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July 9th, 2009

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July 6th, 2009

05:59 pm - Words on paper I finally managed to write today. After a long, thought-filled hiatus. I managed 2,600 words on the first, rough draft of a new story, tentatively titled, "Wear Life Like a Eulogy." It felt good to get out and write. I'm in Starbucks in Chapters, comfortable, excited, and filled with the promise of "the new." I've been so blindsided by life over the last few weeks. Writing is what I love to do, and I'm glad I'm finding a way to fit it back into my life again. Could it be that the block is lifting? I will give myself the space to watch, wait, and see. Current Location: Starbucks Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: their piped in stuff Tags: personal, writing

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June 15th, 2009

07:48 pm - Someone Call the Fat Lady to the Stage In court today, with the combined efforts of me, my lawyer, my ex, and his lawyer, we came to an agreement on all of the outstanding issues of the divorce. We signed the memorandum and handed it to a judge. Our case has now been pulled from the trial list. Wow. The next step involves finessing the wording on the final agreement. And then, wham, we will be officially divorced. I am in shock at the moment. I had to pick up groceries after, and was so stunned that I spent most of the trip staring at the shelves trying to remember what we eat. Current Location: my office Current Mood: shocked Tags: divorce, personal

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June 11th, 2009

03:49 pm - Cafe time I'm sitting at a cafe, sipping a Chai frappe, and nibbling on a butter tart. Today is my birthday and I'm a mix of happy and sad. Happy because I get to spend today with Michael. He is an amazing man who has truly made my life better. I would never have guessed or even dreamed that a relationship could be as loving, comforting, supportive, and healing as this one has been for me. Thank you, Michael, for bringing more joy into my life than I will ever be able to measure. Sad because my two sons are away (one at camp and one with his dad), and I miss having them around on my special day. My mother and sister are out of province, too, so I'm feeling particularly separated from my "peeps". Current Location: urbana cafe Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: June 2009 mix Tags: birthdays, personal

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June 4th, 2009

10:32 pm - Ouch Still in short post mode. The splint helps a little, but my hand aches after a short time at the keyboard. I hope this passes fairly quickly. Current Location: in bed Current Mood: exhausted Tags: personal

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June 2nd, 2009

03:45 pm - WorldCon is a Go After All Today I received an invitation to the launch for Tesseracts 13. So I suppose I AM still going to WorldCon. Now I should really try to find a room before I end up on the street... My thumb still aches. I can't sit at the computer for long and it's driving me crazy. Current Location: my office Current Mood: sore Tags: conventions, personal

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May 28th, 2009

06:29 pm - Bummers all around I have tendinitis in my left thumb. Now wearing a splint, icing, advil, etc. Can only type for short periods. Found out last night that Tesseracts 13 Won't be in print until September 15, so no WorldCon launch. Grr... If anyone out there in LJ land wants to buy my WorldCon membership (I paid $240 Canadian) please let me know. It's in Montreal this year, from August 6 to 10. Current Location: my office Current Mood: sore Tags: conventions, personal

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May 19th, 2009

09:30 pm - I own a van A Chrysler Grand Caravan to be exact. And gold coloured (they call it sandstone) if that's your next question. A 2008 with about 20,000 kms. I miss my Jeep a little. At least I had one final wave-to-a-fellow-owner on the drive to the dealership to trade it in. It's a Jeep thing...you wouldn't understand. *sigh* Current Location: in bed Current Mood: exhausted Tags: personal

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April 21st, 2009

10:14 pm - Home, for a change I have been extremely busy of late. Things I have done: - drove to Arlington for reddherring1955's mom's funeral - drove to Toronto for my cousin Jonathan's wedding - drove to St Catharine's to help my sister pack up her life for the move - with my mother's help, finished the rough draft of my income tax return (will take the pack to my accountant tomorrow) - had one wickedly nasty bout of stomach flu (or food poisoning? either way, BLEH!) I've also been reading David Morrell's The Successful Novelist, and though I'm not far in, it's been useful already. It actually guilted me back into writing again. I've done a couple of days of Club 100 which isn't much, but considering how little time I've actually been home (and not behind the wheel of my car), it's a miracle, IMHO. The kids are in bed, and my sister is hanging with me at the moment. She goes back to Alberta soon, which is a total drag. I will now return to burying my head under a pile of "to-do". Current Location: in bed Current Mood: exhausted Current Music: the sound of kids snoring Tags: personal, travel, writing

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April 8th, 2009

03:44 pm - More whining about taxes I have spent the last three days either at my mom's or on the phone with her, discussing my tax return. She likes to do it, ENJOYS helping people with their taxes. I know, I can't believe it either. Every time I think I've got my act together, that I'm almost done, she asks me about another bunch of deductions and I go home and scrounge through my filing cabinet for those receipts. All power to her, she's reduced the tax I owe by a huge chunk of cash. And my accountant bill will be much smaller when all is said and done. I still have a few weeks, after all, in Canada, the deadline is April 30th. Current Location: my office Current Mood: exhausted Tags: financial, personal

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April 4th, 2009

10:32 pm - Force the Summer This afternoon, I brought the kids to marcy_italiano's Force the Summer Party. We managed a game each of Bocce, all in our summer gear. It was cold, but fingers crossed that our efforts have forced the summer to hurry up and arrive a little sooner. On the writing front: not much to report. Still mulling over the notion of submitting to agents, trying to figure out which direction to take first and maximizing my query letter. Current Location: in bed Current Mood: exhausted Tags: personal

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March 26th, 2009

09:24 pm - A submission, you say? It's true, I swear! I mailed "Cold Feet" to Writers of the Future today. Woot! That puts my number of submissions for the year at four. It's sad, but it's all mine. The shiny counter: 4 / 52 submissions. 8% done! I figured I would dabble in my financials, starting the business statements for my tax return. I planned to work for about an hour then do some other submissions. Five and a half hours later, I was rushing out the door to pick up my older son and hadn't even gotten as far as I wanted to get. Did I mention I loathe tax season?? Current Location: in bed Current Mood: exhausted Current Music: the sound of my kids reading Tags: financial, personal, submissions, writing

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March 18th, 2009

10:29 am - How did that giant pile of work end up on my desk?? Yikes. It's Wednesday already and I haven't accomplished very much of anything yet. Sure, I've done the dishes and washed the bedding and tidied my house. Sure, I've printed the stories I need to read over. I've even met with a few people who I haven't seen in a while to catch up on things. While I was doing all of those things...no writing of my own has taken place. I must find time to work through reddherring1955's comments on "Flight." I must make time to read through, "Cold Feet" before the WotF deadline. Gosh I hate it the way those deadlines just fly closer by the day! Someone invent me a time turner! Current Location: the dining room Current Mood: busy Current Music: silence Tags: personal, writing

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March 13th, 2009

03:53 pm - Writing Time! Hoo-rah! The cold seemed to have passed enough that my younger son made it to school today. Yay! So I was finally able to look over the crits of "Cold Feet" and make some changes (especially to the beginning) of the story. I printed it off and will give it to Michael to read tonight. Hopefully, fingers crossed, I can get it out the door to WotF on time this year. In other news, I gave up almost all desserts for Lent. No, I'm not catholic, but it's a long story. Suffice it to say, today was very hard. I ended up eating a few pieces of a chocolate bar (I refused to give up chocolate) and that helped. Whew! Current Location: my office Current Mood: cold Current Music: The guitar heros Tags: personal, writing

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February 23rd, 2009

10:46 pm - Blurry The edges of my brain are blurry today! My financial paperwork has been stabbed at. I'm not done, not by a long shot, but I'm feeling accomplished. Writing is still taking a back seat. Current Location: in bed Current Mood: exhausted Tags: financial, personal

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February 18th, 2009

10:41 pm - It's that time of year again... Yes, it's time for me to start blogging, and sorta complaining, about financial paperwork. As my first T slip arrived from beyond, I realized I need to get some financial paperwork together for the taxation year. Blah! I did the first round of sorting, but haven't done much in the way of data entry. The novel has been ignored for several days. Oops. Tomorrow, I hope to put some novel time in and get some paperwork done. It'll be a multi-tasking day, fingers crossed. Current Location: the dining room Current Mood: cranky Tags: financial, personal, writing

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February 2nd, 2009

08:20 pm - Housekeeping and writing new words Last night, I watched the Superbowl with Michael. He's a Pittsburgh fan, so not only did he explain the game (which made it much more interesting), but I got to experience the concept of cheering for a team that actually won a championship. (For those of you scratching your heads at this point, I'm a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. Need I say more??). I thoroughly enjoyed the evening. Today, I made my way to Chapters and worked on the novel for a couple of hours. The first half hour or so, I was struggling to get into it, so I did some housekeeping, doing word counts for each chapter and ensuring that my scribble notes were up to date with the latest changes. That got me into a proper writing mood and I got a good 1000 new words into the novel and deleted at least that many (maybe more) that didn't belong (from the old storyline). Then my writing buddy Pat Forde dropped by and we chatted about SF, the state of novel publishing, the coolest new magazines, and many more interesting and complex topics. After, I took the Jeep in for an oil change and was treated to some other procedure that "had to be done" which set me back a couple of hundred bucks. I soooo wish I knew more about cars -- enough that I could be more confident that I don't have a big "mark" on my back! In the update-on-my-health department, the doc gave me antibiotics Friday which are working now. But they're knocking me out. It's only 8:20 and I'm thinking about calling it a night. Ah well, sleep heals. Current Location: in bed Current Mood: exhausted Tags: football, personal, writing

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January 26th, 2009

06:03 pm - The winter of germs I'm sick again! This time, it's a sinus cold, giving me ear pain, too. Stupid germs! Grrr... No writing on the weekend -- took it easy with Michael and his girls. Now my kids are home and I've a full schedule of appointments, etc, this week. But tomorrow I hope to go to Starbucks for some writing time. Current Location: my office Current Mood: sore Current Music: video game music from the kid beside me Tags: personal

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January 15th, 2009

04:19 pm - Getting a little down I miss the sun. I'm wishing I could be someplace sunnier and warmer at the moment. It doesn't help that my main radio station has sent its three DJs to Jamaica for the week. Grrr... I've been watching TV, trying to catch up on the multitude of shows I've stored on my PVR. I managed to watch a few episodes of Supernatural. Loved the old movie one, but was pissed that the main arch, "destruction of a town by angels" episode aired at a different time so I missed it. Grr... Haven't thought of how to end "Cold Feet" yet, though it's partly my fault for not making time to put butt in chair. I must find a way to "shake off the dust" and get some work done, but at the moment, I'm a bit overwhelmed by personal issues, particularly some of the ugly stuff. Come on, spring! Current Location: my office Current Mood: drained Tags: personal, supernatural

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January 13th, 2009

04:10 pm - Getting it together I wrote a big pile of words on Wednesday and Friday last week, getting about 4500 words into a brand new story called, "Cold Feet." I'm not sure how it'll end, yet, so I haven't finished it. But it was sweet to finally write something new for a change. It's SF humour, a sub-genre I've had success with and that's actually FUN to write. Go me. In other news, my older son was sick last night so he missed school today. I took my mother in for her pre-op exam with the cataract surgeon today, plus a service tech was in looking at the fan on my stove. Needless to say, no writing done today. But I did fill in the rebate paperwork for the kids' computer that I bought for Christmas. Yay! A cheque will slowly make it's way back to me. My desk is still a mess, and now I'm behind on financial paperwork, but I'm making progress in some areas, be it so humble. Looks like Tesseracts 13 will launch at Anticipation in Montreal, so I've got to fork out the big bucks for that con. *sigh* Current Location: my office Current Mood: thoughtful Tags: personal, writing

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