Lyda Morehouse's Blog, page 57

One Wedding and a Furnace...

My fifth day of NaNoWriMo hasn't been terribly awesome. I did actually write a tiny bit on my project, but I spent most of the day fretting and chasing after things involving our furnace broiler.

Last night we had a little scare. The pressure rose up to 35, almost 40. That's outside of the safe zone by quite a bit. Normally, the pressure hovers between 10 and 20. I did the only thing I knew to do: bleed the radiators. That seemed to work. Only later, it happened again. This went on all night, and I ended up calling Xcel Energy at 11:00 pm. We have a HomeSmart plan with them that covers our furnace. So, they called in the people they work with, KB Furances, and I talked to a very helpful guy on the phone to tried to talk me through the possible problems. BEFORE ALL YOU SUPER-HANDY PEOPLE START OFFERING ADVICE, YOU'RE WRONG! Seriously, you, the Internet and several furance guys all told me the same thing: you need to drain your overflow tank. Yeah, well, no.... Turns out our overflow tank hasn't worked properly in years, nay, probably decades, (I found this out, of course, long after spending several hours and scrapping several knuckles attaching a garden hose while standing on a ladder.) At any rate, after spending the day fussing and worrying and dealing with furnace guys and reading everything about radiators on the Internet, I finally reconfigured the McGyver that had been working for the last several millineum (er, at least since Mongomery Ward sold boilers), and, as Scotty so often says, "She's holdin' steady, captain!"

So my day was kind of shot.

I did, however, commit a bit of fan art, which I'll share at a later date. I'd post it now, but I'd like to be able to link to the completed story that it belongs to--but my friend empty_mirrors and I are still writing that.

Saturday was a busy, yet fun day. We had a family wedding, which, quite frankly, I'd been dreading. It was for Shawn's neice who is technically a step-neice, and I only mention that because it sort of MATTERS to them in a you're-not-one-of-us way, or at least, we always got the impression that it did. We did want to go, however, because we had the opportunity to hang out with the groom one time when the family gathered for its semi-annual fleischkuekle deep fry, and discovered he was an amazingly nice young man from Argentina named Matyas with a soft-spoken (sometimes deadpan) sense of humor, and we thought, well, we should go for him if nothing else.

Turns out the wedding was kind of awesome. At one point I was pretty sure I was in hell, but that was only because I got cornered by a particular relative with whom I ALWAYS exchange words (and not the pleasant ones.) The ceremony itself was officiated by the very same Unitarian minister who took care not only of our nephew Adam's funeral, but our daughter Ella's as well. She's an amazingly good minister and made the wedding feel spontaneous, genuine and full of laughter.

At the reception we were stuck at the table wedged into the far back corner, which we promptly labeled the Misfits Table. Luckily, when we were joined by another couple, I decided to channel my inner (okay, always outer and always on) best extroverted hostess. I asked all sorts of interesting questions and managed to hand out one of my writing business cards.... because... well, because I ALWAYS DO THAT. (My "stage mom" father should be proud.)

But being that "on" always wears me out, so I slept like a rock, even with the time change.

Sunday, I had an event where I was meant to be the star of a koffeeklatch discussion with MinnSpec (the Minnesota Speculative Fiction Writers group.) I felt sort of babbly and over-shary, but whatever. No one ran from the room screaming and I was able to give away the last of my contributor copies of PRECINCT 13 as freebies. So I call it a win. I also met up with one of my NaNoWriMo local writing buddies, and we chatted a long time afterwards about writing in general and NaNo in specific.

I got home a bit later than expected and discovered Mason's playdate already in progress. Mason's across-the-street buddies invited him and his friend out to play swords and capture the flag and whatever "spud" is. That was lovely, actually, because it meant us grow-ups (which included naomikritzer got to talk without child-filters on, and I always love hanging out with Naomi, regardless.

A good weekend until the whole furnace debacle, actually. As I said on Facebook, I love owning an old home, but I don't always love old plumbing (and other old fixtures.) Also, occassional I miss having a landlord on speed dial to whom I could simply say, "Fix this!" Even if they ignored the problem, it wouldn't be _mine_, you know?

Okay, back to the writing grindstone. I still have Loft proposals to write as well as NaNo projects. *sigh*

The Universe Provides!

If you are also doing NaNoWriMo, you can become my writing buddy or check out my progress on "Shattered Mask" by following (or whatever) user: lydamorehouse. I have to confess that if you go there today you will see that I have a word count total of 3,944. This is a lie. That *is* the progress I have on this novel to-date, but it's actually the chunk that I wrote previously.

I wrote nothing yesterday.

Actually, uh, well,...

Okay, another problem I'm having? As I was setting up my profile for NaNoWriMo, do you know what I found? A FORUM FOR PEOPLE WRITING FAN FICTION!!!!! Yes, I am screaming! I'm screaming because, hello? How is that going to help my problem? As I said on Facebook (with apologies to my friends in the recovery community,) it's like walking into your first AA meeting and discovering an open bar in the back room!

On the flip side, the universe has finally told me how I can make money writing fan fiction. I got an amazing e-mail the other day from the woman who runs the teen writing program at the Loft. She told me that she was going over the evaulations for the workshop that I did for the Loft during their teen writing conference (the one with the suprise 40 kids signed up), and she asked if I'd be willing to consider teaching some summer courses for teens at the Loft. Of course, I said yes without even thinking much about it. She sent me a list that had been produced by the kids on the questionnaire in answer to the question, "What kind of classes would you like to see taught?" Guess what? At least one person put down, "Writing Fan Fic." There was another person who specifically wanted help writing Dr. Who fan fic, and someone else trying to figure out how to make the switch from writing fan fic to writing original work.

I figured I must have died and gone straight to heaven. It would only have been more perfect if someone had specifically requested, "Writing Bleach Fan Fic: 10 Tips for Characterizing Renji Abarai."

The Loft is specifically looking to me to teach writing SF/F, of course, but I thought I might actually also propose a week-long class called, "No More Kudos! How to Make the Move from FanFic to Original Fiction" about some of the differences between (and struggles with) writing fan fic and writing original work. Because, for my money, there are a bunch of ways in which fan fiction is significantly different--there's a lot more "front loading" of characterization (and character description) necessary, for instance. There's the problem of how soap opera/"plot, what plot" can be fine for a meandering 200,000 word fic, but is death to the commerical novel. And, then there's the emotional withdrawl of the difference between writing in community versus writing alone (and ultimately kind of unsupported.) I think there's EASILY five days worth of subject matter that could be covered in a course like that. Plus? I really, really think there are teen writers out there that are craving a class like this. When I was desperately trying to find common ground with the students in my workshop, fanfic was it. All the eyes in the room lit up when I randomly asked, "Okay, how many of you are into fanfic? How many write it?" Hands shot up all over. When I admitted to also writing fanfic (and how valuable I found it when I was first learning to write), there was actually almost an audible, "Oh!" that carried with it a sense of, "Holy shit, a grown-up/professional writer who GETS this!!??" I could almost instantly tell that the mood had shifted from "bored now," to "Maybe I should listen to what she says...."

Fingers crossed, because, damn it, that would be a truly legit way to make money off my fan work.

I was actually quite excited by the list of thing the kids had requested. I have to remember to contact my friend Rachel, ( jiawen , are you listening?) to let her know that the Loft Teen Program is specifically looking for instructors to do a class on writing for RPGs/other gaming. But, they were also looking for topics like, "How to Write the Big Bad" all about writing villains and one of my favorites which I remember verbatum, "How to Write Romance that Isn't Cheesy... or Gross." (Which I'm also going to totally propose with that EXACT title.)

