Drunken Owls and Other Delights

Cycles

2024-02-22T03:22:25Z

Today at work I was thinking about writing cycles and how I feel I'm at the end of one. The plans I have on the rewrite of Theadia have bloomed from a one-novel story into something much larger, and this made me realize that perhaps this current wave of one-off novels I'd written post-trilogy are coming to a close. I'd chosen that route basically because I'd focused on the trilogy for so many years I needed a mental and creative break and wanted to work on lighter things for a while.

Theadia was originally going to be one of those, but recently I've been thinking otherwise. I love what I have so far of it...but I know I can do more with it. I WANT to do more with it. I've been spending down time at work doing a bit of world building with characters, subplots and settings, and it occurred to me that this was exactly what I'd done when I rewrote The Phoenix Effect as the trilogy, so I took it as a sign.

That said, I'm starting to see Queen Ophelia's War in its own way as the last in the cycle of one-off novels. I think I'm ready to get stuck in on the Big Universes again. I didn't expect it to be in a non-Mendaihu Universe story, but that's fine by me -- part of my love of world building is the expansion work!

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Weekend update

2023-07-16T22:15:55Z

Woo, I had today off! I've had to work Sundays for the last couple of weeks due to people being out and while I'm not actually doing extra hours, it is kind of screwing with my personal time. Thankfully that person is now back from their vacation and things are sort of back to normal. [Unfortunately a different coworker seems to have fractured their ankle via an episode of inebriation, so my hours are still a tiny bit wonky. Not as frustrating, but just a bit off.]

Meanwhile, the new PC is up and running at top speed, which means I really should get back to my writing work. I've been very bad at following through lately, but now there's no real reason not to jump back in. I'm still up in the air:
--Do I finish off and revise the Queen Ophelia project? It's about 95% done but needs a lot of work.
--Do I finish off and revise Theadia? It too is about 95% done and also needs a lot of work.
--Do I outline and start the sequel to In My Blue World? It's my best seller and I'm sure readers will enjoy another episode of Meeks Sisters Adventures.
--Do I outline and start the romcom idea I've had in my head for the last year or so? I have a rough outline but it needs a lot of work, plus I need to work at getting my brain back into that style.
All this is while I'll be working on MU4 project, which I know will be a long-term one that may not see the light of day until sometime next year. I'm taking my time on that one.
What I'm doing now is reading what I have of all of them so far, to see what resonates with me the most. We shall see soon enough.

In the meantime, we've just gotten back from a five-mile walk around the neighborhood and I now have to do the laundry, so I'm going to relax a bit before I decide on anything!

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First week of 2023...

2023-01-09T01:03:56Z

...has been interesting so far. The Bay Area has been getting hit with multiple weird storm fronts these last few days so there's been hella rain (as they say in the local parlance) and hella wind to go along with it. We're fine here at home, safe on the top floor with a non-leaking roof above us and no sub-basement levels (our garage is on ground level), but we've seen some trees and branches down and a bit of flooding and washouts in the neighborhood. The first hit us late Tuesday night and apparently after I left work at 1:30 there was a mad rush of panic buying that lasted for about six hours, followed by a few days of rather quiet retail work. On a side note, the cats are fine but a tad confused by all the noise going on outside, especially all that pitterpat on the bathroom skylights.

I've been rereading A Division of Souls these last couple of days in preparation for writing MU4 as well as making a few mental notes for the Great Trilogy Remastering as well. I think it still holds up amazingly well, not to mention I'm still a bit blown away at the level of detail I put into it, and I think most of the Remastering will end up being a general fix-up of formatting errors, making a few better word choices and a bit of grammatical spot-cleaning. I'm also having fun revisiting a few of my favorite scenes! I'm really looking forward to both the Remaster and the new project!

Hope everyone's having a great new year so far!

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Project hiatuses and new stuff

2022-11-11T23:28:14Z

I've mentioned over at Welcome to Bridgetown that I'm putting both Theadia and Queen Ophelia on hiatus. Why? Short version is that I need a break from both of them for a while. To put it bluntly, I'm not happy with them and I just don't have the brainspace for them at the moment. The former needs a lot more dedication than I'm willing to give at the moment, and the latter is kind of a mess and needs some major rewriting. I don't feel bad about it this time out, really...they're just not stories I can really focus on right now. It happens.

In the meantime, I've been contemplating writing that romcom I've been threatening to write for a while now. As I posted at WtBt: So the original idea came to me after reading multiple romcoms in a row: what about an older woman who, after a successful career in the late 80s and early 90s as a young pop singer and an adulthood stuck in terrible relationships and bad business decisions, has a meet-cute with an equally jaded John Cusack type of guy who runs a record store in the small town she escapes to?

A and I chatted about this sometime ago and I've just recently written a very rough outline idea for my 750Words entries this week, and I think it's something I can have fun with! More to come... :)

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Another long weekend

2022-01-16T23:31:57Z

It's MLK Day tomorrow so we have another three-day weekend coming to us (or as A says "another mini-vacation") so as with last time, we're spending the days outside and enjoying ourselves. Yesterday we went to the SF Zoo and had a fun time seeing all the critters! Although every single cat was zonked out, and the bears were most likely in winter torpor and snoozing away inside. Can't say I blame them, though. [Side note, the zoo was also full to the brim with kidlets and I was reminded just how exhausting they can be, especially the boys that have obviously never once been told 'can you just calm down and not bounce off strangers for fifteen seconds?' in their lives to date.]

Today's adventure was a walk up to the farmer's market at the other end of Clement, where we stocked up on veg before having a tasty lunch at the Richmond Republic. Noted, the Altamont Nutty Operator stout was super tasty and actually kind of potent for a 5% beer (we both had two). The rest of the day is the usual boring Sunday stuff like laundry, running the various PC cleaner programs and updating the blogs. And tomorrow as planned, we'll be heading to the botanical garden in GGP as the magnolias have started to bloom!

In other news, I've been reading some fun romantic comedy books on A's suggestion -- I'd decided last year that I want to try my hand at that genre this year -- and lo and behold, I came up with a nifty idea whilst lying in bed this morning! A and I talked about some of the plot points on our walk home today and it's sounding like it would be a really fun project, so perhaps this might be something I'll work on next. I suppose my elevator pitch would be "music nerd meet-cute" (slight bit of self-insertion there, I admit). Very curious to see where this leads.

Meanwhile, I supposedly have jury duty this week, although Tuesday's is already saying "nothing today, call back again". Ah well.

Hope everyone has a lovely week!

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Writing All the Things

2021-05-16T20:11:35Z

A few days ago I woke up super-early in the morning from a dream and had that classic OMG this needs to be story!! moment, so of course I made sure that I remembered it after sliding back into slumber for a few more hours. And yes, somehow I did in fact remember it! So before it went away and before I distracted myself with any other internetty things, I logged onto/dusted off the 750 Words site and hopped to it. I'd originally meant to just work out the bare bones of the idea, but before I knew it, I was writing a full-on synopsis and an hour or so later I had a full novel's worth written out!!

That NEVER happens. So I didn't question it...I just kept working at it until I had it done and finished! [And the wild thing is that after I finished that, I spent the next several hours finally finishing the Diwa & Kaffi revision. I of course then wanted to Do All The Things after that, but reeled it back a bit. Two major milestones completed in one day is successful in my book.] I figured, I'm not exactly sure when I'll work on it, as I had some other things to do, but it's good that I have it on hand so I'll be prepared when I do get to it.

I spent the next day or so revising the Diwa & Kaffi synopsis and cover letter for when I send it out, but after that bizarrely productive day, I was hankering for a repeat. So a few days later I opened up the 750 again and played around with a synopsis for another book -- this time with one that I've already started/stopped/trunked/revived several times over the years and could never quite let go of it. This time out, however, I just focused on creating a tight synopsis with the ideas I did have without the issue of sliding into the meta details. I think it worked out, because in the process I figured out why it hadn't worked in the past, and how I could approach it. So yay me, another future project!

Which leaves me with the current two front-burner projects, both of which I'm still feeling a bit tetchy about. The issue with both is, you guessed it: lack of direction. I know where I'm going, but there's still a high level of flailing on both. SO! This means that what I'd like to do in the next few days is give them that 750 synopsis exercise and see if I can tame them some.

Funny how it all falls into place at once when you least expect it. Heh.

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Weekend Updatery

2020-09-28T01:26:40Z

Well! Here I am, posting on another Sunday evening, pleasantly surprised that I've kept to my new whiteboard schedule for the most part! Welcome to Bridgetown and Walk in Silence are both getting updated, I've been getting some practice on my guitars, and I've even been getting some drawing done! (I missed one day on the art, but that's okay, it was Friday and I was distracted by all the New Music Releases. Heh.)

