Since my well seems to have run dry, I'll point you to this piece by John Wiswell:
The Bathroom Monologues: What Recharges Writing?: I’ve been wondering a lot lately about how to recharge writing. There are some people who never seem to stop – Stephen King infamously ...
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
Paging Dr. Liebster... Dr. Liebster, Line One
A few days ago, I was given the Liebster Award by Katherine Hajer, a gracious writer and crafty artist.
Those who are Liebstered thank their
nominator (thanks, Katherine!), answer the questions posed to them, nominate more people, and
pose their own questions.
My nominees are:
1. Michael Robinson, he of the Digital Scofflaw blog. Michael has a sense of humor similar to mine, which, although it must be a burden in daily life, it at least got him a Liebster Award.
2. Sabrina Zbasnik, she of the Introverted Wife blog. Sabrina writes about dwarves in space (among other things), which is a pretty cool mashup.
My questions for them:
My answers to Katherine's questions:
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
My nominees are:
1. Michael Robinson, he of the Digital Scofflaw blog. Michael has a sense of humor similar to mine, which, although it must be a burden in daily life, it at least got him a Liebster Award.
2. Sabrina Zbasnik, she of the Introverted Wife blog. Sabrina writes about dwarves in space (among other things), which is a pretty cool mashup.
My questions for them:
- When did you start writing?
- Has anyone ever actually told you not to quit your day job?
- Is there a favorite food you eat that gives you inspiration to write?
- Microsoft Word: love it, hate it, or something else?
- Do you own an e.book reader, or use e.book software? If so, what kind? If not, do you see one in your future?
- You're given a book promotion opportunity to sit in a bookstore window and write. People passing by will be able to read your work as you produce it. Do you agree?
- Is there a crowd/gang/posse/support group of writers you belong to, either in person or online?
- What's your minimum length for a novel?
- "Write drunk, edit sober." Is this good advice?
- Can you have a strong opinion about an author's personality, political views, social positions, etc., without having that color your opinion about the author's work?
My answers to Katherine's questions:
- Do you have one place you write in, several regular places, or are you a "writing nomad" (write where you can)? I write at different networked computers in various locations. However, I map out ideas with pen and paper all over the place, usually when I'm supposed to be paying attention to something else.
- What are your favourite writing tools (either physical or software)? Favorite software tools are yWriter5 and Dropbox. Favorite physical writing tool is my Parker 51 fountain pen.
- What is your biggest writing "win" from the last twelve months? That would have to be publishing my superhero novel, "Verbosity's Vengeance", which came out last September. It's a clear milestone in my writing career.
- Author and genre comparisons can be tricky, but what are some signs that a reader will like your books (ie: if they liked X book or like work by Y author, they should check out your books)? If you liked The Phantom Tollbooth, Tuesday Next or the Avengers, you'll like my book.
- The universe grants you power over all of writer-dom for one day. What's the one thing you make all writers stop (or start) doing? Stop being dismissive of people who have different tastes in literature. That, and stop picking on semicolons.
- Recognising that everyone on my nomination list writes in the science fiction/fantasy/horror end of the spectrum — how much time to you spend on planning and envisioning your setting relative to character development? Setting and plot are probably weighted 5X as much as character.
- Does your setting come first, your characters, or a combination of both? I'm much more likely to say, "Here's an interesting thing that can happen, let's put someone in there" than I am to say, "Here's an interesting person, what can I do with her?"
- How much research do you do when working on a story? I try not to get too bogged down in research during first drafts. You can spend hours nailing down details that you might need to change later.
- What are your favourite sources for setting inspiration? Probably movies, followed by real life. I've been fortunate enough to have done a fair bit of travel around the world, but that's nothing compared to the places the movies can take you.
- If you could spend time in one of your settings, which one would you pick and how long would you stay there? Setting: I'd love to go out on patrol with the Grammarian. Zooming down rain-slick streets on a meme-enhanced motorcycle, chasing the bad guys to a deserted warehouse and jumping straight into a life-and-death firefight with high-tech weaponry - how cool would THAT be? How long I'd stay: right up to the point of getting my ass kicked. Then I'd drop out and leave the superhero derring-do to the professionals.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
Marvel's magic touch
I never read the Guardians of the Galaxy comics. When I heard that Marvel Studios was making a GotG movie, it was a real head-scratcher. As an ensemble cast, GotG is WAY, WAY downmarket from the Avengers. I know an ensemble movie is different than a buddy movie, so you can't compare GotG with such potential pairings as (for example) Power Man & Iron Fist or Cloak & Dagger.
Even considering the fact that Marvel Studios doesn't have the rights to the marquee ensembles (X-Men & Fantastic Four), why GotG? Why not another minor ensemble like the Defenders? Or the West Coast Avengers?
But I have to say, Marvel seems to know what it's doing. When I watched the various trailers for Superman Broods and Mopes and for Batman Growls Again, I just didn't feel any particular drive to see the flicks, even though I know and (mostly) like the characters. Watching this trailer (which is such an obligatory backstory infodump it might as well be labeled Introducing The Guardians of the Galaxy), I still got a sense of place, of characters, of engagement, and of exciting fun.
