Sigh....

Yesterday was a nice day. Russ took me down to my favorite wildlife refuge and I took a few pictures -- not many because I still don't have a Memory Stick for the new camera, and the old camera -- well, it wouldn't turn on most of the time while we were there.

But I had a lovely time and I got a couple really nice pictures. I hope to do a website dedicated to the refuge soon.

Today, however, was not as good.

Russ sold two of the books from his private collection -- two very important books -- the signed President Johnson and the Signed President Truman. He didn't get as much for them as they are worth, but it is enough to keep us solvent for another month.

This really upset me. I would have rather sold the camera first -- we can get another one of those far easier. I hate to see him selling his stuff.

We've discussed selling the houses -- one that is worth something, and one that has the only worth in the land it's on. The other, better house, is not paid for, of course and keeping up the payments is difficult, but if we could find a buyer who would take them both (they're side by side) for about 80k we could pay off the one and still have about 20k.

This would, of course, be our last, really desperate choice.

With luck, someone who tried to contact Russ on Friday about a job will have some part time training work for him this next week and some of the rest of this disaster will be averted.

In the mean time, I've done the 2YN classes for this week. I've been playing around with different photo challenges to keep myself occupied, along with working on Vita's Vengeance -- which looks good or bad, depending on my mood. (Yeah, it stinks today....)

I've been happy with the posts in my Photo Blog, though.

And tonight I started another one just for Daz/Bryce type work.

Go take a look at them and tell me what you think of the pictures. It's been the most fun I've had lately! 

Work and Work and Other Work

And just as I started typing out that title I remembered something else I need to get done tonight!

Okay, I have a confession to make. For several years I've gotten two submissions out a month, no matter what. While I have sort of kept it up this year, the truth is that the last two novels and short story to the big publishers are ready to go... but they aren't gone. This is a novel from December and a novel and short story from January.

Why?

Because every cent we've made in the last few months has gone to keeping us afloat. We haven't had the money to send the material out. This month I've worked around that problem by suggesting two nonfiction books to Holly that she likes, so I'm good for February.

It's not as though I really believe that the books are going to sell, mind you, but I also believe that they don't have a chance if they never go out. They're good books.

Muse is a good book too. Really. I don't say that about a lot of my work, but this one... well, I think people will like it if they give it a chance. I had planned to send it to more print publishers, but the truth is that even if it only makes a dozen or so sales, it will be money enough to send the other material out. I needed something that might bring me a few dollars a month over our bare survival funds right now.

If I don't get some income soon I'm probably going to sell my new camera. I'll hate to do it -- it's the only really nice thing that's gone right for quite a while. But we bought it at a time when it looked like Russ had another job, but it hasn't quite panned out.

So, yeah, I'm looking at all the worse-case-scenarios right now. I've certainly lived through worse times when I was younger, so I'm not panicked, but I am prepared to do whatever we need to. That probably means that I'll be getting a job as well if I can't make some of the rest of this start paying.

And there's the bad spot, of course. Not the idea of getting a job again. I've done that in the past too, after all. No the problem is that I do so many things for free that take far too much of my time -- Vision, FM, Estand, even the photography. If I start working outside of the home again, then it's going to mean dropping some of that stuff. I've virtually stopped working on Estand already. I'm trying to set up all kinds of things at FM to get it moving, and with all the great moderators, I think it has a chance to go without much trouble. Vision is a problem because not only does it take time, it takes money to pay people.. I have some funds in PayPal still, so people who opt for PayPal payments will get paid first. Maybe some other funds will come in soon.

Being at this stage sucks, of course, but like I said -- I've lived through far worse.

But why does is always seem to get worse right before my birthday? (snarl) 

The new book!

I am very happy to announce the publication of Muse by Holly Lisle's OneMoreWord Publications. This is the first fiction she's published, so I'm really happy to see it there. It's a story that I really believe people will enjoy.

You can buy the ebook here.

I did the cover as well, and I'm even happy with it.

Getting everything done for it has put me a little behind on other work. And then there was the post 'look at that!' high where I might as well not even try to work. I'm getting back to normal though, I think.

Not that I'm getting a lot more done, though. Vita's Vengeance is moving along fairly well, despite that yesterday I hated every word of it. Bad mood moment, I guess, because today it looks much better.

I also cleaned my office up quite a bit yesterday, and I think that's helped too. I had stuff stacked up everywhere around my desk and I was starting to feel trapped. Today there's open room around me. Even the cats have moved off to other places for a little while.

It's supposed to be up to about sixty or so tomorrow... and snow next Wednesday. Hmmmm....

Russ is applying for jobs far outside of our area which means there is a possiblity we could be moving. That means giving up the two house system, which would be too bad -- for the most part it's worked very well for us. On the other hand, there just isn't work in this area since Gateway virtually closed down, and the part time stuff he's been able to get hasn't been enough.

So go buy Muse. I need the funds. I don't want to be dead broke on my birthday, so you have a couple weeks. Buy! (grin)

In the mean time, I think I'll go write some more. 

