Month: April 2009

Tomorrow I lay the pipe for big action. I’ve started with a strong action sequence, and moved into several establishing bits, and now I need to pull the readers back in for some excitement. This sequence will probably need a lot of rewrites, but I’m looking forward to writing it, as I get to feel out the third (and the fourth!) parties in the book. Also, it moves the kids to the forefront, as the adults will become, shall we say, indisposed.

Bryon’s working on the computer tonight, installing some software. That means what I have for you is word count, but no pictures. We’ll get back to those as soon as possible.

12249 / 90000 words. 14% done!

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Finally, you might have noticed from my Appearances page that I will be in Denver this weekend at Starfest. We plan to visit some friends, and while I won’t be there in any authorly capacity, I’d be happy to meet any of you who lived in the area and were so inclined.

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It’s probably time to revisit that Death by Drowning short story concept I have too, since Abyss and Apex is open for submission in May. Yup.

The next installment of Blood is Thicker than Water, available at a Las Habladoras blog near you.

Today, we learn the definition of coffinated.

Catherine

One of my favorite writing places in the world, Query Tracker is offering a very Twitter-like contest today. Agent Joanna Stampfel-Volpe is running a one-line hook contest.

Make sure you follow all the directions. 🙂

Catherine

Short story submissions:

Jackal’s First Hunt to A Fly in Amber.

Mark Twain’s Daughter to Shimmer.

Also, something cool that I didn’t know about before:

Duotrope Digest, a poetry and fiction search engine. It’s pretty spiffy.

Happiest of Easters to those of you who celebrate, religiously or secularly!

I lost yesterday’s work in revision, due to sloppy saving on my part, so yesterday was doing that again, and moving a bit forward. Today was all new. I thought that this would be a nice bit to share. Grant and his brother David are saving a kid on the bus from bullies.

Grant knew what they saw wasn’t a gray troll with wings and a midnight blue troll about seven feet tall. Their grandparents probably would. But what the boys did see were the two Heierdahl brothers. The rumor was that they bench pressed bulls on a regular basis. Gunnhild also had the reputation of being an amazon, and had been teased about it in elementary school. Exactly once.

Revised one scene, added a new scene.

12128 / 90000 words. 13% done!

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I didn’t post yesterday because Bryon bought a new Mac, and he’s been setting it up and reloading data. Today, I was able to play with the galleries again. Here’s today’s post about the modifications in America to the Norwegian home, and Norwegian furniture wood work in general.

You might remember that I mentioned how the Norwegian home was bright and painted, and generally had intricate woodwork. Norwegian immigrants translated their bright painting into intricate wood working entirely. New designs found different colors of wood inlaid with each other, and works of arts graced the homes. In future entries, I’ll go into further depth with some of this wood working, as well as the transformation of rosemaling in the new country.

The gallery here shows you some of the intricacy of the work.

The first gallery is up! These are Vesterheim pictures from the from the Norwegian home exhibit.

Interesting points?

1. Notice that everything is colorful, coated with rosemaling. A minster’s wife who visited Norwegian immigrants in the states thought that their homes were garish, because of all the colors.

2. Elaborate woodwork? You betcha, even though the home at the Vesterheim is a farm house.

3. Not so many rooms. Actually, a three-generation family lived in two rooms.

4. Beds by the fire. Because, yup, that’s heat.

5. Notice–stone hearths!

Here’s all of the pictures.

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Today the troll story underwent trimming, rather than gaining. The new leaner Weight Watchers version of the story is represented in tonight’s word count.

11315 / 90000 words. 13% done!

Proofs off to Drollerie for Sister Night, Sister Moon. Rumor has it it may be available next week, but much depends on the proofers of all the stories.

Don’t worry. I’ll keep you posted.

Grant tumbled down the wooden stairs, passing the family portraits on the wall. He grabbed his coat from the hall stand, and crossed the soft carpet of the living room to the kitchen door. Peering round the doorway, he saw his mom flipping pancakes. “David’s on bowl patrol.”

“I knew that,” said Elin.

Grant smiled lopsidedly. “Come on, Mom,” said Grant. “Go with the illusion of normalcy.”

Elin lifted the bubbling batter with a blue plastic spatula. “Sure. How many pancakes do you want?”

Grant knew very well she knew. “Fifteen.”

“I saw you eating five. David’ll spill his orange juice, so I’d sit across from him if I were you.”

“Thanks for the tip.” Grant padded back across the living room, slipped his Adidas on, and headed out into the yard.

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Word count remains about the same, because there was some whacking of dead wood.

11663 / 90000 words. 13% done!

Since I posted Jennifer’s interview tonight, I’ll work on photo galleries tomorrow. I have a day off work tomorrow, so I hope to get to some of that tomorrow night, because I’ll be doing most of my drafting during the day.

Catherine

Fellow writer Jennifer St. Clair is an artist of breadth. Just take a look at her craft-tastic website! Jennifer not only writes, but also makes jewelry, dolls, and crafts; gardens, and cooks. She is the mistress of many muses. In the tradition of Writer Tamago talking about the other lives of writers, Jennifer has kindly answered some questions about her unique dolls.

1. How did you get started making dolls?

The same way I started writing; I had a friend who started making dolls, and I thought it was an interesting hobby so I decided to start making dolls too.

2. Why do you make dolls?

Because I enjoy creating something three-dimensional out of fabric.

3. What materials do you use for your doll craft?

Lately, I’ve been recycling flesh-toned cashmere sweaters for the doll’s skin (I buy the sweaters at thrift shops) and felted wool sweaters for clothing. I also have a decent selection of yarn for hair; I like my dolls to be both simple and complicated, if that makes sense.

4. Are your dolls for adults, children, or both?

Mainly for adults, although older children would probably not mistreat them. I have made dolls for children before, but I don’t do it often.

5. Do your dolls have names?

Yes, of course! Normally, they name themselves as I’m working on them.

6. Where do you get inspiration for your dolls?

Everywhere! Although making a doll from start to finish isn’t an entirely organic pursuit (I use patterns), they all tend to have their own personalities.

7. What other hobbies do you have?

I garden, dabble in photography, weave, go antiquing, crochet, and bake yummy bread. I am also a compulsive reader–of just about anything except for the Twilight books.

8. Characterize your writing a little bit.

I tell people I write rural fantasy, because I grew up in small town Ohio and that’s what I’m more comfortable writing about versus urban fantasy, which is usually set in a city somewhere. I can’t seem to get away from the subject of vampires (I’ve been fascinated by them for a long, long time.)

9. Do you feel your crafts and writing are linked? Why or why not?

My crafts stemmed from my desire to be a bit more well-rounded in my pursuits. For a long time, writing was *all* I did outside of school (I wrote my first novel when I was thirteen.) When I graduated from High School, I decided that I needed a few hobbies to accompany my writing career, and since I worked at a library, I had plenty of hobbies to choose from. I dabbled in this and that and whatever until something stuck. Later on, I instituted the rule that hobbies have to pay for themselves (at least in materials) so that I wouldn’t end up completely broke. 🙂

10. Can people buy your dolls if interested?

At the moment, I don’t have any dolls for sale, but I do sell them periodically on ebay and etsy. I am also available to make custom dolls.

Thanks, Jennifer! Best of luck in pursuing all your cool hobbies!

Worked on labeling the pictures from our trip to Decorah, and I’ll start getting them in galleries with some commentary tomorrow. Here’s a photo of where trolls live to tide you over.

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Tonight’s work on the novel: revised the scene that shows us where the Widow and Jensinna live. Wrote the first part of the scene that introduces Grant and David Heierdahl, the teenage troll brothers.

Here’s the word count:

11550 / 90000 words. 13% done!

A couple of my favorite lines from the night:

All the princes will want you. And then, we’ll catch them, won’t we, pretty bird? And put their eyes out.

His mother called her sons’ style of housekeeping teenager rococo.