Another Day, another spewing of randomly linked thoughts

Nothing new or real to report, but I feel like there aren’t enough flowers in my field. So: a post.

Maybe I should write a poem, to make a green flower, or a new short story, to make a blue flower. Maybe I should paint a new painting and photograph it, to make an orange flower. Maybe…

Maybe just another pink one.

For those of you seeing this post strictly on LJ, look at Modern Evil dot com. Green fields of flowers.

Anyway, that’ll be changing in appearance … soon enough.

But probably not this week. All sorts of exciting things and sundry things to look forward to:

Tomorrow night after work my goal is to … IRON CLOTHES! Yay! And watch a Netflix DVD, since I’m way slow right now on that, while I’m ironing. I should have a couple hours’ ironing to do, so no problem.

Then Wednesday night after work, mmy tentative goal is to … CLEAN MY ROOM (and perhaps enough of the closet to make it enterable)!!! Yay! Not so much on the Netflix DVD, but I have an iPod and someone gifted me the Jet album on CD, so I’ll probably get around to ripping and transferring that, and listen to Jet while I clean. Assuming I have energy. But I should.

Thursday night after work I destroy the universe.

Friday I have off work, so… I don’t know. Sleep in. Maybe .. draw flowers… maybe … … read some, or write some – lots of book-related work to do … maybe do some more cleaning, or just play video games. Then, at around 4, Pat will come pick me up and we’re going over to Jenn’s place for the New Year’s Eve party there. I’ve begun to have a sizeable list of things to bring with me, quite a haul, literally. A typewriter to donate to her son’s teacher (via her – no need for me to actually become involved with the teacher, I just supply the manual typewriter), which I shall have to pick out, either one of my Remingtons (which, although the oldest, I dislike for writing, which is why I have typewriters) or one of my redundant Underwoods. The Journey To Wild Divine, which, at $160, she can’t afford a copy of for herself, but which, since I don’t usit much right now, I am willing to part with – until the sequel comes out … sometime in 2005, last I heard. I’ll need it (especially the “magic rings”) back in order to play the sequel. My Nightmare Chess cards. And then, probably, my two bottles of scotch and my new snifters, so we can all sit around and play at tasting scotch. So. Quite a haul.

Then partying late into the night, and then … coming home and sleeping in, perhaps in contrary order … Then Saturday is … “free” – perhaps I’ll write more. I’m not as far along on Book Two as I’d like to be, though I made several hundred words progress today (which, in light of days where I wrote several thousand words is not very impressive – the impetus is not the same, now) so I’m not entirely stagnant.

Speaking of which, I’ve begun to get some feedback from selling and gifting these writers copies of my books, though it’s tough. Tough to get feedback, I mean, not to take it. Yes, of course there’s resistance, but I really do welcome your feedback. Apparently it isn’t as clear as it maybe should be that Ariadne is the same person as Dawn. I shall have to look into this. Also, there’s a chance that everyone at Trevor’s new school is an alien, which hit me from out of left field, so I’ll have to give it at least another month and then come back to it to see if maybe I wasn’t clear enough, and how to fix it. And uhh… Not much else yet, but anything’s good. Typos, people. I’m sure they’re there. That’s why the new one is called the “Pre-Release Edition” instead of the “First Edition”.

And so on and so on, and I better get a move on Book Two if I expect to be able to edit it and get it out by February. Whoosh!

I’ve been reading a bit about “real” publishing houses turnaround times AFTER they’ve accepted a book, and they seem to range from about a year to almost two years. Haven’t heard of anyone doing fiction in under 9 months (though admittedly I’ve mostly scanned listings and things), again after the book is accepted as done.

So this whole write a novel and edit it and copyedit it and publish it in under 30 days thing really is almost as ridiculous as it sounds. How about 3 months, though? I should have some reasonable feedback on Book One to integrate into it, plus reasonable distance to go through it again, by the end of January, so that I can release the Pre-Release Edition of Book Two and the First Edition of Book One at the same time, right?

Maybe I should make a little graphic of the lifeline of a book at Modern Evil Press:

Stage 1: Writing – 7 to 700 days, the roughest, unpolished, unedited version – available digitally, nearly live.

Stage 1b: First Rough – zero to infinite days, the completed first rough draft is available digitally while it is determined if it should become a book.

Stage 2: Rough Editing – 3 to 365 days, basic changes to the storyline and character development are made, obvious copyediting is done, no new digital versions are released at this time.

Stage 2b: Reading Aloud – 3 to 30 days, the book is read aloud by one or more parties for copyediting and clarity, and changes integrated into edited draft.

Stage 2c: Pre-Release Draft – 30 to 180 days, the book is available in an updated digital version as well as a peperback version, containing changes made in Rough Editing and Reading Aloud. This version persists for up to six months for feedback from readers and leads into Stage 3.

Stage 3: “Final Editing” – 1 to 30 days, changes based on reader feedback are integrated, any final tweaks to story and characters are made, continuity is checked again, and the book is read aloud again for copyediting.

Stage 3b: First Edition – unknown, the changes made in the “Final Editing” are incorporated into the paperback and digital versions and are released as the First Edition of the book.

Stage 4+: Unknown … wait and see, I guess.

That’s about the rough of it.

And now, seriously, it’s 11:40, time for sleep.

Something Strange – 2 way integration

So, after years and years and years, I’ve finally gone and created a LiveJournal account, much to my chagrin. Should be able to comment reasonably on other people’s LJs, as well as (if they grant me access) read their “friends only” posts without … behaving badly to do so. I have also managed to make at least one module for MT-LJ integration work, such that new posts (actually any posts I manually hit “Save” in, going forward) will automatically be cross-posted there. Comments are closed there, instead linking back to individual entries here on my own site, so that a single conversation thread occurs, and on a site I control.

I say 2-way integration, because having Modern Evil post to LJ is new, but having LJ entries appear on ME is old – and coming back, soonish. I’ve got to make a few changes to the scripting, not more than a few minutes’ work, but I’ve also got to draw a new variation of ‘flower’ to correspond to external sites, and I don’t feel like it right now. I’m tired.

Actually frankly, I just walked back to the computer after what looks like … over 6 hours… to finish an dpost this post. I have no idea what I was going to say. Whatever. I’m going to go … probably sit at my other computer for a couple of hours before I actually sleep. I’m dumb that way sometimes.

The Phantom of the Opera – movie review

I am, by no reasonable means of consideration, to be considered a “fan” of The Phantom of the Opera. That is, I am not fanatic about it. I have not even looked up the book, let alone read it. I have seen the stage performance only once, at Gammage, and while I liked it, I did not become enamoured with it or attempt to see it again. I didn’t even buy the soundtrack or look up the lyrics.

Yet when I saw the first trailer for this movie version of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s play, I became very interested in watching it. So tonight, the first night it has been publicly available to watch, I went to see it on the biggest screen in Arizona (outside of an IMAX) with the best sound system, the Cine Capri, with my two sisters.

I think age and experience and … where one is in one’s life can greatly impact what one sees in a work of such complexities. And this viewing of it was significantly different to me today than it was on stage years ago; there are elements of the story I understand differently, characters I see in new lights, the whole plot and the various motivations seem especially interesting to me. It was a whole new experience.

Which had little to do with its transition to film; had I seen it again on the stage at this stage in my life, I would very likely have seen the same things unfold before me. Which DOES say a lot about the film; it is, as far as I could tell – from my memory and the sounds of an audience that was clearly largely fanatics – a good adaptation of the stage play. There are some dramatic elements, the chandelier especially, that are completely different in the theatre than they are on the screen, but there was also a lot more visible on the faces of the performers than I can see from the audience of a stage performance – well, at least with the seats I can afford.

So… would I recommend this film? Probably. Know it is a musical, a period piece, a complex, dramatic story, and that at times several characters will sing totally different lyrics over each other, preventing any from being heard clearly. Actually, I had a heck of a time with a lot of the lyrics, but I think that has to do with my own hearing loss and tinitis more than a failure of the film. Frankly, a deaf person could follow this movie pretty easily; it is extensively visual. The visuals are stunning. With the exception of a few moments of bad lip syncing here and there, the performances were outstanding.

If you already like Phantom, I think you’ll like this version. If you like dramatic, decadent musicals, I think you’ll like this film. If you like period pieces with complex interwoven dramas and unreconcilable love, I think you’ll like Phantom. If all that I’ve said gives you the idea you wouldn’t like Phantom, don’t go watch it.

And there you go. I should be in bed.