Shannon

So that stupid scene that was giving me so much trouble the other day: I basically junked it and rewrote it as crudely as I could, with the characters just SAYING what they had to say to each other, just blah blah blah. Trying not to put in anything smooth or fancy, no easing of […]

I realized some (smallish, but important) things that needed to be tweaked in the Big Backstory of the Nightcraft universe, which necessitated changing pieces of a few scenes in chapters 1 and 2. So I did that. Then I started writing the new scene that needs to go at the front of chapter 3 (while

I am trying to stay mindful and keep appreciating the really astonishing run of good weather we’ve been having here in Portland. I mean, really, week after week after week of warm (but not hot), sunny, pleasant days and decently cool nights. It’s easy to start taking it for granted. But not yesterday. I joined

I’ve gotten to the end of chapter 2 in my edit of Queen and Tower. I’ve written a ton of words and deleted a ton of words; often these were different words. Sometimes not. 🙂 I do believe these chapters are WAY better than what came before. I’m almost exactly 10% of the way through.

I probably don’t have to say anything more than the title: either you get it or you don’t. 🙂 But I will say: if I survive this process, Queen and Tower is going to be magnificent. ____________ Tonight I took the evening off and went to the SFWA reading series, first having a lovely dinner

So yesterday we did a thing, which was this huge bike ride I told you about, except I didn’t even mention how INCREDIBLY AWESOMELY FUN it was, because I had no idea! But now I do. So (this is the bad part) we got up at 6am, and got out of the house by 7,

Oh goodness I am proud of all I got done today. Did Ashtanga yoga; moved furniture around, dusted, organized, situated; vacuumed; laundry; a touch of yardwork; several hours of proofreading; made, consumed, cleaned up after three healthy meals; talked to my mom on the phone; found a book that had been lost for months; AND,

Busy busy! Chores and errands, freelance work, a swim (YAY), and some furniture shopping…I am the proud owner of one more barrister’s bookcase, courtesy of an actually-they-really-mean-it-this-time going out of business antique store. Also, I made progress on my Queen and Tower edits; it’s going slowly but well. I do hope the pace picks up…eventually…

Book Report: How I Spent My Evening: As you may know, Mark is an illustrator. And lately he has been doing rather a lot of book covers, which is totally fun. (some of them are for me! one of which I will be showing you Very Soon!) But at the moment, he’s doing one for

Wow, every time I try to write nonfiction, I appreciate why it pays so much better than fiction. I tried to write a couple of paragraphs of marketing-copy today (not as dull as it sounds: it’s the back cover blurb for Witches, Stitches, and Bitches), and DAMN that’s hard. Took me two hours to come