Good news: I've started to wonder how I'm going to fit everything into this book I'm writing, which means I've probably hit about critical mass for the amount of stuff I actually need in it. That's good. :)
Total wordcount for 2004: 304,700.
Happy New Year, everyone!
Ah. I can remember my MT password, after all. :) So a brief note from the trenches!
Ted's family are all very nice people. I'm not surprised by this, mind you, I'm just saying. There've been about 25 people here every day, which is a little (re: a lot) shocking for somebody accustomed to seeing maybe 25 people in a month. I'm sort of worn out. o.O
I've gotten a fair bit of writing done. 5 chapters so far, and I'm going to try to get another one done today. (Sorry, Silkie, won't be posting til I get back.) Aside from chapters 5-8 being pure drek, it's going pretty well, I think. I'll want to rewrite those, but ... yeah. I think it's going okay. I left all my notes at home, though. :/ So I'm kind of winging it, trying to remember what I wrote, and generally being aware that I wouldn't follow the notes exactly anyway.
I also have a head cold, which is wearing me out even if being innundated with people wasn't doing the trick.
Having a nice time, but will be glad to get home. Yah.
Merry Christmas!
We have been to my folks' house, where we opened all the loot (and there was MUCH loot!). We have been to Allison and Marge's house, where more loot was opened. In a few hours, Ted's parents will be here, and yet MORE loot shall be opened. The joy of rampant consumerism! Actually, it's been a very nice day. I'm sad that I won't see Deirdre and Gavin and Breic any more while they're here. Snif. :(
I have paid the bills that need paying now, before the end of the year. Now I've got to pack. And, please God, nap. We get on a plane at something like 2am, and do not reach Minneapolis, if I understand this correctly, until something like 10:30pm tomorrow. So instead of waxing poetic about Christmas loot, I'm going to go do the packing. And sign my Bombshell contract so I can get it out before next year. Oh, and I'm turning comments off until I get back, because I don't want to deal with the spam that's likely to hit the site while I'm gone. :P
Hope you're all having a wonderful day!
Ted and I watched the last four episodes of season 7 Stargate last night. Now I must babble about it, because it's eating my brain! Behind the cut tag, because I will be discussing a hyoooooooge spoiler! (Furthermore, I'll be discussing it immediately, so if you haven't watched season 7 yet (yes I'm talking to you Emily), don't click.)
AAAAAAUGH THEY KILLED JANET!
I was SO not prepared for that! AUGH! *AUGH*! *WAH*! I mean, I knew it wasn't O'Niell because he's the star, and I didn't see how it could be the young guy because nobody knew him, so who cared? but I was NOT PREPARED for them to kill off Janet! *AUGH*!
It was really good. In an awful, heart-wrenching way. Totally shocking. Which, y'know, when you kill off a character, that's how it ought to be. But WAUGH! *snivel*! Waugh!
The other neepery is that wow, this was like the Season of Sam, at least for the second half, which rocked. I really, really enjoyed...well, all of it! The episode "Grace" where she gets a concussion and has the heartwrenching discussion with Jack ("I mean, let's face it, I'm not that complex.") even if it is just her own subconscious she's talking to. And the flip side of Jack back at the base being .so. .damned. .frustrated. because Carter's missing. And Teal'c stopping by to tell Jack that when he was missing the previous season (not exactly how Teal'c phrased it, of course), Sam'd been equally frustrated and helpless. That was just a nice touch, especially in comparison to Daniel's bewildered look when Jack blew up at him. Teal'c obviously knows how that relationship stands, and Daniel didn't seem to. That was appropriate. :)
I'm really glad they opted to deal with their relationship some more, although I've also really liked that overall they *haven't* touched it. I mean, ever since the four or so episodes in what, season 3? 4? Where they acknowledged the whole mess, there've since been like two references, and those were nothing more than Jack and Sam exchanging a wry look.
But OH. MY. GOD. *HUGE* change in their relationship as SOON as Sam found herself a boyfriend! (A really, really cute boyfriend, may I add. Holy cow.) From the very very funny elevator scene (Sam enters elevator, humming the Stargate theme. "You're humming." "I'm not! I was?" "You were. What's his name?" "Whose name! There's nobody! Pete." "Ah." "How'd you know?" "Humming.") to, most especially, the episode where Sam gets caught on the planet with the supersoldier after her, and she's just worn down completely and exhausted and can't believe she's alive at the end, and Jack says, "C'mere," and puts his arm around her shoulder and she leans on him...holy COW! Jack would NEVER have done that prior to Pete! Ted was like, "It's safe for him to do that now." Shaun and I were like, "It's a TERRITORY WAR! This is MY Sam! POSSESSIVE JACK!"
