I MADE myself stop putting edits into the computer so I could come blog and tell all y'all (however many of you there are) what I was doing.
Actually, I made myself stop earlier so I could get to the bank before it closed and cash my birthday check. Yes, my birthday was way back at the first of the month, but first I lost the card, and when I found it, I couldn't drag myself out of the house in time to make it by the bank. I had to do the bank and the library today, cause I had some books that needed re-checking. I decided not to get any new ones. I've got old ones I still need to read--and there's that re-checking thing, since I didn't get some of the old ones read on time. (One research book, and one book(Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley) that I intended to pick up and read a long time ago, but never got around to it. I'm about 7 chapters in and enjoying it so far--and the research book is a really good one. Very atmospheric, very "feel of the situation." )
So anyway, I spent all of last week revising New Blood and this week, I'm putting the revisions into the computer, and going over it one last time as I do so, looking for more places to tighten or clarify. I do revisions on hard copy, because it's too easy to miss stuff on the computer. It's going pretty well. The office looks like a snowstorm hit, because I'm just letting the pages float to the floor, and since the fella's away for a couple of days, I don't feel like I have to pick them up.
In fact, since the fella's away, I had lunch out, between the bank and the library. This was a place on Broadway between the college and downtown that doesn't have a name that I could see, but has "Donuts, Kolaches, Burritos" painted on the outside. It's a very Texas place, apparently, since I'm not sure there's any other state in the nation where that would be a common combination. I was the only customer in there at almost 2 p.m., and had the shrimp poor boy (I'm becoming addicted to those things--I had to pull the shells off the tails on this one) and an apple fritter. Turns out the baker was sitting nearby, and had the counter guy bag me up a couple more fritters to take home, free gratis. How cool is that? I'll definitely be going back there--just because the food was good, prices were good and the owner/baker was really nice. I had intended to go to this place called The Taco House, but it's back toward home from the bank, not toward downtown. Oh well.
Oh, and we got to go hear Don McLean (of "American Pie" fame--the original song, not the movie) in a concert on Saturday. We got to sing along if we wanted. :) It was a lot of fun (though I'm not used to wearing shoes with backs on them and got the beginnings of a blister), but dang, the guy got old. So have I...beats the alternative, though.
And when we went to visit a church Sunday morning, a fight broke out in the lobby between two neighborhood guys and a church member, and I got stepped on. Nice church though, but dang, it's way the heck on the other end of the island.
It hasn't taken me long to get into the local island mentality. I don't like to cross the causeway unless I absolutely have to. I'll just stay on the island, thanks--and what happens on the island stays on the island...
Thanks for all the reports of books arriving. Keep 'em coming. I'm especially wanting to know if anybody sees the book on shelves in a bookstore. I mean, even if you ordered your book off the internet, you might go into a bookstore for some Other reason, and you could just wander by the Charles DeLint shelf (I'm usually not too far in front of his books) and see if there's a pretty blue book...
My readers are the very bestest. :D
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
There for the Grace of God...
I have now survived my first tropical storm.
Humberto blew up very quickly--Wednesday morning, they were talking rain, maybe some thunderstorms. I had trouble finding the newspaper because a big branch had fallen from one of the trees in the front yard. Maybe 3 in. diameter at the base. Very branchy, with lots of dead leaves (so I think it was half-broken before it fell). Not real heavy, though I couldn't drag it off the front sidewalk very easy. So I went on to my planned afternoon of errand-running and library-visiting.
When I reached the post office, the fella called and told me that the thunderstorms offshore had been officially declared a tropical storm. But it wasn't raining very hard, so I went on to the P.O. and the library. Still wasn't raining hard after the library visit--spent a lot of time there, checked out one book. They didn't have any of the others. So it was after 4 p.m. when I left the library.
It started raining harder while I was at the seafood market buying shrimp. (Hey, I was downtown. The fish markets are on the piers downtown. Why not buy shrimp?) And even harder when I went to the grocery store. By the time I got home, it was pouring. And I had groceries to carry into the house. Not much wind, but lots and lots of rain. Exchanged my walking shoes for flip-flops to keep the shoes from getting too soaked. Lost a can out of one of the grocery sacks, and just left it lying there in the rain. I was trying to carry as many sacks as I could at one time so I didn't have to make more trips, and didn't have a hand to spare (didn't even have one for my umbrella--just sorta held it in place with my chin...) to pick it up.
So by the time the fella got home, Humberto was still hovering about 20 to 35 miles offshore and building up steam. The neighbors had come over to tell us that we flood--if not right away, then maybe when the high tide came in. So after our shrimp dinner, we spent the rest of the evening carrying beds, futon mattresses and assorted other things upstairs to the main floor. (I was already nursing a strained finger--now it's really sore...) The electricity went on and off a bunch of times, then went off and stayed off, so we went to bed early.
Humberto skirted us. We didn't even get water in the garage (which will happen in a really hard rain). A few more branches (smaller ones) fell off the trees, lots of leaves on the deck. But at the north end of the county, an older couple had their house moved a foot off its foundation and the roof peeled off. Even though the eye went ashore much farther east. This was maybe 50 miles from us. We are grateful for small mercies.
Yesterday, I was a slug. (Okay, I was writing like a maniac to finish my pages for the BIAY bracelet.) Today, I went out to walk at the beach. The sand is still soaking wet, even up near the seawall where its usually dry. And I found a whole stretch of whole, joined-together scallop shells. (I kinda think the gulls got to them, but maybe not.) Plus some pink barnacle-looking shell things, and a blue crab claw. (The gulls definitely got the rest of the crab.) I didn't touch the claw, but I did bring the pink shells home. (I'll post a picture, when I take one...) So Humberto was a little rough on the under-sea residents too, seems to me.
I'm working on the new synopsis for Thunder. I like it, but it's going slow. I need to decide what I'm going to work on next week...Ought to be getting revisions for New Blood pretty soon. I want to finish my revisions for the proposal of Thunder, get the synopsis written and out, and then...I dunno. Do revisions on New Blood, then maybe start the Irish shaman story over. Or work on my demon slayer story... Hmm.
Humberto blew up very quickly--Wednesday morning, they were talking rain, maybe some thunderstorms. I had trouble finding the newspaper because a big branch had fallen from one of the trees in the front yard. Maybe 3 in. diameter at the base. Very branchy, with lots of dead leaves (so I think it was half-broken before it fell). Not real heavy, though I couldn't drag it off the front sidewalk very easy. So I went on to my planned afternoon of errand-running and library-visiting.
When I reached the post office, the fella called and told me that the thunderstorms offshore had been officially declared a tropical storm. But it wasn't raining very hard, so I went on to the P.O. and the library. Still wasn't raining hard after the library visit--spent a lot of time there, checked out one book. They didn't have any of the others. So it was after 4 p.m. when I left the library.
It started raining harder while I was at the seafood market buying shrimp. (Hey, I was downtown. The fish markets are on the piers downtown. Why not buy shrimp?) And even harder when I went to the grocery store. By the time I got home, it was pouring. And I had groceries to carry into the house. Not much wind, but lots and lots of rain. Exchanged my walking shoes for flip-flops to keep the shoes from getting too soaked. Lost a can out of one of the grocery sacks, and just left it lying there in the rain. I was trying to carry as many sacks as I could at one time so I didn't have to make more trips, and didn't have a hand to spare (didn't even have one for my umbrella--just sorta held it in place with my chin...) to pick it up.
So by the time the fella got home, Humberto was still hovering about 20 to 35 miles offshore and building up steam. The neighbors had come over to tell us that we flood--if not right away, then maybe when the high tide came in. So after our shrimp dinner, we spent the rest of the evening carrying beds, futon mattresses and assorted other things upstairs to the main floor. (I was already nursing a strained finger--now it's really sore...) The electricity went on and off a bunch of times, then went off and stayed off, so we went to bed early.
Humberto skirted us. We didn't even get water in the garage (which will happen in a really hard rain). A few more branches (smaller ones) fell off the trees, lots of leaves on the deck. But at the north end of the county, an older couple had their house moved a foot off its foundation and the roof peeled off. Even though the eye went ashore much farther east. This was maybe 50 miles from us. We are grateful for small mercies.
Yesterday, I was a slug. (Okay, I was writing like a maniac to finish my pages for the BIAY bracelet.) Today, I went out to walk at the beach. The sand is still soaking wet, even up near the seawall where its usually dry. And I found a whole stretch of whole, joined-together scallop shells. (I kinda think the gulls got to them, but maybe not.) Plus some pink barnacle-looking shell things, and a blue crab claw. (The gulls definitely got the rest of the crab.) I didn't touch the claw, but I did bring the pink shells home. (I'll post a picture, when I take one...) So Humberto was a little rough on the under-sea residents too, seems to me.
I'm working on the new synopsis for Thunder. I like it, but it's going slow. I need to decide what I'm going to work on next week...Ought to be getting revisions for New Blood pretty soon. I want to finish my revisions for the proposal of Thunder, get the synopsis written and out, and then...I dunno. Do revisions on New Blood, then maybe start the Irish shaman story over. Or work on my demon slayer story... Hmm.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Birthdays and other stuff
So I had a birthday over the weekend. I am now another mumble older than my previous mumbledy-something age. :)
It was a very nice day. A lazy one. We went to the beach early. The water was still quite cool--actually cool, rather than the bathtub warm water you get later in the day. I think this is why I am so spoiled when it comes to swimming. I spent so much time in the Gulf with its oh-so-warm water, that I think that's the temperature swimming pools (or lakes, or whatever) ought to be. Anyway, besides being on the cool side, the water was practically like glass. The surf's rarely more than a foot or so high, but it will usually start a good fifty yards out from the beach. Not that morning. Ten feet. Maybe twenty. And beyond that, glassy, gently rolling waves. Just the way I love it.
I'm not much of a surf girl. I really don't enjoy being blasted by the whitecaps. I like to go out beyond the breakers where the waves just roll in and float up and down. I don't know that there are many beaches--except on the Gulf coast--where you can get out past the surf and still touch bottom. People complain about the puny surf in the Gulf, but that's exactly what I love about it.
We didn't stay long. Maybe an hour. The seaweed has stopped floating in. I'm told that when the seaweed stops, the jellyfish start coming in. It's going to be hot for another month or so...I hope we don't get too terribly many jellyfish. They're not much fun. I'll have to stock up on meat tenderizer. It's supposed to help with the stings.
After puttering around online while the fella went to get a haircut, we spent most of the afternoon watching a bunch of episodes from the second season of ROME (my birthday present I got myself, donchaknow...). And then we went out to dinner.
In the past, I have made a joint birthday cheesecake or lemon meringue pie for me and the fella, since he's so much older than I am. (Eight whole days.) Usually, though, there's at least one other person around to help us eat it. Since even the boy was away from home, I didn't bake. So, we decided to have dessert with dinner.
I didn't realize that the two places I had chosen as an either/or for my birthday dinner were literally around the corner from each other. The first place was all booked up (that's what I get for having my birthday on a Saturday), so we walked over to the other place, the Saltwater Grill, which just happened to be right in front of where we'd parked the car. They had lots of room, fast, perfect service, fabulous food and we split an order of butterscotch bananas for our birthday cake.
Oh, my, LORD, those bananas were good. It was just a whole, sliced-lengthwise banana (cut in half, so we each got half a banana) drenched in just-made, so-good-it-must-be-a-sin butterscotch sauce. There was ice cream, and some whipped cream, and some strawberries and blueberries on the plate, and they were all the yummier for the butterscotch sauce. We practically licked the plate clean. I'd have licked it, for real, if we hadn't been out in public.
The corn-and-crab chowder was yummy, the seafood pasta had so many shrimp and crawfish tails in it, I couldn't eat them all even when I quit eating the pasta to concentrate on the goodies, the fella's fish just quit swimming that morning...but as good as that was, man, those butterscotch bananas... Who needs cake???
So. Now that my self-indulgence is out of the way, who's got books? If somebody gets a copy of The Eternal Rose from a bookstore, any bookstore that isn't direct from Wildside/Juno, will you let me know? Thanks.
And I'm working away on Thunder still. I got three pages written today. Wrote several pages of synopsis yesterday. And I got hit by a brainstorm for this story... don't know yet if I'm actually going to do it, but it would increase the conflict by a buttload, so I just might. I'll think about it some more.
I also finally repotted the tropical plants I bought--a salmon/yellow hibiscus, a white jasmine, two "blueberry ice" bougainvilleas (I already have a "raspberry ice" one), a rex begonia that seems to love the humidity outside, and a variegated African violet I moved from the panhandle that I'd never got round to re-potting. I ran out of soil in the middle of the job, and had to run back to WalMart to get some more. It's so nice to be able to do that. (Though I could have run down to Smith's Feed and Seed back in the panhandle, if I'd done it there.)
It was a very nice day. A lazy one. We went to the beach early. The water was still quite cool--actually cool, rather than the bathtub warm water you get later in the day. I think this is why I am so spoiled when it comes to swimming. I spent so much time in the Gulf with its oh-so-warm water, that I think that's the temperature swimming pools (or lakes, or whatever) ought to be. Anyway, besides being on the cool side, the water was practically like glass. The surf's rarely more than a foot or so high, but it will usually start a good fifty yards out from the beach. Not that morning. Ten feet. Maybe twenty. And beyond that, glassy, gently rolling waves. Just the way I love it.
I'm not much of a surf girl. I really don't enjoy being blasted by the whitecaps. I like to go out beyond the breakers where the waves just roll in and float up and down. I don't know that there are many beaches--except on the Gulf coast--where you can get out past the surf and still touch bottom. People complain about the puny surf in the Gulf, but that's exactly what I love about it.
We didn't stay long. Maybe an hour. The seaweed has stopped floating in. I'm told that when the seaweed stops, the jellyfish start coming in. It's going to be hot for another month or so...I hope we don't get too terribly many jellyfish. They're not much fun. I'll have to stock up on meat tenderizer. It's supposed to help with the stings.
After puttering around online while the fella went to get a haircut, we spent most of the afternoon watching a bunch of episodes from the second season of ROME (my birthday present I got myself, donchaknow...). And then we went out to dinner.
In the past, I have made a joint birthday cheesecake or lemon meringue pie for me and the fella, since he's so much older than I am. (Eight whole days.) Usually, though, there's at least one other person around to help us eat it. Since even the boy was away from home, I didn't bake. So, we decided to have dessert with dinner.
I didn't realize that the two places I had chosen as an either/or for my birthday dinner were literally around the corner from each other. The first place was all booked up (that's what I get for having my birthday on a Saturday), so we walked over to the other place, the Saltwater Grill, which just happened to be right in front of where we'd parked the car. They had lots of room, fast, perfect service, fabulous food and we split an order of butterscotch bananas for our birthday cake.
Oh, my, LORD, those bananas were good. It was just a whole, sliced-lengthwise banana (cut in half, so we each got half a banana) drenched in just-made, so-good-it-must-be-a-sin butterscotch sauce. There was ice cream, and some whipped cream, and some strawberries and blueberries on the plate, and they were all the yummier for the butterscotch sauce. We practically licked the plate clean. I'd have licked it, for real, if we hadn't been out in public.
The corn-and-crab chowder was yummy, the seafood pasta had so many shrimp and crawfish tails in it, I couldn't eat them all even when I quit eating the pasta to concentrate on the goodies, the fella's fish just quit swimming that morning...but as good as that was, man, those butterscotch bananas... Who needs cake???
So. Now that my self-indulgence is out of the way, who's got books? If somebody gets a copy of The Eternal Rose from a bookstore, any bookstore that isn't direct from Wildside/Juno, will you let me know? Thanks.
And I'm working away on Thunder still. I got three pages written today. Wrote several pages of synopsis yesterday. And I got hit by a brainstorm for this story... don't know yet if I'm actually going to do it, but it would increase the conflict by a buttload, so I just might. I'll think about it some more.
I also finally repotted the tropical plants I bought--a salmon/yellow hibiscus, a white jasmine, two "blueberry ice" bougainvilleas (I already have a "raspberry ice" one), a rex begonia that seems to love the humidity outside, and a variegated African violet I moved from the panhandle that I'd never got round to re-potting. I ran out of soil in the middle of the job, and had to run back to WalMart to get some more. It's so nice to be able to do that. (Though I could have run down to Smith's Feed and Seed back in the panhandle, if I'd done it there.)
Thursday, September 06, 2007
The Books Are Arriving
Commenters have commented here that they have received their books. (Thank you very much. It was good to know folks are getting them.)
I have now received my copies. Yes, they are beautiful. I might even read it. I read my very first two books when I got them. (They were short.) I read Compass Rose. I only got about halfway through Barbed Rose. So--given how many times I read Eternal Rose through the revision and re-revision and paring-down-to-size process, I'm not sure I'll be able to get all the way through it. I might go back and re-read Barbed Rose again.
I have found that when I create characters and a story that I like, I still like them when I go back and look at them again, even if it's just a fragment I came up with ages ago that has no business even thinking about publication. I usually pick apart the prose when I read back over the story, but I still like the characters and the story. Or at least the intent of the story. What I wanted the story to be...I might realize how the story ought to be better told.
This is kind of what I'm doing now with Thunder. I came up with the idea so, so long ago--but I still like the idea and the characters and the story. I just know more about story-telling now, so maybe I can do them all justice. I hope. I've done more research, and I'm having a little trouble reconciling the emotional numbing symptoms of a PTSD sufferer with my character's need to locate her family...but an overprotectiveness of loved ones is also a symptom, so maybe I can balance it that way. There's apparently a wide variation in behavior--and given that my character is not so very "post," I think I can make it work. It's some of the hardest writing I've ever done, though.
Oh, there's a nice review of The Eternal Rose if you're interested, and in response to the comment about the bit that left the reviewer scratching her head, let me just say: It's a fantasy. And leave it at that. :)
Nice slow week this week. Not much experimenting in the kitchen (I made Mediterranean Salmon with white beans last week...pretty good, even if salmon isn't a Mediterranean fish--is it?). The steaks were awesome though, and we had leftovers. Then I found some sweet corn in the fridge to have with the leftovers, so they were awesome twice.
No beach visits so far this week--my walks have been around the neighborhood--and I'm going to have to get up earlier and get out the door earlier to beat the heat. But if nothing else gets planned--and if it doesn't rain--I think I want to at least go to the beach to swim for my birthday Saturday. (Dang, but I'm getting old.)
They did call me to interview for the part-time job I applied for, but that's two weeks away. I think it will be an interesting job, and still leave me time to write. Which I need to get busy and do. I need to earn my charm for September. August turned out to be just impossible. I'm probably 6 pages up right now, but that leaves me with 18 to go. I'm having to do as much thinking and researching as writing though... Have a research book I need to go buy.
Better run...
I have now received my copies. Yes, they are beautiful. I might even read it. I read my very first two books when I got them. (They were short.) I read Compass Rose. I only got about halfway through Barbed Rose. So--given how many times I read Eternal Rose through the revision and re-revision and paring-down-to-size process, I'm not sure I'll be able to get all the way through it. I might go back and re-read Barbed Rose again.
I have found that when I create characters and a story that I like, I still like them when I go back and look at them again, even if it's just a fragment I came up with ages ago that has no business even thinking about publication. I usually pick apart the prose when I read back over the story, but I still like the characters and the story. Or at least the intent of the story. What I wanted the story to be...I might realize how the story ought to be better told.
This is kind of what I'm doing now with Thunder. I came up with the idea so, so long ago--but I still like the idea and the characters and the story. I just know more about story-telling now, so maybe I can do them all justice. I hope. I've done more research, and I'm having a little trouble reconciling the emotional numbing symptoms of a PTSD sufferer with my character's need to locate her family...but an overprotectiveness of loved ones is also a symptom, so maybe I can balance it that way. There's apparently a wide variation in behavior--and given that my character is not so very "post," I think I can make it work. It's some of the hardest writing I've ever done, though.
Oh, there's a nice review of The Eternal Rose if you're interested, and in response to the comment about the bit that left the reviewer scratching her head, let me just say: It's a fantasy. And leave it at that. :)
Nice slow week this week. Not much experimenting in the kitchen (I made Mediterranean Salmon with white beans last week...pretty good, even if salmon isn't a Mediterranean fish--is it?). The steaks were awesome though, and we had leftovers. Then I found some sweet corn in the fridge to have with the leftovers, so they were awesome twice.
No beach visits so far this week--my walks have been around the neighborhood--and I'm going to have to get up earlier and get out the door earlier to beat the heat. But if nothing else gets planned--and if it doesn't rain--I think I want to at least go to the beach to swim for my birthday Saturday. (Dang, but I'm getting old.)
