Things went a little better at work today. Mainly because I got left alone for a lot of it to work, but I'll take my victories where I can get them. I did identify a large bug in the system though as I was trying to take my screen shots, so I got an attaboy for that.

Went out to the mailbox and my signed contract with Fandemonium was there. Huzzah! Took the family out to dinner at one of the local Japanese restaurants and enjoyed some new dishes. Along with various rolls, I tried Toro Tartare, which is basically uncooked tuna in a special sauce with some tempura flakes to give it shape. Very interesting dish. Not necessarily something I'd like to order every time but definitely worth trying. Finished off the meal with a dish of Green Tea ice cream. Nom.

Came home and started working on the last chapter of Shadows. Well, actually, I started working on it this morning. As you may recall, I mentioned two people appeared in the last chapter who hadn't been in the book earlier? Well, I was going over some stuff while getting ready for work and all of a sudden I realized why a couple of sections earlier in the book just didn't seem "right". It was something I was going to go back over in the edits, but although it was O.K., it just felt like there was something I was missing.

Eureka moments are cool.

All of a sudden, I knew why those guys were there. I also knew I needed to add in another chapter and a bridge chapter and two chapters needed X re-written . . . so I was scrambling around, bouncing ideas off of wishweaver and as soon as I got to work, I scribbled all my ideas down so I wouldn't forget them. Then tonight, on Shadows, I decided to go ahead and finish the last chapter before going back to add in the other stuff (I'll just tie it in with the regular re-write) and WOW, some other stuff popped up in a conversation between two characters that ties in so well with the stuff from this morning. I've added that to the notes too.

It's strange. Now that I've reached the end of the story, I now know what the story is I'm trying to tell.

Yes, I had an outline.

Yes, I had a pitch I had to give to the publisher.

None of that has been superseded. What's happened is I now know how to best focus the story to meet the approved plot points.

Writing is a bizarre little business.

I added another 1734 words to Shadows tonight. Might have gotten some more in, but ran into daytonward on Twitter. He was trying to test his new Skype account, so I buzzed him as soon as he'd finished downloading everything. We visited a bit about his Star Trek projects, his other projects, writing in general, our military experiences, especially in basic training (or boot camp for the Marines out there), watching old PBS shows, Doctor Who, Stargate, The Unit, the 4400, and god knows what else.

Two hours later, we decided his Skype system was working. And, the germ of a Star Trek proposal is percolating in the back of my brain. Definitely need to work on the idea and I may have to pigeon-hole kradical at Shore Leave. I'm thinking copious amounts of scotch might help.

It's amazing. Get two writers together and all of a sudden story ideas just appear out of thin air. *grin*
_________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1753 / 1000 words. 175%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

72502 / 80000 words. 91%

Words for 2009

63938 / 365000 words. 18%

Survived the usual gauntlet of idiots on the highways of Maryland and put in my time at work.

Came home, hit the accountant's office and payed for our tax returns. Then ran by the mall to get a new watchband. While I was waiting for them to finish with my watch, we went into the Borders Express next door. I picked up one book and ordered two. I snagged The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, which looks pretty good. Actually, the cover to his second book really caught my eye, but once I saw it was #2, I decided I probably ought to read the first one so as not to confuse myself. *grin*

I've been twittering with Yasmine Galenorn for a bit, so I thought since I was here I should sample one of her books. Of course, they had #2 through #5 of her current series, but not the first one in stock. So, I went ahead and put in an order for Witchling and hope to get it soon.

While I was there, I went ahead and pre-ordered jimhines's upcoming The Mermaid's Madness through Borders too. What can I say, I really liked the first one of his Princess series. This series is a keeper (and yes, Jim, you can quote me. *grin*).

Came home and started working on Chapter 16 in Shadows. I didn't have quite the momentum I'd had this past weekend, but I still managed a respectable (for me) 1598 words tonight. Still on target to make the deadline, which is the important thing.

And now, time for bed.

Night!
_________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1598 / 1000 words. 160%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

51251 / 80000 words. 64%

Words for 2009

42697 / 365000 words. 12%

(Typing the title just as a song from an anime soundtrack comes on . . . talk about serendipity.)

Some friends of ours recently returned from a tour in Japan with their company. Outside of being highly jealous because I'd kill for that opportunity . . . (OK, that might be a bit extreme. I might maim for that opportunity), I was pleased for them. Chris and Jodi were two of my kendoka friends, in fact, Chris is the one who introduced me to Kendo.

Just before they returned, Jodi contacted me regarding getting the daughter-unit a kimono to hang on her wall. The package just arrived and the kimono is absolutely gorgeous! I don't have any pictures of it yet, but as soon as we can get it hung on her wall, I'll be posting some. wishweaver received a cute little stuffed "lucky cat" and I received a neat sake set, which I hope to put to use sooner than later. *grin*

Chris did look into picking up a katana while he was over there, but the one he found that he really wanted . . . well, let's just say he could buy a house here in Maryland outright with what they were asking for it. *yikes!* I suspect we'll have a lot of stories to swap when we get time to get together after they settle in.

This all dovetails with my Stargate story, because I am using the Shavadai (from Emancipation (Season One)) for Shadows of the Heart. I've been busy going through the various "baby name" web sites looking for Mongolian names to adapt to become Shavadai names and comparing Mongol history and artifacts against what was on the show and trying to blend the two.

(And who said doing tie-in work wasn't educational?)

Speaking of Shadows, I added 1458 words tonight, coming close to the 1500 I'm shooting for a night. It was a fairly easy section to write. Once I got going, the conversations just seemed to occur naturally, rather than thinking about how X would respond. They just did and transcribing is a lot simpler than writing. I love it when that happens.

Besides jimhines's book, The Stepsister Scheme, I'm currently reading two other books. One is Charles de Lint's Little (grrl) Lost and the other is H.P. Lovecraft, Complete and Unabridged. Just reached The Call of Cthulhu and am about halfway through it. On the nightstand, I also have The Journeys of Marco Polo. As I said once, one story launched a thousand adventures, the other, a thousand nightmares. *grin*

Yeah, I have eclectic reading tastes.

And now, to bed, perchance not to dream of Software Requirement Documents . . .
______________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1458 / 1000 words. 146%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

11952 / 100000 words. 12%

Words for 2009

4398 / 365000 words. 1%

Wow.

Even though the team I was rooting for failed to win the game, it was without a doubt one of the more intense games I have watched years. I have to admit, with the Chiefs latest run of futility, I haven't been big into the post-season as I was earlier in my life, but hey, I used to be a huge St. Louis Cardinal fan also before they ducked out on us and slithered off to Phoenix. Still, I had to root for them tonight for nostalgia's sake at least (plus, the Pittsburgh fans around here are obnoxious enough as is).

