Category Archives: Writing

Wrapping Up

No new words on Swan Sister today — I worked on writing proposals and did proposal-related research instead — but I forgot to post my new updates from Wednesday, so here:

Total words, Swan Sister: 11,954
Total new words, this past Wednesday: 741

HRH and I went to see Cars this afternoon, and it was brilliant, it really was. When we saw the original trailer long ago we kind of looked at one another and said, “Um, as genius as Pixar is, we really can’t see how this will work.” We’re very happy to be wrong. Liam will love it when we get the DVD, because there are an incredible number of wheel shots in the first eight minutes alone

I think my brain now switches off around eight at night. Long gone are the days when I could work till eleven. It’s a pity, because the evenings could be prime writing time. Ah well.

I had too many caffeinated beverages today and not enough real food to balance it. I’m going to have to have a rather large warm milk with vanilla (possibly two) and go to bed with a book. But first, laundry. My life is really too exciting.

Just What Does Amazon Sales Ranking Mean Anyway?

Brent Sampson has figured it out, and it’s remarkably unlike how one expects it to be calculated. Which in turn means that what it means is different than what one would suppose it to mean.

In actuality, the process is somewhat more convoluted than they let on. Only the top 10,000 books are updated every hour and the ranking does not depend upon the actual number of books sold, but rather, on a comparison against the sales figures of the other 9,999 books within that same hour. Simultaneously, a trending calculation is applied to arrive at a computerized sales trajectory. So, hypothetically, a book that held a ranking of 2,000 at 2pm and 3,000 at 3pm, might hold a 4,000 ranking at 4pm, even if it actually sold MORE books between 3-4 than it did between 2-3.

Books with rankings between 10,000 and 100,000 are recalculated once a day, rather than once an hour. Current projections, as well as historic sales information play a key role in these calculations. In fact, the predictive nature of the Amazon ranking system is what makes it possible for a newly-released book to outrank an older established title, even though the actual sales figures for the latter far exceed the former.

(Via Bookninja.)

Friday

Two things:

I just spoke with a staff member of the Canadian Revenue Agency about an odd notice I got in the mail saying “OMGyouoweusmoneyandwetoldyoubeforesopayitupnow!”, with no indication of what tax year to which it was related, or why it had come out of nowhere, or even of what it was a reminder (because 2004 was the first and only year I’ve ever had to pay tax, and what I owed wasn’t this amount — besides, it was paid). She was incredibly helpful, whereas the notice was not. Turns out it’s a GST thing from three years ago; looks like they’ve decided I’m not eligible for the refund and have to give it back, which is wonky since I never get a GST refund because our total family income is always too high. I’ll be calling the GST folks later for more info. The good news? She quoted me a number now due that’s lower than the number on the “pay-us-now” notice, not that it was a horrendous number to begin with. It was just more irritating to be told that I’m late paying something I was never told to pay and couldn’t immediately verify against my records because there was no reference number or year given.

Then I spoke with a staff member with the provincial Regie des rentes about our child assistance allowance, clarifying a name issue and a retroactive payment thing. He too was incredibly helpful.

It is mildly sad that I am surprised to have received clear and helpful service from two civil servants today.

In completely unrelated news we have a new-to-us mattress and box spring (thank you, t!), and it’s firm and comfy and I slept incredibly well last night. Of course, the sleeping well may also have had something to do with the amount of sushi eaten at the all-you-can-eat sushi place and the amount of sake imbibed on the moms’-night-out yesterday evening. And after I work on a couple of hours of consultant stuff this morning, then get an hour or so of my own writing work done (proposals, Swan Sister, that sort of thing), HRH and I are taking one of the movie gift certificates we got as a Christmas gift and going out to see Cars this afternoon, because it’s Liam’s day with his grandma!

Grist For The Mill

The problem with moving into a new section of a novel set in a different place with specific technology means that you have to understand how that technology works before you can write it. Which means, in turn, that valuable writing time becomes research time.

I am about to know more on the subject of overshot water wheels, sluices, and dams than I ever thought I’d need to know.

ETA: See?

The sluice flow rate formula is:

Q = ACsqrt{2gh}

where:

* Q is the flow
* A is the area of the sluice
* g is the acceleration due to gravity on the Earth’s surface (approx. 9.81 m/s²)
* h is the head across sluice
* C is the discharge coefficient (typically 0.61 for small depth ratios)

Update

Tired, ill, and scheduled six ways from Sunday, so this will be brief:

Family lunch on Sunday? Awesome. Presents all a hit. Liam ate salmon and orzo salad for dinner like the rest of us, and a cupcake of his own for dessert. Pictures eventually.

Liam has another new tooth, for a total of eight.

Reading Charles de Lint’s Widdershins. Good, but I can understand why he didn’t want to write it, because to finish Jilly’s story means putting her though even more crap that’s not fun to read and was probably not fun to write.

I have consultant stuff to do and proposals to finish, and a toddler who doesn’t want to play by himself, which means work I’ve already been paid for and work I don’t get paid for unless the proposal is accepted and no time in which to do it.

The Quebec government hasn’t clued into the fact that we filed taxes for 2004. Duh. The federal government has, and did so long ago. Get with the program, people.

Coven tonight, and despite my best efforts the work that was supposed to be done for this evening is only three-quarters finished (see above about the time thing). I am irritated about this, because I hate letting people down.

Now it is dinnertime. That is all.

Happiness Shared Is Happiness Doubled (To The Power Of Two)

My day just got infinitely better, thanks to a series of good news shared over the past hour.

I love my friends. It feels so good to be this happy for other people, whatever the reasons.

Of course, I also sat down on the floor and cried because I was laughing so hard. It vaguely confused Liam.

ETA: Okay, here’s the first reason! I can share now that this individual has posted one of the bits of news himself.

ETA AGAIN: And here’s the second reason! (Yes, I’ve been stalking LJs for the past half-hour, can you tell?)

Why was I laughing so hard that I cried? Well, both these individuals had me edit their stories before they submitted them. And when I did these reads/edits, I was under the impression that only one of them would make it into the anthology, so when I got the first call I was happy but also sad for the other individual… who then proceeded to call me five minutes later to tell me that his story had been accepted. And I was also laughing because both of them called me and said, “I wanted you to be the first to know, because you helped make this happen.”

I love my life. I love that I had a small role to play in this incredible accomplishment for two of my friends.