Ingrid Díaz — Official Site of Author Ingrid Díaz

K: Why are the coffee cups in the dishwasher where the glasses usually go?

Me: I felt that putting them in the same place was too derivative of your style of putting dishes away and I just wanted to try something different. I wanted to draw inspiration from but also transform the experience so that when you opened the dishwasher you got that sense of shock–

K: (laughing) You speak such amazing bullshit.

This is how I get myself out of trouble after putting the dishes away in the wrong place. This is also what K has to put up with.

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Written by Ingrid Díaz on November 24, 2011

Fiction

The Blind Side of Love v2 PDF File

TBSOL FV – or as I like to refer to it privately: TBSOL OMG WHY AM I DOING THIS AGAIN AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH – has now veered so far away from either version that it should make no difference at all if you read v1 and/or v2.

So, for those of you who’ve read it at the LJ and always wanted a complete file but were too lazy to compile it yourself, or for those of you who did not read it at the LJ but always wanted to, you can now has.

The Blind Side of Love (version 2) PDF – This is a big file so give it a minute or so to download.

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Written by Ingrid Díaz on November 18, 2011

Writing

TBSOL Final Version: Why Oh Why

coffenb

I’ve received a few emails regarding TBSOL “v3″ which I’m choosing to call TBSOL FV (final version) because if I think of it as TBSOL v3 I’ll start convulsing. It’s really not v3. It’s more like… if v1 met up with v2 and they got married and had a kid and that kid grew up and settled down and became an accountant or something. You know? No? Okay.

A few people have asked me why I don’t just publish v2. Well…I can’t, because it’s nowhere near ready. Really. There is a lot that’s wrong with it and most of the reasons why can be attributed to the fact that it took me forever to write it.

A Short History of v2

I started v2 at the end of 2004/start of 2005 (I don’t remember when exactly). I had a lot going on at the time, not the least of which was quitting my job, getting rid of most of my stuff and moving to France. I’d also just learned that yet another of my publishing contracts had fallen through (I’d signed my first one in 2001 and my second in 2003 and neither worked out). I felt dejected, and humiliated by the fact that I’d told people I was going to be published only to have to say — yet again — “Nope, never mind.” At the time I took it all to heart. I thought it was a personal failure. It wasn’t, at all, but that’s how it felt at the time and that feeling of not being good enough seeped into everything.

So I started TBSOL v2 with a lot of tears and frustration and a persistent feeling that I was a complete fraud and that I’d never be a “real” writer.

Then I moved to France in the summer of 2005 and I quit writing fiction. I got a job as a blogger and a freelance writer and I started making money that way and I thought screw fiction — I don’t need you. I still opened up Rayne and TBSOL and wrote words here and there but there were blog posts to write and paying projects to finish and those took priority. I didn’t realize this at the time, but I was miserable.

Life continued on in the way that it does, and things happened as they always do. I was losing jobs left and right and panicking about money. I got really sick and had to have surgery. My visa expired. My grandparents got really sick. Then my mom got really sick and I couldn’t leave France because my visa had expired and I had no way to get back if I left. I was worried and stressed out all the time. I had several emotional meltdowns for a consistent period of about 6 months, during which all I did was cry every single day. It was not a good time. But then my grandparents got better and my mom got better and K and I sorted out my permit situation.

Somewhere in there, Alix & Valerie got published kind of magically and out of the blue. It reminded me that – Oh yeah, I’m a fiction writer.

I got back “into” TBSOL (more or less) while all of this was happening and eventually finished it in April of 2010 and then I put it aside because I knew it would need a lot of work and I needed to figure out just how much.

What’s “wrong” with v2 is simply that it’s disjointed. There’s 2004/5 me patched into spots of 2006/7/8 me and then a long stretch of 2009-2010 me and maybe no one else sees that, but I do. And besides all of that, it’s unnecessarily long. TBSOL v2 is the length 4 short novels/3 average-length novels/2 long ones.

What I intend with this final version is to present a book that’s cohesive. It’ll be the best that I’m capable of writing at this moment in time. Will you like it more I don’t know. Will it be better - I have no idea.

I think there will always be people who love v1 above all and others who love v2 above all and others who love them all equally and honestly I’m just grateful that people have stuck around me through all these rewrites and revisions and who continue to love the book and the characters no matter what I do with them. I feel really, really lucky. This book is really special to me for a lot of reasons. I doubt anything I write after this will impact my life as much as this book has — in all its forms.

I could not have written v2 had I not written v1 and I could not have written what I’m writing now had I not written the previous drafts. I’m not who I was in 2001, when I sat down in my grandparents’ house in Puerto Rico to type out the first words of v1. I am not who I was in 2003, when I lay on the floor of my apartment in New Jersey to type the final words. I’m definitely not who I was in 2004, when I began v2, or who I was in 2010, when I finished it. I could not write any of it the same way, and I wouldn’t want to. I love all the versions, flawed though they may be. I hope others do as well. As a writer, that’s all you can hope for.

