Always quirky, sometimes sweet speculative fiction

Month: November 2012

Nothing Beats Feeling Like A Winner

Nothing beats feeling like a winner.

Here’s my winners certificate from NaNoWriMo.

Win!

I’m a little sad I hadn’t come to a decision on a proper title, so the working title is what’s listed, but there are worse things in this world and others.

The shameful part however is that after passing the 50,000 word mark my pace dropped right off. I’ve barely done 5,000 words in the last few days – though China Mieville is partly to blame since I started reading Un Lun Dun.

A quick list of tips for anyone trying to pass the home stretch with NaNoWriMo. These tips are advice I used. I hope none of them horrify any of you so badly that you never visit this site again.

Put down the books for a few days. It’s tough, I know, I thought I might die, but reading time became writing time.

Who cares about house work! As long as it wasn’t actual filth (because that is wrong) just clutter and toys all over the floor I let it slide and just cleaned once a week for an hour or two block instead of every day till it looked shiny. This also avoided the craptacular feeling when Xander would promptly up-end his toy chest or a box of cookies (that I have no idea how he got a hold of) all over my fresh cleaned floor.

Minimise internet time. I had a strict 15m on facebook for morning and evening, a ban on Pinterest and since I wasn’t reading pretty much ignored Goodreads. The only internet I didn’t cut back significantly was blogging, though I did skim read my RSS feed more viciously.

Typing one handed while cuddling Xander. This may sound horrible, but Xander still enjoys being cuddled to sleep, and I am an indulgent mother, so he would snuggle up, I’d throw one arm over and type with the other hand. I want to ensure any horrified readers that this was the only time I multi-tasked his care. We still went to the park every non-raining day, went to swimming lessons, played in his sand pit, read books together, built things, blew bubbles, practiced with his shape sorter ect ect and I was fully engaged with him those times, it was only nap wind down time and when he was actually asleep that I did this.

Interestingly, because of Xander’s sleep patterns this month, I couldn’t use the getting up early and staying up late method which helped me write 65,000 words in two months earlier this year. He did have lovely big naps in the middle of the afternoon though which gave me one and a half to two and a half hours each day.

So, with what I’ve learned from my first NaNoWriMo it is clear next year I need to intentionally set a higher goal so I don’t peter out at the end, and that I should hire a cleaner next year.

Now, off to finish that first draft that NaNoWriMo has helped me start.

Summing Yourself Up

So I had this brilliant idea to change my header. Inspired by the old school books already there I imagined gathering up books from my library and arranging them together with two bookends. The books would be favourite books, featuring my fave authors and genres all at once and the bookends would further this idea.

It isn’t easy to sum yourself up in one image, even with a great array of books. After a lot of thought and fussing I finally selected my winners.

However the picture didn’t look anywhere near as cool as I had hoped. The image did do the job of perfectly showing my eclectic taste, but it looks too messy.

So, since I put so much effort in, but am ultimately no longer planning on using the picture I’m going to post it here for you to look at so see how well a picture of a bookshelf can sum a person up.

If you can list all the books gathered here (and the name of the girl who is the left bookend) without reading the list below we need to get in contact with each other, because you might just be my soul mate (in a non-romantic way obviously, since I’m happily married).

The planned header

The figurine standing as a bookend on the left is of Rin from Hiroaki Samura’s Blade of the Immortal manga series.  The books are (from left to right):

The English translation of ‘Atelier Chronicle’, an art book covering most of the Atelier series of video games,

Kaz Cooke’s Kidwrangling, my child raising bible due to its openness, funniness and the fact it will offer multiple options, not just ‘let your kid cry themselves to sleep’,

Stephen King’s On Writing,

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. As if there could possibly be a better author combo in the world!

‘Tortall and other Lands’ Tamora Pierce’s short story collection. I picked it because otherwise I’d have to try and fit in one of her quartets and that would take up too much space,

The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks, a favourite from my youth,

David & Leigh Eddings ‘The Pawn Of Prophecy’ the first fantasy book I read,

Diana Wynne Jones’s Howl’s Moving Castle. Do I need to explain the awesomeness that is this book?

Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody, a book that moved me so deeply it started me writing fantasy(before that I wrote Goosebumps inspired horror and childhood slice of life/adventure). I wish I had the copy I first read, but early 20’s Kirstie handed it in to a second hand bookstore.

The BBC’s ‘Dalek survival Guide’ because I am an unabashed Whovian,

Crisis on Infinite Earths, Wolfman and Perez’s ground breaking DC release. I originally considered putting a Teen Titans comic there, since they were what started me on American comics, but none of them had the title or artists near the bottom, only the DC logo.

Gate 7, CLAMP’s new title. I am a mad CLAMP fangirl, 20+ artbooks (and that NOT counting the 15th anniversary CLAMP no kiseki artbook series), just about every translated series, and 30+ figurines.

With The Light, by Keiko Tobe, I don’t need to explain this if you’ve been reading my blog for long. Just go here and here.

Battle Angel Alita, Last Order vol 7, by Yukito Kishiro. I love this series, madly. My passion is primarily for the characters. I selected this volume in particular because if a hilarious story behind it. I won’t waste space on that story here, but if you ask nicely I’ll probably tell you it in the comments.

From Far Away by Kyoko Hikawa, a beautiful cross-dimensional manga,

Honey and Clover by Chica Umino, a magnificent slice of life josei manga. I use a picture of one of the characters as my profile image still in various places around the net (including my gravatar),

Aquarium by Tomoko Taniguchi, one of my absolute favourite manga-ka

A notebook, because it’s a writer’s staple of life.

And lying underneath it all the art book for Kiki’s Delivery Service, my second favourite Studio Ghibli movie. My favourite is Whispers of the Heart, but I haven’t been able to find the art book 🙁

Wrapping it up with the right side book end, a family of maneki-nekos I bought from the Meiji Jingu shrine in Tokyo.

How many were you already familiar with? Do you have any pictures that sum you up well?

Ten Things I Love About Writing

Oh Yeah!

As followers of my facebook page would know, on Monday I hit the legendary 50,000 words in my NaNoWriMo novel. As awesome as that is, in my plotting I projected the novel would actually be 100,000 to 120,000 long, typical epic fantasy stand-alone length, so I’m barely half way through, so I’ve got to keep up the momentum.

The other day, on The Vixen Gamer’s facebook profile I found the following task set by Ray Bradbury for writers. He suggests you write down ten things you love about writing and ten things you don’t really love. Here’s mine:

I like:

1 – The feeling when the story just flows and I can write for ages almost without pause. My husband says I can write faster than he reads and that makes me grin so much there’s no space left on my face for my cheeks,

2 – The way that even if I have to drive a long distance by myself, my characters and scenarios just play in my head and keep me company, also works for boring periods at work and menial tasks around the house,

3 – The feeling when you write a sentence that sings, and you didn’t even try!

4 – Re-reading my work and getting wrapped up, excited and emotional – even though I know what’s going to happen

5 – Creating characters and making all their scars, complexities, dreams and fears, even though I don’t get to share it all with the reader – those bits are my little secret *Cheshire cat-style grin*.

6 – I write far better than I speak, I’m more articulate and communicate more easily,

7 – The swell of excitement I get when I write a new idea down for the first time and it just keeps expanding on itself,

8 – Being able to write a character that may make a real person feel good about themselves or smile when they identify with them,

9 – Making magic systems, races, cultures, creatures, entire worlds – I must have a god complex,

10 – Having an awesome excuse to research fun things (like medieval inventions and Greek mythology) and calling it work.

Dislike:

1 – Stopping at ten for the ‘like’ list,

2 – The fear that people will be enraged or full of hate (for me or the character) at my portrayal of ‘different’ characters,

3 – When I desperately want to keep writing, but either my son needs me or the housework is overdue to be done or I have to go to work >.< also the guilt that follows the ‘I’d rather be writing’ feeling,

4 – When my personal mood differs from that in the passage I am writing and that feeling begins to seep into the scene but doesn’t fit at all

5 – When I NEED to stick to the current story but another idea just keeps banging on the door like a salesman that just won’t give up,

6 – Pressure to live up to the expectations of certain people who seem to think one book published and I’ll be JK Rowling or Stephen King,

7 – Writing ‘rules’ that make you second guess yourself,

8 – That there is never enough time to write everything I want

9 –?

10 – ?

I couldn’t quite come up with ten dislikes. Oh well, a good sign I guess.

