Rhian Crockett

Relationships for (dead) dummies

2011-11-23T19:21:03Z

I know it's been a while since I was around. I've started my Master's degree, and I had computer troubles... but today I found a little microfiction scribbled on a piece of paper I was about to throw away. So here you go.

( A Moment Between )

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Sticking to your sources

2011-07-07T01:09:04Z

I'm finally back to working on the series of short stories I intended to get published in time for my mother's birthday (which was in February). I can never seem to work during the semester: there's always too much else to think about, so that the stories can't percolate properly in the back of my head.

Anyway, I'm at work again at last, and have just finished the first of a new set of stories to fit into that anthology. Hopefully, they're going to pick up the thread of Mordred and Agravain, which was left somewhat hanging originally, while I focused on Gawain, Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere. I just did a retelling of the story of Erec and Enide. So far, I've tried to stick close to my sources: I even refused to write properly about the cauldron in my substitute for a grail story, the voyage to Caer Sidi, because what we've got says they don't achieve it. Only seven return from Caer Sidi, and one gets the distinct impression they're not triumphant.

Which is great, except I just identified Erec with Gaheris, on very little grounds, if any. Oh, I know other contemporary writers have done it -- one at least: Sarah Zettel -- but it doesn't quite sit right with the work I've been doing so far. At least in theory. But in practice, to me, it feels right. It fits. It leads on to other stories and links back to others. It makes the story of Erec and Enide urgent to the reader, because they already care about Gawain and Gareth, and Gaheris is their brother.

The thing about Arthurian literature is that it's not a tapestry executed by one person, but more like a patchwork quilt made up of whatever each author had to hand. You can't match your colours and thread to all of the others, because everyone used their own material and what's there already doesn't match. You just have to pick and choose what works for you -- and that's one of the things that appeals to me about Arthurian literature, and about doing my own retellings. It's a riotous mass of colour and life, held together by the basic framework which everyone knows.

So, I don't think I'm apologising for stealing Gereint/Erec's story and giving it to someone else.

Next up: a reworking of Yvain, working in a backstory from a Scottish ballad, which is also sort of cheating when it comes to sticking to my sources. I'll leave you to wonder about that one, at least for now.

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The death of Gawain

2011-07-03T11:29:36Z

All I seem to be writing lately is microfiction... and some truly terrible poetry. You can have the microfiction; I'll keep the poetry.

The title is pretty descriptive of what the story is about, but you have to already be aware of the basic story of the Arthurian canon, and that Ragnelle is Gawain's wife. (One of them, anyway, depending on which source you're reading. She's the Loathly Lady of The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle and The Marriage of Sir Gawain. He also marries Lady Florie in a couple of other versions, including Wigalois: The Knight of Fortune's Wheel, but I've never connected with Florie like I do with Ragnelle.)

I'll add a Flattr link to this later, but my experiment with that isn't going well -- partly because I haven't done nearly enough to get traffic here, I know -- and I'm pretty sure no one would use it anyway! Added a Flattr button now!

( Ragnelle Accuses Arthur )

Ragnelle Accuses Arthur by Rhian Crockett is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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I'm just trying to put the atom back together

2011-06-26T20:17:01Z

On a long car journey today, I ended up half asleep -- it was so warm today, and I was in the passenger's seat -- and two songs in particular caught my attention and mingled in my sleepy brain. They were Dar Williams' The Great Unknown and Karine Polwart's Better Things. This story is less optimistic than either of those about technological development, although I am not myself overly pessimistic. It's non-specific about what technology it refers to, as I don't want it to be pinned to anything in particular.

The title is from The Great Unknown, and neatly references something else within the story too.

( Now It's Ticking )

Now It's Ticking by Rhian Crockett is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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Down into the Underworld

2011-06-19T14:03:59Z

As people can quickly figure out from glancing at this journal, I really like retellings. Especially ones that twist things a bit, turn some of the reader's expectations on their heads. Retellings that claim or reclaim something for people they didn't originally have space for.

So a friend poked me one day and asked if I could think of any women -- goddess or mortal, it didn't matter too much -- who would be down in the Underworld at the time of the Rape of Persephone. I had a think about it -- Pandora, perhaps? I thought -- and then remembered Hecate, who I knew helped Persephone in the Underworld...

And then the friend suggested I write a story for them, a lesbian twist on it. And here is that story. Details are drawn from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, The Aeneid (trans. W.F. Jackson Knight), and the twisty paths of memory and imagination. The idea of Hecate making the journey into the Underworld in this way is mine, her payment to Charon is mine, the tears and the laughter of Persephone are mine... yet hopefully I've made something that could almost fit in the repertoire of a Greek storyteller.

This is a commission, under my model of 'pay what you think it deserves' (and remember, payment is not always money). If you ever feel like commissioning something from me, PM me and we'll have a chat about it. Everything that I post here is free, at least for the moment, but I do need to eat, so if you come across my work and think, hey, I wish I could buy her dinner sometime... Well, there's a donate button on my profile, a Flattr button on all my story posts, and a meal and a drink at my favourite cafe costs me around £8.

For sparrowbunny, with lots of love, and many thanks for the seed of an idea.

( The Voice of Persephone )

The Voice of Persephone by Rhian Crockett is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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Lancelot and Elaine

2011-05-31T19:54:46Z

Been reading poetry and prose-poetry today, and I've felt like writing for a few days, so I sat down to do something. Especially since I've had so little time to pay attention to this blog, and it needs content! It's about Lancelot and Elaine...

(Also, look! I made myself an icon out of the draft artwork.)

( The Traitor's Heart )

The Traitor's Heart by Rhian Crockett is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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Welsh mythology rewritten

2011-04-30T16:33:21Z

So! It's the three_weeks_for_dw fest here, and there's some interesting stuff going on in turns of writing about Welshness (there's a FAQ here all about Wales). It's been a while since I posted anything, and a while since I wrote anything for myself. And it's a beautiful day, and as I was sat out in the sun, I was thinking about Blodeuwedd. Now, before I go on I'd better tell you her story, briefly. It comes from the Mabinogion. Lleu Llaw Gyffes is the son of Arianhrod, but she curses him because he is the result of a failed test about her virginity. (Welsh myth has lots and lots of issues about women, yes.) One of the curses is that he cannot have a human wife. So, out of flowers, Math and Gwydion make a woman for him. Her name is Blodeuwedd.

The problem is, she turns out to be unfaithful, plots his death with her lover, and when they carry out their plan, he is turned into an eagle. Gwydion rescues him and turns him back, and he takes vengeance. He turns Blodeuwedd into an owl, and kills her lover.

This story takes place after that.

I was thinking about Blodeuwedd, and about how women are always blamed and considered inconstant, and I was also thinking about a prose-poem I wrote, in which Blodeuwedd pleads her case, citing Lleu's hardness and unkindness, and the fact that she is made from flowers and is by her very nature inconstant (since flowers typically grow, bloom and die in one season). I wanted to answer that, in a sense, or augment it, by writing something in which a man is similarly unfaithful.

It didn't quite turn out that way, but the message is still there -- with an added environmental one I didn't intend. I see it as an LGBT retelling, but all that happens is men holding hands and sleeping beside each other, which just meant friendship between men in medieval times (or so I'm told).

( The Man of Oak and Stone )

The Man of Oak and Stone by Rhian Crockett is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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Book cover

2011-03-28T17:03:36Z

So someday -- eventually -- I do intend to make at least an ebook of my Arthurian stories, as a little collection. Maybe even with the bits of Arthurian poetry I've written. One of the problems is cover art, which my wonderful mother is out to solve. Below the cut are her drafts of what Camelot looks like!

( Camelot )

Of course, neither of these are "good enough", according to her, anyway, because it has to be "worthy" of the content. Hmmm.

This work by A. Crockett is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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Beginning the rewriting process

2011-03-24T23:45:05Z

The advice is always to leave your NaNoWriMo manuscript a while and come to it with a fresh eye, possibly in January. Well, it's been longer than that for me, but I finally seem ready to look at it -- it's only the second time I've felt compelled to come back to a story, really, and try to edit it, so that's probably a very good sign. The first time was in my first year of participating, and it came to nothing, but I have hopes this time.

