Imbolc energy

Words Written: “Burning Bright partial: 646; “Burning Bright” synopsis, words and edits
Writing Stats: Received rejection from PitchBlack, which is going out of business, for “The Queen’s Gardener.” Received payment for "College Reunion", to appear in C is for Coeds.
Exercise: walking with Morgana

Happy Imbolc, albeit a day late! And happy full moon! Wooh, that was some great energy yesterday! It seems to mostly be bleeding over into today, although being woken from a sound sleep by my mother calling this morning (8:30 a.m., half an hour before my alarm was due to go off—I tend to work late into the night) didn’t help. (My parents are fine. They just got to Myrtle Beach, where they winter, and my mother couldn’t get her dial-up to work. Sigh.)

Jury duty is over! What a relief. Don’t get me wrong—I’m very glad I had the opportunity to serve, and would do so again in a heartbeat. I’ve always believed in how crucial it is for our justice system, and this experience really hammered that home. I was so impressed to be debating in a jury room with 11 other intelligent, well-spoken, thoughtful, and reasonable people. Just because we didn’t agree (and I was outvoted on both counts) didn’t mean we weren’t polite and rational.

Still, the experience was stressful on many levels. Litigation is simply stressful. It’s a conflict, and while we’re dealing with it in a civilized way (a trial), it doesn’t mean that there isn’t high emotion. (This was a civil trial, BTW, in case I hadn’t mentioned before.) So there’s lots of negativity in the courtroom, and deliberations had a level of stress because we didn’t agree, and we also had a major time constraint. It turned out this was the second time they’d tried to have this trial—the last time, one of the parties fell ill enough to be hospitalized. We went through all three of our alternates, and then one of the jurors found out she had to fly back east on Wednesday for a funeral. Originally we’d been scheduled to be there Tue-Fri this week, and that was with a bit of extra padding. But then we had to regroup and do Mon-Tue. The lawyers even sped up to accommodate us, and we went to the jury room late Mon afternoon, and then had all day Tue. But we didn’t look as though we were going to come to a resolution by late Tue afternoon (in a civil trial, it has to be at least 9-3)… Thankfully, we did, and then I raced home to check on Grimoire, and then I was pretty much braindead and headachy for the rest of the evening.

Grimoire is doing fine, BTW, and thank you all for your well wishes. His problem has altered to the level of being the opposite problem, so on the advice of the vet I’m scaling back on the laxatives. The best news is, he’s lost weight! About six months ago, he topped the scales at 21.1 lbs. Saturday he was 19.7, and Wednesday, at his re-check, he was 19.3. According to his chart, he should be between 18 and 19 lbs, so that’s significant progress.

Speaking of significant progress, it’s been wonderful to get back into the flow of writing. Teresa and I had a hugely productive phone call yesterday; a novella proposal we’ve been working on will be ready to send this weekend. She also helped me brainstorm past a block I’ve had on a short story that needs to be sent this weekend (I got a brief extension on the deadline from the editor).

Today’s artwork is our inspiration artwork for the novella we’re working on. The novella’s about an Indian demigoddess who shapeshifts into a tiger, not a leopard, but otherwise the painting perfectly evokes what we’re trying to do.

It’s a new month, and I’ve been reviewing those writing projects and goals again. I made a list of novels and novellas for this year, with deadlines (both firm outside ones and target personal ones). I know I still need to be flexible—there’s one novel with a deadline of "???" because we haven’t heard back from the editor—but it’s good to see the list on paper, and get a sense of goals.

The beginning of this month looks very nice: a few little projects and fun things here and there, like helping Morgana finish painting her meditation room (finally!) and seeing Monty Python and the Holy Grail at the cheap theatre in town and working on a new sewing project (which is a secret). Then, towards the end of the month, Ken’s coming home and we’re going to five (possibly six) Styx shows! Whee bouncity bounce!

Immediately after that, I’m heading up to Portland, and thence out to the coast for another book-in-a-week retreat. Even more fun, Teresa will be joining me! We’ll finish up a novel and possibly the novella, or something like that. We’ll know better what we need to work on by the time we get there. Since we may not be able to work on our joint projects simultaneously (what one writes may affect what the next writes), I plan to work on some solo stuff, too. No idea what, yet. I have some ideas, but no concrete plans…

Plus there’ll be walks on the beach and great dinners and conversations with Kris and Dean and all the other writers, and a day or two on either end to spend time with my beloved.

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Speaking of my beloved, he’s coming home for the weekend! He arrives Saturday late afternoon, and will probably head out Monday. He misses the motorcycle, so he’s going to ride back up. I’m torn between wanting to run errands (like car shopping) and just curling up with him. Or going for a bike ride. I’ve been having some serious wanderlust recently.

Of course, before he arrives I have to write a short story, go food shopping, and meet with a friend to help him target markets for his artwork. And shower, and eat some food, and drink some tea…

Have a fabulous weekend, everybody!

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Currently Reading: The Rival: Book Three of the Fey, Kristine Kathryn Rusch; Losing My Virginity: An Autobiography, Richard Branson
Lately Listened To: Long Distance: The Best of Runrig
Recently Watched: Gormenghast, Monk