Survived another Monday at work, actually got some stuff done, received my first set of edits by the development team and now am busy correcting my misconceptions of how this system works and making new pictures to help me demonstrate my new-found knowledge.

There are times I wish I could just make the developers write some of this stuff and let me clean it up. They probably spend more time trying to explain stuff to me than they would just breaking down and typing up a few paragraphs.

I didn't get any work done on the book yesterday. wishweaver and I went out for a "short" trip to Tyson's Corner, VA. I had intended to get home around 6pm and get back to work. Instead we wound up meeting friends for dinner and I got home after 9pm. Had a great time, but really didn't have the time to spare. Still, it was nice to meet up with mollymorrison, sorerutenshi and April (my co-author on Shattered Mirror) and much good Japanese food was eaten by all.

Came home from work tonight ready to make up for lost time.

That was, until Chapter 11 reared its ugly head. I spent three hours tonight working on the one chapter. I wrote, re-wrote, added, shifted, deleted . . . In general, this chapter looks only vaguely like it did at the start. Officially, I've added 373 words to Shadows, but there was probably a couple of thousand words written tonight all told.

I'm hoping I get the corrections made on the document at work tomorrow early. I'll be taking in a few chapters with me to try and edit in any slack time I can get. Just need to ask Wish where she's hiding the "Red Pen of Doom" (pat. pend.)
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Words for Today (officially)

373 / 1000 words. 37%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

85570 / 80000 words. 107%

Progress on Shadows of the Heart's revisions

11 / 25 chapters. 44%

Words for 2009

77066 / 365000 words. 21%

Trying desperately to finish a web site at work. I was on the last page, making one last revision and then all of a sudden, one of the entries in a table is now mysteriously setting above the box instead of in it.

Now, this was working all day as well as in all the previous drafts of the page both in IE and in Firefox. Then, I make *A* change and poof, it's wrong on every page on the site.

I do so love CSS (especially script I didn't write but have to live with). I spent about 30 minutes fighting with it and then said, "the hell with it", and decided it could wait until tomorrow morning. But, it just galls me to know I was "that close" and then have something stupid happen like this.

*AAUUGGHH!*

And given the rest of the day at work, that was the icing on the cake.

Came home, read a few of wishweaver's For Better or For Worse collections and gathered up my computer and began working on Childhood's Tears. Hammered out 1238 words tonight and probably could have gotten more done if I hadn't spent (aka wasted) time looking through Wikipedia for some information (which of course led to the earlier entry).

Also, spent time on Sunday working with April on Shattered Mirror. We went over Chapter Eight and actually, there aren't as many revisions on this as I had anticipated. One of the lines I used in the chapter led us to discuss more on the nature of the mythology we're adapting and by the time we were done, we had refined the actual plot of the book (and any subsequent visits to this world), three new sub-plots and had created two versions of a fae Knight's Templar or Teutonic Order that were going to be bedeviling our characters in the near future.

It was fun just bouncing ideas off of each other, tossing some, accepting some and revising others. Some people say writing is a solitary business, and I guess in some ways it is, but I'm enjoying the heck out of collaborating on this one at least.

I have to admit, all the books I'm working on right now are a lot of fun. When I sit down and get started, the words just seem to flow out and it's more like I'm transcribing what I'm observing than actually making the stuff up whole cloth. That's when I know I'm in the zone writing.

But, it's time to call it a night and get ready to fight my old nemesis in the morning.
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Words for Today

1238 / 1000 words. 124%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

37079 / 90000 words. 41%

Words for 2008

130477 / 366000 words. 36%

Met with our contractor today and picked out the bathroom fixtures for the master bath and the upstairs bathroom as well as the faucets for the bar in the new family room and the new half-bath in the basement. We discussed different options and one thing I'm looking forward to is putting a deep tub with the jets in it. Nothing like a whirlpool bath after a long aggravating day.

It also appears that they're hoping to get started on the kitchen renovations sometime next week. wishweaver and I will be busy hauling stuff downstairs into the new pantry once they give us a definite start date. It's tough . . . I want to have most of it done now, but we still need the food, dishes, glasses, etc. until they're ready to gut it.

Oh, the joys of home renovation.
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As mentioned in the entry subject, the NFL held its draft today. Personally, I think the Chiefs made out like bandits, picking up Glenn Dorsey (DT), Brandon Albert (OT), and Brandon Flowers (DB) with their first three picks. I would have loved for them to have tried to trade into the 2nd round again to pick up a defensive end, but given all the holes in the Chiefs' line-up, it's going to take a couple of drafts to fill everything we need.

Still, this is, by far, the best first day draft I've seen for the Chiefs in almost twenty years. I can't wait to see how things go tomorrow.
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I need to finish my slides for the Maryland Writer's Conference for Saturday. It's my second time representing Writer Beware at a convention, but the first time was presenting the annual report at the SFWA meeting at NASFIC. This is my actual first time as a presenter/representative.

Yes, I am nervous, thanks for asking.
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Did some work on Childhood's Tears while my daughter had an appointment this morning, but since I didn't transcribe those words onto the computer, they'll have to wait for tomorrow's word total. I did work on Chronicles of the Sea Dragon tonight after I finished listening to the draft and the myriad discussions about who did well and who fell on their swords. I added 1010 words to the list.

Not sure how much I'll accomplish tomorrow. We're going down to visit with my collaborator, April, and her family tomorrow. We'll be going over my first pass at Chapter Eight for Shattered Mirror while we're down there. Depending on when we get home afterwards will determine whether I stay up and write or just crawl in the sack.

Which I'm getting ready to do now.
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Words for Today

1010 / 1000 words. 101%

Progress on CSD: Dragon Couchant

91343 / 120000 words. 76%

Words for 2008

129239 / 366000 words. 35%

As I have mentioned once or twice, once wishweaver finished her degree next spring (Inshallah), I hope to get started on my MFA in Creative Writing. Well, there are several programs in the area I can apply for, but the two I'm most looking into is the one at John Hopkins or else the one at the University of Baltimore.

I went on-line today and found out they were having a Graduate School open house on the 30th. That sounded like a great time to meet the admissions people so I can get everything organized and any and all waivers I may need to track down before I start applying in Jan 09. (Let's just say my first time through college back in 77-82 was less than stellar. *sigh*) But, it didn't seem quite what I was looking for, so I found the Creative Writing Program's advisor and gave her a call.

As I had thought, she wasn't going to be there, but she invited me to attend a reading at the college a week from today. They're having a "nationally known poet" and it'll "give me a taste of what the program is like". She also invited me to be sure to introduce myself to her afterward so she could give me a briefing on the program and what they'd be looking for.

Then I got to the sixty-four thousand dollar question and I was right . . . they aren't interested in genre writing. (OH, that's a big surprise, White. An MFA program uninterested in SF/F/H? Oh, hush.) Still, I have an idea for the fifty page sample of my writing (aka: "first three chapters") that might be a fun little thing to do that's more of a historical fiction piece. She was interested in the fact that I had professional credits, even if they were genre-related.

As I said back when I was working on my AA in English, it's not a bad thing to stretch your writing muscles and try new things. And hey, if I can convince work into paying for most of it, why not. After all, they're the ones beating me up about not having a Masters.

Didn't hear from my collaborator tonight to discuss what I'd done with the latest chapter of Shattered Mirror. I have a feeling she got stuck at the office again. There are good things about being a manager and there are less than good things about it. I think the "overtime" you're expected to put in at a moment's notice is definitely one of the "Not Good Things".

Switching gears back to genre, I continued working on Childhood's Tears tonight. I was a little distracted tonight for some reason, but I still hammered out 1,125 words and finished Chapter Eight. One of the supporting characters caught my two protagonists (and the writer) off-guard tonight. He was a tad more feisty than I envisioned him to be, which pleased me to no end. If I was to sell this and get a chance to do a sequel, I suspect he might just have to make an appearance in the next book.

Still, butt in chair, words on paper. It's all good.
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Words for Today

1125 / 1000 words. 113%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

32254 / 90000 words. 36%

Words for 2008

108712 / 366000 words. 30%

Finished Chapter Eight of Shattered Mirror this evening and sent it off to April for her critique. Hopefully, she'll have time to read through it before our regular Skype session, but if not, we'll work on it on line tomorrow. I only needed 563 words to finish the chapter. Probably should have finished it last night but there are lots of "probably should"'s in my past.

The Ft. Meade Science Fiction and Fantasy Club is spinning off a Writer's group and I've been working with the organizer to help him get it off on the right foot. I've been discussing things I've seen go wrong with other writer's groups as well as things done right. I also made it clear, I can't help out with fan fiction, but luckily, everyone seems all right with that.

Otherwise, it's been a pretty slow day. Work, haircut, dinner, writing. You know, the usual.

I also worked on Childhood's Tears this evening, adding 1041 words. Yeah, I know, not quite as productive as the weekend, *grin*, but not bad for a weeknight either.

(Course I might have gotten more done if I wasn't so interested in this asshattery. It was just two years ago, almost to the weekend that Lori Jareo made such a flaming fool of herself and now we can add Austin Torney to that pantheon. I'm just sitting back waiting for CBS/Paramount's lawyers to set their phasers to "frappe" and deal with this knucklehead.

Are people just trying to give publishers a reason to stamp out fan fiction or what?

I have to agree with daytonward's comment where he quotes Dave Galanter on another kerfluffle -
"Darmok, at the fan, when the shit hit."
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Words for Today

1604 / 1000 words. 160%

Progress on Shattered Mirror

563 / 563 words. 100%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

31129 / 90000 words. 35%

Words for 2008

107587 / 366000 words. 29%

Didn't get any writing done this weekend, well nothing on paper anyway.

My collaborator, April and her husband, Mark, came up this weekend, which was a darn good excuse to pull the house together on Friday. Unfortunately, that took more time than I thought it would, but it was time well spent. They came up on Saturday and we went to Elicott City to go shopping. Old Elicott City has a ton of antique stores and specialty shops, which makes it a fun place to windowshop.

One thing in particular I'm wanting to do is set up our new office downstairs in an oriental theme. The interior designer we worked with suggested it when he picked out the paint scheme; said it would be a relaxing motif for working/writing. We only hit a few of the antique stores (we started with the largest one and since Mark had never been there, we spent a couple of hours just there checking out all the various rooms (it's an antique mall over four stories). We did find a nice set of four Japanese screen prints and the dealer gave us a great deal since we bought the set. We're going to have to go back again, though, since we didn't find any other furniture that would compliment what we're already going to be moving into the room.

They had to go back early (unexpected commitments meant they had to be home for Sunday morning), so April and I only had about a half-hour to work on the story. We were working on one of the themes of the book when a plot twist occurred to us . . . one that will affect both sides of the on-going war as well as our main characters. It was such a revelation and it came about from a poem she's writing that the antagonists have regarding the situation. She read her current draft of the poem and *bam*, the answer to one of the questions I still had about the story was right there.

