2009/10/29

Free E-Books! Happy Halloween from Gryphonwood!

I spent the day pretty much as I have each weekday since last Thursday--waiting for the apartment repairmen to come and tend to any one of three different problems in the apartment. Two of the jobs may be complete at this point--subject to "adverse" developments. The third repair project is half done. Technically, they may finish it up tomorrow. More likely, next week, since what is left is just cosmetic.

I've hung around the apartment this whole time--with two very brief exceptions. I was concerned that Vartha (the black Maine Coon cat) would slip out of the apartment while the repairman were here. She's the friendly and fearless cat, and has tried to slip past me into the hall on several occasions. No such worries with Khiva, the sealpoint Siamese, who is afraid of most everything.

Though Khiva did allow Demaris to pat her the last time she was here!)


I'm 63 years old.

Also depressed, but there's no particular connection. I've been having a bad bout of depressions for the last couple of months. It's been very hard for me to get much of anytihng done, including updating this blog. More importantly, I am running behind doing the final revisions for "Earthbow Volume 1" (fantasy dualogy, first half) which techncially is still due out in mid=November. The book--sequel to "Seabird"--has been completely written for some time now, so that's not the problem. I've just got a LOT of small revisions to do.

I wish I had some birthday cake.

So far, the replacement smoke-detector hasn't taken up gleeping, so maybe that's one Apt repair chore that's settled. The other repairs involve:
the communal mailbox and my unlockable maildoor in particular. I have to go down and look at it later, not only to see if I have mail but to see if  a. it's  locked & acyually has mail  or b. it's unlocked & the postman has place a new warning in the slot rather than my mail.

the very large (approximately tub-sized) gap in the bathroom ceiling over the tub which has been there since the 2nd of the 5 "foods" in June and July. Today, they put up drywall but they need to come back and finish that job. (That's the job that may or may not be done tomorrow.)

Some time tomorrow or the next day, I have to pick up my eight prescripitions at the Pathmark Pharmacy. I'd rather be shopping. :-(


Sincere thanks to X, JR, Demaris, DW and Judy, etc for their birthday well-wishing!!!

Scattered Thoughts is part of the subtitle of this blog.
Usually I try to ordered my thoughts chronologically by event, but I'm not even going to give it a go this time. If you follow Scribblings, you know that most of the stuff recently has centered around 4 floods in my apartment--with an occasional "off-topic" word or two about writing or books. Let's see if I can alter the ration if nothing else here.

1.  No more floods. However the ceiling is still lacking in the bathroom.

2. My laptop decided to be uncooperative the morning. For the first time in -months- it actually asked me for my password when I turned it on. I hadn't had it ask in so long that I had (and have) forgotten what it is. When the laptop very kindly offered me a hint, that should have helped. It was a valid hint that ties in nicely with the kinds of passwords I've been using for the last few months. I tried all of the ones that I could think of that fit. None of them worked. Now I just hope that my maintenance contract with Dell covers this kind of situation, and that I have sufficient proof of ownership to suit them.

3. As promised, I sent DW a list of all the typos I found in the current "edition" of "Seabird"--a total of eleven errors. Several people who have read the book said they saw no errors or found one or two. Now see that's the kind of readers that I like!
Maybe I'll have a contest for just before Earthbow comes out. The reader who can spot the most errors in Seabird, will win a free copy of Earthbow. Then, assuming Earthbow has an error or two, we could do the same for whichever book comes out next.

I wonder at times aobut which book will come out next after Earthbow. While working away at manuscripts over the years, my original plan was for the "behemoth" to come out after Earthbow, since it involves the Third Tumult and the third Outworlder. However the "behemoth" or "The Gryphon and the Basilisk" currently consists of two complete volumes and a third volume that lacks one third to one half of its end.

Should I put that aside, and work on the two smaller and more recent stories? These are "Marooned" which I began in 2004 and "Da Boid da Tree-Rat n da Loser" begun in November last year. Neither of these books is complete. I probably have three chapters (or thereabouts) in both which need to be converted from notes to narrative.

4. Regular readers are probably readying their keyboards for comments after reading #3. Didn't I sign up for JulNoWriMo? Didn't I say that I was going to write approximately 25,000 words apiece to complete the Marooned and Da Boid manuscripts? What gives, oh, nasty unscrupulous reniger on pledges?

Lots of things gave. Pipes, as you already know. In addition, DW asked for the Seabird list of typos and their corrections. In the meantime, FC sent me his editorial notes for chapters 7-9 of Earthbow. That meant I needed to prep chapters 10-12 to send him in turn, and that I needed to begin going through his 200+ editorial notes, making corrections and occasionally grumbling as I did so. If I want  Earthbow to meet its publication dates with Gryphonwood, I can't just let working on it go--not even to work on other stories in the same universe.

I guess that Xanthorpe aka Mike Dunne and maybe Jillian Rainbird are the only members of Written Remains who are sticking to the "official" JulNoWriMo schedule. Actually, that may not be fair to some others. Sorry! I just have the impression that we're each doing our own thing this month, regardless of what JulNoWriMo is supposed to be about. We'll be more disciplined in November for NaNoWriMo.

5. I received an indirect compliment from FC, my "free-lance"(?) editor. When I finished working my way through the latest set of notes for chapters 7-9, I told him that I immediately agreed with 80 per cent of what he had suggested, and that I expected I would agree with many of another 10 per cent of the comments but I think to think about them some more. F wrote back,
"An eighty-to-ninety percent success rate on my advice to a respected and established writer is so encouraging for me to hear!"

FC, I'm not sure if you read this blog. You know, of course, that I was complimenting you on how astute your advice is. I didn't expect you to turn that around and describe me in such complimentary (and wildly inaccurate) terms. Hey, but it's cool to hear anyway. If anyone is to be respected, it's FC. F, if you're reading this, may I remove the mask and tell people who you are? Some readers already know but I would like to brag about you to the other readers who don't frequent this blog as uh, frequently.

6. I read a long commentary praising Jack Vance a couple of days ago. For those of you unfamiliar with the name, Mr. Vance is an octogenarian/nonogenarian SF and fantasy author who is much admired as a word-smith. The bulk of the article claimed that Mr Vance would have a far wider audience and would have won even more writing awards than he has if only he had chosen to write other than genre fiction. Or, evidently, had a South American ancestry. (Some of his work evidently bears a resemblance to magic realism.) I am a particular fan of Tolkien's word-smithing and I believe I echo his style on occasion--at least in my older work. The author of the article made of point of saying that both these authors are/were word-smiths but of radically different kinds. Now I have -got- to read some Vance, just to see what his style is like.

Oh, the cite: "The Genre Artist" by Carlo Rotella in ... a newspaper, but I've forgotten which one. Hopefully that's enough for Google.

7. I went to the Written Remains meeting last Wednesday and to our most recent Write-in this evening. The latter even though I didn't have my laptop to use. (Pooh!) I spent my time at Panera's this evening copying over my list of corrections or adjustments I know I need to make to Earthbow. It's down to 19. Oh, these are my own corrections and all of them must be fixed before I hand over the chapters to FC for his expert perusal. As I may have mentioned in the past, a lot of these adjustments involve POV (point of view). Earthbow has to be told from multiple povs; however, in a few chapters near the end of the manuscript I went nuts switching from one character to another. I've gone through the scenes several times and I'm still not sure how to fix them. So now I'm just going to wait until FC needs the chapters. As they used to say in the newspaper trade, getting it done with "the printer's devil at the door". (This is not a reference to demonism. I leave it as your homework to find out or remember where the expression arose.)

8. For my feline-fanciers, Khiva and Vartha are fine. I've been double-teamed a lot recently for patting. I think one of them has put paws on my knee to ask for a head rub and look to discover it's the other one asking for a chin chuck.

9. Demaris and I had a visit this past Friday. We mostly talked and got caught up after almost two months of going our separate ways .  Her way tends to Florida periodically where her sister and mom live.I have begun work on getting her interested in attending another SF/Fantasy con with me. If this works, it would be Philcon in about mid-November. More as plans--if any--develop.

10. KB and maybe Bodge are taking me up to Between Books soon. I will have to look at the Vance books!  And offer the owner copies of "Seabird" to sell on consignment.

Literally.
Not an update about previous floods.
This small furry animal should not have crept out from cover the other day. It was not safe and the flood animal has me once again in its jaws.

Flood #4 is essentially from the same overhead pipe in the bathroom as flood #2. It's just popped in a new place, is all. We're now leaking semi-directly over the toilet and there a fine mist from the (ventilation box up there) which is misting the tub near the shower head.

On a scale of how bad from 1(awful) to 4( eh), this rates --so far -- a 3.

All for now they will be returning shortly.

I sincerely hope.
S

p.s. Ironic--due to go to therapist today, and talk about floods, etc.

I feel like a small prey anmal coming out after the predaotr has left.

Is it safe? Dare I say it?

Thank God, the flooding appears to be over. Not that there aren't 6 ta 60 other ways to have water problems in an apartment or a house.
Thank you, everyone who prayed for me, or pulled for me, or offered sympathy, etc.

The ceiling dry wall still hasn't been replaced in the bathroom, over the tub. I could have called about it but I decided to let that go until next week. Besides, I thought it might be nice to get up at my regular time this morning, instead of setting my alarm for a couple of hours early, either to call the rental office or just in case someone came out is response to a call.

I managed to write about 840 words on the Da Boid, da Tree-Rat n de Loser manuscript this afternoon. This is technically July National Novel Writing Month. I signed up for it with the intent of filling in about 25,000 words in the Da Boid manuscript between the middle chapters and the completed last chapter, and then do essentially the same thing with my Marooned manuscript.

Until last week, I did not have a clear idea about how I would get from the lte middle of Da Boid to the complete last chapter. (Da Boid was my NaNoWriMo novel this past November. As usual, I stopped working on it at the end of the official month instead of persevering through December and filling in the afore-metioned gap. I pulled the same stunt back in 2004, when I stopped working on "Marooned" at the end of Nov 2004, even though I had yet to write in the big "show-down" between my heroine and her friends and the "bad guys". I have really got to stop doing this. You see, there's a -third- novel that's also not complete-- The Peace Bride. For that matter, the "behemoth trilogy" of The Gryphon and the Basilisk needs a few more chapters to fill out its third volume.

Enough of that.

Back to water topics. The "New" washer is of ocurse not really new. So far, it's only idiosyncracy is not fill up nearly as much as it should even when I push the high water level button. But it does wash and it does rinse and spin, so I will try to overlook its one foible for now. I've done three loads of wash (yesterday), and have a variety of other things that need washing as well. I will probably do those tomorrow.

Today, I cleaned the litter boxes and paid to bills on line. I would have paid four bills but Verizon and AT&T have become terminally uncooperative when it comes to signing in and getting the correct bill-paying screen to appear. Those two will have to be mailed at the post office on Monday when I will be mailing the copy of Seabird to BG (Summer Breeze Prize winner). I will be very close to a post office for a change, come monday, because I already have to go to the therapist in Wilmington and can get off the bus at the same place for both errands. Congrtulations BG! Sorry for the long delay; however, I will send the book priority.

I'm waitng for FC's comments on Earthbow chapters 7-9 to arrive. When they do, I still need to go back and reread what FC wrote about chapter 4. I remember saving the commentary for some good reason but I don't remember what it was now. Maybe it just got all mixed up in my mind because of worrying about the flooding issues. I'm sure it will come back to me when I read what he wrote.

No commentary from anyone else about Earthbow, to date. I also sent an email asking DW what he thought--for really--about splitting Earthbow into a duology. Anxious to hear his view on the subject, as well as discussing a definite publication date.

That's it for now. I hope everyone is having a good summer! I may be up to focusing on mine about the time that it ends.   ;-P
S

Floods, mini update #3



No one came out yesterday -- of course.

I just called the rental office (9:25 a.m.), and reminded her that it's been almost 2 weeks and still no one has come out about the washer.

Steph said she sent someone out yesterday and acted all surprised that no one came out.
She said she would talk to the manager--that's Ellen who is kind of an absentee manager who checks in once a week.

Honestly! She was surprised that no one came out?!?!?! She is the one who tells them what to do. They don't get to choose.

Please those of the praying type, please pray that this is resolved. If you aren't into praying, please send positive vibes or whatever you've got.


-----------

UPDATE #1

I called the rental office again at 11 a.m. & just identified myself, gave the apt# & "washing machine". Steph said that she was waiting for Ellen to arrive to talk with her about why the repairman didn't come out yesterday.  (She can't call E?  Of course, S knows WHY--she didn't tell him to come out.)

UPDATE #2

I called Steph back about 2:15 p.m. and asked if she had spoken to Ellen. Yes, she had. I asked what she said. She didn't answer that but said that the repairman would be down before the end of the day if she had to walk him down to my building. I said it would be interesting seeing her out of the office. I asked if anyone had said anything to the repairman/men. She said no but that she would do so in the morning.
(Those last two points may be in reverse order. It's all beginning to blur now.)

UPDATE #3

At about 4:10 p.m., I heard large thumps on the steps and in the hall, a pause, and then knocks on my door. Two repairmen were there, smiling, as they presented me with my new washer. I very cautiously said that I was delighted but how did they intend to replace one washer with the other, given the narrow pathway through my door and down the length of my living room. I had vision of a dolly getting caught on everything as it went by.
Not to worry. They disconnected the old washer and lifted it up above their shoulders and carried it out, then did the reverse process with the new one. It is now hooked up and is washing a trial cycle just to see if it works.  (I said "new" and I mean new--so far as I can see-- but then again who knows actually?)
Thanks be to God!

p.s. It's not new by any means. It's a newer model than what I had but there's dirt in the grooves between metal panels where they meet. I JUST LOOKED INSIDE AND THE WATER IS SOAPY SO EVIDENTLY WHATEVER IT WASHED LAST NEVER WAS ENTIRELY RINSED OF SOAP.

Floods, mini update #2

Here's the latest from yesterday and today. for a complete rundown of all events, follow the link below.

July 6 (Monday)
It's been 9 days since the washer overflowed and no one has even looked at it, much less tried to fix it.
Called a tried to leave a message.
No one came out.
In the meantime, no one has been out to replace the dry wall in the ceiling from the previous flood from an above-the-ceiling pipe in the bathroom. That flood happened on June 10 in a.m.

(I took a chance of them not coming out, and went to the Contemplative Prayer session at Jesus House in the morning, following that with a foray to Newark for prescriptions and an anti-mold & mildew spray.)


July 7 (Tuesday a.m.)
I've tried calling twice so far today.

The first time I got the out-of-the-office message with a signal that didn't sound like it would take a message. I didn't attempt to leave one. This has happened before at which time I have attempted messages that no one probably ever heard, so I skipped that part this time. That was a few minutes of 10.

The second time I called was a few minutes after 11. Someone actually answered the phone. They acted all aghast that the washer hadn't been fixed and assured me that they would be doing the drywall in the bathroom ceiling in the course of the day.

I said that that was very nice but the washer was more critical--that no one had ever even looked at it yet. The woman acted quite astonished at this of course. "Acted" because the only person I've talked to in the office has been Steph. She is the same person who kept promising me repairmen that never showed.

(I didn't say this but I've been thinking how hysterical it will be if the washer problem is just tiny--like tightening up a nut and bolt or whatever. It could be anything in spite of the fact that the wet-vac guy theorized it's the pump. )

The woman --Steph- said that they would certainly send out the repairman today.
Hmmm. Where have I heard this before. Ah, yes! The middle of last week, twice.

For previous events just in the Washing Machine portion of the Flooding saga...( Read more... )

Continued at beginning. Any further development will be listed in a new entry this afternoon or tomorrow--depending on what does or doesn't happen.

Maybe I should have said "micro" since so little has happened since the previous entry.

 Monday morning, I called up the office and reminded them that: my washer (or its pipe) had flooded and that, so far, the only activity had involved water vacuuming Sunday morning followed by leaving one of those carpet blowers in the apartment. I knew ahead of time that no one would try to -repair- to washer over the weekend but I had hoped that someone would look at it and try to decide what needed doing.

After I told the rental office manager what I just wrote, I also reminded her that the drywall hadn't been replaced in the bathroom ceiling where the pipe had leaked. I'd summarize her basic reaction as "what are you telling me that I don't already know?" She intimidated (sp?) that mine wasn't the only flood and that the apartment below mine had also sustained damage. She added that someone would be out, of course.

Well, the someone came out around 4 p.m. He was the same repairman who had water-vacced (sp?) the place and then left the blower Sunday morning. All he did was feel the carpet here and then and then move the blower a bit. Something I had been doing myself since the previous day of course. Oh, yes. He also said it would take a while for the carpet to get dry.

I asked him when the washer repairman would be out. He observed that when so-and-so got back (from vacation this week?) they would shampoo my rug. I said that I wasn't interested in having my rug shampooed because there were too many things resting on it and no place to move them even temporarily for shampooing.
(Far as I can see, it's getting a pretty good cleaning right now and I really don't want to go through a second week of damp carpets.)

The repairman added that the pump to remove water from the tub might be broken on the washer and that someone would be out later. I guess I should have asked for a definition of "later". No one has shown up since his brief visit.
It's almost noon on Tuesday. I've tried to call the office three times but the line is always busy. No sign of anyone so far today. Most of the carpet feels "dry-ish" or close to it. I may turn off the fan in the afternoon if the last patch close to the bedroom door dries up some more in the meantime.

Khiva and Vartha are still sequestered in the "bedroom/bathroom wing" and seem relatively content with the arrangement. I suspect that they are quite put off by the sound of the fan motor when I open the door to go in or out of their little haven. It -is- awfully warm in there, not that they are likely to care. The air-conditioning vent has never worked very well in the bedroom. In the meantime, the bathroom window is partially open so that the two can sit on their perch and read today's outdoor wildlife paper. It's warm out again--maybe in the mid-80's by later today so the bedroom will stay warm until I can open the door permanently. I'm putting this off as long as I can, so that hopefully the washer will get repaired before the cats are buzzing around that area of the apartment or trying to get out the door when the repairman comes or goes.

The timing all depends on the repairman showing.

p.s. In the meantime, I have a garbage bag full of damp clothes I retrieved from the washer. I am seriously thinking about putting them in the tub with a large doze of clothes detergent, so that they don't mildew. Anyone with any thoughts on the subject?
I've been spraying the carpet and anything else I can think of with Lysol right from the beginning. Have not tried spraying the insides of the clothes bag.

So, floods come in three's, right?
My washer has created a flood, I assuem from a pip.e Waiting for emergency repair people.
Water s an inch deep in powder room and one end of living room --away from computer fortunately.
More probably MUCH later.
S


Thanks for the comments and sympathy.
Here's a breakdown of the events to date:

I was doing laundry from about 8 pm last night until at least 10:00-10:20.
A little after 10 p.m., I got up from the computer and started toward the laundry room ( laundry closet, really) at the other end of the living room. Dark spots were on the carpet at about the halfway mark, more or less in the shape of cat paws. I thought the cats had gotten into something filthy and walked it into the carpet--until I walked unto the area and my bedroom slipper went squoosh in about an inch of water. From there to the laundry rm, and into the powder room, it was standing water.

