Things I'm thankful for

A pre-holiday greeting to other Canucks out there, in case you're going away for the weekend: HAVE A GREAT THANKSGIVING!

I try to be thankful throughout the year, but Thanksgiving is one of those times when I try to be more explicit about it. Off the top of my head, here are just a few of the things I've been thankful for just recently:



Ziploc bags. Chocolate. That we didn't have to do any househunting or moving this year. My amazing husband. Rain. Air conditioning. My family. That my tendinitis is under control. That I can finally WRITE without having to worry about every single keystroke. Sushi. Shampoo. Friends. Speaking of friends, I'm getting together with Allison and Jodi tonight! My health. That I didn't get my book rejected today (I just checked).



Poetry. Red balloons. High-speed access. Libraries. Moisturizer. Our house. Buttons. My home recording studio set-up. Toronto. Erasers. Books. My office: I have the best office in the whole world. Autumn. My friend Ray, who sends me interesting music and links like this one. My agent. My Logitech ergonomic mouse. Chocolate pudding. Calendars. Ballpoint pens. The filk community. Optometrists. Babies. Sidewalks.

That I have a roof over my head, and don't have to worry about whether or not I'll have enough food. Spam filters. Flush toilets. Umbrellas. Jumbo shrimp. Sunflowers. Digital cameras. Forgiveness. The hand-dyed tin whistle holder that Teddy made me years ago; I can see it from where I'm sitting at my desk, and it reminds me of Teddy and wonderful UKfilkstuff. The fact that I write and draw for a living. Chocolate milk.



Having friends like Luisa, who inspire me on a daily basis. Ceilings. Ginger. Free will. Lavender. Dictionaries. The Mesozoic period. Humour. The Delete key. The fact that I have friends who have watergun parties. Rollercoasters. Obatzer cheese spread. That I got to see Franklin Gunkelmann wearing a Sailor Moon costume. Tanya Huff, for helping me realize that a rejection isn't always a rejection. The fact that Tom Jeffers is moving to Toronto soon, yay!

Squirrelbuster birdfeeders. Toothpaste. Studio recording equipment advice on LJ and from Jeff Bohnhoff. Our friend Walter, who has helped us these past two years more than I can say. That my copy of Mr. Twilight (by Maya Bohnhoff and Michael Reaves) arrived from Amazon yesterday, yay! The fragrance of cinnamon. Having friends like Parki, who aren't afraid to dream. Shower curtains. German chocolate. Doorbells. Beckett, for posting such wonderful photos and illustrations in her Flickr account that I always find myself feeling uplifted and inspired (woohoo, can't wait to see you and Paul at OVFF!).



My Wacom Artpad. Blueberry pancakes. Roasted marshmallows (toasted brown, not black). Kites. Doorknobs. My Edna Mole doll. Dave Clement, for giving me the idea of connecting music and the Faerie in my book. Beds with firm mattresses. Music. My Patrick Stewart literacy poster.

Amanda Snyder's phone messages. Irish music. My friend Andrea, for her trust and her Market Watch help (I'm looking forward to finally meeting Jim at OVFF!). Flashlights. Earplugs. Peasant skirts. Kraft dinner. My harp. Parentheses.

Anyone who has been interested enough to read this far.

:-)



Above: our front walk, last autumn.


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chocolate, css, Leo Laporte and books

Click on image below for a bigger version.



Will Write For Chocolate has been updated! This week's column: a caution about looking for writing jobs on Craigslist.

Thanks to everyone who dropped by Allison's and Jodi's virtual party. It was quite the bash...hey, even my sister showed up at the end, with homemade desserts from my nieces! I had to highlight that news because Ruth very, VERY rarely posts anything online. :-) Anyway, Jodi, Allison and I are getting together tomorrow.

Thanks again to David Barker for recommending the W3Schools CSS Tutorial. I'm learning a ton by just fiddling around with the "Try-It-Yourself" examples on that site. My next major site revamp project is going to be my sister's site...wish us both luck!

