April is Script Frenzy month, brought to you (I believe) by the creators of NaNoWriMo. Check out the details here if you are interested. They also have a very adorable plot machine on the site in the top right-hand corner to get you started. Come on, peeps, only 100 pages of script in a month. You can do that! Right??
And, to get you started, here are some places where you can get a crash course in scriptwriting here, here, here, here and here.
I've got to apologize for the late post on this, but the lack of entries to the contest is resounding, so I'm going to call the thing off. My readership is down just as far as my participation, so it's not very surprizing. I am not giving up the blog, but I declare myself unenthused for the moment and won't be up to much (unless I feel like it) for the forseeable future.
I think I should set my sights on transferring back to blogger, which is free. But five years of blog posts, nearly 1600 of them, is daunting! And I'd lose the great comment trails!
On the home front, the pups are still just under 40 pounds and sweet little guys. Or not so little guys. They even give the cat a break and only mob her after a few moments of licking and nose sniffing. She truly is asking for trouble, but you can't say it's her fault, necessarily, any more than you can say the bikini clad model was asking to be raped. Molly taunts them, but she should still be safe from molestation in the form of two large dogs pinning her down with their paws and chewing on her fur. (But I must observe here that a slobbery 'do on a cat, all spikey and stuff, is highly amusing.) I hope to get some new pictures soonish, but I've been really, really tired and occupied with a few personal projects and walkign the dogs twice a day. (Chance, by the way, still thinks the outside is for walking and the inside is for peeing on the paper. He's sweet, but stubborn.)
Madre has been handling the details of getting the electric shifted and a door ordered. Once the ground thaws, we will have the new yard fence installed, then I will build the stoop/deck from the new side door. (That means we can get the dogs properly housebroken, and none too soon.) I got my construction permit last week, and it must be said that small town construction is relatively headache free, at least in my small town. I just drew a sketch, filled out a few blanks, paid the man my $20, and off we went. Thank goodness!
And I'm taking an electrician correspondence course so that I can rewire my own house at some point. Yes, I have a master electrician for a friend who will supervise the proceedings. But the house is two wire (ungrounded wire) and needs redoing, sooner rather than later. And it's easier to do it one room, one circuit, at a time so that we can still live in the place. The best solution is for me to do it catch as catch can.
if I could just get them to actually hold still a second...
Come on, you know you like free swag. And you only have to write a single, measley sentence to enter.
Reiterating, we have a contest here on the blahg. But Amazon has shipped me 2 more duplicate books, so I'm offering not one but THREE prizes. So please spread the word so we have enough entries to justify my giving out three books.
Prizes:
Nalini Singh's Archangel's Consort, book 3 in the Guild Hunter series;
Taken By The Others, book 2 in Jess Haines's H&W Investigations series;
and our original prize, Elizabeth Moon's Oath of Fealty, the 4th book in the Paksinnarion series.
How to enter:
As before, I would like you to write anything from one sentence to 200 or so words (we aren't being picky as to word count, just so long as it's brief) using the following sentence as prompt. Anything goes in terms of what you write, just so long as it's somehow inspired by the quoted line. FIRST PRIZE WINNER WILL BE MY FAVORITE; THE OTHER TWO WILL BE CHOSEN BY LOTS AKA RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR.
"Arcolyn went with him to the Golden Fish, not really surprized that the agent was staying at such an expensive inn." (page 216 of the paperback edition)
Deadline: Have your entry posted in the comments OF THE ORIGINAL POST DATED MARCH 18TH by midnight EST on March 26th. I'll use my questionable judgment and taste to pick my favorite. Change: SINCE I AM GIVING AWAY THREE BOOKS, I WILL NOT CLOSE ENTRIES UNTIL THERE ARE AT LEAST 12 ENTRIES. I'll let you know in the event of this occurrence.
Please include a valid email in your log in to typepad so I can contact you, or at least have a link to your website or blog.
Eligability. Anyone can enter. If you've won before, you can enter again. I might feel obliged to exclude you to give someone else a shot, but don't assume that you can't win, either. Previous winners are also eligible.
