Back on the Blog Chain: How Do You Manage Confidence?

I promised you another Blog Chain post on the 19th, and here it is. This time, Kate chose the topic: How as a writer do you find the balance between being having too much or too little confidence in your work? We've already had some wonderful insights from Kate, Archetype, and Michelle. Feel free to read their posts, as well as the other members of our Blog Chain. As always, links are on the side bar to the right.

This topic reminds me of a Passing the Pen essay I wrote five years ago for my website. It's called, "I Me Mine: Writing and the Ego." In this essay, I discuss the various ways in which writing can help or hurt the ego, as well as help you move past your own sense of self when you're actually writing. But I owe you my current thoughts on this topic as well.

One of my conclusions in my earlier essay is that the best way to keep the frustrations of writing from hurting your self-confidence is not to let your self-confidence depend on your writing. I think the level of confidence you have in your daily life is a major component of your confidence in your writing abilities, and I think feeling competent in some part of life helps improve your confidence. Whether it's being good at your day job or a hobby or parenting, a skill in some part of your life will make you feel more confident about tackling other hard tasks, like writing.

I have to admit I was overconfident at first when I started writing. I wasn't so foolish as to send out my very first draft--I rewrote it completely after taking a writing class--but my first novel was about 170,000 words long with about seven different POV. I did get some interest from a couple of agents, but it never got past the partial stage. An editor at Tor did look at the full manuscript, but I never got the suggestions he had for it. It's been so long he's no longer there, so even though I never got an official rejection, I consider that book dead there.

My confidence in my writing has varied over my career. There are times when I read my work and think it's great; then there are times when I can barely get a sentence to behave. (Or, as I like to put it, you can't write your way out of a paper bag with a sharp knife.) There are times when I read a book and am so impressed by it I feel I can never world-build or describe something as well as that author does. I've had some modest successes, such as an Honorable Mention in an international competition called the UPC Science Fiction Awards. (This was enough to get my name in Locus, the newspaper of the science fiction field.) My short story, "A Reptile at the Reunion," was published earlier this year in the anthology Firestorm of Dragons. Still, I want to sell a novel and see it in bookstores. It's a tough goal to accomplish, given that only a small fraction of books make it out of the slush pile. Are my books ready for that? Perhaps not quite yet, at least that's not how I feel now that I've been reading Flogging the Quill and Miss Snark's First Victim. I still need to capture with words the hook that makes people want to read on. But I think if I keep learning and writing, I will learn that skill, and someday I'll achieve my goal--if not with one of my current novels, then with another project.

So that's my conclusion: confidence is not a fixed quantity. Although it may fluctuate, you can maintain your confidence if you think of yourself as a student of writing. Every new project will teach you something different. If you're always learning, you can encourage yourself by realizing how far you've come but not get too confident and think you know everything.

Before I extend the chain to Abi, I'd like to leave you with a quote from William Blake:

If the Sun and Moon should doubt, they'd immediately go out.

Keep writing, and keep your dreams alive.

It's Johnny's Birthday....

and I promised my Blog Chain partners I'd share more quirks with them and discuss why I consider John Lennon my patron muse.

It all started a long time ago--1995, to be exact. I was working as a technical writer up in Madison, and as much as I love the city, being there couldn't make up for my dislike of my job and the separation from my then-boyfriend, Eugene. But that November, the Beatles Anthology aired on TV. I was just a casual fan at best, but I was interested enough to watch the first episode. At the end, the song "Free as a Bird" priemered. Although some diehard fans dislike this song, it stuck in my head, especially at work. I watched the rest of Anthology and soon found myself listening to more Beatles music and learning more about the group.

Early in 1996, I lost my technical writing job and had to move back home while I looked for work. My Beatles fascination kept me going through this time. At one point, while reading about the four-fold synergy of the group, I came up with the idea of having a quartet of magicians working together in a similar fashion. That was the beginning of Day of All Seasons, the first novel I finished and submitted to agents. I got a few requests for partials, but ultimately nothing came of it--not surprising, given the book was over 170,000 words. I would still like to pull that one out of the trunk someday and revise it. But in the meantime, I moved on to other stories, including some that had a direct link to the Beatles. And I've been writing ever since. So thanks, John, for helping me become a writer.

Speaking of writing, I submitted the (revised) first two sentences of Across Two Universes at Miss Snark's First Victim today. Reactions were mixed, though I got some useful feedback. Thanks to all of my reviewers! And if you found this blog through one of the comments I left, I hope my comment was useful.

Back on the Blog Chain: Quirks

Yep, once again I'm participating in a blog chain. We've had some changes in our membership since my last blog chain post; a couple of people left, but we had some more people join us. You can check out the links in my sidebar to find the blogs in the chain.

Mary chose the topic this time: What kind of quirky habits or rituals do you have regarding your writing? (or regarding anything else, if that is more fun.) We've had people discussing everything from Panera sandwiches to alphabetizing spices (the latter is courtesy of Michelle, my precedessor in this chain).

This is supposed to be a fun, "getting-to-know-you" topic, but in some ways it's more difficult for me than the previous topics. Yes, I'm a non-conformist in many ways, but they don't all translate into quirks. Perhaps I should translate them into quarks, but for some odd reason many people don't like to discuss quantum physics. Is that a quirk?

All kidding aside, one of the quirks I have is one I share with my husband. While on our honeymoon, we got the idea from a couple we met to take pictures of a stuffed animal. Since we were on an Alaskan cruise, we bought (on sale) a stuffed orca named Oscar. Since then, he's been joined by Big Oscar and Baby Oscar:




Oscar has his own page on my website to chronicle our travels. He's been to Canada, London, and Las Vegas, which is where we got Big Oscar. Baby Oscar came from The Soap Opera in Madison. (Baby Oscar is actually a bath toy and can squirt water, albeit not through a blowhole.)





During Alex's first year, Big Oscar and the original Oscar posed with him every month, even in the professional pictures.














As for writing quirks, it doesn't matter to me where I write or what my desk looks like. Most of my writing these days is done on my lunch hour at work, actually. The only quirk I could think of applies to the end of my projects, not to my daily writing. Every time I finish a draft, I type the following:

The End
The Very Very Very End!
Amen
A Book Report on Peter Rabbit


A kudo to the first person who can identify these lyrics and their source. And yes, they do come out during the editing stage.

My son just woke up, so it's time to end this post and pass the quirkiness to Abigail. Tune in again on October 19th (sooner if you wish) for another exciting post in our Blog Chain!

P.S. In response to Terri's request for me to show my true wierdness, I'll post a bit more on Thursday about another of my writing quirks--my muse, John Lennon.

Picnic

The three of us went to a picnic today. It was hosted by an online group we belong to. Although not all of the members have kids, many of them do. Eugene made one of his mile-high apple pies (he got the recipe from Paula Deen) last night, a task made harder by Alex's refusal to go to bed. It was Eugene's turn to put Alex to bed, but Alex wanted to play, leave his room--anything but sleep. Eventually I had to go in there so Eugene could bake. Even so, Eugene didn't finish baking the pie until almost 1:00 a.m. Good thing Alex wound up sleeping in.

The picnic was in the middle of a forested area. We were the first ones to arrive; we were early, but we were surprised the picnic organizers weren't there yet. But soon people started arriving with their families and pets. The main course was chicken from Popeye's and sandwiches from Subway. There were also side dishes and desserts, including a Snickers salad which probably can be classified as both. Too bad I didn't have a chance to try that one!

Alex slept a bit in the car on the way over. He woke up on his own, but he was very Eugene-clingy for a while. He also didn't eat much, although he did help himself to a sugar cookie. It took him a while to warm up to the point where I could carry him or even let him go down on his own. He never did run around as much as the other kids did, but I think he's just going through a stage where he feels more secure with us close by. We should probably enjoy it while it lasts.

We got to meet some people we only knew online, including a couple with a baby and a Great Dane. At one point, the mother had to use the bathroom, and Eugene offered to hold her little girl. As soon as Alex saw that, he started to cry, and Eugene had to give the girl back to her father. Sounds like Alex isn't ready for a sibling any time soon.

Here are a couple of pictures:

Both Eugene and Alex are sleeping right now, so I suppose I should relax too--or at least get ready for my Blog Chain post tomorrow.

I'm It?

Apparently I am. People are fighting to tag me in the latest meme to infect our blog chain. Heather meant to get me first, but Michelle beat her to it. So I guess I'd better post my answers:

Four goals I have in the next 5 years:
Get a novel published and in bookstores
Go on a cruise to celebrate our 5th anniversary
Finish with pregnancy/childbirth--either by having another child or deciding that we're done
Add a deck or patio to our house

Four places I will visit someday:
Liverpool, the Mecca for Beatle fans
The Philippines
Ireland
Vienna, Austria

Four of my favorite foods:
Pizza
Macaroni and cheese
Chocolate
Shrimp


Four jobs I've had:
Crew person at McDonald's
Maid
Teaching assistant in grad school (in the English Department)
Technical writer

Two places I've lived:
Delavan, WI
Rockville, MD


Two places I'd like to live:
Madison, WI
London

Four things I'd do with my spare time (if I had any):

Read
Sleep
Write
Exercise

I will inflict this meme on Russ, Sara, and Maria. Enjoy!

A Hard Day's Half-Week

Sometimes I don't blog when the day has been too ordinary to inspire me. And sometimes I don't blog when too much is going on. This week has been more like the latter than the former.

It started Sunday afternoon. We took Alex on a play date to Chuck E. Cheese, and he did OK. However, he woke up from his nap with a fever. We took him to Urgent Care and found out he had yet another ear infection. It was a long afternoon at the clinic and getting his prescription filled. Since Alex had a fever, we couldn't take him to daycare on Monday. Eugene and I split the day, with each of us watching him part of the day and working the other time. Alex did OK for a while, but he relapsed in the evening, so we took him into Urgent Care. Alex didn't do too well Tuesday morning, so I stayed home with him. He perked up for a while, but then he had some reactions to the antibiotics. I wound up bringing him to a third doctor, who said his ears were now fine. At least today Alex was consistently well, well enough to go back to daycare.

It was a good thing Alex was better today, since I was scheduled to go on a once-in-a-blue-moon business trip. Eugene had somewhere to be this afternoon, so in case Alex had to leave daycare early, I made arrangements with my parents for them to take my car and pick him up. Happily, that proved to be unnecessary. The trip was not without misadventure, as Chicago traffic was even worse than usual due to a truck that leaked hazardous chemicals onto the highway, shutting off the route we originally planned to take. (Good thing we saw signs and altered our course.) Even so, we were still forced to pass the accident--more like inch past it. "Are all of your business trips this much fun?" I asked my coworkers. What was supposed to be a 10:30 meeting turned into a lunch meeting. Luckily, things worked out, though we did get back a little late. I'm just glad for a chance to relax now.

Feeling Like Royalty...

Or should I say, royalties.

I got my first royalty payment today for my short story in the Firestorm of Dragons anthology. It's quite a heady feeling, though I won't be quitting my day job anytime soon. And considering Alex has been having some rough times today due to his ear infection--not to mention he's currently Resisting A Rest--it's good to have something good happen today.

Alex and Apples

Today we decided to go apple picking. Eugene and I have been doing this for several years, although we skipped last year since Alex was so young. This year we decided to try a new orchard. Although it's in Woodstock (same as our old place), it's a little closer to us than our usual place. Plus it also offers Honeycrisp apples and Asian pears. So we packed up Alex and the half-ton of supplies we need to leave the house with him, stocked up on gas and cash, and drove to All Seasons Orchard.

When Alex is in the car at certain times of the day, he tends to fall asleep. This drive was no exception:

But he soon woke up when he saw all of the new things. The general store was very busy; we had to go there first to buy a half-bushel bag. (They make you tell them what you want to pick and pay for the bag first.) We gave Alex his lunch and snacked on a couple of apple donuts while we waited for a wagon to take us to the orchard. The setting was very beautiful, and there were plenty of games for kids, though we thought Alex was a bit young for some of them.

We ate lunch next to this waterfall and pond. A bunch of bees wanted to join us, so I had to lure them away with peach juice.

Finally we rode out to the orchard on a hay wagon. We had to fold up the stroller, but Alex took the trip in stride. Then we picked Gala apples, Honeycrisp apples, and Asian pears. We had to pay extra for the Honeycrisp and pears, but they were worth it. Alex reached for some of the apples, so we gave him two small Galas. I thought he just wanted to hold them, but he actually bit into them and ate about half of each apple. I had no idea he could eat whole apples so well:

We were done picking in about half an hour, just in time to catch the next wagon back to the main farm. I tried buying some apple butter and honey, but the lines in the main store were so slow they were stuck. Someone said they had been having computer problems; someone else said the delay was due to a shortage of donuts (appaprently they could only make two dozen at a time, so people were paying for them and then waiting). I finally gave up so we could leave and let Alex take his delayed nap. Despite those problems, I think we'll be back next year.

Sympathy for a Squirrel

I hit a squirrel on the way to work this morning.

I was on a residential street headed toward the highway. Normally, when you see squirrels in the street, they're half a block away, and they're smart enough to look around before attempting to cross. This one just jumped right out in front of me, only a few feet away. I don't think there were parked cars blocking its view, but it all happened so fast. Maybe something was chasing it. I knew as soon as I saw it that I would hit it, and sure enough, I heard it hit my the underside of my car. Glancing back in the rearview mirror, I saw it curled up in the road.

I drove on--what else could I do?--but I felt a bit shaken up by the incident. At least there doesn't seem to be any damage to my car, and Alex and I were unhurt. I'd rather hit a squirrel than a deer. Still, I felt bad again when I came home and saw the squirrel still on the road. I know there are plenty of squirrels in the trees, and they can be pests, especially when you're feeding birds. But it never feels good to see something die so senselessly.

Back on the Blog Chain: Storyworld Creation

Time for another Blog Chain Post. This time, my friend Heather picked the topic: How do you as an author choose or create your story-world and give that setting authenticity? You can start with her blog if you wish to follow the entire blog chain link to link, or you can check out all the marked blogs in my Blog List.

The previous poster, Archetype, focused on the laws of fantasy and science fiction worlds. I'm going to continue discussing science fiction; specifically, I'm going to talk about creating future worlds. My novel Across Two Universes has three major worlds: the world of mid-21st century New York (about 60 years ahead of us), the world of the spaceship Sagan, and the world of 1980 Earth, where my hero, Paul, meets the man he was cloned from and attempts to change the fate of that world. Everything in ATU is set up to make that meeting possible.

When I came up with this story world, my initial idea was to send someone back in time to hear the Beatles play at the Cavern in Liverpool. I then had to figure out her motive for doing so, and it turned out to be to clone John Lennon. (The original versions of my novella "Move Over Ms. L." and the first few drafts of ATU did use John Lennon and other real people; there's no denying that. I'm currently changing them, though.) So I had to set up a world where time travel was possible and figure out how that worked. I started with a few Writer's Digest books devoted to time and space travel. I decided that the best time travel method for this story would be to have the time traveler pass through a wormhole into another, younger universe. She would need a spaceship to do so, not to mention a wormhole. I don't want to go into too much detail about the origins of the wormhole, but I will say it's not natural. But I also needed a society capable of making a spaceship, so in my future world, cold fusion is possible and used to power the ship (which still isn't capable of faster-than-light travel, so it travels relatively short distances). The ship itself is used to collect genetic samples and other treasures of the 1980 Earth and bring them back to the 21st century.

In designing the Sagan, I focused more on how people live in it than its technical specs. Although the ship is well-stocked and maintained every time it returns to the 21st century Earth, it has to be able to supply its residents with food independently. I therefore gave it a salmon tank and a hydroponic garden. It also has a psychiatrist to help people cope with space travel and little cubicles where people can seek privacy. Since passage through the wormhole is rough at best, passengers are required to strap themselves into their bunks.

To come up with other technological wonders of my world, I read Scientific American. My heroes wear "smart clothes" that can keep the wearer warm and spidersilk armor that can stop bullets--things already being discussed today. I also extrapolate uses of the technology; holographs aren't just used to replace TVs but to create costumes for actors. I also think about how current events would affect the future. In my world, global warming has caused severe flooding in New York City; the city was saved by building levees.

Research and imagination can help you create your world, but it's the way you use them that makes your world authentic. Instead of telling my readers about my world, I show it to them as Paul would see it. The story starts with Paul using his autoholoprojectors during a play. On the Sagan, he meets with his girlfriend in the hydroponic garden and in a private cubicle, interacting with the settings and experiencing them through several senses. I don't lecture the readers about flooding; instead, Paul mentions in bypassing how he was an extra in the documentary The Floods of New York.

It's time for me to pass the blogging baton to Kristal, but I'd like to sum up in three points: when creating a world, make it multifaceted. Think about the implications of your decisions on other aspects of the world. And don't forget to show it to the reader with sensory descriptions and telling details. No matter what world you write about, the details will make it real.

More Photos....

Lakes and Legos

This weekend was one of the rainiest I've seen. I'm not sure how many inches we got in our area, but nearby towns received over eight inches in the last two days. We had plans for a playdate, but our friends not only got water in their kitchen but also had several roads in their subdivision flood to the point of unusability. Luckily, our house stayed dry. I did take Alex out shopping yesterday; he got a raincoat and some new clothes for fall. Eugene's plans to do a photo get-together with some friends at a garden got washed out. Instead, we met another photography couple for lunch and went to Legoland at Woodfield Mall. Here are a few photos:

More to come later....

More Memes: Books I've Read

I just saw this meme on Sara's blog. My memory is hazy on some of them, but I thought I'd give this a whirl anyway.

This is a list of the top 106 books most often marked unread by LibraryThing users.

bold = ones I've actually completed.
italic = ones I've started and never finished
plain text = ones that I've never read
underline = ones you had to read for school.
CAPS = ones that I really really WANT to read. (what do I do for a maybe read?)


Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (might like to read)
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses (maybe read)
Madame Bovary (not sure if I finished it or not)
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel (great book!)
War and Peace (I read this over a week while I was sick)
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife (great book!)
The Iliad
Emma (can't remember if I read this one)
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway (I think I read this one, but I'm not sure)
Great Expectations
American Gods
ATLAS SHRUGGED
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (I may have read this one)
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
THE FOUNTAINHEAD
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons (one I never want to read!)
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels (I wrote a term paper on the final section)
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela's Ashes
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere (I may have read this one)
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
DUBLINERS
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed (good book)
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
FREAKONOMICS
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values (one of my all-time favorites)
The Aeneid
Watership Down
GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

Back on the Blog Chain: How Real Are Your Characters?

It's time once again for another entry in our ever-growing blog chain about writing. The current topic is, "How real are your characters, and how much do you know about them?" Please go here and here to read the previous and next entries in the chain. I also have links to all of the blogs in the sidebar.

Before I start discussing characters, I'd like to discuss briefly the relationship between fiction and reality, as this topic has inspired me to mull about that. We read fiction for various reasons; sometimes we want a mirror of our own reality, and sometimes we want to escape from it. (I've lived in Midwestern suburbs for most of my life, and although the Midwest is my home, there are times when it's so mundane I need to escape from it mentally. That's one of several reasons why I love science fiction and fantasy.) But when we read or watch movies or TV, we want to believe in them, at least as long as we're actively engaged in them. So perhaps it's more important to find out what makes readers believe in the reality of characters. Since writers generally start off as readers, and since both writer and reader are needed to bring a story to life, I'll talk first about the writing side of the equation before going into the readers' perspective.

As Heather pointed out in her own entry on this topic, writers almost always feel their characters are real to them; otherwise, the writers wouldn't feel inspired to write about the particular characters in the first place. I haven't tried to obtain Social Security numbers for my characters and claim them as dependents on my taxes, but they still feel like real people to me, perhaps citizens of the universe next door. My characters have strengths and weaknesses, like anyone you meet on the street. They have their own dreams and interests, even ones not relevant to the story. I also have a fairly good idea of what happens to them before and after the beginning of the book.

As for how much I know about my characters, it changes over time. Although I do get to know my characters in my head before I start writing, I generally don't write out a full-blown character sketch for them before my first draft. Even if I do try to create a mini-biography of the main character, it's often incomplete on paper, as I hold more details in my head. Other things come to me as I write. For instance, I have two incomplete trilogies, one fantasy and one science fiction. In both series, after I finished the first book, a secondary character who already had a love interest "told" me that he or she was bisexual and in love with the main character as well. Talk about a plot twist! I worked that into my fantasy series, but I'm still not sure how I want to handle it with the science fiction series.

Although at times my characters will rebel as described above, at other times, I'll come up with a plot twist that feels right for them. I can change the details from draft to draft, but the end result stays the same. In Across Two Universes, Paul's mother is murdered at the beginning of the story, though I've changed how and where it happens. But I could not start afresh and save her; that would be a different book. I do other cruel things to him in the sequel, enough for me to shed real tears over him. Paul may not be a real person, but he inspires real emotions in me.

This brings me to my final point: no tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. (Edit: this line isn't from me; it's from Robert Frost. I should have Googled first before quoting.) How do we convince our readers that our characters are real? I think part of it has to do with the telling detail, using all of the senses to bring the world to life. Small details about the characters, like quirks or favorite things, can also make them seem real. But for me, what gets me involved with my characters is their emotional lives, and those need to be portrayed realistically as well. If you can convince your readers that yes, someone would really react a certain way in a given situation, then they too will start thinking of your characters as real.

More Links

I've added a few more links to the sidebar.

The first is for an online writing conference in October. The deadline to register is September 1, so if you're interested, better hurry!

Next is Fantasy Book Spot, a site for book reviews and more.

Finally, there's RallyStorm, a site where you can create your own forums to discuss any topic you like. Check it out!

A Day at the Zoo

Finally, for my non-writing friends, something they can relate to!


We took Alex on his first trip to the zoo today since the weather was fantastic. Alex's sleeping/meal schedule got messed up, but although he had a few fits, overall he did OK. We weren't able to see everything, though, and by the end of the day, he was too tired we skipped the carousel. There's always next time. We took him to the Farm in the Zoo, where he got to see various farm animals. (He's still too young to feed them.) Here are some of the pictures:



The swans with their cygnet.













A deer--I can't remember which one.















A flock of birds in a tree.
















A real tiger....
















and Alex with a stuffed tiger to take home as a souvenir.

Blog Chain: Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

As I mentioned in my last post, I've joined a blog chain created by members of QueryTracker, a site devoted to helping writers keep tabs on their submissions to agents. (I'm a member too, but since Across Two Universes isn't ready for submission yet, I haven't used the tracking feature.) The current topic is, "Where do you get your ideas from?" You can follow the chain by going here and here. I've also linked to all of the chain members' blogs in the sidebar, so go ahead and check them out.


It's interesting that this is my first topic in the blog chain, since I wrote an essay about ideas for my website back in 2002. You can still read it here, if you'd like. In that essay, I talk about how the Beatles, particularly John Lennon, inspired the novels I was working on then. One of those novels got sent around to various agents (and to Tor) before being trunked; another has gone extensive revision and is currently titled Across Two Universes. Of course, I wrote that essay six years ago, and I've had other projects come into my life since then. I'll summarize briefly what inspired them.


Much of my inspiration comes from my daily life. My short story "A Reptile at the Reunion" came about from the combination of an invitation to my grad school reunion (which I skipped) and a writing challenge in a magazine. Other short stories (which I've started but not finished) came from a bout of insomina I had this winter or non-buyer's remorse I felt after passing on a beautiful silk blazer on sale up in Madison. These incidents made me think of ways to lure the "sheep of sleep" (the ones you're supposed to count) back into a person's life or what it would be like to discover a chest full of the things you once wanted but didn't get. Interests such as dealing with the conflict between evolution and science inspired me to create an alien race that has a unique way to handle this conflict--except that for one individual, it doesn't work. Yet another short story I need to finish.


Other times I get ideas from reading. Sometimes I get a little frustrated when I find too much of the same type of story on the bookshelves of my local B&N. There are stories that I think need to be told, even if they don't use "conventional" (i.e., commerically popular) types of heroines or themes. For instance, other than Julie Kenner's Demon series, I don't see too many mothers featured in stories. You could say my NaNoWriMo project from last year, about a working mother who gains the ability to turn into an owl, was inspired partly by a desire to find more stories with heroines I could relate to. Part of this idea also came from everyday life. I often see red-tailed hawks as I drive around, so I wondered what it would be like for one of them to be a human in disguise. I thought at first of a stay-at-home mother, but since the character I came up with is divorced, she has to work to support herself and her daughter. I also changed the bird to an owl so she could go around at night (and interact with werewolves), but I have plans to bring a hawk-person into that story as I re-think the plot.


I mentioned before that one of my short stories was inspired by a writing challenge in a magazine. After Firestorm of Dragons was published, I recieved an invitation from the editor to submit something for another themed anthology. (I don't know what the status of this project is, so I don't feel comfortable sharing the topic here.) This might be one of the hardest things for an author, to find an idea about a topic someone else picked. I did some research and thought about what kind of characters could bring a fresh perspective to this topic. Ultimately I did come up with an unusual take on a stock character, which then helped me determine the rest of the plot for the story. Unfortunately, I didn't finish the story before the deadline, but I may go back to it at some point.


I'll finish this post by repeating a point I made back in 2002; an idea alone isn't enough to make a story. Sometimes you need to combine several ideas before you can create the characters and plot necessary to make an idea come to life; other times, you need to interrogate the idea to generate the characters and plot. But when you learn authors such as Mercedes Lackey can write stories about paper bags (see "Roadkill"), you realize there are more ideas out there than you can ever write about.

OK, I think this finishes the blog chain for this topic. Tune in soon when I go Back on the Chain Gang!

Shadowing Scientists

I normally don't blog about work, but I thought I could share this with you. Today one of my co-workers brought in her niece to do a shadow study in the lab. I only found out about it this morning. In a way, it's too bad that the niece came in this particular day, since it was relatively quiet in the lab. My boss spent a good deal of time talking to her, and I did show her some of my work in the morning. She did say that she got a lot out of it, even if it's not quite what she's interested in (something to do with the polar regions). But it is good to see students who want to pursue science; there just aren't enough of them, IMO. Given how quickly science and technology advance, I think we need to increase scientific literacy in this country so voters can make informed choices.

In other news, I may be joining a writer's blog chain. One of the members is H.L. Dyer. It's already in progress, but apparently there's always room for more. Maybe I'll post some "catch-up" posts about the topics they've already discussed.

Quote of the Day

From Fred Allen:

"I can't understand why a person will take a year to write a novel when he can easily buy one for a few dollars."

Updates to Website

I finally updated my website. I didn't add a lot of material, but I updated my biography and the information about Firestorm of Dragons. It took me a while to get this done. First I had to do the edits in FrontPage, but when I tried to save the files on my computer, I ran into problems with the FrontPage extensions. Although I couldn't figure out how to fix this, some Googling helped me realize that I could edit the webpages another way. I haven't uploaded my latest notes from WisCon yet; that'll come later. Right now I'm too tired.

Alex had a rough night, waking up around 3:30 and not going back to sleep until about 7:00. He literally nodded off in his highchair after breakfast. Luckily I was working from home today, and I was able to get my project started while I waited for him to wake up. Then I brought him to daycare while I finished the job (and, I have to admit, rested/relaxed while I was waiting between steps). He was very upset at daycare, refusing to play outside and tugging his ears, so I brought him to the urgent care clinic after picking him up. For once, he doesn't have an ear infection; he apparently is just having some trouble teething (molars are coming in). I hope he sleeps better tonight; all three of us need sleep desperately!

It's Eugene's Birthday!

And I'm plastering the news all over the Internet. :grin:

We don't have much planned for the day. Given that Alex woke up between 5:00 and 5:30 this morning , perhaps that's just as well. We'll pick up dinner from a local restaurant (easier than eating there with a toddler). Maybe I'll make some ice cream--white chocolate. After that, who knows?

Happy birthday to a wonderful husband and father!

Firestorm A-Brewing

Now that it's August (we're expected to reach the 90's today, but with all the storms we've had so far, I don't know if that will happen), it's time to start thinking about Christmas. At least, that's what my co-authors and editors have decided. They want to promote Firestorm of Dragons as a gift for the dragon-lover. (But why not go ahead and buy it now? It's always reading season in my universe!) So we're going to do a blog tour in November. I don't have many details yet, but I'll post them as they become available. One thing that I do know is that there's a Yahoo! group set up specificially for this book tour, and it's open to bloggers/podcasters as well as the authors. If you know anyone who might be interested, please tell them or pass me the contact information. In the meantime, I'll need to increase my presence in the blogging community to help promote this book. I figure by November, Alex should be past the point where he needs to grab Mommy's fingers to walk around the house. Instead, I'll only have to jump up every five seconds to prevent a walking/climbing/exploring accident. I'm sure I can accomplish a lot with the other four seconds....

ETA: Maria makes a good point; I should include the link to the Yahoo! group. Here it is:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/firestormofdragons/

And I can't believe I forgot this (though I've forgotten a couple of other things at work today too); it's the trailer for the book on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWgszslAEtM
As always, links to the official website for Firestorm of Dragons and the publisher's website are on the sidebar on the right.

Kristi's Wedding

My friend Kristi got married yesterday. She met her husband right before Eugene and I had our wedding; I remember asking her if she wanted to bring her then-boyfriend, but she didn't feel ready at that time. Every time I've seen Lyle with Kristi, he's been very supportive of her. So I was very happy when she announced her engagement. I was also honored when she asked me to read a passage from the Bible (part of the "Love Chapter" in I Corinthians) during the ceremony.





Normally, when Eugene and I have a special summer event, it's dreadfully hot that day. Even our wedding, which was in mid-September, was in the 90s. Naturally, we were expecting that pattern to hold for Kristi's wedding, since hot weather was predicted for that day, but our streak was broken. We were not disappointed by this turn of events. The wedding was held not far from the apple orchard where we pick apples, only instead of being on a farm, it was held outdoors in a gazebo overlooking a lake with a fountain. The view was gorgeous, and I'm sure Kristi and Lyle took a lot of pictures there.





The ceremony was probably about a half-hour long, much shorter than ours. Although I came to the rehearsal (with Alex) on Friday, I was late, so I wasn't sure exactly when my reading was. But several people told me afterward that I did a good job, so I guess it all worked out.





After the ceremony, Eugene and I went through the reception line and caught up with Susan and Tina, some friends of mine that I hadn't seen in a long time. We all sat at the same table, which was named for the Beatles. (Yes, Kristi is as much of a Beatles fan as I am; that's how we met.) Kristi did a great job of putting a personal touch on the table names, favors, and other decorations. The food was also good, though if I had to nitpick, I would have to say our table seemed to be one of the last to be served. But the cake was especially good, and they had other sweets as well.





Eugene and I shared a slow dance, and I danced solo when they played some of my favorite songs, but we couldn't stay for the full reception. We had to get back early to relieve my parents, who babysat Alex for us. (He did fine, though he got upset when I called to check in.)





It's time for me to call it a night too. Here are a couple of pictures, though:

Passings

Two people passed away this week. Although only one wrote a book, both of them can be inspirational to writers.

The first one is Estelle Getty, more famously known as Sophia on the Golden Girls. Although she started acting at a young age, it took her decades (about forty years, from the article I read the other day on CNN) to achieve breakthrough success. She also auditioned a couple of times for the Golden Girls, but initially they passed on her because she looked too young for the part. Only after she asked a makeup artist to make her look older did she land the part. Perseverance does pay off.

The other person who passed away was much younger. Professor Randy Pausch, who gave his famous "Last Lecture" after being diagnosed with an incurable cancer, was only 47. But he focused on achieving your childhood dreams and seeing the world as a Tigger instead of an Eeyore. I saw part of a TV special about him, but I haven't read his book yet. I think it might be time to pick it up. Who couldn't use a little inspiration?

