2015 you can stop sucking at any time

[cornerofmadness]

It's only been three weeks but it's been nothing but death and dying. Grandma, friends losing friends and relatives, cancer among coworkers, chronic illnesses out of control and today a good student emails me to tell me he had to miss class to take his wife to the hospital because she was miscarrying and another has to miss class tomorrow for her chemo. Sigh.

I get home to find Kanda's butt covered with poop. It was still wet so I'm hoping he just had his explosion before I got there and didn't sit with a shitty ass on too many things. He was NOT pleased that I cleaned him up. Do. Not. Touch. Me. There!

I've been meaning to post these, my good things jar things from 2014 but 2015 has been so grim I didn't do it. Maybe if I do, there will be some light. So here are my good things jar items in no particular order.


1. My shoulder surgery went well.
2. I held my first novel Kept Tears a m/m urban fantasy in my hands with its beautiful cover.
3. My contemporary pagan holiday story, The Light of Winter was bought by Dreamspinner Press.
4. The dean gave me his recommendation and my meeting with the provost went well
5. Paul Richmond did a beautiful cover for Kept Tears.
6. Someone loved Kept Tears so much they asked for a sequel with the twins (I desperately want to write this but can't get the plot to gel)
7. Kanda met the black kitten and was fine with him (too bad the kitten took off immediately after that)
8. I had a great Facebook chat for Kept Tears
9. A student said she wished I taught all her classes.
10. My LGBT YA short story, Nothing But Himself was picked up for the Project Fierce anthology to raise money for homeless LGBT youth in Chicago.
11. seta_suzume did art for Kept Tears
12. Someone who doesn't like urban fantasy bought Kept Tears because it sounded good and liked it.
13. Kanda is cuddly
14. evil_little_dog left me good reviews on my pro stories
15. kiramaru7 did art for Agni from Soldiers of the Sun
16. Dreamspinner Press bought my novel Soldiers of the Sun
17. Dreamspinner Press sold my werewolf short story to a Korean publisher so I'll be translated into Korean.
18. I got to spend Christmas and THanksgiving with my family including Grandma
19. I was selected to head up Veteran concerns on campus.
20. I won Nano again
21. Dreamspinner Press published my steampunk/mystery If Two of Them Are Dead and it earned several good reviews.
22. Paul did a beautiful cover for If Two of Them Are Dead!


Yeah apparently the only really good things in my life are you guys and my writing.

Speaking of writing, 12 days writing challenge

Day 3: Write a setting based on the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen.

She hiked the narrow trail through the pines, finding occasional rough hand holds on their trunks. Her fingers elicited the delicate scent akin to vanilla. The dappled sunlight lacked warmth but that was fine by her. She wasn't one for heat. It was one of the reasons she came to this place. The other was her job.

The faint vanilla odor faded under the assault of the ocean-heavy wind. It brought the scents of salt and creatures that thrived in the briny deep. It wasn't particularly fishy, not yet anyhow. Most of the fish-stink would be concentrated at the docks. Northern oceans smelled cleaner to her, more pristine.

Finally the path led her to the shore. These weren't the gentle sandy beaches of Florida. Heavy rocky outcroppings, jagged and brownish-grey overshadowed the equally grey water below. More rocks made up the shore like the bones of a long-forgotten monster. She loved the stark beauty of this place, the green forest behind, a powerful ocean in front. It reminded her of life, hard in spots, absolutely ferocious, yet surrounded by beauty.

From here, she could see the phallic shape of the lighthouse rising against the sky. The lighthouse’s round, red top did nothing to dissuade her brain from the penis imagery it shared with her. The tower was painted red and white light a barber’s pole. She knew the symbolism of that coloring for barbers and wondered if it were the same for a lighthouse. Certainly if a sailor ignored the lighthouse’s warning, blood and bandage would abound. Maybe it was entirely random coloration but that held no charm for her.

She wished she had time to appreciate her surroundings but she had to work. There was a rogue Lumpeguin stalking these waters and she had no idea where to begin looking. The best she could do was go down to the rocky shore and search for clue amongst the sea urchins and pebbles.


This can also be counted for the origfic_bingo prompt of 'pleasure.'

For this I had Quoddy Head in mind. It was very difficult for me to pick just one place.





And I just realized I have in print TWO misspelled words, Lumpeguin in Nothing but Himself and Ynys Mon in The Light of Winter. Sweet.

Day three of not enough hot water to wash hair. needs to get landlord here.

And here's Jana’s what’s up wednesday complete with Wednesday's reading meme too.

Ugh I had some soup and my stomach went instantly sour. Keep spitting up a little. I hate when my stomach gets in this mood especially on top of not sleeping. Today I had to get up early (fridays too) and from 3 AM to 6 I lay there going 'but what if the alarm doesn't go off!' omg go the fuck to sleep, brain.

declutter day 315 item tossed-‘necklace’ that attaches to buttons why kept-Came with a shirt why tossed -I know I don’t have that shirt

ETA - I forgot my dream. I no longer remember it all. I remember being in a story (or a small library) building puzzles with evil_little_dog & silvrethorn and I mean big puzzles. These would be like 5000 pieces and took up table tops. But someone kept moving them. I was getting mad. The ladies made me go home but when we got there it was weird. It was an art deco styled skyscraper (I assume we have an apt there) but at the top of the worn stone steps were huge golden elevator doors and I kept saying, 'can't you hear that? the elevator is falling' ELD and silverthorn kept telling me to hush.

Then next to us there was a service door/access panel opening in the steps. I got the weirdest feeling from it. I tried to get the ladies to leave with me, just get the hell out. ELD pointed out I had no shoes on so where could I run to? A lady in Victorian clothing walked up next to us and something grabbed her and she was pulled slo-mo into that opening. I could see other women writhing in there and I took off with or without ELD and silverthorn. I woke up then.

Comments

[rahirah]

Maybe 2015 is getting all of its suck out of the way at once. That would be nice. :P

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

that would be nice. I'd like to think it's smooth sailing from here

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

Sorry that 2015 is starting out so crappy. But I jest checked out Kept Tears on Amazon. I agree the cover is lovely! If I ever get my act together regarding kindle, I wily get a copy.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It's not been a stellar start.

Thank you. I think Paul did an amazing job on the cover. I just realized I forgot something off my list. EEP. better add it (and make sure I dig all the scraps of paper out of the jar...)

If you do, I hope you enjoy it. My own tablet that I read on has a bad battery and the battery people are like WTF IS this Android? They can't find it or its battery

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Yay for your Good Things jar. :D

And I like the ficlet!

Sorry about your stomach. I want my cold/whatever it is to just go away or hit hard, rather than linger as a cough 3-5 times a day and a runny nose.

Okay, why are silvrethorn and I so lacksidaisical in your dreams? We're smarter than that in real life.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

thank you. glad you liked it.

Yeah feel better. My stomach will always be a freak show.

I don't know. You two exist to confound me apparently

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I do.

I'm hoping it goes away soonish. Tired of sneezing and snorting and coughing and nothing really coming up.

Your stomach will be.

In your dreams.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

good luck

yes obviously in my dreams

[0-mother-0.livejournal.com]

yeah, ours got off to a grim start as well with DD having to be put down :( but here's hoping it won't be a repeat of 2007

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

yeah we're not doing well are we

[dragonydreams.livejournal.com]

Those were lots of nice things in your jar.

The scene was beautiful.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Thank you. They were and thanks again for the review.

And thanks, I'm glad you liked the scene