S.M. Carrière's Blog, page 209

Oh Dear. Floundering Again.

So... how are you?I'm not great. Again. I'm floundering. Again.I hate this feeling - of being directionless. Lost. Confused.Don't worry. I'll snap out of it again. I always do.In the meantime, I'm going to continue to write and hope to be published, and self-publish and all the usual stuff I do.Honestly, I think I'm felling this way because I'm channelling Julian's emotions who, at the

Clearly, That's What I Meant

Again, I'm going with titles that have little or nothing to do with the posts. I don't know why I do this. Perhaps it appeals to my odd sense of whimsy.Well, The Dying God & Other Stories is in worse shape than I imagined. I handed it off to my flatmate to review, and in the first couple of pages, she spotted a number of errors.WHAT?!Seriously, my self-editing skills are far worse than I

Wow. Just... Wow.

So, I received my new proof right on time on Friday for The Dying God & Other Stories. I was excited about this one. I'd reviewed the first proof, fixed all the errors I found, and fought valiantly and eventually defeated the evil .pdf converter.It all looked set to publish.Except... I found yet more errors. Stupid errors. Stupid little grammatical errors. And now I have to change all the

Pandiculation

The restlessness, stretching, [yawning] and uneasiness usually attending the cold fist of an intermitting fever. [Special thanks to Bruce Newling for this word.] - Daniel Fenning's Royal English Dictionary, 1775

The Dark Crystal

BabbsThe foul luce, or slimy matter a razor scrapes off the face in shaving. - John Mactaggart's Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, 1824Due to yesterday's awesome guest post, I neglected to provide you with the Forgotten English of the day. So I decided to be nice and give it to you first thing this morning. Now the post isn't really about The Dark Crystal. It's actually about my mood today.

Guest Post by Evil Genius Rainy of the Dark: How to Quickly Write Blog Posts

If writing your blog posts has a small, but shameful, impending doom feeling (much like doing the dishes), don't worry. Before long, it was bound to become a task. But you're sticking to it because you know it needs to be done, and you don't really hate it. You just wish it was, well, easier. Here are a few ideas how to make it less of a chore, or at least one accomplished with less frustration:

Lost at Sea

So I drew a diagram of just exactly what it feels like to try and get published.I'm lost at sea at the moment. My very ability to tell a good tale has been, for the first time, really, cast into doubt... self-doubt. I mean, I never thought I was the next Tolkien or anything, but I did at least think I could spin a pretty good yarn.Now... not so much.I've begged a ginormous favour of someone I

Sudden Insomniac

Last night I couldn't sleep. This, despite being exhausted from crying almost all night. Hey, I'm allowed one day of abject misery, alright? It was weird. This rejection really affected me; much more so than the others.In any case, I was up pretty much all night. So I ventured into the living room to nick a moment with the laptop. The reason?I'm thinking of going back to school.I've wanted

When Things Went Awry

Well, last night was an exciting time. I read an email from a potential agent who had some concerns over the ending of The Third Prince and wanted me to re-write it.Not a problem, thought I. So long as the story remains relatively intact, I can do that. After all, I kinda get what she means.I neglected to read the second email she sent me which stated that she just wasn't thrilled enough to

Gavelkind

In Law, a [Kentish] custom whereby the lands of a father are, at his death, equally divided among his sons, to the exclusion of the females, or those of a brother are equally divided among brothers, if he dies without issue. - Daniel Fenning's Royal English Dictionary, 1775Apparently from a British source, although the word is of Gaelic form. - Hensleigh Wedgewood's Dictionary of English