Good stuff! (And behind on everything else!)

First the good news:

Tangent Review

I'm happy.

I love the colors in the picture here. This is straight out of the new camera. I wish I could afford to get a damned Memory Stick or two for it... of course, then I'd want enough money to go somewhere with it as well. Like the zoo. I know, I know... I'm just never content.

I have not gotten the contracts done. It's 1:30 am and I really can't tell you much of anything I did today, except find that review, have a nice lunch with Russ, do some grocery shopping.... and napped.

So now I'm going to do the contracts. Really. Right now. In fact, I'm not even going to post this until I get the damned things done.

It's 1:41 am.

It's now 2:50 am. I just sent the contracts off via email. That's done at last!

I have one more rather large project to get done tonight. After that I can stop feeling guilty for a while. (grin)

So, off to work I go! 

Photography

Some of you may not realize it but I have a blog devoted only to photography -- Visions of Now -- and I use it for entering various online photo challenges. For a long time I only did Photo Friday, but in the last couple weeks I've joined the Theme Thursday one and the Black and White Challenge.

The Black and White Challenge has turned out to be considerable fun. Tonight I sat up boxes, cloth, a white curtain to diffuse the light from the overhead source, and found a small flashlight to create some highlights. I took two glasses from my cabinet and set them up. I set the new camera to black and white, and I played with it for about two hours taking dozens of shots at different settings. The one to the left was originally a black and white photo, but I played with it in a couple programs and added in some color again. I have a black and white version (though not exactly the same shot) on the other blog and it's entered in the black and white challenge for this week.

There are times when I knew I shouldn't be working on the photographs. I am behind on work. But sometimes I just need a break, and if I can't actually get out of the house, I can at least get away from the computer for a little while -- and if not away from the computer for long, at least not stare at words and words and more words.

I got my writing done early. (grin)

Wht I really need to do, though, is get the contracts database updated and contracts out for this issue of Vision.

I'm going to go to work on that right now, in fact. Yes, at a quarter to four in the morning because now I feel guilty about taking the time to do the photography. 

Winter

I am trying, in my own add way, to get more serious about the photography again. It takes time working with digital photos, but I'm enjoying it. Experimenting, mostly, to see what I can come up with.

It also helps pass the time while I try and figure out why the Internet isn't working, and how I'm going to pay for articles for the next issue, and why the closer it comes to my birthday, the worst things seem to get. I'd like to have a nice birthday where I'm not worried over things. I have about eighteen days to make this miracle come about. Somehow... I doubt it's going to happen. (grin)

On the other hand, I've started a major rewrite/edit of the next novel. This time it's Vita's Vengeance. I like the book, but boy does that prose need work!

I'm still working my way through the romance class, but it's increasingly plain that I'm not a romance writer. My first reaction to anything like 'what the hero/heroine can't do' is to bristle up like a startled cat start hissing 'why not?' But for the genre, the things the class is teaching are perfectly right and legitimate. I'm learning quite a bit... but mostly I'm learning that I'm not going to be a romance writer. There's nothing wrong with that.

The novel opening I posted did get some nice reviews, though. And I am going to finish writing that book -- I just don't think it will fit into the romance genre by the time I'm done. I don't know -- I might surprise myself yet.

We're having a major cold spell here. I think I'm going to go find some place nice and warm for a few hours!

If I'm not around for a few days it just means I'm having connection problems again. I'll show up sooner or later! 

Trying again

I did a blog entry last night, but it failed to take. I'm having some connection problems, and my email isn't working at all. The service is working on it, I guess.

Sigh.

Well, not the best Valentine's Day we've had together -- pretty much broke, so now 'fun' stuff... except that we're going to have a nice dinner here at home and maybe watch some shows, which should be fun! And (as you have all heard in the past) we expect some checks to come in any day now. LOL

Besides that... nothing much going on! I've been in and out of the site the last couple days, but with the connection giving me problems, I don't dare do much in work. I think I'm going to write up some book reviews tonight and have them ready to post. That might be fun!

I did the second Romance Class assignments last night and I've been thinking about the third one today.

And that's about it! Just thought I'd check in and see if it will let me post this time. (grin) 

Almost done with Muse

I'm down to the last few pages of edits for Muse and then it goes off yet tonight.

Then I have some email to catch up on. And then class work for the Romance Class. I'm already behind there, but it's early enough that I should be able to catch up.

After that I have to decide what novel I'm going to work on next. This is going too well. I figure I can get at least one or two more novels out before I get caught up in other stuff I need to get done this year.

It's about time I turned my attention back to the novels. I have over eighty of them, and while a few are not worth the time they took to write, most of them have some spark that will make them worth rewriting. It's been fun so far, though the ones I've worked on up to this point have been fairly late material. I might try something a few years older next.

Or not. Maybe I should just keep trying to get as many of these done as I can. This is # 3 in three months -- 4 if you count Farstep, though that was just mostly a simple clean up and two areas that needed drastic rewriting.

At any rate, I'm almost done. I like the book still, which is good. Sometimes by the time I get done with a number of rewrites/edits in a row I've lost all perspective on the book, but some of this one can still make me laugh. Maybe I'm just easily amused.

I'm tired tonight. I want to be done and rest for a while! 

Better, mostly

I'm fighting off a headache, but overall I seem better than I have been for a couple days. Unfortunately Wind is ill, but he seems to be doing a little better, too, tonight. He's not going to be happy when Russ gets back home because we have medication to shove down his throat. Oh fun. He's a wonderful, sweet, calm cat... until you try to hold him down.

Those are elk, by the way, in Rocky Mountain National Park. The picture was taken with the old FD91 -- about a one megapixel camera. It's great for small pictures.

In the good news side of things, Farstep Station is now in the hands of the publisher and I'm done! Yay! And if I can just work without getting sick again, I'll have Muse done this weekend as well. That would be a relief.

I have the 2YN classes to edit and get up tonight, but those shouldn't be too difficult. But first I'm going to go relax for a while with Russ! 

I've been sick for the last couple days. I feel better tonight, but not great yet. I hope it all clears up in the next few hours because I really do have a lot of work to get caught up on.

We had a little bit of snow today. Not much, but it ws pretty anyway.

I've written my first material for the Romance class. I liked the opening I did. I will likely be writing the rest of that one pretty soon. It will be much easier to do than the Mystery of SF ones. The mystery needs a lot of historical background work, and the sf just wasn't falling together as well as I would like. Funny if I end up with a romance novel out of this. Oh, it won't be a good one, but it will be an interesting experience, anyway.

I'm about sixty pages into Muse and happy with the changes so far. I look forward to getting it done.

And that's about it tonight. I'm still not feeling great, so I'm going to go crawl off and rest for a while. 

A little of this, a little of that

This is an older picture from one of my favorite places, Mesa Verde. It was taken with the FD91, I think. So that was two cameras back, now. I really look foward to going back there some time. Maybe not in June -- that's when we usually go to the area -- but some time cooler. There and a trip down to Chaco Canyon. Russ got me a nice new book on Chaco. I'm looking foward to reading it.

Speaking of reading, I'm nearly through volume four of the Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. I'm learning far more about fish than anyone should ever need to know, but some of it really is fascinating. I can't read more that four or five pages at a shot though, because it's so information intensive. At best, I'll only remember a few odd things here and there, but that doesn't make reading it any less interesting.

I'm going to read the rest of the material in the two mystery writing books that I bought for the class. I'm nearly done with them both anyway, so I might as well be able to add them to my short list of books. Sad to say that I'm lucky to get more than one book read a month lately. I want to pick up reading more again, but it's not easy to find the time.

What else? Writing is going well. I'm starting on a major rewrite and edit of Muse starting today. I think I can get the story tamed this time, and it shouldn't take me too long to do it. Cut back that opening... it really does go on for a little too long. Then clean up and rewrite the rest. It's not a long novel. I shouldn't take too long to get it done.

I have to get moving. This month is already getting away from me! 

Nearly done with edits

I've gotten nearly all of Farstep Station done. I got held up by two points, neither of them really particularly difficult -- but for some reason my brain just refused to wrap around what needed to be changed. I only have about 80 pages to go and maybe two big changes left.

I'll be glad to get it done and back to the publisher. I've got until March, but usually I'm much faster at getting this kind of stuff done. I just had a lousy end of last year, and I'm having trouble focusing again on any of this. But I'm getting there!

I need to do the 2YN stuff tonight, too. It shouldn't be too much work, I hope.

I've pretty much finished the material for the sf class and I need to get to work on the mystery one and finish up what I can there, as well. I've had a very lazy day today, though, and gotten hardly anything productive done. I'm going to have to make up a list so that I don't get farther behind on some of the stuff.

I should point out that the new book to the Dark Staff series is out! Freedom and Fame is the sixth book of the series. There are only two more to go. It looks as though we'll be putting the entire set out in trade paperback before too long.

It's late. This has set open nearly all day while I typed in little bits and pieces to it, looking for anything interesting to say. But it's not been an interesting day and it's time I move on to other work. (grin) 

Busy....

It's been a few days. I've been working on the FM site -- some major changes that had been in the works for a while, and I decided not to put them off for another month. I still have some work to do on the site restructuring, but I'm going to do that a little at a time.

Yesterday was a productive day for me. Of the ten things on my list, I got six of them done and only added one more before the night was out. I'm going to try tomake some serious inroads on the next bunch in a little while.

My next big project is the last edits on Farstep Station. I don't expect it to take long, but I've got to stop putting it off. I've had a bunch of other 'must get this done now!' stuff, but I think I'm mostly caught up on it. Time to get to the second layer -- Farstep Station, DTF submissions, the two Barnes and Noble Classes, which only run for a few more days.

January really went too fast. I hope to get a better hold on February. Probably won't, but it's worth a try.