S.L. Viehl's Blog, page 178

Holiday Linkage

I have to bail on you guys today to see my kid march in a Christmas parade, take care of a job for an editor and attend to some of the chores I've been neglecting. I think the dogs need a bath as well. Or maybe I do.

So that your stop here was not entirely wasted, and to hopefully help jumpstart a happy mood for December, here are some of my favorite holiday links:

The Official NORAD Santa Tracker is now counting down to the big night; stop by the countdown village to play some games and listen to some holiday tunes.



Each year I take a few minutes to Awwww over Jacquie Lawson's animated card The Snow Dog.

If you missed it like I did, you can watch a replay of the lighting of the National Christmas Tree here.

If you have any cool holiday links -- Christmas-related or otherwise -- please share them in comments.

Wait for It

I have a few announcements, some of which due to various and sundry details to be confirmed/wrapped up/signed/so forth have to sit on the back burner for now. But in the meantime I can let you know what's confirmed and drop a few hints about the rest:

My publisher has sold foreign rights for Twilight Fall and Stay the Night to be published in German. I've also accepted an offer for audio rights to all three novels in the Lords of the Darkyn trilogy, so those will be coming out as audio books as well as print and e-books.

I've turned in to my new editor the complete manuscript for the steampunk novel I sold this month, so that's done (and this book is the one I wrote the first draft of during NaNoWriMo 2009, for those who have been nagging me about it.) More info to follow once I've signed the actual contract, finalized the title, get pub dates etc.

The second novel in the Lords of the Darkyn trilogy is also finished -- yes, I've been a busy girl -- and since someone else spilled the beans on the title of book one before I had a chance to announce it, let me be the first to tell you book two will be titled Nightbred. More details on this one are also pending.

Those of you who would like a chance to preview Nightborn, the first novel in the Lords of the Darkyn trilogy, should definitely stop by the blog next week.

Finally, while I can't discuss what I was writing because I don't want to jinx it, my total count for November was 98.4K, and the goal I set for myself was 80K, so I reached my finish line, too. Congratulations and hugs to everyone who participated in NaNoWriMo 2011.

Wishlist Ten

Dear Santa,

Normally I don't bother you, but I have some special requests this year that I believe only you can handle. Here then is my list of:

Ten Things I Would Like for Christmas

1. Every celebrity who agrees to sing The Star-Spangled Banner at special events to first take the time to actually learn all the words to the song. It's our national anthem, it's not that long or complicated, and hearing it being mangled by famous dimwits greatly annoys me.

2. The ability to open the end of a package of crackers without the cellophane tearing down to the middle or end of the package. This is so I don't have to put all the crackers I don't want in a ziploc bag that never fits back into the original box.

3. All these people in the industry who are constantly shrieking that "Print publishers suck" or "E-publishers suck" or "Self-publishing sucks" to be escorted to a deserted island without internet access or a way to escape, and left there to bitch at each other until next Christmas, as it will take at least that long for them to exhaust all their pointless whiny-ass arguments.

4. Hair coloring that doesn't burn my scalp, drip in my eyes or smell like Eau de Chernobyl. I'd also like it to come in shades that are not named after food but that are modelled on the packaging by real women who actually use the product versus these airbrushed emaciated teens who won't even see an authentic gray hair sprout from their scalp for another 25 years.

5. An e-reader that is actually handicapped-user friendly. Or a video that shows a handicapped person trying to use any of the existing e-readers on the market, so I can show it to all these Oh, you gotta have an e-reader they're so great I love mine you're really missing out people and get them off my back.

6. All candy, confections, pastries, puddings, cupcakes and pies to become 100% no-calorie, no-fat and no-cholesterol for Christmas Day. Or (if you accept my solemn promise in advance that I'll be a good girl in 2012) from Christmas Day through my birthday.

7. Goodwill toward women. I'm tired of the men hogging it every year.

8. The family member who is at this moment considering a pink bathrobe, pink satin PJs, pink slippers, pink purse, pink bath products and/or pink sneakers as a gift for me to decide that a bookstore gift card in any shade of pink would be a much more appropriate present.

9. All women who sleep with married politicians for any length of time to stop doing it and avoid all publicity while writing a sincere, anonymous letter of apology to said politicians' wives, in which they make a solemn vow to never do it again. Some therapy and community service would probably be a good idea, too.

10. Peace on Earth. Will take that over the other nine items any time.

Sincerely,
PBW

So what's on your wishlist to Santa? Let us know in comments.

