May 31, 2004
Gathering of Powered Persons
Many, many thanks go out to Ceri and Scott for hosting the third annual Superhero Party, and giving me an excuse to create one of my best costumes ever. Thank you, George Perez, for coming up with a more exciting costume than the original. Whee! Here's you are, complete with one of my source pictures:
More proof that I married an archetype, and not a man at all: HRH won Best Costume for his portrayal of Mike Mignola's Hellboy.
Ad finally, rumour has it that Montreal's F/SF bookshop never would have closed if the manager and the owner had dressed like this more often:
An excellent evening: fabulous and imaginative costumes all around; good conversation; lots of laughs. And now I have to start thinking of something for the fourth annual party. And, of course, there's Hallowe'en first. Drat. This is the hardest part, you know: coming up with the idea.
(A veritable Who's Who of powered persons on the guest list may be found at the Third Annual Superhero Party Gallery. Viewings of the Second and First Annual Parties are also available. All photos by Scott.)
May 28, 2004
Daily Book Update
Today's word count: 3,024
Total word count: 35,766
I'm only about six hundred words below my weekly target of 10K. I'm pleased.
So Close!
The costume is minutes away from being finished. Of course, the few minutes that it will take are delayed until tonight, because I can't find the replacement glue sticks for my glue gun, and I need gold cord, too.
The snippy little pocket machine I borrowed from Scarlet won't sew through more than two layers of fabric, I discovered to my immense annoyance, so earlier today I was hand-sewing pieces of slippery satin and interfacing, finishing off the details of a collar. I was decidedly unhappy with the results (I'm picky) when I remembered that I had a tiny glue gun left over from Yule gifts. So I dug it out and began turning bits of interfacing down, moving along happily... until the glue stick ran out.
While I was gluing, though, I thought about how I approach costuming. I'm enough of a perfectionist to want my costumes to be elaborate and perfect, with no sign of a human being having touched it in any way. However, I know they're only going to be worn once or twice, and a costume is about overall effect. No one is going to be peering at my seams. (If they are, they belong in the SCA, not at a superhero party.) Costume purists might choke at the thought of a glue gun, but my costume experience comes from theatre, where no one is close enough to be picky anyway, and emergency repairs usually consist of spit and bubblegum. Having seen close-ups of the costumes from the LOTR film trilogy, I can say with all confidence that nothing looks the same in real life as it does on the screen.Part of the magic is having a real, flesh-and-blood, breathing person moving around in the costume, giving it life and something bigger-than-life, too.
I take pride in that overall presentation when I costume. I'll do what it takes to achieve the effect. All that means is I'm skilled in the art of making a costume look better than it actually is. It's an illusion.
But then -- that's what a costume is all about.
Twenty-nine hours until the superhero costume party!
May 27, 2004
Angel Auctions
Yes, you too can own a piece of TV history by bidding on authentic Angel cast costumes.
The first piece, Angel's black leather coat from episode 5-10, is already at US $1,080.00, and there's still 26 hours to go. It started at US $55.
Egad. There are so many other things that can be done with that money.
Today's word count: 2,360 Total
Today's word count: 2,360
Total word count: 32,742
I ought to have crises regarding my suitability for this job more often. No, I take that back. Really. I don't want more crises. I'd rather sail through this with full confidence.
By the end of tomorrow, I ought to have half the manuscript officially finished. I have five chapters mostly done, another four partially done, a couple with outlines to be expanded, and two with absolutely nothing in them yet. I probably should start brainstorming on those soon.
Mid-Manuscript Blues
Now that I'm just a breath away from being half-done this book, I'm experiencing gross amounts of feeling unworthy and hack-like and wishing I'd never agreed to the whole thing. Mind you, it's rather difficult when a publisher asks you to write a book; it's damned flattering. Still, I'm currently in the depths of despair and firmly convinced that I'm just rehashing material that's already out there, creating superficial text with no substance, not connecting thoughts in any sort of intelligent fashion, and doing a lame, lame job in general.
Things I keep repeating to myself include:
- this is a book for intermediate practitioners, people who maybe have read one or two books on the subject and want to know why and how
- this is your opportunity to myth-bash to your heart's content
- here you may collect all the little tips and tricks you've figured out over the years to help others
- what would I like to see in a new book like this?
I keep slipping into the "what would I like to see" and forgetting that I've been reading books like this for almost a decade. My needs are not the needs of my target audience.
I stare at the words I've got and wonder how I can expand upon them. I think I'm getting to a point where I need feedback. Ceri helped me yesterday (her aid being worth about a thousand words!) simply by answering a question regarding what she would like to see in a chapter on correspondences, and that material will be further expanded. I have a skeleton. It needs more body mass.
So why is it scaring me so much? Why am I avoiding it? Why am I firmly convinced that this is it, there isn't any more?
Well, this is disturbing: Coca-Cola
Well, this is disturbing:
Coca-Cola GmbH (Ed. note: this is the German division of the multi-national corporation)
All those hippies on a hill teaching the world to sing in perfect harmony always did strike me to be a bit sinister. It turns out Coca-Cola's swastika connection is not limited to the Robowaru incident. Coca Cola GmbH sponsored the Nazi Olympics of 1936 (and I am looking at you Beijing 2008) and only had its syrup supplies cut off upon the belated American entry into WWII. The company turned around and invented Fanta as the replacement Nazi soft drink. Who knew? An exhibition seeks to recreate Coke ads of the period that are inexplicably difficult to track down.
