Oops, I'm doing it again...

So, last month I had an absolute blast reading my story “Fanning the Flames” at In the Flesh: LA in Hollywood. So much so, In fact, that I’m doing it again…

See, well before last month’s reading, I agreed to be part of a reading tour for three anthologies, two of which I have stories in (and Teresa and I have a Sophie story in one of them as well). They intially didn’t plan to have the Los Angeles stop at Hustler Hollywood, but it just ended up shaking out that way, including being on the In the Flesh night. I’ll be reading part of my story “Queens Up” from Lesbian Cowboys: Erotic Adventures.

To add to the fun, In the Flesh always has a phone-in reader, and this time it's going to be my very own co-author and dear friend Teresa, reading our Sophie Mouette story "On Display" from Where the Girls Are: Urban Lesbian Erotica!

Here’s the info:

When: Wednesday, August 12, 8 p.m.

Where: Hustler Hollywood, 8920 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069, 310-860-9009

What: In the Flesh: LA is the West coast version of the acclaimed In The Flesh reading series founded by Rachel Kramer Bussel, and “features the city's best journalists, authors, scriptwriters and more offering their torrid tales for your entertainment and titillation.”

I want to thank all my friends who turned out for last month’s reading—I can’t tell you how much it helped to look out and see familiar faces! I hope some of you can make it this month. (Yeah, I know it’s Hollywood in the middle of the work week—I wish I could do something about that!)

Further encouragement: there’s free underground parking on-site, complimentary snacks and desserts, and the chance to win a goodie bag of prizes! (My friend Tom won a goodie bag in July!) Hustler Hollywood is a clean, bright, inviting store with a café, lots of books and t-shirts, and a fantastic, fun, positive atmosphere.

If you have any questions about the reading, feel free to e-mail me at cyvarwydd@mac.com. Wish me luck!

A summer Saturday

A good day so far. Leisurely awakening and nice hot shower, followed by breakfast and tea and hanging out with Meg (who spent the night) before she had to leave. Pottered around getting stuff done, eating lunch (leftover chicken from last night, nomnom), watching a bit of TV, washing dishes, that sort of thing. When Ken and Margaret (from Tasmania) got back from running bike errands, Margaret had a massage (because last night I raved about my massage goddess) and Ken and I walked to the Post Office and library (two books dropped off—Robert B. Parker’s Stranger in Paradise and de Lint’s Dingo—and one picked up—Flora Segunda). I flopped on the bed and read a couple of short stories and scritched the cats and enjoyed the cool breeze of the fan for a little while…

Now I’m settled in with a cup of tea in the study to work. I’ve brainstormed some questions for two nonfiction articles, and made a list of upcoming projects (in part because Ken asked on our walk, and in part because I get excited looking at all the fun things to do!). I’ve got a short story to finish and some research to do for Seasoned With Danger so I can get that proposal in the mail.

(After that, it’ll be back to Out of the Frying Pan. An editor has offered to look at it again if we make some changes, and Teresa and I agree that most of them will indeed make the book stronger. I also need to get more submissions out for Waking the Witch; a bunch are circulating, but I haven’t hit all the publishers I want to yet.)

And I understand Margaret’s taking us out for Thai tonight. Mmm, Thai!

Sale to Harlequin Spice!

Oh my gods, I’m so excited I could just explode into a million bits of Styx confetti!

I’m going to be in a Harlequin Spice anthology! *\o/*

::cue dancing and possible explosions::

The ever-splendiferous Alison Tyler pinged me awhile back about a story of mine she remembered, “The Broken Fiddle,” which is set in Ireland and involves a legend and Irish fairies and music (as all good stories should). She wanted to include it in her anthology Alison’s Wonderland, and she just got word from Harlequin about the final Table of Contents:

The Red Shoes (Redux) by Nikki Magennis
Fool’s Gold by Shanna Germain
The Three Billys by Sommer Marsden
David by Kristina Lloyd
Managers and Mermen by Donna George Storey
The Clean-Shaven Type by N.T. Morley
The Midas F*ck by Erica DeQuaya
Sleeping with Beauty by Allison Wonderland
Unveiling His Muse by Portia Da Costa
Always Break the Spines by Lana Fox
An Uphill Battle by Benjamin Eliot
Moonset by A.D.R Forte
Mastering Their Dungeons by Bryn Haniver
A Taste for Treasure by T.C. Calligari
The Broken Fiddle by Andrea Dale
The Cougar of Cobble Hill by Sophia Valenti
Wolff’s Tavern by Bella Dean
Slutty Cinderella by Jacqueline Applebee
Kiss It by Saskia Walker
Let Down Your Libido by Rachel Kramer Bussel
Dancing Shoes by Tsaurah Litzky
Gold, On Snow by Janine Ashbless
After the Happily Every After by Heidi Champa
Cupid Has Signed Off by Thomas S. Roche
The Walking Wheel by Georgia E. Jones
Rings on My Fingers by Alison Tyler
The Princess by Elspeth Potter

It won’t be out ‘til July 2010, but I’m still doing cartwheels now! Maximum squee!

Set the night to music

We’ve been busy the past few days. For one thing, we’ve had a houseguest for two days: Margaret from Tasmania. She’s a friend of Ken’s via various bike lists. Margaret is, for all intents and purposes, riding around the world on a BMW. She’s done Africa and South America so far, as well as a fair amount of the US. She’s also running the Iron Butt Rally* this year, so Ken’s helping her with some modifications to her bike.

Except Ken flew to Colorado this morning… He’s picking up a friend’s bike and riding it back here to use for spare parts in case something breaks on his bike during the rally. He’ll be home tomorrow.

The drive was utterly gorgeous. On the way home, I even turned off the AC and opened the window to smell the ocean, because it’s been a perfect day temperature-wise. (Who cares if my hair went in all directions simultaneously?) The sun sparkled on the waves. Surfers played. I managed to keep my eyes on the road and not die from trying to watch the incredible view. I feel pretty damn lucky to live here!

(And I want to learn how to surf. I’ve wanted to ever since I visited my sister when she lived in Hawaii… That was 20 years ago. Ack.)

Anyway, Margaret is spending a couple days in San Diego and then she’ll be back, too.

I came home after swinging by a new grocery store (small, but had some interesting and tasty fresh items I’ve not seen elsewhere), then Melanie came over and gave me a great massage. I had to run out for one more errand, but since then I’ve been home…with a small headache I can’t seem to shake. Tough patooties, because I must get the bulk of a short story written tonight! I’ve started it, and I know generally what happens. It just took a slightly different tone than I expected, so we’ll see if it sticks with that or if I’ve taken a wee wrong turn.

Music. Must have music.

Tomorrow I have a chiropractic appointment and then lunch with my friend Janice, which will take place conveniently near the Post Office and library, since I have to hit both of those places. Later I’m meeting Ellenie at Barnes & Noble for writerly gabbing, research, and ideally some writing as well. And at some point Ken will return home.

Thursday we’ll probably hit the Farmer’s Market again, and then I have a hair appointment, followed by a phone confab with Teresa. (We were supposed to have one last week, but her day job has been crazy.) After that is the Shire meeting, and somewhere in there Margaret will re-appear. And I will get some writing in.

Right now, Friday looks pretty open…except that it will get filled with work, because of the craziness of the two days preceding it. Phew! We also have to re-commit to hitting the gym, so…

As for the weekend…who has time to look that far ahead? ;-)

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*IBR facts: More people have gone into space than completed the Iron Butt Rally. Also, more people have climbed Mount Everest than completed the Iron Butt Rally.

Of unbounded domesticity

We’ve been curiously domestic this past week, which I think is less of an anomaly and more of a case of us flipping over to get into our normal groove (which will, of course, change again mid-month when Ken leaves for the IBR).

We did a big meal-planning and food shopping early in the week, which resulted in some nummy home-cooked meals and/or big dinner salads. I also got hit with a craving for chocolate-chip oatmeal cookies, which I never crave. (Chocolate-chip cookies, sure. Oatmeal? Not so much. I freely and cheerfully blame Karen Abrahamson, who brought homemade oatmeal cookies to the OWN workshops, and they were there for me in a time of weakness.). So we went back out one night to pick up the ingredients for those, and I made them last night.

Damn, but I make a fine batch of cookies when I get hit with the urge about every 2.5 years!

(Now I’m craving lemon bars. Hopefully, this too shall pass. After all, I have three tubs of chocolate chip/coconut/oatmeal cookie dough in the fridge now. Because what’s the point of actually baking four dozen cookies for two people? Then again, there’s this lemon tree outside, and lemon bars don’t last very long, and there is a Shire meeting next week…)

We also pootled down to the local Farmer’s Market (a jaunt of all of two block east) to pick up various fresh things, including some corn picked right that morning. We ate it one day later and oh my gods it was good. Om nom nom. Seriously.

Friday we took my car in to Bert, my fabulous Swedish car guy, to eyeball the new engine he put in recently. He then drove us to a movie theatre where we wiled away our time watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Minor car parts are now on order, and then we hit Trader Joe’s for some essentials before heading up to the BMW dealer, whereupon Ken collected his newly tuned-up bike and we headed home.

We have Alias season 3 discs sitting here from Netflix, and now that we’re almost caught up with DVR stuff (less than one thing per night recording, I believe) we’ve been settling in to enjoy those.

And we’ve re-tidied the sewing room (Ken put up a new shelf while I was in Oregon, as well) so we can continue various projects there. Sweet. I did some mending while we acted like slugs and lounged in media room watching Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (movie version) and Being Human and Eureka.

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Currently Reading: Black Hills, Nora Roberts
Lately Listened To: Hallucination, Shaw/Blades
Recently Watched: see above

Nifty new writing contest

Hint Fiction:

"Tentatively scheduled for the fall of 2010, W.W. Norton will publish an anthology of Hint Fiction. What is Hint Fiction? It’s a story of 25 words or less that suggests a larger, more complex story. The thesis of the anthology is to prove that a story 25 words or less can have as much impact as a story 2,500 words or longer. The anthology will include between 100 and 150 stories. We want your best work."

Full guidelines can be found here.

Rock it, baby

Saturday I went to my 90th Styx show! Only 10 more until my new tattoo! Whoo!

I didn’t know until about 5:48 p.m. Friday night if I was even going, as I was waiting to hear from a friend about tickets (I hadn’t been able to get good ones when they went on sale). She came through, so the next day Ken and I were in the car headed north to Paso Robles. A fun show, but way too short (it was at the Mid-State Fair). My boys knew I was there. :-)

We set the iPod on random during the trip, which was highly amusing. Apparently there are many complaints about the random feature not being really random. (Ken actually said “They’re trying to make it more random,” which is a delightfully nonsensical statement.) So it kind of went Styx, Styx, Gowan, Styx, Gowan (from the same album), Marillion, Styx, Fish, Damn Yankees, Marillion, Robert Plant, Gowan, Marillion, Ultravox, Robert Plant (from the same album), Glen Burtnik, Guns n Roses, Glen Burtnik, Marillion, Fish, Styx. In other words, my iPod thinks it’s full of Styx and Styx-Related Product, and Marillion and Marillion-Related Product, with occasional other things. Which, given the amount of Brit pop and RWA sessions and folk/pagan/medieval music on it, is just wrong.

Sunday was mostly spent on house stuff. We moved a lot of books and magazines in our joint office, and Ken went through all his t-shirts and dresser drawers and purged greatly.

Today we did a massive grocery shopping so we have food for the next week or so (along with hitting the Farmer’s Market two blocks away come Thursday). And, um…yeah, I’ve been kind of lacking in the whole motivation thing, so not much else to report.

Except that we watched two eps of the Torchwood miniseries last night and three eps tonight, and thank goodness we had an ep of Big Bang Theory after that because Torchwood made me depressed and wanting to throw things at the TV. ::pout:: Stupid Torchwood. It didn’t help that I managed to read about a major spoiler not once, but twice beforehand. ::scowl::

In writerly news, today I received my comp copies of Lesbian Cowboys: Erotic Adventures, containing my story “Queens Up” (as Andrea Dale). It’s got a sexy saloon girl and a ranch lost in a poker game, and I had a blast writing it!

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Currently Reading: Black Hills, Nora Roberts
Lately Listened To: random, as interpreted by iPod software
Recently Watched: Torchwood: Children of Earth. Dammit.

How very Regency of us

Eleven years ago, Ken and I ran off to Gretna Green and eloped!

We celebrated today by going out to lunch at Fresh and Fabulous (sharing a panini of turkey, bleu cheese, and caramelized onions on seven-grain bread; French onion soup; and a Mediterranean salad), strolling on the beach, finally seeing Star Trek at the cheap theatre (kickass!), wandering around the antique stores in Ventura, and having chocolate cake and cheesecake at Zoey’s Café (we sat in the 1926 courtyard). Now we’re home, pootling about the computers for a few minutes before heading down to watch some TV and snuggle. Eventually supper will happen. We’re still full of cake. :-) There will no doubt be hot tubbing as well. And canoodling.

It’s just nice to actually have him home on our anniversary!

[Edited to add: Oops, forgot to post this before we wandered downstairs!]

~ ~ ~

The mail brings wonderful things. While I was away I received my comp copy of the charity anthology Coming Together: Against the Odds, which contains my story “Always a Bridesmaid.” Proceeds from the anthology will benefit Autism Speaks.

Today on my doorstep landed comp copies of Bottoms Up, containing my story “Stuffing the Ballot Box” (as Andrea Dale), as well as others by Donna George Storey, Alison Tyler, Teresa, Rachel Kramer Bussel (who also edited the anthology), and many more!

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Currently Reading: 13 Little Blue Envelopes, Maureen Johnson
Lately Listened To: nothing lately
Recently Watched: Leverage (mmm, shirtless Christian Kane!), Warehouse 13

Need book recommendations

Can anyone recommend good and funny romantic suspense, a la Agnes & the Hitman (Crusie & Mayer)?

Crashing into the surf

My darling Meglet and her daughter Julian arrived late-ish Tuesday night, so we had only a little time to chat before we all crashed. My headache was mostly gone at that point, but it came back over night, which, yea verily, did sucketh mightily. Ken and I had chiro appts this morning and it turned out my occipital bones were two inches skewed. Yes, my head wasn’t on straight. My chiropractor was amazed I wasn’t walking around with my head obviously tilted.

I came home and iced it for about an hour as per her directions, and that helped as well. After that we piled into the car and went to Thousand Oaks for suuuuushi at Cho Cho San. By the time we were done there, my headache was finally gone. Healed by sushi! Hallelujah!

We stopped by the BMW dealer so Ken could talk to them about the work they’re doing on his bike in preparation for the IBR. Hung out there for a while debating whether we should go see the new Harry Potter movie, go to the beach, and/or watch Eddie Izzard DVDs (Meg and Julian hadn’t seen Circle or Sexie). The beach won the first vote, so we donned suits and headed all of 3.5 miles to the ocean.

We rarely go to the beach, for some absurd reason. We walk on the sand occasionally, stop to watch the sunset, had a picnic once or twice, but that’s about it. I really have no idea why. Okay, a few minor ideas: I get bored just lying there, and I’m hyper-aware of the dangers of skin cancer, so sitting out in the sun isn’t the type of thing I want to do. On the flip side, I grew up on a big lake and swam competitively in high school, and I’d grow fins if I could, I love being in water so much. And the ocean is right there.

So Ken and I ran out into the waves and I bodysurfed and laughed hysterically until my eyes hurt from the salt, at which point I went and plopped down next to Meg and we talked and talked while Ken and Julian dug a moat so deep they hit the water table. Seriously. Waist-deep hole for Julian.

After that we picked up frozen pizzas, ice cream, and some salad fixings (to go with what we already had in the house), came home and showered, and then had a picnic of sorts and watched Eddie for hours.

It was a Very Good Day.

~ ~ ~

I woke up today with The Headache, Part2: Revenge of the Pain, although it was a poor sequel to the original. Advil, Drenamin, and caffeine chased it away. I also had a dentist appt, where I learned that one of my teeth has fractures in it and is probably dying. What joy. it doesn’t hurt yet, though (well, it does now that the dentist asked if it did, dammit, but that’s psychosomatic, right?), so I don’t have to worry about it yet.

Meg and Julian left while I was being poked with sharp metal objects, so the rest of today has been after-guest tidying (deflating the air bed, washing two sets of sheets and numerous towels, putting the sofa bed back upright, moving my office chair back into my office, etc., yadda yadda), a trip to the library (so Ken could apply for a new passport—his previous one had been with his laptop when that got stolen, and so I could load up on more books, as if my overstuffed bookcase of Books to Read isn’t about to topple over and smother me), and all that sort of things. Oh, and I moved some magazines onto new bookshelves as part of the main office re-arrangement of books &tc. Gah. Much magazine organization is in my future.

And, of course, there has been writing

~ ~ ~

In other news…

I got my page proofs today for “If the Shoe Fits,” which will appear in the DAW fantasy anthology The Trouble With Heroes. Squee! I’m so chuffed to have sold to this market! I received cover flats as well, and I see that it’s listed on Amazon with the cover, too—go forth and pre-order, for lo, it is an anthology full of fantastic stories by many amazing writers!

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Currently Reading: 13 Little Blue Envelopes, Maureen Johnson, a YA about a girl whose artist aunt sends her on a scavenger-hunt-type quest around Europe. Highly recommended!
Lately Listened To: Meg’s laughter
Recently Watched: Warehouse 13. Has potential!

Pics from the Oregon Writers Network workshops

Photos from the workshops, as well as walks on the beach, can be found here. Enjoy!

Pics from In the Flesh LA

A couple of photos from my reading at In the Flesh LA can be found here, to supplement the ones at the blog.

Enjoy!

Ken's big news!

I know, I teased you all with a mention of this, but truly, I’ve been too busy to do it justice, despite how excited for him and proud of him I am. :-)

As most of you probably know, Ken’s hobby is motorcycle rallies. These are essentially scavenger hunts on the motorcycle, ranging anywhere from 6 hours to 24 hours to multi-day things. The longest he’s done so far was a 7-day rally last year, which he would’ve won had the bike not broken down a few hours from the finish.

The last four rallies he ran, he’s won. This is unprecedented; nobody else has pulled that off before.

The Olympics of the sport, if you will, is called the Iron Butt Rally, or IBR. (Many of these are under the auspices of the Iron Butt Association. Yeah, I know, goofy name. Just work with me here, okay?) The IBR is run every two years, and it’s done by lottery—about 1000 riders sign up for the 100 available slots.

Did I mention it’s essentially 11,000 miles in 11 days? And that more people have gone into space than have run this rally (as of 2007)?

Anyway, Ken didn’t get picked for the 2009 rally. Then, at the end of last month, he won his fourth rally in a row, in Utah, and on his way to Oregon after that, he got a phone call.

He’s been invited to run this year’s IBR.

We waited until he got home from working in Oregon to discuss it fully; to contemplate at finances and schedules and all the other little issues and questions surrounding the decision. Still, I knew how badly he wanted to do it, and that the timing, despite being essentially last-minute, is pretty good: He doesn’t have a full-time job to juggle, and the bike’s pretty much set up in rally mode already. Financially, it’s not the wisest course of action at this moment in time, but you know what? Sometimes that can’t be the overriding factor.

My beloved’s running the IBR! Yay! *\o/*

I’ve got to check the exact dates, but it ends on Labor Day weekend in Spokane, WA, and it lasts 11 days, so that gives you a time frame. One of the checkpoints is in Santa Ana, so I’ll get to see him partway through! :-) And I’m definitely flying up for the awards banquet at the end. (Now we’re just trying to decide if it makes sense for us to finally do my Northwest Motorcycle Adventure birthday trip that was cruelly aborted three years ago when I ended up in the ER on my 40th birthday).

Anyway, he’s spent the time I’ve been away prepping for that, as well as finishing up some house stuff, updating his résumé (since the Oregon work is slowing down), and helping Brian and Morgana move Morgana’s mom into a new apartment, and…

I’ll no doubt be babbling about the IBR over the next month and a half (including updates while he’s on the rally), but if anyone has any questions about it, feel free to ask. Also, please send your congratulations and well wishes to him at ken.meese AT mac.com!

Enough about writing. Let's talk about reading!

Okay, so now that things have calmed down a little and I’m not in total writer brain, I can talk about other things that have happened recently! (“Recently” being an odd term for my head right now, because everything pre-Oregon seems like a loooong time ago.)

My reading at In the Flesh LA at Hustler Hollywood went very well! You can follow that link to a write-up about the evening, complete with pictures. Kim & Tom and Fran & Thom all came to support me, which was great. Thank you, guys! Because I’d practiced beforehand, I was only a little nervous, and although I bobbled a couple of times, everyone said it wasn’t obvious. I got laughs where I was supposed to, and none where I wasn’t supposed to, and that’s about the best that can happen, right?

(On the other hand, because I practiced ahead of time, I realized the story could very easily be the beginning of a novel. Because I need another bloody novel idea right now!)

The other readers read fun stuff, and our friend Tom won a goodie bag by being a good sport and reading some of another reader’s poetry. Yay Tom!

After that, Ken and I went to a hotel near the airport, since I was flying out early-ish the next day. It was nice to have a quiet evening after a day of running around packing and being a wee bit nervous about the reading.

Now, here’s the really fun part: Next month I’m part of a reading tour for three anthologies (of which I have stories in two, two solos as Andrea Dale and one coauthored with Teresa as Sophie Mouette). Guess where it’ll be held? At the regular In the Flesh LA night! I’ll send around a proper notice, but for now, you can mark your calendars for Wednesday, August 12, at 8 p.m.

Even more fun: Teresa will probably the phone-in reader!

I’m still trying to figure out which story of mine to read. The longer one has a great voice and would be more fun, but it’s too long, and I’m not sure if reading part of it will work. I need to try it out, see how it sounds. Hm, and maybe I should find out which of the three anthologies the other authors are reading from…

Here are the anthos I’m in:

Lesbian Cowboys: Erotic Adventures, “Queens Up” (as Andrea Dale)

Where the Girls Are, “Come to My Window” (as Andrea Dale) and “On Display" (as ½ of Sophie Mouette)

Over and begun

The workshops are over. (I’ll pause a minute to let that sink in…for me, at least.) I’m at our friends Lev & Gayle’s, heading to the airport in about an hour. They were kind enough to let me crash here last night. It worked out rather well, in fact; I arrived around suppertime, just after they’d arrived home from a weekend away, and since the friends Leslie was going to stay with weren’t going to arrive home ‘til late, she was able to join us for dinner.

(Of course, I’ll probably be posting this at the airport, because PDX has free wireless, but anyway.)

The second workshop was about Contracts and Copyright, and I got a headache hunched over the contracts we studied. It was unbelievably helpful, and yet we really only scratched the surface. I realized that contracts stress me out in part because I’m used to being able to read something and for the most part understand it—but I can read a contract clause and my eyes will have glazed over by the end and I’ll have no idea what it said. I won’t even have remembered the words. Of course, they stress everyone out, even attorneys who aren’t versed in intellectual property contracts.

I also learned that I’ve been misreading some contract language, which is illuminating as well. I’m looking forward to re-reading my previous contracts with a fresh eye.

Overall, it was an amazing time. I’m still exhausted, but somehow also refreshed, recharged, re-energized. I have new tools in my toolbox, ones that are going to change the way I work.

Leslie and I walked on the beach 7 out of the 10 days we were there, getting the loop down from about 50 to 40 minutes. Most days were cloudy, but yesterday was sunny and perfect. The water sparkled. The sand sparkled.

I already miss Leslie, miss the Oregon coast weather, miss Dean and Kris (whom I barely got to talk to) and all the other fabulous writers I’m privileged to call friends as well as colleagues.

All that said, I’m really, really glad to be going home. I miss Ken, I miss the cats, I miss my house and my bed and my DVR with fun stuff like Leverage and Torchwood waiting for me. Meg is coming to visit for a couple of days, and I have a much-needed massage and chiro appt in my very near future.

And I’m looking forward to the work I have on my plate. I’ve been reminded, though, that it’s not work. It’s fun. I can’t wait to see what happens!

~ ~ ~

At the airport now. I asked if they could switch me from an aisle to a window seat, and I scored an exit row! ::does happy dance::

Now to do a little work before boarding. See you on the flip side!

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Currently Reading: Valley of Silence, Nora Roberts
Lately Listened To: The surf and the gulls and Dean talking and Leslie laughing
Recently Watched: Flight of the Conchords, episode 1, with Lev & Gayle & Gayle’s nephew. Too funny!

We merry few, we band of writers

Our small group/one-on-one Structure workshop with Dean is mostly over, except for lunch tomorrow. We had no assignment tonight, so Leslie and I crashed, snagging the DVD A Night at the Museum from the main building. It’s one of her favorite movies, and I greatly enjoyed it. We laughed and laughed… Ah, it felt good.

Leslie and I have been getting along smashingly, negotiating a small cabin (her bedroom’s basically the living room; mine has a groovy beaded curtain for a door) with aplomb and great humor. I’m sooooo glad that when Phae bailed last minute, I thought to ask Leslie if she’d be willing to share the cabin (I couldn’t have afforded this otherwise, and she was thrilled for the price break as well).

Truth be told, we weren’t incredibly stressed this week. Dean swiftly figured out that none of the six of us had problems with story structure¬—we had other things blocking us. Teaching us some tricks of structure—things to internalize, send back to the subconscious to work as we’re writing, oblivious to them—was intended to get us past those blocks.

Fact is, every writer hits the same block at about the same place. Some writers have figured out how to get through it, so they don’t notice it as much. Neil Gaiman hits it. Charles de Lint hits it. Dean hits it. Man oh man, do I hit it! But now I’m feeling like I know what to do when I hit it, rather than flailing around in the dark like a drunken monkey.

The worst thing for a writer is for someone else to get into the middle of their project. You should be alone in your office: shut the door on critics, naysayers, editors (during the initial creation, this is), market news, etc. So, for the purposes of this week, Dean forced us all to start novels we didn’t plan on. Novels we didn’t, in some cases, even want to work on. For me, it was to take an exercise we’d done last weekend, which involved writing up a shopping list, and start expanding it into a novel.

I knew I should’ve made my shopping list for a sex toy boutique instead of a grocery store…

So now I have this here begun novel. It’s at about 6000 words. It’s funny, potentially sexy, and hoo boy, the problems I’m throwing at my characters.

It’s also, unfortunately, about cooking (among other things), so I see a bunch of eps of Top Chef in my future… Did I mention it’s called Seasoned With Danger?

The proposal is written, even, so after I clean up a few small details, I can actually get it circulating. (I’ll finish blanketing the world with the Waking the Witch proposals first.)

This weekend is the Contracts and Copyright workshop, and I sorely need it. I know there isn’t enough time to get nearly as deep as we’d all like, but we’ll come out of it with a far better grounding. I brought a couple of really bad contracts I’d been offered and refused (after the publisher declined to negotiate), and Dean nearly fell out of his chair when he read them….

Anyway. I’ll post this tomorrow (which is already today). Right now I’m very sleepy, and we’re having breakfast with Chris York tomorrow at the Inn at Spanish Head—yum!

Workshop Time

Workshop Time is an entity unto itself. Sometimes it feels as though I’ve been here for a week; other times, I want to refer to my reading as “last night.” The days blur, stretch, compress, expand. How many times have we walked on the beach? Which night did I toss and turn? How can I still have so many sandwich fixings but no milk?

I’m also trying to consider, each day, what motivates me here. What positive influences I can take home that drive me to the computer day after day. (Don’t get me wrong: I love writing. I can’t not write. But sometimes I avoid it, and I need to figure out why so I can stop doing it. The fear moves constantly. Bastard.)

Today Leslie and I woke about the same time, so we chatted during breakfast (about epic fantasy and religion and Kris’s books and, briefly, boobs), then we made tea (I brought my electric kettle). Now we’ve both retreated to our corners to sip tea and work, after which we’ll shower (not together, you pervs) and continue on. We’ll meet with Dean at The Hilltop for a session at 2 p.m., at which point we need to have our assignments done.

What would I be doing at home? Sipping tea and reading blogs, most likely. I’m not getting a strong enough wireless signal here in the cabin, although I did pop e-mail on my phone this morning. (Got some preliminary good news about a positive review, and my writing alias e-mail spammed my home e-mail address. Go figure.)

Now, to my assignment, one that made me giggle out loud more than once while I was working last night….

Sproing!

I’m in Oregon, having completed the first of two weekend workshops, which will bookend five days of a writing retreat. We studied story structure, which I thought I mostly knew, but apparently my definition of “story structure” was much, much more limited than I realized… Not nearly the level of epiphany as the Marketing Workshop last year, but hoo boy, did I have some light bulbs go off! Definitely some new tools for my writer’s toolbox, as they say. And at least one new short story idea I’m quite chuffed about.

I flew up on Thursday and met up with Leslie, Cindie, and Dave. Traffic was horrid, so we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican place before really getting on the road. Still more traffic (a huge thanks to Leslie for driving through that with great skill and calmness!), but finally it thinned out, and finally we were in Lincoln City.

That night we hung out with a few other folks who’d come in early, as well as Dean, Steve, and Chris, before Leslie, Chris, and I repaired to our room to polish off a couple bottles of wine. (Dean stopped by to drop something off for Leslie and stayed for ages to chat, and also showed off his bartending skills by pouring us wine. Hee.)

Leslie and I are rooming together, and that’s proving to be a blast. We’ve known each other through a number of workshops, and while I had a pretty good sense that we’d get along well, I’m delighted just how comfortably we room together. Especially since her bed is in the living room of the cabin, and my bedroom doesn’t have a door, just a beaded curtain. (Groovy, man.)

We’ve managed to walk on the beach several times, which is always a highlight. The round trip takes 45-60 minutes and includes a nice uphill on the way back; we plan to have glutes of steel by the time we leave…

Originally I was going to just have a writing retreat for the five days between the two workshops, but after experiencing the Story Structure workshop and talking to Dean, I’ve decided to do a one-on-one session with him to work on some advanced structure issues. I’m not yet sure what my precise issue is, but I trust we’ll find it and he’ll beat it out of me with a club (or at least some hardcore assignments).

Now, however, I must dash: I have to finish a scene on PUM and get it off to Teresa before I meet with Dean to get tonight’s assignment, and I’d also like to maybe work on a short story if I have time. I still have a bunch of stuff to bring ya’ll up to speed on, though, like how my reading went, and some very very very exciting news about Ken!

Boggled

Long-time readers will remember that I grew up in a relatively small town in upstate New York where we didn’t get MTV for the first few years of the channel’s existence. I even remember asking Sarah (in one of our exchange 40-page-leters-every-two-weeks) what the hell this MTV she was babbling about was?!

In very great hindsight, I find myself wondering whether this ended up being blessing or a curse. If we’d had MTV, would I have tuned in to MuchMusic on one of the Canadian stations we were able to receive? Because if I hadn’t, I never would have seen the glory that was the “A Criminal Mind” video (complete with shots of Gowan, as he was then known, in a cage—my 17-year-old hormones didn’t have a clue what to do with that, but now we understand, oh, do we understand!). And goodness knows that was instrumental in leading me down the road that leads right smack dab to here. (When Styx announced Lawrence as their new keyboardist, I believe my response was “My Lawrence Gowan?!”)

But I digress. I’m not really here to talk about Styx (at least, not tonight). I’m here to talk about seeing Yes, with Special Guest, Asia, at the Anaheim House of Blues Sunday night.

I admit it, what I really wanted to see was Asia. I was listening to them while I was writing, I believe it was Thursday night, and some part of my brain blipped to the forefront and said, “Didn’t we hear something about them touring?” Honestly, I hadn’t followed the band’s career, didn’t know much more than the first couple of albums. But I had the power of the Internet at my fingertips, and lo! they were opening for Yes, and as the House of Blues is GA, that was the show to hit this week in the area.

I don’t have time to review the whole show here; I just want to say this: The highlight of the night—the highlight of a good chunk of my life—was when John Wetton said that these were the first hands ever seen on MTV, and Geoff Downes started playing a song from another band he’d been in.

The Buggles.

That’s right, Asia played “Video Killed the Radio Star.”

I didn’t get to see it launch MTV, but I got to see and hear it live.

(FWIW, because I’m also a band geek, my runner-up highlight was “Fanfare for a Common Man.” I am a total sucker for rock bands who do a stellar job of reinterpreting/reimaging classical music.)

In the Flesh reading

I'm going to be a featured author at July’s In the Flesh: LA in Hollywood!

Here’s the info:

When: Wednesday, July 8, 8 p.m.

Where: Hustler Hollywood, 8920 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069, 310-860-9009

What: In the Flesh: LA is the West Coast version of the acclaimed In The Flesh reading series founded by Rachel Kramer Bussel, and “features the city's best journalists, authors, scriptwriters and more offering their torrid tales for your entertainment and titillation.”

I’ve never done a reading before so I have to confess I’m getting kind of nervous… Oddly, I think I’ll be less nervous if I look out and see people I know, rather than complete strangers. I realize that it’s in the middle of the week and (for those of you in outlying areas*) it can be quite a trek to Hollywood, but if you can possibly make it, I would be eternally grateful and would love to see you.

Plus, there’s free underground parking on-site, complimentary snacks and desserts, and the chance to win a goodie bag of prizes! I have to admit, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Hustler Hollywood when I went to last month’s reading, so I’m delighted to say it’s a clean, bright, inviting store with a café, lots of books and t-shirts, and a fantastic, fun, positive atmosphere.

(*Yes, I know a lot of you aren’t even in southern California and that this post is really aimed at my friends who are local. However, I’m imagining all the rest of you will be there in spirit! Don’t let me down!)

If you have any questions about the reading, feel free to e-mail me at cyvarwydd@mac.com. Wish me luck!