Goodbye February, 2016

You may take all your germs with you, and never return, for I have missed three days of work this month, and I am unhappy with you. What good is giving me an extra day if you take it from me? I stubbornly tried to go to the office, but NO, you made me so sick I actually had to drive home. Man, you blow chunks.

So, there I was, at home with a sinus infection, watching 5 episodes of Leverage Season One, because I so wanted to do that instead of working on this week’s chapter.

Well, tomorrow is March. In like a patient, out like a lamb? If I have to scoop snow with a sinus infection, oh the Ides of March bode ill.

And so, I leave you, Internet. I go to bed after a session with the Neti pot, and I hope for a better tomorrow, as I have three hours of class, a conversation party, a meeting with college upper admin and I so don’t want to be home tomorrow. Goooooo, Doxycycline!

Book Group Expands Your Mind

Well played, Mindbridge Book Group. Well played.

The Mindbridge Book Group sets me up to read things that I would not normally pick for myself. I cannot pretend to be fond of all the selections that my science fiction peers choose for me, but they have opened my brain to reading some things that I would not read. For instance,

Cath: I don’t read high fantasy. I am so done with medieval fantasy. I can’t imagine a single fantasy I would ever want to read again.

Book Group: Well, how’s about this book called The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.

Cath: I’ll look at it. I’ll read it. I’ll hate it…Hey, this is pretty good, really. Scott Lynch, huh?

Or this one

Cath: Why would I ever consider reading this book about time travelers changing the history of the Civil War? Come on!

Book Group: But this is a seminal writer of SF/F.

Cath: *grumble* Okay. I’ll read this dumb old Civil War book…Hey, this Turtledove guy can write, can’t he?

***

So. We do have to get outside of our comfort zone every once in a while. Sure, there have been some book club books I’ve not been wild about, and I won’t talk about those here, but suffice it to say that usually the book club gives me at least a few new books and authors to appreciate every year. Shout out to you, fellow hunters of dog-eared paper backs. You should see my copy of Bright Eyes. It’s vintage.

Living Up to the Name

I want to apologize. I haven’t posted at this blog, at the Unreliable Blog, anything like that because I got SICK. Kirkwood has one big frickin’ cold, and it takes about a week of ups and downs to get over it. So, I felt so bad I couldn’t even whine about feeling bad.

This of course means I’m behind at work. I believe I’ve dug out some, but I have some communications issues I’ve got to try to remedy. Because I care. 🙂

However, while I was dying, I didn’t tell you about the following Unreliable Narrators posts, thus living up to the adjective in the name.

Taos Toolbox: For those of you who want to climb a mountain and come down better writers

Walter Jon Williams: The man, the myth, the scuba diver.

***

Since I sold a short story I am working on cranking another one out so I can have my ten circulating. Have gotten some interest in the new book again, so we’ll see what happens. I think Abigail Rath has faded back into obscurity. It’s still with an agent, but nothing will happen soon. At any rate, this new story will be done by Sunday, and I will head back to the novel.

February, you have not been kind to my fitness or my writing. You may go.

Cookies is Published in Independent Women’s Anthology

Cookies has been accepted for the Independent Women’s anthology, volume 2. You’ll be able to pick this up late April/early May.

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I’m sharing the table of contents with the following writers.

Asha Bardon
Nia Nguy?n writing as Lana Bella
Joan Brown
Tara Calaby
Audrey T. Carroll
Alison Ripley-Cubitt
Willow Curry
Zen DiPietro
Jen Donohue
Kimberly Fujioka
Rage Hezekiah (who isn’t Facebook but writes a great poem!)
Anne E. Johnson
Emily K. Michael
Cantrice Janelle Penn
Catherine Schaff-Stump
Lorraine Schein
Rachel Steiger-Meister
Nillu Nasser Nabs Stelter
Kristina Webster Shue

What’s important about buying both Volume one and two of this endeavor is that after all the costs are covered, all funds will be donated to the Pixel Project, which funds the cause to end violence against women. I’m proud that Cookies, a story inspired by my background, can be part of this endeavor. More to come as things are available.

Uber Plotting Plotting Spouse

It’s a great pity that my spouse can’t write. There are many reasons for this.

1. He’s going to retire in 2 years, so he could get started making us millionaires 4-11 years sooner than I can.

2. He likes projects.

3. He’s an uber plotting plotting spouse.

***

Bryon and I have been game masters of a variety of role playing games for a very long time. Like we’re talking the 80s. Both of us are story oriented gms. I tend to go for emotional gut wrenching and intrigue. He is the master of surprise. He’s had a lot of practice story telling.

Sometimes when all it feels like I’m doing in a story is emotional gut wrenching and there’s no, I don’t know, PLOT, I’ll talk to Bryon. Two weekends ago, I took him to a coffee shop where we both didn’t drink coffee (behold! the parameters of my new reflux life!) and he helped me figure out pretty much the main conflict of the current book, and how to tie what seemed like a disparate element in beautifully to the rest of the story.

Okay, okay, faithful readers. There are 4 tent pole scenes that are no longer Carlo’s. But you’ll appreciate the structure when I’ve done it. Honest.

I was like, wow. How did you do that? And he was like, that wasn’t hard. And I was like, hey, why don’t you write books? And he was like because I can’t put words together. I can only come up with ideas.

And I thought yeah, but that doesn’t stop a lot of people. But he’s just not very interested in writing. He’d rather be putting together a massive Day of the Dead display for next year’s Halloween. That’s how we roll.

Don’t worry. I already have purchased him a surprise of suitable appreciation.

***

Books coming along well, by the way, just in case you thought I’d abandoned writing for podcasting, which I absolutely have not. Although I loves me some podcasting.