For the record, my main character "slips" in and out of all doors and closes every single one "soundlessly". Oh, and no one in my book walks or goes anywhere--they "head" there. They head to the bedroom. They head for meetings. They head down the hallway.

Ever have one of those days when you drive yourself nuts?

On the upside, I read through the first half of one of the main fight scenes today and found that it reads pretty well. I still have to run it by my fighting experts, but I was actually impressed with myself. *preens*

Off to watch more Heroes (mmm... Peter Petrelli...) and then back to the fight scene.

I have the best agent ever (which should really go without saying!), because she gave me awesome feedback on my anthology short story - and she didn't even have to do that. So now I'm tweaking a couple of things and adding a new scene before I send it to Trisha (my editor). But working on FTA again made me think of my titles so far, and the way I seem to unconsciously fall into certain habits with them:

Falling to Ash
The Iron Witch
Daughter of Lies
Black Neon Dreams
The Wood Queen (potential sequel to TIW)

My first serious attempt at a novel - Soul Trader - breaks this pattern, but as I stalled halfway through it doesn't really count... Maybe if I change the title so it has three words, I'll be able to finish it. ;)

Does anyone else notice a pattern in their titles, or is it just me..?

Logan has been with us 3 years today, which means he's now 5 years old. (We arbitrarily chose the day he came to live with us as his birthday since he's a rescue and we have no idea when his real birthday is.)

Happy Birthday Pups! xo

...should earn me extra episodes of Supernatural. What do you think? ;)

I've completed the prologue & first three chapters of BND and I really like them. Now I'm wondering whether to just write an outline/synopsis for the rest of the book so I can send it all to my agent as a proposal, rather than write the whole thing on-spec. I already sent her DAUGHTER OF LIES on-spec, and that's a completely different book from THE IRON WITCH...

BLACK NEON DREAMS (yeah, it's a weird title, I know) is yet another entirely different world. This time the paranormal element is out in the open, rather than hiding beneath the surface of 'normal' contemporary society - as it was in my previous two manuscripts. I might spend tomorrow working on a synopsis. *shudders*

EDIT: 4:50PM Scrapbook (aka pics.livejournal.com) is back up! Thank you.

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Sorry guys for the late notice! We've had to bring down the ScrapBook databases for some emergency maintenance. This means pics in your LiveJournal gallery are going to be unavailable. They should be back up within the next hour. I'll update this post when they're back online and we've checked them out.

bt

Busy, busy... Luckily, whatever I felt sick with on Monday didn't turn into anything major, which meant I was fine to hang out with Caitlin (blackaire) yesterday. We went to see Quantum of Solace, and I loved it. We both enjoyed the movie, and I can't say I understand too much of the criticism that I've seen around the internet. Okay, so it wasn't as good as Casino Royale, but it didn't fall too far short. There were some wonderful moments of classic Bond-humour, as well as some great new supporting characters (especially the girls! *g*). Daniel Craig is awesome as Bond, and he really does repressed grief brilliantly. It was also fun to take Caitlin to the Odeon in Leicester Square, the cinema where all the West End premieres take place.

After dinner, ice-cream (yep, in mid-November) and more wandering - including a great photo of Caitlin with a Dalek (I'll post it at the weekend) - I said goodbye to her, knowing that she'll be back in Seattle today.

---

So there was no writing yesterday, but I did manage 752 words when I got in from work today, to add to the 1k I did on Monday. If I write just one more page tomorrow morning before I go to the shop again, that means I've earned myself episode 6 of Supernatural. ;)

YA urban fantasy - BND:

8878 / 60000 words. 15% done!

Also, as I'm still finding my way with this new routine - and I now have my very own 'Supernatural' Rewards System(tm) to help inspire my writing - I think I'll just forget about sweating with Sven (aka. Seventy Days of Sweat). I seem to be doing okay with the Winchester brothers as my creative companions...

EDIT@6:54PM PST

We just implemented a temporary fix for our internal network and it *looks* promising. We'll let it bake in overnight and see how well it performs tonight and tomorrow.

