I made that up, but it fits. I spent this last weekend (a) searching for my daughter’s most beloved and currently-still-missing cat; (b) trying to console said daughter (c) trying to read; (d) trying to write; (e) failing everything else, spending many hours tweaking the stylesheet for the various websites. You’ll see that this one looks somewhat different. Of course there’s always something wrong, in this case the spacing between date and entry. Isn’t obsession interesting? I can stand back and look at how ridiculous it is to worry about something like this, and then blithely go back to worrying.
Then there’s the subsidiary reviews & recommendations blog that I’m trying to get to work, with help from Martin at Legends of the SunPig. Thus far, no joy, but you can have a look at it in its less than perfect state, if you like.
I did get some writing done yesterday, and a lot more today.
Also, a Big Discussion is brewing with my editor and publisher, who, it turns out, really really dislike the title for the new book. Thunder at Twilight. Which, I hasten to say, I love. I adore this title. But they don’t. They worry it is too romance-like. Huh? To me is sounds far more military than romance, and in fact it has to do with the launching of the Bonners into yet another war. So the negotiations begin, again, and I’m very sad about this. But I haven’t given up hope completely.
A note: as of today, thirteen of you voted in the Farscape poll thus: Farscape?
You must, all thirteen of you, report after school for tutoring. I’ll bring cookies and milk while you go back through this blog and read all the carefully constructed, thoughtful essays I have written about quality storytelling and support for storytellers.
One more Farscape note: the nominations are now open for the annual Sparkey awards, which brings recognition to the folks who write fan-fiction. There are some really, really good writers of fan fiction, and I’m gonna bring a few of them to your attention. Note: I am not one of them. My own characters give me enough grief.
You've stumbled across my official website and landed on the front page of my weblog.
Jaquandor, you’re absolutely right. Except the titles are supposed to be there, but the code isn’t working the way it’s supposed to (I did say it was raw, and not quite finished).
Hi. I’m a relative newcomer here, having just discovered this blog last week. I like all of your content, and I have just one suggestion: on your “Recommendations” blog mentioned in this post, maybe you should actually give the titles of the works you’re commenting on. I find those thumbnails of the covers or dustjackets or whatnot too small, in most cases, to tell what work you’re referring to.
Yeah, there’s nothing worse than raw blog. You gotta cook ’em at least until they’re pink in the middle! :)
Rachel, they don’t have a preferred title, at this point. Just the feeling that for them, my title doesn’t work.
In the larger scheme of things I’m very lucky; I have a publisher and an editor who are very appreciative of what I write and don’t meddle with the guts of it. It’s just titles we always butt heads over. They never tried to put torn bodices on my covers, never asked me to lose a hundred pages (and those things do happen to other authors).
So bombarding them probably wouldn’t help, and would only muddy the waters further. Just wish me luck, that’s about all anybody could do at this point.
Sara, would it help if we bombarded your publishers with letters saying, “Leave her alone! She knows what she’s doing!” or the like? I think Thunder at Twilight is fine. What would they prefer, or can’t you tell us?