New Links

I recently decided to change my template for this blog, which required me to update Blogger. This new version has some new features, such as allowing you to maintain a blog list with active links. So, taking my cue from Heather, I decided to add some links to some agent blogs. I've been following some of them (such as Nathan's) longer than others, but they offer helpful advice. Some agents also hold contests to help writers improve their skils. Go ahead, check them out!

Wild Weekend

I didn't have a traditonal bachelorette party--not that I wanted one. The most I did was stay overnight at the Fest for Beatles Fans with one of my friends. Even then, I was so tired I didn't even go to the late night events; I just stayed in bed and read. What a fitting end to my singledom, eh?

Anyway, that same friend of mine is getting married in a few weeks, and I was invited to her bachelorette party/birthday party. It actually started yesterday afternoon with a purse-making party, but I had to skip that part. After Eugene came home and was able to watch Alex, I was free to leave for the main event.

The party was at a house in Chicago. I have to admit, I haven't driven in Chicago before, and if the place wasn't so close to I-90, I probably would have chickened out and not gone. But although I did make a wrong turn, I managed to find the place in one piece.

Most of the people at the party were relatives of the bride. We ate some hot dogs and listened to 50s-60s rock until the main event--a Passion Party! Yes, they had a sales rep show us all sorts of stuff. Some of it was "mild," while some of it was "wild." I'm not going to go into detail here, since I don't want to attract the attention of spammers. But I will say the funniest part of the party was when the bride's mother was handed a product, and she didn't realize it was on.

After that part of the party, we stayed up until midnight for a balloon release and ice cream. I wound up spending the night, but I left early (before the scheduled brunch) so I could help Eugene with Alex. Alex has been clingy the last couple of days (I can't even put him down for his nap; he only sleeps as long as he's on me), so I knew Eugene wouldn't be able to shower until I came home. Besides, with the weather being so beautiful, we wanted to go visit the Chicago Botanic Garden. We spent a couple of hours there, letting Alex do "walkies" occasionally (he can walk if he holds onto our hands) and feeling some of the plants. Then we stopped for a late lunch on the way home.

I don't have any pictures; even though I brought my camera, I forgot my memory card. Ah well, at least I managed to stretch my boundaries a bit.

Sushi Station

We had a couple of Japanese visitors at work today. Since my company is the American division of a Japanese company, we often get visitors from our parent company. Normally we have lunch catered in in their honor. Today, instead, we had lunch at a new restaurant close by, Sushi Station.

The building is quite large; from the outside, it appears to have two stories, though it doesn't. Inside, the entire wait staff greeted each group of customers. (They also did the same thing when people left--something I found annoying.) The most unusual thing about this restaurant is that there were several long conveyor belts running from the kitchen for most of the way across the restaurant. Plates of food circled on the belts, and the tables were arranged next to the belts. The idea was that people would pick the plates with the food they wanted from the belt as the plates passed by. (The belts were encased to keep the food chilled, but there were doors you could open to take out the food.) The plates were different colors, indicating the price of each dish. At the end of the meal, the staff would count your dishes and total up your bill.

While I'm no stranger to sushi, even if I'm not an expert, this method of serving food was novel to me. I sat next to the belt and passed out food to my co-workers. One of them hadn't had sushi before, so she was a little nervous about it. Another co-worker gave her advice. Meanwhile, I had shrimp, salmon, a California roll, another type of roll similar to a California roll, and eel. After that, I switched to dessert, having several dishes of fruit. The food was good, but some of the dishes seemed overpriced to me. For instance, the dish of strawberries probably had about two berries on there when you added up all of the slices, and the sauce that came with it tasted suspiciously like condensed milk. Still, it might be worth an occasional visit to this place--especially if someone else is paying.

Doing the Garden, Digging the Weeds...

Who could ask for more?

Well, a gardener would be nice. Unfortunately, we didn't budget for one, so we have to take care of the yard ourselves. Eugene's been diligent about mowing the lawn, but I've had trouble finding time to take care of the flowers in front of our house. I don't want to bring Alex outside while I work, and there's so much to do inside that I've let the flowers slide. But lately the weeds have been drawing my attention, so today, after Alex went down for a nap, I put him in his crib, started another load of laundry, grabbed the monitor, found my pair of gloves, and went outside.

It had just rained, but the ground wasn't too wet. I hoped that the rain would soften the ground and make it easier to pull the weeds. Before I could get started, Eugene came home from work and decided to mow the lawn before it rained again. So we worked outside together.

I don't know much about gardening, but I did know we had a lot of nettles. Since the garden had been neglected for so long, they were huge. Some of them were probably four feet tall. I didn't have a trowel, so I pulled on the weed, as close to the ground as possible, and hoped for the best. Some of them came out fairly easily; others were so stubborn I had to ask Eugene to pull them. As if nettles weren't enough to deal with, we have lots of roses--with thorns. My arms got scratched when I had to reach among the roses to get the nettles. I made a mistake and grabbed a rose by accident, so I brought it inside and placed it in a vase.

I finished about the same time as Eugene finished the lawn. I took a picture of the nettles (since they were so big) before I bagged them for disposal.

My timing was good; shortly after I finished bagging the nettles, Alex woke up. At least the flowerbed looks much better now, although I'm not sure I got everything. But I bet the neighbors will be happy I finally weeded!

The Eyes Have It

Sunday morning, Alex's eyelashes were partly crusted when he woke up. The only time I'd seen that before was when he had a very severe cold, but this time he didn't seem to be congested or sick. So we went about our day as I described previously. He still had the eye discharge that evening and Monday morning, but I brought him to daycare anyway. A couple of hours later, they called me. Apparently Alex's eyes were worse; his right eye was now red and swollen. Another child had brought pinkeye into the infant room, and Alex most likely had it. That meant I had to take him to a doctor and keep him at home for at least 24 hours.

As upsetting as it is to learn your child is sick and that you didn't catch it sooner, this news came at a bad time. My company is attending a trade show next week, and I had to prepare some samples for the show. I'm the only one who has any experience making the samples; in fact, I had started working on them before daycare called me. Alex's health is of prime importance, but this project was also important. Somehow, I had to be able to go into work the next day in order to finish the samples.

Luckily, Eugene was able to rearrange his schedule a bit. I went to work in the morning while he stayed home with Alex. I stayed at work until almost 2:00; then I returned home so Eugene could go in for a few hours. Alex is getting antibiotic eye drops and returned to daycare today, and my samples are done and ready to be shipped.

Strawberry Fests Aren't Forever

So you have to attend them while they last.

