January 18, 2007


New Moon


And we've moved!

Visit us at our new home, here.

Site redirect coming soon!

Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Dark of the Moon
Saturn Retrograde
Sunny and COLD!


Linky, linky, check out these posts:

My regular Wednesday entry is up on The Dog Blog. Today’s topic is: Space.

The latest issue of The Scruffy Dog Review is up, with my column, “The Literary Athlete”. We’re talking about endings here, and the talk includes agent Jacky Sach, editor Kristen King, reader Costume Imp, and authors Chaz Brenchley, Tim Cockey, Tess Gerritsen, Jonathan Mayberry and John Getze

Link:
http://thescruffydogreview.com/uploads/Literary%20Athlete%20Endings%20Formatted.htm

There are a couple of typo fixes I requested, and then I’ll send the links to the contributors.

Today’s Circadian Poem is “Lily” by Wesley Floyd.

Last day of posting on Blogger. Make sure you have the links updated over to Word Press.

Dealt with a good deal of anger yesterday. I struggled with it because I had the feeling that what I responded to wasn’t at the root of the problem, and it was more important to find out the cause than simply react on an emotional level. Not all figured out, yet, but I’m getting there. Trying to take the Saturn Retrograde into account and not make the same mistakes – make constructive choices instead of destructive ones. Mostly revolving around stuff in the city, not the writing life.

With yet more developments in The Situation: The Sequel – it’s not easy.

And, actually, Kristen, you gave me the key in our phone conversation today. I think I’m on the right track. Thank you!

Work was fine. Lots of principal dressing rooms painted, so I had plenty of clothes to haul up three flights of stairs. Was ready to slap one of the dayworkers who started whining that a rack she wanted to put downstairs for dry cleaning was full and I wasn’t emptying it fast enough (we had three hours until the dry cleaning was due). God forbid she could help me move anything if it meant going up the stairs. I told her it would take me as long as it took me, and she would just have to deal. Upstairs, in my work space, we had engineers trying to figure out which shower was leaking and why, and a design assistant in the rooms making sketches for the designer. Believe it or not, it wasn’t all that chaotic, because we were all working around each other with compassion and cooperation.

Printed out some more photos and got them in the book. Sent out two more pitches.

Good morning’s work on Changeling.

Busy day ahead. Good stuff: writing and pitches. Bad stuff: more to do on The Sequel. But guess what? It has to wait until the writing quota is met. I’m tired of losing writing time because of scumbags.

Devon

Chasing the Changeling – 8,842 words out of est. 45,000

8 / 45 (17.8%)

Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Waning Moon
Saturn Retrograde
Rainy and cold


The revised guidelines are up for Circadian Poems.

I’ve moved both The Thirteen Traveling Journals Project and The Place and Space Journal Project. They both need a lot of TLC and revamping, which will happen in the coming weeks. Both of the new sites have my photos. I love how P&S turned out, but am unhappy with the Journals photo and will have to do another photo session in the near future to come up with something better. Not to mention sort all the problems with journals getting stuck because I haven’t been able to access the email to get the info from the proper people and TO the proper people. Patience, all, it will be worked out. Plus, some new journals will be available in the coming weeks, along with a fresh media campaign.

Spent far too much time yesterday working on a quarterly newsletter that has to go out in early February. But the content had formed itself in my brain, and I wanted to get it onto the page while it was still hot and fresh.

Tomorrow is my last day for Ink’s run on Blogger. Much of it was great, but we all have to move on sometime, right?

Let’s hope all this blog relocation is moving the house relocation energy into place!

Suzanne over at The Working Writer’s Coach invited me to join a Blog Chain this week – very cool. It’s a wonderful, intelligent, diverse group of writers and bloggers – witty, articulate, fascinating points of view. Thanks, Suzanne! I’m having a blast.

I wrestled a couple of pages out of “Illuminated Nude”. I’m getting into the difficult, sticky section now, and the only thing to do is push through.

I dropped back into the world of Real again for a few pages. I’m getting there. It’ll be a great, big mess to revise, but hey, get it all down first, then figure it out later, right?

Chasing the Changeling continues to surprise me in a good way.

Off to the theatre – yes, Kristen, I’m going to Spoiled Brats to look for the toy for Pickles! Don’t worry!

Devon

Token and Affections – 11,592 words out of est. 45,000

11 / 45 (24.4%)

Chasing the Changeling – 7,341 words out of est. 45,000

7 / 45 (15.6%)

“Illuminated Nude” – 3,250 words out of est. 5,000

3 / 5 (60.0%)

Real – 107,000 words out of est. 120,000

107 / 120 (89.2%)

Monday, January 15, 2007
Waning Moon
Saturn Retrograde
Martin Luther King Day
Rainy and warm


Let’s take Dr. King’s message to heart and each day perform at least one act of kindness/and or tolerance, creating a ripple effect.

Rev up, people, there are links to click:

Today’s Circadian Poem: “Rainy Morn” by Joan Spoon.

A new post on preparing for herbal studies over on Kemmyrk.

An explanation of Hope Clark’s 13-in-Play and information on Kristen King’s Query Challenge 2007 over on Wordish Wanderings.

How’s that for a start?

On the Blogger version of Ink, it’s countdown time. I will only be double-posting for three more days. As of Thursday, when the moon turns, it will all be at Word Press.

On Word Press, I’m trying to fix some typos in links, and I have to talk to them today about some silly preview window they’re giving me when I want to click one of my links, that prevents me from actually getting to my link. I DON’T WANT IT. So, we’ll be having a bit of a chat today.

Yesterday – five loads of laundry at my friend’s place in CT, in trade for cooking dinner. Plus, he had some books relevant to a pitch I’m writing, so I used the afternoon to research.

Lots of correspondence to catch up on, getting started on the next couple of FemmeFan articles, my next SDR column, and getting those pitches out! And, I have to get started on the revision of Tumble, because the month is moving ahead, but my revision is not.

Typed/revised two chapters on Token last night. They’ll need more work, but I need to do some searching on the history of Greenwich Village to do them properly. I sort of know the old stories, but I want to double check them – choose one or two accurate anecdotes about real characters; make up one or two about imaginary people that are in the style of the day and the Greenwich Village myth. That’ll be draft 3.

Rejection on a short story yesterday – expected, but not wanted. There’s another market I think is a better fit (that I found AFTER I sent it out to the first one), but I have something on submission there and have to hear back from the first one before I can send this one.

Sigh.

Ideas for two new novels while I was putting around my friend’s place, reading newspapers and researching. One is historical – turn of the 20th Century. The other is contemporary, an action/psychological piece. Both need very different types of research, and both were triggered from situation rather than character, so I have to wait until the characters evolve before I can decide where to put them in the queue.

Devon


Token and Affections , 2nd Draft – 9,872 words out of est. 45,000

9 / 45 (20.0%)

Chasing the Changeling – 5,925 words out of est. 45,000

5 / 45 (11.1%)

Sunday, January 14, 2007
Waning Moon
Saturn Retrograde
Rainy and warm


I let up on myself yesterday. It was a gray, cool, rainy day. I can’t seem to shake this virus. Most of the time, I don’t feel that bad, but the fatigue from it really kicks my ass.

So, other than working on Changeling, I didn’t do too much.

I printed more photos, and got all the ones I’ve printed thus far into the book. I’m up to the trip to Mohonk House in New Paltz, which happened in early August. Remember, I took over 100 photos on that one day, so it’ll take me awhile to get them all printed, written up, and in the book.

I ran some errands in CT. I did some more hand washing, including the cashmere. People don’t realize that, once you take something to the dry cleaner, it doesn’t take out the odor. In fact, if you take something stinky to the cleaner, the dry cleaning process SETS the odor – in that, you will never get it out. You don’t immediately smell it because of the dry cleaning fluid stench. But as soon as your body heat warms the garment up again, the stink returns – worse than ever.

Most fabrics last longer (and smell better) if you learn their eccentricities and learn how to hand wash them properly. If you have a vintage garment and want to wash it as infrequently as possible, and the fabric doesn’t water stain, get yourself a spritz bottle. Get yourself the cheapest rot gut vodka in your store. Mix a 1-1 vodka/water solution and spritz the garment, especially under the arms.

It does a lot more than dry cleaning.

And the cheap ass vodka works better than the good stuff. Save the good stuff for drinking.

So I’ve got a front hall full of cashmere on sweater drying racks, sprinkled with cedar shavings. As far as I know, no moths currently reside in my abode, but . . .why risk it?

