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Well, I'm kind of in shock. I've just finished writing Moy Tura Echoes, all 95k of it. And its only taken 3 years (on and off).
Seriously, I think I am in shock. I thought I'd be excited, delighted, over the moon or something. Instead I'm just... not.
Maybe the joy will hit tomorrow. Maybe I know how much work I have ahead of me to whip it into shape.
But in the meantime. OMG. I'm finished.
Off to bed to collapse in exhaustion...
| Originally published at R. F. Long. |
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e_w_h 's birthday so I will be at his party on Saturday night as well. And staying overnight in parents. There is a fair amount of running around to be done anyway, and child-wrangling.
And as they went, Tigger told Roo (who wanted to know) all about the things that Tiggers could do.
"Can they fly?" asked Roo.
"Yes," said Tigger, "they're very good flyers, Tiggers are. Strornry good flyers."
"Oo!" said Roo. "Can they fly as well as Owl?"
"Yes," said Tigger. "Only they don't want to."
"Why don't they want to?" well, they just don't like it somehow."
Roo couldn't understand this, because he thought it would be lovely to be able to fly, but Tigger said it was difficult to explain to anybody who wasn't a Tigger himself.
You scored as Tigger!
ABOUT TIGGER: Tigger is the newest addition to the Hundred Acre Wood, and he lives with Kanga and Roo, because Roo's strengthening medicine turned out to be the thing that Tiggers like best. Tigger is bouncy and confident -some of his friends think he is a little TOO bouncy and confident, but attempts to unbounce him tend to be fruitless.
WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT YOU: You are a positive and confident person. You feel capable of dealing with anything and everything, and funnily enough, you usually ARE. You don't worry about much, and you love to go out and find new adventures.
Your friends and family might sometimes be a little exasperated by your boundless enthusiasm. You don't like to admit your mistakes, and when you find yourself in over you head, you tend to bluff your way out of things. You would be surprised, however, at how happy the people around you would be if you would actually admit to a mistake. It would make you seem more human, somehow.
| Link: The Deep and Meaningful Winnie-The-Pooh Character Test written by wolfcaroling on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test View My Profile(wolfcaroling) |
ericreynolds has the TOC for Ruins Metropolis up here. I'm rather excited about this! :D Can't wait until its out!In other writing news, I heard back from an agent last night. Not a yes, don't get excited. But a very pleasant and encouraging response to a query, with the comment that I might send in my urban fantasy (Moy Tura) and paranormal romance (To Regain Heaven) when they are ready as those fields are more to their interest at the moment. What an incentive to get some work done! Guess what I'll be doing from tonight on! :D
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Very upset to hear about Heath Ledger. I remember watching Roar and he just sparkled in every scene. I only just found Ten Things I Hate About You in one of our moving boxes (where it has been for over a year!) and took it out the other night intending to watch it while Hubby is away. Sad now!
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As my son told me the other night, its only "2 more sleeps" until my hubby comes home.
R
I took the day off yesterday. So did my husband. The reason? Christmas shopping in the city centre without children. This also turned into a very nice brunch, followed not too long afterwards by a very nice lunch and lots of us time.
Dublin has not changed much. Granted, it was a Tuesday morning/lunchtime so it was not manic. Here, in no particular order are the highlights:
We went to the Kilkenny Design centre, a shop one cannot enter with a three year old and a six year old - not if you want to come out again with anything still resembling a bank balance. There is lots of pottery and crystal and expensive breakable things. We had pancakes, bacon and maple syrup in the café there whilst looking out at Trinity and over at the large mosaic/mural on the wall of the Setanta centre. It depicts the life of Cú Chulainn and basically gave me a couple of great ideas for Moy Tura. I think I will have to return with a camera, but I can see one of my major characters looking at it and being rather upset about the depiction of her husband, and another character having a fit because she appears to have lost her top whilst horse-riding! :D
Temple Bar was very quiet when we walked through it, although the clown in full costume and make-up chasing a man in boxers around the Central Bank was entertaining. Not sure what they were doing or why. It didn't seem to be a show. Just... a clown in full costume and make-up chasing a man in boxers around the Central Bank. But there you go.
Past Times was having a pre-Christmas sale. Everywhere seems to be. No one seems as interested in shopping for Christmas this year. I'm putting it down to the whole "having no summer at all" malais that seems to have gripped the nation. Two full months of rain when you wanted sun will do that to anyone. We're all sick, there are strains of the cold and flu that wouldn't be amiss in a Science Fiction Disaster movie, and the economy is as wobbly as anyone so all the shops are desperately trying to make people spend money anyway they can. One of the major chains of department stores (Irish people-how do you explain Dunnes to non-Irish people?) had a 25% sale all weekend on everything instore. It was great. That said, I talked to a shop assistant there and he said it had still been really really quiet. This was in their flagship store.
