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| Sunday, November 8th, 2009 |
plasticfarm
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8:02a |
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| Saturday, November 7th, 2009 |
ajasont
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5:54p |
Saturday Synapse Firing
* I'm 15,000+ words into my novel for NaNoWriMo or about one-fourth of the way to my 60,000 word goal for the novel. I'm feeling good that there are some really nice passages so far, standing proudly beside the junk. I think there are far more good words so far than bad, and certainly there are some interesting ideas that I've barely scratched the surface of. * Additionally, I've been able to keep up my daily exercise regimen while writing these words for the novel. That's a major accomplishment for me. Last year, I sacrificed the regimen and gained an ungodly amount of weight over the winter because I did that. I failed myself last year, so this year is about showing that I can spend the time doing the writing without sacrificing anything important. I am spending time with my family, meeting my work obligations AND writing a 50,000+ word novel. I think I'm winning already. * Hey, how about those football Jayhawks? Lost four in a row now and there's no hope of a bowl game, or at least a decent one. Can't win on the road, can't win at home. What the hell's happened? * And then there's the Royals trading away the only really good player on their team AGAIN. Jesus, I wonder if they really think like a big-league team or not. They've had the rep of being the MLB's farm team for years, developing talent and then trading it away to eventual World Series Champs. Fuck, I wish I cold love my team for winning and not just because they're my team. * I've started reading His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, and I love his writing already. It's got real style and though I'm familiar with The Golden Compass from watching the film, I'm totally immersed in the world as he's writing it. * Jason Aaron's SCALPED is another comic book you should be reading. It's masterful crime comics at their very best. I much prefer R.M. Guera's artwork to Davide Furno and Francesco Francavilla, but the story carries through regardless who's drawing it. * I really like the new Alice In Chains record. It's not particularly imaginative, musically, but it's solid. Last of My Kind Still Standing is probably my favorite lyric, and the music for Check My Brain is a highlight. * I'm knocking off the internet for the rest of the night, so be good to each other. There's lots more to do than just tool around and surf for things to distract you. I remind you all that reading is fundamental, it's good for you. So is personal interaction in social situations. Don't take it from me, though. Go out and find out for yourself, okay? * Almost forgot to mention that I've got the new Stephen King book coming next week. That's probably up for me to read in December. Can you imagine him really writing a SF opus? Current Mood:  productive |
dculver
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7:04a |
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plasticfarm
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8:02a |
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ebess
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4:32a |
More (Late Night) Photos
Originally published at Elizabeth Genco. You can comment here or there. Subject line psych-out! 
I probably ought not be posting at 3 am, as I was in what Mr. Wood might call “a mood” all day today. (Y’know one of those scenes where it’s like one long string of shatterkissed stubbed fingers from morning ’til night? Like that.)
(Whatever, it’s over.)
So, Lindsay Miller is a talented photographer and beautiful soul living in Tucson, AZ, which is where all the cool peeps seem to be living these days. (Waitaminute - what am I talking about? My peeps been there for years. Oh yeah, 3 a.m.)
Lindsay has been working her way through portrait-ing nearly all of Kendall’s new certified coaches, because we all love her and she is just “wicked good,” as we say up North (i.e., nowhere near Arizona). So when I was in Tucson a few weeks ago, I dropped by her studio for new Marketing Goddess shots…
I did not, however, make it over to Endicott West. BAH. Better planning next time. (No worries - at least 2 visits to Tucson in the offing in 2010, so there.)
Photo shoots are interesting. I was telling Seth last week that once upon a time (think 2001, 2002), I had the magic touch, shall we say, for hold-the-camera-out-in-front-of-you-style Internet shots. (You know, the kind that end up on a Warren Ellis message board.) Somewhere along the line, however - I think it may have been shortly before or after I quit my soul-sucking job - such photos sunk into the unflattering depths.
Vestiges of the descent can still be found on my Flickr feed here and there, though I made most of them private and deleted a bunch of others. Now, when I want to mark time, I have the professionals do it.
Anyway, back to “interesting.” When Lindsay’s shots came in, I sent them around to several trusted advisers for their learned opinions. I received about a zillion opinions. There was no consistent thread to said opinions at all. My favorite is actually this one, which I think one other person liked. (Okay, maybe two.)
One of the “gorgeous coaches” said I looked wistful. I don’t get that at all. I’m just marveling at how Lindsay managed to capture that expression, when I don’t think anyone else ever has, ever. Go, Lindsay.
On my personal agenda for 2010: headshots with Peter Hurley.