NaNoWriMo: Final Day

[image error]For the last twenty-nine days you NaNoWriMo'ers have been at the keyboard working on your novels. Along with the writing you've done, you've probably stared at the monitor, swore under your breath, hit and held down the backspace and delete keys, and maybe head-desked it once or twice. You've given up reading your favorite books, watching your favorite shows on television, playing your newest video games, going shopping, hanging out with friends, putting cool new apps on your smartphone and a bunch of other personal pleasures. You may have missed a meal or four.

In the process you've thought a lot of things about yourself, your work and writing in general. Sometimes you've loved this craziness of writing a novel. Sometimes you've hated it more than that bully in high school who made your freshman year a nightmare. But most of you reached your goal, and those of you who didn't gave it your best shot.

It's not the wordcount that matters, you know. Nailing that 50K is great, but what really counts is that you went after it.

If you're taking a break now and need a recharge for your creative batteries, go here to watch and listen to a breathtaking tour of the Medieval and Renaissance galleries at the V&A, one of my favorite museums on the planet (about nine minutes, is narrated in English and has some background music.)

Break over? Okay, you've got one more day to write. Get to it, and good luck.

Making Book

Cloth Paper Scissors has debut a new magazine, Pages a creative guide for art journaling and bookmaking. The Winter 2011 issue has over sixty different handmade books and journals, and is simply stunning. I haven't seen this many good ideas in one place since reading Alisa Golden's Making Handmade Books (which they also review in this issue.)

The magazine sectioned projects and articles into Bookmaking, Book Covers, Binding, Inside Pages, Art Journaling and Regulars (editor's page, advertising, supply wish lists, etc.) I think this is smart because often with bookmaking you know what you want for one part but need some ideas for others (I have no problem with making interesting covers, for example, but I definitely need some new directions to try with my pages as foundations. I'm also not especially fond of complicated bindings, and often have the most problems with that part of bookmarking, so I always like seeing alternative binding options.)

Making your own books seems like an old-fashioned concept, but with all the attention and emphasis electronic format is getting, I think it's more important than ever to devote some quality time to writing and creating personal works that can't be uploaded or downloaded, pirated or otherwise become lost to the digital abyss. As art goes it's can also be intensely private; something done really out of the deep and abiding love for the physical book.

If you've never attempted making a book, and really want to, this magazine is inspiration on tap. Some of the projects are pretty simple and require materials you probably have around the house; other are more challenging and can teach savvy bookmakers some dazzling new tricks. A few of the projects could be scaled down/simplified for kids to try, and I especially liked how many of the projects features upcycled or recycled materials.

This would also make a great holiday gift for your favorite art journaler, bookmaker or diary junkie; find a pretty tote, fill in with interesting materials and supplies and top it off with a copy of the magazine.

No Cost Ten

Ten Things You Can Have for Free

Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.

ArtWeaver "lets you paint creatively with the help of a huge range of painting tools. You can create sketches from photos or just experiment with colors" (OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7)

Sign up for free membership at the Cloth Paper Scissors website here and get a free e-book: Exploring Encaustics and Encaustic Art: 4 Free Articles Demonstrating Encaustic Collage and Encaustic Painting Techniques.

FlashNote is "a quick notes manager" and according to the web site: "When you need a rough copy to save or to process some pieces of a text, Flashnote is small, quick and convenient. Press the shortcut-key combination and a rough copy is on the screen in a flash of a second. Press ESC and the program hides. It's that simple. You don't need to find a place for text, to run Notepad or huge heavy PIM. Flashnote is a lightweight notes manager, everything gets done quickly, simply and in a more convenient way." [The designer notes that FlashNote is NOT a Notepad replacement program; but it looks like they have a portable version, too] (OS: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7)

FreePlane is a "free and open source software to support thinking, sharing information and getting things done at work, in school and at home. The core of the software consists of functions for mind mapping, also called concept mapping or information mapping, and tools for using mapped information" (OS: Designer notes: "Freeplane runs on any operating system on which a current version of Java is installed and from USB")

Whether you have a complicated real life or ficitional family to sort out, the free trial of Gaia Family Tree™ promises to help: "Plug your information directly into the software, and let it build your family tree for you. With its simple interface, Gaia Family Tree™ allows you to create your family tree with a few clicks - no need to be an expert in computers or genealogy" (OS: Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7)

The free express version of MapleXp time-tracking software allows you to "keep track of multiple tasks and categorize how much time you spent working on each of them. Main features of MapleXp include: unlimited number of tasks organized into hierarchical structure, unlimited number of work items (single piece of time spent on a particular task), pay rate for tasks to invoice customers, totals calculated across time and tasks, rich configuration capabilities" (OS: Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7)

Pigeonhole Free Organizer "shows you a grid of pigeonholes similar to a spread sheet. Click on a pigeonhole and type in whatever you want - it is saved automatically. When you want to recall the information, just move the mouse over the grid. Whatever you typed into the pigeonhole the mouse is over appears automatically in the viewer window. There are 175 pigeonholes displayed at any one time so you can view up to 175 different pieces of information just by moving the mouse over the grid...... Could anything be easier?" (OS: Not specified, likely Windows.)

