It's funny. Gacked from here.

First, I have a post up today at sfnovelists. Go have a read if you like.  It starts like this:

The first title of this post was: I write crap. I changed it though and the rest of this post is about why and why I would call my writing crap. Read more . . . .


 And now a snippet from The Turning Tide:

As Fairlie pushed through behind him, the path closed again. He was caged within the metal thornbush. William looked at her, pressing his handerkerchief to his cheek, refusing to let his rising fear show. Her nostrils flared and he knew she could smell it.

“You’re heart is racing,” she said.

He didn’t answer. He became aware of another sound, soft and sibilant. He couldn’t place it. He started to step forward. Fairlie caught his arm.

“Look down.”

His gaze dropped obediently. At his feet was a blue basin made of worked sylveth. Inside it, silvery raw sylveth swirled and lapped like a miniature sea. It was making the noise he’d been hearing.

And what have you got for me today?

Oh, and on another note, bought some plants and seeds today. Going to dig in the dirt.

So I feel like crap today. Shaky and a little off balance. I don't know why. My temp is almost to normal, so that means I"m running a little fever. Sigh.

So I give you some amusement. It requires clicking.  These via Smart Bitches.

First, book cover snark. It's amusing. Just scroll through some of the posts.

And then, the Austrian National Rugby team lost a match 48-0 to Lithuania. I don't know if they did this performance to show that they are still brave, strong, and whole, or if it's one of those things you do to avert bad luck, or if they were just awesomely drunk. However, they did a striptease. This is not work safe. Not at all. And they go full monty, though I never laughed so hard as when they are down to the nitty gritty and everything's still around their ankles. And on top of all that yummy funniness, They SING!  So go here and scroll down until you get to the video and then play.  Do not be drinking things.

And from otterdance whose Nightrunner book is nearly out (just one more month left!!!! And that falls after my deadline, so I'll get to read it when it comes out!) We have this, which should tell you most everything you need to know about my sense of humor. But just in case it doesn't, let me tell you a story . . . .

There will be snippet Saturday. It will, coincidentally enough, be tomorrow after my son's soccer game.

And now, to write some more.

I haven't written much today. Instead I've been reading the manuscript thus far. I still haven't found what I'm looking for, which is a bit of description. I may not have put it in anywhere, though I thought I had. But here's what I did discover about The Turning Tide. It doesn't suck.  It's actually not bad.

Okay, you may think that's the oddest thing for a writer to say, and maybe even me looking for kudos. Not so. The thing is that all three of the Crosspointe books have been challenging for me. In The Cipher, I found myself struggling with developing the action and tension the way I wanted, and creating a character who I liked but who was not particularly likeable overall (waves at Marten). In The Black Ship, the struggle was with getting certain elements right in the plotting, making the characters work, and having only one point of view to work with--and a completely miserable scene that Would. Not. Go. Right. (remember to remind me that we're going to have a contest to see if you can figure that one out). Again, I have a character who is not particularly likeable at first (I adore him though).

And then The Turning Tide is more a book of intrigue. We don't have any huge action sequences. And we have four points of view. And we have betrayals and every point of view sees things happen differently so only the reader can really understand the full truth of a situation as things progress. And we have very complex character relationships. So, with The Turning Tide, I haven't been able to tell if the pacing or the characters or anything was working. Part of that was I was really avoiding going back and reading so I wouldn't fall into the trap of revising before I had my draft done. Part of it was a bit of fear that I wasn't keeping the balls in the air and I didn't want to know *that* until I had a draft done also.

But wow. I'm now into the part that I'm most comfortable with--where the action really picks up--and looking back at the first part of the book, I'm actually feeling relatively good about how it reads. Wow. My hands are shaking as I type this. I didn't know I was going to be *that* nervous about the book.  Holy F***!  (Yeah, trucker mouth has set in for the day.)

Some highlights from this book--we get to see majicars in full action and get to see how the majick works. We get to see the transformation of sylveth spawn and the results--over a long term period. We learn a whole of secrets about Crosspointe. And other stuff that I don't want to give away before you read The Black Ship.

So, now back to work.

Dear suddenly horny character:

WTF?  I mean, for real? I don't like this. This wasn't a part of you we talked about. What are you doing? And by the way, you're wife's only been dead for less than a year. And your new lust-interest isn't going to be interested. I don't think.  *turns head to look at lust-interest character*  You aren't, are you? For real. Cause I don't know if there's any way this can play out well.

Seriously, the both of you are throwing spanners in the works. Stop it. I cannot have the book derailed at this point. So stop it. Stop. It.

Now.

Sincerely,

Freaked out writer

So first, I still haven't uploaded what I want to upload because I don't seem to have an FTP program that will work. And Dreamweaver wants nothing to do with it. So trying to get it in another format so I can do this. See, that's me teasing. 

There is no longer ANY wiggle room on the deadline and so despite the extravaganza of docs and tests I have scheduled, I still must meet deadline. So I am feeling just a little bit like my icon today. 

And from Neil Gaiman, words of wisdom from his blog:


We are creators. When we begin, separately or together, there’s a blank piece of paper. When we are done, we are giving people dreams and magic and journeys into minds and lives that they have never lived. And we must not forget that.



Now toddling off to write some more. I'm not sure I like the Hole version of Gold Dust Woman . . . .

otterdance did a belief-o-matic and I thought I would too. It asks some questions to see where a person most closely aligns religiously. I thought it would be fun, and so here are my results. And I'm thinking it pretty much gets me into the right neighborhood, though, really, this is not exactly a way to discover yourself:

1.	Neo-Pagan (100%)
2.	Unitarian Universalism (93%)
3.	New Age (88%)
4.	Liberal Quakers (76%)
5.	Secular Humanism (76%)
6.	Reform Judaism (75%)
7.	Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (74%)
8.	Mahayana Buddhism (73%)
9.	Sikhism (71%)
10.	Theravada Buddhism (68%)
11.	New Thought (66%)
12.	Scientology (62%)
13.	Taoism (52%)
14.	Nontheist (50%)
15.	Hinduism (47%)
16.	Jainism (41%)
17.	Bahá'í Faith (41%)
18.	Orthodox Judaism (41%)
19.	Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (39%)
20.	Orthodox Quaker (37%)
21.	Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (34%)
22.	Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (27%)
23.	Eastern Orthodox (24%)
24.	Islam (24%)
25.	Roman Catholic (24%)
26.	Seventh Day Adventist (17%)
27.	Jehovah's Witness (6%)

Just a quick fyi. First, I've got a cool thing for you and I'm just trying to figure out how to upload an adobe file to my website, or to LJ for that matter. GRRRRRR.  Help! Seriously. Help.

Second, many more blood tests came back, mostly in the green zone, today. The scheduling of many other tests is getting underway. Blech. Okay, most of them are okay, but there are a couple I could do without. Still, must get done, must find out what's wrong, must function better.

THANKS for the crimson and black on the Crown Shields!!!! Even though I thought there were different colors, I think you're right. For those of you eager for lotso Crosspointe faster rather than not . . . Found out today that the schedule right now for The Black Ship and The Turning Tide is for November of '08 and May of '09 respectively. And probably later in 09 or early 10 you'll see Bitter Night, my contemporary epic fantasy that Pocket is putting out.  They are doing the cover conference on The Turning Tide tomorrow (where various parties of great knowledge talk about what the cover should look like, then get in touch with the artist who will magically make it happen.)

So now back to the salt mines. I've got a lot left to write and it really feels like three or four bigs scenes, it's probably a lot more small connected scenes.

The dork (me) needs some help from you who've read The Cipher. And even the one or two of you who've read The Black Ship. Here's the problem. I know that Crosspointe has royal colors. I just can't for the life of me remember what they are, and so far I can find them. (I usually take notes on the books and have not done a very good job with the one I'm writing, and apparently left that detail out of the notes on The Cipher--anyone want to update my notes for me? Yeah, didn't think so).  Anyhow, if you can remember, I will be eternally grateful.  Help!  Please!