Now, instead of wondering why Marvel is wasting its time on this minor-league team, I'm looking forward to seeing the flick. Well played, Marvel. Well played.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
Even considering the fact that Marvel Studios doesn't have the rights to the marquee ensembles (X-Men & Fantastic Four), why GotG? Why not another minor ensemble like the Defenders? Or the West Coast Avengers?
But I have to say, Marvel seems to know what it's doing. When I watched the various trailers for Superman Broods and Mopes and for Batman Growls Again, I just didn't feel any particular drive to see the flicks, even though I know and (mostly) like the characters. Watching this trailer (which is such an obligatory backstory infodump it might as well be labeled Introducing The Guardians of the Galaxy), I still got a sense of place, of characters, of engagement, and of exciting fun.
Now, instead of wondering why Marvel is wasting its time on this minor-league team, I'm looking forward to seeing the flick. Well played, Marvel. Well played.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
What being apart looks like
It's kind of appropriate that my name falls entirely in the lanthanides & actinides. My superhero/science fiction/grammar humor book is like a postcard from The Island Of Misfit Writers ("Having a great time - wish you were here.").
Much like "Verbosity's Vengeance", I expect that this bit of wit will be regarded as remarkably clever by ~0.0001% of the English-speaking world, although perhaps a hundred times as many will understand it right away (i.e. ~0.01%).
It begs the question of why I insist on telling jokes that cater to the narrow, narrow demographic overlap of (knows the significance of lanthanides & actinides on the periodic table) with (appreciates sadly lyrical metaphors). A screening test to select members of my "tribe"? Intellectual snobbery? Simple self-congratulatory showing off of education and erudition? Needy preening?
Grammar jokes, chemistry jokes... not exactly what appeals to the mass market, are they?
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
Much like "Verbosity's Vengeance", I expect that this bit of wit will be regarded as remarkably clever by ~0.0001% of the English-speaking world, although perhaps a hundred times as many will understand it right away (i.e. ~0.01%).
It begs the question of why I insist on telling jokes that cater to the narrow, narrow demographic overlap of (knows the significance of lanthanides & actinides on the periodic table) with (appreciates sadly lyrical metaphors). A screening test to select members of my "tribe"? Intellectual snobbery? Simple self-congratulatory showing off of education and erudition? Needy preening?
Grammar jokes, chemistry jokes... not exactly what appeals to the mass market, are they?
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
Writers write, talkers talk, bleeders bleed
On the one hand, there's this post by Gareth Powell, who draws a distinction between people who talk about writing, and who dream of being a writer, but who don't actually write anything. Writers write all the time; talkers just talk all the time.
On the other hand, there's this post from Emma Newman, who talks about the times of recharging necessary after periods of exceptionally high-volume outlays of energy. Output -- refractory period -- output -- refractory period -- output.
I've been burning the candle at both ends for months and months, dealing with lots of things that aren't related to writing. There are no breaks from it; as one thing winds down, another thing winds up to take its place. I'm expecting (hoping?) that things will settle down in a couple of months and writing can resume its place in a more balanced life. Another post tells me that this is irrelevant wimp talk. If I were serious about being a writer, I'd be writing anyway, chewing on the broken glass and stabbing myself with freshly sharpened pencils, forcing the blood to flow and ignoring the pain like a REAL man.
Er, a real writer.
I wonder sometimes if there is a gender-based perspective on the dichotomy of "Be self-aware and use self-care. It's a marathon, not a sprint." vs. "You're the one who wanted to be a writer! Shut up and take the pain!" If so, then I have to conclude that I'm actually a woman, which means I can stop shaving.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
On the other hand, there's this post from Emma Newman, who talks about the times of recharging necessary after periods of exceptionally high-volume outlays of energy. Output -- refractory period -- output -- refractory period -- output.
I've been burning the candle at both ends for months and months, dealing with lots of things that aren't related to writing. There are no breaks from it; as one thing winds down, another thing winds up to take its place. I'm expecting (hoping?) that things will settle down in a couple of months and writing can resume its place in a more balanced life. Another post tells me that this is irrelevant wimp talk. If I were serious about being a writer, I'd be writing anyway, chewing on the broken glass and stabbing myself with freshly sharpened pencils, forcing the blood to flow and ignoring the pain like a REAL man.
Er, a real writer.
I wonder sometimes if there is a gender-based perspective on the dichotomy of "Be self-aware and use self-care. It's a marathon, not a sprint." vs. "You're the one who wanted to be a writer! Shut up and take the pain!" If so, then I have to conclude that I'm actually a woman, which means I can stop shaving.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
The Three-Ring Binder of Doom
The novel I'm working on at the moment is a hardcopy in a three-ring binder. (n.b. The first version of the preceding sentence had the words "working on" in quotation marks, so as to more accurately reflect just how much work I'm getting done on it.)
