Friskbiskit

MamaRoo

Okay so I flew out to LA yesterday to visit family and I met my new grand nephew Oscar for the first ime last night. He's awesome! Today I'm hanging out with him and his dad. Tried feeding him. He cried. What can I say? I have that effect on students, too. Sigh.

Right now Oscar is napping in his MamaRoo swing. This is the coolest thing. It's a pod-shaped bed recliner mounted on a pedastal that can be set to move in a variety of ways, and it comes equipped with a selection of white noise and nature sounds, or you can plug your iPod or iPhone. 

 (This is not Oscar in the video. It's a video of someone else's kid I ganked from Youtube.)

Now what I want to know is where can I get and adult-sized one of these for myself?

Winter Puppy Potty Post

I think Ruthie thinks we're making it cold to punish her.

I've been crowing to anyone who'll listen about how nice it is to have a dog we can just let outside to do her business and she goes and does it and comes back and we don't even have to go out with her.

But lately, when I open the door to let her back in she hesitates, then dashes inside and crawls under the orange rocking chair, her tail tucked between her legs. I thought it might help if I went out with her so I just did, but it didn't seem to make any difference.

Poor little beast. I'd hate to have to go outside in bare feet to go to the bathroom. That said, we are NOT going back to the days of papers in the bathroom, which is what we did with our first two dogs. That got old, believe me. Ruthie is just going to have to tough it out for another month or so.

Did the groundhog see his shadow yesterday? Ruthie wants to know!

Winter Puppy Potty Post

I think Ruthie thinks we're making it cold to punish her.

I've been crowing to anyone who'll listen about how nice it is to have a dog we can just let outside to do her business and she goes and does it and comes back and we don't even have to go out with her.

But lately, when I open the door to let her back in she hesitates, then dashes inside and crawls under the orange rocking chair, her tail tucked between her legs. I thought it might help if I went out with her so I just did, but it didn't seem to make any difference.

Poor little beast. I'd hate to have to go outside in bare feet to go to the bathroom. That said, we are NOT going back to the days of papers in the bathroom, which is what we did with our first two dogs. That got old, believe me. Ruthie is just going to have to tough it out for another month or so.

Did the groundhog see his shadow yesterday? Ruthie wants to know!

Home Again

Just got back from a wonderful week in Michigan's Leelenau peninsula. For the past twelve years we've been renting a house on a little spring-fed lake called Pearl Lake. It's pretty much my favorite place on earth. For the past week I've been kayaking, and reading, and kayaking, and eating, and kayaking... You get the picture. And just in case you don't, here's this:

Desecrated

I was distressed when the dueling piano bar moved into town, but it wasn't until tonight that I confronted the depth of the depravity now present in my neighborhood. I was out walking Ruthie tonight and we passed the place. One of the guys was performing Blister in the Sun by The Violent Femmes.

I feel dirty inside.

My Wandering Spleen

No, it's not a metaphor for how I occaisionally latch onto an issue and beat it like a dead horse. It's an explanation for where I've been for the past couple of weeks.

Let me elaborate.

Last week I was in a lot of pain with what I thought was a stomach virus. I finally broke down a week ago today, and went to the doctor. He sent me to emergency. Everyone assumed I had a nasty little condition called diverticulitis, but no, it wasn't that either. Turns out I have a very rare condition called (I'm not making this up) Wandering Spleen. Yep. My spleen is (or rather was) not very firmly attached to anything and thus, it gets around, the floozy. It got tangled up in my intestines, which were squeezing the life out of it. So they had to operate and remove my half-dead wandering spleen before it spread infection to the rest of my organs and I died.

Now I'm at home, recouperating, and gradually getting back up to speed. But I'm behind on everything. 

Including the wrap up to my PayPal Censorship coverage and contest, which is forthcoming.

It's good to be home. Mostly I sleep, and eat, and look after the animals. But last night I did some work on my poor, patient, very overdue WIP, and that felt good.

Polaris Project

Sometime around midnight tonight, my new m/m romantic suspense novel, Broken, will drop from Loose Id. Its about the younger brother of a mob boss who falls for the new rent boy his brother bought to expand the mob's escort service.

Xiu is the rent boy and he's a victim of human trafficking.

According to the United Nations, over twelve million people worldwide are bought and sold for forced labor and sexual exploitation. But Polaris Project is working hard to change that. Through a combination of direct services to people in trafficking situations, education, and policy advocacy, this organization is striving every day to bring about a world free of slavery.

They have a hotline anyone can call for help and information: 1-888-3737-888.

While I was writing Broken, I decided I wanted to contribute some portion of my proceeds from the book to an anti-trafficking organization. After checking out Polaris Project's informative web site and vetting them through Charity Navigator (they've recieved the highest rating of four stars for three years in a row), I decided to go with them.

So, for the first four months of sales, I will donate half of my proceeds to Polaris Project.

I hope you will join me in spreading the word about this worthwhile organization, and their cause.

Ah, Friday

Been taking it easy the last couple days. On Wednesday I got up to 50,000 words on Dharma Café thanks to Write or Die, and I could tell that the reservoir was running dry. So I stopped. Yesterday I took a bigass bike ride (3+ hours), and read Anubis Gates, which is one of the books I've assigned for the Readings in Classic Fantasy course I'm teaching this fall for Seton Hill's Writing Popular Fiction program. Today I started reading over Dharma Café from the beginning, and did yet more reading on Anubis Gates. Hoping to finish the reading list for the course in the next week or so. Tonight we had Kris and Laura over and watched Rango. Beautiful animation.

That's it. Nice not feeling under the gun for a change. But of course, there are always deadlines looming on the horizon, and Broken comes out Sept. 20 and I have got to get the promo machine in gear.

Almost Ready...

...for the big trip to San Fran. Is that an okay thing to say? San Fran? Or does it label me an ignorant hick?

Spent yesterday getting readings ready and compiling talking points. Turns out I have a lot to say! Did you know it took me four years to sell Still Life with Boobs? And another four years to find a legit market for m/m? Jeez. No wonder I'm so impatient these days. I've waited enough, already!

All my data points and spiels are on the iphone. Paulette suggests I print out backups. Probably wise. Today I have to finish preparing my readings, and pack, and later this afternoon there's a drum circle, because apparently today Pluto and Venus are getting all pervy and sweet with each other, and the moon is in Taurus. Christopher says this is all good stuff, and I should come to the drumming, so I'm gonna try. My horoscope says that this coming week an obstacle I've been pounding away at for months or perhaps years will suddenly crumble. Don't want to get hung up on expectations, but that would be nice. Feeling encouraged and excited about the trip.

Meanwhile, I just spent an hour figuring out how to load .doc files onto stanza on my phone, so I don't have to take the kindle with me, or the laptop.

Time to get to those readings!

 

Taking the Sting Out

I'm really partying it up lately. Monday I made Xmas buns: poppyseed and apricot.  Yum!

Yesterday my friend Brian had an extra ticket to the advance screening of The Green Hornet, but no ride. Fortunately, my car is out of the shop after a nasty run in with a ninja fire hydrant on the Dark of the Moon. Gendel Collision, all of you in the Metro Detroit area: top notch body work by awesome human beings.

Of course the week before Steve and I were sunning it up in Frosty Florida -- still nicer than it was here at home. But I was glad to get home. I can be so funny about travel sometimes. This was one where I didn't realize how much I missed my friends and my animals until I got home again. How sappy is that?

Anyway, back to the Green Hornet. I've been hearing a lot of skepticism about this movie and I know some dedicated fans might not appreciate the approach that was taken with it, but I had a great time. It's fast-paced, actiony fun, with the added bonus of an interesting dynamic between the two leads. It gets pretty out of hand in the climactic fight scene, but by then I was so stuffed full of yummy Reid/Kato subtext I didn't give a damn. I mean, at one point, they get drunk together in the back seat of one of Reid's dad's cars. That's right, they parked.

:D

And Jay Chou makes me think the wrong things in the right way.

Oh, and the car is fucking awesome too. 

So now tomorrow, tomorrow I'm going to hang with my friends Christopher, Carol, and Paulette at our local Caribou Coffee. There's going to be live music there from 10 am to noon.  I have souvenirs from FL and Xmas buns to share and I'm totally psyched.

 

Lazy Morning

It's Saturday morning and I worked out like a demon yesterday -- pilates and running in the am then a swim in the afternoon. So now I feel justified in just laying here. I even got Steve to bring me a cup of coffee in bed. Oh, the luxury!

