The Werewolf Project: 16,710

A ton of writing this week. I’m quite pleased, as I’m sure you can imagine. That’s despite a day or two that was primarily editing what I’d written before. I’m not convinced that these words are necessarily going to stay in the final version, but I’m glad that I’ve at least set them down.

Dinner tonight was pasta and peas in a white wine cream sauce. It was pretty tasty, but mostly an effort to do something with a bottle of wine—a white Bordeaux—that I am not fond of.

The sauce was pretty simple: Melt butter in a pan. Add some flour to make a roux. Add white wine and garlic, and then some milk. Cook until it begins to thicken. Season with salt and pepper.

The sauce came out rather tangy. An interesting surprise, although I have to admit, I generally prefer things not tangy. Still, all in all, not bad.

And now one of my characters is making the same dish, plus prosciutto, in the Werewolf project.

… is on hold for this week. Sorry.

The Werewolf Project: 13,895
The Shipping Project: 15,938

The new words on the Shipping project are actually from a scrap file I found floating on my hard drive. It’s not new writing, I’m afraid.

I’ve made a good bit of progress on the Werewolf project though. Over 2,000 words since last week. I’m really pleased about that.

Some of the vocabulary I’ve encountered most recently has to deal with real estate, or l’immobilier (masc). As with most places, there are a few basic types of property one can buy.

• une maison – a house
• un terrain – a piece of land
• un appartement – a condo or apartment. I think un condominium is only used in Canada.

You can also buy un immeule, which is a building, often containing multiple units. (Un meuble, incidentally, is a piece of furniture.)

Most of these words are also associated with this one: rêver. I’ll let you figure out what that one means.

The Werewolf Project: 11,659

It’s been a terrible week for writing, actually. In addition to a certain level of uncertainty in my personal life, I’ve also had a smidge of writer’s block. Fortunately, thanks to the wonderful and evil Jenn, I think I’ve figured out how to tackle the scene that was giving me trouble.

I’ve taken the Shipping Project off of the update list until I can actually work on it again.

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wouldn’t say this book was unpleasant to read, but it wasn’t that hard to put down, either. I was disappointed that the main character, a vampire slayer named Anita Blake, didn’t figure things out faster. It seemed like there were certain clues that she should have put together more quickly. I also am not crazy about the style of narration: first person told by a “tough-as-nails” vampire slayer.

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I thought I’d stay with the animal theme, this time having to do with the things cats do:

• miauler – to meow
• ronronner – to purr
• griffer – to scratch, which my cat Bella does to most surfaces
• baver – to drool, which Bella does sometimes in her sleep

Bella sleeping. Image credit: E. Naomi Twery.

The Werewolf Project: 10,727
The Shipping Project: 15,007

As you can probably guess, the Shipping Project is pretty much on hold. I’m fairly pleased with my progress, though, on the Werewolf Project. I’ve found that I’ve had to rewrite some scenes for the sake of continuity. That seems to particularly happen when I’ve written a scene that comes later in the story and then have to backfill.

Oh, and the Twitter Exquisite Corpse has begun. Follow the link to read the story so far.

All the Weyrs of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve long been a fan of the Dragonriders of Pern series. This installment was a satisfying read. It fits in well with the rest of the series and provided a nice cap to the struggle against Thread, the menace that threatens the planet and the reason there are dragonriders in the first place. I also liked that this particular book focused on two of my favorite characters in the series: Jaxom and Masterharper Robinton.

If you’ve never read any of the Pern books, I wouldn’t recommend starting with this one, since it does assume you have a good understanding of the world of Pern.

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