05.31.08
Posted in Life, the Universe, and Everything, work in progress at 11:27 am by Ally Blue
Writing:
- Got one really loooong chapter of An Inner Darkness finished (though it’s not very good and needs serious tweakage) and about half of the next chapter (which is pretty good so far, I think). I need to get at least another 2K today. Oy.
- Actually did a bit of promo on the two print books that came out this week. Go me!
- Took copies of Easy and Fireflies to a new local women’s magazine, Verve, for review in their August issue. They’re doing a small feature on romance authors in Western North Carolina, which is pretty cool. I’ll link that when it comes out
Mom World & Other Family Obligations:
- Managed to navigate the UNC-Chapel Hill website well enough to find the info about what financial aid we’re getting for the girl-child’s college. Answer: not much. Work study, big f’ing deal. Oh well, she’s enthusiastic about it and willing to work, so whatever.
- Took the boy-child for a FREE sports physical this morning at the ass-crack of damn dawn. He wants to go out for soccer next year (9th grade). It was okay though, they got all kids in and out pretty fast and everyone got a free T-shirt and gym bag. Y’all cross your fingers that his soccer game has improved since he was six…
- Tried to talk my dad and That Woman He Married into staying with my in-laws (next door to us) instead of a hotel when they come up for the girl-child’s graduation. Failed, of course; the tight-assed harpy liked to keep her distance from my husband’s family. Not upscale enough for her. Oh well, at least my sister is staying with us, I’m seriously looking forward to that. I don’t see her nearly enough.
- Attended way-fun family potluck on Memorial Day, put on by my hubby’s cousin R. Embarrassed the crap out of R’s nephew by constantly telling him how last time I saw him he was toddler-sized and now he’s like twenty and helping remodel their house and wasn’t that just insane how fast life goes by. The four glasses of wine might have had something to do with that. LOL. It’s fun being “old” *g*
Self-improvement:
- Re-joined the gym at work after having been out of it for like 3 years. Actually went twice this week. Yay! Discovered their treadmills are WAY better than mine. On the flip side, the water pressure in their showers leaves much to be desired.
- Got out on the road and ran my 3.25 miles this morning after taking the boy-child for his physical. It was already almost 80 degrees. Yikes. The older I get, the more the heat seems to affect me. But, I didn’t do too badly, considering. Ran the flats and downhills, walked the uphills. Kept up more or less the same pace throughout, which is quite an achievement for me
EDJ:
- Bitched about having my position phased out and being forced to take an ED case management job instead. Not that I have anything against ED case management itself. I think it’ll be pretty interesting, and certainly more challenging than the crap I’m doing now. It’s just that I’ll have to go back to working weekends and holidays and that SUCKS BIG FAT HAIRY DONKEY BALLS.
- Bitched about being forced to go back to school for my BSN. If I wanted that particular piece of paper, I’d have gone and gotten it years ago. I am not interested, and I resent being told I have to have it for this new job I was not given any choice other than to take. Dammit. Just how in the nine hells am I supposed to fit schoolwork in on top of EDJ, home stuff, mom stuff, running, friends, writing, occasional meals and sleep, and seeing my hubby now and then?
- Continued the (so far fruitless) search for a new job. Sigh.
So those are the big things going on this past week. My goals for the upcoming week:
- Finish An Inner Darkness. I’d rather not still be working on it when my dad and sister are here to visit. They’re driving up Thursday and staying the weekend.
- Get in my three runs. I have GOT to do better at keeping up with that or I will turn into The Blob.
- Get the house cleaned up, sheets washed, food bought for the big graduation party next Saturday, etc etc.
- Survive my baby girl’s graduation. *sob*
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05.27.08
Posted in ponderings at 7:52 pm by Ally Blue
Getting behind the wheel turns perfectly ordinary people into potential ax murderers.
Some people take the attempts of others to merge into traffic personally.
Nothing is quite as amusing as watching the person who’s been weaving in and out of traffic at ninety miles an hour start to pass a relatively slow car on the right, discover it’s a cop and hit those brakes. Ha!
A frightening number of people out there seem convinced that they can simultaneously dial their cell, dig around for something hidden under the passenger seat, and drive with their knees.
