gothic-moon

07:43 pm: E-book release
I know I never post here. Sorry. :) Between writing and working and planning a (June) wedding, I can barely keep up with email, let alone maintain blogs and livejournals on a regular basis. I keep this thing around because I'm very fond of my friends page.

But today! Today is a special occasion, in the land of blogging, for today? I become a published author. (Yes, Emily Ryan-Davis is me. It's my e-book pseudonym. Or maybe my romance pseudonym. I dunno yet.)

If you're interested:




Available now at Freya's Bower!









Cora Phillips has witchcraft in her blood, but she's convinced she inherited the recessive rather than the dominant trait. Her mother and sister are the real heiresses to the Lune tradition; Cora has neither the interest nor the inclination to take up the Dragonkeeper mantle. Years ago, she left the New York City Witch lifestyle to the other women in her family, and said goodbye to all the velvet and lace. However, during a moment of insomnia-induced insanity, she agrees to come back to celebrate Christmas/Winter Solstice with her family.



It comes as a shock to all three women when Cora, through clumsy fumblings to "get in touch with her goddess" at her sister's urging, calls a pair of ancient dragons into her meditation circle.



Cora swears it's a mistake. Her mother swears it's the correct course of events. Eventually, every Dragonkeeper issues the call to mate. Problem is, nobody expected Cora to summon even a single dragon, let alone two.


Before long, the dragons' guardians come knocking, literally, and ruin any hope of politely apologizing and returning the creatures.


For more information, visit Freya's Bower!

08:40 pm: Oh, and for people who may've missed me
I'm primarily blogging at http://fancy-that.blogspot.com now. Various reasons, mostly I like blogspot better. Feel free to read or not read as you so choose. The archives contain a lot of angst about various things, like me and Martin breaking up, and so forth.

08:28 pm: World of Darkness Book Sale, yay rah.
For various reasons, I'm trying to get rid of all these extraordinarily heavy books that I no longer use, or use very little. They're listed below. As I'm packing up my apartment I'll probably find more of them, and will adjust as appropriate.

Since I know World of Darkness books are so not in demand, I'm not attaching a price to them, and am turning this into some sorta mini auction or something. If there's anything you want, email me with the title, and how much you're offering. You pay shipping, too. I'll give 3 days from now for "highest bidder" time frames.

The list!

Game line Title Series # ISBN #

Hunter Hunter the Reckoning WW8100 1565047354
Hunter Hunter Player's Guide WW8120 1588467007
Hunter Hunter: First Contact WW8131 158846704X

Sword & Sorcery Scarred Lands Creature Collection II: Dark Menagerie WW8301 1588461602
Sword & Sorcery Scarred Lands Campaign Setting WW8325 158846184X
Vampire Vampire: the Masquerade (Revised)
Vampire Dark Ages Vampire WW20000 1588462765
Vampire Ghouls: Fatal Addiction WW2021 1565042301
Vampire Clanbook Toreador (2nd Ed.) WW2056 1565040953
Vampire Clanbook Tremere (2nd ed.) WW2057 1565041151
Vampire Clanbook Setites (2nd Ed.) WW2060 1565042158
Vampire Guide to the Sabbat WW2303 1565042638
Vampire Clanbook Brujah (Rev.) WW2351 1565042670
Vampire Clanbook Malkavian (Rev.) WW2353 1565042689
Vampire Clanbook Nosferatu (Rev.) WW2354 1565042662
Vampire Clanbook Tremere (Rev.) WW2357 1565042549
Vampire Clanbook Ventrue (Rev.) WW2358 1565042557
Vampire Clanbook Assamite (Rev.) WW2359 1565042565
Vampire Clanbook Followers of Set (Rev.) WW2360 1588462048
Vampire Clanbook Tzimisce (Rev.) WW2361 158846221
Vampire Clanbook Lasombra (Rev.) WW2362 158846213
Vampire Clanbook Giovanni (Rev.) WW2363 1588462072
Vampire Clanbook Ravnos (Rev.) WW2364 1588462099
Vampire Midnight Seige WW2422 1588462196
Vampire Blood Sacrifice: the Thaumaturgy Companion WW2423 1588462226
Vampire Guide to the Anarchs WW2424 1588462234
Vampire Victorian Age Vampire WW2470 1588462293
Vampire Vampire the Dark Ages WW2800 1565042751
Vampire Vampire the Dark Ages Book of Storyteller Secrets WW2802 1565042778
Vampire Wolves of the Sea (Dark Ages) WW2820 1565042980
Vampire Kindred of the East WW2900 1565042328
Werewolf Kinfolk: Unsung Heroes WW3074 1565043081
Werewolf Bastet WW3075 1565043359
Werewolf Werewolf Player's Guide (2nd Ed.) WW3108 156543529
Werewolf Book of the Wyrm WW3109 1565043561
Werewolf Croatan Song WW3112 156504388X
Werewolf Werewolf Storyteller Handbook (2nd ed.) WW3205 1565041313
Werewolf Litany of the Tribes: Vol. 1 WW3380 1565043022
Werewolf Litany of the Tribes: Vol. 2 WW3381 1565043030
Werewolf Litany of the Tribes: Vol. 3 WW3382 1565043049
Werewolf Litany of the Tribes Vol. 4 WW3383 1565043057
Werewolf Werewolf the Apocalypse (2nd Ed.) WW3600 1565041127
Werewolf Tribebook: Bonegnawers WW3852 1588463001
Werewolf Tribebook Children of Gaia WW3853 1588463036
Werewolf Tribebook: Get of Fenris (Rev.) WW3855 1588463125
Werewolf Tribebook Silver Fangs (Rev.) WW3860 1588463168
Werewolf Werewolf the Apocalypse (Rev., Limited Ed.)
World of Darkness The Succubus Club WW2104 1565040112
World of Darkness Chicago by Night WW2203 1565040511
World of Darkness New Orleans by Night WW2209 1565040961

04:11 am: Are psychopaths the ones who don't feel guilt about the shitty things they do to other people?

11:14 pm: Warning: Updating Journal Layout
Just fyi. If your eyes bleed over the next few days, sorry!

10:41 pm: what is UP with my mouth and who woulda thought pepperoni & garlic isn't as good as sausage and gar
lic? I mean it's all pork right? You'd think so. Love this pizza place w/ the chewy-crispy crust and the garlic overload so much that Martin complains about it.

WARNING: This week my comma key seems to be malfunctioning while my V key has resumed partial functionability. Missing commas, I blame on the keyboard, k?

So I've eaten like a cow tonight. Or my version of a cow (see that missing comma man. there's another one). Dunno why. And it's largely irrelevant to anything, but I thought I'd mention it and commission your sympathy and ire with Pizza Guy who put pepperoni rather than sausage upon my pie.

MY RUINED PIE!

(Did you know that "pie" means foot? My Pizza Foot.)

But anyway what I really wanted to talk about was writing. Or, specifically, my cyclic views of the whole thing. Once in a while I run around surfing other blogs (mostly stemming from Beth's blog and this big chain reaction wherein I go to Sandy's and start clicking Sandy's links and then the next thing I know I'm reading about Weebles-in-Mud fetishes, and let's just not go there - I blame Sandy, though. She has the most questionable associates online). Anyway I surf other blogs now and again and I keep ending up, in classic case of Curiosity and the Cat, on agents' and editors' blogs. And yanno, I don't know what it is - no I do know - but for some reason agents/editors' blogs really annoy me.

And I attribute it to this cyclic thing and lately I'm in a "writing's a fun hobby but the business irritates me" cycle. Next month the story might be a different one, but it's like, some sorta reverse psychology of work = stress, so writing as work = stress not fun. I dunno.

I like to be outrageous and flamboyant and lovely, and those things are more to me than calls for submissions.

But anyway. The lack of commas (or having to pound the comma key to work) is bugging, and I've said enough.

Except for this:

Why the HELL am I listening to Marvin Gaye? Granted it's a Marvin Gaye cover, but jeez.

Good song, too.

And I totally dig APC's cover of "Under Pressure."

12:55 am: When Reviewers Lie (Special Feature!)
as previously promised, the something-special - maybe a weekly thing!

I love cover-blurbs on books - those little snippets of just a few words, from 1 to 11, another author's perspective on what hidden gems might exist between the covers. I even read the occasional review, although I'll grant it's only very occasional because I'd rather read a book than a review (unless the reviewer is more entertaining than the novelist, but that's another entry). I probably read two romance reviews to every mystery or sci-fi review, even though I read two mystery or sci-fi novels to every romance novel, if the ratio is even that close, and this is what I have discovered:

Reviews come in two shapes and sizes.
1) Honest reviews that evaluate flaws as well as perfections.
2) Tea parlor praise that sweeps flaws under the paisly divan while cooing and gushing over the dust-tracks left behind, crowing "perfection" in only the way that a mother can tout her wrinkled red baby's beauty - or, perhaps more accurate, in only the way that a paid hooker can wax poetic about the piston-power of a 3-inch dick.

Alien Games, author Claudia Rose, shattered my faith in reviewers about three years ago. Published by Ellora's Cave, which is the current Internet gold standard for $$$-generating girl-porn, Alien Games is an erotic romance based on an alien abduction premise, wherein the hero and heroine are a pair of world-renowned athletes whisked away to an alien ship high in the sky. Evil alien doctors force them to engage in sexual encounters of the often unexplained kind.

Baseball bat-sized phalli.
Midgets. MIDGETS.
Do I REALLY need to say more?

So I paid my $7 or whatever the price was, when I bought the book, and I read it, appalled (some of you will remember my first rant at Forward Motion). And I wrote to the esteemed publisher, demanding to know, basically, "what the fuck."

Informed that Ms. Rose is one of EC's best-selling authors, that readers write with praise about that particular title, I reeled away into cyberspace, aghast, and turned to Google for answers:

1) Claudia Rose is, evidently, a pseudonym for an author who writes for a living in other genres, areas, something - for all I know she writes the ingredients lists on Cheerios boxes. But, that's what the Google results (and her site) state.
2) Not only have fans evidently praised her work, but reviewers have as well.

I've seen reviews of this type in other publications, like Romantic Times, and the conclusion I reached, based upon RT and insights from some pub'd author friends is that the RT reviews are, essentially, paid advertisements. So I'm applying that principle to the Alien Games reviews. Even applying that principle, though, I'm dumbfounded.

Shadoe Simmons, of All About Murder Reviews (OK, two brief asides, a) what the hell kind of name is that? It reminds me of the old Rosemary Rogers titles from 1978, and b) why is a "Murder Reviews" site reviewing [really bad] romantic erotica?) raves that Alien Games is a "lust filled adventure that would heat even the coldest night" and grants the lofty distinction of "3 Daggers," presumably out of 5.

Likewise, Michelle Gan of The Word on Romance asks, of Alien Games, "Is it the end??"



And I'm thinkin, a) Dear God, I hope so, and b) the only way this book coulda heated anything were if I'd been able to BURN it, but, I was foiled by technology and as bad as it was, I wasn't gonna set my laptop on fire in order to send the novel into flamey hell.

I was tempted, though.

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08:48 pm: pay no attention to that whining chick behind the curtain
I have a headache and I think that all blogs about peoples' pregnancies, baby plans, due dates and maternity leaves should be eliminated from the internet on my behalf.

11:41 pm: SWF iso Jew, any age/gender/marital status
Really. I very much need a Jew (as in a Jewish person, as had to be clarified to a friend). Or anybody who has some sort of insight into Jewish mysticism, specifically the meanings of numbers in gematria (Jewish numerology, for those who are clueless). Everybody I talk to points me to the Torah, but, rar.


help.

11:18 pm: I hate Egypt
Seriously. I'm getting way sick of this group project. Right now instead of blogging something fun and insightful (OK, I am planning future blog things with Beth, more to come later) I'm stuck trying to generate lists of secret societies in order to find out which ones may have originated in Egypt 4,000 years before Christ.

Jesus fookin' Christ, to borrow a Beth phrase. Damnit.

My throat is a little scratchy but I can't drink anything because my tummy hurts and what the HELL is up with my stomach? Avocodo, pineapple, ginger, cantaloupe, scallops--what the hell, man? But I feel gross.

Managed to accomplish shower and school things gotten together. Now I'm stuck on this fookin' Egypt thing and my fookin' mousepad keeps skipping my cursor around so I have to stop and backspace and delete, damn it.

courtesy of Beth:

http://www.superdickery.com

09:05 pm: Beth, get rid of the stat meter
Really. If you don't care, toss it. Then you won't be faced w/ temptation and you won't start freaking out and it'll just be you and your keyboard (well, and you know, me and Paul), and you'll never know who else.


Might update something more in depth later. For now, though, I've got about 4 hours left of Spring Break and about a week's worth of to-do. Before an update:

*bath (mudmask)
*laundry away
*few dishes washed
*lunches made
*school things sorted
*trash gathered up, put out

I need another 8 hours. Rar.

In the meantime, check out the Moken of Thailand and Burma. They were featured on 60 Minutes tonight. Very interesting people. The first link's sight layout is crap.

10:39 pm: I must have these books
Victorian London! Harems!

10:37 pm: Egyptian Erotica
I totally want this book.

And there's a SERIES. Must see what else is in it.

