Story Reviews – Some Thoughts

by tag Posted on March 28, 2018

So, let’s talk today about reviews. Specifically, about things not to do in reviews. (In other words, some things that really boggle the mind.)

For some reason or another, I haven’t received a lot of reviews for my fic that I would call “troll reviews” or “flame reviews” (you know the ones, they start with, “You’re an effing idiot,” and just get more vituperative from there). In fact, as far as I can recall, I’ve received only two. One several years ago on a story I posted to FictionPress (Fanfiction.Net’s “original fiction” partner), wherein the reviewer abused me for not writing like Harlan Ellison. (Newsflash: No, I don’t write like him, because I am not him! In fact, I don’t particularly like his writing style, so I don’t even try to write like him!) And the other one was last Friday.

Now, this is not to say that I never receive negative reviews. I do. (Particularly on my short HP fic Discipline Issues.) People don’t like my stories and feel the need to tell me, or they offer me a critique, or whatever – yes, I’ve got plenty of those. But most of the time, people are at least polite with their reviews to me, even if they don’t like the story. And I have a thick skin when it comes to critiques of my writing.

This person was nowhere near polite, which is part of the reason I’m venting about it here.

Warning: Foul language and lack of common sense below.

Okay, rant starts here!

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RIP Auntie Barbara

by tag Posted on January 6, 2018

Last week, I wrote a post on my Other Blog about the emotion of grief, how I experience grief and how I cope with it.

This is why that post went up.

It was my Auntie Barb’s funeral today.

The family has been in Toronto for the past week – those of us coming from away arrived on the 1st – and we were there to see Auntie Barb pass. It’s been very hard; she was my father’s only remaining sibling, and the only biologically related adult from that generation remaining in Toronto (for the sibs and family that live here).

Funeral Home Obit and Memorial Page

Toronto Star Legacy Memorial Page

Her online friends have been wonderful; condolences have come in from her friends in the Celtic Tenors fan group and the Celtic Tenors themselves and of the online puzzle group Jigidi.

As I mentioned in the post in my Other Blog, one of the main ways in which I grieve is by writing memorial poems. I’m including the poem I wrote for her here.

Continue reading →

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Nov. 30: End of #NaNoWriMo 2017

by tag Posted on November 30, 2017

So, here we are at the end of NaNoWriMo 2017. I have won, for the 7th time in 10 years of doing NaNo. But it wasn’t easy this year. (I look back, and I think the only times it was easy were 2008-2010.) And… as you may have guessed from the last two posts, I did not finish There Be Dragons. But I now have a great deal more than I did to begin with, so it’s a success nonetheless.

Some interesting stats from this past month:
Least Words Written: 12 words on November 6 (Total That Day: 6,834)
Most Words Written: 5,369 words on November 26 (Total That Day: 43,776)
Longest Dry Spell (less than NaNo Daily of 1,667 words): 4 days, November 9-12 (125, 22, 62, 41 words)
Longest High Spell (NaNo Daily of 1,667 words or more): 6 days, November 13-18 (1,697, 2,529, 2,740, 4,299, 2,043, 4,574 words)

So, that’s me, signing off from this year’s NaNo. Congrats to everyone who took part, whether they reached 50K or not. 🙂

‘Later!
🙂 tag

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Nov. 29: #NaNoWinner2017

by tag Posted on November 29, 2017
Winner: NaNoWriMo 2017
In The Purple!

So, here we are. I managed to win not quite by the skin of my teeth (that would be winning tomorrow, it being the last day for it).

This last chapter has been fighting me a fair bit, so I was worried (despite my excellent word count two days ago) that I wouldn’t be able to make it, but here we are! Thanks go out to Vathara and the other members of the NL NaNo group, for their support and encouragement.

So, I’m ending today with a word count of 50,157 words. But I’ll still be writing tomorrow (I want that “updated word count for 30 days” badge!), and likely for the next month, on and off, as I try to finish the first draft of There Be Dragons. (Because no matter how much I wanted to, I didn’t manage to get even close to finishing. I’d say I’m about half to 5/9 done.)

Thanks for following me on this epic journey of my tenth year of doing NaNo!

‘Later!
🙂 tag

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Nov. 27: Last Week of #NaNoWriMo 2017

by tag Posted on November 27, 2017

So, I missed last week’s post. Apologies for that – I was not having the best few days when it was due, and then I decided to wait until either I’d caught up with the expected total word count, or the 28th, whichever came first.

Last post, I’d just finished Chp. 3 and Interlude #1. In the meantime, I’ve had some very good writing days (5 days over 3,334, including the 16th; 8 days over 1,667, including the 16th and today), and some not-so-good ones (4 days under 1,100).

At the moment, I’ve finished Chps. 4 and 5, and I’m partway through Interlude #2 – and discovering something that I hadn’t known an hour ago that adds an extra dimension to the situation the protagonists are in. (Well, the protagonists and the rest of the Interstellar Police officers on Mephamtere….)

Yesterday I managed to match (and exceed) the expected total word count for the day, for the first time since Nov. 2nd. (Almost the whole month. Ow.) Today I’ve already managed to surpass the expected total word count for the day. 🙂 So there’s no doubt that I’m going to win… although I seriously doubt that There Be Dragons will be finished by the 30th. (Not with this new plot twist added into things.) So I’m likely to continue writing it into December, with S&R re-writes pushed back to January and February.

21st’s word count: 30,177. Where I should have been by then: 35,000.

Today’s (so far) word count: 45,471. Where I should be at midnight: 45,000.

I’m totally winning this. 🙂

Next post: My winning! (And maybe end of NaNo, if I don’t get to 50K before Thursday.)

‘Later, all!

