I · Cheerfully · Write · Crap

OK, so the website is kind of up and running. The colors are still sucky (and I'm still using a Wordpress template), but you can see it, if you want:

http://www.readalready.com

For the next however long I'm just going to be posting reviews (1 a day) from romancenovel; after that, there will hopefully be new content (well, new book reviews).

If you have any questions about the site, such as "Why does your banner suck so much?" or "Dude! Awesome! But are you going to be the only book reviewer?", feel free either to comment or to send me an email privately.

(Answers: because I haven't found a picture that I like yet, and thanks! hopefully not.)

(x-posted to avengangle)

(Available here.)

I'd never read anything by Cory Doctorow other than BoingBoing.net, and when I found that some of his stuff was available through DailyLit, I thought it was about time to remedy that. Of course, I immediately picked a book that wasn't available via bite-sized emails, but considering that he's got all his works on Project Gutenberg, that was okay. For those who don't know, Doctorow is an award-winning novelist and an activist for internet and anti-DRM related things. If you read one of his books on Project Gutenberg, you'll also be treated to a brief essay on why he does what he does. It's actually quite interesting and includes such lines as, "The worst technology idea since the electrified nipple-clamp is 'Digital Rights Management,' a suite of voodoo products that are supposed to control what you do with information after you lawfully acquire it." (Well, I thought it was funny.) ( Continue reading )

[Yeah, I know. I'll catch up soon. -S.]

This is actually Diana Wynne Jones's first book. I only realized that halfway through when I turned the book over and saw a quote from Publishers Weekly trumpeting this fact. It's barely 200 pages long and, in my edition, has an added bonus of a Reading Group Guide. Nevertheless, it's quite cute. ( Continue reading )

The only thing I know about Chris Abouzeid is that he's male and his last name is a bit awkward to type. (So's the word 'awkward', by the way.) 'Anatopsis', as a word, is also unknown to me; I'm having trouble even finding out what the word means in parts. I've half a mind to email the author and ask him. However, the book is a children's fantasy novel that I read recently. ( Continue reading )

I was going to post a review of Charles de Lint's latest today, but then I found out that Madeleine L'Engle has died, and I thought I'd review my favorite of her books as a tribute. ( Continue reading )

Madeleine L'Engle wrote some of the most amazing books of my childhood and adolescence, and although she'd been ill for several years, her loss reverberates through the world of literature.

“When you see this, post a little weensy excerpt from as many random works-in-progress as you can find lying around. Who knows? Maybe inspiration will burst forth and do something, um, inspiration-y."'

I've only got 2 on this computer, but I'll give you parts of both of them.

The first one is from an experimentation with tropes from Regency-era romance novels. If it were to be a completed work, it would be a novella or longish short story.

( Excerpt 1 )

The second is from a short story that I'm having issues with.

( Excerpt 2 )

Enjoy or despair of those as you like.

How To Get A Book Published and Reviewed Respectfully, by Jacquelyn Mitchard (stolen from here, a while back so don't bother looking for it, although the blog in general is awesome)

( Be male and important. )

I just spent four hours at Caribou Coffee (in Lakewood) writing, since I'm hideously behind and don't seem to be able to write on my computer. Stupid desktop.

No! Wait! I didn't mean that! *pats computer reassuringly* I lurve you, little red iMac. Please last another nine months . . .

In any case, I got about 3600 words written (yes, by hand, inky pen, yellow legal pad, y'know -- that comes to about 2 pages). I think I finished Chapter 1 (other than two glaring bits of action that I left out, but made notes to throw in when I type it up) and I'm most of the way through Chapter 4 (2 and 3 are already finished), even though I don't know what lovely bit of action will round out the last 1500 words yet. I know what happens in ch 5, I think, and I definitely know what happens in chapters 7, 9, and 10. If I get all that written, I'll have finished NaNoWriMo (and, you know, chapters 6 and 8, which are total blanks at the moment). Then I just have the second half of the book ("Part II: London Courtship") to write. (Sounds so easy, doesn't it?) Of course, I could just go ahead and write a lot of placeholder chapters ("insert chase scene here") and then write chapters 11, 13, and 15 (I know what happens then, too). That may be what happens, since I'm sort of under a deadline. Sort of. *snorts*

