Today I got quite a bit of necessary stuff done, including feeding my car and myself, and foraging successfully for food in the wilds of the supermarket.
I finally started watching season two of Dollhouse, which I never did quite get round to before. At the moment I'm consumed with horror... at the different hairstyles...
And I almost finished the Honour's Knight review, though it's now over 1200 words and I should probably run it past someone else who's read the books to make sure it's not inadvertently spoilery. But I am having far too much fun doing odd sci-fi lit-crit writing analysis on it. I should probably tone that down a little too.
I can't help it; when I find an author doing something well, I want to pluck it out and show it to everyone and go, "Look! See! This is how you do exposition! Just like this!" And then I get so wrapped up in that I forget what my original point was.
This is why a lot of the time I don't mind that whole "reading as a writer" thing. Sure, half the time it means I go, "Oho, blatant foreshadowing, therefore this is about to happen", but sometimes it means I stop halfway through a book and just blink at the page, going, "Wait... you just... you set that up, and it fits in perfectly, and you haven't compromised anything else to get to it. That is a piece of art right there."
Basically, I get to see when writers are trying really hard and putting in the thought and the effort, and I really appreciate it. And I want everyone to. I want people to go flocking back to the author and go, "This bit! This bit must have taken ages to get right. We are grateful for your time and for the fact that you worked hard so that this particular little bit would be a joy to read. We know you did more than just phone it in. We see how much you cared. Thank you."
Maybe I won't cut too much from the review/art essay after all.
Monday 31 March 2014
Sunday 30 March 2014
Surprisingly relaxed
Today I did such things as sort out recycling, some housework, the washing up, tidying, and various other bits and pieces. I wrote stuff (poor Hanith and Irin) and maintained the calorie counting thing and entertained the cats.
I also spent most of the day, really, reading Honour's Knight by Rachel Bach, taking my sweet, sweet time over it, and finished it.
Then I spent most of the rest of the day working out the key points I want to cover in the review post. So that should be tomorrow. Unless I get completely sidetracked by... oh, I don't know, making mini carrot cakes or something. Hm, sounds like a plan.
Aside from the small amount of plotting for Dryden's sequel (with a side order of mad cackling for the new horrors Sarah helped me come up with for those long-suffering characters) that's pretty much today. Read a book, relaxed, got little things done. Feels like achievements. No complaints here. (EDIT: Also, laughed like a drain at the first couple of episodes of Helix; the musical choices are superb.)
I did have an invite to go round to friends', but didn't go, for once. Part laziness, part book, part today was Mother's Day here in the UK and I sort of wanted to stay indoors and avoid all mention of that this year. Normally at this point I'd be starting to get anxious and worried that I'd offended people and would never ever ever get asked to hang out again and oh dear gods I should have gone what was I thinking... but today, actually, I seem to be not doing that. These are, after all, the same friends who forgave me so readily when I was an hour and a half late getting to theirs last week, and I have no reason not to believe them when they said it's fine. It's kind of relaxing to not be worrying about that for a change.
There, feels like another achievement. Not too shabby.
I also spent most of the day, really, reading Honour's Knight by Rachel Bach, taking my sweet, sweet time over it, and finished it.
Then I spent most of the rest of the day working out the key points I want to cover in the review post. So that should be tomorrow. Unless I get completely sidetracked by... oh, I don't know, making mini carrot cakes or something. Hm, sounds like a plan.
Aside from the small amount of plotting for Dryden's sequel (with a side order of mad cackling for the new horrors Sarah helped me come up with for those long-suffering characters) that's pretty much today. Read a book, relaxed, got little things done. Feels like achievements. No complaints here. (EDIT: Also, laughed like a drain at the first couple of episodes of Helix; the musical choices are superb.)
I did have an invite to go round to friends', but didn't go, for once. Part laziness, part book, part today was Mother's Day here in the UK and I sort of wanted to stay indoors and avoid all mention of that this year. Normally at this point I'd be starting to get anxious and worried that I'd offended people and would never ever ever get asked to hang out again and oh dear gods I should have gone what was I thinking... but today, actually, I seem to be not doing that. These are, after all, the same friends who forgave me so readily when I was an hour and a half late getting to theirs last week, and I have no reason not to believe them when they said it's fine. It's kind of relaxing to not be worrying about that for a change.
There, feels like another achievement. Not too shabby.
Saturday 29 March 2014
Incidentally, I drink like a camel.
I did a lot of tidying and cleaning today, which has helped since the cats are determined to shed everywhere at the moment. Particularly in my face, whilst purring. This is adorable, but did actually get past the antihistamines and start to cause breathing issues earlier, so the sweeping up and binning of large amounts of cat fur is not entirely altruistic or just for appearances...
Other than that I was split between writing more Hanith (hurrah, Hanith and his healthy, healthy relationship. It makes such a nice change from Dryden) and reading Honour's Knight by Rachel Bach.
Basically, I want to go to bed now so that it's tomorrow and I'll have the time and energy to write a proper squeeful review of it. In summary: FUN. (Also packs emotional punch. But still. FUN.)
Oh, and I've been trying to drink more, in an effort to eat less, stay better hydrated, be a little healthier etc etc etc. I really don't know how people manage to drink the supposed recommended 8-cups-a-day allowance, never mind folks who go for the weird calculations where it ends up saying 12 cups or more as a daily dose. I'm only just keeping up with my self-imposed lower limit of about 6 cups. And I feel sloshy. I'm used to getting by on two or three...
Anyway. Progress is maintained. Not bad.
(Also, my friend Sarah is absolutely amazing at reading my stuff and pointing out the very simple, very twisted, very perfect thing that I should clearly have written in and somehow managed to miss. It's amazing. Every single time, she reads through, and comes back with, "Ooh, and then this?" and I am left sitting here going, "How did I not think of that? Yes ma'am, writing it this instant!" She just did it again to Tick Tock, and now clearly I have lots of revisions and a possible sequel or epilogue to do when it gets rejected and I want to submit it somewhere new.)
Other than that I was split between writing more Hanith (hurrah, Hanith and his healthy, healthy relationship. It makes such a nice change from Dryden) and reading Honour's Knight by Rachel Bach.
Basically, I want to go to bed now so that it's tomorrow and I'll have the time and energy to write a proper squeeful review of it. In summary: FUN. (Also packs emotional punch. But still. FUN.)
Oh, and I've been trying to drink more, in an effort to eat less, stay better hydrated, be a little healthier etc etc etc. I really don't know how people manage to drink the supposed recommended 8-cups-a-day allowance, never mind folks who go for the weird calculations where it ends up saying 12 cups or more as a daily dose. I'm only just keeping up with my self-imposed lower limit of about 6 cups. And I feel sloshy. I'm used to getting by on two or three...
Anyway. Progress is maintained. Not bad.
(Also, my friend Sarah is absolutely amazing at reading my stuff and pointing out the very simple, very twisted, very perfect thing that I should clearly have written in and somehow managed to miss. It's amazing. Every single time, she reads through, and comes back with, "Ooh, and then this?" and I am left sitting here going, "How did I not think of that? Yes ma'am, writing it this instant!" She just did it again to Tick Tock, and now clearly I have lots of revisions and a possible sequel or epilogue to do when it gets rejected and I want to submit it somewhere new.)
Friday 28 March 2014
40 days: halfway. Score!
Another writing day, though interrupted by pestering cats who decided that I had much better things to be doing, like stroking them for an hour or so. They are incredibly cute, though, and it's still such a nice change to be able to touch them and not stop breathing in response (all hail antihistamines) that I can't resist.
Did a couple of little bits around the house again, including clearing as much space for Dance Central as I'm able to without getting into stuff that I really don't want to be putting in the wrong place. And Daisy has talked me into calorie counting as well to try and get back into our good clothes (and cosplay, over here). So far so good, helped by the portions of homemade meals I still had left. I am rather competitive, which is keeping me from devouring (at least all in one go) the wonderful stash of chocolate I've still got from the Christmas sales...
I swear I wasn't this food obsessed before I started a) cooking, or b) writing these blog posts. But it's actually a very good thing, honestly. One of my clearest warning signs of dipping back into the self-hatred and the dark spirals is when I have no interest in food and stop eating. Which in turn, due to lack of energy and the side effects of hunger, spirals me down further. So focusing on happy and focusing on food actually overlap much more on the Venn diagram than you might expect.
Anyway. Other stuff.
Claire tidied up her next Lavendar short story, we discussed one of the finer points on Twitter for a bit, I fired it at a couple of lovely, obliging friends who were able to give it a quick read and answer a single question for her. (They both enjoyed it, too. I do have awesome friends.)
So yes, you should probably go read the story: here.
(And the first one is here if you didn't get to that before. Tut tut!)
Did a couple of little bits around the house again, including clearing as much space for Dance Central as I'm able to without getting into stuff that I really don't want to be putting in the wrong place. And Daisy has talked me into calorie counting as well to try and get back into our good clothes (and cosplay, over here). So far so good, helped by the portions of homemade meals I still had left. I am rather competitive, which is keeping me from devouring (at least all in one go) the wonderful stash of chocolate I've still got from the Christmas sales...
I swear I wasn't this food obsessed before I started a) cooking, or b) writing these blog posts. But it's actually a very good thing, honestly. One of my clearest warning signs of dipping back into the self-hatred and the dark spirals is when I have no interest in food and stop eating. Which in turn, due to lack of energy and the side effects of hunger, spirals me down further. So focusing on happy and focusing on food actually overlap much more on the Venn diagram than you might expect.
Anyway. Other stuff.
