You'll Be a Song I'll Sing

The first obedience class went well.  Sammy didn't get to attend, and his owners were well behaved, though snickers were heard from their direction.

During yesterday's morning walk I got to see two birds chase a squirrel out of a tree.  There wasn't much noise beyond the fluttering wings in leaves and the thrashing around of the squirrel.

I have my annual appointment with my allergist on Monday.  Last year was the first time I'd seen him in a while.  It's been a great mostly-allergy free year thanks to him.

I've seen a few (older) movies and read some books.  Hubby has spent some time this week exploring Liberty City.  And the zipped file for EverQuest (free play until the end of July) sites in My Documents folder untouched.  

Last night I got some super editing done on a fiction piece, though.  :)

We've had storms off and on the last week. Friday was the last storm but it seems there is one moving in our direction.

Tuesday night we went to the local movie theater. We can walk there but it's not as close as the theater was to our last place. Because of the unpredictable weather we drove. It's a one-screen theater where they serve the usual stuff plus beer. Food is available from the pizza place down the street. We splurged and got everything - beer, pizza, and popcorn! They showed part 10 or 11 of a 14 part Batman serial before showing Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. Harrison Ford was the best part and there were two highlights for me. The first was a line from Star Wars. The second was the goofy look on his face when Jones sees the love of his life.

Last night we saw Woman On The Beach which was pretty good. There is one scene with a diagram that many people seem to think makes no sense at all. But I told my husband it made perfect sense to me. I know this is really cryptic but I can't write about it without giving away key information so I'll just give my explanation of the diagram. I'm habitually late and it drives my husband crazy. If this were all he focused on it would make our marriage miserable. Instead, when I'm making us late he chooses to focus on other things that are positive about me which replaces those frustrated crazy feelings with loving ones. If more people were able to do that then the world would be happier place, I think.

Saturday we went to Cuco's with my in-laws, Grandma and aunt to celebrate Father's Day. Today we went to my parents for a cookout. My brother was working so it was just my parents, me and my husband. Sammy got left behind in his crate.

Friday I found a Call for Submissions for a 1500 word article on blogging due by the 16th. I became obsessed with writing one on how to do a blog tour and have been working on it non-stop until this morning. I got to 714 words and realized I had nothing more to add that wasn't fluff. So I filed it away for future use. Heck, I may submit it to ezine articles or just post it to my writing web site.

Seven more stories to go!  *gasps for air before returning to writing* 

I'm still plugging along with my Writo De Mayo challenge. I have 18 out of my 31 short stories written. I'm only 8 behind but I still have time to catch up. There were some ideas I had to write down this weekend - because they weren't writing prompts I set them aside to work on after May 31st.

I have my writing prompt meeting tomorrow night and Wednesday I have my writing group. It sounds funny but we just sit there and write!

A rejection notice arrived in my email today but within an hour I had the story off to another market. Wish me luck!

 I've entered the strange world of weekend time once more.  Twitchy, dreaming dog on one side and heavy breathing husband on the other, I wake up for no apparent reason other than my mind is racing with all kinds of creative thoughts.  My eyes are still sleepy.  As much as I try to go back to sleep it is no use.  So now I'm downstairs while my four-legged shadow is upstairs, awake, and wondering when I'll return.  Amazingly, I only hear his nails clicking on the hardwood floor as he paces.  I hope he doesn't wake my husband.  On a weekday this would piss me off because I know it would make me exhausted for the remainder of the day.  But it's weekend time now and I know I'll have time for a nap later.

And now the whining and boofs have begun.  He woke the husband.  Argh!

It's been nearly a week since my last update but I have not fallen off the face of the earth.

Last Saturday I did this. Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day by going to church and having lunch with my in-laws. Later that night my parents came over since my dad was to have surgery at a nearby hospital on Monday morning. My in-laws came over to see my parents and all six of us had dinner at Northstar.

On Monday morning Sammy went berserk when my mom woke up early. Unbeknownst to us, she'd fallen out of the guest bed, scraped her hand, banged up her knee and nearly broke her nose. She said it was the most comfortable bed she'd slept in for years. I was so exhausted from so little sleep I called in to work and slept most of the morning. In the afternoon I did go to the hospital to see my Dad. Monday night my brother and his wife came over to have Chinese food with us and Mom. It was their first visit to our house. Monday night Mom slept on the couch. Dad's surgery went well and he was released on Tuesday. My brother and his wife took my parents home that afternoon.

Wednesday night I was planning on seeing Amy Bloom speak but I was just so tired from having company, I took my laptop to the Grandview library and wrote. Spent the rest of the evening at home.

Last night was busy and a late evening. I don't remember if I mentioned it or not, but someone backed up into my husband's car in the parking garage and tore up part of the grill and headlight. We picked up the car in the morning. The body shop did the repairs, fixed a sideview mirror (we said we'd pay separate for it) and cleaned up some paint scrapes on the side and on the bumper. It looked better than before the accident and it cost less than the estimate. After work I went to the Terry Moore talk at the Wexner Center. About 100 people attended. I had him sign the first issue of Echo. One of the girls/women gave him her Katchoo license plate which had expired two years ago. He was so excited! He's one of the most gracious signers I've ever met. Terry spoke to everyone and signed whatever they wanted. Strangers in Paradise was a comic I connected with because the women were drawn realistically. Francine would go up and down in weight and Terry showed it with some extra fat around the face which is more subtle and realistic than showing her as a size 2 (which Francine could never be) in one issue and then a size 22 in another.

Afterwards we had dinner at one of the best restaurants in town. By best I mean where the chef cares about the food and uses fresh ingredients. I was worried about being in jeans but Jeff was in jeans and so was Terry. There were eight of us total and Vijaya joined us later. It was the last night of the Columbus Symphony (supposedly forever though they're advertising two more shows this month) and Yo-Yo Ma was the guest performer. The restaurant closes at 10pm but we were there until nearly midnight. I ate too much and dessert sent me over the edge into colon spasms which ended up okay but really had me worried there in the restaurant. (I don't think it was the sweetness of the maple syrup creme brulee - I think it was from eating very little during the day and then a lot in three hours.)

Two of the guys at work today were talking about marriage (one is in a wedding this weekend and attending a wedding next weekend). And the one who was saying negative looks over at me and said, "Not you, Amber. Nothing like that applies to you." He went on to say, "You and your husband are really happy together and it shows." We have misunderstandings and miscommunications just like other couples but we know we're in it for the long haul and it's too much of a fun ride to try and get off early.

Due to all this family time I've gotten behind in my goal of writing a short story a day during the month of May. I'm at 6 completed stories, 1 is 3/4s completed and another barely started. Wish me luck! We have company coming from out of town tomorrow. :)

Got a nice surprise last night while looking for writing prompts.  I'd sent out two reviews in January to an editor; she published them in February and didn't let me know.  Last night I updated my site - three book reviews published this year!  (With more on the way.)

According to the poll, I should be writing a short story each day based on a writing prompt. I gathered about 8 writing prompts on the 1st. Yesterday I began my first short story and am trying to finish it up now. I'll post the prompt and my short story - they will be first drafts so bear that in mind. The first drafts are always the worst. :)

I'll create a special filter so if you want to see the results comment and I'll add you.

Poll #1180303 Writo De Mayo Challenge
This poll is closed.
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

I've signed up for a May writing Challenge but I don't know what to do. My writing schedule rests in your hands. Please vote!

 In the wee hours of the morn Friday Sammy was whining from the thunder.  I told him he had the choice of going under the bed or getting on the bed.  He got on the bed and watched one of the windows for about an hour before he fell asleep.  It rained a little on my way to work and that was it.

Early this morning I heard the rain and when we took our walk at 10:30am I could see evidence of it.  In the early afternoon rain drops were still on the ground cover on the side of the house.  

Worked on a book review, took a two hour nap and watched some tv.  The patio and porch furniture is out.  So far the bird on our porch hasn't tried chasing us off.  Sammy liked sitting on the porch with us.

I sent off a submission back in October 2007. The average response time is 6 months. It's about a week after that time period and I've been getting up the nerve to email the editor to query and status... and I realize I spelled his name wrong when I sent the submission. That alone sets a bad tone for the editor. Fudge! Now I wonder if I should even bother though the back of my mind says I should just so I can have an answer one way or another and start submitting the piece elsewhere.

This week at work I was given two similar projects which are going to cut into my time to do my regular work. The best I can think of to accomplish them in a timely fashion is to block time out of my calendar to doing nothing but working on the projects. Timing isn't the best though, since I'm supposed to begin training on the monitoring room this week during the afternoon - afternoon is the best time to work on projects, of course.

Wednesday evening I did get some writing done on two short stories I've been working on the last few weeks. I tried revising a short story that I've been working on for... forever, it seems. I may just send it off this week to one of the markets I chose as a target. During the week I had a revelation on how to finish one of the new short stories.

Friday evening I saw Snow Angels which I highly recommend. I recommend David Gordon Green's movie, Úndertow, as an example of a literary movie. Snow Angels is based on the novel by Stewart O'Nan. David came on board to write a screenplay adapted from the novel for another director and eventually he wound up as the director.

I've enjoyed the cheese factor of the Underworld movies and this really shows a different side of Kate Beckinsale than usual. Sam Rockwell is, as always, the bomb.

David Gordon Green introduced the movie and took questions afterwards. Some of his upcoming projects include a demolition derby comedy, an adaptation of The Dwarf and a remake of Dario Argento's Suspiria. That's some crazy all over the place kind of stuff right there. I can't blame him though - you have to keep your work interesting. I did get to meet him and shake his hand but didn't go out for drinks/dinner as Sammy needed tending. I think Sammy was at the tenth or eleventh hour from his morning walk.

I went to a birthday party today for a one-year-old relative. It was fun and casual. Strangely enough, all of the kids were well behaved and I thought, "I want one of those." Of course, I wasn't paying too much attention to the kids so my point of view is likely skewed.

Happy Easter! We celebrated the holiday the way we celebrate most holidays - by not celebrating. Sammy let us sleep in late (after 10am). After breakfast we saw Vantage Point then traveled to two Skylines hoping they'd be open for lunch. Wendy's was so they got our business. A nap was also on the agenda and I spent about an hour working on writing stuff (typing up or editing things I'd written the last two weeks). Then the Easter Miracle happened and fluffy flakes began falling from the sky.

Yesterday we had friends over for dinner. The company was good and the dinner was yummy. We had beef brisket from Weiland's. I had considered making a lamb shoulder roast but could not find one at any market that morning. For dessert I tried to make a terrine but it wasn't as great as it could have been. I bought three kinds of ice cream from Jeni's and the bread pan only fit two pints of ice cream. Honey Vanilla Bean, ground cream sandwich cookies, Salty Carmel and more ground cream sandwich cookies. When it came time to cut it, I think I'd taken it out too early (some of the ice cream was melty soft) or it hadn't been frozen long enough to get solid. It was still tasty. Our friends threatened to sneak Sammy home under their coats. It was the first time I thought, "I think I like having him around." It must be the morning cuddle sessions. One time when we were talking in the living room he plopped down with one leg on the fireplace just like an Olan Mills pose. From the other angle it looked like he'd laid down to chat with our corgi figure.

My husband said his turning point was probably last weekend. I'd attempted to make sugar free jello squares but my recipe was completely off and it was much more like sugar free jello slivers. Hubby let Sammy eat some from his finger. Sammy seemed to like it so hubby set a bigger piece on the kitchen floor. Sammy licked at it and tried to eat it. Then he dive bombed and tried to roll in it. He missed. Sammy did the dive bomb move again and finally got some in his fur. It was one of those funny moments when you have no idea why it is happening and can only stand by and let it play out.

I think dinner is more beef brisket tonight unless hubby wants me to make Skyline. I know he prefers it the way the restaurant makes it to how I make it.

On Thursday my mother's surgery went well. She'd had the same thing done in December but the doctor seemed to make a mess of things. The biopsy so far shows no cancer. Hubby took Friday and tomorrow off work. We're talking about a vacation in April.

This weekend I bought new tennis shoes which feel so comfy. I know my in-laws have booked a vacation beach home for October. The bathing suit hunt began this weekend. (I haven't owned one that fit since college.)

Issue #3 of Niteblade Fantasy and Horror Magazine is now available. My review of T.C. McMullen's book The Unseen appears in this issue.

Niteblade and affiliates placed in several categories of the 2007 Preditors & Editors Poll such as Magazine/e-zine Editors, Magazine/e-zine Cover Artwork, Fiction Magazine/e-zine and Authors.

I wrote a piece on elections being popularity contests based on my high school experience. The elected senior class officers haven't planned any high school reunions and I realized next year will by my 20th if we were to have one. I kinda knew about what had happened to the two less important roles - Treasurer and Sergeant at Arms but not our President and Vice-President. I'd last heard they were in medical school which had been in their after high school plans.

One of the first google results that came up for the President was a wedding announcement of a 2006 issue of Jet regarding his marriage. I'm sure not many people with his name did undergraduate work at Morehouse College. Beyond finding out he'd been doing ER work in Maryland and his wife had been a nurse in Texas there was no other information that could be found. I have no idea where he lives now.

Looking for the Vice-President was a little more difficult because of a name change. She hyphenated her name when she got married but the middle initials matched (it's unusual for someone our age to have two middle names but she did), as did her age, etc. after I clicked on several professional-related links to her practice. So I know she's living in Georgia working in a family medicine/geriatric practice.

