corrinalaw

Well, I spent the morning wrangling with customer service reps for Bank of America trying to get someone to shut off an auto deduction from my checking account.

They were ordered to do so in December but they haven't.

All I got was a total runaround. I'll have to go into a branch in person tomorrow.  Dammit. Very soon, I think I'm going to swap to a local bank. This is ridiculous. No one on the phone can help, they just keep transferring me around.

On the good side, I finished a couple of Geek Dad posts that should be up this week, including one of SF romance. Now if I could only thinking of a romance-themed comic for Valentine's Day. The only one that comes to mind is Scott/Jean and the Dark Phoenix saga. Which is a bit of a downer. :) 

Ah, maybe True Story, Swear To God. Anyone else have any thoughts? 

I watched the Superbowl yesterday and it was very relaxing. The game was played at a very high level. I can't believe Manning threw that INT. But I think Tracy Porter's raised his game to the level of Ed Reed the last two games, so I'll give him the credit rather than Manning the blame.

Still, you can't count Manning as possibly the best ever QB anymore. It's one mistake, sure, but if you're going to be the best ever, you can't make that mistake.

However, I think the game was lost before that on two key decisions:

The play calling for Indy at the end of the half, when they were backed up to the goal line was pathetic. You have Manning. You have two minutes. Play to win. Throw the ball or something. Don't play conservative and go with running plays. Play to WIN.

Similarly, Matt Stover should never have been sent out to try that field goal. It was too long. Give the ball to your best player, don't play it conservative.

Those decisions sealed the fate of the Colts. The INT was just the cherry on top.

I often wonder if football lessons can be translated to life lessons. Play to win sounds good. OTOH, losing a football game is just that, losing a football game. In life, there's far more at stake.

Still, play to win. I like it.

On writing stuff, I'm up to 60K on Sky of Seneca. The final, third act is in sight. As is the sex scene that I have to write and I'm not sure of the setting as yet. I'm thinking maybe underneath the wings of my Roman engineer's glider. :) 

And I was interviewed about Freya's Gift. My very first interview. I thought it came out well. I got asked what I tell my kids about writing smut, which was an excellent question.

Hope everyone had a good weekend. I'm hoping for an uneventful week. I haven't gotten one in two weeks but I'm hoping. :) 

It's not so much the politics of Kennedy that drew me to the book, it's the story.

If you made up a tale of a family whose father was a financial giant, married a woman who would have clearly been a great public servant if allowed back in the day, and their nine children, many of whom died young and tragically, people would say "that's utterly unbelievable."

It is, except it actually happened.

As Robert Kennedy once said after his brother Jack's death: "If my mother had stopped at four, she'd have no children now." 

I wasn't sure what to expect of Teddy's memoir, though, if it would be political or personal. It's a big-ass thick book, that's for sure. I think what I hoped for was personal and political insight, especially from someone in a position to observe some of the great and awful events of the 20th Century.

This book isn't quite that. It doesn't help that Kennedy is very good at masking his emotions. You can tell where he told his collaborator very little. The prose becomes very basic and stilted. But you can also tell when Kennedy gets going because his voice and emotion shine through. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen enough.

The passages about his large family, especially his growing up, are most excellent. Not in any political sense but in the sense of remembering what it was like to grow up in such a family, especially before our technological age. Everyone had to occupy themselves. Idleness doesn't seem particularly tolerated in the Kennedy household.

But there's a sense that Teddy, the very youngest, often felt lost, especially when he was shipped off to boarding school.

That's one of the most surprising sections of the book: Kennedy talks about going to a now-defunct boarding school where the headmaster was clearly not only sexually abusing some of the boys but had recruited some of the older students to do the same for him. It's chilling stuff but Kennedy never quite confronts it head on. He ducks the emotion at the end, too.

He's extremely open in providing anecdotes about the dead, which, by the time he wrote the book, meant both his parents and all his siblings but one. But not the living. He's very circumspect. He talks a little bit about his courtship of his first wife, Joan, but it's very basic, and has only a paragraph where he states that he doesn't agree with Joan's public statements about why the divorce happened but he knows that a great deal of the blame belongs on him.

His section on his grandfather, Honey Fitz, the former mayor of Boston, just bleeds with love and affection. One has the feeling that he's told some of these anecdotes about his grandfather more than a few times, after more than a few drinks. :) 

He does have some to say on Chappaquidick. It feels like he's saying it through clenched teeth, both angry and ashamed. There are no excuses, however.

And, likely because he can only gush about her, Kennedy talks about his second wife, Victoria Reggie. A lot. And it's really sweet and kind. He seems to be utterly shocked on every level that she agreed to marry *him.*

So, on a personal level, it's very interesting.

What it's lacking is the political level. There are sections on the personalities in the Senate and a few passages that dwell on some major issues but I still don't get a sense of what his day-to-day life of a senator was like and how it changed over the years. It's not enough. I wanted a real feel for the place and I didn't get it.

This book could have been great, instead of simply interesting. 

Still, I'm glad that I read it.

I'm cross-posting these to both here and my writing journal. I haven't figured out a way to make livejournal and wordpress play nice. (Though if any of you know one, I'm glad to hear it!)

So...

Or should I say, all about the weekly sickness report.

I have a sinus style infection.

Three of four minions have/had strep throat this week. They're all on the mend.

The last minion is getting tested today, just in case. To be sure.

I'm feeling better but mainly wiped out. I did get some stuff done this week, though it felt like I was spinning my wheels.

Random notes:

My daughter found the copy of Cordelia's Honor this week and I picked it up and feel in love with the book all over again. I may have to write something about it over at my writing blog on wordpress.

Life on Mars was on PBS last night. The British version. It was part of the "Mystery" series. So weird seeing it on that channel. PBS is behind the times. Imagine, these days, we'd get Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes and Prime Suspect on BBC America first, possibly.

It's DAMN COLD and windy outside today. ICK. I was loving the small heat wave, though it was very weird to have a 58 degree day in New England in January. I liked it best for the good it did to my heating bill.

I did get some writing done. I'm up to 56K on Sky of Seneca and I think this won't require a major revision. So the first draft is taking longer than expected but I'll spend less time with revisions. Or that might be famous last words. Not sure. :) 

Now off to do my Friday snippet before the minions arrive home.

And that's my dull week.

I have approval to post it publicly! Yay!



Available March 16 as an ebook novella from Samhain Publishing.

 I wanted to be able to post the cover today but I don't have the final okay to do that. If you're on my friends list, you've seen a draft. It's close to that. 

I looked for a snippet today and realized that I haven't put up anything with the third participant in the fertility ritual yet. 

So here's Ragnor, the Viking Chief, and Gerhard, a warrior, wishing very hard that they didn't have to talk to each other. 

************************************************

“Gunnhilda spoke to me of a ritual,” Gerhard said.

Ragnor nodded. “What of it?”

Speak, Gerhard. Tell me why you think you are deserving of my wife’s touch. Or the touch of the goddess.

“I told Gunnhilda that she was mad.”

“I told Sif the same.”

Gerhard sat on the far side of the rock. Ragnor still did not look at him. Gerhard sighed. “Gunnhilda pointed out the signs of the goddess. The spring. The cat who—”

“Saved my life.” Ragnor finally lifted his head. Gerhard seemed honestly reluctant. Why? Wouldn’t any man want to get hands on Sif? And then perhaps seize leadership?

“The cougar also saved the lives of several in that hunting party,” Gerhard said. “We feasted, instead of mourning.” Gerhard tapped his foot against the ground, over and over. “I grow sick of mourning.”

“We all do.”

Gerhard stood and walked in front of Ragnor to face him. Ragnor stared, trying to read the man’s face. Gerhard had always kept his own counsel, save for his late wife. A fine woman, if a bit too quiet and too thin for Ragnor’s taste.

“You are considering this?” Gerhard said.

Freya damn him, he was. Sif was right. The fight between Torger and Mykle would not be the last. The next one could end in death. And Ragnor kept flashing back to how the great cat had watched him. Judged him.

“Yes.” Ragnor stared past Gerhard. “I am chief. That means my life belongs to the tribe. As does Sif’s life. I consider it.”

 Morning!

I've only one minion at home today. The verdict for her is strep throat so she's resting right now. I'm taking those quiet minutes as a chance to catch up. 

