I know, I know. Bad title. But in my defense, I just had to remember the last 10 years of my work history and honestly...my brain is a little fried.
As most of you may (or may not) know, I work for one of the largest banks in the world in one of their many credit card divisions doing collections. I hate it. I hate it with a passion. Especially since they made us go mixed inbound/outbound in April. I was perfectly content to do the collections inbound only. So now I'm job hunting so I can get out of that increasingly hostile work environment. It's not going well - the job hunting, I mean - because our job market sucks unless I want to take a $3-$5 pay cut (i.e. go back to minimum wage). I can barely afford my bills on what I make now. That would be disastrous for us, so I'm stuck where I am until something better comes along.
Himself has discovered a love of all things digital, especially when it comes to 3D rendering and game design. He's become quite adept at creating 3D figures through the various programs he uses. So he's teaching himself all sorts of new programming languages, mathematics, and computer programs. I'm ashamed to say when he starts getting really excited and in depth about his work, I glaze over because what he's saying goes right over my head. A lot of what I have to say about being an author and the publishing market as it stands now does the same thing to him, so I guess we're equal on that.
The cat is...the cat. He's annoying, furry, and demanding. He's taken to climbing into my lap while I'm working and laying his head against my left arm. He sits there purring until my typing gets on his nerves - which actually takes a while. But once that happens, he starts sticking his claws in my arm to get me to quit typing. He bats at my face and meows loudly. He even nips at my nose or ear to get my attention. About that point he gets dumped out of my lap. But he's back again within a short time, doing the same thing. Either that or he's sprawled on Himself's back or legs while Himself is lying on the bed.
I'm a little bummed right now, though. Most of my family (my oldest sister and her husband, all three of their kids, their oldest daughter's three boys - she just had a baby last month - and most of the rest of my nieces and nephews) is in town to celebrate my niece giving birth to her youngest son. But they're meeting for lunch tomorrow at 1 pm and I work from 7:30 am to 4:00 pm. I've put in to get out of there as early as possible, but it all depends on the business need tomorrow. If we're busy (which, with outbound is almost a given), I won't get out of there until 4. So I'll miss seeing them since my niece and her family are leaving right after the lunch. I've seen pictures of the baby on Facebook (he is so cute), but I'd like a chance to hold and cuddle him the way I got to his older brothers. I tried to take Sunday off (4 day weekend FTW...only not), but with a waiting list upwards of 15 people ahead of me I knew the chances of me getting off were slim to none. I'll just have to wait and see how tomorrow goes.
Worked on a couple different projects this week in regards to writing. The first one is about my winged race of demi-humans and the war that surrounds a prophecy of theirs. Established the prophecy and the alliance between one of the human factions and the winged people to eradicate the other human faction. The geography of this particular continent is very strange, so it makes for some interesting logistical problems when declaring war on your neighbors.
The other is about a smart aleck (did I spell that right?) fae calling herself Meg and the trouble she gets into rescuing a fallen god/demi-god/divine being of some sort. I have NO clue what this guy is yet, other than he's something powerful that got sent to Earth as a punishment and now he doesn't remember who he is/where he comes from/his true power, and she's geas-bound to help him because of an ancient oath she swore centuries ago. Absolutely no idea where this one is going, but I'm having fun getting it there. Meg's very refreshing after the months of work on my Aleran stuff. She's definitely UF, maybe Para Rom.
I still have a lot of world building tweaks to do with Aleran, especially now that I've added the new continent for the winged people story (stories, maybe...depends on how far I go with them). I figure I'll probably do something in regards to the world building this week. Maybe. If I don't get sucked further into Meg's world. Because honestly? I want to know which hunky deity she's hosting in her house.
A bridge over a beautiful waterfall
Nature brings magic
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Saturday, May 19, 2012
A blog post? Really?
*cough, cough*
*sweeps aside cobwebs*
Wow. Is this thing still here?
Hello everyone. Thank you for staying with me during my rather long hiatus from blogging. Between life, work, and the fact that I have no clue where I want to go with this blog I've sort of neglected it. I still don't know where I want to go with it but I thought I'd at least dust it off and try to get a few posts in.
In the Real World, Himself is working on game design. He's extremely happy with his decision, and I'm happy to support him with it. Me? I'm still working at the evil call center. Looking for a new job but the job market sucks so that's going slowly too. Not to mention I don't want to take a large pay cut just to switch jobs. We can't afford that right now.
In the Imaginary World, aka my writing, things have been stalling there too. I haven't been putting too much effort into it over the past couple months. I've instead been reading a lot more. I've picked up several of the free downloads off of Amazon for my Kindle and I've been reading a lot of self-pubbed and Indie pubbed books. I have found a few gems, which I will happily share with you. For the most part, they've just reinforced my desire to make sure the product I eventually put out there is as perfect as I can get it.
If I go traditional, this will be taken care of for me by the editors in the employ of the major publishing houses. If I go the self-published or with a smaller press, I'll be hiring an editor to go over my work for me. So many good stories have been ruined by too much prose, grammar and spelling errors, or just basically poor execution. I intend to not be one of those authors.
This week, to kickstart the writing again, I decided to build the time line of events that goes from the creation of the world to "present day" in Aleran. Holy crap was that a pain in the ass. It doesn't help that at two points on my time line I have a LOT going on. Now I didn't just do a basic time line of events. I also added plot points and story notes at certain points on my time line. Let me tell you, when you have three stories running concurrently at the same place on the time line it gets a little difficult to sort out what happens when. But I managed it and the time line/plot point thingy is done.
I am once again revamping certain aspects of the world because they just weren't working, so I've got some world building to do. I swear I'm never going to be done building Aleran, no matter how many books I write about it. I've also got a new story that jumped up and bit me on the butt while I was doing the time line (which I sketched out brief character descriptions and a vague list of some of the plot points for that instead of working on my time line at one point) that I also want to get some work done on. So it looks like the writing freeze is finally over.
Now, to share some of the gems I've pulled off of Amazon.
The first one is Alice in Deadland, by Mainak Dhar. It's Alice in Wonderland meets zombies and a world domination seeking military. This is not my normal read. I wasn't even sure I really wanted to read it even after downloading it. But I went ahead and got it and I was pleasantly surprised. This was also one of the few books I paid for, since I got this with the gift card I got for Christmas when I got my Kindle. The product description will do this book more justice than I could so here it is.
Civilization as we know it ended more than fifteen years ago, leaving as it's legacy barren wastelands called the Deadland and a new terror for the humans who survived- hordes of undead Biters.
Fifteen year-old Alice has spent her entire life in the Deadland, her education consisting of how best to use guns and knives in the ongoing war for survival against the Biters. One day, Alice spots a Biter disappearing into a hole in the ground and follows it, in search of fabled underground Biter bases.
What Alice discovers there propels her into an action-packed adventure that changes her life and that of all humans in the Deadland forever. An adventure where she learns the terrible conspiracy behind the ruin of humanity, the truth behind the origin of the Biters, and the prophecy the mysterious Biter Queen believes Alice is destined to fulfill.
A prophecy based on the charred remains of the last book in the Deadland- a book called Alice in Wonderland.
Alice is not your ordinary teenager. She goes through quite a metamorphosis as the book goes on. She starts out a tough fighter but still generally naive about the larger picture in the world. Through her experiences with the Biters and the military force known as Zeus, she learns that there is so much more at stake here than the lives of those in her settlement. How she changes and what her choices ultimately lead her to make this a compelling read, if you like sci fi/horror.
I'll share one more of my new favorite books with you. This one I did get for free and it's called Blood of the Righteous (The Ki Kalendeen Chronicles, Book 1), by J.E. Sandoval. This one focuses on the fates of the three remaining children of the Ki Kalendeen family, whose entire family are killed by forces they don't yet understand for the purpose of allowing an evil king to conquer the lands outside of his kingdom's boundaries. Here's the product description from Amazon.
Murder most foul!