So then I got to wondering what happened to one of my friends who was ranked right around me. Neither of us tried for good grades and one of us was 30 while the other was ranked 29 or 31 out of a class of 250 people. We found it funny. I'd last heard she was working on her law degree. Of Liberian heritage her name is unusual and it didn't take long to find out what she'd been up to the last few years. After getting her law degree she lived in Chicago and possibly Texas for a time. The most shocking thing was that the President's parents had moved to Chicago and they had taken her under their wing while she lived there. (Pictures!) After Chicago she worked in Liberia for the UN and kept a fascinating blog (hence the pictures) about her travels during that time. Except changing her hair from a cropped curly look to long braids she looks exactly the same as she did when she was 18. It sounds like at the end of 2006 she was considering extending her work in Liberia for another six months.

Isn't it amazing what can be found with a little help from Google? I remember when Yahoo was the premier search engine (the early 1990's) and can't remember when Google overtook it but it seems like I've been using Google forever. Every now and then I would Google myself and always got my wish that nothing would come up. Now that I'm publishing my writing and my reviews I actually hope to come up on Google searches. I'm not first on the list but quite a few of them are me. :)

Not surprisingly, our weekend plans include movies. Tonight is Colossal Youth introduced by the director, Pedro Costa, and tomorrow night is Do the Right Thing. Right now I just want to have my feet pampered and to go back to bed. Hopefully I'll make it tonight but we'll see. Hubby won't be there to wake me up if I fall asleep.

Usually I notice the winter blues about March when cabin fever kicks in. I'm almost there. It's cold (most of the time) and I want to snuggle in my warm house to hibernate until flowers start poking out of the ground. The recent storms and shootings don't help either though it's always possible a tornado could rip through here while I'm hibernating.

Our run rate for ads has been great. It was 99.2% in December and 99.6% in January. Our division is getting pizza and salad today. I might actually enjoy the salad part if anywhere had spinach salads. So I guess pizza for me. We had a light dusting of snow last night. Combined with the lunch today that means very little walking in the cold for me today. One good thing I can say about Sammy... he's a dog on a mission during his walks. Very little sniffing and poking about with a lot of marking.

I'd been hearing about how great Dead Like Me is and it's at the top of our Greencine queue. I'm nearly all the way through the first disk and for some reason it wasn't until Episode 4 or 5 that I began enjoying the show. I'll probably finish this disc over the weekend. I already have disc 2.

I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but I submitted two poems to two markets (my first ever similtaneous submissions!) about two weeks ago. I've been obsessively checking my snail mail and email ever since though the earliest I should expect a response is a month. Silly me.

2008 is the year I decided I would have a web presence. A big thank you to midnyteabbadon for her assistance with hosting and getting everything up and running. It's still a work in progress, but couldn't that be site about life too?

When Ink Slingers closed in March 2007 about a dozen people went over to a new board called Watermark. The purpose was to stay in touch and still get critiques done on our writing. Eight months later the plug has been pulled. I don't think anyone ever commented on my most recent version of "Other People's Possessions" and there were three people who were active during those months it was live. I logged in on the 8th to found out this news. Apparently it was posted on the 1st and the board was closed on the 7th.

I really do need to get feedback and the energy that comes from conversing with real people. The TGIO party reinforced that with me. The party was at BD's Mongolian Grill at the Arena District. We had a table large enough for twelve people and four of us showed up. Our Municipal Liaison wants to be the ML again next year. At the party was a romance writer about my age or a little older, me, the ML, and a literary writer a little younger than I.

The literary writer said she has problems with finishing projects that don't have deadlines. I can certainly empathize with that. The romance writer suggested we all get together to sit down and do writing as it's motivational to know someone else is working alongside you. It was suggested the first Thursday in January but the romance writer has her critique group on the first and third Thursdays of each month.

So we'll see what happens. Maybe something will happen. Maybe something won't. As it is, I won't get my hopes up so I'm not disappointed again.

I'm a sucker for punishment. I decided on the 12th to do NaNoFiMo - National Novel Finishing Month. It's 30k words in December to be used on an old or a new project. Wish me luck - because I started late I'm already a little behind.

Back in October I wrote down my most recent writing goals.

Three items still to do on the list
Write my two book reviews for Oncewritten.com
Revise "Other People's Possessions"
Finish off "The Wife"

Two new items
Read and Write review for March 2008 Niteblade (about 60 pages left to read)
Begin work on author web site.

The December issue of Niteblade was published a few days ago. You'll find my review of Griffin's Daughter written by Leslie Ann Moore. Enjoy!