Questions That Keep Me Up At Night

Park on driveways but drive on parkways. I'm sure you've heard the list of random quirky things before. Most of them have logical answers. Why do drive up ATMs have Braille? Because they're all made from the same mold and installed in different locations.

Others leave me stumped. For instance. A celery can be referred to as a stalk (of celery) or a rib (of celery), but what is a carrot? Chuck insists they are noses (of carrots). I have no reason to disbelieve him.

But what about mushrooms. Boyfriend put forth that they are mushroom caps, but this syntax does not follow the others (unit of mushrooms) and so I turn to the interwebs. What is the collective unit of measure of mushrooms. The ones that come in those little blue plastic container things.

Other word weirdness includes being waylaid from sleep (noun) or waylaid from sleeping (verb). This is not exactly the kind of question google is good at. Wolfram Alpha likes math better than words so that didn't help.

These are the kinds of questions that keep me up at night.

Some people loose sleep over taxes or relationships or if the new puppy will pee on the carpet.

Today I googled why two nuts screwed onto a bolt will lock together under vibration because it came up at work (machine shop) and it bothered me that I didn't know how this trick worked. It bothered me enough to look it up before I went on with my day. Wikipedia had an answer for me, btw, and it has to do with torsional stress on the bolt between the nuts remaining constant due to nut tensions and therefore preventing/inhibiting them from working themselves off the bolt.

Also, I dare you to work the word torsional into a blog post. That word is awesomesauce.

Talk to Me Baby: Any weird wordiness that keeps you up at night?

Better late than never!

That's the story I'm sticking to for now.

Three weeks ago I asked for your goals writing or otherwise in exchange for a chance to win a copy of Closer Than Touch and two lovely ladies jumped in to contribute their thoughts. As promised, random.org has chosen a winner.

Sylvia Winters!

I'll hit you up on twitter, Sylvia since I dropped the ball on getting back to you guys here. Or if you see this first, buzz me at tamiveldura@yahoo.com and I'll get you back this afternoon.

For everyone else, Closer is available for purchase at Less Than Three Press.

I hope everyone is seeing progress in their goals- that's what really motivates me to keep going. Happy Monday!

State of The Union and a Giveaway!

Last year roughly around this time I decided to restart this blog on the off-chance I could make it stick. Odds were not in my favor based on previous experience and while I wouldn’t call this year a flood of success, I’m still here and I have a story underway for publication; that counts for something.

The first thing I did  upon restart was make a list of projects in progress (and it was quite a list). What I didn’t do was issue specific and measureable goals for each of those projects. This is probably why many of those projects are still where they were a year ago.

So, without further delay, my WIPs and where I’d like them to be this time next year.

1. Writing:

• Zodiac Forces- this world came into being with Closer (Details below) and has rapidly expanded to touch on dozens of characters, each with their own piece of the story to tell.
• Closer Than Touch – Gemini. The story of Deia and Phade, introduces the world of the Zodiac Forces and was accepted for publication as an Ebook this year by Less Than Three Press. Available Jan 4^th, all edits are done on this story and all that’s left is to let the world know about it!
• Goal: Keep on top of sales tracking and royalties from the beginning.

• Moto – Scorpio. Motocross, an elite Scorpio sniper is assigned to track down and eliminate a target. A target he discovers he knows intimately. Moto’s story has been plotted out from ‘once upon a time’ to ‘the end’ I just need to put BIC and write the words out.
• Goal: Draft and edit Moto’s story. Offer to LT3 for publication by end of Feb.

• Cleo – Aries. The support role of Aries fits Cleo well. He’s a follower, not a leader, and allocating data from chaos is his specialty. Keeping the chaos of his life from dragging everyone he knows into a pit of despair- well that will take a bit more effort. Cleo’s story is not plotted or really defined at this point. I know the major plot. Sortof.
• Goal: Plot Cleo’s story by Feb. Write and edit by end of April.

• Training a Werewolf – this story came into being about the same time as Closer. I had every intention of writing it next when Closer was accepted for publication and my whole world flipped upside down. A Hunter is called in to capture a rogue werewolf, and instead finds a conscious man on the other side of the fur. I have plotted out many of the major points of this story, it is a short but I have a feeling it could be a world I play in again.
• Goal: Plot by April. Write and edit by June.

• Daywalkers – Daywalkers is largely unchanged from last year’s position. I’m still working with a cast of thousands and I still don’t know the major plot. Not really.
• Goal: Plot by Jan 2013. Get the story down solid. Fall in love with it again.

• Ghostmarked – Ghostmarked is also unchanged from last year and while there were some half-hearted attempts to write it, I don’t have much direction. I know quite a bit about the three story arc, but significantly less about each book individually.
• Goal: Plot by Jan 2013. Get the story down solid. Fall in love with it again.

• Magecraft – Developed extensively this year with AWB (Alaska Writing Buddy), I have half of this story plotted and some words written for the beginning. I need Denn’s point of view added to the walkthrough before I’ll really know what direction to go.
• Goal: Plot by June.

2. Editing

• The Trouble With Henry – SKD wrote a lovely novel that deserves to be on more shelves than just my own. It’s been sitting next to my chair for months, half edited because I’m a lazy bitch with no one holding me accountable. Henry needs to be edited completely.
• Goal: Edit this copy of Henry by March. Discuss the next steps with SKD.

• Starsong – My baby has been neglected sorely. Starsong needs to be edited
• Goal: Edit this copy of Starsong by June. Start thumbnailing cover designs.

3. Art

• Gryphon colored pencil – this piece has been sitting on my art table forever. Like. For two years forever. It’s ridiculous.
• Goal: Finish the gryphon in full by March. Frame and hang by April.

4. Gaming
 

• I have a laundry list of games that I've played half way through. I need to either finish them or turn them in to Game Stop for credit.
•  Goal: Finish any 1 game every two months.
• Overlord 2 
• Darksiders 
• Dante's Inferno
• Prototype
• Infamous
• Borderlands
• Batman: Asylum
• Sacred 2

5. Reading

• If there's one section of life where I feel like I've made progress, it's this one. However, I've collected more books than I've managed to finish, so my net collection has grown. Surprised? Not really. It's time to weed the garden, though. I simply don't have room for them all and I've already started sorting through books that I don't need or feel it is necessary to keep 
• Goal: reduce the current library to half it's size through donation by June. 

It's not a short list, but a year is a long time to plan out and for things to go awry. No doubt I will generate new projects as the months go on and I haven't even touched the fanfiction archives I've been neglecting. But now that the list is written and the goals are defined, this time next year I can compare my progress and celebrate the little victories that make up a year.

But enough about me, what's this giveaway I've promised?! I am giving away one digital copy of my short story Closer Than Touch, to be released by the lovely Less Than Three Press on Jan 4th. The catch? I want to know your goals for the year. Writing goals, gaming goals, life goals, silly goals, serious goals, all of them or just some of them.

1. Tweet, Blog, link or otherwise tell someone about this post.
2. Comment with (or blog and link in the comments to) your list of goals for the year.

That's it! Tell someone else and then tell me. Random.com will pull a number out of the hat an I'll announce the winner on this blog in two weeks. You can follow the blog by email or RSS (both found on the side bar) if you think you'll forget to check back.

If you can't wait two weeks, Closer Than Touch is available starting Jan 4th from Less Than Three Press.