Sandra Tayler's Blog, page 151

Staying home from an event

Soft footsteps padded across my bedroom carpet. Then the bed bounced as a small body rebounded off the side and under the covers. Patch wriggled his way into his favorite snuggle spot and we all drifted back to sleep for awhile.

Howard's morning playlist sounded off at the usual time, waking all of us. Usually we turn the alarm off on Saturdays, but Howard had to give a presentation at the LDS Storymakers Writing Conference. He would be gone all day and we planned for me to join him at t...

Dumping the thoughts in my head

My head is buzzing full of things. They're all zipping about so quickly that I'm having trouble forming them into a coherent story. So I'll just dump them in here at random, which will hopefully clear my head enough to let me sleep.

Today I ran down to the LDS Storymaker's Conference in Provo so that I could participate in the recording of a Writing Excuses podcast. The episode is called "Living with the Artist" and it is me, Dawn Wells (Dan Wells' wife), and Kenny Pike (Aprilynne Pike's...

Peace and Sunshine

The stressy, angsty time of this-book-is-almost-done has given way to the happy period of peace which frequently comes afterward. Or at least I'm having peace. Howard is still scrambling to build the buffer back up before we head out to a convention next week. I sometimes feel guilty that I'm having cheerful peace while Howard is still living in stress land. Then I remember that for me "happy peace" still includes a day that is scheduled by the hour. I'm just scheduling house and family ...

Small happiness with footnotes

When Clark Kent ducks into a phone booth and changes clothes, he becomes someone else*. Today I put on my stylish jeans and a swishy new scarf**. Then I sashayed myself down to the kitchen for a slice of hot three-cheese semolina dipped in spaghetti sauce. I felt young, attractive, and interesting with the shabbiness of my mom clothes laying in a heap on my bedroom floor***. Even better, I had the house to myself, and so my snack was uninterrupted. Later on I danced in my kitchen just...

That kind of day

Today is the kind of day where I start blogging and then discard everything I wrote because I realize that I'm telling the wrong story, or framing it in the wrong way. In fact today is the kind of day when I do that twice.

It is the kind of day which begins with Howard and I talking business as we bustle the kids off to school. Howard has to re-invent all of his work processes because his computer crashed to the blue screen of doom and the only solution was to reformat his drive and...

Spring Flowers

The bulbs arrived on a day that I was busy. In fact the whole week was not ideal for planting bulbs. I was a little grouchy with myself for ordering them. This is exactly why I'd ordered them by mail several months before. I knew I would never make time to go buy bulbs and plant them, but if they were already there, I would find time to prevent them from dying. So I took my trowel out in the chilly wind and began to dig holes.

I scraped holes in the dirt, trying not to disturb the few...

Talking about my book(s)

My work presents me with a confusion of language. When I talk about being done with a book to my writer friends, they naturally assume that I am discussing the book I am writing. What I'm really talking about is the layout work that I'm doing for a Schlock Mercenary book. Then I find myself saying "Oh I'm not talking about my book. It is Howard's book that is done." Only Howard's books are my books too. I have as much hand in them as he does even though my name only appears in small...

Palace Beautiful

I first heard about Palace Beautiful when I met the author, Sarah DeFord Williams. It was one of those friend of a friend on the internet introductions. The things she wrote intrigued me and so when the chance came to meet her in person, I jumped at it. I discovered she was even better in person and had the good fortune to visit with her regularly. That is how I came to have an Advanced Reader Copy of Palace Beautiful. I read it and loved it. The book is not without flaws, but I can't t...

Temporary Laurel Resting

I sent a package today. Me shipping something is a common occurance, but this package was special. It contained color proofs and digital files for Resident Mad Scientist. This means the count down clock is ticking toward the day when two pallets of books arrive in my driveway. I'll get a schedule from the printer once they review the files. At that point I can schedule the opening of pre-orders and the likely dates for the shipping party and release party.

It feels really good to have...

Getting Excited for Penguicon

In a little more than two weeks Howard and I are Michigan bound to attend Penguicon. I'm looking forward to the trip, both as a chance to visit with online friends and to get away from my regular round of things to do. It will be exhausting, conventions always are, but the company is going to be excellent.

Going to Penguicon with Howard will be an interesting closing-of-the-circle for me. We went together in 2004 when Howard was only a part-time cartoonist. At the time I was in the habit o...