marmots, monsters and obnoxious cellphone users

Novel update: Over the past few weeks, I have had several exchanges with the editor I mentioned a while back, in which she has been giving me detailed feedback and asking a ton of questions. These questions focus on fleshing out backstory and character motivations, as well as pushing me to defend details of the plot ("So why did the antagonist to do X instead of Y?" "But if Z is true, then doesn't this contradict what happened earlier in the story?" etc.).

These questions and comments have forced me to think about aspects of my novel in much more depth than I would have otherwise, and several times I have decided to make a change. What usually goes through my head: "AUGH! She's RIGHT! This part SO doesn't work! I SUCK!" then "Hey but wait, I have a solution" to "OH WOW this change is BRILLIANT, I can't BELIEVE I was going to do it the other way, this is SOOOOO MUCH BETTER!!!"

The process has also been hugely educational for me in terms of how I'm going to approach novel projects in the future.

Anyway, I've received the go-ahead to start revisions! Wish me luck.



Above: marmot photo taken by my friend Bruce Macintosh while he was hiking on the eastern side of the Sierra mountains. I admitted I had never seen a marmot in real life, so Bruce kindly offered to send me a photograph. Below: I cropped out a close-up of the marmot. So cute! Bruce wisely points out: "Marmots are much cuter and more trustworthy than squirrels."



Books I've recently read:



I especially enjoyed The Book Without Words: A Fable Of Medieval Magic, an Avi book. I'm usually not a huge fan of talking animals in novels, but I got a kick out of the acerbic raven character in this story and his interaction with the main character, Sibylle.

Links 'O The Day

Thanks to my friend Ray for these links!



Put a cork in it: Are you irritated by obnoxious cell phone users in public places? The Society for Handheld Hushing offers these cards for handing out.

Daily Monster: "A growing collection of curious creatures and the stories behind them." VERY cool.

Shizuoka Broadcasting: An amusing commercial for Shizuoka Broadcasting.



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Mr. Twilight, Trek, Lemony Snicket and Elfquest

I finished reading Mr. Twilight by Maya Bohnhoff and Michael Reaves (published by Del Rey) last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. LOVED the characters and intriguing plot...some great mystery and horror here, as well as a dash of romance. I also very much enjoyed the dark humour. Looking forward to following these characters in future books. I was amused to see the name "Helen Waters" used in the book; total coincidence, I know, but Jeff and I have a friend by the same name.

To you Classic Trek fans out there: I've updated my "He's Dead, Jim!" blog with a post about "The Enemy Within" as well as a poll about whether Shatner's acting enhanced or detracted from your enjoyment of the series when you first saw it, and then later on. Please answer at the end of my Trek blog post, thanks.



Thanks to the 61 people who responded to my blog-reading survey a couple days ago. I'm putting together a summary for an upcoming Blatherings.


Hey, I'm a Go-Back! Has anyone else out there read the Elfquest books by Wendy and Richard Pini? Please do go read this LJ post by Allison to see all three Urban Tapestry members as Elfquest characters in a drawing by Kamen with help from Shae. Kamen and Shae are two of the many friendly and incredibly talented German filkers we met at Filkcontinental last year. Kamen kindly gave me permission to use my Elfquest character as an LJ icon.

"Hsifyppah" had a great idea for enhancing the Kathleen Sloan cookbook I mentioned yesterday...optional song-recipe pairings! :-D Anyway, I'll probably be carrying the cookbook around with me at OVFF, so feel free to ask to sign the book during the convention.

My friend David Barker is entering Nanowrimo this year, and has invited everyone to help him by suggesting phrases that he promises to use (in some form) in his novel. I've already posted my enormously helpful suggestions.



And a Lemony Snicket follow-up: Last year, I pointed people to this SFGate.com article about my friend Joey Shoji, who won a bid to have his father's name appear in the next Lemony Snicket book. Joey's father passed away on July 4th last year. Well, Joey reports in a blog entry yesterday that his father name nows appears on page 223 of The End, the thirteenth and final book of the series!

"Jojishoji," Sunny said, which meant something like, "I don't believe that abridging the freedom of expression and the free exercise thereof is the proper way to run a community."

What a wonderful tribute to his dad.

:-)

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It's a Nanowrimo day

I've updated He's Dead, Jim! with my report for Where No Man Has Gone Before. Before the more acute of you (I originally wrote "anal types" but I decided to be more tactful :-) get on my case...yes, I know Frank Poole wasn't the one to say this line to HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey (it was his partner, Dave Bowman), but I figured the reference still worked. Don't forget that you add this feed if you're on LJ (thanks again for setting this up, Rob!).

