my writing buddies and see what they say, then I’ll working on tightening it up by cutting and plugging any holes they find.

I didn’t get much work done on it yesterday. The only time I could get my hair cut and highlighted was at 12:30, which is smack dab in the middle of the day. I couldn’t work in the morning because my dad came over to replace all my smoke detector batteries and he finished just in time for me to get ready to leave. By the time I got home, it was nearly 3pm.

My goal for today is to finish the first draft of this damn thing. I refuse to go over 20 pages–at least not by too much.

So far this morning, I put away some of the office supplies that were blocking my reference books on the shelves in the computer room. I’m torn between wanting to put more stuff away and get that all looking neat, and working on the synopsis. I know. Synopsis comes first. But the office has been in chaos since I moved in last year and it’s making me nuts! Okay, more nuts.

The final lily bud bloomed this morning, and for right now, I have three flowers on one plant. It won’t last since one of the blooms is old and the petals should be dropping off of it soon. I’m going to try to get over to the tree ring today to take a picture before that happens. And of course, I’ll post it here. There can never be too many pictures of my lilies up, right?

Tags: garden
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The Dog Days of Flowers

Saturday, August 25th, 2007

My filing cabinet arrived yesterday, and guess what? They cleaned all the adhesive off before delivering it! I really thought I’d be spending the weekend trying to get that crap off. And the other cool thing is that the unit matches the small, two-door filing cabinet I already have in the room.

Now I just have to get all my stuff arranged in there. Unfortunately, I have a lot of it, so this isn’t necessarily going to be quick or easy. I might start with the mish mash sitting on my bookshelves now because I had nowhere else to put it. That’s been one of my biggest frustrations–trying to get to my research books with all this other stuff around them.

My mutantly large lily bloomed this week! I don’t know if you can tell how much larger it is than the other lilies from the pictures, but it must be like 15% bigger. It’s been a hard-fought war with the rabbit, but the fence did the trick. I have one more bud left to bloom, then my flowers will be done for the year.

First, here’s a typical lily with a ruler next to it so you can get an idea of the size.

Now, here’s the mutant lily. Sorry, no ruler. There wasn’t one handy.

Mutant Lily from farther away.

Mutant with another flower. I’m trying to show the largeness of the bloom, but I’m not sure it comes across in this shot.

And finally, here is another plant with two flowers on the stem. It also has one more bud on it, which will be my last flower of the year.

I don’t have any pictures of them, but my three surviving Toad Lilies shot up a lot in the last week or so. I’m thinking all the rain we’ve had helped them. Most of the flowers in the deck boxes are okay. The pansies look like they’ve had enough, but everything else looks okay. Next year, though, I’m not planting any wussy flowers. Those impatiens and begonias wilted all the time if they were even slightly dry. Petunias, though–those are hardy plants.

Tags: garden, plants
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Research and the Writer

Friday, August 24th, 2007

First, before I start my topic of the morning, I want to announce that I fixed my email settings and I can now send email again! Hurrah! It was a pain to figure out, but after checking out the help screen on my cable provider’s website, all is well. Yes, yes, I know, but I have a motto: If all else fails, read the directions. All else failed.

Okay, now let me talk about research. I love being a writer. Not just because I love telling stories, but because I never know what I’m going to be learning next. Like for The Power of Two where I dealt with quantum brain nanotechnology. I had some basic information on nanotech because I’d found it interesting years earlier, but I had to really dig in deeper than I’d gone years previously.

When I worked on Through a Crimson Veil, I read up on demons–and found some scary stuff that I never want to find again. I’ve had to tread into this territory again with my Light Warriors series, only this time around, the demons are the bad guys, not the h/h. I’ve also been researching for Shona and Logan–gemstones, dragons, etc.

But I think my latest research takes the prize. For the last two weeks I’ve been reading about quantum mechanics, string theory and M theory. It’s fascinating stuff, but if you’d asked me two years ago, heck, even one year ago, if I had any interest in reading on this topic, I would have said no way! I’ve barely scratched the surface, but I think I’m reaching a point where I need to home in on what I specifically need to know for the idea I’m tossing around.

I even research little facts, things I end up not even needing to know. For example, in In the Midnight Hour, my h/h fly to LA. I looked up the kind of aircraft NWA flies between MSP and LAX on the computer at work. I never used it. If you read the book, you’ll see that there’s absolutely no mention whether or not the plane is a wide body (2 aisles) or a narrow body (1 aisle). All I mention is how they had middle seats and couldn’t sit together. I do this constantly, research little tiny facts that either don’t get spelled out or don’t really matter anyway. Shrug. I can’t help it. I want my work to be “right” unless I choose to deviate.

To round back to my point, this is one of the reasons why I’m almost never bored. If I’m not listening to the people in my head, I’m reading up on a huge variety of topics. From pyramids to demons to nanotechnology to M theory. Wow. And who knows what it’ll be next. How totally cool is this? Yes, I am a complete geek and I loved school. I like the fact that I get to learn new things with every book. Even if quantum mechanics makes my head hurt.

Tags: computer, research
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My Exciting Wednesday

Thursday, August 23rd, 2007

Okay, so I ran into one glitch on the new network hook up. I can’t get any email to send off my laptop now unless I use my cable internet account. I totally don’t get this since I’ve been sending messages from my desktop computer off my old email addresses and the settings are exactly the same. I even wrote it all down just in case my memory was faulty. This is going to be a pain until I can figure it out. I don’t want to change my email addresses so that means I have to get it to work. Anyway, I got tired and gave up, but today is another day.

So what happened on Wednesday that was so exciting? Besides the high speed on my laptop, I mean. After work, I went to an used office furniture place and got my five drawer lateral filing cabinet! I’ve been wanting one of those for like a year now, and while it’s a little banged up, it was also 1/3 the cost of a new one. I can live with the adhesive residue on the exterior for that kind of savings.

Then, while I was there, I spotted used desk chairs. The really nice ergonomic kind! I’ve been sitting on a office chair from probably the 1960′s, long before anyone had heard of the word ergonomic. I would literally hobble after I’d been sitting in it for any length of time. The chair was twice the cost of the cabinet, but once I get it all set up for me, it’ll be worth it. Plus, now I rolled the $5 chair into the scrapbook room. Now I can be hobbled if I do crafts. Anyway, if I’d bought it new, the guy said it would have been like $1000. =8-O Used is a good thing.

I also got my really cool chipboard letters and figures yesterday and my card making kit. How cool is that? With a chair, a cutter, and those super fabulous letters, I seriously need to get scrapbooking.

And yes, there was writing done as well. I finally felt as if I made some good progress yesterday during lunch. Of course, I got very little done after all the running around and installing that I did, but I’m hopeful that at lunch today, I’ll start chugging right along again.

Originally, I’d planned to talk about the joys of research today, but I guess I’ll try to remember to blog about that tomorrow.

Tags: computer, shopping
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I’m Networked!

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

OMG! I can’t even believe this. I networked my computers myself in less than 15 minutes (including setting up security) and now I have high speed access on my laptop! I’m so excited! Only someone who’s suffered through years and years of dial up can understand my complete elation at this moment.

Tags: computer
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