Barbara Hambly's Blog, page 48
October 6, 2010
writing books, writing blogs
Being asked by Penguin to write about the Abigail books (sorry, that was Ms. Hamilton they asked...) made me wonder...
I've always felt it's terribly conceited to write about my writing, and have been ashamed to do so. It's just something that I do. But reading some of the other guest writer-blogs made me wonder if the people here would like me to take my books, one by one, and write about writing them: what was going on in my life when I wrote Time of the Dark, or Planet of Twilight? (which I've just re-read parts of, and remembered how funny it is). Or, now that I'm writing a Real Screenplay, tell about writing Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors (which is a story I've told at a number of conventions, of course)? Are people interested in the place and time and events that surround a story? (That's a rhetorical question, of course - I don't think anybody's going to say on my blog, "Uh, no, Barb, we actually think that would be pretty dull.")
Maybe because with the exception of Dr. Zhivago and Shakespeare in Love, I've always found books and films about writers not terribly interesting. (Well, the Shining was Yes on the book, Not So Much on the movie). (Oh, yes, and the Friends episode about Chandler's mother.)
WoW tomorrow night? Do the danged Deadmines? I REALLY want to level up to the point where I get a horse!
I've always felt it's terribly conceited to write about my writing, and have been ashamed to do so. It's just something that I do. But reading some of the other guest writer-blogs made me wonder if the people here would like me to take my books, one by one, and write about writing them: what was going on in my life when I wrote Time of the Dark, or Planet of Twilight? (which I've just re-read parts of, and remembered how funny it is). Or, now that I'm writing a Real Screenplay, tell about writing Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors (which is a story I've told at a number of conventions, of course)? Are people interested in the place and time and events that surround a story? (That's a rhetorical question, of course - I don't think anybody's going to say on my blog, "Uh, no, Barb, we actually think that would be pretty dull.")
Maybe because with the exception of Dr. Zhivago and Shakespeare in Love, I've always found books and films about writers not terribly interesting. (Well, the Shining was Yes on the book, Not So Much on the movie). (Oh, yes, and the Friends episode about Chandler's mother.)
WoW tomorrow night? Do the danged Deadmines? I REALLY want to level up to the point where I get a horse!
October 5, 2010
Barbara Hamilton's Penguin Blogs
The first of Barbara Hamilton's blogs about the Abigail Adams series is up on the Penguin Authors' site. I couldn't be more pleased if I'd written it myself.
I also followed archangelbeth's advice and downloaded pdf copies of several of Mary Renault's novels, so any advice about how to transfer them to Kindle would be appreciated.
Anybody know if the works of Manning Coles are floating around in digi-world anywhere? They wrote WWII and Cold War spy stories - very British and VERY un-Bondian.
And, I had the wonderful experience over the past few days - aided, I'm sure, by shameful hookey-playing from my work - of being smitten with an idea for the fifth Asher & Ysidro book, which I HOPE will jar loose the contracts process (they'd agreed to take 4 & 5, but I only had an outline for 4...) I am MASSIVELY pleased with both novels and wish they were done already so that I could read them. I love it when ideas arrive. No wonder people believed in the existence of a Muse - it feels exactly like that. Like something coming in from the outside in a yellow envelope.
Now back to grading exams.
I also followed archangelbeth's advice and downloaded pdf copies of several of Mary Renault's novels, so any advice about how to transfer them to Kindle would be appreciated.
Anybody know if the works of Manning Coles are floating around in digi-world anywhere? They wrote WWII and Cold War spy stories - very British and VERY un-Bondian.
And, I had the wonderful experience over the past few days - aided, I'm sure, by shameful hookey-playing from my work - of being smitten with an idea for the fifth Asher & Ysidro book, which I HOPE will jar loose the contracts process (they'd agreed to take 4 & 5, but I only had an outline for 4...) I am MASSIVELY pleased with both novels and wish they were done already so that I could read them. I love it when ideas arrive. No wonder people believed in the existence of a Muse - it feels exactly like that. Like something coming in from the outside in a yellow envelope.
Now back to grading exams.
October 4, 2010
Q&A
Barbara Hamilton's Q & A for Marked Man is now up on the Berkley website, http://berkleysignetmysteries.com .
I guess I must really have scared those poor kids in my class. They're an Honors class - thus highly motivated anyway - because looking at Exam #1 they obviously studied like fiends! That's what I like to see.
First sprinkly rain of autumn this morning, after record heat last week. A day of trimming screenplay.
