I can taste victory

So Sariel sucked me back into it. The Forgotten is being eaten by the research monster at the moment and the urge to write was tickling my fingers.

I just passed 19000 so it is looking like 20000 by the end of the week may be possible. Not sure why that is such a big deal but I like nice round numbers

A B C D E F G Barney is my enemy.

For those of you not familiar with Barney he is an obnoxious 6 ft tall singing purple dinosaur who has been the bane of my existence for the last 17 years. He is also like crack for babies and toddlers and my 9 month old is thoroughly addicted.

This morning I woke with a segue worked out perfectly in my mind as well as how to feed some back story. It needed to be written right away for fear of losing it so I did what any responsible parent does. I plopped by baby in front of the one eyed babysitter and turned on Barney.

Seemed like a great plan until you try to write a scene very high in sexual tension and violence to a backdrop of If your happy and you know it and Family is special

Ugh someone shoot him and make stew already

So I'm a freak

Writing these days is hard. I was doing quite well for a while even if the end product ended up being shelved or needs a complete rewrite but at least I was writing. What happened ... AW.

Logically AW should help me with the writing process but instead it gives me an ulcer. OK maybe not an actual ulcer but definitely some unexplained stomach pain. I was thinking it was because I got too hung up on all the "rules" but the truth of the matter struck me in the face today.

I was reading a thread about those who claim to want to write but never do. Someone mentioned that fear of failure hold many back and I kinda laughed because the opposite is my problem. Failure is something I can live with. Commercial success with an imperfect product is not.

I was to follow the rules and produce perfection or die in oblivion trying. Problem is people can't agree on the rules other than adverbs are evil.

May I never query

It is official I am far too neurotic for this line of work. Nathan Bransford recently announced a contest on his blog where teh prize is a manuscript read blog.nathanbransford.com and all you have to do is post the first paragraph of a WIP.

Sounds easy right.... no way. I almost vomited hitting 'post' knowing that judgemnt would ensue and not just by Nathan but also by my unpublished peers.

When I finally produce a manuscript I don't immediately want to burn ... I mean trunk, querying may just cause me to have a stroke.

I abandoned it why

I was doing some writing tonight and got about 1000 words in between the baby shitting and demanding to be fed so I guess I can't really complain. It has been a slow few months between Christmas and loosing my computer to the flood but now that I have a shiny new laptop I ran out of excuses not to write. When I finished the chapter I was working on I found a draft of what I had completed of Sariel and realized i was over 18,000 words into it when I walked away.

Now I am sitting here trying to figure out why I abandoned it. I still like the premise and for a first draft the balls it sucked were relatively small. I am not sure I am going to go back to it right away but I am quite glad I managed to retrieve what I had dome of it.

If I can finish "forgotten" by the end of February I may go back to work on it before I start editing. Unlike "blender" wich was 30000 word of epic fail I think I may be able to salvage it

Huck Finn and teh N word

I am shocked

• 
  

New edition of 'Huckleberry Finn' to lose the 'n' word

by Keith Staskiewicz

Categories: Autobiography of Mark Twain, Censorship, Classic Novels, Controversy, Fiction

• Comments 1,273
• Add comment

What is a word worth? According to Publishers Weekly, NewSouth Books’ upcoming edition of Mark Twain’s seminal novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will remove all instances of the “n” word—I’ll give you a hint, it’s not nonesuch—present in the text and replace it with slave. The new book will also remove usage of the word Injun. The effort is spearheaded by Twain expert Alan Gribben, who says his PC-ified version is not an attempt to neuter the classic but rather to update it. “Race matters in these books,” Gribben told PW. “It’s a matter of how you express that in the 21st century.”

Unsurprisingly, there are already those who are yelling “Censorship!” as well as others with thesauruses yelling “Bowdlerization!” and “Comstockery!” Their position is understandable: Twain’s book has been one of the most often misunderstood novels of all time, continuously being accused of perpetuating the prejudiced attitudes it is criticizing, and it’s a little disheartening to see a cave-in to those who would ban a book simply because it requires context. On the other hand, if this puts the book into the hands of kids who would not otherwise be allowed to read it due to forces beyond their control (overprotective parents and the school boards they frighten), then maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to judge. It’s unfortunate, but is it really any more catastrophic than a TBS-friendly re-edit of The Godfather, you down-and-dirty melon farmer? The original product is changed for the benefit of those who, for one reason or another, are not mature enough to handle it, but as long as it doesn’t affect the original, is there a problem?

What do you think, Shelf-Lifers? Unnecessary censorship or necessary evil?

*****************

I don't get it. Why woudl parents deprive themselves of an excellent teaching tool? If my kids ever read huck finn you can be Damn sure it will be the original and not this one

2010 reading list

I am late and probably going to forget a few books but ...........

City of Bone Cassandra Clark - January 1st

It was an OK book and an easy read. Definitely YA and it seems to write down to it's audience a bit though

The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy Douglas Adams - Jan 2

Funny and entertaining. Definitely recommend it to anyone who wants a quick amusing read.

Blind Alley Iris Johanson - Jan 4

The Clerics Quintet R A Salvatore - Jan 12

Salvatore usually makes me have a vested interest in all his character including the antagonists but somehow this series fell short in that regard. I just wanted them all to die, and not because they were bad and deserved it but because they bored me to tears. The Protags were interesting and amusing but beyond them I was very disappointed that he didn't live up to my admittedly high expectations. Maybe I should have read this BEFORE I read his really good stuff

False Memory Dean Koontz

Breathless Dean Koontz

Wizards First Rule Terry Goodkind

Outlander Diana Gabaldron