And after a long absence, I’m back

Hi everybody. I’m back!
Well, sort of. I’m actually at my aunt and uncle’s house at the moment, using their Internet connection to post this blog and aid in job searching.

Wait, does that mean I’m back in New Zealand now? After all, I don’t have any relatives in Canada!
Well, actually, I do have relatives in Canada, I’ve just never met them. They live up in Vancouver. To answer the question, however, yes I am back in New Zealand. I’m just somewhere in the South Island as opposed to the North Island.

Currently editing: Lionheart. Wordcount: I’m not looking.

Some may notice that the website has undergone some changes. I’m still working out how to use the different pages. Actually, that’s a lie. I know how to use the different pages, I just haven’t had enough time to look at the Internet to go forth and fix them. With luck I may have those done by the end of today. It’s a nice design by Catherine Haines (yes, that’s the person who I’m using as a host. Yes, that’s the person who runs On The Nightstand. Yes that’s the person for whom I beta), and while it’s actually one of her older designs, it’s the one that I liked the most (her other desk-design was a trifle too tidy to suit me. Please don’t judge me by how ridiculous the desk gets, it just tends to become scattered with computer parts. I can still find things on it).

Right now, I’m attempting to apply for an Administration-type job. No, this doesn’t mean that I’m giving up on the Policing, it means that I have to get a full New Zealand Driver Licence and relearn how to swim (gotta do 50m in 54 seconds) and do an awful lot of running (no, that’s not a Rickroll), and frankly, money is important. Even for me.

So I’ll leave now with a question, because I’ve been asked to do this sort of thing on the Beta Blogs site:
In Canada, what is the difference between a Peace Bond and a Restraining Order? Answers in the comments.

Zen and the art of not writing

If you eliminate the destination from the equation and make it about the journey again, you may find your path simpler.

Well, that’s fairly deep – I might even go so far as to call it zen-like, but that may be the influence of watching Life again. And it’s a piece of advice I recently gave to a writer who happened to be completely stuck.
But what does it mean within an editing context? Well, actually, nothing. But it may help in the writing.

Some people like to work with an outline firmly in place. Others seriously do not, and frankly, that’s okay. Lots of people need to write things in direct order, but for those who don’t?
If you’re stuck, it may be an idea to write something from the far future – or perhaps from the far past – of your story. Keep the characters, or at least the world, and just write. Hell, it may even be the end of your story. But don’t let Writer’s Block get you down. Just work out a way to move around it.

As a beta, my task is equally about the journey as the destination. After all, the journey is nothing more than what is built and layered upon the previous steps for that same journey, while the destination is the culmination thereof – and all the little details from the journey need to be checked over, so that it does indeed fit with the ending – and vice-versa. For us, the destination doesn’t matter until we get there – and by then, it may be time to restart the whole journey all over again.

A new start

Psst.

Hey, don’t tell Catherine this, but I’m gonna start on another beta job of hers. It’s gonna be a surprise, so I’m swearing ALL of you to secrecy.

Shhhhhhhh…

Oh, P.S.: I appear to have started my own novel with another friend of mine. Be afraid, be very afraid…

Drive-by announcement

I have FINISHED Catherine’s Blood Bound.

I just did three chapters in one sitting. Be impressed, dammit.

Looks like the music thing is seriously working. I’m now going to go look for some yoghurt, and then go for a run.

Music and things

(Hey, I figure I’d better use this here website-blog to post about, y’know, what it says on the title page…)

I’m a beta – that’s an unpaid editor for those who can’t be bothered to click the ‘about’ button on the site. But hey, I’m human. I like a bit of music.

For my first big beta job (by which I mean ‘not for fanfiction’ – the soundtrack for those was typically the weekly top 40 with Ryan Seacrest, simulcast to New Zealand FTW!), I literally hid off in my room for a long weekend and put in various CDs. I think that time it was the ‘Telecom Animals Collection’ (a CD which iTunes has only started to recognise the tracklist of in the last three months), then current radio (top 40 again, another simulcast of Top of the Pops I think…), a little bit of Star Wars soundtrack, and… no, that was my ‘not touching the Spice Girls’ phase.

My second job (oddly, for the same person; you can buy the book in question from here), I buried myself for another long weekend, slipped on the Japanese Pop and classical music. I staggered out after 36 hours, several refills of my waterbottle and about eight (no, sorry, nine, but four of them were mochas and one was instant) cups of espresso. Oh, and the top 40. Again. This is just before I changed the radio stations I listened to.

Third job, nonfiction this time. This was dad’s book, and he didn’t want to listen to any music while we were going through it. Also the only time I have ever done anything by hand, the only nonfiction job, and the only time I’ve ever done an index, and the only time I’ve ever actually been paid for doing this. $40, since you’re wondering.

All of those – except for In the face of the Enemy – were done to music, and they were all done quickly, compared to my current jobs.

Fourth on the list, and it’s actually been a good few years. I’m almost done with the second readthrough of Blood Bound, and I’m glad I’m doing this, but I think I’ve finally realised what’s been missing: Music! I’ve been doing these to nothing but the sound of a computer humming and the occasional youtube video (this week we have A Very Potter Musical, and OMG I really <3 Voldemort)! This must cease.

And all it took was listening to the Top 40 at work to realise what was missing.

In an effort to avoid the same songs over and over again, however, I’m using the iPod, and my ‘vaguely freaky’ playlist for Blood Bound. Betaing Vampire stories to Rob Zombie. Hrm.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got three chapters of Blood Bound and another thirty of Cat’s Quill to get through.

(P.S.: Catherine mentioned that I call a certain vampire ‘Callum’. I feel it only fair to provide pictures here…)

Quick rundown of things

Speedy notes before the dog drags me out on a walk:

for those who don’t follow my LJ, I graduated recently, with Honours, in Police Foundations. So, yeah.

I think I just got signed up for fictional beta work by three more people. Okay, I take it back, I know I signed up for it.

Catherine’s mind has been at it again, resulting in now one wizard, one ghost, two fairies on the backburner, the occasional prodding of a mermaid, a superhero, and an entire string of vampires.
I, of course, would simply like her to write a Star Wars novel.

Have been rediscovering my intense love for Star Trek. I’m a babyfen!Trekkie, as it happens, and I continue to collect the books (want to buy the series. Will do so at some point. Probably around the time I buy that nice giant TV to watch them on). That’ll be harder over the next few booksales, as more and more people discoverk Trek for the first time. Instead of leaving me and my little table alone, the booksellers will be on the scavenge, so I’ll have to wake up early to be closer to the front of the line. Hope whoever’s hosting the sales has the sense to print maps!
(Something I really miss about NZ: The Palmerston North Red Cross Booksale. The parents take two days off work and then there are books.)

I just bought Pride and Prejudice and Zombies! This is a Big Thing, as I hate Jane Austen and her contemporaries with a passion. However. Zombies. I’m willing to give it a chance. Possibly while listening to the Shaun of the dead soundtrack.

And the doggie is making with the eyes. Off we go…