Thursday, August 31, 2006
Be the dog
Busy day. Jimmy, our sixteen-year-old dog, had to be put under so he could have four teeth taken out. Always nerve racking when an older dog goes in for any kind of surgery procedure. But he's fine. A little disoriented, a little wobbly, but doing okay. I'm trying very hard to be the dog in this situation. By that I mean not thinking about next time, or that he's the oldest dog I've ever owned. Humans worry too much. Dogs don't. The other three dogs were just happy to see him back and sniffed him all over to find… Read More
Posted by LKH on 08/31 at 07:26 PM
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Bread crumbs through the forest of edit
I'll try to make this quick. It's been a very distracting morning and I've just gotten to sit down to work. But I realized that I'm using one of my tricks for keeping the plot and things going in a book. I have a chapter that got moved to later in this book, and because of events that preceded it the chapter has to change substantially, but not completely. I've had a couple of scenes that had to be edited and changed, but were still necessary. What I've been doing was to make notes on sticky notes and put… Read More
Posted by LKH on 08/29 at 08:37 AM
Monday, August 28, 2006
A very restless day
Let me tell you how my work day went. I typed a few sentences. Then I went on the internet and looked up: dog training, gardening, news. I typed a few more sentences, maybe a paragraph. Then I went on the internet again. I read news stories I normally would have skipped. I typed a page. I was tired of all my music. None of it fit the mood. I finally found something I thought I wanted. Listened to it while I typed a few more sentences. No that music wasn't right. Change songs. Type a sentence or two.… Read More
Posted by LKH on 08/28 at 08:02 PM
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Death
I know why I only got six pages on Friday. Okay, this is not so much a spoiler, as a tease. I don't mean to tease, but it's either tease or give away an important part of THE HARLEQUIN. I always struggle here on giving you guys a view into how it is to write these books, and not giving away too much, or tormenting you with hints. I'm not sure I'll ever get the right balance between all that, but I felt that this issue was important enough to share with you. Behave yourselves about it, though, okay.… Read More
Posted by LKH on 08/27 at 08:40 AM
Friday, August 25, 2006
Not the most productive day
Another computer problem today. Neither Jon, nor Darla, know what caused it. I'm going to be forced to get that new computer sooner rather than later. Jon was able to reformat the file, but when I get this book finished, I must buy a new computer. The glitch today may have had nothing to do with the computer being of a certain age, but this is the last in a growing list of odd computer problems. It just seems that small stuff and not so small stuff goes wrong with increasing frequency. Sigh. And yes, the file that went… Read More
Posted by LKH on 08/25 at 02:40 PM
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Guns, play acting, and more research
I always tell new writers not to rewrite as they go along in first draft because perfectionism sets in, and I still maintain if you've never completed a book save the rewrites until you have at least a finished rough draft. But for those who have a book under their belt, here's the exception to my own rule. Yesterday I had a complicated action scene. It wrote well, read well, but reality intrudes. How real guns work. The shape of the claws on a tiger. Size of people involved, and logistics. Where is everyone in relation to everyone else?… Read More
Posted by LKH on 08/24 at 05:35 AM
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Edward on stage again, and Olaf, too
Eighteen pages today. Tired. But I'm hoping that by tomorrow morning I'll be ready to go again. Why the pick up in speed? Big Edward scene, I'd hoped the pace would pick up, and it did. Cool. I can now say for sure that Olaf is going to be in this book, because he's been on stage. So for all you guys that have been asking when, and what book will Edward and Olaf be in? Answer; this book, The Harlequin, which is the official title. I'm off to try and drag Jon and I off to exercise. He… Read More
Posted by LKH on 08/22 at 02:02 PM