The best part is that I've successfully kicked off the prep work for the New Project, which I've codenamed Theadia. It's the waystation story that I've mentioned in the past, and I've been spending the week writing out some world building ideas and rules using my daily words over at 750. I'm of course a little nervous because I don't want to mess it up, especially considering how successful the process of writing Diwa & Kaffi was once I figured it all out. I just want to make sure this one is just as successful, because I really love the idea. Especially considering I'd unexpectedly come up with a fantastic plot idea to run with!

My long term plan is to heighten the focus on my creativity. I don't know where it will lead me, but I've got the time and the drive to do it, and I have absolutely no reason not to follow through now. I know I've been my own worst enemy in the past -- y'know, Best Laid Plans versus Follow-Through and all that -- but this time I want to prove to myself that I can make this happen. I did it before to some degree when I prepped and self-pubbed the trilogy, doing everything on my own, so it's really a matter of self-belief and self-confidence. And now that I've let myself have more of that lately, there's no reason I can't do it again.

Here's to hoping...!

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Starting Again

2020-06-25T17:03:37Z

I know it's going to take a few false starts. It always does. I'm terrible at beginnings of novels. I flail for about three chapters until I finally nail the sucker down and find the right groove.

But I'm starting a new novel project.

It's about damn time.

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Friday Thoughts

2020-01-24T22:22:07Z

Another downside to going into the office is that I no longer have easy access to my blogs, here and on WP, so I have to carve out time elsewhere to be able to keep them updated to any degree. And busy weekends (of which I've had many this month) have kept me from posting on time. I've been kind of lazy the last few weeks, in which I could be using afterwork time to do them, but it's tricky when I suddenly have a commute with an unstable average time-spent-getting-home. (On good days it's just over an hour. On bad days it's been more like 1.5. Thankfully I've only had two or three REALLY bad days of two hours, and those were during the Christmas season. Here's to hoping those were exception and not the rule.) I suppose I should get out of the habit of futzing around on my phone whilst watching whatever we're streaming at the moment, yeah?

Speaking of writing, I may have come up with a new project that's captured my interest. The two semi-backburner books I've been toying with don't seem to be going anywhere in particular, and this particular one grabbed me very similarly to how In My Blue World and especially Diwa & Kaffi did, and I'm taking that as a good sign. This came out of an exercise I did a few days ago on the 750, in which I just riffed on a handful of simple ideas inspired by some of the animes we've watched and manga I've read. I realized I wanted to keep going with the short-and-quick story ideas that have done me so well over the last few years, so I'd like to go further with it. I'm very curious to see where this leads...!

On a more personal note, I've been toying with the idea of selecting one day earlier in the week to head straight to the gym from work instead of heading straight home, because I really don't like this one-day-a-week (and maybe on weekends) thing. And I certainly do NOT want to pay for using the company gym when I already have a local YMCA membership. It'll be a bit of a trick but I think I can swing it. I'll plan it out with A, so that way we can have a pre-cooked dinner that we can heat up quickly.

More things on my mind lately, but I'm holding them close for now. Soon enough.

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Weekend Update Is Having a Nice Relaxing Weekend

2018-07-22T15:46:18Z

Not too much to report this weekend...keeping busy with All the Writing, as always.

One thing I'm quite happy with is that I ordered the postcards for In My Blue World. Since it's only one cover and not three, I created a smaller 5x7 card (the trilogy card is a half-page). I also deliberately didn't put the entire book information on it, such as the release date or the ISBN -- which I don't have yet anyway -- so I can slap a 'coming soon' sticker on it. [And when I *do* get that info, I can put a label with that info on it then, and update the template for when I want to reorder.] They look really nice and I'm looking forward to handing them out at Worldcon!

Other writing news: coming up with new ideas and notes for a possible new Mendaihu Universe story! It's kind of funny, really...while writing some of these notes I actually had to stop and look up some planet names mentioned in the original trilogy that I couldn't remember! It's a good thing I'm a packrat and keep detailed notes! One thing that's surfacing with these sessions is that I think the story might expand to the other worlds that are part of the history but didn't get much stage presence in the original trilogy. [Another thing that's surfacing is that I seem to be creating another trilogy, where originally I was going to write a standalone, but this does not surprise me in the least.]

Anyhoo! Not much else going on today... going to head to the farmer's market, maybe do a bit of cleaning, and then get started on the coming week's blog entries.

