Ow.

Note to self: When pulling something down from a high cabinet on utility porch, try to avoid can of Dr Pepper smashing onto face.

Result: small cut on bridge of nose, annoying but minor ache in sinuses, nerdy looking Band-Aid on face. Sadly, other than minor, expected temporary swelling, there seems to be no real interesting affect to shape of small, unremarkable nose.

Additional comment: Not even as amusing as the time Lawrence dropped an almost-full water bottle on my head, although tonight's episode resulted in actual blood loss, which must count for something.

Happy Birthday Ken!

Happy Birthday to My Beloved!

We’ve been having a lovely day together. Celebrations this morning, followed by walking to a downtown restaurant for brunch. Then we had to take the car in because one tire was flattening (we’d pump it up, and two days later it would be flat), and another was soft. Turns out they both had nails in them. Sigh. And the front two were worn, so we got four new tires, alignment, the works. Not fun, but at least something accomplished!

Then we bought a new sofa (to be delivered Wednesday) for the media room, since the one in there (a Fagelbo from ::spit::Ikea::spit::) was very comfortable to sleep on, but awful to sit on. (Plus it faded almost immediately, cheap piece of crap that it is.) So now I’ll finally have a comfy place to lounge and read, and my ass won’t go numb when we’re watching TV.

Then it was a quick trip to Costco and home again to grab a snack before trotting out to the cheap theatre to see Mamma Mia!, and then we filled all our water cooler bottles and picked up a pizza to cook later. In a few minutes we’ll toss the pizza in to cook, maybe head down to the pizza place on the corner to pick up some wings (Ken’s having a bizarre craving—usually I’m the wing obsessor!), and watch Kinky Boots.

And there will be more celebrating, too. ;-)

Tomorrow I’ll have to get back to reality and work and whatnot, but today is all about Ken!

What I Did on My Summer Vacation, by Dayle, aged 42 and 5/12

Being an Account of Our Annual Trip, This Year to Utah, August 2008

So, Utah! Even getting there was something of an adventure. As you know (Bob), Ken blew the clutch on the bike on the way home from the Midwest (this was after the rear drive failed and was replaced). Turns out that the clutch blowing resulted in oil and tiny bits of shredded metal and gods know what else spewing all over the innards of the bike. When it became clear that the bike wouldn’t be ready for the trip, we had to regroup.

I was already flying out on Tuesday, so Ken booked a flight that would bring him in about an hour later. We also decided not to stay through the following Tuesday, because Ken wouldn’t be running the rally that started that day in Utah. While we were looking forward to going to Utah, it wasn’t specifically all that high on our list of travel destinations, so we agreed that heading home (me) and back to Oregon (Ken) on Sunday made sense. It meant Ken had an extra week of work so that (::fingers crossed::) we have him home* for the next month and a half or so.

Other than getting up at an unholy hour of the morning to get to OXR (where there was a bit of panic about paying for parking, which involved stuffing cash into an envelope and loosely writing down where my car was, because it was dark and I couldn’t read the parking space number), I sashayed onto the plane, had a quick change in LAX, and soon was at SLC. Ken did indeed show up about an hour later, although he walked right by me and thankfully called my cell before he’d gotten too far. (I think I must’ve turned to look at the gate just as he went around me or something.)

We had a pleasant drive to the Zermatt Spa and Resort in Midway City, found our chalet (where our friends Ernie and Pauline and their friend Mo had already set up base), and ate lunch.

Then we took a nap, because my 4-5 hours of sleep the night before had been luxurious compared to Ken’s 2 hours.

When we registered and picked up our swag, I found a lone flyer for a birds of prey show, and I snapped it up so fast the paper was a blur. The next day, we were so there.

But first on Wednesday, there was High Tea.

The woman at Zermatt who organized it used to run a tea shop in the area, and she knew what she was doing. She even provided tea hats for all the ladies! (And now I’m so inspired to haunt thrift stores for hats and decorate them accordingly.) I say “for the ladies,” but Ken is an amazing sport with a silly sense of humor, and yes, I have pictures of him in several different hats.

The tea itself was gorgeous to the point of gorging ourselves: broccoli and cheese soup, cheese and crackers, and of course tea sandwiches and scones (although apparently rural Utah doesn’t “get” clotted cream, so we had to put up with whipped cream ::shudder::). I’m surprised we ate dinner that night.

But we had at the opportunity to work up a good appetite that afternoon—flying birds of prey!

They flew a prairie falcon, a gyrfalcon, and a red-tailed hawk. The prairie falcon essentially flew away and didn’t come back for an hour; apparently her sister flew off during the morning show and hadn’t been seen since. (Sadly, there have been golden eagles in the area, and they think one might’ve gotten her.)

The gyrfalcon flew to the top of the barn and pretty much came down only occasionally—apparently he wasn’t very hungry, so after landing on a couple of kids’ heads (yes, that was planned) he got lazy.

The hawk, however, was fabulous! And we got to fly her, too. Ken got pictures. Another guy there got an awesome picture of her in flight, just about to land on Ken’s hand.


It was just incredible. Squee bouncity!

I love vacation. :-)

We truly intended to go to bed early that night, but best laid plans and all that…. Still, we dragged ourselves out of bed the next day at 5 a.m. because the carrot was a hot air balloon ride!

This was our 10th anniversary celebration, and Ernie and Pauline’s 30th anniversary celebration. I admit, at first I was pretty nervous, as I do have occasional bouts of vertigo (and height/falling dreams), and I was afraid that it would hamper or even ruin the experience for me.

The basket was tinier than I expected, with two sections for passengers and one for the two operators (flyers? pilots?). There were six passengers (another couple from CCR rounded our group out), and we were divided between the two sections, and to my horror I was separated from Ken, although truth be told we were right next to each other, just not touching from the waist down. (And when things started, I regretted not being shorter, so that the edge of the basket wasn’t at my waist, but farther up….)

It took me about 10 minutes to logically look up and process how the basket was attached the balloon and that there was no way barring a hurricane that the thing could tip over.

At that point, it just became sheer awesomeness, in all senses of the world. I know I say things are magickal, or amazing, or stunning, and all those words fit here, but it was so much more. It was…impossible. We floated. Gravity did not have any power over us. How is that possible? I still can’t wrap my brain around that concept.

When they weren’t firing off the burner, it was silent. Just us and the light wind. Floating, drifting. The sun rose over the mountains, and then we cast a shadow on the ground.


We watched people get pulled over by cops, too, way down below, but that was just amusing.

The best part for me, though, was coasting 10 to 15 feet over the ground towards landing. That’s when it really felt like we defied gravity, that it had no meaning.

Imagine if you jumped up in the air…and just stayed there.

I’m embarrassed to say the rest of the day must have paled in comparison, because I can’t remember anything else we did. I know there was a dinner and silent auction that night, but that’s about it.

Friday was a pretty low-key day, due to some minor medical issues on my part. We went into Park City to find a bookstore, and met the world’s mellowest cat therein. We bought no books, though. We simply went into the attached Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and spent our money there!

That night was the big banquet, where we learned that through the various fundraising efforts, most notably the auction, we raised $28,000 for Utah Children’s Justice Center, Wasach & Summit Counties branch. The director was in tears. So were a lot of us.

Ernie, Pauline, and Mo left very early the next morning, well before we were prepared to drag ourselves out of bed. So we had a more leisurely awakening, and then walked across the street to the Homestead Crater: the only warm-water scuba site in the continental United States. We decided to just snorkel, though, rather than take scuba lessons. (I took lessons in college and did everything but my fresh-water dive, because I couldn’t afford it, so I never got certified. Sigh. Someday!)

This was another amazing experience.


The mineral water was 95° and impossibly blue; the sun slashed through the hole in the ceiling to send one corner sparkling. There wasn’t a lot to see, per se, but there’s something to be said for just floating, drifting, experiencing.. Watching the air bubbles from the scuba tanks burble up from the depths. Savoring the moment.

After we showered and checked out, we made our way into Salt Lake City and checked into another hotel, then met up with our friend Thom for a late-ish lunch. We found a Thai restaurant in an outdoor shopping area, and had a lovely time eating and chatting.

And then, after Thom headed of to a rehearsal and we headed to the Apple store to buy iPhones!

We’d been talking about it for a while. Ken really disliked our current phones, and needed something that would function loosely as a PDA as well (for contacts, calendar, etc.—iPhones still aren’t good with other types of information management, but we’re hopeful). My biggest holdout was having no option other than AT&T, because I don’t like not having options. Plus I’ve been quite happy with T-Mobile. But I agreed that our phones were less than optimal, and in hindsight, it’s a good thing we did get them, because when Ken’s laptop was stolen a week later, he still had e-mail and Internet access via the phone and thus didn’t lose any work time.