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| Friday, November 6th, 2009 |
jkcarrier
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2:38p |
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dannimal
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10:19a |
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dculver
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7:04a |
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plasticfarm
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8:02a |
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jkcarrier
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1:18a |
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| Thursday, November 5th, 2009 |
dannimal
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4:29p |
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dannimal
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4:14p |
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dculver
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7:03a |
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plasticfarm
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8:03a |
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ajasont
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4:49a |
Thursday Things
* Terry Moore's new series, ECHO, is one hell of a ride. If you liked Strangers in Paradise, this is very different. It has a very HBO kind of feel to it. The art is typically gorgeous and the dialogue is real. Highly recommended. * Nearly hit 9000 words last night on my NaNoWriMo work, so I'm doing well with my improved goal of 2000 words a day (at least to start off) and I'm happy with how it's coming along. Since doing NaNo last year, I've written 11 short stories for an estimated total of about 62,000 words and 111,000 including the NaNovel. I don't think that's a bad total at all. Averaging 9250 a month. * I'm proud of that. * Thinking ahead, I'd really like to have 250,000 words total under my belt this time next year. I am confident that I can get that. (This year's NaNovel target word count is 60,000, which means another 80,000 from December 2009 through October 2010.) * The Long Range will finish up (for me) around late February/early March. I know what I'm writing after that, but haven't put any framework around it. I like having a format (6000 words, four 1500 word chapters per story) and I think that's helped me. What one may not realize yet is that The Long Range is really a novel. * Speaking of which, November's story, "The Insulated Man" started yesterday. Have you read it yet? Tell me what you think. * I read the Mister X Archives by Dean Motter & Co. (including Los Bros Hernandez and Seth) as published by Dark Horse Comics and am now reading The Umbrella Academy: Dallas by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba. These two books are among the most subversive comics ever with ideas such as Psychetecture and time traveling assassins. The only book that's missing from this mix is Matt Fraction's Casanova, which is on a hiatus while MF writes a bunch of best-selling superhero books for Marvel. I should probably get the last of his run on The Immortal Iron Fist, too, because that's superhero stuff that is at least sympatico with his independent work. IIF would also really work well as a film. * I'm signed up for a blog on NaNo with my local paper and awaiting some word on what's going on with it. More info as it comes along. * Have I mentioned what my NaNovel is about? |
| Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 |
professormortis
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9:39p |
Halloween catch-up
I was doing pretty good keeping up with my October viewing, but I've gotten completely behind the last few weeks. Here's a quick rundown of some of the films I've been watching: ( Read more... ) |
dculver
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7:10a |
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| Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 | |
andrew6
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3:46p |
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zmarlowe
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11:39a |
Innocent when you dream
I'm in a very good mood right now. It's nice. Only real reason I can think of as to why is that I finished an article last night that's been hanging over my head for a month now. I don't think it turned out that great--it's passable, but not something I'm especially proud of. (It's probably not a good sign that a good half of the articles I'm writing these days, I get to the end thinking, "Ah fuck it, if it's bad they can edit." More than half, really.) But still, it's done. I still have six or seven other things to do by the end of the week, plus I've got the new Wheel of Time book to read by Sunday for review... but for now, sweet, sweet relief. I said I'd talk about the waiting-for-a-publisher game, right? Well, here's where things stand now: -Still waiting to hear back from S, the place that might be interested in publishing The Living as a young adult novel. So far, this experience has been a lot of tedium and vague depression, mixed with the occasional interjection of intense excitement. The S thing (I'm not sure it's kosher to name the publisher) is a microcosm of that. First they're interested in reading the book, then it takes them a couple months to finally get around to it. Then the editor who read it, P, "likes it," and brings it to committee. In two weeks. A month and later, I hear that while P is really enthusiastic about the book (which was great to hear), S doesn't have any place in their adult imprints. But they're starting a Young Adult imprint, would I want to be considered for that? So, I get excited again--I had issues with YA, but I'm mostly over them at this point, because really, I just want this fucking thing published. Only, now that I've said yes, it takes two weeks for the new guy to get the book, and that was two weeks ago (ish) and he's still reading. It's been long enough now that I've kind of forgotten being excited. The wait doesn't mean anything either way, but it's weird to think, "Huh, there's at least one editor at a publishing house reading my novel who might want to buy it," and have that not really do much to me one way or the other. -The agent isn't resting on her laurels, though. She's currently pecking away at TD (who she told me in this week's update may be "amenable," whatever that means) and T. T's actually trying to break into the zombie market, with a Pride & Prejudice & Zombies knock-off featuring Tom Sawyer. Seriously. So, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess my book is better than that one. Fingers crossed. -There are a bunch of other places she's tried, and half a dozen who actually got the manuscript, but I think I've only been officially rejected twice? And in both cases, it was from people who hadn't read the whole book. (One guy looked at the sample and the synopsis and said there wasn't anything special about it. So, y'know, to hell with him.) I'm assuming that with the places that have the book but my agent hasn't mentioned, those are basically no go, but who knows. I figured this process would be excruciating, and it sort of is, but I didn't realize it would be this backgrounded. I have no idea if any of this will resolve soon. We could get an offer from S this week, or it could be a month of nothing before they tell us they're passing. I'm just glad I've got the AV Club job, because otherwise, I think I would've gone insane by now. |
plasticfarm
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8:01a |
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ebess
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3:17a |
When Insomnia Attacks
Originally published at Elizabeth Genco. You can comment here or there. *blows the dust off the blog*
Wow. I do believe that these past 2 months is The Longest I’ve Gone Without Posting since starting my blogging back in (meep!) 2002. (First with Livejournal, then at the now-defunct support-your-local-busker.com, and now here.)
