Later in the week I will do a full round-up of the RNA conference. After I've figured out how to permanently fix my bed and after I've figured out how much damage I did my mobile broadband dongle by dumping a cup of hi-juice on it. For now, the highlights:
1. Spending time with the lovely and talented ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
madlee276, and catching up on how amazingly well she's doing (can't wait to go stay with her in August!).
2. Meeting loads of new writers at all stages of their careers, which was truly motivational.
3. Catching up with people I met last year, like Kate Johnson and Imogen Howson.
4. Packing away about a year's worth of wine. Still feeling slightly soused, actually.
5. Getting so many freebies! Seriously, my bookcases are now overflowing even more than they were before I left, which is saying something.
6. Being invited to Texas by Jodi Thomas, who is incredibly funny, by the way. I really hope Leanne and I can sort something out so we can go.
It was all over far too quickly, and before I knew it, I was home again. The fish either instantly forgave me for leaving them or didn't notice I was gone; I'm not sure which.
I have to be honest, getting home again was a bit of a let-down since it was straight back to work yesterday. I'm seriously debating right now how much longer I want to go on working in an office and stealing time for writing around that. I have my annual review with the Director next Monday and one of things we're discussing is my "career progression." I feel like it might be rude to tell him I never intended to stay at the Institute this long and that I'm desperately seeking an escape route as we speak. Is there an elegant way to slide "paid sabbatical" into the conversation? I plan to find out.
- Mood:
busy
Why yes, that is my contract for SILVER KISS, along with a bunch of goodies that I shall be taking to the RNA conference tomorrow ^-^
- Mood:
cheerful
1. Men's names that are short-hand for "I'm a dark and sexy mysterious type with possible angst." - There are an awful lot of Dantes*, particularly. LKH is guilty of bringing us Wicked, Truth, and London, amongst others.
2. Spelling words with "i" instead of "y" to indicate Mysticism - actually this is true of swords and sorcery fantasy too, but every time I see "wyne" instead of "wine" or "myst" instead of "mist", or indeed "vampyre" instead of "vampire" I die a little inside.
3. Women's names that are deliberately spelled exoticly as short-hand for "I'm a free-spirited kook but I'm not above being a total bitch but nobody will hold it against me". I'm looking at you, Zoey Redbird.
4. Monsters that are just people with fangs. Come on, people! Let's see someone get their throat ripped out! Is it so much to ask that just one vampire isn't saved by the Power of Love?
*And I myself am guilty of this as I have a Durante in Death for the Born, which is of course where the nickname Dante comes from. And yes, he certainly is a dark and sexy mysterious type with possible angst.
- Mood: busy
Anyway, I've seen this on a few people's blogs, but
kazdreamer is encouraging everyone to do it, so here we are.'I wish you were coming with me tonight.' - SILVER KISS (which is rolling along nicely, thanks!)
A fire storm was brewing. - Wonderland (which has stalled because I'm too lazy to work on the much-needed worldbuildling).
She ran through the forest, the metallic tang of blood in her nostrils - Wild (which one day I will finish rewriting because I love it, damn you).
The vampire slunk through the dead leaves and damp earth, a parody of the woman it had been in life - Death for the Born (don't really have any witty comments for this one).
- Mood:
giddy
In actual news, I've been working on the Super Sneaky Secret Side Project tonight. Not added much because my arm is sore, but I'm happy with the progress I have made.
I can't wait for my week off next week when I can really crack on with this and SILVER KISS for a few sweet, uninterrupted days. Just have to slog through a few more work days first...
- Mood: recumbent
I'm thinking my initial 60k estimate may have been a little conservative as I certainly don't feel like I'm nearly half way through the story. More like a quarter. 2k added last night. Here's the score so far:
Stuff Going Down
1. Ayla found a runaway teen werewolf unconscious in the woods.
2. Naomi made a bad Sudoko metaphor.
Background Stuff
Futurama season 2 and
chaostheory 's thoughts on Richard Nixon.Foodstuffs
Cadbury's chocolate ice cream with Cadbury's chocolate chunks!
- Mood:
hot
I've seen a developing trend for avian shapeshifters, and I've read a couple of books featuring weredolphins, but reptiles seem to be ignored, or relegated to bad guys. Is that because reptiles are inherently creepy? Too cold-blooded and scaly to be suitable hero material?
Well, screw you guys. I'm going to write a story with a weresnake in it! And blackjack! And hookers! No, wait, not the last two.
