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Today is one of those days when I wouldn’t mind using #FML as a hashtag on Twitter. Not that its even been that bad of a day. All in all, it’s been a good day actually. I finished Nanowrimo with 56,331 words, an awesome total. In addition, I came in twelveth overall in the city for those that hang out on the Nanowrimo forums, and probably the top 20 of writers in Calgary if we count those who don’t. I had a friend visit today, last night was a TGIO party… all in all, it’s been excellent. The main problem stems from me. I have made a deal with my body; If it works harder for me in November, I’ll let it rest in December. So I still feel like I’m running on fumes, 7 days later… though it is getting better.
As if to make it worse, I’ve also been hit by a light bout of insomnia. It means that if I don’t head to sleep the moment I feel tired, I wake back up immediately. Normally this would be counted as extra writing time, but in December, it starts weighing on me, since I actually need to work. On the other hand, at least insomnia never lasts more than three to five days for me so I do know that simply waiting it out is a viable plan.
I do have more vacation coming up at the end of the month (Yes more… I take all my vacation late in the year) which will give me some good time to catch up on all the writing I’m not doing right now. This is why I’m not feeling too guilty about taking 15 – 20 days off to recover from the work of Nanowrimo. And what was that? Writing?
Yes, I have completely stopped writing… I need to get myself back into it, and this blog is a vital step towards that. I find that one of the hardest parts of Nano is to start writing again after December rolls around. However, I am going to make some promises to you guys.
1. I will be writing this year, and much more this month than in November.
2. I will have my novel rough draft finished for the end of February.
3. My music reviews will hence forth be finished within two weeks of receiving them.
4. This novel will be edited and I will start sending it out to publishers before the end of next year. In fact, if I’m lucky, I’ll have it done pre-SiWC 2011.
As for my story? Well, it’s actually been a roaring success this year. I am working on Chapter 14, of a probable 30 Chapter book, so I’m almost half way there. I have a complete story so far. Not much in the way of subplots… more a mention of such here and there. My story has thus far been written in order and the chapters are coming out mostly of a reasonable length (about 4K worth of words). The plot is making sense, I have good explanations for my world building that is fitting in. The only thing I’m somewhat disappointed in is that thus far, I’ve alluded to the war that the vampires are in but I haven’t actually come out and said it. This will need to rectified and will probably include me writing in a new character, a commander in the war on the side of the vampires.
I feel that my writing is definitely improving this year and with every book I write, it gets easier and easier to put together a cohesive story that works.
On a non-nanowrimo front, I have finished reading the High King of Montival now and while I can say that it is one of the best books I’ve ever read, I am quite annoyed with SM Stirling. This was originally going to be the end of the series… apparently now there are another two books coming out. While I love reading more of his books, which makes this somewhat a good thing, it is also a bit of an annoyance, since I was thought I was going to read the incredible and satisfying conclusion. Ah well, I can’t be really annoyed… it was too good a book for me to be actually annoyed! For those of you who asked, I have now started reading Geist and its almost as good as High King of Montival. I’ll review it as soon as I’m finished it and have just a bit of time.
In closing, How was nano for you? Did you get anything written? What have you learned about your noveling over the last nano? What books are you reading and what books do you think I need to review for you?
Posted in Blogs on December 6th, 2010 by B.A. Matthews | | 2 Comments »
My first conference ever and it turned out to be incredible. I arrived a few days early and got to visit my Mom for a day and then I ran out to visit with a writerly friend of mine. We sat in and chatted all night and even watched the craft. She gave me a brilliant little rock light (I’ll see about including a picture in my next blog) and then the next day we headed out and went shopping. Now, me and her are probably the only girls in the world who can go out shopping, and come home with the oddest things. I came back with flavoured honeys, a mini cast-iron cauldron (I’ve always wanted some), a gorgeous card and an oracle deck. Wonderful stuff, but definitely not your usual run of the mill shopping.
