A Twist of Things to Come

Elementary is a thing.

*headdesk*

It's not as if there aren't half a dozen characters on American television who are already 3/4 Sherlock Holmes. And this one is to be written by the brain trust responsible for Medium.

*sticks fingers in ears and hums*

*breathes into paper bag*




That helped a little.

Be warned, the cut is image- heavy! ( It's 100 years old, but very... inspiring )

I will have to photograph the Hobo Dungeon later. ;)

I've been working and writing and working, and driving to visit family and driving to work.

Oh, yeah. Also moving. Sort of. We rented a place just before Christmas, and came back from visiting my family to move in. Mostly we've been fixing things and getting utilities turned on and such. The landlord has had the carpets cleaned, so we didn't move any real furniture in today. I cleaned shelves and windows and baseboards, hung a shower curtain, put frosted plastic decals on the bathroom windows in place of the awful lace curtains.

Basically, the house is 100 years old, with an addition in the 80s and some remnants from a redecoration in the 70s, I reckon. I bet it's haunted. After living in cookie-cutter neighborhoods for so long, though, I LOVE this house. It has nooks and crannies and weird little cupboards under stairs that don't go anywhere but the attic. There is a stained glass window and an honest-to-god mechanical doorbell.

The electric, plumbing and windows are all modern. It's well-insulated, too. The best part is that we've rented it for the same rent as a tiny two bedroom apartment was going to cost us. Plus, we didn't have to sign a lease and the landlord cuts the grass.

Also, we won't be changing school districts in teh middle of the year. :) It's just off the main street of this small town, so walking distance to cool shops and restaurants. Also walking distance to a park and the lake, both with bike trails. The library is across the street. It also faces the train tracks that run through the median between the roads downtown, BUT the house is so old and well-built, it really isn't an issue with the windows closed. I was amazed, but we could talk normally with a train going by 50 feet away.

I will post pictures. Honestly, it is perfect. I could write stories about how creepy and cool this place is, and probably will.

There hasn't been enough work to make my hours this week, so it is actually a good time to move. The workflow will pick up next week, probably meaning overtime again.

***

I'm on chapter 23 of the re-write of Form and Void, which is now at about 300 pages and all that remains is the final act, once this chapter is over.

***

He said we'd have a place by Christmas, and we did (at least put the deposits and all down before we left for Christmas). So there we go. My husband is magic. ;)

To elipticcurve, nerowill (same day as my sister!), gypsy_dreamer, lotusice, and celestial_diary!!!

Even though I suck at keeping up with this journal lately, you all ROCK, and i hope you had wonderful birthdays! Now for the traditional Angry Cat Greeting:




My sincere apologies to you and to anyone I may have missed. Life has been crazy, but I do still take time to keep up with you guys, even though I have not posted myself.

Happy Holidays!!!

Hope it is/has been absolutely glorious!

I worked about three hours overtime, which, added to the other few I worked earlier in the week, means I only have to work 7.5 tomorrow and 5.5 hours on Saturday (those are regularly scheduled hours) to have my 46 hour work week in.

AND I wrote my 1000 ^$#@!! words.

AND!!! I did it all after having my eyes dilated. That's right! I saw my eye doctor for the first time in over two years. He didn't even bother trying to update my prescription because, as I suspected, my left lens implant has grown a rather healthy coating of goo. Here is an explanation of the procedure I need. I will be going in for it in November. The right eye was done about three years ago, so after this, that will be it.

It's been tough, because my left eye is my dominant eye, so the clouded capsule has made it much harder to see than when my right one clouded over. Well, it'll be done soon. The last surgery cost me $500.00 after insurance, but they let you pay it off on installments, so that shouldn't put too big a dent in the budget.

Three weeks after that, they will do the follow up exam and glasses exam at the same time.

***

Oh, and if any of you are in the Atlanta area on teh 29th, there is going to be a crazy fun party here. With costumes and such. Fun, fun.

I'm looking for a book about fiction writing. Yeah, there are bazillions of them, I know. The problem is not finding one, but finding the one I need. Most are all about the basics. I've read plenty, and they have become redundant. Passive voice, blah, blah, blah.

They're all a bit... same-y. I need one that deals with certain specific issues of fiction/novel writing, that don't seem to be high on the list of priorities for the how-to books. Here are some the things I need to learn about:

The nuts and bolts of narrative structure

Information control/ narrative tension

Tools for organizing ideas (outlines, cause and effect)

Other intermediate crap I don't know about yet

I found a Writer's Digest some time back, with an article about "Building a Novel." I thought it might have some insight into narrative structure, but it was actually a frigging useless extended metaphor. (A novel is like a house. The plot is like the frame, etc. I wanted to hunt down the author and beat him.)

I think what I really need is to be in a writing group with people who are much better than I am. Which, DUH. I just can't figure out how to get there, or what possible value-add I would bring to the table to make them want me.

*thinks*

I bake. Do you know anybody who would teach me to write for a steady supply of cookies?

*headdesk*

F@!*ing Hell.

***

But, seriously, I would settle some book recs. Surely there must be some path to continued improvement that doesn't involve me reinventing the wheel. People HAVE to have figured these details out before. I want to know what they know -- at least the portion of it that I don't already know.

Any suggestions?

The traditional Angry Cat greeting, and my heart-felt wishes for an awesome year!

Is what my truck has. At some random point in the future, it's going to stop working, and we won't know until we try to use it. :P So we're considering replacing the engine, or else buying a reliable used vehicle to replace it. This means the hubby doing research, and me trying to focus on the minutiae of this option vs. that option and yadda, yadda.

My brain tries to shut itself down rather than absorb this kind of information. It's kind of funny to see how amazingly reliable talk of car parts and features is as a soporific. Oi.

***

One of the other temps who started when I did was made a real employee today. O_O They said it could be a few weeks more for the rest of us, depending on how many hours were on our contacts and such. But it has made us all slightly suspicious.

I did get my first report card at work, though. Apparently, I exceed expectations. I do auditing at 150% of expectancy and bank auditing at 100% of expectancy. And they are about to get slammed with bank stuff, so they need me. :P They want me to work 5 hours overtime this week (which means they will be paying the temp agency through the NOSE for my time) so they must be desperate.

Next week I get to change my work schedule to be in the office two days a week and the rest at home. That will be fun, and save money on gas.

***

I've been listening to Cabin Pressure on my commute, and am finding it quite enjoyable.