Fall: A Time for New Beginnings

A long time ago (about 12 years)…

In a journal far, far away (ok, really just on my left-hand bookshelf)...

I opened with an entry about how fall, despite being a time for death before winter, is really a time of beginnings. School starts in fall - and I was just the geek who enjoyed the start of classes. Most of the good programming seasons started in the fall. (Bones, Fringe, & House are back! Buffy & Angel always started in the fall… )

I still get a rush to start new stuff in the fall.

This whole to-do list and organization push is still going on. I've already got my list for tomorrow - though I'm still a little behind on some Friday stuff. We also just had our Broad Universe Motherboard meeting last Sunday, and I'm pumped with our new projects for our 10th Anniversary. On top of that, since I've been going to Dragon*Con regularly, it's like a jump-start to my writing. Especially when I get to see all these awesome faces again:




Hooray DragonWriters 2002!

And these fabulous people:




Eternal roommate Sunder Addams and the DragonWriters teacher, the inimitable Ann Crispin!

I will get more Dragon*Con stuff up soon. Promise. J Scott just downloaded them all to my computer tonight.


Also, more wonderful news - as the wicked-wonderful Danielle reminded me - Bad-Ass Faeries 1 & 2 are being re-released by Mundania Press. BAF2 even has this gorgeous new cover:



Not only that, Mundania is also releasing a special hardcover edition that has been personally signed by ALL the authors! These editions are numbered and lettered and in a VERY limited quantity. Keep watching for how you can get one of these!

Fall has always been my favorite month… good things happen in the fall. In New England, the vegetation dies in a gorgeous flame of color crossing the area - like the phoenix flaming up before the white ash if winter and being reborn in the spring…

Autumn is also harvest time: apples, pumpkins, squash, cranberries… delicious!

I hope to keep this wonderful fall momentum going for as long as possible.

Is your autumn a sign for new beginning? How can you make it something beautiful and new?

"I think this line's mostly filler..."

I have a list of more useful blogs in mind: Making a Writing Workshop Work for You I & II, Panel Promotion Secrets, Little Articles: Big Impact, Volunteer Wisely, Never-Neverland Networking, Interviewing for Fun and Profit…

I also have a list of more entertaining blogs: Adventures in Conventioning, Dragon*Con Dungeoning, Reviews of restaurants I can't review, Not Quite Horse Country: Confessions of a Horse Crazy City Girl, Horse Rescue stories...

I also have some that kind of fall in-between: Fangirling for Fun and Profit, Party Food Fun, Horse's Arse and other Dangerous Things, Therapy through Character Torture…

They are all outlined in my head, of course, but I have had it on my to-do lists to pre-write a few of these and moved it forward all week. I'm not sure if it will happen tomorrow as they're asking for extra hours where I'm tutoring, I have more out-of-house errands to do… and, well, I'm looking at my Friday list now and it's just not promising.

I'm gone the weekend between the Annual Talk Like A Pirate Day Party and stART on the Street on Sunday (with Renée & Sean)… I may hit my editor's Roller Derby Sunday Night, but I need to run it by the hubby - or I may just need to get work done. L Like… a blog post if I'm going to try and keep up this new blogging schedule.

So, this is, I suppose, a "Filler" blog. Which is probably not the best thing - at least according to the Copyblogger folks…

… but then again, I'm not a sales blog.

No wait! Yes, yes, I'd love you to go buy Bad-Ass Faeries 2 and my new chapbook The Old Woman and the Unicorn. Please go buy them! J www.anovelfriend.com

And, I suppose, I'm selling myself:

An Author an Agent Wants to Work With
An Author You Want to Be a Fan Of
An Author whose Work You Want to Buy
A Writer You Want to Hire
A Writer You Want to Pay - (see above potential blogs… great article ideas, no?)
An Editor You Want to Hire
A Panelist/Participant/Guest at Your Convention (see above blogs… great panels, no?)
A Representative of Horses You Want to Support

(I feel like such a whore… Bad Guilt, Bad Guilt - Go Away!)

So… what do you think? Is it better to blog regularly - even with "Filler Blogs"… or not to blog unless you have something meaningful to say?

Time Management I

About 2 newsletters ago (or what should have been 4 newsletters ago), Christy gave some time management tips - one of them a tip I make all sorts of attempts to follow & that my mother has always found successful: Making a List.

Making a List worked when I was trying to fill lots of free time between when I quit my office job and was going back to college. It was great!

After graduating college and trying to juggle between 3-8 paying clients, plus my own work, plus my co-authoring with Christy every week… Making a List: not so successful.

I'm down 1-2 paying clients and I'm pretty well done with conventions for this year unless someone can offer me a mostly-all-expense-paid trip to World Fantasy… or Albacon or Philcon.

Making a List seems to work. I've had to move a few items to other days, but I'm accomplishing most of the tasks.

