Altivo's Horse Tails

So tired...

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 04:40:23 GMT

This is the most exhausting holiday of the year, I think. And for that reason, far from my favorite. We did get everything done as we were supposed to do.

Except for my writing. I managed about 500 words in the car going, and another 700 tonight. Backsliding is no good. Four days left to squeeze out 16,000 words. Still trying, though.

Dreaming and Screaming

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 04:07:32 GMT

Making progress. I'm not done writing for tonight yet, and the turkey's in the oven still so I have some more time. However, I'm pleased with the way things are shaping up, so here is another excerpt. Francis meets with his mentors, and then meets someone more sinister, in a dream as it seems... or not. This segment should appear before "Old Bones and New" in the final manuscript, and I think you'll see why.

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Words to date: 33.198

Target quota tonight: 41,675

How to Ride a Pony

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:33:57 GMT

Stuck at work for another hour. Then a long weekend, hopefully, so I can finish the NaNo.

Meanwhile, here's an important lesson:

How to Ride a Pony

I'm not so sure about the crab blood, though.

Old Bones and New

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:42:25 GMT

Another two chapter excerpt, returning to the main plot in the current timeline. Hammel continues his investigation into the triple killings back in 347 CY, only to arrive at the crime scene of another murder, in his current timeline.

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I recommend that you read the other three excerpts before reading this one, otherwise you will miss clues, just as Hammel is doing at the moment.

Words to date: 26,544
Target quota: 38,341

To be a wolf

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:48:03 GMT

New excerpt, sampling the third subplot in ARROW: a College Tail. Francis is a raccoon but he wishes he had been born a wolf. When he writes about it and reads his work in his composition class, he is suddenly presented with an odd-sounding but apparently desirable opportunity.

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As with almost all my writing, these excerpts are "safe for work."

Writing, hay, and more writing

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:19:17 GMT

Slow but steady progress. The loose ends are now visible rather than being just in my head. Had to make a timeline, using the Chatton calendar. Dates like 18 Bear 347 CY and 29 II Wolf 348 CY don't help, but I insist that they be correct.

Unloaded the last of the hay this afternoon. Some of it was pretty crappy, but it's more than enough so we're done until June I hope.

Moved a frozen turkey from the deep freeze to the refrigerator so it will hopefully thaw out by Wednesday evening when I want to cook it. They're predicting snow for Wednesday evening too. Glad we're closing the library early for the holiday.

Got two more segments written. At this rate, I'll still make the deadline.

NaNo progress

Current word count: 22,892
Today's quota: 36,674

Furmeet without the 'fest part

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:03:13 GMT

Steed and Bear arrived Friday evening from MFF, and we went out for dinner and hung out. They stayed overnight and this morning we had breakfast (I made an apple-filled German pancake, with bacon and lots of coffee) and we played around with the horses and dogs and then took photos of Steed in his fursuit before they went back to the hotel to catch the parade and head home.

So I got a little bit of MFF without actually having to brave the madness.

Went grocery shopping, and observed that the price of gasoline is fluctuating wildly in town here. This week the observed prices have been:

Monday about 8 pm, $2.62
Tuesday afternoon, $2.63
Thursday about 8 pm, $2.75
Saturday 2:30 pm, $2.59
Saturday 4:00 pm, $2.57

This is all recorded at the exact same station. Meanwhile, up in Harvard, prices have been locked solid at $2.74 for a couple of weeks. Down in Dekalb on Thursday the price seemed to be $2.59 everywhere I looked, and it was similar to that in Indiana last Sunday. In Ohio I saw one station at $2.39, though, and several at $2.44.

Some NaNo progress, gaining ground but not fast enough.

Current word count: 19,878
Today's quota: 35,007

Fennec and Hammel meet for the first time

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:48:06 GMT

For those who remember my 2007 NaNo novel, which appeared with the working title The Argosiad, here is an excerpt chapter from this year's book. The story is a mystery with a double timeline, in which current events seem to mimic a series of murders 120 years earlier. At this time, Fennec and Hammel are both students in Chatton, and in this chapter we see their first meeting. They were assigned a joint project in a public administration class.

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NaNo progress (I'm way behind, but may still be able to catch up)

Words to date: 17,965
Quota would be: 31,673

Well, that's over for now

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:40:08 GMT

Gary's back home, but I didn't get him here until 8 pm. Those people sure run on some other dimension of time, or else they really are billing the insurance (and us) by the minute. He was supposed to have a stress test first thing in the morning, but they kept putting it off. Finally at noon they got around to it. Then he had to wait for the results to be "read" and wait some more to see the cardiologist, who wanted an ultrasound then. The final conclusion: acid reflux, which is what I've said he has but of course my diagnosis doesn't count. They prescribed Pepcid and also Xanax if he chooses to take it. He's so hypersensitive to medication that I'm afraid that will make him loopy, but OK.

Anyway, he's home safe, thanks to Epona and Baldur. I spent the whole day waiting for the call saying they were definitely going to discharge him so I could make the hour drive down there. Finally the call came at 4 pm. I got down to Dekalb a little after 5 pm. They finally let us out the hospital door at 6:08.

Did get some writing done today, but not enough. I'm averaging about 2000 words a day, which isn't going to make up for the early deficiencies in time. Need to get more than that out.

Last hay

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:02:56 GMT

Finally. The last load of hay for the winter got here at 8:30 this morning, so I ended up late for work. In order for the truck and hay wagon to get into the arena, we have to fold up the portable panels that make up Tess's pen. In turn, that means she stays in her stall or goes out to the pasture until the pen can be reassembled. Since I had to go to work and we wouldn't be unloading immediately, she stayed in until the wagon was parked and then we reassembled and put her into the pen as usual. Didn't get to work until 9:45, an hour and change late, but at least the hay business is settled.

Making NaNo progress, but slowly. Keeping up with the daily quotas now but finding it hard to exceed them, which I must do in order to make up the 15K words or so that I'm lagging the pace. Still hope to succeed though. I have plenty of material, just some of it is harder to write than what I usually do. More editing is going to be needed to put all the scrambled parts (written out of order) together in the end.

My desk is back to normal, more or less. Network problems are not. It seems that sometime while I was gone, someone added enough data mass to the network file server that the overnight backup will no longer fit on one tape. Figuring out who and what on a Windows 2000 environment is not easy. Once again I'm reduced to pressuring people to get rid of old files instead of letting them sit forever.

In case anyone is still wondering, no MFF for me. Too big, much too expensive, it has outgrown my size tolerance I think, and I don't like Wheeling Illinois or the Westin at all. Snooty restaurants, inadequate parking, all contributed to my negative response last year. Not doing it again. Have fun if you're going, and be safe.

Now, back to the word processor for me.

Sigh, back to work

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:19:20 GMT

Desk buried. Network stuff broken. Mailbox stuffed. The usual.

Stayed a little late, came home and took Gary out for dinner since he was feeling stressed too. Being a full time graduate student plus primary care for his mom is really too much pressure for him.

Went to get some groceries since I wasn't home to do that this weekend. Then got the minimal amount of writing done to keep from losing any more ground. I need more, though.

Hay supposed to come tomorrow, last load for the year and only half the size of the last. We'll have to be up really early for that.

Home safe

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:11:21 GMT

Got home about 6:30, after taking our "Dog and Pony Show" to Ohio for the weekend and then on the way home, driving in the most horrendous, pushy traffic I ever remember on the tollways between here and Quickcasey's. It was as if this had been a holiday weekend, when it's still two weeks to the beginning of that madhouse. Thank goodness I have a GPS in the car now, or I'd still be lost out there somewhere like Charlie on the MTA.

It was a really nice visit with the best foxes I know, Aerofox and Loriana. We had fun eating too much and joking around and going to the hamfest in Fort Wayne on Saturday. I didn't quite pass my license upgrade exam, but I had only gotten half way through the study book so scoring 35 out of 50 correct isn't really that bad. I got a better study guide and lots of advice afterwards. Then we went to antique stores in Van Wert, which was also fun. I like looking at old junque. Aero got a set of key caps from an old upright typewriter. I bought an old Walter Foster "How to Draw Series" book on Cowboys and Horses. Casey and Loriana both got some model railroad cars. It was all a nice diversion.

Thanks to all three for the mini-vacation. *hugs*

Hamfested out

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:04:54 GMT

Flunked the license upgrade exam by just one point. I'll get it next time.

Is this thing on?

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:50:44 GMT

Off to the foxes' den in just a few minutes, I think. Checking to see
if my e-mail posting setup still works.

May be slow to respond to stuff until Sunday or so.

Stacking hay

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:06:18 GMT

Another load of hay. One more needed to be good through spring until next season.

Writing stalled again by the sequence of events. Never got a chance to sit down for even an hour.

Tomorrow, an odyssey to Ohio to visit foxen. Not driving, maybe I can write on the road? Ha.

Progress at last

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:14:40 GMT

Managed to stifle most of the distractions this afternoon.

Consequence: 3500 words, and quite possibly another thousand or so before bed.

Still writing backwards, from the end back toward the developments that unfold the mystery plots. So far it looks like it will work, at least for producing a draft. Why not? I know how it is supposed to end in this case. Quite precisely in fact. So there shouldn't be any harm in writing the end first, even if it is sort of like eating dessert before the main course. I hope.

Hay supposed to be arriving at 7 am tomorrow. Another distraction, alas.

Unorthodoxy

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:30:06 GMT

OK, so I'm doing something I've never ever done before. I'm writing the end of the book before the middle. Because I know how it's supposed to come out, and I'm having all sorts of blocks at the middle part. Also because I really really dislike Stefan Ulf now and having to write his journal for him is causing brain damage. Really.

Remember the garbage disposal replacement I mentioned last week? The drain started to leak over the weekend, so Gary called to have the installer come back out. Then on Monday the bill came, and had written on it the statement that there was no guarantee against leakage because the drain installation was non-standard and the trap was backward. "Customer refused to allow the drain to be rebuilt." Apparently that's a little more severe than what Gary thought he said, but the result was the same, the drain was not rebuilt.

No word from the appliance store, so this morning he tackled it himself, using his copious collection of spare parts. We managed to get it to stop dripping, though it seemed quite likely to me that vibration from the garbage disposal or dishwasher would eventually loosen it up again. Given the wording on the bill and the fact that the store hadn't called back, we figured they were washing their hands of us.

He went off to a rehearsal. I took Tess out to the pasture at about 2:30 and the dogs started barking while I was back there. When I got back to the barn, I saw that the appliance store truck was in the drive. Sure enough, the installer was back, with the extra parts needed to redo the trap and drain in a more conventional configuration. I didn't want to send him away, even though I know we'll get a second bill for the extra work. So he rerouted the drain pipe in the proper manner, and I'm convinced the problem is settled. We had quite a nice conversation about keeping horses and baking bread, too.

Unfortunately, no writing got done while Gary was clanging about under the sink, nor again this afternoon while Gary's work was undone and replaced. Soooo. Desperate to push the word count, I'm skipping ahead to write an easy part. But that means I won't be posting this new work for a while...

More distractions

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:36:22 GMT

Good thing I have that rug on the loom. I can go pound it for a few picks to empty out some frustration. Not exactly writer's block, because I know what I want to be writing. The problem is too many threads at once, and (unusual for me) I'm having trouble focusing on one at a time.

There's also a need to get into the head of a real villain, since he's writing a journal that will be found and read later so the content is visible to the reader. This is not easy for me at all.

I know I can do this thing. Progress is slow, though, and things are not coming out in the order in which they will finally be presented to the reader. That's why I haven't been uploading anything much yet.

There are fiddly details too. Probably don't matter to many readers, but they do to me. For instance, dates. OK, it all happens in the city of Chatton, so we can assume chronology based from the supposed "founding" of the city, three or four centuries earlier. But there are two timestreams, separated by somewhat more than a century. The lunar calendar in use has been "reformed" in the intervening century. This is part of the actual plotline, but it necessitates two dating systems. The old system used an intercalary month just before the spring equinox to adjust new moons to the solar seasons. This month was a second Wolf Moon, so in years when it was used, the Wolf Moons were designated as First Wolf and Second Wolf. The new system eliminated the intercalary month for political and social reasons, and switched to an intercalary period of varying length, inserted every year after the fall equinox, and called "The Stag's Leap." This is a festival time treated as a holiday outside of any regular month or week and featuring celebrations to cross between and level the economic and social classes of the city. It runs from 16-18 days, depending on the lunar cycle in the given year, and has no weekdays at all. So if the last day of the Harvest Moon was a Sunday, the first day of the Beaver Moon is a Monday, and the festival between them is literally "outside" calendar time.

This may all seem like pointless detail, but since we have characters who believe they are transformed into wolves at the full of the moon, the lunar cycles matter quite a lot. The murders in the earlier timestream took place during the double wolf moons, while the crimes in the second timestream happen during Stag's Leap.

Anyway, I find myself getting bogged down in calculating this calendar stuff, which slows the actual writing. I suppose I should just stick in dummy dates and work them out later, but I'm afraid of messing up some key detail that way.

Perfectionism is sometimes a curse.

Days of distraction

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:31:11 GMT

So while I was cleaning stalls this morning the hay supplier called from Wisconsin and wanted to bring down a load for us. Said he'd be here at noon. Gary said yes, we need it.

He didn't arrive until 2 pm. Extra big load, 200 bales. OK, we can take all those, except we have to be at the library staff party at 5:30. So we stacked hay, and stacked hay. The temperature was 70F, which is very warm for November. It felt like June as long as you didn't look out the arena door at the bare trees. When we got too tired to throw bales up four levels, we stacked the rest on the floor. Pushed the wagon out of the arena, fed everyone, and rushed in to get cleaned up.

We made it to the party at exactly 5:30. It was fun, but I think we were both groggy.

Tomorrow I'm doing horse chores and then writing all day. Period. Gary has to go to school, so I'll be here alone and should be free of distractions at last.

Oh one other thing. While waiting for the tardy hay delivery, I went through some weaving stuff that was stored up in the barn loft. I wanted the sock loops I knew were there. These are waste from commercial tube sock manufacturing, and look like fluffy versions of those loopers we all used to weave into potholders in cub scouts or whatever. I had about a bushel of them leftover from a project years ago, and they were stored up there. Well, mice had nested in two of the bags. What a mess. Still, about half of the loops were salvageable. The third and fourth bags were pretty much OK. All will have to be washed before using, but that's no big deal. Since I have a rug warp on the loom, and am currently weaving a rag rug out of old jeans, I want to make some bath mats. Sock strips are perfect for that. They soak up water just like a fluffy towel, and weave up into a padded fabric about a half inch thick.

I thought this was a vacation

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:33:01 GMT

The good thing about today: had a nummy dinner with friends visiting. Gary made his famous spaghetti and meatballs, friends brought a super salad, we had home made focaccia with caramelized onions on top (my recipe,) wine and apple cider and some green tea someone brought that looks like a petrified moose turd but you put it in a glass pot and pour boiling water over it and it slowly opens up and blossoms into an elaborate floral sculpture underwater, made from tea leaves. Dessert too: Gary's chocolate chip zucchini cake.

And all the usual chores too, plus we replaced the boys' water trough because it was leaking. The bad thing: I'm getting farther behind because I'm being so careful writing.

So, for anyone who has been waiting patiently for more NaNo output from me (and there will be more, I promise) I offer a story written a couple of years ago, to fill in the gap:

Rabbit Food by Altivo Overo. This is furry and has a transformation in it, but no werewolves. ;p

Oh, and it got up to nearly 70F today I think, and the sky is still clear and there are stars for the first time in what seems like months.

TGIF

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:55:03 GMT

Good grief, is it over yet?

Boy am I glad I took next week off. I'll need it to catch up the lost time on NaNo. Guild newsletter is done, finally, after a long wrassle with uncooperative graphics. Not ideal, but it's done as it gets for this purpose.

Friday was short-handed, which didn't help. Gary is still working on an assignment that won't die for school, meeting again and again with his professor and then again and again with the group for whom he is supposed to be creating the map. Yet another meeting tomorrow, at our house, which means cleaning and cooking and all that.

I wanna start weaving that new warp, but NaNo has to come first. However, sleep has to come before that, in spite of a howling wind out of the south that has raised our temperatures back into the 60F range today.

Erg

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:48:42 GMT

I think I'm still not recovered from Wednesday.

In the interest of avoiding writing, or editing a guild newsletter that I need to get done, Argos finished warping his loom this evening. I'm sure he'll have something to say about it tomorrow. There are more photos, for the curious. The entire 32 inch wide warp (320 individual threads, which isn't a lot for something that wide) is now threaded, sleyed, tied, and tensioned. The header has been woven, and the loom is ready for the actual weaving process now.

We got a new garbage disposal installed today. In the eleven years we've had this house, we have replaced nearly every appliance, including the heating and cooling system. I believe only the water softener is still original at this point. Oh, and the well pump. I don't want to replace that one. We already had it pulled so they could replace the gaskets, though. That was expensive enough. We don't actually use the garbage disposal much, but since we do use the dishwasher, and it drains through the disposal, when the old one died it had to be replaced. In general it doesn't make much sense to grind up food waste and dump it into your septic system, so we compost kitchen waste instead.

I'm flattened, though, so I think I'll go be flat (in bed.)

Order, Chaos, and (ugh) Wednesday

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:20:59 GMT

Argos philosophizes on order and chaos here as he finishes up getting the warp threaded onto his loom.

It was that day again. What more can I say? Did barn chores early, ran off to a Weavers' Guild meeting in Woodstock, then ran to work after staying too long to watch a slide presentation on silk production and weaving in Nepal, Assam, Bhutan, and China. As usual, Wednesday was much too long. No Nano counts yet, though I hope to get some done before falling asleep. If not, tomorrow is a half day of work when I should be able to catch up at last.

If anyone is getting impatient to see just what's going on, the introductory chapter is posted here.

New arrival

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:44:25 GMT

Loom guardian
Originally uploaded by Altivo

The snow leopard I bought a couple of weeks ago arrived in today's mail, and he's a cutie. Also very soft, and a perfect size for lap sitting. His name is now Neige Paw (yes, bilingual punning is intentional) and I think he'll fit right in here. He's already claimed a couple of spots other than his own.

Nano status
Current word count: 4379
Target count would be: 5001

Still behind, but not badly. I can feel the wind filling the sails now.

Nano begun

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:37:04 GMT

Under the full moon, which is brilliant tonight...

Off to a rough start last night, the first chunk of text, though probably usable, needs heavy editing and isn't a suitable opening. Met today's quota with a better opening chapter. I'll post it tomorrow morning, probably and start publishing the link here for those who are curious enough to look.

Current word count: 2682
Target count would be: 3334

As always, I strive for quality, not just quantity. ;p Better a little slow now than floundering later, and I'm off work next week to make this thing move along.

Also pulled together my contributions for the Authors and their Novels staff party on Sunday. You may remember I was to create a multiple choice quiz on the topic.

Here are the questions:

1. Which of the following successful novelists was NOT a woman?

a. George Eliot
b. James Tiptree, Jr.
c. Samuel Richardson
d. George Sand

2. Which of these “trilogies” really does have exactly three books?

a. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
b. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
c. Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
d. The Wolves of Time by William Horwood

3. Who was the original author of the unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood?

a. James Fenimore Cooper
b. Edgar Allan Poe
c. Agatha Christie
d. Charles Dickens

4. Which of the following authors continues to appear as a byline on new work, despite being quite dead and buried?

a. Isaac Asimov
b. V. C. Andrews
c. Frank Herbert
d. All of the above

5. Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) is often credited as the “father of the modern novel.” His epistolary novel, Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded was parodied as An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews, later credited to which well-known novelist?

a. Mark Twain
b. Daniel Defoe
c. Henry Fielding
d. George Sand

6. The Brontë sisters, Emily, Charlotte, and Anne, are easily confused by most of us. Though Charlotte was the most prolific of the three, she did NOT write which of the following novels?

a. Wuthering Heights
b. Jane Eyre
c. Villette
d. High Life in Verdopolis

7. A number of 20th Century American novelists have won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Which of the following did NOT win this award?

a. Saul Bellow
b. Willa Cather
c. John Steinbeck
d. Pearl Buck

8. Which of the following authors is generally believed to have been the first to submit a typewritten book manuscript to his publisher?

a. Henry James
b. Bret Harte
c. Francis Parkman
d. Mark Twain

9. The Science Fiction Writers of America awarded its first Grand Master title to Robert A. Heinlein in 1977. As of 2008, 25 authors have received this award, and only three of them were women. Two are very well-known authors today, Anne McCaffrey and Ursula K. LeGuin. Who was the third?

a. Andre Norton
b. Marion Zimmer Bradley
c. Kate Wilhelm
d. Elizabeth A. Lynn

10. Which of the following mystery writers is most often acknowledged as the first woman to succeed in the field?

a. Agatha Christie
b. Dorothy L. Sayers
c. Mary Roberts Rinehart
d. Amanda Cross

Answers:

(c) Samuel Richardson was male. The others were all female.

(c) Only Kristin Lavransdatter is a “real” trilogy. Tolkien's masterpiece was actually six books published in three volumes. Douglas Adams wrote five books, and left a sixth unfinished all as part of his “trilogy.” William Horwood intended to write a trilogy but a squabble with his publisher forced him to finish the story in just two volumes.

(d) Charles Dickens left only the first few chapters, but it has since been made into a musical and published with various endings.

(d) All of these authors continue to “write” and publish as if still living.

(c) Henry Fielding is usually credited with authorship of Shamela, though some scholars dispute it.

(a) Emily wrote Wuthering Heights.

(b) Willa Cather never received a Nobel Prize.

(d) Mark Twain claimed in his autobiography to have been the first ever to submit a typewritten novel manuscript to the publisher. He said it was for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, in 1874. It is true that Twain purchased and used a Remington typewriter starting about that time, and quite probably did submit the first typewritten novel, but experts today think it more likely that the actual book was Life on the Mississippi, in 1883. In either case, Twain didn't type his own work. He said the typewriter made him curse and swear and want to throw it out the window, something he also said about numerous fountain pens over the years.

(a) Mary Alice Norton (1912-2005,) who wrote as Andre Norton, was the first woman to be awarded the title of Grand Master by SFWA, in 1983. She also received the title of Gandalf Grand Master from the World Science Fiction Society in 1977.

(c) Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958) is probably most often acknowledged as the first woman to succeed in the field of mystery writing.