I'll mail the swag to the winner(s) as soon as I can after the winner is announced. Timeline varies according to my work schedule, which is pretty much 6 days a week--making post office visits difficult.
Reiterating, we have a contest here on the blahg. But Amazon has shipped me 2 more duplicate books, so I'm offering not one but THREE prizes. So please spread the word so we have enough entries to justify my giving out three books.
Prizes:
Nalini Singh's Archangel's Consort, book 3 in the Guild Hunter series;
Taken By The Others, book 2 in Jess Haines's H&W Investigations series;
and our original prize, Elizabeth Moon's Oath of Fealty, the 4th book in the Paksinnarion series.
How to enter:
As before, I would like you to write anything from one sentence to 200 or so words (we aren't being picky as to word count, just so long as it's brief) using the following sentence as prompt. Anything goes in terms of what you write, just so long as it's somehow inspired by the quoted line. FIRST PRIZE WINNER WILL BE MY FAVORITE; THE OTHER TWO WILL BE CHOSEN BY LOTS AKA RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR.
"Arcolyn went with him to the Golden Fish, not really surprized that the agent was staying at such an expensive inn." (page 216 of the paperback edition)
Deadline: Have your entry posted in the comments OF THE ORIGINAL POST DATED MARCH 18TH by midnight EST on March 26th. I'll use my questionable judgment and taste to pick my favorite. Change: SINCE I AM GIVING AWAY THREE BOOKS, I WILL NOT CLOSE ENTRIES UNTIL THERE ARE AT LEAST 12 ENTRIES. I'll let you know in the event of this occurrence.
Please include a valid email in your log in to typepad so I can contact you, or at least have a link to your website or blog.
Eligability. Anyone can enter. If you've won before, yes, you can enter again. I might be inclined to give someone else a shot, but don't assume that you can't win, either.
I'll mail the swag to the winner(s) as soon as I can after the winner is announced. Timeline varies according to my work schedule, which is pretty much 6 days a week--making post office visits difficult.
Here lies the sum total of my weekend. Stretched out, the pups are almost the length of the sofa. They are very warm and cuddly, though. 22 weeks. How the time has flown.
I had three days off over the weekend, which was great. One day was a trip to Bangor to see my neurologist, who wants me to get an MRI as I'm either having some med side effects or something else going on. That was fun, four hours driving and spending $50 in gas to spend an hour in town.
Saturday I loafed about and did not much except as you see below. I was tired, and the dogs were glad to join me. The cat was up there for a while, too! It's not the most flattering picture of me, and the photo quality of Madre's camera stinks, but it is pretty representative of how I am living my wild-child life these days.
I also bought new collars for the dogs in Bangor. I was having a devil of a time and coming home from the dog walks frustrated and angry; this weekend, though, walking them was delightful and relaxing. This was because I gave in to the inevitable and bought them prong collars, aka German choke chains. They simply will not cease throttling themselves against the regular chokers or a nylon collar, and this can lead to neck injuries and thrachea or larynx damage. I hated having to use them, as they look cruel; but they are excellent training tools. (Hopefully, I'll be able to quit using them eventually.)
Upon being kitted out with the prong collars, the pups lunged as per usual, squealed in surprize and immediately became delightful walking companions. Madre, the Pug and the boys and I walked a couple of miles without having to wear jackets yesterday, and--due to the new collars--it was really nice.
I'm amazed how many people think the dogs are Dalmations, though. The pure hound dog faces ought to be a giveaway, but they aren't.
Okay, remember when? 12 weeks, below. See how small they are? Both fit on my lap! Chance is on the left, Luger on the right. (I'm the human in the middle.)
Now check out the today shot of Chance:
Now, when you compare the boys' 6 weeks head shots... Amazing change in 16 weeks, eh?
