Shades of Green

September 29, 2009 R. Parrish 5 Comments

The contract has been sent, signed and sent back to the publisher. That means it’s official! My novella, Shades of Green has been accepted for publication by Sam’s Dot Publishing. *squee* The publication date is January 1, 2010 and I can’t think of a better way to start the year.

Shades of Green is an Aphanasian story, it was originally part of my novel-in-stories, Swamp Story, before I decided to rip it apart and make the stories stand on their own. Shades of Green is about a swamp elf, Z’thandra, who lives with the reptar, a fierce race of lizard-people who resent her presence and want her gone from the village. When she discovers a human in the swamp and falls in love with him, she needs to make a difficult decision, the reprecussions of which will affect the Reptar for generations.

It’s a love story…of a sort, and I am really proud of it. I can’t wait to see it in print and be able to share it with readers!

*does a little happy dance*

I Shouldn't Have To Tell You

Falling Behind

September 28, 2009 R. Parrish 2 Comments

I’m sick. When I’m sick I pretty much turn into a useless lump of self-pity. I try to force myself to continue to be productive and I can usually trudge through my day job stuff, but when I’m sick doing anything creative is nearly impossible. So, I’m falling behind. I am working on a collaborative project but I seem to have hit a wall on it, plus the story I wanted to write for the Trafficing in Magic / Magicing in Traffic anthology from Drollerie Press is fighting me with every word.

Plus, NaNoWriMo is creeping closer and the deadline for the new Niteblade anthology draws near as well, which means I’ll soon have a lot of submissions to read.

Yet, despite all this I wanted to blog. And I didn’t want to blog about something depressing like being sick (oops) so I decided to start a new ‘thing’ here called ‘I Shouldn’t Have To Tell You…’

When I am wearing my ‘editor’ hat and reading submissions for Niteblade I am often surprised by the things people do that I feel like I shouldn’t need to tell them not to. Obviously I won’t be sharing names or details, but I thought this could be both amusing and educational. Plus it’s something I can do on those days I want to blog but have nothing else to say.

So, the first thing I Shouldn’t Have To Tell You is:

I shouldn’t have to tell you to spell the name of the magazine right.

It’s also generally considered good form to spell the editor’s (my) name right too.

Personal, Pictures

Family Face Time

September 15, 2009 R. Parrish 5 Comments

I spend a ridiculous amount of time staring at a computer for one reason or another, be it work or play. We, as a family, play a lot of video games. Jo and I are addicted to World of Warcraft, and Dani plays a little bit but prefers her DS. With that in mind I make a special effort to make sure we do stuff that involves family face time.

This weekend we went to the grounds of the Alberta Legislature, or, the Leg for short (pronounced ledge). It’s a lovely public space that I really enjoy…so long as it’s not Canada day when it becomes ridiculously overcrowded. I digress.

I took my camera with me and I’d like to share a few of my favorite shots from the afternoon.

Before we left to go to the Leg Jo said to my sister (on World of Warcraft LOL) that we were going to take pictures. When she asked of what he answered “Given Rhonda’s predilections of late, birds and flowers.” Part of me resents having things I typically take pictures of, but the other part kind of likes it. Plus, these flowers are pretty.

Continue reading Family Face Time →

NaNoWriMo

NaNoLJers Sponsors

September 15, 2009 R. Parrish Leave a comment

I moderate a livejournal community called NaNoLJers. NaNoLJers began as a NaNoWriMo community but has grown to be active year round with writing prompts, exercises and challenges and our own month-long writing challenge Writo de Mayo in May. The community has gotten big. Right now we have 1432 members, with 948 of those members actually watching the community. That number tends to balloon in October and November, then settle back down to around what it is now shortly after.

That’s a lot of people. Many of them don’t post, but hopefully they draw inspiration from the group, just the same.

When NaNoLJers started there were only a handful of us and we were able to get to know one another and cheer each other on toward the finish line for NaNoWriMo. As we’ve grown that has become more and more difficult as names begin to blur into one another when you haven’t the time to get to know the personalities behind them. So last year I created teams on the community. The teams were optional, but the idea behind them was that with the community broken up into smaller chunks people would actually have a chance to get to know one another and that sense of being a part of a community, rather than a face in the crowd, would be preserved. In addition, the teams were competing against one another, and that sense of friendly competition seemed to help spur people on as well.

The teams last year were a rather impromptu thing and so I didn’t have much time to organise team-based events or prizes. We pulled some off, but it wasn’t nearly as organised as I’d like. We are going to have teams again this year (I’m also hoping to do something special for people who aren’t in the teams) and I’d like for it to be better organised than last year.

One thing I’m looking for is sponsors.

Last year we had a few fantastic sponsors who donated everything from books, to additional user pics or paid time on LJ. I’m looking for more people like that 🙂

If you would like to donate something to be used as prizes in some of the mini-competitions or part of the over-all prize package that the winning team will receive, please email me at rhonda@jofigure.com . Some of the competitions and prizes we had last year are listed here –> Partial List of Challenges and prizes There were also word wars and that sort of thing going on throughout the month.

What do you get if you sponsor the event? Well…gratitude. That would be the biggest thing, really. I will also link to you (or your chosen website) from the NaNoLJers page as well as the mirrored blog at http://www.poiseandpen.com . I will be sharing a list of sponsors here as well (http://rhondaparrish.com/archive plus my LJ) and I promise to rave about you on the NaNoLJers community as much as I can. Truly.

I wish I could offer more, but the group will appreciate it (I promise).

If you are willing to donate anything email me, please. You can specify a challenge you want the prize to be used for, or let me put it where it’s most needed. It’s up to you.

If you can’t sponsor NaNoLJers events, for whatever reason, I still love you 🙂

Reviews

The Mermaid’s Madness

September 3, 2009 R. Parrish Leave a comment

Being a writer changes a lot of things in my life, including how I read a book. I can’t read the same way I could before I started writing ‘in earnest’ for lack of a better phrase. I judge books differently too. These days when I’m finished a book and it’s time for me to assess what I thought of it I tend to ask myself questions beyond ‘Did I like it?’. Did I enjoy my time spend within its pages? Was I able to suspend my disbelief throughout its entirety? Did it make me think? Was it well-written? Were the characters real? Did they grow?

In the case of The Mermaid’s Madness the answer to those questions, for the most part, was yes.

Okay, biases out on the table, I adore Jim C. Hines. I like him as a person, a blogger and a writer. Thus far I’ve enjoyed every novel of his that I’ve read and I’ve paid (via charity auction) for him to critique my work. That’s a double-edged thing though, really, because while it means while I was pre-disposed to like The Mermaid’s Madness, I also had high expectations that could easily have been disappointed.

They weren’t though. Yay!

The Mermaid’s Madness is the second in Jim’s princess books, the first being The Stepsister Scheme. I thought this was a great book and enjoyed it more than I did the first. It had a darker feeling to it than The Stepsister Scheme, which could well be one reason I liked it better, but I think there’s more to it than that.

The characters were very real, three dimensional beings who grew and developed over the course of the story. Jim built on what he’d started in the first book and made it even better. This is where I find it difficult to really make points without giving things away…so forgive my vagueness.

One of my favorite things about this novel is that actions had consequences. The consequences from the first book weren’t simply forgotten, they carried over and touched this one. Not heavily really (except in one case…man I suck at vagueness), but they were there — just like in real life. I can’t abide stories where everything works out well in the end and everyone lives happily ever with nothing changing except for the better, blah blah blah. That is great for children’s tales…I suppose…maybe…in pre-school…occasionally… /digression . Happily, Jim doesn’t do that. Bad things happen, and they can’t just be made better by waving a magic wand or kissing the prince. I like that.

That’s not to say I think this book was perfect. In a couple places in action scenes I got a little bit lost and had to read back to re-imagine the scene and exactly what was happening, and I struggled a bit with suspending my disbelief at how quickly some people recovered from…things (stupid vagueness). Occasionally people seemed to have supernatural endurance/recovery powers that didn’t fit with what I thought probable, that sort of thing. But I wasn’t bothered enough by those things to set down the book or even slow my reading.

On a pseudo-related note, no matter how hard I’ve tried (and I have tried) the Danielle in my mind doesn’t even come close to matching the Danielle on the cover. Not. Even. Close. I’ve given up on making the two match and I’m just going to enjoy how Danielle looks in my imagination.

Right, back on track.

