Superior Scribbler Award!

Well, it seems that crazy fella Adam of Editing Hat (and of course, don’t forget his Gumshoe Casefiles! cuz they are a fun read, too!) has gifted me with the superior scribbler award! And here it are!!

These things always have rules, so I shall try and obey them all! First: I have already done! I linked to Adam’s blogs, cuz he done gave me the award! Here are the others (cut and pasted from Adam’s rules):

• Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.
• Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.
• Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.
• Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!
• Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

Another thing you are supposed to do is allegedly say 10 things about themelves... I do wonder if Adam just wanted to talk about himself.... :)

Here is my list of nominees:

Alex at My Muse is a Zombie Alex has more dialog on her blog than any other blogger in the blogoverse, and all of it is hysterically funny.

Sara of Dooly Noted This woman’s posts will make you laugh, cry and cry while laughing. One day, she’s gonna hit it big. BIG.

Dan Straka Dan writes about writing on his blog - and he does it with very little bs. I keep telling him he needs to write for a writer’s mag.

Jade Hears Voices Just, do yourself a favor and go to this blog. She has everything. Books. Puppies. Australia. Rambles about writing. Occasional pix of hot guys...

Aubrie the Flute Girl! I feel that Aubrie is trembling on the edge of success. Go to her blog, become her friend and you can say you knew her when.

Ok. Ten things about me you may not know.

1. I am obsessed with Victorian architecture.
2. Despite all my complaints to the contrary, I love my kitteh a lot.
3. I still have all my Little House on the Prairie books from when I was a girl.
4. My other fave book was “The Littlest Witch,” so much so that I tried to change my name to Minx (the MC’s name) as a teen. Didn’t work.
5. My initials are BLT.
6. I've been drunk only two times in my life, have never ever ever been stoned on any drug and plan to never ever do so - which leads to the mention that drugs and alcohol pretty much destroyed my family.
7. My Dad was an elevator repair man.
8. I wanted to be a writer even as a kid, but didn’t start writing until my 30’s.
9. I no longer believe in writer’s block and don’t believe “taking time off” really helps anything in regards to writing, unless both your arms are broken and you also have a concussion.
10. I am a pretty good beta reader. In case you didn’t know.

And that's about it. :)

Finally Something to Blog About

Well, despite having the sicks, I managed to finish the first rough edit of The Spiritcaster, and don't hate me, but I think I have a valid piece of fiction writing right here at my fingertips. It needs some tightening and some clarifying and some brutal throat ripping, but I don't think it sucks too bad. :)

That's the good news. Now comes the part I don't like so much. I hate marking up with pen. Then it has to go in the computer, and it never fails, I'm miserable when transferring red marked pages into the computer. I get impatient, and worse, I rarely like what I've edited in pen afterwards, so I end up doing another fly-by edit as I go along. Sigh.

Also, I have started another book. Don't ask me why. There's a reason I cannot tell you, but regardless, it has begun. It's a commentary on post-modern distopian class-structure.... oh fuck it. It's a quasi-urban elf and dragon fantasy. :) When they said the meek shall inherit the earth it meant the elves were going to get it after we pollute it and leave it to rot. They're not exactly happy about it, either.

It Has Begun. Editing the Spiritcaster

Current: 35/500 pages

Well, I'm two weeks ahead of schedule! I've cracked open The Spiritcaster and begun the edits. Only 35 pages in and I'm a little relieved. I feel this is the best story I've ever written, but I wrote it very fast, with little regard for silly things like chapter breaks or purty wurds. I was frightened. Color me surprised when I read the first few pages. Not too shabby. Doing a quick look ahead, I did note at least five chapter breaks, but I know I abandoned them after a few weeks, just putting hashmarks for POV changes. I know some terrible passages lurk in the distance (you know, when you don't know what to write, and putting the words down feels like laying bricks instead of forming sentences?) Yeah....

Other good news. I've finally learned how to spell weapon. Now if only I can learn how to spell ceiling (without the spellchecker, that is!).

I'm going to celebrate my good fortune with the last of my birthday cupcakes and Tim Burton's Big Fish.

Remember that Last Post? Yeah....

So much for that. I FINISHED! Those little bastards... turns out the twisted road I took down into the underworld of the city of Hanar turned out to be the end. So instead of meandering on another 40K, I actually pulled this mother up under 97k! Whooo!

Speaking of 40... or being on the verge... this is just in time for mah birfdays. Yes. I turn 39 tomorrow. Feel free to party along with me all you want, cuz all the rest are going to be like Groundhog Day. You can continue to ask how old I am, but since I have forewarned you, I am no longer obligated to tell the truth.

It's not about turning 39... it's that I don't feel 39. I don't act it. I mean, I pay my taxes, I have a steady job, apartment and obligatory cat. But I also have a dream and a stack of manuscripts, my sense of humor is firmly in place, and though I don't get the manga or the anime the kids are into these days, I have every Sleater-Kinney album available and a Ten Club membership in the Pearl Jam fanclub (It lets you download bootlegs. Oh yeah).

So. This is the last post I will write as a 38 year old single girl with cat. And probably the last time I mention my age. :)

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Tower...

Word count: 89,751K/ of... well, we gotta talk about that.

It's great when characters, born of a thought and a dream, grow flesh and depth and start acting on their own. It's awesome. It's like, the marionette strings float free and yet the puppet still has movement....

It can also be a goddamned pain in the ass.

I had my characters on a trek through a park. They were laying low from all the technogadgets looking for them. For some reason, who knows why, I throw in another substation entrance. These are mostly blocked off, as the substations have been given over to the Morlocks, refugees from a doomed planet who have rebuffed all attempts to assimilate into Hanarian culture. Schemer, the character with a penchant for controlling darkness (specifically, shadows) who never goes in a room without looking for the exit or considering its defensibility should there be an attack, was drawn to this substation. You can't blame him, really, he didn't know about the Morlocks. He's a refugee of a sorts, as well. He saw it as a great place to hide in a pinch. A defensible position.

However, Ghost told him: Don't go below. That way lies danger. All hell's gonna break loose if you go down there. She even knew (being an intuit) that telling someone that sort of thing is dangerous, but that is how serious the situation was.

Ok, so they find a place to "camp" in the middle of this city park (yes, a defensible place, signed sealed an approved by Schemer) and we all think the matter is settled. Me, Ghost, Schemer, we're good. I put them to bed for the night.

And then he gets up in the middle of the damn night and high tails it to the substation entrance! Everything goes to hell. I have to add about 40K to my projected total. Ghost turns to me and says "I knew I shouldn't have said anything." And I was like...Why the hell didn't I know that? Why didn't you tell ME?! I wouldn't have had you say anything! All she did was look out at me from those implacable, flat, unnatural blue eyes. And didn't say a damn thing.

She does that to the other characters a lot. I guess now I know how it feels.