Okay, we are having another quickie contest due to Amazon's having told me that a book I ordered would NOT ship and yet I received 2 copies. (Recall that my old Amazon account got hacked and I had to reorder some books that I supposedly wouldn't receive?) Anyhow, I'd be paying return postage anyhow, and it's vastly more fun to give the second copy away to one of my faithful readers than to return it. Hence, the contest.
The prize. The 4th book in Elizabeth Moon's Deed of Paksinnarrion series, "Oath of Fealty."
As before, I would like you to write anything from one sentence to 200 or so words (we aren't being picky as to word count, just so long as it's brief) using the following sentence as prompt:
"Arcolyn went with him to the Golden Fish, not really surprized that the agent was staying at such an expensive inn." (page 216 of the paperback edition)
Deadline: Have your entry posted in the comments by midnight EST on March 26th. I'll use my questionable judgment and taste to pick my favorite.
Eligability. Anyone can enter. If you've won before, you can enter again. I might feel obliged to exclude you to give someone else a shot, but don't assume that you can't win, either.
I'll mail the swag to the winner as soon as I can after the winner is announced. Timeline varies according to my work schedule, which is pretty much 6 days a week--making post office visits difficult.
Chance (left) and Luger (right, with black ear) taken a few days ago. They are 5 months/22 weeks at the moment.
These guys look so solemn, don't they? Chance is really just wondering what I'm doing with that camera thingy.
Luger is not quite as solemn in appearance, perhaps because he doesn' have quite the soft muzzle that Chance does. Chance, by the way, has started to drool while I'm making their food dishes. Just so long as he doesn't start with the gross drool strings!
I have been getting a bit of a break since DST ended, as that translated from 3:30 to 4:30 wake ups...but this morning I got the potty call at 3:30 again. Bleh. Hope that doesn't become a trend.
Can't wait until the snow melts so I can get the fence and door up so they can be kicked outside for the potty break.
There are some hilarious final entries at the Kick-Butt First Line contest. Enjoy. I particular loved, "If at first you don't succeed, strap on your big girl boots and go stomp the shit out of it."
****
On the home front, still too busy to write. I hope to squeeze in some time soon and finish a story I began for Phoenix Sullivan's anthology based on the prompt, Extinct Doesn't Mean Forever. Wish I'd gotten it finished. Oh well. Might get it into a horror anthology, though.
My puppies are about 40 pounds. I managed to weigh them and I believe I overestimated their size. Hard to tell when I'm holding a squirming bundle of furry bones and standing on a bathroom scale, though! They are getting pretty calm and not mauling the cat like the last bone in existence. They even come off when we call them back, which is wonderful. Well, them mostly come back. And now we are working on leash training, because I can take them for a nice, long walk when I get home from work.
****
Life always has something going wrong when you own a house, it seems, because on top of having to get the yard fenced (which entails some electrical rerouting and a new exterior door being installed, which means permits and inspections, too) I have had the sump pump back up and spray water into the basement. The overhead lights stopped working, making me think something shorted because water hit it. So a friend who's an electrician is coming over to help me check it out. Bleh. I called to see if he could tell me how to check it out myself but he's such a nice guy he insists on coming by to do it. I have to get him something nice for Christmas this year, lol.
And the snow is melting! Yay! It's been above freezing most days for the past week and the several feet of snow is evaporating nicely. Might get snow as well as rain tomorrow, however. Let's cross fingers and pray for just rain.
****
And I am sending out prayers and good vibes to the people of Japan as well as Christchurch. What a horror. It's hundreds of times worse (literally) than the Christchurch quake, and that was bad enough.
I have shamelessly swiped a few great submissions opportunities from Angie's blog.
13 May 2011 -- Sword and Sorceress 26 -- ed. Elizabeth Waters
Stories should be the type generally referred to as "sword and sorcery" and must have a strong female protagonist whom the reader will care about. See Sword & Sorceress 22, Sword & Sorceress 23, Sword & Sorceress 24, and Sword & Sorceress 25 (or S&S 1-20) for examples. We do not want stories with explicit sex, gratuitous violence, or profanity. We are NOT a market for poetry. We are willing to consider stories set in modern times (urban fantasy), but we won't buy more than one or two of those for the anthology. We always want something short and funny for the last story.
No reprints. No simultaneous submissions.
With regard to multiple submissions, do not submit more than one story at a time. If we've rejected your first one, you may send one more as long as it's before the deadline. We have occasionally bought someone's second sumbmission. We have never bought a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth submission. If you send us two stories, and we don't hold either of them, wait until next year to try again. Please do not re-submit stories we have already rejected (including stories rejected in previous years).
If you have not previously sold to Sword & Sorceress, please read What is a Short Story? and Why Did my Story Get Rejected? before submitting to us.
Please do not explain or describe your story in the e-mail (cover letter). If your story can't stand on its own, fix the story.
Reading period: Saturday, April 16 to Friday, May 13, 2011. Stories received before or after this period will be deleted unread.
Response time is expected to follow MZB's traditional standards: you should hear within a week if we're holding your story for the final line-up or rejecting it.
Length: up to 9,000 words, with preference given to shorter stories. The longer a story is, the better it has to be. Long stories should be submitted early in the reading period.
Formatting and Submission:
Format with one-inch margins on all four sides of page.
Please do not use a header or footer.
Your name, full mailing address, and email address must be in the upper left corner, single spaced.
Skip two lines, center the text, then put the title, with your name (or byline) on the next line. We're not going to be as rigid as MZB was about pen names, but we expect them to be reasonable, rather than cute.
The rest of the manuscript should be single-spaced, with the first line of each paragraph indented 1/2 inch.
If you need to indicate a break, put "#" on a line by itself, centered.
Do not underline; use italics instead. Do not use bold face. We prefer Courier New font, size 12.
Word count will be determined by our word processor; that way it will be the same for everyone.
Save your document as an .rtf file (rich text format or interchange format, depending on what your computer calls it). E-mail as it as an attachment to mzbworks at yahoo dot com. The subject line should be "SS26, your last name, story title" (e.g.: SS26, Bradley, Dark Intruder) -- we don't want submissions caught in the spam filter.
Rights purchased: first rights, non-exclusive eBook and audio book rights.
Payment: 5 cents per word as an advance against a pro rata share of royalties and foreign or other sales.
31 March 2011 -- Triangulation: Last Contact -- eds. Jamie Lackey & Steve Ramey, Parsec Ink
[Heavily edited down to the essentials -- click through for (lots) more detail.]
Triangulation is an annual 125-150+ page short fiction anthology that publishes science fiction, fantasy, horror, and any other speculative fiction that caught the editors' fancy. Every year we have a theme: 2011's theme is "Last Contact". We pay semi-pro rates and are available online at places like Amazon.
We define "short fiction" as "up to about 5,000 words or so." If you have an awesome story that exceeds 5K then by all means send it; but be warned that we have yet to accept anything for publication much longer than 5000 words. We dig flash; there is no minimum word count.
We have no interest in getting more specific about the term "speculative fiction." Science fiction, horror, fantasy, magic realism, alternate history, whatever -- if there's a speculative element vital to your story, we'll gladly give it a read.
We love creative interpretations of our theme, "Last Contact". Don't ask us what it means -- tell us what it means with a story that convinces us you're right.
We will run mature content if we like the story. So make sure there's an actual story in that mature content.
We will consider reprints, but we are much more picky with them. If the story ran someplace obscure, then it's probably new to our readers; if it ran someplace high-profile, it's going to have to be the best thing we've read since the alphabet to get in.
The submission period is December 1, 2010 through March 31, 2011. All electronic submits must be sent within that period, all snail mail submits must be postmarked by the deadline.
Compensation: We pay two cents per word (USA funds, rounded to the nearest 100 words, US$10 minimum payment) on publication and one contributor's copy. The anthology will be published in late July of 2011. We purchase North American Serial Rights, and Electronic Rights for the downloadable version(s). All subsidiary rights released upon publication. Contributors will also have the option of purchasing additional copies of the anthology at reduced price.
15 May 2011 -- Steampunk Holiday Anthology -- ed. Angela James, Carina Press
Carina is looking for steampunk novellas with a winter or winter holiday theme, to be published digitally both individually and as a collection in December 2011. The novellas should be from 18,000 to 35,000 words and feature steampunk elements as integral to the novella. The stories do not need to be romance, or even have romance elements, but can be straight steampunk, or steampunk with romantic elements, and can also feature elements of mystery, thriller, horror or other sub-genres. Additionally, there is no set heat level for these stories, so they can have no sex, or be ultra-sexy, or anything in between.
Essentially, we’re looking for interesting, creative, well-written stories within the steampunk niche that will appeal to readers’ imaginations and add to our growing catalog of steampunk stories.
The steampunk holiday collection will be supported by a marketing and promotion campaign both online and in print. In addition, though the collection won’t currently be offered for sale in print format, each author chosen to contribute to the anthology will receive a set number of limited edition print copies for their own use.
To submit, please send your completed manuscript and synopsis, along with query letter to submissions@carinapress.com by May 15th, 2011. In the subject line, please put Steampunk Holiday: Manuscript Title and Author
All submissions will be reviewed and final decision made by June 15th, 2011.
For questions about this call for submissions, please email Angela James at submissions@carinapress.com
For more information about Carina Press, and to read the submission guidelines, please visit www.carinapress.com
***
31 May 2011 -- Night Terrors 2 -- ed. Marc Ciccarone & Joseph Spagnola, Blood Bound Books
NOTE: Do not submit before 1 March.
Like volume I, this second volume will be an open themed anthology of horror. Meaning we want stories from all topics and subcategories of horror. Including, but not limited to: psychological, creatures, paranormal, and gore. Remember, evil has no boundaries and neither do we! Nothing is off limits, so take advantage of the freedom. Science fiction and dark fantasy* will be considered as long as it has a strong element of horror. Try to avoid classic horror conventions/monsters (vampires, werewolves, and zombies), unless you incorporate a unique twist.
Third person stories are preferred but we’ll read first person stories as long as they are well done or integral to the plot.
Stories can range from 750 - 4500 words firm and must be rooted in the realms of horror/dark fiction.
Stories must be formatted in the following manner:
-- 12 point font
-- Times New Roman or Courier New
-- Double-Spaced
-- Contact information in the upper left(name, address, phone number, email)
-- Word Count Upper Right
-- 1 Space after a punctuation
-- Underline everything you would like to italicize at publication
-- Attach as a .doc file
Submission: Starts March 1st and closes May 31st (2011). Selections will not be made until after the submission period.
We'll accept stories in any setting or time period, as long as it's well written, powerful and original. Most importantly, scare us. We want to be haunted by your story long after we put it down. Gore and sex are acceptable, as long as it serves a purpose.
Payment: 1st place- 5¢/word; 2nd place 3¢/word; 3rd place 2.5¢/word. All other stories will receive 2¢/word.
Send submissions to submissions@bloodboundbooks.net. Subject should read:
Night Terrors II: story title/author last name
* Fantasy is always a gray area. Dark fantasy to us is more H.P. Lovecraft than J.R.R. Tolkien. We’d like to see a creepy world you created or a flipside image of humanity rather than Middle Earth type realms featuring wizards and dwarfs.
***
UNTIL FILLED -- Horror Library, Vol. 5 -- Cutting Block Press
Cutting Block Press is pleased to announce an open submissions period for the 4th Volume of its Horror Anthology Series, +Horror Library+, to be published in trade paperback during 2011.
We're looking for the highest quality examples of all forms of Dark Fiction, running the gamut from traditional horror, supernatural, speculative, psychological thriller, dark satire, including every point between and especially beyond. No Fantasy or Sci-fi unless the horror elements are dominant. Read +Horror Library+ Volumes 1-3 to see what's already pleased us. Special consideration will be given those pieces that we find profoundly disturbing, though blood and violence on their own won't cut it. While we will consider tales of vampires, ghosts and zombies, we tend to roll our eyes at ordinary ones. They're just too plentiful. Your best bet is to surprise us with something that is different, while well conceived and tightly executed.
