Those who know me know I love websites. I’m like a gnome (World of Warcraft, not Garden, variety) in that respect: I love to tinker.
So I’ve done (yet another) overhaul of my sites, and reorganised my “online presence” into something more segregated, like so:
I’m keeping my books, and news specifically about my books, right here.
I’m putting everything specific to the Blood of Ages universe (character profiles and setting information) over at DaysonCity.com (although that’s under construction right now: check it out soon!)
Everything else (my flash fiction, my reviews, my random fits of rage, my bizarre fixation with anthropomorphic cartoon animals from the late 80’s and early 90’s) will now be on my blog over at KLKerr.com.
I can’t promise this will be the last time I mess around with the sites like this. I can’t even pretend, because I wouldn’t be able to keep a straight face.
TL:DR Want to know about my books? You’re in the right place. Really want to know about my books? Snoop here. Want to know about me? Check out my blog. Everyone else, shut up and go home.
Greetings! Pull up a chair. Oh, you’re already sitting down. Never mind, then.
Right, so I was going to go into this huge spiel about how pathetic and depressing 2011 was for me, and to share with anyone who cares to read it about how awful things were and how badly I handled everything and how I dropped myself into whole oceans worth of shit.
But you know what? No one will want to hear about it, and I don’t particularly want to write about it or even remember it, so fuck it, I won’t.
Instead, I’m going to talk about the good things I have to look forward to in 2012.
So I finished the novel I was working on for NaNoWriMo 2011. Woo. It is out with more beta readers as we speak, and I am sitting on my hands while I wait to hear back from them, chewing the skin around my nails like a rabid rodent.
I fully, fully intend to have this book released for public consumption by the middle/back-end of this year. The thing and/or problem with this particular book is that it’s been around in some form or another for a looooooong time now, and yet I feel I can’t move onto bigger, better things until I’m happy that the foundation I’ve created is solid. So the first book is winging its way back through beta readers and hopefully a variety of opinions will be winging their way to me very soon!
That said, I’ve started editing the second book, still (currently) titled “The Vampire’s Son”, my 2009 NaNoWriMo, which basically looks like a kneaded turd right now.
No, that’s not fair. The parts that are done are pretty decent, in all fairness. But then there are g a p i n g chasms where whole chapters should be, frayed and unfinished scenes, entire plot threads have unravelled and dangle loose, with the threat of the slightest breeze blowing them away. So it looks more like a moth-eaten blanket found buried in the basement, covered in dust and dead spiders.
But it’s definitely workable, and what’s there is good, if I do say so myself.
Anyway, that’s where I’m at with writing right now.
I’ve stopped playing World of Warcraft for an indefinite period, simply because when I do play, it takes over my entire life, and I actually have other things I’m supposed to be doing.
I love the game, and by playing it I’ve managed to meet people who I can say with some degree of confidence I would never have met otherwise. But I just don’t have the time for it. I only hope that soon I will get the time to be able to return to GlenCoco, my Worgen warrior, and get back to those heady nights of drunk tanking and getting everyone killed.
Even without WoW, I’m still managing to get in a fair amount of procrastination, though – if I do say so myself – it’s not as much as this time last year. I’d like to think it might be in part because of the wake up call that 2011 actually was.
I’m blaming NetFlix for the new bout of mind wandering, since that’s just been released in the UK, and of course I had to sign up for the free month.
Anyway, that’s where I am with everything else right now.
I have some plans/announcements that I’m going to be bursting out in the next few days/weeks for the VS series, so keep your lids peeled for that.
I plan to get back into the swing of updating this site as well, since it seems a little forlorn and filled with melancholy right now. I have a number of “Music to Write Novels By” posts still waiting in the wings, so I should be able to ease myself back in with a few of those.
Original post from thenugen.co.uk, where I am the original guild’s co-founder and since a lingering presence…
Regular guildies might have noticed a few days ago that a small army came into the guild, and that all five characters (Diokhan, Diakhan, Maramay, Máramay, and Marámay) were me.