Is there a cap to the efficiency in Making a List? Is there a cap to my own efficiency, perhaps?

What is going to happen when I grab another paying client? I just got accepted at one freelance place, and Sunder is trying to hook me up with a steady editing gig.

I suppose I'll make the most of it now. J

Tomorrow is my busy day and exercise starts with Yoga, so I doubt I'll get any additional cleaning done (Yay 1/2 a desk & 1/4 a bedroom!) - as I've been making my cleaning do double duty as exercise. (Yay knowing isotonic muscle resistance while bending & lifting - gack do my abs hurt!)

2 things left undone on my list today… one is advance blog posts. Let's move that to… Thursday.

And read & comment on Christy's synopsis of our new novel together.

Well, it's read…

That's something right?

Onto Wednesday's list… which may as well be a page from House of Blue Leaves with margin notes, footnotes, track changes, and hyperlinks…

Can I keep up this organization thingy??? Place your bets here!

Bits & Ends

August was insane. Worldcon Anticipation had me with four or so blog posts… but that was just the first weekend!

[Edited for time lapse between writing and actual posting.]

As my Husband of Awesome is [was] attempting to negotiate a traffic jam on 95/128 S (big surprise there), he, I & our friend Laura are [were] trying to get to her house for her birthday party. I'm [was] comfy in the back seat and happy to type up a few brief updates.

xx

I had a brief rest for a weekend, then it was off to 4Pi-Con. I had 9 panels and a reading – it was an awesome little convention. I even got to see Genetic Imperfection do their Repo! Shadowcast to a full house. While there was a few family incidents that detracted from my personal experience, the care and concern of the hotel & convention staff – as well as many fellow Northeast con-goes who I've come to call friends – made all the difference. Of course, my friends & roomies, Morven & Inanna were also wonderfully supportive and caring; I can't thank them enough for their patience. I also made a few new friends who I shared a fab IHOP pancake dinner with on the way home.

xx

The weekend immediately following 4Pi-Con was Mary Shelley's birthday. Several of the New England Broads & I had been planning a party to celebrate this. I prepared a few notes on themes from Frankenstein, Phoebe put together a bio, and we all took turns reading from our work to match the themes I discussed. We hit two libraries and three bookstores. It was awesome! We'll be doing a similar party for Women's History Month in March of 2010. Stay tuned. :D

xx

And then there was Dragon*Con. Briefest of the brief: This was my first year on panels since my first Dragon*Con in 2002. It was also the first Dragon*Con with a Broad Universe presence – something I am happy to have instigated. Both of the feminist panels I & my friend Sunder ran on the Lit Track were standing room only. The pirate panel I was on was also standing room only. Wicked cool on all counts. Then, we had the Rapid Fire Readings. Now, D*C is more a media convention than a literary convention, so new or midlist authors struggle to get even a few people to their readings. Our RFRs actually had close to half the room full. All of the readings were excellent! Other fab highlights were hanging out with Lois McMaster Bujold after the "What Women Want" panel, the annual DragonWriters meet-up (alumni/survivors of A.C.Crispin's 2002 writing workshop), and of course, the Crüxshadows concert. The biggest drawback: Voltaires concert was scheduled opposite the Crüxshadows. L As much as I adore Voltaire, CXS will always have a special place in my heart and will take precedence. I'll explain my adoration for CXS in another e-mail, though.

xx

As much as I love conventioning and events, I am so glad that I haven't got much planned for the rest of the year. I need a break, and I've got stuff to write & edit. I'm intent on getting Starbard OFF the back burner, and Christy & I have a new novel in the works! In fact, I've been on quite a writing high of late. I wrote a flash piece called "Manipulation," which was a somewhat response to my family incident at Pi-Con, and then "Cemetery Angels," which was partly a response to needing something to read for the Toadstool Graveyard Book party and encompassed more of the emotion about the one year anniversary of my father's death. Then, today [Friday], while waiting two and a half hours during my annual physical, I composed a proper sonnet, "Hero's Heart" that I'm rather pleased with. (Thanks Kathryn H. for mentioning you like metered poetry – my mind felt challenged to do more after hearing that!)

xx

Oh, and happy [belated] birthday, Laura!

You expect me to forget?

I like Danielle's poems better, but here's my response to today:

I remember the day, the fall.
Went to work, normal day as any.
Falling debris, people—I remember.
Secure, safe, cubicle blankets
made us think it a hoax, unreal.
I remember my stomach diving, launching.
Left our seats to stare
at big screen TVs.
High definition destruction, death, deception.
Burning hell and suicide—I remember.
Call Mom. Yes, I'm fine.
Oh—you haven't heard? Turn on the news!
I remember forcing dulled detachment.
Back to work, regardless.
Attend the phones and investors' panic.
Refresh the news screens with OCD mouse clicks.
Living minute-to-minute body count updates—I remember.
Didn’t matter the miles,
the country, the world were at the falling towers.
I remember standing and crying beside them.
Perfect strangers, I prayed for them all like family.
Of course I remember.