Di

I'm not feeling much like snippeting today. I had bad news this week and it's kind of kicked me in the gut. It started with me trying to figure out what was wrong with me. Then jaylake was diagnosed with cancer, for which he had bits of himself removed. Now Jay and I aren't close, though we're pretty good acquaintances, and I was feeling pretty blue about that. Then I learned the 13 year old nephew of a friend is hours away from dying from a brain tumor. Thirteen years old. And their one hope is that they can get him home so they can all say goodbye. And then a good friend was diagnosed with breast cancer and she's about to have a double mastectomy. She's my age with a 2 year old daughter.  The tumor is very large and there's no telling how aggressive the cancer is at this point.

So.

I don't feel much like snippeting.

Mostly I feel like throwing things.  Though Jay is admittedly lightening my mood by his unceasing good humor. I admire him. Go to his journal and admire him too.

I think I'll go hug my kids now.

It is snowing.

That is all.

I'm putting this behind a cut because, well, I probably should, though I find it hugely funny and think there should be t-shirts.

My agent is Lucienne Diver (aka varkat). She is now Lucienne Diver of the Knight Literary Agency (formerly of the Spectrum Literary Agency). What this means for me, I'm not entirely sure. But I'm along for the ride, since, well, she's fabulous and why wouldn't I? The Knight Agency looks pretty nifty and I'm looking forward to meeting some of them (I read their blogs already, muwhahahaha).

In other news, there isn't much. It rained today. Still downing iron. Feeling somewhat better, but I wonder how long it takes to get my blood more normal.

My son had his school music program. Man they were all so cute. They finished out with two kazoo songs. And then he brought his kazoo home.

I got my preliminary schedule today for Miscon. I'm looking forward to that. Looks like some fun panels.

Someone cut a fiber optic line about 40 miles away today and our town lost phones, including cell phones. I had a landline okay, since I bet mine through the cable. It was weird though. Couldn't call anyone here, nor access the campus webpage. It was the last day of the block and semester--imagine all those students trying to access WebCT and email in tests or projects or call their professors in desperation . . . . Nope. All lines read as busy.

So I went to see a doctor yesterday, as many of you know I've not feeling particularly well. I found her through a friend and she's a combo hematologist, internist and oncologist (no I don't have cancer). But the reason I wanted to see her is she is extremely thorough, believes in all sorts of approaches to medicine (she has a guy who does reiki on staff, and a number of others), and she believes in treating the whole person, not just a select bit.. And though my friend warned me how it would be, I wasn't entirely prepared for this experience.

I get there and do the paperwork thing and I have to wait. That's okay. It's late in the day and there are a lot of people there getting chemo and other things and I'm just glad to have gotten an appointment this soon. Then I get called. First things first. The usual height and weight thing. Then a phlebotomist comes and draws four large vials of blood, six medium vials of blood, and three or four smaller ones. And then there was the quick trip for the urine sample. They run off to do tests.  I then start meeting with nurses and doctors who are either getting information from me--and they want to hear EVERYRTHING. Nothing's  too small. And some just want to stop in and say hello and introduce themselves. And then there were Lucy and Sophie the two puppies. Cuties.

Then I met with the doc's main nurse who had tattoos and was down to earth and told me some things I didn't know--she's one of the people who does a lot of the research on things for the doc. She's very very thorough.

Then I met with the doc. For something like two hours. Talked about everything regarding my health. Got back labs. Imagine that. Getting back the labs in the same appointment!!!  Turns out I'm incredibly iron deficient. Which may mean I'm bleeding inside somewhere. Which of course means looking around inside. Can't hardly wait.  Then there's the thyroid. Seems to be a problem there. And then we are going to start doing some tests, especially on some stuff that I've ignored over the last few years because other issues were more pressing. Ignoring no more. We are going to gather a lot of info (did I mention she wanted all the records of all the tests and surgeries and docs I'd seen for the last 10 years or so? She went and got them).  Then had the physical exam.

So the upshot is that I'm starting a very heavy dose of iron, which will hopefully help me feel a lot better, plus starting some other meds and vitamins to help get me more healthy. It's nice to have someone that thorough looking after to me. 