After I got to the conference the first thing I did was get my info for the weekend and then register for my hotel. While waiting to register, I struck up a conversation with the woman in front of me. She was attending the conference as well. Nervous, I asked her if it was her first year. I should have known better… she was a publisher of children’s books and a presenter. It was all right though. I made up for it by remembering to ask her what she was working on that excited her. Really the weekend only went up from there.
The class on Thursday was next to useless though. It was touted as a revision course, but it was actually just rewriting scenes. Had I not paid extra for it, I would have left the class and taken a different one. On the other hand, I met Samantha Herne, a great writer who also podcasts. She was a really great gal and I loved talking with her. Friday was great. The courses were always good and Patrick Taylors course on “How not to write a successful series” was incredible. Saturday was awesome as well, and I started getting my name out there. The big incredible thing for me on Saturday was my “Blue Pencil” meeting… a chance to meet with CC Humpreys. He took a look at my work, we chatted and he complimented my writing. He said, “No, your work is quite good. You’ve managed to make it all really creepy without actually saying anything creepy. That’s how to do it if you’re going to.” Let me tell you, I was so excited, I was practically bouncing.
At least until Saturday Dinner. I found Samantha Herne at dinner that night and sat down at her table… only to realize that she also had two authors, an editor and an agent sharing the table. The other girls at the table were more like me, in various stages of unpublishment (I think I’ve created a new word). Regardless, they were all awesome, and great to talk to. Table 7 rocks, does it not ladies? I was going to go and see the forensics stuff after dinner, but I was invited up for cocktails by the girls… and when an agent and author ask you if you want to join them for cocktails, the universal answer is “Yes”.
Great evening, absolutely incredible. The keynote speakers for Saturday were amazing (especially since I was sitting with both of them that evening as well)! Sunday was great as well. Ivan Coyote asked about “ways to motivate yourself to write” in her class and I suggested my favourite motivator, Nanowrimo. The last 20 minutes of the class were taken up with talk about Nanowrimo (she takes part) and sharing awesome Nano-related stories.
At the final lunch, it was fun, but sorta sad. We knew the fun was coming to an end soon. Robert Dugoni sent us away on the right note though “Today, we WRITE!” Should I ever get a copy of his speech, I will ask him if I can repost it here. The best speech ever! I wish I’d gotten a copy of it. Also, I even won a prize! A set of four books from Mira publishing and a reusable book bag followed me home in addition to the books I got there (Eeeek! I got Vlad the Impaler signed by CC Humpreys, who wished me luck on my book and the Skystone signed by Jack Whyte). Definitely an incredible weekend. I even got a potted plant from my Mom. Gorgeous Red and Yellow flowers… I only hope I can keep it alive.
The trip was more than worth it and I really hope that I can make it out for next year.
Also, very quickly, I bought Geist today (a picture will go up next time), The High King of Montival, and a copy of Warbreaker. My husband bought me a Nano gift as well… an awesome 15 minute hourglass timer with black sand! I got myself an awesome Moleskin journal as well… Dark blue with map lines on it. Just the thing to get my mind thinking and ready to write!
Posted in Blogs on October 27th, 2010 by B.A. Matthews | | 6 Comments »
I have been looking at my own work recently, and trying to decide how best to prepare for Nanowrimo while finishing up my current WIP. Of course, the new project is shinier… It’s new, I haven’t thought about it for months or years, and I haven’t seen ¾ of the book and decided that its crap. The fact that 4 months ago I thought this work was good and now I’m looking at it and worrying that its unsalvageable means that I’ve probably reached that area of the book where all authors suddenly think their work is bad and horrible. On the other hand, I also know (unfortunately) that I’m not yet skilled enough to be able to decide on my own. Of course, my husband says that the story is engaging and interesting but I know that he has a vested interest in it. I wish that I was part of a writing group so that I could pass around a chapter or so and find out what it looks like.
