Checking In While Waiting for Good News

Just wanted to say Hey.

Whatcha thinking bout.

Me?  Oh not much.  I haven’t written anything for a few weeks.  A strange feeling.  I’ve trained myself so well that it feels really odd to not be writing.  Like petting a cat the wrong way.  But I needed a break.  And it’s good.

My manuscript is out with several agents now.  It’s a wonderful feeling.  “Waiting while hopeful” is a different sort of anticipation than the previous bouts of waiting.  Not that I wasn’t hopeful those other times, it’s just… several full manuscript requests.  From amazing agents.  I just… it feels like I’m really close here.  I hope I catch one of them by the heartstrings enough to go to bat for it.

There’s a few funny things below, and after, some Original Content of my trip to the Vancouver Aquarium!

Tales From IT, part one and part two.  A good and terrifying read.

Someone has been waiting literally 20 years for me to get this joke:

And a good ol’ knee slapper:

Also, last night I went to a preview performance of The Tempest with my friends. It was great! The Tempest holds a special place in my heart, because it was the first Shakespeare that I studied. I was worried my opinion of it would be tainted by nostalgia, but this latest viewing of it proved that it stands the test of time. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would recommend it. Bard on the Beach never ceases to amaze.

The portrayal of the sisters Stephana and Trincula absolutely slayed me. I was in stitches. You ladies nailed it!

And now, some pictures from my recent trip to the Vancouver Aquarium!

The Octopus came out to say hello!

It’s MEGA big. Like, I got Deep One vibes off of him.

Coelacanth!  I made a post in /r/Dinosaurs about this specimen, with more pictures.  

And, one more of the Octopus.  He was the highlight of the trip!  More photos of the octopus can be found in this album, right here.  

Aaand, a kitten picture.  Lemon sleeps with her leg splayed out weirdly sometimes.  

That’s all for now folks!  While I play the waiting game, I’m playing Minecraft again, the Apocalypse Server of course.  I’ve only been senselessly killed half a dozen times so far!  My little farms are going well, and I’m digging a *huge* inverted pyramid, which I will name something like “Monument to Waiting”.

Just didn’t want you to think I’d forgotten about you.  Hopefully good news soon.  😉

Thanks for sticking around.

Heidi out.

World War ZZZ: Phase 4

I now enter Phase 4 of my latest project.

World War ZZZ is a book about what would happen if the world stopped sleeping.  It’s gripping, compelling, and heartbreaking.  It showcases the depths that humanity can sink to, and also the heights to which it can soar, when put to the ultimate test.

It’s written.  It’s edited.  (Side note- this is the fewest edits I’ve ever received from my beta readers; I’m getting pretty darn good at editing!  Or maybe the story was so good that their attention was elsewhere?  Either way I’m pretty stoked.)

And now comes a part I’ve previously dreaded: approaching agents with the work to see if they would represent it and take it to publishers.

But I’m not dreading it.  I’m actually feeling pretty pumped about it.  Why?  Because I know this book will pull people in.  I know it will sell.  I am so confident in this manuscript that I am in danger of feeling overly confident.  A little arrogant maybe even.

After all, this was the most difficult thing I’ve ever written, and it turned out damn good.  Damn good I say old chap.

Or maybe this feeling is covering for the terror of agent-hunting yet again?  *nervous laughter* 


In any case, I’ve queried a few agents who I’d love to work with.  Watching interviews and looking at their existing clientele is a great way to see if an agent is for you, and so far I’ve found several who I think would rep this novel well.

So I’ll keep you updated with how it’s going.  Every full request bolsters my spirit, every rejection is expected.  I’ll grab one of them enough to go to bat for World War ZZZ, and then we’ll get this party really started.

In the mean time, here’s a great way to find and share music I’ve been participating in:

plug.dj.com is pretty neat!  You basically are in a room with people sharing music, and you can share too!  You have three options when a song is playing: woot! (you like it), grab (you like it enough to save it for later listening), and meh (you don’t care for it).

I’ve been listening to tunes with the folks on the Miner Apocalypse minecraft server, and you can come see if anyone is DJing, here. If not, set up a playlist! 🙂  Once I begin my next project, I’ll be playing music to write to here.  (I’ll let you know when the tunes star flowing in case you want some writing background sound too!)  I love making playlists to add to the ambiance of whatever genre I’m writing.  Western Inspiration, Noir, Epic Film Soundtracks, Rock.

If you hear something you like, grab it for later, and then find it in iTunes!  I’ve bought more new music from hearing it on plug.dj than anything else recently.

Hope to see/hear you there!

I played Banished for a little too much there… I had three builders building their town’s first Tavern, and I’ve never seen them work so fast.

Heh.

What else.  Oh man, at the end of writing, I was binge-watching TV shows like it was my job.  It was such a good escape from the horrors I was crafting in the novel, even though some of the shows I watched took horror to a whole new level.

Like, holy smokes.
It’s terrible, but such a guiltly pleasure.

And then it was Attack on Titan.

I could write a whole post on this one, but I think the less I say, the better.  I went into it knowing very little, and it was a better experience for it.

I’ll tell you it’s an anime, it’s brutal, and scary and disturbing.  There are giant monsters that eat people.  The monsters look like people.  We made walls to keep them out, and we live in a safe zone inside the outer wall.  The show begins on the day that this outer wall is breached.

Just an amazing show.  Many feelings.  Such tears.  Wow.

Yesterday, after I spent the morning querying, I watched Rick and Morty, and I loved it.  Oh, Dan Harmon is involved (you know, from Community?).

It’s pretty dope.  And then around episode 6 it goes from funny to like, way more serious than I was expecting.  Like, things got real.  And I loved it even more.

The last of the TV worth mentioning is this stunning HBO miniseries, True Detective. Talk about sublime characterization; my god man, this show pulled me in and wouldn’t let go until the final second. I gotta recommend it.

Oh yeah, I haven’t just been studying storytelling/rotting my brain with TV… I have been play testing a board game in development, and reading.  I read The Handmaid’s Tale (how on earth did I go this long without having read Margaret Atwood!  I skipped grade 11 English so maybe it wasn’t entirely the school’s fault…).

I’m also giving Neil Gaiman a rare 4th shot.  Usually it’s 3 strikes and you’re out.  But when I tell people I’m not into Neil Gaiman I get looks like I’ve just drowned a sac of puppies or something… *sigh*  So I’ll try again.  I really want to like his writing.

Anyway this post is bordering on the rambling, so I’ll end it here.  I’ll keep you updated with good news as it comes in.

Thank you all for your support.  It’s really lovely of you to continue to stop by and see how things are going on this long road to being a published author!  ❤

Cheerio.

Thanks for reading.

Heidi out.

Well, the bulk of the writing is done.

Three and a half months.  60k words.  Not bad.

Now comes the hard part… the part where I can see all the things wrong with it and have to fix them.  Even worse is seeing things wrong with it that aren’t actually wrong.  This is when the crushing doubt threatens to kick in and trip me up.

I’m taking a bit of a break.  I’ll let it ruminate for a week before I even begin fixing the things I know about, and it’ll be a month of thinking about things from all angles.

In the mean time, I’m looking forward to VCON, a Sci-Fi/Fantasy convention that begins tomorrow.  I’ve never been!  There are a ton of great events for writers.  Really looking forward to it.

But today, Doctor Who and Minecraft, while I try and shake my brain free of the Alot of Doubts.

Thanks for reading.

Heidi out.

The Exciting World of Home-Brewing!

Aaron and I and his co-worker Chris have been brewing!  Chris makes various neato beers, and Aaron and I are jumping on the opportunity to have someone help us along as we get into a new and exciting hobby.  A tasty, tasty hobby.

Our first batch of Pear Mead came out rather well!

We have bottles on reserve to be opened in 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10 years.

And we’ve got a couple of smaller experiments happening; a root beer, and a test for a larger Apple Cizer.  Both are bubbling away nicely.

Today I go get a large primary fermenter bucket for large projects.

And perhaps also today, I want to start a test for a pumpkin wine.

In other news, I’ve been emailing the various productions that are starting filming in the next few weeks around Vancouver.

I got my Traffic Control Person certification, and I hear PAs with a flagger’s ticket are pretty useful.

In still other news, I was on the front page of Reddit last week for my Minecraft project, a Hardcore Superflat world.

Thread (with link to album) here.

Anyway, that’s all for now.

Thanks for reading.

Heidi out.

Back into Submissions / Minecraft Pics

I’m sending out another wave of subs, and it feels great!  I found some anthologies that several of my short stories really fit.

In other news, iTunes has proved a fine way to get the latest episodes of The Walking Dead.

In still other news, my Minecraft world (Hardcore on a superflat world) has come along nicely.  Pictures below!

I had fun with it.

Oh, and I’m over the flu now.  …That’s enough Minecraft for now, eh?

Imgur album here

Flu Symptoms May Include Creepy Minecraft Roleplaying.

Gosh, I’ve been sick for almost all of January.  Not stellar.  Aaron’s been home all week too.

‘Tis a plague house, be gone, be gone!

To distract myself, I’ve been playing Minecraft again.  New worldtype: super flat.  It’s bedrock, 3 layers of dirt, and nothing else.  Oh, except for the pre constructed villages scattered about.  Most are about half a days run (a Minecraft day) from each other.

So I made a survival world to roleplay as a farmer (normal world type, not superflat).  He wakes up- in a snowy wasteland- with no knowledge of how he got there.  There are no other people to be seen.  Some pigs and cows are scattered about the sparse tundra.  He makes a crude shelter and rakes precious seeds from the frosty grass with his bare hands.

After a few terrifying nights spent in his snow shelter, he decides to set off to find a warmer place, where he could grow crops, and try and make a farm, like he had in the before-time.

He takes the meager possessions he’s accumulated and sets off north.  On the frozen beach, he makes a boat and sails, and sails, and sails for what feels like forever.  At last he makes shore on a sandy beech.  There is green grass, and a lush forrest.  He makes shelter in the woods and once again survives a few frightening nights.  The creatures that come for him in the dark fade to nothingness as he falls asleep…

At last he sets off and finds a nice, flat plains area to start his farm.

It was a struggle, but he wound up with a log house, a huge irrigated field of wheat, a pen each of sheep, cows, chickens, and pigs.

When he was content, he explored nearby areas.

There were strange people in a village nearby.  They wondered around seemingly aimlessly, giving him no notice.  The creatures that would attack him in the night disregarded these strange village people.  He explored their village and found books, which he borrowed, leaving them food and some metal in return.

He spent days pouring over the books.

He learned of a strange ‘nether’ place, where strange creatures lived, and glowing stone hung over endless pools of deadly boiling lava.

He learned of strange magics practiced using enchanting rituals and bizarre ingredients.

He even read of strange islands in his own world that were covered in a strange fungus and had giant mushrooms growing on them.  His heart sped up when he read of the ‘mooshrooms’ that roamed them in vast herds.

He prepared for a long journey, taking many tools, supplies, and food.

Once more he set off by boat, skirting continent after continent in search of the mushroom land.

When he found it he stayed the night and was delighted that there were none of the monsters he was now so used to.  Only the mooshrooms seemed to be able to live on the strange fungus land.

He got out his wheat and tempted a whole herd of the animals to follow him.

He swam, leading them back towards his farm.

He set out 9; by the time he ushered them into the pen he’d prepared for them, but 3 were left.

He bred them and made a nice herd of mooshrooms for his very own.

Several days of contentment followed.  But the farmers thoughts turned dark one night, durring a thunder storm.

He dug out a basement for himself and crafted a magical enchantment table.  He began tinkering with the arcane arts.

The farmer would emerge at night, roaming the desert to the west in search of the night monsters.  He slayed them all mercilessly, gathering power to use in his arcane experiments.

He journeyed to the nether and fought even greater foes.  The frustrations of being on fire almost drove him back to the safety of his farm, but he continued on, exploring a strange constructed fortress full of fiery creatures.

With new ingredients, he dared new, powerful potions.

With the eyes of one of the night monsters and the strange substance from one of the fire creatures, he crafted a curious device: when thrown, it hovered up in the air, flying away from him to the south-west.  He followed it, picking it up where it landed.  It took him to the ocean, and he again took to the sea and followed the strange eye-construct.

It led him deep into the earth, to a frightening underground lair.  There he found dungeons and chests and new strange bug monsters…  and the makings of a strange portal.  He’d read that he’d need many of the night-eye devices to activate it.  The books at back at home told of people going into these portals and never coming out…

He went home, still debating what to do about the ‘end’ portal.  He lives on his farm, tending his crops and animals, and taking shelter in his house at night, where the books that tell of the strange places sit on his shelf, staring down at him, tempting him to go back to that underground portal and finish it.

Heh, anyway, that’s the first of my Minecraft sick worlds.

…And then I got food poisoning.  Nothing like Minecraft to take my mind off of stuff like that.

My curent one is a flatland, where I ran from village to village until I had enough material to make an enchanting table.  I vowed that the village that gave me the final diamonds I needed would be transformed into a paradise in the flatland.

So far it has lots of light, is surrounded by trees, has a grassland plains, and a few mountains.  I’m working on a stone (stone!) hall, and have just sectioned off an area free from slimes and lit it well enough so monsters won’t spawn there.  Got a lot of crops growing, and have pens of chickens, cows, sheep, and pigs.  Things are going well.

I like my flatworld.  It’s on hardcore mode though, so if I die, it all goes away.  I’m holding out pretty well so far.  Pics will happen if I don’t die.  🙂