The radio silence has been quite deliberate. For one thing, things always start to feel a little crufty around the edges when my Wordpress install gets outdated, as it is now. (As it becomes approximately 5 minutes after I update the damn thing - like I can ever win this one.)
For another, let’s just say that there’s a part of me that just wants to wipe the whole blogging slate clean and start over. That’s a reflection of how I feel on the inside these days.
Clean, that is. Free of various and sundry head trash that had been cluttering up the joint.
This clean feeling is a good thing. But oddly, whenever it goes down, I tend to want to write less. About myself, anyway.
Anyway. Coming out of self-imposed hibernation, maintenant. To celebrate, we took some new pictures at church last week (a.k.a. The New York Public Library’s 42nd Street branch). Here’s one - click to see it bigger:
More here. (By Seth Kushner, but of course, who is up to some lovely things - check out his blog.)
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| Monday, November 2nd, 2009 |
eldogo
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10:05p |
Logjammin'
The car's running again (it was severely low on oil and coolant, and desperately needed a flush), but now the check engine light comes on. So I'm taking it back to the shop tomorrow morning before work, so they can check the code and see if it's just a false positive or something. I hope so. I'm putting off replacing the seized up AC compressor for a few weeks (this was the source of the burning smell). It's goddamn expensive, but without it I can't run the defroster. You try living in Minnesota without a working defroster on your car. Mom and Dad came up on Sunday to help me with the rest of my autumnal yard work and tree surgery. Dad brought his electric chainsaw, which was an immense help. But here's the thing: Dad has a terrible problem with mission creep when it comes to household projects. He way overestimates what we can do as a team, and what he can do now that he's in his seventies and diabetic. I used to have a pile of sticks and branches about the size of my car, and over the past three weeks I pared it down to a few logs about seven feet long and as thick as my arm. Well, now I've got a pile of branches and logs twice as big as my car, plus several piles of unbagged leaves. Gee, thanks Dad. I keep reminding myself that it all really needed to be done (the tree was seriously overgrown), and that now I'll have less yard work next year, but it's taking a phenomenal amount of mental effort. I don't see how I'm going to get this done by the yard waste pickup deadline. Still, it was pretty fun playing lumberjack for an afternoon. Dad left me the chainsaw, so maybe this time the bundling process won't be as prolonged and debilitating. The car troubles made me miss a day and two hours worth of work. And of course major problems came up in my absence, which were not fixable by anyone else in the department. I did not enjoy work today. Some other things I miraculously need to do by Omegacon: 1. Write overdue MISFITs Trivia Contest questions. 2. Get a wi-fi card for my laptop. 3. Work ahead on my Spanish homework to compensate for missing a weekend. 4. Use this birthday gift certificate from Fossil to get myself a decent watch. 5. Set up mousetraps and other rodent deterrents. 6. Kick improv ass. Argh. Current Mood:  groggy |
dewline
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8:51p |
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ruby_stevens
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3:32p |
Where It's At
Wouldn't do to run out the calendar without getting a whopping two entries logged in. I'm well and I'm not per my usual. I well enough thankfully to be able to ask and reach out for help. I made an appointmen with a therapist for the first week of December and I'm going to apply to Western Carolina's film program for the fall. Otherwise I'm very glad it's sunny and clear, if cold, as the constant rain and gray skies have been driving me to see just how long I can stay in bed before moss starts to grow on me. I'm also coming to a breaking point with my Father, we get along pretty well but he's been using me as his therapist since I was old enough to listen and that has to stop. I've been going through and cleaning up my old papers, it's funny and sad how little has changed when reading journal entries from five years ago. But the whole picture has kept and edged toward the positive and that's what matters. Halloween was quite fun and next year I must do a costume. I've lost much of my taste for Fall but Halloween has grown on me. The best part of looking through my notebooks is all the story ideas and characters I'd forgotten I'd wrote down. These are definitely getting shaken out of the mothballs and being put to work. I like it when a month starts on a Sunday, it feels neater and gives me a nudge to finally start checking off my to do list. Thanksgiving will be very nice this year, I'll finally get to a movie theater again and thanks to an edict from my sister we're only getting a turkey breast so less of the dry, off tasting leftovers. Though I'll be most thankful to have someone around who I can watch MST3K episodes with. As the saying goes the family that riffs together, stays together. |
plasticfarm
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8:01a |
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