I can fritter away a day like nobody's business

It started strong, ended on a frizzle. I DID however get all the promotional stuff done for the novella If Two of Them Are Dead and sent it back, a little past the due date. I'm still working on editing through my 1930s demon hunter story and the project fierce short story. Boy is it helpful to get extra eyes on a story.

Case in point I'm reading a self pub I won from Goodreads and it's obvious he didn't have a couple of first readers. There are plenty of homonym mistakes, formatting issues etc. That's why I always try to get a few readers for my stuff.

Now here's hoping I still have time to get to the deadline for fmabigbang I'm not sure I do. Having FOUR professional deadlines in the same time period killed my fanficcing time.

I did take a few minutes to dabble in the Sleepy Hollow fandom for Day 11 of the Snowflake Challenge.

And someone made good on their fandom_stocking promise to write me a drabble also in the Sleepy Hollow fandom. Check it out and let them know what you think.

I can not shake the grumpy guts. SIGH.

sonjajade had this lady sniper's picture up in her blog have a little more info on her She's fascinating and I can believe with the research Arakawa did that she might have really based Riza on Roza. Also did I mention I have a Rizza in class starting this semester?

declutter day 180 Item tossed -A carry on bag FILLED with paper and crap why kept -Cleared my desk off into it when the broadband people needed to hook up internet why tossed -Recycled most of it, threw out some, put the rest where the hell
it belonged.

Writerly Ways

The annoying pain in the ass side of writing: copyright registration.

I've not been through this unpleasantness before. I suppose I should have for my novella The Darkest Midnight in December but I didn't. It came up on my author's list today including a few horror stories from some of the people on the list. I decided I DID have a lot to lose if someone stole my novel. I was told to send it in before publication so we can use an Ecopy.

And here is where it enters the freaking 20th century. OMG. Talk about your governmental nightmare. Why in the name of god do we STILL have to send the 'best copy' of our work (i.e. print)? and then give us rules upon rules on how it's to be mailed since it will get the living fuck radiated out of it? You would think it would be a much better use of the library of congress's time to just take an ecopy. Think of the storage. If we're worried about executable files, don't open that kind. Hell isolate the damn computer from everything else so hackers and viruses are less of an issue.

And it gets worse from there. It's only really supportable on IE and even then you have to shut off the pop up blocker (thought I did, apparently didn't more on that later). It's not supported on Chrome or ANY Apple browser that I know of (there's probably one in there I'm sure). You have to do 100 different things to make firefox usable. You also can't have a google or yahoo toolbar! WTF? Why is this so goddamn difficult. Oh right, it's the GOVERNMENT.

I try to register and nowhere does it say hey by the way your password has to have one number and one special character. No it doesn't even say that when I hit continue. No it doesn't say that until you get to the end and have to start again. Bangs head. I finally get registered and I start the paperwork. The very first step doesn't show up at the end. Can't fix it. You have to fill in your address no less than four times (and it doesn't remember or autofill). I get to the payment and about weep. It's pay.gov, the same site I have to give 500$ a month in defaulted student loan money to. It's 35$ btw for this miserable pleasure. I pay. I got to submit.

Pop up blocked. ARGH. There is NO WAY to go back and submit a second time. I emailed the tech branch. And I know even if I DO get to send in the PDF I will be asked for the hard copy anyhow since the authors on the group have. Apparently the idea of an ebook is unheard of to the Library of Congress. I THINK I can send it cd-rom. And if it comes to it, I will. They can stuff the best copy. It'll be months before I see my certification (I'll do this next time the moment I get a contract).

I don't see why this is so archaic. I don't even want to know what they do to artists trying to register artwork.

Some days being a grown up or a writer sucks.

Yearly Word Count. I went modest this time because I DO want to both finish stuff and EDIT other stuff. I especially want to edit Soldiers of the Sun and my non-erotica YA, Splinters of Silver and Cold Iron. If you don't see me making progress come kick my butt.

1247 / 100000
(1.25%)

Soldiers - up to chapter 7

Splinters - let's call it ch 3. I have SO many Link (the writers group) files for this and I have yet to use them. I am a lazy ass.

Snowflake Challenge Day 12

In your own space, talk about what you think the future holds for fandom. What are your hopes and dreams for fandom? Do you have any predictions about what the next five years holds for fandom?

This one is so very hard. If you had asked me a few years ago I'd have said fandom would continue as fandom always has. Now we have governmental proposals that could end it (and I doubt all the petitions in the world would stop if they got serious). We have Amazon trying to sell it (and I'm not a supporter of that. It's one thing to have fun with someone else's creation, another to make money off their backs).

But I do think fandom will survive and thrive somehow. I think it might be leaving me behind a little. You have to understand, I'm pushing 50 (holy hell, how did THAT happen?). I've been in fandom for nearly 37 years now. I've been in it from the paper APA days. I moved on line where Fanfiction.net was one of the end all/be alls of fandom. Then came the forums and yahoo mailing lists and all the personal website archives.

But almost as quickly within just a few years, fandom moved to blogs, livejournal especially. I kicked my feet but I went along with it and it will be 10 years this March and until 2013, it was a thriving fandom home, in spite of all the issues. I'm not feeling this move to tumblr, I'm really not. I don't like the interface, or the lack of cuts and I simply do not have the time for one more social media. Also nearly a decade of doing it one way is hard to change.

I'm not sure my future in fandom is all that bright. Whether or not I change to follow the fandoms, my time for fanfic is fading but for a good reason. I'm making big strides as a professional author. By June I'll have two novellas and a novel for sale. Most of my time is spent doing that.

But I DO love fandom. I have made some of my longest friendships through fandom (seriously I've known some of them for 30 years now). I would be sad to lose it entirely. I've found the fans supportive (and I'm hoping they'll continue to support my own pro efforts). I've found fans to be wild and crazy.

The one thing I don't see changing in the future for fandom is everyone getting along. It's a beautiful dream but there will always be those who don't see the fandom as you do. Which is fine (points to an earlier snowflake challenge, there are plenty of pairings I don't like for example) But there are those who will make you miserable if you don't like the things they do. I'll never understand that.

Hmm this came out grimmer than I intended but it is truthful.

Did I mention

that I sent that DR Who fridge skin to the parents and they're measuring their fridge. They want to pull out hte downstairs one into the bar/game room and have me and my brother buy that for them. Geeks.

I still have the vague sick thing going on. I woke up at 8 thought 'must pee' rolled over on the bed and fell right back to sleep. Woke up, thought 'must be much later' rolled over to see what time it was, fell asleep. Got up at 10, making that 9 hours of sleep which for me is long long long. I'm still tired though my sugar is thru the roof.

Other than make myself insane with copyright issues, I didn't accomplish a damn thing and tomorrow I'm back to school AND going to see the orthodontist about my jaw. Also I got roped into more duties at the college but this one is a good thing.

The neighbor boys were teasing Kanda. I heard them going 'meow' and thought the kittens were back (I've seen none of them so here's hoping) and realized they were leaning on my porch teasing Kanda thru the window. He came to complain to me but I'm like dude, that's the most exciting thing that's happened to you all day.

My thoughts on the future of fandom here for the snowflake challenge Day 12

speaking of fandom have some from Star Wars Back stage pictures from Peter Mayhew

I did a little house hunting today at the top of my budget and found some possibilities (you know in case Gettysburg doesn't work out).

Mom and I disagree on this At the lower end of the high end of my budget, 29.6 miles from work. Is it great? oh hell no. I DO like the built in china closest. It has some mystery shit going on. I don't like the fence and the windows are obviously old as is the bathroom.

The Chair of my dept wants me to buy this one 33.6 miles from work. It's right by the chair's (My friend EB) home. Note the price. Nearly 120K an OLD manufactured home. 20 years is about their life span before they start falling apt. Wall paper aside, it's rather nice.

Mom, my aunt and I like this one 35 miles from work. The downside is all that glass AND it's only 2 beds one bath. That's pretty small. I'd still have barely room for a guest. The nice part is I could build on since I'd have flat land but at that price I'm not sure I could afford to add another bedroom and bath. I do love that fireplace. Check out the driveway.Yeah that'll be no fun in winter.


This one is strange 29 miles from work. It was on one website for 88 and this one (and others) for nearly 135K. I think it's over priced. I DO like it a lot. I've been down the road it's on and wish it were closer to the cemetery. I THINK this is owned by a divorcing couple which explains the downstairs bedroom (I heard he's living there, yes you hear everything because everyone knows everyone here). I actually LIKE the purple rooms. I'm sick.


getting uncomfortably high for my tastes and fears. 32 miles from work. The yard will be work. I like the fireplace and dining room. The spindles would have to go. Driveway blows.

the one I like best furthest from work (38 miles) and I couldn't figure out why mom and I hadn't seen it early in the week. It's outside my usual price range. According to the estimator it's only 50$ more than I pay in rent but that doesn't take into account taxes and utilities so probably out of my range. Figures. Really there's nothing to complain about other than some wall paper to peel off and I'm not sure about that wood wainscotting but it has an earth stove and it's 10 minutes to my friends in Athens. I'd have to use the barn for storage or have burnt down or something since if I can't afford the house barely no way I can afford a horse (nor want one).


declutter time. Yes I AM using pharmacueticals but you have to understand my apt. There is NO storage in the bathroom so I have all that stuff on a four tier plastic stand in the computer room. Everything for the next 20 days will be from ONE shelf. Now you understand. Be thankful I don't add my freezer to the list. I just found 2 things in there at least 2 years old. In fact I think next weekend I'm emptying the whole thing right into the garbage.

declutter day 181 item tossed -Expired diet pills why kpet-For some reason I bought into the snake oil why tossed -Naturally they never worked and they’re years old like I think I had them in FL, that's TEN years ago.

Birthday wishes

Happy Birthday to sp23, a late happy birthday to dlgood and an early one to scratchingpost1. Hope you all had/will have a great day.