Lilith Saintcrow's Blog, page 211
March 29, 2010
I Get A Day Off
Yesterday I finished the zero draft of Strange Angels 4, tentatively now titled Defiance. I thought it would take into the middle of this week at least, but yesterday 3.5+K bolted out of my head and took me to the finish line. Sometimes a book does that–sneaks up on one. The zero draft is clocking in at a shade over 62K, which means it'll break 68-70 when I get the first draft revisions in.
Now my brain, she is broken. I've talked before about this–the dynamo inside my head, my energies bent o...
March 26, 2010
Do That Thing
Crossposted to the Deadline Dames
First: Do you think you could build a model Herkimer Battle Jitney? Jay Lake and I both have this thing for Mystery Men. And that's all I'm going to say.
Friday again, and I got nothin'. My brain is broken, mostly because I'm in the last stretch of Dru 4, now provisionally titled Defiance. This is the point at which I actively resent pretty much anything that tears me away from writing–exercising, eating, loo breaks, bathing, anything. If not for the kids I...
March 25, 2010
News, Events, And Links
Good morning, all. First, the news.
* There may be a 6-10K-word story dealing with Selene and Nikolai's reunion in Saint City in the works. I'll have details when everything firms up, but for right now, I thought I'd let you guys know.
* Events! I will be at the Ooligan Press Write To Publish event on May 23, 2010, at 2pm. I will also be signing in conjunction with Devon Monk and Ilona Andrews at the Cedar Hills Crossing Powell's on May 25, and by my lonesome in the same location on August 19 t...
March 23, 2010
Book Must Flow
Linkspam, because I'm deep in it today. I've got the White Stripes on loud and like spice, BOOK MUST FLOW!
* So those deep meandering conversations about Life, the Universe, and Everything? They can actually help make you happier. I think I need to call my friends and get a couple bottles of wine.
* Oh, Luc Besson, you complete me. Lady adventurers and steampunk dragons? I'M SO THERE.
* Here, find out where earthquakes are happening.
* As I have often told my kids, the separate compartment for...
March 22, 2010
A Weekend Refuel
I never, ever thought I'd be addicted to running. Of all the things to get addicted to, I never thought a physical effort that qualifies as exercise would be possible. I've had to take a couple days off because of hip and knee pain–looking back through my training log I see I jumped my mileage by five miles (or about 40%), which was WAY TOO MUCH. So it's back down in duration for a while, then a reasonable mile-every-2-weeks increase for a month or two.
As long as the zombies don't chase me...
March 19, 2010
The Room And The Will
Crossposted to the Deadline Dames
A friend of mine is considering moving. "I just want to live on my own," she said to me this afternoon, while the wind made my chimes ring like rattlesnakes. "I want to be able to sit in my underwear with pizza and a beer and a book. I just need it, you know."
"Oh, honey," I said, squinting in the sunlight, "I know."
Virginia Woolf said that money and a room of one's own is a prerequisite for woman writers. I tend to agree. Certainly getting one's career to a...
March 16, 2010
Tuesday's Child Gets Distracted
Some linkspam this Tuesday, since I've spent the day running all sorts of errands. I did break for a lovely lunch, and came home to find a picture had arrived. So all in all, a good day. But still, I'm itching and aching to get back to the story, and resenting the interruption of Life Stuff That Must Be Done.
Onward!
* Realthog on Swiftprobers. When Thog (otherwise known as John Grant/Paul Barnett) gets out his katana to face down some idiocy, it's always a good time.
March 15, 2010
A Love Letter To The Current Book
Oh, you book, you. You feisty little book. This is twice you've juked me out, three times if you count that outline I bowed to pressure and did. The one you've made me alter and throw out TWICE now.
Oh you little rascal. You just do not know who you are f!cking with.
I'm getting ready for the last big tango of this part of our relationship. It'll be a great dance full of gunfire and merriment. I'll get the characters through the crisis while you yawn and grin at me. I can feel the last big...
March 12, 2010
I Never Know
Crossposted to the Deadline Dames.
Reader Melissa P. asked earlier this week:
So MY question is, how do you know it's good enough? Especially if you've never been published?
How do you know if your writing is Good Enough? How do you know if you have any chance at all?
The short answer is also the most brutal:
You don't.
The longer answer…well. I get hate mail calling me the worst writer in the world, even though I'm making a living at it. "Good enough" is highly subjective. Plus, there's the Inner...
March 9, 2010
50K! Hooray!
Yes, I've broken 50K on the latest Dru novel. I am still terrified, I still think it's awful, I am still tearing my hair out and screaming "everyone is going to hate it AND HATE ME! I'LL NEVER GET FINISHED WAAAH!" But that's so much a part and parcel of the doldrums of a novel's creation that I'm actually riding the feelings with a modicum of calm. Yeah, it might suck, but at least it won't be a pile of unfinished suckage. The rest is for an editor to help me with.
You'd think that after how m...
