fall is in the air

Hi, everybody. The day after tomorrow will be September already. This summer really flew by, and I have say, I'm ready for autumn. Give me crisp mornings with brilliant sunny afternoons; the sweet tang of woodsmoke curling through the air; zucchini bread and pumpkin pie for breakfast; red, yellow, orange leaves shivering in the breeze; drinking tea and watching rain fall outside.... I am really over this summer, obviously!

I've gotten stuck on the novelette. I know what needs to happen for the climax emotionally but not action-wise, so I'm spinning my wheels. Maybe I should switch back over to the eye-stabby novel for a couple days.

What are your creative goals for September? I'd love to hear about them! Mine are to finish the novelette and to make some really solid progress on the novel. Play my clarinet more.

I've got some vacation time left this year, so I'm contemplating a staycation. Sounds nice, right? I also want to go apple-picking in the next few weeks. 

On the activism front, I'm taking a class in emergency bystander first aid, and I've gone to a couple protests. How about you, kittens? What action are you taking?

That's it for me, I have to get to work. I hope you're all taking care of yourselves and making your voices heard in whatever way you do that.

Blood and kisses!

moon-shaped

Agh, that frustrating moment when you had a blog post mostly written and then your draft disappears . . . Ah, well. I'll do my best to re-create it.
I feel as though I am continuing to improve, a little bit every day. I'm writing pretty regularly. Only a new project, though: I'm not prepared to revisit the projects I was so bogged down in before. I think it'll be a while yet before I do look at those again. Work has calmed, and so has home (as much as home can when sharing space with so many people). I was recently on vacation for a week, and it was very nice to not be in the city, to have some time away, to catch up with people. Of course I missed my cats terribly, though, and they were both angry at me when I got home!
I can't wait for autumn to really begin. I am very ready for chill, crisp air; for sweaters and boots; for the changing of the leaves, and bonfires, and tea, and cozy nights at home reading.
Books!
15) The Thorn and the Blossom by Theodora Goss. This is a beautiful story of love and magic. The language is lush, and both characters felt very real to me. Definitely a keeper.
16) Full Fathom Five by Max Gladstone.I've nattered on about the Craft Sequence books before. They're brilliant, engaging, and very different from other fantasy series out there. Keepers, every one. Max is a great writer, and also a great speaker; if you get the chance to see him, be it a reading or a panel at a con or whatever, do it.
17) Daughter of Deep Silence by Carrie Ryan. I devoured this YA novel of revenge and hidden identities. It's a fast, smart, dark read that you will fall into. Definitely worth reading!
18) A Green and Ancient Light by Frederic S. Durbin. This is a quietly beautiful book about war and love and loss and magic. It surprised me, to be honest; I felt very emotionally connected to the characters and the story almost immediately. Every action is believable, the love is palpable, and every moment of tension is had me in suspense. Please check this one out; it's lovely.
And now, on with my Sunday. I have today off from pool, hurray! So I'm doing some things around the house, some freelancing, and running a couple errands. I'm so used to my Sundays being occupied that having the entire weekend free feels decadent.
More soon. Blood and kisses!

why do we?

Happy New Year, everybody! This'll be a fairly brief entry, but hey, first Friday of the year and here I am blogging!
I hope you all had a good holiday season. I spent mine in Oregon visiting family and friends. As always, it was great and too short, and I'm happy to be home. I helped my dad move offices, saw a friend who I lost track of when I moved out here a decade ago, got drunk with one of my favorite people in Oregon, spent a day with my best friend, and spent a couple evenings with my oldest goddaughter and her toddler. And on New Year's Eve, my mom and I made a Scandinavian dinner. It was great! I flew home yesterday, and awoke today to . . .
. . . a cold. That's right, the traveling funk got me this time. It's not TERRIBLE, just a runny nose and a scratchy throat and some tiredness. I'm going about my day around it. I just hope it doesn't last long.
My 2014 was a roller coaster. Some great things happened (VP! WtO!) and some terrible things happened (my grandfather passing). Some things were stressful (day job) while some things were fun (the workshops, and the pool league). I think 2014 was better than 2013 was, but I'd like to see 2015 do well for itself. And to that end, I've declared 2015 to be the year of self-care, and the year of piss-off-I'm-writing. On the self-care side of things, I'm going to start exercising again. I went for a long walk today! It's a start! I'm going to continue to be more conscious of my diet. I'm going to delve further into canning/preserving. On the writing side of things . . . Well, that's fairly self-evident, I think. I also want to read more. I didn't read NEARLY enough last year.
Do any of you have resolutions or goals to share for this year? Or thoughts on how the last year has gone?
And now, I'm off to eat homemade chicken soup and get back to my proofreading, because there's writing time this evening if I get enough work done. Happy Friday!