I did get some writing in this afternoon, which is good, since it's been very hit or miss lately. Still, I now have a hard deadline for my Stargate SG-1 novel, so it's time to get back to work. It's going to be a sprint more than a leisurely plod, but we have all the contract stuff straightened out (inshallah) and I am going to make sure I hit this deadline. I'll post some word counts tomorrow.

Work is being work. Trying to decipher developer's notes so I can turn them into standards documents is not my first choice of "fun stuff", but hey, that's why they pay me the (semi-)big bucks. I just hope all the writing at work doesn't burn me out and keep me from writing on the Stargate stuff in the evening.

And speaking of other worlds, I read jimhines's book The Stepsister Scheme. If you haven't already you haven't already picked this up, I highly recommend that you do. I picked it up at the local bookstore and thought I'd just read a few chapters yesterday to get a feel for the book. A few hours later, I found myself finishing the book. It takes a lot of what you think you know about fairy tales and turns them on their head. I definitely am looking forward to the sequel. Good job, Jim!

And speaking of fractured fairy tales, I also recommend the web comic, No Rest for the Wicked. Another look at the realm of fairy tales and a surprisingly quick read considering the number of strips he has out. I've been scanning around and adding a few new web comics to my list of things to read, so if you have any favorites, feel free to make a few recommendations here.

And with that, I think it's time I go to bed.

Three big projects coming up at work and for once, I think I'm actually holding my own. Of course, 90% of my time is still spent fighting Microsoft Word's inability to format the same thing the same way twice. *Fhtagn* (The Lovecraftians will recognize that word . . . and run.) Still, things are going well and I'm still managing to get in some writing at lunch. I'll probably have more to add to Harbinger this weekend.

Got a copy of The Sky's the Limit and The Quality of Leadership off to my folks tonight. Thanks to the gang at mikescomics who went above and beyond getting me some copies of TQoL. I know Dad loves showing off the books to everyone . . . just hope he enjoys reading them also.

BTW, If you're wanting to pick up the Doctor Who book, don't wait for Amazon to get around to bringing it over here, Mike's is the way to go. (This was a completely unpaid and heartfelt plug. I like supporting people who take care of their customers.)

Had to take the Matrix in for an oil change, so while wishweaver was playing with her new shiny (see this entry for more raving about her new iMac. Well, almost new . . . it's refurbished, but it's definitely new to her and it's frappin' HUGE! It's got a bigger screen than our small flat-screen TV. I can't wait to see how it handles a DVD.

Anyway, while I was at the Jiffy Lube, I snagged one of my writing notebooks out of the trunk and spent some quality time writing. Yeah, I guess all that Army training is coming in handy. Not only can I sleep damn near anywhere now, but it seems I can write almost anywhere, background noise notwithstanding. Oh, and by the way , I was not trying to sell books while I was there, for those who follow the NEPAT or the Never-Ending Publish America Thread over at Absolute Write.

(Wow, tonight's theme really seems to be parenthetical asides and inside jokes.)

Somewhere in all this, I did get work done on the unnamed project. I added 1376 words and have completely confused at least one of the main characters. I may need to go back and flesh this scene out a bit more tomorrow night before pushing on (lots of talking, not so much description). I may want to readdress how I build up some of the tension here before I get to one of the early reveals. It's still early, but I'm already having fun with this book and once we get out of the "recap and reintroduce characters phase, it's going to pick up steam in a hurry."

But for now, I'm running out of steam, so it's off to bed.

Night, LJ.
____________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1376 / 1000 words. 138%

Progress on Unnamed Project: SotH

3723 / 100000 words. 4%

Words for 2008

157252 / 366000 words. 43%

Unreality SF has posted a review on the newly released Doctor Who: Short Trips The Quality of Leadership.

They had this to say about "The Price of Conviction":
"Richard C. White is up next, with The Price of Conviction, a tale set in Germany. The story's requisite "leader", Martin Luther, doesn't make as much of an impact as a character as I'd perhaps expected, but White makes up for it with a suitably-grouchy First Doctor and a energetic and intelligent Susan, both of whom leap vividly off the page."

It was a lot of fun working on this thing and I can't wait until Shore Leave to get as many of the other authors to sign a copy for me as I can. This is one I'm gonna be proud to show off for some time to come. *grin*

Took the day off from work. Spent most of the day out running around with wishweaver, where she helped me pick out some new shirts and ties for work. (Taking advantage of those Memorial Day Sales at J.C. Penny's. Stafford no-iron shirts are wonderful time-savers.) Also stopped by Yankee Candle and checked out the new stock. Even when we don't buy stuff, it's always interesting to see what new scent combinations they design.

Got home to find This sitting in my mailbox. I was teasing Wish that now I'm an "internationally published" author. Of course, that and $2.50 will buy you a cup of coffee, but it still sounds good. *preen* (My friend, Tee Morris, did have to point out that he's been an internationally published author all along (Dragon Moon Press is out of Canada), so that did deflate the ol' ego a bit after that.) I'm enjoying the stories I've read so far and am very proud to have a story in the same book with the other authors.


Here's a picture of the cover. I can see why the other authors were really digging on the cover. It looks a lot more dynamic in hand than the Amazon picture looked.



Made it up to Balticon and ran into perivayne who helped straighten out various issues (like no badge), and informed me that I now have a reading and a signing on Sunday. So, yes, all my events take place on Sunday, but at least I'm beginning to feel like I'm earning my guest pass. I also ran into dzeytoun, pbray and jpsorrow, and then yogcmarthoth and scifilaura. I saw klingonguy across the room at the Meet the Pros gathering, but I didn't get a chance to talk to him. Maybe tomorrow . . . oh, right, maybe later today.

I attended the New Media party, where I ran into Tee Morris, who was DJing for the party as well as several other podcasters (some I knew and some were new). I also talked to one of the organizers of AnimeUSA and may be doing a panel or two at their convention later this year.

Finally slipped out and headed home. Now, it's definitely bed time.

Nothing too exciting to report today. Work went pretty well, got a couple of small assignments. Which in their own way was good since they'll help prevent there being humongous assignments toward the end of this build on the project. I'm also helping format a document that'll become a template for a different team.

None of these are going to take a lot of my time, so I may be able to work in a little writing here in the near future.

Came home to fight with my current web provider (Sitelutions.com) and the owner of the domain name I really want to use (Register.com). See, I bought richardcwhite.com in an auction last year. I'm trying to transfer it from Register to Sitelutions. Actually, I've been trying to transfer it for a couple of weeks now but it keeps failing. I've already been on the phone with Register.com and if I have to call them back I'm not going to be happy. It seems the "transfer number" they issued me keeps coming back as invalid when Sitelutions tries to secure my address.

I came home, read through everything on both sites, re-watched the tutorial that Sitelutions provided on how to get stuff from Register.com to them, copied down pertinent notes, had one in one tab and one in the other so I could verify the fact that I can copy stuff down on paper, typed in the number the lady had given me on the phone (which did match the e-mail Register sent me) and now we wait. If I get a failed message again in the morning, I'm going to be a very unhappy camper when I get Register's help desk on the phone again.

This should NOT be that hard.

*sigh*

Oh, and I did do some writing this evening. Added another 1263 words to Steel on Target, which has taken another turn I wasn't suspecting. This could be good or it might be a prime target for the cutting block when we do the rewrite, but I figure I might as well see where it's going to lead.

And with that, I'm going to read another couple of chapters in Cruel Zinc Melodies and call it a night.
________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1263 / 1000 words. 126%

Progress on Steel on Target

49551 / 95000 words. 52%

Words for 2008

139445 / 366000 words. 38%

Had an interesting discussion with the daughter-unit at dinner this evening. She's got some drawing chops and she's also developing her own characters for stories. Not sure if she'd thinking about doing web comics with her characters or writing stories or what she's going to do with them, but we got into a discussion of fiction, fan fiction, Mary Sues and Original Characters in fan fic.

One of the things we discussed was how to make your stories more unique, especially when you're young and can't just travel all around the world soaking up experiences. (Hell, I'm old and have only been out of the country a few times - and for the record, getting assigned to a war zone does not count.) I suggested people make Mary Sues many times because they haven't read enough, both fiction and non-fiction to create realistic characters. This feels especially true in fan fic - if you don't have anything else to base characters on, or like in Harry Potter, are only familiar with the movie versions, you don't have the depth to really make the characters come alive. So, you write about what you do know well, which tends to be yourself or at least an idealized version of yourself.

Now, self-insertion is not bad in and of itself. It can be handled very adroitly - I think about how Stan Lee and Jack Kirby wrote themselves into various Marvel comics all the time, (Spider-Man's wedding for example). However, they never made themselves the focus of the story.

The problem is, inexperienced writers don't see how they're shoving the main characters off to the side with their idealized selves handling the problem while juggling six chainsaws and balancing on a bomb at the same time. I don't think people intentionally set out to write Mary Sues (well, outside of the parodies where it's obvious the author knows exactly what they're doing). I think they're just making beginner mistakes and many will progress beyond that and move on.

Daughter-Unit wasn't thrilled about the concept of "non-fiction" because she sees non-fiction in the same category as the textbooks she has to read for school. However, I pointed her toward a couple of my favorite non-fiction books and hope she'll make some time to read them. One is the Pulitzer Prize winning The Rising Sun by John Toland, which tells the story of WWII from the Japanese point of view. Toland and his wife (I believe she was Nisei, but I could be off here) were granted access to Japanese military papers, prisoner, ex-soldiers, civilians as well as letters and diaries that were collected right after the war. It 's a nice counter-balance to the standard retelling of the war with several anecdotes that in turn amused and aggravated me. I read this back in 1974 and I remember finishing both books in one sitting. I was very pleased to find a set of first editions in a used book store a few years ago still in their dust covers. *geeky grin*

The other favorite non-fiction book is Under a Black Flag by David Cordingly, which is a rather unromantic, yet still highly readable book about the Golden Age of Piracy. Anyone writing pirate or privateer stories needs to have this book in their arsenal.

As wishweaver and I pointed out, telling a story is basically telling a lie with enough truth in it to make people believe it could have happened. The more the author learns about their subject, the easier it is to work the lies (the story) into the truth (the setting for the story) without people spotting where the seams are. The more you read, the more you see how other authors weave their magic and create their characters.

Perhaps not your typical dinner conversation, but it was fun listening to her dissecting her favorite fan-fics (especially the Twilight ones) and listening to why she thought various ones worked or didn't. I guess growing up with two writers in the family, she's doomed. *grin*

OH, yeah, I did do some writing of my own tonight. I'm almost through with Chapter Nine for Childhood's Tears, adding another 1419 words to it. I've almost made up for slacking off this weekend. *huzzah!*
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Words for tonight

1419 / 1000 words. 142%♦

Progress on Childhood's Tears

35841 / 90000 words. 40%

Words for 2008

124816 / 366000 words. 34%

Went out for a nice afternoon with the family. After braving the mob at Costco to get gas, we decided to try a new place for lunch today. It was nicely decorated, the service was attentive, and the food was good. The prices are a bit steep, so it's likely to become an "occasional" place, but it was certainly worth the effort to try it out. We've known it was there for years, but it was one of those things we were "going to get around to trying". Well, now we have and it was worth the effort.

Swung by Borders to let the daughter-unit pick up the newest Black Cat manga collection. I saw a few things that looked interesting, but just couldn't pull the trigger. I guess I'm feeling guilty about all the other books on my shelf waiting to be read.

Ran some errands with wishweaver after that and then settled in to watch some TV with the family. Caught an episode of Numbers from the 1st season DVD and then I watched Avatar, the Last Airbender before relinquishing the channel changer so Wish and the daughter-unit could watch Forensic Files and Body of Evidence.

After that, I headed up here, read several agent's blogs that I'm way behind on, responded to a few posts on Absolute Write, checked the responses to the latest Writer Beware blog post and contemplated my next blog entry before settling down to write.

I was thinking I was going to have to rip out part of what I wrote last weekend for Chronicles of the Sea Dragon because I was afraid I'd started down a rabbit trail that was going nowhere. But, I figured, let's wait until I get to the rewrite stage first. No editing during the first draft is one of my rules. Get to the end before letting the inner editor out of his cage. And, 1578 words later, I think I've taken what I thought was going to be an unproductive change to the story outline and have tied it back into where I thought I was going originally. See, I have to keep reminding myself, let the story go and I'll surprise myself how much better the story gets when I'm "writing" it rather than "outlining" it.

Don't get that last statement wrong. I still believe in the initial outline to make sure there IS a story somewhere in there, but I'm not a slave to it. If something better comes along, I'd be stupid to ignore it because I didn't think about it when I wrote the first outline. Like stories, outlines come in many drafts also.

