I think I might be growing up, just a tad. There was a time when I would not read books out of genre preferred. I 'assumed' I wouldn't like it. Over the past decade, I have found I am wrong, over and over. I 'thought' I wouldn't like urban fantasy. Looks over at bookshelf and waves to Ilona, who educated me. I 'thought' I wouldn't like YA. Waves to Dena, whose work I love and who taught me I do enjoy YA. I was utterly convinced I wasn't going to get into horror. Waves at Jeanne, who put me through an enjoyable loop, and who taught me I do enjoy horror. Was I ever wrong, and I freely admit this. Now another friend has written something on a subject matter I did not think I could get into in a million years. The MC was so different I thought it was beyond me to like this. Wrong again.

It is not the genre that is the big dealy. It is character involvement and sheer writing ability, aka the weaving of a sustainable story and keeping up the plot/suspense/pacing/ tension. Once more, I am slithering into hopeless reader mode and I am happy.

Perhaps I should have clued in earlier, as I don't have the same problem with shorts, where I will read and enjoy any genre through the editorial process on the mag. Maybe it is because I am looking for things to love about a short, while I read books for pleasure? I don't know. What I do know is that I have reached another level and am a better person for this. I think I have come to the realization that what I go for is Voice. I don't care what you write. I want to read that wonderful and individual Voice.

Can you tell I am cold - lol? Yes, more snow and G had a day off and drove me down. Bring camera, I said, but the light was bad. Even so, a joy to give my horse hugs and kisses and he loved his oats and crunchies.

R just went into the kitchen to get something and one cat was upset over empty bowls. He gets dry food and pours. All of a sudden, all cats are there. Oh nos, they weren't really sleeping, not when food was being poured out. Heads are now down and serious eating is now commencing, depite that they are not starved, having had their wet food already.

Kid 2 came for supper today and she has strep throat. She is hurting and miserable, can't taste her food and has to work tonight. Just in time for not only xmas, but her birthday, which is tomorrow.

We gave gave her the presents today as we will not see her tomorrow, but unlike my late father, she is not opening them until tomorrow. What a good kid. She is going to vacation in February in Mexico, so we bought her some tanning minutes that should ensure she has enough not to burn when she is there. Of course, kid 2 isn't as lightly to burn as quickly as kids 1 and 3. Kid 2 is a slav throwback and has the blonde hair with the slightly olive complexion. Still, she needs boosting for hot climates.

Note, this is NOT part of her xmas gift, which is entirely separate. Kid 2 is not happy that she has a birthday just before xmas because she does tend to get short-changed on gifts from others, not us, but that was entirely her decision, not mine. She wasn't supposed to arrive until mid January.

In other news, R's aunt was found dead at her house yesterday. There will be an autopsy, but the thinking is it was a heart attack. No, we will not be attending her funeral. R and his aunt were not close. She purportedly said she would leave all her money to her bank manager, who predeceased her, so it should be interesting to watch the scrambling. The SIL has been sucking up to her for years and will, I think, have some sort of expectations for all the brown nosing. I think she has earned it as she did all the shopping for the past few years and generally visited often, living near as she did. However, the aunt was a different type of person and is very likely to have left it elsewhere. And no, this will not concern us in the slightest. We were not the flavor of the month, year, or millenium. I have no idea why. Still, it is sad to lose one more from the top of the tree. As difficult as she was, I will miss her.

(said in a very wry tone of voice)




The light quality sucks, but you get the idea.

Yes, another couple of inches. If I could just stay in and look at it I wouldn't mind, but those of us who have to go out in it on a regular basis, have to worry about loved one combatting stoopid drivers, it does get a bit tiresome. I've done a couple of 360's myself in the past and it made me nervous so I'm glad I only have to go down the road a bit. But, yeah, frozen dog and horse pooh isn't much fun.

Artistically, everything looks gorgeous and clean, but that only lasts for a little while. Still, the dh has a few days off soon, so that's one less worry of him driving on the highways.

If I've been a bit 'off' I find it very hard to focus on much when the son is going away. You learn as time goes by to partition some of that worry away, although it never goes. I have dreamed and subconsciously dreamed about the next chapter of Vicadia, but actually finding the mental capacity to write it down will have to wait a few more days.

Christmas is going to be very odd with just the three of us. Hmms, actually that would six if I include the zoo. I am amazed the tree is still standing. The speed at which KK and Mica charge around is incredible. Come to think of it, the star is a little skewed but at least Mica has stopped eating the fibre optics. Makoiyi thinks they are both insnae and sits watching them with this superior hound expression soon spoiled when he goes and has a 'silly' around the yard. Then he spends forever cleaning the snowballs out of his feet.

Right, it's a work day and no doubt that will be insane also. Funny of the week dogwise. Some dogs just can't help but be living cliches. We have a bulldog who is a total nut. It won't go out unless I hold its paw and then it grunts and snuffles and you look down and the thing is bonking your leg with this vice-like grip around your calf and a moon-touched expression of insanity and concentration. There is a certain fascination to this act because one can't help but wonder how a bulldog manages to even breathe let alone bonk anything. Needless to say "Chubbs" and I had words about this little activity.

With daughter #2's birthday on the 23rd and daughter #1's birthday on the 24th, this particular patch of December is always a bit crazy in our house. We make sure neither of them feels left out in any way. Daughter #2 is having a friend over, but on Christmas Eve, daughter #1 is adamant that her friends are all busy. I'm not really sure how much she just doesn't like attention and how much she's asked, but it's been the same for a few years. In primary school we always held both birthday parties on the birthdays themselves, and found parents more than happy to offload the kids for a few hours so that they could do the last of the shopping or the cleaning. But daughter #1 doesn't seem all that interested in having a party anymore. Can't say she's got that from a stranger.

Lately, we've found an excellent solution to the problem of what to do on her birthday: we go shopping and to the movies. This is surprisingly pleasant and easy. By the time the 24th comes along, everybody is pretty much shopped-out, and the discounting has begun. It's not busy anymore (except perhaps in the supermarket). The cinemas are positively DEAD on Christmas Eve.

After that, we make sure they find some books and games under the tree to keep them occupied for Christmas Day, and we give them money to go shopping in the post-Christmas sales. And that keeps them busy for some time in the holidays as well.

I am truly peeved. I have been waiting all week for this and first, I was watching the lead up on 38, which totally broke up. No problem, I will watch the real thing on 8. Right. That has broken up, too. I have no idea what is going on. There is no sound and the picture is almost black.

Maybe I can pick this up later on 13, but I am not holding my breath. Neither can I go to the website tomorrow for a recap as they do not broadcast to Canada. I am on cable, but I don't think satellite would have made any difference. And yes, I have tried boosting through the VCR, but the signal is just too weak.

Would someone be kind enough to tell me who won and why?

Today is a weird kind of day. It snowed yet again and I just can't connect with anyone. Didn't get to see Merlin, didn't get to speak to the best friend, who we always speak to on a sunday. No one has replied to any of my posts on any media, so I am feeling invisible. Not, hmms, miffed or anything because it's the last weekend before Christmas and people actually have lives. Plus, the middle son is flying back to Afghanistan as we speak. So, it's a kinda of meh day, which is fine, because it is a day for curling up in front of the fire and ignoring the world.

So long. Too long among humans, eons long, or so it seems. Smells choke him, the ugliness around him dulling his heart, voices without poetry to ease his mind. Shoes turn steps to a clumsy gait, buckles sear the flesh of his face, and this clanking, metal vehicle makes him drip sweat like any common horse.
He fights their ropes until they beat him with a long stick that breathes agony and jolts his heart. Now he’s herded into a corral, separated from others, surrounded by more metal to sap his strength. A patch of dirt without a blade of grass; food is a memory long forgotten, long tasted.

So tired. He is so, so tired.

A metallic clang precedes the smell of yet another human. He spins, ready to do battle. Not men with sticks and harsh voices but a female smelling of sweet scent and more. The tang of horse clings to her clothes and waltzes through her hair. She holds out a hand. He snaps at it half-heartedly, wanting none to touch him, no more human flesh. She sings sweet nothings, unafraid as she rubs a sore spot on his neck. He thinks to sleep as she mesmerizes him with sound and touch, until he hears the voices again and the thump of their boots, the smell of their manly scent. He will go nowhere with them. He would rather die.



For your free ebook, and more goodies click on the link; http://www.menage-a-20.com


'Sales' have been nicely steady. Interestingly the actual book sales match the free downloads. Whoda thought? Which means, I guess that folk still prefer to hold a real live book in their hands.

I can see in some respects that people spend so much time on their computers these days that to then go and read for pleasure they prefer real paper. I know I do. I naively thought in the beginning that people would snatch at the chance of a free e-book, but apparently not. Interesting.

People who have been following this blog for a while would know that I don't do New Year's resolutions. If anything is important for me to want to do it, I don't need New Year to start doing it.

But.

In 2010 I aim to finish the first volume of Hearts and make some good headway on the second volume.

I aim to enter it in the ABNA competition.

Rationale:

- Finish this current draft before 25 January. That gives me a date to work towards
- Enter it in the competition. This wil force me to stop tinkering with it
- I'm hoping it might attract some intelligent commentary
- it will also stop me from sending queries too early
- I will take this MS to the writers retreat in March
- after all that, I'll do a final draft starting no earlier than late March or whenever I bomb out of ABNA

After that, I'll start thinking about queries and other marketing *insert evil laughter*

Went to see Merlin earlier and took a bucket.Twelve horse went *mine* so I had to get out of there damn quick and fetch a headcollar. My horse, His crunchies amd there was no way the black bitch who wanted them was going to get them. So I took him out the pasture.

One very grateful and thankful horse who ate slowly and carefully without competition. Last time it was okay but I couldn't stop them this time not without endangering a few. Merlin was the nicest, cutest horse imaginable today. He looks very well, Shiny and happy but he likes his herd, as in Knickers, Ditto and Nugget but the ones who wanted his oats weren't them, so he was unhappy until we sorted who was boss. Once he finished eating he wanted hugs and kisses, the softy. He neighs when he sees me now and although I know some of it is cupboard love it's still pretty damned cool considering the probs we had earlier with catching him etc.

It\s funyy, B decided to call the the big maine coon kitty stray Merlin, and I asked her why and she said. because he's such a character, I just grinned. It snowed again tonight but it won't atop me getting down to see My Horse tomorrow

I guess I will not be watching any tv for the next couple of weeks after the final episode of Survivor tomorrow. The few shows I did watch are done for the season, or are just about done. Which leaves the inevitable xmas dross someone in programing fondly imagines makes for good watching. These are the jaundiced reruns of old movies that are specially selected for festive view, again and again.

I am not a grinch and I have no doubt another showing of Frosty the Snowman would have delighted loads of kids, had they still be up to watch it. Where is the thinking? The thing is now being broadcast and it is 9:33pm MT. Cruelty to little kids, here. Is is beging screened right now for the benefit of geriatrics in their second childhood? Assuming the care homes let them stay up this late? Also on right now is Anne of Green Gables, another delightful YA program.

Perhaps I am snarly because weather conditions mean I have no reception for the channel that screens Holmes on Homes, which I like. Just looking at the roll round, I see YA, tacky xmas oldies and a surprising selection of bad sci fi, which is at least new. A blitz of the horrendously low budget, badly acted and poor scripted Dr. Who movies, courtesy of the Brits, is not exactly my idea of entertainment. LOTR, or Dune, now, then we are talking. I suppose they are more expensive to screen. Sigh.

Commenting on other people's WIPs is hard.

It only takes a couple of inane reviews to realise that. By inane reviews, I don't mean people expressing opinions you don't agree with, or opinions that seem far-fetched or strange. I mean reviews that are scatterbrained and don't express any opinions at all, or reviewers who more or less say the same thing to all submissions.

I think a good review doesn't need to be very long. One sentence that says 'this is a neat idea, but the ending doesn't work', or 'I love the worldbuilding, but the style is too wordy and gets in the way of plot progression' or stuff like that is much more useful than a bunch of typos and localised commentary.

If you review, you want to give the author an overall idea: do you think the story should be improved before it can be submitted? How serious do you think the flaws are? Is it a matter of personal taste, or do you think the plotline has serious holes?

Commentary like that may sound harsh, arrogant or snippy. It may make the author feel like the reader hated the story (liking or hating stories has nothing to do with writing a workshop review). But it gives the author an overall impression of where that particular reader would concentrate changes.

Reviews that are a collection of typos without accompanying coherent evaluation are inane.

Just sayin'

No one on my f-lists anywhere has done anything to prompt this post. I was just looking through some old stuff.

I am in the process of getting another major dump of the white stuff. Heads up everyone south of me as I think it is headed your way. It is very pretty, though. I just took a picture of my backyard, or what was once my backyard and will be again some time in late spring. There is a huge drift in the center, which I hope will stay away from the house as I do like looking out of my third level windows.

The deck is also a lost cause. No barbies for us. That is for sure.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43733075@N06/sets/72157622906437751/

Ask me a question and I will see if I can answer it. About writing/dogs/horses/cats/the Book etc.

As is customary at this time of the year, the newspaper is full of messages of a reflective nature. Invariably, that includes questions of people's beliefs. Today, there was an article about what percentage of the population believed in various things. You know, the divine, heaven, hell, the devil, miracles, witches, stuff like that. But it took one single item to make me realise how coloured the results of this questionnaire could be because of the way the questions were phrased.

Apparently, 34% of the population believes in UFOs.

Er. Right.

To me, UFO stands for Unidentified Flying Object, and it's not something you can disbelieve. I mean, a UFO is something unidentified in the sky spotted by people. It may or may not become identified at a later stage. People have taken pictures of strange phenomena they've seen. They could be meteors, satellites re-entering the atmosphere, weather balloons, lightning strikes, the result of air turbulence or whatever, as long as no one has identified what cause the phenomenon, it's a UFO.

I'm guessing they meant to ask: do you believe in UFOs carrying intelligent life from outer space?

Maybe they should have asked whether people believe in other intelligent life in the universe, because 'Do you believe in UFOs?' is NOT a question without further elaboration.

Similarly, one could believe that there are people calling themselves witches without believing said witches can perform magic. So the question 'Do you believe in witches?' should have been: do you believe there is magic?

And what about miracles? Do they mean the word 'miracle' to mean a miracle caused by divine intervention, or a freak stroke of luck?

And then I started thinking about all the other things people could believe or disbelieve, and figured the results of this supposed research were highly rubbery.

There was some other interesting stuff, though.
Apparently 24% of people believe their version of the holy text (any religion) is the literal truth.
About 30% of people do not believe in a god, but 11% of those define themselves as Christians anyway (now there's an interesting dilemma)

I usually plan suppers two or three days in advance. So earlier in the week I had some leftover Salmon, which I put in a covered container in the fridge, intending to make a fish pie today. I did some julienne potatoes and then went to get the fish to combine it with a sauce I was about to start. No fish.

Me: Hon, where is the fish.

Him: I threw it out.

Me: Why?

Him: Well, I thought it would be getting dry. (It was in a covered, air-tight container.)

Me: That is what combining it with a sauce fixes. And you threw it out??? (Dumps the now useless potatoes in the trash can).

It is a good job he likes the multigrain bread I made, because I guess that is what he will be eating. I had nothing defrosted, intending to do the fish pie. Communication is the buzz word here. And stay out of my kitchen. Sigh.

Dammit, Pitbull rescue won't take Kush or Bosco unless we neuter them. That is so unfair. If we take them to the spca they'll only last the alloted time so we won't do that. But why should we pay out hundreds of dollars for dogs which aren't even ours? Grumps. Where are the damned breeders of these animals?

This submission game is a strange beast.

I admit that I tend to undervalue my stories. I think that has more to do with the fact that I'm trying to find where I fit in the market than that I don't think the stories are any good. From my point of view, it's best to submit to a level of market where I'm likely to get personalised rejections, because they're so much more useful than 'thanks, but no thanks' letters (acceptances would be nice, too, but I'm not talking about those).

Lately, I've had much more luck getting such comments from pro markets than semipro markets. Just this morning, I received a whole paragraph about a story I submitted to a pro market, and why they weren't taking it. Such comments scream: sit up, writer, and take notice. I'm familiar with the 'problem' in this particular story, and I'm unsure if I can do much about it. It's just that kind of story. But I will have another look, and then... for starters, they wanted to see more of my stuff. Pity I don't write much fantasy.

But, there is one more market that I've totally ignored so far, and now I've read some of the magazine, I'm totally thinking: this story is an awesome fit for that magazine, which is of the scary dead-tree-submission type. Over the weekend, I'll see if I can flog the story a bit more. And then... why not?