Apollymi ::||:: Dark Passion Play

Updating again

Mon, 05 May 2008 10:58:06 GMT

Okay, most of the weekend, I did my updating over at Thoughts of a Struggling Writer whilst squeaky the great updated IJ. It seems to be mostly back, even if I am still missing a few icons. I'll be glad when the site is completely back up.

Doc and I went to see Made of Honor (which I say of the good is, Kevin McKidd and the beginning, pretty much until Scotland) and Iron Man (which I would have to find the bads, because honestly this was one of Marvel's better comic adaptations). We got 2 weeks worth of laundry done, watched a few too many movies, ... and did a lot of reading.

We did not get to vacuuming or cleaning the counters. Whoops.

This week: nothing much planned, other than writing and trying to survive the day job. Both Doc's and my stimulus checks from the government should be arriving this week, as well as my check from Seven Seas Manga, so soon I'll be back in good financial standing.

But now, it's time to get ready for work.

Ciao, my freaky darlings.

Medication

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:03:12 GMT

And this is a quick note to say a couple of things:

1) I am self-medicating my fatigue/exhaustion with the world's easiest solution for being tired: candy. 2 grape (my 3rd least favorite flavor - my favorite is strawberry, of course) Jolly Ranchers candies and about 9 (so far) of the longer Tootsie Rolls.

2) This doesn't mean I'm not also real medicating with Tums (again) and ibuprofen.

3) I make dorky Excel charts.

4) I'm still asleep.

Writing meme

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:16:00 GMT

I totally yoinked this from becky_h because it's a completely awesome meme. It took me 3 hours to do, though, because I was trying to find quotes and an image. ^^;;

What's the last thing you wrote?
I scribbled on Verdant a tiny bit on Friday. That's about the last thing I got to do.

Was it any good?
It was 86 words of filler. Saying if it was good or bad filler... Well, Lizzy's quirky, that's all I'll say.

What's the first thing you ever wrote that you still have?
Err, either The Partner (1992) or The Coven (1993). They're had written, so if the pen hasn't faded or bled, then I still have them somewhere. As for fan fiction, The Never-Ending Crossover is still on my website; I started it back in 1999, I believe.

Write poetry?
I used to and got about four or five of them published, but I quit writing them after I took a Creative Writing class and got reamed for them. This is the same reason I would never write plays.

Angsty poetry?
I guess a couple of them were a bit angsty, looking back.

Most fun character you ever wrote?
I think the most fun I ever had writing a character was either Hekate in Gods and Other Creatures or Toshiko in A New Age Dawns, for completely opposite reasons.

Most annoying character you ever wrote?
Pulling from the same two stories, Quatre or Ianto. I couldn't grab the characterizations on either of them, and it nearly drove me nuts, so they stayed background characters. Quatre got the world's quickest death scene. I couldn't kill Ianto, but the thought crossed my mind a few (dozen) times.

Best plot you ever wrote?
It would have to be one of my crossovers, either where Slayers is the future world of Sailormoon and Usagi is still around as a ghost (bonus for femslash) or Gods and Other Creatures and I turned about half the cast into gods and half into demons (bonus for demon!Relena).

Coolest plot twist you ever wrote?
I like the plot twist in Amaranth: The Preterhumans Book 1, but I'm not saying what it is.

How often do you get writer's block?
Too often. Usually right before and right after NaNoWriMo and JulNoWriMo, but also when I desperately want to write, then no words come.

How do you fix it?
I turn on iTunes, sing at the top of my lungs (unless my roommate is home). I switch computers. I go take a shower (the better to talk the ideas out in private). I go flop on my bed and let the kitten attack the toe monster (also the better to talk the ideas out in private). I used to take my tape recorder and go for a drive; gas is too expensive for that now.

Do you type or write by hand?
Both. It depends on what I have on hand. Sometimes I'm more comfortable with writing by hand; it helps the ideas flow. Sometimes I prefer typing because it goes faster. The downside of typing is, it's very easy to get distracted.

Do you save everything you write?
I am a big fan of the Alt-S and the ⌘-S keys.

Do you ever go back to an old idea long after you abandoned it?
I do want to rewrite some of my old stories -- and I will finish Endless Loop.

What's your favorite thing that you've written?
My favorite fan fiction stories I've ever written are still Gods and Other Creatures and Metal Heart. My favorite original story is currently Amaranth.

What's everyone else's favorite thing that you've written?
Going by hits: Gods and Other Creatures and A New Age Dawns. The latter is quickly catching up to the former, though.

Do you ever show people your work?
My roommate gets to see what's written first usually. Mostly. Sometimes.

Who's your favorite constructive critic?
I shouldn't play favorites, but most of the time, Terra wins that one. She's about the only one who tells me like it is. Kattan will ask questions if I prompt her. Most of the time and with everyone else, it's "That's good", which doesn't help me build stuff.

Did you ever write a novel?
And am waiting on it to be published.

Have you ever written fantasy, sci-fi, or horror?
Yes, ish, and ish. Urban fantasy is my favorite genre. Writing Torchwood and Gundam Wing means writing sci-fi to some extent. Horror, well... I'm working on that with "Whoever Brings the Night".

Ever written romance or teen angsty drama?
More or less -- and no. I can't abide the latter, but for the former, if it has paranormal or supernatural elements in it, then it's kinda cool.

What's one genre you have never written, and probably never will?
Children's stories. Unless acceptable language and content for children change dramatically in the next few years, nothing I write will ever be children-friendly.

How many writing projects are you working on right now?
4: "Whoever Brings the Night" (YGO ff), Verdant (Preter), Arcana (Preter), and Hunter's Path (HuntChron)

Do you want to write for a living?
I guess technically, now I do, but I would love to be able to live off my writing.

Have you ever written something for a magazine or newspaper?
I've had a poem published in a newspaper, but that's it.

Have you ever won an award for your writing?
I've been selected out of about 300 writers to have my short story published in a competition back in 1994. Other than that, I've picked up a few fan fiction awards for my crossovers and Metal Heart.

Ever written something in script or play format?
For creative writing class, yes. For some ungodly reason, I also posted it on my website. And I hated it.

What is your favorite word?
"Albeit" is a fun word. "Amaranthine" is also a very nice word.

Do you ever write based on yourself?
Not if I can help it, no.

Which of your characters most resembles you?
Of all the character I've ever written, the one who is the most like me is Toshiko.

Where do you get ideas for your characters?
For fan fiction characters, I strive to stay as close to the series concepts as possible, since Out Of Character is a big pet peeve of mine. But for my own characters, there are bits of people I know around me in them. Rafe's girlfriend, for example, is based on someone I used to know.

Do you ever write based on your dreams?
More times than I would like to admit to.

Do you prefer happy endings, sad endings, or cliff-hangers?
I prefer to write cliffhangers or sad endings. My readers, apparently, vastly prefer happy endings. That's all I ever get requests for. And I still occasionally get nasty emails regarding some of my other endings.

Have you ever written anything based on an artwork you've seen?
Yes, as a matter of fact, I have. The original idea for my 2nd Yu-Gi-Oh novella, Our Farewell, came from this fanart.

Are you concerned with spelling and grammar as you write?
YES. YES, YES, YES, YES. I cannot write unless I have the grammar and spelling as close to correct as possible. Likewise, I won't read a story with bad grammar or spelling -- or that randomly change characters' names (see my rantings elsewhere on calling Thief King Bakura "Akefia").

Ever write something entirely in chatspeak?
Not just no, but hell no.

Does music help you write?
Sometimes. Sometimes it distracts me. Most of the time, though, it inspires me. (If nothing else, it gives me titles.)

Are people surprised and confused when they find out you write well?
Not really. I've been writing all my life, so people have known that I've been working on improving my craft since at least 1988 or so.

Quote something you've written.
From Where Angels:
A cool wind seemed to brush through his hair. No, not a wind: a hand, ethereal and a bit chilly (or was he just that hot?), but damn, it felt so good where it touched skin that felt fevered from the pain. His hands moved without his prompting to reach up and grab it, holding it to his face. Odd... It felt like a familiar gesture, one he'd perhaps done before, but he couldn't remember ever doing it before. The ghost-like hand he held felt familiar in a way too, and he pried his eyes open to look at it: a bit on the transparent side, but dark-skinned and a bit broad, with long fingers, nicks and scars littering the surface. He followed it up a maroon cloth-covered arm to Bakura's wary and somewhat confused face.

Dragon*Con things and updates

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:05:14 GMT

Okay, first off, I'm a bit sad: Fan Plus Friend says they can't do the corset bit of my Azkadellia costume. I haven't heard why they can't do it yet, but that was the last update I heard. So I might be stuck finding a whole new costume already, since I haven't heard anything back from the other query I sent out on it 2 months ago.

I do have one idea for a dress. I like this one, but I want it with the dress black and the frill lace in red/dark red. So I'm trying to find a pattern we can edit to make that, in cotton broadcloth and lace. We might use this dress as a jumping off point and add sleeves and such from there, just extend it to ankle length in the front as well and add the front lace up.

After so much searching I may have finally found the pattern for the second half of my Maeve costume: the over-vest. And it's just Simplicity 3629. Finding the material might be a little harder though, but one step is down on the way towards it.

Anyway, my morning free time is almost over. Time to start getting ready for work. Ciao!

Hooray!

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:40:50 GMT

I can finally say it with authority: I have a publishing contract!

It's with Cacöethes Publishing for Amaranth: The Preterhumans Book 1. I simply don't have enough words to say how excited I am.

Thank you to everyone who stood by me and supported me in this rather scary endeavor. Many very, very huge thanks to katsuko, for helping me with the late nights and the (even more terrifying) summary, and daimeryan_rei, for the continuous support, love, cuddles, occasional competition, and ♥. Really, I couldn't have made it without the ♥ -- and both of you. Additional thanks also need to go to desolate03 for the support.

Amaranth should be out by December this year or January 2009. Pretty damned impressive, if I must say so myself. It will be available as a print book and an e-book, with the latter coming out first. There will be some editing that needs to be done, but yeah...

Hooray!!!

After the fallout

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:04:22 GMT

Okay, weird subject line. I've been in a mood. I'm waiting for a phone call today or tomorrow, and the anxiety of waiting is getting to me.

...So I'm looking up information on Mad Max, The Road Warrior, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (and the anticipated Mad Max: Fury Road). Now there's a series I can't believe I haven't bought, though that's probably because it has yet to be released in a set (that I can find).

I don't know why I adore these movies so much, but I do. (Of course, I'm also a freak of a female, being that I love The Three Stooges.) They're a series I really, really enjoy, for reasons I cannot quite place. Every time I watch/think too much about them, I start getting ideas -- and I don't need to do a post-apocalyptic fic and/or novel/la.

I've written about 200 words on Verdant while I was at lunch today. I want to pound out another 500 to 1000 or so today. I also want to start back working on fanfiction: maybe finish The Haunting and Third Chance, and perhaps play around with this idea that's been kicking the last week. Yes, I have big writing plans -- but it's about damned time. I've been waiting for big writing plans to strike for a while.

Anxiously looking forward to JulNoWriMo. I kind of sucked at April Fool's Novel.

Thoughts a bit later

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 20:13:18 GMT

I guess everyone knows I've been following the Harry Potter Lexicon debacle.

Well, from the commentary I've been seeing coming down on SVA and RDR's side, all I have to say is that I hope I don't end up making a lot of money with my writing. It seems that most of the people supporting him object to JKR winning because she has a lot of money.

Soooo apparently, by that logic, copyright only matters if you're a starving writer. Never you mind that if you're a starving writer, you probably don't have the following for this kind of ~~wankery~~ scholarship.