The Mermaid’s Madness made me think, about lots of things. Stuff like reprecussions, character growth, real emotion and magic. Quite specifically about magic, magic systems and mechanics. I had a few revelations related to my own writing that was sparked by thoughts about The Mermaid’s Madness. This, as you can imagine, makes me happy.

I also enjoyed the ending, and the way Jim has started subtle mysteries in this novel I look forward to seeing how they develop in the next book…though waiting for it to come out may be painful. What do you suppose the chances are of my picking up an ARC of it before its release date?

Niteblade

Niteblade #9

September 1, 2009 R. Parrish Leave a comment

Wow.

Issue #9 of Niteblade went live very early this morning. Issue 9! That’s crazy. That’s the third September issue…somehow it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long LOL

There’s the cover. It’s pretty awesome, isn’t it? I think it’s my favorite cover yet, and that’s saying something.

I am so proud of Niteblade, and it wouldn’t be nearly as awesome as it is if it weren’t for several people lending me their skills. The authors, poets, book reviewers and art blogger of course, but also those people who work on it in more depth.

I’m talking about Marge who illustrates the stories and does the cover illustrations for far less monetary reimbursement than she deserves. I mean Jo who does the layout for the .pdf, the cover and edits each and every issue, even though my publishing schedule is in pretty strong conflict with his teaching schedule. I mean BD who does the web layout and is always looking for ways to make it better (and really succeeded this time. Check it out!). Thank you guys. This couldn’t happen without all of you. I adore you all — you rock my world.

Know what else is cool? We’re selling more copies with every issue. Still no where near enough to make money or even break even, but enough to show me that we are growing, and that makes me happy.

Just Stuff, See The Sky Again, Shadows

What about second first drafts?

August 31, 2009 R. Parrish Leave a comment

The first draft of anything is crap. These are words I say over and over. I tell them to myself, I tell them to people on NaNoLJers, and I’m writing them here now. The idea of the first draft, for me, is just to get it down. Get it out of my brain and onto paper. Once I’ve done that I can revise it and make it better, but the first copy doesn’t have to be good.

But what about the second first draft?

I’ve decided to re-write SHADOWS, but so far I haven’t actually started that because I’ve paralyzed myself by over-thinking it and having too high of expectations. I have been unable to make my brain accept that this is going to be a first draft…because it’s not…it’s a rewrite, but it’s the first draft because I’m starting over, or should I? What about the parts of SHADOWS I really like? Maybe I should just really seriously revise it and add some chapters to the middle to deal with a couple issues I had with it. But if I do that, won’t it be choppy and over-revised?

See?

This is just a small sample of what my brain does to me.

I’m beginning to think that I should just walk away from SHADOWS for now and work on something else, at least until I can gain some perspective on it. Though, if I do that, won’t it just be there, in the corner of my mind, taunting me?

I think it might.

What do you do when it’s time for a big revision/rewirte? Start from scratch or save the bits of the original that you liked? Do you give yourself permission to write crap, or is it not -really- a first draft in your mind? Does your brain mess with you as much as mine does me? And what am I going to work on at my write-in tonight?

Maybe SEE THE SKY AGAIN. It’s the backstory for one of the characters in SHADOWS and one of my critique partners said, “NAME is one of my favorite characters from SHADOWS so I have high expectations for his backstory…” when this woman says she has high expectations she means it LOL And I don’t want to disappoint her or anyone, so I’m pseudo-paralyzed there too. I need to get over that one and just remember that the first draft of anything is crap.

The first draft of anything is crap. The first draft of anything is crap. I can do this! Hopefully if I chant this for the next couple hours it will re-penetrate my brain and I’ll be able to report back tonight that I’ve made some progress on SEE THE SKY AGAIN and I can focus on that while I figure out what to do with SHADOWS.

The first draft of anything is crap. The first draft…

Goals, Just Stuff, Personal

Attention Span of a Gnat

August 24, 2009 R. Parrish 5 Comments

I have been struggling lately. You may have noticed, it’s been a recurring theme for the past couple years and it just keeps getting worse. I have the attention span of a gnat nowadays. I look back at the things I used to accomplish in a day and that list has been getting smaller and smaller for the past 4 years or so. Unacceptable.

I have the attention span of a gnat.

This needs to change.

After a lot of consideration and discussions with friends who find themselves in similar positions as well as those who don’t, I have a theory. I think I have trained myself to be unfocused. This was obviously unintentional, but I think it’s what happened.

A few years ago when I was building websites and such for a living I had a livejournal and an ICQ account. I would check LJ once a day and keep ICQ up and running while I worked. That meant I could communicate with people if I needed or wanted to, but I wasn’t leaving the window or webpage I was on to do it. Fast forward to now and I have a LiveJournal, a Facebook account, a couple blogs and a twitter account. Discounting the blogs because they don’t fall into the same category — I have a lot more distractions. Firstly, Facebook and twitter update a lot more often than LJ. My twitter feed changes every couple minutes, that means I’m refreshing that page every couple minutes and in order to do that, I’m leaving the window I’m currently working in. Add to that the ability to get sidetracked following links or playing games on Facebook and really, it’s no wonder my brain is so fragmented and frazzled.

This hasn’t just affected my work, by the way. Look at my World of Warcraft account as another example. I play on two servers (one less than the other). On each of those servers I have 10 characters. 10. That’s the maximum. Why? Because I don’t seem to be able to focused on any one toon for very long.

The good news is I figure if I trained myself to be unfocused, unproductive and to have a short attention span, I can untrain myself too. (Is untrain a word?). Starting immediately during work hours I am only going to allow myself to check Facebook and Twitter once a day. That’s it. Just once. The same goes for Livejournal. During my off-hours I’ll ease up on myself a little bit. I will continue to check Twitter while I’m taking a long flight in WoW for example, but I need to force myself to focus when I should be working and maybe actually get something done now and then. The way things are right now is ridiculous.

Wish me luck, I might need it.

Aphanasia Stuff, Lost and Found

Dwarf Stars Nominations

August 17, 2009 R. Parrish Leave a comment

I -finally- sent in my nominations for the Dwarf Stars Award. Thank goodness they extended the deadline to August 31st or I’d have been pooched. The email reminding me to do it has been sitting in my inbox, marked red for important with a big star beside it for a couple weeks now. That is how badly I fail at email.

So, that’s done now which means the top of my to-do list for tomorrow is my newsletter. Yay! It will only be a couple days late LOL

The writing retreat went okay. I finished a final revision of THERE as well as “…Oh My!” and I submitted the latter to a publisher. Love how vague I am there? It’s that superstitious thing again. I don’t think, however, I was any more productive than I would have been if I’d stayed home…which kinda defeats the purpose of paying for a hotel room, meals out and the like. I’m not giving up on this retreat idea, but I think next time it needs more structure, and possibly more people. I’m going to give it some thought and see what I come up with…

Personal

Personal Vs. Professional

August 15, 2009 R. Parrish 1 Comment

I fail at keeping my personal and professional lives separate. Some people can do it, and I envy them, I really do, but I haven’t the skill. Perhaps I’m an exhibitionist at heart (I don’t think so LOL but you never know). I think the two biggest issues are that the lines between personal and professional tend to get blurry…and I’m lazy.

Once upon a time this blog was meant to be my ‘professional’ blog. My ‘official’ website and presence on the web. For personal stuff and friends I had my Livejournal. That lasted for a little while, then I realised this blog was boring. Worse than boring it was just a listing of publication credits…so it was a strange sort of ego trip AND it was boring. Yikes. Not only that but people were coming from here and going to the live journal. Hmm…there wasn’t much separation there anymore LOL

My reaction was to privatize the old LJ entries, change the name of the journal to my real name and try to infuse some personality, some of who I am, into this blog. Well, it worked, but then I kept finding myself sitting in front of the computer trying to figure out on which blog to put any given entry. That didn’t work so well so now I cross-post. Everything that goes up on my blog goes on my LJ, so much for keeping personal and private separate.

That’s not too surprising, I suppose, because connections (for lack of a better word) also blur lines of professional and personal. As more and more work-related contacts become friends or at least friendly acquaintances it became impossible to keep work and ‘life’ separate.

I worry though, about the content on my blog, twitter or facebook. If it’s too diverse is it going to drive people away from reading my stuff? That would be counter productive…but um…focus? Not my strong suit. What do you think? Do you have trouble staying focused in your blog entries? How about keeping your professional and your non-professional lives separate?

Rhonda Parrish