Shadow the Cat: HEY! WHERE ARE YOU?!

Me: I’m in here.

Shadow: *scratch-scratch* WHY IS THIS DOOR CLOSED?

Me: I’m busy.

Shadow: LET ME IN!

Me: No.  I’m in the bathroom.

Shadow: *scratch-scratch* COME ON! LET ME IN!

Me: No! Go away.

Shadow: I NEED TO GET IN THERE!

Me: No, you don’t.

Shadow: *scratch-scratch* OMG! LET ME IN!

Me: *sigh* No.

Shadow: PLEASE LET ME IN! *scratch-scratch*

Me: Fine. *opens door*

Shadow: *RACES IN!*

Me: *shuts door*

Shadow: *looks, paces around in a circle, faces the door* *scratch-scratch* Let me out!

Me: *sigh*

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I doodle. You doodle too, I know you do. Here’s one of mine:

This is actually from a comic book cover.  I totally screwed up the face (if you compared it to the comic, you’d see what I mean), but I think the tux / body turned out okay…

~P

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I was listening to the extraordinary, Campbell Award Nominated Mighty Mur Lafferty on I Should Be Writing (yes, I listen, even after I’ve produced an episode for her), and she was talking about the Hugo Awards.

As you may (or may not) know, I’m Nominated for a 2012 Hugo for the SFSignal.com podcast, along with a bunch of other wonderful podcasts.

In her comments, Mur mentioned something that made me pause.  You don’t have to go to WorldCon to vote for the Hugo Awards.  Which is great, because not everyone can afford such a trip.  I was thinking about one of my friends here in the Denver-area.  He and his wife have two young kids, which makes traveling both fun and expensive.  There’s probably lots of other folks who are in similar situations and simply can’t afford the money a WorldCon trip costs.  And that’s not even taking into consideration the folks in other countries and what those trips cost.

Anyway, back to the voting thing.  There’s a $50 supporting membership.

A Supporting Membership includes all of the rights and privileges of an attending membership except the right to attend Chicon 7. You can always upgrade your membership from Supporting to Attending by paying the difference between the “New Supporting” and “New Attending” membership rates in force at the time of conversion. If you voted in the 2012 Worldcon Site Selection election at AussieCon 4, you are automatically a Supporting member of Chicon 7 as a result of paying your voting fee.

So, that’s cool, right?  Well, it gets even better.

For $50, you receive a supporting membership, you can vote for the Hugo’s AND, you receive the 2012 Hugo Packet.

Wait, what now?

That’s right – the 2012 Hugo Nominee Packet.  What’s that, you ask?  Well, all the nominees, including SFSignal.com, were contacted and asked to provide, if they could, a digital copy of their nominated work.  In the case of SFSignal.com, John DeNardo and I put together an eBook with two weeks worth of posts from the nominated timeframe.  We also provided links to the podcast itself.

So for your $50 Supporting Membership, Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention, will present you with the 2012 Hugo Nominee Packet, an electronic package of nominated works graciously made available to voters by nominees and their publishers.  That means nominated novels, short stories, magazines, fanzines, etc. and so on.

How freaking cool is that?

This year’s packet will be launched on Wednesday May 16, 2012 (HINT-HINT), and will remain available until the close of the Final Ballot on July 31, 2012, over on the Chicon7 website.

SO!  If you can’t go, you can still vote AND get tons of nominated content.

Why are you still here?  Go get your Supporting Membership.  Sheesh.

~P

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Continuing the photos from the set taken along Guanella Pass Scenic Byway, Elevation 11,669 feet.  Starting in Grant on U.S. 285, the 24-mile stretch of bumpy dirt road / pass runs to Georgetown off I-70

This one surprised me.

Driving along, when suddenly I see the words ‘SANTA MARIA’ out of the corner of my eye, spread out on a hillside.  This I had to get a better look at.  Only I really couldn’t get much closer (lots of ‘private property’ signs).  So I did the best I could and snapped this shot:

Click to see a much larger version

When I returned home, I looked it up.  Turns out, it’s a YMCA Camp!

Welcome to YMCA of Boulder Valley Camp Santa Maria. Camp Santa Maria is an overnight resident camp serving campers ages 6-17. In addition, we offer Family Programs, Group Rentals, and Getaway Weekends during the spring and fall.

