Yesterday I took the day off (not so much because of the failed computer, because I write on a different computer, but because I needed it) and worked on my sunburn. It was practically the only opportunity there’s been this summer to work on it, so I did a nice job:

That comparatively white stripe there is where my purse strap was slung across my body. A wise and clever Kit I am not.

Yesterday my husband carried a tree home. I admired his manliness. :) It’s an apple tree! I come from a land where food does not grow on trees, so I’m very excited. (I said that to Ted and he looked at me like I was a nutcase. After a while, though, he had to admit it was true. I *do* come from a land where food doesn’t grow on trees.) Later today I’ll go out and put our tree in a larger pot than it’s currently in. It will be wuvwey, as my nephews used to say. Possibly Seirid still does. They’re coming out to visit my parents for a few days. We haven’t seen them in a few months, so that’ll be cool. Yay! :)

I need to either go to the phone store and get a SIM card that will work in the States, or I need someone to verify this amazing story that my parents told me: that you can buy a throw-away pre-paid phone at, like, Walmart or gas stations these days. Is this true? If it is, can I impose upon someone in the States (er, ideally somebody in San Diego, I suppose, certainly someone who’ll be there) to pick one up for me, and I can Paypal or repay you next week? That would give me a cell phone number over there that I could hand out while I still have email access, which would be V. Handy.

Today I could do fun things, like work on my Project365 photos (boy, i’ve really fallen down on that. I’ve missed at least a week by now, I think…). I could, except I have One Zillion Things that need doing before I go to San Diego, and today I must accomplish at least one and possibly two or three of them. So, thinks to do:

- FRWL revisions, finally and for real
- answer Yanni’s email, ideally with the FRWL revisions *attached*
- email that inker guy
- tell Jason he rocks my socks

(…those are all really pretty easy to accomplish today. cool.)

thinks to do tomorrow:
- complete a travel grant application for London
- decide on & get started on a grant application for next year
- work on the IMPERATOR’S HEIR proposal

miles to Isengard: 97.8

currently: busy

As I went up to Dunamore along the river way
I heard the blackbirds fluting low
Among the osiers gray.

And they were tuning for themselves
In sweetly stumbling rhyme
Half-minded chords learned long ago
From harps of olden time.

–F.J.J. Malone

I have been out in the garden, losing the good fight, and now it’s pouring rain (as opposed to only spitting it, which it’s been doing for most of the time I was out there), so I’ve slunk inside until the rain lets off, and give you a silly quiz instead of any real content:

- June 1 -
You are stylish, friendly and funny. You have the potential to think deeply and rationally and you always have time for your friends.
Positive Traits: determination, self-confidence, willpower, dignity, originality
Negative Traits: stubborn, willful, over-sensitive, arrogant, lack of foresight
‘What does your Birthdate mean?’ at QuizGalaxy.com

Well, parts of it are accurate….

I reached 70K on TPC yesterday. That’s theoretically the halfway point. I am now attempting to Make The House Right so that I can go into my office five days a week for the next two weeks and write like holy living hell so I can try to have the rough draft of this book done before P-Con. Of course, if I succeed I may be in no mental state to *be* a guest of honor, but I usually do manage to get by if I have an audience.

Anyway, I guess trying to make the house right includes attacking the garden, which is attacking back at full strength. I think the rain’s let up, so I’m going to go back out there. Later I’ll do something easy, like tidy my office (that really is easy. I keep my work space surprisingly neat).

currently: hot

Working on the sixth Chance script, which isn’t going very fast at all, in part because typing is still difficult and in part because I’ve been…just not working, really. My fingers are vastly improved, but not better by any stretch of the imagination. This morning Zilli got under Ted’s feet and went YOWL and it scared me and my hands clenched and my fingers went YOWL too, because they’re nowhere near that bendy yet. They’re yellow and black now, mostly; I think the suface damage has largely healed but the deeper stuff is still black and stiff. This is a real you-know-what in the ass, as a teenage friend said to her mother (”Holly,” said her mother, “it’s all right to say ‘pain’.”), and I absolutely *can’t* type at Nook, because it requires way too much twisting of my wrists to be able to reach the keys that would usually be hit with the pinky and ring fingers. I will be very glad when this is healed. :p

Anyway, this morning while I was working on the Chance script, I had this moment, which I’m sure there’s a good non-English word for, of a combined “Holy shit, how did I get into this and how could anybody possibly think I know what I’m doing?” and “Y’know, actually, I think I might not be bad at this.”

I suspect, actually, that that more or less summarizes the mental space many writers find themselves in a lot of the time.

The remainder of this entry has nothing at all to do with writing, but a lot to do with living and fitting in in Ireland. It may fall under the heading of Obligatory Livejournal Wangst, although I don’t mean to snivel nor am I especially looking to elicit sympathy. Still, you’ve been warned.

Read the rest of this entry…

currently: frustrated