Genre Frontiers

For the past few months I've had a character and plot brewing in my mind for a science-fiction novel, a genre I've never written in (a genre I don't read a whole lot in, either, at least not yet). It's definitely going to be a rather dark novel with a villain type as the main character. I'm actually rather excited about the character, and I do have quite a bit formulated in my mind.

I'm just having a much harder time than usual bringing anything out to the page. So far I've only been able to write sketch-scenes (more like exercises and such). Usually I don't have that sort of problem. The first sentence is the hardest, but as soon as that's down the rest just comes as it wants. That's usually my way of things--my stories and characters really write themselves. I very rarely have any inclination to outline or do exercises or take notes--with the exception of the saga I've been working on for several years, but that's only to keep things straight, especially as the characters and basics have been through some rather extreme changes.

So now I'm trying to figure out if I'm having trouble starting with this because it's a different type of story than usual, or if that's just the character's style. He is rather nefarious, so, I wouldn't put it past him, but still. It probably doesn't help that I generally prefer to write one thing at a time, and I'm still working on the re-haul of the first part of the saga. So, there's my ramble for the month. XD

Spirit

I love this sellenium toned version because of the foggy effect of the background near her ears. I couldn't get it to turn out that way with any other processing, though. One more for you, same mare:

Back in action

I'm officially back from my unannounced hiatus. I just felt like I needed to take a step back from the blogsphere for a while. Nothing big; I just needed to take a break. I did miss all my blogger friends, and I probably have a lot yet to catch up on. Progress, progress.

At least I come bearing news and fresh photos!

A few weeks ago (the end of March, actually, I think) I went with a barn friend to watch our young riders at a jumping schooling show. I used to take Toler to those shows all the time, but hadn't been there in five years or so; it was nice to see how the place had (or had not) changed. Our girls did *great!* They placed well in nearly all their classes and we even had some division awards. =)


Here's a photo of one of the girls on Talisman, probably the cutest pony I've ever met. They make a really cute pair out in the show ring. Talisman's got an unmistakably flashy spunk to him. I was able to take a lot of cute pictures of them.

And now for my bigger news...I started a new blog! It's an equestrian-specific blog chronicling the (re)training journey of Toler and myself. It will probably be a bit equine-terminology-heavy, but I welcome everyone to follow it if you're interested--even if you're not a horse person. I'll be doing day-by-day (or event-by-event) training posts, sharing exercise diagrams, general horse talk, tack and bitting talk, equine nutrition and health, and general equestrian theory and book discussion.

I present Not Quite Hercules!