Too much to do...

UG just fell apart on me so I'm rethinking it...dammit.

If only I was this cute while doing it.

I'm done with job two and waiting for a plane at el Paso's airport after a great bit of BBQ at Rudy's. Nice spicy sauce...spelled sause...and brisket so tender it nearly melts in your mouth. I'm bringing two bottle of their sause with me, and bottles of their turkey and beef rubs.

It they make it through the airline's baggage claim...

Some of Cape Cod area...

Changing planes in Austin and trying to catch up on UG since the flight was so damned noisy with kids, so no time to think out a full post. Instead, here are some photos I took around Hyannis and Cape Cod.

 This was en route to Chatham. There are little lakes like this all over the place.

Chatham Beach at the "elbow" of Cape Cod...

 ...and looking the other direction. That water is rushing by at about 50 in a channel about 30 feet from shore.

Chatham Light...nice but not sure it was worth the trip.

I thought about going up to Provincetown or maybe over to see Plymouth Rock, but those would have taken hours more and I wanted to get to the Gorey House and back to the motel to write.

Not the best flight from Boston. The plane was packed, as is becoming routine with Southwest, and there were 7 toddlers on the plane in various stages of meltdown. Plus I was sitting on the aisle next to a couple of women who make me look like a twig. This is what I get for trying my trick of getting to the back of the plane in hopes of having an empty seat next to me.

Austin's airport is nice, but they wanted $15 for a piddly plate of brisket with a watery sauce, here. I got a grilled cheese, instead.

Just 2 more hours to go till I head to El Paso, my least-favorite city in the world.

UG worked on and worked on...

Devlin's taking his time getting going. I have to wonder what he's up to. He's spent more time reminiscing about his past exploits than actually doing anything...and considering he's thought to have helped a serial killer commit another murder, you'd think he'd be out to make things happen.

Of course, part of the problem is, he's a fish out of water, being an American in the UK with not much idea how the system of justice works there. US law may be somewhat based on British jurisprudence, but it ain't all that close. So can he help in the investigation in any way? Except as a bumbler. I may have painted myself into a corner, here, with no door or window to sneak out of or even make, like Harold and his purple crayon did.

The ideas I have for the story are so damn coincidental, they bother me. I need something more as a reason for it to be. I've got Devlin's evolution from an animal to a human being plotted out, but that's not really jibing with the sex-murders aspect of it...though I do toss in a reference to Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy. Thinking about it, that movie had a protagonist who wasn't very nice and didn't do anything for himself till after he was convicted of murder, ¾ of the way into the film.

I wonder if I've been influenced by that movie?

Who knew Edward Gorey was here?

Job's all done, except for the pickup in the morning, so I did some sight-seeing...and found out Edward Gorey lived close by and his house is a museum. It's on a nice quiet little street in the middle of a nice quiet little neighborhood, and the man who greets you at the front door is so happy and chirpy, you know not to turn your back on him...

 Edward sees you in...

 ...shows you his coat..

 ...reveals all his toys...

 ...and some of his collections...bottle, glassware, off-beat items...

 ...and his tools of the trade...

 ..as well as the books they worked on...

 ...with special note of his famous Dracula sets, when Frank Langella did a sexy vamp back in the 70s...

 ...and a loop of the Mystery Theatre titles with its three hosts below...

 ...and Y is for Yorrick in the room...

...to wind up with the ivy-filled critter in the back yard...


The sad little Sherlock Holmes Museum in London could learn a thing or two about how to do it up right.

Having fun with UG...

Underground Guy is being written without rules or limitations, and I'm having fun with it. There's sex and drugs; I think I need to work in some rock-n-roll to even it out. Needless to say, I seriously doubt NaNoWriMo's had anything like it in any of their challenges. Officially, I'm at 13,401 words on 53 pages.

I know the theme for the story -- control. Every character either has it or wants it or feels like they've lost it...and Devlin, the protagonist who's also the anti-hero/hero, is all of them at one time. He'll come to understand what's going on and figure out who the killer is because it so closely duplicates his own life. It's my fervent hope this works out organically and doesn't have some bright light moment, where the hero goes, A-HA!

This packing job turned out to be a lot easier than I expected, mainly because all the books are smaller than I thought they'd be. I was told the majority would be quarto sized -- about 10x7 inches -- but actually the vast majority of the hardcovers are more like small octavos -- about 8x5...or less. 700 of the books are regular paperbacks; I got all of those into 10 boxes, with padding. So it's working out that I've got double the packing materials that I need, and I'll be done tomorrow instead of Sunday.

Not that I mind. I think I'll stay in the hotel and work on UG. I've got a small fridge and microwave so have some nuke-able meals in the freezer and DP chilling. If all goes well during Monday's pickup, I'll have the afternoon to go exploring. It's pretty up here...but god help anyone trying to get around without GPS. It's like doing The Time Warp while driving on two-lane blacktops.

"It's just a jump to the left...and then a step to the ri-i-i-i-i-ight..."

25 quotes from authors on writing...

Please enjoy as I procrastinate on writing anything of my own on this blog and, instead, focus all my energy on completing Underground Guy for NaNoWriMo...

Marilynne Robinson: “Beauty,” Writing, What Storytelling Can Learn from Science, and the Splendors of Uncertainty
“We are part of a mystery, a splendid mystery within which we must attempt to orient ourselves if we are to have a sense of our own nature.” (Dunno if I want that...)

Stephen King: Writing and the Art of “Creative Sleep”:
“In both writing and sleeping, we learn to be physically still at the same time we are encouraging our minds to unlock from the humdrum rational thinking of our daytime lives.” (Can't tell the difference, sometimes)

Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing
“If it sounds like writing … rewrite it.” (My biggest woe...)

Michael Lewis: Writing, Money, and the Necessary Self-Delusion of Creativity
“When you’re trying to create a career as a writer, a little delusional thinking goes a long way.” (Was she talkin' to me?)

Annie Dillard on Writing
“At its best, the sensation of writing is that of any unmerited grace. It is handed to you, but only if you look for it. You search, you break your heart, your back, your brain, and then — and only then — it is handed to you.” (Aware, am I)

Anne Lamott: Writing and Why Perfectionism Kills Creativity

“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life.” (Still crazy after all these years)

Italo Calvino on Writing: Insights from 40+ Years of His Letters
“To write well about the elegant world you have to know it and experience it to the depths of your being… what matters is not whether you love it or hate it, but only to be quite clear about your position regarding it.” (Contemplating the possibilities)

Ernest Hemingway : Writing, Knowledge, and the Danger of Ego
“All bad writers are in love with the epic.” (Was he talkin' to me?)

David Foster Wallace: Writing, Death, and Redemption
“You don’t have to think very hard to realize that our dread of both relationships and loneliness … has to do with angst about death, the recognition that I’m going to die, and die very much alone, and the rest of the world is going to go merrily on without me.” (Dammit)

Isabel Allende: Writing Brings Order to the Chaos of Life
“Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too.” (Bitch makes fun of me half the time she does show)

Stephen King: The Adverb Is Not Your Friend
“I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops.” (I try...hopefully)

Malcolm Cowley: The Four Stages of Writing
“The germ of a story is a new and simple element introduced into an existing situation or mood.” (Screenwriting helps, here)

Henry Miller’s 11 Commandments of Writing
“Work on one thing at a time until finished.” (Good luck with that...)

Kurt Vonnegut: 8 Rules for a Great Story
“Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.” (I can see it...)

Susan Orlean on Writing
“You have to simply love writing, and you have to remind yourself often that you love it.” (Daily, if not hourly)

Zadie Smith: 10 Rules of Writing
“Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand — but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never ­being satisfied.” (Oh, thanks...)

John Steinbeck: 6 Tips on Writing, and a Disclaimer
“Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish.” (God, is this true...)

F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Secret of Great Writing (1938)
“Nothing any good isn’t hard.” (Knowing this already, thank you...)

E. B. White: Why Brevity Is Not the Gold Standard for Style

“Writing is not an exercise in excision, it’s a journey into sound.” (Liking this...)