Tip of the Avalanche

I attended a great luncheon put on by the Society of Professional Communicators in Worcester. In fact, one of my bosses, Scott Zoback, news editor for Worcester Magazine, was presenting - on blogging of all things.

One of the popular parts of Worcester Magazine is their blog, Worcesteria.

It was a good lecture with a lot of fun networking. J

On the flip side, I'd just gotten back from Dragon*Con the night before. I got to hang out with the awesome guest of honor, Lois McMaster Bujold, give and attend many more panels and readings (and parties).

One lesson I picked up from both: if you're going to blog, you must do it regularly.

I've fallen off and gotten back on this horse again, restating the Horsemanship for Women lesson I learned from Karen Scholl - you get do-overs.

And so, my passions - writing, editing, horses, education - intersect yet again as I declare that I will give better blog posts on Pi-Con (two weeks ago), Mary Shelley's Birthday (a week & a half ago), Dragon*Con, (this past weekend), the SPC, and a few other plans I have in mind.

Meantime - Aimee has challenged me to finish & post this blog post before 3:AM so I can catch up on sleep after a short story attack yesterday and a "lets get my submission stuff in order" attack tonight.

Until… tomorrow?

T.

Happy Birthday in Heaven

This was Dad's first birthday in Heaven. Of course, us all down here had to do our own thing.

I drove out to Springfield, and Mom & I stopped at St. Stanislaus Cemetery. We dropped flowers on her parents, Bachi & Jaju for me, then stopped by Dad's grave and dropped flowers there. A carnation that Mom gave to me, and a rose from her. It was overgrown with crab grass and weeds, so I yanked it out with a fervor. Mom said I was throwing the crap as far as 6 feet away. I didn't notice; I wanted it clean. I used a swatch of the dry crab grass like a broom to whisk away all the dirt and debris from his flat, bronze military marker. Mom said to be careful; my brother had cut his fingers on the lettering last time he cleaned it off. I didn't cut myself - a miracle considering the klutz I am.

In retrospect, I should have taken a picture; it was the first time I saw the grave with the stone.

I remember taking pictures of other people's stones when Mom was looking for the right one for Dad.

I remember taking pictures of "pretty" stones and memorable stones I come across in other cemeteries - and stones that might promise ghost pictures.

I have a picture of Dad in the casket… it's a strange tradition in my family, pictures of people in the casket. My brother finds it creepy and disturbing, but my mother & I find it… I don't know… important. I don't know the feeling I associate with it, but I still have the picture somewhat handy. Along with this nice picture of him on my brother's birthday.

I will never forget… two years ago I forgot to call him on his birthday. I was at Dragon*Con, as it usually falls on his birthday. I'd promised I'd call - and I was so busy that I forgot. He was hurt and "joked" about it for a year afterward.

I made damn sure to remember to call him last birthday.

Even thought I had no idea he'd have died three days later.

When I was in Montreal, I made a stop at St. Joseph's Oratory. When I was 14 and my brother was 9 or 10, we visited there and Ste-Anne-de-Beaupre… St. Anne's was further out of the way than I could reasonably drive, but St. Joseph's is right in Montreal.

When we visited, Mom had me kneel in front of the main chapel altar, kiss the relic (a glass-encased piece of cloth), and light a candle that St. Joseph might help me find a wonderful husband.

The prayer came true.

St. Joseph is the patron of good husbands and good fathers and good workers… and many important things.

I dropped a good amount of change throughout the candle chapels for different things. At the main chapel - a tower of red and white candles ending at the foot of the larger-than-life father of Jesus - white spelling that Joseph was also the Church protector amongst the red, I lit four candles. One was separate, my personal thank-you. Then I lit three together. A white one for mom, and two red ones for my brother and me. I remembered to take a picture. I wanted to show Mom & my brother.

Today, after Mom & I visited the cemetery, the rest of the day carried on as normal. We went to lunch, we returned home for her to go over her endless "list" and for me to finagle endlessly on a dying computer that it might work just until we convince her to get a new one, and we caught up on news & family & neighborhood gossip.

I'll be at Dragon*Con on the day he had died. Fortunately, my brother will be home with Mom.

They will probably have a mostly normal day too.

I bought them both oil from the candles at St. Joseph's Oratory, and some for me, even though I still have mine from over 15 years ago when all four of us wandered the basilica's halls and said prayers for other family members, living and dead. Dad, ever intrigued by the supernatural present in real life, pointed out all the old crutches hanging on the walls. Proof that miracles happen, that there's a power beyond what we could ever understand. Proof of God.

Even at my most cynical, I can still remember the awe I shared with my parents, including my logical Dad who would constantly research, of this perfect certainty.

Love you, Daddy. Happy Birthday. I'm certain you can hear me.