Barbara Hambly's Blog, page 39

Contracts!

Just signed contracts for 2 more Ben January books, and 2 more Asher/Ysidro. Same publisher - Severn House, U.K. Advances these days are pretty low across the board in all publishing, I think (unless you're JK Rowling or Stephen King), but it's nice to know I'll continue the serieses.

Played hookey not only Thursday to go to the Hollywood Bowl, but Friday night as well, to see the Independent Shakespeare Company do an open-air performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor in Griffith Park, in the meadow where the old Zoo used to be. (It still has the caves cut into the cliff, where the bear-cages were). So, two lovely picnics in the twilight with good friends... and a WHOLE backlog of work that needs to be done this afternoon and tomorrow.

Boss battle

Okay - I THINK I have the choreography of explosions, hostages, zombies, cave-ins, poison gas, multiple vampires, silver-loaded shotgun shells, and two show-downs fifteen miles apart worked out. But of course I can see there'll be heavy re-writes on the next pass through, to make sure that yes, that pistol WAS under the rock in the garden...

I won't even get to finish it tomorrow because of going to the Hollywood Bowl, OR Friday because of a meeting in the morning and then the annoyance of shopping. But, I feel much better now that I've figured out the walkthrough. WAY too tired to do any more work tonight.

A day of errands - some of them totally fruitless - with ...

A day of errands - some of them totally fruitless - with the result that I am a) tired b) hungry c) filled with a raging loathing for humankind and a thirst for petty and disproportionate vengeance on anyone who thwarts me and d) not really up to writing. I have taken a long walk, and meditated, filling myself with the white light that rules and unites all things in the universe and I still would like to firebomb three electronics stores and the 405 freeway. Oh, and send a small nuclear device to the imbecelic cretins who make my computer security system with its don't-speak-English so-called tech-non-support.

A day of rest from work is always useful, or at least enlightening.

Always interesting when I dream about characters. Dreamed...

Always interesting when I dream about characters. Dreamed last night about Asher and Lydia - Lydia VERY stylish in a pink-and-white-striped Gibson-girl shirtwaist. As I did chores (feed cats, clean boxes, go for walk...) turned over in my mind the day's upcoming work, like prepping the ground. And sure enough, as I was clearing up the breakfast dishes and reading over the walkthrough cheats for Tomb Raider (which I have to read through at LEAST half a dozen times before I can get my nerve up to go on with the level), I thought, "Oh, THAT's why they go after the zombies until after dark when they're all awake!" And the solution to that neatly cleared up most of the other Endgame issues that were bothering me as well.

I love it when that happens.

VERY odd to wake up and have no freeway-noise - whic...

VERY odd to wake up and have no freeway-noise - which most weekday mornings I can hear, dimly, across the intervening half-mile or so of houses. Also very curious as to whether they'll ACTUALLY finish the demolition of the Mulholland overpass this weekend or whether the freeway closure is going to stretch into Rush Hour tomorrow morning.

I've reached the stage of writing where I look at the outline and go, Hmn, how EXACTLY are we going to work our way from here to the Endgame? (Reminding me of the time I wrote that Star Trek outline - and I warn you now I'll repeat this story when I can get back to my reminiscences about writing various books - and it said, "And then these four guys take over the Enterprise..." It was about two years before I actually got the contract on the book, so when I got to that point of the outline I hadn't the SLIGHTEST idea how those intrepid baddies were going to accomplish that feat). We're Here... so how do we get There?

The air is filled with a flying storm of Loose Ends.

And in the evenings, I brachiate from one You-Gotta-Do-It to another: tonight it's reading research for a possible future project; tomorrow night it'll be writing lectures for classes in the fall. Thursday is the first of the season's picnics at the Hollywood Bowl: one friend is bringing smoked salmon, another, grilled artichokes, a third brie-and-tomato salad (home-grown backyard tomatoes - friendship with her has turned me into a total Tomato Snob). (That's partyknowitalls.com - I'm betting that salad recipie shows up on the blog before long). Picnic with dear friends on a summer evening, followed by live classical music as the darkness settles... How much better does it get than that?

