the hidden place and the other time

Assorted rambling:

1. Imryne story posted! Next story plunges off the rails into the Horrid; we get to see the consequences of keeping secrets, Greyanna makes good on a threat, and Melrae sees the darkest hour that it has for some time. I'm almost done with that story, and I hope to have it posted this week.

2. Crazy-ass weather yesterday. Snow! Rain! Sunshine! Hail! Wind! Snow! Ah, spring.

3. Four more days of getting up at 5:15 and stumbling around and running into things in the dark. Then I'm done. I'm probably going to be just as busy as if I were working for pay, but I won't be getting up before dawn any more.

4. Evidently, there is a vacation of some sort in the works in April. No idea where we're going or what we'll do when we're there. This short-circuits the worry loop in my head which freaks out about travel. I will evidently be told when to pack a bag and how long to pack it for. There will evidently be sunshine. I'm good.

5. Next week is a week of closure, finishing things up. Breathing out before I begin to breathe in.

My person for this weekend's shoot had to cancel. Anyone interested in taking her place? It would be either Saturday or Sunday afternoon, and you would need to get yourself down to Renton. It's the usual deal--you sign a release and in return you get physical and digital prints.

Note that next year I'm going to start charging for shoots like these, so this is one of your last chances to get a shoot while I'm still in practice mode.

(Also, if I've photographed you and you're happy with my work, I'll be asking for blurbs for a Web site that I'll be putting up this fall. Early warning for you guys.)

In other news, I had dinner and cupcakes last night with thewronghands and maramaye , who I hadn't met before and who I immediately liked. I had an excellent time; there was lovely food, conversation, and of course cupcakes.

Getting up there proved to be a breeze; I left work at 5:30 and was looking for a parking spot on Capitol Hill by 6. (That never happens!) This left me with some time to kill, so I wandered around and popped into my favorite "look but never buy" clothing store, the Metro.

Now, I'm used to being ignored in clothing stores on Cap Hill. I am most assuredly Not Tiny, and most of the clothing is aimed at people who are size 10 and below. I also, on first glance, don't look particularly like someone who might buy a corset or a plaid skirt.

So it surprised me when one of the guys staffing the Metro actually came up and started talking to me. He'd seen what I gravitated to, we discussed the pros and cons of bubble hems, and he said, "You know, we have this dress in your size, want me to get it down for you?"

I just about fainted. That never happens to me on the Hill. I didn't have the time to try it on and nowhere to wear this dress if I did (it was a black frothy confection of sparkly tulle), but I was irrationally pleased that someone had taken the time to actually try to sell me something on the Hill.

Which is a little odd, but hey.

(I also found a place that was selling the most beautiful scarves. I may have to trek up there this weekend and pick up a couple.)

Writing night tonight, or so I hope. My laptop purchase is back on, so I need to figure out which laptop I'll buy. The Voodoo Envy 133, no matter how much I love it, is probably not going to be the laptop I end up with; the newest reviews aren't encouraging. I'm thinking about the Thinkpad x200. Anyone know of any comparable ultralights I should be looking at? I haven't investigated the Vaio line yet.

There was no coffee this morning, as I was doing dishes and forgot to make myself some coffee in the process. And then I forgot to stop at a coffee shop on the way in. And work coffee is nasty. So I am uncaffinated this morning, though I have a massage scheduled which will help a lot.

I'm going out to the peninsula this weekend; I've been requested to carry some things to the ocean, so me and the dog are going to the Quinault Rain Forest where I can do that and then go for a forest loop hike. Should be a fun day. Saturday is a writing day, with the addition of a new dog meetup we're going to. I'm hoping to finish the last Sleepless Streets story so I can go back to writing Imryne, but we'll see what actually happens.

Right now, though, I'd love to curl up somewhere with a blanket and a cat and some tea. Not going to happen, alas, but a girl can dream.

This is the "Icon-Explaining Meme" (one of many that's been going around). Comment here and I'll pick 7 of your icons; you explain here or in your LJ what they mean to you and why you're using them.

gloriajn asked me about these!

1. 
   This is my icon for Nascha, of Spiritwalkers. Nascha means owl in Navajo, so I used an owl to represent her. It turned out to be appropriate that I used a barn owl instead of a great horned owl; barn owls are silent fighters, and when taken down they slash with beak and talons. Nascha was one of those characters who didn't precisely look light a fighter, but she surely had the heart of one.
   
   
2. 
   This is a screencap from 300, of the scene when Leonidas comes on a Spartan town that has been burned and its inhabitants slaughtered. Those are corpses hanging from that tree. Used when rage is really the only appropriate response.
   
   
3. 
   This is Ayame, from Shadows and Silk. This is a snippet from the scroll that depicts the story of the attack on Sanjo Palace that happens suring the story; a real historical event. This young woman I found in one of the top margins; she's obviously female, and either a noblewoman or a courtesan, as she has a maid hovering by her looking anxious. In the original, she is kneeling in front of a figure who is probably male, and has either a red silk robe on or is in the middle of bleeding to death. It's left up to interpretation as to whether the young woman is about to be raped by the man, if she's his wife or mistress and she's mourning his imminent demise, or if she just killed him.
   
   Because it's Ayame, and because Ayame is one of the most ruthless killers I've ever written, I choose to believe the latter.
   
   
4. 
   I use this and several other icons for Sleepless Streets; the text comes from 1,001 things Mr. Welch can no longer do during an RPG. I tend to use this one when Martin's having an exasperated day. "Sarcastic good" is not an actual D&D alignment, though it probably ought to be.
   
   The setting of Sleepless Streets is cheerfully anachronistic and kind of metagame-y; it's what I love about it.
   
   
5. 
   Kyrith! Kyrith is a Minoan double-bladed greataxe; this picture is of an artifact found on Crete, where Guardian's Road takes place.
   
   Kyrith belongs to Theron, the long-suffering Guardian of Porta who's the protagonist of that story.
   
   
6. 
   This is Yesui, the Silent, of Shades of the Silent; she's a Mongolian sort-of-princess, one of the daughters of Ghengis Khan. She's wearing a traditional Mongolian headdress, what she would have worn if she'd ever been, you know, not out being a scout for dear old dad.
   
   I'm very fond of Yesui and her ghosts (the "Shades" of the title). She didn't have any serious angst until the end due to her cheerful and hopeful nature; but when it hit, it hit hard.
   
   
7. 

breklor made this for me! I use it when I'm all stompy and mad.

Off to the eastern side of the peninsula this afternoon, to go camp with my parents. When I say "camp" I mean "stay in their fifth-wheel which they have recently bought and eat crab and possibly work on some writing", which is not really much like the conventional definition of camping at all. I'm leaving here at 3, which means I will hit Olympia probably sometime around rush hour. Fun.

So I'll be offline this weekend; I might occasionally update Twitter, though.

It's decided to be nice again, finally, more August-like than it has been recently. I may need to change into shorts before I head out today. I have my big camera with me, so I should take some pictures while I'm out as well.

Turns out that I'm going to California in October for a weekend conference; I'm going to be at Stanford for a day. Should be fun; it's a Web 2.0 social networking conference.

I got my Twisting Tree necklace from ModCloth yesterday, and I'm wearing it today. It is so very pretty, and I'm glad I picked it up when I saw it. Laura saw it and said, "Dryad holy symbol amulet!" which it really kind of is. (Edit because she corrected my on what she actually said, and I like it better.)

Seriously scattered today. Must gather up all the pieces and keep moving.

Sunday was a quiet day--I took the dog for a long walk, cleaned up my office, did laundry, and settled down to write. Laura and Bryan wandered off for a bit and then called me to go have cupcakes with them, and then I came back, wrote some more, and went to see Sunshine which I thought was going to be good and was actually decent until they introduced a plot element that was really kind of stupid.

I have a Spiritwalkers story almost finished at this point, and should be posting that tomorrow sometime. Tonight is Laura's birthday dinner, which will be both tasty and fun, we hope.

I have new gadgetry, including a phone that has all these crazy things like "Bluetooth" and "GPS" on it. I feel so...something. Modern, I suppose. I have also acquired a new camera--another Canon Digital Elph--and am very pleased by how it's performing.

I'm still doing a bunch of reading for Spiritwalkers research, and have discovered a very important caveat when it comes to reading about Native American cultures: if the book was written in the 40's by a white person, the book will throw much light on the writer and very little on the culture in question. (The book was published in 1943, and was written by a doctor working with Navajos in a hospital on the edge of one of the reservations. Condescension fairly dripped.)

Anyway. Monday. Hooray for coffee.

When I wake up in the morning, roll over, and think, oh my goodness, it's not raining, and it's light outside, time to go hit the trail! you had better believe I roust myself out of bed and go hit the trail. Outside runs are going to be few and far between for a while, and I must get while the getting is good.

The fog was thick this morning; I couldn't see the tops of the trees. But the fog's burned off and it's turned into a lovely day.

