The Girdle of Melian

I've done it! I've entered all (and I do mean all; there was a lot to fix, copy-edit wise and editorial wise) the red pen corrections into the electronic copy! Whew! Two days behind schedule, too :-) champagne, confetti, chocolate interlude Right, interlude over. Now comes more work. I have the following To Do list: check all files to make sure I’ve noted all research, read all previous crits, etc. make list of phrases to be translated into Latin (and find a Latin speaker) double-check remaining copy-edit notes WRITE the 5-6 scenes that are left and rewrite 1 major scene read Shakespeare’s Cymbeline reread one more time send to beta readers! Oh, and agents of course - I've got to polish that Q letter. But things are looking up. Reaching definite goals has done wonders for my self-confidence. Also, yesterday, as part of the January exercise on the forum , I wrote a brand new scene and had a major revelation about one of my main characters! Nothing like a surprise twist to m...

Are you as desperate to read Death By Bikini by Linda Gerber as I am? This book ban is preventing me from scooping up all sorts of delicious looking YA. So I've entered Reviewer X's contest to win a copy! Hmm, perhaps if I post more regular book reviews on here, Penguin will start bestowing books on me too :-) In other news, look for a spin-off knitting blog, coming soon - watch this space!

...to go on the major overhaul! Then a few scenes left to write/re-write and some tweaking and some Latin translations - and then I'm ready for beta readers!

Today is the 250th anniversary of the birth of the poet Burns . We celebrated by listening to the 1959 Caedmon recording ( on LP ) of his poetry and of Scottish Ballads. You might wish to host or attend a Burns Supper in his honour and raise a wee dram yourself!

Here's my projected schedule for 2009: Dec 2008: The Face of A Lion : 6 pages per day, editing with the red pen Jan 2009: 6 pages per day, entering all edits electronically; Cymbeline (Shakespeare) to read (last research), house party on Compuserve ! Feb: send to beta readers, work on last bits, finish query (Q) letter; do Outlander chapter summaries on the Yahoo OutlanderGathering group March: finish Q letter for Frederick's Flight , send to five agents I've already queried; find more agents April: reread The Face of A Lion ; send more Qs; start drafting for "1492" and "Rose Diary" stories May: continue drafting and start research June: send more Qs; see what needs editing in The Face of A Lion ; continue research, continue drafting July: continue drafting and research Aug: see if I can get a short story out of something, send to magazines Sept: polish drafts - don't leave editing till last minute!' send more Qs Oct: how many words am I at?, co...

While Jen 's away writing, Kait 's filling in over on Mission Accountability , and I checked in with her today... As of yesterday I've been falling behind... I left all the difficult revisions to this last 10-day stretch and now I'm getting overwhelmed - I've got so many rewrites to do to tie up themes and character development points, I'm going crazy! I should do what our mistress Jen is doing but I just started in a new section at work and can't take off more than a day or two. And I got a call saying my glasses came in but they were all wrong and have been sent back for re-tooling. Without them, I can't get up early in the morning and work for two hours or so since I can't see and if I wear my contacts for too long my eyes will suffer... Okay, that was the woe is me bit. Now for the constructive attitude... Erm? Attitude? Alright, he's a no-show. Meanwhile, let's see the goals: Complete 6 pages per day, if not more Resolve all the issues ...

Cake Wrecks features non-wrecks on Sundays. Here is their Lord of the Rings special. My favourite is the first Minas Tirith cake. How could you bear to eat it?

Here .

From Susan ! 1. Fellow authors It’s impossible to name everyone, but I love being surrounded by like-minded authors; Susan, who gets appropriately het up about being banned from the YA section of the library (I mean really !), Jen, who spurs us on at MA and keeps herself on her writing toes , Jenny who keeps finding contests to enter, all the other MA girls who are dedicated, inspiring and provide laughs at just the right time, and of course everyone over at the Forum ! 2. My new section at work Where I get to do lots and lots of editing and copyediting – yay! 3. Trying new recipes at dinnertime There’s two in the new issue of Chatelaine , or was it CanadianLiving , one for chicken and one for salmon, that I can’t wait to try, and Jamie Oliver is consistently coming up with exciting stuff – like rosemary salt! 4. The UK of the 1920s and 1930s I can’t help it. The 1900s and the 1910s (saving the war) must have been good times too. By “good times” I mean a time when people were stil...

