right around the corner

Do you know what tomorrow is?

It's December.

That's right. Already. How did that happen? Where did November go?

I wish I had more to tell you, but honestly, life is pretty much the same as it was the last time I posted. Still working on the novel. still behind at work. Still trying to sort out a new apartment; yes, there's one in Astoria we want. No, we don't have a signed lease yet. If that doesn't happen this weekend I am going to start looking again.

because the apartment hunt is taking longer than I originally anticipated, I don't know if we're going home for the holidays. Which, frankly, really bums me out. I like spending the holidays with my family. I like seeing my friends, and my godchildren. I like shopping at my favorite bookstore, and having long evenings of board games and Christmas movies. But this year . . . we'll see. I need to have the apartment thing done before I can go anywhere. With each passing day, it's less likely that I'll make it home this year. . . .

Sorry for the glum entry. That's really about all that's going on. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Maybe next week will be a more optimistic one.

this book

I realized, the other day, that while I have occasionally mentioned word counts and such for the novel I'm writing, I haven't really told you guys much about it. So I thought I'd share.

It's adult paranormal fiction. I'm envisioning it as the first book of a five-book series. It takes place in Eugene, Oregon, particularly on and around the University of Oregon campus. It's about a coven of four witches--what happens when they come together as a coven and how that affects things in the city, especially in terms of the heavily ghost-populated cemeteries.

So yes, the paranormal aspect of this book is all witches and ghosts and magic. No vampires, no weres of any kind, no fey folk. No mermaids or angels or ogres.

It's been an interesting process to write this one so far. Parts of the book are loosely based on experiences I had while living there, and some of the characters are certainly based on real-life friends of mine. So instead of spending a lot of time figuring out where the story is going, etc., I decided that this draft will be an exploratory draft. It's for me to figure out how to fictionalize myself and my friends and the city I basically grew up in. It's for me to figure out how I'm writing this book. The story line? Well, right now it moves too slow, then too fast, then too slow again. I'm not sure where it's going yet, although I'm starting to have some ideas. But I can sort out the plot arc later. What I'm doing right now is making myself comfortable with things. I've never written something based on people/places I know before. It's fun, but it's different! It raised a lot of questions in my mind. Were there couches or just benches in the halls of the English building, or am I imagining entirely that there was hallway seating at all? What is really at the intersection of 13th and Lincoln? Is it okay if I model ghost characters on real names from the campus cemetery? Etc.

I'm really enjoying writing this one so far. And I'm hoping to finish this draft by the end of the year. Then I'll probably take January to do a couple other things, and dive into serious rewrites in February.

There you have it; that's what I'm working on these days.

Happy Thursday!

brambles and briars

My head is full of fairy tales and impossibilities this morning. The restless feeling just grows and grows in these cold autumn days. . . . Some days it is all I can do to drag myself to work, to deal with my responsibilities. I want to write. I want to take long rambling walks in the park, to stay up late drinking wine by candlelight, to give in to temptation.

And this is exactly the wrong month to do so.

Sigh.

How is everybody else doing?

this life is just flying by

Man, it's November already. I feel like I blinked and a week and a half went by! I wish I had something exciting to tell you all about, some reason for not posting for a while, but the fact of the matter is . . . I'm just busy. We're apartment hunting in earnest now, I've got multiple freelance jobs, I'm a week behind at work, and I'm 40k into the first draft of the book I'm working on. The holidays are coming so I really should be thinking about planet tickets, gifts, etc. I'm in the middle of reading four different books but am not really making headway with anyway of them.

We did do ritual for Samhain (Halloween, for those of you who don't know the pagan holidays) and that was nice. Two nights ago we saw Blind Pilot play at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. That was a great show!

How about you? Anybody do anything exciting in the last couple weeks?

I've got to get to work, it's nearly 10 am. Happy Wednesday, everybody!

would you take my candlelight

October has flown by in a whirlwind of work, freelance, writing, social life, and the beginning of the great apartment hunt. Work has been pretty intense due to a crash book. I've been taking more freelancing again so my bank account won't be totally wiped out by moving. I'm really trying to hold myself to an end-of-year deadline for this draft. Things are just busy! And on top of that, one of my neighbors is a drummer and is into jamming as soon as I get my bass out of storage, so I'm itching to start that too. Busy busy. I know, someday I need to learn to slow down and take more time for myself. . . .

Two books:

44) Storm Front by Jim Butcher. This is the first book in the Dresden Files series, and I loved it. Sharp, snarky urban fantasy with a gritty edge. I'll definitely be sucking down more from this series in the near future.

45) Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke. This is a graphic novel aimed at a younger audience about a girl named Zita who follows her friend Joseph through an interdimensional portal to rescue him from the aliens who kidnapped him. this is a totally fun, whimsical romp through a world populated with robots and aliens. Definitely recommended.

And now, a dream I had a few nights ago. I was at someone's house somewhere. My ex-girlfriend was there, trying to convince me to sleep with her, but I didn't want to. There was a hurricane coming, so I left that house to go to the store for supplies and then beat the storm home. I wore galoshes. There were large puddles at the intersections with golden koi in them that I avoided walking in. My ex followed me to the store, where I picked up some bottled water, batteries, snacks, etc. Two or three bags of supplies. Then I headed home. To get there I had to walk across this ridgetop, and when I got up there I saw that many people from my neighborhood had come out with lawn chairs and picnics to sit on top of the ridge and watch the storm blow through. I followed the path through the crowd and finally got home. My impression of my house is many windows and heavy wooden beams. The windows were open, as were the doors. The storm was picking up. I could see the water rising outside my house, so I ran around frantically closing windows. Then I sat down near a glass door to meditate and watch the storm. My sister came over with an arrow bundle in her hands and said something to the effect of, "This should help you focus," and rammed the arrow through my right shoulder, diagonally down through my torso, and out my left hip. I remember gasping in shock, but not crying out. I remember the inside of my torso feeling strangely hollow as the arrow passed through. I remember holding as still as possible so it wouldn't start to hurt, and trying to meditate around the hollow feeling. then my mother walked over and pulled the arrow out. That hurt. She handed me the arrow and a towel and told me to clean myself up. Then she walked away, leaving me bleeding on the hardwood floor.

Weird, right? I know, my dreams are usually weird.

And now, I have a lot to do. Happy Tuesday!

walk this world with me

It's definitely a Heather Nova sort Tuesday morning; drizzly and angsty. How's everybody doing out there? I'm gearing up for spending part of today and part of tomorrow on the crash book I'm dealing with at work right now. And I'm still on last week's to-do list. At least there's nothing on my list for Thursday and Friday; hopefully I'll get caught up then.

In other news, I broke thirty thousand words over the weekend on the novel I'm writing. And I managed to reorganize the closet, and did a lot of freelancing. A good productive weekend. But I have to be honest, I'm still aching for a lazy day at home alone with a cup of tea and a good book. And maybe a good angsty movie, like Foxfire.

I with I had more to report, but things are quiet and busy these days. Between freelancing and apartment hunting and band rehearsals, there hasn't been a whole lot of time for reading or introspection or anything.

Happy Tuesday, everybody!

dreaming of poetry

Sorry for the long pause there; between a crash book at work, two freelance projects at home, and beginning the search for a bigger apartment, I've had very little time for reading, blogging, writing, etc. It's a shame, really, because I feel like I've had a lot to say. And I've been dying for a nice autumn day in the park with some tea and a book. Maybe I can make that happen for a while Saturday morning. . . .

One book to report: 43) Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber. I loved this book. Frankly, I love everything I've read by Diana Abu-Jaber; her language sings. This book is about a fractured family. The daughter ran away at thirteen. Five years later, the mother and father are struggling to hold it together, while the son, a college dropout, struggles to keep his organic market afloat. This book is really about a chance for redemption, and it's beautiful. If you haven't read any of Abu-Jaber's books, go to the bookstore RIGHT NOW. She's amazing.

Beyond that, I don't have much to report. I'm still restless. I still am lacking in time to do the things I want to do. Lately I've been really missing poetry. I want to start reading/writing it again, but I find it hard for my writer-brain to exist on the poetry side and the fiction side at the same time. Anybody have any poets to recommend, for new reading material? I'd love to get into some different writers.

I did go to a CD release party last week for Bess Rogers. I supported her album on Kickstarter. I really enjoyed her as well as her two openers. But going to her show really made me miss being in a band. Anybody want to jam, once my bass is no longer residing in my storage unit?

All right. Busy week at work; I should probably get to it. Happy Wednesday, everybody. I'll see you on the other side.