Insert Witty Post Title Here

I’m pretty late with this post today. I know you know this already, but I felt obligated to point this out.

I’m not sure if my excuse reason is a good one or not, I’ll let you be the judge of that, but if you need to blame someone you can blame Giant Tiger.

Like a lot of people during the pandemic lock downs, I’ve been doing a lot of shopping online. I don’t know about you, but I find online shopping can be a bit of a crap shoot.

It’s not a problem at places like Staples (for office supplies), Old Navy (for clothes), or Walmart (for a whole lot of things), but it’s a little chancy to stray from the straight and narrow, venturing into the unknown.

For example: a few years ago I saw an advertisement on Facebook for a website selling quilts with dragonflies on them. I love dragons and dragonflies. I went to the site, debated for ages, finally settled on the $50 quilt I liked best, and ordered it. I never got it.

Then there are the clothes. This is where you are really taking a chance, not so much with receiving your order, but the sizing. Some clothes fit fine, but in my experience most fit too small. I’ve only had one tee-shirt fit way too big, but I was able to fix it. And you really need to stay on top of what they’re made out of.

And pictures can be deceiving. I found one website that had some really cool tee-shirts – both long and short sleeved. The ones I ordered fit, which was nice, but two of them were made out of a nylon/polyester which I really didn’t care for. One of them I made into a pillow for my office, and the other is still sitting folded up on my dresser.

Anyway, back to my excuse reason for this post being late.

Our lock-down has finally been lifted, which means we can cautiously shop in-store again. I had to go out yesterday for kitty litter, and it was such a nice day I decided to indulge in a little shopping therapy, namely Giant Tiger because I like their clothes and it’s been a long time since I’ve been there.

Now here’s the thing. I told myself if I spent less than $50 I could treat myself to this velvet patchwork coat I saw advertised on Facebook. Well, I saw one pair of pants I really liked, but they didn’t have my size. So for the first time I can remember, I came away from Giant Tiger with nothing. Velvet coat, here I come!

I waited until after supper, then went online and first ordered my pants from Giant Tiger because I really, really liked them, and then I went to order my coat. There was only one teeny, tiny little problem. I did not bookmark the site where the coat was and I couldn’t remember the name of it. And wouldn’t you know it, I filled out that stupid survey FB had up earlier in the week where I told it I hated all the advertisements in my newsfeed, so when I went on FB there were no ads!

Off to the side in the right hand column there were two ads, and that was it. So I’m being a little vocal in my displeasure and I try and do a Google search for my coat and all I can find is a picture of it someone pinned, but not a source for the picture. I tried searching on FB, and when I went back to my newsfeed my ads were back. So then I spent the next three hours scrolling down my feed looking for that ad.

I did eventually find the right site, ordered my coat, and all is right with the world. Except for the fact that by the time I was done it was time for bed.

And the ads are back in my newsfeed.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

New Words:

Driving Into Forever (rewrite) – 3,459
Blog Posts – 750+0+565+1,479=2,794
Total = 6,253

I found it interesting that despite the fact I skipped Monday’s post, I was actually one word higher on the blog posts last week. Probably had something to do with the length of my Fiction Friday excerpt.

Editing:

The TraxTime program tells me I spent 8 hours and 43 minutes editing Blood Ties last week – about three hours more than the week before.

What I’m Reading:

I’ve managed to keep to a moderate pace reading last week, Irish Rebel, and Cordina’s Crown Jewel, by Nora Roberts. Can it be I’m finding my balance?

As for e-books, I’m just about finished Snared by Saber, book one of Alien Shenanigans by Shelley Munro and should be starting Janaya this week. Snared by Saber confused me a little at first because Saber was the main character in My Scarlet Woman, what’s he doing in space? But it’s explained fairly early on and makes perfect sense.

Goals

Looks like I met all my goals last week, unless you count missing Monday’s post a failure. Honestly, I just didn’t have anything to say.

I did more editing on Blood Ties than I thought I did, and I feel like I made actual progress. Of course the first half was better written (meaning less editing) than the second half, and I’m not to the halfway point yet.

Who’s bright idea was it to rewrite Driving Into Forever instead of just starting over from scratch. Oh, right. That would be me. This is one of those cases where it’s dangerous to fall in love with your own writing. I still think the well done parts out number the not well done parts, but sometimes it’s still a bit of a struggle. I can only hope it gets easier.

This Week’s Goals

1. Keep up the good work editing
2. Keep working on Driving Into Forever
3. Keep limiting my reading time.

Think I can manage three weeks in a row? Guess we’ll see.

Fire and Ice

My 2011 NaNo novel was a futuristic and somewhat erotic adventure romance involving an erotic romance writer, an undercover law enforcement agent, and the head of a drug and sex-trade cartel. Maybe the amount of sex in it is the reason it topped out at 55,333 words – the most of any of my NaNo books to date. ;-)

This excerpt needs a little setting up. Our hero, Benedict, is working undercover to bring down Viktor, drug lord and criminal kingpin who’s also into the sex trades. Viktor becomes obsessed with an erotica writer, Alexis St. James, to the point where he sends Benedict in a temporal ship to bring her to him, by any means necessary.

Turns out there was a slight glitch in the temporal programming and Benedict is about to find out Alexis St. James is not exactly what Viktor is expecting. She’s not what Benedict was expecting either, having unknowingly had an encounter with her in a bar during a 60th birthday party the night before this scene.

Lexi was enjoying a late morning drink on her deck. She loved the summer months and hated to waste any day as beautiful as this one. Of course after last night the drink was a pitcher of iced tea – home made, thank you very much; none of that packaged stuff for her. She even had a couple of extra glasses in case someone stopped by, which happened more often than not.

She smiled, thinking back to her birthday party. It was a party to remember all right. Her smiled widened as she recalled the stranger, and his kiss. Talk about memorable! For a while there he’d made her forget just how old she was. If she’d been twenty years younger she’d have been all over him like white on rice. Hell, even if she’d been ten years younger.