Tomorrow is looking like a laundry and writing day, so I better get some sleep tonight. Night, LJ.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1578 / 1000 words. 158%

Progress on CSD: Dragon Couchant

81477 / 100000 words. 81%

Words for 2008

87510 / 366000 words. 24%♠

No words tonight.

Seriously brain-dead from work. I am glad I'm back to my tech-editing as opposed to working at the help desk, but the two offices I support were without a tech writer/editor from October until January and they're definitely using and abusing me right now.

Document from hell is still kicking my butt from an editing pov. I will be very pleased to give this back to the person I received it from next week.

I had a nice dinner with the daughter-unit and wishweaver and then hit Borders (hey, today was payday). The daughter picked up a couple of manga books as did I. Then I snagged my first OED (the Concise OED), while Wish picked up a couple of computer books.

This is the first new dictionary *I've* had since I was a kid. I've been lugging around my Merriam Websters Dictionary (copyright 1965) ever since I got it in first grade. It's still in good shape and I still love all the stuff that comes in the back of it (although the predictions about the operational base on Mars by 1995 was a little off), but it was time to get a dictionary that has words that deal with things like . . . oh, I don't know . . . electronics, DVDs, personal computers, video cameras, mp3s, etc.

They had a nice leather bound two-volume set of the Shorter OED, but I really didn't have the $350 to buy it. Maybe when I hit that big advance . . . yeah, right.

Yeah, I know the web is full of on-line dictionaries, but I'm still a big fan of pulling the dictionary down to look for a word, mainly because I keep finding other words that suggest story ideas to me that way. (Besides, dude, this is the OED.) When I was a kid, I was one of those who would read the encyclopedia for fun, which came in real handy on my ACTs and SATs, let me tell you. I think I was the only kid in the fifth grade who could draw a map of the Ottoman Empire, not to mention, I was probably the only one in the class who knew there was an Ottoman Empire. I still read reference books cover to cover when I'm bored.

(I can hear Wish now . . . "Well, that explains a lot." *grin*)

Story ideas are everywhere if you give them a chance.

And now, I can really tell I'm brain-dead, since I'm rambling on about dictionaries and encyclopedias. *grin* I think I'll leave it all though. It's all part of the writing process.

Well, as you've probably noted, (all six of you who read this journal), I've been absent. There was a legitimate reason. Actually several, now that I think about it and all equally valid, at least to me.

I had a writing opportunity drop into my lap on Tuesday. It was a very short notice thing and both wishweaver and I had to think long and hard before I agreed to it. Basically, one of my lj friends needed me to pick up an assignment for him that he was running out of time to accomplish. It looked like it would be a lot of fun, but the rub was, I had to finish the book by March 15.

( Writing Death Race 2007 )

However, the good thing that came out of this, and why I've been off line the last couple of nights is, for the first time in a very long time, I just sat and read for pleasure.

Yep, let me point that out again. I read two books just because I could.

See, over the past three or so years, I've probably read less than a dozen fiction books. The rest of the stuff I've read has been either writing work-related (Star Trek SCE books, the latest Star Trek novels or anthologies), hoping to get writing work-related (media tie-in books for lines I'd like to write for) or else non-fiction books for my original stuff (Japanese History, pirates, medieval fighting styles, Celtic legends, etc.)

But just reading for fun is hard to do. In fact, terri_osborne was working on an idea for a story to pitch and I recommended Gordon R. Dickson's Wolf and Iron as something she might enjoy reading. She brought up the point that she just didn't have time to read for fun any more and I had to start thinking about how long had it been since I'd just read. Heck, I think I have 35 novels on my "to be read" pile . . . good books, highly recommended to me, but I just don't take the time to read them.

Well, that's going to stop. I'm going to try and dedicate a little time, either when I first get home to de-stress or else right before bed, but there will be some reading whenever possible. I want to get back into the joy of why I'm writing. I'm a writer because I was a reader.

No, change that. I am a reader. And I'll get back into the habit again.

After all, it's just like riding a bike, eh?

OH, and I did get some writing done tonight. Added 1207 words to Steel on Target and now I think I'm going to go to bed at a reasonable hour for once. Well, reasonable for me.

With a book *grin*
____________________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1207 / 1000 words. 121%

Progress on Steel on Target

23324 / 90000 words. 26%

Words for 2008

55135 / 366000 words. 15%

I've mentioned a little bit about my Doctor Who story that I had been working on. However, today, we got the final word from Big Finish that we could start promoting the book. So, rather than regurgitating everything, I'll just add in the link to kradical's blog regarding the upcoming release.

The Quality of Leadership

The only thing I'm a little disappointed in is the book is coming out in May instead of March. Still, that means I should have copies in time for Balticon.

I'm excited it's coming out now, but it's also a little bitter-sweet. The Price of Conviction was the last thing I've sold and I've been in a bit of a slump in selling new stuff. So now, I need to get busy and get some new pitches out there as well as finishing some of my original stuff.

Ah, the joys of an almost free-lance writer.

I'm not certain what happened, but I woke up this morning and just felt like crap. Don't know, maybe there's something we're passing around in the family. Maybe it's the weird weather (cold, then warm, then cold, then warm again) that's upsetting my body. Whatever it is, I was just wiped out this morning, so I called in sick and then went back to bed. Slept in until 1345 today, even with the phone ringing every so often from solicitors and the workmen downstairs banging away.

Felt pretty good though when I woke up. Which is pretty much my SOP for illness. If I can sleep it off, I usually get over stuff a lot quicker than if I try to work through it. Call it my mutant healing ability if you will. Course, what I have to do is not sleep SO late that I can't go to sleep at a reasonable time later that night. Especially since I'm a night owl by nature anyway, so getting onto a late-night schedule is way too easy for me.

Took the daughter-unit out with me when she got home from school to get me some lunch and her a milkshake. We hit Arby's since they have Jamocha shakes (my favorite), and then stopped by Metro Coins so I could spend a little of my Christmas money I'd been saving on a couple of Morgan Dollars I'd had my eye on. I really enjoy visiting with Dave and Steve (the two brothers who own the store) and the daughter-unit picked up some inexpensive foreign coins. She was really impressed with the Australian 20 pence coin with the platypus on it. She's not really into "coins" like I am, but she likes the ones with animals on them - Canadian Timber Wolves, Chinese Pandas, etc. Hey, anytime she's into something I am, it's a blow for fathers of teen-age daughters everywhere. *grin*

wishweaver and I took her to Fidos tonight and enjoyed visiting with the other dog trainers and parents while the juniors got to spend some time working with the dogs. Course, next week should be extra fun for the daughter-unit since they're bringing in the new puppies to get them socialized, which is a highlight for the juniors every month. They have every type of dog from Pomeranians to Old English Mastiffs, but collies, irish setters, corgis and labrador retrievers seem to be the most common breeds. They had the most beautiful Standard Schnauzer there tonight along with three black standard poodles that nearly came waist-high on me. If only regular poodles were as calm and well behaved as their standard cousins. *sigh*

Managed to get some writing in this evening, adding 1201 words to Steel on Target. I also finished the first Battle Angel Alita manga series tonight with issue nine. Given where they left the story at, I'm going to have to start picking up Battle Angel Alita: Last Orders pretty darn soon. It's not a book for everyone - pretty graphic in the ol' violence department - but the story is very compelling and the art complements the story nicely.

