Words Lost and Then Chopped

A few weeks back, I had a program crash. It was quiet, quick and quite painful. I lost thousands of words, about two weeks’ worth. I know, I know, you are supposed to back up. I do, I did, but not for the past two weeks. I thought there would be time for that later. (Otherwise I would have lost more than two weeks!)

I remember what I wrote. But not the exact words, the exact phrase, the details I used. So I couldn’t recreate it exactly the same. But I have finished recreating it and it is mostly the same. I think. I don’t believe I left anything out.

But it is shorter! I lost words along the way, but I don’t think I lost any details. I rearranged the scenes, yes, couldn’t help myself. I also did not have written a few pages worth of dialogue – dialogue I would deleted later anyway. (I realized a few scenes afterward that the dialogue wasn’t necessary.)

But it was only a few pages. I am astonished at how shorter the whole thing is now. It’s like I only recreated ¾ of the work I lost. It’s a puzzling.

Book Expo America 2013, Day 2

Day 2 of the BEA was fantastic. Exhausting, but fantastic.

This is a picture of the books I got:

There are a lot of YA, romance and fantasy. The three I am most looking forward to are: Gameboard of the Gods by Richelle Mead, The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon and the Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black.

The Bone Season

The line for Holly Black was gigantic. They were giving out tickets – which I did not expect! – and I think I was number 167 or something.

They did a lot of galley drops and I missed most of them (because I was not there!!!) Except for The Bone Season. I didn’t recognize it, because the name wasn’t on the cover. The girl at the counter pushed into my hands and said: you have to have this book! The bone season is fantastic!

Me, I am thinking, there is no bone in sight. No title, no author. So . . . yeah almost missed out on The Bone Season galley drop.

Also, while on line for the Holly Black book I saw this and was amused:

Harry Potter Monster Book

I’ll start posting reviews soon.

Also, I was so tired by the end I had no energy to go on day three, too.  I stayed home.

Book Expo America 2013, Day 1

I went to the BookExpo today. I got there later than I intended, but I am okay with that.

I got on the line to for Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas. The line was gigantic. One of the staff pointed us in the direction of the real line and told us the line had been building for the previous hour – and I got there exactly on time. It took pretty much the whole hour to get to the front and I think they were almost out of books. The staff started counting people (I suppose to match the number of books remaining). LOL

on line for Crown of Midnight thirty minutes and the beginning of the line is not yet in sight

I got a few of the author signings I really wanted – Brandon Sanderson, Sarah Mass, Susan Cooper.

I did get some interesting titles from authors new to me as well.

1. The Returned by Jason Mott – something about dead people coming back to life
2. Dark Lord: A Fiend in Need by Jamie Thomson – interesting back cover blurb
3. Constance by Rosie Thomas
4. Born Wild by Julie Ann Walker
5. Inhuman by Kat Falls – Inhuman had no back blurb, but the cover was interesting and looked fantasy-ish.

 

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day! Just wanted to say, this day isn’t just about having a long-weekend (though long-weekends are lovely and precious). It is about remembering those soldiers who died during the course of their duties.

 

Friday Flash: Fourth Birthday Parade

This fridayflash is for the fourth anniversary bloghop at the friday flash website. The idea is to write a story 400 words long about the 4th anniversary/birthday of something. After several false starts, I finally managed. I was inspired by this picture:

A few excerpts from the Annals of Dead or Lost Colonies:

Dear Julie,

The colony has just gotten the order for the hyperspace module. It’s taken a year, but we finally have it. This will be the first of many letters until you can come here.

I have a house. It’s small, but it has a garden. It’s ours, free and clear.

The hypo gardens are not doing well. Except for the lantern cherries. I don’t understand it. There is a group studying the problem.

Yours always,

Ben

 

Dear Julie,

I miss you. Will you come soon? I’ve added two bedrooms to the house for the children. There is plenty of space. Hyperspace travel is very safe, don’t worry.

The colony celebrated our third birthday with a grand parade. I was in the lead float, as the directory of horticulture. It was quite wonderful.

The lantern cherry have become our biggest – our only! – export. They are in demand and tasty. I suppose it’s good they grow bigger here than anywhere else. They look more like giant melons than cherries. But I don’t quite understand why nothing else growing.

Yours always,

Ben

 

Dear Julie,

I’ve been promoted, dear. I am now president of the horticulture department. The last president died quite unexpectedly in the Greenhouse A. Poor Jerry. At least he died at work. Greenhouse A is where we first started the lantern cherries. We have ten, now.

The colony’s fourth birthday is in a month and we are providing cherries for the decoration. The last of the flowers died months ago and we haven’t been successful in growing any others. Not even marigolds. It’s baffling.

