happy saturday

Well, it may be a little gloomy and blustery out today, but happy Saturday anyway! I'm in the office right now, poking at a couple things in an attempt to get ahead. BEA is coming up, and I don't want to be behind after I take those days off.

Important news: my laptop is tentatively functional again. Hurrah!

I have one book to add to the list. 23) Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. This book doesn't come out until September, so I won't say anything plot-oriented. I'll just say, Laini has really outdone herself this time. I love this book so much I just want to crawl inside of it and never come out. The language is astounding, lush and lyrical and full of wonder, and even the most alien characters are somehow easy to relate to and empathize with. This is definitely in my top five books this year. It's beautiful and heartbreaking and amazing, and every one of you reading this should get a copy in September when it is released.

Besides that, a dream to discuss. First, I was in a house with a couple other people. Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer were also there. And they were turning into zombies. They sort of shifted in and out of coherence, while halfheartedly trying to eat me and the others who were there. We were trying to corral them into an ambulance that waited outside. I think that the zombie morphing took me by surprise, as I was only wearing a bra and stockings, and at one point I had Amanda up on the landing of the staircase lying on the floor, and she looked up at me and said, "You look really amazing in just a bra and stockings!" I got her to go downstairs, and then was trying to get Neil downstairs, and at one point he fell, looked up at me, and asked in the most forlorn voice I've ever heard, "But what will I read?"

Poor Neil. Poor Amanda.

I'm sure there's a short story in that dream.

And now, onward. I have to pick up a bottle of bourbon and meet my partner-in-crime so we can head to Brooklyn for an evening out with friends.

Have a good weekend, all!

computer woes

My laptop died on Sunday. After I spent eight hours on Saturday updating it and installing Office 2010. And I had an electronic copyedit due today. It really wasn't a good weekend for me. So, what do I do now? Well, I think I let my friend who's really PC-tech-savvy take a look at it. If he can't sort it out, I'll send it to my dad. And if HE can't sort it out . . . then I'll be buying a new laptop. Which I'm not really prepared to spend the money on, but I suppose that's what tax returns are for, right? My partner-in-crime is trying to convince me to buy a Mac, which I think is totally unnecessary given that I only use computers for word processing, the Internet, and video games. Why spend all that money on a Mac when I can get a PC for several hundred dollars less that'll do that trick just fine? Oy. Well. One step at a time.

Anybody have any thoughts on good computers to look at?

Boy, and I thought today was going to be busy BEFORE I added "finish electronic copyedit" to my to-do list. Wish me luck!

May musings

May already. I had way to much on my plate on Sunday to manage some online time, so I'll say it now: Happy Beltane, everyone! Beltane is one of my major holidays. It's a celebration of spring and fertility. My partner-in-crime and I had a nice dinner and then a good long ritual.

I've decided that May is spring cleaning month, on more than one level. Not only do I want to get our apartment really clean and sorted, I want to take care of all the things that have been hanging over my head this year. Finish my bag of handwashing. Send out my VP application. Wrap up my agent research and submit the superheroes novel. Clean out my office at work. Catch up on my correspondence. Get Internet at home so I can work on my online presence. Etc. None of it will do itself. And if I can manage it, I'll feel a lot better about the rest of this year.

I can't wait for summer hours! They start in just a couple weeks, and I am going to enjoy the hell out of the Fridays I have off. I'm going to do a lot of writing and reading. And, come hell or high water, I'm finishing Buffy this summer. It's ridiculous how long that's taking me!

After a couple weeks of not remembering much of my dreams, I've had several stick in my brain this week. Here they are, in no particular order:

In one, I was hanging out with a couple of my friends here in NYC. We were lounging on a huge sectional couch, watching a movie in our pajamas. My cat, Abigail, was there, and at one point my niece was flitting in and out of the room.

In another, I was hanging out with my friend M. We lived in a city that looked more like Paris than New York, all beautiful and old with huge apartments. She was upset because her husband wasn't paying any attention to her, so I convinced her to go out to a restaurant down the block with me. But she was unhappy there, too, because a couple guys hit on us, and were jerks about it, so we had to run away from the restaurant.

In the third, I just have a vague memory of wandering through room after room in an old Victorian house, and the whole place was filled with piles and piles of antiques. Furniture, quilts, books, old baby carriages, birdcages, whatever you can think of, it was there. I was heading for a room in the back of the house (the kitchen, maybe?), and either my mom or my sister was with me. I found the room, and shoved some vials full of mysterious liquids into my shoulder bag, then headed out the back door. For some reason I thought there would be an airplane waiting there, but instead, the porch just trailed off into a marsh, with safe paths indicated by two-by-fours laid on the ground, so I was wandering through the marsh, family member still in tow, trying to find my plane, and there was someone coming after us from the antiques house.

