Another Day

Trivia:  Yesterday, we were going to look at the leaves, only the forecast said rain on the flats.  It's too early to drive in snow, even possible snow, so we went to Loveland instead.  Schmidts for a krautburger lunch.  Yumm.  You can't get a good krautburger in our town.  [My Russian German background sneaks in in odd places.]


Then, on to the Loveland museum for their ofrenda exhibit -- Memento Mori.  While interesting and worth the drive, I'm not into rococo.  Too ornate for my taste.  You can't see anything for the clutter.  Bottom line:  I'm glad I didn't have to set up the exhibit.  Maybe the pieces were glued together.  I hope so.


Comment:   The papers and magazines are saying that the "people" don't think the Obama administration is solving our economic problems quick enough.  Do they really expect instant results?


The problems took over a decade to develop.  The Republicans turned the "free market" loose during the Clinton administration by reversing the bank regulation put in place during the Depression.  Their reason:  the market experts, not government, knew how to regulate best.  Their Greed reigned and eventually exploded in our faces -- and wallets.  Logic says, it'd take a while to clean up the systemic mess thus created.  But what do I know?  Maybe someone has a direct line to a miracle worker?  I haven't seen any sign of it.  Only hot air.


So far, one good result: no one is talking about privatizing retirement accounts.


Reading:  I'm reading less.  The new television series have arrived.  Castle.  The Forgotten.  I even watched Eastwick last night, but don't know if I'll continue.  I could always rent the movie or read the book ... if I wanted to visit that world.  Maybe, it's because Cher isn't there.  (She was in that movie, wasn't she?)


Picked up a Barbara Hambly book, Traveling with Vampires which ended up being a disappointment.  Right off, the first chapter didn't clue me into the time period.  I waited until the second chapter to learn it was set in Edwardian times, just before WWI.  The vampires are the gothic kind with a helpful faction and an evil one plus the academic heros.  Why are smart female characters in historical novels always wearing spectacles?  [Of course, I don't read books where vampires are the primary characters ... except for the Anita Blake series and ??...]

How disappointing was Traveling?  Let's just say, I got to page 66 in the week.  I'm on page 52 of Charlaine Harris' A Secret Rage in one day.  In between, I read two sections of Edward Rutherfurd's The Forest.  [I reread the sections like short stories.]


Writing:  Back to the Rococo thing.  One of my faults when drafting a WIP is saying the same thing twice, maybe more times.  It doesn't bother me that much because I figure I can always take the best description and eliminate the rest.  It helps reduce the word count.



But in working through Tangled, my second writing effort, I find there is another way I repeat.  I show the action, then tell the reader what's happening.  I wonder how many other beginning writers do the same thing.  Of course, I'm deleting some and my critique partners are finding others I missed.  More words on the chopping block.  [Am in chapter 8, almost ready to start 9.]  -- We won't talk about backstory.



Whatever, I find I'm trying to imitate Lee Child's style ... which may not be such a good thing with YA fantasy.  But, then, Tangled isn't YA.  It's a multi-character driven adult political fantasy.  I think I got off to the wrong foot by emphasizing the kid character in the book, something I did because I needed a vulnerable character.  Adult elves aren't much vulnerable except to boredom.


Progress:  Tangled.  I'm thinking of getting rid of the "Austel's Idiot" angle in the title, queries, etc.  Am about a fourth through the chopping an eliminated 10,000 words.  It may actually get down to a reasonable size when I get to the print editing phase.


Emma?  Finished chapter 13 and found out why Fritha lured her into Faery. [Not the reason I thought.]  I even know how she's going to escape in 14.  I'm getting to the end of this WIP because of the water constraints.  You can only go so long without drinking water and you can't carry much in a knapsack.



 

Crutches

Trivia:  It snowed on the last day of summer.  It didn't freeze hard enough to kill the zucchini, so it will still flow onto my kitchen counters.  If I had the courage of my convictions, I'd yank it up by the roots.  I don't.  So, I wait for the frost to do my dirty work.

Writing:  I've decided that beta readers/ critiquers are a crutch.  One I rather keep in my life.  I've learned so much about my writing from them, not all of it good.  (I make the dippiest of mistakes that even I know better to make in the heat of the writing.)  More important, they catch the stuff my eyes glaze over.  I read it but my brain doesn't catch it -- even though I catch the same thing in other books.  Even published ones.

I wonder if other unpublished writers get discouraged when they see "beginner mistakes" get published.  I don't get discouraged per se, but if there are too many, I put the book down.  My internal editor stifles my enjoyment of the story.


Progress:  I got Emma off the hill and into the arms of the villeins!!!  Or at  least, into their castle which is rather stupidly made with two towers opposite each other -- instead of building their bailey in the center of the fort on raised ground.  That's a plot point I had no idea about.  I'm going to have to use it in some way.  Until then, Emma gets to contend with the lady who lured her into Faery in the first place.


Tangled is still getting chopped.  Up to Chapter 7, and the pace remains almost 1000 words a chapter.  (So far the multi-character plot progresses.)  But the times I say the same thing twice, only a little bit differently!!!  Thank you critiquers for pointing them out.  Also, when I use the same word three to five times on a page.  I don't always catch them myself.  -- Only one chapter got eliminated, but I may be able to turn it into a short story or novella.

A Day in the Life

 Saturday/Sunday Trivia:  Farmer Market Day.  We brought back fresh corn on the cob, something we don't grow in the garden because of the neighboring raccoons.  Except the vender thinks we're a little strange.  Two ears is enough for us for one meal.  Everyone else seems to be bagging ears a dozen at a time.  Our after-market coffee was enliven by a chance meeting with friends which delayed our lunch.  Still, the corn was so much better than supermarket corn.  Delicious.




Reading:  Can't remember the new books I'm reading.  Got bored in the middle of four of them so I pulled Stephanie Laurens' On a Wild Night from the shelves.  Read half of it last night after the news.


Writing:  Rather rewriting.  I've pulled the second book of my Austel's Idiot trilogy (the Half-Elven) onto my Desktop.  Cut a thousand words from the first chapter.  I only have to ax 25,000 words more.

Still, drafting Emma Klocken (a stand alone trip to California's Faery), but I am having trouble writing first person viewpoint since I seem to fall into lists of I... I... I... I... I... I...  Gee, that sounds like this blog.