Monthly Archives: February 2010
Better
| February 23, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Bone Walker |
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Back to Bone Walker exclusively tonight, just because that’s where the words seemed to want to go. Still working on the fight scene between Christopher, Kendis, and the nogitsune, and figuring out how to choreograph the actions so that a) they all move farther along the trail to the north, and b) Melisanda has an opportunity to show up and help them drive off the last of the nogitsune. Not quite there yet but at least there was more than a page’s worth of progress tonight.
I kind of want to push for 500 words tonight, but on the other hand, I need to go to bed. And also, I think it’ll actually encourage me more to write tomorrow if I can maintain this feeling of “more writing needs doing!” It’s all about the pacing myself.
Written tonight: 355
Chapter 7 total: 2,078
Bone Walker total (first draft): 18,812
That's all I got
| February 22, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Bone Walker, Mirror's Gate, Short Pieces |
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When I find myself staring dully and tiredly at the screen and no words are flowing, that’s the signal that it’s time to go to bed. But I did at least make a few words go tonight! And even if about 100 words into each of these things doesn’t seem like much individually, it will at least add up if I keep at it. That’s good advice to keep telling myself.
Let’s see if I can do this again tomorrow.
Bone Walker:
Written tonight: 110
Chapter 7 total: 1,723
Bone Walker total (first draft): 18,457
Mirror’s Gate:
Written tonight: 115
Chapter 1 total: 1,417
Mirror’s Gate total (first draft): 1,417
Untitled short story:
Written tonight: 115
Story total: 615
Finally, some more words
| February 21, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Bone Walker, Mirror's Gate, Shadow of the Rook, Short Pieces |
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I’ve been frustrated enough with my months-long block on regular writing that I figured tonight I should try the multi-novelling trick. That’s helped in the past, and I felt it was long past time to try it again, just for the sake of advancing some pointers on various works on progress. I’ve mentioned before how it’s often helpful for me to just try to do little chunks at a time–and tonight, I was pleased to note that it worked again.
So yeah, a small number of words for Bone Walker, Mirror’s Gate, and Shadow of the Rook out of the novels in progress–and a few more for the as of yet untitled story about my Psychic Chick of Size. Whose name is, by the way, Elizabeth Breckenridge. Her male lead is Ross Taggart, and so far what I know about him is that he’s actually too heavy himself (because if there’s anything as rare as a fat heroine in a fantasy story, it’s an overweight hero) by thirty or forty pounds, and that he’s either a private investigator or a reporter or maybe a blogger. I’m not sure which yet. Waiting to see if anything pops out of my head as I throw words at the story.
And we’ll have to see if I finish it in time to submit it to and for their anthology.
Meanwhile, the word stats:
Bone Walker:
Written tonight: 109
Chapter 7 total: 1,613
Bone Walker total (first draft): 18,347
Mirror’s Gate:
Written tonight: 104
Chapter 1 total: 1,302
Mirror’s Gate total (first draft): 1,302
Shadow of the Rook:
Written tonight: 112
Chapter 2 total: 3,950
Shadow of the Rook total (first draft): 13,378
Untitled short story:
Written tonight: 266
Untitled short story total: 500
Signal boost for fellow authors
| February 21, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Publishing |
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First up, if you like the Jane Austen mashups that’ve been coming out lately, then you’ll probably want to take a look at this! I quite liked Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, so today I finally went down to Third Place Books and ordered me a copy of Mansfield Park and Mummies, by . It’s only available via online purchase or by ordering, so if this sounds like something you’d giggle over, think about ordering your own copy. Vera Nazarian will be very grateful. You can get more details over here.
And while we’re on the topic of authors who need some love, ‘s Amanda Feral series is under threat of nixing due to its sales numbers! If you love you some zombies with a heaping helping of snark, you should get the mass market release of Happy Hour of the Damned, or the forthcoming trade paperback of Battle of the Network Zombies. Click here to Mark’s site for more details.
Cast your votes! The poll is open!
| February 16, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Faerie Blood |
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Okay all, here we go with the official What Should Anna Name Her Nook? poll! Here are the rules:
- If you’re reading this anywhere besides angelakorrati.com, please click through to the original post to cast your vote. As always, I’m putting it on my official site to accommodate non-LJ or LJ-site-like users who don’t have the ability to answer polls in LJ-style sites without being members of them.
- Although this might be self-evident, if you want to vote, do please actually cast your vote in the poll. Votes cast in the comments will not count, and that also goes for votes cast in the comments of any mirrors of the original post.
- All voters may cast up to three votes for their favorite choices.
- The poll will remain open until midnight, March 1st, Pacific/Cascadia time.
