Nearly

Well, I didn't quite make it to 40k which was my goal for the weekend, thanks mainly to a fit of the tireds yesterday and a fit of the generally uninspireds today. But I did still manage 7 pages today so that's not a complete write-off. If I do six tomorrow I'll hit the 40k mark.

The words are still coming but still not entirely sure how this book is going to hang together. There are a few different goals being pursued which are pulling people in completely different directions and I still haven't had the flash of inspiration as to how it all fits. Hopefully that will still arrive, otherwise there will be much revision whining to be had.

Otherwise the weekend has contained crit meetings and dinners out and wrestling with recalcitrant fridges and recalcitrant phones. I can claim (I think) victory over the fridge but we're waiting on the repairman to check out the phone line. Luckily whatever is affected the voice calls doesn't seem to be bothering my ADSL so I still have internet. So as long as Melbourne doesn't have any more completely crazy weather (which luckily my little house survived unscathed) which makes using a mobile phone ill advised, I'll just have to rely on the cell for awhile.

This week I have a couple of presentations to do at the day job, including one Friday morning which means my day off will be shortened so all will be busy busy but I'd still like to get another forty or so pages written. At times like this, when you're not sure what's going on with the story, being a pantser means just keeping on putting one damn word down after another and trusting that the girls know something you don't.

I also need to get a bit more focused back on the food and exercise. There have been many celebratory dinners and lunches and I think the indulgence is one reason I'm feeling tired. Plus I didn't get my last run for the week in yesterday or today so have to make sure that happens tomorrow to try and pep myself up again. And cut off the cravings for cake and chocolate and champagne which are rearing their little heads a bit too much after being allowed out too often! I've still been pretty good but pretty good can slide to not so good and then before you know it to really not good if you let it. I feel better when I'm eating healthy most of the time and doing my exercise so it's back to the routines this week.

And now, I think I'll go watch Big Bang and get an early night because the first of those presentations is tomorrow!

Ugh but amusing

Just had one of those fallen-hard-asleep weird dreams that was getting progressively less pleasant and picking up speed towards nightmare territory. Luckily I woke up (but now I'm staying awake long enough for the brain to re-set so I don't just fall back into it as I sometimes do hence the late night blogging) but after a part where I was trying to get back somewhere (and being thwarted (cancelled flights, flooded roads complete with "drive here signs" that led into deep rushing water and resulted in floating cars, though also very apologetic valet service by the road traffic/car hire folks) I got to where I was going (a big old house partly under construction) where I was either daughter of the house or head of security or both and the patriarch of the place was under threat (not sure who that was).

An unpleasant someone was outside with some sort of big gun but I was fairly sure I could outsmart them. But the (only) very amusing part is, they had accomplices inside, who I'd just uncovered and the message the shooter was telling them to pass on to lure the patriarch out (transmitted via some sort of steam punkish ticker tape machine) was "Tell him the latest Pratchett is out in Omaha". To which I replied "Oh for God's sake, he already HAS the latest Pratchett!"*laughs and laughs and laughs* At which point I woke up.

So yes, my subconcious is weird (or wine and popcorn and Mamma Mia followed by Diana Wynne Jones don't mix or the thunderstorm outside is messing up the ether or I'm about to write a steampunk western set in Nebraska (the mind boggles)) but at least the people populating it have good taste in reading material! I'm still laughing.

And now, back to bed.

And all over again

I have squeezed out some more words despite the fact that I am somewhat knackered for no particular reason today. My eyelids need matchsticks. I even caved and had some of the dreaded Coke to make it through work but I think I could've drunk several litres of the stuff and I'd still be tired now. So I'm calling a halt and shall repair to the couch to watch Glee and then possibly it will be an early night. I don't think I'll be able to stay awake for Burn Notice, quite frankly.


Progress - Lily

New pages - Five
Intriguing things - Shifting dynamics.
Annoyances - Even a nap cannot make me feel awake
Linear/non-linear - Linear
Music - Soundtrack
Location - Half at lunch at the job with the laptop and iPod. Half at home with good old Word and Think.
Taking care of Mel - Post work nap (again). Man, I am turning into an old lady.
Muse food - Glee. Various regency hunk youtube videos, courtesy of Keri *g*

Fifty!

Woohoo! I've hit fifty pages! Go me. And that's about the only intelligent comment I can come up with right now.

Progress - Witch 2

New pages - 6 pages
Intriguing things - Not much
Annoyances - The matchsticks required to prop my eyes open?
Linear/non-linear - non.
Music - Dixie chicks.
Location - The desk. Word.
Taking care of Mel - Er, I remembered to eat?
Muse food - Maybe a quick dose of the proper Top Gear before sleeping.

Blurk

So last weekend I was feeling a bit buggy and all week I was EXHAUSTED and pushed it a bit by going out two nights so Friday afternoon I started feeling pretty terrible and yesterday was spent mostly asleep. Today I'm feeling a bit better but hardly full of pep. So it's been a sleeping and reading and lying on the couch watching dvds type of weekend. Which is annoying because I wanted to start my Frenchy bag and get stuck into the wip and get back into the exercise routine which had slightly gone out the window due to feeling not well. Guess that will have to wait a bit.

Friday, before I started feeling bad, I made these:



They're the Perfect Pouches pattern by Lazy Girl Designs, which I have to say is a very easy and quick to do pattern. I didn't have any batting, so just interfaced the back and it seems to work fine. I made the blue one first then was experimenting with the red one to see if I could find a way of doing it so you don't end up with raw seams inside that you zig zag. Short answer, yes, you can, long answer, yes you can with a french seam but it comes out a bit wonky looking cos the seams get very bulky around the zip and corners and it's hard to keep it squared. I think an easier option might be cutting slightly bigger so you've got a big enough seam allowance to turn the edges over twice. Or you know, living with zig zag or another finishing stitch. The way you do the zips in these is really nifty and clever and they're very quick to do. I'm going to make some bigger ones for packing and travelling etc.

This afternoon I made this (probably not the smartest idea. Sewing while slightly brain befuddled = unpicking).



This is the large boxed version of the Nicole Mallalieu coin purse design. I didn't get one side seam quite right, there too big a gap between the zip and the edge but I am considering these my learning versions. I didn't interface this one because I wanted to see what it was like without it. Answer, probably fine in a slightly heavier fabric but I'll do a light interfacing on the outer material in future versions to give it a bit more structure.

And now I'm going to lie on the couch some more and maybe wriggle my fingers over the alphie after I've recovered from a whole hour or so of sewing. I hate viruses!

She shops, she scores!

For a few weeks now I've had the uncomfortable feeling that the world had sped up a lot and that it was going to be Christmas before I knew it. Not that I actually did anything about it but today I decided I should at least start. I have a lot of friends and rellys with late year birthdays so I hadn't even actually finished birthday shopping yet.

This morning I had something like 17 assorted people to buy birthday and/or christmas presents for. As of right now, only five of those presents are outstanding. One of which I know what I'm getting and will take me ten minutes next week, three of which I have a vague idea and will order online and get delivered (yay) and one of which I have no idea but plenty of time to ponder and/or ask outright what they want! Me for the shopping win! Plus I picked up my new prescription sunnies and suddenly all the street signs in the distance are less blurry. Go figure lol.

I still need a few cards and christmas paper (well, need to check the stash at least to see if that's true) but I'm suddenly feeling way more organised.

And now dinner then I'll see if I can coax my somewhat fried brain into ten pages of revision to leave me with 40 odd for the weekend, a very do-able number, I hope.

Dear Mel's brain

When you are all tired and sleepy do not let Mel think she should futz with her blog template because you will make her delete half the code, not notice and then save. When she does notice she will nearly have cardiac arrest. If she has cardiac arrest, things will not be good for you.

Luckily you have your anal side which meant you at least had a relatively recent copy of the template code so she could fix things with some tweaking.

Here endeth the lesson.

PS Mel's brain apologises to anyone whose link has dropped off the sidebars. Let her know and she'll put you back!

Back though with little brain

I am home again. Conference was fab and I shall report more later but most importantly big WOOHOO's to my ever more brilliant crit buddies:

Carolyn who took out the Emerald Single Title (and also won the STALI earlier this year) and Chris who took possession of the Clendon and followed it up with a highly commended in the VP.

More once my brain is back online.

The return

I'm home. And it only took a measly 54 hours or so door to door. A pox on airlines at this point.

More when brain has had sufficient sleep applied. I'm very tempted by the thought of caffeine right now but am resisting. Man, I'm glad I did this after the naturo had been working her stuff for a few months. I do not like to think how awful I'd be feeling if I'd done this trip when I was feeling as tired as I was pre-naturo. And man, I'm glad I don't have to get on a plane for at least a month! Also yay for upcoming four day weekend. Might even get some of that, you know, writing stuff done.

Jigsaw

I think I've worked out most of the extra scenes and threads and changes I need for my revision (barring the pending always useful critique comments). Except one. One I think is needed early on but can't quite work out where to put it. Which might mean I'm wrong and it comes later or I might just be a little bit foggy due to a bad night's sleep last night.

All the various naturopathic things have been helping the sleep a bit and the energy has improved a bit, so it was annoying to go backwards. And of course, on the extra tired day, it's guaranteed that the day job will be go, go, go.

So for tonight, I might just ponder Gordon Ramsay and let the subconcious solve my missing scene problem. Then all I have to do is sit down and make it all work on paper. Easy! (Yeah, right.)

Does not compute

So I've got the end-of-work-week tireds and I've hit a point where I need to do some stitching in a dramatic scene and then move onto several more big dramatic scenes and my brain just can't do it tonight. So I'm taking my writerly bat and ball and going home. Hopefully it will make more sense in the morning than it does right now!

Still, the page count has increased a little and that's the main thing at this point. Now, where's my couch?


Progress - Witch 1

New pages - Two
Intriguing things - Return of the missing
Annoyances - Brain not working
Music - The Killers - Mr Brightside at the desk
Linear/Non-linear - Linear
Location - Scrivener at the desk
Taking care of Mel - Evil herbal potions. Very very very boring food. Meditation
Muse food - Nora

It must be bedtime

A note to the universe. I would like to get off whatever list I'm on that makes morons ring my phone number in the middle of the night. Then hang up after two rings! Think about the time before dialling, people. One am adrenalin jolts that mean tossing and turning the rest of the night are surplus to current requirements, as are crazy days at the day job.

But I have written something. God knows what I'll think of it in the morning but it's something.

Progress - Witch 1

New pages - Four
Intriguing things - Witchy police
Annoyances - Brain fried
Music - Nothing.
Linear/Non-linear - Non
Location - Alphie on couch.
Taking care of Mel - A hair cut.
Muse food - Muses might get some reading in bed..if I can stay awake

Helping out

Today is my official writing day off. Just as well because I am mostly brain dead from the heat.

So I have no metrics but I do have this - Terry Pratchett has donated $1 million to Alzheimers research and there's a campaign for the fans to match his donation.

Terry is one of my all time favourite authors and Alzheimers is a horrible disease, so if you can spare a $1 or 2, think about donating.

Read about it here.

Snoozing needed

Ugh. Slept terribly last night thanks to the orange cat and the very loud cicadas and loud people driving in my street and traffic noise and general mugginess. Finally fell asleep about six I think, then woke up at 9. As in when I'm meant to start work. Oops. Hopefully tonight will be better because the rest of the week is meant to be hot, hot, hot (ick). I think I'll be sleeping on my couch with the aircon. But at least I'm not in Adelaide where they've already had a few weeks of this with another one coming. And even hotter than here. 38 and 40ish which is Mel code for "I think you should move" : )

But still, I have written. Therefore:

Progress - Witch 1

New pages - 4 (good enough given aforementioned sleep-needing)
Intriguing things - sore heads
Annoyances - a rapidly expanding cast list
Music - Back to Moby. Headphones.
Linear/non-linear - Non. Skipped back to the scene I'd skipped ahead from a few days ago.
Location - Desk. Scrivener (full screen mode if you're interested)
Taking care of Mel - Meditation. Healthy cooking. Planning an early night.
Muse food - no soup today for them

Tired

Am having a 'can I go back to bed yet?' day. In fact, I've been having a few of those lately. More than can be blamed on changeable weather and lack of maids. However I've been poked and prodded by the doctors and am declared healthy or at least not having anything obvious that would make one tired. Which leaves the not obvious or the general go go go of the last eight months or so has caught up with me.

So I guess it's time for plan B. Which I think is a naturopath, Freya having recommended one who isn't quite as extreme as the one I saw when I had glandular fever (who yes, helped the energy level at the time but was a leetle too fond of "high protein, high protein, high protein, here drink a mucho disgusting protein shake" for my comfort). I don't eat terribly so there has to be a happy medium somewhere.

If that doesn't work, we'll figure out plan C, though I have no idea what that is given I still haven't located the rich husband store so can't really afford to do nothing but lie on a beach for twelve months typing and reading and lazing and admiring said rich husband while lackeys do everything else....short pause while I convince myself that I really can't afford it...okay, I'm back.

In the meantime, it's time to get back to meditating and exercising and loading up on the healthy food (the latter two being not so easy to execute consistently when one is feeling exhausted).

And I can be tired and not write or tired and still writing. Given not writing doesn't help the stress levels any, I'm planning on the latter. After all, you can write lying down! Barbara Cartland apparently dictated her novels. That sounds like the ultimate low energy way to write. Though I'm not sure I could do it that way.

