~~ "She has so many aliases, you'd think she was a spy!" ~~

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Houston, we have connectivity

Words Written: er, none again
Writing Stats: Rejection from Superqueereos for the Sophie story “Pow! Bash! Yes, Yes!”, and from Weird Tales for “The Rising.” Pout
Exercise: none

We have achieved new cable modem and connectivity! Hurrah!

Despite the fact that I’m still exhausted, it’s been a pretty good day. Took poor pathetic Grimoire to the vet for his 6-month comprehensive, and he’s gained 0.7 pounds. I blame the cat sitters… Then I picked up the new cable modem and made that work, and pounded through e-mail and whatnot (and a bunch of necessary phone calls) before going to a chiro appointment, where I learned that my back crunching is a good thing, because it means things aren’t all seized up. Who knew? My back actually hurts a little less right now. Then there was food shopping, and talking to Ken, and tuna on rye with pickles and green chilies, and a lovely hot bath, along with lots more e-mail and work stuff.

So, my back feels marginally better, I love my new car, I love my GPS, I like my bathtub (it’s the house’s original clawfoot tub, which is wonderful, but it’s not quite deep enough for me), and I can get onto the Internet and work again. Yeah, it doesn’t all suck.

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Of course, just as I went online to post these last few entries, the cable went down. All of it, including the TV. Since my next goal is to curl up in bed, read, and then get a nice long night’s sleep, I’m skipping straight to Plan B…

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Currently Reading: Staying Dead, Laura Anne Gilman
Lately Listened To: Influence, Shaw/Blades
Recently Watched: Heroes

Thursday, March 15, 2007

But what does it all mean?


Words Written: big fat zero
Writing Stats: Rejection from Fishnet for “At the Faire.” Phooey. Four stories mailed.
Exercise: walking

The Internet problems seems to be the cable modem. Will be calling the cable company first thing in the morning. Meanwhile, I spent four hours at the local Starbuck’s fighting with a crappy connection (because I was using an open wireless connection rather than paying for the T-Mobile thing), trying to catch up on work, submit stories that were due and otherwise handling writing-related stuff, and deal with some Styxfest issues.

That was after going to the DMV and trying to explain that I needed a temporary registration something-or-other because there’s a problem with the title to the new car that the dealership in NV is trying to sort out.

My lower back is crunching. That can’t be good, can it?

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Currently Reading: Staying Dead, Laura Anne Gilman
Lately Listened To: One With Everything, Styx
Recently Watched: The Dresden Files

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Disconnected


Words Written: OOTFP 1016
Writing Stats: Received comp copies of C is for Coeds.
Exercise: um…

Dammit, for some reason I can’t connect to the Internet today. It seems to be a problem at the cable company’s end, but it’s been going on all day, and I have stuff that needs to be sent out and/or dealt with! Muttergrumble. Yes, I just spent a week and a half pretty much without access, just fine—but it meant that a number of things didn’t get done that now need priority… Not to mention my part-time job, which I can’t do without being able to remotely access the company’s network.

I could go to an Internet cafĂ©, but I keep hoping connectivity will return here. But have I spent the day writing like a fiend? Noooo… I’ve been doing every other little thing that doesn’t involve writing or the Internet. Got all the receipts into Quicken, ran Quicken reports for taxes, reconciled Quicken. Finished unpacking. Did dishes. I did do some minor edits on a story that’s now ready to send out…if only I could.

Of course, this also means that I don’t know when I’ll be able to post this entry anyway…

<>-<>-<>

Being very tired Monday night, I see I forgot to link to Cowboy Lover: Erotic Tales of the Wild West. So there you go. Order early and order often!

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Currently Reading: Staying Dead, Laura Anne Gilman
Lately Listened To: Big Bang Theory, Styx; RWA session
Recently Watched: The Ri¢hes

Monday, March 12, 2007

Away and home

Words Written: “The Light at the End,” ~600
Writing Stats: Received, signed, and prepped to mail two contracts: “Stranger to my Shores,” Paranormal Erotica anthology (as Sophie), and “When the Rancher Needs a Loan,” Cowboy Lover: Erotic Tales of the Wild West anthology (as Andrea Dale). Received a rather preachy rejection from Clarkesworld for “Seeds of Hope.”
Exercise: walking through airports

I’m at LAX, waiting for my slightly delayed flight to Oxnard to be called. I’m tired, so the delay especially sucks. They looked for a volunteer to give up his/her seat in exchange for a round-trip ticket anywhere in the US, and if I wasn’t so tired, I’d take it and just rent a car. Oh well.

Part of me doesn’t want to go home. I really wanted to stay with Ken in Portland for a few days, working and relaxing and easing back into reality rather than hitting it full speed. I don’t have that luxury, though… Plus I really miss the cats. And my chiropractor and my massage therapist…

The week was incredibly successful and productive. Teresa and have two chapters left to finish OOTFP. (When we got there, we didn’t think we’d finish it there; then we thought we might; then we slowed down a little.) We’ll get the proposal in the mail this week, I think, and then get the draft finished and polished by the end of the month.

I also rewrote the beginning of WSWL, getting about 4000 words down (some new, some taken from the previous version). I realized it needed to be both darker and richer, and I had to start over to really weave that in—I needed that new info in order to be able to move ahead.

I also finished one story, which Teresa kindly critiqued and will be in the mail this week; wrote half of a joint Lust Bites article on collaboration; and started another short story on the plane today.

Everyone else at the retreat wrote lots of words and broke through barriers, and the energy was just amazing. Last time, we all stayed in our rooms to write, but when we hit the common area, we tended to hang out too much and not be productive. This time, we decided to try two optional two-hour quiet joint writing periods per day, from 10 a.m. to noon and 8 to 10 p.m. Well, the first day, all the women sat down and did it…and we never left. We did almost all of our writing in the common area all day, every day. Occasionally someone would hit their room for an hour or two, and Teresa and I did retreat to our room when we needed to brainstorm and confer. On the other hand, the two men in the group almost never came out of their rooms…

We ate out every night, with Kris & Dean and Chris and Steve, so we had lots of great seafood and great conversation. K&D invited us to bring take-and-bake pizzas and drinks to their place one evening, so I got to see how they’ve transformed the workshop house back into their home (they have two houses and one large office [former garage, I think] with several rooms). My usual bedroom is now Kris’s closet. That took a little getting used to…

It’s been almost exactly five years since I took my first OCW workshop, the Master Class, which changed the way I write and the way I approach and think about writing and my career. For a while, it seemed like nothing was changing, that it hadn’t had an effect. But five years on (and quite a few workshops later!), I’ve sold two novels and I’ve sold more short stories every year. It snuck up on me, strangely enough. But, as we discussed one night, you’re never satisfied. You’re always raising the bar, striving for a greater goal. To lose that would be to not need to write anymore. I can’t wait to see what the next five years will bring.

So we reluctantly left Lincoln City on Sunday after the weekly writerly lunch, swung by Hillsboro to pick up Ken, and went to an airport hotel to drop off Laura and get Teresa checked in. Then Ken, Teresa, and I went to the Kennedy School McMenamin’s to meet up with erotica author and fellow Lust Biter Shanna Germaine for dinner, drinks, and much laughter. Shanna’s a blast! Just a bundle of energy, with a great sense of humor, an incredible focus (she writes, edits, teaches…I can’t keep up with all of it!), and a keen mind. We sat there for hours, not wanting to leave despite how tired we were. We finally, reluctantly dragged ourselves away, and Ken and I didn’t get back to Hillsboro until after midnight.

So now I’m almost home, not wanting to get distracted by bills and e-mails and the rest of the real world. I’ve really got to focus if I’m going to get WSWL done in time for the novel workshop in May (manuscripts will be due in April so everyone has time to read them before the workshop). Plus I miss Ken. But he’ll be home towards the end of the month to pick up his new shiny motorcycle (he’s abandoning his beloved K1200LT for a sleeker, peppier GT), and then I may just ride back up there with him so I can spend my birthday in the Pacific Northwest.

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Home now. Despite the fact that I watched my suitcase get loaded onto the plane at PDX, it didn’t arrive with me at OXR. But they’ve delivered it, and all is well. I’ve picked up some groceries, eaten dinner, talked with Ken, watched a bit of TV, scritched the cats, and done some catching up in e-mail and whatnot. I’m exhausted, so I don’t think I have the brainpower to write any more today. I’ll just hit the ground running tomorrow…

Despite some things, it’s good to be home. In part because there’s still Styx confetti all over my bedroom floor…

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Currently Reading: Staying Dead, Laura Anne Gilman
Lately Listened To: Big Bang Theory, Styx; RWA session
Recently Watched: Without a Trace