cottage reflections

Yeehaw, it SNOWED at the cottage yesterday! My pair of shorts and t-shirt lay forgotten at the bottom of my bag; instead, I found myself pulling out my winter gear, including hat, mitts, scarf, fleece sweater, fleece vest, and Gortex jacket. A last blast from a retreating winter just before slinking away, I assume.

Our time at the cottage was brief but fun. Jeff brought his telescope and was happy because he found his last Messier object (and hoo, yes, I'm always SO tempted to make bad puns when I hear that phrase), M68. He also showed me the comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3. I sometimes tease Jeff about his obsession with the night sky but y'know, when I look through his telescope and see these amazing objects that are incredible distances away, I can't help but get caught up in the wonder of it all. Sadly, I lack the nighttime stamina to ever hope to be a true astronomy buff; I'm too much of a morning person.

My favorite moment: Friday night, out on the deck under a clear night sky. A loon's cry echoed across the lake, and was answered immediately by the cries of other loons from all around, both near and distant. It's one of my favourite sounds in the world; you can hear samples here and here, from this loon site. Hollywood tends to like sticking loon calls in totally inappropriate settings...I remember once seeing a movie where there were background loon calls in the desert (!).



Above: Sunrise at the cottage, this morning.

Came home to a hugely entertaining phone message from Scott, Amanda, Zoë and Will. I will call you guys back soon. :-D

Many thanks to Ruth, Allison and Jeff for taking the time to read my manuscript and give feedback...it's MUCH appreciated, and I know you're all busy. Allison sent her comments each evening; it was fun and highly informative to see her impressions as she read through the book. A few times her comments spurred me to make some changes. E.g. Allison: "Oh, how cool that XXX happened. I bet this means YYY!", causing me to think, "Hey, I think YYY should be true, too, and I can do it pretty easily..."

Anyway, I plan to send the manuscript to my agent this week. Please do keep your fingers crossed for me.



To the right: A somewhat more complex experiment in Corel Painter 9.5 with layers and the Airbrush tool. I created each element in a separate layer, using the Preserve Transparency function to create masks.

My pre-trip language studies continue, with a focus on Italian. I recently rented La Dolce Vita and Vénus beauté (institut) to practice listening to Italian and French. I thought the latter was okay but found La Dolce Vita a bit too strange for my tastes. These days, though, I'm finding I'm doing less video-watching and much more reading. I can't wait until it gets warm enough so I can take my book(s) out on the back deck to read, under the crab apple tree.

Jeff and I got rid of cable tv over a year ago and haven't missed it. I enjoy watching videos, but sometimes I find that it's too easy to slip into couch potato mode, watching two or three videos in a row. Fun on occasion, but I inevitably feel restless and cranky afterward. Settling down and reading a book for the same length of time is a different experience, at least for me...relaxing, but ultimately more satisfying, though of course it also depends on the particular books and videos. :-)



I'm enjoying running in our neighbourhood as well as doing my stretches and abdominal crunches more regularly these days, and my winter flab is starting to disappear. I think I actually caught a glimpse of my abs the other day! :-D

My favourite Italian words so far, just because of how they sound:

1. spuntino ("spoon-TEE-no") - snack

2. cucchiaio ("koo-KYA-yo") - spoon

I've stopped researching Italian food because it makes me too hungry.

Reminder: The frequency of my Blatherings is likely to become more sporadic over the next while as I focus on pre-trip workstuff and other prep.

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savouring moments

Above: Handwritten entry (click for a bigger version). See this Flickr set for my other handwritten entries. For a closer look at my kitchen window picture, see here.

Will Write For Chocolate has been updated. Column topic: "Positive financial thinking for freelance writers."



Reminder: The frequency of my Blatherings is likely to become more sporadic over the next while as I focus on pre-trip workstuff and other prep.

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My Beloved Monster and Me

Above: Inspired by a Livejournal comment by Mary Ellen, which was in response to my exercise routine survey. For more info about my Little Nightmares drawings and prints, see this page.

Working on last revisions of my book before sending it off. I've also started brainstorming about ideas for upcoming non-fiction and fiction projects. It's like my subconscious has become aware that I'm finally going to be sending this manuscript off and is doing cartwheels: Woohoo, at last! Now I can finally deluge you with all the stuff that's been percolating while you've had tendinitis and I want you to write it all NOW.

I'm not taking my laptop to Italy, but I'll definitely bring a notebook to catch any idea spillage that occurs during our vacation. For the past couple of years, I've gotten into the habit of taking my Moleskine with me everywhere. Lordy, I do love that book. I accidentally left it in Centro after my birthday dinner (I was writing down the name of a wine I liked), but the staff called the phone number I had written in the front cover, yay.

Today I want to talk about one of my favourite blog reads, My Beloved Monster and Me, written by Rob Rummel-Hudson. Rob used to keep an online journal called Darn Tootin', but these days focuses more on his daily blog instead. Here's an excerpt from his bio:

"In December of 1999, my daughter Schuyler was born. From the very beginning, she was a happy and vibrant little girl, with a mischievous sense of 'I don't like to be told what to do' that she clearly got from me and an angelic face that she (fortunately) got from her mother. What we didn't know for the first three and a half years of her life, however, was what we both gave her genetically. Schuyler was a happy, normal little girl except for one thing: she couldn't talk, almost not at all. She went through hearing tests and screens for just about every possible disorder, but it was only after she underwent an MRI scan in the summer of 2003 that we discovered that the problem lay in her brain, and had been there all along."

I got hooked on Rob's writing when I came across this entry, which focuses on the day that Rob and his wife heard the diagnosis for their daughter's condition. You can find follow-up entries on this page. What I like about Rob's writing: He has a forthrightness and emotional honesty rare in blogs these days, and can be incredibly funny and moving in the same entry. He's cynical, hopeful, deeply caring. But most of all, I love his writing style. Rob could write about what he eats for breakfast every day and I'd still be hooked. He was recently diagnosed with diabetes and now is a columnist for B5 Media with his Diabetes Notes.

Sure hope I get to meet Rob in person someday, and I look forward to buying a copy of his book, Schuyler's Monster, when it come out. Here's the last page from the book.

Anyway, do check out My Beloved Monster and Me.

Reminder: The frequency of my Blatherings is likely to become more sporadic over the next while as I focus on pre-trip workstuff and other prep.

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Exercise survey, writing and OnlineComics.net

I drew the above for Illustration Friday this week. Topic: "Under The Sea." For more info about my Little Nightmares drawings and prints, see this page (I've added this link to my Blatherings graphics links in the left-hand navigation bar).

I've been out running 4-5 times a week, usually at lunchtime or at the end of the day. Don't know about the rest of you, but I find that getting regular exercise gives me more energy overall; I don't feel so sluggish by dinnertime. Once in you're in the habit, it's easy to keep it up, of course. But if I slack off, it's always a challenge (for me, anyway) to get back on the horse.

Hm. Y'know, I -would- like to know about the rest of you. I always find other people's exercise habits inspirational, so...Do you make any attempt to get regular exercise? Why or why not? How many hours a week and what kind?

I'm really, really enjoying writing these days. Most other writers out there will know there are always bad days when writing something feels like trying to stick a hyperactive squirrel through the eye of a needle with one hand tied behind your back. Other days, the words just seem to pour out. Just recently, it's switched to the latter. Thanks SO much to my manuscript readers this past week: Jeff, Ruth, Allison and Dave C. I'm hoping to get final revisions finished and my book off to my agent before we leave for Italy.

So much to do, so little time. But 'tis all good...

The frequency of my Blatherings is likely to become more sporadic over the next while as I focus on pre-trip workstuff and other prep. I will likely not be online at all while we're gone.

To fans of my Will Write For Chocolate strip: OnlineComics.net has just approved the addition of my strip (yay!). I'd be very grateful of some of you might consider posting some feedback or adding my comic to your Favourites list, if you're a member (membership is free, and there are a ton of great online comics to browse). Every time someone adds my comic to their Favourites, it boosts my Popularity rating a bit and dangit, I want to be Popular! Thanks, eh?

:-D

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Mourning dove chicks, more Corel Painter 9.5 experiments

For the past couple of days, several mourning doves have been hanging out in our front garden. I didn't mind, as long as they left my crocuses alone (unlike certain neighbourhood demon squirrels). Then I noticed the larger mourning dove feeding the three smaller ones, and realized the latter were mourning dove chicks!

And suddenly I panicked, aware of all the cats and other creatures in the neighbourhood. Those dove chicks just seemed to be stupidly standing in the open; they might as well have had a big sign above their heads reading: FREE FOOD! My friend Tanya says they call them "lunch birds" in her area, and I can so easily see why. Happily, however, I woke up the next morning to find them gone. Jeff has helpfully pointed out that this might have meant they were all eaten, but I prefer to think that they all flew to a Mourning Dove Sanctuary & Resort where they're being pampered with lots of...well...whatever mourning doves like to eat.



I've been getting a surprising amount of positive feedback to my Little Nightmares drawings. Thanks, everyone! Also a number of requests for prints, yay!! I've set up a Little Nightmares page with thumbnails and where people can sign up for my mailing list, if they're interested in being notified when prints and new Nightmares are available. Your information will only be used for Little Nightmare mailings, which will be sent out one or two times a month at most. You can opt out whenever you'd like.

I've found a number of good printing places, but I'm still looking for a reliable service that will print AND sell prints and other merchandise for me. I'd much take a smaller cut than have to worry about the hassle of packaging, mailing, customs, etc. Suggestions welcome!

Image above and to the right: A Corel Painter 9.5 experiment with the Airbrush tool. I was trying out a technique I just learned from one of their movie tutorials, where you can use the Flat variant of the Pen tool to paint shapes on different layers, then use Preserve Transparency on layers to turn each of these shapes into masks. MUCH less hassle than using the Lasso tool to outline.

Photo below: I love tulips. These are the last remaining tulips from a bunch I bought as a treat for myself. They've opened up and will probably only last a day or two more, but I liked how they looked in the sunlight late one afternoon.

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