Hope everyone has a nice week! :)

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Midweek Update Starts the Year on a Positive Note

2018-01-03T19:05:40Z

It's been a busy couple of days here in Spare Oom, getting used to the new regimens I've given myself. It's not difficult, to be truthful...it's just a matter of Doing instead of Planning for the most part. Even when the unexpected comes around -- a weird browser error eating my first take of this entry, for example -- the important thing is to get it done regardless. Thankfully the Day Job hasn't been all too worrisome the last few days, which is giving me a bit of extra time to get used to it all.

The biggest change is getting used to writing longhand. It's coming along just fine so far, averaging around four pages a day, which is about normal. The obstacle I have here is to get used to how I pace the story. I'm a fast typist but a leisurely longhander (anything faster and it starts getting illegible), so I have to be a little more patient with my prose when I'm writing it out like that. I've already reminded myself a few times that it's okay to write a few clunky sentences, as they'll be fixed in revision. Still...I've done it before, so it's just a matter of keeping it up, and I'll get used to it all again.

Other than that, all is going well. I'm actually a bit surprised as to how much I can get done in a single day, especially when I make it a point to not faff about online. This morning I have only three tabs open: this one, my Walk in Silence blog (entry to be written later today) and the 750 Words site (daily words to be done soon). The Apartment Complex notebook is right under my monitor, waiting to be pulled out for another session. After a while, I get into a zone where I'll start in on one project, finish the day's work on that one, and go straight to the next one. And hey, next thing I know, I'm done for the day, hitting all the beats I wanted to hit, and it's still early in the evening!

Now to make sure I keep it going!

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Weekend Update Wakes Up

2017-10-28T16:25:07Z

Saturday morning and we don't have anything planned for the weekend other than errands and maybe the farmer's market tomorrow. Sometimes I have to remember that having nothing major planned on the weekend can be a good and relaxing thing!

Last night after work we went up to the Legion of Honor Museum (the one that's in our neighborhood) and checked out a couple of their recent exhibits (one featuring Klimt and Rodin, the other featuring painted recreations of Roman and Greek statues (as the current theory goes, many of them were actually painted, many quite garishly...and in an amusing twist of fate, some of the supremacist yahoos take offense to that idea).

Also last night, I've come ever closer to finishing Meet the Lidwells. WOOT! If I play my cards right, I may actually have it done this weekend! At present it's just over 80k words, which is about what I was aiming for. And once I'm done, I'll start up on the revision on that one, and also start up on the preparation for the Next Project.

Speaking of Next Project...I should probably come up with a decent title for it, at least a temporary one. Right now I'm referring to it as the Apartment Complex story or My Studio Ghibli story, but I should probably give it something a little more creative. Heh. I know I've been a bit quiet about this one, only giving out vague hints on what this one's about, and I may finally open up about that one once I start in on it. I'm being mum because I don't want to jinx it just yet! But soon, I'll let you all know a little more about it.

Related, as I'd mentioned briefly over at the WtBt blog, I decided I wanted to rename a few of the characters I'd come up with. I'm fine with that, because most times when I come up with character names, it's because they sound right, but not always because they mean anything. The issue here is that two of the main characters (a father and son) are of mixed race, but I haven't quite pinned down who they truly are, and I don't want to give them just any random non-English-sounding name, because that just ain't cool. I'll have to do some more thinking and research about it before I go too far. [For the record, there's no real reason they're mixed race other than that's how I pictured them when I came up with the story. I rarely start a project saying "I'll write about this type of person"; more often than not, I'll just go with what sounds right to me. Being inclusive in writing isn't about ticking races off a list to say 'there, they have a role now' but just being aware that the character palettes are a hell of a lot bigger and more diverse than you think.]

Okay...time to....do something, today? Shopping? Watch college football? :p

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Weekend Update Has Been Sooooo Lazy

2017-06-25T16:28:00Z

I don't know what possessed me, but I took Friday off from writing. I just sort of happened...I'd thought of working on my Daily words and new Lidwells words....and didn't even try to get to them. It was like a conscious choice to take the day off. And I took Saturday off as well.   After all these years, I'm still not used to doing that. The funny thing is when I do take a day off, everyone around me will invariably say "Good for you!  You should take a day off now and again." Never fails.

It's not that I actually needed it this time out. I'm not exhausted or overworked. I'm not feeling creatively drained at all. It was just an 'I don't want to work today' couple of days.

Which of course means that, like being in school again, it's Sunday and I probably should stop procrastinating and get some work done.

In sort of related news, I'm quite proud of myself for coming up with a possible idea for Secret Next Project while falling asleep on Friday and remembering it the following morning. I have a few secondary characters that need a lot of fleshing out, and as I've pretty much got the four or five major ones nailed down, I needed to work on these people as well. The neat thing is that this is the second time around where my world building work on one project has been in tandem with the main draft writing of the main project. I just sort of fell into this new way of working, and it's working quite nicely, so I'm very happy about that. I'm really looking forward to sharing SNP with you soon, but alas, I need to finish Lidwells first! :)

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!  Happy Pride! :D

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Monday once more

2017-06-19T19:46:15Z

Oh, it's Monday again? Our weekend kind of flew by, considering the two of us went on a road trip up north sort of as our little anniversary vacation (it's our 12th as of the 28th). We drove up to the Mendocino/Fort Bragg area and had a lovely time. It's a LOOOOONG drive -- 230 some odd miles round trip, per our odometer. It was also stupidly hot at some of our destinations, which we're no longer used to. Still...lots of picture taking, lots of drinks, lots of tasty food eaten. And even a few good local radio stations found!

In other news, it's kind of sad yet amusing when an online troll ends the argument with a version of 'you make no sense you're stupid whatever bye have a nice life'. It usually means I've not only won the argument, but I've also cut off all their avenues for clever comebacks. FTW!

In other other news...during this weekend I also read what I have of Meet the Lidwells as well as the Secret Next Project outtakes and I'm glad to say I think both are coming along quite nicely. Both need a bit of correction and revision work, but for the most part I'm really happy with what I've got so far. I'm really looking forward to getting these out into the world. MtL is (hopefully) going to drop in September or October, and Secret Next Project will most likely be released next summer the latest. Suffice it to say, I am so not used to quick turnarounds like this (given that my last project took two decades...!!), but it looks like I can handle this speed and output without too much stress, which also makes me happy. :)

OKAY. Time to get back to the boring ol' Day Job. Woohoo. :p

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Weekend Update wonders where the week went

2017-06-10T15:47:41Z

Wait, it's Saturday already? When did that happen? It was a fast week of Day Job stuff and catching up on writing, and not much else of import, so time seemed to fly by rather quickly this week. Not that I'm complaining. Midweek had some crappy weather as well, but currently there's no clouds in the sky so it looks like it's going to be a really nice weekend all around.

I'm still concerned that I might not make my autumn deadline for Meet the Lidwells but I think that's mainly because I'm having a bit of trouble at the moment. The first act is done (creation of the band up to their initial success), and now I have to shift from that to act two (the highs and lows of success and creativity), and it's a bit harder than I expected. If all else fails, I think I'll have to just make a hard shift there for now, and smooth it out in revision. We shall see.

Secondary Project, aka The Apartment Complex story, is slowly evolving via the 750 Words site (much like I did with Lidwells a few years ago), and this one promises to be a lot of fun to write. I'm coming up with some really fun characters and story ideas for it. I don't think I'll be outlining this one as strictly as I did with Lidwells, but I should at least get the characters and places down.

Related, I think this might end up being my writing process for a while. I like the idea of working on new ideas in a playground atmosphere to let them grow and expand (thus letting me work on them during slow points of my day), while dedicating more serious writing time to the current project (which I'll have given a deadline for finishing). This not only gives me a quicker turnaround, but also lets me work on and self-publish more projects.

Which of course brings up the question, do I want to keep self-publishing? Well, funny thing about that: yesterday I got a completely unexpected email response from an agent. It was a rejection for a submission of A Division of Souls and I couldn't find the date of my original response...so I have no idea when I sent this. This was before I ultimately decided to self-publish, so this must have been at least around 2015, possibly earlier. I'll be honest, I'm amused and touched that they got back to me even after this long, even if it was a rejection! But at the same time, it really put things into perspective: I simply don't want to spend all my time waiting for a yes/no from an agent or a publisher and not knowing either way until then. I don't seek vindication...I just want to know if I'm Doing It Right or not, and I've come to the conclusion that I don't want to go that route. Sure, self-publishing means a hell of a lot more work, but I've already proven to myself that I'm willing to do it all.

Anyhoo...going to have a relaxing weekend here, hope you have the same! :)

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