new laptop!

Last Friday I finally went out and got a new laptop: this one. And I love it! It's so nice to have a computer at home again. I can write, I can get on the Internet. I could watch Netflix movies, if I ever took the time for it. It feels so much faster than my old laptop did, too.

Tons to do today, I just thought I'd share the computer love. I'll hopefully be back in a couple days to talk about a book, and maybe about my upcoming writing project. Happy Thursday!

heat wave

It's supposed to reach almost 100 degrees today. YIKES. I love the fact that NYC has real seasons, but sometimes the heat and humidity in the summer is a but much. And it's so early in the season for weather this hot! At least I'm in an air-conditioned office for a good portion of the day.

How is June treating everybody? It's a busy one, for me. Plenty on my plate, as always, but I've scaled back on the freelancing again. And I'll be buying a new laptop tomorrow. After I get that situated, let the writing begin! In July, at least. New novel. A little research to be done first, so I may start the actual writing of it after I head home for the first week of July.

Not last night, but the night before, I dreamed about what-if boy. It's been a little while. We were hanging out in the living room at the Agate House, only he lived there, not me. Watched two of his roommates race each other in the driveway. Talked a lot. Then he curled up on the couch to take a nap, so I retreated to my room, only someone else was living there. I tried to take a nap in the bed, but was uncomfortable with it, so I went back to the living room. What-if boy woke up and we decided to go out somewhere for food. I don't remember getting there, but I remember sitting at a small round table outside somewhere, talking more. I woke up with a smile; it was nice to see him again.

A book to report! I know, it's been too long. 24) Blood and Iron by Elizabeth Bear. This is a good, good book. It's complicated. Smart. Edged like a sword, all bloody and raw and beautiful. It's about Faerie, and New York, and magic, and Arthurian legend, and what happens when you find yourself part of a myth. I recommend this to anybody. Forget whether or not you like fantasy. If you like good stories, read this one. It's the first in a four-book series, and they're all published, so you don't have to wait. You can devour them all at once.

Hopefully more books in the future. there was far too much freelancing in May, followed by a visit from a sister, so there just wasn't a lot of reading time to be found. But this summer I have every intention to read a lot.

I do have an admission to make: Lately I've been feeling edgy. Discontent. I don't think I can blame it on any one factor in my life. I think . . . I think I've not been spending enough time on myself, and on the people/things that are truly important to me. Time to get things back under control. Time to simplify, and focus, and get my priorities back on track. I've let things slide for too long.

And with that, it's time to focus on work, since there's a lot of it today. I'll report in about my new laptop over the weekend!

Blessed Be!

summer in the city

The heat has begun. And more than the heat, the humidity. This last week is just the beginning. Sandal weather! Sunscreen! Beach trips! Summer Fridays! I'm excited for summer, in case you can't tell. Usually I'm more of a fall/winter girl, but I feel like this spring has been particularly difficult, and I'm looking forward to the fresh start that comes with a long, lazy summer. I want sunny afternoons in the park with a good book. Naps. Lots of writing time. Iced tea! Caprese salad or Mediterranean-style picnic spreads for dinner! Doesn't that sound lovely? I think so.

No new books to talk about, or computer updates. I've turned in all my freelancing. Life has continued on as normal. I just wanted to mention a couple events.

First, BEA. It was pretty great. I got a number of books I'm excited about, most notably Forever by Maggie Stiefvater, The Magician Kings by Lev Grossman, Trial by Fire by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber, and Graveminder by Melissa Marr. BEA itself seemed smaller this year than in previous years, but it was still a buzzing hive of book activity, booths overrun by librarians and book bloggers and authors, and books everywhere! You know me. Put me in a room full of books and book people, and I'm like a kid in a candy shop. BEA is always great for me.

My sister J is in town for this week, so there's been a lot of flea markets and such in my last few days. We did a couple museum exhibits on Monday. First was the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met. It was breathtaking. I wasn't that familiar with his work going into it, which made it all that much more interesting. I had no idea he was so intellectual about his work. And the architecture of his pieces--stunning! I want all of it. I'm definitely going to look up some of his runway shows on YouTube when I have time. I'd like to learn more about what he did. At some point I do want to get the exhibit catalog, as well, which I don't usually do. But the conceptual layers of his pieces, the primitivism, the subtext of his work, it's all amazing.

The other exhibit we saw was the Pompeii exhibit at Discovery Times Square. This one was also great. It started with some information and artifacts on daily life in Pompeii. Then we were ushered into a small room where a time-lapse video re-creation of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius played. When the video ended, the wall behind it opened up into a room that held the body casts of people who'd died in the eruption. It was so silent in that room; I think that people were overwhelmed at what they were seeing. Rooms of skeletons, bodies of families twisted together in the positions they'd fallen in . . . it was intense. After that there were more day-to-day artifacts recovered from the ruins, and also a history of the archaeology at Pompeii. It was really interesting!

And now, on to work. The rest of this week should be busy; I can't wait to sleep in on Sunday.

Happy June, everybody!

shenanigans

Tuesday night I went to Escape Key's last gig in New York City. Two of the three band members are moving to Minneapolis at the end of the month. It was a solid show. I admit, I hadn't seen Escape Key play since one of their very early gigs. Since then there's been a lot of growth. I had a really good time; my partner-in-crime came along, so good company, good music, what's not to like?

Last night I went to the KGB Fantastic Fiction reading. It was Felix Gilman and Elizabeth Bear. I was totally unfamiliar with Felix's work, going into the bar last night, but I liked what I heard last night, so I'll probably pick up a copy of The Half-Made World at some point. I also just liked Felix: a little droll, a little self-conscious, with a nice accent. Elizabeth Bear, on the other hand, is someone who's work I am quite familiar with. The main reason I attended the reading was so I could meet her, since I deal with her books at work and I also recently became the Shadow Unit copyeditor. (Which, if you're not familiar with Shadow Unit, go check it out! It's one of my favorite places to hang out, these days.) I did get a little face time with her, which was great. She's totally nice and friendly, and I hope I get the chance to hang out with her more at some point.

I have no plans for the rest of the week. Except for a boatload of freelancing. After these couple of projects I'm taking another break, so I can get back to the me things. research the witch book. Write a couple of short stories. Read some books. Etc. Next week, though, is BEA, which I'm really looking forward to. There are a lot of great authors signing this year.

My laptop is still in the throes of unhappiness. Yes, I know, I should perhaps just buy a new one. But this one might still be salvageable, and since I just spent an awful lot of money on plane tickets for my partner-in-crime and I to go home for a July wedding, I'd like to not spend money on a laptop, if at all avoidable. Of course, having a nonfunctional laptop is not helping me get my writing done. But, I'm sure I'll get it sorted out soon.

On to work. Happy Thursday, everybody!

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!