(Found over at Ghost of a flea.)
Gives a whole new meaning to the idea of being in a position to teach the whole world anything. Brrr.
Witches Weekly May 27, 2004:
Witches Weekly
May 27, 2004: Altar/Shrines
1. Do you have an altar/shrine?
Short answer: yes. Long answer: several. One main altar, which is surrounded by four small wall shelf shrines (two for me, two for HRH). We have a shelf shrine over the mantel with our main deity statues. I have a mirror/flame shrine which I use for writing. I created a small St Brigid shrine which hangs on a wall which is devoted to writing and spirituality.
2. If you do, what objects do you have placed on it and are any of them homemade or natural objects (ex: feathers, rocks, crystals)?
The main altar has a variety of stones for various purposes (i.e., the altar stone which is the heart of our altar, various river stones for healing work), plus hand-made candles, boxes, pouches, and so forth, including a lovely handmade statue of Hecate in her maiden form of the torch-bearer created for me by a student; the wall altars have piles of stones, feathers, acorns, etc, as well as statues; the divinity statues have stones in the offering hollows as well as being surrounded by hand-made Brid's Crosses and a pile of wheat stalks. My St Brigid shrine has small stones piled in the cup designed for holy water.
3. If you don't, (you can answer this if you do have one as well) do you have an area where you focus on your spirituality?
Anywhere I go, there I am... It's good to carry sacred space within you. Being limited to a physical place is dangerous, in my opinion. All the same, it's nice to have a material focal point, too. If I'm travelling, I use any kind of candle; I consider consecrated flame to be a physical manifestation of my internal sacred space.
4. How do you feel when you are settled at your altar/shrine (or area)?
Depends how I come to it, and the answer I require. Sometimes I'm angry, sometimes, I'm frustrated, sometimes I'm serene. What I get out of it is what I need to get out of it: either relaxed, energised, or even more angry (this last usually depends on how much I need to get accomplished in a given period of time).
What do you get when
What do you get when you combine the classic, almost 2,000-year-old Indian treatise on the art of love with the most up-to-date paper-engineering techniques? The Pop-Up Kama Sutra!
This lively distillation of the world's most famous sex guide features choice excerpts from the original text, translated in 1883 by the renowned explorer Sir Richard Burton, and is illustrated with vintage color plates from India. Best of all, six incredible pop-ups present the Kama Sutra's most interesting, instructive, and wildly acrobatic positions in three dimensions.
Believe it or not, I tripped across this while researching editions of Pliny's Natural History. I have no idea what they have in common, or why Amazon told me that if I was interested in Pliny, I'd also be interested in this.
The reviews pan it, by the way.
'I Giorni' is the 2001
'I Giorni' is the 2001 release from the world renowned symphonic composer Ludovico Einaudi. The inspiration for Einaudi's 'I Giorni' was a 12th-century folk song from Mali about a hippopotamus who was cherished by the residents of a nearby village but killed by a hunter. 'The song,' writes Einaudi in his succinct liner note, 'is sung as a lament for the death of a king or a great person or for the loss of a loved one.' The result is a tender & introspective set of 14 piano pieces.
Er, okay. Whatever...
May 26, 2004
Book Update (Like There's Any Other Kind of Update Around Here These Days)
Today's word count: 2,456
Total word count: 30,382
After a rocky and unproductive early afternoon, I made scones, did some yoga, and proceeded to whack out words. Yeah, baby. Thank goodness Ceri was here, otherwise I'd've given up somewhere around two and probably gone back to bed.
AAAAUUUUGH! I just had to
AAAAUUUUGH!
I just had to turn down advance premiere tickets for Harry Potter! I already have tickets for opening night on June 4th with good friends, and that was my first obstacle; then it was suggested to me that another double pass could be obtained so that all four of us could go to the 10.30 AM advance screening. I was on the verge of saying yes when I remembered that HRH IS WORKING ON SATURDAY.
Argh!
Damn planting season! Damn this lousy weather! Damn, damn, damn!
Speaking of Prisoner of Azkaban, I picked up the soundtrack yesterday (because The Den of Evil didn’t have the Hellboy soundtrack) and when t! paid a surprise visit last night we opened it and listened to it. It’s the best soundtrack of all three films. Lots of mice medieval consort settings of the themes, some nice manipulation and key changes of themes we already know, and a surprise appearance by the Cantina Band from Star Wars. Definitely top-notch John Williams work.
May 25, 2004
Give and Take
I love my husband -- I truly do. He's a cornerstone in my life. I can snarl at him when I'm grumpy and trying to concentrate on writing, and he takes it. I make him tea with lemon and honey when he's sick and sorry for himself, and he drinks it.
This morning, however, I woke up with his cold. The same cold we've been passing back and forth for almost two months now.
A tip for cold-sufferers: a tea made of eucalyptus and thyme is refreshing, and quite pleasant. It has a faintly clove-like taste, slightly menthol. I'm taking a cup every few hours. Let's see if it works.
Now I'm off to buy him ROTK on DVD, because I still love him, even though he gave me the cold again. He deserves it; he's been miserable for a week now. Besides, I need more vitamin C tablets.
Angel Viewer's Choice Marathon
Yesterday was the Angel Victoria Day Viewers' Choice Marathon on the Space channel: twelve solid hours of the best Angel episodes ever.
(Marathon #, Ep. #, Episode Name)
Intro to marathon: 1-01, City Of...
#10, 4-06, Spin the Bottle
#09, 1-18, Five by Five
#08, 3-13, Waiting in the Wings
#07, 5-15, A Hole in the World
0#6, 4-15, Orpheus
#05, 5-11, Damage
#04, 1-09, Hero
#03, 5-12, You're Welcome (100th Episode)
#02, 1-08, I Will Remember You
#01, 5-14, Smile Time
Series Finale: 5-22, Not Fade Away
I was pleasantly surprised at the calibre of shows chosen. There were several from season 5 (so someone explain to me why it was cancelled again?), a handful from season 1, one from season 3, and only one from the horrible Connor/Cordy season which was redeemed by having not only Angelus but Faith and Willow in it, too. I'd forgotten how much I loved "Waiting in the Wings" (who'd've ever guessed that Angel was a ballet fan?). I accepted the voluntary heart-wrenchingness of watching both Fred's and Wes' final episodes in the same day, not to mention the "I Will Remember You" episode from season 1 with Sarah Michelle Gellar. My sofa was Kleenex-box Central. And I managed to hit the record button to immortalise "Smile Time," which is being sent home with t! tomorrow because he simply has to see evil puppets at work in LA.
My TV was on for eleven solid hours, which I think was a personal record. I'm glad it was rainy outside, otherwise I would have felt horribly guilty about being inside all day. Anyway, I still managed to get 1.5K written during the whole thing, plus some formatting and editing. How's that for multi-tasking? Not that I'd do it again soon; I just couldn't choose one over the other, so I did both.
May 24, 2004
Mayor stunned by support for
Mayor stunned by support for demergers
MONTREAL - The mayor of Montreal admitted surprise that so many former municipalties on the island have decided on holding demerger referendums next month.
What, has he been dead for the past two years? How else could he have missed the opposition, threats, and resentment?
Damn it all -- I
Damn it all -- I woke up at five this morning and thought about some new material for the book. Very awake, I got up at quarter to six, made tea, decided to check e-mail first...
and now I don't remember what I wanted to write.
Drat.
Have a technical question about
Have a technical question about how the Buffyverse works? Want to debate ethical dilemmas of the BtVS and Angel: The Series characters? This is your complete compendium to all things mystical, good, and evil in the Buffyverse.
Episode by episode, this site looks at metaphysics, the concepts of good and evil, philosophy, ethics and morals, and the other stuff that meakes the Buffyverse so interesting. (Apart from the banter, that is.)
All Things Philosophical on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series
(found via WHEDONesque)
May 21, 2004
Not only did I hit
Not only did I hit the 10K weekly quota I set on Monday, I hit the one-third point of the manuscript!
Today's word count: 4,004
Total word count: 26,593
Not bad after a night of insomnia. And today's word count is the best so far on this project. If I stick to the 10K/week quota, I'll finish right on time.
Okay -- so I cried
Okay -- so I cried during the series finale of Angel when Ilyria asked Wesley, "Would you like me to lie to you now?"
Well, well, well: "The Quebec
Well, well, well: "The Quebec government is changing a law so that mothers-to-be will be able to give birth at home with the help of a midwife."
Full story here.
Yes, that time stamp is correct - it's one of those wonderful nights of insomnia, the perfect non-end to a crochety and grumpy day...
May 20, 2004
Pattern Reviews
For all the crafty folk who stop by this blog, I give you:
Enjoy!
Damn It
I have three seam rippers, and none of them can be found.
Three. Two of them purchased because I couldn't find the previous seam ripper(s).
The arm pieces to my superhero costume are complete. One's a bit tight; I'll just have to not gain any muscle mass on the left arm until after the party.
I need bleach to lighten a piece of fabric a bit, a seam ripper to unpick two metres of seams, and I need to find my interfacing and my glue gun. Thank goodness this costume doesn't need a ton of sewing, because the little "quick-fix" portable thing Scarlet lent me is good for temporary hems and not much more. Next cheque (whenever that might be), a sewing machine. Absolutely.
But sooner: a seam ripper. Damn it.
She Has a... Caffeinated Personality
According to a coffee quiz, my personality type is classified as "Peppermint Cappuccino: You're fun, outgoing, and you love to try anything new. However, you tend to have strong opinions on what you like. You are a total girly girly at heart - and prefer your coffee with good conversation. You're the type that seems complex to outsiders, but in reality, you are easy to please."
Well, I'm amused. I'm not so sure about the trying anything new, and I actually prefer to drink my coffee alone, usually with a book. The quiz actually had decent questions though - certainly better than the writing quiz a couple of weeks ago - with answers I could choose because they were right, as opposed to selecting the one I disliked the least.
In order to achieve balance in all things, I looked for a tea quiz, and found two. The first one, which told me that I was "hot herbal tea: a spa for the soul," wasn't very deep. The second one would have been better if the author hadn't expressed his/her own preferences in the questions, but it's well-rounded, and even offers the option of rating the importance of the answer. The author indicates in the preamble that "Note- Black teas should only be made with boiling water, mostly. Green teas should never, ever be made with boiling water. For green tea, about 180 F is a good temperature to go by, mostly. If green tea is infused with boiling water, the tea will taste bitter and flat, and you will have wasted your money", which is some of the best advice I've seen included in any quiz.