The washing machine was off, but inside of it were waterlogged clothes that must have been near the end of the cycle.. No leaking sounds i.e. drip-drip, just a shallow lake all over.

I called the emergency beeper at 10:20. Didn't get an immediate answer. Called the rental office --which was closed of course--and tried to leave a message with them for Monday. Then I called the beeper # again.
This time I got an answer but I could heardly distinguish what the man was saying. My best guess is that he was at a movie--an action movie with loud music-- because I heard what sounded like sound effects as well as loud music.
I finally got accross to him what the situatin looked like, and made sure to point out that the water was probably dripped into the apartment below mine. (Had they called too?) He took my apartment # and said he would be there right away.
As he was signing off, I heard him say , "We've got to go." I suspect now that the person(s) with him objected. Something along the lines of we paid for the tickets and we should stay until the end, maybe.

At any rate, no one showed up. I phoned the beeper again a few minutes of midnight but didn't even get a response.

In the meantime, I was lucky enough to shepherd both cats into the bedroom/bathroom area. The doorway between  the bedroom and far end of the living room was slightly damp but most of the bedroom was untouched. The second litter box is in the bathroom. Later I slipped in and aded the water bowl and food. They took it pretty well--I think because water was involved and two of them were together.

I sat up for a while and worked and reisted the urge to keep calling in beeper number. Went to bed about 3 p.m., sneaking into the bedroom to do so. Set the alarm for 10 a.m. this morning, just in case someone might actually come to do anything.

This morning, I called the beeper number at 10:30 am. No response at first; howevber, a few minutes later that housekeeping lady came to the door. Did I know I had a leak? I was dripping into the partment below mine. Yupper, I had kind of guessed I had a leak--starting some 12 hours earlier. I caught her up to date. She went away.Shortly thereafter the repairman answered by beep. Possibly a different repairman but I think not. In any case, he -acted- like he knew nothing about the calls the previous evening. I gave him my apartment #.

The cleaning lady came back a few minutes latter and I filled her in. The repairman arrived at 11:20 a.m. and left a few minutes ago at about 1:15 p.m. His purpose was not to fix the washer but to get rid of as much water as possible. This he worked on fairly incompetently and counterintuitively--beginning with the tinist wet-dry vac I have every seen but eventually moving up to the industrial strength one. His last act was to put one of those air blowers in here. As soon as he left, I moved it so that it would dry out the laundry room and powder room floors first. In a half hour or so, I'll move it back to a strategic location to begin drying the most critical chunk of carpeting.

The place-- even more than usual -- looks like a tornado hit it. I'm hungry and my back hurts slightly. Also slightly sleepy. The cats are still shut up and I'm not sure yet when I'll let them out. They've really taken this very well.

In the meantime, I waiting for another knock on the door. Just because.
Did I mention that the repairman says the washing machine will be fixed in the morning? Yeah. Kind of like the dry walling of the bathrom ceiling would be fixed a couple of days later.

I wonder what will mildew or disintegrate. Lysol's god for bacteria. What is good for mold and mildew?

All for now.

I promised a post about Dreams the other day. Then along came SF & Fantasy Writers Day throwing me off schedule. Schedule? Giggle! As if.

Anyway, here's my ramble about dreams which I will begin with an invitation. Please respond with typical dreams or especially weird dreams that you've had. I would like to know that I'm not the only person who dreams about some themes repeatedly or who has really weird dreams, fortunately less frequently.

Before I start, I just want to point out that Cara, my heroine in "Seabird" dreamed regularly. This was only partially characterization but mainly served as an important aspect of the plot. I think, so far as I understand these things, it also served to set mood and maybe "motif" --whatever that is. ;)
Now in the sequel, "Earthbow", no one is dreaming--at least not so far. "So far" is a relative term here. Xander the outworlder may dream yet. I'm not ruling it out.
As most of your know, the manuscript is written and I am in the process of turning draft 3 into draft 4A. (Notice the clever insertion of "A"?) I don't rule out the possibility of someone suddenly having a dream in "Earthbow" before I finish with it. Stranger things have been known...
--

As usual, I've dreamed a lot recently. The subjects include:

an Indian or Chinese woman giving me many varieties of very unusual grains, each with verses and artwork that made no sense;

salvaging a boat with someone happily sitting in it the whole time;

racing from a grassy spot where my family was camping for the night, down a long, long corridor into  interlocking rooms where two winged stained glass creatures were playing or fighting. Still not sure which. One of them won by roosting on top of a very high cabinet;

starting on a long trip by ship in which everyone would be lined up to sleep in a kind of dormitory that ran the entire length of the ship. We also had very nice if small beds and a chair each. (Lined up smack against the next person's) I remember that nice food was being prepared. But not a sign of entertainment. No one had brought anything to read or to do, and the ship's staff evidently weren't responsible for keeping us from being bored. I suggested a singalong;

large album-like books sitting on book trucks like we used to have in the Reserve Book Room. A patron was looking for certain pages and I was assisting them but somehow I was doing it secretly. Maybe they didn't have a borrower's card;

