See? It's the keyboard's fault

Even though I don't believe in writer's block, this made me laugh and laugh!

Photos from Black Oak Lodge 2010

Photos from Black Oak Lodge 2010 are here!

I love my job

4000-year-old Chinese mummies found in a cemetary blanketed with blatant sexual symbolism," according to The New York Times.

love my job, because this is the sort of thing I get to read about.

And I love my friends, because they send me links to these sorts of things! :-)

Halp! Looking for a story…

I’m hoping one of my SF-geeky friends can help me with this.

I’m looking for a short story I read in about the mid-oughts (2003–2005 or so). I remember it being in a digest-sized mag, probably F&SF, but it could have been Asimov’s or maybe even Analog.

Warning: spoilers ahead.

The story starts with a psychiatrist interviewing someone, I believe a male teacher, who’s about to go to trial after being accused of inappropriately touching a child. It’s from the psychiatrist’s pov so you assume at the beginning that the teacher is guilty.

The story is set in the future and time travel is possible. You can’t actually enter the past scene, but you can experience it (definitely see and hear it, probably smell and taste it). So you get dropped into the middle of the scenario, but you can’t be affected by it or affect it.

What we learn is that children are taken back to experience the horrors of war first-hand—the blood, the gore, the awfulness—so that they will never want to wage war themselves. It’s an effort to wipe out all war.

Turns out that a small child—I’m remembering s/he was 4—started crying, and the teacher picked him/her up to console her. It was only “inappropriate” because the teachers weren’t supposed to make the kids feel better during the time travel. (It’s possible that all cuddling of children has been banned, but I can’t remember for sure.)

Thus the touching wasn’t inappropriate from our current standards, and the reader now views the teacher in a completely different light, sympathizing with him.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Attention, San Diego friends

Ken will be giving his IBR talk at San Diego BMW Motorcycles this Saturday:

The Iron Butt Association is a group of loose-knit riders dedicated to safe long-distance motorcycling. Entry into the club is obtained by documenting long-distance riding challenges, such as 1,000 miles in under 24 hours, or Coast-to-Coast in under 50 hours. Every two years the IBA hosts their premier event, the Iron Butt Rally. Billed as "11,000 miles in 11 days," this Rally tests the mettle of selected riders by sending them all over the US and Canada on a giant two-wheeled scavenger hunt. Although the Iron Butt Association has over 40,000 members, barely 400 riders have successfully finished an Iron Butt Rally. In fact, more people have gone into space than have completed an Iron Butt Rally.

Ken Meese has been riding ever since he snuck his parents' 125cc bike out of the garage as a teenager. He has logged several hundred thousand miles on BMWs and has ridden in Asia, Europe, and North America. Ken has ridden numerous Long Distance Rallies and Iron Butt certificate rides that have covered nearly every US state and most Canadian Provinces. 2009 was his first Iron Butt Rally, but definitely not his last.

This evening will be full of road tales, travails, and triumphs as Ken shares his experiences of competing in the ultimate motorcycle endurance Rally. In addition, Ken's Rally-prepped bike will be on hand so you can see just what it takes to survive on a BMW for 11 days and 11,000 miles.

I don't know what time (early evening, I think), so call the dealership to confirm:

5673 Kearny Villa Road, San Diego CA 92123
Phone: 858-560-BIKE (2453)

"Exceptional prose"

Thank you, Reviewer Emily at Three Dollar Bill Reviews!

"'Queens Up' by Andrea Dale is the tale of Josephine who uses her skill at poker to undo her father’s mistakes and reclaim a home for herself and Margaret. This clever historical tale flows beautifully with excellent characters and exceptional prose."

("Queens Up" appeared in Lesbian Cowboys: Erotic Adventures, and was reprinted in Best Lesbian Romance 2010, which was the focus of the above review.)

Tied and bound for first place!

Thank you to all who voted!

Marching forward

I felt universally crappy yesterday—thought I was coming down with a cold, because my throat felt wonky and I had the energy of a newborn kitten—so I self-medicated with a hot bubble bath and the Nora Roberts that finally popped up in my Holds queue at the library (Vision in White).

I also decided, looking at my schedule for this month, not to go to San Diego with Ken this weekend, where he’ll be doing his IBR talk again. Besides, he would’ve had to take the extra gas tank off (because it sits where my seat is supposed to be), and that would be silly because attendees will want to see it and poke at it and so forth.

That said, we’ve scheduled a mini-vacation down there near the end of April: two days to play (we have free passes to Sea World, and maybe we’ll hit the Wild Animal Park and/or the Zoo, and we also want to see The Marston House), then we’ll do an 8-hour rally (together! Because 8 hours is as long as I ever want to do a rally, really), and finish up with an SCA event in Orange County.

