Ten Signs A Book Was Written By Me

This writerly meme is making its way around and although I haven't been specifically tagged I have been generally tagged in the "if you read this consider yourself tagged" sense. ;-) So here goes:

1. It is either science fiction, fantasy, or some weird genre mix like SF/F/Mystery.

2. The protagonist is almost certainly female.

3. The protagonist almost certainly has a quirky sense of humor. If not her, then someone in her immediate circle, or several someones.

4. The first draft was 99.9% likely to have been written during National Novel Writing Month.

5. It has a happy ending for at least some of the characters, if not most (excluding villains).

6. It's very unlikely (though not impossible) that any of the main characters will die.

7. It will contain either aliens or sentient/talking animals. Possibly both.

8. It is not heavy on description.

9. It is not longer than 100,000 words, and more likely to come in around 80k.

10. No-one ever sits around talking for more than a few pages at a time.

Second Life

Over the past couple of weeks I've been delving into Second Life again. Over a year ago I made an account, just to see what it was like. At that time I couldn't figure out a lot to do and decided it probably wasn't for me.

This time, though, I'm realizing what a lot of opportunities there are. I've joined some writing groups, landmarked a lot of cool places I want to visit, loaded my character up with free stuff and spent hours trying on clothes (come on, I'm a girl, after all). I have a couple of RL friends who are doing the same thing and we're having a ball figuring things out together.

I can see how some people could get totally addicted to it. For non-gamers, it offers many of the things that more traditional MMORPG's do, but without the goal-oriented parameters of most games. Some traditional gamers can't understand the attraction, but I can see it. Many of the same benefits in a different format. And for people with problems in "real life" it really does offer a different, "second life" for them to escape into.

Personally, I'm not looking for an escape, but I'm happy to join in the fun, meet other writers, visit interesting places, and generally hang out. There's certainly lots to do!

The Nearest Book to Hand Meme

Well, so far 2008 has been a non-starter for blogging, but perhaps I'll start to feel more motivated soon. Helen has sort-of tagged me to do this meme ("If anyone wants to do this, consider yourself tagged!") so here I am. The rules of this meme are:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the 5th Sentence.

4. Post the next 3 sentences.

5. Tag 5 people.

The nearest book on my desk is The Drawing Bible by Craig Nelson. The thing about this book is that there are precious few sentences on many pages, so these are actually from p. 124, after performing the appropriate counting of sentences on p. 123. Not that it really matters. ;-) This section is called, "Using Visual Landmarks."

Proportion is all about measuring and comparing. When measuring, look for key reference points or visual landmarks on your subject. These may include sharp angle changes such as corners, or distinct tonal changes between shapes such as pieces of clothing.

I bought this book with the intention of starting at the beginning and working my way through every lesson, but I haven't made it terribly far yet. Still on my to-do list, though! It is a very good book.

Good news from the computer front

Today my computer is almost back to normal. Much of the data has been restored and it's running at its usual speed again (which my husband still says is too slow, but it's fine with me). I've been climbing the learning curve of a new email program, and I'm not quite ready to pass judgement on it yet. There are some things about it that I don't like, but at least it has an easy feature for backing up data. Also a nice calendar/task feature which, if I could train myself to use it, could be very helpful.

To de-stress tonight I finally played Guild Wars again for a while. Ahhhhhh. ;-)

I'm also playing with a free trial of a program called Inspiration, visual brainstorming and organizing software which is meant for the educational market but has been recommended as good software for writers as well (by Holly Lisle). The price tag is a little hefty for my taste, but it does seem like it might be useful. I have 30 days to play around with it and see. Tonight I was making a schematic diagram of the story I'm currently working on, using the multitudes of clipart and photos included in the software. Quite interesting. I can see that it would be great for brainstorming and working out story problems.

Anyway, I'm very glad to have my computer "back."

If anything, worse

Well, the computer troubles are, if anything, worse now. I do have more data move and programs re-installed on the new system, however that system appears to have faults that we didn't know about at first and the video card we bought for it is not working out. Sigh. It's up to my husband to solve the problem but it will likely involve ordering more hardware, which will add more time to the whole process.

The big downside is that I'm spending so much time on this, I'm not getting anything else done at all. Well, some reading, while I wait for files to transfer. I guess that counts for something.

Plodding Along

The re-installation of my new hard drive continues...is this three days now? I've lost track. I can only work on it for so long before I start to get a headache and have to take a break. I've done all the "easy" stuff (not that it was all easy, but at least I could do it without help) but now I'm going to need some technical assistance from my husband to do the rest. With luck we'll have a chance to work on it tomorrow night.

I've found the entire process strangely depressing. I've read so many old emails and opened so many documents to see what they were, only to be reminded of times past, projects started and abandoned, attempts to get organized that fell flat--so many things have been either melancholy, bittersweet, or downright downing.

At the same time it has made me ponder just how much of my life has become caught up with the computer. One could reconstruct an amazingly accurate picture of the past five years by combing through the archive of my hard drive. Is this a good thing? I don't know. But it is rather interesting.

In the interest of fairness, I should say that I've found a few gems that I'd forgotten about, like a poem my daughter and I co-wrote so long ago that neither of us remembers doing it. So it's not all bad. But even that is one of the bittersweet things, at least in mu current state of mind. Which I think may be succumbing to the onset of a bout of winter blues. I'm trying to fight them off. We'll see how that goes.

Domestic Goddess Day

That's just a more interesting way of saying that I spent the day housecleaning, doing laundry, and shopping for groceries. I also managed to install some programs on the new system, and my husband did some, too, so that job is progressing. Of course downloading and installing things is the easy part--transferring data and setting everything up the way I want it is the part I'm still dreading. At least we're labouring in a clean house now.

I also am trying very hard to view this in a more positive light. So far, I'm about 75% successful.

On a brighter note, I've got about 3000 words on a new short story, and I like how it's going so far. I've also realized that if I'm going to achieve my goal of reading 30 new books this year (which seems like a pretty modest number to me) I have to read more. I'm currently reading two books but haven't actually finished any yet, and now January's gone!

Here's another watercolor/dry pencil picture that I enjoyed doing:

A Glum Day

So my computer seems to have developed some sort of mental illness--it's sluggish and non-responsive much of the time and I can't figure out why. My dear husband has come to the rescue, done some wheeling and dealing and is in the process of building me a new one, bigger, better, faster, etc. Why am I still glum? Because this means that the day I dread is looming fast.

The day I have to re-install my computer.

I've managed to put it off literally for years, ignoring my husband's advice that a re-install is necessary once in a while to keep the machine running smartly. I'm sure he's right, it's just such a huge, huge job that it's always been too daunting. However, I can't avoid it any longer.

I've spent most of the day deciding what needs to go on the new system and what I never use anymore. I've deleted thousands of old emails so that transferring my data will be easier. It's been altogether a rather depressing task, and there are probably days and days of it ahead. Ugh!

I know, this is a terrible attitude. I should be grateful that I'll have a lovely new system when it's all said and done. I should be grateful that I have a computer at all!

Perhaps the rejection letter that came in today's mail has something to do with it. I suspect it does.

At any rate, I've stared at the screen absolutely as much as I can today. I'm going to go to bed and read for a while.