Linkage Vol. 2

More posts on editing, this time a list of the editing podcasts Writing Excuses have done. March is NaNoEdMo, so we will be focusing on editing our novels at the Writers Meet in MilkWood. At least, I will be. This post is to give me an easier link to add to my nifty SecondLife notecard. Hope they are a help to you.

Killing Your Darlings
This Sucks and I'm a Horrible Writer
Talking Revision with Moshe Feder(editor at Tor)
Trimming
Working with Editors
Line Editing
Line Editing Dialogue
Critiquing Dan's First Novel

This is my FAVORITE writing podcast, hilarious hosts(especially Dan) and lots of good information.

As to Inky's word count challenge, I've been more of a 250 a dayer than a 1000 a dayer. Family crap and rejections keeping my head in the wrong place. It's a work in progress.

Happy editing!

No Eggs for You!

Yesterday morning suffered from a severe lack of supplies. No coffee creamer and no eggs. I was, however, in full use of a stomach ache that wouldn't quit. This morning, it was the cold. Oh my god, the weather needs to decide whether it is winter or spring. The man and I both attempted to rehibernate this morning, and the boy still isn't up.

Why do I let such petty things get in the way of my goals? I don't know, it is the way it goes. I need to look up to Mr. Corgan and get up at seven am to get some work done every morning, but my body is not cooperating.

I don't think it is ever going to cooperate.

I was also going to write an article covering St. Patrick's Day for the bloggy people, but I don't think that is going to happen. I am not going to be on SecondLife for the majority of Wednesday, at least that's the hope, so why do I want to waste my time writing a free article about St. Patrick's Day locations?

Or maybe I am mad because a damn Linden blogger got to the wrestling story before me. And wrote the usual piss poor dry shit that comes out of that blog. Funny how ahead of trend my brain works, considering how little it lets me care about such things. Next time I have an instinct, I'll just go with it. That would've resulted in an article out at least a week before the Lindens put out theirs.

The primary problem isn't the corporate whores getting to an activity of interest before me. I am still pissed over my lack of motivation and discipline that lead to that article not being written by me, and the rest of my problems as well. House would be cleaner if I motivated myself better. At least one book would be done. I'd get my two entries into Virtual Writer's World every week.

Though I am honest with myself about that, she's been getting punished the last two weeks for moving my favorite writing place with no warning. Sorry Harriet, but the POS Scottish sim is not the same, the setup isn't exactly the same, and the entire feel is different. I'll suck it up and go to talk to other writers, but Milkwood no longer inspires me. And that's just sad.

Get it together. You keep changing and doing things on a whim, and it shows with the sites. No comments except from us, and barely any of those. Immature and unedited crap front and center when you're supposed to catch it. Stop instigating new events and moving sacred things around and handle your business, please. Your flighty crap is driving me insane, and I may have to limit my sl literary interactions to Bookstacks and the Written Word if you keep up this way.

Which you totally will. I have taken a step back from SecondLife in the week since the gypsy camp at Milkwood was moved, I almost want to thank the Mistress of Milkwood for that. If the break hadn't come along with depression. No one likes their favorite writing spot moved, even if it is virtual. Though this is all just another excuse.

I need to wake up at seven like my hero, Mr. Corgan. I'm writing soon after I wake, so maybe tomorrow I'll actually wake up on time.

Do whatever it is you do to pray for me, mmmk?

Milkwood Poetry Festival

Time for a little shameless plugging, folks. I have been accepted as a reader for Milkwood's 1st Annual Poetry Festival. This scares me, but in a good way.

I have played the role of hermit writer for a long time. The draw of SecondLife for me lies in the opportunities to connect with other writers here. Part of connecting with other writers is reading your work out loud, and it has been a long time since I have participated in an open mic. Fear and transportation have gotten in my way for about five years now. The grid takes care of my transportation issue, at least.

Fear is a harder thing to handle. The literary community in world is full of talent, and I have come to respect the work of my fellow writers here. The lineup of the poetry fest reads like my most wanted list. Flawnt Alchemi is leading off the festival at 1Pm Friday, at the Bookstacks Performance Space. I adore his use of language. Rosemary Serenity will be reading at Storybook Dell, 1:45PM, her introspective musings on human nature always inspire me. Another must see for me on Friday will be Stosh Quartz at the Stone Circle, 2PM. I enjoyed her poetry workshop at the Haunted Library the few times I could make it. The other workshop she's involved in, Saturday mornings at 10AM, at The Blue Angel Poet's Dive, has been a quest of mine from my first Saturday on grid. It would seem a perfect time for me, with the afternoon just settling in here and laziness the name of the game after a week of schoolishness. Various rl and sl things have gotten in the way, and the time of the workshop does, well, float around a bit. I will catch a full one this Saturday morning. Maybe.

Back to the poetry fest and my quest to get over the inevitable stage fright that settled in when I received a request from Harriet Gausman, the lovely mistress of Milkwood, for an author biography. My brain screamed help and my fingers flew to the Google search bar. I found some good advice, and spent an hour crafting a little blurb about myself, rather skewed towards my avatar persona, such as it is. Self promotion is a skill that I am still learning, partly by reading, mostly via trial by fire. I feel relatively squeemish doing it, but there's nothing to do but try. At least I am reading on Saturday.

Friday afternoon will be spent taking in the sights of Milkwood to the accompaniment of words whose beauty may surpass the view. While I furiously take mental notes and get my setlist of poems ordered for my own reading Saturday at the Stone Circle, of course. The grid has given me a wonderful new source for deadlines. Harriet is a gentle taskmistress, though. I work better under pressure, it makes me force my brain to a stop and go forward with an idea.

I am on after Rosedrop Rust, a poet I enjoy and respect a lot. The one open mic I can get to with any regularity, Literary Night at the Hotel Chelsea, has been graced with his presence on quite a few happy occasions. His particular brand of word whimsy is always enlightening, and slightly twisted. His poems make me smile. After all that joy, maybe my fears will be erased and I can sail right through my thirty minutes of personal horror without so much as a stutter. I'll just imagine all the avatars are wearing underwear, yeah. Or is someone willing to do me a favor and come that way?

I didn't think so. Damn.

The party of poetry at the Stone Circle on Saturday also includes Klannex Northmead, pirateneko poet extrodinare - pray he reads Peaches, everyone - and Huckleberry Hax, who in addition to being a poet also writes stories using the uniqueness of the grid as a setting.

Sunday's readings are going to be housed in the cozy Haunted Library Room, perfect for the weaving of words on an early spring afternoon. That last statement about spring may be wishful thinking, but let me have my dreams people, please. The dumping of snow on the east coast led to one aborted Blue Angel workshop attempt, and one complete miss. Corwyn Allen, reading at 3PM, shared a deep and descriptive work in progress at the part of a workshop I did make it to. I look forward to hearing his words, while ensconced in a rich, velvet covered chair, surrounded by dark bookcases, and in front of a roaring fire.

Right now, the yearning for that moment is making the draft in my office more noticeable. April, save us! I shall take solace in the writer's fantasy that is Milkwood, and let the words of my fellows and my own leap of faith propel me through March, to glorious spring.

The entire lineup of poets for the 1st Annual Milkwood Poetry Festival is as follows:

Friday, March 5th, 2010
Flawnt Alchemi - 1PM - Bookstacks Performance Space
Morgue McMillan - 1:30PM - Outside Milk Wood Library
Rosemary Serenity 1:45PM - at Storybook Dell
Stosh Quartz - 2:00 - 2:30PM - at the Stone Circle
Kezhen Yheng - 2:30-3PM - at the Stone Circle

Saturday, March 8th - Stone Circle
Rosedrop Rust - 1:00 - 1:30PM
June Stormcrow - 1:30 - 2:00PM
Donjuan Writer - 2:00 - 2:15PM
Morgue McMillan - 2:15 - 2:30PM
Klannex Northmead - 2:30-3:00PM
Huckleberry Hax - 3:00 - 3:15PM

Sunday, March 7th - Haunted Library, Milkwood
Wolfgang Glinka - 1:00 - 1:30PM
Kamille Kamala 1:30 - 2:00PM
IU's Man in Black - 2:00 - 2:30PM
Aianna Oh - 2:30-3:00PM
Corwyn Allen - 3:00 - 3:30PM
Manx Wharton - 3:30 -4:00PM

This is an event enabled by voice. Please do not feel pressured to speak, only encouraged to listen. All times are SLT.

I love having fine print.