I'm not sure how much of the actual writing I'll keep, but it definitely helped me get to know my characters. Right now, oddly enough, I have a lot of affection for my version of Bedwyr. I mean, I like him as a man. He's extremely close to Cai, and he balances Cai in many ways, and is good for Cai. (Who is rather more the Welsh version than the French: hot-tempered, but not deliberately malicious.) He 'told me' early in the process that he was one-handed, and that turned out to be somewhat plot-relevant, so I can't really tell you about it.

Vivienne is also involving herself much more than I expected. Which makes sense, as she'll become more prominent in the later 'books', as I have it planned. As long as she stops flirting with Gawain. (Characters. What can you do?)

At the moment, there's basically six 'books'. I have no idea how long they're going to be, though. I felt like I was stretching the first book, when I was writing it for NaNoWriMo, even at 50,000 words, which is considered short. I think I'll just see how it naturally falls, plus I'll expect words to be added during editing -- my style tends toward the sparse, without work. Since I'm planning to make them into ebooks myself, not try to sell the stories to a publisher, I think it'll be much less of an issue than it might seem, as long as the pricing is fair. And it will be, since I'm still not sure I'll charge anything at all.

Anyway, I'm very happy to be back to work again, and to have my 980 words of planning and structure as well as my messy, potentially hopeless first draft. It's a beginning.

I really need a title, though.

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Help Japan

2011-03-12T17:12:00Z

Lightning quick post -- I've put an offer up for original fiction on help_japan, here. Will do fairytale retellings, Arthurian legends, LGBT-ified retellings...

A couple more examples of my writing for you, as promised in that comment.

( Click to read 'A Warning Note', a rondeau )

( Click to read three microfictions based on the story of the fall of Troy, with commentary )

Please consider bidding for my work in the auction: I will work very hard to ensure that anything you receive once you have donated is the very best work I can do.

This work by Rhian Crockett is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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Mea culpa

2011-02-19T11:43:15Z

It's been a long time since I actually wrote a blog post, for which I apologise. Not good form! I have, of course, been very busy. Unfortunately, it hasn't really involved much writing. I am writing at the moment, but I don't think it's likely to see the light of day beyond the class I'm writing it for -- it's highly autobiographical, and while it's taking a good ol' swing away from reality (names and genders changed, odd new subplots cropping up that never existed in my real day to day life), it's not something I really want to put out there in the world even so. The made-up aspects just make me more worried about what people might assume about my life!

I'd like to remind you all of the diversified fairytale anthology idea. I set a deadline for it, but got no acknowledgements, or submissions, or anything so far. I'll probably change the submission date and talk more about it later this week, but I thought I'd remind anyone hanging around here that it is going ahead and you might want to work on something to submit!

I also talked in that post about work on my anthology of Arthurian stories. I wrote a few more over Christmas, but I still need to do some work to make sure there are enough stories to make it worthwhile. I do have someone -- my mother in fact -- working on a front cover for it, which is exciting. In my head, Camelot looks like a larger version of Castell Coch, but we'll see what my dear mama comes up with. I'll update you on that as soon as she sends me progress pictures.

I've also been reading some amazing books, recently -- I completely recommend Jo Walton's Among Others, and Justine Larbalestier's Liar.

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On the Kindle store

2011-01-13T10:57:48Z

I'm sorry I've been so absent, lately. I'm doing exams, and applying for an MA, and blahblahblah etc. I just wanted to share this, an article that reminds us that no matter what Amazon says all over the site, you cannot buy ebooks on Amazon. You buy a licence which allows you to read them.

I think authors should be aware of that, too, as well as buyers. I've had conversations with published authors who claim that having the ebook priced almost the same as the print book, or more, on Amazon, is fair, because what you're buying is the story, either way. But that's not the case: with a print book, you own it. You don't own a Kindle ebook.

(I say this as a Kindle owner who will -- up to a point -- buy books on the Amazon store if they're not readily available elsewhere.)

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Three points: love stories, Arthurian stories, and your stories

2010-12-15T15:50:33Z

Hello, everyone! It's been a while, I know. I'm knee-deep in writing an essay that's essentially a mythic biography of Sir Gawain, so that's taking a lot of my energy right now. But I do have three things to say.