Claire tidied up her next Lavendar short story, we discussed one of the finer points on Twitter for a bit, I fired it at a couple of lovely, obliging friends who were able to give it a quick read and answer a single question for her. (They both enjoyed it, too. I do have awesome friends.)
So yes, you should probably go read the story: here.
(And the first one is here if you didn't get to that before. Tut tut!)
Thursday 27 March 2014
Prose in motion
Quiet day after all the Marvel excitement, today. Read all the comics I borrowed, so I can give them back next time. Managed a couple of little bits and pieces around the house, including starting on clearing some space for Dance Central to happen. Soon...
A couple of things are in motion, and indeed in the post, winging their ways to me to remind me that people are amazing sometimes, and exceptionally kind and generous. More on those when they arrive.
Otherwise I generally fell into writing and got stuck all day. The current Hanith short story has more than doubled in length today, and thoroughly distracted me from everyone else. Poor Dryden isn't getting a look in at all at the moment.
What happened there is that I drew up a week plan and assigned one short story idea to each day. When I immediately went, "Damn, I'm looking forward to Friday," that clarified which short story I should obviously be writing next, so out went the plan and in came Hanith. I've even managed to hit the point where I can actually write, where I stop hunting for precisely the right word and put in info-dump filler for now. It's a point where I know what information my characters need to convey but phrasing it in a pretty way is going to take far too long, so they just get on with it and say it.
Ie, first draft. Though it's surprising how much of that kind of blunt, straight-to-the-point dialogue ends up staying, actually. Often it just works, and you don't need the prettification you think you do. People are blunt sometimes, especially when they're tired or stressed or angry or in pain, which characters in the middle of a medieval fantasy adventure usually are...
A couple of things are in motion, and indeed in the post, winging their ways to me to remind me that people are amazing sometimes, and exceptionally kind and generous. More on those when they arrive.
Otherwise I generally fell into writing and got stuck all day. The current Hanith short story has more than doubled in length today, and thoroughly distracted me from everyone else. Poor Dryden isn't getting a look in at all at the moment.
What happened there is that I drew up a week plan and assigned one short story idea to each day. When I immediately went, "Damn, I'm looking forward to Friday," that clarified which short story I should obviously be writing next, so out went the plan and in came Hanith. I've even managed to hit the point where I can actually write, where I stop hunting for precisely the right word and put in info-dump filler for now. It's a point where I know what information my characters need to convey but phrasing it in a pretty way is going to take far too long, so they just get on with it and say it.
Ie, first draft. Though it's surprising how much of that kind of blunt, straight-to-the-point dialogue ends up staying, actually. Often it just works, and you don't need the prettification you think you do. People are blunt sometimes, especially when they're tired or stressed or angry or in pain, which characters in the middle of a medieval fantasy adventure usually are...
Wednesday 26 March 2014
Enthusiasm is infectious
I actually got in after midnight so am sneakily backdating this one because otherwise the list of my posts will skip a day and wind me up for eternity (perfectionist? Me? Never...) but let's stick with "today" terminology anyway:
I helped a few friends out today, with some driving, a ridiculous amount of overdone feedback for poor Claire's latest short story (from whom I fully expect absolute reams and essays of red text on whatever I send her nextwhich will be really helpful and is definitely not at all an ulterior motive at play), and some more driving - in which I transported Enthusiastic Geeky Friend to the cinema and in return she provided tickets.
To see Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Be still my little Marvel fangirl heart.
There was much geeking, and lending of Hawkguy comics, and trailers for Amazing Spiderman 2, and Guardians of the Galaxy (oh, so very pretty on the big screen), and an X-Men Days of Future Past trailer I had not already seen (I adore X-Men. It rivals Loki for getting my instant attention. So this made me flap about in joy while she flapped about for Guardians of the Galaxy, and everyone was happy).
And, you know, Winter Soldier.
We asked, but they wouldn't let her have the giant Black Widow wall hanging. And they wouldn't let me have the huge reversible cardboard stand of Professor X and Magneto. Boo. But oh well, saves us trying to find space to display them properly.
So generally a rather Marvelous evening, aha. (I'm sorry, that was terrible and entirely predictable and I feel very little shame for it.) And I got home gone midnight, since we, as usual, spent at least half an hour geeking out wildly and discussing at top speed everything Marvel related while I was parked in front of her house.
Basically, at this point in Marvel phase 3, I am left wondering why there's such a focus on origin stories (though I do love a good origin story) in other franchises, and say, constant rebooting of some superheroes so as to go over and over the origins until they become boring, when they could be moving on to the really fun stuff like Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Iron Man 3, Winter Soldier...
Yes, it's fun. I was pleased. I will say no more.
I helped a few friends out today, with some driving, a ridiculous amount of overdone feedback for poor Claire's latest short story (from whom I fully expect absolute reams and essays of red text on whatever I send her next
To see Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Be still my little Marvel fangirl heart.
There was much geeking, and lending of Hawkguy comics, and trailers for Amazing Spiderman 2, and Guardians of the Galaxy (oh, so very pretty on the big screen), and an X-Men Days of Future Past trailer I had not already seen (I adore X-Men. It rivals Loki for getting my instant attention. So this made me flap about in joy while she flapped about for Guardians of the Galaxy, and everyone was happy).
And, you know, Winter Soldier.
We asked, but they wouldn't let her have the giant Black Widow wall hanging. And they wouldn't let me have the huge reversible cardboard stand of Professor X and Magneto. Boo. But oh well, saves us trying to find space to display them properly.
So generally a rather Marvelous evening, aha. (I'm sorry, that was terrible and entirely predictable and I feel very little shame for it.) And I got home gone midnight, since we, as usual, spent at least half an hour geeking out wildly and discussing at top speed everything Marvel related while I was parked in front of her house.
Basically, at this point in Marvel phase 3, I am left wondering why there's such a focus on origin stories (though I do love a good origin story) in other franchises, and say, constant rebooting of some superheroes so as to go over and over the origins until they become boring, when they could be moving on to the really fun stuff like Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Iron Man 3, Winter Soldier...
Yes, it's fun. I was pleased. I will say no more.
Tuesday 25 March 2014
Geekery is the song of my people
I really do have awesome friends. I've been a little bit too sedentary and apt to eat for the sake of it recently, and it's starting to have an impact. So I figured I'd try to get back to something that actually helped and was fun; dancing. Sadly the specific sci-fi conventions I used to go to and dance till I dropped three nights in row have now stopped running, so I need a more local alternative.
By the power of friendship (which is magic, don't you know) I've now acquired a spare... well, everything, required to get Dance Central on the XBox 360 running in the living room. Circumstances have led to my lovely friends having even a spare console sitting quietly gathering dust, so I don't feel like I'm inconveniencing anyone or imposing too much (aside from the enforced trip to a storage unit today, wherein I pretty much appeared, grabbed one of them, and kidnapped him for the afternoon. Next time, remind me, I will simply arrive on the doorstep and intone, "Come with me if you want to live").
Hopefully, therefore, there'll be a bit more activity shortly, as soon as we've (me and Daisy, who's both kind enough to let me stay at hers, and also keen to get the dancing going) cleared space for the Kinect to work. I did enjoy the Kinect games a lot when I lived with said briefly-kidnapped-friend and we had space. I used to be quite good at them... We'll soon see if I've lost my touch completely.
Before I dashed round to their place to steal all their tech and run away laughing, I also made it back in to the charity bookshop where I worked up until last September. One of my friends who's still there had essentially summoned me via the arcane email ritual of "We've had a ton of Dragonlance donated, help", so I appeared to perform the solemn rites of "Here, they go in this order and you should put these ones out on the shelf first; they're the rarest, and oh, I'm just going to borrow this one for the moment and let you have it back later..."
So I've acquired another book to read. But it's all about Raistlin, and he's cut from the same cloth as Loki, Dryden, all the wicked, dangerous characters I like so much. So that pleases me a great deal.
Not that I have a type in fiction, or anything like that, oh no.
Also there was much flailing and geeking out, which always happens every time I see that friend. Her enthusiasm for everything is wonderful, if occasionally a little like being flattened under a landslide of excitement. It doesn't leave you room to be annoyed or upset by anything, because the only way to survive such wild delight is to go with it. It pushes you into the frame of mind where you want to give back the same level of glee, so suddenly you're focusing on all the. best. possible. things, and the happy spiral twists into the most excitable snake eating its own tail you've ever seen, and everything is a reminder of something else wonderful that must be shared right now until your face starts to hurt from grinning and you remember the parking's about to run out on the car and have to leave... on the third attempt, because each time there's just one more thing either of you absolutely must mention before you go.
It is exhausting, when I'm so out of practice at sustained excitement, but very, very entertaining. And has a tendency to gear me up to go and achieve something, hence the unexpected and most useful trip round to the others', with the bonus of lots of hugs and chat with my lovely people.
Anyway, when I got back in I settled down and beta-read a friend's 8000 word fic and returned it, as I promised I would. I seem to recall, actually, promising I'd do it yesterday, but yesterday ended up being weird and almost-migraine and I got practically nothing done, so we're all counting today as a success and not too late.
I've even got another short story from the writing group to read and critique tomorrow, so that'll be fun.
When I type it all out like that, it seems like a very productive day. Which is, after all, the point of these blog posts.
Now I'm going to go and write more Hanith, because Hanith is fun.
By the power of friendship (which is magic, don't you know) I've now acquired a spare... well, everything, required to get Dance Central on the XBox 360 running in the living room. Circumstances have led to my lovely friends having even a spare console sitting quietly gathering dust, so I don't feel like I'm inconveniencing anyone or imposing too much (aside from the enforced trip to a storage unit today, wherein I pretty much appeared, grabbed one of them, and kidnapped him for the afternoon. Next time, remind me, I will simply arrive on the doorstep and intone, "Come with me if you want to live").
