Kim Harrison's Blog, page 71

Things that make you go, hummm

So I’m answering my posts this morning, and I realize that two of them over the last two days are the names I’ve used for my characters. How cool is that? I’m taking it as an omen. -laugh-

I second the motion . . . All in favor?

I’ve been watching the weather forecast all last week hoping they were just kidding about following up a lovely string of 65-75 days with one. Night. Of. Below. Zero.

But alas, the forecast never changed, and yesterday afternoon had me covering up the hosta that had come up. It’s a perennial, so it would come back from the roots even if it did die back from the cold, but it’s been up and actively growing for almost two weeks, and I didn’t want them to have to start all the way over because of one. Night. Below. Zero. Everything else in my yard will be okay apart from perhaps the apple blossoms. Not sure how much cold they can take, but the hosta are sensitive.

The high/low thermometer we have says it got down below zero for a few hours early, early this morning. I’m waiting until it hits 40 to go unwrap them and put the hanging baskets back out. A quick peek under the frost blankets while out with the dogs shows them just fine, but it might be days before the final verdict is in and I know if they got away cleanly. At least they’re not laying on the ground, black with cell damage.

The forecast for the next couple of days has us inching up about 10 degrees a day until we hit 80, and then it settles back down to 70s. That would be a good spring. I second the motion. All in favor?

Whoa, where did that come from?

Had a very productive day yesterday where lots of things evolved and I got to develop a new character, one I hadn’t been expecting but excites me nonetheless. She solves a lot of issues I’ve been running into, and she’s very satisfying to write. She isn’t the protagonist, but she’s tied to him. If I’m not careful, the protagonist will take over the entire story line.

I think I’ll encourage that. -laugh-

P.S. As a reminder to the unpubs working on their WIPs, this didn’t just happen. I’ve been wrestling with this story line for over a week, the core of the idea for over a year, and I fully expect to run into more issues about 100 pages down the way. It takes time for the eureka moments to gestate, and if you don’t put the pull-out-my-hair time in, you won’t get the ah-ha!  So have fun with it!

Malleability

I’m in a good ways into my new work in progress, and since I’m going more pantser on this one than usual, I’m finding my characters are more malleable than I generally like to work with, changing professions and backgrounds with a lose fluidity as I find what works best with the unchanging needs of the story. Frankly, it’s a glorious mess right now.

The thought process and actions of the character, though, seem to be unchanging, which is why I’m forging ahead and leaving him, say, a carpenter in chapter one, and a ship’s captain in chapter five, making notes as to what has changed in the upper margin and forging ahead.

I guess what I’m saying is that I could spend a month on the first fifty pages trying things out, or I could write two hundred ugly pages, knowing I will need to go back and change things, but all through those two hundred pages, I will be finding out what works, what doesn’t. Even if nothing changes, I will be rewriting those two hundred pages at least three more times, so no hit, no foul. Let’s get on with it and write the story.

Thank God for malleable characters, the ones that can take the tugs and pulls of the creative process–become stronger for it, smelted in the fires of inspiration and folded and refolded like steel until they are the sword that cleaves to the soul and shows us who we are–or could be.

And then there were leaves

I get about three days a year where the maple trees are strewn with flowers/helicopters, before the leaves come out. The trees don’t look anything like themselves, either in color or shape, and the unusual pale green color against the blue of the sky is singular and breathtaking. I wait for it every year. This year it started on Friday, and will end probably today as the leaves finish coming out.

Needless to say I didn’t get much book work done on Friday.

I am pleasantly tired and worn out from my weekend of gardening and potting up some annuals into hanging baskets, and hanging out with my folks a bit at a garden center. We had a full trunk and plants on our laps on the way home, so it was a success. The yard is really starting to look nice again, and I’ve been busy tweaking and adjusting things to suit my sensibility. But having said that, I should add that I’m tired, pleasantly tired. I don’t always sleep well, but working myself into exhaustion always results in a restful sleep and I appreciate it.