So, yes, it’s been pretty quiet in the world of Kat the last two weeks. Since NaNoWriMo ended, I have been wandering the proverbial streets, wondering where and when inspiration will return, open-armed, telling me it didn’t mean to leave but that life just took us down different paths. Or something.
I still have an incomplete third draft of Divided They Fall. It lingers in shadows, watching me. Judging me.
Why haven’t you finished me yet? it demands. More important things to do, have we? Have World of Warcraft Cataclysm to play, do we?
In any case, I am still working on it, albeit much more slowly now that there is less pressure imposed upon me from the world at large to write that damn novel. It’s harder to keep driving along when you are the only one telling yourself to finish it.
But I am still on it. Honest.
As a bonus, here’s a picture of my new worgen druid, Penrefe, and a double feature with my worgen warrior, Glencoco (you go, Glen Coco!), both of which I am loving alongside my now level 83 worgen hunter (I race-changed her; I’m not that quick), Catirina.
Being addicted to World of Warcraft Cataclysm is like being addicted to crack: You know it’s going to destroy you, but you can’t resist the buzz you get for doing it.
If you play World of Warcraft and would like to join me and our awesome guild of awesome, come join us! We currently play ‘For the Alliance’ on Mazrigos EU server. Join us at TheNuGen.co.uk
It’s becoming increasingly apparent to me that, despite my talking about it and conversing with writers on a daily basis, I haven’t actually done any writing myself in months (blog posts and tweets not included, obviously!). And I’m not being dramatic there; it’s been literally months.
In fact, according to my blog (surpassed in its level of factuality only by Wikipedia and God Google), the last time I actually wrote something related to any of the VS series was in May, and even that was a one-off in an already pretty massive writing blag’ole.
I have since blamed my lack of writing (and lack of motivation to do it in the first place) on just about anything and everything in my life, including:
A House Guest. At the start of the year, we had a guest living in our house, and since my office was the one with the spare bed, it became her room for about five/six months. My computer, meanwhile, was setup in a perfectly working condition and I could’ve easily carried on writing in the other office, but I insisted it just didn’t “feel” right. I even talked about it in my 30 Days of Writing. But then, guest left in July, and since then, I still sit at my computer back in my old room and write nothing.
World of Warcraft. This isn’t even an excuse in itself, since I haven’t played the game for a good month or so now, and the state of my writing flow hasn’t improved one iota.
Getting Married. Alright, this was legitimate, I think. It’s hard to concentrate on just about anything when you have just over six months to plan a wedding. If anyone had told me to do some writing in this time, I probably would’ve just laughed. And kicked them in the face. But again, I got married in August. Have I written anything since then? No.
My MacBook. Another semi-legitimate excuse, in my opinion, because I just wasn’t in the creative mood wondering whether this boot would be the time it wouldn’t turn on anymore, although again you could argue that a “real” writer wouldn’t let something as superfluous as the wrong type of writing software stop them from producing some kind of prose. Besides, that has also been resolved, with a brand new MacBook Pro I sold my second kidney to get (having already sold my first to get the Moleskine notebook I had my eye on), which I’ve now had over a week without writing a single page.
I’m now even blaming NaNoWriMo (of all things!), claiming that I’m too busy working on my outline to focus on anything else. That’s just a big, fat lie. I wrote the outline in one big chunk a week ago, and since my only constructive action (or action, at all) has been to open and re-read it.
I can’t blame it on “writer’s block”, either, because the ideas are still in my head; sometimes I have dreams that would make perfect scenes or even short stories in themselves, if only I had the resolve to drag my carcass out of bed to write the ideas down before they fizzle away.
Not only that, but I can’t blame life in general for getting in the way. I have it much easier than a lot of the other writers I come across. I don’t have any kids that demand my attention (save for the cats, of course), and I have a job that – while stressful in moments, but whose job isn’t? – is flexible. If I put the focus onto it, I could easily fit 30 minutes of writing time or more at least into the work day. And even if I didn’t want to do that, if I wanted to keep my work and writing “worlds” separate, I could easily find the time after office hours. I don’t do anything constructive when work ends other than get lost in television and the Internet. If I just took half an hour a day, over time I could get so much done.