A noble lord is slaughtered in his manor. His three surviving children suddenly find themselves commoners. The oldest, Gabriel Ki Kalendeen, is a knight in service to the church who must balance his commitment to God with his responsibilities of his family. Eleenia, an independent minded healer, tries to make her way in a in a male dominated society in a profession that permits few females to enter. The roguish David, having survived the attack on his family, takes on a new identity, convinced that he is still a target. Together they struggle against society, their own deep character flaws, and the evil that secretly manipulates the world through intrigue, deception, lies, and murder. But the Sons of Perdition knew not what they did when they spilled the Blood of the Righteous!
One of the only nitpicks I have with this book is in the beginning they say David is fourteen but as I read the first part of the book, he seemed to be much younger - closer to ten rather than fourteen, especially in the medieval setting the author chose for the book. But that aside, I loved how overprotective Gabriel is of Eleenia, which leads to conflict between the two of them on more than one occasion. I love the colorful characters that are introduced, especially through David's POV. This book is no longer free (it's $3.99 now). Honestly, I'd still recommend it even at that price.
Link to buy Alice in Deadlands
Link to buy Blood of the Righteous
I'll share another couple of my favorites on my next blog post. Which may be next weekend, or it may be later this week. I don't know. It'll be whenever I decide to do my next blog post. :)
And remember...even if you don't have a Kindle, you can still read the e-books.
Kindle for PC
Kindle for Mac
Kindle for Android
Kindle for iPhone
(No, I'm not employed by Amazon. I just like my Kindle and want to share.)
*sweeps aside cobwebs*
Wow. Is this thing still here?
Hello everyone. Thank you for staying with me during my rather long hiatus from blogging. Between life, work, and the fact that I have no clue where I want to go with this blog I've sort of neglected it. I still don't know where I want to go with it but I thought I'd at least dust it off and try to get a few posts in.
In the Real World, Himself is working on game design. He's extremely happy with his decision, and I'm happy to support him with it. Me? I'm still working at the evil call center. Looking for a new job but the job market sucks so that's going slowly too. Not to mention I don't want to take a large pay cut just to switch jobs. We can't afford that right now.
In the Imaginary World, aka my writing, things have been stalling there too. I haven't been putting too much effort into it over the past couple months. I've instead been reading a lot more. I've picked up several of the free downloads off of Amazon for my Kindle and I've been reading a lot of self-pubbed and Indie pubbed books. I have found a few gems, which I will happily share with you. For the most part, they've just reinforced my desire to make sure the product I eventually put out there is as perfect as I can get it.
If I go traditional, this will be taken care of for me by the editors in the employ of the major publishing houses. If I go the self-published or with a smaller press, I'll be hiring an editor to go over my work for me. So many good stories have been ruined by too much prose, grammar and spelling errors, or just basically poor execution. I intend to not be one of those authors.
This week, to kickstart the writing again, I decided to build the time line of events that goes from the creation of the world to "present day" in Aleran. Holy crap was that a pain in the ass. It doesn't help that at two points on my time line I have a LOT going on. Now I didn't just do a basic time line of events. I also added plot points and story notes at certain points on my time line. Let me tell you, when you have three stories running concurrently at the same place on the time line it gets a little difficult to sort out what happens when. But I managed it and the time line/plot point thingy is done.
I am once again revamping certain aspects of the world because they just weren't working, so I've got some world building to do. I swear I'm never going to be done building Aleran, no matter how many books I write about it. I've also got a new story that jumped up and bit me on the butt while I was doing the time line (which I sketched out brief character descriptions and a vague list of some of the plot points for that instead of working on my time line at one point) that I also want to get some work done on. So it looks like the writing freeze is finally over.
Now, to share some of the gems I've pulled off of Amazon.
The first one is Alice in Deadland, by Mainak Dhar. It's Alice in Wonderland meets zombies and a world domination seeking military. This is not my normal read. I wasn't even sure I really wanted to read it even after downloading it. But I went ahead and got it and I was pleasantly surprised. This was also one of the few books I paid for, since I got this with the gift card I got for Christmas when I got my Kindle. The product description will do this book more justice than I could so here it is.
Civilization as we know it ended more than fifteen years ago, leaving as it's legacy barren wastelands called the Deadland and a new terror for the humans who survived- hordes of undead Biters.