So the plan is general taking it easy, writing and relaxing. And in the next ten minutes or so...bedtime!

Happy 2008

Well, we watched beautiful fireworks in the hotty, hot, hot, hot night (twice, catching both the early show and the much more spectacular midnight version), but otherwise New Year's Eve was quiet and fun. And hot. It was still 35ish while those fireworks was going on at midnight, still 33 when I got home close to 1 am and I'm not sure it got much cooler.

So far in 2008 all I can report is that it is still very hot and apparently I am too old for two late nights in a row, so today will be about watching dvd's, reading and possibly, napping while waiting for the cool change.

But still Happy New Year, world!

Cats and catnaps

Thursday the orange cat was at the vet having his annual jabs and quarterly arthritis drugs. He did not appreciate them. Friday morning the grey cat had to go and have her blood test (she did not appreciate missing breakfast and I did not appreciate getting up early on my day off). She expressed her annoyance by hiding under the lavender bush all day and I had a nap. Anyway, turns out the tablets aren't quite cutting it for her thyroid anymore so she has to have her thyroid out next week. In the mean time we are shovelling pills down her throat to see if her levels will lower before the surgery to make it safer. I was offered the choice of her being irradiated but that involves her being at a special vet for up to 10 days after the irraditation (as she'd be too radioactive to be out and about!!!) so I figured let's try surgery first.

So apparently what was on my list of things I want for Christmas was "stonking big vet bills". Note to self, next year, pick something cheaper. Of course, to get over the sticker shock, I did what any sensible gal would do and went and had a makeover at Bobbi Brown. They made me look un-sleep deprived and not like I was suffering from sticker shock, so that was fun. Yesterday, the VT and I had brunch in Maling Road and went wandering around the shops in search of Christmas gift. Net total things purchased...one book each (at least mine was a gift). We proved that there is such a thing as gift shop overload (a condition that can be rectified by applying scones apparently). So there is still more christmas shopping to come.

Brunch was followed by more napping (self diagnosis - I am tired...I even slept until 10 this morning which is something I rarely do anymore). Then watched The Fountain (which made me wonder if I was perhaps still asleep...all I can say is pretty but odd). Today there will be some writing and some doing of chores. It's a whirlwind of excitement round here!

Back

from Sydney. Sleepy. Proved I shouldn't get up at 5am by tripping on my one front step on the way out the door on Monday and kind of spraining my ankle. But laughing at this:

You Should Be A Virgo

What's good about you: you have a quiet determination and aren't swayed by emotions What's bad about you: you are an insane perfectionist and easily find faults in others In love: you are obsessed with making your partner happy In friendship, you're: helpful and giving - eager to be a true friend Your ideal job: poet, flight attendant, or natural healer Your sense of fashion: casual, upscale, revealing, conservative - you look good in all of it You like to pig out on: a well prepared five course meal

What Sign Should You Be?

I guess I was born at the right time of year. Though the thought of being a flight attendant or natural healer gives me the heebie jeebies.

blurred

Whuh? Huh? Four days go by. Busy. Brain broken now. Must sleep.

To summarise: Pratchett good. Bujold good. Jo Malone perfume good (roses - smell pwetty!). IT projects bad. Melbourne spring weather crazy.

More when coher-er, brain unbrokeness is back.

Mess wrangling

I've recently finished up a volunteer position. Which should mean a few more spare hours every week for myself. Combine that with spring fever and I have the urge to tidy the few pockets of mess that are bugging me. The desk. The spare room. The book mountain that has grown on my bedroom floor. The pile of mysterious stuff on my ottoman that serves as a coffee table. My garden (though I think that one is more than just a mess, it might be a full scale rescue project). Getting my financial program up to date so I can do taxes.

Obviously I can't do it all at once (oh for a magic wand), so I'm going to tackle bits and pieces. Today the ottoman.

But I think all of this sudden housework obsession might be a symptom of trying to avoid freaking out about the other mess I need to wrangle. The book I've promised myself I'll spend a month playing with just to see what happens. The one that I have bits and pieces that are all over the place for (neatly organised bits and pieces now, thanks to Scrivener).

And none of these urges are helped by the fact I'm still feeling pretty tired and washed out post flu. I need to get back to the exercise routine I think but it's always hard to do that first session when you feel exhausted. Maybe first I'll just go back to bed : ) The evil beasts formerly known as my cats decided last night (a night when I was tired and looking forward to sacking out and not having to get up with an alarm) was a 'yowl for no reason and scratch at the door endlessly' night. Pets. Supposedly good for your health but today, not so much.