....in which Madame sits on the couch feeling rather ill from eating too much chocolate slice and being a bit over tired. And in which Madame ponders on how the blogapalooza blog entry challenge has uncovered Madame's true lack of interestingness.

Oi I is feeling more than a little queasy at this point in time – but then again it really is my own fault for eating nothing today but a few pieces of fetta and many pieces of several different chocolate slices. I can’t get my contacts back in today, which is disappointing after yesterdays successful removal. I am also feeling a distinct lack of having anything interesting to say about anything at all ever.

Good things about today are that I managed to empty the house by about 11, oh bless, I have had DVDs in and have been working on a beanie that I am knitting and I don’t seem to have dropped anymore stitches since yesterday, happy dance. I have about half an inch to go on this section before I have to start decreasing, first though I have to ring my Mum for an interpretation of the pattern – note to all would be pattern writers abbreviations without an abbreviation list is kind of hard for the novices to interpret.

At the moment I am attempting to deal with my hoarding habits and general messy lifeness without actually having to concentrate too closely. So far this consists of trying to chuck something out everyday from the trouble spots, which are the spare room and the store room at the back of the shed. Eventually I hope to be only left with things and not piles of envelopes and old magazines. So far I have also managed to recycle everything that I have decided discard which makes me feel very virtuous. Today I am going through a pile of old magazines to rip out any cool pictures I have a vague idea of doing some collages for people as presents at some point, I am also building an excellent collection of letters to make ransom notes with.

This morning I watched the second disc of the BBC Pride and Prejudice and then put the newer Keira Knightley (sp?) version on. It is worse than I remembered but the costumes and houses are beautiful, but sorry Keira a good Lizzie Bennett you do not make just because you stare off into the distance. Oh and the reason the scenes in Pride and Prejudice were written the way they were is because it would have been really, really, really improper for them to behave in the manner they have them behaving in this new film.

Last night I went to the housewarming of my brothers girlfriend sister (my potential sister in laws sister). It was the first time that I had meet any of my brothers girlfriends (I could give her a blog name but then I wouldn’t be able to use up so many words everytime I refer to her) family, which I was a little nervous about, but it went really well (I think) and we all rolled into the car at about midnight last night to head home. The cutest part of the evening was moments after I arrived my brothers girlfriends niece ran straight up to me and gave me a big hug and then dragged me off to meet all of her toys, her ballet medal and her ballet medals. Little kids can be so cute.

Right so now I am off to make some lunch for tomorrow, a very healthy lunch given this weekends complete over indulgence and my intention to at least follow the doctors instruction to try and lose some weight – blows raspberry. This next week is going to be a little heavy on the social commitments – two Christmas parties, a birthday party and a I am not sure what it is and I said yes because everyone else was going event. Lets see how interesting or not, existent or not my blogapalooza entries become.

Tea
Mmmm tea, tea, tea and more tea.
Books
Still trying to finish the opposite of life and get further than the first page of Grimspace. I am getting on the train shortly so hopefully then.

Irony: the snow has just started falling and I need to hear the sound of summer's rain.
The longer I wait, the more doubts I have.
Are we having fun yet?
I'm not ready to give up, but sometimes I wonder if I'm holding myself back
These are the best years of my life
but I'm not interested in playing the field.
Been there, done that, made me feel cheap.

One more week, then I'm done and I can focus on this thing called life
Social, School, Sleep: pick one.
Ha! Lately I've been juggling them like a pro.
Friday was more focused on sleep and recovering from the social scene.
Good riddance.

"who's to know if your soul will fade at all?"

I'm having so much fun with the book club, I almost forgot to write this post! Continuing the week of debuts, today is the start of Winter's Editing & Revising Extravaganza (WERE)!

A brief rundown of what you can expect from WERE. Every Saturday in December, I will discuss ways to prepare for your novel's second draft. Then in January, we'll dive into our second drafts with checklists, exercises, and motivational mojo. This will probably carry over into February, since I doubt I can finish my second draft in one month. Please let me know if you have specific questions about second drafts, and I'll do my best to answer them.

So maybe you just finished a first draft for National Novel Writing Month (NaNo). Or maybe you're like me, and your first draft has sat on the back burner for months. Either way, my goal is to help you edit and revise that first draft.

