Life: It Really DOES Get in the Way

Well. I've almost got Pink Bandana Girls up to the point where I can continue where I left off last November. I needed to take out some elements that were really overdone and cliche, and make it a little bit special, which was pretty fun. All that encouragement definitely helped, but the chaotic air of the past few days has not.

I think it's weird how everything happens at once. A few weeks ago, I might've said I was bored with my life. HA! Silly me.

A friend's dad got critically ill, and I was busy meeting her for coffee when she could take a break from the hospital. Then Thunder in the Valley, which really isn't stress but is chaos, with the 16 million bikes in town (ours, of course, being one of them). Then, on Tuesday, I spent most of the day cleaning, and decided I'd spend the evening writing.

How stupid of me.

You see, I got a new phone on Saturday, after my old one broke. I wasn't able to retrieve my contact list, so I had to input the numbers by hand. And I made a mistake, and subsequently sent a few text messages to a wrong number, thinking it was my friend. They were fairly innocuous, slightly amusing messages: one regarding my neighbors playing very loud music, and another regarding our plan to combat that by having a lawn mower and power washer party. Then another with our plans for the evening.

I realized my mistake later that night, and promptly fixed the number. I thought that was it. Three days passed.

Just before I sat down to write on Tuesday, I started getting calls. The first, I noticed, was from the number I'd accidentally texted. I figured that if they had something to say to me, they could say it in a voicemail. After that, they were blocked. As they were from a blocked number, I ignored them.

I couldn't ignore the voicemails, though. They contained a special brand of drunken psychosis that can't really be ignored. Especially after the eighth call in four hours, with three very lovely voicemails calling me all sorts of pretty names. On the eighth call, I allowed a friend to answer, as by that time I was shaking with anger and anxiety and didn't think I'd be able to stay calm.

His end of the conversation was actually rather hilarious. The caller kept trying to talk over him, and he'd say, "N-no. N-no. YOU listen. N-no." My other friend said he sounded like the b*tchy flight attendant from SNL. "Buh-bye. Buh-bye."

And then I called the police. I put it off for as long as I could, hoping that the caller would decide enough was enough, or maybe pass out or take her meds or something. But at that point, I figured two calls an hour for four hours, frequently coming within a few minutes of each other, was my breaking point.

Then I got a text from my friend--her dad would not make it through the night.

I think, between all this happening, I wrote about 200 words. I did manage to get some brainstorming done, and I have a better idea of where I want this novel to go. But this was all done between my shaking and ranting and pressing "ignore" on my phone and listening to cracked-out voicemails, and then being sad for my friend.

I guess what happened is that the phone I accidentally texted was owned by a male. His girlfriend got her hands on his phone and--three days after the fact--decided to take matters into her own hands. This was according to the voicemail I got from the police at 7 a.m. the next day. So, as far as I can tell, it's over.

I'm going to try to write tonight. I'm pretty excited, actually--I can't wait to get immersed in the story again, to really feel my characters and be part of that again. I miss it SO MUCH.

There's a pretty good chance I'll be turning my phone off before I even start.

The Busy Bee

Listening to: The Hives, "Hate To Say I Told You So"

Why haven't I been around you ask? Oh, I don't know...it could be blog malaise. It could be blogger's block. Or it could be that my life has gotten so freakin' crazy that I can't tell my right hand from my left anymore.

Okay, so I couldn't do that to begin with. Whatever.

Seriously, it seems like I'm spread out all over the place here. I don't mind it so much, though. Let's make a list, so I can feel even more overwhelmed:

• Still querying on Battle of the Hexes. What can I say--I'm slow. I don't have too many agents left to go, but I tend to query when I have the time. Which, lately, hasn't been very often. And for the past month I've been waiting for a query critique on a writer's forum from a pretty awesome agent, who's on my list anyhow. I figured I'd wait and see if I could get some good advice before continuing.
  
  When's the query crit, you ask? TODAY, I answer. Am I nervous, you ask? HELL YES, I answer. Who's the agent, you ask? STOP ASKING QUESTIONS, I answer.
  
  Lesson: query faster for the next one. I think I'll send out ten a week, regardless of when/whether I receive replies. That way I can just get it done and over, instead of dragging out the process for....dear lord. A whole year. Yeesh.
  
• Grim Light is out to some betas, and I've gotten some great feedback. I need to do at least one more round of revisions before I query. I hope to be ready by mid-April.
  
• House-hunting/selling: We just got a storage space, woo! So I have to start packing some junk away so the house looks all uncluttered and spacious when it's showtime. Which, it being spring, will be very soon. What I love about this? I'm going to pack away pictures and knick-knacks and stuff, and then in several months, whenever we finally find and get a house we love, I'll get to unpack them. And it'll be like Christmas! I love that. Yes, I'm weird.
  
  Also, I'm spending this weekend cleaning. That is NOT like Christmas.
  
• Brainstorming for the next one. I expect to start as soon as revisions on Grim Light are completed.
  
• Judging for the Golden Hearts. That took more time than I expected, and was certainly an interesting experience.
  
• Working on my website. Yes, that's right. The blog will be moving as soon as the new website is up and ready. Which, again, I hope to have completed by mid-April, so I can comfortably use the email address that comes with my domain for my e-queries. The website thing is a new-ish arena for me, so it's been slow going. I learn as I go...and I don't go very fast. If I set aside one night a week to work on it, though, I should be done by my deadline.
  
• Work. Oh, that's right. The day job. It's starting to get down to crunch time. As it's just a temporary gig, I expect to be done by June...but I was also supposed to be done last September, and they kept me on. So that is certainly subject to change. I'm surprisingly comfortable with this.

And, aside from family and friends and all the usual stuff, that's my life these days. I think that, once I hit mid-April--and especially once our current project at the day job is done--I'll have more time for blogging.

So...what's been keeping YOU busy these days?

Back from the 9-5 grave, and other miscellania...

Well.

I don't even want to look and see how long it's been since I've blogged. I've been a bad little blogger, neglecting my faithful readers and shying guiltily away every time I saw my blog's link in my bookmark bar. Always something else to do, somewhere else to go, something else to write.

But now I've moved to part time at work (at my own request). I have a little more free time, although it never quite feels like enough. So, it gives me great pleasure to announce...I'm baaaaaaaack, baby! I've got new plans to share, new entries on all kinds of subjects (writerly and otherwise), and I'm sure lots of silliness and the general inanity that keeps me from falling into general insanity. 'Cause you know, NaNoWriMo is coming up...should be lots of inanity and insanity there. Fun!

Before we get to all that in the coming weeks, though, I'd like to comment on something that drives me a little crazy. And that is this: the utter shock, or at least eyebrow raising, that comes when someone discovers that--quelle suprise!--girls play video games.

I know, I know. However did they escape from the kitchen?

This annoyance was mostly brought about by two recent articles: This one, by the AP and published by CNN, which is so surprised at females--female teenagers, no less, who haven't known a world without video games--who play video games. So surprised, in fact, that the author feels the need to set that fact apart with em dashes, as seen below:

The survey found that while young Americans don't necessarily play the same thing, nearly all of them -- girls included -- play video games of one kind or another.

Really? Are we so shocked at this? Did no one see this coming? But of course, we have to focus on the fact that the dainty little girls don't like the shoot-em-up, run-around-in-a-virtual-world-collecting-weapons-and-stuff, scream-obscenities-over-the-headset-at-your-gaming-buddies games.* They couldn't possible have found some girls that enjoyed these games, could they? I mean, they certainly don't exist out there in the real world, right? Because, you know, what 75% of a gender likes, the other 25% must enjoy as well.**

Disclosure: I don't much enjoy those games, myself. But that's more because they usually involve some sort of a map and a considerable amount of hand-eye coordination, and I am both spatially and directionally challenged.

Anyhow.

The second article came out a few weeks ago, and really got my feminist meter fuming. "How to Get Your Girlfriend Into Gaming," published by MSNBC. It's about a panel at a gaming expo (Penny Arcade's expo, to be exact) in which many stereotypical, and sometimes just plain demeaning, suggestions were offered. Jezebel*** really said it better than I ever could, so I'll leave it at that.

No, actually, I won't. I'll leave it at this quote from one of the ALL FEMALE members of the panel:

"Ask her to help you spot snipers," said Phillips. "Chicks like flattery. If she feels like she’s helping, then you’re making it a positive experience."

There are no words I can say to combat that kind of patronization. Except this:

When my husband, in 2004, first brought home SSX Tricky, a snowboarding game for the XBox, I idly asked him if I might like it.

"Hm," he said doubtfully. "It might be a little tough for you."****

Well, that was it. I was unemployed at the time, and not writing, so the next day was spent proving him wrong. By the time he came home from work, my snowboarder was kicking some serious powder. And had beat all his high scores.

So maybe the way to get your girlfriend into gaming is to be a jerk and tell her she probably won't be very good at it. Worked for me. Although this probably isn't going to be an issue for vry much longer, since--gasp! shock! dismay! -- girls are already there.


*Or as we call it in my house, "Tuesday evening."
**These statistics are a guess on my part. I'm not actually sure what percentage of teenage female gamers prefer the more violent games, but I'm willing to bet the number would surprise male gamers.
***This site, and it's comments, frequently features NSFW pictures and commentary. If you're easily offended, I would steer clear. I quite enjoy it, though.
****Notice he said, "for you," not "for a girl." I think he was referencing my legendary clumsiness and general lack of coordination. He certainly knew better, by that point in our relationship, to imply that I might be in any way less competent than he due to my gender. Oh, to have more men like him in the world!

Stress and Chaos

Listening to: Muse, "Starlight"

One thing I've never been good at is pushing my stress aside to write. This is kind of odd, I know--a lot of writers write to forget about the stress (even when the writing itself is stressful). But when the stress is personal--i.e., family or friend related--the writing part of my brain tends to shut down so it can focus on all the stressful stuff.

Right now, I'm going through a tiny rough patch, the details of which are not important. Actually, it's not my rough patch, but it's a tough time for someone very close to me, and I'm dealing with a lot of the fallout. When this person called this morning with more problems, problems that I know she needs to share with someone and I'm the best candidate right now, I thought, "Well, there goes that 500 words I was going to get in this morning." Because I expected to spend the morning worrying, and my afternoon is already full up.

But no. I won't let that happen.

I'm going to write, dammit. I got 2000 words in Wednesday night, so I'm definitely on a roll. I'm going to throw myself into the writing, at least for the next two hours, and worry about all the other stuff later.

I think I'm getting better at this--the "write no matter what" thing. I guess we'll find out, eh?*

How about you, fellow writers? If you're a writer (or any kind of artist), do you shut down when everything around you is chaotic...or does that make you write more? Feed my curiosity!


*ETA: Planned on writing 500 words this morning. Got almost 1000. Yes, I'm definitely getting better at this. Now I'm going to go brood, then do some chores.

Back From the Brink

Listening to: Everclear, "Glorious"

That's right kids, I have returned from the muddle of surgery and recovery. I'm doing lots better now, although the first day or two were mind-blowingly painful. Just sitting up was a two-person job.

But the gallbladder is out, and I now have one fewer organ than the average person. I've decided to take this as a good thing. Who needs all those organs, right?

The general anesthesia makes you really shaky once you wake up, though, which isn't fun when you have four fresh, very painful incisions in your stomach and your abdominal muscles feel like you've just done about 1000 sit-ups. They quickly gave me drugs, though, and then all was well. Very well, in a hazy sort of way.

The funny thing was, I was remarkably cheerful when I woke up right after they sliced & diced me and put me back together (aside from shaking violently enough to rattle the entire hospital). Just happy the darn thing was over, and I had several days of jello and chicken broth and painkillers and laying on the couch, slipping in and out of consciousness ahead of me.

And now all that fun is over, and it's time to get back to work. I'm still tiring easily, and my incisions are preventing me from sleeping on my tummy (grr!), but I can at least do some stuff. After all, going through my CPs comments and incorporating their suggested changes isn't that strenuous, right? Right? No, I was wrong, it is strenuous. But I'm doing it anyway! Also, trying to find an apartment for my mom that allows small dogs. I can't decide which of these two chores is the most worthy of procrastination. They might come up equal, I think.

Thanks to Tia for her wonderful comments and insightful suggestions. I am forever in her debt!
And once all that fun is over, I think I'm ready for the big plunge. That's right--sending out those query letters. I can talk more about that later, though. I just wanted to update the ol' blog, since it hasn't been touched in a week, and put the word out there to all three of my regular readers that I'm doing okay.

How has your first week of the year gone? Anything fun and wonderful, or, you know, the opposite? What do you hope to accomplish this year? Any fun resolutions? Come on, talk to me...I can't drive for another week, and I'm so very lonely and bored!

Onward and upward, into 2008!

w00t!

No, I didn't win anything. It's just the word of the year.

Look at that top ten list. You know I'm going to just lie in wait until I find a conversational opening that allows for the use of the word "Pecksniffian".

Sorry I've been so sporadic. Busy with various things, and having some medical fun. I might need to have a very minor organ removed--anyone care to guess which one? Anyone? Bueller?

That's pretty much all I've got right now. I'll be back...whenever.

Report from VA

Worst. Day. Ever.

I'm writing this from a Days Inn in Newport News, VA.

Why am I here?

Because we have the worst flea infestation in the history of flea infestations.

When did we discover this?

Today, after driving 9.5 hours (that's 2.5 hours longer than it should've taken) from PA to VA. We spent about an hour and a half, at least, stuck on I-95 in 100 degree heat thanks to this.

Why didn't we discover this sooner?

Because we were away in PA for five days, visiting family and friends.

What happened after we found out?

We bought some bug bomb, and spent an hour calling my mom and getting hotel phone numbers from her because--guess what?--the internet wasn't working!

What will I be doing tomorrow?

Vacuuming and doing massive amounts of laundry in 100 degree heat. Yes, the AC will be on.

Why am I still happy?

Because my husband is the most wonderful husband in the world, out getting food for us right now (we haven't eaten since noon), and my mom is finally reading my book! And my cat, despite the flea problem (he should be fine, we treated him a few weeks ago), is funny. He just tried to hop up on the headboard of the bed, which didn't work out well for him. And because there was no rejection waiting in my inbox, which I'm thankful for. And we have free wi-fi.
My day has sucked, but I'm still alive and well, and so are my loved ones.

All in all, things aren't great, but they could be worse.

Back...for now.

First of all, before you do anything, please read about YA author Maureen Johnson's trials and tribulations with the Bartlesville, OK school district and its attempts to ban her book. Then, if you feel so inclined, please sign the petition to stop this.

Well, that was an interesting little hiatus. I spent several days at my mom's house, helping her through a difficult time as best as I could. I took a nice long bike ride (8 miles, baby!) with The Husband, during which we discovered an amazing Abandoned Mine Drainage project. And I did very little writing.

Everything's been going so crazy lately that I just haven't even had the will to write. I did do about six pages, handwritten, night before last, so that was good. I felt like I was finally getting back into the story, and maybe falling back in love with it a little bit. My mind is, ever-so-slowly, getting back to where it needs to be.

Then there's the whole querying thing. What with our upcoming move, I feel it would be stupid to start querying now. What if, my writerly brain says, an agent wants me to mail them a partial or a full, and we don't have the printer and everything set up yet, and my office supplies are still in a box somewhere because they aren't quite as vital as pots and pans and clothes, and then I'll have to go to Staples or something to print it out and get MORE supplies, and that'll just be a waste of money? That is, you see, how the writerly brain works. So, as soon as the upheaval is over and everything has settled a bit, I will begin querying.

Trust me, I'm not procrastinating on it. While I hate hate hate writing query letters and synopses and such, I enjoy querying. I really do. Every time I click "send" on a query email or drop a letter in the mailbox--and yes, even when I get a rejection--I feel like I'm actually being a writer. Somehow, even more so than when I'm actually, yanno, writing. I think that's because dropping a letter in the mail takes so little time, while writing a book takes...forever. So I feel like I'm making more progress with my career when I'm querying than when I'm writing...even though I know that the writing is truly the most important part of it. That's, yanno, why I became a writer. To write.

Okay, now that I'm done rambling, I'm gonna go off and...yanno...write something.

-Kristin

Tidbits

It's 5 a.m., and I'm awake. Why? Because the cat needed some lovin', so he started licking my ear and purring so loudly I thought a small helicopter had landed in our room. At 3:30 a.m. Yaaay for kitties...she said through a wide yawn.

Writing Status: Synopsis is in progress. I wrote a short story Tuesday night--my first in ages. It felt pretty good, and I'm seriously considering completing my goal of writing and submitting five shorts this year.

Life Status: Well, crappy. For several reasons that I won't go into. For once in my life, though, I have been somewhat successful as distracting myself through work.

And we're back...

...to square one, sort of. They offered him more--enough, actually, that we could afford it. For some reason, I never thought they would counter-offer. I had completely dismissed the whole thing from my mind.

And now we're back to seriously considering this, perhaps even more seriously than we did before. I even told my friends about it, the ones that I wasn't telling until we were certain that we would go. We'll probably go down there some time this week for a few days and scope out the area. Maybe even check out a few houses while we're at it.

It's been quite a week. I plan to get back to talking about actual writing in this space at some point, I promise. It's just that things are pretty hectic right now--although, if we move, that won't really change anytime soon.

Nervous. Yes, I'm definitely nervous. =/

It's been a long, long while...

Listening to: Sugarcult, "Do It Alone"

Sorry for the prolonged absence, imaginary readers. I've been up, down, out of town, back in town--you name it. And now I'm trying to procrastinate, and what better way to do that than the good ol' blog?

The current upheaval in my life is waiting to hear whether we're moving to Virginia. The chances are pretty slim, I think, but it's a possibility. On the one hand, I think I could use the change in scenery...I've lived in the same two towns all my almost-25 years. And we would be 40 minutes from my best friend and an hour from VA Beach. Definitely some serious entries on the "pros" list, there.

The cons? We would be nine hours from our respective families, and six hours from the network of friendships that we've developed here over the past several years. Granted, with such proximity to a beach, we would be guaranteed visits--but it still would be difficult. That, and the cost of living is MUCH higher down there, so...yeah. I would stand a much better chance of snagging a newspaper job down there, though, than I do here.

Oh yeah--and the weather is better there, too. Obviously. Just to clarify that observation, it's currently 9 degrees here, with a windchill that makes it feel like -7. Down there, it's 37 degrees, and feels like 30. Doesn't sound too warm, no...until you compare it with our weather.

There are other factors, of course. The move would be stressful, the crime rate is higher there, and I'm not certain about selling our house in the current real estate climate. But oh...what an interesting change it would be.

At the moment, I'm fairly ambivalent about it all. Whenever I think about it, I generally think, "Meh...I could go either way. Whatever."

So...we'll see.

let's unwrite these pages and replace them with our own words

*Sigh*.

That was a nice long break. I had Christmas with my family, helped out at my sister's, had New Year's with my husband and some close, wonderful friends, went to my sister's to help out again, and saw the in-laws.

Got crapometered. Miss Snark's comments, while short and to the point, will help out a great deal with my query letters.

Finished editing the last book, started the new book. I'm loving every second of it, for now.

Used some gift cards to go crazy on Amazon...got Uglies, On Writing, Magic or Madness, The Elements of Style, 78/14 Reasons, and Brother Odd. I was a good girl, and started with Elements of Style last night, in spite of all temptation to read any of the others. I know you can't believe I didn't already have a copy--doesn't every writer? Well, I did...but I lost it before I could finish it. So now I'm plowing through, determined to soak up every bit of knowledge that I can. It's kind of exhausting...there's a lot packed into that little book.

Used other gift cards to go shopping on Sunday. I got the most fabulous pair of high-heeled, brown leather, knee-high lace-up boots for $31.99...so with my gift card, I paid $11.99. Not bad, says I. Not bad at all! Can't wait to wear them with a cute skirt, although they'll work fine with jeans, too.

And now, it's snowing. I'm not a big fan of snow, having grown up very near PA's snow belt, but I feel sort of...relieved. It's been a really weird winter, and the warm weather, while nice, has thrown me off a bit. It felt so right to look outside this morning and see a thin layer of snow covering my car and the driveway.

Oh! And I'm trying to quit smoking again. This is Day Three, and thus far, I haven't killed anyone yet! Yaaaaay me! I even went without the patch from dinner until bedtime last night. It actually might stick this time, I think. I'm kind of excited about reaching each next milestone, and being able to say, "A week without a smoke..." "Two weeks..." "A month...". I can see myself as a non-smoker. That, my friends, is a first. I like it.

Now, off to the salt mines...er, the wonderful next book that I'm really enjoying, even if I'm kind of stuck in Chapter Two, unable to find a smooth way to slip in all this information that I need to get in there. Or something.

Bye!

-Kristin

Things fall apart

Last night, the TV in our bedroom died. It had a good life--10, 15 years--but still.

Today, I was leaving--well, trying to leave--for a dentist appointment, and...the car wouldn't start.

It has gas--three quarters of a tank. Oil was changed and inspection performed last week. The antifreeze/coolant light had been coming on, so I hadn't been driving it until we could check that out. I figured, as I prepared to leave, that I could run it to the car place after my dentist appointment.

Well, so much for that.

I just hope this week doesn't get any worse.