Amanda Frederickson's Blog: Musings, page 3
May 10, 2014
Recovering
Well, the eight hour drive to my sister's wedding was interesting, but it was nice to hang out with family and friends that I haven't been seeing much of. I think I'm starting to get used to siblings marrying off (four down, two to go).
Heather was an absolutely beautiful bride, and the wedding at the park was just perfect. Some of the trees around the lake were blossoming with tiny white flowers, which meant there were tiny white petals all over the grass. The wind meant it was a little chilly, but the weatherman was wrong about rain - fortunately! We even made it home in one piece.
I was so frazzled at the end of April Camp Nanowrimo that I managed to leave the wedding present at home. Finally today I'm feeling like I've got two whole brain cells to rub together, which means I can take a look at what I actually managed to scribble out and make sure it's coherent before updating Blood Queen. The word "goal" also doesn't seem as daunting anymore, but I'm not quite ready to air those thoughts just yet.
One day at a time for the moment.
Heather was an absolutely beautiful bride, and the wedding at the park was just perfect. Some of the trees around the lake were blossoming with tiny white flowers, which meant there were tiny white petals all over the grass. The wind meant it was a little chilly, but the weatherman was wrong about rain - fortunately! We even made it home in one piece.
I was so frazzled at the end of April Camp Nanowrimo that I managed to leave the wedding present at home. Finally today I'm feeling like I've got two whole brain cells to rub together, which means I can take a look at what I actually managed to scribble out and make sure it's coherent before updating Blood Queen. The word "goal" also doesn't seem as daunting anymore, but I'm not quite ready to air those thoughts just yet.
One day at a time for the moment.
April 29, 2014
Pausing for Breath
Busy month. Busy, busy month, and not done until next month. Three big non-writing projects and my sister is getting married in Ohio this weekend. Whee!
Two days left of April Camp Nanowrimo, about 6,000 words left of my 10,000 word goal, which would bring Blood Queen to 50,000 words total. On the one hand, it feels a little pathetic, but on the other, it's four thousand words further along in Blood Queen, and I've managed to squeeze in some writing on other projects too. Meeting the goal is still physically possible (especially since I have a slice of turtle pie riding on the outcome), if my brain can hold together long enough.
Hear me, baby? Hold together. (Speaking of which, Han Solo is coming back. There might be a glimmer of hope for the new movie. A New Hope. Haha. Wow, my brain is fried.)
Two days left of April Camp Nanowrimo, about 6,000 words left of my 10,000 word goal, which would bring Blood Queen to 50,000 words total. On the one hand, it feels a little pathetic, but on the other, it's four thousand words further along in Blood Queen, and I've managed to squeeze in some writing on other projects too. Meeting the goal is still physically possible (especially since I have a slice of turtle pie riding on the outcome), if my brain can hold together long enough.
Hear me, baby? Hold together. (Speaking of which, Han Solo is coming back. There might be a glimmer of hope for the new movie. A New Hope. Haha. Wow, my brain is fried.)
March 26, 2014
April Camp Nanowrimo 2014
I am in great debates about Camp Nanowrimo this year. Every time I come to the conclusion that I shouldn't participate this year, I can't quite commit to saying "no." On the other hand, even though one of the biggest obstacles has now been taken care of, I can't bring myself to commit to saying "yes" either, because of the remaining factors that still say "no."
On the one hand, I've never missed at least participating in a Nanowrimo event ever since I joined. Even in the chaos of my senior year of college I managed to put a few thousand words on paper for Nanowrimo. But then it was deeply frustrating not to have made headway on that story. It still isn't written. So if I do go for camp this year, I want to really go for it.
I'm not sure I could meet even a modest goal this April.
But then, participating (even with a modest goal) could be what Blood Queen needs to get some momentum back (it's still progressing, but slowly).
Ok. So I want to participate. I just don't know if I could actually finish the race. Sigh.
On the one hand, I've never missed at least participating in a Nanowrimo event ever since I joined. Even in the chaos of my senior year of college I managed to put a few thousand words on paper for Nanowrimo. But then it was deeply frustrating not to have made headway on that story. It still isn't written. So if I do go for camp this year, I want to really go for it.
I'm not sure I could meet even a modest goal this April.
But then, participating (even with a modest goal) could be what Blood Queen needs to get some momentum back (it's still progressing, but slowly).
Ok. So I want to participate. I just don't know if I could actually finish the race. Sigh.
