Weekend Ramble

Progress on the WIP has been excruciatingly slow. I am not a fast writer and the past week has been very, very annoyingly sloth-like in terms of speed. Last night I finally figured out the "why's" of a plot point and am hoping to get a boost from that. I'm not sure why, exactly, but if I have a good general idea of where I need to go I tend to pick up the pace. I'm within spitting distance of breaking 50k and think I might cross that mini-goal before the weekend is out. I'm getting in touch with my inner-cheerleader (not the slutty quarterback obsessed bimbo, silly!) and will be shaking my pom-poms and practicing my best ass-kicking cheers for myself this weekend. Okay, that sounds a little weird but...whatever it takes, ya know?

On the strictly fun side of things, my husband and I are going to Flagstaff for the day. We'll visit our friends who just moved up there and then we'll go to Bookman's. Bookman's is sort of the ultimate used bookstore. I've got about 20+ paperbacks I'm taking in for credit & then stand back brothers and sisters. I've got a list of authors I'm looking to check out and have my fingers crossed that I'll find some that are on my list. I've been on a reading binge lately - it's really helped keep me sane with the writing slow-down.

Speaking of books, just finished Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Good grief, that man tells an awesome story. Somehow he manages to keep the scope balanced between the epic and the personal. This novel had everything- prison, love & betrayal, family troubles, prestidigitation (love that word!), one of the best crime cons I've read in a long time, & a killer twist - one of those twists that you can sense in the offing but that still manages to catch you by surprise. Plus tons of characters from a variety of cultural mythologies. Sorry to go on and on, but I freakin' loved this book.

And then there's Ken Bruen's The Guards. Bruen's name kept coming up as a must read, so I finally bit the bullet and forked over the cash for it. It was totally worth it. The man has a magical way with language. I can't remember the last time I got so excited by a writer's use of language. He used "coffee'd" as a verb! Okay, maybe that doesn't seem like a big deal, but I LOVE IT when a writer takes language to a new level. That's exactly what he did in this novel. Yeah, yeah, the story's good & so are the characters (Jack Taylor is one of the best modern noir anit-heroes I've come across in a long time), but it's the way he uses the language that hooked me. I found myself slowing down as I read, just to savor the words.

One last, completely unrelated bit of yippy skippy is that I'm going to learn how to run a sound board! I've been interested in that for quite a while, and finally worked up the courage to talk to a friend of ours who runs sound for several clubs in town & who records musicians (he has his own studio). Anyway, he's down with it & I'm heading over to Coyote Joe's for my first "lesson" tonight. I'm totally stoked! I can't remember the last time I was so excited about hauling equipment around & pushing buttons!

Night of the Javelina

Ah, the pitter patter of cloven feet. Not to mention the outraged barking of two territorial dogs. We had a herd of javelinas run through our backyard at two in the morning. Snorting, stinking javelinas. They're so ugly, they're almost cute. Note the use of "almost." Some poor idiot down the street didn't tie down their garbage can, so this morning the left-overs from the late night smorgasbord was spread for all the world to see. Good god, I love Arizona!

Free Grill

You see so many hoaxes on the 'net, but this one is really true - I even checked it
out on Snoops! and you don't have to email 20 friends in the next hour.
Just go get yours!
Don't miss this deal - We picked up one for camping - my parents got one for their 5th wheel!

This is not a joke!
You can get a free BBQ grill from any of the following stores:

K-Mart
Kroger's
Wal-Mart
Scott's
CVS Pharmacy
Sam's Club
Meijers
Target
Big Lots

Just see below for details!

Laundry Sucks

Well, it does. I do the laundry once a week, and bitch and moan each and every time. This is for several reasons, most of which can be boiled down to 1) I get almost no writing done on laundry days and 2) I freakin' hate the laundromat.

Early morning is my best writing time, from somewhere around 5 a.m. to 6:30 a.m., then make breakfast & get the spouse kicked out the door & then more writing done before lunch. Laundry days mean I write for an hour or so, then go to the evil laundromat and waste an entire morning, & come home too tired and/or irritated to be good for much else. It sounds stupid, even to me, but there it is. There's something about jockeying for driers, the constant thrum of heavy machines, bleach & detergent & good ol' b.o combined with lovely flickering fluorescent lights that make me krazee.

And here I am today, with a whopping 50 words done on the novel, bitching about laundry. But hey, I've still got an hour before I need to worry about getting dinner going, so I could stop whining and get to work. Or I could go back to my favorite procrastination game of the day. Ah, screw it. If I don't at least attempt to sit my ass in front of the keyboard I'll be even pissier the rest of the day.

Maybe if I'm really, really good, I'll go hang out at Watson Lake tomorrow.

The zen of procrastination

Okay, so not the most original of topics, but appropriate for a first entry. I've found that while I say I love writing, that I'm crazy if I'm not writing, that in actuality I spend an inordinate amount of time doing everything but writing. Sometimes this is a good thing. I figure out plot points or characterizations while I'm washing dishes, playing minesweeper, or chasing the dogs around the house. I'll read something that sends me off in a new direction, or I'll spend an hour cruising the internet, or watching the damn gophers dig new holes in the backyard, or...well, you get the picture.

Sometimes, when I'm banging my head against an idea and nothing is coming (or at least nothing good), procrastination is my bestest friend in the whole wide world. Mostly it just eats my head and my time. So in an effort to find a slightly more productive way to procrastinate, I've started this blog/journal. Maybe I'm just fooling myself, but at least it'll be fun and will get the fingers limbered up for the ol' WIP.