spill yourself at her feet

Happy September, all. And happy Mabon! That's technically tomorrow but we all know that entries two days in a row on this blog never happen.
Mabon: This is the second harvest festival, and celebrates the balance of light and dark. At Mabon we celebrate the abundance on our table and in our cupboards for the coming winter.
Vacation was . . . well, it was hectic. It was great to see my family and great to be out of the city, but it was a little stressful as well. I'm happy to be back in New York and settled back into my routine.
I have books to discuss!
23) The Kingdoms of Dust by Amanda Downum. This is the third in her Necromancer Chronicles, and I love this series. I love how flawed her characters are, and how vibrantly her settings come alive, and how the choices the characters have to make are never easy or black and white. Amanda, when are you going to write more books so I can devour them?? If you're a fan of fantasy, check out Amanda's work. She's a great writer.
24) Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire. This is the first book in her Incryptid series. As you all know, I ADORE her October Daye series, so I was excited to give this a shot. And I love the idea here. I love the story, and the cryptids, and the two opposing groups of the Covenant and the Price family . . . but I have to be honest, this didn't quite do it for me. I felt like the book was winking at me, a "Look how clever and funny I am!" sort of feeling. And there were a couple jokes that I felt were overused. Don't get me wrong, this is a well-written book, just like her other work. It's just not quite my cup of tea.
25) The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. People have been recommending this book to me for a couple years. Last year a friend pressed his copy on me, telling me I should read it. So I finally did. And you know what? It's a well-written book, with great characters full of depth. You know what else? It's depressing as all hell. Why didn't anyone warn me about THAT? It's cancer fiction! Which there's nothing wrong with, it's just not the type of thing I like to read. So I just powered through it. And really enjoyed a lot of the character interaction, and the sense of humor, and etc. But I knew form the beginning who was going to die, and spent the whole book tense, waiting for that. I can't enjoy books like this. It's extremely well done, and if you like books that make you sad, then check this one out. As for me . . . Well, I'll definitely read something less sad next.
I'm plugging along on editing my novel, thankfully. With the exception of the first half of chapter three, it's gone pretty well so far. We'll see if I can shift that into high gear so I can get through it and move on to the next novel(s). I also found a writing workshop that I want to attend next June; cross your fingers that I can manage it!
It's noon on a Saturday. I'm seeing a play at 3 p.m., which will be nice. I also have a list of things to get done, so I should probably get moving. Enjoy your Mabon weekend, everyone!

we've cracked the code

It's humid out. I'm a little sleepy, drinking coffee in my living room while I type. And in a few hours my partner-in-crime and I will get on a plane and leave NYC to visit our families. Hurray for a vacation! It's going to be a busy one, though. I hope I get some down time. And I should keep this short, since I need to finish packing. A couple more books to discuss:
20) Ravens in the Library, an anthology created to raise money for Sooj Tucker when she had some medical problems. It was uneven, as anthologies often are, but a keeper for me for a couple specific stories. Terri Windling's and Ari Berk's, specifically. They are two of my favorite writers. Everything they write is magic.
21) Nell Gwynne's Scarlet Spy by Kage Baker. I adore this book. The writing voice is terrific, it knows when to take itself seriously and when not to, and the characters are a lot of fun. This is related to the Company series, for those of you who are familiar with Baker's work, and I can't wait to dig in to those books.
22) Carpathia by Cecilia Woloch. I love this woman's poetry. Love.
Clearly I've not been reading enough; it's pretty disgraceful that tomorrow is September and I've only read twenty-two books. I'll have to work on that.
Anyway. My hope for vacation is to have some good down time and to get some editing done. Wish me luck, everybody, and I'll see you all on the other side!

