The Girdle of Melian

I've been busy with the Hallowe'en House Party on the Compuserve Forum and have been a little slow with the "real" writing lately. It's strange how when something is in fun only, I can knock off 1045 words without breaking a sweat, but getting even 700 words out for the Austin and Kedi story involves much griping and hair-pulling. Then again, there are no deadlines or goals, beyond the daily suggestion, for the house party, whereas for the novel I've got to get at least 700 words written each day as part of the 70 Day Challenge. Of course, this makes writing sound like a chore - far from it. I *like* having these deadlines to force me to dedicate myself. If I sat around waiting for inspiration to strike... what was that about a cold day in hell? Anyway, back to Austin. I've got a new goal, which actually won't take into effect until January. Seeing as the To Be Read pile has now reached the breaking point (four, count 'em, four piles of twenty book...

A list of five statements for each of which a Google search returns my blog as the number one hit. The first three statements, according to Google, exist only in a post on my blog, but nowhere else on the entire Internet. Another photo-worthy lovefest by Frodo and Sam... A young Greek girl in pre-WWI Istanbul who falls in love with a dashing travelling musician from Brittany. Gece otobüsüyle Cuma gecesi Kusadasi'na git, Pazartesi sabahi dön (Take the night bus to Kusadasi on Friday night and come back for Monday morning). The "flavour" of life in Ephesus in the middle of the first century Learning about mitochondria starts with Madeleine l'Engle's A Wind in the Door Orhan Pastanesinden Tatli alip ye (Get some dessert from the Orhan Bakery and eat it). Seems I'll have to find an original sentence about Austin and Kedi :-)

I'm listed for Novel Deviations 3 http://evileditor.blogspot.com/2007/10/nd3.html Sounds exciting, once I figure out what it is...

Yup, it's now day 2 of round 2 of the 70 Day Writing Challenge. My goal is easier this time: finish the book! Easier, since to do I only have to complete about 750 words per day instead of 900. Now, off to write! Austin is in Rome now, though lots more needs to be told of their journey across the Mediterranean. Besides the political/literary/etc. timeline, I also need to keep a list of all the books/articles I have consulted, and will need to consult, for research, as well as a list of names and their meanings. Right now I give characters names based on what little knowledge I have and certain intuitive feelings if I come across a name on the internet. Later, though, these names may changed based on historical accuracy and any connotations associated with those names. To date I have: Austin, main character Kedi, friend and guide Theseus, friend Althea, friend Pliny the Elder (yes, *the* Pliny the Elder) Miss Julia Lady Porphyry Antonius, Theseus' brother Constantine, a classmat...

Just for fun, while on Jo's website, I tagged myself with this. If you haven't filled it out, you may tag yourself also! Seven random facts about me: 1) I yawn when I'm thirsty. 2) Sometimes my dreams predict the future. 3) I'm usually reading about ten books at once. 4) The whole time we lived in Turkey I ate the same thing everyday for breakfast and lunch: borek with cheese and coffee for breakfast, a pide and a salad followed by rice pudding for lunch. Only once in a while when I wanted something different, did I have eggplant and rice for lunch instead of pide. But I never skimped on that rice pudding. 5) I can knit but I haven't made socks yet. Even Jamie and Ian can make socks! 6) I've read the Lord of the Rings at least once a year since I was ten. 7) I like skunk smell (admittedly, I've never been near one when it sprayed).

One of the more spurious bits of advice given to writers is "write what you know" - as if to be a writer you can elaborate only on your morning commute to the office and the dimwitted things your colleagues say, not to mention your evenings spent doing chores and preparing supper/eating supper/clearing up after supper. Of course not! If Tolkien had followed this kind of lame advice... well, here's what Jo Bourne (http://jobourne.blogspot.com/) has to say (quoted verbatim from the Compuserve Books and Writers Forum): #11 of 15 Posted Oct-8 10:01 PM From jo bourne Posts 1312 Last 7:43 PM To Diana Gabaldon [Msg # 57558.11 57558.10 ] Hi Diana -- Whenever I see the 'write what you know' advice, I have this picture of nice Professor Tolkien interviewing an ork. "So tell me, Urlurk Orklag ... did you always want to grow up to be a souless servant of evil?" JoB

I'm New Beginning 381 on http://evileditor.blogspot.com/ and happy to say that I received a couple of positive comments, one "continuation" in the style of Princess Bride (yay!) and a few confirmations of things I already knew I needed to fine tune - Austin's voice and the length of time between his trip to the bazaar in the morning and his meeting with Kedi in the late afternoon. Whew!

Jenny over at jenny/' target=_blank> http://jennyswritething.blogspot.com">Jenny Does the Write Thing (testing link-writing here) has a nice idea - creating a political/historical timeline for the length of time that one's character is in the past. So far all the research I've been doing has been merely to try and understand the "flavour" of life in Ephesus in the middle of the first century, especially day-to-day tools, habits and surroundings that are completely new (old?) to me: pottery bowls and lamps; open gutters in the streets; animals everywhere; smells of bread, fruit and unwashed bodies instead of cars, tar and air conditioner vents (yes, those are the kinds of gross smells I encounter each day on the way to work); travelling as a slow time-consuming process involving many people and animals and much packing of supplies, rather than airport security delays and flight delays (and whining about the length of a seven hour flight to Europe; how ...

...and haven't already done this meme, consider yourself tagged." From http://snailstales.blogspot.com/2007/10/interesting-animal-meme.html So, that's me tagged then, is it? Here you go: An Interesting Animal I've Had My sister and I raised a snail. I forget why we had him, I think he was a Turkish snail that showed up in our baggage when we came home. We kept him in a jar and fed him on carrots and lettuce. There was some dirt and twigs in the jar too. He would outgrow his jars and have to be transferred to other, bigger jars. Our mom did most of the work. Then one day he escaped! We searched for him, but he was gone. A few months later the cleaning lady came up to my mom and said, "is this yours?" holding out the snail. He had been living on the dining room carpet. My mom released him into the wild after that... Too bad we don't have any photos of him. An Interesting Animal I Ate It seems I've never eaten anything wacky or weird. For about five mon...

A month it's been, of thinking and not writing, of planning and not creating. But I've written 659 words so far tonight and still have another scene in my head. Goal was 1000, just to get myself going, and then hopefully I can pick up the pace. October looks set to be a really busy writing month: 1. October goal of an even higher word count 2. Hallowe'en house party at Jen's! 3. Group novel 4. October exercise on dialogue 5. Posting He Ain't Heavy for critique while everyone else is at Surrey ( www.siwc.ca ) 6. Possibly joining round 2 of Sven's 70 Day Challenge Whew!