Unexpected Gifts

Today, Colleen (my lovely agent) asked me to send her my current edit on what is quickly becoming the Novel From Hell. She said it'll take her a few weeks to really go through it as thoroughly as it needs to be seen.

This afternoon, K. D. Wentworth gave me my annual, "You've come so close so many times, I always think, 'this quarter she's going to win', and you really need to keep entering," Writers of the Future lecture.

Despite the religious nature of a lot of my writing, I'm an atheist. I believe strongly in coincidence.

This one is too good to ignore.

Zzz....

Conestoga is over for another year. Much fun was had, no alcohol was drunk (ACK), and I got a lot of awesome information. I'm torn between working on a short story and taking a nap. Somehow, I suspect the nap will win; an hour of belly dancing is wonderfully fun and great for the joints, but I'm knackered. Also? Beading class was a blast. Must get some beading needles and make some bookmarks.

... time passes, Import calls....

Well, I'm completely tired now. Definitely going for that nap. Next year, Conestoga will be in April, so I shouldn't be quite so dead at the end. Some of us just aren't designed for 107° weather. That's Fahrenheit, not Celsius, thank Elvis.

Day Two

Awesome panels. Con crud. Came home before I could barf and/or snot on someone's masquerade costume (which would be a tragedy, as we always get some awesome ones). Have taken some vitamin C, and will soon have a bath so I can enjoy tomorrow. I'm looking forward to several of tomorrow's panels. I've spent the last two days in the Fangs, Fur, and Fey room, so tomorrow I'm going to be a naughty writer and go to both the belly dance class AND the beadwork panel. Huzzah!

One of the best things about congoing is that it shows me that I'm not the only person going through the writing problems I have. It's normal to think that the book sucks two thirds of the way through, I'm not the first person to have to do overwhelming revisions, and plenty of other people refuse to show their sex scenes to their parents. The "Business of Writing" panel this afternoon was top notch, and pleasantly followed by the Sex Scenes panel. You can imagine the hilarity that ensued. Oh, and P. C. Cast's dad is made of humiliating awesome.

About ready to go the lazy vegetarian/bad vegan route and just boil some eggs for dinner. Mmm, forbidden eggs. I'm seriously a hair's breadth from saying "screw it" to veganism and just switch to mostly veganism. I've been eating cheese all weekend, anyway, via consuite nachos (delicious, but probably why I've got con crud).

Damn it. Now I want more nachos.

Oof.

One day of Conestoga down, two to go. Today was pretty awesome, and included a fabulous belly dance show--performed by fairies. You had to be there, but it involved tequila. Damn, I love my local con.

I missed the Fangs, Fur, and Fey bar night, alas. I'm tired, and given how much I have to parcel out my energy these days, I felt it was more prudent to come home and rest. That said, I would have loved a few Sam Adams and a good chat. Must take my copy of Marie Brennan's Midnight Never Come tomorrow so I can get her to sign it. Also, my JBU Best-Of, so I can get one of my fellow best-of authors to sign it for me. *grin*

All right. I'm up in seven hours, and Sunday is going to be even harsher. I'm off to bed. Ohh, I'm going to regret wearing red velvet and heels tomorrow. I just know it.

I WANNA POCKET MONKEY!

On the last day of Tacitus's seven-day convalescence, Sophie pilfered his new pocket monkey....

Typos are AWESOME.

Oh, fu....

Kill me. Kill me now. I have annihilated 130-mumblety-K words, and I need to do a whole new revision to kill another 50K. Nnngh. *thumps head on desk more than is healthy*

Worse, I have a whole new plot element I have to foreshadow (a small one, thank Elvis), and I think I may need to reconstruct part of the ending.

Yeah. Yeah. We're gonna skip dinner and just get some sleep. Yes, I know it's 2:30 in the morning. It's dinnertime when I say it is, damn it.

Stupid Microsoft.

Dear Microshaft,

I'm damned close to installing Open Office and getting it over with. Word 2007 took some getting used to, but the one thing I CANNOT get used to is how damned long it takes to save a file, and HOW OFTEN THE SOFTWARE LOCKS UP FOR IT.

Srsly. I'm editing an 800-page document. I can't have your stupid software choking on it every minute. I'd say it's an issue of file size, but things are no better than they were when it was a 1200-page file. I don't even hold hope for it when I get it down to 500-600 pages. Because you suck. YOU SUCK HARD!

Please give me a free bugfix, kthxbye. Otherwise, my next novel will be written in Open Source.

No love AT ALL,

Me

HOT PRAWN

Ahh, editing gratuitous sex scenes. I know that the whole thing's probably going to either be cut or trimmed to bare bones (heh, I said bone), but, damn it, I like writing porn. Let me have my moment.

Also? It's really farking hot.

Oof.

This weekend, I learned that:

• At least half my artistic temperament comes from my dad's family.
• Trigger points are miserable things indeed. Ow. Ow.
• I'm not the only weirdo in my family.
• Nor am I the only one with Fibromyalgia. Genetic link, anyone?
  
• Milk is tasty, but does yucky things. Pleh!
• Good Indian food is worth any amount of pleh.

I'm glad to be back to editing, all told. I've got a huge stack of knitting to do now, which is a bit annoying, but it'll keep me busy for a long time. Going to edit myself blind this week, get some of the house cleaned up, and hope my back (ow, ow) has loosened up in time for Conestoga this weekend. If anyone's planning to go, look for the weirdo knitting the light blue shawl or the bizarre garter stitch scarf. The shawl might be a bit too complicated to take with me.

Getting back to editing now. Then, we load the dishwasher. UGH. Are men genetically incapable of doing housework before leaving town for two weeks? I came back to a nightmare, and that's not an exaggeration.

AFK!

I know I haven't posted lately, but I've been working, honest. Getting a little frustrated again, but it'll resolve itself sooner or later.

Going to be away this weekend. I have a family reunion to go to in sunny southwestern Oklahoma. I'm gonna die. I know I'm gonna die. Still need to pack and sleep, too. Oh, well. Packing will take half an hour, tops, including the knitting bag and a couple of books. One of the worst parts will be the loss of WinAmp. My iPod got requisitioned when the Import's died, and was never returned when I got him a brand spankin' new Bluetooth mp3 player. D'oh. Well, I'll pack a few CDs and hope my parents (who are driving) like Shiny Toys Guns.

See you all on Sunday afternoon!