The nice thing, too, about the way the Loft structures its teen program is that you do a week or two week long intensive, M-F, in the middle of the day in the summer--kind of like writing camp. Since Mason is in school during several of the "summer" months, due to his year-round program, this is very, very appealing to me.

At any rate, I should get to all that. Plus, I need to make some actual, honest progress on my NaNoWriMo novel.

Bad Hair and a Plastic Katana

Last night was Halloween.  This year, the holiday snuck up on me like a ninja.  Actually, someone stole all of October all together, so all of a sudden, there we were putting up porch decorations in a hurry, buying candy last minute, and throwing together costumes.  Actually, Mason had his costume picked up several days ago.  It was me that, at seven-oh-five, said, "Oh!  I know I'll dress up too."  But, despite feeling like we did it all last minute, things went well.

Here's Mason and I gutting the pumpkins:




Our cat, Deliah, trying to figure out what the heck the monkeys are up to.... and whether or not any of it is tasty.

The finished faces (designed by Mason, carved by ima):

Mason as "Skeletrox." This is a name he came up for himself. He's looking pretty scary, and I have to feel a wee bit proud of the leg bones as I built those myself onto his black jeans with a bit of creativity and some duct tape sheets. (Did you know duct tape came in sheets? We didn't until we were at Michael's for Mason's friend Datlton's birthday party and spotted them.)

Here's the lovely Ms. Rounds as your newest Defense Against Dark Arts professor:



And, now, the most ridiculous samuari ever.... I think the glasses really give my costume that perfect Edo Period look, don't you? Of course, you can't tell in the picture, but I don't have actual hakama. I'm still looking to buy a cheap pair somewhere, so I'm wearing my Kuk Sool Wan gi. So I guess I'm a mixed Korean Martial artist with bad hair and a plastic katana. *snort*

Talking Smart

I'm wrong on the Internet again. Check out what I have to say about the connection between Gothic Literature and Urban Fantasy at SF Signals.

Embarrassed and Miserable

Last night I went to a costume party. Ostensibly, it was for our children, but almost every adult came in costume, as well. There was at least one family that was entirely on theme: dad came as Han Solo, mom as Leia, and eldest son as a Clone Trooper (one of the Wolf Pack, I believe,) and the baby as an incredibly adorable Yoda. Another family was mostly on theme, with a mom in a complete Disney evil queen, youngest daughter as Snow White (with apple), and then their eldest daughter veered off into some kind of furry cosplay (a wolf? a cat? something with ears and a tail and a cute furry vest!) and dad out of it and utterly mundane. I told dad that, since he had a beard, he could have come as the huntsman. All he would have needed was a box with a heart in it. Everyone looked at me like I was insane. Apparently, it's been a while since they all saw Snow White, because I'm pretty sure that's in the movie... where the huntsman collects a deer's heart instead of Snow White's? Anyone? Bueller?

Since my hair is long, dark and stringy, I went as a young (female) Professor Snape. I guess this was my first foray into crossplay. But, I think I pulled it off pretty well; I attempted brief moments of Alan Rickman like gravitas, at any rate, and drawled out one, "Obviously."

Mason went as a skeleton. I guess we could be on theme if you imagine I was dasterdly enough to have used an unforgivable curse on my own son, and somehow his Avada Kedavra'ed corpse was up and wandering around.

I have to say, however, there's something innately amusing about standing around in someone's living room with a bunch of adults in costume. The kids, of course, were having a grand time, running around and screaming at each other. But, all the adults managed to look embarrassed and miserable, except for the few of us who have no shame. Stuck forever in my mind will be the guy dressed as Han Solo, sitting on a folding chair with a beer in one hand, looking absolutely shellshocked and dazed as kids ran past him one by one shreiking at high decible levels.

Priceless.

Probably the best adult costume was the woman who came dressed in a giant binder. She was a binder full of woman. Awesome.

We're Live in: Three, Two...

... One!

Finally, the long-awaited video of Kyell Gold reading his slash (and my reactions) at Gaylaxicon is now available for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Crap, my Stupid Carp Died.

