*LAUGH* HEY! *LAUGH*! *LAUGH*! How'd they know? *LAUGH*!
Magister Mundi sum!"I am the Master of the Universe!"
You are full of yourself, but you're so cool you probably deserve to be. Rock on.
Which Weird Latin Phrase Are You?
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As Trip said, everybody's linked to this, but so will I: Ghost Town. Photoessay by a Russian (Ukranian? Her address is in the Ukraine) motocyclist whose favorite place to ride is through the Chernobyl wastelands. It's quite powerful.
I don't like being condescended to. -.-
Which reminds me that I rewrote a sentence this morning and it ended with 'of' and I was obliged to type, 'bastard!' after it, which is funny if you're me. :) But then I rewrote the sentence again so it ended with neither 'of' nor 'bastard'. :)
Went to the chiro last night and got my back popped. It was crunchy to the point of being humorous. I think the only vertebrae in my entire spine that didn't pop were in my neck, which had absolutely no pops in it at all. Dr. Woody and I were both surprised by that. But from the base of my neck all the way to my lower back it went crrk! crrk! crrk! crrk! And then the 5th lumbar (which is where it's really screwed up) and the vertebrae below it went CRRUNKCRUNKCRUNK! Very dramatic. And sort of funny. :)
Ted thinks that even if I'm not actively hurting I should go in every couple of weeks for a tune-up until I've regained strength/lost weight so this doesn't keep happening. It's probably a good idea. o.o Anyway, I'm still quite sore but doing a lot better than I was. Hopefully in the next day or two the soreness will fade. I still think I might wear my back brace while taking my walks, for a few days at least.
It's a stunningly beautiful day. It's also 1 degree. WAH.
Decided to give myself 1 day's writing quota credit (1100 words) for every HoS chapter rewritten. I got 3 and part of 4 done this morning, although I think 3 still needs some more work. And it appears I'm still dithering about the whole world-building/note taking thing. Maybe I just need to have another little tally to for non-fiction story development notes.
ytd wordcount: 118,600
non-fiction notes: 2000
New Jim Byrnes album! I am weak, and I have purchased it. Along with the bags below. I have spent my allowance for the week. Oops. Well, ok, the bags are an MKP purchase so they're a writeoff, but still. Oops. :)
OoooOOoooo! I think I shall order these as manuscript disposal units! *beam* Thanks, Tracie!
Wrote 1100 words this morning, but they were political mechanation stuff and really nothing at *all* like fiction, so I can't count them. Must rewrite ch. 3 of HoS tonight; that will count. Also finished rewriting ch. 2 last night, so that's good. I really must loosen up my POV on TQB, because there's a lot of good stuff going on that's beyond Belinda's immediate scope, and I think the reader needs to know about it even if she doesn't. It's hard to break out of this very tight 3rd person POV. MANIFEST DESTINY is in a looser 3rd person POV. Probably when I go back to work on it again, it'll make Baby Jesus cry.
In other news, it is five frelling degrees out, which is not my idea of a good time, dammit. I'm ready for it to be SPRING NOW, PLEASE. *cuddles up in a warm fuzzy and sulks*
Um. Anything else today? Not so far. Oh, I've got a short story ready to send out. That's good. And I should go get Russ's comics and put 'em in an envelope and zoop those off to him too. *looks around* Maybe I need a Thinks To Do list for today.
1. mail stuff (story, russ's comics, deirdre's jam)
2. find a box for dead mss
3. call the chiro
4. find out what kind of battery the ancient Mac needs
5. send in writing rendevous registration
Oh! Ted got another rank in aikido on Sunday! Yay Ted!
ytd wordcount: 117,500
I'm going to start finishing my walk to Rivendell on the first. I have 83 miles to go. I'd like to finish it by the end of April, but what's more important is that I overcome the dreary stupid snowy weather and walk at least a little every day.
Before you ask, I'm not starting today because my back is still screwed up and I can't go to the chiro until tomorrow. Thursday will hopefully be enough time for adjustments to settle in and allow me to walk without pain.
At this point, walking *is* the only kind of exercise I can do without *causing* myself pain. Until I can bike, then, it'll be my goal to walk at least 1 mile a day. I'd like to work up to 5 miles a day. (The problem with that is that by the time I'm physically up to it, there will be too damned many bugs for it to be bearable. Miserable bugs.)
So beginning Thursday, feel free to ask me if I've done my walking for the day. o.o
I need a box. More specifically, I need a bin. Something that I can throw dead manuscripts in, and when the bin is full I can take all the little dead bits of manuscript to a recycler and have them turned into fresh clean paper so I'm going through fewer trees. I have an astonishing number of manuscript parts lyig around my house. Right here, from my desk, I can see 7 manuscripts, 3 of which are dead. They are bad printouts, or they're edited copies which have been typed into the computer already and so don't need to be kept. There are at *least* five partial manuscripts downstairs, and one that I know of in the bedroom. None of those is dead, yet, although at least one is on its last legs; I need to take the front page, upon which I have written notes, off, and throw the rest of it away.
Yes. A bin. I need a bin. Or at the very least, a box.
Stella, you mustn't hurt me. Nor you neither, Silkie. There'll be no TQB for a little while, because I need to write an outline for it. It's going along fine on an interpersonal level, which is good because that's the level the story happens at, but at the mechanical political level I don't have enough of a grasp on it, and while I could perhaps continue on this way, it would SUCK. Ahem. :) So I'm gonna spend the next week or two working out the outline and then do whatever rewrites are necessary for that before plunging onward again.
In the meantime. Chomping at the bit to do HoS revisions. Goal: 1 chapter a day til it's done. Deadline: April 30. Then sit on it for a month before looking at it again.
Sometime in there, presumably I will get my revision letter for Urban Shaman so that I can do those revisions. o.O
In other news, AUGH it's SNOWING again. It's TIME FOR SPRING NOW, PLEASE.
List of thinks to do over vacation:
1. go back through TQB and fix/add stuff
2. work on my shelves
3. vacuum the upstairs
4. read at LEAST four books
5. pick up dog poop (whee!)
6. read Iya & Not A Novel
7. finish ch 8 of TQB
8. email Karen's cop contact
9. laundry
10. gym 3 times
Didn't do so good on that list. Oh well.
ytd wordcount: 116,900
Sleepy. Very, very sleepy. We went out and had some hot chocolate, which was nice, and wandered around Title Wave until my back hurt too much and we had to come home again. Oh, we got our totals from Title Wave, ended up with $110 in general credit and $294.25 in pocket credit. Ye gods and little fishes. They must've taken damned near ALL the paperbacks!
I read Carol Berg's TRANSFORMATION today, merely 18 or 19 months after I got it. It was very very good. She's one of those writers who makes me want to poke my eyes out. :) And I think that takes me down to 63 books on my TBR list. I'm catching up! Sort of. Except for the books I have upstairs that aren't on the actual TBR shelves. Maybe I shouldn't think about that too much, though. :)
We've gotten about 7 inches of new snow this weekend. I've had enough, thanks. It'd be okay if it started melting and stopped accumulating now. That'd be all right. I wouldn't mind. -.-
*rubs eyes tiredly* Ok, I'm gonna finish the rewrites for ch 1 HoS and then... I donno. Read a book or take a nap or something. Maybe vacuum. :) *yawn*
Rewrites are where it starts getting complicated for figuring out my wordcount. I've finished a rewrite of ch 1 of HEART OF STONE, which puts me 500 words to the good on the chapter, but I wrote more new stuff than that just today alone. Typically I've given myself 50% 'edit credit', but that seems sort of overkilly. Maybe 33% edit credit. Which, in fact, for this chapter, is pretty accurate.
Spent all day yesterday watching Highlander and Stargate and movies. It was very nice, except the stupid aching neck. Which is somewhat better today, although not 100%.
*talks book stuff over with Sarah and mony, and writes more*
ytd wordcount: 116,400
I threw the dog's ball this morning and screwed up my neck and upper back. :P
Let's see. Today I finished Stella's site, which pleases me greatly. This weekend I need to do Writer's Weekend site stuff, too. I also, let's see. We went and got comics, and it's a damned shame Larocca isn't drawing X-Treme, because the Big Reveal in this issue was pretty darned good even with Igor what's his face's god-awful pencils, and it would've been just fantastic with Larocca's pencils. Oh well.
We also went and saw, um. Jersey Girl! It was really good! J.Lo and Ben and Liv all *acted*, for once, and Liv Tyler looked ... round. Not fat. In fact, on the slender side of normal. But really *not* skinny. She had real boobs, and a little tummy, and wore a lot of costumes that emphasized her hips and her boobs, but not in a dance club sexy kind of way. I normally thinks of her face as being quite long and slender, but she was practically chubby-cheeked. It was quite wonderful! And the little girl was wonderful too. I may go see it again. :)
Stopped by Title Wave, where they'd gone through about half the books/dvds/etc that we'd brought over. The DVDs were a jackpot and we'd gotten like $110 in general credit from them, so rock on. And they thought they'd taken about half of the other stuff that they'd gone through so far, so that's pretty good. The first time we did a Great Purge they took like 90% of it, but that was a whooooole lot of unusual stuff that didn't normally go through there, so if we manage 50% that'll be good. :)
Let's see, what else? I finished Mister Monday, which I think is easily my favorite of the Garth Nix books I've read so far (I must get the rest of the week!), and read Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, which played out in some ways like I expected it to, but which was overall pretty satisfying. And then I watched an episode of Highlander, and ONCE MORE, I'm ALL WORN OUT. :)
It never ends!
The downstairs looks quite amazing. I mean, I know there's pictures so you can see, but the emotional impact is quite astounding. :) But it's got stinky scotch-gard stuff on it, only more expensive, and poor Chanti has been pretty miserable since yesterday afternoon. It's been a VERY DISTURBING couple of days, what with taking ALL the furniture out of the house and VACUUMING and then CLEANING the carpets with smelly stuff, and then we brought NEW STINKY furniture in and she's been pretty whiney and unhappy. Poor puppy. She'll be okay in a couple of days, but right now she's not very happy.
Um, let's see. We finally went over to Office Depot and got my manuscripts, which cost a ridiculous amount, and went to the grocery store to get ice cream to go with the cake, and... it seems like we did something else, too, but apparently it didn't make a lasting impression. Mom and Dad came over for dinner last night and admired the new furniture. Mom did not pour red wine onto it. :) Neither, for that matter, did anyone else! But we all kicked back in the FOUR RECLINERS and enjoyed ourselves. :)
And then Ted and I took advantage of the double-reclining loveseat and (hey! get your mind out of the gutter) watched an episode of Stargate and were able to *sit together*. It was very nice. Then I read Mister Monday until I couldn't keep my eyelids open anymore, so I staggered off to bed.
Hm. That doesn't look all that busy, but by George, it FELT busy!
Got up this morning, wrote 1277 pretty useful words and made some bread. And now it's *snowing*. Waugh.
ytd wordcount: 115,300
All right, putting a little more effort into this entry.
Drove around and got lost some but then we found the place to pay for the people to come take away the Nissan, and we did and they did and so after more than a year of having a non-functional car sitting in our driveway, we no longer do. Weird. Hit the post office, haven't gone back to Office Depot yet, and the comic shop was very lukewarm about the prospect of buying Ted's collection, so maybe it'll sit in the garage a while yet. I've baked a cake and ... yep. That's about it for my brains today. Yup. Bye, then.
I donno about this vacation thing. It appears to be *far* more exhausting than work.
We leapt up at the crack of um 8 this morning and I wrote 1100 not particularly good words, but at least I wrote them, and had breakfast and then trundled over to Title Wave just a few minutes after 10 in an attempt to beat the bringing-in-books rush. They said, dubiously, that they *might* get to our buy today. Maybe. Don't hold your breath. So instead of hanging out while they did the buy, we came home again. Ted called various people to have them come pick various things up, and we're now going to go pay for the car to be picked up (the old dead Nissan) and go to the post office and maybe over to Office Depot to see if they've finished printing and binding my damned mss.
Sometime between 2 and 4pm, strange men will come to our house and deliver furniture. I tell you, this vacation thing is EXHAUSTING!
Well, Office Depot never called to say my manuscripts were printed, so we went by to see what was up, and rather than a double-sided spiraly bound ms there was a single-sided unbound manuscript. -.- So after re-making the order, I told them that I either wanted the copy of the unbound manuscript or I wanted to watch it be destroyed, because it was a matter of some concern to me, and they gave it to me. So of course that means I don't really *need* the bound copy. *exasperated look* Anyway, I will not go to Office Depot for manuscript printing again. Plflh. Tomorrow morning we'll go pick up the bound manuscripts and bring 245309870 billion books to Title Wave and... oh, if we're lucky we'll have the Salvation Army or ARC come pick up the old sofa and the futon frame.
I need to get a recycling bin and figure out how to arrange my bit of the office so it's convenient. Hrm.
Silkie is meeping over the draft copy of TB. *muahahahaha* And, well, at least I have a copy of /it/, so I can get up and do edits for /it/ tomorrow, if I don't feel like tackling TQB without a hardcopy in hand. Though, know what? The stuff I'm going to be doing is mostly !chronological anyway, so I may be able to just sit down and write it. We'll see in the morning. :)
Feeling very VERY busy!
Perhaps I'll go alphabetize the books!
omg. headless chicken.
Got up at a reasonable hour, stared at TQB for a couple minutes and decided I wanted to rewrite and do more worldbuilding before I went on, tried to print it out double-sided and screwed up, leaving me with an unreadable manuscript. Oops.
Ted got up and made danishes (oh my GAWD yummy!) and we brought some of them over to Mom & Dad's and brought Mom a spiffy new (to her) computer which is 2342335084607 times better than her old one. Hung out there for a while and talked about Alanna's play and generally had a good time, then went over to the furniture store where we were going to buy a loveseat and sofa that we'd decided we liked.
We accidentally found a different set we liked better (which, inevitably, cost $500 more) that we bought instead. Tomorrow there will be photos!
Went to lunch at Tommy's Burger Stop and ate too much, but it was awfully good, and then went to Office Depot to have *them* print my manuscripts out double-sided, since they have machines that do it automagically. :) Came home after that with the intention of moving all the furniture out of the house and vacuuming the carpets with the AMAZING new vacuum and then carpet-cleaning them.
Instead, somehow, we ended up culling another 300 or so books out of our paperbacks. This is after rounds 1 & 2, in mid 2001, immediately after we got back to Alaska and finally, for the first time, had all of our books together. We culled an easy 300 just by keeping one copy of the books we had in common, and then another 2-300 by stripping out the stuff we felt pretty sure we were never going to read again. That left us with something on the order of 1000 sf/f novels, plus various and sundry YA and mystery novels (mostly mine), probably another couple hundred books, all told. (This is not, mind you, going anywhere near the hardback collection.) We said at that point we were pretty sure if we culled any more, it would require us getting a divorce.
Apparently not. :) We ripped through everything we had on the downstairs shelves, which was all the paperback fiction except one or two boxes that wouldn't fit. There are now 5 fairly large boxes of books waiting to go to Title Wave, and a smaller box with some DVDs and videos in it. Our paperback fiction now almost entirely fits on the dining room shelves (still sans the box or two in the garage). The other shelves are now completely empty except of figurines and four hardback books. (Those photos are merely reference points for the shelves and are not to be interpreted as current with regards to the books on them).
*Then* we moved all the furniture, I did the big vacuuming and Ted, in deference to my stupid back and because he is wonderful, vacuumed up all the corners and is now downstairs carpet cleaning. The house is practically unrecognizeable. I can't wait to take pictures of the new cleanness and furniture and shelves and everything!
After Ted's done downstairs we may try to bring the old sofa over to Salvation Army. That'd be best. Either that or I need to call ARC of Anchorage and get them to come pick it up. That would *actually* be best, but it's too late to call them now, so. And Ted's discussing making a wholesale cut from the comic book collecting and bringing his collection to Bosco's to see what kind of offer they'd make him, so we may go by there this evening to talk to them about that.
VERY busy day!
VACAAAAATION!
For the next 3 days I'm on vacation. These are some of the thinks I'm going to do:
1. go back through TQB and fix/add stuff
2. work on my shelves
3. vacuum the upstairs
4. read at LEAST four books
5. pick up dog poop (whee!)
6. read Iya & Not A Novel
7. finish ch 8 of TQB
8. email Karen's cop contact
9. laundry
10. gym 3 times
Uhhhmmmm. Yeah, that's all the brain I've got this morning.
omg. went to the chiro. SO much better now. *tud*
Also: Ted went and bought a spiffy new vacuum cleaner. It is like a miracle. Tomorrow we're going to move all the furniture out into the garage and scourge the carpets. Maybe we'll buy a hardwood floor NEXT year! :)
And oh, wow! I'm making Stella a new site design, and she's sent me some truly *gorgeous* bead necklaces that she's made in payment. Wow, they're *so* pretty! I should take pictures of them! There's earrings to match one of the necklaces, and another set of earrings which aren't matchy but which are also lovely, and *wow*. I knew she was sending me stuff but I didn't know it was going to be this *gorgeous*! What *cool* friends I have!
Good lord. Did I actually eat 6 brownies yesterday? *chubby cheeks*
Let's see. :)
Went to my RWA meeting last night, which was lots of fun. It was Lani's last meeting, snif. She's moving to New York. Wah! So we had a potluck and talked about what was going on with all of us as writers and ate a lot and generally had a very fine time. I made bbq meatballs and brownies. Poor Trac...ey (I think that's how she spells it) gave up chocolate for Lent, so she was gazing soulfully at the brownies and thinking, "It's not *really* chocolate. I mean, it's not like *candy*. It's not *really* chocolate..." But she was strong, and didn't have any. I promised I'd make brownies for her after Easter. :) Maybe I'll bring some to the next meeting!
Which I'm going to be teaching HTML at. Just a very basic course, nothing exciting or weird like CSS, just very basic HTML. Everybody'll have a laptop, and we'll build our pages offline. It'll be cool. :) I have to finish up my MKP portfolio because there might even be people who want me to build/redesign their websites for them. Oot oot!
