In Which I ...Hiate? ...Hiatus?... What?

So even though I had a post scheduled for today, I've moved it out a few weeks. I think I'm going to take a shortish bog hiatus. The day job is seriously destroying me right now. And then throw in writerly things as well as tons of stuff coming up in my non Internet world, the truth is I just don't have time to visit blogs right now. And I hate it when I post posts and I don't visit other blogs. It just rubs me the wrong way, for me, anyway.

So. For now, I'm stepping back. I don't know for how long but at least a week. Possibly all the way through August, though I hope not.

Hope to see you again soon!

In Which I Write In

So Hannah and I currently have the same goal: finish our WIPs by the end of August.

Doable, yes? Yes. Maybe. I don't know but I'm going to try. I'm about 40k in to All That Remains. I think I need at least another 40K. Though I'm not always so good about estimating that so I won't really know until I reach The End.

I figure if I can get done by September, that will give me enough time to start editing etc for poooooosssibly entering the Authoress's Baker's Dozen competition this year (since I missed it the last two years) and also set me up for possibly doing NaNo again this year. And I guess, if worse comes to worse and I don't finish by then, well, no real harm.

Of course right when I make this goal, the day job gets cray cray, and also some other writerly stuff came up and I had to put All That Remains aside while I deal with that. I'm still hoping the goal will stick. I mean, even I have to NaNo the crap out of it and try to do it in just a month, then I guess that's something I'll have to do.

Since Hannah has the same goal, we've set up some write ins, to hang and write together to try and get them done. It's always nice to have a shared goal with someone.

So what about you? Any recent goals? And how are they going?

Friday Fun

Yesssssss! Here we are! Back to Friday! Oh Friday, how I wish you'd never leave us...

Never leave, Friday. Never leave

But let's stop all this moping and get on to some fun!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

 

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Wednesday Weird, The Lead Mask Case

Yay! Back for another installment of Wednesday Weirds. I have to say, I really like this series. It's really fun for me to write and research and I hope you guys kind of like it too. At the very least, maybe you've gotten some weird ideas for novels or something.

It's been awhile since we've done an unsolved death so today we're going to chat about the Lead Masks Case.

In 1966, a man in Brazil was flying a kite and came upon the bodies of two engineers lying next to each other in the grass. The men were dressed in fancy suits and raincoats. There was an empty water bottle beside them and two towels and there were no signs of violence.

Kinda weird, right? But not too crazy?

Did I forget to mention the masks? *scans previous paragraph* Yes. Yes I did.

Besides their suits and coats, the men also wore lead masks, the type used to protect against radiation.

So the police came and all that junk, the two men were identified as local technicians and the Police set about to recreate their day before they were found dead on a hill.

So the men buy their raincoats and go to a bar to buy bottled water. One of the men appeared rather nervous, and when they left the bar they went to the hill then dopped dead. Case closed?

No. Of course not.

A notebook was found at the scene stating:

16:30 be at the agreed place.

18:30 swallow capsules, after effect protect metals wait for the mask sign
OK so they swallowed "capsules," which is what killed them, yeah? The problem is the note seems to imply they were waiting for something to happen after the capsules took effect, which would mean if they were poison, the guys didn't know it. Also, the men had a coupon to return the water bottle when they were finished with whatever they were doing, which also seems to imply they didn't plan on dying on that hill.

Toxicology tests could not be taken due to the victims' organs not being properly preserved.

So, what convinced them to go to a hill, strap on radiation protection and swallow some capsules? What effect were they waiting for? What were the masks protecting them from? Was there some third party who convinced them to do all of this?

Let's hear some of your theories! Because I really got nothing other than "they were tricked".

In Which 600 Words Is Not 1500, Brain

So, as I've mentioned before, I've started working on my put aside WIP All That Remains (about an assassin girl, seeking revenge for her murdered family. FUN!)

It's been going kind of slow. Part of that is due to the day job being more or less crazy for a few months (and continuing on in that vein probably to the end of summer) but some of if is just because of me.

Sometimes writers ask other writers whether they think writing or revision is harder. My answer to that is "both". While I'm in the midst of writing, revising is harder. And vice versa. BUT! The hardest part of all is switching between one or the other. If I've been writing a new novel and I finish the first draft and have to start revising, ugh, I hate it. I just want to keep writing new stuff and not worry about revisions.

And it's the same the other way around. Which is where I am right now. Every time I open my word doc, I sit there and bitch and moan about how I wish I was done with it so I could dive into fixing it. I just want to go back to revising something so bad!

And then, because of that, when I stop my whining and get down to work (because I'm pretty good at reminding myself that if I want a MS to revise, then I need to sit my ass down and finish the WIP) I get in the groove and I write TONS of words and I feel great!

And then I check my word count and it's like 600 words. WTF, right?
I know it's just because I'm not yet in the writing groove, and once I do that I'll be able to sit down and pump out 1500 words in an hour or so and feel great (and to be fair, I did have one 3K day which was nice) but seriously brain, stop tricking me with the 600 words feeling longer. That's just not fair.

So what about you? Which do you like better: writing or revising?

Friday Fun

Woo hoo! And just like that, we go through one more week and reached the awesome funness of the weekend once more!

Yvie's here again, pals, and let's get this Friday rolling!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

 

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Wednesday Weird: Folie à Deux

This is another Wednesday Weird sent to me by the awesome Matt.  Today we're talking about Ursula and Sabina Eriksson, twin sisters who both, more or less, went crazy. At the same time. Together.

In case you can't watch the video, what it shows is two twin sisters, Ursula and Sabina Eriksson,  running out in the middle of traffic, purposely. The cops show up and are questioning the women, when they run out into traffic again and are both hit by cars/trucks. Then, one of them who's still conscious, fights off a police-woman to run into traffic a third time.

