Word Count - and Birthday (Tomorrow, That Is)

I'm such a scatterbrain these days.

Movie I Watched Last Night

I meant to put up my word count at the site yesterday, just after I finished watching a really good movie last night (an old one, naturally ;-)) - Bridge to the Sun, a true story about a woman from Tennessee who marries a Japanese diplomat in the 1930s, and when he's deported from the U.S. soon after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, she goes along with him. The ending was very sad; I had tears in my eyes as I went upstairs to bed.

So of course I washed up and went to bed. Silly me.

Da Actual Word Count, Man

Here's my word count for yesterday:

6/19 - 147 words

Amazing that I managed to get in any words, as my back (again) was acting up - I actually stayed home yesterday. I'm at work today, finishing up a project that's due on Monday.

They Say It's Your Birthday

And my birthday's tomorrow - the first day of Summer! LOL, I used to love the summer because school was over the year and because we'd usually go and visit family down the Jersey shore.

Now? Meh. I melt if it's too hot, and I never sit outside just to get a tan (I burn anyway, lol). I might as well just sit in a nice, comfy air-conditioned room and read a book.


Have a great weekend - whether it's your birthday or not! :-)

~Nancy Beck

Hatchette vs. Amazon

Interesting post about Amazon removing the "Buy Now" button from certain Hatchette Livre UK books.

Hatchette isn't exactly a fly-by-night outfit. And it also sounds as if the situation for a number of UK publishers is a lot more dire than here in the U.S. (judging from the posts, that is).

Amazon better be careful, or this PR stuff is going to spiral out of their control.

~Nancy Beck

Fake SFWA Contest

Can you believe the nerve of some people?

As most writers in the spec field know, SFWA stands for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. In addition to being a membership-type organization (where you can get some gigs that are only available to members, among other things), they also have some very useful articles on writing; those articles are free.

Here is the SFWA site.

Fake Contest - and Some Chutzpah

Jeez. Did they really think they could get away with it? (Apparently so.) The writers community on the Net is quite strong, so it's only going to take a little time to send this around the globe.

I found out about this on the Absolute Write Water Cooler, which lead me to the Writer Beware! blog, where you can find more information.

If you've entered the "contest" (which was put out on Craiglist - sheesh), contact Writer Beware at beware [at] sfwa [dot] org, substituting @ for [at] and . for [dot].

~Nancy Beck

Word Count

Damn.

Why is it that over the weekend I can never remember (or rarely remember) to put in my word counts? @)#&*@&$! (That's just me cursing a blue streak for being so forgetful.)

Anyway, here's the totals for Saturday and Sunday:

6/14 - 143 words
6/15 - 207 words

I need to tie that proverbial string on my finger; not that I'd remember what it's for ;-), but, well, I might surprise myself.

~Nancy Beck

Writing Excuses

I was over on The Book Swede's blog (one of many very good fantasy & SF review sites/blogs) and noticed he had a post on writing advice.

My eyes fell on one of his website/blogger/forum suggestions - Writing Excuses. It's a podcast, but don't worry about having an MP3 player: You can click on the little right arrow within the post.

Sound quality is quite good - even on this old fart of a work computer. :-) The first podcast I semi-listened to was one of their regular (free!) ones - Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard. It's their take on overcoming writers' block.

And Who Are "They"?

Glad you asked. ;-)

It's a threesome:

• Brandon Sanderson - He wrote the Mistborn fantasy series. I haven't read it as yet, but it looks and sounds interesting. Meh. So many books to possibly read, so little time (and money, at the moment, lol.)

• Harold Taylor - A cartoonist. I'm not up on his stuff, but a cartoonist, as far as I know, has deadlines just like any novelist does.

• Dan Wells - A horror novelist. Horror isn't my cup of tea, and the loading of his - and the others' bios - were taking forever to load (stupid computer), so I clicked the stop button.

Sounds, though, as if they'd be quite able to offer all sorts of advice, considering they're pubbed authors (I wonder if Mr. Taylor has any graphic novels pubbed? Just wonderin'...).

Might be worth a look around, especially if you have trouble (like me) getting your butt in the chair and typing away, or any other problems you might have with your writing.

I love finding a new writing resource, and this looks like it might be a good one.

~Nancy Beck

Word Count

Thanks

First, I wanted to say thanks to all who left a message re my low back pain. I'm not out of the woods as yet, but hubby has managed to do some really good massage back there. I'm also going to order a book on back pain to get some more ideas - not that I want hubby to give up on the massages, lol! :-) Hell, no! But if I can do other stuff (safe stuff; I can still walk around without any problems, so I don't want to take any chances with putting my back completely out of whack) when he's not around, so much the better.