Ray Bradbury: Creative Purpose in the Face of Rejection
“The blizzard doesn’t last forever; it just seems so.” (Tell me about it...)

Mary Karr: The Magnetism and Madness of the Written Word
“Be willing to be a child and be the Lilliputian in the world of Gulliver.” (Not sure what she means)

Kurt Vonnegut: How to Write With Style and the 8 Keys to the Power of the Written Word (1985)
“The most damning revelation you can make about yourself is that you do not know what is interesting and what is not.” (Yepper)

Mary Gordon: The Joy of Notebooks and Writing by Hand as a Creative Catalyst

“However thoroughly we lose ourselves in the vortex of our invention, we inhabit a corporeal world.” (Speak for yourself)

H. P. Lovecraft: Advice to Aspiring Writers (1920)
“A page of Addison or of Irving will teach more of style than a whole manual of rules, whilst a story of Poe’s will impress upon the mind a more vivid notion of powerful and correct description and narration than will ten dry chapters of a bulky textbook.” (I concur...except I don't know who Addison is...)

Henry Miller: Reflections on Writing
“Understanding is not a piercing of the mystery, but an acceptance of it, a living blissfully with it, in it, through and by it.” (Story of my life)

Delacroix on self-doubt...

Stealing another article, this one written by Maria Popova and posted in Brain Pickings.

Here's one of the best parts --

How stupid to get into the habit of reserving what one imagines to be the finest subjects for a future occasion!
[…]
The absurd mania I have for doing things in which I am not vitally interested, and therefore doing them badly; the more I do such things, the more I find to do. I’m always having excellent ideas, but instead of working on them while they are still fresh in my imagination, I keep telling myself that I will do them later on — but when? Then I forget about them, or worse still, can no longer see anything interesting in ideas that seemed certain to inspire me. The trouble is, that with a roving and impressionable mind like mine, one idea drives another out of my head quicker than the changing wind alters the direction of a windmill’s sails. And when I have a number of different ideas for subjects in mind at once, what am I to do? Am I to keep them in stock, so to speak, quietly waiting their turn? If I do that, no sudden inspiration will quicken them with the touch of Prometheus’s breath. Must I take them out of a drawer when I want to paint a picture? That would mean the death of genius.

I know what he's talking about. Some of my ideas should have been done when I first had them -- like updating Aristophanes' The Birds to a cyberpunk world. I did some of it, got a pissy first draft done and then set it aside. Twenty years ago, when I was heavy into Gibson and Neuromancer. Back then, it would have been forward thinking; now it would just come across as derivative.

Another script of mine -- Dair's Window, about the need for gay marriage -- was timely when I first wrote it but by not pushing it to get done, it's become outdated. I can still rework it, but I have to have another reason for it to exist, and I haven't found one, yet.

Of course, I could just be putting off making the decision to make them both work.

10 things successful writers do...

I stole these from a South African blog, of all places. Successful writers...

1. Live in the present and look to the future. They don’t dwell on rejection. They start writing another book as soon as they finish rewriting and editing the previous one. (like I'm doing now)

2. Take chances. They don’t think there is only one way to do everything. They are willing to try a different genre or a different viewpoint. They enter competitions, and start a blog – even if they’re terrified. (God, have I ever...)

3. Listen to advice. They respect people who have worked in the industry. They are willing to learn the rules so that they can successfully break them. They don’t think they know everything and realise writing has been around for a long time. They are prepared to take a writing course, or join a critique group. They do not obsessively quote one or two famous authors who claim they did not take advice. (Did this a lot in LA; harder to do in Buffalo...but I am sending my work out to be critiqued and edited, so...)

4. Put in the hours. They know that first books are seldom good, but they are a rite of passage that most authors have to go through. They also write every day, even if it’s just a poem, or a note, or a blog post. They don't buy into The Myth of Writer's Block. (I've put in the hours...times ten...)

5. Keep an open mind. If an editor, or a publisher, wants to make changes, they will consider what they have to say. They are not precious about their work. Being stubborn can become tiresome if you don’t have a good reason to dig your heels in. (I'm better about this, but once something in the story's right, in my mind, God himself couldn't get me to change it.)

