Corner of Bourbon & Division

Not me, Bean. He refused dinner last night and this morning wouldn't eat breakfast, and he's running a low-grade fever. Apart from that, though, he's much the same as he always is, if slightly quieter. Right now he's playing a computer game with pdaughter and providing running commentary about the "tricky" puzzle she's working on.

So today's plans have changed. I was going to try to work on my novel, and I still might try, but obviously I'm not optimistic about whether I'll be able to manage anything on it today. If the current level of quiet persists, I might be able to write at least a few hundred words. Maybe. Afternoons are usually harder for Bean, though, because he's a lot more tired by then.

I think I'll try writing this morning while things are still quiet, and do things like laundry in the afternoon. I have at least one load waiting for me, but I'm reluctant to "waste" the quiet right now. ;)

tx_cronopio has asked me to talk about the French language and whether or not it's as easy for me as English, and while I was originally going to write about that today, I think I'll save it for tomorrow. What little writing time I have today I'm going to try to devote to fiction, while I can.

I made pancakes this morning, and am about to have a second cup of coffee. Currently chatting with pdaughter about the clusterfuck that is the Sochi Winter Olympics so far. Human rights violations aside, the whole thing sounds like a shambles. I might try to articulate my thoughts/feelings on that too, in the coming days.

Maybe cleaning out litter boxes has a grounding effect. :P

I'm not feeling quite as disconnected today. Awoke with the beginnings of a migraine (the result of too little sleep, combined with some sort of tension in my shoulders, I suspect) and medicated it into submission. I can feel it lingering on the left-hand side of my head, which is both unusual and annoying.

Spent the last hour and a half puttering around, cleared up stuff for the cleaning lady (I hope she's coming, after all that), and posted some more random snippets of things at Midnight Crossroads. I figured that I really ought to start putting my drips and drabs of writing in the "other" section, and even posted the prologue of my first NaNo novel from several years ago.

I'm slowly (agonizingly slowly) getting back into a writing headspace, too. I've been mulling over some ideas, had a thought about re-writing my first NaNo novel with a supernatural twist to it, although I'm not sure it would work, and am going to try to carve out some time in which to properly edit and revise the zombie novel.

Of course, this new-found grounding is coming exactly two days before I leave for Vermont for the weekend, so I may get another complete disconnect by the time I get back. Sheesh.

In other news, I just realized that I am hungry (the pain meds are kicking in properly now), and so I shall go make breakfast, and maybe wash the dishes too. Oops.

After chatting about L4D with John Scalzi during the kaffeeklatch on Saturday, I mentioned that someone ought to fanfic that line of graffiti. He then looked me in the eye and told me to do it.

So... looks like I have a writing project. Too bad I haven't quite figured out how to do it yet. Normally the answer would be "Play more L4D," only I can't because I don't have the equipment.

*sigh*

Okay, this has never actually happened to me before, but I've been stuck on what to call my zombie novel for nearly three years now. The inestimable toughlovemuse came up with two brilliant titles ("Afternoon Snack of the Living Dead" and "Crisse, des zombies! (Zombie Crisis!)") which are sadly too tongue-in-cheek for the tone the book eventually developed.

So, those of you who've read it, any suggestions? If you haven't read it, you can read the majority of the first draft here, although it has changed a fair bit since I first published it.

(I will not be offended if you don't read it, no worries.)

Help?

:::ETA:::

Okay, people. Maybe I wasn't explicit enough. THE TITLE MUST NOT BE FLIPPANT. That is precisely what I am trying to avoid.

Let's try again.

[Poll #1415809]

I just realized that I am missing a whackload of background information for the next part of BTP, which is looming far closer than I'd like. I ended up ordering three .pdfs to help me with this, but they haven't arrived yet, and may not for a couple of days. I am a bit worried, and annoyed with myself for not having the foresight to think of this earlier.

Bah.

I am also almost late for work. I need to not sit at my computer and feverishly hit "refresh" on my email and head out the door.

Curse my lack of foresight on this matter! I was not planning to have this many delays on BTP. *grr*

I've written more in the past week than I did all last year combined, I think. I am still about a day behind in my resolution to catch up on my serial writing, but with any luck I will catch up on that delay today.

( Nattering about writing. Feel free to skip. )

Anyway, news you need, clearly.

The problem with being a financially responsible adult is the realization (often come to around 02:00) that, if I want to get most of my furniture in September, I probably won't be able to buy that megaton of books I wanted to get this summer. I have a very, very long list.

The furniture and appliances I want (and in some cases need, like the stove and fridge) are going to be expensive. This means that *gasp* I may have to defer my gratification wrt books. Oh noes! *grumble*

I have also had about seventeen plot bunnies leap unbidden into my brain in the past two days. I don't know what's going on with that, but I'm getting the itch to write again. This is probably a good sign. It usually takes about a year after I get into a job before I feel settled enough to write. So far I've been here a little over seven months, and while I don't know if I have the energy to start writing regularly, it's nice to know that the writing is still there. I can't remember the last time I sat down and wrote for hours. Actually, that's not true: I did it last November. Still, I wasn't happy with how the last NaNoWriMo turned out, and it kind of burned me out on writing for a while. I'm glad it's back. :)

I've been too busy to post. I keep telling myself that I should write posts in here that aren't "here's what I did while I wasn't posting" entries, but I never seem to get around to writing those meaningful, insightful entries. I rather think that I don't have any to write. I've lost the knack of writing analytical text ever since I left university. Besides, I don't know that I'd want to inflict my essay-writing skills on my beleaguered flist, as I seem to recall that I bored myself silly with my own academic writing. I remembered wondering who would ever want to read such dry stuff as I was able to produce. It's not that it wasn't good —it was just really, really dry going.

Anyway, I've had a busy couple of weeks.
I saw an old friend of mine from high school last Saturday, although we didn't have much time to actually catch up as he had to go back to his office right after lunch (he's a lawyer). We did have a nice chat, and wandered through Atwater Market before he had to go, and it was really nice to see him again. Of all my friends in high school (of which there admittedly weren't many), he was the one with whom I got along the best. We're supposed to meet up again at some point in the near future, which ought to be nice. After that I got treated to a lovely private concert in the living room of some family friends, and spent the afternoon and better part of the evening making slightly awkward small talk with three roomfuls of people I didn't know and with whom I had nothing in common. Still, the concert was quite nice. The violinist was a young man, somewhere between nineteen and twenty-one, and he's quite promising. His playing was very adept, although it lacked depth and intonation, but with time I'm guessing he'll turn out quite well.

Sunday was spent hiding from the world recovering from that stupid migraine which started late on Saturday. Annoying in the extreme, as it was a gorgeous day out.

Monday was a writing jam with owldaughter, in which I got more writing done in one morning than I had in the past four weeks combined. I'm finally getting back into my ongoing YA novel, and I'd like to have it finished by the end of the year. I might "cheat" and make finishing it my NaNoWriMo project for this year. Either that or I'll write another horror novel, since they appear to write themselves for me.

I forget what I did on Tuesday, but I do remember that I had to be out of the house stupidly early to do it. That's probably why I don't remember: I was still half-asleep. ;)

I met up with ai731 on Wednesday morning, and she taught me the mysteries of canning. It's a really fun process, I assume more fun because there were two of us. We went through about three-quarters of the 20lb bag of apples I'd picked, and made apple sauce, apple butter (so very yummmy!) and an apple cake based on her grandmother's recipe, which was so very very delicious that I brought it to work with me so that I wouldn't be tempted to eat the entire thing by myself. I brought half to work, and ai731 kept the other half, naturally. I had to abandon ship just before the end of the session, as I had to go to work, and I just received the last three jars of apple sauce last night. I am very pleased with how the whole thing turned out.

Thursday was spent driving my mother around so she could get some errands done without spending the whole day doing it. Since she doesn't drive, and generally gets around pretty slowly anyway, it's easier for her if I occasionally spend a morning driving her around, and I don't mind doing it in the slightest. I tend to lose my mind if I spend too much time with my parents, but a couple of times a week is enough for me to keep my sanity.

Friday's Ubisoft lunch got canceled for me due to the (not unexpected) passing of my great-aunt Margot at the age of 93. I have very fond memories of her, and of going to her apartment in the Linton for a New Year's Day luncheon every year until I was about eight or nine. After that she moved to a smaller place (I believe it was a residence for relatively independent retired folk who only needed minimal amounts of help to get through the day), and she became a little too frail to be able to put on the spread she really wanted to. None of her three daughters ever kept up with the tradition, and so I sort of lost track of her for a while. We still saw her at the larger family gatherings, but it wasn't really the same.

The funeral itself was interrupted when my cousin Ophelie (the youngest of all the cousins, and one of the two cousins near my age with whom I actually keep up and get along) suffered some kind of seizure or syncope in the middle of the service. She was sitting right next to my father, and the next thing we knew she had turned a horrid shade of green, her eyes rolled back in her head, and she slumped forward. Luckily my aunt (not Ophelie's mother, but another aunt) is a nurse and took over immediately. I was rather grateful not to have to step in and apply my limited first aid skills to the situation. Someone produced a cell phone (a blackberry, I think) and called 911. I spent most of the time keeping people from crowding around, and reassuring people that no, it wasn't taking as long as they thought for the ambulance to get there. I timed it, see, and it took nine minutes from the moment the call was placed to the time the paramedics got there. In times of crisis, people's perception of how quickly time elapses gets seriously distorted.

My mother spoke to my cousin yesterday, as well as my aunt. Ophelie is doing okay, as it turns out, but she's going to have to see a neurologist, as her symptoms were quite alarming (swelling in the throat, stiffening of the extremities, extremely elevated heartrate, etc.). My mother, in true keeping with her nature, has invited her to dinner next Sunday.

After the funeral I took my mother to Juliette & Chocolat for lunch. Egads, it should be illegal to make chocolate that good. I have rarely had anything quite that sinful. I must go back.

Yesterday I got shanghaied by my parents into helping them shop for appliances. God help me. The less said about that, the better. The day improved immeasurably by the time I got to luvenditti's for dinner, and had a wonderful time with all my friends, chatting about movies and books and games and food and all the usual things we end up talking about at these events. I borrowed the movie "Clue" and watched it last night: it's a great deal of fun.

All right, the rest of my day beckons. More updates when I have something to say. ;)

Okay, I've fallen out of the habit of writing lately, and I want to get back into it. Since writing is largely an issue of momentum for me, I'm going to ask my very creative friends for some prompts and hopefully work those into short stories. It can be anything you want, but I'd slightly rather it be for original fic rather than fanfic. However, beggars can't be choosers, and if you want something in particular I will be happy to oblige. :)

The prompt can be anything. A sentence, a word, a concept, a quote, whatever tickles your fancy.

Thanks for the help!

Wow, this week has gone by really fast.

Spent all of Monday morning running around doing errands that needed doing (I am quite pleased, because I got a lot done), and got to work early. Thank goodness for the new metros in Laval, which have done great things by way of reducing the traffic around here a fair bit. Not that much, but enough that there have been no major traffic jams on the way to work this week for me.

Came home, collapsed into bed, and was up again four and a half hours later to go into work. I swapped shifts with someone so that I could go to aislingtheach's thesis defense. It went beautifully, as we all knew it would, and with any luck she will write all about it when she gets the chance. We kidnapped her afterward and all went to dinner at Kumon, a Chinese restaurant on Côte-des-Neiges. We were seven in total: me, conscioussoul, ulvain, aislingtheach and three others who don't (yet) have LiveJournals.

We repaired to someone's home after for coffee and general chatting (and I got my very first massage ever! Wow.), and after I'd driven aislingtheach home it was 1am.

Staggered out of bed late yesterday morning and ran to toughlovemuse's place for tea and a writing jam. The good news is that I have pretty much finished Crisse, des zombies! I have a quick concluding scene to write, but it shouldn't be more than 300 words or so. I'M DONE! W00T!

Okay, not quite done. After this I have to revise my draft, try and fix as many of the typos, spelling mistakes and clumsy sentences as possible, and fix as many of the inconsistencies as possible. Then I print out three copies, hand them out to the very nice people who said they'd be my front-line readers, and try not to worry about it after that.

Today I am off to visit the Maternal Unit, whom I've been neglecting, and tomorrow I will do more cleaning of this place, which I had no time for this week. I'm amazed the place isn't worse off than it is, actually.

Saturday is band practice, and then the overtime fairy gets to visit. I think I shall write about work in a separate post, as it's pretty long and this is something of a grocery-list post. Not now, however, as I have to go see my mother. :)

Happy trails, folks!