'Daily Goats' #1: B1 and B2

First kids of the 2014 season!

I'm finally doing a thing I've been planning for the past at least three years, so goat pics!

These two are 'B1' and 'B2', still-unnamed daughters of my doe Bellatrix. They were born on the 24th of August and they're two days old in this picture.

Blog Necromancy II: The Return of 'The Return of Siana in Black'

For reasons, I've moved from my former location at sb.siasan.com to a brand-new Blogger blog. This may possibly mean that 'blog necromancy' is going to be a successful thing. There's a list of things that could be involved in the revival of Siana in Black in my previous post.

Anyway, over the next... some time... I'll be tidying up and reviving all my old posts, making sure the images still work and updating a few things that would otherwise be hideously out of date. Also probably a lot of talking about heavy metal, which is totally an ideal subject for a writer's blog.

Anything else I need to say?

Oh, right - shameless plug required. Visit Steve the WriMo Forum to hang out with my writers' group. I'll probably have to talk a lot more about Steve if I'm going to get back into this blogging thing.

Blog necromancy - the return of 'Siana in Black'

I don't know about this 'blog post' business. I thought about the writer's block option, but I'm really not sure how to explain it. Then I thought about doing a metal album and I didn't really know which one I'd pick or what I'd say about it. Then I had an idea about talking about songs related to my Camp NaNo project and basically I think I've come to the conclusion that I'm a lousy blogger. I suppose I should put my writer's block comments together and post them, but... yeah, don't know.

Zim hacks part 2: split a single-file manuscript into chapters and scenes

In a followup to Zim hacks part 1: compile a manuscript, this time I'm going to split a single file into chapters and scenes (pages and sub-pages) within Zim. For me this is actually the more useful of the two tools, since I write in FocusWriter and only transfer completed drafts into Zim for ease of reading and note-making when I'm preparing to do some rewriting. Anyway...

Zim hacks part 1: compile a manuscript

The following script runs in the Linux terminal and will compile a manuscript that has been divided into Chapters and Scenes in Zim Desktop Wiki. It's twitchy and a little annoying, but it's the first step in my attempts to find a comfortable Linux equivalent to Scrivener and yWriter. Scrivener runs natively if you don't mind some UI problems with dark-on-light OS themes and yWriter (sort of) runs in Wine, but I really want something that doesn't have all those qualifications added after the word 'runs'.

SeptNoWriMo - September Novel Writing Month

I've been telling myself that I'm going to revive my blog for what turned out to be something like seven months. I never seen to find time, though. Anyway, the thing that's finally pulled me back to my blog is this:

September Novel Writing Month

September Novel Writing Month, or SeptNoWriMo as it's known for short, is sort of my baby. It was to begin with, anyway. Since I opened this version of SeptNoWriMo in 2011, I've also ended up as a staff member on NaNoFiMo (December), FebNoWriMo (February), MarNoWriMo (March) and NaNoPlotMo (one of the most awesome year-round writing groups ever). However, SeptNoWriMo is the only one that's entirely under my megalomaniacal control.

*sad face*

Apparently 'megaomaniacal' isn't a word. Too bad - I'm using it anyway.

So, SeptNoWriMo. There are four types of goal - 'planning', 'writing', 'editing' and 'I have no time to write but I want to hang around my friends while I do other things'.

Daily and multi-day challenges abound, because Fearless Admin suddenly remembers that yes, she really can write 2,000 words in a day if the other alternative is to lose a challenge. There's at least one variant on the 3-Day Novel Challenge, something I haven't decided yet for Talk Like a Pirate Day and an awesome thing called 'Seven in Seven'.

SeptNoWriMo starts at 00:00:01 (one second after midnight) in your timezone. See you there!

*spams link again in case you didn't notice it enough the first time*

September Novel Writing Month

You can't tell I'm trying to drag as many writers into it as possible, can you?

Inspiration: flashes, black holes and your cat

Inspiration is a funny thing. I laugh at it all the time.

No, not really. Inspiration is actually a thing that rather worries me, which is how I've spent a whole month convincing myself I had nothing to say on the subject. Meanwhile I created an entire world, wrote 35,000 words on a brand-new first draft and even attempted a 48-hour novel challenge. I made it to 5,000 words on that one - an attempt at reviving a character I created when I was either thirteen or fourteen.

Anyway, this is supposed to be my January post for the WriYe Blogging Circle. On with the questions before February advances much further: