I've taken to eating turkey bacon and chicken sausage as an easy source of protein and replacement for pork. One time my mom called it chicken bacon, and it has bothered me a lot ever since. I think about chicken bacon all the time and laugh at the silliness of the concept, and then shudder at how awful the words sound when placed together.
Do you ever have dreams in which someone tells a joke, and it's really funny? I've had one each of the last two nights. But I don't remember the one from two nights ago, because the more I thought about it, the less funny it became. Like, sometimes they might be funny in context, but the dream presents such strange context that it will never work out in real life. The one from last night had so many motives for the different actors, and such a congregation of people from the many aspects of my life, that I'm going to have to simplify it thus: a psychic punches his friend. His friend punches him back, saying "what did you do that for?" "I had a psychic vision you were going to punch me so I decided to pre-empt you." Is it strange that the simplification of my dream is also the simplification of pretty much every episode of That's So Raven?
Tylenol and Tile are filed next to one another in my mind. Those chalky tile floors always remind me of the chalky consistency of children's Tylenol.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
A bunch of stuff
I'm trying to collect little quirks. I feel like adding quirks into my stories make the characters and plots and relationships come alive and feel real. I probably feel that way because it's absolutely true.
Like, so Ferand is this weird foreigner and everyone in the family thinks he's really weird at the beginning. I'm still developing his potential quirks, but they include growing a full beard and standing up while eating. The beard thing is important, because after a little while he'll shave it all off with no warning. Andrew, the narrator, will ask Ariane, the main charcater and Ferand's wife, about it. "Oh, I always hated that beard," Ariane will say. "So we made a deal: he can grow a beard for the first year and last year of our marriage, but he has to be clean-shaven all of the time in between." I like that because it also gives them a little personality for doing something silly like that. Now, whenever Ferand starts to annoy Ariane, she can tease him by threatening to hide his razor.
I mean, I don't want to toot my own writing, but I'm having a really fantastic time with this. I feel totally confident about everything I'm writing except for that there are a lot of characters, and that worries me. But other than that, it's on course to be among the best things I've ever written.
Meanwhile, I'm resigning myself to the possibility that I might have to self-publish The Selfsame Chime. I think it makes sense as my first novel and so for as much work as I might put into The Indomitable Witch of Clives, they can't be out of order. I still have a few more agents to send The Selfsame Chime to, but I guess I've done an about face on my previous policy of "if you send it to a bunch of agents and they don't want to represent you, that means you suck and you shouldn't try and publish it anyway." The thing is, none of the agents have really read it, so they only think my query letter sucks. I mean, I'm certainly open to it sucking, because there are various biases (both recognized and unrecognized) that most of my readers so far have had, and so even if they all tell me it's good that doesn't mean it is.
But all that to say, I'm devoted to the idea of making that my first novel, and I am prepared to go the self-publishing route if that's what's necessary. I don't totally know how self-publishing works, but I assume this means I'll be the only one working hard on making it work. I have to be its only salesperson, trying to convince family and friends to read it and then constantly pressing them to recommend it. I have to go in to local bookstores with a copy in hand and try to get them to sell it. And I have to be okay with months passing without selling a single copy.
But I have a lot of confidence in it, and you know, it'll be great to see something I've written and put my heart into in published form. So I'll be writing to more agents this week, but I now have a back up if they all say no.
Like, so Ferand is this weird foreigner and everyone in the family thinks he's really weird at the beginning. I'm still developing his potential quirks, but they include growing a full beard and standing up while eating. The beard thing is important, because after a little while he'll shave it all off with no warning. Andrew, the narrator, will ask Ariane, the main charcater and Ferand's wife, about it. "Oh, I always hated that beard," Ariane will say. "So we made a deal: he can grow a beard for the first year and last year of our marriage, but he has to be clean-shaven all of the time in between." I like that because it also gives them a little personality for doing something silly like that. Now, whenever Ferand starts to annoy Ariane, she can tease him by threatening to hide his razor.
I mean, I don't want to toot my own writing, but I'm having a really fantastic time with this. I feel totally confident about everything I'm writing except for that there are a lot of characters, and that worries me. But other than that, it's on course to be among the best things I've ever written.
Meanwhile, I'm resigning myself to the possibility that I might have to self-publish The Selfsame Chime. I think it makes sense as my first novel and so for as much work as I might put into The Indomitable Witch of Clives, they can't be out of order. I still have a few more agents to send The Selfsame Chime to, but I guess I've done an about face on my previous policy of "if you send it to a bunch of agents and they don't want to represent you, that means you suck and you shouldn't try and publish it anyway." The thing is, none of the agents have really read it, so they only think my query letter sucks. I mean, I'm certainly open to it sucking, because there are various biases (both recognized and unrecognized) that most of my readers so far have had, and so even if they all tell me it's good that doesn't mean it is.