I guess I'm glad I didn't write this morning to report on Loki's good health.  He was, in fact, in good health until sometime today.  Just now, at dinner time, we found his lifeless body behind the Grecian ruins. 

I'm... well, I'm sad, but I'm also kind of mad.  Damn it.  I nursed that fish back to health.  He was swimming!  I was just telling naomikritzer  today how I babied him by keeping the light on all night for him (he seemed to be afraid of the dark, honestly.)  Now he up and croaked on me.  Stupid carp.  Crap.

Now I have to get ready for Wyrdsmiths, and all I want to do is stand in front of the empty tank and gnash my teeth.

Stayin' Alive

When I left the house to head for the coffee shop this morning, Loki was still alive.  He's completly shell shocked and hiding under the filter, but so far so good. 

I had a HORRIBLE fish dream last night, though, clearly about the recent fish-related trauma.  I dreamed I had a tiny fish, like a white mountain minnow, who kept flopping out of his tank and I had to try to pick him up off the floor--except in my dream, every time I got my hands on him, he'd slip back out and fall into some horrible new place.  The most memorable image?  Him getting tangled in a huge spiderweb, and when I finally got him out of that he was gasping and covered in dust and webbing.

Clearly, I feel like a terrible fish mommy.

Since I was asked to provide some pictures of the recent house project, I have a couple for you:



This is a view of the picky bits.  It may not be obvious in the photo, but the crown moulding is painted brown.  In the furtherst room visible in the picture is what the real moulding should look like.  But all of the crown moulding in the downstairs was badly mistreated by our previous owners.  They used that popcorn plaster spray on the ceiling and, for reasons known only to the dark recesses of their twisted minds, they sprayed the same crap all over the lovely hardwood moulding.  Possibly because owners previous to them had painted it as well.  I know this because in the golden room, our dining room, I scraped all the popcorn plaster crap from the moulding and then used a heat gun to remove several layers of paint.  Underneath it all is a beautiful dark (red?) maple or possibly even oak.  But that's a sh*tload of work, and not anything resembling a weekend project. Shawn and I have decided that painting the moulding will work for now, and that eventually, when Mason is off to M.I.T. or Yale, we will tackle the messy, arduous project of refinishing the moulding for real.

I also painted the walls, which used to be a dirty, grayish sort of white, but are now a color that doesn't show terribly well in the photos but is a sort of creamy yellowish white.



Here, perhaps, is a slightly better sense of color.  The "new" paint is the lighter colored one.  The other wall of the foyer is the deeper gold of the dining room.  I also painted those radiator pipes going up the wall and the crown moulding you see there.  The ceiling still needs to be done at some point, but that's a little less critical because it's held up fairly well and will be repainted a very similar sort of egg-shell whitish color.

You wouldn't think such tiny bits of wall and moulding would take so long, but I spent nearly all of Sunday working on this stupid project.  The upside is that it really looks quite lovely now, and it's done.  We shouldn't need to repaint for several years.

And, now for something completely different:



Here's the latest of my fan art: Renji and Zabimaru.  Yep.  Still obsessed.

As of This Moment...

As of this moment, Loki yet lives. 

I thought for sure he was a goner yesterday, however.  At one point he seemed to shed his entire skin/slime coat.  It was... stringy and disgusting.  Mason looked at Loki and asked me, "Is he rotting alive?"  Turns out, not so much.  I'm now thinking that the medicine I put in stripped the crap off his skin/slime coat, and that might actually have HELPED. 

But with all that gross crap floating around in the tank, I decided I'd better keep changing the water a lot.  I must have done a 25% water change twice since then, and now Loki isn't just sitting on the bottom of the tank but ACTUALLY SWIMMING (albeit hiding underneath the filter.)

So... yeah.  Fins and fingers crossed.

