New Visiting Dignitary & Stuff

Good Morning. I'm skipping my walking to post to you guys, you should feel flattered.

First - We have a new Visiting Dignitary Preview with a snippet from Jade Lee/Kathy Lyons. Pop by at http://catadamsauthor.blogspot.com

RANT FOLLOWS:

Secondly, I do not get it. Two suicide bombers hit in Moscow killing 35. I will never understand being able to objectify people enough to commit mass murder of total strangers. Everyone on those trains had people who loved them (including the bombers) and whose lives will be a little darker without them in it, thus darkening the world. Every one of those statistics was a living, breathing person with problems (abruptly ended) and joys (equally gone) in a flash of pain and violence that was completely impersonal.

Now I, personally, would love to go quietly, in my sleep, after one of the best days in my life where I had fantabulous sex and laughed until I cried, told everybody I loved that I loved them, ate chocolate, potato chips and drank as much Pepsi as I wanted. But if I died violently I would at least want it to be because of something I did: Say I testified against a murderer and he came after me; or I rushed into a burning building to save a baby, or a little old lady. I would NOT want it to be on my morning commute after I skipped breakfast and thus argued with my loved ones because of low blood sugar. That's just . . . wrong. And massively, massively unfair.

My condolences to all of the victims of anonymous violence, whether in Moscow, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, or wherever.

Migraines sucketh

Over yesterday's migraine (thank heavens!). It was a beaut. The pain medicine actually was helping -- right up until I sneezed. OW. Anyway, today is better. Exciting things are happening. I just have to hang in there and do the best I can. Not that I don't usually. But I've been a bit tired since I was sick, which has slowed me down more than a little.



Getting ready for RT. Doing some writing. Doing some knitting and sewing. (designing and sewing a ball gown is not for the faint of heart. It is also tricky as hell when you have pussycats trying to play with all the yards of pretty silky stuff.) (OOOOH SHINY!!)

Another Day, Another Project

Okay, I'm up and (relatively) at 'em. I have a TON of stuff to do. The goal of the morning is to finish the short story and to get 5 pages done on the book. The goal of the afternoon and evening is to organize the tax stuff. Ambitious, but possible.

I was a very good girl. I ate a healthy breakfast AND did my exercises. I also gave an apology to someone who deserved one and am getting ready to send a thank you note -- also to someone who deserves one.

All this,and a part of me just wants to go back to bed. I still don't have my energy back from being sick. Ridiculous, but true. I can breathe, no lingering symptoms other than just being freaking TIRED. Which I suppose is actually not bad. But with my to do list I need energy.

Ah well.

Later.

TOOOOOOO Much to Do!

Oy! I have SOOOOO much to do I don't have a clue where to start. A lot of it is really important stuff too.

Good mood is holding. :) I may fall flat on my face, but I'll be smiling on the way.

Anyway, I have to get moving. If I don't eat something really soon I'm going to keel over. But I'm thinking of y'all.

Holding Steady

Morning. It's chilly and damp out. Part of me would stay bundled up in bed all day. But THAT's not in the cards. Still, I'm looking forward to a good, productive day.

First -- we have a visiting dignitary PREVIEW up on the paraoddity blog. Shannon Butcher was gracious enough to send us THREE WHOLE CHAPTERS and a cover shot of her upcoming paranormal release. This is SERIOUSLY GOOD STUFF guys, and you need to go take a look. As usual you can find it at: http://catadamsauthor.blogspot.com/

Yesterday was odd. I started out in a good mood, but found out bad news about a friend's health, and another friend was having a seriously bad day. Combined, they toned things down a lot. I want everybody to be happy and healthy. Unfortunately (or fortunately, because I'd be sure to botch it) I don't control the universe. It seems that what makes one person happy frequently just pisses off another. I'd never be able to balance it all and figure out what works. All I can do is the best I can do.

I bought an ISP address (I think that's the right set of letters, but bear with me if I am wrong Books have ISBN's) because I went to the Intuit site and signed up for a webbuilder and ***DRUM ROLL*** ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE so that I can run my income in a businesslike manner and actually figure out the taxes as things come in. Thus for a VERY small fee I can also have an individual website for stuff I do separately. So I did. It was EASY. I mean so super easy it took practically no time. What took the longest was deciding WHAT to put and finding pictures to make it look pretty, then getting the copyright permissions. But I did, and it's mostly done. I'm actually showing the artists what I've done now. But for the rest of the world, I'll probably wait to publicize it until I actually HAVE published individual works to publicize. The bulk of my career may well always be the partnership, but I need an individual area where I can take risks that I wouldn't subject someone else to and that are to my taste entirely. I also (ahem, blushes slightly and sighs) have some control issues that I'm trying to work out in a separate space.

The truck is finished. It runs GOOD. I don't know how to explain the difference in how it feels. But it feels right. And the nasty, scary grinding noises are GONE. WOOT!!!

Okay, off to face the day. Be well, be happy.


Cie

Another Good Morning

Another good morning. Woke up chipper. Truck is in the shop. The part FINALLY came in. Woot. Actually. I should rephrase. While the mechanic was on vacation in California he complained to an old friend about not being able to get the @#$&* part. His friend said "I have one." So, they threw it in the back of the truck and he brought it back from vacation with him. Sweet!

Happy

Happy

Okay, one way to determine if you're on the right track is -- is it working? Are you happy?

The past two days I have actually been happy for the first time in quite a while. For about a year and a half I've been mostly angry. Mostly at myself. Now, for good or ill I've taken charge of my life again and I'm happy.

So cool.

Now I have to get to work at the day job. Have a great day folks.

Oh, and if you're wondering why I'm not moderating to get rid of the spam comments. 1st, I don't have time. 2nd, they kind of amuse me. Perverse, but true.

Embracing Change

Life is change. Things happen. You react to them. You make other things happen. Other people react to them. This is just how it is. Sometimes the change is "bad" sometimes "good". It's all perspective.

I have not been happy in a number of areas of my life. It has made me really angry and difficult to get along with. I tried various things to put a band-aid on it without really making changes. Which didn't help. SO, last week when I got my real-honest-to-God-Kick-ASS-and-GIVE-'EM-HELL rage that was so completely uncontrollable (in part because of hormones, but also because of pent up frustration with myself) I decided "Screw it. It's time to grab the bull by the balls and make some changes." So I did. (He screamed.) And I am.

What I am trying may work.
Or not.

The only way to find out is to do it. So I am. And it feels right.

It shouldn't screw with anyone else's situation. The areas I'm making changes in are mine individually. And it is past time for me to take responsibility for those.

So wish me luck.

Good Job Folks

Good job to the folks who posted on the Saturday story. It's a beginning. Perhaps even a beginning that we will continue next Saturday . . . hmmn??

Up early doing businessy stuff and banging out pages to the mystery. Figured I'd take 15 minutes to go online and get in touch with people on the various sites. I have to be very careful to limit my time though, because otherwise I spend all my time cruising the net and none of my time getting things done. Not good. But there's so much out there. And it's FUN . . . but that doesn't produce the pages, or pay the bills either for that matter. And if I don't pay the power and the cable bills the internet goes bye bye. LOL.

I'm still not completely over the crud. Almost. I'm THISSSSSSSS close. But the antibiotics are gone, so I figure I'd better call the doc and see if he thinks I should renew the Rx. I do NOT need a relapse.

RT is right around the corner, and I'm very excited about it. Good things are happening. I am NOT excited about having to get all my tax stuff together. UGH. SOOOOOOOOO ugh. I was really good for a while about keeping track of my receipts. But for the past six months -- not so much. So I have a helluva mess to go through. OY!

Okay, I need to cross-post this, check in on the forum, pop by FaceBook, and send some e-mails. Then I have to write, exercise, and get ready for the day job. (And I wonder why I am always tired.)

Toodles.

Another Saturday

Hello all! It's Saturday. I'm still coughing a little, but I am basically upright and functioning. WOOT. Of course the house is a pit and I'm behind on absolutely everything, but HEY, you can't have it all. Ya know.