Ummmmm! I got up at 5 to 6 this morning and wisely didn't go back to bed after going to the bathroom, so I got 1700 words written. Well, 1673, but close enough. I'm considering going back and doing some rewrites on the book over the next several days. Trying to figure out how to do that and maintain forward motion at the same time.
Chiro appt. this afternoon, which will hopefully take care of my stupid achy back. Stupid stupid back. :P
ytd wordcount: 112,900
Well! *That's* better! I was feeling quite moopish about my last design. It was dull. This is better. :)
Didn't get up and write this morning. Lame of me, and I've got an RWA meeting tonight, so I'm going to have to leave work promptly to get my words in today.
Ted and I went around and looked at flooring yesterday and discussed the possibility of buying a really good vacuum cleaner instead of hardwood floors. :)
We also went to Alanna's play, which was a very good performance of a not very good script. We saw the Lyses there at intermission. They said, "We knew *you* were here, Catie." I said, "I bet Alanna does, too!" And after the show, Alanna said, "I knew you were here. I told my castmates all about you. 'She's the one with the laugh.'" :) But sadly, Alanna was zooping back off to Juneau right after the stage got struck, so we couldn't all go out to dinner with her. But it was good to see her! And none of us (except, oddly, Ted) had seen her on stage since high school (not that he'd seen her in high school. Don't be difficult), so it was pretty cool to get to see her act. She's a good actor. Oh, and Sara Wisenan from Kenai was also in the production, and she's also a very good actor, so that was *also* cool.
Zilli is wandering around wailing. I don't know what his problem is.
Hm, let's see. Oh! Irysangel, someone who showed up on my comments recently, turns out to be an old TwoMoons MUSH player. In fact , she played Shen-Shen during my tenure as Ember. *boggle* SMALL WORLD.
My stupid back still hurts. Must make a chiro appointment for tomorrow. *sigh*
Oh, and in a fit of indulgence, I watched *three* Highlander episodes last night. It's getting light out later, see, and last time that happened it took me 9 months to start watching Highlander again, so I thought maybe I'd try to get through season 2 before taking a summer break. Plus I wanted to watch "The Return of Amanda", which was the 3rd ep. :)
Chargen for our new game went slowly last night, so I did a couple of head sketches of my new character, RaShan. I think she looks like Rynnaen's psycho, evil twin.
We're playing a Bloodlines game and I think it'll be fun. I'm playing a half-elf rogue with demon bloodlines; Shaun's a (6'5") dwarven monk with Stormgiant bloodlines, and Coby's playing a red dragon bloodlined wizard. He likes fire. o.o Shaun and I are playing lawful-evil characters and Coby's playing a chaotic-neutral. We killed a couple of teenagers having sex in the room we had to sneak through, and Ted was all "AUGH!" We were like, "But we're EVIL!"
RaShan is very sexy. Ted (who does my character sheets for me because I have no use for it) asked if I wanted a hand crossbow. I said, "Can it be sexy?" He wrote, "Hand crossbow, sexy," on my charsheet. :) He said, "Do you want leather shadow-armor?" I said, "Is it sexy?" He said, "It's black and lets you sneak around in shadows." I said, "Yes!"
Actually, chargen took long enough that we barely got any RP done, but we did kill the teenagers and get to the floor of the building we needed to be on. :) Then we called it a night, 'cause Coby was going to go pick somebody up from the airport.
Coby brought his dog, Dakota, over. Dakota's a very nice dog, except Lucy hates interlopers and Chanti's a weenie, so the only animal in the house who wanted to be friends was Zilli, and Lucy had scared Dakota away from the cats, so Zilli didn't get to have a new friend. And one of the cats, we suspect Lucy because she was *reaaaaallly* pissed about the strange animal in the house, pooped on Shaun's bed. :/ So probably we will not have Dakota over again (don't worry, Coby, we don't hate you or Dakota or anything!). Phooey.
Ted cleaned our bathroom yesterday and it is a thing of beauty now. And he made me *all three* meals yesterday. I am a spoiled, spoiled Kit. :)
Going to go see my cousin Alanna-na's play this afternoon, yay!
Well, *that* was very productive. I sat down and pounded out a rough draft on a short story today, 4850 words, and I feel like I should go write 1100 words on TQB, but jeez. o.o
Um. Let's see. Oh. Ted made REALLY GOOD crepes for breakfast this morning. He'd never made crepes before. They were REALLY GOOD. REALLY GOOD. We put Mom's homemade applesauce which was also REALLY GOOD and my strawberry syrup into them, and WOW. REALLY GOOD. YUM. O.O
And now I wanna get out of the house 'cause it's beeeeoooooteeful out. :)
ytd wordcount: 111,200
Ok, that was a much less traumatic experience than I was expecting it to be.
I noticed a month or so ago that I couldn't tell if my webhosting people were charging me, and I kept forgetting to contact them about it. They noticed it yesterday, and contacted me. It turns out that they haven't, in fact, charged me since the end of October, God alone knows why, and they're doing stuff with their billing system now and so they'd noticed it. Anyway, so I went 'gah' and wrote back to ask how much I owed in back payments, and I was hoping they'd let me set up some kind of payment plan so I didn't have to pay a huge whacking amount all at once (probably not *that* whacking, but more whacking than a monthly charge). Instead they said, "You've been a customer for a while, so we'll just let the back charges slide, and go forward from here. This is what you need to do in order to fix things up," and I did that and now everything is cool and they won't suspend my account or anything. :) So that was a much more pleasant experience than anticipated!
Today is apparently All Posts All The Time day. :)
Also, my stupid back hurts. *frown*
Somewhat odd, but okay. Protoeditor turned TQB (current WiP) down, because "I'm looking for high fantasy, rather than sf", which okay, but the second line of the synopsis mentions aliens, so why'd she request the first 3 chapters? o.O
Onward!
Oh. I wanted to say this.
I have a whole lot of friends who are writers. Some of them are working on their first novels, some of them are short-story writers, some are just starting the scary scary process of submitting to agents and publishers, some haven't gotten that far yet. I have at least one friend who is a multi-published, best-selling author. The writers I know run the gamut.
And I think it is just so incredibly cool that I know all of you. That I get to be one of you. That I get to read what you write and see how you develop as a writer and that I get to sit back and wail because you write things and ways that I wouldn't or couldn't and I envy and admire your skills. I know a lot of wonderfully talented people--not necessarily writers, but in general--and I'm very, very glad to count you among my friends.
That's all. :)
I actually got up at a fairly reasonable hour (er, okay, at what point in my life did SIX FIFTEEN IN THE MORNING become a REASONABLE HOUR?) and got not only my 1100 words written, but also another 450 after that, which caught me up to yesterday's writing. I'm not generally trying to make up days if I miss one or fall short, but I really wanted to round out the 850ish I wrote yesterday, so I'm pleased about that. There's character development and back history going on in the story now. Cool. :)
We actually went to the gym last night, yay! I think that makes 4 trips to the Big Gym (which is different from the gym class) this month. Must go again tonight to do weights. The scale (ironically, perhaps, since I've actually started exercising again) tells me that I've re-found 5 of the pounds I lost. :P So my goal is to lose them again over the next couple weeks. Fnrt. Anyway, did 10 miles on the bike yesterday, and that was all. My butt was numb. Stupid hard stationary bike seats.
It's VERY COLD AND BLOWY here. Beautiful, but cold. They say it's supposed to get up to 40 as soon as the stupid wind stops blowing. (It's 12 now. Stupid, stupid wind.)
I was *going* to write more last night, but instead I read Planetary: Crossing Worlds (I love Warren Ellis) and a book of Valdemar short stories. And thudded into bed early 'cause my tummy felt ooky.
That's all I know today!
(Happy, Trent? :))
ytd wordcount: 106,350
ytd miles biked: 55
I have a *very* lovey Lucy lap cat this morning. I wonder what's up with her. :)
Gym class last night was good. This morning my biceps went *gnrgh*. :) The teacher, after showing me a proper way to do bicep curls, said I was strong. All I could think is, man, you've got a lot of weenie women in your classes, dude. I mean, I was only doing 15 pound curls. Although I did a 70 pound bench press, which impressed me! *laugh* And 7 miles on the bike, which was good.
Boy, it's a gorgeous day out!
Dinner at Mom and Dad's last night was lots of fun. I asked Mom if she'd been doing her Pilates, and she said no, and I said, "Are you going to do them tomorrow?" And she said, "What day is tomorrow?" I said, "Thursday." She said, "No, I don't do them on Thursdays."
*laughs until my tummy hurts, again* I thought that was *terribly* funny!
Oh, gawd. I can feel my back muscles where I did the back extensions machine. *streeeetch, tud!*
Mmm, Ted made a coconut creme pie in class yesterday, so that's what we had for dessert last night (traditional Irish dessert, right?), and it was v. good. Yum!
837 words this morning, must write some more this afternoon. But the damned book *finally* switched gracefully into somebody else's POV, which I've been *waiting* for it to do, so I'm all newly enthused or something. :)
Cheerful me!
ytd wordcount: 104,800
ytd miles biked: 44.5
Brr, I'm darned cold. I should go find a fuzzy.
Happy St. Paddy's Day! Going over to Mom & Dad's tonight after gym class, for to have corned beef & cabbage. Yuuuummmmy.
The writing, it went slowly this morning. Not badly, just slowly. But! I got my 1100 words in, albeit no *more* than that, so all is well.
Having a splendid talk with Stella about writing. Writers are so cool. I have such awesome friends. *beam*
ytd wordcount: 104,000
I had vague plans to go to the gym today, but Saturday I jammed my stupid knee and gymming yesterday made it hurt quite a bit, and it still hurts today, so, well, I didn't go.
I did, however, accomplish everything on my list of thinks to do. And, um. *looks around vaguely* I guess that's all, then.
Oh. We went to Barnes & Noble and Title Wave tonight, and at Title Wave I got a book called Wars of the Irish Kings, because I saw it and thought, "Ooh, there's a novel in there," and so I bought it. :)
ytd wordcount: 102,900
Not that it's anything like my birthday, but ebear started a Birthday Meme and I thought it was cool, so I'm stealing it. :)
Interesting people with whom I share my birthday:
Marilyn Monroe, Superman, Morgan Freeman, Brigham Young
Interesting people who died on my birthday:
Helen Keller, DeForest Kelley, Pope Gregory XVI, President James Buchanan
Interesting things that happened on my birthday:
1495 - 1st written record of Scotch Whiskey appears in Exchequer Rolls of Scotland. Friar John Cor is the distiller
1533 - Anne Boleyn crowned as queen
1638 - An earthquake was reported in the unlikely locale of Plymouth, MA.
1774 - British govt orders Port of Boston closed
1789 - 1st US congressional act becomes law (on administering oaths)
1831 - Sir James Clark Ross, an English navigator and explorer, discovered the magnetic North Pole while on his Arctic exploration.
1843 - Sojourner Truth leaves NY to begin her career as antislavery activist
1861 - 1st skirmish in the Civil War, Fairfax Court House, Va
1909 - Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition opens in Seattle
1938 - The first issue of "Action Comics" was published. In its pages was the world's first super hero, Superman.
1967 - The Beatles’ "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" was released in the U.K.
1990 - Dow Jones Avg hits a record high of 2,900.97
thinks to do today:
1. some laundry
2. make bread
3. eat some peaches
4. write
5. mail this stuff after shaun licks the envelopes (he's weird)
6. finish newsletters (got 1 done, anyway)
7. set up members-only area on rwa site
8. clean kitty litter
9. eat breakfast
Went to gym class tonight, which was good. It's not that it's a particularly exciting class or anything, but it does make a person go to the gym, at least. Especially is one is married to a full-time student who doesn't skip classes. Without Ted I fear I would be much less attentive. Bad Kit. -.- Fortunately, I have Ted, and so I'm going to gym class. And sweating like a little piggy wig.
Despite rampant baking failures, I feel like making cookies. This is partly because I have no other plans for the evening and partly because, well, I want to eat some cookies. :) Instead--well, possibly 'in addition to', to tell the truth--I'm going to pay bills. Because it's the 15th, and I Really Know How To Have Fun.
No writing today. I Just Didn't Feel Like It. As I am 20K ahead, I think I can afford to skip a day.
We rented *laugh* Cody Banks: Secret Agent last night and watched it,and it was pretty entertaining. We also rented Spy Games with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt (which is to say, the movie has them in it, not that they were at the movie store renting it with us, which is a terrible pity, isn't it?), but we haven't watched that one yet.
I wonder if there's something playing at Bear Tooth tonight that I wanted to watch. Hrm. *checks* Oh, good, no. :) But next week, hrm, if there's ... crap. What's Eating Gilbert Grape is playing, but between ... oh, wait, no gym class next week, it's spring break. Maybe I can catch an early show before the RWA meeting. That'd be cool.
Stream of consciousness, anyone?
ytd miles biked: 37.5
My cake was not a success. I kind of liked it, but Ted didn't like it at all, and I probably won't eat another piece. Oh well. It wasn't a good baking week, I guess. I made Mother-I-Forgot cookies on Friday or something, and the butter was frozen so they cooked too long and were dry (Ted said, "They're too dry." My gut response to this--proving I am indeed my mother's daughter--was, "Fine, make them yourself from now on." (Mom once made Dad a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich. Dad said, "Too much peanutbutter, not enough jelly." Mom didn't make him another one for twenty years.) Ted, who may have remembered that story, also said, hastily, "They're fine," which was only semi-true, but it was nice of him.). I think maybe I won't bake anything else for the rest of the week. It'd be good for us to eat apples instead, anyway. -.-
OTOH, the AKRWA site is coming along nicely.
It's been a nice weekend. Christopher flaked again, no gaming (grr) and so I watched my Highlander episodes for the week (AUGH. I ended on the ep Tessa DIED in, which I'd never SEEN, and AUGH. *AUGH*!) and we watched some more Stargate. *laugh* We just started watching season 6, and we'd watched the first three eps and the fourth is called "Frozen". Ted and Shaun said, "Which one's that one?" and really without meaning to be a smartass at all, I said, "It's the one with the alien."
Shaun went o.O but *Ted* knew what I meant! Which made Shaun go *o.O*! We've been laughing about it all weekend. *laugh* *laugh*
Let's see. Um. :) We got out of the house early today and went and looked at parquet hardwood floors and did our shopping, and I bought a big old new thing of clipart, which was v. satisfying.
Came home and made a chocolate sponge cake which ... well. The little ones I made so that the pan wouldn't overflow (although I don't think it would've, now that I've seen the resulting cake) are too dry, but maybe that's because they're little. We'll see how the big one turns out. :)
Between doing that, I did my words for the day and broke 50K for this book. Yay! In more writing geekiness stuff, I looked over Anna's agency query letter for her book and made a couple suggestions, and she sent it off after that. Go Anna!
And now we're going to go out and see if we want to buy furniture instead of a hardwood floor. :) Bai!
ytd wordcount: 101,600
Juuuuuuust under 2300 words total today, and juuuuust over 100K total for the year! Woot!
ytd wordcount: 100,200 *ha cha cha*!
I'm dinking around. I'm 1000 words shy of hitting 100K for the year and I'm, well, dinking around instead of writing the next thousand words. I need to get some breakfast.
Ees beeooteeful out. Clear and, okay, only 22 degrees, which isn't so beautiful, but boy it's pretty. And yes, this is me procrastinating. Ok. I'll get breakfast and come stare at this computer screen for a bit longer, then I'll go write another thousand words and hit 100K for the year.
I need to go back to ch. 4 or thereabouts and write another scene or two in.
Yeah, okay, breakfast.
ytd wordcount: 99,000
Huh. I'm taking over the Alaska RWA site, cause the woman who's running it now is leaving and because, well. Web designer. :) So we were talking on the list about me taking over the site, and a couple of people asked if they could sit in on me and Lani discussing the transition, and then other people mentioned they were going to take Dreamweaver classes, and so after a while I said, well, if people were interested, I could teach an HTML class, since I've done it before and it's fun and easy to learn and anyway, everybody's been very "yes yes!" about the idea. So that's kinda cool!
I wonder if I've got those old Internet Alaska HTML class handouts that I did years ago around anywhere. Or, more likely, if Ted has them somewhere. That would be very useful. Hm.
Creeping up on 100K. Maybe I'll make it by Saturday.
Obviously, from that opening, I got some writing done this evening. Actually, it's been an incredibly nice evening. We zoofed out of the house as soon as I was done with work, and went over to Best Buy to buy season 6 Stargate, 'cause we only have 1 episode left on season 5. I was also hoping to find the boxed set of season 1 X-Men Evolution, but it wasn't there or at Suncoast Video, so I'll probably just order it off the net and have done with it.
Then we went zumming by the comic shop, where we didn't stay particularly long, mostly, I suspect, because Christopher wasn't around, but it was good we didn't because we had plans to go see Girl With A Pearl Earring at Bear Tooth, which in fact we did. The only review I'd seen of it said it was stupifyingly dull, but Ted and I both really enjoyed it a great deal. So I'm really glad we went! *beam*
Came home, read comics (ok, comic, in my case). I'm *really*, *really* liking the current storyarc on Ultimate X-Men. The World Tour one kinda lost my interest, but this New Mutants one is great. And I loooove the artist, too. And Emma Frost, raar. I mean, damn. Daaaaamn. *Daaaaamn*. :)
Then, despite not *particularly* wanting to, I sat down to write. Aiming for 1000 words, got 1250, so that was decent.
It seems like I used to have other things to talk about, besides writing.
ytd wordcount: 97,900
Name meme, stolen from Deborah.
If you call me...
If you call me Catie, either you have known me most or all of my life, or it is a learned behavior.
If you call me Catie-did, you are my little sister.
If you call me Catherine, you don't know me very well, possibly at all.
If you call me Cathy, I will be incredibly annoyed.
If you call me Kit, you originally met me online, or through people who know me from online.
If you call me Mrs. Lee, I will tell you she doesn't live here.
If I call you Lil' Buddy in the very deepest voice I can manage, you're my sister.