Fifteen year-old Alice has spent her entire life in the Deadland, her education consisting of how best to use guns and knives in the ongoing war for survival against the Biters. One day, Alice spots a Biter disappearing into a hole in the ground and follows it, in search of fabled underground Biter bases.
What Alice discovers there propels her into an action-packed adventure that changes her life and that of all humans in the Deadland forever. An adventure where she learns the terrible conspiracy behind the ruin of humanity, the truth behind the origin of the Biters, and the prophecy the mysterious Biter Queen believes Alice is destined to fulfill.
A prophecy based on the charred remains of the last book in the Deadland- a book called Alice in Wonderland.
Alice is not your ordinary teenager. She goes through quite a metamorphosis as the book goes on. She starts out a tough fighter but still generally naive about the larger picture in the world. Through her experiences with the Biters and the military force known as Zeus, she learns that there is so much more at stake here than the lives of those in her settlement. How she changes and what her choices ultimately lead her to make this a compelling read, if you like sci fi/horror.
I'll share one more of my new favorite books with you. This one I did get for free and it's called Blood of the Righteous (The Ki Kalendeen Chronicles, Book 1), by J.E. Sandoval. This one focuses on the fates of the three remaining children of the Ki Kalendeen family, whose entire family are killed by forces they don't yet understand for the purpose of allowing an evil king to conquer the lands outside of his kingdom's boundaries. Here's the product description from Amazon.
Murder most foul!
A noble lord is slaughtered in his manor. His three surviving children suddenly find themselves commoners. The oldest, Gabriel Ki Kalendeen, is a knight in service to the church who must balance his commitment to God with his responsibilities of his family. Eleenia, an independent minded healer, tries to make her way in a in a male dominated society in a profession that permits few females to enter. The roguish David, having survived the attack on his family, takes on a new identity, convinced that he is still a target. Together they struggle against society, their own deep character flaws, and the evil that secretly manipulates the world through intrigue, deception, lies, and murder. But the Sons of Perdition knew not what they did when they spilled the Blood of the Righteous!
One of the only nitpicks I have with this book is in the beginning they say David is fourteen but as I read the first part of the book, he seemed to be much younger - closer to ten rather than fourteen, especially in the medieval setting the author chose for the book. But that aside, I loved how overprotective Gabriel is of Eleenia, which leads to conflict between the two of them on more than one occasion. I love the colorful characters that are introduced, especially through David's POV. This book is no longer free (it's $3.99 now). Honestly, I'd still recommend it even at that price.
Link to buy Alice in Deadlands
Link to buy Blood of the Righteous
I'll share another couple of my favorites on my next blog post. Which may be next weekend, or it may be later this week. I don't know. It'll be whenever I decide to do my next blog post. :)
And remember...even if you don't have a Kindle, you can still read the e-books.
Kindle for PC
Kindle for Mac
Kindle for Android
Kindle for iPhone
(No, I'm not employed by Amazon. I just like my Kindle and want to share.)
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Sunday 'fess up...Anni has a new toy
Hello everyone!
This week Anni has a new toy to play with, courtesy of @KDSarge from Twitter. (Go buy her books. No seriously, she's awesome. Go here and here to buy her books.) KD gave me access to the full Windows version of Scrivener. You can find Scrivener here.
If you don't know what Scrivener is, it's an amazing word processing/research holding/editing program for writers. You would not believe all the stuff you can do with this program. I'm still learning all that can be done with this program, given that I've only had it for the last 2 days. I've already used it to divide ONLY A NAME into chapters, and I'm now going over each chapter individually to do the edits. It's making it a whole lot easier.
Scrivener has a cork board function where you can see your chapters laid out like index cards pinned to a cork board. It has an outline format. When you're done, you can compile your document and export it in e-book format - or so I'm led to understand by the tutorial. I haven't tried that yet. But it's awesome and I would recommend it for any author. You can get it for both Windows and Mac.
That leads us to the writing update for this week. Finished the outline for Raghnall's story, though I'm constantly tweaking that as I work some things out. Back to editing ONLY A NAME. I read through CRACKED WORLD too and all I can say is ouch. I'm all over the place with that book. It's going to take some major rewrites to get it into any kind of cohesive whole, and I'm not in the mood to work on that right now. I'm more interested in getting ONLY A NAME into shape.