Man, I love "eureka" moments.

I was going to try and write yesterday evening, but we had a friend drop over for a visit. We had a good time and wow, was service fast at dinner, but by the time we wrapped up, I was ready to call it a night.

*bad writer, bad writer*

So . . .

to get to the subject of the title of this blog . . .

I thought I'd check my e-mail this morning before heading to work and there was a letter from the editor for the project I submitted to a while ago. She likes the proposal and needs a bio to submit with it to the licensor. Now, it'll be up to them, but if they like it, I'll be getting a contract soon (at which time, I'll stop being so coy and let you know what I'm doing for real). The manuscript will be due sometime in early 2009, (which sounds like a long time and I intend to be done well before then).

OK, I'm guardedly excited right now.

OH, hell, I'm ecstatic right night, but I'm trying to not get too carried away until I actually sign the contract.

But, I'll be grinning all day.

I wonder, do authors with many books under their belt still get goofy grins whenever they hear one of their projects has been accepted?

The document that wouldn't die at work is now down to the last four pictures I have to regenerate. Did I happen to mention that the original document I'm working from has the captions on these pictures in Ariel 4pt font? Thank God they gave me a .pdf to work from. I'm blowing these pages up to 400% to read them. I know what's happened. They made the pictures and then inserted them into the documents without paying attention to the scale. So, the pictures were downsized to make them fit on 8X11 pages, taking the font down with them.

OUCH.

But, it'll be over tomorrow. I will finish them by lunchtime. And then they're off to someone else to work on for a while.

After I quit on that project for the day, I knocked out two other assignments that had been on hold, so it was a pretty good day at work all the way around.

Took the daughter-unit out for her birthday dinner. She wanted to hit one of the local Japanese restaurants, so wishweaver and I had the hibachi while DU had her Shrimp rolls, shumai, soup and rice. (OK, I had some yellowtail and salmon sushi also, but the hibachi was the main course.) Then, while Wish was in class, I took the daughter out to GameStop and she picked up a couple of video games she'd been drooling over for some time. I think it's safe to say she made out like a bandit for b-day again.

Played some more Xenosaga tonight and then retired to write. Picked up pretty much where I left off last night and added 1657 words to Steel on Target. I'm trying to be careful to walk the fine line between being "too military" where I lose my readers in the jargon and "too civilian" where it doesn't feel like it's a military story. Still, now that we're in Chapter Seven, I'm hoping my readers would be able to follow some of the back and forth of milspeak. (Yes, it is a dialect.)

I'm going to have to spend some time tomorrow night cleaning before my writing partner April and her husband come up on Saturday. We're going to be celebrating Wish's birthday, my daughter's birthday and her husband's birthday Saturday night. Good times should be had by all.

(Just looking at my writing log. If I hadn't lost that week in the middle of the month, odd are I would have gone over 100,000 words for the year tonight. *sigh* I still should finish the month strong though.)

But now, bed and work tomorrow.
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Words for Today

1657 / 1000 words. 166%

Progress on Steel on Target

33154 / 90000 words. 37%

Words for 2008

93427 / 366000 words. 26%

I didn't get a whole lot done at work today. Just couldn't seem to pull the trigger and get "going". I piddled around with some stuff and had another major assignment dropped in my lap (and I still haven't finished the sixteen tasks on my current list yet.

Anyway, I came home and started putzing around with Library Thing, adding in some of the books I have piled up in here while we're waiting for the library to be built downstairs. (I'm writing from the guest bedroom currently.) All of a sudden, I realize, someone's buzzing me on Skype. I glanced down at the clock as I'm scrambling for my headphones and realize it's time for my weekly call from April to discuss Shattered Mirror.

We reviewed the four pages I had done so far and she had some good suggestions on how I could improve one of the sections. Then we started just brainstorming . . . should this character be more upset with what's going on? When is this character going to step forward and show some leadership? How long will this specific scene last before we move to the next encounter they need to get to? Stuff like that, only the ideas kept flowing and we kept coming up with "the reasons why things were like they were".

It was like a bolt of lightning hit the computers. We're going to have to go back and re-write some stuff in the first couple of chapters (like that's a big surprise, right), but now we know what the bad guys are doing. OK, we knew what the bad guys were doing and what their ultimate goals are, but now we know what they're doing and why they're doing it the way they are. We've also added in a new scene and will be introducing a new supporting character who's taking on a great deal more importance than when we first envisioned this person four months ago.

At first, she was important (with a small "i") as she served to move a few plot points forward. Now, after our conversation tonight, she's IMPORTANT and not only does she move the plot forward, she's demanding more screen time.

This is where collaborating with the right person is fun. We started out just talking about a few scene fixes and now we've added another sub-plot to the story and we just built on each other's excitement as we kicked ideas around. The fun part about working with April is, even though sometimes our approaches to this story are almost diametrically opposed, we talk over all the ideas we get and we're not afraid to try "goofy stuff", because sometimes that leads to the best ideas. We've also been friends since 1988, so we're not afraid to be honest with each other either. Also, I'm noticing she's gotten a lot less defensive about her writing the longer we've worked on this project, which shows me how much she's growing as a writer (or else, I'm getting a lot better at knowing how to critique . . . nah).

