Dandelyon's Worlds

Today is SF&F Writer's Day. I'm hoping it's an auspicious day to start this new venture.

I've been thinking that, since I'm still out of work, I should venture into cyberfunded creativity/crowdfunding, and see what happens. Reading haikujaguar  and shadesong  and ysabetwordsmith , and seeing how they interact with their readers, I realized I have both sat down alone to write a story, and sat around a table telling a story for people who were participating, as characters, in my world. But I really haven't tried writing with kibitzers, so I'm going to try an experiment, and you are all invited to kibitz, to ask questions, make suggestions, make comments, and so on.

I have a story snippet that I think will do for a start, but initially I'm going to post a short-short to introduce you a bit to the world. This is the world that the novel I'm working on is set in, but will be a different story.

And there will be a donate button; if you enjoy, please let me know--and please let your friends know everyone is welcome. Please don't give more than you can afford, and thanks for reading.

It's supposed to be summer. Really. It IS June, after all.

School is out, and today went to the Track Banquet to see my kid get a minor letter. Her school won a double-triple-crown at sectionals, meaning they took the trophies in both boys and girls for long distance, short distance, and other events (jumps, shot put, and discus). So, though my daughter didn't qualify to run in the sectionals (nor did she expect to, she enjoys running, but this is her first year doing it), that was still pretty cool.

My dentist tells me I have very deep roots, and he's glad he was doing a root canal instead of extracting my tooth. And I can go back in two weeks so he can be sure the infection cleared up. And I spent two days after feeling lousy, I think from swallowing too much of the ansthetic--but if I've been fighting an infection for quite a while, that could account for why I've been feeling tired and draggy even while off work.

My realtor still can't reach the guy who was initially so excited about buying my house. Which is made doubly frustrating by the fact that I do NOT want to buy more oil for this house if we might sell it, which feeds right back into my frustration about the weather.

The interviewer who promised to call me Friday to set up a second interview didn't, and the fact that she said, just before seeing me off at the elevator, not to panic if she didn't call until Monday still leaves me on tenterhooks.

Pulling old (and often-oxidized) carpet staples from stairs is tedious and awkward and uncomfortable, and more of them than I like break just above the level of the wood, high enough to snag cat hair and other dirt, but too low to grab and pull out, so they have to be pounded in with the nail sink. But the stairs are looking better. I'm about half done.

We had tulips and dandelions and wood violets and lilacs. Now we have roses budding, irises, indigo, and snowball spirea blooming. The seedlings I started inside were killed by a late frost, so I ended up buying seedlings. Those are doing fine, as are the peas and spinach, but peas and spinach are a spring crop. An early spring crop. And it is summer, right?

I haven't been posting much, but I've been busy.  The city, as usual, wants the yard cleaned up as soon as the snow vanishes, so we've been working on the yard, both clearing up the winter's accumulation of trash and working on making the stuff that we didn't get neat in the fall is tidied up.  We still have work to do on the stone patio and the firepit, which pretty much fell in last year, but we didn't get it rebuilt.  And the firewood is a mess, and the roses are still mulched, but it's time to rake them off and bag up all those autumn leaves to roll into the compost every time we mow the lawn all summer.  And I'm working on doing vegetable gardening this year, big time, so we have to clean the beds that are already more or less designated for that purpose and decide where to put more.  We will try growing green beans (the pole type) on our more robust Japanese roses; slowing down those particular roses would be a blessing; last year we had to dig out some (very thorny) volunteer runners that came up in the lawn.  We set some concrete block between the roses and the lawn when we did that; hopefully that will prevent another incursion.  Some of the smaller roses might get lettuce or broccoli planted behind them.  I've also been tending the indoor seedlings.  A friend was ordering seeds from a catalog that has a lot of heritage varieties, and she offered to order some for me; those came in, and for the full moon, tonight I planted some tomatoes and bell peppers to start indoors, and I plan to plant spinach, peas, and onions outside tomorrow (Thursday). 

Indoors, I've been cooking, trying to make sure I have food ready when my teenager gets back from track, so she eats more than Kraft mac'n'cheese, and other indoor chores, though no big projects quite yet.  And job hunting, which takes a lot more time and energy than the few available jobs would suggest it should, besides that aspect of things being worrysome and depressing if I dwell on it.  So I try to do it and move on to other things.  And there've been ordinary medical errands, and a trip to the dentist, where the tooth that was bothering me was filled nicely, and the tooth I knew needed work, but wasn't bothering me, proved to need either extraction or a root canal and a crown; they're checking the dental insurance (which I still have, for a while, anyway) to see how much it will cover for me, so I can figure out if I can afford the crown. 

The thing I'm happiest about since new moon is the fiction writing.  I've written a piece of flash fiction and, finally, gotten back into writing the Shifter novel.  The murder victim is finally both dead and discovered, and a variety of suspects have been shown to at least one of my three main characters.  I've gotten more than 13000 new words on the Shifter since the new moon, which brings my total to 26341 words as of today's count.  I'm a bit concerned about length; I don't feel like I'm 1/4 into the story.  This is a concern because I've also been reading about the state of the publishing industry today, and apparently publishers are more likely to buy 100K stories than 200K stories these days.  Oh, well, (though I did rewrite the first four chapters after I figured out all the nasty stuff the murder victim has been up to) it IS a first draft.  And I'm enjoying these characters; the romance angle could be stretched out over more than one book, I suppose. I'm also developing the world more, and developing quite a bit of background notes so I can do stuff like keep track of the people, whether they're suspects or not.

I suppose I should get one of those widget thingys so there's a visual of how far along I am on this novel; that would be satisfying for me to look at, though I don't know if any of you care.  Of course, I have no idea where my notes on where to find one might be.  And if I have to choose between an hour spent writing the story, or an hour Googling for a fun widget, the novel wins!

So, I'm still unemployed.  Yesterday, went to meet a different head hunter, who I really liked, and then took my Angel to a doctor's appointment and to the pharmacy.  The brakes had suddenly acquired a quiet grinding sound I didn't like, and I directed her to listen to it.  It was mostly not apparent on the way to the doctor's, but became louder and started doing things like continuing on for a bit even after I lifted my foot from the pedal.  So then we wondered if it might not be the brakes, but rather that ice and/or potholes had caused something on the undercarriage to be dragging.  Angel looked at the brakes when we stopped--no, it was indeed the brakes, and in her words, "this should have been fixed last week at the latest". 

So I got up earlier than I wanted to take the car in to get new brakes that I sure hope I'll get a job soon to pay for.  But job hunting without a car, in the winter with asthma that's activated by cold is not a good idea.  So, I spent the bulk of the day sitting in a waiting room (a nice clean waiting room, at least) painting.  When I returned, and had eaten dinner, I thought I could get online to do things.  About then, the cable connection went out, quite thoroughly--no TV, no phone, no internet.  They came on in time for my girl to get back from dinner with her Dad and to need the computer.  Sigh.



Painting in progress.

Today was warm--almost 60--and windy, the huge piles of snow were melting. If it wasn't so darn wet, I could have turned the compost, or otherwise worked to prepare the garden for spring, but just walking across the lawn caused squishy noises. If I still had a job, I'd have spent my lunch hour out in the park singing, despite the wind, but that didn't seem so inviting in my yard.

The headhunter has no interviews for me, so I did errands, got cat food and paid bills and other not-very-exciting things. Did a little poetry. Got some tax papers with the tax stuff. Finally got Sunday's paper, and read the very sparse want ads.

Since the new moon post, I've made inroads at organizing the attic, gotten the last of this years herbs bagged and labeled, and most of the neglected herbs from last year off their stems and into a bag for the Rangoli (sorted by color), if I can make it back to Sacred Harvest Fest this year; if not, they'll keep until next year, I suppose. (If I don't have a job, I doubt I'll have money to make it, and if I do, I may or may not be able to negotiate vacation time to go. Sigh.) I also got the dining room cleaned up and the furniture moved into a more useful configuration, though it's now covered in old computers and parts and papers that need to be sorted (and some tossed) so I keep what's useful and have all I need to do taxes; I got the sales tax form done (thanks mdlbear for the needed reminder) and started to figure out things like what to do with my poor, depleted 401K, and buy a suit and new shoes (and, ugh, hose), and start to look for someone to trim my hair.

I got rewrites done for all the chapters of Shifter I have so far, and added 1000 words. I looked at some market info for stories. And I've worked to be sure that food gets cooked and leftovers eaten, and am considering what else I can do to be frugal. Unless I get a job real fast, I need to focus on vegetables for the garden this year; I'll need to figure where I can set up flats indoors soon, since I have a lot of old seeds, if some sprout and grow, that is, in itself, a good thing, but if I want any significant amount of food from the garden, I have to know if the seeds are too old in time to buy new ones.

I still feel like I'm drifting, despite my efforts to get things done. Maybe that's inevitable, since a job affects so many things, and right now I can't predict when I'll have one or what I'll find.

Soon, although I'm not eligible to receive unemployment until after the severance pay and accrued sick and vacation days run out, I need to apply with them, so they can do their part of things and I get the first check in a timely fashion.  And there are doubtless still people I have to notify of the address change...

But all that must wait until tomorrow.  I've already got a to-do list, so it's time to hop into the tub and then the bed.

I feel like just curling into a warm bed and waiting until the world is warm and bright, or at least not so cold and dark. If I could have chosen a time to be out of work, just about any time would have been preferable. Job hunting is just SO much fun, after all, that I need to do it in snow and frigid cold, just to keep me from over-enthusiasm--not!

Having to think about what I want in a job, and interviewing skills, and all the other stuff related to job searching has also pretty well distracted me from writing, for the last few days, besides, which is doubly annoying since I finally figured out about a dozen reasons why various characters would have a motive to kill my soon-to-be murder victim, so I can have my good guys overhear pertinent things. Thank goodness I wrote down all my thoughts about what he has been up to during my lunch hour, instead of going to the bank during my lunch hour, on what turned out to be my last day of work.

So, new moon. The new moon is traditionally a time for beginnings, definitely what is called for in this situation; here's hoping that things work out for the better!

I reached the last of the people I wanted to list on my references list today, and got some new, respectable-looking shoes. And did a bunch of thinking as to what I want out of a new job, and also about how to phrase things when talking to people; mental rehearsals do help. And my sister suggested looking at u-tube for updos. I figure tomorrow I need to start making phone calls. And find or buy some barrettes & other hair things.

Once I get the mundane job search process well underway, I'll start considering possible ways to make at least a bit of money online; to that end, if there's anything that I do or sell that someone out there wants to buy, please let me know.

So, I'm in the middle of the second of The Sharing Knife books, but I drag myself out of the drama to take my kid to the cell-phone store to replace her phone, which has stopped charging unless you hold the charger in just right.  Which she did this morning, long enough to talk in astonishment with her good friend about her friend's high-school-style drama (involving the friend's boyfriend and his best friend, and being seen at a mall, but not the one she said she'd be at, if the snippets I caught while I was calling the cops)--ah, I got ahead of myself.  The charging of the phone was supposed to be for transferring the memory to a new phone, so I dragged myself out of my good book and we went out into the cold to hurry off to the store and stopped in dismay.

Someone broke the driver's window on my car last night or this morning.  So I sent her in for a bag to clear glass into and called the cops.  And went in for plastic and tape.  And called the insurance company.  And we went to the store, finding that the first bit of plastic really wasn't large enough, but at least the store isn't that far.  And I find that the soonest I can get the window fixed is Monday, messing with plans for shopping and getting together with people.

And I have been wanting to replace my own phone, as the ear-bug function and speaker function are both working poorly.   So, we get there and can set her up with a new phone, but I can save $100 by waiting six days to replace mine.  So I still have the same frustrating old phone, at least until Friday.   And I have to pay for a new window for the car, since they expect the cost to be under the deductible.  And I don't get to go sell young fish, to get store credit to get new filters, that store is far too far away in this weather without a window.  

And now I wish I'd decided to splurge and go to GAFilk--it probably would have cost about as much as the new car window, and then I'd still have the car window.  It certainly would have been a heck of a lot more fun as a way to spoil this month's budget--and I haven't even gotten to pay for my expensive asthma meds yet (the new year's huge deductible for that is now in effect too, though with no guarantee that if I start paying this one I won't have to start paying another soon, seeing as how the old insurance plan has dropped Aurora (ALL of the Aurora hospitals and clinics and doctors in the area...hmm, that probably means the Aurora pharmacies too, sigh, which means I'll most likely need a new pharmacy to spend my deductible at), and so the firm is looking into possibly switching health insurance carriers, depending on what kind of quotes they get as to premiums...)

Perhaps I should go bury my head in my book again!  There's no snow in there, at least not in this chapter...

Belatedly, I get around to the last new moon post of the year. I suppose I should count it a goal met that I’ve posted for each new and full moon, though not always on time. And I’ve gotten some writing done, and some music, and some art, and some work on my house, though I would have liked to get a lot more done on all of the above.

It was a wonder to drive into Chicago on Christmas Eve, and to drive for what felt like the first time in months (tho I know it wasn’t that long) on dry pavement, no snow or sleet or ice to slow down the driving—and no construction besides! It was also delightful to return to Milwaukee (after watching the small lake in my Aunt’s Chicago-city backyard advance way too close to the house, and recede again the next day—it’s a very good thing they didn’t have nearly as much snow as we had in Milwaukee before they had their post-Christmas thaw and pea-soup fog) and find that in their zeal to get the storm sewers open for Milwaukee’s less drastic thaw, the city had plowed the alley, so I could get to my parking space without getting stuck first. (I have not removed the two shovels, cat sand, and salt from the car, however. It seems to me that doing so would be like washing the car in spring.)

I guess I’ll think about plans for the new year later. I’m out of lunch hour, and this post is late already.

Blessed Be, everyone!

[Error: unknown template qotd]Oh, so many things affect our behavior, just not always the way we expect.  Full moons -- certainly they can affect people by seeming scary or romantic; in books, they make illicit night time adventures more likely, for characters that need light, or harder for characters easy to see when there's light. 

But for me, it's a reminder that I should post to LJ!  I've been trying to do a regular post on full and new moons since I started.  (-:

I wasn't feeling good earlier this week, not a good thing before going to visit Aunt, who just got out of the hospital.  The Kid headed into Chicago right after school to do most of the cooking, but I stayed in Milwaukee until this morning to make sure I wasn't contagious.  It's really cool that my kid has the skills and focus to do that!  I'm proud of her.  Dinner was really good; we played games after.  Someone gave my artist-Sister a small trapezoidal "harp"; I tuned it for her and the kids, but especially her daughter, played with it on and off all night.  

So I guess I may be shopping tomorrow after all, finding some finger picks and maybe small hammers, a tuning wrench, and perhaps even a chromatic tuner if the price fits my sister's budget.  Silly day for shopping, tho.  IMHO.  

We also moved furniture around to make room for Aunt's Christmas tree...I guess I'll be hanging ornaments tomorrow.  My house isn't in any kind of shape for having my own Yule Tree...sigh...  I really want the energy I had when  was 18 back!  Oh, well, the face-hugger is giving me some of my energy (and mental clarity) back, so I'll count my blessings.