The Dastardly Dungeon of Deliciously Devious Drinks

AW Admin said:

They're more folkloric than mythic, but check out the Huldrefolk; there's not much about them even in Norwegian, and almost nothing in English.




He was absolutely NOT in control and was a recursive and constant editor/reviser.

I'm not saying he wasn't brilliant, but he wasn't in control. His was a chaotic creation.

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I came across many mentions of the Huldefolk (Hidden Folk) when I was in Iceland. I looked for them! I did see some of their 'houses' and entrances...

E.F.B. said:

The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner,

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Bestest book series eva!!

*high five EFB*

Everybody, go read em!

Also, I got about 400 words in today. Not great, but not terrible.

Our esteemed Admin is right: Tolkien was a chaotic writer. It took his son and Guy Kay years to weed out what was coherent enough to publish in the Simarillion, and the estate is mining the old man's notes to this day. I lurrve Tolkien, but even I admit he was not focused.

The trick is to accept that the appendix material is hobby stuff, and not get bogged down in it. Tell a good story, first.

Speaking of which, I just gutted 24K from a 100K novel, with the intent to push it back up to 90K. In a week. When I have edits coming on a completely different mss. I'm insane.

greendragon said:

Also, I got about 400 words in today. Not great, but not terrible.

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Words are words! Yay, you!

Filigree said:

Speaking of which, I just gutted 24K from a 100K novel, with the intent to push it back up to 90K. In a week. When I have edits coming on a completely different mss.

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The beginning of my WIP can be considered slow, but that's kind of the point. My FMC has a very mundane life, and kind of hates it. She's not happy with her situation and wishes things would change. It changes alright, but not in a way she expected.

Okay you guys, I'm a little stirred up in the emotionz-box(TM) right now! My SSSFFSS* just got real heavy real quick. Like, "Neo is starting to believe"-heavy, and with twists worse/better than a Shyamalan flick. It's like - and you won't know any of this if you don't read the whole thing cause it ain't in the title or the sample - is life real, or are we all imaginary? Is the universe as we know it just a quark in the buttcheek of a giant's ass on its way to destroy Olympus, or is every quark a universe full of buttcheeks unto itself? And lest we forget: Can I trust my own senses, or is everything all just fed straight to my brain through tubes that make my brain think it's using its senses? I'm having a literary existential crisis over here! :O What have I done to myself!!!??? ;O;

*big props to beautiful betas for unsticking me! <3

Filigree said:

Our esteemed Admin is right: Tolkien was a chaotic writer. It took his son and Guy Kay years to weed out what was coherent enough to publish in the Simarillion, and the estate is mining the old man's notes to this day. I lurrve Tolkien, but even I admit he was not focused.

The trick is to accept that the appendix material is hobby stuff, and not get bogged down in it. Tell a good story, first.

Speaking of which, I just gutted 24K from a 100K novel, with the intent to push it back up to 90K. In a week. When I have edits coming on a completely different mss. I'm insane.

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You so brave, you so strong, you so crazy!

E.F.B. said:

Words are words! Yay, you!

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QFT & QFT

greendragon said:

Also, I got about 400 words in today. Not great, but not terrible.

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All words is gud werdz*!

*Except existential crisis inducing werdz(TM)

Three possible options for supper tonight, can't make up my mind. The obvious first contender is cheeseburger soup. This would use up the last of the lettuce threatening to go bad in my fridge, but I've already made it once this month. Hubby is campaigning for Breakfast for Supper: fried potatoes, eggs, bacon, biscuits and sausage gravy. A lot of work. Personally, I'm leaning toward Guinness beef stew with colcannon. The soup/stew get homemade bread; the breakfast obviously has biscuits. I know, I know, they all sound very heavy and fairly dull. But it's winter, so hearty and filling and starchy is the order of the day. Help?

It snowed last night, so getting to town to get my meds (I ran out yesterday, darn it!) is caught in the Maybe Zone. So taking things very slowly today, to minimize pain.

jallenecs said:

Three possible options for supper tonight, can't make up my mind. The obvious first contender is cheeseburger soup. This would use up the last of the lettuce threatening to go bad in my fridge, but I've already made it once this month. Hubby is campaigning for Breakfast for Supper: fried potatoes, eggs, bacon, biscuits and sausage gravy. A lot of work. Personally, I'm leaning toward Guinness beef stew with colcannon. The soup/stew get homemade bread; the breakfast obviously has biscuits. I know, I know, they all sound very heavy and fairly dull. But it's winter, so hearty and filling and starchy is the order of the day. Help?

It snowed last night, so getting to town to get my meds (I ran out yesterday, darn it!) is caught in the Maybe Zone. So taking things very slowly today, to minimize pain.

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I'll put in a vote for stew and colcannon. Not just because colcannon is fun to say. My parents and I had veal stew for supper night before last. It had veal, potatoes, broccoli, onions, and zucchini. I'm not always a stew liking person, but it was pretty good, and definitely hardy.


ETA: Gah, so tired this morning. Monday, blarg! I got lots of beads at Michael's yesterday so I can try to get some valentines themed necklaces made and put up in my shop before the day, but I'll do words first.

