Category Archives: Blog

Getting ready for Dragon*Con. What to wear; what to wear? Something that goes with my new chainmail wings that I got at , I think.

Matthew posted the schedule grid on the Daily Dragon web site. I stuck a hit counter on the page, something I’ve been meaning to do since, err, last year. And Matthew’s getting templates set up so that we’ll be able to handle articles and schedule updates as efficiently as possible. Man, I hope they have fewer schedule changes this year. Last year we got nailed really hard. There was hardly any room for articles in the paper copies for all the schedule updates, and we spent way too much time writing up and publishing those. I much prefer doing articles and reporting on panels.

We’ll be on-site on Thursday, helping to set up in the media room (Hyatt rm 219). Very short week for me this week. Huzzah!

Matthew and I went over the posted schedule trying to figure out what we want to go to and report on. This year there didn’t seem as many “must do”s as there were last year, but then again, it seems that there’re fewer big names guests too. ‘Course the lineup they had last year was pretty amazing: Harlan Ellison, Anthony Daniels, and Laurell K. Hamilton–not to mention just about the whole B5 crew. This year does have the B5 folks again. And Ann Crispin. She’s going to be in a slew of panels but I’m going to be spending six hours workshopping with her so I’m not sure how many of her panels I’ll hit.

Speaking of which, I’ve starting work on outlining a novel for her workshop. Gleep. Did I mention that I don’t outline well? And that I haven’t managed a novel-length work to completion yet? Gleep. I don’t even know how many chapters I ought to have! Much stress.

On the Critters front, halfway through the tri-week and 11 crits for “Two Minds” and 21 for “Springtime.” I think “Two Minds” is the stronger story. I would rather have gotten more feedback on that one, but I’m competing against myself and “Springtime” is several thousand words less than “Two Minds.” Grump. Several people have done both of them, though. I should buy those folks a soda or something. Unfortunately, sending food via the USPS seems like a bad idea. Maybe a virtual donut?

It’s hard waiting three weeks for a story to finish its review. I’ve already made revisions to “Two Minds” from the feedback I’ve received and am itching to send it out. But I’m holding off until all of the critiques come in . . . in another week and a half. I hate getting a crit that points out a typo or comes up with a superior phrasing after I’ve mailed something off.

I can’t believe how fast August is winging by.

Matthew was quite pleased with his prezzie. I got him a DVD player for the living room. Our home theater DVD player is wired so that it can send to the downstairs TV, but someone had to scamper upstairs to load the disc and hit play, and now we don’t. Now we just have to scamper upstairs to get a disc. Err. Hmm. I foresee a lot of DVDs trailing between the living room and the home theater.

Hobkin is fond of raw jalapeno peppers. They’re inexpensive and rich in vitamin C so he gets a lot of them. But every time I cut them up, I can’t touch my face or it just burns for hours afterwards, no matter how many times I wash my hands. Sheesh, what does it take to get the stuff off?

Anyway, Hobkin had jalapenos at dinner. Ever since I’ve been gone, he’s been extra cuddlesome, and since he’s letting me, I’ve been spending a lot of time with him nuzzled up against my neck and kissing his face. (Yes, I’m a girlie-girl and do cutsie things with Hobkin–so sue me.) Well, jalapeno really lingers. Every time he nuzzled my lips or my face I’d get a zing burn and he’d also nibble my fingers and again, more zing.

Gawd how can he eat that stuff? He seems to like it and the burn doesn’t apparently bother him (although he does spend extra time “killing” jalapenos–maybe they sting his paws and he thinks they’re still alive?). But youch. I managed to get a touch of jalapeno from my fingers to my eye when I was putting my contact lenses in this morning. This despite washing my hands several times. Ack. And ouch.

It’s Matthew’s birthday today!

I’m so happy that my class got docked from a five-day to a three-day so I could come home in time for his birthday. Happy dance.

I’m making his favorite: chocolate pie. We had a mini party last week with everyone here where he opened one of the presents I got him (boxed set of the 3rd season of Jeeves and Wooster on DVD). He gets to open his big prezzie tonight.

Everyone sing it with me:

Happy birthday, O happy birthday
Sorrow, gloom, and despair,
People dying everywhere

Happy birthday, O happy birthday
One year closer to your death
And your last gasping breath

Happy birthday, O happy birthday

Haven’t had a chance to update my LJ recently. So much happening. Minor lull right now, but it’s more of a hurricane eye.

Got back from my training class last night. Glarg. I don’t travel well on my own. Woke up to my alarm this morning and was highly tempted to take today off. I didn’t ’cause this is my long week so I’d still have to come in tomorrow. Plus next week is Dragon*Con, and I’m already taking a day off then. But blah, I’m wiped.

My class was dull, but informative. Coffee was my friend.

Flew up with Mike and Paul. Mike upgraded all of us to business class. Wasn’t that nice of him? Much more fun flying with people than doing it alone. Saw a guy waiting in Hartsfield for the same flight we were. He was beautiful. Waves of red hair down to his waist pulled away from a classically sculptured face in a pony tail. Drool. I angled Mike beside me so when I talked to him, I could ogle the pretty, pretty man. I’ve seen him at my corporate complex. I’m pretty sure he’s a consultant that my company contracts. Didn’t know he lived in Atlanta. Small world.

Going back to Illinois always leaves me feeling strangely nostalgic. Don’t miss the place at all, but seriously miss the people we left behind. Sigh.

Nick just got back from a trip to Japan. We poured through six rolls of pictures he took. Mostly Kyoto, with a few shots of Tokyo. Kyoto is a beautiful place with a decidedly magical feel. Didn’t hurt that a lot of his pictures were of temples and cemeteries. I’ve never felt particularly interested in touring the Far East. My previous experiences have not been conducive to me being interested in repeating them, but maybe it’d be nice to visit Japan.

Max just got back from Europe. He spent the summer touring London and the English countryside, with a quick stop over to Paris. I remember London. Sigh. Definitely need to go back. Max has got French citizenship on his father’s side and wants to move to London after he graduates. Maybe in a year or so, I’ll have a friend in London! Sweet. And then he can send me UK postage for my SASEs! It’s the little things . . .

I’m glad to be back home. I missed Matthew and Hobkin terribly. Racked up some fat long distance bills from my hotel room. Hobkin looks bigger. I fell asleep on the couch and he hopped up and snuggled against me.

Have written zero words in the last two weeks. Argh. My brain feels like congealed oatmeal. Ann (Crispin), when she called last weekend, also asked me to bring a novel outline to the workshop. ACK! I told her I didn’t have a novel in the works currently, but she still thought I should assemble a novel idea and let her see it. Stressing. Much stressing. Need my brain to start functioning. Any time now. Tap tap tap. Waiting . . .

No time to update my journal recently. Stole a bit of time thanks to early AM insomnia. Mixed blessing that. Actually, haven’t slept at all tonight. Many people in our house, much catching up, much gaming, happy happy. We Dream Masqued until the wee hours. Matthew killed us. Twice. I was so wired I couldn’t get to sleep. Probably the two cups of coffee and the No-Doz had something to do with that too.

Bleary now.

On Writing
Received:
My 100th and 101st rejection letters yesterday. Blah. We had chocolate pie to celebrate.

The galley proofs for “Second Daughter” from Leading Edge. They look fantastic! Had a couple itty-bitty edits and one formatting blurb which I’ve sent off to them. Excited to see it when it comes out in October!

A call from A.C. Crispin regarding my story submission to her Advanced Writers Workshop at D*C this year. She really liked my story; she said the ending made her cry! I’m still bouncing off the walls (or is that the caffein?) She called ’cause she wanted me to send her an electronic copy so she can show it to some other writer people (Kathleen O’Malley and Victoria Strauss) for their opinions. My heart just about flung itself through my chest when she said that. She thought “Running On Two Legs” was good enough to show to her writing colleagues! She also suggested I send it to Asimov’s which I will do immediately after I make whatever tweaks are necessary after her workshop.

5 crits each so far and counting for my two stories up for review at Critters. As always, some excellent feedback, some not-so-much. Will be more curious this time around when I do my end breakdowns for these.

Brain powering down. And yet, still awake. That can’t be good.

Cross-posted to .

Okay, so we’re having houseguests this week. Friday Paul arrived and Hobkin started acting kind of stressed, even though he obviously likes him. Paul’s taken on the role of beloved uncle with Hobkin, wrestling and playing with him for hours on end, and our fuzzhead is adoring the attention. Hobkin even crawled into and curled up on Paul’s lap for a nap on Sunday. But he was still obviously stressed by the change in his habitat–he was snappish, easily startled, and frequently forgot where the litter pan was. Not good.

On the SkunkChat board, there’s something that a lot of people recommend for stressed critters called Rescue Remedy. Shelters often use it on their new arrivals to de-stress them, and I’ve heard several veterinary support people now from different clinics saying that they always keep some on hand to use in emergency situations on traumatized animals (hit by cars, etc.) of all species.

A little research revealed that Rescue Remedy is apparently a combination of five flower essences (Cherry Plum, Clematis, Impatiens, Rock Rose, and Star of Bethlehem) put out by the Bach Centre. It’s intended for humans, but the primary use I’ve heard of appears to be on animals, although one of the people on the SkunkChat board also uses it when she has an asthma attack.

Now Matthew and I aren’t big into the homeopathic medicine thing, so we were dubious. And we’re also not keen on the idea of drugging up our furchild, but it was obvious that Hobkin was freaked, so we went out and bought some at the local health store.

After consulting with the various skunk experts, we’ve started him on 3-4 drops four times a day. And it seems to be working. He was a bundle of nerves all weekend, and yesterday, after two doses of the stuff, he was almost his old self. He became less bitey and jumpy, and experienced a near-complete return of proper bathroom habits. Additionally, he’s not drugged or doped out either. He’s alert and playful and affectionate. Yay!

But here’s the thing, the flower essences are distilled by brandy. The Rescue Remedy is 14 proof! We are assured that the dose is safe for him, but now we’re wondering, are we snookering up our skunk? Is he calmer ’cause of the flower essences or is he calmer ’cause we’re giving him four drops of brandy four times a day? Or even is he calmer just ’cause he’s gotten used to Paul being around? Ack!

There’s also a Rescue Remedy skin cream which we might try as an alternative.

I haven’t heard anything bad about this stuff from any of the myriad resources we’ve consulted, but has anyone else had any experience with it or any of the other Bach infusions? Zounds.

“Drunk as a skunk” has taken on new meaning in our household.

I’ve heard from several sources now about a recent decrease in efficiency and reliability in the USPS. It would seem that a lot of the older, experienced, reliable postal carriers are retiring about now, and they’re being replaced by younger, less experienced and less conscientious people, or not being replaced at all so that the remaining carriers are even more overworked and bitter than they were before.

On a first hand basis: last weekend, the Saturday mail carrier got everyone’s mail in our cul-de-sac off by one box. The neighbor to our right got our mail, we got the neighbor’s to our left, etc. Our neighbors are cool and we all just traded our mail back to each other, so no harm done in the end, but it diminished my already flagging confidence in the USPS.

As a writer, I live and die by the coming of the mail. This trend blows billy goats.

On the writing front:

Nothing from this weekend and I don’t expect to be able to crank much out until . . . shit. Until next month! Between houseguests, my training trip, and Dragon*Con, I don’t see how I’m going to have the time to work on anything. Dang.

But I did manage to do enough crits on Critters for another MPC this week. That’s sort of like writing. Kinda.

Our friend Paul is here!

I’m the only one awake right now. Hobkin is napping on my lap and the boys are still asleep. The house is so quiet, but with a full sort of quiet. It’s nice.

Traffic going into town was pretty congested on Friday when we went to pick Paul up from the airport. Matthew and I pulled into hourly parking a little after his flight was scheduled to arrive at the gate. I was a little antsy ’cause I didn’t want to leave Paul standing around at our predetermined meeting place wondering “Gosh, I wonder where Eugie and Matthew are.”