That's it for this week. Here's some music videos for you to enjoy.
This week Anni has a new toy to play with, courtesy of @KDSarge from Twitter. (Go buy her books. No seriously, she's awesome. Go here and here to buy her books.) KD gave me access to the full Windows version of Scrivener. You can find Scrivener here.
If you don't know what Scrivener is, it's an amazing word processing/research holding/editing program for writers. You would not believe all the stuff you can do with this program. I'm still learning all that can be done with this program, given that I've only had it for the last 2 days. I've already used it to divide ONLY A NAME into chapters, and I'm now going over each chapter individually to do the edits. It's making it a whole lot easier.
Scrivener has a cork board function where you can see your chapters laid out like index cards pinned to a cork board. It has an outline format. When you're done, you can compile your document and export it in e-book format - or so I'm led to understand by the tutorial. I haven't tried that yet. But it's awesome and I would recommend it for any author. You can get it for both Windows and Mac.
That leads us to the writing update for this week. Finished the outline for Raghnall's story, though I'm constantly tweaking that as I work some things out. Back to editing ONLY A NAME. I read through CRACKED WORLD too and all I can say is ouch. I'm all over the place with that book. It's going to take some major rewrites to get it into any kind of cohesive whole, and I'm not in the mood to work on that right now. I'm more interested in getting ONLY A NAME into shape.
That's it for this week. Here's some music videos for you to enjoy.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Sunday 'fess up...Anni lives
Hey everyone!
It's been a rough week. The reason there was no post last week was because I was in the ER. Again. This time with a massive infection in my lower leg. It got so bad they actually admitted me Monday. I got to spend a wonderful two days in the hospital (ugh...more hospital bills) and the rest of the week off from work. I go back to work tomorrow. I anticipate another Talk with my manager about my attendance issues but really, when the doctor says stay home and I've got FMLA to cover my job and vacation days to cover the time, I'm staying home.
I'm trying something a little different with the writing. I'm actually outlining a novel. I know, I know. I'm a pantser. What am I doing outlining something? I'm trying to pin down the story so it doesn't go all over the place. I mean it already does go all over the place but I need it to not go all over the place quite so wildly. So I'm trying to shoe horn the story into a workable whole by outlining it.
Well, that's it for this week. Back to work tomorrow so not as much time to focus on writing but at least I'll have a paycheck. Here's some music videos for you to enjoy.
It's been a rough week. The reason there was no post last week was because I was in the ER. Again. This time with a massive infection in my lower leg. It got so bad they actually admitted me Monday. I got to spend a wonderful two days in the hospital (ugh...more hospital bills) and the rest of the week off from work. I go back to work tomorrow. I anticipate another Talk with my manager about my attendance issues but really, when the doctor says stay home and I've got FMLA to cover my job and vacation days to cover the time, I'm staying home.
I'm trying something a little different with the writing. I'm actually outlining a novel. I know, I know. I'm a pantser. What am I doing outlining something? I'm trying to pin down the story so it doesn't go all over the place. I mean it already does go all over the place but I need it to not go all over the place quite so wildly. So I'm trying to shoe horn the story into a workable whole by outlining it.
Well, that's it for this week. Back to work tomorrow so not as much time to focus on writing but at least I'll have a paycheck. Here's some music videos for you to enjoy.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Sunday 'fess up...Anni will remember to make posts regularly - one of these days
Hi everyone!
One of these days I'll actually remember I'm supposed to post weekly and then I'll actually have well thought out blog posts. For now, you're stuck with my rambly posts as I try to figure out what I want to say.
I'm trying to figure out where I want to take my blog. I know my blog is supposed to be part of my platform for when I get around to publishing something. Whether I self-pub or go the traditional route is still up for discussion. I may try the traditional route and then go self-pub if I can't get anywhere with the traditional. Or I might self-pub and try to go the traditional route for later books. I don't know. I haven't decided. I don't have anything I'd consider ready for publication anyway so I'm trying not to worry about it too much at this point.
