tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65892262815429512002026-04-06T19:15:22.237-04:00Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.comBlogger691125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-72501939284103441432023-10-09T15:06:00.001-04:002023-10-09T15:06:00.153-04:00

I had to cut a scene I really liked from A Mixed--Up Mashup in which I used a lamppost, a la Narnia, as a portal through time and space. It just really didn't work. This solitary, oddly ornate specimen always reminds me of it. Here is the scene. I'll think of it every time I walk by. Elinor and Marianne Dashwood had only just arrived in London that morning and established themselves as part

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-85837422959041370562023-10-02T12:58:00.004-04:002023-10-02T15:09:43.773-04:00

I'm chugging along on a Mixed-up Mashup, though I do wish I could come up with a better title. Anyway, I figured it was time to think a bit about cover art, and it seemed only appropriate that this story have a cover that is AI generated. I had a lot of fun playing with Dall-e. Most of the results were atrocious, and hilarious, but I finally found something I felt worked. Thought I'd share the

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-38748429181976744222023-09-25T09:07:00.000-04:002023-09-25T09:07:15.773-04:00

I'm making progress! It's slow, but it's also almost steady. Best of all, I'm actually enjoying it, not just forcing myself to write. Whoa, that feels good.I'm starting to expect that this next draft will be considerably shorter than the previous one. There's a whole lot of hacking going on.I'm now posting the story at A Happy Assembly. Comments are super motivating, so please, if you're

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-17647726611319273202023-09-15T05:12:00.015-04:002023-09-15T05:19:21.137-04:00

"Though you have given me unlimited powers concerning your sprig, I cannot determine what to do about it, and shall therefore in this and in every other future letter continue to ask your farther directions. We have been to the cheap shop, and very cheap we found it, but there are only flowers made there, no fruit; and as I could get four or five very pretty sprigs of the former for the same

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-60671114429188224202023-09-08T03:53:00.004-04:002023-09-08T03:55:34.972-04:00

So this was kind of interesting. I tried prompting Bard with the questions I'm asking its fictionalized version in the book, providing no context. I definitely think I can use some of this language in the novel, especially as it comes at a part where I want to be hitting a brick wall in my interactions with it. Check it out here: How did you do it Bard?.I also hit a big problem in my attempt to

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-45806901695558311992023-09-04T07:34:00.003-04:002023-09-08T03:48:55.450-04:00

I've written a new forward to the story, placing the entire thing within the context of AI overreach. I've started a new conversation with Bard to focus just on this idea. Check it out here: I'm writing a novel in which you are a character, Bard.I'm posting the entire new forward below. It's still very rough, but easier to read on this page than in the generated link. I also shared it with Bard

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-82743619190961400412023-08-31T04:18:00.004-04:002023-08-31T04:18:30.702-04:00

So I didn't label two and one. Schade. They're the last two posts. I ran into an interesting (and really reassuring) snag. I asked Bard a series of questions about the chart composed previously. Its programming has been updated now to make it clear that the chart was an example of how I might structure such a thing. Bard can't do it for me. Unfortunately, this only became clear after trying

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-60604790253683019932023-08-24T12:15:00.000-04:002023-08-24T12:15:05.889-04:00

So I've ran into a bit of a problem. As this is recorded as an ongoing conversation with Bard, it just keeps adding to the link. I can't figure out how to just post the most recent conversation. To follow, at least for now, you will have to scroll down to the most recent part. Here't the link: Chapter One: In the Rose GardenI had a stress dream last night. I was a bride's maid in a friends

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-3099295474992523112023-08-22T06:38:00.001-04:002023-08-22T06:38:10.509-04:00

I will never forget how much my AP history teacher mocked President Harding for coining the term "normalcy," but it is a term I find very useful in recent years. Through overseas moves, babies, and a pandemic, I've had multiple moments when I've sighed a breath of relief and thought that now, finally, we were returning to normalcy. Yet each time, some new upheaval comes along to derail that

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-19280935351379766522023-01-23T06:00:00.019-05:002023-01-23T06:56:20.541-05:00

Happy New Year! I'm off to a slow writing start in 2023, but I am on it, and editing has begun on my NaNoWriMo manuscript of Lizzy through the Looking-glass, a continuation of Darcy in Wonderland. I am going to be very honest with you. I have tried in the past to keep my works apolitical, unwilling to alienate the large percentage of my readers who possess ideological views in stark contrast to

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-86635135386251687662022-11-29T12:47:00.003-05:002022-11-29T12:48:18.026-05:00

Ich bin fertig! 50,677 words. Hallellujah! 

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-15224989738054073432022-11-21T06:00:00.002-05:002022-11-21T06:47:32.165-05:00

Hello friends! Just a quick post to acknowledge that I am on target, for the first time in three years, to actually complete NaNoWriMo! I'm having a lot of fun with the story and feeling a joy in (and fixation on) writing that has eluded me since the pandemic began. What a relief! Current word count = 34,628. 😅Back to it. Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating this week. We're doing it up Swiss

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-31739332859407596892022-11-07T06:00:00.001-05:002022-11-07T06:00:00.165-05:00

So, I'm writing. That's the good news. Not what I planned to write. On the eve of November, new inspiration hit, and instead of working (again) on Tales of Less Pride and Prejudice, I began a sequel to Darcy in Wonderland, the long planned Lizzy through the Looking-glass, premised loosely upon recent events in my eldest child's dynamic development. I'm making steady progress, which is great! The

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-35831161439925058102022-10-17T06:00:00.001-04:002022-10-17T06:00:00.161-04:00

 [Mrs. Ferrars'] complexion was sallow; and her features small, without beauty, and naturally without expression; but a lucky contraction of the brow had rescued her countenance from the disgrace of insipidity, by giving it the strong characters of pride and ill nature. - Sense and SensibilityHalfway through fall break. Daydreams of writing have failed to materialize into anything

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-88804393237367156412022-10-10T06:00:00.037-04:002022-10-10T09:03:03.573-04:00

I am still catching up on processing and sharing thoughts and impressions from our visit to the United States last summer. One episode I was anxious to share involved an activity I have very rarely engaged in: going to church.I am far more familiar with synagogues, having been raised jewish, but I have occasionally attended church services, and not just for funerals and weddings. I like observing

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-56406975177996464922022-10-03T06:00:00.002-04:002022-10-03T06:00:00.152-04:00

I don't know where September went. All my good intentions for getting back into strong writing habits led me nowhere, and next week is already fall break for my kids. I really want to finish A Mixed-Up Mashup as a Twisted Austen piece (it's conceptually different from the other stories, but totally twisted, so I think it fits), and prep for NaNoWriMo next month, when maybe (maybe!) I might

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-38359930390902489492022-09-12T06:00:00.001-04:002022-10-03T04:22:22.457-04:00

Mother Ann LeeWe did not get to do much sightseeing while visiting the US this summer. After three years away, we were almost entirely focused on just spending time with family. This makes me kind of sad because my children are unfamiliar with so many places I took for granted growing up, especially being from Philadelphia, so seeped in US history. I was pleased we squeezed in a trip to Baltimore

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-55358832228620681032022-08-29T06:00:00.003-04:002022-08-29T06:00:00.160-04:00

Note: this is a repost from my "purged" materials, originally appearing on another blog in early October 2015, shortly before that year's JASNA AGM. I share it again now having recently revisited Pleasant Hill. I will share my updated impressions next week. Please enjoy.Aerial view of Pleasant Hill‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be freeTis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-80899469091322099892022-08-22T06:00:00.006-04:002022-08-23T04:06:22.689-04:00

Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds in Persuasion, 1995"If you had been a week later at Lisbon, last spring, Frederick, you would have been asked to give a passage to Lady Mary Grierson and her daughters.""Should I? I am glad I was not a week later then."The Admiral abused him for his want of gallantry. He defended himself; though professing that he would never willingly admit any ladies on board a

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-29833147048259262122022-05-02T06:00:00.009-04:002022-05-06T04:50:26.923-04:00

Hannah More, NPG, LondonI was in Florence last week. Firenze ... you've changed, but you're still the same. I couldn't visit in the manor I'd truly wished, being subject to the whims and needs of a family party (we were together for the first time since the pandemic began!), but I did indulge myself by rereading A Room with a View while there and with some truly wonderful shopping. 

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-56114714138109452382022-03-21T07:00:00.005-04:002022-03-21T07:00:00.156-04:00

Watercollor by C.E. Brock, mollands.net"Come, Miss Morland, let us leave him to meditate over our faults in the utmost propriety of diction, while we praise Udolpho in whatever terms we like best. It is a most interesting work. You are fond of that kind of reading?""To say the truth, I do not much like any other.""Indeed!""That is, I can read poetry and plays, and things of that sort, and do not

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-67783042422090375852022-02-21T06:00:00.003-05:002022-02-22T01:16:38.232-05:00

We just returned from what has become an annual ski vacation. I even skied this time, for the first time, I believe, since 1985. It went ... ok I guess? I'm even considering trying it again next year, but this time I must insist on a proper instructor, not my husband and daughter.We were at the same resort two years ago, when COVID was just hitting the news. Having had a lifelong fear of

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-72330310023702504302022-01-31T06:00:00.031-05:002022-01-31T10:52:29.741-05:00

I must not allow this blog to fall back into neglect. It will not do. I cannot have struggled in vein to bring it back to some semblance of life. The thought is intolerable.How often I imagine how very different Austen's life (and, subsequently, my own) would have been if she had maintained her very short engagement to Harris Bigg-Wither. Could she have found a way to maintain a household and

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-59068645757026876812022-01-12T04:55:00.006-05:002022-01-12T04:55:43.486-05:00

Happy New Year! When I last wrote, I was full of hope for 2022. Unfortunately, the year got off to a very disappointing start, as my family succumbed to COVID. I almost wrote finally succumbed. There was a definite sense of inevitability as it dawned on me, through heavy brain fog, what it was that ailed me. Today is the family's first day out of isolation, and I'm trying to get my head back on

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6589226281542951200.post-20111809424685232362021-12-20T06:00:00.001-05:002021-12-20T06:00:00.156-05:00

This will be my last post of the year. I give myself time off to completely indulge in the joys of the season. First I'd like to offer my The Madness of Mr. Darcy continuation, Mr. Darcy's Christmas Present, for free Kindle download. The promotion will begin tomorrow and end on the 25th. Merry Christmas!I had grand ambitions of writing a new Christmas story or poem parody, as I used to in days of

Alexa Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086472405632748174noreply@blogger.com0