Friday, February 29, 2008

Friday, February 29, 2008
Waning Moon
Saturn Retrograde
Sunny and cold
Leap Year Day!

The scumbags backed off yesterday, but are back today in force. So, I guess today they learn what “no negotiation” means when someone isn’t bluffing.

Admin work, some writing, some sorting out the tangled story strands in my head. It will be almost impossible to work at home for the next few weeks, yet I have to be here in order to keep the scumbags in check. Not fun at all. So I’m getting up ridiculously early in the morning to get in a couple of hours of writing before the chaos starts. I’m hoping with headphones, I’ll be able to edit in the afternoons, or, at least, read.

Day by day, people. Day by day.

Really annoyed with the last few books I’ve read for the essay – content I can take notes on and use in the essay. But the carelessness in the presentation – don’t they bother to edit this person’s books? Or, at the very least, copyedit? I understand typos in ARCS. But to have the amount of typos in a hardcover book by a bestseller author from a major publisher is simply a slap in the face to the readers. I’m not blaming the author – I’m blaming the publishing house. It comes across as they know people will buy it, so they don’t have to bother keeping up their end of the deal and putting out a clean book.

Good morning’s work on Old-Fashioned Detective Work. Decent morning’s work on the scif-fi horror novella. I get to present my vision of what all these morons injecting poison into themselves for cosmetic reasons will look like in twenty years – the consequences. It’s also a section where I need to tell part of the story rather than show it, because it could be its own story, and that derails the entire piece. It’s a flashback, because the event that happened in the past is the catalyst for this piece. But I don’t want to dwell on it. Enough sensory detail so one experiences it, but not so much time spent on it you forget the purpose of the novella. Challenging, but worth it.

My life will be full of Medusa all weekend – have to finish the revision and also make the synopsis and outline sparkle, so that everything is ready and it’s ready to travel out in the world – no matter what the person with the partial decides.

Colin kindly pointed out I had a typo in my email yesterday. If you want the printer, contact me at devon at devonellingtonwork.com.

Pardon me while I deal with some scumbags.

Devon

Old-Fashioned Detective Work – 20, 141 words out of est. 25,000

Devon’s Bookstore:

5 in 10: Create 5 Short Stories in Ten Weeks by Devon Ellington. This ebooklet takes you from inspiration to writing to revision to marketing. By the end of ten weeks, you will have either 5 short stories or a good chunk of a novella complete. And it’s only 50 cents, USD. Here.

Writing Rituals: Ideas to Support Creativity by Cerridwen Iris Shea. This ebooklet contains several rituals to help you start writing, get you through writer’s block, and help send your work on its way. It’s only 39 cents USD. (Note: Cerridwen Iris Shea is one of the six names under which I publish). Here.

Full Circle: An Ars Concordia Anthology. Edited by Colin Galbraith. This is a collection of short stories, poems, and other pieces by a writers’ group of which I am a member. My story is “Pauvre Bob”, set at Arlington Race Track in Illinois. You can download it free here: