Blog - Page 75 of 82 - Memoirs of an Imp of the Perverse

Jan

2011

The dreaded list

>Yep, it’s time for the To-Do list. The first three on that “To Write” list seem to be getting done simultaneously. When Steven doesn’t want to talk to me, William or Tarjiaan do. (Which is nice, because Tarjiaan hasn’t wanted to talk to me at ALL in almost a year. I’ve been driving poor Danielle nuts with anticipation.)

To Revise:

Fools Rush In. (was Fool’s Gold. Technically, this one is already spoken for.Yes, that does mean I sold it. But there might be another revision before it gets put to bed.

To Write:

House of Sable Locks (novel, in progress — second priority)
Drum Mage (Bumped up in priority since “The Hand You’re Dealt” came out)
Sea Prince (To be written with Danielle Jones)
Wanderer’s Moon (next book in the Midnight Moon series.)

To Outline

Coral Throne (sequel to Sea Prince)
Hidden Things (Mystere Book 1)
Mystere Book 2 (which hasn’t given up the title yet and may turn into book 3 and A&L will be book 2)
Ashes and Light (Mystere Book 3)
Tablets of Stone (Mystere Book 4)
Tales from the Arena

To Sell

Nomad’s Moon
Exile’s Moon
Princes of Air

Allow to percolate

Professional virgin story (no title as of yet)
Wandering star story
Rainbow Wars (the Teach-in idea that might just have legs)

Jan

2011

Quiet…

>I realize this morning that I’ve been very quiet in the blog recently. Part of that has been the holidays and the two weeks that my son had off from school that kept me from doing much writing of any kind. However, I know the truth…

I have a new fandom.

I am a somewhat… obsessive individual. When I fall into something, I fall HARD. And I tend to focus on it to the detriment of everything else. Usually, it takes a few weeks for the initial obsession to ease up enough that I can think about other things.

So, the timing is about right for me to be able to start to think about writing again. Because it’s been about six weeks since I fell in love with Sherlock.

If you don’t know, Sherlock is the new BBC adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes stories, updated to bring our favorite detective and his Boswell… er.. Blogger, Dr. John Watson, into the 21st century. There are three episodes to the first season, and they’ll be starting filming the second season in the spring. The show stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock, and Martin “I’m-gonna-be-a-Hobbit” Freeman as Watson.

Now, Martin Freeman is the most adorable BAMF! ever. He is going to ROCK as Bilbo.

However, the one to steal the show is Ben Cumberbatch. Oh… boy….

He’s just… yeah. You have to watch the show to see. But I am a sucker for a deep voice, and one reviewer I’ve read said that Ben Cumberbatch sounds like a jaguar hiding inside a cello.

Trust me. TOTALLY worth six weeks obsession. But now I have to get back to work.

Soon as I finish looking at more pictures of Sherlock…

Jan

2011

>So…..

>Anyone want to nominate me for a Hugo?

Jan

2011

>Writing round-up for 2010

>It was an interesting year. Eleven submissions, and of that, I sold four. (Five if you count the reprint that sold and then didn’t…)

The breakdown —

Two novels — one submitted to Baen in May, one submitted to Circlet in October. No answers yet on either.

Four new short stories — One sold to Cleis, two sold to Circlet. One short story was submitted to Circlet in December, no answer yet.

Reprints — One of the Circlet stories from 2010 is out for audio submission to Escape Pod, no answer yet. The story that I sold to Cleis in 2010 is out to Cleis for Best Bondage Erotica 2012, and I won’t know about THAT one until September. One story from 2009 was accepted for an anthology and then the publisher decided not to use it. And another story from 2009 was accepted to the same anthology as the new story I sold to Cleis.

I had one story that I sold in 2009, and that the publisher decided not to use, so they gave me the rights back.

And I had a story rejected from Realms of Fantasy, which I then turned around, reworked, and it became the novel that is currently out with Circlet.

Not a bad year.

Dec

2010

>Musing on New Year Traditions

>So, I’m sitting here in my jammies sniffling (Hubby brought a cold home from work. Isn’t he sweet for sharing?), surfing the web and cooking a pot of lentils, all while avoiding the novel that I’m trying to get finished for first quarter 2011.