these last weeks

The last three weeks or so have been pretty intense. There was the lead-up to my trip. And then there was my trip. I saw most of the people I really wanted to catch up with this time around, with one glaring exception. I got to spend a lot of time with my goddaughter and her baby, which was really lovely. I got a lot of time at Powell's Books, which was also great. And I got some good family time as well. I flew back home two days before Hurrican Sandy hit. I am thankful my flight was Saturday, not Sunday or Monday! But the storm means that this last week has been a weird one. There's been so subway service in my neighborhood for nearly a week now. A good portion of the system is up and running, but not my train. The office was closed due to lack of power all week, so my partner-in-crime and I have had a staycation. I know it's weird to talk about it like it's a holiday when so many people's lives have been just devastated by this storm, but that's the way it has felt. We got very lucky in coming through the storm unscathed. Today and tomorrow I'll be putting together a pile of items to donate to victims of the hurricane, and my office will probably be open on Monday. And that will be madness.
I gave myself a couple of lazy days at the beginning of things. The last couple of days I've really tried to be productive though. I'm purging the apartment again, and trudging through some freelancing work, and trying to get some novel work done as well. We also did ritual for Samhain on the 31st, just me, my partner-in-crime, and two friends. It was a nice evening, and a good ritual. Samhain is one of the two times of the year when they veil between the worlds is thinnest, so it's a good time for divination as well as contacting spirits. It's also our New Year, so the four of us wrote New Year's resolutions down and burned the slips of paper in a white votive candle. Did anyone else out there do anything exciting for Samhain?
I have two books to report, but absurdly, I can't remember what oen of them was. I know I finished a book just before my trip. But for the life of me I can't remember what it was. So when I figure it out, or when I give up on figuring it out, I'll report it on my recent reading.
A couple of strange dreams last night. First, I was at some sort of boarding school and was getting ready to leave, I think to catch a flight, but then my ex-girlfriend showed up. She was in mourning because her mother just died, so I decided to stay with her. There was something about a boy I was supposed to be meeting . . . something about him and a walk in the woods . . . it's all faded though. I also dreamed that I was still nannying for the family I used to work for, and while I was out with the kids Neil Gaiman called their apartment and left a voice mail for me. The gist was that my writing is good and I should keep at it. Then I left to go somewhere, and had my face done up, and was wearing some sort of weird spacesuit type thing, but the thing I was on was sort of a roller coaster. And someone passed me a gizmo to remove my makeup, only instead it screwed up my face so half of it was all saggy and veiny and unresponsive and awful. And I panicked about it, and they said they'd tell me how to fix it if I did something for them, but I don't recall what that was. The previous night I remember flashes of dreams. I was walking somewhere with Laura Bourgeois, out of a school building, and from an office there I'd retrieved a doll named Lettuce that was important to me for some reason. There was another dream about a baby I was holding, though it wasn't my baby. And I know there was a third dream, but I can't recall what it was. . . .
Anyway. I need to shower and get some work done. Blessed Be, everyone, and I hope you're all doing well.

there's more than flesh and bones

Happy October, everyone! I'm so happy autumn is finally beginning. I feel more at home in the colder, darker half of the year. I have every intention of spending many nights this fall in the backyard by the fire pit. Sounds nice, doesn't it?
My grandma is recovering well from her surgery. She's already out of the hospital and in rehab. I'll get to see her and Grandpa when I head home for a visit; that means I'll see them twice in one year. That rarely happens. This visit is going to be babycentric, aside from seeing my parents and grandparents. It'll be fun. I need to get in touch with a couple more people, and then I should be set.
Still working on the unfucking my life concept. I feel like I'm a pendulum; I make some progress, then swing back the other direction. But I'm making an effort; that's what counts. The apartment looks good. I still need to fix my desk, though. And I feel like the bedroom and kitchen could use some reorganizing. And once again, I'm erred on the side of working a lot, not on the side of having a lot of time for my own projects. Which is good for the checkbook but not for the sanity. Thankfully I finished a project yesterday, so the workload at home has gone down a bit. Balance is something that still eludes me. . . .
One book to report. I know, it's been a while. I obviously haven't had much time to read, but I'm hoping to rectify that on my trip home. Anyway. 32) Whiskey and Water by Elizabeth Bear. As always with her work, I loved it. Her characters are rich, and full of wants and yearnings and foibles and mistakes. I just think everyone should read Bear's work, she's so good.
Wish I had more to report, but I really don't. Just plugging along, trying to get everything done that I want and need to do. I really want to finish editing my novel sooner rather than later, and write some more short stories. Anybody else have any autumn goals?
Blessed Be!

she can search this wide world over

Summer colds are the worst. I woke up with one yesterday. It makes me a little glum, particularly since I had a really, really lovely weekend. My partner-in-crime and I got to spend the weekend with some friends in a lakeside trailer in the Poconos. I spent most of the weekend sitting on the dock, feet in the water, book in hand. It was perfect. I read two books! And did some writing!
Speaking of books . . .
27) The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh. This is a fun middle-grade mystery set in New York City. Not a keeper for me, only because I probably won't read it again. But it's a good book.
28) Horns by Joe Hill. This is one messed-up book! I really enjoyed it. It's about a guy named Ig whose life is a disaster. One day he wakes up after getting wasted the night before and discovers that he now has horns growing out of his forehead. And the rest of the book is about how his life changes with the horns. Which makes it sound much simpler than it is. There are layers upon layers of craziness in this book. The characters are all shades of gray, not black and white. I really felt for Ig, and delighted in the twists and turns the horns introduced to his life. Some other characters I really liked, some I felt sorry for, and I wanted to punch one or two of them in the nose. Definitely recommended.
29) The Last Time As We Are by Taylor Mali. Great poetry by a spoken word artist who I've seen perform more than once. What more can I say?
Novel editing is going well. I think between last weekend and last night I've made it through another chapter, except for some timeline tweaking to make sure everything gels properly. So that's good.
Have I mentioned the workshop I want to apply for? Clarion West. The teacher roster for next summer is amazing. And they prefer short stories for applications, so I'm delving back into writing shorts.
And now, I need to get to work. I'm covering for someone this week and a different someone next week. My good friend L arrives in town this evening. Hurray! And I need to call my goddaughter this afternoon.
Blessed Be, everybody. Enjoy your Tuesday.

take me in

Sorry for the post-vacation silence. It was hard to settle back into real life this time. Not in a negative way; just in a tired-all-the-time, too-much-work kind of way. Vacation was good. There was some good family time, I got to see my oldest goddaughter twice, I got some girl time with my best friend A, and some good catch-up time with an old friend. My grandfather's ninetieth birthday party was nice; the whole weekend in Seattle was, really. Good friends, Pike Place Market, good food . . . it was nice. Even the red-eye flight home wasn't as painful as it could have been.
I'm swimming in freelancing right now, so there hasn't been any work on my novel, or any consistent music making. I did manage some housework over the weekend, though, and felt pretty good about that!
Two books to report: 21) The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene. That's right, the first Nancy Drew book. I remember enjoying these as a kid, and one of my book clubs chose this for our next meeting. I have to be honest; it wasn't nearly as good as I remember. I wasn't impressed by the story line or the writing. I guess this is one of those fond childhood memories that I should have left alone! 22) Above by Leah Bobet. This YA book blew me away. The characters, the story, the language, all of it. It's a difficult book. It doesn't take the easy way out. There are some desolate moments. But there are also moments of raw beauty, of gleaming possibility. This is in the top five books I've read this year, easily, if not the top three. Everybody should read this.
I haven't managed much unfucking lately, although I'm still slowly chipping away at my work office. Sometimes, there's not enough time in the day. The pendulum of my life balance has definitely shifted in the direction of work again.
A friend suggested I make a must-do list for this summer. Here it is:

• Zoo
• Beach (a couple more times)
• Cloisters
• Picnic in the park
• Finish editing my novel
• See a couple movies
• Read several more books

Anybody else have a must-do list? Or any good suggestions to add to mine?
I need to get to work. Today is already moving too fast, and I haven't been here for very long yet. Blessed Be, everyone, and happy Monday!

miles and miles in my bare feet

Just a quick entry to let you all know that I'll be on vacation for the next week, so blogging will be intermittent, if it happens at all. I will have my laptop with me so I can work on my novel, but I'm not promising anything. Have a good week, everybody! I'll be back in New York on July 2nd. Blessed Be!

vacation post

Long overdue, I know, but I'm finally going to tell you all about my trip to Oregon, which was July 1-9. . . .

We flew in late Friday night. Saturday my partner-in-crime ran away to a day-long bachelor party (yes, we were home for a wedding, didn't I mention that?) while I went shopping (hurray, Saturday Market!) with family and then headed to my parents' place to assist in last-minute wedding prep, as the wedding was going to be held on their property. What I actually did for the rest of the weekend mostly was kid wrangle while everyone else did the remaining landscaping, etc. I did manage to dust all the bookshelves though, and if you've been to my parents' place, you know that's impressive. So, I had loads of playtime with my almost-four-year-old niece and my approximately-fifteen-month-old nephew. Monday was more last-minute prep, followed by getting ready, followed by the wedding! It felt a little like a high-school reunion. It went smoothly, and a good time was had by all. There was dancing on the carport, including a gaggle of children who were all under the age of five. My godchildren were in attendance. The weather was perfect.

Tuesday was cleanup, and then late in the afternoon my sister and I went to The Parlour and got new tattoos! She got a scarab on her arm; I got a hamsa on the back of my neck. It's all blue line work, and I'm really happy with it. After the tattooing, my partner-in-crime and I had dinner at the home of a married couple we're good friends with in Eugene. It was really lovely to catch up with them, especially since we hadn't seen them during our previous couple visits. And a shout-out to them for making AMAZING chai liqueur! Someday I need to do that.

Wednesday was a bit scattershot. We slept in, then visited my partner-in-crime's grandmother in her assisted living home. After that we went to my favorite local cemetery so I could take a ton of pictures as research for my next novel. (Also, I just love that cemetery. It's always felt a little like home to me.) Following that, we went to my godkids' house so I could see everybody and say hello to their grandfather, whose health was severely failing. It was a little intense but I'm glad I got to see him. Then dinner with my partner-in-crime's parents and best friend.

Thursday morning I had a little alone time, so I went to my favorite used-CD store and my favorite used bookstore. Yes, I bought a couple items at each place. No, I didn't go hog wild. After my shopping, it was time to do some grocery shopping and then head to my parents' place again for a pig roast. We did a thirty-five-pound piglet. There was SO MUCH FOOD at this party, leftover from the wedding and supplied by my parents and other people. It was great. And really just a good party! Lots of good company. We slept in a tent that night, in the field below the house, which was fun but very damp. The next morning we threw ourselves together, picked up my oldest goddaughter, and hit the Oregon Country Fair for the day. If you've never been . . . well, it's hard to describe. If you've never been, I suggest you click on the link and go flip through the photo gallery. There were eight or ten of us all loosely wandering the fair together, and we really had a great day. I got a new hoodie with art from Trumbly Designs, who I adore. I ate good Fair food. My goddaughter and I went on a quest to find her a necklace with a fairy on it. (Yes, we found one.) We saw the married couple from Tuesday evening. We also saw my partner-in-crime's good friend K and his girlfriend, who we only see once every couple years, so that was a fantastic surprise. Ran into a college ex of mine; he was as intense as always. It was nice to catch up. And I had a brief moment of reconnecting with my friend P, who I was pretty close with before I moved to NYC. After all that, we found my friend/ex-boss/mentor who I see on nearly every trip home, and had a quiet beer with him at his tent before his band performed. Then we all headed back into town. We took my goddaughter home, and then went for another ramble in the cemetery (this time it was me, my partner-in-crime, my sister, and her boyfriend) before heading home and collapsing into bed.

Saturday morning we had breakfast with my parents and my partner-in-crime's best friend at the airport, and then spent the whole day flying back to New York.

There you have it; the vacation in full. I'll be back soon to talk about more books, and possibly about the next novel I'm about to write. Happy Thursday!

away from myself

I'm in Seattle for a long weekend right now, and am having a very nice time just relaxing and not doing a whole lot. Went to a great used bookstore with my friend K and her husband B, and bought too many books, darn! I have to say, overall, this has been a good reading year. I mean, I always like the books I finish, but this year I have read a lot of books that I love. The kind of love that means I shove copies into other people's hands and say "You've GOT to read this, it's so amazing!" So that's great. I know that I'm super behind on my book blogging these days, but today I just can't be bothered. Eventually you, dear readers, will find out what books have occupied my (small amounts of) spare time, but today is not that day.
Last night I went to the wedding party for a couple of good friends of mine, and it was lovely. A few other friends were up from Oregon for it, so I got to catch up with them, and there was good food, good wine, great company, all in a lovely backyard with music and candlelight and a gentle rain. It was perfectly lovely.
There's a lot in my head right now. Story ideas, dream fragments, books I'm reading . . . K and I have stayed up late drinking wine and talking both nights I've been here so far, so there's a lot of those conversations tangled up in my head too. Serious illness and history and people and relationships and books and just big life concepts. It's great, but my head feels a little overly full. (The wine hangover probably isn't helping that, either!)
The end of summer is approaching. Only a couple more weeks of summer hours before work goes back to normal. Only several more weeks until the weather really starts to cool off, and after a couple days in Seattle I'm REALLY ready for the humidity to go away in New York.
This fall promises to be fairly quiet. Not a lot of travel, not many houseguests. Just me, my partner-in-crime, and my writing. Of course, things never turn out that simply, do they? Still, I'm looking forward to it.
Anyway. I should probably go wake up K from her nap and start talking about dinner plans. Getting hungry already! Have a good Sunday evening out there, everybody.

Post-Election Entry

I'm sure that there are hundreds of thousands of bloggers out there who are covering the election in detail, and have been for months, so all I will say is this: Thank the 'verse that Obama got elected! I'm excited to see what the future brings.
And on that happy note, I present to you some whining. I know, nobody really reads blogs just to listen to someone else whine, so I'll keep it brief. I started looking at plane tickets to go home for Christmas, and the cheapest one is FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS. And that's before taxes and fees. Which is just awful, for a poor girl like me. But I'll suck it up and do it anyway. No way am I not going home for the holidays. and it's looking like I might be there for Yule, which would be great! I could do ritual with my friend A again. It's been years. Far too long. But ouch, that five hundred dollar ticket is going to hurt. . . .
Finished a book yesterday: The Dead Travel Fast by Eric Nuzum. It's fun reading, sort of
a cultural history of vampires, if you will. I enjoyed it. But it's not a keeper. Somehow I expected a little more out of it, I think. I wanted a little more analysis, a little more serious discussion, and this book was pretty light-hearted and anecdotal. Still, it's definitely worth a read. Reading it did make me want to go out and find a serious study on vampires in modern-day culture, or throughout history, or something.
Oh, and a big sigh of relief: I finished editing my novel. Well, I finished the first go-round of editing. Now I just have to type in all the new sections and email it out!
Anyway. I haven't done this in a while, but I thought I'd toss up some goals for November:

• read four books
• nail down the first two movements of Musczynski's Time Pieces
• type in all my edits and get my novel out to my readers
• two freelance projects
• get started on Yule gifts

I think that's plenty, don't you? I do!
I'm sure there was more I wanted to say, but it was time to go home ten minutes ago, and every time I get the blank screen in front of my my mind turns to jelly, so I'll just say ta for now, and I'll ramble on again sometime soon.

Agh

And here again it's been over a month since the last post. No defense, no excuses. Well, except for that week and a half while I was in Seattle. Being out of town is good reason to not post.
Speaking of Seattle, it was great. The long family weekend, wherein I saw lots of family who I only see once every few years, along with my immediate, was lovely. (My sister's wee one is adorable!) The catching up with old friends that happened after that was equally lovely. All in all, a really nice trip. I did the Underground Tour, and the Adults Only Underground Tour, in Seattle with my oldest friend, which was really interesting. Did you know that Seattle started out primarily as a town of gamblers, prostitutes, and con men? You can read this for the polite version. What that doesn't tell you is that the biggest customer base that UPS had in the early years was the prostitutes, who were only allowed out on the streets during certain hours on certain days (thanks to the wives who followed their men out to Seattle after the town was "civilized" and did not like the relationships they found their husbands having . . .). So, interesting and educational.
I also saw Hamlet 2, and all I will say about that movie is that if you liked Waiting for Guffman or Best in Show, then you'll probably like this one as well. It has the same painful sense of humor.
I'm quickly running out of time, end of the workday and all. I owe you some book reviews. Those will happen soon, I promise. On the writing front, I'm slogging through a serious rewrite of the last section of my book, starting shortly after they reach the jungle city. I'm making progress, but I feel like I've come to a standstill because I keep writing more new material and not editing what's there. As long as I keep working, it's okay, right? I'd like to be totally done with editing and rewriting by the new year, so I can start submitting it.
I've also got a freelance project at home that I'm really enjoying, and I've started going to yoga once a week. It's time to get serious about treating my body better!
And now, I really need to wrap a couple things up before the end of the workday, so be patient, I promise I will blog again soon . . .

