INT. NITA’S BEDROOM -- NIGHT
She’s hidden by the tented-up blankets on her bed. The dim light welling out from underneath would make you think she’s doing the reading-by-flashlight thing.
NITA (O.S.)
I don’t get why some spells call for these weird objects. The knotted string you were using. Batteries. Sugar cubes! Who needs this stuff when […]

Posted in Film and TV, Writing, Young Wizards 2 Comments »

There are various book memes that seem to have been around forever…and So You Want to Be a Wizard is number 356 on one of them, a meme apparently native to LiveJournal. (Here’s an example, and here, and here, and here…)
I was glancing at the list today, and an idea came up. Eventually […]

Posted in Computer stuff, Note to self, Online life, Writing No Comments »

…for the book that didn’t get published, starts on page 16 of this fascinating document.
Just look at all those zeroes. (Not that the poor ghostwriter gets to have many of them…)
Technorati Tags: O.J., Simpson, book, novel, contract

Posted in Current events, Writing No Comments »

The transfer to The Big Meow’s new hosting provider at Lunarpages has gone smoothly, and the new installation of Drupal 5.0 is now up and running. Everything seems to be working OK, but if those of you who read this and venture over there should find anything strange going on, please register so that you can […]

Posted in "The Big Meow", Computer stuff, Fantasy and science fiction, Online life, Writing No Comments »

…to its new hosting servers at Lunarpages, starting today.
This means that the site will disappear for a while as the domain registrar passes the domain’s internal change-of-address information (DNS) into the Net. The site may take as long as seventy-two hours to reappear, so please don’t panic if the absence seems to be getting prolonged.
The […]

Posted in "The Big Meow", Computer stuff, Online life, Writing No Comments »

It’s good to take a challenge every now and then. From over at Daily15, for today’s challenge word, which is “solstice”:
Invictus
In the dimness he woke and knew it was too late. Morning never came so late unless the world was ending.
Fortunately, he knew what to do about that.
He blinked and ruffled his feathers, looking around. […]

Posted in Home life, Ireland, Writing No Comments »

Not about Jade. (Well, only peripherally.)
The inevitable comments are starting to come out of the British newspapers regarding the Big Brother bullying-and-racism flap. A few of the articles are making puns on Jade’s last name, including a very specific one: Is it too late to be Goody Two-Shoes?, etc. And something about that brought my […]

Posted in History, Hobbyhorses and General Ranting, Media, Writing 2 Comments »

A moment from a screenplay:

EXT. SCHOOL — AFTERNOON

The door into the playground cracks softly open.
Kit peers out, looks around. Then he slips out,
followed by Nita.

From around the corner of the building, Joanne and
her crowd emerge. Nita and Kit pause, look at each other.
Then, together, they head toward Joanne and her gang.

A “High Noon” moment: the […]

Posted in Uncategorized, Writing, Young Wizards 1 Comment »

Those of you who may have been watching the progressive site revamp at The-Big-Meow.com should be warned that, while I was attempting to add some features this morning, some stuff got screwed up. It’s not serious, but it affects the look-and-feel of the site, and may take a while to fix, as I’m still not […]

Posted in "The Big Meow", Hobbyhorses and General Ranting, Home life, Technogeekery, Writing No Comments »

From the newsblog that appears on Blogger’s dashboard page:
I am overjoyed to announce that today we have o’ficially graduated the new version of Blogger from “in beta” to “.” Why is this significant? Allow me to explain via analogy:
Battlestar Galactica with Lorne Greene : Battlestar Galactica with Edward James Olmos :: Old Blogger : New […]

Posted in Film and TV, Media No Comments »

Folks, I’m wrecked, so more about this tomorrow: but the new chapter’s up for the book’s subscribers. (It’s a fairly plump one, at 18,000 words.)
It’s in the same directory that Four, Five and Six were in for subscribers, and can be got at using the same username / password pair. The “mailing list” mails […]

Posted in "The Big Meow", Writing 2 Comments »

A nice mention of The Empty Chair this morning at the Albany Times Union books blog. Thanks, Michael: thanks, Eleanor! And regards from an expat New Yorker.

Technorati Tags: The Empty Chair, Rihannsu, Star Trek, Times Union, Diane Duane

Posted in Star Trek and other licensed properties, Writing 6 Comments »