What part of discontinue don't you understand?

I know they have a script they have to follow, but how many times do I have to tell AT&T I no longer require their land line? Or any optional services (a forwarding email for $20, an alternate phone line, etc, etc.) or that the line does not connect to internet, Tivo, a respirator for my dying dog or that no one else in the household (Santa?) is going to fight my decision to disconnect from a service that only brings bill collectors for family members not living in this state or a law enforcement officer selling tickets? For this I pay a half-day's wages? It especially irked me when she asked how I was going to stay in touch with family members. I waffled between semaphore and smoke signals but went with it wasn't her business. Jeez.

In other news, I've been on a cleaning bender. The simple task of putting away the Christmas decorations morphed into cleaning out the teeny, tiny storage area. That sequed into taking care of the dozens of craft magazines, travel magazines, etc I've collected over the last decade. Why did I move them with me? I have to split them up when I toss them or risk a lawsuit from the garbage man for physical duress.
Now that I have all the important articles/patterns ripped out and filed, I feel better. Of course, there's still all the minutae I've collected for each story, none of which is collated into one binder. That's my next project. God, I love long weekends.
And yes, I am writing. I finished a hot love scene and am starting to look toward the big, black moment. My goal is to have the vomit draft down by Jan 31st and the final within a couple of weeks. My first drafts are clean, but there's always something that crops up that needs to be referenced to earlier. Like Rue's pregnancy. She wasn't pregnant at the beginining, but the Girls kept nagging me, so, about page 150, it was first mentioned. Hey, they thought it seemed important to the plot.
What has been the biggest surprise your characters have thrown at you?

Get your groove on

I'm looking for ideas to get back into the writing groove. You know, when you've found the place where you are a conduit to a higher power. Words write themselves. You look up, and two hours have passed. Your fingers can't move fast enough, and you're making handwritten notes on scrap paper so you won't lose a thought.
I had this last night. After I went to bed. I was brilliant. The ideas sizzled. The phrasing was poetry. The ideas flew. I'd laugh at my own wit and remind myself not to forget a certain idea.
This morning? Butkus. Should have got up and at least found a piece of paper. All I have left is this weird dream that had less to do with my WIP and more with a displaced Mayberry.
So, how do you stir up the creative juices?

Day 16

Day 16 after NaNo and my count is at 236. Which averages to two point something pages a day for December. I'd like to blame the holidays, but it's the dreaded BIC syndrome. Yes, butt in chair. Or futon, which is where I spend most of my evenings.

On the bright side, I have my tree up. And decorated. My room is clean. My nativitiy scene, personally handmade by moi several (several) years ago is on display. One tiny, tiny trip to the store will complete my shopping. Of course, I have two parties this week (gaak - three) at work which means some peanut butter fudge to be made, and the gearing up for the weekend, when my daughter returns home, but I should be able to squeeze some time out for writing, right?

Let us see what the page count is on January 1st.

Smart bras

Go Aussies! Researchers at the University of Wollongong in Australia (I did not make up that name!) are working on an "intelligent bra."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7136248.stm

Sensors are built into the fabric which will move with the woman, giving more and better support than current models. That's good news to the well endowded. Of course, they still have to work out a few bugs in the world of breast biomechanics, like turning off the support so the woman can breathe, but progress is being made.
And no, I didn't make up breast biomechanics (sounds painful with a wrench involved somehow.) Check out this link from the Sun Herald and the research being made at the University of Portsmouth.
http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/danieldasey/archives/2007/09/women_could_soo.html

(The model looks like she needs to go up a cup or two)

Wouldn't it be nice to have a bra that fits?

I hope they got it wholesale

The blood, that is. There's huge amounts of blood, or stage blood, or Karo syrup mixed with raspberry Kool-Aid in this movie. I hope you're not squeamish. Just do what I did - close your eyes and wait for the sound of the body hitting the floor. It's okay to watch after that.
This is probably the brightest scene in the movie (the dream sequence.) I'm surprised, as Tim Burton trades in dark, in multiple ways.

I want all of Helena Bonham Carter's costumes. I'm a sucker for a good costume. Where I'd wear it is another story, but the detail is awesome. I suppose I could sew them myself, but I've pretty much given up sewing. Maybe a hem or two on a good day, but that's pushing it.