I feel like the worst fish mom ever, but, well, I'm doing everything I know to do.  I think we just have to play wait and see now.  I'm not sure that I will go back to PetCo to replace Thor, though.  I'm thinking they may have brought this horror with themselves, especially since I can't imagine anything left in the tank that could have acted so fast.

I'm also currently avoiding writing.  I'm still stuck on my proposal, but I'm also in the middle of writing some porny bits on my slash/fan fic.  For someone who has technically made a living as a romance writer, I have to say, writing sex is always difficult for me. I get so incredibly embarassed by it.  I had to already write several lines touch typing because I was too flustered to look at the words as they appeared on the screen.  It's weird.  I think part of it  with fanfic/slash is that I know people are going to read this (in fact probably this more than the ones where there's only romance/sexual tension) and I keep thinking, "What if this is only hot to me?"  (Yet, a literature survey has shown me that, no, a lot of people go for what appears to be my kinks.)  Even so, it's like a minature version of the slash reading...  I keep thinking that if I'd had to read something as explicit as Kyell's Road Runner piece, I'd have actually expired from the embarrassment.

Anyway, I should go do something productive.  Either just bite the bullet and write the sexy parts, or plot out my proposal.

Gah.

Random Thoughts (and Fish)

First of all, I'm completly bummed out.  We bought two new shubunkins (calico goldfish) at PetCo and happily brought them home.  They've been doing great after what seemed like the inital shock of being in a new place where the lights go on and off.  We named them Thor and Loki. 

Thor is dead.

I was so shocked to discover Thor's lifeless body this morning after dropping the family off at school and work.  I mean, he was swimming happily a few hours ago!  I have no idea what happened.  My only thought is that the fish either brought some disease with them or, somehow, despite several thorough water changes, there was still something lurking in my tank from the previous fish. 

The only good news is that PetCo knows that fish are risky, so there's a 30 day "return" policy.  If your fish croak, they'll replace them free of charge.  So, if Loki pulls through this, I will go back and get him a new companion, and perhaps name the new fish something that would make Loki happier... perhaps Fenrir?

In other less depressing news, I started the sequel to Precinct 13 (and it's hillarious!).  Having talked to haikujaguar  off-line a bit aout this, I think I'm going to try the serialization model.   The plan is that once I get a couple of thousand words written, I'll post the first part "for free."  After that, I'll follow with an offer for more, if folks are interested in paying for it... or maybe, I'll just link to a tip jar for a while until I'm sure I have an interested readership.  I think besides some of the nitpicky deals (like setting up the tip jar icon through paypal), the challenge is going to be getting the word out. 

I thought I'd post here as well as the vastly under-used tate hallaway blogspot blog, and promote it via twitter and facebook. If you folks have ideas, now would be a great time to send them along.

It's going to be an interesting experiment, at any rate.  I've been writing like this (in small installments) for fan fic, so I'm not worried that I can push myself to continue to post every several days and that the story will be coherent.  What worries me is that these stories will go out into the world with a resounding thud, as they fall from the nest completely unable to fly.  I have a hard time believing I have enough fans to make this work. 

If nothing else, I should have something resembling an e-book at the end.

And, it should be fun, regardless of any profits made along the way.

Meanwhile, I've gotten several pages written on my next stab at a military SF proposal for my editor.  This time I'm going for a much simpler, straight-forward story with an uncomplicated hero.  As Shawn said to me the other day, "Think: Captain America."  That very well be the peice that's been missing from the other tries, and, as they say, nothing ventured.... I've been stuck on some plot points for that, but I've decided to let my brain turn things over and percolate a bit.  Still, I hope to have something for Wyrdsmiths to look over at the next meeting, which I think is this Thursday.

Oh, yeah, and I spent all day yesterday painting the foyer.  It's a tiny space, really, but this included painting the crown molding (which the previous owners sprayed over with that bumpy plaster crap), and the door and a bunch of other picky bits.  Still, it looks marvelous now.  I'm quite pleased... and tired now.