Category Archives: writing

Insecurity Strikes

Posted on October 18, 2007 | 1 Comment

Thought I’d open with a view of “the seawall as it was”–how I remember it from when I was little, all rocks and no beach (the bit in the foreground’s been brought in). This is to the west from where I usually go down to walk. I walk to the east, cause there’s no beach this way…

So anyway, I pulled out this old story I’m wanting to re-write, and revised the opening pages, and I’m still not sure they flow. Or rather, I feel like they open too slowly. I do want to open with this particular scene, but it’s a slow scene, a slow build, and I’m struck with insecurity that I’m doing it right, or that it’s a story worth telling, or… anyway.

I stopped and have been doing characterizaton work. Because my heroine is a completely different person (except for her name, appearance and backstory), with a new personality, and I had to stop and think about a few things about her. What her personality is. Whether she likes change or hates it. Is she adventurous? (She is.) So I did a lot of that today and yesterday. And now I’m working on the hero’s character stuff. I know him a lot better than I do her. And I’m still not sure that the opening works. I hope it does, but… Maybe I will e-mail my pages in for the Chocolate critiques my new RWA chapter is doing next month. And my pages for the critiques at the retreat I’m going to next weekend…

Tonight is the first Big Fancy Shindig in our new town. Because of the fella’s job heading up the local junior college, we get invited to all sorts of dinners, fundraisers and other community stuff. But I have to tell you that the events here are of a whole other magnitude than where we moved from. You do not need a tux to go to the Saint’s Roost Chuckwagon Cook-Off or the cancer society barbecue out at the Bar H. The Prevent Blindness Gala in our new town does. There are lots of people with lots of money on the island, plus the population–the Panhandle town had right at 2000 people. The island town has 60,000. What is that, you math people? a 300% increase? More, probably, right? Anyway, this calls for some serious primping.

The fella went out and bought a tux. He decided the beaded stuff I already had wasn’t fancy enough, so we went out and bought me 4 more dresses. (Two are formals, two are cocktail length.) Plus shoes and underwear (yeah, the dresses need special underwear) (which cost more than the shoes, which totally freaked the fella out, because underwear aren’t supposed to cost more than shoes)–and I still didn’t spend as much as he did for the tuxedo. So I get to buy another dress later. 😀 I’ll try to remember to make him take a picture tonight so I can share. It is a gorgeous dress, and fancy shoes, and all. We’ll be classy. I want a nap, but if I go lie down, I’ll mess up my hair, so I’m posting my blog instead.

Beach report: Mostly swept clean, but still lots of big rocks near the fishing pier. Not big as in boulders–those are always there, but big as in lots bigger than the shell scruff that was there last week. Saw a little bit of the sargasso-type stuff, but mostly the big seaweed. Some of the big stuff was new–still green. Just seagulls, except for one little pipit (or whatever the little bitty sandpiper-like birds are–I really need to get my bird book moved down here). No cormorants or egrets.

See those pink shells? That’s what I picked up off the beach after Humberto. Cool, huh? Pink! I think they’re some kind of barnacle… (There are two of them–the two in the back left? Those are separate from the big chunk. I put them in the back to sorta prop the other ones up…)

The tide was really high when I got out there today, though it was on its way out. It had been higher, almost all the way up to the seawall, undercutting some of the dunes. Haven’t downloaded that picture yet.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in fantasy, pastimes, the beach, writing

Chugging along

Posted on October 16, 2007 | 1 Comment

So. I’m going to make myself show up here on the days I go out to walk–at least the days I walk on the beach. We will see how this goes.

I got my revised partial of Thunder in a Cloudless Sky off in the mail yesterday afternoon. And as a reward, I went to the Hastings store on the island and bought the new Karen Chance book, Claimed by Shadow (the title in in dark red on a dark charcoal gray cover, and it’s really hard to read–but the author’s name is in white, so it’s easily visible. The cover is gorgeous, otherwise.) and read it. Good book. I may have to read it again to be sure I followed everything, but I liked it real well.

Today, I pulled out an old book I want to rewrite, and it’s really going to be hard going. I think I’m going to have to back off and start from scratch, instead of trying to keep the good stuff from what I had before. My opening scene with my heroine sucks–at least what I have so far, because it’s all blithering about the scenery. I need to just jump into the action. I have to open with the hero getting his talisman and having a vision–I think. Yeah. That’s really where I want to start. Then I want to jump right into the action…and I’ve got my heroine strolling across campus thinking about concrete. ACK!!!

