I finished NaNoWriMo!!!

I did it! I wrote 50,000 words of The Old Power Returns, the sequel to Darksome Thirst, during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).


Technically, you're supposed to write a complete novel, from start to finish, but since my novel is actually a continuation in a series, I didn't feel like I was bending the rules too much when, on October 31, I saved the file with my work so far and started a new one from that point.

Why did I even bother? Well, I was getting stuck with The Old Power Returns. It seemed that I was halfway done -- for months! And it seemed that there were always things coming up, like vacations or family obligations or work that caused me to lose my momentum.

NaNoWriMo, a social contract of sorts, was just what I needed. I promised -- myself -- that at the end of November I would have 50,000 words, the last two which would be "The End."

Okay, so I sort of bent that rule, too, since the last words on the page were "To be continued" (because it's a series), but I did keep the promise that I would wrap up the current story. That I did, and I'm quite amused at the results. A couple of things happened that I wasn't expecting, and there was one unforseen connection that appeared in the very last hour or two of writing.

So, how long does it take to write 50,000 words? For me, it took 67 hours, and that included some online research time, which I wasn't as disciplined about as I should have been. And it was only about three days from the finish when I thought to make an autocorrect entry in Microsoft Word so that I could type "Mat " and have it fill in my character's name, Matricaria!

What have I learned from this? I've learned that forcing myself to get to the end of my novel in one month might be a good idea. I don't have the continuity problems that I have when I'm forced to stop writing for a few weeks when I'm spreading it out. Also, if you hibernate for only a month at a time, people seem to be a little forgiving! And if it's going to be any month, November is as good a month as any, and the support of the other NaNoWriMo writers and the NaNoWriMo volunteers is priceless.

I've still got a ways to go with this novel. I've still got to "let it cool" for a few weeks and then do a ruthless self-edit. But that's fine. I can do that. The hardest part -- facing the inertia of the legendary "sophomore slump" is over. And, at least for a couple of weeks, I can rest my typing fingers!

-- Morven

If you want to read an excerpt, check out my profile at the NaNoWriMo site:

The non-Flash version is here.

The Flash version is here.

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What I'm Reading Now...

• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing a Novel by Tom Monteleone
• The Cleansing by John Harvey
• Haunted Massachusetts by Cheri Revai

What I've Finished Reading Recently...

• No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty
• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
• Staying Dead by Laura Anne Gilman
• The Practical Writer Edited by Therese Eiben and Mary Gannon
• The Song of an Emerald Dove by Xanna Vinson

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NaNoWriMo, Day 2

Arg, day 2 and I'm 288 words behind. It's still early, though, and if I apply myself to my day job, I can probably write those 288 words during my lunch hour.

I must say, though, that I'm pleased with what I wrote this morning. Don't want to give away the plot or anything, but I'm still giggling over a vampire in rented bowling shoes...

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What I'm Reading Now...

• No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty
• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

What I've Finished Reading Recently...

• Staying Dead by Laura Anne Gilman
• The Practical Writer Edited by Therese Eiben and Mary Gannon
• The Song of an Emerald Dove by Xanna Vinson

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NaNoWriMo

I've either done something very brilliant or very stupid.

It's been two years since I started writing THE OLD POWER RETURNS, the sequel to DARKSOME THIRST. I'm about halfway through, but as many of you have realized, I've been saying that for a VERY long time.

There are many reasons for the protracted writing period, but behind it all, when you dig through the excuses and the "life happens" stuff, is the real truth: Fear. Fear of screwing up the second novel, fear of going through that old write-edit-rewrite-edit-chewfingernails-edit-publish cycle again.

So, I've done something to get me off my duff and write through to the end -- in one month.

I'm sort of bending the rules a bit, but I've signed up at National Novel Writing Month (www.NaNoWriMo.org) to write a 50,000-word novel in one month.

To be a little more in line with their philosophy, though (which is to write a brand-new novel from scratch in one month), what I will do is to "end" my current work in the next day or two. On Tuesday, Nov 1, I start where I left off, but as if I were starting another sequel. I will write straight through from that point, at an average of 1667 words a day, until I get to the end. On December 1, I'll merge the two and begin self-editing.