1) I am still in love (in love all over again?) with the love story in The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle. It doesn't run throughout the text, no, but the ending leaves the reader in little doubt of how Gawain felt about his wife:

She lyvyd with Sir Gawen butt yerys five;
That grevid Gawen alle his lyfe,
I telle you securly.

In her lyfe she grevyd hym nevere;
Therfor was nevere woman to hym lever.

Even though it does say that 'Gawen was weddyd oft in his days', his relationship with her is set apart as special. I do love it.

2) I am planning, after this Christmas, to put together the Arthurian short stories I've written into a book. This will probably require revision of those already existing, adding some new ones, and the subtracting of those that may not be of general interest (or which I haven't personally researched with references to primary sources).

I'm trying to think up what to do about the cover art. Fortunately, my close friend and my mother are both artistically inclined, so there might be some help for it there.

3) The anthology project is going ahead, still. If you want to get people interested in it, I suggest you link to this post, which talks in depth about the kind of things I'm expecting to include. You can ask me any questions here, or by emailing me at rhian.crockett[at]gmail[dot]com. That's also, I think, where you can send any submissions.

I think I will arbitrarily choose 23rd March as the final submission date, since it's a date I can remember for other reasons! Submissions before that are welcome, but I will probably wait until that date to actually make decisions -- the most you will get is an acknowledgement of the story. If there are any problems with your story (not relevant enough, not in line with the goals of the anthology, etc), I'll email you back if possible, so you can revise it or submit something else. Multiple submissions are okay: max of 5,000 words for an individual piece, and do not submit more than 10,000 words total.

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On NaNoWriMo

2010-11-29T17:05:31Z

It's been a while since I updated you all about NaNoWriMo. I kind of burnt out on it -- I've been writing rubbish for the past few days, just to get it done, for my own stubbornness. I haven't really been interested in updating people about it, because it's, like I said, rubbish.

That's not to say I haven't got anything out of NaNoWriMo. I have, but for some years I've been somewhat burnt out by the whole phenomenon -- the very first novel I wrote for it, Shadow, was glorious. I wrote and explored a whole story, without getting caught up in whether it was good or bad. The same in the couple of years after that. Since then, though, it's become too much of a personal competition with myself: can I finish earlier than before? Can I write two novels in the time? Can I write a good novel?

I'm not sure what I can do about that, other than take some time away from NaNoWriMo. A part of me would hate to do that -- I've participated and won every year since 2004! -- but another part of me thinks it may be the only sensible thing to do. I've stopped taking joy in it.

The experience is very valuable in some ways: getting you to sit down and write every day, getting you to write without second guessing, getting you to throw yourself into it whole-hearted. And even for me, this time, it's helped me get to know my characters, and the story, and helped me to listen to my characters and what they want/need to do.

I'm just not sure NaNoWriMo is what I need, now. I'll have to give the matter some thought, over the next year!

I do want to keep dealing with this novel, so now I have to navigate an editing process, which I think will largely be rewriting almost from scratch. I might try the 'two pages a day' sort of method. I'll probably start work on that in January -- I have some short stories to be writing, through December.

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Retellings anthology: more thoughts!

2010-11-24T16:25:20Z

It's been a while since I posted about it, but I haven't forgotten about the "diversified fairytales" plan. I've been planning to lead this project, while involving a lot of discussion, so feel free to query any points in this post (or in the comments) and discuss them. Some of this has already been discussed with a couple of people, but it's still not certain.

For those of you who might be new to the project, this is the original post about it, and this is the original idea: to create an anthology made up of 'diversified' retellings, which bring to the fore stories, characters and issues that are typically ignored or deliberately excluded by tradition.

Here are some thoughts I've had on things we need to discuss. I apologise if this seems disorganised: I've never tried to do anything like before.

Things that would not be allowed:
-Fanfiction. It's a legal gray area, for one thing, and we're looking to publish it, so characters and worlds copyright to other people are out of bounds. (There could be some discussion of allowing derivative works based on out-of-copyright canons. If you want to do something like that, let me know before you start work and we'll try to puzzle out the legality of it and whether it fits within the scope of the project.)
-Erotica. While stories should not stigmatise sex, I think we want to make something accessible. Including sex is fine, but I'd say not higher than R-rated, and it should not be the entire point of the story.

