So what have I been doing? Celebrating some holiday fun with Thaumatrope Twitter fiction. (Twiction?)



And

Oh, and did you see the Collection of Horrors? You should, I’ve written two bits of it, and you can download one RIGHT NOW. (Or, if you rather, get a subscription and get a whole bunch of Hunter the Vigil goodness, I can’t blame you. There’s some great stuff in there. Even some great stuff by David, the man from whom my babies come.)

 

Oh, and did I tell you I'm going to be in anthology? A real book and everything. Why yes, you should preorder your copy now.

 

Later, more book reviews and maybe some links.

So, I’ve geared up to destroy the last project I have on my plate (at this point) for White Wolf. I have my plan of attack and my detailed outline ready. (Detailed is a lie. Anal is the word I’m looking for.)

So in my planning and outlining stages I do all kinds of other silly things that aren’t necessary. I have spread sheets for shaming myself into beating yesterday’s word count. I have web pages I might reference tabbed together on my browser, I even shuffle my PDFs around in a folder so I can find them if I think they’re relevant. They rarely are. And that’s just on the computer. I have two white boards, three colors of dry erase markers and sometimes, colored pens for writing on my hands. –Well, that last part is more with my creative writing than this freelancing stuff.

And yet, and YET I still feel like I don’t have enough prepared or organized. I want programs. I want computer programs that will do everything for me. I want them to organize my time, congratulate my successes and berate me for my failures. I want programs that do my dishes, but of course, that isn’t going to happen. I think this endless search for the perfect free writing program is a distraction I’ve created for myself so I have something to procrastinate about while feeling like I’m working. If it does exist, it’ll cost money, and I don’t make any money yet, so that’s out.

I’m sure if I found something that could track multiple projects (There must be colors! And visuals! And motivational speeches, well, not that, maybe.) keep track of due dates and contracts plus payments… Well hell, I’d probably come up with something new I wanted even if I did find it. Ah well, the search goes on.

The important thing is the word count, and that goes. I’m just praying for the program that will organize everything so perfectly that I’ll suddenly double my production while getting all Donna Reed on my house. Ha, right? Ha.

(Also posted at my writing Blog.)

So GenCon, right?

It was big, incase you hadn’t picked that up yet, it was super duper big and I really really wasn’t prepared for just how big. (This would contribute to later acts of what might appear to have been screaming-fan-girl-it is I’ll address later.) I was there for the table top gaming, of course, and networking, but I figure I should address the general experience first, and maybe talk about the other stuff later.

First, let me get this out of the way. Yes. I have a tattoo on my chest. Yes, it has a naughty word in it. Yes, you can read it. Honestly, I have to wonder what people thought I put it there for if not for people to read. Incase you haven’t seen it or read it, ( here it is. )

And yes, you can ask me about it. If I’m not on fire or clearly busy, why wouldn’t I want to tell you why the word WHORE is in the middle of my chest. (Other than how cool PTA meetings are going to be.)

That said. I cannot believe how many nerds there are. Like, I knew there were a lot of us intellectually, (how many World of Warcraft players are there?) But I guess I suspected on some level that most of the internet was three guys complaining about everything.

How wrong I was.

I really loved seeing the scope and variety that creativity manifests itself. No matter how ridiculous the costumes, no matter how potbellied the Princess Leila’s (thanks weaver42) no matter how absurd the debates of ‘who would win in a fight’ (Hint: The answer is always Bruce Campbell.) What it truly expresses is a love and passion for the creative force. A real and legitimate effort to socialize in ways that work for people who are very different from the norm. Separate from it and not so overwhelmed by it, I love it and I’m glad I can see that now.

Things I truly loved:
The White Wolf people were SUPER friendly and kind despite my obvious shell shock. I have a lot of thank you Emails to write. (Matt, Jess, Kelly, Joe, Ethan, Marty, a Viking, Chuck, Bethany, John, Eddy, other people who’s names I got and forgot because its all a blurr, THANK YOU.)

The guys who did ‘The Gamers’ movie at a booth looking like famous movie stars. (No kidding, some of those dudes are HOT.)

Tshirts that said insane things like ‘Nerd Famous.’

Half naked people with no shame. Providence bless the unashamed.

My husband machineiv.

A dude at the Palladium Booth wearing a Coalition dress uniform. I was trying to be all professional and slip my card and my CV to Kevin Sembiada and the other guys there, but instead my heart was pounding and I got all squishy and gushy. I hope I left an impression of passion and not idiocy. I’ll find out, I’m sure. (My brother will never stop making fun of me for that, I’m sure.)

The games! But more on that next time!

After a little tweeking, I'll have my rush job done for Matt, (thank you Matt!) so that'll be to him in the next hour or so.

That was like... 14k give or take of heavy research and heavy planning in less than two weeks. Wooo! I may end up being wrong, but frankly I think its super cool! (If it sucks, its someone else's fault.)

I love deadlines, the tighter and scarier the better. It's like the intellectual equivalent of jumping out of a plane with a parachute that -might- work. I mean, it sucks when it doesn’t work and you splat on the ground. But when it DOES WORK I'm high as a kite without the dope. (I have to assume, be being pure on as freshly driven snow and all.)

There's more work coming down the path, and it really really rocks to have the momentum. Here's to money, here's to pulling your own weight. Now I'm off to play our preHunter Game. (College aged Scubby Doo crew who will be Hunters [hopefully] after college when the book comes out. How's that for making do?)

Oh, I also have a confession to make.

( I don't do really write anymore )