The answers are better than most quizzes, and they are twenty-five of them provided in a ranked order as per your quiz answers. I'm posting the first half of my answers to educate you about different teas. (They needed a bit of editing, like the quiz does, but the basic info is good):
1. Jasmine Green, intoxicatingly fragrant green tea I drink this already.
2. "Constant Comment", wonderful black tea with orange rind and cloves I drink this too - t! introduced it to me years ago, and the irony of the name is just too good to pass up.
3. Dragon Well, rare Chinese green tea, quite refreshing This is actually already on my list of teas to try.
4. Genmaicha, green tea with toasted rice, a traditional japanese creation I love Genmaicha!
5. Earl Grey, black tea with oil of bergamot oranges, a classic blend Well, duh.
6. Pu-erh, highly aged China black tea, has an earthy, woody aroma, a bit of an acquired taste This is a new one to me.
7. Silver Needles, very very rare white tea, delicate, extremely light flavor, like hot water with a mere suggestion of tea in it Also new - sounds like I'd love it. And what a beautiful name!
8. Darjeeling, a lighter- bodied black tea, famous for its first and second flushes Again with the well, duh.
9. Ceylon, traditional black tea from Sri Lanka, very full, well-balanced tea Once in a while.
10. Chamomile (herbal blend), medicinal taste, good before bed I hated this until recently.
11. Lapsang Souchong, chinese black tea smoked over pine embers Mmmm - but I have to be in the mood for it.
Not bad. And the quiz serves a purpose, rather than just entertainment.
Summer Films
Whoever designed Halle Berry's costume for Catwoman should be shot. It's absolutely dreadful. The acting looks pretty horrendous, too. This is one movie I certainly won't be seeing this summer.
And oh, look at that: only two weeks until Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban comes out. When did that happen?
May 19, 2004
Today's word count: 2,904 Total
Today's word count: 2,904
Total word count: 22,583
That brings the manuscript to two-sevenths complete. Woo-hoo! And today's words also bring me to two-fifths of my weekly 10K goal. Another 4K gets me there, as well as to 26K of manuscript, which is one-third of the contracted total.
And in other news, my contracts were returned to sender yet again. This is amusing, and yet not amusing. I'm becoming used to the idea that I'm not going to see this advance for a while. Good thing I didn't wait until the contract had been signed to begin writing. That would have been a pretty pickle of mackerel.
Van Helsing review
You know, I'd really been looking forward to this film, mostly for the shlock factor. I walked out of the theatre completely neutral towards it. Story threads were clumsily handled; I never reached a point where I sympathised with any of the characters, heroic or villainous; and the pacing seemed off somehow. I didn't care about anyone during the final fight scene, but then, CG beating the tar out of CG usually doesn't grab me.
Two hours of Kate Beckinsale's costumes, and Hugh Jackman in a long coat and hat with flowing hair did a lot to offset my lack of involvement, though. Mmm.
I've heard a friend described the film as everyone being in a campy B movie except for Hugh Jackman who was in an action flick, but I disagree. Van Helsing seemed bemused by pretty much everything, and relied on his skills as a mercenary for the Church to get him through every situation. He was as one-dimensional as Dracula was, sticking to what he knew without exploring any alternatives.
It wasn't as good as Sommer's The Mummy Returns, and that's what I was really hoping for. The banter just wasn't there, nor were the charming characters. The awkward set-up for further exploration of the story was just that - an awkward set-up, as opposed to a mystery. And where the heck do they go from here? They're already eliminated Hyde, Dracula, Dr Frankenstein, and the Wolfman. Van Helsing versus Lestat, now there's an interesting pairing. Especially Lestat after all his theological evolution. It will never happen, of course.
Overall, it was a diversion on a rainy Tuesday, but I've forgotten most of it already. With Van Helsing out of the way, though, I can focus on getting excited about Troy.
May 17, 2004
Dear Cat, Recently, you have
Dear Cat,
Recently, you have begun to bring mice into the house. It seems to me that perhaps, when we first praised you for this activity, we didn't make it perfectly clear that the praise was due, in the most part, to the fact that the mouse in question was actually dead. Bringing live prey into the house, only to drop them and chase them half-assedly around the lounge, while we, The Humans, shut doors, move furniture and floor-things, and even pick you up and put you in the same corner as the mouse while you stare fixedly at the place the mouse was, like, five minutes ago - that's not good.
In future, either:
a) bring dead prey (rodent, not bird) into the garage, only, and place on doormat
b) refrain from bringing any other form of prey into the house or garage
c) if a prey-creature "suddenly comes alive again" (whatever!) when you are bringing it inside, pay attention to where it is, and rectify the situation as rapidly as possible.
Regards,
Rosie
(found over at Slightly Bewildered)
Today's Word Total: 3,256 Total
Today's Word Total: 3,256
Total Word Count: 19,679
Yes, that's a quarter of the manuscript officially complete. Not bad for a day's work. (Okay, it was three hours, but don't tell.)
I feel rather accomplished. There is chocolate in my future.
From Skippy, on reaching Scarlet
From Skippy, on reaching Scarlet who isn't near a phone or computer:
"IM her through the group mind."
Well, if you've done any group mind work, you'll find it funny, anyway...
