Guilty Pleasures and Snow

While I'm up to (way past really, but I'll dial back for the sake of staying in the cliché)my eyeballs in house building, and snow...holy crap, what is up with the snow already? It's barely November. Winter just finally ended what, like three weeks ago? I swear it seems that way.

Excuse me as I rub some feeling back into my numb feet that are incased in thick wool socks.

Anyway, *glares out the window at the falling white evil* as I was saying, while I'm busy with house and NaNo, which is going so sadly this year, but yes, that was expected. I still don't like knowing I'm not going to get to 50K, but it is what it is - my time for the effort this year, that is. I abandoned by intended story, not because it was bad, but because my focus wasn't there. Amazing, I know. Having gotten this far through this post already, you see what I mean. I'm now plugging away at a short story related to my novel, Trust. It's coming along...

The snow is plummeting down! Seriously. We're now at four inches in the past three hours. Not cool, nature. Not cool at all. Well, ok, ha ha, smarty pants nature, it is cool. Really freaking cool. Let me rephrase that, not nice. But when were you ever known for being nice?

Before I go wander off in search of a warm corner curl up in while I methodically smash my head against the wall, I will finally get to my point. Today's Author's Answer feature is Guilty Pleasure. And no, don't feel too guilty, my mind also leapt to several other topics before the one that this post actually pertains to: Is there an author who is often criticized that you love to read? Click, read and enjoy (and stay warm).

My Dream Writing Room

Well folks, it's getting closer to being a reality. We're busy hanging doors and installing trim. The painter is arriving in a week to put some color in my very white house. My writing room will have one cranberry wall and the rest will be soft grey. A new desk is sitting in my current garage, waiting to be unboxed. A big desk, with plenty of room to spread out notes. I'm very much looking forward to that.

What else does this room include? Jay Dee Archer asked the same question. Find out what ten other authors also have to say today on I Read Encyclopedias for Fun. A new question and host of answers will be up every Friday.

It's November. You know what that means

I send you greetings from the land of NaNoWriMo. Not only am I way overwhelmed with building the house (we're installing doors and trim now, in case you're keeping track of progress), I'm again MLing for National Novel Writing Month.

Am I also writing? Sort of. The odds that I'll make it to 50K this year in the midst of all the stress I've already got going on and the time involved with organizing events and overseeing my region, are fairly slim. Instead I'm aiming for a much more attainable 10K. If I get more than that, yay me. As of this moment, I'm sitting at 1600 words.

With that already under my belt, it sounds like 10K should be no problem, except that the majority of the work on the house from this point onward is in our court. Doors, trim, cabinets, plumbing, electrical, flooring, etc. And I can't move in until that's all done. Did I mention I need to move in as soon as possible? Yeah, I kinda have my work cut out for me.

So what am I writing? Damaged takes place in the same world as Devolution (a short I wrote years ago that is currently looking for a good home).

Gabriel and Nina are thrilled to learn they are having twins until a checkup reveals that one of them is at high risk for developing violent behavior. They are given a termination notice. Not knowing which of the twins is defective, the couple is not willing to sacrifice the other. Signing a life-long contract to be responsible for all damages done by their questionable offspring, they embark on a journey to prove the prognosticators wrong.

Available today: Healer

I'm pleased to announce the my short story, Healer is out on Acidic Fiction today.

Jillian is tired of being bound to her healing gift. When a desperate mother with a critically wounded child invades her room, she discovers that her gift is both a curse and her salvation. For more details about Healer, please see this previous post. I hope you enjoy the story.


If you're looking to submit a short that sounds like a good fit for this magazine, I highly recommend you give them a try. The editor was awesome to work with, had the fastest acceptance to publication time I've experienced, and on top of all aspects of the publication and submission schedule. I don't usually gush about editors, but really, this was a great experience.

Estate of Waiting Update

I'll have a story to announce next week, but for now, I figured I'd do a little update on the house project. I wanted to share a nice photo of the house, but we're at a point where nothing exciting is happening on the outside and, well, the inside is a friggen mess.

For the last few weeks, this is the first thing I see when I pull in the driveway. What are those? Septic tanks. No the faces aren't really there. Well, the eyes are, but that's what I imagine on them every darn time. I'm tempted to run over there with some spray paint and make it official. But I haven't yet. 

Why are they still there? We'll, that's a good question. The guy who is supposed to install them hasn't gotten around to it yet. After another email, I've been informed that he will be there this week for sure. But he hasn't been there yet. One more week and my imaginary faces on the feces tanks are becoming real.

The rest of the project is coming along slowly. Yes, we're still in the Estate of Waiting theme. Drywall is going in this week and next. The paint is purchased and waiting in the basement. The trim needs to be ordered and I need to pick out tile and flooring next.

Construction debris is building up everywhere and the concrete guy would love the garage to be cleaned out so he can get that poured. However, the garage is full of the doors that can't go in until the drywall is done and siding*. A dumpster is arriving tomorrow to help alleviate some of the mess that's making me twitchy. And yes, that's a temporary furnace in the middle of the family room. Charming isn't it?

*Our siding guy quit a quarter of the way though the project. He was a friend who did handyman stuff and was going to build our deck next spring. Turns out he got a day job and suddenly didn't need the handyman job anymore so he was done. Just like that: done. Neato.

So now my house is stranded like this. Without the ladders. He took those. Which means now we get to hunt down a new siding guy. Or hunt down the old one. Maybe both.