Shanna Swendson's Blog, page 279

The Hypothetical Vacation Almost Happens!

I'm back from my whirlwind trip to San Antonio. That was my primary destination plan for that hypothetical relaxing vacation I was mentally planning a couple of years ago, and it turned out that the hotel for this trip was my planned "splurge" hotel for my hypothetical vacation. I also got to do most of the items on my hypothetical vacation agenda -- I wandered the Riverwalk, ate Mexican food, visited the Alamo and even took the river boat tour. I did come home exhausted, but I think that was...

Traveling Light

The taxes are now done and mailed, my hair is done, the laundry is done, and now I just need to get packed to go to the Texas Library Association conference tomorrow in San Antonio. I've got an early flight, in part because that's what was available but in part because I figured I might as well make this into a mini vacation. I may go to some of the conference sessions, or I may just enjoy the Riverwalk and see the Alamo again.

I'm going to go for the extreme light packing prize for this trip ...

Finding Randomness

Ha! I just thought I'd finish the book yesterday. In spite of writing more than 5,000 words and topping my target word count for the finished book, I'm still only at the beginning of the end, story-wise. I've just started the build-up to the Big, Climactic Scene, so I still need to write the Big, Climactic Scene, the Yay, We Did It! interlude, the You Just Thought it Was Over REALLY Big, Climactic Scene and the Aftermath/Consequences, New Normal closing scene (or scenes). Plus, I think I need...

Almost There!

If I'm really, really good today, I may finish my first draft. Yay! I think the last few scenes I've written will require some revision, but I won't know what that revision is until I write the next scenes. I've also come to the realization that I'm going to have to write a fake folk song for this book. If I refer to it more than once, then I have to write it. I'll probably find a real song (something by that great composer Anonymous, so it's public domain) and create new lyrics that fit my p...

Tragedy Overdose

Now that I've survived the Busy Weekend, it's time to get back down to business for a very, very busy week. I'm already looking forward to Saturday night, when I will be back home and will have (hopefully) completed all my major deadlines for this week and can enjoy some serious R&R (+ another R -- research).

I think Sunday must have been Make Shanna Cry Day on TV. It started very early with the stadium implosion. They did some retrospectives leading up to it, then just before they got down to...

The End of a Landmark

It turned out that I was pretty close to the information I wanted conveyed in my verbal smackdown scene, after all. I amped it up a bit, worked in a little additional info, and I think it will do for now, though I may go for one more level of nasty in revisions. And then I got so carried away that I forgot about something else that needed to happen in the scene, but then I couldn't think of where to put it, and I decided to put it somewhere else that I think will work even better. I'm really ...

Being Scary

I think I'm in a reading slump. I finished reading my last book on Monday afternoon, and I still haven't started another one. I've finished my library books, but I have at least a thousand books in my house, at least a hundred of which I've never read. My books represent just about every genre and just about every subgenre within the main genres I read. And right now, none of them appeal to me. I stared at my bookcase for quite some time yesterday and couldn't think of anything I wanted to re...

And Another Thing ...

I took a semi-impromptu vacation and went to visit my parents after church Sunday. I took my computer, but I guess I never got around to posting anything. I think I wrote one sentence of a potential post before becoming sidetracked. But now I'm back, although my internal calendar is all messed up because it feels kind of like a Monday even though it's a Wednesday. I'll need to put Post-It notes around the house to remind myself what day it is so I don't forget to go to choir.

While I was gone,...

Friday Hodge-Podge

Today is going to be a round-up and hodge-podge of random stuff I seem to keep forgetting to mention.

If you've been really bad and are in need of repentance this Good Friday, Stargate Universe returns to the Sci Fi Channel tonight. Force yourself to watch it as penance for your sins (I'm going to church instead, but I may catch it OnDemand or the late-night repeat because snarking about it is just too much fun). Sci Fi (I refuse to acknowledge the name change) is also showing the second seaso...

Not an April Fool's Joke

I briefly considered doing some kind of April Fool's Day post about how I'd decided to give up having a sense of humor and writing fantasy and was going to focus instead on writing Nicholas Sparks-style books about people who find each other and fall in love, only to have one of them die tragically soon afterward. Or maybe that I'd decided to give in and go with the flow and write a vampire book. But I think doing online April Fool's pranks can easily backfire, since it's still out there, and...