If you like dark humor, dark stories, dark musicals and being surprised by the singing talent of people not considered singers, go see this movie.
And close your eyes when they sit in the barber chair and don't open them until you hear the sound of the body hitting the bricks. You'll thank me.

Russian Rockabilly

Okay, I've abandoned YouTube in favor of MySpace. My favorite radio station www.specialradio.net/6 has a click here button for CD and recommended records (Records? I'll take a 45 with a side order of 33 1/3, please) As this is a Russian station, most of the bands have weird names like Братья по разуму and Идолы Молодежи. Damn, I wish I could read Russian. Wait, there's babel fish, er, alta vista. The first is Brothers to Reason, the second Idols of the Young People. Weird.

Of the English names, I randomly picked this one:

http://www.myspace.com/thestockmen

Which is really a Russian band that specializes in rockabilly and psychobilly music. (Do they look like Johnny Cash to you? More like the Russian Mafia Youth Group) Go to the link for samples. I especially like Ghostriders in the Sky. Or, the Lazarus Connection's version - Ghostwriters in the Sky. Anyone have the literary version lyrics?

The weirdest thing ever

Because I'm not a dork, I have no idea how to embed a video here (right, YouTube, it doesn't work) so here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMnk7lh9M3o
Sorry I had to make you work for it.

Squee !!

Be still, my heart. Adrian Paul, THE Highlander, will be attending RT in Pittsburgh. Why didn't someone tell me? RT is celebrating 25 years of cover models, and he is one of their honored guests, available to dine with on Saturday for a mere $100.00 a plate.

Richard, my current hero, looks eerily like Adrian Paul. Not that I would confuse the two. Or anything.

Oh, and Fabio will be there, as well. Huh.

Excuse me, I have to go write a torrid love scene.

1/2 a book

NaNoWriMo is over, and I did it! Granted, I never officially registered, but my opinion is more important than Chris Baty's. Two hundred pages in thirty days! I finished the last sentence of scene two on page two hundred, line twenty-four.
For December, I'm planning on NaNo light. At least one hundred but preferably one hundred and fifty pages.
The draft is a lot rougher than normal, but I have plenty of notes. The Girls keep sending up tidbits to add, the latest being a secondary character should be pregnant. I resisted for two or three weeks, but caved in last night. There must be a reason. In the meantime, I'm enjoying torturing my characters. I have much more in store for them before the happily ever after.
If you're looking for a little Christmas fun, visit this website: www.elfyourself.com Upload some photos and send them to your friends. It's a rocking good time!

I'm sick

Why do I keep doing this? Buying books when I know I don't have time to read. I barely have time to pay the bills this month (the mortgage is due when?) Yet I received three in the mail today (one weighing in at almost 900 pages) and have six more I've purchased in the last month. Not to mention a stack of others in my TBR pile. Why, why, why? I can't possibly read them during my lunch hour, the only uninterrupted time I have nowadays.

My friends, I suffer from readabookamania. Or maybe it's neverhaveenoughaphobia. There is nothing as comforting as a wall of books, read or unread. Unless it's a full freezer. Or a full pantry. Or stacks of magazines. Or fat quarters of fabric. You know, I think I might have a "stuff" problem. Ya think?

What book are you dying to read?

Enchanted Beowulf

Weekend movies:
Enchanted, a Cool Whip of a movie, sweet and airy with a fly speck of Susan Sarandon (wicked stepmother) crunching scenes like they were Fritos. Disney pokes fun at itself in a sweeping, let's-everybody sing in Central Park kind of way. Grade: B+

Beowulf, the digital version. It's like watching video game characters act in a movie. Sometimes, they're eerily real (Ray Winstone, normally a pudgy Englishman now enhanced

to Gerard Butler 300 buffness) Sometimes they're wooden (Robin Wright Penn, oh, Buttercup, what has thou wrought?) Crispin Glover does his wacked out character routine, John Malkovich is John Malkovich and Anjelina is pretty much naked except for some strategically placed mud. If you can get over the digital characters (300 is way better) I'd give it B-

The score is excellent. Listen here:http://www.beowulfmovie.com/

The nose hits the grindstone

What is a grindstone anyway? Where can you buy one? My grandpa used to have one, about 12" across, set on its side in a wooden frame. He'd sit on one end and push a pedal, turning the grindstone faster and faster then he'd sharpen knives and axes and anything he'd need for the farm. Grandpa was a sadistic old coot (kidding.)

Week last for NaNo and I'm within site of the end. Or the middle, as this book will top out near 400 pages. I'm at 160 with seven days to go. The steam has dropped off a bit. I blame it on POV changes, it always takes me a page or two to get into a new scene.

Wednesday, I wrote awful sex. I didn't write awful, the sex was awful. It was meant to be. Who says it has to be earth-shattering the first time? For my characters, that would be all wrong. She has trust/intimacy issues and the circumstances leading up to the sex were very stressful. Here's a hint - it will get better. Here's another - the best music to play while writing sex is Andrea Bocelli.

Today's best line, used when the H/H argue about the pressure of being a leader:

“Someone has to do the dirty work, right?”

“Nay. Someone has to survive to live with the pain of deciding who dies.”

Do you know who I am?

Saturday, we went to a local museum to see a National Archive exhibit on loan. It happened to be in the neighborhood/staging area of the Christmas parade. The parking lot was empty because the burly guard told us if we parked there without proof we went to the museum, we'd be given a ticket for $50.00. I would have liked to have seen the parade, but hubby was a stickler for seeing the exhibit (which has been there for six weeks and will be there another six) so we went through with our original plans.

While we waited for Sir EatsAlot to unchain the gate, a big SUV pulled in behind us. I mean BIG. Hubby said it's the biggest one Ford makes. I think it would have held a hockey team and three or four mascots. Driving the SUV was one of our local TV anchors. You know who she is if you live in the area. First initial S. Anyway, I'm sure she pulled the "Do you know who I am?" ploy because she swung in behind us in her non-TV news vehicle and parked. Funny, I don't remember seeing her in the museum. Bet she didn't get a ticket, either.

Who do you know who uses the "Do you know who I am?" line? Or, is it you?

Whew, made it!

Fourteen days of NaNo, one hundred pages. Who would have thought? I slowed down for a day or two because I'd written myself into a corner and finally said "I can fix this later." Tonight is the second turning point, when Richard has to make the decision that will keep Lissa from the evil henchman. BIG, life altering decision.
This weekend, they have sex (woo-hoo) probably the earliest two of my characters have done it. (Not everyone can write it in the first chapter, er, scene, er, paragraph) I don't think it will be pretty, lyrical sex (Fwhuh?) Obligation on his part, and she'll be so twisted up inside trying not to empath his feelings that she won't allow herself to let go. All subject to change, of course. I have Andrea Bocelli to listen to, and time blocked out.
In other news, we had to put our kitty down. A really, really, really tough decision, but it was time. On the up, unfeeling owner side, know where I can get good carpet cheap?
Time to get out my agent list and submit again. Two a week. This will make it my. . .second week in a row. One thing about email queries, there's no waiting months and months for rejection.

Here is another picture of Lissa. As you can see, she's a very tortured individual. She just killed some more of the bad guys with her mind, but doesn't know how. The evil henchman is about to claim "dibs" on her as she appeared in his land first when she was summoned from Earth. Richard has to find a way to keep her, but there are strict laws on the losst, those without families. There's only one solution. . .

NaNo pages:97, chugging toward 100 by midnight.

Best lame-ass writing:(insert battle scene)

It's all about the word count, people.

Writing a book is like a hockey game

Let me explain why.

Both have three periods - a beginning, a middle and an end

Fights are known to break out

There are penalties for misbehavior

There are heroes and villains

It can go into overtime

In the case of the one I attended Saturday, the first few minutes (chapters) and the last few minutes (chapters) were the most exciting

You never know what will happen

There are always distractions

The only differences is - the heroes in a book generally have all their teeth and at the end, they get the girl instead of a big cup. Or a girl with big cups. Or -

Now let's hear your comparisons.

My book is like a ?

NaNo page count:82

What makes you scream like a girl?

More people would rather die than speak in public. It's our greatest fear. I think of this because tomorrow is my weekly Toastmasters meeting, and I am giving two presentations. One 90 seconds long (ish) on how easy it is to speak on Table Topics (an impromptu 90 second, don't know until I'm at the podium and see the topic what I'm going to talk about). The other is a PowerPoint (don't be impressed, it's three slides) presentation on recruiting new members. It's scripted, so I have no prep work other than winging the opening and conclusion. Am I nervous about doing this? Not anymore. Practice makes perfect and all that jazz.

Interestingly, authors - who live for words - seem to be the most petrified when it comes to public speaking, pitching to agents and editors or even saying hi to a stranger at a conference.

What is your biggest fear? Irrationally (aren't they all?) mine is falling down a flight of stairs.

Today's word count: zero (so far)

NaNo pages: 51 with no chapter breaks

It's like driving with a map in the fog

I'm discovering outlines are like maps. They show you where to go, but they don't tell you how to get there. I have this super-duper, four page, color coded outline with one sentence tags. Stuff like "Richard and Lissa on the road to his sister's." Uh-huh. Okay, what are they doing on the way? What do they talk about, sense, think?

That, my friends, is the challenge. Every day I sit down and think "Now what?" Every time I change a scene, it's "What do I do now?" Yesterday, my husband asked how many pages I'd written since our last conversation. When I told him, he said "Two pages in two hours?" Hey, I'd changed scenes. Two new characters stood there for awhile, like blinking cursors, until they decided what to say. After I get going, though, it's golden. Some really good stuff rolls off onto the screen.

I guess it must be working. I'm at thirty-eight pages and determined to hit forty before the night is through.

A map in the fog. Huh.

Lissa

I really don't have a full facial picture of Lissa, they're all like this one. Yeah, she has red hair. Longer, I think, and without the MayDay bouquet.

Yesterday's NaNo count - 10 pages. Don't be impressed, seven of those were from conception of the idea.

I have thirty-one scenes in the first half of the book on my spreadsheet. One a day. It won't be pretty, but this is the vomit draft, right?

Tonight - Richard's first POV scene. I have no idea what he has in store for me. On the other hand, I have several ideas for him (see yesterday's post, hint, hint, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.)

Richard

Meet Richard. Yeah. Mmm. I'll be spending the next couple of months with him. Very intensely during November. Three or four hours a night, longer on the weekend. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Richard is King of Aribisala, one of four kingdoms on a large island of the same name. Kind of like Iceland, but further south, which is moot, as the story takes place in late fall and winter, but to give you an idea of its size and topography (flat lands, mountains, waterfalls, volcanoes, geothermal heat.) Richard has been married before, but tragically lost his wife and child in an unknown (to me) incident. His family is pushing for him to remarry because, he is, after all, king. Then he meets Lissa, who has extraordinary powers that will save his kingdom. She just doesn't know how to use them. She's a little pissed at the moment from being summoned from Earth, the only life she's ever known, to his Godforsaken, cold world. She'll get over it. He'll help her. She won't have to worry about cold when he's around. I'm sure you know what I mean. In the meantime, she has to think about harnessing these strange powers, staying away from the evil henchman and his Ice Queen boss. Plus, there's a kingdom full of people whose thoughts/emotions she can suddenly hear/feel, not to mention a dying wizard and a couple of other surprises, only one of which she'll like.

I'll leave you with that for now. I'd post a picture of Lissa, but the ones I have aren't clear - profile obscured by hair, double exposure of a hysterical laugh, sobbing on a bed, trying to drown herself in the bathtub. Lissa is a tortured individual. Richard will make it all better. But not for about three hundred and fifty pages or so.

To all my friends who will participate in NaNo - I salute you. May the words fly from your fingertips and the ideas streak through your brain like the Aurora Borealis (oops, another Icelandic reference.)

My work here is done

I think I've struck the perfect balance between pantzing and plotting. I have just enough structure to point me along the way but allow detours and surprises. So says she who has a four page color-coded spreadsheet in her three-inch thick binder. I spent all weekend on that binder, it is a work of beauty. I've covered character arcs, turning points and personality profiles (lightly on the last, I know hair and eye color and vague backgrounds, but refuse to know what song they liked in second grade.)
And still I learn more about my characters. I hope the wonder continues until the last page.
Writing is such a strange business.

NaNo

NaNo is next month - November 1st. Thursday. Six days away. Are you ready? I'm spending the last weekend before the big crunch getting all my research organized. Years ago, when my daughter was in school, I grumbled about the cost of the "perfect" binder. Little did I know I'd be reusing them for my writing. Recycle, reuse. A green author.
I have legal pads, I have outline sheets, I have index cards. OMG, they make them with color-coded tops. Twenty each in red, orange, yellow, green and blue. Save one color for misc. notes and use the others for the four act structure. Oh, it's easy to be geeked by the simplest things.
Are you ready?