- Mood:
curious
I just got home from Norfolk - had been to see my grandparents in their soon-to-be-sold house by the sea, which I always love. Next time I move house, it's got to be to live by the ocean. It's been kind of a long day, so now I'm lazing around watching Futurama and wishing it wasn't already Monday tomorrow. We've got another workshop starting tomorrow, and a new programme (which by all accounts will be attended solely by insane biologists), so it's going to be another long day. And hot. It will probably result in ice cream after work, which nobody wants. Well, except me.
- Mood:
sleepy
And we all know Wolf Strap has been getting some pretty good reviews, right?
And we all know I've been working on a novel-length follow-up to Wolf Strap called Silver Kiss, right?
Well, I am thrilled (and a little bit nervous) to announce that SILVER KISS HAS BEEN CONTRACTED BY QUEEREDFICTION! Which means I'm going to have a novel published! A whole, full, genuine novel all by myself etc!
Details are tentative at this point, but we're hoping SILVER KISS (yes, I will henceforth capitalise it all the time, sorry) will be released in early 2010.
This is by far the most exciting thing that has happened to me since I started writing, and I'm over the moon to have the opportunity to do this. So, virtual party at my place! Bring cocktails!
- Mood: jubilant
And I'm out to celebrate tonight! j_rah has finally got herself a real grown-up job so we're off to toast to her victory with cocktails and Mexican food. Huzzahs! We'll also be toasting to my good news, which I will share as soon as I can. I've recovered from yesterday's mope-fest and I'm looking forward to a peaceful weekend of writing and visiting my grandparents. Can't ask for more than that.
ETA: Just stumbled across another review forQueer Wolf here at Collective Fallout. Once again, there's praise for Wolf Strap!:
"“Wolf Strap” pulls you in fast and hard ... Both mystery and horror, this story tells of the struggle between pack and humankind–and of what some men will do to even the playing field with the perceived wolf threat. Clark gives us characters that we can understand in a world that we cannot."
Yay!
j_rah has finally got herself a real grown-up job so we're off to toast to her victory with cocktails and Mexican food. Huzzahs! We'll also be toasting to my good news, which I will share as soon as I can. I've recovered from yesterday's mope-fest and I'm looking forward to a peaceful weekend of writing and visiting my grandparents. Can't ask for more than that.ETA: Just stumbled across another review forQueer Wolf here at Collective Fallout. Once again, there's praise for Wolf Strap!:
"“Wolf Strap” pulls you in fast and hard ... Both mystery and horror, this story tells of the struggle between pack and humankind–and of what some men will do to even the playing field with the perceived wolf threat. Clark gives us characters that we can understand in a world that we cannot."
Yay!
- Mood: chipper
I also ordered a copy of Almost Human by Cat Marsters and a book on spontaneous human combustion from Amazon. Now I can worry about having no money because I've spent it all on books instead of worrying about The Other Thing.
- Mood:
neurotic
This was not the afternoon I envisioned.
Still, it's the Girton Write-In tonight, so I will be somewhat productive for a few hours. Can't decide whether to work on Silver Kiss or a Sneaky Secret Side Project. Hmm...
- Mood: sleepy
Until I met this one. I gave up on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies last night after Lizzie threatened to gut Darcy and choke him with his own bowels one time too many. Look, I'm not squeamish, or prudish, nor do I lack a sense of humour, but this book just hit all the wrong notes for me.
Pride and Prejudice is an awesome book, so I figured adding zombies would make it even more awesome, but actually it made it a lot worse. Not only is not no longer a sweet, sharp, funny comedy of manners, it's also not a good zombie romp. I don't think Grahame-Smith gave a lot of genuine thought as to how a zombie plague would really affect Regency England (the country's overrun with zombies but Mrs Bennet's main concern is still who will marry her daughters? ORLY?), and the zombie portions are often bloodless and without humour. The goriest part of the book (as far as I read) was when Lizzie slaughters three ninjas in Lady Catherine's dojo, and all this scene did was highlight how little attention Grahame-Smith had paid to Lizzie's character in the original. Or any of the characters, in fact. Jane is apparently one of the deadliest zombie killers in the land, but she's still too shy to tell Bingley she loves him. Kitty and Lydia are supposedly equally skilled at killing zombies, but still more interested in balls and soldiers. And Caroline Bingley is more interested in drooling after Darcy than the zombies chomping on her waiting staff at the Netherfield ball, which is just stupid. All the truly funny material is Austen's.
And yeah, you can go on about pastiches and parodies and all that crap. And yeah, the book did hit the NYT bestseller list, so Grahame-Smith clearly knows more than me on how to write a book. I don't care. I've come to the conclusion that Pride and Prejudice is a good enough book on its own that it doesn't need this treatment. And zombies are a funny enough subject matter that they don't need to be crammed into Pride and Prejudice.
