Category Archives: Writing

New Printer!

I am proud to announce that I am now the owner of a fully-functional Xerox XJ35c laserjet printer/scanner workcentre. Hugs and kisses and tears of relief to old family friends Dorothy and Greg for allowing me to take it off their hands.

And now? Well, I’ve been obsessing about a printer because my need to write has been building up inside me once again. In fact, at my parents’ house over the holidays I found my completed fantasy novel tucked away on my laptop and began to edit it – from the last chapter in order to avoid the problematic first chapters which have been edited several times without satisfactory results. This novel has been finished for about a decade, and going back to it with fresh eyes I can now see that it isn’t as bad as I expected it to be. Sure, it’s very definitely a first novel, and requires help; but overall, there’s great dialogue, good pacing, and interesting flawed characters. I wanted to keep on writing Crossroads, but apparently I haven’t transcribed the pages and pages of hand-written work I did in the Second Cup this summer. And, of course, the legal-sized notebook with those pages in it was at home. Sigh.

A printer isn’t necessary for writing or editing, but it certainly makes my life so much easier. Balsamic Moon will be the first thing printed out, once I take an hour this afternoon to fix a certain passage in chapter five. In fact, I’m about to sit down with a cup of tea and make a list of all the writing-connected things I want to do. Then I’m going to acquire a small bulletin board and pin them up individually, as t! has done for years, in order to have the satisfaction of taking each one down as they’re completed.

I love my new printer. Apparently there’s a double-sided page option, which I discovered as I poked about in Properties (there is, alas, no manual as of yet). I’m definitely going to play with it later this afternoon and poke various buttons to discover the miracles hidden within.

I have a printer, thank all the gods. It shouldn’t feel this good.

Plans Foiled

Argh. I’m just pulling my hair out today. What was supposed to be a nice quiet day reading through a new 500 page spa book for fun turned into a surprise rush editing job from my publisher that’s just hit seven hours and still no end in sight.

I’ve resorted to taking Vivaldi out of my CD player and inserting Evanescence, turning up the volume, and pouring a large glass of wine to keep me going. My next break will involve creating a business card that says something along the lines of:

Autumn’s Editing Services:
Making People Sound Better Than They Are

Seriously. My confidence in my own writing abilities is skyrocketing. Copy- and content-editors everywhere will weep with joy when presented with my work, because not only do I know what I’m talking about, I know how to say it.

Back to the drawing board.

Ego Boost

If ever I needed assurance that I can write a book, the experience of editing professional authors’ work is convincing me of it. Ye gods.

And I think my cats did some odd sort of “change the rain into snow” spell. Two of them fell behind one of my short bookcases this afternoon, at different times. I am convinced that it was no accident, but arcane action of some nature.

Ferret Visuals

And speaking of novels involving ferrets, my dad sent me this Robert Bateman jpg yesterday:

At the NaNo wrap party I realised that thanks to my NaNo research, I knew more about ferrets than my writer-type colleagues. There was something vaguely embarrassing about the discovery.

On The Twelfth Day Post-NaNo

Twelve days after The End of November, I awoke with a strange desire to read Balsamic Moon. So I’m about to do a quick spell-check, go out to pick up a new ink cartridge, then print out a draft.

Before I do, however, I must put a CD on. CBC Radio Two was originally playing some kick-ass Mozart. Now they’re playing sappy choir carols. I’m so not in the mood for this today.

Weekend Roundup

I have a public who requests updates. I am touched.

A big thank-you to all who came out to support my husband’s studio launch on the weekend. All five members of Studio Elements were touched (and decidedly overwhelmed) by the response and enthusiasm displayed by the attendees. I think everyone sold a piece of artwork, too, which was unexpected; it was a party, not a show, after all. You just can’t hold back popular demand, however, or deny good art.

We also had the Montreal NaNo wrap party, where we discovered that many of us had story elements in common (apart from the psychic ferrets, I mean). We also played t!’s annual game of NaNo Questions, where queries such as “If your novel were a food, what food would it be?” and “Describe your novel in ten words or less!” were posed. It was a riot to hear the answers from such a varied group of people. The room was humming with creative responses from creative-types. So, overall, it was a remarkably artistic weekend.

The art theme continues this week as I make a Yule gift for a friend, which cannot be detailed here as she is quite likely to have the surprise ruined for her. You’ll all be kept up to date with appropriate vague references.

The Changeling game that Roo (dubbed “the very cute pagan gamer geek girl” by admiring friends who met her on Saturday night) and I have been discussing for the past little while is becoming more and more likely to actually happen, which makes me jump with joy inside, being as gaming-starved as I have been for months. It’s really making me think about when children lose their completely enchanted view of life. Playing with my goddaughter this weekend (whom, by the way, delivers the very best spontaneous hugs, complete with back-patting and sticky kisses) raised the same question. When do we lose that completely open, joyful celebration of absolutely everything we see? When do we begin to trap things inside, to deny our individual interpretation of life, to conform to consensual reality simply in order to make things easier? And, the ultimate question: why? Playing Changeling will allow me to further explore these questions. Plus it’s just going to be downright fun, ‘cos it’s with cool people and will no doubt involve large amounts of candy and giggling. Think the ultimate sleepover or the best day off from school and you might hit on the general feeling.

On a completely different note, my dreams have been remarkably vivid these past few days. I don’t know about how others dream, but my dreams tend to involve pop culture figures, most recently the Lord of the Rings film characters. The cast from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel pop up frequently, too. (There was a run last spring where my dreams featured the Buffy cast performing a different Gilbert & Sullivan operetta weekly.) My latest dreams involve lots of swords being passed from person to person as symbols of their identity. Entertaining, but one does have to wonder what it’s all about. (No, this is not an invitation to psychoanalyse me; it’s a rhetorical question.)

Or maybe it’s just all about the gorgeous costumes that my subconscious mind dreams up.

Hmm. Almost makes me want to drag out my toy sewing machine and get back into the construction of absolutely beautiful outfits with little to no practical purpose.

NaNo 2003, Day 30

Final word count of Balsamic Moon: 50,215

I thank the Goddess that tomorrow is December.

Freaky Coincidence Number One: I typed the final three words of my novel to the loud, triumphant, sweeping final bar of Howard Shore’s Fellowship of the Ring score. There’s nothing like the soundtrack to your life displaying excellent timing.

Freaky Coincidence Number Two: November 30th just so happens to be the ancient Roman festival of Hecate of the Crossroads. Synchronicity, nothing.

This novel will just have to be dedicated to Hecate, something along the lines of:

To Hecate
Without whom none of this would have happened.
Literally.