But, now, bedtime so I can get to work tomorrow. (Like it or not. *sigh*)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1201 / 1000 words. 120%

Progress on Steel on Target

12968 / 90000 words. 14%

Words for 2008

10926 / 366000 words. 3%

I think I may understand some of my writing doldrums this year. I sat down and realized that I have read damn few books this year. Oh, I'm keeping up with my favorite manga series and I've watched quite a few movies this year. However, I haven't really spent time reading, at least, not like I'm used to. Most of the reading I've been doing has been strictly non-fiction for either school or else researching things for my stories.

The trouble with that is, I haven't been recharging my muse by reading other fiction though.

Luckily, that's changed here lately. I've started spending a little time reading the past few weeks and I'm noticing I'm getting back into wanting to work on my own stuff. As I was mentioning to swan_tower, I've been enjoying her books and I've found myself wanting to tell some of the tales she hasn't gotten to yet. She's built a vibrant world to put her characters in and I know there's more stories hiding in the distance. I guess I can finally see why people enjoy fan-fiction so much.

(Yeah, yeah, I know I'm a tie-in writer - fan-fiction is different, trust me)

So, what's my point? Reading good fiction is making me want to write so I'm trying to divert that enthusiasm and energy back into my own work. Plus, reading good stuff is helping me raise the bar on my own work also. I guess the old dictum - "If you want to be a good writer, you have to be a good reader" - really does apply.

Speaking of which, I finished up Chapter Two for Childhood's Tears tonight, adding another 1226 words. So, through two chapters, we're at 6852 words for the story. Rather short chapters for me, but I have no doubt they'll be much changed by the time we're done with the rewrites down the road.

But now, it's time for all good writers to call it a night so they can get to their "real life" jobs in the morning. Night, everyone.

Went and saw The Golden Compass this afternoon. Pretty pleased with what I saw, but I would have preferred if the story had an actual "stopping" point ala Star Wars versus the way it ended ala The Fellowship of the Ring. The world was familiar enough that I could logically follow what was happening, yet different enough to keep the suspension of disbelief going.

After discussing the movie with wishweaver and dzeytoun over dinner afterward, I find it interesting that I see "Star Wars" as the way to write a trilogy. In fact, I've used that analogy before at panels I've sat on at conventions. Note, I'm discussing the original trilogy, not whatever he foisted off on us in the second trilogy (but I seriously digress here).

Star Wars - 90% complete story. Sure, there are hanging threads, but if they'd never made another movie, it could easily stand on its own.

The Empire Strikes Back - Everything goes to hell in a hand basket for the heroes and the story ends in a cliffhanger. If they hadn't made the third movie, there would have been lots of torqued-off fans. I know there were a lot of torqued-off fans leaving the theater that evening who knew they'd have to wait three more years to figure out what the hell was going to happen. Something Pirates of the Caribbean tried to address by shooting 2 and 3 so close together and I was very appreciative for their efforts.

Return of the Jedi - While I thought it tied up too many of the cliffhangers too soon, still everything in movies 1 and 2 were dealt with and there was a (mostly) successful resolution to the story. (Jabba's death seemed almost like an afterthought. I expected taking his organization out would be much more of a problem, much less Bobba Fett's (apparent) death which was more of an "oops, sorry" than methodically taking out the "greatest bounty hunter". Quibbling I know.)

Still, it applies to novels. Write #1 as if you're never going to sell another book, because weird things happen and if for some reason, #2 and #3 don't come out, at least your readers get a complete story. I keep thinking about The Architects of Sleep by Steven Boyett. I loved his work on Ariel and quickly bought Architects when it came out. It was obviously the first of a series and ended on a cliffhanger.

And he never wrote the sequel.

Hell, I thought maybe he'd died or something, but eventually, through the wonders of the internet, I found it appears he never wrote the next book and went on to do other stuff.

Hey! What happens next, Steven? I've been waiting since 1986 to find out!

See, I'd be less aggravated if the first book had been a complete story. At least I'd feel like I got a story instead of half a story . . . one that will never see print.

And, on a cheerier note, I did get back to writing. Well, I have been doing some work on Steel on Target, but I've been handwriting it the past few days. I'll get around to typing my new additions to that story pretty soon. Tonight, though, I did work on Childhood's Tears and added another 1237 words to the story. I should finish Chapter Two tomorrow night barring something weird and be ready to have the heroine meet one of the major bad guys in the next.

I'm already deviating quite a bit from the original plot I'd submitted to Abbadon, but it's really fun slipping Rowena and company into the world of the Chronicles, and while I don't foresee the two main characters interacting, I do foresee some of the secondary characters appearing in both sets of books. It'll be interesting to keep track and see where their paths almost intersect. *grin*

All right, time to call it a night.

Still working on my chapter breakdowns, but since today was the 16th, that meant The Sky's the Limit was supposed to be out at the local bookstore.

And guess what . . .




It was!

Following klingonguy's lead, I've been slowly uploading my library into Library Thing. I also ordered one of those cute little Cue Cats to help speed up the process. Although, I'm finding it's having trouble with bar codes from books over ten years old. So, I foresee lots of typing in ISBNs in the near future.

Still, it'll be nice to finally have a list of all of wishweaver's and my books somewhere. Nothing aggravates me more than not being able to remember if I have a copy of something already until I've already bought it and see it sitting there on the shelf mocking me.

I've added a little toy on my profile page. Library Thing will be posting random books from my library there, so if you ever wondered just what the heck I read but don't want to wander all the way to Library Thing to check out my library, then I'll just bring my library to you. *grin*

OK, I'm a geek. What can I say?

Besides, it gave me an excuse to get a Read or Die (R.O.D.) avatar.

Well, the rest of my vacation didn't exactly go according to any plans . . . much less mine.

Wednesday went pretty well. I wrote that morning and spent the evening visiting with my friend, Tee Morris. We discussed writing, family, and different types of beers. Tried a nice one called Tres Pistoles, a dark belgian ale . . . very tasty. I definitely recommend it.

Tee and I come at writing from different directions. He's written several novels (quite good ones, in my opinion) as well as writing for Wiley Press (Podcasting for Dummies and the follow-up coming soon). However, his publisher doesn't have the distribution to get him into a lot of stores. I've done a lot of work and had decent sales, but so far, I haven't had anything original published (all media tie-in work so far). We're like opposite sides of the same coin. Still, it's fun to talk about our different experiences and goals as writers.

Thursday was my birthday, so that was a no-writing day.

Friday started out pretty well. Until water got spilled on my laptop. *sigh* Here's hoping it's going to dry out and start working again. Right now, the b key is inoperative, the touch pad is shot and typing any other key starts the b key (typing continuous lines of b's, making it impossible to write, use the internet, etc.). I'm hoping it'll eventually dry out, because the shop wants $209 just to look at it (apparently spills aren't covered under the warranty) and if I have to replace the keyboard or the motherboard, it goes up exponentially. *double sigh* So for now, I'm using wishweaver's laptop and debating on whether its worth the effort to fix or simply replace mine. Bleah.

Saturday, we had a friend of my daughter's over and then Wish was out for a while, so I didn't get to leave for Shore Leave until about 10pm. Still got to visit with kradical, terri_osborne, bill_leisner, tiggeralyn, daytonward and a host of other Trek authors. Lots of good conversations and definitely not enough time to visit with everyone.

Sunday, we had mollymorrison, sorentenshi, and dzeytoun over to go see the Order of the Phoenix. Well, they got to see it. I kept my daughter company at the mall since she didn't want to see it and I'm not quite comfortable turning her loose in the mall for three hours on her own, quite yet. Yeah, I'm a nervous dad, so sue me.

So, not much writing done with all this going on. Still, I think the basic experiment went pretty well. I'm convinced if I were to get to a point where I'm working part-time and writing part-time, I could set up a schedule and stick to it fairly well.

We'll just have to see what the future holds.

Well, it's been a very busy weekend to say the least.

Friday night, we had a sleepover for one of our daughter's friends. Her sister's were in the hospital for surgery and we offered to keep her so she wouldn't have to stay at the hospital all night. They dropped her off about eight that evening and picked her up around ten-thirty the next day. She seemed to be in pretty good spirits, but it's obvious she was worried about her two younger sisters. I'm so happy that the daughter-unit has been relatively healthy all her life, except for this vision thing.

She got examined a few weeks ago and the doctors are very pleased with her progression on her vision therapy. She's still in sessions, but showing progress and that's all we can ask for. I wish we could have caught this years ago. Might have saved a bundle of trouble in school, but hey, you do what you can with the knowledge you acquire as you go. *sigh*

If you've read wishweaver's journal, this may not be news, but we had been thinking about selling our house and moving to a newer place a few months ago. We've been working with a general contractor to have the house spruced up to get it ready to sell, but circumstances have changed and it looks like we're staying. So, we invited the guy back and are seeing about having the interior of the house remodeled instead. New kitchen, finishing the basement, new bathroom appliances, turning a room into a library for all our books, etc. He's going to be getting back to us with an estimate and then we're going to go to the bank and listen to them laugh at how much we want to borrow. *yipes* If we do everything we discussed, it'll be like having a whole new house. The contractor said we could do it in stages or he could do all the work at once. Both options have their good and bad points, but I'll worry about that once we talk to the bank.

Saturday night was bike riding. wishweaver and I went further this time than last and at a much quicker pace. My legs were a little rubbery when we made our way upstairs, but it was a good feeling. I'm going to try and take advantage of some time off here and do a little riding on my own as well as riding with Wish at night.

Yes, you heard that right. I'm taking this week off from work. I have quite a bit of leave saved up and I've decided to take advantage of it. Besides taking the daughter-unit to summer school in the morning, I'll be using this week to see how much writing I can get done. It's sort of a trial "if I were a full-time writer" gig. Do I have the self-discipline to take advantage of the time off or will I get sucked into the "I've got time, I'll do it later" mode? Tune in to follow the adventures of "Writer-Man".

Today, Wish and I decided to visit the antique malls in Ellicott City, MD. I found a few treasures there. One was the five volume set of "The History of the American People" by Woodrow Wilson (1902) for $16.50. It was in incredible shape for a set of 105-year-old books. I also had to pick up the "1928 Guide to American Railroads". I figure if I ever want to do a noir story set in that time period, I've got a great coast-to-coast adventure guide right there.

The final treasure was finding a copy of Follow My Leader by James B. Garfield. It follows a young boy who's blinded in an accident and how he gets teamed up with a seeing-eye dog named Leader. Wish read it this evening and found it amusing that the dog's initial name was "Sirius". *grin* I bought this book back in 1967 from the Weekly Reader Book Club. I glanced down in the Antique Mall and spotting this lying on the floor and just stopped dead. I remember the story still, even though I haven't owned this book since the late 80s when my folks cleaned out my book collection after I joined the Army.

Oh yeah, I did some writing this weekend too. But that's another post.

Wow, I'm not sure what happened today, but I darn sure wish I could bottle it. Although I slept in this morning, once we got back from a damn fine Indian Buffet (*yum*), I slipped behind the computer and began writing.

Took some breaks to help wishweaver resetting up her computer and finding out it was doing the same darn thing again that it had been at the computer shop for twice already. Finally, we just wiped everything with the recovery disk and so far, so good. The intermittent re-booting seems to have stopped and she's been able to reload most of the stuff on her computer that she wants. Also helped out hauling laundry up from the basement to the upstairs bedrooms with the daughter-unit. But, for the most part I was able to just sit and write today.

I don't know if today is a personal high, but it's certainly close to being one of the high points for 2007. 2651 words were added to the Chronicles today as well as setting the basis for Act Two in this story. While I still envision Chronicles as a three book series (Dragon Couchant, Dragon Guardant and Dragon Rampant), the first book needs to be a complete stand-alone story by itself, just in case the other two don't get sold.

I like to think of it as the Star Wars method of writing trilogies. Star Wars - definite ending although there were some threads unresolved (rebels still fighting empire, Darth Vader surviving, etc.). Empire Strikes Back - everything goes to hell in a hand basket for the heroes and a definite cliff-hanger ending. (Much weeping and gnashing of teeth ensued when I realized there was no resolution and I "had" to come back for part three if I wanted to know what would happen to our intrepid crew. I cursed George Lucas's name greatly in the years between 2 and 3 (the real 2 and 3).) Return of the Jedi - threads resolved, guy gets the girl, bad guys dealt with and big finale to wrap everything up. (Much less taking Lucas's name in vain, although I think I'm one of the few people who liked the Ewoks - I recognized the tribe vs. civilization fight that has been fought since pre-Roman times.)

This is how I think trilogies should be done. Give me a good solid story with a satisfying conclusion in the first book and I'll eagerly seek out anything else using those characters in that world. Even if Brian Dailey hadn't put out Starfollowers of Coromonde, I loved Doomfarers of Coromonde. It didn't need the second book to make the first enjoyable, but having enjoyed the first book, it made the second book not only enjoyable, but comfortable . . . like coming home.

But, getting back to my stuff, I'm working to make Dragon Couchant a good stand-alone story, that just happens to tie into the next two books. Course, that presupposes that I get around to finishing it. *sigh*

Words for today

2,651 / 1,000 (265.1%)

Progress on Dragon Couchant

44,771 / 100,000 (44.8%)

Words for the year

50,251 / 365,000 (13.8%)

Otherwise known as an excuse to go to Barnes and Noble and spend money.

Luckily for me, I received a $25 gift card for B&N at work the other day, so I decided to make good use of it. Hit the "sale" table for books and came away with a nice haul.

The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, 1577-1580 by Samuel Bawlf
Captured by Pirates edited by John Richard Stephens
The Tao of War by Wang Chen, translated by Ralph D. Sawyer
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

I'm rather pleased to find The Tao of War was translated by Sawyer. He was the translator on my copies of The Art of War and Military Methods of the Art of War. Actually, I'm pretty pleased with all my purchases. I've been wanting to add The Count of Monte Cristo to my library for quite a while.

In fact, the only things I didn't pick up tonight was The Divine Comedy by Dante. I used to have a great copy in white leather that I lost in the divorce. *sigh* I can find the individual pieces as books, but I'd like to pick it up as one complete book. It would go nicely on the shelf next to Machiavelli.

Got my pitch for the anthology off in the mail this evening. Nothing to do now but start thinking up other ideas in case the editor wants something different. Of course, that's supposing he doesn't ban me from ever e-mailing him another pitch *grin*.

Oh, the music library slowly is being restored. I've uploaded eleven albums this evening (5 anime soundtracks, three goth/heavy metal and two new-age (according to iTunes)). Only about sixty or so to go.

*whimper*

I had a small realization the other day. Since I received my contract from Big Finish and cashed the advance check, I guess I'm now an "internationally published writer". *grin* Well, the credit union wasn't quite certain what to do when I presented them a check for X pounds sterling, that's for certain. OK, it's only a short story, but still, it sounds impressive, doesn't it?

Must have done something for me though, since I knocked out another good evenings worth of writing on Chronicles of the Sea Dragon. Finished up the big fight scene, sent the opponent's ship to the bottom of the sea, but my poor crew is now being accused of being pirates. It'll be up to the valiant captain to talk his way out of this one.

This fight sets up the real conflict in the story, forcing the opponents who've been dogging the crew's trail all book out into the open and I get to bring a character I've introduced earlier in the book back into the spotlight. I'm looking forward to the next section of the story. < kenshin >That I am.< /kenshin >

Also, began reading a book I picked up at the Smithsonian a few months ago entitled, War at Sea in the Age of Sail, 1650 - 1850 by Andrew Lambert. Even though he's discussing warfare with cannons, I can see a lot of applicability to the story I'm writing in a world without gunpowder. Early ship to ship combat relied on wearing down your opponents and boarding actions were usually required for decisive decisions except in huge battles between entire fleets. Another good resource for people thinking about writing naval/pirate fantasy.

Words for Today

1,460 / 1,000 (146.0%)

Progress on Dragon Couchant

37,592 / 95,000 (39.6%)

Words for the year

43,648 / 365,000 (12.0%)

They've announced the authors for the 2007 Star Trek Anthology - The Sky's the Limit.

Here's the list and known titles at this time.

- Christopher L. Bennett ("Friends With the Sparrows")
- Fred Bronson
- Greg Cox ("Thinking of You")
- Keith R.A. DeCandido ("Four Lights")
- Bob Ingersoll & Thom Zahler
- David A. McIntee
- Scott Pearson ("Among the Clouds")
- Michael Schuster & Steve Mollmann ("Meet With Triumph and Disaster" & "Trust Yourself When All Men Doubt You")
- Susan Shwartz ("Turncoats")
- Amy Sisson
- James Swallow ("Ordinary Days")
- Geoff Trowbridge
- Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore ("Acts of Compassion")
- Richard C. White ("Redshift")

Obviously all that clean living, hard work, dedication (and a momentary lapse of sanity by an editor) convinced someone to turn me loose on the Next Generation franchise. What have they done? *grin*

Had my first session of ENG-211 tonight. I think it's going to be a great class, as soon as a few people in class understand that not everyone in the class is as interested in their opinion as they are. I expect our instructor let the class run a bit tonight to see how people were going to react and to identify the "problem children" early. She mentioned that she'd noticed me biting back a few retorts and wondered why. I had to explain that being one of the oldest people in my classes, I tended to dominate class discussions and I was consciously trying to be more of a listener this semester, but not to worry. I would contribute when I thought it was appropriate.

We're going to be covering some very interesting books this semester. For the section on Biomedicine and Genetics, we're reading "Beggars in Spain" by Nancy Kress and "Fledgling" by Octavia Butler. For Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, we're reading "I, Robot" by Asimov and for Society and Politics, we're reading the Aeon Flux Graphic Novel, "Brave New World" by Huxley and . . .

(Insert depressing music here)

. . . "Dune" by Frank Herbert.

(Insert sound of head banging against desk)

My old nemesis rises from the library graveyard once again to mock me. The book I've attempted to read six times and have yet to get past the fourth chapter is now required reading. AAARRRGGHH!!!

O.K., got that out of my system. We'll also be watching some movies in class - Gattaca, A.I., Dune (second AARRGH!) and another to be announced. We're pushing for Blade Runner, but she isn't committing to anything yet.

Shouldn't be too much writing in class - a small reading journal (2 paragraphs), 6 prepared questions about the assigned reading and 3 essay papers. After last semester, that should be a piece of cake.

(internal editor, "Famous last words . . . ")

Hush, you. All righty, time to start writing and get some projects finished before the rest of semester catches up with me.

OK, I didn't have a great weekend of writing. OK, I had a really bad weekend of writing.

