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Just a spot for random musings. No one ever accused me of being a conscientious blogger. |
| I am miserable at blogging. Life and other things (like writing) keep me from doing any musings on a regular basis. We'll have to see how it goes. |
| The water softener blew up this morning. The heat wave continues combined with rain making things even more humid. I'm tired and cranky and I don't want to go to work. Ok, so that last bit is true most saturday mornings. I'd really rather stay home and write but until my house is paid off or I get a six figure advance on one of my stories, that's not happening. Still, I'll work in a few sentences where I can and try to get Athene out of this predicament she's getting herself into. |
| Wrote 1200 words today, a flood for me of late. Finished chapter 12 and started chapter 13. Hoping to get more done before bed since this is an Athene chapter and those are always loads of fun to write. A little over 1/3 finished with the final Pantheon book. 73 pages of my current copy edit done. A rather productive 2 days off, if I say so myself. I know I said no more fairy tales. I meant it. Fairies take over my brain, leave me no space for sleep or rational dreams. They have a way of planting me in front of the computer and writing their own tales. It's not necessarily a bad thing. The flow is awesome. Ok, so I have the Stargazer, a man from the distant future, who is trapped in a fairy prison as a remnant of the twelve dancing princesses story. Not a bad premise since I have a plethora of fairy princesses to toss into the fray to free him. But, darn it, I didn't want to write another fairy tale. And what in world would I call it? Then there's Charley and Starfire. I will write them. Someday. I made myself that promise. So, onward and upward. |
| It's been two months since I blogged last. You can tell life has been busy and inspiration short. Not that anyone here wants to hear about inventory or the mis-management of the store I work for. There's a club for people dissatisfied with their job. They're called "everyone". They meet every night and most lunch hours to vent to one another about their woes. I really don't intend to be president of the club. My grandson's 2nd birthday is coming in a few weeks so a bit of planning for that since I"m the one with the big back yard. House to clean, presents to wrap and the like. It should be loads of fun just like last year, just a bit of work to get there. On the writing front, I'm still working slowly on the last book in the Pantheon series. I've decided it's good to have a hubby I can ask for advise on the layout of military compounds, security issues and the like and he doesn't bat an eyelash. He's talked me through the logistics so now it's up to me. The details are a bit sketchy in my head for the moment but they'll get there. My short vampire/werewolf short story was contracted by Bluewood Publishing and is now titled "How does your garden grow?" Yes, the title is tongue in cheek since the MC has a vampire in her garden, but my daughter, who has done most of my cover art, is working up something involving a fountain, wolf eyes and a dead hand coming up out of the dirt. It's going to look like she's growing dead people, lol One interesting thing happend this month, though. One of my co-workers has now read everything I've written that is out there. She's bought most of them and borrowed the first two from me. Her vote? She likes my fantasy best. The sci-fi is good. The romance is good. But the fantasy rocks. Given that I love fantasy and always have, it leaves me wondering if I haven't strayed too far from what I do best. She's not the only one to say that, either. I have to admit, creating worlds and playing with magic is more fun than trying to figure out military manuevers and explaining technology I haven't the mechanical background to explain. I can only milk my friends' brains so often. So, pure fantasy or fantasy romance? The sad thing is I have several futuristic type romances in my head and two of them started. Mageborn might just be in the queue to be next... |
| Ok, so going to TSO and staying for the meet and greet afterwards might have been totally awesome but perhaps not my brightest choice since I got home after midnight and have to be up this morning at five am for work. It's going to be a long day. On the upside, the show was fantastic and my youngest daughter got to go for the first time and got her ticket autographed by all of them. She wanted to take one of them home with her (it's the rocker hair and the fantastic voice) but we left the group intact and made a promise to go see them again. (like we don't promise that every time, sheesh). This was Bethoveen's Last Night. Great music, a fantastic blend of classic and rock and if you ever get to see Flight of the Bumblebee played on electric guitar with a laser show, do it. It's so freaking cool. I'm hoping they do Nightcastle sometime in the future. That album has some seriously great music on it. On the writing front, I finished my Office Party short story but still don't have a title. Had a few suggestions but I'm not decided. If you would like, go and take a peek and let me know what you think the title should be. |
| I've finally got the release date for Hades, the second book in the Pantheon series. It will be released on February 17, 2012 in paperback and ebook. Needless to say, I'm excited. I love the series and I love the book. Hercules has always been one of my favorite characters. I love a man with a sense of humor and his is out of control, lol. Can't wait to hold it in my hot little hands |