------

Hi hi!

We've completed the majority of the move and had the site back up by 20:00 UTC (hey, look, I can post! You can read! Yay!) , but there's still some lingering issues that we need to clean up and are aware of so please be a little more patient while we wrap up the odds and ends.

I want to echo the lj_releases post where we thank burr86 and dormando for their ceaseless efforts, skill and knowledge. The LJ Ops and Engineering teams have/are *still* working their butts off but without burr86 and dormando's expertise, we could not have pulled this off.

For you techies, the slowness on our website is known, and the issue is currently isolated to oversubscribed ports on our core switches. That's direct from our vendor. Yeah, I know... Anyways, we're trying to implement a temporary workaround and we'll be looking to upgrade our hardware as a permanent solution. Please, hang in there a little longer!

bt

I've returned from a brief Vermont getaway. I spent most of the time working, as did Ben, but it was still lovely to be away and to take relaxation breaks, etc. And, um, watch marathons of CSI episodes on Spike TV. I'm soooooooooooo glad I don't have television at home. I would never get any work done, knowing CSI is available practically 'round the clock on Spike.

Look! It snowed!



It's hard to tell, but it's actually snowing in the picture on the right. I love snow in Vermont. It's so pretty.

We went holiday shopping in Burlington but, sadly, the town has turned very commercial. It used to be all local shopkeeps and artisan stores and now it's all Gap and Bath and Body works. The few artsy places left are crazy expensive. :( Very sad. Still a fun place to walk around, though. We bought a few stocking stuffers and one very reasonably priced pottery gift. If it weren't for the Great Stock Market Dive of 2008, I would have bought this for Richelle Mead (blue_succubus ):



The Avenging Narwhal Play Set! With 3 Magical Tusks and 3 Adorable Animals to Impale!

I also saw a tote bag with a beautiful, amazing, made-me-make-a-noise-of-happiness-and-heart-pain-out-loud-in-the-store Rainier Maria Rilke quote on it. It didn't make me want to buy the tote bag, but it did make me want to post the quote here:

"I beg you...to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them, and the point is, to live everything. Live the questions, now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way to the answer."

I. love. that.

We also saw Quantum of Solace, the new James Bond movie (for anyone living in a bubble). It was really good, though we both liked Casino Royale better. The plot of this movie is extremely dependent on Casino Royale, which I didn't anticipate. I wish I'd re-watched CR first. [Actually, if anyone has seen QoS and understands the ending, can you private message me? I have a question for you. I don't know whether I missed something or I just really need to watch CR again. Thanks.]

That's it for tonight. I'm off to get some more pages revised before it's back to the daily grind. Tomorrow evening I'll post this week's Product of the Week!

* Cleaned up dog puke. Twice.

* Problems getting a fire lit and keeping it going. The wood is too well-seasoned.

* Re-primed the sump pump after it failed. Will have to replace it today.

* Eldest son at home sick today with what appears to be strep throat.

* Youngest son bored out of his mind. Trouble is never far behind.

* Re-wrote synopsis, answered email, posted blog posts.

And it's not even noon yet.

I'm on a roll with this whole Supernatural thing. First of all, Season One's 5th episode scared the crap out of me last night. It's my own fault for watching it all alone in the dark... It was the 'Bloody Mary' episode. *shivers* First one to genuinely creep me out - I've always had a fear of mirrors in the dark. Great stuff, though! :)

With this in mind, I've decided to turn Supernatural into a reward for writing. I'll have to do this, otherwise there's a danger I'll just burn through the rest of Season One and forget I'm supposed to be writing a first draft by the end of January. For every 1,000 words I write from now on, I can watch one episode of SPN goodness. I think that's pretty fair. So on a very good writing day, that means I can watch two episodes back-to-back. I started last night after I'd squeezed out 1,001 words (just made it).

The more words I write, the more I get to see of the Winchester brothers...


OMG... Must. Write. Faster.

