Release... the snuggie

Here it is, the last day of Summer and I'm breaking out the Snuggie. It's a leopard print and I'm not ashamed to use it - in the privacy of my own home, of course.

It's raining and there's more coming, including flood warnings. Nothing I can do about that except watch the wet stuff come down. Queensland is still trying to dry out and the Outback is getting a soaking - that's La Nina for you: wet one day, damp the next.

Still no writing done... yes, okay, I have a new cable channel to watch which has The Walking Dead, Hell on Wheels and Justified; then there's Fringe, Alphas, Sanctuary and Warehouse 13 - so much stuff. And the TBR pile isn't shrinking at all.

I need to prioritise, get organised, carve out some time (somewhere) to curl up in my favourite chair, put some mellow music on, grab some chocolate and a glass o' vino and just... read.

And since it's going to rain this weekend, me and the snuggie are going to get comfortable. All I need do, is pick an author.

Dazed and confused and out of sorts

And here it is, February already.

A month has passed since my last post but it doesn't seem that long. I suspect it has something to do with working (long hours in a secured location on secure things, so I have no real internet access) and trying to get the house and parent in order. I've succeeded with the latter, but not necessarily the former.

It's been a long time since I've worked in a scheduled environment - meaning, every duty is required and has a short deadline, as in by the end of the day; no slacking off here.

Writing fiction - for me - is a butt in the chair and write, or research, or edit; that's it. I don't need benchmarking, or report status, or a number of other things I can't talk about. (Which is weird, since I'm working in a public affairs area.)

I'm looking at this time of turmoil - and it is when you're yanked out of a nice, safe, comfortable environment - as a break from all things writing and reading. I doubt I'll be back at it until March.

It could be sooner, given the story ideas floating around, rather than the lists of things to do. Some days, it feels like a day off to do something... that doesn't involve others and their needs, seems like a long way off. Obligations come first.

It's not all bad: I heard a small child today, in the book section of a department store. He sighed heavily, and then said: "Mum, I so need a book!"

Made me smile and my world settled down a little bit more.

All tuckered out

It feels like all I've been doing lately is working, hunting up furniture and putting the aforementioned furniture together... and doing Christmas shopping.

The new house is still full of unpacked boxes. I've yet to find a single day to actually get to unpacking anything but the essentials.

And now, I'm back down the coast for Christmas with those boxes still unpacked. I think I've driven nearly three thousand kilometres since the beginning of December; the car has been a real trooper with all the boxes and things weighing her down. Still, the muffler seems to be growling a little louder with every trip. She definitely needs some extra tlc over the next few days.

I've also been carrying around Lynn Viehl's lastest book, without managing to look at the first page. It always seemed I've have some downtime to read, but no. There's always been something getting in the way.

Tomorrow, I still have things to do to get ready for Christmas day and for visitors. But I'm carving out time, damn it! I've brought books with me and I'm going to read them - my visitors can look after themselves for a few hours. We are, after all, at the beach and lo, it is Summer!

Update

It's been a tough couple of weeks, with a new job and problems with the townhouse we've yet to move into. Between commuting, working and racing down to the coast to pick up more stuff, I haven't had a lot of time to be online - no blogging from work, it's a secured location.

We've got a moving day... in the middle of the week, so I have to take a day off already.

I'm hoping that finally, finally, we'll be in the new place on the weekend. There's still so much to do before Christmas. I guess I'll be out hunting down the last of the prezzos this weekend.

On the move

Okay, so I haven't had time to read, or do anything else.

Thursday afternoon - a quarter to five (end of the business day) - I recieved word that I'd found somewhere to live in Canberra; it's a rather nice townhouse. But I had 24 hours to sign the lease.

The nation's Capital, it should be noted, is a three hour drive away. With the aged parent, who isn't a morning person and packing up some essentials, we made the appointment at precisely 4 o'clock. I won't go into the all the nastie little details, but it took nearly an hour to complete the paperwork.

Of course, the Post Office needs three working days to sort the mail redirection and I won't be submitting the paperwork for that until I have the keys in my hot and sweaty little hand. Worse, my email account picked up a f*&$ing virus and I've had to write down and then delete all addresses. A group hug to all those who need to know will have to wait until I'm sure the virus is a gonna.

Getting an uplift of all the heavy furniture is the next project. I start the new job on Monday, so that's going to be epic. All I can say is that the Body Corporate had better suck it up and keep out of the way of the moving van.

So. Back to packing; I head back to Canberra tomorrow.

Moving on

I'm off to Canberra today, so I was up early to write before packing. A few hours later, I had nearly three and a half thousand words More than I expected.

The second book is going well, so well, I might sneak in a few extras once I get to the Capital.

I'd like to think I can find somewhere to live over the weekend, but the reality is, I don't think there's enough time before I start work in ten days. After that, it's all down to time management - at which I suck.

sigh.

New Toy

My new toy arrived - a netbook.

Needless to say, I've been fooling around with it.

The keyboard is small but workable - the larger keyboard won't plug in, so I'm keeping it with the now offline laptop. It doesn't have a dvd player, but it does have a card reader. I treated myself to one long Star Wars marathon... yes, okay and played some of the pre-loaded games.

It also has three times the hard drive space for all those nifty programs I like to use and for photographs.

I will use the netbook for surfin' and keep the laptop as a stand-alone computer for writing; that way, I shall have to change computers to use the internet. Inconvenient, but it will make me think before surfing willy-nilly.

For now, I need to get back to the Nano stuff... or maybe do some more exploring.

Extras

Okay, now I know I've been watching too much rugby union (is there such a thing?). How do I know this? Well, I was watching an American football game and, once the running back was tackled, I expected a ruck to form... I'm just sayin'.

I've finally posted Huntress: Alone on Scribd.

And... I filched this from Jill Shalvis's blog because it made me laugh:

The Best Short Letters

Dear Noah,
We could have sworn you said the Ark wasn’t leaving till 5.
Sincerely, Unicorns

Dear Twilight fans,
Please realize that because vampires are dead and have no blood pumping through them, they can never get an erection. Enjoy fantasizing about that.
Sincerely, Logic

Dear Icebergs,
Sorry to hear about the global warming. Karma’s a bitch.
Sincerely, The Titanic

Dear Yahoo,
I’ve never heard anyone say, “I don’t know, let’s Yahoo! it…” just saying…
Sincerely, Google

Dear World of Warcraft,
Thank you for ensuring my son’s virginity.
Sincerely, Parents Everywhere

Dear Ugly People,
You’re welcome.
Sincerely, Alcohol

Dear World,
Please stop freaking out about 2012. Our calendar ends there because some Spanish dirtbags invaded our country and we got a little busy ok?
Sincerely, The Mayans

Dear iPhone,
Please stop spell checking all of my rude words into nice words. You piece of shut.
Sincerely, Every iPhone User

Football heaven

I had a good sulk. With the help of David Tennant, Robert Downey, Jr., and Nathan Fillion, oh, and chocolate, I found my happy place again.

Of course, yesterday's opening season football match helped too. Although... what were the New Orleans Saints thinking?? No way that dude was going to make it through the line of scrimmage!

And the Rubgy World Cup started. Yay! Rugby all day today!. The All Blacks didn't look too good - they won against Tonga - but I could see the flaws. If they want the cup, they'll have to play better. Best image of the day? Sonny Bill Williams changing his shirt. That is one fine hunk'a manhood. The crowd duly shouted and whistled their appreciation - at least, the women did.

Love those tight shirts...

On another topic, if you want some writing stuff, head over to Lit Reactor. If you give them your e-mail, they'll send you some free writing advice from authors like Neil Gaiman, Chuck Palahnuik, Max Barry, Bret Easton Ellis and others.

I have to go and find some photos now for the cover of the next book. I'd like to be a better artist, but I'm not. Then again, it's all about practice.

Stuff

I know it's been a week since posting; things like real life get in the way, especially things like the car needing a service, then coming down with a bad case of the oil leaks and something called a CV boot with a crack in it - all time consuming to fix.

