Owie.

[rhienelleth]

Ok, what?? Why give me a migraine now, only days before Christmas when I have SO MUCH left to get done before Sunday, when my family descends upon us?

Oh, wait. That's why. Damn you, stress! It is mostly gone, now, but the residual effects linger.

Plus, Mark's brother and his family have been in town since this past weekend, so that means plans with them in some way, shape, or form every single night since they flew in. The twin nephews are extremely cute. They turned 7 yesterday, and the Jedi costumes/robes were a HUGE HIT. It is not so bad that L and I statyed up until 2:30 to finish them. (We wouldn't have had to, but when we cut out all the fabric weeks ago, we somehow only cut two sleeves instead of four. We had no extra fabric, and so nothing that would match one of the cloaks. We had to make an entirely new cloak starting at 9pm the other night! But we didn't have a choice, and it was our own fault for miscounting two whole sleeves, somehow.) I will try to get my sister-in-law to e-mail me pics so I can post them, because they are not to be missed. :)

As a general writing update, I am currently sitting at 77,500 words on the book. I wrote not even a single word yesterday, and I felt horribly guilty about it. But, I had to finish some Christmas shopping, I met my brother-in-law for lunch (poor guy had been at home all day with nothing to do, since Grandma took his wife and kids to Portland and Mark and his Dad were still working as of yesterday) and it was really fun. We get along well and have a lot in common. Today, he and Mark are up in Portland buying what Mark calls 'Sherlock Holmes pipes'. They're some special shape of pipe or something. I don't know. Anyway, back on topic, yesterday was very busy, and I got no writing done. But today I'm back on task and working on Chapter 28. The end is in sight! Sort of. I'm not sure how many words I have left to actually write, but I know it's going to be significantly more than my 90,000 goal. No way can I wrap this thing up in 13k words. BUT, I am still pretty close to being done. Next week at work will be a literal ghost town. I will be the only person in my entire building all week, with the Really Important Task of signing for anything UPS might deliver pretty much being my only job. Thus, much writing should be accomplished. Maybe I'll even *gasp* finish the book! Nevermind. I don't want to jinx myself.

Damn, this headache is really freaking tenacious. Just when I thought it was gone for good, it creeps back. Hopefully it won't get back to stomach churning nausea proportions.

ETA: eretria, I received your Christmas card! It was very cool getting the mail and thinking "huh, Germany, who do I know in Germany?" and then opening it and realizing 'duh, I know Ellen!' Hee. :)

Comments

[kistha.livejournal.com]

Headaches suck. I hope yours goes away soon.

Sherlock Holmes pipes are a particular type of pipe made famous by Sherlock Holmes. (CALABASH: A South African gourd similar to a squash grown specifically for use in pipes. The shape is determined as the gourd grows by placing small blocks under the stem, forcing it into a gentle curve. The mature gourd is cut and dried, then fitted with a cork gasket to receive a meerschaum bowl.The finished pipe offers one of the coolest, driest smokes available. Immortalized by Sherlock Holmes and in Jimmy Durante's signature line -"Good night Mrs. Calabash - wherever you are.")

I'm not sure how you are going to wrap this one up very soon, seems like there is much more story to tell. I meant to ask after the mention of her on the writing sex post - Have you read Lois McMaster Bijould's Charion series? I thought it was awesome.

Take care, and have fun over the rest of the holidays.

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, there is a lot more. when I say the end is in sight, it's more of an "I can actually SEE it now", where before I couldn't, even though I know what happens. I've still got - I'm guessing - 30-40k more words. Yikes. 120k is a much longer novel than I originally planned. And that may even be an under-estimation. *sigh*

[kistha.livejournal.com]

Anything based on roleplay is too long by nature. We spend time in the minutiae, more than the average novel. You can always go back and run edits. Or submit as is. Not every novel that gets sold is 90K no matter what the editors say.

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

And see, I've been skipping over TONS of minutiae, and sticking to "just the main story". Because it makes for a much tighter, better story than sidetracking all the time. I really didn't think it would take that much more than 90k to tell it, but I was wrong.

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

Oh, and "No" on the LMB series, which is surprising, really because I love her Vorkosigan books. LOVE.

Must remember to look the next time we trek to Powell's.