Stories that would be allowed:
-Traditional fairytales. Examples: Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, etc. Be wary of using anything Disney can claim is copyright, though.
-Myths. Examples: Cupid & Psyche, the Trojan war, the Mabinogion, etc.
-Legends. Examples: King Arthur, Robin Hood, etc.
-Fables. Example: Aesop's fables, etc.
-Original fairytales/myths/legends. Example: Neil Gaiman's Stardust. By this I mean anything that uses the tropes of fairytales (or myths/legends) to create a new story. If you want to write a creation myth for a hypothetical fantasy world, for example, that would be appropriate.

Basically, one of those stories we tell and retell. I'm going to collect a list of resources for where to get source texts for free online, so feel free to send me links to add.

Ways to diversify:
-Using myths/legends/folktales from traditions not well known in the West. (It may be well known in the country of origin, but it hasn't been taken up by the West.)
-Including characters of different races, or expanding their roles, in texts where they have been excluded deliberately or used as the generic 'heathens', etc.
-Including characters who do not fit into the normal gender roles given by the original stories, or expanding their roles. I don't want to include a gazillion stories that simply recast the traditional ones with flipped gender roles, but women are often given very unsatisfactory roles in these stories. I'm also talking about including transgendered and agendered characters, who have even less place in the traditional stories we tell.
-Including characters whose sexuality does not fit into the traditional roles. This would include homosexuality, bisexuality, asexuality, and also polyamorous relationships, and possibly also kink-positive ones (bearing in mind that we would want the focus to be on the relationship, not on sex).
-Including characters who have disabilities, whether inherited genetically or received during their lifetime. (E.g. a princess who was born unable to see, or a soldier who lost a leg, etc.)
-Including characters who are not neurotypical in positive roles. Villains can be mentally ill, in these stories, but it's rare for this to be treated with compassion or accuracy.

We're trying to make a collection where there is space for everyone to see something of themselves and their own experiences, in short. Rewrites that simply involve defence of the villainous characters, for example, are interesting, but not appropriate here. 'Dark' retellings are also not necessarily automatically relevant. Either of these could be relevant if coupled with other ways of diversification, of course. The list above is not exhaustive, and I'm happy to discuss adding other things to it -- I have my blindspots, and would appreciate anyone pointing out if I've left something important out.

Other notes:
It's important to remember that this material comes with baggage. Often its deeply misogynistic, and that could even be unintentionally intensified in a rewrite. I'm happy to discuss plans with people, and I'm sure other participants in the project would volunteer to help as well. We as writers also carry our own prejudice, with everything we write, so please be aware of and sensitive to that.

When it comes to the length of these stories, I think they should all be somewhere between 200 and 5,000 words. Microfiction is welcome, as are longer short stories, but we're not going to go as far as accepting novellas!

Re: publishing: my thoughts are pretty much Smashwords, Lulu and the Kindle store, but people with other suggestions to add are very welcome to do so. The ebooks would be non-DRM, and if there is a fee for buying the book, it would be nominal. Personally, I'm inclined towards a nominal fee, and whatever profits we get being donated to charitable causes, but I'm not wedded to any idea yet. Again, discussion is welcome. What this comes down to is that I don't have money to pay you for your stories -- this is a one woman operation, here! Whatever happens, each person would have some space to talk about who they are, what other things they've written and where they can be found, things like that.

I haven't thought much about submission yet. I do want to warn you that I'm not going to automatically accept everything. I will probably ask for a couple of volunteers to read everything and help me decide, but we'll be limited based on how many submissions we get, the diversity of submissions, the quality of submissions, etc. Just because you're my friend will not be an automatic pass.

If you've already published such a story, as long as you still have the right to have it published elsewhere, it's welcome.

We will not only need authors, but someone to make a cover for the collection. I'd welcome volunteers, or we could wait and see whose work will be included and at that point club together to commission a cover...

I will also need help with understanding if there's any legalities I need to be aware of and deal with, anywhere in the process. I am a total newbie to doing this.

Right. Deep breath! I think this is ready to post. As I've said, remember that I intend everything to be up for discussion, and while I do see myself as the final decision maker, I will ask for advice and listen to other people's views.