So maybe tomorrow I can get my head on straight and write a decent chapter 1. Because I think the vision thing will be a prologue. Even though I will probably call it chapter 1. It’s the day that everything changes. But it’s not really where the action begins. It’s the hero’s call to adventure.

Today’s the local RWA chapter meeting, so it’s my chance to head into town and shop the “big” bookstores. (The Barnes & Noble and the Borders are practically right across the street from each other.) And I’ll probably hit the mall too. I want some throw rugs. Then I have to figure out how to get to the restaurant where they’re meeting with the speaker for dinner before.

Beach report: Big Rocks are back on the beach, at least between the 61st Street pier and the jetty opposite the grocery store, and some new pieces of the big rooted seaweed. Last time, there were only tiny little shells and rocks, but today, big ones. Surf was up some, sky was gray, but light right at the horizon, where you could see those streamers that mean it’s raining.
Cool morning. Didn’t really want to get my feet wet. If it gets much cooler, I’ll either walk later in the day, or wear shoes. (It’s not letting me upload pictures, so I guess I’ll show you my cool pink shells and where I walk at the beach next time…)

→ 1 Comment

Posted in books I'm reading, family, the beach, Thunder in a Cloudless Sky, writing

Not Goofing Off

Posted on October 14, 2007 | 1 Comment

At least, not entirely. I didn’t make it in last week to blog–partly because my internet service was down for two days (no clue why, just couldn’t get anything) which threw everything off, and partly because I was working hard to get some pages written, which kinda distracted me from–well, pretty much everything. I didn’t even get out to the beach but twice. (There was lightning on Monday, so I didn’t go out.) (Here’s a picture of the beach where I usually walk, looking past one of the jetties toward the fishing pier–the blurry spots are due to water spots on the lens–sigh.)

I did get a pretty good set of pages written, though I didn’t make 30 because I blew it off on Friday. The boy and his dog and his girlfriend were coming down for a visit and I wanted to finish the cleaning I usually do in the afternoons after I write. Since our visitors were arriving around noon, I wanted to have a clean bathroom before they got here. (I generally clean only when I can’t stand it any more (and I have a much higher tolerance for dirt/clutter than the fella) or when company’s expected.)

They arrived, we got my car out of the gate, locked the dog in the yard, and went out for shrimp po’boys, and then to buy the boy shoes and sandals. He’d worn out/ripped apart the old ones (the dog did not eat them–I saw them. No tooth marks). Then we came home and ate boiled shrimp (I got unsorted medium to large ones right off the boat–they’d had enough time to de-head them (I hate de-heading shrimp–I always get stabbed) and sort out all the little gumbo-sized shrimps, but not sort the great big ones from the not-so-big ones, so I got some really huge shrimp in my mix for a good price.) and learned that the girlfriend had never in her life peeled a shrimp. This was shocking, because she lives not too very far from us, and the good seafood is very available… So we taught her how to peel the suckers. They were very good. And I made my mushroom/onion/parmesan risotto casserole (you don’t have to stand over the stove stirring, but stick it in the oven to bake) to go with, and it was wonderful. :) (The picture is of the house from the yard–which is actually on the side of the house–so you can get an idea of how big the yard is. And my big fabulous deck.) We had ice cream on the deck, and didn’t get too many mosquitos.

I have some more pictures of my island I was going to share, but I have to go iron my shirt and put on makeup, so I’ll go ahead and post this. I’ll try to get back in the next day or so and put up those other pictures. :)

→ 1 Comment

Posted in cooking, family, food, the beach, writing

Dashing In

Posted on September 26, 2007 | 5 Comments

I MADE myself stop putting edits into the computer so I could come blog and tell all y’all (however many of you there are) what I was doing.

Actually, I made myself stop earlier so I could get to the bank before it closed and cash my birthday check. Yes, my birthday was way back at the first of the month, but first I lost the card, and when I found it, I couldn’t drag myself out of the house in time to make it by the bank. I had to do the bank and the library today, cause I had some books that needed re-checking. I decided not to get any new ones. I’ve got old ones I still need to read–and there’s that re-checking thing, since I didn’t get some of the old ones read on time. (One research book, and one book(Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley) that I intended to pick up and read a long time ago, but never got around to it. I’m about 7 chapters in and enjoying it so far–and the research book is a really good one. Very atmospheric, very “feel of the situation.” )

So anyway, I spent all of last week revising New Blood and this week, I’m putting the revisions into the computer, and going over it one last time as I do so, looking for more places to tighten or clarify. I do revisions on hard copy, because it’s too easy to miss stuff on the computer. It’s going pretty well. The office looks like a snowstorm hit, because I’m just letting the pages float to the floor, and since the fella’s away for a couple of days, I don’t feel like I have to pick them up.