I'm all soup/stew-ish lately. The last two Sundays I've made Chicken Noodle Soup and Chili. I've been calling it Souper Sunday, but my husband is not amused with my humor. He doesn't enjoy in my geeky word humor much at all, the weirdo.

I need to write a bunch on my sisyphus tale. I think I finally know what's going on in that world, thank goodness. Makes things much easier.

I have words on the Sissyfus today. about 1K in and heading straight for the core of the story. Going to write a little more then I'll switch to editing mode for a client.

Confession? I love Mondays. Mondays and Tuesdays are my weekend. It's much quieter here than the real weekend.

Our esteemed Admin is right: Tolkien was a chaotic writer. It took his son and Guy Kay years to weed out what was coherent enough to publish in the Simarillion, and the estate is mining the old man's notes to this day. I lurrve Tolkien, but even I admit he was not focused.

The trick is to accept that the appendix material is hobby stuff, and not get bogged down in it. Tell a good story, first.

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I tried to read The Silmarilian shortly after it came out but it was just BOR-RRING. A New Zealand fanfic writer I know pepped it up with lots of BDSM. That was more to my taste. The rationale was the Elves were under attack so much from the orcs and other forces of darkness, they had to steel themselves to be able to withstand the torture they would be put through if they were captured. Eventually, the self-torture became its own thing. There; entirely logical.

For a Few Gold Pieces More is scheduled for release on Feb 14, so my publisher is running a retrospective in his blog (www.starwarpconcepts.com) about the work I've done for him. I just realized as I was writing a link to his blog on my FB page today that this year marks 25 years I've been working with Steve. We started out by him publishing my first comic during his small press comic days, then moving to him lettering for me for my own small press comic company, then him hiring me to do my first professional short story and novel while he was editing for Byron Preiss Multimedia and iBooks, and now he's publishing my reprint work through his own company again.

Wow, 25 years. Quite an accomplishment.

I rather enjoyed, and still enjoy The Silmarillion, actually. Maybe it helped that I first read it during a big read-along on Tumblr, so if I was confused I could just look at my feed for explanations, or even ask the host directly. Plus, people were making art to go with the weekly readings so I had a lot of visual things to help me make connections and remember stuff. I really love the individual stories, particularly those of Beren and Luthien, and Earendil and Elwing. And Finrod Felagund will forever be my cinnamon roll. Too good for this world. Too pure. *sniffle*

Congrats on that, RW!!!

Soups in the winter are always good. DH has several frozen from when he made too much. Tonight we are doing breakfast for dinner, likely just bacon and eggs though. Starchy is bad for my low-carbing. He made a sausage/cabbage/potato soup on Friday, and will make chicken soup for Wednesday. We have the inspector over to look at our house for Adoption Fitness, and we want it to smell good

We had a fancy lunch at work, though - a big seared ahi over salad with edamame. Yum! It was $11 for both of us, including drinks. I am so glad we have our fancy cafeteria.

I spent ALL day today with the Nit-Picking NitWit at work. Sigh.

We often do Stir-Friday for punning sake

I have recently discovered that, if your vocabulary of oaths, naughty words and creative obscenities is feeling a bit weak, go watch co-op or competitive Let's Plays on YouTube or Twitch. Holy moley, put a bunch of young men from different countries together with digital mayhem, and the language becomes positively Shakespearean. In an NC-17 sort of way.

(doesn't work with the solo let's plays; not nearly as much creativity)

jallenecs said:

I have recently discovered that, if your vocabulary of oaths, naughty words and creative obscenities is feeling a bit weak, go watch co-op or competitive Let's Plays on YouTube or Twitch. Holy moley, put a bunch of young men from different countries together with digital mayhem, and the language becomes positively Shakespearean. In an NC-17 sort of way.

(doesn't work with the solo let's plays; not nearly as much creativity)

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Yessss! What I find fascinating are those non-native English speakers who have learned the language primarily through the internet, and basically speak in memes. When mixed with their mother-tongues in moments of bullet-hell and/or dumb teammates, their expressions of blunt-force anger are dazzling in combinations no educated writer would dare dream of. This language is as earnest as it is savage. It's like watching a volcano explode and form new literary land.

By the way, my vote is also for the Guinness beef stew with colcannon. Guinness in a stew? Bring it on!

I don't know if this is the right place, but what the heck --- I have never attended a writers conference, and one of my goals in 2017 is to attend one. Does anybody have any recommendations for conferences that are Sci Fi / Fantasy oriented? It doesn't have to be huge, just useful. And since my foreign trips are decided for this year, it needs to be in the US.

Thanks for any advice

TravelHat said:

I don't know if this is the right place, but what the heck --- I have never attended a writers conference, and one of my goals in 2017 is to attend one. Does anybody have any recommendations for conferences that are Sci Fi / Fantasy oriented? It doesn't have to be huge, just useful. And since my foreign trips are decided for this year, it needs to be in the US.

