Ah, at last!

I have a break. An unplanned one that started out a little stressed, but is wrapping up fairly quickly. The nice thing is I will have time to sit and write for a long stretch at last.

Paul has been bugging me to hurry up and finish up the second book in the Jess Barker series, so I can get on to "his" book in the series. Jess, in the meantime, has been harrassing me to hurry up and finish edits on the first book and hit up more agents.

The Scot is patiently waiting in the wings, while I do more research. Merie has been unusually quiet, while Collie has been chattering like crazy of late. I think it has something to do with the weather as she's not happy about the weird weather pattern we've been having. I, however, have been loving it!

Jess and Paul will be appeased. There is a competition coming up that I think fits Jess pretty well. I'll be checking into that tomorrow and see if it's a good fit for Jess' book or not. I'm crossing my fingers that it is.

BioWare's Star Wars game

I work on tech all day, last thing I want to do at the end of the day is do more tech stuff. My poor, dear hubby asked me to learn how to play this new Star Wars game (think Star Wars meets World of Warcraft) over my Christmas vacation. I have yet to even setup an account.

Blogging after a day of techie stuff isn't so bad, it's quick enough and I can write in LibreOffice and do a cut-paste when I'm ready to put it up. Not quite the same as playing a game for hours or working on a web page, This Star Wars game eats up a ton of time, and based on what I've seen of the interface and how much he's on the keyboard, I'm still stalling learning it, even though I'd have my own personal tutor, I'm resisting learning something new.

I'm stalling on making a web site for myself as well. Tweaking code and designing pages after a day of troubleshooting broken tech isn't a passion of mine. So I'm always looking for help.If you have any comments on layout, colors, whatever, feel free to leave me a comment. I'm always working on my writing and blogs.

I'm also working on pulling excerpts from both the Jess Barker and Fey Life series to post. Problem is that Jess requires a bit of "editing" to make her language more family friendly.  Perhaps you'll laugh as I do at my characters from time to time.

Come on by this weekend, I'll hopefully have some more Jess stuff posted by then. Perhaps I'll add another page for excerpts and short stories.

My Characters Wreak Havoc - Again!

I'm SO glad to know that I'm not alone in having people in my head telling me their stories. But I often wonder if other writers have characters that make them laugh at inappropriate times and buy way too many of something.

For example, The Scot has me buying sewing machines like they're going out of style. I did manage to stop him after my last two acquistions: a gorgeous White treadle machine and an old Kenmore in amazing shape. But now I have to work on getting some of these machines out of my house, and try to get back at least what they cost me to begin with.  I am learning quite a bit about their mechanics though, and how to fix them, so there is a positive side to his "influence.  I mean really, how many of these can you keep around?

Jess had me laughing all morning with comments like: "Just because you're dead doesn't mean you can't be a complete asshat!" and "You're dead. I'm alive. Get over it and let me get some damn sleep!".  And the one that made me really snort today: "Honey, your boobs are all crooked, here let me fix 'em." (She was helping Jolita into a new costume).

Since I've been sick and on cold meds, when I laugh my co-workers stare at me strangely and ask if I'm okay.  What makes it funnier to me is her thick Texas drawl and the way some of her dead groupies whine at her.  Visuals of Jolita in a bad costume don't help any either, especially given that she looks a lot like the ever-gorgeous RuPaul.

Then there's Merie. She gives me images of God (who's a woman by the way) grabbing Satan by his blond curly locks, looking into his baby blue eyes and shaking him like a ragdoll while she chastises him for something evil he had his minions do. Again. And she has a habit of doing so at the most inappropriate times, like when I'm in the middle of some really difficult tech problem or on the phone with a customer or in a meeting with the owners of the company.

And finally, there's Collie. My fey-hybrid who's basically a  supermodel and an environmentalist - of which I am most definitely neither! She rants at me for throwing something out that she feels should be recycled. Actually, she's kind of annoying, but I adore Bambi, her vegan fey-hybrid servant who chastises Collie as much as Collie chastises me.

On the other hand, Collie does give me some really fun craft ideas. She's behind some of my latest additions to my fabric stash, and encourages me in trying new shopping bag designs to put on my etsy shop (www.etsy.com/pyrhaven). Bambi gave me the idea of modifying some apron designs that are really cute, but that makes my fabric stash grow even more.

I wonder if the IRS would understand writing off a fabric stash as a "mental health" issue?

Memory Fail! due to Writing

It's definitely been one of those Mondays.  Long after posting the first iteration of this post, I realized I only got the last paragraph copied properly.  How did I miss that?!?  So let's see if I can get it put back to some semblance of what it was...and I doubt it'll be as good.

This weekend was a busy one.  It started with writing Saturday morning before the GRRWG monthly meeting, followed by picking up one of my favorite 16 year-olds on the planet, and returning home to a nice long nap.  Which was followed by more writing.

I was so busy I forgot to go download some really great writing books from Writer's Digest and now the deadline has passed.  The good news is I got a lot of progress done on Collie's book and more of the rewrite done on Jess' book.  Barring any barriers, I should hit both the ROAR and NaNoWriMo deadlines.

The good news is that next week I'm on vacation!  Yay!  First time in over a year and well deserved.  I'm not going anywhere.  Instead I'll be having lunch with friends I haven't seen in a long time, over multiple days, working on a vintage machine that needs some TLC before sending her on to her new home, where she's being purchased as decoration (which is good as I need to steal parts, and why I bought her), and writing!  Of course I'll be writing, I've got some self-imposed deadlines to meet.

The bad news is The Scot keeps interrupting to fill me on what I should write for him, but he requires a TON of research to get it right.  I need a timelines, correct dates, and re-education on both WWI and WWII.  And possibly the Cold War.  I'm hoping to task my hubby with some of that as he's a BIG military history buff.

Oh and I just submitted a 1-sentence competition for Writer's Digest - my first ever!

Need to Write, Chaos Reigns again

I have a day job, one that I actually enjoy greatly, but it does get in the way of writing sometimes. Today is one of those days. I can't seem to focus and am taking a time out to jot a few things down here just to relieve some of the chaos.

Part of the wandering brain and Jess' fussing at me may be due, in part, to the fact that my beloved pickup truck is currently at the mechanic. It's possible that the transmission or transfer case may need replacement and if the bill is too steep I won't be able to get it fixed. Which has my hubby nudging me, gently, to the possibility it may be time to replace it. I really don't want to do that, I'd rather restore it. Fact is though I need a vehicle, my job is not conducive to alternative modes of transportation.

So Jess is fussing that I should keep it. I've had it a long time, it's got tons of miles on it and still runs really well, and fact is I really do love my truck. Jess has an old truck too, one that was her grandfather's and I understand the weird love for their trucks that truck owners have. Even more so than anyone with a muscle car. Perhaps because our trucks bail us (and often our friends) out when things are tight and a true workhorse is needed. Jess will never let her grandfather's truck go again and it's a big part of what's keeping her sober. Paul saved it once already for her; he may not be so willing if she falls horrible again.

Merie's quieter today while Collie's gotten more vocal about stupid humans and why can't I just grow wings like her and fly around. Yeah, right like that'll work! Elephants can't fly for a reason, and my ever-expanding butt is in the same boat as elephants. Collie's being very unreasonable for some reason that even Bambi can't fathom. She is coming-of-age in faerie terms, so maybe it's a version of faerie PMS kicking in that I haven't yet to "see". Or maybe she's just being pissy because the weather is so weird lately.

Who knows? My characters are what they are, volatile personalities in their own ways. I just wish we had that brain-to-PC-interface done already so I could quickly download all of their chattering into their various story lines.

I still wonder some days if I'm slipping into dementia early.

Meet Collie

I just realized I hadn't formally introduced Collie here. no wonder she's been complaining so much lately. She's way over due for an introduction, especially as I'm trying to finish up her first book.

Collie Shimmer, who's real name is Columbine Goblinshimmer, stands just a smidgen above the 6' 2” mark, with hair colors that change from her summer honey blond, to a fall auburn, winter white, and spring dirty blond. Her fragile beauty belies her true strengths, but allows her to make an amazing amount of money as a model. She works hard to stay just below super-model status to avoid any truly close scrutiny. Modeling isn't her preference for work, but it allows her to travel the world without drawing any suspicions and the money helps save crucial pieces of her people's territories. Collie's real job as an Ambassador for Faeries the world over keeps her busy and her father happy. She helps keep the peace between the various faerie kingdoms, while working on ways for stopping the humans in their relentless pursuit to completely rape the planet.

Her best friend, soul sister, and servant is another faerie hybrid, Bambi, who is never far from Collie's side. The two work together on everything, and they use their closeness to keep humans at arm's length, opting to not correct the assumption that they are a couple and not interested in any one else. Which is crucial as neither is allowed to breed.

So that's the gist of Collie's story. She is an environmentalist which drives me bonkers as I'm not, so I have to do more research for her story lines that I do for Merie or Jess. But she is beautiful and I enjoy the mysticism of her world. Her wings are exquisite as well and trying to find someone to draw a correct picture of her is proving to be a challenge.

There is a short side story from Collie that I am looking at possibly publishing on Barnes & Noble or Amazon. I'll post a link here when I decide which site to post it on. The legalize is different between the two sites and I'm trying to be sure I'm not giving away any copyrights.