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By Ellie, August 30, 2010 10:51 pm

It nagged me like an insufferable employer. Begged me like a love-starved child. And I gave in.

Despite all my resistance and reasoning, I couldn’t ignore my doorstop novel. I started editing the first part today. I’m work-whipped. What can I say? Maybe now that I’m working on it again, I’ll soon stop writing random notes for extra scenes, details, and dialogue. I’ve just about filled the shoebox I scrounged up for all these notes; what’s more frightening is that I could possibly fit them all into the second draft. The trick is trying to make this draft no longer than 150K words. insert derisive laughter here

I’ll return to Manuscript #2 soon enough. Maybe I’ll save it for the weekends or late night projects (when the Webcomic hasn’t begged for attention). But something tells me that I have to keep working on Manuscript #1 until it’s ready to be shopped around. And if a project has bugged me for this long, I like to think that it means something.

Sorry for the short post this time, but my brain’s been focused more on the whirlwind of violent air formally known as Earl. It’s like having one of my flatulent long-lost relatives announce that he’s coming by for a day or two. I’m dreading it, preparing for it, and can’t think of anything else besides the potential damage that might result and what to take with us in case of evacuation.

Dammit, one of these days, I will relocate to a hurricane-free zone.

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By Ellie, July 26, 2010 8:18 am

No post today, folks. Today, I’m getting two teeth drilled and filled, and I doubt I’ll have the desire to write anything, even my own novel. So check in Wednesday where I’ll reveal the results of my clothing research. Exciting!

Bwuh. I don’t want to do this…

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By Ellie, July 12, 2010 3:44 pm

It’s a shame when I have to abandon a book. Last week’s orphan was A Wizard of Mars, the ninth book in the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane. Maybe it’s because it’s a continuation of the eighth book, wherein the characters learn something about the planet Mars. Maybe it’s because I’m something of a traditionalist when it comes to fantasy and can’t marry “hard science” with wizardry. (I have no issues with steampunk, though.) But I think it mostly had to do with the fact that I’d gone through 90 pages of the ARC and I still wasn’t into the action. Dragging, infodumping, dragging, infodumping…

I don’t care how charming the characters are. If I have to go through hundreds of pages before seeing even a glimmer of genuine action, I’m dropping the book.

Maybe I’ll attempt to read the series from the first book. But that’s not going to happen any time soon.

But onto the book I finished…

Blue Mountain Trouble by Martin Mordecai (ARC)

Began: July 7, 2010
Finished: July 11, 2010

Wow. Part-coming of age, part-mystery, all-punch, this book should belong in everyone’s home library.

There wasn’t a single flat person to be found in the varied cast. Pollyread and Jackson, the eleven-year-old twins, are soulful and wise in their young ways. I loved to watch them interact with each other and other people, learning more about themselves as individuals while finding ways to unravel the overarching mystery of an unwanted guest squatting on their family’s land.

The biggest and most pleasant surprise is the Jamaican patois that gives the story vibrant color and makes it feel alive. You can almost hear all the characters speaking as if they’re right in front of you, arguing, debating, telling stories. It’s so lyrical and absorbing.

I was disappointed when I finished. I wasn’t ready to leave Top Valley and its people. Here’s hoping that Mordecai revisits Pollyread and Jackso with plenty more stories to last a generation.

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By Ellie, November 16, 2009 6:43 pm

So I said that I was going to make up for not posting a few times. Obviously, that never happened. Do I have more excuses? Of course I do! Wanna hear ‘em?

We had a helluva nor’easter on Wednesday and Thursday. Surprisingly, the power never went out, but I was reluctant to work on the computer for too long. But my laptop did suffer some non-storm-related damage.

See, I have–or had–a habit of placing my iPod earbuds on the laptop keyboard when I’m not using them. At one point, I forgot that I’d put them there and lowered the lid. Naturally, my action was met with some resistance, and my memory kicked in. “Oh, wait. I put my earbuds there.” But my husband decided to try his hand at closing the lid the whole way…

So now I have a cracked screen. My laptop is still usable, but there’s a black splotch at the lower left corner, accentuated by a cracked glass effect. The bottom of the screen is striped gray from the taskbar, which I had to move up just to access my programs, and since I couldn’t see the taskbar, I had to guess where it was so I could stretch it upwards. That was a fun 10 minutes.

I shudder to think how much it’s going to cost to get a replacement screen. I’d do it myself, but I don’t really know what kind of screen I have, and I’m not confident in my hardware skills. I’d probably fry my motherboard.

Then on Wednesday, my husband came home early from work with a little surprise for me:

This is Rain, a stray kitten he found in the warehouse. (As you can guess, her name came from the nasty storm.) She was found with another kitten, who’s on his way to finding a good home. We’re guessing that Rain is 4-5 weeks old; her eyes are still a little cross-eyed, as are all tiny kittens’ eyes. But she’s learned how to use a litter box, eat solid food, and lap up water. Still, caring for a kitten is a lot of work, especially when there are a lot of objects that aren’t exactly kitten-safe. I’ve been cutting up mat board from my graphic design/college days to build a barrier for the bed (anyone with cats knows that if a cat gets under the bed, he or she will stay under there for hours).

And since Kevin is allergic to cats, I’ve been busy cleaning the room. It’ll be an ongoing chore, of course, but there was a lot that I needed to do in order to make a large part of the room walkable, kitten-proof, and Kevin-and-cat-friendly.

So that’s what I’ve been doing for the past several days. I’ve also been thinking about how to run this site. Updating Mondays and Fridays sounds like a good idea–wait! I’ve been saying that I’ll update, but I never do. Okay, let’s try something else…

I will not update Mondays and Fridays. Mondays will not see posts about the publishing industry, books I’ve read and liked or hated, or random thoughts on authors and books. On Fridays, I will not write about writing or story ideas. I will let this site fall into obscurity yet again. I will fail at running a site! I will not resume regular posting this Friday, with thoughts on the NaNoWriMo and what I plan on doing with my current project!

That oughta do it…

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By Ellie, November 9, 2009 2:48 am

I said I was going to update a second time last week to make up for the one week with no posts. My original intent was posting a short but (hopefully) thoughtful entry on Friday. But guess what happened?

I went shopping and lost my earring.

Working in a casual customer service environment nevertheless requires one to dress nice, and since I’m sorely lacking in a variety of biz-casual outfits, I figured that I should pick out a few shirts. (By the way, feel free to spread biz-casual around and make it a new entry in the American English lexicon. I’d like to invent at least one odd word for the dictionaries of the future. That is, if biz-casual isn’t already in the lexicon.)

I try to limit myself to an hour when finding and trying out clothes. Finding shirts that look good and not at all old ladyish (a common problem on the clearance racks in JC Penney) can take 20 minutes. But once I try on the pieces, I know which ones are going into my closet. But it also depends on how fat my checking account is, of course.

My dad had called earlier to let me know that he and my stepmom were in the area. They’d come up to attend a friend’s retirement party and wanted to see when we could all get together for dinner. I missed that call, but was going to get back with him after getting out of the store. My stepmom called while I was trying on clothes and Kevin answered my phone. (Yes, he does hold my purse. But it’s a Swiss Gear travel pack, so his masculinity remains intact.)

When we left the store, I called both my dad and stepmom, but got no answer from either phone. We decided to hang out in the mall for a bit and give them a chance to call back. We live 30 minutes from the “city,” so it’s not like we can jump in the car and head out at any time. Every trip to and from the city has to count.

I called again and got a hold of my dad. Five minutes of chatting and struggling with restaurant choices later, we decided to wait until the next day to decide. So Kevin and I went to Taco Bell for dinner.

A few minutes after sitting down, I realized that I was missing my earring. One phone call to the women’s department verified my hunch that I’d lost it in the dressing room. Fifteen minutes later, it was back on my ear, and I was on my way to the gas station to fill up my car. About 30 minutes later, I was finally home.

After all that, I didn’t feel like writing, so I decided to save it for Saturday. Which didn’t happen, either. For one, it was National Bookstore Day, which entailed a “buy one, get one half-off” sale, and we also had an American Girl Party with 16 hyperactive girls. After the day was over and I returned the coffee to the local coffee house, I was ready for a nice meal with my dad, stepmom, and husband.

I didn’t feel like writing after the long day, either. Not even a paragraph.

But I’m up for it tomorrow. Might be a short entry, but at least it’s a Monday post.