Sabrann Curach's Blog

Change (7.5k more or less is part of my dissertation)- science, technology, and the understanding of how knowledge affects our decisions.

Glass Block (redux, last rewrite, from scratch) – seven years after writing the original, I'm going to rewrite it one last time, and it, with all of my other stories are going on a pen drive in our safe – no more deleting them in a fit of pique.

AND

Valubaby – (creative non)fiction (which will be more fiction than non) about the pain of working out whether...

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I'm so excited.  Not only did I get to meet Stephen Fry AND Mark Carwardine this weekend at the Cheltenham Literary festival, who both signed my book, and join Neil Gaiman (05)John and Carol Barrowman(08), and Toni Morrison(08) on my pride of place 'signed' corner, but we're nearly at Nanowrimo 09!

For those of you that don't know what it is (where have you BEEN, it's been running now for 11 years!) basically you go mad for 30 glorious and (legal) stimulant of your choice fuelled days (mine...

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I picked up a cutecat scanner in the last week, so that I could more readily add the hundreds of books and roleplaying tomes we own in this house - in part because I want to catalog all of the books I read this year for University and there's really nothing easier than scanning them in under 'reading list' or another tag at Library thing and then importing them over here (and retagging them, true), but also because I'm actually kinda curious how many books I read in a given year.
So this is my 'thing' this year - every book I read and scan, I'm going to review. Every book that arrives in our hose is going to be logged, and every book is going to be accurately tagged ;) And the kids LOVE the catscanner. They're already demanding thier own accounts to add books to, which is a good thing.

In other news, and I'm not sure if anyone is aware, but I am a librarian here. I asked after I'd discovered lots of inaccuracies in my own listings and wanted to fix them, so if there's anything you need added, subtracted, cleaned up or attached to your books, including aligning the name so it recognises *you* as the author, let me know.

Sabby, aka DK Wilson

Just a quick one today – planning is an issue most freelancers struggle with.  I've got a huge issue with planning, simply because I can't.  I use Achieve Planner most of the time, by Effexis, because it's a solid program and helps me focus on what I'm actually supposed to be doing.  Well…most of the time.  I'm still not very good at sticking to my weekly calendar as it's planned out (mainly because I find it a faff to look at the calendar and then switch to the actual tasks outstanding)...

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A couple of years ago, I got into a dual discussion, one on my LiveJournal, and one on a mailing list I was with, about 'how I wrote everything I did'.  A lot of the writers that were in those places weren't sure I was being entirely honest, entirely fair, or entirely 'living in the real freaking world' about my writing.  Those comments have stuck with me in the last few years, as I've refined and redesigned my process and gone from prolific to dammed scary in about three months.

I write, on a...

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Comfort, especially as a writer, is a funny thing.

Lots of people say that they'd be comfortable earning lots of money, and doing the things they love.  Others are sure it's not about the money, but want to share something with the world.

But how much of that is about actual comfort, and how much is expectation based on perception of success?

I used to think that writing was the be all and end all in my life – slowly though, other things have crept in – I'm learning lingustics which is language in

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Late last year, very quietly, I retired from writing.  My last story sold about six months after – and only because I wanted to find out if I was right to quit.

Actually, that's wrong.  I'll phrase it a bit more accurately.

I've always thought of my writing as water.  It's essential to life, refreshing, can poison, and be very bad for you in high doses, but it can heal.  It can support, or it can turn on you.  Elementally, I'm more at home with water than anything else.  And water, with pigment i

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There's something comforting about pidgeonholes.  For a start you know where you're supposed to be.  And in a world that likes to spend it's time categorising and deciding where we belong, knowing where you *are*, especially as a writer, is golden.

It means you can decide where to market yourself.  Know where to spend your time promoting.  So, alongside the discussion about how I set my carreer back up, and put MYSELF back in the driving seat, how I handle pen names 'etc', I'm also going to...

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I'm a parent. I know what it feels like to burn the midnight oil, at both ends and then crash and burn.

But recent studies suggest that without a regular sleep pattern, those of us with careers as writers could actually be damaging our writing ability.

How?

Well, apparently, there's a couple of studies kicking around out there that suggest that if you don't get optimum sleep, you can't create, or function at your best.  You over compensate through 'substance' (caffine) abuse, and end up...

View full post on Sabrann Curach's website »

I'm a parent. I know what it feels like to burn the midnight oil, at both ends and then crash and burn.

But recent studies suggest that without a regular sleep pattern, those of us with careers as writers could actually be damaging our writing ability.

How?

Well, apparently, there's a couple of studies kicking around out there that suggest that if you don't get optimum sleep, you can't create, or function at your best.  You over compensate through 'substance' (caffine) abuse, and end up wrecking

View full post on Sabrann Curach's website »