As if her thoughts had conjured him, she heard a voice from in front of the house. That couldn’t really be him . . . could it? She took a quick sip of her drink as her mouth went dry. Ignoring her heart rate, which sped up in anticipation, she put her feet up on the deck railing in an effort to look casual.

She called out in reply to his hail and realized two things at once – she wasn’t wearing any underwear, and she wanted him more than anything she’d ever wanted in her life.


Benedict wasn’t sure if that muffled noise was a voice, but encouraged, he repeated, “Hello?”

“Around the back,” came the faint reply.

Sighing with relief, Benedict started around the house. The back opened to a spectacular view of the lake. There was a wide deck running the width of the back of the house, and a figure was sitting with their feet up on the rails.

“Miss Saint James?” he asked. “I—”

The woman looked up and his voice failed him. “You!” It was the woman from the bar last night. Desire slammed into him like a fist. “You’re Alexis St. James?”

“That I am,” she said readily. “And you are?”

“Alexis St. James the writer?”

“No, that would be me.” He was kind of cute, the way he stood there gaping at her. She decided to cut him a little slack. “My friends call me Lexi.”

“You wrote the Dungeon Mistress, and Come On Command?”

Lexi sighed. How very disappointing. He seemed so nice last night and now it turned out he was one of those misguided, pervert fans who’d just had his fantasy of her collapse around him. Damn, this is what she got for having such lustful thoughts about such a young man. He must have really been into those stupid books to be looking so ill.

“Why don’t you have a seat,” she invited. “You don’t look so good.”

Numbly, Benedict took the seat she waved him to. This was not good. This was not good at all. Viktor would be expecting a nubile young woman, not this mature, composed lady. Now what was he supposed to do?

“Would you care for some iced tea?” He just sat there, staring at her, looking very pale in the natural light. She poured him a glass and held it out to him. He took it without a word and just sat there, holding it.

“I’m sorry if you’re disappointed . . . ” she began.

That shook him out of his stupor. “What? No! No, I’m not disappointed, just surprised, that’s all.”

“The truth is, I wrote those books a long time ago, when I was young, and stupid, and needed the money badly. It’s just the last few years there’s been a jump in the erotica market and my publisher decided to re-release my early work.”

She had no idea why she was explaining herself to him, nor why she had invited him to sit down. Normally she made short shrift of fans like him and sent them on their way with an autographed copy of one of her books. She must still be hung over from last night.

To be perfectly honest, she was against the idea of re-releasing her erotic books, but money was money and her agent had pushed for it. She put her foot down when it came to changing the name on the cover though. Alexis was the writer of erotica; Lexi St. James wrote more respectable romance. She wouldn’t even let them update the picture on the back cover. The poor boy sitting beside her must be terribly disappointed.

“So these books were actually written years ago and just re-published recently? That explains a lot,” he muttered to himself.

“And in case you’re wondering,” she said with a hint of asperity, “I am, or was, nothing like the women in those books, even in my younger days.”

“What? I mean, you’re not?”

“My sex life was never close to as interesting as my heroines. A lot of the stuff in those books is all made up. Some of it may not even be possible.”

“This is not good at all,” he muttered under his breath.

“Sorry to disappoint you son.”

“I’m not disappointed,” he told her honestly. “The truth is, I’m rather relieved. I’m just worried about how my employer is going to take it. The picture on the back of your books . . .”

“That was me, all right. About thirty-five years ago.”

Damn. Viktor was not going to like this at all. But what choice did he have with that damnable cerebral chip in his head.

“I’ve come a long way to meet you,” Benedict said, gathering his scattered wits.

“Is that a fact?”

“Yes ma’am. My employer—”

“I don’t care how far you’ve come,” she said, eyes narrowed. “If you ‘ma’am’ me again I’ll be dumping this pitcher of iced tea over your head.”

“Sorry, Miss St. James. My employer—”

She sighed. “You’d better call me Lexi.”

“Lexi,” he repeated. She hadn’t lost any of her attraction in the harsh light of day. Suddenly, he didn’t mind the trip ahead nearly as much as he had. He smiled suddenly. “It suits you.”

“Thank you. And you are?”

He flushed slightly. “I’m sorry, my name is Benedict. I’m here on behalf of my employer who wishes to meet you and—”

“No.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Sweetie, you can beg anything you want, but the answer is still no.” Her booted feet came down off the rail with a thump and she picked up the tray that the pitcher of iced tea and the glasses had been sitting on.

Damn, she was every bit as attracted to him today as she had been last night. That kiss had stayed with her through the rest of the party. She’d gone to bed thinking about him, mostly about him naked, in bed with her. For her own peace of mind she needed to get rid of him as quickly as possible, before she did something incredibly stupid.

Annoyed, he followed as she carried the tray back into her house. “How can you say no? I haven’t even asked you anything yet.”

“You don’t need to. I don’t do interviews and I don’t go off with strange men I don’t know, no matter how gorgeous they are, and I especially don’t go off with strange men to meet even stranger fans.”

“But I—” he stopped mid-sentence and grinned suddenly. “You think I’m gorgeous?”

Lexi rolled her eyes. Clearly this one needed a poke in the ego. “It was a slip of the tongue.” Damn but she’d love to give him a slip of her tongue – all over his body. Getting a hold of herself, she set the tray down on the kitchen counter and turned around. He was right there behind her, invading her space. Lexi swallowed hard.

Seven Wonders Part III - the Statue of Zeus at Olympia

When the Temple of Zeus was completed at Olympia in 456 B.C., it was considered too simple to be worthy of the king of the gods. A statue of Zeus was commissioned from a sculptor named Phidias, already famous for his forty-foot high statue of the goddess Athena. It took him 12 years but the project was completed by 435 B.C.

The figure's skin was composed of ivory and the beard, hair and robe of gold. Construction was by a technique known as chryselephantine, where gold-plated bronze and ivory sections were attached to a wooden frame. Because the weather in Olympia was so damp, the statue required care so that the humidity would not crack the ivory. It is said that for centuries the descendents of Phidias held the responsibility for this maintenance. To keep it in good shape the statue was constantly treated with olive oil kept in a special reservoir, which also served as a reflecting pool, in the floor of the temple. Light reflecting off the pool from the doorway may also have had the effect of illuminating the statue.

