Blog entry March 2010

Today I spent researching medieval Europe.  Oh, what fun.  **sigh**  There are reasons I swore I'd never write historicals.  And then when this fantasy jumped out and bit me... now there are reasons I swear I'll never write another fantasy. 

But, now I've got a fair amount of the research done, so maybe I will.  Who knows.

However, I did accomplish my aim.  I was stuck because I didn't have words for stuff.  The first scene starts with the hero walking into the king's presence.  What is the hero wearing?  What rank is he in the military?  What are the ranks of his subordinates?  Where does he live?  What does the great hall look like?  etc. 

I know I'm not historically accurate, but I'm close enough to make myself happy.  So maybe I can actually get to work on the blasted book.

Because the first books that are being submitted are erotica, and since erotica isn't inteneded to be the only thing I write... I decided long ago that I needed a pseudonym for my erotica works.  And being the lazy sort, I decided on "Jacqui" Powers, and bought the domain.

Now, finally, I have the website up: www.JacquiPowers.com

It doesn't have much content, but the layout is pretty much set.  If you view it in Firefox, the main text over the book will be columned across the book's pages. 

I must admit that I'm vastly amused with it.

So, as always, more to do, but it's a significant start in the process.

And... as for submission statuses... the agent who asked for the full said "thanks, but no thanks" and another agent finally got around to telling me she was too busy.  So I need to get back to researching agents.

... and be even more careful of things you casually mention to yourself.  **sigh**

On the way back from the conference in Minneapolis a couple weeks ago, I was commenting to myself that I like driving on country expressways because it gives me lots of thinking time. ...  But I didn't mean I wanted to drive to another damn funeral!!  Especially one of a 20-yo kid.  **bad words**

My cousin's kid was driving a company truck, crossed the center-line on a curve and smacked a semi full of sheet metal head-on.  Cousin's kid was the father of two kids of his own.

This isn't going to be a pleasant trip.  **sigh**  But necessary.

Last Friday I spent most of the afternoon at the library researching castles.  And last night, I spent most of the evening researching tents and glass.

Now I know why almost all fantasy books happen in the woods... you don't have to research trees and campfires... they really haven't changed much in the last couple thousand years.

But buildings... they are driving me crazy.  Yes, Chris, I know I'm obsessive, but that's who I am. **grin**

The hero's based in a garrison of a stone castle, and the heroine lives in a post-and-beam wooden structure with a central court yard.  I'm happy to have that pretty well figured out, finally.

And, tents, you may ask, why tents?  Because when you have a bunch of newbie firestarters, you don't want them practicing in a town of wooden buildings and risk burning down the whole place.  So they practice far away from town, in a small training camp with large sleeping and dining tents.  I knew the heroine's people had canvas tents, but I knew they weren't cotton, because cotton came from the new world... so what were the tents made of?  Come to find out it was hemp canvas, just like sailing ship's sails were made of.  Cool!  :-)

Why glass? Because I really want windows.  And given I have firestarters, I've decided that I can have glass, too.

The next thing to research is a point that Chris brought up... why in the world is the hero back at the castle instead out on campaign or at his own estate?  Going to have to research military stuff for a bit to figure that one out.

I guess the good news is that I'll have plenty of fodder for the "Researching" class I'm teaching in a couple weeks.  :-)

I got back from the conference two weekends ago, determined to clean up my office.  But before I could do that, I had to finish the drywall in the corner.  Last Friday, I finally finished and painted the drywall.  So this week has been spent attacking everything else.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Which, to me, is made even more impressive by the fact that the clean desk also meant catching up all my finances in the computer and putting everything on the desk away or filing it where it belonged.

I feel very accomplished.