10k in 3 Days

As part of my three day weekend, I have decided to set myself a NaNo worthy type of goal: to double the length of my longest current WIP. Appropriate, given that the WIP is my unfinished NaNo from last year. I consider it something of a training exercise, as I've never been able to finish a novel-length work. I figure a lot of it has to do with experience, or in my case, lack thereof.

You can't rewrite what isn't written, after all. No matter how bad the first draft is I will complete it, plot holes and all. No editing, no going back to rewrite the plot from the beginning. That can come later. My only concern now is to have a working first draft. I can rip it apart and fix it later.

So that's my goal.

Current progress? Day 2. I haven't start writing today yet but I managed to pull my wc total up to 12k yesterday. That means I need to complete 8k over today and tomorrow (I have an odd schedule). I'm not going to bother trying to do it evenly since reaching the goal won't be the end of the draft anyways. It's a minimum requirement.

I'll check back at the end of the day to report my progress.

I can't believe...

I just spent $132 on a book. Not just any book, mind you. The limited edition hardcover of Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon, complete with kickass new cover of Anomander Rake awesome+9000 and full color interior illustrations. Yes, it was painful. I could have purchased 20+ mass markets. Was it worth it? Hell yes! My only true regret was not paying enough attention so I missed out on the lettered, super special limited edition.

I can't wait to see what Deadhouse Gates will look like. I hope they put Coltaine on the cover.

Want to see just how delicious it is? Check it out, available only from the Subterranean Press website: Gardens of the Moon Limited Edition.

Happy May

Somehow it escaped my notice until just now, but it's the first of May. Nice. And we're starting it off with a lovely spring storm, possibly the first thunderstorm of the year. I love thunderstorms, which is odd considering how I used to hate them. These days I actively hope for them to knock the power out, preferably when I'm at work. :)

Recently Read: The Way of Shadows

And I stayed up until 12:30a.m. to finish it.

The Way of Shadows is a very strong character-driven fantasy. I originally bought it because the cover art looks like it came straight from Assassin's Creed, but it isn't nearly as awesome as the story within, and that's saying a lot.

Assassins. Ninjas. Cloak and dagger. Magic. Really, you can't go wrong. I was reminded a lot of The Lies of Locke Lamora while reading. It's got the same sort of concise, intricate plotting, only minus the wonky chronology. Plus ninjas. Azoth/Kylar reminds me of Fitz from the Farseer books as well in that life does everything it can to screw him over and kill him dead.

Only Kylar's a ninja and life isn't, so life fails. Or would that be death? Hmm.

Well either way, go read it now. It's awesome.

And did I mention ninjas?

Note: Wetboys aren't actually ninjas, but they might as well be!

May: Support a Debut Author Month

I didn't come up with this myself. I'm simply spreading and supporting the idea. You can find the original blog post here.

I think it's a great proposal and one I fully intend to participate in. Several authors whose work I enjoy I first picked up as debut authors.

Also in the spirit of the concept, if you like fantasy and are looking for a debut author to read, check out Fantasy Debut, a blog that reviews, well, exactly what it says.

Flash Fiction Frenzy

This week has been fairly productive for me as far as writing goes. I've been writing two flash fiction pieces a day--one in the morning while I'm waking up, the other during my shift at work or after I get home. For someone who rarely completes long stories, suddenly having a bunch of completed works feels really good.

Of course, they all need to be revised and possibly critted, but that's what my day off is for.

Cat Fight

Chaos is certainly living up to his name once again. He got into one of his semi-regular fights with another neighborhood cat the other night. We ended up bringing him to the vet this morning, turns out he was bitten on the shoulder. It's abscessed and infected so he does need treatment. Not the first time, definitely not the last. We're also getting a senior panel done to make sure everything else is fine.

It's funny, he's a such a huge cat, yet he's quite a wuss. He gets injured because when he gets into a fight the first thing he does is run for the door and if no one happens to be home, he gets cornered. He just isn't a fighter, but he is a major instigator. Then he wonders why he gets hurt. Ah well, what can you do. At least he'll be fine after he gets some meds and some TLC. He's spoiled rotten, my Chaos.

In the meantime, I'm doing research about what I need for our two indoor cats. They were Big Joe's, but since he's passed on I'm planning on adopting them. My mom and Joe aren't thrilled with the idea because both cats have some behavioral problems. To me it's all the more reason to keep them, so I can try to at least improve their quality of life and hopefully teach them to be good household cats. It's actually been the subject of several disagreements with mom. She claims they aren't against keeping them, yet all they do is complain without making any attempt to solve any of the issues.

To be fair, while my mom and I have always had cats, ours are always indoor/outdoor, thus most of the problems we're having right now are ones we've never encountered with our previous pets. Chaos for example, practically lives outside during the summer. (We do keep him in whenever we hear a report about a fisher cat, bobcat, bear, etc. Very unusual for this area but not unheard of.) So it's easy for her to get frustrated. Joe just doesn't like the cats due to said issues which often involve making a mess out of things.

It's a rather disagreeable situation for all of us, really. Hence my foray into the world of indoor cats. I already have a good idea of what I need, just need the time to gather supplies. I'll have to dip into my savings for this but I can't just stand by and watch them get rid of these two cats. One is declawed, the other is semi-feral. Obviously they are not good candidates for rehoming. I am more than willing to put the time and effort into working with them and I have already seen some good results despite the fact that it's only been two months since I started keeping an eye on them. The semi-feral, aptly named Zippy, has gone from being so shy he even ran from me, to being quite a people cat. He will follow me and my mom around and even sticks around when someone stops by to visit. He's really a very nice guy, very loving, he's just shy.

So off to my source for all things cat, http://www.thecatsite.com/.