Greetings!

My name's Lauren K. Moody.  I'm a writer, and that's mostly what I write about--my writing and things related to my writing, like the books I read and the writing- or book-related events I go to (readings, conventions, etc).

On that note, this entry will be the only one unique to this journal (barring unforeseen circumstances).  My primary journal is over on Dreamwidth, under the similar name of anthimeria.  There is an anthimeria on LJ, and they are NOT ME.  This journal exists so I can more easily function in the LJ community.

My Dreamwidth journal will have a lot of unique content, so be sure to check it out.  I'll crosspost many entries but not every one.

I live in fairly cramped quarters, and one of the issues I mentioned was finding places to PUT things while I figured out how/when to drop them off for donation.  I found possibly the easiest way ever to donate (assuming you have easy access to boxes).  It's call Give Back Box.  Basically all you need to do is sign up (free), print a shipping label (free), pack a box, and either drop it off at any post office, or arrange pickup (free).

So I stuffed my culled clothes into a box, signed up, and have a pickup set up for a few days from now.  INCREDIBLY easy.

My only hesitation is that the boxes go to Goodwill, and Goodwill has some ableism issues.  But it's better than the Salvation Army, and once I start packing/culling in earnest, I'll be able to be more careful about where things go.  Also, the enormous stack of books my roommates and I have accumulated for donation WILL be going to book-specific charities, mostly aimed at at-risk kids or the juvenile justice system.  Because every kid deserves to own a few books.

Still!  First box packed, sealed, and about to be gone!


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Took ~20 minutes this morning and culled my dresser.  Tried to get rid of "I have 4+ items that serve the same purpose, this is my least favorite", "no longer fits", "not my style anymore" and "why do I even have this?"  Filled most of a paper bag with clothes to donate.

The problem is, now I have a paper bag full of clothes sitting in my room.  This was also a problem when I culled my books, but a box was easy to find space for elsewhere (stacked with all the other boxes of books to donate . . .).  A bag?  Not so much.  That's fine for right now--the bag has a reasonable spot--but I can see this becoming a problem as I cull not just the rest of my wardrobe, but all my belongings.  Where am I going to put the stuff before I can drop it off?

I may have to plan to make several donation trips, as annoying as that would be.  Clutter as a result of de-cluttering would be irritatingly ironic.

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My summer job teaching gifted kids to write fantasy?  Was AMAZING.  I worked 12 hour days for 3 weeks straight and loved every minute of it.  I want to do it again, especially now that I've done it once and can learn from my experience.  Seriously, so much work and SO FUN.

The day job also picked up over the last few months, which is great because I love that, too.  It's meant an adjustment in my schedule, and with the interruption of WisCon and the summer job, I lost all momentum on Swan Book 2.0.  But I've been doodling with a short story lately (it wants to be a novella.  I may let it) and have written a few fics for the new Ghostbusters movie, which--OMG.  Best thing since--jeez, I don't even know.  The Mummy?  Practical Magic?  Actually, it's like they took the girl-centric Practical Magic storyline, added in the adventure and snappy dialogue from The Mummy, and tossed it into a blender with the original Ghostbusters, added more science and tech, and a completely kickass final fight scene just for fun.  I loved it A LOT.

With an interstate move lurking just over the horizon, I've also been trying to get going on moving prep.  For me, Stage One absolutely has to be Cleaning and Culling.  I am not a naturally tidy person, but I can't pack without space, and I refuse to bring anything extraneous, so doing both at once seems like a 2-birds, 1-stone situation.

That doesn't mean it's fun.  My floor is clean and vacuumed, the 'miscellaneous stuff' corner cleared out, my bookshelves have been culled and reorganized (1.5 medium-sized boxes of books to be donated), and my three shelves of work materials likewise.  Which is, to put it bluntly, the easy stuff.

Coming up are my closets, underneath the bed, and my crafting/electronics/jewelry/holiday decor/important papers shelves.  (It's a big set of shelves.)  Once that's done, I have my car, and then considering how long this is likely to take, doing all the basics over again.

Wish me luck!  Fingers crossed nothing unexpected falls from a high shelf.

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* checks date *

* checks date of last entry *

*shuffles feet *

As we used to say in the days of LJ (. . . and ffn, if that's not showing how long I've been in fandom), RL Happened.  I'd like to get back to updating this regularly, but I also know making promises I can't keep is never a good idea.  I also don't think it will look the same, if I do update more often.

