Had a dream about painting. Now I want to paint. Thankfully it's Sunday and I can't go to Hobby Lobby and waste money on canvas and brushes and paints... because, argh, money :( Had to pay a bill today that was kind of hefty. Worried all over again. Bah.

Apartment is a little... messy. I don't know, it's fairly in shape but I like it to be spotless and gorgeous and it's not and that bothers me.

Hips are hurting. The massage work on them is going to help eventually but for now it's just making them hurt worse.

gdi money, why do I barely have any of you?

Scrubs makes me happy.

A couple months back my uncle gave me a Versajette M400 printer.

I needed something printed tonight.

PC isn't up and running yet.

Tried with the Mac.

And I cannot find a fucking driver. Bah.

You guys have no idea how strongly I am craving this.

Not only am I still feeling sick, but there's that oh-so-familiar pain in my lower abdomen too.

Body? I despise you right now. DESPISE.

I want some dark chocolate. Yeah yeah stereotypical female need at this particular time, BUT I WANT IT ANYWAY.

Looks like another day of staying in and resting and trying to get better. Laundry and car waits until Monday it seems.

I should watch some movies.

edit: Oh and this deserves a mention... I had a dream about Lady Gaga. Yeah.

Absolutely bang on post about the author/agent relationship from seanan_mcguire.

Of authors and agents -take two.

My agent works his butt off for everyone he represents. He works constantly to expand our markets and he worries about not only the big things but the little details that, without him, would slip through the cracks. I've been with him for all but my first three books -- and he still deals with the detritus of those, that's how good he is -- and I wouldn't have the career I have without him.

Thank you, Joshua.

It's once again time to prepare to fly. My bags are packed (mostly); I'm ready to go (mostly); I don't have a taxi waiting down below, but since my ride to the airport is asleep in the room basically directly beneath me, I'm going to call it close enough for government work. (I like cars-of-friends better than I like taxis, anyway. They don't charge me as much when I suddenly demand we stop for soda.)

It's been a good trip. I didn't get to see nearly as many people as I hoped, on a social basis, but I got a lot of work done, and had a lot of business meetings, and it was good. A distressing number of these business meetings involved feeding me. I will now return to California and live on salad, peas, and carrot sticks for two weeks, while I wait for my body to issue a writ of forgiveness. But! I'm not sorry, because I have eaten cake-and-shake, frozen hot chocolate, some of the weirdest salads ever seen, pepper-encrusted Maine scallops, garlic fries (seriously, these were some high-class garlic fries), baked heirloom apples with homemade apple ice cream, and some of the best chicken and pea curry I've ever had. I have walked and I have wandered, I have pillaged and I've pondered, and I'm happy with the results.

New York is a fascinating place. I really do understand why some people view the concept of leaving as a sort of sacrilege, even as I understand that I'd go crazy and become a bridge troll in Central Park if I ever tried to live here. I like my yearly visits, and I enjoy the chance to see my publishers in their natural habitat, but I also like my world to be a bit greener. (Now, the Jersey Pine Barrens are another matter. I could totally live there. And then the Jersey Devil would eat me.)

It's been a good trip.

I am ready to be home.

Hey, Virginian types: if you are in the area, I have a signing today from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at the Midlothian Barnes & Noble: 4600 Commonwealth Center Pkwy, Midlothian, VA 23112.

Now I must manically go burn a playlist to listen to on the way down there, for my NaNo novel. Because there are not yet laws against brainstorming while driving.

Yet.

I wish I was dancing right now.

Tried to eat.

That was unwise on my part.

I already want to go to bed, but if I do I'll be awake again at midnight and unable to sleep.

I kind of wanted to do laundry today. If I'm feeling better I might do it tomorrow. A place in town has wifi, and I hear nothing but good things about it, I could do it there. Also really need to get my car inspected and oil changed.

This is all assuming I feel better. If not this all waits until Monday.

Fever is down at least. For now.

I wish I had Turn Coat to read. Feeling antsy for more Dresden.

I think I talked to my mom today. I think she called and woke me up from my nap and we talked a bit. I vaguely remember... I don't know. Hope it wasn't important. :P

HEY, LIFE

In all seriousness though this is going to suck. Friday nights are supposed to be fun, not crappy! Stupid body, going haywire at the last minute. AND WHY AM I SO GODDAMN COLD?! It's WARM out! Fail. COMPLETE FAIL.