Then there's the book to edit - of which I am now over halfway with an extra 5k of words added.

And other stuff. Lots of other stuff. More stuff than you can shake a Whippy Stick at. Family stuff, work stuff, census stuff and new work stuff. My days have been stuffed with STUFF!

Stuff it...

I'll stop griping now and get back to the edits before more stuff hits the fan. I'm gonna need a dose of Lady Gaga, Pink and Adam Lambert for this next bit...

Moving on

I've been busy. Yep, even my unbusy bits have been busy. So busy, I've only managed to edit fourteen pages in a week! And no writing at all. Sigh

We're also looking at moving house. There's nothing wrong with this one, it's just a job came up in Canberra, and well... I'm not up to a daily commute of six hours - three hours each way.

But it's going to be nice to have a holiday house on the coast!

I'm trying hard to let go of the museum job; I want to e-mail historical pieces to them. I suppose I could, but I'm moving on and I have to let it go. They'll still get the book on Lady Denman. After that, no more... unless they make an offer I can't refuse.

And I should be editing right now, so it's time to get off the 'net, and get on with it!

Leaking and HP

It's still raining, as in buckets of rain. I know it's buckets because I've emptied a couple from underneath the leaking roof. Why, oh why didn't we get it fixed after the last downpour? I guess it's like washing raincoats - you never remember to do it until you need them. And then you put them away with the promise to wash them the next time the sun is shining. sigh.

Okay, so Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was fabulous. Although it felt a little rushed, and some crucial, emotional parts weren't as obvious as in the book, I think for the younger crowd, they were handled well. I wanted to see a longer battle between Mrs Weasley and Bellatrix - I wanted Bellatrix to know and feel she was going to lose.

I hope the dvd comes out at Christmas - I'm looking forward to wallowing in front of a complete HP marathon.

Now, back to the edits.

H.P. and a rainy afternoon

Today, we're off to see H.P. and wouldn't you know it? It's raining. We've been hanging out for it, but the parent doesn't like big crowds (hah!). Fortunately, the school holidays are over so the kidlets aren't going to fill the theatre.

I expect a lot of older people who have had the same idea will be there.

Has there ever been a more amazing phenomena than Harry Potter?

Busy-ness

I spent the day training for the census collection. Fortunately, the area I thought I would have to do isn't as large as I expected. Should be fun - I'm not expecting anything out of the ordinary; the area is filled with holiday houses and retirees.

I have to admit I'm struggling with the book. I can't seem to carve out enough time to get a real shot at it. A couple of pages here and there isn't good enough. I need to edit chapters, or at the very least, scenes.

With the other obligations I have, finding time is a real wrestling match. I think I'll have to readjust my schedule rather than this ad hoc approach.

But on Monday; I've got peeps visiting this weekend, so off to do the housework I go...

Census and sensibility

Not much happening around here - except for studying up on how to be a Census collector.

Yep, we all get counted on August 9 and I have a large area to cover. Plus I have jury selection coming up next week. Don't know if I can do both at the same time. Wandering around meeting the neighbours, or listening in on a criminal case? I want both because they're interesting.

I don't get why people try to get out of jury duty. Yes, it's an interruption to the daily schedule; yes, you see and hear about gory details; yes, you have to make a decision - or not if you're discharged. But I think it's something everyone should do, if only to see how our justice system works.

As for the Census, it's important too. Yes... another chore to complete, but compulsory and useful for the government to know population levels so they can deliver services. Anyone worried about privacy issues needn't be: it's all about statistics, not who you are. It's about X number of people living in X area and then the form is destroyed. Personal information is, if you chose, kept for a hundred years.

I hope more people chose to keep their information for the interest and research of people like me. Tracing the family tree is much easier if your ancestors were in the census.

What? Again?

I don't know anyone who's been called up for the jury pool and I thought I'd done my bit way back in... 2006? So, when I saw a letter from the Sheriff's Office, I had to think back to whether I'd done something nefarious (love that word: ne-fare-ious).

Nope. Damn it, nothing criminal at all to warrant a summons, but an alert that I'd been added to the jury pool - for a year. Again. Am I lucky or wot?

The first time was an attempted murder case - and I was all set to do my civic duty (and pay attention to the finer details of how a legal case is presented, you know, for research purposes) - but we were discharged after three days due to a witness opening his big trap about a previous incident. Me, I'd already condemned the accused purely on the police evidence already presented. Oh... wait. I was supposed to withhold judgement until the defence had finished? Well, the accused was convicted a year later, so the defence must have been weak.

Anyway. I'm interested in how the process works, as well as studying all involved - including fellow jurors who, at the time, seemed quite... listless and uninterested in the proceedings, unwilling to create much of a discussion in the jurors' room. But I chatted away, explaining my thoughts on the case and lo, interest increased.

I wondered, though, whether they were trying to think of ways to be excused - isn't that what most people do? Sure, it's an interruption to your own life, but it's not just about doing your duty as a citizen, it's a fascinating insight into the legal system a lot of the population don't see, or try to avoid because it's inconvenient.

I'm rather excited about being a juror again and I solemnly vow to study the evidence before me, without fear or favour, and reach a verdict I believe is true.

And then file the experience away for future use...

Adjusting

I'm sitting here with Abraham Lincoln's quote running through my head: "It's better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."

There are so many things I could comment on, given the current geo-political maelstrom that's going on around the world, or Mother Nature being pissed as, but a lot of blogs that I read aren't stepping into that minefield and nor will I.

Given that, there's not a lot going on. I continue to get the house in order - once the strained muscles ease - and continue research into the historical book I'm working on for the local museum. Real life has put fiction on the back-burner, much to my annoyance - oh, that and the printer running out of ink; again.

I'm slowly adjusting to the new rhythm of the house following my mother's illness. New schedules, medical appointments, travel, etc. have, temporarily, put the kybosh on things I used to do. Of course, she says with a smug aside, the new 42 inch television isn't helping. Who doesn't want to see Matt Damon, or Hugh Jackman on a bigger screen, or enjoy the fabulousness of LOTR EE up close and personal?

Yes, I suppose it is work avoidance and I should be focused on work, but I think I'm over the squee-ing and the "ah, crap, look how much stuff I still have to do". Stuff gets done in it's own time. And now, it's time to get on with it.

Breathing room

I finally feel like I can take a breath. There is nothing worse than taking someone to hospital for what you think might be minor and being told it's major. Then, of course, it's thinking about whether you did something wrong, or failed to do something, or...

Fortunately, the aged parent's condition has now stabilised and will be off to the rehab unit tomorrow or Thursday. I have spoken to the occupational therapist, the speech therapist, the nurses, a doctor, ward sister, another therapist and then informed family members until I don't know what I've told to whom, or whether I've repeated myself.

The house is quiet with just me - except for the usual house settling with the change in weather and temperature - and yeah, it's a little eerie. But there's plenty to do for when the parent does return. Which means I need to get back to the major spring-cleaning housework - I still have to set the 'book' room to rights after the installation of the new carpet. It looks terrific, but still has that 'new', obnoxious smell to it.

* * *

And pray for New Zealand; they need all the help they can get.

Time out

The aged parent is ill, as in hospital ill, so I'm gonna be scarce; of course, I haven't had a chance to get the virus off this computer either... so no backing up, which equals no work - no work on the computer means no work to lose.

I really hope March is more fun. This year hasn't started off well at all.

Sick computer

I have been slaving away today. We've got the carpeters coming tomorrow, and I had to shift stuff. I had no idea how many books my mother had until I was moving them. After the carpeters have gone, I'll have to move them back.

I gave her the opportunity to sort through them, to toss some and keep others; nothin' doin'. She's keeping all except for the old mathematics books my dad used for teaching.

I also have a virus on the computer which doesn't want to be killed off any time soon.

A visit to the technician is in order - hopefully before the virus kills the computer; I would be... unhappy, if that happened. But having paid buckets for the car inspection, greenslip and registration, the computer will have to wait.

Thus, being online is spotty and will continue to be so for another fortnight.