Tag: observations

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axes with friends

Last weekend I was in Austin celebrating a friend’s birthday, and getting to see a cousin I haven’t seen since we graduated high school together.  It was a fabulous long weekend that started on Wednesday.

The mini-vacation included getting to hang in the pool and spend lots of hours catching up with my cousin and her daughter, then music and dinner on Lady Bird lake, Rocky Horror Picture Show with friends, a buffet breakfast, ax throwing craziness (which I did not expect to enjoy as much as I did), dinner and beer at the Family Business Brewing Company, followed by more beer and a concert.

Every time I get to do one of these weekends, I’m reminded why I’m willing to spend the money to do it.  Austin is a beautiful city and I’ve met some awesome people.  And our host’s reaction to my new appearance, after not seeing me in 3 years, was worth every penny too!

I came home to an extra week off before I start my new job on Monday, which has meant that I got a good amount of writing time this week and that has felt really good.  I’m hoping that I can continue getting at least 500 words a day, even as I start my new job, which I am admittedly both nervous and excited for.

It’s a whole new industry for me, and the learning curve is going to be steep.

But hey, we all know I love a challenge!

Well, Readers, the coffee is hot (DeathWish Valhalla Java this morning) and I need to get some words flowing.  I hope to get back to a regular cadence of posting here now that I will be settling in to a new routine.

 

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plot holes and other dangers

I was up early this morning because I forgot to turn off my alarm last night.  I slept hard though, and woke up knowing I had stuff to do.  I’m heading out to my mother’s house today, so I got up and hit the gym first thing.  So first thing that I got there before the doors opened.

I have plans to do some writing tomorrow, but today is all about physical pursuits.  My Daughters of Morru story is coming along, now that I’ve filled in a plot hole that’s been bugging me.

Someone told me recently, when they saw me writing, that it is possible to correct a typo without backspacing the whole word (or however much of the sentence you’ve finished writing)…not sure it’s true.  LOL.  I have to take my hands off the keyboard to just fix a single letter, but backspacing means my hands never leave the keys.

Anyway, my coffee’s getting cold, Readers, and we can’t have that!  I hope you have a wonderful Saturday, whatever you’re up to.

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and so it is…

Pride week. Second week on the new job.  Deadlines for writing and editing.

Yeah, it’s been a week.  And it’s only Wednesday!

I turned over my writing and editing stuff to all the various people who I needed to get it to early this morning, seeing as I was awake at 5 am, even though I’m pretty sure I meant to sleep a few more hours.  Might as well make use of the time, am I right?

I have to work the day job for a few hours this morning (it’s amazing how quickly you can burn through an allotted 20 hours!!), before turning my attention to the rest of my Pride prep, which at this point of the week includes doing laundry, sorting out my meds for the weekend, making sure the laptop is set up for sign ins over the weekend and making some hard boiled eggs.  Because Protein.

There is probably going to be some house cleaning and sorting through the piles of clothing I’ve pulled out of places to decide whether it stays or goes…and if it goes, where is it going to?  Having lost 122 pounds since my heaviest weight is great, but it does make clothing occasionally problematic.  I picked up two pairs of size 18W capri pants the other day…they’re already a bit baggy, and yesterday I put on a pair of size 16W that were too tight for comfort, but I could zip them up and everything.  Won’t be too long before I’m in those.  But that means the piles of 20Ws need to find new homes.

I should probably get on with the day job work.  More deadlines, you know?  And that cup of coffee I set down somewhere and is probably getting cold…I should go find that too.  Happy Wednesday, Readers!  And Happy Pride!

 

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disappearing act, work and pride

Oops!  I seem to have missed a couple of posts there last week!  Sorry about that.  Truth is, job hunting and Pride have eaten up all of my time lately.  The good news is that I’ve landed a job that is paying me well, and not taking up all my time, and once I’ve gotten my feet good and wet will let me work from home as much as I need to.

And how are we almost to SF Pride?  We’re under two weeks away!  I’m giving my first Supervisor’s training this Thursday!  It’s crazy!  I still have a little bit of work to do to be ready for that, so I anticipate this afternoon after work I will be deep into that.  It’s not like I haven’t given at least part of this training for more than 10 years!  I could probably do it in my sleep, but I still get anxious about getting ready.

As writing goes, I’m still kind of in limbo land, in part due to stress related writer’s block and in part due to editing commitments. Doesn’t keep my head from filling with ideas though…and I’m contemplating an anthology of short stories to get the juices flowing again…after Pride and the editing of the anthology for Sirens.

For now, I should get back to my coffee and my getting ready for work.  Happy Tuesday, Readers!

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stress is the muse killer

There is no denying that I am super stressed out about finding a job, and that stress has sent my muse packing on what I am hoping is just a quick get-away to someplace nice and warm.  Otherwise, she’s just running from the stress, and who knows when she’ll be back?

The truth is, everything I’ve written in the last two weeks has been forced and stilted and just straight up bad.  I even tried working on new short stories in the hopes that it would kick me out of the funk.

No luck.

I have an editing job to do, and the promise of a few more on the horizon, I have posted on fiverr.com to try to bring in some more work, and even on Craig’s List.  So far no bites.  I may have a one to two month contract job, which I should know about this coming week, and I have been requested to interview at a company in Oakland this coming week as well, though I don’t have a date and time yet.

In the meantime, I am working on keeping myself busy and with Pride just around the corner, that isn’t really too hard.  Maybe I need some inspiration.  I have tomorrow set aside as a day to write…maybe I’ll pull something out of the partially written ideas file and try something new…or maybe try something completely out of the norm for me.

At any rate, it’s Saturday, so whatever you’re up to today, Readers, I hope it’s a good one!

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the politics of an angry female

I got an email earlier this week from someone who advised me that as an author who wants to “make it big” in the world of books, particularly as a woman, I needed to take the politics out of my books and focus on writing better.

This gentleman told me he had read the Shades and Shadows series and thought it would have been improved by not making the politics so pointedly directed at the darker “underbelly” of the USA.  He told me it was “unseemly” for a woman to display her anger so prominently in her work, and that I should “dial it back” and “focus on the actual plot” which he apparently thought had nothing to do with the politics.

He told me he didn’t mind the prominence of a homosexual relationship, though he thought that too should be “dialed back” and not so “in the face” of the Reader.  He said I should remove all references to Muslims because it was too controversial to say that discrimination against them was wrong.

He closed the letter with what I suppose was meant to be encouragement for me, telling me that I was a “fairly good writer” who could do well as an author, provided I stopped showcasing the “politics of an angry female” and embraced the softer, more accepted kinds of stories written by women, you know, the kind with no politics and no bad words and filled with plots driven by men and the women who need men.

I haven’t responded to this email.  In fact, I nearly deleted it out of hand.  In this political climate here in the United States, how are women not angry?  For centuries, we have been silent bystanders, watching the politics of old men regulate our rights, our bodies, our place in society and allowing ourselves to be marginalized out of jobs, out of careers.  But the world has changed and we have found our voice, we’ve come out of hiding.  We’ve shaken off the dust and stepped out onto the stage.

And yes, we’re angry.  And yes, we’re political.  It isn’t going to change anytime soon.  So, if you’re reading this, Sir of the Email, sorry you aren’t happy with my politics.  I probably wouldn’t be happy with yours either.  Sorry, not sorry.

Happy Wednesday, Readers!  I’m off to poke some more job sites in hope of finding a new job sooner, rather than later.

 

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words, words and more words

I’ve written a lot of words this week, though almost none of them have been on any of my current writing projects.  No, I’ve written exercises for job interviews and I’ve written thank you emails.  I’ve written instructions for Pride training sessions and I’ve written a lot of emails to do with Pride or job hunting.

I’m hoping today I get to focus a little on one of the novels currently in progress, or maybe the short story I started last week.  I have lots of ideas for fleshing out characters that are currently sort of cardboard cut outs waiting to be dressed in backstory.  The book I’m furthest along with needs some work on the culture and religions of the world, and some dressing up in the descriptions of people, places and things.

The short story I started is tentatively titled “The Accidental Assassin” and begins with a young woman killing a man who attacked her.  Ultimately it’s the story of a woman refusing to be a victim and embracing what she is good at, even if that puts her on the outer fringes of society.

So I’m dedicating this weekend to words.  All the words.  Words all over the place.

Hopefully before the weekend is over I’ll have actually accomplished making some of them good.

