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Do you read out loud? To your kids? To someone? Do you share stories with others?

Bryon and I occasionally get a hankering to share a literary experience together. We read the Harry Potter books together, mostly me reading and him listening, but sometimes the reverse. It became a shared experience for us. We read Elizabeth Peter’s Amelia Peabody books together. I enjoy giving the characters fun voices. I suppose listening to someone else read a book on tape is similar. There’s less laughing at goofy mistakes, but it’s still the oral/aural tradition.

Bryon and I have decided to read Terry Pratchett’s Disc World series on the commute. Pratchett’s prose trips me up a wee bit, as his sentences tend to lead one way, but wander actually another. I’ve read the books that feature Granny Weatherwax and her adventures. No surprise there. I also have enjoyed the Tiffany Aching books he’s done, where Pratchett’s sentences know exactly where they’re going. I guess that’s the difference 26 years of writing makes–from 1983, when he wrote Color of Magic to 2009.

I look forward to reading all the books as another shared experience with Bryon. I’d be happy to hear about your experiences in the oral/aural tradition.

Catherine

Today work was workarious, a new blended word meaning working and precarious. Like that. I won’t go into details, but I was in high gear as coordinator today, escorting students to the Dean of Students, fielding phone calls, and nonchalantly not getting projects done that are due by Friday. Oh yeah. This used to make my chest tighten before the new meds.

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Overwhelmed I am, by the nice people in my lives who are helping me out with David’s assignment. I thank you all. Deeply.

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Yes, I *have* received my first advance, thank you very much.

The edits for Hulk Hercules really look pretty doable. Most of it is taking what I already have, and either making it more of same, or playing with clarity. As soon as I have completed my prep for CCID and Marscon, both of which should be done by the end of the weekend, I’m on it, so Sonya can move onto the magical things she does on her end.

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I watched the Dead Like Me movie. Fans, you’ll want to see it, but it’s not the series. Fake Daisy doesn’t work. Some of the writing is flimsy. It’s worth it to see George and Reggie finally meet up, to enjoy sane Joy, and to miss Rube. I wouldn’t call it good, but it has its fine moments.

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Still, the burning question of what to read at Marscon? I’m down to a section of Mark Twain’s Daughter or a piece of The Empty Horizon.

Grappling, then, with the big issues,

Catherine

Writing solves all the major problems in the world. It can solve yours too.

Let me tell you about this project my counsellor wants me to work on to combat my depression. It’s a great idea. He wants me to approach the people I know, ask them to write about themselves, how they know me, and what they think of me. And then, I take all this, and think about it and write about my life now, rather than reflect on the crummy life I had then.

In the end I will have this wonderful book full of wonderful things from people who care about me, another weapon in the arsenal against depression.

Most of you I only know at a writerly level, professionally. If you feel so moved, however, I’m taking stories at my email address. I just wanted to share what I thought was a very good idea, mostly so, if you ever find yourself in the same place, you can use the technique.

David. My counsellor. He knows what he’s doing.

Catherine

I’ve converted the old manuscript to Scrivener. There’s a surprising amount here–about 119 pages, or

50,298 / 100,000 (50.3%)

I really believe that it will be longer than 100K, as I have to add in the magic, and I need to add in Edmond’s pieces, as well as flesh out the pieces I already have, and add more. Today’s vocabulary word could be unwieldy.

At least I’ve gotten started. This and Hulk Hercules will be my projects for a bit, as well as getting ready for the reading at Marscon.

Catherine

It’s about time the vampires got crackin’!

For those of you who are wondering what happened to my Facebook account, and my MySpace account, I’ve just deleted them. MySpace wasn’t doing anything for me, and as to Facebook, well, wave an intellectual property flag in front of an academic, and see what happens. I have found it to be more of a social tool, rather than a writerly one, but I find that there are alternatives to getting the word out about your writing. I also wonder how many writers will continue to use it if it wants their content. I am sorry about disappearing to those who were there, but I’m not about to risk the rights to my words for something as goofy as FaceBook, which, quite frankly, I’ve never gotten into the groove of.

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The edited manuscript for Hulk Hercules is officially on its way back to me. I’ve received the editing letter this morning, and actually, there isn’t a lot of tweaking. More like some polishing and highlighting. Sonya and I negotiated a month, and I’ve wisely planned its due date to be the week right after spring break, just in case my work life gets out of hand.

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I mentioned last week that I had sent the edits of Sister Night, Sister Moon back to Drollerie. Deena and I talked about putting the novella in Drollerie’s Things That Go Bump in the Night anthology, rather than publishing it on its own. I hope to reach a broader readership in an anthology, although I regret not having a beautiful muse-y cover for it. The anthology will be an e-anthology, and I’ll let you know when it’s ready.

And that’s today.

Catherine

Over here I’ve left my usually friends locked entry open, because I want to share my Valentine’s Day experience. I so love my husband.

