almsot there

This is when I get to the point that my program says I have 50 000 words, but I know Nano's won't. So I keep going til we have an agreement.

This is the kind of sentence you come out with when only a few thousand words from your goal

Red has arranged for them to go with a troupe of entertainers to entertain the troops.

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PS

Mind you, one of Minion's toys is just a straw. She'll take the straw out of your drink and run all over the house with it. Sometimes the best toys are the non-toys. Here she's about to pounce on it.

And I finally caught THE LOOK. That look on her face when she sits on my lap and tries to persuade me to give her a finger to suck.

fun chores

Successful shopping day. There's something deliciously decadent about shopping for just yourself when everyone around you is shopping for other people. (That is--I don't do Christmas with anyone, except my husband.)

I managed to escape any shamings from my doctor--she's so good, I loves her. And I picked up a pair of more comfortable ear buds for when I can't wear my proper earphones.

Went to my old work place to say hi to some people. Then picked up my glasses. I got very good service from Lunetterie New Look--liked the doctor, the sales dudes, and I really like the adjust-the-glasses technician. I have one ear higher than the other, so that requires some work. And I told him about not wanting them to be too tight, so he loosened the blue ones.

Here's the brown&peach pair. I have to angle my head so you don't just get computer glare in my eyes.

Here's the blue&bronze ones. I was so excited about being able to see everything that I wore them for a few hours, even though they gave me a headache.

Then stopped at the pet supply store for a bunch of toys for the inexhaustible Minion. I bought one toy that's just a wicker ball with feathers attached. She sat down with it, and systematically ripped out every feather in about 5 minutes. It was carnage. I asked her if next time she'd rather I just get her an entire chicken to pluck. I kept the feathers so I can try to reattach them to her old feather toy, which has been stripped bare but which she loves so much she still drags it around the house.

Haley took to the little yellow octopus-type toy. Usually when she gets a hold of a toy she likes she does about one circuit around the house with it in her mouth, making "I'm a huntress!!" noises. But with this one she did at least 5 circuits.

Mind, Haley's favourite toy is Mother's Wrist. I do the ultimate-no-no and roughhouse with my cats. She likes me to grab her head and try to scratch her head and nech while she bits and wrestles me. Minion was watching us with this "how come you let mom wrestle you, and I can't??" look on her face.

Then stocked up on vegan junk at Papillon (sour cream, cream cheese, cheese, tofurkey slices, vegan mayonnaise--the things I can't replicate well with home cooking.) I was telling one of the staff how much I love that they carry more and more vegan food all the time, and she said the manager encourages them to bring in whatever they think looks good. So she helped them expand their gluten-free selection, and I guess someone's been on top of all the vegan goodies. And she said they're expanding in January! Yay!

A good day. Now I need to get in some of the remaining 6000 words before I get sleepy again. Ciao!

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Wow I'm in real clothes for the first time since last Monday when I went out with Swiss Girl. (But I own multiple pajamas so that I always look soigné even when sluffing.)

I'm wearing the necklace Fernando recently bought me. It's pink granite or something.

I'm dressed in my doctor clothes (t-shirt and comfy slacks for easy pull-off-ability, short sleeves for blood pressure access. Though I'm hoping she's in a rush today, so I won't get the usual shaming about my weight.)

I have an appt with the GP, just to get my birth pill renewed and maybe a flu shot. Then I have to go pick up my eyeglasses (yay!) And then go to the mall down the hill and get something from the post office (hopefully my advent calendar, yay!) And go to the pet store and the health food store to renew all our toy and vegan supplies for the winter (yay!) So at least it's mostly fun chores, which makes it easier to leave the house.

Gonna write til then. In theory.

Good timing Mr Eggers - 43 581

I'm having big procrastination problems today. Luckily that was the theme of the Nanowrimo Dave Eggers pep talk. (They get authors to write up pep talks that they send through the month.

So whatever procrastination problems you have, I probably have you beat. I'm the worst, and I'm getting worse every day.

It's a very strange thing, because we all think writing should be fun. That is, when I was temping through most of my twenties, wondering what it would be like to write for a living, hoping for such a life, I thought it might be pretty sweet. I thought if I ever got to write for a living, I would feel pretty lucky, and that I would be so appreciative that I would bound out of bed every day and, like a goddamned adult, I would write as much as I could every day, and get work done in a reasonable amount of time. Again, like an adult.

Instead, I need, on average, 8 hours sitting on my writing couch to get one hour of work done.

Castle Thunder is Go!