Onto another subject: I'm a little ticked at Dreamhost. It ended up taking 20 hours for them to update the password to one of my email addresses. It's working now, but still... It's only supposed to be "a few minutes", in their words, not nearly a whole day.

But on a happier note, I have a pleased orange tomcat in my lap who is giving of much love. He's very warm though, and it's very hot today. He may have to be evicted soon.

We got one load of laundry (Doc) and all the sweeping and mopping (me) done. For tonight/tomorrow, that leaves cleaning the kitchen counter and sanding the door jams where the kitties have relieved their stress.

The icon is now appropriate

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:36:57 GMT

I said I was going to try not to do any more posts where the subject line is directly dependent on the icon. Yeah, well, me do something silly like make sense? Yeah, right.

I went to bed around 9 last night. I read two chapters of Underworld and then went to sleep by 9:15. I had odd but vague dreams all night, till I woke up with my alarm clock at 5:40. I dozed till Doc finished in the shower and stuck her head in at 6:20. That's more sleep than I've gotten in quite a while.

Unfortunately it's over now.

If I could get a few more nights of sleep like that, I might feel a bit more back to normal. Unfortunately, this weekend Oyaji wants us up for a Saturday evening and Sunday morning visit, so I might get a bit of rest of Friday, but he apparently doesn't believe in letting his guests rest. He'll let one of the (now four) dogs in the bedroom at odd hours or something like that. And that is to say nothing of how lumpy and uncomfortable the bed is. So I won't get enough sleep Saturday night.

The coffee is nice this morning. The waffle is also quite nice. Breakfast can be good. Yes, yes.

Now hopefully I won't fall asleep at work.

Back in black

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:19:11 GMT

Yes, to those who have known me over on LiveJournal, this is one of those posts. Which posts, the other people on my FList might want to know?

BACK IN BLACK!!

I really need a little AC/DC playing when I make these posts...

Maybe I am a bit mad

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:37:15 GMT

My Personality


Neuroticism	84
Extraversion	19
Openness to Experience	64
Agreeableness	53
Conscientiousness	54

You do not experience strong, irresistible cravings and consequently do not find yourself tempted to overindulge, however you experience panic, confusion, and helplessness when under pressure or stress. You get overwhelmed by too much noise and commotion and do not like thrill-seeking activities. You prefer familiar routines and for things to stay the same. You can tend to feel uncomfortable with change. You are tenderhearted and compassionate, feeling the pain of others vicariously and are easily moved to pity, however you believe that a certain amount of deception in social relationships is necessary. You are guarded in new relationships and less willing to openly reveal the whole truth about yourself. You take your time when making decisions and will deliberate on all the possible consequences and alternatives.

Take a Personality Test now or view the full Personality Report.

My Attitudes Toward Self


High Standards	67
Self-Criticism	92
Generalization	94

You have high self-criticism attitudes. You have high generalization attitudes.

Take a Personality Test now or view the full Attitudes Toward Self Report.

They are surprisingly accurate. That's a bit scary. Oh well, like Norman said:

We all go a bit mad sometimes...

Today in the life

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:56:38 GMT

Well, I'm obviously back in Florida. I'm still not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I had to come back to earn money. On the other hand, my sister can be a lazy mofo and not stay at a job more than two months. Why can't I? But on the other hand, I know money is good and, if I want to continue to have money and spend money, I can't be like my sister and steal, beg, and borrow money -- I have to earn it. But I really want to be at home or at my grandparents' right now.

This is a dilemma.

In other news, the wank that never ends has made CNN.com. Yep, CNN, late as usual. We've been following it on Fandom Wank since November. Because Cleolinda is cool like that.

I don't know about LJ. I'm still debating on LJ. I might do a post in the next week or two, and determine how much I want to stay there based on said post's responses. In other words, leave it in the hands of the LJ FList. Maybe with a pretty gigantic Friends Cut, I could be persuaded to return on a more full time basis. There is a great deal of venom that circulates that list. Not like here. Here, we have kitties.

