I've been sitting on this for a few weeks now, waiting for all of the contracts to do their magical contract thing, but the mail just dropped by and I can now bring this run on sentence to its end; MLR will be releasing the After series in print later this year.

*giddy little dance*

Other news worthy things:

* I'll be leaving tomorrow for the tension workshop in Austin. Mmmm, tension :)

* my short story, Dark Collection, was nominated for a Spectrum award. Sadly, the anthology is out of print now, but I'm considering reworking DC into a novella after I've finished After Twilight.

I did it. I mailed HL. The novel is gone and I'm now free!

*enjoys freedom*

Okay, the freedom is now over. Time to get back to work ;)

I'm currently waiting on one last crit. Everyone who's looked at the novel has been awesome and I feel really fortunate to have such great (and exacting ;) friends. Once the last set of changes are made, Half Lives will be out the door.

As I wait (and catch my breath), I finally have a little time to attack other projects and make plans. One day, I want to go here.

I'm delighted to say that the time I now spend awake is longer than the time I spend napping (or curled up in bed, waiting for the Vicodin to kick in). To celebrate, I'm sharing this funny video I found on the zombie survival community.

Last Friday, I went to see the doctor. I'd woken with a sharp pain in my stomach on Wednesday and was worried that I was developing a bladder infection.

On the way to the hospital, Jen told me that she'd had one before and assured me that they were no big thing. A quick trip to the doctor, get some medicine, then I could go home.

me: (pressing hand against stomach to try to ease pain) ugh.

Jen: think of the bright side. You finished the revision before this happened.

me: (brightening up) oh yeah.

After looking me over, the doctor shot down the infection idea and sent me to the ER to get some tests done. Waiting for the tests ate up most of the day, but by the afternoon I was lying on a portable hospital bed, having an IV put into my left arm, wishing I had a bladder infection.

They moved me from room to room, giving me various tests. A little before eleven that night, the verdict was in: I had appendicitis.

me: oh. Can I go home now?

the doctor: no. We're going to operate as soon as we can get a room.

me: can I go home in the morning?

the doctor: no. Depending on the kind of surgery we do, you might not go home for up to three days.

The next few hours were a blur. I napped. I asked various nurses about what they would do in the unlikely case of a zombie uprising. I napped some more. I learned that the appendix can rupture three days after it becomes inflamed. I stared at the ceiling.

The surgery began Saturday morning. The doctor was going to try to do laparoscopic surgery, but if they couldn't see enough, they'd do a laparotomy. The later meant a longer hospital stay so I wished everyone luck with the first.

They slipped something over my face and told me to breath. I did.

The next thing I knew, I was waking up in another room. I learned that they'd done the laparoscopic and was relieved. Then, I fall asleep.

This set up the pattern for the rest of the weekend. I'd wake. I'd fall asleep. I'd wake. I'd fall asleep. Rinse. Repeat.

On Sunday, I went through some tests to see if I could go home. I had to blow into some toy to show I could breath, and then I had to walk down a hall. The tests were small, but after surgery they seemed epic. I pushed forward, coughed my brains out, and was then cleared to go home.

During the trip home, I told Jen that February had turned out to be a very different month than I'd anticipated. While I couldn't wait for month to end (and for me to have a weekend that I could remember), one good thing had come out of February.

me: I finished the revision.

Jen: and the part where your appendix didn't rupture and kill you was also good, right?

me: oh. Yeah. That's the second best thing.

Jen: (sighing) writers.

IT'S DONE.

And to celebrate, I've come down with a cold o_O

The cold attacked me last Tuesday, turning the days after that into a blur. I have vague memories about bringing the laptop to bed, drinking ginger ale, and sleeping. Revising got done each day (and each day I ended up napping on the keyboard).

It's weird, though. After dreaming about finishing the novel for so long, the reality proved different.


The dream

The novel would be finished last Wednesday. I'd print out the last few pages for Jen to read, send the last few chapters to the crit group, and then go out to sushi to celebrate. The celebration would be a two-part event, with dinner one night, and on Friday we'd go see Diary of the Dead.


The reality

I don't remember last Wednesday. Or Thursday, or any day up to Sunday. Those days happened, and I know the novel was revised, for I read the pages today and they're good. Jen also tells me that on Friday and Saturday I murmured, "zombies," in my sleep, so she knew that while we weren't seeing the movie then, I still wanted to see it. We saw the movie last night, and after we came home I crawled back to the laptop and finished the last scene.

Then I commemorated the great event by taking some Mucinex and going to sleep (ah, the crazy things we writers do ;).

I think I'll continue the celebrations and take another dose. Tomorrow, I shall begin correcting typos, tweaking the little things the crit group has pointed out in the chapters they've seen, and then send them the last few chapters they haven't :)

I am close.

So close.

The end is in sight.

If I stay up for hours,

Half Lives might be done

Wednesday night.

. . . only a goofy quiz about zombies can help me relax ;)




I think I had the advantage in that if I saw some guy munching on someone else, I'd either think "zombie" or "Lector." It all depends on whether or not there was a chilled bottle of Chianti nearby.

Ah, 2008.

So far I've revised a page, sent a couple e-mails, posted to the Super Secret Crit group, and petted Darian.

Now, back to the revision. This will be the year (heck, the month) Half Lives will be finished.