Whine whine whine, goddammit.

I will watch TV. I will drink tea. I will curl up under five blankets trying desperately to keep warm.

So those are my Friday evening plans, how about you guys? :P

Or, what a bestselling author's work looked like at age 16.

Our theme on Merry Sisters of Fate this week is our horribly bad high school writing years, complete with examples. Today was my day to post some examples of my early writing, the more hilariously bad, the better.

I have to say that I had a plethora of bad writing to choose from, as I wrote (but didn't always finish) 34 novels before I was published, and started writing when I was but a tiny maggot.

There were many forms of badness to choose from, from the very subtle to the roaringly hilarious, but finally I put my writing faults into a few major categories. And if you want to read them and find out just how bad I was (I was very bad, trust me), you'll have to go here.

The battle is not yet won, comrades. The nap set it back a little but it's still coming on strong. There is no chance anymore of truces, of peace by negotiation and we will not surrender. We'll need to gather our forces, regroup, and attack again. Perhaps this time with... wait for it... tea. Oh yes. Yes. It's a drastic move, a bold one. Some might even say crazy, and they will question our sanity. But I'm willing to do anything to win this.

FOR THE HORDE... uh... I'm rubbish at these battle cry things oh I have it, FOR THE ABILITY TO KEEP FOOD DOWN!

Current stats:

Words: 7,773.
Total words: 67,864.
Reason for stopping: finished chapter eighteen.
Music: the new mix Merav made for me.
Lilly and Alice: back in California. I miss my kitties.

Discount Armageddon—the first of the InCryptid books, chronicling the adventures of the Price family as they try to study the cryptids of the world without getting eaten by them—is now two hundred and thirty-seven pages long, featuring action, adventure, snarking, and talking pantheistic demon mice with a fondness for religious ritual. It's ballroom dancing as a combat style, it's asbestos blondes and gorgon barmaids, and it's more fun to write than should really be legal. It's also sad, because at this point, I have somewhere between 30,000 and 36,000 words to go, and that doesn't seem like enough.

On the plus side, once I finish this, I get to start digging my teeth into the sequels. And believe me, Midnight Blue-light Special is going to be a hoot and a half, once I get there. And after that...hoo-boy. I really think I like this roller coaster.

What's really interesting is that this is the first series I've started knowing from the starting gate that it was a series, and more, that it was more than just a few books long. Feed was a stand-alone; Rosemary and Rue was an adventure that I didn't quite understand. This time, I know what I'm getting into.

Oddly, I couldn't be happier.

I have angered the gazebo my body.

Massage hurt, like it should. But she discovered some new problems and worked on them and it should help me immensely. Forgot my checkbook so I'll need to call her later to set up a time next week when I can pay her.

Adjustment went well, my neck was as usual a messed up pile of crap. But he adjusted it all back in right so I shouldn't have headaches for at least a few days.

Then I drove home.

Then my body, more specifically the entire digestive tract, attacked. With all the force it could muster it came at me on both fronts. I was caught completely unprepared (with my pants down, as it were) and am trying to negotiate a truce at this point just to survive. So far no dice, they're not giving up, and I am losing ground here. Morale is low. It may be time for my most powerful weapon...

A nap.

Yeah lets see you try to fight me in my sleep, body. Ha ha! I will win this yet.

*thud*

By popular demand, here is an update!

UPDATE!

( Doodleman Sketches under the cut )

Notes augmented

We've enhanced and de-bugged Notes. If you haven't tried it yet, now's the time! You can create a private note when you ban multiple users. You can also delete multiple notes at once. Lastly, paid users have the option to add a note (visible only to you) whenever you add or remove a friend (guaranteed to avoid embarrassing social mishaps). If you don't currently have a paid account, you can upgrade now! It only takes a few minutes and costs less than a bad shopping mall haircut (plus, it's way more fashionable)!

Product tweaks and bug kill

1. In another effort to zap spam, comments containing links from domains LiveJournal deems untrustworthy are now automatically screened
2. If you sign up to get notifications of the Writer's Block question of the day, you'll now see the daily question in the email notification, so you'll have a little extra time to ponder before you post. You can subscribe to Writers Block notifications here
3. The issue causing random comments to vanish has been fixed!
4. If you visit a LiveJournal page and get prompted to log in, you'll be returned to the same page after you sign in (Thanks, Dreamwidth)!
5. If you don't edit the timestamp for an entry at all, the entry timestamp will indicate the time the entry was posted instead of the time the Update Journal page was loaded
6. Comments with paddings/backgrounds render correctly within the comment box (and will no longer wrap outside the box and break frames/margins)

New FCK fixes rich text editor!

1. We've updated our RTE (Rich Text Editor) to FCKeditor version 2.6.5
2. When switching from the RTE to HTML editor, links for syndicated feeds are no longer broken
3. RTE now functions properly in Safari 4.0
4. An extra line/space will not be auto-inserted whenever you switch from RTE to HTML editor
5. The insert image link now works correctly in all browsers

LiveJournal Cares

We’re pleased to introduce you to lj_cares, a new LiveJournal community dedicated to raising awareness and funds for U.S. charitable organizations that improve the health and well-being of people around the world. Each month, we’ll spotlight a nonprofit that is making a significant global impact through medical research, public outreach, and/or humanitarian social programs. Charities will be selected in accordance with the U.S. calendar of national health observances based on a high rating (of over 60%) on Charity Navigator and global scope of impact.

In this, our inaugural month of November, we will celebrate national adoption month by offering a charitable virtual gift (priced at $2.99) to support Love Without Boundaries, an organization that saves the lives of orphans with life-threatening diseases and places them in loving homes around the world. LiveJournal will donate 100% of the proceeds from the sale of charitable vgifts (we'll cover the cost of credit card transaction fees). To learn more about Love Without Boundaries, please visit lj_cares and read about how they helped save Baby Kang and the Rainbow Twins from fatal illnesses, who are now thriving in nurturing families. You can purchase your Love Without Boundaries gifts in the Virtual Gift shop.

Papered in postcards

A couple of weeks ago, we asked you to send in postcards to surround us with LiveJournal community. Thanks for coming through! We've received postcards all the way from Germany, Finland, and Canada and from all over the US, including Texas, Florida, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Indiana, Hawaii, and Oklahoma just to name just a handful. We're thrilled with our improved decor.

Please keep the love coming for one more week by writing to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be drawing the names of ten random contributors next Thursday to win paid account credits!

Photos of the week

We have more dazzling images posted by talented LiveJournal photographers from around the world. We're hoping to span the entire globe, so please continue posting and tagging. Of course, you can also sit back and enjoy the view at lj_photophile.

You can see a sample of this week's gorgeous photos and check out spotlight communities and awesome user content after the jump!

( Read more... )

Curtains

We thank you, once again, for joining us. See you next week!

Just watched last night's Glee.

I teared up a bit at one point.

TRY TO GUESS WHICH ONE.

1. I asked on my twitter and facebook the other day if anyone would be interested in being able to buy signed copies of SHIVER or my other books online, and the answer was enough yes's to make me go to my local indie and find out if they're game.

They were game.

So, now you can order a signed copy of SHIVER at a normal price with pretty decent shipping (and it's free shipping if you buy over $40 of books there). In time for Christmas, even! Not quite the same as looking into my beady little eyes as I sign your book right in front of you, but . . . it's still signed! By me, even, instead of by the monkey that I am trying to train up to do my signature (he still gets stuck on the S. I do it all loopy.)

2. I am at about 13,000 words on my NaNo novel and I'm doing what they tell you not to. I am going back to the beginning and rereading and ordering and making it relatively coherent. I know this is a NaNo No-No (just say that out loud. Please.) but it's how I write all my novels. I need to be constantly checking pacing and mood, and I can't get that without rereading. Plus, it's hard for me to work in a vacuum, and normally at this point in my novel, I'd be handing it off to my crit partners to glance over and see if I'm on a good path. Which is exactly what I'm doing now. I'm only giving myself a day to tidy and then I'm sending it on to Tessa. I'm not worried about this slowing me down (Again with the hubris). Because I know that I can clock ten thousand words in a day if I'm on a roll or staring a deadline in its red eye. NaNo may be setting the timeline, here, but I'm setting the rules, baby. NaNo is my #itch.