October 3, 2010
Gray evening
A quiet weekend of grading exams and reading the PARA screenplay, of which I finished the first draft last week and set aside to get some distance... and having looked at it again, I'm pleased. (Well, except for the egregious repetitions, and having the characters discover to their horror in the third act something it turnsout they knew in the first... Normal first draft stuff). I even got to play a little Tomb Raider.
A Marked Man will be in the stores this week - Barbara Hamilton's second Abigail Adams murder mystery. Ms. Hamilton was asked to do four entries for the Penguin Books Author's Blog (I think it's called The Author's Desk - I'll see if I can find the link), plus a little Q & A publicity.
Regarding my own publicity, I'll be going down to San Diego on Nov. 5 to do a signing at Mysterious Galaxy, and an Event (of an unspecified nature) at the Santee Library in the morning (details to come).
I'm finding I heartily enjoy reading on the Kindle, though to my great annoyance a couple of my favorite authors aren't on e-books - I located one place on the web that allegedly had the works of Mary Renault available (for $10 a pop), but have no way of knowing if they're legitimate or not. And if they are legitimate, if I could get the things transferred over to Kindle-friendly format. Vexing. My niece did try the zip-lock-bag arrangement for reading in the bathtub and heartily thanks whoever it was here who came up with that idea.
Mainly, I miss having the time to read my Friends list here - something I'm able to do for about half an hour once a week. There's always something I'm not doing and should be doing, and once the next contract is signed - for two more Ben January books - I'll be crunched in the grind again.
Now it's time to go grade some more exams.
A Marked Man will be in the stores this week - Barbara Hamilton's second Abigail Adams murder mystery. Ms. Hamilton was asked to do four entries for the Penguin Books Author's Blog (I think it's called The Author's Desk - I'll see if I can find the link), plus a little Q & A publicity.
Regarding my own publicity, I'll be going down to San Diego on Nov. 5 to do a signing at Mysterious Galaxy, and an Event (of an unspecified nature) at the Santee Library in the morning (details to come).
I'm finding I heartily enjoy reading on the Kindle, though to my great annoyance a couple of my favorite authors aren't on e-books - I located one place on the web that allegedly had the works of Mary Renault available (for $10 a pop), but have no way of knowing if they're legitimate or not. And if they are legitimate, if I could get the things transferred over to Kindle-friendly format. Vexing. My niece did try the zip-lock-bag arrangement for reading in the bathtub and heartily thanks whoever it was here who came up with that idea.
Mainly, I miss having the time to read my Friends list here - something I'm able to do for about half an hour once a week. There's always something I'm not doing and should be doing, and once the next contract is signed - for two more Ben January books - I'll be crunched in the grind again.
Now it's time to go grade some more exams.
September 28, 2010
The Shirt On His Back - II
Whew. It's in... and only 1,500 words over the line.
And now I get to spend the day prepping for class tomorrow, which will include a lesson to ME about how to work the Department Media Cart, and giving an exam to a whole squad of students who have religious services tomorrow evening but CAN make it mid-afternoon, bless their little faithful hearts.
And - due to circumstances beyond my control - I won't be able to make WoW at all this week. A week from Thursday okay? (I'd thought I could shift it to Friday, but that turns out to be not possible. It's a busy week).
The Shirt On His Back is a book I've wanted to do for a long time, a murder mystery that takes place at the rendezvous of the Mountain Men on Green River (which was then in Oregon Territory) in the summer of 1837. Ben January is up there (and desperately missing Rose) because after the bank crash of '37, he will do pretty much anything for money, and he's been hired by Abishag Shaw's older brother Tom (of the Ivy and Wallach Fur Company) to help Shaw track down the man who murdered the youngest of the Shaw brothers, Johnny. While there, they come across another murder that may or may not have anything to do with a plot that Johnny Shaw had stumbled across, to kill every person at the rendezvous.
My only regret is that by the time I was able to write the book, I had neither the time nor the money to actually go to a rendezvous, though I have friends who're in that world. Still, I read an AWFUL lot about the habits of beaver, and the history of the fur-trade, which makes current Wall Street business practices look like a game of pattycake.
Now I'll get to do the short story of what Rose was doing back in New Orleans, while Ben was running around the Rockies trying to keep from getting scalped by the Blackfeet.
After I put together a lecture about Germany in the 1920s. And read my notes for tomorrow. And have a nervous breakdown.
And now I get to spend the day prepping for class tomorrow, which will include a lesson to ME about how to work the Department Media Cart, and giving an exam to a whole squad of students who have religious services tomorrow evening but CAN make it mid-afternoon, bless their little faithful hearts.