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Book "thieves"

2010-11-22T16:06:04Z

There's nothing new about writers complaining about "book pirates", this being only one of the many posts I've seen on it. The usual arguments are familiar, too, and I see no particular need to cover them myself -- a bit of googling should find you more of the debate, if you're interested.

Personally, I try to be mindful in my reading (see: holyschist's post on it, here). If I read a book in such a way that the author doesn't make any profit from it, and there are legal ways to do this (secondhand bookshops, borrowing from a friend, libraries, free copies given out online), I usually try to make sure that the author does profit as a result, provided I think the author is worth supporting (e.g. I would not buy a copy of a book full of racist ableist crap).

The way I do this is twofold: first of all, I talk about the book. I tell people that I loved it, or didn't, and discuss it with people. That happens, in fact, regardless of whether I liked the book or not.

For example, I read Shades of Milk and Honey, by Mary Robinette Kowal, on the train this morning. I didn't really enjoy it: the debt to Jane Austen is more than she seems to acknowledge. All the characters, the whole situation, all of it is taken from bits and pieces of Austen's work, and then magic -- "glamour" -- is pasted on over the top. Her writing is competent enough, but without Austen's subtleties. I'd recommend as "beach reading", not as something serious that has depth. Regardless, Mary Robinette Kowal has that benefit from me, if nothing else: she's being talked about, and reaching more people.

Think of Tim O'Reilly's essay, available here, in which he states that, "Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy."

I have friends who would buy anything that has the vaguest link to Jane Austen. And they in turn will tell their friends, who feel the same way, so that from just my not terribly positive reaction to Kowal's work, there's a whole chain of potential sales.

Second of all, I buy a copy for someone else. For their birthday, for Christmas, or just because, whatever. In my case, the answer is usually "just because". That's pretty much the first point all over again, with the addition of my single purchase of the book for someone (which makes, what, 50p difference to the author's potential net profits?).

I have a lot of problems with the argument as it is so often framed. The accusation that "you don't work for free, so why should I?", for example. I didn't know they could read my mind -- wait, clearly they couldn't, since I do (so far at least) write for free. I might be a volunteer for a charity organisation. I might be the partner who stays at home to look after the children, in which case my hard work would almost certainly not be paid for.

(People involved in fandom almost invariably write for free, and often produce wonderful work which cannot legally be paid for. I haven't quite worked out how I want to work that into my argument, but it is on my mind. The idea that there is a moral imperative to pay an artist for their work is likely foreign to many people who are artists, whether they are popularly considered to be so or not.)

My final point is very anecdotal, and not directly related to books and publishing. The music service, Spotify, has been around for a couple of years now. It's a legal way to listen to whatever you want, apparently at no cost to you except viewing a few ads (unless, like me, you pay for a premium account). By this time, most of my friends and family have Spotify, and none of us do any kind of downloading of music, except perhaps where Spotify's catalogue of available music doesn't have what we want.

Spotify may have problems related to how much they pay the record labels and artists whose music they make accessible, but if we imagine it were a perfect system, I think it would cut down on a lot of the problems. One of the reasons people download music is because they want something specific, and they want it right now. Services like Spotify allow instant gratification, for little to no cost. It also allows people to try out new music, some of it old or obscure. Or, for another example, I'm not interested in Neil Young's music, generally, but I've had "War of Man" on repeat, entirely legally, since I was earwormed with it last week. The temptation of downloading it illegally would have been great, if this was ten years ago, when I would neither have wanted to buy the CD nor had a way to pay for a single song online (since I didn't have a credit or debit card).

I suspect that instant gratification is part of the attraction of ereading devices like the Kindle. When I have mine (Christmas!), I'll be able to download books instantly, wherever I am, thanks to 3G access to the Kindle store. They have many books available, many of them at very affordable/competitive prices.

As musicians have in the past, authors need to come to terms with the digital world. My first suggestion for that would be to make sure that your book is available worldwide as an ebook -- I've seen one artist decrying the illegal downloads of a scanned copy of her book as "unnecessary" when no official ebook was available -- and at a reasonable price.

There's a whole 'nother debate about what "a reasonable price" constitutes, which I don't have time to share my thoughts on, just now.

