Personally I blame Gail Carriger

I have finished ‘Cawdor’ and I was looking forward to a nice long period of relaxation.

My damn brain doesn’t seem to be in on the plan. It started todaay worrying at the idea of a SteamPunk Horror novel.

This isn’t me! I don’t read steampunk! (except for the afore mentioned Ms Garriger.) It was just a vague idea, but then period and setting started falling into place. Quite unlike  anumber of steampunk novels this one is not set in the Europe or even in any of Victoria’s domains.

World building and a plot has started to form and I don’t want it!!!

grrrrrr

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Relaxation at last

It is so nice to have hit a spot when I can just relax. The only thing I need do for the next couple of a weeks writing wise is work on small no stress projects and get my feedback from the beta readers.

I truly enjoyed writing Cawdor more than any other book I have written, but it’s good to spin down for a bit.

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Cawdor update

The manuscript will be finished by week’s end. Then it’s off to beta readers.

My fingers are crossed.

— Okay the comments are WAY off-topic. Please keep the political comments on political threads. Not all my friends are into politics you know.

🙂

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Sunday Night Movie: Star Trek III: The Search For Spock

It is a well know dictum in the SF community that the ‘good’ Star Trek films are all the even numbered ones and that the odd numbered movies are ‘bad.’ I have advised people to remember that what the even numbered, II, IV, and VI, have in common is Nicholas Meyer. He had a hand in writing all three and directed two of them.

I myself have espoused this Even/Odd dictum to people about how to judge Star Trek movies. (Counting all the Next Generation films as ‘odd.’ The first, a weak and bull film was the best of the lot. They proceeded to become more and more idiotic as the series progressed becoming what can oxymoronically called Luddite Science-Fiction.)

Recently Star Treks, II, III, and IV were released a a single blu-ray set with new bonus features. I resisted as best I could, but when I found a set for about $25 I broke down and purchased it even thought it had a ‘bad’ movie in the collection. I spent part of the weekend watching the bonus material and oohing and awing how gorgeous the films look in the Blu-ray format. Last night I decided that I would make Star Trek III: The Search For Spock my Sunday Night Movie.

Continue reading →

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A very pleasant day

Yesterday My friend, Gail Carriger, was in town to promote her third book, Blameless. (A NYT Bestseller I might add.) She had a signing event at the local speciality bookstore, Mysterious Galaxy. There was tea, biscuits, (Cookies to use Americans) and quite a crowd of fans. I and my sweetie-wife had a particularly good time listening to Gail take questions and read from her firs book in the series. (Soulless.)

Afterwards we three had dinner at Khyber Pass a local Afgan restaurant.  (My sweetie-wife and I have been there before and I adore the food.) Then we came back to our condo and taught Gail to play one of silly dice games, but I think she enjoyed it.

All in all I had a very good day yesterday.

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Very cool software

For writers, Game-masters, and any who needs to manage a large amount of disparate data, I have been pointed at a great piece of software for the Mac. (I haven’t investigated if they have Windows version yet.)

The software is VooDoo Pad, and it operates as a self-contained no complicated install wiki. I am not a computer person so I needed software that pretty much just runs without a lot fo set-up from me. I have looked at wiki for quite awhile but never found one that was as easy to use as voodoo pad.

I got tipped off to it by my writer’s support group and I just love it. IT will make a great tool for keeping track of all the data generated in creating the fiction universes that my various novels take place in.

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“Then I am happy/sad for you”

Well, it turns out my friend Bear cannot make the Las Vegas trip with me. That is a shame this is certainly the sort of thing that is more fun with friends than alone.

However, I am still going. In fact the room has been rented and now the show tickets have been purchased. The only thing left to do is handle the transportation issues. As I am a new driver my sweetie-wife is not keen on the idea that I drive the whole way, while I am. It would be much cheaper than flying and with far fewer hassles.

Nothing has been settled and there is time to arrange all of that. The important thing is that I am going. Yeah!

This will replace my Universal Studios Megatour plans as my celebration for completing Cawdor.

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