Friday, October 31, 2003At Southerby's they recently sold a vampire killing kit for 12,000 dollars. It was a 20th century item, they think it was put together as sort of a tourist trap souvenier...this is from the AP wire report....and since I saw this on AOL, I'm not sure if everyone can access a link, so I'll just cut and paste the best part...
"The kit, a walnut box that also contained a crucifix, a pistol, a rosary and vessels for garlic powder and various serums, was bought by an anonymous phone bidder.
According to Sotheby's, some experts believe that such kits were commonly available to travelers in Eastern Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, while others think the kits were made in the early 20th century, possibly to cash in on interest in vampires sparked by the 1897 publication of Bram Stoker's "Dracula."
Elaine Whitmire, head of 19th century furniture for Sotheby's, said she believes the kit was assembled in the early 20th century and sold to travelers as a souvenir.
"My opinion is this is a memento that you bought while you were in Europe," she said. "I doubt it was cheap to buy."
A label on the kit says: "This box contains the items considered necessary for persons who travel into certain little known countries of Eastern Europe where the populace are plagued with a particular manifestation of evil known as Vampires."
The vampire killing kit was part of Sotheby's sale of 19th century furniture and decorative works of art.
The auction house did not identify the seller of the kit. The price includes Sotheby's auction house's commission."
Happy Halloween, late, but better than never. :D
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 10:50 PM
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Thursday, October 30, 2003Numonic Device, Route 7
She sits slowly, adjusting her skirt so that it's smooth across her knees, then, carefully crosses her legs at the knee. She's amazed, really, at how different clothes make you act. If she were wearing jeans she'd be slouching, a long skirt she'd be more relaxed, fluid. In the knee length plaid skirt and black stocking she felt very school girlish, and so she sat as proper as possible to sit on a slat garden bench, waiting in a sub shop for her order.
A group of men come in, and she looks at them out of the corner of her eye. Not one of them you'd cross the street to get a better look at, but they smell so good, their clean scent of soap and laundry detergent overwhelming in the small space. It doesn't create a sexual, or even sensual feeling in her, but she wants nothing more than to wrap her arms around one of them and just breathe. She realizes her face is hot, and that, combined with the strange, lonely longing, just makes things a little worse.
As she takes the bag of sandwiches off the counter, she pirouettes neatly, full circle, and leaves, not knowing if the longing for warmth and comfort and peace that the scent brought her was a desire for companionship, or brought by the fact that's the way she always feels when she does the laundry. She prefers that it might be the laundry, because that, the constant white noise and warmth given off by the machines, the waiting helped along by a good book, is something she can actually have.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 3:25 PM
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I want my titles back. :(
Wednesday, October 29, 2003Hum. So, today I wrote my review of Hal Clement's book, Noise. And (Thankfully) I said a lot of nice thinsg about it....because today, also, the poor man passed away at the age of 81.
I feel kind of sad. It's also one of those odd coincidences that sort of make you feel funny for a moment or two.
Sigh.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 9:29 PM
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Saturday, October 25, 2003Blogger's being a meany. It's deiced not to put the link that I can see clearly in the behind the stage scenes up...
http://www.nanowrimo.org/
http://www.nanowrimo.org/
This is the link for national Novel Writing Month.
And it's decided that I can't have titles anymore. yesterday's titles was "You know that third book I was telling you about?"
Now, when you take all those things into consideration, my blogger entry of yesterday makes so much more sense.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 3:21 PM
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You know that third book I was telling you about?
Friday, October 24, 2003It's a short story. I finished it last night. It's around 12,000 words, so I have to decide if it's a short story or a novella. It's happy with its current word count, so I'll let things sit awhile.
Which means I'm able to go forth and start my real third book. But I decided to save it all for November 1st. Yep. I'm going to do it. I'm going to write 50,000 words in a month:
I always wanted to participate, but my writing schedule, which is supposed to start in January and end in November, allowing me to take the month of December off to clean up my life for the new year, is hopelessly shot. Murdered. Bludgeoned to death with a pickaxe. And I'm hoping by starting this new book in November, I'll get to participate, and maybe, if I make the 50,000 words *without* skipping any book reviews or getting behind in my editing, and keeping a keen eye on the Fiction Addiction site, I'll actually be this much closer to actually having a third book done. I might actually get back on a real schedule.
So, who's with me in this madness? Or are you just going to sit back and laugh at me?
Oh...and in other news! (sings) Hand me down my cup of bile! Hand me down my cup of bile!
Why am I singing? Because, do you remeber when I got rejected by that really big new publisher? One of their PR people emailed me and said she liked my reviews and wondered if I'd like to reveiw thier books. Isn't that ickily ironic? And really nice...I was way thrilled and complimented, even as I felt the blunt edge of the spoon stab me in the heart. And what did I say? I said yes, and send them to this address. Hey, I hear they signed on some really fabo people, including Barbara Hambly, who is one of my very favorite authors. She used to be *the* favorite, but, well, Neil Gaiman's cuter.
Actually, I like them both equally, but I love cheap jokes.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 5:59 PM
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Sunday, October 19, 2003I've started uploading pages of reviews, but I haven't updated the links in the flash menu yet.
Sundays go way too fast. Just wanted to tell you.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 6:56 PM
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Friday, October 17, 2003Oh. yes. I should have hit save changes. Hmmm.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 8:06 PM
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Aha. All TV was prempted for this thing called baseball. OK. I can deal with that, though I'm sure baseball loving CSI fans could have timer-recorded the show, and happily watched it later, content in knowing they got the best of both worlds, si I don't think the stations did anyone any favors.
