The Government Is Trying To Eat Itself!

Yeah, shit be going down in Canada, son.

A friend of mine linked me to an easy to read explanation of how Canadian government generally works and what exactly our current clusterfuck is all about. Yarn Harlot seems left-leaning to me, so I rather liked her take on it.

I can't wait to see what Michaelle Jean does. *crosses fingers*

I Still Have Hope

NaNo is over but that doesn't mean I've stopped writing. Thus far I have completed three full chapters and am on to the fourth.

Title: The Last Breath
Genre: Historical Fiction
Word Count: 18,041

Giving Gifts Is Fun!

*points at Flash fun at the top of her blog*

Go nuts! The crazier the gift, the better. ;D

Sometimes Dance Music Videos Aren't Just Good...

... They're brilliant.

I've loved this song (Say Hello by Deep Dish) for a couple years now but I only recently saw the video. And I was pleasantly surprised! No gyrating females, no fast cars, no slick clubs. Just a quiet story about childhood love and adult estrangement. Watch it!



The ending is what makes the video so awesome. Did it surprise anyone? I know I didn't see it coming.

It's Official...

... I'm never going to play Mario Kart again.

Oh internets, why must you freak me out so?!

Familiar Grounds

Not gonna turn this into a big explanation; I have given up on the idea of winning NaNo.

I haven't written anything since November 12th and I'm just fine with that. I'll keep working on it, but I don't intend on keeping up with the other NaNoers.

Title: The Last Breath
Genre: Historical Fiction
Word Count: 17,218

NaNo Progress Report

I had no laptop on the weekend, so I am disastrously behind. To keep on track, I need to write a total of 16,670 words by the end of today. At the NaNo boards, Chris is urging everyone to at least crack 15,000. I don't think I'll have any problem breaking that milestone, but I'm almost at the part of the story where things slow down and get angsty and... I'm not sure how things will turn out. We'll see.

Title: The Last Breath
Genre: Historical Fiction
Word Count: 14,770

O This Brave New World We Live In

Good work, America. We didn't think you had it in you. :D

After the presidency was called by CNN, I went down to Dundas Square for the 'Welcome Back America' rally for fun. I arrived with a bunch of people after Obama had done his speech, so the party was beginning to disperse but it was still astounding how many people were cheering and chanting and shouting and honking the horns of their cars. We talked about how Canadian politics is so comparatively stale, and how we are all waiting for Justin Trudeau to get more experience. ;)

Waking up this morning, however, I am surprised to find that in some states gay marriage has been banned and gay couples are banned from adopting children. As overjoyed as I am that Obama was elected, I am still happy that I'm in Canada.

(Reactions to the props/initiatives passed.)

Chapter 1, Scene 1

Advika smiled mischieviously and took the offensive, swinging her curved sword at Mrityu's midsection. Her aim was slightly off and her momentum was slow, but he jumped backwards anyway, just to be safe.

"What do you think you're doing?" He growled, pointing his sword towards Advika's throat, noting that she did not back away. That same mischevious smile was alight on her face. Her gaze was direct, her hand on her hip defiantly, sword pointed at his chest. Mrityu was once again reminded why his sister drove his family insane. She is not like other Rajput women. For better or for worse.

"You are far too easy on me, dear older brother. Are you afraid a woman would challenge your skills with the sword?" Advika said, mixing respect with a taunt as she spoke. "I am simply trying to push my training to a more strenuous level."

Mrityu observed her silently, watching her as she watched him. He lowered his sword from her throat and a bright look crossed her face, happy to know Mrityu had acquised to her wishes. But then, without warning, Mrityu sidestepped and in one smooth movement both disarmed Advika and knocked her feet out from underneath her. She fell to the hard stones quietly, not even crying out with surprise or pain. The surprising move had caught her off guard.

"May god forgive me for striking a woman." Mrityu said calmly, sheathing Advika's sword back in the sling and offering her his hand.

NaNo is kicking my ass today. I haven't had any time to write thanks to an interview and the election. I'll just have to redouble my efforts tomorrow. *game face*

NaNo Progress

Wow the NaNo boards are absolutely fucked right now. Pages keep timing out and you can't enter your word count. Boooo. I want a fancy widget! Oh well, I guess this will have to do for now.

Title: The Last Breath
Genre: Historical Fiction
Word Count: 1,685

Psyching Myself Up

The key to success in NaNo, I think, is to say "fuck you" to every single doubt that runs through your head, to every instance of imperfection that crosses your eyes.

Of course it's going to be crap. But that's what editing is for, going through the details with a fine toothed comb, bouncing ideas off of people you trust, people who understand the material you're dealing with.

I'm going to do this, I swear. There's a goddamn market for it, after all. I will live the dream.

And So It Begins

OMFG THERE ARE FLURRIES OUTSIDE MY WINDOW.

NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!

This is... really deterring me from taking out the trash and heading out for some grocery shopping.

It's Too Early For This!

-1 degree Celcius tonight? Really??

God, autumn in Canada sure is depressing sometimes.

(Oh god, apparently it's snowing downtown right now. Nooooooo.)

Misadventures In Cooking

Or would that technically be "Misadventures in Baking"? Ah well, it was a misadventure in any case. ;P

Here's the story. A few weeks ago I was watching the Food Network and I saw someone do the following:

- melt a saucepan full of sugar
- add red wine and let it boil off a little
- add some kind of herb
- add olive oil and butter
- cook leeks the resulting mixture

I thought it was an interesting concept and wanted to mold it to my own preferences today. I would melt the sugar, add the red wine, add in some ground cardamom, add the olive oil and butter margarine, and cook sliced pears in the resulting mixture. No problem, right?

BUZZT! WRONG. Hahahahaha.

I guess when I added the red wine to the sugar, the sugar hadn't completely melted yet, and the red wine was room temperature and caused the sugar to solidify. To my saucepan. Also, the sugar had been gradually melting at an even keel but when the red wine hit the pan it started bubbling in a rather violent way. So I had to take the whole thing off the heat to prevent the red wine from going crazy. But that meant I was stuck with big chunks of solid, slightly caramelized sugar sitting in the pan. In the end, some vigorous stirring at low heat kept the red wine happy and the sugar eventually melted. Eventually. After eons of stirring.

Adding the olive oil and margarine made the concoction easier to deal with, but I realized I had put a tad too much red wine into the concoction; I wanted to sear the pears, not poach them. But it was too late to change that, unfortunately. Also, by this point I was stressing a wee bit and did not have the patience to grind down some cardamom, so I went a different route: imitation vanilla. After adding the vanilla I just let the damn thing simmer for long time. In the end, it didn't taste too bad. The combination of red wine and vanilla was great. But the pears were indeed poached and not seared; I didn't get that touch of caramelization I was looking for. Next time, I will probably start with a smaller amount of the wine (a white one so that the pears don't look weirdly coloured) and add in less sugar as the wine heats up, cause damn that liquid was insanely sweet. And I'll use both cardamom and vanilla to flavour.

Here's to hoping my next attempt won't be so hilariously chaotic.

Sample Novel Structure

1. 5,000 words: Teaser and exposition. Introduce the protagonist and why they are as they are.

2. 2,000 words: Catalyst event. Introduce the second protagonist.

3. 9,000 words: Exploration of the story world; new characters and nuggets of information. Things are still going well, but introduce the villain(s).

4. 18,000 words: Things fall apart! The story becomes bigger than the characters. Things happen, they get saved, things get worse, repeat, repeat, repeat.

5. 6,000 words: Reveal bigger quest.

6. 6,000 words: Challenges are defeated. Things are learned. Characters change.

7. 6,000 words: Resolve any leftover issues. Epilogue.

How To Succeed At NaNo

Straight from the forum itself. I need to save this for posterity...