Besides the statue, there was little inside the temple. The Greeks preferred the interior of their shrines to be simple. The seated statue was 12 meters (43 feet) tall, and occupied half of the width of the aisle of the temple built to house it. "It seems that if Zeus were to stand up," geographer Strabo noted early in the 1st century BC, "he would unroof the temple."

The god sits on a throne, and he is made of gold and ivory. On his head lies a garland which is a copy of olive shoots. In his right hand he carries a Victory [Nike], which, like the statue, is of ivory and gold; she wears a ribbon and—on her head—a garland. In the left hand of the god is a sceptre, ornamented with every kind of metal, and the bird sitting on the sceptre is the eagle. The sandals also of the god are of gold, as is likewise his robe. On the robe are embroidered figures of animals and the flowers of the lily. The throne is adorned with gold and with jewels, to say nothing of ebony and ivory. Upon it are painted figures and wrought images.
Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 5, Ch. 11

No copy in marble or bronze has survived, though there are recognizable but approximate versions on coins of nearby Elis and on Roman coins to give researchers clues about its appearance.

The Roman Emperor Caligula decreed that all such statues of gods were to be brought to Rome so that the heads could be removed and his own put in their place. The scaffolding attached to the statue collapsed, accompanied by, according to legend, a loud laughing noise. Shortly after this Caligula was assassinated (41 A.D.).

In 391 A.D. Roman Emperor Theodosius I banned the worship of the pagan gods and ordered the temples closed. The Olympia temple fell into disrepair and was eventually brought down by earthquakes.

The fate of the statue of Zeus is largely unknown. Some believe it was carried off to Constantinople where it was destroyed in a fire in 475 A.D. Others believe it was destroyed by earthquakes and fire along with the temple that housed it.

Electronic Slaves

This post was supposed to be my whiny little story about how my aging Kindle stopped uploading new books and how I had to go into my Amazon account and upload them manually, one at a time. And to punish me, it spontaneously rebooted itself. Twice. But somewhere along the way it morphed into something else.

I got to thinking about electronic devices, and how dependent we’ve become on them – i-Pads, tablets, e-readers, laptops, and the most insidious of all, the cell phone. Almost everyone I know has a cell phone, I’ve even seen little kids with them.

What I really find hard to understand is how attached people are to them. I even had a friend boast to me once that her whole life was on her phone. Really? I use my phone for taking pictures, texting (somewhat reluctantly), and (gasp!) as an actual phone. That’s it. No banking, no aps, no social media, no games.

Occasionally I might check my email, but I’ll fire up the laptop if I want to answer any of it. GPS might be handy, except I have nowhere to go these days. Facebook? Forget it! Those keyboards are teeny tiny and really annoying to use. I find it hard to comprehend how anyone can type actual words using just their thumbs.

People get the Kindle app for their phones so they can read books on those tiny screens. Some watch videos on their phones. I can barely read text messages, I can’t imagine trying to watch a video.

It bothers me that we’ve become so dependent on all these electronic devices. I’m the first one to admit I’d find it hard to live without my laptop. Not impossible, when push comes to shove there’s always pen and paper for writing, but difficult. My Kindle? I’d mourn the loss of all those books, but I have plenty of unread books on my bookshelves.

As for my phone, well, I have a kick-ass camera and a land line. I’m good.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

New Words:

Driving Into Forever (rewrite) – 4,176
Blog Posts – 935+456+596 +806=2,793
Total = 6,969

The wordage is creeping up, and it isn’t the blog words this week but the Driving Into Forever words.

Editing:

The TraxTime program tells me I spent 5 hours and 28 minutes editing Blood Ties last week. A little less time than the week before, but it was much more productive time.

What I’m Reading:

I still have not cracked open The Jackal, by J.R. Ward. Maybe I’ll use it as my reward book for when I finish editing Blood Ties.

Believe it or not, I only read one tree book last week, Irish Rose, by Nora Roberts. Maybe that’s why I was more productive with the writing and editing.

However, my poor, ailing Kindle got a work-out. I finished the last two books of Shifter Shenanigans - Blue Moon Dragon and Fiona’s Mates - by Shelley Munro and have started Alien Shenanigans, which is also a three-in-one deal.

Goals

Looks like I rocked all my goals last week.

I did a respectable amount of editing on Blood Ties, and I feel like I made actual progress. I powered through that pesky scene that was holding me up, adding a few hundred words in the process. The next chapter (lucky number 13) needs to be pared down, which is always more fun than adding to.

OMG! Where did all these versions of Driving Into Forever come from? There must be eleventy billion of them. And therein lies the reason this novel floundered for so long. I kept changing my mind about whether certain scenes should be included, and what order they should be in.

The section I was working on this week had three different beginnings and five different middles. And none of them transitioned logically from the first two chapters I’d already rewritten. I had to read all these scenes, decide what was important, and then work from there. Yikes!

This Week’s Goals

1. Keep up the good work editing
2. Keep working on Driving Into Forever
3. Limit my reading time.

I did it last week, let’s see if I can manage a repeat.

Quest of the Valkyrie

The year is 2010. I had what I considered a solid idea for NaNoWriMo. It was something different for me, a contemporary romantic suspense made all the more unique by the fact I had the idea well ahead of November first. That alone should have set off an alarm bell for me – normally I only have a vague idea of what I’m going to write before NaNo starts.

So it really wasn’t a surprise when I was five days (and 12,000 words) in and realized this particular idea was not a good fit for NaNo. I needed more time to develop it and I could see where I was going to have to do some research and maybe even (gasp!) use an outline. I gave it a couple of days to make sure, and then I abandoned it and began writing a science fiction suspense/adventure called Quest of the Valkyrie.

I came up with this idea in high school and had ream of notes on different scenarios and characters and had even written bits and pieces over the years. I had a box full failed attempts and disjointed scenes. I really had no clue what I was doing back then.