It's been a couple of years since we last attended the Strawberry Festival in Long Grove; in fact, I think the last time we went was before we got married. So it was high time to go.

Long Grove is a quaint little town with lots of boutiques. We arrived in the early afternoon, with the grounds already packed. We parked in the first available parking lot (which was way out there) and took a dirt path to the center of the action.

There were supposed to be strawberry foods galore at the fest; they advertised strawberry donuts, smoothies, teas, scones, daiquiris, and much more. Ironically, all we had were a chocolate-covered strawberry apiece and strawberry lemonade. We did spend more time perusing a selection of salsas, BBQ sauce, and marmalade (and no, not all of it was strawberry):














After buying a few jars, we walked around. I went into some of the boutiques, but since Eugene couldn't take the stroller into the stores, I didn't stay long. There was a store specializing in Irish things that tempted me with a few sweaters, but ultimately I didn't get anything. Meanwhile, Alex got a balloon dog. We walked over to the kids area, but Alex is still too young for the rides. Meanwhile, a few sprinkles landed on us. We decided to call it an afternoon and headed back. The rain got harder for a bit, but by the time we reached our car, it had stopped. We were tired enough to want to go home, anyway. Maybe when it's a little cooler -- and less crowded -- we can go back and enjoy Long Grove a bit more.

Quiet Day

Eugene and I are still recovering from Alex's party last week. I started describing it on his own blog, but I still need to finish the story and add some pictures. Basically, Alex was overtired and very shy around all of the guests, but after he had some of his cake, he mellowed out. There were about 50 people there, and the party lasted for about six hours. There was a lot of food; in addition to the roast pig, there were three kinds of grilled meat, eggrolls, two types of ponsit (Filipino noodle casserole), Greek food my parents had catered in, and other food some of the guests brought. Plus there was a Filipino cake from my in-laws and two half-sheets of cake we ordered. Luckily for us, some of Eugene's aunts took over the kitchen; they not only set up the food but cleaned up afterwards. If it weren't for them, we'd still be cleaning up. Alex got some very nice presents, but I don't want to list them here. We still have nine thank-you cards to write, but we should be able to finish in the next day or two.

Part of the reason we're still recovering is that Alex had a streak of poor nights. He woke up at odd hours, which wasn't good for our own sleep. He might be teething again. At least he's back to sleeping through the night again (I hope I haven't jinxed things for tonight now.) But with our chronic fatigue, not to mention that we've been busy for several weekends in a row, I suggested to Eugene that we just hang out at home today. He agreed. So we spent Father's Day chilling out. We did a couple of chores--he mowed the lawn, I sorted through Alex's clothes and put some in storage--but all three of us took a much-needed nap this afternoon.

Writing--I'm almost ready to post my query package to the OWW wiki space. I still need to revise my synopsis--I have suggestions from the synopsis workshop that I haven't had time to review properly. Hopefully I can do that in the next couple of days. Then maybe I can go back to working on some of my short stories or continue the final pass on my book. I think I'm going to use Across Two Universes as the title--unless I think of something better.

Cookies, Don't Crumble!

Alex's birthday party is Sunday. We still don't know exactly how many people are coming, as not all of them RSVPed but may still show up. That makes planning difficult, but I'm assuming about 70-80 people will come. (I figure it's better to plan for more than for less.) Since many of them will be driving a good distance, I thought it would be nice to have a little favor for them in addition to all the food and cake we'll have available. I came up with making cookies to tie into the party's theme (which I'll keep under wraps for another couple of days.) But what I thought would be a quick project has been more time-comsuming than I thought it would be. Of course, I don't have much free time to begin with after working and taking care of Alex. But here's what the last few days have been like:

Sunday--After returning home from Kristi's shower, I started making a double batch of dough for sugar cookies. Then I realized I was out of an ingredient and had to go to the store. I mixed the dough and put it in the refrigerator to cool. The dough seemed a little dry, but I thought it would improve after cooling. Unfortunately, it was still too dry. I realized I hadn't put in enough butter but figured it was too late to add it. So I had to dump it and make another batch. By then it was too late to actually make the cookies, so I had to store the dough in the refrigerator for another night.

Monday--I started rolling out the dough--which worked much better this time--while Alex was still up. It was harder than I remembered to roll it out, and the first couple of cookies were a little too thin. It was my night to put him down for the night, so I had to take a break. By the time I returned to the kitchen, some of the dough had warmed up too much to roll out well. At least I managed to make about two dozen cookies and prep more dough for the next day.

Tuesday--Eugene offered to help me, and it was much easier with two of us. Eugene rolled out the dough (which was between two sheets of wax paper) while I held the paper down. We finished all of the baking that night.

Wednesday--Before Alex went to bed, I made homemade buttercream frosting. Afterwards, I split it in half and colored it blue and green. Eugene again offered to help me frost the cookies, which allowed us to go to bed at a reasonable hour.

Thursday--Almost done; I just had to bag the cookies and find someplace to put them.


So the cookies are finally done, but there's still a lot left to do. I just hope people enjoy them. We did lose a few cookies due to breakage, but they found good homes in our stomachs. If some of the cookies we hand out are broken, I hope people don't mind.

Our Son is One! (And Other Wonderful Things)

I'm a little late on this, but Alex turned one on Friday. At daycare, he got to wear a little crown (I'm not sure how much he liked that), and they sang, "Happy Birthday" to him. That evening, a photographer came out to our house to take pictures. We know her so well we invited her, her husband, another photographer from the same company, and the second photographer's husband (do you have all of that?), to stay for dinner. It was a relatively simple meal, but Eugene more than made up for that with his mile-high apple pie, made with two dozen apples. (I'm not kidding; this pie is huge.) Too bad we didn't have enough time to make our own vanilla ice cream. It was fun having them over.

Saturday we had another couple of guests over for Alex's first playdate. We hit it off with a couple in our childbirth class last year, so the mother and her daughter came over. I'm not sure what Alex thought about another baby exploring his house and playing with his toys, though he did watch the little girl try to climb the stairs. I'm afraid that may have put ideas into his head--not what Mommy and Daddy need! We may go visit them in a couple of weeks.

Today Alex and I went to a friend's bridal shower. I had to wake him up from a nap, but we were still late. He behaved pretty well, though towards the end he was a little fussy. We let him nap before going shopping.

As for the other wonderful thing I mentioned, Firestorm of Dragons is now available through Amazon.com and other online outlets! Order early, order often! Now, all I need to do is find some writing time. With Alex's party next week, it may be tough to find any time at night to work.