I carry this binder from place to place in the same way Frodo carried the Ring of Doom. Like the Ring of Doom, it was pretty cool... at first. Invoking it, I would disappear, and the world around me became wild and magical. I could do things and go places I never could without it.
However, like the Ring of Doom, the longer I carry it, the more fraught with dangerous import it becomes. Lately, using it is terrifying. There are monsters abroad who want nothing more (and nothing else) than my destruction... or at least, that's the vision that's revealed to me when I invoke the Three-Ring Binder of Doom. Terror and horrors await within.
I carry this WIP with me, thinking about it, touching it, dreaming of it, but never, never actually working on it. I recoil from the thought of what nightmares the thing is made of, but I never let it out of my sight. I dare not use it, but I can't abandon it. It defines my existence, it's too important to me, it's too... precious.
My precious, precious novel. My preciousssss......
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
I carry this binder from place to place in the same way Frodo carried the Ring of Doom. Like the Ring of Doom, it was pretty cool... at first. Invoking it, I would disappear, and the world around me became wild and magical. I could do things and go places I never could without it.
However, like the Ring of Doom, the longer I carry it, the more fraught with dangerous import it becomes. Lately, using it is terrifying. There are monsters abroad who want nothing more (and nothing else) than my destruction... or at least, that's the vision that's revealed to me when I invoke the Three-Ring Binder of Doom. Terror and horrors await within.
I carry this WIP with me, thinking about it, touching it, dreaming of it, but never, never actually working on it. I recoil from the thought of what nightmares the thing is made of, but I never let it out of my sight. I dare not use it, but I can't abandon it. It defines my existence, it's too important to me, it's too... precious.
My precious, precious novel. My preciousssss......
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
Snow days
It's snowing heavily here, coming down at the rate of an inch an hour. It's thrown off the schedules of everyone, cancelling schools, closing businesses and (for me) postponing things I had planned for today. This unexpected disruption in my schedule prompts me to wonder about the writing that I'm not doing, that I've told myself I've put on hiatus for awhile. Yes, I'm focused on adjusting my life to my new job, but it feels like more than that. I'm feeling increasingly alienated from the writing life.
Was it really only last September that I published "Verbosity's Vengeance"? It feels like something done by someone else. Looking at the Amazon page for it, I try to recapture the anxiety over flat sales and plummeting sales ranks, but all I can come up with is tired sadness. It's hard to shake the feeling that the book exists only in my mind, an experience for me to learn from, not as a product to be promoted or purchased.
I pull out the first draft of my WIP and barely recognize it. It's page after page of turgid, fractured, meandering nonsense. The notes in the margins on how to fix it are mine; the handwriting is mine, so the notes must be, too. What's needed is a complete overhaul, not simple revisions. Where is the energy and enthusiasm for this work? Where is the joy? Is it still a work in progress if you don't want to do the work? And if the work seems to have no more point or purpose than shoveling water? What then?
It takes a lot of energy to be a writer, and even more to pretend to be a writer. As the snow falls and the cold settles over the world, I'm left to wonder if, having run out of that energy, I've also lost the ability (or the will) to recharge it.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
Was it really only last September that I published "Verbosity's Vengeance"? It feels like something done by someone else. Looking at the Amazon page for it, I try to recapture the anxiety over flat sales and plummeting sales ranks, but all I can come up with is tired sadness. It's hard to shake the feeling that the book exists only in my mind, an experience for me to learn from, not as a product to be promoted or purchased.
I pull out the first draft of my WIP and barely recognize it. It's page after page of turgid, fractured, meandering nonsense. The notes in the margins on how to fix it are mine; the handwriting is mine, so the notes must be, too. What's needed is a complete overhaul, not simple revisions. Where is the energy and enthusiasm for this work? Where is the joy? Is it still a work in progress if you don't want to do the work? And if the work seems to have no more point or purpose than shoveling water? What then?
It takes a lot of energy to be a writer, and even more to pretend to be a writer. As the snow falls and the cold settles over the world, I'm left to wonder if, having run out of that energy, I've also lost the ability (or the will) to recharge it.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
My current earworm
This has been running through my mind lately. Pretty hard to shake, so I'll share it with you.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
Everything falls apart
Since May of last year, I've been pulled hard in a half-dozen different directions. Something had to give, and Landless was it. I never declared an official hiatus, but blog posts have trickled down to nothing. I stopped writing limericks for Three Word Wednesday and I finally was forced to stop writing Friday Flash stories.
I'd guess that barely a dozen people noticed this change, and even fewer commented on it. That should tell me something about the significance of this space to other people. I'm still not sure what it says about the significance of this space to me.
Things are mostly unchanged with respect to the demands put on my time and attention. I'd hoped that this would have gotten better by now, but it hasn't. Maybe things will get better in a month or two, maybe not. In the meantime, blog posts like this will be like the irregular mugfuls of water guiltily poured onto half-dead, half-forgotten houseplants, kept alive more out of habit than out of love.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
I'd guess that barely a dozen people noticed this change, and even fewer commented on it. That should tell me something about the significance of this space to other people. I'm still not sure what it says about the significance of this space to me.
Things are mostly unchanged with respect to the demands put on my time and attention. I'd hoped that this would have gotten better by now, but it hasn't. Maybe things will get better in a month or two, maybe not. In the meantime, blog posts like this will be like the irregular mugfuls of water guiltily poured onto half-dead, half-forgotten houseplants, kept alive more out of habit than out of love.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
More on the Hugo award
Yesterday, I noted that the science fiction novel I wrote and published last year is eligible to win the Hugo. There's really no need to note that being eligible to win the Hugo for Best Novel doesn't mean the book has any meaningful chance of winning, or even of being nominated, but I include the observation for those of you who might start to think I'd gone even more delusional than my everyday standard.
So if this is hopeless and I have zero chance (or, to be precise, an infinitesimally non-zero chance), why bother to mention it?
Because I wrote and published a pretty good, Hugo-eligible novel, and that's worth commemorating. I'd like to have more reviews, but those that I have gotten have been good. No one has trashed it, either because of the writing or because the concept of a hero with grammar-and punctuation-based superpowers is too goofy. Sales have been slow, but they too are non-zero.
There are plenty of times that despair rises up high when I look at how I've fallen short of what I want to achieve as a writer. It's useful to remind myself that I wrote and published a pretty good, Hugo-eligible novel, a milestone in this tortured, meandering journey I'm on.
And the next book will be even better.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
So if this is hopeless and I have zero chance (or, to be precise, an infinitesimally non-zero chance), why bother to mention it?
Because I wrote and published a pretty good, Hugo-eligible novel, and that's worth commemorating. I'd like to have more reviews, but those that I have gotten have been good. No one has trashed it, either because of the writing or because the concept of a hero with grammar-and punctuation-based superpowers is too goofy. Sales have been slow, but they too are non-zero.
There are plenty of times that despair rises up high when I look at how I've fallen short of what I want to achieve as a writer. It's useful to remind myself that I wrote and published a pretty good, Hugo-eligible novel, a milestone in this tortured, meandering journey I'm on.
And the next book will be even better.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
My Hugo-eligible novel
As it happens, this is the first year I have an eligible work available for nomination for the Hugo Award, in the "Best Novel" category. As the attentive reader will have no doubt already surmised, the book is "Verbosity's Vengeance", published in September 2013.Anyone attending LONCON 3 (and therefore allowed to nominate) who feels that "Verbosity's Vengeance" is worth the attention, please feel free to throw it into the velociraptor pit. Instructions for nomination are here.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
Resolutions for 2014
As I said last year (i.e. yesterday), New Year's Resolutions are a good way to set specific, actionable goals. Nebulous goals like "get in shape" or "write more" are harder to work toward. Specific goals give you concrete benchmarks. Here are my resolutions for 2014:
1. Run a 5K. This will be part of a general effort to lose some weight, exercise more, and generally rage against the dying of the light that seems to be wrapping itself around my middle-aged body.
2. Publish my next book. This WIP is now at the completed first draft stage, so it will need to be revised (multiple times), polished, beta read, edited & formatted.
3. Write the first draft of Book #3. Part of it is already written, so I need to finish the first draft. Anything after that will be gravy.
Check back with me in 12 months to see how I did on these.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
1. Run a 5K. This will be part of a general effort to lose some weight, exercise more, and generally rage against the dying of the light that seems to be wrapping itself around my middle-aged body.
2. Publish my next book. This WIP is now at the completed first draft stage, so it will need to be revised (multiple times), polished, beta read, edited & formatted.
3. Write the first draft of Book #3. Part of it is already written, so I need to finish the first draft. Anything after that will be gravy.
Check back with me in 12 months to see how I did on these.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
Why make resolutions?
I know people have mixed reactions toward New Year's Resolutions. Life coach gurus will tell you that the time to make a change in your life is not after some arbitrary date on the calender, but NOW. Resolve to do what you want to do starting TODAY.
Fair enough, but humans are culturally entrained to live by symbols and ceremonies. We crave communally recognized milestones to make the passage of time. Even though holidays, anniversaries and other significant dates are arbitrary, every society on Earth lives and governs itself by them.
Whether fixed (Christmas Day, the date on which you were born/married/ordained/etc.), movable (the first full moon of spring, the last home game of the season), or capricious (the day of your first kiss, the day she left, the night you picked up the gun and then put it down again), these arbitrary dividers between before and after help us make sense of our lives.
Or at least keep the memories in order.
So, take the time at the turning of the year to look back AND to look forward. Look back, because introspection in support of an examined life is rarely wasted effort. Look forward, because deciding what kind of a future you want of the live in helps you to make specific plans and preparations to getting it.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
Fair enough, but humans are culturally entrained to live by symbols and ceremonies. We crave communally recognized milestones to make the passage of time. Even though holidays, anniversaries and other significant dates are arbitrary, every society on Earth lives and governs itself by them.Whether fixed (Christmas Day, the date on which you were born/married/ordained/etc.), movable (the first full moon of spring, the last home game of the season), or capricious (the day of your first kiss, the day she left, the night you picked up the gun and then put it down again), these arbitrary dividers between before and after help us make sense of our lives.
