Marching into March

So, yeah, February was really a wash, word count-wise. But it wasn't entirely lost, because on my trip I re-read Trang and Trials, both of which I hadn't read in a good long time. That helped me reconstitute my old cheat sheet, but it also made me a little unsatisfied with Trials because at this point there's really only one plotline. I don't think it's going to reach the three-plotline glory of Trials, which is actually OK because it's a very different book, but re-reading the other books has gotten me thinking about what else in Trials needs to be developed. I've come up with some pretty good ideas, I think, so with any luck one of these days I'll actually have time to write them down. Imagine that!

Eeerrrgh

I'm looking at February on the calendar--ugh. I'll be out of town for part of it, then right back to meet with the tax accountant, which is going to require a LOT of homework (and is actually the reason for the trip). We managed to improve and simplify many things during 2015, but of course taxes are a reflection of the entire year . . . which . . . means . . . that . . . UGH!! . . . I may actually have to interact again with some of the lovely financial-service professionals we left behind last year. Or maybe they'll decide to actually do their jobs properly and won't require loads of angry prodding.

(Cue bitter laughter.)

Long story short--probably won't be getting a lot of writing done in the near future. Honestly, this is not what I'd rather be doing, but you know--the entire reason this all takes so much time is because it was neglected, and hopefully the work I put in now will mean considerably less work down the road. I feel like I keep telling myself that, but things have been easier these past few months (WAY easier than they were in early 2015, oh my God), so it is helping.

Tax time is just always kind of a bitch, though.

You know what I'm missing?

I cannot for the life of me find the cheat sheet I made up for the soldiers that lists all their jobs, when they came onto the station, etc. I made it first with Trang, but it really reached its glory with Trust because Patch had so many scheduling conundrums to deal with in order to keep his laser tag games going and still have a proper team to go to the Cyclopes planet. Now I can't find it anywhere--ah, the perils of a lengthy hiatus. I guess after I finish this draft I'll have to read Trang and Trust again, and take notes!

Tallying up

Obviously between the allergy shot and the monster Korean assignment, I haven't been able to write, but I decided to do a tally since I'm roughly at the halfway point of Trials, plot-wise. I'm at 37,500 words, which I think is about right given that a lot of the background and physical descriptions in this draft at this point are just notes to myself (e.g. "SNAKE BOY BACKGROUND" or "DESCRIBE HOSTS HERE").

Topsy-turvy

So, complete the opposite of expectations, I made progress Friday and none over the weekend. What happened is that my Korean teacher assigned us this big, end-of-quarter project--and then decided she wanted a draft of it ASAP. Writing an essay in Korean is a major undertaking for me, so it's a big time suck. It's a community-college class, so usually the workload's much more reasonable because it's expected that you already have a job and a life. But our group has gone further than others, so the teacher is having to cobble together a curriculum on the fly, and I think she misjudged exactly how much work this particular project would be.

Taking Korean is one of those things where I feel a bit like, Why am I doing this? I don't need to know Korean, and you know, this project is going to swamp me for a bit. On the other hand, it's a really interesting language (all languages are interesting of course, but Korean is very different from both English and Romance languages), and at this point I'm finally feeling like I'm getting slightly good at it (honestly, writing this essay is really helpful, if also a real pain). The other thing is, since I don't live in Seattle itself, it's hard to find Korean classes, and as I said, this particular group of students is really committed, so there's not the problem of not having enough students to make a class (which was a problem in the past--I actually started and then had to take a year off until this group came along). As a result, I'm not going to be able to just drop class for a quarter or two to focus on something else, and then pick up where I left off.

So, I labor on....

Lack-of-progress report

Yeah, my Other Duties have been rearing their ugly heads--I've actually gotten quite a bit done, just not on Trials.

Tomorrow I go to the allergist for a re-evaluation. Assuming it's anything like the initial evaluation I'll wind up high as a kite on antihistamines, so I'm guessing I'm not going to be getting a lot of work done. The weekend should probably be better. I want to get some progress done then because I'm planning on getting my next maintenance shot on Wednesday, which will probably leave me pretty wiped out on Thursday as well.

But! I actually finished the first part of Trials! Most of the work was done earlier, but honestly accomplishing any kind of milestone on this book seems like such a huge deal because it's been so long....

Progress report

I took Monday off becuase it was a holiday, but since it was a holiday all the things I couldn't do Monday because stuff was closed has to be done today, plus I have class. So, yeah, I don't think I'm going to be getting much done today--tomorrow!

Progress report

Today I REALLY felt like blowing off the writing, but then the time came where I was going to have to make a post here explaining that I went shopping instead, and that was just too embarrassing, so not only did I write 590 words, but I rearranged some of the material so that the chapters break better as well. Let's hear it for the Hawthorne Effect!

What has changed, and what will change

Today was spent talking to lawyer--on the upside, this was the first lengthy lawyer conversation that did not involve metaphorical rat abatement and dangerous tree removal but rather the planning of a metaphorical dream garden, one that I can envision being a pleasure (and not too big a hassle) to take care of.

