The subject of tonight's flailing about

And I didn't even throw up on his shoes when I told him I was a writer with two books out and his poem "Instructions" was one of the things hung up next to my writing computer.

Go me.

Looking on the business side

Ken had a headache this afternoon, so we threw on a silly movie (one I’d snagged from Netflix to watch in NY or on the flight home when we needed something mindless). I grabbed Afalwen so I could catch up on some online reading, since I really didn’t have to pay attention to the movie.

I’m lucky to know some damn amazing pro writers, and one of the things that makes them amazing is the way they pay it forward. Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith’s are both essentially writing books, chapter-by-chapter, on their blogs, that are essential to understanding freelancing and a writer’s career.

• Kris is writing the Freelancer Writer’s Survival Guide. She’s covering everything from things to consider when you’re thinking about quitting your day job, to settle schedules to how to keep your morale up, to handling jealousy (yours and others’), to negotiations, to…
• Dean has written a great series on motivation and goals for the new year, and is now busting myths about agents left, right, and center in a series called Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing. The discussions in the comments are worth their weight in gold, with other pros such as Laura Anne Gilman chiming in.
• I don’t know Laura Anne personally, but her blog is also a wealth of information. She used to be an editor, and now she’s a full-time, prolific writer—so she’s able to look at things from both sides of the business.
• A blog I’m just getting into now is NINC (Novelists, Inc.). A whole bunch of pros chiming in on a regular basis…how can any writer pass up a wealth of information like that?
• I also like Smart Bitches, Trashy Books for their take on what’s going on in publishing news.

So, those are my current reading suggestions for writers wanting to learn more about the business side of things. What are your go-to blogs and sites?

"Early" is relative

Ken and I had plans to get to bed “early” tonight (as in, early for us). Cue maniacal laughter here. Not so much. We’re still poking away at our respective computers… I’ve gotten a fair amount of e-mail accomplished, so it’s not like it’s been a waste.

I spent far too much time today at the urgicare center. We got there about 12:30 or 1, I think, and left at 3:30 p.m. Argh. The doctor was bamboozled about my ear. I have no real visible wax, although my eardrum looks dark. I’m now on antibiotics, prescription ear drops (in case of infection), and steroids. Wooh. Those are all basically precautions, because what probably happened is I’ve got massage oil in there, blocking my eardrum. My massage therapist spent about half an hour (of our two-hour, full-body session) on my neck and jaw, which is where a good month’s worth of stress had settled to lock everything up. (I had some massive headaches in NY.) Immediately after my massage—while she was still here, in fact, I was seized by the notion to clean out my ears…so I probably shoved some oil in there on a Q-tip. As a comedian once quipped, “Good going, MacGyver.”* Sigh.

On a positive note, my blood pressure was flat-out normal. It’s been high-normal in the past, which has concerned me, but even though my exercise lately has been, um, nonexistent, apparently I’m doing okay.

Um. So I did get a few hundred words done on a story (not the story that’s due the soonest, but the story I have a good idea on that’s also hands-down fun to write—and I really needed “fun” in the writing tonight).

We also had über-yummy leftover curry (over fresh Jasmine rice—I love the veg/rice steamer, thank you again Cat!), watered the cats, and curled up to watch some TV together.

And now Ken has wandered towards the bedroom, and I’m wandering after him! G’night!

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*Um. MacGyver is in Word’s spellcheck. WTF?

What do I do with this?!

Last night we made Pad Thai (from the Trader Joe’s boxed mix) and a very yummy chicken curry over Jasmine rice. Because we were also cooking for Morgana and Brian, I sautéed the shrimp for the Pad Thai separately, and put tofu directly in the Pad Thai for some texture.

Now, what do I do with 2/3 of a block of tofu? I’m not especially fond of it except when it’s mixed well into Asian dishes. We still have a lot of curry left and it’s pretty soupy, so should I just chunk up the tofu, fry it up, and toss it in? Or does anyone have some amazing tofu recipe* they could share?

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*Hah! I typed “receipt” first, because I really am stuck in the past.

NY photos

A few photos from New York here.