The YMCA of Boulder Valley has offered residential camp experiences to campers for the past ten years. Over the past six years, YMCA of Boulder Valley has worked with the Mary M. Dower Benevolent Corporation, a non-profit family foundation, to create a partnership that allows the YMCA to manage Camp Santa Maria. YMCA of Boulder Valley Camp Santa Maria opened in the spring of 2007. The YMCA of Boulder Valley and the Mary M. Dower Benevolent Corporation share the common goal of providing camp and recreational opportunities for all youth. Our hope is that this partnership will provide the opportunity for campers to share their camp experience and traditions with future generations of their family.

Huh.  I had no idea it was there, but you can’t miss that hillside…

~P

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I doodle. You doodle too, I know you do. Here’s one of mine:

The Key Master?

I do a lot of superhero-types.  I don’t know why.  This one is.. uh.. The Key Master?  Apparently.  There’s a key and a heyhole on his chest.  Don’t see that often.  I don’t know what the other guy is all about.  Maybe the Key Master is haunted by the spirit of the screamy guy from the Edvard Munch paintings.

~P

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Random Thoughts for Tuesday, May 8th, 2012

/begin random thoughts

*sneezes*

* * *

“I don’t blog as often or consistently as Patrick.”  I don’t blog, really.  I sort of cheat…

* * *

I accidentally beat Batman: Arkham City.  I DIDN’T MEAN TO DO IT! I ONLY HAD 28% OF THE GAME COMPLETED!

(yes, you can ‘beat’ the game with only 28% done, apparently.  I did the ‘main’ storyline.)

* * *

Babaganoush sounds like some Russian Mythological Creature.

* * *

Turns out, a brewery with a public area for folks to sit, drink and socialize, doesn’t serve any soft drinks.  Odd for a self-described ‘family friendly’ establishment. O_o

* * *

“If you do not behave yourself, Babaganoush shall come and TAKE YOU AWAY!”

* * *

“Oh No!  Babaganoush Attacks!”

“Quick!  Everyone!  Take up your pita bread!”

“I’ve got flaming falafels!”

*stares*  “You’re just embarrassing yourself.”

* * *

*awkward silence*

* * *

/end random thoughts

~P

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(I’m using the Mac version of Scrivener, v 2.2)

I’ve talked about Project Targets before, and Outlines & Synopses and the different View Modes.  One thing about the Outline Mode has bugged me.  A lot.

Here’s my Sample Project we’ve seen before.  Note that I’m in Outline Mode:

Because I have Chapter 1 selected in the Binder, I’m looking at the Outline for the Scenes/Scrivenings inside that Chapter in an Outline.  Each Scene has its own Synopsis/Title, Label, Status, Word Target and Progress Bar.  BUT WHAT THE HELL FEEDS THE WORD TARGET AND PROGRESS BAR?!

I have torn Scrivener apart trying to figure this out.  When you set your Project Targets, even if you tell it to calculate word counts based on a deadline, it doesn’t feed this spot.  And when you’re in Outline Mode, these areas aren’t editable. And I couldn’t find how to set these when looking through the Scrivener Manual!

I had about given up when I noticed something while doing last week’s Bottom Toolbar post.  When I had an individual Scene selected in the Binder, the Bottom Toolbar changed, displaying this icon in the right corner (before the Inspector):

When I clicked it, I got this:

Sure enough, this sets the Target for the individual Scenes and displays them in the Outline Mode:

Whew!  That was really bugging me.

Oh, and these Word Count Target’s don’t seem to feed the Project Targets.  It’s just for you, as the writer, to have as a sort of ‘at a glance’ thing.  Once you set a target, your Bottom Bar changes to give you a Goal Bar:

Cool, huh?

More Scrivener Quick Tips are coming – watch for them!

Don’t have Scrivener?  You can try it free here (no, I don’t get paid for pointing you at them!).

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Continuing the photos from the set taken along Guanella Pass Scenic Byway, a 24-mile stretch of bumpy dirt road running from Grant on U.S. 285 to Georgetown off I-70.  Elevation: 11,669-feet.

I wonder, sometimes, about fantasy novels.  I enjoy fantasy, especially epic fantasy novels.  A lot of times, they involve moving cross country – sometimes small groups or individuals, picking their way through the wilderness while being pursued, or whole armies marching off to war.  We know this kind of thing actually happened throughout history, but I don’t think we understand just how difficult moving cross country can be.

For example, imagine you had to move across this:

Imagine the challenges such a crossing would present.  I know authors can’t bog their readers down with details, you have to find that fine line between realistic portrayal and entertaining prose, but, still – there’s a reason we have a pass, a trail or a road.  Someone (or something – like local wildlife), have found the ‘easiest’ way to get from point A to point B.  Having a character running through the wilderness or up a mountain, just doesn’t work.

