December 2005

My Birthday
Let's see, it's been over a week and not that much has happened. I think. Um... I did manage to get out Holiday cards for the first (and probably last) time in my life. I'm so bad about such things. Rory and I spent a very cold day running around Seattle getting pictures for The Edge of Propinquity website. The cool thing about this is the fact that I punked out because I was cold and not because I was tired. Oh, yeah. I reached the minus 50 pounds mark! That is exciting to me. Very exciting. The ultra-cool and geeky survival don't-need-batteries flashlights came in, the TEoP website basics got finished. I did a whole lot of writing and have finally finished this draft of Regresser's Evolution.

Let's pop over to writing specifically. I've decided that Regresser's Evolution could use another read through. This time, I will give it only to 3-5 people. At this point, I'm thinking of changing one of the stylistic things I did and I want to see what is not clear to the readers.

On the Grants Pass front, I'm still stuck at the two-thirds mark and I've had a couple of disappointing Grants Pass submissions. Would it KILL these authors to actually READ the stupid submission guidelines so they could, you know, write to the theme of the anthology? I really don't think so. I really want us to get to the minimum word count so I can get the next phase of the anthology.

On The Edge of Propinquity front, the main website is up and running. All of the author pictures and bios are done. All of the world pages are done. We are still poking around with the main title graphic but that's nothing. I even added a notification only group link to the site so people would be notified when the new Issues go up. I still have to talk to my authors and photographer about the idea of a guest author for months 3, 6, 9, and 12. Hrm. Reminds me. I really need to write the first story due on January 5th.

Everything else. The Kendrick stories have taken a back seat but will start coming back to the forefront soon. The new TTF project is still stewing in my mind and I'm writing down background stuff for it. Submissions to the various places will begin again in earnest in January. Though, there's a spot looking for speculative poetry that I'll submit to today. I really need to think about doing the second part of Estate Planning Blues for Savvy Insider, too. Not to mention writing something for She's a Geek.

Yeah. When I'm not working or gaming, I'm pretty much focused on writing.

Today is my birthday and, oddly enough, it seems to be shaping up into a day that represents the archetypical me.

First, I have sent out my novel, Regresser's Evolution, to the first of my fourth round critique group.

Second, I have submitted some speculative poetry to a place recommended to me by Cherie Priest.

Third, I have agreed to foster a friend (Mary) of a friend (Aimgrrrl) of a friend's (Matt) father's adult kitty cat for 1-2 months because the father is being moved into Senior housing and is currently in temp housing but can't have a cat there and they were going to actually seize the cat! How awful is that? The cat is a male Maine Coon named Penny. No, I don't know the story behind that yet but I will. Penny will be delivered to me Saturday afternoon. That should give me some time to fix up the play room for him. I'm sure my cat will have one hell of a hissy fit over the guest but she'll survive.

Fourth, I dyed my hair the color of garnet and I will be spending tonight at the Mercury. I'm really hoping for some good music and to lose myself in the atmosphere. Of course, I will have Kendrick in mind as I drink and dance. One of the signature spots in Kendrick is a Goth club based on the Mercury.

The older I get, the more certain I become that age is just a number and that you really are only as old as you feel. Let me tell you, I do not feel like I thought I would at this age. I am now 35 and now officially part of the 35-44 age range as my sister so kindly reminded me in an email this morning. Isn't that the age range when you are supposed to be all grown up? When you are supposed to have already sown your wild oats, followed your dreams, made your mistakes, savored your triumphs and are now settled down to a life of hopefully happy domestic bliss?

Guess what. No happy domestic bliss for me. Not yet. I'm still chasing those dreams of mine. I will have that novel out there. I am not ready to 'settle' for anything. Especially not something that involves a life of mundane TV watching, being a good example of a proper person or any of that hooey. I still want to have those nights out where I marvel that the sun is rising. I want to have those mornings when I wonder what ran over my head. I want to do the silly happy dance of creativity. There's so much more for me to experience!

I still get a thrill out of flying 1st class or even flying someplace for the day without any luggage. I still want an adventure despite my own definition of the word: An adventure is someone a thousand miles away having a perfectly rotten time, wishing they were anywhere but there. An adventure cannot be enjoyed while it is going on. It is only in the retrospect that we realize just how fun the adventure was. As I told Ivan, I want to become aware of myself in a cafe with the remains of a meal around me indicating I was with at least one other person. The waitress brings me the bill and when I look at it, I discover it's a week later, that I'm not even in Washington anymore and not remember anything in-between. I spend the next month of so figuring out what happened.

Ah, well. Even if I don't get the real life adventure, I have plenty of adventures left to tell through my writing. You know what? Living vicariously through them is not so bad either.

Tarot Card for the Day: Five of Pentacles, Inverted

Pajamas & Caviar
Penny aka the Boy kitty is now here, comfortably set up in the play room. After chatting with the owner on the phone and meeting the owner's son, I am much less concerned about them abandoning the Boy kitty here because they know I won't have the cat put down. He is very handsome and trills up a storm. He rarely meows, preferring to trill. I've tried to make an appointment to get him fixed but everyone is booked over the holidays. January 3rd, I will be making another round of calls. In the meantime, Esme is still hissing at the door but she hasn't bitten me.

Lots of cool things on the writing front. I have even more ideas to work on but I have to stick them into my Ideas Folder until I have finished up some of my other projects first. Regresser's Evolution has gone out to the 4th (and last) round readers group for a final go over. In the meantime, I am going to be polishing up a query letter. I finished the first draft of "Gamer Girl Evolution" for "She's Such a Geek." It will go out to the first round reader group tomorrow or Tuesday. Finally, this week, I will be focused on my Edge of Propinquity story for January called "Caller ID: Unknown." My goal is to have that to the first round reader group by Christmas.

I have to admit I'm not sure what overall arching project I'm going to work on next. Regresser's Evolution will be off the radar for a good two months. I'm still waiting for more submissions for Grants Pass. I have the nascent project codenamed TTF that I could work on. I have more Kendrick stories I could work on while doing TEoP or I could declare January new submission month and do a blitzkrieg of submissions all over the web while I am working just on TEoP. I don't know. I have to think about it.

In other writing news, Holy Order of the Stars is out in stores now. I've had one friend mention to me that they've seen "my" book and found my name in the credits. That will never get old. Also, Sean, my editor, sent me to a review of Holy Orders and it was fantastic. Even better, of the 4 paragraphs, 2.5 of them specifically cited the stuff I wrote as exceptional. Even the little opening fiction for the book that I wrote apparently really creeped him out. Yay! This has gotten the notice of all of the editors at Sovereign Press and I recently was assured that I will be working the Dragonvarld RPG and maybe more. I'm pretty happy about this.

Well, I had my little mid-life rebellion over my recent birthday. I dragged Ron to the Seattle Caviar Company for the caviar tasting and ended up buying a LOT of caviar. Well, actually, it was a little caviar for a lot of money but man, is it tasty! I bought an ounce of white sturgeon, an ounce of Baerii and four ounces of salmon roe, plus a set of four caviar spoons. It was all under $200 but not by much. Very tasty stuff. Unfortunately, they don't do Bulega caviar in the tasting. If I want to try that, I have to buy an ounce of it at about $200 an ounce. I think I'll stick with the $64 and $92 per ounce caviar when I want to indulge.

Speaking of indulging, you know what I did today? I slept late. Then, I got up, did not get dressed and came down to finish my "She's Such a Geek" essay. Then, I got out a bit of softened cream cheese, that ounce of Baerii caviar and one of my newly purchased caviar spoons. Yes, I sat here and had a $65 meal of caviar and cream cheese on wheat things in my PJs for breakfast at 1pm in the afternoon. If that is not decadence, I don't know what is. It was well worth it. My goal is not to get dressed at all today.