Since I was at the grandparents' having fun and stuff all weekend, I got no writing done. In fact, I barely got any reading done. I barely finished Dead Beat, but now I'm finally started on Proven Guilty. My gods, that book is HUGE. Maybe it'll actually take me a bit to finish it.

And I've been typing for a bit over an hour (I keep getting distracted), so I'm going to shut up and bugger off now.

Ciao!

Behold

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:36:16 GMT

Behold: there is a new layout.
I don't know. I just get tired of green very quickly and very easily. I also kinda missed having calender function on my main page. I didn't want to give up my OT3 though, so it's the same characters, but new colors. And a new journal style too at that! I've moved from Quite Lickable to Bloggish. I'm still working on a new default icon.

My next major project will be a Gundam Wing/Sailormoon mood theme. I'm thinking it will be 100x55 with a black border around the image, and it would mostly be Duo, Heero, and Usagi. Big shock, I know. Any help on this would be most appreciated.

This is an office of sickies. So many of us are ill. That's worlds of not good. B is probably the sickest of us all. She sounds like she's coughing up a lung on a regular basis.

I'm going to be out of town this weekend, visiting the grandparents. That will be nice.

The upside of my father coming to town to have lunch with me is, I get most of a bag of M&Ms. Dear gods, I had forgotten how good they could be. There may not be any left by the time I get off work. Oh well.

Obaabaa came with Oyaji for lunch today. For once, she made me feel good about myself, instead of generally worse. Today she commented that I looked like I had lost a lot of weight. Now granted, I haven't, but still it was nice to hear. Sometimes -- very rarely, but sometimes, nonetheless -- she's good for that.

And now, back to work on that default icon.

Haha!! Take that!

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:17:57 GMT

Created by OnePlusYouApparently, I cuss like a sailor. Doc Hikari only got about 10%, and here I am at 50%.

I guess I'm a cussing factory.

*shrugs* Oh well. Why the hell not?

Minions and other forces of...

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:12:26 GMT

I really need to quit tailoring my subject lines to my icons. Meh, oh well. I like my subject lines. I like my icons. ~~No one else but me~~ Hardly no one else reads this, so who cares.

I'm about 200 or so words into "Arcana". I vaguely have an idea of where I want to go with it, but not too much. For me, planning too far ahead keeps the ideas from flowing.

Traditionally, the big write-athon months are terrible for me health-wise. Last November, I managed about 4 hours of sleep a night, ate what I could quickly grab when I could take half a minute's worth of a break, and just generally abused my body. Last July wasn't nearly so bad, but I still didn't sleep or eat like. For April Fool's Novel, I've only signed up for 30,000 words (or 1,000 words a day), so maybe I won't overdo it too much. April Fool's Novel is mostly to get my marathoning brain in gear for JulNoWriMo and then NaNoWriMo.

It's also an excuse to get "Arcana" finished and e-published. I want to start getting my name out there. It couldn't hurt -- and it could help.

But I do need minions, to do everything else for me.

It's always a trap

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:03:35 GMT

Another day, another dime. That's how it feels a lot of the time. I like who I work for (mostly) and with (a lot of the time, when I'm not catching flak for things referenced in previous entries), so I guess I shouldn't complain.

What's bad is, I'm considering doing a LOL cat of my own kitty, of the Roo man. He demolishes boxes, but his favorite one is one that my prezzies from daimeryan_rei came in last time. He's nearly taken one entire side off of it, so that if it's lying on the correct side, it looks like it has a ramp leading into it.

I think I would put the caption "Box broke - Send new" on it. Not really a LOLcat then, I guess, but close enough for me.

We had Wendy's restaurant on the other side of town last night. Hikari's been a sickie type, and I won't get into how. My own stomach seems to be doing gymnastics like a little Romanian in the Olympics. And no, I'm not old enough to remember Nadia Comaneci in the Olympics, but I do seem to recall watching a documentary on her.

And now it's time for work.

Moody

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:09:08 GMT

Scratch the request for a mood theme: I found one for Faramir

Because some days I feel like Faramir...

