Kelly McCullough's Blog, page 48

Whoo-Hooo!

I finished my WiP last night!! Now it's off to beta readers, and then I'll put on a final polish (and, if you listen to Wyrdsmiths, entirely re-write the book in a day and a half) and then... it will be turned in! Yay! Super-yay!

It's funny, but even after all the books I've written and turned in, I follow the advice I gave myself at the beginning: celebrate every step . Thus, after typing "THE END," my partner and I opened a bottle of champagne (yes, we always keep some around,) and toasted another book written.

Cool Blogs

We need more links to cool blogs discussing writing. I say this because I have trouble finding cool blogs that discuss writing. Help would be appreciated. Laura Anne Gilman is doing a series of posts on being a writer at the Book View Cafe Blog, but that's about all I know about right now.

Friday Cat Blogging

Turn the damn heat on, Monkey!

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Evil IS my day job.



Om nom nom?



Shoot me now.

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Noble Coconut is noble.



It's good to be the king.



I keel you with my mind.
Or, you could bring me another treat.

The Fictional 1%

Because so many superheroes actually exist in Marvel's version of New York, this was bound to happen: "Super-Rich Superheroes Respond to #OccupyWallStreet: We are the Fictional 1%."

As a long time Marvel fan, I have to say they NAILED Iron Man (please notice that he wrote over "buy Scotch and lingerie models" with "Fight Communists") and Dr. Doom. However, notably missing is Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic (Fantastic Four) and Warren Worthington III/Angel (X-Men).

Meanwhile, very likely WITH the 99% would be Spider-Man, who I believe HAS had to deal with Aunt May's home foreclosure/not making rent in canon.

Flyer for St. Paul Art Crawl This Weekend

I couldn't get the flyer text to load here, but it goes as follows:

THE WYRDSMITHS WRITING GROUP

Eleanor Arnason
Bill Henry
Douglas Hulick
Naomi Kritzer
Kelly McCullough
Lyda Morehouse (Tate Hallaway)
Sean Murphy
Adam Stemple

Science Fiction, Fantasy and Whatever Else We Feel Like

http://wyrdsmiths.com/

http://wyrdsmiths.blogspot.com/

***

Patrick found a web site that lists book signings by the Wyrdsmiths all Saturday and Sunday. I didn't tell the Art Crawl to promise that. People who want signatures will have to make do with mine; or -- if asked -- I will sign for other Wyrdsmiths.

And the lovely image is by Bill Henry for our group's new cool website.

Friday Cat Blogging

Noble Meglet is very noble!



When I want your opinion, I'll beat it out of you.



Duuuuude!



Mine! Mine! The blankie is all Mine!



Every side is MY good side.



Utterly delicious. I concur.
More please.

Ave, Steve Jobs

I wrote my first book on a used Apple Macintosh that my friend Ted Davis gave me. Yes, a Macintosh with no modifiers, the very first of the line. I used MacWrite (II, I think). I never sold that book, but I fell in love with writing while I was doing it. I also fell in love with the Mac. It was so much simpler to use than any other computer I'd tried working on. It didn't get in my way I was able to just write and not worry about the machine I was working on.

I think I was in the middle of my second book when I upgraded to a slightly newer used Mac, this one with a hard drive. That lasted me through my third book and the beginning of my short story phase. That gave way to my first Mac laptop, a little Powerbook 140 that I bought new. Then a 145b where I wrote the short version of WebMage, my first story to sell.

I wrote WebMage the novel on my next Mac, a clamshell iBook slate. The form factor helped inspire the version of Melchior's laptop that most of my readers are familiar with. Two white iBooks followed, carrying me through the first couple of WebMage books as well as three novels that are still looking for homes.

I'm writing this on the successor to those machines, an aluminum MacBook, a tough beautiful machine that has lasted longer than any of its predecessors. It's seen me through the end of MythOS, SpellCrash, Broken Blade, Bared Blade, half of Crossed Blades, and The Eye of Horus. I also own an iPad that I use to take notes at Wyrdsmiths meetings and to read ebooks including eARCs.

My history with the Mac is my history of writing. I won't say that I wouldn't be a writer without Steve Jobs and Apple, but it would have been a lot harder and a lot less fun.

Steve Jobs, you made my life better, and you helped me bring my art into the world. Thank you!

On the Write Agenda and Writer Beware

Lyda's post below reminded me that I wanted to put in my two cents on this. Basically, I'm with Writer Beware, Scalzi, Hines, and the rest of the professional writing community on this one. The Write Agenda is so wrong in so many ways it's hard to catalog them all, though Writer Beware is doing an excellent job in that direction. The core issue of course is that Writer Beware does outstanding work at preventing the literary predators from making money off of gullible new writers, and this makes the literary predators unhappy, which is good.

Keeping Up on the Kerfluffles

The latest writing realated "mess": The Write Agenda vs. Writers Beware (Jim C. Hines take) and (from John Scalzi) "Writer Beward and the "The Write Agenda."

Girl Geniuses!

How Stuff Works blog has an interesting article about the Top Ten Things Women Invented.

Number 1 (and possibly a surprise to some): KEVLAR.

The least surprising? Tied, IMHO, with the chocolate chip cookies and the dishwasher.