Kyrre's Friends

that ghost is me
posted by matociquala
date: 15:54, 09.05.08
current mood: exhausted
current music: the rain

Progress notes for 9 April 2008

Seven for a Secret:

New words: 2003
Microsoft wordcount: 2155
Manuscript wordcount: 2750
Deadline: July 1
Mammalian assistance: The cat is cold. The cat does not want to be covered. She just wants to bitch at me about being cold. 
Reason for stopping: Quota, and I have some reading I need to do.




Darling du jour:

He didn't believe his own lies anymore. He hadn't for decades. His artifices had grown shallow, without structure or craft.

He could no longer inhabit them. Not the way these girls, a medium-blonde and a paler blonde, inhabited their uniforms and the tissue of lies that constructed them.

Tyop du jour: They interred no stores.

Thank you, brain, but that's not the right word that sounds sort of like that.

Jury-rigging: Everything seems to be firing smoothly so far. I suspect I need an antagonist.
There's always one more quirk in the character:  Somebody is dissociating.

Today's words Word don't know:  wampyr, flyte
Words I'm Surprised Word Do Know: n/a
Sustenance: coffee, chamomile tea, leftovers, bagel chips, pistachios, cereal. I am about to order a pizza.
Mean Things: invalidism, Nazis.
Other writing-related work: about to go start critiquing a novel. did a whole bunch of research.

Exercise: none. I am in pain. (Okay, there was archery yesterday. I guess that counts.)
Miles to Lothlorien: 174.9
Guitar practice: no, because I suck.
Mail: nomail
The Internet is Full of Things: via rachelmanija, Green Porno. (Not worksafe, if you didn't get that from the title. But oh, so cool. I want to have Isabella Rossellini's babies.)

Day Three: In which I starve
posted by swan_tower
date: 15:37, 09.05.08

Today and tomorrow are my museum days. ( Read more... )

And that was my third day. Tomorrow: the Victoria and Albert Museum, and possibly some stupidity in the late afternoon or early evening.

Word Count for Friday, May 9th, 2008
posted by o_yannik in novel_in_90 novel_in_90
date: 15:52, 09.05.08
current mood: tired

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.  ~Thomas Mann, Essays of Three Decades, 1947

True or false?

happy shiun is happy
posted by shiun
date: 14:29, 09.05.08
current mood: happy

asdfljasdfjkasdflj *keyboard smash*

thoran_ziyal, pls to be marry me, y/y?

She was at FedCon, and send me a picture of PETER JURASIC as Londo Mollari I repeat PETER JURASIC yes he who played Londo Mollari I MEAN -*breathes into a paperbag* Okay, so she send me a photograph of Peter Jurasic on which he wrote:

To [Shiun],
... with fond memories of our beautiful nights together, my darling!
Londo Mollari

GAH. Did you ask him to write that, or does he say that to all the girls? xD Thank you so much. It made me incredibly happy, I can't stop grinning like crazy. I need to frame it.

Oh, and we rocked that project thing, yay. \o/ There were some minor annoyances, but we got lots and lots of praise for our work, and three As.
This day couldn't get any better if it tried. I would love get rid of my cold, okay, but hey. You can't have everything. I'm cleaning up the flat now, search for my nice summer skirt and go out for ice cream. Anyone wants to join me?

thank you, and passing along the Interfictions auction!
posted by naominovik
date: 3:29, 09.05.08

So first I have to say a huge and belated thank-you for all the lovely birthday wishes ♥, and also to reassure: you have not missed the first chapter of Victory of Eagles! I am impatiently waiting for a pretty and nicely typeset PDF file from my editor, which I am assured is on its way any day now. (This will be going out on the Temeraire mailing list, which you can join/leave whenever you like at www.temeraire.org, and I will announce and post here afterwards as well.)

I would also like to point you all to the extremely shiny jewelry auction currently underway to benefit the Interstitial Arts Foundation, the publishers of Interfictions. Fabulous stuff for a fabulous cause! (You can also subscribe to iafauctions to follow the auction as new pieces are added one by one.)

