Waiting for Frodo, CD update

Today is the most recently updated Waiting For Frodo, though I will likely add one later today. I'm having fun with the current storyline, which I've been discussing with Jill Cainey (Shane's girlfriend in New Zealand). Some people assume that I plan my subplots for Waiting For Frodo far in advance. In reality, I usually never plot out a strip until I'm actually working on it. Makes it more fun for me to write/draw that way. I still have no idea if and when Sam and Gladys are going to get back together, for instance. I posted a reader poll asking for people's opinions, and they seemed pretty evenly split. There are currently 1073 people signed up for the "let me know when there's a new strip posted" notification list. I'm still wracked with indecision about whether or not to go to the midnight showing of Two Towers next week. Got together with Allison & Jodi last night. Jodi ran into some bad traffic on the way from Newmarket; it took her an hour to get to Richmond Hill! :-( Allison and I are working on some songs together, which is fun: she's helping me with a new Lord of the Rings song I'm writing about Bill The Pony, and I'm helping her with her Tuck Everlasting song. Since it looks unlikely that Urban Tapestry is going to be able to get together weekly (and Allison has warned us against trying to get to and from her place by local transit because of the unpredictable evening bus schedule), we'll probably be relying on e-mail, cassette tape & MP3 exchanges for our songwriting collabs from now on, getting together in person whenever we can. Jodi gave me the CD from Chris Conway with mixes of the tracks for our new album last night (thanks, Chris!). After I listen to it and posting notes, I'll be passing it to Allison for a listen. Beckett Gladney is working on our CD cover, and we're working with Bill Roper (Dodeka Records) to hash out details about the cover template, CD imprint, and liner notes. We're hoping to work things out so we can include the lyrics to all the songs on our CD in the liner notes; depends on costs, though. We're all pretty excited about this project! Release date is still set for next year's World Science Fiction Convention (Torcon) in Toronto. Links/News: One year ago, I talked about books. Blatherpic: a lovely dung beetle cross-stitch by my friend Helen. Today's Blatherpics: Waiting For Frodo updated.

LOTR dilemma, parties

Today is Chris Conway's birthday! Less than two weeks until Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers premieres! I'm far more excited about this than I was about Harry Potter, as much as I enjoyed the latter. Right now I'm torn about whether to see the midnight showing (midnight of Dec. 17th), or see it on the first official day on Dec. 18th. The main problem: I'm a morning person, not a night person. If I see the midnight showing, I'll probably be walking into the theatre after spending six hours in line, most of which will probably be spent outside in the cold!). My brain usually shuts off around 10 or 11 pm. The second LOTR movie will likely be near three hours long. In my half-frozen, half-asleep brain state, how much of the movie will I really be able to appreciate? On the other hand, how will I be able to stand NOT seeing the first showing? 'Tis the season for Christmas/holiday parties. Jeff and I have been invited to about ten so far, jointly and separately. Some of you may have already guessed this, but I'm not a fan of huge "mix and mingle" holiday parties where I don't know most of the attendees and will probably not meet most of them again. For one thing, I despise smalltalk. But the main reason is that since losing various family members, the Christmas season has always been a bittersweet time for me. My tendency is to want to withdraw from big social gatherings, and stick with close friends and family. But back to the original reason I brought up this topic... A couple of the invitations we've received have come through Evite, an online invitation service. Pretty cool! It assumes that all invitees are on e-mail, of course, but then most of my friends and family are. You can choose invitation styles, track responses, automatically provide maps to your venue, send reminders, etc. My only complaint is that the invitations reach me with broken graphic images, and I have to scroll down to look for an actual text link to take me to any sort of useful info on the site (e.g. what the invitation's for, the date, etc.) since I can read the graphics. I suspect this is more to do with how I've set up my e-mail program than with Evite. Links/News: One year ago, I wrote about childhood foods. Blatherpic: a drawing I made in Fractal Painter. Three years ago, Jeff, Doug and I had an officewarming party. Four years ago, I went to see the Rheostatics with David Goulden. Five years ago, my dad was robbed. Today's Blatherpics: Waiting For Frodo updated. Jeff goes gaming most Friday nights at our friends' place (Vartan and Hrach). The bottom three photos show just a few of the games that they play.

nanowrimo retrospective

Last night, I went to the Toronto "SIGH OF RELIEF it's over" NaNoWriMo party. I was hesitant about going at first. I hadn't attended any of the coffeehouse writing sessions with the group earlier in the month; I'd be an outsider. Plus I was worried about what kind of people I'd be meeting for the first time. I mean, geez, what kind of weirdo would voluntarily sign up to write 50,000 words in a month for no compensation and no guarantee of publication?

Then I remembered that duh, I'm one of those weirdos, too. :-)

The gathering took place in the basement party room at the Bishop & Belcher at Queen & Peter. Within a few minutes of arriving, I realized that my fears were unfounded. First, I was greeted by Rachel, the Toronto NaNoWriMo liaison:





I'm not sure what was happening in the other cities, but I know for a fact that Rachel did an amazing job with the Toronto NaNoWriMo community. She organized writing sessions, watched over the Toronto NaNoWriMo forums, helped keep people motivated, planned the final party, probably lots more I don't know about.

When I arrived, I was greeted and presented with my freebies, which consisted of cool NaNoWriMo stickers:





and NaNoWriMo pencils:





There was also a table of other goodies for everyone, some bought by Rachel out of her own pocket (!) and others donated by Book Television. I got a prize for reaching 50k, and chose this classy notebook with a furry cover:





I told Rachel I wanted to help donate some money to help cover costs, but she refused to take my money. She said that she was getting her compensation from working with such a great group of people.

And as I started chatting with the others and listening to some read excerpts from their manuscripts, it became clear to me what she meant. There was a bond between everyone in that room, a feeling of support and encouragement that I'd only expect from a group that had been together for years. And even though I hadn't attended any of the coffee sessions, I was drawn in as well, felt instantly welcome.

We talked about our NaNoWriMo experiences and our writing. Some said they had fun with their NaNoWriMo novel but didn't plan to get it published. Others said they planned to edit their story and possibly start submitting it. Whatever our future plans, we all agreed that the NaNoWriMo experience had been a special one we wouldn't soon forget. Some members of the group have already started making plans to continue getting together for writing/editing sessions.

And as I walked home a few hours later, I had to wonder if Chris Baty and the other NaNoWriMo volunteer staff realize what an effect they've had on the writing community. I've already written about what I got out the experience; I'm sure there are many other retrospectives being posted online these past few days.

NaNoWriMo may have started as a lark, but it's grown to become so much more than that. You just have to browse through the NaNoWriMo forums to imagine that gatherings like the one in downtown Toronto last night were happening all around the world, not to mention the numerous online message boards, Web rings, weblogs and mailing lists that have sprung up as a result of NaNoWriMo.

Bravo to people like Rachel and the other NaNoWriMo volunteers, and especially Chris Baty! Not only have they helped foster new friendships and local writing communities, but they've reminded us of what it's like to write for the sheer joy of writing.

Ironically, the "SIGH OF RELIEF it's over" party seemed also to be the "geez, part of me wishes it wasn't over yet" party for many of us. But hey...we can always sign up again next year. :-)





Work update:

Finished cleaning out my e-mail inbox yesterday. From 2124 e-mails to zero in two days! Did some market research, prepared and sent out two article queries. I love editors who are e-mail savvy. By the end of the day, I got an acceptance from one of the editors, who also proposed I write a series of articles along the same theme (!). I'm very excited about this, of course, and promised him a list of ideas by the end of the week. Wish me luck.

Links/News:

For those interested, I've collected all my NaNoWriMo cartoons in one place (the Livejournal archiving process seems to be buggy, so I've collected these in Movable Type)

Kathy Sanborn recently interviewed me for her Writing Success column. For those interested, here's the interview.

One year ago, we got a new car, and I posted a very silly Lord of the Rings comic at the top of the page.

luisa party & xmas shopping poll

Did some e-mail catchup yesterday. From 2124 e-mails, I'm now down to 1254. Answered 83 e-mails yesterday. During that time I received 137 new ones. Trashed a bunch. Unsubscribed from about half a dozen mailing lists. It's not even 8:30 a.m., and I've already received 24 e-mail messages today. Augh. (Yes, I know some of you out there get way more e-mail than I do, but let me whine for a bit, willya? :-))

I feel like I'm trying to pour water in a bucket with a big hole in the bottom.