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so many irons in the fire

This time of year is my busy season.  Being out of work hasn’t eased any of it, in fact, in a lot of ways it’s made it harder, busier.  Looking for work is a full time job, as they say.  Add in the work I do for SF Pride, and some freelance editing, not to mention my own writing and you get one busy little author!

I have an interview today for a job I’d really like to get at a company in San Francisco that is working to change the landscape of finance for those who are un-banked or under-banked.  It’s a wonderful combination of work that I love and a cause I can get behind.

Yesterday, I spent most of my day working on Pride stuff…paperwork that all needs updating to 2019, contracts and acceptance letters…all kinds of fun stuff, then I cut out about two hours of my afternoon to read, an indulgence to be sure.

I recently won a leather bound edition of The Song of Ice and Fire, and have paused in my Sirens reading to start reading these.  I’m not quite two thirds of the way through the first book.  I’m interested to find how the books differ from the TV show.

I’m up early this morning, and hope to work on a short story that I’m writing before I have to start getting ready for the interview.  It’s a sci-fi piece about a girl who accidentally becomes an assassin, first out of necessity, but then discovering that she is good at it.

Right then, I should get to those words, and my coffee while it’s still hot.

 

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a little peace and quiet

There is something special about losing yourself in the wilds, even if you’re still within the city limits.  Walnut Creek has a number of designated “open spaces” where the grasses and flowers are allowed to grow wild, where wildlife is protected, and trails crisscross throughout them, making them a great place to forget the modern world for a little while.

The one closest to me is the Acalanes Ridge open space, thus named because a ridge of hills cuts through the middle of it.  The toughest path is the Ridge Top trail, thus named because it runs along the top of the ridge, taking you up and down some pretty steep hills. There are gentler paths, ones that skirt around the hills, or take you into the valley.  Some trails are long enough to take you into a completely different park, if you so desire.

I have always found that I deal better with my stress when I can do something physical, and hiking steep hills certainly applies.  So yesterday I strapped on my hiking boots, grabbed my hiking stick and some water, and I hit the hills.

For the first time, I hiked from one entrance of the open space to another entrance, across the ridge top trail.  I overdid it a little bit, a little too much enthusiasm, I guess, because coming back, even taking one of the gentler trails back, I wasn’t sure my legs were going to hold out, and by the time I got back to my car, my legs were like rubber.

At one point, my headphones gave out on me (my fault for taking the bluetooth headphones), so the end of my hike was without music.  Even though I was in the middle of an urban area, you’d never know it.  I saw a few scattered people out with their dogs or a friend, but for the most part I was alone.

butterfly treeThere were birds and any number of small animals I never saw, but could hear in the grasses.  There were big fat bumble bees flitting from flower to flower and butterflies galore, and amazing blue dragonflies that danced in the shadier part of the trail.

I didn’t have my camera, but that didn’t stop me from grabbing a few shots of the flora along the way.

There is nothing better for beating back the stress than some serious physical activity, and nothing better for resetting my brain than a little peace and quiet.

I hope you find some of your own today, Readers!

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into the fire

I’ve been struggling all day to come up with something to write about today that wasn’t just about my terror over money and work, or the impatience of not knowing when or if the unemployment information would come through, or how I’m going to manage healthcare costs if I’m not employed before the end of the month (or if I’m forced to take a contract job where benefits won’t start for 2 months).

I could tell you about my frustration with recruiters who can’t read a map and realize that a six hour drive is not a doable commute, or the ones who think that two hours one way is totally normal.  Or how it seems like all of the people with their hands out seem to come out of the woodwork when you’re unemployed.

It isn’t even that I don’t have work to do.  I currently have a number of freelance editing jobs that will feed me and keep my cats fed for a while, especially with how little I eat these days.  I also have wonderful friends who brought me a bunch of food yesterday, in an effort to help out.

So, if I’m not talking about any of that, what do I have left in me to say on this gorgeous Wednesday afternoon?  If my ankle is done being cranky with me, I was hoping to get out for a hike this afternoon, after a wonderful two mile hike on Sunday (which is probably the cause of my ankle pain).  There is something wonderful about hiking up big hills and over rocks, and through trees that helps settle my soul.

It makes me wish for long weekends in the mountains, and good food cooked over an open fire.

And I think I’ll leave you with that notion, Readers, and get back to my editing.

 

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