Clutching our booty (which included not just the phones, but cases, Bluetooth earpieces, etc.), we determined that if we were in a new city, we really did have to do some proper touristy things, so we headed to Temple Square. We didn't take any tours, just walked around and admired the flowers and water features and architecture.

I was still a bit under the weather, though, and just plain wiped out, so we didn’t spend a lot of time there. We headed back to the hotel and collapsed for a bit, playing with our new toys and just sort of being mellow and brainless. We eventually roused ourselves for a late supper in the hotel café, and called it an early night.

Our flights weren’t stupidly early the next morning (yay!) so we were able to have a leisurely breakfast in the airport. We were on the same flight to SFO, and then I had to rush to make my connection to LAX. A sad kiss goodbye, and then I was winging south and he was pointed north. Sigh. But, as you know, we were together a week and a half later in Arkansas, so…

Anyway, pictures are here. Enjoy!

---

*”Home” being a relative term, since over the next month and a half we had/have a trip to Arkansas, a trip to central California, Great Western War, and a visit my parents in New York.

Thursday 13: Thirteen Projects to Work On

1. Ghosted (urban fantasy novel)
   
2. Angelika (paranormal erotic romance novel)
   
3. short story for CinemaSpec
   
4. short story for In & Out
   
5. short story for the lesbian cowboy anthology
   
6. Ken’s birthday present (can’t say what it is here, in case he reads this!)
   
7. getting to the gym more often
   
8. Italians for Black Oak Lodge, March 2009. I have fabric for four. Four! Sheez. I may not complete them all (it’s only a 3-day event, and nobody really dresses on Sunday) but I’ll get ‘em started.
   
9. For that matter, Black Oak Lodge. The first Crown Prints ad has already been sent. :-)
   
10. various kumihimo braids and finger-crocheted award cords
    
11. living room curtains
    
12. For that matter, curtains for the media room and bedroom…
    
13. Lawrence’s birthday present. ::evil laugh::
    

Celebrate!

Happy National Punctuation Day!

(And a shout-out of thanks to Cat for alerting me to this very important holiday!)

There's a face in the photograph...

Our photos from the three most recent shows:

Hot Springs, Arkansas

Saratoga, CA (with Bonus! photos of Ken and our trip home)
Newport Beach, CA

I got a little silly with the captioning...

Enjoy!

Thoughts on nom nom nom

I don’t really enjoy cooking at the best of times—about every other holiday season I get the urge to bake, but if I sit for a while, that too passes. I like to eat (this statement should be self-evident), but I don’t get the creative thrill from spending hours on my feet in the kitchen. There are far, far more things I’d rather be doing, and when it comes to creative projects, I like it when the thing I make doesn’t disappear within a day or so (no matter how much it was enjoyed).

So while Ken’s been gone, I slowly got to the point where salad or sandwiches were the most elaborate things I was putting together in the kitchen (note: I don’t believe in, or eat, non-elaborate sandwiches. If I’m going to make one, I’m going to make a loaded one, with fresh spinach and tomatoes and pepperoncinis and gods know what else). Now that he’s home, we hauled out the recipes and forced ourselves to actually consider cooking again. (Since neither of us enjoy the process, we either do it together or take turns/negotiate other chores.)

Last night we make sausage and peppers from a recipe I snerched from my mom the last time I was home. It didn’t taste like I remembered when she’d make it, but it was close, and it was also easy and healthy (served over brown rice with a side salad), so it’s a keeper. While I was there (and Ken was overseeing the actual cooking parts), I also made a balsamic vinaigrette, which I’d been meaning to do for ages, and cut up a canteloupe, and we both did dishes.

I can’t say it was wildly exciting, but I did come away with a comfortable sense of accomplishment. Can’t beat that!

Random niceness

Our tenant came by today to say that after half a century of life, she figured out how to fix her toilet. She was so proud of herself, and I’m so proud of her! She’s the type of person who needs—and appreciates—a confidence boost like that.

Then she gave us her father’s wooden cigarette case (from the 20s or 30s, she wasn’t sure). Her father owned our house for a good 40 years (she lived in it on and off growing up) and she occasionally unearths things that “belong” to the house. But this was something personal, and I’m really touched.

~ ~ ~

Happy Autumn Equinox!

Perfect days

You know, the last couple of days have been pretty close to perfect.

We headed up to Saratoga, CA, on Wednesday, listening to music and talking. We didn’t hit a lot of traffic, and found the hotel just fine. Humungous suite (Tani booked the room for us, and all we knew was that she’d asked for a king-sized bed!), complimentary chocolates and Oreos and popcorn. Dude. I showered and “fluffed and buffed” to get ready, and we ate the popcorn before meeting up with Tani and Annalisa and heading to the venue.

The Mountain Winery is, as expected, up in the mountains, and the view was gorgeous, if a little hazy and overcast. We grabbed food at a grill onsite, Ken bought a Styx hoodie because it was really cold! (I’d brought a long-sleeved shirt to wear afterwards, and it was a good thing, because I hadn’t realized the venue was outside. I did, of course, take it off for Styx, because I believe in sharing the wealth of my cleavage with those who appreciate it. And appreciate it they did.)

We were on the “wrong side” in front of Tommy, but the stage was small and low (thigh high on me) so I got to look across at Lawrence and see a lot of facial expressions I don’t normally catch (because the keyboard was spun away from where I usually stand). We were at the end of the second row, and security let us stand parallel with the shorter first row, so that was just fine and dandy. We weren’t allowed to approach the stage, but were very close, and that just gave more room for dancing.

Afterwards we hung out in our enormous suite with Tani and Annalisa before calling it a night. Fun!

We drove home Thursday along Hwy 1, one of the most beautiful roads in the country. It’s just amazing: you round a corner and see this incredibly stunning view, and then you round the next corner and somehow the view is even more stunning. How is that possible? Your brain just can’t comprehend.

We had to stop for some roadwork, and the incredibly cheerful worker warned us that it would be a 20-25 minute delay, but there were sea lions. Well, yes there were, waaaaay down there. We could hear them clearly, but they were just specks. My vertigo did kick in, thanks in part to the fact that there was nothing more than a knee-high wall between me and a sheer drop, but I managed.  ;-)

I had a blast on those twisty-turny roads. The Saab doesn’t handle as well as the Talon did, but it holds its own. We popped in CDs and sang along when we weren’t talking. And as much as I admired the view, I didn’t admire it so much I drove off the road….

An interesting note: Of the 12 CDs in the holder in the car (for when the iPod connector can’t find a no-station area), only 1 has no ties to the UK. Every other band/artist had at least one UK member (Styx being the most tenuous, as Lawrence was born in Scotland but grew up in Canada). Kinda weird.

Anyway, we stopped for lunch near San Simeon, at a Mexican restaurant we ate at about 12 ½ years ago on our first trip together as a couple. And soon we were home with cats who insisted they hadn’t been fed in weeks, and I dashed off to an Herbal Guild meeting while Ken went to Fry’s to pick up memory and other stuff to get his new laptop up and running.

Today we’ve just been working on various things that have piled up in our absences. I’ve booked my flights to FL in November, bought tickets to one of the shows, sent out the e-mail about Lawrence’s birthday, made turkey reubens for lunch, and, um, oh I don’t know. Paid bills, printed out a fresh To Do list, called my parents, and avoided running errands. Which I should probably get off my cute butt and do now!

Yay and wahoo

Okay, not so much with the work stuff yesterday. I was truly too exhausted. I did manage to make it to a chiro appt, pick up a reserved book at the library, buy basic groceries, have dinner with Morgana and Brian, and have a very brief Full Moon ritual with Morgana and then chat with her before heading home and mostly collapsing (yay, glass of wine!).

Today, I did reasonably well. Churned through e-mail, cleaned off Ken’s side of the desk, worked out with Jen, etc. Now Ken’s home (yay! hurrah!) and we’re about to go out to dinner with Morgana and Brian. We won’t be around for Morgana’s birthday tomorrow, so I’ve got her present wrapped and ready to go.

~ ~ ~

Today’s e-mail brought one and a half story acceptances (a solo story and a Sophie story for the same anthology)! Wahoo! They’re pending publisher approval, so I can’t announce anything just yet. The solo story was a new one that I wrote for the antho (one of those “Hm. Ponder antho theme. Ooh! Write story in one sitting.” stories), while the Sophie story was one that had gotten nice comments but had never quite placed anywhere. I’m chuffed about both!

On the downside, I had three story rejections and one novel rejection while I was gone. Phooh. But it’s all part of the job, and today I worked on getting them circulating again where I could. (One story is a romance, and there are almost no markets for short romances.)

---

Currently Reading: The Host, Stephenie Meyer (about to start)
Lately Listened To: American Drag, American Drag
Recently Watched: Eureka

Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about

(Thanks, Ken!)

Fwump

I’m home! I’m home!

::topples over in exhausted contentedness::

Okay, that last part isn’t entirely true. I have to say, it’s weird getting home this early (I drove up at about 11:15 a.m., and may I note I can get almost exactly door-to-door, airport-to-home, on one listen of Styx’s One With Everything: Live With the Contemporary Youth Orchestra?). Usually I get home, drop everything and scritch the kitties, turn on the computer and check e-mail, unpack the most essential items, rifle through the mail for anything interesting (like acceptances, payments, comp copies…), drink a glass of wine, collapse in front of the TV for a short while, and go to bed.

But no, getting home so early means I don’t have the luxury of pouring a glass of wine (at least, not yet. Not for hours yet. Sob.). I have to do useful things. So far, in roughly this order, I’ve…

• dropped everything to give the kitties scritchies
  
• explained to them 18 million times that no, the other lady did feed you this morning, and in fact let me in the back gate and was talking to me about it when I opened the back door, thus no, you cannot have food
  
• showered
  
• discovered I lost 5 lbs on the trip
  
• eaten leftover mac-and-cheese, a 100-cal bag of Funyuns, a piece of string cheese, and a dark-chocolate-covered Joe-Joe; and drunk a cup of tea
  
• washed the delicates (laundry, you perverts)
  
• sorted the mail and paid bills
  
• read e-mail, journals, etc.
  
• copied files from Afalwen to Arianbach (that would be from my laptop to the main computer, for those of you who don’t speak Welsh)
  
• talked to Ken (he’s just outside of Albuquerque, a city name I love to type because it’s just so bizarre)
  
• cleaned out the laptop bag
  
• partially unpacked
  

And it’s still not even 2 p.m. yet. What am I going to do with the rest of my day?

Work, probably, as much as I can given that I was up at 2 a.m. local time. The guy in front of me on the DFW-LAX flight put his seat back, so I couldn’t use Afalwen, and I didn’t have the brain power to pull out the Palm and keyboard to write. Instead I read a mediocre book I probably won’t bother finishing, and played Demon Solitaire and listened to various Gowan albums on my iPhone.

Hm, I should probably update and print out my To Do list for the next few days, too, instead of dreaming over customizable organizational forms I just found online…

Bleary

The nice thing about flying at 5:40 a.m. out of a small-ish airport (16 gates total) is no security line.

The bad thing about flying at 5:40 a.m. is, obviously, that it’s 5 effing 40 in the morning.

Ugh.

Better hope we can hitch a ride

Have I mentioned how much I love this band?! ;-)

So not only was it a fantastic show in AR—extra long, with pretty much every possible song from their current repertoire, including a three-song encore—but my boys (especially Lawrence and Ricky, and Todd at the end) totally acknowledged our “far from home” presence, which was just incredible. Even the merch guy was surprised and happy to see us.

The best part, though, was after having a shouted conversation with Lawrence outside the venue (he was at the top of the ramp and the front of the buses, I was at the bottom of the ramp and the backside of the buses and trucks, which were idling). We finished and he headed off to his bus.

Then he came back and down the ramp to chat with us for 10 or 15 minutes. And that just blows me away. He’d already acknowledged us, said hello. He didn’t have to come back.

::grin stupidly::

~ ~ ~

Of course, I have to balance that with the fact that my flights were cancelled, I rescheduled them, and the new ones were canceled. In the end, though, it’s not that bad. I fly out at o’dark early tomorrow, and actually get home a wee bit earlier than I would’ve today, so less than 24 hours’ delay. Plus, Ken and I are hanging out in a motel for a bit, and then we’ll have an early dinner before he gets on the road—I got to spend a little extra time with him. (Okay, it’s time we would have had at home together, because he would’ve gotten on the road that much earlier, but still. Bird in the hand, and all that!)

We had a good time with Ken’s grandmother, too. She can’t see or hear very well, but she’s sharp as a tack, and told us great stories while we went through masses of her photographs. We even found one that was so old, it was printed on metal! So along with getting all my family’s photos scanned and indexed, we need to do hers! We also got to visit with Ken’s aunt, his cousin, and his cousin’s new wife.

We’ve got another busy week coming up, though. Ken’ll arrive home Tuesday. Wednesday we drive to the Bay Area for another Styx show, and Thursday we’ll drive home. Saturday is a Styx concert in Newport Beach, and Sunday is the LARA meeting.

Of course, I’ve gotten no writing done on this trip (in between everything else, I’ve been dealing with some icky health issues that have really sapped my energy). Maybe I’ll do a little tonight after Ken leaves, or on the flights tomorrow. I also have Christine’s fabby novel to crit! :-)

Now, however, I believe some pre-supper cuddling is in order…!

Upside down and backwards

Christine and I got together yesterday and had a successful writing fest at Borders. She finally nailed the opening of her latest book (and it rocks) and I finished the last scene of Ghosted (I’d written pretty much all of it, but for some reason left a chunk unfinished along with a note about what was supposed to got there). So next I’m going to write the second-to-last scene, and hopefully the key to unlock the rest of the book will be revealed to me. If not, I’m just going to keep writing backwards. Hey, it’s an adventure.

Then Teresa and I had a phone confab about Angelika (which needs a new title; comments welcomed!), which did blow open the problem we were having with it. We didn’t really know our main character, what her internal goal was, and what her flaw was. Whee! It won’t massively change what we’ve already written—we’ll just have to tweak a few things—but it will definitely help with both the internal and external conflicts. Go us!

Now I’m on the plane to Houston, where I’ll swap to a plane to Little Rock and be with my beloved again! They actually fed us lunch on this flight. I’m gobsmacked. People have been very friendly today, even early this morning when we were all yawning on the bus from parking to LAX. Maybe it’s because of the date?

It’s also Tommy Shaw’s birthday! (Apropos of anything else, except I am on my way to see the band!)

Sometimes, I really love technology

1. I wasn’t entirely sure I understood the point of Facebook, especially since I already had a MySpace account. But I had a few friends who were on one but not the other, and I have to say, Facebook is much prettier and easier to use. My point, though, is that an editor I worked with five years ago (on Dyke the Halls) managed to track me down via Facebook, and was delighted because he wanted to invite me to submit to a new anthology! In fact, he said, “Hope it might be of interest to you (maybe even a few times, since I can use more than one story under your many pseudonyms...).” Major warm fuzzy, and I’ve already sent him a Sophie reprint; a new solo story will be written before the deadline.

2. Ken bought a tracking device for the bike that pings a website about every half an hour. I’m trying so hard not to get obsessed with checking the site to watch his progress across the country, but it’s so addictive!

3. YouTube, and finding video clips of David Tennant licking an ice cream cone. (Yeah, I’m in that kind of mood.)

4. Digital cameras allow us to capture random but wonderful images. When the cats sleep in the laundry basket, Eostre always picks the whites basket and Grimoire goes for the colors basket…

(Yes, we have a window in our closet...)

Random Things to Celebrate

• I got my comp copies of The Pagan Anthology of Short Fiction, which contains the Sophie Mouette story “Under a Double Rainbow.” It’s a truly pretty book. I love the cover design, the feel of the cover (close, but not quite matte), the title and author fonts. I keep picking it up to pet it… It's just luscious.
  
• I get to see Ken Thursday!
  
• I get to see Styx Friday!
  
• I worked out today with Jen, and it felt goood.
  
• I get a massage tonight. Not only will it feel great and help put my body back the way it ought to be, but Melanie and I always have fun.
  
• Extra-tasty and smooth hummus.
  
• The last scene of Ghosted is almost finished! Of course, the book is far from done, since there’s roughly the last quarter of it to write to catch up to the end. But I sort of know the second-to-last scene—I’ve typed up some brainstorming notes about it, anyway—and I feel in my gut that that’s the one that’s going to crack the code of this book for me. And even if it does’t, it’s going to be a fun ride.
  
• I’m meeting with Christine tomorrow to write together (and laugh and inspire each other and, I suspect, eat lunch).
  
• Trader Joe’s dark-chocolate-covered Joe-Joe’s. Like fudge-covered Oreos, only infinitely better—and they’re all natural. I try to limit myself to one a day…
  

Okay, off to write until Melanie gets here!

Irrational fear and the breaking down of sanity

Dammit, why does CB&TL have free wireless now? I come here to escape the temptations of the Internet!

~ ~ ~

I have this urge to run away. Go on a retreat. I wish I had some cottage or cabin where I could gather all my writer friends for a long weekend, to write and read and talk and take long walks. No Internet, no TV, although maybe a DVD player to watch movies while we drink wine and laugh.

I wish I had the money to rent such a place. Of course, the hotel in Oregon is now for just this purpose, but then I’d need the money to fly all my friends there….

~ ~ ~

For now, though, I’m sitting here in CB&TL with Sabrina, and I’m writing, and it’s mostly crap but it’s happening. I’m writing the last scene of Ghosted, because I have to write the last scene in order to figure the rest of it out (or figure the beginning out. Or to move ahead. Or something.). Then maybe I’ll write the next-to-last scene, because I don’t know a lot of it, and the only way I’m going to find out is if I write it.

That probably sounds insane to a non-writer, but there you have it.

~ ~ ~

Ellenie and I had an extremely productive writing day today! I forgot to note my starting wordcount (in part because I’m trying to get away from worry about exact counts and enjoying the process more), but I think I wrote about 1K. Kinda lame for 3.5 hours of work time, but the important thing is that I broke past my irrational fear of…whatever I was irrationally fearing.

Then, because a mom and her small boy plopped down on the couch next to her while she was working on a love scene, Ellenie suggested we go out for an early supper, which we did at Roxsbury Deli.

I may do some more work tonight, since I’m back to being fired up about it and don’t want to lose that, but first I’m going to do some other bits that need doing (e-mail, etc.) and then I think I’m going to indulge in a celebratory bubble bath. Because, among other things, I’ve realized lately that I need to celebrate the small successes!

~ ~ ~

I also stopped stressing about the fact that Ken hasn’t called, because it’s probably due to the fact that he has to buy a new phone charger. He’s set up a tracking device on the motorcycle that occasionally pings my e-mail with a link to a Googlemap that shows me where he is (how cool is that?!), and he was nearly Salt Lake City mid-afternoon today. Since he still had a banquet ticket to the rally he couldn’t run due to the second bike problem (the clutch), he figured he might as well attend, and then continue on to Arkansas. He’ll probably call me from a hotel phone later.

Just. STOP. It!

Today Ken’s computer bag was stolen. Laptop, iPod, passport, work badge, work checkbook, work files, various charging cords, etc.

That’s it, Universe. Cut it out!

Thursday 13: Thirteen Things to Do in September

1. Take a fabulous trip in Utah. We’re going to CCR, our annual BMW motorcycle get-together, staying at the Zermatt Hotel and Spa. (DONE!)
   
2. Fly to Arkansas and meet Ken there, to visit his 95-year-old grandmother. Oh, and to see a Styx concert, too. ;-)
   
3. See Styx in the Bay Area.
   
4. See Styx in Orange County. (Is this a theme or something?) ::gg::
   
5. Celebrate Ken’s birthday! He wants to go out to one of the Channel Islands.
   
6. Celebrate more birthdays: Cat, Fran, Morgana, Lucrezia!
   
7. Start prepping for Great Western War.
   
8. Keep sewing…
   
9. Celebrate the Autumn Equinox.
   
10. Go on the Henry T. Onxard Historic District Annual Home Tour.
    
11. Get my hair done.
    
12. Write like a big ol’ writing fiend.
    
13. Salvage the last threads of my sanity.

Coming Together...At Last press release

Celebrate the Diversity of Desire with Coming Together and Phaze BooksCincinnati, OH – The latest in the critically acclaimed Coming Together anthology series, Coming Together: At Last, will debut in January 2009 from Phaze Books. Due to the overwhelming number and quality of the submissions, it was decided that two volumes of this title would be published simultaneously, both containing the stirring Introduction penned by New York Times bestselling author, L.A. Banks. A complete list of the contents can now be found online at the Coming Together website.

The release of these collections of interracial erotic fiction and poetry will coincide with the celebration of the birth of one of history's most passionate proponents for human rights and equality, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and it is from his famous speech given forty-five years ago on this day that the title words "At Last" are taken. Accordingly, proceeds from sales will benefit Amnesty International.

Having published four of the nine currently available titles in the charitable anthology series, Phaze Books is now poised to release its fifth and sixth. The diverse collections of erotic fiction and poetry feature the work of many well-known authors in addition to fresh new voices in the genre. Previous Phaze titles in the series include Coming Together: For the Cure, Coming Together: Under Fire, Coming Together: Special Hurricane Relief Edition, and Coming Together: With Pride. Each is available in both ebook and print from all major online booksellers.

All proceeds from the sales of Coming Together publications are donated to charity, with the authors and its EPPIE Award-winning editor, Alessia Brio, donating their time and talents.

Coming Together anthologies have received many accolades including the 2008 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Erotica as well as Top Pick and four star reviews from the romance industry's premier publication: Romantic Times BOOKreviews Magazine. In its most recent review, Romantic Times favorably compared the series to Susie Bright's Best American Erotica series. In addition, the organization was a finalist for the Electronic Published Internet Connection's 2008 Friend of ePublishing Award for what Ms. Brio has termed "erotic altruism."

Phaze Books, the erotic imprint of Mundania Press LLC, is one of the fastest growing and most recognizable publishers in an exploding genre. Its unprecedented support for Coming Together, a voluntary nonprofit association, puts Phaze on the cutting edge of philanthropy in the publishing industry, a commitment that will continue with its upcoming releases in the series. Coming Together: Against the Odds will have a mystery theme and will benefit Autism Speaks, while Coming Together: Into the Light will include stories about the revelation of secrets and will benefit V-Day. Both are currently open for submissions and will see publication in the coming year.

For more information about Coming Together, visit www.EroticAnthology.com or email editor Alessia Brio at alessia@eroticanthology.com. For more information about Phaze Books, visit www.PHAZE.com or contact Promotions Manager Crystal B. Bright at Ecrystal@PHAZE.com.

###

[Note from me: The anthology includes a reprint of my story Just Be, and I'm thrilled to be a part of this amazing series!]

Home…mostly

I’m back home from Utah!

Well…mostly. My heart is largely in the Portland area, as Ken had to go back to work, and my brain…gods know where that is. I’m not unpacked, I haven’t sorted all the mail (most of it, though), and let’s not even talk about e-mail (although I had some access at Zermatt—they claim there’s wireless throughout, but we were at the far end of the chalets, so we had to haul laptops to the main building for access).

But I’m the geekily proud owner of a new iPhone, as well as the recipient of many amazing experiences (hot air ballooning! birds of prey! snorkeling in a crater!). Plus I arrived home to find comp copies of the luscious The Mammoth Book of the Kama Sutra, containing my lead (!!) story (aka “translation”), “The Tale of the Tigress.”

For now, though, I’m headed off for a nice long relaxing sleep…

---

Currently Reading: Nightkeepers, Jessica Anderson (urban fantasy about the Mayan prophecy)
Lately Listened To: potential ringtones
Recently Watched: Eureka

Conjugatin' the verbs

Tomorrow I get up at a disgustingly early hour and fling myself onto a plane (bless Oxnard Airport and its “be there half an hour before the flight” policy) (since there’s only one gate and the plane doesn’t hold more than about 20 people, security is a snap), and a few hours later I’ll be in Utah and with Ken! Six days of conjugating!*

Of course, the best laid plans, and all that. The original plan was that I was flying out tomorrow and returning the following Tuesday. Ken was riding there and running a rally from the following Tuesday, then heading to Arkansas** (which I was then flying to). But the blown clutch on the bike spewed bits of metal everywhere, and it’ll take longer to clean up safely. So now he’s flying to Utah as well, and flying back to Oregon and working for another week before heading to Arkansas. We’re both flying out on Sunday, because while there were interesting things around Salt Lake City to see and do, it wasn’t near the top of our vacation spots, and we’re both better off getting back to work before the next jaunt.

When he called the rally organizer to say he wouldn’t be there, the organizer said “Damn, you were the favorite to win!” Crap.

But, in the overall scheme of things, it’s probably a good thing. The extra time at work for Ken means less craziness later in September, when we Have Plans (Styx shows in Saratoga and Newport Beach, the annual Historic Home Tour, and, oh, his birthday), as well as October (Great Western War and a visit to my parents in NY). The company in Oregon is asking him for more work, and he also has a lead on a regular job down here, so it’ll be an interesting few months!

Me, I’m just looking forward to CCR this week. We’re having High Tea, and planning on a hot air balloon ride and snorkeling in crater, and sharing a condo with our friends Ernie and Pauline. Plus there’s all the bike friends we see only once a year, and a banquet, and mountains, and a carousel…

~ ~ ~

At some point I’ll have to find time to talk about my amazing weekend and the cosmic two-by-four, too!

