Rain, rain, rain

It always seems to rain at inconvenient times. The day we had the movers moving all of our stuff into the house -- rain. Today, when I'm supposed to be moving stuff from the apartment to the house -- rain. And cold rain at that. What happened to that nice weather we were having?

I've got almost everything packed up at this point at least. And a lot of it in plastic garbage bags (high-class moving for me, oh yeah), so I guess I could move that. I just have to get motivated...

I posted in my YA Books Central Blog today and hopefully I didn't come across rude...if you've read it, leave me a comment and let me know if I did. I'm just getting a little tired of people demanding that I publish them or write a paper for them or...you get the idea. I think some people have the idea that, if you have a web site and it looks halfway decent, you must have untold resources. Hahahahaha. Well, it's really a money-losing proposition and I do it because a) I love YA lit, b) I love to get people reading, and c) it keeps me in touch with people in the YA community. I re-coup about 2 months of hosting expenses every year through Amazon sales and the few ads I allow on the site. I've been thinking about getting rid of some of the ads completely, since it almost isn't worth the hassle. And they're always sneaking in some horrible flashy ad that jumps out at you. I hate that.

Hmmm, I guess I'm getting all whiny again. Must stop that.

I am really excited about moving into the house. The big debate right now is where to put the computer and the TV. These old houses really weren't set up for modern electronics.

Moving....

We're unpacking. I hurt. That's about all I have to say for now. Writing progress...zero, but hey, I feel like I can barely move. At this point, I have to wonder what possessed us to buy a 3 story house...4 if you count the flight down to the basement. And why, I wonder, is whatever you need always on another floor?

Loving the house though. If we could just figure out how to get the gas water heater started...

Yay! 0% Dixie!!!

I think this is really, really funny since I was born in Calinfornia and I've lived in Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi and now Kentucky. But thank god!

Your Linguistic Profile:
85% General American English
10% Yankee
5% Upper Midwestern
0% Dixie
0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Zoom, zoom, zoom

WIP: 4,162 + 658 = 4,820 words

We had a POD delivered today at the house. Yay, stuff! There's no stuff like your own stuff.

The book is coming along fairly well. I have a few dilemmas, but I'm trying to do what a lot of authors advise and just barrel on through and rectify the problems later. I'm definitely going to have to go through and add a lot more descriptive stuff to. Right now it reads a lot like a play in that it's a bunch of talking heads. It's getting there though.

The Discoverer

According to Kindomality, I'm:

Your distinct personality, The Discoverer, might be found in most of the thriving kingdoms of the time. Your overriding goal is to go where no one else has ever gone before. Regardless of the number of available natural problems to be solved, it is not unusual for you to continually challenge yourself with new situations or obstacles that you have created. You are an insatiable explorer of people, places, things and ideas. You thrive on constant change and anything new or different. On the positive side, you can be creatively rational as well as open minded and just. On the negative side, you might be an impractical and indecisive procrastinator. Interestingly, your preference is just as applicable in today's corporate kingdoms.

I took that same quiz a couple of years ago, and that time I was a ruler. I guess that's what changing careers will do for you...

Today's a bad back day. I had to break down and take a vicodin, which I've been avoiding. Ha, we'll see how well the writing goes today...

I've also got a hair cut scheduled, thank goodness. I haven't had one for at least 2 and 1/2 months and I'm getting downright shaggy.

Outlining

WIP: 3725 + 437 = 4162

Not a lot of words added today (even short of my 500/day goal -- I should never give myself goals. Way down deep inside, I think I'm very contrary. As soon as I set a goal, I never seem to hit it. Maybe I shouldn't set goals at all). I did flesh out the outline quite a bit though and have a general timeline now. So definitely not a waste.

Manic Monday

WIP: 3081 + 644 = 3725 (46,275 to go)

Busy bee kind of day today. Called all around scheduling the PODs, movers, the designer, deliveries...all kinds of things. And got allergy shots, washed clothes, had lunch with Tony, got a permit from Public Works for a no-parking zone to be set up in front of our house for our moving stuff...busy day.

I need to stockpile a bunch of book reviews this week too so that the YA site will pretty much run itself for a week or two, since we'll be doing moving stuff and unpacking. I can't wait to get out of the apartment and into the house!!!! And I just want my stuff back. I'm tired of beige. Everything in this apartment is beige. There's no color here except for the stock artwork on the walls.

Friday, Friday, Friday!

Actually, I guess it doesn't matter to me as much anymore that it's Friday, other than that Tony will be off for the weekend. Today wasn't a bad day, considering. I did a bunch of household-y stuff and went to the Allergist and met Tony for lunch. And, so far, WIP-wise, I've gone from 2394 --> 3081 (687 words, 46,919 to goal). I might even get some more done later, but it's hard to say. We're meeting Tom at the house and then we have to run by the tax lady (the one that's married to the Mime) to pick up our taxes and mail them.

Hmmm, maybe I should make my goal 500 words a day. I've been beating that at least. Or just get my butt in gear.

The Surreal Life

Well, here I am again. I've been lying in bed not sleeping for the past 2 hours, so I finally figured I'd get up for a little while and try again later. I forgot to write about a little incident that happened while I was at the library anyway.

So...I'm sitting in the library and there's an older gentlemen talking at a younger guy. I say "talking at" since I never heard the younger one say a thing. The guy is on a regular tirade about how things are crap now that women all want equality, etc., etc. He's real excited about it. I hear bits about how they don't want to do the cooking anymore, and they're taking a man's job away, etc., etc. Meanwhile, I'm sitting there reading a critical analysis of Bram Stoker's Dracula talking about his portrayal of women and the Victorian debate over the "New Woman" (you know, the ones that wanted suffrage and things of that nature). It was kind of a strange experience.

Which reminds me of something. Have you ever seen The Man Show? One time they did a bit where they set up a table with a big banner that said "Stop Women's Suffrage!" and a petition. Nearly everyone walking by, including women, signed it. Only one woman actually said anything and tried to get people to stop signing the petition. That's pretty sad. I don't know if it was apathy or stupidity, but whatever it was, it was pretty pathetic. And I'm talking about your average shopping-at-the-mall on Saturday kind of crowd.

suf·frage noun
Etymology: Latin suffragium vote, political support, from suffragari to support with one's vote 1 : a vote in deciding a controverted question or the choice of a person for an office or trust 2 : the right of voting : Franchise. also : the exercise of such right

I guess it's things like that keeping me up at night.

Today was a good day...

I didn't have to use my AK...

Okay, I'm not a gangsta rapper. But today was a much better writing day. WIP went from 1623 to 2394 (771 words, 47606 to goal). And I spent some research time at the library, learning more than I ever really wanted to know about Victorian sexual obsessions. There's a lot of subtext going on in Bram Stoker's Dracula, let me tell you. I'm not even gonna go there.

At least it wasn't all foreign. I remember a lot of it from Twitchell's class back in college. Amazing that I can still remember stuff from way back then...

At any rate, I really felt like I was getting some stuff done today. My goal is really 1000 words a day, which I didn't quite hit, but that's the way of goals...Research counts too, anyway. It's been so long since I read through the whole Dracula book, I've forgotten a lot of the finer points. All in all, a productive day, especially since I also had lunch with Tony at Manoosh's and went to the chiropractor (I've graduated to leg exercises).

Kind of a wasted day so far

Today definitely hasn't been the most productive day of all time. I woke up very late due to some Tylenol PM and Benadryl, got my mail together and made some site updates, then lunch with Tony and a trip to the Post Office and a Hallmark store. Then a quick run to the house to let the plumber in to check things out - I get back and it's after 3. More site updates and some chores, and it's after 6...and no writing yet done today. Bleck. I'll take a shot after dinner.

I'm not feeling great either -- I slipped in the mud when I was walking back and wrenched my back even more. I mean, for heaven's sake!! Some days you just really shouldn't get out of bed.

Hopefully I'll have better progress to report later on...

I'm Jean Luc?

I took one of those online quiz thingies where you're supposed to be able to find out what sci-fi/fantasy character you are. It seems that I am...

Jean-Luc Picard
An accomplished diplomat who can virtually do no wrong, you sometimes know it is best to rely on the council of others while holding the reins.

There are some words which I have known since I was a schoolboy. "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." These words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie -- as a wisdom, and warning. The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged.




Hehe, that's really kind of funny.