But something about it called to me. I knew the story. I read as much of the failed attempts as I could stomach and then started from scratch. 52,000 words later I had another NaNo win under my belt, and the first volume of the trilogy I’d always dreamed of writing.

Prologue

In the history of the Old Race, before the Confrontation Wars, the Ashardean Silversouls began receiving portents of disaster. There were visions of a new race of beings invading the galaxy; beings terrible in their ability to fight – beings without conscience and without mercy.

They did not know when this would happen, only that it would happen. The conflict would encompass both known space and regions that were as yet unknown. It would culminate in a confrontation between The Betrayer and The Defender that would decide the fate of every species of known space.

The Old Race had been in existence since the dawn of time, so legend had it. They were the peacekeepers, the keepers of knowledge. They were long-lived, but not prolific. The Silversouls could only tell them that their knowledge would be needed were the human population to survive; they could not divine whether or not the Old Race itself would survive.

And so the Old Race began amassing knowledge. They built a repository for this knowledge on a barren moon and this place became known as the Temple of Wisdom. Five keys to the temple were fashioned out of virgin firestone and all five were needed to unlock it. Each key had a guardian, a genetic code that would be recognized at a specific point in time and then hidden until needed.

Having taken what precautions they could, the Old Race sent the moon off on a journey through space, knowing that even if they did not survive, the repository would. To keep the knowledge safe, details of the Temple, the Keys, and the Guardians were expunged from all records, save for a series of riddles kept under lock and key. And so the years passed . . .

Chapter One

The battle was three hours old. There was no sign of the enemy ship, though it left behind a trail of debris. The Valkyrie came to full stop in space, stabilizers barely able to keep it from drifting. Chandra, last of the Old Race, stood on the command platform beside Commander Aleron, an eye of calm in the storm of activity around them. “Has the Kohl-trin ship left the system?”

“Affirmative,” the dark haired man seated at one of the terminals surrounding them told her.

“Were you able to identify it?”

He swiveled to face her. “It was the Serpent.”

Chandra nodded, unsurprised, eyes still focused on the view screen.

“Estimated time of repair?” Aleron asked.

The sandy-haired man seated at the next terminal looked up with a frown on his face. “We need to put in some time at a base station, sir,” he said. “We really took a beating, damage reports are still coming in.”

“Do we have star-drive capabilities?”

“Short hops only, there’s a power flux that can’t be accounted for.”

“Plot a course for the nearest base station, but wait for my order before engaging.”

“Yes sir.”

“Skyler, Bran, I would like to see both of you when you’re finished here,” Chandra said. With a last look at view screen, she left the command centre.

The two men looked at each other – Bran raised an eyebrow in question, Skyler shrugged in answer. They darted a look up at Aleron who was looking at the closed door, as surprised as they were.

Seven Wonders Part II – The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Legend says the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were built by King Nebuchadnezzar in 600 B.C. for his queen, Amyitis, who missed the mountains and greenery of her homeland.

The Hanging Gardens probably did not really hang but were built on terraces which were part of a ziggurat and was irrigated by water lifted up from the Euphrates. The name comes from an inexact translation of the Greek word kremastos, or the Latin word pensilis, which means not just "hanging", but "overhanging" as in the case of a terrace or balcony.

The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus gave one of the best accounts of the site:
The approach to the Garden sloped like a hillside and the several parts of the structure rose from one another tier on tier. On all this, the earth had been piled…and was thickly planted with trees of every kind that, by their great size and other charm, gave pleasure to the beholder. The water machines [raised] the water in great abundance from the river, although no one outside could see it.

Impressive not only for its beauty, the gardens would also have required an impressive feat of engineering to supply the massive structure with soil and water. There were paths and steps and fountains and gorgeous flowers. The gardens were rumoured to be about 400 feet wide, 400 feet long, and over 80 feet high. Some historians believe the gardens were built in a series of platforms that all together were 320 feet high.

Stone tablets from Nebuchadnezzar’s reign give detailed descriptions of the city of Babylonia, its walls, and the palace, but do not refer to the Hanging Gardens, which make some historians question whether the Hanging Gardens of Babylon ever actually existed.

In 1899, German archaeologist Robert Koldewey discovered a basement with fourteen large rooms with stone arch ceilings while excavating the Southern Citadel at Babylon. Ancient records indicated that only two locations in the city had made use of stone, the north wall of the Northern Citadel, and the Hanging Gardens.

The north wall of the Northern Citadel had already been found and had, indeed, contained stone. This made it seem likely that Koldewey had found the cellar of the gardens. He continued exploring the area and discovered many of the features reported by Diodorus. Finally a room was unearthed with three large, strange holes in the floor. Koldewey concluded this had been the location of the chain pumps that raised the water to the garden's roof. The foundations that Koldewey discovered measured some 100 by 150 feet. Smaller than the measurements described by ancient historians, but still impressive.

While Koldewey was convinced he'd found the gardens, some modern archaeologists call his discovery into question, arguing that this location is too far from the river to have been irrigated with the amount of water that would have been required. Also, tablets recently found at the site suggest that the location was used for administrative and storage purposes, not as a pleasure garden.

It can be argued, however, that the Hanging Gardens are not mentioned in the Babylonian stone tablets because they were considered part of the ziggurat structure and not a separate entity in itself.

We may never know for sure whether the Hanging Gardens of Babylon really did exist. If the gardens did exist, they were most likely destroyed by an earthquake in the second century B.C. In this case, the fallen remains, mostly made of mud-brick, would have slowly eroded away over the centuries.

Danger Ahead

There is a danger to posting excerpts from former (and still unfinished) NaNo novels.

With the first one, Driving Into Forever, I got the irresistible urge to go back and rewrite the darn thing. I say rewrite because it’s such a mess I think it would be easier to start from scratch than try to fix it. The next one, Forever and For Always, had me wondering why I’ve let it sit so long. And this last one, the Faery Heart, made me nostalgic for this epic Science Fiction Romance universe I’d created.

