WIP! Back in the Saddle

Didn't give myself a rest, so 730 some odd words on Chapter 35 during lunch. Need to keep going at this clip.

Sunday Night, at Home With My Rejections and WIPs

Podcastle has already has already responded with a form rejection. I'll need to go back to duotrope and work out the next part of the list. As I remember I'm running out of markets with electronic submissions (that pay semi-pro and above).

In other news Chapter 34's crappy first draft is in the bag at 1760 words. Mostly exposition. Things are teed up for Chapter 35 and we're on track as far as word count goes.

Hopefully this week will be productive. Things are a bit torn up about the house and I need to rewire some decorations before I put them up. This coming weekend there's a good chance we'll take a trip to experience Christmas in Zoar VIllage. This year we'll need to find out when the organ recital is going to happen so we arrive earlier than the last five minutes.

And now, after four straight days of sleeping in, I'm mostly rested up. I'm now ready to go to Viable Paradise. Sigh. To bad I didn't do this before going to Marthas Vineyard. But now it's time to go turn off the lights and then warm up the bed. Most of the turkey is gone, although we have plenty of gravy left. Need to think of what to do with it tomorrow.

Holiday Rejection and Submission

A Clockwork Phoenix 3 Anthology seems to have been sending out rejection notices this weekend and I scored one of my own. So off to PodCastle it goes. Good luck little story.

Spent most of the day decorating and relaxing and not writing. After working in the yard all day I'm feeling a little tired and sore and might head to bed early.

Black Friday Avoidance

Yeah, absolutely, positively not going anywhere near a commercial outlet today. I might checkout some online deals, but until it's legal for me to carry my machete in the mall, not going to go there. Wednesday at Sams' Club was crazy enough.

Went out to continue decorating for the holidays, but it just started to snow as I went out, so not much got done. I did try rigging up the replacement effect box. So, the box is supposed to take three sets of light strings. All I had hooked up was three LED strings and three normal extension cords (okay, 15 foot extension cords, but only one string was plugged in on the other end). I was running into some kind of under voltage condition where only half the strings would light up (even when I took it down to one string by itself). So, what I'm thinking I need to do is my own box (probably won't happen) or rewire the strings extending the line with good copper wire.

Words hadn't been flowing for the past week since I finished Chapter 33. Yes, it's a good idea for me to start the next chapter before finishing the word outputage for the day. This morning in the shower, though, they started flowing again. Some of the crucial linkages made sense. I got them down before loosing them back into the void.

Now I need to start writing again. How are you spending the day?

Linkee-poos

For me it's a half-day at work (flex time) before the holiday, so a truncated linkee-poo for a truncated week.

Fellow VP XIII-er Sean Craven just made his first pro sale to no less a market than Tor.com. Congrats Sean, that's an excellent way to start. You go, dude.

Also, catching up on his other things to report, Catherine Schaff-Stump has a great short story up at Absent Willow Review called, The Love Song of Oliver Toddle.

In other new, Camille continues to blaze a path through the publishing world. Other friends continue on with their projects. And I'm sure I'm forgetting about a hundred other pieces of good news.

Under the topic of Things That Make Me Squee, the Astronomy Picture of the Day - Cassini Flyby Shows Enceladus Venting. (grokked from Jay Lake, who is going under the knife again today, see you on the other side of the anesthesia, Jay).

The Background Craziness of HGTV People

So one of the things I do when working or writing at home is having the TV, radio, or iTunes going for background noise. It keeps certain parts of my brain occupied so it doesn't interfere with what I'm working on (those of you who've met me in person know I fidget with my hands, it's the same thing, it keeps parts of my brian occupied). When I have the TV on I usually either have a movie I've seen a few hundred times on, or something that doesn't require any real attention. HGTV is the channel of choice for this.

They have a couple of shows that tend to be on in the evenings when I have it on. Shows like, "My First Place", "Property Virgins" and "House Hunters" or something else that's about the same concept, people looking to buy homes or are selling their home. There's a camera that follows people around while they're inspecting the homes and captures their comments. And I've come away with some general thoughts.

1) It's obvious that of the people who have real money to buy places, or revamp them, gay couples make up a disproportionate percentage of that population.

2) Where do these people work and what do they do that they can afford these houses. "Oh, we're looking for a first house and our top price is half a million dollars." WTF? Seriously, couples that have marriage issues (seriously, the kind of couples you start the office pool on when they're going to have their messy divorce, with the outlying date a yeah and a half out, and that's form the optimist club members), in their twenties, "just out of school" and they're buying houses over twice the value of the house I was able to buy when I was in my thirties (and with a lot of help) and that's their low end.

3) WTF do these people expect? Really. "Oh, I'm not wild about the color. What were they thinking. We won't look at the rest of the house." Hey, there's this thing called PAINT. It's amazing, really, you might want to look into it. (Okay, wallpaper I can understand, that's a bitch to take down, but it's still doable)

4) "The furniture (or art on walls) is really bad and doesn't make the space work." Um, you aren't buying the furniture or the artwork.

5) No, seriously, the gay couples appear to have the most stable relationships.

And then there's the whole financial part of it. Haven't these people been watching the news? Full cost financing? Really? And rolling in the closing costs? Um. Yeah.

Random Musings

This morning as I waited for a download I sketched out the end of the book. If my word counts hold, going to 73000 words will take me to Chapter 42, which induced a few moments of gleeful giggling. So I wrote out 34-42 and wrote next to each what I figured each chapter would feature, with one whole chapter devoted to the killing of the magician (chapter before is the fight to get to him). And it works out very well with two chapters of denouement (one to show the over all wrap up, final one for the personal wrap up). The last chapter will probably be the shortest in the book (my guess is less than 1500 words, probably half that), so the two chapters I don't think will be very bad.

The note next to Chapter 42 reads in its entirety (as of this moment) "Chop wood, carry water." I know at least one of you is smiling right now.

And on a writing advice note, I should have started Chapter 34 last night. Starting it today is like pulling hen's teeth. I think this goes with the "end the writing day mid-sentence/mid action/etc." I had been doing that for the past ten or twenty chapters, always getting in at least the first few sentences out before stopping. I found that helped a lot. I know what I want to say, just getting it into a textedit file is meeting much resistance.

Oh, and I've added a widget at the bottom which shows recent quotes. Until I'm able to ward off this recent rabble of spammers I'll be leaving it up there to help me keep track of them. Come this weekend I should have some spare time on my hands.

WIP around the corner

Chapter 33 is in the bag. It weighed in at 1701 words, bringing our total to 59544 total. It's early, but I don't know if I'll start 34 tonight. We're on the downhill run (or at least I think so). In 34 some things that have been off screen will be made plain, the results of other things will be realized, and the beginning of the end will be glimpsed or at the least set into motion.

More notes on things that will need to be not so much changed, but added in.

Work of various kinds

Well, the pay cuts finally caught up with me. I had been thinking about checking the costs of broadband here to the house (cheapest option this past summer was DSL at $45 a month) because we have a few more options now, but that's out while the pay cuts persist.

Yesterday was just a mad house. The morning started good. Well, good for certain values of good. There was a few mistakes made this week (after we had a speech about not making mistakes). There was plenty of blame to go around, fortunately for all involved. In the end it wasn't as bad as I thought, but we have two more hurdles to get past (including the billing justification). Also, it allowed us to change some things back to where I had them, but was forced off the point by the sales people (amazing how seeing it actually printed can change people's minds, and how knowing WTF you're doing helps).

Spent much of today outside putting up decorations. There's now enough things to put up that I can't do it all in one day. Took quite a bit of time to position some of them correctly. Also fried the device I was going to use to make a special effect. Turned them off for the time being. There's plenty of people who've put up their decorations and have the lit already. I'm not sure if I like that. At work we had a discussion about legislating against it, I'm definitely against that. I know some municipalities have laws about when you're supposed to take them down. I'm not sure I'm for that either.

Note to designers of decorations, "they'll just put it together with zip-ties" is not an acceptable construction technique.

And now on to other things of the weekend. Tomorrow is our twelfth wedding anniversary (and 23.5 years together, almost to the day), so my presence might be sparse around these here interwebbies.

Miracle WIP

Chapter 32 is down at 1386 words, which brings us to 57843 total. Movement happens but there's not a lot of action. Mostly tying up loose ends and exposing other parts happening off screen (they don't need to be on). Adding some tension back into a relationship that might have seen some of it leak out earlier.

"I thought you said you nixed the bastard," Mr. Hernandez boomed as he came in the room. "This shit was supposed to be over."

"Someone must not have gotten the memo," Santana whispered, his eyes staying closed.

"Be glad you're on the table," the Old Man said to him. "And you," he turned on me," I thought I told you to off this character. What the hell is taking you so long?"

It wasn't a real question. The Old Man needed to blow off the head of frustration he had poured himself. His daughter had been rescued, the culprit who had made our lives hell and disrupted business had been iced. And now we suffered too many casualties and his chief of security nearly became fertilizer. It made for a hell of a storm which took almost a half hour to blow itself out.

Moved on to chapter 33 with a few hundred words. Goal for tonight is to get to 500.

Feeling slightly brain dead at the moment. Work day didn't end very well and I'm not doing so well at home. On the plus side tomorrow is casual Friday. Schedules are being discarded by the road to ferment in the dust with the single sneakers and shredded retreads. I feel like I being caught looking in the wrong direction, listening to the wrong music. Thoughts sludge to rancid blossom all while I think I've forgotten something imperative, but don't even know where the thought would have been shelved. Know what I mean?

