writer at play
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 30th, 2009
Ok, David again with an update. As you can see from the nifty picture on the left over there, I actually made it across the finish line, clocking in at 50,307 words on Saturday, November 28th. Yep, two days early. And Rabia wants me to write up another post with my thoughts, now that I’ve [...]
Posted in guilt, writing process on Nov 29th, 2009
I’ve been thinking a lot about my novel-writing (and rewriting) process lately, and decided that it is too inefficient. It just takes me too darn long to get a novel into shape, and it is clearly my method at fault.
My current process looks something like this:
Get Idea. “Ooh, shiny!” *plays*
In the meantime, continue work on [...]
Posted in inspiration on Nov 26th, 2009
After a long day of companiable cooking, recipes that turned out great, generally cheerful children, and lots of dishes, I’m pleasantly full and tired. But it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without giving thanks. As a writer, I am grateful for:
My husband, who has always supported my writing habit, and who didn’t even blink when I told [...]
Posted in personal on Nov 25th, 2009
Here I am, at 5 o’clock, generally the worst time of the working day, suffused with a feeling of wellbeing. This, in spite of the fact our Thanksgiving plans to share the meal with friends were derailed when the Baron woke up with a fever last night (pretty much right after I fell asleep), runny [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 22nd, 2009
I find searching for markets for my work to be one of the more stressful parts of wanna-be-pro writing. Note that I said searching, not querying. It’s almost like being a matchmaker—trying to find the perfect fit, scrutinizing guidelines, reading archives, doing the mental equivalent of plucking daisies (“they’ll like my story” “they’ll like my [...]
Posted in writing process on Nov 16th, 2009
While I’m trying to decide which writing project to tackle next (by playing Torchlight, reading blogposts and books, and generally taking it easy), my husband’s been NaNo-ing! And if that wasn’t intense enough, I persuaded him to do a write-up about his experience so far. And without further ado, I give you the first guest [...]
Posted in personal, short stories on Nov 13th, 2009
1. I had a great time watching the older kids pretend to be Michelangelo. I taped paper to the underside of the card table and they crawled in and painted pictures. Sir I. also sculpted a boat out of a bar of soap (and a manta ray-turned-into-a-pile of wood–that’s what happened to the first bar [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 12th, 2009
A few weeks (or more) ago, when we were drowning in apples, I thought it would a fun idea for the kids to make apple prints (and perhaps do some other apple-related activities, like these). Of course, right off the bat, Sir I. declared complete disinterest. So I set Miss M. up with apples, paper [...]
The kids and I are studying Italy this week. Am I brave enough to try making tiramisu? I’ve never even heard of ladyfingers (okay, I have–it’s the Britishism for okra, but I don’t think that’s what they mean here) or mascarpone cheese.
And why don’t I have a dessert tag? That must be rectified at once!
I may not have blogged much in October, but I sure made it through a lot of books! I attribute this partially to the fact we moved the baby out of our room and into his own, thus allowing me to read in bed again. But only partially. I just like books a whole lot. [...]