books and posies
Thursday, May 31, 2007

You never know how much you rely on your printer until it stops working.

Ah, well.

More good news!

Finally, "A Necklace of Rubies" will see print as well as "Every Word I speak." The lady who is publishing them seems really excited about them...she called my writing almost hypnotic. :)

I am unbeleivably excited. It's wonderful to feel as if I'm moving forward, really moving forward. It looks as if they will be published under their own cover as an ebook, then, possibly, be published in an anthology with other stories, whether mine or other people's it's not yet determined.

With Blue Moon coming out in October, it's my year to prove that I am an actual author, not a secretary with a hobby.

By the way, tonight is a blue moon. Happy blue moon, everyone!

I've been reading the 6th Harry Potter book. After I'm done with it, I plan on getting out my copy of Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things, which i've had since December and not yet read. Neil Gaiman tends to put me in the short story writing mood, and I'd like to write some more. Read some fairy tales, get some inspiration.

So, I have time to talk about last night, where i stayed out quite late going to Gabriel Brothers (If you ever wondered where unwanted clothes went when the store gave up trying to sell them, the answer is Gabe's. It's a rather large store that gets in all the torn, miss-sewn, unwanted clothes from major manufacturers. A lot of it isn't damaged at all...the little black dress I'm wearing right now, for instance...but it's hard to wade through the huge amounts of damaged/way too small clothes without spending a lot of time. And one does get heart broken, when the huge rack of very lady like blue roses on white vitangy dresses are all 10's.) and to Lowe's and Wal Mart and Ollie's (another discount outlet where the unwanted things end up.)

I bought a lot of spearmint, peppermint, lavender and rosemary. Barely managed to keep myself from buying a rosebush called "Veteran's Honor", which sports these huge, deep red blossoms, barely managed from buying a peace rose...because i do not have rose luck. I love roses. Deeply. I stand there in the middle of the flats of roses, looking at the yellows and pinks and lavenders and get wistful. If i had my way i would have a huge garden of them.

The problem is that I like roses, but they don't like me. And I own more books on the subject than one would really consider possible to have found.

Ah, well. There are other things. The Iris are doing well and I intend to add more this fall. I bought more spearmint and peppermint to add to the peppermint I have, and lavender and rosemary. I have this small triangle of a space, where I am growing various herbs, mostly sage and mint, things that i think will come back. So far i've been useless at harvesting the crop...i tend not to, because it's so pretty on the plant. *rolls eyes* but I want to try this year. Also, the Dalia's and the gladiolas seem to be doing well right now.

I also found some awesome books. I found a copy of John Gallagher's Geisha: A Unique World of Tradition, Elegance and Art. It's a really wonderful book because it has these sections of layered plastic pages. You look, and you see the maiko, dressed in her garb, then you turn the page, and you see her standing there without the outer robe, then you turn the page and she's in her under dress, all the way until she's standing there with only her underwear and no makeup. It's really quite neat. Ollie's in amazing, because I find a lot of really nifty books there.

Nonfiction is it's own country, for me, because...as a woman who has gone to ton and tons of library book sales, used book stores, etc., I can tell you that the same nonfiction titles turn up a lot less often than the same fiction. So, it's easy to find a copy of the latest Stuart Woods, but not so easy to find good nonfiction books. For me, for nonfiction, I am a lot less willing to make a leap of faith for nonfiction, I really like to see the book first.

I do make that leap, of course...I love good nonfiction books, and I can get them online a lot easier.


Oh. Lunch is over. Alrighty, then. :)

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Permalink Cindy scribed this at 1:23 PM 0 comments

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  Good news!
Sunday, May 27, 2007

Hello!

I am happy to tell you that Drollerie Press is going to publish one of my short stories!

I've written short stories since college. I've received...at first, flat out rejections that slowly became "I loved your story, we just can't publish it." hand scrawled on rejection slips.

I decided that short story magazines are impossible to get in to, so decided to try my hand at anthologies, and now, finally...success! She's even interested in more stories, she was really filled with wonderful words about my story. Which is fabulous...but part of me now worries about the others disappointing her!

And that is the lesson for you. Keep trying, and keep trying everything. You will probably fail more than you succeed, but you have to have those failures to get success.

To celebrate, help me pick my next Ren Faire costume, which I will sew over the summer?

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Permalink Cindy scribed this at 1:27 PM 0 comments

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  Peace
Wednesday, May 16, 2007

It's pathetic how much i love my job.

Right now it's a rainy day. I'm drinking Irish Breakfast tea and making copies. My shoes are off, and the place is very quiet...no one is in and so the place is just pure peace. I enjoy the company of all the faculty here, and the students, esp. my GA's and workers, but...this is nice. I am a solitary person in nature, and that doesn't mean anything against anyone, because unless I'm stressed I find that I like the company when i have it.

But yeah. This is really, really nice. I'm working on a tenure file, which is perverse fun, perverse because I actually enjoy taking stacks of things out of a drawer and organizing them into order so they look good. I want my Department Chair to make tenure so I'm taking extra care.

This is such an evocative day. The grey clouds are making it sleepy and peaceful. Distant voices from the archives keep me from feeling alone in the world. I have most of my work done...there are things I can find to do, but nothing is screaming.

I do need to buy a new electric kettle, though. The one my friend/mentor from college gave me is leaking. :-/ Any suggestions?

Also, am enjoying Harry Potter way too much. I am considering giving in and pre-ordering the last book, partly because i really don't want to get spoiled like I did for the last book. Playing Severus over in Unseen has been brilliant fun, I think of all the people I've rped, he and Mowett are neck and neck as my faves.

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  Heavenly Pursuits
Friday, May 04, 2007

Well. Next week is exam week, which makes today reading (no classes so students can study and catch up) day. Not a lot going on, work is slowing down, and I'm checking and double checking to make sure everything is covered, though I am sure I forgot something. My poor student workers are going to houseclean next week, as I get ready for summer.

But summer is almost here. There is a holiday feel to the air, like one is just on the point of partying. Not yet, though. I'd play music, but all day I've had graduating seniors taking tests at the main table a few feet away, and I don't want to disturb them more than being in an office already does.

What my main preoccupation of late has been is updating the film article. Each paragraph is its own movie, and so I go to the paragraph, check the links. Then, like, for example, for Stardust I Google:

Gaiman + stardust

And I read everything to see if I can pick up any news. Sometimes I find something neat, and if I can collaborate it, then I chose a the best link or two. Sometimes I find something that I need to ask Neil. There are so many rumors, you have to be careful.

Then I type in:

Stardust + Cox
Stardust + Phieffer
Stardust +....

I only do this with people who may have been interviewed, or have a good fan base.

Then I re-write the paragraph to include the new information, revoice it a bit if it needs, code the links, highlight what I'd like Neil to take an extra look at, bold the title and start all over again with the next movie.

You'd think I'd be done by now, but not so. I want this to be right...thorough and as close to perfect as you can get when you're writing about something that may completely change in two days.

I actually enjoy it, though. I am still a librarian at heart.

I am now reading Phillipa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl. It's such an easy read. A warm bathwater read...I've been laying in front of my open window and reading it, drinking tea and feeling quite happy and at peace. Then I'll go back to Mister Potter....I finished book one a bit ago, and have been trying to start Book 2.

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Permalink Cindy scribed this at 1:54 PM 2 comments

2 Comments:

Gosh, leaving comments here is difficult.

Cindy:

You can string all your google alerts into one thread. I'm running:
stardust (cox | miller | deniro | "de niro" | pfeiffer | vaughn | danes | gervais)
as a comprehensive alert and it seems to mostly be on target.

My links are here:
http://del.icio.us/thedreaming/film+Stardust

If you haven't seen the Time article on movie villains or the AP article on niche films, you might want to take a look at them -- the rest seem to be the same quotes over and over again.

Not that FOEM isn't picking up/reprinting what's out there as well.

Be well and good luck on the updates!

-randi

By Blogger Randi Mason, at 12:24 AM  

Wow...that's very very clever! So that should work as an ordinary search string, as well?

And I'm sorry it's hard to leave a comment...I know it's hard to read them, and I'm trying to fix that. Is it just not showing up so you can see it easily? I'll fix that, too.

Thank you so much! Have a lovely weekend.

Cindy

By Blogger Cindy, at 10:23 AM  

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