The W1S1 Check-in and Chill Lounge and Bar

zanzjan

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Well, we just had a tornado rip past. Which is unusual, because we don't get tornadoes in NZ.

Yikes, glad you're okay! Like you guys needed that after the earthquakes. )-: What's with the world lately? Did we void the warranty or something?

An update just because I'm excited...First story submitted! =D

Yay, congratulations! Best of luck to your story! (-:

-Suzanne
 

Lillie

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Here's a 360 degree pic of some of the damage at a local mall (click and hold mouse button and move to rotate).

eta: and, thanks, soapy :)

eta2: the place in that pic is about a 3-min drive from my work.

Bloody hell!
I'm glad you are OK.

Also, good thing for looking at stuff. If you go round you see the upside down car. Very clever.
 

Nathaniel Katz

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Wow, Izz, that's incredible (in a how-horrific way), glad you're fine.
 

Izz

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Thanks, peeps. To be fair, on a tornado scale it was only a weeny one, and nothing like what those in Alabama have experienced.

The unusual thing is that this is only the 3rd or 4th tornado we've had in the whole of New Zealand in the last 100 years. So it was very unexpected, and happened with absolutely no warning.
 

Izz

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And of course, before i forget: May the fourth be with you, W1S1ers!
 

Nathaniel Katz

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Since it's not looking like I'll get my Mammoth Book of Steampunk story back in time (and since that one didn't fit that well anyway), I'm now writing a new story for the Sword & Sorceress anthology. So far I like my idea, but I've a slight problem: my title, now that I've written it out, is freakishly long (The Sky, the Ground, the Sea, and the Girl Caught Between Them). Anybody have any thoughts on long titles?
 

OtterFactory

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I'm not sure if it's much help, but I'm rather fond of "list" titles. Perhaps "Ground, Sea, Girl"?

or "Ground, Girl, Sea". The girl is caught between ground and sea in that one! LITERALLY!
 
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soapdish

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I will be writing today. Yep. After not much of anything for a bit, I will attack my May W1 and not let go until I get a decent rough draft done.

Later today. After coffee. And kids leave. And after I work a bit. And I catch up on my required reading.

It'll happen, though. I swear. :D
 

shelleyo

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I truly believe the typo fairies wait until the envelope has been sealed, or the submit button clicked, to sprinkle their evil magic mistake-powder all over everything, because you can read through something a hundred times and there's nothing there, then, WHAM, suddenly there is.

It's the supernatural at work, I'm certain.

-Suzanne

That explains it. I'm going with that one. :)

@Isabelle, congratulations on your first submission! I think the first is the hardest, though it doesn't always feel easier even after that.

@Izz, I'm glad you're okay. Where I live in Illinois (about 50 miles away from St. Louis) tornadoes are commonplace in the spring and sometimes fall. The one that shut down Lambert didn't reach us, but the storm that produced it did. Our tornado siren gets a workout every year, and occasionally they do damage in my small town. It's scary, but I guess I'm used to it. Now what happened down south, that's worse than anything I've ever been through, too. The scale is terrifying.

@Nate, I don't think that title is freakishly long. Is it a light-hearted story with comic elements? Longer titles than that can work for those. The title is intriguing, but you run the risk of what I think of as Throw Momma from the Train syndrome (Billy Crystal's character is writing a book called Throw Momma from the Train about their experiences, and Danny Devito's character Owen gets his published first--Momma, Owen and Owen's Friend Larry. Crystal freaks out until he realized it's a children's book, in case you're not familiar with it. It's a good movie, especially for writers, I think.) Longer titles written that way can lend themselves to children's books or comic works. I don't think yours sounds comical, but I find myself wondering why you chose to write it that way instead of putting the character in the most prominent place (The Girl Caught Between the Ground, Sea and Sky).

I'd say if the ground, sea and sky are just as important as the girl on a character-level, then you probably have it just right. If not, maybe consider changing it. Since you feel like it's freakishly long, maybe that's your instinct telling you to do something.

I also think that if the story's a winner, the editor will change any title he or she doesn't like.

@soapdish--go you! Attack it! :)

As for me, by 9 am I'm going to be neck deep into article writing, for which I will reward myself later this afternoon by turning to fiction. I'm about to pour my first cup of coffee and then take my daughter's camera outside. When I pulled in this morning after taking her and her friends to school, I saw our red fox family again. We have a momma with baby foxes living under our shed. She got some pictures and video of them the other day, when I first spotted them. We saw two babies, then. There were four out there this morning.

They're apparently used to seeing us come and go, so they're not afraid of my car or us walking back and forth to it. Try to get close to take better pictures, and the momma chuffs so the babies hide. I don't want to get too close, because I don't want them to get too familiar and not be afraid of humans, but I'd love to get some more pictures before the babies are bigger and they move on. Here's a poor quality video for anyone interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yVJbw4m63U4

So coffee, a shot at pictures, and then work. I also have to perform my pledge:

*puts hand over heart* I shall hereby stay the hell out of P&CE all day, stop checking my email at 9 am, stop looking at online news at 9 am, and get as much work as I can get done before noon so I can play with and potentially torment made-up people guilt-free this afternoon. I swear on Captain Kirk's tricorder, so be it, make it so and all that.

Shelley
 
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zanzjan

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my title, now that I've written it out, is freakishly long (The Sky, the Ground, the Sea, and the Girl Caught Between Them). Anybody have any thoughts on long titles?

I like it a lot, but if it was my title I'd worry too about the length. What about just "The Girl Caught Between"?

-Suzanne
 

soapdish

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*puts hand over heart* I shall hereby stay the hell out of P&CE all day, stop checking my email at 9 am, stop looking at online news at 9 am, and get as much work as I can get done before noon so I can play with and potentially torment made-up people guilt-free this afternoon. I swear on Captain Kirk's tricorder, so be it, make it so and all that.

Shelley
*joins Shelley in her pledge* I pledge to read and goof off on the Internet until...8:30. Then work and goof off (what? I can multitask those two) until noonish. Then play with my made-up people (hopefully in the sun in the backyard or at the park) in the afternoon. :D

*bumps coffee mugs with Shelley*
 

alexshvartsman

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Since it's not looking like I'll get my Mammoth Book of Steampunk story back in time (and since that one didn't fit that well anyway), I'm now writing a new story for the Sword & Sorceress anthology. So far I like my idea, but I've a slight problem: my title, now that I've written it out, is freakishly long (The Sky, the Ground, the Sea, and the Girl Caught Between Them). Anybody have any thoughts on long titles?

I like the title. It being long could be a problem but I can't imagine it will hurt your chances of selling the story. The editor will simply ask for the title change if she feels it's too long. Though I do like "Ground, Girl, Sea" also - but you know best what will work for your story.

In other news, I wrote 700 words of a flash story today for the Shock Totem flash competition this week. Should be able to finish it up either tonight or tomorrow. It has to do with spiders (ick!).
 

Aggy B.

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Finally got a chance to write again, after nearly two weeks of utter insanity.

Now I just have to finish up everything I had in the edit/revise stage and start getting some subs back out there. And then work on some new stuff.

No rest for the weary, eh?

:)
 

shelleyo

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In other news, I wrote 700 words of a flash story today for the Shock Totem flash competition this week. Should be able to finish it up either tonight or tomorrow. It has to do with spiders (ick!).

WTG! I just signed up for that today. I look at the pictures and think "fantasy" rather than "horror," so I'm not so sure I'll produce anything suitable. Going to try, though.

Aggy, I hope things stay a bit calmer for you.

Shelley
 

Aggy B.

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WTG! I just signed up for that today. I look at the pictures and think "fantasy" rather than "horror," so I'm not so sure I'll produce anything suitable. Going to try, though.

Aggy, I hope things stay a bit calmer for you.

Shelley

Thanks. It's just been wild. Father-in-law passed away, then the day after we got him buried tornadoes ripped through our area and hubby and I were without power 'til yesterday afternoon. We're still trying to get the ginormous tree off our driveway/parking area.

But the weather's much better this week so that's a blessing. (And we still have a house to have the electric hooked back up to, unlike a lot of folks around here.)
 

GreenRoom

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WTG! I just signed up for that today. I look at the pictures and think "fantasy" rather than "horror," so I'm not so sure I'll produce anything suitable. Going to try, though.

Shelley

So long as the prompt is integral to the story, whether it's fantasy or horror -- or even something else -- is irrelevant for the contest (at least, that's what Ken said during the last contest, and I think it holds for all of them).

I wrote the first draft of my story for the Shock Totem contest yesterday, but it ended up way too long so now I'm debating whether to try to cut it down, or just figure out yet another story to write off that prompt. The one I wrote yesterday definitely isn't horror. It's fantasy, and perhaps a stretch to even call it dark fantasy though I was originally aiming for darkish.
 

soapdish

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Seems like most of us are doing that challenge. I outlined mine already and am going to try and bust out the first draft today.

I'm excited about my idea, but I am having a hard time pulling all the details together. Especially because most of my research is done with one hand covering my eyes. :rolleyes: This is not exactly the easiest thing for someone who is scared of spiders. :tongue
 

shelleyo

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Seems like most of us are doing that challenge. I outlined mine already and am going to try and bust out the first draft today.

I'm excited about my idea, but I am having a hard time pulling all the details together. Especially because most of my research is done with one hand covering my eyes. :rolleyes: This is not exactly the easiest thing for someone who is scared of spiders. :tongue


I know. I'm highly arachnophobic. I was much more excited by the picture before the prompt required spiders to have something to do with it. An idea that keeps bugging me now has nothing to do with them, but I like it. Wouldn't be appropriate for the contest, but maybe something else.

Shelley
 

soapdish

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Yes, my feelings exactly. In fact the first photo specifically had me all set with an idea, and then when I realized spiders *had* to be a part of it, I ditched it.

Now I'm trying to work it in in a minor way to the new idea I have, but I'm sure it will stick out like a sore thumb. Like some tacked on observation....oh well.
 

Izz

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Thanks. It's just been wild. Father-in-law passed away, then the day after we got him buried tornadoes ripped through our area and hubby and I were without power 'til yesterday afternoon. We're still trying to get the ginormous tree off our driveway/parking area.

But the weather's much better this week so that's a blessing. (And we still have a house to have the electric hooked back up to, unlike a lot of folks around here.)
*giant hugs*
 

Izz

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Sans anything intelligent to add to the conversation, here's a link from io9 about ocean levels: http://io9.com/#!5798750

This is nudging me back to the story i started last month.
 

soapdish

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Well, I have not yet completed my draft. But I am about 1/2 way. And there is still some night left yet. We'll see what happens.

*goes back to it*
 

Aggy B.

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*giant hugs*

Awwww. Thanks. :)

I was hoping to revise The Dragonwife tonight, but I think sleep is in order. Maybe tomorrow I can get it finished and away to beta-readers in hopes of making the Sword and Sorceress deadline. (There's plenty of other markets if I don't make it in time.)

Helped Mr. Aggy cutting down part of the tree out front. Every part of me is sore right now from hauling back (via a rope) on a tree limb that must have weighed a good 500 pounds. At least. I, naturally, weigh about 120. >_<

But the limb didn't hit him or knock over the ladder he was standing on when it fell and that is what's important.

If anyone cares to check it out, I did post the little bit I've written over the past few days in the SF/F SYW. (Link in my sig.) Hopefully with things falling back into a more normal rhythm I'll be getting more writing done over the next few weeks. :)
 

alexshvartsman

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I took a different approach to the Shock Totem contest and wrote a SF story. Yes, it has spiders and yes, it has spidersilk-covered trees, so it definitely fits into the contest rules. I'm about 700 words into it. Gonna finish it today or tomorrow and polish/send to beta readers for a quick read. I'm out of town on Saturday, so I will need to submit this by Friday night leaving me at a small disadvantage, but I'm pleased with what I've got so far, so hopefully it will be presentable by Friday.