The new chair is working out well.

Seating arrangements

Well, we'll see how this works out. Yet another try at a new chair - a yard-sale find, therefore sufficiently inexpensive that I can gamble on it not working out and having to be tossed. It has better back-support than the poor spavined old Eames chair, but is low enough that my feet are comfortable on the floor, and wide enough to sit cross-legged in.

My apologies for so massive a Continuing Saga about what I sit on to write, but as those writers out there know, it matters. A writer's primary relationships are with the current project's characters, the computer, the chair, the word-processing program, and the cats, with husband and family (if under the same roof) running far behind. Even when I was married, I was spending FAR more time with Benjamin January, Luke Skywalker, and the desk chair than I was with poor George.

For those of you who are espoused to writers, you know, That's The Deal. (Among many other things) If you can't take the stillness, marry somebody normal.

Like Ripley in her Power Loader taking on the Alien Queen, you gotta be comfortably situated so you can get your job done.

Additions to cast

It's always gratifying when characters that are more or less spear-carriers start to grow personalities. Back when I had the luxury of writing in a more leisurely fashion, the minor cast was more developed going in: voices, faces, idiosyncracies. At the stage I'm at now - heading into the final third - the need for more spear-carriers surfaces (sort of like those time-travel stories where someone has to go back to 1969 to plant the gun under the rock in the garden so you can grab it and shoot the baddy in 2010 - who WAS Lydia trying to avoid when she ducked into that parlor and somebody handed her the note from Ysidro?) (Well, if Asher is supposedly dead, there's certain fellows who will home in IMMEDIATELY asking, er, does she have any plans for a replacement husband just yet? She being a very wealthy woman...)

July heat has cooled down into that soft moist gray weather more typical of California in June. Though I was perfectly able to work through New Orleans summers, I actually prefer this.

And sooner or later I have to go back to writing lectures about the Han Dynasty...

More sheets of paper

More sheets of paper. About 2/3 of the way through, the story starts to gel up; I start to see, "Oh, I need to put this in two chapters ago..." and, "I need to work in this character to do this, and that character to do that." At the same time, the plot goes into set-up for end-game: Asher needs to learn this, Lydia needs to acquire that piece of information, does this scene take place in daylight or darkness and why would they GO there after dark when they KNOW it's crawling with zombies?

And meantime, another little art project has surfaced, though I have only a half-hour here and there to work on it: I've discovered iron-on material that will go through the printer, and want to see if I really CAN make a t-shirt with the kanji for "Godzilla" on it. (Someone came up with a very elaborate and pretty kanji for Godzilla, instead of simply the katakana Go-Ji-Ra).

Controlled substances for dogs

That's exactly what it sounds like. I got poor Damsel's teeth cleaned (finally) and of course, being so tiny, she got trachyitis in the process - though nobody told me that was normal and expected. So it was sort of scary hearing her cough and cough and cough at 2 a.m.  I took her back to the vet, who said, "No, it's normal, she'll cough for about another day or two," and gave her some meds... which I had to sign for, because they contained a "controlled substance."

I suppose there are folks who'd take their dog's opiates. I just hadn't thought of it in those terms.

Another day of adding sheets of paper to the pile, and of working out for myself how Lydia WOULD behave, if Asher were believed to be dead?

A vexing and tiring day, and not much work done. A g...

A vexing and tiring day, and not much work done. A great deal of driving around to little purpose. There are signs on every freeway in LA, warning that Saturday and Sunday they are going to close down the 405 Freeway - the main AND ONLY north-south route on the west side of LA. Fortunately, I have a lot of work to do at home, and that's where I'm going to be.  

When I finally did return and sat in front of the computer, I was simply too tired to proceed. And, Jasmine climbed into my lap grabbed my wrist in her little white paws, and chewed on my thumb. How can you resist distractions like that?