Hopefully, therefore, there'll be a bit more activity shortly, as soon as we've (me and Daisy, who's both kind enough to let me stay at hers, and also keen to get the dancing going) cleared space for the Kinect to work. I did enjoy the Kinect games a lot when I lived with said briefly-kidnapped-friend and we had space. I used to be quite good at them... We'll soon see if I've lost my touch completely.
Before I dashed round to their place to steal all their tech and run away laughing, I also made it back in to the charity bookshop where I worked up until last September. One of my friends who's still there had essentially summoned me via the arcane email ritual of "We've had a ton of Dragonlance donated, help", so I appeared to perform the solemn rites of "Here, they go in this order and you should put these ones out on the shelf first; they're the rarest, and oh, I'm just going to borrow this one for the moment and let you have it back later..."
So I've acquired another book to read. But it's all about Raistlin, and he's cut from the same cloth as Loki, Dryden, all the wicked, dangerous characters I like so much. So that pleases me a great deal.
Not that I have a type in fiction, or anything like that, oh no.
Also there was much flailing and geeking out, which always happens every time I see that friend. Her enthusiasm for everything is wonderful, if occasionally a little like being flattened under a landslide of excitement. It doesn't leave you room to be annoyed or upset by anything, because the only way to survive such wild delight is to go with it. It pushes you into the frame of mind where you want to give back the same level of glee, so suddenly you're focusing on all the. best. possible. things, and the happy spiral twists into the most excitable snake eating its own tail you've ever seen, and everything is a reminder of something else wonderful that must be shared right now until your face starts to hurt from grinning and you remember the parking's about to run out on the car and have to leave... on the third attempt, because each time there's just one more thing either of you absolutely must mention before you go.
It is exhausting, when I'm so out of practice at sustained excitement, but very, very entertaining. And has a tendency to gear me up to go and achieve something, hence the unexpected and most useful trip round to the others', with the bonus of lots of hugs and chat with my lovely people.
Anyway, when I got back in I settled down and beta-read a friend's 8000 word fic and returned it, as I promised I would. I seem to recall, actually, promising I'd do it yesterday, but yesterday ended up being weird and almost-migraine and I got practically nothing done, so we're all counting today as a success and not too late.
I've even got another short story from the writing group to read and critique tomorrow, so that'll be fun.
When I type it all out like that, it seems like a very productive day. Which is, after all, the point of these blog posts.
Now I'm going to go and write more Hanith, because Hanith is fun.
Monday 24 March 2014
Prep work
Today was slow to experience and quick to pass by. The little I got done was mostly invisible work; plots and plans and concepts coming together, deciding on a few important worldbuilding points for one novel and spotting a couple of flaws in another, realising the thing I want to write most at the moment is, helpfully, next in sequence for Hanith's short stories, getting scenes straight in my head.
It was hard work to get anything done aside from that. I got lost in plots for too long and ate and drank far too late as a result, so have had a headache most of the day, which in turn has prevented me from doing much else. I did manage to send my friend in the US (see yesterday) current completed short stories, though, and dealt with a necessary and very unpleasant family matter.
Oh, and there was the X-Men trailer, which warmed the cockles of my geeky heart. I am a shameless Marvel fangirl and rather looking forward to this.
It was hard work to get anything done aside from that. I got lost in plots for too long and ate and drank far too late as a result, so have had a headache most of the day, which in turn has prevented me from doing much else. I did manage to send my friend in the US (see yesterday) current completed short stories, though, and dealt with a necessary and very unpleasant family matter.
Oh, and there was the X-Men trailer, which warmed the cockles of my geeky heart. I am a shameless Marvel fangirl and rather looking forward to this.
Sunday 23 March 2014
As the tiger sang: That's what friends are for...
Today I was an hour and a half late meeting up with friends... Because the lovely people I'm living with happen to be epic, amazing board game geeks, and yesterday they acquired the latest expansion set for the game Sentinels of the Multiverse - which is a hilarious riff on classic comic book superheroes and villains, and a thoroughly enjoyable co-operative game too. So we started playing a game at 1pm, I needed to leave at 2pm at latest... I started to feel like maybe the game was taking a little too long shortly before we beat the scenario and wrapped it up, went off and checked the time... 3.20pm. Whoops! Fortunately my friends are lovely and understanding and most of them have played Sentinels before and know how absorbing it can be.
In any case, we made it out and about and tried a different restaurant to usual. Pulled pork all round, and much gossiping and silliness and relaxing in good company, so happy days.
I also managed to finally pull myself together and talk to one of my best friends in the world, who is insanely busy and lives in the US so has completely different time zones to me and we never get to meet up face to face. I miss her a lot, all the time, but I'm notoriously bad at keeping in touch and she, as I say, is ridiculously busy, so it's been a little while since last emails etc. I'm pleased I managed to get a little contact going again, and must try to email more often. My only resolution this year was to be better at keeping in touch (with a lot of people), and I've already let it slide too much.
I've been chatting to a couple of other friends on Skype as well, including my lone friend back in my hometown, who, similarly to my US friend, I don't talk to enough. Those two in particular always brighten my day. They somehow manage to settle some unstable part of me, even on the other side of a computer. I do get more anxious if I haven't talked to them in too long.
So generally today has been a day of my people, which is good and calming and helpful and fun. Tomorrow will be reading and writing again, and possibly even that weird cooking thing too...
In any case, we made it out and about and tried a different restaurant to usual. Pulled pork all round, and much gossiping and silliness and relaxing in good company, so happy days.
I also managed to finally pull myself together and talk to one of my best friends in the world, who is insanely busy and lives in the US so has completely different time zones to me and we never get to meet up face to face. I miss her a lot, all the time, but I'm notoriously bad at keeping in touch and she, as I say, is ridiculously busy, so it's been a little while since last emails etc. I'm pleased I managed to get a little contact going again, and must try to email more often. My only resolution this year was to be better at keeping in touch (with a lot of people), and I've already let it slide too much.
I've been chatting to a couple of other friends on Skype as well, including my lone friend back in my hometown, who, similarly to my US friend, I don't talk to enough. Those two in particular always brighten my day. They somehow manage to settle some unstable part of me, even on the other side of a computer. I do get more anxious if I haven't talked to them in too long.
So generally today has been a day of my people, which is good and calming and helpful and fun. Tomorrow will be reading and writing again, and possibly even that weird cooking thing too...
Saturday 22 March 2014
To-do lists
Kitchen clean? Check.
Borrowed DVD watched? Check.
Gospel of Loki review done and posted? Check and check.
Not a bad day all round, there. And Joanne Harris remains utterly lovely on Twitter. I think all the authors I've met have been nice, all generally kind and appreciative of fans and readers, but at the moment Rachel Aaron and Joanne Harris are the most prominently sweet online (that I have seen). I appreciate the time they take to respond to people, and the effort they put into being helpful and generous and polite as much as is humanly possible.
If I ever do make it into the realms of having fans of my own, I will try to do the same.
Oh, and today is two weeks of Happy Things blog. The second week was a lot harder; a lot of things happened that made happy very, very hard indeed and which I'm still getting over, but aside from maybe one day I still haven't had any that were a total loss yet.
Borrowed DVD watched? Check.
Gospel of Loki review done and posted? Check and check.
Not a bad day all round, there. And Joanne Harris remains utterly lovely on Twitter. I think all the authors I've met have been nice, all generally kind and appreciative of fans and readers, but at the moment Rachel Aaron and Joanne Harris are the most prominently sweet online (that I have seen). I appreciate the time they take to respond to people, and the effort they put into being helpful and generous and polite as much as is humanly possible.
If I ever do make it into the realms of having fans of my own, I will try to do the same.
Oh, and today is two weeks of Happy Things blog. The second week was a lot harder; a lot of things happened that made happy very, very hard indeed and which I'm still getting over, but aside from maybe one day I still haven't had any that were a total loss yet.
The Gospel of Loki (Spoiler free)
Book: The Gospel of Loki
Author: Joanne M. Harris (@joannechocolat on Twitter)
Let's start by admitting I do love a well-done villain. Take a look at any popcorn movie or blockbuster (especially the SF/F ones) and you should see why pretty quickly. The bad guys get the best outfits, the best music, the best snappy comebacks. I could do a whole post just analysing that (and probably will at some point, remind me).
My point is, I'm already very much inclined to enjoy an entertaining devil, whichever side they're on and whether they're guilt-ridden or utterly unrepentant.
I also love mythology. All of it. I have more volumes than I can count of myths from all over the world, and as a child I loved the Old Testament half of my Illustrated Children's Bible (fire and brimstone and stuff turning to snakes all over the shop! Awesome!). I loved the Tricksters in myth most, though. Coyote, Anansi, Crow, pretty much all of the Greek or Egyptian pantheons at some point or other, let's face it (tricky lot), and, of course, Loki. They were the ones who got the stories going, who triggered events and thought their way out, rather than those who fell victim to a villain and fought their way out.
Much to my delight, Joanne Harris takes this particular trait and amplifies it in The Gospel of Loki. She's added backstory and layers to a string of episodic myths, starting with the Norse creation myth and the rise of the gods, and formed a coherent arc from them. There are forces in the background pushing everything and everyone towards Ragnarok, the apocalypse described in the original sagas. But in the foreground, pretty much every individual episode is driven by Loki trying to get what he wants, whatever that currently is (excitement, revenge, power, acclaim, more revenge, more power), from the moment he sets foot in the world. The whole thing is narrated from Loki's point of view, though, in close first person, so while it's delightful to read a character with so much agency they drive the whole book on their own, we should probably add a pinch of salt when Loki takes the credit for every key event.