Picking my way up this particular hill, I was able to get past the trees in the foreground and to the base of those evergreens, but no farther.  I just couldn’t see a way up.  It was A) too steep, B) thick with underbrush and trees, and C) covered in snow and ice.

Just something to think about for your next, epic story…

~P

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It’s been a long time since my last Writing Journal (50 days).

I’ve started and stopped several new journal posts in that time.  I can make excuses about why I haven’t journaled, including the whole unemployment thing, but really it comes down to my mood overall.  I haven’t been in a great mood, and that translated into my not having much to talk about writing-wise because I haven’t done much writing-wise.

News: My agent continues to put my books out there, which is awesome.  But that process takes time, so nothing really to report there.

Space Battles is live, so you can read my short story, First Contact, in the pages of that anthology.  A Full TOC is available over on SFSignal.com.

On Writing: After writing a novel, I think your brain needs a break.  Or my brain does.  I did all the editing I needed to do and then I sort of didn’t want to write for a bit.  So I didn’t.  I played some video games, caught up on some tv, did some reading, that sort of thing.

Even though I need a break between big projects, it doesn’t take long before my brain starts itching.  Essentially, it’s like I’m goofing off when I need to be working, and that bugs me.  Unfortunately, I’m not working a dayjob right now (the whole unemployment thing), so my schedule is off.  I used to write everyday no matter what.  Here lately, with ‘plenty of time to write’, I’ve actually written less.  A lot less.  Which isn’t normal and is probably what’s making my brain itch.

So one night, I get this idea in my head.  I keep a text document open for just such occasions – a running list of story ideas that I hope to write someday – and I quickly typed it out.  That should have been the end of it.  I keep that text doc so sexy new ideas don’t distract me from what I’m actually writing at the moment.  Only I wasn’t writing, so the sexy idea wouldn’t leave me alone.

I found myself researching stuff and adding paragraphs to the idea.  Before I knew it, I had a new Scrivener project going and started writing.  4k words later, I had the decent makings of a short story – just without an ending.  So the story is sitting there, waiting for an ending.  Maybe it’ll come to me soon, maybe it’ll be later, or much later, before the ending reveals itself to me.

(Hints: Pennsylvania, Post Civil War, Iroquois, Mythology, French and Indian War)

This dovetailed into my revisiting some past stories to see if there was anything worth working on.  I played around with a couple different stories but didn’t really land on anything.  One thing I was putting off, was the outline for Book 3.  My agent wants this, so I must do it.

Outlining, as I’ve said before, is hard for me.  I outlined Book 2, and I did find it easier to write the book, until I realized I was off from the outline (Chapter X became 2 chapters, and then the next Chapter was massively long, and needed to be split into three, and then it snowballed from there).  So for the second half of Book 2, I went in a different direction versus what I’d outlined, and I really like it, much better than the original idea.

Excerpt of something I've written recently (hinted at above)

As easy as Book 2′s outline was to write (I just chuckled, because I think, at the time I was writing it, I was probably bitching about how hard it was, and have totally blocked that out now), Book 3 has been killing me.  I do have a finished version, but I am already thinking that when I start writing the book, things will change.

But that’s okay – Brent Weeks told me I could veer from the outline if necessary.  (I’m totally telling people that if anyone says, “Hey!  That’s not how you outlined the story!”)

Having finished the outline, I am giving myself a few days to digest it before sending it to the agent.  (Always a good idea with anything you write)

Between finishing up Book 1, and starting to write the first draft of Book 2, I went through a similar time of restless non-writing.  It’s as if, I am so focused on getting the story written, that when it’s over, when I’m done, I go into enhanced-non-focused mode.  I have sat down to write, telling myself I need to get words on the page, only to spend the next hour trolling the news or clearing my RSS subscriptions, watching YouTube videos, etc.

I think this will continue until I either start writing Book 3, or I write one of the other books I have in the queue (My Space Opera, or the ultimate rewrite of Evermist I’ve wanted to do, for example).

…or Gandhi: Vampire Hunter.

~P

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I doodle. You doodle too, I know you do. Here’s one of mine:

I am Locutus, of can opener…  I mean, seriously – I was trying to draw like, a tube, but it looks more like the piece of the can opener you turn to open the can…

Sigh.

~P

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