Writerly Linkee-poo

Jim Hines is starting up his holiday book drive to benefit a local domestic violence shelter. I full endorse this. Our local shelter is our main charity. Over the years we've given clothes (new as well as used), bedding, toys, household products, an Xmas tree, paper and office products, and money. If you have new books to give (this year Jim is cutting the used book portion, as he explains that the shelter's bookcases are bursting) I highly recommend this.

A Making Light post with a letter from the RWA (Romance Writers of America) concerning Harlequin's new business venture into vanity/subsidy press work with ASI Solutions. As Jim Macdonald says, "They really do take their role as author advocates seriously over there." Let me reiterate that RWA is an excellent organization. They don't do everything right, but they do the vast majority of things right. Back when we were all discussing SFWAs problems, RWA was the organization plenty of people pointed to as to how to structure and run a Genre Authors Advocacy Organization. RWA are good people. They care about what they're doing and, my God, do they give support and encouragement to new writers (I'm one).

SC Butler is musing about the future of brick and mortar bookstores. The more I learn about this business the more I learn just how screwed up the distribution model has become. Instead of "we sell you what you want" it's been turned around to "buy this crap everybody else is buying." What would be very good for bookstores is to have a new player in the distribution and big box store (who gets "local tastes" and understands cooperative cross marketing, ie. your sales don't have to be just in your store). Unfortunately the barrier to entry is exceedingly high, so I doubt that will happen, or than Ingram, B&N, and the other one (I forget what it's called) dump their idiotic MBA approved business plan and get back to the business of actually selling books. Because, yeah, if I need to order the damn book, I'm going to Amazon (they typically have a lower price, and their shipping policy is better).

The incomparable Justine Larbalestier and her equally incomparable married significant other Scott Westerfeld continue with the NaNoWriMo tips (which, BTW, aren't just for NaNoWriMo). I admit I've fallen behind in keeping up with them, but the ones I have read are good stuff (even if the advice doesn't work for me individually). Again, the generic "try it, if it works, keep it, if not, dump it" applies. And what works (or doesn't) for me might not work (or be fabulous) for you.

Now back to fixing Chapter 32 and maybe getting on to 33.

I don't want a pickle

Some of you know I love motorcycles. And for those of you who don't, well, I love motorcycles. I'm not in to all the extraneous crap (he who dies with the most chrome wins, the "bike bitch" culture, or the "I'm playing with death, here" philosophy), but put me on a bike and you'll see me smile. Unfortunately I don't own one currently (sold mine last year). And I really want one again. This is what my first major writing goal is, to make enough to afford a motorcycle.

And as I'm sure you all know, I'm a green proponent (again, not a fanatic, there are a few things I do that aren't the most helpful, but hopefully the rest balance me out - note to self, re-email neighbor on zoning board to find out what they're doing with regulation of windmills). I also like the resurgence of electric vehicles and always wondered why nobody made an electric motorcycle. After all, everything motorcyclists like can be better provided by an electric engine (other than engine noise, which I never understood the attraction, loud pipes just annoy the neighbors, they don't make you safer, in fact they reduce your safety by drowning out environmental sounds, like that honking horn). More instant torque, more durability, quicker time to full speed, ease of maintenance, all better with electric propulsion.

But hey, after catching a brief glimpse on the TV news last night, I did a new search and they're finally making them!

The Brammo Enertia (which after a quick look sounds the best)

The Zero Motorcycles S

Electric Motor Sports Electric GPR.

A DIY version (which I thought about before I sold my bike)

Another DYIer (cost about $1500 - cool).

Yamaha built an electric racer a few years ago for their team and the motorcycle was banned from the circuit. Why? Because it provided too great of an advantage over the gas powered bikes.

The thing, though, is that these bikes seem very cool, and if I lived closer to work I would think more of them. But their range and speed are somewhat limited. Okay manufacturers, here's what I'd really like.

The bike needs to go up to speeds of 75mph for highway driving (being on a motorcycle, you do not want to be the one holding up traffic, or stuck in the middle of the pack, that's the danger zone). It needs to travel at least 90 miles (we'll get to that in a second). And it should cost less than $8000. Again, at this point, in the specs the Brammo gets closest. It still would mean I would have to arrange charging here at work.

But here's the thing. It doesn't need to be all or nothing. Look at the Volt technology. For a motorcycle a small gas engine for recharging would be a really small gas engine (like a lawn mower or smaller). It would add to weight and maintenance, but it would give you a virtually unlimited range. Some motorcyclists love to ride and range is everything to them. It would also mean a larger (heavier) frame and or batteries with more energy density, but I think those are solvable problems. For such a hybrid I could see the cost rising to $9-10000. It would be worth it.

Given that Honda already owns this technology (except the more energy dense batteries, but they're working on them), I'm surprised they haven't leveraged this into their motorcycle line yet.

Until then I'll still be looking at the Honda Shadow Series or the Yamaha V-Star Classic (or Custom) for my needs. Man, need to finish book to get agent, to get publisher, to get contract, to get published, to get millions, to get motorcycle.