If I call you Mr. T, you're my husband. If my mother calls you Mr. T, you're her husband. The latter predates the Mr. T you're all thinking of and the former is a learned behavior, so stop snickering. (God knows what I would've done if I'd married a man whose name didn't start with T. Confused him, probably.)
If I call you by one of several names, indiscriminantly and to the great confusion of the people with whom I interact IRL, you are one of my many online friends.
If I call you by your real name or the name you go by in everyday situations, but feel obliged to stop and make note of the fact that this is so, or pause to define who you are in some other fashion (ie, "my Sarah"), you are another of my online friends.
If I call you by one of several names, many of which are very silly and some of which are simply not your names at all, you are probably a member of my immediate family.
If I almost always call you by both your first and middle names, probably to your vast irritation, you are one of the Young Malones.
If I call you Lima Bean, Renaldo, or Gonzo, you know who you are.
Only a couple hundred words this morning. Not v. interesting.
Oh, but I'm taking the 24th-26th off from work so we can install some hardwood floors. That'll be nice! Both the time off and the new floors and the not having to carpet clean the gigantic muddy puppy footprints out of the pale carpet. :) Hm. That was more than a 'both', wasn't it. Well, whatever. :)
I think there's a kitty cat downstairs being bad.
Okay, jeez, my mean ol' mommy wouldn't let me count the story note words as real writing words, so I had to write more tonight, an' my mean ol' hubby wouldn't let me not do the rest of the writing for the day and watch another episode of Stargate instead, so in the end there was another 680 words tonight. Hrmph. :)
We went to gym class tonight, too. I tink I'm-a gonna be real sore in da mornin', ya, youbetcha.
ytd wordcount: 96,500 (hmph) :)
I heartlessly and cruelly abandoned the computer for several hours last night in favor of spending time with Ted and going out to dinner at Aladdin's. Both were extremely nice things to do. :) I didn't even go to my SinC meeting, which I'd *meant* to do, but oh well!
Got email from Jenn yesterday with comments about Heart of Stone, and I'm starting to wrap my brain around some ways to revise it. Very useful commentary. I wrote a couple hundred words this morning from Alban's POV, and think that if I take that approach I might be able to work the paranormal aspect into the earlier part of the book more solidly, and also develop him better. I didn't write the bit I wrote in first person, but I have a feeling I might end up trying that. So yeah, *very* useful commentary, yay! I wrote a couple of pages of notes on developing other stuff for the book, too -- does that kind of note-taking count towards my YTD wordcount? It's not strictly fiction...
Then, having gotten all that done, I also wrote another 600 words on TQB, and, as I suspected, ch. 6 wasn't really finished. I was just tired of writing it. :) So it was a very productive morning! 1450 words, even if they weren't all fiction, and really, somebody should tell me if I get to count the world-building notes in my word count. :)
I have also baked a loaf of bread! Well, it's baking now, at least. And it's not even nine thirty yet!
ytd wordcount: 95,850 (or maybe 96,600)
Apropos of nothing, the phrase 'bookstore accident' has been in circulation for some three years now.
That is all. :)
Wooba wooba wooba! Eked out another 700 words tonight, for a total of 1428 or something like that for the day, which isn't bad. I may have finished this chapter (at a measly 4500 words, what is the world coming to?), but I'll have to see in the morning if the next bits want to live at the end of ch. 6 or if they're happy at the beginning of ch. 7. It would perhaps help to know what the next bit was going to be. I have some vague ideas. Maybe sleeping on it will shake something loose. *yawn*
ytd wordcount: 95,100
Hey, Ellen, check this out. More bookmarky goodness. (I'm figuring you'll see my webpage before you see email.)
I'll be glad when I'm done with this scene, because it is going v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. It's not going *badly*, just very slowly, so I only got 750 words or so written this morning. I'll get the rest of the quota done this afternoon. Before gym class. Or maybe after. o.o
In other news...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!!!!
ytd wordcount: 94,400
Noooo gaming last night after all. Christopher didn't show up for some reason, and since he's the wizard and since our thief is an NPC right now we figured eh, we might as well just hang out and talk and not game, then. So we had a good time doing that, even if it wasn't gaming.
Woke up with a headache this morning and it hasn't gone away yet, despite taking aspirin. Snivel. Possibly staring at the computer screen for a couple of hours while I v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y w-r-o-t-e 1-5-0-0 w-o-r-d-s has something to do with the continued headache, and possibly I need to drink more water.
Um. Got things to do today. Like go shopping and...go shopping.... :) Taxes! Need to do the taxes. And, um. Read my contract word for word (at a skim, it looks pretty good, though!) and see if I have any questions to ask Jenn, and... maybe vacuum. The house needs it.
Boy, do I know how to have a good time. :)
ytd wordcount: 93,650
And once more I have delved into the weird mental state where reading is harder than writing. I stood in front of my 100+ book To Be Read shelves and stared for a while, and then I went back to Little and wrote another 1500 words because it was easier, much, *much* easier, than trying to commit myself psychologically to the reading process.
When I needed a break I got up and wandered around and stared at the books some more and thought something to the effect of, shit, am I going to have to write *more*? But I have written nearly 3800 words today, and just under 10K this week, and I had earned my two hours of Highlander, so I watched the first two episodes of season 2 instead of writing any more. The second episode is Studies in Light, which is probably my favorite Highlander episode that doesn't have Methos in it. So that was good.
But now it's 3pm, there's nobody home but me, there's nothing else to do, and I can't stand the idea of trying to start reading a book. If Sarah doesn't wake up online soon, I might have to write more. o.O
ytd wordcount: 92,100
Ok, I got up and wrote a thousand words and thought, ok, I've got a couple hundred words to finish this chapter, but my brain was all gooey by that point so I came and logged on for a bit and got some moral support, got it, and went to finish the damned chapter. Which I did. Except the 200 words I thought I needed to finish it turned out to be 1200. So I got about 2250 words written today. The chapter is 8300 words long. Ye gods and little yellow polka-dot fishes. I have broken 35K on this book. And I am *starving*.
ytd wordcount: 90,600
I did a 'word war' with some of the chatters over at fmwriters.com, which I discovered recently, and got another 1361 words written this afternoon. Rah rah me! I'm not sure I really need the scene I just wrote (the one following it might be more important/relevant/useful) but hey, words are good! Yay!
