lathany, posts by tag: writing - LiveJournal

Various things from the last few days:
- I told work that I was planning to make spag bol on Friday evening. A said she'd looked up the recipe, wondering what sort of exotic thing it was and then realised. "Doesn't say much for my Italian roots," she commented ruefully.
- In Monster Hunter World, for the first time I played for an hour or so without Mr Fox as I had some catch-up to do. Half-way through his Palico (NPC sidekick) turned up to help me. And talked to my Palico about how great his Monster Hunter was.
- Bea and I tried nail varnish from A-England (with thanks to Antonia). Hers is purple and mine is blue. So far the colour is lovely, but both needed multiple coats.
- I've proof-read nine short stories this weekend (three of them mine) as my writers' group is going to print them in a book.
- Dark Fall: Ghost Vigil is rather good, and I plan to write a review now I've finished it. It's an indie game involving ghost gadgets, general creepiness and an OK plot/concept.
- XCom Chimera Squad is both rather different from standard XCom and rather awesome.

My friend venta has a story published in Luna Station Quarterly Issue 38. It's an interesting, thoughtful sci-fi story and can be read on-line here. The whole set are short stories by women writers, the themes are mainly (but not all) dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction.

I have bought a physical copy, not least because it can be signed (although it's now looking rather less pristine). This means I've been reading all the other stories on the train. This is what I thought of them:

• Wired - I found this interesting and very readable, but sad.
• The Zoo - Nicely written, but depressing with a sense of inevitability.
• The Extent - Quirky, a specific style, and took me a while to get into it, but in the end excellent. Probably my favourite.
• Looking for Sentience - Readable, interesting take on the idea and not depressing.
• The Witch Road - Dull, over-long and I was so relieved to get to the end. I feel it should be interesting, but I didn't find it so. My least favourite.
• Ambassador Berry - Some nice bits in here, but really a series of interesting text bits and not so much a story.
• The Plover's Egg - I liked the story and I liked the egg, but I didn't feel the author really brought them together except in a forced way.
• Blue Lips and Frozen Lashes - A nice, short piece. I like the concept, but not long enough to be a story.
• Pocket Full of Souls - I think this was my second favourite. It's an interesting concept, although I felt the story end was unfinished and it would have been an interesting concept for a character in a much larger work.
• Grork Dentist - Yuck. And not one for anyone who has had a bad dentist experience.
• Vincent Coriolis, Father of the Nation - A good tale, well-told rather than with twists and turns.
• Into Nothingness - I liked the idea and the different viewpoints. However, I did want to make the author write more and not leave them all unfinished or, worse, discover that was all there was.

Needless to say, they can also all be found on-line here.

I woke up to a cat in the face. Reeve wanted his breakfast. At least there was purring.

I had lunch in Ealing with venta, chrestomancy and Chris C. There was a ham/gammon roast (we're not sure which). We then did Writers - our last one of 2018. However, we've already scheduled the first couple of months of 2019.

Now I'm writing my end of year entry. I'll finish it tomorrow, but as I've got other things on I thought I'd start it now.

Today's advent picture was a pair of badgers. It made me smile.

As the holly I took from the garden had wilted, I went out and got more. I was pleased to see it still had berries.



venta hosted Writers' today and produced an excellent roast lamb dinner. I'll still be waddling everywhere tomorrow! She also wrote the first story that made me cry.

My first week of work was busy but it's over and I managed to finish the things I needed to do. It was helped along by my train reading: Flesh Wounds - Chris Brookmyre. Flesh Wounds is the third book of his detective sequence (the others are Where the Bodies are Buried and When the Devil Drives). As for the previous two, I liked the plot and I liked the continued development of Jasmine, Catherine and Glen. Also - the reveal was good if not unexpected. I don't know whether he'll write any more of these as this third book does tie up many loose ends. As a trilogy I recommend it.

It's also been a fairly busy week for me socially (well, by my standards anyway). On Monday night we have an unexpected visitor in the form of bateleur's friend Gavin. He turned up because he was travelling from Dublin to Seattle and his first flight was so late that he missed the connection. So he came for dinner and overnight before he travelled back (he works at Wizards of the Coast and stayed with us over Xmas/New Year two years ago when we visited Windsor Castle if that rings any bells for anyone). On Wednesday there was the usual The Secret World. As Alistair complained about the screenshot on Gplus, here's another with all the characters clearly in it outside Dracula's tomb.



Thursday was Writers' Triangle with the second half of an Xmas story from chrestomancy, the first half of a new story from venta and my latest chapter. Then yesterday I ran Warhammer 40K - the last part of the Itazen arc involving both parties. The group saved the planet and also saved the third Inquisitor that they didn't like very much. They saw a battle between Space Marines (Sons of Orar - I've declared Itazen as their original home planet in slight contradiction to other sources) and Chaos Space Marines (Sons of Cyclops - although raising questions about where their non-Pyskers came from) - plus a Daemon possessing a Terminator Librarian. They killed the corrupt Governor and saw two corrupted ships destroyed. There are a few outstanding issues to take forward though:

• Who corrupted a black ship and how?
• Did the Governor bring chaos from his home planet?
• What is in the history of the Sons of Orar?
• What does the holy symbol do?
• What does the corrupted black ship mean for Marcus (Alistair's character) as he travelled in it himself?

I expect the next sessions to be separate again and following different threads of these.

I've also been playing more The Longest Journey. Here's a screenshot of the evil mage's castle.



Today bateleur has gone to Cambridge for a concert being held in his sister's memory. I'm at home to look after the duo and do the school run.

I've been writing all evening because our writing group is now meeting this Thursday. I have a nasty feeling it's going to be on the long side. At least it's Christmassy.

Since the duo left on Sunday I have:

• Given blood - given the timing (post that monthly thing) I was very surprised to have no problems with iron levels and was whisked off to a bed... well, fairly slowly. They were extremely busy, apparently it's one of their busiest locations (plus being a Sunday thing makes it busy). The blood giving went well, but afterwards I discovered a large bruise. I usually have a small one where the needle goes in but this was much bigger, much darker and triangular. I think it surrounds the needle area. It's an equilateral triangle with sides of about an inch long. How the hell did I get a triangular bruise? It doesn't hurt though.
• Tidied and cooked - On Monday we finally tackled the lounge and removed all the wrapping bits and relocated all the presents before vacuuming it so it looked presentable. Because we had a quisalan on Monday evening. Food was small turkey pittas with pots of things (cashew nuts, cheese chunks, olives, etc), king prawn pasta and chocolate pots. We started with gin and tonics, moved on to Orvietto and finished with coffee. We talked into the early hours of Tuesday and quisalan stayed over.
• Been a fairy - Yesterday we watched bateleur design levels and then played Little Big Planet. I started with my usual sack-outfits (the red-haired bride and the Spanish outfit 'cos they both have trains) then quisalan and I redesigned... as can be seen on bateleur's journal.
• Played The Lost Crown - The other thing I've been doing over the last few days is playing this. Turns out that it's not just by the Dark Fall creator, it's also a sort of sequel. A ghost hunter who is also looking for the crown of Anglia (hey, I come from there!). It's early days, but so far, so spooky. I dreamed about it last night.
• Started planning new book - Having not written anything pretty much all year, I'm finally getting some ideas together for a new book. Hopefully the lack of OU next year will mean I'll get on and write it too.

I found this on the BBC website and thought it was a superb story.

Today Bea ran her first RPG for me (she did one for bateleur yesterday). Given that she's seven, it wasn't too bad and had a character system (d6 based - although she seemed to think anything that wasn't a six counted as a fail) and a bunch of disappearing robots. However I'm not so convinced by the prospect of taking my elderly parents to Jupiter with me to fight some evil Robot King. We'll see if part 2 ever happens.

I re-read Mourn's Gift yesterday and today, finishing at lunchtime. (My first novel written some years ago - for anyone I haven't told.) I discovered one really nice thing about it - I love it; despite being far more aware of its flaws than I was at the time. Much as I want to be published, I realised that it's a really great thing to enjoy my own work and I'd rather never be published than turn out stuff that I don't really like. Not a surprising epitaph, I guess, but still a welcome one.

Finally, with my parents due in a few days, bateleur and I started the cleaning with a blitz on both bathrooms. I love a clean house, but such a thing involves a constant battle against entropy and hippos.

I've finally finished OU assignment number 3, so I feel it's time for an update.

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And I love the Battlestar Galactica soundtrack.

I've read A Hat Full Of Sky and The Bookseller of Kabul, I've watched The Gigolos and Mirrormask and I've finished Dreamfall and Shadow Hearts 2 on the computer and PS2 respectively.

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In between reading, watching and playing I've been enjoying the Easter fortnight, mostly spent at home (minus a day in work and half a day working from home).

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