oh boy!

The Green Lizard, Charles Perugini

One day to go! I’m mostly packed, must print my boarding pass tonight, set up Levi’s food and water, and oh yeah, get directions to the overnight parking lot ’cause I’m leaving Junior there–usually I take a shuttle to the airport but since I’m leaving from Long Beach’s, my little Yaris can wait for me to come home. For some reason, I don’t mind leaving the car at LB’s airport but I won’t leave it at LAX’s overnight parking.

Spent the past couple days editing A HAUNTING OF ROSES and getting it ready for fresh writing in December–that’s going to be my end of the year project after NaNo. I’ve got 2010 partially planned out, already thinking about the GDR’s for next year.

Yesterday the winds gusted strongly through the Westside, sending rough billows through the building garage, strong enough to ruffle and buffle the potted palms.

Five days, zombie run free–yay!!  Hope the weather’s nice in San Jose.

coffee ink

Knave of Hearts, Maxwell Parrish

Short time for me at work this week! Vacation–going to the World Fantasy Convention in San Jose, so looking forward to that. It’s been many years since I last went to one. Three more days and I’m winging my way to San Jose. Michelle’s coming with. It’s going to be fun celebrating Edgar Allan Poe’s 200th birthday!

Yesterday, on a visit to Office Depot, found a dvd of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, and watched it last night for the 3rd or 4th time. It’s got one of the best horror movie endings in the history of horror movie endings. Definitely tops my list of favorite horror films. That movie makes me tense no matter that I’ve viewed it at least 3 times before. Its mood, setting, the savage vampires, the heroic sheriff of the snowbound Alaska town caged in night for 30 days, and the nihilistic crucible in which the people are trapped waiting for the sun to rise again makes it impossible to watch without a chill in the gut.

Let’s see, what are my favorite horror films, in no particular order:

30 DAYS OF NIGHT

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN

ALIEN

ALIENS

THE SIXTH SENSE

STIR OF ECHOES

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE

BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA

And that’s it so far. Oh yeah–I hate zombie films and will not watch them. Don’t read zombie books either. I’m fond of the undead, not the walking dead.

Met with Janet yesterday for our monthly lunch, brainstormed a short story that she’s trying to write about one of her book characters. Her latest novel is out from Whiskey Creek Press–Wanted: True Love, a humorous tale about a young witch searching for true love with no luck thanks to an amorous, dastardly warlock who placed a curse on her.

I’ve got my NaNo novel idea sketched in story notes. Created a journal for it yesterday–I like to give all my novels their own journal–and I always pick a particular artist or artistic movement to use to ornament the entries. For Castle in the Air, I’m using Maxwell Parrish’s paintings. While I wait for November, I’m back at work on A Lamentation of Swans. Sweet Taboo is in a holding pattern somewhere in the creative ether. I’m so close to the end, but can’t find the words to get me there.

Judging by the luminous fall of light through the window, looks like it’s going to be a beautifully sunny day, but don’t know if I’ll make it outside at all today. I’m weeding my overgrown garden of manuscripts and story files stuffed in copy paper boxes. I really wish I’d stop creating duplicate, triplicate, quadruplicate versions of everything!

baby on the doorstep

The Afterglow in Egypt, William Holman Hunt

Can’t bring myself to look at Loose Daddy. That poor novel has been languishing for months–completed, final, done, and still I can’t do the final read-through so I can compose the synopsis. I’m afraid of my own words. I’m afraid I’ll only see the flaws, i.e., the flaws I create, discreditng all my effort.

Too much to do writing-wise in this final quarter of the year so Loose Daddy will have to wait until 2010.

Meanwhile, I’m preparing for NANO. Castle in the Air is the working title for this year’s November Novel.

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery – when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

infinity

This is fantastic…and it’s all about a watch!

The Aeronaut

literary geekery

My darling niece knows her aunty too well…sent me this via Facebook.

Rules: You have received this note because someone thinks you are a literary geek. Copy the questions into your own note, answer the questions, and tag any friends who would appreciate the quiz, including the person who sent you this.

