This is the time someone decided to call us this morning. Perhaps they thought that because Trevor works on Saturdays, this would be appropriate. This person clearly does not know how to use a telephone, and yes, it is the same person who called us at 7 and then four more times before 8 on a Monday. This time they didn't even leave a message, so whatever their excuse was, apparently it wasn't pressing enough for that.
Trevor is going to make this person take our home telephone number out of the cell phone contacts. This is also a 3 day weekend, so Trevor wasn't at work. It was also the one day I actually was sleeping in, because I went back on my medication. And we have a SMALL CHILD!
Not the best way to start the day... Last time, when they called at 7, they explained they'd already been up for an hour and a half. It's too bad I went back on my medication, because I'm tempted to, on one of my insomniac nights, call at 5am and explain that I was up for an hour and a half already.
In a few days, I'll be more rested up and not quite so angry - well maybe not. I think I'll still think this person needs their head examined.
Meanwhile, my Etsy store is featured in the Paper Goods showcase today. That's located here: http://www.etsy.com/category/paper_goods?ref=fp_ln_paper_goods I'm getting my scrapbooking store all stocked up. There is a giveaway item in the album pages section. Go check it out: http://www.artisanscrapbooks.etsy.com/.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Rewrites...
I don't normally wait a week between posts, but all this last week I've been rewriting my novel. I think the finished product is better, but we'll see what Trevor and Char think. In the end I got 5 critiques from all 5 readers who volunteered, which is amazing and really, truly wonderful of them. Once I finish with all the proofreading and final edits, then I begin the slog of agent submissions, and I'm in the very strange position of having two novels in two genres out. Like I've said before, we'll see which on lands representation first. If neither, then I may have to have a personal crisis, having been writing for ten years and slooowly building up sales.
But I take the fact that five people who know me were able to read the book and get back to me to be a good sign. Contrary to popular belief, people who know you are less likely to read your books than strangers. They fear it'll be too awful and they won't want to tell you about it. Parents and spouses may be an exception to this rule, but I was lucky enough to have a cousin, three friends, and my longsuffering spouse who really isn't in the target audience for romance at all.
Meanwhile, in other matters, now that I'm past the 20 week mark in my pregnancy, we've decided I should go back on my sleep medication. This wasn't an easy decision because I don't want to take any substances I don't have to, but the doctor assures me that the medication I use, which is very old and has been used extensively for over forty years, has never been connected to any birth defects, and that my dosage is far lower than normal anyhow. I rely on Trevor's judgment here too, since one of the symptoms of sleep deprivation is to be clueless about how out of it you are. In fact, one of my pet peeves in life is seeing how many sleep deprived people there are in the world who don't have the common sense to go get some sleep, rather like watching an alcoholic drink all the time to relieve stress. Trevor's been very nice, but he'd like me to go back on my medication :-)
And since he's as invested in the well being of our children as I am, I trust him. This means I will be incoherent for most of the day tomorrow. My medication doesn't just allow me to sleep for the night, it allows me to put a dent in my sleep deficit, which means I usually sleep for a day or two afterwards. Not straight through, but I'm not much good for anything else other than lying around. Our son will get a lot of time with daddy this weekend.
But I take the fact that five people who know me were able to read the book and get back to me to be a good sign. Contrary to popular belief, people who know you are less likely to read your books than strangers. They fear it'll be too awful and they won't want to tell you about it. Parents and spouses may be an exception to this rule, but I was lucky enough to have a cousin, three friends, and my longsuffering spouse who really isn't in the target audience for romance at all.
Meanwhile, in other matters, now that I'm past the 20 week mark in my pregnancy, we've decided I should go back on my sleep medication. This wasn't an easy decision because I don't want to take any substances I don't have to, but the doctor assures me that the medication I use, which is very old and has been used extensively for over forty years, has never been connected to any birth defects, and that my dosage is far lower than normal anyhow. I rely on Trevor's judgment here too, since one of the symptoms of sleep deprivation is to be clueless about how out of it you are. In fact, one of my pet peeves in life is seeing how many sleep deprived people there are in the world who don't have the common sense to go get some sleep, rather like watching an alcoholic drink all the time to relieve stress. Trevor's been very nice, but he'd like me to go back on my medication :-)
And since he's as invested in the well being of our children as I am, I trust him. This means I will be incoherent for most of the day tomorrow. My medication doesn't just allow me to sleep for the night, it allows me to put a dent in my sleep deficit, which means I usually sleep for a day or two afterwards. Not straight through, but I'm not much good for anything else other than lying around. Our son will get a lot of time with daddy this weekend.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
It's the stupidity that gets old...
I didn't sleep last night, which means my brain is fairly useless today. I just screwed up a new scrapbooking project I was doing by saving over a file. It's the second time I've done that. An hour's work, gone. Oh well. I console myself by pointing out that it wasn't great work. I'm too tired.
On days like this, I can't write. Over the years I've tried a million different approaches to this kind of day. One thing I've learned, don't get up and go-go-go. That sends me into a hyper phase that'll last days if not weeks and will make my sleep cycle deteriorate even faster. If I can stay mellow, there's a much better chance that I'll sleep tonight. Some, at least.
And then maybe I'll get my brain back! Many thanks to Char Peery, Samantha Ling, Trevor Tippetts, and Sandra Mah Benzie for reading my book and getting me notes. Such an act of charity, if you ask me. I'm well into rewrites, and I look forward to being able to do more. Once I can do things like keep track of a narrative flow... So far, this blog post is about as long as I can go before rambling off on some other topic, like this morning when the mail came and I got an offer for something that I promptly hid from myself and now I wonder what it is and where I'll find it and if my son will find it first and did it have any stickers or anything like that in it....
I really want to go to sleep :-(
On days like this, I can't write. Over the years I've tried a million different approaches to this kind of day. One thing I've learned, don't get up and go-go-go. That sends me into a hyper phase that'll last days if not weeks and will make my sleep cycle deteriorate even faster. If I can stay mellow, there's a much better chance that I'll sleep tonight. Some, at least.
And then maybe I'll get my brain back! Many thanks to Char Peery, Samantha Ling, Trevor Tippetts, and Sandra Mah Benzie for reading my book and getting me notes. Such an act of charity, if you ask me. I'm well into rewrites, and I look forward to being able to do more. Once I can do things like keep track of a narrative flow... So far, this blog post is about as long as I can go before rambling off on some other topic, like this morning when the mail came and I got an offer for something that I promptly hid from myself and now I wonder what it is and where I'll find it and if my son will find it first and did it have any stickers or anything like that in it....
I really want to go to sleep :-(
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Arg, people!
Trevor's switched his schedule to work on Saturdays and take Mondays off. That way we're able to do more because we avoid all the weekend construction on the Underground. So yesterday, we could have theoretically slept in, (well, I wasn't asleep, but I was kind of half dozing) when someone called at 7am. We ignored the phone, and they called back, four, that's right FOUR more times before 8. They woke up our toddler and finally Trevor answered and chewed them out. Yay, Trevor!
The urgent matter they were calling about? A meeting two weeks from now that they'd already told us the details of in a message. Inexcusable.
Then I logged into my email and saw that Samantha Ling had read my draft novel and sent me a critique. That made my day. Later on, Char Peery IMed me and told me she'd have hers to me soon. People like this more than make up for waking up at 7am (though don't get me wrong, I selfishly want the 7am person to go away anyhow).
Trevor's also read the draft, so this means I can start rewrites. After rewrites come agent queries. It's a little strange to have two novels out to agents at the same time, but whatever. We'll see which one lands representation first, whether I move forward as a fantasy author or a romance one.
The urgent matter they were calling about? A meeting two weeks from now that they'd already told us the details of in a message. Inexcusable.
Then I logged into my email and saw that Samantha Ling had read my draft novel and sent me a critique. That made my day. Later on, Char Peery IMed me and told me she'd have hers to me soon. People like this more than make up for waking up at 7am (though don't get me wrong, I selfishly want the 7am person to go away anyhow).
Trevor's also read the draft, so this means I can start rewrites. After rewrites come agent queries. It's a little strange to have two novels out to agents at the same time, but whatever. We'll see which one lands representation first, whether I move forward as a fantasy author or a romance one.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Artisan Scrapbooks
Well, I wasn't sure if I'd have the energy to move forward with this, but since I'm still able to scrapbook and maintain my jewelry shop after a week's horrible insomnia, I'm going to go ahead and go live with my digital scrapbooking shop on Etsy. There's the link for you.
Digiscrapping is an older hobby, one I did before I got into jewelry making. It meets my requirements of being creative and quick. If I'm not writing a novel, I want to be *done* with a creative project in one day, if I can.
I'm going to begin by stocking my shop with baby announcements and templates. These are custom photo announcements done in my cut-paper scrapbooking style, and what I'm selling is the digital file of your, customized baby announcement, which you can then send to a photo printer to make as many copies as you want. There are a ton of businesses like this on Etsy, though not as many as there are jewelers :-). As far as I can see, though, I'm unusual because my designs look like they were cut and pasted together by hand, as opposed to being digital clipart and flat designs.
Head on over and take a look. I'm stocking the shop slowly, and this is on purpose. I'm keeping a pace I can maintain. At the moment, I'm 5 days ahead on items to stock, so if I get 5 horrible days of insomnia, it won't affect my businesses.
I'll eventually branch out into wedding invitations, birthday invitations, and digital scrapbook pages. If you have an event coming up and would like a free .jpeg invitation, provide me with pictures I can use in samples on the site, and you've got it. I will fictionalize all of the personal invitation in the sample, like I've done with the one pictured above. People who know my family may recognize that baby, but I'm not telling whose it is. If you're willing to put up with my slow, insomniac pace, you could even have a free album (though the printing on those can be quite pricey, you should know beforehand.)
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Writing as a temporary cure for insomnia
It worked for about a month there. I slept almost like a normal person (given most normal people short themselves on sleep a little). If I wasn't pregnant, I would have had plenty of sleep! As it is, I need more. But oh well. The sad thing is, my temporary cure is now up and my sleep cycle is deteriorating again. If only I could constantly be in the throes of writing a novel that came together fast and easy!