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Day Twenty-One

2010-11-21T15:26:41Z

Thankfully, my hand is better today. Not a clue what I did to it, but it doesn't seem to have been permanent.

I did take ages to get today's wordcount, but oh well. Did you know that prophecies are an excellent way to pad it out?

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Day Twenty(ish)

2010-11-21T03:27:31Z

A very late update, tonight. I was a bit busy, and also, my netbook doesn't display some sites very well, so I just waited to do this until I could borrow my parents' big shiny computer ~~and play with their installation of Windows Whatever-It-Is~~.

It took me a loooong time to get wordcount, and my hand hurts. I'm hoping it's not typing related, and that it will be better in the morning...

My mother and I have been discussing the idea of her doing some photography to grace the cover of this particular novel, assuming I ever finish it, which feels less and less likely every day -- oh, I'll get 50,000 words, I'm the stubbornest thing you ever did see on that account, but whether I'll have the heart to keep going back, over and over, trying to fix it... Ugh.

Still, we also talked about me filling a couple of the gaps in my series of Arthurian short stories -- mostly via the addition of some kind of grail quest, although I would probably make it a quest to Caer Sidi to get the cauldron. We'll see how that goes: it might be that I offer the ten pieces as-is, given that they were written to go together and to suggest, in the gaps, the shape of what I don't tell...

In any case, my hand hurts, and I'd best be off to bed.

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Day Nineteen

2010-11-20T00:55:41Z

Trains, trains, trains. Yawwwn. Got writing done before the train journey, thankfully. Not looking forward to writing tomorrow on my netbook.

SleeeeeeezzzzzzzzZZzzzzzzzzz...

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Day Eighteen (if barely!)

2010-11-19T00:00:07Z

Today, the words would not come. I got to the natural ending point for my scene, turned in my notebook to the next scene, and realised that I need a scene in between the two, otherwise it doesn't really make sense. I am trying to make as much sense as possible out of it, so this is entirely necessary.

Sigh.

The weekend will be spent achieving my wordcount on my tiny little netbook, which may or may not go well.

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Day Seventeen

2010-11-17T23:21:25Z

Happily, Wednesdays are my day off, so I got my writing done in good time. I don't have much to say about it, though, so I shall go off and read now.

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Day Sixteen

2010-11-16T23:47:30Z

Got my wordcount in the library, typing away awkwardly on my tiny little netbook, appropriately named Gawain. I'm slowly coming to terms with the realisation that I can't use much of this. But I'm getting to know my characters, and feeling out the plot, and starting to understand my world better, and that's all I really ask.

Now excuse me while I toddle off to do yoga and ~~read more Garth Nix~~ get an early night.

(My mood is due to a case of particularly pernicious hiccups. Ugh!)

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Day Fifteen

2010-11-15T20:10:44Z

Today's writing went quite well, thankfully, and was easy enough to get done. Partly because Ragnelle and Guinevere both had points they wanted to make about the society they live in. My Camelot was looking a bit idyllic: they just cut it down to size, between them.

In case anyone was wondering, I elected to read Garth Nix's Mister Monday. Which I have already finished. And I'm partway through Grim Tuesday. So I really was in the right mood for those.

In fact, I think I'll go read some more, now.

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Day Fourteen

2010-11-14T23:42:51Z

It is that part of NaNoWriMo where I feel tired. I want my life back. I want to read, or go out for dinner, or... anything other than write and do work for class. I'm getting an ache in my back that yoga can't quite unkink, whenever I sit down to write.

Still, I'm keeping on with it. I always do.

If you were going to read relaxing children's/YA lit, would you go for Garth Nix or Eoin Colfer, right now? I've been meaning to get round to both, and it could be a nice break for my poor brain...

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Day Thirteen

2010-11-14T01:20:45Z

Day thirteen was... day thirteen. I backed up my novel, and eked out my wordcount during another interminable train journey. I'm currently developing the character of the victim's mother, and she is surprising me a little -- she embodies a kind of commentary about the kind of king Arthur is.

Too bad this chapter is badly overwritten and probably needs chucking, when I edit.

In lieu of more interesting content, here, an article I liked on inclusionary writing.

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