Having only barely reached 25k last year, this is new territory. Who knew there could be such a wall at the 25k point? Boredom? The feeling that you just can't write another word? And I'm not even working on the same characters or plot the whole way through. This has been an eye-opening experience. I'm now jumping between two drafts to keep myself going. Slow, but still inching forward.

Frog Out

The inaccurately, but historically, named Philcon is Nov 20-22. I have a schedule. I am on panels with lots of people I know. Which, since I'm a panel virgin, is reassuring. I shall no doubt end up being sacrificed, blood spilt. If I don't finish NaNo, that's why. I am exsanguinated.

( Details behind the cut, if you're interested. Otherwise, move along. Nothing more to see here. )

Too early to say for sure whether I can catch up or get ahead of the pace, but I've definitely picked up speed this morning. I've done all I could for now on the middle grade story and have moved back to an adult story in a world I've played with in the past, but never written a full story for. So while noodling around with plot and character, the word count is climbing. So far I'm playing with backstory and motivation, which probably won't make it to the final draft. I'm also toying with characters to see who is in this story, which could have quite a supporting cast.

Assuming that I can make it, I suspect I shall, by Nov 30, draft another fairy story that was begun years ago and try to draft a quick gen ship story that is an extrapolation of something I scribbled years ago. Both in known worlds.

Frog Out

I'm bogged down in this middle grade story, which is really being written for Miss E, herself, because her Mom usually writes for grownups. It's a good exercise, I think, because it's not so much coming from me opening a vein or from one of my previously developed universes. But that makes it tricky as well because I've not spent much time with these characters. Well, actually, they're under my feet every single day, but I haven't spent time with them as FICTIONAL characters.

So there I was, beating my head against the 20k mark when I should be sprinting for the 25k mark, and I had very little plot and characterization and lots of writing my way in for this story #3, the middle grade one. And Miss E walks in the room and says "Do you think we could marry one of the girls [female kittens] to Thomas [who is very fat and 6 years old] so he can keep on being king?" Plot! OMG, Plot! Piling more Bad Things onto the characters!

Oh, and Miss E was not in any way discussing my current story being drafted. Because she's unaware I'm writing it. I've only told The Dude about it because it needs to be edited before she sees it and who knows how long that will take me. So Miss E is talking REALITY. Yes, she's got this elaborate monarchy going among the household cats, beginning with Mrs. Gaines as the queen, now deceased. (Ummm, plot? world? yup.)

And no, I have plenty of characters in this story, almost too many.

Announcing it here for the first time anywhere in print, Walkabout Farm now houses 8 cats. Yes, I said eight. It's going to be an interesting winter.

May they all become primarily outdoor cats by spring.

Frog Out

I slip in my count and then I catch up. Here's hoping the trend continues, though I'm getting tired of generating close to 3k in single days. Cat story (#3) is giving me fits. I'm going to noodle around in that one some more today and try to free the logjam to bring it to plotdom. Then on to story #4. Still shy of the 20k I was supposed to be at by yesterday, but not by much, about 1500 words shy. Good grief. I'm starting to believe in the writing fairies.

Frog Out

I slipped a bit yesterday. About 500 words and because I expected to make my count later, I didn't enter it on the site. It was a day for clearing my head and then family obligations ate up my time. Shopped at Target and the get-up-and-out was actually just what I needed. Now, back to my fairy tale and if it stays stuck, I shall move on to a different story. Though, really, I want to put this one to bed. I started it almost 4 years ago. The ideas and plot kept waffling on me. The ending came to me this time and now I just need to write to that direction instead of wandering about in the wilderness.

I was IM'ing with an old friend in the evening and The Dude wanted me to cut and paste the conversation into my current rough draft for word count. He said it counted as dialog. Right. Nothing at all to do with suns, moons, or Rubys. I did not do that. Those 500 words were legit draft verbiage.

Frog Out

Word counts are doing what they should right now. I'm all caught up. One result of 2 days of nearly 3k words each is that I learned I could do it. Twice. Wow. Revelation. And, at 10k, The Mouse King's Revenge has nearly been beaten to a bloody pulp. Just one more scene I know I want to put some words to today. And then it's on to the next story that inspires me from my list of possible stories for NaNo 2009.

And oddly enough (for me), the process of writing the Mouse King's Revenge made me realize how it could be blown out to a novella or novel. But for now, I'll do my linking thingie. But yeah. Cumin, Blossom, The Mouse King, Virga, Allspice are all characters who wanted more page to play on.

Frog Out

I'm usually the one whose mileage varies from the norm. Yesterday I was concerned that it was the 4th and I had already slipped about 2200 words short of the daily average required in the first 3 days. This is normal for my writing pace and the deficit could be made up over the remaining 26 days, but it was a deficit. So soon. I received unexpected (to me) comments on my post, urging me onward. They were, well, inspirational. I waded back into my draft and a logjam broke and I had all kinds of plot bunnies and a very unexpected outcome to the story itself. Not how I had envisioned the ending at all. Today I expect I'll be in 'cleanup mode' generating content where I had made mere notes yesterday so I have a halfway decent first draft to work with later.

So if I needed to write just under 3900 words to stay on target yesterday, imagine my shock and delight when I managed to generate 2700 of them. So a big thank you to the various folks who said "go, go, go" (among other things). I shall now attempt the same amount today which would put me back on target.

(Go, Go, Go.)
Frog Out

It boggles my mind, but it seems to happen every time. Once I start generating content, the story just comes to me, gets more and more complicated, twistier, the characters just sort of appear and the conflicts and desires get exposed. Still only a vague, nebulous ending. I'm waiting for the 3rd one to hit, the real ending, the one that isn't obvious. Word count is starting to pick up as the ideas start flying through my fingers onto the page. Go away, editor.

Frog Out

How did I ever manage to generate 25k words last year? Already behind in word count. I think I'm not supposed to be backspacing as much as I am...

Frog Out

Last year I started late and without a plan, but still generated 3 drafts and 25k in November. This year, I laid out story ideas aplenty. We shall see what comes of it, but I began as soon as I got up this morning and wrote more than I usually do in a day. (Which isn't much.) I'm on NaNo as ozdrummond.

When I need a break from this insanity, I'll try to post some kitten shots.

Frog Out

Thanks to Ellen Kushner for pointing me to Wordle today. Writing is not just the words. It's how you arrange them.



Frog Out

So Marshall marshallpayne1 has this super sekrit list of people he would like to interview. And one day he told me he was reading Jim Kelly's short stories. I know what that means. If you ever learn that Marshall is reading your work, devouring it, then it means Marshall is contemplating asking you for an interview. But Marshall had only met Jim once, at an ArmadilloCon or some such nonsense, a long time ago. But I knew Jim well enough to ask if he was willing to spill his guts all over Marshall's blog. He was. He did.

Marshall has interviewed both up and coming writers and also some of the 'greats' in the field. Jim Kelly is, without a doubt, one of the masters of the short form. He teaches in the Stonecoast MFA program, one of the few to WELCOME genre writers. (Usually the application says "genre and pop fiction writers need not apply.") Go, read. It's a really interesting interview that tells you things about Jim you never knew, I'll bet. Plus, he's edited a new anthology for Tachyon and it's just coming out NOW.

http://marshallpayne1.livejournal.com/89594.html

Frog Out

I'm headed out to horse camp in Tucson the first week of November...one could combine it with a WFC trip, one could. Not me, but someone else. I fly out the 3rd and home on the 10th for the extended horse camp (my personal version). There's room for 1-2 more campers for a shorter session. Inquire within.

Quite seriously, the November horse camp is going to be centered on NaNoWriMo goals. I need to generate new story drafts and I'm planning to use the NaNo 'just write' method again. So there will be words generated on the page according to the NaNo goals. There will also be worldbuilding discussions and plot bunny discussions with dancinghorse. And hot and cold running Lipizzans, since I now do chores several times a day, not to mention the riding part and ground work part.

This is not a critiquing horse camp, though I shall also complete final edits on a short story as well as generate new content in my worlds. It's more of a 'hive mind' horse camp, where Judy and I will be writing hard during the day and talking writing in the evenings over dinner.

Frog Out

["centered on" does not feel right. Not at all. "centered around" feels more correct.]

Over the years, Weatherdude has not been one to observe tradition in terms of what anniversary year it is and what he's supposed to give me (or me, him). Alas, I say.

However, I have been reliably (?) informed that the 28th wedding anniversary is the year of hydraulics. In the form of a log-splitter, delivered on the correct day, this morning, at 10AM. My old-fashioned, manual, log-splitter will be partially retired, along with his wedges and maul, and the gas-powered hydraulic one will do most of the woodpile work this year.

What did I get? A fleece-lined hoodie to keep me warm while I stack or split wood.

Frog Out

Your average cat tree must be sized properly for your average cat. Unfortunately, most of us do not have 'average' sized cats. Accordingly, I have developed the following rule of thumb:

( cat tree sizing... )

On a different note, Miss E selected her novel for the month of October yesterday. This month it's mysteries. She had told me she hates mysteries, but I reminded her that she's very fond of Scooby-Doo stories. I suggested that she look for one with animals in the pile offered, as there weren't likely to be any Scooby-Doo's. She selected one from a series of mysteries set around the planet, this one about Antarctica. So it includes penguins, one of her favorite topics. And very little spirituality, though Miss E informed me that the characters prayed the ice floe wouldn't break early in the book when their plane landed on it. I told her that was understandable under those circumstances.

The Dude and I checked the book out and it's night and day to last month's book. This book is clearly 4th grade reading level, it's listed as 4.8. It has some complexity regarding scientists and place names, but not relationships. It will build her vocabulary, but not with words like 'depression' and 'divorce.' Instead with a word like 'adamant,' something Miss E already knows how to be. SAT vocabulary words and various activities are listed helpfully in the back of the book.

I did find myself wondering where the heck the school library gets all these self-published books, though. I'm not knocking whether this is good, mind you. I'm just in awe that the library seems to have such a large collection of them. How does one market this stuff to school libraries? It's almost like there's such a dearth of basic material so they will buy anything if it's cheap enough. Get yourself a formula, be a bit clever with the execution, find yourself some school libraries. Voila. Career.

Frog Out

I was gently reminded by a friend that I'm not acknowledging comments on my blog enough. Please, please excuse me. I enjoy reading every comment and I'm grateful for every casual reader.



Mrs. Gaines went downhill much faster than expected. It's only a week ago yesterday that I took her in for another shot and she passed out at the vet's. Friday and Saturday she probably spent the night outside, or part of it. Then we noticed she wasn't eating, but she still drank quite a bit outside on Sunday. She spent a good part of the days sleeping on Maralton's bed on a down lap quilt. Yesterday she slept most of the day in my closet hidden by my wedding gown (28 years ago). Miss E pulled her out at about 6pm and I chided her for it and explained what was going on, that she was hurting by this point. Mrs. G went back into my closet, didn't eat. Miss E was distraught and didn't sleep well, despite having the kittens for company. She was up later than she should have been, thinking about Mrs. G and holding her photo. Weatherdude was distraught as well. Real Dudes do shed...well they do.

At 3AM this morning, I awoke to the sound of dry heaves and asked The Dude to turn on a light. It was Mrs. G out of the closet, but again, she wouldn't drink anything or eat anything for me or for The Dude. I would have to call the vet. She came out and spent time in the main part of the house, asked to go out twice, but I wasn't going to let her. If she went to ground on the property somewhere, I wouldn't be able to find her. She curled up on Miss E's dining room chair next to the electric heater during breakfast. Miss E sat in my spot instead. She stayed there a while, asked to go out again, chose another hiding place in plain sight in the kitchen for a while. Eventually she had gone to ground and I didn't know where. Maralton found her under her bed, stretched out on her side. I've seen that before. Things were happening almost too fast. I called the vet, they said it was time and we could come in with her any time today. The Dude wanted to be home, so I was going to wait 3 more hours.

Miss E was able to pet her when she got home from school, I was able to pet her and talk to her. We were all able to see and talk to her today. Goliath was just above her the entire time, sleeping on Maralton's bed, so you know the overall vibe was calm acceptance and lots of love on all sides. And then she slipped away, some time around 4pm. Again, a last good-bye to the physical body. I'm off to the vet's shortly. She'll be cremated and will join the ashes of our other cats. But first, E would like to have a ceremony, a meditation. She says she'd like a meditative moment each year on the anniversary of her death. We'll have photos out and will tell stories and will reflect on her life.

E was so worried yesterday that she hadn't been a good 'mom' to Mrs. Gaines. But she was. I explained that she was younger and not ready for the responsibilities she shares for the kittens. She was 4 when Mrs. G came into our house, a full of baloney kitten. She had done a good job for her age and Mrs. G had loved her, in her funny, you-can't-catch-me way. When Miss E did catch her and sweep her up in her arms, Mrs. G always went limp. The first full sentence Miss E wrote in first grade was "Put your cat down!" as a dictionary example for the word 'put.'

Mrs. Gaines was an annoying, opinionated, independent cat who bit us when she felt like it, especially if she wanted us to get up and feed her in the morning. Not hard. Never hard. She was a mouser and birder extraordinaire, and an 'up' cat who ran on the roof. I'll miss seeing her shadow up there from my office window, cast onto the pine trees. She was sweet when she wanted to be, a very quiet purr and soft squeaky meow. One of her nicknames was "Squeaky Frome." She was the #1 cat in the house and all the boys knew it. No one messed with her food, though they might steal a dead mouse from under her nose. She never scratched Eloise when she was young. She knew she was Eloise's cat, though she played hard to get almost all the time. Aloof and yet very much a part of the household. A cat cat, usually out of doors doing cat things. Terrorizer of chickens, she stared one down just on Sunday, sore and sick as she was.

RIP Lady Cat, E's first cat: Mrs. Gaines, Mrs. G, Little Bit, Squeaky Frome, Kitty-kitty (the only name she reliably answered to).

If anyone on my f-list is in the DC area and is looking for an opportunity, contact me. I was asked if I knew anyone who is willing to work as a tech writer in downtown DC.

Oz

Still one tax return to go...story has to wait while I do that, sorry story(ies).

I was quite pleased to learn via A.C. Wise this morning that Ellen Datlow had put up her full list of 2008 stories she liked at Nightshade Books http://nightshadebooks.com/discus/messages/233/31565.html?1254591491. While I didn't make the final cut of 50 that will be listed in Best Horror of The Year, Volume One, I did make the full list. I couldn't ask for a nicer surprise, frankly, for my first published story, available in both English and Russian, btw. A.C. Wise, who participated in the Anticipation Writers Workshop sections, was herself mentioned twice in the full list. Jay Lake will be listed in the volume's HM for his novella "America, Such As She Is" in "Alembical," selected and published by klingonguy. So many more...several from Mike Allen's Clockwork Phoenix, several by Mike Allen himself, several by Elizabeth Bear, one from Mary Robinette Kowal, one from Leah Bobet, one from Nebula-winner Rich Chwedyk, one from Margaret Ronald, two by Cat Valente. Kowal, Bobet, Chwedyk, Ronald, Valente, Bear, and Lake were all pro critiquers for Anticipation's Writers Workshops. One by Scott Edelman, who gave our overview presentation on Thursday at Anticipation for "How to Receive a Critique." Two by my friend Jeff Ford, how could there not be at least one? One by Chris Cevasco and one by Cat Rambo, who went to Taos Toolbox with me. John Kessel, Liz Hand, both were writers in residence for my year at Clarion. One by Sarah Totten, who went to Clarion with me. And one by the king of snacks, Greg Van Eekhout. I'm sure I'm missing someone, it's quite a list. I know many of the names, but these are folks whose lives intersect with mine online and off. The long list of mentions reflect the difference between choosing a story to fill an anthology to an editor's taste and acknowledging to the world that a reader with a very good eye enjoyed someone's story. The latter is fine by me.

Mrs. G is declining in a rather alarming way. She's not eating, despite her recent shot. She's gone to ground today, spent much of yesterday asleep. She's had a good 3 months.

Family yoga session again today. This is a really cool thing. A private class for three. Miss E is getting over her cold and I'm just getting it, starting with the sore throat, so the two of us were a bit slow. The Dude made up for both of us.

We're thinking of buying a log splitter after 7 years of looking at them. The Dude did a number on his elbow last year from vibration in the mallet traveling up his arm. I suspect this is the year we buy one.

The Dude's new job is very, very cool. He gets to ask the questions instead of running around answering them. He gets to set a lot of the tone, instead of being set upon. He's busy, but happy. It's especially nice that he's not doing two jobs anymore.

We're enjoying fall weather here. We still need to mow, I did half yesterday for several hours. We need firewood, the chickens are molting. We might have rats in the barn for the first time. The Dude thinks we do. I was nonplussed until I realized that LOTS of rats were probably forcibly evicted from their homes when the county tore down the farm buildings about a half mile away to build the new high school. And yes, a family might have moved in with us. Ticks are still showing up on the cats, but a hard freeze should be coming soon. And when that happens, the house will be overrun with The Dude's plants.

Frog Out

'Scuse me while I do. Srsly.

This is a post as a writer and a parent.

For school, Miss E has to read a novel a month from the school library, from a provided selection of books, I believe. I don't think she's allowed to pull a book from the shelf by herself. Miss E is in 4th grade this year and reads at 4th grade or above because she's 10, not 9. She's by no means a sophisticated reader, though she's been tackling books that are complex (and some that aren't, and ignoring some that I'd love her to read). The novel was 'realistic fiction.' I don't know if they all will be or if it was just this month.

She selected a chapter book (novel) about horses, set in modern-day eastern midwest US. (Oh, how I know it well.) It had all the charm of the eastern midwest, because, well, the author happens to live there herself. We let her read it on her own. She asked us no questions about the content or any words. We assumed (stupidly) that the school had vetted the book as appropriate. When I read over her workpapers on the book, I realized that she had no clue what the book was about beyond a superficial understanding that the protagonist was someone who worked with horses, the horse had a problem, she solved the problem by having someone ride the horse. The Dude skimmed the book (being a fast reader) in half an hour and all became clear. The protagonist's best friend's parents are getting a divorce and the best friend is ashamed. Miss E doesn't know what divorce is, though she has friends whose parents are divorced. She's never known anyone going through one and has a weak concept of shame, too. The book deals with the girl's father dating again (and the girl's jealousy) a few years after her mother died. Miss E understood that the mother was dead, but the rest of it went over her head. I don't think she has ever considered that a parent might date someone else. It deals with depression and talks about drugs and antidepressants, in the guise of horses. Miss E knows nada about what depression is. Hence, her inability to articulate the horse's problem, even. No concept, no referent. The book labels someone as 'comic' because he dresses like a hippy and 'should have been born in the 60's.' He's a recurring character and apparently the author hasn't worked out that he really should have been born in the 40's or 50's to be a hippy. The book also talks about 'pairing off' and couches a lot of it as 'best friends' but it's a prelude to romance because the 'pairing off' includes the father dating. Waaaaay beyond Miss E and there's no way I'm going to discuss that aspect with her. I explained 'divorce' and 'depression' to a degree so she could grasp the point of the book.

And I've never mentioned that the book is 'spiritual.' Which means the protag talks to God constantly. This was the part of the book Miss E found totally unrealistic. Duh. She wrote 'gods are unreal' in her workpapers and I helped her adapt that to 'talking and praying to God all the time seemed unrealistic.' And when we say 'spiritual' apparently we mean Christian spirituality.

According to the author's own website, the series this book is from is listed as "teen." Not even middle school. Granted, I think she means 7th-8th grade, based on the protag's age, the very early teen years. But it most emphatically is not shown as a book appropriate for either 4th grade or 10 year olds.

In most of the above, I'm a concerned parent. But as a writer, I was put off by the author's personal prejudices that were blatantly on display. And by the mediocre writing. Serviceable. The Dude picked up several subplots, so that's something.

For comparison, I offer up three books Miss E slogged through this summer. They're by Lauren St. John. The writing is excellent. They're set in South Africa and Zambia and immediately sent Miss E to the globe and internet to learn more about these places, see photos. They feature animals. There is a bit of characterization of the animals, a bit of magic realism, but in general, they're realistic fiction. And deal with tough subjects, such as the death of both parents at the start of the first book, by fire no less. Miss E, naturally, preferred the two later books over the first one where the protag is grieving and learning to live with her grandmother. Like the protag above, she has special skills when it comes to animals. But the spirituality is broader-based, not restricted to Christianity. Miss E understood much more of the plot and subtext. The Dude and I read parts of these books aloud to her and she hung on every word. But she read one of them completely by herself and asked me questions about whether something was real or what it meant. A dialog with my child.

I do not want the school to ruin my child's love of reading, that they worked so hard to develop, by handing her mediocre works as examples of what you read for school reports. Especially when the work contains content that is way beyond her comprehension.

End of rant. I hope next month's book is better.

Frog Out

(Two of three tax returns in good shape now.)

Mrs. Gaines wasn't eating well. She'd show interest and then act fussy when food was put in front of her. A couple of licks, no more. Checking the credit card record, I was able to figure out that her last steroid shot had been between 2 and 3 weeks ago. So I called the vet on Monday and scheduled a tech to give her a shot.

The tech was kind enough to add on taking her weight and temp, which is more the service with a regular visit for a larger fee. The fee for a tech to administer a shot every 3rd week is $22. I suspect pills would cost about that much and this is more certain. Her body has to absorb it.

Mrs. Gaines was surprised at the trip. I hadn't cleared it with her. Her meow now is hoarse, poor thing. She complained a bit, but was a trooper about it. They kept us waiting longer than usual, but the waiting room was quiet at lunchtime. She purred.

Weight was pretty good, still above 5lbs, though less by half a pound from her best post-diagnostic weight. FIP is beginning to take its toll, I think. She also objected to having her temp taken. Elevated, but not enough for feverish. There's so little to her that the shot went through her pinched skin and was wasted. The tech left to get more.

Mrs. Gaines walked over to a stool. She stretched first one back leg and then the other in the weirdest way, sort of a ballet move sideways. Then her back half fell off the stool, but she's so light she didn't fall to the floor. At this point, I picked her up and put her on the table again. Her back legs fell under her sideways, no control whatsoever. The tech returned, took one look at her, and whisked her away to the back. She was totally limp.

Mrs. Gaines passed out. Fainted. I've never seen a cat do this.

I thought that perhaps she'd had a shock reaction to the medication, that it had hit her system wrong. Because of the FIP, I was prepared for anything. But no. The tech reported she was sitting up in back, looking around, thinking "how did I get here?" I was told that FIP cats are more susceptible to fainting than other cats. Their heart gets beating too fast and too much blood rushes to the wrong place and out they go. Mrs. G, after all, leads a retired and quiet life. The vet's was too much excitement for her.

I let her out of the carrying case on the way home, she hopped out when the car stopped and followed me inside the house instead of disappearing. Then she had a nice snack of baby food and went off to nap.

My Victorian cat with die away airs. (Miss E's cat, actually.)

Frog Out

I have some weird night-images of the horses where I sort of pointed my camera into the dark and let it catch whatever with the flash. If any are good enough, I'll post them. I didn't want to directly put that flash into a horse's face. The theory being that if it destroys my night vision, it probably destroys theirs too.

Story #2 sits for the moment. Three tax returns must be gone by the 15th, just over 2 weeks from now. So that work comes first. I was going to work on story #2 on the plane, but I ended up in a 4.5 hour conversation with the dude sitting next to me from Vegas to DC. Fascinating guy, the conversation ranged all over the place.

Story #1 has made it through the readers. All I can say is, line edits suck rocks. Sigh. If they can't find anything with the storytelling to quibble with, some of my readers seem to then focus on my language. So now it's my job to go into the draft and weigh each line edit offered. None are from an editor/purchaser, so it's still my choice. The wording "It's hardly my concern" vs. "It's not my concern" is not interchangeable when it's dialog. It would change the character of the speaker, the rhythm of how this character speaks. And more than one reader has stumbled on the ultimate line, which shall also have to go under review.

That said, it's clear that story #1 is finished. These are fairly easy fixes, requiring about 1 work day to complete to my own satisfaction. So Tucson was a success in that one story will go out looking for a home and the other is much further along than it was.

In other news, The Dude, Miss E, and I had a private family yoga session yesterday which was a great deal of fun, except for the part where I was doing the yoga workout. No, srsly. A good time was had and we think we'll do it as a regular Sunday morning thing.

Miss E and I went to The Dude's office and helped him move two floors to his new location for the new job that begins today. I realized I hadn't been there since he made major. Ummm, that would be somewhere between 15 and 20 years ago. Not all that much had changed. The layout was surprisingly familiar to me. (He's worked other places inbetween, it's just sort of natural that he's circled back to Weather Central here in the DC area as a civilian.)

But the weekend's success was the disposal of our 53 inch rear projection tv. A huge monster The Dude and I purchased at great expense the year Miss E was born when we realized that our movie theater days were over. You can't give one of these away. No lie. The Washington Post says so too. So it sat in the driveway for a couple of weeks waiting for the twice yearly 'large electronics' recycling day. For the fee of $20, someone will dispose of it for you and presumably recycle any internal components. Getting it to the location required the rental of a vehicle large enough to house it. Overly large as it turned out, but with a ramp and that proved to be most useful. The thing does weigh quite a bit. The Dude and I added a few monitors, an electric typewriter, and another ancient tv to the stash for a total recycling fee of $49. Truck rental about the same. The relief of getting rid of the thing was worth every penny.


Frog Out

Story #2 is...difficult. It didn't used to be. But now it is. Sigh. On the plus side, I figured some things out today. I figured out a technical detail that I must not try to slide by without proper knowledge so the significant detail is correct. Yes, it matters. And it's not one of those things I can just ask Weatherdude about. It's not physics. I already asked all the physics questions I needed to. I was all out of sorts and had to be pushed and prodded into evening horse work. It wasn't the right words before or after, but yes, it makes a difference. Working takes you out of yourself. So does sleeping, but animals always come before sleep, as children do.

So there's another photo of Judy on Capria and me on Pandora, but this is the one I want to blog. Stacey taught me to do ground work with Pandora and I was practicing that tonight. What was fascinating and really took me out of myself was that Tia decided she wanted to mirror what Pandora was doing, on my other side. At first I wasn't sure what she was up to and I worried that she would upset Pandora. But she didn't. She was thinking and trying to learn and Pandora respected that, clearly. Here I am, between the two of them and only Pandora has a bridle on. But Tia walked as if she wore one too. When the time comes and she has her growth, she's going to be all ready to go under saddle. When this photo was taken Pandora was saddled and this was the second time Tia shadowed us. She did it before Pandora was saddled, when I was walking her on her halter.

Delia, please note: I finished a story!

Story #1 from the Tucson week is now done. I smashed through the difficult scene sentence by sentence and then edited everything around it to agree with the final version of the action.

Next up, Story #2.

The second thing is that while I was chasing story #1, mi amigo marshallpayne1 did another of his interviews. This time he interviewed Vylar Kaftan, a colleague from Codex. It's quite interesting reading with some good insights into her process. That and life in California!

That's here: http://marshallpayne1.livejournal.com/82839.html

And just to show I can, here's another photo from the lesson yesterday. Me, all tricked out in riding gear. I feel silly, but properly dressed for her highness, Pandora. (jeans, I want my jeans!)

Ok, so story #1, which is NOT the story I expected to work on, is now 10% from the finish line. The goal here is to have two stories finished and ready to send out by the time I get home next Tuesday night. So today, by hook or by crook, I put Story #1 to bed. Yes. And I'm quite pleased with it at the moment, too.

Speaking of being pleased with oneself, there are a lot of smug horses around here. They've been ridden and they've been petted and talked to. Lots of attention. And they enjoy it. Today was lesson day and I had a blast. Basic stuff, but the yoga has already had an effect. I have more things to work on and so does Pandora.

So back to the story, but I'll put up a photo first, taken with my camera by tcastleb. We're walking and loosening up her shoulders before my ride. She loved it after she decided, yes, she could go in the other direction with me walking on the other side. ETA: Judy says Pandora is looking like "I don't know if I can" and I'm encouraging her and her ear is totally pointed to hear what I'm telling her.

I fell off the face of the earth again, I know. Blame it on tax work. Tomorrow, very, very early, I catch a plane west. East of the Sun and West of the Moon. More posts from there. Photos, even. But for now, please enjoy this blurry one sent by TCastleb in the dying light. A master horsewoman riding the Queen of Horses, Pandora. I'll be happy to just watch. Pandora is looking just awesome. Mature and very beautiful.

In which Miss E discovers what we adults already know.

Miss E is finally taking charge of her mornings. She decided that to get to school on time this year, she should be awakened at 6:30. We did a dry run for a week before school started to reset when she falls asleep. Mixed results, as one would expect. The additional 30-45 minutes in the morning gives her more time to do things herself instead of my pushing her to get going. More time to eat, more time to get her head ready.

All along she thought she should get up at 6:00 AM for a 7:30 departure. Wiser heads prevailed. But yesterday she was really concerned and asked that I set her clock/radio/cd player alarm for 6:20 as a compromise. So I did.

At about 6:25 a very sleepy Miss E stumbled down the hall to where I was working.

"It's LOUD," she said. "I couldn't figure out where to turn it off and it was annoying me."

Welcome to the adult world.

I explained that it seemed loud (she had been playing it at the same volume last night to fall asleep). And I explained that yes, it's much gentler to have Mom wake you up, walk in and turn on the light. Today was not a successful morning because she hadn't really woken up on her own. She really wanted to pull the covers over herself and did just that more than once.

I think that we should go back to Mom waking her up initially and then the alarm goes off to warn her not to stay in bed. At least for a while. Independence is hard, but I'm proud of her for trying.

Frog Out

Mi sekrit amor, marshallpayne1 has done it again! Another screamingly good interview!

Srsly.

Ok, so he's not my sekrit lover. He's my sekrit friend in the Super-Sekrit Clubhouse. Sometimes he calls me up and we gossip for an hour.

Now he's gone and interviewed Mike Allen. Mike Allen is the editor of the Clockwork Phoenix anthologies. I heard a group reading from Clockwork Phoenix 2 at Readercon, because some friends were in it. I was blown away by the quality of the stories and bought the anthology. (Read the anthology.)

Well, who knew that Mike Allen is not only a good editor, but a poet and a prose writer as well? What's interesting about this interview is that Marshall has drawn him out about his Nebula-nominated short story "The Button Bin." And not only that, but Marshall has this way of drawing writers out about their process. Mike talks candidly about voice, about inspiration, about how long it took for him to get the final version of the story down, including the words I most understand, that he didn't yet have the skill to make it work when he had the inspiration. Oh, do I understand that!

Go. Read. Marshall's sekrit clubhouse is a fun place and his interviews are well worth your time.
http://marshallpayne1.livejournal.com/76331.html

The Weatherdude officially became a member of the Senior Executive Service on Sunday, timed with a new pay period. He swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States this morning at 9am EDT.

I, Teh Weatherdude, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

Yes, it's the same oath as the President's. Every level, military or civil service, takes the same oath. It's in the Constitution.

It wasn't the first time he swore this oath. I think the first time was his commissioning in 1980. He swore it again when he entered civil service 7 years ago. I suspect it won't be the last time. Thus far, he's spent 24 years supporting and defending the Constitution and that role has been part of my life as well.

Defender of the Constitution and the occasional chicken. Mom-cat to kittenz.

(the mustache is gone now.)