Or at least keep the memories in order.
So, take the time at the turning of the year to look back AND to look forward. Look back, because introspection in support of an examined life is rarely wasted effort. Look forward, because deciding what kind of a future you want of the live in helps you to make specific plans and preparations to getting it.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
What happened to last year's resolutions?
Time for the annual performance review. My resolutions for 2013 were:
1. Yes, Verbosity's Vengeance was published on September 14. People who have read it and posted reviews on Amazon and on Goodreads liked it, with some people having enjoyed it quite a bit. If anyone read it and didn't like it, they kept quiet about it, for which I'm grateful. So far, many fewer people have actually taken a chance on the book than I hoped. When the next book goes on sale, these people will have the satisfaction of being all, "Oh, you just started reading Tony Noland? I've been reading him since his first novel."
2. Yes, the rough draft of the next book is finished. It's a sad, brutal mess, and not even close to the polished phase, but at least it exists. I opened a vein for this one, digging into some painful personal experiences to provide characters, plot twists, and overall emotional verisimilitude. I might be tempted to think that most of my readers would rather read something funny from me, but based on sales of Verbosity's Vengeance, I can be confident that even if I alienated my entire existing reader base, those would not be major numbers anyway.
3. Yes, I'm getting more done and have been more focused on the important things. Unfortunately, this has involved dealing with lots of major disruption in my day job that began in May and continues to the present. I've accomplished much less with my writing. My output had to be severely curtailed as I kept the ship afloat, which meant making some hard choices about how I spent my writing time. Rather than doing five things badly, I tried to do two things well. It didn't work out as I'd hoped.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
1. Publish "Verbosity's Vengeance: A Grammarian Adventure Novel".How did I do? It's been a mixed bag this year, an amalgamation of highs and lows.
2. Finish an outline, rough draft, revised draft and polished draft of my next book.
3. Rework my writing schedule to get more done, and refocus my efforts so that the things I'm getting done are what I need to be getting done.
1. Yes, Verbosity's Vengeance was published on September 14. People who have read it and posted reviews on Amazon and on Goodreads liked it, with some people having enjoyed it quite a bit. If anyone read it and didn't like it, they kept quiet about it, for which I'm grateful. So far, many fewer people have actually taken a chance on the book than I hoped. When the next book goes on sale, these people will have the satisfaction of being all, "Oh, you just started reading Tony Noland? I've been reading him since his first novel."
2. Yes, the rough draft of the next book is finished. It's a sad, brutal mess, and not even close to the polished phase, but at least it exists. I opened a vein for this one, digging into some painful personal experiences to provide characters, plot twists, and overall emotional verisimilitude. I might be tempted to think that most of my readers would rather read something funny from me, but based on sales of Verbosity's Vengeance, I can be confident that even if I alienated my entire existing reader base, those would not be major numbers anyway.
3. Yes, I'm getting more done and have been more focused on the important things. Unfortunately, this has involved dealing with lots of major disruption in my day job that began in May and continues to the present. I've accomplished much less with my writing. My output had to be severely curtailed as I kept the ship afloat, which meant making some hard choices about how I spent my writing time. Rather than doing five things badly, I tried to do two things well. It didn't work out as I'd hoped.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
Trying to Stop Smoking
On the drive from Philadelphia to NE Ohio for Christmas, we had a little "incident" with the minivan. A stalling, lurching engine would be bad enough, but billowing plumes of acrid smoke from under the hood contribute to circumstances which, to say the least, do not inspire confidence in the vehicle. Being 300 miles in either direction from a) home, and b) our destination, we had a range of options available to us, none of them great.
To make a long story short, we made it to where we needed to be, despite the failing transmission. The last couple of hundred miles gave me a new crop of gray hairs to add to the existing collection, but that's the inevitable price demanded by an exciting day. At least it stopped smoking when I shut the engine off.
The minivan is now parked on a street a couple of miles from where I am now. There it will stay until I figure out exactly what to do. Might be a clutch plate, might be something more. Either way, I'm not going to sink more money into this thing. We've wrung the last drops from this husk; it's time to cut our losses and move on.
We were planning on getting a new vehicle after the holidays, but this sudden catastrophic failure has forced my hand. A new minivan will run anywhere from $30,000 - $40,000, an expenditure I was not expecting to make at the After Christmas DoorBuster Sales.
I make about $2 for every copy of "Verbosity's Vengeance" sold as an e.book. If any of you would like to buy 80,000 copies real quick, I'd be cool with that.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
To make a long story short, we made it to where we needed to be, despite the failing transmission. The last couple of hundred miles gave me a new crop of gray hairs to add to the existing collection, but that's the inevitable price demanded by an exciting day. At least it stopped smoking when I shut the engine off.
The minivan is now parked on a street a couple of miles from where I am now. There it will stay until I figure out exactly what to do. Might be a clutch plate, might be something more. Either way, I'm not going to sink more money into this thing. We've wrung the last drops from this husk; it's time to cut our losses and move on.
We were planning on getting a new vehicle after the holidays, but this sudden catastrophic failure has forced my hand. A new minivan will run anywhere from $30,000 - $40,000, an expenditure I was not expecting to make at the After Christmas DoorBuster Sales.
I make about $2 for every copy of "Verbosity's Vengeance" sold as an e.book. If any of you would like to buy 80,000 copies real quick, I'd be cool with that.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
Speaking seriously
Probably the most awkward part of writing an introspective, confessional blog post is the first line. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I need to decide if this second line will actually get into the meat of what I wanted to say in this post, or continue to beat around the bush as I dither about just how detailed to be in sharing the thoughts that consume me.
A paragraph break will forestall that decision, allowing me to continue to shy away from the real subject of this post while delivering a passable illusion of developing content. Should I do another paragraph break? No, that would make this "paragraph" only a single line, far too brief even for a blog post. My sentences are long and complex, but even one of my more baroque constructions couldn't pull off the trick of standing alone.
But I digress.
Or do I? Is this really a digression? While all this self-referential blather would appear antithetical to my stated goal - i.e. the introspective, confessional blog post I came on here to write - it seems to be accomplishing my REAL purpose, which is to hide my real thoughts and feelings behind a cloud of meaningless textual chaff. After all, the marketplace of ideas has little demand for the inner workings of my mind, however grammatically they are presented.
My head is a crowded place. Like a Time Lord without the time (or the lordliness), I lead too many lives, both simultaneously and in sequence. They bleed across their separating membranes, the triumphs of one diminished by the tragedies of another, the base metal here burnished and elevated by the admixture of gold from there. There is nothing within me that is unalloyed anything, but then, that could be said of any of us, no?
So.
Another stone thrown to the pond,
Another leaf freed from the tree,
Another piece seized from the loaf,
Another word heard out of me.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
A paragraph break will forestall that decision, allowing me to continue to shy away from the real subject of this post while delivering a passable illusion of developing content. Should I do another paragraph break? No, that would make this "paragraph" only a single line, far too brief even for a blog post. My sentences are long and complex, but even one of my more baroque constructions couldn't pull off the trick of standing alone.
But I digress.
Or do I? Is this really a digression? While all this self-referential blather would appear antithetical to my stated goal - i.e. the introspective, confessional blog post I came on here to write - it seems to be accomplishing my REAL purpose, which is to hide my real thoughts and feelings behind a cloud of meaningless textual chaff. After all, the marketplace of ideas has little demand for the inner workings of my mind, however grammatically they are presented.
My head is a crowded place. Like a Time Lord without the time (or the lordliness), I lead too many lives, both simultaneously and in sequence. They bleed across their separating membranes, the triumphs of one diminished by the tragedies of another, the base metal here burnished and elevated by the admixture of gold from there. There is nothing within me that is unalloyed anything, but then, that could be said of any of us, no?
So.
Another stone thrown to the pond,
Another leaf freed from the tree,
Another piece seized from the loaf,
Another word heard out of me.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
Too pretty to be an engineer
We join our hero, Alex Graham (aka the Grammarian), in the middle of a cocktail party conversation with his old friend Walter McHenry and Kate Hunter, a woman he's just met.
...
"Alex Graham, this is Kathryn Hunt. She’s just moved into town.”
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
...
"Alex Graham, this is Kathryn Hunt. She’s just moved into town.”
Alex extended his hand. “How do you
do, Ms. Hunt.”
“Very well, thank you, Mr. Graham.
It’s, ah, Hunter, actually. Kathryn Hunter, but please, call me Kate.”
“Kate it is. Please, call me Alex.”
In a moment, another glance between them was enough to cover the awkwardness of
Walter’ having gotten her name wrong, and to establish the beginnings of an
acquaintance. He let go of her hand. Her grip had been confident and her nails
were moderately short. The silver pendant that rested on the upper swell of her
cleavage had an oddly cut emerald, offset by five small diamonds. The diamonds
were of good but not outstanding quality, probably a third of a carat in all.
“Kate?” said Walter. “Huh. And here
I’ve been calling you Kathryn all evening.”
“Yes, you have. Strange, isn’t it?”
She sipped at her drink, looking over the lip of the glass at the string
quartet. The moment stretched out a fraction longer than was comfortable.
She’s used to meeting and greeting,
but doesn’t like small talk, Alex thought. Wears glasses,
but skipped them for the sake of her outfit. Doesn’t spend a lot on jewelry,
but that pendant is a modern setting. Is she in sales? An administrator of some
kind?
Aloud, Alex said, “So, Kate. Did I
hear Walter say that you’ve just moved here?”
“Yes, that’s right,” she said, “I
moved here last August.”
“August... the start of the school
year?” Kate’s eyes narrowed a bit and she inclined her head at Alex. He thought
he might have scored a hit, but he couldn’t tell if she was happy about that or
not. He went on, “And how are you finding things here in Lexicon City? It’s not
been too difficult of a transition, I hope.”
“Things have been fine, thank you.
Although I must admit that I haven’t gotten to see much of the city yet. My new
job has been keeping me rather busy. I haven’t even gotten my place properly
furnished.”
“I could certainly give you the
names of a few furniture stores in town. I’m sure you’d be able to find some
suitable items, regardless of your, ah, tastes in decorating.”
Kate smiled and said, “My tastes?
Or do you mean regardless of my budget, Alex?” Her smile assured both men that
she wasn’t offended, but Alex had to use a minor pulse of power to suppress a
blush even as Walter smiled more widely.
“That depends on what your new job
is, right?” Walter sailed into the opening. “What is it you do again? We kinda
got sidetracked when you were about to tell me.”
Her smile shifted to a
half-hesitant quirk of the lips. “I’m at Lexicon Polytech.”
“Oh?” Alex said quickly, trusting
that his effort to stay foremost in the conversation with her was not too
obvious. “Well, you look a little too well-adjusted to be one of the graduate
students.” He smiled, hoping the joke went over well.
It did. She smiled and shook her
head. “No, and I’m not a postdoc, either.”
“Alex, come on!” Walter rolled his
eyes. “Does she look like a Ph.D. to you? Besides, LPU is an engineering
technology research school. I mean, really, open your eyes, pal! Have you ever
seen anyone who looks less like an engineer?” He winked at Kate, all boyish
charm.
In a flash, Kate’s smile was gone
as muscles clenched along her jaw line.
Uh oh, Alex
thought. He glanced at Walter and winced. Even though Kate’s changed expression
shouldn’t have been hard to read, Walter was oblivious.
She looked up at the big man and
said, “You’re right, Walter, I’m not a postdoc and I’m not an engineer.”
“See, Alex? I told you.”
“I’m a full professor in the
Materials Science department. LPU was so eager to hire me away from CalTech,
they threw in tenure. My undergraduate work at Yale was in organic chemistry,
and my master’s degree at the University of Chicago was in cryogenic electron
capture. For my doctoral work at M.I.T., I invented a method for autoassembly
of interphase semitransitional solids. Here at LPU, I’m continuing my work on
quantum oscillation dampening fields. Lots of chemistry and physics, but you’re
right, no engineering degree.”
She handed her empty glass to
Walter, whose mouth was hanging open wide enough for his foot.
“Now then, if you’ll excuse me,
gentlemen,” she said, “I think I’ve had enough entertainment for one evening.
Mr. McHenry, it was fascinating to meet you. Truly, it was. Alex, I still need
to get the contact info for those furniture shops you mentioned. I’d love to
get together with you to discuss it. Perhaps sometime this week we might meet
for coffee?”
Alex, pleased and surprised, caught
the chagrined look on Walter’ face. However, before Alex could say anything, a
pistol shot exploded from the far side of the room, followed by a man’s voice,
shouting, “All right, nobody move!”
At the last instant, Alex
remembered to temper his reaction down to that of a normal man. He turned
toward the sound of the gunfire. At the far end of the room, a dozen armed men,
masked and wielding pistols and automatic weapons, pushed their way through the
crowd. The guests and partygoers were shoved ahead, some of them tripping and
falling. Around the room, dozens of people were digging out cell phones. A half
dozen security guards lay unconscious by the doors.
...TO BE CONTINUED IN THE PAGES OF "VERBOSITY'S VENGEANCE"...
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
Indie Interview: Larry Kollar
My friend and collaborator Larry Kollar (@FARfetched58) is celebrating the release of the newest book in the Accidental Sorcerers series, "The Sorcerer's Daughter". I invited him onto Landless so I could learn a little more about the man behind the books.
TN: Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?
TN: Thanks, Larry! Good luck with "The Sorcerer's Daughter" at Amazon and over at Smashwords!
Larry Kollar lives in north Georgia, surrounded by kudzu, trees, and in-laws. His day job involves writing user manuals—some of which may have been fiction, but not by intent. He has had short fictional works published in the Hogglepot Journal, the Were-Traveler, and the anthology Best of Friday Flash, Vol. 2. Longer works include his first novel, White Pickups, and the popular Accidental Sorcerers series. For more of his strange fiction, and even stranger reality, visit his blog, Far Manor, and follow him on Twitter as @FARfetched58. For first looks and exclusive offers, join Larry’s “Fleet Commanders” mailing list: http://eepurl.com/nDOP9
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
Tony Noland: Larry, congratulations on "The Sorcerer's Daughter"! Tell us about it.
This
is the third book in the "Accidental Sorcerers" series. While Bailar,
Mik, and Sura help the Conclave prepare for potential conflict with
rogue mages, Sura learns that she is a scion of a noble House in one of
the Alliance cities. But when she learns the price of her history, it
may be too late.
This was a fun one to write. It starts out with a snowball fight, which provides a vehicle for tying up the last loose end from Water and Chaos,
the second book. They prepare to teach combat magic to other
apprentices, and have to prove themselves to some of the older kids.
