shards « Patti O'Shea's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘shards’

Dragonisms, Part 1

Sunday, April 17th, 2011

Here are some of the more interesting turns of phrase that Dragon’s speech recognition software came up with as I transcribed Dark Awakening. Some of this stuff is almost as good as Damn You Auto-Correct. Among my favorites:

She even put spiders outside when she found them in her apartment instead of squishing them, and she wolves at those things.

It’s supposed to be: She even put spiders outside when she found them in her apartment instead of squishing them, and she loathed those things.
Kimi realized Mika and Nic were headed for the door, and that should occur out of her paralysis.
It’s supposed to be: Kimi realized Mika and Nic were headed for the door, and that shook her out of her paralysis.
how much time had passed balls she’d been filing
It’s supposed to be: how much time had passed while she’d been filing
when someone stepped out of the goodness
It supposed to be: when someone stepped out of the dimness
The man’s voice was a rich baritone, animated and some pleasant, even attractive, they raise goose bumps on Kimi’s arms and she backed up a step.
It’s supposed to be: The man’s voice was a rich baritone, and it made him sound pleasant, even attractive, but it raised goose bumps on Kimi’s arms and she backed up a step.
Calling it forward, she surrounded herself, leading ticketing and roll until it would be impenetrable.
It’s supposed to be: Calling it forward, she surrounded herself, letting it thicken and grow until it would be impenetrable.
As she ate a bag out of her desk for, she realized she needed help.
It’s supposed to be: As she yanked the bag out of her desk drawer, she realized she needed help.

The last one is my personal favorite.

Tags: books, dragonisms, shards, software
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Five Years Distant

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

I mentioned in the last post that I used Dragon to transcribe my novella so that I’d have an up-to-date version. One of the things that ended up surprising me was that it felt as if I was reading someone else’s work.

Once, I regularly reread my work because I love my characters and liked revisiting with them from time to time, but lately, as in the last few years, I haven’t had enough time. The novella I transcribed? I probably haven’t read it since it came out in 2007.

Maybe the 4 years without reading it is why it felt like someone else had written it. Or maybe it was the weirdness of reading it aloud instead of reading quietly. Either way, it was a surreal experience.

What was nice about it was that I didn’t try to edit it. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from rewriting my backlist stories even though I vowed I wouldn’t. I did change one word. I used happening twice in one paragraph, but other than that, I had no urge to fiddle. Definitely a plus since I’m a perfectionist leaning toward anal perfectionist.

I hope this holds true as I go through the scans of the books. The novella was written closest to my current writing style/ability and the books are earlier. I’d like to not feel any desire to tinker beyond fixing a few things that got changed that I didn’t care for–a clunky, run-on sentence, a sentence that had a few words cut out of it that made it less musical and changed the meaning slight. Things like that.

I also am going to add the missing pyramid to Ravyn’s Flight. No one ever called me on that, but, well, ouch! I didn’t know there was a pyramid when I wrote the first book, but learned it was there in the second Jarved Nine book. I guess Ravyn and Damon didn’t care about the pyramid.

Stay tuned for more exciting backlist book action.

Tags: books, shards
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

It’s Wednesday? Wow.

Wednesday, May 7th, 2008

I forgot it was Wednesday. Really.

It has been a busy week so far and shows no signs of letting up any time soon. I’m beginning to get a new appreciation of how much my dad took care of for me now that he’s laid up. For example, tonight after work I have to go to the post office and mail out some stuff. That’s something my dad has always done for me in the past. It might not seem like a big deal, but it gets to be when it’s added to an already over-full schedule.

Enough about that. The big news is that on Monday I found out that someone broke into the house next to my parents’ place by kicking in the front door! Gah! Apparently, nothing was stolen, but that raises more worries than it quiets. Why didn’t they take anything?

On the good news front, my anthology story, Dark Awakening in Shards of Crimson, is a More Than Magic finalist for Best Novella! Yea! This is Kimi and Nic’s story and my first attempt at writing short, so it’s nice to have validation that I did all right.

This weekend, despite the fact that I don’t have time to do it, I have bulbs to plant in my garden. They arrived–believe it or not–on the same day my dad had surgery and have been sitting in the refrigerator ever since. I also realized that the replacement plants for the ones that didn’t make it last year should be arriving very soon, too. With a little luck, they’ll come this week so I can do it all at once and get it all done.