In fact, since the fella’s away, I had lunch out, between the bank and the library. This was a place on Broadway between the college and downtown that doesn’t have a name that I could see, but has “Donuts, Kolaches, Burritos” painted on the outside. It’s a very Texas place, apparently, since I’m not sure there’s any other state in the nation where that would be a common combination. I was the only customer in there at almost 2 p.m., and had the shrimp poor boy (I’m becoming addicted to those things–I had to pull the shells off the tails on this one) and an apple fritter. Turns out the baker was sitting nearby, and had the counter guy bag me up a couple more fritters to take home, free gratis. How cool is that? I’ll definitely be going back there–just because the food was good, prices were good and the owner/baker was really nice. I had intended to go to this place called The Taco House, but it’s back toward home from the bank, not toward downtown. Oh well.

Oh, and we got to go hear Don McLean (of “American Pie” fame–the original song, not the movie) in a concert on Saturday. We got to sing along if we wanted. :) It was a lot of fun (though I’m not used to wearing shoes with backs on them and got the beginnings of a blister), but dang, the guy got old. So have I…beats the alternative, though.

And when we went to visit a church Sunday morning, a fight broke out in the lobby between two neighborhood guys and a church member, and I got stepped on. Nice church though, but dang, it’s way the heck on the other end of the island.

It hasn’t taken me long to get into the local island mentality. I don’t like to cross the causeway unless I absolutely have to. I’ll just stay on the island, thanks–and what happens on the island stays on the island…

Thanks for all the reports of books arriving. Keep ’em coming. I’m especially wanting to know if anybody sees the book on shelves in a bookstore. I mean, even if you ordered your book off the internet, you might go into a bookstore for some Other reason, and you could just wander by the Charles DeLint shelf (I’m usually not too far in front of his books) and see if there’s a pretty blue book…

My readers are the very bestest. 😀

→ 5 Comments

Posted in books I'm reading, food, New Blood, The Eternal Rose, writing

There for the Grace of God…

Posted on September 14, 2007 | 2 Comments

I have now survived my first tropical storm.

Humberto blew up very quickly–Wednesday morning, they were talking rain, maybe some thunderstorms. I had trouble finding the newspaper because a big branch had fallen from one of the trees in the front yard. Maybe 3 in. diameter at the base. Very branchy, with lots of dead leaves (so I think it was half-broken before it fell). Not real heavy, though I couldn’t drag it off the front sidewalk very easy. So I went on to my planned afternoon of errand-running and library-visiting.

When I reached the post office, the fella called and told me that the thunderstorms offshore had been officially declared a tropical storm. But it wasn’t raining very hard, so I went on to the P.O. and the library. Still wasn’t raining hard after the library visit–spent a lot of time there, checked out one book. They didn’t have any of the others. So it was after 4 p.m. when I left the library.

It started raining harder while I was at the seafood market buying shrimp. (Hey, I was downtown. The fish markets are on the piers downtown. Why not buy shrimp?) And even harder when I went to the grocery store. By the time I got home, it was pouring. And I had groceries to carry into the house. Not much wind, but lots and lots of rain. Exchanged my walking shoes for flip-flops to keep the shoes from getting too soaked. Lost a can out of one of the grocery sacks, and just left it lying there in the rain. I was trying to carry as many sacks as I could at one time so I didn’t have to make more trips, and didn’t have a hand to spare (didn’t even have one for my umbrella–just sorta held it in place with my chin…) to pick it up.

So by the time the fella got home, Humberto was still hovering about 20 to 35 miles offshore and building up steam. The neighbors had come over to tell us that we flood–if not right away, then maybe when the high tide came in. So after our shrimp dinner, we spent the rest of the evening carrying beds, futon mattresses and assorted other things upstairs to the main floor. (I was already nursing a strained finger–now it’s really sore…) The electricity went on and off a bunch of times, then went off and stayed off, so we went to bed early.