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:15:50 GMT

...and that might be a bad thing, because while Faramir is my favorite character in the entire series (including The Hobbit), the most shit happens to him. But on days when I just feel dumped on, those are the days when I feel like Faramir. I empathize with him, perhaps in much the same way Tolkien did.

So, I mentioned I got a "no" from my first choice. That's fine. I can live with that. I sent off today to another early choice. I'm still waiting to hear from quite a few of my early submissions. That's also quite fine.

I know it's not April yet, much less July, but I've started scribbling on "Arcana" a bit. It's almost definite that it will be e-published, but I'm still sparing no effort on it. Granted, I just started today, so I'm not very far.

But I actually thought, "Hey, why not share a tiny bit?" And it is a tiny bit, but here we go:

"My life is a bad horror movie. No, it's not just bad. It's, like, Z-grade. It's--"

"Designed to piss the rest of us off?" I couldn't quite manage to hold back. "All you've done since you got here has been whine, Stacy."

She pouted, her lower lip trembling just slightly. Oh, tell me she wasn't going to start crying now. That would just cap off a wonderful few days.

Thoughts?

Anyone know where I can pick up a Faramir mood theme or more Faramir icons?

Something that made me smile

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 21:36:19 GMT

Which Female Metalist are you most like?

You are Floor Jansen of After Forever.A self confessed metal head, with a powerful voice miles ahead those in your class. You're strong, confident, with a mind of your own. Above all you are unique.
Take this quiz!

Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

This quiz really made me smile. Rewatching The Return of the King really made me smile as well.

I do now share a link of something I might start working on soon. Also, kolasis should soon start getting updated with snippets from the novellas I still have going.

A more wretched hive of scum and villainy

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:17:49 GMT

"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."

Obi-Wan Kenobi, you were a genius.

Speaking of scum and villainy, I think I need to clear out my LiveJournal friends list a bit. Maybe a lot. Vitriol of those levels due to someone wishing to lodge a relatively mild form of protest over unwanted and frankly somewhat unnecessary -- not to mention hidden from large section of the user base -- changes to a service they have used for years is completely uncalled for.

In fact, I might just see if I can't port over the feeds I read and leave it at that. Some days, LJ just pisses me off too much to stay. The only reason I stay is to keep up with the one or two people who will not move over.

Maybe it's time to fully port over

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 09:57:16 GMT

LiveJournal has a way of really pissing its userbase off lately. (And by lately, I mean in the last two or three years.)

I predict a great influx of people joining up here and at the alternative sites: here, Journal Fen, Dead Journal, Blurty, Commie Journal, and the others. Amusingly, of that list, I'm on all but one of those.

All the same, it's all I can do today to keep my eyes open. I woke up at 4 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep. I eventually opened the bedroom door to kittens, and Boo and I crashed on my bed for about 20 minutes before I just gave up, got dressed, came downstairs, fed the babies, and made my own coffee. I should be working on Verdant, because I've yet to get a page in the past three days due to extreme busy-ness, but when I'm this tired it would just be gibberish. Maybe gibberish is what I need to get back in the flow of things.

...If I don't fall facefirst into my coffee. Now that I'm up, I'm exhausted.

I look down at what I'm wearing for the day, and I realize that apparently I couldn't be arsed to give a damn about anything today. It's black cargo pants, Halloween skull socks (in orange, green, black, and white), and a shirt with a yellowish base, purple and maroon butteries, and purple sleeves. I'm so fashion-talented today.

And for the record, I seriously need a new job. Private sector admin assistants make $8+ an hour more than me. Hell, admin assistants in other parts of state government make more than me. Data entry clerks working directly for the state make more than me! I could pull up any number of listings on it... but only when I'm more awake.

So... yeah. I'm either gonna curl up with some Get Backers (till Farscape is here), some Dresden, or try to work on Verdant.

Queries

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:54:51 GMT

Okay, I've sent 6 queries to agents and 1 query to a publisher for Amaranth, so far.