My attention flits back to the post I put last New Year’s Eve; I only had two resolutions (neither of which I’ve kept; pfft, healthy eating, what’s that?), the second of which was:
2/ I will attempt to write at least one weekday and for at least two hours at some point of a weekend. That sounds reasonable enough, right? I managed 50k words in 30 days for NaNo; a couple of chapters a month can’t be that far out of reach.
The bold is new. It highlights how ridiculously easy it should be.
And yes, I know writing is supposed to be a pleasurable experience and trying to force it may only serve to push me further from the desire to write at all, but since sitting back for the last few months and waiting for inspiration to strike me down hasn’t exactly worked, I have to assume that it needs some kind of intervention on my part.
I have no excuse, it’s sheer laziness, and it’s not funny anymore. I need to fix this, fix my writing schedule and entire writing life.
A few weeks ago, I was moaning (as I often do) about the working state of my MacBook, crying and tanting about how it was dying and I didn’t want to write without using Scrivener (the very reason I bought my Mac(s) in the first place, and the reason I’ve bought another — I hope Apple appreciate the Scrivener team, because I’m more than a little confident that I’m not the only one to do this!). Since I mentioned the Scrivener Twitter account in my rant, I got a very nice response from DJ, hinting that it might not be too long until the Windows version was finally released.
The link DJ provided at the time was to a tiny pocket of the Literature and Latte web site, which has been there since I started using the software. It basically said that there wasn’t a version available yet, but that one day it would be a possibility, and offered an e-mail sign-up to a newsletter. Having already done this over 12 months ago, I ignored it.
Mere days later, my tether finally snapped with my MacBook and I sold it on eBay along with the ill-fated Mac Mini, which never really did anything wrong, but which I was always slightly embittered towards, because it wasn’t a MacBook, and I shouldn’t have had any need to buy it, because the MacBook should have just fucking worked in the first place!
Anyway, yes, the MacBook was gone, and deciding that the information from DJ was just sweet placation, I also put an order in for a new MacBook Pro.
I come from a World of Warcraft experience of software development, where Soon™ means anything from tomorrow to the end of time, like so:
So when I was told that a Windows version of Scrivener was coming soon, I brushed it off entirely, went ahead and bought a new laptop anyway.
Another handful of days later, before my new machine had even arrived (it still hasn’t, stupid Apple delivery times), the Scrivener twitter was abuzz with new information about the release of Scrivener for Windows. I was naturally flabbergasted and feeling more than a little sheepish. That’ll teach me to ignore information from a software developer.
Full information from this update, including movie demonstrations of how it’s going to work, can be found here.
Almost thankfully for me, it’s been announced that this Windows update — although coming — isn’t due for release until early 2011. That doesn’t seem like far away, but when you think there’s NaNoWriMo sandwiched in between today and the proposed release date, it’s still understandable why I would want to have the existing Mac version.
In any case, I have learned two things from this experience:
Even with the Mac version in my possession, I will still be purchasing Scrivener for Windows.
When someone tells you that something is coming, I will consider believing them.
Funny what can happen when you’re bored on a Saturday afternoon. I did actually do this video once a while ago, but I decided to remake it. Why? Because I’d rather not write right now, that’s why. Now, I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea here; I’m a huge fan of the Supernatural series. In fact, it’s one of my favourite TV shows, in amongst the likes of Dark Angel and Black Books.
Enjoy!
You’d think I’d spent my spare time writing, since I’m not World of Warcraft-ing it up til Cataclysm. But you’d be wrong. Seems I’m still the absolute expert in procrastination and will literally do just about anything instead of writing. I’m so pro!
Anyway, yes, there you go, the Supernatural series…eses..es, in 5 seconds.
Because I know you were all so very worried about me, it’s alright, I’m not dead! You can call off the search parties and inform the authorities as necessary.
OK, so wow, yeah, it’s been almost two months since I updated the online world of my [writing] escapades. The reasoning for this can be summarised with two points:
1/ I got married. Having a wedding to plan and manage and perform damage control for took up most of my free time, and any time where I wasn’t technically doing anything (which, to be fair, was a lot of the time) I still couldn’t concentrate because I was too anxious about the whole thing. In any case, it all went off without a hitch, you’ll be glad to hear, I’m sure, and a big thank you to anyone who reads this who was a part of it. And yes, I’m sure you can all appreciate (especially those of you who have been married) how that kind of took my attention away from everything else.
