My birthday was on the first and school has kept me quite busy these past few weeks. While I’ve been writing whenever I have some free time, I haven’t really had time to post much here. I enjoyed my birthday, it was wonderfully relaxing.

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On the writing front, I’m kind of feeling detached to my story. I have vibrant scenes in my head, but I haven’t gotten to that part yet. I’ll write a chapter and send it to my crit group and then write another chapter and send it to the group, and the cycle would repeat itself. And while it helps immensely for the immediate feedback, I was wishing the other day that I had the time to just pump out chapters, maybe even finish it, so I could see the “big picture.” Characterization is probably the hardest thing to write in your story. I would love my novels to be plot-heavy but character-driven — if that makes sense. But it’s hard to do when you can pump out a chapter a week if you’re lucky. I feel like I’m not getting the relationships in my writing across well. *sigh* Usually I can pump out some confidence, but there’s a few things I always feel sensitive about and always question myself. One of them happen to be writing (although I can’t stop just because I may be having an emo-day and saying to myself, “Ohmigod, my writing sucks and I suck and why does it suck?!” ).

2:26 pm | Category: Journal, Tayce, Writing | | No Comments

Woohoo! I finished cleaning my office! It’s something that I’ve been meaning to do since October and I finally bit the bullet and did it. The desk now actually has some elbow room, and a glistening surface because I even Pledged (mmm, orange scented) it. Not only that, but I actually went through my file cabinet! Now that’s something I’ve been meaning to do since 2005 (and desperately needed to do since I graduated with my B.A.)! I cleaned out things from the year 2000 in that file cabinet. And even found my high school transcripts (yes, I was an odd teenager who filed away her medical and school related papers)!

With the file cabinet cleaned out, I finally had space for my critiqued manuscripts. I’ve recently joined a critique group and now that I’ve got work coming in with critique, I need to file them away so I can easily find them when I need to edit. And since the file cabinet was in such dismal shape (three of the cabinets had old junk in it like old notebooks) I was just stacking the papers on my desk. I still have one cabinet with things that I’ve been meaning to put into the photo album and one cabinet with some books I need to go through, but now my writing stuff has it’s very own cabinet!

Not only that, but I dismantled the tree today and John and I lugged it to the TreeCycle program. That was kind of a pain because we have a Saturn SL2, which is a very small car, and by the time we jammed the tree in the back seat (we didn’t want to tie it to the top like we did when we brought it home because we didn’t have any rope left) I couldn’t see out of the rear window and the tip of the tree stuck out the side-rear window by about 2 feet. I know, not very safe for driving. But I took it slow and we made it pretty easily to the TreeCycle center (which was just an undeveloped area of a park with a huge heap of Christmas trees littering the ground). The only heart-stopping moment was when a police car passed us. I gritted my teeth and thought, Crap, not being able to see out the rear window and having a Christmas tree sticking out has got to be illegal somehow. But thank the powers that be, the cop car just kept going.

The pile of Christmas trees was a little sad, especially when our tree was added onto it. John and I have never been able to A) afford our own Christmas tree or B) had the space for it ever before, this is the first year we’ve had a Christmas tree. Seeing that huge pile of trees…it made me a little melancholy. And it also made me want to jump into that pile and come out smelling like pine, but the pine needles would have scratched me (I already got a few scratches on my back when we were carrying the tree to the car, somehow) so I resisted the urge.

So, all-in-all, today has been a VERY productive day. Tomorrow I get to back up everything on my old computer and begin cleaning it out so I can give it to Mom (so she can finally have her own computer instead of thinking of using Dad’s and then deciding that’s too much of a bother). Then, I’m setting up my new computer and the first thing I’m doing is playing Sims 2 and whimpering in delight when full graphics and anti-aliasing doesn’t slow it down.

And yes, I know that this probably doesn’t interest anyone besides me in the slightest, but I’m pretty damn proud of myself. And organizing my filing cabinet was one of my New Year’s Resolutions, so I’m doing pretty good this year. Now all I need to do is clean and restock the fish tank and buy some new bookshelves.

12:47 am | Category: Journal | | No Comments

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas — or whatever holiday you may celebrate. I kind of went AWOL for a little while; I was visiting my family, with John, for 5 days and came back yesterday evening. I hate to admit it, but I’ve been catching up on sleep again! You see, Mom got me My Lovely Sam Soon, a Korean romantic comedy TV series that I stumbled upon 2 years ago by complete mistake. It’s really cute, even if it’s sappy dramatic at times, and I love the Kim Sam Soon character. Anyway, I had shared the series with Mom, but the version I had gotten — in a bit of bad luck — was a Chinese release with horrible subtitles! As a surprise, Mom got me the official American release with subtitles that actually made much more sense. So we were trying to watch the whole thing in 3 days.

I also got the Sims 2 Bon Voyage expansion pack. I’m such a Sims addict. And then I did some “retail therapy” and I’m probably going to be poor for a while now. This is why I tell John I should never let myself go free in stores, I’ll shop till I drop. But, ironically, when I came back home I found my mouse seems to be breaking — it reacts as if I clicked twice instead of once no matter what I do — and now I can’t go and buy another one. I’m going to have to dig around and see if I kept the free Dell mouse you get with computers. Oh well, this mouse has had a long, long life. It came into my possession already amply used.

ANYway, I’m glad I’m back in my own apartment again. Even if I have lots and lots of cleaning to look forward to (the stuff I put off by saying, “I’ll do it when I’m on break”). And, it’s back to the gym for me! I shudder to think how much I’ve gained due to the so very delicious Christmas Yule log I made (which was really just sponge cake with this awesome chocolate hazelnut frosting I whipped up). Ohmigod, so good. I’m probably going to have withdrawal symptoms now that it’s all gone.

OK, I’ll stop babbling now. I’ve got a work in progress to post in the “writing” section in the next few days, so keep an eye out for that.

10:12 pm | Category: Journal | | No Comments

You know what needs to be invented? Waterproof laptops. I was thinking this as I was taking a bubble bath and reading IT by Stephen King (which, by the way, may not have been the wisest course of action since there was a drain in view. That book can still give me the heebie-jeebies, it’s one of the few Stephen King books and few horror books that can push my buttons so expertly). All my best writing ideas happen either A) in the shower/bath or B) just as I’m about to drift off into sleep. With a waterproof laptop, I’d at least have a way to capture half of my missed ideas. And think of how much more productive and creative I could be!

If my best ideas are in the shower/bath…then why not write in the bathtub? Or while sitting on the shower floor with water gently falling like rain? Think about it, it’s really genius. My writing would probably become much better. And think of the market! I know authors would snap it up while singing HALLELUJAH! Or maybe that’s just me…Plus, if they’ve made waterproof vibrators, I’m sure laptops can’t be much more difficult. So I say that instead of coming out with the new bajillion-core or whatever, they should just make a waterproof laptop.

In other news, a piece of dialog came to me today that was pure genius (once again, it was during my bath. See what I’m talking about?) and I had to jump out of the bath and run butt naked to the kitchen for a pen. Luckily, I’ve mostly upgraded all my bookmarks to envelopes and little torn pieces of paper, which are very handy for these moments of inspiration (and give SOME use to junk mail). So I scribbled some notes to myself. And chuckled — yes, the dialog exchange amused me, especially for someone who could probably never be as witty in real life when talking to someone. Ah, the life of a writer.

Maybe I should post it here when I’m done typing it up — tomorrow. Today, IT calls.

11:04 pm | Category: Journal, Writing | | 2 Comments

…because I thought she would be more sympathetic to minorities, being one herself, but she said something that was just as ignorant and steeped in stereotype as the very people she feels discriminate against her ethnic group. It shocked and saddened me, especially since it was directed at MY ethnic group and here I was, a student in her class, not three feet from her. I wrote about it at length in my livejournal and then after some thought, I decided I would share it with a more public crowd because it’s something that really bothered me.

It’s my view, and if you want to share yours, fine. But, I hope I’ll get respectful feedback/comments and not more of the slop I deal with more often than most people think.

12:47 am | Category: Journal | | No Comments

Lately I’ve been incorporating a new way of writing: not thinking about it. NANOWRIMO-ers will know this way well, basically you keep writing and not really thinking about all those neggly questions in the background: “Does this make sense? Will people like it? Am I babbling?” I’m writing entirely closed door, in other words, but I can’t help but think, This is going to be a bitch to edit once I’m done. But, as I seem to have increased my productivity quite a bit, I’m just going to keep trucking.

I’ve also found a nice note-keeping system. Since I don’t use RoughDraft anymore, I want a program to keep some notes on. Since I’m writing more freely now, I also need to jot down things to go back to and check. I downloaded KeyNote for this, and so far I really like the features.

On Saturday, John had his birthday party and I admit, I think I had a few too many tequila shots. But, interestingly, the end result was telling one of John’s friends all about my plot ideas for “Morgan”. I think he probably had a few too many tequila shots, too, because he actually took an interest (usually when I get on my writing monologue, people’s eyes glaze over). Trust me to get tipsy and talk glowingly about my writing and my plans to get published.

Tomorrow is John’s actual birthday day and I’m taking a day off my classes, and he’s taking a day off work, so we can spend some major time together. We’re planning on having breakfast out and seeing a movie. Of course, after this weekend, I am going to be basically broke.

10:26 pm | Category: Journal, Writing | | 1 Comment

The car has a CD player now and I’ve never had a CD player before. It’s kind of a novelty to be able to listen to CDs in the car. But, I don’t really have any CDs! So after listening to John’s CDs for days and days, over and over, I decided I need to burn some music onto a CD. Which is when I realized I need more music, I’m beginning to get bored of my own selection, which compared to most people I know, is small. So that’s definitely on my list: gotta find some new music.

When I tried burning a CD, my computer kept telling me, “Put in a blank CD.” I’m pretty sure a CD you’ve taken out of the shrink wrapping is blank. John was asleep, so I couldn’t ask him for help. So I saved the 18 tracks onto my USB key and I tried my laptop. The CD player wouldn’t even open! It didn’t even detect the drive! In complete frustration, I finally went to John’s computer and tried it there and finally got success. I hate it when my computer doesn’t work. It always flabbergasts me, I always think, But why? Why aren’t you working? I haven’t done anything. Bah, computers.

So, if anyone has any music they’d like to suggest — nothing about loosing your horse while your lady friend throws whiskey bottles at your head, or about your hoes and bitches getting all up in your face — leave a comment and I’ll go ahuntin’!

2:44 pm | Category: Journal, Writing | | 1 Comment

Yes, I know I’ve been mysteriously quiet these past few weeks. I blame it entirely on the end of the summer blues, and the beginning of a new school semester. I’ve been writing much less than I’d like, which is a shame, because I was just getting my mojo back. I’ve also been playing way too much Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life, but I justify it by saying that it’s a good stress reliever. Sewing pixelated seeds is just so soothing!

I’ve also got myself in a bind. I’ve already decided which story I’ll work on for NANO. It’s an idea I’ve had for a while but have been putting off because I’ve been working on “Morgan” and I’m very bad at working on two novels at the same time. However, NANOWRIMO requires a fresh slate, and so this idea will be my NANO for this year. However, a few days ago I got a huge idea for the story and quickly jotted down a note so I wouldn’t forget it. Ever since then, my fingers have been itching to write it and I’ve told them over and over, “No! That story is for NANOWRIMO because right now you’re working on Morgan! If we don’t finish at least one novel, we’ll never get published!”

When I bitched about my short attention span to John, he merely shook his head and said, “You really are like a ferret sometimes, you know that?”

10:28 pm | Category: Journal | | 1 Comment

It’s funny, my friend, Christine, and I were just talking about how 10 days of vacation time just doesn’t seem like enough when you’re working 40+ hours a week, with minimal health care, and (in the case of many people) still struggling to make ends meet. Then, CNN has an article about it in today’s top stories.

One thing they don’t mention, which I think is a factor, is that American’s don’t take as much time off as many other countries, especially in Europe. I was watching a Travel Channel show that mentioned that Europeans average about a month of travel a year, while Americans average about — you guessed it — ten days. A big reason for this is that we are given less vacation time, sick days, etc. than certain other countries. It seems that for the “richest country in the world,” we aren’t reaping as many benefits as we should and sometimes I feel a little bitter.

Especially on the days when I see John’s medical bills and my student loans.

10:05 pm | Category: Journal | | No Comments

I started Gunslinger #2 today. I had to put down my last library book, Blood Books vol. 1 by Tanya Huff just because I was suddenly overwhelmed by the urban fantasy genre. It seems to be everywhere and nearly every book I’ve read in the last 2 months has fallen into that genre. A part of me is whispering that I should get in on this while its still a hot market, and maybe if it gets published, I’d be able to afford that trip to England I really want.

I have a huge pile of library books I need to return, but I looked at the due dates and thought, Do I want to go through the hassle of getting on the bus and returning them tomorrow? And decided to renew them online. I felt a bit guilty doing this, since my writing group and I had just commented about “those people” that renew books online just because of laziness. Anyway, in my defense, I’m just putting it off for a few days…maybe a week…I have to go soon because my research book (for the said urban fantasy that I’ve been thinking I should dabble in) just came in and is waiting patiently for me to pick it up.

Anyway, there’s a reason for the title of this entry and it involves a weird dream. I spent most of today reading and writing while John watched television. We both were feeling a little under the weather in the morning, so we decided to take it easy. We watched Jumanji and then I began to nod off just as Star Trek started. Suddenly, I was having quite an interesting dream. It involved being on the bridge of Star Trek: Next Gen. I think Captain Picard, Riker, and Data were there. Maybe Worf, too. Anyway, they were all sitting around doing nothing and I was wondering how the heck I was meant to pilot the spaceship all by myself. I sat in one of those front seats where Data usually sits, and I was staring at the black paneling when suddenly Jumanji vines popped out of it and moss began to grow all over the bridge: on the floor, the walls, and the computers. I jumped back just as a vine that had popped out of the ground tried to spear me in the neck. And behind me, the crew members were idily chit-chatting, clustered together near the center of the bridge, oblivious to the fact that the Enterprise was turning into something out of Jumanji. That’s about the time I woke up.

Talk about mixing genres.

9:38 pm | Category: Journal | | No Comments