And not a pink rabbit in sight, let alone banging a drum. No, the new book is now at 68,000+ words, despite a real solid computer scare Sunday/Monday (now resolved, and no files lost.) It demanded that I do my daily words Monday after getting home from the computer fixit place and reconnecting everything and Read More…
Category: the writing life
Progress Report: Zeroes Roll Over
My target for the week was 60,000 words by Friday night. Instead, I reached 60,000 words today, before noon. Sometimes books want to be written, and this is that kind of book. Or possibly slowing down because of other problems has given my brain a chance to think over where it is, and solve problem Read More…
News: Facebook Page
I gave up on Facebook years ago after several days of struggling to get connected–I knew there was something there with my name on it but could not access it. Thanks to brilliant new website manager Karen Shull, who will be doing most of the posting over there because I don’t need more stress, I Read More…
Vocabulary: Staff, Team, Crew, and Gender
A couple of months ago (or longer…I didn’t write down the date) I saw a discussion on Twitter of the need for gender-free terms to use in space-related activities. Most of us (and certainly at least half of us) are aware that the old agreement that “man” and “men” included “woman” and “women” was, basically Read More…
“May I see some identification, sir/madam?”
Anyone who’s traveled from one country to another has been faced with a country’s filter department–Immigration & Customs. Where you can go, under what rules, varies with place and time and the country in question. People get refused entry for all sorts of reasons. They get deported for all sorts of reasons. They may need Read More…
Another Progress Report
Topped 50,000 words today. Interesting things have happened. A bit more information about who did what to whom when, which will lead directly into who’s doing what to whom now, and who wants to do what to whom in the future. Some bad guys have been foiled by some good guys. It’s become obvious that Read More…
The Story Continues to Grow
45,000 words as of today at 3:30 pm. It was 40,000 when I left for WorldCon. It’s proceeding like a healthy story, throwing off complications that may or may not turn into subplots, casting its hooks backward into previous books to pull things together, and revealing new characters who are, so far, being interesting. Last Read More…
Home & Back at Work
Being away from the text for 10+ days let me look at it “clean” (more or less) and I needed to remind myself of details, so I spent most of the day’s work yesterday reading and editing the first 200 pages. That lopped over into today, as well. This isn’t anything like a final edit, Read More…
Copy Edits, Take 2
For me, working on copy edits means having all the following at hand (or just down the hall): dictionary, Chicago Manual of Style, directions and notes from publisher (I manage to screw up at least once anyway, but I try not to), the mechanical pencil (because it stays sharp) and a spare, and of course Read More…
Copy Edit Time
So. Copy Edits for Cold Welcome arrived Friday afternoon, and this morning I cleared off half the kitchen table and laid out my work space. Stack of unread pages. Place to put pages read. Dictionary. My Sekrit Decoder ring to details in the book. Removed Ego and put it in the fridge freezer (oh, come Read More…