Category Archives: the beach

Beautiful Day

Posted on March 24, 2008 | Leave a comment

Actually, it was a whole beautiful weekend. Saturday was Absolutely Gorgeous, here in island-land. A cold front blew in on Sunday, but it was still really nice. Just jacket nice, instead of shirtsleeve nice.

Oh, I have to share–I went out one day last week to walk along the beach, instead of riding the bicycle. Wore the flip-flops, since it’s been warming up, and did my usual “walk barefoot on the sand, put on flipflops to cross the jetties” trick. The weather was beautiful–just breezy enough to be cool and comfortable. But that water was COLD!!

And I didn’t even get into the water. I just walked on the wet sand. Still cold. Cold, Cold COLD!

Interesting tidbit–I was walking along and noticed swirls and waves of what looked a little like those flat-bottomed glass beads you can get at the craft stores to glue on stuff. (They had some on the wall at Tortuga’s Mexican Restaurant.) But they weren’t beads. They were little bitty, thumbnail-sized jellyfish. Every so often, a big twelve-inch jellyfish would be washed up, but mostly, there were just these waves of baby ones. I was very careful not to step on even the little ones, because those jellyfish can sting like wildfire, and I didn’t have my shoes on. There were so many of them, it was kind of hard not to step on them sometimes…

The boy and his girlfriend and the granddog came to visit and they actually went to the beach and got in the water. Brrrr! I have pictures. (Of Dolly the dog, not any people) I’ll have to download and post them.

And we all went bike riding. The fella brought the last of the bikes down from the panhandle house, so we had a bicycle for everyone. And I made it past 61st Street before the knees gave out! That may have been partly due to the fact that the seawall sidewalk was very crowded and I kept having to slow down to get around bunches of people taking up the whole sidewalk, but I rode Past 61st Street. That’s at least as far as riding past 45th Street going the other way, so I made my goal. Went out the very next day to ride again, and didn’t make it that far, so I obviously have more “building up” to do on the legs, but it’s a start…

The writing is chugging along. I feel like I’m not getting anywhere, but really, I am. I guess I feel that way because I keep having to go back and fill things in. What I wrote today, I’m worried I may have to take out and condense. I feel like I ought to Know what to leave out and what to put in when I write it…but I don’t. I just throw it all in, and then have to slash and burn when it comes time to revise. Less planning, less clothing, more doing.

Onward and upward.

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Posted in bicycles, family, life, Old Spirits, the beach, writing

New Toys!!

Posted on February 19, 2008 | Leave a comment

We got new bikes!

Yep, the fella and me went out last Saturday, and got ourselves brand new, matching, red Schwinn bicycles. The old-fashioned coaster-brake, upright-handlebars, balloon-tire, wide-load-seat kind for riding up and down the seawall. Or wherever.

I think it was a Christmas present. When one gets cash money, sometimes one has to think a while before deciding what to spend it on. Bicycles make good Christmas presents. On the other hand, they could be Valentine’s Day presents. Or even anniversary presents, since that’s coming up in another month or two. Or maybe they were “just because” presents.

The deal the fella made with me was that “if you get a bicycle, you have to ride it.” See, I had a bicycle I never rode. It had a teensy little hard seat that hurt to sit on, and racing-type handlebars that I didn’t like leaning over to hold onto. I just didn’t like riding that bike. So I didn’t. But this one, I already have, and enjoyed it a lot.

Sunday, we went out and rode along the seawall. The weather was gorgeous, people were out everywhere and it was a really nice ride–except I was a nervous wreck for dodging all the strollers-along-the-seawall. Next time we ride that direction, we’re going early in the a.m., when there will hopefully not be so much pedestrian traffic. Or else we’re not riding on the sidewalk.

I went out again Monday, and my legs are wet noodles. The knees are a little sore too, so I’m going to take today off to let them recover a little. Then back out again on Wednesday. Maybe later in the day, so I’m not so worthless…

I will try to remember to take a picture of me and my bike (which may be named Ladybird… It reminds me a lot of the first bicycle I had, which was a fabulous, well-loved bike, and was named Speedy Gonzales. We will see what name this bicycle answers to.) and post it here for y’all to share.

Until then, me and my noodle-legs will toddle back off to work.

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Posted in pastimes, the beach

Thinking about titles

Posted on February 16, 2008 | 4 Comments

Comment from AG:

COLD IRON makes me think about faeries. cold iron is supposed to be one of the things that can really really hurt them, I guess kinda like vampires and garlic, only it hurts the good guys instead of keeping the bad guys away.

It’s only really in that context that I’ve seen “cold iron” instead of just “iron.”


Yeah. Which gives it a fantasy sound–and then you read it and there’s a twist… Maybe.

The first book is blood magic, hence NEW BLOOD, because 1. there’s a new sorceress, so she’s “new blood” in the magicians council, and 2. blood magic has been essentially lost for 300 years, so it’s new. I like that title. (Dunno if it will fly with editors.)

The second book, I want to call OLD SPIRITS, because the hero is a conjurer, so it looks at a different type of magic used in this universe (though in terms of how it mixes with blood magic). And the older a spirit the conjurer can conjure, the more powerful it is and the more magic can be worked. So I think OLD SPIRITS works for that one.

The third book, will have an alchemist, who works magic with physical elements and forces (water, metal, earth, electricity, etc.), and a wizard, who works herbal magic. I have NO clue what to call that one, which is why I thought COLD IRON might work, because there IS magic worked with iron. But there are no faeries.

Fantasy/paranormal books with “blood” in the title generally are assumed to be vampire books. This one isn’t. Not a vampire in sight. So, in that way, the cold iron reference would be a similar twist. The titles I came up with that had something referring to the wizardry sounded squishy. Iron Flowers? Deep Earth? Rooted Deep? The adjective-noun pattern doesn’t necessarily have to be followed, but it would be nice if I could…

Sometimes the titles just come (like SPIRITS–Floated up with the opening line and scene…). Sometimes I have to wrestle with them. A lot.

Mini beach report: The seagulls are growing in the black feathers on their heads. No more smudgy-white headed seagulls. They’re going back to black. Mating season is at hand.

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Posted in books, fantasy, New Blood, Old Spirits, the beach

Dickens, Victorian Christmas and stuff like that

Posted on December 4, 2007 | Leave a comment

Had a busy weekend, so I’m just now getting here. This past weekend was a big one for the island, because it was the Victorian Christmas festival weekend downtown. This is a huge deal around here, and people come from all over the state to hang out, dress up in costumes and drink glogg. Or wassail. Or whatever. The costumes are supposed to be Victorian, but since she ruled a really long time, the costume-wearer has a wide variety of choices. Everything from hoopskirts to bustles. Some people wear pirate costumes, which are about 50 years too old for Victoria, but hey–they look cool, so nobody cares. There are also Civil War soldiers, cowboys, frontier floozies, beggar urchins, London bobbies, kilted soldiers and pretty much whatever else anyone might want to wear. Lots and lots of top hats.

The fella’s college had a booth on Ship’s Mechanic Row, so he felt he needed a costume, and went out and rented one. (Though I think he bought the top hat and cane.) But since we left it so late, I decided it would be too hard to find something really “authentic” for me, so I did “Victorian-ish.” I found a Victorian-looking top, and already had a long, tiered denim skirt, so I did a variation on the frontier look, I suppose. If I can get my sewing machine down here, though…maybe next year.

So that’s what we did pretty much all day Saturday. Wandered around all the old buildings downtown and gawked at all the dressed-up people. There were plenty who didn’t dress up, but you’d be amazed just how many did. I would post pictures, but I didn’t take my camera, and the fella wants to download the pictures himself, so who knows when that will happen…

I have made it back out to the beach. It was very warm and sunny Friday, and my knees were whining at all the walking on concrete I’ve made them do lately, so I took them back to walk on the sand again. Tiny little rocks all over everywhere. Lots of the kelp-like seaweed. And some ring-billed gulls have showed up. They seem to be a little more solitary than the local laughing gulls, a little larger too. But the easiest way to tell the difference, since the laughing gulls don’t currently have their black heads, is that the ring-bills have yellow beaks (with a black ring) and legs, and the laughers have black beaks and legs. It will be nice when they turn black-headed again… Make it easier for me. The other local black-headed gulls don’t have black legs, so that’s a help too.

