Compliments Unexpected

I’ve been writing on Pulse.  The Morgue Scene went fabulously. Better than I had hoped. And I learned a little more about Nicole. I had no idea her parents were victims of an as-yet unsolved homicide or that she was the one they called in order to identify their bodies.  I did know that her father was a cop though. It’s the primary reason Nicoles twin brother, Jamie, is a cop.  Interesting things.

So while I am working on this I get a message from one of the members on the forum. It’s a note telling me that they are really enjoying Pulse and think that it is one of the better written story threads they have seen in a long while. They also asked if we were looking to add a third writer to the mix.

Now here’s the thing. I know that I am posting Pulse in a forum setting and that in all reality there is going to be someone that reads it.  But I didn’t think anyone actually did. Does that make sense? There is no feed-back on the threads themselves as it is an rp forum and that would just mess with the flow of things so unless someone sends a note saying that they’ve read it etc. there is no way of knowing.

Because we already have a pretty solid story planned out for Pulse adding a third person would not work out well, but we did agree to start a different story with her. (Well, my writing buddy already did-I haven’t gotten around to thinking about it really hard yet.)

It was just really nice to hear someone other than the writers is enjoying Pulse.

Friday Wrap Up

Hehe..yeah, there is a Friday Wrap Up even with my recent decision.

• Pulse made progress, we have now begun the section in which Nicole must meet her brother Jamie at the Morgue to identify the body of her best-friend who was found brutally murdered (mangled and drained of blood). It doesn’t help that when she received the call that Tristan answered her phone…
• No other progress has been made on the other forum stories. Muses are still apparently missing. I am actually kinda sad about that.
• I started working on technical writing-actually it’s pattern writing. While I am used to reading the language used to write the pattern, it’s actually really hard to get the phrasing right when you are trying it from the ground up-and still make it understandable by others.
• Plans for this weekend include me possibly picking up some books from the bookstore.

Some Conclusions

It was a hard truth I faced last night. It brought me to tears and I still get queasy thinking about it, but I know it’s the truth.

I am going to take a step back from writing. I HAVE to take a step back. It’s not that I don’t want to write, it’s that I am not happy writing…and if I am not happy I shouldn’t be doing it. Not for a living, at least. I’ve lost the joy. I want it back.

I can’t completely stop writing-it’s impossible for me to do. I just won’t worry about it. If I write -Great! If I don’t – Oh well! I’ve been making myself ill over the fact that I haven’t been able to “produce” anything viable to send off to an agent let alone a publisher. I’ve been trying to do this for 8 years…

I will continue to write on the forum stories I recently started-as long as my writing partners are willing to continue-but I will not worry about whether or not they get finished. For all I know the stories could fade into oblivion… I will also write the Victorian Letters. Those are just too much fun not to do.

I still have plenty of things writing related to blog about so even though I may not update on my personal writing, you may still find some nuggets of useful information here.

It’s not the end. I promise. For my mental sanity I simply need to focus on other things…

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Non-Fiction Writing

Today found me working on writing of the non-fiction variety. I finally got around (forced) myself to write up some of the recipes I’ve had sitting here waiting to be added to my cooking blog. Doing this also forced me to figure out what the heck was going on with the coding as well-as it was looking something awful and it needed to be fixed. After wrestling with it for two hours I figured out the culprit was a particular post that had coding in it. Re-wrote the post and viola! It magically fixed everything.

I also wandered the ‘nets to find some yarn relative blogs of which I then turned around and blogged about over at The Pirate Hooker. So all in all I feel alright today.

I didn’t however brainstorm…the Olympics were highly distracting. Who knew I was so interested in mens gymnastics? And synchronized diving….

When Things Go Astray

You know, I wrote that really long post about the sonnets on Friday and didn’t even think about writing a Friday Wrap Up post. Wonder where my brain has been recently. Seriously.

Last week found me doing very little writing at all. A few paragraphs here or there is all that I managed even though I started working on some new posts for my cooking blog. I have new recipes ready to be put up I just seem to be procrastinating on actually doing it. Which seems to be my SOP for the last week or so. I am avoiding writing.

I read somewhere that you know that your a writer when you actively look for other things to do to keep you from writing. In other words writers will do anything to avoid writing…

I know that doesn’t seem to make sense, but when I first read that (wish I could remember what book it was in-I recall being at Barnes and Noble when I read it though) I completely understood what it meant.

I’ve been crocheting, cooking, web surfing…anything to not actually write. Though last night I did manage, while watching the Olympic swimming and gymnastic events to move Pulse along nicely. I was quite surprised at the turn-around response from my co-writer (about 10 minutes after my initial post to the thread).

I think I am going to set a small goal for this evening. I am going to sit down and do some brainstorming. I apologize in advance if I end up absent for the next day or so. My brain may have exploded…

Who Knew He Had A Poetic Soul?

This may be a bit off topic for Loose Ends. I may have mentioned that I game (as in rpg’s). This past weekend friends from across the globe (Oklahoma, Washington DC, and Canada) came together here in my living room to play Vampire one last time and finally have some closure for The Chronicle a game that was stalled three years ago when everyone went off to pursue life goals.

Including the final session the game ran a total of 31 sessions. That’s 31 Friday Nights (roughly) spent in the company of friends playing at saving the world even though we were “damned”. By the end there were six players- 5 girls, 1 guy; and 1 Story Teller (this is the person that makes sure we don’t digress too far from the given storyline or simply watches as the players run away with the painstaking plot he managed to come up with). A total of 7 people.

The last session was Amazing. We fought a good fight and came out victorious. Though not without loss. Several characters died. The family was shattered. Those that were meant to live lives in sunlight were reborn. Those that survived learned to cope…

The lone male player in the group played a vampire named Gabriel. He became the Prince of Boston (Masquerade/Requiem rules for anyone that is interested in system) at the end of the game. This afternoon I received an email from the player containing one last bit, an homage to the game.

Sonnets- written by Gabriel about his “sisters”, a family he only knew for a handful of years… I am sharing them here because they are simply too good not to. I’ve made a note about which sister he is talking about before each sonnet.

While not everything they speak of will make sense and more than likely have more sentimental value to the players than anyone else that reads them, they are beautifully written and worth sharing. I hope you enjoy them.

(I’ve put the sonnets behind a cut as it is going to be fairly long…)

Epistolary Steam-Punk Returns

Some months ago I mentioned writing a steam-punk letters with a friend. It fizzled out after two or three replies due to RL things (she’s working in her Master Thesis and I was sidetracked by yarn…seriously). This weekend we we talked about picking things up again.  This time using snail-mail instead of email. So starting sometime in September when she is moved into her new digs (she lives in Ottawa, Canada) we will begin the letter writing again.

I am looking forward to moving to actual pen and paper with this little project. Not because I want to write, but because this will let me indulge in my wanting to buy particular stationaries and will allow me to actually use the calling cards I have been wanting to make.

In the meantime I have moved/copied all of the existing letters to here. They were being stored at Images and Words, but I recently shut down/left every yahoo group I moderated/belonged to. The letters are under the title heading Steam Victoriana Letters and are numbered in the order they were written. I am writing under the name Letitia Pott. (Name generated over at Brass Goggles using my actual name.)

If anyone happens to wander over to read the letters let me know what you think of them.

Steam Victoriana Letters-Four

To: Miss Letitia Pott,
HMS Harlequin,
Airship Fleet 50,
Cog 1

Dear Leti,

After a week of moving in, dusting, unpacking, rearranging furniture and setting up my workshop I decided that enough was enough and finally opened up my shop. My Seeks are still familiarizing themselves with the new geography, but I have never been one to wait when opportunity beckoned and so I hung my very sharp and custom made sign outside the door and prepared to truly begin life in the city.

I wish I could say that since then I have become the talk of the town, but making a name for oneself in the Big Clank is substantially harder than starting up a side business in a town where everyone already knows you. I know that my Seeking business is ideal for these city dwellers, and I’ve yet to find anyone else offering similar services. You know, as well as I, that Alphonso can find anyone in any crowd, and that Beatrice has an uncanny knack for ferreting out even the oddest of hiding places. Nearly every mother in our town had a Dinner Bell to call her child home from the meadows and fields and I would love the chance to do more custom work, but I have yet to see even a single customer.

