Wordish Wanderings

Monday, April 28, 2008

Waning Moon

Saturn Retrograde

Pluto Retrograde

Rainy and cool

The new issue of The Scruffy Dog Review is out, which means my latest installment of “The Literary Athlete” is up.  It’s called “In Between” and gives suggestions what to do while your manuscript makes the rounds.  You can find it here:

http://www.thescruffydogreview.com/LitAth1.html

The Pre-Derby article is off, and should be up in a couple of days.  The monologue went off, the actor read it via web-cam, I did a rewrite, sent it off, we worked via webcam, I tweaked.  I think it’s in good shape.  I sent him one final tweak when I got home last night; if he’s comfortable, he can memorize it (his audition is tomorrow).

I have a Guest Rant up on Kristen King’s InkThinker blog on “Dealing with ‘You Should Write . . .’”, a topic that particular drives me ‘round the bend.  Yeah, I know, it’s a real short drive, but come check it out here:

http://www.inkthinkerblog.com/2008/04/16/guest-post-dealing-with-%e2%80%9cyou-should-write-%e2%80%9d-a-writer%e2%80%99s-rant/

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Waning Moon

Saturn Retrograde

Sunny and cold

Today is Ink in My Coffee’s fourth anniversary!  I can’t believe I have so much to say.  I figured I’d blog for a few months and get sick of it, but discussing my process seems to help the writing, so . . .you’re all stuck with me for awhile longer. Seriously, it’s like having virtual morning coffee with my friends and colleagues.  Once I’ve done my first 1K for the day, it’s a good way to launch the rest of it.

But that first 1K of the day needs to happen BEFORE I interact with anyone!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Waning Moon

Saturn Retrograde

Cloudy and warm

A DAY, let me tell you . . .

Found out the publisher for the time travel novella thingy is shutting down, so one less deadline to worry about.  I’ll probably still write it sometime, but at least I don’t have to do it right now.

Sent a few pages of the teleplay for my portfolio to an old contact from the days when I was active in that area; he loved it, said I should expand it to a two-parter, not a one episode stand-alone, because I was trying to cover too much ground in 47 minutes (which is how much script time a one hour show gets), and there was enough to make the core cast of the show shine and still have the guest roles really strong and complex.  So I’m going to keep working on it.  Reworked all of part one, and now have to figure out the top of part two, change a few things, and then get back on track for the rest of the material.

Sent a few pages of the sci-fi horror western to a friend who loves the sci-fi horror genre. He was totally grossed out, in the best possible way, by my world of Freak Pretties and Skin Eaters, so I’m on the right track.  Hey, I get squeamish writing it; good thing the reader gets squeamish, that’s the point.  I got a good chunk of it done, and I can smell the end.

Someone asked me, a few days ago, via email, why I’m veering so much into the science fiction/fantasy realm with writing, reading, viewing, etc.  Well, there are several reasons for it, and I think it’s an interesting question.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Waning Moon

Saturn Retrograde

Sunny and cold

Hop on over to Mystic Lit to read my second of three guest blog posts on research in one’s writing.

It’s pretty sad that, on Saturday, I was so sick and still more productive, writing-wise, than I’d been in about two weeks.

That’s how much the noise, stress, and construction vibration have set me off my game.

So much so, I noticed in the BCC to myself of an article I submitted, a really stupid mistake which will probably cost me the sale.  It’s absolutely inexcusable.  And I made the mistake anyway.  And I’ll pay for it, I’m sure.  I was so careful on the article, on the cover letter, and then there’s a typo in the subject line.  Next!  It will serve me right to be rejected for simply that.  And I thought I’d been very careful.  I could just kick myself around the block.

 Read more. . .

Sunday, Mach 23, 2008

Waning Moon

Saturn Retrograde

Sunny and cold

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it!  May you have a family-filled day of joy and renewed hope.

I’m feeling a little better.  I have to get my act together because I’m invited to dinner tonight and can’t cancel.  I’ll just eat, um, cautiously.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Full Moon

Saturn Retrograde

Sunny and cold

33 degrees F out there this morning, and the scumbag landlords haven’t given us heat since sometime yesterday.  Guess I’ll be spending the day with the Health Department, filing yet more paperwork.

I am seriously thinking about buying stock in both Murphy’s Oil Soap and a manufacturer of Castle Soap.  I get an inch to an inch and a half of construction-related dust coming under my door – in spite of the tape – every few hours, and I’m constantly washing the floors and dusting.  Not only do I not want to breathe it, I don’t want the cats walking through it and then licking their paws, since I’m sure whatever’s in there is toxic.  Since I am the Un-Suzy Homemaker (Suzy Un-Homemaker?), you know if I’m constantly cleaning, it’s got to be bad!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Waxing Moon

Saturn Retrograde

St. Patrick’s Day

Sunny and mild

Quick post, as I’m running out the door.

Happy Birthday Barbara and Fran!

Hop on over to Mystic Lit (http://mystic-lit.blogspot.com) to read the first of my three guest blogs on research in writing.  They’ll run for three consecutive Mondays.  And drop a comment by, so I know you’ve visited!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Waxing Moon

Saturn Retrograde

Cloudy and mild

The building noise was so bad yesterday that it was like having a dentist’s drill in my head for eight hours.  I really thought I was going to lose what’s left of my mind.

I found that the music of the B-52s, Springsteen, Chumbawamba, and Pat Benatar block the noise the best.  Because, let’s face it, Maidens of the Celtic Harp and Sweet Honey on the Rock aren’t going to do it.

So it was not the productive day of which I dreamed.  I did find some jobs for which to pitch – I’ve been bad these past weeks, concentrating on the fiction and ignoring the business writing I need in order to pay the bills.  I wrote up an interview request for someone I’d like to get for SDR.  Tracked down a former colleague with whom I’d like to get back in touch and shot off a catch-up letter.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Waxing Moon

Saturn Retrograde

Cloudy and mild

Thanks for all the good wishes yesterday.  I had a nice, low-key birthday with family and some friends.  A good way to start the newest year of my life.  I’m definitely more optimistic this year than I was last year.  Last year for my birthday, I was still in post-flood trauma, in Vermont in a rented car, and hadn’t yet bought my new VW (which is the best car I’ve ever had in my life).  I loved being in Vermont, but I was still in such shock (and little did I knew in a few short weeks we’d have to deal with an even worse flood) that I couldn’t really deal.  This year, in spite of feeling as though the world is headed for Apocalypse, I’m a bit more optimistic about my personal journey.  I haven’t quite decided if I hope the Riders pass me by or if I’m going to set a trip wire, but we’ll deal with that when it happens.

Good day’s work on the thriller.  And good day’s work honing the Tracking Medusa query letter.  I’ll keep putting the final changes into the Medusa manuscript today in and around working on the sci-fi horror novella.  I need to finish the first draft this weekend, so I have a few days to revise it.  I’m playing with some concepts that people are either going to love or the concepts will hit a nerve and people will flinch – that’s what I want.  We’ll see what happens.  Heck, I’M flinching as I write some of the scenes.  And the next assignment from Confidential Job #1 arrived – I plan to work on it this weekend.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Waxing Moon

Saturn Retrograde

Sunny and mild

Happy Birthday Me!

Going back to yesterday’s discussion about writing for actors, I had a few questions on that, which I will try to answer.

If you write for a specific actor during the development process, unless the actor is a producer on the piece, or it’s for the actor’s company, you often don’t get the actor for the role.  Either the actor doesn’t feel it’s the right fit, or the advisors don’t think the actor should do it (and may not even tell the actor about the script) or simple scheduling conflicts.  So you (or the next writer on the project) do a major rewrite every time a different actor is interested.

It’s much easier to create the material without Imaginary Casting and then tweak it once an actor’s assigned.

Of course, some actors bring with them their own writers to rewrite their dialogue – a practice I really HATE.  If you’re good enough, you can make any good script your own without having your own people rewrite it.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Waxing Moon

Saturn Retrograde

Sunny and cold

Short, but good morning’s work yesterday on the thriller – about 20 pages.

