I have read and re-read the synopsis. I've taken a few more notes. I've read the written chapters, and I am back in the saddle again.
AND I walked today! She LOVES this unemployment thing, she does!
ytd wordcount: 282,800
miles to Lothlorien: 391.5
So far I've finished a book and baked some bread. Unemployment is goooood. :)
Actually, I just got my author alterations copy of URBAN SHAMAN in the mail, so I'm going to have to go through that (probably backwards, or possibly out loud) and look for typesetting errors, but I suspect I'll start doing that tomorrow, as a break from actual writing on OPERATION: CARDINAL.
Right now I'm going to finish reading Christie's INSTRUMENT OF FATE, and then I'm going to re-read the proposal for O:C and do some note-taking. If I am particularly clever, I will also go sand a couple-three of my brackets. Yes. So mote it be.
Ok, I've called the student loan people and warned them that I'm unemployed and that I may at some point need to defer or forebear my loans. I've filed for unemployment. I've called the Alaska Club to see if we can get out of the contract early. I've even looked at local job listings.
I guess that's all she wrote, then.
More details:
It's nothing personal. "CHI is in a maintenance mode and they'll be utilizing the web resources available through Caremark and AdvancePCS." No reflection on my abilities as an employee, it's all financial. Just as I expected.
3 months severance, 3 months optional insurance, 3 months "we'll help you find a job with our outreach (or something like that) program." Also I will still be eligible for the retention bonus that'll be paid out in May-ish, which is a big plus, and I'll be getting my vacation paid out instead of taking it. I'm eligible for unemployment.
So overall, the situation really isn't that dire. We suspected this was coming, so we've been saving the advance money (except for the first big one, which we paid the Jeep off with), and there is more advance money on the way.
I had hoped to quit the day job at the end of next year to pursue writing full time; with luck I won't have to find a new one, even though that schedule's been moved up a year.
I think I'll go email Jenn and ask her to chew on Tor's ankles now, though. o.o
Well well well.
I have just joined the ranks of the gainfully unemployed. I got laid off. Effective immediately.
We went Christmas shopping today. Ted got new shoes and I got new boots. For right now, not for Christmas.
What? Isn't that how it works?
Gaming last night was an absolute riot. I think I'd better just do a sweeping general write-up of the last 3 sessions, because trying to break it down into detail is overwhelming me. But we had a terribly good time. :) Some of the highlights included Mia being boosted up on a balcony so she could sneak into a hotel room, and all the guys commenting about looking up her dress, which made Melissa (Mia's player) blush so hard she got tears in her eyes, and Christopher's mispronunciation of "braziers" as "brassieres" (which begot FLAMING BOOBIES! as well as Jack's comment, "1890s, 1960s, it's all good!"). We had a fantastic time. :)
I went and bought ice gripper shoe things, so I will start alking again today. It's 35 and melting out there. Buh.
We ate too much Thanksgiving leftovers again last night, and once more I'm still full from yesterday. I had two more pieces of pie (my Thanksgiving Day had to last long enough to get rid of most of the pumpkin pie, or I'd have eaten it anyway and then been grumpy about it, so I figured I'd give myself a 48 hour window) and really didn't need them. I mean, blah. Too full, too sweet. Very strange, what going off sugar for a couple of months will do to you.
Okay. Off to drink water and maybe do some Christmas shopping or something.
Thinks to do today:
1. buy ice cleats
2. read O:C proposal in preparation for, y'know, writing it
3. write up the last 2 1890s adventures
4. drink water. soooo thirsty.
I'm still full from yesterday. :)
Jai called up last night just as I was finishing baking the pumpkin pie, and said she had the evening free of her daughter and did I want to go to a movie. Indeed I did, so we went to see "Shall We Dance", which I liked as well the second time, and then went out for coffee and talked for an hour before trundling off home. It was *really* nice. Her hair's all short and fliffy and cute!
Then I came home and played City of Heroes until 1 in the morning. Oop. :) But I made level 13 with Petite!
Oh, and: today is my I-get-to-take-a-Thanksgiving-break-from-no-sugar day/deadline/whatever. I didn't manage to lose 10 pounds total, although I'm not very surprised by that because I really haven't exercised worth mentioning for the last week. I have, though, lost 8 pounds in the last 7 weeks.
My next goal is to lose another 5 pounds in the next 4 weeks and maintain that through the week leading up to and including Christmas, which I'm declaring a week off the sugarless diet. I'm going to buy some ice cleats so I can start walking again, which should help. I would like to lose a total of 7 more pounds by January 7th.
I'm not going the jam-making route this year, but I will be doing one huge flurry of candy-making on the 16th and 17th of December. This is, I know, a little late, but hopefully it'll be followed up by a post office run on the 18th and I will send candy out to the usual suspects.
If you would like to be a usual suspect and fear you are not, post a comment ON THE MIZKIT SITE. Tell me if you are allergic to nuts. I will email you to get your address at the email address you provide in the comment. If no such address is forthcoming, you will have to email me your own self to put in a request to be a usual suspect.
If nobody posts, I shall just eat all the fudge myself. :)
Meme which I really like, gakked from the lovely and talented Ellen Million:
Step One
- Make a post containing your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.
- If you wish for real life things (not fics or icons), make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.
- Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your journal.
Step Two
- Surf around your friendslist (or friendsfriends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:
- If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it.
You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call.
There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.
So, my list:
1. Finish paying off the Mandarin
2. Sell RIGHT ANGLES TO FAERYLAND
3. ballet shoes
4. jewelry, especially necklaces
5. anything Rogue! :)
6. music. Introduce me to something new.
7. books. Can't go wrong with books.
8. the ability to do something nice with my hair
9. encouragement to keep losing weight :)
catie AT cemurphy DOT net, if you don't already have an email address for me.
Busy morning. I woke up around 5:45 and lay around til almost 6:30, then got up and did my barre work, which made my legs all wibbly. I cleaned the kitchen and the kitty litter, took out the garbage, and got breakfast. Later today I'll make two pies and either will make or get Ted to make his soft rolls, 'cause it occurred to me last night that we could make them and take them out halfway through baking and put 'em in the fridge, so that *tomorrow* they'd be effectively brown-and-serve rolls. Doesn't that seem ever so much more time-efficient for the morrow?
I also made some incredibly good bbq ribs last night. And then went and bought some music, including the new Evanescence, which if I had looked at the price tag I would not have bought (it's a 2 disc dvd/cd set and I don't seem to be smart enough to open it up so I can get to the second disc, and it cost $25, for Christ's sake, but I saw it on the new releases board at Borders, asked the girl behind the counter about it, and she got it off the "I'm working on putting these away" cart and I bought it without looking at it. Durr.), a Fairport Convention CD (I love Fairport Convention), and a jazz cd of a woman who looks on the cover shot a lot like Amber Benson from Buffy, which is why I picked it up (it obviously wasn't her, but it looked like her and I was therefore curious). Jane Monheit, "Taking a Chance on Love". It's the only one I've listened to so far and it's really good. (There. I got the Evanescence thing to open.)
Um. That's about it. Still no walking. There's an article in the paper today about the incredibly icy streets. And the weather says it's supposed to hold like this for at least another 5 days, so I think I'm going to go buy some ice cleats for my boots.
Also: *hugs* for Sarah, who needs them extra today.
Y'know, something I've observed the last few days: this whole not eating sweets thing has made me *far* more aware of whether or not I'm actually hungry. Because, I mean, come on, how many of us are really still *hungry* when time for dessert rolls around? So now what I'm finding is that my mouth will say, "A cookie would be good!", or, "Ice cream would be yummy!", but my *brain* is really listening to my stomach a *lot* more, and that they're both saying, "Except you're really .not. hungry, so eh, who needs a cookie." And not having sweets around the house prevents me from going and getting one even if my brain and stomach are smarter than my mouth.
(Erm. No comments from the peanut gallery!)
Also, I'm a lot less likely to get any sort of sweet, even fruit, unless I'm feeling actually hungry. And even if I do, well, an apple or an orange is a whole lot better for me both calorie-wise and sustenance-wise than a cookie is. So...yeah. It's been revelatory!
Jesus but 420 pages is a big stack of paper.
I'm putting HEART OF STONE in the mail. I've addressed concerns, edited left and right, rewritten and revised until my eyes are bleeding, and now the damned book is going in the mail, because even if Jenn hates it (which will cause me to fling myself off the roof, but nevermind that) at least it will no longer be in my hands. And that is the best possible place for it, at this point. I am wrapping it up in hot pink and bright orange rubberbands and I am shipping it out of here.
Okay, I'll probably wait til I've done my very last edits on "Banshee Cries" and send them both together, but the point is, DONE. Finished. Kaput.
*Man*.
I went to the gym this morning, more through Ted's force of will than mine (for which I am grateful). There's a woman at the gym that every time I see her all I can think is, "Those can't be real." Well, sometimes I also think, "You don't really think you're fooling anybody, do you?" Petite blond woman without much body fat and a tiny ribcage and smaller waist and slender hips and these great big ginormous breasts. I don't even get as far as thinking, "Ow." I just stop at, "Those can't be real."
Anyway. Um. There were some other things I was going to say, but apparently they've slipped my mind. I assume they'll come back eventually.
I've just finished reading Steven Barnes's LION'S BLOOD, which has been on my TBR shelf for just under two years. I started having the impulse to actually read it a day or two ago, and now I'm glad I did. It's really a very good book, much more satisfying than the other book of his I read some, uh, 15 or more years ago. That one (GORGON'S CHILD) I *wanted* to like, but it fell flat. He's improved since then. :) I'll have to get the next book, which I don't remember the name of. ZULU something.
That was also the 97th book I've read this year. My yearly goal is 104 books, and I haven't made that for at least the last two years. Reaching that would be very satisfying.
Boy, I've got the most awful sleepies. *yawn*
With the light changing and it being dark so much, the white background on my webpage was making my eyes bleed. Plus, it's been I don't know how many months, like five or something, since I last redesigned, and that's a Very Long Time Indeed, for a Kitpage to last.
So here's the new digs, til I get bored with 'em. :)
Jai is fully of walky goodness, and is putting me to shame. My only defense is that it's *really* slippery out, and she has a treadmill, whereas I don't like them. It is, in fact, 39 degrees, according to adn.com. On November 22nd. But that's not quite warm enough for all the ice on the roads to have melted. It's just warm enough that the top layers have melted, so there's water on the ice, which is treacherous.
Friday night Ted had to go do catering stuff for his hospitality class, and while he was there, one of the attendees at the event came up to his teacher and asked about the student who was interested in opening a dessert and coffee shop. Turns out the guy is the owner of Cafe del Mundo, which is one of the local coffee roasting companies, and he'd heard about Ted and Ted's plan from somebody who ate at the Cuddy Center (which is where Ted does his classes, on campus), and he wanted to talk to Ted about a possible partnership. Wow! Isn't that cool? So if Ted decides to do that, it seems promising. People are talking about him! They're interested! That's really neat!
That's about all I know today. We went to "National Treasure" on Saturday, and that was a fun romp. *laugh* We met my aunt and uncle's new beagle puppy, and Ted was being all big and growly and playing with the puppy, but he was so big and growly that it scared the pee right out of her. Literally. *laugh* Mean ol' Ted!
I have to go dry my hair now. My head is freezing.
I kinda like this meme, which I gakked from Peg Kerr. The first couple questions are LJ-centric, but general approximations as appropriate for a non-LJ forum will do perfectly well as answers. :)
1. When did you first "friend" me?
2. Why did you first "friend" me?
3. What posts of mine do you like to read the best?
4. What would you like me to write about that I don't?
5. Do you think we would be friends in real life?
6. How often do you read my journal?
7. What do we have in common?
8. Will you post this in your journal so I can answer?
9. Is there anything you want to ask me that you think you should know about me to avoid the impersonality of the internet that I have not already covered in some TMI post or other?
I read the second two books in Holly Lisle's WORLD GATES trilogy last night, 'cause in the second one she introduced such a fantastic bad guy that while I'd intended to read just one, I had to find out what happened with him, and so read the other. :) And the prologue thing to the third book made me rather gleeful, 'cause I knew right off what she was doing and I enjoyed it. :)
Pushups are hard. o.o
miles to Lothlorien: 390
I am going to make chicken STEW for dinner. That'll be GOOD. MMMMmmmMMMM. I may make *cornbread* to go with it. Eh? Eh? What do you think of THAT, hm? MMMMmmMMMM!
All right. I talked to mony and managed to figure out what the underlying problem Mary Anne is having with HoS. It's essentially a motivational problem, and now that I understand it, I can fix it. As someone in one of the writing circles I hang out on said, if the critique was bothering me that much, it's obviously something I need to deal with. Still very frustrating, though, as other people have picked up on what I was trying to do exactly, so while it's *in* there, I guess it just needs to be brought out a little more.
Fwoosh. Possibly I need a "fwoosh" icon for posts about editing.
So the battery kept draining on the Audi. We brought it to the independent import auto repair place. He recommended we bring it to this other auto electric place. It took a couple days for us to get over there to pick up the car, 'cause of Ted's schedule.
The car started perfectly. The mechanic said except for the first time, once he'd disconnected and reconnected the battery and alternator, the car had started up every time he tried it.
We have since started it three or four times. It keeps starting right up.
Ted thinks the Fear of Tech Support got into the car. (Fear of Tech Support: a repeating problem suddenly ups and disappears when you bring your computer in to have somebody look at it.) So, hey, functional car. Finally. Yay. o.O
Editing pass #1 done on HoS. Working on #2 now. (Ok, I'm on page 1, but still.) Still feeling fretful over some things that *I* think work but other people seem to be more dubious about, so I'm going to send it to one more person to read when this pass is done.
Fwoosh.
I didn't get up at 5am, despite waking up around then. I did get up at a few minutes to 7, and now I'm feeling unreasonably tired. But I sort of have to do laundry before I can shower and get dressed (or at least the latter part of that), so I guess I'll just sit around being bleary for a while.
Plan for the day: work on HoS edits. I figured I might as well get that out of the way, especially since it turns out I've got an extra 6 weeks I didn't know about on TB. And when that's done and out the door I'm not going to worry about actively getting any *brand* new material done (ie, new series) for a bit, because if HoS and ANGLES both sell (*whacks Tor to see if I can shake something loose*) I will have More Than Enough to do. HoS is a series and ANGLES...*will* be, although I'm not inclined to force the muse on that series, and rather write the books when the impulse strikes me.
I'm taking the morning off from exercise, because my thighs are still killing me from Tuesday's barre work. Ow.
miles to Lothlorien: 389
Ok, this is Irys and Rill's fault, 'cause Rill asked how many books I'd written, and Irys asked for loglines on them all. So here you go:
NO SONG BUT SILENCE: Kerry MacDonald's childhood dream of visiting Scotland is turned upside-down when the Loch Ness monster offers her a chance to slip away from her own world and discover the faerie world of Tir Nan Og.
IMMORTAL BELOVED: An archaeologist's claim to have found Atlantis brings five thousand years of memories and missed chances back to Methos' doorstep.
TRAPPER'S DAUGHTER (written with Sarah Palmero): Elizabeth D'antier, a half-breed Shoshoni Indian, faces the loss of her family in 1870s Montana. She must find a place for herself in the world even as her white lover abandons her and their children. Can her "Indian pride" help her carve a chance in a world prepared to hate her?
RIGHT ANGLES TO FAERYLAND: Five children discover a faery circle on Midsummer's Day, and make their way into a Faeryland torn apart by centuries of strife--on one side is Faery, caught in Winter, and on the other side, Goblin, bound to endless Summer. The five make allies on opposite sides of the conflict, and individually go on quests that will help to bring the shattered land back together--or destroy it forever.
HEART OF STONE: Margrit Knight has met the perfect man--only he's a gargoyle, and wanted for murder.
URBAN SHAMAN: Joanne Walker is a Seattle cop with no use for the mystical. When a near-death experience introduces her to the Native American trickster Coyote, he gives her a choice between a shaman's life or death. The life she chooses plants her neck-deep in a facet of the universe she's never acknowledged before.
BANSHEE CRIES: Ritual murders under a full moon lead Jo Walker to a Harbinger of Death--and to the realization that maybe this "gift" she has is one she can't ignore. Or the next life she has to save might be her own....
THUNDERBIRD FALLS: Joanne Walker, still struggling to come to terms with her powers, finds herself the lynchpin in an astral battle that could change the face of the world.
Smug. Barring comments from test readers (to whom I am going to send the revised version of this story), I do believe BANSHEE CRIES is done. Smug!
Now I shall go for a walk. :)
Awesome. catedermody.com is now resolving to cemurphy.net
Now I've got to figure out a way to do a nice design that incorporates both names somewhere obvious. :)
Yesterday was the last day of my self-imposed Lent. However, since my stupid stupid weight is up a pound (I suspect general weight fluxuations rather than actual weight gain here, but it's still depressing) and I have not yet lost 10 pounds, I am not going back on sugar. Actually, I'm pretty much not planning to until I weigh 140, but I'm trying not to think about that because 40 pounds is a lot to lose. Thinking about it in 2 pound increments is less depressing. Sort of. Anyway, still aiming for 178 by T-day.
It's snowing. Hopefully that will make it less, and not more, slippery for the walkings.
