Tuesday, May 20, 2003Well, the chair thing is resolv'ed. The furniture dealer let me keep the old chair and gave me a replacement. It's a different chair...it still reclines, and it swivels...no pockets or gliding, and it smells like someone sat and smoked in it a lot, but it's new, comfy, and allows me to sit pretty straight and write.
Oh, darn...that excuse as to why I'm not producing is out the window.
The highpoint of my day was the ferry ride...we live neat an old ferry that wanders back and forth across the Monogahela River. It's red and white, with a cab on either side of it, the red paint chipping off the treads marked out on the flat bed of the ferry. It holds about three cars at a time, I think. I got out and stood at the back ramp, and marveled. It's been raining a lot, and the water was muddy, thick with assorted branches and mulchy looking dirt and the occasional example of man's carelessness. Up river a barge, heavy with coal, sat and waited for us to cross, the long metal ropes guiding us on either side. A smaller pontoon-like boat passed behind us, its purple awnings and sunny climes name reminding me of Florida. I could hear the train, and feel the promise of rain on the cool breeze, and there and then I felt refreshed and content. I think I must be a water person, for all that I swim like a half full pop bottle.
What has the reviewer been reading? Well, I've turned in a review for Tracy Grant's Daughter of the Game, and will turn in one for her prequel, Beneath a Silent Moon. I like these books because they give me hope...see, Beneath the Silent Moon is, chronologically, before the other book, for all that Daughter was published first, so if Grant can do it, why can't I do the same with Balancing Act and Pilgrims of Night? Well, I also liked them because they are very good...complicated and cool.
Also, Sinister Pig by Tony Hillerman...which is wonderful, Land of the Blind, which is very different and thoughtful, Paper Mage (Leah Cutter) which was very cool and not at all what I expected, Sherrylin Kenyon's yummy Night Embrace (which has more sexy babes than you can shake a stick at) Michael Connelly's Lost Light, which is complex and brilliant.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 4:58 PM
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Monday, May 19, 2003So, to get the whine part over early,
I have a beautiful swivel glider office chair. It even has an ottoman, and deep pockets on the sides, where I keep my calculator, dayplanner, etc. It's comfy. It reclines.
It's also been acting funny the past few days, not swiveling right. So today, there's no one in the house to hear me cuss, so I flipped the chair over on the bed (not quite as easy as it sounds it's metal, and it's heavy) and realized, with a sinking heart, that my ultimate chair is broken. Bad, even to the point where a couple of bricks and a grin won't fix it. The whole thing sits on this huge round circle, and there are four brackets leading from it to the main base that the chair swivels on....and the brakets are breaking away fron the swivel. I've only had it a couple of months...I may have blogged the event. So now, I'm sitting on the ottoman, which is oddly tiring, after awhile. I can't lean back, I have to sit straight with no support, and it's sort of hard. I'm suppossed to take it back soon, or have them pick it up, and I'm worried that when I let it go, I'll never see it again. It'll be the straight back chair I got from the Holliday Inn (for free, they gave it to me...seriously...the rest they gave...can you beleive this...to the local University. I knew my alma mater was cheap, but really!)
I was so spoiled. No more pockets, no more swiveling. Sniff.
Anyway, in writing news (though we can argue that the loss of the chair is a detriment to my work) someone asked me why I write fantasy. Here's what I wish I said, proving once again that I am so much better talking through my fingers. Even if I can't miss spell things to the point of total unrecognizableness when I talk.
I tried to write mysteries, a few years back. I also tried to write romances...I never thought writing romances was the easy road, but I always thought it was the more likely to get published one. It's the biggest industry, and most romance pubs still don't require agents. So I'd be happily writing, and my charcater would turn the corner...and there, plain as night, would be a vampire. Or a Dragon. Or I'd be like, oooh, wouldn't it be cool if? And then something fantastical, a spell of something, would appear.
I am geared to the fantastical. I have a healthy respect for all the other genres to, so I mix them in....Andromeda's stories are detective stories with a strong fantasy influence. Dark fantasy...cause there are vampires and werewolves, but fantasy (not horror...I don't think I can write horror) nevertheless.
Eh. I've got board bum from this glider. Maybe I'll go sit in the window and edit Balancing Act.
Edit Balancing Act. Why yes. I've decided to make Pilgrims of the Night the first book of Andromeda's story, I may have said. My rush is related to the very good news I mentioned not wanting to share for fear I'll ruin things.
Yep, I'm violating one of the rules of writing, by going back and editing pre-selling the book. Ah, well.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 4:02 PM
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Tuesday, May 06, 2003So, my characters are being very quiet lately. I can't get them to do anything...they are sluggish and unwilling. So I sat down with Andromeda and asked her why.
Andromeda: Well, it's the direction you're taking. I'm so not into the revenge thing. Avenging angel, maybe, on the edge, but I was never for that dark and angry stuff. Sure, I would be very, very, very upset if Gregori died, he being my mentor and all that, but it's all so *done* before.
Me: Well, you need motivation...but you're right. I think I'll do something different...
Andromeda: And while you're at it, can you do something about this love interest thing between me and Sevrin? Sure, he's a babe, really, but Alaister's peeved, and you know, I've been in love with him since you were in high school...
Me: Well, I'm not going to move on that point...mostly because nothing will happen between you and Sevrin, probably...
Andromeda: We kiss! Ick! I mean, do you think Al's going to want to kiss me after that...vampire spit is insidious, you know....
Sevrin: I heard that. Thanks Andromeda. Like I *want* to kiss you....
Me: It's important that it happens. Because someone will see it. It'll also resolve the issue and pave the way for Sapphira....
Sevrin: That makes me out to be a huge slut doesn't it? Locking lips with Meda in one chapter, seducing Sapphira in the next...
Me: Not the *next* chapter...
And so it continued on, but in the end I realized, poor Gregori is still going to get it...but big surprise since he's dead anyway in Balancing Act...in fact, I gave him a couple more years life by doing it this way...
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 1:42 PM
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Dee Davis on Writer to Writer
Friday, May 02, 2003Join us tonight for the Writer to Writer chat from 9-10 PM ET. Dee Davis will discuss her latest title "Midnight Rain," and answer your questions about her writing career.
URL: http://chat.iuniverse.com/default/default.asp?channel=Writer_to_Writer
About her book:
For undercover FBI agent Katie Cavanaugh this was supposed to be a routine job-go in, get the evidence, catch a killer. But from the moment she lays eyes on John Brighton the intense charge in the air between them lets her know that the stakes will be higher this time around. Posing as his physical therapist allows Katie first-hand access to him but she can't let the intimacy of living together cloud her judgment. She will need her instincts sharp if she is going to find him guilty...or prove his innocence.Left for dead along a deserted highway, John awakes to find himself physically weakened, mentally scarred, and the lead suspect in a murder investigation. The only bright point in his life is Katie, warm and beautiful, she is the one person he thinks he can trust. But as a net of suspicion closes in, and as loyalties divide, John and Katie must work together to unravel the maze of secrets and lies that threaten to keep them apart forever...
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 5:27 PM
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