I'm going to run it past the Hubby one last time, take any changes he suggests into consideration...

And call it done.

And ship it off.

And then start the next thing. Or finish something I've started. *eyes WIP list* The next Writers of the Future deadline is sneaking up quickly. Still no call from Joni. *crosses fingers*

We're also planning a trip to Yellowstone next week. Whee...

Also, I have a headache that won't go away.

Up way to freakin' early because the Hubby has recurrent training this morning. Gah. And have already gotten in argument with Boy. Whee. :/

Can't...sentence...properly...

I'm looking over the Bunny From Hell fic and wondering if I'm explaining enough in it. Anyone who's read The Velveteen Rabbit knows that the Rabbit actually turns into a real bunny in the end. In this story, Elsie's love for the bunny is enough to awaken him, but not enough to make him Real. And I haven't actually said what the difference is.

And I have one word to play with. Yup, y'all, it's sitting at 999.

*tears hair out*

It's always something. AUGH.

But you know what? I really really like this story. Just a leeetle more tweaking...

It might be as easy as adding a couple of commas to the last line. *ponders*

I was considering whether to send it to other markets before July 30, because that just seems like an awfully long way away, but looking over the ones that'll pay me as much for it as this one will, none of them have response times I'm comfortable with--other than Heliotrope, and they're closed to subs right now. So I guess, once I finish beating this into shape, I'll just ship it off to AlienSkin and cross my fingers.

They've announced the first round of Honorable Mentions at Writers of the Future. I've not gotten a phone call yet. There's a couple of people from Utah on the list. *bites nails*

THE PLOT BUNNY HAS BEEN VANQUISHED.

I have Bunny Motivation that makes actual sense. I have whacked it down (once again) to under a thousand words.

*pets Antubis and feeds him chocolate-covered ants*

I suppose I should sit on it for a couple of days and make sure I still like it before I ship it off. And there's several markets I can send it to if AlienSkin doesn't want it, so yay for that. I considered sending it to a couple of those first, since the deadline isn't until July 30, but that seems a little unfair, since I wrote it specifically for this contest. So I guess I'll give them the first crack at it.

ETA: Many many hugs and thanks and e-cookies to the Concrit Group, who helped make it better and pointed out the ginormous glaring lack-of-real-motivation my Evil Bunny had. And special thanks to myfeetshowit for giving me the nudge in the right direction. *smooches*

AUGH. My Evil Bunny has a serious lack of motivation here, which has been pointed out by...oh, just about everyone who's commented on it.

*tears out hair*

Part of my problem is that I didn't want to go for the obvious thing that the story points toward. So it takes a sharp left turn into WTF-ville, and I don't set it up enough. The other part of the problem is that I've only got a thousand words to play with here, so when I add words somewhere, I have to subtract words from somewhere else. And finding places to subtract them from is becoming increasingly difficult. Right now I've got a fifty-word leeway.

It was supposed to be a simple thousand-word horror story. WHAT HAPPENED?

**For those new to my flist, Antubis and Flaubert are my Muses. Antubis is the anteater from Kingdom Hospital, and takes care of the darker stuff; Flaubert is Miss Piggy's pet anteater in Muppet Treasure Island, and he's in charge of funny fic. Yes, they're both anteaters. I...have a *cough* slight obsession. Thus the icon--generally the anteaters stealing my sanity are those two.

I have a title for the Bunny From Hell story, suggested by the Hubby, who is a genius, y'all. I'm...not sharing it, though. Because I'm mean. He also made a suggestion re: the ending, which I'm still mulling over. I may be posting it for the Concrit Group to tear into later today. I need to escalate the "creepy" factor before I do that, though.

The handsome and talented slushmaster has a poll up about snail mail vs email subs. Profic writers, go forth and vote and comment. You know you want to.

My gmail inbox remains empty. Woe.

"Lost" continues to rock my socks, y'all. That is some tasty tasty crack, and hey, dude who plays Ben? Here's your Emmy, man. Also, there's a new "Numb3rs" tonight, in case there's anyone on my flist besides bigsciencybrain who cares.

I have some new folks on my flist. *waves* I tag everything (mostly for my own record-keeping, especially as regards my fiction), so if there's a tag that piques your interest, click it and you can see everything I've ever written on the subject.

The Hubby bought a Dodge Durango yesterday, one of the old-style ones (because the new ones, although they have a Hemi, are butt-ugly). This may give him actual incentive to put the Willys on the block. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, nothing will ever be as cool as the Willys. NOTHING. On the other hand, we're getting old and comfort is a premium. I just hope he builds the Durango up so we can actually go jeeping in it.

We talked some more about the aracari last night, and I'm finally coming around to the viewpoint that the Hubby is right: The Green Aracari is (very slightly) prettier than the Ivory-Billed. The beak is just way more colorful. Do I lose Wife Cred for admitting he's right?

For, lo, I am ze Queen of Ze Drabbles. I have whacked my word count down to 985 from 1064. And it "only" took an hour.

I'll probably run it past the Hubby before running it past the Concrit Group, but I'm pretty pleased with it. *evil laughter*

Coming down pretty hard too. I hate April. It's the worst month EVER in Utah.

Anyone else gobsmacked at the American Idol results? ( Spoilers ahoy... )

In other news, we finished S3 of Who last night (yay for our outstanding library). This show has the ability to make me cry like a baby and giggle like a madwoman within a five-minute period. FACE OF BOE, y'all. That will NEVER GET OLD. *is still giggling*

Okay. Today, I must hack the word count on the Bunny From Hell story down to below a thousand words. Wish me luck.

Hey, look, it stopped snowing. A ten-minute storm. ETA: Nevermind, it's still coming down. Just not blizzard-y.

Less phoned-in, more gut punch. Yay.

Of course, it bumped my word count up to 1064. Which means I have to go back in and weed-whack and reword to get it dropped back down below 1000. However, I have Mad Drabbling Skilz and I can do this. Who says fanfiction doesn't teach you anything?

It's never actually "done," is it?

But, you know what? At least the Muses are producing for me again. This is a Good Thing, and I will embrace it.

Even if they're producing a horror piece about a Velveteen Rabbit Gone Horribly Wrong.

Okay, my death scenes always suck, right? Which is a shame, because I write a lot of them, in the genres I write in. My fanfic also had its fair share of people dropping like flies. *eyes ReaverFic* The death scenes are usually better after six or seven rewrites, but I have nearly as hard a time with characters dying as I do describing what they look like.

However, the death scene in the Bunny From Hell story is probably my worst one to date. Seriously, y'all, this sucks. It sucks big green mossy rocks. Boulders, really. Suckety suck suck suck.

That being said, at least I know there's a problem. Knowing there's a problem is the first step on the road to fixing that problem. I also know I have a problem with description in this story, and there's one particular feature I need to put on the bunny that I'm having a hard time figuring out just where.

Writing is easy. Editing is hard. Especially when that editing consists of ... rewriting. Argh.

I have whacked down the word count to within acceptable parameters. Now I need to increase the Creepy Factor. No doubt I'll have to whack it down again after I do that. A title, as well, would be a Good Thing.

For the first time in a long time, I'm actually feeling productive about my writing.

And now, for your entertainment...THE BUNNY SONG, and the inspiration for this story.



Of course, all this being said, I'm not sure I actually like the story. I just don't feel quite evil enough about it yet.