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Posts Tagged ‘A writer’s life’

The happy spot

Posted in A writer's life, Floor loom, Middle grade fiction, Querying agents, revision, weaving, tagged , , , , on September 9, 2020| Leave a Comment »

After two posts of angst, I can now say I found a happy spot. Yesterday, I started on a new project-a middle grade book and I just felt all warm and happy inside. I was creating something new and it felt good. I wrote near 4000 words. I had written some notes on this idea when in England last year so I could just start writing it.

I did do some work on the Phd, appendices but not serious work. However, it did advertise to me that I really missed writing fiction. I still have revisions and stuff on other projects but I think I can do more than one thing at a time. Revisions on fiction, taking up edits on the exegesis and write something new.

I’m not actively hunting for more agents so that’s one less thing off my mind. I have many outstanding queries that will work themselves out over the next few months.

I started to tie up the loom today. It’s my first time on the floor loom and my back hurt but it’s a start. I’m still having trouble getting the winding of the thread just right so it is easy to thread through the heddles in the right order. But a start.

Today I’ve been going over what I wrote yesterday on:

Grandma Neebs : Through the pantry door.

It’s probably a ‘no no’ to go over the previous draft, instead of keeping on writing but I want to get the point of view right. I’m trying to get close in point of view, and the tone right. I think it’s helping. Also, I tend to rush through the plot because I have a voice in my head saying ‘don’t bore people’ but really I need to make the magic of the siblings work and let Grandma Neebs shine. I’m up to 5000 words now. Big smile!

That’s it for me. I’m in a happy place, focussed and working.

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Battening down the hatches

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on March 29, 2020| Leave a Comment »

World events are just moving so fast in this unprecedented times. Ten days ago I was teaching my classes face to face. This week gone it was online. It’s a time of adaption, perseverance and hope.

I try to have hope that things will get better as the pandemic passes but one thing for sure is that life is going to be different now and for the months to come. Who knows how the world will be when this is over?

I feel for those who are under lock down and have lost loved ones and jobs. I’m doing okay at the moment. I applaud the heroes and heroines of this crisis, the health workers-doctors, nurses, first responders. I have to drag myself away from the news as it is overwhelming.

I can’t concentrate, I can’t write and I can only stumble from moment to moment. But I am going to fix that as best I can. I’m going to focus and do something besides bake, eat, clean and watch Star Trek Next Generation! From tomorrow I’m going to have a schedule but I will give myself a break if I falter.

But for some cheer! Baking results. Hot cross buns and my regular seeded sourdough bread.

One hero in all this on the political side Andrew Cuomo, Governor on New York State and Jacinta Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, who both give clear, sound and emotionally sensitive advice to their people.

Here is my isolation buddy, Gin the cat, who is part Maine Coon.

To help out in the only way I can, I have updated my front page to promote the links to my free novella, Vorn and the First Comers. I have also sent a link to my short story collection, Beneath the Floating City, to my newsletter subscribers.

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Revising Moonfall and other guff

Posted in A writer's life, Dark fantasy, Dragon Wine, Editing, RSI, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 30, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Well you can tell that I’m not busy and stressed as I was as here is my next post, really soon after the last one.

Today, I started the polish of Moonfall. Normally, I’d wait a few weeks between the tidy up and a polish to get beta reader feedback. However, as the MS is booked in with the editor I can’t really wait.

Because I have RSI and arthritis and so on, I have to be careful how long I spend on the computer. The longer I spend on the computer the more attention I have to pay to ergonomics. One of the ways I tackle this is that I print out the MS in bits, read them, edit them and then key in changes later. On the weekend, this was proving a bit difficult so I went to Office Works and bought a copy stand. This allows me to have the MS held up at screen height, next to the screen and made the transcribing of the corrections so much more quicker, but also less demanding on my neck. I have a small space to work in and that meant holding the print out and trying to type stuff in. With the copy stand I have both hands free.

Here is a picture of it here. I was quite lucky because it was only around $50. I was expecting it to be more.

Today I started on the polish, now that I have sent Moonfall to beta readers. I’ve been having problems with the beginning of the book from the start. Not only because a mad woman wrote it. I fixed up the continuity stuff but then found I went on a bit. I was downstairs washing dishes and thinking about the problem when a solution came to me. I was so pleased. I managed to cut about 2000 words out of the first couple of chapters and reorganise it a bit better. I am pleased with the day’s work. I think the rest of the story is going along nicely so we will see how it goes tomorrow.

Writing books can be hard work. I think I drove myself to the very edge on the weekend. I’m surprised my brain is even working at the moment.

I believe going to see the new Solo moving probably helped me wind down. I loved it. Then again I loved the old Solo tie in novels, Han Solo at Stars End and so on. Matthew and I are both geeks and love Solo so we enjoyed the film. We saw Deadpool 2 last week. What a ripper! So funny and in your face. I like how it is so meta…aware of itself, Deadpool speaking to the audience as well as the other characters. Next one we are looking forward to is Ant Man and The Wasp.

Meanwhile…back at the book farm…I have uploaded Dragon Wine Volume Two. This is the third and fourth book in one volume and at a price that is cheaper than buying them separately. I intend to do a box set of the final two books too, maybe early next year and then the complete box set. Right now Dragon Wine Volume Two is only up on Amazon, but it will go up at other retailers soon. I just have to update Calibre before I can convert the file.

And once I have had a peek at the edit of Skyfire (due today) and work out how much work I have to do, I will put Skyfire up for pre-order. That’s my big news. I’ll come back here and let you know when it’s up.

So as a tease, here is the cover of Skyfire, coming soon to preorder status. The cover is from Frauke at http://www.crocodesigns.com

 

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