That being said, Loki makes for a wonderful narrator. We know he's biased from before the word go, since Harris includes a helpful cast list as part prologue, part teaser, and this is written in Loki's voice too, listing half the traditional Norse Gods as "Not a fan" of him, among less flattering descriptions. This sets the tone for the rest of the book. Everything gets filtered through Loki's sarcasm and utter disregard for the other gods. He's keenly aware of everybody's faults and eager to point them out, focusing on the petty side of the pantheon and casting most of the gods as little more than playground bullies with too much power. He admits his own flaws as well, albeit only to the reader, with a fleeting vulnerability precisely calculated to make us just that little bit more sympathetic to his view.
The comparisons with the current Marvel films version of Loki (praise be to Tom Hiddleston) are inevitable, but let's not forget that both of these modern, savvy, witty, anarchic, charming, frustrated, vengeful versions come from the same source material, so it's not surprising they're similar. Neither suffers from comparison to the other, though Harris's Loki is probably more immediately sympathetic to more people, since we spend 400 pages inside his head and know exactly why he does what he does.
Where Harris really impressed me, though, was in her worldbuilding. She combines classic Norse legends with additions of her own devising so well that aside from the stories I clearly remember and was pleased to spot, I couldn't differentiate everything with any certainty. I'm sure she's tricked me into thinking a couple of details in the book are from the original mythology when they're actually hers. I think this is a large part of what makes The Gospel of Loki so worthwhile - it's not just a retelling of myths you can find in a lot of other places. It's a story of its own, with enough new material (quite aside from the Loki spin on everything) to be fresh and fun even for people who know the original tales. If the overarching plot is too familiar for comfort to those versed in the myths, then the details (pet names for terrifying goddesses and demons, supposed etymologies of common words, catchy soundbites of sage advice from the Trickster himself) are enough to keep your attention.
I was also astonished at her treatment of the powers and magics of the gods and other races. In the myths, magic obeys whatever rules are necessary for the current story, and there is no particular clarity or continuity in most cases. Here, though, Harris has managed to clarify and codify the multitude of powers being flung around, and even conveys all of this to the reader without it becoming confusing or resorting to huge info-dumps to get the rules straight. As a reader, I found this a relaxing change from some of the heavier, determinedly intricate magic systems I've come across. As a writer, I'm determined to read this at least twice more and work out exactly how she did it. I particularly enjoyed the fun she clearly had with Loki's Aspects, which were handled so well as to make it look effortless.
What this boils down to is a vastly entertaining fantasy that thoroughly enjoys pointing out the ridiculous parts of mythology and manages to make you root for the Trickster all the way, however much you occasionally want to shake some sense into him. It definitely ticks the Charming Rogue box, which is always a good thing as far as I'm concerned.
It even has a pretty cover. What more could you ask for?
Friday 21 March 2014
One down, five to go
Couple of successes today, after a rocky few days. Made it into town and requested all of the Clarke Award shortlist from the library, aside from the one I've already been lent. They had none of them in stock yet at all, which is kind of a shame, especially considering the amount of buzz I've seen about a few of them, but I suppose I move in different circles to the library. In any case, the five I haven't got my hands on yet are now on order, and I hope they'll come through soon enough that I'll still have time to read and review them all before May 1st, when the winner's announced.
I picked up a couple of other books while I was there, including a steampunk short story anthology, because I've been writing those recently and am always happy to read more. Also one of the stories is by Jody Lynn Nye, and I need to read more of her stuff.
The other success was, naturally, food related (as usual). I managed to make a faux shepherd's pie (not lamb; pork - the suggestion came in of "swineherd's pie", which I like) from scratch, with no recipe. I even mixed it up a bit and made the mashed potato topping half Maris Pipers and half sweet potato, and that turned out pretty spectacularly. I'm very pleased with it all, even if it did take a long time and cause a bit of a mess in the kitchen. I'm starting to like this cooking thing, especially when it results in tasty food rather than just edible food. Focusing on something other than writing for a while is helpful, like sorbet between courses. Cleansing the palate of the brain.
Now I want ice cream. I wonder how you make that...
(Bonus: Everyone who read the title in Benicio del Toro's voice, take ten points and a nod of geeky appreciation.)
Thursday 20 March 2014
Infinite feedback loop
Today I finally managed to send some feedback to one of the friends who gave me feedback on my stuff, and whose NaNoWriMo novel I'll be reading at some point to give feedback on that...
I used to be better at feedback/critique, I think. I studied Creative Writing at university, and the group feedback sessions were a pretty big part of the whole thing. It was generally a lot easier to critique their stuff than it is to critique my NaNo group's, because many of them tended towards cliches much of the time. That seems less common among my lot, possibly because all of those from whom I've read stuff are, ahem, a few years out of uni and better read as a result.
Also, probably, I'm out of practice.
It is very difficult to critique something good, though. You'd think the few flaws would stand out more than ever - and that might be true for typos - but think about it. Think about your favourite films or books. They're not flawless (nothing is). But if they're good, if you're enjoying reading or watching them, you forgive them the odd fumble here and there. You wince at the clunky line and let it slide by. You handwave your own explanation for the minor inconsistency. You flagrantly ignore the giant plothole in the basic setup.
So it's much, much harder to remember to point out these flaws that we've trained ourselves to ignore when we're trying to help our fellow writers polish up the next draft. It often feels like nitpicking, like we're bent over the manuscript in candlelight, muttering wildly to ourselves that they won't get away with it this time and cackling into the night when we find something to pounce upon...
Or maybe that's just me. I do all my best critiquing in the crypt, swathed in black cloak.
I know, though, that for my stuff I'd much rather have the cackling circles around every typo or unnecessary adverb (leave the necessary ones alone, all of you waiting with your red pens uncapped already) than have the entirety of the feedback read, "Yeah, I liked it."
That's why I try (and don't always succeed) to point out anything I can. It would be a darn sight easier if people didn't write such enjoyable first drafts, that's all.
I used to be better at feedback/critique, I think. I studied Creative Writing at university, and the group feedback sessions were a pretty big part of the whole thing. It was generally a lot easier to critique their stuff than it is to critique my NaNo group's, because many of them tended towards cliches much of the time. That seems less common among my lot, possibly because all of those from whom I've read stuff are, ahem, a few years out of uni and better read as a result.
Also, probably, I'm out of practice.
It is very difficult to critique something good, though. You'd think the few flaws would stand out more than ever - and that might be true for typos - but think about it. Think about your favourite films or books. They're not flawless (nothing is). But if they're good, if you're enjoying reading or watching them, you forgive them the odd fumble here and there. You wince at the clunky line and let it slide by. You handwave your own explanation for the minor inconsistency. You flagrantly ignore the giant plothole in the basic setup.
So it's much, much harder to remember to point out these flaws that we've trained ourselves to ignore when we're trying to help our fellow writers polish up the next draft. It often feels like nitpicking, like we're bent over the manuscript in candlelight, muttering wildly to ourselves that they won't get away with it this time and cackling into the night when we find something to pounce upon...
Or maybe that's just me. I do all my best critiquing in the crypt, swathed in black cloak.
I know, though, that for my stuff I'd much rather have the cackling circles around every typo or unnecessary adverb (leave the necessary ones alone, all of you waiting with your red pens uncapped already) than have the entirety of the feedback read, "Yeah, I liked it."
That's why I try (and don't always succeed) to point out anything I can. It would be a darn sight easier if people didn't write such enjoyable first drafts, that's all.
Wednesday 19 March 2014
The spider dream (or: Never underestimate your brain)
Today seems to have been an intermediate day. I have short stories in progress, and have read other people's too. I made it round to friends' (one of whom has started blogging) place and helped with shopping and appointments. I even got some Gospel of Loki review written, though not an awful lot, since everything was delayed today by a very late start. I woke up at about 2.30am kneeling at the foot of my bed with my hand on the light switch, you see, so I slept in later on.
See, when I get particularly stressed or anxious, my brain decides to punish me with the spider dream. This is almost exactly what it sounds like and arachnaphobes may wish to stop reading here. Suffice it to say that I don't always get a full night's sleep, I can be a little paranoid about spiders in my bedroom, just in case, and I keep a close eye on how I process what's going on around me.
This started off a very long time ago, in the run up to exams at school (possibly GCSEs, so I may have been 16, that formative age when your brain chemistry is a bit off kilter and you're under more stress than you've ever known to boot). I was just nodding off one night when I caught a glimpse of a horrific, huge spider (big, fluffy, tarantula-size) lurking among the books and papers on the floor by my bed. Naturally, I summoned my mother, but no amount of searching could find any sign of it. Somehow she persuaded me to go back to bed and sleep.
For years, I was convinced that that thing had been real and had vanished somewhere in my bedroom.
A while later, I woke to the terrifying scenario of a big, long-legged spider crawling up the covers towards me. I gained full consciousness on the other side of the room with my back against the wall, in tears. It took a lot of effort to drag myself around the corner to get to my bedroom door and run for help. Again, there was no sign of it, though we stripped the bed and shook everything out and remade it. I can't remember properly, but I think I may have gone and slept in the guest bedroom for that one.
The next one was a big spider sitting on the pillow three inches in front of my face. I hit the bedside light and it was gone.
At that point I suddenly realised that it had been dark, absolutely pitch black, in the room. There was no way I could have seen a spider. So I shook the pillows out just in case, checked thoroughly, and talked myself back into bed and sleep.
After that I started applying logic when I woke up in a panic. There couldn't be a tarantula on my bed. The odds against it were astronomical.
