No more bad news

It's disasterous on my writing. I start cleaning to feel better. Or at least to take charge.

My step-grandmother died at 6am this morning, complications of the surgery she was undergoing. We think any way. There's going to be an inquest, and probably an autopsy. Funeral should be on Wednesday.

Savannah will be discharged on Monday, but the cancer that is still in her brain is a level 3. Next step is chemo and radiation together, we're just waiting to see if that's the only step or if there is something experimental out there.

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The BookWorm

Biker Mice Revisited Script

Why "revisited"? "Reloaded has been used, and "revisied" sounds bland. Actually, I'm not even using "revisited" in the title, just in my descriptions. "Revisied" is more accurate, since this is the way I would start BMFM over. Or at least one of the ways, probably the most kid-friendly way.

It's moving along, faster than some of the edits. The whole episode is in my head. The hard part is writing out in script format. It's been a long time since I wrote in present tense. And getting the script layout set up on Microsoft Word, ouch! I see why professionals get dedicated software. Though I did a quick browse, and apparantly other people have worked out Macros and templates. I have to see how that will work out.

I'm going for twenty-five minutes, even though I'm still writing in the Teaser, and I don't really know how long that's supposed to be. I need to get a tape out and time it. Maybe tonight.

Remember I need to check and make sure "poleaxes" is spelt correctly on the submission copy. Working on the cover email/letter today when I get a chance.

I have to go pick up Chad tonight, since we're reduced to one night a week now until after Faire. I told him that was unfair to do that to me and he needs to get his stupid car fixed. I'm not sleeping where I have to hike a mile to a toilet and I don't have the money to go see him every night. He needs to share some of the road running.

I might make him time the Biker Mice tonight as punishment, Mr. Don't-care-that-much-for-animation. :p

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The BookWorm

Never Enough Time

So much to get done, and never enough time to do it.  :p  Story of my life.

1).  Get "Fine Brandy" remarks back to Red
2).  Email "Father's Love" to Andromeda
3).  Pick out 4 more markets as back-ups
4).  Edit the rest of the "Bloodlines" chapters to post at FF.net
5).  Write BMFM Script
6).  Write Zy's novel
7).  Edit "Dreams of the Dead"
8).  Edit "The Rose"
9).  Edit "Elizabeth's Oak"
10).  Edit "Summertime Adventure"
11).  Write EL = Triage tech.

And that's the short list.  Better get started while work is slow.

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The BookWorm

Productive

Working on "Fine Brandy" and will hopefully get "Staff of Oak" printed out this afternoon to work on.  Here's to hoping that a systematic approach will get me somewhere.

Later:  Okay, finished going over "Fine Brandy," but I can't type any notes till I get home.  Should be able to print out "Staff" once my writing hour starts.  Consolidated all my notes for the BMFM script project.  Anything so not to look at "Dreams of the Dead" yet.

Going to work on "Father's Love" and get that tweaked before looking at "Dreams" regardless.  I want something in the mail by Saturday and it looks like the closest bet.

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The BookWorm

Grumpy

*Feel free to ignore the following whine*

What the hell do I know about writing horror? I don't even find it all that scary. How in the hell did I even let myself think it was good enough? All those editors just mailing it back; probably never even bothered to make it through the first page.

I don't want to wreck the story it is by rewriting it totally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

---Whine over. Regularly scheduled blog resumes---

I'm an idiot and I know I'm an idiot. And trying to tell off your furious self for getting so bent out of shape is harder to do when the idiot drivers are out in full force. Do they even talk about not blocking an intersection in driver's ed anymore?

Red does me an enormous favor and all I can act like is an ungrateful bitch. Certainly not condoning my behavior, and she's right on the money as far as the story stands. But I just knew all I needed to do to make it better was add the scene I already did. All that red is a brutal wake-up call.

I'm not exactly freefalling, but I don't know what direction to go. It's like the B between A and C is completely shredded and must be replaced, but the replacement is going to change the direction of everything.

The thought of just filing the damn story lasted just to the walk to my car in the parking lot. I'm too stubborn. Though I am serious about if it doesn't make it in any of the horror mags this mail out time, I'm moving on to something new. There reaches a point of diminishing returns. I can't keep recycling this stuff without anything new.

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The BookWorm

Today's ditty

Quote of the Day: I'm just waiting for the election in which I'm going to write in "Cthulhu, why settle for the lesser evil."--Me

I already have a list of things to do that's 6 items long--not counting the official "to do" list.

Found two good Lovecraftian websites today, not really meaning to.  The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, which is actually an in-depth LARP based on Lovecraft. They look nifty in the 1920s garb. And The H.P. Lovecraft Archives, which is a more in-depth look at his texts and which publications are better than others.

It got me looking because Red didn't recognize my "Randolph Carter" reference.  Not that I really expect anyone but other Lovecraft geeks to, but I liked his stories.

Carter, Randolph. Randolph Carter was born in 1873 as heir to an old and rich to an old and rich New England family, and spent many times in his family house in Kingsport, and explored the "Snake Den" cavern in the area, reputed to be a former haunt of wizard Edmund Carter. Until age thirty, he would often spend time sleeping and dreaming fantastical, improbable dreams that many did not believe. At age thirty, however, he stopped for an unknown reason and drifted slowly into old age. When he was fifty-five, he disappeared mysteriously while walking near his old and deserted family house. Although their was a brief report of him visiting some friends in 1930, nothing has been heard of him since.     

As the narrator of The Unnamable. Carter was a writer, his known works included The Attic Window, which was published in the January, 1922 issue of Whispers. The story revolved around a creature so horrific it defied description, therefore earning the title The Unnamable. During the early 1920s, Carter and a friend, Joel Manton, discussed the possibilities of the existence of such a creature in an ancient burial ground in Arkham just outside the house used as the setting for Carter's short story. As night fell, the two were attacked by the creature and both barely escaped with their lives.
(The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, The Silver Key, and Through The Gates of the Silver Key, H.P. Lovecraft)Submitted by Sean Rodgers. 

The Cthulu Lexicon

I bought a couple of new cartoons videos this weekend.  Well, I had seen some of the shows before.  "The Legend of Zelda" was a trip down nostalgia lane, but surprisingly the show holds up pretty good.  Bob Forward wrote two of the episodes that are on that tape.  "Sherlock Holmes in the 22cd Century" really deserved a longer run.  And I want to find the episode where they bring him back to life.

I better get some editing work done. 

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The BookWorm

Too Many Layers

In my Mozilla bookmarks. I think I went a little overboard on organization.

Savannah made it through surgery fine, and that's what she had a 95% chance at. She still has cancer. It's still going to kill her, unless there is a miracle drug as well as chemo and radiation. She talked coming right out of recovery, scared Mom to death, and moved, which none of the nurses expected so soon.

I got Krista home yesterday with only one minor ugh. That I'm not going to explain further here.

I don't know if we're going down to New Orleans today before the concert tonight. The social starts at 2. I think I need to print that timetable out.

Glad you guys gave me something to work with. I tried to start talking to Chad about it, and he just kept giggling over what he calls my "dark and stormy night" line. That led to a spat, because I don't giggle over his RenFaire plans. And Krista wouldn't let us discuss it in front of her, and he wanted to save it till the party. I did have the pleasure of seeing him recoil from the look I gave him then. Usually he just calls them cute. MEN!!

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The BookWorm

Opening Lines

Just before all this mess with Savannah started, I came up with revisions to make on all my submitable short stories, all five.  Then I started fretting about my opening lines.  I'm fretting about everything right now, but at least I can do something about my opening lines.

"Dreams of the Dead"
1st take: Cynthia glanced around the unfamiliar landscape.
2cd take:  "Just add a couple of melting clocks, and this place could be a work of art."

"Underneath the Colored Lights"
1st take:  The cold wind cut across the water, over the grassy bank, and through the appreciative mob of people.
2cd take:  She hadn't said yes to getting killed tonight.

"Father's Love"
1st take:  "Mert wishes not for war to come between our hives."
2cd take:  ?--I don't think this really needs changing.

"The Rose"
1st take:  I saw Rodas again last night.
2cd take:  ?--maybe expand the sentence so you'd know as a ghost.  Or maybe short is enough of a hook.

"Elizabeth's Oak"
1st take:  Rhiannon tried to remember when she had first seen the expression in Phobos Byrd's eyes.
2cd take:  ?--Haven't come up with it yet, but the whole beginning needs to be restructured and that has to go!

The first line should always be attention grabbing, even in a novel where the person will give you more time to get hooked.  You don't have that luxury in a short story.

Update on Savannah: surgery is tomorrow morning.  I have to go get my baby sister from Natchitoches, and Mom doesn't know if she's going to get a hotel room or not.  And my cell phone battery died again, so I hope since I was talking to her, she will call me at my desk if anything changes.  *Sigh*  I need another desktop charger for my work desk.

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The BookWorm

Back at work

I don't want to be here.  My supervisor is the only one who has asked anything about Savannah.

Surgery is on Friday.  They've changed from doing a biopsy to carving out as much of the mass as they can.  I think I'm going to have to go get Krista on Friday, since that's the soonest she can home.  Kai was supposed to go, but her and Savannah are closer and she wants to stay for the surgery before moving. 

Everything hits all at once.  Kai finally cements plans to move back to Texas, I just need to get paperwork from Mom for the next step on getting my house, and boom, the bottom falls out.

Now the doctors are saying she has a chance for recovery.  You want to grab hold of that, but it's been such a damn roller coaster you don't know if it's going to be flung off with you.

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The BookWorm

Promised update

My second cousin, the only great-granddaughter on my Mom's side of the family (as of now) has terminal brain cancer. She's only 16 years old.

The horrible thing about brain cancer unless it attaches to the spinal cord is it has no symptoms. Pressure from the tumor gave her headaches. The first doctor thought it was depression. When the double vision started, they did a CAT scan. That was last Wednesday. Friday, they called back for an immediate MRI. And then rushed her down to Children's Hopsital in New Orleans.

They have been able to reduce the swelling and are now talking about just doing a biopsy, hoping to treat it with chemo or radiation. I haven't seen the MRI films, but Mom said at one point fingers are going throughout her brain.

She is the sanest one in a dysfunctional family, meaning her immediate one. Mine's not too bad when push comes to shove. And you can't help who you're realted to. But she is the sanest, most mature of the bunch, and she's dying. To look at her you wouldn't think anything is wrong, except when the morphine kicks in.

She's only 16 years old.

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The BookWorm

Writing hour cancelled

My cousin's daughter had a CAT scan and blood work Wednesday, trying to find out why she keeps having really bad headaches and double vision.  Mom calls me at work (rare occurance) the doctors had ordered an immediate MRI.  She was very upset and heading to their house to wait for news.  So I need to get home and see if it's an all-nighter at the hospital or what.
 
Also they've gone and added more features to Blogging.   Now we can do pictures?
 
Okay, I'll have to do that at home not at work.  Must be on a FTP server.
 
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The BookWorm

Can I finish it all tonight?

Maybe if I don't go to my mother's. :p The problem is it is never a quick update; I was over there for an hour and a half last night.

I have mopped the dirtiest half of the kitchen, and got the stuff down to a pile for the back bedroom (I couldn't get into it this morning because I piled the laundry in front of its door), a pile for Mom, a pile for Chad, a pile of stuff to get rid of, and dirty dishes. I can never get rid of the dirty dishes.

I need to do laundry, organize the office--which means I've got to put the piles of stuff on the desk back where it goes--doing something with the stuff in the living room, and straightening the bathroom and back bedroom. Though the back bedroom isn't a priority at this point.

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The BookWorm

So much to do

I have about a quarter left in Bold in Her Breeches. Interesting, especially useful in how women in all probablity acted in and around sailing and specifically pirate life. Got a few useful tidbits.

I need to finish the kitchen and living room, or at least make such noticable difference, it won't matter if I take the weekend off. Mom has a building supply store she wants to check out, Chad wants to get a spot ready for foundation pouring for the Inn's demo kitchen, I want to swim and not clean my house. :p

I'm working on a Writing Characters From the Inside Out exercise with Rhiannon, my heroine from "Elizabeth's Oak." Though it's hard since so many people in the office have decided staying till 5pm or later is a good thing too. Probably going to use the headphones technique today. I'm combining Stein's Triage technique with Orr's character exercises. The real test will be on "the Hyrueliana", but I got home way later than anticipated due to grocery shopping and forgot that I needed to save a copy to bring to work. And now I'm under a reading and scanning deadline, so I really don't have time to work on it specifically at work.

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The BookWorm

First chance I've had to blog all day

Assessment time is such a lovely time of the year. Forms coming in that must be audited, lawsuits piling up; I've done 50 of those today. Ugh. And we haven't even hit the busy part of the month yet.

I downloaded Mozilla last night. I need a secondary browzer to check webpages with, as well as just being fed up with the garbage I.E. allows through. Now if we can only convince the firewall programmers and the computer hardware makers that when you do a port trace on a virus or other nasty, it sends an electric pulse back to the computer who sent it. Eventually the stupid cyber terrorists won't be able to afford new computer equipment. Course this doesn't wipe out the idiot factor, just that the idiots who don't have their computers protected would have to buy new equipment too.

Have to finish two library books before Friday. Lost track of reading them while I worked on new bought books, opps. Bold in Her Breeches has just been feminist academic rhetoric so far. I need more facts for me pirate crew.

Got the kitchen half-cleaned last night, meaning the spring cleaning that has been dragging on for months. Course the half that's left to do is the mess brought in from other rooms. All the spices ended up in a plastic basket that buying a new toolbox freed. I'm beginning to think I'm going to have to build a wooden spice rack; I can't find one anywhere. Have another look at Wal-Mart tonight when I go shopping, and there is possible some kitchen-wares stores to hit in Gonzales. But if that's a no go, I'm pulling out my hammer and nails.

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The BookWorm

Monday again

Week in, week out.

Today's not a bad Monday though; the office decided to have a party. I elected to do the sandwich trey. Well, Saturday was Spider-man 2 and board game night, no stopping at a grocery store and I forgot all about it. Sunday, Chad and I cleaned his apartment over the Inn (what he calls the big unfinished dorm room). So I'm getting dressed this morning, wondering what I'm going to do for lunch when it hits me "we're having a food party no lunch necessary." Followed immediately by "OH SHIT!"

Delis always need at least 24-hour notice. So I rushed into Wal-Mart at 7am on my way to work, and bought the necessary items for sandwiches. But then three other people forgot too and had to make last minutes save, and I don't feel as bad.

Writing news: Don't use the Microsoft Word insert a horizontal line feature if you plan to move the file into Word Perfect or another program. It refuses to delete. I'm having to retype whole sections trying to erase the line. I'm going to have to check the Word Perfect line will erase.

I'm going to be practicing with Stein's triage editing technique for the Editing Lessons. I'm thinking of setting up a series of those where one story is taken through the editing steps.

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The BookWorm

Where does the time go?

I actually spent it on typing. :) Now it's time to go home.

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The BookWorm

Today = tired

I'm so tired today. I feel like I haven't gotten any sleep at all. I know I did, but after my weekend of screwy sleeping, I haven't been abole to get back into exercising at 5am. Going to crawl into bed as soon as I get home tonight. Well, after I crawl out of the tub first.

I hate driving when I'm this tired. All the other drivers go into "stop and go" mode. I came closer than I like to plowing into the back of a white truck. Had to slam on the brakes and the truck behind me had to swerve to the shoulder. I don't know if my back tires squealed or his tires squealed, but rubber was left on the pavement. You slap youself, chug more Diet Dr. Pepper, and still the eyes drift closed. Dangerous.

Yeah, going to bed early tonight.

Tried calling mortgage people again. Still no talking to the guy working on it. *Sigh* And Mom is right, I need to get it done ASAP in case something does happen to my grandmother. This is her last week of radiation and she's done pretty well, but still the woman's 81-years-old. Maybe 82 at this point. I have such a lousy memory for birthdates.

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The BookWorm

That was nice while it lasted

I didn't get as much cleaning done as I had hoped. Hard to concentrate when your brain keeps going "nap time, nap time." Why my brain kept going "nap time"? Because Saturday night I went to bed at 3am (which technically makes that Sunday morning) and woke up around 8am with the stupid sun. That after I finished adjusting the entertainment center shelves, nearly killing myself with one (adjustable my ass), drilling holes for others, mking pre-existing holes larger because they had 5mm holes and I had 1/4 inche shelf pins.

Fourth of July party on Sunday, in which I won "Star Wars" Trival Pursuit. Technically, it was the girls' team but since my team mate only knew the answer to one question. I got bored during "Lord of the Rings" Risk (same problem I have with chess, too many damn rules), and started reading Harry Potter #5. I took it home and finished it at 6am. Cat woke me up at 11am, and I spent the rest of Monday in a daze.

Determined to tire myself out, I went swimming. I'm pathetically out of shape. After 5 minutes of energetic swimming, I had to get out of the lake and spent 20 minutes to stop heaving. I slept good though. And I've decided to work on my swimming endurance at least once a week.

Now it's the day after a holiday at work. Which means we get Monday's mail times two.

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The BookWorm

HUZZAH! of the incredibly bummed-out Saturday

Good news: I finally finished all the checking and fixing of the entire Library. Uploading as I type this.

Bummer news: Vandals struck the Faire site again! So my boyfriend, Mr. Responsible, is back out there because he doesn't want them hitting the Inn or the vardo again, and they seem to strike when he's not there. (Yeah, we have a big, neon-bright idea of who's behind it, but no hard evidence.)

I only get the weekends to be with him. And I refuse to sleep over there because of the lack of toilet. So yes, I'm feeling extremely put-out by the whole situation! But we can't prove a goddamned THING!

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The BookWorm

Quick update

Anna had her baby at 12:18 yesterday, 6 pounds 2 ounces baby girl.

Richie and Leigh's wedding is tonight, and I get to leave early to make that.

Why the hell are we dividing moneys up for the fiscal year according to the check date? Shouldn't what year it falls in depend on the day of deposit? I need to talk to an accountant that does work here. :p

Typing Chapter 4 stuff from "No More Rejections;" probably won't finish it before I have to put on make-up and leave. But I look really cute.

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The BookWorm

FINALLY

I finally finished the damn code and spelling checks on all my webpages. I'm sorry for those misspellings. Really, I am.

Now I just have 25 pages with code errors to fix, and 116 pages to reload.

Glad to know I'm not too busy this weekend.

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The BookWorm

How complicated can it get?

New fiscal year, new fiscal codes. new fiscal classifying steps. And nobody is communicating all these new things very well. No, we're not all on the same page people. :P

My co-worker wnet into labor this morning at 1am. It's horrible, but we're all glad she's out of the office for 6 weeks. Let's just say her behavior was sufficient to scare me into staying home and out of the public for the whole nine months. But it's a good thing we had the baby shower on Monday.

I think I finially figured out why dress shoes hurt me so much. I get them wet in this lousy weather and they shrink. They fit fine on Monday, but it rained and I had to hike through mud at Faire site (stupid, I should know better). My feet aren't swollen today and they feel like they're busting out of them. *Sigh* More rain about to start.

Lunch time and I've got some other stuff I have to do.

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The BookWorm