Which all of means I got precious little done yesterday and today. I did, finally, start reading the Kris Longknife series by Mike (Moscoe) Shepherd. I kept forgetting I bought them and decided when I found them the other day they'd be perfect for the 350 roundtrip drive and wait in the doc's office. Probably why the wait in the doc's office wasn't annoying, come to think of it.

Today I'm hoping to write a little, then go off and see Ironman, and tomorrow I plan to be gone all day on a doctor's visit/bookbuying jaunt. 

So for today, you get a roundup of stuff that is interesting.

First up, I posted a post at SFnovelists about bad guys.

Second up, if an agent rejects you, Do. Not. Do. This. Same thing applies to editors, lovers, and pretty much anything.

Third up, the contract between reader and writer. Worth reading. Thanks rolanni.

Soon you will get to see something very very cool related to The Black Ship and there will be goodies involved. Hopefully by the end of the week. 

Di

C'mon everyone!  Snippet with me!  If not your own work, give us something cool from something you love.

From The Turning Tide:

Something moved out from her with the word. A wave of . . .  something . . . powerful. She didn’t even let herself think the word majick as the paving stones fractured with a sound like snapping twigs. Spiderweb cracks chased up the walls and across the ceiling. Dust clouded the air. Fairlie breathed it in. It filled her nose and her lungs and sank into her blood and her muscles. Her body flushed hot with heat and vigor.

Additionally, msagara has a fabulous post about choosing what you write and being kind to your writing community. She's absolutely on target and made out of awesome. Go read. 

You guys mentioned some of the coolest books in the last post. And I plan to comment and followup, but you made me also think of something that I've been remiss about. Duh.

Okay, so there are some new books out that I've been wanting to go get. Waiting for to go get.

They include:

suricattus's new Wren and Sergei book (Retrievers book) Free Fall.

mizkit's The Queen's Bastard (I love her Urban Shaman and Walker Papers books. You really should try them out).

Lisa Shearin's Armed and Magical (sequel to Magic Lost, Trouble Found, which I loved)

smokingpigeon's The Brass Bed (been looking forward to this one for awhile and the second and third books will be coming close on its heels in June and July I believe).

frost_light's One Foot in the Grave (sequel to Halfway to the Grave and I've been waiting to hang out with Bones again.)

Tate Hallaway's Romancing the Dead (interview with her posted here)

Jeri Smith-Ready's Wicked Game And the worst part is she's got other books out that I've forgotten that I wanted to get, so this is just a tip of the iceberg. *points to icon* Exactly so.

I know there are more, but these I've been jonesing for--just this month. Next month there are more coming out. How am I ever going to keep up?

So what books are you jonesing for? On your shopping list?
 

So let's get nostalgic, shall we? Over at Romancing the Blog, Jennifer Estep talks about her favorite books as a kid. Which made me want to talk about my favorite books as a kid. These are all the books I reread a billion times. I loved the Narnia books. And the Little House on the Prairie books. And Nancy Drew and also the Three Investigators. I loved the Black Stallion Books and the Anne of Green Gables books. And the Madeleine L'Engle books. Oh, and the Marguerite Henry books. I was a voracious reader. I know I'm forgetting some of my favorites.

But tell me, what were your favorites? The books you cherished and reread when you were younger?

Dear character who's been turned into spawn:

Really? Cause I didn't see that coming as a by product of spawnage. What else are you hiding? Are you planning to mess with my plot? I know you are. Don't lie to me. I need to know what's going on. So fess up. What are you up to next?

Sincerely,

author

So you've heard me whining about snow. Now I thought I would make it more pictoral. Since I woke up this morning to the following:




This is the Canadian Cherry in the back yard



And so, that is the beginning of the day. It will warm up, this will all melt off by tonight probably (though it may snow again tonight). My friend's grandfather used to say that March came in like a lion and left like a son-of-a-bitch. Given that, April is leaving like . . . well, I can't really say without washing my mouth out with soap.

I hope it's sunny where you are.

Di

The Turning Tide Progress

55101 / 120000 words. 46% done!