Trivia time

The first time I ever mentioned TBSOL online was in my LiveJournal on June 13, 2001 and this is what I wrote:

Blah blah .. what to talk about. I didn’t write a damn thing today on TBSOL. Actually, I wrote a word. “Nevermind.” That was the extent of my literary efforts for the day. But I was busy playing with my new TV and VCR … it was a very exciting thing. I’m thirsty and I want to drink Pepsi. But do I really want an intake of caffeine at 3:00am? Probably not. But do I have an ounce of common sense in my body? Nope. Not a one.

And I still don’t. Perhaps I’m not that different after all. :)

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Written by Ingrid Díaz on November 15, 2011

Lists

10 reasons I’m in a good mood today

rightleft

If we were to run into each other and you were to say, “Hi, Ingrid! How are you?” I would say, “No, no, let’s talk about you first. Tell me about your life.” And then I would sit there and listen intently to everything you had to say. (Contrary to popular belief, I don’t actually enjoy talking about myself and would much rather listen to other people talk). Once you were finished talking you’d probably remind me that I hadn’t answered your original question, at which point I would say, “I’m great!”

I’m in a really good mood today for several reasons:

1. I ordered a pack of new dry erase markers because the ones that came with the whiteboard are, I think, depressed. They’re just very sad, emo markers. I felt as if I were forcing them to exist and that’s not pleasant for any of us. Maybe they don’t wish to be markers. Maybe they wish to be paintbrushes or pens and who am I, really, to stand in the way? So I ordered new ones and these are awesome. They’re bold, colorful; they write like they mean it. These are markers who love being markers. I wish to learn from their enthusiasm.

2. Coffee! Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

3. I finished Chapter 14 last night. Yay! Special thanks to the lovely people on Facebook who gave me the idea for Kris’ Halloween costume. I think Kris makes a great Hermione Granger.

4. My printer is totally out of ink. I tried to print out some of TBSOL and the pages came out looking like skunks. This isn’t a good thing, but it means we get to buy a new ink cartridge! How exciting! Yeah!

5. CoFFeeEeeeeEEEe! Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!

6. So you know how I’ve been focusing very hard on dropping TBSOL’s word count? I sat down today to compare the word count on the NEW/FINAL(ish) draft to the second. As in, plot progression wise. And I realized that I’d cut over 35,000 words. Then I created a file called “FRANKENSTEIN_TBSOL” and copied and pasted the NEW stuff, removing the old stuff, so that the NEW stuff would connect to the OLD stuff I haven’t edited yet, and the total word count is now 158,000. That means so far I’ve removed/reworked/revised/rewritten over 40,000 words of content. I still have a lot of work to do, but I’m very happy.

7. Today I get to start Chapter 15, which is when J & K meet for the first time in person and I’m MUY excited about reworking that whole thing. But first I’m sitting down with a highlighter and the printed pages of Chapters 23/24 of V2 to see what needs to be kept.

8. SPAGHETTI!!!! WEEeeeEeeeeeeeEEEEeeeee!! I have some leftover spaghetti. I’m very excited about it.

9. You know what I just discovered while writing “wee” like a crazy person? I discovered that if you hold down a vowel key on the Mac it pops up a menu of alt-symbols. Like ÊË …and then you can just…select one. I DID NOT KNOW THAT. That changes MY LIFE.

10. Wàïõú … it means I love you.

EDITING to ADD an 11th thing:

11. So this morning I went to make coffee only to find the bag empty. “OH MY GOD WE ARE OUT OF COFFEE!” is what I yelled out — because … well, it can’t happen. It’s like oxygen running out. I slid down slowly to the floor, clutching desperately at nothing, holding my arm up in a final act of supplication — and then K was like, “There’s a whole bag of it in the hallway.”

“There isn’t! I looked!” I managed to breathe out, with what remained of my life-force (but also loudly, because we were in separate rooms).

“Then try the kitchen counter.”

Oh, I thought. For I had not looked there. I looked there. And there it was. A BAG FULL OF BAGS OF COFFEE. I revived instantly. The sun came out. Angels sang a chorus in my ear. It sounded a lot like Jessie J’s “Do It Like a Dude” — it was beautiful.

AND THEN! After I hit publish on this post, I went to get some Ginger Ale and I was like, “OH MY GOD WE ARE OUT OF GINGER ALE!” only I didn’t actually say that because that’s not as tragic as running out of coffee (I’m not ridiculous) … so it was more like I thought it, quietly, to myself. And then I walked into the hallway and noticed A BAG FULL OF BOTTLES OF GINGER ALE!