The rest of the day has been a blur of activity. I purchased and put in ornamental kales in the front yard, along with doing some other errands. I put in some iris rhizomes (Superstition, to be exact, as black as irises get, which will be a nice contrast with the whites ones I've also planted), got what little was left in my office done, picked up my bedroom, framed some of the pictures I got from Shutterfly (I ordered pictures from there and from Flickr; I'll be comparing quality between the two and deciding which one I want to make my print provider), putting up art that's been neglected since I moved, and generally have been doing Stuff. I think I've fallen over, however.

Tomorrow is a Costco and Trader Joe's run, a bike ride, dropping my bike off to have a bike computer installed, and then flopping down and resting some. Speaking of, I think it's time to do that right now.

I'm on to you. I've read your blog.

You're actually a 14-year-old goth girl, aren't you?

I have always been good at traveling alone.

Don't get me wrong, I do like traveling with people. Especially if I'm going somewhere I've never really been before, and *especially* if it's somewhere that's going to be miles outside of my comfort zone. It really helps, when one has a combination of no direction sense and an inability to understand language in stressful situations, to have someone along with both those things.

However, if I'm going somewhere that's very likely to be within my comfort zone, I really enjoy traveling alone.

I'm a high-energy traveler, as a general rule. I'm not big on lying around on beaches or at swimming pools, though evenings spent writing are always appreciated. I'll eat just about anything strange I can find, I go on random hikes, I walk everywhere I can. (I walk, and I walk, and I walk. If I can walk there, I generally won't take a car.) I ignore the weather; temperatures that would send me scurrying for the shade at home are somehow more tolerable on vacation. I don't sleep very well in new places, so I’m usually up at the crack of dawn, ready to shower and take off for the day.

(A big exception to this is the writing retreats I do; but those are a vacation of a different sort.)

It's interesting to talk to Laura and Bryan about this; for them, a big part of the appeal of travel is having someone to talk to about it, to say, "Did you see that?" and "Wasn't that so cool?" That's something I never even thought of as part of the appeal of travel. I go, I stuff my head full with new things, and then I take some silence to process everything.

It turns out that I am very likely (as in, about 90% sure) going to Hawaii by myself this fall. I've been there once, when I was in high school, and I loved it and have wanted to go back ever since. When the opportunity came open, I decided I was going to be self-indulgent and return to the islands.

I really want to do some hikes while I'm there, but hiking by myself in a state far from home is a different prospect than doing a hike near home; one of the first rules of hiking is to always tell someone where you're going, the route you'll be taking, and when you are going to be arriving back. Not exactly possible when I'm by myself. So I'll bite the bullet and go out with a group or two, I think, which provides a safety net and also means that I don't have to pore over topo maps and plot routes.

But I will go, and there will be plants to commune with, an egregiously twisty road to navigate, good food to eat and utterly wringing-wet air to breathe. My skin will probably love me, a lot. (Right now, it hates me; it is in a nasty dry post-winter funk right now, and no amount of Aveda Hand Relief will stop its sulking. I have promised it a salt scrub in a couple of weeks.)

And it will be good.

*****

My dad turned 60 on the 9th. I meant to call him but I didn't manage to get to it on the day itself, and so last night he called me. I happened to be in Party City shopping for silver paper plates when he called, and for whatever reason (temporary insanity?) decided to actually take the call and get it over with.

So we chat for a few minutes, and I say happy birthday, and then he starts telling me about the cat that lives with him and my mom, Patches. Evidently, he's ill. He was lovingly describing exactly what was coming out of both ends of the cat when I managed to head him off with a well-timed, "Dad, the cell phone battery is dying, I'll talk to you later."

It was even true. Never was the chirp of a battery going flat so welcome.

*****

By the way, behind the cut is my playlist I use when I'm writing Tiamat's Kittens, slightly annotated.

( Read more... )

My giant Stitch mug has tea in it this morning, CBC Blend, slightly undersweetened. So good.

And I'm Member of the Day on Elfwood, which makes me feel a little sheepish that I haven't uploaded anything new recently. (The problem with most of my writing is that it either a) has "bad" words b) I'm pondering submitting it places or c) has sex in it. Or d) violates someone's IP somewhere.) Maybe I'll polish up some of the Jade stuff and pop it up there.

I woke up about 5 AM with my uterus attempting to tie itself in knots, and it took an hour and half a gram of ibuprofen to make it sit down and shut up. All better now, though.

Bina-kitty decided this morning that I should have had cereal for breakfast, and her head-bumping was a bit accusatory. As the only person in the household who occasionally has cereal with real milk, I'm the source of her fix. And I don't have it often at all.

With my tax refund, I bought myself a new car stereo. It kicks butt. Seriously. I can hook up my iPod to it!

Also, i bit the bullet and ordered cupcakes for the wedding yesterday, so that's taken care of. Woot!

(This has been your Random Post of the Morning. Over and out.)