...for the first time. Yeah, I know, I'm behind the times. I've only seen the first 4 episodes of Season One, so no spoilers please. I usually try to avoid any LJ posts about the later seasons, in the hope that I will one day catch up. But it made me laugh when I noticed the number plate on Dean's car:



It's me! I like that... The Winchester boys have a Kaz-mobile. *g*

lion_lamb
Can a movie based on a novel ever be as good as the book? That's the big question for Twilight fans this week, and a sure topic of discussion on this community devoted to all things Bella and Edward.

geocaching
Have a hankering for a high-tech treasure hunt? After you take your GPS for a walk in the woods in search of the latest geocache (i.e. hidden container), you can share your find, get tech tips, and discuss the sport at this geocaching community.

topmodel
Have we really reached the end of another ANTM cycle? The finalist of Cycle 11 is announced on Wednesday, so expect some fierce discussion and model partisanship at this top Top Model community.

It's been a heck of a couple of weeks, but I weathered through it (with the help of dark chocolate and pomegranate martinis). I'm very glad I didn't sign up for NaNoWriMo.

Positives:
-- the woodstove was installed! I love, love, love it!

Negatives:
-- I had no time for reading or writing.
-- drama. And that's all I'm sayin' about that.

Off to make words!

When it comes to adding words to the dictionary, I typically fall somewhere between being a purist and supporting the idea that language has to evolve along with its speakers. I totally approve of this. :)

So, progress on BND has been slower than I'd hoped, but the breakthrough I hit upon the other night seems to be the right way to go. This means cutting most of what I'd already written, but that's not such a bad thing. I know this book is going to be great - well, it has the potential to be a great story, if only I can do it justice. With that in mind, I had to grit my teeth and start (almost) from scratch. I was able to keep almost 3,000 words (the first chapter), although I still had to rewrite some of them. And now I've written another 4,000 new words, split between Friday and Sunday. So that makes my progress:

7125 / 60000 words. 12% done!

There are times when you have to keep writing - no matter what - and go back to change things later. But there are also times when you need to know when to fix things before you can move on. With this project, because I'd only written a few chapters, it seemed worth the extra work to rewrite that first chapter and cut most of the other words I already had. I'm already almost back to the wordcount I had before, so I still feel that I'm on track with this manuscript. The story is stronger because of it, and I've ironed out some problems with the worldbuilding. I also have a clearer idea of what Cassie's major conflict is going to be in the middle of the book, which is all good. Well, not 'good' for her... ;)

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In reading news, I've finished the ARC of this (and can give it back to it's rightful owner - thanks Liz!):



All I will say for now is... just... Okay, I'm speechless. (Yes, I know it's rare.) This is seriously one of the best books I've read all year, and could possibly go onto the list of my all-time favourites. I will be guest-blogging over at The Book Smugglers again next month, so I am going to save more detailed comment until then. Also, I need to process what I read. Carrie Ryan is so talented, it just blows my mind.

I also read this:



The third entry in Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series is the best yet. Certainly in terms of character development and complexity within the plot. I'm saying nothing else, as there are major spoilers that you can't avoid mentioning if you really want to talk about the story... You have to read this book! I only finished it in the early hours of this morning, and I still feel emotionally raw.

Finally, this was the most recent adult urban fantasy I read:



and what a fantastic book! Devon Monk's worldbuilding is wonderful - such an original take on magic and how it fits into the story. The quality of writing lifts this above the ordinary, and the characters have already found a place in my heart. I'd say this is the best UF debut I've read in the last couple of years, and I sincerely can't wait for Book 2!

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I think with all the stuff I've been doing lately - at work and elsewhere - I have finally succumbed to the cold that everyone around me seems to be suffering from. I thought I was coming down with something a while back, but it turned out to just be tiredness. This time, I have the beginning of a fever and a sore throat. Ugh. I really hope I can hold it off long enough to get some writing done today & then hang out with Caitlin some more tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing Quantum of Solace with her... *goes off to take tablets and lie down*