I’m really hoping that I can finish it before SiWC. One of the classes I’m really looking forward to is the one Master Class that I sighed up for. It’s taught by Robert J. Ray. It’s called “Welcome to Your Novel Rewrite”. Since this is really the area I feel I need help in, I’m very excited. I say that I’m rewriting my novel now, but I know that what I’m actually doing right now is perhaps the smallest part of the rewrite… filling in scenes that I didn’t write during November. A small amount of this will be at the beginning, and I’m doing it now. I also know that I condensed an entire scene into the words “romance montage… write when you have inspiration”. I now know what’s supposed to go there (and it’s not really a romance montage, but a scene detailing characters getting to know each other/teaching of the magic system mix) and so I should finally be able to write it down. I know I also need to rewrite the ending. The end of last nano was a bit of insanity for me and I was desperately trying to get 10k words in three days. Not that I required it to win… but I wanted to get more words than a young girl who writes here in Calgary (she routinely hits 100K during the month).
Even so, the main problem with my ending isn’t actually that it’s bad, but that it doesn’t follow the storyline anymore. What had happened is that about 4 days before the end of Nanowrimo, I realized that the story was no longer going where I thought it needed to at the beginning of the month. Instead of writing organically and seeing where the ending needed to go, I ran straight back to my outline trying to write those scenes. Since they no longer fit the story it was hard going, and even harder to fix, since I didn’t realize what had happened when I tried to start editing it.
This is all part of the very painful process know as Improvement. It can also be a very painful process. What it teaches you is that the good work you were doing before isn’t good… in fact it may be painfully bad. For most of us though, the hardest part of this is proving to ourselves that we can get better.
On that note, one of the things that are going to help me prepare to write is the beautiful inspiring Miyazaki film, Whispers of the Heart. This movie is about a girl who falls in love with a boy who seems to know exactly where he wants his life to go. She is amazed at his dedication when he travels to Italy to study for two months towards his dream. Though he also likes her, she is unsure if she is good enough to be with him since she doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life at all. She decides to try writing a novel while he is gone. When she is finished she invariably says it’s horrible, but a friend tells her that what it and she needs is polishing. Like a gemstone, it’s dirty and flawed when you pull it out of the ground. Only through work and knowledge can you make it into a thing of true beauty. I now keep a geode on my desk to remind of the fact that even when my writing looks like stupid ordinary rock that it can still be polished to a thing of beauty and something worth publishing.
Other things that I need to finish before Nanowrimo are:
1. Cleaning up my office so that all the garbage is gone and it’s organized. Even if I don’t have my bookshelves by that time, I would like the room to be clean. When it’s a mess, I don’t want to go in and remember that I need to clean it, especially during Nano.
2. Reading a few pages of writing into my computer about my characters for this months novel… I want Dragon to recognize what I’m saying when I talk about Xiam and Zack (the main characters in the novel). Corrections and changes only slow you down during Nanowrimo and I’d rather have as few of those as possible.
3. My novel, nicknamed “Seirei” and called “Memories Written in Moonlight” finished, or at least finished enough that I don’t mind other people seeing it.
4. I would like to have cards done before I attend the conference, even if they only have my name, website address and “Writer of Dark Fantasy” on them.
Everything else can wait if they need to. On a more personal front, I still do not have “The High King of Montival”… The store was out of them. “Mr. Monster” is out now as well for purchase, so I’ll grab both when I head into the bookstore around October 15. This weekend I am gaming, playing my little Whore Queen, Demona… hopefully, I’ll have some wonderful little tidbit to mention in my next blog about that.
Also, coming up mid to end of October… Pictures of my Writing Space! Keep an ear out and I’ll keep you updated on my progress until I put out the pics!
Posted in Blogs on September 29th, 2010 by B.A. Matthews | | 7 Comments »
Today’s blog is running a bit behind so expect it to be a bit brief. I’ll make certain that I have a new blog post up Saturday for you guys. I got a bit sick a few weeks ago. The sucky weather Calgary has been having got into my hand, and my Tendonitis was so bad that I couldn’t close my hand into a fist or re-open it when I managed to. While this did curtail my writing, rest assured, I have gotten some done… Although, instead of using my computer, I have the scene written up in paper copy right now and working on it while taking the bus to and from work. The scene is turning out really well and I’ll be using a certain program of mine to add it to the computer.
That’s right, it’s time to talk a bit more about my Dragon! I’ve been using it more frequently of late, and now I can give a better opinion on it. My over all opinion is pretty good of it, though it’s near useless for using online. The commands activate whether you want them to or not, which means that trying to write text into a forum chat box or updated any social media site is out of the question (it works much better in actual messenger programs, like MSN Messenger).
This experience really reminded me why I got that program, even if sometimes I do worry that it’s more trouble than it’s worth (if I have a stuffed up nose it can’t understand me at all).
Using it has been teaching me to think more about what I write before I say/type it. I still have to delete things every once in a while, but it happens much less often now that I’ve been training myself not to screw it up. I do suggest that everyone give it a try though, since I am actually coming to enjoy using it. While I’m not using it to write this blog post (more for brevity reasons than anything else), it is on the computer and I have been training it to understand me. I am going to be training it to understand me, by using it at least 2 days out of every week to do all my writing… Something I hope to continue during Nanowrimo as well. (Remember to add me as a Buddy if you want to follow my counts during Nano!)
I’ll keep you all updated on that front.
Other than using Dragon and resting my hand, I have been keeping myself mostly out of trouble. I am still reading Brandon Sanderson’s “The Way of Kings”. I am 66% finished it and I’d like to say that it’s pretty damn awesome. It’s definitely an epic fantasy, told from a few different viewpoints. The only question I currently have is about the character Kaladin. While he is a wonderful character, Brandon Sanderson has been writing his chapters in a Present/Past sort of set up where we get one chapter of where he is now, and then we’ll get a chapter that led him to this point. While its really interesting, I am wondering why he choose to write it that way. I assume I will have discovered the answer in the next three-hundred and fifty pages.
I have also finally gotten notice that my long awaited copy of “The High King of Montival” is finally shipping. I should have that next week, or the first week of October at the latest. It will be next on my reading list after “The Way of Kings”. I also picked up Aprilynne Pike’s debut YA novel, “Wings”. While I don’t often read YA paranormal romance books anymore (Damn you Twilight), I heard about this one on Writing Excuses and decided to give it a try. I am also listening to “www: Watch”, a book by Robert J. Sawyer. If you haven’t heard of this series yet (beginning with “www: Wake”) pick them up. This set of novels is definitely worth your time and interest, although I give fair warning… Mr. Sawyer has a thing for ‘soft’ endings… They answer all the questions but do seem to leave you wondering why you’re vaguely unsatisfied. Perhaps it’s a problem with a super long dénouement feeling, instead of the hopeful awed feeling he was going for. I’ll keep you updated on all of the books I’m reading, as usual.
Oh, I’m going to try to write a review of Dan Wells “I am Not a Serial Killer” and post it up here prior to Nanowrimo as well… Expect new site changes in the next few weeks as well!
What are you reading? And will you be participating in Nanowrimo this year? Are there any great podcasts dealing with Nanowrimo that you’ve been listening to? Let me know, and keep those comments coming!
Oh, one final comment for all of you out there… Less than a month until my conference! I am soooo excited.
Posted in Blogs on September 23rd, 2010 by B.A. Matthews | | 5 Comments »
A few of you following me may have noticed something this week… That’s right. I changed my Twitter account from B_A_Matthews to BA_Matthews. Why? Well that’s simple. I had it set up for a different name originally. Now of course, I changed it and while it reads correctly on their page, it does not when I try to use it to validate web responses or posts. Having spent a few days trying to correct and change it permanently, I finally decided that I would be better served just starting a new account and closing my old one. Thus, the old account should have reached the end of its run on Friday, August 13, 2010. The new one is already up and I’m tweeting there already, so jump on the bandwagon and follow me (BA_Matthews). Also thank you so much to PhilippaJane (of Chasing the Bard fame) who was the first person to receive my message about my changing twitter account and set about following me on the new one.
