Friday, March 17, 2006

Friday 20

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone who celebrates. We will be nibbling on corned beef and cabbage and soda bread tonight here at Casa PBW.

Just FYI, Blogger is giving me fits with posting my answer to the last of the PTC questions, so until I get this technosnarl untangled, any lingering questions out there?

29 comments:

  1. No questions, just a comment: you rock.

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  2. You are not alone.
    Blogger has been giving me blood pressure issues last two days.

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  3. I was reading over your "Do Or Die" e-book from 3? years back, and really enjoyed the stories. Where do you get inspiration for them? Are you still writing short stories these days?

    And, a completely unrelated question--have you ever been disappointed in how one of your books turned out?

    Cheers,
    Erin K.

    Oh and P.S. Just finished Rebel Ice and it ROCKS. Thank you.

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  4. No questions today, PBW, but a comment. Whenever I come to your blog, I am mesmerized by the cover of Dark Need. Those eyes!

    The June release is too far away. *le sigh*

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  5. Kick me if this has been asked before: how many good words can you write in day?

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  6. Below, I followed the link to Annie Proulx's little tantrum. For a while, I've operated on the theory that she's bald. I figure the only way she could have gotten that full of herself was to eat her own hair.

    Happy St. Patty's day!

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  7. Anonymous12:02 PM

    Dean wrote: No questions, just a comment: you rock.

    Thank you, kind sir. Although if my neighbor doesn't stop bringing me homemade pecan pie, I will also start to roll....

    Bernita wrote: Blogger has been giving me blood pressure issues last two days.

    I don't know what the deal is. Half the time I get that cryptic "There were errors" screen after I try to publish, the rest of the time Blogger throws up this 404 screen that also assures me some engineers on working on the problem. Fire the damn engineers and hire new ones, that would be my suggestion.

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  8. Anonymous12:24 PM

    vamp_writer wrote many nice compliments that made PBW's skull enlarge, and: Where do you get inspiration for them? Are you still writing short stories these days?

    Almost all of my short stories, including most of the ones in Do or Die, are novel ideas that I want to test drive before I take them book-length. The three vamp stories in DoD are the ones that eventually became If Angels Burn and Dark Need.

    Sometimes I have an urge to write secondary character back stories, too: Salo and Darea from the StarDoc books have their backstory in Warrior Bond, Nancy Carguitto from Night of the Chameleon has hers in Skin Deep.

    Oddities: Night Trauma was a birthday gift for my old EMT partner in LA; Roomies was my first attempt at a straight mystery story, and La Matanza was part of a private experiment which eventually resulted in another book sale.

    Probably the oddest is Contract Stipulations; I wrote that one live online in a chat room with about twenty people watching to see how I wrote a first draft.

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  9. Anonymous12:27 PM

    Forgot to add -- I am still writing about 50-75 short stories every year, but because internet bootleggers were helping themselves to them, I don't publish them online anymore.

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  10. Anonymous12:31 PM

    Mary Stella wrote: Whenever I come to your blog, I am mesmerized by the cover of Dark Need. Those eyes!

    He is gorgeous, I have to agree. For once I'm hoping the novel actually lives up to the art. :)

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  11. Anonymous12:35 PM

    Zornhau wrote: Kick me if this has been asked before: how many good words can you write in day?

    I would never kick you, Zornhau. All that armor would bust my toes.

    By good words, I'm assuming you mean words I'm not going to delete or rewrite during the evening or final edit. I usually write an average of 15-20K per day, but of those I usually overhaul or lose 3-5K during the edits, so about 12-15K.

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  12. Anonymous12:36 PM

    JPatrick wrote: Happy St. Patty's day!

    Same to you, J. Don't drink any green beer. :)

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  13. 12-15 K! The clatter you can here is me falling off my specially adapted typing chair into my sowrd rack. Dear God I feel humbled. The scraping sound - me crawling under a stone.

    I take it 80% of your speed comes from practice and talent. If so, then 20% comes from process. Care to share?

