Drunken Owls and Other Delights

Late last night, just as I was finishing up my writing session for the Apartment Complex story, I may have actually had a few breakthroughs!  Which is a great thing, considering how much of a pain in the ass it's been.

First, the title: I've FINALLY come up with one.  It's the word for 'bonded friend' in the tintrite language (the tintrite -- pronounced TIN-treet -- are the four-legged dragonlike beings in the story, and Kaffi, one of the main characters, is one).  Right now it's "abidamé" (AH-bih-DAH-may) but I'm going to play around with it a bit until I've nailed the spelling and the pronunciation.  When I come up with this sort of thing I always do a lot of tweaking and double-checking Google Translate and all, just to make sure it doesn't translate to something odd elsewhere.  Once I get this title solid, I'll stop calling it the AC.  Heh.

Second, the style:  I finished a new chapter last night that I think really works well.  There's no dialogue but it's all from Kaffi's introspective point of view, of a day in his teenage life hanging out with is best friend Diwa all day long.  When I finally finished it, I realized that I'd finally found the style this book needs.  Amusingly enough, it's the same style as my trilogy!  Which means I have a lot of work ahead of me. Good work, though.  Positive, forward-moving work!  Let me tell you, it's like a weight off my back, now that I've straightened that out!  Sheesh.  :p

Meanwhile, I'm still writing In My Blue World entirely on 750Words.  I'm finding that site is perfect for me to write in a short, crisp style.  It worked wonders for Meet the Lidwells, so I'm going to continue with this format for my shorter, tighter works.  I'm planning on writing pretty much the entire rough first draft first before I print it out and work on a revision/rewrite.  Also, chances are pretty good that this one's going to cross the finish line before the other one, so I'm going to plan on doing some pre-release work on this one as well.  If I have it done or close to done by the time Worldcon comes around, I'll maybe create some bookmarks or some postcards.  Which means I'll also need to work on a cover!  I'm up in the air on this one...not sure if I'm going to go the Shutterstock way or if I'll see if I can commission someone. We shall see.  I need to write the thing first!  Heh.

Things are indeed looking up.


Hope everyone has a great rest of the week!
 

 Things I Did This Weekend:

--Learned how to rip DVDs onto my external hard drive.  I may start doing this to get rid of some of the older DVDs I rarely watch.
--Visited the in-laws in Petaluma for lunch, had a tasty pizza at one of the tiny hip restaurants in the Theater District
--Did a quick overview of the electric guitars at Tall Toad Music (in the same city), as I'm contemplating trading in my rarely-used 12-string guitar for a second electric 6-string.  Fell in love with a Gretsch that I hope is there when I return next.
--Went to the gym for the first time in a week or so.
--Had a very tasty brunch at the new Turkish/Mediterranean bistro up the street (Lokma), deemed it quite excellent.
--Three loads of laundry, surprised that no one else was using it at the moment.
--Started to prepare for FogCon, which starts this Friday.  I have a reading and I'm on a panel about self-publishing!

Oh-- and I FINALLY released Meet the Lidwells!  WOOHOO!  It's now available at Smashwords, and it's on sale this week, for only $1.50!  Go check it out! :D

So yeah, that's been my weekend.  How's yours been? :)

It's been a nice couple of days here in SF, with the temps hovering in the upper 50s and lower 60s -- the New Englander in me still isn't used to that, twelve years later -- but we're not complaining.  Gives us reason to leave the house and walk around and do things and shake our cabin fever (or alternately, our hibernation instincts)!

It's been a busy month in Spare Oom.  I've hit nearly all my beats (as I've been calling them) so far, which keeps my hands and brain full for most of the day, but the end result is that I'm getting a hell of a lot done.  For my daily 750 I've only missed a few weekend days, and I'm okay with that -- especially since a good percentage of that output has been actual fiction and not rambling filler.  Same with working on the final revision of Meet the Lidwells (if I'm not too busy I may just finish that today!) and the ongoing work with the Apartment Complex story (I really need a title for that...).  I've been solid with my blogging, having posted only one fly-by (due to being in Anaheim at the time).  Same with the personal journal and the weekly poetry.

On a more personal note, I've been thinking lately of trading in my 12-string guitar, as I've rarely picked it up since I bought it.  It's a nice lower-end Epiphone that was pretty much new when I bought it at Tall Toad up in Petaluma, so I'm sure I could get some money for it.  More to the point, I was thinking of maybe trading it in for a second electric of around the same price.  I talked with my sister (who's well versed in many things guitar) and she's given me some suggestions for what to look for.  Not sure when that'll happen, but it's on my to-do list.  We shall see.

