A Meerkat's Bolthole

And the winner of the "Secondary Character" contest to win a copy of BLOOD FROM STONE is...

brigidsblest!

You know the drill -- let me have a mailing address! have it, thanks!


Thanks to everyone who played along. You've given me some serious food for thought about who should get the next "Supporting Story" treatment after I finish up Danny's tale (tail?).

This post is mostly to remind you that you still have One. More. Day in which to enter the last contest of April and win a signed copy of BLOOD FROM STONE!


I went outside today for the first time since...Saturday? Was like the first day in a foreign country.

Treated myself to some fresh pastry for lunch, which I probably will regret, and then came home before I started to cough and somebody called the CDC*. Then I took a nap. How can I be getting better and still so worn out? Now there will be more page proofs, and some work on the manuscript draft, and whatever else I have the energy to do.

I am so very ready to be healthy again, please thank you.

Anyone else sick? What stage are you in?




[*however, it has been pronounced that I have boring old every-spring flu, not anything exotic. Alas, I am NotAStatistic]

So, of course, in addition to the deadlines of Doom (all five of them) my week-long 'meh' of a cold decided late Wednesday night to turn into a full-blown Ugh (fever, aches, sore throat, sinus headache, the whole deal).

The temptation was to try and push through anyway. Thankfully I have gotten some wisdom as I age, and instead spent the next 36 hours in bed, alternating between watching BHG television (renovation porn!) and sleeping. Mostly sleeping. Staggered out around 6pm to get soup and ice cream, and then came back and collapsed.

This morning I feel a bit better, for relative values of 'better,' and in fact got up in time to do word war, to some limited success. But it will be, of necessity, a low-impact weekend for me. Maybe I'll take my page proofs and go sit somewhere in the sun.....

and a reminder -- you still have a few days to enter the most recent contest, not only to win a copy of STAYING DEAD to gift to someone else, but to be entered to win a copy of BLOOD FROM STONE, too!

Reminder: two more days for the puntastic book contest!

I hit the 20,000 word mark on MUSTANG, and am putting it aside until Monday, when Word War resumes. This weekend I'm focusing on PACK OF LIES -- it's past time to get that sucker into fighting shape. So of course instead this morning I get the opening line for a story that's not due until August. Damn it, brain, get with the program! (it's set in the same universe as POL, so I don't feel too bad)

( the opening para )


Spent the afternoon yesterday with the World's Most Adorkable Dog, playing tug-of-war and don't-eat-that in Central Park. She was so wiped, I had to carry her the last few blocks home, and when we got there she flopped on her side with a "please don't make me move ever again" expression on her face. I could relate. Today, after an evening of recovery, I'm off to the Bronx Zoo to see somewhat larger animals. Tomorrow, back to work.


For those who enjoy hearing about other peoples' weird dreams, last night I dreamed that I was sitting outside somewhere with two other people [on a ship? On a seaside deck?] and saw first two ragged-fin dolphins, then an orca swim by, and then a polar bear rose from the water (seeing it swimming under the waves the way you do on a docu) and climbed over the side and put its arm around me to the utter amusement of my companions. Did it hug me? Eat me? I have no idea. Woke, thought 'that was weird' and then went back to sleep to dream of [among other things] walking along a long indoor walkway with cafes to get to the apartment that I was renting from my former in-laws (??) and discovering the furniture, mainly sofas and the bed, was either gone or totally rearranged. Not robbed -- just rearranged.

That was odd, even for my subconscious.

Happy Easter to my friends and readers who are observing. I hope the services are uplifting, and the baskets are overflowing...


1. Tech.
I have achieved new netbook! After going hands-on with a lot of models, and comparing price-to-tech, I decided to upgrade to the 10" HP Mini. Her name is Seshat and she is quite lovely. Still light (2.5 pounds) and portable, she also has a much larger screen (up from the 7" of Toke) and more comfortable keyboard, Windows rather than Linux so I don't have to hack the apps I wanted [I'm going for workability here, not geek cred}, a good sound system, and a built-in webcam. All for just a smidge more than I originally paid for Toke. I can't wait to see what $300 will buy consumers in a year or two...

2. Contest
Although the Midnight Cravings contest has closed, you still can enter the "plausibility" contest! and win a copy of one of the first three "Retriever" books in mass market!

3. Social
Had dinner last night at Via Emilia with friends visiting from Los Angeles, and kudos to the manager for not kicking us out (we were a group of 12 and probably sounded like 24). The six bottles of wine we ordered probably soothed his nerves quite a bit. Anyway excellent restaurant at reasonable prices, down on 21st and Park Avenue, and I highly recommend the pastas. They only take cash, though, so be prepared.

4. World Events
Although I've been too busy to do more than glance at the news, I am of an age where the mention of modern pirates brings two words to mind: Achille Lauro. Historical Figures aside, I do not like pirates. I do not find them romantic, or inspiring. I find them reprehensible and worthy of being smacked into a pike-studded wall. And I fear we will see more, not less, as the financial crisis goes on. I almost feel the urge to write about it...but every time I think about starting another short story I am reminded of the others still waiting their turn, for when I get out from under these novel deadlines.

