sometimes

Sometimes I really miss Inkspot.

Don't get me wrong...I love where I am and what I'm doing; it's wonderful to be able to be able to focus on writing rather than on managing a growing business (being a writer is a business in itself, I know, but it's not the same thing), to have autonomy again.

But from time to time I'll think about the whole experience, the immense satisfaction of turning a single page of links into a community resource that so many writers found useful. I'll remember what a joy it was to receive e-mail from new writers, ecstatic because they had made their first sale ever, and it was because of something they saw in Inkspot or Inklings. I'll remember how Inkspot gradually accumulated helpers, and how well we all worked together over the years, the chemistry we had.

Trying Inkspot's old URL just takes you to nothingness now. I guess I still haven't gotten over the fact that there's nothing left of Inkspot, that all those pages and discussion forums are gone.

Or maybe not.

If you want to check out what Inkspot used to look like in ancient times, you can still find it in WayBackMachine (type in "www.inkspot.com"). Thanks to Sal Towse for the link; she used to be Inkspot's wonderful Markets Editor...we're still friends :-). Jeff had told me about this site a long way back, I think, but I never checked it out (I suspect the Inkspot shutdown news was still too fresh for me at the time).

Looking through those old Inkspot pages was somewhat like browsing through an old family album, especially recalling what the site looked like back in '97. I wasn't wracked with anger or sadness as I explored these old pages, in case you're wondering. It was more like, "Hey, so this is what Inkspot looked like back then. Kind of cool that I did all that."

I still miss it sometimes, though.

Today's survey question:
What Web sites do you still check on a regular basis that have been around since the early days of the Web? Or at least for a few years? Post your answer here. I'll post the results in an upcoming Blathering.

Writing Update:
Signed up for the $4.95/month Yahoo Premium Document Search. I'm going to try it out to see if it's useful in my article research; I'll let you know if I decide to stick with it or not.

A good day yesterday...sent out six queries (two snailmail, four electronic). Looks like I now have ten queries circulating, two articles to write, one I submitted yesterday and am waiting to hear if it needs changes, two to appear in publications in March. I've written 10,000 wds in my novel (goal is about 45,000-50,000 words, average number of words for middle reader novel) and on target so far; most of my time is being spent nonfiction research, but my fiction output has at least been steady since the beginning of the year. AND I'm still caught up in my finances, woohoo!

I'm thinking of treating myself to a massage at the Sutherland-Chan clinic as a reward to myself at the end of next month, if I'm still on schedule in terms of my writing...it's been nearly five months since my last one; paying for a massage seems like such an extravagant indulgence nowadays. I have to get over the guilt of spending the money on myself first. :\

Other updates:

Bryan and Elizabeth came over last night for dinner (I made Pasta Primavera from the Moosewood Cookbook) and Enterprise. Good episode; Jeff and I both thought it was the best so far.

Blatherpics

Photo taken at brunch at La Hacienda a couple weeks ago.

writing schedule

Marketing Day/Admin day today! My goal: to catch up on my finances and to research, craft and send out three queries for articles; I'll probably spend much of today offline at the Toronto Reference Library. I currently have four queries still circulating. Finished and submitted one article yesterday, still have two articles to write within the next few weeks. One of these articles is for a print visual artist magazine in the U.S....I'm being paid to interview my sister, very cool.

I also got word from Applied Arts and Harp Column about when my articles will be appearing. "Online Resources For Harpists" will appear in the March issue of Harp Column, and my profile of Vancouver illustrator, Luc Latulippe, will appear in the March/April issue of Applied Arts. It will mean being able to add some nice-looking clippings to my portfolio (clippings from online publications are great, of course, but aren't as impressive-looking to some print editors).

My daily work schedule has pretty much settled into the following these days: get up at 6-6:30 a.m. Write my Market Watch column for about an hour...sometimes less, sometimes more (I usually browse for publishing news items later in the day as well). Write my Blatherings for about an hour, then have some breakfast, sometimes a shower...since I usually go to the gym in the afternoon and shower then, however, I sometimes wait until then.

