Look, it’s the Library of Congress listing for The Way of the Green Witch!
Which means there must be — aha, a listing for Power Spellcraft for Life, and one for Solitary Wicca for Life. And each listing has a link to that book’s full table of contents.
(I love Google alerts. I never would have known about this otherwise.)
There, damn it. I broke a thousand words.
Total words, Swan Sister: 13,045
Total words today: 1,090
And I damn well wasn’t going to get up from my chair until I had. Oh, I fought my own quota with blunted tooth and slothly nail: I dawdled by getting myself frequent snacks, I used Google and Wikipedia for various things, I got sidetracked in my research again, and made myself come back over and over to what I was supposed to be doing — namely, slapping words down so that I had something, anything, to show for working on the damn thing. Even though I didn’t want to do it, I made myself write, and oh look, there’s over a thousand words to show for it. So there, you mopey little Muppet monster of an inner critic.
And by working through the bog of inertia and wrong music, I got things moving in the second part of the book. Introduced the concept of magic (or at least something supernatural) for the first time (gasp). Discovered that the book wants the central character to be the harper, not the miller’s daughter. (I may grudgingly allow them to share the slot of protagonist.) Finally got the swans to be a symbol of Something Concretely Important (not that the reader would know as of this point, but I know, and that’s a good thing).
Liam’s over playing with his godparents today. Thus I’ve had the chance to write, even though all I wanted to do was lie in bed with a pillow over my head (it’s really too hot for that), and the opportunity to make a multiplicity of posts in my neglected-as-of-late journal. We’re tidying things up to go get him now.
I have just used the word “bretheren” in today’s chapter.
I have evidently been reading too much Brother Cadfael. And it occurs to me that I’m very behind in keeping my reading list up to date.
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.
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.)
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.
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.