They did call me to interview for the part-time job I applied for, but that's two weeks away. I think it will be an interesting job, and still leave me time to write. Which I need to get busy and do. I need to earn my charm for September. August turned out to be just impossible. I'm probably 6 pages up right now, but that leaves me with 18 to go. I'm having to do as much thinking and researching as writing though... Have a research book I need to go buy.
Better run...
Monday, September 03, 2007
THEY HAVE LEFT THE BUILDING
At least this is what I've been told. THE BOOKS HAVE LEFT THE PRINTERS. Last week, they were on the way to the distribution center. Next week, they should (note the word: SHOULD) be at the bookstores.
If you have ordered a book, whether directly from Juno, or from Amazon or any of the other stores, you ought to be getting it soon. Probably before I get my copies. A friend/fellow writer (Carole McDonnell) for Juno just got her copies of her book (Wind Follower), and I think hers was released before mine.
So. There is the latest book news. I'll get it up on the website today or tomorrow. You ought to be getting your hands on them soon.
In other news, I have finally been on the island for a full week without 1) boxes to be unpacked, 2) a conference to attend looming in front of me, 3) company. School has started at all levels from kindergarten to university, and it may finally be possible to get settled in. Maybe.
I'm going a little giddy, I think, from all the delights of living in a larger city. There are restaurants! And concerts! And--stuff!
We have "subscribed" to the local symphony orchestra. They had a BOGO (buy one, get one free) deal on season tickets for new subscribers, and since we just moved here 8 weeks ago, we couldn't be anything else. So we subscribed, and went to the first concert of the season last night--the annual Pops concert. It's a small orchestra, mostly volunteer, I think, because this is a small city. But I enjoyed it tremendously. Not only did they play the Ed Sullivan Show spinning-plates song (A. Katchaturian's Saber Dance), but they played Bugs Bunny cartoon music. Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody #2, which was a lot more bubbly and fun than I remember from the cartoons.
They played in an improvised auditorium, since their regular venue--the (historic) Grand Opera House--had something else, so the marimba player was kind of down in a hole and I'm not sure he could see the conductor, but it was a symphony concert! And they played fun music! And we only had to drive 10 minutes to get there! That last is a MAJOR consideration, given that up until 8 weeks ago, we had to drive an hour to get to the nearest theater unless we wanted to watch the drive-in movies or the high school band. (The movie theater is about 15 minutes away, but we don't have to leave the island.)
The symphony concert was the same place we went to a concert on Friday night (the fella's birthday). That concert was a "rock and roll experience" concert--at least I think that's how they advertised it. Instead of Elvis impersonators, there were two bands, one impersonating the Beatles, the other impersonating the Rolling Stones. They were pretty good, all in all. The music was great, though you could see a few cracks around the edges of the impersonations. The guy from Louisiana impersonating Mick Jagger actually said "y'all" once. Has Jagger ever gone in for that southernism?? But it was fun. We got a kick out of it.
And this evening, after all the weekenders have (hopefully) gone home, if it's not raining/thundering, etc., we're going to the beach. To swim. Without little guys to watch. And then we're coming home to cook steaks. We had to leave the grill behind, so I guess we'll broil them in the oven, but these are some gorgeous steaks... Can't wait.
If you have ordered a book, whether directly from Juno, or from Amazon or any of the other stores, you ought to be getting it soon. Probably before I get my copies. A friend/fellow writer (Carole McDonnell) for Juno just got her copies of her book (Wind Follower), and I think hers was released before mine.
So. There is the latest book news. I'll get it up on the website today or tomorrow. You ought to be getting your hands on them soon.
In other news, I have finally been on the island for a full week without 1) boxes to be unpacked, 2) a conference to attend looming in front of me, 3) company. School has started at all levels from kindergarten to university, and it may finally be possible to get settled in. Maybe.
I'm going a little giddy, I think, from all the delights of living in a larger city. There are restaurants! And concerts! And--stuff!
We have "subscribed" to the local symphony orchestra. They had a BOGO (buy one, get one free) deal on season tickets for new subscribers, and since we just moved here 8 weeks ago, we couldn't be anything else. So we subscribed, and went to the first concert of the season last night--the annual Pops concert. It's a small orchestra, mostly volunteer, I think, because this is a small city. But I enjoyed it tremendously. Not only did they play the Ed Sullivan Show spinning-plates song (A. Katchaturian's Saber Dance), but they played Bugs Bunny cartoon music. Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody #2, which was a lot more bubbly and fun than I remember from the cartoons.
They played in an improvised auditorium, since their regular venue--the (historic) Grand Opera House--had something else, so the marimba player was kind of down in a hole and I'm not sure he could see the conductor, but it was a symphony concert! And they played fun music! And we only had to drive 10 minutes to get there! That last is a MAJOR consideration, given that up until 8 weeks ago, we had to drive an hour to get to the nearest theater unless we wanted to watch the drive-in movies or the high school band. (The movie theater is about 15 minutes away, but we don't have to leave the island.)
The symphony concert was the same place we went to a concert on Friday night (the fella's birthday). That concert was a "rock and roll experience" concert--at least I think that's how they advertised it. Instead of Elvis impersonators, there were two bands, one impersonating the Beatles, the other impersonating the Rolling Stones. They were pretty good, all in all. The music was great, though you could see a few cracks around the edges of the impersonations. The guy from Louisiana impersonating Mick Jagger actually said "y'all" once. Has Jagger ever gone in for that southernism?? But it was fun. We got a kick out of it.
And this evening, after all the weekenders have (hopefully) gone home, if it's not raining/thundering, etc., we're going to the beach. To swim. Without little guys to watch. And then we're coming home to cook steaks. We had to leave the grill behind, so I guess we'll broil them in the oven, but these are some gorgeous steaks... Can't wait.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Great Big Giant Wave Pool
The grandboys have come to visit. They went on a bay fishing trip with Daddy and Granddaddy yesterday afternoon, and caught a little shark and a sand bass. Four little pieces of fish that tasted delicious. Yes, Gigi cooked them. Gigi did NOT clean them. We got somebody else to do that.
The boys do not want to go to the beach. They want to go to the Big Giant Wave Pool also known as The Gulf of Mexico. We got them to eat the fish by telling them it was chicken. They loved the fish--even after we told them it was fish... So we figure they'll love the beach, once they learn it's the original Wave Pool. Sometimes, it IS all in a name...
We are grateful that Hurricane Dean seems to be heading south of our location, though we hope it doesn't do too much damage to Mexico. When Tropical Storm Erin came onshore last week, it rained all day here, and the surf was up (it's usually non-existent in the summer). However, things were so churned up that, instead of whitecaps, we had browncaps. I'm hoping the sand is on the bottom today, when we go out.
Let's see, I have some questions I want to answer.
I'm not going to get to go to World Fantasy this year. It's in upstate New York, and while I'd like to go, I need to sell another book first. (sigh)
Comics. I've collected a lot, but mostly X-Men related. I do have quite a collection of Daredevil comics, because I've always felt a connection with him, even back when I was a kid in junior high and high school. I can see, but I can't tell where anything is (poor binocular vision & no eye-hand coordination). Daredevil knows exactly where everything is, but he can't actually see. We're opposites. Anyway, the Daredevil movie wasn't exactly the best in the genre, but Daredevil comics are uber-cool, IMO.
And I too would love to be able to say "This old thing? Why, it's my Magic Hoohah!" in a conversation.
Still no books. Though I probably ought to check the mail box here at the house for my new driver's license.
Next week. I can write next week. Hopefully.
The boys do not want to go to the beach. They want to go to the Big Giant Wave Pool also known as The Gulf of Mexico. We got them to eat the fish by telling them it was chicken. They loved the fish--even after we told them it was fish... So we figure they'll love the beach, once they learn it's the original Wave Pool. Sometimes, it IS all in a name...
We are grateful that Hurricane Dean seems to be heading south of our location, though we hope it doesn't do too much damage to Mexico. When Tropical Storm Erin came onshore last week, it rained all day here, and the surf was up (it's usually non-existent in the summer). However, things were so churned up that, instead of whitecaps, we had browncaps. I'm hoping the sand is on the bottom today, when we go out.
Let's see, I have some questions I want to answer.
I'm not going to get to go to World Fantasy this year. It's in upstate New York, and while I'd like to go, I need to sell another book first. (sigh)
Comics. I've collected a lot, but mostly X-Men related. I do have quite a collection of Daredevil comics, because I've always felt a connection with him, even back when I was a kid in junior high and high school. I can see, but I can't tell where anything is (poor binocular vision & no eye-hand coordination). Daredevil knows exactly where everything is, but he can't actually see. We're opposites. Anyway, the Daredevil movie wasn't exactly the best in the genre, but Daredevil comics are uber-cool, IMO.
And I too would love to be able to say "This old thing? Why, it's my Magic Hoohah!" in a conversation.
Still no books. Though I probably ought to check the mail box here at the house for my new driver's license.
Next week. I can write next week. Hopefully.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Writing about Sex
I have a list of things I want to blog about someday. I write them down--the ones I can remember long enough to write down--so I don't forget them. For instance, I do want to write about the TIME Magazine article "Who killed the love story?" But not today.
And the son, who is home from university this week, found my list and wrote on it: Monkeys in Outer Space bent on destroying zuwieroiyushamnn At least that's what I think he wrote on it. And I may write a blog about monkeys in outer space bent on destroying...whatever... But not today.
Today, I'm going to blog about sex. Specifically, about writing about sex in novels. See, I got a note on my Shelfari Shelf from a friend who said that she was "unimpressed" by the One Rose books because she didn't like books that "focus so completely around sex."
Which took me totally aback, because I certainly didn't think the books at all focused so completely around sex. I've read books that focus completely around sex, and believe me, they have a LOT more sex than the Rose books do.
The Compass Rose has only three fully consummated love scenes in it. It has a few more "sex by magic" (sorta like phone sex, only without the phone) scenes, and the characters talk about sex a lot. Because the books are about men and women who care about each other, who have a relationship--who are married to each other, to be more exact--and who have different understandings from each other about relationships and about sex and how the world works. And I firmly believe that to put people in that kind of situation and NOT address the sex issue would have been nothing less than a flat out lie.
(The Barbed Rose has more sex, as does The Eternal Rose, because in those books, the relationships are on-going and more fully developed. By the time The Eternal Rose begins, seven years have passed since the beginning of The Compass Rose. The characters have been married for that long. Sex is going to be a part of those relationships.)
All those books that have men and women traveling together on a quest for months to retrieve the Magic Hoohah and save the world--and the characters Never Even Think About Sex--are just plain lying, IMO.
People think about sex. They have sex. They screw up their lives because they try to ignore sex and they can't. Or they screw up their lives because they have sex with anything that moves and never figure out why they're lonely. Sex is a part of life. It's a huge part of life, and I think that novelists--in whatever genre they write--should address it, if they're comfortable with it.
In speculative fiction, like fantasy and science fiction, it's possible to explore a greater range of "what ifs" than in novels set in contemporary or historical times, and exploration is a good thing, I think. If I'm ever able to write more books set in the One Rose universe, I can see Kallista's children complaining that it's hard enough to find one person willing to put up with your faults--
I do understand that sex is a private part of life and that some people are uncomfortable with a discussion, or even a portrayal of something so intensely private and intimate. I understand that some people have moral issues with reading about sex. Personal opinions are just that. Personal opinions. And everyone's entitled to have them. Which is why I left the note up on my Shelfari page and didn't delete it. Tanis has every right to not like books with much sex in them, and every right to express her opinion.
But I did want to explain why I wrote the books the way I did, and why I write about sex, and there's not a way to respond to a note on one's own page, and I didn't want to stick a note on her page without any context, so I came here to share my philosophy of writing about sex with the world--or at least as much of the world as comes by to read my blog.
I'm still waiting for my copies of The Eternal Rose... Sigh.
And the son, who is home from university this week, found my list and wrote on it: Monkeys in Outer Space bent on destroying zuwieroiyushamnn At least that's what I think he wrote on it. And I may write a blog about monkeys in outer space bent on destroying...whatever... But not today.
Today, I'm going to blog about sex. Specifically, about writing about sex in novels. See, I got a note on my Shelfari Shelf from a friend who said that she was "unimpressed" by the One Rose books because she didn't like books that "focus so completely around sex."
Which took me totally aback, because I certainly didn't think the books at all focused so completely around sex. I've read books that focus completely around sex, and believe me, they have a LOT more sex than the Rose books do.
The Compass Rose has only three fully consummated love scenes in it. It has a few more "sex by magic" (sorta like phone sex, only without the phone) scenes, and the characters talk about sex a lot. Because the books are about men and women who care about each other, who have a relationship--who are married to each other, to be more exact--and who have different understandings from each other about relationships and about sex and how the world works. And I firmly believe that to put people in that kind of situation and NOT address the sex issue would have been nothing less than a flat out lie.
(The Barbed Rose has more sex, as does The Eternal Rose, because in those books, the relationships are on-going and more fully developed. By the time The Eternal Rose begins, seven years have passed since the beginning of The Compass Rose. The characters have been married for that long. Sex is going to be a part of those relationships.)
All those books that have men and women traveling together on a quest for months to retrieve the Magic Hoohah and save the world--and the characters Never Even Think About Sex--are just plain lying, IMO.
People think about sex. They have sex. They screw up their lives because they try to ignore sex and they can't. Or they screw up their lives because they have sex with anything that moves and never figure out why they're lonely. Sex is a part of life. It's a huge part of life, and I think that novelists--in whatever genre they write--should address it, if they're comfortable with it.
In speculative fiction, like fantasy and science fiction, it's possible to explore a greater range of "what ifs" than in novels set in contemporary or historical times, and exploration is a good thing, I think. If I'm ever able to write more books set in the One Rose universe, I can see Kallista's children complaining that it's hard enough to find one person willing to put up with your faults--
I do understand that sex is a private part of life and that some people are uncomfortable with a discussion, or even a portrayal of something so intensely private and intimate. I understand that some people have moral issues with reading about sex. Personal opinions are just that. Personal opinions. And everyone's entitled to have them. Which is why I left the note up on my Shelfari page and didn't delete it. Tanis has every right to not like books with much sex in them, and every right to express her opinion.
But I did want to explain why I wrote the books the way I did, and why I write about sex, and there's not a way to respond to a note on one's own page, and I didn't want to stick a note on her page without any context, so I came here to share my philosophy of writing about sex with the world--or at least as much of the world as comes by to read my blog.
I'm still waiting for my copies of The Eternal Rose... Sigh.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Beyond Tired
Although I probably shouldn't be by now. It's Wednesday. I've been home (again) since Sunday evening. But I still feel like I've been dragged backwards through the bushes. And then maybe beat with a stick some.
I went to ArmadilloCon in Austin last weekend. It's a science fiction/fantasy conference, was lots of fun, but dang, I'm really tired now. And it was hard attending when I hadn't even been in the new house for a week. Still, I bet I'm the only one in a while who's been put on both the sex- AND the religion-in-fantasy panels. We had a lot of fun doing the panels--laughed a Whole lot during the sex-in-fantasy panel--and I scored a necklace-and-earring set and a dragon print at the art auction. Both very cool and very lovely. (The jewelry is purple rock--and no, I don't remember what kind it's supposed to be--that will go very well with the purple rock earrings I already have.)
So, now the boy is down from college for the week. I need to go drag him out of bed so we can go to the washateria (all the laundromats around here seem to have that title) since we haven't rented laundry equipment yet--and doing laundry in the garage is REALLY going to be not fun around here... The heat index has been in the 110s (43 C) the past few days--worse than in Houston because of the killer humidity.
We have had fresh boiled shrimp this week--bought at the grocery store, not a fish market, but still the freshest stuff I've had in a long time. Wonderful. My next goal for the week is to get out to the beach and get IN the water, sometime before the boy heads back to school. The grandboys are coming to visit next week (so the posts here will be sparse, I'm sure) and I plan to take them to the water several times, but their WunkaBob won't be here then...
Cross your fingers that the books (The Eternal Rose) come in next week. The printer has promised them by then, but...
I'm trying to write, but not very hard. I got 4-1/2 pages done Monday, but there's just too much to do. Went to Ikea to buy tables to set up for computer desks--and forgot to buy the second table. Sometime, when I'm back that way, I'll have to get the second table. (sigh) That's my project for today, though. To put the table on its legs. It's bound to work better than the card table I'm using right now...
I went to ArmadilloCon in Austin last weekend. It's a science fiction/fantasy conference, was lots of fun, but dang, I'm really tired now. And it was hard attending when I hadn't even been in the new house for a week. Still, I bet I'm the only one in a while who's been put on both the sex- AND the religion-in-fantasy panels. We had a lot of fun doing the panels--laughed a Whole lot during the sex-in-fantasy panel--and I scored a necklace-and-earring set and a dragon print at the art auction. Both very cool and very lovely. (The jewelry is purple rock--and no, I don't remember what kind it's supposed to be--that will go very well with the purple rock earrings I already have.)
So, now the boy is down from college for the week. I need to go drag him out of bed so we can go to the washateria (all the laundromats around here seem to have that title) since we haven't rented laundry equipment yet--and doing laundry in the garage is REALLY going to be not fun around here... The heat index has been in the 110s (43 C) the past few days--worse than in Houston because of the killer humidity.
We have had fresh boiled shrimp this week--bought at the grocery store, not a fish market, but still the freshest stuff I've had in a long time. Wonderful. My next goal for the week is to get out to the beach and get IN the water, sometime before the boy heads back to school. The grandboys are coming to visit next week (so the posts here will be sparse, I'm sure) and I plan to take them to the water several times, but their WunkaBob won't be here then...
Cross your fingers that the books (The Eternal Rose) come in next week. The printer has promised them by then, but...
I'm trying to write, but not very hard. I got 4-1/2 pages done Monday, but there's just too much to do. Went to Ikea to buy tables to set up for computer desks--and forgot to buy the second table. Sometime, when I'm back that way, I'll have to get the second table. (sigh) That's my project for today, though. To put the table on its legs. It's bound to work better than the card table I'm using right now...
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
I'm here. At the new place. We loaded up Saturday, after packing stuff all day Friday, then drove partway Saturday afternoon. We got to town about 3 the next afternoon, unloaded Sunday night, and the cable people came by today (Wednesday) to install the cable and get the computer up and running. I've unpacked and put away stuff. The kitchen is sorta, mostly together. I have a bed to sleep in, drawers and a big closet for my clothes...and a washateria somewhere around. I'm still learning my way around. It's helpful that this town is mostly a grid.
And this a.m., I decided that if I was going to live at the beach, I was going to go to the beach, so I put on my shorts & T-shirt early, before it got hot, and drove down to the beach (we're about 1 to 2 miles from the beach), and walked barefoot along the water. There was an egret, two different kinds of sandpipers, and of course a whole horde of seagulls that appeared like magic out of nowhere when some turistas started flinging bread at them. The broken shells in the sand here and there weren't a lot of fun, but the water was...
I'd forgotten, though, just how HOT it can get here. The temp is not actually that high, but because it's essentially 100% humidity, it Feels really, really hot. Well over body-temp. We went to a free band concert near downtown last night, and as long as the breeze was blowing, it was bearable, since the sun was mostly down, but if that breeze stopped... I'm just going to have to get used again to being slightly sweaty all the time...It was a fun event though--every Tuesday night in the summertime. They play a little of everything, have a kids' maracas/rhythm band song, have a flag parade every week. It was mostly locals, too, which I found interesting. If the grandboys get to come before school starts, we'll have to take them.
I have the computer set up on a card table. I'll have to wait and see about a writing space--we haven't brought the dining table upstairs yet. (Yeah, I'm in a house where I have to climb stairs--a full flight of them--to get to the front door.) I figure next week will be soon enough to get busy writing. I've got a fantasy con in Austin this weekend. If anybody's there, come by and say hey. :)
And this a.m., I decided that if I was going to live at the beach, I was going to go to the beach, so I put on my shorts & T-shirt early, before it got hot, and drove down to the beach (we're about 1 to 2 miles from the beach), and walked barefoot along the water. There was an egret, two different kinds of sandpipers, and of course a whole horde of seagulls that appeared like magic out of nowhere when some turistas started flinging bread at them. The broken shells in the sand here and there weren't a lot of fun, but the water was...
