The End is Near!

Okay, the end of the year is here! I've finished up the last of my work for the year, with Written in the Sand 1 more or less done (boy is that ending going to need a lot of work!). I have Vision nearly ready to go up. Russ is going to write up Interview questions for me, including some from the people at FM. It's going to be fun, I think. I'll do that early tomorrow and then post the new Vision tomorrow afternoon.

2004 went quickly. I had a good year, averaging a sale a month plus four more 'placed' pieces, like the new essay at A Picture's Worth. There's a problem with the picture that the moment, but I hope that we have it cleared up soon.

Beyond that, it's just been a fairly nice evening. Russ and I are going to go do our annual 'watch shows game' and have fun!

So see you all in 2005! Have a good New Year!

Merry Christmas

I'm having a wonderful night. Russ and I watched one of his favorite movies While You Were Sleeping which is a really sweet story, and Christmas related, too. Earlier, we spent part of the night visiting a few friends around town. Tomorrow we'll spend a little time with my parents, but for the most part the day will be ours. We'll probably watch shows, play games, give the cats and dog their new toys, and eat a lot of food. There will be a few presents, but neither of us are really big into the present part of things. Besides, I got mine last week with the wonderful trip to Squaw Creek Wildlife Refuge.

I hope everyone else is having a good night. I'm going to go take a nice long relaxing bath and get some sleep.

My Internet Connection seems to be a lot better again. We'll see if it holds up for a few more days. I have work to do!

But not tonight and not tomorrow. I'll do a little writing (Written in the Sand is going very well), and just have a good time.

Have a happy holiday!

Almost done!

I'm quite stunned to realize that I'm almost caught up on everything for the year. Really. Oh sure, there are some niggling little things like Vision still out there, and everything I want to do for FM -- but the writing is virtually caught up. I'm working on my last two writing projects for the year. I'll have the editing for Freedom and Fame done fairly quickly, and while I'm not making any real headway on Written in the Sand, I have faith that I'll get there.

I need to put together two more submissions for the year, but I have some stuff piled up to go back out, so I don't think that will be a problem. Having gotten so much done already has given me confidence that I'll get the rest. Probably a bad thing. LOL.

The weather here is very cold, but there's no snow and it's apparent there won't be any before the holidays. This is normal -- it's really rare that we get snow this early in the year. Most of our worst storms are in March, right at the end of the season. But a litle snow wouldn't hurt.

And that's it for me tonight. I have other work to get to!

Yay!

I just finished the Dancer outline. Yay!

The mail came with the new AIO contract.

Russ is not teaching a class tonight and should be home soon. Food....

In the meantime, I'm going to pull up the last outline and see if I can't get it jumpstarted again. It would be nice to have it finished and then use the rest of the month to write the last half of Written in the Sand.

Yes, things are looking a little better. I was starting to think that I wouldn't get nearly this much done before the end of the year, so I'm already much happier. We might even have a little snow tomorrow, which would be nice as well.

I've been working on the Freedom and Fame edits, and they're nearly done, too. Yay! I suddenly have the feeling I am going to achieve something!

Running out of time!

I don't think I've ever felt like I have quite this much to do at the end of a year, and I think this might be the one where I don't quite get everything done. Most of this is because of new responsiblities -- Dragon Tooth takes a lot of time and effort -- so I'm not going to berate myself for not getting my entire list finished.

In fact, I have purposely made myself step away and do other things rather than trying to drive myself crazy. I've even been reading books -- something I have fallen woefully behind on in the last few years. I want to read more.

My list of must do things for today is pretty short. I've edited 1.5 chapters for DT. I worked a little bit on an article for Vision and I need to get the rest of that work all set up and contracts out. I have a list of addresses for cards. Need to find the mailing labels and print them out.

But I am tired. I've been tired for a week or more now, and all I really want to do is curl up in bed and sleep under nice warm blankets for a few days.

Maybe in a couple weeks....

Things done... and not done!

The zoo site is up. There are over 1000 pictures there. I will gradually add in the information about different animals. Getting the pictures up, though, was the important part.

Zette's Pictures from the Henry Doorly Zoo Website

I still have far too many things on my list to do and I am running out of time. So why did I stop and do the picture site? Because it's almost the end of the year and for months I had been talking about doing this. I even bought a new website for it. There comes a point where you just have to do something for yourself that isn't writing-related.