A Momentary Taste of WisCon

That's the name of WisCon's official newsletter (though this year they're doing it as a blog), and it sums up my con experience this year.

Although I took Friday off, Eugene had an important errand to run in the afternoon, so we didn't leave for Madison until close to 5:00. We stopped along the way, so we didn't arrive at our hotel until nearly 8:00. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get a room in the con hotel this year, so we were in an overflow hotel. The silver lining was that we had a suite, which is nice because we could put Alex to sleep in one room and stay up in the bedroom. But this meant we had to tote everything we needed for Alex and Eugene's photography equipment with us for a few blocks. It's also the main reason I skipped all of the nighttime activities at the con, even the dessert function I'd prepaid for; I didn’t want to be walking around by myself late at night.

After visiting the Farmer's Market Saturday morning, I picked up my registration packet and brought Alex to the on-site daycare. (He clung to me every time I brought him there because it was strange to him; he's much better at his normal daycare. But this afternoon, he was playing like a whirling dervish.) I also brought some copies of the anthology to the BroadUniverse table for sale. Then I went to my first panel while Eugene bummed up and down State Street. We met for lunch (picking up Alex so the daycare providers could have their own break). After lunch, I participated in a rapid-fire reading with a dozen other members of BroadUniverse; people told me afterwards my reading went well. I went to another panel, then volunteered at the BroadUniverse table for an hour. We had dinner at our favorite Japanese restaurant. Alex did OK for a while but got fussy toward the end.

On Sunday, I went to three panels. I skipped a panel in the middle of the afternoon to bum around State Street myself. I could have splurged in Wintersilks--there was a teal silk blazer I came within a hair's-breath of buying--but limited myself to one silk tee. (The near-purchase gave me an idea for a short story, though.) We had dinner at a tapas restaurant before returning to our hotel; I had to leave early with Alex because the noise got to be too much for him.

I never do much at the con on Monday. We checked out of our hotel and immediately went to the con hotel to make reservations for next year. Then we left Madison. We stopped along the way to visit my parents. Now we’re trying to unwind before going back to work tomorrow.

It was great to be back in Madison in the spring again; when the weather is good for Memorial Day weekend, it doesn't get much better than it did this weekend. It was also good to be back at WisCon again, though I did feel a little isolated by not going to the parties and other nighttime events. I didn't get much time with my friend Margie either. Apologies to our Madison friends that we weren’t able to get together this time. We definitely will in the fall for our yearly reunion.

Writing News

Lots of writing stuff to post today.

First, I'd like to spread the news about a dialogue contest being run on Nathan Bransford's blog. Nathan is a literary agent at Curtis Brown Ltd. He's challenging people to post up to 250 words of dialogue and supporting description. The contest ends tomorrow at 5:00 Pacific Time (he's out of California). I posted a snippet from Thine Own Self. There are nearly 400 entries already, so we'll see Thursday morning if I made it to the finalist round.

Second, one of the writers I know, Maria Zannini, is celebrating the release of her debut novel, Touch of Fire, a fantasy romance. It's available here as an e-book and will be in print late next year.

Finally, and most exciting personally, I found out from Dragon Moon Press that copies of Firestorm of Dragons are on their way to me. I should receive them Thursday in time to bring them to WisCon. I'm planning to be part of Broad Universe's Rapid-Fire Reading there (reading from my short story) and will be selling copies of the anthology at their table in the Dealer's Room. I can't wait to see the book!

A Walk in Lilacia Park

Lilacs are one of my favorite flowers. I didn't get to see much of them last year since I was in my third trimester and couldn't get around very well. This year, we introduced Alex to the lilacs at Lilacia Park. The lilac season is past its peak, but there were still plenty of bushes in bloom. As you can see below, there were also lots of tulips too.

Every Breath You Take...

Yesterday was a busy day. (Actually, all of my weekends for the next month will be busier than normal. At least that should be good blog material.) I did laundry and then ran errands with Alex. We went to the bank, to the bakery to order the cake for his party, and to the grocery store. Eugene came home early from work so he could mow the lawn before it rained today. But we were rewarded for doing all of our chores, for we had tickets for the Police/Elvis Costello concert. My parents came down to watch Alex while we were gone. They arrived early so he had time to get used to them (he's got stranger anxiety) before we left.

We got to the concert about a half hour before it was supposed to start. We had seats on the second level--I wasn't going to pay more. I brought binoculars so we could get a better view of the stage. Amazingly enough, the concert started on time, with Elvis Costello opening the show. We knew only a couple of the songs he played (I never got into his music). The music was fine, but it didn't have an emotional resonance for me. Someone came out to duet with Elvis on one of the songs; Eugene identified the singer as Sting. It was hard to recognize him, since he had a hat pulled partly over his face, and his beard was scruffy.

After a break, the Police came out. I could tell from the first song that this was going to be a better show than the one we saw last year with Genesis. There was much more energy in the songs. I have to admit I didn't recognize all of them, since I have only two of their albums. But they did play the two songs I really wanted them to play, "Invisible Sun" and "King of Pain." (They did "Every Breath You Take" during the encore.) They played for less than two hours, but it didn't feel like that. Even so, I have to admit I just don't have the energy I used to. Gee, I wonder why?

Today, for Mother's Day, Eugene gave me tulips and a gift certificate to a spa. I also got a card from Alex with a partial tracing of his hand. (He doesn't sit still long enough for a full tracing.) We had both sets of parents and my grandmother over for lunch. Eugene did most of the cooking since I was busy with Alex; we had pork loin, orange and almond salad, eggrolls, rice, breadsticks, and vegetables. Eugene's mom also brought over more eggrolls and shrimp. The grandparents really enjoyed the time with their grandson. As for me, I'm looking forward to my spa trip.

Top Ten Reasons I Haven't Blogged Lately

10. I look at the floor, and I see it needs sweeping.

9. I have to sleep sometime.

8. Still waiting to get copies of the anthology...

7. so I can pick a section to read at WisCon.

6. There's still a lot to do before WisCon but precious little time to do it.

5. Getting ready for Alex's first birthday party.

4. I'm working on a short story, but I'm stalled, as usual.

3. I'm still trying to develop a query package for Thine Own Self.

2. Eugene needs quality time too.

1. All Alex, all the time.

We're Out and About!

It seems like work and chores and all the various little projects I want/need to do never end. Still, when the weather is as nice as it was today, it's time to get out and enjoy it. We went to the Chicago Botanic Garden this morning; we even beat the crowds. Here are a few pictures. I don't know why the top two are sideways; I rotated them when I uploaded them to my computer.