Besides, it'll give the dogs a chance to butt in even more. ;-)

Word Count

I've managed to do a little writing today, after a break over the weekend. I'm working on this romantic fantasy, and if I carry it through to the end, I have no doubt that it'll end being more fantasy than romance. (Typical me, I tells ya! :-))

So the word count for today is:

153 words

Have a great day! :-)

~Nancy Beck

Last Post Until Next Tuesday

My lower back is acting up big time, so it's hard sometimes for me to come with creative things to write here. So I'm going to concentrate on mundane things like filing (at my day job) and being somewhat of a bump on a log at home.

Hubby will continue to give me those nice massages, and I'll do what I can with accupressure/whatever, but I'm going to take a wee break from creative anything over the next few days. It's hard for me to be creative anyway when I'm in pain.

So don't look for any further posts until next Tuesday, at the earliest.

~Nancy Beck

Self Pub to Commercial Pub

I'd only read about this the other day, with the reviewers on Amazon crazy about the book (with one even saying he wished it would become a movie. From what I read I forget where, that's going to happen, too (well, hold your breath as to whether or not the film gets made; the rights being bought is one thing, while the actually making of the movie is another).

Anyway, here's the blurb from Publishers Lunch:

Leinad Zeraus's (aka database consultant Daniel Suarez) originally self-published debut technothriller DAEMON, "the story of a terminally ill game designer who unleashes a diabolical, self-replicating Web entity that enlists disaffected Netizens in its mission to destroy civilization," to Ben Sevier at Dutton, in a pre-empt, for publication in fall 2009, followed by a sequel, by Bridget Wagner at The Sagalyn Agency (world).

~Nancy Beck

Former Mardi Gras Books Authors - Read This

I posted last year about Mardi Gras going down the tubes and figured, well, they'll just fade from view, drop off the Internet...

Not

I read a post on the Absolute Write boards that the former owner of Mardi Gras is still selling books under the Mardi Gras banner, at least as of May 20, 2008.

Check out the Dear Author post of that date.

Epublishers Biting the Dust

Mardi Gras was one of a string of epublishers (all romance epublishers, if I'm not mistaken) that tanked last year and into this year.

Now, from the gist of this, it sounds as if all rights were supposed to revert to the authors. If that's the case...what the hell is the former owner doing, selling those books?

She's selling them from this website. I haven't looked at the site, but the mind just boggles that someone would do this. How can she sleep at night?

Check to See If Your Books Are Up There

If you had a book published by Mardi Gras, and then the rights reverted to you last September, I urge to look at the site in the link above. And you might want to get a lawyer involved.

~Nancy Beck

Word Count

Well, I wrote 2,000 words yesterday, but I wasn't sure if I should post it.

Ya see, I'm a little burnt on my current WIP, so I wrote 2,000 words of an idea I have. There's a fantasy element (naturally), and there's also a wise-ass narrator (first person POV).

The only reasons I didn't include it was because 1) it's not part of my current WIP and 2) this just might die right where it is (that is, I might not take it to its fruition and try to sell it).

But I'll leave this post, and see what my Word Count Buddies decide.

~Nancy Beck

To Be Read

Well, I started to read a Mercedes Lackey/Roberta Ellis book (Ill Met By Moonlight), but after getting only to the 2nd chapter, I've put it aside. Just isn't the right time for me to read this one; plus it's historical fantasy, and I really don't want my mind to compare it to my current WIP, lol. (My brain sometimes gets hung up on such comparisons, even though IMBM isn't set in World War II; it's that it's in the same genre, has been published, everything comes together well, yadda yadda yadda.)

Anyway, I tossed that one aside for now and started in on Lynn Flewelling's first novel, Luck In the Shadows.. (What is it with me and "Luck" in the titles? Lol!) I'm well into the 2nd chapter, and, so far, so good. We'll see how I feel as I go further in (it's firmly in the fantasy genre, although I don't think I'd call it epic fantasy, at least, not at this point). There's already an interesting twist hinted at by Ms. Flewelling - something that I knew about one of the characters going in, so it's not a complete surprise. I guess I'm just a bit surprised at how early in the story the hints come.

I'd been curious about this book/series for some time, so time will tell if it's totally to my liking.

~Nancy Beck

Word Count and Weak Excuse

Well, I didn't type any words yesterday, so flog away.

I also forgot to use the Weak Excuses thingie - My low back was absolutely killing me. Hubby and I were supposed to go to the movies yesterday, but we ended up not going because I was afraid I'd be shifting in my seat every minute or so, trying to find that just right position. (I get fidgety when my endo acts up, too.)

Since I managed to get to work today (even though my back still hurts, even after hubby did some nice massage on it late yesterday), I'll be doing some typing today. I'll probably be ripping out some stuff that's just got me in a crabby, "Why did I put in that crap?" kind of mood.

~Nancy Beck