3. I am trying to stop reading the Italian edition of SHIVER. Not that I can really read Italian. I took some years of Latin in college, which means it's vaguely familiar and understandable in a pig-latin sort of way. Mostly, I like reading it out loud and thinking it all sounds very, very sexy. Liek Sam would get laid more if he'd said it this way first. Like (accents totally removed because I'm lazy):

mi schianto nel vuoto tremulo
cercando la tua mano
perso in sterili rimpianti
questo fragile amore e
un modo
per dirti
addio.

Yes, Sam. Yes, indeed. I agree. Whatever you're saying.

So a while ago—not that long ago, but not yesterday—I made a post about the author/agent relationship, and why I think literary agents are so damn important. I like my agent. I know that state isn't universal, but neither is liking your haircut, and I'm pretty cool with that, too. I try to be mellow when I can.

This morning, I was pointed to a post over on GalleyCat explaining why nobody needs an agent. Apparently, the electronic revolution means that the "middleman" between author and editorial is no longer necessary. Who knew? Or at least, that middleman is on the way to becoming fully outdated. Naturally, at least one literary agency feels differently, and has said as much. I suggest reading both links before continuing, because I, too, feel differently, and will now say as much.

These are the things I do: write books. Make changes according to the requests of my editors. Discuss possible changes with my editors. Review page proofs. Blog. Run blog giveaways of ARCs and published books. Attend conventions. Write outlines and proposals for books I want to write. Play Plants vs. Zombies. Watch TV.

These are the things my agent does: get my books to the editors who are most likely to not only appreciate them, but work with them in a way that is beneficial to both the publishing house and my career. Negotiate advances. Negotiate sub-rights. Protect my interests in areas like audio, comic book, and foreign rights. Make sure that I get paid on time. Follow up with my editors when things are unclear, or when I need more time to finish something. Check in with me to see what space I have on my plate. Understand the industry. Explain things like "co-op" and how marketing budget works. Tell me where my energy needs to be spent, rather than where I necessarily want to spend it.

Beyond the fairly standard notation that many major houses no longer consider submissions from unagented authors, the agent serves a thousand functions that, frankly, I don't have time to deal with. It's possible that I would have time for them, if I wasn't writing four books at once; on the flip side of that, I can also say that if I was dealing with all the functions served by my agent, I wouldn't have time to write four books at once. It all feeds back to a question of resource allocation, and I have chosen to externalize certain resource needs in the form of my agent.

Agents don't just negotiate the size of your advance; they negotiate contracts, which are huge, complex, complicated things. Without an agent to go through the contract and understand it, you need to not only speak the crazy language of literary rights, you need to have strong feelings on all those things. What do you think about comic rights, merchandising rights, foreign rights, audio rights, film rights, the right to construct an amusement park based on your work? What do you think of the time the contract says you'll have to review your page proofs, of the concept of seeing your copyedits, of the way the next work clause is worded? Do you understand half of what I just said? 'Cause honestly, without my agent, I wouldn't, and even now, I'm a little vague on some of the specifics, although I'm learning.

Agents deal with your editors, and can mediate when, say, you miss a deadline because your cat got sick and you just can't cope and what do these people want from you?! Well, they want you to hold to the terms of your contract, and they want you to make a lot of money, because everybody would like to have a lot of money, and if you make a lot of money, so does your publisher. But without that buffer between yourself and the publisher, it's very possible that you could flip out and take somebody's face off, thus ruining the working relationship. Instead, flip out on your agent, and they'll take care of making nice while you hyperventilate in a corner.

A good agent will help your career in a hundred ways...and more, they're very often an excellent gatekeeper, because as soon as you're salable, the agents will be happy to let you know. It's not their job to get you to that point, but once you get yourself there, their job begins, and that job is a hard one. Frankly, it's not a job I'd want to do.

Are literary agents outdated? No. Are literary agents like having the cheat codes to the publishing industry? Yes. You still need to understand what you're doing, but they can make things go a lot more smoothly, and they can keep you from dying too many times before you finish level one. That's more than worth the cost of their commission.