blairmacg: (FeatherFlow)
I'm watching Mystic River this morning. I do so love this movie, for so many reasons. The experience is somewhat marred by Gambit's seemingly insatiable urge to make his new dog toy squeak. Even Ty is trying to ignore him.

I had end-of-the-world dreams last night of Walking Dead variety, set in one of my dream-brain's stock locations. (It's as if my sleeping self decided it had already put enough effort into set-building and would rather focus on other dream elements from now on.) This one was the brick-terraced garden that at first looks like an over-built university campus, but opens in the back to endless cultivated rolling hills crisscrossed with barbed wire fences beneath a huge set of power lines. I don't remember much about the dream, but do remember a single scene in a greenhouse, when almost-thirteen-year-old Ty Handsome the Wonderdog leapt onto a shelf as high as my shoulders just so he could lick my face. Which is, when you think about it, a pretty nice thing to remember from a dream about rampaging zombies.

And it's worlds better than the dream I had last week--the dream in which I'd been shot in the head, and was stumbling around in search of help. Everyone I met acknowledged that yes, I had been shot in the head. But the usual response was, "But you look like you're doing all right, so no problem," and a return to whatever had been occupying the person before I arrived.

This is my second week of vacation. Most of the first was spent catching up on everything domestic. I scrubbed my house top to bottom, end to end--a task I tend to do in autumn rather than spring--then reorganized some stuff in the garage, purged extra stuff, and sorted out financial information. I did also write a little, but not too much.

That's what this week is for.

Well, it's also for hosting my nephews on Monday and Tuesday so they can see their father--who can rarely find time in his currently-unemployed=but-supported-by-pregnant-girlfriend schedule to see them--over New Year's Eve. I plan to continue my goal to become Auntie Awesome by cooking homemade doughnuts and the like. Before and after, I'll also be trying to cram in visits with friends I haven't seen in far too long. And on Friday, I'll head to downtown Indy with a friend who is thrilled to teach me about geocaching in the city. We'll do some caching, then head to the Slippery Noodle for dinner and music. Best of all, everything in that Friday trip is research for Crossroads!

So... That's it. Nothing all that exciting. Not even a 2013 retrospective or 2014 goal-setting. Maybe I'll get to that later.
blairmacg: (FeatherFlow)

Maybe it's the fleeting touch of spring in the air. Maybe it's the pressure to Get Things Done. Maybe it's a response to finally—for months, and without non-fiction distractions—focusing on stories. Or maybe it's a delayed rebound from the multiple years I chose to ignore all the ideas. Whatever the cause, I find myself beset night and day by the internal demand I get everything written NOW.

I'm blasting through the rest of Sand of Bone now, making swifter progress now that I feel more immersed in the world. Suddenly, this idea trotted in this morning that I should completely cut the middle book from the trilogy. I could do it, with the creation of a new set-up for what's now the third book, and I'm liking the ideas more and more.

The second book wouldn't be just lost words, though. On the heels of the above thought came the inkling of a different story that could be told of the characters and culture that fill much of the second book.

Grumpy Neb from The Drunkard keeps tossing me his observations about his young charge, smart and sexy Lin from The Slaughterer is forever just sitting down to dinner with his huge family because that's the scene from which the entire plot flows, and the narrator of the final book in the Chant series is whispering angry tidbits at me.

Three key scenes from Surrender run through my thoughts over and over. I drove home from Asheville with another novel idea rattling around, and had a rough plot sketched by the time I got home—one that will connect with the Indy book I still plan to finish, and the Charleston book I decided to write when I visited That Man.

Because I really, really needed another project. Because having ten novels in various stages ranging from "nearing final draft" to "collection of ideas and plot points" simply wasn't enough.

Sweet New Idea Muse, surely there must be a writer out there staring at a blank page who could use a touch of your inspiration. Truly, I will be just fine if you move along to the next gal. But if you're worried about how I'll do without you, you could leave your kind cousins Word Count and Revision to watch over me.

(Aside: That Man continues to be awesome and fascinating and kind and fun and someone I'm happy to have in my life. Hee.)

blairmacg: (Default)

Dev and I made our annual trip to the International Festival today.  It’s the first year we’ve been able to attend on Friday, and I’m so glad we did because we had the privilege of seeing scores of people participate in the Naturalization Ceremony to become citizens.

When we current US citizens spend so much time fighting amongst ourselves, it’s easy to forget the citizenship is the desirable goal of so many.  It’s easy, also, to make jokes or snide remarks about it.  What I watched today was filled with joy and pride, expressed with firm handshakes, wide smiles, long embraces, and more than a few tears.  The first thing most of those new citizens did after receiving their paperwork was register to vote.

Pretty damn awesome.

Then we went on a culinary tour, which has become far more fun as Dev has decided to be more adventurous.  We had food from Taiwan, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India and Turkey.  Please don’t ask me what, exactly, we ate.  I know something involved lamb, something else radishes and rice flour, something else rice and pork baked inside green leaves, and something else a pastry in sauce.  But I clearly remember the boba!  Yum.

A couple of our favorite vendors were absent this year, alas.  But we did get another pair of origami flowers to add to my bouquet.

In other news... I'm kinda sorta totally jazzed about Sword and Chant. :-)

blairmacg: (Default)

Ray Bradbury did not inspire me to write.  His stories taught me to think, and to think about what I wrote.  He takes readers on a journey of consequences, often with characters who don't recognize they are making weighty decisions until those consequences come along.  I didn't realize just how much studying his work has influenced me until, on the day I heard of his passing, I read in my own work, "Consequences, Shala.  What must he choose?" 