On that note... hope everyone's having a good week! :)
 

Yeah, I'm still aware of the bullshit the Fuckwit is trying to implement in varying parts of the government.  ALL too aware, considering that, if they were to become a reality, I and a lot of people I know would be adversely affected.  Not to mention he and his ilk are frighteningly imbecilic on a regular basis.  There's a reason I still call him The Fuckwit a year on.

Point here is that I've been staying quiet and rarely bloviating about it online because I need to retain my own emotional and mental sanity if I'm going to get anything done around here.  Most of you already know that, of course.  Just a reminder that I've not decided to remain willfully ignorant of what's going on, I'm just keeping a distance because I know my limits.

ANYWAY.

On the plus side, I've been truly enjoying this mental holiday by focusing most of my energies on the Lidwells revision and the Apartment Complex outline.  In fact, I'm already on the last few chapters of the revision already, making this probably the quickest turnaround I've ever dealt with.  This of course throws up all the usual second-guessing red flags: Am I completely ignoring that it's actually crap?  Am I totally missing a critical piece or three of the plot?  There's no way in hell I can be this fast and Not That Bad At All so easily!  I keep having to remind myself that I'm not writing an Epic Novel of Epic Epicness.  It's a short (80k) novel that's meant to be read as a bit of fun fluff.  I'm not setting out to change the world.  [And let's admit it here and now: I was totally doing that with the trilogy.  Heh.]  When I remind myself that it was written in fun, for fun, then most of that doubt evaporates.

Now, if I can just figure out how the hell to do the Lidwells cover, then we'd be in business!

Saturday morning, once again up early, watching the local news and making coffee while A. sleeps in.  It's one of those weekends where we have nothing planned or scheduled, so I guess this means that one of us is gonna have to take the initiative and say 'okay, let's get out of the house and go somewhere.'  I'm thinking maybe a walk down to the Richmond Republic for lunch (which of course would also include a stop to Green Apple, because there are some new books out that I would like to pick up).  It'll get us out of the house, at least!

I think I'm at the point where I'm ready to start working on the prewriting for the New Project already.  I've been kinda sorta putting it off so I can finish up a few other things and focus mainly on the Lidwells revision, but it seems this revision is going to be a hell of a lot quicker and smoother than I expected.  [Not that I think I'm a perfect writer...more like I have a hell of a lot less reworking to do than I did with the trilogy.]  I've been looking forward to this one, so finally bringing it up to the next level feels great!

As for Meet the Lidwells...I'm a few months behind schedule on it, so it looks like it might not pop up until December.  I'm not entirely happy about that, but what can ya do?  I don't think it's that I was lazy throughout the time I was working on it...I think I didn't give myself enough time.  I should have started it earlier in the year if I was aiming for a September release.  I'm not gonna get myself down on it, though.  It was a learning experience.  Still...it's been an amazingly quick turnaround nonetheless, and I'm happy with the work I put into it, so all in all I think it's been a successful project so far.  I am curious, however, to see how readers will take it! 

Hope everyone has a nice weekend!

Okay, where was I?  August?  Right.

Doing the best I can to reorganize myself.  Taking two weeks off in a completely different time zone really screwed with my inner clock for a few days there when we returned, not to mention the multiple Day Job headaches that ensued as soon as I returned.  I pretty much let myself coast for the rest of the month and let some of the more superficial things go by.  I'd start fresh come September. 

Which is apparently this Friday?  How the hell did that happen?

Anyway.

At least I've been getting some decent word count on Meet the Lidwells in the interim.  I'm doing my best not to rush to the end, even though I can see that light at the end of the tunnel now.  My brain is already gearing up to do the revision work, so I have to keep that in check while I wind everything down.  At least I've calmed down a bit on the Secret Next Project for the time being, just so I can focus on what needs focusing on!  Although, I should mention that during my daily 750 yesterday, I may have accidentally come up with an idea for another (completely unrelated) story in the SNP universe.  I'll have to put that one aside for the time being, though at least I'll have something to play with if need be!

Sort-of related:  The other day I heard Soul II Soul's "Back to Life" on the radio this past weekend, a track I haven't heard in probably over a decade or more.  It seemed to fit my current mindset. :)
 

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

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! :)

This past week worked out pretty well, I think.  My original intent was to take the week off from blogging at my WordPress sites just as a mini-break, but in the process I ended up doing a lot more head-clearing than I'd expected.  A new way of approaching various things in my life (or as I'd been hinting, a return to an old way of approaching said things that makes a lot more sense to me).  This past week was a trial run to see if I could actively make it a real thing instead of yet another Best Laid Plan.