I need to get Blood Ties finished first.

Then I need to get An Elemental Spirit done.

Then I can go on to other things with a clear conscience. But man, oh, man, is it ever tempting to work on all of them at once! And what’s worse with the Faery Heart is that I couldn’t resist reading the whole thing and I remember what else needs to be included and I’m wondering where the notes are for it. I distinctly remember the way a couple of scenes were worded that come after where I left off, but they weren’t included in the document file. So where are they? Should I rewrite them as best I can recollect just to make sure I don’t forget them? Should I spend some time hunting around on USB keys and various hard copy files to see if I can find them?

You see the danger I’m in.

And I fear it’s only going to get worse. This week’s excerpt will be from Quest of the Valkyrie, which replaced Knightsong in my 2010 NaNo, and which starts the whole epic science fiction universe series. It’s the first of a projected trilogy, as the Faery Heart is, and did I mention that the whole Elemental series takes place in that universe?

Must edit faster.

Must write faster.

And that’s the good news. I have a renewed desire to buckle down to work.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

New Words:

Driving Into Forever (rewrite) – 1,644
Blog Posts – 880 +484+605+1557=3526
Total = 5,170

Even if you take away the excerpt from Friday’s post, I did better word-wise than I have in ages.

Editing:

According to my trusty little TraxTime program, I spent 8 hours and 22 minutes editing Blood Ties last week, plus about an hour last night after I’d already written and scheduled this post. Finally! I’m making progress.

Publishing:

None. And my mermaid story was rejected *insert sad face here*. Seeing as I haven’t really been making any effort at publishing, I might just set this one aside for now.

What I’m Reading:

I received The Jackal, by J.R. Ward, in the mail this week, but I haven’t cracked it open yet. I made it through about three quarters of Troll’s-Eye View, the anthology edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, before I started jonesing for an actual novel. So then I did a stupid thing. I picked up a Nora Roberts book, but not just any book, no. I picked up the first in her Chronicles of The One series, Year One

And of course I couldn’t just leave it there, I also read Of Blood and Bone, and The Rise of Magicks as well. I love me some end of the world as we know it scenario, and this one was well done. And it also struck a little close to home seeing as it started with a swift spreading pandemic. You know, sort of like Stephen King’s The Stand, and sort of like what’s going on in the world around us.

I find it kind of interesting that both authors show how a world-wide crisis brings out both the best and the worst in people, just like it’s doing in reality. But unlike reality, both fictional stories are ultimately the fight of good against evil. And though there are certainly similarities, both stories are very different.

It just goes to show you that authors can have the same idea and totally different approaches to it.

Goals

While I’m not unhappy with the progress I made last week, I could have done better. Part of it wasn’t my fault though. The hubby was laying new flooring in the hallway outside my office, so although I spent some time in there, it was a little distracting when I was.

I had my best week so far editing Blood Ties, but I don’t feel like I’m making a lot of progress. There’s this one scene I’m stuck on – writing and rewriting – and it’s starting to annoy me. If I was writing, I’d just skip it and move on, but I’m editing and this is one of the things I have to fix.

I gave up on the note taking for Driving Into Forever and I dove right into rewriting it. Rewriting makes better sense than just editing because I have about 5 or 6 different beginnings to it and I think that’s why I never got anywhere with fixing it. I need to settle on one and stick with it.

This Week’s Goals

1. Keep up the good work editing
2. Keep working on Driving Into Forever
3. Limit my reading time.

This is where you cross your fingers for me.

The Faery Heart

My 2009 NaNo novel, the Faery Heart, is one of my favorites. I love both the story and the characters. It’s a science fiction romance/fantasy crossover set in a universe I created for a different series. The excerpt is a little long, but it couldn’t be helped. In a nutshell, Simon works for an organization that is trying to unite/protect the beings of the universe. When his ship crashes, he’s rescued by one of the mysterious Fae and ends up helping save her world from a bunch of bad guys.

Simon eased back the throttle on the PROBE class scout ship and aimed towards the cloud cover of the planet below. With any luck the raiders chasing him hadn’t been able to follow his trajectory.

They’d come out of nowhere, the Alliance raiders in their blaster scarred ship. There was no reason for them to attack him, other than sheer maliciousness. A probe ship wasn’t worth the effort to capture – there was no superior technology on board, no equipment worth salvaging – it was a long range, exploratory craft.

There were three planets in this solar system he could have chosen from, and several moons that had possibilities. He could expect no help from any of them, none showed any signs of space capability. If they were inhabited, they were not technologically advanced. But with any luck the raiders wouldn’t figure out where he was until help was on its way.

Unless, of course, he died in a fiery crash, then rescue would be a moot point. Probe ships weren’t meant to land on a planet, although it had been done in the past. But not by him, and not without consequences. Simon cursed under his breath and smacked the console in front of him with the flat of his hand.

The altitude gauge obediently started to function properly again, but the three red lights beside it continued to blink steadily. Fluffy white clouds streamed by the cockpit canopy. Simon hated clouds.

A proximity alarm went off.

“I know, I know,” he muttered under his breath, then smacked a switch above his head until the alarm stopped.

There wasn’t much room in the cockpit of a probe, they were a one man space craft, nor were they designed for anyone with the slightest hint of claustrophobia. To think he’d been so proud of the fact he was one of the few from Chandra’s elite squad that passed the rigid psychological testing to have probe scout added to his duties.

The surface of the planet was coming up fast, too fast. He cursed and wrestled with the throttle. The sensors showed woods and water below, neither of which made for ideal landings, especially not crash landings. Breaking through the clouds he skimmed over a heavily wooded area towards a large body of water.

“It beats the trees,” he said under his breath, and shut down the engines.

An abrupt shutdown was not recommended in the class one deep space probe scout ships, but neither was landing on water. The odds of surviving either were not in his favor. If Simon had been a praying man, this would have been the time to do it.

Unfortunately, he had no time for prayers, he was too busy trying to keep the nose of the ship above water.

“Think like a duck,” he told himself, “Think like a duck.”