So, wish me luck, and don't expect to hear from me in November!

Morven

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What I'm Reading Now...

• Staying Dead by Laura Anne Gilman
• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
• Page After Page by Heather Sellers
• How to Write Killer Fiction by Carolyn Wheat

What I've Finished Reading Recently...

• The Practical Writer Edited by Therese Eiben and Mary Gannon
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style by Laurie E. Rozakis
• The Song of an Emerald Dove by Xanna Vinson

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Morven's Radio Adventure, Part 2 of 2

Okay, so in Part 1 I gave you the facts, just the facts: Who was there, what we did, when it occurred, and where it was. Now for the How: How it felt.

At the beginning of my radio adventure, it didn't feel any different from many of the book promotion trips I'm beginning to get used to. The night before I worry about what to bring, what to wear, and how early I have to leave. The morning of the event, I wonder if I remembered the directions and the maps. And of course, I wonder about the weather. This time the weather was a biggie.

Rain doesn't scare me that much. Snow and ice? Different story. But rain, unless it's dark or the rain is torrential, isn't a big deal anymore. It used to be a big deal when I was in my early twenties and had junk cars with nearly bald tires and poor handling, but now that I can afford a safe car with new tires, I'm okay with rain.

It's taken me a few years to realize that I'm okay, though; that the "you hydroplane at 45 miles per hour" rule they taught us in Driver's Ed applied to the cars of that time, not to the cars of today.

But back to my story. At the beginning of the day, my main feeling was slight anxiety over getting to a strange place on time. That worry over with, I was pretty much relaxed. After all, I wasn't the one in the hot seat, and I had fulfilled my role by delivering the star to the show.

I tried to psyche myself up, reminding myself that there could be as many as 200,000 people listening to this little radio station on the north shore, but no dice. I just couldn't get terrified. The host and the guest were just too calm, too natural, too relaxed. And that's all who was in the room -- them and me.

I suppose it would have been different if it had been a television set. Then there would have been lights and camera men and maybe makeup people and so on, but it wasn't. It was just a little radio broadcasting room and three people.

I hear that even at larger radio stations, it isn't much different. You're in a little room with the equipment and that's it. The room we were in was probably as big as the room I use for my office at home. The large pieces of equipment were against the wall and I really couldn't see the dials and knobs and switches that might have been there. Who knows, maybe it's mostly electronic these days and all the action is on a computer monitor.

It was a little bit surreal, but why? Every day I type for hours, connected to an internet of millions, and I'm not really aware that they're there. So why am I surprised when the 200,000 seem so invisible? Maybe it's just because it was such a new experience.

After the interview, we waited politely while Hawthorne announced the next piece of music and then we thanked him and slipped quietly out the door, through an empty building, and back into the rain. His was the last live show of the morning. No other guests were waiting outside the door, no voices animated the halls. It was as empty when we left as when we arrived.

Still, it was an experience. And it was fun.

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What I'm Reading Now...

• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
• Page After Page by Heather Sellers
• How to Write Killer Fiction by Carolyn Wheat

What I've Finished Reading Recently...

• The Practical Writer Edited by Therese Eiben and Mary Gannon
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style by Laurie E. Rozakis
• The Song of an Emerald Dove by Xanna Vinson

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Pantry bugs, yuckkk

Hubby made a nice Thai curry last night and when I opened the bag of basmati rice, I was greeted with an multitude of larvae. Yuck. Just what I need. It's nearly Halloween, I'm trying to finish decorating, we have an upcoming trip for his parents' wedding anniversary and now I have a research project about pantry bugs -- not to mention cleaning the closet!

Thank goodness for Google, that's all I can say.

I think they're Indian Meal Moths, and I'm not just saying that because they were in a bag of basmati rice from India.

Check out this web page with pictures o'pests

While he finished the curry, I started the cleaning. Fortunately, the bag was on the floor of the pantry and there were few other penetrable containers there.

But you know me, I tend to get philosophical about the most mundane things. These little tiny guys remind me that with all our "civilization," all our technology and science, we're still at the mercy of pantry bugs. Y'know, we can put a man on the moon...

And that, dear reader, was one of the things that I was trying to say in Darksome Thirst: technology, for all its beauty and gifts, has its limits.

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What I'm Reading Now...

• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
• Page After Page by Heather Sellers
• How to Write Killer Fiction by Carolyn Wheat

What I've Finished Reading Recently...

• The Practical Writer Edited by Therese Eiben and Mary Gannon
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style by Laurie E. Rozakis
• The Song of an Emerald Dove by Xanna Vinson

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Morven's Radio Adventure, Part 1 of 2

Ever wonder what it's like to do a radio broadcast? A number of my friends were fortunate enough to attend colleges that had student radio stations, but, alas, I wasn't, so I've always wondered. When a good friend of mine, Xanna Vinson, told me that she'd be doing a radio interview on WNSH 1570 AM in Beverly, Massachusetts, I was more than happy to offer her a place to stay, and a ride to the station.

The interview was scheduled for 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, which would have been an incredibly decent hour to have to do an interview had we not been at a wedding the night before. It had been an afternoon wedding, though, so by 11:15 p.m. we were not only back at my house, but comfortably collapsed on the couch, watching the evening news.

We probably should have quit while we were ahead and not waited for the weather forecast. They were predicting torrential rains and localized flooding. Since neither of us was familiar with the geography of Beverly, we didn't know if it was prone to flooding. After a few minutes' discussion, we decided to email Hawthorne, the host of Spiral Dance Radio, to ask if we could arrange a telephone interview instead.

Saturday morning found us up and awake and checking email rather early, but there was no reply. We left Hawthorne a phone message with my cell phone number and decided to try the trip anyway. I figured that if the roads were bad, we could always turn around and head home, or, if the roads were REALLY bad and we were stuck seeking shelter somewhere en route, Xanna could possibly even do the phone interview from my cell phone.

But the weather gods were with us and the rain was light. We arrived at the station with a few minutes to spare, having wasted a few of those precious minutes walking in the wrong direction from the parking lot before finding the right building. Though it's a commercial radio station, it's located on the campus of Endicott College, which seems to be one of those campuses that grew in an organic manner, with roads and branches off roads. Hawthorne's directions to the parking lot were excellent, but I think it's just the nature of the campus that makes it hard to describe which end of the building is the front and so on.

Still, we found it, and crept in quietly while Hawthorne announced a selection of music. Quietly we put our stuff and umbrellas down. (Xanna had brought a copy of her book marked with a selection to read on air and I had brought a camera and a notebook.)

Hawthorne quickly set her up with a microphone and went over the plan. Xanna had been one of those lucky folks who had a radio experience in college and seemed comfortable and relaxed as they adjusted the microphone on an extendable metal arm.

I remembered that we had left our water bottles in the car and thought it would be a good idea to have some on hand. Hawthorne told me where I could find a water fountain and vending machines and I ran off in search of water. By the time I returned, they had already started the interview. I had paused before entering so that I could open the bottle of water outside the door and not in the room where the pop would either show up on the air or, at the very least, distract Xanna. I figured the microphones were probably unidirectional, but I had to idea how sensitive they were or what their pick-up pattern was.

Gently opening the door, I slipped in and tried to put the bottle down on the desk quietly and then slink back to my seat. Xanna and Hawthorne didn't seem to miss a beat, but I still found myself holding my breath, hoping that I wasn't breathing too loudly. Listening to Xanna talk, I finally got absorbed in the subject and was able to relax.

They were both naturals, so natural in fact, that I sometimes found myself wanting to just jump into the conversation, as if we were sitting in a living room, just having a quiet chat! I managed to keep my mouth shut without duct tape, though, and was able to listen quietly to Xanna describe the concept of a sentient earth and how that figured into her novel The Song of an Emerald Dove.

Hawthorne is a very good interviewer. He asked really intelligent questions, having read the book himself. He also fully listened to her answers before going on to his next question. He threw in one unexpected question about crop circles which resulted in a second of dead air before she warmly chided him about throwing her a curve ball, but she answered well and he responded with some interesting theories of his own.

Too soon it was over and we found ourselves heading back south on Rte 128, a road that used to leave me white-knuckled and sweating, but which now paled against the novel experience of the radio broadcast.

For more information on Spiral Dance Radio, visit (www.spiraldanceradio.com).

For more information on Xanna Vinson and her new novel, visit (www.xannavinson.com).

-- Morven

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What I'm Reading Now...

• The Practical Writer Edited by Therese Eiben and Mary Gannon
• Page After Page by Heather Sellers
• How to Write Killer Fiction by Carolyn Wheat
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style by Laurie E. Rozakis

What I've Finished Reading Recently...

• The Song of an Emerald Dove by Xanna Vinson
• Haunted Newport by Eleyne Austen Sharp

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Thinking of Katrina

It's hard to think of much else. Hurricane Katrina. Wow.

I'm still sort of dazed as I think of the pictures from the Web, the TV. Thank goodness that the only people I know in New Orleans are safe.

It's frozen me. How can I tell you what I've been up to this summer, the joys of travel, the struggle to get on an exercise and writing schedule that WORKS, without sounding insensitive?

Maybe later I'll tell you.

In the meantime I continue to shape the sequel to Darksome Thirst. Slowly.

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What I'm Reading Now...

• The Song of an Emerald Dove by Xanna Vinson
• Page After Page by Heather Sellers
• How to Write Killer Fiction by Carolyn Wheat
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style by Laurie E. Rozakis
• Haunted Newport by Eleyne Austen Sharp

What I've Finished Reading Recently...

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rolling
• Island of Flowers by Nora Roberts

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Morven Goes to Necon 25

I just returned from Necon 2005, a horror writers convention, and as usual, it was
great. They have panels where you get to hear experienced authors talk
about books, writing, and what's hot in the genre. Hey, I was even on
a panel myself!

The panel was called "THE FUTURE OF HORROR - Part One: The Biological
Clock of Horror" (clever title, huh?) and was a panel of women writers
and authors: Sephera Giron (Moderator), Jill Bauman, P.D. Cacek, Lynne
Hansen, Kelly Laymon, Yvonne Navarro, Mary SanGiovanni, Elena Stier,
and me. Unfortunately, I couldn't find my tape recorder and a woman
who was recording the session said the tape didn't come out, so my
pearls of wisdom are lost forever! WAH!!!

Seriously, though, I do remember being asked if I felt that women
writers had a difficult time breaking into horror. Both P.D. and I
said we had chosen our bylines to avoid that and both of us have
received emails or letters assuming we were males (for example, "Dear
Mr. Cacek" or "Hey, dude!") An interesting comment came from Lynne
Hansen, who does Young Adult books: she said boys won't buy her books
if they have girls on the cover.

I'm still unpacking and doing laundry because I'm going away again
next week, so if you don't hear from me, don't panic: I'm still here!
My sequel, "The Old Power Returns," is coming along okay. I felt
really energized and ready to write after this conference, but now
I've got a silly thing like a vacation to interfere!

After I unpack from the next trip, I'll try to get some pictures on my
web site. My brother gave me a camera and it takes much, much better
indoor and night shots than my other one does.

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What I'm Reading Now...

• A Choir of Ill Children by Tom Piccirilli
• Page After Page by Heather Sellers
• How to Write Killer Fiction by Carolyn Wheat
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style by Laurie E. Rozakis

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This ad match is so bad it's almost funny...

My publisher just posted the following notice on their message board. This is so bad it's almost funny...

Earlier today I set up the section of the board for Xanna Vinson's The Song of an Emerald Dove. I sent her email saying that the section was ready, and encouraging her to register, get her username, and log in.

Later I got an email from her, and don't you believe that it's impossible to tell emotion in emails. I could almost feel the horror in her voice.

You see, the ads that run at the top of this message board are part of the Google AdSense program. Google's software apparently reads the text of the page and finds an ad with similar words. (I'm simplifying it, surely, but you catch my drift.) Well, sometimes the ads it shows aren't quite appropriate...

For example, for Xanna, a staunch animal lover who kept doves for many years, an ad for dove HUNTING at the top of her message board section was NOT appropriate!

I looked at the ads again tonight and there were four: one was for dove releases (as in weddings), two were for hunting, and one was for CDs by a group called the Doves.

There *is* a way to filter out ads that are not appropriate for the text, but the message board providers said that because of the way the ads are implemented on this system, it's not possible for them to filter out ads for individual message boards.

So please bear with us while we search for a solution. I like Google and Google ads, and I realize that this is just a faulty algorithm, but I know how disturbing a mismatch like this can be.

Harvest Shadows Publications

Wow. Can you imagine? I mean, here we have ads for companies who provide beautiful, peaceful releases of doves as a symbol of love and peace stacked next to ads for companies who provide you the means of slaughtering them! Ya gotta love the Internet!

Morven

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What I'm Reading Now...

• Page After Page by Heather Sellers
• How to Write Killer Fiction by Carolyn Wheat
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style by Laurie E. Rozakis
• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

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Morven Goes to Boskone

I've known about Boskone for ages. A good friend, an artist, was an active member of the New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA) when I first met her and I remember her talking about the con, the fen, NESFA publications -- everything. Yet I never went, not even the ten years it was held in Framingham, where I grew up.

I thought I wouldn't find anything interesting. After all, I've never read more than a handful of SF books, get bored with talk of rocketry and space travel, and am generally too lazy a reader to ingest, understand, and absorb complex fictional universes. Yeah, I did love the original Star Trek TV series, but Star Trek is not what Boskone is about.

And yes, I knew there was a Fantasy aspect to the con, and though I've read more Fantasy than SF, my reading experience still numbers only a dozen books or so. I think the last time that I read Fantasy was around the release of Wizard of Earthsea or Mists of Avalon. Regardless, it was a very long time ago.

Somehow it totally escaped me that there was any Horror connection. Imagine my surprise when fellow members of HWA/New England Chapter told me that there were interesting horror panels at this year's Boskone. Some of them were even panelists. Well, that settled it. One can't leave one's horror buddies flapping their jaws at an SF con with no moral support, can one? Around 11 pm Friday night, after the con already started, I decided I'd go.

Doesn't sound like a big deal, does it? Boston, 30 miles away, train just a half mile from my house? Well, except that it's winter. And the train doesn't stop near me on weekends. And I'm not sure if I should drive or take the train from another station. And... Not very good excuses are they? No. So I went. And had a GREAT time.

I knew that the con would be well-organized. Any organization that manages to have its own clubhouse and publishing arm has to be able to manage a con. No disappointments there. The programming was excellent, from my point of view. Too bad I missed going Friday -- I missed a panel on "Vampire-Romance-Fantasy-Humor Crossovers and Others," one on weblogs (of course -- how timely), one called "Beginning Anime" (would have helped me communicate more intelligently with my anime-loving nephew), and one on writing groups! I wouldn't have had a blank spot all evening! DARN!

Saturday morning, after a nice cuppa Starbucks off the hotel lobby, I attended a panel on "Publishing Realities," with professional editors and an art director. They talked about what happens after a publisher buys your novel. It was fascinating, and the first time I had heard an art director speak on the topic. Briefly mentioned was "sophomoritis," a very real phenomena where writing the second novel seems so much more difficult than writing the first... (wonder why I homed in on that?)

Next for me was "Literary Horror vs Commercial Horror," a panel with F. Brett Cox, Craig Shaw Gardner, John Harvey, and Darrell Schweitzer. I know them all either from the HWA/New England Chapter or from Necon, a very small horror writer's convention I've been attending for 5-6 years now. As always, they were very informative and entertaining. They discussed current and past authors and why some might be considered literary and some commercial. The lines aren't as clear-cut as one would think. Craig Shaw Gardner pointed out that it's more along a continuum. John Harvey noted that the designation of commercial or literary probably has as much to do with Marketing needs as with the actual writing. Just as interesting were some of the side notes. Did you know that "Psycho" was originally presented as a "crime drama"? It seems that a lot of horror novels and films were, way back when Horror didn't have its own designation.

Next panel I attended was "The Halloween Business" with Charles Lang, F. Brett Cox, and Craig Shaw Gardner. Are you noticing a pattern here? Our poor HWA/Necon pros got picked for most of the horror panels. I attended all of them, and although there was -- naturally -- a little repetition here and there, I was still impressed with how fresh they remained and how much new information they added each time. In this panel, moderator Lang (someone with whom I was not familiar) led a discussion about the popularity of horror and asked if pop culture has diminished the field. One comment was that we might be having a horror boom because of terrorism. It seems that when people feel that things are out of control (as they did after WWII), they turn to horror to express or exorcise their fears. As someone said in a later panel, people get more superstitious in uncertain times, which could mean a boost in supernatural horror movies and novels. (Yay!)

"Finances for Freelancers" seemed to be the least coherent of the panels I attended, but I still walked away with good information and a better idea of what it means when you quit the day job... sigh.

I was late for the Guest of Honor speech, and though even I, ignorant of SF writers as I am, know who Orson Scott Card is and know it would have been valuable to hear him speak, I didn't feel right muscling my way through standing-room only real fans to hear him. I sat outside the room for a few minutes, listening through the open door, but couldn't catch enough of it to stay focused. From the laughter I could hear through the walls, though, I can guess it was a fabulous talk.

"Tropes of Horror" was on at the same time as "What New Writers Need to Know"! Damn! I would have loved to attend both, but I felt drawn to listen to F. Brett Cox, Craig Shaw Gardner, and Paul Tremblay. Though it was encouraging to hear Craig say that "No trope is done to death if done properly," the warm fuzzy feeling was balanced by more than one of the panel saying that they had a hard time forcing themselves to read yet another vampire novel.

"Building Characters" was a good workshop for any writer -- not just SF or Horror or Fantasy. I think that's what surprised me most about Boskone -- there was just so much for me as a writer! Of course, the panelists did talk about aliens and space ships, but I was so busy jotting down notes from other threads in the session that I didn't even have a chance to go brain numb. Paul Tremblay was on the panel, but the other two writers were SF writers, and I enjoyed listening to their viewpoints and experiences.

"As You Know, Bob..." Ah, once again, another good one for any writer! This one was on the problem of getting background information into your novel without it being obvious or contrived. Very good panel with Greer Gilman, Kelly Link, and Juliet McKenna, authors who I wasn't familiar with, but who were very knowledgeable and articulate.

Having learned on Saturday that there isn't a break in the program for lunch, I decided to skip the noon panel about J. R. R. Tolkien's modeling of the Rohirrim on the Anglo-Saxons who were the original English. DUMB, DUMB, DUMB idea. Had I looked at the panel list -- which I didn't, because I figured I didn't know any of these SF and F people -- I would have seen that the friend I mentioned in the first paragraph of this blog was on the panel! Arggghhh!

The last horror panel on the agenda was "Undying Horror," a discussion of horror flicks, especially some of the newer Japanese films and their Hollywood knockoffs. I was a little late for this one, having run into another friend of mine just before the panel began, and got caught up in catching up...

For the last panel, I couldn't decide between "Exotic Mythologies" (positioned to give one ideas to draw on other than the standard Celtic mythology) and "Interviewing an Art Director." Since I knew less about how art direction and cover design work than I do about different mythologies, I opted for the Art Director. DUMB, DUMB, DUMB! Had I gone to "Mythologies," I would have run into my friend that I mentioned in the first paragraph.

After the panel, I made one last pit stop before leaving the warmth of the hotel for the cold outside. Nearing the escalator, I took one last look around, hoping I could run into my Friend from Paragraph One, and who did I spy leaning on a railing, looking down over the escalator? Yup. Said Friend from Paragraph One with her son and husband.

All in all, it was an unbelievably good con for me, and I can't stop kicking myself for not going sooner! Well, I will. Just long enough to pencil in the date for next year!

Morven

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What I'm Reading Now...

• Page After Page by Heather Sellers
• How to Write Killer Fiction by Carolyn Wheat
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style by Laurie E. Rozakis
• Perfect Trust by M. R. Sellars

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Copyright © 2005 Morven Westfield

This Ain't the Fever Talkin'

After my "Writing Hurts" post, you were probably thinking to yourself, "What a freakin' wimp." Well, wait. There's more.

Maybe those two weeks of pain that culminated in a monster headache on Jan 31 and a sore throat on Feb 1 were leading up to something. I've got what the guy at the end of the phone at the doctor's office called, "That virus that's going around." Give it another week, he says. Okay. Sure. Why not? The last week's been a bit of a blur, and that ain't the fever talkin'.

What pisses me off the most is spending 4 days in bed, 3 days when I was off the day job and could have been writing. I probably should have tried anyway. Sure, I was so fever-spaced I could barely think, but maybe the words would have been interesting. Maybe I would have produced a new character, one whose speech or thought patterns would have been radically different from anything I wrote so far... But then what would I have done when the fever broke and I couldn't write like that anymore?

Well, at least I'm getting time to catch up on my reading.

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What I'm Reading Now...

• Page After Page by Heather Sellers
• How to Write Killer Fiction by Carolyn Wheat
  
• A Voice in the Forest by Jimahl di Fiosa
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style by Laurie E. Rozakis

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Copyright © 2005 Morven Westfield

Could spring be coming?

Even though the temp is barely up to freezing, I wonder if spring is coming... The last couple of days I've noticed that the cats are lying in the sunny spots of the room rather than on the heated cat bed.

Does that mean the rays are getting stronger?* Possibly. Today (or tomorrow) is the halfway point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox.

(*Yeah, yeah, the strength doesn't change. It's the angle of the rays as they hit the earth, but the end result is that the sun feels stronger. [grin])

Speaking of freezing, here's a look at the thermometer from last week:

What I'm Reading Now...

• Vampyrrhic by Simon Clark
• A Voice in the Forest by Jimahl di Fiosa
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style by Laurie E. Rozakis
• Magic Spells and Incantations by Elizabeth Pepper

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Copyright © 2005 Morven Westfield

Spring 2005 Book Signing Schedule

With the temperature hovering around zero or barely creeping up to freezing, it's hard to imagine that spring is coming, but it is. I've already got my Spring signing schedule. It should be fun. I've never been to any of these places, so that will be a treat. And it'll be fun to go to Boston, Newport, and Plymouth in the spring. I don't get to those places very often, and certainly not this time of year.

If you're in the area, stop by and say hello. Even if you already have a book, stop by. It's good to see familiar faces or meet people who've read my books.

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Saturday, March 5, 2005
2-6 PM

Gardenia's
399 Dorchester Street
Boston, Massachusetts

1-617-268-6600

http://www.mygardenias.com/main.html

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Saturday, March 19, 2005
2-4 PM

Magick Dragon
365 Thames Street
Newport RI 02840

1-401-843-8558

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Saturday, May 7, 2005
Noon - 5 PM

Book Signing at
Incantations' Psychic Fair

Incantations
36 Cordage Park Circle, Suite 119
Plymouth, MA 02360

1-508-746-8316

http://www.incantationsotw.com/

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What I'm Reading Now...

• Vampyrrhic by Simon Clark
• A Voice in the Forest by Jimahl di Fiosa
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style by Laurie E. Rozakis
• Magic Spells and Incantations by Elizabeth Pepper

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Copyright © 2005 Morven Westfield

Writing Hurts

Writing hurts, and I'm not talking metaphorically. I'm talking back pain, shoulder pain, neck pain. And I'm not talking mild discomfort or background nagging pain -- that's par for the course -- I'm talking spams. Bad spasms that prevent you from straightening up, sitting down, standing, lying, anything. I'm talking interrupted sleep. Aggravation. And more.

Alright, I know I've got no real reason to complain. I know I can't even begin to fathom the sheer agony of a day hunched over picking crops in a hot, unyielding sun. Or being a town worker shoveling wet heavy snow away from fire hydrants in the freezing cold. Or being 8 1/2 months pregnant. Yup. I'm a wimp.

To try to tame the agony, I started yoga again. (Yeah, you were wondering about the link between yoga and horror writing, weren't you?) I take a class once a week from a fantastic instructor and a few Christmases ago I asked for the Yoga Zone 4-pack collection. It's a really good collection, once you get used to Alan Finger's voice. I find the "Conditioning and Stress Release" DVD really good for loosening up. In general, though, the sessions are too long. All of the DVDs run about 55 minutes and I find it hard to think about taking 55 minutes away from whatever I'm doing. Yeah, I know I could just start and stop when I have to, but I like following the sessions to the end.

So the following year, I asked for new DVDs, ones with shorter sessions. Most were from Yoga Zone. I love Rodney Yee's "AM/PM Yoga," though I find I just do the AM one most of the time, whether it's day or night. Very easy to do, even when you're having a Back Back Day. And when you're having a good day, it's still a nice, gentle stretch.

This year I asked for Rodney Yee's "Back Care Yoga for Beginners." I had read a few reviews that said it was too easy, and I thought to myself, "Perfect! I've been doing yoga for about 3 years now, so I'm at least a little flexible. This should be great for those days when I can't straighten up!" Well, not exactly. His rocking back and forth thing is too much for me even if I'm NOT having a bad back day. I can do the Bow Pose on a good day, but not a bad day. But I will admit the chair work is good. On a bad day, I can just barely do it. On a good day, I can do it easily and it allows me to "get deeper into the stretch" as they say.

It's funny, but when I was younger, I used to listen to my parents complain about the aches and pains caused by their physical jobs and think how fortunate I was to work in an office job. I probably am, regardless, but it's just not as pain-free as I would have imagined back then.

Namaste,
Morven

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What I'm Reading Now...

• Vampyrrhic by Simon Clark
• A Voice in the Forest by Jimahl di Fiosa
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style by Laurie E. Rozakis
• Magic Spells and Incantations by Elizabeth Pepper

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Copyright © 2005 Morven Westfield

Do the Killers Sound Like the Cure?

This morning we watched "Saturday Night Live," recorded from the night before. To me, The Killers sound a little like The Cure and I could even see some Robert Smith mannerisms in the lead singer from time to time. My husband, who actually owns The Cure records & CDs that we have, doesn't see it. Maybe it's me. I often hear overtones of other riffs, other groups, when I listen to music.

I have this terrible urge to go out on Google to see if others see a similar similarity, but if I do that, I'll never get any writing done today.

Oh, well. Does it matter? I like what I heard, regardless.

In the meantime, I'll just try to write while "Well somebody told me/you had a boyfriend/who looks like a girlfriend..." plays an endless loop in my head.

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What I'm Reading Now...

• Vampyrrhic by Simon Clark
• The White Room by A. J. Matthews
• A Voice in the Forest by Jimahl di Fiosa
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style by Laurie E. Rozakis

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Copyright © 2005 Morven Westfield

Writing Again...

Sometime over the summer, life intervened, self-doubt paid a visit, and I stopped work on The Old Power Returns, the sequel to Darksome Thirst.

Even after I figured out what the problem was (sophomore slump) and had convinced myself to keep going, it wasn't until just after Christmas that I finally sat down and starting writing again. Well, re-writing. After four months, I didn't trust myself to remember what I had already written, so it made the most sense to start from the beginning, editing and embellishing as I went along.

When I left off in August, I had seven pretty-solid chapters written. I've now edited/rewritten to the end of Chapter 3. No, I'm not that slow, it's just that every once in a while I'll reach a point where I need to do some research on something and wham! -- I'm lost in Googleland for the evening.

But if I get up early and start writing the novel first thing in the morning, I tend to do well. Maybe it's because I'm too sleepy to remember the fears that my second novel will be worse than my first. Or maybe it's because I'm still in that half-world of dream and sleep and can concentrate before all my other obligations crowd in.

Last night I read an article by the now-deceased legendary horror author Richard Laymon and it gave me just the kick I need to get going again. In his "Laymon's Rules of Writing," Laymon says basically that there's no excuse not to write. Not life problems, not fears, not nuthin'. And on that note, I'm going to log off now -- and start writing.

Morven


Copyright © 2005 Morven Westfield