I braved the muck and rain to harvest some brave strawberries today…

Other than that, the garden is getting along without me. Drowning out there, I suppose.

So I was forced to stay in and work on Hobgoblin. After some epic cat-vacuuming behavior, I got down to it, and added a very necessary scene to the end of chapter 7. Then I set it aside a while and went to yoga; then returned and realized the chapter was now one ridiculously long day, and it couldn’t be, because reasons. So I fixed that. Now I’m ready to start chapter 8 again!

Truly, it all does get better with every iteration. I mean, I have to believe that.

In other news: I probably won’t be on the interwebs much for the next few days, unless I can get my hands on our new iPad. I have to take this computer into the shop. I took it in last week because it keeps dropping its internet connection (many times a day, very annoyingly); they tweaked and adjusted and cleaned and fixed a number of things, and said if that all doesn’t fix it, then it needs a new AirPort card. Well, that didn’t fix it. So I’ll probably have to leave the computer there for repairs. Which is fine, as I’m headed up to Seattle Saturday for a couple of days. (which is where I might get to see my new iPad…) (not to mention other desirable things…)

Later!

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.

No luck on the London house-trade queries so far, though I did get an offer from Brazil. Which, tempting as it looks (sun! beaches!), isn’t quite going to work for attending the con in Brighton.

It does lead to all kinds of interesting fantasies about future house trading and travel, of course. For a frugal homebody like me, house trading is much more appealing than hotel-staying. Sure, it’s not MY home, but it’s A home, with all the comforts and space that implies. Plus, you know, free. Just gotta get there.

Elsewise–very busy day–productive, though. I’ve edited all the stories for the anthology, and sent all but one out (waiting on a proper email address). Did some other interesting secret-for-now things. Replanted a wayward fern in the aquarium. Went for a swim. Avoided the garden, because apparently it is winter again, cold and nasty and rainy. Oh well, spring was nice while it lasted.

Now: book and bed.

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.

I’ve been sort of puttering in the same chapter of Hobgoblin for a few days now–mostly thinking about it, making a few notes–because I knew there was a problem and I didn’t know how to fix it. In fact I hadn’t quite defined the problem…I was getting closer, but it was remaining elusive.

But then this morning it all fell together. In my mind, that is; I still have to go back in and apply all this to the book. Which will mean changing a few things in an earlier chapter–moving something back there from a later chapter, and adding a short scene–and then bringing the solution forward into this chapter.

Basically, I realized I hadn’t fully nailed down Who Knows What, and When; and the related issue of Who Believes What, and When. So I had characters sort of dancing around issues, going first one way and then the other from scene to scene, making no overall sense. But now I’ve worked that all out–I know where everybody stands on The Thing; now I just have to go, you know, write it.

Which I didn’t do today because I worked on editing anthology stories all day, which is a joy and a delight, but it still does take time.

And I didn’t work on Hobgoblin this evening either, because I drove to Beaverton to see John Scalzi enjoy a box of donuts.

Oh and also read and sign, and be his generally delightful and fabulous self. He is truly one of the good guys. I’m glad I went.

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.

So I bought airline tickets to London today. I guess we’re actually going to World Fantasy!

(shudder) oh so much money….

No, can’t worry about that; I’ve run the numbers thoroughly, and I can make this work. And it will be SO much fun and SO worth it professionally.

I also signed up on a home-exchange site. That took most of my morning. Fortunately, it was a sunny day, so I was able to take lovely pictures of the house and yard and all. (And I hope I don’t get dinged for false advertising, showing a sunny Portland house while asking for a trade in October/November…)

So now I’m worried no one will want to trade for late fall, here. But, I’m doing all I can to make it happen. I searched the website for Londoners wanting trades, and sent one query. I’ll keep searching, and sending, and we’ll see!

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.

Miss H. and I went on an outing today, we drove down to Aurora, where I’d never been before. It’s basically a giant antique mall disguised as a little town, half an hour south of here.

And I bought…wait for it….

Another rug!

That’s not where it goes. I have no idea where to put it; I’m totally out of floor.

But it was so inexpensive!! It’s like the lady had no idea what a good rug it was. I mean, under $100! It was my sacred duty to bring it home.

I got other little things too, including a deviled-egg-serving plate (I lost my last one in the divorce), and some useful knick-knacks. And the sun came out for our drive home, so we put the top down and let the wind blow our hair around.

Lovely day.

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.

I have finally found some time to work on Hobgoblin, yay! I’ve edited up through chapter 6. Of course, it’s not till chapter 8 or so where it starts to really need work, but this feels like good progress.

Also I got some more anthology stories edited and out; not quite halfway done with those.

Also-also I got some acquisitions-editing-reading done. (I still LOVE it that I can lie on the couch and read, and that’s work!)

You can tell from all of the above that it was too rainy to go play in the yard today…

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.

Oh my gosh you guys, I was so sleepy last night when I posted, I forgot to tell you about the horrible discovery I made about my next-door neighbor!!

Actually, let me backtrack, because what I learned also helped me solve a mystery that had been driving me nuts. Ever since the weather got a little better and I’ve been keeping windows open, I’ve been hearing this random, occasional “pok” sound. Like a very, very slow ping-pong game. I could NOT for the life of me figure out where it was coming from, though it was obviously nearby.

Though sometimes it sounded farther away, and sometimes it sounded really close. I actually almost peered into a fenced back yard down the block last week, because I thought I heard it coming from there, but when I walked by, there were people in the yard, and, well, I wasn’t going to peer through their fence when they were back there.

So the mystery continued. I started thinking I was going to have to move away, just to preserve my sanity. POK…. POK……….. POK.

POK.

But then yesterday I was out in the yard, puttering around as I do, and I saw my next-door neighbor in his yard. He had a bag of peanuts, and he was filling a couple of little container-device-things that he had nailed to trees.

And as soon as he filled one, a squirrel ran up, lifted the lid, got a peanut, and scampered off, leaving the top to fall back down with a little “pok”!

MY GOD, MY NEIGHBOR IS FEEDING THE LITTLE BASTARDS! (in fact, probably lots of neighbors are, which is why the sound gets closer and farther…)

And of course they leave the peanut shells all over my yard. AND BURY THEM IN MY POTS.

Because of course the little bastards aren’t satisfied with peanut-feasting all over the neighborhood: they still have to come into MY yard and dig up my pots and chew on my plants and kill seedlings and generally wreak mayhem.

I still may have to move. This neighborhood is not safe! Who would have thought my very NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR had gone over to the dark side?

Oddly, now that I know what the POK sound is, it bothers me both less and more. At least I’m not crazed with wondering any more. And I suppose I could silver-lining it and tell myself that every POK I hear is a squirrel not at that moment in my yard, but I’m not quite that Zen yet. I just imagine them writing all their friends all over the country: “Hey, free peanuts in southeast Portland! Right next door to a bunch of juicy plants and freshly dug soil! Come on down!”

Little bastards.

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.

What do May showers bring?

Muddy yardwork, at least. But it makes the weed-pulling easier. I miss that hot weather we had! Though I can’t argue with getting the garden watered for free.

I have about a billion strawberries that are allllllllmost ripe. Just a day or two of sun should do it.

Sun? Hello, sun? Any time now! I want to take my socks back off!

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.

So, I’m pretty new at this editing thing–at least professionally–and I know all my experienced editor-friends are smiling gently at me and rolling their eyes.

But hey, everyone has to learn sometime, right?

And I AM learning so much, it’s marvelous. Working with these stories, pondering what makes a good story work and what makes an unsuccessful story not work–it’s subtle, but also obvious; subjective, yet not. It’s already finding its way back to my own writing, as I finally got back into the edit of Hobgoblin today, and saw things I hadn’t seen the last sixteen times I went over it. Easy-to-fix things. At least so far.

The thing that has amused me the most this week has been something that is entirely DUH-level obvious once you realize it, but I hadn’t seen it till I got there. I was remembering reading all the anthology submissions, which I did as they came in–the good, the bad, the ugly. I read every word of all of them (and there go my friends rolling their eyes again)–but I needed to do that, for my own sense of what I had. And, as I mentioned, to think about why stories work and why they don’t.

So I chose sixteen stories (and I’ll post the table of contents when all the contracts are in), and notified the authors, and then prepared to edit…dreading, before I got into it, the amount of work to be done. Because I’d just had this experience of reading this huge pile of good, bad, and ugly, all jumbled up. And thinking about each story, what it would need…

I’ve edited three stories so far, and…well…they hardly needed any editing at all! Because, DUH, I chose good stories. NOT ones that needed much work–by me, or by the author. I mean, of COURSE. But I didn’t see it till I was sitting there with the stories going, Gee, that was easy.

Yeah, okay, I’ll get there.

In other news: I almost have peonies blooming…any day now:

But then I met Miss Q for tea in Ladd’s Addition, and afterwards we walked through the rose gardens, which are in full bloom:

We took the time to stop and smell the roses. They were lovely.

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.

Another busy day, and one with All the Weathers–sun, clouds, wind, drenching rain, more sun…whatever it was, five minutes later it would be something else.

Got one freelance job done; another one came in. Hey-ho.

Oh, and there is news on the Substitute Innkeepers deal for this winter: it’s going to be three months, not four. The owners have decided to cut their own trip a little shorter, and frankly, that’s going to make some things a lot easier for us. We’ll now start mid-November instead of November 1, and end mid-February. (Don’t worry, Mom, Thanksgiving is still a go!)

This way, we can get back from World Fantasy and maybe even have a day or two to get over our jetlag before packing up and going to Orcas Island for the winter.

Hmm, now I really need to get planning on that trip…

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.

I got all my author-responses out today–both yea and nay–so if you’ve submitted to the “Witches, Stitches, and Bitches” anthology and haven’t heard from me, let me know!

We did have a few stories that came to us outside of the established channels. But I think we caught all of them in the net.

Also, it did rain, as promised; that was actually kind of a relief. It had been rather hot for a while there, which of course is lovely, but I think I like variety, in weather. Also I like not having to water the yard every day. Thanks, Nature!

Speaking of the garden: Forever ago, the community garden by Mark’s apartment had an iris sale. He bought a number of them; I planted them last year. Irises apparently don’t like to bloom the first year they’re replanted. But the second year….

(I took these the other day, when it was still sunny out)

More to come, as they continue to bloom!

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.

So, things are moving forward, but all of them more slowly than anticipated. Such is life.

Mark was feeling better, so we went tablet shopping after all, and bought an iPad Mini, which I look forward to playing with the next time I’m in the same state with it. Because Mark also went home yesterday.

Though not before helping me in the garden, a bit too strenuously, so that now he’s feeling worse again. :/ So he’s trying to take it easy. Again.

Down here, Brilliant Editor was in town last night, so we basically had a many-hours-long Per Aspera business meeting. Very productive and good!

And on the anthology front, I’ve got my table of contents ready but am waiting for some logistical things from higher up before I can move forward. So sorry, any authors who are reading this–I promise I will get notifications out very soon!! I just need one more crucial bit of information….

Meanwhile, the weather has been spectacular, though it’s supposed to rain tomorrow. Well the garden will like that. I’ve already been watering pretty regularly, which I think I didn’t start doing till July or August last year. No complaints about this spring, nope!

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.

Mark is still here, and still sick; though he is somewhat better today. He did get out of bed and come downstairs for an hour or so. :/ But, yes, poor thing.

So no tablet shopping today either. It may have to wait till the next time we’re together, because he has to get back to Seattle very soon–he’s already canceled several plans for this week, and of course there’s always work to do.

But, when you’re sick, you’re sick. Not much to be done about that.

Me, I’m still well (fingers crossed, knock on wood); I did a pile of freelance work today, and puttered in the yard, and went for a swim, and worked on the anthology. I should have a table of contents soon, and will get notices out to authors in the next day or two; am composing generic “acceptance” and “rejection” letters now. (I tried to use something from the many many many examples in my files, but I didn’t find anything I particularly liked, so I’m writing them from scratch.)

I will have more to say about this process as it goes along, I am sure!

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.

Alas, the tablet-shopping did not happen today, for Mark woke up with a horrible cold, and has spent the day in bed. (so you still have time to get recommendations/warnings/advice to me!)

He was meant to go home to Seattle today, but of course did not, which you’d think I’d be happy about; but I’d rather he be well, and home, than sick and here. (though I AM happy that he’s here to be taken care of, and not languishing alone in his faraway room, forgetting to drink lots of fluids, and having no one to make him soup, and all that.)

He warns me that I had better not get sick, or he’ll be forced to stay even longer, and take care of me. Now what kind of threat is THAT? (though, yes, I do hope not to get sick. But, what will be, will be.) (I do feel fine now, for what it’s worth.)

And that’s the state of things here, today.

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.

Tomorrow Mark and I are going to out tablet-shopping. Probably an iPad, but maybe just an e-reader sort of thing and a tablet later. Because it is time to join the world of books-as-pixels, if only to gaze upon things we’ve published that appear only in pixels.

Any recommendations, advice, warnings? Let me know!

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.

Popped up to Seattle yesterday, on the new Bolt Bus, to have dinner with EB and scarlettina. Then hurried back down here this morning, so Mark could do several business-related things, one of which involved a delightful dinner out with an old art colleague, and his wife, and me. Lots of yummy eating.

And this weather! I am amaze.

So, the Bolt Bus: It was way cheaper than the train, but not as nice. Mathematically speaking, it’s definitely worth it, if you’re only going by the numbers. (And I did get the rest of Hobgoblin read through, though it’s harder to read on a bus than on a train.) But, comfort-and-niceness-wise, if you can afford the train, I recommend that. All in all, though, a perfectly reasonable experiment.

The worst thing about taking the bus (or the train) from here is that I have to take a bus to the bus (or the train), and given the vagaries of the schedules and all, that ends up adding several hours to the overall journey. Which is why I almost always drive–three hours versus, oh, five or so. But, given the logistics of this particular journey, I needed to be up there without a car, because Mark and his car needed to be down here today, so, that’s how it worked out. (And, I did finish the reading on Hobgoblin, so I can’t complain!)

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.

I did many things today, but got nothing all the way to done, so, it doesn’t feel very accomplishment-ish, but, oh well. I was busy and productive anyway, even if it doesn’t feel like it.

Partly this may be because I was moving a bit slow, because I was awakened quite thoroughly at 4am, when what must have been a raccoon was walking across my roof–no, not walking, veritably SCRABBLING, scratching with its nasty claws, slipping, catching itself; stopping, starting again; etc. And (after I got over the WTF IS THAT????) I was thinking, How in the world did it even get up there? And why?? This is a two-story house over a full basement. Sure, they can climb, but what was it even looking for all the way up there?

I dunno. Animals, man. Who can figure them?

And I took the evening off and had a lovely dinner out with a good friend who I don’t see nearly often enough. That was fun.

Earlier, during my swim, I got to wallowing in a bit of regret–a funny sort of regret: my life is so good now, I’m doing work that I enjoy tremendously, and I’m in a relationship that nourishes and delights me, and my creative life is just burgeoning, and I have this wonderful house and garden, and I have good friends who make me feel better and I’ve moved away from toxic friends who make me feel worse–and the regret is, why did it take me so long to get here? Why did I stay trapped in that old life for so long, where I handed away all my agency and control to others? What a waste of time and energy, and so many of my younger and more energetic years!

And then I think what a silly regret that is to have, because my life IS so very good now, and then I just appreciate where I am. But, yeah. Food for thought.

Oh and: I will be away from the internets tomorrow. Just FYI. See y’all Sunday.

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.

Look, a pile of manuscripts:

That’s all the submissions so far for “Witches, Stitches, and Bitches”–there are still a few trickling in (submitted by the deadline, but still wending their way to me), but that’s mostly the size of it.

I’ve read them all, every word. And, almost all of them in the last two days, cause that’s when they came in.

So that’s kind of what’s been going on around here. Sorry I haven’t got more news, but, there you go.

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.

Wow, a lot of stories came in today. I’ve been reading, reading, reading.

(That it is my work, to read things? Life does not suck.)

This is going to be such a cool anthology, you guys, you have no idea. I cannot say more–I know there are more stories coming in which I have not seen yet (it is a process, by which they make their way to me); but, even with what I’ve seen: yeah.

Also! The weather! Suddenly warm now!

Also, nice-but-weird: a basket of flowers–planted flowers–appeared on my front porch this morning, all anonymously. I suspected Miss H, but she denies all knowledge, and I believe her, so the mystery remains. A neighbor? A misdelivery? A forgotten note? In any event: thank you, universe, they are lovely!

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.

What happened to the warm weather? Oh, they say it’s coming back tomorrow. Of course they would say that.
____________

I wrote a little piece on collaboration the other day. It’s here; called On Collaboration, funnily enough. It occurred to me you all might be curious why so much of my writing (an intrinsically solo activity) involves other people.
___________

But I’m working very solo at the moment: reading the prior draft of Hobgoblin, which I am still quite happy with, as it turns out. Of course I’m finding things that need fixing, or developing, or changing; but I think it’s actually a pretty darn solid novel. Which is very encouraging! I’m not quite halfway through reading it; no doubt the horrible problems are still to come. But, we’ll see.
____________

And wow, I’m sleepy. Not even sure why, but I can barely keep my eyes open. So I’m going to stop trying to.

Originally published at Shannon Page. You can comment here or there.