PixBuilder Studiois a "free image editing software program for digital photo editing, images processing, and resizing. For digital photo editing, you can use its many professional quality functions. PixBuilder Studio allows you to use the following color management functions: brightness/contrast management, color balance, and levels manipulation. For professional results, you can use the curves function. In PixBuilder Studio, to carry out great, professional looking photo editing, you can manipulate the image with color channels. Layers concept, multi-step undo, gradients and masks support, and text layers support all make PixBuilder Studio a great graphics software program for image processing and creating illustration" (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7 (32-Bit/64-Bit)

QT Writer Express can be used "for anything from writing a quick letter to producing an entire book with embedded illustrations, tables of contents, indexes, and bibliographies. QT Writer is a complete and powerful software solution for creating, editing and viewing various types of documents. A number of available features give you a fine degree of control over the formatting of text, pages, sections of documents, and also entire documents. You may also save your documents in a variety of industry standard formats like pdf, rtf, doc, txt, and our own presentation format ssp. Insert special characters, emotional icons, pictures, and images into your writing for a more colourful display of your thoughts and ideas. Create pdfs without any additional software. Use the built-in PDF capabilities of QT Writer to share your work easily and with everyone! Adobe Acrobat is NOT required to create these handy files." [Designer notes that the application is also completely portable.] (OS: Windows 2000 / XP / Vista / 7 / 8)

This is the last week for free access and downloads to my writing how-to e-book Way of the Cheetah , which will be going back into the vault on December 2.

Google Street View Weirdness

I've been using Google Maps with Street View to take some virtual tours of places I haven't visited in a long time to see what's changed. It's fun and a lot cheaper than a plane ticket.

I was virtually strolling around Avignon when I stopped to change directions and saw this (click on image to see larger version):



I know the gentleman on the left there is nothing more than the victim of a camera glitch, but usually the stretchy shadows and echoes vanish once you stop moving the viewer. This time it didn't, so the guy looks like he's melting into the sidewalk. Very Daliesque and uberweird -- and sparked an idea for a cool story that I can't write until I finish all my deadlines so I am now staying far, far away from Google Street View.

Aaron Hobson has a nice collection of beautiful landscapes here; likewise screen-shot while he was playing with Google Street View (like swiped from Gerard over at The Presurfer.)

Google Street View Wierdness

I've been using Google Maps with Street View to take some virtual tours of places I haven't visited in a long time to see what's changed. It's fun and a lot cheaper than a plane ticket.

I was virtually strolling around Avignon when I stopped to change directions and saw this (click on image to see larger version):



I know the gentleman on the left there is nothing more than the victim of a camera glitch, but usually the stretchy shadows and echoes vanish once you stop moving the viewer. This time it didn't, so the guy looks like he's melting into the sidewalk. Very Daliesque and uberweird -- and sparked an idea for a cool story that I can't write until I finish all my deadlines so I am now staying far, far away from Google Street View.

Aaron Hobson has a nice collection of beautiful landscapes here; likewise screen-shot while he was playing with Google Street View (like swiped from Gerard over at The Presurfer.)

The Last Stretch

It's 5:07 am here. My guy has already left for work (it's Black Friday and he works in retail; I might see him again sometime after midnight.) The dogs have been walked, the coffee made, the laundry sorted. Mom will be up in about an hour; the kids in about three. I'm planning pancakes for breakfast. We have a bunch of things scheduled for today for which I will be driver, organizer, or damage control supervisor.

I do not want to be here, awake, out of bed, up, working. It's freezing outside so I'm still trying to warm up after walking the dogs. My eyes are burning, my knee is throbbing, my right shoulder is not cooperating at all and my back is trying to decide how much grief it's going to give me. The sofa and the cuddle quilt I keep there look so good I can't go near them.

I'm tired. Thanksgiving was two days of nonstop cooking, partying and quality family time that left me in a partial coma, and I'd like nothing better than to climb back in my nice warm bed, pull the covers over my head and sleep 'til noon (and worse, my family would let me.)