I have taken to doing a half hour of weight lifting/situp sorts of things in the living room in the morning, as I don't seem to be going to the gym. I've got 10lb dumbbells (one of which I clonked my knee with this morning, ow) for the upper body stuff and I'm doing barre exercises for the lower body stuff. My oh my but elevé plié relevé and down works the old thights but good. I'm just doing those and points, because I do not wish to bugger up my back and I'm trying to rebuild strength rather than test my (weenie) limits. Still, it's enough to make my legs all woobly.
miles to Lothlorien: 387
I've finally gone out and gone for a little walk, despite the slipperiness. I really need to do this every day; it brightens my mood to no end, even when it's treacherous out. And, of course, it makes Chanti happy, too. :)34444444444 (That last bit brought to you by Lucy, who is now head-diving into my armpit.)
I've been sitting around the last day or two feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of doing rewrites and edits and writing new books. Going for a walk has helped clear that up enormously. Even plodding along slowly, it just really makes me feel better. I almost always think about writing when I'm out walking, and I always come back astonished at how lucky I've been (except when Chanti's been very bad, in which case I'm grumpy, but that's not most of the time). I mean, 5 books and a novella sold in 1 year is one hell of a step on the road of Dreams Coming True, you know? Walking makes me realize just how good I've got it, and how happy I am.
And today I came back to email from Matrice with cover copy for "Banshee Cries", so that boosted me some, too. :)
This has been the week for comments letters. :) Got, ok, TB was on the 5th, but still. Got O:C notes last week, got BC notes, um, yesterday, I think (so the version my test readers have won't be the final version, but feedback is still appreciated), got cover copy today...it's all good.
Take the quiz: "What Celtic Diety are you?"
Cernunnos
(Pan-Celtic) [KER-noo-nos] Known to all Celtic areas in one form or another. The Horned God; God of Nature; God of the Underworld and the Astral Plane; Great Father.The Druids knew him as Hu Gadarn, The Horned God of fertility. He was portrayed sitting in a lotus position with horns or antlers on his head, long curling hair, a beard, naked, and sometimes holding a spear and shield.
*hee hee hee* :)
Okay, so yesterday Ted brought the bloody Audi over to the other import auto shop in town, and the guy just called me back. The good news is that the alternator and battery are both holding a charge. He disconnected the battery from the alternator overnight, and the battery was dead this morning, so there's a short somewhere in the inner workings of the car. He said it would take him far too long to figure it out, and that he was recommending us to an auto electric shop who would be able to find the short much faster than he could. And that he wasn't charging us for the exploratory work he'd done to diagnose the problem.
This, overall, is quite the improvement over the other fucktards. -.-
In other news, a public service message on behalf of my friend Melissa. One of the three rheumatologists in the state was killed recently, the second is going to be closing her practice in December, and the third isn't taking any more patients, which leaves a lot of people in the lurch. As Melissa says, "A lot of us are on medications that have to be monitored pretty closely to avoid doing us more damage than our diseases already are."
So on her behalf (and that of plenty of other people): if any of you know a rheumatologist who is thinking of opening a practice or who needs work, or if you're a med student trying to decide on a focus, well, there's a scary shortfall of rheumatologists up here, and some people who very much need their help.
Ok, benefits stuff all taken care of. The nice man called me back. Yay! :)
Ok, so it's open enrollment for my work and I'm trying to get enrolled. And because we've been bought, there's a new insurance provider, and so I actually (for the first time ever) called up for advice. I've been going through the provider's website, and while if there's an emergency I can go to Alaska Regional Hospital, I can't find any general providers or dentists that they cover. I mean, my needs for a doctor are pretty much limited to "get allergy medicine", but it'd still be nice to not have to pay for that. The PPO option *works*, but it's not as good as the others (costs the same as the "Gold" coverage, but with a much higher deductible, yadda yadda), and last year when I did enrollment and went with the PPO, apparently I ended up with no prescription coverage, which, when Allegra is $160 a bottle, bites.
So I called up and asked what my best option was. It was clever of me to do so, because the nice man I talked to said I ought to be eligible for the good sort of out of network coverage (as opposed to the PPO version, which is not the good sort), so he's looking it up and will get back to me once he knows how to enroll me in it.
For some reason, I find dealing with benefits to be really scary. Like dealing with taxes. I donno why. But since I have noooo idea how long my job is going to hold out, and because they're obligated in some fashion to offer me insurance if they lay me off, I figured I'd really better get this taken care of with the best coverage possible right now. God knows if I'll get another chance. o.O
You guys all rock. I have my volunteers for reading BC. (Those volunteers are Irys, Jen W. and Patch, by dint of being the first 3 to say, "Me!") If you are not one of those three, fear not: I'll be writing at least 2 more and possibly as many as 4 more books in the next eight months or so, and TB revisions will be done at the end of this month. I will either put out another casting call or just email you to say hey about it.
In the meantime: See this? See that? See it? Huh? That's my friend Jen W's research. *beam* Lookit that! GO JEN!
Let's see. What else? I've gotten over the "FWOOSH" of editing BC. I go "FWOOSH" a lot when I'm editing. 'course, I will be doing that for the next couple weeks as I edit TB, too, but oh well. FWOOSH. And I gymmed this morning, or at least weight lifted at home, and...
...and I am *so* owned by the cats. Zilli climbed onto my keyboard tray and I've been moving myself and my chair around instead of the tray so I don't knock him off, and Lucy just sat there staring at me until I unfolded my legs so she could jump up to my lap, and when I put her on the desk so I could refold my legs, so immediately climbed over the keyboard and into my lap, where she is now sitting and purring. I am *so* owned. :)
current mood: cheerful :)
Arright. The BANSHEE CRIES edits are done, at least until I get feedback. Maybe I'll go make a couple photocopies for Mom and Dad to read, or something. My brain feels all zonked. I have no idea if the last chapter works. Bah. Bah, and blah. Writing is hard, let's go shopping. Ok, *editing* is hard, let's go shopping.
...yeah. No brain left. Nothing to say. I'm just all blblbht.
Tomorrow, THUNDERBIRD FALLS revisions.
...um. Does anybody want to be a volunteer to read BC? At least one person who hasn't read US would be nice...
