Month: July 2014

Monthly Goals July/August 2014

Posted July 31, 2014 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in Goals / 2 Comments

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Monthly Goals. The text 'monthly goals' underneath a scroll with a key on it. A look back at my goals of the month.

Wow! What a month July has been! Actually, I think part of my reaction has to do with the way June kind of collapsed in on itself. So let’s get to the reminder of what I set out to do in July.

I Want to Read:
– Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper
– The Islands of Chaldea by Diana Wynne Jones

I Want to Write:
– at minimum 1 chapter of A Promise Broken
– rework at minimum one scene from the Space Ghosts tale

I’ve managed to read both those books and the carry-over from June (The Angel’s Cut). I’ve managed to write five chapters of A Promise Broken and finally get myself a decent idea of how and where the book is going to end. I had a decent idea, but I knew this was the part that would need the most work plot-wise. It’s pretty exciting! I’ve been busy planning out what to do next and where to go from here — part of which has been entirely depressing — but I admit I’ve been slightly distracted from the Space Ghosts as a result. I did get some work on it done, but not a whole scene.

August is going to prove to be another interesting month because I’m anticipating dedicating a lot of my time to reading Strange Chemistry books for the reading month.

I Want to Read:

I Want to Write:
– at minimum 1 chapter of A Promise Broken
– rework at minimum one scene from the Space Ghosts tale

I’ve actually already started Stolen Songbird. But then I was good at put it aside. (Also, I wasn’t in a reading mood because I got distracted by writing and gaming.) I’m about a quarter of the way through, so that’ll probably be my first book of the month. I suspect that I won’t get through all of them, but we’ll see how it goes. If I manage to stick to my schedule it should be perfectly doable with some time to spare. Writingwise, we’ll have to see what I do. I’m still a little uncertain about how well the next bit I have to schedule actually works and I’d like to poke at it some more. I hope it’ll be something easy to fix. After that I’ll have rebuilt much of the original buffer that I lost due to circumstances in the beginning and I think I might start to vary it with shorter pieces for The Little Engine That Couldn’t that I’m aiming to publish this winter. I’d like a few short stories about Jan in it and I look forward to having a bit of a break. A Promise Broken is such a sad book in so many places and Jan offers up quite a few cheering opportunities. It’ll be fun. I’ll also be continuing to poke at the Space Ghosts and Jan’ll be a nice distraction for that as well.

So… Quite an ambitious month as far as months go. After that… We’ll see.

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Book Release: The Passage of Pearl: Deluxe Edition

Posted July 22, 2014 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in News / 2 Comments

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Now Available

Cover for The Passage of Pearl (Deluxe Edition)Amazon (US, UK), Smashwords, Kobo

Pearl is in her final year at Eston University. Her days are made up of reading poetry, writing essays on poetry, thinking up essay topics on poetry, and trying not to bite people for invading her personal space. When she finds a book that could make or break her career, Pearl throws all her cautious planning in the wind. But the book has secrets of its own and Pearl will make a very tasty snack.

This deluxe edition of the novelette also contains the original draft of ‘The Passage of Pearl’, an essay on the revision process behind the story and several other extras.

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Film Talk: Sailor Moon Crystal (Episodes 1-2)

Posted July 19, 2014 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in Film & TV, Not-A-Review / 0 Comments

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Sailor Moon Crystal: Act 1, Usagi, Sailor Moon Okay, so Sailor Moon is technically not a film, work with me. I dithered a bit about doing this, but hey. It seems like fun and I have a fairly long history with the show and was excited about the reboot. Also, several of my friends and dwircle members were also interested in the reboot, so hey. Why not? As long as it’s fun, right?

I’ve rewatched the first episode of the old anime to compare it to the first episode of the reboot, but I haven’t done the same for the second episode (likely won’t) and I haven’t been rereading the manga to compare that. The main reason for the non-comparisons is that I’ve always been rather, um, compartementalised about the various adaptations and treated them like variations on a common theme more than the same story told in a different format. (This is really helpful when the formats aren’t actually telling the same story!) I reacted to the comparison pretty much as I’d expected, prefering some choices in one version and some in the other. (For example, I prefer the original anime introduction of Luna. It sets up Usagi’s compassion better for me.)

Sailor Moon Crystal: Act 2, Ami, Sailor MercuryOh, yeah. In case this isn’t entirely obvious, HERE BE SPOILERS, especially if you’re an American and not inclined to be up really early. I will undoubtedly find a better scheduling system as I go on, but I’m pretty sure that you can count on these being a once-a-month post. These will also be primarily reaction posts from a long-time fan, so please don’t expect too much analysis or intelligent commentary. (There may be in comments, though!)

Let me know if there’s anything in particular you’d like to see in my responses! I can’t promise I’ll add it, but I can certainly try. ^_^

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On Saying ‘No’ to Love Memes

Posted July 17, 2014 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in Miscellaneous / 0 Comments

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Thoughts. The text 'rambling thoughts' underneath a burning lantern. For rambles, thoughts, and not-essays.

This is a post that has been percolating in my mind for… some time now. I’m writing it partially on behalf of an acquaintance who encouraged me to write and share this in hopes that it will do people some good. I will note right now, at the top, that this is a sensitive topic for me to discuss and doing so leaves me pretty sore. I suspect it will leave a fair few people who want to participate in a discussion sore simply because it’s that kind of topic.

I don’t know how many of my readers are familiar with the concept of love memes (or ‘words and deeds’ memes), so let me explain what they are first. I’ve only ever encountered them on DreamWidth, but they may also be a thing on LiveJournal and I’ve never seen them on WordPress or Blogger before. Other people could write you up a neat history of them, I’m sure, but I’m afraid I’m not that person.

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Strange Chemistry and Exhibit A Reading Month Sign-up Post

Posted July 13, 2014 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in Miscellaneous / 12 Comments

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Banner for the Strange Chemistry and Exhibit A Reading Month in August, 2014

Welcome to the Strange Chemistry and Exhibit A Reading Month sign-up post!

This past June, Angry Robot has had to close two of its imprints, Strange Chemistry and Exhibit A. The announcement post on Strange Chemistry’s website said the following:

As you will be aware, Angry Robot Books has a history of innovation and we continue to go from strength to strength. We’re constantly trying out new concepts and new ideas, and we continue to publish popular and award-winning books. Our YA imprint Strange Chemistry and our crime/mystery imprint Exhibit A have – due mainly to market saturation – unfortunately been unable to carve out their own niches with as much success.

We have therefore made the difficult decision to discontinue Strange Chemistry and Exhibit A, effective immediately, and no further titles will be published from these two imprints.

After some thinking of my own, I decided that I wanted to dedicate a whole month of reading to Strange Chemistry’s books. Their books sound like so much fun and I’d like to support the authors. It’s not a fun position to be in. I also know myself and my reading habits. I didn’t want to support the authors by buying the books and then leaving them to languish on my TBR pile for months if not years when the authors need our word-of-mouth support the most right now.

I asked around and people certainly seemed interested in joining me for the reading month, so I dithered and dallied a little more — I don’t want to leave out Exhibit A, but I’m sorry I’m not a crime/mystery reader and I would not do their authors justice at all — and poked at dates. August rolled out. August gives other people who want to participate a month to get hold of any books they want to read in the way that works best for them. Library books, ebooks, paper books that need to be flown in from the other side of the world, etc.

So, for the whole of August, I aim to focus on reading books by Strange Chemistry authors. Anyone who wants to join can read as little or as many StrangeChem/Exhibit A book as they want, with a minimum of one.

And now, with roughly two weeks to go before August begins, I’m publishing the sign-up post for anyone who’s interested in participating! Please sign up using the Mr Linky widget below. (Please note that I’ve never used Mr. Linky before, so let me know if something doesn’t work right and I’ll do my best to fix it asap.)

I’m sure others would love to know which books you’re reading, so if you have an introduction post on your own blog, don’t hesitate to link to it! You can also leave a comment if you don’t have a blog of your own.

If I see a lot of people wanting to read the same book, I may also decide to work out a read-along for that book, so we have added incentive to do so!

For my own reading, I have several choices. I stocked up on ebooks this June and I’m really excited about them! (I’m less excited about the amount of culling I had to do to make my basket affordable. GRABBY HANDS, people!) The list below was taken straight from Strange Chemistry’s catalogue and was cut down only to reflect the books I own.

Someone find me at least one Exhibit A book I’ll stand a chance of enjoying so I can read something by them too, please? *sad kitty eyes*

My posting plans for August are to write up my thoughts on what I read in separate posts — I feel like I haven’t done this in forever — do round-ups and… generally not deviate too much from my regular blogging habits of irregularity, really. Mondays remain serial days, there may be a conversation with Memory Scarlett on The Angel’s Cut by Elizabeth Knox later in the month (but it may also appear in September), there’ll be goals and monthly round-ups at the beginning of the month and… I think that about covers it. (It is ENTIRELY POSSIBLE that I forgot something, so do let me know if you think there’s anything I missed.)

SO EXCITED! (So far I have been incredibly good and not started my books yet. So tempting. Will I last the whole of July? Time will tell!)

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Additional Notes and Thoughts on ‘A Promise Broken’.

Posted July 10, 2014 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in Miscellaneous / 0 Comments

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A Promise Broken: A young girl looking at a stormcloud.

As I sit down to write this, I’m about… a third of the way through serialising the first half/book of the story? I’m not entirely sure. I am sure that I won’t be launching straight into the second half/book when this one wraps up, but that’s still quite a while away. As I’m writing this the serial has been going for a good four months or so. I’ve been enjoying it a lot and I figured that this is a long enough time to discuss some of the diversity aspects that I’ve been rather mum about at the beginning. These thoughts likely will not be very organised or orderly and I invite you to (gently!) point out aspects of my own privilege as you see them, but I think it’s time to talk about this. I’m taking a fairly broad stance on diversity and just discussing things as they come to.

So below the cut lie masses and masses of spoilers for A Promise Broken. At least, they lie there if you want to figure character personalities and relationships out on your own. Otherwise… Well, there are some minor plot spoilers, but probably not much more than you’d get in a blurb and certainly not more than you learn after about the third chapter. YOU HAVE STILL BEEN WARNED, though. Here be spoilers.

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Cover Reveal: The Passage of Pearl Deluxe Edition

Posted July 5, 2014 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in News / 3 Comments

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I’ve been mentioning several Sekrit Projects on my blog for… some time now. There are a couple of reasons for that, but with this particular project it’s because I didn’t want to announce it before having everything in place. (Also just in case I ended up chickening out of things anyway.)

Everything is now in place — well, mostly — and it is time for the cover to be revealed and for me to shed some light on this particular Sekrit Project. So, without further ado, I will reveal the cover for…
Cover for The Passage of Pearl (Deluxe Edition)

 

The deluxe edition will include the final version of The Passage of Pearl, as published in Feather by Feather and Other Stories, the original versionthat disappeared forever, an essay on some of the changes I made between versions and why, a bookish daisychain and a brief peek at what else is happening within this setting.

The deluxe edition is a bit of an experiment just to see whether people like having additional material on my writing process (I like writing it!) along with other goodies and extras I can think of/get recommended that fit with some aspect of the story, so I’m excited to see how it’ll go.

(I’m also planning an edition for The Little Engine That Couldn’t which will feature essays and at least one brand-new story starring Jan.)

The Passage of Pearl Deluxe will be released in mid-to-late July.

Important note for people who’ve purchased Feather by Feather and Other Stories. If you’ve bought a copy of Feather by Feather before the release date of The Passage of Pearl, I will offer you a free copy of this deluxe edition. Please get in touch with me if you’d like a free copy of the deluxe edition of The Passage of Pearl!

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Monthly Goals June/July 2014

Posted July 1, 2014 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in Goals / 0 Comments

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Monthly Goals. The text 'monthly goals' underneath a scroll with a key on it. A look back at my goals of the month.

June/July ponderings!

I Want to Read:
– The Angel’s Cut by Elizabeth Knox
– Heart of Briar by Laura Anne Gilman
– Herb-Witch by Elizabeth McCoy

I Want to Write:
– at minimum 1 chapter of A Promise Broken
– rework at minimum one scene from the Space Ghosts tale

Ahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahaha! I read only one book on the list — Herb-Witch — and didn’t even get to the other two. I managed to get stalled on A Promise Broken somewhat more than I was anticipating — this is why I like buffers — but I did get some work done on the space ghosts story. I also did a spot of editing for myself and for friends and then I went off and wrote a short story I am scrapping in its entirety and starting over. But not until I get some more work on A Promise Broken done. This chapter is turning out to be evil. (Then again, this chapter is politics. I am not surprised in the least.)

July will, hopefully, be a heck of a lot better for all things. Nevertheless, I am cutting my reading goals down a touch just because I haven’t been in a reading mood at all. You’ll see this is just what I need to kick myself out of the rut.

I Want to Read:
– Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper
– The Islands of Chaldea by Diana Wynne Jones

I Want to Write:
– at minimum 1 chapter of A Promise Broken
– rework at minimum one scene from the Space Ghosts tale

Like I said, cutting down on things for the month. Hopefully this is just what I need to kick myself out of the reading rut. And I’d really like to get this chapter for A Promise Broken done now. Evil thing. I want to get back to Eiryn’s pov. That’s much easier to write.

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