Well, the alphasmart cozy went through the wash twice, and has come out like this:


It's a bit short, isn't it?

I think I made a math error, but even if I didn't, that was the point at which I ran out of yarn.

The second version will get cast on once I check the numbers a second time. I am toying with the idea of having it be bottom-up (starting at the base of the keyboard) instead of top-down. Which would be more irritating as a finish: grafting 35 stitches on each side (70 total) or dealing with a 70 stitch two-sided cast-on?

I think I have been asking the wrong questions regarding my hobbies. This whole time I have been concerned with which ones I enjoy most, and trying to carve out time for those from the rest of my schedule. That question really has no answer. I think I need to start asking what I want to accomplish with them, not individually but as a whole. What do I want to do with myself?

My hobbies are all things that make me less dependent on others, except fencing. Knitting, sewing, baking, and gardening are all activities that produce (or can produce) necessary objects: clothing and food. Writing is a bit trickier, but it does provide me with entertainment. Fencing dose give me focus when it comes to fitness, which I cannot manage on my own. Exercise for the sake of exercise is not really my thing.

Looking at my hobbies in that light, I am not doing too badly. This last month has demanded a lot of work in the "garden", so I have had less time to spend on writing, knitting, and sewing. Things in the garden are about to slow down now that most everything is planted, so I will have more time to focus on writing for the rest of the month. All we have is time, and as long as I am using mine in at least one way that I enjoy, I will try not to feel too frustrated (why no, my script is not going very well!).

This is also going to have to change how I look at sewing plans, come to think of it. Last week, I actually had to purchase a pair of pants because I put off making them for too long and had a pair die on me. I needed a pair for work more quickly than I would be able to make them, so off to the mall I went. In the future, I need to look at sewing the way I do baking: plan ahead and make time, and make sure the ingredients are on-hand early. Er, materials. Whatever. Meaning, I need to go buy some black pant fabric sooner rather than later, so i can replace my black pin-stripe pants before they fall apart.

Working this out has made me feel better about the whole situation. Hurray for early-morning epiphanies before tea!

Also, garden pictures!


This is what is out so far. I have my pepper plant still inside for at least another two weeks, depending on weather, and the basil is too tiny to think about going outside yet.

I did tell you all that I am not really trying to write a 100-page script this month, right?

Currently I am sitting at about 14 pages of script. Probably about halfway done with the scripting part of the game right now. Formatting is going to be a bear, though, once I get the writing done.

Today is mainly going to be more planning, I think. I know I ought to have done it beforehand, but I think I did not realize exactly how much planning goes into one of these, or what kind I would need to do, until I got started. It is a learning experience, after all. The next thing I need to write up is all the information the various characters are trying to conceal from each other in the various scenes, which should be a good time. Then I only have to come up with witty banter to bridge things, which is fortunately a strong suit of mine. Plotting? Not so much.

I am really enjoying writing the investigator character. He is a cranky, insular sheriff who would just as soon lock up and then hang everyone if they cannot come up with an idea of who specifically killed the victim. Stupid acting troupes, coming to his town and making trouble.

When did I become such a busy person? Thursday nights and Saturday afternoons (when I'm not working) are fencing practice, Wednesdays are write-ins, and there is usually a movie night sometime during the week. Last night was the Script Frenzy kick-off, and we have another write-in for that on Saturday afternoon/evening now. In about half an hour, we're going to get haircuts, then it is off to the mall or grocery store, haven't decided which yet. This Sunday I'm apparently attending a bar-b-que hosted by one of Husband's friends/coworkers, and next Saturday is given over entirely to our once-monthly D&D game. In between all that, I have been trying to write, bake, garden, knit, sew, and spin.

I hate to say it, but I think I am going to have to start giving up on hobbies. Spinning is the one I am least infatuated with (I like it, don't get me wrong, but it won't ever be an all-consuming passion), so I think after I finish the fiber I am spinning now, that one is done. Sewing is on hold for a bit. I need clothing a bit more quickly than I am able to make it, so I am actually going to buy some this weekend. Just a pair of pants, but I had a pair die this week and it is leaving a gaping hole in my wardrobe. My closet is not particularly full, so when something dies it needs to be replaced.

Baking at the moment is largely limited to quick breads and muffins, anyway. Experiments will wait until after April (and the Script). I think do I need to defrost that pumpkin puree this week for breakfast muffins and something to take to the gaming group.

I am only knitting on one thing right now. Shocking, I know, but I only have two things on the needles at all, and one is the Sock Yarn Blanket, a v-e-r-y long-term project. The other is a pair of socks for the Husband, which might as well be called a long-term project. I am about halfway through the foot on the second sock (toe-up, so I have the heel and cuff yet to go). After that, I think I will start on my mother's birthday/Christmas present (depends on when it gets done, her birthday is early November). I have to find the right kind of lace weight for it, though.

That is what is going on, and that is probably enough of a ramble for a Saturday morning. The script is going relatively well; I have not really done anything yet today but I am caught up for yesterday. Today will be mostly outlines and character notes, which will actually end up in the final game. I think that means I can count it for my page count.

Script Frenzy is under way.

I did not make it to midnight last night; work was crazy yesterday so I ended up going to bed about 9:30. I got up at 5:00 this morning, though, and got quite a bit done. I only have about half a page (give or take) to write this evening to stay caught up, and that isn't counting the title page or the character list. If I count those, I am actually a bit ahead.

However, I doubt I will make it to the goal. Not because I don't think I can, but because I am not actually trying to write a full-length play. It probably will not be the full 100 pages. Even if I include the background on the characters, the setting, and all of the side information that they are not supposed to reveal about themselves in the game unless directly asked, it might not make 100 pages.

Which really means that I have no excuse what so ever for not finishing this project this month, I guess.

I did trim the cast down to just eight players and an inspector. The Mayor of the town might make an appearance in the script, but I doubt he will be in the final game.

I hope my 'Frenzy shirt arrives in the mail today!

Do you ever have those moments where you realize just what exactly you have committed yourself to? You feel the weight of it sink in, and you kind of feel like you're in the deep end of the pool and just forgot how to tread water and you start to panic just a little bit?

Come on, it can't just be me, right?

Script Frenzy starts in just one week. I have one week to do the pre-planning for my murder mystery. I have characters; it's the plot points that are missing.

I did manage to get some scripting software installed. I ended up going with Celtx, since it runs on the version of Linux I'm using with relatively little trouble, and it's supposed to be one of the better programs out there.

Not that I would know, because I have never tried writing a script before.

*gulp*

So, I will be at a writing meeting tonight, with headphones on to ignore the other writers and try and get something resembling a plot cobbled together. This weekend I need to work out some of the formatting requirements, and by next Thursday, I might actually be ready to start writing this thing.

Ha. Like I'm ever prepared for anything I do.

My birthday was last week. Because of some circumstances out of my control, I put of the party until this weekend.

Ordinarily, I don't do birthday parties, and anyone who mentions my birthday at one of those restaurants where they make you were a silly hat and stand around singing is in danger of being stabbed in the parking lot. However, last month I went to a Harry Potter themed party (yes, for an adult. I'm pretty sure I don't know any children), and it was a lot of fun. I was inspired to have my own structured party, so I will be hosting a murder-mystery dinner.

The packet itself came from Red Herring Games. It is the "Murder on the Disorientated Express", one of their free modules. Every single name in the game is a pun, which suits the group that will be playing just fine. Anyone who is interested but does not want to write one themselves should go check it out!

That last bit is what brings me to the main reason for this post. After I see how the party goes, I think I will write one of my own. Script Frenzy is coming up, and the writers I have been hanging around with all want to participate. I realize that this isn't a proper script, but bits of it are scripted and this is the closest thing to a play that I actually want to write.

The cast will, I think, be coming from the Commedia dell'arte (Wikipedia link). The actors in a troupe will be the suspects/players, not the play characters themselves. I just need to come up with the rest of the plot now. Who gets killed off? What are the interpersonal relationships between the actors? Do they mirror the character's roles, or turn them on their heads? Where is the troupe when the murder occurs?

I think I need to work out setting, death, and personal relationships first, in that order. Everyone needs at least one motive and at least one alibi (one of which will be false). Then I have to figure out how to dribble the information out along the rounds. The round info and the script is what will be written during April, I think. The rest of it I need to work out beforehand. This is going to be fun!

Also, NaNo2010 preview: Were-Vampire-Cats, the MCs from Supernatural, and a shopping mall.

National Novel Writing Month ended on Monday, and I did, in fact, win.

I won without realizing it at first, in fact, because I had been rounding down my word-count at the end of my files (because just rounding is dangerous and can lead to an overestimation of one's word-count). We went to a writing meeting (of sorts) at Country Kitchen on the twenty-ninth, and I finished up with about 5,000 words for the day. I thought I still had about 1,500 left to do the next day. Then I moved all the writing into yWriter, and discovered that I had rounded off about 2,000 words and was, in fact, already done.

So much for the word count. As for the story, the major plot wrapped up at about forty-thousand words. The last ten were the beginning of the sequel, which will only probably be about twenty-thousand all-told. The main story will likely be padded out during the editing process to fifty-thousand, but that would have taken more time than starting on the new plot, which was already in the back of my head for the characters.

So, I present the excerpt from my novel, The Kitchen Witch vs. the Lemon Pound Cake of Doom (and yes, this is supposed to be silly):

"Nooooo!" The dark-haired woman screeched and hurled the scrying crystal across the room. Fortunately it landed on one of the many cushions scattered around the room. If it had broken, she would have been even angrier, and not even the satisfying crash and crack that would have accompanied it would have helped. The Brownies and pixies and the sad bits of leftover ectoplasm scattered to the far edges of the dark room, sending the candle-flames flickering and hiding behind pillows and curtains as though they were some protection from her rage.

"How dare she! She's my link to The Boy!" Without a magic signature for her to follow, she would not be able to track down this girl. Without the girl, the boy whose scent she had gotten that night at the club may well be lost to her forever.

For a week now, she had been closing in on the girl, narrowing her location down to somewhere around downtown. But now, oh! How would she find her? How would she find him? She needed him, now that she knew he existed.

She started pacing in the candle-lit room. One of the sprites pinched another and a small fight started. The woman glared at them. "Ahem. I'm raging, here! Stop it!" They subsided again, but as she turned to start pacing again, she had a brilliant idea!

"You, all of you! Gather around!" She half-knelt to put herself closer to their eye-level. "Come along, I am not angry anymore. I have a job for you, and I think you will enjoy it." She could not have the spirits show her where the girl lived; physical existence meant little to them. They would lead her in circles quite nicely, but could not actually take her to the girl. No, something more subtle was needed.

Slowly the scared creatures crept out of hiding. They had almost forgotten what had sent them running in the first place. She would have to do something about that. She began to hum, spinning out a thread of power to pull them in and bind them. They would listen to her. They would remember what she told them.

"I need you to find the girl who has long blonde hair. She follows the old ways. She is in this area," she said, impressing the bounds of where she knew the girl to be living on the creatures. "She looks like this," she said, pressing a mental image of her onto them as well. "You will find her. She will know you are there, but she won't do anything about it. Torment her. Pressure her. Make her break her vow to do nothing. Once she is again working with the power, I will find her in the flesh and make her show me where he is." Several of the spirits grinned and snickered. They would do as she asked with little qualm.

She snapped her fingers, and the spirits disappeared. They would be off on their task and soon, soon, she would be able to find the boy of her dreams. She reclined on a deep red velvet upholstered chaise lounge and waited.

This will probably never be published. I thought about serializing it online, but I do not want to deal with some of the drama that would ensue.

The sequel, though, if I can find a way to make it make sense without the first part, may well be making an appearance. It isn't finished yet, but I intend to get it done this month. Watch this space for more information.

Still (barely) caught up on NaNo.

My new job is taking its toll on my writing-mojo three or four days a week, so I'm kind of surprised that I have stayed caught up. No, I have no intention of talking very much about work on this blog. Ever, really. If you can't say something nice...

But! This week I get to write about a whole list of horrible things that happen to my main character.

• All of her left shoes disappear
  
• Her toaster goes Amityville on her
  
• All the dust jackets on her books get switched around and the books get re-arranged
  
• Her cat runs away
  
• She gets a job, but it's a telemarketing job selling awful health insurance over the phone to the economically-challenged
  
• The job gives her an ulcer
  
• The missing cat turns up as a plane-crash victim (not dead, just injured)
  
• While she deals with the job and the cat, her refrigerator gets unplugged and she doesn't notice for about 48 hours.
  

And that's just what I have planned for the next 13k words. There is worse yet to come. I feel like cackling and rubbing my hands together in evil glee.

Of course, I am participating in NaNoWriMo again. The participant badge has been up in the sidebar for a while now, and I am trying to work out how exactly to add the progress bar again. I'll as the Husband later to see if he can fix it.

In any case, my total so far is a healthy 2085 words thus far. About 1400 of that was written at the midnight write-in last night, which is my best output for a kick-off yet!

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