I'll be darned. I made my exercise goal for August after all. In fact, I even made the one I'd originally set (33.5 hours) instead of just the one I readjusted to. I managed just a smidge under 35 hours. I'm very pleased about that.
I've been exercising too much the last few days, though. My knees are tired, and stairs seem rather insurmountable. They're not, but they seem that way. I've walked 5 miles a day for the last ... six days, it looks like, and now my head thinks I have to walk 5 miles every day. I don't walk particularly fast, so this gets time consuming, especially if I also go to the gym.
OTOH, I'm sure sleeping well. :)
miles to Mount DOOOOOM: 110
thinks to do today:
1. paint tape bathroom
2. paint tape kitchen ceiling
3. make jam
4. do maria's website updates
5. laundry
6. call to find out when the Young Dubs are playing
I made raspberry jam and raspberry jelly yesterday. The jelly is beautiful, and very, very tasty. I haven't tried the jam. I have enough raspberries left to make at least one more batch of jam, and probably another batch of jelly, too. Yay!
It turns out 2.75 pounds of blueberries lasts for 14 bowls of cereal, which would have taken me through tomorrow morning and allowed me to get more berries before Friday via Thursday's Costco run, had I not had two bowls of cereal one day last week. Oops. Now I have no berries for tomorrow's cereal!
Actually, I have tons of berries. Maybe I'll thaw a few of the blackberries. Which reminds me, I should see how many blackberries a person needs to make blackberry jam, since I need to buy some more to make up for having not found one of the bags of blackberries before I made razzleberry jam, and being unwilling to not have any blackberry jam. :)
Today, however, it's about the strawberry-rhubard.
Tomorrow--ok, realistically, Saturday--I start writing again.
I just ordered copies of my own book off Amazon, because the bookstore that's doing the book sale at the conference I'm going to can't get copies of it. I think that's a good sign. The eHarlequin store has been sold out for weeks and apparently they can't get more either. That also seems like a good sign. Except for the part where it means people can't get the book, anyway.
I really have no idea *what* it means, though. If I find out, I'll tell you. :)
miles to Mount DOOOOM: 105
Happy BIRTHDAY to DEIRDRE! I love you!
That's about it for today. :)
miles to Mount Doom: 100
ARGH. Tor just turned down Angles. After two years. ARGH. For the same reason the last person turned it down: characters need more development. ARGH. *stomps around* ARGH.
(I'm not crushed. I'm not even surprised or much disappointed. There was about a five second heart pang, but mostly, ARGH. This is more a noise of annoyance at a two year process ending in rejection than anything else, I think. ARGH.)
Well. I see rewrites in my future.
ARGH. *ARGH*. **ARGH**!
Blast. Got my copy into the editor too late for certain on CARDINAL RULE, and debateably on-time for THUNDERBIRD FALLS. *sigh* Well, that'll teach me to be more diligent in the future.
I made salmon chowder last night and it was .extremely. good, but I burned my tongue on it. Ow, ow ow ow. And that's really about it for today so far.
Oh! Except my sister now has a blog! :)
I didn't get a great deal done today, but I *did* finally get my comments (or more accurately, rewrites) on cover copy for THUNDERBIRD FALLS and THE CARDINAL RULE off to my editor. Hopefully they'll be timely enough to be of some use still, though I was woefully late in responding to emails. I also got my 200+ inbox down to 70 or so messages, and must perform the same triage on my cemurphy account soon. But not tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm housecleaning, because I really know how to have a good time. I'll finish dealing with the office, clear up the rest of the downstairs, and perpare for some heavy-duty cleaning once the boys get home in the evening.
I'll also make some raspberry jam. :)
Today I felt something I hadn't felt in some time: the desire to get back to writing. I was out for my walk and really looking forward to finishing up the PHOENIX LAW proposal, which, once done, clears the way to let me work on COYOTE DREAMS. That will be Most Excellent.
miles to Mount Doom: 95
You know, I've never been to New Orleans. It's looking hideously like I'm never going to get the chance, at least not to see the old city; the part that makes it Nawlins. I don't even think I know anybody who lives there, but everyone I know is talking about it. I can't help thinking about the article about New Orleans and force five hurricanes that TNH linked to last year, and how they'll probably never have the chance to save the city now.
If, somehow, the city survives, I'm going as soon as I possibly can.
My, it's been a busy day so far. I walked down to have coffee with Jai, then went over to Bear Tooth to buy tickets for Bruce Campbell's thing next week, but there was nobody selling tickets yet, so I had lunch instead. Then I went back over to the mall and first bought a small backpack, which I may return, because it's not very comfortable, though it seemed ok when I tried it on at the store, and then went to browbeat the Alaska Club into letting me come be a guest there (at an exorbinant price per session) so I can use it when I want without paying an initiation fee, and then did so. Then I went back to Bear Tooth and got the tickets, stopped at Carrs to buy batteries for my MP3 player, and walked home again. My feet hurt, and I have not yet walked the dog.
I need to finish cleaning my desk, walk the dog, and make bread. And dinner. Napping also sounds appealing, except it's *really* beautiful out, and it seems a terrible shame to nap on a beautiful day, because as we all know, winter is coming (on what, Nov. 6th?).
My usual walk route is still being torn up. The next easiest one is a 3 mile walk. I don't really want to walk 7.5 miles today. Hn, I could go the other direction on the coastal trail, which is a 2 mile walk. Maybe I'll do that.
Bread first.
miles to Mount DOOOOM: 90
Last night I went to my friend Jai's bellydance class recital, which was lots of fun. Everybody looked wonderful and did a good job with their dances, and I really liked Jai's number a lot. Very fun! Everybody was clearly having a great time, even when they were nervous, so yeah, was good. I'm glad I went. :)
Another rejection on ANGLES this morning (not from Tor, though). Snif. Though I must say, it's much less disenheartening to have your agent tell you it got rejected than to open the letter yourself. Also, I haven't looked at that book for so long it may just be partly disassociation at this juncture. I think when I'm done writing COYOTE DREAMS I'm going to go back and look at Angles again and try to figure out how to worm my way into it so I can do a rewrite. It's been nearly three years since I wrote it, so I'm sure if I can figure out how to get into it, I can make it better.
Going to the state fair tonight to watch the Young Dubliners play. That should be fun. I hope it doesn't rain on us. :)
miles to Mount DOOOOM: 82
It is *pouring* rain. Sometimes it stops to just sprinkle, but then it revs up again to really dump. My poor bike is out there getting drowned. I need to remember to bring it inside. And work myself up to going for a walk in the waaaaain.