But what is my blog going to look like? Right now I'm not sure I'd want to publish me, given how random my blog posts are. And how depressed I got for a while and published to my blog. I don't know. I don't want to delete my blog and I also don't want to start over with a new blog. So I guess I'll just leave it as it is and hope for the best. At least I know that I've got a few loyal readers who don't seem to care that I'm rambly most of the time and depressed once in a while.
At the very least you're all polite enough not to tell me you mind, which I do appreciate.
Life in general this past week has been life in general. I actually ended up sick most of last week so I didn't work too much. I've got to keep from missing any more time for a while so my attendance doesn't get me fired.
On the plus side, being home sick let me get some writing done. I got almost 20 pages done on the current WIP. I also found out I can transfer my stories to my kindle so I can read over them and decide what I want to do with them. I can even leave myself notes on passages if I want. So I'll be putting ONLY A NAME and CRACKED WORLD onto my kindle so I can read over them while I'm at work and make notes on weak parts. I'm also working on getting SHADOW WAR written. I've been calling it BLOOD WAR, but that's the second book in the duology...assuming I write both books. I may end up only doing one book for these characters. I don't know yet. It all depends on how well the first book turns out.
I'm doing a lot of reading still. I'm slowly working my way through the books on my kindle. I expect to get through them by my birthday, at which time I'm hoping to acquire more Amazon gift cards so I can buy even more books for my kindle. I'm going to make that request from my family and friends if they want to get me anything. My birthday isn't until May, but a girl's got to think about these things, y'know?
Speaking of birthdays, I have to figure out what I'm going to do for Himself's birthday. His birthday is in March and I know what he wants but I don't know if I'm going to be able to get it for him. He wants a Nook. He also wants the pieces to put his computer together. He might be out of a job by then, so I'm wanting him to find a permanent day job that will keep helping us pay bills. I don't know what's going to happen so we'll have to wait and see.
That's enough rambling from me tonight. Here's some music videos for you. (I need to broaden my music knowledge...I'm running out of ideas for music videos.)
One of these days I'll actually remember I'm supposed to post weekly and then I'll actually have well thought out blog posts. For now, you're stuck with my rambly posts as I try to figure out what I want to say.
I'm trying to figure out where I want to take my blog. I know my blog is supposed to be part of my platform for when I get around to publishing something. Whether I self-pub or go the traditional route is still up for discussion. I may try the traditional route and then go self-pub if I can't get anywhere with the traditional. Or I might self-pub and try to go the traditional route for later books. I don't know. I haven't decided. I don't have anything I'd consider ready for publication anyway so I'm trying not to worry about it too much at this point.
But what is my blog going to look like? Right now I'm not sure I'd want to publish me, given how random my blog posts are. And how depressed I got for a while and published to my blog. I don't know. I don't want to delete my blog and I also don't want to start over with a new blog. So I guess I'll just leave it as it is and hope for the best. At least I know that I've got a few loyal readers who don't seem to care that I'm rambly most of the time and depressed once in a while.
At the very least you're all polite enough not to tell me you mind, which I do appreciate.
Life in general this past week has been life in general. I actually ended up sick most of last week so I didn't work too much. I've got to keep from missing any more time for a while so my attendance doesn't get me fired.
On the plus side, being home sick let me get some writing done. I got almost 20 pages done on the current WIP. I also found out I can transfer my stories to my kindle so I can read over them and decide what I want to do with them. I can even leave myself notes on passages if I want. So I'll be putting ONLY A NAME and CRACKED WORLD onto my kindle so I can read over them while I'm at work and make notes on weak parts. I'm also working on getting SHADOW WAR written. I've been calling it BLOOD WAR, but that's the second book in the duology...assuming I write both books. I may end up only doing one book for these characters. I don't know yet. It all depends on how well the first book turns out.
I'm doing a lot of reading still. I'm slowly working my way through the books on my kindle. I expect to get through them by my birthday, at which time I'm hoping to acquire more Amazon gift cards so I can buy even more books for my kindle. I'm going to make that request from my family and friends if they want to get me anything. My birthday isn't until May, but a girl's got to think about these things, y'know?