Big news on the home recording studio front: I have a MOTU 828! Well, almost. "Epi_lj" and I rendezvoused on a street corner yesterday afternoon after LJ-ing and e-mailing about an 828 he was thinking about selling on eBay until he read about my dilemma in Blatherings. I felt so covert, as if we were exchanging contraband; I found myself wishing I owned a trenchcoat. Anyway, I met Epi (not his real name, obviously) at a Toronto Nanowrimo get-together some years ago, and we've been keeping in contact via LJ ever since.

Anyway, Epi is kindly letting me try out the 828 to see if it works with my computer before I pay him. Jeff's going to help me test it out this weekend...please keep your fingers crossed for me! I'm SO excited about this!! If this works, it means I can start recording on my laptop; I'd be using Garageband (which can record up to 8 tracks at once, by the way, not 2). It means I can add a flute track to Seanan's CD. It means I don't have to rely on the tinny little mike built into my laptop. It means possible other recording projects. Lots of potential musical goodness!




The Nanowrimo where I met Epi, by the way, was the one where I also wrote the rough draft of the same novel that is currently out there, hopefully being accepted by a publishing house even as I type.

And while we're on the topic of Nanowrimo, looks like I'll be doing some cartoons during November for the Nanowrimo Web site. Look for an announcement on the site about this next month! I won't be participating in Nanowrimo this year myself; I want to focus on my existing writing projects.

I'm hoping to check out The Word On The Street tomorrow. It's been six years (!) since I had my own booth at Word on the Street, for Inkspot.

Hey, has anyone out there used BookMooch? I found out about this from an Inside The Net podcast. Sounds like a fun to way to get rid of old books and get new ones, so I'm going to try it out. I did try Bookcrossing, but I never heard of any of my books being picked up (at least no one filled out the online form for them) and I kept imagining the books being dumped in the trash at the end of the day. At least with BookMooch, the recipients actively WANT the books. I'll let you know how it goes.




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More TVstuff

Hey all. After seeing some of the comments posted in LJ, I thought I should clarify yesterday's Blathering:

- I actually do NOT believe that TV is the work of the devil.

- There IS such a thing as good TV programming.

- Indulging in "bad" TV once in a while won't melt your brain.

My post was focused on Jeff's and my choice to go without cable tv for a while and the resulting benefits thus far, NOT an exhortation for the rest of you to do the same or a condemnation of those who don't.

I enjoyed reading about some of you who have been through similar experiences, by the way. Especially fifona's:

"About a year after we got married we decided to give up TV completely, thinking we would spend more time together, be more active, and read a lot more books. The money we saved on the TV Licence (a British phenomenon I'm not sure you have) was quickly spent on magazine subscriptions more than books, we spent more time going to evening classes for our own individual rather than shared interests and then....umm.... then we had a baby!

So all in all, it was not quite the outcome we expected! :-D"



Speaking of good TVstuff, check out Tanya Huff's announcement about a yet-untitled TV series based on her Blood books; looks like casting's been finalized. Here's the IMDB listing using "Blood Ties" as a temporary title. Christina Cox plays Vicki, Kyle Schmid plays Henry and Dylan Neal is playing Mike Celluci. Woohoo, how cool is that?

Aw geez. I wish I could just subscribe to the Space Channel...

If you haven't read Tanya's Blood Books, by the way, you can now order them in collections from Amazon:







I have no idea why that last book has a smaller image on Amazon and I'm too lazy to re-size it.

Anyway, I LOVE this series; it's creepy, sexy and funny at the same time. Totally engrossing reads, and I love Tanya's writing style throughout. Hey, and you can buy the first collection for just US$7.99 from Amazon! That's an incredible deal, considering it's a collection of two books. Far cheaper than paying for a movie ticket these days, and you're also much more likely to enjoy yourself.

But I digress.

Check out the e-mail I got yesterday:

--

From: Heather Teta
Date: Sep 21, 2006 3:10 PM
Subject: ABC seeks families of filkers! $20,000!

Dear Sir or Madam,

I'm a Casting Producer with ABC Television and we're looking for great families who share a love science fiction or fantasy art, music, movies and television. We're looking for families who love sci-fi so much that they create their own music, stories or comic books together in that genre. We're looking for those creative families that attend conventions or gatherings – whether to perform together or to watch other talented filkers at work. We're looking for families who march to the beat of their own drum – families who are creative, quirky and fun. We're looking for those fun, larger than life characters who aren't afraid to be different.

We're currently casting for ABC's hit family show, 'Wife Swap!' Please don't be confused by the title - "Wife Swap" is a family show on ABC primetime. The premise is simple: two moms from two very different families get the opportunity to swap lives (but not bedrooms - everyone has their own!) for a week to experience what it's like to live a different lifestyle - and to see what they can teach each other about their own! In this case we're looking to feature creative families with unique interests and hobbies - and all the fun that goes along with it. I would greatly appreciate you forwarding my information on to any of your family members, friends, and associates who might be interested in sharing their lives with us for a week!

All featured families will receive a $20,000 financial honorarium - and $1000 goes to anyone who refers a family that makes it on the show! We are looking for two parent families with children (between the ages of 5 and 18) who are ready for adventure! I appreciate your assistance in reaching out to these great families and look forward to hearing from you soon!

Best,

Heather Teta
Heather Teta| Casting Producer | ABC Television - Wife Swap

--

Apparently others in the filk and other fannish communities received this letter or one very much like it as well. This SO looks like a "hey, let's make fun of how weird sf fans can be" episode. I'm sure they'll find someone, but so far it looks as if all my fannish friends plan to stay far away from this.



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Cottage, MySpace, Mr. Twilight and Hula Girls

Just got back from the cottage, where leaves are just starting to turn colour. The lake water has chilled to the point where leisurely swims are no longer possible; it's more of a quick dip and muffled shriek (ok, the shriek is more from me than Jeff) and a hurried scrub with Campsuds before rinsing and fleeing back into the sauna.

The photo below was taken Saturday morning, when a mist lay heavy on the lake, muffling all sound:



I love this sort of mist, a mysterious shroud that hints of magic and the unknown behind the silver. I sat for about an hour on the dock, watching the mist slowly melt into morning.

Later we saw merganser ducklings speed by in pursuit of fish. There were at least 15 ducklings earlier in the summer; they swam by the dock regularly. I don't want to speculate about what happened to the missing ducklings. :-(



I'm currently working on two different articles for Writer's Digest. If you count Market Watch, this means I'm working with three different editors at the company.

Thanks so much for the feedback to my M-Audio disappointment! I'll respond soon.

I've posted a MySpace page, mainly for PR/marketing and networking; I've noticed more and more authors establishing MySpace pages, especially now that MySpace has launched a separate Books section. I'm also working on an Urban Tapestry page.

If you send me a friend request thru MySpace and you've never met me, please also send me a message letting me know so I know you have SOME idea of who I am (I'm already getting way too many "friend" requests from people with a zillion friends on their list, who either want to sell me something or just add me to their Friends trophy-list).

My MySpace header graphic:



From what I can tell, MySpace seems mainly geared towards young people right now. In general, customised user template designs are pretty cluttered and difficult to read, and many users seem obsessed with adding as many people as they can to their Friends list, whether or not they have any real connection with those on the list. I used a nice template by Mike D. and made a few modifications. Like me, Mike also noticed the whole "I have more Friends than you" trend in MySpace, and wryly added the word "billion" to the Friends count template. I changed this to "bazillion." :-)

If you click on the "Alien Jellyfish" soundclip I have on the left side of my MySpace page, by the way, you can hear me playing flute on Chris Conway's fabulous "Alien Salad Abduction" CD. My Urban Tapestry music partners, Allison & Jodi, also participate on this track.

MySpace seems to be pretty good at helping to promote indie musicians. Through a soundclip on John O's MySpace page, I discovered that Alex Bohnhoff (Jeff's and Maya's son) has a musician's page with soundclips. I met Alex while staying with Jeff and Maya some years ago, and he was just learning guitar back then. Holy cow, he's so good now! I'm even more excited about attending Consonance next year, where Maya, Jeff AND Alex will be Guests of Honour. I'm a huge fan of Jeff's & Maya's, and now Alex's. :-) You can find more info about their CDs and listen to soundclips on CDBaby. Their music AND writing news can be found at the Mystic Fig Studios Web site.



Speaking of Maya, I just pre-ordered her new Del Rey book from Amazon, Mr. Twilight (by Maya Bohnhoff and Michael Reaves). More on this in an upcoming Blathering, but it's a dark fantasy with a healthy dose of humour. Please do support Maya by pre-ordering, or buying the book when it comes out! If this title sells well enough, Del Rey is going to turn this into a series.



Jeff and I had fun seeing Hula Girls at the Toronto Film Festival with Craig. Here is Craig's review. The movie was predictable and sappy...but I adored it. It pushed all my buttons in the right way, and I ran out of tissues by the end of the movie (Craig offered me the napkins that came with his popcorn). I want to own this movie, and hope the subtitled version comes out in North America.

Allison, Jodi and I are getting together tonight for GAfilk prep. We're already pretty hyped about GAfilk, where we'll be Guests of Honor. Toastmistress: Linda Melnick, Interfilk Guests: Summer & Fall. Less than four months to go!





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