December 2006

December 11: A Bounty of Goodness
December 20: Three Novels and a Query Letter
December 31: "...when the year, too, dies..."

December 11

A Bounty of Goodness
Since I've been back from California my life has been this: Get up, shower, write at least 2500 to 3000 good words a day, eat while I write and, if I'm not too tired and I made my word count, go out and play at night, then sleep. Next day: lather, rise, repeat. Most of the time, I haven't gone out to play. I've either collapsed at home or done a tiny bit of fun writing.

You know, people joked about me slacking off once my contract at MS was done but I don't think I've worked this hard on something in a long time. Fortunately, it's something I want to work on. This is good since I haven't been able to take any sort of break at all since my CA trip. Not even a weekend break. I have to do laundry and other chores in and around writing pauses to let my brain rest.

However, I think I do go a little nuts from time to time. I'm talking to myself a lot, "Ok, Jennifer, quit messing around. You've got a thousand words left to do. Get to work, woman." I'm also threatening to kill the cat when she starts her yowling "echo tests" in the hallway by the stairs so it echoes and amplifies. I don't think she's used to me being home all the time. We've already had one 'discussion' over who gets to sit in my leather chair at the computer.

I have to admit, I'm looking forward to no longer being on this deadline, getting a little bit of a break and to working on my own stuff.

I had a birthday! It was a pretty good one, too.

The Birthday Loot (so far - I know I have more coming):

  • A surprise Gene Juarez Pedicure and dinner at the Purple Café and wine bar from Diane and Mike. This was a special surprise that really got me.
  • The first seven Dresden Files books and the first Stephen King collector's edition DVD set from Mom and Dad. They so love me!
  • A homemade scarf from Sara. It's so warm and pretty.
  • A Grants Pass fanfic from Rick. It made me smile real wide. I love it when people do things like this for me.
  • A chocolate raspberry birthday cake from Cheryl. Very yummy.
  • The Pirateology book from my roommate, Ron. This is SO neat. There are all kinds of bits to it.
  • Starbucks cards from the Fabulous Real Estate duo. I've got three of them now.
  • An email telling me that my story "Twenty Questions" made it into the "In Bad Dreams" anthology from the editors. "We were very impressed by the theme of the story and liked the idea that [censored]. We felt that the plot flowed nicely and really enjoyed how all the questions were featured at the tale's conclusion. This is a story that requires very little editing and is almost ready for the final draft." This was a nice gift.
  • Two good reviews of A Player's Guide to Castlemourn. It was very much needed when I read these.

    • Some of you may know that when it comes to standing up for other people, I am the queen of the Momma Bears. However, when it comes to standing up for myself, I'm a deflated creampuff. I don't know why. I just know is. But, I've been coaching and encouraging people to stand up for themselves lately. To not allow themselves to be abused, manipulated or otherwise maligned. So, when I hit a very uncomfortable situation, I was pretty much forced to put my money where my mouth was and stand my ground.

    Let me tell you, this was really hard.

    I was over at Glenn and Andrew's getting my hair done. Their neighbor, WC came over. I'm sure that WC is a nice enough guy but that night, he smelled like a brewery and was about as coherent as a ferret on speed. He came in and started talking politics. For some reason, he focused on me. Maybe because I was the only female in the room. Maybe because I was the only one who looked him in the eyes. I don't know. But, he focused on me, ranting about how people were asleep and should wake up as well as how this administration sucks and how the war on terrorism was to keep the black man down.

    Now, I don't necessarily disagree or agree with anything he said. However, I don't talk politics with people most of the time, including my friends, much less a raving drunk. So, I started to zone out. WC noticed and snapped his fingers at me. "Excuse me. I'm talking to you. You're asleep. That's what I'm saying. No one's paying attention. You're all asleep!"

    I had two choices - politely listen while getting more and more uncomfortable or say something and make him back off. I made my choice. "Well, WC. I don't know you and I don't talk politics to people I don't know." My voice was a hell of a lot calmer than what I was feeling.

    "Alright. That's alright. This isn't politics. I'm just saying that you people need to start waking up to what's going on around you..."

    "WC, I do not want to talk politics with you."

    At that point, he got the hint. He also got a bit upset and left. But, at least he waited until he got outside to start shouting about how Bush could kiss his ass.

    Glenn was surprised that he left. Apparently, WC likes to do nothing but get drunk and ramble on about politics. So much so that Glenn and Andrew just ignore him when he starts up. Me being bluntly honest sent him away. I'm pretty glad because I did not like the where my thoughts had been going... "If he gets violent, I can hit him with the jar and duck under the stairs..." Yeah. I was feeling a bit threatened by the whole experience.

    Tarot Card for the Day: The Hanged Man

    December 20

    Three Novels and a Query Letter
    The Wind Storm of '06...

    The power went out on the night of the 14th. It didn't really affect me until the next day when I went looking for a warm spot to work and a cup of coffee and discovered that the wind storm had knocked out all of Redmond and there wasn't a street light working. I drove all over and discovered that only my favorite QFC store was up and partly running. So, of course, I stopped in.

    You might think that I went in and got the staples to deal with the power outage. Nope. I picked up champagne, red bull and some chips. Yes, really. You see, I am well prepared for the apocalypse. (Except for an extra 5 gallon thing of gas. Must remember to get that.) I've got emergency water and emergency rations already tucked away. No need for me to go get that when everything goes to hell in a hand basket.

    What I didn't have was the champagne I promised for the Good Nibbles party or Red Bull for my road trip the next day. Thus, an hour long trip to the grocery store while people around me panicked. What else was I going to do? Plus, it was warmer than my house.

    Much warmer. I only lasted about two more hours at my place before I called over to the Nexus and asked if I could come over early. They had a fire going in the fireplace. The answer was, of course, yes. So, feeling guilty for abandoning my cat to a cold house, I plumped up a blanket for her, gave her some gushy food and left her to her own devices.

    At the Nexus, we had a fabulous time with chocolate, cheese and wine by candlelight. The fireplace was so nice and warm. I ended up spending the night. The next day, it was off to Oregon for more birthday stuff. Apparently, the power came back for my condo on Saturday at about 3pm - 2 hours after I left.

    Travel - Past, Present and Future...

    Past - I'm doing a LOT of traveling right now. I just got back from a 4 day road trip to Oregon to visit with Kai, Steph, Heather and Kirsti. It was a very good trip. So good to see Heather again. Plus, the last time we all were in the same room together was the going away party at Dave & Buster's that Yony threw for me.

    We did some walking down to Doris Park and the river. Not only did I get a whole bunch of blisters (wool sock + biker boots + tromping in the woods = OW), I figured out how to kill off more of my friends in future Freaky Friday Fiction pieces.

    This was a really special weekend for a lot of reasons. I had a couple of new experiences that I will treasure.

    Present - Saturday, I will be off to Illinois for my family's Christmas reunion. This will be the first time that all of my immediate family will be under one roof since my brother got married over five years ago. I think it will be a very interesting time. I hope it will be a good one as well.

    Future - While visiting with Heather in Oregon, I realized that I really could actually go to Sacramento to visit her - while keeping up with the writing schedule I have set for myself! This is a very strange realization. I can work on the road. I know what I'm going to be working on. I know what needs to be done before I go. This is really neat for me. So, I will be spending some time in Sacramento in Mid-January for Heather's birthday.

    Three Novels and a Query Letter...

    That is what I just named my newest document to get my thoughts in order for immediate writing work to be done on. Which one at what phase, which schedule, etc... However, now that I think about it, it is closer to say: Two Novels, One Anthology, Two Query Letters and a Phone Call. (The below are all working titles.)

    1. Two Novels - The Old Woman in the White Cadillac, Pangborn Nomads - Both partly outlined. Both ready to start work. Phoebe is helping me with the Greek words for PN.

    2. One Anthology - Grants Pass - Needs to have the over all edit.

    3. Two Query Letters - One for Grants Pass. One for the Edge of Propinquity. Both need to be written.

    4. One Phone Call - Based on my work on the THING, my editors at MWP have told me to call a certain person at WotC and pitch my THINGUS SECUNDAS (not related to the THING) idea to him. This one will have to wait until early January. I need to have more of it outlined so I can have an intelligent conversation with this certain person and not make my editors sorry they recommended me.

    Of course, none of this includes all of the work I need to do for the Edge of Propinquity, Year Two, its outline or Kendrick's January 2007 story.

    Tarot Card for the Day: The Hanged Man, Inverted

    December 31

    "... when the year, too, dies..."
    So, we had the wind storm of 2006 with hurricane winds that knocked out power all over the Seattle area, I spent some of my black out time at the Nexus. I spent the other half of it in Oregon. This black out taught me a couple of things:

    1. All my friends already know I'm ready for this sort of thing due to my apocalyptic fascination. More than one person (here and afar) commented, "I knew I didn't have to worry about you. You're ready for this sort of thing."

    2. I'm not completely ready. Oh, I could have survived just fine with the food and water situation but I do have some holes to plug.

    a. I really do need to get my fireplace swept and get some firewood on site. I have enough blankets and stuff to keep me warm but there is a comfort issue here.

    b. I need to get some gas for my car and store it. We aren't in a situation where I can use my siphoning kit. Taking gas from abandoned cars is still illegal. So, I need some gas to allow me to get places when the gas stations are all shut down.

    c. I need to look into whether or not the HOA is going to allow me to wire in a diesel generator into my condo for when the power goes out again for more than a couple of hours.

    It was nice to know that I didn't need to panic when the lights went out but I tell you, watching for streetlights and feeling the elation at seeing one lit was a very interesting experience. I'm gonna keep on plugging my apocalyptic holes as I go on.

    The Family Reunion of 2006 turned out to be pretty darned good. Loud. But good. With 3 teens, 2 pre-teens, 2 dogs, 1 puppy and football or video games on the TV at all times, it was nothing but an amazing cacophony of noise all the time. My poor brain couldn't take it. Fortunately, they stuck me on the top floor in one of the twins' rooms so I could escape from time to time.

    Family is a funny thing. I haven't seen my immediate family for years and I had not seen my in-laws for more than 2 decades. Not to mention never having met various spouses and kids. Yet, there was a certain cohesion and definitely a family feel. Habits span generations and that was really interesting to watch.

    I really like my in-laws on my father's side. At least, his eldest sister and her whole extended family. I got along with everyone. Played with the kids. Ran away from a conversation that threatened to turn political. Impressed people with my upcoming book and my choices for the next year.

    I was afraid that I was going to return from this reunion without a family. Instead, I gained about a dozen more and that makes me happier than I can express.

    I pulled the Death Card for today's reading. It is appropriate in many ways for me. The Death Tarot card signifies change. This change may have a destructive quality. It may not. But it is the signifier for a birth, transformation, change or renewal.

    This next year is all about my transformation and rebirth. Change and growth is not easy or painless. I hate looking at my checkbook and being scared of what I see there. Or potentially see. I hate wondering if I'm making a mistake. I hate wondering if I'm going to succeed.

    But you know what? At the same time, I am thrilled to pieces. I know what I'm working on of my own stuff. I know when I need it to be done. I know what other stuff I'm going to be chasing after. This is my dream and I'm going to live it as much as I can.

    My goals for the next year are as follows:

    1. 2 completed novels.

    2. 24 completed new short stories - 12 Kendrick for TEoP, 12 others.

    3. 60 submissions throughout the year. This includes query letters and query packages.

    4. 50 completed Freaky Friday Fiction pieces.

    All of these goals are doable. They are challenging but realistic. I just need to be consistent and productive. I need to work every day of my work week. I can do this and I will do it.

    Tarot Card for the Day: Death

    Continue on to: JANUARY 2007
    (Created by JLB)