Done

"Ding, dong the witch is dead." The book is done. I think that says it all. My new goal in life is a hot bath, a lavender scented candle, a book that I didn't have to write, and some music that I haven't lived with for the last few months. "Drink up me' hearties, yo-ho!" Oh, yeah, a movie outside the house that isn't "G" rated.

No joy in Mudville

There is no joy in Mudville, Mighty Casey has struck out. If you don't know the poem, look it up. Tired, so tired I can't see straight. The first time I ever remember being this tired was when Trinity was only a few weeks, or months old, I know under three months. Back when she slept maybe three, four hours at a time, and one of us had to get up with her. Thank God I didn't breast feed so my first husband and I were able to divide the baby care more evenly. Oh, and any men out there bragging that they never had to change a diaper on their own kids, you are all wimps. I've been threatened with a gun, been in martial arts, had my leg broken in two places and cracked in another along with a second degree burn, and none of it was as unrelentingly hard as caring for a small baby. Nothing has ever been that grueling before or since, but this book is close.

All you parents out there remember going to movies where when the lights went down you couldn't remember what movie you'd come to see. You were just so happy to be out of the house and being able to behave like a grown-up that it didn't really matter what movie it was. You had a few hours of precious freedom; if you could stay awake. The last two times Jonathon and I went out to a movie, I couldn't remember what we'd decided to see, that should have been a hint. But sometimes I'm slow, or is that stubborn?

This book is whipping my ass, and not in a fun way. If I push myself this weekend, and I mean push, then maybe, just maybe, I can be done by Monday. Trinity is with us this weekend, so that makes it harder. One, I'd like to see her. Two, she's just not an entirely self-entertaining child. Jonathon will do his best, but Trinity has always been a mommy's girl.

And let me just say that I know I'm making Jonathon's life hard. I'm never a low maintence person, though a lot of my high maintence is closer to a high maintence man than a high maintence woman. But either way, it's not always easy to live with. I am aware of that. Jonathon earned his paycheck and his couple browning points this last weekend. I wrote ten pages long hand, but I was simply unable to compose on the computer. Writing that much by hand hurt my arm, of course. But what else am I to do? Jonathon, bless his heart, sat with me in the dining room, just to keep me company. Like needing a friend to go with you into the lion's den.

Why is this book so hard? Well, one thing is that I've spent four books trying to write Merry as if her series is structured like Anita's series, and it isn't. Merry is pieces of a whole. Her story was never conceived to be whole and complete each book, but every book I try to pound her into a kind of book I'm used to writing. Four books in the characters are more alive than ever, and the world, but the pace and structure of the books is still giving me fits. I now know not to set myself the task of a series where I know what's going to happen all the way down the road. I write, in a great part, to find out what happens next. I write so I can read it. If I already know what's going to happen, all of it, or ninety percent of it, then all that's left for me as a reader is make sure the writing is the best writing it can be. As a writer that is much less satisfying to me than writing as fast as I can to try and catch up with my muse. So I've learned something about myself as a writer, but I've learned it a little late. I am committed to Merry and her story, and I am committed to the over all story arc. If Merry, or I, could figure out a way to live happily ever after and not be Queen of fairie, we'd take it. But even if she was willing to give the court over to Cel, he'd never rest easy while she was alive. Look at real human history. A legitimate, or even partly legitimate contender for a throne, that could be used as a rallying point against the king or queen had a short life expectancy. It's just bad politics to leave your rival alive. Cel has a lot of faults, being that careless is not one of them.

I'm going back to work now. Merry's starting to write better at night. Maybe, Darla's right, by night fall I'm so tired that I can get out of my own way better.

Me, at last

Still not completely well, mainly because the deadline is here, like right here, and the book is not done. So instead of resting I'm working, and thus not getting completely well. Better, but not well. We visited a friend in the hospital yesterday. She's going to be fine, but she needed the cheer up visit. Funny how real life interferes with everything isn't it. Though frankly, it doesn't feel all that funny right now. Trinity's cold is almost completely gone. So it looks like we're all on the mend. I'm going to run away now and try and beat the current scene into submission. At least we're doing a politics, negotiation, and magic scene, those are easier than other scenes when you're not feeling your best. Bye for now.

Down Time

There has been some down time with the servers of late. They seem to be up a running now, but I'm still watching them like a hawk. Hopefully nothing more will happen to make my job "interesting" of a while.

later

All by me Oneseys

I've been running the ship all by my self for the past week or so, and I thought I should let everyone know.

Laurell has been sick with a sinus infection for a week or so. Darla has been out sick for the past week too. And now the Kiddo is sick as well.

Dear God, that leaves me in charge....

If you get the reference in the title, cool. If you don't. You need to watch a recent pirate movie.

later

Back at work

Not a hundred percent yet, but I was able to go back to work today. Yeah. The book was going pretty well, then a week off. Like going from a marathon pace to crawling. I got out not only the Christmas music, but THE VEGGIE TALES CHRISTMAS ALBUM. My big guns for any Merry book when my spirit, or body flags. For all of you that didn't know that Veggie Tales were my ultimate Christmas music for a Merry book, well, sorry for the shock. Because most people are very surprised that I could possibly listen to this, while writing that.

I was very tired when I started this afternoon. I so did not feel like working, but after listening to two and a half times through of vegetables singing Christmas carols, well, I had my five pages, and a little over. I feel good enough that I could push myself and get a little more, but pushing myself is how I stayed sick for a week. I'm going to try and be content with what I have and let my body rest. I do not want another relapse. Especially, because I pushed it. That would just piss me off. So have a very Veggie Christmas. I know it's over the year; even Twelfth Night is past, but with snow on the ground and discouragement in the heart it's always time for a little Christmas.

Caught a bug, and alone time.

I'm putting something up tonight so you guys won't think I've dropped off the face of the earth. I managed to catch one of the many bugs going around this time of year. I'm feeling better but it's taken a few days. I'd have felt better earlier, but I pushed it and tried to do too much as soon as I felt better. Typical me, you'd think I'd learn.

Any way, we're getting ready to go to bed. Yes, at nine. We've started trying to go to bed when the kiddo goes to bed. One, during the week we have to get up as early as she does. Two, once the bedroom door is closed Jonathon and I get to have grown-up alone time. Yes, this does mean sex sometimes, but not always. Honest. By not letting ourselves get trapped into watching television after the kiddo is in bed (let's face it most television if we never see it, we don't really miss it, do we?) we get to talk, without interruption. All you parents with younger kids know what I mean. Sometimes Jonathon and I just take turns reading to eachother from the current book that we're reading. Just alone time, the two of us, without the day biting at us. No work, no kids, no phonecalls, just us. Now, admittedly, there are nights when we stay up and watch a non-Trinity safe video, and there are two shows we TIVO, and watch later. Too late to stay up, and neither is Trinity safe. Fine, CSI, and House. There might be other goods ones out there, but we'd rather have our alone time than get hooked on something else.

We're gong to bed now. Bye.

End game

Twenty-one pages today. The end game is hard upon me. No television tonight. No movies, unless I'm sure of them. Have seen them before. Nothing that will slow me down, or tire me out. Only stuff that energize. Okay, as much as possible. Real life does have a habit of intruding. Wrote until both my muse and my body were just too tired to keep going. Then visit with the kiddo, before she went to her father's overnight. I needed to get out of the house at that point. So Jon and I went to a nice restaurant, and had a nice meal. I was so tired that staring off into space felt restful. But at the restaurant when Jon got his notebook out making notes on his stuff, I found my head clawing at some of the questions that still need decided before I can finish A STROKE OF MIDNIGHT. So out came my notebook, and I thought a little on paper. I think I have my final line-up for the rest of the book. Eighty-five percent sure of what is going in this book, and what is waiting until next book. The problem with a continuing plot is where to cut the cake so that everyone feels like they've had a full meal, but you don't have a two thousand page opus. The book is going to be close to a thousand pages as is. Sigh.

I'm going to bed now.

Jon's Underworld Rant

OK, Laurell is doing her own rant at the moment, so you'll either read it after mine, or have already done so. I love multipule computers.

OK here's the rant. Or more accuratly, a guffaw.

I've not laughed this much at a serious movie since Leprechaun in the Hood.

Point One: The opening sequance. If a "normal" human body fell off the top of a building, it would crack the concreat of the sidewalk when it hits. but apparently, the vampires in this world.... oops, Vampyres have the ability to ignore Newton's Laws. The whole Conservation of energy one. Sorry, my science background makes me question the suspension of disbelife.

Point B: Just how much ammunition are you packing? I think Laurell makes this point succently in her post.

Point eye-eye-eye: (That's iii for those of you playing along at home; its because I have difficulty sticking to one numbering system.) The trusting Vampire er vampyre... I just can't wrap my head around that poncy spelling. If you were a power-crazed totalitarian warlord, would you trust another power-crazed totalitarian warlord to share fairly and wake you up when its yourtime to take over? I wouldn't. I check the alarm in our bedroom every night, just to make sure someone hasn't fidgeted with it to make me over sleep. I'd be even less trusting if I was a Vampire bent on world domination.

Point delta: (see, that pesky numbering thing creeps up again) Where is the world domination? Exactly what are the vamps trying to achieve with their grand society? I get what the lichen er Lycanthropes were after. They were doing a Sparticus but there needs to be some sort of list of demands... you know, like Martin Luthor or the American Reveloution. I could understand if the slavery was from "a time before time" but for less than a mellinium, please. Four maybe Five hundred years is all this movieis giving the Vamps and fungi to get a comunial society, then throw it down the toilet with a war that the movie states has been going on for over SIX hundred years. Oh, Continuity Checker! I can see the wires suspending my disbelief. It appears that the writer is hanging on one of them and sawing throught it gleefully with his pen.

Point the Sixth: (I'm beginning to repeat myself) Its a minor point, but what's with all the vamps at the front of the mansion. None of them do a damn thing, even for window dressing. I'm guessing their point of Immortal existance is to stand about like a great bunch of Gits.

Ok, I'm tired and want to go to bed.

l8r

Underworld

Finally saw the movie Underworld. I'm a little puzzled why there were so many people that thought the movie was based on my books. Other than the main female character being short and dark haired, and tough, there just didn't seem that much in common.

First, let me say that this movie reminded me why I've almost completely stopped watching or reading other people's vampires. It's a busman's holiday, and I don't enjoy the ride. I spend the entire time complaining.

Complaint number one: The death-dealers, are the equivalent of special forces, or tactical teams with the police. I would be very surprised if anyone associated with this movie had ever studied anything about real tac teams, or real special forces. Nor, had they looked at why there are no fully automatic pistols, like regular pistols, not subbies with pistol grips. The most amount of ammo a pistol holds is thirteen, fourteen rounds. Trust me when I say that fourteen rounds at full automatic goes in the blink of an eye, and you're out of ammo. Say you modify the clip to do twenty rounds, same dif, you just die a few seconds later. Hell, take a full clip in a real sub-machine gun, put the little sliding switch to full automatic, and pull the trigger. You will run out of ammo in a such a sort space of time. An unbelievable amount of ammo goes through the gun in a frighteningly short time. That is why real tac teams, or real special forces, are taught to use short controlled bursts. It saves ammo, and gives you some chance of knowing how much ammo you've used, which let's you know how much ammo you have left. A very important thing in a fire fight.

The death-dealers in this movie were supposedly doing special forces work for centuries, I will credit them with more competency than this movie showed. The vampires, other than Celine, seemed totally out-classed, and don't get me started on the scene where she has enough ammo to chop a hole in the floor to escape. If she has that much ammo to spare, then don't run, kill their fuzzy little asses.

Complaint number two: The running fire fight in the subway. Yes, Celine, does mention later that it was unusual to have the werewolves start shooting infront of all the humans. But how the hell do either the fuzzies or the vamps keep hidden with this kind of shit going on. And may I just say that John Woo has not been a good influence on Hollywood fight scenes. Yes, they are pretty, but style over substance is just not my gig.

And what was with the cadre of vamps in the front room of the mansion? What did they do? What were they there for? Too look pretty? To what?

Complaint number three: Yeah, I believe that a master vampire would allow himself to be put into hibernation, and trust that when his turn came the other vamps would wake him up and let him rule. Sure I do. Machiavelli must be rolling in his grave.

So not happening.

Complaint number four: The final fight scene. If you haven't seen the movie this is a spoiler alert. Celine uses a sword to cut the bad guy's head in two. But he doesn't know it for about a minute. She did to his head what the old Zorro movies used to do to candles. You know where the sword is so sharp, and the swordsman so good, that the candles look solid, and the other guy thinks our hero missed, but the touch of a sword blade, or a breath of wind makes the candle tips fall over. This may work with candles, don't know, haven't tried it, but it certainly doesn't work with heads. I would have been fine with his head being split in two. I would have been fine with him living with the head split in two, he is an uber-master vampire, but flesh is flesh, and physics is physics. Your monsters should as far as possible work like real creatures of flesh and blood.

Complaint number Five: Due to many of the preceding, I at no time felt like any of the main characters were in jeopardy. The last moment of suspense for me was the car accident where Michael our hero saves our heroine. Yes, she saves him more times, true.

The usual complaints. How the hell do werewolves walk on walls and ceilings like flies or lizards? It takes very specialized stuff to walk on walls and ceilings. Yes, mice can do walls, but rarely ceilings, and if you've ever watched them do it, it's not as easy as running along a floor, like most movie werewolves seem to be able to do in defiance of gravity and laws of mass and sturdiness of plaster and wall board. Even if you could come up with a biologically logical way for your werewolves to do the ceiling and wall thing, most walls and ceilings would not support the weight and damage of the claws. Just wouldn't happen.

I am so tired of watching monster flicks where just because it's vampires and werewolves, or whatever, that no one seems to care about biology, real mythology, real folklore, real history, real fighting tactics, real weaponry used in a realistic manner, and who decided that to be a vamp you have to have the long black leather, or leatherish coats? Have you ever tried to run in an ankle length leather trench coat? I have. Yes, I own one, as some of you have seen at events if it was cold enough. But one day, at our home, when the puppy , Pippin, was much younger, he got away. Pippin was headed for the street and a car. I started running, full-out, and found instantly that the heavy leather trench hindered me. You could follow me across the snow by the line of clothes I left behind. One of the first things I ditched was the leather trench coat. My hat is off to all the actors in this film that did their stunts wearing the damned things.

Yes, Jean-Claude and some of the other vamps like to look good. Jean-Claude is an incredible clothes horse. But I think he's only worn an ankle length cloak like anything two or three times in the entire twelve book run of the series. There's a reason for that. I try to do for the clothes, what I do for the weapons. I research it. Substance over style, people, not style over substance. I'm going to bed now. Jon is doing is own rant about the movie. Tomorrow is another day, and I'm playing with the fey, not vamps until this Merry book is done. Watching this movie did not invigorate me. It made me feel tired. Research. Research. Research. Damnit.

Done for the day

Finished for the day. Ten pages. Tired. My goal in life right now is a hot bath, a good book to read, and not to think too hard for the rest of the evening. Book's going well. We truly are in the end game rush. Thank the Goddess.

I put up a blog on the soapbox/political blog side. Don't read it if you're tired of the media coverage on the tsunami. That's all I'll say here. If you want more, read the other blog. I'm going to try and keep this part of the blog lighter, so you can decide how deep you want to think. For me, today, not very. Though, I guess, writing the other blog took more wind out of my sails than I knew, because I am done. Stick a fork in me honey, I am done.

Bus will be here soon. If I'm lucky I'll have a few minutes to sit and be very still, and do nothing before the kiddo arrives, and the homework is to be done.

A quick note, hopefully

I just tried to write a quick note to let everyone know that the book is going well. I'm in the end game. It's a longer end game with the books getting so much longer, but still I can taste freedom like something sweet and clean on my tongue. Let me add that this was about where I got when the blue screen of death came up, and I got the message that my computer was in the process of dumping my physical memory. Dumping my physical memory! That can't be good.

I hit the intercom and yelled for help. Both Darla and Jonathon didn't quite understand me. Voices can be garbled over the intercom unless you annunciate. I guess a panicked high pitch was not conducive to being understood. So they're both going, huh, what did you say.

I changed my message to, "I need an I.T. person up here S.T.A.T. Help!" That message they got. Jonathon came up, took the blue screen of death quite calmly, and fixed it. I lost like a word of my book file, because I save to server, to disk, whatever, religiously. Let's hear it for good computer habits. I, of course, lost all the blog I was doing. Anyway, it's all okay. The emergency is over, but the fact that neither Darla nor Jonathon are certain why it happened is a little unnerving. But every I.T. person I know that is honest says the same thing, sometimes bad things happen and you just don't know exactly why. Jonathon says that all computers work better at least one or two stories up, because you can always threaten to throw them out a window. I'm not sure that actually works, but I know there are days when the thought is sort of cathartic.

Happy New Year Again

It's the third of January 2005. Wow another year's gone by! I don't really know what to say, except that I hope that this year is as good for everyone as last year was. Yes, last year was not the best of years, but it was better than most.

2004 saw a great many things happen, some good, some bad, most indifferent. If in 2005 we can change the ratio of good to bad, or even good to indifferent, so that there is more good than either bad or indifferent, even by a little bit, it will be a good year.

Here's to hoping!

Cheers!

Updated Christmas pictures of the dogs

OK, I've been meaning to do this for a while, but I finally added some pictures of the dogs to their galleries, mostly its Christmas pictures, but its the season.

Cheers!

Happy New Year!

Its a new year and we're all excited about what is coming in 2005.

I hope to post more later today, but I just got up and thought to post this.

Cheers!