Category: Uncategorized

Here are two tidbits that I thought might keep you interested and warm on a day that many of you are finding snowy, windy, and far too cold for comfort (sorry sister-dear! I’m sending warm thoughts your way).

First off, Fireside Fiction is holding a fundraiser of a different stripe. No, it’s not a Kickstarter. Instead of repeating their whole schtick, let me just send you to their site and ask you to consider subscribing, making a one-time donation, or becoming a Patron. They publish some fine work, and I for one would hate to see them close shop. And for some of the Patron levels, you’ll get artwork by Galen Dara–which is just awesome!

Also, just do some reading there. All the stories are free on the site, and as I said, they’ve got some great stuff to fill your mind with wonder and glee.

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If you’ve read this blog for oh, any time at all, you’ll probably notice that I really love dogs. So, when I read this article about Darwin’s Dogs, I hopped right over, signed up, and filled out the forms. It was fun! And they’re going to do DNA analysis of my dog using his saliva–how cool is that?!? I’m all for research that will not only add to canine understanding, but also human health.

I got a new year’s email from them, and here’s a fun excerpt:

At the start of a new year, we are excited to send out the inaugural Darwin’s Dogs progress report. We can sum it up in one word – WOW! When we put out the call for dog owners to join our project, we’d hoped to enroll thousands of dogs over the first few years. We clearly underestimated you. Enrollment has jumped to over 2300 dogs in under 3 months

Their stated goal is 5,000 dogs. While they’re well on the way, it’s not too late to sign up, fill out their surveys, and help genetists and canine behaviorists find the connections underpinning our best friends’ health and happiness–and maybe our own. You needn’t live in the US (although for the DNA analysis you might), and your dog can be purebred or mutt. All are welcome to join.

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My happiness? I started a new story yesterday, for a contest I love. Today I finished it (first draft form, of course. But still!)  🙂

That’s it for today.

I’ve been quiet for awhile, because I’ve just returned from visiting some friends in Germany, and wow! It was warm there! Like, crazy-warm. After they had such a long, cool spring, it seems like we took central Florida weather along with us.

It was nice to be back in Germany, and to speak German again (mine had gotten quite rusty) and hear it around me. To see old stones and new architecture mingling and merging into a city, or a neighborhood. Or more like the gentle, respectful rubbing of shoulders of the generations, each lovely and unique, and yet best as part of a conversation that creates a greater, complex society. (I may post some pictures later, as time allows.)

While I was gone, some exciting things happened:

I’m very excited to announce that the Michael J. DeLuca guest-edited edition of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet is now available for purchase–especially because I’m one the included authors. Putting Down Roots is my included story, and I’m very pleased to be included in this amazing lineup!

Putting Down Roots started as a prompt to write a story with a format other than traditional narrative prose. I had never attempted this before. It was a challenge, and fun, to write an SF story into one side of a conversation. Also, I’d been reading about research into trees and the fact that they do communicate…and here came this story.

I found this entire issue to be amazing. I hope you do as well.

Also, my story The Giveaway Box was accepted at Abyss & Apex, and should be appearing there in October! Hurray! This one is contemporary fantasy with a light speculative element.

I hope your July (July already! Ack!) is going well. And now, I’m back to catching up on all the things that fell behind while I was away. (You guessed it: laundry, cutting grass, weeding, etc.)

With the Unending Novel’s first draft completed, I feel strangely light and liberated. Also, more than a little aimless. This is despite having concrete goals in place for my “non-novel-writing time” between the first draft and starting the first revision.

What goals? To re-cap, edit short stories (I had 10 of them in a queue, waiting for revisions before their first submissions), finish taking 2 online classes over at Holly Lisle’s website, and finish the planning on a series of novellas that I plan to write and self-publish. In non-writing, to catch up with all the things that I’ve let slide during the push to finish the first draft.

Well, I’ve edited five of the stories to a near-ready state. And I’ve taken classes, just not as often as I’d like. The dog has been demanding more and more attention when I’m home, acting like the obnoxious all-about-me teenager that he is right now. And doing non-writing chores eats into time that I’d normally use for writing, and I can’t make it up with “dog” time. Add to this a week of solo time with Dasher the dog while the spousal unit was on a business trip, which made the dog and I rather sick of each other’s company (ugh!).

So…despite making actual progress on my goals, I’m feeling very adrift. As if I have nothing to show for my writing time. As if I’m being defined by writing on the novel. Which is so odd, since for the longest while, I felt vaguely guilty writing the novel and not short stories. Oh, how my brain delights in flummoxing and annoying me (and, I suspect, most writers)!

In the interim, I’ve been reading some interesting things. The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker, is a lovely story about (strangely enough!) a golem and a jinni, both of whom end up on American shores in the late 1880’s. I’m not finished with it yet, but it’s engaging, with much loveliness in tone and telling.

I was away for a week due to a death in the family. It wasn’t unexpected, but it came far too soon, and far too fast for those of us left behind. I’ll admit to being in a daze yet. I will greatly miss my brother-in-law. He was a good man, and his laugh was infectious.

While it’s so good to get together with far-flung family members and catch up with them, why does it seem to take a funeral to get together with the extended clan? My brother-in-law would have enjoyed the gathering we held in his honor. His absence was noticeable (duh! but still, I kept expecting to hear his voice, his laugh), and he was missed.

Rest in peace, Chuck.

Well, it’s here: officially, it’s the first day of fall here in the northern hemisphere. Weeee!

In north-central Florida, that seems to mean the temps may fall into the upper 60’s at night, and only reach the mid-upper eighties, maybe 90F, during the day. And it rains a bit less. It’s become garden-planting season, since the intense heat and humidity of late summer (which wilt and rot new growth) are waning. I am so ready for this.

I’ve got carrot seedlings to plant out, and green onions, too. Yellow pear tomatoes to transplant (and as always, extras to try to squeeze in or give away. I always seed so many, thinking that none will grow–and they ALL grow. Then I feel bad thinning them…). This is not my “normal” fall activity, but I’m okay with that. Life is change, blah blah blah, and all that.

Then Spousal Unit and I went to a greenhouse yesterday, and came home with a fig tree. Really! I can’t wait for the first harvest of sweet, tiny figs. Add that to the Meyer lemon tree I brought home earlier in the week, and … well, you can see I have a problem with food plants. I love them: love growing and nurturing them, and harvesting from them. Love having them around. They make me feel rich. But fitting them in is hard. Especially if they’re trees.

Other fun things: in the evenings, I’ve been hearing a male short eared owl. In the wee hours of the night/morning, I often hear a great horned owl. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology makes identifying the unfamiliar calls not only possible, but fun! A red-shouldered hawk soars overhead during the day, with it’s keening cry, and feeds (or attempts to feed) from our bird feeder. Not the seed–the birds eating there are its target meal. This place is way more fun than should be legal, wildlife-wise.

Just so you don’t think I’ve given up on writing, let me assure you that I’m still getting words down on the novel. And short stories are banging against my cranium, trying to get in. Or out. Whichever. But stories follow their own seasons, not those of Mother Nature.

If you’re somewhere in the north, and fall is descending upon you with its normal temperate fervor, enjoy a crisp fresh apple for me. A Winesap, when they come in. Or a McIntosh. Yum. I promise to eat an orange for you, when they come ripe December-ish, just south of here. 🙂

…by having babies!!!!!!

Yesterday was a wonderful day, despite the discovery of new, glassy commas that are swordtail fry swimming in my fish tank. (And really, it’s only a 2-gallon tank. Where does she think these things are going to go? Note to self: get a fish version of a book on family planning.) Really, it was amazing. Getting my story in the mail from DSF was…interesting. Cool, and a bit freaky. Something I could definitely get used to, however.

I want to thank everyone for the great feedback and support on this little success story (publication) of mine. I was ensconced in a golden glow most of the day, just beaming. Even when writing new words (which didn’t want to come out onto the page, BTW), I was more content than usual. From this I learned something very useful: for me, writing is wonderful. Sometimes I love it, other times I hate it, and usually I get lost in the words, in the “trying to translate this cool thing onto the page.”  And acceptance is awesome. It makes me giddy and gleeful. But sharing the joy of publication? That’s where it’s at, the true gold. For me at least, and right now.

So, thanks for sharing this journey with me. Now, it’s back to unpacking… (Speaking of which, I’m still looking for subtropical house brownies. Anyone know how to draw them in to do housekeeping chores?)