Jen's vacation

 

Our daughter-in-law enjoyed the trip to the ocean as well! Although they live in Victoria, they don't often get a chance to see the wide open ocean. 

 

The weather was so gorgeous while we were there. Sunny all day every day, but the breeze off the ocean kept things cool enough to enjoy. 

 

Here Jen and her daddy-in-law have a look uuuuuup at the giant fir trees in the Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island. 

 

We found eight (if I remember correctly) sand dollars along the beach in low tide, and we were delighted NOT to pay $3.95 for them in a shop! 

Joel's vacation

 

Our son had brought along a skimmer board and spent several hours skimming back and forth along the shallows. It was fun to watch and I took a zillion pictures. I won't bore you with all the details! 

 

People say I have a *feet-ish* when I take photos. I dunno. I think this one is pretty cool! 

  

If there is a rock, Joel has to climb it. It's been like that for more than twenty years now, and I'm not expecting things to change any minute soon.

 

Early morning coffee on the beach. (Lowest tides were around six a.m.) This sunstar felt kinda gooey but firm inside, sort of like those rubber snakes. Very weird! 

The Wild Pacific Trail

  

On Friday afternoon we hiked the Wild Pacific Trail around the headlands of the village of Ucluelet. I let Joel have the camera for most of this hike (2.5 km) as Jim and I had been there a couple years ago and taken lots of photos, so this batch are all taken by our son. Here's the lighthouse at the furthest reach.

  


The benefit of having your kid with the camera is that someone can prove that both parents were on the trip!

  

This photo is one of my favorites of the ones Joel took. Very artistic, I'm thinking! Maybe my kids and I share an *eye* for laying out this type of photo.

  


Like I said, having Joel with the camera allowed Jim's and my trip to be better documented. The trail has a lot of little viewpoint places with benches to sit and enjoy the view. Where the trail starts is on the west side of Vancouver Island, with mostly wide open ocean. You follow the trail south to the lighthouse, then around the headland on the harbor side, and back to the parking lot. This viewpoint appears to look out over a nearby island.

  

The trees on the west side have some serious wind issues to deal with! We'd taken a photo of this same tree a couple years ago, and it stood straighter then. AND it had more greenery. It's a hard life being pounded with wind and saltwater all your existence. Or so the trees tell me.

WHALES!

We had a great trip this past weekend, but the highlight had to be our three hour whale watching tour on Saturday afternoon. Here we are all suited up for our excursion on the Zodiac inflateable, which seats twelve tourists (:P)

  

We saw one gray whale fairly soon after leaving the Tofino harbor, and a while later we saw two more together. I found it hard to take pictures with my little digital camera as you never know what second will be the perfect shot--or even what direction to be pointing at to capture it! The camera batteries don't hold power forever trying to keep it on *ready* either.

  

This grey whale was close enough and cooperated well enough that I could get several shots. These two are the best.

  

A bit later we came upon two humpback whales bilge feeding, but I wasn't able to get photos worth sharing. I have a great photo of the back of the guy in front of me, though! I have serious camera envy. He had a digital SLR with like a fifteen inch telephoto and obviously no issues with camera batteries. He could take ten photos to one of mine for speed.

There's our little vacation in a nut shell. Hope you enjoyed the glimpses!

Off on vacation for a week

As mentioned a few days ago, hubby and I are up at the crack of dawn tomorrow (comes mighty early this time of year) for a 4:30 am start to our trip. Gulp. We have cards and gifts from various folks in our church to give our friend Rick in the hospital, and hope to have a good visit with him tomorrow around noon...hopefully to be an encouragement to him.

We'll have a few days camping at Bella Pacifica Campground on Vancouver Island with our son and daughter-in-law. Photos will go up soon after at Flickr, where I created an account today and posted some photos from the past month in case you're interested in some BC scenery. Click here.

Behave yourselves until I get back!

DragonKeepers Chronicles part 2

Yesterday I mentioned that I'd emailed Mrs. Paul and asked her some questions regarding some of her writing choices. First off I'd like to point out that she has invented not one, not two, but FOURTEEN different races of beings for her series, seven of which are *high* and seven *low*.

Q:What went into your decision to create your own races of beings for your series as opposed to the typical elves, goblins, dwarves, etc?

A:Respect for an entire body of literature and cultural traditions that I have only glimpsed. I know people who are avid researchers, or the mythical elements are a part of their doctoral studies in literature. Tolkien was one such person. I didn't want to mock the deep-rooted legacy of these artforms. Since I wanted fantasy elements without disturbing chroniclers of folklore, I chose to create beings of a different ilk.

Q:What is the process you went through in choosing how to portray the concept of magic in your novels?

A:I looked at how others had done it, George MacDonald, Tolkien, and Lewis, in particular. Then I set my own boundaries, what I felt comfortable with. Then as I write, I ask God to give me a check in my spirit if a story element is edging into an unacceptable area. I also have several Biblical scholars including two pastors who read my work before it is published and point out any problems.

Book three of the DragonKeepers Chronicles is officially out today. You may want to pick up all three of them, but definitely give DragonKnight a try!

Becky Miller has the whole blog tour hosted from her blog, including an interview with Donita Paul. Don't miss it!

DragonKeeper Chronicles

Rebecca Miller is hosting another Christian Fantasy blog tour this week. I've known for about a month that June would feature Donita K. Paul's newest book (out this week) DragonKnight. I'd been hearing good things about the DragonKeeper Chronicles of which this is book three, but couldn't seem to be able to Interlibrary loan them in. (Books have to be available in a BC public library and more than one year old, and apparently Paul's books haven't made it into a BC library yet.)

Long story short, because I knew this was coming up AND because I found books one and two in the bookstore when I visited my daughter last month, I bought them. Book three was to have hit my mailbox already, but it hasn't arrived yet. That's okay, I'm mid-way through the second book at the moment and will survive a little longer without the third!

Donita Paul's series is labelled A Fantastic Journey of Discovery for All Ages. The stories revolve around a girl named Kale, once a slave, who finds a dragon's egg. In the land of Amara, this means that she must go for training in The Hall. In DragonSpell, Kale gets waylaid before ever reaching The Hall and discovers that she is needed to locate a meech dragon egg stolen by the evil Wizard Ristro. She travels with her new companions Dar and Leetu and has many adventures in the course of recovering this precious egg.

In the second novel, DragonQuest, Kale, who is now a student at The Hall, is summoned by the Wizard who is to care for the hatched meech dragon. It seems that because the egg quickened while in Kale's care, the dragon has bonded to her. She is needed to tend and help train the young dragon.

While these novels are aimed at a YA market, they aren't childish in any way. Recommended reading for anyone who enjoys fully formed worlds and fantasy quest type reading.

I asked Donita Paul a couple of questions about her worldbuilding choices and will talk about those tomorrow. Meanwhile, the blog tour will be traveling around to many blogs starting Tuesday. I got a bit of a jumpstart because I'll be away later on in the week, and wanted a chance to promote these books before I left.

This elk calf was curled up right by our fence! 

Here we go: photos again

Here's the one of the car that I've been trying to post:


Hubby, happy with his two diesel vehicles 

Last evening we went for a quick trip up the lake and found the scotch brome in full bloom. Beautiful evening. Here's the best pic:


Scotch brome along the lake 

Random updates

On June 2 I talked about our friend Rick acquiring Guillain-Barre syndrome. He's been in the regional hospital for two weeks now, and his family is on their way to see him for the first time this weekend. He's out of ICU and into Rehab, which is certainly good news. He's discouraged about the slow progress and that he will likely be there for several more weeks at best. He would like to be the exception to the rule and bounce back faster than average, but so far it is just plain WORK on nerves and muscles that don't want to cooperate.

I also mentioned my struggle with weight loss. I've lost another couple pounds and have continued to get some exercise every single day. I've been blessed by the number of people (here, in my Curves gym, at my church, and forums) I've been encourage in their own path. Although my birthday was in May, I just got my gift from hubby a few days ago: a new bike with decent suspension and raised handlebars that allow me to ride without kinking my neck. The bike makes a nice change for me some mornings instead of running, and it allows us to get out together on weekends--when he's home on a weekend, anyway. Drat that four on four off shift he works!

The humungous powerpoint project is done. I got smart and bought myself a flash drive. I've been meaning to do that for awhile and this seemed the perfect excuse. Very impressed with the speed of saving files on it! I took the flash up to the church yesterday and went through the presentation with my youth pastor on the big screen in the sanctuary, where it looks a lot different than on my monitor. He couldn't do much with the presentation there as it consists of over a hundred slides, most made individually in photoshop. So I had a few to re-do, and I emailed them in last night.

That covers some of the random bits I've blogged about that needed updating. If there's anything I've forgotten about, remind me...

60K

The edits on Marks of Repentance are going well. I'm currently at about 60K (of 95) and still enjoying myself. I'm also about half done the full novel crit I'm doing for Mar.

Blogger has being a nasty baby again lately. Or maybe it's Picasa and Hello that are not my friends. I've had a couple other photos I wanted to upload and it just won't happen.

For instance, I planned to show you all a photo of our *new* car, a 1996 Volkswagen Passat. Hubby is very happy with his new wheels! It has a lot of kilometers on it but we paid a decent price even so. More to the point, it is a diesel and gets about 65 mpg. It has about all the bells and whistles one could want as well, from the sunroof to the heated seats. I've only driven the car a total of about ten minutes yet myself but I'll get lots of opportunity next week when we drive out to Vancouver Island to visit our kids and take them camping in Pacific Rim National Park. We'll be gone six days, but you won't even miss me because I've been such a bad, bad blogger lately. Sigh.

In other news, I have a zillion photos to scan this evening (yay for thunderstorms and power outtages yesterday evening to complicate my life...) for a special Father's Day powerpoint presentation for church on Sunday. I truly hope to get it done tonight because we need time to check it at the church. Sometimes it looks a lot different on the big screen than it does on my monitor and needs adjusting...and being as every page will have a new photo (dozens if not hundreds...if not zillions), the adjusting, if necessary, could take awhile to do. Eeeep. Where do I get these ideas from? Keeping my fingers crossed that I can do it all justice.

As soon as it's off to the church (by cd, as the files will be too huge to send via dial-up email) I need to start gathering the gear for our camping trip. Promise I'll check back in before then!

Choose your own Adventure, part 2

A couple months ago *we* turned south for the morning photo walk. This time I chose north. The ducklings wouldn't cooperate, I'll try again another day. They were so hidden in the grass I could barely make them out at all.


Today's direction for the walk/jog is north. 

I thought it was cool to see how much current there is in a ditch beside the highway. 

the beautiful view beside the road 

turn-around spot 

Two painted turtles, covered in algae. 

Headed south again, towards the farm. 

42K into revisions

Maybe we call this editing. I'm never sure how to define the difference between editing, revising, and rewriting, but I believe I met a rewrite when I was last working on False Perceptions. At least I threw away vast chunks of story and rewrote them. This, however...what I'm doing these days to Marks of Repentance is fairly minor in comparison. Not sure if I'm simply blind to the story's problems...or if it is truly that brilliant! :P Yeah, well. Critiquers will be sure to put me in my place.

On weight loss and health

I thought I'd share what I recently submitted to my local Curves fitness center when they were looking for motivational stories. Maybe you're interested, too.


My Curves photo 

I joined Curves in March 2004, feeling frustrated with my general lack of fitness and the forty pounds I'd gained in my adult years. Although I certainly achieved strength and stamina from my workouts, I didn't make much headway with my weight. It fluctuated by several pounds for the next year and a half.

In the fall of 2005, I had a severe flare-up of arthritis in my neck and left shoulder. I hadn't known before this that I even had three damaged discs in my neck. I settled in for several months of sheer survival, just trying to get through each day with the constant pain and headaches. I felt like a jar with its lid screwed on at an angle. My only desire was that someone would unscrew my head and put it back on again, straight. During those months I got virtually no exercise but it didn't stop me from eating. Although I've always enjoyed healthy food, I was eating too much and making poor choices. Christmas baking didn't help.