Speaking of Philippa Ballantine, I follow her blog and though it was hard for her to ask, she had a request for all her readers. Since I’m not published yet, I’m sending the request through to you! Philippa’s new book, Geist (a paranormal romance) is coming out in October this year and I’ll be pre-ordering a copy for myself in just a few days after I get my paycheck. Her publishing company has already purchased the second book in the series from her (sorry, no set release date to my knowledge), and they are considering whether to contract her for the final two books that Philippa has planned in the series. Since I can’t wait to read this new book, I’d like you to help me let the publishing company know that her fans are eagerly awaiting this new series. The best part is that you don’t need to do anything to difficult. No writing letters to the publisher or pre-ordering her book. So what do you have to do? It’s easy. Just walk into your local bookstore, whether independent or a chain (personally I always head to my local Chapters), and ask about Geist. The bookstores will do the rest!
Moving back onto my stuff, I must admit, I haven’t gotten as much done the last day or so as I could have and I’m firmly blaming life for yesterday at least. I got home and collapsed into a sleep so deep that I didn’t walk up until the next morning. I tend to treat my body as though it were some sort of machine usually, as though it won’t break down or get tired. Couple that with the fact that I only tend to get 5 – 6 hours of sleep on weeknights (a little more on weekends) and it means that when my body finally demands a night of sleep I tend to give it what it wants. In my way of thinking it’s easier than trying to actually get 8 hours of sleep every night. One screw up night every month and I get about 2 extra hours every other day seems like a pretty good trade off to me.
This weekend looks as though it’s going to be a nice writing full one for me as well. I want to finish my Memories written in Moonlight novel this month. I have an assortment of about 10 chapters total to write or re-write before I can start doing a content edit of the book. Since I would like to have this novel done (or nearly done) to show Sandra Chang (Editor at Tor Books that I’ll be meeting with at SiWC) in October, I really have to kick my ass to get myself working on it. I will also be spending some time on my Dual Melodies storyline, given a chance, I’d like to kick out another chapter of that this weekend. I’d also like to work on the last bit of editing for Chapter 2 of Dual Melodies so I can put that out for you (or at least, part 1 of Chapter 2) this weekend. I’m also working on a poem to send in SiWC before September. Fortunately, the poem is finished, and I just need to play around with the editing and tighten up the wordcraft a bit on that. The last I plan on working on this weekend is a short story (no more than 8K words) for Pirates/Sorcery submission I heard about on “Get Published” earlier this week. They’ll be accepting submissions in November, and I want to have it ready to go on or just after November 1. In addition to the above, I have a Dark Urban Fantasy that I stopped working on last November in favour of my Seirei story… I think that I would like to pick that up again and finish it.
In addition, me and my husband will be going to see “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” on Tuesday… I’ll let you know about that one if it’s any good, although I’ve heard brilliant things about it! Plus, housework over the weekend, and a few family visits. Yep, a very busy weekend, but honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Oh, two more things! SM Stirlings book, “The High King of Montival” will be coming out on September 7, 2010. It’s the final book in his Emberverse series and is setting itself up to brilliant! I’ve pre-ordered mine (and one for my Father who also loves the series). I suggest pre-ordering the book or buying it on its opening day. When publishers and reviewers see a novel get a lot of notice its first day out, they tend to pay it a lot more attention and this series deserves that interest. Also the pagan band Omnia’s newest album, Wolf Love, is coming out either this month or next. These guys are my favourite band out there (sharing that position with Gaia Consort, now known as the Bone Poets Orchestra). If I’m lucky, I’ll get to be the one to do the review of their new album for PRN! Check out this band and give them a listen to my favourite song, Alive on You-tube. You can’t go wrong picking up one of their albums!
Until my next blog, keep writing and I’ll see you next time!
Posted in Blogs on August 14th, 2010 by B.A. Matthews | | 3 Comments »