I'd forgotten, though, just how HOT it can get here. The temp is not actually that high, but because it's essentially 100% humidity, it Feels really, really hot. Well over body-temp. We went to a free band concert near downtown last night, and as long as the breeze was blowing, it was bearable, since the sun was mostly down, but if that breeze stopped... I'm just going to have to get used again to being slightly sweaty all the time...It was a fun event though--every Tuesday night in the summertime. They play a little of everything, have a kids' maracas/rhythm band song, have a flag parade every week. It was mostly locals, too, which I found interesting. If the grandboys get to come before school starts, we'll have to take them.
I have the computer set up on a card table. I'll have to wait and see about a writing space--we haven't brought the dining table upstairs yet. (Yeah, I'm in a house where I have to climb stairs--a full flight of them--to get to the front door.) I figure next week will be soon enough to get busy writing. I've got a fantasy con in Austin this weekend. If anybody's there, come by and say hey. :)
Monday, July 30, 2007
New Time Waster on the Web
Okay. I have a MySpace space. I've never really been able to figure out what to do with it. But some kind friend sent me an invitation to a NEW thing where I fit RIGHT in. It's called SHELFARI. I guess as a sorta pun on Safari--I dunno. But it's a place where you can list the books you've read, state your opinions on them, and find other people who like to read the same kinds of things you like. And make friends with them. And stuff. It's GREAT!
Yeah, of course I'm there. Or here, as the case may be. I've found another place to put up the books I list on my private "personal reading log." I share my "reviewlets" with the loop at Romance Readers Anonymous, and now I'm putting them up at Shelfari. So far, I'm only doing the books I've read this year, because I'm working like mad to get the books in the ABR boxes into my log before I move this weekend. So I can know which ones go to the library and stuff. So I do my 10 books at a whack, e-mail the list to the RR-A loop, then head to Shelfari to stick them all on my Shelf, then go back and paste in the reviewlets. It's been lots of fun. I've found friends--I mean, friends I know in "real life," there and waved frantically at them. (Oh! Yvonne "friended" me! Yay!)
So, yeah. I'm not writing. I'm trying to pack (put all the "essential" family pictures in a box this a.m. along with the essential cookbooks and the research books--and then actually managed to carry it out to the garage). Trying to keep things neat-ish. The real estate agent and a MLS guy came by today to measure everything. I'd been told they would come take pictures--I took some pictures last night, not including my still messy office--and copied them onto a CD, which I gave the agent. And they didn't take any more pictures, so I guess they'll use the ones I took. Hope somebody buys this house soon. It's only 2 bedrooms, for all the size it has, so it may take a while.
So Shelfari is giving me something else to obsess about (aka waste time on) till I have to go pick the fella up at the airport on Thursday. I'll go into town early and watch a movie, or something... ;)
Yeah, of course I'm there. Or here, as the case may be. I've found another place to put up the books I list on my private "personal reading log." I share my "reviewlets" with the loop at Romance Readers Anonymous, and now I'm putting them up at Shelfari. So far, I'm only doing the books I've read this year, because I'm working like mad to get the books in the ABR boxes into my log before I move this weekend. So I can know which ones go to the library and stuff. So I do my 10 books at a whack, e-mail the list to the RR-A loop, then head to Shelfari to stick them all on my Shelf, then go back and paste in the reviewlets. It's been lots of fun. I've found friends--I mean, friends I know in "real life," there and waved frantically at them. (Oh! Yvonne "friended" me! Yay!)
So, yeah. I'm not writing. I'm trying to pack (put all the "essential" family pictures in a box this a.m. along with the essential cookbooks and the research books--and then actually managed to carry it out to the garage). Trying to keep things neat-ish. The real estate agent and a MLS guy came by today to measure everything. I'd been told they would come take pictures--I took some pictures last night, not including my still messy office--and copied them onto a CD, which I gave the agent. And they didn't take any more pictures, so I guess they'll use the ones I took. Hope somebody buys this house soon. It's only 2 bedrooms, for all the size it has, so it may take a while.
So Shelfari is giving me something else to obsess about (aka waste time on) till I have to go pick the fella up at the airport on Thursday. I'll go into town early and watch a movie, or something... ;)
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Printing
At this very moment, I am printing out the complete (and still pretty long) manuscript to New Blood to mail to the agent tomorrow. I like it, I like how it's turned out--there are still things that could probably be cut, but it works for me, so...
This means that I mail it, and then I have to start doing not-fun stuff like packing boxes. I'm not going to take any books but the research books I'm using for Thunder, and a few of the TBRs--because if I don't have books to read, I will buy books to read. I will probably buy books to read anyway, but...
Oh, and we may have someone to buy our house after all. Cross your fingers that everything works out. We're still moving into the house with the big deck first weekend in August, but it's exciting news. I don't want to have this dragging on. I'm hoping I'll be able to move ALL my books into the house, but...
Eww. Just occurred to me--it's REALLY humid on the coast, which is not good for books. I'll have to find a place for my comics in the house--or sell them all on e-Bay. I miss them, but don't have time for them any more. Especially won't if I have to get a dayjob, which is a possibility.
Next writing project, to be started in the new house/town--I'm going to revise the demon hunter book and see if I can get over the first barrier. Then I'm going to start the re-write on the urban fantasy Irish shaman/Navajo warrior princess story. Oh, and I'm still writing 25 pages a month on the WWII story, Thunder.
Um--I've finished the new Harry Potter book. I was out of town when the mail order package came in, but I read it. It was a satisfying ending to the story, I thought. I've also read an old Barbara Delinsky, Looking for Peyton Place, which I liked, and Liz Maverick's launch of the Shomi line, Wired, which I think I liked, but it confused me a lot, so I'm not really sure. On the airplane coming back, I read Karma Girl by Jennifer Estep (liked it) and Soul Song by Marjorie M. Liu (liked it too). Need to sort my ABRs (already been read) into keepers, library donations and trade-ins. I haven't lived near Waco in 8 years, but I'm still carting my trade-ins to Golden's Books on Franklin street there--best used book store I've found so far. Maybe I'll find a new one in the new place, but will wait and see.
Oh! I did get my domain up and running again. (It helps when you pay your bills on time. ) Now to update it. And then, to shift my plan. I have it on one that isn't particularly idiot-friendly. I need something for the computerly ignorant.
This means that I mail it, and then I have to start doing not-fun stuff like packing boxes. I'm not going to take any books but the research books I'm using for Thunder, and a few of the TBRs--because if I don't have books to read, I will buy books to read. I will probably buy books to read anyway, but...
Oh, and we may have someone to buy our house after all. Cross your fingers that everything works out. We're still moving into the house with the big deck first weekend in August, but it's exciting news. I don't want to have this dragging on. I'm hoping I'll be able to move ALL my books into the house, but...
Eww. Just occurred to me--it's REALLY humid on the coast, which is not good for books. I'll have to find a place for my comics in the house--or sell them all on e-Bay. I miss them, but don't have time for them any more. Especially won't if I have to get a dayjob, which is a possibility.
Next writing project, to be started in the new house/town--I'm going to revise the demon hunter book and see if I can get over the first barrier. Then I'm going to start the re-write on the urban fantasy Irish shaman/Navajo warrior princess story. Oh, and I'm still writing 25 pages a month on the WWII story, Thunder.
Um--I've finished the new Harry Potter book. I was out of town when the mail order package came in, but I read it. It was a satisfying ending to the story, I thought. I've also read an old Barbara Delinsky, Looking for Peyton Place, which I liked, and Liz Maverick's launch of the Shomi line, Wired, which I think I liked, but it confused me a lot, so I'm not really sure. On the airplane coming back, I read Karma Girl by Jennifer Estep (liked it) and Soul Song by Marjorie M. Liu (liked it too). Need to sort my ABRs (already been read) into keepers, library donations and trade-ins. I haven't lived near Waco in 8 years, but I'm still carting my trade-ins to Golden's Books on Franklin street there--best used book store I've found so far. Maybe I'll find a new one in the new place, but will wait and see.
Oh! I did get my domain up and running again. (It helps when you pay your bills on time. ) Now to update it. And then, to shift my plan. I have it on one that isn't particularly idiot-friendly. I need something for the computerly ignorant.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Hitting the Fan
Something has hit the fan. We shall not endeavor to figure out what the substance is. But it is not pleasant. I have been on airplanes, and spent the night in a place other than home without my suitcase. The trip started off good, but the ending? Not so much.
Went to the island to look at places to live. Spent 3 days doing it, looked at so many houses they started to blur together, and we have a place--or will in a couple of weeks when we hook up the U-Haul and head down to live in it. There is a great big deck. With a roof over it, so one can sit on the deck and admire the rain falling. It rained while we were looking on it. This is something of a temporary solution, but I think we'll probably be here at least a year, so not that temporary.
We went walking on the Seawall one evening. It was fairly cool, and as long as the offshore breeze could reach me, it was pleasant, but it was so humid, when the buildings blocked the breeze, it got really hot. It's going to take me a while to get used to the humidity, coming from West Texas, where there isn't any.
The fella is currently staying in a little beach shack, even though it's about six blocks from the beach (sounds close, but it isn't) that really is a shack. The boards flooring the porch are a little too flexible, and a few are missing their ends. It has one living area, a bedroom with a twin bed, a bathroom and a little kitchen. It's liveable, but not really comfortable. The futon we slept on had to be the most uncomfortable thing I've slept on since the floor. But it was good enough for a weekend visit.
We changed my flight to later on Sunday so I could stay a while longer and look at a couple more houses--and when I got to the gate at the airport in Houston, the flight was delayed about 45 minutes--but my connecting flight was delayed too. Then, when it finally arrived and they let us get on the plane, a thunderstorm had moved in and they shut down the ramp, brought all the baggage handlers and such inside. Which was a good thing. I didn't want them fueling the airplane in the lightning either. But that meant I missed my connection in Dallas (the whole world connects in Dallas--if they're not connecting through Atlanta). I could get off the plane, have the fella drive back into town and get me, or I could go on to Dallas and stay with relatives, and no suitcase. I went to Dallas. They had a toothbrush for me and a pair of clean underwear (a girl has to keep her priorities straight!)--(I will not return the underwear. I'm buying a new pair for her) and a bed to sleep in. And finally, a day and a half late, I am home again.
I am having domain crises, so yes, the website is down at the worst possible time, when the book is due out at any time. I will try to get it back up asap--but I'm not sure how long that will take, especially since I'm feeling poor. We will just have to see.