As the year winds down, I'm spending the last moments of 2007 revising away.

Mmm. Revision :)

Over dinner, the yearly conversation came up.

relative: how's the writing going?

me: great. I'm still revising.

relative: (smiling) it must be nice to take a break for today, then.

me: oh no. I did a little this morning, and after I get home I'll probably do more.

relative: oh (smile fades). That sounds so . . .

me: exciting? Fun? (smiles) Thank you, it is.

relative: oh.

me: yeah. If there was a magazine called the Happy Workaholoic, I'd totally read it.

Jen: (fighting giggling) what kinds of articles would be in it?

me: the helladays; how to work around shopping, loved ones, and the season. A review of places that'll let you sit there for hours working, leave you alone, and bring you a steady stream of refills. Maybe something on how to keep the family busy.

Jen: that sounds like a regular column.

The wrapping is finally complete. The presents are artfully wrapped in blue and silver, and taped closed in the Prieto tradition (i.e; tons of tape, making people fight to get to their gifts. It raises tension, and raising tension is what writers live for ;).

In writing news, the revision is racing along. When I hit the last hundred pages, I'll post a daily score.

And when the blessed day comes and HL is complete . . .

Well, first I'll sleep (I'll have probably been up for two days trying to get to that point). Then I'll send the last couple chapters to the crit group. When the crits come back, I'll make corrections, send the novel to the agent, and have a little excerpt party on my yahoo group.

How'd I do? Well . . .

42500 / 50000 words. 85% done!


While I once again did not reach the 50k mark, for once I did not get sick. I also got pretty far in the revision, and I wrote some new snippets for a couple other projects. All in all, a good month :)

Now, it's the revision versus the holidays.

If I were to add up all of the words I've revised, cut out, and written over the last month, it would look like this.

28217 / 50000 words. 56% done!


*sigh*

I've still got five days left to the month. I doubt I'll finish the revision before then, but it'd be nice to conquer one Nano.

I am in that pleasantly sleepy place that only turkey and mashed potatoes can cause. Before I fall asleep on the keyboard, I shall share this goofy quiz ;)

You're The Return of the King!

by J.R.R. Tolkien

Against all odds, not only will you survive every ordeal before you,
but no one you know will even get so much as a scratch. In a world where might makes
right, you believe yourself to have both firmly entrenched on your side. Spiders are
likely to pose a great threat, but even they need not be feared. When in doubt, enlist
the help of ghosts.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

A part of Half Lives is set during the Restoration period (God's Bowels, anyone?). Sometimes, when I'm about to describe something one of the characters is wearing, I'll pull up a file to see what unique details I can catch.

This one made me think of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Restoration style.

These two are obviously of quality. Having been faced with something monstrous, they slowly make their way to the exit. Only commoners run.

Only commoners make it out alive . . .

My super hero snippet came in third in the Smart Bitch contest. My favorite part? I lost to Muppets.

*laugh*

Oh my. Not every day you can say that :)

I was pretty stoked after I got the results. I made some notes for the future super hero story I now want to write, revised a little, and then trekked across town with Jen to see Mulberry Street, one of the movies in the After Dark Film Festival.

The movie was awesome. The characters were on top of the whole "we're being attacked by monsters" thing and worked really hard to help one another. I loved that. I expect horror movies to have interesting monsters (and the rat-people were certainly that), but so few of them have actual human ties in them.

The festival is running until next Sunday. We're hoping to see another of the films tomorrow, as well as catchMulberry Street again later in the week.

I got into contact with an old friend today. It was cool. We can go months (heck, a year) without talking, but then one day one of us will call the other and its like no time has passed :)

It left me pretty buzzed, giving me the energy to stay up later than usual to try my hand at the Smart Bitch contest and then find this little gem.

Weird confession: although the Nano project nudges the revision forward, I have yet to stick to one project for Nano.

Every night, I bounce from one story to another. Saturday it was After Twilight. Sunday it was Nocturne (a vampire story). Yesterday I returned to AT. Tonight, Deadlines (a zombie story).

Here's what I've written so far in the zombie story:

A thousand little details went into creating a life. Buying sheets. Pillows. A couch that went with a handful of medieval gargoyles and several contemporary bookshelves. A full moon calendar in their room, Sierra Club nature calendar in the kitchen, and Calvin and Hobbes in the bathroom. Three pairs of slippers, because one of them was forever losing a shoe.

And when Brandt left, those thousand details cut Mathew.

They’d bought this vase together. This vase, which cost three hundred dollars and ended up as three hundred pieces. The curtains? A gift from Brandt’s sister. That coffee table? The first piece of furniture they bought together in college. All those items stared at Mathew, and he had to leave before he destroyed them all, and when he left, he never went back. Better to pay someone to put them in storage than to look at fragments of a life he couldn’t have. If he had to start over, he would start completely over. New sheets, new furniture, new car.

Same him, though.

Mathew couldn’t get rid of that.

The revision is 65% done. The little graph makes it look like it won't be very difficult to finish. Sixty-five percent. Yeah! I should be done by Thanksgiving.

Then I open the file and I'm grounded again. Thanksgiving? Maybe. Mid December? Christmas? I'm dreaming of a finished novel.

Meanwhile, the Nano project looks like this.

1600 / 50000 words. 3% done!

I find it ironic that Nano is nudging the revision forward. Maybe I should do this every month.