🙂 tag

Posted in Accomplishments, Creativity, NaNoWriMo, Plot Bunnies!, Science Fiction, Writing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Nov. 16: Belated Week 2 of #NaNoWriMo 2017

by tag Posted on November 16, 2017

Apologies for the lateness of this – I originally intended to get it out the evening/night of Nov. 14th, but I had to get up early for an appointment yesterday morning, and completely forgot.

So, where were we….

Right, starting Chp. 3.

*headdesks*

That… didn’t go so well to start off with. Oh, I started strongly (1,774 words on the 8th)… but then the interaction between my protagonists began, and things got bogged down. 4 days worth of less than 150 words/day bogged down.

So on Monday I scrapped everything I’d written of Chp. 3 into the “counts for words but not as part of my story” file, and re-started the chapter. And that dealt with that block! I’ve been going strong since then.

In other news, I’m planning to apply to be co-ML for the region of Newfoundland (and Labrador?) next year. I’ve been organizing all the St. John’s in-person write-ins this year (our current only ML lives elsewhere and doesn’t have a car, so she can’t really do that), and I figure it might be interesting.

Since I’ve written barely any words so far today (I do my best work at night), I figured I’d give you the word count as it was on the 14th. (I caught up by another 1K+ words yesterday, and don’t yet have today’s.)

14th’s Word Count: 15,119 words. Where I should be (then): 23,333 words. And I’m back to more than the daily word count (yesterday I got 2,759 words), so I should manage to get back on track soon.

(No, Bunnies, that was not an invocation to Murphy, and if you take it that way, I may have to do something to your next shipment of Plot Bunny Feed(tm).)

Addendum (23:02 NST): Okay, finished the writing for today, which was a long session. So. Today’s Word Count: 22,158. Where I should be: 26,667. I’m a lot closer now! (Total of 4,299 words written today, Chp. 3 and just-conceived-of-two-hours-before-writing-this Interlude done!)

🙂 tag

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Nov. 7: Week 1 of #NaNoWriMo 2017

by tag Posted on November 7, 2017

Heyla!

So, it’s coming up to midnight on November 7th, the end of Week 1 of NaNoWriMo 2017. And how have I been doing, you might ask?

*sighs*

Yeah, I’m behind. It seems to happen every year in Week 1 – if it’s not that I’m sick, it’s that the Bunnies are kicking up a fuss, or I’m blocked. This year, it was sort of all of that. Had a minor cold last week (naturally from Wednesday onwards). Got stuck in Chp. 2 of TBD. *sighs* And had two days when I got less than 100 words written.

Good news on the horizon, though! Chp. 2 has been finished (at least as much as I can get at the moment; there are a few scenes where I have comments in square brackets about what’s to go there later), and I’m on to Chp. 3, where the action really starts to pick up.

And my villains have become even more villainous. I thought they were kind of generic bad guys at first, nasty to animals (or those they think are animals), not caring about the environment, etc. Turns out that they’re worse than that. My human protagonist just got dumped in a place where they’ve dumped a lot of other inconvenient people. And, you know, there’s a direcat pack around that kind of appreciates the free meals….

Today’s Word Count: 8,869 words. Where I should be: 11,667 words. But I’ve managed more than the recommended daily word count the four (out of seven) days that I’ve managed to hit over 250 words, so at least I should be able to catch up.

😉 tag

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October 31st: Time For #NaNoWriMo 2017!

by tag Posted on October 31, 2017

Wow. I’ve really been neglecting this blog over the last year and a half or so. Whoof. Didn’t even do anything with 2016’s NaNoWriMo (which I won, by the way) here. *shakes head at self* Okay, I’ve got to do better.

Anyway, as the title says, NaNoWriMo is almost here. (In fact, it will be here in 2 hours from when I post this.) So, posting time! (And this time I will try to keep the updates going.)

NaNoWriMo 2017 Participant Badge

As last year (not shown on here) was fantasy, I’m back to science fiction for this year. And I’m going to be working on the story I originally tried to write for April 2015’s Camp NaNoWriMo, There Be Dragons (summary below).

This is my tenth year doing NaNoWriMo (yay!), and while I’ve won 6 out the last 9 years, the only years when I actually finished the novel I started working on were the first two (2008: Search and Rescue, and 2009: A Fox’s Fight). So that’s my goal for this year – not only win, but actually finish the novel.

As usual, my tracking page is up at tag’s Library: NaNoWriMo 2017. This year I’ve also added a “Word War” widget so you can follow my best friend’s progress along with mine. 🙂 Click to read summary

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Guest Post: Canadian Pharmacare Petition

by tag Posted on May 9, 2017

To my Canadian readers – a guest post from my mother:

This is something that I feel quite strongly about and we are asking for your support. I was on the policy panel last year that came out with a paper to hand in to government and it has just sat on their desk since then. Please feel free to forward this to any and all the people that you know. Read on, please.

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Visit to Nova Scotia

by tag Posted on February 28, 2016

*gives everyone a guilty look*

Yeah, it’s been a while. Sorry about that. I’ve ended up fairly busy with a bunch of things, including becoming part of the ASD Advisory Board of the recently formed Autism Canada, and also of the Canadian Autism Partnership Project. The latter of which was what let me come to Nova Scotia (see tagÂûght’s Blog: Leaving, On a Jet Plane; Two Wonderful Sisters; and Nova Scotia, How I Love Thee for the details and explanations).

The important part is that in coming here to Nova Scotia, I got to spend a great deal of time with my middle sister and her children, and meet her friends, and it’s been great. I’ve even tonight got to see my older cousin for the first time in ages.

To read the details, continue on.

Posted in Cousins, Family, Nieces-Nephews, Pictures, Siblings, Trips | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment