Transitions

I just passed the six hundred post mark. Six hundred posts? Really? In August I'll hit my five year mark, so I guess it's not all that many, all told. Still. That's a lot of yammering.

Another milestone, though more a spring-oriented one: the tulips and pears are in full bloom, while the last of the quince, and peach blossoms are fading. The apple blossom buds have just started to barely open, which means it's time to plant asparagus seeds. The instructions on the packet don't recommend direct-seeding, but I'm following Gardening West of the Cascades and I want to give it at least one year so I can see for myself how well his methods work. I have a couple of asparagus survivors from the great greenhouse upset, so I'm not putting all my eggs in one basket, but that does leave a lot less margin (I'd planned on six seedlings and fourteen direct-seeded plants) than I'd initially worked toward.

The DH and I are one step closer to a finished ceiling downstairs. I spent the sunny part of yesterday painting the first coat on our new ceiling--on the ground, where I don't have to rest every few minutes to let all the blood return to my hands. He got a ton of mowing done, and now the orchard field looks gorgeous, like something out of a postcard. The girl had JR (our rabbit) out hopping around for over an hour, which must have felt great to him after several rainy days stuck all day in his cage. We celebrated with yummy bbq, and the bunny got fresh mowing clippings as a treat.

In writing news, I'm finding that working on House of Goats is easier, at least for the moment, than writing first draft short stories. I don't know if it's that I'm coming down with the same illness that have sent both kids to bed, or if my creative energy is being siphoned into trying to manage and organize the return of the downstairs to a lovely living space. It is creative work (and a lot of elbow grease) to essentially build a to-do list and put the items into the proper order. For example, we had to consider whether or not to tear out the laundry room wall. I think it'll be okay. It doesn't feel unusually cold (which would suggest that it's soaked with water) and I don't see any discoloration. So I decided to run the clothes drier, a lot, to keep the place vented and warm to assist in drying. Which involves not only going through our normal laundry needs, but also curtains and such.

Stuff like that. Every aspect of the downstairs, from the ceiling joints and sections where the ceiling tore or damaged part of the wall, down to figuring out where and how to start eliminating the piles of dust, to figuring out a cleaning schedule so that the kids' rooms don't become dangerously filthy not only from their own lifestyles but encroaching remodeling, takes a surprising amount of creative energy.

So imagine my surprise when I started painting again recently. Imagine my even larger surprise when I had a dream about painting portraits, and woke up thinking that the techniques I used in the dreams would actually work.

Now I just need some writing dreams where my dream writing techniques would actually work ... But I'm getting lots of writing done overall, so I guess I shouldn't complain. Maybe my difficulties with short stories right now are a bit inevitable anyway. I've always been primarily a book-length writer, and as my energy gets eaten up, it's natural that I'll favor that length. It's my understanding as well that if (when!) I start getting books published, I might very well end up with a schedule from the publisher as far as what books they'll want to see next (usually sequels.) Combine that with my own plans for what books I want to write, and that will leave less and less time for short story writing. The increased difficulty of writing short stories (for me), decreases in time, and decreases in energy, make the slow reduction of short story production seem inevitable. I guess it's another transition, like quince to tulips. But I think I'll always write short stories. They're not only fun, but they let me explore ideas that wouldn't necessarily fill a book, they let me play with different voices, and they teach me lots about writing.

Burble

This is an argh of quiet desperation.

Actually, I'm not really desperate.

The DH and I are at the Laundromat. Are we here because we wanted to catch up on bedding? No. Are we here because we're doing a bunch of pillows? Wrong again.

I went into our laundry room looking for underwear. (C'mon everyone, sing it from Dr. Horrible! Underwear ... tumbling ...) I heard what I thought was a rat really going to town, nibbling. After I hit the wall a couple of times with no effect, all the while wondering how the rat could have possibly gotten in there and where to set a trap to catch it, I realized it didn't sound exactly like a rat nibbling. Actually, it sounded like water dribbling and burbling behind the wall.

And I had this awful, sinking feeling that the wet towels on the floor weren't from the kids dumping the towels in there after some weird cleaning scheme like I'd initially thought. You see, those damp towels had been damp for a couple of days, and--

"Rory! Turn off the water upstairs! I need to check something!"

"What?"

I dashed upstairs and got him to stop washing his hands, then hurried downstairs again. Still dribbling. It wasn't drain pipe noises, which ended my last hope that I was just hearing normal plumbing sounds.

It was raining outside.

And the dogs had been digging.

Sure enough, when my DH looked outside, a little stream was running down a deep trench they'd dug straight toward the laundry room.

The director of my life cued the adventure/danger music as I ran out to the shed, grabbed a shovel, and began to reroute the water toward the French drain my DH and the boy had installed a few years ago.

For about fifteen more minutes, we heard the dribbling behind the wall, and then it stopped.

Luckily there's a drain in the laundry room floor, so this didn't affect any other part of the house, and also (sort of) luckily the towels and stuff on the floor soaked up a lot of the moisture.

So here we are at the Laundromat (with my freezeray I will STOP the pain) washing all the wet stuff. Some of it was gross because all the laundry on the floor had been quietly soaking up rainwater that had run behind the wall and onto the laundry room floor for the past few days, unbeknownst to us, and did what wet laundry on the floor is wont to do.

Stink.

Argh.

Monday Updates

Some wild weather lately. We had another extremely windy day, so I'm glad I didn't get the parts for my wind-busted greenhouse yet. It would have just gotten busted up again.

I'm working through House of Goats again, this time adding things I thought of belatedly and wanted to insert in, and looking specifically for emotional highs and lows that I missed the first go-through. This is a bit of a new process for me. I usually get in almost everything I want on the first go-through. I'm liking it a lot. When I mentioned this to a group of writers I know from a class, another one piped up with the fact that she writes in a similar way. Since she's a published author and I rather admire her writing, I felt better about doing it this way.

Even if no one else wrote this way, though, I'd still do it. I write every book in a slightly different way. Part of that is due to the fact that I'm learning to be a better writer, but I think a great deal of it has to do with the fact that every book is different. Some are very different. In fact, I'd be very surprised if I wrote a hard SF book exactly the same way that I'd write something literary.

In other news, Veronica will be going to the vet to get spayed at the end of the week. Wish her luck! It's a very common surgery and I trust our vets, but surgery is surgery and because she's a wee little girl it will be an internal surgery rather than a boy's easier snip snip sort. I'll try not to pass my anxiety on to her as we near the day, but I'm already worrying.

Stories out: 29

Currently working on: House of Goats (novel)

Short stories written last week: 1

Downstairs Down in the Dumps

We've drawn our lines in the sand. Actually, they're more like blocks of mortar setting in rat tunnel entrances. Assuming we've found all the entrances, I'm anticipating a rat-free house (yay!) for at least a few years. I can finally (re)finish the downstairs without feeling like it's all for nothing. You know, the downstairs I had new floors put in, and repainted with fabulous colors, and remodeled? Yeah, that downstairs, which got ripped apart and run over as we tried to root out the evil yuck that accumulates wherever rats go.

The floor is still gorgeous. It's just hard to notice with the ceiling all torn out.

When we've got a new ceiling up, I'll celebrate by giving the place a good cleaning/decluttering. It will shine once more, oh yes, it will shine. But first, I have to mud all the top edges and repaint where the tape between wall and ceiling ripped down. Ugh.

Bad Agent Sydney Awards Treats to Veronica

Weather has kept me indoors and writing. I'm almost done with House of Goats! I'm especially excited about this because I have another book I desperately want to work on. I still might get the post-finished-first-draft blues, but I'll stay busy.

In other news, Veronica has made it onto Bad Agent Sydney's Blog. See the post here. Veronica got a treat, of course!

Bad Agent Sydney T. Cat revels in bad agent practices. I recommend Sydney's posts to anyone who'd like to get an idea of the kinds of things agents can do (and have done) that might not be in a writer's best interest. There certainly are great agents out there, but there are also bad agents like Sydney. Sometimes the only way to tell them apart in advance if you're hunting for an agent is to educate yourself and watch for red flags. Most people know to watch out for agents that ask for up-front money like reading fees or who refer writers to editing services, but there's lots of other iffy things agents (both scam and legitimate) do that are much harder to spot. Writer beware!

Sweater Swap?

It's been cold and rainy. Just now the sun came out, perhaps signaling some clearing--but since we're getting on toward evening, that may well mean freezing temperatures tonight. It sure feels like it. Brrr. It's been awhile since I've felt 39 degrees F during the day.

Naturally this sudden chill has inspired me to look at gardening magazines. In particular, I've enjoyed Horticulture: The Art and Science of Smart Gardening (the February/March issue features Alnwick Gardens, Alnick being the castle where Harry Potter was filmed,) Fine Gardening, and Birds and Blooms.

The Austin Rose ads haunt me in particular. Oh, the roses I could grow!

Which reminds me of a conversation I had with my friend R one afternoon a few years back. She and I discussed how someone she knew married rich and spent her husband's money on such things as expensive hand-knitted sweaters, some of which cost thousands of dollars.

"Now spending thousands of dollars on the garden," I said, "that isn't silly at all."

"Not at all," R agreed.

"Five thousand on planters and plants for the deck, including cast-iron hooks and iron cages for hanging baskets."

"A few thousand for a pond and waterfall."

"Toss a few more thousand on full-sized trees--I think a chocolate mimosa over there would be nice." (FYI, a small chocolate mimosa will cost a couple of hundred dollars.)

"A copper trellis for a really nice climbing rose."

"Stone columns and maybe one of those really fancy garden houses with an all-glass second floor."

"Six foot high stone walls."

"With stained glass windows."

"Ooo yeah!"

We went on like that for some time.

"Now that wouldn't be silly to spend money on at all," I said.

"Absolutely not. Not like sweaters."

We sipped our wine and enjoyed the deck view of the garden, thoroughly puffed up with virtue. After all, think of all the things we could do for the price of a few sweaters! Of course, the sweaters would be pretty nice to snuggle in while wander the garden in early spring ....

The Windy Adventure of the Day

The wind ate my walk-in greenhouse last night.

I knew there'd be some damage as I listened to the storm rage last night. The roaring wind actually woke me several times. It seemed to peak in the wee hours before dawn, and then softened into heavy rains and hail.

I woke up to the sight of the heavy cover drooping with water, half off the disassembled frame, with broken connectors littering the deck. Imagine my shock and amazement as I tallied the toll.

Saved:

Amarylis

dwarf banana

indoor lilies

All the artichoke and cardoon starts

most of the asparagus starts

tulips (innocent bystanders that the greenhouse shifted onto) (and not one bud broken!)

most of the seed-start soil I just potted up last night

most of the peat and plastic starting pots

four start trays

all the shelves

the entire metal part of the framework

the cover (no rips!)

most of the connectors

1 crystal vase (I stuck it out there to deal with the rose stems in it later)

1 metal candlelamp and candle

2 partial bags of seedling start soil

Lost:

1 asparagus seedling

2 peat pots

1 start tray

9 plastic connectors

A little bit of seedling start mix

I feel very, very fortunate. Every time I found an unbroken plant or a seedling on its side still in one piece, I cheered. This could have been much, much worse, especially since I was on the verge of planting a bunch of tomato, pepper, basil and petunia seeds, some of which were rare varieties that cost me a bit extra to buy.

Now I'm awaiting word to see if I can get replacement connectors. I contacted the manufacturer using their info email. If I can't get new connectors, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. We've tried hardware stores with no luck. The piping fits 1/2" cpvc joints, but they don't come in enough variety of shapes (many are 4 and 5 way connectors) and even if they did, they don't have as long arms as the existing connectors.

Suggestions are welcome! I do know that if it comes down to just getting a new greenhouse, I'll probably just build a frame of wood that fits the cover and surviving shelving and put it somewhat less conveniently on the ground instead of the deck. The advantage of the deck being that I can run electricity into there, like heat lamps.

Sigh. But it's all good.

Huh of the Day

Someone who shall remain unnamed observed that dust bowls/man-instigated deserts seem to occur where patriarchal religions concentrate. I haven't looked at this seriously but it made me think.

Not that this being true or false would change anything ....

Springtime Pics

The garden, she is blooming! We won't be in full awesome mode until summer, but in the meantime, I'm enjoying some much-needed color outside my window.

Red currant (with my house in the background.)

I love my daffodils. I have a couple hundred of various colors.

#escapefail

(BTW she got out of there fine on her own--she went in head first and turned around into this position before leaving.)

Schedules, Punishment and Reward

It's been a challenge to find time to do writing lately. Everyone has trouble with this, sometimes occasionally, sometimes on a day-to-day basis. The key for me has been habit. I've gotten to the stage where if I don't write, especially in the morning, the whole day feels off until I manage to get onto a keyboard and get some work done. This is a good thing. When that sense isn't there, it would be that much easier to let days or even weeks go by without writing a word.

To develop that sense, I had to write daily for quite a while. Some people use reward (can have a chocolate after 1000 words) and punishment (can't have any chocolate for a month unless they write 500 words a day for a week) systems, others do Nanowrimo with an intent to just keep going at the end of the month. Some function on a deadline system. They find deadlines to meet, either ones they create or ones they discover (such as contests or submission deadlines for anthologies or magazines with submission windows) and then pace themselves accordingly. Some folks have real success with schedules. They get up early or write late after everyone's gone to bed, or type while the baby is taking an afternoon nap.

Whatever the system, it has to reward consistency, and not beat you up so much emotionally that writing becomes associated with pain.

Pick something, or several somethings, and if it helps make a formal statement of some sort. It's like the success self-talk that some people engage in. You can just look in the mirror and say, "I'm a writer, and I will write everyday," when you brush your teeth. It works for some people really well. Some folks write contracts with themselves and put them up on the fridge. Others join online writing groups or blog about their word counts to keep themselves 'honest.'

For me, that sinking feeling keeps me writing pretty steadily. Yes, I garden, and do housework, and paint, and do stuff with my family. We watch movies in the evening during and after dinner. Yesterday, the only time I set aside for writing was before our evening movie, and so today I'm putting more effort into a full day of dreaming on the page. I'll get back into the swing of full-time writing again soon. When? For all I know, today may have been the first of a long string of such days. But to make sure, I'm going to be getting up early and writing all this week. Our days have gotten too busy. This is something I believe will ensure success. It's worked for me in the past.

BTW, the most evil punishment system I've heard of was this: a writer said he'd write a chapter a month, and if he missed a month, he'd donate money (I think it was $100) to a political fund that he found particularly repugnant to his values.

He only missed once.

Gardening Weather

I've been a busy kid. The DH hunted down some folks doing pruning in the area, so I got another huge (free!) load of chipped plant material (mostly pine this time) that I'm going to use for more paths. I got two more beds opened up, four more paths opened and mulched, and a bunch of new perennials planted. A good friend of mine donated a bunch of plants and it took a while to get everything in the ground. I also got some more rows of radishes, spinach, lettuce, and pac choi. I also planted New Zealand spinach and two kinds of swiss chard. I'll be putting together my mini-greenhouse soon for my tenders and tropicals. Now that the solstice is behind us, we have that minimum 12 hours of daylight a day that sparks germination in seeds like petunias and helps generate some heat for heat lovers like tomatoes and peppers (though I'll have to supply heat at night.)

It's hard to remember that it's early, really really early, in the growing season. We've had excellent planting weather, though the snow pack is thin and therefore we'll probably have a drought this summer. That puts those of us on a well into kind of a situation if we do, snow pack or no--if the water table drops below the level of my pump, we won't have water. Not for the garden, not for the house, nada. We'll have to buy bottled water, and the plants will have to survive without.

Which brings me to a nifty little fact. The farther apart you plant veggies, the better they'll do in dry conditions. Plants are, for the most part, better survivors than we give them credit for. Overcrowding causes much of our plant problems--we put them close together for aesthetic reasons, as well as convenience and because few people have more property than they know what to do with. But think about the desert. What's the spacing on those plants? Pretty wide. Folk talk about roots going deep in search of water, but roots also go wide and take advantage of surface moisture that occurs at night and in the early morning as much as possible. Also, dry to us is not necessarily dry to a plant. Roots can extract moisture from what is apparently dry soil to us.

If you know watering is going to be an issue, try giving plants half again as much spacing as is recommended, or even double. Then water pretty deeply but not frequently, and see what happens. It may look odd, even silly to see your tomatoes planted four or five feet apart, but later you'll reap the benefits in less water use and some pretty darned sturdy plants. For more details, do some reading on xeriscaping and of course, Gardening West of the Cascades.

It's been raining lately (yay!) so I'm back into full-time writing mode. When the rains go away, the gardener will go out to play.

Professional Confession

Expect more gaps in blogging as good weather continues.

My DH and I are still finding our feet when it comes to this whole full-time self-employed thingy. Right now we have cushion, so everything feels 'normal' but there's this ongoing low-level anxiety, at least for me. When the cushion goes away, then what? Can we sustain ourselves without the relative security of an employer and a steady paycheck?

My DH got an official business license, and we have a business money account now. It's strange, being one step closer to 'official.' I'm conducting my writing business as a business as well, applying professional practices to something that a lot of folks go about as a hobby. Not that writing for a hobby is bad, or somehow lesser! Gawds no. I think there are a lot of really excellent writers out there who have no intention of making their main living as writers. I think some of the writing part-timers produce is better than stuff put out by full-time, professional writers. But that's not what I'm aiming for.

Like any other self-employment or private business, we're at the mercy of market forces, meaning people. Sometimes it's hard to remember that this isn't about people liking us or not liking us. It's about having something to offer that people want to buy. A not-so-subtle difference that emotionally doesn't always reach the heart of things. I'm getting to the point where rejections aren't a big deal, but at the same time the little voice in the back of my head hasn't shut up yet. You know the one. She didn't like my story. She doesn't like meeeeeee!

Stupid voice.

Anyway, I'm anxious, but also excited at the possibilities ahead of us.

In gardening news, gardening is happening at top speed. Also, I applied to one of my all-time favorite nurseries for work. Wish me luck!

More Sweet Kittehs

In honor of Moody Minstrel's potential future litter, we haz more kitteh pics starring Carey and Veronica, aka the Fluff and the Little Bird Poop (affectionately, mostly due to her colors but partially because she's still a little stinky thing.)

A Writer's Process

I don't usually have trouble keeping BIC (butt in chair) but some days ...

Perhaps a writer might decide that the house is becoming too much of a distraction, and some cleaning has to happen. This writer might, then, do the dishes, followed by a carpet steam-cleaning that gets about half the living room damp and the upstairs mostly uninhabitable due to carpet shampoo stench. The downstairs might be even worse, due to slowly decomposing rat nests. The solution? Paint that unattractive, scraped-up section of wall under the window seat RED.

The writer might have some RED paint from a previous paint job. Perhaps her daughter wanted her closet door trimmed in red, and the writer reflects, with a gentle smile on her face, on the fact that the RED paint job looks fabulous to this day. So she could therefore find a partial quart in the laundry room, and take it upstairs. Of course all writers have painter's tape just laying around, rolls and rolls of it from a sale at a hardware store.

(See, packrats aren't all bad.)

It might be, then, that after the writer tapes off the area and pats a little RED paint around on the wall, she will recall that this is a particularly translucent red (Velvet Cake, Miller Paint) and that she'll need some serious painting supplies. So she must merrily go, singing a song, to the hardware store where she will pick up some phosphate-free TSP (the rest can be used on something else, say a deck re-stain) and fancy primer on sale for half off! which she kindly asks to have some red put into it ...

... so that it's PINK.

Sadly, this does not change the fact that rather translucent reds remain translucent and any area she happens to accidentally double touch or add a little extra paint will be noticeably darker than the rest. The writer may contemplate this problem, and decide the only solution is to go to Home Depot where she has a gift card, and get a different RED.

Of course writers who are also watercolor artists can be wise in the ways of RED paint, and so the writer is somewhat likely to select the correct RED, a slightly warmer, opaque red called Red Delicious (Glidden Paint.) Being a writer has its disadvantages, though, because writers often forget to use the gift card and just swipe their debit card.

The result will have no choice but to turn out fabulous. The carpet stench must in time subside from extended drying, and therefore the writer may (the next day) at last breathe a happy sigh and write. Later, she will have the option to remove the painter's tape at her leisure, with the assistance of a very sharp knife.

Sharp knives do come in handy sometimes, as do the DHs who carry them.

Thank you, Lucky Labs

I'm sitting by a gas fire (the cozy kind, not the aaaahhh! run for your lives!!! kind) putting my freelancing duckies in a row. I got a story back (a kind-hearted form rejection) and sent out a story to my writer's group.

I really appreciate my writer's group. My attitudes about critique, revision, editing, feedback, polishing and all that (these are all different things, btw) have been all over the map and will probably continue to change, but one thing remains constant--my desire, and I'll even say need, to double-check my writing.

When I started writing, I wasn't very good at reaching my audience. My language got in the way. I still struggle with words and voice, but thanks to the people who read my work and then said useful things about it, I've improved.

I think there's still more than enough room for improvement. In fact, I believe I have farther to go than I've already gone. I don't see how taking the reader/feedback out of my learning process would help. I suspect it would slow down my learning. Without handing over my story to someone and asking what they think, I'll never know if I'm getting my message through. How could I? Sure, I could try to employ rejectomancy (the art of reading rejection slips, similar to reading entrails) but I can't ask questions of editors, like where did I lose you, and why did you read as far as you did?

I had a good experience with this with my DH recently. He doesn't read much fiction, and when he does read it, normally he starts complaining and making scoffing noises or worst of all, he reads with his hand shoved against his face like he's trying to keep the skin from sliding off and exposing his pained skull. (Heat Wave by Richard Castle (fun story behind that book, btw) was a recent, rare exception.) He read something I wrote and his reaction was 'eh.'

Why eh, I asked.

The story didn't go where he would have taken it, for one, and another, it was mostly internal conflict. He has real trouble with what he experiences as endless character whining. I made a note to myself that to reach more people like my DH, I should keep trimming that introspection I love so much.

I know, you all gasped with shock at the news that I introspect a lot.

But then later he came back to me and told me he was still thinking about the story, and that one part in particular was really cool. That not only told me that I did something well, but that even though he'd just read a story he didn't care for, it stuck with him. I like reading stories with sticking power, and I'm trying to learn how to write them. I must be getting somewhere!

Anyway, I treasure my writing group for all of the above reasons, plus I get feedback from a diverse group of people all at the same time, which helps me get a much deeper sense of a story's underlying strengths and problems.

Priceless.

All Animals All the Time

It seems like it's all animals, all the time around here lately.

Veronica had her first bath. (That's Veronica in the pic, but from last night, not today's bath.) She's exhausted from teh clean and fluffiness.

What actually got us started on the whole cat bath thing, though, was Lucky. He's gone into frequent grand mal seizure mode, as in last night he had four, and he's had at least one or two a day for about the past week to ten (out of the blue--this hasn't been building over time.) This up from having one once a month or so. He's on anti-seizure meds now twice a day. If his liver panel comes back eh then we'll have to reduce his dose, but for now we just want to halt the foaming at the mouth and spasms that last for a couple of minutes at a time. The poor kitty has been having some while standing up, too, and sometimes he recovers in that position, and others he flops over after a while.

All sadness.

But the good news is that he's otherwise healthy.

JR Bunny has something going on with his ears in the form of weird scabs. The vets were baffled. He got a Revolution top spot in case it's some sort of parasite they weren't able to find (no lice, no mites, no fleas ... nada!) and they sent him home with no real answers (though two vets and a couple of nurses all checked him out and scratched their heads and looked at lots of slides of samples taken from his quite clean though scabby earses.)

And then I decided it was well overdue time to worm (because it's been so warm!) the goaties and trim their hooveses. Trimming goat hooves actually isn't that bad, but it takes two people, so my much-suffering DH held heads while I trimmed feet. The goats I'm sure will be walking funny for a while until they figure out their balance points on their feet has shifted to better posture. It must be a lot like learning to stand and sit up straight after months of slouching. Doesn't hurt, but doesn't quite feel natural, either.

And then the DH and I jacked up the front porch a bit and put some fresh gravel up front for good measure. Where do the animals fit into this? Why, we had to do that because the big white floofy poopies (Brian and Finn) collapsed the porch's front corner by digging, and in the process brought the joys of mud to the normally graveled front entry.

It's not fixed, but it looks better, and it's not as dangerous getting up and down those steps. Still a bit dangerous, mind you, but if there was no danger, it wouldn't feel like home.

Aw Kittehs

we haz cuteness u r slaves now

Teh housework, it was full of ick, but it's all better now. I wasn't able to put away the hand towels, though, because the kitties ... well, you can see for yourself. Their cuteness grows daily. Soon they will rule the house! I have a long video of Carey (the gray fluff) grooming Veronica (litt'l white kitteh.) It goes on a bit so it's one of those things that only a kitty mommy could love, so I probably won't post it on You Tube (ha, see how I act as if I know how to do that?) but I'm sure you can imagine.

Add purring to both this image and the unseen video and you have a pretty complete pic.

I haven't had two cats get along this well since, well, Chi Chi (the first) and Missy. Chi Chi was also a gray kitteh, and fluffy, found as a stray kitten. My father put his foot down. Absolutely no kittehs in the house. My mom let her in during the day while he was at work and fed her. One day she hid, and he came home, and she crawled up onto his chest, purring like mad ... and we ended up with our very first cat ever. Chi Chi was already a middle-aged kitteh when we adopted Missy, a short-haired gray and white thing. Something similar to the pic above was the result.

I love these sweet memories and moments.

The House, She is a Mess

I looked around in despair yesterday at a living room completely dripping with clutter sauce and a kitchen that had either crumbs or something greasy or both on every surface, including the stove. Gaaaah! The kids and I started cleaning up a bit, so it's better, but it's not good. I still flinch when I look around, but I can actually do something in those spaces other than run away screaming or start cleaning with a crazed look in my eyes.

I will have to clean some more, not just for my own peace of mind but so that I can concentrate on work. I used to have a higher tolerance for clutter. That tolerance is wearing thinner and thinner the older I get. The good part is that overall, our house is nicer. The bad part is that if I fall behind on cleaning, my writing pace really starts to fall off until I get my housekeeping act together. Fortunately I don't put off housework so long that it's a clean-by-diverting-a-river kind of situation anymore (most of the time, ahem) but like now, I do sometimes ignore it for long enough that the clean up will take a not-insignificant amount of time to rectify. Ugh.

It's that time of year to wash windows, too. The recent profusion of sunny days has revealed the quality and quantity of dirt on all my exterior glass surfaces. If I don't do something about it soon, all the windows in my books and stories will be grimy, dusty, cobwebbed things.

I just want to dance in a circle chanting ick ick ick ick ick! I wonder if it's possible to train cats to clean.

That should be enough whining for now. I think I'll go write about someone with a really bad housekeeping problem.

Progress

My DH and I have put up (most of) a shed. Like a mushroom, it sprouted practically overnight, and we put the roof on it just before the rains came, as in it began to rain only minutes later. My wheelbarrow, some tools and building materials are currently sheltered underneath, nice and dry. I'm giddy with power. Mwa ha ha!

Soon, soon now I will also put up a larger structure as a kind of studio. Some of you may remember that I planned to create a kind of sun room under our deck and use that as a studio. The thing is, to do that right I would require some things I don't have on hand, and I have just about everything I need to build a garden structure. I may need a 2x12 and a couple or three 2x6s and some 2x4 studs, and I'll need about a yard of gravel and some bags of pre-mix cement, but other than that, I think I can make due with what I've got.

It's all very exciting.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting for the seeds I planted to come up. Except for a couple of new varieties I'm making room for (or will when we have dry weather again,) I don't plan on adding rows of veggies until I see me some leaves.

A few minutes ahead of me, a bunny went checking out the garden also. He didn't find anything worth snarfing yet either. Sigh.

But there's been progress.

I made progress on House of Goats too. Ah yes, memories of puppy escapes. I swear this book is writing itself. Good times, my friends, good times ...

It's a Dog's Life

The rains are a' comin' so here's a sunshine-y puppy pic just for y'all.

Sigh.

Cowgirl Up

I don' wanna work I wanna lay on the beach w/my handsome young cat Wiz-dom.

Crazy work day today. I finished a couple of stories and sent out a bunch that had come back. That added up to seven (I think) submissions that went in the mail today. One included a rejection my DH found in the mailbox just as we left the house to go to the PO.

Keeping stuff in the mail can be tough for me sometimes. I'm a writer, not a mailer! When I get a rejection, the temptation is to deal with marketing later, say, during the next Ice Age. Or maybe on the night of the next blue moon.

Realistically, though, it's part of my job. It must be done. (Note the passive voice in the previous sentence that neglects to include someone doing the 'it'.)

I suspect every job has some aspect that's a real chore. Some artists groan at having to stretch canvas or watercolor paper, while others loathe the finish work on animal fur. Some writers despise grinding through a first draft, while others put off the review/revision or editing process. Some secretaries hate answering phones while others will tidy endlessly in the hopes of putting off filing or going to the office supply store to restock their work group's materials. And I bet it's a real pain for some of those CEOs to have to bend over to place their golf ball. Seriously, that's gotta be rough!

Anyway, the answer is, if you can't afford to hire someone to do your icky stuff for you, then you gotta cowgirl up and just do it.

I'm feeling all puffed up with cowgirl virtue now.

Stories out: 23

Currently reading: Thank You, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (tee-hee-ing-ly recommended)

Chiron Business Logo

I created a logo for Rory's business. I hope to have more refined versions, but hopefully this one is good enough for T-shirt pocket-sized patches and business cards and such. I know I need to move the left (his left, my right) chest line up. I'd also like to have a cleaner sword. This will involve enlarging the image and playing with some nicer pens--this one was done with a G2 gel.

Overall, though, I like it enough that I'm not ashamed of it. Thank goodness that I only have to do this type of illustration a couple of times a year. It's really time/creativity intensive for me, far more so than writing or painting in watercolor. Probably because I'm not as practiced at it.

Rolling with the Weather

I had a good time at Radcon, but I'm more than ready to get back to work.

In the works:

More short story writing

More writing on House of Goats (and I have a first reader now! Yippee!)

More gardening

We've had incredibly good weather. After a few days of rain, we're back to sunny weather. My test-run of snow peas came up, so I'm going to go ahead and plant a half row of them. The fava beans also started coming up, so I'll plant those, and more garbanzo beans, which didn't come up for some reason still unknown to me. I'll check the seeds before I plant the new ones--it just may have been too cold for them to finish coming up, or something might have gotten to them. I also, as of yesterday afternoon, have a half row of spinach, and I'll be putting in some carrots, lettuce, and possibly some scallions.

This is the wrong time of year to put all my eggs in one basket, so the planting will remain conservative. I'm not going to put all my seeds in the ground, despite our incredibly nice early weather, because we've had snow on April Fool's Day before. All my plantings could still freeze, not to mention we'll lose our fruit crop because our peaches are starting to bud, and the other trees won't be far behind. All we can do in that case is just look forward to next year.

So much of life involves rolling with the weather, be it the stuff outdoors, or economic, or health or what have you. So far so good. I just hope we can hang on and have a really good year.

Tissue Repository

Every year I've been to Radcon, I've been offered a chance to go on a tour to a facility of scientific importance. This year I went to a tissue repository where a team of international scientists are studying radiation in the human body.

I think one of the most important things I learned was how much we don't know about radiation and its effects on the human body. Some very dedicated people, in spite of difficulty obtaining proper funding, are trying to determine basic information like what it means to get a certain dose of radiation. Radiation exposure isn't like walking through a room filled with flour and you get some on and inside of you. Science is acquainted with things like the amount of energy emitted by a given amount of radioactive material, and has some information about where various kinds of materials 'like' to deposit in the body, but I got the distinct impression that not very much is known at all about what that means in the long term.

Some people are aware that radioactive substances and radiation are part of our natural environment. A few people are even aware that life developed on this planet during a time when there was a lot more natural radiation flying around. I don't think that many people know that cancer rates are higher for people who live in areas that have very little local radiation, though if you think about it, cancer cell sensitivity to radiation makes this a natural conclusion. If you have a single cell of cancer form in your body and the local natural radiation takes it out before it can divide, well, you don't develop that cancer. So what's a good amount of radioactivity to be around? Funding is required to investigate. What if your friend Bob got exposed to radiation while helping clean out the debris from a really old toy or watch factory when he accidentally knocked over an old, unmarked container of radium? What kind of long term risks can he expect? No one knows.

It's not all about funding. In order to study radiation in the human body, these research facilities need folks who have been exposed to radiation to donate their bodies to the project. Some people might think that after radiation exposure, people just keel over very quickly from cancer and then their bodies can be studied. In reality, most of the people the project studies die from some other cause, like heart disease. Now, it may be that there is an increased risk of heart disease after radiation exposure, but they don't know. They'd need funding and subjects to study in order to find out. Either way, folks tend to live long lives seemingly unaffected by their exposure (with the exception of people with really high exposures from serious accidents, as have happened in Russia and Japan.) The number of people who have been exposed to radiation in the workplace are relatively few, and they have to renew their commitment to donate to the project on a frequent basis, so that's also a limiting factor. Having said that, a remarkable number of people have come forward to further this research, people I personally felt very grateful toward. Theirs isn't a small gesture--and the scientists treated the remains throughout ever stage of inquiry, including when we toured the building--with respect. There doesn't seem to be much breakdown on that side of the equation. It seemed to me that, overall, the project had far more issue with grant money than anything else.

Anyway, they're trying to study stuff that is of extreme importance. Whether we need to use this information should there be a dirty bomb attack somewhere in the world, or to help ensure the health and safety of power plant workers, or suggest better ways to treat cancer through radiation, or to answer questions most of us don't even think about, this isn't some idle point of scientific curiosity. I hope they get better funding soon, in the interest of furthering medicine.

On UR Computer

I am on ur Computr.

I haz ur filez.

Radcon 2010

Here I am at Radcon. I have a schedule, and it's a very nice schedule ... I just don't have it in hand right now. I'll most likely comment on some of the panels I'm on and the panels I manage to go to sometime after this weekend, as I have in the past, rather than at-con. In the past I've been too busy to post while I'm here, and I doubt it'll be any different this year.

So far I've run into lots of great people and I'm only half out of my mind trying to prepare for my panels.

I'll be reading with Broad Universe, so if you want to hear my work and you're in the area, pop on in. I believe we're reading at 2pm on Saturday. I probably won't read the one that makes people cry, although that one will be my default if I panic at the last minute.

Now for some last-minute research.

BTW, first thing in the morning I'll be going on another kewl Hanford tour. This tour will cover the tissue repository. Important scientific stuff. I suspect I'll come away with lots of info and a few story ideas. The very existence of this facility is a story unto itself. I don't want to get too far into its purpose until I've had the tour, but I will pose this: what should a society do with radioactive materials when they're of human origin?

Will Work for Seeds

I'm putting in my seed order today. I recommend Territorial Seeds. Good folks growing good stuff, and they have very quality seed.

Unbeknownst to most folks, the seeds you get in the seed packets at the store are usually low quality seed. The reason is that the seed companies don't make much money off of those seed stands, and if someone complains and asks for money back, it costs them a negligible amount. Compare that to farmers, who will buy many pounds, instead of grams of seed, and if the germination rate isn't great, they'll go to another seed company and spread the word. Some seed sellers who sell to farmers give them the good stuff and put what's essentially iffy or waste seed into the packets for the general home owner who buys from their grocery store.

In come the specialty seed producers and growers. There are lots of things to look for to determine how seriously they take seed sales to us folks buying small potatoes (so to speak.) I look for companies with a variety of packet sizes--everything from under a gram up to selling several ounces or even selling by the pound. I look for germination rates listed in their catalogue. I look for trial information--either on their own site, or other sites. I look for in-house varieties (things that the producer developed through breeding on their own grounds,) and statements about where the other varieties they carry came from. I also like seeing information on disease resistance, not just a hardiness number or recommended planting times that may or may not be variety specific. Good seed producers usually also include the approximate number of seeds per gram or ounce.

BTW, it's easy to just slap the same information on, for example, all carrots, but carrots widely vary as far as what time of year is best to plant them. Some do poorly in summer, some can be overwintered, some love the heat. This is why it's such an advantage to go with a seed producer that actually pays attention to that sort of thing. The difference in price, if you're talking about a backyard garden, will be anywhere from ten cents to three dollars more per packet for some of the really exotic specialty seeds than what you'd find in the grocery, hardware or general store. The difference in quality and the chances of success far and away offset that. All that time and anticipation, anywhere from 20 days from the fastest growing radish to the length of a human pregnancy for overwintered veggies ... to me it makes no sense to get something at the cheapest price and then have nothing come up, or come up only to die or have something else entirely come up after all that waiting ....

On the other hand, if you haven't prepared your soil very well, don't have a pest management plan, or are simply inexperienced, I wouldn't recommend going with a bunch of really pricey, top-quality seeds your first few times around. It might be a good idea to go to a garden center, though, instead of a store that sells only the usual nationwide brands of seeds. Look over the racks that feature local or organic seed companies, and pick a few inexpensive things, both ornamental and edible, that you're interested in growing. Find out what's very simple and fun to grow from the employees.

Some suggestions for first-time from-seed growers:

Radishes--grow fast, very easy sprouters. Pick them as soon as they're ready because we have pests in the soil that mar the skin. The cooler the weather, the better because fewer pests are active in cool soil.  Plant a couple dozen seeds every two weeks and move your planting site around the garden.  Radishes do well between rows of other veggies or even in-between annuals in your ornamental garden, as long as they get enough sunlight.

Zucchini--these will famously grow anywhere for just about anyone. Don't plant all the seeds all at once! Plant two groups of three about 2-3 feet apart, see if they come up. If they don't, try again. (If they don't, it's just as likely that the soil is too cold or they got hit by pests. Try to figure out what happened before you replant.)  Zucchinis don't usually get bothered by birds or slugs but sometimes mice will get them.

Sunflowers--protect them from birds and slugs! Cover the seeded area with netting or crop-covering fabric. Cheesecloth might work fine too. Uncover the seedlings when they've got a true leaf if you're using light-permeable fabric or netting, sooner if you use cheesecloth or other light-blocking fabric.

Oregano, mint or catnip--The seedlings on these are extremely delicate. I start them in ordinary garden pots, planters, or leftover plastic trays from annuals from last year and then transplant them when they're a couple of inches tall. Keep catnip covered or out of reach of cats until its established. Once catnip gets going, a cat can roll around in it and crush it flat and it should come back. Be sure to thin the seedlings to the proper spacing--they'll do much better. You can add the thinned plants to your recipes.  Catnip makes a nice tea.

Pictured: Sweet peas. Sweet peas are extremely fun to grow, and very fragrant. Timing the planting of sweet peas can be tricky, though, for the best show. If you want to try them, space out your plantings about a week apart. Make note of which ones came up best and which ones bloomed the longest.  Large, solid seeds like sweet peas, snow peas, and beans sometimes benefit from eight hours (or less) of soaking prior to planting.  Unless you have very depleted soil from over-farming, you don't need innoculant for your peas.

The Short Form

I've been working on my novel 90% of the time lately. Much as I love that, I do miss working on short stories. I'll probably try to put one together here soon.

Short stories are tough. In a lot of ways, I think they're tougher than novels. Once I've got a novel idea, I just sit down and work on it every day. Sometimes I'll get stuck in the muddle in the middle, or I'll have to rework something from the beginning, but for the most part, when I get up in the morning I know what I have to do, how to do it, and then, well, I do it.

Short stories involve some of the same processes as novels, but the focus shifts to the idea of the thing, and a kind of super-efficiency or super-clarity that grants substance inside of a very short space. In novels I can develop tangents, work on deep themes, have characters of all kinds march on and off stage, and build a complex world in which the happenings combine into something that makes sense of life.

It's much harder for me to make sense of life in a few scenes. It's harder for me to convey the richness of human (or inhuman) experience and how that ties into the world (or universe) around us when I've got only so many pages to do it in.

My DH checked out some P.G. Wodehouse for me, so that's been my main reading material between fits of writing. Those fun stories may seem trite and something just about anyone could write with two minutes to think about characterization and setting, but I know better. It's the deceptively simple things that people dismiss until they actually sit down and attempt to do it. Wodehouse, to me, seems like the word-master equivalent of a sumi-e painter who makes his living writing comics for the funny pages. Seemingly simple, but actually extremely difficult. These are the kinds of things that people readily poo poo as trivial. And so they may, and should if it's not their thing, but no one should fool themselves into believing that it's easy.

There are folks that find the short story form easy. I'm not one of them. I have the deepest admiration for people who've mastered the short form. I don't know that I've mastered the book length, but it's a heckuva lot easier for me! I'll keep working on those short stories, though. There's something compelling about being able to say a lot in a little bit of space. I think once I've broken past some of my weaknesses in the short form, the novel length stuff will improve too.

It's all good, worthwhile-to-work-at stuff.

And if you haven't read P.G. Wodehouse, give him a try.

Waiting For Inspiration

Waiting For Inspiration

The House of Goats now has about 25,000 words in it. For those non-writers out there, that means I'm roughly 1/4 done, assuming this doesn't turn into a doorstopper, or abruptly wraps up below the typical 60,000-120,000 word range (the lower end being for young adult, the upper for fantasy, 100,000 words being a fairly safe word count to aim for in any genre except YA) editors like to see. Skunk was just attacked by a cougar/mountain lion/puma and there's about to be a kitchen fire.

Ah yes, the good ol' days.

The DH and I spent most of the day writing. We took a break to do some chores outside the house and lo and behold, I'm doing writing at the library too.

I had a question from a post office worker the other day that I want to briefly address here.

"Do you go to the beach to write?" she asked. "Put your feet up, smell the ocean breezes, that sort of thing."

"Well, uh," I replied (not particularly brilliant, I know,) "whenever I get the chance, sure, but I try to write everywhere. The library, at home ... sometimes I take my laptop with me when I've got appointments and stuff too."

"So you write whenever inspiration strikes you."

And I nodded but I wanted to say no no no! Writers write all the time. Inspiration, sminspiration--if I waited for inspiration, or had to write only in certain places or certain times, I'd be doomed. I've noticed this is true of artists too. People who paint paint all the time. If they're stuck on a project, they set it aside and work on another, hoping that eventually they'll get unstuck and be able to finish the first one. Yes, there's pacing, and staring at the screen, and talking to yourself while in the bathtub, and in the grocery store with people looking at you funny ... all that. That much of the writer myth is true, but it's just a tiny piece of the writing life. If I spent most or all of my time doing that, I'd never get anything done.

Or to put it as my brilliant DH put it after we walked out of the post office, "So, does she need to be inspired to work at the post office?"

It's a job. It's an awesome job with some great perks, but also some real down sides. Until a writer treats it like a job, with all the work ethic stuff that goes along with it, making a living as a writer will be difficult, if not outright impossible. It would be easier to win the lottery, so the muse-reliant writer might as well buy lottery tickets while waiting for inspiration to strike.

Another Writerly Day

Just a quick post to say that I'm writing like crazy, and that Veronica is doing great.

The House of Goats project is really ripping along. I wrote about 10,000 words yesterday and the prior evening. Don't know how many of those words I'll keep, but I'm encouraged that the writing and revision of this book will be swift and full of awesome.

I've also, as of yesterday, got twenty two short stories floating around out in the big, wide world. With a bit of luck, someone will love one (or more!) of them enough to want to put them in print.