Humberto skirted us. We didn’t even get water in the garage (which will happen in a really hard rain). A few more branches (smaller ones) fell off the trees, lots of leaves on the deck. But at the north end of the county, an older couple had their house moved a foot off its foundation and the roof peeled off. Even though the eye went ashore much farther east. This was maybe 50 miles from us. We are grateful for small mercies.

Yesterday, I was a slug. (Okay, I was writing like a maniac to finish my pages for the BIAY bracelet.) Today, I went out to walk at the beach. The sand is still soaking wet, even up near the seawall where its usually dry. And I found a whole stretch of whole, joined-together scallop shells. (I kinda think the gulls got to them, but maybe not.) Plus some pink barnacle-looking shell things, and a blue crab claw. (The gulls definitely got the rest of the crab.) I didn’t touch the claw, but I did bring the pink shells home. (I’ll post a picture, when I take one…) So Humberto was a little rough on the under-sea residents too, seems to me.

I’m working on the new synopsis for Thunder. I like it, but it’s going slow. I need to decide what I’m going to work on next week…Ought to be getting revisions for New Blood pretty soon. I want to finish my revisions for the proposal of Thunder, get the synopsis written and out, and then…I dunno. Do revisions on New Blood, then maybe start the Irish shaman story over. Or work on my demon slayer story… Hmm.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in life, New Blood, the beach, Thunder in a Cloudless Sky, writing

Writing about Sex

Posted on August 17, 2007 | 8 Comments

I have a list of things I want to blog about someday. I write them down–the ones I can remember long enough to write down–so I don’t forget them. For instance, I do want to write about the TIME Magazine article “Who killed the love story?” But not today.

And the son, who is home from university this week, found my list and wrote on it: Monkeys in Outer Space bent on destroying zuwieroiyushamnn At least that’s what I think he wrote on it. And I may write a blog about monkeys in outer space bent on destroying…whatever… But not today.

Today, I’m going to blog about sex. Specifically, about writing about sex in novels. See, I got a note on my Shelfari Shelf from a friend who said that she was “unimpressed” by the One Rose books because she didn’t like books that “focus so completely around sex.”

Which took me totally aback, because I certainly didn’t think the books at all focused so completely around sex. I’ve read books that focus completely around sex, and believe me, they have a LOT more sex than the Rose books do.

The Compass Rose has only three fully consummated love scenes in it. It has a few more “sex by magic” (sorta like phone sex, only without the phone) scenes, and the characters talk about sex a lot. Because the books are about men and women who care about each other, who have a relationship–who are married to each other, to be more exact–and who have different understandings from each other about relationships and about sex and how the world works. And I firmly believe that to put people in that kind of situation and NOT address the sex issue would have been nothing less than a flat out lie.

(The Barbed Rose has more sex, as does The Eternal Rose, because in those books, the relationships are on-going and more fully developed. By the time The Eternal Rose begins, seven years have passed since the beginning of The Compass Rose. The characters have been married for that long. Sex is going to be a part of those relationships.)

All those books that have men and women traveling together on a quest for months to retrieve the Magic Hoohah and save the world–and the characters Never Even Think About Sex–are just plain lying, IMO.

People think about sex. They have sex. They screw up their lives because they try to ignore sex and they can’t. Or they screw up their lives because they have sex with anything that moves and never figure out why they’re lonely. Sex is a part of life. It’s a huge part of life, and I think that novelists–in whatever genre they write–should address it, if they’re comfortable with it.

In speculative fiction, like fantasy and science fiction, it’s possible to explore a greater range of “what ifs” than in novels set in contemporary or historical times, and exploration is a good thing, I think. If I’m ever able to write more books set in the One Rose universe, I can see Kallista’s children complaining that it’s hard enough to find one person willing to put up with your faults–

I do understand that sex is a private part of life and that some people are uncomfortable with a discussion, or even a portrayal of something so intensely private and intimate. I understand that some people have moral issues with reading about sex. Personal opinions are just that. Personal opinions. And everyone’s entitled to have them. Which is why I left the note up on my Shelfari page and didn’t delete it. Tanis has every right to not like books with much sex in them, and every right to express her opinion.

But I did want to explain why I wrote the books the way I did, and why I write about sex, and there’s not a way to respond to a note on one’s own page, and I didn’t want to stick a note on her page without any context, so I came here to share my philosophy of writing about sex with the world–or at least as much of the world as comes by to read my blog.

