Recent Journals & Reference Posts

And the floodgates opened...

csmaccath — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:41:16 -0700

It's been a rough week and a half at Casa MacCath-Moran. I had two, count them two major health scares, one on top of the other, that both turned out to be absolutely nothing. Of course, the road to that knowledge was bumpy and filled with x-rays and at least one medical test That Shall Not Be Named, but the long and the short of it is that I got almost no writing done.

I went back to work today and wrote, count them, 2200 words. Great Mother! I had wanted to up my writing count anyway, and I deliberately pushed myself to make a 2000-word goal, but still... Chapter Eight has crested 5000 words now, and I'll be able to pull in some previous work to round it off, so I expect a rough draft by end of this week or early next and a final draft by next weekend. I'm almost over the hump now, and it's all downhill from there.

News on the PhD front: I have three recommenders in place for the Fulbright application, and the competition opens on May 1st. I plan to get that application in place and then apply for other sources of funding through the university as soon as their competitions open up for 2011.

Finally, Sean has secured a well-paying telecommuting gig, so we'll be spending the summer together! We've always worked well together, so I look forward to the clatter of computer keys, shared lunches and evening constitutionals.

New Tip Jar | Gearing Up for Scotland

csmaccath — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:31:23 -0800

This morning my husband suggested I add a tip jar to my web site, since I receive several hundred hits a month for various articles here ranging from Open Source software to pantheism, and use the funds collected from that tip jar to help finance my University of Aberdeen education. I thought it was an excellent idea, since I have provided these articles for years and never had occasion to ask for anything in return for the information. So you'll see a donation button on the left side-bar of each page now. If you feel inclined to donate for some piece of useful info you've found here, thanks much! All of the proceeds will go directly to educational costs, and I will provide a public record of how the donations were used as I begin to pay for my education in 2011.

To that end, I plan to expand content in the days and weeks to come. First up will be an article on the treatment of feline asthma using the AeroKat aerosol chamber and an article on copying cassette tapes to MP3s using a computer with a line-in jack, a boom box and a male-to-male audio connector. Other articles will follow as they percolate to the surface of my thoughts.

For now, my writing journal will continue to serve as a catch-all for fiction, non-fiction, web-related and academic writing posts, but later I might divide them out, if I see a need. I also have plans to develop a web site to serve as a multimedia adjunct to my PhD work, but that won't happen until at least January 2012.

That's all the news that's fit to post. Thanks for reading, everybody!

Aberdeen 2011 and a Second Chance at the Fulbright

csmaccath — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 11:15:13 -0800

It looks like Aberdeen is a go. However, I'm delaying admission until 2011 to apply for that Fulbright after all and seek out other sources of funding. My topic is indeed going to be modern Scottish Gaelic vocal music, but I will probably be looking exclusively at Scotland, rather than Scotland and Canada. My PhD only has to be 80,000 words, so I'll need to keep a strong, sharp focus to make it successful.

I still have to be funded, and Sean still has to find a job, but I've decided I can't pass up this opportunity to do so many things I've wanted to do all my adult life; earn a PhD, live in Europe, become fluent in a Celtic language and study Gaelic culture. I'm still going to crank away at this novel series until I go in the hope that I'll finish the first two books, then I'll tuck them away and market them when I graduate.

I'll admit it. I'm afraid. Afraid I won't get funded, that Sean won't find work, that I'll do poorly in my research, that I'll graduate but have to take a crappy job in order to stay in Europe, that I'll die before I finish my novels. But Sean is right, and so was Frank Herbert.

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little death that causes total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when the fear is gone, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
When the fear is gone, there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

Bi-la kaifa.

IT'S ALIVE!

csmaccath — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:22:45 -0800

Chapter Seven of Fifteen is over 9400 words long, which brings the total word count to over 60,000.

This book is turning into a beast.

That is all.

Ten Rules of Writing Fiction You Should Never Be Without!

csmaccath — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:42:18 -0800

Stop reading these fucking lists of rules.
Stop reading these fucking lists of rules.
Stop reading these fucking lists of rules.
Stop reading these fucking lists of rules.
Stop reading these fucking lists of rules.
Stop reading these fucking lists of rules.
Stop reading these fucking lists of rules.
Stop reading these fucking lists of rules.
Stop reading these fucking lists of rules.
Stop reading these fucking lists of rules.

That is all.

P.S. 11. Adverbs are okay. 12. Speech tags other than 'said' are okay, but try not to use 'ejaculated' unless you intend to be messy.