Thanks for any advice

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DragonCon is the big yearly one for Southeastern US. (And I mean big.) If you want to do smaller ones there are several around Atlanta, also in Memphis, Nashville, North Carolina. You might try a simple Google search for "SF/F convention + [whatever the nearest major city is]". That's what I usually do, and then if I find one that looks interesting I ask around to see if anyone has been to that particular con before.

griffins said:

Yessss! What I find fascinating are those non-native English speakers who have learned the language primarily through the internet, and basically speak in memes. When mixed with their mother-tongues in moments of bullet-hell and/or dumb teammates, their expressions of blunt-force anger are dazzling in combinations no educated writer would dare dream of. This language is as earnest as it is savage. It's like watching a volcano explode and form new literary land.

By the way, my vote is also for the Guinness beef stew with colcannon. Guinness in a stew? Bring it on!

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Agreed. For me there's an added bonus. Being a girl, I know how girls talk when they are on their own, with no boys to overhear. I know how boys and girls talk when they're in mixed company. But for decades, I've tried to discover how boys talk when there are no girls to overhear. I've had it described, but I've never actually experienced it. Being a girl, it's essentially impossible for me to experience it: simply by being there, I have changed the dynamic. These all-male Let's Plays are a specific situation unique to gamers, but they ARE boys interacting with no particular worry that girls will overhear. Not perfect, but it's a start.

I know the differences between the groups is subtle. But the subtleties ARE there. Writing good dialogue is the only real writing talent I ever had; I have a good ear for it, for whatever reason***. That makes getting even the subtle stuff right important to me.


*** which makes me perfect for audio drama, huh?

Aggy B. said:

DragonCon is the big yearly one for Southeastern US. (And I mean big.) If you want to do smaller ones there are several around Atlanta, also in Memphis, Nashville, North Carolina. You might try a simple Google search for "SF/F convention + [whatever the nearest major city is]". That's what I usually do, and then if I find one that looks interesting I ask around to see if anyone has been to that particular con before.

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DRAGONCON!! * DRAGONCON!! * DRAGONCON!! * DRAGONCON!! * DRAGONCON!! * DRAGONCON!! * DRAGONCON!! * DRAGONCON!!

I go to Dragoncon every year, since 2003. It's huge. It's madness. It's nerdigras. It's geekfest. It's amazing!

But if you want to come in more gently, so to speak, check out Florida SuperCon (Fort Lauderdale). Or Necronomicon (Tampa). Megacon (Orlando).

griffins said:

Yessss! What I find fascinating are those non-native English speakers who have learned the language primarily through the internet, and basically speak in memes. When mixed with their mother-tongues in moments of bullet-hell and/or dumb teammates, their expressions of blunt-force anger are dazzling in combinations no educated writer would dare dream of. This language is as earnest as it is savage. It's like watching a volcano explode and form new literary land.

By the way, my vote is also for the Guinness beef stew with colcannon. Guinness in a stew? Bring it on!

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Guinness stews are great. Guinness, mushroom and steak stew... mmmm.

OK, now I have to reveal my naivety - I thought these cons were designed for fans, you know one big geekfest. I am looking for something that is geared toward writers and writing, with seminars, workshops, and so forth for improving your craft. Are these author/writer oriented?

It depends on the con. Dragoncon has a full writer's track, writing workshops, panels with writers, publishers, cover artists, etc. There are about 30 different tracks in total, and one dedicated to writing. There are, of course, writer cons as well. I've never been to one (yet). I think Richard White has been.

Here's a bunch: https://thewritelife.com/writers-conferences/

TravelHat said:

OK, now I have to reveal my naivety - I thought these cons were designed for fans, you know one big geekfest. I am looking for something that is geared toward writers and writing, with seminars, workshops, and so forth for improving your craft. Are these author/writer oriented?

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Depending on the con, there may be a workshop; the quality varies from inane to incredibly good.

There may be a programming track dedicated to writing; again, the quality depends. The best way to start researching is to look at websites, and ask, as you are here, what people recommend.

In terms of SF, it's usually pretty hard to distinguish fans from pro writers; they tend to be fans as well.

Cobalt Jade said:

I tried to read The Silmarilian shortly after it came out but it was just BOR-RRING. A New Zealand fanfic writer I know pepped it up with lots of BDSM. That was more to my taste. The rationale was the Elves were under attack so much from the orcs and other forces of darkness, they had to steel themselves to be able to withstand the torture they would be put through if they were captured. Eventually, the self-torture became its own thing. There; entirely logical.

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E.F.B. said:

I rather enjoyed, and still enjoy The Silmarillion, actually. Maybe it helped that I first read it during a big read-along on Tumblr, so if I was confused I could just look at my feed for explanations, or even ask the host directly. Plus, people were making art to go with the weekly readings so I had a lot of visual things to help me make connections and remember stuff. I really love the individual stories, particularly those of Beren and Luthien, and Earendil and Elwing. And Finrod Felagund will forever be my cinnamon roll. Too good for this world. Too pure. *sniffle*

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I've never managed to read Silmarillion...but then again I have friends who have basically given me a full summary

On to something completely different: how do one join a writing-group? It seems all great fantasy-writers have one, but I'm at a loss as to how they are found...