random – marginalia and such

in which I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck

This post was going to be about something completely different but I feel like I’ve reached the Pits of Despair! All that energy I had last week? Well, it’s gone. I’m totally riding the “I need a nap” stage of the Whole 30. I was floating along and then BAM! Everything hurts and I just want to crawl back into bed. Not much else to report. Sticking to it, but really hoping this wave will wear off soon.

Writing wise, things are progressing and I’m making good time with my revisions. I have a conference to attend in June (and my birthday!), so my goal is to be done with this draft before then. I don’t want to even look at Scrivener during that time.

I’ve also been looking into tips and tricks for vlogging. I have a rather nice camera, but it does not have a flip screen, so I’m going to give the mirror trick a try. If anyone has any other suggestions, let me know in the comments :). I would like to improve and avoid the weird staring into space face that I make when I use my iPad.

I had a long and trying week, but today was a good day.

in which I am a clumsy creature

My morning has been plagued by an attack of the clumsies. Dropped my $20 under the car seat during my trip to the gas station and had to crawl around, nearly straining my shoulder to fish it out. In my haste, I dropped my sunglasses on the car seat and forgot to move them before getting back in. I now have no sunglasses to protect me from the glaring Florida sunshine.

I them arrived at work early… too early as there was no one else around to let me in to the office (I work between campuses, but only have the key to my “home” base). I’m squatting among the students and feeling terribly self-concious as I click away on my laptop as it’s the last day of finals and students are stir-crazy.

I am taking comfort in a soy latte. I vowed to cut my latte addiction last month (and I did), but this one feels warranted.

On the bright side, it looks like there was a tiny increase in my earnings. Just a little one, but much appreciated as my rent just went up.

Serenity now.

April in a nutshell

It’s been a long, hot month. I finished three writing projects (work-wise), made some progress on the edits (fiction-wise), and squeezed in plenty of evening walks.

In other news…

My dessert rose finally bloomed! It took nearly two years, but my little twig finally grew up into a proper little bush thing.

My hair is finally collar length! YES!

And I enjoyed my first beach walk of the year :). It was lovely.

taking it as it goes

It’s been a bad week for writing. Have been in a blue mood and didn’t make much progress as a result. Revised half a chapter and wrote up some notes to work with, but that’s been it. I’m not too far off target for the month, but I wish I could say I had the drive for it. C’est la vie (or, at least, ma vie). I may or may not write today, and that’s ok. I’ll get back to it tomorrow and feel better for it.

the terrible mid-point

My hair has reached a length that I like to think of as the mad-girl hair look–somewhere between a shag and a bob, though not quite long or short enough to be either. Sigh.

It’s the worst part of the growing out a pixie experience, and one that has been extended by some poorly executed trims to manage the mullet tendency. I’m itching to trim it, but know it will only lead to more madness two months down, so I’m exercising restraint and taming it with not-so-strategically placed bobbies and hair clips. These can only go so far in taming the weird mane-like halo that I have going on at times (especially when the humidity soars and my ends with it).

I’m also rocking the half grown-out bangs look, in which my bangs are not quite long enough to tuck behind my ears, but are too long to be anything but a nuisance. I just want it to grow out already! gah! My hair is at its worse and completely unmanageable unless it’s past a certain length, at which point gravity takes over and turns it into a mostly straight sheet of dull brown, but a (generally) manageable sheet of dull brown.

life, as it were

things that are happening now

I will be 30 in less than 10 days and I am very silly and anxiously awaiting whatever surprise the boy has cooked up. As a treat, I plan on getting myself a foam roller and a jump rope. Yep. That’s the plan.
Today marks a month since I started the new job. I finally feel like I’m getting into the swing of things around here. Plots are being plotted and schemes are being hatched.
I am finally reading Saga, volume 2 (thanks to the magic of ILL) and seriously trying to come up with an excuse to partake in some cosplay. How hot is Gwedolyn?
Anuna is getting closer to having a shiny new ending. I see about two more chapters before this draft is done (definitely not on schedule, but getting there).
There are ideas in my head and I am feeling the urge to plan for a brand new project come November (is it odd that I think of my writing year in terms of NaNo? It’s kind of like how I always think of September as the start of a new year because of the school year schedule.).
I rearranged my living space last weekend and home now feels like new. Maybe someday I’ll actually get that love-seat I keep talking about.
I just ordered too many books from my local library. And the amazons have sent me another. Oh, to have all the time in the world to read.
I made this because this is how I roll.

welcome May

May is here! And lots of changes with it–I’ll be speaking at a conference, starting a new job, figuring out a new schedule, and more.

What’s new? Well, I’ll tell you what’s not new… I did not reach my Camp NaNo goal. Not even close. Not that I really expected to, even after lowering my initial word goal of 20k, and later deciding to call it done if I finished Draft 2. Nope. The song remains the same. Still rewriting. Draft 2 is turning into a highly unmanageable little beast that just keeps growing, and with all the stuff happening in the coming weeks, I can’t see it being finished by the end of May. Still, it’s the driving desire for reader feedback that keeps me going. I know I need it before moving on to the next round of editing and I want to see it through before then.

I did, however, manage to acquire a nice little head cold. Right now, I’m doped up on just about every home remedy, cough concoction, and herbal tisane claiming to dislodge the germ colony invading my system. *sigh and cough*

March madness indeed

Somehow, time got away from me and March seemed to pass in a blur of unexpected opportunities and activities. I’m waiting on news and hoping for some good to come of it. Don’t want to dwell on it though. What will be, will be, and some things are just beyond my control. I’ll wait.

Writing is coming along… a few kinks, but it’s flowing again. I read some good books, ate some good food, and took part in a nice run on St. Patrick’s Day. It was a good month now that I can look back and see it objectively.

a look at June in pictures

June proved to be an eventful month, what with there being birthday cakes and presents and all. But there were also books! And trips! And chairs!!!
Here’s a look at some of the best things that happened in June (sans the birthday stuff, for that silliness see this post)

OMG! I got a book signed by Neil Gaiman. The joy and joyness cannot be contained! Also, the book is beautiful.

See! There he is in all his mad-haired, creative genius glory!

I also had a rare beach outing. It was really a momentary excursion, but there were dolphins and seashells.

And I got chairs and only had to spend $40 on the gas to pick them up. The kitteh is more than pleased. He purrs with pleasure every time he climbs on them.

July is proving to be a busy month… much busier than I anticipated. I’m doing what I call Camp NaNo part 2, in the hopes that giving myself a deadline means that I will finish Cassiel within the month. It’s starting to grow out of control again. I need to reign my creative juices in… I’m wordy to a fault. There must be a project that I can complete in less than 100k. This is not a good thing. Really, I need to focus on action and cut out the extraneous stuff. I’ve let myself go with setting and inner thoughts. I need action!!! ACTION!

So that is that. If it’s a bit quiet around here, it probably means I’m being a stern taskmaster and making myself stick to writing… turns out, I also got in a bit over my head and have to frantically rework some of my work-related writing for publication. My fingers may very well go on strike after all this.