1. Buy yourself 6 treats, one for the start and one for each 10,000 word mark!

2. Join the Newbies forum. People go there and give them all kinds of encouragement and tips.

3. Plan to be in the word wars game with others who will competitively inspire you to do your best and keep striving for the win. Find the crew that is motivating and return there each day or every other day to talk with others who want to make it to the end as well.

4. Buy yourself a poster and let yourself be rewarded for every 500 mark you cross. Get some stars or stickers or a stamp and give it to yourself as you cross those mini-marks. Perhaps you work off an immediate reward system so approach it that way.

5. Make sure you have a story you like and characters you like. Plan them out to the fullest extent possible. Or if you were fully planned out all the other times, maybe now is the time to try flying by the seat of your pants and just writing off the top of your head.

6. Understand that there may be points at which you hate your story. But don't worry about that. Keep writing because chances are, you just might change your mind and like it in the end. Press for the mark. Keep your daily word goals despite the fact that you think it might not be working. Remember that the only way to reach 50 K is to write 50 K. And the only way to edit what you've written is to first write it! So, make a commitment to yourself to finish come hell or high water!!!

Running Out Of Steam

Haven't really been planning much for my novel in the past week or so. I've been distracted by other creative outlets.

There's a section in my planned novel that's kind of... elastic. In the sense that... if I finish the novel and I haven't met my quota of 50,000 words, this is the place where I can pad the story with additional events and dialogue and drama.

I've also promised my sister that I would include a talking laddoo in the story somewhere. Don't ask, it's a Simpsons thing. Anyway, the only way a talking laddoo would fit into the story is through some sort of dream or hallucination. I'm currently leaning towards hallucination. But I still have no idea where to fit such a ridiculous element into the story, especially in historical fiction. LOL, what have I gotten myself into?!

Quick Link

What's the Matter With Canada? - How the world's nicest country turned mean. A take on our country's politics by an outsider.

Third Time's A Charm

I've decided to do NaNoWriMo this year. I tried back in 2005 and 2006, failed both times. In 2005 I tried a fantasy plot that basically went "a young couple falls in love... insert angry deity". Didn't get very far with it; I wrote very seat-of-my-pants and didn't even know how the story was supposed to end.

In 2006 I switched to urban sci-fi. It was about a woman living in the near-distant future where government sponsored super-soldiers had revolted against their handlers and planned on enslaving regular people. And the super-soldier that was leading the attack was the woman's younger sister. I got a lot further with that story than the previous year (almost 10,000 words) but again I had no idea how the story was going to end. Mostly though... I was bored of my story. Bored of writing it, bored of the characters, bored of the setting, bored of it all. My patience for writing one piece over an extended period of time is very limited, you see. It's my fatal flaw.

After my two miserable failures I decided that NaNo was not for me and abstained in 2007. I have no idea why I've changed my mind this year. Maybe because I'm not currently working and the thought of having so much extra time is increasing my confidence.

I figured that I ought to do something different this year so I'm outlining my entire story, chapter by chapter, scene by scene. Hopefully it will help. At least I'll have a plan and I'll know how the story ends. And thus far it looks like I'll be able to surpass the required 50,000 if things work out properly. My story this year will be historical fiction, taking place in 14th century India. I know I'll eventually get bored so I'm trying to figure out beforehand how I can alleviate that. I really want to win for once.

Identity Angst

I'm not sure where this idea came from, but I was thinking how interesting it would be to write a story about a girl who doesn't know if she's really who she is. Why? Okay, here's the scoop. She and her twin sister were caught in a house fire when they were young. Both of them were badly burned, trapped under collapsed debris. One of the girls died as a result of her injuries. The other survives. But because the burns destroyed her fingerprints, because a blow to the head gave her retrograde amnesia, because the trauma of the event has altered her personality, no one's quite sure which twin she is. There's no way to definitively/scientifically prove who she is, the girl herself has no idea about who she was in the past, and her friends and family can't tell which girl she is because she doesn't act like either of the girls pre-accident.

It's all very soap opera-ish, however. And aside from psychological angst, there's no real plot or conflict in the story. It's a good premise, but nothing more. :(