That's the awesome thing, I find, about working your ass off. After, when you get a break, you can really relax because you know you earned it.

News of the Day

So guess who showed up in this morning's crack of dawn writing session? Evanscar's love interest! Yay! Finally! He's covered in blood and he doesn't have a name yet but at least he's finally in the book. What a relief.

In other news, my two custom made hand woven jackets arrived today. Woot!
Here's a pic of me in one of them (sideways, for some stupid reason). The other one is green with other colors mixed in and a black panel around the waist -- slimming!

I'm expecting my editors revisions on the third book in the other project any second now. And uh... let's see, oh yeah, it's frigging cold out. And grey. Bleh.

Oh and I know what else! I got the cover art for The Ice Prince today. But you can't see it yet. Nyah, nyah.

Happy Thanksgiving

Gratitude is such a wonderful practice. Too often we focus on what we don't have and lose sight of the many ways in which we are fortunate. I love that we have a holiday dedicated to giving thanks (well okay, and eating turkey, but I'm being all spiritual and shit so just go with it ). So I'm listing a few of the things I'm grateful for, and there are so many, this can't be a comprehensive list, but one of the moment. So here goes:

Steve
Rodney, Willy, and Hector
My warm house that is paid for on full
Writing
Access to a wide variety of good food, including turkey pastrami
My wonderful friends
The Seton Hill WPF community
Whiskerbiskitry in all its many forms
Loose Id
Venessa & Kay, my awesome editors
All of my readers -- bless you, thank you
Paulette
Walks that make all the difference
The Internet
Electricity
Medical technology that's saved the lives of so many of my loved ones
Easy access to a swimming pool
My iPhone
My health
Steve's health
My sister and brother's health
My nieces, nephews, and grandnieces
My buddhist practice
Royal Oak
Wicked Gentlemen by Gin Hale
Sunflowers

What about you?

Crazy Day of Craziness

Okay, so there's this thing going on, that maybe I can get into more detail about at a later date, and maybe not, but suffice it to say that my career in print MIGHT not be quite over yet and I am suddenly faced with putting together a new YA project (or at least a proposal for one) quite unexpectedly. So I'm doing that. This week.

And because I'm well documented as being my own worst enemy, and having poor impulse control, I also signed on to write a short story for the GoodReads M/M Romance Group Stocking Stuffer extravaganza. Ahahahaha! But seriously, here's the pic my reader posted as inspiration. Come on, I'm only human, right?

Meanwhile, line edits for The Ice Prince (was OOB) just came in and oh, btw, today is GLBTQ chat day on Dawn Roberto's Love Romances Cafe loop. I'm posting excerpts and chatting and stuff, in between everything else. So come on over and witness some of the insanity. 

I think I'm officially going over into that hyperdrive mode, where I miraculously get shitloads of stuff done. Yes, I can feel it building. Woo hoo!

World Fantasy Convention, Columbus, OH, Oct. 28-31

WFC is right around the corner, and I can't wait. Looks like Steve and I will be getting in late Thursday evening, after the con has already started, which can't be helped, because he has class. On Friday, I have a reading at 4:30 pm. I'm excited. I imagine I'll be reading from one or both of the other projects.

This WFC marks a major milestone for me. One of my books will be in the freebie bags! So will a postcard for its sequel, which comes out just a few days after the con. Woo hoo! I can remember going to WFC and eating my heart out with envy for the authors who had books in the freebie bags. Now, I will be the source of someone else's soul-devouring jealousy. Ah, life's little rewards. :)

Actually, the whole promo thing still feels awkward to me, despite the fact that I've been doing it since the Nature of Smoke came out in 1996. I was just out the other day talking to some book store owners and I always get nervous, even though I generally wind up having a good time.

The best part about WFC is seeing all my friends. There are going to be a ton of fun people at this con. SHU peeps will be out in full force and Whiskerbisketry is already afoot, not to mention the fact that Tim Powers, Kathe Koja, Kay Kenyon, and a whole raft of other great authors will be there as well. On top of everything else, my nephew and his wife live in Columbus and she's expecting their second baby right around that time. So I get to see them too and potentially my new grandniece/nephew. How much fun can one woman stand, I ask you?