- Mood: working
- Mood:
tired
I knew buying that documentary would pay off!
- Mood: excited
19701 / 60000 words. 33% done!
I did an epic 3600 words today on Silver Kiss, curled up in my parents' conservatory. It was ... um ... my gift to my dad. For Father's Day. He really appreciated my efforts. My arm is killing me now, but I'm too happy with my progress to really care. Stuff is Going Down in the werewolf world. Crazy Stuff. Werewolf Stuff. And Ayla doesn't like it.
I picked up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies at the train station on Friday, and I have to say I'm disappointed so far. Jane Austen's parts are still marvellous, charming, and funny. Seth Grahame-Smith's parts are just ... I don't know. Wrong. I don't know how you can mix zombies with Jane Austen and have it go wrong, because in theory there's nothing bad about it. But they just fall flat. I feel like it wasn't done with any love for the original or real understanding of what makes Pride and Prejudice so great to begin with, but just as a novelty money-spinner.
Anyway. We're back into workshop season at work from tomorrow - three back-to-back workshops, which are just going to wipe everyone out, so I don't expect to be very productive writing-wise, although I shall try and crack something out where I can. And, oooh! Then it will nearly be time for this year's RNA conference. Woo! I'll be going along as a published author this year! ^_^
- Mood: content
- Music:Paradise by the Dashboard Light - Meatloaf
1. I'm done with the emo thing today. I had some brilliant news yesterday that I will share asap, and that lifted me right out of my "woe is me" mood.
2. I'm off to my parents this weekend for an internet-free few days of hardcore writing on Silver Kiss. I've done a lot this week, had two very productive write-ins, and I'm determined to do a lot more before the week's over.
Which ties into my next point:
3. OMG, I woke up at 4am this morning in agony. FLAMING, SEARING AGONY. I must have fallen asleep on my bad arm. It was cramped, I had the worst pins and needles ever, I couldn't move my fingers, and from my shoulder to my elbow, everything was numb. I had a complete freak-out and leapt out of bed waving my arm around like a maniac to try and get the feeling back. But it kept going numb despite my proactive methods. I spent a good ten minutes just massaging it and stretching and eventually reduced my panic from "OMG, AM I GOING TO HAVE TO AMPUTATE IT?!" to "this is pretty damn uncomfortable."
So yeah, not great. I have overdone it this week and I've been slack at using my voice recognition, because me yelling at my laptop doesn't make for a happy, productive atmosphere for the other writers at the write-ins.
I literally just finished reading this book and loved it! It's a refreshing spin on urban fantasy, and (yay) the first in a series. Melanippe Saka is an Amazon who's turned her back on the tribe to live a normal life with her daughter, mother, and grandmother. When dead Amazon girls start appearing on the doorstep of Mel's home/tattoo shop, the Amazons come crashing back into her life. Now she's got a bunch of angry warrior women camping in her gym, the police on her tail, and a teenage daughter who's ... well, a teenager.
I think what I liked best about this book was the family aspect. A lot of UF heroines are loners, for whatever reason, but Mel has a tight, if weird, family unit, and her relationship with Harmony, her daughter is great. There is a hint of romance, but it's underplayed in favour of the murder mystery, which works well for me. Romance is great, but too many UF books seem hung up on getting in the complicated love life, and it was nice to read something where the heroine isn't shucking her knickers every five pages. Here, the relationships between Mel and the women in her life - from her daughter to her former best friend Zery - are the most important, not the relationships with the men.
I'll definitely be looking out for the sequel to Amazon Ink, which from the looks of things will focus on Amazon queen, Zery. I hope Devoti does plan to return to Mel if the series continues, because I think there are a lot more stories to tell here.
I think what I liked best about this book was the family aspect. A lot of UF heroines are loners, for whatever reason, but Mel has a tight, if weird, family unit, and her relationship with Harmony, her daughter is great. There is a hint of romance, but it's underplayed in favour of the murder mystery, which works well for me. Romance is great, but too many UF books seem hung up on getting in the complicated love life, and it was nice to read something where the heroine isn't shucking her knickers every five pages. Here, the relationships between Mel and the women in her life - from her daughter to her former best friend Zery - are the most important, not the relationships with the men.
I'll definitely be looking out for the sequel to Amazon Ink, which from the looks of things will focus on Amazon queen, Zery. I hope Devoti does plan to return to Mel if the series continues, because I think there are a lot more stories to tell here.
- Mood: mellow
OMG, does anyone want to come and see this with me? Seriously? I'd love to go!
- Mood: relaxed