Matthew says: “Relax. Unless they throw him out of a window as soon as the plane pulls into the gate and he sprints to the terminal, he’s not going to be there yet.”

And, of course, we do indeed stand around for a couple minutes, discussing what flight the people mobbing the baggage claim carousel have come in from, before Paul steps up behind us.

Matthew proceeds to pat him down saying: “Hmm, no broken glass, no broken bones . . .”

I burst into laughter and then we have to explain to a somewhat perplexed (but accustomed to our antics) Paul what the joke is.

Paul brought a stack of DVDs he wanted to show us down with him, and so far we’ve seen The Royal Tenenbaums and Mallrats. (Paul’s a huge Kevin Smith fan.) Tenenbaums was a great romp, with jaw-dropping, macabre humor. We greatly enjoyed it. But, um, I’ll just be nice and say that Mallrats was not one of Kevin Smith’s better works. It was something we needed to see, though, in order to top off our Kevin Smith repertoire.

Hobkin really likes Paul, but nevertheless is completely stressed out at having someone new invading his territory. It’s worrisome ’cause Paul’s got the Animal Thang (*), and especially seems to have a rapport with skunks. Makes me anxious about how he’s going to be next week when we’ll be adding 2.5 more houseguests. (The .5 is ’cause one of our friends got a room at a close hotel for the duration of his stay just in case he turned out being allergic to Hobkin and needed a clean space to sleep.)

I’ve really missed Paul. We didn’t have any reservations about moving to Georgia when the opportunity to do so presented itself, except when it came to leaving behind some of the people. Paul is one of those people. A lot.

But he’s here now.

(*) Animal Thang – what I call the Zen that some people have with animals where they can understand and get along with them better than people without it.

Somehow or other, the last week hasn’t properly registered. I just looked up at my calendar, and realized it was August! How did that happen?

*Blink*

In other news: our friend Paul is flying down from the Midwest to visit us tomorrow. We’re getting a mini-exodus of folks coming in to celebrate Matthew’s birthday over the next week+. He’ll be joined by Max next Wednesday and then Mike and Patrick the following Friday. Gaming, hot tubbing, and an evening at the Shakespeare Tavern. Woo! Fun will ensue. And I must find some time to bake a cake . . .

Writing stats:
– Culled 1000 words in some heavy editing of “Only Springtime.” Another run through and I’ll toss up the revision to Critters for next week’s review.
– Speaking of Critters, Andrew’s doing a triple-week next week. I’ve got “Only Springtime” going in then, but I’ve also got my high fantasy story completed and ready to go. It’s in zero draft status now, but another day of work will get it into first draft shape. I was set to MPC it for the week of the 21st, but Andrew’s announcement means than if I wait, it won’t hit until September 4th. Otherwise, I can put it up with an MPC for next week for the triple-week, but that means I’ll have two stories in the same review batch, which I don’t like doing. Argh. I’ve got until the weekend to decide on how I want to handle that.
– And a veritable bevy of Critters used their MPCs this week. There are three people up for review just in the MPCs alone that I want to do, including prosewitch‘s.

This is going to be a heavy crit and re-write week, I see.

Yesterday was a blah day. I accomplished nothing and felt grumpy while doing (or rather not doing) it. But fortunately I groked the error of my ways before I’d spiraled too deeply into my pit of grumpitude. The problem was, I’ve been trying to pull back on the caffeine throttle and apparently when I do that I lose any motivation to function productively.

One steaming cup of java later and I’ve:

– Assembled submission packets for and mailed off two stories into the market place.
– Cranked out 3000 words on the zero draft of the high fantasy piece I’ve been working on. It’s now at 7500 words. And draft zero is complete! Huzzah! It will need tweaking and editing, and first readering before it makes it to draft one status, but I suspect I’ll get it up to the Critters queue in a few days. I’ll probably MPC it for the week of the 21st.
– Discovered that my training class will be a 3-day rather than a 5-day class. Huzzah! Have since ragged corporate travel to change my itinerary accordingly.

Not too shabby for one little cup of coffee. And my headache’s gone too.