First bass lesson was tonight...my instructor is one cool cat who likes wearing Bob Marley t-shirts and riding his unicycle. Yep, my kinda person. After running me through a few scales, complimenting me on my ability to keep rhythm even when he was wailing away on his guitar, and quizzing me on my musical tastes, he taught me a finger exercise (which my fingers are already saying 'fuck you' to) and a pair of songs.

"Wild Thing" and "Another One Bites the Dust."

Yeah, this is gonna be a good time, I think. He says that if I put in enough practice time, I'll develop into a good and possibly very good bassist. That makes me very happy.

And I needed the happies in this suck of a week...

Quote of the Day -- "Twin! Good to go!" "You have a twin?" "Yeah... (gaelbrady comes into view) ...because we look so much alike." -- Shawn (my instructor) and I after the lesson

Today has been odd.  Not bad, just odd.

I know I'm all about the horoscopes lately, but they do make nice shorthand at moments and almost always cheap entertainment.  Today's from tarot.com is definitely the former.

Your moods are less stable today and can stir up insecurities or uncertainties if you let them. Although your feelings are based upon real experiences, they don't necessarily tell the whole story. Let your emotions flow without trying to analyze them for now. They have much to teach you that are beyond the limitations of words.

(That's Virgo, just to be clear.)

I've been funky all day--not upset, not really moody per se, but I have felt very soft around the edges, and I've been carefully steering clear of hard contact, save with Anna or Dan. Though, even with that thought I go soft, thinking how good it is to have family, and how grateful I am for them, and then the funky turns especially rainbow colored.  I read something the other day that made my mouth taste bad, because it (with great arrogant disdain) spoke of how love, real love, always hurts.  I think that sort of love is very real, and very important, but the other kind, the soft, retreating kind, the love where you can fall back and feel safe and warm is no less real.  We leave it all the time to go be beat up by the other, but the soft love isn't unreal, or any less important.

But, speaking of rainbows and wanting to stay in my shell, I'm about to go to a meeting full of people whom I do not know, though I will know two people, so that's not entirely accurate.  One Iowa sent me something awhile back asking if I wanted to volunteer for the Pride Parade, and I didn't understand it at all, but said yes anyway for some mad reason, and now there is this meeting.  Which is good!  I'm just clueless as to what I'll be doing, and feeling all soft and fuzzy and thinking, gah, I'd rather be at home reading in the brown chair.

There's this feeling of some sort of end in the air.  The story, yes, please God yes, but it's more than that.  Not so much end, as change, I suppose.  I read Gaiman's Brief Lives volume of the Sandman series, and it was good, but it was like opening up an illustrated version of my head lately.  Writing has also been like drawing blood again, and it's back to where a scene will make me feel odd and I don't know why.  There is also the hovering edge of panic because I do not understand what in the name of anything it is doing, and it is very rapidly ceasing to make sense again, but it's aiming hard and fast at act three, and I"m not stopping even if the last act ends up in Sanskrit. 

I also do not understand what my music is doing lately.  I've just had two Neil Gaiman influences crop up, first Thea Gilmore, whom I love, and The Magnetic Fields, which I don't really but am starting to.  They're a bit of an infection, I think.  I love "The Book of Love" very much, and "I Thought You Were My Boyfriend" is absolutely precious. (It's also the nakesake of the subject line.)  And so is "Queen of the Savages."  And I keep seeing something on the edges of "The Dreaming Moon."  It's also a very lovely title.

Well, for that matter, so is "Queen of the Savages."

So, soft and fuzzy.  And in need of some tea in a travel mug because I have to go to a meeting now.

I am also dying to listen to Hem and The National.  DYING.  But I don't dare, not yet.  I tried two bars of "Pacific Street" today, and I felt the great whoosh, and closed the door just in time. . . . .

Oh, ends and changes.  Yes, please, but with padding, and lots of quiet.

As seen on steamfashion a while ago, button covers for corset busks! (clicky-link, rah rah rah!)

I think that's a brilliant idea. I very much want to make some for my own corset collection. And I just had an idea that is either completely foolish, or amazingly clever, you tell me: instead of soldering pins onto the backs of buttons that you've cut the shank off of, wouldn't the jewelry finding to make clip-back earrings work just as well? The flat bit would slip behind the busk loop, and then the "front" of the button would close over the entire post & loop. You know, the same sort of theory behind fancy button covers for shirts & blouses.

Why yes, I am going to be experimenting with this in the next few days. I'll report back on how well it worked.

---

Special message to apostle: sweetie, could you please email me at headmistress (at) gothic-charm-school (dot) com? I have a question for you, and I apparently misplaced your email addy.

18,010 / 80,000 (21.0%)

Day 19.

Not too bad. Will be at 25% in a couple of days, but I've a feeling that it's going to be much longer than 80k. It's probably going to be a WIP that never ends because I don't know what the ending is.

Must learn from m_stiefvater, except that what works for her doesn't necessarily work for me.

Oh I wrote a few words for bitch club, specifically in miss k's POV. I'm changing the setting, though I keep forgetting that when I play with it. Hmmm...

Off to the computer cluster again.

I'm so excited! I finished running Adventures of Bra Girl through my weekly group with Joyce Sweeney, and am working in suggestions from another critique group over the next week. A third group, who has already seen this in twenty page segments, offered to critique the full for me. I can't wait to bring the polished version of Bra Girl to a Writing Intensive on June 6, with Nicole Kasprzak (G.P. Putnam's Sons), Michael Stearns (Firebrand Literary), and Nancy Springer. I'll also print up the first page, hoping it will get chosen for a critique in the Middle Grade Track with Andrea Tompa (Candlewick Press), Michael Stearns, and Bruce Hale, on June 7th.

I've made some fairly large changes to the beginning of Bra Girl, thanks to a local retreat and feedback from the first pages at the Poconos Retreat. I had already made many of the changes by the time the first page was read in the Poconos. I made a few more after, and was thrilled that two editors praised my voice (and gave examples of lines they loved). That was extremely helpful, because I had cut one of them, and immediately worked it back in. I should be able to submit Adventures of Bra Girl by the end of June!

Besides writing, revising, and critiquing, I've been busy attending signings. On May 8, I went to a signing for three talented authors from my group with Joyce. It was Debbie Reed Fischer's first reading and signing for her debut novel, Braless in Wonderland. She did a great job! There was only one question she didn't answer--in front of everyone, her son asked how much she weighed! Debbie just smiled, and handled it like a pro. Dorian Cirrone read from Prom Kings and Drama Queens, and Gaby Triana read part of The Temptress Four. They're all great books, if you're looking for some fun new YA to read! Both Debbie and Gaby are on LJ, so you can shout out congratulations for their new books: debbierfischer gabytriana

On Saturday, I was thrilled to attend a signing for How To Be Bad. Sarah Mlynowski, E. Lockhart, and Lauren Myracle each read a scene from the POV of the character they wrote. They were down to earth and funny (especially when Sarah had to read a pee scene over the microphone at Barnes & Noble), and shared their experiences with us. I was almost in tears listening to Lauren's story...I'm really glad she hung in there and kept writing, no matter what others said, because her books are enjoyed by so many people.

I haven't had a chance to read How To Be Bad yet, but after hearing parts of it, I can't wait to dig in!

I like books about writing and editing. But one I've really been intrigued by isn't a book at all, but a workshop called the Novel Revision Retreat held by Darcy Pattison. But now I guess it really is a book (although I wonder if it would be as helpful as a retreat). I just got the book and am starting it to revise a book that isn't under contract at all, in little corners of time. I'm hoping it will give the book a little extra "oopmph!"

Has anyone else used the book or gone on the retreat? What did you think?

Thanks to everyone who commented on my friends-locked blog post. You guys are... well... you make everything better, don't you? I'm amazed by how cool the blogging community is. Do you remember that contest where you get to win two books  (TIPS and LOVE) and a surprise present if you either posted something about your secret book love or if you posted something socially helpful. You all posted something VERY socially helpful to me, and really got me through the day, so everyone who posted is entered (or double or triple entered) because of that.

Even if you don't want to be entered. YOU ARE ENTERED.

The contest closes on May 14. You still have time! Just comment below.

I have to figure out a way to blog about the campaign. Do you think friends-locked posts are safe? Some very interesting things have happened.

But in super cool news, my very amazing editor Michelle Nagler has emailed me the first go at the book cover of NEED. It is stunning and creepy and really, really cool. It also makes me want to buy gold, glittery lipstick.

(Note: This is not the cover. This is lipstick from a British store. The cover is EVEN cooler than this, but I can't post it yet)

It was especially cool to see the cover because it makes the book suddenly real. And that is just the best feeling. Sometimes that feeling comes when a publisher buys your book, or when you see the ARC (advanced reader copy), or when you see get a big box of them from the handsome UPS guy, or when you see it on the shelf.

But for me, this time, it was seeing the cover that made it real. For all you soon-to-be-published writers out there, I hope you get to feel that really soon.

 

The Christian Science Monitor did an article on a marital rating chart from 1939. I think this should be like the purity test -- how low can you go?

I get to negative five, but only because I sleep in *with* the husband on Sunday and holidays.

http://mtvbooks.blogspot.com/2008/05/hows-weather.html

Nowadays when I read what people chat about online, it seems America is becoming more homogenized in its experience, largely because of the leveling effects of TV (we all watch the same shows) and shopping (we all have a McDonald’s, a Barnes & Noble, and an Anthropologie—I hope!). But one thing that will always differ vastly from region to region is the weather. My critique partner called me to say it’s snowing where she lives in Utah. Here in Alabama it’s sunny and 80 degrees, but it looks like we’re about to get more tornadoes.

Dude. I just paid $70 to fill my tank. $70!! That will last me four days. Four days!! And then I will have to pay $70 again on Saturday. Saturday!! $70!! I'm sick. Sick to my stomach. Oh, and did I mention that after grabbing a bag of grapes the other day and paying for them without looking, that I saw what I had paid for them when I got home? $7!! $3.75 a pound. For grapes!! Grapes, people!! Not gold-rimmed, diamond-encrusted grapes. Just plain green grapes. And they weren't even good grapes. They were slightly sour with a skin that was way too thick, and every fifth one was slightly brown. I mean, dude. Come on.

What's next, people? Will I have to sell my house and move into a teepee? Sell my car and drive my kids to school on a 4-way tandem bicycle? Grow my own cows in the backyard just so I can make hamburgers without taking out a loan?

Geez. How's everyone else holding up these days? Wait. If you're having a great financial time, I really don't want to know. Everyone else, the floor is open...

I remember a while back that florahart posted an exchange with someone who IMed her and asked her to write a fic out of the blue. And I read Fandom Wank every now and again, and I can Google with the best of them, plus I have a really good memory for names, so I saw this crazy coming even before I responded.

What can I say? I needed a laugh.

( What's in it for me? )

It's all very "Fuck you, clown!" no?

Following up on yesterday's post, since I got some e-mails asking the question, and it's quicker and easier to respond all at once here, The Book That Would Not Die is a new project unrelated to my series, which is why I'm trying to get it absolutely perfect. It's the one I dashed off a first draft of in a few weeks back in August, and then have completely rewritten a couple of times. I don't really want to talk about what it is or what it's about because it hasn't sold yet, and I like to keep unsold projects under wraps (I don't want to potentially undermine my agent's efforts in talking to editors about it). Meanwhile, yesterday I dealt with the issue of getting more emotion in my work in a properly cerebral, analytical way: I checked a couple of psychology books about emotions out of the library. I may be a hopeless case.

This morning, I went out to run a couple of errands before it started raining (and I almost made it, too -- it started raining as I was walking from my garage to my house when I got home). The local fire department was doing one of their charity "fill the boot" drives at the main intersection, and I finally got my fantasy firefighter.

I have learned that there's a sad reality about firefighters in that very few of them actually look like those men in firefighter calendars or on the covers of romance novels. A lot of the guys I went to high school with are now firefighters, and let's just say they aren't exactly the calendar guy types. Then there was my one big encounter with my neighborhood fire station that completely shattered all my illusions and ideals.

This was back when I had a regular job and had to get up early in the morning to get to work, so it must have been around 6:30. I hadn't even put the kettle on to make tea, when suddenly my security system went nuts. I'd already disarmed it to bring in the newspaper, so it wasn't an intruder, and when I checked the keypad, it said it was a fire. There was no fire. There was no smoke, no flames, absolutely nothing. The system had just gone nuts, and I couldn't get it to turn off. And then I heard sirens approaching. As I said, it was 6:30 in the morning, and I'd just got out of bed, so I was still in my nightgown. A nightgown from Victoria's Secret with a lacy bodice and a slit all the way up my thigh (yeah, I live alone and sleep alone and haven't had a boyfriend in forever, but I love pretty nightgowns). The part of my brain that had managed to wake up said that maybe those sirens were coming to my house, so I grabbed a bathrobe. And then the doorbell rang, and I had the fire department, in full gear, on my front porch.

Sounds like the set-up for a romantic comedy meet-cute, right? (Or I guess a porn movie, but that's not the way my brain works.) We've got the flustered heroine in her sexy nightie and the handsome firefighter who needs to make sure it really is a false alarm, even if he is distracted by what the nightie reveals. But the firemen were so disappointing. I'm sure they were totally competent at the firefighting stuff, but they were much older and grizzled (which I guess that job might make you). Definitely not calendar material. I clutched my bathrobe tighter around me as I explained that I was pretty sure my security system had freaked out, since you could see the smoke detectors and fire sensors from the front door, and it was clear that there was neither smoke nor fire anywhere near them. They said they'd had a number of this kind of call that morning, and apparently the security company's computer had freaked out, but they still had to respond to the calls. While they were still there, the security company called to check on the alarm. It was reassuring to know that the fire department can get to my house in less than five minutes, but it was a waste of a sexy nightgown.

But today, though, I finally got my cute fireman for the fill-the-boot drive. At my lane, the guy was built kind of like a fireplug, short and stout, and clearly much older, but one lane over, the guy was tall, cute, well-built and red-haired. He reminded me of Carrot in the Discworld books. I was just about to whimper to myself that it wasn't fair that I didn't get the cute one, but then the one in my lane moved to the next lane over, and the cute one headed right to me. He even called me "sweetheart" when I put my money in his boot. Alas, he was wearing a wedding ring (so there's no point in committing arson in order to lure him to me). But still, I got the cute one! And my faith in the ideal of the hot firefighter has been restored. There is at least one out there! In my neighborhood!

Yay bats! Thank you very much for the v-gift bat on my profile page.

---

Tonight I will try to remember to post the photo of cass404, tolkiencub, and myself, taken before we headed out dancing on Saturday night.

... I don't have much to say right now, really. I made a stripey skirt with a ruffled hem this weekend, and hung out with cass404. I discovered a new-to-me paranormal/urban fantasy series of novels that I really like. Other than that, not much to report. Who knows, I may have more stuff to burble about later, after I have another pot of tea.

Stolen from renquestor

Wow. I look away for a bit, and a whole bunch of new peoples appear! Welcome, new peoples! Feel free to step forward and introduce yourself -- this is, ideally, an interactive journal, not just me nattering on to myself (no matter how much it seems, some days).

Thanks to my mother graciously gifting me with her Mother's Day Cold from Hell (thanks, mom!) I was all "oh hai! Haz sick. Cannot brain." So I took the last 48 hours to sleep, drink wonton soup, sleep some more, and catch up with my movie-watching.

( and, on that topic, some thoughts about SciFi's Never Cry Werewolf )

Also managed some reading, while my headache would allow. Some time ago ellen_datlow gave me a copy of the reissue of Black Thorn, White Rose, one of their Fairy Tale anthologies (originally published in 1994, but don't let that freak you out). Some stories I loved, some I really disliked, and some I just went 'huh' over, but taken as a whole this is a really good sampler of how to take old material and make it -- if not new, then your own.

I'm also reading Set the Seas on Fire by Chris Roberson. It's one of those books I really, really want to enjoy, because I can tell it's well-written and interesting, and should be hitting all my buttons...but just isn't. Sorry, Chris. If you like sea-faring adventure mixed in with some subtle horror, though, you might want to give it a try.

And, although I read it some time before, I just got my copy of Jeri Smith-Ready's Wicked Game. Do not let the somewhat cliched cover fool you -- yes, it's OMG More Angsty Vampires, but this book also made me laugh in sheer readerly joy at parts, and the entire thing pleased even me, the vamp-jaded.

And now, with brain mostly-restored, I have to get back to that Life-and-Deadlines thing. Feline and Equine picspam to come. Don't say you weren't warned!

Despite all the recent fuss, memoirs still top the best-seller list. Here's an article in Christian Science Monitor about memoirs, and it even quotes Powell’s Michael Drannen, someone I actually know!

I see this tonight on Neil Gaiman's blog.



And I sort of watch it and blink and try to do this denial thing. Shut up--no way! There is so no such thing as the Obscene Publications Act or the Official Secrets Act! England may have been like that with old Mad King George, but not now! Surely they have upgraded to Democracy 2.0!

But, sadly, of course, it is all true, and more. (The Libel Law entry really made my jaw drop.)

So, First Amendment.  I guess I have this naive habit of mistaking it for common sense.  I just never thought that England . . . .

Oh well.  CBLDF.  And the First Amendment Center.  Well, and the thing itself.

With the rising price of, hmm, everything, I went on a little fact finding mission. I went to the discount grocery store in my area, Aldi's, and wrote down a list and prices of items that we get from time to time. Then I went to the Wal-Mart next door to compare...below are my findings. Hmm...

( And the Llama did some mathematics... )

Translation...we're doing some shopping at Aldi's.

Oy...today was bleck...the week better get better. But HRC at the end, HRC...yay!

Quote of the Day -- "Of course, HRC is also an acronym for Hillary Rodham Clinton...and having her for dinner would be considered cannibalism. The Secret Service would not look kindly on that." -- me