If you just finished NaNo---don't read your novel yet. Take a break from it and refresh yourself. Some people suggest one or two weeks without looking at it, others say one or two months. I'd recommend taking December off (which is already crazy with the holidays) and conquering that NaNo novel in the new year. The idea is to remove yourself from the web of your story and then return with some degree of objectivity. If we are too close to our work, it's harder to delete the bad or unnecessary scenes.

If your first draft has been collecting dust for awhile, you won't have to worry about objectivity. But you may have to worry about motivation. Perhaps you're thinking, "Should I really waste my time rewriting this antique piece of junk? Maybe I should just start over with something new." Or perhaps your current schedule seems too full. After a long break from writing, it can be hard to get back in the swing of it.

I happen to believe that all first drafts deserve a chance at a second draft. Sure, it may seem like junk now . . . but revision can do wonders. Plus, revision time is never a waste. You'll learn so much about writing in the process of rewriting.

So if you're willing to try but don't know how to start, look no farther . . .

The Five R's of Rediscovering the Writing Joy:

1. Revisit. What made you first fall in love with the story idea? A place? A person? A song? Whatever it was, return to it. I like to spend time in nature for my inspiration. And if I hear a song from my first-draft playlist, I'm immediately transported into the story. I also try to find new, exciting songs for the second draft. The story may be old, but it has the potential for new and better things.

2. Revamp. Need a change of pace from your old writing routine? How about a change of scenery? Try creating a unique writing space for yourself. I realize not everyone has sole access to an office/writing room, but maybe you could carve a niche in your bedroom or other room. Renovate an old desk, decorate the walls with things from your story, and make the space comfortable and user-friendly. After all the work you put into it, you'll feel guilty if you don't make good use of it!

3. Readjust. If you're anything like me, free time sounds like some distant dream. If you can't find time to write, then you make time. Writers don't just wake up inspired and type all day (and if they do, I'm insanely jealous). They probably snatch precious writing moments out of a crazy schedule. So stop and think about your typical schedule. If necessary, keep a detailed journal for a couple days. Do you have times when you're waiting for class or riding the bus? Any television programs you could live without? Cut what you can and take advantage of every minute. Even thirty minutes of writing per day can add up to a finished second draft.

4. Read. Ever read a fabulous book and felt inspired to write? I know I have. Reading will not only make you a better writer, it will also motivate you to write your own book for others to read. Read fiction for fun, and read nonfiction to learn more about the subjects in your story. You'll need a notebook, or writing software, or some type of file for keeping track of your research. I know this sounds like work, but it's essential for making your stories realistic and credible.

5. Reward. Hey, our human natures demand something in return for the hard work of editing and revising. So set a goal and pick a suitable reward. Write it down and stick it to your wall or desk. Something like, If I finish my second draft, I get to splurge on books/a writing conference/a new desk/enter most coveted wish here. Personally, my reward is getting to send the story to my critique partners. I can't bear to let them see the first draft, even though I'm dying to share the story with them. So I'll keep them in mind as I struggle with the second draft, like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey. Speaking of critique partners, recruit them to cheer you on! They can crack the whip if necessary, or nag you, or bribe you, or beg you to "finish the dang thing so I can read it already!" A good critique partner is worth his or her weight in gold.

Your assignment this week, if you choose to accept it: get started on the five R's. Fall in love with writing again. Treat yourself to a remodeled work space. Schedule in writing/reading time. Read a book and start researching (this could take all month and more). Think of a reward for finishing your second draft.

Then report back here! I want to hear about your progress and your ideas. Need help? Just ask! And tune in next Saturday for more!

Had a great day that put me in such a Christmassy mood. I started the day with some Vanilla Bean Noel shower gel and the day just kept getting more festive from there. My mom called me this morning to see if I wanted to meet for lunch and shopping. How could I turn that down? I couldn't!

I met her around 11:30 at the Rockaway mall and we had lunch at Muldoon's. I had the French Dip and she had some funky salad. The food was great and we had a nice time catching up and just chatting about this and that. My mom's main goal for the day was to find clothing to send my grandma for Christmas. We went to Macy's first and I helped my mom pick out this pretty blue outfit for my grandma. It was such a pretty shade of blue... almost baby blue but not quite that soft looking. If that makes sense.

