Life Has Been Good To Me

3rd Rock From the Sun was one of those shows I always thought was under-appreciated in its time. And my all-time favorite episode was the one where they learned to dream. Here's my favorite number:



And honestly, can't we all just see Axel dressed in a zoot suit dancing around like this?

Things that make me smile

Just dropping by to show off yet another musical smile-inducer. I wish I had an ounce of this boy's talent.

I was a teenage Wolfrider

Y’know how sometimes, something just keeps popping up into your conversations. And it’s from all different sources, so it’s not like it’s all you, or that anyone planned it. Just one thing keeps reminding you of its existence, over and over and over. Persistent little bugger.

Well, that’s how ElfQuest has been for me, this past week. Seems like, no matter where I turn, someone is mentioning it. And it’s not even people I knew were fans! We’re wider spread than I ever imagined.

So today, we’re talking about ElfQuest! Now, the majority of you are probably thinking “What?” So lemme explain. No, there is too much. Lemme sum up.

Once upon a time, this husband and wife team (Wendy and Richard Pini) dreamed up this nifty little comic. It was about elves and wolves and trolls. They put it out in black and white, then in color, then in graphic novel form. There were anthologies, telling stories of all the chiefs who came before Cutter. (My personal favorite story from the second of that series was one called "Summer Tag" by Allen L. Wold. That book is long gone, sadly, but I remember it so well.) There have been spin offs, and RPGs, and board games (which I have, never fear). There were pewter figurines to be painted. (Of which I have two sets. Unpainted) There has been talk of movies, of Saturday morning cartoons, and every time those fall by the wayside, we all felt a little sadder.

I was probably…oh…seven? Eight?...when I discovered EQ. I distinctly remember the day. I was out with my grandmother, in Woolworths (yes, my town still had one at that point) and on their little rotating comic rack, I spotted this cover with a pointy-eared blond fellow, on wolfback, apparently kidnapping this dark-skinned beauty and threatening another fellow with a sword. (This would be the "Raid at Sorrow's End" issue, for those who would recognize it) It looked so freakin' awesome!!! And because my grandmother spoiled me rotten, I got it.



I never missed an issue after that. All the way through the fight for the palace, every time a new one came out, I'd snatch it up and go hide in my room, re-reading them all over and over again. (And yes, I was still pretty young when the infamous "orgy" scene was printed. No, I didn't notice anything amiss)

Did I mention that I was a really lonely kid? I mean, we didn't even have any neighbors with kids (within bike-riding distance) until I was in fourth grade. I had 50 acres of forest, and an overactive imagination. ElfQuest was PERFECT for me. I was a WOLFRIDER!

I can't tell you how many hours I spent running around in the woods, usually dressed in some bizarre homemade costumes, always armed with my very real skinning knife and bow. I built my own Holt. (sort of) I knew my own soulname. (oh come on, you did it too) To this day, I can recite the chief's lineage from Timmain, all the way down to Ember.

The Wolfriders shaped a good deal of my childhood, and even now I'm sure my friends would tell you that's where I got my very "pack-oriented" mentality. I can tell you which of my friends would belong to which tribes. (Hubby is a Go-Back, through and through. Best friend, probably one of the Sunfolk. Kiddo's a Wolfrider, like me)

Now,I have...well, pretty much every ElfQuest thing you could imagine, though not nearly all the things that were put out at its height. I hope to get my daughter into it, someday. But for those who don't have access to the comics/graphic novels (long out of print, I'm afraid), the Pinis have graciously put EVERY SINGLE ISSUE up online. For free. Seriously.

And now that I've lost the last hour in reading old EQ issues instead of hunting up pictures for this post like I was supposed to be... Oi. It's addictive.

Because of my exposure to ElfQuest, I've fanatically followed Wendy Pini's work. I have both of her Beauty & The Beast graphic novels (y'know, from the old TV show, yet another of my obsessions). I ate up every installment of her Masque of the Red Death (Not kid safe, folks). I'm not the only major fan. Recently, someone released a fan trailer, a live-action imagining of what a movie might look like. (I was pleased to note that I could name every character there, though not all of them existed at the same time in canon)

I have several fondest wishes revolving around my EQ love. First and foremost would be an EQ movie. Cartoon, live action, whatever, just don't screw it up. Second would be an online MMORPG based on EQ. GODS I would love to see that. And third, and it's one of my worst-kept secrets... One day, I would love to have Wendy Pini do the graphic novel of Muse. And since Muse is still on my list to rewrite, later this year, that one's truly a wish only. But it would freakin' ROCK.