My brain fought back, though. If I came up with a logical reason to ignore the panicked awakening and go back to sleep, it would change the scenario. Tarantulas were too farfetched? Okay, so it was just a gangly standard (if overgrown) house spider. It couldn't be crawling up the bed, because I would have felt the weight or heard the rustle? Okay, then it was slowly sliding down from the ceiling on a web. It couldn't possibly be descending from the ceiling on gossamer because when I switched the light on the gossamer wasn't there? Okay, it would be crawling up the headboard instead. I couldn't have seen it so clearly and vividly because there just wasn't enough light in the room, even with street lights or a bright moon muted by the curtains? Okay, then it was just a silhouette, a fuzzy shape, a suggestion of movement.
I checked the ceiling and bed thoroughly for spiders every night, so I'd know for sure. And I really knew for sure that none of them had ever been real when it started happening when I was in other rooms, other houses. Modern, hermetically sealed sorts of places. Hotel rooms with nowhere for them to hide. Friends' rooms that had just been cleaned.
I think it was shortly after that when a close friend started on her medical degree and excitedly brought up hypnagogic hallucinations. She described them as auditory or visual effects that usually strike just as you're about to fall asleep, in the first stages of a sleep cycle, when you think you're still awake but you're not, or if you're halfway through the night and you've almost resurfaced and woken but think you're still fully asleep. They're most commonly voices calling your name. I've never had that, though I've heard of it a lot and it crops up all the time in fiction (usually as a lead in to ghosts or telepathy, to be fair, but it's a common enough effect that most people I've discussed it with have admitted to it happening every now and again). I think I'd much rather have eerie disembodied voices than spiders.
My point (I have a point, honest, though not a particularly blogworthy one, really) is that the brain is weird, and persuasive, and likes to trick itself. This is relevant to a lot of the things I'm writing at the moment.
It's also very odd to be aware of something like this. It makes me step back and think twice about everything, all the time. I overanalyse pretty much everything I think in case my brain is trying to trick me. I cling to logic in everything. At the moment this tends to mean I over-explain everything as well, because I'm aware that most people aren't in the habit of laying down half a dozen logical arguments just to get back to sleep, so I'm a little too eager to present all my reasoned thoughts for whatever choice has come up.
It does help with spotting plotholes, though, I must admit.
See, when I get particularly stressed or anxious, my brain decides to punish me with the spider dream. This is almost exactly what it sounds like and arachnaphobes may wish to stop reading here. Suffice it to say that I don't always get a full night's sleep, I can be a little paranoid about spiders in my bedroom, just in case, and I keep a close eye on how I process what's going on around me.
This started off a very long time ago, in the run up to exams at school (possibly GCSEs, so I may have been 16, that formative age when your brain chemistry is a bit off kilter and you're under more stress than you've ever known to boot). I was just nodding off one night when I caught a glimpse of a horrific, huge spider (big, fluffy, tarantula-size) lurking among the books and papers on the floor by my bed. Naturally, I summoned my mother, but no amount of searching could find any sign of it. Somehow she persuaded me to go back to bed and sleep.
For years, I was convinced that that thing had been real and had vanished somewhere in my bedroom.
A while later, I woke to the terrifying scenario of a big, long-legged spider crawling up the covers towards me. I gained full consciousness on the other side of the room with my back against the wall, in tears. It took a lot of effort to drag myself around the corner to get to my bedroom door and run for help. Again, there was no sign of it, though we stripped the bed and shook everything out and remade it. I can't remember properly, but I think I may have gone and slept in the guest bedroom for that one.
The next one was a big spider sitting on the pillow three inches in front of my face. I hit the bedside light and it was gone.
At that point I suddenly realised that it had been dark, absolutely pitch black, in the room. There was no way I could have seen a spider. So I shook the pillows out just in case, checked thoroughly, and talked myself back into bed and sleep.
After that I started applying logic when I woke up in a panic. There couldn't be a tarantula on my bed. The odds against it were astronomical.
My brain fought back, though. If I came up with a logical reason to ignore the panicked awakening and go back to sleep, it would change the scenario. Tarantulas were too farfetched? Okay, so it was just a gangly standard (if overgrown) house spider. It couldn't be crawling up the bed, because I would have felt the weight or heard the rustle? Okay, then it was slowly sliding down from the ceiling on a web. It couldn't possibly be descending from the ceiling on gossamer because when I switched the light on the gossamer wasn't there? Okay, it would be crawling up the headboard instead. I couldn't have seen it so clearly and vividly because there just wasn't enough light in the room, even with street lights or a bright moon muted by the curtains? Okay, then it was just a silhouette, a fuzzy shape, a suggestion of movement.
I checked the ceiling and bed thoroughly for spiders every night, so I'd know for sure. And I really knew for sure that none of them had ever been real when it started happening when I was in other rooms, other houses. Modern, hermetically sealed sorts of places. Hotel rooms with nowhere for them to hide. Friends' rooms that had just been cleaned.
I think it was shortly after that when a close friend started on her medical degree and excitedly brought up hypnagogic hallucinations. She described them as auditory or visual effects that usually strike just as you're about to fall asleep, in the first stages of a sleep cycle, when you think you're still awake but you're not, or if you're halfway through the night and you've almost resurfaced and woken but think you're still fully asleep. They're most commonly voices calling your name. I've never had that, though I've heard of it a lot and it crops up all the time in fiction (usually as a lead in to ghosts or telepathy, to be fair, but it's a common enough effect that most people I've discussed it with have admitted to it happening every now and again). I think I'd much rather have eerie disembodied voices than spiders.
My point (I have a point, honest, though not a particularly blogworthy one, really) is that the brain is weird, and persuasive, and likes to trick itself. This is relevant to a lot of the things I'm writing at the moment.
It's also very odd to be aware of something like this. It makes me step back and think twice about everything, all the time. I overanalyse pretty much everything I think in case my brain is trying to trick me. I cling to logic in everything. At the moment this tends to mean I over-explain everything as well, because I'm aware that most people aren't in the habit of laying down half a dozen logical arguments just to get back to sleep, so I'm a little too eager to present all my reasoned thoughts for whatever choice has come up.
It does help with spotting plotholes, though, I must admit.
Tuesday 18 March 2014
Tweet tweet
Twitter is an odd place, especially if you keep your account open instead of private. It gives you access to conversations between complete strangers, brought to your attention by people you do follow bringing the chat into your view, or through the triple perils: the flame spurts of the search box, the quicksand hashtags, or the trending topics of unusual size.
A lot of the time, as anyone will warn you, this leaves you open to trolls and hate-mongers and bullies and all kinds of weird and upsetting opinions, statements, links, arguments, pictures, et cetera, et cetera, ad infinitum. You can stumble across it easily, people can stumble across you, and it can get unpleasant very easily.
And then you have the other side of it. I've seen people use Twitter for all sorts of good or just mundane things, from organising the next cinema trip to rehoming pets to fundraising for charity to finding missing belongings, animals, people...
Sometimes the random disconnected strangers turn out to be kind and generous. They make the effort to do better than just scraping by at the passive level of "Don't be a dick". They go one step further and actively do something nice.
I'm fortunate enough that most of the people I keep on my Twitter feed are like that. And it's helpful and reassuring to have friends who will step up and offer comfort and cheering-up and what help they can manage when things go pear-shaped, as they so often seem to.
What's surprising is when strangers do it too.
I can only assume that Joanne Harris was searching for mentions of The Gospel of Loki to see what people were saying, and stumbled across me citing it as the only positive thing in two days of squabbles and hurt and a rapid stacking up of bad, dark, unhappy things. She could easily have moved on to the next tweet with all squee and happy reviews.
Instead she paused, and took a moment to send a message, and be nice to a stranger. For no reason other than she could.
I ate today because of that. Because the kindness of friends is expected, and the kindness of strangers is surprising.
Gospel of Loki review tomorrow, perhaps. I kind of owe her now.
A lot of the time, as anyone will warn you, this leaves you open to trolls and hate-mongers and bullies and all kinds of weird and upsetting opinions, statements, links, arguments, pictures, et cetera, et cetera, ad infinitum. You can stumble across it easily, people can stumble across you, and it can get unpleasant very easily.
And then you have the other side of it. I've seen people use Twitter for all sorts of good or just mundane things, from organising the next cinema trip to rehoming pets to fundraising for charity to finding missing belongings, animals, people...
Sometimes the random disconnected strangers turn out to be kind and generous. They make the effort to do better than just scraping by at the passive level of "Don't be a dick". They go one step further and actively do something nice.
I'm fortunate enough that most of the people I keep on my Twitter feed are like that. And it's helpful and reassuring to have friends who will step up and offer comfort and cheering-up and what help they can manage when things go pear-shaped, as they so often seem to.
What's surprising is when strangers do it too.
I can only assume that Joanne Harris was searching for mentions of The Gospel of Loki to see what people were saying, and stumbled across me citing it as the only positive thing in two days of squabbles and hurt and a rapid stacking up of bad, dark, unhappy things. She could easily have moved on to the next tweet with all squee and happy reviews.
Instead she paused, and took a moment to send a message, and be nice to a stranger. For no reason other than she could.
I ate today because of that. Because the kindness of friends is expected, and the kindness of strangers is surprising.
Gospel of Loki review tomorrow, perhaps. I kind of owe her now.
Monday 17 March 2014
Day 9
So... uh. I made butterscotch Angel Delight and nearly made myself sick by eating almost a pint of it in one go? Does that count as a good thing?
Um. Had a couple of nice interactions with authors and editors on Twitter. That's definitely a good thing.
Intended to read Honour's Knight and friend's Lavender challenge story, but that didn't happen. Managed to write the first two lines of my Lavender, but then... stuff happened. Can't really write at the moment, especially not on that.
Um. Can't think of anything else good about today. Started off with a headache from stresses over the last couple of days, never quite escaped it. The space behind my eyes that felt so light and free when I finished and submitted Tick Tock is now full of unpleasantness and failure.
So much for Lent.
Um. Had a couple of nice interactions with authors and editors on Twitter. That's definitely a good thing.
Intended to read Honour's Knight and friend's Lavender challenge story, but that didn't happen. Managed to write the first two lines of my Lavender, but then... stuff happened. Can't really write at the moment, especially not on that.
Um. Can't think of anything else good about today. Started off with a headache from stresses over the last couple of days, never quite escaped it. The space behind my eyes that felt so light and free when I finished and submitted Tick Tock is now full of unpleasantness and failure.
So much for Lent.
Sunday 16 March 2014
The geeks shall inherit the Earth
Today I made it round to see friends and help with a few chores again, which is always good, and even made it into town for another friend's birthday get-together. Since he's cool and clearly has good taste in people, I manged to get on well with the Doctor Who fans on my table, and we had a very pleasant geeky chat (they even bought my drink, wonderful sweet people that they were), while everybody attempted to eat ten little plates of sushi or assorted Japanese goodies. I tried the odd bit from other people's plates when they were getting too full to finish them, and am cautiously expanding my food tolerance to include some Japanese dishes now. Still not sushi, though. I like my fish battered and vinegared beyond all recognition, ta.
I wasn't eating, partly because when we left I went back to my friends' and had dinner there. They'd been torturing a gammon joint in a slow cooker and cider all day, and good grief it came out well. Practically fell apart when you tapped it with a fork. I may have to try slow cooker stuff at some point.
Obsessed with food, moi? Never.
Oh, and also, I clearly have the best friends, because after an outpouring of wails and lust on Twitter for a couple of t-shirts on sale a few weeks ago, I have been given both. Twice. Because my people are amazing. So now I have FOUR extra Loki t-shirts, bringing my total to six, so I shall never have to go without again. Fortunately for everyone, the two new Loki designs are so pretty I am absolutely sure I'll want to wear them a lot, so having duplicates is a very good thing; I do have a tendency to wear my best shirts to death, and it would be a very great shame to kill Loki off too soon. In a manner of speaking.
And I even managed to change my sheets and put away all the pots and pans in the kitchen, too.
Saturday 15 March 2014
I submit
Today's positives are small in number but pretty large in scope.
Smaller of the two: I finally got most of the kitchen cleaned, and all the dishes done. There is something undeniably soothing about cleaning stuff. It's simple, it's easy, you don't really have to engage your brain at all, you can clearly see the progress you've made, and when it's done it's done.
Practically the exact opposite of writing, then.
But today's bigger, better, happier thing is that I got Tick Tock edited and sent off. I fired the finished first draft at two of my NaNo chatroom group last night (Claire is one of these two, naturally), and they both did a superb quick turnaround and got back to me with a torrent of lovely happy praise and a bare handful of tweaks, which is always immensely gratifying and terrible for my ego.
I probably spent almost as long on the query/submission email as I did on fixing the story itself, and scraped in for the submission deadline... which isn't actually as hard-and-fast as I've been saying, to be honest. The submission call was actually for the next two volumes of Steampunk anthologies in the series, and March 15th was the cutoff date for stories to be considered for both, rather than just Volume Four. So even if my first draft hadn't been finished by yesterday, or had needed much more extensive edits, I could have submitted anyway. BUT, I made it my goal to submit in time for both, and with a lot of help from my wonderful, wonderful NaNo crowd and patient housemates, I have done so.
So, even if the story doesn't get accepted (I can only wait and see - I'm swinging wildly between confidence and cheerful pessimism) I did what I set out to do. I'd prefer to do it with a little more time in hand next time, but I can't quite seem to shake the habit of running things right up to the wire.
That being said, I did finish the actual story the day before the deadline, even knowing that I had a safety net of extra time waiting beyond it. And I was months ahead of schedule with Hanith. Perhaps I'm not doing as badly there as I think.
And now I can finally start on my Lavender and the Random Acolyte story.
Smaller of the two: I finally got most of the kitchen cleaned, and all the dishes done. There is something undeniably soothing about cleaning stuff. It's simple, it's easy, you don't really have to engage your brain at all, you can clearly see the progress you've made, and when it's done it's done.
Practically the exact opposite of writing, then.
But today's bigger, better, happier thing is that I got Tick Tock edited and sent off. I fired the finished first draft at two of my NaNo chatroom group last night (Claire is one of these two, naturally), and they both did a superb quick turnaround and got back to me with a torrent of lovely happy praise and a bare handful of tweaks, which is always immensely gratifying and terrible for my ego.
I probably spent almost as long on the query/submission email as I did on fixing the story itself, and scraped in for the submission deadline... which isn't actually as hard-and-fast as I've been saying, to be honest. The submission call was actually for the next two volumes of Steampunk anthologies in the series, and March 15th was the cutoff date for stories to be considered for both, rather than just Volume Four. So even if my first draft hadn't been finished by yesterday, or had needed much more extensive edits, I could have submitted anyway. BUT, I made it my goal to submit in time for both, and with a lot of help from my wonderful, wonderful NaNo crowd and patient housemates, I have done so.
So, even if the story doesn't get accepted (I can only wait and see - I'm swinging wildly between confidence and cheerful pessimism) I did what I set out to do. I'd prefer to do it with a little more time in hand next time, but I can't quite seem to shake the habit of running things right up to the wire.
That being said, I did finish the actual story the day before the deadline, even knowing that I had a safety net of extra time waiting beyond it. And I was months ahead of schedule with Hanith. Perhaps I'm not doing as badly there as I think.
And now I can finally start on my Lavender and the Random Acolyte story.
Friday 14 March 2014
Stop the clocks
Smaller achievements/shiny things of the day: have been sent second "Lavender and the Random Acolyte" story from my wonderful group (read and enjoyed), used up the last of the leftover pork by successfully following another recipe from my friend's mother (it involved dumplings, and I wasn't the only one who ate it, and there is none left, so I'm counting that as a triumph even if the pork did get a bit burnt).
Big shiny thing of the day: I finally finished Tick Tock. Heavens above, that story has taken it out of me.
Tick Tock started life aeons ago, intended for a Steampunk Horror anthology, but I was well and truly stuck in my rut back then and couldn't even start writing it. I told the basic idea to my friend Sarah, though, with much hand-waving and sarcastic asides (from me, I should say) and she liked it. She liked it so much that every time from then on that I mentioned an attempt at writing any short story, she'd demand, "Is it Tick Tock?"
She kept it alive in the back of my head, and eventually I stumbled across a submissions call for "Lesbian Steampunk", and thought I'd try again.
From the dates on the Open Office document, it would appear it's taken me almost two weeks to write it, start to finish. From the dates on the doc for Hanith, that one was about two weeks too, from start to submission. Hanith was 4500 words. Tick Tock is 8500. No wonder I feel absolutely shattered.
Strange to think that 75 thousand words in just over twice that time was nowhere near as difficult.
Short stories seem much harder to do. You need a clearer focus, one central idea on which to hang the trappings of a story, rather than the multiple interweaving subplots and grand concepts and sheer waffle you can explore in a novel, let alone NaNoWriMo when it's all about the word count, baby. I lost track of my central idea a couple of times while writing Tick Tock (which is partly why it's currently 8500 words, including a couple of scenes where I did the NaNo trick of Keep writing and you'll find your way back onto plot somehow). This doesn't really surprise me, given that it started out as a horror story concept and has since morphed a couple of times and completely changed its ending at least twice in the process. So tomorrow I should be editing and trimming and tidying and maybe, maybe, if I'm lucky and it's not as flabby and unfocused as I fear, I'll be able to make the submission deadline. I shall, therefore, go to bed now and save the thoughts on short stories for a different blog post, when I am actually awake.
Also I should clean the kitchen. My pots and pans are stacking up.
It's a big success for me, though, and I am proud of finishing it, whatever happens from here.
Big shiny thing of the day: I finally finished Tick Tock. Heavens above, that story has taken it out of me.
Tick Tock started life aeons ago, intended for a Steampunk Horror anthology, but I was well and truly stuck in my rut back then and couldn't even start writing it. I told the basic idea to my friend Sarah, though, with much hand-waving and sarcastic asides (from me, I should say) and she liked it. She liked it so much that every time from then on that I mentioned an attempt at writing any short story, she'd demand, "Is it Tick Tock?"
She kept it alive in the back of my head, and eventually I stumbled across a submissions call for "Lesbian Steampunk", and thought I'd try again.
From the dates on the Open Office document, it would appear it's taken me almost two weeks to write it, start to finish. From the dates on the doc for Hanith, that one was about two weeks too, from start to submission. Hanith was 4500 words. Tick Tock is 8500. No wonder I feel absolutely shattered.
Strange to think that 75 thousand words in just over twice that time was nowhere near as difficult.
Short stories seem much harder to do. You need a clearer focus, one central idea on which to hang the trappings of a story, rather than the multiple interweaving subplots and grand concepts and sheer waffle you can explore in a novel, let alone NaNoWriMo when it's all about the word count, baby. I lost track of my central idea a couple of times while writing Tick Tock (which is partly why it's currently 8500 words, including a couple of scenes where I did the NaNo trick of Keep writing and you'll find your way back onto plot somehow). This doesn't really surprise me, given that it started out as a horror story concept and has since morphed a couple of times and completely changed its ending at least twice in the process. So tomorrow I should be editing and trimming and tidying and maybe, maybe, if I'm lucky and it's not as flabby and unfocused as I fear, I'll be able to make the submission deadline. I shall, therefore, go to bed now and save the thoughts on short stories for a different blog post, when I am actually awake.
Also I should clean the kitchen. My pots and pans are stacking up.
It's a big success for me, though, and I am proud of finishing it, whatever happens from here.
Thursday 13 March 2014
Day 5
Today was mostly writing. Tick Tock increased by about 3000 words, though still isn't finished and I can feel my confidence wavering drastically.
I did, however, go round to my friend Claire's place, said hello to Insatiable Glor, her home-made eight foot giant squid (check it out) and successfully followed through on book/DVD swapping of Gospel of Loki for Hackers. We then spent the evening writing, in chat room with others from the NaNoWriMo group, and that was as hilarious as usual.
Claire, by the way, has finished and posted that challenge short story I mentioned: read it here.
Oh, and although I did manage to cut myself whilst cooking (sigh), my incredible regenerative powers kicked in and I didn't even get any blood on the food...
I did, however, go round to my friend Claire's place, said hello to Insatiable Glor, her home-made eight foot giant squid (check it out) and successfully followed through on book/DVD swapping of Gospel of Loki for Hackers. We then spent the evening writing, in chat room with others from the NaNoWriMo group, and that was as hilarious as usual.
Claire, by the way, has finished and posted that challenge short story I mentioned: read it here.
Oh, and although I did manage to cut myself whilst cooking (sigh), my incredible regenerative powers kicked in and I didn't even get any blood on the food...
Wednesday 12 March 2014
Barbecue sauce makes everything better
Today started surprisingly well, with actual breakfast at a reasonable time. I haven't had cereal since... er... December, perhaps? So that made a nice change. I even managed to break the solemn Rice Krispie rituals and eat from something other than a wide, flat bowl, and use an implement other than the one particular spoon I always favour. Heresy and blasphemy.
I spent most of the day progressing Tick Tock - it's now cleared 4500 words and is gearing up properly. (Gearing, get it? Steampunk, clockwork, see? Ah, such a card.) Did a lot of random research on Victoriana and clockwork terminology for a few tiny little details, and hope I might be able to get it to hang together now, too. Started to hit the sweet spot of Write Now, Edit Later, where things actually get done. But I absolutely must get to The End tomorrow if I want any feedback from anyone before submission deadline. And boy, will it need editing.
In the gaps in between writing sprints, while my brain cooled down, I managed to catch up on How I Met Your Mother (I am going to miss that show a lot when it finishes), and admire the ingenuity and wonderful playfulness of Cardboard Box Office - seriously, check that one out. It's utterly glorious how creative and fun they're being. Every time I look at it I want to do better, to put more fun into the world. Who knew cardboard boxes could be so inspirational?
Other things I managed to do: use some of the leftover pork from the roast to make really exceedingly nice barbecue pork sandwiches for dinner, sort through lots of photos of some of my old cosplays and find that actually they're mostly quite good fun (I may do a photo post soon), and talk to friends I don't see often enough via Skype.
Not bad, all round.
I spent most of the day progressing Tick Tock - it's now cleared 4500 words and is gearing up properly. (Gearing, get it? Steampunk, clockwork, see? Ah, such a card.) Did a lot of random research on Victoriana and clockwork terminology for a few tiny little details, and hope I might be able to get it to hang together now, too. Started to hit the sweet spot of Write Now, Edit Later, where things actually get done. But I absolutely must get to The End tomorrow if I want any feedback from anyone before submission deadline. And boy, will it need editing.
In the gaps in between writing sprints, while my brain cooled down, I managed to catch up on How I Met Your Mother (I am going to miss that show a lot when it finishes), and admire the ingenuity and wonderful playfulness of Cardboard Box Office - seriously, check that one out. It's utterly glorious how creative and fun they're being. Every time I look at it I want to do better, to put more fun into the world. Who knew cardboard boxes could be so inspirational?
Other things I managed to do: use some of the leftover pork from the roast to make really exceedingly nice barbecue pork sandwiches for dinner, sort through lots of photos of some of my old cosplays and find that actually they're mostly quite good fun (I may do a photo post soon), and talk to friends I don't see often enough via Skype.
Not bad, all round.
Tuesday 11 March 2014
Today's good stuff includes chocolate, doughnuts, and longbows
I think last night I actually managed to get enough sleep for once. I can't remember when I last woke up feeling actually refreshed. Mind you, since I generally can't remember what I did 24 hours previously, these days, that's not really saying all that much.
Still, today I managed to get not one, but two birthday cards sent off on time, which makes a change. But hey, my Gran turns 89 tomorrow... There's nothing terrifying about that, honest.
I also managed to get out and about (on time, again) and help friends get to doctor's appointment and get a couple of other chores done, as well as delivering the recipe card. It's always nice to hang out with them, and H paid me well in doughnuts and dinner and Son of Rambow (which had us both laughing out loud more than once).
Also I tried a bar of Galaxy Honeycomb chocolate, since it was on offer. Can pretty safely say I much prefer Cadbury's, for some reason. I think Galaxy is somehow slightly more sickly-sweet. So there's that. Not to worry, I still have most of a ridiculous stockpile of excessively cheap post-Christmas sale chocolate. I think I still have eight bars of the "Snowy Delight" vanilla cream filled bars... I'm not going to be in need any time soon.
Oh, and yesterday I emailed the local archery group, to ask if they could accommodate wooden longbow, since all the photos on their website tended towards modern recurves and telescopes to check their shots (pah!) and today I got the response: yes, we have others and would love to have you, come along! So I must retrieve my longbow and arrows and kit from Carlisle and see what I can do. The good weather and outdoor season is starting, too, so I'd be able to shoot at 40 yards, which was always my distance. It's been too long.
Meanwhile, Tick Tock progresses, though still too slowly. Scenes are less treacle-pit and more sidetracked by unexpected character interaction and exterior distraction, today. I think tomorrow I'll have to dedicate much of the day to it, though the kitchen needs doing too. Ah, housework, steadfast and unfailing whenever I need an excuse to procrastinate. What would I do without it?
"Get more writing done" is probably an overly optimistic answer there.
Still, today I managed to get not one, but two birthday cards sent off on time, which makes a change. But hey, my Gran turns 89 tomorrow... There's nothing terrifying about that, honest.
I also managed to get out and about (on time, again) and help friends get to doctor's appointment and get a couple of other chores done, as well as delivering the recipe card. It's always nice to hang out with them, and H paid me well in doughnuts and dinner and Son of Rambow (which had us both laughing out loud more than once).
Also I tried a bar of Galaxy Honeycomb chocolate, since it was on offer. Can pretty safely say I much prefer Cadbury's, for some reason. I think Galaxy is somehow slightly more sickly-sweet. So there's that. Not to worry, I still have most of a ridiculous stockpile of excessively cheap post-Christmas sale chocolate. I think I still have eight bars of the "Snowy Delight" vanilla cream filled bars... I'm not going to be in need any time soon.
Oh, and yesterday I emailed the local archery group, to ask if they could accommodate wooden longbow, since all the photos on their website tended towards modern recurves and telescopes to check their shots (pah!) and today I got the response: yes, we have others and would love to have you, come along! So I must retrieve my longbow and arrows and kit from Carlisle and see what I can do. The good weather and outdoor season is starting, too, so I'd be able to shoot at 40 yards, which was always my distance. It's been too long.
Meanwhile, Tick Tock progresses, though still too slowly. Scenes are less treacle-pit and more sidetracked by unexpected character interaction and exterior distraction, today. I think tomorrow I'll have to dedicate much of the day to it, though the kitchen needs doing too. Ah, housework, steadfast and unfailing whenever I need an excuse to procrastinate. What would I do without it?
"Get more writing done" is probably an overly optimistic answer there.
Monday 10 March 2014
Short stories abound
So certain members of my NaNoWriMo group have got into the habit of meeting up in an online chatroom every now and then for impromptu writing sessions. It's good fun, and definitely helps get stuff done. It also leads to extremely random conversations, tangents, and typos.
One such accident of fortuitous timing led to the phrase "Lavender and the Random Acolyte" popping up, which naturally we all agreed was clearly a short story title. So we're all writing one.
Therefore, shiny thing number one today: I got to read the first of these, from our glorious leader Claire (blogging over here). And blimey, it was good. Made me laugh a lot and want more stories with her main character. It may turn up on said blog soon, in which case I will gleefully link to it. I'm looking forward to the others now (and to getting round to mine, as soon as I'm done with Tick Tock of course).
Shiny thing number two: thanks to friends yesterday I have managed to circumvent the slight issue of my laptop no longer having a working disc drive, and have finally got my copies of the two different Avengers Assemble soundtracks onto my laptop and ipod. Whoot. Must do the same with Thor and Thor 2, and then I can have Loki music whenever I so choose. (Because everything is Loki.)
Shiny(ish) thing number three: I attempted to make something approaching a roast dinner today, since I had a big joint of pork lying around. It went pretty well. Too much salt on the carrots and potatoes, but they were soft and perfect aside from that small problem, and it has meant I am now more hydrated than I have been in months... Also, Daisy (she of Migraine Memoirs) tried the crackling from the pork joint and declared it so good it may just be my hidden talent. Shame I don't like crackling, really.
Other random assorted shiny: it was sunny again, which I always enjoy (I like being warm), I remembered to collect the recipe card I promised to pick up for a friend, and I got the kitchen briefly clean before I started on the roast.
Ah well. All that and I still managed to break 3k with Tick Tock too. Progress is still slow, but getting there.
One such accident of fortuitous timing led to the phrase "Lavender and the Random Acolyte" popping up, which naturally we all agreed was clearly a short story title. So we're all writing one.
Therefore, shiny thing number one today: I got to read the first of these, from our glorious leader Claire (blogging over here). And blimey, it was good. Made me laugh a lot and want more stories with her main character. It may turn up on said blog soon, in which case I will gleefully link to it. I'm looking forward to the others now (and to getting round to mine, as soon as I'm done with Tick Tock of course).
Shiny thing number two: thanks to friends yesterday I have managed to circumvent the slight issue of my laptop no longer having a working disc drive, and have finally got my copies of the two different Avengers Assemble soundtracks onto my laptop and ipod. Whoot. Must do the same with Thor and Thor 2, and then I can have Loki music whenever I so choose. (Because everything is Loki.)
Shiny(ish) thing number three: I attempted to make something approaching a roast dinner today, since I had a big joint of pork lying around. It went pretty well. Too much salt on the carrots and potatoes, but they were soft and perfect aside from that small problem, and it has meant I am now more hydrated than I have been in months... Also, Daisy (she of Migraine Memoirs) tried the crackling from the pork joint and declared it so good it may just be my hidden talent. Shame I don't like crackling, really.
Other random assorted shiny: it was sunny again, which I always enjoy (I like being warm), I remembered to collect the recipe card I promised to pick up for a friend, and I got the kitchen briefly clean before I started on the roast.
Ah well. All that and I still managed to break 3k with Tick Tock too. Progress is still slow, but getting there.
Sunday 9 March 2014
40 days of blogging
So in a (probably vain) vague attempt to cheer myself up and stay there, I have decided to... well, accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, et cetera. So I'm starting Lent, a little late, and for the next forty days I'm going to try to find good, happy, fun things in each day, and blog about them to drive the point home to myself. I won't be tweeting every single blog post, so as to spam you as little as possible, but for those of you following the blog itself, I apologise in advance. Also, I will appreciate any nudges or any shiny pretty things you feel like sharing with me to give me more material. If I run out of happy, I'll just have to expand on my snippet of squee about The Gospel of Loki, and do a full post review.
Right, then. Good things about today: it was sunny, I was (most unusually) on time to go places with friends, and one of the places in question was a Vintage Fair in town. The cosplayer in me tends to take over at places like that, and I start eying up anything that looks familiar, or a little bit steampunk. Most Vintage stuff tends to aim for '50s at the moment, though, so I thought I'd be restrained. And then we walked in and I suddenly remembered I'm going to a couple of weddings this year (starting with my uncle's in May) and I've... ahem... grown out of most of my usual smart attire. Suffice it to say I found a cute little dress for an extremely reasonable price, and am pretty sure I'll be able to get into it even if I go wild in the post-Easter chocolate sales. Remind me, and I'll try to get a picture sorted, steampunk boots and all (because I can't get too girly, now, can I?).
I also got my hands on three new snazzy sci-fi books, too, thanks to awesome friends and wonderful author giveaways. I came home with: Honour's Knight by Rachel Bach (sequel to Fortune's Pawn, which I've been itching to read since I finished the first, naturally); Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (which I'm intrigued to read due to the interesting reviews I've seen around so far); and City of Angels by Todd McCaffrey (whose technological worldbuilding is generally top notch). So I'm keen to get on with those and will be trying to do a review post for each of them soon.
First, though, I really must finish poor old Tick Tock. If I could just get out of the treacle pits of dragging, difficult scenes and into the flow again... With all those lovely book carrots dangling ahead of me, and that March 15 deadline stick lurking behind, I'm sure I can manage to wrestle one little short story into shape, right?
Oh, and I made a full batch of perfect pancakes, too. Because if you're going to start Lent late, you have to fit pancakes in somewhere.
Right, then. Good things about today: it was sunny, I was (most unusually) on time to go places with friends, and one of the places in question was a Vintage Fair in town. The cosplayer in me tends to take over at places like that, and I start eying up anything that looks familiar, or a little bit steampunk. Most Vintage stuff tends to aim for '50s at the moment, though, so I thought I'd be restrained. And then we walked in and I suddenly remembered I'm going to a couple of weddings this year (starting with my uncle's in May) and I've... ahem... grown out of most of my usual smart attire. Suffice it to say I found a cute little dress for an extremely reasonable price, and am pretty sure I'll be able to get into it even if I go wild in the post-Easter chocolate sales. Remind me, and I'll try to get a picture sorted, steampunk boots and all (because I can't get too girly, now, can I?).
I also got my hands on three new snazzy sci-fi books, too, thanks to awesome friends and wonderful author giveaways. I came home with: Honour's Knight by Rachel Bach (sequel to Fortune's Pawn, which I've been itching to read since I finished the first, naturally); Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (which I'm intrigued to read due to the interesting reviews I've seen around so far); and City of Angels by Todd McCaffrey (whose technological worldbuilding is generally top notch). So I'm keen to get on with those and will be trying to do a review post for each of them soon.
First, though, I really must finish poor old Tick Tock. If I could just get out of the treacle pits of dragging, difficult scenes and into the flow again... With all those lovely book carrots dangling ahead of me, and that March 15 deadline stick lurking behind, I'm sure I can manage to wrestle one little short story into shape, right?
Oh, and I made a full batch of perfect pancakes, too. Because if you're going to start Lent late, you have to fit pancakes in somewhere.
Thursday 6 March 2014
Inching forwards
Current writing status:
1 short story submitted, awaiting a response (Hanith)
1 short story in progress to be submitted by March 15 (Tick Tock)
Feedback trickling in for Dryden
Plotting/signing up to April's Camp NaNoWriMo for Dryden's sequel
It's a lot of hard work to remind myself that all those points up there actually count as progress. They do, honest. Really. But I get very frustrated with the inching part of inching forwards. Especially when Dryden was mostly finished in current form within the space of 30 days. The fact that three entire months, a quarter of a year, three times the length of time it took to write the thing in the first place, have now passed since then and I'm not really any further on at all grates like you wouldn't believe. Finishing the sucker was the big hurdle, supposedly. But the longer it takes, the less confident I feel in it. There's a very good reason I submitted Hanith ASAP - given enough time, I will learn to hate everything about something I've written and never let it see the light of day again.
I'd point you to all my unfinished fanfiction if I thought you needed proof, but that could be embarrassing for us all.
Anyway. Frustration. Dissatisfaction. Cabin fever. Et cetera.
Good stuff has been happening too, though. Mostly Loki-related. Because Loki is fun, in all forms.
Re: Marvel Loki, I have acquired the big display stand for Thor 2 DVDs from my nearest supermarket, so I have Anthony Hopkins or Tom Hiddleston squinting at me wherever I stand in my bedroom. It's very pretty and frees up my bookcase for actual books, so that's a win. Also, Loki-centric Marvel comics are most amusing.
Re: non-Marvel Loki, I was given a copy of Joanne Harris's The Gospel of Loki at the last local NaNoWriMo meetup. Read it the next day. I am simultaneously giddily in love and slightly worried that my infrequent ESP (Extra-Sensory Plagiarism) has struck again, because at the current time Dryden himself is very, very Loki-esque. Ah well, at least he's in good company.
I'd do a proper review of Gospel of Loki except that there are already dozens out there that all say exactly what I would: exceedingly good fun, delightfully narrated, pleasingly interweaving the classic myths with new material, and rounding off a lightly-explained magic system with consistent rules (which is hard work with old myths!). So yes. I enjoyed that a lot.
It's the little things that help, when the big things are trapped in limbo.
1 short story submitted, awaiting a response (Hanith)
1 short story in progress to be submitted by March 15 (Tick Tock)
Feedback trickling in for Dryden
Plotting/signing up to April's Camp NaNoWriMo for Dryden's sequel
It's a lot of hard work to remind myself that all those points up there actually count as progress. They do, honest. Really. But I get very frustrated with the inching part of inching forwards. Especially when Dryden was mostly finished in current form within the space of 30 days. The fact that three entire months, a quarter of a year, three times the length of time it took to write the thing in the first place, have now passed since then and I'm not really any further on at all grates like you wouldn't believe. Finishing the sucker was the big hurdle, supposedly. But the longer it takes, the less confident I feel in it. There's a very good reason I submitted Hanith ASAP - given enough time, I will learn to hate everything about something I've written and never let it see the light of day again.
I'd point you to all my unfinished fanfiction if I thought you needed proof, but that could be embarrassing for us all.
Anyway. Frustration. Dissatisfaction. Cabin fever. Et cetera.
Good stuff has been happening too, though. Mostly Loki-related. Because Loki is fun, in all forms.
Re: Marvel Loki, I have acquired the big display stand for Thor 2 DVDs from my nearest supermarket, so I have Anthony Hopkins or Tom Hiddleston squinting at me wherever I stand in my bedroom. It's very pretty and frees up my bookcase for actual books, so that's a win. Also, Loki-centric Marvel comics are most amusing.
Re: non-Marvel Loki, I was given a copy of Joanne Harris's The Gospel of Loki at the last local NaNoWriMo meetup. Read it the next day. I am simultaneously giddily in love and slightly worried that my infrequent ESP (Extra-Sensory Plagiarism) has struck again, because at the current time Dryden himself is very, very Loki-esque. Ah well, at least he's in good company.
I'd do a proper review of Gospel of Loki except that there are already dozens out there that all say exactly what I would: exceedingly good fun, delightfully narrated, pleasingly interweaving the classic myths with new material, and rounding off a lightly-explained magic system with consistent rules (which is hard work with old myths!). So yes. I enjoyed that a lot.
It's the little things that help, when the big things are trapped in limbo.
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