Hurricane Harvey’s outside edge reached us about an hour and a half ago: rain and a slowly but steadily increasing wind (not overly strong–about 15 mph, says the weather, with gusts to 23.) We are in a good place for having a hurricane coming over us, and much luckier than those closer to the coast Read More…
Tag: life beyond writing
Experience Is The Best…Experience?
Or, “Anything that happens to, or near, a writer becomes part of the soup from which stories are dipped.” In the category of “You’re never too old to get hurt in a new way,” I now have an injury I haven’t had before, and would retroactively inflict on a character if I could, just to Read More…
Is It Done Done, or Half-Done?
Only the Editor knows for sure. But I hope it’s done done and gone, because after a time a book being worked on has definitely lost its savor for the writer. Sent it off yesterday. There wasn’t dancing in the street, because I was stiff from sitting at the computer for hours a day and Read More…
Back to the Drawing Board
Editor has requested some more changes. Work is in progress. I am still in confused mode, since my brain had moved on to “project manager for renovations in the house we bought to provide rental property for our son when we croak.” That house–which we have owned for just a hair over a month–now has Read More…
What Do You Do When the Writing’s Done?
The previous post was a wee tad premature, since I found a Problem (having two files with very similar names. Opening said files (but only one at a time) while extremely tired and migrainous. No guesses who made some changes in one, and some in the other.) So two more days were spent calmly (!) Read More…
At Last…
Last night I finished the editorial rewrite for INTO THE FIRE (I know, you’re saying FINALLY! in the same tone I did) and as always the book is better after a reworking. It’s a little shorter, it’s got more stuff IN it, and my brain is certifiably toasted to a crisp, very brown around the Read More…
Off-topic
All this week the repair & painting crew has been working on the outside of our house, including the carport. It has been noisy and distracting (as construction and lots of strangers about always is) but the effect has been excellent. The gaping hole were the beehive was removed is now closed, secured, and painted. Read More…
And It’s Off to Agent
Yes, INTO THE FIRE is now with Agent, and will go to Editor on Monday morning. All the square brackets have been dealt with, all the timing issues I found have been fixed, lots of little errors have been fixed, and the working file (with old filename…like the barn name for a show or race Read More…
Audio Book & Other Stuff
This week I learned that Brittany Pressley will be narrating the audiobook of COLD WELCOME. She emailed me about characters, pronunciation of names, etc. , and I may have drowned her with information (writer of long novels. Not really good at the elevator pitch.) I also heard from Audible’s Author Care, which has suggestions about Read More…
When the Magic Works
Yes, I know, it’s a science fiction blog, not a fantasy blog, but sometimes when things finally go right after a struggle, it’s tempting to equate great skill with magic. Things were not working out for reasons that–it turned out–had nothing to do with my stuff, Ruta who built the sites and customized the blog Read More…