Which leads me to 5. Writing
Unable to make the world take a time-out and straighten up, I dealt with what I can control -- the writing.
I've figured out what was broken in PACK OF LIES and am slowly rebuilding it be better, fast,er, stronger, and longer. On the drive home from Boston on Friday, I started thinking out loud about Vineart 2, much the way I had done previously on that same drive regarding Vineart 1, thinking out Major Points and letting the smaller details rise to the fore, as they often do. My mother sat in the back seat and scribbled down what seemed to be the salient points [I used to have a minicorder for this sort of thing, but it disappeared a few years ago].

Saturday morning, I sat down at my desk and started typing up sort of free-form what I had been vocalizing about the plot. Of course, as often happens, the writing of book 1 has completely changed what I planned to do in book 2 -- so I've been performing terrible genetic experiments, making a hybrid of the original outline and the revised ideas. And -- thank god -- the fire lit in me and I started to get excited about writing this book. Which is good, because that's all I'm going to be doing for six months after I finish PACK OF LIES and MUSTANG.....

Today, I am off to the Park with my outline and Puppy! to see if I can manage both productivity and exercise...

EtA: Contest is closed, and the new netbook is bought. So I'm closing this thread to comments. Winner will be announced soon.

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I was going to post the Author's Letter from MIDNIGHT CRAVINGS to kick off the contest posting entry, but this morning I am posting from a Distant Location on a Foreign Laptop, as my netbook was infected by an alien squid creature (seriously, the screen has a distinct squid-like shape along cracks within the display itself, and pass the toke, the toke is ded).

So. This is the Toke Memorial Contest Post. Leave a comment and be entered to win not only a copy of the new Nocturne anthology MIDNIGHT CRAVINGS but a copy of THE NIGHT SERPENT (by yours truly, aka Anna Leonard) and Chocolate!

You can also leave me advice or opinions about what new netbook to buy, as I'll be shopping this weekend...


(non-lj-ers, please identify your post so I can find you if you win!)

EtA: entire thread so far is about Castle, not the return of the reprint. I am hereby put in my place. *grin*


Am very very very pleased to say that STAYING DEAD is once again available in mass market (and the author stops pulling her hair out and muttering dire things about the warehouse software glitch)

http://www.eharlequin.com/storeitem.html?iid=11931&cid=

(hopefully soon B&N and Amazon will get the memo, too. and yeah, Powells, I'm looking at you.....)

Go, buy a copy! Buy a copy for yourself, for your friend, for the parent who wonders why you read "that crap' (hi dad. nope, statute of limitations still hasn't run out on that comment).

And, to celebrate this return to availability, there's a slight change to the on-going contest: the winner will be able to choose as their prize a copy of either Staying Dead, Curse the Dark or Bring it On in mass market!
------------------------------

Meanwhile, who here fell off the sofa when the cop on "Castle" last night mentioned sleestacks? *raises hand* And then showing us the evidence board (which I had just been writing about in Pack of Lies), and repeating the motif again in Castle's storyboard, and having the two leads consciously stop and acknowledge the connection in their professional lives...and then moving on, without missing a beat -- and oh, the moment when the two of them are trying to figure out what's next in the why-he-dunnit theory, and both hitting the "oh f**k I'm screwed' moment where they couldn't figure out the next plot twist...

I really do fangirl this show, hard. Acting and writing and directing, all. Thank god it's not on Fox, or they would have canceled it already.

Any other Castle fans out there? And if you're not watching, why not?

in this case, copies of MIDNIGHT CRAVINGS, the novella anthology that reprints "Anna Leonard's" Dreamcatcher, previously available only as an e-book, along with stories from Michele Hauf, Karen Whiddon, Lori Devoti, Vivi Anna and Bonnie Vanak.

*looks at limited bookshelf space* Hrmmm. What to do with the bookses, what to do....

*goes off to plot with anthology-mates. watch this space for Evil Details!*


(also, I will have copies with me at Lunacon, for them as feel the urge to read six supernaturally sexy stories....)

Over on her LJ, Second-Best-Evah Agent (after our own Madame Agent/arcaedia, of course) Lucienne Diver/varkat is running Urban Fantasy Week, and asked me to play along. Today I'm holding forth on the challenges of trying to convince people that something Real is also Fantastical....

and we're giving away a copy of FREE FALL, too!

Combined Lizard-and-Mammal Brain woke me up at 5:30, insisting we had MORE TO WRITE! Well yes, we do. But it's not urgent right now, brain. We can sleep in.

NO! WRITE!

Damn it, brain...


Under the heading of cracktastic ideas I'm not going to write: an erotic were-bear story in which the were is an actual bear. leethomas? Consider that idea my birthday present to you. ;-) [EtA: if you don't get it, you're straight and/or sheltered; move along now..]

Meanwhile, I am trying to do three different things at once and not being remarkably effective at any of them, especially with brain still yammering on about WRITING! NOW! Must sit myself down and have a serious talk about where my multi-tasking skilz have gone...

(or maybe I'll just have some more coffee. And throw a little cocoa in it too, hrmm, yes. would you like that, brain?)


Also, today I must choose the winner of the LOLcatcontest! We had some damn good entries, so this may be tough... (you still have time to enter! I probably won't get to the actual judging until this afternoon...)