---

*A friend e-mailed me tonight and asked if that was like Schoolhouse Rock, and I said it was—the adult version. Which now has my brain contemplating adult Schoolhouse Rock stories. Maybe an anthology?! (I know, copyright restrictions…but it's fun to contemplate!) Anyway, the Interjections song makes a whole lot more sense now…

**To visit his 95-year-old grandmother and go to a Styx show. We were overdue for a visit, and Styx is playing in her town, and that’s just what we call serendipitous.

---

Currently Reading: Skinny Dipping, Connie Brockway
Lately Listened To: 13th Star, Fish
Recently Watched: Firefly

"What Dragons Prefer" podcast!

I'm delighted to announce my very first podcast publication!

Not only that, but it's a resale (can't call it a reprint, can I?) of my first professionally published story. "What Dragons Prefer" is a short fantasy tale with a wicked twist at the end. It first appeared in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine in 1996.

You can listen to "What Dragons Prefer" here or download it for future audio pleasure on your computer or iPod.

Because, that's right, it's free! So go forth and enjoy!

My mother never said "If you think too hard, you'll hurt yourself."

So I was just sitting at the computer trying to come up with a short story idea for an anthology, and apparently thinking hard is enough to pop a rib or two out of place. I'm back from the chiropractor now (my regular visit was this morning…), undoubtedly bruised (apparently I have strong muscles that require adjustments to be near violent to actually work) with orders to ice my shoulder for 45 minutes.

No writing. No sewing. No computer work. Sit and ice.

Well, fine then. My writing has been sucking like a 2-ton sucky thing anyway.

Just can't find the words

Ever have one of those days (or several days) where you're afraid to say something or write something because every time you do, your words/intent are misconstrued? Or, I suppose, they're coming out wrong (because you're not blaming the other people for not understanding).

Problem is, I need to deal with certain things today; I can't put them off. Which means everything is going to take 9 times as long as I agonize over every word and phrase to make sure I'm saying what I really mean to be saying.

Sigh. Wish me luck!

Thursday 13: Thirteen Favorite Things

(I’m going to skip the blindingly obvious, like, say, Ken, and my cats, and Styx.)

1. The lace-edged Post-It Notes I keep in my purse.
   
2. Otters.
   
3. PG Tipps tea. It’s my daily tea, so it must be my favorite. The rose tea from the Huntington Library is my favorite “special” tea, and I just got my hands on Glengettie, a Welsh tea (!) (despite the name), and ohmigods is it good! It would be my daily tea if it weren’t a wee bit pricey in comparison to PG Tipps (which, as an import, isn’t exactly cheap-like-Liptons).
   
4. Cheese. A good stinky bleu (I love Trader Joe’s ), a slightly runny Brie, a sharp biting cheddar, a salty mizithra, creamycreamycheeseycreamy cheese… Bring ‘em on!
   
5. Rose-scented anything.
   
6. The sound of running water: a brook, a fountain…
   
7. Pre-Raphaelite artwork.
   
8. The microwave, the rice/veg steamer, and the George Foreman grill. Without those, I’d probably starve to death.
   
9. ICanHasCheezburger.com
   
10. The nesting pair of red-tailed hawks that lives in the high trees by the 1904 church about two blocks away.
    
11. My friends all over the world. I squee every time I get a comment in my journal, or an e-mail, or a phone call….
    
12. Silk.
    
13. Reuben sandwiches. I make ‘em with pastrami or turkey, low-fat Swiss, low-fat Thousand Island dressing, rye (natch), and mounds of sauerkraut, on the aforementioned George Foreman grill. Yum!
    

If you can't laugh, what's the point?

Morgana and Brian came over tonight to watch last week’s episode of Eureka, which they’d forgotten to record and thus had asked me not to delete off the DVR. They then watched the most recent episode, and after I finished talking to Ken (who finally had a U-Haul and was about to drive the rest of the way to Oregon, after many annoyances and further delays), I watched the latter half with them. I’d watched only 40 minutes of it up ‘til then anyway.

If you’re concerned about spoilers, don’t read the next few paragraphs. Skip to the next section.

Dammit! Stupid show! I’m so not happy that they killed off Nathan. (Although, as Morgana said, it’s a time paradox, and you never know…) If they’d done it last season when he was still just a jerk, fine. But he and Jack had a great conflict banter, and he wasn’t a bad guy, even if his ego barely fit in the building. (Oh, his reaction when Jack asked him that…to raise his eyes and gauge whether the building really was big enough. So sardonic. Loved it.)

My favorite interchange between them was, I think, in the first season, when Nathan wouldn’t even say Jack’s name. Jack walked in and Nathan said, “Sheriff.” And Jack replied, “Scientist.” Hee!

But here’s the thing. With Nathan out of the way, once Allison gets over her grief, there’s nothing standing between her and Jack. And that’s not interesting anymore. Love triangles are monumentally more interesting.

So I’m just going to hope for a time paradox tweak.

~ ~ ~

I’m sorry to have been such a slacker about rambling here. I hate not keeping up with things, because it makes the days slip by even faster… Sometimes I’m talking to Ken and I can’t really remember what I’ve been doing. I’ve been doing lots of stuff, but it all blurs together and just fails to be interesting. Even doing a talk at LARA with two other writers, and going out to lunch with a few ladies afterwards. Or lunch with my trainer (Katrina) and my training partner (Jen) (Katrina’s no longer working for the gym, and it’s ugly, and…ugh.) Let’s face it, errands and cat litter scooping and doing dishes just aren’t scintillating conversation. And it’s hard to talk about writing, even with other writers sometimes.

And then I think of other perfect moments. Of doing a full moon ritual with Morgana and Brian and Caterine and Eleanor and Janet, because Morgana was teaching Eleanor and Janet her Wicca 101 class and it was, after all, the full moon. It’s so…so…so uplifting to see their reactions, to know that even if this isn’t the path they eventually follow, they’ll have a broader, more open outlook. And it was so wonderful to spend the day with Caterine (I took her out for sushi, and we talked for hours); I wish she hadn’t had to move just far enough away that it’s not easy to see her, but not really that hard, either, even with gas prices what they are.

I worked out with Jen on Tuesday, and it was the first time I’d been to the gym since coming back from RWA Nationals. I’m grumpy at the gym in general for forcing Katrina out, but so far I haven’t found a decent option to change to (I’ve got one more gym to check out), so I guess I’m here for the count. Jen and I are looking at maybe doing the online training program Katrina offers.

My massage therapist makes me laugh and I make her laugh, and she gives me insight into what it’s like to be cute and single and navigating through a world full of clueless men (not that all men are clueless, mind you. But we agree that many are just as insecure as women are.). All while helping put me back together. I still hurt. But not as much as I used to. We take our successes where we find them.

~ ~ ~

And then there’s the writing. But more about that later. Now it’s time to curl up in bed with a good book, and then sleep…

Because I really should start getting to bed earlier in preparation for my godawful disgustingly early flight this coming Tuesday. Bleargh.

---

Currently Reading: The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes, Jennifer Crusie, Eileen Dreyer, Anne Stuart
Lately Listened To: Hannah Fury, various
Recently Watched: Eureka

...aaaand then you lose a little more

Ken's in Washington, headed back to Oregon.

And the clutch just went on the bike.

Bloody hell.  :-(

You win some, you lose some, but you always learn something in the process

Ken was on a 7-day motorcycle last week, one that took him all over the continental US (there was a bonus location in Alaska, but I don’t think anyone tried for it). He left on a Thursday from Nebraska, and around midnight that night called to tell me that he’d be at Pink’s the next day at 1:30 p.m., and could I meet him there? Well, duh? Given that I hadn’t seen him since July 2, there was no question. Driving 4.5 hours total (abysmal Friday LA traffic) was worth 1.5 hours to stand in a loooong line and eat a hot dog with my beloved. (I had a Rosie O’Donnell Long Island Dog—mustard, onions, chili, and sauerkraut*—yum!)

Of course, to actually get Pink’s as a bonus point, he had to have a hot dog at another deli…in New York City.

Yeah, it’s that crazy.

Anyway, the longest rally he’s done so far has been 3 days, I think, so this one was a challenge, one he’d been looking forward to. His ultimate goal is the Iron Butt Rally: essentially 11,000 miles in 11 days (yeah…), and this was a step in proving he could do a real mult-day rally.

He was doing great. A few hiccups that he recovered from (misreading the Martha’s Vineyard ferry schedule, oversleeping by 4 hours), but overall, he had a good sense that he was going to make a podium finish.

Three hours from the end, the rear drive on the bike failed.

Now, with the LT (which he used to ride) this was a know problem, although BMW won’t cop to that. Note that two of his LTs had rear drive failures. They swore, however, that the GT (his bike since last year) didn’t have the same problem. Hah.

The folks in charge of the rally tallied his points, and had he made it in, he would’ve been the clear winner by a buttload of points.

So, yeah.

All things told, Ken’s pretty pragmatic about it. He learned a hell of a lot, including the fact that he could survive a multi-day rally, much less nail one. And the way things worked out, a hell of a lot of people know how things sussed out, too.

And at CCR in a few weeks, he’ll be having a wee talk with a BMW rep. :-)

But can I say that I’m beyond way proud of him?

---

*because a girl’s gotta have her veggies, don’tcha know

Thursday 13: Thirteen Books I Brought Back from RWA Nationals

1. The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes, Jennifer Crusie, Eileen Dryer, Anne Stuart (and signed by the latter two, plus they gave me a Dogs and Goddesses bumper sticker! Squee!)
   
2. Betrayed, Jamie Leigh Hansen
   
3. Night’s Rose, Annaliese Evans (ARC) (a person I was in line with convinced me to get it—all they had to say was “erotic fairy tale” and I was so there!)
   
4. Eve of Darkness, S.J. Day
   
5. Night Keepers, Jessica Anderson (why didn’t I think of writing a contemporary fantasy about the Mayan end of the world in 2012, oh why?!)
   
6. Dark Needs at Night’s Edge, Kresley Cole (yeah, it’s a vampire novel, but it’s also got the ghost of a famous ballerina from the last century)
   
7. A Little Bit Wicked, Victoria Alexander (I don’t “get” Regencies, but I’ve been saying that I’d be willing to read a good one, and this was a freebie, and she was a great speaker)
   
8. What a Lady Wants, Victoria Alexander (see #7)
   
9. Skinny Dipping, Connie Brockway (Phaedra took one look at the title and said “Oh, a book for you!”)
   
10. No One Heard Her Scream, Jordan Dane
    
11. The Undead Next Door, Kerrelyn Sparks (another vampire one, but it looks funny, so I ‘ll give it a try. I know there are good vampire books out there…I just don’t always know how to find them)
    
12. Silent in the Sanctuary, Deanna Raybourn
    
13. The Hollow, Nora Roberts (okay, technically I’m cheating with this one, since I bought it beforehand to read on the trip. But I brought it back with me, too, and this is Thursday Thirteen and I needed a 13th book. ::gg::)
    

If I had more time/energy/wherewithall, I'd post links and covers, but...nah!

July stats

8 stories subbed
8 stories rejected
1 story sold

9 novel submissions (for 2 novels)
2 novel rejections (same novel)

Sale! For a good cause!

It's a reprint sale, but still one to be delighted about! "Just Be" will appear in the Phaze Books charity anthology Coming Together: At Last. All proceeds of the Coming Together anthologies go to a charity or relief fund, including breast cancer research, the 2007 Southern California wildfires, HIV/AIDS, and more. Coming Together: At Last is a collection of interracial erotic fiction and will benefit Amnesty International. I'm proud to be a part of it!

The anthology will be out in 2009; I'll post ordering information when I have it.

* "Sale" is something of a misnomer, as I will only receive some comp copies. Normally I don't write for no pay, but this was for a really good cause!

Photos from RWA Nationals

My photos from RWA Nationals can be viewed here. No telling when I'll have the brainpower to write up the experience (today was mostly a washout) but rest assured it was fabulous!

Writers in some of the photos:

Teresa Noelle Roberts (one of my coauthors and best friends)

Phaedra Weldon (the other half of my brain)

Christine Ashworth (my travel buddy and dear, dear friend)

Portia da Costa

Madelynne Ellis

Eden Bradley

Jax Cassidy

The cat from Wales

Home from RWA Nationals. Dead tired, yet somehow floating. Maybe that's the wine. Or the information and experiences swirling in my brain.

More when I'm coherent again!

All the ways of my life, I'd rather be with you

Ten years ago today, my beloved and I ran off to Gretna Green, Scotland, and eloped.

It wasn’t our first plan, not by far. We’d gotten handfasted in California as an engagement ceremony before we moved to Wales, and intended to move back in a year and plan a big SCA wedding. But the British government had other plans. Apparently my plan to stimulate their economy by being supported by my husband and spending lots of money on tourist travel and antiques and whatnot was only feasible to them if we had this particular piece of paper.

(They lied, by the way. We didn’t have to be married for me to get that damned visa. They lied and took away my lavish ceremony. Two husbands, three ceremonies [four if you count the handfasting], and I still haven’t had what I’d consider the perfect ceremony. I’ve come to terms with that. Goodness knows two of the ceremonies are such great stories, nobody would believe them if I wrote it in a book. Large ceramic ALFs. A drunken Scotsman trying to beat down his new bride's door. That's just the tip of the iceberg.)

But I digress. The point is, if we had to get married, in Britain, this was the place to do it.

Our attendants were Elizabeth and Chris Flagge, SCAdians we’d met only twice before. When they heard at our second meeting that we were running off to elope, they asked who our witness were, and we said, “Erm, we were just going to grab someone out of the chip shop across the street…” They brought something old, etc., as well as a bouquet for me, which was so unexpected and sweet (I still have the pence for my shoe). They also brought Elizabeth’s (I think) mother, who took pictures and was just lovely. (Sadly, we’ve lost touch—if you’re reading this, guys, send me an address or phone number!)

We were married in the Registry Office in the room for 20 people (remember, there were only 5 of us, and 4 of us were standing up) because the room for 8 was already booked. Our Registrar, Donna, had a delightful Scottish accent.

Afterwards, we had our picture taken over the historic anvil, took our entourage out to lunch, then hopped on the bike and spent the weekend in the southwest of Scotland.

It’s strange…we don’t usually celebrate this anniversary, because it’s just not the important one for us. The day we moved in together (February 25, 1996) was really the day we made our commitment to each other. Our handfasting (March 14, 1998) comes a close second. This one, not so much.

Today is our 10th, though, and we have to celebrate it apart, and that’s making me feel maudlin and droopy.

So I’m looking at pictures of that day (except I can’t find the one of us and the anvil), and quietly celebrating that even if we can’t be together, we are together. 983 miles means nothing to the heart.

So tell me something about the person (or persons) of your heart. About your ceremony (any kind) or your favorite memory. Help me celebrate this day….

I broke down...

...and joined Facebook. Drop by and say hi!

(I'm already on MySpace here.)

LoJ 2008 photos!

Labyrinth of Jareth photos finally uploaded—you can view them here!

Submit or perish!

Pooh. Realms of Fantasy passed on “Oroflex (Patent Pending),” saying “this is a cute fairy tale variant, but I’m trying to cut back on those a bit.” Just my luck to get an editor who’s on a literary subgenre diet!

But I had a stack of returned stories to send out today anyway, so here’s what happened:

• “Soulsearching” to Coyote Wild
  
• “Hell’s Belles” (reprint) to Clonepod
  
• “The Queen’s Gardener” to Doorways
  
• “Matchmaker” to Serpentari.us
  
• “A Familiar(’s) Tale” to Renard’s Menagerie
  
• “Oroflex (Patent Pending)” to F&SF
  

I have no idea where to send “A Father’s Blessing” right now, but some markets open up on 8/1, so I can wait a week or so.

---

Currently Reading: Heaven Sent, Christina Jones
Lately Listened To: 7 Deadly Zens, Tommy Shaw
Recently Watched: Graham Norton, The Middleman

Onslaught...brace yourself!

I just added back posts from 7/4, 7/6, 7/7, 7/8, 7/9, and 7/11, in case anyone's interested.

Now I have to catch up about Labyrinth of Jareth, my talk at the Alternative Lifestyles Group, the latest Styx show, Meg's visit…but right now, I'm off to the gym!

Important note to self

It's perfectly acceptable to stay up until 3 a.m. Thursday night when you've gotten home from a Styx show at 1:30 a.m. and you're still buzzed from all the love your boys showered on you (it was, after all, your 75th show. And you did put a light stick in your cleavage.).

It's entirely acceptable to stay up until 3 a.m. Friday night because Meg is visiting and you can't stop talking to each other.

It's not acceptable to stay up until 3 a.m. tonight, because you have to be on the road to the LARA meeting at 8 a.m.

This is your only reminder. Pay attention…

Fabulous Whitby is finally here!

Great news! The anthology Fabulous Whitby, which contains my story "Proof of Devotion" (which I wrote all the way back in 2002 at the Oregon Coast Writers Master Class!), is finally available!  ::squee bouncity::

Right now, amazon doesn't seem to be supporting it well: amazon.com doesn't list it at all, and amazon.co.uk and amazon.ca are listing it as out of stock or whatnot.

The good news is, you can order it from a place called York Publishing Services out of the UK.