Unlike work, NOW I'm energized to work on Shattered Mirror.

But, I promised myself I'd stick to my schedule, so Shattered Mirror will have to wait for Friday. I pulled out Childhood's Tears and knocked out 1164 words in about an hour. I'm enjoying where this story is going also. I'm not exactly following the original chapter layout, but I'm close and the rabbit trails have been leading back to the main path so I'm happy.

Now, a little more reading and then bed.
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Words for Today

1164 / 1000 words. 116%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

26990 / 90000 words. 30%

Words for 2008

83115 / 366000 words. 23%

I have to admit, this is a very strange circumstance I find myself in.

I received an invitation to pitch for a media tie-in series that would be a great deal of fun. Well, at work today, I was talking with the other SF junkies in the office and as I was talking to them, I came up with the opening to the story. So, on my lunch break I roughed it out and then rewrote it tonight at home and had a couple of friends of mine who're big SF fans read it (it's only 500 words), and they liked it. Heck, even wishweaver liked it.

So now, I have the pitch, but no plot. I know exactly how I want the story to open . . . if I just knew what the story was. OK, I have some ideas . . . but nothing has congealed quite yet. I need to review a few more episodes to be certain I have all my facts straight and then I need to check the existing novels out there to ensure I'm not using some elements that have already been done to death. I figure I'll try to work up a half dozen plot paragraphs and see if two or three interest me enough to actually pitch them.

But, by God, I know what the first two pages of the story look like. *grin*

Backwards much, White?

Talked with April this evening, but between family illnesses and weirdness at work, she didn't get much of a chance to work on Shattered Mirror this past week. We spent most our Skype session reviewing SF/F on television and how when I was younger, SF was more action-adventure with some drama or comedy mixed in. Now, too many of the SF shows are trying to be edgy dramas . . . but that could be because shows get pulled so quickly these days, they never get the chance to build an audience. If ST:TNG was debuting these days, it probably would have been canceled given its first season. It didn't really hit its stride until mid-season two (IMHO). These days, it would have been canceled after eight episodes and another "Dancing with the Stars" clone would have replaced it. *bleah*

I think in some ways, animated shows (whether American or Japanese) aren't embarrassed that they're genre shows. They don't have to be "everything for everyone" or else "high drama". Action-Adventure isn't a dirty word in the animated world. Live SF/F on the small screen seems to take itself way too seriously these days.

*mutter, mutter*

Oh, I did get some writing done, btw. As I mentioned, the opening to the pitch came in at 508 words and then I added 1333 words to Childhood's Tears tonight. This story is driving me crazy. Yes, I had an outline, for all the good its doing me. Still, I know where I'm going and what I'm going to do when I get there, it's just taking a detour getting there on me.

Sorta like my pitch/plot.

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Words for Today

1841 / 1000 words. 184%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

16980 / 90000 words. 19%

Other related writing

508 / 508 words. 100%

Words for 2008

42865 / 366000 words. 12% done!

Well, I was right. Work was fun today, but it looked like things were calming down when I left the morning part of my job. The afternoon was an orientation meeting for the new one. Long (2.5 hours) but highly useful.

Got together with April tonight on Skype and we went over the first portion of Chapter Seven on Shattered Mirror. I think she's got a good start on it and we went over a few places that seemed a little hurried. I know she's wanting to get things moving in this chapter, but I'm afraid she may have introduced something a little too quickly. Still she's got a point. With a YA story, we need to keep things moving. We agreed to re-look things and review it again next week.

I'm really enjoying using Skype to collaborate. It's nice to be able to have the story up on screen while we're talking back and forth. Also, we can make corrections/suggestions and send the files to each other in real time. I know there are other VoIP programs out there, but Skype certainly works for me.

Settled in to write, but I guess that long meeting took more out of me than I thought. I only managed to add 575 words to Childhood's Tears tonight. I could probably force myself to stay up a bit later, but both mind and body are wandering tonight, so I think I'll listen to them.

(Word meter seems to be down . . . will get fancy later)

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Words for Today

575 / 1000 words. 57%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

15647 / 90000 words. 17%

Words for 2008

35300 / 366000 words. 10%

Well, let's just say I made good use of the holiday today.

Earlier this morning, I worked to finish the revisions on Chapter Six on Shattered Mirror before we went to visit April. It took a little longer than I had thought, but in the end, 3,147 better words were added to the story.

wishweaver, the daughter-unit and I went to see April and her family. For the first part of the visit, April and I reviewed the updated chapter and then worked on the outline and time line for Chapter Seven. We also added some more portions to the story bible, helping define what the antagonists, protagonists and a secondary group were doing that was driving some of the action as well as more back story for some of the characters. We also determined the rough dates when the story was taking place, a detail that hadn't been needed up until now, but suddenly became a plot point. I loves me some good brainstorming, yes I do. *grin*

Afterward, we enjoyed a nice dinner and watched a very silly movie, Help, starring the Beatles. I think April's husband Mark and I enjoyed it more than anyone else in the house, but so it goes.

I also was interviewed by April's stepson for a class project. He needed to interview a tech writer and I was the only one he knew. I was happy to help out with the assignment, but it was strange. I've been interviewed before but as a Student Senator back in college or as a comic writer, never as a tech writer before.

I also got some writing done on Childhood's Tears tonight after we got home. Not a whole lot, 567 words, but at least I have things moving on the story. It should be pretty easy to get something done tomorrow night (provided I don't spend too much time watching my war shows).

But, first I have to survive work tomorrow. *sigh* It was nice playing "full-time writer" for a day anyway.

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Words for Today

3714 / 1000 words. 371%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

12859 / 90000 words. 14%

Words for 2008

26300 / 366000 words. 7%

First off, the good news. They hired my replacement at work! Hopefully, we'll get this young lady trained up quickly and I'll be able to go full-time on the new job soon. Of course, I found out about this in a roundabout way, but who cares? It's a win-win all the way around. Huzzah!

Talk about a load off of my shoulders!

I had a great time working with April tonight on Shattered Mirror. Boy, did she have some serious edits on Chapter Six, but I like what she's done. When we talked last week, we said we wanted to pull some of the back story out of this chapter and save it for Chapters Eight/Nine and we also wanted to ensure both of our protagonists really shared the spotlight in this chapter. In my initial draft, one of them (the POV character) was pretty dominant and the other was hanging back. With April's rewrites, the POV character still has the lion's share of screen time but her partner makes her presence felt also.

I'm hoping I can get the chapter rewrites done on Friday/Saturday. We're getting together over President's Day for another face-to-face writing session and dinner at her place. (Sunday will still be a Chronicles day.)

Tonight, as with most Tuesdays, it took me a while to shift out of Shattered Mirror mode to start working on Childhood's Tears. Still, after a couple of false starts, I got started on Chapter Four, which is going to have a distinctly different feel than Chapter Three. In Chapter Three, I got to play Rowena off of one of the major baddies, who's very sophisticated, very educated and very evil. This chapter, we meet the other major opponent. However, unlike the first antagonist, this man only believes he's sophisticated and educated. Still, he is very evil also, just in different ways. *cue spooky music*

It's fun to watch characters develop their own sense of personality as the writing comes together.

*smile*
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Words for Today

1079 / 1000 words. 108%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

12292 / 90000 words. 14%

Words for 2008

18950 / 366000 words. 5%

I was thinking writing this evening would be easy. After all, wishweaver was in class tonight and I put together a good deal of writing last Thursday. What could go wrong?

Well, first off, I forgot I'd arranged with April to get together every Tuesday via Skype to discuss Shattered Mirror. As I logged on to write, there was a message from her waiting for me. So I buzzed her and was reminded about the appointment. Yikes! I quickly called up the latest chapter and we discussed the edits we wanted to make on it until 2030.

Then, I noted Tuesday night is my one night that I really want to watch TV. American Life TV runs their World War II shows tonight. So, I was torn between writing and watching The Rat Patrol, Combat!, and Twelve O'Clock High. Luckily for me, the episode of Combat was one I had on DVD, so I was able to get quite a bit of writing done during that show. I sort of pecked a few things out when the other shows were on, but I still managed to get 1063 words added to Childhood's Tears.

So, I'm going to have to rethink the schedule a bit. Perhaps I'll have to schedule some time before work or at lunch on Tuesdays to make up for my lack of enthusiasm while my shows are on.

Yeah, it's a little embarrassing after going on and on about trying to write every night and then being tempted not to just eight days in. *sigh*

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Words for Today

1063 / 1000 words. 106%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

9728 / 90000 words. 11%

Words for 2008

9725 / 366000 words. 3%

Been a while, eh, LJ?

Well, I have some news finally.

Last night I wrote on Shattered Mirror and am 1,620 words into Chapter 6c. (I say 6c because April and I have been rearranging some of the earlier chapters, so until I work my magic and organize everything, the chapter numbers are in a bit of a flux. So, not being quite sure if this was Chapter 6 or Chapter 7, I'm calling it 6c for now to identify it's variable situation. Oh God, I'm reduced to Algebra I jokes.) Still the writing is going well. It's the first time I've written this particular character's POV and I'm finding she and I have a very similar warped sense of humor. Hopefully, I'll have this chapter finished up soon.

Why you ask? Well that brings me to my second bit of news. I heard from the UK publisher today. I've been asked to provide a chapter breakdown and the first chapter of Childhood's Tears.

Whoo hooo!

That means I made the first cut on this novel. If they like the pacing of the chapters and the writing sample, I may be getting a novel with them. I'm not holding my breath, but I've made it past the moat. Now it's time to scale those walls.

Also, today, Ann Crispin called me and asked if I could come to Capclave and assist her with her "How to Get a Real Agent" workshop. What? I'm going to tell my boss at Writer Beware no? Especially since I live about 18 miles from this convention? So, I'm only going to be there for Saturday, (or part of Saturday . . . a lot depends on the daughter-unit's ability to get projects done on time), but it'll be fun visiting with Ann and her husband Michael Capobianco (the current SFWA president).

So, where do books fit into all of this? Well, there was a big box waiting for me at home tonight. My author copies of The Sky's the Limit arrived! Huzzah! Let me tell you, after working for a different publisher, the people at Pocket Books, esp. Marco Palmieri and kradical, have been like night and day as far as taking care of their authors. Although, Steve Roman at iBooks took good care of me too, but his boss was "unique". Yeah, that's the ticket.

So, all in all, a VERY exciting day to be an author. Almost makes the other crap seem worth it. *grin*

Not a real exciting day today. Spent a great deal of the day sleeping (took two Benedryl to deal with an allergy attack I was having, which usually makes me drowsy), but I did get some writing in this morning on Shattered Mirror (462 words), and on Steel on Target, (455 words).

April wasn't able to make it up here today, so there was only so much I could do on Chapter Six. I need to review her chapters to ensure I can match the character's voices and the continuity. Since we're supposed to meet tomorrow, I decided to do enough to have something to talk about, but I want to get copies of everything she has so I can review as necessary.

I finished the first chapter of Steel on Target and gave it a pretty good editing this evening.

So, even though the words for the day may seem a little down, they were good words and I'll take good over volume any day.

Words for today

917 / 1,000 (91.7%)

Progress on Steel on Target

2,686 / 90,000 (3.0%)

Words for the year

62,670 / 365,000 (17.2%)

We had a mob over at our house yesterday. A well-mannered mob, but fitting 20 people into our house was an experience. It was a mixture of wishweaver's and my friends and their kids. I think most everyone had fun, but as the hosts, we didn't get a lot of time to talk to any one person. I'm thinking next year, since the 4th falls on Friday (thanks to leap year), we may split the party up and have half on Friday and half on Saturday. Or be sensible and run for the hills . . .

I spent most of the afternoon out over the Webber, grilling hamburgers, hot dogs and learning how to grill peaches and pineapples. We also had two different potato salads, five different types of chips, dips, vegetable plates, corn on the cob, baked beans, soda, tea, Crystal Lite, water, salad, cake, cream puffs and I'm certain I'm forgetting something. Anyone who left hungry yesterday deserves their stomach twangs. There was plenty to go around and plenty for everyone to take home.

My friend April came up early on Tuesday evening. We had a nice time just visiting and unstressing from work. Watched The Mask on DVD and I must admit, the movie has aged well. It was interesting watching a very young Jim Carrey and realizing the film "introduced Cameron Diaz".

The next morning, April, Wish and myself went over the latest chapter in Shattered Mirror. It was a bit of a departure since this chapter is told from another character's viewpoint to give some other people a chance for character development rather than the main two protagonists. I think it works though, since the one guy who has really no idea what's going on is the narrator for this chapter and we can see how someone deals with a situation that is completely unreal. I'm picking up writing the next chapter and April's set a pretty high bar for me, especially since she left the chapter on a cliffhanger.

Plus, there's another story I need to jot some notes down for later development. Something about a Mickey Spillane detective type teaming up with a very normal guy and they discover the mystery they've gotten sucked into involves murder, a missing heiress, a voodoo queen and zombies of famous criminals. Yeah, the dream got a little weird right before dawn on Tuesday morning. *grin*

Went to see Pirates of the Caribbean II today with wishweaver, mollymorrison and dzeytoun. Of the four of us, I think I enjoyed the movie the best, but at Molly pointed out, the first movie was so good and was such a dark horse when it came out, expectations were very high for this one that it was going to be very difficult to match it. As cookie_dreams noted in her blog entry, they did seem to have a fascination with round rolling objects, but there were some outstanding moments in the movie. For the six people out there who haven't seen it yet, I won't go into any spoilers, but while not the best movie I've ever seen, it certainly was $7.00 well spent.

Had a nice BBQ this evening. I stopped at the Laurel Meat Market again and picked up some very nice sirloins. I probably needed to let the charcoal burn down a bit more than I did because we had a heck of a time with flare-ups. But, even with a bit of "charring" on the outside, the steaks were nice and Wishweaver did a nice job with the rest of the fixin's. My co-writer April made it up but due to traffic on the Capital Beltway, she got her a lot later than she'd anticipated, so we had time to chat, eat and chat a bit more before she had to head home. We'll be getting together later to work on Shattered Mirror.

Kicked around some ideas for a Star Trek short story with Dzeytoun while I was barbecuing. Got a couple of good ideas, but I need to drag my DVDs out and possibly check with kradical (aka, the Guardian of Trek Trivia), to make certain this hasn't already appeared in book form already.

Finished up Chapter 26 of Harbinger tonight. I keep thinking there's a way to put this chapter and Chapter 25 together, but that'll wait for the next go round. Now, I need to keep my eyes on the target and finish this draft before I go back and start editing again.

Time to go read some Sluggy Freelance and Kevin and Kell before calling it a night.

Current Harbinger rewrite status:

104,455 / 110,000 (95.0%)

Didn't get a lot of writing or rewriting done tonight, but I read through the next two chapters in Harbinger and made certain where I was going to go with them before I started editing. They may wind up being combined into one chapter, depending on the depth of cuts I can make in Chapter 25 and still keep the feel of the story. Raven's carefully woven plans get a little unwound here and I want to capture it without belaboring the point.

Spent about an hour talking to April this evening about Shattered Mirror. She'd been on vacation with her family and we lent her an AlphaSmart Neo for the trip. She said it was incredible how much writing she could get done in the car traveling to see family in NC and Tennessee by car. The AlphaSmart is a word processor we'd bought for my daughter to use at school when she was having trouble with her handwriting and between the pretty good memory, its light weight and the fact a battery charge lasts almost 24 hours of constant use, it's a very good laptop substitute. In fact, between the battery life and NOT being able to connect to the internet, it's probably better in a lot of ways for writing. She finished the first draft of Chapter 3 and is developing a highly entertaining legend/history of the world we're writing about. She definitely has raised the bar for me for Chapter 4.

Did a little shopping with wishweaver and spent a delightful side trip at Mad City Coffee. I enjoyed a neat Raspberry/Blueberry/Blackberry Tart and a Cafe au Lait and Wishweaver had a nice NY-style Cheesecake. Sometimes the best treats are the small ones.

I can see the end in sight for this draft of Harbinger. Then the REALLY ugly red-lining begins. Sigh.

Balticon ended with another good note. Echoes of Coventry is now available from SimonSays.com and Amazon.com.

Spent time this evening working with April on Shattered Mirror. It's starting to come together well. I really like the ideas she came up with for the prologue to the book. I think it sets the perfect tone to the entire story. I'll be doing some editing on the first few chapters while she's working on the next one. Then she'll be editing while I'm working on the one after that. Once we have those done, the first arc of the story should be just about set.

Did a rewrite of the plot for Harbinger today. I think it's going to be a lot leaner and meaner once I get these next two chapters out of the way. I'm a lot happier with this new theme than I was the original. Got some typing in, but I'll post it next blog.

I'm all right now, but I think I had a touch of bad food yesterday. I had to take a sick day today because I was up so much last night, I was exhausted this morning when the alarm went off. Bleah. However, I could only sleep so long because the telemarketers were out in force today, so I finally trundled downstairs and curled up on the couch with the TV remote. Caught a couple hours of Combat on the Encore-Action channel before turning over and watching some Star Trek: TNG on Spike.

By then, I was starting to feel better and actually could converse like a human being when wishweaver came home from work. We spent a little time discussing our various writing projects and then I sat down and began whanging away on CSD: Dragon Couchant again. I've added another 2,061 words today and finished up Chapter Six. Moving on to Chapter Seven and hope to finish it by the end of the weekend (before I have to do more college-type stuff).

Looking at the calendar, it's hard to realize I've only got about four weeks left to the semester. Time to get a few projects done for class that I've been letting slide to get some real writing in. Since I'm in the honor's program (boy, does that sound weird looking back at my G.P.A. from my first time through college), I have to produce a couple of extra writing assignments for my classes. Nothing too serious, but still, they're not going to write themselves.

Talked to April the other night about Shattered Mirror. Unfortunately, she suffered a major computer meltdown (hard drive locked up solid), so she's doing the "write it out by hand" system until they get the computer back from the shop. They've decided to do some upgrading since they have it there, but we're hoping they'll have it back by this weekend.

Picked up some new (to me) anime the other day, so lady_cinnibar's friends have another shipment of old anime VHS tapes heading their way whenever they're interested. (hint, hint) I'm slowly eliminating my VHS collection, a friend of ours is getting our old Disney tapes and Lady Cinnabar ensures my old anime finds a good home. Now, that's recycling at its finest.

Current CSD: Dragon Couchant status:

26,255 / 95,000 (27.6%)

Wow, I was on a roll tonight.

Over the past week, I've been fiddling around with Shattered Mirror and Dragon Couchant, but I just wasn't making any real headway. Between being busy around the house and a general malaise that had settled over me, it was just hard to find time to get any real writing done. But, something broke the dam loose tonight.


As soon as Good Eats finished at 1930 tonight (and if you don't watch that show, you're missing some very interesting television) I sat down at the computer and went at it. Between the piddling around I did last week and tonight's work, I've added 648 words to Shattered Mirror, finishing my first go through the chapter before April sees it and I've added 6,856 words to Dragon Couchant (2582 this evening).

I'm not certain what got me going again but I'm certainly going to try and keep it going as long as the momentum is there. It was really nice to see the words flowing again instead of writing three sentences and then running out of steam. I think I've let a few things at work get to me more than they should and it's been affecting my writing habits.

By the way, did any of the other writers here notice the For Better or For Worse Sunday strip? It hit a little close to home, although wishweaver thinks Michael listens better than I do.

Rich's progress on Shattered Mirror.

4,366 / 45,000 (9.7%)

Rich and April's progress on Shattered Mirror.

8,822 / 90,000 (9.8%)

Current CSD: Dragon Couchant status:

24,194 / 95,000 (25.5%)

. . . oh yeah, and some writing also.

Work has been interesting the past couple of weeks. We're getting ready to release a new version of a project I'm on, so I'm furiously updating the documentation. Well, not as furiously as I'd like. I need some of the other people on the project to review a couple of the documents and get back with me. One guy's had his assignment for over two weeks now and he still hasn't started it yet. O.K., he is the S.A. for this and another project and yes, he has been somewhat busy keeping the computers up and running, but I'm starting to get into crunch time. (sigh)

I did finish my BIG project though. I had a document that just needed to be updated. No big deal, right? Heh. Well, let's just say, someone uploaded a MSWord doc as a web page and that's what I had to download to update. Lost ALL the formatting. No bold, no italics, no bullets, no tables, no pics, nothing. Zilch, nada, pfifft. So, before I could update, I had to regenerate the entire document. (insert banging head smiley here) BUT, it's done, it's off to be QC'd and I have multiple back-ups just in case.

Took my daughter out for her Fidos for Freedom session tonight. I was too slow with the phone camera, but we have these two adorable dachshunds that are therapy dogs. Well, they were in the lobby waiting to go to class when Max (the Old English Mastiff) comes in. He leaned forward and put his head right next to the two wiener dogs. Holy cow, his head was bigger than the two of them put together and some. It would have been a great picture if I had thought about my camera right then, but by the time I remembered my new cell phone had a camera, it was too late. Bah and humbug.

After Fidos, the family let me run up to the local DuClaws for their monthly seasonal beer release. March is Celtic Fury, a nice stout with a hint of coffee in it. Very tasty. If I had known I was going to enjoy it that much, I would have arranged a party up at Lunacon and picked up a couple of growlers to take along. I'm not usually a big fan of stouts, but I enjoyed this one.

I used the time at Fidos wisely (for once) and got some writing in. Added another 1024 words to Shattered Mirror. I need to add in one last small section and I'll be done with the chapter. Not moving quite as quickly as I'd hoped, but I think what April and I have is pretty good so far.

Rich's progress on Shattered Mirror.

3,718 / 45,000 (8.3%)

Rich and April's progress on Shattered Mirror.

8,174 / 90,000 (9.1%)

April and I are making progress on Shattered Mirror even if life is throwing interesting challenges in our way. She gave me a call while she was stuck in traffic on the way home this evening and gave me a run-down on the prologue she's writing for this story. I can't wait to see the finished results next week. Sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun. I like how she's taking a creature not known for its fighting ability and turning it into a pretty damn good guardian.

I also got some work done on Chapter 2. Not as much as I would have liked, (1319 words), but some is better than none. My goal is to get Chapter 2 finished this weekend. While she's working on Chapter 3, I'll go back and get some work done on CSD: Dragon Couchant. We're trying to figure out a good time to get together and go over the story bible again. There are a few areas that could use some tightening up. I mean, e-mail, Skype and the phone are very convenient, but being able to bounce ideas off of another person face to face is a good thing too.

I got a call from one of my daughter's teachers this evening. She'd like me to come and talk to her classes on 05 April about writing professionally. Since I do make my living as a tech writer, I guess I'm qualified to speak about that, but I think she also wants some information on the published life. I owe her an outline by the last week of March on what I'm going to talk about. This could be a lot of fun.

Rich's progress on Shattered Mirror

2,694 / 45,000 (6.0%)

Rich and April's progress on Shattered Mirror

7,150 / 90,000 (7.9%)

Wow, did I NOT understand my writing assignment for Tuesday night. Ouch!

Now, what I wrote was pretty good according to the instructor. However, I missed the idea behind what he was looking for. Apparently what I wrote was somewhere between a collection of vignettes and a collage piece. However, the assignment was for a collage piece. Mine was too linear and way too "story" like, as opposed to the more staccato style of a true collage. After listening to the first couple of stories read in class, I realized I'd completely misunderstood what the assignment was, but rather than take a zero for the class, I gamely swallowed my pride and read my story. I did get a some compliments on it and what was useful was the discussion on how it could be edited into a collage piece. However, since I'm not required to do rewrites, I think I'm going to concentrate on the future projects and just take my lumps.

As you might know, wishweaver is known to dabble in fanfiction. She really hasn't enjoyed the last two Harry Potter books compared to the earlier ones. Also, she's not very fond of the "Harry in Azkhaban" fanfics that are generally posted on fanfic sites because most of them require everyone else to completely act out of character.

So, as I getting ready for class, I came up with a plot for a novella (about 8 chapters) that dealt with both of her hang-ups and she agreed, it handled them VERY nicely. Now, I don't plan on writing this, but if she ever decides to take a break from doing some original stuff, she's got a nice little plot bunny to follow that won't be quite as involved (nor as long) as "Realizations".

Also, I've kicked around two more fantasy plot ideas. I'm just writing them down for now to save for later. I've already got too much stuff on my plate now that I want to write to add MORE stuff. I think I could probably adapt them to fit in the world of Harbinger if I can sell the first one. Gotta love plot bunnies, as long as you don't chase them too heavily until after you finish the work already under development. It doesn't do a lot of good to develop plots for 100 books if you never write any of them.

Ideas are easy, writing is a pain in the . . . I mean, writing is fun, right?

(cue crickets)

OK, writing is work, just like shoveling asphalt or teaching a class. But, it's work that I can't see myself NOT doing the rest of my life.

I have to go write some stuff now, as soon as I get done listening to The Kissy Bits. I'm meeting with my writing partner tomorrow night via Skype and I better have some progress on Chapter Two to show her.

Well, we're back to writing on something other than college stuff. Along with editing Harbinger and The Demon's Head, I'm now writing Chronicles of the Sea Dragon: Dragon Couchant and Shattered Mirror, a Y.A. fantasy with April MacDicken and with a great deal of assistance from wishweaver.

Yes, I know, that's all I need, another frackin' project.

Well, I've never tried collaborating on a project before. Yes, I know I have a split writing credit with Steve Roman on "Assault on Avengers Mansion" for The Ultimate Hulk anthology. However that was a little different because Steve was already a writer/editor, so I was very much the student. (yes, I know, cue the Darth Vader music.) The situation has changed somewhat since 1997 when we started working on that project, plus there's a slight difference between collaborating on a short story and a novel. For one thing, it's a longer time period involved which means more potential pitfalls if the lines of communication aren't kept open. Luckily, April and I have been friends since 1989, so talking honestly to each other is not a big problem.

She's finishing up the first chapter, while I'm starting work on the second chapter. We're alternating the first four chapters and then starting with Chapter Five, we're going to start working together on the chapters. Who's going to write what, we're not sure yet, but we're going to coordinate and plot out each chapter before we start writing it.

So, hopefully, there'll be two bars showing progress here on the blog in the near future. As April completes her sections, I'll be posting her progress/my progress and the books progress. We'll probably get seriously started on this after Farpoint (somehow, I don't think I'm going to get too much done over the weekend (although, I've been surprised before)).


Rich's progress on Shattered Mirror:

1,375 / 100,000 (1.4%)