And then "Heroes, Part II", where Janet dies and Jack very nearly died, and she's trying to tell him how scared she was, without making herself really vulnerable (just really nicely done, their whole relationship, because there's a HUGE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM and they CAN'T TALK ABOUT IT), and I swear I spent the entire second half of the season convinced Jack was going to throw caution to the wind and just kiss the woman, and I'm all *hreef*! *hreef*!, but even if he didn't kiss her he did hug her, and that was a *good* hug, dammit! None of this A-frame proper stuff. He even put his nose in her neck. *sniffle*
And then Jack downloads the Ancients' database into his head again and she goes to his house to Not Talk About The Elephant, and *WAUGH*. *snivel*! And then she tells him she's been given permission to take command if it becomes necessary and he says he'll make it easy for her, he'll resign, and I'm like, "KISS HER, YOU DIP!" although instead she says, "What I was trying to say at your house," and he says, "I know," and it's all very AUGH! *AUGH*!
I LOVE it, but AUGH! And then she calls him Jack, when he's dying. That's the third time in seven years she's called him Jack. The first time was when they were in Antarctica and he thought she was Sarah, the second time was when she woke up from the concussion back at SGC and didn't know he was real, and that was the third time. AUGH! *flails around* It's KILLING me! It's all KILLING me! *kicks feet and runs around* AUGH!
OMG! You can pre-order URBAN SHAMAN from Amazon now! OMG! EEEEEEEEE!
*runs around going EEEEEEEEEEEEEE*!
(Thank you, Janne, for telling me! Apparently Emily called 2 days ago to tell me and Shaun forgot to mention. *laugh* EEEEEEEEEEE!)
We went to see the new Phantom of the Opera movie, which is a film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Broadway show.
It's really quite wonderful. That was the third time I've seen ALW's Phantom (once on West End, once a travelling show, and this one), and while vocally Gerard Butler (the Phantom) has nothing on Michael Crawford, he was very good in his own right, and I thought Emmy Rossum was the best Christine, both vocally and, er, actorly, that I've seen. Patrick Wilson as Raoul was vocally so-so, but it's the first time I've ever had any sympathy for the character at all. He wasn't a putz at all, and Raoul's defining characteristic has always been his putziness, just as Christine's has been her whineyness. Rossum's Christine wasn't in the least bit whiney.
More comments behind the cut tag, because I'm going to talk about things I'd have done differently and things that I specifically thought were very, *very* good, and perhaps people who haven't seen it won't want to be prejudiced by my (entirely correct and savvy) opinion. :) So bearing in mind that I love the stage show and that on the one hand I'm delighted they were so very true to it...the major changes I'd have made:
I'd have cut "Prima Donna" entirely. It's a funny song, but you could cut it or reduce it to one stanza and still get the point across without slowing the film down as much as it did. It's a fine piece for a two and a half hour stage play with an intermission, but it didn't do anything to further the plot of a two and a half hour, non-intermissiony film.
They did a completely magnificent extended (extended? it certainly struck me as extended; can anybody verify that?) "Masquerade" that was visually stunning and much too long. My recollection of the stage play is that the Masquerade is essentially long enough for everybody to get on stage and be admired and for Christine and Raoul to sing their few lines and then for the Phantom to arrive. This was much longer than that, and while it really was gorgeous and I'd love to see an uncut version on the DVD so I can watch it all in one take, they could've reduced it by literally minutes, to the benefit of the film.
The graveyard scene. Uh. Crap. *goes to look up the song* Ah, yeah. "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again". Beautiful, beautiful scenery, but the scene is WAY TOO FREAKING LONG. They should've cut it down to one verse. In fact, when I realized they were going to have her wandering through the graveyard, I honestly thought, "Oh, well, they'll cut it," and then was appalled when they didn't. Just *much* too long. Gah.
And the flip side: things that were really, REALLY good:
"Point of No Return", from Don Juan, was *amazing*. Christine's role in that scene is to trick the Phantom into believing that she really will go with him, that she's choosing him over Raoul, and I have never seen it so well done. It was a *magnificent* seduction, and I *completely* believed that she'd chosen him. It was sensual, erotic, passionate, absolutely and wholly believable, and I *totally* believed Raoul had lost. And so did Raoul, who they cut to a few times, and wow. Wow, it was just fantastic.
"Angel of Music/Phantom of the Opera", the descent into the labyrinth, were just unbelievably beautiful. Tremendously surreal, absolutely gorgeous, and followed up by a scene that really allowed you to question whether what we were seeing was all in Christine's mind. Really nicely done.
Like I said, the scenery for "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" was wonderful. They added a swordfight between Raoul and the Phantom to that scene, and I liked it a lot (although I was hoping Raoul would sustain an injury that would clarify something in the black and white scenes they bookended the movie with). It made Raoul seem more passionate, forced Christine to make a choice, and perhaps should have affected the Phantom differently than it did, but was still a nice addition.
And speaking of the black and white bookends, *wow* the opening scene--the auction and raising of the chandelier--was *beautiful*. Goosebump raising, just incredibly, incredibly well done. Worth the price of admission.
And the last scene between Christine and the Phantom was pretty much heartbreaking. I've never seen a "Phantom" where I really believed Christine was desperately torn between these two men, and I've never before seen it where there seemed to be any actual reason for her to go with Raoul other than That's How The Story Goes. (Nevermind that the Phantom is a murdering psychotic.) This was the first time I believed that Raoul was actually worthy of loving, and that Christine's choice to go with him was a difficult one, because of the passion she shared with the Phantom.
Yeah. It was *good*. I really liked it. *beam*
Blargh. I seem to have come down with a cold in my nose, or something. Copious amounts of snot. Blargh!
We went to dinner at my parents' house last night, along with my sister and Gavin and Breic, and my friend Sam Perera from high school. Sam is Sri Lankan and was an exchange student at KCHS, and then went to UAF, where I re-met him, and he's now a UN person in Afghanistan. I hadn't seen him in probably ten years, so that was really cool! I'll post some pictures later today.
Sunday, when Deirdre introduced me to Breic ("This is your aunt Catie!)", he FROOOWNED and said, "No!" Apparently one of Deirdre's midwives is a Catie, and he knew what a Catie was and I wasn't it. :) So yesterday he was still pretty suspicious, although he figured out Unka TED! very quickly (as soon as Ted started throwing him WAY HIGH in the air), and so we were having a good time saying, "Where's Uncle Ted? Where's Mommy? Where's Grandma?" to him, and he'd point around at the appropriate person. Until we got to "Where's Aunt Catie?", at which point he loooooked around at aaaaaallllll the people veeeeeeerrrry carefully, and clearly, through a process of elimination, deduced that I had to be Aunt Catie. :)
I was wearing my silly hat that Angie made me yesterday while we were standing in line at REI to return something, and there was a year old little girl in a stroller in front of us. She was *extremely* fascinated by my hat, but my God, I could not get the kid to smile. I was flopping my head back and forth so the pompoms would bounce, and smiling at her, and winking, and she just kept staring. O_O Tough audience! However, two adults complimented me on the hat. :)
*sneezes violently* Agh. Gah. Kaah. Blah. :}
Ted and I met up with Jai (and didn't meet up with Shaun and Mary (Shaun's sister)) and we all watched Lemony Snicket together (except not).
In its defense, I will say that it is *exactly* like the books.
Which means I thought it was a clever idea poorly implemented, making for a flat, boring and vaguely irritating movie. It is moderately possible that had it not had Jim Carrey in it, it would have been bearable, because everyone else was wonderfully cast, but most of it was dull and the parts with Carrey were embarrassing, excrutiating *and* dull.
On Iago's orders, we stayed for the very long credits, but I have no idea why, unless it's that the first half of them were more interesting to watch than the movie.
I came home and watched some Highlander.
We had a big get-together/birthday part over at Allison and Marge's place, as Deirdre, Gavin and Breic came in last night and last Wednesday was Breic's second birthday. So Ted made fondue (swiss and cheddar) to go with bread and vegetables, and we had snow crab with garlic butter as the main course, then dark chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate fondue with fruit and candy to dip.
It was SO GOOD! SOOOOO good!
AND we left all the candy over there, so there's no more for us to binge on. Ahahah. :)
miles to Lothlorien: 427.5
Things I have learned about sweets in the last 48 hours:
1. I will eat them if they're there, whether I'm hungry or not
2. They make me feel icky when I eat them
3. They utterly kill my appetite for real food, but because they are in no way nutritional, I find myself foraging for something to eat, which ends up being more sweets
4. My husband thinks I've poisoned him. :)
5. That I would be much happier if I got all this stuff out of the house entirely, because I'm apparently not man enough to resist temptation
6. *icky burp*
7. They dehydrate me *horribly*
miles to Lothlorien: 423.5
I think making fudge in a teflon-coated pan makes the fudge texture weird. I'm going to make the next batch of peanutbutter fudge in a stainless steel pan and see if this hypothesis proves out, as the peanutbutter fudge I made yesterday in the teflon pan had a sort of weird texture and the chocolate fudge, made in a stainless steel pan, did not. I just made a new batch of chocolate fudge in the teflon pan, and its texture is weird. So. I shall experiment and report back.
After I go for a walk.
In the 37 degree weather.
o.O
I am done making candy for the day comma dammit. I could do one more batch of toffee and fudge, but my feet hurt and I've given the kitchen over to Ted for truffles and peanutbutter balls. I shall work on packing up goodies, and see if I actually need any more fudge or toffee. How's THAT for a crazy idea! I mean, I know I'll need some more for local consumption, but since the idea is to try to send all the stuff what needs sending tomorrow...
I have walked, which means I'm mighty shy on reasons to not make more candy or write.
Tally so far:
2 batches toffee (1 to go)
1 batch coconut joy (1 to go?)
3 batches fudge (1-3 to go)
1 batch Russian teacakes (1 to go)
Perhaps I should take up making Christmas cookies instead of candies. Although I'm not sure that'd be any faster, really. :)
All right. More tea cakes, then washing of dishes to make more fudge, toffee, coconut joys. Want to know the weird thing? I don't even particularly want to eat any of this. Obviously it is critical that I keep myself full on other stuff for the next week, and I might get through it without gorging on candy. :)
miles to Lothlorien: 421 (wow! only 47 to go!)
So far today (and, ok, last night)
3 batches of fudge
1 (tiny) batch of almondless, chocolate-covered toffee (a special request)
1 batch Russian tea cakes
1 blister from stirring so much
Up next:
coconut joys
more toffee
more Russian tea cakes
more fudge, maybe
getting out of the kitchen so Ted can make truffles and peanutbutter balls
Busy busy!
THAT was more like it! Just finished up ch. 6 of O:C, and NOW I'm feelin' the love! I was buzzing along writing the words and feeling the tension and the excitement and "seeing" what was happening and YEAH! Yeah! RAH! *runs around*! YEAH!
Mom and I went Christmas shopping earlier, and now I've got moooost of my shopping done. Moooost of it. Not all of it. But moooost of it! And I yam pleased. And and and YEAH!
*runs around*!
Tomorrow, chapter 7, and baking!
miles to Lothlorien: 418.5
I do not like my new glasses. They still don't seem to sit on my nose quite right, and while they do avoid the problem that my other glasses have, which is that there is enough glasses at the top to not have to tilt my head back at the movie theatre, they instead have nothing like enough lens at the bottom, and so if I look down everything goes blurry. Obviously I need bigger lenses.
I've never returned glasses before. Does one just return 'em and trade 'em in, or...what? I got them at Lenscrafters, which is a very friendly place, anyway...
Ted and I went to see Ocean's 12 yesterday afternoon. I don't think I liked it quite as much as Ocean's 11, but it was a reasonably entertaining caper film. Then we watched the primere episode of Lost, which they were replaying in order to stuff an hour's worth of commercials into it. Seriously. They made it a 2 hour event, but it was only a 1 hour show, which means at the best it was 48 minutes, and the other 72 minutes was commercials. I *may* watch it next week if they aren't making it another 2 hour event. Otherwise I'll wait for the DVD.
Speaking of which, they were advertising Alias as starting a whole new season in January. Is that correct, or is it really halfway through the season and they're switching it to a new night so they're trying to make it seem extra special?
Ok, I think that about used up my TV geeking for like, months. I'm going to go find my other glasses and write a chapter.
miles to Lothlorien: 416
Whew! That's done! Barring some kind of disaster (like the fax didn't go through right) I am now done with URBAN SHAMAN. Totally and completely done.
Holy cow.
Arright. I have finished the edits and must go through them and type them in, or write them out, and fax them. I have read things VERY VERY CAREFULLY and concluded that they work, even if my brain is gooey. There is one moderately questionable bit, but I think it does make sense overall and I'm not sure I can find a way to clarify it a little further in the text (I probably can, if I go read things again and decide where to put one more sentence), and then this book is done and I won't see it again until I get bound copies.
In other news...*blank look* There is no other news. Well, yeah there is. We went and got our new glasses yesterday, but I have to go get mine adjusted, because right now they only rest on the right side of my nose and it feels quite horrible. It's already confusing enough because they're featherweights and so light they just feel WRONG.
Ok. Thinks to do today:
1. fax edits
2. do any last changes to BC
3. get glasses adjusted
4. go christmas shopping
5. write
6. walk
miles to Lothlorien: 413.5
Worked on US edits after the second half of the very, very bad Earthsea miniseries. It didn't get any better, although Shawn Ashmore and what's her face the cutie from Smallville (Kristin Krunk?) worked well together. I watched the show mostly to see if Ashmore (who played Bobby in the X movies) could act, but the writing was so bad you couldn't tell that Danny Glover and Isabella Rossalini could act, for God's sake.
Found some very frustrating errors in US that I thought I'd caught on the last edit pass, and one that hadn't crossed my mind at all but needed to be dealt with. I've got about 7 chapters left to do, so I expect I'll do those in the morning and fax them back to NYC. Most of the alterations are mine, truth be told, not printer or editor errors. But man. I'm having a hard time not going cross-eyed and yelling, "It's crap! It's crap! It's ALL CRAP! It doesn't make sense! It doesn't work! It's CRAP!" It *does* make sense and it *does* work and it's *not* crap...at least, I think it does and that it isn't. Gah.
Going to bed now, before my brain fries any further.
Trent just asked if somebody got all the songs on my lyrics meme, if they got a prize. I said sure: I'll send you an early copy of Urban Shaman, when I get my author copies. Then this idea amused me, and so I think I'll put this forth:
The first 3 people to get all the songs I will send signed copies of Urban Shaman to. You can't look it up on the net, even if you know the song and just can't quite remember the name. You have to actually remember it. I will trust you all to be honest about this. And of course it would be best if you tried not to look at the comments to see who might've gotten 'em already. :)
Carry on. :)
Ok, I added five more songs to my lyrics meme so I could be as cool as the other kids. :)
Off to write now. :)
Incidentally, I only read WIZARD OF EARTHSEA, and didn't like it much, and that twenty years ago, so I have absolutely no grounds for disliking "Legends" except it was really bad. *nodnod* :)
Thinks to do today, in order of importance:
1. US edits
2. ch 6
3. laundry
4. post chapters
5. go to eye appointment
I feel sort of blorgy this morning. Blorg!
Lyrics meme behind the cut tag, stolen from Deborah. Quoted bits of songs that frequent my playlist. See what you recognize. Or what you think the songs say about me, or whatever. :)
1.
Finds a convenient street light steps out of the shade
Says something like you and me babe how about it?
2.
She said baby our love's just like your songs
The beat ain't bad but the words are all wrong
It's time to pack my bags, it's time to just move on
She sang, Johnny, I'm gone gone gone
And she was gone
3.
Superman never made any money
For saving the world from Solomon Grundy
And sometimes I despair the world will never see
Another man like him
4.
I went to see the preacher
To teach me how to pray
He looked at me and smiled
Then the preacher turned away
He said if you want to tell him something
You ain't gotta fold your hands
Say it with your heart
Your soul and believe it
And I'll say amen
5.
I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
6.
No one ever loved that river, rain from
the highlands a mirror for the Cajun moon
A road without a memory of anything
that started out as blue
7.
Well, I been down to the pain and sorrow
Of no tomorrows comin' in
But I put my pole to the river bottom
And I've got to hide some place and find myself again
8.
Above the planet on a wing and a prayer,
My grubby halo, a vapour trail in the empty air,
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night
9.
This ain't a song for the broken-hearted
No silent prayer for the faith-departed
I ain't gonna be just a face in the crowd
You're gonna hear my voice
When I shout it out loud
10.
Now I've searched the needle
And I bide my time
I've waited patiently for offstage lines
But the things that you're put by
Aren't easily won
And your favorite songs of Texas
Are ones you can't hum
11.
Was early in November, the leaves were on the ground
I couldn't get up, I'd just gotten down
Been all alone, waiting for the phone
Waiting for your call so patiently
12.
Come on God this is not like you
Let us know what you're gonna do
You know what your supporters feel
You'll escape in the final reel
13.
My heart won't let my feet do things that they should do
You know what, you're lovely you know what, you're so lovely
And you know what you do to me
I’m like an ocean wave that's bumped on the shore
I feel so absolutely stumped on the floor
14.
I've got a dream 'bout a boy on a star
Lookin' down upon the rim of the world
He's there all alone and dreamin' of someone like me
I'm not an angel but at least I'm a girl
15.
I'm gonna spend all my money
Gonna go home late
Try one of ever'thin they put upon my plate
I'm gonna flash my pearly grin all over this town
Whisper to my baby when the lights go down
I'm gonna lay down and shimmy
Stand up and shout
Show all these women
What love is all about
I just watched the Legends of Earthsea SciFi original movie, or the first half of it, anyway. Boy, that wasn't any good at all. The writing was amazingly bad. But I couldn't stop watching, because the cats had pinned my arms down and I couldn't get up. Poooooor Catie!
Made it through chapter 5. Didn't get to 6 today. Tomorrow. But I walked, and I wrote, and I made bread and various and sundry other good stuff, and boy am I sleepy now. *yawn*
miles to Lothlorien: 412
ytd wordcount: 289,200
The awful chapter five is done, calloo, callay! And it's not so bad now. :) I'm hanging on the phone for uninsurance, which is taking much longer than I 'spected, and I am dying of the hunger. In a minute here I'm going to go cut myself a piece of fresh bread and have a warm PB&J sammich for lunch, I think. Then walking, then writing or editing, and then PAAAAAAAARTY!
Well, ok, probably not that last, if you want to know so much. :)
...okay, off the phone with unemployment. So basically how this works for a writer is: you have to report the hours you spend working as a writer whether the paycheck arrives in a timely fashion or not. So you say, yes, I spent 20 hours writing this week, no, I didn't get paid for it, and you keep doing that until they send you a check and then you call unemployment and explain that you've finally gotten paid and then they have to figure it all out. I guess.
Weird.
Anyway, I'm going to have lunch now, because MEOW!
thinks to do today:
1. ch. 5 (YAY!)
2. US edits
3. make bread
4. walk
5. ch. 6
6. call unemployment
We had a lovely evening last night. Went over to Gavin's Mom's house for Hannukah, met lots of people and had a wonderful time talking. Although there was one woman Ted and Dad were talking to about my book, and I was standing there and she said, "Wait, what's the relationship here," and I said, "My Daddy and my husband!" And she was clearly disappointed that there was not some kind of bohemian lifestyle going on which included me, an older man and a younger man.
On the other hand, she perked right up again when we mentioned we had a roommate. *laugh* It never occurred to me that someone might be so cheerfully satisfied by the idea of an author living an Alternative Lifestyle. Clearly I need to be more unconventional. :)
My sister sent me this snowflake-making site and I have been obsessively cutting out snowflakes. It's very cool. :)
Arright. Breakfast, bread, book.
I have lost enough weight that my wedding rings fit again. Yay! Wow! Now my fingers are all itchy and weird from wearing rings. :)
Gaming last night was, as usual, fun. I really must try to get my act together and do some writeups. We're halfway through the San Francisco adventure and I haven't even written up most of the first New Orleans adventure. Bad Kit!
Let's see, what else. Did a little Christmas shopping today. Got a mailbox stuffed full of stuff (Geni! We have mincemeat! Thank you!) because our mail bag is a moron and I'm pretty sure she's not doing her whole route a couple days a week, because we keep getting a day or two of nothing at all and then a shitload of stuff at once. *mutter* But amongst the pile of stuff was a check for BANSHEE CRIES, so that's nice. :)
music: Camelot
Wow! Another wonderful anonymous somebody has put money toward the Mandarin!
Thank you, wonderful anonymous somebody! The painting is nearing being paid for, now! I have the BEST sneaky friends!
I have also been writing this morning. Almost 1300 words; wretched chapter 5 is halfway done. I think when I'm over this hump it'll get easier. I hope. o.O
Mmm. BBQ meatballs for lunch. Mmm.
I wrote 12 or 1400 completely useless words today. I started chapter 5 twice. I was right the first time: the bit that the end I wrote for ch. 4 led into was just too soon, so it totally failed to work. I did that after writing an incredibly boring eight hundred words on what I thought should happen instead. Then I wanted to poke my eyes out, because BOOOOOOOOORING. So I logged on and flailed, and got a bunch of suggestions from people, and now I think I know what to do so it's neither boring nor too soon. I certainly hope so. o.O
I did not walk today, and now it is dark out.
ytd wordcount: 286,000
Official weigh-in: down 1 more pound, for a total of 11 pounds lost (earlier in the week it was 12, but today's the official weigh-in day, so oh well).
Been editing a paper for Ted. Now off to write, walk, and very likely write some more. I'll be around later when the chapter is done. *vroom*
I walked THREE whole miles today! Muahahahah! I only took Chanti on one of them, though. Didn't feel like dealing with her.
Got my desk clean. Finished staining my brackets. (Maybe. Have to let 'em dry and see if they look like they need another round of sanding/staining. I hope not.) Killed plenty of brain cells with the stain, sheesh. Let's see, what else. Gonna go work on my AA's in a few minutes here. Haven't written today (bad Kit), but I'm not feeling particularly guilty about it, so. :)
Ted and Shaun went to see Blade III without me (I suspect it's too gross for my delicate sensibilities), so the house has been v. quiet. But it's been a nice day.
miles to Lothlorien: 407
Matrice just sent me a Chicago Sun-Times story about the Bombshell line. V. cool!
I'm not a very interesting Kit this morning. Haven't written yet, although I will today. Thinking about doing a sort of "from start to finish" writeup of getting published this first time through--the book won't be on the shelves for six months yet, but I'm on the very last stage before it goes away and I don't see it again until I get the published copies, so unless something totally unexpected happens, I'm done. (!)
Yep. That's about it for now. :)
Nope. It's a good bit, but it's too soon. I shall rewrite the last sentences, and use them later. This is the determination my walk hath wrought.
miles to Lothlorien: 404
Hm. The end of chapter 4 just did something I didn't expect it to, which probably makes the story a lot more interesting (the thing was supposed to happen, just not yet, I thought), and now I have to think. But, since I have a pretty clear idea of what ought to happen in the next chapter, I think this must be the right thing to do.
Writing is so weird.
Oooh! Some kind and generous and wonderful person has given an anonymous donation toward the Mandarin! Thank you, kind and generous and wonderful anonymous person! *beam*
Almost done rewriting chapter 4. I needed a break, so I'm going to go take a shower and finish it before I go on a walk. It's warm out, 23 degrees. Maybe I'll go on a longer walk than usual!
If I get ch. 4 done before noon, perhaps I'll work on 5 this afternoon.
Did my 5 chapters of author alterations on URBAN SHAMAN. It's...weird. I've read the book a trillion times, but there's still this part of my mind that keeps going, "Huh. I wrote that?", and "Huh. That's pretty good. Huh." It's just weird. But I figured I'm better off stopping now before I get complacent about it. I'll do another 5 chapters tomorrow, and so on and so forth. They're due the 17th. I'll fax them to NY on Friday or Monday, I expect.
I'm doing word changes, mostly. Here and there. Noticed that I used "screamed" three times in five sentences, for example. That kind of stuff. And, Starling: I decided that yes, "metaphysical" was indeed the word I wanted. A different connotation than metaphorical, to be sure, but by the definition of "immaterial or incorporeal" of "metaphysical", yeah, it's what I was going for. Thanks for making me think about it, though. :)
Somehow I actually got everything on my list of thinks to do done today. I went to see "Closer", which I thought was ... shallow. It didn't quite work. Individually everyone was quite good, but somehow it didn't mesh as a movie. I suspect the stage play is better, and I think I'll have to read it. I imagine the structure's very different, and I think the emotional content is probably considerably higher on stage; on the screen it was flat. Too slick. Not raw enough.
And I watched some Stargate with Ted and Shaun, did my chapters, did some writing, went for a walk, bought Breic a birthday present. The part I'm really liking about all this is that I can do it all without feeling guilty about not being at the desktop computer.
Silkie, I will post after getting my chapter written for tomorrow.
Ok. That's everything for now.
miles to Lothlorien: 402
Chapter 3 is rewritten. Most of the useable stuff from ch. 4 has already been used in 3, I think, so probably ch. 4 will be starting fresh, but that's ok. Um. Had lunch. So I guess I have to go on a walk now, and then maybe to a movie and then I have to come home and read at least 5 chapters of the US galley. Starting at the end, I suspect. Oi.
I've been watching too much Highlander. I suspect I'm going to finish up season 3 this week, and then I really ought to go back to the earning Highlander system. Although if my writing picks up over the next few days like I plan for it to, I might be earning it on a daily basis anyway (theoretically I get 2 episodes of Highlander for every 7700 words I write). But I just got to the Methos episodes! Actually, to my vast surprise, "Methos" was also the Richie episode I'd been dreading. I was pretty amused by that. :) And I'm in enough of the writing head already that I can't read. I stare at the TBR shelf and go blah a lot, so I end up watching TV for a while. So...obviously I need to write enough to earn my Highlander. :)
All right, all right, I'm going for a walk now. Slavedriver. (I'm talking to you, Jai!)
ER is bad. V. bad. Ted had it on when I came downstairs this morning, and I was obliged to watch the whole episode instead of turning the TV off when he left and writing. The only thing to be said in my defense is that at least I turned it off before the next episode started. Bad. V. bad.
Yesterday I pulled a pair of jeans that I thought were 12s out of the closet to try them on, just because, and I slid them on and they fit with room to spare, which indicated to me that they were certainly *not* 12s. But they are 14s, and they do have room to spare, and I haven't been able to wear them for years, so I'm very very pleased. Plus it means I've got two pairs of 14s, which should get me through to buying 12s, which is good because the 2 pairs of 16s I have have really fallen apart and aren't really wearable anymore.
I need to dry my hair and write and go for a walk. ER *bad*.
Isolated prototypes of a cross section of societal behavior patterns indicate that a predictable population trend begins in the primary stages of adolescence.
(I just had to get that out of my system. Carry on.)
Not much to talk about today. Jai shamed me into walking, which is a good thing. But that's about it, really.
miles to Lothlorien: 400
Wow. We just went to see "Finding Neverland". It was really, *really* good. It made me all sniffly! How embarrassing, especially since Ted, who's usually more of a goosh than I am, didn't cry. But then, it made me cry for the exact same reason it didn't make him cry. :) *Really* good movie. SNIIIIIIF!
So I've got this 401k account with (what is to me, anyway) a fairly substantial chunk of change in it. In an ideal world, I'd just keep putting money in it, but what with it being a 401k and me not working for the employer anymore, I can't do that. (Which just seems wrong somehow. Anyway.) I can leave it there, because I have more than the minimum amount required to leave it there. Or I can roll it over into an IRA, or I can cash it out, but that last is really only an option if there's some kind of enormous doom.
I'm getting a pretty good interest rate on the account, right now; this year it's about 18%, and even when the stock market went foomp when the tech bubble burst, I managed to not quite lose money. So I'm thinking about just leaving it there, and starting a new IRA so I can put more money aside. Except the thing I'm not actually sure about, and I can't seem to make the net cough up is, am I right in thinking that interest continues to compound on that account? I'm not adding anything in to it, but the invested balance will keep making more money, right?
It's all very hard to know what to do!
miles to Lothlorien: 398
I apparently wrote a whole post and then forgot to post it before I went and did something else with this window. Oh well. It wasn't very interesting anyway.
Over on the Luna Boards, Mercedes Lackey has been running a contest in which board participants are to write up the Luna authors as one of the various sorts of magic-users in her 500 Kingdoms books (her Luna books). This is what Cyn wrote up for me:
Catie Murphy is a witch, someone who truly knows the meaning of being able to tap the earth, call upon the magic resting within the ground and more. From making blueberry pie that stains the teeth and makes the soul smile, through healing with magnimous amounts of fruit liquor, Catie rules her place with a firm, slightly stained with blueberry hand and tongue. Her hair is short, her dark eyes flashing with knowing as she looks you over from head to toe. Though she doesn't have the power of others, she's very good at what she does. From making fruits grow better and faster, to helping you to see the path before you, Dame Catie is one that you want as a friend, not as an enemy.
:)
I am cheerful today, despite getting up in the middle of the night to take notes. Or perhaps partly because of it. I don't really *mind* it, for what it's worth. It's just, you know. Does it *have* to be 1am?
Went to the chiro today, and feel much better for it. My back was getting all thick and starting to ache. No better way to describe it. Went for a TWO MILE walk with Chanti! Two miles! Wowee zowie! Go us! :)
Also got on the scale today (official weigh-in day), and, somewhat inexplicably, the scale said I'd lost another 2 pounds. I stared at it for a while, put my glasses on, checked again. Yep, still said the same thing. So that makes 10 pounds I've lost since the advent of the No Sweets Diet, and it makes me feel much more confident of losing the 5 pounds I wanted to by the 17th, which is when my week of Catie May Eat Sweets 'Cause It's Christmas begins.
Lunch now. Or breakfast. Hard to say. It's noon and I haven't eaten yet. Got up rather late, for some reason. :)
miles to Lothlorien: 394.5
Went to bed late. Later than was sensible. Got all comfy. Realized chapter 3 of O:C was all wrong, and consequently so was ch. 4. Thought of how to fix it. Good, good, all good.
Then thought of later scene that would prove important. Good, good, all good.
Then fixated on how to fix earlier chapters, consequences, etc etc etc.
Realized if did not get up and take notes, would lose it all by morning.
Sighed in disgruntled resignation. Got up. Ted says, "Everything okay?" Reply, wearily, "Have to take notes." Ted chortles. I stagger blearily out of bedroom, sit down at computer. Shaun looks worried. "Have to take notes."
Shaun chortles. Chortles even more, twenty minutes later, when is on his way to bed and I am sitting at computer, eyes closed, head weighing heavily in one hand as I think. I snort at him, helpless and tired.
Three and a half pages of single-spaced notes later, O:C has gelled. Not everything, but much, much more than an hour ago. First half of book should flow beautifully, by time am done with that, will have necessary notes taken for second half. Pretty confident. V. pleased.
Why at one A.M., though? Why? Every time.
Going to _bed_ now.
Well, that was interesting. Dad and I just went to a local Democracy For America meeting. There were 21 people there, which is quite astonishing, and it was very clear early on that, as Will Rogers famously said, "I don't belong to an organized political party; I'm a Democrat." A lot of enthusiasm, a lot of passion, and 21 separate ideas on what should be done. At least one person who was clearly uncomfortable with the idea that we were discussing ways to be effective as a small group and yet be able to confer, consult and coordinate with the larger Democratic party.
Someone else said the very vital and important thing which is the thing Democrats and left-wing political groups don't seem to grasp: whether you call yourself a Libertarian or a Green or a Democrat, the bottom line is that you, the Green Libertarian, have more in common with me, the Democrat, than you have in common with the right wing. We do not have to agree on everything. We have to agree on *enough*, or we're going to continue to play in the minors while the Republican party, whose constituents play ball because they understand they've got more in common than not, runs rampant over the major leagues.
Whether or not that attitude can prevail amongst these people remains to be seen. It'll be interesting. I was glad I went.
Oh yeah, and before that, I went over to Mom and Dad's for some of Mom's SOOOOO YUMMY baked beans and corn bread. MmmMMMMmmmm!
After a mere seven and a half year, I've put wedding pictures up.
miles to Lothlorien: 392.5
I've been saying for ages that when I quit my day job, I was going to do things like organize all the family photos, and get them scanned in and make photo albums and stuff. So I'm GOING TO! Muahahahahah! Soon there will be a maloneclan.org coming your way! Muahahahah!
Okay, most of you probably don't care one whit about that, but that's okay. *I'm* happy about it. :) And really, I figure if I manage to spend a few hours a week on it, I'll be very pleased. I need to update my Thinks To Do list. *hop hop hop* :)
Jai's putting me to shame. She's been walking 5 miles a day for several days, whereas I've managed 1.5 miles total in the last several days. *looks outside dubiously* I can't tell if it's still raining...
ytd wordcount: 284,000