I’m letting my story rest for a few days, so today I’m working on a character profile for Faradris, Elvish language stuff, and playing around with VoodooPad, which is an offline wiki for Mac OS.

VoodooPad is pretty fun and easy to use. To create a new page you just select some text, click the “link” button, and start typing away when the new page is generated. Couldn’t be simpler. So far I’ve done really super-basic pages on the geography of the city-state of Searoyal and a couple of characters and important organizations. I’ll have to take some time to compile what I’ve got in my notes already and add it in.

Speaking of compilation, I’ve got a huge plastic tub full of old writing and other papers and notebooks that need sorting, and in many cases, junking. I’m trying to put behind me old stuff that I know is going nowhere, and organize the current stuff so I can work more effectively. I’ve got notes on Searoyal in every corner of this apartment, exploding from bookcases, letter pockets and my purse, just to mention a few places, and I could really do with adding some method to this madness. I have a cunning plan to set that all in motion . . .

(I’m testing out ecto with this post, so please pardon any screwed-up-ness that might occur as a result.)

I think I need some new writing music. My iTunes Writing Playlist tells me that I have 11+ hours of music, but I still need more. The problem, I think, is that too much of my playlist is made up of movie soundtracks from films that strongly resonate with me.

Here’s what I mean: While I’m writing a scene of conflict between the elves and humans of Searoyal, suddenly “Concerning Hobbits” will begin to play, and all I can see are Frodo and the gang skipping around and dancing with Rosie Cotton. Or while I’m writing a touching scene between two characters who have yearned for each other since they met, “Hedwig’s Theme” filters through my headphones, and an owl flies in and drops a Hogwarts Letter on the heroine’s lap. Not exactly romantic.

I can listen to some movie soundtracks while I write. Stargate and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon work especially well. I think it depends on how thematic the music is, how strongly it evokes the images from the film. If I instantly start seeing pictures from the movie in my head, it gets confusing. Not exclusively related to soundtracks is the effect of the mood and tone of the music. Music that is rather dark or somber doesn’t seem to affect my happy scenes, but music that’s too joyful can stop a dark scene in its tracks.

I’ve heard Transformers has a pretty good soundtrack for listening-while-you-write. I think music from historical dramas like Elizabeth in general would be good. I can listen to music with lyrics; I’m fairly good at tuning the words out. World music—especially from the British Isles—seems to work phenomenally. Johan gave me some Babylon 5 music recently so hopefully that’ll work out.

Now that I’m happy with the state of Special Patrol Group (my hard-drive), I’ve been going through my library, setting aside books to take to Powell’s City of Books for sale, and writing down all the ISBNs so I can update my LibraryThing. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to start over from scratch; I set aside so many books to sell this year without taking note of what they were that it’s ridiculously obsolete. There are also a lot of books I haven’t added yet, so starting over will be best. I’m going to keep track of what I’ve read, what I haven’t read, and which don’t have covers in their entries at LibraryThing (and therefore need to be scanned).

As for the writing, I had a lot of catching up on personal stuff to do over the past week or two, but I’ll start writing again tonight, beginning with some crits for my writing group, Dreaming in Ink. Then on to just a little more world-building before I start the current novel, Faradris.

The rare, wild interrobang. Somehow I suspect writers shouldn’t include it in submissions . . . but still it’s kinda cute for a punctuation mark!

. . . ever devised by man. Apartment Therapy New York visits a London apartment that utilizes what would normally be dead space under the staircase to store books. There’s a skylight at the top so you can see what you’re looking at, and the stairs are designed just-so for sitting.

What I want to know is, can an architectural element be The Precious?

Lots more gorgeous pictures in the article.

John C. Wright is voting for Solomon Kane, which sounds pretty appealling considering the current crop of presidential candidates.

He’s also written a more thought-provoking article on Solomon Kane, pulp stories and the Romanticism of Despair.