Of course Iris periodically tests the sweater drying racks to see if they’ll do as trampolines.

They don’t.

They collapse.

Kitty dives under the sofa, and I swear a lot as I put the racks back together.

The seed catalogs are arriving, and I’m indulging myself in garden fantasies. That’s one of the things I’m looking most forward to regarding the relocation: a garden. Flowers, vegetables, and, especially, herbs.

Keep the Jimmy Choo shoes – give me a “Poet” rosebush!

I found out which whale skeleton was which (a blue whale in the atrium and a sperm whale in its own room) in New Bedford, and notated appropriately.

I need to create a cheat sheet for Changeling geography – the geography of an imagined world is much more difficult to look up on the map than is the world of Greenwich Village. The story is taking an interesting twist – and I’m realizing how much place is a character. The pace of Token, set in New York City is quite different than the pace of Changeling, which right now is set in a remote area. It’s interesting. And I’m letting it go where it wants, while still loosely sticking to the overall outline.

Devon

Chasing the Changeling -- 4,800 words out of est. 45,000

4 / 45 (8.9%)

Saturday, January 13, 2007
Waning Moon
Saturn Retrograde
Rainy and cold


Mark your calendar, folks: when the moon turns to new later in the week, Ink will only be at the Word Press URL.

And the trouble I had with Blogger this morning seals the deal.

I was nowhere near as productive as I wanted to be yesterday. I had trouble with Changeling in the morning – a poor night’s sleep left my brain with mush, and I didn’t even get 1K done on it. So I had to work extra hard this morning.

I ran my errands, going to Old Greenwich and getting more photo paper (buy one, get one free, woo hoo), and other paper. I can’t wait until I have the room to store paper I buy by the case. I did that here for awhile – and kept the case in the trunk of the car, so I had to run down three flights of stairs, through the courtyard and down the street to the parking lot in the middle of the night when I ran out of paper. Uh, no, thanks. I want it in the closet of my office, thank you very much. My HOME office. Also known as The Library. Because my office will look like the library in one of those British Great Homes by the time I’m done with it.

I came home and printed nearly 100 photos, and I’m still only in June of last year. And I have, well, about 800 more photos to print. I took a LOT of pictures.

I have some great photos of enormous whale skeletons from the New Bedford Whaling Museum – two distinct enormous ones. But I can’t remember which whales they are – although I know which skeleton photo is which, if that makes any sense. So I have to go back and find out which one hangs in the atrium, and which one has its own room. The detail in the fin (flipper?) bones are astonishing – they look like oversized finger bones and the bones that fit across the top of the knuckles – wow.

And the photos I took of the Parsons House Ruin at the Nature Center – because someday I want to write a YA mystery and set it there – and the deer I happened to catch in the photo, who peered at us from between the leaves – nice to capture all those moments.

And use them for stories.

Managed to type Chapter 3 of Token (I hoped to type two chapters, but I’m just too tired). I don’t know why I’m so darned tired. I hope it’s just waning moon energy. Found what was a major plot point in Chapter 3 that I completely forgot about and need to wind up in about Chapter 17 or so.

Oops.

Got the cats a new scratching post since the old one was . . .beyond pathetic. They like the new one.

I’m reading one of the research books for the revision of Assumption, and it’s really interesting, but I put it aside last night to chomp on popcorn and read one of Archie Mayor’s books set in Vermont.

Oh, and so much for all the money I spent in August to get my computer “fixed”. Half the time it’s not responding – to anything. Then it began to scream like it was in pain and flashed “keyboard failure” at me – I fixed it, and the keyboard’s fine. And then it wouldn’t give me back my floppy disk, so I had to operate with needle-nose pliers, shouting at it, “Just TRY to electrocute me, you Microsoft piece of ---“ because, of course, I didn’t turn if off the way I should have. We seem to have negotiated a truce for the moment.

I want my money back from Geek Squad. A “fix” should last longer than this, especially when it meant losing all my professional samples.

Late start this morning – I have trouble getting to sleep lately, and then I oversleep in the morning. Ick.

But some decent work on Chasing the Changeling. So now I can start my day.

Devon

Token and Affections, 2nd Draft – 6,936 words out of estimated 45,000

6 / 45 (13.3%)

Chasing the Changeling – 3,300 words out of est. 45,000

3 / 45 (6.7%)