Novel revisions are going well. I've cut about 2000 words from the first third of the book so far and am tightening up my prose. Because I'm also very excited about my next book project, I'm also continuing to work on background and plot notes for that so I can leap back into the fray when my revisions are done. I've given up on SuperNoteCard, at least until I can figure out what went wrong...the program crashed on me while I was working on my most recent article for Writer's Digest (the day before it was due, in fact), including backup files, and I had to recreate my notes from scratch. I was not a happy camper. I'm using TextMate to organize my notes instead. I'm all for reliable plain text instead of crash-y bells and whistles right now.

Jeff came home pretty happy last night; he and Doug Gardner enjoyed hanging out with Inside The Net's Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte as well as Merlin Mann of 43 Folders, at an Inside The Net Meet-up. You can see a photo here (Jeff is third from the right, Doug is next to Leo).


Recent reads (I've left this for so long that I'm only going to list the most recent two, sorry), both novels for young people:

Enna Burning by Shannon Hale. Excellent sequel to The Goose Girl, which I also recommend, and not just because of the gorgeous cover art by Alison Jay. The next book in the series, River of Secrets, appears to be only available in hardcover so far.

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel. The book blurb didn't do anything for me...it really didn't sound like the kind of story I'd usually enjoy. BUT I enjoyed Kenneth Oppel's Silverwing, and The Flying Dragon Bookstore had a glowing mini-review displayed in front of the book, so I decided to take a chance. Very glad I did. I loved the book...it was the kind that I kept reading waaaay too late one night because I was unable to stop.

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birthdays and mortal Mesozoic mice

Happy birthday to my friend, Allison! Today is the final official day of the virtual birthday party for Allison and Jodi, though stragglers are welcome. Please feel free to drop by and say hello. Attendees so far: pbristow, tibicina, eviltofu, kitanzi, janeg, thette, mdlbear, braider, filkertom, zencuppa, unkbar, patoadam, tnatj, thatcrazycajun, djbp, msminir, blueeyedtigress, vixyish, sdorn, filkergem, barkerland, trystel & Luis), pwi1, it_aint_easy, andpuff, damedini, mvt, faxpaladin, poltr1, frstythesnowman, sposter, unclechristo, sexybass, scs_11, Dave Clement (via sexybass), sal_utations, Erin, beige_alert, peteralway, Bill Roper, missquirt, ldwheeler, fireskin, and starmalachite. It's been fun seeing old and new friends drop by, though I know quite a few are still at or on the way home from Filkcontinental in Germany. Party ends at midnight. :-)

I'm submerged in my novel writing these days. I have a few illustration and writing assignments between now and Christmas, but I've basically decided to focus on my novel(s) until then. Right now I'm doing a lot of cutting and toning. Sort of sounds like a painful cosmetic procedure, doesn't it? I'm being ruthless and cutting out anything in my book which doesn't contribute to the story, no matter how happy I am with the writing. It's hard; I don't think I could have done this right after finishing the book...a good reason for setting aside a story for a while before trying to self-edit.

Cutcutcut. Owowow. But through the pain, I can see a leaner, stronger story emerging, and I'm very happy with the improvements in the story and also in my overall writing; anything that makes me a better writer is a good thing.

Speaking of pain...my favourite Mesozoic mice have finally kicked the bucket in the latest Parry and Carney. Alas, poor Ferd and Dan. I knew thee too briefly.



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Why writers aren't normal

Above: a graphic I created to replace the current placeholder on the NaNoWriMo site; it will be shrunk down, of course. As I mentioned before, I will re-tooling many of my Inkygirl comics for NaNoWriMo this year, but also coming up with a few custom-made for the event. Registration and forums for NaNoWriMo are officially open, for those interested.

My own NaNoWriMo novel is still out there. RECAP: The original version was rejected by an editor at Publisher #1 but she said she'd be delighted to reread it if I made certain revisions.

Meanwhile, my agent had sent the original version to another publisher, where the associate editor liked my mss enough to pass up the chain to the head of the imprint. I'm still waiting to hear back from Publisher #2, and am keeping my fingers and toes and knees crossed. If you have any spare body parts you'd be willing to cross for me, I'd be most grateful.

If Publisher #2 offers me a contract, I will jump up and down. I will run outside and scream and then jump up and down again and embarrass myself in front of the neighbours, who are very likely to call the police. Meanwhile, however, I'm going to keep working on revisions in case Publisher #2 turns down to original version; I feel that the revisions have made my mss that much stronger. When I've finished those revisions and sent it out again, then I'll be able to go back to my next book project.

One of the hardest aspects of freelance writing, I find, is the waiting. Waiting for an acceptance, waiting for a rejection, waiting for edits. Part of you is mad with hope that a particular editor will want to buy your book, but another part is bracing for rejection (and having to tell your friends and family you were Rejected Again). It's enough to drive any normal person batty, which is why most writers aren't really normal, of course.

:-)

I cope by focusing on the writing; the writing keeps me sane. When I'm writing, I forget about everything else. The rest of the world fades, and I can pour myself into what I love doing best. It's why I keep a daily writing notebook...that way, even if I'm swamped in administrivia or waitingstress or other necessary but not favourite parts of freelance writing, I know I can always WRITE SOMETHING EVERY DAY; it reminds me of why I go through all the stuff I'm not so crazy about.

Speaking of which, I should do some writing now...

(Cross-posted to Inkygirl)

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Birthdays and home recording studios

Happy birthday to my music partner, Jodi! Allison's birthday is this Tuesday, so I've decided to host a virtual birthday party on Livejournal. You're all invited...feel free to drop by. Happy birthday also to John Hall (whose birthday is today) and a belated happy birthday to Alisa Garcia (whose birthday was yesterday)!



Above: Allison and Jodi blowing out candles at a surprise birthday bash in Germany, at Filkcontinental last year. To those at Filkcontinental this year (right now, in fact): hope you're having fun!



Other big news:

My home recording studio is set up! "Epi-LJ" was kind enough to lend us his MOTU 828 to try out, but in the end we decided to opt for a more portable set-up, plus an audio interface with MIDI. Jeff, Ray and I visited Saved By Technology yesterday, and Jeff bought me the last part of my 40th birthday present (long story, but tendinitis and other factors got in the way up to now) as well as an early Christmas present:

- A Presonus Firebox (here's a review): 24-bit/96K Firewire recording system with 6 inputs, 10 outputs, MIDI, S/PDIF and Cubase LE software (I'm still opting for Garageband for now, tho)

- Audio-Technica AT2041SP Studio Pack: comes with two microphones -- an AT2020 side-address cardioid condenser mike and an AT2021 small-diaphragm condenser mike. I already have one other microphone (dynamic).

- Mike stand (I already have one, but figured two would be good)

Yes, I know we could have spent a lot more money for higher quality equipment, but music recording is a hobby for us, not a business. Besides, we can always upgrade later when my books start selling bazillions of copies.

;-)

Anyway, Jeff set everything up last night and YAY it all works fine with my computer. Jeff even made up a short fun piece himself using loops and my voice...it was SO great to see him play around with musicstuff again, and I'm hoping this set-up encourages more of that. Many people don't realize that my technonerdboy husband also has a pretty creative side as well. :-)

Now I just have to learn more about twiddling. Y'know, when you see sound engineers twiddle knobs and such during a recording session? I can see why learning more about The Art Of Twiddling Knobs could greatly enhance the quality of a recording. Thanks to those of you who have been offering recording equipment and recording advice in LJ.

And HUGE thanks to Jeff Bohnhoff for being our consultant throughout this process in e-mail, live chat and by phone. We called him yesterday before opening any of our packages; if he had said "ARE YOU GUYS NUTS THAT EQUIPMENT SUCKS" we would definitely have reconsidered our purchases, but he seemed to think our set-up is perfectly fine for now, for what I want to do.

Very excited! Not only will this be useful for Urban Tapestry, but I'm looking forward to experimenting more with my own instrumental recordings as well as doing recordings for other people.

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