Monthly Archives: February 2010
Great Big Sea at Olympics Victory Ceremonies in Vancouver, BC, 2/26/10
| February 27, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under GBS |
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Most of the rest of the world may have converged on Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics, but and me? We were there for Great Big Sea, baby!
I do have to admit it was very awesome that they got dinged to be the headlining performance at the Victory Ceremonies last night–which featured a celebration of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. (For those unfamiliar with Canadian provinces, Newfoundland and Labrador are officially one big province.) You couldn’t have chosen better ambassadors, really!
Better
| February 23, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Bone Walker |
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Back to Bone Walker exclusively tonight, just because that’s where the words seemed to want to go. Still working on the fight scene between Christopher, Kendis, and the nogitsune, and figuring out how to choreograph the actions so that a) they all move farther along the trail to the north, and b) Melisanda has an opportunity to show up and help them drive off the last of the nogitsune. Not quite there yet but at least there was more than a page’s worth of progress tonight.
I kind of want to push for 500 words tonight, but on the other hand, I need to go to bed. And also, I think it’ll actually encourage me more to write tomorrow if I can maintain this feeling of “more writing needs doing!” It’s all about the pacing myself.
Written tonight: 355
Chapter 7 total: 2,078
Bone Walker total (first draft): 18,812
That's all I got
| February 22, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Bone Walker, Mirror's Gate, Short Pieces |
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When I find myself staring dully and tiredly at the screen and no words are flowing, that’s the signal that it’s time to go to bed. But I did at least make a few words go tonight! And even if about 100 words into each of these things doesn’t seem like much individually, it will at least add up if I keep at it. That’s good advice to keep telling myself.
Let’s see if I can do this again tomorrow.
Bone Walker:
Written tonight: 110
Chapter 7 total: 1,723
Bone Walker total (first draft): 18,457
Mirror’s Gate:
Written tonight: 115
Chapter 1 total: 1,417
Mirror’s Gate total (first draft): 1,417
Untitled short story:
Written tonight: 115
Story total: 615
Finally, some more words
| February 21, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Bone Walker, Mirror's Gate, Short Pieces, Vengeance of the Hunter |
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I’ve been frustrated enough with my months-long block on regular writing that I figured tonight I should try the multi-novelling trick. That’s helped in the past, and I felt it was long past time to try it again, just for the sake of advancing some pointers on various works on progress. I’ve mentioned before how it’s often helpful for me to just try to do little chunks at a time–and tonight, I was pleased to note that it worked again.
So yeah, a small number of words for Bone Walker, Mirror’s Gate, and Shadow of the Rook out of the novels in progress–and a few more for the as of yet untitled story about my Psychic Chick of Size. Whose name is, by the way, Elizabeth Breckenridge. Her male lead is Ross Taggart, and so far what I know about him is that he’s actually too heavy himself (because if there’s anything as rare as a fat heroine in a fantasy story, it’s an overweight hero) by thirty or forty pounds, and that he’s either a private investigator or a reporter or maybe a blogger. I’m not sure which yet. Waiting to see if anything pops out of my head as I throw words at the story.
And we’ll have to see if I finish it in time to submit it to and for their anthology.
Meanwhile, the word stats:
Bone Walker:
Written tonight: 109
Chapter 7 total: 1,613
Bone Walker total (first draft): 18,347
Mirror’s Gate:
Written tonight: 104
Chapter 1 total: 1,302
Mirror’s Gate total (first draft): 1,302
Shadow of the Rook:
Written tonight: 112
Chapter 2 total: 3,950
Shadow of the Rook total (first draft): 13,378
Untitled short story:
Written tonight: 266
Untitled short story total: 500
Signal boost for fellow authors
| February 21, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Publishing |
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First up, if you like the Jane Austen mashups that’ve been coming out lately, then you’ll probably want to take a look at this! I quite liked Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, so today I finally went down to Third Place Books and ordered me a copy of Mansfield Park and Mummies, by . It’s only available via online purchase or by ordering, so if this sounds like something you’d giggle over, think about ordering your own copy. Vera Nazarian will be very grateful. You can get more details over here.
And while we’re on the topic of authors who need some love, ‘s Amanda Feral series is under threat of nixing due to its sales numbers! If you love you some zombies with a heaping helping of snark, you should get the mass market release of Happy Hour of the Damned, or the forthcoming trade paperback of Battle of the Network Zombies. Click here to Mark’s site for more details.
More new books for Anna!
| February 20, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Book Log |
First up, in print:
Jade Man’s Skin, by Daniel Fox, a.k.a. ! Fantasy. Purchased in print because the cover is gorgeous, and also, all of his books, I get in print. (Watch this space for a forthcoming Chaz Brenchley/Daniel Fox readathon, in fact!)
And, in electronic form:
- Every last currently available book of The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher. Because he’s also somebody I’ll buy in print, but he’s Just That Awesome, so I’ll buy him electronically too! (Also, because the last couple of paperbacks for the Dresden Files are in that slightly-bigger-than-mass-market format, which is vexing–so while I want a print copy for purposes of Supporting Jim, it’ll be easier to read them electronically.) Anyway, that’s eleven books of Harry Dresden Awesomeness, and it’ll shortly be twelve when Changes comes out!
- Midnight Never Come, by Marie Brennan. Fantasy.
- Four of the In Death series, by J.D. Robb: Purity in Death, Seduction in Death, Reunion in Death, and Promises in Death. The last one is actually the newest one I was lacking in the series, and the other three are replacements for loaned copies of the paperbacks I never got back. Mystery/romantic suspense.
- Six Shannara-related books, by Terry Books–because I was in the mood to kick it old school and go back and re-read the original Shannara trilogy. Only now there’s a prequel and an epilogue as well as several other books that bridge the gap between the present-day world and the future world Shannara’s set in. Titles: Running with the Demon, First King of Shannara, The Sword of Shannara, The Elfstones of Shannara, The Wishsong of Shannara, and Indomitable. Fantasy.
- The Convent of the Pure, by Sara M. Harvey. Heard about this one via the Outer Alliance. It’s steampunky and it features a lesbian demon-hunter and the ghost of her dead lover. Fantasy/steampunk.
Total here: 24
Total so far for 2010: 69
Book Log #14: Unfallen Dead, by Mark Del Franco
| February 18, 2010 | Posted by annathepiper under Book Log |
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Unfallen Dead is a good strong installment in the Connor Grey novels by Mark Del Franco, advancing the storyline not only for the world at large, but also for the story arc about what happened to Connor to disable his druid abilities. More specifically, we’ve got ourselves a story where the Convergence, the great merging of the human and Faerie worlds a hundred years or so back, seems to be finally reversing itself. But Connor’s got his own issues; an underQueen of the Seelie Court is bent on interrogating him and Meryl Dian about the events at the tail end of the last story. And furthermore, Connor’s old Guild partner from New York, Dylan macBain, has shown up in town to fill in for Keeva macNeve, suspended from duty because of those same questionable events.
And just to add insult to injury, Dylan’s even got Connor’s old office.
It’s nice to be far enough along in the series arc at this point that we’re past Connor’s initial wave of resentment about his disability, and are moving on to him figuring out what it is and how to conquer it. There are events in the last act of this story that raise all sorts of interesting questions about what exactly happened to Connor, especially given how his nemesis Bergin Vize finally shows up on camera–in a state that Connor does not expect at all. But that’s only part of what he has to deal with from Vize, given that that elf’s bent on taking out the Seelie Court. Meanwhile, another fey is killing people and framing Meryl for the crime, giving Connor yet another challenge to juggle.
Good strong story over all and I’m looking forward to diving right into Book Four, now that it’s out. Four stars.
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