The National Library were doing their bit to boost sales too - a free copy of Treasures of the National Library to anyone who spent more than €20. They gave us a free tote bag too. So that's another Christmas present sorted!!! (And no, the person getting it doesn't read this. Btw I'm keeping the tote bag!)
We had lunch in L'Gueuleton a wondrous French bistro on Fade Street, just above the Georges St. Arcade and Market. It is one of the top three restaurants in Dublin. (We've now eaten in two of them and have no wish to spend €40 on soup in the other one!). I had soup - French Onion Soup with a Grueyre Croute (I'm sure I haven't spelled that right!). I only each French Onion Soup in French restaraunts and it was phenomenal! Real comfort food! Big thick slices of homemade bread. YUM. Hubbie had a paté which was also YUM! All in all delice. We shared desert. Home made Ice cream (a scoop of Toffee and Pistachio, Vanilla and Pomegranate, and Passion fruit sorbet, served with a raspberry cookie and (we suspect alcoholic) jelly! Mega YUM! Then coffee. Good coffee. More accurately - excellent petit café creme!
Ok, as
matociquala would say, enough food porn.
We meandered back. Went to my favorite bookshop where I spent some time picking out the books from people I have talked to here and turning them cover out for all the world to see. A small and petty, but extremely satisfying hobby. I just hope someone will do the same for me one day! (Of course if I was working in the bookshop and trying to keep the shelves all neat and orderly I would HATE me!)
The newbie sales person in the bookshop told me that they didn't do a discount for members of the Library Association of Ireland. Foolish foolish newbie! A few minutes later, we left with our 10% discount on our pile of books and caught the Luas home, all happy and satisfied.
Then we had to pick up the kids, so that was a dose of reality, wasn't it?
Still, we got some things done, got ideas for the rest, so Christmas appears to be underway after all.
Wow! I had no idea this was going to be such a long post. I blame the clown and the mostly naked man.
R
but given the new people in the novel group on NB, I have been reviewing Moy Tura Echoes and have come to a scary conclusion. It might be too short!
I can't say for sure. (At the moment it certainly is but that's because I only have a first draft from long ago and scatty notes). But the chapters are short for me. The pace is pretty quick. Things are happening at the moment at a rate of knots (or nots, of naughts, not sure how to spell that). And and and...
Ok, it probably is paranoia. I can make it as long as I need to. I can go back and expand on earlier chapters. I can give more background, history etc. There is one thing people rarely mention when writing: that is, how daunting a novel can be. I've completed two (four if you count A Dream of the West as the trilogy it probably is). They never seemed as difficult as this one. Am I putting more into Moy Tura than I did into the others? Well A Dream of the West only took four years to get into a full draft (which I thought was ready - foolish me!) and The Penitent is just a weird book in that it flowed (much as To Regain Heaven appears to be doing - hope I don't jinx it by saying that). True, I have three major WIPs on the go right now, but I always wrote other things in tandem before. I think its a harder novel to write. But why?
"Real life" setting - it can be hard to bring in that much reality without starting to fact-check constantly.
The concepts involved - sometimes I think I have them all worked out, sometimes I reread and go either "huh?" or "did I write that?" and my favorite so far "how on earth did you ever think THAT would work?"
The characters - often refuse to do what they are told and come up with their own ideas - I am not kidding! I can see why I portray them as belligerant, self-centred and just plain stubborn - THEY ARE!
Arrghhhghhghhh.... *pause for deep breath*
I need to take a step back again and look at the "overview" (there isn't one of course, but there are some scribbled notes somewhere. I have a plan, I tell you. I have a plan.)
Racing on with To Regain Heaven - into Chapter 4. Also a bit on the short side. I seem to be writing short chapters these days. But as long as the story wants to flow I will let it do so and worry about making it work later.
Hmm, maybe that's what I need to do with Moy Tura as well. So frustrating.
R
Seriously. It's a lot better, but the cautionary tale for all is when you have a niggly cough for a long time do go and get it sorted out by your GP and don't think it will go away by itself because it won't. It'll hang around and irritate your chest until you can't get rid of it, can't breathe properly and pass out if you do too much.
I got back to work yesterday and was generally met with people going "Are you sure you're ok?"
I did a fair bit of editing last night, taking a pen to both The Wolf's Sister and Old Friends. Having taken them apart, I hope to try slotting them back together this evening. I will also be writing more of the romance - tentatively titled To Regain Heaven. Moy Tura Echoes is getting some fresh critting on NB and seems to be going down well - yay! People like the way I write Maeve, which is worrying, to say the least. :D She's not nice.
Now I am off to do a crit (or part of a crit) before my tea break is over. Then it is back to cataloguing Italian Mariology books which came in from the Marianum. I now have really useful phrases if I ever get back to Italy such as "La Vergine Madre nella Chiesa delle Origini" and "Nuove prospettive della mariologia". Yay!
On the other hand, I don't have to move around much, so not much chance of unconsciousness. :D
It will get better. It isn't permanent. I can already feel improvement. Honest!
