Still Alive & Still Tech Impaired

Well, my 'I need new tech' fund is a bit fatter than when last I posted, but it's slow going. Anybody else find it a cruel twist of irony that there are such astounding sales going & still nobody has the cash to take part? Cuz I do. I hope this missive finds you all well & lemme just say a quick hello to my newest blog follower. Hello!

I'm still having trouble getting things going when trying to actually write things out on paper, so instead (and yes, I know this won't improve my word counts any) I've been reading a lot. I just finished Son of a Witch, the sequel to Wicked. They're an interesting take on the world of Oz & a good example of how the same events can be taken from differing directions.

How 'bout you? Read anything good lately?

My Life in (Technological) Exile

Hallooooo blogosphere! My computer is still dead, which may sound obvious, but it's made miraculous ressurections before. I've started my 'Gawd, how I need new tech!!' fund, but it'll be a while yet. Beyond that, I'm fine save a lingering bit of a cold & nearly succumbing to actual cold outside. I don't know where you live, gentle reader, but it's a startling realization when it occurrs to you that you could climb into your own deep freeze & be warmer (by something like 25+ degrees!) than it is outside! Yikes! I hope if you're in the clutches of this as well you're out there somewhere with extra socks, lots of cocoa & a nice blanket.

I've been trying to make some ground on my story, but I just can't seem to get the same momentum going with a pen & paper as I do when I type. Does anybody else have this as well? A preferred format where things just flow or one where everything is a complete slog? I'm trying, I've been working on little details rather than the whole picture in the hopes that it'll jog things. I've also done a little sketching because sometimes for me, it's helpful to be able to actually look at a char. I shall perceviere & I hope wherever you are, your pieces are going well.

Missing my computer...and the lovely rhythm of clicking keys...and talking to all of you.

Well, it did hold up its end of the bargain...

A joyous New Year to one & all, mine's...hit a bit of a rough patch. Last night, my battered, but beloved laptop went off to that good death. I make a glorified allowance, so a new system is sometime off for me yet, but thankfully, I can get online from work (much like now) so I won't dissappear entirely.

The computer's been threatening to kick off for quite a while now; it's nearly 5 years old, it's hand-me-down & it's been moved around (and on rarer occasions, dropped) too much. It'd been getting noticeably during NaNo, so the computer & I made a deal - if it really must die, I needed it to wait till I a) finished my novel & b) got an external HD so I didn't lose EVERYTHING(again!). Well, I finished my novel, at least the first draft I was shooting for anyway & for Christmas, I was pleasantly surprised to get an external hard drive. So, while only getting on a couple times a week is a bit of a drag, I had time to save everything & it held up it's end of things, so I'm not too upset.

This is going to make writing interesting. I haven't written, as in pen & paper, anything longer than a grocery list in AGES, I always type. But, I don't want to wait to write exclusively on the computer, ass I've found, it's hard to get/keep momentum going if you wait days between sessions. I hope I can get the same kind of flow writing on paper as I do when I type.

In other news, I've been doing a lot of reading recently. Just a couple days before Christmas, I bought a copy of American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I'd been meaning to read something of his for a while, but when I was buying comics (actual, single issue comics, not the compilations I get now cuz it's just easier, lol) there was only one or two places in town that sold them, it was a very limited collection & did not include Sandman, but that's where I knew the name from. He did one of the Pep Talks for NaNo last year & I really liked it, so I've started reading his blog & I think I can fairly well say....I *heart* Neil. If you haven't read him, you really should, he's awesome, clever & engaging & funny. Look him up on neilgaiman.com or wikipedia or imdb.com If you haven't read him, there's a good chance you've still seen his work, several of his pieces have been made into movies & he's written screenplays for other things as well. Anyway, I read American Gods, then a couple days after Christmas, went back out & got Neverwhere & Good Omens(with Terry Pratchett) & I've already read all three of them, lol. Now I'm onto a borrowed book which, just coincidentally (I'd gotten it loaded to me sometime in Nov & had half forgot about it) is by Terry Pratchett called Johnny Maxwell Trilogy. One good thing about faulty tech, I suppose....it gives you a lotta time to read.

Ok, that's all I've got for now. I'll be back around as opportunity permits, so likely about 1-2 times a week. Enjoy your new year & go read a good book....or write one!

Progress Report

Ok, so I'm getting a better sense of what's going to happen with the story. It's starting with a seemingly average kid, named Liam, that feels somehow displaced in his world. He doesn't really feel like he fits quite right with things. After a bit, he gets some new neighbors who are very odd. He doesn't know it yet, but they're going to be there for him.