I spend more time on my Blatherings than I did when I first started because I take it more seriously as a writing exercise, and also because I've realized that many of my Blathering columns are potential fodder for article queries. Then again, I'm seeing potential articles in almost everything these days. :-) I keep a brainstorming page on my computer (and on paper) so that if inspiration strikes, I can write it down and get it out of my head (else the idea(s) tend to flutter around and bang into things, distracting me from what I should be focussing on). On Marketing/Admin day, I go through these brainstorm lists and whittle them down to the most promising topics, then choose the best to turn into actual queries.

It's funny how valuable my Blatherings have become to me in my writing...I highly recommend a daily journal (even if it's not public :-)) for any serious writer, or even anyone who is thinking about becoming a serious writer. Just the act of forcing yourself to write about something every day is an excellent exercise. I know it's definitely helped my writing.

In The Right To Write, author Julia Cameron refers to this exercise as "Morning Pages". For sheer inspiration to just write, I highly recommend Julia Cameron's book, Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down The Bones, and Anne Lamott's Bird By Bird. Whenever I start feeling like my writing's getting stagnant or unmotivated, I take out one of these books and read a random chapter. All three are laced with personal anecdotes.

Those of you who prefer inspiration that leans more heavily toward practical instruction tips should try the Anne Lamott book first. Julia Cameron's book is especially good for those with little time to write and who aren't sure how you'll -ever- have time to write. It's sometimes too easy to give into the image of the writer as an angst-ridden artist, spending far more time talking about writing than actually writing.

Which reminds of one of my favourite writing-related quotes, by Noel Coward: "What I adore is supreme professionalism. I'm bored by writers who can write only when it's raining." I used to have this printed out on a piece of cardstock and stuck up on my cork message board.

I also tend to be one of those writers who don't like talking about her current writing projects in detail, especially my fiction. If you ask me what my novel is about, I'm likely to be blunt and say I don't want to talk about it. I think I've ticked off certain acquaintances by this reply. For me, most of the energy and enjoyment of writing a novel is in the act of telling. If I talk about it before writing it down, then I'm not nearly as motivated to tell it again. Just it call it a writerly idiosyncrasy of mine. :-)

But I've gotten off the topic of scheduling. After I Blather (for me, this is the equivalent of a morning cup of coffee), I catch up on admin stuff a bit...planning my day, answering urgent work-related e-mail, then work on my fiction writing for a couple hours. Lunch break for about half an hour, usually leftovers from a meal cooked earlier in the week (these days I purposely plan cooking dinners to end up having enough extra for my lunches). Sometimes I go out for lunch with a friend, but I try not to do this more than once or twice a week. Afternoons are focussed on research and writing nonfiction.

I usually hit a slump around 2:30 or 3 pm, so take a break to do errands outside and/or work out at the gym. I know this seems like early for some people, but remember that by this time I've usually put in about 6-8 hours of work. When I get back, I work on stuff that doesn't take a ton of creative concentration...sending out requests for submission guidelines, for example, going through snailmail, general administrative stuff.

So far, this schedule seems to be working out okay for me. Since getting back from our sabbaticals, Jeff and I have both resolved not to work in the evenings. I also find that my schedule leaves me with enough energy and time to do a lot more cooking at home. Last night I tried cooking Indian food for the first time, and it actually turned out okay! I made makkani murghi (from scratch) and coconut thai rice (from a box). With enough leftovers for a couple lunches, yum. :-)



Blatherpics

	Sack o' sauce ad. Bizarre thing is, it was really used as an ad at some point in the past by someone (the Oscar Mayer people, I assume). I'm trying to imagine some advertising agency having a board meeting and saying, "WOW, this is REALLY GOING TO BLOW EVERYONE AWAY!"
	This ad for beer we saw on Queen Street had the blurb: "Resist the temptation of convenience." ?!?!?! What the heck is that supposed to mean? Other beers are convenient, but this particular beer isn't? It's more convenient to not drink? I don't get it. I would make a terrible advertising executive.

bubble tea

I've always liked trying new types of food. Or maybe that's not entirely true. I actually paused for a full fifteen seconds after typing that paragraph opening sentence, thinking about it.

As a kid, I don't recall purposely going out and trying new things to eat and drink. I even avoided certain things...what is it about childhood that makes one so much more picky? I don't know of any child below the age of twelve who will eat pretty much anything (please feel free to contradict me...I'd like to be contradicted).

I've heard some theories that children instinctively know what vitamins they do and don't need, but that nugget of wisdom rings pretty hollow when you observe kids sticking their noses up at all the things that are supposed to be good for you, like carrots, peas, and so on. Jeff's brother, Case, used to surreptitiously scoop his peas into a small drawer in side of the antique dining room table during family dinnertime. His mom apparently found out when she was doing some housecleaning and discovered the petrified pea horde.

As an adult, however, I'm willing to try pretty much anything new, once. I purposely go out of my way and seek out interesting things to eat on a regular basis, just to keep my tastebuds from going into a rut. This past weekend, I bought some smoked apple cheddar at St. Lawrence Market. It was my indulgence of the week...a modest slice cost about six bucks. But it was SO worth it! Gustatory orgasmic heaven. Or is that somewhat of an oxymoron?



Food poll: What about you all? Do you consider yourself an Adventurous Eater? Do you like trying new things, or stick to what you know you can tolerate? Do you have any food allergies? If so, how do you cope? Is there any type of food you absolutely cannot stand? What's the weirdest thing you ever ate? Post your answer here.

I think I used to have mild allergies to bananas and kiwi fruit, but I'm fine with both now. I think I'm allergic to something in Thai food, but haven't figured out exactly what yet...I suspect lemongrass is the culprit, but I'm not sure. Sad thing is, I love Thai food. Having to now regard it with suspicion is truly frustrating.

Every so often, I purposely try foods I don't like to see if I still don't like them. I recently discovered that kiwi fruit isn't so bad after all. Still am not all that keen on sea urchin, however (still tastes like soap). As far as I can tell, I don't have any other food dislikes.

Parki and I met for lunch yesterday at Tiger Lily on Queen Street, and he ordered something called bubble tea out of curiosity (see photo at top of my Blathering). Bubble tea seems to be all the rage in Toronto these days; I see bubble tea signs in a lot of restaurants. Come eat here! We have bubble tea, we really do!

When his mango bubble tea came to the table, it was nothing like either of us expected. Mango juice on the top, round black spherical things on the bottom of the glass. Very odd-looking. Parki says it was okay, but that he likely wouldn't order it again. He let me try one of the black spheres...it was firm, chewy, with a faint unusual flavour I couldn't place. When asked, our waitperson said the black things were made from tapioca. Tapioca???

Intrigued and revolted all at the same time, I did a little reearch when I got home. Bubble tea is apparently an import from Taiwan (craze began in the early '90s), and is a mix of tea, milk, sugar and giant black tapioca balls, served hot or cold. There seems to be a massive selection of flavours in some bubble tea places, including coconut, chocolate (!), peanut, and mung bean. The bubble tea craze hit California a couple of years ago, so this is likely so pass|AMP|eacute; for you all by now.

So in my quest to seek out and explore new gustatory experiences, I've added a new 2002 goal to my list: find and try chocolate bubble tea. :-)

News/Links

Lots of interesting responses to my shower poll yesterday; do check them out in Blatherchat. Christo's comment made me laugh:

"Debbie - A whole blathering on showers and not one photo! I thought you took your camera everywhere!"

:-)

(By the way, check out
this photo of Christo performing with ex-Monkee, Peter Tork! More photos in his Web site)

Other links...

CNN.com ran an article in Nov/2000 called "Tapioca milk tea creating waves as fun coffee alternative".

BubbleTeaOnline.com
"The Ultimate Guide To Your Bubble Tea Needs". Even includes a bubble tea discussion forum, if you're so inclined. Also offers a Bubble Tea Starter Kit "for those of you who would rather make your own Bubble Tea at home".

CafeScene.com
An online guide to finding the best "bubble tea experience" in Toronto.

Blatherpics

	Bubble tea that Parki ordered at Tiger Lily yesterday.
	Snowy scene from my office window yesterday.
	Hello Kitty toilet paper holder in the women's restroom at Azul's on the weekend. I took this to show Parki and Jeff.

shower poll

Are you a short shower person or long? I used to consider showers more of a necessary inconvenience than anything; I'd jump in, do a quick wash, jump out...the whole process rarely lasted more than five minutes. I saved my luxuriating for baths, where I could immerse myself in bubbles and hot water until I was limp and useless and parboiled while the pages of the novel I was reading drifted away in little gray wrinkled bits, one page at a time.

Now I find myself lingering in the shower, only getting out after my fingers start wrinkling (or Jeff starts pounding on the door).

Other fascinating shower questions:

Do you sing in the shower?
I've never been a shower singer. Partly because my voice isn't the greatest, and partly because I'm half-convinced that our neighbours on the other side of the wall would be able to hear me. "Dear lord," I can imagine one them moaning, "There she goes again. If she sings Shannon one more time, I swear I'm going to jump out the window."

Do you wash your hair every time you shower?
I always used to until a hairdresser reacted in horror at the idea. Now I'm worried about all my hair falling out someday (at once), brittle as spaghetti noodles. Then again, this was the same hairdresser who pushed me to get "plum highlights". (doesn't the word "plum" scream purple at you?)

Do you use conditioner?
I'm somewhat convinced this is a guy-woman thing (that women tend to use it, men tend not to), but I'm willing to be convinced wrong. I am genuinely interested in finding out. Maybe because I've been immersing myself in women's magazines lately (a target market for my freelance writing).

Post your answers in Blatherchat if you dare.



I'm ordering from Grocery Gateway again. I had quit using them for a couple of years because I got irritated by the vague 4-hour delivery window. The nearby mega-Loblaws, however, has jacked up their delivery prices considerably. Plus I'd rather use the extra time to write.

Grocery Gateway's user interface has vastly improved, and their delivery window is only 1.5 hours now. I'll still visit the St. Lawrence Market for the atmosphere and the smaller grocery stores for occasional quickie items, but if the delivery tomorrow goes okay, I think I might do our bulk grocery shopping online.

I'm impressed that the online service is still in business, to be honest. Since they've survived the bursting of the dot-com bubble, hopefully this means they'll be around for a while.

Funny how I take the option online grocery shopping so much for granted now. Quite the contrast from those days when I got all excited about Pong, really.



News/Links

Ruth has been invited to develop TD Summer Reading Club theme materials for the Toronto Public Library as well as libraries throughout the province. The TD Summer Reading club is a popular event which promotes reading and the enjoyment of books to children and young people over the summer months. Last summer 150,000 children registered in the TD Summer Reading Clubs (last year, the chosen artist was Barbara Reid). Ruth will be
creating a full colour poster, 8-10 different stickers, line drawings for promotional materials including an invitation, flyer, log book, bookmarks, newsletter and Web site.

I only caught part of the Golden Globe Award results last night. Although I can see why A Beautiful Mind took 4 Globe awards (including Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress) and Moulin Rouge took 3 (including Best Actress, Best Film Score), I do admit being disappointed that Lord of the took home none despite being nominated for four. :-( You can find some pics of Cate Blanchett and Sean Astin at the Globes at TheOneRing.Net.

Blatherpics:

	- Boxed set of Metallica action figures at Silver Snail. They had every kind of action figure imaginable. Even Reservoir Dog action figures...I haven't seen the movie, but I've heard enough about it that the idea of action figures is even more bizarre than Metallica. Though the Metallica box did promise lots of cool flashing lights and noise.
	- Scary close-up of one of the Metallica guys.
	- Sign outside Azul, the place we had brunch with Parki on Sunday. I was amused by the tagline along the bottom: "Juice - Caffeine - Damn Fine Food".
	- This large ceramic figure was displayed proudly in the storefront of one of the shops we passed on the way to Azul. I'm thinking of buying this as a surprise gift for Jeff's birthday in a few weeks. He's always been into tasteful and subtle household ornaments.

downtime

Wonderfully lazy day yesterday. :-)

As part of my personal New Year's Resolutions, I've started purposely scheduling in relaxation time. I realize how silly this sounds, the idea of regimenting downtime, but these are the depths to which I stoop in my quest to Simplify My Life.

I confess: I have problems relaxing. If there was a "I Can't Relax-aholics" group announced in our local paper, I'd be joining. I've improved over the past year; it used to take a real physical effort for me to even sit down and just read a book for pure pleasure (not work-related). Selling Inkspot and my stint in Philly didn't help...a combination of the corporate environment and my lack of social life resulted in my slipping into the habit of working 12 hours a day (later on, this experience helped develop my Woodpile Philosophy).

My stress level skyrocketed, I slept poorly, ate badly. Not a good scene.

After Inkspot was shut down, it took me months to get back to a semi-normal state of mind. "Normal" is also a relative term; for years, even before the whole dot-com mania, "normal" was still pretty high stress. While that may be an acceptable and even desirable state for some, I'm seeking a quieter existence.

I took a walk the other day and forced myself not to multitask. I used to revel in being "Queen of Multitasking". Online, for example, I'd usually have a half dozen applications open. While waiting for one page to download, I'd be answering business e-mail, doing research, updating a database. I'd always have my cellphone with me when doing errands outside, a Walkman, my Palm...the prospect of being stuck in a post office or line at a bank with nothing else to do horrified me; I would rather have endured getting a filling at the dentist's office without anaesthetic, or be forced to watch all the episodes of Temptation Island back to back.

On my walk the other day, I left my cellphone (and all other electronic devices) at home. The difference was amazing. I actually started to notice my surroundings again...the buildings, the people, the weather. I was aware of the weight of the knapsack on my back, the cold wind stirring my hair, nipping the end of my nose. And when the clouds on that blustery day parted briefly, the warmth of the sunshine on my face brought memories of summer, and a promise of an eventual spring. Everything seemed more clearly defined, the colours and textures somehow enhanced.

By now, some of you are inevitably thinking, Wow, she's got some great drugs in that inhaler she's on...where can -I- get one?? :-) I know all walks won't and can't be like that particular stroll, and I will still multitask on some (one thing I do enjoy is using my cellphone on some walks to call my father, Ruth, or friends I haven't seen in a while).

But it was definitely an eye-opening lesson for me..that it's good to learn how NOT to multitask all the time.

I did some reading yesterday, went to the St. Lawrence Market (ok, so it was partly work-related since I needed to research an article, but I enjoyed myself at the same time), took a nap, hung out with Jeff, practised harp. I also started writing a song based on Charles de Lint's book, Memory and Dream (one of my favourite de Lint stories). It had started out as a Tolkien song, but mutated. :-)

In the evening, I met Luisa at Ampeli, a Greek restaurant near Danforth and Pape. We lingered over dinner for nearly four hours, just talking about everything and nothing. It was a wonderful evening. :-)



Blatherpics

- A somewhat disturbing window display for a clothing store at Danforth & Pape. :-)

- Ampeli, the Greek restaurant where Luisa and I had dinner last night.