2/ I returned to World of Warcraft. Yes, it is an addictive temptress, and after just three months’ break, I found myself longing once more to pick up that hoove’d, horned vixen hunter Catrinna and start playing again. We started a new guild, and I’ve done a few blogs on there (which I’ve had the gall to call writing “exercises” but that really aren’t!).
And that’s about it, really. Between stressing about the hundred and one things that could go wrong at the wedding (none of which did in the end; it was a lovely day) and levelling a new Draenei priest (plus dual-boxing a druid / shaman combo), I haven’t really made time for any of this mysterious thing called “writing”.
But now, the wedding is over and done with, so I can let out the breath I was holding in equal amounts of anticipation and dread, and with only the prospect of a game looming over me as a freely available pastime whenever I want it, I can (hopefully) return my focus to the whole writing…thing.
The first two weeks of married life have naturally been bliss. We’re currently planning our honeymoon for July 2011; I desperately want to go to America, and – more specifically – San Diego Comic-Con, and because my husband loves me very much (enough to marry me, no less!), we’re going to incorporate it into our trip! We’re going to Vegas, San Diego and Los Angeles, which already sounds far too hot for me just typing it, but I’m sure I’ll get over it when I’m there (or I’ll just sit inside the air-conditioned hotel room and have husband visit all the sights on my behalf…with a video camera!).
In writing news – of which there naturally isn’t much – it would appear that Amazon have finally pulled their fingers out and released the Kindle publishing over here in the UK. While the site is about as easy to navigate as Undercity (WoW joke; don’t worry if you don’t get it, just means you’re not a nerd), hopefully I’ll be able to get the information I need to be able to force “The Genesis” on the general Amazon population Soon™!
And in the meantime, I’m trying to get some kind of organisational skills around the writing, since that really should deserve quite a hefty chunk of attention right now. I have about a half of “The Vampire’s Son” done, with the rest being stitched together by my muse, plus about a quarter of “Divided They Fall”. Both still technically first drafts (“The Vampire’s Son” is still the version that came from NaNoWriMo last November), there’s still an entire field worth of improvement room.
Hope you like it, and if you don’t…screw you, it’s not your site =)
In other news, I’ve spotted another Headset of Doom in an episode of Friends (the one where Phoebe gets married; the headset Monica is wearing on the rehearsal night, NOT the one she gives to Phoebe).
I’ve also embraced my inner geek recently and purchased a Red XIII action figure. He’s so purdy, although a friend of mine rightfully pointed out he does look a bit “too badass”, since the character of Red XIII was pretty much the most docile of all the characters in Final Fantasy VII.
(Note: In case there are those of you out there who know about this action figure, you may be wondering where Cait Sith is. He’s on my car’s dashboard. Looking awesome. I bought Red with the intention of putting him there, but he’s just too big.)
I know this post has gone off at a complete tangent, but anyway, here are two related life stories about me and Red XIII and Final Fantasy VII:
1/ I know that ‘XIII’ means ’13’ in Roman numerals. Even in 1997, when I first got my chubby little hands (they probably weren’t chubby, even in 1997) on Final Fantasy VII, I would have known that XIII meant 13. However, for some totally unknown reason, when I first came across Red in the Shinra building, in my head, I called him Red X3. At least I got half of it right. Even now, 13 years later (13 years! 13! Spooky!) I still call him Red X3. I think it sounds better, anyway.