I wanted to pimp my new writing website a little bit. Any suggestions appreciated. I don't speak tech that well but I've tried to put together a clean-looking, professional site. One thing I have to do yet is alter the domain name. 

I've put bits and pieces of my writing up so far and I'll be posting more first chapters and snippets as I go along. 

For today, I wrote up a post about Avatar:

http://corrinalawson.wordpress.com/

I have no money for one as yet.

But that didn't stop a trip to the Apple store yesterday to check them out.

Why a MacBook? Because I'm tired of dealing with constant virus issues and various problems with updating Microsoft's programs. I also like the durability of the Apple products. We have a ten-year-old eMac that was used previously as a school computer and it still sometimes web surfs faster than the PCs in my house. It has flash issues, of course, being an old operating system, but it's definitely a workhorse.

I want to spend money on something that *lasts* at this point and my experience with PC/Mac is that Macs last better. And I need something portable to be able to go to a quiet area of the house or run away to the local Starbucks.

Hence, spending the money for a MacBook.

I'd thought to simply get a MacBook as I don't need it to do anything fancy. I spent a good 20 minutes playing with the MacBook, though, and I didn't like it. I didn't like the responsiveness of the keys or the touchpad. It felt, well, cheap.

So I moved over to the MacBook Pro.

I liked that much, much better. The key response and touchpad seemed much improved and it's just more aesthetically pleasing to look at instead of the plastic covered MacBook.

A very lovely Apple employee helped me price it. Since my daughter is taking college classes starting this month through her magnet high school, I'm eligible for a student discount.

So..

13-inch MacBook Pro.
iWork. (Because I don't like Open Office or MS Office)
3-year Apple maintenance/warranty plan
Printer (free after rebate)
Tax.

Total cost:
$1349.

So that's what I'm saving for.

It's snippet time! 

Freya's Gift. Coming March 16 from Samhain Publishing. :) 

***************************************************************

“Ragnor,” she whispered. “Look up, at the top of the rocks. But don’t move.”

Without moving his head, he looked up and nearly jumped out of his skin.

The cougar.

It stood at the top of the rock, silhouetted against the sun. It might even be the same cat that had saved him. It was not looking at them but instead was looking into the sky. Ragnor tried to keep from breathing. He dared to hope that this was another goddess blessing and not a prelude to an attack. He could not save Sif without weapons.

         The cat snarled.

*****************************************************

I started the month out really well, as per my entry on January 4th.

And then things started to fall apart.

Mostly, minions started vomiting again. This time, my two girls. Vomiting and diarrhea. First, the elder one and we spent time at the doctors on Tuesday. Blood tests came back with a high white cell count.

So I had to pick up stool sample kits. I know. EW. But I found the bucket that went to the old toddler potty and used that to collect samples today.

In the meantime, the younger daughter came down sick at school. I was out at the time, so they cleaned her up and by the time I called back, she was better somewhat and it was quicker to send her home on the bus. Same symptoms.

So now I have to do another set of stool samples.

Naturally, all this KILLED my to-do list. "Take care of sick minions" is time intensive and was definitely not on the agenda. :)

But I have written 2,000 words this week on Sky of Seneca, I did meet with my critique partners, and I did get a submission out. I also did an Sequential Tart article, set up an interview, and wrote two Geek Dad posts:

Comic Spotlight on Agents of Atlas

G-Force aka that guinea pig movie.

And I'm working on another post for Geek Dad.

Plus, you would NOT believe the massive amounts of laundry I've done this week. It is impressive.

And I focus on what I did do because if I focus on what I still need to do, my brain will melt.

Warning, more BSP here. :) 

I stopped the snippets during the holidays, mostly because I became so overwhelmed that I forgot.

But I have added the weekly posting to my ever-growing to-do list and to my on-line calender so I hope not to forget again.

Snippet #1, from chapter one:

Ragnor’s face did not change expression as he saw her. He set the axe down carefully against the side of the longhouse. “Sif. You wake early today.”

“I am feeling better.” Sif almost reached out to lay her hand on his chest. He smelled so sweet, so musky, so much like he did after lovemaking. She still found him irresistible. But she’d always known he’d welcome her attention before.

“Good.” Ragnor nodded.

Behind Ragnor, men carrying spears, bows and arrows gathered in the square.