Crazy, right? The only thing I could think of which would make this even weirder is if the one woman, who dashed into the road 3 times, was later released from jail, wandered around town until someone took her in because she seemed unstable, and then she stabbed him a bunch of times until he died and then jumped of a bridge onto another busy road. Because that would just be batshit insane.

EXCEPT THAT IS WHAT HAPPENED.

Yeah. Sabina Eriksson served 5 years prison time for the murder of Glenn Hollinshead.

What seems to have happened is a case of folie à deux.

Folie à deux is french for "madness shared by two". And don't worry all you crowds of people, the same thing shared by more than two people may be called folie à trois, folie à quatre, folie en famille or even folie à plusieurs ("madness of many").

You can have two versions of it: one where a person has a delusional belief during a psychotic episode and imposes it on another person, OR when two people, both with psychotic delusions feed off each others delusions until they're almost identical.

Good times! So not only do you have to worry about going cray cray, you kind of have to worry about someone else close to you going cray cray and imposing their delusion on you, even though, if left to your own devices, you would've been fine.

Good news, though! In a case like that, if you're admitted to the hospital, you should go back to normal without meds. Like Sabina Eriksson, who was deemed the "secondary" sufferer to her sister's delusion.

So Yay?

In Which I Whine A Bit, Then Get To Work

So I spent part of yesterday writing a (nother) synopsis for Break Free. Yes I already had one. A 5 page one. And yes, I liked it. But I needed a 1-2 page one.

Good god I hate synopses with an all burning passion. It took me forever just to write a 5 page one.

I mean, it shouldn't be so hard. Logically, I should just be able to list out the top 6 or so major plot points of the novel, then dedicate a paragraph or so to each. But I reach the end and I realize the end really doesn't make sense unless I cover another plot point. And that plot point doesn't make sense unless I include this entire character and before you know it, I've rewritten the whole novel.

Ugh. I don't understand how query writing can come so easy to me, but synopsis writing? Pshaa.

Anyway, that's my rant for this month. No worries, really. I whined and bitched and moaned, but then I put my head down and worked hard and got it pumped out.

Which is something to remember. I'll listen to anyone's complaints at any time, if, at the end of things, you get working. Because the only way we're going to get there is by doing just that.

Deal? Deal.

Friday Fun

Yvie here.

Blerg. It's been so hot here, I can barely even be excited for the weekend. I got outside to play, and I have to go back inside a few minutes later and flop on the floor in front of the AC vent.



Too hot for wrestles

It is rough, ape-friends. But nonetheless, I will not let you down. Here is some fun for your Friday

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

 

 

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

 

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

 

MS. HANSEN? Oh my god, what are you? What are you? You are so cute. I’M DOGTOR BUTTONS, CHIEF CARDIOLOGIST. I’M SORRY, MS. HANSEN, BUT WE WERE UNABLE TO SAVE YOUR MOTHER. WE DID EVERYTHING WE COULD. Oh. Okay. That’s fine. You’re the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Look at you. Just look at you. YES, JUST LOOK AT ME. I THINK THAT’S BEST. THERE ARE SOME FORMS WE’D LIKE YOU TO FILL OUT, IF YOU DON’T MIND. WE USED TO RECOMMEND GRIEF COUNSELORS BUT NOWADAYS WE BASICALLY JUST HAVE PEOPLE PLAY WITH MY EARS FOR TEN MINUTES. WOULD YOU LIKE THAT? Oh my god yes. I love you. I love you so much. I KNOW YOU DO, MS. HANSEN. I LOVE YOU TOO. ATKINS, YOU CAN PUT ME DOWN NOW. TELL SUSAN TO BRING THE ORGAN PROCUREMENT FORMS AND COME GET ME WHEN MRS. MITCHELL IS PREPPED FOR THAT BYPASS.

So Youngest Sister is a Comdian (Comedienne?) for reals, and she just put out a comedic music vid. Enjoy!

Insecure Writer's Support Group

So because of the holiday this week for all the bloggers in the U.S. ISWSG, which is normally on the first Wednesday of the month, can be posted on Tuesday or Wednesday this week.

BUT. I don't normally post on Tuesdays, AND I’ll be hanging with the fam on Wednesday (which means no access to respond to comments in a timely manner), so I decided to cheat a bit more and post my ISWSG post today and leave it up until I’m back on Friday with Friday Fun.

IT HAS BEEN DECIDED!

Anyhoo, so I’ve recently gone back to writing on my stalled WIP All That Remains. It was stalled out after NaNo 2011 because I really wanted to work on Break Free. And I was just NOT feeling Remains at all. It was not fun to write and I was really struggling with it, even after 30K words. I mean, a little struggle at the beginning before you figure things out is expected, but 100 pages of it was just a little ridiculous.

I was afraid I would go back to it and read it and it would be terrible and I would have to start over. Or HORRORS ditch it altogether. Though every time I’d read my query draft (I write a query before I write a rough draft of the novel) I would get totally excited about it.

So I read it, and it wasn't as bad as I feared. Which is also something that happens a lot. Sometimes that feeling that something is terrible is just our Muse being a jackass or something.

So I’m back at it. It's slow going, mostly, I think, because it takes me some warm up time when I switch from revising back to writing, or writing back to revising.

So I think the moral of the story is, trust your instincts. I really felt like I needed a break from Remains, and clearly I did. I know it's a good idea to put your head down and push through things most of the time, but sometimes you may just need to step away and regroup a bit. Work on something else, or revise. The WIP will wait for you. It's not going anywhere.