I do wish you would come. I know the ships scare you, but hyperspace travel is so fast these days. You wouldn’t have to spend months on a ship in normal space. I dearly want to see the children, dear.

Love yours,

Ben

 

Dear Julie,

Don’t come! Stay away! God, I am glad you never came.

The cherries destroyed the parade. It was mad. They exploded and attacked and will take over the planet shortly.

This will be the last message I send.

I am going to blow up the greenhouses and take as many of the cherries as I can.

This is why nothing else grew. They’ve been devouring them, the murderous, subtle lantern cherries.

I bet they killed poor Jerry.

Yours forever,

Ben

Y is for Yet More Non-Posts

So it is Y already in the A to Z challenge. I think I’ve missed most of this challenge.  Well, that is what it is.

Maybe next year will be better.

But maybe not. I can’t seem to finish Necessity’s Child – I keep getting distracted. I am starting to suspect I am just not that into it. If I was, I suspect I would have finished by now. I will give it the rest of this week and if I still can’t into it, well, than I won’t be finishing it.

In other news, my erotica novelette is proceeding slowly. Very slowly, but I have hope.

I logged into the WordPress for the first time in a long time yesterday to discover there is a new Twenty Thirteen theme and I have decided to try it out. I had Twenty Eleven before. I am not sure I’ll be keeping this one.

Friday Flash: Queen’s Quill

Trying to figure out a Friday Flash story whose title started with Q was a challenge, but I think I managed.

The queen’s quill lay on the desk, temptingly close. Its carved silver handle gleamed in the sunlight.

Qut wanted to touch the beautiful orange feather. So strange. What bird could have such iridescent orange and red feathers?

She stroked the smooth silver. It was warm to the touch. She glanced over her shoulder, listening. She heard only the slither of silk. The queen was still getting dressed.

She picked up the quill pen and caressed it softly, like a mother touched her baby’s head. Qut dipped the quill in the red ink and wrote a word on a blank sheet.

“Excellent choice, dear.”

Qut whirled. “My Lady, I was -”

“I know what you were doing.” The Queen smiled. “I am quite pleased. Quite pleased.”

“Oh – I, uh, thank you.”

“Go on.”

Qut turned back to her sheet and wrote another word. There was a sharp pain her left palm and when she looked, she saw her palm was spotted with blood.

“Quite beautiful, dear.” The Queen smiled, took the quill from her hand jabbed it into her heart. “You’ll make such perfect ink.”

O is for Open Library

I discovered the Open Library recently. It’s online, you can register there and borrow books. Not just the classics, either, though I believe most classics are there.

Open Library has books by such as writers and David Weber, Anne Bishop and  Lois McMaster Bujold. Only catch is, for most of the recent books, you have to get some sort of key from  the Library of Congress. Which you get only if you have some sort of vision problem or reading disability. I don’t have problems like that, so I can’t get this key. But for someone who does, I imagine this library would be fantastic.

But! Some of the books are available to anyone who registers. The only one I’ve downloaded so far is Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop. It’s not bad. I downloaded a epub version, but the pdf might have been better. The epub was full of formatting errors. But it was readable, so I am not complaining. If I found a book I could take out and loved, this would be perfect. Perfect!!

N is for Necessity’s Child (Teaser Tuesday)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Yes, I chose to start Necessity’s Child yesterday exactly because the title starts with N and I needed an N post. Also, this book has been on my TBR list for a couple of weeks now and I figure it’s time to move the book to the top of the pile. It’s Liaden Universe book, which are usually fun.

The first two lines are:

Inside the duct, it was hot and wet – nothing new there, thought Kezzi, shifting her weight carefully. The metal snapped in complaint, and she made herself be still.

-  Necessity’s Child by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller

This is a Baen book and the first nine chapters are available on Baen’s website.

M is for Marathon and Muddled

M is for Marathon

Just have to say – everyone at the Boston Marathon, stay safe.

This is one of the most popular marathons ever and I have to say: people suck. People who would explode bombs where there are guaranteed to be thousands and thousands of people. Really! I don’t understand at all why anyone would do that. On purpose.

Okay, terrorists, yeah, but I don’t understand a terrorists’ mind. I am not sure I want to. Anyway, I don’t even know if they know who did it. Some form of terrorists’ seems a reasonable guess. But that leaves a fairly big field, I think.

Also: I am muddled.

Having missed two letters (K, L) due to technical issues, I don’t know if I should stop with the A to Z challenge. I am missing two letters from the beginning (A, B) so I really don’t know now. If nothing else happens between now and Z, I will be missing four letters. I probably have time to make up two letters, but not four.