After Macy's we wandered the mall and stopped in a few stores. My mom had a $15 off any $15 or more purchase for Lane Bryant. She's a coupon fiend! hehe. She didn't find anything for herself and their clothing is always hit or miss for me, but she ended up buying me this pretty purple sweater. It was normally like $60, but was on sale for $19.99 and then with her $15 off, it was a steal at $4.99!

JCPenney was our next destination. She found another outfit for my grandma and I picked up two really cute sweatshirts, one for my grandma in MN and one for my grandma in NC. (the one for my grandma in MN has a snow man on it and says "Up to Snow Good". The one for my NC grandma is pink with a pretty glittery snowflake). So now my Christmas shopping is really getting going. My mom also bought a few sweatshirts for herself and a sweatshirt for me that has a polar bear on it and says "Snow Happens". All the sweatshirts were on sale for awesome prices and my mom (of course) had another coupon to use on everything.

We looked in a few more stores and then sat down by Starbucks. She had a plain latte and I had an egg nog latte. We both had these cranberry thingies too. They were so yummy!

By this point we could see outside and the snow was really coming down. I noticed that all the cars in the parking lot were already covered with snow. That's when my mom and I realized that neither one of us had a snow brush in our cars. So I ran to Sears and picked up a snow brush for each of us. I had been meaning to get one anyway, so now I have it to keep in my company car.

We left the mall and went to the Christmas Tree Shop. I had a $10 off $50 coupon for there so it was burning a hole in my pocket. But in the end I didn't find anything I had to get, so my mom used it. She ended up picking up a container of cashews for Ron and two Xmas stockings with candy cane shaped bones for my dogs. So I was able to bring those home as well.

The ride home from the mall was an adventure. No plows in sight and the snow was still coming down hard and heavy. I needed to get dog food and really needed to do some grocery shopping, but figured I'd put that off for another day. I did swing into CVS to get a little bag of dog food just to make sure we had enough for a day or two until I could get motivated to do more shopping.

It took a long time to get home since I was taking it slow and easy. At one point my car was swerving all over. Thankfully there weren't any cars near me and I managed to keep the car on the road. Other vehicles weren't so lucky. I saw 4 accidents on my way home. Yikes.

Ron got stuck about 1/2 a block away from home. He called me and said "come help. I'm stuck!" So I ran out there and we ended up having to shovel the whole street from where his car was to our driveway. I can't believe with all the snow there still has not been any plows through here! I may have fun getting out in the morning. Thankfully tomorrow is just servicing and no orders so I can start a bit later if I need to. Although I haven't received my information for tomorrow yet. No surprise there. Grrr.

Oh! I almost forgot. My mom also bough me these cute disco ball ornaments for my tree. It was a set of like 12 of them or so. I like how they reflect the fiber optic lights on the tree. My mom thought they were silly, but I thought they were cool!

The dogs absolutely LOVE the snow. They were so funny as they ran around like crazy girls in it. Wish it had been earlier in the day so we could have played outside longer. It's perfect snow for building a snowman.

Right now we're watching "Christmas to the Extreme" on the Travel HD channel. It's really cool! Some of these gingerbread house creations are amazing!! I can't imagine how much time and effort has to go into making those! Wowie! One lady said she spent 6-7 hour every day working on it, but she didn't say how many days. Every single thing that is on these houses has to be edible. I wonder if they eat them when they're done with the competition. I'd hate to eat it after putting that much effort into it, but what else can you do when it's food stuff?

Not too much else going on here. Getting sleepy. Wish I could have another day off. I miss having 2 days in a row off, or every day in a row off like I had when I was unemployed. hehe.

Because a friend of mine is performing an excerpt from the Star Wars Holiday Special this weekend.

( Cut for Your Protection... )

This is my entry for therealljidol Season 6, Topic 6 "Sunrise". Thanks so much for reading and don't forget to stop by once the polls go up and read some of the fantastic entries!

It's cold and getting colder. Snow too. But mostly lots colder. Not sure how bad it will get, but they are talking about a couple of nights of -17 (yeah, that's below zero). When you tack on the windchills (and they are calling for a fair bit of wind--right now it's 16 degress with a windchill of -2) it's going to be too fucking cold. Seriously. Expect whining from me. Not that you don't expect whining, but there will likely be an increase. Fair warning.