I'll get to the house in a few minutes. And I'll write some today. And hopefully I'll at least get a start on sorting the tax stuff (UGH). And I'll work on my personal website. Which will, I am fairly sure, take care of all my time today and exhaust me in the process. Heck, I'm getting tired just looking at it.

As to the Saturday Morning Breakfast Serial, Sylvia is kinda tangled up in things right now, SO I'm going to try something. I want y'all to help out. I'll start with a couple of lines. Log into the comments and add a paragraph. Second comment moves on from the first, etc. I want to see where this goes and how you do! DON'T FAIL ME PEEPS.

************************************************

Marilyn dived for cover as the shot rang out. Glass shards from the shattered flourescent light fell like rain onto the green felt of the pool table, her head, the floor. A woman screamed in terror, her voice clear even above the blasting music and the noisy videogames in the background.

************************************************
Okay, your turn.

Raging Hormones

Okay, today I have raging hormones and one hell of a headache. This on top of the tail end of the being sick thing. Which makes me (to put it very mildly) resemble the hag from hell.

I accept this. Mainly because I have to. But also because sometimes, just sometimes, you need to take no prisoners and make no compromises. Oh, not most of the time. Most of the time it's important to be nice and cooperative. But nice and cooperative can go too far and become wimpy and "how the hell did that happen?"

WOOT!!! It's Sent!

Woot! It's sent. Manuscript finished and sent to Cathy to convert and go to the publisher. Got up early and got it DONE!

Happy dance ensues. Very briefly, because I still get winded.

NOW I have to get ready for the day job.

Still Recovering and Duty Calls

Okay, this is going to be short. MUST get the mss proofed and to publisher! In answer to the question that keeps coming up - "Is Serpent Moon the end of the Sazi series?" I give you a resounding -- I dunno.

Whether or not a series continues is up to the publisher. They no buy, we no continue. Whether the publisher continues is based on sales. You no buy, they no buy, we no continue. So, if sales are going well, there will be more. If sales tank, there won't. So . . . again . . . I dunno. We have lots more stories to tell. But it depends on if anyone wants to hear them.

As to my health, I am still on a ton of meds, but I am upright. I have managed to go to work the past two days. (Although I collapsed after yesterday and was completely worthless). Today I actually am still upright at 7:13, which means I'm doing better. But I still have to take the meds, and I still cant take a deep breath without feeling like I'm going to cough up a lung. So, not recovered yet, but improving.

And with that, I'm off. I am going to change the litterboxes and work on the manuscript. Because until the litterboxes are cleaned I'm not going to be able to think about anything other than "EWWWWWW I GOTTA get that done."

Sicker'n poop.

Sicker'n poop. Missed trip to New Orleans and EPICon because the body just flat gave out. Rush trip to the doc didn't help enough. I'll be fine. . . eventually. . . thanks to a steroid shot, antibiotics, Rx decongestants, cough suppressants (with expectorant), stuff for the fever, etc. Thank God for modern medicine.

NEWS and a Visiting Dignitary

Okay guys! IT'S HERE!!!! "Serpent Moon" hits the shelves today! This book is the culmination of the Sazi series. It has a cast of thousands (LOL). SERIOUSLY, we're very proud of this book, and hope you'll enjoy reading it as much or more than we did writing it. GO FORTH AND BUY!As for the ping-pong match. It continues. AND we will be posting it as a Saturday Morning Breakfast Serial. So stay tuned.

And we have a new Visiting Dignitary post over at Paraoddity! You need to take a look. Rather than the usual interview, we did a snippet of a new release and some photos from "Beguiled" the #12 BNB Bestseller for March. Check it out!

Good Morning

Books are much more restrictive than real life. In life people are liable to name their kids Candy Caine or Jett Black, and there are others that I wouldn't saddle my worst enemy with and can't post here. In real life I've been hit by lightning, bit in the crotch by a black widow spider (OW), and had other less likely things happen. But I couldn't do it to a character. Nobody would believe it.