Any you agree/disagree with? Anything you might add? Are there ten pros and cons for your dream job?

Screaming Woman Bird

I’ve been doing a lot of work late at night recently. Once TJ is in bed the TV is off so the house is quiet. That means I get to write to the sound of the screaming woman birds down by the creek.

If you have never lived in the right part of Australia you have never heard the call of the Bush Stone-Curlew. It doesn’t take much imagination to turn the bird’s cry into a woman’s scream.

The first time I heard one I was in my teens at my best friend’s house. Her property backed onto a swamp. While camping I heard a shriek and my friend laughed at my panic, telling me it was just a screaming woman bird. I honestly believed that was its legitimate name until I moved into my current house and heard the call again.

With a good ear you can distinguish the bush stone-curlew from a woman in distress, but at midnight when that haunting cry wafts through your window from the bush beyond your backyard you can’t help but wonder…

Fun With QR Codes

A very cool QR code on a billboard in Tokyo

Now this is cool. What a great idea.

Reader Engagement With Transmedia (How To Use QR Codes)

For those too lazy to read the linked article I’ll summarise, QR Codes can be used in e-books to enhance reader interaction, linking to soundtrack music, additional information and more.

I’m quite in love with my QR code I made for this site, and you’ve probably seen that I included it in my business card. How fun would it be to do something like offer bookmarks at a book signing with a QR code on the bottom which leads to an exclusive site (which you only reach with the code) containing extra content for the book, like a short story, alternate covers, initial character sketches (if you’re arty) or other stuff that might intrigue. If word got out about these book marks at your signings perhaps more people would come, meaning more face time with readers and more people in local book stores (lifts up sign ‘save the book stores’ and waves it around).

If you like that idea you can run with it, I’m happy to share, but I’d love if anyone asks where you got the idea from if you’d link them back to me.

I’ve been obsessed with QR codes since I went to Japan just over two years ago. Even back then QR codes were on EVERYTHING! They were on the massive billboard on Shibuya 109, they were on a1 posters around train stations, on little advertisements on vending machines, even on the tissue packs the cute promo girls give you out the front of train stations(you’ll never run out of tissues in Tokyo!). I was curious what they were and excited when I learned more. Sadly I didn’t have a smart phone back then, but I have since and trust me it gets a workout.

The thought of playing with QR codes like this really excites me, and the ideas are coming at me at a mile a minute. I hope I can get them all down… and eventually get back to my NaNo novel.

Brisbane Supanova 2012

Xander knows no fear

I didn’t write a word yesterday. No blog posts, no comments on blogs, no emails, and definitely no work on my novel. For shame! And why? Well, between work and then rushing home to pack up the family and get us to Supanova I didn’t have the time.

You probably remember my last post lamenting being unable to attend, well T-J’s wonderful aunt Trish heard we were both upset about not attending so offered to cover our entry fee.

We were so happy to go, but the real challenge would be not resorting to credit cards to buy a stack of loot. Miraculously we resisted. We had a lot of fun, even when T-J was stuck in line waiting for the signatures from the Futurama voice actors Xander and I had plenty of fun checking out a life size Dalek and a Tardis and dancing to the Rockband promo songs at closing time.

They changed the buildings within the RNA Showgrounds they were using, which gave them more space (or at least the illusion thereof) but also caused a little confusion. On the map they provide at the door they needed to label the specific buildings a little clearer in my opinion, but we figured it out quick enough. I saw some old friends that I only ever seem to catch up with during Supanova (hi Jazz and Sly)and my ‘my little Ponyta’ shirt seemed to be a hit(everyone loves a good mash-up).

I’m not certain if it was the later time or the extra space of the buildings, but we had a lot less trouble navigating the pram around. As always there was so much loot I wanted, but limited finances kept my cool Wonder Woman bag empty. Of course the cosplayers were magnificent, my favourites being the 60s TV version Batman, Robin and Batgirl and the original series cylon.

I miss volunteering for the convention, but I really love attending with my family.

Xander had a blast, and mummy and daddy had a good time too – without resorting to credit cards (of dooooooooom).

Geek Out With Your Freak Out – Brisbane Supanova 2012

Supanova is on this weekend in Brisbane and for the very first time since the convention came to Queensland I am not attending. 🙁

Stupid lack of finances. I hope everyone else has a lot of fun and shares their photos, videos and stories with me. I’ll be super jealous, but it might cheer me up somewhat.

On the plus side, I hit the 30,000 word mark in my NaNoWriMo project last night – woohoo! I never realised I could write this fast. Because I forgot to update my word count on the right days the last few times my word count graph looks a little odd, but who cares. I’ve been forgetting the bestiary with my updates here, but does anyone care?

Please link me to pictures and stories of this Supanova!

Halo 4 Launches & My Word Count Skyrockets

Don’t bring me down Boromir

Halo 4 launched yesterday, so I spent the whole day working. Yep, got to the store a 7:30 for an 8am open and then was roped into closing because no one else could, so didn’t leave the store til after 5:30pm. My feet were killing me. On the other hand my lunch break was super productive and somehow, during that crazy day yesterday, I managed to pass the 20,000 word milestone in my NaNoWriMo novel. I can’t help but feel stoked about that.

That’s right, Boromir, one does not simply write 20,000 words in the first six days of NaNoWriMo. Indeed no, one busts their ass to write 20,000 words in the first six days. They take every tiny scrap of opportunity they can, they ignore the housework most days, delegate the cooking to their poor neglected husband and even type one handed while cuddling their toddler son to sleep.

How far would you go to prove you can do it? Not necessarily writing, but any great goal or dream you have.

Embarrassment

When I made my word count calendar available I’d made a mistake in one of the formulas. I’ve fixed it now and also made it into an .xls file, not an .xlsx which only works in newer copies of Office. I’ve updated the file on the original post, or you can just download it from here.

At the time of posting this I’ve written 5229 words for the day (10,481 words in total). I know, holy wow! Three days in and I’m one fifth done, fingers crossed I can keep this pace.

As for the bestiary, only one addition:

Peglings: Smaller than a cow but bigger than a sheep, peglings are mostly piggish in appearance, but are covered with a sheep-like wool. They have a boar’s tusks and a club tail (like anklyosaurs) for defence, but are a generally passive beast, happy to be herded, though the herder needs to be known to the group, or at least accompanied by someone familiar (herding dogs count in the herd’s opinion).

With their extra defences it is harder to kill the beasts for meat; generally they are shorn for their wool. If one wants to eat pegling meat the chosen beast must be herded into a different shed for sleep and either drugged via water with anissimon juice(strong sedative with pleasant taste) or bespelled then taken care of. The killer MUST wash and clean themselves thoroughly so the peglings cannot smell the blood on them or they may attack out of fear for their own lives (or perhaps in vengeance, it is disputed as to the intelligence of peglings).

Well, back to work, I’m sure I can tap out a few more words before bedtime.

The Bestiary Begins

The first day of NaNoWriMo was super productive for me. I wrote 4,000 words in the novel and an extra hundred into the bestiary. Today was not quite so good, I was at work all day and forgot to bring my computer along. There’s still a bit more night, I hope to pound out a thousand at least.

To liven up my word count updates I thought I would welcome you all into my novel’s world a little. The story is set in a semi-medieval world rife with bizarre beasts, some cute, some dangerous. So as we meet new creatures I thought I’d post them here in a bestiary for people to read along with my word count, more fun right? I hope to have a chance to sketch a few even.

So what new beasties did we meet these first two days?

Fair-haired Volements: Also available as spotted and shaded volements.

A rabbit like creature in face and body, no ears and a small cat-like tail. Sharp claws that retract like a cat’s and broad flat teeth like a horse’s for the consumption of grass, twigs and bark.

Ridged Herrback: Also can be found in hairy ridged and smooth.

Bi-pedal, dangerous and carnivorous. Human eater. As tall on back legs as a mounted man. Hunch backed, dull tan leathery hide (fur covered in ‘hairy’ breed). Four eyes, two a side. Large ridged brow (smooth in smooth variety), large mouth with sharp fangs. Large claws on hands, smaller on feet. Territorial. Blood is muddy brown in colour. Thick neck to hold its massive head up.

 

So a cutie and a man eater. Sadly you have to have the cuties so the man-eaters exist in numbers large enough to be seen, but without being a threat to all mankind.

Oh, and if you’re looking for an excerpt check out he snippet I uploaded to my NaNoWriMo page.

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