Off to my friend’s for few hours of relaxation, and then back in the mid-afternoon.  I’d promised a colleague I’d look at some tape of an actor’s performance – it’s another one of those “would you consider writing for this guy?” things.  I like the way the guy works, I think I could write for him, yeah, sure . . .now talk money.  I’d looked at tape of another performer a couple of days ago, and my first thought was, “Who did this person have sex with to land the role, because it sure wasn’t gotten on acting talent.”  That is someone I would NOT want to work with  -- I have rarely seen such awful work in my life – not that the script was any good, either.  But the actor yesterday was pretty good, and, if there’s actually money in place to develop something, I’d give it a shot.  But I’m not counting on anything or holding my breath.  Thousands of productions go into development every year.  Only a fraction are ever made.  Plus, although I’ve written material geared toward specific performers before, I prefer writing a well-crafted piece first with strong characters, and then casting to fit the role instead of tailoring the writing to fit the performer.  One of the many reasons I’m not in LA making a lot of money – I’m character-driven, not star-driven, and the film/television business are.

Did some work on the outline of the thriller – I’m keeping ahead of it, trying to plot as tightly as possible.  I have to do research in the fields of genetics and blood work to make this viable.  At first, it intimidated me, but I’m falling into the scientific part easily.  After all, my dad was a chemist, and even though he died when I was young, science has always come naturally to me.  Once I have a foundation, I’ll find some experts in the field with specific questions.  I never thought I could write a thriller before, but this is fun!  A little scary sometimes, but fun.  I’m also breaking the rules because it’s an ensemble thriller, with a range of evenly balanced characters, and thrillers tend to be tightly characterized with two or three as the main focus.  And my villains are among the most interesting, and certainly more interesting than the usual villains.  I totally get why they’re doing what they’re doing.  I don’t agree with how they’re doing it, but I understand them, and that’ll make them work for the audience.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Waxing Moon

Saturn Retrograde

Sunny and cold

It didn’t flood!  What a relief.  But there was a terrible wind storm that took down a lot of power lines and did damage.  I’m just grateful that the brook’s banks held.  It’s kind of wearing to have to be on alert every time more than a half inch of rain is expected.

So, I spent the bulk of the day writing about 8K (65 pages) of a screenplay, which totally makes no sense, but the idea held on so tightly and the images came so quickly I had to go with it.  It doesn’t make sense for me to write a screenplay right now, and the story will run over 120 pages, but it’s coming in images and dialogue, so the first draft will be screenplay format.  It’s a thriller, again, a stretch for me, and it’s fun.  I rolled with it and ignored as much of the noise as possible.  Nearly 8K is pretty decent for a day.  Too bad it wasn’t on the sci-fi horror western instead.

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Waning Moon

Saturn Retrograde

Rainy and mild

The brook’s holding; barely.  We’re supposed to get one more major rain storm through here in the next few hours.  If it doesn’t flood from that, we should be okay, until the next storm comes through on Friday.

Finished the assignment for Confidential Job #1 yesterday; have to write up the report and get it out by noon.  Worked on the Tracking Medusa revision. Still waiting to hear about whether or not I have to send the full.  Still not happy with the outline, although the synopsis is better, so I think I’ll be able to send out a batch of queries early next week. Worked on a few more things, and the sci-fi horror western, although it’s not anywhere near clipping along quickly enough.  It’s out of my genre, and my comfort zone, and there are a few topics in there that push my buttons.  All good, but difficult while trying to make it work on a deadline.

I feel like I’m losing days and days and not getting enough done; most of that is dealing with building problems, but at least I’m getting something done every day, unlike the last go-round, where I couldn’t get anything done for months.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Waning Moon

Saturn Retrograde

Cloudy and mild

On March 2^nd was the one year anniversary of the massive flood here in which I lost my old car.  There’s a flood watch out tonight – my newish car is already on top of a hill in another town so that I don’t have to think about it.  I’m waiting for the storm to start—I have my pre-storm headache.  We’ve been lucky over the past few weeks – the flood watches have been more washes than actual floods, and I hope this one is, too.

And it’s still too quiet.  The scumbags are plotting something.  I can’t live on the edge of adrenalin all the time; I just have to be ready and assume it’s going to be nasty.  I really hate living like this, and hope I can go back to the house hunt soon.