“IT’S THE BEST DAY EVER!” I yelled to K, who laughed.

And then I went to put the bottles of Ginger Ale away.

AND THEN!

I discovered that the grocery store had given us some free stuff!

1. A bottle of hand-sanitizer.

2. A pack of anti-bacterial wipes.

3. Cookies.

Anti-bacterial wipes!!!! Best. Day. Ever.

{ 8 comments }

Written by Ingrid Díaz on November 9, 2011

Writing

Just some TBSOL rambling, don’t mind me

mock

I think I have a notebook addiction problem. I’d always suspected as much, but yesterday, as I went to shelve some newly-arrived Moleskines, I realized that I really have a notebook addiction problem. But I suppose there’s worse afflictions and they’re just so pretty. All black and sexy and…

Ahem.

So, yesterday I wrote Chapter 13 and then I noticed that according to my outline, Chapter 14 could easily be combined with Chapter 13 and so Chapter 14 is now…well Chapter 14. But it will be what Chapter 15 was meant to be. Even I have no idea what I just said. The point is that in terms of content progression, I’m way ahead of schedule and that’s glorious. At some point after midnight I thought it would be a good idea to start Chapter 14 and then I lost all track of time and when I looked up it was 4AM. So now Chapter 14 (the one that would have been Chapter 15) is halfway done.

I’ve taken to writing in Google Docs. I didn’t expect this to be a thing I ever did (because I tend to hate web based things), but yesterday when I went into the office to copy and paste part of a scene from the main file into the Work In Progress file in Google, I realized how convenient it was that I could do that and then walk back to the living room and have everything waiting for me on the laptop, without having to save and send and download. Me gusta. Also, sharing things with my beta team is as easy as giving them editing permissions and that’s revolutionary.

TBSOL is going well, is what I’m saying. At least, I think it is. I’ve not heard back from my betas yet, so I’m not sure whether any of it is good, but at least progress is being made, which means this book may be out before the next Rapture/End of the World event.

Here’s your daily reminder to add a sentence to the growing madness that is this collaborative story.

And remember: When you’re alone, there’s no shame in pretending you’re a carrot. As long as it’s not a baby carrot. Cause that would be weird.

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Written by Ingrid Díaz on November 8, 2011

Drawings & Projects

PS: Don’t forget to add your sentence for today!

The Sentence A Day story is still going strong. Here’s where we’ve left off so far:

Screen Shot 2011 11 07 at 1 38 56 PM

Add a sentence.

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Written by Ingrid Díaz on November 7, 2011

Writing

Some thoughts in the shape of words

It’s yet another cloudy day in Lyon and I’m not really sure why I keep opening blog posts with details about the weather. Does anyone really care about the weather? I shouldn’t assume you don’t. I’m sorry. Maybe some of you do care about the weather. In case you do, here:

Screen Shot 2011 11 07 at 12 50 47 PM

Screen Shot 2011 11 07 at 12 51 27 PM

I don’t actually see the sun, but Google seems to think it’s there, so I will trust that it is.

I spent some time organizing my mind last week, which is quite the task, I assure you. Now, with the use of Google Calendar, my life — both real and imagined — makes a whole lot more sense.

Screen Shot 2011 11 07 at 12 56 20 PM

In bluish green: What I’m writing and when. In yellow: Timeline of the novel. As in, when in time the scenes/chapters take place.

So today and tomorrow I’ll be working on Chapter 13. I’m hoping to get it all done today, actually, because it’s almost done and I wouldn’t mind an extra day to work on Chapter Fourteen. But anyhoo.

For those who missed it, I posted a snippet of dialogue over at the TBSOL Tumblr. That’s taken from their first phone conversation, which, as most things so far, is totally brand new. I feel that talk of zombies is what was missing from past drafts. Nothing says the beginning of true love like a conversation about innards and torn flesh.

I know some of you want to strangle me with your bare hands because I keep changing/tweaking/rewriting this novel, but I think you’re going to like it. If you don’t, I’ll send you a Post It note with a picture of a sad face and then you can feel guilty for hurting my feelings. Just kidding! It’ll probably be a picture of a coffee mug and maybe a goat.

And now that I’ve officially covered the weather, zombies, and goats, I’m off to write ALL the things.

Oh, by the way, I like your shirt. It makes your ass look fabulous.

{ 5 comments }

Written by Ingrid Díaz on November 7, 2011

Drawings & Projects

In which I try to explain what the Sentence A Day story is about…

angry coffee

It’s a rainy day in Lyon and I’ve not gotten out of bed ALL DAY LONG, except for the times I got up to make coffee and breakfast and lunch and set up a posting queue for Randomness on a Post It on my main computer and then made more coffee and — *yawn* – goodness, excuse me. I am so sleepy. It’s that type of weather. I am curled up in my blankets, wearing my Angry Birds sweatshirt, and I’m not moving and no one can make me.

So remember when I mentioned I was behind on my writing schedule? Well, I fixed that! I made a NEW schedule. And now I’m AHEAD OF IT. Fuq da police.

Here are the keys to writing a novel:

Keep on keeping on.
Never give up, never surrender.
Coffee.
More coffee.
Words.
WORDS.
ALL THE WORDS.
Chocolate.
Coffee.
Telling yourself you’re pretty.
Doodling.
Sending weird texts to friends.
Cackling madly. To yourself.
Rocking back and forth.
Making up songs about kitchen utensils.
Not listening to the voices that say, “You’re not good enough.”
Finger painting.
Oreos.
Goats.

There. Now you know all my trade secrets. VENTURE FORTH, YOUNG JEDI. WRITETH SOME STUFFETH.

While I’m on the subject of things and the writing of them, I’m going to try to explain the plot of the Sentence A Day story as far as I understand it.

A cursed young vampire encounters a cigar-smoking dragon, who tells him of his destiny to marry a bunny. Meanwhile, a mysterious woman named Plox, and her sidekick, Lolly-Cat, find themselves in a lesbian bar, searching for the hidden secrets of a pizza-shaped crystal.

It’s very complex and has many hidden layers of meaning.

You should partake in this crackfest if you haven’t already, and if you have, then you should continue to do so because I’m very interested to know what happens next between Lolly-Cat and the lesbian cowgirl robot, whose butt she just pinched. >> ADD YOUR SENTENCE. I mean, if you want to.

Have a lovely day, dear strangers on the Internets. May good things happen to you today, tomorrow and always.

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Written by Ingrid Díaz on November 4, 2011

Of Life & Randomness

This is not a blog post, it’s actually a pineapple

sleep when

K: You have such fondness for the absurd.

I really do. I don’t know that I love anything more in life than the truly ridiculous, which is why I am seriously loving the Sentence A Day (SAD) — HAHA, SAD! — project I started yesterday, because there is no sense to be found in it. None at all — and I love that. Go, partake in the crazy. All you have to do is add a sentence –> THIS WAY TO ABSURDITY.

I am still sick and so is K and no me gusta, but I’ve been semi-productive, even from bed, which is good and also surprising. While I’m not officially participating in NaNoWriMo, I did start working on a little something something yesterday. Fanfiction, of all things, which I never ever write because of reasons. Like I suck at it, for instance. But now here we are. I’m going to release it into the wild once Fanfiction.net lets me (in two days or so?) and my goal is to never tell anyone that I wrote it, because it’s more fun that way. However, if you find it and guess that it’s mine, you win all the awards. I’ll create awards just to give them to you. I’ll narrow down the fandom: It starts with G and rhymes with flee. And the romantic pairing starts with: Why the hell isn’t this canon — and ends with: So much wasted potential.

Today I put the finishing touches on Chapter 12 of TBSOL, which means I’m officially a week and a half behind on all my revision goals. GO ME. Google Calendar keeps sending me daily alerts like, “You’re working on Chapter 18 today!!” and I’m like, ”Screw you, Velda!” — which is a reference to What 1989 Film Starring Shelley Long? That movie taught me a lot of things, like Evian water is fancy, rich people water. But then real life taught me other things like Evian water is not as fancy if you live in France.

Today I move on to Chapter 13 and I hope to get through it quickly because I have plans, big plans, and these plans involve finishing this damn novel. But I can’t do that yet because I have now hacked this book into unrecognizable pieces and the file is staring back at me with big, round eyes, wondering, “Who am I?” So I keep feeding it Halloween candy just to distract it from the questions but now I’m running out of Rolos and I’m worried that any second now it’s going to take a good, hard look at itself in the mirror and shriek, “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?” And I’ll have to say, “Shh, it’s going to be okay… I know what I’m doing…here, have another chocolate.” And then it will throw up all over my shoes and murder me in my sleep.

So, anyway — did you see the latest episode of Lost Girl? I was riveted by the plot. That part with Lauren’s arms was especially thought provoking. And also the part with her thighs — I was blown away by the layers of insight. I had to rewind a few times and then pause to reflect on the many splendored things. I learned a lot and I’m sure you did, too. But mostly it made me shake my fists at the sky and cry out, “Why can’t we have the pretty things? Why you take away? Why you make no sense? Why she date a popsicle?”

The plot was lovely though. So lovely.

You’re lovely, too. Your hair looks nice today — did you do something different to it?

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Written by Ingrid Díaz on November 2, 2011