Finally the pain subsided and I began to take an interest in things again. I came back to Curves in January. It took nearly a week to recuperate from that first visit, and then I came again. In February I managed twice a week and began to wander outside for walks when the weather was decent.

On my March 10 weigh-in, I got a huge shock. I had gained ten pounds over my fluctuating average, and all my inches were the largest they had ever been. Seeing those numbers was like a wave of ice water. It was time to deal with things. Past time.

Two prongs, I decided. Exercise and diet. I committed myself to Curves three times a week, either before work or at noon hour, depending on my husband's work schedule. And every single day that I wasn't at Curves, I would go for a minimum two mile power walk. Without fail.

Secondly, I began tracking my food intake. The first huge change was upping my fruit and vegetable intake until I was achieving an average of 8-10 servings daily. I'd only been averaging three before. The second thing was to get a copy of the Glycemic Index Diet book and follow it.

It has been a challenging 11 weeks since March 10. I have lost 22 pounds from that shocking day (13 1/2 in the first month alone), and my inches are all at their smallest recorded numbers. I have more energy, stamina and optimism than I can ever remember having before. I am very grateful to God for this second chance at life and at health.

Requesting prayer

Our very good friend Rick is currently in ICU at the regional hospital with Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

He had the flu last week and after awhile began losing muscular control and strength in his feet and then calves. Then higher. Then hands and arms. Because he was *only* a Level 2 emergency (not on the verge of death) he had to wait 12 hours for the medevac plane yesterday. Apparently the entire province of BC has two of them. Go figure.

The prognosis is good. He is being treated there because that's where they are set up to monitor the progression and to administer the drugs that should help re-kick-start his auto-immune system. Currently they expect about two weeks in the hospital there (a 6-7 hour drive from here), and then up to a year or so for full recovery.

I was interested to learn that this week is Guillain-Barre Awareness Week. I'm not sure what's up with that for timing.

His wife and three kids (age 15, 13, and 7) are finding this very tough. They've had a roller coaster year (more down than up) and this is a huge blow. They are believers. Please pray for them.

Six chapters to the good.

I'm 16,582 words into the revision of Marks of Repentance now. The voice has an odd lilt to it, not like anything else I've ever written, but I'm not having any trouble fitting back into it for the bits I've added. I've managed to find more places to pull the metaphors better into line with the world as well.

Poor Shanh has just endured listening to a *cat fight* between Taifa and her cousin that involves him. He is horrified; girls would never talk like that in Khairdazh. The whole thing erupts so naturally that I just love imagining the look on his face.

In other news, I'm facilitating a discussion group at Forward Motion on Nancy Kress's book Beginnings, Middles and Ends. We've had a fair bit of exchange in the couple of days since we started working through this book. It's interesting seeing the take various people have on the subject, but I can see the group will take a lot of my time in June. What does that matter? I had nothing else to do... :P

The Hidden

A few weeks ago you heard me whine about the fact that the books I've agreed to talk about on my blog seem to all be winding up thrillers instead of my first love, science fiction/fantasy. The genre of the book hasn't changed lately, but my attitude is a *little* more favorable.

I have just finished reading The Hidden by Kathryn Mackel. It's an astonishing story about innocence and guilt, about murders and miracles, about time and eternity. Big city psychiatrist Susan Stone returns to Colorado because her elderly father has been thrown off a horse and injured. Her help is needed on the ranch, but Susan only intends to make a quick visit, hire appropriate help, and go back to the safety of her life. Away from the ranch, her father...and all the terrible memories of years gone by. But then there is The Torch, the unknown psychopathic murderer that is burning victims into unrecognizable lumps of char, and the young man that Susan discovers chained at the bottom of a ravine. What have they to do with each other? And what have they to do with Susan and her inability to deal with the past?

I talked about Kathryn Mackel's science fiction novel, Outriders, in November. I loved that book and can really see a lot of the same voice, the same writing style in The Hidden. Previously she's had two other thrillers published, The Surrogate and The Departed. If I get a chance to read either of those, I will do it though I doubt that thrillers will ever be my favorite genre, so don't hold your breath on that one. What I'm REALLY waiting for is the sequel to Outriders!

Two chapters in

I'm enjoying dipping into the land of Nuomor and seeing what Taifa and Shanh are up to.

Another thing I'm having to watch out for is keeping metaphorical language tuned to their land. The Nuomorans worship Majai, goddess of the sea, so I am gearing the wording towards water when metaphors are needed. They even measure time with water clocks, so *seconds* become *drops of time*.

Yep. I'm having fun.

Ready for Revision

I cringe phyically that I dare say this out loud: I don't think this novel, Marks of Repentance, needs massive revisions. I'll do a little tidy up, send it out to critiquers, and they'll doubtless have different ideas. Oh well.

What I see so far:
More hints of what the antagonist is up to early in the book. Even though I had done a lot of pre-work on the novel, I didn't know he was the antagonist. I know, I know, that seems silly, but I thought I had thrown enough things in the way of the two main characters with their major cultural differences that the basis of conflict was covered. I didn't realize how important a role this man would play until over half way in.

Which brings me to the second problem. He got SO important he got two scenes in the last couple of chapters. I had to decide whether to give him two or three more, spaced out in the story, or eliminate the two he already had. I'm opting to remove his scenes. It took me most of today to list the vital information those scenes held and figure out where the information can be tucked. I think it can be done. I don't want to dilute what is essentially a love story by giving him too much screen time.

Thirdly, I found a couple of minor sub-plot threads that need tying off. Not all that many which was a pleasant surprise.

Fourth, description. This is always hard for me to work into a first draft, and I have mostly stopped trying. Now as I revise scene by scene I need to make sure I am encountering all the senses and laying clear foundations without going on and on. And on.

Fifth, the ever present doubling up of words, unclear pronouns, and all the other fun little nit-gritty stuff line by line. And commas. Sigh. I have a thing with commas.

I do believe that character motivations are clear enough (maybe too clear?) and that the plot follows a logical enough path, though it wasn't always the most obvious choice.

Oh, yeah. One more thing. I have a border guard in there with a lot of screen time. He was a demanding sort when I wrote the scene, so I need to be on guard (ha!) when I get back to him, and make sure his long story really works in the over all scheme of things. He is absolutely convinced he's the star of the show.

So, we'll see where this journey takes me...and how long it will be. I'd like to be done in a month, but I have no idea if it is remotely doable. I guess I'll just get started and see.

Christian Fantasy Blog Tour Day Two (or Five...)

Today is the last day of the Christian Fantasy Blog Tour. At least officially. For the month of May. In 2006. Rebecca Miller's blog is the starting point, if you're interested in blog hopping. The featured site is Focus on Christian Fantasy. Some of the links from yesterday's post (just below this one) are bloggers doing daily posts on the subject; others have been just popping in and out.

Two new additions that I know of are:

Bedford Review of Christian Fiction
Writing from the Edge

Christian fantasy are words that many people wouldn't put in the same sentence, but why not? I think they go together beautifully.

Karen Hancock, published author of several great Christian fantasies, has this to say about the combination.

Beth Goddard tackles the idea of magic head on. So does Rebecca Miller.

As far as I'm concerned, the question of magic was something I spent awhile working through when I began desiring to write fantasy from a Christian worldview. I have no desire to emulate Tolkien or Lewis. Great stories, but not the end-all and be-all of fantasy.

Does magic exist in today's world? And if I'm writing fantasy, does it matter if it exists here and now? I know my created world doesn't! Why can't it have different rules? But who is to say that magic doesn't exist? What *is* magic? (I look at that list of questions and decide that I am not qualified to answer any of them...)

The best place to look for guidelines is the Bible itself. Folks, some mighty strange stuff happened in biblical times by anyone's standards. We have the magicians in Pharaoh's court during the Ten Plagues (during the time Moses was asking Pharaoh to release his Jewish slaves) copying most of the miracles that Moses and Aaron performed (Exodus 7-11). There is a talking donkey (Numbers 22:21-39). There is a magician following the Philip the evangelist around (Acts 9:8-13), apparently perfectly capable of amazing those around him.

So, then, what is a miracle? I think--simplistically--that miracles are extra-ordinary things done by God, often through people but sometimes directly. And magic is extra-ordinary things done by...not God. Not God. Does that make them wrong, evil? I think that *not of God* still leaves two options: of nature and of Satan. You could argue that nature, being created by God, would not be a separate category but fall into the miracles point of view. Go ahead, argue it. I'm willing to listen!

In some secular fantasy novels magic is portrayed as a liquid, much like water in rivers and lakes. In those stories (and others) magic is portrayed as amoral; that is, neither good nor evil. It simply exists and can be used for either purpose. In our current world, I don't believe this type of magic exists, but I fail to see why it can't work in a made-up world. Like anything else in a novel, it shouldn't just be there for flavoring but because it is actually a part of the plot.

Magic that uses the power of Satan is real. In North America, we don't see a lot of overt activity of this nature. Not so in remote areas of the world, where demon activity is quite visible (to hear the stories of missionaries to those places.)

So, my understanding is that there are three types of extra-ordinary means of accomplishing things. They are literally Good, Bad, and Indifferent. I think any and all of these may be used by a writer of Christian fantasy. The main thing to keep in mind is that the power of God is stronger than the other powers.

In my soon to-be-revised fantasy novel Marks of Repentance I did not portray the use of amoral magic. There are miracles, clearly performed by Azhvah (the One True God of the land), and there is magic, clearly linked to the gods and goddesses of the surrounding nations. Will I use that criteria and only that criteria again, writing in a different world? (Obviously any new stories set in Azhvah's universe will have the same guidelines!) I'm not sure. I've started worldbuilding on an unrelated project currently titled Puppet Prince that is very very (did I mention VERY?) loosely based on Old Testament Judaism at the time of the Babylonian exile. I'll be making decisions on the magic system over the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

Christian Fantasy Blog Tour

Rebecca Miller over at A Christian Worldview of Fiction has set up a blog tour this week to heighten awareness of Christian fantasy. This is a subject that is very dear to my heart and I've already found a few novels I didn't know existed...and also some fellow bloggers who will be worth keeping an eye on!

The featured site is Tim Frankovich's Focus on Christian Fantasy. Tim is a reviewer of Christian books and has recently put together this focus page on fantasy.

Many of the books Tim mentions are ones I haven't read yet. In fact, I've only read one of the featured books, The Light of Eidon by Karen Hancock. I loved it and have yet to get my hands on the rest of the series.

So what HAVE I read and enjoyed in the Christian fantasy genre? Kathryn Mackel's fantasy novel Outriders is fabulous and innovative.

Ted Dekker dabbles into suspenseful fantasy in his series that begins with Black. Many of his other books are thrillers (not my cuppa :P)

An up-and-coming series for kids that I've read Book One of is Landon Snow by R. K. Mortenson.

I find it hard to separate out science fiction and fantasy sometimes as I love them both. Some favorite writers in Christian science fiction are Randy Ingermanson and Kathy Tyers.

Actually, all told this fantasy blog tour is happening at a good time for me. We have slightly more disposable income now than we used to...and I'm planning on spending a portion of it supporting the genre I love (and write in myself.)

If you're interested in the genre, here is a list of some of the bloggers that are participating in this tour:
Mirathon
Insights from Beth Goddard
Spoiled for the Ordinary
Writer Lee
All About Children's Books
Old Testament Opera
Unseen Worlds
See you on the Net
Shenandoah's Eclectic Musings
MegaWriter
The Jerkrenak's Den
Sharon Hinck
Some of these folks have posted every day this week regarding fantasy. Have a look around! Like me, you may find new books to add to the TBR pile--the pile that threatens to topple over...

Great Mother's Day camping trip :)

For some unknown reason, Picasa and Hello don't like me tonight. I had several other photos I wanted to upload and it just isn't working.

We went camping for a couple days and had a really relaxing time out along a creek in our truck and camper. The highlight of my days was catching a glimpse of this pine marten, which is rarely seen. (Hubby worked in forestry for nine years and figures he's seen three of them.)

However, I had other photos I wanted to share as well. I'll give H&P a chance to recover from their snit and try again tomorrow. Stay tuned!


The rarely seen pine marten :) 

Happy Mother's Day

My own mother will be 84 this August. I'm very thankful for her. I didn't write the following for her! In fact I didn't write it at all...

Lisa shared with me this little clip on Why We Have Mothers. I only found it on the internet in one place, and it didn't claim to be the original. I did try to track it down, though. Honest!

"Why we have moms" answers given by elementary school age children to
the following questions:

Why do we have mothers?
1. She's the only one who knows where the Scotch tape is.
2. Mostly to clean the house.
3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

What ingredients are mothers made of?
1 Clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of
mean.
2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use
string, I think.

Why do you have your mother and not some other Mom?
1. We're related.
2. The doctor knew she likes me a lot more than other people's moms like
me.

What kind of little girl was your Mom?
1. My Mom has always been my Mom and none of that other stuff.
2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty
bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.

What did Mom need to know about dad before she married him?
1. His last name.
2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get
drunk on beer?
3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to
chores?

Why did your Mom marry your dad?
1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my Mom eats a lot.
2. She got too old to do anything else with him.
3. My grandma says that Mom didn't have her thinking cap on.

Who's the boss at your house?
1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because dad's such a goof
ball
2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the
bed.
3. I guess Mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.

What's the difference between moms and dads?
1. Moms work at work and work at home, and dads just go to work at work.
2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.
3. Dads are taller and stronger, but moms have all the real power 'cause
that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friend's.
4. Moms have magic; they make you feel better without medicine

What does your Mom do in her spare time?
1. Mothers don't do spare time.
2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

What would it take to make your Mom perfect?
1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of
plastic surgery.
2. Diet. You know, her hair. I'd diet, maybe blue.

If you could change one thing about your Mom, what would it be?
1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid
of that.
2. I'd make my Mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who
did it and not me.
3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on her back.

Reading...

I'm almost halfway through the read-through of Marks of Repentance, aka Shanh's story. I'm certainly seeing things that need addressing, but all in all I really love this story still. I wrote the first draft from March to July 2005 and wanted nothing more than to keep going and write its sequel.

Somehow or other I managed to see reason and remember that getting space from a story is not likely to happen while writing sequels. As I'm reading these days I'm seeing the seeds I've planted for the sequel and the desire to keep writing in this world is reviving itself. Whether that could ever be lucrative depends entirely on how good a job I do ironing out MoR. With that in mind, I'm diving back in.

Catching up

I got Maripat's crit off to her yesterday. Today I got caught up on 2ynovel assignments.

Puppet Prince is starting to come to life. I have a map now :D and am beginning to picture the city and the palace grounds. One of these assignments was on marriage and family life, so I got to have a little fun with that. Please understand that (for the record) I am a firm believer in marriage: the one-man-and-one-woman-till-death-do-us-part kind.

But this novel is very VERY loosely based on Old Testament culture, and didn't some of them kings (like David and Solomon) have an awful lot of wives? Yup. So does my Emperor. In fact, in a flash of insight, I understood why Prince Jhonal might NOT have trouble making up his mind which of the two likely young ladies he will marry. Why not marry them both? Yeah, well, his life isn't going to work out that way, but it does give an interesting starting point. Doing some cultural style worldbuilding has been a lot of fun.

Next up: playing a bit more with the website and...TA-DA...starting the revisions on Marks of Repentance. If I'm looking forward to it half as much as I say I am, why haven't I cracked open the file yet? Might I be afraid that it won't live up to my memory of it? Nah. It must be that I need to clean other things off my desk so that I won't need to come up for air for a couple months. Yeah, right.

Just to prove I can...

I updated the look of my blog again. This seems spring appropriate. I didn't want to forget how to do it! :P

I'm busily catching up on all matter of writing odds and ends these days. If Salesman-Who-Talks had not shown up today, I would have finished Maripat's crit. As it is, I have about a chapter and a half left to go. Fun stuff.