The thing is, this usually works the other way around. Creative energy goes up astronomically when you get enough sleep. The hardest part of insomnia from day to day is seeing the person I am when I get sleep, and knowing I'm not her right now. My jewelry business - I have enough energy to keep that running, but coming up with new designs every day for the fun of it, that energy just isn't there right now. It's almost like that was a different person and I keep having to remind myself that she'll be back.
This week I'm taking a break from novel writing and am working on ideas instead - which is something I used to not believe in. I used to think that was an excuse not to write, just to claim that I was "thinking about projects", but in truth, my projects do come together better and faster when I take time like this. And besides, after ten years of writing and about half a dozen novels, maybe I can let go of the fear that I'm a wannabe who can't sustain this in the long term. Maybe, just maaaaybe, I'll be okay if I take a day off now and then :-)
I've been querying Deseret Book about the novel they have, and the person I speak to has been responsive and helpful. Unfortunately, the person they need to check with was out of the office last week (and I should have known that, there was a big booksellers convention). I also need to get some short stories back in circulation, now that I have my computer back (yay!)
The thing is, this usually works the other way around. Creative energy goes up astronomically when you get enough sleep. The hardest part of insomnia from day to day is seeing the person I am when I get sleep, and knowing I'm not her right now. My jewelry business - I have enough energy to keep that running, but coming up with new designs every day for the fun of it, that energy just isn't there right now. It's almost like that was a different person and I keep having to remind myself that she'll be back.
This week I'm taking a break from novel writing and am working on ideas instead - which is something I used to not believe in. I used to think that was an excuse not to write, just to claim that I was "thinking about projects", but in truth, my projects do come together better and faster when I take time like this. And besides, after ten years of writing and about half a dozen novels, maybe I can let go of the fear that I'm a wannabe who can't sustain this in the long term. Maybe, just maaaaybe, I'll be okay if I take a day off now and then :-)
I've been querying Deseret Book about the novel they have, and the person I speak to has been responsive and helpful. Unfortunately, the person they need to check with was out of the office last week (and I should have known that, there was a big booksellers convention). I also need to get some short stories back in circulation, now that I have my computer back (yay!)
Friday, August 6, 2010
A Most Improper Magick: Amazon.co.uk: Stephanie Burgis: Books
A Most Improper Magick: Amazon.co.uk: Stephanie Burgis: Books
Well, I wanted to link a nice little buy image for this, but since I am an associate for Amazon.com, not Amazon.co.uk, I can't :-( My friend Stephanie's book is out in the UK! And my copy is on its way to me!
Stephanie Burgis and I were Clarion West classmates almost ten years ago (yes, we are getting old). She and I have both, since then, gotten married and moved to the UK, but not in the same order. She is married to another writer and another of our classmates, Patrick Samphire, who's short stories are disgusting and infuriating - if you're competing with him for space in the pro markets. I'm sure most readers would find them wonderful.
A Most Improper Magick is set in Regency England and has a tomboy protagonist. I am seriously looking forward to reading this. Stephanie's not only a good writer, but also a very thorough researcher. The magic stuff is all true!!! (Well, okay, no it's not, but the Regency era stuff is otherwise dead accurate.)
Amazon.co.uk has it in stock, Americans will either have to pay a ton of shipping or wait until the US version is out next year.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Looks like another boy!
Just a quick post to say that we had our detailed ultrasound today, and it looks like we'll have another boy. Everything looked fine, so we are very happy and excited. I don't blog much about the son I already have, and the same will be true for this next one, other than to say how much I love them and how grateful I am to have them. I can answer questions like what names we're thinking of in private; I never post names in public. These poor children will have enough embarrassment with a geek like me for a mother without me advertising the fact online.
And now it looks like I'll be permanently outnumbered in the family!
And now it looks like I'll be permanently outnumbered in the family!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
I have my computer back!
Well, it took a while to locate a recovery disk for the Alienware, but we did, and now we have a functioning desktop again! I've spent the day doing computer maintenance, defragging drives and scanning registries and stuff like that. I found 1700 registry errors on my brand new netbook, and its drive was 31% defragmented. Gotta love Windows...
But this means I can spend part of the afternoon watching television on my computer with my son. We watch Rachel Maddow, because it's one of the shows we can stream over here. And the Guild, of course. Then I need to get to work on my Etsy shop.
I've got the novel draft about 85% edited, but I'm hitting burnout. I wrote about 60,000 words last week, so taking a break while I wait for people to read my draft will let me recharge some. As much as I like how the book is coming together, there's only so many words I can type before they start coming out as gibberish.
But this means I can spend part of the afternoon watching television on my computer with my son. We watch Rachel Maddow, because it's one of the shows we can stream over here. And the Guild, of course. Then I need to get to work on my Etsy shop.
I've got the novel draft about 85% edited, but I'm hitting burnout. I wrote about 60,000 words last week, so taking a break while I wait for people to read my draft will let me recharge some. As much as I like how the book is coming together, there's only so many words I can type before they start coming out as gibberish.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)