Friday Random

Random Reason this is Late (part2) I almost published this Thursday: Thursday was murder. I spent the whole day just running crazy with the phone ringing off the hook. At one point I was beyond frazzled and panicked because, at 5pm, I hadn't put up the Friday Random! About three seconds before I hit publish I realized my panic was wishful thinking and it was only Thursday. That was the saddest part of my week, I so did not want the alarm to go off this morning.

Random Progress this Week: Word counts steadily creep higher. And I think Falcon War is about ready to fly the nest and go find a magazine to love for home. I have over 25k in Genesis and over 10k in Nan. Not finished by a long shot, but making steady progress

Random "What!" Moment of the Week: Duotrope... I've heard of them but never realized I could search short story venues! Oy! Now I know, and knowing's half the battle. *hums GI Joe*

Random Lie I told my Children this Week: You know the giant inflatable holiday yard decorations? We saw a few while out running errands Wednesday night. My daughter's want one, but I told them Daddy had to be a Colonel or better to get one in our yard. This is right up there with my friend's little boy who believes implicitly that Toys R Us is only open for Grandma to shop in and that Mommy can't go there.


Random Realization of the Week: My major stumbling block in editing DoJ (besides world building issues) has been trying to pack in all the details so that DoJ could intro this fantastic universe I created. After talking to the other half of the Twins of Darkness and Good (Amy at Inkfever) I realized DoJ is not structured to be a debut novel for this universe. It's a solid story, and it's getting better, but the characters don't have the scope and ability to show off the world and set the foundation for what I have in mind.

So, more talking and lists of pros and cons, and I'm starting to think Finn Genesis is well set up to be the debut novel for that series. I'm not sure if it's the novel I'll query and sell first, but it's the best lead out manuscript for the ViS universe. Genesis is the perfect place to showcase the races and the technology that populate my universe. And it has the added bonus of being a complete stand-alone work. DoJ could stand alone, but it sets up two other books. If DoJ goes splat! in the market those two other books die with it. Genesis happens 700 years before DoJ and if it goes splat! I'd be sad, but I don't think it would kill anything.

Random High Point of the Week: I have a friend who faithfully follows my rough drafts as my cheerleader and Official Nagger Who Makes Me Do Things. I wake up each morning looking forward to her comments. As Joan would say, Take Away Truth: It's always good to have someone encouraging you to succeed.

Random Theme in My Writing: Early in the week I had someone write about one of my stories I'd put up for critique months ago. So long ago that I forgot anyone might still see it. They said they loved a certain line and sent the snippet asking if they could use it for something.

I confess, from the snippet I couldn't tell which story the quote was from.

The first quote was:

Sometimes circumstances move us in unexpected ways. We can either take chances, or hesitate. Sometimes it doesn’t matter. Other times it matters a great deal. And you never find out until it’s to late to change course.

And this is the conversation I thought it belonged with:

“Why am I here?"

“To learn something?” John guessed.

“What am I learning?”

“That the world isn’t what you thought it was.”

They aren't from the same book. But, flipping through my other writing, I've noticed I carry that theme throughout. All the characters start out convinced they know *exactly* how the world works. They are confident that they have it all figured out. And then I turn the world on it's ear and the characters wind up trying to relearn all the rules.

Do you have themes in writing?

Random Fun Quotes of the Week: For various reasons my writing this week has all been done around midnight, sometimes at one or two in the morning. And when I'm that tired and still writing I come up with the oddest phrase. These are all from unedited drafts. Most of them will not survive the first round of editing. But, for now.... things that amuse me:

From Finn Genesis:

-> “Captain Meyers disappeared under very curious circumstances.”

“His convoy was attacked, sir. We lost nearly three hundred men.”

“As I said, curious.”

“They didn’t have weapons, sir, because of the shortage. It’s not as if they could fight back.”

“Lieutenant, have you or have you not been trained in hand to hand combat?”

“I have, sir-“

“And was not Captain Meyers trained in the same fashion.”

“Yes, sir, but-“

“Then I see why it couldn’t be done.”

Because you earned rank without out ever seeing combat you evil, paper-pushing, piece of-

->“Cara, is burning things. I agreed to come with you with the explicit term of agreement that Cara not be allowed to play with fire.”

"The agreement, not written or contractual in any way,” Melissa corrected. “What, exactly is she burning?”

“In her words? Anything that doesn’t move.”

From Nearly Normal Nan:

-> But, on the bright side, someone was so madly attracted to Nan that they would kill flowers for her. Wasn’t that sweet? Mortals killed and tortured flowers every day in the name of love. Amy didn’t quite understand why they didn’t give live flowers, but, still, it was romantic to kill flowers!

-> Magic is like wetting your pants, babies do it instinctively.

Random Question of the Week: Do you have play list that you listen to while working? I do. And it's sorted... My editing invades my music. I actually spent a half hour the other day grouping the stories so there was a "plot" to my play list. Long skirt, short Jacket by Cake is next to Homewrecker by Gretchen Willson, Picture to burn by Taylor Swift, and Kerosene by Miranda Lambert.

I have Witchy Woman by the Eagles next to Ricky Martin'a Living La Vida Loca.

Am I the only one who does this? It seems I can't live without arranging everything into tidy little blocks of narrative.

Even the pictures on my wall suffer. If you walk through the house from the front door and follow the wall you'll see the kids growing up and all the places be lived and visited in sequence.

I wonder if there's a cure for this.


So..........What's your random?