Frak the Ash Cloud
I’ve been such a bad blogger. Please forgive me my peeps.
Believe me… I’ve been wracked with guilt at my lack of updating.
I’ve been busy with my little Asylum. Yuppers… things are starting to happen. This is exciting.
I also booked a flight to Florida. Whoa… Really? Florida? WTF??
That’s right. In just over a week and a half, I am getting a plane, which thankfully is not being affected by the Volcano Gods… nor the Ash Cloud of Doom.
As you all may have heard me gush about previously, I am a fan of Fresh from the Cauldron yarns.
Well, Squib who runs FftC is needing some assistance. All of her normal (as I call them) minions have upped and moved. One of them even moved to Colorado.
I looked at this as an opportunity. She needs help, I have been wanting a One on One dyeing lesson from her (basically been wanting that since I first started talking with her). Realized I had the money… (well, not really… but I can justify it for my business.)
So, this is a good thing. Sure I’ll be doing most of her grunt work, but I’ll also get to sit at the feet of my Mister Miyagi and watch / help her work. This is worth it’s weight in gold peeps. Really it is.
Today I spent the morning sitting in a cafe (okay.. it was Panera) writing on Aether Horizons. Didn’t get as much written as I would have liked because it became too noisy for me to really concentrate.
I also gave a little girl a purple flower. Alright… it was a sketch of some flowers on a purple sticky note. But she loved it. And her mom loved it. It was my way of saying “I totally know that you know I can hear your convo and I’m sorry to hear about your problems with your military husband that you are discussing with your priest/whatever he is and also about your childhood issues with your father’s affair while you were growing up in Germany but lets pretend that I cannot hear you at all. Oh, and I’m totally stealing the line your husband said to you that you love telling because it’s the most romantic thing in the world. Kthnxsbye!”
After that, I picked up Mother of Mine and her friend “Dances with Pitbulls” and we went downtown for lunch. We did sushi.
I tried something that I had never seen before.
Sweet Pumpkin Roll.
It was good… It was mellow… It was interesting. I say interesting because I think the texture is why I think it was interesting.
After that I walked down to Poor Richard’s book store while Mother of Mine and friend went to the College and took photos at the statues.
I bought books. Bad me! 5 books to be specific! BAD ME!!!
3 of them though are books I NEEDED.
2 of them were books I wanted just for pleasure.
Considering one of the books has already helped me feel better about my writing and I think will be of good use to me in the future… that makes me very happy about buying it.
One of the other books… well if I decide to fully write in the mystery genre it will be invaluable right alongside my “Practical Homicide Investigation”.
And the 3rd useful book I bought was a Knitting Book. Specifically an Interweave Press “lace and eyelets” which I decided I had to get because it had at least one stitch in it that I can use for the scarf I have been designing. This will solve a problem I was having.
The 2 books I bought for pleasure were both by Kim Harrison.
Book number 1 “Dead Witch Walking” in paperback. It was a practically brand new copy and I’ve been itching to reread the series.
The other one was “The Outlaw Demon Wails” in hardback. I know, I shouldn’t be buying hardbacks, but there is a reason I got it. In the UK, they do not call it “The Outlaw Demon Wails” they call it “Where Demons Dare” which is silly. It ruins the flow of the Clint Eastwood Western Titles.
Not to mention, I just really like the US covers better than the UK covers, and I do plan on owning all the books in Hardback (since they are re-releasing the first books in the spiffy hardback version, which is nice since they never got into hardback in the first place.)
So since I still don’t have Hockey blog ready to go.. here is a new yarn for you all to drool over.
I give you Jamie Fraser, shown here on Superwash Sock. Straight here from the wonderful pages of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series for those who aren’t in the know.
Nom de plume…..?
It’s a very tough decision, knowing what you shall be known by when you are an author.
Even more so when you are female.
Even more so when you are about to get married.
Even more so when the person you are about to get married to plans on having a long career in politics.
Depending on the genre, female writers don’t do as well as male authors.
Romance- Heck yeah! In fact, they do better than male authors there.
Paranormal Fiction – Sure!
Classic Literature – Errr well… unless you are in the class of Austen and Bronte… then no.. not so much. (And truth be told, the Bronte sisters didn’t do well with their own name in their own time.)
Action / Adventure – Not really.
I don’t even know my genre yet.
I have one novella that is almost finished, which could fall in the Paranormal, and even Paranormal Romance. (It was originally written for a contest that was Paranormal Romance, but my level of romance is quite tame and nothing I wouldn’t do in the other novels.)
My current novel that I am also working on… (I know I know, I’m not done with the novella yet… I’m almost there though, and if I don’t get the words down now for the current one, I’m afraid I’ll loose them forever. I can multitask with writing.. really I can.) is a Steampunk/ Alternate Victorian / Action Adventure / with a bit of Mystery dashed in. – hmm…. that makes it a bit difficult to decide which genre is falls into in the first place, let alone what name should be on the cover.
I will admit, it’s a pride thing. I really want to see “Erin ….” on the cover.
But will it hurt my career?
Will having my name at all hurt Guy’s career? Will it help?
Then there are options. I could do my maiden name… but then I’m stuck with it for the rest of my life, and Guy will then be called (at least once) as “Mr. Gallagher”.
But will Erin Grandison sell any novels?
There are options…
E.A. Gallagher – Pretty androgynous
E.A. Grandison – Also androgynous
But I have to admit, I don’t know if I want to be known as “E.A.”
It feels like… I honestly don’t know how to describe how it feels, but it makes me slightly wiggy.
Now until I’ve actually got my manuscript ready for submission, this is actually all moot. But it is food for thought that I have been chewing on for a while now.
Part of the reason was a discussion that cropped up in a Pens and Needles group on Ravelry which that in it’s self was spurned by this article: Call me James
On one hand, going with a non de plume can cause problems. One of my favorite authors I just found out is not in fact Kim Harrison, but instead is Dawn Cook. I didn’t much mind (other than going “wow.. she doesn’t look like a ‘Dawn’…”), but apparently it caused a lot of strife amongst the fan boards, and it came to such a furor that Kim had to quit that forum and go back into being at arms length again. Now, Kim (sorry, I just can’t call her Dawn) did go all out with the persona though. Wig, wardrobe, backstory… So I can slightly see why some people might have been irked when it all came to light as a lie.
Sigh, even typing it all out here hasn’t helped make my mind up much. Mayhaps when I actually finish my manuscripts, I’ll have a long discussion with my close peeps and see if it needs to be under a nom de plume or not.
Random: The gym today was good. I didn’t feel like I was going to pass out afterwards. Woot! I am getting better at this.
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