I'm not going back to bed, I'm up and I have at least one entire hour of silence and solitude for myself. No, I'm going to write, and keep writing until someone needs me to do something else. Then I'll do that, make them happy, and then slip away and write a little more. Repeat that about a dozen times, throw in more laundry, more dogs walks, cooking, tidying, laughing, family time, holiday stuff and that will be my day until sometime around midnight, when my guy finally gets home, I feed him and we collapse together in an exhausted heap.

It's a juggling act on any day, having a full time job and a family and a home, and taking care of all of them. The holidays add extra work along with the joy, most of which can be handled with a decent attitude and thoughtful time management. I do think attitude is everything, and if you can start each day with a good one you won't mind getting swamped, derailed, sidetracked or otherwise frustrated.

The body is a bit tougher. No one is getting any younger, especially me, and then in my case there's my constant companion arthritis. But I've had days when I've literally had to crawl out of bed, my hands like cartoon balloon gloves filled with broken glass, my knee swollen and locked up, my shoulder completely immobile and my back trying to form different letters of the alphabet. On those days, which are becoming more frequent, I spend my first hour icing and soaking and medicating and wishing I was the Bionic Woman, so any day I can walk is a very good day.

You NaNoWriMo'ers are in your last week now, and some of you may be fed up with this whole novel-writing idea. You're tired, you have the holidays swamping you and it's so much easier not to try to do this thing right now. I think we all wish we could dash into some beautiful Better Homes & Gardens office with fresh flowers on the desk, a smiling personal assistant manning the phones, and enjoy effortlessly knocking out two or three chapters in an hour and then spend the rest of the day doing as we please.

Even if you're making millions and have all that cool stuff, the reality of writing is that it's hard work that takes a lot of time, thought and effort. The work doesn't always pay you back for your devotion. You might get something good on the page, you might not. You might finish it, you might not. You might sell it, you might not. This might have been a complete waste of your time . . .

It's not. It's never a waste of time to write. Unless you believe your doubt, which always thinks it's a waste of time. Doubt only has one week left to convince you of this, to defeat you, to stop you, to win. It's probably going to work overtime doing just that. And you may tired enough to listen this time.

I can't tell you how well you've done so far. Your novel may be so magnificent that you sell it to the first editor you sub it to. Or it may be so unmagnificent that you feed it to your office shredder on December 1st. But I can guess that it's probably somewhere in between those two extremes. What you've written is probably okay, has potential, but needs some work. Until you've written your way to consistently producing professional-level work, most first draft manuscripts are like that.

And that's the key, the thing your doubt doesn't want you to know. The only way you get better at this is to keep writing. In most cases, the more you write, the more you figure out, the better you refine your process, and the better you improve your chances of getting published. Give up, walk away, and you never get better, you never refine your process, and you never get published -- also something doubt doesn't tell you (doubt likes to hit you with stuff disguised as encouragement, like Take it easy; no one expects you to do this during the holidays or You can write a book sometime next year, when you're not so busy.)

The truth is you're always going to busy, tired, frustrated, distracted, what have you, and sometimes it is a huge emotional drain. You may not love this writing stuff enough to stick with it. God knows there are easier things to do. You may find something else that is more profitable and gives you more immediate satisfaction. It is okay to quit; I won't come to your house and harass you. I don't know where you live -- but doubt does. Oh, doubt knows everything about you, and absolutely will use it to stop you from writing. Doubt lives for nothing else.

If you love it, if you want it, if it has been your dream and you are willing to work for it, keep going. Keep writing. And show doubt what you're really made of.

Online Writing Ten

Deadline week starts today for me (as well as all you NaNoWriMo'ers out there), so to help you get some writing done while you're online, here are:

Ten Things for the Online Writing

The Bonsai Story Generator takes the text you cut and paste, turns it inside out and upside down, and gives you some new word combos, lines and all kinds of ideas.

The Cut Up Machine over at Language is a Virus takes whatever text you feed it, chops it up, rearranges it and generates new text.

Google Docs allows you to create and edit documents online with their simple word processor; if you're looking for online storage they offer free and low-cost accounts as well (I use and personally recommend this one.)

iNetword is going bye-bye in March 2012, but until then you can use it online for free.

Also at Language is a Virus, the Sentence Builder can give you a hand with line construction.

SpringNote is a free online notebook based on wiki.

Think Free Online Office provides 1 GB of free storage along with online document viewing, editing and collaboration.

Write 100 words at Written? Kitten and an adorable kitten pic pops up as your reward.

Zoho Writer is "an online word processor that allows you to create and share documents online. You need not install any software in your desktop, all you need is just a browser and an internet connection for working with Zoho Writer."

Zoho also has a virtual notebook in beta here.