2/ I got the game shortly after its 1997 UK release. Final Fantasy VII was one of the reasons (if not the reason) I demanded a PlayStation for Christmas that year. I vaguely remember seeing the advert on TV (it showed the part where Cloud fell from the second reactor explosion, before he met Aeris), and being all “OMG I totally want that!” (Although I wouldn’t have said OMG, because this was 1997 and I we didn’t have Internet acronyms back then…except maybe LOL; that’s been around since Jesus times. Jesus LOL’d). Final Fantasy VII is still one of my top 5 favourite games of all time (in amongst World of Warcraft (of course!), Abe’s Oddysey and Tomb Raider II (didn’t like the original Tomb Raider – I think Lara’s odd-shaped boobies unnerved me). Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, so I played Final Fantasy VII like a trooper after I bought it. I still play this game, having previously played it via emulator and the old, scratched to buggery disks, and more recently re-purchasing it for the PSP. I must have completed it about five or six times, but on the second go, having learned that Red’s real name is Nanaki – and having the mental capacity of a six-year old at the time – I decided to have a bit of fun with the names (which, for those of you who don’t know, you can change for all the playable characters). For example, I called Cloud ‘Dick Head’, Tifa was ‘the Bitch’, and Aeris was ‘Big Bum’ (my personal favourite, since I never really liked Aeris, mostly because she was all up on Cloud, even though I made it abundantly clear during my multiple choice answers that Cloud carried wood for Tifa), which all led to side-splitting conversations in-game (well, OK, not anymore, but in 1997, when I was 13 (13 again! It’s a sign! The apocalypse is coming! The End is Nigh!), this was like comedy gold). Anyway, I called Red X3 ‘Nanaki’. Aside from the fact that you can imagine your own story to explain why Red says you (the player) can give him any name you like, yet if you call him his actual name, the universe doesn’t implode. So then why, in amongst these positively hilarious names, did I give Red X3 the only serious name? All of this effort amounted to one text box in the 120 hours or so of play that, when prompted during a scene in Rocket Town, Red says the line… ‘[My name is] Nanaki, also known as Nanaki.’ – as for the other names (Cid and Vincent in particular), by the time I’d gotten back into the game, I’d run out of clever ideas (and swear words…again, I was 13…I wouldn’t have dreamed of using words like f*ck, on the off-chance my mother might have read it on the TV screen), Dick Head and Big Bum was about as creative as it could get.
Finally, steering the train of thought (even though you can’t steer a train…) back to writing, I made a few minor startling discoveries relating to my own names, when I most recently picked up Final Fantasy VII on the PSP.
When Cloud fights against President Rufus Shinra before leaving Midgar, his guard dog is called Dark Nation. In the original sequel book (which might still be a sequel, just not in series one), Dark Nation was the name I gave to the demon that could bend history.
When the party moves through Nibelheim and travels through the mountains, they come across a monster called the Materia Keeper. If one (or more) of your party has the Enemy Skill materia equipped, he or she could learn the Trine spell. Hmm, Trine, now where have I heard that before? Oh, yes! Aisen’s lieutenants are the Trine! It would appear the most feared living vampires in my story’s history are named after a lightning spell. And not even a very good lightning spell. It’s fair to assume that this naming is merely coincidence, but the same can’t really be said for Dark Nation, since it’s such an unusual name.
So there you have it. Names I’ve shamelessly (although, until recently, subconsciously) stolen from a video game. Maybe I should just rename the Trine to Dick Head, Bitch and Big Bum…
I had wholly intended today to be a completely writing-based day. And then I remembered my recently acquired Disney film collection. I figured I could just watch one before getting into some serious creative kung fu.
So I watched Disney/Pixar’s UP, cried like a baby, and and put on another one and then another and another.
Managed to catch up on some old classics as well as the newer ones. Sleeping Beauty; all hail Maleficent, Mistress of all Evil (not to be confused with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark…who is also amazing, but for totally different reasons). Monsters Inc; Boo, too cute for words. Realised that I don’t like The Jungle Book, which of all the Disney films I’ve seen, has some of the poorest re-used animation loops. Realised that I do like Tarzan. Emperor’s New Groove is…well, it’s weird. And to close I watched Bambi, which I am now confident I never actually finished watching as a child, since when I watching it tonight, everything after the whole “mother” incident seemed new.
I did tear myself away. To play World of Warcraft for a bit. But eventually I actually sat down, as I am now, and did some writing. Woo.
Yes, in amidst all my fanny-ing about, I am actually still finding the time to write occasionally!
