Tapped Out and Outta Here

Updates from last week, ROW80 and otherwise…

In good news, my loved one who was in hospital is fine now. Huge relief.

In other good news, I’ve sort of fallen into co-creating a book club on Twitter. This month we’re doing Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones. It’s a Tam Lin retelling. Sound like your kind of thing? Use the hashtag #20reads to join in! (And by the way, I’m @Siri_Paulson over there.)

In bad news, I’ve blown an anthology deadline. Not just any anthology, either — I’m the chief editor as well as one of the submitters — and my story was due 12 days ago. I started the story in good time, but to say it’s not cooperating is an understatement. In retrospect, I should have listened to Ripley. You know,

Nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

Yeah. I’ve tried every possible angle. There might still be a good story in there, but if there is, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t fit the anthology theme, and I can’t shoehorn it in no matter what I try. I think I’m gonna have to write something entirely different…and fast. (And yes, I should have made that decision weeks ago.)

That’s bad. But the worse part?

This is the second short story this year that I’ve run into the ground. I can’t remember the last time that’s happened. And my novel edit-in-progress has just…stalled.

Maybe I’m too busy. I know I have trouble when there are too many projects on the go, and this year has been full of non-writing projects (notwithstanding my declaring it the Year of Making Space…) that have taken up a lot of extra brain cells and a certain amount of creativity.

On the bright side: my house now has some awesome upgrades and will shortly have an awesome backyard. It’s kinda nice to pay attention to the place I’m living in for a change. Reminds me that I own it, you know? (Well, the bank does, but I hold the deed, so there.)

On the not-so-bright side: I never meant my house to become awesome at the expense of my writing.

I badly need to make space for real.

But that will have to wait until I’m back from my hiatus. When June hits, watch out….

ROW80

Quick updates:

Writing: I spent 4.5 hours last week trying to make that damn story work. It’s not stalled for lack of time.

Exercise: Started walking again now that the weather is finally nice, went folk dancing on Saturday night, and celebrated the season’s first weeding session on Sunday. Yay?

Renovations: The deck is proceeding apace. It’s going to have two small sheds with a roofed-over space in between. Currently trying to figure out the best way to add shade to the rest of the deck — I like deep shade, don’t like extendable awnings, want something that will sort of tie in with the roofed section, am not sure if I want lattice with climbing plants (because hey, we’ve never done this before)…yeah, problems. Oh, and the backyard will shortly have sod instead of weeds!

 

Two-week blog hiatus commences as of now. In the meantime, tell me…

Your turn! What do you do when the writing is just not coming?

 

Hospitals and Housekeeping

So…when I wrote last week that life was eating me?

Turns out that was nothing. Here’s what happened next…

Hospitals

So I spent two days this week with a loved one in hospital in Montreal, Quebec. That was scary for a while, but the scary part is over now (knock wood) and I’m slowly coming down from all that stress.

What I’m starting to remember now are the little things that happened while I was focused on my own loved one’s story.

The way the first-responder firefighters switched into French to debrief the paramedics.

The way the gurney’s legs retracted as the bed platform slid into the ambulance.

The first intake guy at the hospital, who also talked with the paramedics in fluent French (while I, despite being non-fluent, tried to eavesdrop and read the medical notes he was making on the computer — in French)…and then came over to us and said, in a clearly non-francophone accent, “How you doin’, mate?” So completely unexpected that it almost made me laugh.

(Read the rest here.)

So that was my Friday through Monday. Oy vey.

ROW80

In other news, here’s a ROW80 check-in:

Writing

The good news is I spent more than 3 hours last week working on my short story WIP. The bad news is that I’m overdue for a deadline at the indie press I belong to (Turtleduck Press) and the edit is going sloooowly. So, pressing on…

Exercise

Umm…Unless you count doing a ton of dishes for the loved one mentioned above…nada. Oh, except I climbed 19 flights of stairs today. Onward!

Renovations

Indoors renos are done, at least for this year! We’ve moved on to getting some basic cosmetic improvements for the yards, front and back. They’re all aimed at making our property look less, um, ghetto. So far:

• removed chain-link fencing in front yard and some in backyard
• took out rosebushes that only bloomed three weeks a year and were tied to rusty metal frames (okay, that happened a few weeks ago)
• removed chicken wire (?!) on top of back fence
• got rid of decrepit old shed
• started building a deck

I have to admit that we’re not exactly DIYers and are not doing any of this ourselves. But we will be doing most (all?) of the planting and all of the gardening.

Housekeeping

Finally, a housekeeping note. I know posting has been sporadic around here, and it’s about to get more sporadic — temporarily, I hope. Starting at the middle of next week, I’ll be offline for two weeks. Don’t expect any new blogging until the very end of May. Then I’ll be back with more posts on travel, adventures in homeownership, women in SF and fantasy, books, movies, and all the other good stuff that (I hope) you’ve come to expect.

In the meantime, feel free to hang out, chat, browse the archives, and party!

 

Still Alive

Just a quick note today. Life is eating me, and will continue eating me for a while. Nothing horrible, just busy.

Don’t go away — I miss blogging, and I’ll be back!

In the meantime, how is life treating you?