Just got word that my sister had her baby, a boy. Word is that he's between 6-7 pounds and is doing well. Both sets of grandparents and an uncle are en route to see the new arrival.
I'm purposely being vague on details like where the birth happened and my sister and her husband's name because I have no idea how they feel about having this event posted on-line. People who know the couple will already know all that stuff.
I'll head out to see them sometime after this weekend. I've got events to go to at Bubonicon, and this way, instead of having everyone come out right after the birth, we can spread the visits out into an unrelenting experience of guest after guest to take care of - er, I mean, nonstop support during these first days. I'll definitely strive to make it the latter ;-)
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Update on our move
So, my last post about moving I took down because we were looking into refinancing the house. Advertising a move overseas isn't the best idea while doing this, but we ultimately decided not to go that route. A lot has happened in the last few weeks, but our moving plans are set. We leave in January for Britain.
About a month ago we decided that it was time to look into renting the house, so we signed up with a property manager. Then we decided to see if we could refi to get the mortgage low enough to be covered completely by rent. It is possible to do, but not cost effective in the end of the day because of the fees. During the time we were looking into this, we took the house off the market, and boy am I glad.
Because about two weeks ago, I snapped. I had *had it* with our realty company. I swear, if anyone says "keep your fingers crossed" to me about anything, I might just fly off the handle (okay, no, I'm not really that moody). But I was sick and tired of the attitude that listing our house on an MLS and chatting with other realtors in the rare instance they brought someone by was this great service deserving of over ten thousand dollars come closing. I think a total of about four people ever looked at the house. Now, I know the market's slow, but here's the kicker, just about everyone else we know who tried to sell a house this year managed to do it.
Ultimately I did some research and found that our house was overpriced (this was not my job, to figure this out and I had asked our agent over and over and over about it). When we asked our realtor about renting, she suggested we "take the house off the market for a year and then relist it." Apparently she thought it was a good idea for us to burn off some savings with the house rented (we bought at the peak of the market, so our mortgage payments are a little higher than we can earn through rent, given we'd also hire a property manager) then somehow get the house in show condition from 6,000 miles away. We'd then have to try to sell with diminished savings, which would restrict how low an offer we could afford to take. This, I have to say, makes no economic sense. The house value won't appreciate by enough to justify this kind of cost. I think this is just holding out for the good old days when it was a sellers market. It isn't anymore, and I'm over that. You win some you lose some, this house was a loser. Best to just take the loss and move on than to hang onto this thing while trying to make ends meet on Trevor's stipend overseas.
I made the mistake of choosing a realtor based on personal connections. I went with whom everyone said was one of the best realtors in town, and didn't interview. When we decided to try to rent too, this company told us they didn't want us to try to sell or rent at the same time. In short, they want us to keep it simple for them and weren't willing to go the extra mile to get us what we need. We wanted to move in October, and to sell the house early and take our loss then. That way we could've bulked up our savings again by living in a cheap apartment or my parents' basement. We aren't happy with having to push our move to January. I think our goals could have been met if the house had just been priced more aggressively. This second time around, I called realtors and interviewed them on the phone.
The one we're listing with now is very impressive. She came in with a big checklist of what to do to stage our house, gave us a comprehensive market analysis and named a price that is significantly lower than what it was listed at before. Given the data, I think she's right on target. She even put us in touch with a gardener to get the front yard show-worthy. Our neighbors have no doubt noticed that it is now possible to see more of the front of the house. She'll be in while we're at Bubonicon to take pictures - she is very picky with the lighting and composition and will move furniture to get the shot she wants, and that's exactly the kind of attention to detail we need.
While we were in the process of moving out pieces of furniture and taking down pictures, our property manager called to set up a showing with a prospective tenant. We told her that we'd be willing to lease month to month with the house still on the market, and she tried to talk us out of that. In the end we also agreed that we would take the house off the market if the tenant signed a three year lease. The tenant seems willing to consider that and came to tour the house.
So, we're in a much better place than we were a month ago. If anyone living in the area wants details on our realtor or the gardener she uses, drop me an email. I'd highly recommend both of them. We may not have the house sold or rented by January, but at least we won't have that sinking feeling that we could have done more.
About a month ago we decided that it was time to look into renting the house, so we signed up with a property manager. Then we decided to see if we could refi to get the mortgage low enough to be covered completely by rent. It is possible to do, but not cost effective in the end of the day because of the fees. During the time we were looking into this, we took the house off the market, and boy am I glad.
Because about two weeks ago, I snapped. I had *had it* with our realty company. I swear, if anyone says "keep your fingers crossed" to me about anything, I might just fly off the handle (okay, no, I'm not really that moody). But I was sick and tired of the attitude that listing our house on an MLS and chatting with other realtors in the rare instance they brought someone by was this great service deserving of over ten thousand dollars come closing. I think a total of about four people ever looked at the house. Now, I know the market's slow, but here's the kicker, just about everyone else we know who tried to sell a house this year managed to do it.
Ultimately I did some research and found that our house was overpriced (this was not my job, to figure this out and I had asked our agent over and over and over about it). When we asked our realtor about renting, she suggested we "take the house off the market for a year and then relist it." Apparently she thought it was a good idea for us to burn off some savings with the house rented (we bought at the peak of the market, so our mortgage payments are a little higher than we can earn through rent, given we'd also hire a property manager) then somehow get the house in show condition from 6,000 miles away. We'd then have to try to sell with diminished savings, which would restrict how low an offer we could afford to take. This, I have to say, makes no economic sense. The house value won't appreciate by enough to justify this kind of cost. I think this is just holding out for the good old days when it was a sellers market. It isn't anymore, and I'm over that. You win some you lose some, this house was a loser. Best to just take the loss and move on than to hang onto this thing while trying to make ends meet on Trevor's stipend overseas.
I made the mistake of choosing a realtor based on personal connections. I went with whom everyone said was one of the best realtors in town, and didn't interview. When we decided to try to rent too, this company told us they didn't want us to try to sell or rent at the same time. In short, they want us to keep it simple for them and weren't willing to go the extra mile to get us what we need. We wanted to move in October, and to sell the house early and take our loss then. That way we could've bulked up our savings again by living in a cheap apartment or my parents' basement. We aren't happy with having to push our move to January. I think our goals could have been met if the house had just been priced more aggressively. This second time around, I called realtors and interviewed them on the phone.
The one we're listing with now is very impressive. She came in with a big checklist of what to do to stage our house, gave us a comprehensive market analysis and named a price that is significantly lower than what it was listed at before. Given the data, I think she's right on target. She even put us in touch with a gardener to get the front yard show-worthy. Our neighbors have no doubt noticed that it is now possible to see more of the front of the house. She'll be in while we're at Bubonicon to take pictures - she is very picky with the lighting and composition and will move furniture to get the shot she wants, and that's exactly the kind of attention to detail we need.
While we were in the process of moving out pieces of furniture and taking down pictures, our property manager called to set up a showing with a prospective tenant. We told her that we'd be willing to lease month to month with the house still on the market, and she tried to talk us out of that. In the end we also agreed that we would take the house off the market if the tenant signed a three year lease. The tenant seems willing to consider that and came to tour the house.
So, we're in a much better place than we were a month ago. If anyone living in the area wants details on our realtor or the gardener she uses, drop me an email. I'd highly recommend both of them. We may not have the house sold or rented by January, but at least we won't have that sinking feeling that we could have done more.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
So, this is cool
Someone posted this to a listserv that I am on. It's really quite amazing. I gather this woman won "Ukraine's Got Talent".
This article gives the piece some context.
This article gives the piece some context.
So yes, I am still writing
I just haven't blogged about it in a while. I've got the next draft of a story done, which is about one million times better than the first draft. As I've posted here before, I feel like writing short stories is like stuffing a cat into a Coke bottle (S.M. Stirling's words). Over the years I've done a lot of different approaches, but what's working well for me right now is to bring the story in mangled cat form to my critgroup, have them worry it and tear it into pieces, and then take it home and do extreme reconstructive surgery.
I've done the first round, but will need more. My husband, usually my first proofreader, has a ton of work to do for his day job, so he hasn't been able to read it. I know, I know, Char (because I know Char Peery - my friend - is reading this!) I'll send it to you, because I'm sure you're hungry for reading material. (She always is. I think she's got this innate literary imbalance that always makes her overconsume, not that I'm complaining one bit!)
I've done the first round, but will need more. My husband, usually my first proofreader, has a ton of work to do for his day job, so he hasn't been able to read it. I know, I know, Char (because I know Char Peery - my friend - is reading this!) I'll send it to you, because I'm sure you're hungry for reading material. (She always is. I think she's got this innate literary imbalance that always makes her overconsume, not that I'm complaining one bit!)
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
C'mon guys!
I'm posting this here and on my E.M. Tippetts website. My temper's grown rather short. In the past I've always been careful to keep any issues between me and my publisher, Covenant, private, but matters have remained poor long enough that I may as well just make it public and hope other aspiring writers can learn from the experience.
My novel, Time and Eternity, was picked up by Covenant over two years ago and came out last June. It took months to negotiate that contract and most of that time was taken up by the person I was negotiating with not bothering to respond to my emails. We developed a regular pattern where he'd email me, I'd respond, wait several weeks, then ask my editor what was going on. Only then would I get a response. Through this long and laborious process we agreed that I would keep certain rights, including my copyright and film rights.
When I finally got the revised contract, it still said that they got the copyright. I x-ed this out and initialed the change, signed it, and sent it in. Soon thereafter I got my copy back and Covenant had also initialed that change.
I later noticed that the film rights phrase had only been deleted in one place and still appeared in another, so when I got my contract addendum for my most recent book, I sent it and the original contract in with the second mention of film rights x-ed out. This time I got a phone call from Covenant claiming that I couldn't keep film rights without renegotiating the royalties provision. I told the person that I still had the email from them which said I got film rights. The person told me to send that in, so I did.
It's been several months. I didn't hassle with this sooner because I was having a baby and getting my house ready to sell and had my husband recovering from surgery etc. etc. etc. I emailed my editor, who said she didn't know why the contract hadn't been finalized and she'd been wondering about that. This makes two of us. I've emailed the contract person at Covenant again, but you know? This shouldn't be necessary.
Covenant should send the contract to me with the initialed change, or if they want to argue and claim that I don't get film rights, they should get cracking on that. Send me an email or a phone call to that effect. Not bothering to respond is unprofessional.
Now, don't get me wrong. I know my place in the publishing world. I'm not being a diva and asking for monthly mailings of M&M's with certain colors taken out. But the small press tradition of trying to grab all rights is tiresome, and no seasoned author signs that contract. I may only make a few thousand for the company with my books, but that doesn't mean that I don't merit an email reply when I ask to get my contract corrected as per already negotiated terms.
So come on, Covenant. Surprise me. Get this resolved in a timely manner - oh wait, you're way too late for that. Howabout get it resolved within the next week? Just, stop making me work so hard to get a scrawled set of initials next to a line out WHEN WE'VE ALREADY AGREED ON SAID LINE OUT.
Okay, rant over. I don't plan to discuss this kind of thing on my blog in the future, unless matters get worse.
My novel, Time and Eternity, was picked up by Covenant over two years ago and came out last June. It took months to negotiate that contract and most of that time was taken up by the person I was negotiating with not bothering to respond to my emails. We developed a regular pattern where he'd email me, I'd respond, wait several weeks, then ask my editor what was going on. Only then would I get a response. Through this long and laborious process we agreed that I would keep certain rights, including my copyright and film rights.
When I finally got the revised contract, it still said that they got the copyright. I x-ed this out and initialed the change, signed it, and sent it in. Soon thereafter I got my copy back and Covenant had also initialed that change.
I later noticed that the film rights phrase had only been deleted in one place and still appeared in another, so when I got my contract addendum for my most recent book, I sent it and the original contract in with the second mention of film rights x-ed out. This time I got a phone call from Covenant claiming that I couldn't keep film rights without renegotiating the royalties provision. I told the person that I still had the email from them which said I got film rights. The person told me to send that in, so I did.
It's been several months. I didn't hassle with this sooner because I was having a baby and getting my house ready to sell and had my husband recovering from surgery etc. etc. etc. I emailed my editor, who said she didn't know why the contract hadn't been finalized and she'd been wondering about that. This makes two of us. I've emailed the contract person at Covenant again, but you know? This shouldn't be necessary.
Covenant should send the contract to me with the initialed change, or if they want to argue and claim that I don't get film rights, they should get cracking on that. Send me an email or a phone call to that effect. Not bothering to respond is unprofessional.
Now, don't get me wrong. I know my place in the publishing world. I'm not being a diva and asking for monthly mailings of M&M's with certain colors taken out. But the small press tradition of trying to grab all rights is tiresome, and no seasoned author signs that contract. I may only make a few thousand for the company with my books, but that doesn't mean that I don't merit an email reply when I ask to get my contract corrected as per already negotiated terms.
So come on, Covenant. Surprise me. Get this resolved in a timely manner - oh wait, you're way too late for that. Howabout get it resolved within the next week? Just, stop making me work so hard to get a scrawled set of initials next to a line out WHEN WE'VE ALREADY AGREED ON SAID LINE OUT.
Okay, rant over. I don't plan to discuss this kind of thing on my blog in the future, unless matters get worse.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Well gee, that only took four hours
I woke up this morning, having had a full night's sleep, ready to get to work. I watched some scrapbooking tutorials while I ate breakfast, and then I tried to save something for the web. It didn't work.
Four hours and many Google searches later, I did it! Look, now I can upload blurry scrapbook pages, like this one of my extended family's trip to Seattle (for an Alaskan cruise).
(If any family members want that taken down, email me, but really, I don't think anyone will recognize you.)
With all that accomplished, what more fulfillment could I ask for? Fortunately I have a cute son to play with while rebooting my computer.
Four hours and many Google searches later, I did it! Look, now I can upload blurry scrapbook pages, like this one of my extended family's trip to Seattle (for an Alaskan cruise).
(If any family members want that taken down, email me, but really, I don't think anyone will recognize you.)
With all that accomplished, what more fulfillment could I ask for? Fortunately I have a cute son to play with while rebooting my computer.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Yawn
For an insomniac, I'm sleeping really well. I have this ambition, though, to do most of my sleeping at night. My main concern is for my son; if he can at least start his life on a regular schedule, maybe it'll stick.
My medication allows me to feel sleepy when I'm tired. Without it, tired and sleepy don't match up. I can be so exhausted that I'm babbling nonsense, and still not the least bit sleepy. I suspect that most people who "wish they had insomnia" are under the mistaken impression that insomniacs don't get tired. Today, for example, was one of *those* days. I don't want to sleep in because I don't want my sleep schedule to shift, but it means muddling through when I'm not able to do much.
Needless to say, this impacts the writing. I force myself to do a little every day just to keep moving forward on a project, but on days like this, a little really is that, very little.
My medication allows me to feel sleepy when I'm tired. Without it, tired and sleepy don't match up. I can be so exhausted that I'm babbling nonsense, and still not the least bit sleepy. I suspect that most people who "wish they had insomnia" are under the mistaken impression that insomniacs don't get tired. Today, for example, was one of *those* days. I don't want to sleep in because I don't want my sleep schedule to shift, but it means muddling through when I'm not able to do much.
Needless to say, this impacts the writing. I force myself to do a little every day just to keep moving forward on a project, but on days like this, a little really is that, very little.
Monday, August 10, 2009
My dragon hatched!
I now have a little baby fire dragon named XiWangMu. The more people click on her, the faster she will grow up. According to her site, she's feeling a little lonely.
If you're reading this on FaceBook, you need to come to www.emilymah.com to see her.
If you're reading this on FaceBook, you need to come to www.emilymah.com to see her.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Camp Culinary
Okay, so this is more important than my baby dragon. My cousin's new business is a cooking school for kids. Visit his site at: www.campculinaryboulder.com. Yes, it's in Boulder, CO.
My cousin's a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York and has worked for many fine restaurants that were well beyond my budget (especially considering I'd have to travel to Boulder, which is a bit steep for a night out.) I think this new business he has is way cool and I wish him much success!
My cousin's a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York and has worked for many fine restaurants that were well beyond my budget (especially considering I'd have to travel to Boulder, which is a bit steep for a night out.) I think this new business he has is way cool and I wish him much success!
Click the dragon egg!
All right, all of you people who've been no doubt refreshing my site all day, waiting for me to post, please click the dragon egg to the right. That round ball shaped thing? That's a dragon egg. I adopted it. The more people click it, the faster it will grow (though there are limits, so refreshing the page over and over won't really help it, but thanks for planning to do that because I'm so sure all of you readers were.)
It's an Eastern Dragon, and I'm curious to see what it'll look like. The animation will hatch and it will grow, but only if you click it! And we'll see how well I can keep a virtual pet...
It's an Eastern Dragon, and I'm curious to see what it'll look like. The animation will hatch and it will grow, but only if you click it! And we'll see how well I can keep a virtual pet...
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Oh yeah, it's August already
As one of my Facebook friends so cruelly pointed out to me, it's August (and not even the first few days of August). While that means school is about to resume (which doesn't affect me much this year as I'm not teaching Seminary), it also means that Bubonicon is this month! And I have checks to mail... One for my husband's admission, and one for the author's tea.
I suppose I should also register my car (no it hasn't expired yet!)
I'm grateful that time isn't flying noticeably faster post-baby. It already whipped by pretty fast beforehand. I suppose that comes from always keeping my schedule full. These days, just playing with my kid, writing, scrapbooking, blogging, etc. are very slow paced compared to the life I lived as an attorney.
The novel continues to go - freewriting was definitely the right call there. I jot down 3,000 words at a time, nevermind that most of them will end up being cut and redone. There's something to be said for just hanging out with your characters and getting to know their situations before pulling it all together on the redraft. My first published novel started as a freewrite, and it too was a lot of fun from start to finish. There were frustrating moments, but they were just moments. At least, that's how I remember the process ;-).
I suppose I should also register my car (no it hasn't expired yet!)
I'm grateful that time isn't flying noticeably faster post-baby. It already whipped by pretty fast beforehand. I suppose that comes from always keeping my schedule full. These days, just playing with my kid, writing, scrapbooking, blogging, etc. are very slow paced compared to the life I lived as an attorney.
The novel continues to go - freewriting was definitely the right call there. I jot down 3,000 words at a time, nevermind that most of them will end up being cut and redone. There's something to be said for just hanging out with your characters and getting to know their situations before pulling it all together on the redraft. My first published novel started as a freewrite, and it too was a lot of fun from start to finish. There were frustrating moments, but they were just moments. At least, that's how I remember the process ;-).
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