Sunday Summary and #ROW80 Check-In

  1. May is nearly through and I’m glad.  Tomorrow the painter is coming to do the ceiling and then we can, at long last (a month later) FINALLY put our house completely back together.  I can’t wait.  I don’t function well in chaos.
  2. It’s been a slow month, writing wise.  I hit the wall on TGMTY.  I had a lot of flail.  And I redid my outline thanks to a lot of patient help and brainstorming from The Hammer.  I started writing again this week, beginning with the revisions I needed to make to the scenes I got to keep.  I lost about 20k from the draft.  Which blows, but isn’t as bad as it could be.  Several were fully formed, pretty well-written scenes–they just won’t work with the current direction.  So those can be outtakes, extra content for really interested readers.  And, for the first time maybe EVER, some of what I saved might be able to use some of it in future books, as a lot of what didn’t stay was kind of fluffy stuff about the town.  Since I’ll be spending a lot of time IN the town, it might show up again.  So that’s better than it usually is when this kind of thing happens.
  3. I’ve been making a lot of small changes “under the hood”, as it were, both to my website and my books.   This has largely been as a result of some panels I attended at RT.  It’s nothing dramatic, just trying to make it as easy as possible for people to find what they’re looking for and to subtly push them to BUY THE NEXT BOOK.  There’s still a lot to do.
  4. I’m slowly putting together an e-cookbook.  Folks have been wanting me to do this for a long time, so I’m pulling the best of Pots and Plots for gluten free cooking.  I’ve got the recipes, but I have a LOT of formatting to do.
  5. I’ve been having all kinds of plotty thoughts related to other projects.  Some old.  Some new.  Some…totally unexpected.  I blame Lockwood Monk.  She’s a plot bunny instigator.  There are a couple that, if they make it past this initial stage into actually being written, are going to make fans VERY VERY HAPPY.  And that’s all I’m gonna say on that.
  6. I’ve been reading a lot lately, particularly in audio since I’ve been in the car a ton.  I’ve been plowing through Cindy Spencer Pape’s Gaslight Chronicles, which I really enjoy.  They’re pretty short, reasonably priced (ranging from $2.51-$3.03) and the Whispersync audio addition is only $2.99.  So for $6 I get the audio AND ebooks, and that just makes me happy.
  7. This week I had to exercise my VIP membership to Road Runner Sports.  I figured out after a couple weeks off that my toe thing was caused by the shoes.  Since RRS has a 90 day wear ’em and love ’em or return ’em policy, I sent them back.  Had a long conversation with a fabulous CSR about how Asics had made the perfect shoe and then went and changed everything that made it perfect, and got suggestions for something that might work better for my freak ass wide feet.  Naturally, the only ones in my width and size are bright blue, so I’ll look like I’m running in a pair of Smurfs.  What the heck happened to neutral colored shoes?  I don’t really CARE as long as they’re comfy, but still.
  8. I ordered a new swimsuit today.   I have, in general, avoided all need for once since I was in grad school and a fair bit lighter.  But I’ll be going back down to the coast later this summer and hitting the beach, so it was time.  Susan pointed me to these really super cute vintage 40s pinup style suits, with high waists that actually COVER STUFF.  What a novel concept.  As a style, the 40s era really works for how I’m built (probably because it was the last decade of fashion where clothes were designed for how women were actually shaped).  As I’m back into weight lifting again, by the time I’m down there, everything should’ve firmed up and stopped jiggling by then.
  9. We’re going to see Godzilla this afternoon.  The previews really put me in mind of Pacific Rim, which I loved, so looking forward to that.
  10. Apparently Disney’s next live action fairy tale is going to be Cinderella.  I heard somebody say it looked like it was going to be “epic”.  Now, I don’t know about you, but Cinderella has never been a story I associate with epicness.  The prince was always pretty dull and boring and, seriously, how could he not know by LOOKING, that this was the woman he loved?  Why did it take this special shoe?  But Kenneth Branaugh is directing and Cate Blanchet playing the wicked stepmother, so I’ll give it a try.  Right now the teaser trailer shows nothing but the shoe, so I’m witholding my opinion.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wppM8ycod0

3 thoughts on “Sunday Summary and #ROW80 Check-In

  1. I thought Godzilla was really good, but it’s not Pacific Rim in terms of the big monster battles. They’re there and are awesome, but there’s a much bigger build-up. It reminded me of the way the older movies were structured. I was satisfied, but people were definitely pissed because they were expecting more battles.

  2. I read the last two paragraphs too quickly and caught the words Godzilla, Disney, Cinderella, and epic. I had an omg moment where I thought, “Oh no, first Marvel, then Star Wars, now Disney went and bought Godzilla when I wasn’t looking. And on top of that, they are doing a Cinderella epic series. How long can they drag out the mice and pumpkin bit anyway?” Then I read it again, whew!

  3. I don’t deal with chaos very well either. I wish you all the best getting your home back to rights. Awesome that you managed some writing despite the chaos and flail (love that use of the word BTW). Hope it starts to work out better to make progress.

    Gaslight Chronicles sounds like a great tip. Will have to hunt those when I am done with my current pile of Steampunk.

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