The glamorous life of a writer, hm? What a way to spend New Year’s Eve?

Well, yes, actually. Those lentils are a very important part of my New Year’s Eve prep. When it comes right down to it, if I do nothing else but have a spoonful of lentils at midnight, then I’ve had a fine New Year’s Eve.

Southerners, you have hoppin’john and greens, right? (What is hoppin’john, anyway? Not the recipe. Why do they CALL it that?) You have to have your black eyed peas for the new year? This is the same thing. Italians have lentils at midnight. This, my friends, is kitchen witchery at its finest. You have this food that is imbued with all the qualities that you want from the new year — prosperity, health, wealth, luck, fertility. Good times, fat times, times of plenty. You put all of this into the pot and you cook it down with hope and love, and you feed it to your families and your friends at the stroke of midnight, the threshold time, the time when what was, and what will be are in the balance. You eat this, and you take all these qualities into yourself and you make them part of you.

Magic.

There are other traditions. I didn’t know about some of yours until I read them on Facebook. Up until about two days ago, I had never heard of the “the house must be spotless and the laundry must all be done before midnight” one.

(looks around at the messy family room and the pile of laundry just visible around the bedroom door).

Yeah, that one isn’t happening in this house. Not this year, anyway. I like it, so I might coopt it for next year. If I remember.

But I will never, EVER forget my lentils.

So, since I’ve rambled at you enough, I’ll leave you with another tradition. Auld Lang Syne. This is an arrangement that I really like, performed at the Maryland Renaissance Faire by the Pyrates Royale.

Happy New Year!

Dec

2010

>Plans for the New Year

>So, since my brain is still frozen, I’m thinking about what the goals are for 2011. I should have some goals, something to shoot for. I didn’t have a list like this for 2010, and did surprisingly well. So if I make some goals, I should do better.

Well, that’s the theory, right?

To, the 2011 to-do list.

Sell Princes of Air
Sell Nomad’s Moon
Finish Drum Mage
Polish and Sell Drum Mage
Finish House of Sable Locks
Write Tales from the Arena and pitch it as a shared world series.
Outline Hidden Things
Short stories — at least four, to equal this year. More would be better.

Dec

2010

>Brain Freeze

>I don’t know if this is due to holiday craziness or the cold down here (yes, it does get cold in Florida. Right now, they’re saying it will go down to the 20s tonight.) but my brain has been refusing to function. Nothing has been done on Drum Mage, nothing done on Sable Locks. My brain feels like a wasteland. Frozen tundra. The words will come back out when the thaw hits, I guess. Hopefully, there’s no permafrost in there.

Now, I did start Sea Prince (a mainstream novel that I’m collaborating on with the person with whom I wrote Nomad’s Moon), and I think I’ve gotten a page in a day and a half — which is actually pretty good, because I’ve been trying to get that much done all year! Have I mentioned I hate writing battle scenes? So naturally, this one starts with a battle scene! Once I get through the battle, things will start moving faster. I can’t even foist the battle scene off on Danielle, who likes that kind of thing, because she is spending the holidays at the bottom of the world. Literally! She’s in Antarctica!

On the up side, I finished a pair of mittens, and am almost finished with a pair of socks and a wonderfully cuddly shawl.

Dec

2010

>Snowbound Release Date

>The new Nick and Steven short story Snowbound will be up on the Circlet website on December 23rd, this coming Thursday.

Dec

2010

>Advent Calendar Dates

>I have more than just Snowbound showing up in the advent Calendar this year. Here is the story of mine that will appear, and the dates:

Darkest Night, from Apocalypse Sex, will appear on December 11th.

And now Snowbound, which is original and includes the characters from The Hand You’re Dealt, will appear sometime around Christmas Day. As soon as I know when, I’ll let you all know.

(edit – yes, I know that originally, I had said that there would be another story. Apparently, there was a change of plans that I wasn’t aware of. Not a big deal.)

Dec

2010

>Woot!

>Just got the news that Snowbound has been accepted for the Circlet Advent Calendar!

The dreaded list

Quiet…

>So…..

>Writing round-up for 2010

>Musing on New Year Traditions

>Plans for the New Year

>Brain Freeze

>Snowbound Release Date

>Advent Calendar Dates

>Woot!

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