C.E. Murphy's Blog, page 39

gym blog: day three

So going to the gym on Friday was definitely a good move. Today, after yesterday’s 3rd gym session, I feel stiff but not really sore, whereas I’d have been crippled if I’d started all over again.

That said, I didn’t really cover myself with glory in yesterday’s session. My left knee (and obviously quads, because the knee bone connected to the etc) really is MUCH weaker than my left. I’ve obviously been compensating with my right leg ever since I fell off the sidewalk in Y2K and screwed up my...

Recent Reads: HANDS OF FLAME

It turned out re-reading HANDS OF FLAME was somehow slightly less weird than re-reading HOUSE OF CARDS, although it was ALSO full of things I either barely remembered, didn’t remember at all until it came to the moment of it happening, or remembered when something else triggered the memory but it turned out I was wrong about when it happened.

This is just full of spoilers, obviously, and so I’ll cut this entry here instead of letting most of it dangle out like I’ve done with the last two.

Fo...

gym blog: day two

I was not as sore as I expected to be, after the first workout. Whether the trainer really accurately judged my physical capabilities, or if I knew when to stop, or some happy combination thereof, it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

Which isn’t to say I haven’t spent the past three days whimpering and groaning and staggering. Once I get moving I’m okay but my thighs have lodged a Strong Protest, and sitting down has become something of a matter of faith that the chair isn’t going to move in any wa...

gym blog: the first workout

I went, more than somewhat trepidatiously, to the first trainer-dictated workout. Actually, no, trepidatiously is putting it too kindly. I was just not looking forward to it at all.

The workout went something like this:
12 minutes of This Will Probably Make You Puke (crosstrainer, I only lasted 8 minutes because I didn’t want to puke)

8 minutes of I Can Do This One Forever (cycling)

6.5 minutes of This Wouldn’t Be So Bad If I Had Any Back Muscles At All But I Don’t So It Hurts (rowing)

Then t...

artist’s figurines

So I had a great and terrible desire for these artist’s models and although I don’t really draw enough to justify them, it so happened that my great and terrible desire aligned with the Irish date for Mother’s Day, so Ted got ’em for me as a mother’s day gift.

They arrived yesterday (just in time for American Mother’s Day!) and I just spent an hour or more fiddling with them.

Conceptually they’re pretty damn terrific. The articulation is as good as it looks. They have nifty little boxes for...

a smol exercise

I went to the gym for my Consultation today. That sounds very impressive, doesn’t it, a Consultation? Very impressive.

I was not looking forward to it at all. I have never been Consulted at a gym before. It turned out to be fine. My strong opinions were not swept away by Somebody Who Knows Better, so, y’know. It was fine. (“Okay, cardio,” the guy says. “What kind of cardio are you interested in?”

“I will not run for you,” I said flatly. “I’ll swim, cycle, row, whatever, but I will not run.”

H...

Recent Reads: HOUSE OF CARDS

So this is the book I had to rip 2/3rds of out & rewrite and revise what was left in 6 weeks.

It turns out I’d forgotten a LOT of what happens in it. I actually got seriously invested in finding out what happens! That was weird! :)

Like, I had no idea Margrit got involved with the selkies so fast in it. Not that I could tell you when I *thought* she had, but…definitely not that fast. And although in the actual descriptions, Kaimana is meant to be shorter and bulkier than most of the other Old...

gym membership

We found a gym we can get to on the bus, and in a moment of daring, got memberships.

The guy helping us was from Miami. He was fit and slim and gorgeous like he’s always been 190lbs. Says he was 240, 2 years ago.

(This commentary paused while Ted and I have an argument about how much the dude weighed. THE POINT IS HE LOST FIFTY POUNDS AND DOESN’T LOOK LIKE HE WAS EVER OVERWEIGHT.)

Anyway, the paperwork we filled out had a number of questions that Ted and I perhaps didn’t take quite seriously...

Cover Reveal: BEWITCHING BENEDICT

I am ALMOST DONE with revisions on BEWITCHING BENEDICT, my little Regency that’s the first of the Lovelorn Lads romance series. It’s a charming, funny little comedy of manners that I genuinely believe anybody who likes my stuff will really enjoy, even though it (*looks furitive, whispers*) hasn’t got any fantasy aspects to it.

The Lovelorn Lads are something of a cross between Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and PG Wodehouse conceptually, in that there are seven Lads who are close friends, an...

Recent Reads: HEART OF STONE

I’m re-reading the Negotiator Trilogy, which I haven’t done since (before) they were published. I’m doing this so I can write KISS OF ANGELS, which is set (at least partially) after the trilogy, and in some ways I have only a vague idea of what the books are about. I mean, obviously I know what they’re about, but…

Some of you may know that the reason I haven’t written more book-length Old Races stories is that writing the Negotiator Trilogy was…awful. Just awful. Like, I had a small nervous b...