Author: Catherine Schaff-Stump

I’d like to thank Mark for the shining new upgrade!

Right now I’m on spring break, and I’m diligently finishing up some projects in my other going concern–sewing. However, my next writing project will be a story for Crystal’s anthology, of which I will post a snippet here. I am also tinkering with the idea of trying to send out a project to an interesting company that specializes in faerie things, but that idea is sort of brewing right now, so I’m not sure where it will go.

At any rate, welcome to March. I’ll be back shortly.

Chapters 1 and 2 of The Empty Horizon are out there, being read, RIGHT NOW by my writing workshop friends. It’s probably at this point that I should interupt myself and work on the anthology.

I’m working on an anthology for a deserving friend who has cancer. I hope it will be full of good stories and art from my writing friends, and it will be available to you if you want it. More details to come.

Catherine

Chapter One completed and into Chapter Two.

Ear infection slowing us up…no!

Also, have decided to put together a benefit anthology for friend with cancer to sell at Wiscon.

Needs to be a story about a woman character. Any requests on whom I should write about, those of you who know my stories? Ten page maximum.

Catherine

We revise…this’ll be all you get for a bit, but we are on task!

My mother passed away at night, just before an angry storm broke. The priest came in the evening to anoint her forehead and her feet, to send her ready to God. I listened to her breath rattle, and I watched her eyes dim as the fire dwindled to nothing but coals. When she was gone, I folded her arms over her chest and kissed her still warm cheek. I stepped outside into the wind, not sure where I was going. I thought I was going to go to my uncle’s home, to tell them that she had finally died, that, after days and nights of nursing her illness, her end had come.

Continue reading “Here’s Something”

Yesterday, I finished my research for the Mercedes beginning section of Empty Horizon. I think I have amassed enough information to lie successfully now. I also learned all sorts of great spinning words like “scutching,” and I understand how flax fibers are separated out to make linen.

Quite a bit of what I have written as a first attempt can now be made valid and real. I don’t know how much it will change what happens. Mostly what I need to change are atmospherics, so to speak.

So, this weekend I begin to write. 🙂

…last night I learned that I need to know more about Napoleon the Third and the Second Empire.

I’ve also been tracing down some interesting information on Marseilles. I didn’t realize it was founded by Greeks and Phoenicians.

Finally, I’m really, really surprised to find out how many minority languages there are in France: Breton, Alsatian, and Catalan, among others. It’s amazing that these languages have survived hundreds of years into modern times.

That’s today’s set of factoids. (That, and it would be cool to study Catalan in France or Spain to get real solid insight into Mercedes’ character, but we’d best not go that far.)

Catherine

I have been following my New Year’s Resolution religiously, which makes me happy. I have just finished two books about Napoleon.

Now, a couple of brief articles about French History in general, and then I’ll be really getting down to Catalan and Marseilles.

Just thought I would let you all know I am still in the game.

Catherine

I’ve been learning quite a little bit about the mad egoist, much of what will not be useable for Empty Horizon. However, it does beg the question:

How did Edmond Dantes avoid conscription? Fernand was conscripted. Hell, everyone was conscripted, unless you were ill, disfigured, or could buy your way out.

Or unless Dumas didn’t want you conscripted. 🙂

Well, two books on Napoleon, and I’ll be looking for a good book on historical Marseilles. Got one?

Catherine

Dr. Catherine has more or less put the semester to bed and made some steps in rebooting her next semester. I get a week of vacation, and yes, I needs write a little academically, but there will be time for some creative projects.

With that in mind, yesterday I purchased a book that overview Napoleonic France, and Napoleon’s attempt to return to power. Look forward to factoids.

Anyone got a good book on early 19th century Marseilles? The Catalan settlement there? Or spinning?

Oookay. So here I am in Japan waiting for my next interview at 5 pm. I’m stranded in the computer room because there really isn’t any time to go sight seeing in the amount of time I have between gigs.

So, I thought I would weigh in here. I’ve been floundering for a number of years about how to best present myself as a writer. My usual strategy has been to write something that I liked as well as I could, and then send it out. I am truly not as concerned about publishing as some, and I think that writing to publish only is not my bag.

I have had the good fortune, however, to stumble across a project that pleases me aesthetically as a writer and that I think is marketable. That would be Empty Horizon. So, suddenly, I think I have a business plan.

Here it is. I will first author Empty Horizon and then submit it everywhere. I think that it’s marketability is high. I still face the diffuculty of winning someone over with my writing, but that is not the double edged sword of trying to convince someone to warm to your style and subject matter.

If Empty Horizonproves successful, I will pitch a version of The Odyssey in which I employ the similar gimic of different POV. Finally, after this, if both of these books work out, I can pitch increasingly original stuff.

Of course, this assumes that someone eventually takes me on. If not, we’ll just be like so many people and have multiple novels circulating at the same time.

This might mean, if the first two books are successful, that I might consider making the Klarion books into period pieces, which might suit them better.

Anyway, this is currently the game plan. What do you think?