He didn’t really know how a duck thought much less how it landed on water and managed to stay afloat, but it sounded better than, “Oh, shit, I’m going to crash!”

The probe ship hit the water and bounced twice, its forward momentum carrying it towards the rock encrusted shore. Simon snapped forward then back in his seat, thrown against the safety harness that was not really meant to provide anything more than a fleeting sense of protection.

By the time the ship came to a rest, after plowing a furrow on the shore of the lake, Simon had lost consciousness.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

Arianna was strolling along the shore of the lake, by herself as usual, when she saw the fireball in the sky. For a few moments she admired it as something new and interesting, but then she saw that the fiery object was headed towards the lake and growing larger with every second.

The scream of straining engines was abruptly cut off and she realized with dawning horror that it was a ship about to crash. A ship meant people, but surely no one could survive such a crash.

Heart in her throat she stood frozen, watching its approach. She lost sight of it in the clouds before it broke cover over the forest, coming so close to the tops of the trees she was surprised they didn’t catch fire.

The ship continued its descent, closer and closer to the surface of the lake. She gasped as it struck the water, bouncing twice before slicing through the clear lake, a rooster tail of steam and water in its wake.

With a screech of metal against rock it plowed into the shore and finally came to a stop, a curl of black smoke coming from the tail section. Arianna stood frozen for a few seconds, unsure of what she should do.

She glanced around to see if anyone else had seen or heard the crash. There was no one in sight, they were probably all at the grove, or even in the crystal cave. They wouldn’t be able to see from either of those places. It seemed she was the only witness.

Cautiously, she approached the craft. It was smaller than she had at first thought, it could not contain more than two or three people at most. Where had it come from? Were more on the way?

A quick glance upwards revealed no other ships or fireballs within her sight. It did not mean there would not be more to come, just that there were no more imminent. The queen would not like it if this ship was a precursor to settlement. It might mean they’d have to move yet again. Like many, Arianna was growing weary of moving from planet to planet.

It took her several minutes to reach the ship, picking her way carefully over the stones on the shore. It was black and sleek, shaped like an arrow head. She stood and studied it, unsure if she would be able to help whoever was inside or not.

The nose of the craft was buried in the ground while the smoking end was still resting half in water. She could see no door or hatch. As she wondered how it opened, the canopy near the nose released.

Startled, she stepped back, poised to flee. Were the occupants friendly or hostile? Were they human, or something else altogether. Nothing else happened and after a few moments she slowly approached again.

“Hello?” she called. “Is there someone there? Do you need assistance?”

No answer was forthcoming. Hesitantly, she reached out and touched the ship. When it did not burn her, she stepped closer. She bit her lip in indecision and then drew close enough to the ship to see inside.

To her dismay, there was someone inside, and they weren’t moving. A smoky haze started to fill the small compartment. There was no help for it, she would have to go inside. Because it was buried so deeply in the ground, it was a simple matter to climb up on the wing and then down into the ship.

There was a man strapped into the pilot’s seat. There was blood on his forehead, but he appeared to be alive. There was no way of telling if he had any other injuries. She was about to leave and get help when he stirred and groaned.

“Can you move?” Arianna asked. “Do you understand me?”

His eyelids fluttered, then opened. He peered at her with a dazed expression. “Am I dead?”

A smile blossomed on her face. “No, you are not among the dead. But you must leave this vessel. I do not trust it not to cause you more harm.”

“Anything for you, angel.” He fumbled with the harness restraining him and found the release. He would have fallen forward if she had not been there to catch him. The unaccustomed weight in her arms sent a strange shiver through her.

“I am not an angel,” she told him sternly. “I am of the Fae.”

“Angel, Fae, you’re still the woman of my dreams,” he said. There was a bemused grin on his face.

“You are injured,” she said patiently. Obviously his head wound was affecting his judgment. “You must leave this vessel.”

“Just lead the way, angel.”

Arianna took his arm and pulled him toward the open canopy. She stepped up and then helped him up as well. He stumbled when he stepped onto the ground and tried to sit down on the edge of the wing.

“No! You cannot stay here, you must come away from the shore,” she demanded.

“Bossy little thing, aren’t you?” he mumbled.

She guided him towards the forest bordering the lake and let him sit beneath the broad branches of a tree.

“Lie down and sleep now,” she told him. “When you awaken, all will be well.”

Seven Wonders Part I – Pyramids of Giza

The Great Pyramids consist of the Pyramid of Khufu (or Cheops), the somewhat smaller Pyramid of Khafre (or Chephren), and the relatively modest-sized Pyramid of Menkaure (or Mykerinos).

By far the most famous pyramid in Egypt, is the Pyramid of Khufu, the biggest, tallest, and most intact. For a period of 4300 years, the Pyramid was also the tallest building on earth, until the French built the Eiffel Tower in 1889.

Khufu reigned from around 2589 to 2566 BC and was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty. He was the son of another great pyramid builder, King Sneferu. Although Sneferu was remembered as a benevolent and beneficent ruler, Khufu is believed to have been a more ruthless and cruel despot.

The Pyramid of Khufu is built entirely of limestone, and is considered an architectural masterpiece. It contains around 1,300,000 blocks ranging in weight from 2.5 tons to 15 tons and is built on a square base with sides measuring about 230m (755ft), covering 13 acres. Its four sides face the four cardinal points precisely and it has an angle of 52 degrees. The original height of the Pyramid was 146.5m (488ft), but today it is only 137m (455ft) high. The 9m (33ft) that is missing is due to the theft of the fine quality limestone covering, or casing stones, by the Ottoman Turks in the 15 Century A.D, to build houses and Mosques in Cairo.

The second great pyramid was built by Khafre, Khufu’s son. Khafre was the fourth ruler of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, ruling from 2558-2532 BCE. His name means "Appearing like Ra.” Like his father Khufu, Khafre was depicted as a harsh, despotic ruler.

