Dino Love

So after eating everything in sight – ok not quiet everything – it is back to work for me.

Over the holiday, I caught up on my critique work. I planned a short story. I read. I am telling you right now, Seanan McGuire’s Rosemary and Rue does not disappoint. I hope to have a review for you guys this week. I have a feeling it will be gone all too quickly.

My goals for this month are simple:

Promote the work of others due heavy December retail traffic. People, buy books. Please!

Finish at least two more reviews.

Crank out three stories.

Complete a second draft for my alien story.

Yeah, I have very high hopes for December. If I get all of this accomplished, it will be a true gift to myself. Care to share your plans for the month of December? Will you be polishing up your NaNoWriMo from November? I want to extend a hearty congratulations to those of you who accomplished your November goals, whatever they might have been.

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The Year in Space

Image credit: R. Jay GaBany / http://www.cosmotography.com

This is the kind of breathtaking picture I get in my email on a weekly basis. I subscribe to a feed from The Year In Space. The site sends me a picture and a day by day breakdown of interesting facts regarding our romance with space. It also shares the timing of the moon’s phases for the month. This site gets much love from me.

Right now The Year In Space is offering free desk calendars to the first twenty people that blog about the site. I doubt I will get my link emailed in time. I don’t care really. (I got my link there in time!) It was a good reminder to share something I love with you. I hope you guys will go check The Year In Space out.

I know that I usually try to keep my posts here centered around my writing life. My ideas are often sparked by pictures and events that have happened in the past. I know I am not the only one. Here is hoping that you do subscribe and that inspiration finds you as a result.

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My book of much want is on its way from Amazon!

Stays Crunchy In Milk by Adam P. Knave:

My lovely husband bought it for me!!!!!! I will of course review it for you guys when I read it. You already know I am a fan of Adam P. Knave’s work. I am super excited.

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Just eleven more visitors…

I love numbers. I especially love round numbers, numbers in multiples of five, even numbers, and esspecially prime numbers. With eleven more visitors, the site will hit 2,000! **Edit: We broke 2K! Thank you guys!**

I’ve been working hard to draw traffic here. I’ve been experimenting with what works and what doesn’t. On one hand, it feels strange drawing folks to the website when I don’t have much in the way of my own fiction to report. However, it feels like I am building a reader base just the same. I love you guys!

My day will be interesting. I have been down for the count with a cold all week. I’ve gone to work (no high fevers, just low-grade stuff managed by meds – tons of antibacterial hand sanitizer used at desk- no I’m not the outbreak office jerk I swear) and posted my review for the week. I did one story crit. I even managed to get my first guest blog post out there! Yet, I’ve been light on posty traffic. I haven’t been reading for beta, crit, or review. I definitely haven’t been writing. I have been planning what is next though.

Today I find myself alone at home. This is rare. I drove my husband in to work. We stopped and ate breakfast together and got a chance to see the sky just as the sun started throwing pinks and purples into the blue. I am up early, and instead of heading back to bed, I plan to make good use of my day. My cough is being chased away by meds. My head finally is no longer threatening to explode. Today might be the perfect day to catch up.

I plan to finish reading the first three chapters for a good friend of mine. I’ve read this novel during an earlier draft and loved it. I can’t wait to see it published. Next, I have three horror short stories to critique. These are all long over due. After that, it should be time to see my husband for lunch. How nice to be in town as he works right up the road! I am usually working a city away. When I get home, I plan to clean up a bit then get cracking on a story or two.

What are your plans for Saturday?

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To crit or not to crit…

Please head over to my guest post on Danielle Ackley-McPhail’s LiveJournal. You may remember I posted my review of her work, The Halfling’s Court: A Bad-Ass Faerie Tale recently. This is my first appearance as a guest blogger and would love your support! Go ahead. Toss a question my way over there!

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My review of The Red Tree by Caitlίn R. Kiernan is up.

The Red Tree by Caitlίn Kiernan

From the Amazon product description:

Sarah Crowe left Atlanta, and the remnants of a tumultuous relationship, to live alone in an old house in rural Rhode Island. Within its walls she discovers an unfinished manuscript written by the house’s former tenant-a parapsychologist obsessed with the ancient oak growing on a desolate corner of the property. And as the gnarled tree takes root in her imagination, Sarah risks her health and her sanity to unearth a revelation planted centuries ago…

Click here for my review.

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“The World is a Vampire”

This Friday’s title is brought to you by the Smashing Pumpkins. If you haven’t checked them out, you should. It is the middle of November. Do you know where you NaNos are? Good luck to all of you trying to crank out the big 50K or the lesser 30K this month. My heart is with you even if my keyboard is not.

October was dedicated to balance. I spent the month looking at how to balance my life with my writing life. I thought about what effort I was putting in to the writing business vs. the practice of writing. I was trying to maximize my efforts. I’ve also been working on recongnizing my strengths and weaknesses as a practicing writer. I am looking at building the best habits. I plan to spend what is left of my Friday doing some beta work and mapping out these goals. What a great day to plan your future, Friday 13th!

November will be about introspection, gratitude, and growth. What are my goals as a writer? What have I accomplished this year? What have I failed to achieve and why? What will I work on next year? How will I get there? What should I continue to do? What should I drop?

I am still working on time management. This is where the title comes in today. It isn’t that everyone wants a piece of me. That isn’t it al all. Instead, I am thinking of all the ways I surrender my time to the world.

Sometimes I make the choice to give up the time. A certain amount of my day is owned by or owed to my family and my day job. Sometimes it is taken. You have to love drama and the general plague that is lurking about. At other times, I yield to temptation. Yes, Castle crew, I am looking in your direction. I wonder if the world is a vampire or perhaps time is the vampire. There is a poem in there that I’ve been playing with for years.

In December many of my writing friends start posting about achievements for the current year and their revised goals for the next. It appears I am starting early this year. What are your thoughts? Care to share your answers to any of the questions I am playing with?

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Squidites

I maintain filters on my LiveJoural blog so that content makes it to the eyes of those interested in seeing it. Recently, a friend of mine suggested a new topic for discussion, squid. I put it behind a filter and began playing with it. Did you know squid wear marinara to costume parties? This is what I’ve heard.

It isn’t surprising that most of the people interested in that filter are some of my writer friends. We are a creative bunch. We know how to get silly. We really are just getting started with our fun under the sea.

It might not be obvious why this relates to my writing life. In some ways, it is an excuse to procrastinate. In others though, I get to know my friends in random ways that generate creativity. We are talking about absolutely nothing and having a blast doing it. I am thinking of launching a story in the round. We will work together to craft a squid story. Hmmm. Maybe it will end with marinara.

I’ve asked them. Now I will ask you, what is your favorite squid and why?

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