Still editing

So while I'm taking a hiatus from writing while still editing a finished book, I thought I'd share a few random things: 

I designed a 4-piece Enterprise Christmas tree ornament for a friend's birthday since she's a fan, and her birthday is close to Christmas, and she was as excited to see it as I'd hoped she'd be.  It's a nice feeling to surprise someone who is super nice by doing something unexpected for them.  Try it, and you'll see :-).

When I posted pics of the party, including the Enterprise ornament, another friend requested one and that I also make him Millennium Falcon and X-Wing ornaments.  Since there is only one pattern for a plushie Falcon and it's huge, I designed a smaller one from scratch, and since there are no plushie X-Wing patterns that I found that I thought looked like an X-Wing, I designed one.  He requested them too close to Christmas for them to arrive in time for 2012, but in 2013, he should have a Merrier Geekmas with those to put on the tree or hang around the house.  I know other Star Wars and Star Trek fans, and I plan on making more ornaments for them as I find the time, hopefully well before next Christmas. 

For writing-related fun, I checked out several name generators, some for fantasy and other role playing games, and some create names related to a specific franchise (like Tolkien's elves and Star Wars' Jedi Knights), and I got some good results from several of them.  I also found a fantasy race generator, which randomly creates a description of elf, dwarf, and other races.  While the available societal details are limited, running the generator can make a good starting point for a fantasy race or even a sci-fi one.  You just have to ignore all the magic related suggestions, unless your sci-fi universe allows interaction with the magical world.

Hopefully, I'll have another book ready to publish soon.  I'm about halfway through with what I call the intense edit, where I read each line keeping not only the story in mind, but is the sentence necessary, and is it in active voice rather than passive?  I know that's an issue with my writing sometimes, and I work to correct everything I can before sending the books on to the publisher.  On a positive note, the cover is finished, and I really like it. 

I hope anyone who reads this had a great holiday season.