Month: May 2006

bookmark_borderWhile the Cat’s Away…

Posted on by PaulaO

this mouse will play!

More’n likely I’ll sit here and play games until the dogs get violent about meal times.

Lorna left for the Nawth this morning. Her sister is being inoculated as something Matron of somethinganother Star. This is her sister’s second time of being whatever and it means a full year commitment to something important. It’s not that I don’t care what the sister is doing, its just that I can’t remember. My brain has been has been a sponge lately. Not soaking everything up but letting everything out when I tilt a certain way.

I started re-reading BG1 for the first time since January. Part of me says “This shit stinks!” and another part of me says “Wow, I wrote such wonderful prose?” I’ve not heard from Jane (the editor assigned to me from RCE) so I don’t know if she is enthralled or hurling.

I’m hoping to get some writing done while she is gone. I won’t be distracted by her constant wish to, like, talk to me, share with me, and her strange desire to hold my hand. 😀

Here’s to spouses, where ever they are.

bookmark_borderRunning in Circles

Posted on by PaulaO

There’s a saying of Lorna’s to describe someone who is acting a little manic:

Acting like a fart in a collander looking for just the right hole to go out of.

And here I thought only Southerners were knew how to stretch things out.

At any rate, what I am trying to say is that it has been a little crazy around here. Lorna’s getting ready to head up Nawth for a week. I’m in not-so-mild discomfort from this crazy weather we are having. I’m getting ready for the convention in Atlanta. And and and and….

Meanwhile, I have managed to write some over the past week. Just over 1.5K but heck, it is good. I’m thinking about the book more and opening the document to either make notes or write a scene. I like this revision. Harri is a little rougher which is what I wanted. She’s not smooth and together like Kelly from BG1. And Liz is not as confident of what she wants as Grace, also from BG1.

I have an editor assigned by RCE. She is Jane Vollbrecht, author of Picture Perfect and several other soon-to-be-released books. We are hoping to sit down together at some point during the convention and discuss BG1.

Oh, my new suitcase came in. I like it! I haven’t checked to see if everything fits, but I surely hope it does. If not, then I need to cut back on the crap I take with me.


From Writertopia

bookmark_borderSpam Karma

Posted on by PaulaO

I catch comment spam for this blog via a wonderful plug-in called “Spam Karma 2“. It rocks. I have only had it let two by in all the time I’ve used it.

It works by setting up a bunch of criteria such as did the commenter/author put in a URL, how many URLs are in the comment itself, how old is the post, when was the last comment to the post, have they been caught (spanked) before, etc etc etc. It then gives the comment a score and based on that score, it puts the comment somewhere. All comments that are caught, I can then either “recover” them or send it through again, giving it a higher score. Each time I send it through, it gets spanked because it was through before so it builds up. I usually delete the comment (but not the score) after I’ve bumped it up to -1000 or more. (the lower the number, the more of a spanking it got)

I have my comment severity set to “Total Beeatch” which is as high as one can go. As a result, many legitimate comments get hung up until I recover them. Poor Sophia gets caught a lot. (I think it knows she is only making a comment to smart off or something.)

At any rate, I tell you this so that you understand what has happened. I have had some comments get a high score before of like, -2000 or more on its first go through. Mostly because the idiot has done this before. A few minutes ago I to see if any fish had got hung in the net. Yep, one new one. It has a score of, get this, -244555. 😮 I checked the comment to see why. The comment consisted of a crap load of links. As in, they go on forever. As in, 1217 URLs!! Holy Spam!

   

bookmark_borderExtra Effort

Posted on by PaulaO

From the GCLS chat list:

“…a friend sent me the following … and I just could not resist posting it to the list (vbg)”

I was due for an appointment with the gynecologist later in the week.

Early one morning, I received a call from the doctor’s office to tell me that I had been rescheduled for that morning at 9:30 am. I had only just packed everyone off to work and school, and it was already around 8:45am.The trip to his office took about 35 minutes, so I didn’t have any time to spare. As most women do, I like to take a little extra effort over hygiene when making such visits, but this time I wasn’t going to be able to make the full effort. So, I rushed upstairs, threw off my pyjamas, wet the washcloth that was sitting next to the sink, and gave myself a quick wash in ‘that area’ to make sure I was at least presentable. I threw the washcloth in the clothes basket, donned some clothes, hopped in the car and raced to my appointment.

I was in the waiting room for only a few minutes when I was called in. Knowing the procedure, as I’m sure you do, I hopped up on the table,looked over at the other side of the room and pretended that I was in Paris or some other place a million miles away. I was a little surprised when the doctor said, ‘My, we have made an extra effort this morning,haven’t we?’ I didn’t respond.

After the appointment, I heaved a sigh of relief and went home. The rest of the day was normal … some shopping, cleaning, cooking, etc. After school when my 6 year old daughter was playing, she called out from the bathroom, ‘Mommy, where’s my washcloth?’ I told her to get another one from the cupboard. She replied, ‘No, I need the one that was here by the sink, it had all my glitter and sparkles saved inside it.”

bookmark_borderBringing the Outdoors In

Posted on by PaulaO

I was in the kitchen with Lorna as we got stuff for dinner ready. I started to leave the room for some reason and happened to look up at the shelving above the dishwasher. I started to joke with Lorna that her potatoes have sprouted again when I realized it was not a potato.

It was a bird’s nest. In the kitchen.

With the dogs, when the weather is warm enough, we leave the back door open. I’ve gotten a screen door and got it all ready so it had a dog door at the bottom. But just like everything else in this house, the doorway isn’t plumb. We keep meaning to shave it down (it will need several inches taken off from at least two corners) but it just keeps falling further down the “Shit-To-Do” list.

It just went up to the top.

The nest was new and no one was in it. It wasn’t finished either. We’ve had several cool nights and we’ve been shutting the door so we are hoping the birds abandoned it. Lorna had several handfuls of moss, grass, sticks and some sort of string.

bookmark_borderGCLS Con

Posted on by PaulaO

There are now 85 authors officially registered for the convention. 85!

And there are some great names in there too. Karen Kallmaker, BL Miller, and Lynn Ames. There are many I’ve not heard of and many I’ve only met online. I am SOOO looking forward to this. Like, soooo looking forward.

I also get to meet my publisher, C.L. of Regal Crest Enterprises. I get to meet Lori Lake, RCE’s author liaison, the woman I’ve sent a lot of emails to, fer shur. I get to meet other brand spanking new authors such as Nell Stark.

I am already planning my packing. I have so much extra stuff I have to take that it’s not a matter of the day before like I used to. Clothes, sure. We just ordered a huge rolling suitcase/duffel bag that was on sale at Campmor. If it is decent, we may order the next size down too. Lorna’s got a non-rolling medium one from LLBean but their rolling duffels are ghastly expensive.

I’ve pulled out Jo’s backpack and she keeps sniffing it and looking at me. She knows the only time it is out is when we are going somewhere special. I can’t tell if she is happy about it or not. Her pack is by Jandd and is good, but I wish I’d gotten her the one from Mountainsmith or the one by Bison Designs. The bowls we use for her in the truck are made by Bison and are PVC. Meaning they never leak. We’ve gone through a lot of bowls, looking for one that won’t leak everywhere. All of them did but this one. Jo eats from a raised feeder which we take with us. It’s a pain in the ass but it’s better than her croaking from a flipped stomach, eh? If we traveled more, I’d get one that folds.

Well, reckon I’ve rambled long enough. Later!