The better news is, they charge only $3.99 to deliver to the US, which is the same as what they charge to deliver in the UK (using the current exchange rate). That's right—international shipping is the same as UK shipping!

Click on the link above to go to the Fabulous Whitby order page. I'm soooo excited about this one. I'm in an anthology with Liz Williams and Esther Friesner and Cherith Baldry and Jay Lake andandand…!

Haunted Hearths: more great reviews!

Rainbow Reviews called my story the "the unexpectedly romantic heart-wrenching 'Some Old Lover's Ghost.'"  ::beam::

Queerhorror and Bay Windows also have lovely things to say about the anthology as a whole. Yay!

Everything, all the time

Rejection from Intergalactic Medicine Show for “Matchmaker.” For anyone keeping score, that’s four rejections in six days.

However, I think I forgot to mention a sale! Teresa and I sold “Food for Thought” to Best Lesbian Love Stories 2009. We brainstormed that story on a drive from San Jan Capistrano to Westminster, and first subbed it in 2004.

~ ~ ~

You know you’re an Eddie Izzard fan when all someone has to say is “penne all’arrabiatta” and you start to giggle.

~ ~ ~

I spent almost an hour at the chiropractor’s today, trying to get my body back into alignment because every. single. part. of. me seemed to have gone walkabout. I have to admit, after a few weeks of feeling “energetic” (which I realized really was “normal” for most people), I’ve been rather despondent by this turn of events.

~ ~ ~

Dave arrived safe and sound from the UK, although the shuttle trip that took 1.5 hours in May took 3+ hours today… Then again, it included two cushy gated communities, one of which Britney Spears is allegedly moving to. We went out for dinner at Armando’s because I’ve had no brain or impetus to gather food to actually cook.

~ ~ ~

My faerie skirt is done donity done done done! (Well. Unless I add little flowers to the dags in front. The jury’s still out on that. And bells. It might need bells.) Morgana’s outfit is done. Brian only needed to do his leafy bits, and they’re done. Tomi is still phutzing, but she came into this late—she’s buying Ken’s ticket and is mostly just using her Russian, but she wanted to add to it.

~ ~ ~

Tomorrow we collect 9 sweet kittens and their mama and deliver them to Morgana’s friend Michelle for fixing and shots and whatnot, and then we’ll have dinner before heading off to the Masquerade. Finally! We’ve been wanting to do this for years, and I’m gobsmacked that it’s actually going to happen…

Wait...what day is it?

Apologies for the recent silence. My back has been acting up, resulting in me taking half a muscle relaxant on two separate evenings, which resulted in the day between those pretty much disappearing in a fog. I'm now behind and confused.

Plus, I've been violating my cardinal rule of costuming by working on my Labyrinth of Jareth costume this week—and paying for it. Plus I've been helping Morgana with hers, because it's a project she wouldn't have undertaken (redoing her utterly gorgeous wedding outfit, a cream velvet German) if I hadn't said I would help. The good news is, my skirt is done except for covering the grommets (which isn't required for actual wearing, but is nice and prevents anything getting snagged). The better news is, it looks beyond awesome! But we still have to get together tomorrow night to finish up hers…

Plus our friend Dave from the UK arrives tomorrow, and LoJ is Saturday, and I've got a speaking engagement on Sunday that I'm not yet prepped for and then taking Dave to Pasadena for his conference. Did I mention our cleaning lady has essentially retired to care for her ailing father? And the house is a mess?

Ah well. It's not like anything tragic has happened. And once I have a moment to breathe, I'll finish up all the partial journal entries I have written and inundate you all!

Descent into...meh

A double-whammy of rejections:

• GUD passed on “A Father’s Blessing.”
  
• Podcastle nixed the audio rights to “Hell’s Belles,” which I still think would be great as an audio piece. Hmmm…
  

~ ~ ~

Today was…meh. Whether it was the lingering effects of the muscle relaxant or the precursor of my now-elusive period, all I know is that I was grumpy, tired, unmotivated, unfocused, and still uncomfortable even after my chiro adjustment. My chiro said I could work out, but at a fraction of what I usually do, and it didn’t seem worth the time to drive to Bally’s.

Whee

My back/hip’s been bothering me for a couple of days now, and my massage therapist, who for several weeks has been struggling to fill the time because I’ve been in such good shape, could’ve spent hours on the muscles that were essentially making it hard to find my spine. =8-0 So I popped half a prescription muscle relaxant, took a long bath in Epsom salts, and generally called the day a bust. Hopefully tomorrow the chiropractor will put things back where they ought to be (and the relaxed muscles won’t pull things back out of whack 0.2 seconds later), and all will be well with the world.

For now, though: whee.

You can never have too much glitter and lace

Today Morgana, Tomi, Elizabeth, and I got together for a rare Girls’ Day Out. Elizabeth needed lipstick from The Body Shop, so we all trooped to the mall for lunch (California Pizza Kitchen, where three of us had salads and one of us had a Asian-wrap appetizer) and shopping. (Which is rare because most of us shun the mall for the most part!) Everyone but me bought lipstick (they didn’t have any shades that were good for me, and I like the brand I’m using anyway), and we came away with a few other products as well (moisturizers, under-eye-circle cream, etc.). Then it was off to Hot Topic and Torrid, where I loaded up on purple hair extensions, purple glitter eyeliner, body glitter (silver and a peacock mix), and purple glitter nail polish, all for Labyrinth of Jareth this weekend.

Afterwards, Morgana and I hit a couple of fabric stores and I picked up lace trim for my faerie skirt. I may not have time to put it on before Saturday—the skirt has to be wearable, and can survive without the extra bits if I run out of time. I hate working on any of it this late, but it is what it is. I’ve been so focused on work that costuming has taken a back seat these past few months.

Still, it’s going to look fucking awesome, and yes, there will be pictures!

~ ~ ~

Woo hoo! It’s been confirmed that I’ll be signing at the “Readers for Life” Literacy Autographing at RWA Nationals this year! Last year Teresa and I were there (as Sophie, natch) but our books weren’t. This year I’ll be there as Sarah Dale—fingers crossed that I’ll actually have things to sign this time ‘round!

Glowing

Feh. Rejection from Lace & Blade for “Soulsearching.” And here I thought that was a perfect match. But since I think Lace & Blade is an awesome anthology theme, I’m just going to have to write another story before the deadline!

~ ~ ~

Spa Day was über-fabulouso! We had eight ladies, although two left early due to other commitments or whatnot, so we had two tracks: facial and hand/foot. Plus massages done by my own amazing therapist, Melanie. (Six ladies got massages. I was the floater and ended up passing because Melanie was exhausted…but I was scheduled for my regular massage on Tuesday, so I soldiered on. ::gg::)

For me, I looooved the facial steam. Must do this more often. Perching on the edge of the tub was perhaps not the best thing for my back, but the foot scrub was deliriously wonderful. I put on a lavender nail polish when I got home, which made me even more happy.

So, six months of planning and prep went off famously (Morgana and I were the sole guild members at the first meeting in January and, I believe, for several thereafter; other folks came to later meetings for some prep). Not only did I have a fantastic and restful time, but another friend (not involved in the SCA, much less Spa Day) told me my skin looked good today!

~ ~ ~

Another Sunday, another Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf with the local RWA ladies. Ellenie and I were prolific. Go us!

A supernova born of our bliss

I am still so messed up. I’ve been pretty much a day off in my brain since last Friday when we went to the Fashion Institute. Now today felt like a Saturday, too, because Morgana came over this afternoon and we watched Eddie Izzard’s Definite Article as well as Hunting Venus (gods I love that movie! I miss the 80s! Wah!) and went out for Indian food at Bollywood.

So I keep thinking tomorrow is Sunday and CB&TL with the other writers, when in fact it’s Saturday and Spa Day. Good grief.

I’m a bit grumpy because I love the 4th of July and its attendant fireworks, but I end up hating the 4th of July here, because many of the Hispanics feel the need to be setting off illegal fireworks here in the dry desert (Goleta is burning, have you heard?) for days before and after the actual holiday. I’m happy to say that today has been the quietest since we moved here, although a loud bang just startled me so much I jumped. (It’s after midnight as I type this.) Grrr.

~ ~ ~

Oh, and before I forget…June stats:

6 stories subbed
3 stories sold (!!)
10 stories rejected

11 novel submissions (all the same novel, though)
1 full novel subbed by request
2 novel rejections (same novel)

Another exciting evening...

Well, that was interesting!

So I’m sitting here working this evening, and outside I hear a few loud bangs, of the sort that signify that a car has hit something. As we’re along a fairly main drag and at an intersection that really, really, really needs a four-way stop, this is not an uncommon occurrence. Eostre is looking all startled out the window, and I get up to join her. I peered out to my left and saw a red pickup swerving a bit, then picking up speed and racing off down the street.

And, at the same time, the fire hydrant across E Street (the smaller street) shooting water in the air higher than the light pole next to it.

I grabbed my phone and ran downstairs and outside, and dialed 911 for the first time in my life. There was a nice gentleman on the sidewalk (he said we had a beautiful house ::beam::), and between the two of us we were able to describe the make and color of the pickup and the direction it was headed. There didn’t seem to be any other damage, no other cars involved, etc. The spray was strong enough to mist my face as I stood across the street. Cops came, fire trucks came, and it seemed to take forever to turn the water off. The nice gentleman said the truck had blown at least one tire (accounting for one of the bangs I heard) so he shouldn’t have been able to get far. I’ve yet to track down any news about the incident online, which is mildly annoying. I suspect he was drunk, on an illegal substance, or illegal himself.

Such excitement for a Thursday night!

~ ~ ~

Rejection from Fantasy Magazine for “What Price Beauty?” It’ll go out on Monday to Cemetery Dance, since they take only mailed subs. (Is there mail service on Saturday, since it’s a “holiday weekend”? I have no idea.)

Squeak

Rejection from ASIM for “Soulsearching.” Once again, a story there made it through the first two rounds of cuts before not quite squeaking in. Ah well. I wanted to send the story to the Lace and Blade anthology, and if I can’t have a sale at ASIM, at least I got the rejection before the other anthology deadline.

~ ~ ~

Oh, feh. I accidentally put non-dairy creamer in my Earl Grey at Coffee Bean, and now my tea tastes like soap. Bleah!

Kudos!

Not an official review, but it's so incredibly wonderful any time someone takes the time to post a positive comment about something I've written... This is from two folks on Goodreads.com, about my story in Haunted Hearths:

"Some Old Lover’s Ghost by Dayle A. Dermatis – Definitely a light-hearted read – kind of a lesbian Ghostbusters. What makes this story stand out is the strong narrator – she’s smart, funny and definitely opinionated. For some reason or other, the word “sassy” comes to mind when I think of this story - and that’s a good thing."

I was definitely going for voice in this story and this tells me I succeeded!  :-)  Thank you, Megan and Deanne, whoever you are!

(And in case anyone's wondering, although the protagonist is a lesbian, this is a contemporary fantasy story and anthology, not erotica.)

…or not.

The Saratoga Styx show has been postponed. After all that… Sheez.

But, it means that I have two days of my life back, and I really need them right about now. I’ve got a bunch of work (two novels to work on, three novels to send queries for, etc.), plus I’ve barely started my skirt for Labyrinth of Jareth, and I’d like to make a simple mask, too. (No time for a leather one, but I was thinking of buying a basic cloth mask and gluing peacock feathers and other sparklies on it.)

Plus there’s working out, Spa Day on Saturday, and all that fun stuff!

~ ~ ~

Okay, this is just too funny.

Yesterday, Ellenie, Tanya, and I were all lined up on the sofa at the coffee shop, and some other woman was in the chair kitty-corner to us (the chair forms the lower part of the L arrangement). We all had laptops. No fewer than four people commented on us, on how great we looked, stuff like that. Some asked what we were working on. (“Are you all taking the same class?” Why, do we look like students?) Somehow, we’d become the coffee shop’s entertainment.

So I was in the coffee shop today with Ellenie (I was in the chair, she was on the sofa near me) and a young man sitting at the next table suddenly said “I like your shirt.” I was wearing the one that says “Careful or you’ll end up in my novel” (because it’s seems like an appropriate thing to wear while writing in a coffee shop).

But what is it about us sitting here that makes us so interesting and popular to the point that people can’t help but talk to us?

Maybe it’s because we’re so damned hot. And clever. Yeah, that’s got to be it.

Why yes, I am crazy. Why do you ask?

So, this coming Tuesday is my first Styx concert in 5 months, and as you can imagine, I’m a bit twitchy from the lack of Live Stygian Goodness. Not to mention the fact that the Tuesday show is actually a Boston concert with Styx opening, and while I like Boston well enough, I’d rather have it the other way ‘round. (And reports from previous shows indicate that many concert goers have felt the same way after experiencing the show.)

So I was at a point of weakness, you see, when friends posted that they had extra tickets for sale to the show in Saratoga, CA (just south of San Jose), on Wednesday night. Ken’s on his way home now for the Tuesday show, and would be riding back up on Wednesday; thus I had a ride there. All that was left was sorting out a place to stay and a way back home. Amtrak was about $60 door-to-door (the Oxnard station is…counts on fingers…four blocks from our house). Granted, it would be a 9 hour ride, but have laptop, will travel.

Then, serendipitously, another friend posted that she was driving to the Saratoga show and her husband couldn’t make it after all, and she had space in her car… And so it was arranged that I would ride up with Ken, share the hotel room with said friend, and ride back with her on Thursday (a 5.5 hour drive). See, it’s a Styx headlining show, and it will be my 75th Styx show, and…it’s Styx.

All of which made for a crazier-than-expected week for me, what with sorting out appts with my trainer and massage therapist and finalizing products for our Herbal Guild’s Spa Day on Saturday, not to mention, oh, work.

And then tonight it comes through the grapevine that someone talked to Styx’s merch guy last night and he said the Saratoga show was cancelled, although we can’t yet find confirmation of that. Bguh. I try to be organized, and the universe conspires against me.

We’ll see what happens when we call the venue tomorrow.

~ ~ ~

Due to a variety of random reasons, I decided not to join my fellow Herb Guild members in a trip to the Lavender Festival in Ojai yesterday. Instead I focused on various projects and had a reasonably productive day. I’d told Morgana that if folks were going out to dinner, I’d be happy to join, and it ended up being just Morgana and Brian, which was fine. We tried Olive Garden (Brian’s choice) but the wait was too long, so we came back and hit Armando’s, a local Italian place that’s awesome. I had pan-fried ziti with meatballs, and brought half of it home. That was lunch today. Yum!

Today I wrote in a coffee shop with friends (whereupon I hit an annoying road block in the novel, which I have to suss out), worked out, made a lovely cobb salad for dinner, watched the first episode of Xena: Warrior Princess from Netflix, and caught up on e-mail and other various little projects.

~ ~ ~

Well, Ken just called, and he’s about an hour from home, so I can’t go to bed just yet. (Yes, he left Oregon this morning. Yes, he’s at least as crazy as I am. We do make a fine pair, don’t we?)

---

Currently Reading: Circle of the Moon, Barbara Hambly
Lately Listened To: Eurythmics’ Greatest Hits
Recently Watched: Law & Order: SVU

Rock me, baby

Two more rejections, one for a solo story and one for a Sophie story, both from the same best-of anthology. Sounds like editors are cleaning off their desks in preparation for the holiday!

I’m feeling a little confused this evening, since I took most of the day off—thus it feels like it’s Saturday, and I don’t understand why the rest of the world doesn’t agree with me.

After my chiropractor appointment and a fruitless trip to a local fabric store, I trotted over to Morgana’s and she and Brian and Tomi and I headed to downtown LA where the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising was showing “Aesthetes, Bohemians & Craftsmen: Artistic Dress, 1880s-1920s.” Traffic was horrendous (how do people drive in that crap every day?) but we had no set time to be there, so we were still in good spirits. The exhibit was gorgeous, but they didn’t have a book about it nor postcards, which made us pouty.

On the way home, we stopped at Cho Cho San and now I’m stuffed full of sushi. I had, among other things, my absolute favorite: a Rock-and-Roll Handroll (scallops, avocado, and rice with their mayo sauce, wrapped in soy paper), which Tomi also had a pronounced tasty. I tried something new and very nummy, although also not very good for me: the Hot and Creamy Jalapeño Bomb (crab and cream cheese in a jalapeño covered in fried crunchy goodness, in a spicy sauce). Oof. Too much food in the end!

So now I have to somehow wake up enough to work on Ghosted and write a shiny new synopsis for Waking the Witch. There’s a fresh-cut rose in my writing office waiting to inspire me. Wish me luck!

There is no "try"

On the heels of the latest sale, a few rejections:

• “What Price Beauty?” almost made it in to the Terrible Beauty anthology, but didn’t make the final cut.
  
• I’d also sent solo story “The Queen of Christmas” and Sophie story “Don’t Move” to Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica Vol. 8 (both as reprints), and neither of those made the cut. But since they’re reprints, it doesn’t sting nearly as much!
  

And so I sent three stories out today

• “Giving to the Night” to Love Stories Magazine
  
• “What Price Beauty?” to Fantasy
  
• “Heaven Has Eyes” to Baen’s Universe
  

I am nothing if not stubborn.