Wow. Time has been flying by at a crazy pace. It’s been over a week since my last post, which just seems wrong. Mind you, I’ve been actively tweeting over on my Twitter account (derekmolata), where everything has been quick thoughts and whatnot, but nothing worthy of a blog entry. I’ve also been trying to keep up on my Facebook account when I can, but that can be a lesson in futility.
Things have settled down since I acquired an agent a few weeks ago. Which is good. It is allowing me time to get some other things down around the house and spend some time with my family and get caught up on the craziness of the day job. But I have some synopses to finish for books 2 and 3 of the Hinges series, and a synopsis to write for the YA project as well. Time to get moving on wrapping those up before my revision notes come back from my agent.
I’ve also been able to hang out over the past week or some with some of my close friends. Last weekend I had my brilliant illustrator and childhood friend, David Sones, and his wife come over for dinner and drinks and conversation. It was a great time indeed, and even though his wife is expecting, the night went late which was nice since we don’t have a chance to get together as much as we’d like to.
Then on Thursday night I went out for sushi with the awesome Karin Lowachee and we talked shop, from books and movies and writing and agents to whatever else tickled our fancy. It was mucho fun, and luckily, our bi-monthly get-togethers will be accelerated as I’ll get to see her again on May 12 for the Chuck Palahniuk reading and signing in Toronto.
So yeah, all in all, things have been very busy, but in a “good busy” way. This weekend is going to be primarily spent working around the house and getting ready to plant trees, as we’re ordering about 50 trees in the next few weeks to plant in the backyard. Can’t wait for that, but there is a lot of prep involved.
Now I’m off to take Charlotte to dance class. Have a good weekend.
Wow. Where have the last few weeks gone? It’s been a very exciting, very crazy, very sad time.
For most of the last few weeks things have been going swimmingly well, so much so that I feel like each day I’ve been climbing clouds. Of course, I can’t talk about any of it openly, but there have been some great days, some touching emails, and just a general excitement in my spirit–which is a nice change. Could part of it be the fact that Spring has arrived? Possibly, but I doubt it.
See, Old Man Winter came back on Monday and hit South-Western Ontario with snow and ice and hail. But it didn’t get me down; I was still navigating the recent cloud cover I’d entered.
Work on FEVER has been going well. I’ve finalized a synopsis and tweaked the manuscript and such. It’s done for now.
Which brings me to working on my YA project. VIOLET has been on the backburner since I went to Seattle a few weeks ago. Time for a swap. Now that FEVER is pretty much done, and I’m waiting to work on CYPHER and WINTERGLASS, I can bring VIOLET to the forefront and start dropping words on the draft again. I’m looking forward to seeing what misadventures she can get into as the draft progresses. And with so many people waving pom poms for me to work on it, how can I not?
But there have been some downers this week as well. My wife’s grandfather passed away on Monday night. It wasn’t unexpected as he’d taken a turn for the worse lately, but the reality of it all is not easy. His death also brings back a lot of the emotions and the sense of loss that I experienced when my grandma passed away a few months ago. On top of that, another close person in the family fell ill on the Monday and was rushed to the hospital. He’s still there and not looking like he’ll be able to come home for some time.
So that’s where the treading clouds comes in.
I’ve been trying to stay positive and work through a lot of potentially exciting things while other things are collapsing around me. I thnk it’s possible; I just have to see what happens over the next few weeks.
Maybe I can stop treading and start climbing again.
So I’m sitting here watching Ghostbusters and I thought I’d take a moment from trying to not cross the streams to do some random updatery. It’s been a very hectic week with the day job–a week where it came and went in a blink, and so I didn’t have much time to blog or keep up with other things.
On Sunday I’m off to Seattle for a week on business. I’m already missing my girls and I haven’t even packed yet. But at least I get to visit friends while I’m there which is always a plus. Work will keep me busy too, so the time will go by quickly.
The 2009 Hugo Award Nominees were listed the other day. My congrats go out to everyone nominated. It’s always cool to see friends and acquaintances nominated, and with WorldCon in Montreal this year (yes, I will be in attendance), it’ll prove to be quite the conference and awards ceremony.
Work on VIOLET has been put temporarily on hold while I finalize a couple synopses for a series I was working on. I need to wrap that up before I can get back into the current WIP.
Hopefully I can get some reading done next week as well. The long 5-hour flights will help with that.
It’s been a while since I gave a general updatery kind of post, so here it is. Last night I met up with Karin for sushi and a movie, and talk of books and words and process, and life and movies and how one can never quite get enough spicy tuna uramaki. The uramaki was fantastic, the tempura was tasty, and the conversation was inspiring. Karin rocks. She is much smarter than me, and really knows how to get my ass moving on my projects. I will forever be in her debt. I have repaid her already by writing her into VIOLET as a corpse. She is honoured, I’m sure.
But yes, she’s read the opening bits of VIOLET and has listened to me spout on about the direction of the book, the underlying themes, and where I need to take the project. She even knows how it ends. But all in all, she has helped me clear the gauze away from my face. I can see my intentions clearly now, whereas I had started to sabotage my instincts with it. I’m looking forward to plowing ahead now.
I’m very excited about this project and wish I could talk more openly about it, but I can’t, not yet.
After sushi and tea we headed out to see Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. I’m not going to go into a huge review of it, but what I will say is that if you enjoyed the first two movies, you’ll enjoy this one. It’s fast-paced, holds no punches, and has some great fights and cool sets and effects. Besides, Rhona Mitra is a fine addition to the franchise.
First off, there is this really amazing video of 20th Century London street life. I find archival footage like this simply fascinating. Although photos can be a great portal into yesteryear, I love to see motion, to see the movements of the people, their facial expressions and demeanour. And the trains and carriages, the hustle and bustle of the city, prosperity and poverty.
But everytime I see a video like this, all I can think about is that all these people are dead (or rather, should be). I find theese videos to be enchanting and depressing in the same breath.
And then there are these absolutely gorgeous and haunting photos of forgotten amusement parks in Asia. Stunning. Really truly. There are some amazing shots. And they really get my muse fired up too. The possible story ideas in each of these photos is truly limitless.
And finally, it appears that there is a superstar barista competition in LA. I should really pass this on to my wife, or send her there. In the paraphrased word(s) of Molly Shannon, she is a “Superstar!” barista. Totally. Speaking of which, maybe I can get her to whip me up a gingerbread latte…mmmm.
But seriously, this looks like it could prove interesting.
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