Beautiful Music
A glorious concert last night! I had a wonderful time, which is just as important as the audience enjoying themselves. The church had beautiful acoustics. One never knows what to expect when one plays in a new venue; and it stuns me how so many similarly-structured churches can have such wildly varying acoustic qualities. This one is one of the best I've played in so far. The sound was full, well-rounded and rich. The orchestra really pulled together to create two wonderfully moody and ambient pieces, Grieg's "Evening in the Mountains" and Delius' impressionistic "On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring." I'd been worried about them, mainly because our conductor was disappointed with how we'd played the Grieg in dress rehearsal, and because the Delius was so very different froma nything we'd played before that everyone was having trouble wrapping their minds around the rhythm and melody. The two Mozart pieces which opened and closed the programme were tight and snappy. Overall I was remarkably pleased with how well I played, too. It's always rewarding to appreciate one's own performance as well as the overall product. Apart from a slightly sharp first violin, and the shaky fugue in the final movement of the Mozart symphony, it was one of the most technically sound concerts we've ever presented.
While waiting for our call to go in, I had the opportunity to chat with two other cellists about the programme and our dwindling audience base. I'm of the opinion that our first conductor and founder did a lot of networking on a personal level and pulled people in that way, as since his death our audiences have slowly ebbed. My fellow celli think that it also has something to do with the oddness of the programmes we offer: the music is either too hard, and our performance is less than stellar, which doesn't encourage people to come back; or the selections are not well-known. I'm all for a balanced programme of familiar favourites and new pieces -- while the Mozart symphony was probably the piece that drew audience members, the Delius, for example, was something the orchestra had never heard, which pretty much confirmed that 99.9% of the audience hadn't either; but it was beautiful, I'm glad to have learned it, and I hope the audience appreciated hearing a new piece as well.
I know that I resist gearing up and heading out to orchestra quite a bit, and having played three times in the past five days I wish we could rehearse twice a week. It's easier to stay in the swing of things that way. The more I play, the more I want to play. And hey, we'd be even better with twice as much practice. After all, I'm fairly certain that most of the orchestra doesn't practice at home either. Damn it all, if I'm this good playing only once a week, if I practiced, I'd be spectacular.
It occured to me as we stood for our applause after the Strauss last night that as of mid-July, I will have been playing cello for nine years. That's between a quarter and a third of my life.
Many, many thanks to my four guests who came out to hear us play, and to poor Ceri as well, who showed up with her classical music guidebook but had to go home with an evil migraine. I'll lend you my rehearsal CD, Ceri, and you can pretend you're there. I'd play you my parts but without everything else they sound rather odd.
May 16, 2004
Fresh spring strawberries -- food
Fresh spring strawberries -- food of the gods.
Breakfast should not taste this good.
May 14, 2004
This is priceless: Neil Gaiman's
This is priceless: Neil Gaiman's Endless as sock puppets.
And you can actually tell which one is which.
GGS-ZOOM Mk2 is fully operative!
GGS-ZOOM Mk2 is fully operative!
So is Firefox. Go figure, but Blogger seems to like Firefox better than it liked Opera. Huh. Whatever.
Now I'm downloading Thunderbird to give it a whirl, because I don't have a backup of Eudora (it was on the corrupted backup disc along with all my other programs) and I'll be damned if I'll use Outlook in any form.
Skippy is my current hero. I have to keep reminding myself that he likes doing this sort of thing, kind of like how I didn't mind editing Scarlet's theses and project papers. It's what we do for friends.
Update: Oh yeah -- Thunderbird rocks, although Firefox is still the coolest. Whee!
May 13, 2004
Book Update
As of this afternoon's writing jam, the manuscript word count stands at 16,423. That means it's just under one-fifth complete (or, if you're Ceri, one over 4.871217).
The day's total stands at 2,955 words, which is the best so far on this project. (It's not a personal best; I hit 5K one day while working on a November novel.) I almost want to sit down and write forty-five words just so I can say I hit 3K, but I did that already to hit 2.5K, and frankly, I'm tired of thinking about spellcrafting this afternoon. I think I'll finish the new Caroline Stevermer while waiting for HRH to get home instead.
Catechism For A Witch's Child
- J.L. Stanley
(found via Margie's Brigid's Hearth: Pagan Parenting page)
- Read more of J.L. Stanley's Labyrinth Poems
A phrase such as "tea
A phrase such as "tea strong enough to trot a mouse on" is absolutely delicious. I positively adore Caroline Stevermer's writing style.
A mouse would drown in my tea post-haste, I'm afraid.
Orchestra was wonderful! There will
Orchestra was wonderful! There will only be five celli for the concert - and no, the obnoxious oblivious boy isn't one of them. Dress rehearsal in Saturday morning, and the concert itself is Sunday night at 7.30. I know, it's rather soon; because I missed two weeks of rehearsal due to illness, the idea that the concert was still two weeks away was knocking about in my mind. It was a bit of a surprise to me to realise it was four days away, too.
Date: Sunday May 16, 2004
Time: 19.30
Admission: 10$
Address: Valois United Church, 70 Belmont Ave, Pointe-Claire
Mapquest, for those with autos or friends with autos who may be bribed with a ticket and a coffee
STCUM bus from Lionel-Groulx Metro
The Mozart symphony alone is worth the price of admission, but the whole programme is a wonderful treat. I'm really looking forward to it.