So far my story contains (or will contain) shades of William Randolph Hearst, Julia Cameron - a female architect, the 1918 influenza epidemic, WWI aces, Isadora Duncan, Josephine Baker, early Hollywood, early jazz, and conditions facing African-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Native Americans and Mexicans. So I think it's time I introduced a Pinkerton detective, don't you?

I didn't know, but there was a female division of the Pinkertons. One of whom was arrested (as a spy I guess) and imprisoned in Richmond, Virginia's Castle Thunder prison.

??!!

Can you believe there was a prison called Castle Thunder? The guards apparently had a reputation for brutality. Well duh!! Call your prison Castle Thunder and I expect you'll attract all manner of melodrama. Including  a woman who enlisted in the civil war as a man. Good heavens.

Wiki doesn't say how it got its name, but apparently there was another prison of that name is Petersburg. Virginia was a weird place in the 1800s. Or the state boosters were hoping to make it into an episode of Flash Gordon.

Ack! Carpal tunnel attack!

Ever since I was a fiction-writing-teenager I've had to contend with carpal tunnel and neck pain. I had such neck pain in high school that I had to do exercises for it; but that seems to have mostly gone away over time. The carpal tunnel I also have to do exercises for, as it regularly flares up. Luckily never to the point of debilitation.

Mind, I can never find my damned carpal book when I need it. Where are you?? I should keep it with my books about writing. Most of the exercise consist of stretching out the wristy muscles.

Well, I've notched my chair up a little higher and that's helping. This chair is adjustable in a multitude of ways, meant for Serious Writing Action. And I have a desk with a keyboard tray so that's nice and low. And I put my laptop on top of a stack of school books (Principles and Practice of Psyiatric Nursing, Human Development, and Retailing Management) so that the screen is high enough.

Now if only I could find an exercise for sitting-at-desk-eating-all-the-time-itis. (Aerobics you say? ... Oh.)

Or a cure for procrastination.

Currently Enjoying...

Lucinda Williams

Aaaalright I'm back

I have a doctor's appt at 10 AM today. So I figure it will be less painful if I just write all night and then go. I have some chores to do too. I've had an evening nap, so I think I'm ok.

Spent time with husbando.

Started reading another Regency romance, and this one's very funny--sucked me right in.

Felt on the verge of a serious headache, but the nap sent it away. Still feel it could come, though, so I'll have to be careful. (Ie. wear stoopid earbuds instead of good quality headphones--the latter put pressure on the top of my head.)

Have some pastas and brownies on standby. Ice tea on my right.

Stoopid kitty on my finger, must get rid of.

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Okay my candle-of-the-day is almost burnt out. I had some long dry spells because I had to think up some important plot points--since these 50 000 words are going to be part of the novel I'm working on, I can't put down just any old crap. I don't mind if I write stuff that I later decide will need changing, but I need to make the best momentary decisions I can.

When I did this same story two nanos ago, the goal was just to get a bare bones backstory worked out for my heroine, so all I needed to do was generate ideas. Now that I'm re-writing it, and it's going to actually go into my book, it's got to be a fully workable draft.

Anyway, I got past some of the humps, and I think the last 8000 words should come easier-ish. I've left my heroine in the California Hospital in LA, the Jacobs are about to flee to Europe, and Pearl is going to bring about the next important plot point. We're just getting into the thick of the stuff that will drive my Henry V character several generations later. Yay! I can safely get to bed, then.

(Look, once I got around 39 000 words my progress bar went from yellow to green. So cute!)

KITTY PICS: Minion Helps With Word Count

"Hm yes. You definitely need some padding."

"I put big bum on keyboard."

Song of the Day: There's another Canadian Justin! I better one! -> Justin Nozuka "Swan in the Water." No idea how this song got into my library--must have been an iTunes song of the week that I downloaded and then ignored.

I loved this soundtrack

Was probably my first real exposure to good rap music. John Singleton and Spike Lee always had the best soundtracks. But I can't listen to these songs for long cause they remind me of the movie (Boyz N the Hood) and then I get all sad. And then I have to think about how gorgeous Lawrence Fishburne was in that movie, and that makes me happy. Also I wish my name was Furious Styles.

You treat me like a child and THAT's why I can't come.

Sorry that blog title has nothing to do with this post, other than it's spoken by Sarah Jessica Parker's character in State & Main, and I just watched a movie with her in it.


Tonight I watched The Family Stone on tv (for some reason the trailer below cuts off, but you get the point.) It was much better than I expected. Everyone ends up with someone at the end, which I like. :-)  (Okay everyone but the child.)


A couple days ago Fernando and I rewatched Arsenic and Old Lace--about a couple of sweet old ladies murdering people. It's on youtube.


I've been in a movie mood lately, but that's all I can remember. I need to start tracking what I watch...

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Alright, it's almost 1 PM and I hit my goal of 40 000 words. I've got my heroine on a rooftop with only half a ladder and a bratty 14 year old to help her down. Seems as good a place to leave her as any.

I brake for youthful heart felt enthusiasm

Minion came to sit on me a moment ago, when something outside the window caught her eye so she went rushing over.

Her first snowfall!

Just like the kids in my grade 6 classe d'acceuil -- the immigrants from warm countries would all run to the window when we got the first snowfall, if it was their first winter in Canada.

I opened the window for her and she tried catching a few flakes.

So I had to stop and take pics for you. Haley, as you can see, is a little more jaded. She's a West Coast girl so this snow thing--she can take it or leave it.

First Snowfall, Marx, Headaches and Spots

Slept on and off today, and otherwise sat at the computer and did research. Took breaks by watching the Marx Brother's Night at the Opera in pieces. Opera, and Day at the Races were more popular than their earlier films, cause Thalberg slowed down their humour and interspersed it with a traditional romantic comedy storyline. The earlier ones are probably a better reflection of what they were like in vaudeville--complete mayhem and nonsensical mile-a-minute jokes, so they're my faves. (And  But it was fun to see Opera again, and to watch something inspiring when writing.

(My fave part is that the boys put "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" into the musicians' papers, so the orchestra suddenly goes into it partway into the overture.)


It's almost 9 AM. I slept so weirdly on and off today that I'm determined to just keep working, now that the writing is finally coming again. Problem is my sleepy time pill WILL try to take over at some point. We shall fight it! In the air, on the seas, fight fight fight!

Here are my writing buddies egging me on: The brass fish my grandfather used to have on his desk; the kitty clock my step-mother gave me; Writer Smurf that Ms. Li gave me for Christmas one year, the Alex Ross Wonder Woman my husband bought me, and of course Yoda.



Now we are all gazing at the snow. You can see by my headphones that I've had headache troubles again today.

And my period only came today (er, today that just passed--Friday) and not even fully. For most of my life it's always come on a Tues. Then it would sometimes come Wed. In the past couple years it sometimes came as late as Thu (scaring me, I might add.) And now Friday, and only spotty! I must be going into pre-mini-peri-perimenopause.

Alright, back to work. I have to set a fire in the film studio.

Who'd have thunk it?

Hm. I wouldn't have guessed that Fall Out Boy would sound better done by a very big band full of 50 year old guys. (Except for the background vocals, which I don't care for.)

it's gone! huzzah!

ahhh

Headache seems to be receding. It turns into this sort of itchy feeling, before disappearing. We are at itchy stage.

Aie!

I've got one of My Headaches--I always get headaches the week I get my period. I'm all drugged up and I lay my head down for awhile and read--we'll see if it gets better. Won't be able to wear my headphones. :-(  (I like loud music.)

Also my room is coldy! It's usually the coldest room, I think because the connector to the dryer is in here. I've hauled out...

- the space heater (I own 3)
- my new fingerless gloves from the Gap
- my matching fleece sweater
- my fuzzy jammies
- my new furry socks
- and my really well-made oatmeal colored slippers from an etsy shop ($15 + $3.50 shipping - the pair I bought from another seller got holes in them really fast -- these are much thicker)

"The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying letters....  The clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which effort, not being a man of a strong imagination, he failed."

The writing isn't being helped along by (a) the fact that I've hit another research-necessary part, and (b) my writing program got updated. Look how cute my menus are now! (I procrastinated by organizing all my research.)

Some of the icons I made myself, of course.

Scrivener is pretty much becoming the "industry standard" re software for scriptwriting, novels, and research papers. I used it throughout my MA, and for all my novels now.


You can split the screen and have research or pics on one side, and your writing on the other...

 

And it's got a little bar where you can set a word count goal...

But other than the icons, I haven't tried out any of Scriveners new tricks. Will save that for Dec.

Och my wee head!

Gosh the things you read...

...when researching. I've decided to merge two characters from the old draft, turning my soldier boy into a pilot. But he's got to be an injured pilot, so I've been researching not only WWI aces, but injuries. And I came across this delightful description, by a German ace whose arm was machine gunned, but he didn't want it operated on because he was afraid of being pulled out of combat:

 

(from Fokker D VII Aces of World War I - Franks & VanWyngarden)

Gross!! Awesome.

I knew there had to be a site for this

If my character wants to pay a homeless man $50 to go to a protest in her stead, how much should she pay him? About $3.50.

How to Get Rid of a Cat in 2 Easy Steps

The little peanut came back bugging me again! But I knew how to get rid of her... I sang the "Fuck You" song to her.

"I see you driving 'round town with the girl I love..." [shake cat back and forth in time to music]

 

"and I'm like--Fuck yooooou" [flip cat on back]

Cat struggles to escape.

Mission accomplished.

up and at 'em

* The Canada Reads list is out. Looks good--I just bought Essex County, and this humour one looks good, gonna add to my "maybe buy" list.

* This week I had gotten myself all turned about--going to bed at 9 AM and waking up in the dark. But I learned in a previous year that my body eventually resets itself. Last night I was sleepy at 1 AM, so I went to bed. I did wake up for a couple hours at 7 AM (had to eat and read for a bit) but I was back asleep by 9, and slept til noon.

Just had breakfast, am checking out my blogs and café etc. Then gotta get down to work. 

* After I fend off the peanut. When the little peanut wants my finger, she climbs on my lap, pretends like she's settling in, and then LOOKS up at me. NARROWS HER EYES. SMILES. And just gaaazes at me, trying to seduce me into giving up my finger. It's hard to capture the look for you, because her back or side is to the computer camera.

"You know you want to give me a finger."

 "We'd be having a much better time if you just gave me your finger."

 "Think of the fun we could be having!"

 

"Aha! I have caught a stray finger!"

 

"Nom nom nom."

{SIGH. CONTENTMENT.}

 "Banished to my blanky on the floor. >:-( "

November 2008

In Nov 2008 I was doing nanowrimo (the same story as I'm working on now) so not many posts. But what was funny is that I wrote the shortest post I've ever written, and it generated the most comments ever.

The post was simply this:

 

I was glad a Democrat had won the US presidential race, but one of my lovely friends made the mistake of posting a cynical comment, which set off a whole debate. Twain said humour was "Tragedy + time" (totally true) and I think cynicism is "Nice stuff + time." [I say cynical, but the comments may have just been realistic commentary on Obama-policy. I don't remember. You get the point! I don't want to start the debate again!]

Anyway, this was my next post:

A month or two ago I complained about all my political friends moving away. CLEARLY I was crying out for a political argument. And where my Supposed Friends there for me? Did they start a big assed argument in September or October? No! They waited until November, when I'm supposed to be writing a novel in one month. ...Nobody loves me. I go away and cries into my unwritten book.

And the next:

In light of my last post, I have decided to turn over all my email correspondence and blogs to Oscar the Human Resource Puppy, until November is over.

I first hired Oscar straight out of a bin at Maxi's, when I was having a bad day as a manager at my job (years ago.) Because you can sit him on the chair and tell him all your problems. And he wears his calm smile, and listens attentively, and pats you on the hand (if you move his paw for him.)







And finally:

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Look at that! I'm almost at the purple line. Woo!

Enjoyed on CBC today--eez catchy.

Twitching curtain

I was writing along when I noticed my curtain moved. I looked around the computer and saw this:

 

Look at that pudgy belly! She just discovered the joys of heater-lounging earlier today.

Christmas Music Recommendation: There's Still My Joy

The Indigo Girls have a Christmas album out. I only bought a couple songs, one of which was "There's Still My Joy." I discovered this song through an Oleta Adams xmas album, and it's SO touching. The Indigo Girls version is on youtube so now I can share with you. Yay! Highly recommended.

* Indigo Girls version
* Oleta Adams
* Roberta Flack (I think the song originated on this album)



I took my tree down to the shore
The garland, and the silver star
To find my peace, and grieve no more
To heal this place inside my heart

On every branch I laid some bread
And hungry birds filled up the sky
They rang like bells around my head
They sang my spirit back to life

One tiny child can change the world
One shining light can show the way
For all my tears, for what I've lost
There's still my joy
There's still my joy
For Christmas day

The snow comes down on empty sand
There's tinsel moonlight on the waves
My soul was lost, but here I am
So this must be amazing grace

One tiny child can change the world
One shining light can show the way
Beyond my tears for what I've lost
There's still my joy
There's still my joy
For Christmas day
There's still my joy for Christmas day

More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/m/melissa_manchester/#share