Weigh-in day today, nothing exciting for me, but Ted has lost 24 pounds since the beginning of April, and 41 since his highest weight. I'm very impressed. :) He has, the last couple of days, suddenly been feeling skinny. (Svelte is his word of preference.) He has a t-shirt we got in Hawaii that says, "Never trust a skinny chef," and it makes him ever-more smug as he shrinks. :)
The electrician came over this morning to put up our new lights. The light in the kitchen used to look like this:
And now looks like this:
I think we need a couple more lights on the track to brighten it up some more, but as Shaun said, it looks much homier and less industrial now, so I think that's good. The ceiling obviously still needs to be repainted and stuff, but I think it'll look nice when it's done. I hope it's enough light. *fuss*
Um. What else do I know? Not very much, really...
My friend Anna, as a method of passing time while doped up after surgery, decided to have a Bad Movie Off. The starring features were Steven Seagal's On Deadly Ground, and Lou Diamond Phillips' Alien Express. The utterly wonderful verdict is here. *laughs and laughs* I liked her writeup so much I read the entire thing out loud to the boys. :)
My personal contender for Worst Movie Ever is probably the 2000 Godzilla with Matthew Broderick, because I have never before or since found myself shouting, "STEP ON HER! *STEP ON HER*! *AWWW*," at the monster when it did not squish the .unbelieveably. insipid and *stupid*, *stupid*, *STUPID* blonde bimbo lead. On Deadly Ground is unquestionably a worse movie, but Godzilla is the only one that ever made me shout at the screen. :)
And speaking of movies, Ted and I went to see Red Eye tonight, and although my goodness, that was the longest setup I've ever seen, especially in a movie that's only 85 minutes long, it was really pretty decent. I like Cillian Murphy (how could I not, with that name?) and Rachel McAdams is fine, and it was suspenseful but not gross (yay PG-13!), so I really rather enjoyed it. But the best part was when the teenage girl who was directly in front of me got increasingly nervous about what was going to happen, and started crawling up into her seat and sitting on her heels, until her head and shoulders blocked the better part of the screen, and I leaned forward to touch her shoulder and ask her to scoot down and she went BLEEEEEEEEEE! all over the place. *laughs out loud* That was the best part. :) I didn't *mean* to scare her. *laughs and laughs*
We came home and my big strong handsome boys took the kitchen lights down. I helped a little, but mostly it was Ted with some relief pitching by Shaun. Tomorrow I'll wash the ceiling, and then the nice men from the electrician company will come over bright and early and put up new lights, and the kitchen will look completely different. Cool!
miles to Mount DOOOOOOOOOOM: 80
LotR trilogy as Princess Bride. Ahahahah *giggle* *laugh* :)
Wow. The electricians called me back and made an appointment for tomorrow morning. Woot! After dinner tonight we'll have to take down the old box and move some lamps in there so there'll be light to work by.
Working on revisions right now. Office still not clean. Getting hungry. Also, cold. Although that could be remedied by closing the window all the way, I bet...
I read TWO books today. And man, it's been so long since I've read something that I'd forgotten how nice it was to just not want to do anything else except go back to the book you had to put down and find out what happens next. I just finished Barbara Hambly's DEAD WATER, which is the 7th or so of her Benjamin January books that I love dearly. They're set in 1830s New Orleans and January is a free man of color and they're wonderfully full of history and rich detail and of course murders. :) They're apparently not for everybody, but damn, I love them.
Starving. Meow. Meow. MEOW.
miles to Mount DOOOOOM: 75
*yawns my little brain out* I feel much better for having sat and read Michelle Sagara's CAST IN SHADOW, which was very enjoyable. I will read another book tomorrow. Maybe I'll even read another one today. But I need to go for a walk first, or all I'll be doing is sleeping. *yawns*
It's very blustery out. Ted just called to say the power was out at the Heritage Center. Maybe he'll get to go home early. That'd be nice. *yawns more* Jeez. No oxygen in this house, or something. *bleary eyes*
The LJ feed is doing a piss-poor job of picking up posts. Sorry for the sudden influx, when they show up.
Also, I just got email from somebody who ran into a wall while reading Urban Shaman because she was paying too much attention to the book to look where she was going. *laugh* She promises there were no injuries, though. :)
water. walk. laundry. *staggers off*
On the positive side, I got a note back from the online reads editor, and she liked "Ill Met by Moonlight" very much and had only a couple of insanely minor quibbles for me to look at. So that's cool, and I'll take care of the quibbles sometime in the next few days. Cool.
thinks to do today:
1. call electrician *talk* to electrician
2. call around for a pressure washer
3. read a goddamned book
4. do something about the office
5. pack up more things to send out
6. finish laundry
7. walk despite the bluster
*sigh* And I'd been thinking I was going to take the day off. :P
The bathroom is clean, although I will recruit Shaun to work miracles on the floor, because frankly, he's better at floors than I am. They're a damned sight better than they were already, though. The downstairs is ... better. Not good, but better. I started packing a box of stuff to drag to Title Wave, and if ... I got interrupted partway through that sentence and don't know where it was going. Anyway, I've got a pile of book stuff I need to send out to people, so I'll work on getting that packed, and I need to ebay some ElfQuests, which... ah, that's what I was going to say. I need to get my desk cleaned off to do that, so if I get my desk cleaned I'll do that tonight, was where I was going with that.
You know, I'm supposed to be having a *vacation* here. When do I get to start vacating?
current music: Meat Loaf & Pandora's Box on random
miles to Mount DOOOOM: 72
There. Now I have a 
tired icon, as well as a 
moopful icon (which probably won't get that much use, but is so cute it needs to be displayed) and a new 
social icon which I think is funny. :)
And the bathroom is almost clean.
I need a tired icon. The laundry, excepting one final load which is largely made up of the clothes we were wearing today, is done. The bathroom is...well. Started, anyway. Ted, God bless him, scrubbed the tub for me. I not only walked the dog, but walked a total of 6 miles today. (Go me.) I actually, to my amazement, got things ready to send and went to the post office. Of course, in one package, I forgot the *payment*, so I have to go to the post office again tomorrow and send a second package with the payment. Heh. :P Huh, if I do it early enough, though, at least I can get Ted to bring me instead of having to walk. That'd be good.
I made dinner, which was yummy, and we went out for ice cream, which was nice. I made bread, and got great big ziploc bags that the loaf fits in, so that pleases me. And I had coffee with Jai, which was really nice. A highlight of my week, in fact. So I got a lot done, but god, I'm just wiped. It feels like it's been a long year.
Crawling into bed now.
miles to Mount DOOOOOM: 68
I really need to go through review things and collect comments and whatnot for cemurphy.net and the cover of THUNDERBIRD FALLS. I'm reminded of this because I just got a little review thing in email from Storyteller, a Canadian short story magazine which happened to review both URBAN SHAMAN and Laura Anne Gilman's CURSE THE DARK because Luna is a Harlequin imprint, and Harlequin is a Canadian company.
I don't normally read reviews. They make my hands hurt, even if they're good. But I clicked through for some reason, and it's a very nice little review. (Read Laura Anne's, which follows, too, as they continue to say nice things about URBAN SHAMAN in it.)
And did I mention I got a good review in *Locus*? In the July issue, in Carolyn Cushman's short reviews:
"A police mechanic discovers she has shamanic powers in this engaging urban fantasy mystery, the first volume in The Walker Papers. (There's no romance, at least not so far, unusual for the Luna line.) Joanne Walker graduated from the Police Academy, but she prefers working as a police mechanic--until she spots what looks like a murder from the air. When authorities won't listen, she tries to find where it happened herself, and winds up in the middle of a conflict involving the Wild Hunt and a serial killer stalking shamans in Seattle. It turns out Cherokee/Irish Joanne is a shaman herself but has been denying her powers; now she has to learn to use them fast, not to mention find a killer despite her inexperience, a boss who wants her gone, and interference from spirits and old gods. Fortunately, she has a savvy 73-year-old cabby and a few friends on the force to help her. The magic is on the rule-less side, but Joanne's scrambling efforts to learn to use that talent and stay alive are highly entertaining, an excellent start to a new series."
Let's see, what else. My local paper, the Anchorage Daily News, mentioned the book in an almost completely incoherent review...thing... here.
And Deborah, who is kind and gentle and wonderful, pulled bits from a couple of other reviews for me.
From Angela Etheridge at the Romance Reader's Connection: "URBAN SHAMAN is highly original. You do not need to be a fan of fantasy literature to appreciate the author's unique writing style or humorous characterization of the individuals in the novel. Each person the author introduces is vividly described, not only physically, but also in personality... I look forward to reading Joanne'e next adventure."
And from Kathy Samuals at Romance Reviews Today:
"First time author C.E. Murphy pens a winner right out of the box with URBAN SHAMAN...In a time where readers are seeing more and more strong female heroines, Jo Walker ranks right up there at the top with the women of Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld series and Rachel Morgan from EVERY WHICH WAY BUT DEAD by Kim Harrison. URBAN SHAMAN is told in first person from Jo's point of view with lots of sarcastic asides and humorous inner dialogue that will leave readers snickering long after the story is finished.
A welcome addition to the world of fantasy suspense, I highly recommend URBAN SHAMAN and look forward to future tales featuring Joanne Walker and friends."
And Jenn-my-agent sent me the relevant bits from a Romantic Times review, as well: "Tightly plotted and nicely paced, Murphy's latest has a world in which ancient and modern magic fuse almost seamlessly. The characters are vivid, and while the first-person narration is occasionally awkward, it isn't distracting. Fans of urban fantasy are sure to enjoy this first book in what looks to be an exciting new series. 4 Stars"
I've got URLs for a couple-three more, but you notice how "collect review things" wasn't on my list of thinks to do, but "clean the bathroom" was? Yeah. Me too. :)
1. laundry
2. bread
3. fumigate bathroom (bah)
4. coffee with jai
5. walk dog
6. package up things to send
7. make dinner
you know, i really like this page layout, but with it getting increasingly gloomy outside, i might have to do something about the color scheme, in order to brighten up my daily ritual of staring at the computer for hours on end. hm.
While cleaning, I came across a sketch I started of some Myrys characters, from Amber, way back when. Deborah, who played Myrr (on the far left; the other two are Rynnaen and Piotr), wanted to see it despite my protestations that it wasn't very good, so I scanned it in. (Lazy scan; it's bigger than my screen bed and so the halves don't quite match up, but it wasn't worth making it match.) And while we were discussing it, I said, "An hour a day. If I practiced for an hour a day, I'd be good at drawing." Morgan opined that the operative term there was better, as I was already good.
This brought to mind a bunch of things. One was Robin's posting today about creativity and how she doesn't expect a professional artist (of any sort) to have more than one professional-caliber outlet for their creativity if they expect to succeed. I'm not sure I strictly agree with that, nor am I sure I strictly disagree with it, but that's not the point right now.
Another thing it brought to mind is that I think I was about sixteen the first time somebody told me I was too hard on myself. I don't remember what the context was, exactly, except I'm pretty sure it had to do with creativity, as it was my photography teacher who said it to me.
It also makes me think about the discipline of creativity. People are forever admiring my discipline when it comes to writing.
I'm about to share a vicious truth.
I have never had to sit down and say, "I have to practice to get better at this," when it comes to writing. I've always just done it. For me, it's not a matter of discipline to improve my skill, not the way I think of needing to sit down and practice daily in order to become a good artist. I mean, okay, yes, I see where it takes discipline to sit down and do the writing every day whether you want to or not, yadda yadda, I understand that, but for me, I really don't think writing is a matter of discipline any more than breathing is. It is effectively that part of my natural makeup includes the willingness to sit down and write regularly and to get better and to learn more about the craft and all of that stuff that makes a professional writer. I don't feel like I'm extending any great effort toward achieving proficiency, because it's just what I do. Does that make sense?
Drawing, on the other hand. I am an adequate (and alliterate!) artist. I am, most especially, good enough to know how good I'm not. Other people are far more generous in praise regarding my artwork than I am, but I truly believe that if I had the discipline, I could become a professional-quality artist, and to me, *discipline* seems like sitting down for an hour a day to practice, even if I'm not particularly good to begin with. I've *always* been a good writer. I can put words together and make a story of them; I've always been able to do it. Putting lines together and making a picture of them is much more difficult, and in order to move beyond adequacy requires a discipline that I think I ought to have because people are always saying how disciplined I am to write. But I've just realized they're not the same kinds of creatures for me.
Same thing goes for photography, actually, except I'm a better photographer than I am artist. I was good enough at photography to get a scholarship for it, and I really love it, but haven't, in the last fifteen years, had sufficient discipline to pursue it actively. I'd really .like. to do that, just as I'd really .like. to become an actually good artist, but I haven't developed, or got, the discipline.
Now, to touch on Robin's commentary about professional-level creativity: I see where she's coming from. Any creative endeavor is a significant use of energy, and it is, I think, harder to be talented in many fields and succeed in all, or several, than to do so in one which is your primary focus. I don't have any particular desire or need to become a professional artist or photographer, as in, someone who tries to make her living from that pursuit. I do, however, think I've got it in me to achieve professional-level work in those fields. On a personal level, that's what I'd be interested in accomplishing. If I ever got good enough at sequential art or pen and ink, would I draw my own comic book or do my own cover art? Yeah, I would. If I ever got good enough at photography to sell prints, would I? Of course. Am I dedicated enough to those things to risk my writing career? No way.
But for personal satisfaction, those would be big things to pull off. So, okay, what do I do to get that discipline to pursue those ends? I'm not born with it. The magic switch in my head hasn't switched, as it did with weight loss, into an "I'm ready to do this" setting. Do I set aside an hour after lunch every day to draw? How do I make myself do it? How does it not slip into, "Eh, I can do it later," as so many things do? Do I hire a teacher to stand over me and bark orders? I donno. But it's interesting to think about.
I am interviewed! Just finished my DragonPage interview, which will air sometime in October. That was fun. :) I'll post a link when it's up!
Chanti and I /did/ go on a nice long walk, which had some Scary Adventures during it, like the tour bus worth of people coming back from Earthquake Park as we were heading down that way. Poor scaredy Chanti just stood there with her tail between her legs and refused to move while fifty old people walked by and said hello to her. :) Poor, silly, scaredy dog. And then on our way home a little boy of five or so came running up behind her to try to pet her, and she was sufficiently scared to growl, though she ran away rather than attacking him (which doesn't surprise me). But she didn't like that at all, poor scaredy thing. She was tired enough by then that if he'd asked, she might've sat down and let him pet her, but running up behind her just freaked her out. Fortunately the kid's parents were the sort to regard the problem as their child rather than my dog, and they were telling him he couldn't do things like that or he might get hurt as we went away.
The guy to replace our garage door came over to *enormous* amounts of barking from my scaredy dog. He's out there working now. Woot!
miles to Mount Doom: 62
Whoops. Forgot to write down my miles the last couple days. Must do that, or I'll start losing track of where I am. And it's *beeoofeetul* today. Maybe I Chanti and I will go on an unusually long walk. And then instead of getting any work done I'll collapse like a collapsy thing all day.
No. Must get things done. Bedroom, bathroom. Those would be Major Accomplishments.
Still like the nuke it from orbit option, though...
music: Love Bites, Def Leppard
miles to Mount DOOOOOOOM: 56
I asked Ted if he'd like me to make him a sandwich, and he said yes please, and then I asked Shaun, and he said please, too. I queried after what kind they each wanted (turkey and roast beef, respectively), and, to Shaun, "Sprouts?" Yes. "Chips?"
"No," Shaun said, "but maybe some pickles? And--" and then he looked very guilty and began laughing, "And could you bring me up a soda?" More guilt, and, "I'm sitting here dorking around at the computer, while you guys are... but after all," he said, "I *am* ruthlessly spoiled!"
*helpless laughter* RUTHLESSLY spoiled! RUTHLESSLY!
Ted and I have gotten rid of about 235436987 gallons worth of clothes. Ted went through his whole wardrobe today, trying things on. Things that used to be tight are now voluminous on him. Things that he couldn't wear for years now fit beautifully. Things that are still tight are GOALS.
This losing weight thing is pretty cool. :)
Gacked from Russ.
Go to musicoutfitters and put your birth year into the search blicky. The first link is likely the top 100 songs of that year. Cut and paste that list here. Bold the ones you actually like. Understand that the word "like" in this case means, in the very least, "wouldn't immediately change the radio station from." Pick a favorite. Underline that favorite.
(...I think two thirds of the songs I know on this list I know from somebody remaking it in the eighties. There are many I suspect I've heard, but can't bring to mind, so I haven't bolded them. There are others I know in theory, but can't remember ever actually hearing them, whether in a cover or the original. I'm not bolding those either.)
1973, behind the cut tag, 'cause it's long.
1. Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round The Ole Oak Tree, Tony Orlando and Dawn
2. Bad Bad Leroy Brown, Jim Croce
3. Killing Me Softly With His Song, Roberta Flack
4. Let's Get It On, Marvin Gaye
5. My Love, Paul McCartney and Wings
6. Why Me, Kris Kristofferson
7. Crocodile Rock, Elton John
8. Will It Go Round In Circles, Billy Preston
9. You're So Vain, Carly Simon
10. Touch Me In The Morning, Diana Ross
11. The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia, Vicki Lawrence
12. Playground In My Mind, Clint Holmes
13. Brother Louie, Stories
14. Delta Dawn, Helen Reddy
15. Me And Mrs. Jones, Billy Paul
16. Frankenstein, Edgar Winter Group
17. Drift Away, Dobie Gray
18. Little Willy, Sweet
19. You Are The Sunshine Of My Life, Stevie Wonder
20. Half Breed, Cher
21. That Lady, Isley Bros.
22. Pillow Talk, Sylvia
23. We're An American Band, Grand Funk Railroad
24. Right Place, Wrong Time, Dr. John
25. Wildflower, Skylark
26. Superstition, Stevie Wonder
27. Loves Me Like A Rock, Paul Simon
28. The Morning After, Maureen McGovern
29. Rocky Mountain High, John Denver
30. Stuck In The Middle With You, Stealers Wheel
31. Shambala, Three Dog Night
32. Love Train, O'Jays
33. I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little More, Barry White
34. Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose, Tony Orlando and Dawn
35. Keep On Truckin' (Pt. 1), Eddie Kendricks
36. Dancing In The Moonlight, King Harvest
37. Danny's Song, Anne Murray
38. Monster Mash, Bobby "Boris" Pickett and The Crypt Kickers
39. Natural High, Bloodstone
40. Diamond Girl, Seals and Crofts
41. Long Train Running, Doobie Brothers
42. Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth), George Harrison
43. If You Want Me To Stay, Sly and The Family Stone
44. Daddy's Home, Jermaine Jackson
45. Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye), Gladys Knight and The Pips
46. I'm Doing Fine Now, New York City
47. Could It Be I'm Falling In Love, Spinners
48. Daniel, Elton John
49. Midnight Train To Georgia, Gladys Knight and The Pips
50. Smoke On The Water , Deep Purple
51. The Cover Of Rolling Stone, Dr. Hook and The Medicine Show
52. Behind Closed Doors, Charlie Rich
53. Your Mama Don't Dance, Loggins and Messina
54. Feelin' Stronger Every Day, Chicago
55. The Cisco Kid, War
56. Live And Let Die, Wings
57. Oh, Babe, What Would You Say?, Hurricane Smith
58. I Believe In You, Johnnie Taylor
59. Sing, Carpenters
60. Ain't No Woman (Like The One I Got), Four Tops
61. Dueling Banjos, Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel
62. Higher Ground, Stevie Wonder
63. Here I Am (Come And Take Me), Al Green
64. My Maria, B.W. Stevenson
65. Superfly, Curtis Mayfield
66. Get Down, Gilbert O'Sullivan
67. Last Song, Edward Bear
68. Reelin' In The Years, Steely Dan
69. Hocus Pocus, Focus
70. Yesterday Once More, Carpenters
71. Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, Bette Midler
72. Clair, Gilbert O'Sullivan
73. Do It Again, Steely Dan
74. Kodachrome, Paul Simon
75. Why Can't We Live Together, Timmy Thomas
76. So Very Hard To Go, Tower Of Power
77. Do You Want To Dance?, Bette Midler
78. Rockin' Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu, Johnny Rivers
79. Ramblin' Man, Allman Brothers
80. Masterpiece, Temptations
81. Peaceful, Helen Reddy
82. One Of A Kind (Love Affair), Spinners
83. Funny Face, Donna Fargo
84. Funky Worm, Ohio Players
85. Angie, Rolling Stones
86. Jambalaya (On The Bayou), Blue Ridge Rangers
87. Don't Expect Me To Be Your Friend, Lobo
88. Break Up To Make Up, Stylistics
89. Daisy A Day, Jud Strunk
90. Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001), Deodato
91. Stir It Up, Johnny Nash
92. Money, Pink Floyd
93. Gypsy Man, War
94. The World Is A Ghetto, War
95. Yes We Can Can, Pointer Sisters
96. Free Ride, Edgar Winter Group
97. Space Oddity, David Bowie
98. It Never Rains In Southern California, Albert Hammond
99. The Twelfth Of Never, Donny Osmond
100. Papa Was A Rolling Stone, Temptations
Things I collect, as re-discovered while doing a vicious cleaning:
Bookmarks. Particularly unicorn bookmarks, many of which have dorky little unicorns on them, but almost all of which say things that I like. If there's ever any doubt my heart is in the clouds, just check out the bookmark collection.
Old correspondence, from the days before widespread email useage. I cannot, at the moment, decide if I should keep this stuff or not, which means that I will. Also: my character Kit's entire online roleplay history from Classic X-MUSH, save one scene, in hardcopy. I do not want this in hardcopy, but I can't quite bring myself to give it up. Gawd.
Scrapbooks. Some of these are even filled. Ditto: photo albums. Also ditto: sketchbooks.
Old calendars. I love calendars. I have still-sealed copies of late 20th century ElfQuest calendars, as well as the 1990 calendar, which is in *extremely* good shape and which I was keeping mostly because I love the Goodtree picture, but now I've got a print of that, so I don't know why I'm keeping it anymore. Does anybody want some old ElfQuest calendars? Or know where I could hand them off to people who might like them? Same with the 1990 Beauty and the Beast calendar, which I have no earthly reason to keep, but unless I can find it a good home, I probably will.
Possibly I'll someday have a room of my own to write in, and I will litter it with all these odds and ends, thus justifying keeping them, but possibly not, too. It's a mystery!
THUD.
Thunderbird Falls (or as I typed it a minute ago, Thudnerbird Falls, which made me and Trip laugh a lot) is submitted. Et voi fucking la, baby. I have now turned in everything that has a due date, except COYOTE DREAMS, which isn't due until *March*, so no prollem.
Goals for the remainder of August: do back cover copy. Finish PL proposal. Work on websites. Work on the house. And READ. READ, READ READ READ READ.
Did I mention READ?
miles to Mount Doom: 51
CARDINAL RULE author alterations are FINISHED and SUBMITTED, a whacking two days ahead of time. The pile of thinks to do is *finally* getting *smaller*. Next, despite having completely failed to get my act together enough to send TBF to people for commentary, I will do my last-final-final revisions on *it* tomorrow and send *it* off. It is due "in the middle of August". This is still the middle of August. *determined look*
Then back cover copy for TBF and CR, and then, By God, I Am Going To Catch Up On My Reading.
Wow. My God. I'm feeling like there's suddenly a light at the end of a tunnel that was previously not only unlit, but in fact laden, nay, barrelling, with trains that roared toward me from multiple directions at once, barely missing one another as they smashed past one another, kicking up tumultuous winds and blinding me with the dust from stone shattered to create their passageways.
(Now I'm feeling like a Bulwyr-Lytton contest entry!)
I'm so relieved I think I'll clean out some closets tonight!
miles to Mount DOOOOM: 48
Deborah tagged me to do this five idiosyncracies meme thing, so here we go:
1. I believe everyone likes me. If they don't, I regard it something being wrong with them, not me.
2. I appear to be naturally wired to do the sorts of things that they write books about doing if you want to succeed. I usually see the good in the bad, and believe there's a way to get something positive out of almost any situation.
3. My favorite way to wear my hair is with a Rogue stripe.
4. I have a terrible weakness for men with big noses. Other people share this particular fondness when it comes to Peter Wingfield, but for some reason nobody else thinks Adrian Brody is knee-weakeningly sexy. Whenever I say somebody's cute, my friends look at his picture knowingly and say, "Well, of course; he's got a *nose*."
5. I do not visualize when I read or hear stories told. They do not make pictures in my head. I think it's exceedingly bizarre that something like two thirds of the population apparently *do* see pictures when they read.
Tagging: Angie, Trip, Laura, Tara, Jai. :)
Could I go school shopping, please?
I would like J. Peterman's toile blazer (which is no longer on the website, but I have a CATALOG, ahahaha) and a cravat shirt to go with it; I would like a magnificent geometry skirt, only in a color that would suit me better; I would like the white blazer and a pair of the pink-striped seersucker pants; I would like the Newport dress and the Nob Hill dress (although I think the latter ought to be a coat rather than a dress); and I would like somewhere to wear all these wonderful clothes.
I would like a Matrix trenchcoat and a corset; a red mourning coat (Mom's going to make me one of those) and a trench coat of my own design; and I would like some really kick-ass shoes that fit my fat feet to go with all those costumes.
I would also like to have the couple grand I could drop on just what I listed, nevermind all the things I'd buy if I actually had a couple grand to drop on clothes.
I would like to go school shopping, please. I'll even go back to school, if I have to.
Squee! THE CARDINAL RULE is up on Amazon now! No cover art or anything yet, but it's listed! That makes it, like, real! Rilly real! SQUEE!
Now all I have to do is finish the AAs so that they've got a manuscript to make rilly real. :) Delightfully, the AAs are going very easily (she said, trusting she wasn't jinxing herself with only 80 pages to go). I should finish them tonight, and I'll post them tomorrow morgle.
Harold wanted to know how many books I would squee for. I figure I'm good for at *least* every new pen name. :)
There was something else I've been meaning to say all day. What wa...oh yeah.
There's a place along my walk route that's got two or three apple trees growing in the yard. I've never seen an apple tree before. I thought it was too cold/the growing season was too short to grow them up here. Every time I walk by the place, I'm like a little kid, staring with big round eyes at the apples just growing right from the tree! It's like magic!
I want one of those apples so badly that Snow White's queen would have me in a snap. I just ... *want* one! I've never had an apple right off the tree before! But the people who live there are never in the yard, so I can't ask, and I don't even know how you tell apples are ripe anyway. None of them have fallen to the ground yet, but many of them are reddening up nicely. I might have to go ask if I can have one.
*Apples*! On *trees*! It's *magic*!
miles to Mount DOOOOM: 44
Raise your hand if you think I walked the dog more like I said I was going to.
Raise your hand if you think I got my blaster, The Blue Bandolier, to 20th level last night.
Yeah, you're right. :)
Need to empty out closets, clean floors, make raspberry jam, and work on my author alterations today, but with the last as the first order of business. Although I may go dry my hair first, because I'm a real party aminal. :)
"Ill Met by Moonlight" is submitted. I completely rewrote the last chapter, and cut about four hundred words from the whole thing, so it came in at just about exactly 10K, and overall I'm pretty pleased with it. I think it's a cute little story, and if Harlequin ever wants to give me my rights back on it, I'll write them a whole novel with my main character. :)
I also got the contract for it, so I will take my Contract Signing Pen (*pauses to beam at Sarah*) and sign it and send it off again. Jenn had anticipated I might turn the story in before I got the contract, but not *quite*, as it turns out. :)
It appears I will not be going to coffee with Jai today. I'm not entirely certain today was the day we'd discussed going to coffee. It's possible it was *last* Sunday, and that I just totally spaced it. But I think it was this Sunday, and she was going to call me when they got back from camping. I think that's how it was going to go. But now it's 5 o'clock and there has been no call, so I think that probably means no coffee.
Which means I have to take Chanti on another walk, because I promised her a longer one if I didn't go to coffee. :)
My, it's gotten hungry out.
miles to Mount DOOOOOM: 41
ytd wordcount: 160,700
As a 32 year old woman, it should probably not be quite such a matter of triumph to get two haircombs into my hair and have them lodged in a non-precarious manner which also looks reasonably nice. Never-the-less, it is. I have accomplished both having my hair down and having it out of my face, and for the likes of me, that's quite something.
That appears to be pretty much all I've got to say this morning. :)
Guess who I got email from yesterday!
Ann Crispin, who is A.C. Crispin, who is one of the authors I sent a copy of URBAN SHAMAN to, because she was the author I wrote to when I was like 15 and asked for writing advice from and she sent me back this big fat handwritten 4 page letter full of good advice, and I always said I'd send her a copy of my first book when I got it published, so I did, and she got it and she read it and she LIKED it and she says she's looking forward to the sequels and she says congratulations on a career well-launched and thank you for sending the book!
*BEAM*!
miles to Mount DOOOOOM: 39
I grew up in theatre. My family was enormously involved in every aspect of it; Dad was a director, Mom was a costumer, they both acted, Mom danced. I did dance recitals from the time I could walk (excepting the year of the Terrible Ankle Sprain at age five), as did my sister. We were extras in plays that needed children until we were old enough to get cast in real parts, and my first line in a show I'd been cast in was, "Thou liest, thou shag-eared villain!", from Macbeth, when I was nine. I've been a fireman with two days' notice before the show opened. I've done lights and sound and helped build sets. That was the world I grew up in. I know good theatre from bad, and the difference between a good production and a good show.
"Rent" is not a good show.
The one production I saw of it was with my friends Spidey and Lei Ann in Boston, and it was a *brilliant* production of a not particularly good show. Don't get me wrong: "Rent" is powerful and pushes hot buttons, it's moving, there are characters to love and hate, there is some truly wonderful music, and if the productions are generally as good as the one I saw, it would be easy to mistake it for a great musical, but it isn't. (The *reason* it isn't is because the composer died, extremely dramatically, of a brain aneurysm a matter of hours before the show premiered, and the result was that things that might have otherwise been altered during its pre-opening run were suddenly sacrosanct, much to the show's detriment.)
When I heard they were making a movie of it I went, "Augh." When I heard that much of the original cast was going to be *in* the movie, I went "Augh" more, because the show is about a bunch of 20 year olds, and while many of them were in their early twenties when the show opened, they're not anymore, and I doubt very much that they've changed the ages of the characters to reflect the ages of the actors. (I'm not sure it'd be appropriate anyway, because in this era there's a certain angsty pathos that comes with being in your early twenties, even if you don't add in AIDS on top of that.)
All of this commentary is prompted by the fact that I saw a trailer for the movie "Rent" last night and I had the sudden astonishing thought that it might actually be better than the stage show.
From my perspective, this is kind of like saying, I don't know, that liver and onions have suddenly replaced hot fudge sundaes as everybody's favorite dessert. Films made of musicals aren't always travesties, but they very frequently are, and at best they're *different*, not *better* than the stage show.
But it's because they're different that the film of "Rent" might just turn out to be better than the stage show. It may be that the things that ought to have been taken out of the stage show will end up out of the movie.. There's no intermission, so the slow moments may end up getting dropped. You can cut things together differently in a film than is possible on stage, so that might help, too. The idea that the movie might do right what the stage show got wrong is completely fascinating to me. I'm really looking forward to seeing it now, to see if they *did* get it right where the show got it wrong.
And I had no idea Jesse L. Martin (who is playing Tom Collins, and who is .not. too old for the part) could sing, and I'd forgotten Taye Diggs was the original Benny and am, despite what I just said, glad he's reprising the role. I think Rosario Dawson is well-cast as Mimi, and I'll see what I think of the rest of the actors reprising their roles when the movie comes out. Vocally they'll be fine. It's just that while Taye Diggs doesn't look twenty-one, he also doesn't look a hard thirty-three*, which the actors playing Mark, Roger and Angel rather do.
*Taye Diggs, on his hardest, ugliest, oldest, most hideous day, would, mind you, still pretty much put Adonis to shame, so this is perhaps not a fair comparison.
current music: Seasons of Love, Rent
what's left this week:
-- revisions on "Ill Met", which I'll do tomorrow and Sunday and then just turn in without further feedback, because hey, it's due Monday.
-- author alterations on CARDINAL RULE, which are due Thursday. I'm hoping those'll be really fast and easy and I can do them all Monday and submit them Tuesday.
-- any final revisions I want to do on THUNDERBIRD FALLS, which are due "mid-August", so I need to get them in by Friday at the latest
also:
-- finish the PHOENIX LAW/Strongbox Chronicles 4-6 proposal
-- send commentary back to Matrice on the back cover copy for both CARDINAL RULE and THUNDERBIRD FALLS
-- write COYOTE DREAMS, which, thank God, isn't due til March
The downstairs is entirely painted. It is a different color of white than it used to be. It looks, essentially, exactly the same as before, except now it smells of new paint, and is perhaps brighter. The kitchen looks much nicer. And the garage is cleaned and organized and we did a dump run (well, the boys did) and ... we got a lot done yesterday, actually.
Today, because we are real party animals, we get to clean the downstairs in the "nuke it from orbit" sense of cleaning. Everything must go!
I didn't walk yesterday, which is *criminal*, because it's *insanely* beautiful out. :(
Ok. I'm just gonna go...get started.
Last time I tried to make a blog entry, the power went out. Let's see if it happens again. :)
I got very useful critiques on "Ill Met" from Sarah and Stella, and Silkie did her usual eye for detail thing and caught everything I'd mucked up as far as historical relevance is concerned, so I'll do revising this weekend and submit that baby on Monday.
Angie is the most completely absurd, cool person in the world, and as soon as I get my act together I'll show you why. All hail Angie, though. :)
Back to scrubbing walls now. Actually, I've moved on to the puttying up drill holes part, but why did no one ever tell me that 409 works wonders on cleaning grime off walls?
Hm. And maybe lunch. Er. Not 409 on my lunch. That'd be gross. Ew. Gross.
Done! I have to cut about 300 words, do a spell check, and send this to some people for feedback, but voila! Done! I rather like this silly little story!
But before I do the cutting and the sending, I yam going to go for a walk with the dorgy, as we've both been cooped up inside aaaaalllll daaaaay and it's very beautiful out.
ytd wordcount: 159,500
miles to Mount DOOOOOM: 34
Made blueberry jam this morning. I think I have nearly enough blueberry juice to make blueberry jelly, too. That'll be pretty.
Also wrote two chapters on "Ill Met by Moonlight". Gonna go write some more when I'm done with lunch. Lucy refused to help me write today. She lurked around my feet, but wouldn't get in my lap. Little bitch. :) Everyone *else* likes my writing nook setup, but she doesn't, 'cause she can't sit on my shins anymore while I write. :)
*laugh* Email this morning from the guy at the University bookstore in Seattle, who was enjoying URBAN SHAMAN until he got the latest GRRM manuscript in the mail, and who has now put US down in favor of GRRM. Oh, what a rough life I lead. Put down in favor of a book he (like all of us) has been waiting for for the last five years. *laugh* All I could think was, "Wow, it's a good thing I didn't get that manuscript in the mail, because I'm not sure my editor would understand, "Uh, I didn't get it done because if I didn't read this book I was going to DIE!" was a legitimate and truthful excuse." :)
Hm. I think that may not have been enough lunch. *goes to look for more*
Oogh. That's what orange-pineapple juice tastes like. I never knew that was what I was drinking when I drank that flavored stuff before. o.O It doesn't go with popcorn nearly as well as either pineapple juice or orange juice, I must say.
Ok, I'm trying to cull figurines. I have a lot of X-Men figurines and a few random other things. I don't need most of them, but I can't bring myself to throw them away. Would anyone be interested in any of the following, or to tell me where I might advertise them in such a fashion as they might actually be purchased? (None of them seem to be moving on eBay, so my little heart is not full of hope.)
Ultimate Magneto bust
Ultimate Storm bust
Ultimate Cyclops bust
Ultimate Jean Grey bust
Ultimate Beast bust
Ultimate Colossus bust
For the X stuff, there's also:
Nightcrawler mini-bust (1553/5000)
Wolverine mini-bust (4462/9000)
Sabretooth mini-bust (6545/7000)
Storm statue (728/3000)
Gambit statue (32/1000; mine is the 8" version of this, not the 12")
Rogue statue (630/1000)
And I also have:
Katchoo bust (135/200)
Francine bust (429/2000)
There's probably more, but that's all I've got out right now.
Rather than dink around until ten being vaguely grumpy that I hadn't yet talked myself into writing, I thought I'd just get a bunch of other shit done before ten and then do my writing.
So, thus far, I've made bread, started laundry, made jelly (oh wow does it smell good, too), and had breakfast. I'm going to go clean the kitchen and take strawberries out for tomorrow's jam. Then I'll write.
Damn, answering email eats up time. *posts and scurries*
ETA: argh. I found another bag of blackberries, which means I had enough to make blackberry jam after all, but now I don't, because I made razzleberry. I'll have to buy enough blackberries to make up the difference so there'll be blackberry jam. Fnrt.
As it turns out, *after* you have freshly painted the cupboards white is not the most clever time to make a very hot sticky bubbly substance which stains at the drop of a hat and absolutely cannot stop being stirred during its creation process to clean up after.
And man. I was just having a clumsy as hell day, too. Poured raspberry juice all over the counter, then as I was cleaning up dripped more on the cupboards. The formerly freshly white cupboards, which now need touch-ups. Sigh. Then when the jam began to boil it did so with a vengeance, at which time it struck me that wearing shorts and having bare feet was a bad idea while making an extremely hot sticky substance that spattered all over the place. At least I'd put an apron on.
Then I couldn't figure out why the pot of jars wasn't heating up. Eventually I realized it was because I had the coil on the 6" size instead of the 9" size. Unfortunately, I only realized that *after* the jam itself was done, so I had to haul the warm-but-not-hot jam pot over to the larger burner the jam had been on, in an attempt to rapidly heat the jars enough that pouring hot jam into them wouldn't make them shatter. (I succeeded.)
I made the usual terrible mess actually jarring the jam, although until the last jar it was actually quite a tidy process. I got jam on my fingers with the last jar, though, and it all went to hell.
I'm almost afraid to go make dinner. o.O :)
Hm. I think I need a cooking icon.
miles to Mount DOOOOM: 28
Ok, the down side to this weight loss thing is that it's 73 degrees in my house and I'm COLD. For pity's sake. o.O
Halfway through chapter four of "Ill Met by Moonlight". I'm enjoying my main character enormously, though she's now toned down some of her personality quirks in favor of trying to get things done. If I'm lucky I'll have enough words left over to add a bit more of her quirks back in, but 10K isn't very much. :)
Need to get chapter four done today. It'd be nice to get five done, too, but just one a day will give me a few days to do edits before it's due.
Still no jam.
HOORAY for EBear, who has won the Campbell Award for Best New Writer! *beam* Yay! *dances around happily*! Now whenever I refer to her I shall have to say "Campbell Award winning author", like whenever actors who've won Oscars are referred to they're called "Academy Award winning actor". I'm sure it shall get ever so tiresome. :)
YAY BEAR! *beam*!
miles to Mount DOOOOOM: 24
Every time I take one of the size eight pairs of jeans out to put on, I look at how small they are and I think, "This is never going to work." So far, though, it keeps working.
And it struck me that writing is rather a lot like that. Especially doing something like a short story, 'cause I'm not accustomed to them. I've got about 3.5K written on this story. My conscious brain keeps thinking, "This is never going to work," while the rest of me goes ahead and tries it on, as it were. I suspect that over the course of 10,000 words, it is in fact going to work. It always does. (I have this happen with pretty much everything I write, mind you, but when I'm writing something a tenth the length of what I normally write, the "This is never going to work" bit kicks in rather a lot sooner than it would in a novel-length piece. :))
I didn't make jam yesterday, but I did get berries out to thaw so I can make jam today. I need to do some sanding, some painting, walk the dog, and write some more.
I'm horribly confused at what day it is. Not only is the whole weekends on Thursday and Friday thing confusing, but to compound it, from my point of view the entire first week of August pretty much just went *pft, gone!* because I was out at the cabin for 3 and a half days. So I'm still back there around the 2nd or 3rd, and everybody else is heading into the 8th. And then just the off-set weekends. I was out walking yesterday and seeing people having open houses and things and thinking, "Monday is a VERY WEIRD day to have an open hou...oh. Right. Everybody else thinks it's Saturday." Poor easily-confused Kit. :)
All right. Walking. Sanding. Writing. Painting. Which doesn't leave much time for jam, dammit, but the berries are out so the jam must be made.
...and any afternoon that starts off with an interview request has got to be a good one. I just got email from a woman at science fiction/fantasy/horror podcast site(s) Dragonpage/Slice of Sci-Fi asking if I'd be interested in doing an interview with them for their book-focused show, "Cover to Cover". What I don't know about podcast could fill libraries, but hell, Cory Doctorow thinks they're cool, and if Cory Doctorow thinks they're cool I'm pretty much willing to run with that. Besides, their sites are well put together, which is my personal litmus test.
Man, they've got a lot of cool interviews. I'm going to have to spend some time listening to them now!
Back to work. I'm feeling all inspired all of a sudden, for some reason. :)
miles to Mount DOOOOM: 21
Any morning that begins with getting fan mail is a good morning.
But now I'm procrastinating, reading about sleep paralysis instead of working on my short story. Perhaps a Thinks list will help.
thinks to do today:
1. write
2. walk
3. write (unless I get a lot done with the first 'write')
4. bike
5. paint
*considers it* Nope. Not feeling any more inspired.
*goes to work anyway*
ETA:
7. make jam
There. Now I feel much more enthusiastic about everything. :)
Huh. Ted and I just got back from seeing "Stealth", which was much better than it had any right to be, if you overlook the basic problem with the premise, which is, as Trip said, "Here, let's take this insanely expensive and complicated piece of technology and hit it with a rock to make it work better."
(My basic problem with the premise was that the trailer introduces Jaime Foxx as the focus of the story and then has the babe clearly hooking up with the other dude for no other apparent reason than that the other dude is white.)
However, overlooking those two basic problems, actually quite good. Not, in fact, at all the movie that the trailers suggest, which is entirely to the good. I mean, it's not a work of everlasting genius to echo down the ages as a hallmark of mankind's brilliance, but not a bad way to spend a couple hours. Huh!
miles to Mount Doom: 17
They are paving my walk path. Sigh. I will be glad when these people are done mucking with my routes. Chanti, OTOH, who doesn't know better, was just about literally beside herself with spasms of delight because she got to go for a WALK, which she hasn't gotten to do in DAYS. Later we'll go for a better walk, but I was baking bread, so we couldn't go for a long one.
Ok, that wasn't very exciting, but I'm off to run errands now, so zoom.
I'm baaaaaack!
Apparently no one at Too actually noticed I was gone. There's a come-uppance for you. :)
It was a wonderfully productive three days. I finished the TBF revisions, aside from a nit here and there that I'll take care of today or tomorrow. Probably tomorrow. The only awful thing that happened was the computer, for some reason, decided to lose about two hours worth of work. I honestly have no idea what went wrong. I'd been saving religiously and making backup files, and it just went *fwip*, gone. But I was able to recreate what I'd lost (after cursing roundly for a while), and so all was well.
I did the synopsis for PHOENIX LAW, and I'm actually pretty happy with it. (Synopses are hard!) I got a bit done on the proposal for the next three Strongbox Chronicles, which will feature a new character, and I got a few hundred words written on "Ill Met by Moonlight", which is the working title for the eHarlequin short story.
Oh, and I woke up from a very vivid SF dream in the middle of the night on Tuesday and wrote it down, so not only did I get all the things I wanted to worked on, but I also came home with the very bare bones for another book. Go team go!
I should have brought a camera. It's so gorgeous out there, and the fog on the lake every morning was just beautiful. Mostly it rained (I did not go swimming), but since I was tucked into the cabin anyway, that didn't matter at all. I got away with only about 5 bug bites (which, when you're using an outhouse for three days and four nights, is quite the miracle) and I managed to kill all the little bastardly bloodsuckers before they actually got to suck my blood. They merely poisoned me. Still, one takes one's victories where one can. :)
I slept when I would normally have taken walks, because I didn't feel like dealing with bug spray, and no way was I going to walk without it. My sleep schedule is all goofy now. :) The lil' space heater was perfect (I left it at the cabin, because I don't have an overwhelming need for it at home, and the Lyses can now use it if they don't want to build a fire in the wood stove!) and I wasn't cold at all. I brought more than enough food, and discovered that while I once considered Dinty Moore beef stew to be a guilty weakness, I now think it tastes like rabbit vomit. Next time I will prepare more home-cooked foods to bring out and heat up.
It was a *really* *great* retreat. Next time I have revisions to do, I will remember the cabin *sooner*!
I came home to read all about the RWA Nationals kerfluffle and to be glad I wasn't there after all, and to pictures of my nephews who are *astoundingly* cute, and to email from my agent with some notes about FIREBIRD DECEPTION and a comment that I kept turning in manuscripts that made her feel like she wasn't working at all. I think that's a perfectly wonderful compliment. *beam*
There was also a note from the assistant editor at Harlequin saying the CARDINAL RULE AAs were in the mail and would need to be back at HQN by the 18th. *laugh* That makes three, count 'em, three, projects due in the third week of August. The CR AAs also make for the 3rd book(novella) I'll have put to bed, which makes me run around going *boggle*. *boggle*! Just like that! *boggle*
Poor Ted is turrible sleepy (he doesn't sleep well when I'm not home), but I'm awful glad to see him, and Shaun is downstairs painting cabinets, for which he is wonderful. And I am feeling insanely relaxed and rested and capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound, which is a damned good thing, because there's a whole lot to do in the next ten days.