Before that… Yep, this month is getting pretty busy. The weekend after next is Black Oak Lodge, our Shire’s annual weekend-long event. We’ll be heading up early on Friday to help with set up, and I’m running Gate. Since we always help with clean up and tear down, we’ll get home after lunch on Sunday. In terms of work, the weekend’s mostly shot (plus Thursday will be packing and Sunday afternoon/evening will include unpacking, laundry, etc.).

The following Tuesday, we’re motoring up to Monterey to visit my sister and her family, which will include the Aquarium! because what’s the point of going to Monterey without going to the aquarium and seeing the otters? (Okay, yes, seeing my sister and her family, since they moved there last August and we still haven’t made it up there. But still.) We’ll come home on Thursday with my mom, who will have flown to Monterey the week before. She’s staying with us for a week.

The weekend after she leaves is King’s Hunt, another weekend-long SCA event, although because we don’t camp, we’ll probably just go for Saturday. The Monday after that is my birthday dinner (although my birthday is actually Tuesday, but that’s Textiles Guild night). Which reminds me, I have to send the invitation…

Anyway. Some busy weeks coming up, so I have to grab all the work time in between.

• I’ve got three short story deadlines at the end of the month. One story’s in progress and should be done this week, if not within the next day or so.
• I have novel submissions to do (got all the Waking the Witch e-mail ones done, but I have to buy more ink cartridges to do some postal ones; today and tomorrow will be catching up on Out of the Frying Pan, and then it’s on to Possessed, Undressed, and in a Mess.
• I have to get back to work on Out of the Frying Pan so Teresa and I can get it back out to the editor who said she’d look at it again with some revisions.
• I’ve got some nonfiction and editing proposals to get moving on.

So that’ll keep me out of trouble for a little while. :-)

---

Edited to add: I swear to you, we had a conversation last night about the 8-hour rally and I expressed how excited I was that we could run it together. But apparently he/we aren't running the rally; he's helping run the rally. WTF? He has no explanation for why my excitement didn't cause him to explain this last night. So that'll be 8 hours I sit in a corner of a BMW dealership (which usually have nice comfy sitting areas and tea-making facilities) and work!

An epic win!

I just learned that Coming Together: Against the Odds won a 2010 Eppie for Best Erotica/Erotic Romance anthology!

The Coming Together collections each benefit a different charity; all proceeds from the sale of Coming Together: Against the Odds will benefit Autism Speaks.

The reason I'm popping virtual champagne here is because I'm proud to be a part of Coming Together: Against the Odds, which contains my story "Always a Bridesmaid"! The anthology also has stories by Teresa Noelle Roberts (aka half of Sophie Mouette), Kathleen Bradean, Maxim Jakubowski, and many more amazing authors.

So, to recap: Buy this award-winning anthology (or any of the fabulous Coming Together anthologies) and not only get a book of sexy-hot stories, but you can also write it off on taxes and get the warm fuzzy feeling of having donated to a very worthy cause.

Have a Kindle? Looking for something to read?

I have no idea how many of ya'll have Kindles, so I wanted to mention that a good number of my stories are available that way, at least as part of anthologies.

The cupcake-scrumptious Rachel Kramer Bussel just listed a slew of her anthologies that have Kindle versions, and you can find that list here. I have stories (either as Andrea Dale or in collaboration with Teresa as Sophie Mouette) in 11 of them.

I'm also in negotiation with my publisher to get my two novels into electronic editions.

This digital world is pretty amazing, isn't it?!

On Writing Customized Erotica Stories

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Haste ye here and vote!

[Note: If you're reading this on Facebook or anywhere other than Blogger, please click through to vote in the poll and leave comments. Thanks!]

Okay, time for a poll. I want to set up an affiliate program with an online bookseller, so you can click through from my webpage or blog and order books, and I get a wee little bonus. Plus, you can easily order any of my publications from one handy-dandy page, which is a great big bonus for you!

The question is, with what bookstore should I go? I adore Powells and do most of my online shopping there, but I know I'm in a minority and many people prefer Amazon. And others have a soft spot for B&N or Borders or possibly somewhere else I'm not even thinking of.

Hence the poll. If your vote is "other," please leave a comment explaining what "other" you like!

The poll is over there on the right, and will close on March 10 at about 10:50 p.m. Pacific Time. If you have questions, please fire them off to me in the comments here or e-mail me.

Thank you! :-)

5-star review!

A Little Night Music just got a five-star review from a reader on amazon!

Vampiric vermin, I swear

Aaaaugh. I feel like for every one thing I get done, three more crop up. Like a nasty game of Whack-a-Mole. With moles that bite my ankles.

Since my last entry, this is what I’ve accomplished:

• finished “Braceleted,” walked to the PO, mailed it.
• continued on to the library and dropped off items that were due.
• decided not to write the next story on my list, for various reasons.
• got the assignment for the overnight Denise Little Workshop story, wrote it, and turned it in. (It’s called “At the Mirk and Midnight Hour.” Can anyone guess the reference?)
• read most of the DLW stories for the first assignment.
• downloaded all of the new stories to read.
• finished the draft of the March issue of The Oak Leaf for Ken to proof.
• went to the gym (Friday).

Still to do:

• gobs and gobs of e-mail, which includes things like “could you call me when you have some free time?” (Free time? Aaaugh!), two ongoing contract negotiations, and…I don’t even want to look and be reminded.
• read all the new DLW stories.
• write the next story on my list.
• ideally get The Oak Leaf ready and copied today or early tomorrow so I can take issues to the Costumed Fighter Practice tomorrow.
• grocery shopping for the next week or so plus food for the potluck picnic after the Costumed Fighter Practice.
• go to the gym (today and tomorrow).
• apply for more freelance editing/writing jobs.

Once more into the breach…

To do sounds a lot like to doom

Many, many things to do today. It didn’t help that I didn’t set the alarm correctly. About all I’ve accomplished so far is breakfast (leftover Chinese), ablutions, a quick read of e-mail, and lunch (leftover Chinese). We also walked to the Farmer’s Market and came home with lots of fresh fruit and veg, and of course prior to that we planned meals for the next week or so.

But now it’s almost 2 p.m. and I still have to…

• read-through “Braceleted,” which I finished last night (9K words) and clean up all my little bracketed notes to myself.
• walk to the Post Office and mail “Braceleted.”
• possibly continue on to the library because I have this niggling feeling something’s due.
• ideally write another story for a fast-approaching deadline. I have no idea for this story, and the theme is pretty open. Argh.
• read all the stories for the Denise Little Workshop, which actually starts tonight. Even though I’m not there, I need to read them all so I can follow along. Also, I don’t know whether the overnight assignment for the DL Workshop will come tonight or tomorrow. Argh squared. (Although I’m excited and looking forward to the challenge.)
• try to finish The Oak Leaf as much as possible, even though I’m still waiting on some things. Which the authors have not even told me if I might get or not.
• deal with Kingdom Chronicler stuff, since that slipped lower on my To Do list over the past week, and can’t slip any farther.
• power through as much e-mail as I can.

Ken’s said he’ll handle dinner (spinach-and-feta stuffed chicken, couscous, steamed asparagus). We’ve committed to going to Scribal Guild tonight to help with scrolls, and I really do want to do that. It’s sort of the reward for all this other stuff.

So instead of going to the gym for cardio, it’ll be a walk. Not nearly as intense, but better than nothing.

And now it’s time for me to dive in and get to work! Let’s see how much I get done.

Updatey-do

Oops. Didn’t mean to drop off the radar there!

Writing Challenge Update:

Kinda tanked on that one. :-( 3K the first day. 1K the second day, every last word of which was forcibly chiseled out of my brain by a one-armed dwarf wielding a broken pick-axe. Basically, I couldn’t figure out the crisis/turning point. On Day 3, I worked at CB&TL with Tanya, who at the end of our session listened to me wail and came up with a partial solution. I wrote about 500 words that day, then not enough to count on Thursday and Friday. Bleah. I took the weekend off, did admin work on Monday, and wrote 500+ words last night.

Today? Must. Finish. Story. because it has to be mailed ASAP. I’m at CB&TL now. Wish me luck.

Fitness Update:

Much better success to report here! We basically hit our goals every day last week (except for abs/back work on one day), including getting up early on Saturday to hit the gym before we got on the road. Sunday was our off day (it’s a 6-day/week program), but I think rocking out to Styx counts as some exercise.

I felt mostly awful this past Monday, so we had an “Active Rest” day. The idea is that on day there’s no official cardio workout, you still try to fit a little extra cardio into your day: if you work in an office, get up once an hour to stretch and walk around; park at the far end of the parking lot; take the stairs instead of the elevator. That sort of thing. So we scrubbed and cleaned the upper part of the house, which included removing almost everything from the bathroom.

Ken reports that he’s lost 3 lbs. I seem to have gained 2. But I’m officially weighing myself/taking measurements only once a month, so I really don’t care. What’s important is that I feel so much better already. My hip doesn’t hurt at night, I’m more limber, I have more energy.

Everything Else Update:

Saturday we headed to Upland to spend some time with our friends Nanci and Lenny. We all went out to dinner at a British pub, and then Lenny went off to his evening job, and the rest of us enjoyed the music of up-and-coming band MeVsMe.

The next morning, we were up bright and early (hah) to head to the Fontana Raceway. Not because any of us have a whit of interest in NASCAR, but because Styx was playing a morning show there.

Oh, and one song was televised. :-) Look, Ma, I'm on TV!

We had lunch with a bunch of friends afterwards…or, sort of. Originally it was to be the four of us, and I requested The Old Spaghetti Factory, and everyone was amenable. Then it grew to nine of us, and three people didn’t want to go to TOSF, and I wanted to be accommodating. A local restaurant was chosen, which turned out to be a glorified Denny’s and was, unsurprisingly, packed on a Sunday at brunch/lunchtime. So in the end, we didn’t all get to sit together, which was the point of doing lunch together. (We were split into two booths.) The food was okay, but uninspiring. Sigh.

After that, we went to visit our friends Dianna and Ron and Eleanor, and had a lovely afternoon seeing their new house, chatting, having a yummy light supper of tabouli salad over spinach, hummus, pita, olives, baklava, and wine (the latter two items being our contributions). Eventually we were forced to tear ourselves away and get home and feed the cats, who were quite happy to have us do that.

Okay. To work now. Wish me progress!

So happy

I don't even have the words to describe how beautiful this cover is. All I know is being in it makes me so happy I could weep.

(Click on it to see it bigger. The bigger version doesn't want to center properly on this page.)

12 weeks isn't that long, is it?

Ken and I have embarked on a 12-week fitness program. We both get bored going to the gym and doing the same things, and I work better when I have clear goals (well, when I’m being told what to do, which is why having a trainer is my best bet. But I can’t afford a trainer right now, and having a website tell me what to do on a particular day is a reasonable substitute for my brain.) We’re focusing on the workout/fitness portion, not so much on the food portion, because we already eat reasonably healthy (when we plan good meals ahead). I’m loosely tracking what I’m eating to get a sense of where I’ve slipped, but I’m not sure if I’ll do any calorie-counting. That tends to make my brain unhappy, too.

Today was our third day, and for me, at least, it’s going great. It definitely helps to have a plan, because I don’t want to skip a day and fall behind, or do less than what the day’s routine calls for. It helps, too, to plan with Ken when we’re going to the gym. My previous workout partner got too busy, and I couldn’t find anyone else in the area who was interested. (Once I’m at the gym, I’m usually in good spirits and enjoy cranking on those endorphins. It’s getting to the gym that’s my real bugaboo—and so far, this is definitely helping.)

After the 3 months, we might do the Couch-to-5K challenge, because he’s been considering running a marathon. I don’t know if my body can handle running again, but when I did run, I actually enjoyed it a lot. So we’ll see.

Challenge, Days 2 and 3

Well. Well.

Monday, I wrote another 1000 words on “Braceleted.” Every single one of those words was forcibly chiseled out of my brain by a one-armed dwarf wielding a broken pick-axe. They took me all damn day. You know you’re having a tough writing day when you keep picking up The War of Art and being entirely aware that you’re using it as Resistance.

So, yeah, it was pretty awful, and I let my brain (stupid brain) convince me that I was failing at the challenge because the damn story still wasn’t done. Before you say anything, let me add that I know how stupid that is. I wrote 1000 words, which was 1000 words more than I had the day before. And that is freakin’ awesome.

Of course, it took me all day yesterday—during which I wrote not a single word—to get to that point. Me having a meltdown and Ken giving me a wise pep talk was included in the program.

This morning I got an offer to…I don’t know how to describe it without saying too much. Someone is looking for a writer for something, and I was one of the people asked to apply for the job. So I dropped everything to put together a new writer’s résumé targeted for that job. From what little I know, it would be very groovy, so I’ve got my fingers crossed there.

Now I have to get back to “Braceleted,” and figure out how to resolve the conflict so I can finish the frakking story and get it in the mail and get on to the next story! I’m at CB&TL with Tanya now, totally hyped up on an Ultimate mocha (the kind w/the chocolate-covered espresso beans in it), and I’ve finished my résumé, but I’ve only got about half an hour left before I head home so Ken and I can go to the gym, which is the subject of another entry. Soon.

Challenge Update, Day 1

I got 3K done on the story, and it’s not anywhere close to being done. Um, oh. So much for that 6K low-end goal. I’ll finish it tomorrow; I’m quite pleased with my progress.

We also got some house stuff done, including laundry, prepping for tomorrow’s slow cooker jambalaya, discussing kitchen curtains (the ones I made are mediocre and annoying us both), and cleaning the kitchen. We took a walk, but the very selfsame good workout sneakers I wore only yesterday (when I walked to the library) decided to give me a bloody blister today. Grr, argh. I did get some good stretching done afterwards, though.

And we watched perhaps the stupidest episode of Sanctuary possible….