I’m still waiting for my copies of The Eternal Rose… Sigh.

→ 8 Comments

Posted in fantasy, sex, The Barbed Rose, The Compass Rose, The Eternal Rose, writing

Beyond Tired

Posted on August 15, 2007 | 1 Comment

Although I probably shouldn’t be by now. It’s Wednesday. I’ve been home (again) since Sunday evening. But I still feel like I’ve been dragged backwards through the bushes. And then maybe beat with a stick some.

I went to ArmadilloCon in Austin last weekend. It’s a science fiction/fantasy conference, was lots of fun, but dang, I’m really tired now. And it was hard attending when I hadn’t even been in the new house for a week. Still, I bet I’m the only one in a while who’s been put on both the sex- AND the religion-in-fantasy panels. We had a lot of fun doing the panels–laughed a Whole lot during the sex-in-fantasy panel–and I scored a necklace-and-earring set and a dragon print at the art auction. Both very cool and very lovely. (The jewelry is purple rock–and no, I don’t remember what kind it’s supposed to be–that will go very well with the purple rock earrings I already have.)

So, now the boy is down from college for the week. I need to go drag him out of bed so we can go to the washateria (all the laundromats around here seem to have that title) since we haven’t rented laundry equipment yet–and doing laundry in the garage is REALLY going to be not fun around here… The heat index has been in the 110s (43 C) the past few days–worse than in Houston because of the killer humidity.

We have had fresh boiled shrimp this week–bought at the grocery store, not a fish market, but still the freshest stuff I’ve had in a long time. Wonderful. My next goal for the week is to get out to the beach and get IN the water, sometime before the boy heads back to school. The grandboys are coming to visit next week (so the posts here will be sparse, I’m sure) and I plan to take them to the water several times, but their WunkaBob won’t be here then…

Cross your fingers that the books (The Eternal Rose) come in next week. The printer has promised them by then, but…

I’m trying to write, but not very hard. I got 4-1/2 pages done Monday, but there’s just too much to do. Went to Ikea to buy tables to set up for computer desks–and forgot to buy the second table. Sometime, when I’m back that way, I’ll have to get the second table. (sigh) That’s my project for today, though. To put the table on its legs. It’s bound to work better than the card table I’m using right now…

→ 1 Comment

Posted in family, fantasy, pastimes, the beach, The Eternal Rose, trips, writing

Posted on August 8, 2007 | 4 Comments

I’m here. At the new place. We loaded up Saturday, after packing stuff all day Friday, then drove partway Saturday afternoon. We got to town about 3 the next afternoon, unloaded Sunday night, and the cable people came by today (Wednesday) to install the cable and get the computer up and running. I’ve unpacked and put away stuff. The kitchen is sorta, mostly together. I have a bed to sleep in, drawers and a big closet for my clothes…and a washateria somewhere around. I’m still learning my way around. It’s helpful that this town is mostly a grid.

And this a.m., I decided that if I was going to live at the beach, I was going to go to the beach, so I put on my shorts & T-shirt early, before it got hot, and drove down to the beach (we’re about 1 to 2 miles from the beach), and walked barefoot along the water. There was an egret, two different kinds of sandpipers, and of course a whole horde of seagulls that appeared like magic out of nowhere when some turistas started flinging bread at them. The broken shells in the sand here and there weren’t a lot of fun, but the water was…

I’d forgotten, though, just how HOT it can get here. The temp is not actually that high, but because it’s essentially 100% humidity, it Feels really, really hot. Well over body-temp. We went to a free band concert near downtown last night, and as long as the breeze was blowing, it was bearable, since the sun was mostly down, but if that breeze stopped… I’m just going to have to get used again to being slightly sweaty all the time…It was a fun event though–every Tuesday night in the summertime. They play a little of everything, have a kids’ maracas/rhythm band song, have a flag parade every week. It was mostly locals, too, which I found interesting. If the grandboys get to come before school starts, we’ll have to take them.

