Zette Typing

From Typing

Weather and Work

Welcome to winter

Gah.

It's been cold the last few days. It's very white. We're supposed to get a lot more white tomorrow. We don't often get this much snow so early in winter. Sure, there was that year when it snowed in parts of Nebraska on the last day of summer... but still. Not this much, this cold, this early. It also means that we'll likely be white until March or so. (Looks at calendar.) Ack.

My office window has a huge crack in it. I have a replacement, but the window is frozen closed right now, so I have to wait until tomorrow when it will warm up to the 20's so I can get it out and replace it. Of course, with that 20F weather is going to be more white stuff. Maybe six inches or more.

All in all, I think it's best to maybe drop into some nice pretend world for a while and not come back out until spring. The work of the week is a rewrite of another novella -- the first Cougar (sf) story. I've also been working on Silky 3 and finishing up a couple other little projects. Running out of time!

But overall, it's going okay. I wish Russ was coming home, but I survived the holidays last year and I'll do the same this year. I need to look past it, and start deciding what I can do for next year. I need to start submitting material again. I keep saying that, but I don't really get around to it. I should change that. Really.

I have some good stuff that needs to go out. Time to start doing lists and making plans.

After I get some writing done. I'm about half way through First Run, so I'll have it done quickly enough.

Winter....

Thank you to everyone who helped Vera save her house. (See last post!) She's always helped everyone else, and it was wonderful to be part of a gift back to her. Yay!

In news on the home front....

It's now official that Russ will not be home for Christmas again this year. This just sucks. He would at least like to make it for New Years, but that doesn't look likely, either since -- what a shock -- funds are low. And even if he did, we don't have a car that works. And I have some new problems that need fixed here at the house besides.

Oh, I'm sure it will all work out all right. I'll survive the holidays -- I did all last year, and I'll manage again this year. Things are better, in many respects, than they were last year at this time. If we can just get a little bit ahead before the next big disaster, I'll believe there is even hope. Right now, we have to work on the car problem mostly. It's lucky that we really don't depend on it for day-to-day things, but is still necessary. The problem is that we're likely going to have to replace it. We can do that fairly cheaply -- but even cheap is more than we have.

Always some problem, right?

My computer is giving me odd problems. I don't know what I'm going to do if it goes out. I really don't. I don't think it's anything too serious yet, so if I can hold out a few more months, I think I'll be fine. I just wear the poor things out, I think. I do have a new hard drive, so I'm not worried about losing anything except the computer itself (as long as I remember to back up, right?)

Right now, though, I should be finishing up the DAZ Newsletter. I'm late with it. I just could not get going on it for the last couple days, and I don't know why. I finally got through the bulk of it today, and now I have to work on links and cleaning up a bit of the wording. It will be good to have it done!

Vera Moose

Several years ago, when things were going especially bad (though
not as bad as they have been this last year!) Vera helped me out
-- and she also sent this wonderful stuffed
moose.

Now she needs help. Please Donate:

http://community.livejournal.com/helpvera/

Even a few dollars will help her keep her home.

Vera is a wonderful person. Many of you have been
helping me out of a serious problem, but if you can ...
just a few dollars more, or a donation for the auction,
or a plan to buy something -- any of it will help.

Having fun

Let's start with a thank you to Mar for this: Stray Thoughts Of Margaret Fisk: Ruins by Lazette Gifford. What a wonderful review! And I'll admit to something... like many writers, I find that I can rarely look at a published work after it's been released, because I know it's going to have something (or many things) wrong with it. I'll see everything I should have changed or done differently. That she liked the novel anyway is a good sign.

And I do hope to do a paperback of it and the others, but I haven't had the time to figure out the formatting. Sad, but true. I think my brain tries to turn off every time I decide to do it.

So, it's off to writing instead.

I can't find the rewrite of Such Gifts as These. It's not turning up in any of the directories on any of the hard drives. The last version if Have is from about 2001.

This annoyed me. So I sat down with the 2001 version and began to rewrite it. Apparently, this is the way I should always work, because it's going wonderfully. I've been getting about 3k a day done since I started, and I think that will pick up now that I have a couple other things out of the way. I'd like to have some of the types of writing days that I usually get with NaNo but kind of missed this year. It's easier, of course, when you're rewriting a novel rather than working with something new. Even a massive rewrite like this one.

It's fun. I need fun sometimes.

That's going to be my theme for the rest of the year, I think. Even without celebrating the holidays, I can still have some fun!

And thank you again to everyone who sent me the wonderful box of fun things that arrived at my door. I love the pictures and the fairy and the food and the scarf and cups and toys for the cats and... well, everything. It certainly brightened my end of the year!