Just a little doodle so far but I would like your comments on this draft copy for the novelle cover.
(It will look a bit more realistic when I do the good copy.)

posted by Yukari at 17:49   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 
I was looking up "straight sabre" on the web and came across a site with great illustrations for authors writing Gelack duels, entitled POLISH SABER FENCING FROM THE XVIth TO THE XVIIIth CENTURIES. The sketches illustrate attacks and defenses beyond what is legal in modern sport fencing but confirms that most the moves at issue would be familiar to a modern fencer.

posted by Lynda at 00:23   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 
David-Glen Anderson has a new website up for Reading for the Future at http://readingforfuture.com/, about encouraging literacy through the use of speculative fiction.
posted by Lynda at 01:42   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 
A Flash Animation Curiosity.
posted by Lynda at 22:55   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 
Finally got up the pictures I took at the Reading by Readers event in Elizabeth Woods' creative writing classroom at Prince George Senior Secondary school back in December. [See pictures]
posted by Lynda at 08:59   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 
Is the final count. I added some words back :-).
For the cuts, I targeted repetitions: information given in two separate chapters, unless there were key and revealing differences between viewpoints; information given in the narrative that was then covered in dialogue; bits of business that need occur only once, or if they needed to occur more than once to mark a pattern were occurring rather too often. If a scene had a clear narrative arc, then detours - food, recesses, etc - went. People eat a lot less! Half a chapter went, of food and a concert. I tried to reduce the number of very short paragraphs, whether in descriptions or in dialogue exchanges - this intended to drop the line count and hence the page count without necessarily requiring deletions of large numbers of words. "Erien?" "What?" kind of exchanges went, unless really required for the rhythm of a scene - wastes lines, adds nothing. The book is still too long, but I'm at the point of needing an external reader (ie an editor) to point out the bits that lag, the bits that sag, and the bits that baffle, and give us the order to murder our darlings (I heard this phrase from Tad Williams, though I'm not sure it originated from him). I love editors! There's only so much split-brain an author can do.
posted by Anonymous at 11:05   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 
... and the final chapter to do, but my eyes are beginning to squinch shut, and I know I'm not keeping all the threads in my mind any more, so tomorrow I will finish it, make a list of my major changes and upload it. Then I need to do some serious bioinformatics and PERL. Before I fall into bed, I might have a shot at installing MacPerl.
posted by Anonymous at 23:55   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 
... midway though Chapter 19 of 24; backing up and closing down for the night. My list of "things I'm going to do when these edits are done" is getting longer and longer. Taxes. Sorting the sorry heap of paper in the corner. Getting exercise. Making lunches to take to work ... all those worthy things. Along with updating websites. Learning Bryce. Scanning in and playing with photographs. Getting out in daylight.
posted by Anonymous at 23:28   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 
With the voice of my first editor (Deborah Beale) murmuring in my ears, "These domestic scenes are charming, but ... " (In this instance she was speaking of Legacies). I have cut Alka and Erien's dinner completely, and am now about to begin Chapter 18 of 24. While I am not sure yet I will break 160 000, I see myself getting it below 165 000. Engaged in a brief, futile fight with Word over sections. I get rid of the section breaks, and the ghost of the section remains to mess up the page numbering.
posted by Anonymous at 20:48   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 
Came across this browsing my clip art site and thought, With a few turquoise green touches, that could be the forest path on Monitum Amel walks up on the way to visit Kath. [Larger Version in JPG Format]
posted by Lynda at 16:04   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments