Arrant Nonsense

So, I'm dinking around Yahoo Answers today (as one does), and some kid is lamenting the fact that he might have to get a real job while he works on the dream of becoming a fantasy novelist.

Well, yes. Starving in a garret is only romantic if you're not the one starving, and if you don't think about it too hard. Suck it up, sunshine, and welcome to the real world. I wasn't quite that brutal in my answer, but there is Dream, and there is Reality, and making the two come together is Hard Work.

I then detailed my to-do list for the foreseeable future:
1. Graphics worksheet, bio, photo, and a bunch of other stuff for "That Which Is Hidden." Due, well, tomorrow.

2. Synopsis for Sold Soul to send to a place that apparently thinks "write us a synopsis" is easier than "send us the manuscript and don't worry about the formatting."

3. Edits on Cyborg Werewolf. This one needs a rewrite from the ground up from midway through the story. Fun stuff. That's due at the end of the month. Oh, look, it's October.

4. Outline the rest of Angry Bitter Angel. Then write it. Am I a novelist? No, I am not. Do I have any earthly idea what's supposed to happen in my putative Act Two? No, I do not. Awesome.

5. (Backburnered.) Finish the synopsis for not!KKBB/IM, revamp the query, and start sending that damn thing out again.

That's just the writing plate, and it's assuming I don't get any rejections I need to flip today. Look full to you? Yeah, it looks full to me too. But I also have other responsibilities.
1. Today is Laundry Day. Whee.

2. It's a school day. I have to keep the Boy on task while we do that.

3. Somewhere in there, I need to feed my family.

4. Since the Hubby is going to work tomorrow, I have to make sure the house is vacuumed. White pets + black work pants = unmixy.

5. Half hour on the bike.

6. Television has started up again, and that's Family Time. We have Agents of SHIELD and Person of Interest tonight, plus an episode of Last Man Standing to catch up on from last week.

WELL. I guess I should get off the damb interwebs and get my ass in gear, huh.

I have accomplished absolutely nothing of note. No outline, not even a line. I copied and pasted the seven part plot-point outline into a blank doc. That's it.

This is probably a function of the fact that my brain is mush do DUE (!!--see what I mean???) to the cold I've managed to come down with. I feel somewhat more with-it now than I have most of the afternoon, but I'm still logy and tired and bleh.

But I've started "Cold Days" and tagged an RP post. I am in the midst of making dinner for my Hung'r'd Brood. And there's a cat on me. I suppose the day's not a total loss. Plus Castle and Hawaii Five-0 are on tonight and Castle looks awesome.

Someone upload me some motivation?

On the steampunk werewolf western. I realized last night that I hadn't described my protag's love interest at all, other than the fact that she's tiny and tough. So I put a dress on her and added some hair, and now we've at least got some idea of what she looks like.

And I read it aloud to the Hubby, and he pointed out that I sort of glossed over the whole "witchcraft" aspect of it, which is certainly true. I managed to repair that with a couple of lines where it's taken note of, so that's fixed.

And we've spent the last hour installing a bluray system in our family room. Our friend thought it would take twenty minutes. HA. No, we're not done yet. I've changed into shorts and a sports bra.

And I'm getting the first outline for my NaNo project set up in my head.

well. Any-damn-thing, right now. It's barely noon, and the day has already been a trainwreck.

continues apace.

This morning, I was under 130 for the first time in... well. A long time. Which was good to see. A lack of Doritos and Robin Eggs may have helped--oh, hell, who am I kidding, it definitely helped.

But, oh, god, I'm so hungry. At the same time, I don't actually want to eat. I know I should, but I can't actually summon the oomph to get up and make something.

Argh.

Also, I feel like I've had an enthusiasm-ectomy. The novelthing has stuttered to a halt, and I'm horribly intimidated by the Chains project. This...may be a function of my Monthly Visitor, which arrived yesterday. And I would hate it, if I had that much energy.

You may have a "blah" to go with the "argh."

For a plethora of reasons.

It is entirely possible that I've run out of paying markets for the not!Iron Man story, having received (yet another) rejection for that one today (a nice rejection, but a rejection nonetheless) and discovered that the next market I was going to ship it off to has closed to subs permanently. And then I spent an ungodly amount of time wrestling with OpenOffice over taking a header off the first page, only to look over the guidelines of the market I was VERY SPECIALLY FORMATTING it for (seriously, some of these formatting requirements are whackadoo. I wouldn't mind formatting it after they accepted the damned thing, more than happy to do that, but I wish these markets would pick a format and stick with it. Preferably Standard Manuscript Format) and discover that they don't pay an advance at all, just a royalty. Which... yeah. Is fine and good if they were a major publisher, but...they're not. Also, they want me to come up with my own marketing plan. Because I know all about that, right? Aren't they the professionals? Feh. I mean, I'd be more than happy to do a local tour with signings and readings at bookstores and libraries and possibly high schools, and all that fun stuff, but an actual "marketing plan" is a little beyond my skill set.

Hell, I even chaptered the thing for them. It may or may not be better with chapters, crap if I know at this point. I just want someone to buy it so people will get to read it. This is the second story I've about decided will go up here with a tip jar, Miss Manners and her attitude toward "beggary" notwithstanding. My situation is a bit different (although I am also appallingly bad with money, but I have an excellent money manager in the Hubby) as I'd be providing content for said tips, and I view that more as a street musician playing with an open instrument case on the ground in front of me for people to drop a bill or some coins in if they so desire.

So, there was that. There's also the fact that I don't think I got any new words in the new!Ben&Janni story today (I edited some old ones, which doesn't count). And then I was going to console myself with a Carl's Jr $6 guacamole-bacon burger...and the Carl's I went to was closed for remodeling. The next closest one was at least fifteen minutes away (depending on traffic and how I hit the lights), and television was starting in... twenty-five minutes. I did not get my burger-y goodness.

I nearly decided to drown my sorrows in Diet Dew and Southern Comfort after Da Boy went to bed, but decided that drinking alone without the excuse of "unleashing my creativity" (because the Muse has apparently Gone Walkabout again) was a bad idea. So, here I sit. Comfort-less.

Also, the engine light in the CruiserBerry is on and has been for about a week. This is Bad.

Just...screw this day, y'know? Sideways, with a rusty cactus.

I know, I know, cry moar, boo-frakking-hoo, there's people out there worse off than I am. It...is entirely possible that I am hormonal. Which, you know what? Screw that too. *hates uterus*

Also, I miss the Gray Cat.

At least TV was good tonight. OH GOD THE PREVIEW FOR NEXT WEEK'S MENTALIST. *kermitflail*

Yesterday, we got a new printer. This means I can send out the Cow story again. Yayness. However, in attempting to get the wireless thingy to actually work, I managed to frell up our "network" (such as it is). I solved that problem today by rebooting the modem, which has gotten me back on the interwebs but still doesn't solve the "how do I get this thing to work wirelessly" problem.

Oh, hey, I may even be able to print labels again, which might make my subs look a little more professional-like. We shall see, I guess.

Today, we took the Cessna to Moab to look at some property down there. Of course, when we got there, the FBO had just sent their crew car out with someone else. Enterprise had no cars at all, so we couldn't rent one. Fortunately, I'd called the real estate agent yesterday to give him a heads-up, and he was able to pick us up at the airport and drive us around. Lunch at the Moab Brewery, and now we've got a decision to make. There's one I like, a whole heaping lot (two acres backing up to BLM land, what's not to love--except it's... out a ways. But. Still. Two acres backing up to BLM land).

Also, our local airport has at least three red foxes living there, and I saw all three of them today. I got pictures, although the camera couldn't zoom them in very close because they were way out there, but it was cool nevertheless.

I was poking around the interwebs, as I do, doing some desultory research. Plugged "exit wound 9mm" into the Google Image Search engine.

Oh, hey. That's me, right there on the very first page (Warning: There's some fairly horrific stuff there, click at your own risk, because I don't use SafeSearch, like, at all). Apparently my "wank" tag has the entry in which I'm looking for (you guessed it) 9mm exit wounds. Which it turned out I didn't actually need.

I don't think I've ever turned myself up in a random search like that before. Wild.

The Gray Cat is in acute kidney failure right now.

Even with aggressive treatment, her prognosis is very very bad.

Treatment is going to cost, on the low end, about $600. In addition to the $250 we've already spent for the diagnosis. It could go as high as $1200.

I hate doing a cost-benefit analysis like this. Even if she recovers, her kidneys won't ever be the same. We might be able to make her "comfortable," (for a certain value of comfortable) but she won't ever be "well" again.

But not trying doesn't sit well with me either.

FUCK.

Why the hell does this stuff always happen when the Hubby's not home?

My DVDs are in the tower. My god, that part of the room looks 110% better than it did. The DVDs are even halfway organized. My RDJ movies are alphabetized (all sixteen of them). Behold my unhealthy obsession.

Of course, this points up the holes I have in my DVD collection. I still need S4 and S5 of LOST. And S4 of Lois and Clark. Missed out on S1 of Farscape. *cries* Seasons 2-4 of Angel (even though S4 kind of sucked). S3 of Veronica Mars (even though I have yet to watch S2).

...I thought I'd bought S1 of Chuck. No? It's not there, and it would be if I had. Huh. My bad.

Now the old bookcase needs to go downstairs, along with the diecasts of the Pacer, the Gremlin, and the Pinto (shut up). And this photo of the baby bear, which had to come off the wall to make room for the tower.

Really should get stuff up on the wall behind me. Lord knows I've got enough downstairs to do it, and that's not taking into account the pix I could have enlarged and framed that I've taken with the digital camera that are really nice, hummingbirds and butterflies and toucans and stuff.

Oy. It never ends, does it?

Next step, organizing the books and the comics.

And, in case you missed it because of the holiday, I posted a snippet on Monday.