not quite a lazy Sunday, but I'm giving it my best shot...

In the winter, I don't use my main living room much, unless I have company. It's a lovely room, with a great sofa and chairs, and books within reach...but it's also the only room that doesn't have natural light streaming in. So I tend to gravitate to the rooms (bedroom, office, kitchen, dining nook) that do.

That dynamic changes come warmer weather, though. Unlike the source of my nickname, I am NOT a warm weather critter. I like indirect sunlight and highs in the low 70's. Warmer than that [like, ugh, today], and headaches and crankiness ensue. So I head for the shadows. As in... my living room. There's a cross-breeze from the windows, but the sunlight is diffuse by the time it reaches the sofa -- which means I can leave the shades up, which the cats and the plants and probably my subconscious mood appreciates, and not feel like I'm being broiled.

So yeah, the netbook and the manuscript and my pens and my feline companions are all scattered around me as I work from the sofa, which is why, when someone asks me how much of my living space is set aside as an office, I laugh and shrug helplessly. All of it? [since I get story inspiration and plot breakthrough in the shower, I can even claim the bathroom as work-space]

The change in venue seems to be working: I hope to wrap up the first pass on the very rough draft of PACK OF LIES today. I think I've caught most of the 'OMG how stupid were you when you wrote that?' moments, plus found places where I could make the storyline stronger. Second pass should go a little easier... (why is it the seemingly simplest of plot-tangles make the biggest writing messes? And why did I decide to write caper novels? A straightforward murder mystery is so much easier to plot....)

Page proofs still await, as does the short story and the freelance that has to get done, um, tonight. MUSTANG is on the back burner for a while, since it's the least-urgent deadline. See? I can too have a midway point between 'all-out' and 'comatose!'


EtA: Jules, the Phile Cabinet pillow makes a perfect netbook lapdesk. Yay for useful repurposing and multitasking!

PSA on a public health emergency

Outbreaks are not pandemics, pandemics are not all OMG Everyone's Going to Die! and this is not 1918.

That said, and speaking as someone who is recovering from a thankfully mild bout of flu, I'm going to remind you of four really important, really basic steps to remember:

1. Wash your hands. Seriously. With soap and hot water and everything, especially if you're using mass transit or shared bathrooms. That's the most common way germs are transmitted, and the easiest to prevent. Wash your hands, cough into the corner of your elbow, not your hands (to prevents transferring germs that way), and wash, wash, wash. Especially if you think you've already got a bug -- even if you think it's 'just' a cold or bad allergies.

2. Sleep. How hard is that? [yeah. I know, I know.] If you're not feeling well, or you're a little tired, or maybe think your body is stressed... cancel something, and take a nap instead. Your body will be stronger and less open to infection for it.

3. If you're sick? Stay home. Don't infect your co-workers or classmates. Also, if you stay home you can sleep and recover faster. Win/win.

4. Don't panic, but don't be stupid, either. So far every case reported in the USA has been mild, but if your symptoms seem more severe than the usual, see your doctor.

Is it a cold, or the flu?

And if you don't already have a flu kit -- put one together this week. An ounce of prevention, as they say...