You might not beleive it, but the image at the top of the page is really itsy-bity...Hmmm. I'll have to start over again, make a new one, and see if that helps matters...and I'm considering replacing the links on the left with a clean, nice menu table in DHTML. Yes, I do go through periods of obsessing over my web page.
Today I wrote nearly 5,000 words on my third book. I know the beginning, middle and end in my head, and so I think that I will actually finish this one and not move onto another. I'm surprised this is the one I ended up settling on...the concept is only a couple months old, you'd think the other ones would have popped first.
I also want to continue the never ending post all my interviews, articles and book reviews online project. I'm sure we're all sick of the Micheal Connelly cover to the right. :) See? I have plans. Though I do need to ask a couple of places for permission, first...
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 8:04 PM
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Miss the red posies? :D Actually, later tonight I have a new banner to put up. This is just a post to get rid of those dang vines, and complain about the fact that CSI was a re-run last night. I wouldn't complian, usually, but it was suppossed to be a new one...in fact, the TV listings I use said so. So why wasn't it on? Argh! Was it just my area, or did everyone have to do without?
OK. All better.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 2:03 PM
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Tuesday, October 14, 2003The site will look funky, off and on, for a few days. I decided I hated how the title bar canted my whole journal over...so what do I do? I decide to go with a side bar where I have to leave the tables over.
I don't think this will be permenant. By the end of the week, the poppies may be back where they belong, if I can remember the code for putting them there....
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 9:49 PM
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Yeow! Eight book reviews in one day!
Monday, October 13, 2003I shouldn't post this, as I know at least one of the nice people who let me review for them (HI!) reads this occasionally....
But, as you know, I got a three week set back in the beginning of September, where I read like mad to escape life, but, well, didn't really write reviews. (I hand wrote some at the hospital...which was really effective for The Third Alternative magazine, because I'd read, review, read, review...but for longer books just seemed like extra work. So once things were back to normal I'd review books as per usual, one or two every few days, so I never caught up. Because, you see, I kept reading. I tend to read at least two hours a night. Three if I don't watch TV.
So today, after some yard work, I sat down, and I wrote my heart out. I skipped eidting, I skipped my own book, and write a review, walked around, wrote a review, got some tea...and so, eight hours later, I now have eight first drafts. Now, how much work the second draft needs is all a story for another day. But I feel good. I feel like I could do more, actually. I prayed for this, because the growing pile next to my chair was really getting me down.
The hardest review was for Quicksilver. The easiest was for Wolves in the Walls. The one I thought sounded half intelligent was Le Morte D'Avalon.
Since I got caught up and I'm still reading The Iron Grail, maybe, tomorrow, after I've double edited and wrote four thousand words to catch up, maybe I'll review Endless Nights. Technically, since it was a prezzie I don't have to review it, but I think I will.
And now I shall finish with my posting for the sake of posting post.
Good night. :) I have some readin' to do.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 10:40 PM
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Ooh! New toy!
Friday, October 10, 2003Let's test drive my new comments thingy!
See, I was going to do php comments, have them on the server, but you have to rename the page .php...which means this wouldn't be the easy url that it is now.
So I took some advice and went with Entenations. As soon as I actually get money, I'll donate.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 10:04 PM
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Some things are best left to the imagination...
Thursday, October 09, 2003So anyway, I write this scene, today, where the heroine decides to make lunch. She looks around, decides she wants tuna fish. She doesn't have any mayo, but she does, lo and behold, have Arby's Horsey Sauce (a creamy horse radish flavored thing...it's perfectly smooth, no root flecks like in the real thing) packets from dinner a night of so ago. So she mixes the Horse radish sauce with the tuna.
So, later, the protagonist of these here web pages is looking around for something to eat. She decides she wants tuna. She does, actually, have a big whopping industrial sized jar of Mayo. She also has, in the basket of condiments from restaurants, (Every dining room table needs one...why waste what they give you for free? And I'm not thieving, because I do all take out, so it's what they threw in the bag for me.) among the soy sauce, the ketchup, the cocktail sauce, two packets of Horsey Sauce.
You know where I'm going, here.
So I say to myself, "Huh. I wonder what it really tastes like?"
I mix one packet with some tuna (don't worry, it's safe tuna) placing the rest of my tuna in oil in a small plastic container, for later. I toast some Italian bread. I decide to go whole hog and smear some sweet relish, just like usual, on the toast. The tuna smells vaguely acidic as I spread it on the toast.
I take a deep bite. It was...it was...
Vile. Disgusting. Down right hellishly nasty. In fact, several hours, multiple glasses of milk, and a decent sized dinner later I still can't get that burning, icky sensation out of my mouth.
Of course, this means that that scene just *has* to go. In fact, I think I'll work harder on my fantasy story, where perhaps they eat tuna, but they aren't bizarre enough to mix it with anything besides mayo....
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 8:09 PM
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Oh, but it's not really that hard...
Wednesday, October 08, 2003So, I've been fiddling again. I added an info please search box...I also added a Webster's dictionary, but it's not showing up. Ah well.
I confess, I'm a closet reference maniac. I'm always collecting things up, books, articles, etc, just in case I need it. When I wrote, which, thank you Lord, I've actually been doing the past three days, I don't go looking for things...much...and when i do it tends to be something that actually takes me away from the task at hand, immersing me in weird facts and things that can not possible bear on my story. It's gotten to the point where I'm seriously considering makiing a page of nothing but search boxes, so that I can come online, go to my page, type in something, then go off line. (snort...go offline, in a good world, without checking all three email accounts, going over to Fiction Addiction to see if anyone needs me, going over to Neil's journal to see if he happened to post anything...etc, et.c...)
Writing is, in some ways, avoiding the art of procrastination.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 8:42 PM
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