On the gamer front, I played my new character, Whisper, last night for Crimson Dawn. I didn't have as much fun with her as I usually do with Ximena but I suspect that's because I'm still getting used to playing the new character while I wait to find out Ximena's fate. I like Whisper. The character is much different that Ximena. But, she's a very angry character and it's hard to keep hold of her sometimes, especially with some of the stress that she is under right now. I did have a couple of good scenes though. My favorite was with Mark who plays an unscrupulous Ravnos. We have come to an interesting accord.

I did get a great compliment last night as well. Whisper is pretty much clothed from head to toe except for her eyes which I made up very nicely with makeup. One girl said to me, "Your eyes are much too pretty to belong to a Nosferatu." My response was "Nothing says a Nos can't wear makeup." I like it when my eyes are complimented. They are one of my best features.

Tarot Card for the Day: Six of Pentacles

The Loot
I did pretty good on the gifts this year for my birthday and Christmas/Yule. This is mostly for me to remember to write "Thank you" cards. I like to do "Thank you" cards to my family because they are far away and it says I was thinking of them and that I liked what they got me. Also, I like to be a good example to my nieces and nephew that one should send "Thank you" cards for gifts. It lets people know you got the gift and that it was appreciated.

Birthday
Mom & Dad: Bath soap/moisturizer
Shannon: Batman Begins
Scott & Suzanne: Garnet earrings
Rory & Cheryl: Signed picture of Claudia Christiansen
Leigh-Ann: A night out at the Mercury
Me: A very nice sugilite necklace and earring set

Christmas/Yule
Mom & Dad: Amethyst and marcasite ring
Shannon: Vanilla soap and luffa
Scott & Suzanne: Jon Stewart's "America" book
Rory & Cheryl: Tickets to the movies
Joan: Homemade peanut brittle
Me: Two antique occult books

Yes, I do by myself Birthday and Christmas gifts. I think it is important to remember yourself on these days, too. It's not just an excuse to buy myself something. I'm in a place in my life where I can buy myself whatever I want whenever I want. It is more to remind myself that I am friends with me and I should do what friends do for each other - care for one another and should how much they appreciate them.

Starting in January, I'm going to begin the first of my mini-purges. The idea of the Great Purge was a good one but it required me to have a large block of time which is something I almost never have and if I do, it is used for writing. So, now, I'm going to do mini-purges; one room at a time starting with the play room. I'll be email my friends with what is on the chopping block and get ride of it. Whatever doesn't go will be tossed or sold.

I know this will be good for me. I have been feeling hemmed in by my clutter for a while. I have this need to have everything in its place and that's hard to do when you have so much stuff. I am a serious pack rat and I know it. The only reason I don't have more stuff is because I've moved in the last three years. I think I've come to a place in my life where the toys are nice but I have all the toys I want. More than enough and that's why I'm getting rid of the ones I don't need. Hopefully, my friends will appreciate them more than I do.

The writing is coming very slow. I have edited "Gamer Girl Evolution" again and now I'm going to let it sit for a week or so. I need to send it in to "She's Such a Geek" during the first week of January. That is tighter to the deadline than I usually like to send stuff in but it is needs the editing and the critiques from my 1st Round Readers group. Already, I've received some good feedback.

The Edge of Propinquity deadline for January is looming and my story, despite knowing what I want to say, is reluctant to come out. If this keeps up, I'm not going to have a chance to send it to my 1st Round Readers group for a critique before I have to publish it. That makes me a little nervous. But, at the same time, I'm alright with it. I've been debating about whether or not to send the TEoP stories to the 1st Round group or not. Mostly because I need their help to polish my stories for publishing. These are already going to be published along with three other stories each month. I should have confidence in my work to publish it on a collaborative website. Especially since TEoP is my baby.

I will be visiting Rich and Cil over New Years. I'll be in CA from the 30th of December until the 2nd of January. If I'm lucky, we'll be meeting up with Bill to go shooting on the 31st. It's been way too long since I went shooting. There's something about focusing on the target and feeling the pistol in your hand as you shoot. It will be really nice to see Bill, too. I'm also looking forward to sitting around with Rich and just talking about random stuff like we do whenever we meet up.

Tarot Card for the Day: Six of Pentacles, Inverted