And Monday, we went to the college Christmas concert. The choir is basically a community choir–most of the members are my age or older. I enjoyed their music, though a lot of it was a little esoteric. The other half of the program was the Island Steel Drum Band, which was lots of fun. This is only its second year in existence, but it was totally cool. They ought to perform at the Dickens festival next year, I think… Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree works real well on steel drums…

Plodding away on Time Catch. I’ve done a few POV/scene changes now. Maybe finished a chapter–though I never really know till I get it typed in. Still, I like the story and it seems to be going well, although slowly. I’m working stuff out as I go, which means a lot of stopping and making notes and re-writing when I think of something that will work better than what I originally came up with. It’s the details that can trip you up. I know the general outline of what my hero’s going to be doing, but the specifics keep slowing me down.

I was thinking I’d have this “city boy” dress up like a scruffy street tough, to go snooping around out in the outer sectors of the space empire. He is a lot tougher than he looks, but he’s pretty ignorant of life in the outer sectors, and he’s smart enough to know that. So after I’d already written the scene with him in grubby space-suit clothes, I realized he was indeed smart enough to recognize his ignorance and play it up. So he’s dressing like a company bureaucrat from headquarters who doesn’t want to be in the outer sectors, (with hair dyed red with hot pink streaks) so he’ll at least have the element of surprise on his side if any local tough guys try to rough him up. He’s very good at personal violence. So anyway, I had to write that at least twice today.

But the plot is coming clear, and I ought to be able to write the synopsis pretty soon… I’ve learned a couple of things I didn’t realize as I’ve gotten even a couple of pages in that I think will play a great big part in the story. Not sure how, yet, but I think they will. I’ve established the hero and heroine’s goals. I’ve established the primary conflict between them, and hinted at some internal conflict–or maybe self-conflict. I hope I’ve established enough of the universe that people can follow the story. It’s coming together, I think.

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Posted in pastimes, the beach, Time Catcher, writing

Slogging On

Posted on November 16, 2007 | Leave a comment

Some people march on, but I happen to be slogging. It’s a slogging kind of month. Or something. Lots of people are participating in National Novel Writing Month this month, or NaNo. I’ve sort of attempted this in the past.

Problem is, I do my first-draft writing in longhand, so if I wanted to do an “official” NaNo, and get my words logged on the Official Website, I would have to first write, then type, then do the upload/count-y thing, essentially doing twice the work of anybody else. And I’m too dang lazy for all that work.

My other problem is that I’m a slogger, not a sprinter. I do best at a “slow and steady” sort of pace. Six to eight pages a day, every week day. EVERY weekday. Sometimes, like when I haven’t been writing for a while, I don’t make it to six pages, but if I really work at it, I can do it. That gives me the 50,000 words NaNo wants in about 6 weeks.

Which brings us to my other other problem. I write long. At least when I’m writing fantasy, I do. Each one of the Rose books came in at just under 150,000 words. (Okay, Eternal Rose came in a fair bit over, but I got it cut!) So did New Blood for that matter. That’s THREE books’ worth of writing, if you count 50,000 words as a book (and that’s how long my Desires were, when I was writing them).

Anyway, I’m still slogging. This week, I finished the synopsis for White Elk, Red Sword.* I also finished the world-building and character development for the science fiction/gene-splicing story, which I am tentatively calling Catching Time. Of course, the world-building will continue to develop as I get into the story and figure out other things I need, but it feels good enough I can work with it. I need to type in the world-building stuff, so I have multiple back-ups. Pen and ink can also be lost/destroyed.

Then I can go back and type in the synopsis, and edit it as I do. Type-in is my 1st edit, giving me a second draft on the computer. Then–maybe this weekend, maybe starting Monday, I can rewrite the opening of Chapter 3 for WERS, putting all of it (at least so far) in the hero’s point of view, and it just might be ready to ship out to the agent.

I want to pull together a partial of Catching Time after that, and after that–we may be into the new year, when I think I need to go back and work on Devil in a Red Dress. I also need to write another 25 pages or so on Thunder. I might actually get them done before this month ends. We’re not going anywhere for Thanksgiving. It will be a small gathering here on the island, but the weather promises to be gorgeous. It is right now, anyway.

Beach report: I’ve only gone down to walk on the beach once this week. It was quite warm, and I wish I’d gone in my flipflops so I could have walked in the water. But I didn’t, so… Lots of little rocks and broken shells along the high-tide mark. Lots of sea gulls.

I did pick up my Bird Book when we went back to Clarendon. I now know that the larger of the sandpiper-like birds are willets, and the little flocking ones are sanderlings. I’m looking forward to seeing them in their summer plumage.

I walked in my neighborhood one day–the day the cold front came through. I thought about walking the other way, around by the bayou (which is actually more like a big opening to the bay than it is like a bayou, but that’s what they call it so…), but the wind was really whipping, and it was cold, and coming off the bayou it would have been even colder, so I stayed on the residential streets.

Today, I walked a little bit over in the historical district–or one of them. This town has a bunch of historical districts. Anyway, I’d gone over there to see someone about getting my fancy black dress altered, and there were some neat looking houses with For Sale signs in front of them, so after I was through trying on the dress for her and had it all pinned up, and went back out to my car, I decided to walk around a little and see what there was to see. Some of the big ol’ houses had been divided up into apartments. Some had been restored and some hadn’t. But it was fun to walk around and look at them. There was even a brand new house that fit exactly into the neighborhood. The inside layout wouldn’t work for us, but it was a neat house. Until we find a place to buy (and hopefully sell the old house), I think my hobby’s going to be driving/walking around looking at houses. Maybe afterward. I like looking…

Okay, I’ve driveled on long enough. Time to stop this and go do something useful. Or play Mah-Jongg… Whatever.

*Title subject to change, if it ever sells/finds a publisher.

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Posted in fantasy, the beach, Thunder in a Cloudless Sky, White Elk Red Sword, writing

Adventures in October

Posted on October 31, 2007 | 1 Comment


Busy, busy weekend. And I’m expecting L.K. Hamilton’s Lick of Frost on my front porch any time now, and when it comes, I’m pretty much going to drop everything and read (hmm, isn’t there a school program called that? DEAR?), so I thought I’d get a blog in while I could.

So, I went to a chapter writing retreat in Valley Mills this past week. As you can see, the little house where we all crowded in isn’t much, but it gave us privacy, a place to all squeeze round the same table, and a place to sleep, so we camped out for the weekend and talked writing. I got positively inspired. I’m still working on the Irish/Navajo story, but I brainstormed a plot for a two-page excerpt I wrote who knows how long ago that I always liked and thought could make a good story… and now, I really want to get to work on that one too. (The other picture is the view from the porch at our retreat place.)

Then, I headed to DFW to see the daughter while she was down in our neck of the country at her 10-year-high school reunion. (Good grief–do I have a kid that old?)(Guess so.) Her brothers came from Waco and Dallas and we had a great family visit. I can’t get any more pictures to upload, or I’d share some of the pics of the great big lugs riding on the kid’s toy tractor. They’re pretty hilarious. Oh, and the punkin my littlest grandboy painted for me. It’s adorable. And now sitting on top of my TV. (Hopefully, it won’t start leaking stuff before Halloween’s over.)

Came on home Monday, after taking the girl to the airport to fly home. The fella had to go to Austin with his board members Sunday, and came home on Tuesday just as I was heading out for the post office. It’s a lot farther away here than it was in Clarendon. Lot bigger, too. Anyway, last night, we had yet another thing to go to–at a Mexican restaurant this time (yum). Since there’s a big biker rally on the island this weekend–they’re expecting around 600,000 people to stop in–the “proper attire” for the dinner was Biker Gear. All I could find was a long-sleeved hoodie with a dragon on the front, which made it too hot to wear my leather jacket. Did my best, you know.

I’m told there’s an average of one death-from-stupidity per every 100,000 people at this biker fest. Rally. Whatever. Last year, one guy rode straight down 61st Street and right off the seawall without stopping. The fall killed him. He must have missed the ramp down to the pier, and gone off the side with the rocks at the bottom of the wall. Hope they’re smarter this year…

Beach report: Slower tides these days. Just one today, in fact–low tide at around 3 this afternoon. Lots of rocks on the beach, lots of gulls. Most of them were waking up for the day–except for one young bird who still had his/her head determinedly under his wing, sleeping late. Saw a one-legged gull again, and a cormorant, and a whole flock of the little skittery sand birds. Mostly I’ve seen them in ones and twos, but this was a flock. Saw a bunch of seagulls fishing, too. They were flying in a line, like brown pelicans do, but not as big, of course, and not flying nearly so high–maybe 3 feet off the water. Then they’d swoop down and fly along at less than a foot off the water for a stretch, then back up for another 10 or 20 feet, then back down. I think some of them dipped down to catch something every so often. Bigger waves–lots of guys in wetsuits with their surfboards. I even saw one coming out to surf as I was leaving.

While I have to wear actual shoes to walk, while it’s colder, I’m going to have to walk on the seawall sidewalk. I get too much sand in my shoes and track in up the steps and into the house, and I hate having to deal with the sand. If I’m in the flipflops and barefoot, I can wash it off on the driveway. Still, it’s going to hit 80 F (26C) most of the rest of this week. I could go later in the day and still walk barefoot…

Need to type things into the computer and see how many chapters of White Elk, Red Sword I have, and I can go work on the science fiction-y story… Need to come up with a title for that one.

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Posted in family, the beach, trips, White Elk Red Sword, writing

Summer Comes to A Screeching Halt

Posted on October 24, 2007 | Leave a comment


Let’s start with The Beach Report.

Okay, so I mentioned briefly that a cold front blew in on Monday. BOY did it blow in! It got downright cold. And it blew all the water way out from the beach. WAY out. I haven’t seen the water so far out since we moved here…almost to the end of the jetties.

If you’ll look at last Thursday’s blog entry, you’ll see a shot of this same beach before the norther got here. Tuesday, when I went out, the water was far enough out, this guy (you can see him. The vertical dot that doesn’t have a sign on top…) was walking over there.

This is a shot of the side of a concrete ramp that comes from the street down to beach level. I took the first one last week. This was at low tide, folks. (Don’t know why low tide was so high that day. Wind, again, I guess.) And the second picture I took yesterday, from the water’s edge.

The second shot was also taken at low tide, but the tide was a WHOLE lot farther out than it was last week. Yeah, the shot is from the opposite angle, but still. It gives you an idea of how different the weather was. Of course, you can’t see the cold, or the sharp wind.

Everything looked washed very clean. I walked out close to the water, and saw so little stuff (except for seagulls, who’d found something to chow down on), that I decided to walk back at the high-tide mark, and found some cool stuff there. More pink barnacle shells, and several other cool shells. One was as long as my hand and almost as wide, very thin, and kinda irridescent, but it was sand-brown, so I didn’t take its picture. Maybe now that I’ve washed it off… I did have to wash a whole lot of sand out of the barnacle holes.

The sand was cut into some really cool wave patterns. A lot of it was the usual washboard-looking stuff, with flat tops, but some of it was really different. Diamond-patterned, or… maybe like tucks in fabric. I thought it was cool looking, anyway.

So, there’s the “First Blue Norther of the Season” beach report. A bunch of kids went to school in shorts on Monday, and froze. (They had pictures in the paper.) It was cold Tuesday morning, and this morning, but by this afternoon, it was gorgeous. Really nice for my trip to the library. My knees were hurting from walking so far two days in a row, so I skipped the beach this a.m. and walked from the library to the post office downtown, this afternoon. Clear sky, warm & not too hot, nice breeze…perfect. And it’s not but 4 or 5 blocks between the two. Had my lunch out at a nice Mexican restaurant over near the medical school.

Got quite a bit written today. New stuff, not just re-treads from the first version (which now that I’m reading it again, I can see the suckage). It’s moving along. I’m liking it better. Like the characters better, like the writing better. Wondering when I’ll get some of this exposition in, but you know? If it doesn’t make it, I don’t think it will hurt anything…

I also got a chapter critiqued for the weekend retreat. Now I need to search through magazines for some interesting pictures to pull out for the workshop I’m presenting. One of the original presenters had to cancel. I also need to crit three more chapters. Eep! It always takes me so long to do critiquing. I will be present for the critting, though, so maybe I don’t have to write so much stuff…

There’s another fancy dress Thing tomorrow night–not as fancy a dress, I don’t think. Ought to be able to wear my black lace skirt and pink beaded jacket. Maybe.

I’ll try to blog before I drive out Friday, but if I don’t…I’ll see y’all when I get back.

I’ll leave you with a final picture…the shrimp boats have come in close to shore, with the falling temps. I could have taken a picture of several together, except for the sun’s glare off the water, and by the time I moved away from the glare, they’d separated. Oh well…

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Posted in life, the beach, White Elk Red Sword, writing

Wild Weekend

Posted on October 22, 2007 | 1 Comment


The harbor cruise was fun. We took the motor-powered cruise. Big ol’ boat that A&M uses for marine research of various kinds. Just six of us on the boat with “Captain Jim. ” Basically, we went down the harbor to the ship channel and back, didn’t go out in the bay at all. Lots of interesting stuff to look at. (This is the “other” boat, very much like the one we’re on. Took the picture while we were pulling out.)

We saw lots of cool stuff. The local cruise ship, getting loaded up for another Caribbean cruise… We saw the “tall ship Elissa,” from the water. Elissa is a museum herself, and also a working sailing merchant ship. Locals volunteer to sail her and keep her ship-shape.

There were also cargo ships unloading tractors and shipyards that didn’t look like they had any ships to work on. I think one of the shipyard things was still under construction. Besides all the big ships (including Coast Guard cutters and ferries and barges), there were people out fishing. Apparently it’s about time for the flounder run to begin and folks were everywhere, on the bank and in boats, catching fish while all these huge ships were pulled up to dock right across the water from them.

But the absolute coolest thing we saw while we were out cruising down the harbor was the bottle-nosed dolphins. A whole pod surfaced right in front of the boat–six or seven of them. I couldn’t get but three in the same picture–they were pretty far ahead when the big bunch surfaced, and not all of them came back up close enough for me to take their picture. But they were right there in the harbor along with everything else, swimming around like there were no ships or fishermen. Cool, huh?

And then we went to see Elizabeth: The Golden Age, because I’d been wanting to see it, and it was totally worth going to see. Loved the clothes…

Sunday, we got tickets to the Grand Opera House to a concert, and decided to go to that, since Moody Gardens–which was having “Free Day for locals” will be there next year (or whenever) and the pianist won’t be. The music was great, but Sunday afternoon is not a good concert time for this girl. Sunday afternoon is Nap Time, and I kept falling asleep in that dark theater, at least through the Brahms. I did stay awake for the Mussorgsky Pictures in an Exhibition–just because I like that music a lot.

There were a whole bunch of other things going on over the weekend…a bicycle “ride around the bay” benefit thing, I think a breast cancer walk, an art festival, I think there was also a jazz festival…and we just couldn’t get to all of it. (A couple of the cyclists got hit crossing the causeway, even though they had two lanes blocked off just for the bicyclists…)

So now, it’s Monday. Worked on White Elk this a.m., got the latest version of chapter 1 in the computer and sent off for critiquing. Hopefully I’ve added in enough emotion that it will work. Hopefully.

Beach Report: Went back out to walk this morning. They’ve been predicting a cold front for today since last week, but you couldn’t tell it by my walk. It was 81F (27C) when I got to the seawall at 8:30 a.m. And there wasn’t a lick of breeze anywhere. I have NEVER been on the beach when the air was so absolutely still. It was hot, walking this a.m.

Because it was Monday, and the beaches got groomed for the weekend, most of the seaweed was gone, unless it got washed up right next to the seawall. I saw a couple of chunks of floaty, crinkly kind. (Guess I ought to take a picture of that, too.) A few shells, more rocks, and a whole lot of rocks right next to the fishing pier.

But I saw something I’d never seen before, completely new for me, and totally cool. I guess it washed ashore because it had broken off something else. It was a chunk of hard, clear plastic pipe about 2 inches in diameter, with a metal plug on one end that had been completely covered three-quarters of the way around, and over the end with some kind of little mussels or clams. Each shell was about thumbnail sized, and attached to the pipe by some kind of…neck, or stem. Kind of an icky, fleshy, ribbed, dark brown stem. The shells looked thin, and they were triangular shaped, with rounded points, white with dark orange edges. Looked sorta like mouths with lipstick on, because the shells were all open, some with little critters sticking out.

I thought about bringing it home to take a picture of here, but the critters were still alive, and when they died, they would sure stink. So I tossed them back into the water (they washed back out again) for the seagulls to eat, if they ever figured out they were edible. (Maybe they aren’t. I don’t know.) The seagulls weren’t messing with them when I first saw it. It looked sort of like a rhythm-band instrument–a stick with little castanets stuck all over the outside to rattle together. It did rattle when I picked it up, as the shells clacked into each other…

So, anyway, that was the cool stuff I saw this morning.

Then, sometime later this morning, the wind swooped in out of the north, blew over the rubber tree and the purple ginger (I did pick them back up), and brought in the cold weather. By 2:30 p.m., it was 63F (17C), and blowing like crazy.

I may have to go out and check the beach at low tide tomorrow, see if anything cool can be found. We are told that this is the time to go beach-combing, because the wind pushes the water way out, and all sorts of things turn up on the sand…

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Posted in fantasy, movies I watched, music, the beach, trips, White Elk Red Sword, writing

Fancy Dress Party

Posted on October 20, 2007 | 7 Comments


So we went to the party. This is me in one of my new fancy dresses. I like sparklies, and there are sparklies all the way down the front of this dress.

The invitation wasn’t real specific about where the party was–the hotel and convention center is a pretty big place, and we had to hike through the hotel till we found the right ballroom. I actually remembered a few names of people I’d met before, and even recognized who went with who even when they weren’t next to each other. I’ve met a dozen or more women named either Carol, Carolyn, Caroline or Karen… at least it seems that way. Makes it easier to remember names. I can just come out with a Kar–and mumble an ending, and they’ll think I remember. I’m so bad at names, I don’t mind at all being introduced as Grace.

Grace was actually my nickname in college, because I was so good at tripping over cracks in the sidewalk and getting run over by rampaging Weimeraners and losing my balance and falling into people and stuff. If somebody was going to mix my name up, that was probably a pretty good one to stick on me.

So, here’s the fella in his brand new tux. Someone told us at the party that the island is actually a two-tux town. I suspect we’re not rich enough for the two-tux level, but his position is a pretty political one, so we may get that many fancy-dress invitations. We’ll just have to wait and see. The guys were mostly in tuxes, but the ladies were all over the board–some in cocktail dresses, some in fancy dress pants, some in long dresses. I’m just grateful I didn’t drape my sleeves in the food…

And yes, I have to show y’all my shoes. I got really excited about finding a pair of shoes that would actually go onto my feet–and I found them at a Department Store! Usually, department stores don’t carry anything that will fit me, (wide feet, high arches) but I could get my feet into these, they didn’t hurt any more than any other shoe, and they didn’t cost a bazillion bucks. They have sparklies on them too, but the sparkle doesn’t seem to show up in the picture.

While we were at the fancy party, before dinner started (beef wellington and a really great red and yellow tomato salad), we got invited to go on a boat excursion this afternoon, and since we had no other commitments, and we like boats, we jumped on the invite. I’ll try and get back to let y’all know how it went–and I will take the camera for more pictures. I really need to get back to my painting… (Pictures=stuff to paint, so when I think about pictures, I think about painting.)

It sounds like all I’m doing is running around and going to parties–and I’m doing a lot more of that, for sure. There’s lots of stuff to do here. But I am still working on stories and writing. I got quite a bit done yesterday–finished character interviews and re-wrote the opening. Now I need to get it typed in and merged with the rest of chapter one, and ship it off for critique at next weekend’s writers’ retreat. Except I have to go on this boat ride. And tomorrow afternoon, we have tickets to a concert downtown at the Grand Opera House. (Need to try to take a picture of the inside there…) Anyway, this one is a contemporary urban fantasy romance with the various cultural mythologies merged and mixed together. Tentatively titled White Elk Red Sword, but I’m also considering something like The Shaman and the Warrior Princess… anyway.

Beach report: Went walking with the fella this a.m., and since he has no flip-flops and I like to walk IN the water, we drove down to see if Academy was open (wasn’t), and walked from 45th street to about 27th and back, instead of from 61st to 53rd, like I usually do.

Gorgeous weather–not a cloud in the sky, nice breeze, water pretty cool. More shells than rocks on the beach, but not many of either. After we crossed the 3rd jetty, there was a whole lot of seaweed of both kinds (crinkly-leaved floater and big-stemmed with roots). We’re waiting for the first big norther to blow in and push all the water way out so we can really go shell-hunting. Seagulls, pigeons, little bitty sandpiper/pipits. Saw a big sandpiper/stilt (I have Really got to go get my bird book.) with only one leg hopping away from us. And just as we were about the climb the stairs back to the car, we saw an egret fishing. Going to have to break out the long-sleeved shirt and hat and sunscreen for the harbor tour this afternoon…

I really am appreciating all the “Book sighting” reports. I had a sighting! I went across the causeway into town for the RWA meeting last Tuesday (listened to Sharon Mignery do a great workshop on Conflict), and stopped off at the Barnes & Noble, and there they were! THREE copies of The Eternal Rose and one of The Barbed Rose. So I signed them. Didn’t have any stickers…I’ll take some next time I head into town–which might not be until the next meeting, but that’s just the way it is. So. Thanks, y’all. :)

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Posted in fantasy, life, pastimes, The Barbed Rose, the beach, The Eternal Rose, White Elk Red Sword, 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.

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Posted in fantasy, pastimes, the beach, writing