Shanna Swendson's Blog, page 290

Boo!

I did finally finish revising The Chapter From Hell. And now I'm having to rethink the next chapter. ARRGGGGHHHH. Ahem.

At least I have my baking done for my Halloween party goodies, and I have a couple of things to finish for my costume. It's nice going to a party full of fellow geeks, so I can do something not entirely mainstream and everyone will still get it. It's also nice to do what's generally a pretty low-key "hanging out" party because I'm not that big on Halloween.

Which shouldn't com...

Thursday Thinking

Funny, I got a 40 percent off any book coupon from Borders in my e-mail today (though I doubt it's a direct response to my ranting). The sad thing is, after last Friday's unpleasant experience, I found a couple of the books on my list at the library and read a review by someone whose tastes I trust that gave criticisms of the another book I was thinking of getting that would probably have annoyed me. So I'm not sure what I would buy, even at 40 percent off. There's probably some fine print in...

Busting Publishing Myths

Wow, it seems I struck a nerve with my Borders rant. I've read about that handselling policy online, but I only have visited that one store, so I don't know if that store's manager takes it more seriously than others or if I just look approachable enough that I get the full onslaught (plus, I tend to be in the store in off hours when I may be the only customer). Aside from the personal irritation, I mostly feel bad for the employees whose performance evaluations are tied to this silly practic...

An Open Letter to Borders

The rainy-day marathon was a big success. After a slow start when the cold, dark, rainy day just made me want to nap, I was able to figure out a particularly knotty problem and then move forward. And then I realized that the "forward" came at the very end of the day, fairly late at night, and I'd spent hours re-working what I'd already done so I could reach the "forward" part. Today, though, I really do hope to move ahead.

One thing I did this weekend, in addition to going to the show on Frida...

Nightmares, Nerves and New TV

For an interesting start to my day, just before I woke up, I dreamed first that I went back to work at my first job out of college, working for my first boss, and then that dream transitioned to me being on jury duty -- and these weren't nightmares. Not that they were the kind of happy dream you don't want to leave when you wake up, but I didn't have the kind of emotional or physiological reaction I associate with nightmares. I was going back to that job with a sense of resignation and a ment...

Shiny New Ideas

I managed to escape the Thursday-afternoon doldrums this week and got quite a lot done, with a few minor side trips.

The side trips being that the rabid, idea-generating squirrels in my brain are at it again. Just when I'm in the middle of the tedious part of writing one project (the rewriting) and with another project in progress, they gave me a nice, shiny, new idea that I really want to play with. This one is actually a collision of several idea fragments that have been floating around for ...

Fighting the Darkness

I gripe a lot about the prevalence of darkness in fiction because that affects me both as a reader and as a writer. I read for fun, to escape, and my personal taste tends toward the funny. I'm put off by things that take themselves too seriously, and so much of what's in bookstores today is waving the DARK! banner so vigorously that it feels like it's trying too hard. I don't mind a bit of darkness and angst, but I prefer it when it's mixed with a mostly optimistic view of the world. I guess ...

Cliches and Rationality

While I tend to rail against cliches in books (and other forms of fiction), I'm starting to see some reason behind them as I work on some of the issues in the book I'm currently revising.

For instance, one thing that bugs me is when characters behave irrationally (or what seems irrationally to me). One biggie is when a woman (and it's almost always a woman) whose significant other has some kind of "save the world" profession -- soldier, secret agent, doctor, fireman, cop, superhero -- throws a...

A Book Report

I mentioned that I spent Sunday afternoon curled up with a good book. I've actually done a fair amount of reading lately, so I've got a Book Report!

First, there was My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent, the first book in her Soul Screamers young adult series. I'm too big a weenie to read her werecats books, but this one was right up my alley, since it focuses on a mythology/folklore that I find interesting. Teenager Kaylee doesn't understand why she has these freaky panic attacks where she gets ...

Cylon Cops

This was a fairly restorative weekend. Saturday, I celebrated the result of the Texas vs. Oklahoma game by going out for German food with friends (it wasn't a designated celebration, but the invitation came just at a moment when I was feeling celebratory). Then Sunday my choir sang for the early morning service, and while it was a pain having to get up so early, it was kind of nice to have been to church, run some errands, read the newspaper and had lunch before the time I usually get home fr...