The kitties are better. I'm really surprised that they've all come out of this so well. Pip is back to terrorizing poor Wind, so all must be well in the world.

I have projects that need to be done. Vision is the most important at this point, and I need a few more articles for it. I think everyone is worn down this year.

And my other projects that I still need to finish?

I'm working on the editing of Freedom and Fame which is the sixth book of the Dark Staff series. It will be the last novel I edit this year. If I do about fifteen pages a day I'll have it done a bit early. Seems wise to me.

The outline for Serendipity Blues keeps stalling out on me. I know the basics. I just can't seem to get the story to fall together properly. I'll get there.

The outline for Dancer is going well, but then it's based on an older novel and I know the sequence of events.

I haven't even looked at Written in the Sand. I need to start working on that stuff.

I have been wearing down the submission pile for Dragon Tooth, with a second novel acceptance yesterday.

I have a list of things to do for Forward Motion and I need to get that stuff lined up, too.

Ack. Looking at the list now has me worried. I think I'll go work on the Dancer outline for a while. It, at least, is moving.

Crazed Days

That's ice on a tree. I really like that shot.

Russ is off to New York on an emergency tech job. He should be home Sunday, we hope. I'll know more in a few hours when I talk to him.

Most of the cats are getting better. Kwi is still miserable and so is Cricket. I'm surprised to say tht Willow is looking much better. I feared we were going to lose her, but she seems to be up and moving and even eating a little again.

The writing, of course, suffered through the bout with Kitty problems. Last night I finally finished a new Sangre story and today I've been working on the Resolutions of Trust outline, and I might even have it done before I go to bed -- about 6-8k of outline, which is kind of a middle of the road length for me.

I've finished the final edits on Eliora's World and turned it in. I'm about half way through the first edits for Freedom and Fame, but considering I did 100 pages last night, I'm not too worried.

I would like to get the outline done tonight so that I can mark another thing off of my rather long and annoying list. There are three outlines, and one of them is going to be very difficult. I might end up with just doing the high points for it, and reworking the outline into something deeper next year. Or maybe, if Russ and I can find some time to sit down and talk it out, I might get more.

I have a great deal of work to do at FM, too. I'm doing some reorganizational work, and I think it's going to take some long, dedicated time to get a few of these things done. I'm looking forward to the results, but not to the work.

Overall, things are looking better. The house is a pit. I might get some of it cleaned up while Russ is gone, or I might just throw myself into the writing and not come back out until Russ gets home. It might be my only hope of getting everything on my list done.

21 days left in the year. Ack.

Ack

I have several sick cats right now. Some little kitty virus has gone through most of the herd, and some of them are pretty miserable. I've discovered that when Willow is ill she reverts to wild cat, and that just makes it worse. She's coughing and sneezing and gasping, but won't even consider letting me pick her up, let alone give her medication. Kwi and Pip have been in and out of the vet's often in the last week. If Cricket doesn't improve soon, she's going to go. I don't know what we'll do about Willow and Maynard. At least Wind is improving. And Pip is better. So is Kwi, somewhat. And the Vet said to mix the antibiotic into their food, so if I can get some of them to start eating again, we might have a chance.

Anyway, that's part of the reason why I'm not around here much right now. This is really wearing me down. And making it hard to concentrate on anything at all. There are now only two who are in really bad -- Cricket and Willow -- and if I can work with them, I think all will be well.

And I'll be back around soon. I'm trying to work through the last stage of my 2004 writing. I have far too much stuff piled up, but I'm getting there.

As long as I don't go crazy first.

A million words

I made it through NaNo with190,165 words, about 40k of which is utter crap. I hope I can sort it all out later.

This evening I hit 1,000,004 words for 2004, which was nice.

I just watched the first four episodes of the final season of Buffy, and I'm having a very hard time stopping here. But I'm tired!

My leg is better, my cat seems to be getting better (we're really worried about Pip), and my mind is not on anything reasonable at all. I have very many things to get done, even though I worked hard through most of today and got a ton of stuff done already.

I think I'm going to go sleep, though. Sleep and get up tomorrow and work on other things that need to be done. Eventually I will either catch up or run out of year.

I thought I should get back to posting here, though. I need to recover from NaNo. This is a good start.