A writing post

I’ve been snorting all week over the Miss Snark blog. She’s a literary agent who tells it like it is, and even though she’s stopped posting on her blog, the archives are still good value. Poor lady, she actually gets submitted gems like:

TITLE is written in the spirit of such books as Kerouac’s ON THE ROAD, Milton’s PARADISE LOST and Dante’s INFERNO.

Gaa.

I’ve been reading some of the workshops from the Holly Lisle webpage too, and can’t recommend them enough. The workshop on creating conflict encouraged me to subject a few of my characters to the torture, and it’s really helped clarify some of my ideas.

I’ve also recently joined the kiwi writers forums. They seem like a nice bunch of lads over there.

I don’t know if this is interesting to anyone, but I’ve had a huge rethink on the story (too scary to call it a novel, though that’s what it is), and, twenty-five pages in, I’m scrapping most of what I’ve written, but at least I know what I want to do with the whole first chapter. I’ve kicked off the opening scene with a riot, instead of my protagonist waking up early and making a cup of tea. Yes, the riot scene does involve the tea-drinking character, though I have given her a good kick up the bum and she’s now more stroppy than the one in the first twenty-five pages. Hallelujah!

I’m writing with Scrivener, which I’m enjoying, in the way it allows me to write scenes separately if I like, rather than looking at everything in one blobby document. I think you could go a bit overboard with the planning though, and limit yourself to scenes you’ve already blocked out on the corkboard. That said, my first draft is actually being written in a notebook, so I’m trying to keep things fluid.

It’ll be interesting to see how it works when it comes time to edit. I think breaking a document up into bite sized scenes at least lets you focus on just one area, rather than getting overwhelmed by a huge document with hundreds of pages, that you have to scroll up and down in to find characters, names, places and scenes. Once I’ve finished my basic rough draft of this novel, I’m considering importing my NaNoWriMo novel, breaking it up, and having a bash at making it respectable.

We’ve got a lovely long weekend coming up - Anzac day’s tomorrow. Steve & I are going up the coast to show his house to someone who might be interested in buying. We’re also picking up the Hebel that’s going to make up the surround for the gas fire in the lounge. I have a game to review, that unfortunately from all accounts doesn’t sound incredible: Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters. And I’m going to try and finish that first chapter…

Pootling along

Today really has been a bit of a pootler. You know, you cruise along, tinkering here, pottering there. I have a little work to do this week, which I’m hoping will keep the PMs off my back (got a lot of grief for my lack of productivity last week, even though everyone knew about it and I was asking around for work). The joys of an office job, eh?

So, I’ve done my little thing of work today, and there may be more coming in at some point, but that’s all the universe seems to want to allocate to me today. In any case, I’ve really been enjoying the new Evernote beta, which I signed up for a while ago. I like the way it’s cross-compatible with Windows (at work), Mac (at home), and even mobile (though not my mobile) - and it all squidges in the middle with the web app. (I also am particularly impressed with the search function’s abillity to detect writing in images.) If you’d like to have a try, let me know and I’ll send you an invite. I’ve got 10 up my sleeve. (Though there are probably invites floating around everywhere.)

Not much writing lately - reviews and previews have been pretty thin on the ground lately, and though I did get away at lunch yesterday for some more work on my long-suffering novel, all the ado at our house has been re: renovations, painting, stripping walls, insulating, ripping up carpet and the rest. It’s really starting to look good now though, and the cold weather that’s creeping up on us all in the southern hemisphere New Zealand (it’s still damn hot in Australia) makes me thank all that is holy that we’ve already insulated the ceiling.

I’ve also taken the plunge and volunteered to make the curtains for the house - roman blinds, cotton on one side, blackout thermal on the back. Hopefully will keep us toasty. There are great tutorials for them all over the show. (I got the blackout material from TradeMe, and the cotton from Superbuzzy.) Will let you know how they work out (ulp)!

Renovations

Well, busy little bees we have been around here, what with picking paints, getting lovely new scotias from Carrara ceilings as well as paint from Resene & Dulux. You can see the scotia a little better here:

It took us a while, but we’ve finally decided on the following colours for our house:

Wright hill (Dulux) - spare room

White Island (Dulux) - lounge

White Island quarter (Dulux) - hall & main bedroom

Paris White (Resene) - study

I don’t know how good these colour chips come out compared to the paint itself. Paris White has been in my study for a good while now, and I still love it. It’s a peaceful, soft, bluey-green.

So far this weekend we’ve finished painting the ceiling and scotias, and are just making a start on the spare room. Wright Hill is an interesting green colour - I’ll post pics when it’s done.

Not a lot else going on - had pottery this morning, the last class of the semester. I had eleven pieces to glaze! Unfortunately, I’m not able to pick them up until the start of next semester - May the 10th.

We’ve got a massive pile of catnip at the moment - from Mum. We planted most of it, but the semi dead stuff that was left got thrown onto the path in the back yard, and immediately pounced on by Sooty and his mate from down the road, Indy.

House for sale!

Well, Steve’s put his Raumati South house up for sale here at TradeMe. It’s a big step, as he’s loved and owned the house for a long time. The blurb runs as follows:

Cute cottage that ticks all the boxes!

Location: 69 Glen Road

Raumati South

Kapiti Coast

Wellington

Rooms: 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom

Property type: House

Floor area: 73m2

Land area: 809m2

Viewing instructions: Viewing is by appointment.

Price: Asking price $300,000

Parking: Secure carport.

In the area: Beach, cafes, park, daycare, schools, shops.

This much-loved, two bedroom Raumati South cottage really stands out from the crowd.

Sit on the deck and enjoy the all-day sun, or wander down to the private grassy back yard, with plentiful fruit trees, and room to run around.

Inside, you’ll find two good-sized double bedrooms with wardrobes, open plan lounge and dining, and polished matai flooring throughout. It comes complete with a modern bathroom, as well as a separate sleepout/studio and laundry.

Parking is never a hassle with a secure carport that also provides easy access to the back yard.

The beach is only a short stroll away from this much sought-after location. Fall asleep to the sound of surf!

On top of this all, the section has plenty of room to expand if desired.

With a competitive price for so many great features, prospective buyers would do well to take a look.

All a bit surreal

Well, it’s all a bit surreal, really, having my first article published on Stuff. Re-reading it, I’m overwhelmed by how rambly it is, and of course, Stuff’s a slightly different audience to NZGamer, in the nicest possible way.

Had a real late night last night, so I’m going to try not to do the same again. Was a bit headachey today.

Things are really coming along in the house - all the wallpaper in the hallway has been stripped, and we sanded the walls down tonight. Father Jack’s room (nickname for the spare bedroom that had horribly stained wallpaper and ceiling, and smelled stale and weird) is going to be next, then we’ll get the firebox ready for its new gas fireplace that’ll be coming down from Taupo at some stage. Busy times.

Aside from that, I’ve been typing up some notes, trying to transfer emails and other documents over from the old laptop, and listening to a spot of music: Beiruit’s The Flying Club Cup, Tokyo Police Club’s A Lesson In Crime, and the ever-faithful Ennio Morricone’s The Best Of. Every time I hear the theme song from Cinema Paradiso I feel a bit weepy. In a good way.

Anyway, time to knock back the tea and collect a sleepy boyfriend for bed. Night.

A real update

OK, Ok, I know I’m pretty overdue for a real update. Here goes.

Things have been reasonably busy at work. Have had a couple of projects stretch out a bit (which means I haven’t got all the info I need to proceed with my end) but it’s not bothering me too much.

Steve & I have been packing, slowly, for our move into our house at the end of November. It’s still hard to believe it is really our house! I’m excited and nervous (and I hope the whole moving house thing won’t impact my NaNoWriMo too much the weekend of the 25th). The garden’s really taking off. So far we’ve planted: peas, beans, tomatoes (3 kinds), eggplants, lettuce, swan plants, chilies (only about 16 plants in the greenhouse!), chives, spring onions, basil, an artichoke and some Vietnamese mint. Awesome! We’ve also found out that we are going to be able to get a gas line piped to the house, which will mean a gas stove-top, an infinitiy hot water supply, and gas heating. Combined with all the ultra cozy wool insulation we’ve put in the ceiling (and are putting in the walls soon), we are going to be so toasty this winter!

Hopefully I’ll be getting my laptop back today. Today, as in 10 hours before NaNoWriMo begins. Talk about cutting it close! I’ve been making plans for my story for the last week or so. It’s going to be a Sci-Fi. I love Sci-Fi, but have never written much of it before. It’s going to be interesting!

Oh, and I’ve been playing craploads of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: And Justice For All. It reminds me a little of those Perry Mason computer games I used to play on my Commodore 64. It rocks!

Haven’t been doing a hell of a lot of spinning/knitting lately, though I have started spinning some lovely brown wool for a sweater that one day I will knit for Steve. Oh, and am finishing some socks for mum (xmas), after which I have to knit socks for dad - everyone for some reason wanted socks for christmas! In summer!

P.S. Oh, and how annoying is it that the NaNo forums are so totally clogged I can’t even hop on? Sheesh.

Hole

….say whatever you like about Courtney Love, but Hole’s Live Through This is bloody great. Listening to it for the first time again in years.

Not up to much else. Last night started playing Ratatouille (PS2), which I’ve been given to review. It’s not great; what movie tie-ins ever are? At the same time though, I’m disappointed with it. I was really hoping it would be better.

Had a great weekend. Got lots done at the house, including wool insulation in the ceiling (thanks to Steve). Jeremy and Megumi are going to be storing some stuff at our place while they go to Portland to work on Coraline (see Neil Gaiman’s blog entries on it here), so they were busy clearing out all the stuff we hadn’t had the chance to start on, and once that was finished, they started building some shelving! So business all round really. (Busy-ness, not business.)

I’ve kicked off quite a few seedlings and turned over most of the garden. Pruned back all the trees that were smothering the wee lemon tree at the back corner and have been watering it every time we go round. It’s starting to look really good now. Loads of wee flowers and small green lemons starting.

Also had my second-to-last pottery class on Saturday. Brought home a few pieces but I think next week’s going to be a goodie. I’m definitely signing up for next semester.

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Housewarming

In the basement

…Yeah! We had our housewarming on Saturday… it was just meant to be a little morning activity, but it spread out into general riotous behaviour all day! I think we drank something like eight or nine bottles of champagne, plus sundry beers as well as a good BBQ.

For more photos see my photoset on Flickr.

Wet day

Today’s been really wet and cold. Steve’s on earlies at the moment so we got in to work just after half seven. Was due to meet Brian up at uni at 9, so left work about twenty minutes early, caught the cable car up to the university, struggled through the wind and rain, arrived out of breath at the Von Zedlitz building…and he wasn’t there. I hung around for a while but wound up just leaving a note and heading back down the hill to work. It was a bummer that we missed each other but quite good really to get out of work for a while and take a breather.

We went round again to the house at lunchtime, for our inspection before we get the keys (hopefully tomorrow)! Everything looked good, the whole house was feeling light and clean and dry. Cold though. We’ve been looking at using wool for our ceiling insulation, rather than Pink Batts (fibreglass) in the ceiling and walls, and the polystyrene stuff that you fit under the floors. Meant to be good for breathe-ability, moisture absorption, warmth, plus it’s made from a renewable resource (non-petroleum based!). Bonus all round, really. The prices are comparable to Pink Batts as well.

I’m hanging out for the weekend; this week’s been another really busy one, with new craft groups joined, a mortgage signed for, work done on my research essay, knitting done, training for the people who are taking over my tasks once I leave my job… and I got a call this morning to say my roosters had been framed and I could come and pick them up!

(Perhaps a bit of explaining’s required. Steve and I were wandering around the art shops in Hoi An, back during our Vietnam trip, and I was trying to decide whether I should buy something or not. There was a lot of great modern art, and quite a lot of production line stuff as well. We were poking around when suddenly I saw it, the painting I had to have, that I knew would forever remind me of that moment. It was (is!) of a couple of gaudy looking roosters, on a dark green background, in oils. The main feature of the painting is their flamboyant, playful, gorgeously colorful tail plumage. It had a heavy black frame and looked like it had been up in the corner of the gallery for quite a while. They seemed surprised that I liked it but took the painting down and removed it from the frame and the canvas (the back of the canvas was stained and old), rolled it up and sealed it in a tube for me! There was just something about it that I loved, that spoke to me. I bought it.)

Because the painting was so kooky I knew I had to get a special frame for it.  In the end I picked a heavy, rich dark wood, with waves in it that echoed the splay of the roosters’ tails. Picking it up today the woman behind the counter was gushing over it, saying how perfect the frame looked for the painting. I can’t believe how good it looks - it echoes the weirdness of the painting, but the colour, heaviness and thickness of the wood gives it a bit of polish, or gravitas, or something.

I reckon I’ll put it up over the couch, and take you a photo.

foul

I’m already in a bit of a foul mood after getting some bitchy email from this woman at work, wondering why a report went out half a day later than when it was finished (even though I sent it out four days before it was due). I took the bait and sent back an equally snarky email. Aargh. Hate work.

Have been trying to update my blogroll and links (have been trying to get rid of the waffly and meaningless “personal” category, so you might notice a few more have appeared, namely “booze”, “cooking”, “daydreaming”, “food”, “OMG News!”, “pets”, “swimming” and “travel”). I’m also acutely aware that most of the blogs I like are riddled with photos, but the unfortunate reality of my blogging habit is that most of it is done from work, where I can’t really spend a lot of time playing around with pictures. I’ll try and make a bit more of a concerted effort to do some photo blogging on the weekends (and also finish that damn Vietnam section).

We’re due to go to the bank this afternoon to finalise the mortgage, but Steve’s solicitor can’t get through to their Public Trust people to agree on a settlement date. I’m not sure if that’s going to hold things up, but I hope not…we’re hoping we’ll be able to take ownership by this Friday (and go run around the place on the weekend, hehe).

Oh, and last night Daph and I went to the Craftwerk knitting night at the Southern Cross. It was lots of fun! The weather was cold and miserable, black and rainy, and we all sat in on the couches near the fire, knitting (some crocheting) and drinking cider, then hot chocolates with rum. ‘Twas lovely.

The house…and other stuff.

So finally, we can let out that breath that we’ve been holding for the last week or so! The house is ours, and it’s such a weird feeling. We can do anything we like: paint walls, put up shelves, make curtains, insulate, put a cat flap in the kitchen door, revive the old glasshouse and garden… there are so many things we can do with it - it’s got a clean, dry attic space, and a huge basement (that could become the ultimate workshop, or even a spare room). We can put in a wood stove when we hibernate in winter.

The only drawback is that we’re stuck in our flat, renting until around October. Luckily Ben’s looking for a place, and he loves the house, and all the space it would give him (especially the workshop downstairs). He wouldn’t mind if we started renovating rooms, replacing pipes, putting in gas (and an infinity hot water system) while he’s in there. We can go round and stare and stare and stare at our new house.

It just has such a great feel about the place - not like a brand new house that’s sealed up tight, new and clean. Making this house ours is going to be like a discovery - it’s that same feeling you get as a kid when you explore around your grandparents’ house. There are all sorts of things to look at, point to and marvel at: the silver dollar plant in the corner of the garden, the begonia sticking its nose out of the glasshouse, the five foot high broccoli in the garden, the meandering path that leads down through the road reserve and down to the street, the abandoned bird’s nest in the dead ivy on the trellis under the living room window (complete with two blue eggs), the secret chair surrounded by hedges in the front yard and the old 60s swing round the side of the house. There are so many other things I’m sure we’ll discover, and hopefully pay respect to, as we make it all our own.

WE GOT IT!

 

 I can’t believe it, but we got it!

Some new dramas

So last night I was working on “Hike” and realised that the arm was starting to look a bit long. Many people would have put their faith in the pattern and continued onwards before doing anything rash, but I have had so many problems with this pattern so far that I had to take evasive action and sort it out.

Just going back a few years (!), I started working on this pattern in 2005, when I ordered the very lovely Pakucho organic cotton (in Avocado) from Elann. They were having a special, offering the yarn for something like $2.90 a skein. I ordered what seemed like plenty, and when it arrived, swatched and confidently set forward on my new knitting adventure. About halfway up the back, I grew doubtful about the size of the expanding blob, checked it against the pattern, and wound up frogging the whole thing and starting again, in a smaller size and with smaller needles! Radical, I know. Anyway, I got up to completing the back and one side of the front (it’s a zip-up cardigan), then obviously got carried away with something else and put it aside.

I finally picked it up again last week. Completed the other front half and started on the sleeve. So when I found that the sleeve was getting tremendously long, I had to nip it in the bud and go back a few centimetres before I started the decreasing. Now I think the arm length is right (as is the width), but now I fear I’m nearly out of yarn. Guess who didn’t order enough at the time? (what a nightmare)

I hopped back on Elann, but of course they don’t sell Pakucho organic cotton any more. Very few people do! They’ve got a website and all, but this seems to be more interested in selling cotton tshirts than yarn, even though the yarn got great reviews when it first came out. I found one shop selling it, got through the ordering process, only to find that they only shipped to the US and Canada. I finally found someone who ships overseas (a store with the bizarre name of ‘Chez Casuelle‘), only to find that they are stocking something called “Green Avocado”. I want Avocado. Is Green Avocado the same thing?

I’m getting desperate here. I order the Green Avocado (plus some Cherry Tree Hill Supersock merino to make the most of the $20 shipping I’ll have to pay to get these things to New Zealand) and hope for the best.  If worse comes to worse, I’ll frog the damn thing and make hundreds of knitted washcloths for everyone for Christmas.

(Oh, and we’re meant to hear back today about whether our tender was successful for the house. I am so freaking nervous! )

Tender and Secret Pal

So last night the real estate agent came over to discuss the whole tender thing. Steve and I had a figure in mind, after talking with the valuer, and I was ready to just sign the papers and be done with it, but there was so much else to talk about: what percentage do we offer as a deposit, do we let them pick a settlement date earlier than the standard month, do we offer to take the rest of the stuff from the house (save them from cleaning up), etc. etc. etc.? It was surprisingly more difficult than I’d imagined - Steve’s conflicted about really wanting the place but not wanting to spend a ridiculous amount just to get it. I figure if it’s in our budget, and somewhere in the vicinity of what the valuer suggested, then we should go for it. In any case, of course the real estate agent had to talk up the price, and then left us with the papers to “think about it overnight”. A cunning ploy, if ever there was one.

I hate this closed tender crap.

What else…. oh yeah. I finally signed up for Secret Pal 11. I’ve been wanting to do it for ages but always heard about it when it was too late. Thanks to the very cool Google Reader, I subscribed to SP10, and caught the recent announcement about the next one. It’s not starting for a good while yet, but hey, I wasn’t going to miss out again! I hope I get a good pal.

I finished Nicola’s “fetching“s (pictures to come) and have finally got back to working on Rowan’s “Hike” (see here) that I started back in 2005. Once that’s done I need to finish my “Rosa” by Louisa Harding (here) that I also started a while back (in green, not pink).

Then there’s more spinning to do, the new Harry Potter game to review, a research essay to write……

Spinning extravaganza

…and I don’t think I’m exaggerating. Today I bought 8 oz of alpaca from Spunky Eclectic, and also joined her Fibre Club. Then later this afternoon I rang Jo Reeve (who also wrote this very good book), and have put my name down to join her spinning group! She’s going to email me all the details, and with a bit of luck, I’ll be going to my first meeting in a couple of weeks!

On the house front, today we met Valuer Tim at the property, walked around listening to him talking into his dictaphone, then waited for the Real Estate agent to disappear before we could ask him what he really thought…….

We get the report tomorrow. That’ll be the final hurdle before we get on to the actual offering of the tender.