Guidelines: Stories will range between 1,000 and 6,000 words, though we'll look at longer works of exceptional merit. In that case, query before submission. Buying 1st worldwide anthology rights. No reprints. Paying 1.5 cents per word, plus one contributors copy. For established authors, rates may be negotiable. Response time: six months or sooner. Deadline: We will accept submissions until filled. All Queries to horrorlibrarysubs@yahoo.com.
Manuscript format: 12 point courier font, standard margins, left side of header: name, contact info, right side of header: word count, top of first page: title, author
Variances from traditional manuscript format: single space, NO INDENTS, ONE EXTRA space between paragraphs, use bold, italics and underline as they are to appear in story
Subject box: Short Story submission - title of story
Attach story in MS Word Document or RTF (only). Please paste your cover letter in the body of the e-mail. Send submissions to horrorlibrarysubs@yahoo.com.
[See the web page for a special offer on copies of Horror Library Vol. 1 for writers doing market research.]
***
UNTIL FILLED -- Mortis Operandi -- ed. Kfir Luzzatto and Dru Pagliassotti, The Harrow Press
MORTIS OPERANDI is looking for stories that revolve around the investigation of a crime and in which the supernatural plays a central role. While we’re expecting a fair share of murders, we strongly encourage stories that revolve around OTHER kinds of crime — for example, arson, assault, blackmail, bullying, burglary, dowry death, embezzlement, fraud, kidnapping, larceny, libel, piracy, product liability, slavery, smuggling, terrorism, treason, and toxic pollution are all fair game.
By "supernatural" we mean magic, monsters, and/or miracles, but we don’t consider psychic abilities (although the inclusion of a minor character possessing them will not in itself disqualify a story), extraterrestrial life, or UFOs to be supernatural.
Types of stories may include whodunits, police procedurals, hardboiled fiction, and courtroom dramas. All genres and treatments are welcome, including ecclesiastic, fantasy, humor, horror, historical, military, romance, and parody. Settings outside the U.S. and U.K. are welcome. Settings on other worlds aren’t.
We want well-written stories that demonstrate originality of concept and plot. Zombies, vampires, and werewolves will be a hard sell, and romantically inclined vampires will be staked on sight. Think outside of the coffin.
Stories will be judged exclusively on the basis of their literary merit; a history of prior publication is not necessary.
Get more information about our thoughts on this antho at Market Scoop.
Submissions & Queries: anthology [[ at ]] theharrowpress.com
==No simultaneous submissions. One submission at a time.
==Please attach your stories to your email in Microsoft Word, RTF, or text-only format. Stories pasted in the body of an email will not be read.
==Please include the words “Submission: Mortis Operandi” in the Subject line of your e-mail.
Length: 3,000-6,000 words. Please include an approximate word count in your e-mail submission.
Reprints: No
Language: English
Payment: US $50/story, upon publication, and a free copy of the book
Rights: Exclusive English anthology print and electronic (e-book) rights. Please read our Sample Contract (pdf) for full details.
Submission period: Opens 1.1.11 -- Closes when filled.
Publication Date: 2012
Rain the past 2 days and it's 45 degrees. We are pleasantly surprized. We want more, but it's supposed to snow some tonight and drop down to single digits again tomorrow night.
In the meantime, don't forget to set your clocks forward an hour tonight, as we are ending Daylight Savings time. I wish we'd stop doing it all together, but it is now institutionalized and therefore a juggernaut.
On the home front, I'm surviving on about 6 hours of sleep a night and no time for much except puppy minding when I get home from work. Now that it'll still be light when I get home, I can safely walk the puppies every evening, which I will do as soon as I get home, barring hideous weather.
