Pages

Friday, June 25, 2010

I’m Back, Baby!

Hi there! I have returned from my wedding and honeymoon. The wedding went off perfectly, and the honeymoon was wonderful. My new husband (still feels weird to say that) and I returned Wednesday afternoon. Today I am trying to get caught up on the laundry and prepare for work.

I don’t have any pictures on my camera from the wedding (since, you know, I was IN the wedding) but I will show you some pictures of the area up in Gatlinburg, Tennessee where we got married and stayed for most of our honeymoon. On our way back into Georgia we stopped by a quaint town called Helen, which was made to resemble a Bavarian village. We had German Potato salad, and Spaetzle, and knotwurst, and all kinds of awesome German food.

We visited the aquarium right there in Gatlinburg, and we loafed around in our beautiful cabin, and did some sightseeing in Helen, but I also brought writing stuff with me. I know, I am terrible. But my husband and I both like to spend time just sitting around, so I knew I would I would have some free time. I didn’t work on a book, but I did play around with Awkwords a lot. It’s a word generator my friend Lena told me about. I use it to generate a word pool for my constructed languages (called conlangs for short).

I write urban fantasy and fantasy. Some people who write fantasy, like yours truly, enjoy making up a fake language (or two…or three…) in order to make the world seem more realistic, and have an internal sense of order to the names of the characters and cities.

You don’t have to make up a new language, or a skeleton of one, in order to make your fantasy novel work. On the contrary, I have read plenty of fantasy novels that established a realistic setting without using a conlang. But I personally enjoy making up languages, so it’s something I do for the worlds I am making from scratch.

I had a great time. I will start posting again on a regular basis starting Monday, even though the end of the month might get a little crazy, since I am moving.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

An Update (with Squirrels)

I am alive!

Just very busy. I am not exaggerating; just about every day before work I do something wedding related, and spend most of my days off getting ready too. Last Sunday, on my day off, I went shopping with my mom, and it felt like we bought half the city. But we took care of a lot of stuff we needed (cake topper, toasting glasses, and other fiddly odds and ends), so everything is coming along nicely.

I haven’t even looked at the Internet most days except in passing, and forget blogging or reading blogs. I have a lot of catching up to do, sorry guys.

Mom gave me some more pictures of the squirrels she practically tamed in their backyard, so I shall use those to break up my text.



I keep telling myself I won’t be this busy forever, but I also know that after I come back from my wedding, I will be immediately involved with preparing to move.

Last night my fiancĂ©e got his final confirmation from the Federal Aviation Association that he starts training July 30th. Yep, you read that right. We’re getting married June 19th and a month later he leaves for Oklahoma City. I am going to move in with my parents during this time, because the money they give him to train at school is a joke, and we’re going to have to pay for his living expenses out there. He will be gone for about 4 months or so.

But the great news is that when he comes back, he’ll be working out of a large radar center a few towns over, and making good money doing something that he loves.



So yes, it’s going to be a busy, busy summer.

My writing, in the meantime, has screeched to a halt. I haven’t edited in a week, I haven’t even LOOKED at my book in a week. I goofed around on the Internet yesterday doing some preliminary research for my next novel, but mostly I haven’t had the mental capacity to write or edit.

Strangely enough, I don’t feel weird. Usually when I go this long without writing, I go through withdrawal, but I have been so busy I think it’s made up for that. I have WANTED to write, however. I look longingly at my computer and manuscript and give a little whimper. My muse is going crazy. He thinks I am on strike or something, because he’s frantically throwing book ideas at me.

I read a book yesterday, and it was a little disappointing. The beginning, middle, and end all felt like they were from different books, and the character development was uneven for the main character, and nonexistent for the rest of them. I could have cared less when they all started dying off like flies.



So yes…there you have it. I am alive and doing well.

How is everything else doing? I miss all of you guys. How are all of your summers going?

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Hiatus

Okay guys. In case you haven’t noticed, I have been blogging sporactically at best. So instead of feeling guilty when I miss a blogging day, I think I am going to let you all know that through the month of June, I will not be blogging on a regular basis. It’s just too crazy between work and trying to finalize everything for the wedding.

I will try to update with prompts and pictures, but I just don’t have the time for much of anything right now. I haven’t even been checking other people’s blogs, something I miss.

So in the meantime, have a good summer, and I will see you around!