Originally, I intended this blog to solely be about my writing, and writing-related things in my life (WisCon, book recs, etc).  And while writing is still very important to me, I have found that twitter is a really good place to put the sort of daily-ish updates and frustrations.  Less formal and quicker to jot off than a blog entry.  That's one non-RL reason I haven't been over here in a while.

I have some ideas about how I'd like this to evolve, while also being aware I'm pretty much talking to myself.  I welcome readers!  I'm also aware I don't HAVE many, and since that's not really the goal, that's fine.  Feel free to unfollow/follow/etc, no hard feelings.

There's a lot going on in my life right now that blog entries might be appropriate for--a new teaching job this summer (teaching talented kids to write fantasy!  Best summer job ever!), I've started a Massive Re-Write of the swan book (totally different outline, much more horror than urban fantasy), and I'll likely be moving for the first time ever as a grownup.  I've moved before, but not what I'd consider properly--I moved 2000 miles with two suitcases, which didn't involve much packing, and I moved within town three times the first year I was out here, but I've been in my current place for almost 5 years now, and I've accumulated stuff.  Unlike the last time I moved across state lines, I won't be able to leave anything I don't want at my parents' house.  The move is probably the biggest thing, really.  And doing new things always makes me want to write about them, and really, that's one thing that won't fit well on twitter.

So.  We'll see how it goes, yeah?

Meanwhile, I'm 1k into the Wingless re-write, and I have 2k more to write today, so I should stop procrastinating and do that.  Wish me luck!

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Alright, I've finished the first (easier) half of the hardcopy edits.  All the typos I found are fixed, with some easy-to-add or easy-to-delete bits taken care of also.

Next step is applying the macro-level hardcopy edits, which include everything from the half-dozen scenes I marked "needs more sensory detail" to "delete this chapter and replace with something new".

. . . yeah, some of the really big changes may merit their own draft.  We'll see.

At any rate, the current wordcount is 95,719.

Not as low as I'd like but not as high as I feared.  If I do it right, the rest of draft II should take care of a few thousand words.  I hope.

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Let Wingless lie fallow for a month, and then took another month (argh life) to do the hardcopy edit.  Now I begin to apply said hardcopy edits.

For the record!

Current Wingless wordcount: 95228

I shall update once I have a wordcount for the end of DII!  Here's hoping it's <95k.


NB: Okay, I admit, I'm looking at the stats I posted when I finished writing the rough and am wondering where 200 words went.  I haven't touched the draft at all (possibly some formatting changes?).

NBpt2:  Oooh, wait, I know where those words went!  Those are the words I cut from the first 3 chapters to bring them under 10k, so I could submit the beginning to the WisCon Writers Workshop.  Explained!

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Personal best ever daily wordcount: 7858

Final wordcount for DI: 95400

Wingless: FINISHED AHHHAHAHAHAH.

. . . and only a month late.

On the other hand, three days before the revised deadline of June 30.  Silver lining!

And now to blast Ever Ever After and ice my wrists.

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Note to future self (and anyone who's interested): check twitter for more day-by-day updates on wordcount.

So it turns out that trying to churn out 90k words in two and a half months takes up pretty much all your free time!  And while I sort of knew that, I'd never done it while also working, so that's a new and not entirely fun experience.  Getting sick for a week and a half also makes hitting daily and weekly wordcount goals difficult.

Doing this sort of intensive writing, though, makes me remember why I love it and why I want to do this for a living.  ( Cue writerly nattering!Collapse )

I'm enjoying this book so much, y'all.  I missed writing YA and I never thought I'd love writing in the modern era so much.  It turns out it's a huge relief to be able to write about characters driving and answering cell phones and saying "neat" without having to worry about whether or not it's authentic to the period or the pseudo-historical fantasy world.  I LOVE IT.


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Greetings, well met, hello the internet!

(Hmm, that rhymes.)

I have been less present here because a) I am on twitter and it's distracting, and b) BECAUSE I STARTED WRITING THE SWAN BOOK AND IT IS AWESOME FUN.

Okay, that's a little bit of a lie.  I pulled teeth to get 4500 words into a first draft in third person before I gave in to the manuscript's insistence and rewrote the beginning in first.  It works much better, and a week later I'm 7k words into the new first person draft.  It is now awesome fun.

I also decided on a working title: Wingless.  It'll go with Heedless and Fearless for books 2 and 3 (it's a closed trilogy).  Haven't decided on a series name yet, so as a collective they'll still be called the swan books, but for now book 1 is Wingless.

SO EXCITED.


(PS: Just got back from FOGcon this weekend and had a fabulous time!)

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