Amy Lane's Blog: Writer's Lane, page 76

Yarn Ends

Okay-- two things today, one old, one new:

New:

ZoomBoy has taken to calling the dogs "assles", thinking that I won't notice he's really just copying ME when I call them assholes. I let him get away with it because A. Middle School, B. Mom swears all the time, what did I expect, and C. They dogs ARE assholes.

Anyway--

Squish today said, "Wait! Why does he get to say traffic words?"

Me: He doesn't really.

Squish: Do I get to call them assles?

Me: No! Neither of you should!

ZoomBoy: Why not?

Me: Because one day you're going to be talking about your pets in class and you're going to say "We've got three cats, two fish, and two assholes!" and then I"m going to get called to the principal's office!

They both seemed to think this was good reasoning and we dropped the subject.

Of course my real reason was that Mate isn't happy when the kids learn to swear--even though he's the second worst offender in the house.

So that was new.

Now old.

I'm trying to finish fingerless mitts and a couple of hats as swag. It's hard fitting the time in, and I had a flashback to when I used to knit baby blankets in three days and four sweaters a year.

And then I remembered the following conversation between me and a friend of mine.

We were "adopting" bears for Chicken's birthday-- a Build-a-Bear workshop. And in  your "adoption" papers, you have to put a few hobbies or words that described you.

"Oh, easy!" my friend said. "You're a yarner."

"That's it? I put writer--see?"  (I had just finished Vulnerable-- I was so proud.)

"Well, yeah-- but you leave little scraps of yarn everywhere you go.     So, you know, more knitter than writer."

And I realized I had to make a choice, schedule time, break away from my beloved knitting and write instead.

And it was a bigger sacrifice than it might seem.

I mean, I really love knitting.

But I stand by that choice back then. Writing is who I am.

Although I still do leave the occasional yarn end to mark where I've been. Think of it as fiber of love ;-)

Itsa Itsa Itsa... Dodge Caravan!

Okay-- the days have been quiet which doesn't give me much blog-fodder, but I have a few things today.

The first is I took the Odyssey in to get the back quarter repaired today--and realized I'd forgotten to reserve a rental car. I went to the rental car place--right next door to the repair shop--and resigned myself to a long wait for Mate. Hell, I couldn't even get him on the phone.

Then the girl--who looked disconcertingly like Buffy the Vampire Slayer--and I say that with all love, because Sarah Michelle Gellar is stunningly pretty and I adored Buffy--saw me sitting in the corner, looking across the street at McDonalds and wondering if maybe I should just wait there because at least there was coffee, and said, "Wait--did you turn in a minivan?"

"Yes..."

"So you'd want a minivan in return?"

"Sure!"

"I can get you one of those. Just wait."

Took her ten minutes.

And she didn't have to do it. I was the moron who hadn't reserved a car. I took to Twitter and @Enterprise and sent out something making sure she got an attagirl. And they said she would.  I mean, it was just so kind-- and she didn't have to. I hope she got a gift certificate somewhere awesome--I really do.

And the car was a newer Dodge Caravan-- which is the same make/model of the one that died--literally, gave it's last gasp into a parking spot--two years ago. BTW? This one looks totally different than that one. It's like a whole new car.

The kids were very puzzled--and very excited--with the new-to-us vehicle. The dogs were highly suspicious. Apparently all bad things start with a Dodge Caravan. I'm thinking Johnnie and Geoffie might still have memories of the old one.

And after that?

Well, Quickening Part 1 got it's second to last edit, and THAT'S exciting!

Oh! And I'm making KPoP mitts for swag for Coastal Magic-- can you tell?

Well... maybe if the dogs weren't in the way...

I'm pretty embarrassed about the fingerless mitts as a swag option btw. I really don't see how anybody would want them--I'm bringing books for backup.

Coastal Magic

So...

I'm going to be at Coastal Magic in Daytona Beach, Florida, in a couple of weeks, and I'm excited. I'm going down a few days early, spending time with a friend who both writes and knits, and we're going to attend a class given by Franklin Habit.

Be still my heart!

I can't even tell you how much I'm looking forward to this.

And at the same time...

Guilt.

Who will tell he kids to feed the cats? Who will walk the dogs? Who will keep Mate from lunging off the bed when he has a nightmare?

And as I contemplate the guilt, I realize it's been a long time since I've gone anywhere without my family.  Wow. September? Is that when Yaoi-Con was?

I've planned a year of moderate travel-- Coastal Magic, DSP Weekend in Orlando in March, Romantic Times in Atlanta, and possibly RWA in Florida, and it's occurred to me that I miss my family during these moments.

Parenthood and career is such a perilous balance, isn't it? I think, in the last two years I've made several unconscious decisions to pick family over career. Interesting that--how sometimes it just happens, whether you will it or not.

That doesn't mean the decisions are easy to live with-- I kick myself daily for not updating my website, not writing more letters to shop out Heaven, not connecting more with the publishing world.

But I think what it comes down to, is that in all the world the things I'd most like to do, are spend time with my family and write.

So that's what I do.

And it's important to remember that I'm the one who set this priority, because if things on the career front don't pan out the way I'd hoped, I'm the one who set the priority. 

Yeah, it sucks being a grownup sometimes.

Anyway--I'm rambling. It's 1:25 a.m, and mostly what I've done today is edit and sleep, with time out to walk the dogs and play Ultimate Werewolf with the kids. (We've been spending about 20 minutes a night doing this--the game comes with an app, and expansion packs, and generally, high hilarity.)  On the one hand, I've worked an eight hour day.

On the other, I've dozed in front of the television for an hour while Mate watched Bob's Burgers.

I think generally, I can't complain. I mean, I can--I've had setbacks, even one today that sort of broke my heart even though nothing really bad happened, I just had to adjust how I was thinking about a story. It will still be published--just not how I thought.

But that too, is a choice.

And not too bad of one, really.

So yeah-- I guess when you're the ultimate grownup, those choices are all about balance. Today wasn't a bad day on the beam.

The Beat Goes On

So...

I tweeted yesterday about taking the 9 a.m. Saturday morning aqua class to try to fit some aqua in before the rain comes again. It was 35 degrees when I got ready to leave.

Yeah-- chilly.

Now, the pool was heated-- 78 degrees for aqua, it might even be 80--so the worst part was stripping to my suit and walking to the stairs (and then the trip from the pool to the hot tub afterward) and the class was pretty small.  (This means we could work really hard--lots of room--so we could keep ourselves warm.)

Anyway, I hadn't met this aqua instructor before, but she was awesome. A salty woman in her sixties, she was having technical difficulties with her DVD player and I offered my phone in its place.

"I'm not sure what's on it," I said apologetically. "It's the kids' mix on Spotify."

"I have no idea what that means."

Well...

Heather Dale--March of the Cambreadth

Journey--Don't Stop Believing

The Romantics--What I Like About You

Dropkick Murphy's--The Warrior's Code

Mark Ronson--Uptown Funk

Boxer Rebellion--The Runner

Lil Wayne--Let it Rock

Hunger Games Soundtrack--The Hanging Tree

Heather Dale--Mordred's Lullaby


And I was living in fear that Linkin Park and Offspring would come on, because those songs had a lot of swear words.

Anyway-- it's sort of eclectic.

And the funniest part of the whole experience was when one of the other victims, er, class members, turned to me and said "Oh my God, how old are your kids?"

I had to laugh.

That's a very complicated answer!!!

But some of you were worried about me when I said I was going... I just thought I'd tell you I survived.

And I'm thinking of going in the cold tomorrow. But, you know, only if the music's good ;-)

ZoomBoy and the Dentist

Zoomboy had a dentist appointment today-- I was all over it. Was gonna take him at 10:30, get him back to school by 11:45, get to aqua right on time and BOOM.

Day mastered, motherhood achieved.

One or two little glitches to this plan.

It started out well enough-- I went to get him from school and chatted up the attendance lady.

She is the nicest person.

"Oh, yes. Zoomboy. He's the sweetest lamb. He was tardy today."

"Uh, yeah."

"He's tardy quite a bit--but not as much as last year, so that's encouraging."

(I may have mentioned before that Mate and I are THOSE parents.)  "He's getting better."

"Yes, but I remember him this morning. He's rocking the bright green mitts. So cheery!"

"I'm making him a hat to match."

"He'll love that! But he signs his name slower than any child I've seen in my entire career."

(Like me, she is not young. This is an unexpected landmark in Zoomboy's history of being Zoomboy.)

"Well, you know, we're both left handed."

"Yes-- and he's got to do the thing with his hand. I understand. But he's a sweetheart--and here he comes!"