But all that to say, I'm devoted to the idea of making that my first novel, and I am prepared to go the self-publishing route if that's what's necessary. I don't totally know how self-publishing works, but I assume this means I'll be the only one working hard on making it work. I have to be its only salesperson, trying to convince family and friends to read it and then constantly pressing them to recommend it. I have to go in to local bookstores with a copy in hand and try to get them to sell it. And I have to be okay with months passing without selling a single copy.
But I have a lot of confidence in it, and you know, it'll be great to see something I've written and put my heart into in published form. So I'll be writing to more agents this week, but I now have a back up if they all say no.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
But hey, I'm writing it too
When Lauretta Errumseld and Meline Witteroud accuse Ariane of witchcraft, who might their accomplices be? Maude Witteroud is a likely one, as is their cousin, Kathryn. Yet it is these very accusations of witchcraft that move Ariane's husband, Ferand, to resign from his position as Grand Chamberlain. And who should replace him but Kathryn's husband, Roebard Honor Delia.
Our narrator, the Count of Iszmon, believes his best method of serving his empire is to fight in military campaigns. So he takes part in the invasion of Luvia, where he distinguishes himself as one of the few peers in the army. The Emperor and Empress go on progress through the newly conquered lands, and the Count is their escort. When the Empress gives birth in Podora, the Count is present. When this Prince Henry is taken to the court at Frontton and then blessed at the Cathedral of the Star in Acrola, the Count is the obvious choice to lead the party bringing him to these places. So, it becomes obvious that the Count should be named a Guardian of the Blood, one of four men charged with the Prince's care.
I certainly do not mean for this to be the Great Big Acrola Blog, but I do intend to write a lot about my experience writing. You know how sometimes people claim that the story/characters just "wrote them/itself/ve"? That's kind of what happened in the above situations. In the former, I accidentally set up a scenario that causes my narrator to question everyone's motives and moves him to the very root of the insecurity of his family's position at court. And the latter moves the story along during some 'down years' (ie a two-year period when the plotline advances only slightly) and forces an interesting new element to the dynamic.
I spent between two and three months writing the draft to The Selfsame Chime, but I always felt like it was less than a month. Except for those last few weeks, when I was just filling in a few paragraphs and pages here and there, I was churning out pages upon pages per day, and I could not wait to clear out all obstacles so that I could write. Meanwhile, I've been working on The Indomitable Witch of Clives for two months but it seems like much longer. It's not that I'm not enjoying the writing, but rather that I am so eager for the finished product and so ignorant of what it will contain that I don't want to be bothered with silly things like writing about important events. But finally, the story has begun to write itself. Finally I am not finding it so grueling and difficult to write the 2000 words a day minimum I set for myself. It's nearing the complete length of The Selfsame Chime, and you know what? I feel like I still have a lot more to write, and finally I am excited about it.
Our narrator, the Count of Iszmon, believes his best method of serving his empire is to fight in military campaigns. So he takes part in the invasion of Luvia, where he distinguishes himself as one of the few peers in the army. The Emperor and Empress go on progress through the newly conquered lands, and the Count is their escort. When the Empress gives birth in Podora, the Count is present. When this Prince Henry is taken to the court at Frontton and then blessed at the Cathedral of the Star in Acrola, the Count is the obvious choice to lead the party bringing him to these places. So, it becomes obvious that the Count should be named a Guardian of the Blood, one of four men charged with the Prince's care.
I certainly do not mean for this to be the Great Big Acrola Blog, but I do intend to write a lot about my experience writing. You know how sometimes people claim that the story/characters just "wrote them/itself/ve"? That's kind of what happened in the above situations. In the former, I accidentally set up a scenario that causes my narrator to question everyone's motives and moves him to the very root of the insecurity of his family's position at court. And the latter moves the story along during some 'down years' (ie a two-year period when the plotline advances only slightly) and forces an interesting new element to the dynamic.
I spent between two and three months writing the draft to The Selfsame Chime, but I always felt like it was less than a month. Except for those last few weeks, when I was just filling in a few paragraphs and pages here and there, I was churning out pages upon pages per day, and I could not wait to clear out all obstacles so that I could write. Meanwhile, I've been working on The Indomitable Witch of Clives for two months but it seems like much longer. It's not that I'm not enjoying the writing, but rather that I am so eager for the finished product and so ignorant of what it will contain that I don't want to be bothered with silly things like writing about important events. But finally, the story has begun to write itself. Finally I am not finding it so grueling and difficult to write the 2000 words a day minimum I set for myself. It's nearing the complete length of The Selfsame Chime, and you know what? I feel like I still have a lot more to write, and finally I am excited about it.
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