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  14. Update: You've even freaked out Charles "Prolific" Stross (see comments section of my lj)

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  15. Anonymous3:37 PM

    Just to say thanks for keeping this blog. I cannot help reading it every day.
    Best Wishes,
    Pencilone

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  16. You said you wrote 50-75 short stories a year. Do you have plans to publish a book of them?

    Oh, I want the next Stardoc. When can we have it? Rebel Ice answered a knotty problem for me with its unexpected twist. Too cool for words (if you'll excuse the pun).

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  17. Blogger has given me fits today too. It took me three times as long to post my latest today.

    Nice blog. I'll add you to my blogroll when I get a moment.

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  18. Anonymous5:38 PM

    vamp-writer wrote: And, a completely unrelated question--have you ever been disappointed in how one of your books turned out?

    Sorry I missed this part, Erin. I really don't play head games with myself. I don't dazzle or disappoint myself because I don't measure myself with my books. By the time I turn in a manuscript, I'm always satisfied that it's my best work. After that I disconnect from it and don't think about it anymore; I'm onto the next thing.

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  19. Anonymous5:43 PM

    How do you feel about the Mary Sue phenomenom?

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  20. Anonymous5:45 PM

    Zornhau wrote: 12-15 K! The clatter you can here is me falling off my specially adapted typing chair into my sowrd rack. Dear God I feel humbled. The scraping sound - me crawling under a stone.

    Z, get out from under that rock already. I've been writing every day for the last thirty years, and for the last fifteen I've deliberately sought every way I could to write faster and be more productive.

    I take it 80% of your speed comes from practice and talent. If so, then 20% comes from process. Care to share?

    I think it's more 50% attitude and 50% method. I covered all that in Way of the Cheetah. :)

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  21. Anonymous5:47 PM

    Zornhau: Update: You've even freaked out Charles "Prolific" Stross (see comments section of my lj)

    Oh, did he write nine books last year too? Lol.

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  22. Anonymous5:49 PM

    Pencilone wrote: Just to say thanks for keeping this blog. I cannot help reading it every day.

    Thanks, P. It's fun for me, too.

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  23. Anonymous5:57 PM

    Jaye Patrick wrote: You said you wrote 50-75 short stories a year. Do you have plans to publish a book of them?

    Undecided. If I do anything, I'll probably end up giving them away like I did the others.

    Oh, I want the next Stardoc. When can we have it?

    ETA January 2007.

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  24. Anonymous6:00 PM

    Faith wrote: Nice blog.

    Thank you, ma'am. :)

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  25. Anonymous6:02 PM

    Rebecca wrote: How do you feel about the Mary Sue phenomenom?

    I don't buy into it, but I don't much like label-slapping or passing judgment on other writers' work.

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  26. Anonymous6:06 PM

    I don't buy into it, but I don't much like label-slapping or passing judgment on other writers' work.

    Well, we're polar opposites in that regard!

    I think what I meant more was, how does it affect the way you write? But I understand your answer.

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  27. Anonymous6:14 PM

    Rebecca wrote: I think what I meant more was, how does it affect the way you write?

    I misunderstood, sorry, and I'm still not clear on what you're asking. I don't think about Mary Sues when I write -- I don't buy the whole Mary Sue thing anyway -- I just write. :)

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  28. Anonymous8:29 PM

    I misunderstood, sorry, and I'm still not clear on what you're asking.

    I'm sorry too; we're not communicating very well. ^__^;;

    I only asked because some of my writing friends and I (all involved in fanfiction somehow) have started seeing non-fanfiction characters as Mary Sues. I've heard of a couple of established authors who took a Mary Sue litmus test for their characters, and were appalled to discover they were Mary Sues. (Appalled for about two seconds, before they decided that their character was Different.)

    I'm interested to see how far the concept has spread, and if it's affecting writers of original fiction as well as fanfic writers. So, if it doesn't affect you, I guess that answers my question!

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  29. Anonymous9:14 PM

    There was a thread about Mary Sues over at Forward Motion (http://www.fmwriters.com) not too long ago. The conclusion was that the concept is meaningless outside of fan fiction, since many Mary Sue traits are actually desirable in original characters.

    At 15K words per day, I suspect our hostess is too busy to notice fanfic, much less be influenced by it.

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