Don’t bother trying to italicize your book titles, even though we know you want to…

1) What author do you own the most books by?
Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and J.K. Rowling—yeah all 7 hardbacks.

2) What book do you own the most copies of?
Well—I did have two copies of Twilight at one point.

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
No; I’m with Lewis Carroll on that.

4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
The vampire Asher, from LKH’s Anita Blake novels

5) What book have you read the most times in your life?
It’s a tie: The Great Gatsby – 4x, cause I love the writing, and The Wind in the Willows – 4x, cause I love that book!

6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
The Wind in the Willows

7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
The Glass Books of the Dream Weavers—plot like a disjointed train.

What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight – a kick; damned good story; loved the characters.

9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
Oh I wouldn’t do that.

10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for literature?
Michael Ondaatje

11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
I like books as books always—movies rarely capture the story or the essence. Look at what they did to The French Lieutenant’s Woman!

12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Any of Dan Brown’s.

13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
Once wrote a short story in a dream; it was good too!

14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?
One of those Dresden File novels, first and last time—blech!

15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
Gormenghast—dense and labyrinthine, very much like the castle itself.

16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?
There are obscure Shakespeare plays!?

17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
Actually, I’m rather fond of the Russians.

18) Roth or Updike?
Updike- I read The Witches of Eastwick.

19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Have not read either one.

20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare, but I’ve got a soft spot for Milton too.

21) Austen or Eliot?
Yes please.

22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

23) What is your favorite novel?
Like asking me to pick my favorite vampire; I love them all.

24) Play?
Much Ado About Nothing

25) Poem?
It’s a tie: The Walrus and the Carpenter, Lewis Carroll and Andrew Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress

26) Essay?
Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own

27) Short story?
Love short stories, but none of them stick with me like a good novel.

28) Work of non-fiction?
Guns, Germs & Steel

29) Who is your favorite writer?
Oh come on! English major here! But if you held a gun to my head–Jane Austen

30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Dan Brown—will not read his books; couldn’t get through The Da Vinci Code.

31) What is your desert island book?
A complete volume of Shakespeare’s plays or Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell –I’d take either one.

32) And … what are you reading right now?
Neuromancer by William Gibson (almost finished)
Life
Dreams From My Father (halfway through)
Barchester Towers
–Life’s too short to read one book at a time.

labyrinth

I’m remembering a cartoon…a little creature walks into a wall, backs up a step, walks into it again, backs up, walks into it again, as if walking into that wall over and over would eventually cause it to disappear…that sort of resembles me and Sweet Taboo. But I’m smarter than that little creature, I figured out to get the story engine running again, I need to write more about Deidre and Randall’s relationship (mortal + ghost) and balance it against Deidre and Demario’s friendship. Must focus on points of contention between Deidre and Randall and points of sympatico between Deidre and Demario. Must back away from the wall, turn and take another path in the story labyrinth.

The weather is gradually turning cooler–while summer wrestles with winter, punching the old man with warming trend after warming trend, but wind is evening the score, blowing rough and cold through the day.

I’m all signed up for NANO, and October is story notes and outline month for this year’s November Novel, tentatively titled, Castle in the Air. I hope to be ready come November 1st!

thin ice, heavy skates

The Storm Spirits, Evelyn Pickering De Morgan

October 1st, started working on the outline for this year’s NANO novel, temporarily setting Sweet Taboo aside. I’m stuck at a certain point anyway, although I like to think that I’m not. I’ve made my 50,000 word rewrite goal, and the story has expanded some so I’ve reset the manuscript to 60,000 and I’m word by wording my way to that final scene, already in place.

Meanwhile, I’m working on two short stories, one science fiction and one steampunkish. I also submitted another short story to market and have one more ready to go–that gives me five submissions this year–two which were published. A record year for me. Usually, I’m doing good to get one out the door.

So it’s October, Time’s scythe has sliced into the last quarter of the year. November is going to pass in a haze of pages, but still, hoping to complete ST.