30 April 2011

I keep telling myself I need something to do, something new to work on. Flipside has been put to bed, I have nothing left to do with it other than some half-hearted promotion (because I suck at it) here and there, so it’s time to start something new.

I pulled up the file of something I started before flipside popped into my brain and demanded to be put first. What I had amounts to only about 5 single spaced pages, and in reading it, I kept thinking, “Hey, this is pretty good!” But then I got to where I stopped and I realized I have no idea where I was going with it. Not a clue.

So I decided to mull it over, letting it percolate in the back of my brain while I distracted myself with other things.

Porn.

BMW F650 GS -- contender #1

More precisely, motorcycle porn.

I’ve spent the last week looking at pictures of bikes, reading about bikes, surfing different online for a for peoples’ opinions about bikes. I even dragged the Spouse Thingy to look at a bike, and was bummed to discover a bike I had really only had in my peripheral vision was no longer being shipped to the U.S. As soon as I couldn’t have it, I kinda wanted it.

But.

Suzuki V-Strom 650 -- contender #2

What I’m really looking for is a spiffy bike with upright seating and anti-lock brakes. The MP3 sits in the garage mostly unridden, other than obligatory trips to keep it in operating condition, and while the Gladius is absolutely beautiful, its forward position is killing my back and shoulder. So I want to trade the MP3 in (easier than selling it because of the loan on it) and then sell the Gladius (because I won it outright, I’ll get more than trading it in) and get something that will (theoretically) work until I need to move to a ride with 3 fixed wheels.

I’ve narrowed it down to two bikes. And let me tell you, I can waste an incredible amount of time poking around online looking for information on just those two bikes. I can waste other peoples’ time by picking their brains about them. I even managed to waste someone else’s afternoon by getting her to test ride one of the bikes because her friend owns one and was willing.

Still, in all that information vacuuming, I still haven’t figured out where the story I was working on was headed.

Clearly, I need to look at more porn.

24 April 2011

Sweet. The new file has been uploaded to Amazon, and is live. So it's safe to get a copy of The Flipside of Here for your Kindle...

I thought I'd have the proof for the print copy today, but apparently UPS does not honor overnight delivery on Saturdays. Boogerheads.

22 April 2011

Ooops...hold off on buying "Flipside" for the Kindle. In a fit of insomnia last night I plopped down with my iPad and flipped through it page by page and found a huge formatting error towards the end. It's glaring enough to jar a reader right out of the story.

I've fixed it, but I can't upload the new file to Amazon just yet...though it's already for sale, my desktop with them (the place I upload and manage my books) still shows it in progress, and until that changes to "Available" I can't change anything.

On the bright side, as totally frustrating as getting this book laid out has been, I learned a hell of a lot, owing much to the writers who hang in the Writer's Cffe at Kindleboards, especially Jeff, who totally saved my asterisk on this.

I should have the proof for the print copy in hand tomorrow. If it looks good, I'll approve it, and then just wait for it to pop up in the online bookstores.

21 April 2011

What have I been doing the last couple of weeks? Getting this done, laid out, and ready for print:



I worked on the final layout over the last few days, which was problematic enough that the Spouse Thingy hid in another room lest he be destroyed in the vortex of my overwhelming frustrations. Once I finally got a clean PDF to send off to the printer I started in on the layout for the Kindle version, thinking it would be a piece of cake because, hey, I've done it dozens of times.

But, once I was done, what should have looked like this:



Looked like this:



Rather than fight the damn thing--I really didn't have the patience for it--I popped off a post in the Writer's Cafe at Kindleboards, and nearly immediately had an offer from Jeff to help. I sent him my file, and in less than 5 minutes he had a clean copy for me.

So...yay!

Uploaded it all to Amazon last night, expecting it to be 3-4 days, but it's already available for sale. So if you have a Kindle and you've read the first 4 books...thrill me. It's only $2.99 on the Kindle and will be $4.99 elsewhere (once I get around to uploading it to other stores) and $15.95 in print.

I have to admit, after finishing this book, I would really like to re-write Charybdis. I know I could do it so much better now and still maintain the guts of the story... Ethically, maybe not the greatest impulse I've ever had.

But...onto the next thing. I understand erotic is selling very well on the Kindle, so maybe... ;)

---

Back cover copy:

In the blink of an eye, Kris Stevens Gallery Stone finds herself sitting on a park bench with her long dead ex-husband. Neither is sure why she's there; Ron knows she's not dead and knows she's at a crossroads--decide to live or decide to die--but what he doesn't know is why she wanted him there with her.

While she struggles with what her ultimate decision will be, Ron shows her his vision of Heaven, tempting her to stay. But before she gives him an answer, he wants to explore their long-dead marriage, from the weeks before she meets 15 year old Chip to its end in Ron's office in the agency, and in the telling of their tale hopes she'll remember why she loved him, and why she loves him still.

The Flipside of Here is the fifth novel in K.A. Thompson's Charybdis series, and answers questions left lingering, from how 16 year old Chip became entangled in the agency in the first place to Ron's reasons for ending his life in a bloody mess inside a toilet stall. A love story that extends beyond there here and now...and the choices that follow us forever.

7 April 2011

Every writer will relate, and quite possibly LOL for real...




Oh, and totally cool...the Boy's new tattoo:



Makes me want my next one now...

4 April 2010

Ever have a stellar idea that makes you sit upright and say out loud, "I totally need to do that!" but then fifteen  minutes later you can't remember what the hell it was?

That was my weekend. It happened three or four times while I was working.

You'd think I would learn to take notes...

29 March 2011

Yep, that's me...

Between smacking my shoulder into the snow in December and then throwing my back out, I haven't been on a bike since November. Before that, my riding was sporadic; training for the 3 Day Walk took up most of the time I would normally have been riding, so my bike and scooter have been pretty much ignored over the last year.

The weather hasn't cooperated a whole lot, either. On the days when I felt like I could ride--when my shoulder wasn't hurting too much--it was raining. But today...today was nice and bright and sunny, and it was going to be over 60 degrees, so this afternoon we geared up and fired up the bikes, and headed out for a short, shake-the-rust-off ride.

Oh yeah, I have a lot of personal rust to shake off. My cornering was less than ideal, my shifting only so-so, the rear tire slipped a little coming around one corner, and in one brain fart of a moment I nearly locked the brakes up--at a railroad crossing with a train barreling down.

I locked up the brakes on my old SV650, at a fairly slow speed, and that was no fun at all. I launched off the bike and as I was in the air I clearly remember thinking "That was never supposed to happen!" Well, sunshine, it did, and it hurt. And I damn near repeated it today.

Except that I got my hand off the front brake before the launching occurred. I really wish this bike had anti-lock brakes. Canadians can get this bike with anti-lock brakes. USA? Phhhffft. Apparently Suzuki doesn't think we need them.

Last year...I usually wear gear, I swear

Still, it was a nice 45 minute tide that helped ease back into riding. I would have kept going, but the riding position was too much for my still-not-completely healed shoulder, so we went home and got the scooter, and I was much smoother on that one.

Physically, the scooter was a far more comfortable ride today; it's seating is upright, and the seat is wide enough to accommodate my asterisk. For fun, the Gladius is always more fun....other than that thing with the brakes. And the rear tire slipping on one turn. That was a WTF kind of moment, because it took my brain half a second to process what was going on, and by the time it had, I was already through it.

Rookie mistakes...I made a lot of rookie mistakes that I shouldn't have. Which tells me i clearly need to ride more.

You know, for my own safety.

Not for the fun factor.

Nope.

28 March 2011

One of the pain-in-the-asterisk things about having a few chronic conditions is having to report every now and then to a doctor who looks at you and grunts "Yeah, you look all right." The bigger pain is that about a week before that appointment is the required Trip To The Lab, which has to be done in the morning before eating, and in my case, before 10:30 a.m. because they don't accept lab results on some of my tests if they're done later.

I'm not a morning person, not at all. Given a choice, I would be up until 3 am and would sleep until noon, but the cats have removed that as a life choice for me, what with wanting to be fed and all.

Next week is my annual appointment with the endocrinologist (but, I can't remember what time it is...this could be problematic...) so this morning I dutifully peeled myself up early (meaning I slept like crap last night, waking up every 30 minutes, because the possibility of OH NO I OVERSLEPT kept poking at me) and after feeding the cats (you know how they are...no food = something of mine meeting a toothy death) I headed out into the freezing cold (ok, 44 degrees) to let the lab vampires have at me.

Not my arm

Now, I have no real fear of needles. It's just a little prick, and I endure a little prick on a daily basis. But I am a hard stick, and getting blood drawn can be An Event.

I think the record for sticking me to find a vein is 22 times. And I warned the guy before he started that I would be difficult, but I got the, "oh, I never have problems" along with the everyone-says-that eyeroll.

When he had to call for help, and the help had to call for help, I totally felt vindicated.

But...the people at this lab are good. The first few times I had blood drawn there, I warned the guy. And he didn't blow me off. But he was able to get the needle into a vein with one stick, which impressed me. And every visit thereafter, he's gotten it. So I wasn't particularly concerned when I got there this morning; this would be quick and easy and I would be home in another 15 minutes, where I could crawl back in bed if I wanted.

And I kinda wanted...but I had to get the whole blood thing taken care of.

The guy with the golden gloved fingers was sitting there behind the desk when I arrived, so I rejoiced a little. For sure this would go well!

I checked in and was waved back, and I sat in the weird blood letting chair...and Super Dude stayed at the desk.

The blonde who had been sitting next to him, pouring over an anatomy book, was the one who got up and headed for the vacuum tubes and blue latex gloves.

Still not worried.

But then she started asking him questions. Questions of the I'm-so-new-I'm-still-in-school sort. Questions that had me mentally thinking "Oh, shit..." Because when someone who is about to jab you with a needle asks the other tech, "So, will it be easier if I put alcohol on both her arm and my fingers while I look for the vein?" you tend to start losing confidence in how smoothly things will go.

It doesn't help when she adds, "I have a lot of questions for you in a minute."

I resigned myself to getting a new record in how many times I was going to be jabbed. I probably could have spoken up and asked for the guy I know can draw blood painlessly, but hell, she has to learn on someone. And it doesn't hurt much, it's mostly annoying. Plus, it would give me something to whine about.

Not my tubes

So while she rubbed an alcohol wipe across my skin and then across her gloved fingers, I braced for it. She felt and she probed, and then she grabbed the needle and slid it in.

And damned if she didn't get it. She popped the first vacuum tube on, and it filled effortlessly.

Less than two minutes later, she was done. Four tubes of blood, a piece of gauze taped over the puncture mark, and I was out of there.

I practically skipped back out into the freezing cold (ok, 45 degrees) and headed home, where a nice warm bed was waiting for me.

But then I decided to pop onto Facebook "for just a minute" and then I had to read some headlines at FARK, and then there were blogs to be surfed.

Yeah. I don't think the bed is warm anymore.

26 March 2011

I mentioned previously that on Tuesday the Spouse Thingy and I went to San Fransisco to meet up with some friends. And of that adventure, you got to see a picture of the frog I bought.

Why no mass of SF pictures? 'Cause I always post SF pictures, right?

Well...it rained. It rained a lot, and the Spouse Thingy kept the camera in the backpack while it rained. He took pictures when it wasn't raining, but many of them?



Apparently this is my better side.

Now, friends Sandy and Tom were in town for a week, and in that week it rained Every.Single.Day.

Pounding rain.

Whipping wind.

I think we've had 22 straight days of rain, and I'm ready for some sun and some warm. They've headed back home to WI, so for sure next week will be bright and sunny, with temps in the 70s.

At least it didn't turn sunny today, the day after they left, because that would totally have been a major Mother Nature Middle Finger kind of thing.

(Yes, I would have laughed...a little...)

And just for kicks, here's my shiny ball I also got in SF.



Since it is still raining, the rest of my weekend will probably be spent in the office, in front of the computer, as I try to wrap up The Flipside of Doubt. I think--after writing and abandoning around 10,000 words--I found the thread my editor was looking for.

Think being the operative word.

24 March 2011

Fair warning: pettiness ahead...

You know, some Internet memes are kind of fun. The "25 Things About Me" that occasionally pops up on Facebook, that one can be fun when people don't take it too seriously. It gets buried in a note and you can read it or not, no big deal.

But the last few days I've noticed that there are a lot of Bloggers doing this hourly post thing, "A Day in My Life," complete with pictures. And people? When you have a few (several) hundred blogs in your feed reader and a good chunk of them are doing the damned meme...the reader gets bloated and it take for-freaking-ever to get through it.

Blogs I typically love to read...I'm hitting "next" over and over, because in all honesty, I don't care to see a picture of you brushing your teeth at 5:35 in the morning. Yeah, I get that it's part of the meme and you do it every day, but...come on.

Twenty four posts in one day? Teeth brushing, photos of breakfast, a picture of the pile of dirty laundry you need to do?

The Day before yesterday the Spouse Thingy and I went to San Francisco to meet up with Sandy & Tom, friends we haven't seen in about ten years. Even though we got rained on and it was cold, we had a really good time. We wandered into shops on Pier 39, I spent a ridiculous amount of money on a ceramic meditating frog and a little shiny glass ball, saw the seals... a fun day.

Neither here nor there, for the purposes of my whining.

But.

I got home and booted up the computer--and there were over 450 items waiting for me in Google Reader. And most of them were A Day in My Life posts.

After half an hour of trying to breeze through it all, I finally marked all read. I know I missed quite a few non-meme blog posts, but my head hurt by then.

I thought that would be it, but no...

People are still doing it.

My Google Reader is weeping.

And really? I absolutely do not believe that most of you brush your teeth in the morning with hair already done just so and makeup on...

Oh, and here's my frog.

 What?

Yes, I know what "hypocrite" means. Don't you be rolling your eyes at me.

18 March 2011

Bah. Nearly 8,000 words written, and it's just not working, so into the ether they go...

And right now, I really want some cake. Or cookies. Neither of which we keep in the house.

Oh yeah, that's how hard my life sucks. No cookies or cake. IT'S NOT FAIR!

I'm rolling my eyes, too...

14 March 2011

There’s a writer’s axiom, “show, don’t tell.” In other words, paint a picture with words; let the reader see the action in his head, make the reader involved.

It’s kind of like the difference between saying, “Hey I got a new tattoo,” and describing that it’s a pretty little blue hummingbird, its wings stretched high, head pointed so that it’s looking down for the next beautiful flower to investigate.

Some things, you want to tell and not show. For instance, I don’t think you’d want me to show you Max’s latest hairball. That’s better left to telling.

Well, unless you like that sort of thing, and if you do, I don’t want to know.

Today I got the first of what will surely be 3,842 pages of noted from my editor (because, you know, she’s mean and all that) and while she overall likes the story and found few technical errors, she did think that in one particular plot point I did more telling than showing, and given that it’s an important plot point, more work needs to be done.

As I said on Twitter* earlier, I didn’t become a writer to work.

But, I can see where she’s coming from. While I may have woven a reasonable verbal tapestry, there are a couple of threads missing; I need to figure out from what parts of the story they’re missing and go back to shove them into place. And then do it without shredding anything else in the process. And make it look like those threads were there all along.

See, my editor is teh Meen. Making me actually work. Sheesh.

*Yes, I’m on Twitter. I’m just now really figuring it out. I’m also on Facebook. But that one, I am totally on board and annoy massive numbers of people on a daily basis…

12 March 2011

I don't know why, but the cats let me sleep in this morning--late enough that I assumed the Spouse Thingy had already fed them and they were content to just chill out on top of me in bed. After only 3.5 hours of sleep the night (day?) before, I was grateful for it and was in a good mood when I got out of bed.

And dang, he had not fed them. They just let me sleep.

After they were fed I picked up my laptop and got online...and my good mood turned a little sour. Because, in the aftermath of what happened in Japan, I dunno, I had these expectations that everyone would be on board with helping quake and tsunami victims, Because, you know, that's what you do when tragedy hits. You do what you can to help, no matter what it is. Rescue worker skills? You go help. All you can do is donate $5? Donate $5. It all matters, and it all counts.

But poking around online, I keep seeing people talking about how Japan got what it deserved, and we (U.S. citizens) should do nothing because, hey, remember Pearl Harbor?

If you're one of those people...are you fucking insane?

Do you know how long ago that was? And hey, did you forget about the fact that the U.S. bombed the motherfarking hell out of Japan with nuclear bombs???

That war? IT'S OVER. Has been for a long, long time.

And so what if it hadn't? So what if it had been last year or even last week?

When the shit hits the fan like that, when the earth moves and swallows people whole and then drowns a few thousand more, you set the political crap aside and YOU HELP.

So yeah, my mood is a little more sour, because finding out there are so many stupid, sucky people crawling around? It bites.

Plus, something in the kitchen stinks, and I have to figure out what.

I hate cleaning...

11 March 2011

I had the TV on my desk tuned to the news last night as I sat there, ostensibly to answer email. I wanted information on the earthquake that hit Japan, but I never expected to see the horror that was unfolding. I could not have fathomed witnessing, as it happened, cars speeding down the road as people tried to outrun the water that was rushing toward them at speeds so fast that there was no way for them to win.

It was the most gut wrenching of disaster movie moments, but so real that I cut my email short and sat there trying to not cave in to the overwhelming want of crying for those people, and the churning in my stomach.

The TV on my desk is a little 20 inch flatscreen, which is about as big a picture as I wanted to get, but eventually I moved out into the living room, where I could--ironically--be comfortable while I watched the destruction slamming down on the Japanese people.

I didn't want to see it, but I think that was mostly because I didn't want to accept that something this horrific was actually happening. I also couldn't not watch; I caught myself more than once whispering words of hope for those people, and I had to watch.

Eventually I headed for bed, turned the TV on in the bedroom, thinking that I'd turn it off in a little while. I commented on Facebook that I didn't think I'd sleep, but truthfully I thought I would.

But then they started talking about Hawaii. The tsunami was not going to be limited to Asia.

And then there was mention of the U.S. West Coast; we're far enough inland that being slammed by a wall of water wasn't even a real possibility, but the Boy lives a hell of a lot closer to the coast. Near the water.

I worried.

When it went from a Tsunami Watch to a Tsunami Warning, I knew I wasn't sleeping. I stayed online, relying on Facebook and Kurtis Ming from Sacramento's channel 13 for updates and links (he was on all freaking night long with updates and information...I know I'm not the only one who appreciated that), and my friends for people to talk to. And I was glued to the TV; Sacramento's channel 3 ran news coverage all night, and while I surfed FB for channel 13's updates I watched channel 3, worrying a little bit about what all this would mean for the Boy.

He's old enough and intelligent enough to get his ass out when he needs to, but still...that's my kid. I was fully prepared to pick up the phone and call him if the news guys said that area of the county needed to evacuate.

I hate phones, that tells you something.

By then I was also very, very tired and not really thinking straight.

I watched until about 8:30 this morning, when I finally needed to cave into the need for sleep...yet I woke right at noon, just in time for the noon newscast.

In time to see images like this online:

The Atlantic.com -- Reuters/Kyodo

The above image found at The Atlantic; there are 48 pictures there worth seeing. Boston.com has 47 more (some are the same) that are kind of jaw dropping.

I suspect I'll sleep just fine tonight...and I really feel for those who won't.

I can't even imagine what they're going through...

10 March 2011

My little Macbook has made me a Mac convert. Kinda sorta. So far I like it better than Windows, although I haven't had to install much software and haven't tripped over much yet...when that happens, I'm sure I'll have some Mac Sucks attitude.

But my little Mac?



That 13" screen is really small. It's all right (but just) when I'm writing, but tonight I tried to work on the book cover, and the only way I could do anything was with my nose about half an inch from the screen.

Clearly, the screen is too small.

Shuddup, it has nothing to do with my age.

Than manuscript has been through a couple of proofreaders and I've taken a couple of passes through it; every time someone combs through it they find something--a dropped letter here, an extra letter there--but for the most part it's coming together swimmingly.

Haven't gotten anything back from the editor, yet, though, so my happy tune may change to screeching death metal soon.

She's mean.

Really.

Mean.

8 March 2011

My mother in law is a busy person; from her daily activities to her love of cruises, if we want to see her, we make an appointment.

If we're lucky, she'll pencil us in. ;)

I love that she's as active as she is, and I want to be that active when I'm older (not old...the numbers don't matter, she's not old. I don't want to be old, either.) I want to still be out there taking long walks, going places, dragging the Spouse Thingy to San Francisco for the hell of it. I want to squeeze every freaking thing I can out of life, and I want to not just enjoy it, I want to be happy through it.

And there's another thing; she's not just busy, she seems to be a happy person. Genuinely nice, very sweet, and innately, wonderfully happy.

It would be easy to not be happy. Face it, when you lose your other half, it would be easy to just burrow down and hide away, and let the darker shadows suck the joy right out of life. Who could blame you?

She could have gone there, yet she didn't. She mourned, and then did exactly what my father in law would have wanted for the woman he truly adored.

She lived.

Remember this tattoo?

I knew when I got it that it wasn't complete. Because Superman alone never felt right. There was always supposed to be something else there.

I even knew what it was, but I didn't know exactly how I wanted to implement it. It had to really matter, because my mother in law? She really matters.

I wanted something to represent happiness. Something to represent busyness. And every time I contemplated it, I came back to the same things: the Bluebird of Happiness, and hummingbirds.

Both are incredibly beautiful, and I love the flitting, zippy motion of hummingbirds.

Blue for happiness; the hummingbird for the beauty of keeping in motion, staying busy.

And the wings...they're touching the shield for a reason, Because no matter how busy she is, how much she lives life, she always, always carries him with her.

It's not two tattoos; it's one that I had done a couple of years apart. 


And now no matter what, I carry these people with me.

7 March 2011

I admit, I tend to become singularly focused when I'm this close to wrapping a book up. I'm on the third pass through the manuscript, the Spouse Thingy has proofed it once, the editor is doing her thing, and Murf is eyeballing it for continuity and context errors.

Max apparently has had enough.

This was his answer to the question of "How does a kitty go about getting some attention around here?"

Buddah, on the other hand, just sits there and meows at me.

Yes, I feel guilty that they're obviously so neglected (see how thin they are? Poor babies...) but I need to get this sucker done...

3 March 2011

One of the nice things about living where we do--if we get up one morning and the weather is nice, and there's nothing else to do, there's always San Francisco. And on Tuesday the weather was just about perfect and there was nothing on the schedule, so we headed for a BART station and rode the train in, with nothing specific to do in mind.

 We got off at an early stop and decided to walk along the Embarcadero. I don't think we were even sure how far we wanted to go, but it runs along the water and it's where all the pier buildings are.

Overall, there's not a lot to see other than those buildings and ships (which is fine if you like boats...I'm not a huge fan) but if you turn and look towards the heart of the city, you can see stuff like Coit Tower.

Very cool.

Still haven't see it up close, but even at a distance...very cool.

We walked down to Fisherman's Wharf and poked around Pier 39 a bit (ok, fine, I needed to pee and we knew there was a restroom there...) and split a soft pretzel and Diet Coke. In spite of the plethora of shops, we didn't wander into any of them (BTDT, have enough t-shirts) and instead kept walking.

And just past Pier 39, I met my new Boy Toy. He posed for the Spouse Thingy, and after this picture was taken. my new Boy Toy (MNBT) spotted an older Asian guy walking past, and he jumped from his perched and literally jumped on the old guy...I think hscaring the crap out of him, and as far as I know he may still be running down the Embarcadero to get away.

But while he was trying to get acquainted with the Asian guy, I was putting a dollar in his bucket. 'Cause, you know, he was nice enough to pose, and he was making everyone laugh.

After I dropped the dollar in his bucket I started to walk away, but MNBT decided to come get me, and together we walked back to where his throngs of admirers were waiting.

Ok, fine, it was a bunch of people who wanted to see what he was going to do next.

And what he was going to do, was pose for another picture for the Spouse Thingy.

Don't we look happy together?

My new Boy Toy is one of the reasons I love walking around San Francisco. You never know what--or who--you're going to see.

We walked a little further down the Wharf and the Spouse Thingy indulged in some fried fish (I do not do fish, but damned if I was going to be a reason he didn't get any. If you like fish, when you're at the Wharf, you get fish. It's like a law, I think...)

We ended up at Ghiradelli Square, and you bet we picked up some chocolate.

By the time we were done there, I think we'd both had enough walking. We wandered over to the cable car station at the end of Hyde Street, and this is the view you get while standing there.

Beautiful.

We wound up waiting there about half an hour; they had loaded one car that took off, and the next we *just* missed getting on...but it just sat there for 15 minutes while the operator took a break. When the next one pulled up, being that we were first in line, we got choice seats right up front...and still waited while another operator took a break.

Still...we didn't have to sit inside and didn't have to hang off the sides (though I get why some people like that...the kid that was standing in front of me kept going Wheeeee...LOL)

Since I was right up front, I was in a good position to get a few pictures. I was shooting for some perspective on the downtown hills, though the pictures I got don't quite do it justice.

Still, try to imagine walking up and down these hills. the locals don't seem to think twice; they just do it. You see guys on bikes all around the city and they all have these HUGE calf muscles...

Fricking amazing.

All I can think about when I see them is that 1) none of them killed me on the last 3 Day Walk; 2) I clearly remember swearing under my breath (and not so much under my breath) during the last 3 Day every time we came up to a new hill; and 3) I'm actually looking forward to doing it again.

Not just the walk itself, but coming into the city and wandering around, getting my feet and legs ready for September.

I think the next time we wander into the city we're going to drive in over the Golden Gate Bridge and head for the beach along the Great Highway, and maybe walk around Golden Gate Park for a bit. We've been to the DeYougn Museum there a few times, but haven't really explored the park. I want to check out Stowe Lake and the Japanese Tea Gardens, find Baker Beach, and see what else there is to explore.

I'm not sure much will beat a view like this, though

The Golden Gate Bridge from Crissy Field.

27 February 2011

You used to update the thing in the sidebar, your weight loss and I liked seeing it, it helped me think I could do it too. And your blog about it, what happened to that?

The blog was boring; I mean, if it bored me to write it, then it had to be excruciating to read, so I gave it up a long time ago. It's still there, somewhere, mocking me, reminding me that losing weight has been one of the major failures of my adult life (not quite as major has having gained the weight it the first place, but still...)

And the sidebar widget? I stopped updating it because I stopped losing weight. From July 2009 until December 2009 I dropped 50 pounds and felt great about it--and at that rate I thought I would reach my 85 pound goal by April or May 2010.

But then I just stopped losing weight. My calorie intake was the same, but nothing was happening. The answer was to increase my calorie burn, but even after training for the 3 Day walk, which meant getting my ass up every day and walking, as much as 50 miles a week, I wasn't losing.

Trust me, you want frustration? Have that happen. I ran an 800 calorie deficit most days, but the blubber stubbornly clung to me.

Then in December I wiped out on the Skki Trikke, and in the complete non-movement right after I gained a few pounds. That was expected; I really wasn't moving much, and then I threw my back out. I didn't increase my eating, though. But still, I gained.

In December I bought a Body Media calorie tracker and have been wearing it since; it keeps a very close track of how many calories I burn, and I keep very close watch on how many calories I take in. On days when I don't do much at all I'm burning 1900 calories. I'm taking in 1300-1400. On days when I walk, I'm burning 2200 or more, and I take in about 1400-1500.

There should be weight loss there.

Instead, I've gained about 15 pounds.

Go figure.

So no, I'm not updating the little chart in the sidebar. In fact, I took it down because it was like this thing poking at me and making me feel really bad.

I have a doctor's appointment in April and I'll bring it up, but honestly, my experience with trying to get a doc to listen when it comes to weight issues leaves me thinking I'll get blown off. I hope I'm wrong, but I have low expectations.

24 February 2011

No, the book's not ready; the first draft and first pass through have been done. It still needs to be tweaked and edited, then the second draft (which should go quickly, given that the back story was pretty much established in the first 4 books.)

But, this is the cover mock up. It's not done, either. The font might change; the color of the font might change. I know the stroke that lines the font will change to make it stand out a little more.

But, so far, I like the cover.

And the title? That's not changing. That's pretty much set in stone.

So why post a picture of a mock cover? To annoy the hell out of Char Murphy, who's been bugging me to read the first draft.

And why do I want to annoy her? Because she knows how tall I am and how much I weight, and used this knowledge to help her husband order this for me:

Apparently I'm doing the 3 Day in style this year.

At least I won't have to show my face...

16 February 2011

Want to see reduce a Wabbit nearly to near tears?

Be in the room when she discovers that the first file of manuscript she's been working on for months--almost a year if you include the conception phase--is corrupt.

Oh yeah.

I fired the computer up to do some work this afternoon, tried to open the file containing part one and got the ugliest of error messages.

WORD CANNOT OPEN THIS DOCUMENT

FILE IS CORRUPT

Panic began to ensue. Yes, I have earlier versions saved, but I did a lot of work on it last night, some major revisions, and only saved to a flash drive. I tried opening it on two different computers with the same result: that file was dead.

Oh, and before what you're thinking spills out: don't ever suggest to a riter they can just rewrite something.

No. No they can't. What seems plausible is in fact a nightmare, and the second time around the words simply fall flat and any magic vanishes. The resulting mess is dull and lifeless and is, frankly, a gut punch to the writing ego.

Yet, I was sure that's what I was going to have to do: take an earlier version and try to re-polish it.

Trust me, that's worth crying about.

But...on a whim I sent Murf a text message because one of his best friends in a compu-genius and I hoped he would have something to tell me to do other than scream.

"Email the file," came the quick reply.

Less than five minutes later--literally--I got another text. Check your email; it was one corrupt line and he fixed it. He also suggested I get everything possible off that flash drive and then get rid of it.

Will do.

And mucho thanks, Dack and Undr.

15 February 2011

Because I know you've been waiting with baited breath...

I have no idea why this picture is so stretched out...

Behold...the first draft...
It probably would have been done day before yesterday, but I got distracted by some really beautiful weather and decided to take advantage of the spring-like days to take a few long walks. My timing was good, too, because the rain and wind has moved in, and it's not like there's a whole lot else to do while stuck inside.

Well, other than cleaning, and I'd much rather write than clean.

And then yesterday was Valentine's Day, and while I got a lot of work done, we did go out to dinner (yes, I know, I've said before you'd never find me in a restaurant on Valentine's Day, but in my defense I just had a brain cramp, and we didn't go to our first choice because the damned parking lot was PACKED--at 5-freaking-thirty! Like, who other than us eats at 5-freaking-thirty on Valentine's Day? Really!) and we did want to spend some, um, quality time together later.

Oh, and there was frozen yogurt in there somewhere. After dinner but before, um, watching TV in bed while also playing with my iPad.

Shuddup. You can't get porn on an iPad.

(Can you?)

Anyway, even though the Spouse Thingy had today off, he had a CPR test to take and a Mom to go see, so I stayed home and finished the first draft.

And now the fun begins, wherein I read the damned book so many times that I start to hate it.

When I truly despise it, I'll send it to the editor and to a couple of beta readers. With any luck, it'll be ready for prime time in April or May.

I can see you twittering with excitement from here.

Or maybe you just have gas.

Whatever. First draft--in the can.

10 February 2010

Slowly but surely, I'm getting to the end of the first draft of the book I've been working on. There are some gaping holes in the manuscript, things I did not write because I needed to have a better sense of how certain events would play out before addressing them, but by the end of the weekend I'm hoping I can go back and fill in those holes.

It's kind of like wood putty, but with words. Literary putty? Verbiage paste? Anti-white out?

Anyway, I'm getting there. But I've also been distracted by this:

New-to-me Macbook laptop. I wasn't in the market for a new laptop, the one I have works perfectly fine, but this used system came preloaded with all the software I need for the publishing side of my life, and I've been in need of some serious software upgrades for a long time now. The main platform I use for manuscript formatting, Pagemaker, I bought in 2001 and I think that was the last time Adobe released any version of Pagemaker. The year after that they moved to InDesign, but I've resisted all these years.

This little Mac (and man it is REALLY little...) has the newest InDesign on it, which gives me a chance to play with it and to see if I have any hope of figuring it out. It's also got the newest Photoshop, Illustrator, and a ton of other things. Office 2011...which I'm kind of liking more on the Mac than I do on Windows.

In any case, I might have finished the first draft this week if not for the Mac distraction...

Totally different thing...why the hell am I sitting here with The Real Housewives of New Jersey on? I mean, I'm just waiting for the noon news to come on, but really, I feel about 20 IQ points dumber for the 15 minutes I've been listening to it...

3 February 2011

I haven't been especially active in the last couple of months. Between wiping out and hurting my shoulder, then throwing my back out, well, I've done a lot of sitting here trying to not move too much. But now that the shoulder feels decent most of the time and the back feels fine, it's time to start moving again.

The thing is, my endurance sucks. I can still walk reasonable distances at an adequate speed, but I really do want to get into shape. I have the spiffy calorie counting thingy strapped to my arm all the time so I know what my baseline is and what my typical deficit is every day, but I need the cardio to add to that.

The best cardio thingy I have, the Street Strider. The outdoor elliptical machine that has kicked my ass in a major way. I ever get get very far on it before the weather turned and it was either too cold, too rainy, or I was just in no shape to ride it.

But now?

Otherwise known as the Dammit Machine

I bought a Kinetic Road Machine so that I can use it indoors (and for the record, I don't recommend doing this in front of a fire...) so that I can get some of my endurance back before taking it outside again.

This morning I hopped on and got going, and in five minutes I was sucking wind. Seriously sucking wind. So I got off, caught my breath, got back on...and was sucking wind.

Out of shape, I are.

I worked it in 5-10 minutes spurts, until I had half a hour on it, and later this evening I did another ten,

Buddah sat and watched, mocking me.

Once I get it up to 15-20 minutes nonstop I'll try taking it outside again, because that's got to be more fun than staying indoors being mocked by the cat.

Well, I hope I will. There's a good chance we're heading for the snow next week and giving the Skkis another try. So who knows...

31January 2010

This is often the soundtrack to my work.

John Barry's Moviola.

I picked it up on a whim at least 12 years ago, maybe 13 or 14, and it's been one of my favorites since then. Sometimes I pop open the laptop to work, and before I even have music going, I hear the opening strains of Out of Africa. The music is soothing, classy without being too classical, and so near perfection that if you just sit back and close your eyes, it wraps around you, both feather soft and tightly coiled.

I was listening to it yesterday as I worked, and even put a link to the CD on Amazon on my Facebook page.

Then today I hopped online, hit FARK, and found a headline about John Barry.

He died today.

That kinda sucks.

I'll probably play the same CD over and over, letting it swell in the background while I finish this book, but the idea that we'll never hear anything new from him?

Yeah. Sucks.