Each of them will have something magical about them, like one I think, might be a sphinx in disguise, one might be a werewolf or giant...something big, then of course there's the mermaid. The kid doesn't realize it at first, but he'll be...something, too. I dunno what yet. The neighbors have moved in cuz they know there's someone like them in the area, but they don't know for certain who it is at first. All the while, I think there may be a Collector of some sort trying to hunt these types & the neighbors have to find the kid, show him who he is & warm him about this collector before he gets found & taken.

I'm not sure how it ends tho'...does he go with them, leaving his family behind? Do they fight the collector so they can all be safe? Do the neighbors simply seek out these kids to warn them, then move on? *shrug* I'm not sure yet. I'm going to start actual work on it, rather than just trying to work out the ideas in my head, today.

In other news, I need to say another hello to the blog's newest follower. Hello! Thanks for stopping by.

A Pictoral Interlude

The evidence of our recent ice storm...
Treacherous, somewhat destructive, but oh so pretty & sparkly. Maybe I'll write something about an arctic world while the effect is still in full swing. Something with a glass forest could be pretty interesting.


The basement I talked about. Luckily it's in the empty house next door & not mine. And alas, all that junk & no mermaid. I think the basement pond in my story will have to be a fair bit cleaner.

Have You Ever Noticed...?

When you've been writing for a while, you start being able to more accurately predict things (& more quickly too) in what you read or watch? That happens for me a lot, most recently when I rented something only yesterday. On one hand, I like it; it's nice to be more able to identify structure & notice clues, (or in some cases, cliches) & character types, etc. But then, on the other hand, it's a little contrary to that whole suspension of disbelief thing to figure out where a movie's going after the first ten minutes.

And the Universe Provides

I know that 'where do you get your ideas?' is a constant question asked of writers & for me, it tends to be from odd places. My NaNo this year started from seeing a commercial for disposable razors, lol. And this morning, I had a new notion for a new project...courtesy of my flooded basement. Yep, I mean it.

Ya see, it's like this, a while back I'd mentioned my truly obnoxious neighbors & I'd mentioned having them in my NaNo. As it happens, they didn't make it in the book but one of you out there had suggested having them have radioactive stuff in amongst the junk in the yard. I liked that idea & think it has potential. Just recently, those neighbors got evicted & the cheers of a grateful neighborhood rang out around the street. I assumed, quite wrongly it seems, that with their hasty departure they'd no longer be a problem. Oh, what little I know.

I came home the other day & when it got to be time for supper, a brief foray was made to the basement to get something out of the freezer, only to find about 4 inches of standing water in my usually dry basement. Nothing appeared to be dripping, there wasn't any sounds of water anywhere. After a bit of looking around, I noticed there was water pouring down the outside of the neighbor's house, below their kitchen, where the house wall met the basement. The cops came out, because who else are you going to call when the legal owner is an out of town bank & it's late on a Saturday afternoon. He looked around & discovered that, on the side of the house opposite mine, one of the basement windows was missing & upon looking inside, saw about four feet of standing water.

Yeah... I was overjoyed.

On the plus side, the cop called in a couple of city guys who came out & shut the main off & may have even drained a bit (I'm not sure what all they did, as it was darkening by then & raining. Not ideal observation conditions really). So, you may be saying "wow...that does suck. But what's it got to do with your writing?" Well, I'll tell you, smartypants...It got me thinking, that's what. Like, were it clean & not full of dingy junk, were it sealed properly & not dripping down the side of the house to soak the surrounding ground so much as to make it leak into other houses & were it not, ya know...the middle of December in an underground room with an open window, for just a minute, that could be kinda fun. Imagine if you didn't have to worry about cleanup or wrecking things or drowning the circuit breaker or anything & could just walk down the stairs & jump in. That'd be kinda fun, on paper at least.

So that's got me thinking...what kind of people might intentionally have a basement full of water? And my first thought was, a family with a mermaid. And what kind of family would have a mermaid? An odd kind, I'd imagine, at least by outside appearances. So, for my next project, I think I'm going to write about a family with a strange secret swimming in their basement & see what other oddities I find.

Whatcha think?

In other news, I got to right an ST post for my game last night! Storyteller (ST) posts are far reaching, plot posts rather than individual char pieces as I usually do. I've done ST posts a couple times before, but not very often. This one is exciting, because it's an ST post for a little side plot I'm actually running. That's a new one. I've got a li'l adventure cooked up to keep people busy over Christmas that'll segue nicely into the main plot after Christmas. So, that should be fun.