Alas....

No zoo for my birthday. I kind of expected this, so I'm not shocked. We might get a chance to go the next day, but that depnds on a check arriving. It didn't come today, and I can't expect that it will show up tomorrow.

We'll get there eventually.

I am editing the 2YN material for a book format. It's a lot of work. I'm going to try and do two books, but I fear that the second 52 weeks will be too weak to stand alone. I'm working on it. It's probably going to be my major work for the rest of this month, too. I've been putting it off for about half a year now, and slowing editing each week. I think I need to get it done and stop messing with it.

So, that's it. Back to work. 

Better

I love the clouds in this shot. Lovely pattern.

Thank you to everyone who bought Muse. It really did help things out.

Thank you for the lovely review, Jean! I am worried about the typos you found, though. Now I fear I sent Holly the wrong copy. Or, just as likely, the stress during the time drove me nuts and I just missed too much. The good thing is that with electronic publications it's very easy to correct mistakes. I just need to know where they are.

Russ starts teaching classes in Omaha on the 13th. He'll have two classes a week for a while, and he's hoping to get more. If this keeps up long enough, I'll be able to go down and go to the zoo while he teaches. That would be wonderful! Yeah, the job is 100 miles away, but he'll be able to stay down there some nights when he has classes two days in a row, and that will help, too, given the gas prices.

And Russ says that we're going to the zoo on my birthday. I'm waiting for the world to end before now and then, so you're warned. But he says he's going with me this time. I got a nice little royalty check the other day that will pay for the trip and a small card for my camera. The people who owe Russ money supposedly cut the check today. It could be here tomorrow, but I'm betting late Wednesday or Thursday... but knowing it is on the way means we can spend the other money. We probably shouldn't, but quite honestly, I need some small fun stuff right now.

Temps are supposed to be up in the 40's, and it may rain in the afternoon, but that's okay. I've gone to the zoo in far worse weather than that. In fact the best day I ever went was during a major snow storm. There couldn't have been more than 100 people (not counting the employees) who were there. It was wonderful to walk from the snow to the desert, out into the snow, and into the jungle. (grin)

I hope things go well.

I've just started my second year working with Daz and I finally learned how to do reflections! Yay! I'm really happy about that... there are some pictures I'd love to do. I need to work on bump maps now. I would like to get good enough to do occasional cover art -- more than I do now. I think the cover to Muse turned out to be very good, though. And I really like the cover to Illuminated Manuscripts as well.

Vita's Vengeance slowed down during the the work with Vision, but I'm ready to pick it up again. And I have the outline for a short novel to start on my birthday. It's called Return. I've technically done the first chapter for the class, but I'm going to rewrite it a bit.

So, yes, things are slipping back to normal. I will do my best to be in a better mood and not go all odd again. (grin)

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the help and the support. And those two novels and short story are about to go out, too -- so wish them luck. 

The Geese are Back!

Actually, some of them were at the Crystal Cove Park all winter, but now a few have moved to the newly cleaned out pond, away from where people take out boats and fish. This is a wonderful development for a photographer like me. One of the things that does drive me nuts is that there are so few areas just to watch nature, without the birds and animals being chased off by people who have to be RIGHT THERE.

This pond is about a mile from where I live. Russ and I used to go down there and park by the road, watching ducks and geese. Sometimes I would have him drop me off with a ton of camera equipment and I'd spend the whole day, just watching. That was back in my film days. I look forward to doing it with the new camera. I've been too busy and too lazy to go down there the last few years, but I hope to change things this year.

Things are looking a little better tonight, thanks to some generous people who made donations to the site (which means I can pay for Vision articles!), and those of you who have been buying the copies of Muse. I also just learned that I have a small royalty check on the way, so that's going to help a lot.

I hope people who read Muse enjoy it as much as I did writing it. Sometimes there are books that are just fun to do, and this was one of them. Even through the countless rewrites, I still enjoyed it! 

And an hour later....

Things are not looking as bleak. Russ heard from a training group in Omaha who really really want him to work for them and have already set up days for him to do trainings. While the one place has not paid us, another sent a little money and Russ got a partial refill on the blood pressure medication I'm still taking. Probably a good plan, given the stress of the situation.

But it is nice to breathe a little again. We're far from out of the woods. We don't have the funds to pay most of our extra bills (Internet, websites, etc.), but it is possible that it will come through in time.

By the way, I am NOT celebrating my birthday this year. I'm going to wait until things are better and then convince Russ that he has to go to the zoo with me.

I did write and say there was no way I could attend the Santa Barbara Writer's Conference and be part of the Ebook pannel. There's just no way we could pull together enough money to do something that expensive by June. I know that some people at FM wanted to do a fund raiser for it -- but quite honestly, when you're not certain you are going to make the next electric payment, raising money for something that frivolous... well, it just wouldn't have worked out.

But things are looking better! 

Go buy Muse

The books Russ sold were just the start of trying to find anything we can sell to make some quick money. Comic books went next and even part of the DVD collection followed. We were able to get enough to pay utilities and the car license. Barely.

This means that we don't have money for gas (which would have been handy since someone in Kansas City wanted to see Russ on Friday about a training position). Russ will have about $50 on Friday and maybe another $20 on Saturday, though that one is iffy.

I can't pay my Internet bill, of course. Or for my lazette.net site on sff.net where I house Vision. Or pay for Vision articles for that matter. I took the last of my blood pressure meds yesterday (and I'd already dropped one of those weeks ago and hoped for the best). I'm hoping to get enough money to buy some cheap cat food to keep the guys going. Russ and I can eat cheap and that's all right. We just have to have the utilities to be able to cook the stuff. The cats really don't care about that. (grin)

To say that things are not going well is kind of an understatement.

We have not yet sold the camera. It is going to be the very last thing to go.

The odd thing is that I still have faith we'll pull out of this pretty soon. But if I do just disappear for a while, you'll know why!

In the mean time, go buy Muse. It's a fun story. You'll like it. And it gives me some income to look forward to. Besides, I like to think the writing should count for something. If I get enough money I can even send off those two books and short story... though I don't know. That would be a waste of the money, and I don't know if I can do it.

Fret, fret, fret. No, no. Must not fret.

Okay, things are not great -- but they're not horrible. We still have the house and the cats. Russ has a ton of applications out and if he could get just a couple local trainings again, we'd pull through for a couple more weeks. There are places that owe him money, but he's called one at least once a week and gotten the 'oh yeah, we'll get that out to you this Friday' runaround for over a month now. And this isn't a small company -- it's a place that can afford to pay him and aren't. Those are the annoying ones. Or the place that told him they would pay X amont per article he wrote on some events and wanted two or three per event -- and as soon as it came to pay him, said no, they were only going to pay the X amount per event, no matter how many articles he wrote. This is the part that's driving us nuts because it's not like Russ hasn't been doing the work, it's just that people are screwing around with the payments.