6. Embrace change. If they have a book that nobody wants to read, they will write another one. They realise a book can only be a commercial success if people want to read it. They understand they can’t force the public to like their writing. They learn when to let go of ideas that are no longer popular. They start writing new books. After all, they can always come back to the book that 50 publishers have rejected, in a few years. (Check)

7. Focus on strengths. If they are brilliant at plotting, they write books that are plot-driven. However, they are willing to work on improving characterisation and sentence construction. Similarly, if they are brilliant at writing beautiful sentences, they are happy to write literary fiction, but are willing to work on improving their plotting techniques. (My strength is writing people; plotting isn't my best ability...but I'm working on it. Maybe that's why I'm writing mysteries; they're more plot dependent.)

8. Practise patience. Writing is a process and learning how to do it properly teaches them to be patient. It takes 10 000 hours to become good at anything. Becoming successfully published is a result of many years of hard work and constantly improving your techniques. (I've been at this since 1980, so no effin' comment)

9. Learn from mistakes. They learn how to write query letters and synopses. They target the correct literary agencies. They realise they need to learn about self-publishing if that’s the route they choose. They do not blame the industry, readers, or the Internet for their failures. They are happy when other authors are successful. (Not sure about this; you can take too much responsibility for failure, too...)

10. Persevere. They don’t give up. Successful authors carry on trying if writing is truly important to them. They set goals and deadlines and pursue them until they succeed. (see my comments in # 4 & #8)

We'll see how this goes for the next year...

Quick pass on CK

It took a few hours, but I polished up Carli's Kills...well, more like went through and corrected typos and inconsistencies. Such as having 5 Harleys outside the cantina when there should only be 4, and a small mistake in the timeline. Found nearly a dozen things that should have been corrected, and a couple things I missed that added to the story. The bad boys still say crap, but now they get called on it.

I really like how Zeke and Carli work out. The way they connect and build their relationship works so well I didn't change any of it. And I made her more active in the part that was called dull. I could see where it needed it, and all it took was adding a couple of lines to have her move instead of sit and watch, and I brought Zeke's dog in a bit more.

I really do need to get feedback on my scripts; if I've gone over this one all those times and still didn't catch everything...god knows what the rest are like. Readers for OT didn't catch everything, but some people would notice one typo while others noticed a different one so I was able to focus on those...and probably make new ones, the way I work.

It's rarely anything really big; more like missing letters, reversing them, missing words, repeating words when I didn't intend to, that sort of thing. I even double-and-triple check my blog to make sure I've got everything in it that the post needs...and if I read it later, I still find typos. I'm hopeless.

Right now I have a nasty headache. Seems if I stand while working for too long, my neck muscles tense up and it spreads from them up my neck into the back of my brain and makes it hard to concentrate.

If this is old age, stop it, right now!

Onward...forward...inward...wayward...

Jumped straight into NaNoWriMo and will have the book done by the end of the month, come hell or high water...and this being winter, probably blizzards. I posted the first 2000 words of Underground Guy on it, along with a new idea for the cover.

This works better than the one where the guy's eyes are downcast. His expression is almost dreamy. I enhanced his features a bit and blackened the people around him. And no need for the little tag that I usually put on my book covers; this works better without one. Clean and simple...

I got feedback on a script -- a short-form sort of coverage for Carli's Kills. They really liked it except one section that dragged, and they weren't happy I have the bad guys use anti-gay comments. I went to look at the pages they referenced and what should jump out at me but a typo. I went through that script a dozen times searching for typos, but somehow I missed having Hr instead of Her.

The great thing about it was, the ending did what I wanted it to for their reader. I was really unsure about that, because I don't let Carli off the hook for the things she's done. So I'm pleased, overall. I may put the script up on Talentville, to get more feedback.

I read a script that's already posted on that site and offered feedback. It was a nice enough one, but very careful and linear when the story cried to be told in a different way. Good dialogue just too much of it...and for me to say that, you know it had to be a lot.

But them's the dues you gotta pay on places like Triggerstreet and Talentville -- reading sub-par scripts,