It's now almost 3:30 and I just finished the outline rewrite for Chris's and my shared novel… And I'm entirely exhausted after a weekend of heavy-duty cleaning and collecting donations for the Bay State Equine Rescue at the Equine Affaire. So, short blog post: If you're going to do a novel for NaNoWriMo… make sure you have double checked any and all research so you're not rewriting your outline on day 15. (How many days are in November???) And: Even in this economy - some people are still awesomely generous for horses in need. As soon as Karin sends me a list of all the wonderful sponsors, I will post them on my blog - but it really was amazing to see how many companies really answered the call for our horses. If you were at the Equine Affaire, and you donated to Bay State Equine Rescue - or any rescue - THANK YOU!!!!!
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Hey, guys. Sorry for being away for so long, but the last few days have been busy, busy! For those who didn't know, Thursday was my birthday, and instead of one day, I've had a 3.5-day birthday extravaganza of fun activities, cake tasting, and copy edits. (Okay, copy edits aren't generally an extravaganza kind of thing, but they are a necessary part of my life).
Anyway, I'll recap the highlights soon, but since I'm in a rush tonight, I just wanted to put in another plug for the hardcover edition of Vampire Academy that's being released on November 25. This is book #1 of the series, and they're just doing a limited run of it. Along with the hard cover, it's got a printed copy of my signature on the front and the first chapter of Spirit Bound in the back.
Some websites call it 'the signature edition,' but again: that means there's just a print of my signature on the front. If you're interested in the book and actually want me to autograph it to you on the inside, remember that you can order it signed by me from University Bookstore. On their website, they're calling it the "Deluxe Limited Edition Hardcover," and you can find it here with my other books. To get an autographed copy, make sure you follow these directions or you may get the book sent to you un-autographed! My page also has more information about ordering from U Bookstore and who to contact with questions. And of course, you can always buy books from any place you want! U Bookstore is just who I have the mail order signing deal with. Okay, birthday recap coming later.
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I'm in need of an illustrator for the charity t-shirts for the Thriller dancers that in everyone's mind but Guinness' hold the record of 903 dancers!
I need the Abe the Alien figure and a Stormtrooper in roar pose for the shirt (I have pics of Abe doing it for reference).
If you are an atrist and would like to donate your time for t-shirts for charity, please email me at mcdkimber at gmail dot com and we'll talk. :)
I was informed to please get the shirts OUT so that's what I'm going to do. Got the design, just need the talent. :)
The shirts will be sold to those that danced ONLY (I'm sure there will be shirts for everyone if we beat our own record next year), and I have the list so once the shirts are ordered, I check against the list, and then your shirt gets made.
Can someone draw me an alien and a stormie doing the roar? Please?
Just email me!
Kimber
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I seems like I haven't posted in forever.
After World Fantasy I took a few down days and then got a post con bug that I'm just getting over. Not awful but going away slowly. I'm much better today.
I had a fine time there. Saw lots of friends and I love showing my new work.
So all that's been happening is lots of reading and sleeping and minimal keeping up work. I have been thinking about jewelry more then I expected. Will be doing some work with truly blacked silver and vivid stones this month. I'm liking the idea of designing for dark and unshiney metal.
Was talking with folks about the steam punk jewelry at World Fantasy and realized that I haven't been exploring the Victorian aspects except for the antique beads. . I'm going to experiment with using some Victorian silver flowers with my steam punk parts.
And I'm getting some small letter press type. I 've been thinking about using words in the lost wax carved jewelry. That's
probably why I've been obsessing about poetry this fall. Not sure what it will look like but getting the type is the first step.
I did catch up with the black face and color face hat's been showing up in fashion (French Vogue among others) in the last month. It pushes my anger button really hard. I'll be writing about it on Body Impolitic and will link to it when I do.
Mood: Improving
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Watched the first two episodes of the remake of The Prisoner and the latest Doctor Who special tonight. I haven't been doing much TV gabbing here due to my Chronic Rift gig -- I'm saving the reviews for "Couch Potato Salad" -- but my next review won't be for another month (for the episode that's going live this week, I reviewed V), so I'm gonna go ahead and talk about these two here.
( Spoilers for both behind the cut..... )
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Here's my schedule for Philcon 2009, this coming weekend at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cherry Hill, New Jersey:
Friday
8pm: reading (Executive Suite 623)
midnight: "Eye of Argon Reading" (Plaza IV), with Oz Fontecchio, Lawrence M. Schoen, Phil Kahn, Hildy Silverman, and Victoria Janssen
Saturday
11am: "How Faithful are Graphic Adaptations of Popular Novels?" (Plaza I), with Bill Spangler, Jonathan Maberry, Stephanie Burke, and Ray Ridenour
4pm: "Star Trek: Where Does it Boldly Go Now?" (Crystal Ballroom 3), with Lawrence M. Schoen, Samantha Kwait, Terri Osborne, and Hugh Casey
9pm: "The Art of the Collaboration" (Plaza I), with Michael Swanwick, Mike McPhail, Chris Pisano, and John Grant
Sunday
11am: "The Importance of Cash Flow for the New Author" (Executive Suite 823), with Laura Anne Gilman, Sally Wiener Grotta, Christine Norris, and Oz Drummond
1pm: "Editing Anthologies" (Plaza II), with Darrell Schweitzer, Gardner Dozois, and Danielle Ackley-McPhail
Hope to see many of you there!