Fwoosh. 6 out of 10 chapters edited. My brain's pretty gooey. I could finish, but I'll be better off doing it tomorrow. I'm hoping to cut a couple pages of dead weight--and I tell you, it's good that I took notes about this when I was writing it, because now, as always, I'm thinking, "Well, that's not really so bad, is it?" And...it's not, but I also don't think it really contributes to the forward motion of the story, so it's better off being excised.
...but not right now. I'm tired of sitting at this computer, so I'm going to go away and go to tap class and then game. And perhaps tomorrow or Sunday I'll actually get the last session and tonight's session written up.
*tud*
Dwan says "Cat mentioned you today!"
Kit !
You say "She did?"
Dwan says "Well, to be more precise she said: "It's nearly christmas. That's when we get candy from Catie and Ted.""
*laughs and laughs and laughs* Well! I guess we've been told! *laughs more*!
We are back to the lifestyle in which practically every entry is about writing. This makes me happy, even if it doesn't make everyone else happy. :) Working on BANSHEE CRIES edits. I think they're going well. I rewrote a nice little bit with Jo and Morrison so it makes me swoonier. :) I do like this job, I do. :)
Didn't gym this morning, but I did get up and do crunches and barre work (ok, back-of-the-couch work, since I don't have a barre), so I feel like I've done my bit toward a gym workout today. Plus there's dancing tonight. On the down side, it's raining, which means I'm really unlikely to go for a walk. I'd rather walk in the snow than the rain, even if it's slippery. Bah.
I watched a couple more episodes of Highlander last night, including "Courage", which is one of the ones they talked about on one of the cruises. I hadn't seen it since then, but having seen it now...I still don't think that the story/action gets across that Brian made the cut in Duncan's throat on purpose, to prove that he was still the best, rather than it being happenstance/luck/a failure to actually chop Duncan's head off. He does crow, "Still the best!" after doing that, but there's no foreboding in it. It doesn't say to me that he really could just take Duncan's head if he wanted to. So that was interesting. It's still a very good episode, but had I not had it explained to me, I don't think I'd have ever seen in it what they intended us to.
Did I mention my ear seems to be healing up better than it ever did before? Yay!
miles to Lothlorien: 386
Yesterday I was talking to Mom, who said she thought it'd be good if somebody snatched up the rights to do URBAN SHAMAN as a movie as soon as it hit the shelves, especially since if they did it soon, James Garner could play Gary. I said, "Wow, he'd be great!" because, well, he would be. And that I hadn't thought of that.
So I'm working on my BANSHEE CRIES edits. I just discovered a bit where I said Gary gives Jo a grin that would do James Garner's Maverick proud.
Apparently I *had* thought of it. *beam* *giggle* I was so tickled I had to call Mom up and read that bit to her. :)
Lucy is annoyed with me because I do not make a good lap when I have manuscript scattered around and a writing board so I can take notes. :)
Very cheerful Kit!
Wow! Got the comments letter for OPERATION: CARDINAL just now! Zoomy turn-around time on that, which is *wonderful*. Lots of good questions, lots of things I need to focus on and clarify (I don't think the synopsis I wrote was very good, to tell the truth. It'll give me a very general framework to work from, but all the questions it raised for Matrice and Natashya (head editor for the Bombshell line) were extremely good and relevant ones. Well, I'll get better at synopsizing these, I'm sure. It's a matter of practice.), and a compliment from Natashya that made me laugh out loud:
"Wow, she’s a dangerous writer—I was enjoying the story so much I didn’t even notice all the questions it created until I sat back and thought about it!"
I've had that exact problem with my *own* writing. Gotten stuck, re-read everything, thought, "Well, that reads very well, it must be okay!" and then tried to write again with no success, which is the point at which I realize, "Okay, just because it's well-written doesn't mean anything's *happening*...!" So it's an enormous compliment to have an editor say essentially that. :) Of course, the idea is to get good enough that it doesn't *raise* those questions...! *laugh*
So! I've got my letter, it's full of wonderful questions which I'll address, and life is good! I am a happy Kit!
I'm also a Kit who gymmed this morning. Yay! And wanna know something cool? I'm noticeably slimmer, even in my bulky sweats and big t-shirt, than I was last time I went to the gym (which was, um, about a month ago, heh). That made me pretty happy. So did getting on the scale this morning, which I'm going to report even though it's not my Official Reporting Day (it *is* an official weigh-in day; Thursdays are my official weigh-in days). I was at 180 with nary a waver this morning, so that's another 2 pounds lost. 8 in total since October 7th. Yay! 2 more pounds will meet my Lent goal. 4 more pounds will meet my This Is What I Really Want goal. :) Then I get to have Thanksgiving pie and after that it's back to no desserts, because this is working.
Since I accidentally repierced my ear, I've gone ahead and put an earring into it and am trying to get it to heal up. It actually seems to be healing better now than it ever did before. It keeps itching, which is a good sign. I am, however, losing earring backs at a record rate. I'm going to have to go buy a little box of 'em.
FINALLY my website is back up! And so, just in case anybody missed it:
I've sold two books to Harlequin's new action-adventure romance line, Bombshell! The first one will be out in late 2005, the second in spring 2006.
So, the story of it all: what I didn't say in my Friday posting was that when Matrice called, she mentioned that she'd read the Bombshell proposal, people had passed it around and were excited about it, and that she had a call in to Jenn about it.
Obviously, I spent the whole weekend on tenterhooks. :) I mean, I couldn't think of anything *else* other than "We're going to make an offer" that what she said might mean, but who knows! Publishers work in mysterious ways! So every time the phone rang on Monday I was like, "EEE! Is it JENN!? Did my AGENT CALL?"* But it was not. Sniffle. Especially sniffle 'cause she'd said on her LJ that she'd had a deal go through, and a couple more ready to pop!
