Category Archives: Blog

Full of cheesecake and spinach dip

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britzkrieg and rigel_kent brought a veritable feast with them when they came over last night. Cheesecake and soda and veggies and spinach dip and beer and deviled eggs and bubbly mineral water. Oof. Still stuffed full of chocolate mousse cheesecake and spinach dip. Mmm, spinach dip. As far as the movie went, it’s amazing how much they added to the extended version! Then again, considering the thing’s over four hours long, perhaps that’s not so amazing. Shiny Lord of the Ring goodness. Oooo.

And they got me Tanith Lee’s 34 (written as Esther Garber) for Christmas! *wiggles with glee* Trying to force myself to hold off on reading it so I can bring it with me when we go to visit the in-laws, but I don’t think I’ll be able to exercise that much self-restraint.

Hobkin was mostly good. He ran amok for a bit and stole a carrot and sugar snap pea from the vegetable tray (and then didn’t deign to eat them), but mostly he flopped beside me. He was pretty tuckered out from all the excitement though. After our guests left, he slept very hard. Got himself a case of major sleep fur:


And was quite indignant when I started snapping pictures of him all disheveled and all.

It was an excellent night. Much fun had by all! Thanks for the wonderful time, britzkrieg and rigel_kent!

Insane traffic

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Had a doctor’s appointment yesterday at 4:30. The traffic was ludicrously horrible. Stupid me for scheduling an appointment during rush hour right off I-285W, but I hadn’t expected it to be that bad. I was pretty excited merging from 400 to 285 if I was moving. Sheesh. It’s a good thing I allowed myself plenty of time to get there. With various and sundry driving I had to do yesterday, I estimate I was on the road for over three hours. Yuck.

The doctor wants to see me again in four months. When the nurse who handles his appointments asked me if 4:30 was good for me again, I replied with a whole-hearted, vehement “no!” So my follow-up appointment is at 11. Here’s hoping I don’t get caught in the lunch hour rush. But it can’t possibly be as awful as eager commuters on their drive home . . . Can it?

Tonight britzkrieg and rigel_kent are coming over for a festive viewing of the extended DVD version of Return of the King on our big screen TV. Hurray!



Writing Stuff:

Finished my review for Tangent of this week’s Sci-Fiction story. Must make sure I do next week’s promptly, as after Wednesday, I’ll be totally caught up in Foster family holiday traditions and celebrations, and I doubt I’ll have time or inclination to write a review.

Saw on the Speculations Rumor Mill that norilana was doing a Holiday Giveaway of her two books Dream of the Compass Rose and Lords of Rainbow for reviews. Of course, being a total book-a-holic, I glomped on the offer and soon Dreams of the Compass Rose will magically appear in my mailbox (via the USPS fairy). Very much looking forward to what promises to be an excellent read.

Received nine critiques from Critters so far on the fantasy princess story. Currently, the overall consensus is positive, save for the ending, which readers find too abrupt and unclear. Irked, I read it through again, and found I was totally inclined to agree with that assessment. I’ve already started on a fairly major nip and tuck to the ending to get it patched up. Not in a huge rush, as my first market of choice for this one is Cicada, and currently the Cricket group is considering three submissions of mine to their various publications, and I’ve got a queue of backlogged stories waiting when those clear. Still not 100% sure if this is a good YA fit, but I’ll leave that for my lovely editor to decide.

Word count: 350 on the princess fantasy + two editing passes + 200 on the SF WIP.

And the SF story is done, done, done! It’s in terrible need of a major edit before I want to show it to Matthew, but I’ve got the whole story down from beginning to end! What a relief.

Sometimes, when I finish something, I just have a feeling, a certainty that “this is good stuff.” Other times, I know it’s not my best. Of course, it seems to make no difference what my thoughts on the matter are regarding how quickly and to where it sells, but I do have an opinion of the completed project. On this one, I haven’t decided how I feel yet.

Club 100 for Writers
28/100

500/day
16

*snog*

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Feeling better today, although still nasally challenged. Went into work clutching my magical bag of pharmaceuticals. All hail the Sudafed gods. Fortunately, it was a fairly quiet day in the office as people are winding down for the holidays. I sat in a snoggy haze, dazedly plucking at my computer and drinking tea, without too much interference.

Received an adorable Harry & David holiday moose jar stuffed with two bags of moose munch nibblings from teflaime yesterday. *waves* Thanks, sweetie! During one of my less phlegmy episodes, Matthew and I wolfed down a bowl of moose munch while watching Christmas in Connecticut with our new moose friend.

Also watched the SciFi channel’s adaptation of Ursula K. LeGuin’s Earthsea novels. Well, they certainly took an interesting approach to the classic trilogy. I guess it made sense to merge all the storylines so as to diminish the elapsed time that happens across the novels. Also to introduce a love interest, mutate the religion of Atuan and all of Earthsea, totally change the personalities of major characters, and . . . no, wait. It didn’t really make sense. Actually, it pretty much sucked. I hear Phobos acquired the screen rights to The Left Hand of Darkness. I hope they can do a better job of adapting it than the SciFi channel did with Earthsea.



Writing Stuff:

Critiqued a story for Critters (yours, Canadiansuzanne) and started my review for Tangent of this week’s Sci-Fiction. My princess fantasy story goes up today at Critters.

Word count: 500 on the SF WIP. Hard to get back into the swing of things after being a couch slug for several days. But this story is getting very close to the “done” state.

Club 100 for Writers
26/100

500/day
14

Still sick

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Still feeling somewhat crappy today, so decided to take another day off. *sneeze* I don’t think the frigid icy snap we’re having, courtesy Canada, is doing me any good. The incredible dryness reminiscent of Midwestern winters is certainly not.

In better news, cpolk did the Santa hat meme with my Hobkin icon. Isn’t it adorable? I have hereby swiped it for the holidays.

A Christmas Carol, Christmas shopping, *cough cough sneeze*

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Went to see A Christmas Carol at the Shakespeare Tavern on Saturday. It was, by far, the best production–play, movie, whatever–of that Charles Dickens classic that I have ever experienced. I’ve been feeling pretty saturated on the CC front for several years now, and I was actually not all that enthusiastic about Saturday’s theater outing as I was beginning to come down with some phlegmy cold symptoms, but we had the tickets so out I went. They started with several, lovely madrigalish carols and I was laughing out loud within the first five minutes of the first scene, a state of mirth I generally maintained for the whole play. Not that there weren’t poignant bits; but, like with all productions at the Shakespeare Tavern, the director knows that humor is the best stage device there is. I’m still blown away by their amazing sense of pacing. Never a dull moment. It got us properly into the festive, holiday spirit. I highly recommend the Tavern’s Christmas Carol to any and all in the Atlanta area. Go see it before the run ends!

Did a lot of prezzie shopping over the weekend. Continue reading →

Christmas shopping, but mostly Writing.

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Ugh, feeling very behind on Christmas shopping efforts. I suspect this weekend will be jam packed full of shopping adventure. I imagine Hobkin will be verily displeased.



Writing Stuff:

Did a critique for a critter on hiatus (our mutual friend, britzkrieg) which actually made my day. I’m glad to know he’s still writing, and the story was excellent.

Got a note back from Carina. She can’t get me the full critique as she’s going out of town for the weekend, but she said she really liked my story! Okay, I’m sending it off to market now.

Received word from Andrew that my princess fantasy has been bumped up the queue and will go up next week. Good timing that.

Word count: 600 on the SF WIP. Entering the climax. And suddenly I’m in the homestretch. A couple more days and I might actually finish this one.

Club 100 for Writers
25/100 – one quarter of my goal. And now even when I don’t feel like writing, I’m loathe not to make an effort at it because I don’t want to start all over again at “1.” Plus I find that if I force myself to at least try, I can get 100 words no problem, and 500 with just a bit of muse-coaxing. Neato.

500/day
13

Hobkin is a good boy

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Hobkin is such a good boy! The flu-like symptoms I was having, well, seems they were a pretty low-grade flu . . . which I’ve subsequently conferred upon the poor fuzzwit. After dinner, he was cuddled up with me on the couch, and suddenly he jumped up and went scampering away. Now that isn’t an uncommon occurrence, so I didn’t think anything of it until the unmistakable sounds of a skunk being sick to his stomach started coming from the kitchen. I sprang up to check on him, and found him sicking up with his head in his litter pan. Poor lil guy.

Hobkin’s very good about running to his area to be sick (which has a nice, linoleum floor, making it much easier to clean than carpet), but this was the first time he was considerate enough to do so right in his litter box! I praised him effusively and gave him a mint sandwich (Pepto Bismol on bread) to ease his tummy.

Hobkin is such a good boy. And he seems much better today.



Writing Stuff:

Wrote a review for this week’s Sci-Fiction story for Tangent, as well as a Scrybe Press synopsis for Nathan, a critique for Critters, and many belated thank you emails. Also did a rewrite pass on the slipstream story. It’s garnered eighteen critiques so far. I’ll give it another day for the final critiques to trickle in, then send it off to market.

Word count: 500 on the SF WIP.

Club 100 for Writers
23/100

500/day
11

Mostly Writing

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More Christmas shopping, check. No more flu-like symptoms, hurray! Could it be that my flu shot nipped it in the bud? It’s more likely I ate something that didn’t like being eaten yesterday . . .



Writing Stuff:

My review of this week’s Sci-Fiction story, “The Dragons of Summer Gulch” by Robert Reed, is now up at Tangent.

Heard that the current managing editor of Tangent is stepping down in January. There’s some uncertainty whether the publication will continue after that happens. I guess they’re looking for a replacement managing editor, unless Dave Truesdale agrees to resume the helm he relinquished a year ago. I hope they find someone. I really have enjoyed writing reviews for them.

Word count: 500. Launching back into the SF story.

Club 100 for Writers
22/100

500/day
10