| We finally got snow. Since I live in North Dakota, snow in December is nothing strange. No snow on the ground for Christmas, however, is. We had our first brown Christmas in the twenty years we've lived here. Got snow last night so at least something is sort of normal. Work is slowing down which will mean an extra day off each week. Good for my writing, bad for my paychecks. What a trade off. Writing is going in fits and spurts. More fits than spurts, lol. Today, I've been doing the copy edit on another author's work and enjoying it. Fantasy with a heavy layer of humor. Love it and very little editing needed. He's meticulous in his wording, grammar and punctuation. The occasional mistake is the result of oversight, not bad editing. No author can effectively edit their own work. You know it by heart, each word and each mark. You get to the point that you don't even really see it anymore. I go back over my own stuff and catch missing words, mispellings or even where I rewrote and forgot to delete the old stuff. It's never perfect. That why the second, third or even fourth pair of eyes come in handy. Another reason to love my second job. My biggest writing problem right now is my brain is in two universes, no kidding. On one hand, I'm working on Styx and Stone, a futuristic, espionage type romance. One the other, there's a cat type man who kidnaps a good Texas girl (poor alien, lol). I've got vivid scenes from both in my head but I can only work one keyboard at a time. Jane, I need that cable to download my brain more than ever.... A touch of fantasy... https://www.deborahmcnemar.webs.com |
| Christmas shopping, done Wrapping presents, done One day of work left to go, coming up far too fast. Still have pumpkin bread to bake and a baby dress to sew. Still, far ahead of where I thought I'd be. No snow yet. North Dakota in winter without snow is a truly weird place to be, let me tell you. I just feels wrong. Posted the beginning of a new short tonight. May be a novella. I won't know until it's done. It was an idea I had back at Halloween and never finished but I can't stop dabbling at it. I don't write vampires and werewolves but there you go. Still have Styx and Stones (the last Pantheon novel) to finish and I'm only at chapter four. Working on that one, too. Got a new one to edit from Bluewood. The problem there is, the book is so much fun I have to read and re-read and re-read before I can edit. I think that will be enough to keep me busy through the new year, lol. A touch of fantasy... https://www.deborahmcnemar.webs.com |
| Found a way to get me in the Christmas mood since it appears Mother Nature is being stingy with the snow this year. I'm a chocoholic. I freely admit it. One of my favorite desserts ever is Death by Chocolate. Before you start thinking it's some kind of fancy recipe, nothing could be further from the truth. It's so easy even I will make it. Make a box of brownies. Cut them into small peices and layer in a 9x13 cake pan. Sprinkle with Kaluha or Amaretto or, if you want to avoid the alcohol, even hazlenut syrup (the kind you make flavored coffes with). Over that, spread chocolate mousse and then whipped cream. Done. It's rich and simple. I made it for my crew at work and it helped put me in a more christmasy mood. Hubby helped me put up the tree, more to play with the train set we bought our grandson than for any real desire for the tree, lol. Laughing at him playing with the stupid thing also helped. He's a forty-seven year old truck driver, big tough guy that he is, and he's also the proud owner of the Bumblee transformer, too. Got to love a man like that. Oh, wait. I already do. A touch of fantasy... https://www.deborahmcnemar.webs.com |
| "We were chickens in a barrel down here.” “Fish.” The word escaped before she could stop it. Both men turned to stare at her and she flushed. “The saying is fish in a barrel, Mr. Bellinger. Chickens would be on a fence, I believe.” “Fish in a barrel. Chickens on a fence. Ducks in a row.” Walter turned his glare back to the other man. “I don’t give a damn what you call it, I didn’t like it.” Ok, so it was just a bit of fun out of the chapter I deleted and my daughter made me put it back in. I agree with her. It fits the story at that point but why does everything I write have to have those tongue in cheek, sarcastic dialogue moments? I know I'm sarcastic by nature. I even have a sweat shirt with a donkey on it that reads "I'm a smart one" (I believe in truth in advertising, lol). But I can't even kill anyone these days (literarily speaking of course) without some smart elec comment made and/or expected. Hades was like that. I never knew what was going to come out of Hercules' mouth. At the time, it was fun. But Walter is more fumbling than that. He's the ultimate Nerd. And I get to make him sexy? Ok, so I personally think smart is sexy but the rest of the world seems to want muscles and domination. I prefer the smart guy to the bossy, overbearing man. How do I blend the two? I can give Walt a work out routine but I will never be able to make him smooth. Manipulative, not dominating. Whimper... A touch of fantasy... https://www.deborahmcnemar.webs.com |
| My husband and I finally broke down and bought a high def flatscreen tv. You have to understand, the one I took off the stand to make room for the new addition weighs more than I do in that huge, tube tv kind of way. Watching tv now and I realize, this is going to take some getting used to. It took a while to get used to using a laptop and WiFi. Maybe it's a matter of time. Maybe it's LED vs LCD vs Plasma. I don't know. Blue ray vs DVD. Is there a difference? Do I care? Maybe. I'll find out. On another note, I deleted the chapter I wrote yesterday and started it all over again. Sometimes you just got to take a step back and take another look. I'll pop a video in tomorrow morning and see if it helps... A touch of fantasy... https://www.deborahmcnemar.webs.com |
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