I was one of dozen of people who ordered supplies (like pens) for the staff of an enormous department store. Suddenly management took away our little curtained-off mini-offices and/or mail rooms throughout the building. These were given over to some secret activity/activities we weren't allowed to see,  while we had to do our work out in the public area on computers that seemed to have nothing to do with supplies-- while patrons looked on and asked us questions we couldn't answer. Oh and there was a public "Santa will visit!" kind of Christmas Party ready to start in the center of the store. You had to get past it or through it in order to get anywhere else.

a dream which seemed mostly to involve a pun that involved fried chicken, a chicken fryer ( a very large frying pan) and things flying about. I woke up thinking that a flying fryer was very funny --until I was wide awake, then couldn't figure out the point of the joke.


--

Probably my most typical dream has something to do with malls or mall-like combinations of shops, businesses and corridors. I find something very cool and usually free for the taking. Sometimes something like gems or collectibles. Then I have to go back to find it but time is running out or the rules for keeping it have changed or I simply can't find where I was when I saw it.
Luscious food may be involved but I can't let anyone know that I'm buying it. I sneak off to get it and "others" come into the shop and I have to pretend I don't want anything or I want something else that's boring.

My other typical dream involves electronic contraptions like TVs or stereos or sometimes electric lights in a house. Sound-producing devices all want to go on together--playing or broadcasting different things. I have no control over volume, though they aren't very loud. However, I need to turn them off because "people" are coming and I guess I'm not supposed to have them on, or I'm only allowed to have one of them on and that one must be playing something specific.

If lights are involved, they go or or go off without me wanting them to. I frequently end up down on the floor, tracking wires to outlets, or else trying to replace bulbs. Nothing works however. The light go on and off any which way they want to. I am covering up my plight from someone who is nearby and might see.

I rarely dream about events in my books. If I do, I'm usually hurt and in trouble with the bad guys!

--

Now it's your turn. What have you dreamed about recently? What turns up in your dreams more than anything else?

courtesy of:
http://anniegirl1138.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/science-fiction-and-fantasy-writers-day/

I ended yesterday's entry with "More to fill in the holes shortly!" so here I am in an attempt to do that.
In no particular order:

1. I obeyed CathiH's prompting, and posted a review of "Til We Reach the Shore--the CD by the Seabird band) at Amazon. I think this URL will work as a link. Otherwise, go to Amazon-Music and plug in "Seabird" or else "Til We Reach the Shore".

2. I neglected to mention the bizarro conversation I had with the Paratransit driver who took me to my appointment on Thursday.

Cutting to the bones, he considers John Wayne his hero. I don't. It made for an interesting debate. At the end I conceded only that there were a couple of John Wayne movies in which I could tolerate him--and those I also happen to love. (Go figure.) One is "Rio Bravo" which I just love and nearly know by heart though I haven't watched it in a decade or so. The other is "Hatari!" which takes place on a game farm (supplier of wild animals to international zoos) in African .(I think Tanganyika but I'm not sure at the moment.)

"Hatari" is evidently Swahili for Danger. Naturally like most old movies it seems dated now and not nearly as PC as I wish it were. But, for the time, they didn't do badly, in my opinion. For those of you who have never heard of this film, it's part African adventure, part comedy and part gorgeous scenery (and animals! of course) and part the tracing of two love stories, one of them a bit rockier than the other. Also starring Elsa Martinelli and Red Buttons (who is worth the price of admission).

3. The Paratransit driver's other topic of conversation involved what a dump of an apartment complex I live in. He is right, at least up to a point. The problem for me is needing to live close to the buslines and moderately close to doctors, food stores, post offices etc. That leaves me essentially with anything along --right directly along --Kirkwood Highway, r else in the heart of Wilmington near Rodney Square (where the buses all go) or else in the heart of Newark ( where the Univ of DE collee kids all are).

Apartments along the Kirkwood Highway are generally dumps. They improve as you drive (note: "drive") perpendicularly away from the highway.  Once you're a couple of miles to 5 miles back from the highway, the quality of the appartments goes up--but then, for me, how do I get anywhere?

Center city Wilmington (Rodney Sq area)  is either extremely pricey or much more dumpish than here.