On my own writing front, I'm feeling adrift--not because nothing wants to be written, but because everything wants to be written.  I continue to work on the non-fiction (my "work day" projects), but must choose which piece of fiction I'll pick up.

Should I dive into the Chant sequel?  No.  I'd be flailing, and end up frustrated.  That story doesn't lend itself to writing without an outline.  Bones needs more time to simmer.

What about the old SheyKhala books?  I've three (and a half) of them sitting around, all completed drafts in varying stages of needed revisions.  My trouble with those is I need a new opening for the first, and haven't settled on one yet.  The bigger problem is the shift in worldbuilding I'll be making with that series, and that isn't settled in my mind, either.  Still, I could just jump in and see what happens.

Drunk is a fun project, but so different in style, that I have to be in the right mood to make progress.  Three times I've written a couple chapters, then deleted them completely because the mood was too serious.  Ah, well.

And then there's my dear, dear Lindelotti story, which takes place in the same world as a novella of mine published years ago.  I adore Lin, his attitude, and his loud and hands-in-everything family.

I would really, really, really like to write Crossroads.  I keep starting on it with great enthusiasm...only to fizzle within a couple paragraphs.  It is beginning to piss me off.  There is something about writing in a real-life setting that is messing with head.  Maybe I need to spend a few days "on location."

So...I think the SheyKhala books are next up.  If I can just find the right pathway in, I'll be off.

Hmm.  Must re-read them all--without a red pen in hand!--to get back in the velshaan groove.


blairmacg: (Default)

After some mental meanderings last night, I decided not start my new project series in California after all.  Story flow works better if we begin in Indy, head to Texas for the second story arc, perhaps New Mexico for the third, and end up in California for the conclusion.  Every site in these stories are places I've visited, places I've stored in memory because something about them triggered "story."  I'm excited to finally have a cohesive project where they can all appear.

This series is not written in omni.  It works best with three tight viewpoints.  I admit to a little relief as I approach it.  Omni is, I believe, necessary for Chant--but it is not my primary inclination, and requires my constant attention.  Tight third is a relative breeze.

The other project I'm toying with on the side is a first-person fantasy that is totally different in tone and voice from anything else I've written.  A grumpy and snappish older man, a young enemy drunkard, a smart and quiet warrior, a juvenile delinquent, and a spirit who wants to eat the town.  I'm not sure where the story and its tone came from, but it's great fun to write.  I could write it in the same form as Chant (it's set in the same world), but Neb's voice is so much more fun!  I had set it aside once I realized it would likely fall into that impossible length of about 40K.  I could stretch it out, add an entire sequence, and make it hit 90K, I suppose.  But I don't really want to.  At this time.

Of course, I reserve the right to change my mind.  I do tend to write long.

So today I completed more outlining for Indy--filling in gaps near the beginning and adding a bit more to the end.  I'm much clearer now on one of the bad guy's motives, which makes later chapters so much easier to outline.  Next, I'm pulling out Drunk to play-write in the little bit of time I have between personal training and karate. 

After Chant, I need something completely different--something that will pull me far from the tone and voice so I can see it more clearly when I come back to it with beta reader comments.

blairmacg: (Default)
Traveling has become so much easier, from a financial standpoint, because my sister now works for an airline.  That means I'm able to get really inexpensive flights.  The downside is that I'll be the first bumped off that flight if a full-fare customer wants my seat.  That makes perfect sense on all sides, but kinda sucks when I'm trying to get home. 

So after spending the day at LAX hoping to get an flight, I ended up spending the night at a hotel, flying to Chicago quite early the next day, then driving from Chicago to the Indy airport (had to drop off the rental and pick up my car) and finally to home.  Gah.  After talking to my sis, I now know how I can avoid that happening again by airport-hopping my way home.  It might have meant four flights instead of two, but it certainly would have been the better option.

Anyway.

The trip was fantastic.  Patricia and I spent every available moment filling each other in on our lives over the last five years.  We talked until we were nodding off to sleep, and got up early on my last day to talk some more.  In between, I made some excellent contacts with some folks in the wellness field, and identified businesses I need to contact for future meetings.  Patricia also helped me talk through the specifics of my goals--the essential element of planning and success.  With work, and a little luck, I'm hoping to have workshops set up in the area 12 to 18 months from now.

But before all that happened, I took a little drive through parts of the Santa Ynez Valley I hadn't seen when Dev and I were there in December.  While standing at the base of Nojoqui Falls (which should be named Nojoqui Trickle this time year...), I made two decisions.  

First, I will indeed write a SY Valley tale set before the Indy tale.  Considering the amount of backstory I was building for the Indy novel, and how interested I was in that backstory, this won't be a big stretch of new creation.  My two visits to the valley stirred up all sorts of memories of places and incidents and little local stories that can be woven in. 

Second, I'll be writing these with an eye to self-publishing.  That doesn't mean I won't pursue traditional publishing with Chant and related novels.  But the SYV/Indy novels are present-day paranormal while the others are quite firmly other-world fantasy.  They are different enough that I feel comfortable placing them on different paths.

Alas, as much as I'd like to run back to Santa Ynez this week, it'll be three months before I can swing it.  In the meantime, I've a story to write.

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