Done writing for the day now. Almost 2600 words for the day, that's good. That's enough. :)
ytd wordcount: 88,350
Oh, I remember what I was going to say. We got new copies of all our tax stuff, so we can do our taxes now. I'll have to do that this weekend. Which is to say, I'll go over to H&R Murphy and get Mom to do 'em. :)
Oh. And we got another letter from the IRS, who finally explained what the actual damned problem was in words that I understood, and I'm afraid they might be right, we might owe them money. Blblbht.
So that wasn't very exciting, was it?
I am in an *extremely* good mood this morning. I got up late but I got my words written *anyway*, 1221 of them, and I'm just exceedingly cheerful. It was annoying that I had to stop writing to come to work. Someday, I won't have to do that anymore. :)
It's snooooowing. We got about 3 or 4 inches last night and it doesn't look like there's any chance of it letting up for quite some time yet. It's very pretty. *wriggle wriggle*
Damn! Damn! There was something I was going to say, but I got distracted doing something else! Um! Well, hell. Maybe it'll come back to me later. Morning, everybody! :)
ytd wordcount: 87,000
We gymmed, went to the comic shop, and then went out for entirely too big a dinner. Oops. :) It was good, though. And hoo boy was the waiter gorgeous. He wasn't just good-looking; he also had a *beautiful* voice. Even Ted noticed. :)
We discussed going over to my parents', but I didn't write this morning, so I had to come home and write instead. :) And write I did! 1519 words! So that was good. And now I'm all yawny and stuff. :)
ytd wordcount: 85,800
ytd miles biked: 28.5
Interview questions from Sarah, behind the cut. :) Good questions, too!
1. What would make you put down the pen, or step away from the keyboard, and make you never write another word in your life. Is there anything?
...massive brain trauma is about the only thing I can think of.
2. Who's the better kisser, Gambit or Wolverine? :) Purely speculation, of course. We all know they're not real.
They're *not*? Wah! Erm. Oh dear. That's a hard question. o.o Ga.. W.. Ga... I donno. O.O :) Depends on what kind of kiss you're after! Gambit for pure sensual seduction, Wolvie for a hundred percent RAAR.
3. Just how much *is* Legion worth? Did you ever decide whether there was a number large enough that would make you wash your hands of creative control?
I have never had anybody offer me a million dollars for anything. It is possible in the face of that much money, I would become weak in the knees (or in the head) and give it up.
I wouldn't count on it, though.
4. Reincarnation exists. You've lived past lives. Who have you been in ages past that has most shaped the person that you are now.
Wow. Interesting question. The person that I am now is someone apparently gifted with extraordinary confidence and an expectation that what you put into the universe is what you get out of it.
If the point of reincarnation is to keep living lives over again until you get it right, I'd say that in the past, perhaps a long time ago indeed, I was someone very weak and afraid. Someone whose own confidence was so low that it would allow me to betray myself and others out of fear and uncertainty. A Benedict Arnold, if you will.
Flip side to that: something akin to a Knight Templar. Overweeningly arrogant and confident in my own power, to the detriment of those around me.
Someone terribly devout, probably tremendously poor; it seems to me that the most devout are often the ones who have the least. The belief that the universe returns to you what you put into it has to come from somewhere; maybe it's old faith.
Flip side of that: hey, y'know, being worshipped as a god might be fun. Maybe I was a Cortez or someone for whom the only reasonable explanation seemed to be divinity.
5. What's the one question you never want to get asked in author interviews? Not because it's been asked a million times, i.e. how'd you get your start, but because it'd chase readers away?
"So, Ms. Murphy, I understand that you think people who read sf/f are purile fools who never bathe and whose mothers smell of elderberries. Would you like to comment on that?"
I finished re-reading the Coldfire Trilogy last night. I have reversed my stance on the end of book 3. I am not only no longer bitterly disappointed with it, but while I still think I probably wouldn't have written it that way myself, I suspect that it is in fact the best possible ending for the series. I suspect that if I had written it, and not written it that way, I would have been making a mistake.
I also suspect I didn't read it very carefully the first time I read it (a decade ago?) because it makes a *whole* lot more sense to me now than it did then. The last third of the book, in fact, is a great deal more clear to me. I'm not going to go in to any more detail about it, because they books are *way* too good to spoil. If people want to talk about 'em, email me. (I will in fact delete any spoiler-like comments with prejudice!)
Anyway, the whole re-read spawned this conversation this morning:
Catie says "How're you? :)"
Sarah is pretty good. How're you?
Catie says "Vacillating wildly between great cheer and terrible despair. :)"
Sarah says "Writing again, I see."
Catie laughs out loud.
Catie says "Worse than that. I finished re-reading the Coldfire trilogy last night. :)"
Sarah says "Well, see, there's your trouble."
:)
Boom! Cat exploded this morning! 1961 words, which was sort of an accident because I kept aiming for a nice even 100 to end on, but I kept ending up in the 50s. Eventually I had to stop writing, because I had to go to work. Hrmph.
Gymmed last night. Yay! No gym tonight, though, cause it's Tuesday. After gymming, instead of being a Good Kit and either writing or making jam, I read about 2/3rds of When True Night Falls, and after I make jam tonight I am going to FINISH it. It's as good as I remember, too. I don't like it quite as much as I like Black Sun Rising (which may be in a position to fight a death match with Tigana as my favorite book) but it's still awfully, awfully good. I'm seriously considering re-reading all the Friedman books.
I am really, *really* enjoying writing The Queen's Bastard. Raar! Enjoy it while it lasts! *laugh* *happy dance, happy dance*
ytd wordcount: 84,250
ytd miles biked: 23
G'morning, people. I'm starting a shout-out meme, today.
I don't know who half the readers of this site are. Drop me a comment that says hi, won't you? You don't have to introduce yourself if you don't want, but y'know, just shout out.
Thinks to do today:
1. make bread
2. do laundry
3. write
4. make jam
5. clean kitty litter
6. email TQB to Jenn
7. have breakfast. MEOW.
8. gym