I'm virtually priced out of Newark close to the University because 4 college kids can pay a lot more together for an apartment than one woman on disabillity can. And if I can afford the place, it would again be owned by an absentee landlord. (I lived in a few such places when I lived in Newark up until aobut a dacde ago). Again, Newark also has its affordable places nowhere near a bus route or they have the really fawn-see apartments along Main St and Delaware Avenue that would require me to choose between food and utilities to stay in budget.

I've considered Main Towers (senior citizen apartments) at one end of Main Street. The upkeep would be decent and the price at least possible. But the apartments are half the size of what I have right now, and they will accept cats only if they are declawed. (Yack! Double and triple yack! And let's add an "are you kidding me?!?!?!?)

4. Today begins the IWOFA's SUMMER BREEZE contest. This is like a treasure hunt especially focused on people who like to read romance, fantasy and SF. I don't have the website url. Sorry! Essentialy, people who are interested get a list of simple questions from we author's, the answers of which can be found at their blogs or websites. I am participating so it's necessary for me to embed my answer in this blog. (Keep reading.)

5. I should be working on one of the following: "Earthbow" because that may be coming ut in a few months and I should be prepping the next few chapters for FrankC's perusal.

Alternatively, I should be getting ready for JulNoWriMo (July Novel Writing Month). Some of us at Written Remains and at least one person in the Lost Genre Guild) are going to be working on manuscripts during July. I will be trying to complete two manuscripts ("Marooned" & "Da Boid, da Tree-rat n da Loser") that I began in earlier NaNoWriMo's (National Novel Writing Months = writing madness held each November and the flagship writing event of all of the WriMo's throughout the year.)

Instead I am feeling tired, depressed, lonely, and you name it. (Sorry to be such a downer but it's true.)

However, however, I -will- get working on my writing as soon as I can manage. I promise that today I will write or edit more than I will play awful terrible boring computer games.

Honest!

No, really.

I've played a fair number of games over the last few weeks, thanks to insomnia or just in an effort to push the doldums away. I am so much better off when I have a specific "assignment" due, even when I'm feeling depressed. Then I can cheer myself up my keeping stats--like "I've finished 25% of the edits F sent me!" or "I've done five hundred more words for this NaNoWriMo day than the minimum required!". Between today, June 21, and the 30th I need to work on EARTHBOW as much as I possibly can, since July 1-31 will be taken up with fragments of those incomplete books.

Then in August, I'll get back to "Earthbow" again. I would dearly love the it to be published within two years of the original in the series, "Seabird" having come out. I would like even more if people would be reading "Seabird" in droves before the sequel comes out.

All for now.
Next up: Dreams--of the nocturnal variety that is.

Why version 2? Well, I used the title once before for an entry. I'll bet there wasn't a 10 days gap between it and the previous blog, unlike this time.

Why haven't a written? Two reasons, Various events have kept me from doing so. Most of those events have been depressing or dreary or just plain boring, so I had no particular motivation to write about them.

Getting you up to speed:
My most recent entry was about the leak in my bathroom ceiling that migrated into the living room, plus the unpleasantness associated with it later that same day. Very little has changed since I wrote my last comment to my last entry. The dry wall -- dry ceiling -- is still lacking in the bathroom over the tub. No squirrels have gotten in that way as I had feared, so that's a plus.

It's possible that the apartment repairmen would have returned by now if I had called up and made a stink about it. I delayed doing so on purpose.
First, I'd had quite enough of people traipsing into the place off-and-on for hours. Thanks to the layout of my apartment, each repairman "traipse" --can you imagine a 200 pound repairman actually traipsing?-- requires that I get up from the computer, shove the chair out of the way, grab my cane, and try to figure out where I can stand out of the way, as they go past with tools etc in tow. This makes it hard to write, for some reason.
Second, given that the cleaning woman who works for the apt complex made off with the cat's window perch last time--for whatever reason-- I am not looking forward to her showing up to clean up after the new ceiling is put in.

But it's been ten days since the leak, so the time hath arrove when I do need to call up and remind them that the space between the ceiling-in-absentia and the roof is about as dry as it is ever going to be, so now might be a good time to put in the new ceiling. I expect to start the calling process Monday morning. This will almost certainly guarantee that the repairmen arrive while I'm meeting with my spiritual director on Tuesday afternoon or else while I am up at the labyrinth on Wednesday. (Etc. I have many errands to run next week.)

Okay, enough about floods. Oh, one more thing about floods in the sense of rain before we move on. A storm just arrived, which pretty much puts this exactly where I left up 10 days ago, when it comes to weather. We have had semi-steady rains here off and on for the last week. Everything, including the people are now green and growing.

So here's my other events by date and day:

Thursday, June 11th, KB took me to PetCo so that I could get a replacement cat window perch and also a replacement scratching mat (as opposed to an upright post). Yes, the "old" (but actually like-new) mat also mysteriously disappeared the day of the apt flood. Neither item got wet, BTW. Total cost of replacing things that didn't need replacing = $58.00.
The cats --Khiva (the Siamese) and Vartha (black Maine Coon) both appear to like their new furniture. Actually, they aren't sitting on the new perch as much as the old one but this may have more to do with the rain than anything. The new scratching mat is a great success to judge from feline usage. It's shaped like an "S" that rests on its edge, so that one half of the mat curves up and the other half curves down. The up-curving half is perfect from scritch-scritching. The concave part holds large parts of a soft little cat body--as long as we overlook the toes, chin, and tail sticking over the edges. Finally the convex part has a "mouse" hiding --attached by a short tether-- under it. There's plenty of room for both front legs and shoulders under the surface of the curve, as certain felines grab at that frustrating and elusive  "mouse".

Saturday, June 13th, I went to the Pathmark Pharmacy in Newark, where I got yelled at for not calling -two- days early so that they would have time to stock my thyroid meds. They reluctantly gave me 10 pills to "hold me over" after I explained --for what feels like the 10th time that, no, I cannot pop by the next day and pick up my medicine, courtesy of the lack of Sunday Dart bus schedules.
Because I was grumpy about everything, I was an easy mark for the Lady Bug dress shop. I purchased two pairs of "bicycle shorts", two cotton tops, and one very cool tie-dyed multi-tiered cotton skirt. I wuvs it! I wore it at WR the night of the 17th (see below), along with one of the two matching cotton tops--the purple one of course.

Sunday, 14th, I joined other members of the Written Remains group at Panera's where we did our usual writing for 2-3 hours in the afternoon while munching far more Panera's stuff than is good for any of us. My "boot" for my achilles tendon was the cause of some curiosity.

Wednesday, 17th, we had our monthly Written Remains meeting. Joanne had submitted the first chapter of her mystery, "Ding Dong Bell", and I had submitted two fragments from my manuscript which follow a thread involving Coris the knight, as he tries to decide if he's helping a couple of thralls as he promised Glisa and if so, how he should go about doing it without getting killed. I've decided to just submit scenes from the Coris thread when opportunites at WR present themselves. Getting into the other threads with the same group, spaced over months, will just confuse members even more than they already are by being confronted with fantasy. (Oh, no!)
I think it's kind of amusing that most of the fantasy extracts I've offered to the group really have very few fantasy elements. With the exceptions of a couple of minor fantasy races, virtually everything they've read could have taken place in any medieval society. Still, I guess that's confusing enough for people who are used to reading literary novels or mysteries with modern settings. I would have as much difficulty identifying with characters in some modern settings, frankly.

And, moving on...

Thursday, the 18th was particularly fun. The plan for the day was simple: Travel the few minutes into Wilmington via Dart Paratransit to visit my psychiatrist for a routine medcheck, then wait for the Paratransit bus to pick me up and bring me home. Paratransit picked up up their usual hour before I needed to be at my destination, i.e. 12:30 for my 1:30 appointment. (Leaving me with a 40 minute wait before my appt)
I was out of the doctor's office by 2:00-2:05 at the latest. I went down to the lobby and sat there until about 2:25. My return ride was supposed to be at 2:30. At 2:25, I went outside and sat on one of the benches. Fortunately, while it was cloudy it wasn't raining. Suffice it to say, that no bus came for me, though 3-4 showed up for other Paratransit passengers. I had to call them up at about 4 p.m. The dispatcher directed one of the bus drivers to allow me on their bus while they were picking up their own charge at about 5 or so. I got home just after 5:30. I would have gotten home faster from the doctor's appointment if it had been in New York City and someone had driven me home from there once the appointment was over.

Have I mentioned recently that I loathe Delaware public transportation?

Friday, the 19th aka yesterday, KB took me to the foodstore. We went to the Pathmark in Newark, because I needed to pick up the medicine that hadn't been ready practically a week earlier. I was actually afraid that they would have dismantled my bottle of pills by then and that I'd have to wait for them to refill the refill. However, the meds were waiting for me.
Naturally, we also did food shopping, Mostly I got all of the usuals: salad ingredients, tuna, bran cereal, coffee, milk, paper products, litter and cat food, bananas, ~chocolate~, etc. I also bought a turkey breast, which is this minute slightly less than an hour into its roasting time. Yum.

Which brings us to today. Well, what am I doing?  I'm writing this.  ;-)

What happened the other days? Largely I spent them revising chapters of Earthbow, mostly based on the notes that Frank sent me last week for chapters 4-6. As I mentioned, the past Wednesday night, WR members also critted portions of Earthbow, specifically fragments of chapters 5 and 7 that deal with Coris. I've finished revising the manuscript using nearly all of Frank's comments. Next on the agenda is to reread the Written Remains members' notes and then begin revising, especially chapter 7, based on what they have to say. I am very glad that we had the meeting before I sent off chapter 7 etc to Frank. Maybe I can cut down on the number of comments he will have to make this coming time.

More to fill in the holes shortly!