Computer Geek Joke

Hehe.

Her: "And where are you going?"
Me: "I'm going to San Francisco to a UNIX convention."
Her: "Eunuchs convention? I didn't know there were that many of you."

Was just surfing around RinkWorks and couldn't resist that one.

I miss wine.

*Sigh*. I'm really missing wine with dinner. These pain pills are for the birds. Non-wine-drinking-birds at that. I'd love a Cabernet Franc or a Malbec or a Petit Verdot or shoot, right now I think I'd even take a crappy Merlot. Or heaven forbid, a white zin. Well, maybe not. I don't think I've sunk that low quite yet. Give me another week or two of no wine and we'll see.

I'm still wearing the TENS thingy. Bzzz, bzzz, bzzz.

I sent some ideas off to the lady at the LEO today, worked on my YA Books site a bit (finally fixed at least part of a pesky search problem), and made a CD for DangerSpouse. Oh, and I mailed prize books at the Post Office and washed clothes. Tony was running out of underwear and we can't have that, now can we? I'm going to try and write some more today, my main problem has been that I can't seem to sit for longer than 10 minutes without my entire right leg falling asleep or getting all tingly. Lovely back problems. I am really too young for this. Is there someone I can talk to? Is there someone in charge here?

Anyway.

I think I've given up on newspapers. They never respond to anything. I think I could write in with "I'm DeepThroat's love child and I know the real truth about W's daughters." and they still wouldn't respond. Oh well. Like Tony says, I'm here to work on my book.

Bzzzz

Hahahaha well, I thought I had a good start on things today. However, I just got back from the chiropractor and I don't know that I'll be doing much writing this evening. She wants me to wear the TENS device for a full 24 hours so it's pretty much bzzzzzing ever second so if bzzz you're trying bzzzz to bzzzz think at bzzzz all, you're kind of bzzz out of bzzzz luck. Very distracting. I'll try again in a little bit though. It's a weird thing, this TENS device.

In case you're wondering what it is, it's a Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator. Say that three times fast.

Novel Status...

Well....when I started this A.M., there was a measley 895 words typed up. I'm up to 1623 now. Going to take a brief break to run to the chiropractor and then get a bit more down. Maybe a detour into fleshing out the outline.

It does make me wonder if I should work on something else, but I think I'll go with my gut on this one. I've got 12,881 words into In the Balance (fantasy, possibly YA) and 8,441 into Abigail and the Fairy Queen (YA fantasy). 1,323 into Sylvie (general fiction), an even 1,000 into Earlene's Dead; The Pickup Got Her (adult chick-lit-ish), 1,597 into Starting Tomorrow (romance), and 1,502 into Splittsville (adult chick-lit-ish?). Too many stories kicking around in my head, and that's just the ones I've got down on paper. Definitely time to just pick one. This Bites it is.

I need around 50,000ish words, since this is a YA novel. I'm going for something along the lines of Royally Jacked, which clocks in at 208 pages. Multiply that by 250 (avg. word count per page) and that gives you 52,000 words.

So, as of this moment, 48,377 words to go to get to 50,000.

A strange dream

I had an interesting dream the other night. I tend to have dreams that run along rather like major motion pictures - dreams I'm not even in. This one had to do with an alien race caught up in a major intergalactic battle. Some interesting characters in it -- I'll have to write down notes on what I "saw."

If I'm lucky, I'll be like Holly Lisle and turn my dreams into books. She's got a great web site actually, with lots of articles and resources for writers. It's interesting how much info she'll put out there, even down to where she is in her work in progress. Forward Motion is the section she has for writers, though I think someone else runs it now. That's what it's all about, after all...keeping things in motion. Not stopping once you start. Shoot, getting started...

Today my goal is to type up the bits of my novel I had written out in longhand and see where I am wordcount wise. Maybe I really should have picked up one of my existing novels (i.e. one that I'd worked on more) instead of starting up a new one, but there's something about this one that makes me feel like it's time is right. It's a little chick-lit-ish with a lot of humor and a different twist on the whole vampire thing. And yeah, before you groan and go "Another vampire story! Ugh!", this really is a completely different take. Almost a spoof.

Other than that, I've got a few ideas for the LEO that I need to write up and get out. I did call the other guy back and left him a message that I couldn't cover the Prospect area. We even drove out that way this weekend and it's way the heck out there. Just not practical.

So, more updates later. Maybe I'll start putting word counts in here to keep myself pumped up.

If every day were Saturday...

If every day were Saturday, I think I'd weigh about 300 pounds. Today wasn't a good writing day (but then, we've got company), but it was an excellent eating day. We went to Lynn's Paradise Cafe for brunch and I had peanut butter pancakes. They have the best pancakes ever. Bar none. I could eat them every single day.

Then we went to try and find Thieneman's again and wound up driving all over creation. We did finally get there and I bought two cat thyme plants (which, incidentally, drive the cats nearly as nuts as catnip).

Dinner was Tony's ribs, baked beans, and baked potatoes. I ate every bit of that too and I feel like a stuffed sausage now. I believe I'll be sleeping the sleep of carb over-indulgence tonight.

The Good, The Bad

I was all excited on Thursday (was it Thursday? I think it was Thursday. I have no concept of time anymore, now that I don't have a normal day job) because I finally got a call back on something. About a month ago now I'd sent my resume off to an ad in the paper for freelance reporters and the guy finally called me back. It's some small local neighborhood thing and they wanted to know if I was interested in covering the Prospect area. I said sure, how close is it? He said it was pretty close to Old Louisville. He also asked if, based on my experience as a manager cum programmer, etc., I would be interested in teaching any classes at ITT Technical Institute. I said hmmm, maybe. The pay wasn't much on the articles (like $50 bucks a pop), but I thought it could at least be some writing credits and pretty easy ones to boot (restaurant / city coverage).

So I was all pumped, and then Tony kind of burst my bubble when I was telling him about it.

"You're supposed to be writing a book," he says, and I agree, yeah, I'm working on my book and I do need to finish it. But I also feel guilty that I'm not bringing any cash in and besides, I'd like to have some provable "new business" income so I can use some of that $7500 from AT&T that's part of my severance package if I start a new business.

"Don't you think that stuff like this will take too much time away from that? And the teaching has nothing to do with anything."

Ok, yeah, he's got me there too. He makes sense. It's just hard for me to go from making quite a bit of moolah, to absolutely no moolah at all. Or very little, anyway. And man, these magazines are so s-l-o-w at getting back to you. But, I suppose he's right, darn him. Especially since he looked up where Prospect is, and it's not particularly close to anywhere around here. They'd be better off getting someone who actually lived somewhere near where they want to write about. So I guess I'll call the guy back on Monday and tell him that I can't cover that area. But, if he ever wants Old Louisville or Downtown coverage, give me a call.

I've got to get over the feeling guilty about no regular income. It's just hard. We used to make about the same amount of money and now...maybe it's a bit of a pride thing. I dunno. But he's giving me a chance to work on my dream, so I need to just take it and stop feeling so darn guilty.

In other news...I e-mailed the lady that works at the Leo that I met at the ED2010 meeting and I'm going to send her some story pitches next week. We'll see how that goes. I've got tons, but like Tony said, it's really the book I need to concentrate on. But geez man, it would be nice to see my name in print on something. Yeah, I've already got some stuff out there, but it's nice to see, you know?

Oh, and I did hear something back from the place I'd submitted the Ferrara write up to. It was an effusive apology note that she was really, really busy, but she'd get back to me soon. No problem, that's better than nothing. Though she probably could have read the piece in the time it took to type up the apology. Ah, well.

Here I am, awake again...

By all rights, I should be dead asleep and snoring right now. Loudly, since my allergies have kicked up a notch since Spring came on. But I'm not. Sigh. Someday, I will learn how to turn my brain off.

So, instead I've been updating my blogs. Yes, that's right, blogs. There's The Pauley's Go to Louisville and now also the YA Books Central Blog. As if I didn't have enough ways to procrastinate.

I just posted a bunch of pictures on the YA Books blog. All horrible pictures of me. I seriously need to do something about that, but I suppose it will have to wait until I can actually bend and move from side to side. Kind of hard to exercise when you can only bend forward approximately one inch.

I found Pam's blog tonight. I think I was only getting some of her e-mails for some reason. My Yahoo account is sometimes kind of flakey and doesn't deliver messages for no apparent reason -- not even to the dreaded Bulk Mail folder. And yeesh, I get about 300 bulk mails a day in that account. Ridiculous.

