abracanabra: (Default)
2010-05-23 03:38 pm

Chinese Desertification and Pollution?

What province in China has both high levels of industrial pollution and encroaching desertification?

I'm figuring out my remediation/desertification story that I have to write in an incredibly short amount of time because I am an idiot--and I'd like to figure out where it's located. I like the idea of Mongolia, which is good for the desertification but not so good for the industrialization....

And Beijing is so overdone.
abracanabra: (editing despair)
2010-05-22 06:07 pm

Synopses

I have to write the synopses for Vicesteed now, and it's terrifying me. I mean, I can get it down to three paragraphs, but anything less than that feels impossible. And I'll definitely need a one-paragraph version and (ack!) a one-sentence pitch.

This is my best attempt at a sentence pitch (logline), and it's clunky, and doesn't address everything:
Vicesteed is a steampunk locked-room murder mystery set in a
far future where a woman whose only memories are of the vices of
others must fight through an unfamiliar neo-Victorian world to find
out who she was, who took away her memories, and what she really did
in her role as a vicesteed.


And for the paragraph, I've got this, but again, leaves maybe too much out, and the last sentence I fear is cliche:
In a Victorian steampunk future, QUINCY is a private investigator ordered to find the cause of the comatose Prince Consort's affliction. Two very different women are the key to solving this locked-room mystery: VALINDA, a former vicesteed searching for her identity--and her revenge--after escaping a theme park of depravity where her experiences were broadcast to a discerning audience; and ROSEMARY, a gently bred young lady with dangerous ties to a rebel underground and an unfeminine inclination to build clockwork automata. They unravel the conspiracy, but not before they find passion, betrayal, unwanted truth, and murder.

My problem:
How do you condense it all down to a pitch when you've got three separate plotlines equally balanced with three main characters, all of which interrelate but are more than just different views of the same thing? Just pitch the opening plotline and allude to the others? I can figure out how to get it down to three paragraphs, but a one-paragraph or heaven forbid one sentence pitch is beyond me. If I focus on the thing that they start out with in common, it requires way too much explanation of how they fit together. How did you do it? Any good resources to read for key things to include or exclude or look for?

CoyoteCon general summary advice )
abracanabra: (Default)
2009-02-12 10:21 pm
Entry tags:

Computer...Dying?

The last couple of days, my computer's added a new and very not good quirk--blacking out the screen. I'll power up, be using it for a couple of minutes, and *poof* black screen. The computer itself is still running, there's just no display. If I put the computer into sleep mode and bring it back up, the screen displays again--for a while.

Help?

Is this a monitor problem, a graphics card problem, a virus--what? What should I try to do?
abracanabra: (Let Me Tell You a Story)
2007-02-13 01:35 pm

Help with Critiquing Vicesteed!

This novel's been trunked for a year because--frankly--I've been a bit intimidated by the idea of actually editing the damnbeast and getting it out there. There's a lot of work tied up in it, and I know there's a lot more work to be done. That's where you come in! Hopefully. Pretty please?

I'm looking for critiquers. Noble souls willing to wade through rough draft and give me feedback--line-by-line, chapter-by-chapter, and/or on the overall thing. I will reward these critiquers with free dinner, coffee/alcohol, credit in the acknowledgment page if/when this thing is ever published, and/or a trade in services (photography, critiquing your writing, a sneak peek at some of my other writing you've been wanting to read but can't afford to buy, a couple of lessons in self-defense, whatever). I did start getting this critiqued a while ago, but between overwhelming schedule demands and plain ole bad timing, most of it didn't get done. For those who read this who are also on Critters, I'm in the process of posting an RFDR there, so you would get credit.

Why else would you want to read and critique Vicesteed? Because it's fabulous, that's why! Vicesteed is a neo-Victorian science fiction novel that is equal proportions locked-room murder mystery, exploration of how society forms identity, and high-octane quest for vengeance. With sex, violence, romance, spaceships, androids, explosions, politics, intrigue, and clockwork automata. The style it is written in can be compared in parts to Stephenson's Diamond Age.

Night mist swirled around Valinda's boots as she walked through the empty street. She heard a faint buzzing, barely audible, as the neon signs that lined the street flickered, died, and were reborn. The only other sounds were her boot heels striking the asphalt and an occasional splash when she stepped in one of the filthy puddles spawned by the predictable drizzle.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen the stars. At night, the sky only reflected back the pollution-tainted yellow light of the city, and during the day, the sun shone sullenly through gray clouds that never lifted.

She wished she could see the stars. She was on her way to an appointment that she did not want to keep, a rather unpleasant appointment. She had no choice but to go, but she thought that if she could see the stars it would help her to bear it. In her squat, she kept a few found treasures under the molding mattress she slept on. Among them were three plastic stars covered with silver glitter. It was not the same, but she sometimes held them up to the fogged sky and pretended that she could see the stars.
Read more....


The plan is to go through two chapters a month. I'll email out the first two chapters, and after I get back the critique, I'll send out the next two (so if you finish reading and critiquing it in a week and Must Have More, I'll email out the next couple). Obviously, I'm entirely willing to be pretty flexible about handling this, so long as a certain amount is done by a certain time.

Help? Pretty please?
abracanabra: (Default)
2006-11-01 01:04 pm

Christmas Story Contest?

I may be crazy.

I'm thinking about running a contest for spec-fic Christmas-themed short stories, poetry, and art.

I've got some ideas that I think would be awesome.

I think I'll do it.

This is why I may be crazy.


I could really use some help coming up with a name for the dratted contest!!

It does not necessarily have to reflect the spec-fic theme.
It must be unique enough to be the first or only hit in a Google search.
It must reflect the season (doesn't have to be Christmas--could just be very wintery or holiday-y or Yule-y).
It has to be reasonably short.
Bonus points if it reflects the "sharing" aspect in some way, as that's going to be a key component of the contest.