All in all, it went pretty well except for Wednesday night, in which A and I are woken up at almost exactly midnight by two young local policemen (about whom A commented that they looked young enough to be our kids).  Allegedly there had been a hit-and-run in the neighborhood in which a few local cars had been sideswiped by a possible DUI and the offending person may have entered our building.  Aside from not recognizing the car (which they'd shown A via their phone), life went on, and neither of us were able to get back to sleep until about 1am.  The both of us spent most of Thursday in a sleep-deprived loopy haze and multiple cups of coffee.  Thankfully we were back on the ball on Friday!

So what *did* I do creatively this past week?  Well, I'm glad to say that I've been consistent with getting some good solid words down for Meet the Lidwells, still averaging about 500-700 a day.  This is all first draft, pre-revision and pre-editing work, of course.  I'm a little nervous that I won't hit my hopeful deadline of mid-autumn for a release, but I think if I keep this up and not overwrite (an issue with the trilogy) I should be okay.  I'm already at 13k words and probably about 1/5 of the way done...this is going to be a short novel compared to my last three!

Also, I took the time to retune all my guitars -- the weather changes have detuned them all at least a half-step -- with the intention that I will pick up and play at least one of them once a day.   This is a change from my usual default, which is to pick up my electric and play it unplugged, which is all fine except that everything else is gathering dust.  I should also probably start using my little Danelectro HoneyTone mini-amp I bought recently at Tall Toad Music.

I may have even returned to the poetry, after deciding to drop it some six or seven months ago.  That may or may not have to do with the current administration, but it's also part of the creativity reboot I've been working on this week.

One last creative thing I must kickstart again:  the art.  I really need to start doodling and sketching again.  Finishing up the Trilogy Project really took a lot of time and energy out of me and it fell by the wayside for far too long.  I even got a nice case for all my art pens and pencils so they're not all hiding in forgotten nooks of my desk.  Really must make room for that again.

Thankfully, the weather has decided to turn gorgeous here in SF, with most of the morning fog burning off rather quickly and revealing lovely blue sky and warm temperatures.  We did our grocery shopping and went for a walk earlier (filling ourselves at the Korean/Japanese fusion restaurant for lunch).  We'll be going to the Symphony tonight to listen to some Mendelssohn and Schumann, and tomorrow I believe we'll be going to see a movie at the Vogue down the street.

Other than that, it's been a nice weekend so far.  Can't complain!

...not that that's a problem.  Our local indie bookstore (Green Apple Books) is quite awesome and fun -- and they sell my e-books on their website! -- so it's quite worth it.  I bought this year's Bad Citizen Graffiti Stencil ("Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice" - Henry Louis Gates Jr), Michael Nesmith's new book (Infinite Tuesday) and the new Cory Doctorow (Walkaway), and A bought a number of things as well.

Lately I've been reading Peter Hook's Substance -- his book about being a part of New Order -- and it's quite an interesting read. Let's just say that I can summarize it into one sentence: Who the hell thought this was a good idea?  Between Hooky being "off his face" for most of the 80s (his phrase), the amount of illicit substances partaken by most of the people involved, and the fiances of both the band, the Hacienda night club they owned, and Factory Records (the label they were on), it's amazing how anything and anyone lasted as long as they did.  It's a hilariously told story, but it's also a story of what NOT to do businesswise, EVER.  Heh.

OH!  I finally officially started Meet the Lidwells the other night!  WOOT!  Yeah, I basically just did what I always do:  tell myself to STFU, stop finding ways to distract myself, and just WRITE THE DAMN THING.  Getting just a few hundred words the last few days, but hey, that's better than nothing. As long as it's going in the right direction, I'm happy with that.

Writing tunage lately has centered around the 1990-1991 era, aka my first couple of years in college and living in Boston.  A mix of latter post-punk, early Britpop, early grunge, and a bit of holdover 80s-style pop.  There's a lot fun music that came out around that time that gets pushed aside because of the bigger scenes that came before and after -- Jesus Jones and EMF, Dream Warriors and Naughty By Nature, 808 State and The Orb...not to mention Chris and I reviving the Flying Bohemians as a duo and writing some of our strongest songs at the time.  It's probably when I was the happiest during my college years as well.  That's the feel I want for The Lidwells' discography: full of positive energy, danceable and fun.


Hope everyone's having a good weekend! :)