Oh, and I got to watch pelicans fishing. They are such huge birds in the air, and they seem to like to fly in straight lines, one behind the other, in groups of three or four. Not in a Vee, in a line. When they were fishing, they would go about 20 feet in the air, then drop like a rock into the water. Big splash, then they'd sit there a while, floating. Don't know if they were swallowing or recovering from the belly flop (that's what it looked like)--I wasn't close enough to really see. But it was totally cool. Can't wait to see it again.
Getting the steampunk book revisions in the 'puter this week and printing it out to mail. Hope I get it all together. Have to pack my research books to move... At least we don't have to worry about moving bookcases--this house has lots and lots of builtins.
Went to the island to look at places to live. Spent 3 days doing it, looked at so many houses they started to blur together, and we have a place--or will in a couple of weeks when we hook up the U-Haul and head down to live in it. There is a great big deck. With a roof over it, so one can sit on the deck and admire the rain falling. It rained while we were looking on it. This is something of a temporary solution, but I think we'll probably be here at least a year, so not that temporary.
We went walking on the Seawall one evening. It was fairly cool, and as long as the offshore breeze could reach me, it was pleasant, but it was so humid, when the buildings blocked the breeze, it got really hot. It's going to take me a while to get used to the humidity, coming from West Texas, where there isn't any.
The fella is currently staying in a little beach shack, even though it's about six blocks from the beach (sounds close, but it isn't) that really is a shack. The boards flooring the porch are a little too flexible, and a few are missing their ends. It has one living area, a bedroom with a twin bed, a bathroom and a little kitchen. It's liveable, but not really comfortable. The futon we slept on had to be the most uncomfortable thing I've slept on since the floor. But it was good enough for a weekend visit.
We changed my flight to later on Sunday so I could stay a while longer and look at a couple more houses--and when I got to the gate at the airport in Houston, the flight was delayed about 45 minutes--but my connecting flight was delayed too. Then, when it finally arrived and they let us get on the plane, a thunderstorm had moved in and they shut down the ramp, brought all the baggage handlers and such inside. Which was a good thing. I didn't want them fueling the airplane in the lightning either. But that meant I missed my connection in Dallas (the whole world connects in Dallas--if they're not connecting through Atlanta). I could get off the plane, have the fella drive back into town and get me, or I could go on to Dallas and stay with relatives, and no suitcase. I went to Dallas. They had a toothbrush for me and a pair of clean underwear (a girl has to keep her priorities straight!)--(I will not return the underwear. I'm buying a new pair for her) and a bed to sleep in. And finally, a day and a half late, I am home again.
I am having domain crises, so yes, the website is down at the worst possible time, when the book is due out at any time. I will try to get it back up asap--but I'm not sure how long that will take, especially since I'm feeling poor. We will just have to see.
Oh, and I got to watch pelicans fishing. They are such huge birds in the air, and they seem to like to fly in straight lines, one behind the other, in groups of three or four. Not in a Vee, in a line. When they were fishing, they would go about 20 feet in the air, then drop like a rock into the water. Big splash, then they'd sit there a while, floating. Don't know if they were swallowing or recovering from the belly flop (that's what it looked like)--I wasn't close enough to really see. But it was totally cool. Can't wait to see it again.
Getting the steampunk book revisions in the 'puter this week and printing it out to mail. Hope I get it all together. Have to pack my research books to move... At least we don't have to worry about moving bookcases--this house has lots and lots of builtins.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Off We Go
Not so much into the Wild Blue Yonder, but off to the beach, anyway. Looking at houses. By August, I should be re-located. For the most part. I hope. So today, I'm trying to get everything ready to go--and mail a birthday present. The oldest grandboy will be six on Monday. (Ack!) I also packed up all the stuff I found at the house when I cleaned up. (Including the missing box for the video.)
I have written my 25 pages for the week. I wanted to go further, but I wasn't sure where I was heading. The past couple of days, my characters have been walking somewhere--today they arrived, and I am not real sure what needs to happen here. I can figure out some kind of a scene, but what purpose would that scene have? How could it affect the plot? It needs to affect the plot in some way. So, I'm thinking I might do a flashback, use it to explain why my heroine stayed on the island.
I've decided on some major revisions, cutting out early scenes, mostly because what I've learned during research doesn't match up with what I had originally plotted. Westerners were actually in less danger than Chinese in Japanese-occupied territory during WWII, even out of China, even those from nations at war with Japan. At least somewhat. And the plantation society was primarily male, so there weren't many children needing teaching. Schools mostly came through the missions. And all this means major tweaking, especially to my motivations. Major plot events don't have to change, but the hows and the whys will, and I don't know exactly what those are going to be. So I guess I'll have to think about that over the weekend.
I was going to post stuff about RWA conference, wasn't I? Well, I forgot. I'll make a note of it for next time...
I have written my 25 pages for the week. I wanted to go further, but I wasn't sure where I was heading. The past couple of days, my characters have been walking somewhere--today they arrived, and I am not real sure what needs to happen here. I can figure out some kind of a scene, but what purpose would that scene have? How could it affect the plot? It needs to affect the plot in some way. So, I'm thinking I might do a flashback, use it to explain why my heroine stayed on the island.
I've decided on some major revisions, cutting out early scenes, mostly because what I've learned during research doesn't match up with what I had originally plotted. Westerners were actually in less danger than Chinese in Japanese-occupied territory during WWII, even out of China, even those from nations at war with Japan. At least somewhat. And the plantation society was primarily male, so there weren't many children needing teaching. Schools mostly came through the missions. And all this means major tweaking, especially to my motivations. Major plot events don't have to change, but the hows and the whys will, and I don't know exactly what those are going to be. So I guess I'll have to think about that over the weekend.
I was going to post stuff about RWA conference, wasn't I? Well, I forgot. I'll make a note of it for next time...
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
And Summer Goes Slipping By...
I have been scolded for not getting a post up. It's not my fault--or not so much. I've been away. And I'm about to go away again. But I'm here now and so I shall attempt to get up a quick post.
You may recall from earlier posts (like the one just previous) that I had the grandboys for a week plus. We had lots of fun, going to summer reading at the library and such. Spent more time that I liked hunting for a) video tapes borrowed from the library and/or b) the boxes said videos came in. I had to get out a left-behind golf club and fish one of the boxes out from under the TV stand. One of the boxes I still can't find--but the nice ladies at the library said to bring it on back anyway. (the video, not the box, since I don't know where the box is, so I can't bring it back. But the orange video is sitting on the end table in the den.)
Then their granddaddy left town to go start his new job. (For some reason he thought that was important.) That wasn't so bad, but then the son--the little boys' daddy--didn't make it to town till about a day later than we'd hoped. (Me and the little guys.) We did fine, but we sure were glad to see their daddy.
Then I took them all home, and drove down to Austin to see the parents and the sister & B-i-L who were down from the far northland to see my niece graduate from Air Force bootcamp. That was an adventure and a half, but we don't want to make this blogpost too long. The picture here is of the niece getting her Coin the day before the official graduation. She was an honor grad, but I blurred most of those pictures. (sigh) Anyway, it was a lot of fun to get to go and see all the ceremony, where she lived, all that stuff, and to visit with the family.
I took Mama & Daddy home before the rest of them came back up, because they couldn't keep up too well with all the "young folks." We had a nice time shopping and "resting up." Then it was time to go to Dallas for RWA.
That was an experience and a half. And I took Absolutely NO pictures while I was at conference. I don't know why, except that I just didn't feel like dragging the camera around. So I didn't. I didn't even get a picture of me with my Prism award.
Yeah, I won the Prism Award in the fantasy category, which is a pretty nifty and well-respected award for fantasy and paranormal (like vampires and stuff) romance, presented by the Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal chapter of RWA, for The Barbed Rose.
The Prism is given each year for the best published novel in several fantasy/SF/etc. categories (of the books that are entered, anyway). The other two finalists in the fantasy category were also LUNA authors, and I honestly never expected to win, which meant that when I did, and they asked me to say a few words, I had to fumble to come up with something. I sincerely hope I didn't make an idiot of myself. I was absolutely thrilled--I've wanted one of these babies since I got to rub the one Robin Owens won...in Reno, I think it was. The award is a beautiful crystal...prism. It's a pyramid engraved with the award name, the category, and the book title and author (me!), and it turns all sorts of lovely glowy colors depending on what angle you look at it. It's sitting right on top of my desk (in one of the cleared off spots.)
I'll write more about conference when I recover a little more. I danced a lot at the Harlequin party, and I'm still sore from that. A few of us tried to teach all the Yankees about the Cotton-eyed Joe, but I'm not sure how well it worked. Oh well. And then there was all the REST of the dancing.
I intend to post at least one more blog before I head down to the island for the weekend to look at houses. We shall see if I make it. I'm trying to write 25 pages on the World War II novel (working title: Thunder in a Cloudless Sky--because that's what artillery firing sounds like...) by Saturday this week, so I can earn this month's charm. It's 25 pages for the month, and I haven't written anything at all so far this month. (First boys, then out of town.) It's looking pretty good. I'm up to 16.5 so far. Of course, I haven't done a THING toward moving... except unpack the suitcases and divvy up the give-away books from conference.
Okay, done. I'm ending this too-long blog. Really. Now. I'm quitting.
You may recall from earlier posts (like the one just previous) that I had the grandboys for a week plus. We had lots of fun, going to summer reading at the library and such. Spent more time that I liked hunting for a) video tapes borrowed from the library and/or b) the boxes said videos came in. I had to get out a left-behind golf club and fish one of the boxes out from under the TV stand. One of the boxes I still can't find--but the nice ladies at the library said to bring it on back anyway. (the video, not the box, since I don't know where the box is, so I can't bring it back. But the orange video is sitting on the end table in the den.)
Then their granddaddy left town to go start his new job. (For some reason he thought that was important.) That wasn't so bad, but then the son--the little boys' daddy--didn't make it to town till about a day later than we'd hoped. (Me and the little guys.) We did fine, but we sure were glad to see their daddy.
Then I took them all home, and drove down to Austin to see the parents and the sister & B-i-L who were down from the far northland to see my niece graduate from Air Force bootcamp. That was an adventure and a half, but we don't want to make this blogpost too long. The picture here is of the niece getting her Coin the day before the official graduation. She was an honor grad, but I blurred most of those pictures. (sigh) Anyway, it was a lot of fun to get to go and see all the ceremony, where she lived, all that stuff, and to visit with the family.I took Mama & Daddy home before the rest of them came back up, because they couldn't keep up too well with all the "young folks." We had a nice time shopping and "resting up." Then it was time to go to Dallas for RWA.
That was an experience and a half. And I took Absolutely NO pictures while I was at conference. I don't know why, except that I just didn't feel like dragging the camera around. So I didn't. I didn't even get a picture of me with my Prism award.
Yeah, I won the Prism Award in the fantasy category, which is a pretty nifty and well-respected award for fantasy and paranormal (like vampires and stuff) romance, presented by the Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal chapter of RWA, for The Barbed Rose.
The Prism is given each year for the best published novel in several fantasy/SF/etc. categories (of the books that are entered, anyway). The other two finalists in the fantasy category were also LUNA authors, and I honestly never expected to win, which meant that when I did, and they asked me to say a few words, I had to fumble to come up with something. I sincerely hope I didn't make an idiot of myself. I was absolutely thrilled--I've wanted one of these babies since I got to rub the one Robin Owens won...in Reno, I think it was. The award is a beautiful crystal...prism. It's a pyramid engraved with the award name, the category, and the book title and author (me!), and it turns all sorts of lovely glowy colors depending on what angle you look at it. It's sitting right on top of my desk (in one of the cleared off spots.)
I'll write more about conference when I recover a little more. I danced a lot at the Harlequin party, and I'm still sore from that. A few of us tried to teach all the Yankees about the Cotton-eyed Joe, but I'm not sure how well it worked. Oh well. And then there was all the REST of the dancing.
I intend to post at least one more blog before I head down to the island for the weekend to look at houses. We shall see if I make it. I'm trying to write 25 pages on the World War II novel (working title: Thunder in a Cloudless Sky--because that's what artillery firing sounds like...) by Saturday this week, so I can earn this month's charm. It's 25 pages for the month, and I haven't written anything at all so far this month. (First boys, then out of town.) It's looking pretty good. I'm up to 16.5 so far. Of course, I haven't done a THING toward moving... except unpack the suitcases and divvy up the give-away books from conference.
Okay, done. I'm ending this too-long blog. Really. Now. I'm quitting.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Gigi tries to keep up
It's interesting, the things a three-year-old boy finds hilarious. Or an almost-six year old. The simple mention of the word "fart" or even "toot." "Tee-tee," will send them into gales of laughter--falling-down-on-the-floor laughter. Which itself is also cause for more hilarity. In two and a half days (they aren't awake yet today, which is the only reason I'm here writing this...), I have learned alot about preschooler potty-mouth. Yeah. I've got the grandboys. They'll be here for another week.
I did get the entire ms. of New Blood gone through, but haven't got it all into the computer yet. Need to get busy with that, maybe at night after they've gone to bed. They don't go to sleep once they go to bed, understand. I have to stay up to send them back when they pop back up again. It's a little like whack-a-mole, except without the whacking. And to carry the little one to "Wunka Bob's bed " when he falls asleep in mine. (He tends to annoy his big brother, who really would rather sleep, and likes Granddaddy better anyway.)
We've been going to the library. Summer Reading program is this week, so we go listen to someone read stories, and make things, and sing songs and eat cookies, then we check out ONE video each. (The first day we went, they had a pile of about 15 videos they wanted to check out.) And ONE book each. (Police Cat is a pretty cool book. Not so wild about The King Who Sneezed.)
I have four packed-up boxes of books in the middle of my office floor...the box of totebags is in the garage already. I've cleaned out the TBR books I don't think I'll ever read--most of them, anyway, and have packed a box of hardback contemporaries to thin out the bookshelves in the living room. Took three boxes of cookbooks, a box of paperback fiction, plus three totebags stuffed full on Monday--and there are more yet to go. And of course, more books coming in. I've got to have something to read, you know. Even if I'm moving... ;)
Better go get the boys up, if we're going to make it to the library on time...
I did get the entire ms. of New Blood gone through, but haven't got it all into the computer yet. Need to get busy with that, maybe at night after they've gone to bed. They don't go to sleep once they go to bed, understand. I have to stay up to send them back when they pop back up again. It's a little like whack-a-mole, except without the whacking. And to carry the little one to "Wunka Bob's bed " when he falls asleep in mine. (He tends to annoy his big brother, who really would rather sleep, and likes Granddaddy better anyway.)
We've been going to the library. Summer Reading program is this week, so we go listen to someone read stories, and make things, and sing songs and eat cookies, then we check out ONE video each. (The first day we went, they had a pile of about 15 videos they wanted to check out.) And ONE book each. (Police Cat is a pretty cool book. Not so wild about The King Who Sneezed.)
I have four packed-up boxes of books in the middle of my office floor...the box of totebags is in the garage already. I've cleaned out the TBR books I don't think I'll ever read--most of them, anyway, and have packed a box of hardback contemporaries to thin out the bookshelves in the living room. Took three boxes of cookbooks, a box of paperback fiction, plus three totebags stuffed full on Monday--and there are more yet to go. And of course, more books coming in. I've got to have something to read, you know. Even if I'm moving... ;)
Better go get the boys up, if we're going to make it to the library on time...
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Once More, Into the Breach!
The title I stuck on this blog refers to war. It's from a poem, or story, or something. Anyway, I feel a little like I'm at war. At war with all the stuff in my office.
See, we're moving. Which means we need to sell the house. Which means I need to clean up my office which is packed to the rafters with totebags and magazines and books, both read and to-be-read. I am currently in the middle of revising New Blood, trying to cut 643 pages down to the vicinity of 500 or so...not doing too badly, but probably not doing quite well enough at that. And I need to proof a few things on the ARC of The Eternal Rose. And the grandboys are coming to visit on Sunday, so next week will be impossible to work. Well, until their daddy comes for a few days.
Anyway, I need to go tape a box together and stick some stuff in it. (Totebags probably.) And I don't want to. (whine, whine) My neck is sore (from bending over those revisions, probably) and I'm tired and I'm lazy and whiney and--well, you've probably given up on me.
Still, the story is verra cool... I was trying to pitch it to a romance editor a while back, and my pitch was totally amorphous and awful--and I realized it really fits the epic fantasy structure better than it fits the romance novel structure. It IS a romance--the romance plot is the last one resolved--but resolving the romance also resolves the fantasy conflict... And it has a fantasy structure. Heroine learns she has magic talent and meets the hero who acts as a mentor. They defeat early bad guys and go on a quest for learning, and encounter a new, more evil bad guy. They escape him, keep going on quest, while new bad guy chases them. They think they reach safety, discover there's an even greater evil which they team up with allies to defeat--but the evil bad guy brings the first bad guy to cause new trouble and... Well, in the end, love conquers all. Literally. Sort of. Still, it's more a fantasy structure than a romance structure. We will see how it does.
I'd better go tape up that box...
See, we're moving. Which means we need to sell the house. Which means I need to clean up my office which is packed to the rafters with totebags and magazines and books, both read and to-be-read. I am currently in the middle of revising New Blood, trying to cut 643 pages down to the vicinity of 500 or so...not doing too badly, but probably not doing quite well enough at that. And I need to proof a few things on the ARC of The Eternal Rose. And the grandboys are coming to visit on Sunday, so next week will be impossible to work. Well, until their daddy comes for a few days.
Anyway, I need to go tape a box together and stick some stuff in it. (Totebags probably.) And I don't want to. (whine, whine) My neck is sore (from bending over those revisions, probably) and I'm tired and I'm lazy and whiney and--well, you've probably given up on me.
Still, the story is verra cool... I was trying to pitch it to a romance editor a while back, and my pitch was totally amorphous and awful--and I realized it really fits the epic fantasy structure better than it fits the romance novel structure. It IS a romance--the romance plot is the last one resolved--but resolving the romance also resolves the fantasy conflict... And it has a fantasy structure. Heroine learns she has magic talent and meets the hero who acts as a mentor. They defeat early bad guys and go on a quest for learning, and encounter a new, more evil bad guy. They escape him, keep going on quest, while new bad guy chases them. They think they reach safety, discover there's an even greater evil which they team up with allies to defeat--but the evil bad guy brings the first bad guy to cause new trouble and... Well, in the end, love conquers all. Literally. Sort of. Still, it's more a fantasy structure than a romance structure. We will see how it does.
I'd better go tape up that box...
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Shaking head sadly
So tonight I got a phone call from the boy. The one in college (who still doesn't have a summer job--GRRRR). And he wants to know about insurance on his vehicle. With one of those queasy feelings growing in my gut, I ask--not-so-nonchalantly--Why do you want to know???
Seems a tree fell on his car. A whole freakin' tree.
Well, actually, it was more like half a tree. The tree broke in half and fell on his car. And the car of one of his roommates. But mostly on his car.
He said the damage was mostly paint, and dents--it didn't break any windows...yet. So I told him to take pictures, and then get the freakin' tree off the freakin' car. Actually, I didn't say freakin'. I didn't use any other bad words either. I was a good mom and didn't shock the boy. What is the deal with trees in Waco? Not that many years ago, a tree at Cameron Park dropped a giant branch on a little girl and killed her. And the wind wasn't even blowing, either time. You expect trees to break in high wind. And Waco gets a lot of high winds. I guess it weakened the trees, and then when you're not looking...wham!
Anyway. Tree. Car. Smush.
Oh, The Eternal Rose got a nice mention at this website. Thanks, krisstarr! I do appreciate it.
I will be posting the first chapter of the book very soon. Like, as soon as I can manage to get the website altered and get the excerpt on the site and make links to attach it to everything. Of course, people who subscribe to my newsletter get a special "newsletter only" excerpt too. :)
But first I need to write 10.5 more pages of the WWII book so I can earn my charm for this month. North Texas RWA chapter is having a "Book In A Year" challenge for its members--of whom I am one (see, I can do grammar). If we write 25 pages a month, we get a charm bracelet over the space of a year. I've done 2 months. But I need my 10.5 more pages to get this month's bracelet. And it's a good break to let New Blood ferment before I plunge into revisions.
Seems a tree fell on his car. A whole freakin' tree.
Well, actually, it was more like half a tree. The tree broke in half and fell on his car. And the car of one of his roommates. But mostly on his car.
He said the damage was mostly paint, and dents--it didn't break any windows...yet. So I told him to take pictures, and then get the freakin' tree off the freakin' car. Actually, I didn't say freakin'. I didn't use any other bad words either. I was a good mom and didn't shock the boy. What is the deal with trees in Waco? Not that many years ago, a tree at Cameron Park dropped a giant branch on a little girl and killed her. And the wind wasn't even blowing, either time. You expect trees to break in high wind. And Waco gets a lot of high winds. I guess it weakened the trees, and then when you're not looking...wham!
Anyway. Tree. Car. Smush.
Oh, The Eternal Rose got a nice mention at this website. Thanks, krisstarr! I do appreciate it.
I will be posting the first chapter of the book very soon. Like, as soon as I can manage to get the website altered and get the excerpt on the site and make links to attach it to everything. Of course, people who subscribe to my newsletter get a special "newsletter only" excerpt too. :)
But first I need to write 10.5 more pages of the WWII book so I can earn my charm for this month. North Texas RWA chapter is having a "Book In A Year" challenge for its members--of whom I am one (see, I can do grammar). If we write 25 pages a month, we get a charm bracelet over the space of a year. I've done 2 months. But I need my 10.5 more pages to get this month's bracelet. And it's a good break to let New Blood ferment before I plunge into revisions.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Second Draft - Complete!
I'm trying to make a list of things I'd like to blog about sometime, so that when I think of something that would make a good blog, I won't forget what they are before I get round to blogging them. Mostly I just wait and see what I can come up with on the spur of the very last moment possible. Which is what you're getting today.
I finished typing New Blood into the computer today. (Yayyyyyyyy!!!!!!! - again, picture Kermit the Frog running around in circles, waving his little spindly arms in the air, going Yayyy) As a second draft, it's pretty minor. I don't make a whole lot of changes during the typing of the manuscript. But I do make some, and once it's all in the computer, I can print it out, and go at it with the weedwacker. And it's IN THERE!!
It does need a weedwacker. And some makeup and disguises. Maybe some wholesale demo and rebuilding. I have made notes--mostly mental, but today I did write some stuff down on the back of an earlier revision paragraph page. And it's mostly, sorta readable. And I need to do the vast majority of this fixing next week.
Because the Dallas grandboys are coming to visit (I hope) the week after that. And half-a-week after that, I'm heading off to the parents to visit the sister and b-i-l coming to visit from the mountains, and after a week at the parents, I'll head up to Dallas for RWA--and then...well, it's going to be time to go home and clean up my office to sell the Panhandle house, so we can see about getting our Beach house. I might have about a week for that. Maybe two. Yeah. It's getting busy.
But the book is in the computer.
I finished typing New Blood into the computer today. (Yayyyyyyyy!!!!!!! - again, picture Kermit the Frog running around in circles, waving his little spindly arms in the air, going Yayyy) As a second draft, it's pretty minor. I don't make a whole lot of changes during the typing of the manuscript. But I do make some, and once it's all in the computer, I can print it out, and go at it with the weedwacker. And it's IN THERE!!
It does need a weedwacker. And some makeup and disguises. Maybe some wholesale demo and rebuilding. I have made notes--mostly mental, but today I did write some stuff down on the back of an earlier revision paragraph page. And it's mostly, sorta readable. And I need to do the vast majority of this fixing next week.
Because the Dallas grandboys are coming to visit (I hope) the week after that. And half-a-week after that, I'm heading off to the parents to visit the sister and b-i-l coming to visit from the mountains, and after a week at the parents, I'll head up to Dallas for RWA--and then...well, it's going to be time to go home and clean up my office to sell the Panhandle house, so we can see about getting our Beach house. I might have about a week for that. Maybe two. Yeah. It's getting busy.
But the book is in the computer.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
A new project
Okay, so I have this new project. Has nothing to do with writing (still working on getting New Blood ready to revise), but since we need to get the house ready to sell, I decided to finally get started on this project.
Our front bathroom looks out over the front porch through a round window. It's set pretty high, so it probably doesn't necessarily have to have a curtain, but it had a sheer gathered thing on a metal ring with silk flowers pinned to the "button" in the center. Hadn't been touched in at least 20 years, so the flowers were faded to icky dun brown, and because the curtain was nailed to the wall, it obviously hadn't ever been washed, so it was really dusty and spider-webby and stuff. I bought fabric several months ago but just stuck it in my sewing cabinet and let it sit.
Until last week. I got the fella to pull the tacks/staples/nails out of the wall and take the thing down, and I disassembled the curtain, cut it apart to use for a pattern to make a new curtain. My fabric is sheer, with a faint tan pattern on it, so I'll leave the original cream-colored stuff on the button things and just cover them with the new fabric. (Have to clean them off first, I guess.) I'm just taking things a tiny step at a time. It took me two days to sew the hem all the way around the whole thing. Now I need to sew in the channel for the metal ring. Then zig-zag the inside edges so they won't ravel when I gather them, then--well, I'm sure you get the idea.
Between the sewing and the typing, my back is killing me. More so from the sewing, because you kinda have to hunch over to see what the machine is doing.
I have a lot of other on-going projects too. I'll probably have to stick them in totebags and take them with me though. Doubt they'll get done before the move. The book. The book will get done and revised and printed out and all that. We'll be lucky if the office gets cleaned up too. :) Y'all have a good weekend. I'm going to go get Laurell K. Hamilton's new book this evening and stay up late to read it.
Our front bathroom looks out over the front porch through a round window. It's set pretty high, so it probably doesn't necessarily have to have a curtain, but it had a sheer gathered thing on a metal ring with silk flowers pinned to the "button" in the center. Hadn't been touched in at least 20 years, so the flowers were faded to icky dun brown, and because the curtain was nailed to the wall, it obviously hadn't ever been washed, so it was really dusty and spider-webby and stuff. I bought fabric several months ago but just stuck it in my sewing cabinet and let it sit.
Until last week. I got the fella to pull the tacks/staples/nails out of the wall and take the thing down, and I disassembled the curtain, cut it apart to use for a pattern to make a new curtain. My fabric is sheer, with a faint tan pattern on it, so I'll leave the original cream-colored stuff on the button things and just cover them with the new fabric. (Have to clean them off first, I guess.) I'm just taking things a tiny step at a time. It took me two days to sew the hem all the way around the whole thing. Now I need to sew in the channel for the metal ring. Then zig-zag the inside edges so they won't ravel when I gather them, then--well, I'm sure you get the idea.
Between the sewing and the typing, my back is killing me. More so from the sewing, because you kinda have to hunch over to see what the machine is doing.
I have a lot of other on-going projects too. I'll probably have to stick them in totebags and take them with me though. Doubt they'll get done before the move. The book. The book will get done and revised and printed out and all that. We'll be lucky if the office gets cleaned up too. :) Y'all have a good weekend. I'm going to go get Laurell K. Hamilton's new book this evening and stay up late to read it.
Monday, June 04, 2007
On Moving to the Beach, and Souls
The contract is signed, the commitment is made and I can officially talk about it now. The fella and I are moving to the beach--from the rolling plains of the Texas Panhandle 600 miles or so to the Texas Gulf Coast.
I'm really excited about it, even though it means leaving my wonderful office with its two big windows, and having to go through all my books--including way too many that I haven't read yet. (Ugh.)
But we have always loved the coast--everything about it, from the salt water, and the sand and the seafood and boats--all of it. Okay, maybe not the hurricanes, but we've been living in Tornado Alley for 30 years. At least with a hurricane, you get more warning than you do with a tornado. I don't think there's any place that is 100% safe. It just depends on what kind of weather/nature hazard you're willing to put up with. I'll be happy living on my barrier island, and writing is one of those jobs that can be done anywhere.
A while back, I sent the daughter a book I thought she'd enjoy, because it was about math, and the mind and other strange things. I didn't read it, because I didn't think I'd be able to follow it. Instead, she was outraged when, not far into the book, the author stated that "'mentally retarded, brain-damaged, and senile humans' have less consciousness and therefore less of a soul than other human beings. But don't worry, they still rate higher than dogs and bunnies." (I'm quoting the daughter, mostly.) The idea that someone would actually think that her son had less of a soul than they did rightfully pushed all her buttons.
This guy appears to equate intellectual capacity with soul, which in my not-so-humble opinion is utterly false. How much soul would the merely stupid possess? How can you account for the apparent soullessness of many intellectually-gifted persons? Frankly, I believe that all humans are issued souls of equal value--and then we mess them up as we go through life. Innocence, which is found in the young, and in those whose mental functions differ from the norm, provides a purity of soul not often found in "normal" people.
Soul is not a property of the intellect. It is a property of existence. Of the human condition--whatever condition it might take.
I could probably go on, but I think I've been metaphysical enough for today. And I have stuff to go through before I start packing. Wish me luck.
I'm really excited about it, even though it means leaving my wonderful office with its two big windows, and having to go through all my books--including way too many that I haven't read yet. (Ugh.)
But we have always loved the coast--everything about it, from the salt water, and the sand and the seafood and boats--all of it. Okay, maybe not the hurricanes, but we've been living in Tornado Alley for 30 years. At least with a hurricane, you get more warning than you do with a tornado. I don't think there's any place that is 100% safe. It just depends on what kind of weather/nature hazard you're willing to put up with. I'll be happy living on my barrier island, and writing is one of those jobs that can be done anywhere.
A while back, I sent the daughter a book I thought she'd enjoy, because it was about math, and the mind and other strange things. I didn't read it, because I didn't think I'd be able to follow it. Instead, she was outraged when, not far into the book, the author stated that "'mentally retarded, brain-damaged, and senile humans' have less consciousness and therefore less of a soul than other human beings. But don't worry, they still rate higher than dogs and bunnies." (I'm quoting the daughter, mostly.) The idea that someone would actually think that her son had less of a soul than they did rightfully pushed all her buttons.
This guy appears to equate intellectual capacity with soul, which in my not-so-humble opinion is utterly false. How much soul would the merely stupid possess? How can you account for the apparent soullessness of many intellectually-gifted persons? Frankly, I believe that all humans are issued souls of equal value--and then we mess them up as we go through life. Innocence, which is found in the young, and in those whose mental functions differ from the norm, provides a purity of soul not often found in "normal" people.
Soul is not a property of the intellect. It is a property of existence. Of the human condition--whatever condition it might take.
I could probably go on, but I think I've been metaphysical enough for today. And I have stuff to go through before I start packing. Wish me luck.
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