“A hunting party?” she asked.

“It will do the men good.”

Meaning that it would be something to occupy him. “Yes, it will.” Her tongue nearly caught in her throat.

He set his hand on her hip. “Sif.”

“Ragnor.” She felt her face flush and fought the urge to fall at his feet and beg for him to touch her further.

A chief’s wife does not beg.

My wonderful critique partner, Toni Andrews, kindly offered to put a book trailer together for Dinah of Seneca for me.

She's very good at it, I've seen other samples of her work, and she's patiently guiding me through the process.

The first step is picking out images.

The second is picking out the right piece of music and that where Freeplay Music comes in handy, especially as you search by mood.

I knew right away I wanted something epic and heroic but when the orchestra pieces starting popping up in response to my search, I instantly thought:

"Ter is exactly the person who would know exactly what piece from a particular opera that would work for this book." 

I miss Ter. But thinking of her made me smile today.

I wanted to enjoy this finale wholeheartedly, though I freely admit that Nine is my doctor. But I got used to Ten and grew to like him just fine. And I liked his companions much better.

However, I'm still bitter about Donna's ending, so I suspect my ire at Ten is likely ire at RTD at how he writes series finales.

There are huge plot holes galore in The End of Time and I won't go into those here because the bottom line is that if you're connecting to the characters, you don't care about the plot holes. But here's where the writing lost me....

( Read more... )

I have this monster list of things to do in front of me because it's Monday and three of the four minions are finally back at school. The eldest daughter is off until Thursday. So she's still here. But she sleeps late, so I'm not counting her. Yet. 

But I didn't make the list because I have a ton new projects I want to accomplish.

I always have a ton of projects.

I made the list to focus my brain. Usually, I get things done without a written list. I'm not a list person at all. But sometimes I need focus.

And after in-law visits, organizing Christmas for everyone and taking care of various family members with the stomach bug, I seriously need some focus.

So I'm going through the list. It contains twenty items. Twelve on my professional/writing list and eight on my mom/household list.


Already checked off on writing list:
1. Sent scene to local critique partners.
2. Wrote 1k on Sky of Seneca.
3. Sent first and second sale announcements (long-delayed) to RWA.
4. Posted to LJ. :)
Btw, just realized I listed four items under one heading on my list. So that's sixteen on this list, not twelve. Oops.

Already checked off on mom/household list:
1. Workout.
2. Laundry started.
3. Emailed youngest son's school about an issue.
4. Talked to school of youngest daughter about her transition back.
5. Filled out school paperwork.

Huh. Only three left on that one. But those three include speaking to insurance company. I hate that. :) 

So that's my New Year's List. The sad part is, it never gets shorter. But that's also the fun part. Well, save for the insurance company thing.

It turns out that if I close the internet and email down and only have my work in progress open on the computer, I get more writing done.

Who knew.

Chugging along with Sky of Seneca. 48k. And both my critique group and critique partners are pleased with what they've seen so far.

WHEW.

Yes, this is something of shameless self-promotion but I tend to be that way when my minions are involved.

Over at Wired, I put together a Geek Kid Best of the Decade list with input from the minions and the scion of the other Geek Dads. It's lists of the best movies, televisions shows, websites, video games and toys. If you hit the Geek Kid Best of the Decade list at the bottom, you'll move onto the other lists. :)

Btw, my daughter debated about including Twilight but then decided the series ended so badly, it wouldn't make the cut. :) 

And, I also put together a quick list of all things Sherlock Holmes as a primer for kids and adults interested in more Holmes after the movie. And I love the fact that there's a Sherlock Ninja comic out there.

I also saw the movie with three of the four minions. Verdict: entertaining.

But...I don't know. Something was off and more than the fact that RDJ is not my idea of Sherlock Holmes. The interpretation of the character seemed enough.

I think it was that the world building, the Victorian London of this movie, was simply window dressing.

It was like a futuristic.

It was like a well-written Regency which gets all the physical details right about the Regency period and yet has the characters behaving like people in the modern day.

There's no scene in Guy Ritchie's movie that couldn't move to modern day London and still be effective. Just change around the background behind them, and it would play the same. 

And that seems...wrong.

