As seen EVERYWHERE:
( Me, in pictures! That I happened to have on my hard drive! )
- Post 12 pictures you currently have on your hard drive that you think are self-expressive.
- No captions! It must be like we're speaking with images and we have to interpret your visual language just like we have to interpret your words.
- They must already be on your hard drive - no googling or flickr!
- You don't have to answer any questions about any of your pictures if you don't want to. You can make them as mysterious as you like. Or you can explain as much as you like.
( Me, in pictures! That I happened to have on my hard drive! )
- Mood:
cheerful - Music:Buggnuts - Gavin Castleton
Or getting to know that lovely serger and how you now believe your friend, (apparently your ex-friend) the owner, is in cohorts with the denizens of hell and plans on introducing you to them all.
I finally pulled myself out of the quicksand pit of staring at the sewing projects yesterday. I did so by promising myself I would only rethread the damn machine and test the stitch on the fabric.
Two-and-a-half hours later...
The Juki is possessed.
I finally pulled myself out of the quicksand pit of staring at the sewing projects yesterday. I did so by promising myself I would only rethread the damn machine and test the stitch on the fabric.
Two-and-a-half hours later...
The Juki is possessed.
Morning diversions while I wait for my RIE. Drabblets for cosplays. All extremely rough, less than five minutes' writing time apiece. I still want to write one for Kaya, at least, but RIE in three minutes means I'll have to do it later.
~ * ~
( Unohana )
~ * ~
( Miranda )
~ * ~
( Risai )
~ * ~
( Flora )
( Unohana )
( Miranda )
( Risai )
( Flora )
- Location:Medtronic
- Mood:weird
It's not easy, being a woman and hanging out with mystics. I was reading Wikipedia (n.b. not a reliable source) on Fatima, the most beloved daughter of the Prophet Muhammad. I found this, which I have double-checked with other online sources.
Another reference to their simple life comes to us from the "Tasbih of Fatima", a divine formula that was first given to Fatima when she asked her father for a kaneez (servant girl) in order to help her with household chores. Her father (Muhammad) asked her if she would like a gift instead that was better than a servant and worth more than everything in the world. Upon her ready agreement, he told her to recite to end every prayer with the Great Exaltation "Allahu Akbar" 34 times, the Statement of Absolute Gratitude "Alhamdu-LilLah" 33 times and the Invocation of Divine Glory "Subhaan Allah" 33 times, totalling 100. This collective prayer is called the Tasbih of Fatima.
This story reminds me forcibly of the story of Mary and Martha from Luke 10:38-42, which, frankly, has always gotten up my nose. Jesus rebuked Martha when she came to him to complain that Mary was listening to Jesus rather than helping with the housework. Jesus told Martha that Mary had chosen the better part -- which is true, nobody would dispute that, and indeed was what Martha was complaining about. But the core of that story, to me, is that somebody still had to do the housework.
Prayers and holiness are important, but neither the Prophet nor Jesus, in these stories, acknowledges the hard labor on which both their comforts depend. I would really, really like to see a religious teaching story in which there was a miracle -- suddenly the bread was baked, the floor was swept, and the baby stopped crying. And then the prophet announced, "See, keeping the household is so important that God is not ashamed to do it."
I'm not a prophet; furthermore, the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim canons are fimly closed. I'm just saying it would have been nice.
- Mood:wistful
"One look comparing magazine ad pages of the first half of 2009 versus 2008, and the Reaper's got a brand new shopping list."
Click here for more.
Click here for more.
One scattered turtle on the asphalt through the bog -- probable painted turtle, but I can't rule out snapper due to the condition of the remains. Sunday's mini-mink has passed beyond salvage.
Really, folks, turtles ain't gonna jump out in front of your F-150. I know I say this every year, but you can miss them . . .
Not raining (although we have some clouds loitering with intent), so I headed out on the bike. Gusty wind. Honeysuckle berries red in the roadside shrubbery. More everlastingly-to-be-damned loosestrife blooming.
15.31 miles, 1:09:34
City has announced plans to repave part of the road headed out to the bog, which will be a PITA. It needs it, seriously needs it, but that will shoot my times to hell.
Really, folks, turtles ain't gonna jump out in front of your F-150. I know I say this every year, but you can miss them . . .
Not raining (although we have some clouds loitering with intent), so I headed out on the bike. Gusty wind. Honeysuckle berries red in the roadside shrubbery. More everlastingly-to-be-damned loosestrife blooming.
15.31 miles, 1:09:34
City has announced plans to repave part of the road headed out to the bog, which will be a PITA. It needs it, seriously needs it, but that will shoot my times to hell.
...or backsliding, whichever is more appropriate. If any of you read my status messages on Facebook, this is what I meant by it. This chunk of writing was going back to add and alter to the earliest sections of the current chapter--not something I usually do at least until the chapter is "finished", but this time I altered enough that doing it now seemed important.
Especially since I often think of things as I'm writing, rather than before, that can change what happens later. So filler notes aren't always much help. A little extra work now usually saves me a lot of extra work (going back again) later.
PROGRESS REPORT FOR 7/11, 7/12, AND 7/13/09
New Words: 3400 (250 / 2950 / 200), then minus 100 I cut out yesterday.
Total Words: 38250.
Reason(s) For Stopping: Saturday and Monday were just smatterings, adding here and there. For Sunday's, I went off to do other things.
Book Year: 1877 / 1884.
Mammalian Assistance: Nate guarded both the Writing Room table and my author biography shelf on Sunday.
Exercise: Walks around the neighborhood with Laurie and the dogs, and an upper body workout yesterday, with jogging.
Stimulants: Chocolate milk.
Today's Opening Passages: A little difficult to pinpoint that for the smatterings. The first one is mostly info-dumping about how the wealthy 1870s Virginia conservatives were destroying the state by getting the men in power to pay them for services rendered first, rather than legal obligations like, say, funding schools.
I think this was where I started on Sunday:
From his earliest memories, Moses Gillespie had been charged by God to take up the ministry. From the time he could put two words together, from the time his folks taught him to read so he could read the Bible, he gave his family sermons--whether they wanted one or not. And when he was eighteen, at war's end, he heard the calling again. Go out into the Valley and bring My light to the darkness. So he did.
Darling Du Jour: "It would almost be better were it all hate," (Sadie) said. "Then we'd know what we were facing."
This was a strange truth about the Shenandoah: There was still plenty of white hatred against blacks, and there were also plenty who liked and respected blacks, but you often couldn't tell who was who. And over the years it could shift. That meant the blacks of the Valley had to be even more careful, even more on their guard, lest they mistake one for another.
Books In Progress: Finished up![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
ccfinlay's A Spell For The Revolution on Sunday. Haven't been able to get his The Demon Redcoat yet, though.
Especially since I often think of things as I'm writing, rather than before, that can change what happens later. So filler notes aren't always much help. A little extra work now usually saves me a lot of extra work (going back again) later.
New Words: 3400 (250 / 2950 / 200), then minus 100 I cut out yesterday.
Total Words: 38250.
Reason(s) For Stopping: Saturday and Monday were just smatterings, adding here and there. For Sunday's, I went off to do other things.
Book Year: 1877 / 1884.
Mammalian Assistance: Nate guarded both the Writing Room table and my author biography shelf on Sunday.
Exercise: Walks around the neighborhood with Laurie and the dogs, and an upper body workout yesterday, with jogging.
Stimulants: Chocolate milk.
Today's Opening Passages: A little difficult to pinpoint that for the smatterings. The first one is mostly info-dumping about how the wealthy 1870s Virginia conservatives were destroying the state by getting the men in power to pay them for services rendered first, rather than legal obligations like, say, funding schools.
I think this was where I started on Sunday:
From his earliest memories, Moses Gillespie had been charged by God to take up the ministry. From the time he could put two words together, from the time his folks taught him to read so he could read the Bible, he gave his family sermons--whether they wanted one or not. And when he was eighteen, at war's end, he heard the calling again. Go out into the Valley and bring My light to the darkness. So he did.
Darling Du Jour: "It would almost be better were it all hate," (Sadie) said. "Then we'd know what we were facing."
This was a strange truth about the Shenandoah: There was still plenty of white hatred against blacks, and there were also plenty who liked and respected blacks, but you often couldn't tell who was who. And over the years it could shift. That meant the blacks of the Valley had to be even more careful, even more on their guard, lest they mistake one for another.
Books In Progress: Finished up
ccfinlay's A Spell For The Revolution on Sunday. Haven't been able to get his The Demon Redcoat yet, though.- Location:Looking Forward To August Land
- Mood:
restless - Music:"In the Middle of the Night," by Billy Joel
This post is fascinating to read: http://thefourthvine.livejournal.com/11
The stuff in the comments is even better. I warn you, there are spoilers in the comments for every TV series, film and book published in the last 100 years. Not kidding.
Although they are being remarkably disciplined with Torchwood, for which I am thankful. A TW marathon shall be scheduled as soon as I have five hours to mainline it.
Anyway, it got me thinking. Which are the major fannish events that I've been there for and which ones do I wish I'd been there for? Or even wish that there had been a fandom for so that reaction could be seen?
Reading through those comments, I've actually been there for a lot of them. I'd found The Bronze (the official Buffy posting board) just before Innocence aired so I was there for the explosion and it was epic. Becoming was awesome and the summer after that had some of the most interesting speculation and biggest output of creativity that I've seen.
The Harry Potter book releases have been huge. Book 7 was like a worldwide event and I had so much fun in the run-up and reading the thousands of articles and comments on it after I'd finished mainlining it in a day and a half. I put it down long enough to watch the Tour de France stages that weekend and that was pretty much it. Then the joy continued for weeks as people read it and discussed it and made me think about it in entirely new ways.
The week between Stolen Earth and Journey's End was the biggest, most amazing week I've seen in Doctor Who fandom. Everyone was so buzzed, so filled with ideas and speculation. We all expected to have our hearts broken because we'd fallen hard for Donna, but we still didn't know how it would go. Would Donna be revealed as a Time Lord? We knew that the Tennant was leaving, but was this going to be our regeneration episode and, if so, who was the new Doctor? I remember posting at the time about how much I was loving that week and I still feel that way about it.
I think the great thing about those events is the way that the community suddenly comes together for a while. Whether it's to speculate madly, celebrate insanely, mourn (OMG, Sirius! Dumbledore! DONNNA!) or organise write-ins to save beloved shows or characters, the life and energy for those times is an amazing thing to be a part of.
Can you imagine what fandom would have done with *that* scene in Fangorn Forest if Two Towers had been released now? Or the reaction to Blake's death in MASH? (That gets me hard even though I wasn't even born when it was made) Or how insane fandom would have gone for "Luke, I'm your father"? And as for Wrath of Khan...
Fandom drives me insane sometimes, but then I remember that stuff and remember why I'm still here.
The stuff in the comments is even better. I warn you, there are spoilers in the comments for every TV series, film and book published in the last 100 years. Not kidding.
Although they are being remarkably disciplined with Torchwood, for which I am thankful. A TW marathon shall be scheduled as soon as I have five hours to mainline it.
Anyway, it got me thinking. Which are the major fannish events that I've been there for and which ones do I wish I'd been there for? Or even wish that there had been a fandom for so that reaction could be seen?
Reading through those comments, I've actually been there for a lot of them. I'd found The Bronze (the official Buffy posting board) just before Innocence aired so I was there for the explosion and it was epic. Becoming was awesome and the summer after that had some of the most interesting speculation and biggest output of creativity that I've seen.
The Harry Potter book releases have been huge. Book 7 was like a worldwide event and I had so much fun in the run-up and reading the thousands of articles and comments on it after I'd finished mainlining it in a day and a half. I put it down long enough to watch the Tour de France stages that weekend and that was pretty much it. Then the joy continued for weeks as people read it and discussed it and made me think about it in entirely new ways.
The week between Stolen Earth and Journey's End was the biggest, most amazing week I've seen in Doctor Who fandom. Everyone was so buzzed, so filled with ideas and speculation. We all expected to have our hearts broken because we'd fallen hard for Donna, but we still didn't know how it would go. Would Donna be revealed as a Time Lord? We knew that the Tennant was leaving, but was this going to be our regeneration episode and, if so, who was the new Doctor? I remember posting at the time about how much I was loving that week and I still feel that way about it.
I think the great thing about those events is the way that the community suddenly comes together for a while. Whether it's to speculate madly, celebrate insanely, mourn (OMG, Sirius! Dumbledore! DONNNA!) or organise write-ins to save beloved shows or characters, the life and energy for those times is an amazing thing to be a part of.
Can you imagine what fandom would have done with *that* scene in Fangorn Forest if Two Towers had been released now? Or the reaction to Blake's death in MASH? (That gets me hard even though I wasn't even born when it was made) Or how insane fandom would have gone for "Luke, I'm your father"? And as for Wrath of Khan...
Fandom drives me insane sometimes, but then I remember that stuff and remember why I'm still here.
- Mood:
thoughtful
So it's been a crazy long day but I didn't want to go to bed before finishing another chapter ... especially because I've lost time to this damn bug and I have 2 more big deadlines breathing down my neck after this. Yikes!!!
Anyhow. Here's where I'm up to with Wizard Squared:
62593 / 100000 words. 63% done!
My first drafts always come in short. I feel like I've hit the watershed half way mark in the narrative, but the back end is going to be a bit sploogey just to get it done. And then I can smack it into shape on the rewrite.
What I'm finding, writing in a series as opposed to a self-contained narrative, is that I can make all these fun references to passing events in the previous two books. Like easter eggs! Wheee! *g*
Another chapter tomorrow, I hope. Fingers crossed!
Anyhow. Here's where I'm up to with Wizard Squared:
My first drafts always come in short. I feel like I've hit the watershed half way mark in the narrative, but the back end is going to be a bit sploogey just to get it done. And then I can smack it into shape on the rewrite.
What I'm finding, writing in a series as opposed to a self-contained narrative, is that I can make all these fun references to passing events in the previous two books. Like easter eggs! Wheee! *g*
Another chapter tomorrow, I hope. Fingers crossed!
I am in that flailing state of too many details, too little brain, too much to do in too little time. I leave for RWA National in the morning, and I haven't packed, this from a usually insanely organized packer who makes lists and puts things into the suitcase days ahead of time. At present, I have picked out my clothes (most of them. I think.) and put them in a pile, and thrown a lot of other random crap into my open suitcase, like an evening bag and extra camera batteries and business cards still in their boxes and train tickets and and and. Have to organize all that tonight.
Have emailed my three roomies for the event so we all have each others' cell numbers. I've never met any of them before.
If I don't write myself out a schedule, I am going to miss one of the several events I'm supposed to attend. I sort of kind of did that last week, but really my schedule is a pile of individual invitations that I need to organize.
Oh, and sleep. What is this sleep thing, anyway?
Meanwhile, hanging over my head is the Author Alterations for Moonlight Mistress. I am not going to even attempt to look at the manuscript until I get back home again. I'll still have a week or so to work on it then, and I think the manuscript is pretty clean.
Have emailed my three roomies for the event so we all have each others' cell numbers. I've never met any of them before.
If I don't write myself out a schedule, I am going to miss one of the several events I'm supposed to attend. I sort of kind of did that last week, but really my schedule is a pile of individual invitations that I need to organize.
Oh, and sleep. What is this sleep thing, anyway?
Meanwhile, hanging over my head is the Author Alterations for Moonlight Mistress. I am not going to even attempt to look at the manuscript until I get back home again. I'll still have a week or so to work on it then, and I think the manuscript is pretty clean.
Title: Steal some covers
Author: Rachael Sabotini (![[info - dreamwidth.org]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wickedwords)
Fandoms: Leverage/Highlander
Pairing: Parker/Amanda
Summary: Amanda Darieux was a legend, a rock star among theives, and Parker wanted to meet her.
Written forkinkbingo 2009, Prompt: Nippleplay
Link to my kink bingo card on Dreamwidth: http://wickedwords.dreamwidth.org/7
A/N: Many thanks tosherrold and elynross for the beta. All remaining errors are my own. If you spot something, email me in private, then I will clean it up.
(And yay! I got one story done. This is my first story written this year. Thank goodness Leverage starts tomorrow or I might never have posted it.)
( Steal some covers )
Author: Rachael Sabotini (
wickedwords)Fandoms: Leverage/Highlander
Pairing: Parker/Amanda
Summary: Amanda Darieux was a legend, a rock star among theives, and Parker wanted to meet her.
Written for
kinkbingo 2009, Prompt: NippleplayLink to my kink bingo card on Dreamwidth: http://wickedwords.dreamwidth.org/7
A/N: Many thanks to
sherrold and elynross for the beta. All remaining errors are my own. If you spot something, email me in private, then I will clean it up.(And yay! I got one story done. This is my first story written this year. Thank goodness Leverage starts tomorrow or I might never have posted it.)
( Steal some covers )
Poll #1429642
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All
What colour would you expect the eyes of a female Asian character to be in a fantasy novel?
View Answers
Black
11 (12.5%)
Dark Brown 30 (34.1%)
Brown 20 (22.7%)
Hazel 2 (2.3%)
Blue 2 (2.3%)
Green 16 (18.2%)
Another colour (see comments) 7 (8.0%)
I was just notified that I am one of the winners of the NTSFW short story contest. The contest is for their anthology, 28th Dimension - Tales from the Texas Zone. Woot! Congrats to the other winners!
- Location:Study Hall
- Mood:
accomplished - Music:Over the Rainbow
I've noticed over the last few months that I've been particularly bad about reading. There's been no movement at all in my book basket, and I've got several partially read books lurking around the house. This is not helped by all the books I just purchased in Kansas.
So for the rest of the summer, I'm gonna spend at least one hour a day reading...and I'll be posting my list to keep me honest. (Yeah, right.)
So last night, after I'd hit 3K on something the plot bunny had me working on, I read for an hour. I'm working on Mary Balogh's First Comes Marriage. Go ahead, mock me all you want, but I do read a couple of romance authors, and she's one. (I have Zooba sending me that series, one book a month). The other is Julia Quinn, if you nosey-parkers need to know.
My plan it to tackle first the unfinished books, although I may chose not to finish a few. (I don't want to waste the hour I do have on something I don't care for.) The magazines and short stories, I'll slip in in the meantime...
And speaking of short stories, I was skimming back over the week-end blogs and discovered thatmarthawells has posted a new, unpublished story on-line. The Forest Boy is available on her site, for free, although I suggest that you look down at that 'donate' button on the bottom of the page and drop a few bucks in the tip jar. She's also made The Potter's Daughter available as well, a story about Kade (from The Element of Fire) that appeared in the anthology Elemental. Very cool.
Duotrope now has a feature on my control panel which reminds me when the last time I donated to them was. ::GUILT:: So someone please buy something from me so I can donate to them...
So for the rest of the summer, I'm gonna spend at least one hour a day reading...and I'll be posting my list to keep me honest. (Yeah, right.)
So last night, after I'd hit 3K on something the plot bunny had me working on, I read for an hour. I'm working on Mary Balogh's First Comes Marriage. Go ahead, mock me all you want, but I do read a couple of romance authors, and she's one. (I have Zooba sending me that series, one book a month). The other is Julia Quinn, if you nosey-parkers need to know.
My plan it to tackle first the unfinished books, although I may chose not to finish a few. (I don't want to waste the hour I do have on something I don't care for.) The magazines and short stories, I'll slip in in the meantime...
And speaking of short stories, I was skimming back over the week-end blogs and discovered that
marthawells has posted a new, unpublished story on-line. The Forest Boy is available on her site, for free, although I suggest that you look down at that 'donate' button on the bottom of the page and drop a few bucks in the tip jar. She's also made The Potter's Daughter available as well, a story about Kade (from The Element of Fire) that appeared in the anthology Elemental. Very cool.Duotrope now has a feature on my control panel which reminds me when the last time I donated to them was. ::GUILT:: So someone please buy something from me so I can donate to them...