Fourth..., I know you're going to laugh. And that's okay. I guess. I dreamed that I was in some sort of big performance group, and we were away somewhere for a competition, and Daniel Radcliffe (yes, I know, haha, Harry Potter) was in the group too. We were all staying in this one gigantic room that had a couple fireplaces in one wall and a ramp that went along the opposite wall to get in and out of the room. At some point, we were away from the room to get food, I think, and then our chaperones/adult minders/whoever came running and told us that our room was flooded and it was Daniel's dad's fault, somehow, because he was in the room above us. We ran back to the room, and stood at the top of the ramp watching the water drip from the ceiling down onto the sodden rug and the soaked piles of our belongings. We held hands, feeling like we were holding each other up, and then slowly walked down the ramp to survey the damage beneath the indoor rain.

In the fifth dream, it's all very hazy and jumbled together in my head. But basically my sister J was taken hostage by a drug lord and kept in his big beautiful house. She had the run of the house but couldn't use the phone of the internet. Somehow I managed to get in to visit her, she was very unhappy but said she couldn't leave because she didn't know what the drug lords would do if she tried. But I snuck her into a car and we fled. I know there was more to it than that, but I really can't recall. There was a kitchen, and J was upset, and she was wearing this fancy silk robe... That's all I've got on that one.

Last night's is vague and jumbled too, but I know I was at my friend K's place, or we were staying somewhere together, and I think she wasn't sick in my dream. And my grandparents were there at some point also. Oh, and JP, and he hurt his hands somehow, so we were helping him bandage them.

Anyway. I really need to go get some work done today. Happy Wednesday, everybody!

two books

Just briefly, since I have a busy day at work today, I have two books to talk about.

21) Brasyl by Ian McDonald. This is a crazy sci-fi whirlwind that tells three stories at the same time; one now, one in the near future, and one in the eighteenth century. Eventually, of course, it all ties together through quantum theory and alternate worlds. I spent the first hundred pages or so of this book feeling like I was trying to catch up to a speeding train, but once I settled into the rhythm of the story, I really enjoyed it. The quantum stuff was wildly interesting without feeling like a lecture at any point. The religious stuff layered over that was really interesting also. While I couldn't empathize with all the characters, I really enjoyed being along for the ride. I'd definitely recommend this to any sci-fi readers. In fact, I'm going to send it to my dad to see what he thinks!

22) Bloodshot by Cherie Priest. This book is about Raylene Pendle, vampire PI for hire, and a specific case she takes on that leads to government conspiracy, parkour, and drag queens. I had a lot of fun with this one! (In all fairness, I've never read a book by Cherie Priest I didn't like.) This book is snappy and snarky; Raylene is a great character, with her neuroses and desires. Yes, the vampire thing is a little done these days, but Cherie Priest makes it feel fresh and engaging. Definitely a keeper!

And that's it for today. I'll try to report back in on Monday so you, dear readers, can hear all about my band concert (Saturday) and my Beltane celebration (Sunday).

Happy weekend!

she knew it'd been too long

Sorry, everybody. Life snuck up on me and tackled me to the ground this month. Between freelancing, writing, band, Shadow Unit, having a life, and injuring my ankle last week, plus the intermittent nature of internet at home and the busyness of work, I just haven't managed to be online a whole lot. May will (hopefully) be better, and May 1st I am hoping to take the day off from everything but Shadow Unit and celebrating Beltane. We'll see how that goes.

What else is there to say, really? My band concert is this Saturday. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm also looking forward to having the summer off. To working on some solo pieces instead of band music. Emmelina is plugging along; I haven't added as much as I'd hoped, so far, but there's still a ways to go, so we'll see how my word count ends up. I may take a second pass through it to flesh it out a little more, even. I'm still hoping to fill it out to around 60K words. The superheroes novel . . . I haven't submitted yet. I know, what am I waiting for? I'm sort of dragging my feet. All I need to do is a little more agent research and one more pass over my synopsis, and then I'm ready. I just need to pick a day to stay late at work (better internet at work) and get it out there.

I suppose, in short, what I'm saying is that I have some things to get off my plate. As three different people have pointed out to me, my injured ankle is probably the Universe's way of telling me to slow down. I'm trying, Universe! There are just a few things I have to finish first!

Anyway. Happy Monday, everybody. I'll really make an effort to get back here later this week. I have a book to blog about, after all. Ta!

drive-by blogging

I wish I had more time, but April seems to be packed. Work has picked up, social life is a little ridiculous, there are a number of good readings happening . . . etc. I suppose. All this has left me feeling a little frantic again, but I suppose if I want to keep up all the things I'm juggling in my life, I'll have to learn to be zen with the franticness. Three goals this weekend: Help a friend move. Do my taxes. Submit my Superheroes novel, which I have yet to think of a good title for.