On the gardening front, I sprouted (inside, in a jar) a few snow peas and fava beans. The soil temperature is most likely going to be too cold for them to do much but shiver after I've planted them, but if not, that'll be a nice head start to the year. The danger of frost is still very high, but both of these species are cold-tolerant plants. They may survive a bit of nippiness. If they get frost-killed, I'll have only lost a few cents worth of seeds. But if they survive ... mwa ha ha! I'll have a potential for a very early harvest.

I'll be sprouting another group in about two weeks, onward through March, at which point I'll be able to start more than these two plants that laugh in the face of bitter cold. Those plants will probably stay inside until April or June, though.

I think I like early gardening. It's kinda fun, like gambling with food.

Must Write Faster, One More Mouth to Feed

I know, I never call and I never write.

Actually, I write a lot, but I haven't had time lately to post. I've been working on House of Goats. A couple of times today I had a crisis moment, thinking this couldn't possibly interest anyone outside of our family, but then I'd start giggling about what happens next ....

Several hours later I then have another long moment of doubt ....

We also have a new kitten. It's not my fault! Okay, it's totally my fault. A friend of my son's called. Their cats weren't getting along with the new kitten, and they absolutely couldn't keep it, and they couldn't find a new home for it (cue violin music) and it's a little siamese sort of thing except it's sort of calico, and it's about six weeks old (yowza, too young!) and and and

and I said (totally lying to myself) that we could take her in, at least for a while, and if nothing else we'd find a new home for her.

Well.

She was older than six weeks, thank goodness, but she was pretty tiny compared to our cats. And she was decidedly not cute. My DH wasn't impressed either. Quote: That is the ugliest cat I've ever seen.

I don't know about the ugliest. True, it looks like her head was put away wet in a dark place until mold took hold. But oh, what lovely blue eyes. More to the point, she was quite ill. We're talking blood in the eliminants, both sorts, obvious signs of worms and fleas, lackluster appetite, overly sleepy, etc. We isolated her from the rest of the cats and I had my son call his friend back. Where did this cat come from? A friend of her mom's. Can we get this friend's phone number? Her mom doesn't have a phone number or any contact information. (Wow, must be a really good friend. ?!) Has the cat had any shots, and has it been tested for FIV or feline leukemia? No idea. I'm not sure she even knew those were issues.

So I made an appointment for the morning and wondered if the poor thing would make it through the night. She did, and she did exactly what I wanted her to. She fought like a crazy demon thing. They couldn't get a temperature on her, and it took three people holding her down to draw blood for the test.

She had strength and a will to live.

The stress from the tests and exam and worming and de-fleaing and change of environment took its toll, though. About an hour after we got her home, she got really wobbly and her gums turned pale. I fed her a mixture of 1/4 tsp of karo syrup with a few drops of heavy whipping cream, by the vet's order after a frantic phone call. She perked up, and after a good meal and a long night's rest cuddled up under the blankets in the master bed (we're such suckers for sad cases) she bounced back higher than she'd fallen. Now all she has to worry about is finding her spot in the kitty pecking order.

I'd better get back to writing. We have another mouth to feed!

New kitten specs:

Name: Veronica

Approximately 3 months old--I've decided she's a Halloween baby.

Weight: 3 pounds

FIV and feline leukemia free!

Likes long slinks through the living room, playing with socks, sitting or sleeping on shoulders while owners are typing (she's totally a writing cat) attacking toes under blankets, and sleeping under blankets--sleeping on top of blankets with no people to snuggle against is for cats who fail at life. She is on premium Iams kitten food, which often gets poached by the other kitties. Does not like the big white puppies, but Dakota is okay.

House of Goats

It sure sucks to live here.  Bleh.

I started work on a new simple life book, "House of Goats."

I'm having way too much fun with this.   I remember all the mistakes I made when we first moved out into the country very well.  You know the stuff I'm talking about, the stuff I started blogging about, with mouse nests in the ceiling, and goat escapes, dog escapes, sanity escapes ... the good old days that just won't stop happening to me.  The question my kids keep asking is how close to the present will I write into this?  I have no idea.  I keep getting new material every day, like my ongoing obsession with January gardening, which is somewhat reminiscent of my late evening gardening where I contemplated gardening by torchlight to extend my gardening day.  

I'll write until I find a good stopping point, I guess.

Latest Kami-brained scheme--raising chicks in my mini-greenhouse on the deck.  I'll let you know how it goes.  It could be full of awesome, or fail to the max.  Either way, I suspect that little greenhouse will never be the same again.

Heck yeah chickens will go into the book.  The House of Goats just wouldn't be complete without The Smartest Chicken in the World.

Some links to peruse:

Scott William Carter has started a new blog series about writing.

Dean Wesley Smith writes about agent agreements.

Hard-Boiled Mystery Writer Robert B. Parker, RIP--died with his boots on (at his desk)

FYI, on Dean's page, you'll notice that the Agents Know Markets myth post has 96 (or more by now) comments on it.  Good stuff.

Cats in Lap

I had a cat-in-lap attack yesterday. Two cats on my lap: Carey and Wizard. Wizard pinned down my legs, while Carey sat right up by my belly, with my laptop, out of reach, in between them.

This makes it really, really difficult to write. I tried for a while, but then gave up while the cats enjoyed me as furniture.

They're like those coworkers who never seem to have anything better to do than to come by your cubicle and talk about stuff. And you like them, and they're talking about interesting things, but there's, you know, work to do.

But they don't care. They're cats. Er, I mean coworkers, who either have all their work done or just don't do their work and don't care.

They're snuggly kitties, so I forgive them.

Gardening in January: Yes we can

We had a bright, relatively low-wind (only about 10-15 mph winds) day so of course I dashed outside in my work shoes and grabbed a rake. I also wanted to grab a hoe, but I couldn't find it. I'm sure it's someplace dark and scary. Poor hoe, all alone ...

Anyway, I'm pulling off as much stuff from the surface of future veggie beds as I can prior to getting rid of the sod. All that material doesn't have much in the way of nitrogen and nutrients anymore. Rain and plant action (plants pull as much nutrition our of their leaves as they can get away with to store up for spring growth) have made sure that the compost I make from this stuff will be lackluster at best. But there's one thing that can't be taken away from me.

Rough material to help break up the clay. I can fertilize, then lay the compost on top to help feed the top soil into something less clay-ey.

So I plan on composting as best I can in our relatively warm winter climate and then turning this stuff into a mulch. Now, back in the old days, before reading up on our region, I would have thought I wouldn't be making enough compost to really bother with. That's before I found out that it only takes about 1/4" to make a difference to the soil. More importantly, it's harder for our local pests to hide in thin rather than thick mulches.

Pests aren't that big of a deal for most ornamentals, but they are to tasty veggie beds. If you live in the Portland metro area, btw, you might try baiting for slugs now. Because of the warmed-up weather, they're out of hibernation with special ferocity, and will be even bigger and stronger when real spring comes along thanks to this bonus feeding time. If you have slug problems, the more you can get rid of now, the better it'll be come spring, and the less likely it'll be that your first flush of perennials will get chomped down to soil level the second they poke out a few buds.

I'm incredibly sore, and I haven't even gotten to the next day soreness part yet. Part of me is hoping for more good weather, while another part is wondering if a little rain might not give me a good excuse to put a full day of writing in tomorrow (and recuperate from raking. Yikes.)

On the writing front, I got a nice letter from a big glossy SF/F magazine--my story has moved on to consideration by the main editor. Wish me luck!

And now, for general amusement: Yet another reason why we shouldn't get a ferret.

Cat vs. ferret

Confessions of a Gardening Addict

I'm planning my garden. OMG, there's so much to do before I pick up shovel, rake and hoe it's crazy-making.

My huge helper this year is Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades by Steve Solomon. My DH is being his bestest patient self as I go on and on about garden plans and issue questionnaires to my family about what they'd like to eat next year. I'm only halfway through this book and I feel like I'm six months behind in garden prep--a good thing, because it gets me crackin' during what's normally down time for gardeners. I also am enthusiastic about annual veggies again, after lackluster performance from everything except zucchinis, tomatoes and blackberries. (These are the staples with which I was hoping we could survive a zombie apocalypse because nothing else was really doing well. Except pumpkins that one year. But I digress.)

It turns out I hadn't addressed two important regional problems and one semi-important regional problem. Now that I know how to fix my leeching nutrient problem, help beat back symphylans (I didn't even know they existed before reading this book) and decide which overwintering veggies to protect from rain (whoda thunk I'd have to protect my artichokes from rain, for Pete's sake?) I see great things a'comin'. Especially leeks. Mmm, leeks ...

I'll resist going blah blah blah about too much of this. But I will say that if you have had problems raising veggies in the extremely wonderful growing climate west of the Cascades from B.C. to Northern CA, this is a must-read. Buy, or grab a copy from your local library.

pictured: monarda, aka bee balm or bergamot, from my garden

stories in mail: 20

novels in mail: 0

Rejections Attract Dreaded Bird

Apparently a lot of editors take home their slush piles for reading material over the holidays. Heck, that's what I'd do if I were an editor. Sitting by a fire with some hot chocolate and a pile of potentially wonderful stories sounds much nicer than sorting through that plus all the other business during a normal work week.

Anyway, the holiday reading period led to a whole bunch of rejections washing up on my writerly beach.

As we all know, a pile of rejections is more fragrant than a lone rejection, increasing the chances that a dreaded Usuck doomsayerii will notice them. This obnoxious bird tends to park itself near a writer's desk and sings its distinctive, cheerful song with full-throated glee. It positions itself so that droppings end up on fresh manuscripts and its singing often drives off fresh writing. Its song also encourages critical writing and over-editing, which often helps increase its supply of rejection slips.

An acceptance doesn't chase off the Usuck doomsayerii. Persistently ignoring it and quickly filing away those rejections is the surest way for writers to rid themselves of this bird. Sending manuscripts back out promptly also helps, as this bird often uses languishing manuscripts for survival food when rejection slips are scarce or unavailable. Deny it fodder and attention, and hopefully the bird will fly away to pester some other hapless writer.

Stories out: 17

Novels out: 0

Getting things done with Kami

I've been on a cleaning binge between writing binges. My family probably thinks I've gone crazy, which is to say, I'm just being my normal self but my madness has begun to manifest in new and fascinating ways. Dishes are done. Counters are swept. Catboxes are spotless (and now Carey/CareBear/The Fluff Muffin/Evil One is guarding her favorite by sitting in it so that the other cats don't mess it up.) Get this--last night I took a toothbrush and a bowl of soapy water and scrubbed the edges of my kitchen floor.

I know. It's so wrong, but feels so right!

It's like a New Year's Resolution picked me instead of me resolving to do anything. I gotta tell you, it's much easier this way than the other way around. New Year's Resolutions die long, lingering deaths around here. Not pretty. If I don't care enough to do something year-round, it's not gonna happen.

Unless something randomly goes ping! and then suddenly I have a deep and abiding interest in weekly microwave freshening. Use lemons. It's full of awesome.

I think eventually my family will tie me down and exorcise me. Until then, it feels good to live and write in an increasingly clean house.

I'm hoping that exercise bug will bite me again soon, too. Then I'll be sleek, and have a beautiful house ... with the landscape fabric I got for Christmas and my obsession with gardening, I could make people disgusted with me for years to come. Yay!

Massive amounts of sugar, alcohol, caffeine, or other perception/emotion-altering substances were not consumed prior to posting this blog entry. 100% pure hyperactivity purified with all natural, organic process employing renewable resources and green energy.

Tales of Silver Frog Kings

I got three stories out in the mail this last week.  Two are resends, one is new.  This week I'm hoping to get two new stories out and to make more headway on the novel.  The writing continues.

I grew up on fairy tales, mostly Czech but there were others thrown in there.   There's something compelling about fairy tales that lures me in like no other story form.  Part of it is, I think, that fairy tales highlight and emphasize moments in a human life that we normally take for granted.  Meeting an old woman on the road.  The fairy tale warns us that hey, you don't really know who she is and what she's about.  Ignore that at your peril!  Walking a road we take often.  Complacency can kill.  Taking things from the land or from animals without considering that nature may fight back in unexpected ways.  How simple mistakes can lead to dire, even deadly consequences.  And of course how seeking one's fortune hinges so much on what we do, what we say, and how bold and/or polite we are when we go to try and make a living for the first time. 

Fairy tales look at all that stuff and more.  Even the watered-down or weirdly contorted ones sanitized by a society trying to keep its children insanely naive, mistaking that naivete' for innocence ...

Yes they can be sexist and racist and all that.  Not looking at that doesn't make it go away.  We're still sexist, racist and all that.  Recognizing that on the page can reveal and teach too, and help those of us opposed to such things where we were, how far we've come, and how far we've yet to go.  It might even hint at what going too far might look like.

So here's to good old-fashioned, gory, scary, horrible fairy tales.  If you love them too, or want to learn more, try out a new resource:  Enchanted Conversations

Enjoy!

Don't Surrender to the Blahs

It's a gray, dry day with little wind, with sweatshirt-is-fine temperatures. The days are a tiny bit longer than last week. I've wanted to go outside more than usual, so I'm glad the rain quit. I'll be able to walk around in my garden, which almost always perks me up.

I really need some perk-ation today.

I've been sick this last little stretch. I haven't had much energy for much of anything. Today I'm feeling much better, darned near normal, but I'm exhausted. I've probably been fighting this cold without realizing how long I've been fighting or how much energy it took. Now that I can relax a bit the body is ready for a long nap only three hours after a full night's sleep.

But I'm trying to get things done anyway. Writing is at the top of my list.

It's tough to write when I'm tired. It's especially hard to get started and stay focused for that first little bit. I know from experience that if I can get over that wall, the way is pretty easy after that. So my goal for today is to get writing on something for at least ten minutes. If I can write that far, I may be able to write for an hour or more, maybe take a nap, and then write for ten minutes (an hour or more) in the evening.

I think it's critical to make myself do this. If I don't, then every time I feel a little blah, I won't start writing. If I don't start writing even when I'm feeling blah, I won't learn how to write while blah. Not a big deal if writing is a hobby, but that's a serious problem for a full-time writer. I can't afford to have a long list of excuses not to write, or a even short list if that list has common occurrences. I'll cut myself some slack if I'm really ill-feverish, weak, barely able to get out of bed kind of illness. I'd be crazy to write in that state anyway. But this sort of slouching, weary, generic malaise? I can write in bed if I really need to, and sip tea. I was washing dishes earlier. If I have the strength to wash dishes, I have the strength to write. Maybe the writing will be iffy, but it might also be quiet, considered writing that comes from writing at a slower pace. If I wasn't coming off of a cold I'd probably exercise to pump my metabolism up. As it stands I think my body actually needs the rest to finish recovering, so I'll respect that. But I won't toss my writing goals out the window.

I suspect I won't be writing any action scenes today, though.