It was my friend Luisa's birthday on Saturday, but since she was away for the weekend, I asked if I could take her out last night instead. She foolishly said yes, and I turned it into a surprise birthday dinner. :-)

I booked the party room at Ampeli, and things turned out pretty well despite a slip-up by me that nearly gave things away last week. Great food, great service. People at the dinner: Jeff and me, Kaarel, Reid & Luisa, Andy, David Barker, Craig, Peter & Laura, Scott & Karin, Harald & Micki, Tom & Michelle, John & Kristen. Andrew called from California during the evening to wish Luisa a happy birthday.

Poll: Christmas shopping?

Do you celebrate Christmas? If so...Have you started Christmas shopping? Have you finished (in which case I hate you)? Do you randomly shop for gifts, or do you make out a list beforehand? Do you get presents for everyone in your family, or do you draw names from a hat? Do you have any Christmas shopping rituals? Have you ever re-gifted? What do you like about Christmas shopping? What do you hate?

Answer here

Links/News:

Condolences to Kathy Cogswell, whose father died on Saturday morning. :-(

One year ago, I went to a Paramount LOTR Line Party gathering.

Four years ago, I received a questionable 'Net award.

Five years ago, I burned dinner.

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Today's Blatherpics:

Last night at Ampeli.

	Luisa and Reid.
	Part of the table last night.
	Michelle and Reid.

e-mail pet peeves

MY GOAL FOR THIS WEEK:

Empty my inbox. Unsubscribe to all non-work mailing lists. Clean my Eudora mailboxes, archive or trash old e-mail.

I'm still struggling with my e-mail. Though my e-mail does not come close to approaching Inkspot levels, I am still having trouble managing it. I am ashamed to admit that there are currently 2124 e-mail messages in my Inbox, and not all have even been read, and these do NOT include the automatically filtered personal and spam e-mails. Bad, bad Debbie. I have over 25MB of e-mail in my mailboxes.

My main problem is that I'm not heartless enough when it comes to trashing e-mail without answering it, and I'm also on way too many mailing lists. Because of my various online columns and carry-over from Inkspot, I still get a lot of work-related e-mails asking for advice. Not having the heart to trash them immediately or send a form letter, I keep them around with the good but misplaced intention of answering them eventually.

I also tend to keep everything (my packrat mentality, but that's a whole other Blathering). What I should really do is delete non-essential e-mail as soon as I've read it, or at least regularly archive older e-mail onto a hard disk or CDs.

My current major e-mail pet peeves:

- SPAM. This will always be at the top of my list.

- People whose signatures (long quotes, etc. at the ends of their e-mails or postings) are longer than the e-mail messages themselves.

- Blank subject headers.

- Subject headers that don't have anything to do with the message content. I'm as guilty of this as anyone, but plan to improve on this from now on.

- People who write a bunch of multiple e-mail messages in a row rather than combining all their thoughts and responses in one e-mail message at a time. Again, I'm as guilty of this as anyone. (Clarification: multiple e-mail messages on the same topic, that is)

- Being subscribed to mailing lists and notification lists without my permission.

- When responding to e-mail, people who echo the ENTIRE message in their reply, then add something contentless at the end, like "I agree" or "Thanks".

- Poorly written e-mails. I know, I know, not everyone's a writer. But it drives me nuts when I have to reread a message half a dozen times to try to interpret exactly what a person meant to say, either because of poor sentence structure or typos. I know I tend to write more sloppily when I'm tired or in a hurry, but am resolved to improve in this area as well.

- People who write e-mails to a HUGE number of people and include ALL the e-mails in the TO: or CC: fields instead of in the BCC: field. Inevitably someone's going to respond to the whole group with "please take me off the list" or something else that should be directed only to the sender.

PLEASE NOTE:

Inevitably after I post a Blathering like this, all the friends I DO enjoy corresponding with by e-mail immediately stop writing to me because they're worried about overloading my mailbox when in actuality, it's their e-mails that keep me sane. :-)

Links/News:

One year ago, Sara slept over.

Three years ago, Andy Barrie invited me to be on his CBC morning radio show.

Four years ago, I puzzled over the Furbee craze.

Five years ago, Mark Osier successfully defended his thesis.

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Today's Blatherpic:

My corporate seal. My tax lawyer has confirmed that I no longer need this, though apparently I have to hang onto my minute book for a few more years. I have given the seal to my friend Frank so that he can put a bullet hole in it at his shooting range, then give it back to me.