Friday, June 29, 2007

The road goes ever on ...

So, I've actually completed my second novel. Yup, it's done, and I didn't even rush over here to blow bugles and beat drums about it.

Not sure why, other than I think the work of writing has finally hit home. Telling the story is only part of the job. Sure, it's fun, it's a passion, it's what I do - but it's also a business. The tedious part begins *after* one types "The End". All the editing, polishing, revising, and in my case, desperately hunting out words, sentences, phrases and scenes that I can bloody do away with!

Yup, brevity continues to elude me. But I've finished the tale of Morgan the grouchy dragon slayer. It went places I didn't expect, showed me things I wasn't looking for, and fought me tooth and nail to reach its conclusion. Yet I'm happy with it. I think it's a good story. I think it's a more marketable story than Oak and Stone simply because ... it's dragons. And it's shorter. And I'm trying to make it shorter yet, LOL!

That's the hard part. That's where I am now. Sticking the thing back in the forge to hammer it to that perfect shape. *face-palm* omgwtfbbq, that's work! However, if I'm gonna be a writer, this is what it's all about. Tenacity, perseverance, cowboying up. ;-)

Meanwhile, summertime is kicking. my. ass. But in a good way. It's great to be so active that I have to keep a tatty little day-planner. ;-) Plus it's good for my body and my brain. Winter may be more condusive for writing, but yegads, it just drains the color out of my world, literally and emotionally. So maybe it's harder to find creative time in summer, but I think it's recharging the fuel cells for when my time must be spent indoors. Hope so, anyhow. I'll let you know along about December. *G*

Well, plus I've played a bit of hooky with fan fiction, but shhh, we're not supposed to talk about that. ;-)

Anyroad, so that's that. Both novels are complete, both are in revisions, and I believe I'm going to push Morgan's tale first and hardest, when I resume submissions. Meanwhile, here's hoping my muses will flitter in and sit down at least once in a while, because, yanno, I've got to have more tales to tell. Got to. It's what I do. ;-)

Hope everyone is having a good summer - or winter, if you're at the bottom of the world. Peace and blessings to you all. I'll see you 'round the ethernet. :-)

~ G. M. Atwater

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Thinky-ness

Sometimes I want to write just to feel the words flow, to capture a thought like bugs in amber to turn and hold to the light. Sometimes I want to simply let ideas take wing and shape words into things no one has seen before. Sometimes, oh sometimes it's like a hunger that clutches and cries, and I can feel words batting in gossamer-winged legions against the shutters of my mind.

Aye, but I also know that once words take shape, there is alway, always the work of it, the slaving and shaving and struggle of it. And that's the hardest part to endure.

~ P.S. No, I'm not dead, merely resting. *G*

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Here be dragons ... finally!

This morning when I woke up, my first conscious thought was of ... dragons.

Weird, you say.

No, good. Really, really good! Good enough that my little heart got all skippety-happy, because I think this means my muses have finally come back from their long hiatus. I kid you not, I haven't been stuck with writer's block, I've been hitting the freakin' writer's Berlin Wall! But the bricks are starting to fall, and today I'm gonna try and beat that sucker down. There have been little creative mutters and mumbles the last couple weeks, but I think - I hope - this is me finally back to work.

Yeesh. Willpower, self discipline anyone? Clearly I need a minder. ;-) Anyroad, enough wasting words, on to better things!

~ G. M. Atwater

Monday, March 12, 2007

yeah...

Today I sat on my front porch. I sat on my porch and I listened to my neighborhood and I let the soft breeze kiss my cheek. I heard children playing and neighbors visting. I heard cars rush by out on the highway and random dogs idly barked. I smelled charcoal briquets and barbeque, and my stomach soon began growling. And when hubby came home we threw our own hamburgers on our grill, and the aromas of onions and burger still hang in the air.

Now the windows are open and I'm drinking wine, and I don't even care that it will freeze and snow at least once again before summer. Today it was finally spring. :-)

Yeah. Simple pleasures.