They are still growing. I have a few more pictures, but nothing too exciting. I'll try and get some more this weekend and post them. They were 21 weeks old as of yesterday, and officially 5 months old next Tuesday. My babies are at least 45 pounds now, and they're 26" at the shoulder. English Setters are tall, lean dogs, sometimes described as gaunt. So I have no idea how much taller they will become, but, judging by the paws on those boys I suspect a couple of more inches in height. Pappa and granddad are both 60-65 pounds, so that's my best guess as to size. You can't go by momma's size, as there's a wide variance between boys and girls in this breed.
At any rate, they are cute, and they are listening much better than they were. The cats are still for chasing, but they aren't as crazy about it as before, and if you tell them to come off, they do (most of the time.) At the risk of oversharing, the only serious problem of note right now is Chance developing coprophagia. Yep, poop eating. The best preventative is monosodium galutamate, aka Accent or MSG in the food to make teh poop taste nasty, but I can't give that to Chance due to his heart. I really hope he outgrows this behavior. *shudders*
A recent CNN online article describes research regarding the experience of fear in humans. Apparently, the amygdala in the brain is at least partially responsible for the proper experience of fear, based on study of a woman whose amygdala has been destroyed by disease.
The interesting thing about this study is how this woman's lifeis affected. The total lack of ability to know or experience any form of fear has caused her to blithely take risks that could have killed her, because she doesn't have that slight fear or wariness that causes her to check and reassess situations that may be life threatening. She will approach people who she should know to avoid because she has no fear that they may cause her harm. Or she will do things that might otherwise kill her, such as picking up a snake without worrying if it could poison her.
The upshot is that lack of fear can be extremely dangerous and shorten one's life. But the ability to adjust the fear experience to treat post-traumatic stress disorder or to heal phobias is a good thing.
For the purposes of speculative fiction and plotting stories, however, the concept of this control of fear can be a great basis for a plot.
Ideas.
Designer people with set or, worse, endlessly programmable behavior "channels"? Scary stuff.
I know it's not a good picture of them, but you can see how BIG the boys have gotten! They are almost 26" tall at the shoulder. Boomer the Pug can walk under their bellies now, and they were barely taller than he when I brought them home.
And an amusing factoid: I did the math, and, not including the grain, raw beef heart and liver, they have consumed about 1.2# of kibble per pound of weight gained.
I just had to retrieve a pen from Chance's gullet, too. Thought we'd lost the tip and spring, but he came up chomping on them a few minutes later. It's amazing how much crap they can hide in their mouths. No kidding, I get in there mining for treasure, fingers literally down their throats and fingers digging all over...and they still manage to hide stuff that's pretty huge. Almost like they have a crop and cough stuff up to chew later like cud! I didn't find a rock the size of a marble once, despite a thorough search.
Life has been relatively quiet lately. I like it. We have fallen into a routine with the puppies, and I am still living on about 6 hours of sleep a night when I generally prefer eight to nine. I don't know why I'm not more tired than I am. Must be the excessive amounts of coffee I have been slurping.
The puppies are over 40 pounds now. They are both listening better and have more self-control than they did at 12 weeks. They are 20 weeks old today, and they are so much taller than the Pug that he can walk under their bellies. They were a scant inch taller at the shoulder than Boomer when I brought them home about 7 weeks ago. Wow.
I will be installing a fence in the yard as soon as the snow melts and the ground thaws, and then I'm going to spend my spare time organizing the basement so that (hopefully) I can gut the mudroom in 2012 and rough in plumbing, run electrical and insulate so we can put in a new bathroom to replace the funky one. I'll get the walls in the mudroom and do the laundry area first, and finish off the bathroom and add custom touches in 2013, if not earlier. I will be doing most of the work to save money, but I still am guessing at about 18k to do it all. That's still not that bad for extremely well insulated, new bathrooms alone. And once I have that new bath in I will be able to put the wall back in the living room that incorporated teh front porch as interior space and give us back the front porch. And I'll open the kitchen to the living room so we have a great room.
The most important point of the mudroom project is that I'll have a back door to the yard and a doggie door, and the dogs can be locked into a heated space where they can't hurt anything yet have outdoor access winter or summer. So if I have to leave them for an extended time, they will have a place to hang out away from cats and hazards.
Sadly, Luger did something to his foot on Thursday night and after howling in pain for a minute or so, he was limping pretty badly. He's still tender footed and ki-yies when he steps wrong, and I'll have to get his leg exrayed Monday if he hasn't gotten past that stage. Not sure what he did, but he was running back into teh room at top speed during one of the boys' tears, and I think he slid and possibly jammed his leg into the door jam. I'm just concerned that he either tore a muscle/ligament or he may have damaged a growth plate in his leg or foot bones. That's pretty bad, and I really don't want to pay for doggie surgery at the moment. But you can't ignore injuries like that, especially when the dog's growing so fast! Might have extreme consequences later on.
And on the writing front? *laughs hysterically* WHAT writing? I ask you, when would I wedge in some time?
Madre tells me it's my own fault that the pups insist on 3am potty breaks. I have spoiled them, and they want their morning cuddle/snooze with me. However, I maintain that if they would actually go to the bathroom before bed it might mean they slept until 4:30, which is when the alarm is set. Le sigh...
A couple of days ago, Sylvia commented with an hilarious link where cats quoted Charlie Sheen. I found a great post by the author, Francesco Marciuliano (author of the Sally Forth strip), on the writer's life. He's talking about writing comic strips, but I think it could easily apply to us all.
The only flaw? He omits mention of coffee!
Which brings me to the topic: What do you do that makes you live a "writer's life"?
A professor I had in college (where I took in all but name a creative writing minor) stated once that you are only a writer when you are writing. I submit that in a certain sense that is true...but what is the life of a writer, and what does that writer do in between spates of writing? Isn't it logical that life fills the void between the moments when you are writing?
Because, if we feel we are writers, want to be writers, or are already paid professionals in the field in some manner, there should be some distinctive flair or habit or prevalent whatever, right? (Okay, play along with me here anyhow.) If we have something that defines us as writers besides the actual production of prose, what is the life that we are leading that makes us distinctively living the "writer's life"? Is there a stereotypical writer's life that doesn't borrow from Hemingway and a fifth of bourbon or involve gay Paris and beret-wearing mimes smoking unfiltered Turkish cigarettes and drinking coffee in a bistro or absinthe at the cabaret?
Play with the idea a bit and look at your own life. Where do you show your writerly nature to the world? In your decor, choice of abode, your hobbies, your haunts, your friends? Seriously, look at your life and what you've built around yourself and see how those things in your life reflect your writing habit/career. It could be little superstitious rituals. Purchasing habits. Hobbies. How you describe yourself to others. What I'm really asking you to do is to look at the activities that are not related to actual writing or the settling in to write but which you feel define you as a writer.
For myself, I have a thing for goofy tee shirts. A lot of my shirts have amusing comments about being a writer, and it makes me feel like a writer because the shirt says so. It's a form of label, marking me to the world...or at least marking me to me!
And I surround myself with office supplies. Blank post its, reams of paper, bound books, art paper--you name it, I likely have some of it lurking, forgotten, in the office area. For some reason, I feel like the creative potential in a blank page is incredibly powerful for me.
Then there's my leisure time. I am unable to actually do this because my location and job (the Job That Ate My Life) prevents it. But, given the opportunity, I'd hang out in bistros or organic coffee shops; I used to do that in San Francisco, and I wish I could do so all the time. I also used to dress rather Bohemian, which made me feel all hip and cool and stuff. Though, just shy of 50 now, it's not exactly a look or trend that would win points any longer, so, like the coffee shop hanging out in, it's all a wish, not an actual thing I can or will do. But that still defines me to myself.
So...what is it you do that makes you feel like a writer in the mundane existence outside of actually penning the Great American Novel?
I'm a writer of science fiction & fantasy who dreams of the day she can run screaming to the bank with the advance check for the next Great American Novel.
![031901951356[00].jpg](http://writtenwyrdd.typepad.com/files/03190195135600.jpg "031901951356[00].jpg")
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