In Which I Have Superstitions

I'm oddly superstitious while querying.

Which is kind of weird because I'm not actually that superstitious as a person. But when querying, I dunno, man. I'm just worried about jinxing things.

It's why I never talk about how querying is going for me on the blog. Or Facebook. Or Twitter. Every once in awhile I'll give a little generic hint, but I'm honestly worried that if I talk about it too much, I'll be jinxing it.

Which is funny because I'm perfectly fine talking about it in person with people (and by in person i mostly mean via email). So why do feel that talking one on one is okay, but bringing up on social media is asking for trouble?

I have no clue.

(Completely OT: I'm watching Tangled while writing this and found a plot hole. Rapunzel has been locked in her tower her whole life. She even sings a song about how she's never felt grass or the sun or what have you before.

And yet somehow, when trapped in a hole filling with water, she knows how to swim? That makes no sense. BOO on it, I say. BOO)

Anyway, is there anything you're oddly superstitious about?

Friday Fun

Hi Ape-Friends!!

Yvie's here to launch you into the weekend with a little bit of fun!

But remember, as always, winter is coming

Let's get to it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday Weird: Shugborough Inscription

Sometime between 1748 and 1763 the Shepherd's Monument was built on the grounds of Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire, England. It contains a relief sculpture of Nicolas Poussin's painting The Shepherds of Arcadia.

 

 

 

 

The monument was commissioned by Thomas Anson, but paid for by his brother George Anson.

Which, okay. Nice little monument, but where's the mystery? Where's the weird?

Directly below the mirror image of the painting.

A sequence of letters rest between the letters DM

The letters have never been explained and to this day remain one of the world's most cryptic ciphertexts.

On Roman tombs, DM typically stood for Diis Manibus: dedicated to the shades. But no one has been able to figure out what the remaining letters mean. Some people think maybe they're acrostic (each letter represents the initial letter of a word) but theories abound.

One theory is that the letters are a dedication by George Anson to his deceased wife for the Latin phrase Optimae Uxoris Optimae Sororis Viduus Amantissimus Vovit Virtutibus -- "Best of wives, Best of sisters, a most devoted Widower dedicates (this) to your virtues"

Another theory is that the letters stand for numbers which sum to 2810, the distance in miles from Shugborough to the so-called "Money Pit" on Oak Island in Nova Scotia (another Wednesday Weird post I have in the making).

None of the existing theories, though, whether plausible or just crazy, satisfactorily explain the secret message carved into the stone of the monument.

Thoughts? Theories?

In Which I Regret Not NaNoing

I slightly (sliiiightly) regret not doing NaNo this year.

Yes I miss the camaraderie and I feel a twinge of envy whenever I see anyone with their word count  tallies (even those of you running behind. Yes, I'm envious of you too).

But it's more than just missing out. Come early January I have to attend my first residency for my MFA. And we have to have 15-20 pages to workshop.

What we workshop doesn't have to be what we work on with our mentors. It can be something different or completely separate. Or it could be a chunk of what we're going to work on for the semester too.

I could probably bring a chunk of All That Remains. But I've just started querying it, and the idea of workshopping it while it's out and about, makes me feel a little sick. I dunno, I just don't think I'm the type of person who can do that.

So that leaves something new. And that leaves under two months to come up with it.

Now, I've been brainstorming a new novel, but I've been taking my time, trying to come up with a side plot, trying to think of more ways it can get worse for my MC, trying to make sure he stays active instead of reactive (which is always a problem for me). I'm making good headway in the prep, but not enough to write an outline yet, which I need to have before I start drafting.

So. I've decided to set myself a goal/deadline. Spend the rest of November brainstorming and doing the rest of my pre-draft prep, but come December, time to start writing the new novel. I don't need to finish it, obvs, before the residency, but I would feel much happier and less stressed out if I could at least get like 20K or so down beforehand.

I wish I had realized all of this before NaNo had started. Then maybe I would have tried harder to get ready before November and join in with everyone else. But I had stuff going on with All That Remains, and that had to be my priority at that time. Anyway, nothing much I can do about it now.

How about you? Are you NaNoing? Or did you skip it this year?

Friday Fun

We've reached Friday which means we're almost into the weekend!

Yes! Carry me off into the weekend!

Woo!

Let's get it started with our usual fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Awesome dollhouse

 

 

 

Thanks to Michael Offut for the video

Insecure Writer's Support Group

First Wednesday of the month, which means it's time for Insecure Writer's Support Group.

So.  Last week I finished my final revisions on my YA fantasy WIP ALL THAT REMAINS.

It was a straight push through to finish them up and I'd say it took a good five hours to finish them. But I did.

Part of what motivated me to get them all done in one day was that I told myself I was allowed to send out a test query if I finished them.

And I did. I actually sent out two test queries, because why not? I'd been good.

So as of last week I officially started querying ATR. And as of last week querying has officially been going well.

It's funny. I've queried two other novels before. And you'd think by this point it'd be easier. And it really is in some ways, but writing up that first query, throwing in the sample pages, checking the sub guidelines one more time and then hovering over the SEND button--well, that apparently doesn't get easier. At least, not for the first couple of queries, anyway.

I try not to get anxious or nervous about it. I know once I start working on my next WIP (which is in the planning stage. Hopefully won't be too long before I can break it out) it will get a lot easier. But until that happens I'm just as anxious as I was during my first querying journey. Maybe more so, because the first time, you don't really know how long replies take. And the third time, you know which agents are likely to request from you, or to reject you, and how long it often takes.

Which means a lot of checking Gmail. Over and over and over again. Even on weekends, when it's rare to get a query response.

So, yeah. Turns out that even when you're an old hand at it, querying can still dredge up emotions. Even unexpectedly.

How about you? Any of you in the query boat?

In Which I Got Book Happy... Or Something

So as I briefly mentioned last Thursday, my laptop is busted (has a virus or something). And until I can afford to get it fixed (hopefully my next paycheck) I'm stuck working on my netbook. Which normally wouldn't be a problem, except that my stupid MS Office starter stopped working so I had to shell out the cash for MS Office for my netbook (which further delayed the laptop fix)

Anyway, I normally do a lot of my blog surfing and all my blog writing with my laptop, so being forced to do it on my netbook is a pain in the ass.

But here I am, carving out some time, trying to catch up on writing some posts.

But, if I'm behind on your blogs, please know that that's the reason why, and not because I'm ignoring you or anything. I actually miss you quite a bit. You know who you are.

On a completely unrelated note, I saw that Allie Brosh's, from Hyperbole and a Half, book: Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened released on Tuesday. I was so excited that I went and ordered it right away.

The email said it would arrive on Friday, so I was patiently waiting when, TADA! It actually showed up on Thursday, a day early.

Nice.

But, imagine my surprise when I got a package in the mail on... Friday. And it was the same book.

Conclusion: I guess I preordered the book way back when, forgot I had done so, and then ordered a new copy. So now I have two.

Luckily the Bro said he would pay for the second copy, which is good.


Am I the only one who's ever done this? I hope not... Please tell me I'm not alone in this...