The good news is that I found a great website for sign language here. (And by "found" I mean "someone else found for me", but close enough.) Just in case anyone's interested. As Cecy learns, so do I. It's been interesting. I'm using modern signs because historical sign language is really hard to find information on, but I know there are two signs for, say, brother -- the modern one which is just 'brother', and the older one that's 'boy-same' -- and obviously I chose to use 'boy-same' rather than 'brother'. Same with meals, which is unfortunate, because I like the sign for 'lunch' (it's so close to 'who' and 'lesbian').

I'm so proud of myself for hanging two guns on the wall in Act I so far and making plans for them to go off in Act II, though. It's nifty to find themes and other sorts of literary devices magically appearing in what I write. Not because I'm a great writer, but just because they're so easy to throw in. This book isn't great, or literature, or anything else superlatively positive, but it is 1.) fun and 2.) not hideous. (Even though I have to work my tail off not to start every sentence with 'He said' or 'She said', or the phrase 'of course'. I don't know why I seem to use it so often. Also, remembering that the word 'okay' hadn't been invented yet is still difficult.)

Ah well.

Good luck, fellow NaNovians!

Well, it's started. We're officially on Day 2 (it's after midnight, after all) and I've made my quota already. Actually, I have 27 more words than I need. I know, right? I've got a fairly good handle on the first info-dump/exposition stuff, so that's good. Still a few more bombs to drop on Cecy, and definitely a few to drop on Robin, but he deserves it. I hate how I worked in the description of him, and I still haven't described her at all, but that's editing crap.

I had to go buy an inky pen and a legal-sized yellow pad of paper, or I just wasn't going to be able to do this. It worked; I wrote about 1000 words during class today. I write nearly illegibly and half-spaced (that is, two lines of writing to one ruled line) so it's not like anyone can read what I write. (Including me, sometimes. I have to guess once in a while when I'm typing it up.) I guess I do write it all twice, but it works for me, and I'm ahead at the moment, so I won't complain.

Does this make it sound like I know what I'm doing/where I'm going? Because I don't, really. We'll find out in the next few days, I suppose.

WHEEEEE!!!

It's time to get excited about NaNoWriMo again!

...

Are we excited yet?

I am, because I found my outline. Well, 'outline' might be an exaggeration. I have about half of a sheet of yellow legal-pad paper (the kind I used to steal from work and write about a thousand words at lunch on) with a general idea for this book, and a piece of computer paper with a double family tree of the male hero's family and his sister-in-law's family. The bad news is that I can't find the heroine's family tree, so I might have to extrapolate based on the information in DalNaNo05. (I mean, I remember who her parents are. I just can't remember precisely when she was born. Okay, she was 21 in 1816. That means she was born in 1795. Ouch. Robin has two sisters who are older than Cecy is, neither of whom are married. Hmm.)

Wow, by 'general idea' I really meant general. This idea has been subsequently worked into something approximating decent format since. I should retype it just in case. The paper's getting really ratty.

Oh, maybe I should mention that it's the sequel to the 'novel' I wrote last year. No, I haven't finished it. It's just over 75K words, which means I'm missing about 25K words. Here's the thing: I can do NaNo again this year without having finished last year's novel, or I can try and finish DalNano05 during the same time period without being under the auspices of NaNoWriMo. At the end of November, provided I succeed, I will have one completed novel (100K words). If I do NaNo '06, I will have one 3/4ths done novel and one 1/2 done novel (75K words + 50K words = 125K words). Economics and Ann Landers aside, I want to do NaNo again. There's something extremely exhilarating about writing a novel in 30 days. That, and I don't think I'll be able to do it again ever. (November of 2007 I'll be in law school. Enough said.) Last but not least, I'd miss my NaNo writing buddies hideously.

OK, family tree retyped/reconstructed. Next stop: coming up with outline of at least first two chapters. Or maybe not. Elaborating on character list, perhaps.

YAY NANO!!!