I had a delightful and lovely signing last night at the local bookstore. It was also the Christmas stroll and there was some beautiful caroling and tasty hot cider. But then the internet went down in the house. No idea why. Messed with the cable modem and the router, but nothing. I hate it when that happens. Today it was okay. So gremlins?

In two weeks I have to have the truck packed and family loaded and heading for CA for Xmas. There's not enough time. Before that I have to finish teaching, grade everything, turn in grades, finish the revision, write a whole damned lot, wrap things . . . It seems like just yesterday when I thought, wow, a whole year until the frenetic begins again.

And a snippet from The Hollow Crown:

“Where is Margaret?”

“She went to the manor,” Nicholas said, still leaning in the doorway.

Elin stiffened, twisting her head and frowning at him. “Alone?”

“We were distinctly not invited.”

“And you agreed to that? Did she also cut your balls off?”

Nicholas winced. It felt like it. He ought to have gone with her, no matter what she said. His mouth tightened and he gave a little nod, then backed out of the doorway. The others soon followed.

Anybody else want to share?

For a much longer list of Norton eligible books (at least, those published from October '08 to October '09), check out the SF/Fantasy Cybil nominations. (With thanks to Charlotte's Library for the reminder!)

swan_tower has a fascinating post about how the genre of a book may be as much a matter of what conversations that book is engaged in as anything else.

I began thinking, over there, about whether one could define YA by working out what conversations it's part of, too. Because I do think YA is a genre of its own, and I do think there are things I look for there that I don't look for elsewhere. And so I began ... going on at length, and realized it would perhaps be appropriate to bring my thoughts over here.

Because the thing about YA fantasy is, I've been realizing as I think about this, in addition to being its own thing, it looks in two different directions when for the conversations it holds: towards adult fantasy, and towards YA not-fantasy. YA fantasy, to my reading, is as much descended from Judy Blume as from J.R.R. Tolkien*; and when new YA fantasy books are written, they're engaging with the concerns of writers such as Laurie Halse Anderson and Ellen Wittlinger as much as those of Mercedes Lackey or Ursula K. Le Guin.

This may explain a sort of dissonance I sometimes feel as a YA and middle grade fantasy reader, too. Whether I'm having a conversation about the books I love, either in the children's/YA community or the adult SF/fantasy community, I sometimes have the feeling that something is missing from the conversation, in a different way in each community. And maybe it is, because maybe the full conversation draws on the concerns of both communities and both communities' books, even though outside of YA SF/fantasy, they're not communities that have cause to talk with each other very often.

*For an example of a book that directly engages with both Tolkien and Blume, I keep finding myself thinking of Aprilynne Pike's Wings. In that book, the fairy folk are struggling to protect their sacred land -- and the protagonist learns she's a fairy and part of that struggle when she literally "blossoms" into adolescence, sprouting a flower from her back as fairy folk are wont to do ...

So... I've never made bones about my vampire fetish. And my *ahem* interest has branched me out into many other fandoms.

Anita Blake got me to try Buffy ---> Buffy branched me out into Torchwood and Merlin ---> Torchwood branched into Doctor Who ---> Doctor who got me into Diary of a Callgirl...
I have several Fandom Trees that look like this. Don't even get me started on the tree that started with Lord of the Rings!

Anyway, I was reading some new fics in the True Blood fandom (not the Southern Vampire Mysteries, which is an entirely different tree) when an author, of whose work I've grown fond, did a crossover with a non-vampire series.
Queer as Folk.
I have, of course, heard so much about this wonderful series, but I do not get Showtime and I never got into it.
Well, in this fic, certain male vampires of our aquaintance are hunting in a sex club when they come across a very interesting man/boy pair who are up for some fun.
Not knowing who the human pair is didn't at all impact the enjoyment of the fic, but it did make me curious.

So, yadda yadda yadda, it was a hot read and now the first two seasons of Queer as Folk are on my Netflix cue.
Like I need another fandom to squee about *headdesk*

well nemo threw up last night. so they took more blood tests this morning. his white blood cell count is down and his other liver counts are coming down. but not alot. so he's doing ok, but not great. we pick him up at 4 and take him home until monday.

the vet is going to give us a list of things to watch for and if they happen we take him to the emergency clinic. we continue to give him meds and watch him until monday. then take him back to be checked.

she's said that he's improving, but not by the amount that she hoped. which to me doesn't sound good. but he IS improving. :(

. . . that Mike Allen has picked up "The Gospel of Nachash" for Clockwork Phoenix 3.

In the beginning God made the world, and on the sixth day he made creatures in his image. Male and female he created them, and they were the bekhorim, to whom God gave dominion over every herb bearing seed, and every tree bearing fruit, to be in their care. Mankind he formed from dust, but the bekhorim were made from air, and their spirits were more subtle than that of man.

Old Testament + New Testament + Jewish midrashim + Secret Ingredient = this story. All done in the style of the King James Bible, no less. I don't know if it's the weirdest thing I've ever done, but it's up there, and I'm very glad Mike bought it; the minute I finished the draft, the Clockwork Phoenix series was the home I envisioned for it.

By the way, all the CP2 stories are available now in the SFWA forum; if you're a member, you can read them there for Nebula consideration.

I've finally been given the go-ahead to announce a sale that's been quietly pending for a little while now.

My story "Your Name Is Eve" will appear in Clockwork Phoenix 3, edited by time_shark. Obviously, this is a great honor, and I'm extremely happy. This story has been with me for a number of years, and I'm thrilled that I finally reached the point where I could tell it properly.

Clockwork Phoenix 3 is slated for a July 2010 release from Norilana Books. (That's right, just a few short months before my own anthology, Scheherazade's Facade (still accepting submissions) comes out.

Yay team!

I feel so bad about neglecting my Dreamwidth account (although I've neglected my LJ as well). I think when I write constantly in my journal (the bound one with paper) I tend to neglect my blogging sites.

So, I'm winding down my first quarter at the university and it's actually been really great. I spent Thursday afternoon cutting snowflakes and listening to Christmas music while everyone around me freaks out about finals. My only finals are the Greek final, which should be easy because it's the same stuff we've been repeating all quarter, and my Linguistics final, which is open book, open note. I don't think either will be too terribly difficult. Hopefully.

I was also absent recently because I was furiously working on my Nano novel! Which I finished with time to spare. Well, a little time to spare. See, I stayed sort of on track so that by the time Thanksgiving rolled around I was only 18,000 words from the end, rather than 25,000 like last year. So I wrote during my break, and I wrote a lot since I was at my grandmother's house out in the boonies with no internet. (On a side note, I saw X-Men: Wolverine again and I think Gambit needs his own movie!). By Sunday night I had 48,000 words. I was getting ready to go to bed when my roommate, who's known me for four years now, said, "You're not going to stay up and finish? Do you really want me to beat you?" Now, I have a highly competitive nature so of course I wasn't going to let her beat me. I wanted to win first! So even though I had class in the morning and don't get enough sleep anyway, I stayed up and finished my Nano at 12:33 AM on Monday, November 30th. And the whole story actually turned out a lot differently than I thought it was going to. My characters reacted differently than I planned. Oh well, it still ended happily.

I am super excited for Christmas and my nineteenth birthday which is in 14 days. I'm so excited to go home and be home for longer than just an extended weekend. I got my dad Angel for his birthday and we will probably spend a lot of time watching that. Because it is freakin' awesome from what I've seen in the first three episodes! Plus I get to do some baking (okay, I'll probably sit nearby and read while taste-testing, but the sentiment's the same. And I'm not not helping because I'm lazy, but because I really can't cook or bake.) and watch chick flicks with my mom. Mom and I are really close and I know it's really hard on her that I went away to college. She wants me to have this experience, but she misses me a ton.

I know she misses me because she agreed to play Monopoly with me over the break. And my family calls me the Monopoly Nazi. Like I said above, I'm very competitive. And since I'm as uncoordinated as a newborn giraffe, the only way I can express this is when playing board games or trivia games. I'm not a bad loser or winner when I win or lose, but I really, really want to win! Which causes me to be a bit overzealous when playing Monopoly.

Anyway, very excited for break. Even though I'll be the one putting lights on the roof since my dad's knees are really bad. I just hope it doesn't snow, so I can drive home.
Stay sharp people
Bella