Finally, there's an escape and a chase scene at sea!
With this book, the first meta-plot of the series, Sura's origin story, is complete.
TN: You're a prolific indie author, with a number of titles out on the market. Do you see writing as a career?
I
write technical documentation for a living, so… in a way, yes. ;-) As
far as writing fiction, I've calculated how many books I'd need to sell
on a regular basis to do it full time. It's a pretty big number, but
some indies have racked up bigger numbers. I need to step up my
marketing game.
TN: Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?
I
was very young. I have been able to read as long as I can remember, but
remember puzzling out the concepts of "quoted dialog" and paragraphs
when I was 5 or 6. I think I started trying to write stories soon after.
TN: What was the hardest part of writing your book?
Trying
to avoid cramming too many subplots into a novella. What got cut was
the relationship between Charn and Isa, the friends at the annual
Gathering. Charn now has a girlfriend at home, but doesn't know how to
tell Isa. Meanwhile, Isa is willing to do anything to keep him…
TN: It sounds like there's a long plot arc for these characters. What’s next?
The next story is Into the Icebound. With the apprentices finally coming into their own power, their challenges are growing as well. Plenty of action!
TN: Thanks, Larry! Good luck with "The Sorcerer's Daughter" at Amazon and over at Smashwords!
Larry Kollar lives in north Georgia, surrounded by kudzu, trees, and in-laws. His day job involves writing user manuals—some of which may have been fiction, but not by intent. He has had short fictional works published in the Hogglepot Journal, the Were-Traveler, and the anthology Best of Friday Flash, Vol. 2. Longer works include his first novel, White Pickups, and the popular Accidental Sorcerers series. For more of his strange fiction, and even stranger reality, visit his blog, Far Manor, and follow him on Twitter as @FARfetched58. For first looks and exclusive offers, join Larry’s “Fleet Commanders” mailing list: http://eepurl.com/nDOP9
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
"my top five favorite books"
I've always been a fan of the superhero genre, but it's not everyday that a story in that category would move me in such a profound way. Given the nature of my favorite paragraph in Verbosity's Vengeance, I cannot help but feel moved. It's likely because I agree with the sentiment of just how powerful language really is. This story reinforces it in spades, and I encourage other fans of language to pick up a copy of this story.
Alternatively, if you are just looking for a fun, intelligent, exciting superhero story with lots of explosions AND clever wordplay, you'll also love my book! Available now for $2.99 for the Kindle reader and Kindle software. Makes a great present for ages 12 and up.
Still not convinced? Read the first couple of chapters for free. Just click on the cover to open the book and start reading!
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
My next book
My 50K NaNoWriMo is sitting quietly on my hard drive, marinating in its piquant first draft juices. It's a corporate thriller, full of threats, intimidation, double-dealing, and innocent people used by indifferent forces to achieve twisted ends. Evil is sometimes thwarted, sometimes rewarded, and if virtue triumphs, then the game isn't over yet. This is a story I've been wanting to tell for years, and I'm glad the writing went the way it did for NaNoWriMo. I'll let this draft sit for this month, then start revisions in January.
This will be my next book, written in a different way and to a different standard than "Verbosity's Vengeance". Whereas the debut novel detailing the adventures of the Grammarian was a full-length novel of 108K, I'm going to make this one half that length at most. The production time associated with it should be a third of what "Verbosity's Vengeance" took.
In writing "Verbosity's Vengeance", I shared the angst and uncertainty of the writing process. While this helped to whet the appetite of a few people, it mostly drained me of the fire needed to re-write it. I spent a lot of time writing about writing the book, instead of just writing the book. That in turn extended the production time, which I believe cost me significantly.
Maybe it's oversharing to observe that most of the hopes I had for "Verbosity's Vengeance" have been crushed and stripped away by the experience of bringing it to the light of day. They were unreasonable hopes, of course, but as they were the hopes of a know-nothing, debut novelist, working with minimal support or backing, unreasonable hopes were to be expected. Now that uninformed hope has been replaced by a measure of experience, I'm better positioned to know what to expect the next time around.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
This will be my next book, written in a different way and to a different standard than "Verbosity's Vengeance". Whereas the debut novel detailing the adventures of the Grammarian was a full-length novel of 108K, I'm going to make this one half that length at most. The production time associated with it should be a third of what "Verbosity's Vengeance" took.
In writing "Verbosity's Vengeance", I shared the angst and uncertainty of the writing process. While this helped to whet the appetite of a few people, it mostly drained me of the fire needed to re-write it. I spent a lot of time writing about writing the book, instead of just writing the book. That in turn extended the production time, which I believe cost me significantly.
Maybe it's oversharing to observe that most of the hopes I had for "Verbosity's Vengeance" have been crushed and stripped away by the experience of bringing it to the light of day. They were unreasonable hopes, of course, but as they were the hopes of a know-nothing, debut novelist, working with minimal support or backing, unreasonable hopes were to be expected. Now that uninformed hope has been replaced by a measure of experience, I'm better positioned to know what to expect the next time around.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)