So that went well--and I think we need to remember to give the attendance lady a gift on the last day of school. It would probably be very appreciated.

But anyway, that wasn't the glitch.  The glitches came with the appointment itself. First, they were running a little late. But the dentist was taking extra time with a fractious little one who was having a very bad day, and since I am a grownup and Zoomboy is a big kid, we could definitely wait for that.

The second was... uh...

Well, I hadn't counted on her using nitrous.

I mean, I should have. Because they were sealing and filling all his teeth. But I didn't.

Zoomboy floated out of the back office and I talked with the dentist. While I was doing that he fetched my yarn bag. And stood at my side, staring at me soulfully. Without saying a word.

We got to the car and I talked about his procedure for checking back into school, and he said, "Can I just go home. Please."

It was the first thing he'd said in fifteen minutes, and he mumbled. And it dawns on me.

"Are you feeling a little loopy?"

"My nostrils are cold."

"Are you seeing in sound?"

"No." Beat beat beat. "Am I drooling?"

"No."

"It's Friday the thirteenth. I"m glad you didn't go after all the people in my dream with a blood dripping  machete."

"Me too. That would have been unnerving."

"Yes. Don't do that."

And then he leaned his head against the car window and stared out into the bright sunshine.

"Okay then. We still need to go get your stuff."

"Okay." ... ... ...

Folks, the softly staring gaze was getting unnerving.

He had to hold my hand when we walked across the school quad so he didn't wander away.

"Is he checking back in?" the attendance lady asked, looking puzzled.

"Uh, no. They had to use nitrous."

Zoomboy stared happily into space and swayed.

"Oh. Do you think you can get to your locker, Zoomboy?" she asked as she wrote the pass.

"Zoomboy?"  I tapped his chin.

"Yeah. That's fine."

He wandered away and she was like, "Yeah, I don't think..."

"No, he's really not gonna..."

"Yeah. This isn't the day to go back to school."

I texted Mate. Even the attendance lady thinks he's too stoned to go to school. 

I texted Chicken, and she was like, "Ha ha-- I need to see that!"

I told ZoomBoy what she said.

"Tell her to take a picture."

So I did.

And I'm not sure if the picture is worth the 1000 words... but I do think it backs them up a little. He's playing video games now. And trying not to drool.

Nitrous--I need to file that away in my motherhood bag, so I know what to expect next time.

Cats

First of all, Rhae made me mitts, because she is wonderful. They are soft and scrumptious and smell like Damascus rose.

You can't have them, They're MINE. (Thanks Rhae!)

And about the cats...

The balance of power has changed here at chez Lane.  I'm trying to decide exactly how to fix things, but cats are particular creatures, you understand?

Gordie hates me because he thinks I'm the reason Chicken left. This is fact.

Gordie should love me, because I have reintroduced wet food into the dietary regime of our cats. This is also fact.

Newt Dewey loves me, because he loves everybody. This is fact.

Newt Dewey loves me in particular because I give the magic wet food. Again, a fact.

Newt Dewey also loves me in particular because I am the one who wakes up and pets him at o-crotch-thirty and I also laugh at him when he lands on the dogs' heads, causing great confusion. You know, fact.

Steve used to love me best because we were both bitch queens in a tiny stinky kingdom and she liked it that way.

Steve now hates me.  These are both sad truths.

Gordie now tolerates me.

Newt Dewey loves me in a very general way.

And the dogs are too stupid to understand that the balance of power has, indeed changed. They have initiated the following sequence of events:

Geoffie will plan to rush Newt Dewey because he is The Dreaded Cat.  Gordie will jump in front of Newt Dewey and stare Geoffie into running in the opposite direction, because Gordie is the REAL dreaded cat. Geoffie will ru n right into Steve and get beat up, because she hates ALL THE THINGS not me, but she also hates me because there is one more thing NOT ME in the house.

So, as you can see, there is a delicate balance of fur, hubris, and irritation going on in my tiny, stinky house. (We won't discuss what Gordie did behind the Christmas tree before we took it down. Let's just say I wanted to shove a lump of coal up that cat's ass.)

Because of that, the following peaceful convocation of cats was both welcome and...

Very, very suspicious.

If my family and I disappear in a while, do me a favor.

Be kind to all fat mice.

You never known if one of them is wearing teeny tiny glasses and tapping on a cell phone with her mittened little paws.

Back in the saddle...

*  The kids went back to school today

*  It is still raining

*  My shoes smell like troll vomit--I"m trying teabags in them to make them smell better tonight

*  Speaking of "teabags" there is a term ZB uses for his games called "tea bagging"-- I have no idea what it means, but since I see no gay porn on the Overwatch screen, I'm going to hope it means something else.

*  I miss aqua aerobics

*  The dogs are going to rebel if I take them walking in the rain one more time

*  The cats are still waiting fruitlessly for the world outside to change when they meow at the door

* Nope. Still raining.

*  I hit that stage of tired today where I don't know I"m tired

*  I think that question about "chair life" is no longer hypothetical-- my chair keeps sinking and it's pissing me off

* It's also funking up my back

*  Ordered swag today

*  Always order too much

*  And assume it sucks

*  Of course it sucks-- my sense of design--OI!

*  I want you all to see the cover for Bonfires but it's debuting on Joyfully Jay at the end of this month

*  Speaking of-- only a week and a half before I leave for Coastal Magic?

*  HOLY CATS! I NEED TO GET MY TOES DONE!

* But I DID dye my hair this morning

* Shocker-- it is NOT clown-car red

*  Gonna bail now--may tomorrow be filled with hope

*  But speaking of hope, I hope I don't see any more fictional stories deal with plane crashes before I get on a plane. I watched an episode of Travelers and almost had a heart attack.

*  Speaking of-- great show!

*  And on that note, I'm gonna bail.

*  May tomorrow be grand :-)

The Little Goddess Series explained

I'm sorry-- I know it's confusing.

I was originally writing and self-publishing just to be able to tell stories. I didn't see it as an industry or a business until I"d been doing it for six years and had written three series.

So the timetable for releasing all these books will feel really random if I try to explain it now.

But people were confused as to which ones were out and which ones weren't, and I thought I should explain.

The original order of the books went like this:

Vulnerable

Wounded

Bound

The Green's Hill Werewolf Stories 1-5

Rampant

The Green's Hill Werewolf Stories  #6

Guarding the Vampire's Ghost


 The reason The Green's Hill Werewolf Stories are sort of the odd-man out there is that I wrote the two GINORMOUS Bitter Moon books in between Bound and Rampant, and I missed the more contemporary writing. And, let's face it, the sex.

So-- that was the original order, if that's what you'd heard before or read before.

Now, since then, a couple of things have happened:

A. DSPP published this series and recovered them.

B. They had to split the SUPER LONG books into two volumes.

C. The Green's Hill Werewolf volumes were published by Torquere and THEN turned over to DSPP.  They will be RERELEASED in the fall.

D. I wrote THREE Green's Hill Novellas-- Guarding the Vampire's Ghost, Litha's Constant Whim, and I Love You, Asshole, which were all condensed into one volume called The Green's Hill Novellas. 

E. I FINISHED QUICKENING and it's out IN MAY AND JUNE.

*whew*




 So now-- the order of the books is:

Vulnerable

Wounded V. 1

Wounded V. 2

Bound V. 1

Bound V. 2

The Green's Hill Novellas

The Green's Hill Werewolves Volume 1  (Released this fall)

Rampant V. 1

Rampant V. 2

The Green's Hill Werewolves Volume 2 (Released this fall)

Quickening V. 1 --Released in MAY

Quickening V. 2--Released in JUNE

And now, I have the free download for Scorched Haven for you. You can read it on the website, or download the .pdf -- enjoy!  This story fits in at the very beginning of Quickening, but you won't find anything there that you don't know at the end of Rampant V. 2. 

(There are some small corrections I'm making to this file tomorrow--jsyk.)

So there you go!


I'm so excited about Quickening's release. I hope at the very least my new fans check out Vulnerable. 

There's so much to see!

Rain

When I was six years old, we lived in an old--extremely unsafe--house. We used to have to drain the claw-footed bathroom out the 1 1/2 story window with a piece of surgical tubing.




I was very conscious about water.  I remember washing my hands and wondering, "Where does the water go? Will we ever run out? No--grownups won't let it."




The next year, California entered the first drought that I can remember.




When I was eighteen, my best friend and I thought we'd go to my night classes during the worst storm California could remember. It was 1986-- horses drowned at Cal Expo that night, trees floated across flooded parked roads, and my friend and I were out in the middle of a maelstrom, because she was afraid her horse, roaming free in a field, might be in danger like the unfortunate animals down next to the Sacramento river. Her car stalled in the middle of someone's driveway, we walked three miles in the rain, dodged lamas swimming over a flooded fence, and broke into her friend's house so we could find shelter.



Dumb things you do when you're young and stupid, right?



In 1996, Mate's mom called us in our second story apartment and asked us if we were okay. When we replied--rather puzzled--that we were fine, she told us to look out the window. Our apartment was fine, but half a block down, every 1st story apartment in the block was under water.



Last year, it was reported that the middle of my state had sunk nearly three inches because the water table had dropped so low, the earth was actually SINKING.



Californians worry about water.



One way or another, every day.  Is the snow pack high? Will it get us through summer? Is it melting too fast? Will we flood this winter? Will the storm wash us away?



I took the dogs walking today for half a mile. They still think I was trying to kill them.

So today was all about rain.

I brought you some songs--all about rain.

Mitts

So, I didn't even realize until Friday night-- late-- that I'd forgotten to blog Thursday night. Oi!

I figure that's okay though-- I have a FaceBook event tomorrow, HERE  the January Blast, with lots of giveaways and fun stuff, along with authors Kate MacMurray and Rayna Vause. I got Kim Fielding and Tara Lain and ZAM to participate in the giveaway so it should be REALLY fun.

Anyway, that was a good enough reason to post tonight, but also... we have the saga of the mitts.

So, in a rant about cold earlier this week, I whined (moaned, bitched, kvetched, you name it) about how my hands were cold and I'd lost ONE of my beloved fingerless mitts. Now I do this EVERY YEAR. Hanging around in my house are about twelve SINGLE MITTS from the times when I lost one. Yes, that makes me your seven year old kid.

Anyway--

So I whined about that, and Rhae Camdyn, whom I chat with daily on FaceBook, set about making me another pair.

Because she's FRICKIN' AMAZING LIKE THAT.

I took her up on that--I had kid projects to do-- big T's scarf, a pair of mitts for Chicken, a hat for ZoomBoy (but now he wants mitts too...)

Anyway--I was eyeball deep in kid projects, and she offered to make me my own. I was blessed.

Well, I finished Chicken's mitts, and they turned out so awesome I'm on for a pair for ZoomBoy and Squish, and Rhae's are on the way...

And today... today...

Today, we went to the grocery store for a big trip (not just bread or milk or eggs.)  So, in our part of California, we bring our own bags. I mean we can pay for a bag, but it's become a point of pride with me to remember my own bags--I've talked before about my bag full of bags in my bag. (I can play that game all day, don't get me started.)

Anyway, at the bottom of the bag full of bags in the bag was...

The other mitt.

THE OTHER MITT.

People, this has never happened. Not once. I have NEVER found the other mitt.

Unprecedented. But I'm so happy. I'm wearing them both right now, and they are all wool and faintly felted and... just lovely.

*happy sigh*

So, that was exciting (if you're me, and apparently live the least exciting life of all time.

Of course, I wish I'd found it last night when we were at the King's Game-- because coming home was COLD once we got off the train.

I have to say something about going to see a Kings game now. See, it used to be, we'd go to the old shitty arena which was practically out in the middle of farmland, and it felt sort of personal--but very "cow town" which is what people call Sacramento for a reason. WE WERE IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIELD. Anyway, now, with the new arena, right in the middle of K street, taking the train to downtown feels like an EVENT. The arena is lovely (if cramped--and no, I'm not the only person to say so.)

And finally, I'll leave you with this:

This morning I drove to get my coffee and then came home and gave the family THEIR hot chocolate and took the dogs for a walk. During most of this I was having a phone conversation with a friend. It was raining--not hard, but steadily--and it didn't seem like that big of a deal to be bareheaded--I was just going half a mile, right?

And I talked and held the dogs and juggled the phone and picked up poop and...

And I walked in the house and Mate lost his shit.

"Oh my God! You're soaking wet! Your hair is dripping all over the place. You've got a hood--why didn't you use it?"

I was still juggling the phone and the dogs and now my dripping jacket. "I only have too hands!" I protested.

"PUT DOWN THE PHONE!"

Well, the person on the other end of the line LOST HER SHIT and Mate laughed his scrawny ass off--and me? I hung my jacket up outside and ran to change. I've got to admit.

I was freezing my own ass off as well.

Anyway--

Don't forget to stop by Facebook Tomorrow  and visit!  I promise-it'll be fun!