My garden is actually greening up nicely! Lots of leaves up for different flowers. I took pictures with the intention of posting one, but like I said, I forgot it was Wednesday, so I’m writing this at work and my pictures are still on the digital camera at home.

Tags: garden, parents, plants, shards
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Power Nap: Thumbs Down

Thursday, April 5th, 2007

When I was writing The Power of Two, I used to take these twenty minute power naps. They were enough to refresh my brain, but not so long that I ended up feeling groggy when I got up. This seemed like a good solution for me yesterday. I’d do a power nap, wake up refreshed, get a lot of work done, and then be able to sleep that night. Sounded like a good plan.

I left my blinds open so it wouldn’t be dark. I didn’t turn my air cleaner on because I’m used to sleeping with that running. Twenty minutes, I told my subconscious/higher self/unconscious.

An hour and fifteen minutes later….

I finally woke up. I was groggy and had a hard time focusing my thoughts. I was also pretty awake at 10pm, but I had to try to go to bed because I get up at 4am. I’m not sure how long I tossed and turned last night, but it was a while, and this time, I didn’t get any brilliant ideas for the WIP.

So I’m tired. Again. I overslept. Again. I’ll have to answer comments later because I’m pushing right now and I’m moving at about quarter speed–both mentally and physically.

On a slightly more interesting note, I found a blog where my books and writing are liked! I swear I didn’t search my name. I don’t do that anymore. I was hesitant about checking it out because if people don’t like my books, I’m much happier not knowing. Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because she reviewed Shards of Crimson and had some interesting observations. The one that caught me had to do with Kimi’s age.

My original plan was to write Kimi when she was older, like done with college and out in the world for a couple of years, but I couldn’t because it’s part of the series and we had to stick closer to that time frame. Because I was stuck with Kimi being 19 in Through a Crimson Veil, the most I could age her was to 20. I think she grew up a lot during the course of the book, but she was young enough that she was still learning who she was. That made things dicey for me because Nic was much older (he’s a demon and long lived) and I didn’t want her molded by him. Does that make sense? I was hoping that by the end of the story, that the reader had a sense that she’d grown up enough and had developed enough confidence in herself, to hold her own with Nic.

But I do wonder what she would have been like and what the story would have been like if I’d written her when she was older. I write by listening to the characters, so her age would have changed everything.

Tags: shards, sleep, what-ifs
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Shards of Crimson

Saturday, January 20th, 2007

Did I ever announce here that Shards of Crimson had been released? I suppose I could go back and look in the archives, but it’s Saturday morning and I’m feeling way too lazy. Anyway, Shards came out on January 2. Yea!

I’ve received some really nice comments from readers about Dark Awakening and that’s so nice to hear! Normally, I try not to mention fan mail on the blog, but I was sweating bullets over writing such a short length for the very first time ever. It’s nice to know it worked. I even heard from one reader who’s picking up my backlist. Whew!

Anyway, there are four great stories set in Crimson City (the world Through a Crimson Veil was set in) by four of the authors from the original series: Liz Maverick, Carolyn Jewel, Jade Lee and me.

Dark Awakening is the story of Kimi and Nic, Mika’s cousin and half-brother. Kimi has caught the attention of a twisted and evil Bak-Faru demon, and with Mika and Conor unavailable, she summons Nic. Nic’s had a run-in before with the demon after Kimi and knows how dangerous he is, but Kimi is his vishtau mate and he’d do anything to protect her.

You can read an article where all four of us talk about our stories at Revision 14. There’s a comment feature, too. You’ll notice my information is much shorter than anyone else’s. If you’re thinking I finally learned the art of brevity, you’d be wrong. I thought that we were supposed to keep it short because it was part of a larger commentary by Liz. If I’d realized the format, well, I would have run on a lot longer. No one has ever accused me of writing short.

Anyway, I have to get going. I have an appointment to get my hair cut, and boy, does it need it! It’s been annoying me for months and someone asked me the other day if I was growing it out. Nope, just too swamped to take the time to go to the salon. Today, I’m taking it, though.

Tags: shards
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Shards of Crimson Is Out!

Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007

Shards of Crimson is out today! This is an anthology set in Crimson City with four new stories by Liz Maverick, Carolyn Jewel, Jade Lee and Me.

My story is Dark Awakening and the hero and heroine are Kimi Noguchi and Nicodemus. Both were mentioned in Through a Crimson Veil although neither physically appeared. Kimi is being hunted by a dark demon, and with Mika and Conor out of town, she calls on Nic to protect her. Nic’s been avoiding Kimi for her own good, but now that she’s summoned him, all bets are off.

Yesterday, despite the 3:30am wakeup call, was a stellar day! Because it was a holiday for most people, the traffic was nearly non-existent which made the commute in okay. Yeah, the side streets were horrible and so was the highway, but the freeway was in decent shape. I got like the best parking spot at work since my union was the only one required to work and the office was empty. No one else was there. One of my engineers did show up around 10, but he stayed for less than an hour and he’s nice and quiet, and because I was able to concentrate, I got a ton of work done.

I was able to wear weekend clothes, which means extra casual and the commute home was fabulous! I couldn’t believe how light the traffic was. If only the freeway was like that every day, I wouldn’t hate driving so much.

Worked on my edits some more. I’m still mulling over a comment about Deke and his reaction to his circumstances. Part of my problem is the scene where he might be off-balance is in Ryne’s POV and Deke isn’t going to admit to her–or display in any way she’d notice–that he’s rattled. It’s displaying a weakness and he doesn’t know her, so he wouldn’t do that. The next chapter is in his POV, but by then he’s reached a few conclusions and he’s not shaken up any longer–if he ever was.

POV can be a bitch. On the one hand, I understand why Deke should be rattled, but he’s too used to thinking on his feet to display this, and short of headhopping, his reactions are going to seem to be calm. On the other hand, yeah, you’d think he would be freaked out. It’s this same thinking on his feet quality that makes him a guy who takes things as they come and doesn’t dwell on them or worry too much about what he can’t change. He just deals with what is. And by the time I’m in his head, that’s where he’s at. So I’m mulling for now.

Tags: driving, edits, EDJ, midnight_hour, pov, shards
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Old Celebrities and Shards of Crimson

Wednesday, December 27th, 2006

My parents have some of the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts on video and we watched the one where Johnny Carson was the man of the week on Christmas. As they introduced the people on the dais, I’m thinking: He’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead, she’s dead, he’s dead, etc. For the ones that were still living, I was like, wow, he looks so young! There was only one person on the stage that had me going: Who the heck is that? It was some blonde woman and I don’t remember her name.

Mostly, the show held up fairly well. There were some jokes that just weren’t funny any longer, but Bob Newhart was still very funny and George Burns. Rich Little did all of Johnny’s mannerisms and that was hilarious too because then Johnny stopped trying to do any of those gestures. BTW, whatever happened to Rich Little? I haven’t seen anything about him in ages.

Overall, it was a nice, relaxing Christmas and spending an hour watching Dean Martin is no hardship even if he was older during this show. Have I mentioned this crush I developed on Dino when I was 9? I saw a movie called Artists and Models and fell madly in love with the man. Of course, I had no concept of how old that movie was or how old Dean was, but I still enjoy watching his movies and shows and listening to him sing Baby, It’s Cold Outside.

I received my author copies of Shards of Crimson yesterday afternoon. Hurrah! This might be the first time these arrived before I’ve found the book in the store. Of course, I’m giving the mall a wide berth right now anyway because I don’t do crowds. The first thing I did was check my dedication/acknowledgment page because I didn’t get to proof that with the story. The second thing I did was check a few spots in the book that I’d wanted changed from the galley. The three changes I checked on were all made–whew! If I could have remembered the others, I would have checked on those too, but my memory isn’t that good and I was too lazy to dig out the copy I made of the galley.

Speaking of Shards, there’s still time to enter the Super-Deluxe Crimson City Action Pack Contest! Lots of cool prizes. You can check it out on the Contest Page of my website.

Carolyn: I’ll try remembering your sentence for affect and effect. It might help. But my problem isn’t when it’s something that’s fairly straightforward–at least I don’t think it is. Although I suppose if I could figure out if the way I’m using it is a noun or a verb, that might help me.

Tags: shards, TV, video
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off