A proper ramble

Well. Life has been busy since my last post. New Orleans was beautiful, and humid, and amazing. I really like it there. I would live there. The history of the city is fascinating, the people are friendly, the architecture is lovely. I even enjoyed the humidity. Here's a couple pictures for you:




Gorgeous. If I had the money I would definitely buy an apartment in the French Quarter! The cemetery was really interesting, with all the mausoleums. The swamp tour was great, all cypress trees and shallow water and alligators. I, of course, got really sunburned. But it was so nice to be out of New York for a few days, and to see some of my family. There are these amazing junk shops on Decatur Street, just past the French Market; they have the neatest stuff, and it's just piles and piles of it. I bought a copper footed colander, and a malachite ring. And a partial set of silverware.
June is shaping up to be busy month for me. Three friends have birthdays, so there are a couple different happenings, plus the Renegade Craft Fair is next weekend. And I (of course) have a freelance project, and am trying to edit my own book, and I'm hunting for just the right chair to go with the desk I bought last weekend. So much to do, so little time . . .
Two nights ago I had some people over for a poker game. It was the first time I'd had people over to my apartment, and it was loads of fun. My work spouse won both games! It just means I'll have to host more games, so everyone can try to win their money back from him.
Anyway. There's more to post about (books I've read, bands I've started listening to, summer goals) but I think I'll save it for a day or two. I need to get cracking on my freelance project.

Vacation!

Well, things have been hectic, and too busy, and just plain crazed, but now I get to take a step back and relax because in two and a half hours I'll be on a plane, winging my way to New Orleans! Yeah! I hope everybody has a great weekend, and I promise pictures and a longer post when I return. Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Been a While

I know, it's been a while. Partially because I just haven't had much exciting to say. Partially because I've been, well, busy. Anyone surprised by that? No, I didn't think so.
As per usual, I've read a couple of good books lately:
Summerland, by Michael Chabon: I love this man's writing. His voice is so peculiar and unique, and so full of whimsy. Summerland is about a boy named Ethan who reluctantly plays on a baseball team and lives with his scientist father. One day he gets recruited as hero for the ferishers, the wee folk who live in his area, and crazy adventures occur where he meets werefoxes, Sasquatches, giants, baseball stars, and Coyote. It's great fun, and wonderful to watch Ethan and his friends discover themselves. That said, this isn't my favorite book by him. There is such love for baseball just oozing out of this book, I just can't quite get into that. I'm not a sports fan. But the writing is wonderful and the characters are fully fleshed out, and I do think it's very interesting how Chabon combines Native American folklore with a new angle on fairy folk and with a well-loved American pastime.
Middlesex, by Geoffrey Eugenides: I'm not even sure where to start with this one. It was great. Complex, multigenerational, full of secrets and history and seamless storytelling. The main character, Cal, is easy to empathize with. I love the Greek mythological references. And he really nailed the pubescent angst of children in a few moments. Highly recommended. Highly. I've also read The Virgin Suicides, which I think was his first book, and loved that one as well. Part of it, again, is the language. I'm a sucker for a well-written book, and this one has some great poetic moments. There are some fabulous images; the San Francisco peep show, the car careening across the frozen river, the Zebra Room speakeasy. And the way the unraveling of the grandfather is portrayed, it's just so perfect.
Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer: What a great vampire book. It's YA, but the eroticism of smell, of touch, really surprised me. In a good way. The descriptions of Washington, the perpetual damp, the fog, the greenness of everything, was dead on, and the contrast of that with Arizona was great. But the characters . . . Again, just well drawn, easy to understand. It is so easy to feel for Bella, to feel with Bella, as she falls in love, and faces huge obstacles to that love. And for Edward, too. The control he must have, at all times, to be with the girl he loves. It's amazing. I can't wait to read the rest of this series. And then I can't wait to read it again.
Maybe at some point I'll start doing more in-depth critiques of the books I read. Someday. When I have more time.
In other news, I've started editing my book. I was hoping for more feedback from more people, but if I just sit around twiddling my thumbs, I'll never get anything done. I'll send emails to a couple of people whose feedback I was really hoping for, but I'm not expecting anything at this point. And it's been nice to dive back into the world I created for this book. I still feel good about it. I still feel like the first section is quite strong. I have some big decisions to make for later in the book (Should I bring back some "bad guys" from earlier in the book, so they're not loose ends? Maybe the climax should happen from a whole different perspective. Should Jair and Nor's parting be different? Should I cut/expand some of the desert time, or some of the jungle city time?) but I feel really good about it so far. Maybe a miracle will occur and I'll get through my whole edit in May, although it might be more realistic to say mid-June.
And as for my apartment, it's coming together slowly. I'm going flea-market shopping this weekend in hopes of finding something great. I don't know what, but something. For my living room I'm going for a bright, sort of ethnic feel. The bedroom is staying softer, more natural. Not sure what to do with my entryway or my kitchen, but that's okay, I'll figure it out.
I'm vacationing in New Orleans for Memorial Day Weekend, and I can't wait! If anybody has any recommendations for places to go, restaurants to eat in, etc., I'd love it.
And now back to my overwhelming workload . . .

Busy, busy

Obviously it's been a busy couple of weeks. I keep meaning to write but somehow the time just slips away from me and it keeps not happening. I also no longer have internet at home, so I must sneak in my blogging time at work. Poor me, poor me . . .
This last weekend my boyfriend and I went upstate to visit my sister before she moves to Las Vegas for her fabulous new job. We had a great weekend, I think. A long bike ride on a couple of stylish Del Sol cruisers, an afternoon shopping in Kingston (across the water in Canada), a long walk, a two-hour boat ride on the St. Lawrence River. I have something terrible to admit, however. I would have had a better time had my boyfriend not gone along. Now, I promised myself when I started this blog that I wouldn't be one of those bloggers who only talks about her love life, and I intend to stay true to that. So I won't go into details. I will just say that it would have been even more relaxing and fun without the testosterone present.
That said, I'm very excited for my sister! This new job is a great opportunity. It's closer to our family, focuses on a number of things she's very interested in, the pay is better and so are the benefits . . . There's really no downside. Thank goodness for Las Vegas!
I've been lacking in motivation lately, and I can feel it. I've been a little sluggish, a little nonproductive, and that tends to make me cranky. So I've made an ambitious to-do list for this week, and a larger one for the month of October. Can I do it? Who knows! But I'll do my best, that's for sure. Last month I accomplished some of my list. We'll see if this month I can do a little better. The current list, as it stands:

--write forty pages
--brainstorm the plot for the rest of my book
--learn the Saint-Saens Sonata on my clarinet
--visit my sister
--clean out the drawers in my old map-drawer roll-top dresser
--make two collages
--submit my book to Tor and Simon & Schuster
--learn three new songs on bass, and work on my slap technique

Did I post my September list? I honestly can't remember right now. If I did, then it's obvious that there's some overlap between months. But we'll see what I can do.
And now, I should run home so I have an hour to myself before the partner-in-crime arrives . . . But don't worry, I won't be so neglectful in the future. No long silences, no absence from my cyberhome.

Post vacation

Sorry I've been a little quiet. I got back from vacation late on the 8th, and haven't had much time to myself since then. Work's been busy. Quite busy. And my boyfriend has started his new job, so he gets home earlier than he used to. Before me now, most days. I've thought about writing, it just hasn't happened here.
Instead, I've been writing every day on my novel. I'm around 130 pages in, which is great, and my goal for September is to write 40 pages. That might not seem like much to some of you, but between working full time, playing two instruments, and having a live-in boyfriend, 40 pages is a lot! I feel good about this novel, too. I think my writing is both tighter and stronger that the first book I wrote. But I'm getting close to the end of what I've got figured out. There's going to be a lot of brainstorming over the next week or so!
Vacations always call for some rebalancing time afterward. I did have a great time. Rose's baby Raelyn was born, my grandparents were in town, I got to spend a lot of time with my godkids, and I got some good time with some of my closest friends. Good vacation. But I found myself wondering if it was a dream, even the first night back here. Oregon is SO different than New York City, it's like visiting a different world. So my first couple days back were a littl wonky, to be honest. Life is going okay, though. I am getting motivated again. I made a list of goals for September. Included are:

-relearning the Hindemith Sonata on my clarinet
-figuring out three Anais Mitchell songs on my bass guitar
-writing 40 pages
-submitting my first novel to Tor and Simon & Schuster (yikes!)
-making 1 collage

We'll see how much of it I get done. That's a pretty good list, I think, especially given that I was on vacation until September 8th. I'm shooting for all of it, of course, but add work on top of that, and the freelance I keep accepting, and we'll see what happens.
Last night I dreamed about what-if boy again. I don't remember much. There was a barbeque at somebody's house. There was a lot of food and beer. It was late evening, and what-if boy called to tell me he was on his way. I was really excited. I don't remember him actually showing up though, as we all had to leave for some reason or other. The only other thing I remember is walking down a city street and glancing down to see some stuffed animals clogging up a drain, so I crouched down to pick them up but then at least one of them was a real cat. Weird... The night before I had some sort of Buffy the Vampire Slayer type dream. I know it had a full story arc, but I can't remember it now...
Well. I'd best go do some writing before the boyfriend gets home. I know this was a little rambling; I'll try to be a little more coherent next time.