May 12, 2004
Plagiarism Update
For everyone who's outraged in general, and worried about the extent of the plagiarism in this book in particular, including Bev and Margie (what a lovely surprise to hear from you, Margie!): in-house editors are indeed further combing the manuscript for suspicious material other than the chunk I caught. The author may have plagiarised from his own work, but one never knows about the rest.
I poked about the fabric district with Ceri this afternoon. So many ideas, so little time and money. Besides, I had to buy a motherboard instead of a new sewing machine.
I'm off to orchestra. I might have a new computer when I get back. I'm not counting my chicks, but I'm being optimistic.
May 11, 2004
Today's word count: 2,472 Total
Today's word count: 2,472
Total word count: 13,516
Evidently I had a lot to say about the topic of ethics. This was a terrific day, and I'm not even counting the bibliography listings I added (which would have bumped me over the 2.5K mark, but which would have been ethically questionable).
It's hard to believe that I'm just over one-sixth done.
Well, that helps the mind-mess;
Well, that helps the mind-mess; turns out that there was a miscommunication within my writing group, and things have been set back to Thursday.
Until next week, that is, when Wednesday becomes our new meeting day. Sigh.
Depth Perception
I'm all messed up week-wise. All morning I've been thinking it's Wednesday, because I went into the bookstore yesterday instead of today on Tuesday, my usual day. However, the writing jam has been switched from Thursday to Tuesday (possibly temporarily due to yet more schedule changes), which is today - or so my calendar tells me. My brain is struggling to maintain the Wednesday-day-after-work truth simultaneously with the Thursday-writing-jam-day truth, along with the Tuesday-according-to-the-calendar truth. It's very sad, but I think I'm getting a headache from trying to figure out what day it is.
The solution is probably to stop thinking altogether and go check on the laundry.
I really, really ought to
I really, really ought to remember to open the windows in here more often. I discovered a warm, fresh-smelling world when I went out to pick up laundry detergent at the corner. Now that they're open, the place feels more awake and relaxed. And the entire caboodle of kittens are now squished into the open windows, pressing as close to the fascinating new smells of the Great Outdoors as they possibly can.
What Kind of Writer Are You?
I'm not a big quiz person, but when I saw this on Sapph's LJ I just had to find out.
No surprise to anyone who knows my writing or my reading tastes, I'm sure. It amused me.
May 07, 2004
Ta-Da!
Welcome to the grand unveiling of the official Owls' Court banner!
Many thanks and effusive compliments go to my big brother and talented artist Talyesin, the professional who constructed this work of art for me and all the little owls. They are quite chuffed, and keep loading the page to see the images of themselves appear.
The Solution
The solution:
1. We cut most of the offending material, as it's non-essential.
2. We cite the other book the author published the information in, for the bits we keep.
3. The author never works with us again.
I've put too much work into it to cancel the project, so I'm fine with this. We have to recoup the time and money we've put in somehow, and publication's the only way to do it. The manuscript is in galleys now, which is usually the point of no return; you can edit for punctuation or spelling errors, or remove something, but you can't add anything. Galleys are also known as proofs, and they're the final step before publication. They show you what the layout of the final book is going to be, and it's the last chance you have to catch errors.
Thank the Goddess I caught this one before it was too late.
I have a feeling this author's agent has received a nasty eye-opener concerning her client. I don't know what the fallout will be, but we reap what we sow, so I'll leave it up to them to work it out. Interestingly enough, the same agent represents the other author we've been working with on the second book, and that's been sailing along so beautifully that the agent has a unique opportunity to compare and contrast the two situations. The only variable has been the author; the editing team is the same. The agent can draw her own conclusions.
An editor is supposed to be "a partner, not a critic" according to Richard Webster (author of How to Write for the New Age Market), but by this point I don't feel that this is a partnership at all; I feel like we've been doing most of the work. I know that there are authors out there who hand in substandard work and expect the editing team to polish it for them, and I find this attitude intolerable. I can't know this author's attitude throughout this process, but the lack of response to the first set of requests for rewrites and now this previously published material issue don't do much for my confidence. A reader wants to trust the author. The editor helps that happen by making the material as accessible and as interesting as possible. Technically our goal is the same: to create a strong, positive product. So why do I feel so let down?
Everyone slips from time to time. This author claims that the material was a placeholder, that he meant to pull it out and rewrite it, and forgot, and he's terribly embarrassed. Every single author I know is busy and overloaded with work of various sorts. There are authors out there who write books to pay the bills. This author had two projects that overlapped, and identical material ended up in both. I just happened to browse through the one that got published first. Whatever. It might be true, it might not. It's just further proof to me that this author doesn't really care about his readers. It also suggests that he doesn't respect his subject, either, which as a reader upsets me.
I keep trying to like humanity, I really do. And then something like this happens, and I get all dejected and wonder if anyone's honest at all.
It seems to be sunny today. I might wander downtown to clear my brain.
May 06, 2004
Book Update
As of the end of today's writing jam, I am officially just over 1/7th done this book. My day's total included 1,756 words and an hour of math; I'm working on planetary hours. My most important tip, garnered from years of pain and strife: just reduce everything to minutes right away, and save yourself unnecessary grief by using the 24 hour clock.
One-seventh done. Wow. I'm in awe.
My word count currently rests at 11,006 and for some reason, I find this incredibly amusing.
Rick and Evy Go To Sleepy Hollow
Oh look - it's HRH and Autumn's next Hallowe'en costumes:
"Are you kidding?" said t!, who brought over the soundtrack today (and who called it "Rick and Evy go to Sleepy Hollow"). "You guys dress like that every day. Where's the fun in that?"
(Hey, wow - it's rated PG-13 for "non-stop creature action violence and frightening images, and for sensuality." How's that for a night out?)
Since You Asked...
Since people seem to think my odd hobby has some coolness to it, I'm about to throw caution and my shyness to the wind and share my first project. Here's a couple of pics of the Yule gift I gave to our local cougar:
The OOAK Morrighan Barbie wears a hand-made black linen skirt with two full-length slits in the front, laced shut at the front of the hips with copper floss. Her hand-dyed black halter top with mesh sleeves ties at the back. Woven into her left front braid is a pewter feather; another pewter feather is laced with copper floss to her hand-painted spear, along with a black crow feather. On her right hand lands a hand-made raven, wings held wide. Around her waist is tied a hand-tinted miniature of the recipient's Craft tradition third-degree cords.
And a decent look at the feather cloak which rests on the Morrighan's shoulders, designed to look like two folded raven wings:
I was really pleased with how the whole doll presents an air of alert motion and activity. For any OOAK fans who stumble across this post as a result of a search engine and who need to know, the Morrighan was created from a Kayla Secret Spells doll, and her face was not repainted: I managed to find one off the shelf who had a perfect disdainful yet amused I-can-see-into-your-soul look on her face that I wanted, without any touch-ups required.
The next doll I'm customising is very different from the active and alert Morrighan, however; I'm trying for a softer, dreamier look. And then there are the three dolls I have sitting to the left of my desk, who are destined to become a shadowbox scene of the three aspects of the goddess Brid: muse, smith, and healer. None of them require repainting, thank goodness, only creating original costumes from the sketches and colour notes I have in my notebook. (Yes, yes, fine: the dolls are Batik Princess, TRU Charity Ball 1997, and Grand Entrance 2 respectively. Happy, fellow OOAKers?)
There. More than I ever thought I'd let anyone know about this hobby. Hey, it's costuming in miniature: saves money, saves time, and the result isn't just worn once then hung in a closet.
Six years ago, when I
Six years ago, when I gave my energetic cats a bedtime treat of a sprinkle of kibble with a spoonful of warm St. John's Wort tea dribbled over it, I was alternately laughed at and accused of drugging my cats so I could sleep.
CatFancy magazine recommends chamomile to soothe your feline pals into a relaxed evening, allowing you a night of rest.
Nyah.
Contracts, Deja Vu, and The Return of the Zombie Manuscript
I've been all over the place this week. From the heights of confidence to the depths of despair, from anxiety attacks to listless not-caring, I've seen it all. And it's only Thursday morning.
While I made dinner and he washed the dishes, I asked HRH if he thought it was my body reacting to a reduction in the dosage of medication I've been on for a while and thus I was overreacting (let's hear it for hormones!), or if things were understandably wonky in my life. He pointed out that while the medication adjustment probably wasn't helping, not only was I writing a book to deadline for the first time ever, I was teaching, preparing for a concert in two weeks, dealing with the Zombie Manuscript from Hell (now with Shifty Author!), suffering from a lack of sunlight, and had struggled through three colds in succession. He's also of the opinion that losing my computer has thrown me harder than I think it has. (This is probably true, although it's oddly liberating at the same time. Of course, I've lost all record of log-in info for my website, but that can be remedied by contacting my host and telling them that I'm an idiot and forgot to write things down.)
You know what's really gnawing at me about the Zombie Manuscript From Hell? The fact that I'd finally reached a point where I was confident about it. I was happy with it, proud to have my name on it as editor. I was confident that it was a solid, saleable product with excellent information delivered in a sophisticated and accessible fashion to the intermediate practitioner.
Of course the info is good. The author had already published it elsewhere.
Argh.
I have no idea where this leaves us. This was supposed to be the lead title to launch the series. Part of me wants to punish the incredible dishonesty of the author by cancelling the book. We've put so much time, money, and work into it, though, that we can't. Think of all the rewrites, repeated edits, more rewrites we've done. Another option is to do an emergency rewrite on the pages and pages of plagiarised information. I certainly wouldn't trust the author to do it, so I would likely do it instead, which puts the screws on my own book written for my own deadline.
I shouldn't worry about this until I've heard what the company's legal recommendation is. I'm creating more stress, which I really don't need.
The contracts for my book, which were mailed out April 14 but still hadn't arrived as of yesterday, apparently ended up Returned to Sender because of a mistype on the address label, so they're being mailed back to me today (and yes, the address has been corrected). It's frustrating, because half my fee is disbursed upon signing. That means when they get the signed contract back, it goes into the 4-6 week bureaucratic process before the cheque is issued and mailed to me. It's now delayed by an extra three weeks, which means I'll get it mid- to late June. Then the bank will hang onto it for a month, which means I'll finally have that money mid- to late July. The second half of my fee is issued upon delivery of the manuscript, which is due July 1. When you do the math, that means I'll be handing the dratted thing in before I see a penny. Mind you, it also means that I'll have the second cheque finally landing in my account mid- to late August, which is nice to count on. And sometime between now and midsummer I'll see my editor's fee for the first and second books in the series.