I waited in the shop for two days, tinkering in the workshop and waiting for the charming bell above my door to jangle. By the end of the second day of silence I had had quite enough, and promptly drafted the following advertisement for the local paper ( between you and I, I am not terribly impressed with the Squeaky Wheel. Seems a bit on the sensational side, but it is by far the most widely read in the whole city):

Seeks & Found
Skilled locators of Lost or Missing People
Reasonable Rates
2nd Iron Fire Escape on the Left,
Three Wheels and a Quarter Drive
(custom work and appointments available)

If even that does not drum up some business I will go about town and see if any of the larger shops are interested in carrying some Dinner Bells (they have always been popular). Oh Leti, I do hope I do not have to sell my Seeks, even the Dinner Bells, through other merchandisers. The calibration is never quite right without a couple of personal fittings, and the one Dinner Bell that I didn’t set personally would try to bring home the cat fifty percent of the time.

In the meantime, Alphonso and I go for long walks in the evening or luncheon time, and I have started work on a new Seek (her name is Camelia, but more later). I hope your ship is treating you well. Do, do tell me of your exciting adventures the very moment they occur.

yours,
Eliza P.

Steam Victoriana Letters-Three

To: Miss Eliza Pennyworth
2nd Iron Fire Escape on the Left,
Three Wheels and a Quarter Drive,
The Big Clank, Rocketon

Dearest Eliza,

I would never dream of running away! Well, perhaps once or twice. But no, I have not in fact run-away this time. There is no need for subterfuge or deceit should anyone ask of my whereabouts. Though truthfully, I don’t think that anyone will inquire.

I am thrilled to know that The Big Clank is what you thought it would be. I must admit I was a bit nervous for you when I heard that you had made the move to the city. But it seems as if you are settling in nicely. Have you met the neighbors? Or have you been too busy for such niceties?

Alphonse found your uncle in less than six hours? That must be a record! I can just imagine your Uncle’s face when Alphonse landed on his head. It must have been quite comical. He wasn’t too cross with you for sending Alphonse was he? You should send a Seeks to find your errant brother. It would serve him well to be reminded of his duties to his sister. And I can hardly imagine that he would miss me one bit. It has been a month or more since the last I received any correspondence from your brother, longer since I have seen him in person. I’m quite certain that he has forgotten me in his newest quest.

Oh Eliza, I wish you could see the world from the deck of the Harlequin! I have been aboard her but a week and have fallen madly in love! There is so much to learn and see! Navigating an airship is not that different from navigating a boat on the water. At least it seems to me to be that way. The one major difference is what one does during a storm. On water I would navigate away from a storm, on the Harlequin I am being taught how to navigate into the coming storm. It is quite the rush. And the Captain has said more than once that he has been impressed with my aptitude for picking it up so quickly. Though I think he is a bit generous on the praise as I have yet to navigate completely on my own yet.

I have stood on the deck watching the crew harness lightening during storms. In my spare time, which is little enough, I am endeavoring to learn all I can about the mechanics of the harnessing unit. It is a slow process for me. I am sure you could work it out in no time. You will be pleased to know that the Chief Science Officer aboard the Harlequin is a female. Her name is Abigail Lawrence. She is Captain Phineas’s younger sister and is only one of the four women aboard the Harlequin before my arrival. She has promised to show me some of the schematics of the ship. She has apparently made some modifications that are not looked well upon. If I can manage it I will send you some drawings with my next letter though I cannot promise that they will be useful.

I must close now, the ship’s bell has just rung and I am now late for my shift. Thankfully, Mr. Kemp can always be counted upon to have a dizzy spell just prior to my assigned shift and must make a visit to the Ship’s Doctor for headache medicines. Please don’t be lonely! It saddens me to think of you despondent.

Do write me again soon and tell me all the news from The Big Clank!

Forever your friend,
Leti