Eat me. Drink me.

So much going on. But I don't feel like I can talk about some of it, at least not yet. Big changes in the air. Maybe. That's why I don't want to talk about it yet. If they don't come, I don't want to have mentioned it.

Pfloof. Confused yet?

Anyway, the St. James Ct. Art Show was this past weekend. Sadly, my work on it is not yet complete. It has been like a part time (and sometimes full time) job since maybe March or so. Or maybe January. I don't even know anymore. I want the DB to be DONE. At the moment, my big problem is a really ugly page that's hard to read. It's the fee charging page. I'm trying to find a way to do it that makes sense, is usable and readable, and won't cause me too many coding headaches and won't take too many page clicks. That last thing is the real clicker. They don't want too many clicks. But to fit everything on one page is a nightmare. So...it really comes down to a) one click and really confusing or b) many clicks and straightforward. But they said amount of clicks was one of their top priorities...so...

I hope to get that done tomorrow. Then I can get the last of the fees in and start on the documentation and the few other code pieces that I can complete. Then I'll hand that over along with the names of some local programmers who can do the more complex pieces. I just can't devote this much time to it any longer. I need to write.

I've actually been writing stuff...it's just in my head. It needs to come out (if it's in him, then it's got to come out). Onto paper, or the electronic equivalent thereof.

Did learn about a series by Christopher Pike that's about a girl who discovers she's the Queen of the Fairies (like my Abigail) but his is darker and for older teens. Still, I waver on poor Abigail regularly. I like it. But...it's gone through so many changes, many of which were just in my head. Originally, her grandmother wasn't really dead, she was just captured by the Unseelie Court (and originally, I was getting WAY too in depth and using much more real fairie history, stuff about the Ulster Court and who knows what else...great for a research paper but not for MG fiction.) and Abigail's goal was to win her freedom, rather than take up the crown. But that story was just too involved and long. Now Abigail's goal, really, is to figure out how to accept the Queenhood before her mother does.

I dunno. Sometimes I want to go work on something else. I haven't worked on much at all lately. Except in my head. Hopefully I won't lose it all.

I have a short story about a character named Barnabus Grady in my head. And the start of that book about Death's Apprentice. I'm kind of excited about that one. At least I haven't heard of anything else like it (and good heavens, if you know of something, please don't tell me). And I have a completed short crime fiction/noir-ish piece that I need to send out again. Hard to find a market for that stuff, I'm afraid. I'd sent it to Ellery Queen knowing that it wasn't exactly up their alley and they sent me back a nice rejection saying they liked it, but it didn't fit.

Oooooohhhh though I might have just found a place for it. I did a search for Hardboiled (which is the magazine that I sold my last fiction piece to -- another crime fiction/noir-ish piece) and came up with Hardluck Stories. The submission call that ends Jan 2007 is actually perfect for my piece, which features a female protaganist. Hmmmmmm. But it is non-paying. Maybe I'll keep looking. Maybe I'll send it to Hardboiled again. I like that mag anyway, even if you can't hardly find it on a shelf.

Wondering why a primarily YA gal happens to write hardboiled fiction every now and again? Eh, me too. I guess it's because I was a Spillane junkie for a while when I was about 15.