This is all very good, but the issue remains: No matter how efficient and productive my metaphorical yard becomes, I have taken on a new job. It's not a full-time job, but it is a definite time commitment.

The flip side of this is that I am really, really excited about Trials--quite possibly the most excited I have ever been since I began writing it. When I read over what was written earlier, it was the first time in memory that I really enjoyed reading it and felt like I really wanted to finish it--because it's going to be such a great book when it's done!

(Which makes me grateful I didn't decide to force myself to write it when I was miserable and depressed. Again, Accordion Crimes stands as a warning, and one that I am glad I heeded. I personally believe that you can tell if an author is engaged by a work or if they're just trudging through because they feel they have to finish it, and I really didn't want to do that to the Trang series.)

So I am thinking about ways of making production more efficient when that comes around. I think this will be the book where I pay for real layout software (renting Adobe's, methinks, rather than coughing up $850 for QuarkXPress)--that should make that process less of a drag. (I could pay someone to lay it out for me, but honestly, I think I'm too much of a control freak for that.)

You may have noticed that I abandoned working on the audiobook--it was really dull work, and I just didn't have the stomach for it. I kind of figured that I wouldn't ever finish, but now that I'm feeling more upbeat . . . I don't think I'd do all the books, but maybe just finish the first one? Sometime? I looked at Lindsay Buroker's blog, which I haven't done in a while, and I noticed that she didn't do any audiobooks after her first three--but she still gets readers from Podiobooks. So maybe that's the way to go--just make it another free edition.

When I get around to it, anyway--that's definitely way down the list. . . .

Well, today blows

Best-laid plans...I was all excited yesterday, and then I ate a late dinner which kept me awake, and then the cat work me up early, so I got maybe five hours of sleep? The day has largely been spent staring off into space with my mouth open--I plan on turning on the television soon so that at least I'll be staring at something.

Planning on going to bed early tonight. Tomorrow!

I just shouldn't make promises during the holiday season, right?

Yeah, I underestimated how much post-Christmas crap I had to do, so sorry about that. I'm getting my shot today instead of tomorrow in hopes of getting started sometime this week (although December is also Birthday Season in my family, and we've got yet another coming up--makes for a LOT of shopping at a time when sensible people try to avoid the mall).

Anyway, I've tidied the Web page a little, and I decided that I'm going to revamp the cover of the YA fantasy novel when I have the chance. I like the general concept, but I think putting a visual reference to video games on the cover sets up the expectation that the book has something to do with video games, which it absolutely does not. So I think I'll do something similar but using a more natural-looking dragon (which I shall probably cobble together from photographs of snakes and lizards, since I still can't draw).

Progress report

Yes! It is Christmas Eve, but I am making a progress report!

Some back story: The allergy shots were chugging along, and I only needed two more to reach the maintenance stage when I had a much more serious reaction to the shots than I'd had before (nothing life-threatening, don't worry). But the dose I reacted to was high enough that they can just put me on maintenance at a slightly lower dose. That means that instead of having a shot every three to four days, I can have a shot every two weeks--which is a much easier schedule.

With recovering from the bad reaction, the holidays, and the fact that I'm just kind of out of practice, I haven't been doing much--but my next shot is Tuesday, and I really wanted to get started before then.

So today I read over the Trials chapters--it's good! I'm looking forward to working on it! Tomorrow will be off for obvious reasons, but then I'm hoping Saturday through Monday will be a productive time....

I receive the third degree

I have two nieces, one seven years old and one ten. Last night, my sister and her husband wanted to go to a concert, so I baby-sat.

Everything was chugging along normally--I was reading in the kitchen--when the younger niece trundled down from upstairs with a copy of Trang in her hands.

NIECE: Who's Mary Sisson? [We're all named Mary, so at home I go by a family nickname.]

ME: That's me.

NIECE: Why is your name on this book?

ME: I wrote it.

NIECE: Do you think it's a good book?

ME: I wrote that book.

NIECE: Why does a curse appear [older niece joins in from the next room] just a few paragraphs into the book!

Le sigh. I went with the younger niece into the next room and explained to both children that a curse word appears on the first page because the soldiers curse a lot, and I wanted people who were bothered by cursing to know what they were getting into sooner rather than later. The older niece is just generally less prudish than the younger, so we spent a few fun-filled minutes imitating people who throw books across the room, shrieking, whenever they encounter a bad word.

I went back to the kitchen and my reading--and the younger niece joined me, opening Trang up on the kitchen table.

NIECE: I can see that bad word right there.

ME: That book is not for kids!

NIECE: Then why is it in the house?

ME: Because I wanted my sister to read it, and she isn't a kid!

NIECE: [Shuts book.] I know that bad word. I know five bad words.

I changed the subject, but when my sister got home she assured me that, had I asked, the niece would have been happy to share those five words with me....

How things are looking

So, a good deal of the things I was having to deal with earlier have been put to bed--there will still be maintenance, and I suspect March/April will be a busy time, but systems are in place, routines are being followed, and these days I almost never find myself fantasizing about tracking down some smooth-talking suit and shooting him in the head.

I'm still doing the allergy shots--there have been a couple of hiccups, but it looks like I will be able to finish the series, so yay. I've discovered I can keep to a two-shot-a-week schedule as long as I don't expect to get anything meaningful done on more than one front: Just one project, plus shots, that's it. I'll be traveling next week (something I look forward to in no small part because it will be a holiday from the shots) and then Thanksgiving comes along, but after that--we're keeping Christmas low-key, so the one project I work on could possibly be writing or editing, no? Maybe? Fingers crossed.

The shots should wind up in late December--early January at the latest---which should be very helpful.

Straight Outta Wherever

I just saw Straight Outta Compton today--oh, man. It's pretty great (it just kind of ends, but other than that, it's awesome), and one of the things I thought was really excellent was the enormous focus on how artists get screwed.

Spoilers ahead!

Ice Cube is the one who first gets suspicious of N.W.A.'s manager: Eventually the manager wants him to sign a contract without having a lawyer look at it first, and Ice Cube just walks away from the group completely--he knows he doesn't know enough to understand a contract without a lawyer, and he has a sensitive-enough bullshit detector to know when someone is trying to screw him, so that's that.

Later as a solo artist, Ice Cube gets fed the "We'll pay you after you hit it big. Oh, you just hit it big! Well, we're still not going to pay you." line from a record company executive, so in a scene that made me cackle uncontrollably with delight, he smashes the shit out of the guy's office with a baseball bat! And tells the executive that he can take the cost out of the money he owes him! (Apparently this really happened! I love you, Ice Cube!)

And yes, settling your problems with a baseball bat is not the best way (and I should point out that sometimes the guy with the handy office is not the guy who is screwing you), but Jesus Christ, can I ever relate to the urge.

Most recently we dealt with another attempt to take advantage of an elderly relative, and it bore many similarities to N.W.A.'s problems.

That might sound odd, but a scam is a scam, whether you're a rapper straight outta Compton, a little old lady, or a writer. As I've mentioned before, people who don't want you to use processes you can trust are not people who you can trust.

So here's a little list of things to look out for that mark potential scammers:

1. They target the weak. I can't get specific for obvious reasons, but the elderly relative entered into a business agreement. Then we of the younger generation legally took over authority.

Now, I will say that I never felt good about this agreement. Why? Because the elderly relative was already somewhat addlepated when they made it, and I was open to the possibility that they were being taken advantage of.

Nonetheless, I was willing to carry the ball on this deal, since that's pretty much my job these days. In fact, I was the one who made the phone call informing the other side that authority had legally shifted.

What was truly interesting was what happened next: Nothing.

At least not to me. The other people who took over authority along with me started getting all kinds of calls and e-mails, while I did not.

Isn't that odd? In a business deal, why not communicate with the person who initiated communication with you?

Oh, because that person was most likely given that job because they were the one best-suited to handle this kind of thing? And the last thing you want to deal with is someone who might know the score.

I wonder why that is?

2. They threaten you with doom/promise you the moon. This was the thing that made us all stop and go, Wait a minute. These guys weren't just calling those who they hoped were weak--they were threatening them.

And their threats made no sense. None of us are lawyers, but all of us readily agreed that, given what little knowledge of the law we had, these threats were both remarkably vague and quite extreme.

In addition to the vague threats, there were the gauzy promises of fortune--someday. (And God, the elderly relative just ate that shit up.) Someday, we would make HEAPS of money--HEAPS!!!

Not now, of course. Now we'd get nothing. But SOMEDAY!!!!!!

3. They are not shy about making it personal. Do you give a fuck about how I get along with distant cousins I've met maybe a handful times in my lifetime? No?

These guys did--they cared so much. They were so concerned that we not alienate people whose contact information we don't even have by tanking this deal. Because tanking a bad deal would be disadvantageous to these cousins in some way. This is assuming that they hadn't already tanked the deal for themselves, and we didn't know about it, which was entirely possible, given that we don't actually know each other and don't talk.

And of course these guys stroked the elderly relative like nobody's business, because they aren't business partners--they're friends.

At least these assholes didn't pester the elderly relative after we took over in hopes of getting them to pressure us. Other assholes have.

4. Lawyer? What's a lawyer? Since the elderly relative was merely addlepated, not fully demented, a lawyer did draw up the original deal.

But the amendment to the deal that these guys wanted us to sign? Oh, nobody needs a lawyer for a silly little thing like that.

We're silly little things, so yes, we did get a lawyer specializing in that particular area of law to look at it and tell us that signing the amendment would be (and this is an exact quote) "crazy." Also, we can undo the deal whether they want us to or not.

So what is the other side doing now? They're pretending like our lawyer does not exist. They've been instructed more than once to communicate solely with the lawyer, but they are acting like nobody told them nothing. (And HA! you should have seen the lawyer's professional reserve just vaporize in a red-hot fury over that one!)

Why are they doing this? Please familiarize yourself with point #1 above.