Ceallaigh's Blog
In the Samhain 2012 newsletter just mailed, I made an error in the name of the lovely woman who interviewed me for Geek Inked Magazine. Her name is Ally Leja. In my haste to get the newsletter out, the part of my brain that was looking at her handle on the Geek Inked blog (princessleja) didn't communicate with the part of my brain that spoke with her Sunday, and I rolled a '1' on my INT modifier.
My apologies, Ally!
Greetings Everyone,
Welcome to Issue #5 of my quarterly newsletter, posted to csmaccath.com and e-mailed to subscribers on Samhain 2012.
I was doing some database maintenance this morning and noticed that a few folks had signed up for my quarterly newsletter but hadn't confirmed their subscriptions. At least two of these folks are people I'm acquainted with, so I added them to the list manually, but I thought it might be a good time to remind everybody that newsletter signup is a two-step process. You need to put your name and e-mail address in the box on the right sidebar of my web site, and then you need to click on the link the system sends you in a follow-up e-mail.
When I was troubleshooting this, I realized the follow-up e-mail is a little unclear (That's what I get for trusting the default settings, eh?). So I cleaned it up to make it easier for people to understand.
Here are the promised links to resources for improving your workflow with technology. Best of luck in your writing projects!
Gathering and Organizing Your Ideas
Introduction
Here are the promised links to resources for help in structuring your novel along with the three charts presented in the panel. Best of luck in your writing projects!
Our first Celtic Colours was a resounding, smashing, amazing success. We were only in Cape Breton for four days, and I've only been back a few hours, but I already feel so far away from home. Thursday, we drove Gaelic friend L up to the home of Gaelic friend J in Whycocomagh, where we were invited in for tea and conversation. Afterward, we made our way up the winding, oceanside mountain to Ingonish, where we found our cottage at the Ingonish Chalets cozy and welcoming in a rough-hewn, log cabin sort of way. By then, it was raining cold and hard, so we dropped our things, set Winter up with a litter pan and food and went out to pick up liquor and dinner.
Chocolate Oranges
My next Activism Updates post isn't due until next weekend, but with Thanksgiving on Monday, a trip to Bangor on Tuesday and Wednesday and Celtic Colours after that, there's little chance I'll be posting much of anything at all next week. The following week I'll be finishing up the panels I'm writing for Hal-Con, completing a course of spiritual training I've been undertaking for many years and attending a two-day Shambhala meditation workshop, followed by my nephew's birthday. The week after that is Hal-Con, shortly followed by World Fantasy Con, likely followed by my collapse into a pile of coffee-saturated goo for a couple of days before I leave the researching/marketing/submitting/conventioning part of my writing career behind for a long spate of actual, honest-to-goodness story-writing.
I just took down a G+ post about a funny Craigslist advertisement in Virginia for a topless, female dungeon master who might be willing to run an AD&D 3.5 campaign for a bachelor party. Nerdy, strange and somewhat misogynistic all at the same time, I thought it was worth sharing. But when it passed through G+ to Twitter and Facebook, somehow the link to the actual advertisement forwarded to the Craigslist category it was posted in and not to the advertisement itself. And since I try to keep my posts fairly uniform cross-platform, I deleted all three. Then I wondered if people might think I was removing them because I believed they were inappropriate, which led me to wonder if I'd be faced with the 'she took it down' value judgement I've seen other people make when folks do this sort of thing, which led me to think about the way I view online interaction, which led me to this post.
You heard me. Vegan french toast.
Why is it activism? Well, the vegan part is mostly self-explanatory. Being vegan is better for us, better for the animals and better for the planet. The french toast part is mostly because it's a rainy, autumn Saturday, and I'm thinking about the good we all try to do every day, online and offline.
For instance, some of my online friends post regular alerts about GMO foods. Others care about the bee blight. Still others are vegan grandmas who post delicious recipes. I have LGBT activist friends, too, and friends who are dedicating their lives to sustainability. I have friends who step in to care for companion animals while their humans are away, veterinarian friends whose good work cannot ever be over-stated, friends who are studying for the ministry and friends who are teaching their children Gaelic. I have a husband whose vegan activism is the brilliant crystalization of an engineer's mind with a compassionate heart.
My panel schedule for Hal-Con has been finalized. Here 'tis:
Friday 5:15 - 6:00
Structure of the Novel
Writing a novel? This panel will help you plan it. We'll be breaking a basic story arc into acts, chapters and scenes with emphasis on outlining as a plotting tool.
Saturday 9:30 - 10:15
Technology for Writers
From text editors to mind-mapping software to wikis to social networking, this panel will endeavor to improve your tool-kit with low-cost or free technology solutions.
Sunday 12:00 - 12:45
ConLangs 101
Have you ever wanted to construct a language from scratch for gaming or fiction? This panel will introduce you to a few of the biological, linguistic and cultural basics.