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Joseph McCarthy born (1908)SEVEN THINGS IN THE EVENT OF RAIN Seven things necessary when the rain prevents us from pursuing our usual occupations: A shelter, a purse, a stove, a cup of wine, preceded by a bit of meat, a tender maid, and a cloak. ---attributed to Ibn Sukkara Al-Hashi-mi by Edward Verrall Lucas in A Boswell of Baghdad, 1917 Study the past, if you would divine the future.
Confucius (551-497 BCE)
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Montréal was captured from the British by U.S. forces during the American Revolution (1775)SEVEN THINGS TO BE REMEMBERED Never to stick pins into butterflies and other insects unless you would like to have somebody stick pins into you. Never to carry fowl with their heads hanging down, unless you would like to be carried in that way yourself. Never to throw stones at those harmless creatures, toads, unless you would like to have stones thrown at you in the same way. That nearly all snakes are harmless and useful. That it is cruel to keep twitching the reins while driving. That you should always talk kindly to every dumb creature. That you should always treat every dumb creature as you would like to be treated yourself, if you were in the creature's place. ---Julia M. Dewey, Ethics: Stories for Home and School, 1891 Lucky is he who has been able to understand the causes of things.
Virgil (70-19 BCE)
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Tweets from @Rob_Thurman (probably of a useless and irrelevant nature. Beware.)
Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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--Does anyone writing for movies and tv actually know any Catholic priests? Two different current series--V and Stargate:Universe--have had Catholic priest scenes. I was raised in the faith (beyond lapsed tho). Went to Catholic high school. Not once, not ever, in all my years have I heard a priest refer to someone as "my son." And it occurred to me, this is not unusual in tv and movies and that it is just bad, cliched writing, the equivalent of having a Brit exclaim "blimey!" For the record, priests: are not all Irish, not all alcoholics, not all pedophiles. They do not: only watch religious tv, read only theology, only wear cassocks. They all, however, have bad taste in shoes and cars. I'm not sure why. (n.b.: this is not by means me being a sensitive former catholic. it's me being annoyed at lazy writing.)
--why am I fascinated by bad tattoos? I see one of those WTF tattoo links and I can't stop myself from clicking. And clicking, and clicking, and clicking...
--why do I think nothing of eating a large piece of cake, but three brownies seems gluttonous?
--do those face pic icons on fb make anyone else feel like you're stalking because they're LOOKING RIGHT AT YOU?
Just, ya know, wondering...
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Found this one at a second hand store:
 
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1540 words, just ekeing out my theoretical minimum. Progress is progress. I'm pretty sure this is also progress.
Mostly, I'm just describing planets as seen from space. I wonder if anybody would notice if I did that four hundred pages.
16200 / 100000 words. 16% done!
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Bear was working on a customer's quilt. Someone ELSE made the quilt top, but he did the pattern quilting that held the "sandwich" together. I thought I'd share some photos of his work today,
He will be posting again tomorrow, BTW, for those who have been following his journal at ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) teacher_bear
( Look under this cut for photos! )
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| kradical |
| 2009-11-15 19:48 |
| new laptop! |
| Public |
 happy |
| some football game or other on my parents' TV |
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In honor of my black belt, the Forebearance (girasole, bronxbob350, helgabee, and the Infomancer) got me a new laptop! Opportunity died a while back, and I've been borrowing girasole's similar machine Rosina (which is just like Opportunity only pink).
Now, though, I have a new one that's better in every way. It's an Acer Aspire One, which runs Windows XP instead of Linux, has a better keyboard, a better monitor, and it's red!
I'm actually using it right now. I have named it Kiisu, after the transliteration of my name spelled in Japanese katakana characters as it appears on my black belt.
*happy dance*
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Well, it's been a very long day--clothes shopping, baby shower, social things. But I am home and dry at last and commencing my work day.
I have put on my work clothes (green and purple plaid pajama pants with a silver stripe, fuzzy slippers, and purple long johns--with the important protective gear of my wrist braces!), made myself a pot of tea, and with the assistance of my coworker I'm about to start the day's work.
Here's my office.
Today's tea mug is kitty in a filing drawer. Today's tea is vanilla rooibos.
Sometimes this job doesn't suck.
See you in six pages.
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I've finally accepted that I'm unable to work just *anywhere* like other writers with laptops. I envy those who can work undaunted by distracting circumstances. It is a wonderful thing to be able to do that, but I've lost the knack. Only rarely does it ever return.
I *have* done coffee bar writing. When I had a roomie the other decade I HAD to get out of the house to write. That doesn't work any more. There are too many books in the store waiting to be browsed through, the chairs aren't comfy, the music over the speakers is rarely to my taste, sometimes the joint has a freaking TV running, and there's usually half a dozen morons on their damned cell phones talking forcefully to some poor sod on the other end. (I've mentioned annoyance with oblivious cell-talkers before, sorry to repeat.) No iPod in the world can block that out.
Then there are the *other* writers in the coffee shop.
I'm too easily distracted by them. They see me struggling to scrape words out of my brain and in kinship strike up a conversation. It's just too bad for me that I love to talk shop, then bang goes two hours of time along with what little concentration I ever had. It's great for making friends, but hell on my output!
Also, *MY* muse is a lazy, snarky bitch always eager to chuck things the instant a shiny object swings into view. It's just too easy not to work, so it doesn't unless I kick it in the butt enough times to get a usable idea. To do that, I need special areas where I can focus sans distractions.
So this weekend I re-arranged my home surroundings for maximum writing efficiency. Being a writer means you are running a small business, after all. Other people with home businesses do the same thing for their home offices.
Writers tend to be waaaaay messier, though.
One thing I require is blank wall space. Lots of it.
When doing the actual writing I tape up a hard copy of pages I've finished to keep track of things. I make notes to put in new info, revise this, cut that, move this someplace else. Other writers keep that in their heads, but I don't trust my memory to juggle ALL the stuff at once. Having it out in one big space helps a lot!
For me, the actual writing is easy compared to the story-storming development phase.
Once I get my outline and know where I'm going, I can write fairly fast. Some writers can just blast off flat and see where the story takes them. I have done that for short stories but need a road map for longer works. It keeps me out of blind alleys and speeds up the writing.
For outlining I need dry erase boards, index cards, sticky notes, and a big blank wall.
I've now got a three by six stretch of dining room wall covered with dry erase boards that are rapidly filling up with notes and a story arc for the new book. A cleared wall in what I call the "writing room" will hold the chapters to come as I write them.
To get there I had to do some major furniture moving. No details, but I didn't throw my back out (yay!) and hey, presto--the room looks bigger! I thought I'd have to sacrifice storage when I moved out a big ol' cabinet, but it still holds the same supplies. I just have to go to the garage for them, no hardship.
My neater and re-organized space looks great, and I can sweep my work area clear in two minutes and use it for a dining table when necessary.
Yay! There are no more barriers between my muse and finishing up this new proposal!
So, Muse, front and center, start spitting out ideas, please!
Muse. I'm waiting.
Waiting.
Still waiting.
Don't make me come and get you.
OUT here, dammit. I did all this work for you!
I DON'T care that that there is a Stargate marathon running. We've seen them all, so don't even think of luring me into it.
I'm counting to three and you damned-well better get your lazy arse out here or I'm gonna kick it into Lake Benbrook.
What'd you say? You'd LIKE to go swimming?
You bitch.
That's it.
I've HAD it with you. I'm getting a club. A big one.
I'm gonna beat you bloody until you--
Ah. Finally decided to work today? Good. Now sit over there and be brilliant, dammit.
No. You only get chocolate AFTER you are brilliant.
If you are REALLY brilliant you can watch TV tonight. I'm not totally heartless.
Yes, I still have that club.
You can have a beating now or chocolate later.
Your choice.
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I have had Al nassma chocolate, and you (probably) have not.
Probably, because unless you were a) at NYC's Chocolate Show last month, b) have contacts in the chocolate business or c) were at the AMNH's opening of the Silk Road exhibit Friday night, you can't get hold of it in North America (or the UK, I suspect). Not yet, anyway.
Camel's milk chocolate. All sorts of health claims for it, most of which I suspect don't carry over into chocolate anyway, but whatever the gimmick, I give it thumbs up.
People, this stuff is good. I didn't like all the flavors (and the "milk chocolate" was actually a bittersweet 70% cocoa) but the texture was smooth, the taste a splendid mixture of sweet and salty, and it was rich enough to leave me satisfied after only a few small pieces at a time (starting Friday night, finishing my last bit this afternoon).
Except, of course, that I know I will want more, and I don't have any. *sads*
disclaimer: I am a bit of a chocolate snob -- not because I think Expensive = Better, but because most mass-produced chocolates (yes, including the UK brands) taste more like wax than chocolate. I would rather spend more money to get something with all-natural ingredients that satisfies, than spend less and leave my tastebuds unsatisfied. Your mileage may vary.
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exhausted
tired![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
thoughtful
tired
drained
content![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif){kind=small}
tired
sated