At least once a month, I quit work at 3.30pm and sprint for the 3.36pm tram home.
To qualify, I often quit work between 3 and 4pm (given that I start at 7am), but when I'm being virtuous and dedicated I walk straight from work to the library. Every now and then, however, the rain threatens or weariness gets the best of me or some other such excuse and I decide to skip the library and write at home, and thus I sprint for the 3.36 tram.
And when it turns up, literally packed solid with school children, I belatedly remember why I avoid that particular run — but of course by that point it's too late, and I've committed, and I spend the next forty minutes promising myself I will avoid the 3.36 tram in future.
But we all know I'll forget, probably sooner rather than later, and the hideous cycle will repeat all over again.
31 August 2009 @ 17:54 |
Lookit: Know what's cooler than Wolverine? A newt!
The Spanish ribbed newt responds to threats by thrusting out its rib bones, which then get coated with toxic skin secretions. The newt is actually rotating its ribs forward until their spear-sharp points pierce through warts in the animal's skin.
Damnit, now I want me a newt. On the upside, a newt is possibly one of those pets you could legitimately have in a rental property. H'm…
Summer The First Time (DAAS — Blue)
30 August 2009 @ 15:35 |
Okay, who noticed that I used the word "warning" no less than three times in my previous post? Worse, said usage occurred not just in the one post, but in the space of two sentences. The shame! This is why editors are worth more than they are paid — because when I get tired, or even just pressed for time, I will re-use words like a dog with a nervous twitch.
Sadly, this blog has no editor, and thus you all must suffer through my nervous twitches. Sorry 'bout that.
(But not sorry enough to be bothered going back and fixing it.)
Actually, I've had a pretty lacklustre week, as far as the writing goes. This is partly because of the rain on Monday making the library exceedingly unappealing of an afternoon, partly because I took Wednesday off to go to a gig (TOTALLY worth it, I've been humming the songs from that set list ever since), and partly because there was a sort of challenge thrown down at the dayjob and I've been breaking myself in an attempt to best it.
Have I mentioned that I get a little competitive when there are goals and targets in sight? If only I could harness this power for good. Or even evil world domination. I'm not picky, at the end of the day.
29 August 2009 @ 22:57 |
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Various text messages from my family this morning, asking if I'd been swept off the face of the earth by the Melbourne winds yet. (I'm guessing there was something on the national news last night?)
For all those who are curious: I'm fine. Although I do have to admit that on walking out the front door of work late last week, the wind was fierce enough to literally knock me off my feet. If a colleague had not been on the other side of me (and clearly rather steadier on his feet than I) I would have ended up sprawled across the tarmac. Classy. And that was on a day of just "normal" August winds, not worth warning commuters about.
Fair warning: If I vanish without warning, it is entirely possible I've been carried off to Oz. Which means I could quite legitimately start using the phrase "Don't make me get my flying monkeys…!" AWESOME. (Who wants a souvenir munchkin?)
In the meantime, the good news on my plate is that the edits on "Shaping Lily" are officially — I have it in writing now — done. Done! (Well, except for the proofs. But that's not until next year.)
26 August 2009 @ 16:53 |
Today I learned that my understanding of the applicability of the phrase "nature abhors a vacuum" was, in fact, completely and utterly misguided. At least according to wikipedia. And we all know what a veritable wealth of reputable information wikipedia is.
After my sleep-deprived week, I enjoyed a stupefyingly, blissfully quiet weekend which, quite frankly, I wasn't ready to be done with. I demand a recount, damnit! Then I caught up with some writerly friends last night, during which I once again felt ogrishly unproductive by comparison. (You would think I would learn to stop with the comparisons, but apparently I'm a bit slow on that particular uptake.) Oh well. These things happen. I would claim it helped me keep my backside in the library chair this afternoon despite my desire for a nap, but in truth it was the rain which started shortly after my arrival at the library which kept me there.
That rain, and the soaking it gave me on the trudge home, will make going to the library tomorrow afternoon an uphill battle. Rainy days always test my resolve.
But right now, if you'll excuse me, I may or may not be about to eat my own bodyweight in crepes for dinner.
24 August 2009 @ 20:51 |
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Let it be known that live music is good for the soul.
Now, I'll grant you that seeing Eddy Current Suppression Ring and Tex Perkins in the space of two nights, one of said nights being a school night no less, may have been more than my bio-rhythms were prepared to cope with, and I would have far preferred to get more than 9 hours sleep in the last 57, but…eh. It was worth it. I REGRET NOTHING.
Of course, as a consequence, today has so far been spent playing catch-up on the chores. And, er, lolling upon the couch. Which is how I intend to pass the rest of the afternoon. Although, in the interests of being a somewhat productive member of society, said lolling will be accompanied by words on the faerie novel, and edits on "Shaping Lily". At some point.
Honest.
22 August 2009 @ 15:42 |
All week I was promised: 20°C on Saturday. And now Saturday is here, and I'm sitting on the couch wearing my fingerless gloves and wrapped in a throw rug, because it is very clearly NOT 20°C. No doubt when I leave the house this afternoon, the wind will sweep itself and all the clouds away to the south and Melbourne will start to bake and I, I will be overdressed and thus I will suffer. This is the natural way of things.
So far this morning, I have managed to wake up at 6:39 (and this is despite not getting to sleep until about 02:30 and where can I lodge a complaint about my bio-rhythms, anyway?) and pick my way through maybe half of the copyedits on "Shaping Lily". Suffice to say I've had better days as far as focus is concerned. Ah well.
Now I think it's time for breakfast.
Before I dive back into wrangling that effing car-crash of a narrative the faerie novel.
ETA: Since the A-format of Shadow Queen should be hitting bookshelves soon, it occurs to me now would be a good time to remind visitors to the blog that you can read the first chapter online for free.
15 August 2009 @ 12:15 |
I never saw her face.
I had my head bent over my book, reading away the tram ride home. I'd caught a glimpse of her boyfriend, lounging in the stairwell while he waited for the tram to pull up to their stop, but of her I saw only her back before turning back to my book.
Then the tram pulled to a halt, and the doors opened with their customary squeak and swoosh of rubber over wet treads. And hard on the heels of that a new sound, an unfamiliar one: a scrape and crump and thump in quick succession, all of it loud and echoing, and every head in the tram snaps up and around, fixing on the open doorway where she is sitting, landed on the bottom-most step, shoulders stiff with the tail-end of her attempt to catch her balance, neck flexed as she throws her head back and struggles to draw breath or speak or perhaps simply to survive the shock.
There is a single perfect moment of silence, following the clatter of her fall, and then she lets out a raw and primal bawl that stills the peak-hour traffic and brings the tram driver bolting out of his cabin, fast enough to make the stationary tram sway in his wake.
Then her boyfriend and the tram driver and the crowds swallow her, and she's gone.
12 August 2009 @ 19:21 |
Moment The First:
About a month ago, probably more actually (knowing my apathy on these matters), my coat pocket developed a hole. My first thought on noticing this was that I should mend said hole before something important fell through it and parted ways with me despite my desires. A couple of weeks after this thought, I slipped my lip balm into my pocket and it vanished. That weekend, spurred to action at last by such a grievous loss, I mended the hole in the coat pocket.
Last week, I noticed an oddly lip balm-shaped bulge in the skirt of my coat.
Turns out the lip balm did not vanish down a tram seat, but instead slipped inside the coat's lining. And now I've sewn it in.
In another month or so I might actually get around to unmending the pocket, extracting the lip balm, and then re-mending the pocket. Maybe.
Moment The Second:
This afternoon saw a brief (alright, not so brief) moment of panic when, in attempting to adjust the screen brightness and thus extend the macbook's battery life, I inadvertently set the brightness to 0 and the screen went all but black. I couldn't see a thing, so couldn't re-adjust the slider. Luckily the macbook has function keys for controlling the screen brightness, so I punched F6…to no avail. I ended up looking a right twit as I angled the computer screen in the fall (well, more half-hearted glow) of light coming through the windows, in order to better discern the brightness slider. And then, once I had the screen suitably re-brightened, I remembered that F6 controls the keyboard brightness, and F2 controls the screen brightness.
(Go Team Deb.)
10 August 2009 @ 19:15 |
An email from Allen & Unwin yesterday informs me that the A format paperback version of Shadow Queen is back from the printers. Official publication date is 1 September 2009, which means copies should start appearing on bookshelves… well, anytime over the next few weeks, actually.
Complete with the new format comes a new cover. Well, new cover design, since it's the same fabulous artwork:
I am otherwise bereft of content today, because I have spent the day doing such exciting things as arranging optometry appointments and discovering the electricity company has been very helpfully sending my bills to an address at which I have never lived.
So in lieu of content, I shall point you towards Simon & Schuster, who are offering a free pdf download of Scott Westerfeld's Uglies! (The sign-up form asks for a zip code, which in the US is 5 numbers — but I put in a 4-number Australian post code and it worked fine for me.)
6 August 2009 @ 17:59 |