And - due to circumstances beyond my control - I won't be able to make WoW at all this week. A week from Thursday okay? (I'd thought I could shift it to Friday, but that turns out to be not possible. It's a busy week).
The Shirt On His Back is a book I've wanted to do for a long time, a murder mystery that takes place at the rendezvous of the Mountain Men on Green River (which was then in Oregon Territory) in the summer of 1837. Ben January is up there (and desperately missing Rose) because after the bank crash of '37, he will do pretty much anything for money, and he's been hired by Abishag Shaw's older brother Tom (of the Ivy and Wallach Fur Company) to help Shaw track down the man who murdered the youngest of the Shaw brothers, Johnny. While there, they come across another murder that may or may not have anything to do with a plot that Johnny Shaw had stumbled across, to kill every person at the rendezvous.
My only regret is that by the time I was able to write the book, I had neither the time nor the money to actually go to a rendezvous, though I have friends who're in that world. Still, I read an AWFUL lot about the habits of beaver, and the history of the fur-trade, which makes current Wall Street business practices look like a game of pattycake.
Now I'll get to do the short story of what Rose was doing back in New Orleans, while Ben was running around the Rockies trying to keep from getting scalped by the Blackfeet.
After I put together a lecture about Germany in the 1920s. And read my notes for tomorrow. And have a nervous breakdown.
September 26, 2010
107 pages
Every book I've read about writing screenplays (and I've read several lately) emphasize that a professional script in the proper format runs about a page a minute... and that, allowing for a certain amount of wiggle-room, scripts should be 100 pages, AT MOST 110.
The screenplay of PARA - the Stuart Moore graphic novel that I'm adapting for PennyFarthing Press - tops out at 107. Which means - when I've rested from it for a few days - I'm in for cutting and tightening. It's a very textured stor...
The screenplay of PARA - the Stuart Moore graphic novel that I'm adapting for PennyFarthing Press - tops out at 107. Which means - when I've rested from it for a few days - I'm in for cutting and tightening. It's a very textured stor...
September 19, 2010
E-books
Well, sure enough, I've mislaid my username and password to get onto my own web-site, so I need to get new ones before announcing there about Marked Man and Blood Maidens (though Deb, bless her, has done so...)
But, I have another question (before I start to work today).
I'm taking baby-steps into the 21st Century (it is the 21st, right?), and am contemplating both i-phones and Kindles (or similar readers). Now, my questions are:
a) am I limited to Amazon books for Kindle? Or can I get stuff...
September 16, 2010
Daily Double!!
Just got a copy of Barbara Hamilton's A Marked Man, out from Penguin - evidently - THIS MONTH!
So, check on Amazon, not only for MY Blood Maidens , which is coming out in the UK in September, but - um - Ms Hamilton's A Marked Man - the second of the Abigail Adams murder mysteries, which I've been told (and I believe) is better than the first of the series, The Ninth Daughter .
Marked Man involves the murder of a Royal Commissioner - found dead in the snow, bruised as if he had been beaten, after ...
So, check on Amazon, not only for MY Blood Maidens , which is coming out in the UK in September, but - um - Ms Hamilton's A Marked Man - the second of the Abigail Adams murder mysteries, which I've been told (and I believe) is better than the first of the series, The Ninth Daughter .
Marked Man involves the murder of a Royal Commissioner - found dead in the snow, bruised as if he had been beaten, after ...
September 14, 2010
Blood Maidens
A vexing start to the day: having to call the plumbers. This is AFTER giving myself an ouchy back trying to work the anaconda of plumbing snakes myself: it worked just fine, but then I couldn't get the thing out of the pipes.
And then, when I phoned the Culver City Adult School to find out exactly where the Japanese class is this evening, Oh, we were going to call you, the class has been cancelled.
Sure glad I called and saved myself a REALLY vexing drive over to an unknown campus and wanderin...
And then, when I phoned the Culver City Adult School to find out exactly where the Japanese class is this evening, Oh, we were going to call you, the class has been cancelled.
Sure glad I called and saved myself a REALLY vexing drive over to an unknown campus and wanderin...
September 11, 2010
Dark mornings
Dark mornings and chilly days. At the college, unusual overcast and a deep fall vibe as the equinox approaches. My apologies for absence from LJ. The deadline on the screenplay is a tight one, and instead of resting in the evenings I've been working on school stuff. (The screenplay, by the way, is from a graphic novel called PARA by Stuart Moore).
All the fall birthdays are out of the way now - Has anyone else experienced a phenomenon I think of as "clumping"? Meaning that in my family, all b...