Why is it that writing the queries is so much harder -- to me -- than writing the actual novel was? Even with the hectic pace of NaNoWriMo, queries are still miles and miles harder.

I wonder why that is.

Also, I got my first rejection letter over the weekend. Bummer.

Happy birthday to me

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:42:54 GMT

Happy birthday to me!

In about 1.25 hours, I'm going to be heading on towards Georgia. I'll be in Shellman the rest of today and till after lunch tomorrow. Then I'll head on over to Cuthbert, where I'll be till at least a bit after lunch Sunday.

I have to remember to bring all my medicine. Let's see, what all I do I need to bring: Nexium, Yaz, my vitamins, the stuff for my hair, and the Tagamet. Yes, I have to take the Nexium and the Tagamet. The Nexium doesn't help nearly enough, so the Tagamet takes care of the rest of the pain.

We also need to put food down for the kitties to tide them over till Tiffany comes to feed them tonight.

Other than that, all that's left is to pack and head out towards Georgia.

And on a small random note, I got up this morning and checked my email. When I saw the light flashing for a new email in my kbell@katherinebell.net account, I nearly squee'ed my freaking heart out. I had it in my head that I had gotten my answer to my novel already, and it was cause for major squee and dancing and maybe calling up everyone I knew. But, alas, I had forgotten that I had set my katherinebell account here to use that address too. :) Not cause for squeeing, but I did get birthday wishes from IJ (and JF). This is because they rock so much harder than LJ.

And I still want to make a music video to this song, using the last three episodes of Series Three of Doctor Who: "Utopia", "The Sound of Drums", and "Last of the Time Lords". I think it would pretty much rock.

And now off in a Georgia direction. Ciao, sweeties!

Not a real update, but...

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:42:34 GMT

This isn't a real update, since the most I have to report is that Paula doesn't seem very happy and I really hope I'm not part of the problem. But mostly, I want to say a few random things.

I have new icons! This is one of them (and cleverly relates to the rest of the post). Okay, they're all the Ninth Doctor, but what can I say? I have a favorite.

I asked katsuko the other day, if I was a Marauder, which one would I be? She was quiet for a while, long enough that I had to ask, "Not James, right?" Finally she responded, no, not James. Apparently, if I'm any of the Marauders, I'm Sirius. I can definitely live with this.

I'm 49 pages into the transliteration for Dance in the Vampire Bund. I need to do 40 pages a day, like I did Tuesday, a few more times, and I'll be finished. Then in three months, I can get paid. Hurray for getting paid. (I almost typed "laid" instead of "paid" there. Amusing typo.)

I have a headache. Chocolate and caffeine does not help it. This sucks.

I'm re-re-re-reading (probably a few more "re"'s on there, but I got tired of typing it) the movie tie-in book to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. I like it. It ties in the first movie and the future, in addition to telling the story of the second movie.

My keyboard's left arrow key keeps sticking. It's very annoying.

We moved my desk at work. I am now in what I like to call the Seat of Power: the main desk in the Admin Office. Très spiffy.

And that's about it. Ciao.

Since LJ is in an especially fine mood...

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 11:45:57 GMT

Since LiveJournal seems to be in an especially fine (read: crapped out) mood today and I feel I must share this thought...

The best leap of logic in quite a while:

"Machiavellian" to "Mafia Alien"

I can't even claim credit on that one. That was allllllll Doc.

Minor terrors

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:46:17 GMT

After some really major soul searching and a good deal of help from some friends, I finally got Amaranth sent off for the first time last night. It's like letting a child go to school for the first time by themselves. I've been working on this baby since 1 November 2007; she's the product of a lot of my time, hard work, and headaches.

I'm not holding my breath on getting an immediate turn around or anything, but given how quickly Paula (Guran, editor of Juno Books) responded to my request for additional information, there is some hope for a reply in less than 2 months. The sample I sent her was 41 pages, so not exactly the longest thing on the planet.

And till that time is up, I'll try not to hold my breath. If I get a negative from this place, I'll go with looking for a literary agent next.

See? For once, I have a plan!