February 22, 2014
Near Death Experience
Just a quick word because I'm not sure when my next post will end up being. My computer had a near brush with death that thankfully wasn't the computer's fault, but its cord, which was a lot less expensive than a new computer. However, now that I have it back I'm planning to type like crazy to enter in what I've written of Blood Queen, and when next I can manage internet access I'll be posting the new update.
As most writers know: ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR WORK. I would have lost a chapter or two and a slice of Kingstone, but otherwise even if my machine had given up the ghost I could have recovered. So I tell myself. Whee!
As most writers know: ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR WORK. I would have lost a chapter or two and a slice of Kingstone, but otherwise even if my machine had given up the ghost I could have recovered. So I tell myself. Whee!
February 14, 2014
Keystone and Lord of the Rings
I am now officially a resident of the Keystone state. How funny is that? And I think my cat has a vendetta against my Lord of the Rings posters.
Pippin (my cat) has discovered that the sounds of rattling posters will wake me up in the middle of the night. He has now completely destroyed my map of middle earth and has moved on to my Two Towers poster. He hasn't touched I, Robot, Tangled, my dragon poster, my unicorn poster, Star Wars, or any of the others (yes, I have a lot of posters, and finally have the wall space to put them up). I had to finally kick him out of my room or the bottom edge of my Two Towers poster would have been shredded. This seems to be the equivalent of his brother's obsession with knocking over unattended glasses. Which means that no amount of discouraging him will actually work. Sigh.
Maybe I'll just have to resort to framing them.
Pippin (my cat) has discovered that the sounds of rattling posters will wake me up in the middle of the night. He has now completely destroyed my map of middle earth and has moved on to my Two Towers poster. He hasn't touched I, Robot, Tangled, my dragon poster, my unicorn poster, Star Wars, or any of the others (yes, I have a lot of posters, and finally have the wall space to put them up). I had to finally kick him out of my room or the bottom edge of my Two Towers poster would have been shredded. This seems to be the equivalent of his brother's obsession with knocking over unattended glasses. Which means that no amount of discouraging him will actually work. Sigh.
Maybe I'll just have to resort to framing them.
January 1, 2014
Farewell and Good Riddance 2013
Well, 2013 kinda sucked. Especially toward the end with my landlord raising the rent while refusing to do maintenance, AND roping us into another month because we didn't turn in our notice during Thanksgiving (when they were closed).
It could have been worse. There was no kitchen fire and no incompetent "recovery" company that stole our stuff (2010), and I did get a lot of writing done, but no goals were actually met. It feels like most everyone around me had an overall lousy year too.
It wasn't entirely a loss though. I started this blog, I published some short stories, started a Facebook author page, and even though all three of the manuscripts I wanted to finish... aren't, all of them made significant progress and I have half drafts of Rose and Blood Queen under my belt. Rose gets to wait her turn until the other Gatewalkers are finished, but Blood Queen is still making slow progress. (Though well meaning, I think my ambitious plan to write three manuscripts at once instead of one at a time was ultimately more than I could chew. Lesson learned. One project at a time. Maybe two? Heh.) Oh, and remember that contest I mentioned waaaaaay back at the end of July? Its deadline was December 31st. I got it written, finished, revised, and submitted with time to spare. By time to spare I mean about three hours, but I wanted to give it one last go-over (and still felt crazy nervous hitting the "submit" button). HA! Take that 2013. One mission accomplished.
I did also manage, between the lovely crazy stress that ended up piled on these last two months, to learn some down and dirty tricks for writing around life, which I fully intend to apply in 2014, especially in packing/moving through January.
Oh, and I got a cat. He's an adorable monster. I seriously missed having a cat. ^_^
For 2014, one goal: read more.
It could have been worse. There was no kitchen fire and no incompetent "recovery" company that stole our stuff (2010), and I did get a lot of writing done, but no goals were actually met. It feels like most everyone around me had an overall lousy year too.
It wasn't entirely a loss though. I started this blog, I published some short stories, started a Facebook author page, and even though all three of the manuscripts I wanted to finish... aren't, all of them made significant progress and I have half drafts of Rose and Blood Queen under my belt. Rose gets to wait her turn until the other Gatewalkers are finished, but Blood Queen is still making slow progress. (Though well meaning, I think my ambitious plan to write three manuscripts at once instead of one at a time was ultimately more than I could chew. Lesson learned. One project at a time. Maybe two? Heh.) Oh, and remember that contest I mentioned waaaaaay back at the end of July? Its deadline was December 31st. I got it written, finished, revised, and submitted with time to spare. By time to spare I mean about three hours, but I wanted to give it one last go-over (and still felt crazy nervous hitting the "submit" button). HA! Take that 2013. One mission accomplished.
I did also manage, between the lovely crazy stress that ended up piled on these last two months, to learn some down and dirty tricks for writing around life, which I fully intend to apply in 2014, especially in packing/moving through January.
Oh, and I got a cat. He's an adorable monster. I seriously missed having a cat. ^_^
For 2014, one goal: read more.
December 24, 2013
December 11, 2013
A Writer's Christmas
If you give a writer a pretty notebook,
she will want a pretty pen to write in it.
If you give a writer a pretty pen,
she will want a pretty pen stand to hold it.
If you give a writer a pretty pen stand,
she will want a pretty desk to put it on.
If you give a writer a pretty desk,
she will want a pretty room to put it in.
If you give a writer a pretty room,
she will want a pretty view.
If you give a writer a pretty view,
she'll never write anything down, so just give her a plain spiral notebook and a uniball.
she will want a pretty pen to write in it.
If you give a writer a pretty pen,
she will want a pretty pen stand to hold it.
If you give a writer a pretty pen stand,
she will want a pretty desk to put it on.
If you give a writer a pretty desk,
she will want a pretty room to put it in.
If you give a writer a pretty room,
she will want a pretty view.
If you give a writer a pretty view,
she'll never write anything down, so just give her a plain spiral notebook and a uniball.
December 3, 2013
Write is a Verb
So, between Black Friday and Small Business Saturday, I killed two pens, several characters, and a notebook, got halfway through another notebook, enlisted poor Nee-chan to type in what I'd written while I wrote more, consumed an unknown amount of carbonized caffeine, aaaaaannd... failed Nanowrimo spectacularly with 28,952 words at the finish line.
I confess, getting started on this one was tough, primarily because of my decision to put it up as a work in progress on Smashwords (did I mention how terrified I was about putting out something that wasn't finished?), and ultimately it hasn't gotten much interest, which was definitely discouraging. Writing is for me, finishing is for readers, and in the back of my mind there's been this thought that if no one wants to read it, there's no point to finishing it. Another bird to hunt down.
But.
Unlike April's camp project, where it felt like the story was getting thinner and thinner the further it went, Blood Queen was taking on more and more life, and I'm not ready to give that up even though November is over.
According to the Nanowrimo site's calculations, I'll hit the goal around December 25. That's still not half bad. I've decided to keep writing, and keep posting the updates on Smashwords because it's only fair to follow through with what I set out to do.
So. Anyone want a book for Christmas?
(By the way, this is the story I mentioned in my blog post about gratuitous death. This thing's original manuscript reached a death rate of Hamlet proportions. So far, this time around it has a slightly better survival rate. There are only five confirmed deaths, with three more who may or may not be dead. If you've ever wanted to convince an author not to kill your favorite character, here's your chance.)
I confess, getting started on this one was tough, primarily because of my decision to put it up as a work in progress on Smashwords (did I mention how terrified I was about putting out something that wasn't finished?), and ultimately it hasn't gotten much interest, which was definitely discouraging. Writing is for me, finishing is for readers, and in the back of my mind there's been this thought that if no one wants to read it, there's no point to finishing it. Another bird to hunt down.
But.
Unlike April's camp project, where it felt like the story was getting thinner and thinner the further it went, Blood Queen was taking on more and more life, and I'm not ready to give that up even though November is over.
According to the Nanowrimo site's calculations, I'll hit the goal around December 25. That's still not half bad. I've decided to keep writing, and keep posting the updates on Smashwords because it's only fair to follow through with what I set out to do.
So. Anyone want a book for Christmas?
(By the way, this is the story I mentioned in my blog post about gratuitous death. This thing's original manuscript reached a death rate of Hamlet proportions. So far, this time around it has a slightly better survival rate. There are only five confirmed deaths, with three more who may or may not be dead. If you've ever wanted to convince an author not to kill your favorite character, here's your chance.)
November 6, 2013
Now All We Need is a Title
Ha! After some technical difficulties, Peasant Queen is finally live. One hitch: I had to change the title. Ah, well.
So, without further ado, Blood Queen: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
So, without further ado, Blood Queen: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