10:17 pm: Vacations are too short!
So yesterday I went to the Museum of Fine Arts for a thing - Religions group project, we're doing Egyptian things, we wanted to go see the (massive) Egyptian exhibit at the MFA. So we did it. Well - sorta did it. I got there at like 10:30 am and spent the whole morning and afternoon by myself, with classmates finally showing up at close to 2 pm. But I wandered through the Egyptian exhibits, and through the European paintings, and through medieval art (holy cow, I never really fully grasped the concept that art was religious until I actually SAW it), through 17th century Dutch furniture, through Chinese, Japanese, Indian art. Very cool series of black and white nocturnal seascape photographs, except I forget the photographer's name. But they made me really want to be on a little boat in the ocean at night, with the waves and the horizon so black that it melts into the water and the water melts back into it.

But anyway, MFA, and we were supposed to go to the MFA and to the Boston Public Library to do research, but everybody showed up so late that we didn't go to the BPL. While I was waiting for them I browsed through the MFA gift shop - found a book on Egyptian Erotica, and I SO wanted it, but really, $20 for like 50 pages? No thanks. I also found this massive stick-it-under-your-butt-to-see-over-the-dashboard book on the Alhambra, and I REALLY REALLY wanted that one, but 50% off and it was still $40!

And while I was in the MFA (right before going into the bookstore) there was An Altercation. Seriously. Like, I think the MFA attendant got fired. Because he was harassing these two older guys who had tickets to go see the Astin Martin car gallery, and he was kinda giving them shit and they thought he was joking so they were winking at me over his shoulder, 'til it kept going on and the attendant took their tickets away and the guys were like, "Give the tickets back, we're leaving," and they snatched them out of the attendant's hand and started to walk away - but the attendant, right? he said beneath his breath, "Stupid idiots," and one of the guys heard, so he's behind me at this point and he whips around to be all like, "You don't talk to customers that way!" and it escalated from there. I just said, "Uh, hello, I'd like to just go inside," so the attendant waved me through and as I was walking away I heard them still going. And when I came back out, the attendant was gone, replaced by somebody else.

You'd think people in museums are less likely to get into fights than other people.

Oh, I also saw Oceania art and Native American gold and 17th century New England furniture. So cool.

But ok, now my vacation is almost over and I haven't done any of that stuff on the school to-do list. Tomorrow I HAVE to go to the library and scour the stacks for info on two class projects (grr) and I should try to do more laundry before I have to go back to school - um, maybe I can do laundry Saturday? But I don't want to go out AGAIN. I'd like a day when I can just stay home and veg and do nothing. That didn't happen today because I had to go get vaccines - 4 of them! and I have to go back two more times! Can you imagine, me, having to get a polio vaccine at age 26? WTF?


Finally finished reading Anne Kelleher's Silver's Edge, like 2 months after I started it. I enjoyed the book. I'm pissed off that it's a trilogy and NONE of the plot has been resolved yet. Goddamnit. Why can't I just read an encapsulated story and be done with it?

Oh, good news - I still have a copy of OSC's Hart's Hope. I was worried I'd given the precious away. I want to read it. But now I won't have time again for a couple of months. Will try to struggle through Jonathan Strange bit by bit, and still need to do 1984. Grr.

Now I have to go hunting on Google to find gun magazines for Senior.

08:05 pm: Another to-do list
things to do for school this week:

*read 1984
*study guide for geography chapter 6
*study guides for history chapters 27, 28, and 29
*map thingie worksheet for geography
*sketches for Religion project
*gather resources for Jewish numerology, begin working on Beloved numerology things

08:57 am: Ides of March!
Okay, first thing: YAY BETH YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO TO HELL TOMORROW YAY

Second thing: I just had avocado for the first time. I sliced it in half and tasted it, made a face, and decided to try Beth's "a little salt" trick. Except it needed a lot of salt, and was still kinda foreign and strange. So I smeared it on a slice of rye toast, added salt (liberally), pepper and garlic powder (not so liberally) and it was good. Mmmmmm avocodo.

Third thing: I'm really fascinated by this Swiss chard/milkbone phenomenon. If I eat Swiss chard once a day I may never have to brush my teeth again.

Fourth thing: I finished Da Vinci Code, and it was an entertaining read. I knew who Sophie was long before the end, and I figured out the last password to the cryptex long before it was revealed. The Teacher surprised me, tho, and I don't think Fache made sense - he was confusing and Dan Brown didn't give enough to lead into him in the last 50 pages. Though he did do well in making me care about Silas.

Anyway, I'm staying home today (yesterday I went out and did a billion loads of laundry, and now the bed linens are all clean and fresh mmmmm) and these are things I need to/want to get done:

*clean bathroom (put down clean bathmat) EDIT: Done
*clean and vacuum livingroom EDIT: Done
*sweep/mop kitchen floorEDIT: Done
*dishes EDIT: Done
*take a long walk (when it gets a little warmer, closer to noon)EDIT: Done, plus yoga.
*must email my religions class group people with meeting notesEDIT: Done
*must go over my religions class group research material
*also need to check prices and directions and things for the Museum of Fine Arts and the Boston Public Library, for tomorrow's outingEDIT: Done
*need to read article for Geography thing, and respond on the class forum so I can get that out of the way. EDIT: Done
*need to look through the Once-More-a-WIP and start brainstorming what I can do for the revisions. EDIT: Progress Made. Need to add Nasreen, give Mara strength and power, create confusing prophesy

Though I've been wondering how underhanded and/or lazy it would be, to send the novella to another publisher and see what they have to say about the story - I mean, I'm not committed to this one at all...

I dunno. I'm sure it's probably legit, but doesn't feel right to me (to go send it somewhere else, I mean). Especially given that I KNOW the editor's right on what needs revised.

But how do I turn a 25k word novella into a 75-100k word novel? Rar.

And why isn't the friend who loved this book calling me? I need to tell him about it!

(It's only 9ish a.m. and I have the day at home. Should I go back to bed?)

EDIT: Avocodo hath felled me. Four hours of tummy cramps before I felt human again. Grrrrr.

07:15 pm: Oh, hey, rejection -
Editor who received query & requested ms for the novella has finally replied - rejection. BUT!

A few choice phrases, which have me beaming:

"you hold great promise as a writer. The story is very compelling and your style of writing exciting."

and

"fine writing and sensuality"

and

"this story would benefit tremendously by adding to the beginning of your story, developing the conflict and tension"

and

(are you ready?)

"If you are interested in doing this, I would definitely like to have another look at the book"




Um. I think that's a request to make revisions and resubmit.



I'll be busy squealing for a while. :D

Oh, and then I'll be busy weeping because I'm SO TIRED of writing this book!

Andandand--

eeeeeeeeeee

11:34 pm: Asparagus Pee for Beth
Different Perspectives on Why Asparagus Makes Pee Stink

09:58 pm: Day 1 of the Spring Break Loaf-a-Thon (to borrow a snolly phrase)
Awake at 9 a.m., sliced pear and tea in bed with Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code - which I'm finding to be a very fun read, although my esteemed colleagues in reading criticism have given mixed reviews - the artwork in the Illustrated Edition is fascinating. I'm completely in love with "Madonna on the Rocks," a lovely painting by Da Vinci--I tried to find a nice replica online to show here, but they all look kinda icky and you have to jump through hoops to get to the actual images. As I think about Da Vinci Code, I wonder whether I would enjoy the book as much as I do were it not the illustrated edition: I guiltily admit to really liking the pictures.

Around noon I cleaned the kitchen, made French toast with sliced fried apples and Taylor's ham, and got a little high (shh, don't tell anybody who might disapprove), then ate breakfast & had coffee (and an hour later popcorn) while watching The Anchorman.

Followed by a long bath at 3 p.m., lunch of soup while Martin and I watched movie trailers. Following the bath and lunch, we watched Johnny Mneumonic.

Just as Johnny Mneumonic (which was interesting, if not great--but I do like Keanu Reeves), a fun friend called and he and I spent a sinful 2 hours on the phone chitchatting about this and that and sommore of this.

Beth's coming East Coast again in 2 (3?) weeks and I wanna go with. :( It's unfair. There should be a Paul-Beth-Arp Weekend Shop-Athon. I'm jealous.

But my Saturday has been great, despite worry about Diane, who is back in the hospital, and underwent emergency surgery last night for double femural bypass things - circulatory problems, and regular phonecalls from Senior with updates and complaints about the snow.

Oh yeah, it's snowing again.

But the bottom line is I not only survived midterm week (hurrah!), but I did it mahvelously, dahling (except for yesterday when I had to cancel my tutoring session in order to go find out why Diane wasn't answering her telephone, and then proceeded to spend half an hour trying to track her down in hospitals).

Now I think dinner is done. Mm, sauteed spinach, broccoli, green peppers, onions, and baby corn.

04:03 pm: Ok, before I really go home:
My friends and I like to tell jokes about euthanizing cats.