If I have time tomorrow, I'll come back and tell you about my recent dreams.

How's April treating everybody else so far?

it will set you free

It's lovely out this morning, all crisp and cool with the unmistakable feeling of spring in the air. I've got a lot on my to-do list for the day, including taking a long walk by the river. I'm looking forward to that, but there are other things that need to happen first.
Strange dream last night. Not sure if it was one, or three, actually. It all revolved around vacation, though. First I was somewhere on vacation with my partner-in-crime. I walked away from him for a bit to look for someone, I think, when I was approached by an old friend from high school, let's call him A. It was very dim, as though it had suddenly become night, and we were on a series of terraces that were partially enclosed. There were tables with card games and such; maybe it was an outdoor casino? A was leading me around, looking for his friends while trying to convince me to stay out. And then he kissed me, and I was very confused, so I slipped away from him and was trying to find my partner-in-crime again. Then it morphed (or was a different dream), I was on a huge fancy cruise ship full of people. I was wearing a really fancy ballgown. People kept treating me like royalty, and two men kept following me around attempting to woo me. From this one I mostly remember sitting down at what was supposed to be a meal for four, only neither of my suitors would go away so there were five of us, and one suitor (who looked like a very grim Paul Bettany) wasn't dressed appropriately but wouldn't leave. Then another morph (or a different dream), I was on vacation with my younger sister but she had to leave before me, and we were trying to gather her things so she could get to her plane on time. Then I was alone in the motor home we'd rented, and was trying to collect all of my things, and there were all these shopping bags full of stuff and I was overwhelmed.
Very exciting night in my subconscious, eh?
Last Tuesday I went to Catherynne Valente's book release party for Deathless at Madame X, a dimly lit bar with lots of velvet couches and fancy cocktails. There were two musicians, one Russian and one American literary folk, and Cat read for a while. It was a good party, and I got to chat with Cat for a bit, which was lovely. She and I had been talking about getting together for cupcakes and mead while she was in the city, so when she signed my book, she signed it "For my cupcake girl," which I think is adorable! Seriously, people, if you haven't read her books, check her out. I've read four now and they're all just brilliant, with lush writing and great characters and interesting stories.
And speaking of books, I've got four more to report:
17) Room by Emma Donoghue. This is a well-written, well-executed book. The subject matter is intense: a young woman and her five-year-old son, Jack, live in a small room. They are never allowed out, and sometimes after dark the mother is visited by a man who Jack calls Old Nick, who rapes and beats the mother. However, the book is written entirely from Jack's point of view, so the reader doesn't witness the violence. Jack tells the reader about the bruises, about the days his mother doesn't get out of bed, instead. Which just makes it creepier.
I was initially against reading this book, because of the subject matter, but was persuaded to give it a shot. And while I can't say I liked it exactly, I can say that it was better than I thought it was going to be. Things drastically change for Jack and his mother about halfway through, which really saved the book for me, as I couldn't have read a whole book set in the room. I think, without saying anything spoilery, that Emma Donoghue did a great job with the narrative voice, and with the reality of the situation throughout the novel. That said, I don't think this is a book I'll ever reread. It's a little much.
18) The Sherlockian by Graham Moore. This is a fun book. Parallel murder mysteries, one being solved by Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker, the other by a contemporary Sherlock scholar named Harold White and a journalist named Sarah. This was a quick read, easy and fun. But, as with so many other mysteries, now that I know the ending I don't think I'll reread it. Still, if you enjoy a good mystery, this is worth picking up.
19) Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod is a fun book about creativity, whether or not to sell out, whether or not to quit your day job, etc. I found a lot of his points to be spot on, and his humor is really quirky and entertaining. Hugh MacLeod draws cartoons on the backs of business cards, and these are scattered throughout the book as well. This it a fun little read for anybody who likes reading nonfiction about how to approach creativity. Or, for anybody who just wants to flip through and read Hugh's cartoons.
20) Nomansland by Lesley Hauge. I found this dystopian YA novel interesting. It takes place after some mysterious apocalypse, in a country where men are not allowed and women live in a tightly structured community. Friendship is forbidden, as is vanity, pride, etc. Then several of the more rebellious/unsatisfied young women discover a hidden house from the time before the apocalypse, full of mysterious things like fashion magazines, makeup, and clothing. From there the main character, Keller, gets more and more confused about how she feels and what she wants. I found Hauge's writing to be quite engaging, and will definitely read more by her. I am not sure that I would reread this one. Although I enjoyed it, I'm getting tired of the dystopian fiction.
And now it's eleven o'clock already, and I've barely started my day. Time to get on with it. There's some housework and some writing to be done. Happy Saturday!