I have the computer set up on a card table. I’ll have to wait and see about a writing space–we haven’t brought the dining table upstairs yet. (Yeah, I’m in a house where I have to climb stairs–a full flight of them–to get to the front door.) I figure next week will be soon enough to get busy writing. I’ve got a fantasy con in Austin this weekend. If anybody’s there, come by and say hey. :)

→ 4 Comments

Posted in life, the beach, writing

New Time Waster on the Web

Posted on July 30, 2007 | 4 Comments

Okay. I have a MySpace space. I’ve never really been able to figure out what to do with it. But some kind friend sent me an invitation to a NEW thing where I fit RIGHT in. It’s called SHELFARI. I guess as a sorta pun on Safari–I dunno. But it’s a place where you can list the books you’ve read, state your opinions on them, and find other people who like to read the same kinds of things you like. And make friends with them. And stuff. It’s GREAT!

Yeah, of course I’m there. Or here, as the case may be. I’ve found another place to put up the books I list on my private “personal reading log.” I share my “reviewlets” with the loop at Romance Readers Anonymous, and now I’m putting them up at Shelfari. So far, I’m only doing the books I’ve read this year, because I’m working like mad to get the books in the ABR boxes into my log before I move this weekend. So I can know which ones go to the library and stuff. So I do my 10 books at a whack, e-mail the list to the RR-A loop, then head to Shelfari to stick them all on my Shelf, then go back and paste in the reviewlets. It’s been lots of fun. I’ve found friends–I mean, friends I know in “real life,” there and waved frantically at them. (Oh! Yvonne “friended” me! Yay!)

So, yeah. I’m not writing. I’m trying to pack (put all the “essential” family pictures in a box this a.m. along with the essential cookbooks and the research books–and then actually managed to carry it out to the garage). Trying to keep things neat-ish. The real estate agent and a MLS guy came by today to measure everything. I’d been told they would come take pictures–I took some pictures last night, not including my still messy office–and copied them onto a CD, which I gave the agent. And they didn’t take any more pictures, so I guess they’ll use the ones I took. Hope somebody buys this house soon. It’s only 2 bedrooms, for all the size it has, so it may take a while.

So Shelfari is giving me something else to obsess about (aka waste time on) till I have to go pick the fella up at the airport on Thursday. I’ll go into town early and watch a movie, or something… 😉

→ 4 Comments

Posted in books I'm reading, life, pastimes, trips, writing

Printing

Posted on July 25, 2007 | 2 Comments

At this very moment, I am printing out the complete (and still pretty long) manuscript to New Blood to mail to the agent tomorrow. I like it, I like how it’s turned out–there are still things that could probably be cut, but it works for me, so…

This means that I mail it, and then I have to start doing not-fun stuff like packing boxes. I’m not going to take any books but the research books I’m using for Thunder, and a few of the TBRs–because if I don’t have books to read, I will buy books to read. I will probably buy books to read anyway, but…

Oh, and we may have someone to buy our house after all. Cross your fingers that everything works out. We’re still moving into the house with the big deck first weekend in August, but it’s exciting news. I don’t want to have this dragging on. I’m hoping I’ll be able to move ALL my books into the house, but…

Eww. Just occurred to me–it’s REALLY humid on the coast, which is not good for books. I’ll have to find a place for my comics in the house–or sell them all on e-Bay. I miss them, but don’t have time for them any more. Especially won’t if I have to get a dayjob, which is a possibility.

Next writing project, to be started in the new house/town–I’m going to revise the demon hunter book and see if I can get over the first barrier. Then I’m going to start the re-write on the urban fantasy Irish shaman/Navajo warrior princess story. Oh, and I’m still writing 25 pages a month on the WWII story, Thunder.

Um–I’ve finished the new Harry Potter book. I was out of town when the mail order package came in, but I read it. It was a satisfying ending to the story, I thought. I’ve also read an old Barbara Delinsky, Looking for Peyton Place, which I liked, and Liz Maverick’s launch of the Shomi line, Wired, which I think I liked, but it confused me a lot, so I’m not really sure. On the airplane coming back, I read Karma Girl by Jennifer Estep (liked it) and Soul Song by Marjorie M. Liu (liked it too). Need to sort my ABRs (already been read) into keepers, library donations and trade-ins. I haven’t lived near Waco in 8 years, but I’m still carting my trade-ins to Golden’s Books on Franklin street there–best used book store I’ve found so far. Maybe I’ll find a new one in the new place, but will wait and see.

Oh! I did get my domain up and running again. (It helps when you pay your bills on time. ) Now to update it. And then, to shift my plan. I have it on one that isn’t particularly idiot-friendly. I need something for the computerly ignorant.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in books I'm reading, fantasy, life, New Blood, Thunder in a Cloudless Sky, writing