There's more than one way...

From Romancing the Blog, an encouraging and timely post:

 

50 Ways to Meet Your Lovers

Jokes! And a contest!

One of the recent posts on Smart Bitches Trashy Books had me snorting liquid out my nose, or would have if I'd been drinking anything at the time.  Check it out:

 

Dirty Quantum Mechanics Jokes Done Right

 

I had to add my two cents in the comments, to the effect of a list of how physicists "do it":

 

Physicists do it a quantum at a time.
Physicists do it at the speed of light.
Cosmologists do it in the first three minutes.
Mathematical physicists understand the theory of how to do it, but have difficulty obtaining practical results.
Quantum physicists can either know how fast they do it, or where they do it, but not both.
Particle physicists do it energetically.
Particle physicists to it with charm.
Aerodynamicists do it in drag.
Astrophysicists do it with a Big Bang.
Astronomers do it all night.
Astronomers do it in clusters.
Astronomers do it on mountain tops.
Astronomers do it with white dwarfs and red giants.

 

(My favorites are the mathematical and quantum physics ones.) 

I added my own:
Medical physicists do it in fractions.
Medical physicists do it on the table.
Medical physicists do it with doctors, nurses, therapists, dosimetrists…

Ooh, more:

Medical physicists do it with Quality Assurance. 
Medical physicists do it with modulated intensity. 
Medical physicists do it theraputically.

Okay, enough.  Sorry.  Can you tell I'm working late and procrastinating?  *w*

So, the contest part!

 

Elspeth has a tattoo.  I haven't decided what it is yet - that's where the contest comes in.  She's a physicist, like me, so I was looking for some geektastically awesome science/physics-related tattoo.  Nothing too huge or elaborate.

 

Post or e-mail your ideas or pictures to me, and the winner gets their design featured in the book, a nod in my acknowledgements page, and a walk-on role for themselves.  Or...something like that.  *g*

Writer MIA...again

My internet presence will continue to be spotty over the next few weeks/months.  A lot will depend on how much I get done (book-wise and IRL) and how quickly I do so.  I also really need to restrict my internet time, since blog-hopping and board-surfing consume a lot of what could be writing time. 

 

Of course, I'll continue to be reachable via e-mail and I'll surface for the October X over on Compuserve at the very least.  But I'm going to try to focus on being more efficient/productive at work and at home and on the book.  Hunkering down in my cave, if you will.  I'd like to be done by the end of October (since it's now looking like September was a complete wash) but it's hard to say.  If I really do have 40K more to write, that could take much longer.  By the end of the year at the very latest.  So much for the Golden Heart, but there's always next year.  *g*

 

TV night last night was fun.  Heroes was good (though I admit my penchant for spoilers cut down on some of the suspense for me) and we just almost watched the Journeyman pilot again (saw it twice OnDemand already).  Also caught the premier of "Chuck" which is a fun, nerdy kind of spy-comedy-adventure.  They had me on the reference to Zork.  *g*  It didn't make the DVR list, but if we're home in time we'll definitely have it on while we're waiting for Heroes.

 

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's back to work I go...

Dream a little dream...or two

Since this week at work is kicking my @$$ (did I mention the other physicist has been gone all week so I'm pulling double-duty, and then everything kind of hit the fan?) I haven't made much progress writing, though I have been researching like crazy and slowly bringing a few scenes to boil in the back of my mind.

 

Maybe as a testament to my exhaustion, for the past two nights I've had weird dreams.  And they both relate back to the book in some way.

 

Wednesday night I dreamt that I (and DH, too, at some point) was traveling through time.  More like in Journeyman than my book, because it was spontaneous and I went back and forth several times.  It was about 100-150 years or so into the past, and somewhere here in the States, some big city near hills or mountains.  I distinctly remember having my digital camera with me on the last trip, and I was glad because I wanted to take pics to prove everything.  Only the battery was dying, and I only got a couple shots.  Does that mean anything?

 

(For the record, Elspeth's camera and cell phone are zapped by an EMP-type effect while traveling through hyperspace.  So they're nonfunctional when she arrives in 1691.)

 

Last night's was a bit more exciting because it involved my book being published and selling (relatively) well.  It was either e-pubbed with print option or self-published, but it was doing well enough to get picked up by a big house.

 

Oh, I remember now, I had self-published because I said to DH (in the dream) how the first print run of something like 1600 copies had sold out (don't know how there were "print runs" on a POD book, but hey - it was a dream) and I'd since sold another 1600 copies or so, for a total of more than 3200 copies sold on a self-published book which is a pretty big deal.  I had hired someone to design the cover for me so it looked nice, and then I guess it got good word-of-mouth.

 

And then a big publisher picked it up and it earned out its advance and went into a second print run with them, too.

 

And then my blasted alarm clock went off.  *sigh*

 

Just thought I'd get that down.  I felt the need to post something, and I had about 5 glasses of caffienated soda with my sushi at lunch (mmmm...) so I am temporarily energized to type and *gasp!* I don't have anything to do at the mom-

 

Oh, blast.  Here when I thought I was caught up with work for the week, another load just got dumped.  I'll be so glad when he gets back next week.  Hi ho, hi ho...

That way lies madness

I cannot believe it is almost 5 am and I have been up all night working and reworking my query. It started off as just wanting to have a good blurb for the sidebar, and then I was in the groove, but the thing just kept getting longer instead of more concise, and then...it was 5 in the morning and I'm facing work on only 3 hours sleep (if I'm lucky) after two back-to-back 12 hour days and 3 more left in the week.

All for a book I may have 40K left to write on, and which I certainly won't be querying until next year in any case.

*sigh* Why do I do this to myself?

I love it when a plan comes together...

Based on my (very rudimentary) early research into surrounding clans, I had written in Alec's intended betrothed (no, that's not a redundancy) as one Janet Cameron, youngest daughter of Sir Ewan Cameron of Lochiel, and in her mid-late teens at the time of my story. Most of this I pulled out of thin air - there was a later, famous Janet "Jenny" Cameron who (reportedly) led a branch of the Camerons in the '45 and so the name stuck with me. (Diana mentions her in Dragonfly, pg. 633 of the paperback.) The age was for convenience; younger than Elspeth, basically, and illustrating how early women were betrothed back then.

Tonight, being too restless to actually write, I thought I would look up Sir Ewan Cameron's children to see if I could swing that.

Check this out.

Ahaha! No birth year given, but if you click the link for her father Sir Ewan's listing you'll see she was the youngest of his daughters (by his first wife, at least). Her younger brother, the later Lochiel himself, is listed in one of my sources (Prebble's Glencoe: Story of the Massacre, I think) as being in his teens at the time. So that would make her probably not much older.

And I love how it says the contract for her marriage was signed in March 1696, etc. So maybe, if she were supposed to marry someone else in 1692 but they got themselves outlawed/condemned before the contract was formalized, and so that was dissolved and it took a little bit to arrange another marriage for her to Grant of Glenmoriston...

Sometimes stuff falls into place so neatly it kind of weirds me out. *g*

OTOH

While reviewing my swelling spreadsheet in order to organize my most recent fragments into some kind of chronology, I was struck by the number of significant bits I have yet to even think about/visualize, much less write.

I'm nowhere near done. *headdesk*

I think this thing is going to top 120-125K before all is said and done on the SFD. It will eventually get pared down to a nice, tight, less-than-100K MS but until then it means I'm not "almost" done or 4/5ths done, it's more like back to 2/3rds done and where I was two months ago.

So much for September. October? Eh, a girl can dream.

Don't Kill the Dog

Wow, I'm making up for my days off by giving you enough posts for all of them.

 

Anyway, Diana Peterfreund had a very interesting blog post today:  Don't Kill the Dog

 

The comment string is where it gets most interesting.  Seems most people genuinely don't like the death of animals in books, and several mentioned the death of a child as even worse.

 

The two comments I left are telling.  'Cause, well, there's a dead dog and a dead mother and child in my book.

 

From One Highland Night (c) 2007

 

The keening wail of a child brought his head back around, and his eyes found young Geordie huddled on the ground next to the body of a dog, its black and white fur stained red with blood.

"Oh, no…" Her voice was quiet behind him, full of sympathy.

"Geordie, lad," he said. "What has happened here?"

"They…they shot him!" Geordie wailed between sobs. "They shot Aodhair!"

"Who?"

"The…Campbell…bastards!"

He swore violently. The lad continued to greet, and he gripped his shoulders. "Are they still here, in the glen? Are they in the village? Tell me, lad, and quickly!" His voice was harsher than he meant, but he had to know. A hiss of indrawn breath behind him indicated the lass's disapproval.

"N-nae…I dinna think so." The boy looked down, stroking the top of the still head between the ears. "He was a good dog, was Aodhair. Why did they have to shoot him?"

He gentled his voice, despite the tension thrumming in his veins. "Because they are Campbells, and bastards as ye said, aye? I ken it doesna make it easier to bear, but ye must listen—listen to me now, lad. It isna safe here. There are Campbells to manage, and we need all the men we have back in Glenstrae to protect it, should they come again."

and

Frantically, she put her ear to the boy's chest, listened for a heartbeat, a gasp of breath. There was none.

"Oh no, no…"

A sound from the bed, a rustle as the woman turned to look at her. Bloodshot eyes found her own and bored into her with feverish intensity. She couldn't hide the truth from her face; her own shock was too new and too raw.

The woman turned her head away. She might have been crying, save Elspeth knew she was too dehydrated for tears. Still, the frail body shook quietly for a few moments, clutching the even smaller body of her son.

God, what do you say to someone who's just lost a child?

All she could think to do was place a comforting hand on the woman's and bow her head, let her have her grief. At length the bony shoulders stilled. Elspeth looked to the woman's face and was startled to see a wild, distant look in her eyes.

"Do you…do you want some water?" she asked, with some alarm.

Eyes now closed, the woman's head shook from side to side.

"We'll take you with us…back to Glenstrae. You can recover there."

The head shook more violently. The low, ragged voice, forced through a throat parched and raw, issued once more from cracked lips.

"[There is naught more for me here, naught for me to live for, now.]"

The woman spoke to her, directly, and this time she managed to make out some of it. A phrase, an explanation—nothing to live for.

No husband, no son. Had she loved her husband? Had the son been the only thing that bound her to this life, made her keep living after he was gone? Dying of a broken heart had always seemed so tragically romantic but now, as she faced the reality of it, she realized it was merely tragic.

So...am I in for it now?  Tragic, historic, worldbuilding detail or senseless deaths that will get me flamed by readers?

Journeyman

This is the new fall show I've been most excited about, and blogged about once before.  Lucky us, DH and I got to initiate our "Monday TV Night" a week early last night and watch the pilot ahead of time.

 

Our verdict: KEEPER!  We've already set up the "series record" on our DVR.

 

Kevin McKidd - previously seen as Lucius Vorenus on HBO's Rome, which DH and I loved - plays Dan Vasser, a San Fransisco reporter who suddenly begins travelling through time.  (And does an admirable job hiding his very Scottish natural accent while doing so, hehe.)

 

[Some spoilers ahead.] 

 

Dan's married, though the relationship is revealed to have had some rough patches, and they have a young son.  Over the course of the episode we learn that his present wife Katie was once the girlfriend of Dan's older brother Jack, and Dan himself was engaged to a lawyer named Livia.  But Livia died in a mysterious plane crash 9(?) years ago.

 

The time travelling is spontaneous, and at first Dan doesn't know what's going on.  It messes with both his home life and his job.  After his first few disappearances, some for as long as a couple days, Dan arrives home to find Katie has staged an "intervention" with his friends and coworkers.

 

When Dan travels, he keeps running into the same man - Neil Gaines - at different points, at first saving him from committing suicide.  As Dan continues to track Neil and alter further events in his life, he also runs into Livia, his former True Love.  There's a great twist involving her that has me screaming for more episodes.  And the way Dan finally convinces Katie that he's really time travelling and not crazy or on drugs was inspired.  Classic.

 

Seems I was on my mark with my initial reaction to the premise.  This was very Quantum Leap as far as the "higher force" directing him places to change lives/history, but without the overly cheesy "future" set up and the time machine.  It seems this show is set firmly in the present, picking up in late 2007 (I assume, since Dan has an iPhone - I have to say, the juxtaposition in 1987 of him wearing his Bluetooth headset and they guy with the MASSIVE cell phone was hilarious).  The elements of TTW are there with the sudden disappearances and how they affect his present-day.

 

After just the pilot, this has already moved up into my list of favorite shows, right behind Heroes.  How convenient (and brilliant) to slot it immediately after on the TV schedule.  Whether or not it targets the entire percieved "demo" of Heroes, you have to know how many Star Trek/Quantum Leap/etc. ('cause that's a big crossover) fans make up a large part of that market and will be drawn to this show.

 

US readers with digital cable should be able to find the pilot On Demand in the "Free Spot" under "NBC Fall Preview" through Sunday, September 23.  (It airs next Monday, the 24th.)  Thanks to Brooke for that tip-off.  Those with PCs or TiVo can download it via Amazon's Unbox through the same time window  HERE.

 

And this is, of course, tangentially related to my writing, since time-travel is involved.  Heehee.

The Bronze Horseman

The Bronze Horseman

by Paullina Simons

 

Rhonddalyn has been going on about this book on the Forum since at least March, and I finally got around to checking it out and reading it.  Now I see what the fuss was about.

 

My review:

 

TBH is set in WWII Russia, mainly Leningrad.  On the day Germany invades Russia, we meet Tatiana, who then meets Alexander, an officer in the Red Army.  The book is their love story, and how their relationship develops through the horrors of war (especially the blockade of Leningrad, and the starvation and deaths that followed) and despite Tatiana's family and Alexander's pretense of a relationship with her older sister Dasha.  Things are further complicated by Alexander's past and the selfish, treacherous Dmitri, who is out to use his leverage on Alexander to get whatever he wants - at first Tatiana, later...well, that's a bit of a spoiler.

 

Basically, it's all about war and how it affects love and family.  Lots of tangled threads.  Claire, you really ought to read it.  *w*

 

I won't elaborate on the plot points at length.  This is a Big Book, not by any means "light reading."  Suffice it to say that theirs is one of those great epic, tragic loves.  As you move towards the book's inevitable conclusion, the depth of their love is almost overwhelming.  I got misty-eyed a few times, and then sat in my office at work and had a good cry when I finished it.  It was like The Time-Traveller's Wife in that respect for me.

 

So, definitely recommended.

 

And that's why I got a bit of scene all-unplanned yesterday.  As I said in my last post, I don't often method write but this book and (SPOILER) Alexander and Tatiana's separation(s) hit close enough to the emotions I want people to feel when Alec and Elspeth face separation that I let it spill over.  This is the kind of bar I've set myself as far as emotional impact.  Can I clear it?  Sometimes I wonder.  It remains to be seen.

 

I was still reeling from the end of the book (SPOILER for all that Alexander's fate was somewhat open-ended, Tatiana at least thinks him dead) when I happily discovered via the discussion on Compuserve that there are TWO more sequels.  Tatiana & Alexander and The Summer Garden .  Epic love, indeed.  The third book seems to be hard to find, but I was very pleased to find all three available in hardback through Zooba.com (a great program, regardless) for only $9.95.  Bonus.

...and we're back!

I had a very relaxing weekend.  Caught up on sleep, spent time with family and friends, and did some stuff around the house.  Oh, and read (more on that later).

 

Friday night during bunco, the ladies at my table started asking me about the book.  Much hilarity ensued when I let slip that one of my scenes is currently titled "blue balls".  Ahaha.  These are mostly woman from my Sunday school class, mind.  But I did get a few of them to admit they read romance, and the way a few others were asking, I think they do (or want to) but aren't ready to admit it in public yet.  Heh.

 

Saturday I finally got the landscaping around my water garden under control, did my fall transplanting, and took down, fixed, and rebuilt the waterfall that flows into the pond.  Then we went out for a picnic with our Sunday school class (saw a lot of them this weekend!), and afterwards to our friends' house to watch the game.  Which really meant the women sat in the kitchen or playroom and chatted while the guys watched.  Fine with me; I'm not that into football.  But Kentucky won!  Who would've thought?

 

Sunday was church, and then DH's dad came up to spend the afternoon.  We've really got to be careful what we say around grandparents now.  Little Boy (he's not a baby anymore *sniff*) really enjoyed the MagnaDoodle at our friends' the previous day.  DH mentioned to me in the presence of his dad that we ought to think about getting LB one sometime soon, so he can practice writing with no mess.  Guess what FIL insisted on buying while we were out?  Yup.

 

Yesterday was *insanely* busy at work.  Oh, and I was finishing up The Bronze Horseman (look for a post on that shortly).  Even so, I managed to get about 800 words down in between things.  I was so emotionally caught up in TBH that I rode that wave of emotion into thinking how Elspeth would feel when she returns, something I hadn't let myself work on yet.  It's about as close to "method writing" as I get - sometimes strong emotions elicited in me from a book or movie or situation spill over into corresponding areas of my book.

 

This is a snip from just the bare bones of a scene, but it helped for me to get it down:

History books called to her, tormented her. They could ease her burden somewhat, tell her she had done the right thing, that he had lived a full and happy life...or they could tell her the opposite. Knowing would make it final. But not knowing was driving her insane.

Ultimately she looked, but she kept herself from looking too closely, still afraid of what she would see. She skimmed pages, letting names jump out at her, only half-reading the sections that followed. [...]

A few heart-stopping times, her eyes found the name Alasdair MacGregor--alternately Alistair or Alexander and McGregor, McGrigor, or MacGriogar--and she forced herself to read on. But it was always the story of his [great]grandfather, his namesake, and the betrayal by the Colquhouns and Campbells after the Battle of Glen Fruin. So she took a breath and kept reading.

Beyond that, little to nothing of the Glenstrae branch, save that chiefship of Clan Gregor had shifted to Glengyle in the early eighteenth century. After Andrew, perhaps? She hoped; despite not knowing him well, she genuinely liked Alec's brother. But what of the second son? History, it seemed, did not remember Alasdair Colin MacGregor of Glenstrae.

But she did.