To read guest blogger Adrienne Kress on Why She Writes for Children . That's it exactly and I believe C S Lewis once said much the same thing; one writes what one likes to read. Actually, somewhat in relation to this... Yesterday I was browsing in the mega-bookstore-chain closest to work (albeit quickly, since I had to hurry back to the office) and had the darndest time finding a YA or Middle Grade book that resembled my own The Face of A Lion . There were many fantasy novels, many novels involving time travel, a few that involved animals, but none that quite had the same tone and inflection of mine. This may or may not be a good thing, but at the moment it makes querying agents trickier...

I've been getting a kick out of it for a month: Eddie Izzard's Death Star Canteen, set to Lego

I've been rereading quite a few Agatha Christie books, mostly for fun but also partly because my new glasses haven't arrived yet (and won't until the 19th, unfortunately). I can't wear my contacts for too long, or they hurt - so I either have to read ( and do everything else) with taped up, askew glasses, or read with the book about 1cm from my face. In that position, it's hard to read anything new that I don't trust. Anyhow, here's a list of words, ideas, etc. that I've marked for research and follow-up (sorry, lingo from work there; I've moved to a new section and have been concentrating hard all week) [this is why I not only have many a TBR pile and an endless wishlist, but also a Books-I-Just-Finished-With-Flags-Marking-Things-To-Look-Up pile]: "he'd probably had to retrench his scale of living a good deal since the war" "Michael and I are absolutely on our beam ends. Mick's had a really good part offered to him... Now w...

Helene 's put a rundown of her year on her blog. The amount of work she puts in, and the number of separate projects she has going at once (eight!) is truly inspiring. I'm going to draft a similar, loosely-based schedule for myself, and get to work!

Jenny 's got no computer, and I... I've got no glasses. I was merrily cleaning my glasses yesterday morning, when SNAP, the bridge came apart, smack in the middle. My prescription hovers around the -12 mark, with astigmatism thrown in for fun, which means that no glasses = virtual immobility. I got this photo off Wikipedia : Mine's a lot worse - I probably wouldn't be able to separate the stripes or octagons on the shirt and ball, and the kids' noses wouldn't be so well-defined. Their hairlines are also too clear cut. About the only thing I can do without glasses is shove a book in my face (partly why I've been rereading all those Agatha Christies (see Books I'm Reading sidebar); the other reason might have something to do with the holidays and the weather (-20 degrees Celsius practically every day) - last year I was rereading The Lord of the Rings around the same time). You'd think a bit of tape would solve it but no... tape's too weak and the t...

This is in relation to my Books Read in 2008 posts below. Wednesday's newspaper had a column on a government commissioned survey: the majority of respondents reported reading an average of 17 books over a 12-month period, of which 22% were Canadian authors. Mine was 106 books over 50 weeks, with 14 Canadian books, or 13% by Canadian authors. Is that a good thing or a bad thing; should I read more by Canadians?

Got this one from Jen , who got it from Carol : 1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before? Went on a road trip through Pennsylvania, New York State, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky (Hi Jenny !) and Ohio. And visited Toronto for the first time. For about five hours. Also visiting parts of Turkey I hadn't been to before: Ankara, Karabuk, Safranbolu, Kastamonu. 2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don't quite remember making any. Just trying to concentrate on finishing editing The Face of A Lion. 3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Claire ! 4. Did anyone close to you die? Yes, my doctor and my high school history teacher. 5. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008? More dedication that results in concrete work done on the novel each day. 6. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Not sure... Probably the road t...