Despite this, Egypt was quite prosperous during his reign, with almost no military attacks or campaigns. The culture flourished, however, and the private tombs from his era are beautiful examples of art and architecture. In addition, the worship of the sun god Re was also prospering.

He built his pyramid at Giza next to that of his father. It’s easily recognisable by the layers of its original casing stones that still remain near its summit. This, along with the fact that it stands on a higher part of the plateau, gives the impression that it is taller than the Great Pyramid. This is an optical illusion as it is only 136m (446 ft) tall, with sides of 214.5m (704ft), a surface area of 11 acres and an angle of 53 degrees. It also has lost some of its original height through the years.

Khafre’s son, Menkaure, built the smallest of the three main pyramids on the Giza Plateau. Menkaure was a pharaoh of the Fourth dynasty of Egypt (c. 2532 BC–2503 BC). His name means "Eternal like the Souls of Re".

He is reported by the Greek historian Herodotus to have been a just and pious ruler. He was thought to have disapproved of the conduct of his father and the Egyptians praised him more than any other monarch.

Menakure’s pyramid was only a mere 65.5m (215ft) tall, nowadays 62m (203ft), with sides of only 105m (344ft) and an angle of 51.3 degrees. It is thought that this pyramid was altered during its construction, and made a lot bigger than originally planned. The original, smaller pyramid had a simple descending corridor and burial chamber, but when it was enlarged, a new corridor was built with 3 portcullises and a small panelled chamber. Later still, another burial chamber, along with a storeroom were added at a lower level. This Pyramid, like its two neighbours, has a north facing entrance.

Excuses, Excuses

There’s another good reason (okay, maybe not a good reason, but still a reason) besides my binge reading as to why I haven’t been very productive the last few weeks.

If you read my regular blog that I post to on Mondays, you’ll know that in the fall we started a kitchen renovation. This meant, among other things, that we had to empty everything out of the kitchen so we could rip out cupboards and plumbing, etc. Most of this stuff went into plastic bins which then needed to go . . . somewhere.

The stuff I deemed unimportant (ie, that I don’t use on a daily basis) got stacked in my old office (now the hubby’s office). The stuff I used most often was stacked in and around the dining room, and the in-between stuff went into my office, including a pink wing chair from the living room.

This overcrowding of my office is not conducive to a creative atmosphere. I like things organized and that’s a little hard to do with all that extra stuff. I’d also like to rearrange my office a bit but to move anything in my office first I have to get rid of that pink chair. And to get rid of the chair I have to get rid of all the bins out of the hubby’s office so the chair can take their place.

See, the big window in my office has a southern exposure and the way things are now there’s a big chunk of the day where the sun is right in my face. This is really hard on the eyes and it makes it hard to see what I’m doing on the computer. And if I want to write anything long hand, I have to have a light on behind me.

The good news is, the counters were finally installed in the kitchen last week which means I can start reloading/organizing the cupboards. I’m hoping that with the end of the kitchen renovation in sight, there will also be an end to my lack of productivity.

Hope springs eternal.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

New Words:
Blog Posts – 898+546+421+1110=2975
Total = 2975

I did about 1,000 words better on the blog posts, but the words for the Friday post feel kind of like a cheat because most of it is an excerpt from something I’ve already written. Once I run out of NaNo novels this will probably change, but for now it feels like Friday shouldn’t be included.

Editing:
Whoopsie! I forgot to set the counter. You’ll just have to take my word for it that I did get some editing done on Blood Ties. Not every day, and not as much as I would have liked, but some at least.

Publishing:
None. And I still haven’t heard back about the last story I sent out.

What I’m Reading:
Once again, this is where most of my time went. But at least there were no late nights where I stayed up reading until my eyes burned.

I finished Blood Truth. by J.R. Ward and went on to read Where Winter Finds You, The Sinner, and A Warm Heart in Winter. The Jackal will be delivered some time this month, and then I’m done with the Black Dagger Brotherhood universe until Lover Unveiled is available in paperback. I have been so consumed with reading these books that I’m actually grateful I still have bins of kitchen stuff blocking my bookcases so I can’t reach the other books in the series because at this point I don’t think I could keep myself from starting with the first book and going through the entire series, including the ones I’ve just read.

To help pull myself out of the BDB universe, I zipped through Christmas Letters, No Competition, and All Things Considered, by Debbie Macomber – nice, fairly uncomplicated romances that had all the feels without the intense drama.

Next up I’ll be reading the anthology Troll’s-Eye View, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.

Goals

Last week’s goals were once again pretty much a bust. No words on anything except blog posts, no outlining, no organizing. I did get some editing done on Blood Ties at least, and I started making notes on Driving Into Forever so I can start moving forward with that, so at least that’s something.

My big goal for this week is to seriously stop messing around and get myself back on track. I’m out of BDB books and I’m going to keep those bins blocking the bookcases until I lose the urge to start the series from the beginning again. Hopefully making the switch to anthologies (I have three more after I’m done with the Trolls) will help me curb my reading addiction.

1. Spend more time in my office and less on the couch.
2. Keep up the edits on Blood Ties.
3. Limit my reading time.

It always looks so good on paper, doesn’t?

Forever and For Always

We’re back to the NaNo novels today. In 2008 I hadn’t planned on doing NaNo because I was in school at the time and didn’t figure I’d be able to handle it. But on November 1st a name popped into my head – Treasure Beaumont. The story followed and I was off and running.

The story just seemed to download itself into my brain. It was amazing. Not only did I surpass the wordage goal, on the final day I had my best writing day ever with a whopping 8,000 words. The current word count of this novel is 73,600 words and it’ll probably be around 100,000 before I’m done.

Here’s the blurb I posted for this novel on the NaNo site:
Treasure Beaumont owns and operates a small trading vessel, for the most part staying out of trouble. But trouble finds her when she follows a lead on a profitable cargo and instead she's shot down over a remote planet where she's taken prisoner by a woman who calls herself Mistress Pain. But Trez isn't Mistress Pain's only captive, there's also the beautiful man with the mind of a child called Ape. Trez and Ape manage to escape from captivity, and begin a quest to find out who he really is. But can their love survive finding out the truth?

