Haunted somewhere out there

Words Written: damned if I know. I’ve been editing, mostly.
Writing Stats: Sale! Teresa and I have sold “Don’t Move” to H is for Hardcore. Which is not where we submitted it, but the editor thought it fit better in this anthology, and that’s just fine with us. Rejection from The Hub for “What Price Beauty”—it had been shortlisted, but “did not quite fit into the forthcoming lineup.” They “would be pleased to consider” further stories from me, though. Received proofs, and contract from Virgin UK via Teresa, for “Behind the Masque.”
Exercise: stretching

This entry was originally dated New Year’s Day, and I’ve been adding bits and pieces to it over the week. Let’s see if I can actually finish it and get it posted.

We got home at 2:40 a.m. New Year’s morning, and simply fell over. We’d been up for more than 20 hours… Less than 12 hours later and we were mostly unpacked, laundry was in, and mail had been sorted. Impressive, although it slowly went downhill from there, with us getting tireder and tireder. I did wrap the final presents that had arrived while we were gone, and then I did a mail run on Wednesday.

We had great intentions of going to Kingdom Twelfth Night today—we really, really wanted to see all those friends we’ve barely seen all year—but time just got away from us. Ken leaves tomorrow morning for Portland, and we had projects to finish before he left. He’s currently building a bookcase system for the sewing room, including shelves that will cross over above my drafting table. I am beside myself with delight! I can finally start getting that room organized, get out all my sewing and crafting bits, do artwork…!

I’ve been slogging through e-mail, trying to get caught up with that. Most of the personal stuff is answered; lists and “to do” items remain. I’ve been working as well, because all the late items from the end of the year showed up, and then all the 1/1/07 deadline items showed up within a few days of the deadline. Yeargh.

I’m slowly easing back into writing, too. Teresa finished a draft of Chapter 4 of Out of the Frying Pan and I’ve been going through that, tweaking a bit and making notes for upcoming stuff. She also wrote the first half of Chapter 5, so my next assignment is to write the second half. I also have a few anthology stories to write.

I don’t usually do a big year-end wrap up, but I did take note of my 2006 writing stats: 81 rejections, 24 sales.

Twenty-four sales… It takes my breath away. I didn’t track how many stories I wrote over the year, although I suppose it wouldn’t take long to figure it out from my daily writing spreadsheet. I think I’ll add the year to each story on the submission tracking spreadsheet.

I’ve been taking a step back, looking at my overall writing, trying to make some plans. I think the best plan right now is to not plan too far ahead. For example, Teresa and I want to get at least six chapters of OOTFP written before we start sending queries around. Our Black Lace editor is sitting on a partial we sent him, so he could ask for the rest at any time. And we have a novella proposal to write—Black Lace’s Wicked Words anthologies are moving to paranormal novella anthologies, and we have a fantastic idea for the first one. So, any one of those three projects could take off suddenly and need our immediate attention. (We’ll keep working on OOTFP after we mail queries, of course, but we’ll have to balance it with the novella—but, if Adam wants the BL novel, we’ll have to switch gears quickly.)

So, my first plan is “be flexible.” :-)

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So, right, Christmas. We took lots and lots of pictures with our new camera, and I’ll upload mine as soon as I figure out how… Which reminds me, I posted some other pictures before we left: various book signings and Calico Ghost Town.

My parents gave us a glass serving plate and a couple more little house figures—not David Winter cottages this time, but very similar. My middle sister gave us the special edition Narnia DVD, and my oldest sister bought us dinner. One of my nieces baked things for everyone.

And, ack! Previous presents I forgot to mention! Christine sent me an Amy Brown print—my first Amy Brown print! It’s called Autumn Daydreams. And Caterine sent us Pre-Raphaelite bookmarks! And Tani gave me Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf’s decaf English Breakfast tea! And Ken gave me the Llewellyn calendar!

The most important thing was spending time with the family. I hadn’t seen one of my nieces and two of my nephews in four years! We went into Lake Placid one day and tromped around, and most everybody went ice skating. Out of deference to my back, I chose to stand at the edge of the Olympic Oval and take pictures before my freezing fingers fell off. Ken skated for what may have been the first time in his life (he roller skated as a kid, though) and did a fantastic job.

As mentioned previously, I gave my youngest niece (11) a lap loom. We figured out how to warp it, and she completed her first weaving project the same day. Hahaha! Another convert! (I knew she’d like it. She’s a crafty thing.) Next I think I’ll teach her kumihimo. (I took mine with me; I’m making cords for edging Mongolian hats—we had a workshop on them at the beginning of January.)

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In other news, Ken decided that it was time for a change… He’s had long hair for a good 15 years, usually pulled back in a ponytail. He didn’t want short hair, but he wanted something more manageable on the bike, etc. So I took him to my Fabulous Gay Hairdresser. We looked at a few pictures, and then I sat down in the waiting room and let them go at it. When Ken walked out, all I could say was, “Oh my god! You look like Sawyer from Lost!” And indeed he does. Yum. Well, he was always yum, but this is a really nice style for him. (‘Course, he still wears it in a ponytail a lot…)

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I made Moroccan lamb kebabs (wonderfully simple recipe on the George Foreman grill!) and jasmine rice for supper tonight. Just mentioning it because it was really tasty…

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Currently Reading: The Sacrifice: Book One of the Fey, Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Lately Listened To: An Ancient Muse, Loreena McKennitt
Recently Watched: Medium, Hex (Ken hasn’t seen it, so we’re working our way through the DVDs)