Someone who read my praise of Viggo Mortensen’s performance in Eastern Promises and who knows that I’m involved in equine charity work sent me a You Tube link to a public service announcement for the preservation of the American Mustang.  Seems that corporate interests are making sure they get slaughtered, and, if they’re not protected, they will expire, permanently:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc_lxpVuc1c

The PSA led me to this site:

http://www.wildhorsepreservation.com/

where I signed the petition to try to help protect them.  Please take a look at it.  Usually, I run like hell from celebrity-promoted causes, but he’s not doing this to draw attention to himself.  He’s a genuine horseman, owner, and rider,  and it’s one of the best-handled PSAs I’ve seen in a long time.  I encourage you, if you give a damn about keeping an American breed alive, to visit the site and, if you feel strongly enough, sign the petition.

I will talk to my editor at FemmeFan and see if perhaps I can do an article on the organization.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Waning Moon

Saturn Retrograde

Sunny and cold

I was supposed to work onsite in CT today, but that was postponed again, so I get to work at home, in the middle of building chaos.  Oh, goody.  Yes, that’s a note of sarcasm in my voice.

I’m not even angry about the building crap anymore.  I am simply done negotiating.  And I do not bluff.  That’s one of the reasons I no longer play poker.

Yesterday was more about paperwork and admin work than anything else.  I’m slowly excavating my desk.  I found a contract that I hadn’t wanted to sign during Mercury retrograde and signed it.  Much to my surprise, I received a check from a publication I’d written for last summer – I didn’t think I was ever going to chase down a penny from them.  Their definition of prompt payment is different than mine, but at least I got paid, and I can cross them off the list.  That means there’s only one outstanding unpaid client at this point, unusual for this line of work.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Waning Moon

Saturn Retrograde

Sunny and cold

Go visit A Biblio Paradise and read the interview with novelist Sandra Worth, whose book Lady of the Roses is definitely on my Top 10 for this year, no matter how many books I read!

 Read more . . .

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Full Moon

Lunar Eclipse

Saturn Retrograde

Sunny and cold

Hop on over to The Scruffy Dog Review blog and check out my piece on “The Non-Writing Sabbatical.”

I’m going to stay home and quiet and work from home today; not be online much, just stay quiet.  I don’t do well during lunar eclipses!

Yesterday was rather a lost day, which was frustrating.  I did four loads of laundry at my friend’s place, which was great; however, he’s having renovations done.  Although the guys were both exceptionally nice and very good at what they did with a minimum of repetitive machine noise, it was still too distracting to get much done.  I got a little bit of research done for BALTHAZAAR, but that’s it.

Current Mood: calm

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Waxing Moon

Saturn Retrograde

Sunny and cold

Doesn’t it feel good to have Mercury direct?  But boy, were there a lot of car accidents on the road yesterday!

So, the HP Deskjet isn’t working for me.  It’s not a lemon or anything, I simply made the wrong printer choice.  I’m trying to fix it, now that Mercury is direct and I won’t shoot myself in the foot by purchasing electronic equipment.  I found another Canon that seems more in line with what I want – and prints more than double the pages per ink tank.  And Canon actually answers my questions.  I’ll still get my big Canon all-in-one fixed – but I’ll have the little one as a backup.  It’s not a Baby Bubble, but it seems to be the next generation of that type of printer.

I tried HP; we’re not a good match.  I’m glad I didn’t panic-convert everything to HP, or I’d be REALLY unhappy now, instead of simply resigned to figuring out another choice.

The fact that their customer service sucks also plays into it.

Current Mood: amused

Friday, February 15, 2008

Waxing Moon

Saturn Retrograde

Mercury Retrograde

Cloudy and cold

Whew!  Busy day yesterday.  I polished and sent off three guest blog posts; did a fact sheet for a client; did some internet research; negotiated with a few publications; trolled the job sites and actually found a few potential clients; worked on the synopsis and outline; started reading my friend’s novel; enjoyed a Valentine’s afternoon distraction; went in to work a show on a track I’ve never run or followed.

I am on my last ink tank.  Again!  I’ve already spent more on ink for the new printer than it would have cost to fix the old one.

Current Mood: accomplished