We'll put that behind us and persevere from this point forward.

I made it to Virginia yesterday to pick up the daughter-unit although there were several times it was in doubt. There was just enough snow and ice on the roads to make things treacherous and I counted at least sixteen accidents between here and there. Might have been more than that on the way back, but in the growing darkness, it was hard to tell. What normally was a two hour round trip became the five and a half hour crawl.

The worst part was dealing with the idiots who decided their time was too important, so they were doing neat things like driving on the shoulders because the four lanes of traffic were moving at about fifteen miles an hour. Of course, these were the same people I passed later, standing out on the side of the road, looking at their now not-so-pretty car with a dumb look on their face like "How did that happen?" I really just wanted to roll down the window and smack them as I drove past. Idiots.

Got home, collapsed on the couch and if wishweaver hadn't called, I might have spent the night there.

Had a fairly good day at work, all things considered. Got some writing in during my lunch hour, as well as getting a letter from the first agent about Harbinger. I anticipate hearing something, one way or the other, in a few days. Keep your fingers crossed out there.

So, unlike last Friday, I am a bit more motivated now. I added another 1204 words to Redshift tonight and it looks like I'm going to go long on the first draft. (What, you're surprised? You must be a new reader.) Still, I'm pretty pleased with it and look forward to going back through it and having time to tighten it up before the deadline instead of rushing through it.

With tonight's addition, I'm 1,593 words behind schedule. Grrrr. Hopefully, I can make up some time this weekend to make up for my lack of motivation/illness this past one. Oh, to be able to type quickly.

Been reading The Myths and Legends of Japan and drooling at the thought of doing some fantasy set in Medieval Japan. Course, I do have some other projects in line first, but that's never stopped me from prepping and doing the world building ahead of time. Still, Chronicles of the Sea Dragon, Troubleshooters Incorporated and Shattered Mirror have to come first.

Curse my overactive imagination.

Words for Today

1,204 / 1,000 (120.4%)

Progress on Redshift

8,146 / 10,000 (81.5%)

Words for the Year

20,407 / 365,000 (5.6%)

I received a package in the mail today. It's a copy of my Gauntlet novel, sent to me by one of my friends back in Missouri, Brad Caudle. Brad is working as a teacher's assistant, primarily with learning-challenged kids.

Brad was having problems getting through to one of his students who was more of a discipline problem than a learning-disabled child. Brad has been challenging him to read more and found out he likes video games also. Brad told him that if he could avoid getting into trouble for a period of time and bring his first quarter grades up, he knew an author and would get him to sign a book to the kid.

Well, George met all the criteria this last quarter, so Brad called me up and asked if I would mind signing a book to George.

Insert Jim Mora playoffs clip here Mind? Are you kidding me? Mind? End Jim Mora clip

Needless to say, I was tickled pink over the compliment. Unfortunately, I didn't have any copies of the book left, so Brad offered to procure it and mail it to me. He wanted to pay for the return postage also, but I told him that I'd be happy to pick that up for him. I felt it was the least I could do in this situation.

So, the book arrived tonight and I'll be signing it and trying to get it dropped off at the post office as soon as I can.

That is, as soon as I can get this silly grin off of my face.

Between the last journal entry and the day I had at work on Friday, I decided a mental break from writing was probably the best thing I could do. Spent Friday evening visiting with wishweaver and mollymorrison and we watched Memoirs of a Geisha. It wasn't a "bad" movie, but it wasn't a "great" movie either. Very beautiful costuming and cinematography, but the story was disjointed at best. Personally, I think it would have been better if the story had been set in Japan of the 1860s rather than the 1930s/40s, but your mileage may vary.

Went to the bookstore this evening and picked up some good books. My find for the night was that Barnes and Noble had put Shelby Foote's, The Civil War on their discount racks. Picking up three books which normally cost $40+ for $14.99 each was a great steal. I also added some books on Japan and the samurai culture to my collection. I found Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai by Yamamoto Tsunetomo; The Lone Samurai: The Life of Miyamoto Musashi, translated by William Scott Wilson (who also translated Hagakure; The Sword adn the Mind, translated by Hiroaki Sato; and Myths and Legends of Japan, originally written by F. Hadland Davis in 1913.

Yes, as you may have guessed I'm considering doing a fantasy series set in Eastern culture rather than a pseudo-European setting . . . once I get Chronicles and Shattered Mirror out of the way, that is.

While we were at the bookstore, we got a call from mollymorrison to let us know that sorerutenshi had proposed to her. We got together for a celebration dinner and had a great time looking through a bridal catalog at wedding dresses. (Of course, wishweaver and I teased them unmercifully.)

After all that, I finally got a chance to sit down and do some writing and research. I bookmarked the list of Enterprise-D crew members and have been reading about some of the minor characters who wandered in and out of the show for my story. It's always good to have some supporting cast for a story. Plus, if you can use already identified characters, that's less names you have to make up. *grin*

Finished the next scene in the story and am about to move to one of fun scenes in Ten-Forward. Wesley Crusher is going to wish he hadn't decided to go there. *cue evil laughter*

Words for Today

1,095 / 1,000 (109.5%)

Progress on "Shadows"

4,594 / 10,000 (45.9%)

Words for the Year

16,755 / 365,000 (4.6%)

(thoughts snurtched from puppetmaker40's blog)

Today would have been J.R.R. Tolkein's 115th Birthday. If DiAnne Cowan hadn't lent me a copy of the Lord of the Rings trilogy for Christmas vacation in 1978, I have no doubt I'd never have considered trying to become a Science Fiction/Fantasy writer. I had pretty much stopped reading fantasy or SF, having moved almost strictly into non-fiction (biographies, military history, astronomy) by then.

However, when I got home from college, I started reading The Fellowship of the Ring. 36 hours later, I finished the appendix for The Return of the King. Yes, I read the trilogy in one sitting, (which I'm certain annoyed my mother when she came downstairs and found me still sitting up reading . . . like that never happened in High School). I was completely fascinated with the books and my interest in fantasy was rekindled.

Tolkein led me to Katherine Kurtz and the Deryni series, which led me to Anne McCaffery and the Dragonriders of Pern, then Brian Daley and the Doomfarers of Coramonde and Andre Norton's Witch World, Lynn Abbey's Daughter of Bright Moon, Glen Cook's Black Company series and so on and so on . . .

So, at 2100, lift a toast to the Professor. Some find him fascinating and some find him hard to read, but few can question the effect he's had on the imaginations of SF/F readers since his books were published.

I think I may curl up with the Hobbit tonight and enjoy another jaunt through the Misty Mountains . . .