Tuesday morning, though, there was email from Jenn saying to call, and so I did, and lo! Matrice had called and they'd made an offer on two Bombshells! (Furthermore, apparently my offer wasn't one of the ones she'd been expecting to pop: the first thing she said to me was, "I think God's decided I'm going to have a good week." :))
I proposed a timeline, got feedback, we nailed it down, and look! A book deal! The first book, currently titled OPERATION: CARDINAL, is due March 1; the second (OPERATION: FIREBIRD) is due July 1. I have a goal of writing the third, as yet unpurchased book, OPERATION: PHOENIX, while I'm at it. We'll see. :)
These'll be my first books written under another name, Cate Dermody, which was my grandmother's maiden name. Given that I'm at the beginning of my career here, I don't lose anything financially by writing under a new name, and it gives me an opportunity to create some brands: I want to develop the Cate Dermody name as an action-adventure/suspense/romance name, so people will know what they're getting when they pick up a book with that name on the cover, as they'll know it's a fantasy when they pick up a C.E. Murphy book, or a young adult novel if they pick up a Catie Murphy book. That's the goal here. (Now if Tor would buy Angles!)
The story concept for the series (again, if you missed it somehow) is that Alisha McAleer, CIA agent, writes a private, quasi-legal personal journal of her missions before doing her official CIA report. She takes the journal to a bank in whatever city she's in, opens a safety-deposit box under her current alias, and leaves the manuscript there. The series, called "The Strongbox Chronicles", tells some of Alisha's adventures as she wrote and experienced them; later books will be chronicles about and left by Alisha's protégés.
And I am *totally* looking forward to writing them. :)
So. Writing schedule for the next, erm. Several months. :)
BANSHEE CRIES: finish up my edits by Sunday (due Jan. 15)
THUNDERBIRD FALLS: finish revisions by Dec. 1 (due April 15)
HEART OF STONE: do MAW and mony's edits ASAP (sheesh)
OPERATION: CARDINAL: Dec. 2004/Jan. 2005 (due March 1)
OPERATION: FIREBIRD: rough draft Feb/March 2005 (due July 1)
OPERATION: PHOENIX: rough draft April/May 2005?
COYOTE DREAMS: proposal due June 1; book due March 1, 2006
(Goodness.)
I went to see "Sabrina", the original, on Monday night, 'cause it was playing at the Bear Tooth. Must say that overall I didn't think it was quantitatively different from the remake. Except Bogart's character was a rich socialist and I don't think Ford's was. Enjoyed it very much, one way or another.
Let's see, what else. It's so slippery out it's hard to go walking. It's much, much warmer today (36 degrees at 9am) so I will try to get more miles in today, but I donno. Sad. I have to go make a pie in a few minutes. Fun! And...that's about it for the moment. :)
miles to Lothlorien: 384.5
Friday there was no gaming, 'cause Cap'n Jack had a squadron function to go to, so we went to The Incredibles instead. Much fun. (Must write up last weekend's game.) Saturday we intended to go see 1776 with my parents, but it turned out there were no tickets, so we had dinner at Mom & Dad's followed by hours of political discourse. Also very fun. :)
Oh, and I accidentally repierced my left ear. o.O I had an itch on my ear and I poked it and the ear hole sort of went "popskrtch!" and there was goo on my fingers (not pus, just goo, like liquid skin) and I went upstairs all befuddled-like and put an earring into the hole, which had been half closed the last time I tried, months and months ago, and it just went right in. o.O So I guess I don't have to actually repierce it when I break 180. (How's that lunch, Trent?)
Sunday we went to see Alfie, which was not the romantic comedy we thought it was going to be (o.O again), and so then, somewhat traumatized, we came home and watched 10 Things I Hate About You, which restored our equalibrium. :)
It has not, in other words, been a very exciting weekend. :)
Matrice called last night with some notes on TB and a couple of lil' questions about US, so yay! I can move forward. Yay!
We also went to see The Incredibles, which we enjoyed a lot. Tonight we're going to go see a local production of 1776, which I'm looking forward to, 'cause I've never seen it on stage. And beyond that, it is colder than a titch's wit out there.
miles to Lothlorien: 378
I'm actually cross-posting this entry to both my LJ and my regular journal, which is a rarity for me. For those of you who get double spam, I apologize.
My Mom just sent me this excerpt:
Thomas Friedman, who's a columnist for The New York Times, said this today:"I often begin writing columns by interviewing myself. I did that Wednesday, asking myself this: Why didn't I feel totally depressed after George H.W.Bush defeated Michael Dukakis, or even when George W. Bush defeated Al Gore? Why did I wake up feeling deeply troubled?
Answer: Whatever differences I felt with the elder Bush were over what was the right policy. There was much he ultimately did that I ended up admiring. And when George W. Bush was elected four years ago on a platform of compassionate conservatism, after running from the middle, I assumed the same would be true with him. (Wrong.) But what troubled me Wednesday was my feeling that this election was tipped because of an out-pouring of support for George Bush by people who don't just favor different policies from me - they favor a whole different kind of America from me. We don't just disagree on what America should be doing; we disagree on what America is."
Yes. Yes, yes, exactly, and that's what I've been saying all over the place for the last couple of days.
And that's what I'm finding really scary. It's what's making me wonder--I mean, I've been saying all along I was going to leave the country if Bush won this election, but the last few days I've been wondering if the country hasn't already left me.
I truly believed this election was going to be revolutionary, and it was. Just not in the way I thought it was going to be. I thought that the people were going to stand up and say, "This is not the America we want." I thought they were going to say that they shared the same--and at this point I shudder to use this word--values that I have.
Instead, out of the what, 220 million potential voters in this country, a hundred and ten million of them turned out, and fifty seven million of those voted for the America that Bush is offering. A quarter of the voting population disagrees with me on what America should be. Okay. That, even that, I could handle.
But another hundred-million-plus did not vote at all, and that to me says that they either support Bush's America or they are complacent enough to not care. That means three quarters of the American populace disagrees with me, by action or inaction, on what America should be. And _that_ was revolutionary, to me if not to anyone else.
And so now I'm wondering, really, truly wondering, not in a fit of political hyperbole, but out of genuine dismay and distress over what this country is: do I want to live here? I believe that as a wealthy nation we have the *duty* to not just our own people but to the world to be socially and environmentally aware; to think about how our actions affect the world around us; to care for our own people as an example to others. I believe that our worship of the Almighty Dollar above that of human beings is criminal, even evil, and I believe that we must treat our poor, our elderly, our disabled, with respect and care for them when they cannot care for themselves.
Three quarters of the American population evidently does not agree with me on this.
I believed--I truly believed--that America as a whole would make a move toward socialism in this election. I believed they'd support a candidate who supported national health care; a candidate who would not evicerate the Social Security system; a candidate who would not, for God's sake, begin wars of aggression against non-threatening states. Since Wednesday morning, I've come to realize that the socialist structures I admire are the creations of adult nations. America is a young nation; the socialist nations of Europe--where, if I were to move, I would go--are old. I don't believe socialism is strictly a thing scrabbled to and reached by old nations; Canada is a clear and obvious exception to that. But today I fear that those ideals--truths which I hold to be self-evident--are so very far away from the America I'm living in today, that I may never see them come to fruition. I honestly thought that within twenty years we'd have national health care. I now don't know that I think I'll see it in my lifetime.
Ted, yesterday, extrapolated something that I had not yet done: the permanent erosion of the separation of church and state. I was horrified. I *am* horrified, because once he said it, it seemed so painfully obvious that I felt sick. We already know our First Amendment rights are being worn away. Over dinner last night, Ted and Emily and I were discussing the election, and the fact that people are being arrested for disgreeing with the government, and then not being heard from again. I forget the exact conversation, but the point of it was: we were American citizens, and we were seriously and genuinely discussing the possibility that the government could 'disappear' us for disagreeing with it.
We are *Americans*, dammit! This is not a fear we should have! We shouldn't even be *contemplating* it. But it isn't a joke. It's a horrifying reality. We have become afraid of our own government.
And so I am wondering: is this where I belong? I no longer know. And _that_ is the truly devastating thing about this election.
Nothing to say, really. Thinking about redesigning the webpage. I know how to have fun, eh? :)
...nope. Nothing to say.
miles to Lothlorien: 376
Oh. It's Thursday. That means it's weigh-in day.
182. Down 2 pounds from last posting, 2 weeks ago. I'd hoped it would be 4 pounds, so I'm kind of disappointed, particularly since I've been down those two pounds since about two days after the last Lent posting.
I'm still sufficiently grumpy about everything that I was getting lunch and thought it'd be swell to just completely pig out on some kind of sweet thing (which would be very difficult, as there aren't any in the house--oh, wait, yes there are: Shaun bought Halloween candy, and it's not like I couldn't *make* six kinds of cookies), but hell, it's day 28 of Lent and it'd be stupid to blow it now. But the mere 2 pound weight loss is not very inspiring, today.
I'm getting the 3rd hole in my left ear repierced when I break 180. I would like that to be next week. Stupid fat Catie. :P
Ted, on the other hand, has lost 12 pounds. Go Ted. :)
Apparently I'm feeling better today, as there's been raging political discourse in my house all morning and it doesn't make me just want to cry. I'm just pissed off. Again. As has been usual when politics have arisen, the last four years. And I'm going to put the rest of my political commentary behind a cut tag for now, because the last few days have been exhausting and while I'm generally glad to expound endlessly on any topic, right now I'd like to give people the option to be spared the preaching. Especially since most of it's to the choir. I don't think I've got a lot of hardcore right wing readers. :)
*sigh* In other news, Ted got the Audi yesterday. It cost $425. They are fuckers. The Audi also did not *start* when he went to get it, so he had to come back and get jumper cables. Overall, it just sucks. All of it.
I FedEx'd this morning. They should get to NYC tomorrow afternoon.
miles to Lothlorien: 374.5
So this is what I have to say: to the best of my ability to tell, Bush won this round. He got elected by a majority. I believe he did it on an incumbency that wasn't his, but frankly, there isn't a goddamned thing to be done about that, and whether I like it or not, the people elected him president this time around.
I do not personally like that one bit at all. I understand there are at least 55 million people who disagree with me, and I think they're all desperately wrong, but I'm unlikely to change their minds even if I talked to every one of them. As unlikely as they would be to change mine.
What I am still not certain of is what to do next. Ted is of the opinion that we need to wait and see; that we need to give Bush a chance to prove himself. I find no sense in that at all, as Bush has done not one single thing thus far that would prove himself to me as a competent leader for our country. I don't see the point in giving someone who lied to the American people repeatedly a chance to convince me I should believe him this time around. This, to me, is rather the same attitude as, "He won't hit me again."
Someone on Salon said, "We now get to see if things get much, much worse before they get better, or if they get much much worse and stay that way." Historically, the pendulum has swung back and things have gotten better. I personally have not lived through a presidency and administration that I think is as outright scary as this one is. This makes it hard for me to believe that the pendulum will swing back, despite historical evidence suggesting it will.
I've been threatening to leave the country if Bush won the election. Now that he's won, I find I don't really want to leave the country. It's my goddamned country, too, and why should I walk out on it? (Look: I've got a little patriotic streak after all!) But here's the thing. Here's the thing.
Out of a hundred and ten million actual voters, half of them disagree with me violently. Extrapolating that to the rest of the country suggests that, hey, half the people in this country disagree with me to such a degree that we seem to have no common ground at all. Had Kerry won, it'd be that half which was extremely unhappy with the results of the election, and on the one hand, y'know, this is good: our society keeps functioning even when we're split right down the goddamned middle on what the right way to run the country is.
On the other, I wonder if it's even possible to find a country where everybody has the same general outlook that I do (or even a majority, instead of the Incredible Partisan Split that we've got going in the U.S. of A.), and if it is, if I'd be happier living there. I mean, I'd certainly be happier living in a country where the sight of my fearless leader didn't make me want to either yell at the television or turn it off, but I would've gotten that if Kerry'd won. I would without question prefer to live in a country where I .can. make my choice and yell at the television if necessary, but part of my problem is that I'm genuinely afraid that in another four years I might see that choice taken away from me (Republican president. Republican Congress. I see an attack on the two term limit amendment coming.). And right now, I don't know how to stop that from happening.
So anyway, today I'm less depressed and more angry, which seems to be going around. I still don't know what to do. Well, other than run for political office, which...is perhaps a topic for another day.
Copy edits are done. I am tired of this book again, which, given I've read it four times in four days, is not really a surprise. I will go photocopy the manuscript so I have my own copy of the edits, and then I will put it in the mail. I would like to do these things tonight, but if it waits til the morning, well, I can live with that. As long as it's out of here by noon tomorrow.
Ted's gone to get the Audi. I just don't have the heart to deal with it right now. I'll write letters and whatnot in the next few days, but I want the car and I just don't have it in me to deal with them right now. It's frustrating and I'm unhappy about rolling over, but the idea of trying to deal with it all just makes me want to cry, and it's not worth it. (My aunt did suggest that I borrow five children under the age of six and bring them to the dealership and explain I'd really like to get the thing settled. She figured if you have five kids running around wreaking havoc they'll concede anything to get them out of there. I figured if you told kids they'd get ice cream for being as badly behaved as possible, you could probably get some really wretchedly behaved children. A very tempting solution. :))
Ted is annoyed as hell at the comic shop, because the twit who orders gaming stuff didn't order the Ravenloft thing he wanted when it first came out, and then apparently despite more than one person asking about it, only ordered one copy, which someone else reserved and so Ted still does not have one. Ted is taking his gaming business elsewhere, at this juncture.
Shaun is also annoyed at the comic shop, because he brought his list of comics in to get a pull box set up (something which took 6 weeks for them to do when Ted brought his list in) and was told that the guy who did that had been cut down to 3 days a week because he kept showing up to work late, and rather than assign someone else to do it, they just had no idea how long it would be before Shaun's pullbox got set up.
Bosco's customer service ranks right up there with Audi's, yep. Go team go.
I'm hungry and tired. I've only done 1.5 miles of my walking today. It's slippery as hell out there, and I don't really want to go out walking now, with home-coming traffic and the rapidly fading light.
Can we have a do-over, please?
On the up side, Emily will be here overnight, on her way through to Orycon, and Mom came over this afternoon with a bunch of old photos and things from a long-lost relative she found a few weeks ago, so we scanned stuff in and that was fun.
Going the hell away from the computer now.
It's getting gloomy out. I mean weather-wise, not politically. Getting darker. Snowing. I'm in a bad mood. I don't want to deal with the Audi at *all*. I don't want to let them walk over me, but right now I don't see any point in trying to fight all this stupidity. I feel like I'm going to lose anyway, so why bother. Which is of course exactly what they want, and is why I *should* deal with it, but I'm still so frustrated and miserable about the whole stupid thing I just want to cry.
Between the Audi and the election I got nothing done at all yesterday, including the rewrite on a page of URBAN SHAMAN that I need to do, and I don't feel much like doing that right now either. I'm going to; I have to get it in the mail tonight, and this afternoon would be better. And it's really a very small amount of work to do. I just don't want to deal with it, or anything, right now.
...and after writing all that I don't like me very much, and don't imagine you do either, so I'm going to go do the fucking edits and kick a wall or something.
miles to Lothlorien: 373
Audi just called. They say that because the Morrison Auto Group is an independent dealership they can't do anything to make them eat the costs of the car repair.
The wind is completely out of my sails. I'm so angry I'm in tears, and so frustrated that I want to fling my hands up and forget about it all, except I'm too angry to do that. I do not know what to do next.
We've voted.
There wasn't a line out the door, but there was a line, which is more than I've ever seen around here. Yay! There was also a man who had his four-or-so-year-old with him, and as I stood there waiting to put my ballot in the ballot-slurping machine, I heard him saying, "This one is about whether we want to build more schools." The kid said, "Yeah!" That was a *good* Daddy!
So. We've voted, and everybody wanted their stickers, and there were people coming in as we left, and I am very happy about all of this.
And I should've checked the mail yesterday, 'cause there's money in it!
miles to Lothlorien: 370
I spent the larger part of yesterday doing copy edits for URBAN SHAMAN. They were surprisingly painless. There are about five things I will do in the future which will reduce my poor editor's efforts by about 80% (further->farther, leapt->leaped (although I don't particularly like 'leaped', it's certainly not a hill to die on), towards->toward, grey->gray (ditto 'leaped', but with more prejudice), and replace all my --s with emdashes), but by and large, I think there are maybe five sentences in the whole thing that I was like, "Um, no, leave it the way it was," or where I've said, 'ok, I see your point, let me rewrite that my way'.
I still think people can hiss things without there being any esses involved. And I also think it's very odd that she didn't know what "looking through my eyebrows" was, because everybody I asked just did it right away and knew just what I meant. :) And apparently I'm not as clever with my whom-and-whoevers as I thought I was. *sulk*
Also, there are wonderful notes in the margins. Hearts next to the first description of the bad guy (which is, if I do say so myself, beautiful), and next to the first description of Morrison. *stupid beaming* There's a place she went, "AUGH!" in the margin (causing me to cackle gleefully, because *I* go AUGH every time I get to that bit, and hell, I WROTE it!), and another bit where she wrote, "I KNEW it!" which made me laugh with smugness. There's a note at almost the end where it says, "This is going to be hard to top!" (true, but I set up this entire series in a very specific way in my head; I *know* it'll be hard to top, but I wrote it that way on purpose), and at the end she wrote, "A really exciting, fun and promising story, Catie. I can't wait to see what happens next." *beam*
I'm sure not all my copy editing experiences are going to be this gentle, but for a first time, boy, this didn't suck at all!
Now to email and ask about the notes in the margins I couldn't read. :)
In other news, winter has arrived. It's cold and there's snow and the wind is nasty and I don't waaaaaaaant to have to walk in it. Waaaah! We went to see "Ray" yesterday (it was very, very good, although it got a leetle long) and when we went in it was bright and semi-sunny, and when we came out there was an inch of snow on the ground. Eee!