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In bed this morning, I figured out how to solve the faerie novel problem. I make it into 3 faerie novels. The braid strands will each be individual books. Well, duh, you say. But it did take me a bit to figure it out, yes.

Here’s what we’ll do:

1. Gossamer and Veridian–Janetta and Hero: This book will be about the coup, and the relationship between Janetta and Hero. All the Janetta lovers should get their fill, and it would answer why should we prefer Pyramus over Feldspar. (Cat, I think this one would make a beautiful graphic novel, but I have no idea how two people go about trying to get that published…however, we can find that out. 🙂 )

2. Gossamer and Veridian–Trolls at the Gate: This book will be about Iowa trolls, and Grant as a young boy. It will have bunad-wearing fairy godmothers in it, as well as trolls, and will be about the search for a missing baby with an addled king Pettigrew.

3. Gossamer and Veridian–The Storm Sisters: Rohren and Nasma’s romance. Melancholy, bittersweet, and full of action/adventure romping.

AND THEN, we’ll move onto Erynmir’s quest into the real world to find her father, AND THEN Pyramus’ descent into madness and role reversal, AND THEN the Kellinor book.

(Yes, I will write all these, regardless of publication. Just like those other 4 Klarion books. I’d better get crackin’.)

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But first, honestly, The Empty Horizon.

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Um…I guess one of the things I’ve noticed about Wellbutrin right away is that I am more focused than I have been for a while. It seems easier to make myself focus on tasks at hand, not get distracted (at night, I tend to wind myself up, and I can stop that now.) I also seem to be more analytical and clear about problem solving. As the recent Gossamer solution attests to.

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Oookay…just a little excited about Valentine’s Day, about the story structuring and cycling, and positive feelings this morning. I’m not as manic as this post makes me sound. Just upbeat and happy. Yay!

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We had 4 inches of snow last night, and Bryon’s out there all alone. I’ve got to wash up after my coffee, and get to it.

Catherine

Looking for something fun to do on a Friday night, I finished that paper on Japanese senmon gakko for the CCID conference. Eh, it’s a living.

I’ll be in Orlando, FL from February 28th to March 3rd. There’ll be a day of Disney in there. Disney is too cool to totally abstain from. March 2 and 3 will be full of professorial schmoozing.

Hmmm…I have to dress up for a formal reception on March 1st. I wonder if I have anything to wear…

Catherine

I’d like to do some different things for a while here at Writer Tamago. Although I know that watching my word count meters is as exciting as watching paint dry (and who’d want to miss that, by jingie!), I think you might also be interested reading about other writers, their works, and ambitions as well as my own. So, here’s the plan.

I still intend to continue my write-ups on classic books as I read them (yup, I’m talking about you, Dostoevsky’s The Idiot), and my favorite movies, media and books. I still intend to talk about my progress and post some excerpts of my work as it comes along.

New things that I want to do as well.

1. Interview you. Right now, I have one interview out there, and one I’m thinking of sending off as soon as I get that one up and running. I’m going to work on interviewing people about a variety of things, with some writing questions, but mostly not writing questions. Mostly other things that have to do with writing, but not about writing itself. Although it might be cool to talk about your hobbies, your philosophies, other things that make writers well-rounded geeks people.

2. Talk to you about your projects. I would like to set up a promo day here, maybe once a week, where I could talk about your project and you. You could describe it, promote it, excerpt it, but it would be a venue for that, and would make the Tamago more interesting.

3. Write up reports about the research I’m doing. As I do research for a variety of projects, it strikes me that it would be fun to share. You never know when you’re gonna need this trivia.

Because life needs more focus for yours truly right now. If you’re interested in being interviewed about 1 or 2, comment, or drop me a line.

Cath

I’d like to thank everyone who’s been kind enough to offer up support during my road to medical discovery. I appreciate it.

I was hit with some serious inspiration last night as we were driving back from Bryon’s uncle’s visitation. About anything familial gets me spinning right now, which is why my writing seems to be frenetic at the moment. I’m not wild about this. In general, I am tortoise steady with my projects. To be this frenetic makes me feel a poser, a bit.

In the dark of night, sitting in the car, the wind whistling outside my window, it occurs to me that now is the time to write a darker book than Gossamer can be. I continue to amass my Norwegian research. I’m enjoying that, and all of this will make good gumbo (good ludefisk? Is there such a thing?) eventually.

But no. This time in my life is a time to work on melodrama, anger, regret, and revenge; and I need characters who are going through those things. I thought I would return to The Empty Horizon. With a new dimension from how I first envisioned it, this retelling would include magic.

And the floodgates opened. And characters started whispering in my ears. And I realized I had a lot of work to do, but it seemed to me that this was a good path. So, that’s what I will do.

For the curious, more information about The Empty Horizon follows.

Continue reading “Dark Inspiration”