Guys in muscle cars HATE being outmaneuvered in traffic by a woman in a Hyundai *g*
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05.22.08
Posted in random weirdness at 8:21 pm by Ally Blue
Okay, so sometimes I like to surf fanfic when I ought to be writing. Only when I’m stuck though! Honest!
erm… yeah. Anyway. The other day I found this weird and disturbingly amusing little ficlet in the LOTR fanfic archive Library of Moria. Honest to FSM, I thought I’d seen everything at least once. Apparently I was wrong. LOL. It’s actually quite well done, it’s just the subject is so very, very odd o_O
On the other end of the fanfic spectrum, though, is my very FAVORITE Harry/Draco fic ever, “Ghosts and Potters”. The use of language in this story is exquisite. It brings tears to my eyes. I re-read it every time I need inspiration *g*
Speaking of which, one day? I am going to do my own H/D tale. I have one already half-thought-out in my head: a song-fic based on Patrick Wolf’s GORGEOUS tune “Penzance”. Yes, I’m a ginormous dork :-B
All right, back to work for me. I have 19 days to finish An Inner Darkness and 20K to go O_O
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05.04.08
Posted in New Release at 10:15 am by Ally Blue
That’s right, you can now get my gay lurve angst-fest Easy in actual paperback, from the hot new gay publisher ManLoveRomance Press! Woooooo-hoo!!!!!
Order from Barnes & Noble or Amazon.
Yay! I’m so excited!!!
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05.01.08
Posted in Life, the Universe, and Everything at 2:50 pm by Ally Blue
My laptop, that is. He’s been with me nearly five years, every one of my published stories and books were written on him, and now he’s dead.
**sniffles**
So, now I have a new laptop on the way. Refurbished MacBook, 13.3″, white (because there weren’t any black refurbished ones), with Leopard installed. Oswald couldn’t run Leopard because he had the wrong chip, so I suppose this one will be better. But I loved Oswald. I miss him.
Ummm… I’m not a freak for loving my laptop in an entirely inappropriate way, right? Right???
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04.26.08
Posted in ponderings at 4:28 pm by Ally Blue
[/gratuitous-yet-appropriate-if-you-squint Radiohead lyric]
I’ve been thinking lately about unlikable characters. Or, well, not really unlikable characters as such, more like characters doing things that make you uncomfortable, or angry.
An example. Suppose Joe Hero is at work, and some of his coworkers are saying very ugly things about another coworker who isn’t there. Joe knows and likes the person being ridiculed (though they are not close friends), but is afraid to stick up for the person. Not for any big important reason, but just because he’s afraid of being made a target himself. So he joins in the ridicule a bit, just to make himself seem part of the group.
Hardly an admirable reaction, but a very human one. But this one incident does not fully define him. It is only one part of Joe Hero the Person. Maybe he volunteers at Meals On Wheels, or plays banjo at the nursing home every Saturday. Does his weakness in not sticking up for his coworker cancel out all his good deeds? Does it make him unworthy of love, or unworthy of our attention as readers?
I know we all want to love our fictional heroes, but isn’t there such a thing as too perfect? In order for a character to ring true, don’t they need to be as human as the rest of us? Don’t they need bad habits and distasteful personality traits? For me, they do. And I’m not talking about nail-biting or chewing with your mouth open here. I’m talking about the very real flaws we all have, if we’re honest about it.
So. What are you willing to forgive in the name of realism? Or do you like your heroes, well, heroic rather than average? I don’t think there’s any right or wrong answer to that question, btw; I think different people are going to see the issue differently, which is what makes life vivid and beautiful rather than dull. I’m just wondering what others think, so please share!
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04.01.08
Posted in contests & other such at 6:30 pm by Ally Blue
And now that today’s gratuitous Radiohead lyric usage is over, I have NEWS. My faery fantasy Fireflies is up for March Cover of the Month at author Erin Aislinn’s website! Yay!
Here’s how it works. Every month, she puts up four different book covers to compete as cover of the month. Each cover is featured for one week, then they all duke it out the next month for Cover of the Month title. Voting for the March Cover of the Month started today and runs through the end of April. When you vote in the competition, you are entered to win an ebook copy of the book whose cover wins that month. Soooo, if everyone goes and votes for Fireflies and it wins the March Cover of the Month title, one extremely lucky voter will win a copy of that book.
Easy, right? OF COURSE it is! So go vote for ME!
[/shameless self-promotion]
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03.28.08
Posted in Rant at 11:27 pm by Ally Blue
I am the only person in the whole world who can’t manage to embed a fucking YouTube video >_<
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03.27.08
Posted in random weirdness at 7:38 pm by Ally Blue
LOLOLOLOL!!!!
**falls over laughing**
God, I love spam
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03.26.08
Posted in random weirdness at 7:34 pm by Ally Blue
What if your eyelids were transparent? Your eyeballs wouldn’t dry out, but you’d look like a damn freak and you’d never EVER get to sleep O_O
[/plot bunny attack]
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