On top of it all, I'm restless, but I don't want to go out. Just call me an enigma.
May 05, 2004
Secret Project
Some of you know I've taken to costuming fashion dolls, after my stunning success of creating a Morrigan Barbie for a certain cougar last Yule. At the moment I have rough sketches and a few nekkid Barbies in a box, upon whom I've been practicing my painting skills to further customise them.
My second secret project is now well under way. Tal saw it last week, and when I said I was in the midst of repainting the eyes, he said, "No you aren't," which was incredibly satisfying because it meant he couldn't tell the difference. What once was a purple-eyed Barbie showing her little white teeth in a plastic smile is now a dreamy green-eyed lass with a demure close-mouthed smile. I'll let her finish drying and then varnish the paintwork to seal it. Then, ah then, I costume.
I checked the prices of sewing machines at Sears this afternoon; the mid-range model with fourteen stitches and a hard case is $249 on sale till Saturday. Hmm.
Painting and blending the exact shade of natural lip colour was precisely what I needed after alternately wanting to cry and tear things to shreds this afternoon. Writing a severe memo regarding the plagiarism issue made me want to shake the author until teeth flew out of his head. I can't write in this mood, but apparently I can paint.
Absolut Anger
Guess who just discovered an extensive case of plagiarism?
Lord of the Rings CD
Lord of the Rings CD Specials
Howard Shore, the composer for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, has announced that the soundtrack from the films will be released on a nine-CD set. The first eight will include the soundtrack from the films with the ninth CD containing previously unreleased music.
That means approximately two and a third CDs of music per film. Just think of all that delicious music we heard in the theatre that wasn't on the albums, and of the new music scored for the extended release DVD sets! And an extra CD of music that didn't end up being used, too? Oh, it's too much happiness...
Howard Shore was interviewed back in 2001 and mentioned that the album releases were condensed from the longer musical cues in the films. Those of us who listen to music closely in films know this. To be able to hear the entire musical story from start to finish, with all its developments and revisitations of motifs and themes, is going to be an incredible gift.
(via the SF Site News. Anyone have a release date?)
UPDATE: Here's the original exclusive interview Shore did with Empire. A snip: “The plan is that we would feature all of the music in the theatrical cuts of the films," said Shore, talking exclusively to Empire. "Currently, two discs for [the first], three each for [the second and third films] and a ninth disc of rarities with host of rare, unreleased music from the films with commentary from me.” Looks like there's also to be a two-disc release of the symphonic version of the LOTR music Shore's been touring about the globe. As for a release date, all we know is "next year."
Turns out that it was
Turns out that it was the motherboard that fried when Skippy wired the old hard drive in to transfer my marooned data. We're looking at Tuesday as the ETA for the new one, complete with new power supply, processor, and RAM.
Get this: the power supply will be red. How cool is that? It goes perfectly with the new system's registry, which is GGS-ZOOM.
May 04, 2004
Good Intentions
I woke up with every intention of having a wonderful day, and bit by bit it trickled away from me. My cold got worse, I had to deal with a frustrating phone call which involved an elderly gentleman assuming I had taken over a project I'd never been asked to handle, and I only got 1K done on the book when I thought I'd done at least 2K. That last was really the kicker. There are times when I think that what I know wouldn't fill up even 30K of this book, which is inversely proportional to how I feel when I'm teaching this subject in a live workshop.
I also missed last night's improv workshop t! whipped up for actor friends because my voice kept cutting out and I couldn't stop coughing, which annoyed me because I don't get the chance to do theatre any more. HRH persuaded me to go out for a nice long walk after dinner and took me to the Dairy Queen for ice cream, which was just fine by me. We bought more cold medication on the way home too.
Last night's dreams were an odd blend of orchestra rehearsing in church basements (courtesy of theatre-associated thoughts, most likely); large sedate toy/department stores which sold beautiful aquariums near large displays of Harry Potter books; Virginia Woolf memorabilia which transported me to being VW as a child when I held it or put it on; fish chained in the aquariums so they couldn't get out; grocery shopping during the break at orchestra, and not being able to get back in time because I was driving in the sun on the West Island and the car clock was wrong. My dreams have been quite vivid lately. What they mean is anyone's guess. What on earth do second violins trying to sit with the cellos have to do with VW, or me showing my dad the chained fish crawling out of the aquariums?
Well, well; the radio news is reporting that according to StatsCan, if you make it to your fifth year of marriage, you're more likely to stick it out in the long run. I take it that the statistics indicate most contemporary marriages dissolve in the first four years. Evidently HRH and I have about four months to save ourselves from a lifetime of loving companionship and intelligent conversation.
Now that our bills are paid and we have groceries, I intend to pick up the new Diana Krall album on my way into the store today. I am determined to be in a good mood, or at least in a better mood than yesterday. I think I'll pick up the VW biography I put down a few months ago too.
May 03, 2004
See, it's never that easy.
See, it's never that easy.
The professional update on my computer woes is here. I'm on my laptop until they're resolved.
May 01, 2004
Okay, to absolutely everyone who
Okay, to absolutely everyone who knew this except me (and apparently that includes our entire circle of friends):
HRH managed to keep it a secret until eight o'clock this morning. My beautiful Beltaine gift is now above the fireplace.
Now I have the dress, and the sword. If I wasn't a geek before, I certainly am now.