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Last Friday I spent most of the afternoon at the library researching castles.  And last night, I spent most of the evening researching tents and glass.

Now I know why almost all fantasy books happen in the woods... you don't have to research trees and campfires... they really haven't changed much in the last couple thousand years.

But buildings... they are driving me crazy.  Yes, Chris, I know I'm obsessive, but that's who I am. **grin**

The hero's based in a garrison of a stone castle, and the heroine lives in a post-and-beam wooden structure with a central court yard.  I'm happy to have that pretty well figured out, finally.

And, tents, you may ask, why tents?  Because when you have a bunch of newbie firestarters, you don't want them practicing in a town of wooden buildings and risk burning down the whole place.  So they practice far away from town, in a small training camp with large sleeping and dining tents.  I knew the heroine's people had canvas tents, but I knew they weren't cotton, because cotton came from the new world... so what were the tents made of?  Come to find out it was hemp canvas, just like sailing ship's sails were made of.  Cool!  :-)

Why glass? Because I really want windows.  And given I have firestarters, I've decided that I can have glass, too.

The next thing to research is a point that Chris brought up... why in the world is the hero back at the castle instead out on campaign or at his own estate?  Going to have to research military stuff for a bit to figure that one out.

I guess the good news is that I'll have plenty of fodder for the "Researching" class I'm teaching in a couple weeks.  :-)

I got back from the conference two weekends ago, determined to clean up my office.  But before I could do that, I had to finish the drywall in the corner.  Last Friday, I finally finished and painted the drywall.  So this week has been spent attacking everything else.

Before:

After:

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Which, to me, is made even more impressive by the fact that the clean desk also meant catching up all my finances in the computer and putting everything on the desk away or filing it where it belonged.

I feel very accomplished.

I got back from my long weekend away, turned on my computer and the fan again started making the nasty noise.  I thought I'd fixed it, but obviously not.  Oh, joy.

I pulled the computer out of its little cubby, took the blasted computer apart, and discovered it wasn't the fan I thought... it was the power supply's fan.  So I took the power supply apart, hoping I could just replace the fan, but the connections are soldered in.

The good news is that I know enough to do this, although I've never done it before.  Also, TigerDirect (now CompUSA) is only 7 miles away, a new power supply was in stock, on the shelf, and only $35.  And it only took me 5 minutes to put the new power supply back in.

I got everything back together and working fine, but I since I was down on my hands-and-knees putting the computer back, I saw how dirty it was under my desk.  So the next accomplishment was to pull out everything under my desk, wash the floor and the floor mat, and put everything back.

It's not what I'd planned to accomplish this morning, but I wasn't lazy.  Now off to lunch with a writer friend, then we'll see what this afternoon brings, since it's becoming aparent that my plans have no influence on the Universe's plans for me.

Turned on my desktop computer yesterday morning, and it began making noises that computers should not make.  Fearful of disk failure, I shut it off and called my boss and told him I'd probably be offline for the day.

Grateful that I have the knowledge and skills to diagnose the problem rather than having to take it someplace and wait, I dropped kid at school, came home and took the computer apart.

Luckily it was just one of the fans making the bad noise and not one of the disk drives.  But I tested out the drives, and then backed them up, which isn't a quick process when you're talking 1T of drive space.

So, I was down all day, but it didn't cost be anything other than lost wages, which is enough... but it could have been a lot worse, so I'll try to not complain.

I was checking today how long it's been that I've been working on Sarah's story (on and off, of course)... to discover that I put the first of the submissions to editors and agents in the mail on Sarah's fourth birthday... the exact day.  Weird!  :-) 

I won't go into detail about what a wild ride these last four years have been, or all the lessons I learned while writing Sarah's story, other than saying "wow!" 

Happy belated birthday, Sarah. 

Now if I could only get you to Shut Up! life would be a little simpler... but you're staying true to form, and the next story is likely to be just as wild a ride as the first.  :-)

A couple weeks ago I was talking to myself (something that I regularly do, having only teenage boys in the house) and told myself that it's going on eight years that I've been divorced and it sure would be nice to have somebody in my life.  Myself replies that before I go looking for somebody I need to fix "X", because even if I found somebody today, I wouldn't want them if they are willing to accept "X" as it stands.  I agreed with myself, that I indeed need to fix "X" before I go looking for somebody.  But since I'm not particularly interested in fixing "X", I put the topic aside and think no further on it.

This weekend a character pops up and starts demanding: "write my book, write my book".  I tell the character to shut up, because there are about 10 books in the queue before I can even think about a new book.  Said character quickly acquires a sidekick, and instead of shutting up, they demand even louder: "write our book, write our book". 

Being very unhappy about the added chaos in my head, I grouse about it to a good friend who knows about "X" and who's also a writer.  The friend replies, "you know... writing their book would go a really long ways toward fixing 'X'."

Fudge!  Good, bad or otherwise, writing the book would indeed fix a lot of "X", plus further analysis reveals their book ends up needing to be written before several other books on the list, as events in this book impinge on events in the other books.

Fudge!  **sighing in resignation**

At least the smug little bastards have shut up now that they know I have to write their blasted book.  **grumble, grumble**

Yesterday, I put the snail-mail submission package in the mail... which was an experience given that the clerk at the post office hadn't done an international return coupon in a long while.  At one point they had three gals working on trying to figure out what had to be done for one.  :-)  But it's off.

And today, I sent off two queries.

The hurry-up-and-wait submission process is underway.

But the even bigger news is that yesterday I cleaned off my desk.  :-)  I know it doesn't sound like much, but believe me, it's major.  :-)

Jara's story is still cogitating in the ether, while I try and get caught up with stuff around here.  Now that Sarah is off, Jane is starting to pester me.  Which is good, as hers is the next book that I "should" be writing.  But since I rarely listen to "shoulds", I'll not push her faster than she wants to be pushed.

So, today is work on paying work that I should have been doing yesterday, but I broke the website and need to try and figure out "why" when there aren't any people on it.  Plus a ton of stuff to do around the house.  Never a dull moment.  :-)

Good, bad, or otherwise, the cover letters, blurb and synopsis are declared done, and the first three chapters were given another copy-edit and declared good enough.

And... three submission packages have been emailed, and the final one is printed and in an envelope on my desk.

Sarah is done... for the moment.

Kind of a scary thought.  She's been my constant companion for several years now.  It'll be interesting to see if Jane is as good a friend.

I'm trying to get the submission packages ready, and it's driving me buggy.  And to make it all worse, I clicked on a copy of the manuscript that I submitted a couple years and several versions ago, and suddenly I was full of angst.  OMG, is the old one better?  Did I screw it up by trying to fix it?  Should I go back to this old version, or maybe one of the other versions is better, or some combination?  What should I do?  What should I do?

Well, what I really need to do is take a deep breath and hit the send button.

But not until tomorrow.  I need one gal to take a 2nd look at the synopsis and cover letter.

However, I do promise to not touch the manuscript itself.

The submission process isn't any fun at all.  :-(

This morning, when I had paying things to be doing, I ended up writing down blurbs for two maybe-someday stories based on all the Láadan work I've been doing lately (http://laadanlanguage.org/pages/).  I don't have much new on the Láadan site, but tons of backend stuff is getting done and the topic is on my mind pretty much constantly lately.

*** Book #1 **************
Mackinac Island, with its summertime population of thousands but a wintertime population of barely 500, seemed the perfect contained location for a social engineering experiment to test how language affects a people.

Now, a generation later, rumors abound that behind the gaudy exterior of fudge and tourists, the worst kind of cult has arisen.

Reporter Dan Argosy is determined to discover the truth.  Armed with a false background and hidden cameras, he braves the snow-swept island.

Will he find the horror he excepts, or an unexpected love?

*** Book #2 **************
Five years ago Connie Argosy's son, Dan, left to investigate the rumored cult that lay hidden behind Mackinac Island's cheery exterior of fudge and tourists, and never returned.  He claimed he found love and happiness, but Connie knows better.

Now, Dan is dead, the result of a supposed boating accident, and Connie is determined to rescue her grandchildren.

Carrying papers demanding custody of the children, and with expensive lawyers only a call away, Connie braves the cold winds of the Mackinaw Straits.

Will she find the depravity she expects, or a place of comfort unlike any she has ever known?
************************* Read more