Life has been a little mad lately mostly for very fun reasons, particularly because I ended up with three separate theater dates in six days -- the one I had planned, and the two unexpected sets of birthday presents. My verdicts: Macbeth: director Rupert Goold & Patrick Stewart both brilliant, see this if you possibly can. Rent: great dancing and fun energy, but badly over-amplified. Dangerous Liaisons: fabulous costumes and a Valmont I actually believed in as a seducer, some v. clunky dialogue in bits, rape scene extra-creepy because Cécile didn't feel like a period character.

Then there was the Cinco de Mayo get-together and the lunch with family and the planning for the Victory of Eagles launch and tour and somewhere in there there's been some OTW meetings, and recruiting another twenty coders and another forty revisions committed to the archive code, and finishing a short story (set in the past of the Temeraire universe, for Gardner Dozois's upcoming DRAGONS anthology), and hours watching david cook performances on youtube, don't mock me, and at the end of it all there is a slightly enervated me. *forms puddle and quivers*

And on that note, I will now go to bed before it hits 4am, oh dear.

(re)joining late
posted by llwheeler in novel_in_90 novel_in_90
date: 23:59, 08.05.08

Hello all! Just thought I'd post a quick intro. I joined here almost a year ago, but I haven't managed to finish a complete 90 days (let alone a complete novel), so here's to hoping the third time is the charm!

I know I'm joining this round late, but I'll sort out my own weekly tallies and so on. Can't wait to be mocked by everyone, cause discipline is definitely not my strong suit... I'm glad to be back!

-Lillian

pour my life into a paper cup
posted by matociquala
date: 22:54, 08.05.08
current mood: working
current music: Tom Waits - Sins of my Father

Well, I finished the book I was reading. And now I have nothing to do except be twitchy and think about what I need to be writing tomorrow. And the stuff I have sitting around unfinished that I could be finishing.

Which means its time for the First Lines Meme, in which I list the opening bits of all my works in progress, as a sort of public accountability.

---

( Woooooooooooooooorks iiiiiiiiiiiiin progreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssss! )

There. Maybe that will shake something loose.

(Yeah, I know, some of those I have been working on for years already. That's par for the course.)

why i'm old and bent and devil-spent, running out of time
posted by matociquala
date: 21:45, 08.05.08
current mood: lazy
current music: Wyclef Jean - Fast Car

Book Report #97, Elizabeth Moon, The Speed of Dark

Quite an impressive piece of work. One of the things I was most interested in was how the book itself succeeded in making me anxious, which is to say, made me feel the protagonist's anxiety as life is sort of rushing at him from all directions. At one point, I almost didn't want to keep reading, because it was too hard to maintain my separation from the story.

Also, Ms. Moon can write. I love the parallax view of Lou's view of Mr. Aldrin, and Mr. Aldrin's view of Lou.

That said, I did think the characterizations were a little one-dimensional, and would have liked people to vary from their assigned roles as heroes and villains a little more. Which I think was why I liked Aldrin so much; he's complex, and has moral weaknesses and strengths.

Anything and Everything :: Subject3
posted by dragonslibrary
date: 1:00, 09.05.08

http://forum.dragonlibrary.net/viewtopic.php?p=167#167

Author: *MrAgent*
Subject: Subject3
Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 23:57 (GMT 0)
Topic Replies: 0

Good Evening!
How are you doing ?! Have you known already this news? It's incredibly !!
Shock
Abo
FAQ
Guru
Guru
horzu-abo-betreuung
http://abotrend.de/map.html
Alexander

Word Count for Thursday 8th May 2008
posted by martyn44 in novel_in_90 novel_in_90
date: 22:23, 08.05.08

What? I'm first again? That doesn't feel right.

If you're not failing every now and again its a sign you're not doing anything very innovative. Woody Allen.

' . . . every now and again . . .' I like that. Every now and again.

Well, how did you dare to fail today, and to what extent?

Sound Off!

Day Two: I love the smell of paper in the morning
posted by swan_tower
date: 16:58, 08.05.08

The fire alarm went off today in the Guildhall Library.

While I was there.

Reading about the Great Fire.

Other than that, my day was not the sort that makes for an exciting story. It was a satisfying day -- don't get me wrong. But a quiet one.