Yup, it’s a science fiction romance, with a little suspense and adventure thrown in for good measure. And here’s the way it all begins (unedited of course):

Trez Beaumont opened her eyes cautiously, unable to believe that she’d actually pulled it off. The ship was down, and it seemed to be in one piece.

“Was I born under a lucky star or what?” she said.

“Please restate question,” the onboard computer asked.

“Disregard. I wasn’t talking to you.” She flipped a switch on the console but the blast shield in front of her remained down. Flipping it back and forth several times didn’t help. Trez sat back with a sigh.

“Damage report.”

“Minor damage to–”

“Wait. Belay that order.” She kept forgetting that the upgraded computer took everything literally. Best to rephrase before it listed every little scratch and dent right down to the grass stains on the hull where they slid to a stop. “Just tell me if there’s any damage that will prevent us from lifting off of this rock.”

There was a pause. “Coolant leak in starboard stabilizer cell–”

“How bad a leak?”

“Leak is minor, however ninety-seven percent probability the stress of lift-off will rupture it.”

Trez relaxed in the pilot’s chair. Minor damage she could repair, it was the major stuff that would cause her trouble. “Okay, what else?”

“Minor stress fractures to hull. Electrical system undamaged but the batteries are depleted.”

“Shit. How long for the batteries to recharge?”

“Estimated recharge time, 48 to 54 hours.”

“Damn.” Trez drummed her fingers on the console. “Any idea what hit us?”

“We encountered an energy pulse field that drained the electricity from the ship.”

“Hmm. Was this field just sitting there and we passed through it, or was it directed at us?”

“Unknown.”

She sighed and unbuckled herself from the seat. Despite the rough landing, it didn’t appear she was damaged either. It could have been so much worse. Thank the gods she had the blast shield installed the last time the ship had been overhauled. A bead of sweat trickled down the neck of her flight suit.

“Computer, why is it getting so warm in here?”

“Life support is off-line.”

“Well get it back on-line!”

“Insufficient power to do so. Estimated time for life-support to be restored is ten hours.”

“Just peachy,” she muttered under her breath.

The cockpit, Trez never thought of it as large enough to call it a bridge even though it would comfortably hold four people, of the Azure seemed to close in on her. Ten hours wasn’t so bad. She’d gone without life support longer than that. Her breathing sped up and her heart began beating just a little faster.

“Computer, is the atmosphere outside the ship capable of sustaining life?”

“Affirmative.”

Well that was something, at least. Trez left the cockpit and headed for the aft stabilizers. Might as well get that fixed first.

The Azure was a medium sized trader class ship. It was a little big for just one person, but perfect for two or three. It had belonged to her family; Trez had grown up on this ship and knew it inside and out.

She ducked into the engine room for the repair kit and then unscrewed the panel over the maintenance shaft just outside the door. The repair kit came with shoulder straps, making it easier to bring it with her as she climbed the shaft. She was lucky she was small enough that both she and the kit on her back fit in the shaft. Her father had to go up the shaft first and then have someone pass the repair kit up to him.

It was only a few feet to the top of the shaft where it branched out. Trez followed the shaft to the starboard stabilizer and used the micro-analyzer to search for damage. There it was, right next to the injector coil. The computer wasn’t lying. If this had been left until she tried to take off it would have leaked all over the injector coil, which would have caused a chain reaction right down to the star drive.

It was only a few seconds work to seal the leak and wipe up what little fluid had spilled. Trez double checked to make sure the seal would hold, then retraced her way back out of the maintenance shaft. After reattaching the panel cover, she put the repair kit back in its usual place in the engine room before heading to her quarters.

Like most space rats, she kept the Azure in pristine condition - a place for everything and everything in its place. Trez’s quarters, however, were a different story. Where others might describe it as cluttered, she liked to think of it more as homey. It was the largest of the four cabins in the ship, the one that used to belong to her parents. At this point, however, even she could see it was somewhat of a mess.

Having nothing better to do, she picked up the dirty clothing scattered about, including a pair of dark blue skivvies belonging to the last man invited to share her bed. He hadn’t been particularly good looking, but he made up for it in the sack. Unfortunately, that had been about his only redeeming quality.

Wonders of the World – Introduction

After much deliberation, I finally decided on the Wonders of the World for my next non-fiction series. There is a plethora of lists of wonders – natural wonders, underwater wonders, engineering wonders, new wonders, city wonders, solar system wonders – to name but a few.

Seeing as I have a love of ancient history, I’m choosing to go with the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Scholars have debated for years over who compiled the first list of wonders – or as the Greeks called them, theamata, which translates as "things to be seen". It has been suggested that Callimachus of Cyrene drafted the list in the third century B.C. or Herodotus, who lived from around 484 to 425 B.C.

It’s generally agreed that Antipater, a Greek author living in the Phoenician port of Sidon came up with the original list in a poem where he lists the most remarkable creations of mankind:

I have gazed on the walls of impregnable Babylon along which chariots may race, and on the Zeus by the banks of the Alpheus, I have seen the hanging gardens, and the Colossus of the Helios, the great man-made mountains of the lofty pyramids, and the gigantic tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the sacred house of Artemis that towers to the clouds, the others were placed in the shade, for the sun himself has never looked upon its equal outside Olympus.
– Antipater, Greek Anthology IX.58

Somewhere around the 8th century AD the walls of Babylon were dropped off the list, to be replaced by the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

Of the original seven wonders, only the Great Pyramid still exists. The others are in unrecognizable ruins, and the Hanging Gardens might not even have existed at all. What we know about the wonders comes from written accounts of ancient tourists and modern archaeological research. Much of our information about the monuments is conjecture or questionable second hand accounts.

These monuments may not have physically stood the test of time, but they thrive in our imaginations as some of the most magnificent manmade structures of the ancient world.

the Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt.
the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Greece.
the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.
the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.
the Colossus of Rhodes.
the Lighthouse of Alexandria, Egypt.

Join me next week when I start with the Great Pyramids of Giza.