December 15th, 2009
I thought this was interesting… Novelist Holly Lisle is writing the first draft of a story, and emailing it out to her fans. She’s also collaborating with her daughter, Rebecca Galardo, who is creating jewelry and artifacts to go along with the story.
I’ve always heard that art sells better with a story behind it, but this is the first time I’ve seen it taken so literally.
You can see the first limited edition up on Etsy. The cool thing (to me) is that the original was made in polymer clay.
Btw, I’d recommend signing up for the story if you like fantasy with a bit of an edge and tiger shape shifters. It’s caught me so far and I can’t wait to see what she writes next.
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December 7th, 2009
Supposedly Scrivener is the writing software to use if you’re on a Mac. But I’m not.
I use something called Page Four. I could just use Word, or any text editor but I really like the way I can break my project into chapters and scenes with Page Four. It allows you to add as many folders and pages/files as you want.
I’ve set my novel up so I’ve got one folder for outlines, world building notes, etc, and then a folder for each chapter. If I want to move a scene from one chapter to another, it’s a simple drag and drop – then I just have to do a little editing on the transitions. It’s come in very handy when I want to restructure a story without getting lost.
It’s a fairly simple editor, without too many bells and whistles, but how many times do you use all the crazy stuff Word can do anyway? It saves files in RTF format and they can be exported as one file into Word if you want, when you get to your final draft. It will also archive versions and you can take snapshots if you want.
You can try it out for free (limited by number of pages), and it’s relatively inexpensive. (Note – I have no affiliation. I just bought a copy awhile ago and really like it.)
Page Four - my NaNo novel
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December 6th, 2009
I got to my goal for NaNo, but the book isn’t done. It’s been giving me a little trouble actually. I’ve been stuck because I didn’t know what happened next. I’d gone off track – the story veered far enough that it looked like my original ending wasn’t going to work – but I didn’t know what to do instead.
I think I’ve finally figured it out. I had to delete one major scene, and restructure a couple others. I also added a new scene with a grizzly bear and her two cubs. Every futuristic story needs a bear attack, right? 
I’m at 58,000+ words right now, although that’s including the deleted scenes – they’re in a cuts folder in case I end up using anything from them. The most important thing is that I’ve been writing again and making progress. It’s back to fun again.
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November 27th, 2009
I made it, and a couple days early, thanks to some encouragement from Dave and a 7300 word day yesterday.
I still haven’t finished the first draft of the book though. I need to figure out how my street smart but non-technical heroine is going to conquer the evil bad guy who’s determined to kill off a tenth of the world’s population (for humanity’s greater good, of course) by sending fatal shocks into people’s cranial chip implants through the mesh (future equivalent of the web).
Any suggestions? The wackier the better at this point.
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November 25th, 2009
I’m not doing too badly with my wordcount but I have a little catching up to do. There’ve been a few things here and there that slowed me down. (I blame it all on the cats)
I’m off to the library with my laptop to get some progress made. The story itself is going along… The wordcount seems to slow down the most when I don’t know what’s going to happen next.
That shouldn’t be a problem at the moment though. Sec (future cops) were just about to capture the bad guy when he did something horribly dastardly and killed most of ‘em off. Now my main character is all by herself and she’s the one who needs to escape….
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November 4th, 2009
So, far I’ve been keeping up with my word count for NaNo. You need 1667 words per day minimum to make the 50,000 words by the end of the month. I’ve got about 7000 words right now.
My previous two books were lighthearted YA fantasy complete with princesses. I still have to finish editing both of them but I’m getting closer to a final draft on Hyacinth’s story.
This new one is also YA, but a touch grittier and more on the scifi end of things. My working title is ‘The Median’. (If anyone’s got a better idea let me know.)
In an overpopulated future Earth, where everyone’s chipped in to the mesh and creds buy chip/society privileges, 16 year old Jian is the lowest of the low: a basement dweller, a null. With nothing but basic subsistence–the algae slush that passes for food, and the narrow sleeping shelf she’s allocated in the stacks–she must scrabble to survive.
While hunting for crunchies (cockroaches) she witnesses what looks like a gang murder, except that they brutally remove the victim’s chip and neuro plug. She flees into the tunnels and sewers to avoid becoming the next victim and while looking for a place to hide, she stumbles on the Median–the last wildlife preserve on the planet.
Formed back when the last of the National Parks were bulldozed for housing or industrial parks, the Median is made up of thin strips of force field protected land between the aerways. Jian must adapt to this new world and the creatures it contains, and stay alive as she learns the gang violence she witnessed isn’t as simple as it seems.
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October 11th, 2009
The Bead Bazaar was a lot of fun this year. And for the first time ever, I think, I made more money than I spent. The economy seems to be picking up since I did about 5 times better than I did last year.
I picked up some cool silver frames that I plan on using with a sculpted design inside. And I also got some wonderful labradorite beads – I love the way the colors flash in the light. I haven’t decided what to do with them yet, so they’ll probably spend some time in my collection with everything I’ve bought in previous years
I also got some great pewter charms which are made by Green Girl Studios – definitely worth checking out if you don’t know their work. I love the round little hippo I got.
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October 2nd, 2009
National Novel Writing Month starts November 1st and I’m getting ready for it.
If you’ve ever thought about writing, November is the time to try it. NaNoWriMo is when a group of crazy people all over the world attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in one month.
It’s intense, but it’s do-able. And it’s a lot of fun.
I have my idea and I’ve been making notes and doing some research. It turns out cockroaches are edible – a fact that I plan to make use of in the overpopulated future of my imagined Earth. I draw the line at tasting them myself to allow for realistic description though.
Still haven’t decided whether I want to write it in 1st or 3rd person though. And I need a good name for the group of bad guys. Hmmm….
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October 2nd, 2009
This was while ago but I never posted it. One of the many visitors to our bird feeder We’ve had this raccoon, a mother with two babies, grey squirrels, red squirrels, chipmunks, a hawk which caught several of the chipmunks, a grey fox, a buck, and of course numerous birds.
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September 10th, 2009
If you’re in New England, drop by the Connecticut Bead Society’s 12th Annual Bead Bazaar.
Sept 12 & 13 – Hours 10am – 5pm
admission $5
The Holiday Inn, 201 Washington Avenue,
North Haven, CT
(Rt 5) Exit 12 off I-91
Official description: Over 40 vendors will offer for sale everything from vintage glass and lampworked beads, semi-precious and freshwater pearls, raku and porcelain, seed beads and silver, polymer clay, beading supplies and much more.
The Southern Connecticut Polymer Clay Guild will be there and we’ll be selling original work by our members – including me. Stop by and visit.
The postcard above shows some of the great work from the rest of the guild. The fox in the lower left is mine.
It’s a nice bead show – the only problem is that I always spend more than I make 
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