Anyway, about Pam's blog. She sounds like she is doing well. And working hard. Meeting people. All that good stuff. Still looking for love. I wish her luck.

Oh, and I got my birthday present from Lisa today (my birthday was Jan 24, but all the moving stuff was going on). Some really cute brass placecard holders in the shape of little birdies. Very cute. I'd given placecard holders as a gift idea back at Christmas and she's given me three different sets now, which is cool because I can have 4 different dinner parties and never use the same set (I had one set before). But sooner or later I'll have to give her a new idea or I'll run out of dinner guests before I run out of placecard holders. Should be easy enough to do, since we've got a huge old house to fill with stuff now.

I could probably blather on for a good while longer, but I really do have to try and get some sleep. Busy day tomorrow--have to file a bunch of junk & clean the office, go to the chiropractor, go to the allergist, and then Tony's mom is coming in around 7ish.

My Good Deed for the Week

After the ED2010 meeting yesterday, we went out to dinner at Avalon (I talked about this some in our family blog). There was a family (I'm guessing young married couple and the parents of one of them) there for a birthday and they were trying to get a picture together, but their camera batteries were dead. So I volunteered to take a picture and e-mail it to them. And I remembered to actually e-mail it, so there you go, my good deed for the day.

Today I didn't accomplish a whole lot other than incessant e-mail checking, reading a book, and buying office supplies. But you can't have everything, heh?

Sleep...

Sleep has been the ravening demon dogging my heels all day long and now, now that night has fallen, I can't coax it to me no matter what sweet words I use. A frustrating beast at best, it is playing hide & seek with me.

And I am tired. It's written all over me in the dark circles under my eyes and the dusting of sleepy sandman grit that I can never seem to get rid of. But I can't seem to get to sleep.

Instead, I've got bits of poetry traipsing through my head. Snippets of stories ransacking the attic. Unfinished business knocking around, undaunted.

Why does inspiration only seem to strike when I really don't want it?

I'm going back to bed to try again.

Ouch. Pain Sucks.

I'm feeling sorry for myself today. Maybe it's the meds, I don't know. I suppose I'll just blame it on them, instead of admitting that I'm a big wuss when it comes to pain. I just don't know what to do anymore. I don't like taking the medication, since it makes me sleepy, car sick, and generally pretty dopey. But I can't not take it or else I'm a puddle of pain. This is just about worse than when I had the emergency appendix surgery. Probably not, but close enough. It just sucks. I can't do anything. I can't wash clothes, I can't think, I can't sit comfortably, I can't pick anything up. I can't even pet the damn cats unless they jump up on something.

I called the dr. today since the specialist he referred me to said that a) he couldn't see me until May (May!!!) and b) they wouldn't see me at all unless I had an MRI done first. The nurse said the dr. is doing rounds right now and would be there this afternoon, so I guess I'll need to drag my sorry butt over there then. Not sure how, since it's real tough to drive on vicodin. It's tough to do anything.

I think maybe I should just go to a chiropractor, but I don't know. I wish my head was clear.

Ok, ok, I'll try and stop whining now.

I read a book last night that I really loved until the last 5 pages. It's called I'm the Messenger and it's by some Aussie author. I'd put his name down, but the book is to far away to get it. Anyway, it reminded me a lot of Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas, in a good way, until you get to the very end and the author decided to insert himself into the story by creating a character that tells the main character that "look, everything you did, I made you do. Here's my folder of notes that shows it" etc. I hate that. There's no suspension of disbelief when the author shoves himself into the story and it makes you feel like you wasted all your investment into believing the character when you get to the end and the author shoves it in your face.

Ugh, I'm such a bloody mess. I signed up for a Callwave service when I needed a free fax number and I've been trying to cancel it. I did the online cancellation and then it told me I had to call to do it and the guy just kept wanting to sell me more stuff and I just started crying, for heaven's sake and was like "I just want to cancel the account!" Ugh, double Ugh. I'm not a weeper. I don't know what's wrong with me. I think it is partly the medicine. I'm so sleepy right now I can hardly stand it, but I can't seem to go to sleep. Somebody just shoot me.