Writing, monster bunnies, and mortality songs

Above: Our quince tree is just starting to show leaf and flower buds. I took this yesterday in the early evening when the rain was falling in a fine mist.

Now that I'm nearly finished my current YA novel (Ruth and Jeff are both reading my manuscript right now), I'm overwhelmed with ideas for my next fiction projects. It seems like so long since I've had new ones that it's going to be an interesting challenge deciding what to do next. I'm currently leaning toward an early chapter reader series; writing the first one, including a pitch for the rest of the series in the package.

I'm very, very happy that after several years, my tendinitis seems to have improved enough that I can work on my fiction without being conscious of pain/keystroke effort every few minutes...the latter made it nearly impossible to work on a work of fiction, I found, which is why I focussed nearly exclusively on nonfiction, temporarily abandoning my novel.

BUT I also have a bunch of ideas for nonfiction books for young people, so I'm gradually working on those proposals as well.

So many books I want to write, so little time.



Above: This is the first of my Corel Painter 9.5 drawings that I've liked enough to print out and frame. It'll make a cheery addition to my office wall, don't you think?

;-)

I'm toying with the idea of doing a series of Monster Bunny type of prints, a few to donate to Interfilk auctions, and perhaps some limited edition prints for art shows at sf/fantasy conventions. I'll need to work on more designs and do a lot more research before I attempt this, however. For one thing, I need to find out more about digital prints and how expensive archival quality prints would be. Are the prints that are sold at these sf/fantasy art shows of archival or non-archival quality, for example? According to this Web site, the lifespan of non-archival prints is about 10 years without fading and colour shifting; I assume this means a lower price. I'd appreciate advice from anyone out there with experience in this area.

My newest Monster Bunny drawing:



In one of my FilKONtario reports, I mentioned that Robert C. sang a song at FilKONtario called "The Mortality Song" which I found pretty amusing. Robert has posted the lyrics in his Livejournal, if you're interested. His intro:

"I started on this song soon after GAFilk. It was at GAFilk that someone who shall be nameless (but whose initials are Brenda Sutton (g)) outbid me on the Debbie Ohi Surprise Pack, which included (among other neat things) a guest appearance in Debbie's current strip 'My Life In a Nutshell'. This event left me quite dejected and depressed, and it really made me question my own purpose and the meaning of my life. I ended up writing the following ballad in an effort to come to grips with my own questions and doubts. It's really quite ose, but it did me good to get the feelings out."

Apr/2006 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments