Heat in the studio...

Whew!

Got back from that indie film fun, will post pictures soon.

The art department did an amazing job on the set!

The studio was an oven - no a/c, closed windows (noise), and no fans, combined with big lights = over 110 degrees.

I'm shot.

We're cleaning up the last bits in the old house this week, and I'll put up the shoot pictures soon.

Doctor, Doctor, gimme the news...

I FINALLY went to a doctor who has an idea of what might be wrong with me!!!!

It's been rather difficult to concentrate on anything due to pain in the nether regions, and getting some focused attention has been a soap opera of ridiculous proportions, which I'll spare you.

Long story short, I ended up at a neurologist for a pain in my lower back/glutes/legs.

It's official: my brains are in my butt.

I'm now getting psyched and prepped for a feature shoot for the Venezuelan market - I'll be sure to take some pictures, so y'all can share that adventure. I've been informed that neither director speaks any English, and my Spanish is miserable, so it'll be...exciting.

Best, as always, on all of your adventures!

The new blog is going...and a hmmm.

Just got an email from a wonderful editor who has one of my poems, about another possible submission place.

It looks like a trip - speculative fiction with a Christian bent, anti-preachy. I'll have to think of something.

I'd do a word count, but the past few days have been too non-productive writing wise, and I'd just depress myself :).

Hope your adventures are more adventurous than mine, lately.

Word count, and new blog.

Shoggoth is up to 20,400. Not a huge jump, but it's been that kind of week.

Crashed a party at a yacht club. The people were boring, but the food was good.

I started a blog/fiction about a vampire...a most unusual one.

For those of you who know me better, you might have heard about the whole dermatology adventure - turns out, I'm allergic to the sun. Didn't know you could do that. Many colorful jokes were made, of course.

Being the writerly type, it got me thinking - what if that is the first symptom of something else? I think that's the most important question a writer has in their arsenal, the one with the most potential.

So, here's the first entry:

http://bloodandwhine.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/introduction/

(Its also a great excuse to check out different blog features.)

I hope you find Libby an engaging, fun, and human character. She'll probably be posting once a week or so. Let me know what you think. (The link is also in the title of this post.)

Word Counts, and house updates #2

Shoggoth: 20,200

Thomas: still 10,000

New Fantasy: 1,000

We have internet!!! I was feeling a touch of withdrawl, though I think that I'll limit my on computer time from now on - it does seem to cut into my productivity, and aggrivate the insomnia. Dealing with the cable guy was an adventure all by itself.

I hadn't mentioned this before, but I had something nasty 'eating' at my face - redness, swelling, bumps that weren't anything I'd seen before. It really does mess with the self esteem. I went to the doctor...

Turns out that I actually am allergic to sunlight. After all those years of joking about it, the reality is just so peculiar.

The house still looks like fall out from a trash bomb. As one of my neighbors sagely said, 'Little at a time, little at a time.'

Hoping to have at least one of these rough drafts finished before October. We'll see.

Word Counts, and house updates

Shoggoth thingie: 18,000

Thomas: 10,000

As of today. I'm hoping with all you lovely people watching, I'll be motivated to keep those numbers climbing. I've a mountain of unstarted ideas, which I won't bother anyone with right now :)

Celebration! Due to all our hard work and insanity, the house is not only mouse poop free - but has electricity AND running water!!!! (I just can't explain what a thrill this is, seeing a house going from this grime encrusted shell full of garbage to a place that's starting to feel like a home.)

I'm starting to think the previous occupants were squirrels. Large, people shaped squirrels, gathering all manner of plastic bags, disposable cookware, and whatever else might have been scarce during a long, cold, nuclear winter. Every cabinet and cranny is a new archaeological dig!

We should be completely moved in soon now; at which point I will collapse in my brand new, glorious bedroom, sleep for a week straight, and begin the quest for furniture.

Right now, we bring with us one bookshelf, a bed, and an elderly dresser. Never had the space nor need for other things before, as they sort of appeared and disappeared with each domicile.

Lawnmower Man :(

I worked a concert last night, got home around five a.m.

The Lawnmower Man showed up around seven. And rode his mower around the patch of grass outside my window for six hours.

Oh, Lawnmower Man, what is it you do?

Our lawn is small and ragged.

You ride for hours.

Perhaps our grass is sweeter, or colder,

or really is greener than the other lawns.

Perhaps you watched my car pull in,

to greed the delicate fingers of the waking dawn.

You saught to teach me a lesson

In the dangers of being out too late on a school night.

Not realizing that I go to night school.

Now I feel hung-over

but without the fun the night before.

This is not the first time

you have stolen my sleep.

Should I write you a note, perhaps,

or build a wall between us?

I've heard that fences improve

neighbor relations.

Short Film Fun

makeup
Originally uploaded by digitalis_vitae

This is a photo that I took of a short movie about brothers, betrayal, and other cool 'B' words.

There's a whole set of em...

North Americans Don't Read?

That was an 'arguement' in one of the writing forums I frequent, as an explanation of why some poorly written books do well.

Non Sequiter much? Besides being not true?

Were that actually the case, there would be few bookstores, and certainly no large chains. The other 'basis' for this arguement were that people only read bestsellers, and they only read those to appear informed on whatever is popular at the time.

Purple monkey dishwasher??? (Simpsons reference)

Did it not occur to this person that the 'bestseller' label comes AFTER selling oodles of copies? So who were the tens of thousands who bought the book before it became popular? Couldn't have been all those non readers following trends.

Yes, some poorly written books have flash in the pan wild success. Some wonderful books languish in obscurity - but most often, those truly good books have something the others don't:

Staying power. They sit patiently on the shelves, in print year after year, growing followers and appreciation.

Which would I rather have?

I can't deny the attraction of insta-fame and money. Ideally, both. But what I'd honestly rather have, is a growing career. Well written books that trickle through society, staying in print for decades due to regular demand. Fans that will buy the next book, and the next one.

But that doesn't happen, because Americans don't read. Hear that, Umberto Eco? How about Peter S. Beagle? You guys CAN'T exist, those sturdy, eternally popular writers - because no one reads what they don't hear about on tv.

Sheesh.