It should be a great work week. I got up almost a half an hour early to start it. The more I  reserve my weekends for non-book work, the more productive I am during the other five days. Or maybe I’m just too tired to do anything other than sit at my desk and move my fingers . . .

Signed first editions

I got a call from Nicola’s yesterday, which means I’ll be going in this weekend to sign their stock. If you’ve not heard, Nicola’s is my local store and I’m able to provide year-round access to signed books through them. (Not personalized to you, just signed.)

So if you’re looking to round out your signed library or get someone hooked on the books, this is a great place to do it either one at a time or all at once. They will ship overseas as well, and getting that signature is a nice bonus after that ungodly shipping. Just email them for an international shipping quote before ordering overseas from Nicolas at nicolasbooks@tds.net Domestic shipping is pretty standard.

To order, follow the links below and be sure to ask for a signed book at comment box when you order or you will just get a book. If you’re interested in any of the others in the series, or even the Dawn Cook books, a quick search on their site will bring them up.

Oh! And I can guarantee that the EVER AFTER you will get from Nicola’s during this offer is a first edition. How do I know? Well, they bought them before the second week of publication. Also, they have a full 10-1 number line on the page before the title page. That’s how you tell.

To purchase first edition  Ever After

To Purchase first edition Hollows Insider (It glows in the dark!)

To browse Nicola’s

Torn

There are honey bees nesting in my garage, and I am very torn about what to do about them. My garden has been designed to provide food and shelter for them, but I know how much of a nuisance they can be when the colony gets bigger. But I also know that they are under attack and doing poorly as a species, and my garden, though small, is pesticide free.

I’m going to leave them, planning on spending a bunch of money to move them when they become a problem. Fortunately they are in an unfinished garage, so puling the “wall” down inside to get at them won’t be as destructive as say, bringing down a porch.

 

A minute in my office

I’ve got my windows open today. Here’s a minute of it.

Ponies!

Finally got my camera inside to take pictures of my ponies. I’ve been working on them for about a month, and I think I might go back and make a few more. They are challenging enough to keep me interested, and one made of, say, pink yarn might be cool. Or perhaps I should focus on making bunnies instead. They’re small enough that I can make one in a few days, which is nice when everything else I work on is measured in years.

I hadn’t intended on making a herd when I started out, but it was a challenge to turn a dog pattern into a horse, and I got caught up in making the perfect steed. If you look close, you can see the shape evolving. A lot depended on the stretchiness of the yarn, and of course, Guy had to have a palomino, so he’s the odd one out. Still haven’t branded him yet. Wild steed.

The original dog isn’t that bad, either. (From MAKE YOUR OWN DOG) You can see more pictures if you’re on Ravelry. Kim at Ravelry I’ve only been there a month so I don’t have a lot of projects there yet.

The things I do to stay sane. You really have no idea . . . -laugh-

Nothing to see here, citizens.

Seriously, nothing going on here today but working on my latest WIP, which should be fun today because I’m working with Evan, a very complex, gifted man with a bad streak worse than Trent. Mmmm. Yummy.

But I had a chance to get into the yard on Saturday, and so cleaned up the view out my office window. Looks much better, and Guy and I put up an oriole feeder. It’s a bit of a contest in the area where I live to attract the orioles. This is my second year trying, and I’m going for it this spring with more than a sliced orange. I’m going in with grape jelly! -laugh-

Sunday was rain, so I worked inside recovering the one-dollar pillows I bought on sale last fall at a home improvement store. I’d been watching another store I frequent for their reupholstery samples to go on sale to use to recover them, and Saturday I found them cheap, cheap, cheap! Guy and I picked out five neutral panels for the backs, and five exciting panels for the front, and I spent the day with my sewing machine making slip covers. They look really nice along the back of my sofa, and seeing as the fabric I was using ran anywhere from 10 to 35 $ a yard to purchase normally and I got them for a buck, I did pretty well. It keeps me out of the bars, as my dad would say. :-) Three-dollar pillows and an afternoon of movies with Guy–yeah, I can do that.