Speaking of birthdays, I have to figure out what I'm going to do for Himself's birthday. His birthday is in March and I know what he wants but I don't know if I'm going to be able to get it for him. He wants a Nook. He also wants the pieces to put his computer together. He might be out of a job by then, so I'm wanting him to find a permanent day job that will keep helping us pay bills. I don't know what's going to happen so we'll have to wait and see.
That's enough rambling from me tonight. Here's some music videos for you. (I need to broaden my music knowledge...I'm running out of ideas for music videos.)
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Sunday 'fess up...Anni's not having luck with a good title this week
Hey everyone!
Well, it's Sunday again. And since one of my personal goals is to keep up on my blog this year it's time for another post.
I know. You're all very excited, aren't you? *grin*
I had my usual week. I worked. I read. I wrote. I played Sims 3. Oh wait. I wasn't supposed to admit to that last one. Uhhhh...just pretend I didn't say it, okay? *shoves her Sims 3 disks under the blanket*
Okay, okay. We all know (or if you didn't you do now) that I have a Sims 3 addiction. Finances being what they are I haven't been able to indulge in feeding my addiction by buying all of the new Sims 3 titles. I'm woefully behind. I only have World Adventures and Ambitions. But Ambitions is my favorite expansion out of the two and I love playing it.
I enjoy building lives and screwing with them. I love the fact that with a few keystrokes I can make my Sims wealthy. (Boy wouldn't it be nice to do that in real life? Or click a few buttons and have your dream house built for cheap?) I just love messing with my Sims' lives and making them live out my dreams.
In a way, playing Sims 3 is also like writing. I create characters, give them lives, and then do my best to disrupt those lives. I tend to do it on a grander scale in my writing than in Sims 3, and of course I have more opportunities to cause problems for my characters in my stories. But it's still the same thing: build the world and then do my best to disrupt it.
I've also been reading a lot since I got my Kindle for Christmas. My new favorite story is READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline. Himself brought home the book on CD, a copy of which he'd borrowed from a co-worker. It took us a week to get through it because of a lack of time to sit and listen to the bloody thing (it's 2 CDs, and runs about 16 hours or so). I was hooked.
Now I'm not much of a 'book on tape/CD' person because I'm not great at listening and retaining stuff. I prefer to read. So I used up what was left of my gift card and bought the book for my Kindle. Warning if you do buy it for your Kindle...it's $12 on Amazon. Really expensive. But to me it was worth it. I absolutely love this book. I've actually reread the thing three or four times now.
Here's the best synopsis for the story, better than what I could write. It's got a lot of '80's pop culture references, and given that I was a kid during the 80's I recognized some of it. Mostly what I remember is when it went into reruns for a while. The story does bog down in a few places, but there are some really intense spots that make up for it.
I've got the rest of the books I bought with my gift card to get through too, though I keep getting sucked in to one or two titles and want to read them multiple times before I move on. I expect to get through the rest of my new books soon...if I can stop reading READY PLAYER ONE, that is.
Writing...writing...writing...oh yeah! That thing I do when I'm not doing anything else. Actually, I've been doing a lot of writing. I've started on another one of my projects. I'm writing a lot of the back story right now, though I'll probably edit most of it out. The important thing is to actually get it written first before I worry about what will and will not make the cut.
So here are some random music videos for you. Everyone have a great week!
Well, it's Sunday again. And since one of my personal goals is to keep up on my blog this year it's time for another post.
I know. You're all very excited, aren't you? *grin*
I had my usual week. I worked. I read. I wrote. I played Sims 3. Oh wait. I wasn't supposed to admit to that last one. Uhhhh...just pretend I didn't say it, okay? *shoves her Sims 3 disks under the blanket*
Okay, okay. We all know (or if you didn't you do now) that I have a Sims 3 addiction. Finances being what they are I haven't been able to indulge in feeding my addiction by buying all of the new Sims 3 titles. I'm woefully behind. I only have World Adventures and Ambitions. But Ambitions is my favorite expansion out of the two and I love playing it.
I enjoy building lives and screwing with them. I love the fact that with a few keystrokes I can make my Sims wealthy. (Boy wouldn't it be nice to do that in real life? Or click a few buttons and have your dream house built for cheap?) I just love messing with my Sims' lives and making them live out my dreams.
In a way, playing Sims 3 is also like writing. I create characters, give them lives, and then do my best to disrupt those lives. I tend to do it on a grander scale in my writing than in Sims 3, and of course I have more opportunities to cause problems for my characters in my stories. But it's still the same thing: build the world and then do my best to disrupt it.
I've also been reading a lot since I got my Kindle for Christmas. My new favorite story is READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline. Himself brought home the book on CD, a copy of which he'd borrowed from a co-worker. It took us a week to get through it because of a lack of time to sit and listen to the bloody thing (it's 2 CDs, and runs about 16 hours or so). I was hooked.
Now I'm not much of a 'book on tape/CD' person because I'm not great at listening and retaining stuff. I prefer to read. So I used up what was left of my gift card and bought the book for my Kindle. Warning if you do buy it for your Kindle...it's $12 on Amazon. Really expensive. But to me it was worth it. I absolutely love this book. I've actually reread the thing three or four times now.
Here's the best synopsis for the story, better than what I could write. It's got a lot of '80's pop culture references, and given that I was a kid during the 80's I recognized some of it. Mostly what I remember is when it went into reruns for a while. The story does bog down in a few places, but there are some really intense spots that make up for it.
I've got the rest of the books I bought with my gift card to get through too, though I keep getting sucked in to one or two titles and want to read them multiple times before I move on. I expect to get through the rest of my new books soon...if I can stop reading READY PLAYER ONE, that is.
Writing...writing...writing...oh yeah! That thing I do when I'm not doing anything else. Actually, I've been doing a lot of writing. I've started on another one of my projects. I'm writing a lot of the back story right now, though I'll probably edit most of it out. The important thing is to actually get it written first before I worry about what will and will not make the cut.
So here are some random music videos for you. Everyone have a great week!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Sunday 'fess up...Anni is wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2012
Well, it's the first day of the first month of 2012. Whoop-dee-do.
Normally I do a year in review post on the 31st, but really, me talking about how my year sucked is such a downer I decided to avoid it this year. I will admit getting two of my books written made me smile. And learning to crochet finally after all these years was certainly a high point. Getting to know some of you on Twitter was awesome too. But I had a lot more shit happen that wasn't good than was good. At least 2011 was better than 2010.
So with luck my life will continue to follow that trend and 2012 will be better than 2011.
My goals for this year are simple: keep writing and lose weight. I'm not going to say I'm going to finish another book in 2012 or I'm going to drop 20 lbs by the end of 2012. The truth of the matter is I don't know what the year is going to bring. So as long as I keep writing and lose weight, no matter how many words get written or how many pounds I shed, it'll be all good to me. I kind of want to start querying ONLY A NAME but I don't think it's going to be ready for that. Maybe I'll save the querying on that for 2013.
To everyone who follows me, and to those who happen to wander over here to see what I write, I wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year. May whatever your goals are for this year be fulfilled and may many good things come your way.
Normally I do a year in review post on the 31st, but really, me talking about how my year sucked is such a downer I decided to avoid it this year. I will admit getting two of my books written made me smile. And learning to crochet finally after all these years was certainly a high point. Getting to know some of you on Twitter was awesome too. But I had a lot more shit happen that wasn't good than was good. At least 2011 was better than 2010.
So with luck my life will continue to follow that trend and 2012 will be better than 2011.
My goals for this year are simple: keep writing and lose weight. I'm not going to say I'm going to finish another book in 2012 or I'm going to drop 20 lbs by the end of 2012. The truth of the matter is I don't know what the year is going to bring. So as long as I keep writing and lose weight, no matter how many words get written or how many pounds I shed, it'll be all good to me. I kind of want to start querying ONLY A NAME but I don't think it's going to be ready for that. Maybe I'll save the querying on that for 2013.
To everyone who follows me, and to those who happen to wander over here to see what I write, I wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year. May whatever your goals are for this year be fulfilled and may many good things come your way.
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