| Starry Heaven |
[Jun. 27th, 2009|11:03 am] |
Starry Heaven '09 is officially over! I think it's just me and ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) brad_beaulieu left here in town. We're hanging out at Macy's waiting until it's time to catch his shuttle.
Overall, I think it went well. We definitely had a good time! I tried to ask each person if they felt they got good critiques. I think I got almost everyone, and most said they got a lot out of it. In a peer-to-peer workshop, the quality of the peers is what makes it worthwhile and I think we had a really strong group. I hope to do this again, if not next year, then certainly the year after. It will depend on how my writing goes.
So, my novel. I got excellent feedback from the whole group on my first fifty. It wasn't universally loved by everyone, but had enough strengths to draw most of the readers in our group in. shunn and Rob Ziegler (a new writer recommended to the group by Paolo Bacigalupi) gave me excellent feedback on the about half a novel I've got done so far. I don't know the ending of my novel yet, but got to run some ideas by them on where I'm going. Overall, I feel a little daunted and inadequate compared to the awesomeness of the other writers in the group, but also encouraged to go keep working, keep learning and keep trying to improve my writing.
My plan is to finish this second novel, then return to the first and try to fix it. I really want to start submitting to agents by the end of the year, but don't want to submit something I feel uneasy about. The tricks will be 1.) Finishing the books (or at least calling them done) and 2.) Stop feeling uneasy for long enough to start sending them out to the ultimate judges of whether or not a book has commercial value: agents and editors. |
|
|
| Got a Kindle 2 |
[Mar. 30th, 2009|04:24 pm] |
I got a Kindle 2 for my birthday. (Thanks to charmingbillie for posting thoughts on hers. Pushed me right over the edge.) I opened it early and already have my fingerprints all over it.
I love it. The screen is great. I love the size, weight and shape (MUCH thinner than a paperback and the size of a moleskin notebook). I can take it backpacking!
Flagstaff is in the wireless' slow zone. Surfing the bookstore is a little slow, but the books, once bought, download in less than a minute. The selection isn't fabulous, as in 'Amazon has everything' fabulous, but good enough.
I feel conflicted because it will make Amazon my first stop for books. Flagstaff hasn't had an independent bookstore selling significant fiction for more than six years now, so I won't be putting any locals out of business. Our one Barnes and Noble is small and doesn't have that great a selection. If anything, I'll buy more new books now, because I'll want them on the Kindle so I won't go to our fabulous used bookstore so much. But I like bookstores. I like hanging out in bookstores, chatting with the staff and other customers. I've dreamed of opening an independent bookstore in Flagstaff just so there would be one again. I don't like the thought of bookstores disappearing like music stores did. If everyone gets one, I'll be bummed because I won't be able to see what other people are reading in airports, coffee shops, etc.
But I love being able to get a book as soon as I want it, without having to wait for it to be shipped. I love the thought of having many books, and all my favorites, on one, nicely portable device.
The first thing I did with the Kindle was import and read a story livia_llewellyn sent me as a word document. It was great to be able to read it on the nice screen, and you can insert comments and highlight passages. It wasn't so great to then export the comments (as a .txt file) to my computer and then type them into an email to send to her. The Kindle's keyboard is the kind you use your thumbs on. I have no practice with that so my comments were in shorthand that I had to reinterpret. Forget line editing. For critiquing, I think inserting comments and edits into a word document will still be my preferred MO. I was definitely less thorough using the Kindle.
I'm a little disappointed about it not being so useful for critiques. On the other hand, it's nice that it doesn't multi-task. I want to use it for reading. |
|
|
| To Rewrite or Write Anew? |
[Mar. 1st, 2009|09:17 am] |
I've come to the conclusion (thanks to a couple critiques) that novel #1, Clouds in Code, needs a substantial rewrite. Again. Basically, I need to insert a much stronger plot and maybe to ditch the more fantastic elements and turn it into a straight(er) science thriller. It'll take a good deal of cutting and new writing to do that.
This means I have a decision to make. I have the opportunity to workshop a novel with a great group of people this summer. There's only so much writing time between now and then, especially now that I'm back to work part-time and we're reflooring the whole house this spring. How can I best use the time I've got?
Should I deconstruct/reconstruct Clouds and workshop that or continue work on Novel Two, on which I've written 18k, and workshop that? The new one is more fun because it's new, and it may be more pliable in terms of applying what I'm learning about novels. I'm still invested in Clouds, though. I want to salvage it, someday. It's in my nature to grind away at a thing until I get it right. What I really need to do right now is better learn how to write a novel. Does anyone have any experience or advice to share on learning through rewriting, versus setting the old aside and starting anew? |
|
|
| Writing, famous person, and Facebook |
[Feb. 11th, 2009|05:40 pm] |
Finished chapter four of the new, as yet unnamed novel today. I met my goal for weekly progress last week, but this week will be tougher. I'm heading up to Durango to visit with my parents and grandma for the long weekend, so I've got to meet my word quota by end of day tomorrow. I'm finding I hit a kind of mental exhaustion after 1,500 words a day, but I'll keep pushing it. I'd love to be able to write 2k a day, regularly.
Saw Bruce Babbitt, one of Flagstaff's local boys who did good, walking down Beaver Street on Sunday. He was AZ's governor and Clinton's Secretary of the Interior. I mean TOTAL rock star, people! I didn't recognize him until we were well past him walking the other way, and Mike said, "That was Bruce Babbitt."
I would've have liked to thank him for his service and tell him to get busy and run for governor again. When we lost governor Janet Napolitano to Obama's cabinet, our conservative, republican secretary of state got the position. She's in the process of gutting AZ's already low-rated educational system, from pre-school on up to the university level. I don't get that kind of thinking. Please let me pay more taxes for education at every level.
I finally got on Facebook, after two friends in a week told me they'd just joined up. I kind of like it! I've found people I used to work with in my days at ITEP and its nice to reconnect with them in that small way. The wall thing is strange, you see only one side of the conversation as far as I can tell. Now that I'm working at home, I'm trying to reach out more online. It's not the same as seeing colleagues every day, but it's nice to have some interaction. |
|
|
| Getting it under control |
[Feb. 7th, 2009|10:37 am] |
For the new novel, I've set a weekly goal of 5,000 to 6,000 words a week. The 5k will allow me to meet the deadlines I've set for myself, 6k or more would let me get ahead. I hit 5,000 for the week yesterday, so now I can take the weekend off if I want to! It feels kind of like a real job this way. Except the lack of pay. :-(
I'll probably write this afternoon since we're supposed to get pounded by snow tonight, so I can ski tomorrow guilt-free. I do want to get ahead. When Clouds in Code comes back from the person critiquing it now, revising it will become my priority, though I will try to keep up progress on the new book.
This morning, a very late breakfast at Martan's Burrito Palace, then off to the grocery store, back home to run, then write, write, write. |
|
|
| Finally rolling on a new novel |
[Feb. 1st, 2009|08:49 am] |
It took a while, but I've finally settled on the characters and starting action for my new novel. It feels good to approach the computer each day with an idea of what I need to write. The first few chapters are slow writing for me, because I'm still doing research on world-building stuff and trying to turn my characters into real people.
For me, an important part of creating characters is naming them. Before I name them, they're nebulous. I have ideas about actions they'll need to take and the conflicts they'll be involved in, but until I name them I can't picture them clearly in my head or fill out their personalities. The trouble with this is that I can't start writing until I chose the name. It can take me up to an hour and sometimes more of mooning around about it. I tell myself to call them Jane1 or Joe2 and get on with writing, but I can't! So, am I procrastinating or responsibly not writing until I know what I'm about?
My friend Alex Wilson (alexotica) recently pointed out he, our fellow Clarion 06'er livia_llewellyn and I are in our final year of Campbell Best New Writer Award eligibility. I've got a profile up at Writertopia with my bibliography and a couple reviews of my work. If you're able and willing, consider nominating and voting for us! |
|
|
| Go Google Guilt-Free! |
[Jan. 15th, 2009|10:47 am] |
A report came out earlier this week claiming that one Google search puts out about 7 grams of carbon dioxide, the same amount it was said, as boiling half a kettle of water. The news shook me up, because that's a lot of energy expended just to satisfy my need to over-research everything and look up trivia for curiosity's sake. Dang...the amount of energy conservation required to slow down global warming will have us reverting to impoverished lifestyles of walking miles to our local libraries to pick through their physically limited aisles of information.
Luckily, this claim is in deep doubt and the amount of carbon produced by your Google searches is more likely equivalent to 0.2 grams of CO2. Using that number, a thousand Google searches is equivalent to driving an average car 1 km. Both those numbers come from Google themselves, but studies done by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories also suggest a much lower number.
Information technology as a whole produces about 2% of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions. That's the same as all air travel combined, and although small, on the global scale it isn't trivial. However, Google has been very active in trying to reduce its total energy use and get its energy from renewable sources.
For more detailed reporting on this issue, check out:
Scientific American for the technical side, and Climate Progress for information the politics involved in over-hyping internet energy use. |
|
|
| IT'S ALIVE!!! |
[Dec. 6th, 2008|10:10 am] |
The novel that is! YAY! But as I rewrote the last word of the last chapter, last night at 5:04 PM, I started picking on it and thinking about all the ways it's not really done. For instance: thinking that several scenes are too weak, the first two pages are still a little clunky, is this or that really believable enough, knowing that I'll revise it again after others read this draft, etc, etc, etc. There I was, Friday night, I had just finished a solid first draft of my first novel, and I'm thinking of reasons not to celebrate! So I started thinking of an analogy that would allow me to celebrate the milestone, while still recognizing the work that remains. Here's what I came up with:
Draft zero, finished May 08 - A hastily but earnestly constructed tin man. I made an effort to build all the parts out of the same kind of metal, but some of them were rusty, rickety, didn't work together very well and some were kind of ugly. I was pretty sure I put a heart in there somewhere, but couldn't quite remember where.
Draft one, finished yesterday - FRANKENSTEIN!!! All its parts are made of flesh, though I'm not sure how much of it is living. You can see some seams of authorial sewing together. It seems to have a brain, and while I, its creator, may think it's working pretty well, there's no guarantee it won't plod off and kill an innocent child or something.
What I'm shooting for - A Blade Runner style Nexus 6 replicant, preferably Roy Batty.
Which milestones in writing do you celebrate and why? |
|
|
| First Birthday! |
[Nov. 14th, 2008|09:29 am] |
I knew the date was coming around, but didn't check my records until today. On November 12, 2007, I wrote the first words on Clouds In Code. I'm on schedule to finish what I'll consider a clean first draft before Thanksgiving. Further revisions and fixes will go on through spring, but I'm hoping to start sending it to agents by March 31, which is my birthday. It seems like a long time. I have this idea that working novelists crank out a novel a year and many of them seem to publish a couple short stories, too. So, I'm feeling kind of impatient with myself.
In other news, it's frickin' 70 degrees today in Flagtown, at 7,000 feet elevation in the middle of November. We got 3-4 inches of snow last weekend, but it melted quickly. It feels more like spring than fall.
Today, I'm taking an afternoon break to see Diana Gabaldon talk about converting her novels into graphic novels. I've only read the first of her series, and I enjoyed it. She's an NAU alumni and shows up in town pretty frequently for various events. I look forward to meeting her and hearing her voice, which I've been told is amazing in readings. |
|
|
| What I did instead of writing in October. |
[Oct. 27th, 2008|08:13 pm] |
So there was alot of this:
punctuated with some of this:
when we tried hard not to think about these:
The weather was great. The water was low and slow, so not much excitement in the rapids, but lots of peaceful paddling. I didn't miss writing, though I thought about it a little bit.
Now I've been back a couple weeks and am chipping away on the chapter 15 revision. These last chapters were written in the most haste, and the story has changed quite a bit since the first draft. There's a lot of big chunks of text being tossed, new plot problems to create and solve, and some old text that needs a lot of polishing. I figure with a project this big, the fact that I'm still motivated to work on it each day counts for something.
I can't wait to vote. I'm going down to the court house to vote early tomorrow. I'll volunteer on election day. Goooooo Obama!
 |
|
|
| Progress, but slow, and working at home |
[Sep. 22nd, 2008|08:07 pm] |
The novel revision inches along. I'm hoping to start chapter 13 of 21 tomorrow, if all goes well finishing off 12 tonight. I think I'm cutting about 20% and adding about 10% new as I work. This project now officially has taken longer than my master's thesis, including fieldwork.
For the last year, both Mike and I have been working for ourselves from home. Overall, it's going well. I've noticed we both have a tendency to work days, nights and weekends, always in a rush to get things done before our next big trip. Big trips are great, but now, at the end of six weeks of constant working or feeling guilty about taking a day off, I'm thinking calling nights and weekends free time isn't such a bad idea now and then. At some point, if this goes on much longer, we need to think about a more structured time-off schedule. After the next big trip, I'll think about it.
The next trip starts this Sunday: Five days paddling the San Juan River north of Monument Valley. It's a small group, and we're bringing one raft, so we'll have all the comforts of car camping without the car! Yay for lawn chairs in camp, fresh veggies everyday and cold beer! I love the San Juan. It's a beautiful canyon with occasional easy rapids that just add fun, no stress or fear of thrashings. I'd hoped to have the novel finished before we left, maybe if I work REALLY hard all this week.... |
|
|
| Home again, home again |
[Aug. 27th, 2008|11:27 am] |
Finally making progress on the novel revisions! After a summer of travel and family stuff, I'm at the end of two solid weeks of being home and working on it. Yesterday, I finished revising Chapter 6 (of 21) and by tomorrow I should be through Chapter 7. My goal is to get the next draft finished by the end of September. I think I can do it.
I'm looking forward to reading it through from beginning to end, something I haven't been able to do yet because of the Blue Heaven deadline. (Finished it just in time, sent it out, then figured why bother until I got the comments back.) It was written chronologically, and I've been revising it in order, but it'll be interesting to read it through quickly and see how I'm doing on flow and pacing.
In other news, not much! The garden is putting out beans, squash and cucumbers at a fine rate. The next novel draft has to be done by the end of September because that's when we're taking off on a several day river trip on the beautiful San Juan River. It'll be a small group with plenty of time for side-canyon hikes. I can't wait to be on the water. |
|
|
| Heavenly |
[Jun. 15th, 2008|08:08 pm] |
I'm almost home from Blue Heaven. Getting to Phoenix has been uneventful, hopefully I'll be on the last plane home in two hours or so.
The workshop was excellent. Great people, crits and conversation. And on top of all that, ice cream, swimming in the lake, fossil hunting, walks and runs along the shore, AND an industrial-strength explosion. Almost as cool as the explosion itself was being with eleven people who were also immediately inspired, upon hearing the warning siren at the quarry, to jump up and run TOWARDS the blasting site.
Besides the fun, I'm feeling good about my novel. I left Kelley's Island knowing I've got a lot of work left to do, but encouraged and inspired to do it. As soon as I get some sleep. |
|
|
| To worry, or not to worry |
[May. 28th, 2008|07:14 pm] |
When I first finished the novel draft, twenty-three days ago, I told myself to immediately write a short story. I hadn't worked on one since last fall, when I started the novel. For two weeks I slugged it out over an idea, researched the heck out of the aurora, and got about 500 to 1000 words into something. It just wasn't happening. I researched some more. Often, when researching, I'll come across something that inspires me to continue writing. Wasn't happening. Thought about a couple other ideas and couldn't get enough substance out them to start writing.
So I decided to give up for a bit and decided to just read. I'm not even reading short stuff. I'm catching up on the pile of novels I've accumulated over the last year or so. I've got a big pile of critique reading to do, and I've been working on that, but otherwise, no writing or thinking about writing. (Except trying to learn from the novels, of course!)
One of the greatest things Clarion taught me was that yes, you can bust out a draft short story in one week that may not be great, but can be revised into something salable. I worry that I'm letting myself off the hook by not forcing myself to bust out a short. Any advice on whether to force it or let it rest? |
|
|
| Free Fiction! |
[May. 10th, 2008|02:06 pm] |
"Kukulkan" is now posted over at www.skcastle.com
I've joined the ranks of the pixel-stained peasantry. Hooray! |
|
|
| There it is! |
[May. 5th, 2008|01:11 pm] |
Just now finished the -0.5 draft of Clouds in Code, my first novel, evah. It is after noon and I'd have a beer right now, but I want to go for a run first!
I'm calling it a -0.5 draft because I've noticed over the last couple days of frantic typing that I was dropping articles and other more critical words, like pronouns, and occasionally even other nouns. The verbs seemed immune. Go figure! ;-) I'll start putting it in Word this afternoon, that'll help clean it up.
It's at 102K. I think it'll get cut down through the editing stages.
Sigh, part of me says take the afternoon off, the other part is actually kind of psyched to get editing. Will let parts fight it out during run... |
|
|
| So, no tiara or anything, but |
[May. 2nd, 2008|07:46 am] |
my novelette "Kukulkan" ranked 5th in the AnLab Analog readers survey!
I guess Analog isn't a tiara kind of outfit, anyway. Maybe they give out those headbands with the eyes on springy stalks. Gold, silver and bronze lab coats would be neat. |
|
|
| Still in the mine... |
[Apr. 28th, 2008|09:29 am] |
Still grinding away on Clouds In Code, but I think I'm safely over 90K! I've got 4K left to revise and enrich with the new thread, and 5 chapters to go. I really want to keep it under 95K. It may be tough. Advice from Clarion and others who I think are in the know suggests that over 95K is stretching it for a first time novelist, Patrick Rothfuss aside. (For some reason, I think fantasy readers are more likely to go for epic lengths than sci-fi readers. True or uninformed opinion?)
In other news, the week before last was spent in the Grand Canyon, on my longest back-packing trip yet - 5 days. The weather was great except for a day of wind that made walking a struggle. Several times, my 185-pound self (with pack!) had to struggle to keep on my feet. The claret cup and prickly pear cactus were starting to bloom, and there were a ton of other wildflowers out. Backpacking is such a great escape. You have nothing to do all day but get yourself from point A to point B. The route is often rough, so you feel kinda tough for having made it, and you're carrying everything you need to sustain yourself, yourself. So simple and gratifying.
As I get closer to the end of the novel, I'm still enjoying using Liquid Story Board. I'll format the manuscript using Word, because then I'll want all those auto-editing features. LSB creates each chapter as an .rtf file, so it'll be easy to move. With all the bells and whistles LSB has, I had to resort to taping printed chapter summaries to my closet door to keep track of everything. Just didn't want to keep opening windows to make sure so-and-so actually did do such-and-such in Chapter 7 or was it 9, etc, etc.
Now, onward to finishing draft 0.5! |
|
|
| Fightin' 80K |
[Apr. 10th, 2008|09:42 pm] |
As of tonight, I'm at 82K on Clouds in Code, if I round up. I haven't posted any updates on the novel in a while because I went back to the beginning and started revising. The closer I got to the end, I realized it was past mundane and was, in fact, boring. SO, I started at the beginning and added a thread that I'm having a lot of fun with and I think spices it up. WHEW! I haven't had to trash too much of what's written before, but I won't rule out dropping below 80K again before it's done and over with. I'm aiming for a fine first draft of about 95K by...May... something.
Thanks to my friend, gentleman and scholar, Dr. Darrell Kaufman, I went to the Arctic 2008 meeting in Boulder, CO in early March. It was my first ever 'just for researching fiction' (though family visiting also happened) trip. Three days of scientists who research the climate history of the Arctic giving presentations was tied up by presentations from a couple of journalists giving advice on how to get noticed and talk to the media. I could write a whole post on the meeting, but I'm too lazy for that. If you're that interested, buy me a beer next time you see me, and then see if you can get me to shut up. One of the interesting sentiments that I heard from a scientist was this: I don't want to get on the fear bandwagon that the media is making about climate change, so I just don't talk to the media.
I can kind of sympathize, but damn. The more research I do for this book, the more I discover to be scared about. Big changes in our climate are happening, but now that the Al Gore shiny is worn off, nothing's hitting the news. And the US, the biggest CO2 emitter in the history of the world, is still doing VERY little to slow down our emissions rate. So it is scary. However scary you think it is, multiply that by at least five. You can find a lot of information about this stuff on the web, so I won't belabor it any more, except to say if you're political, talk to your representatives about enacting a carbon tax. It's the only near-term action I can see that could make a significant difference. The world will change, but I still believe we can make it a change for the better. I mean, why not?
Also thanks to contacts through Darrell, I was able to talk to a couple people who are working on one of the US global climate change models at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), where my novel takes place. They were a little guarded at first, but very gracious with their time and knowledge. The NCAR building, designed by I.M. Pei, is very open to the public, so I did a lot of wandering around picking up details. I've been fascinated by this building since I was a kid, always seeing it from afar when we drove into Boulder. It was as cool inside as I thought it would be.
 |
|
|