- The winner of the poll will be announced on March 1st, and will be given three days to get their contact data to me so that I can arrange to get them their prize! If I don’t hear from the winner in that time frame, I’ll move on to whoever was next in line with the vote count. (However, if that occurs, I retain authorial privilege to keep the original winning name for the Nook if I so prefer.)
And to review the prizes, the winner may have one of three things, their choice:
- Free electronic copies of both Faerie Blood and Defiance, in the format of their choice. I have PDFs of both immediately available, and ePub for Faerie Blood. I can also get copies in Microsoft Reader, Mobipocket, and Sony Reader formats.
- A free print copy of any Drollerie Press book currently available.
- A $25 gift certificate to the Drollerie Press bookstore.
Let’s get to it then, shall we? The poll is behind the fold, and is also now displayed on the sidebar of angelakorrati.com, so you can get to it either way! Make with the voting, y’all!
Last chance to dance
| February 16, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Faerie Blood |
The official poll for What Should Anna Name Her Nook? is going up TONIGHT when I get home from work! So if you want a nomination in, you have until this evening to get it to me! Please drop your nomination comments on this post rather than here. Thanks much and looking forward to seeing the votes come in, folks!
Quick word count update
| February 15, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Mirror's Gate |
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Not much to report on this; this is mostly just me trying to kick myself back into gear yet again and write whatever words I can manage to coax out of my brain! Still in Chapter 1 on Mirror’s Gate, and working on the scene where Yevanya arranges to sell her old house with her half-elven barrister.
Written tonight: 120
Chapter 1 total: 1,198
Mirror’s Gate total (first draft): 1,198
A character in the making
| February 15, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Writing |
I don’t know who this character is yet, but she’s been lurking in my brain for a while now as I’ve thought about how to do an urban fantasy with an overweight woman as the heroine. I don’t even have a name for her, or any real idea yet of what her story is. But these words wanted out of my brain tonight nonetheless.
Right off the bat, the first thought that pops into someone’s head when they see me is oh god, a fat psychic. Not that anybody ever actually says that, but they don’t need to. I can see it in the way eyes go wide and then flick a glance up and down my frame, as if expecting that a woman of what we shall charitably refer to as “size”, a woman who also claims paranormal abilities, isn’t dressed more outrageously–as if perhaps I should be swathed in a leopard-print caftan, with an artfully arranged fruit basket on my head.
Also, hello? Psychic. In my case, that packs a double whammy. I get visions, but I get people’s thoughts too. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, those I meet don’t need to say a word to convey their doubts about me. I can pick them fresh and piping hot right out of their brains. I swear, it’s enough to drive a girl into the warm, loving company of the nearest chocolate cake.
All of which is why, when a man came into my shop on a Thursday afternoon and broadcast not the slightest hint of disdain for either my body type or what the colorfully painted sign by the door proclaimed I could do, I was absolutely thunderstruck.
I’ll see what else I can figure out about her later.
February 2010 Blog Tour!
| February 15, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Blog Tour |
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We’ve had a bit of a hiatus on this, y’all, but as of this month I’m reinstating the Drollerie Blog Tour! This time around, though, we’re doing something different: we’re inviting non-Drollerie authors to come participate, and so for the February round, several of my fellow Drollerie authors and I will be swapping posts with several non-Drollerie authors. I hope to make this a regular thing–so any non-Drollerie authors reading this, if you’d like in on the blog action, do drop me a comment and let me know.
But! This month’s topic, aside from general introductions of various authors, is “best and worst experiences with works in progress”. And this month’s lineup of posts is as follows:
Nora Fleischer is hosting Brandon Bell, with a post right here. Brandon is hosting posts by Sarah Avery and Nora here and here.
Anna Kashina is hosting a post by author Gayleen Froese, here. Gayleen in return is hosting a post by Anna here.
John Rosenman and I are both hosting Hamish MacDonald, a true self-published author. My link for him is here, and John has his version of the post over here. In exchange, Hamish has posts up for both me and John!
Our own David Sklar is exchanging posts with Angelia Sparrow. David’s post on Angelia’s blog is here, and David has Angelia’s post up on his LJ over here.
As always, thanks for reading these posts, y’all, and I highly encourage you to visit all the posts on the tour. Drop comments and say hi, and tell the authors I sent you! We’ll be back again in another month or so, and we hope to expand the scope of where Drollerie authors visit. Watch this space for more details!
(Crossposted between Drollerie Press and angelakorrati.com. Please feel free to comment in either place!)
Still time to get a nomination in
| February 14, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Faerie Blood |
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Y’all have until Tuesday to get me in a nomination for the What Should Anna Name Her Nook? poll! I’ve had a lot of good suggestions, folks, but there’s still room for more.
Can you top ‘Peregrin Nook’? How about ‘Nookronomicon’? Get your ideas in before the official poll opens!
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