The fun of Holmes is that he's an eccentric trapped in a world of elaborate manners and disguises. His sarcastic interactions with a world that is so carefully structured is half the fun. If Watson is as free-wheeling as Holmes, if he's just as openly eccentric in his own way, then there's not much point to the contrast between the two men.

I did like Jude Law's Watson. I love that he's not a buffoon and that he's smart and capable, as he was in the stories. But Watson is also a Victorian gentleman. The Watson in this movie is not.

These characters are not specific to their time and place, any of them. Therefore, I just couldn't completely buy into it.

I hope that makes sense.

The second in my shameless self-promotion of my writing.

Just so you don't think it's sex, sex, sex all the time I present Snippet #2:


**************************************

The bear rose on two feet, enraged, and resumed its charge.

The men beside Ragnor scattered or reached for arrows or spears stuck in the dead bear. Ragnor pulled at his spear but it was wedged in the carcass. His heart pounded, his stomach turned over in panic.

No time.

He bent his knees to make ready for the impact. He would go down fighting. There were worse fates. But what would happen to Sif when he was dead?

A flash of light brown from above, a howl, a glimpse of white teeth and claws and then suddenly the charging bear was engulfed in snarling…cat?

Ragnor could hardly breathe and his throat was so dry that he couldn’t swallow.

A cougar!

A cougar as large as a man had leapt on the bear from above. The two great animals rolled in the dirt, roaring and biting, the victor uncertain.

The hunting party scattered into the deeper brush. Ragnor backed off, to escape, but his foot hit the dead bear and he stopped, unwilling to move again and attract the attention of either of the combatants. He rubbed the crude wooden cougar through the pouch at his waist, sending prayers to Freya. Sif, I should have touched you these past days. I am sorry.

Roars and the clash of claws and teeth, a high-pitched yowl and the two animals stopped moving. It was over. Ragnor bent low, knife at the ready to face the victor.

The bear stayed down. The cat had ripped its throat out.

The cougar rose to full height, snarling, put a paw on its prey and screamed at Ragnor. All the blood drained from his face. ********************

This week's comic spotlight over on Geek Dad features The New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Perez. I was inspired to go old school because the youngest minion read Volumes one and two of the archive editions this weekend and loved them. One of my all-time favorites. So what's your favorite comics run?

I've been poking around, learning about publicity.

I haven't reached any firm conclusion, unfortunately, save to decide that the publicity style that worked for me as a reader might work for my potential readers.

So I've decided to post a snippet once a week until Freya's Gift is released. Why a snippet? I think they're less intimidating than a whole chapter and thus are more likely to be read.

And they worked on me.

I've been reading the snippets on Rachel Caine's livejournal and the glimpses of her storyverse made me very interested in the entire series.

So without further explanation.....

****************************************

Once, Ragnor’s powerful hands had held her, gentle, loving and passionate. He would seize her, laughing, lift her off her feet and kiss her until she could not think. He would toss aside her clothes and run his mouth and his fingers all over her until she quivered with the need for him. They would take each other, and then they would do it all over again…

She hugged herself, chilled. That had not happened for far too long. It might never happen.

***********************************

I've been a bit late in pimping my Geek Dad stuff lately. I had an excuse for the last week, I think, which was just insane. :)

But without further ado, my most recent one:

First, how the youngest minion saved my computer: Geek Kid to the Rescue!

Yes, it was the ten-year-old who fixed my Office 07 issues. With help.

Now if he could just figure out how I can get Tweetdeck to work again.

And my two posts of my new comic column:

Comic Spotlight on:

Caliber---a retelling of the legend of King Arthur in the American West.

Honor Brigade: a new band of superheroes from the indy publisher Spinner Rack. Great fun.

I'm going to be doing this Comic Spotlight On column every Wednesday.

So if any of you have webcomics or comics of any other sort to pimp, buzz me, either here or at my yahoo addy: trishacon@yahoo.com.

I can't guarantee I'll like it. However, I want the Spotlight to be a positive thing, so if I can't find mostly good things to say, I'll not review it at all. It helps if it's a family friendly project, as I'd like to recommend it for children--and that's all the way up to teens.

I wish I could buy all the stuff that looks interesting but I don't have the funds right now. But if anyone wants to send me review copies or links, that would be great.