( Read more... )

Anyway, last night was not enough sleep, so I think I'll call it quits with this brief report. Tomorrow will be museum adventures, and maybe some more hunting of obscure bits of architecture, energy willing.

posted by matociquala
date: 14:40, 08.05.08
current mood: sleepy
current music: children playing and birds singing

1005 words on "The Red in the Sky is Our Blood" today, by the skin of my persistence, to a total of 5013. And I think I'm stuck, at least until I figure out what the revolutionaries want with the Russian mobster's ex, and why on earth she would agree to help them.

So tomorrow, in the interests of making progress on something with a looming deadline, I'm going to give the Sebastien Novella Still In Need Of A Title some rope, and see if it will write me an opening.

Excelsior!

Thanks and appreciation.
posted by jewell79 in novel_in_90 novel_in_90
date: 18:37, 08.05.08

I have finished a draft.

*turns cartwheels*

So I just wanted to say thank you to everyone in the community.  There's no way I could've done it without the added motivation of posting wordcounts, suffering the MOCK! when the counts were not good, and enjoying the support when they were.  You've got me back on track and supported me through the not-so-good time a few weeks back.

Thank you!

 

hey, hold my beer and watch this!
posted by matociquala
date: 9:10, 08.05.08
current mood: exanimate
current music: rain, and a passing helicopter

It's royalty statement season for two of my publishers, which means that I get to see how well or poorly books were doing around Christmastime last year. (Yeah, the wheels of publishing grind slow. The grand tradition of the 4-5 months delayed royalty statement was established long ago, and computers certainly haven't speeded anything up. Nor are they likely to, when publishers can still make a few pennies on the float.)

My Roc statements come so early in the biannual period I tend to forget I've gotten them by the time the others arrive--I think I had the statements for Whiskey & Water and Blood & Iron in February. (No, they haven't sold through the advance yet, but I think the MMPB for B&I will put it over the top, if it sells okay.)

So yesterday, I got my Tor statement, and it looks (If I am reading this thing right*, because every publisher also has a different format for the darned things) it looks like A Companion to Wolves (by Sarah Monette, and some chick who is obviously clinging to Sarah's coat-tails for all she's worth) sold through the advance, and then some, in its first three months of life. No money is forthcoming yet, because of this thing called "reserve against returns," which is the publisher holding on to the money until they are sure that the books won't come back. (It takes fewer copies of a hardcover to sell through a reserve, because the per-piece royalty is higher.)

To give you an idea of how long it sometimes takes, Bantam Spectra was still holding a reserve against returns on Scardown and Worldwired, published in 2005 (though they have released the reserve on Hammered), the last time I checked--remember what I said about making a few pennies on the float? Anyway, I don't have my Spectra statements yet, so they may have released that as of this period. Since Worldwired just went back for another 2000 copies (that's either the third printing or the fourth; I've lost track. I think it's the third.) I'm reasonably certain they will have to give me some more money eventually.

Moral: don't count on living on your royalties.

Other Moral: Suprise!buttsecks sells. Or maybe feminist critique of fluffy companion animal fantasy sells. Or maybe both.

*I'm still trying to figure out how many copies this says are in print, though, so don't count on my math too much.

---

Speaking of mass market paperbacks and A Companion to Wolves, Amazon is telling me that the MMPB of A Companion to Wolves will be available in July, not October as previously expected.

So it looks to be a happening May/June/July/August in Ebearland, what with the trade paperback of New Amsterdam available! now! and the last two episodes of Shadow Unit: Season 1 in the hopper, and the MMPB of Blood & Iron coming early next month, and the trades of Ink & Steel and Hell & Earth in July and August, respectively. After that, there will be a brief pause before All the Windwracked Stars at the end of October, in hardcover, from Tor.

Also, I've had a couple of conversations with my editor and agent about Chill, and now that I seem to be able to write again, we're going to try to get it finished in time to keep the current publication date of January 2009. Which means I have to have a draft by the middle of August, and we need to be done with the revisions by September 15. This will work out, as it means I will have the dratted thing done before Viable Paradise. (Which is where I am spending my birthday this year. Go team me!)

So really, okay. I can see why people say I'm prolific. But honestly, if you spend seven or eight hours a day writing fiction, this is what happens.

And speaking of which, this would be me avoiding working on "The Red in the Sky is Our Blood." So I should pony up and go do that, neh?

he didn't notice that the lights had changed
posted by matociquala
date: 7:18, 08.05.08
current mood: pensive
current music: NPR- Morning Edition

Well, after a really good day climbing Monday, yesterday stank on ice. My left shoulder was bothering me a lot and the stomach did not like the cashews I had as a pre-climb snack, so I tried my project wall, and could barely even get on it, and then did two easy routes and watched Alisa and The Jeff climb for a while, and then came the hell home and watched Criminal Minds. Fail! But I will do better Monday.

Still, disappointing, as after Monday's general air of success I was hoping for another good day. Perserverance, however, is critical.

It's a cool, gray today with the promise of rain. I'm not going for a run, as I am declaring a recovery day (there may be climbing Saturday, if the weather is good, and there will be running tomorrow) but I might go for a walk later. If I get enough work done. And don't decide to curl up with a book instead.

Meanwhile, right now, I'm going to make coffee, shower, and see if I can get my words done early. There's archery tonight, after all. We'll see if my shoulder and neck are up to it. I'd like them to be, because I've been improving there, too, after a long plateau, and I don't want to lose ground.

FIC: Tabula Rasa (9/?)
posted by sasha_anu
date: 0:28, 08.05.08

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Drabble: Star Trek: TNG
posted by sasha_anu
date: 23:22, 07.05.08

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Drabbles: DC: Comics
posted by sasha_anu
date: 23:17, 07.05.08

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Drabble: Angel
posted by sasha_anu
date: 23:16, 07.05.08

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Drabbles: 3:10 to Yuma
posted by sasha_anu
date: 22:43, 07.05.08

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Warning and a Rec
posted by sasha_anu
date: 22:33, 07.05.08

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

"They can't keep us apart!"
posted by matociquala
date: 23:21, 07.05.08
current mood: happy
current music: Audioslave - Like a Stone

David Rossi. Feminist. So wrong. And yet so right.
Okay, Dave. You're mine now. All is forgiven.
Just don't assume Garcia is your secretary again, all right?

Also, Eddie Bernero is a lying liar who lies, and I love him for it.

( Criminal Minds 2x17/18, The Crossing, now with extra added Rubicon )

May News
posted by theljstaff in news news
date: 17:49, 07.05.08

This month is Mental Health Awareness Month, so the LiveJournal team is offering users a chance to support the Depression and Bipolar Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping improve the lives of those suffering from mood disorders. Proceeds from purchases of the Emerging Sun v-gift during May will be donated to the DBSA, so feel free to buy one. Or, if you really want to rack up some good karma points, get a bunch!

And don't forget: Mother's Day is this Sunday. Be a dear and check out the v-gifts shop. Send something that'll make her smile.


L to R: Emerging Sun, #1 Mom, Gift Basket, Chocolates, A Dozen Red Roses


We know how you salivate over the prospect of new themes, especially when they're designed by users with a unique handle on both form and function.


L to R: Shiny, River at Night, Live and Learn, Vector Drips.

( Winners of the HP 'What Do You Have to Say?' Theme Design Contest )


We'd like to remind you that the nomination process for LiveJournal Advisory Board user-representatives has begun. If you think you're fit for the job, now's the time to nominate yourself! After all, you're the only who can do it. In two weeks, on the 22nd, the voting process will begin; we'll remind you about it again here.

If you're interested in keeping up with the nominations, watch lj_election_en. We'll post the results and announce the winner by the end of the day on May 30th. The new user-representatives will be seated on June 1st. Further details can also be found in lj_2008.

Day One: Construction hates me.
posted by swan_tower
date: 17:16, 07.05.08

Coming out of Blackfriars Station, I turn north and head for Ludgate Hill.

Of course I do. I have to say hello to St. Paul's Cathedral.

( Read more... )

the murky black water grinds your bones into sand, the catfish pick off your eyes
posted by matociquala
date: 13:28, 07.05.08
current mood: lazy
current music: Modest Mouse - Satin in a Coffin

1119 words on "The Red in the Sky is our Blood" today, bringing the total to a little over four thousand, or about a third of the projected length. Calling it a day with that, as I also seem to have found the plot, though I know I need to go back and raise the stakes and inject a little tension into the proceedings.

I think I'm cured. How awesome is that?

Now I get to eat something and then goof off and read until it's time to go climb.