And since I know you're all wondering... Nightfall was my favorite. No magic, but fierce and loyal as hell.
























But Strongbow was the hottest.

I feel a nap coming on

Short post for Friday, 'cause...well, the subject says it all.

For two days in a row, I got 1200 words down on Project 3. This resulted in a finished chapter 15, and a HUGE chunk done on chapter 16. It'll be interesting to see if I can get to 50K by next Friday, but hey, anything is possible.

Came home to a full manuscript request (the first 3 chapters went in the initial query) from a source I wasn't expecting. I mean, I DID query them, so I was expecting SOMEthing, but I didn't know they'd ask for it. You know what I meant. Sheesh.

Hoping to see Mel this weekend, as we christen Gita's new house. Other than that, I intend to be lazy.

Also, as an example of how my brain works (or doesn't work, as the case may be)... In the space of about twenty minutes last night, I managed to come up with an idea for a world/magic system/character class based solely off half of a word glimpsed on a sign in the background of a television commercial. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Gods Bless Beta Readers

In particular, today, bless Theo and Chie. In a matter of an hour or so, they've managed to pinpoint things that are going wrong already in the first few chapters, AND add a new character that's going to add an unbelievable new element to this story. It's so amazing what a fresh pair of eyes can do, as well as people to just listen to me babble, and bounce ideas off of.

And to my utter joy, the problems they've found are easily corrected, and the new character is easily inserted without major rewrites. I am sans child, this weekend, and while hubby is sleeping today, I may rework those first six chapters to add the things needed, then move on with chapter 7. Perhaps, when I see the changes in the flesh so to speak, chapter 7 won't seem nearly so daunting and I can get it underway.

Baby it's COLD outside!

Ok yeah, I should be used to Midwest winters, but every now and then it jumps up and slaps me in the face. Luckily, me and my Explorer can go anywhere, so while everyone else was spinning their tires on hills this morning, kiddo and I got to the daycare and bus stop just fine.

I've finished another major addition to Project 2 that I am REALLY happy with. (Thanks to Auggy for the idea, and Theo for helping me flesh it out in my head) Now, I'm idly perusing through the manuscript to see where things are a bit sparse. There's one particular chapter ending that I've sicced my betas on, because I hated it when I first wrote it, I hated it when I revised it, and I STILL hate it. So hopefully, one of them will help me get a fresh look at a solution.

Slowly but surely, my word count creeps up. I figure, if I can hit 70K words, I'll be content. (not happy, but at least content)

And where does it all come from?

While my unbelievably saint-like betas have project 2 yet AGAIN, I've been pondering which project I want to work on next. And Theo has suggested that I chat a little about where I get my inspirations.

And honestly, I get inspirations in weird places. For example, take project 5 (which isn't even listed, because right now it's only a premise, not a plot). The sole inspiration for that one came from a song by Loreena McKinnett titled "Stolen Child". (which, in turn, was originally a poem by William Butler Yeats)

The now defunct project one also took its inspiration from song, in this case, "Seven Deadly Sins" by Flogging Molly. I heard the word "avarice" in the lyrics and thought, y'know, that'd make a great name for a pirate ship, and it went from there.

I find inspiration in random comments from friends (Gita made some flip comment once that grew into an idea about two patients in a mental hospital and...never wrote it, but it was a cool idea). I dreamed up an entire world once, because there was a mist across my college quad one night that was just downright eerie.

There are times when I just sit and try to think of things I haven't seen before. A new take on an old standard, or something just totally bizarre and off the wall. Could I make it work? Who knows? I just like the brainstorming.

Anything can be an inspiration. A dream, a shadow, a certain tree in your back yard. (the sycamore out there right now is giving me a look, I just know it is)

Sometimes, it makes me dream up a person, and then I have to figure out where they belong. Sometimes, it gives birth to an entire world, and then I have to figure out who lives there. Either way, I love my random inspirations, and I've learned to write them down. Not only the idea, but what sparked the idea. With a photographic memory, I can usually revisit that moment as often as I want, to get the feel of that moment again. I may not use it right now. I may not use it ever. But I'll always have it, in case the perfect occasion presents itself.

The Research, it is strange...

In preparation for two new projects, I have been making a list of things to research. Included on this list is:

Greek gods
Steampunk
Royal Canadian Mounted Police

These things don't necessarily belong to the same project (well, ok, the first two do, but the third is for its own thing). But I do find some amusement in the varied state of my interests. Gita, my medical consultant, gets questions ranging from "How would a pre-technological society drain fluid off the lungs" to "what easily obtainable narcotic can be dissolved in juice and be strong enough to kill a small human?" I have also given her the challenge of deciding how many ribs can feasibly be removed before complications ensue (but that question was for someone else's book, not my own)

At any rate, I made a ton of notes and a loose outline today for yet ANOTHER new project to be completed sometime in the future. That brings my total to 2 new projects, 1 abandoned project to pick up later, and 1 sequel to my current project (which is still in the editing phases)

Theo's very close to having his notes to me. I think he's enjoyed this. And Kat says I am free to bribe her with chocolate and/or books to read for me again in the future. This makes me happy. (because if I sucked, she wouldn't wanna read for me. See the logic there?)

Inspiration

comes at bizarre times.

Last night, just before drifting to sleep (I do my best creating then), I realized a very simple way to expand on a certain scene in the book. I was just tickled pink with myself, and so today I wrote that replacement scene and took a 500 word scene to almost 1400 words. Yay!

Theo is working harder on his beta-reading comments for the book than I think he does for his school work. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing them.

The holiday weekend was all right, if you ignore the fact that I came down with the plague Wednesday night, and I'm only starting to feel truly human today. In fact, Friday passed in a comatose blur, and the hubby did a remarkable job of stepping up to run the house/kiddo without me.

Friday night is my birthday. (you don't need to know which one. Suffice it to say that centennial quarters have special meaning for me) I doubt we're doing anything then, but my mother may be doing the birthday lunch thing Saturday, then Gita may swing by for a repeat performance on Sunday. Needless to say, I don't intend to get much writing done this weekend, and that's ok.

The plot bunnies are stalking me

Well ok, plot bunnies and dust bunnies. The little bastards have teamed up.

My brain is frying with all the things I'm trying to keep in it, at the moment. I'm slogging through chapter three revisions at the moment, and I just wasn't happy with what I was coming up with. I mean, there were certain elements I knew I wanted to introduce in that chapter that I'd missed in the first draft, but when I stuck them in, I lost the narrator's voice. So I was all bummed about that most of the afternoon.

Then, on the bus ride home (let's hear it for public transportation!), I had a realization. I have plot. I have sub plot. What I need to introduce is meta plot! See, I confess, I am eyeing this project to be the first in a series. Doesn't everyone want to write a series? This doesn't HAVE to be a series. It's a rather pleasant little tale on its own. But...if the characters happened to show up again, I have plans for them! And, one of those plans is an overall meta-plot. And I can start laying subtle groundwork for it now!

And I promise that there will be nothing at the end of this book that would cause a reader to gnash their teeth and froth at the mouth if there were never a sequel. Cross my heart.

So, my word for the day is meta-plot, and I may spend my three day weekend pondering that.

Status: Tweaked chapter 2, and added about 900 words to chapter 3.

And Lo

there was a deluge.

Dunno where it comes from, but sometimes, so many great things just come to me. On the bus ride here, I have managed to mentally rewrite another section of this first chapter, and fill in some blanks in a later chapter that were bothering me. In the first chapter, especially, the small additional paragraph or two I've dreamed up should help me dispose of probably four paragraphs of info-spew (and be much more entertaining, to boot!).

It's official, I am rewriting, not editing, but it is SO going to rock! I'm not changing the story, per se, but I do seem to be finding ways to make events play out with more plausibility. I'm also fleshing out characters that were really one-dimensional before, and they're starting to serve functions I hadn't planned on (but desperately needed).

I have to wonder, if I had started this rewrite weeks ago, instead of trying to press on and finish the book as it was, how much frustration I could have saved myself.

Inspiration

I love riding the bus to work. I don't have to concentrate on the traffic, and it gives me time to get lost inside the convoluted world of my mind.

This morning, I was struck with inspiration for the third plot element I've been dying to add to this new WIP. Even better, the groundwork was already in place in the chapters I have written, and I didn't even realize it! (sometimes, I think my characters just need to hit me with a clue bat, I might get the point faster)

Sadly, this weekend has been devoted to a social life (both mine, and the kiddo's) so I doubt I'll get much done. I'm hoping I can dash out a bunch today while I'm here at the Real Job (tm) before it all leaks out of my head and dissipates on the wind.

And speaking of the Real Job (tm)... I was watching an interesting discussion on the Absolute Write forums about whether or not people told their co-workers that they are writers. And the overwhelming majority most vehemently do not. Now, I intend to tell every single person I know, if I get published, and to publish under my real name. The only reason I can think not to would be if I ever branched into writing erotica (which I've seriously thought about), in which case I'd probably publish those under a pen name. But still, it was an interesting discussion.