Yes, yes, I'm leaving soon

But I just HAD to check Evil Eidtor. Come on - are you reading it? He's hilarious. From today's blog:

<<...the only credits that might have an effect are, My previous book sold 100,000 copies, or My article, "How to Murder People Who Disappoint You, and Get Away With It," appeared in last month's Soldier of Fortune.>>

Good stuff. OK. leaving now. well, soon. one more sip of coffee. still need to pack up toiletries. ETD 8AM.

Evil Editor takes on a Quebec Separatist Plot

I am addicted to Evil Editor. He makes fun of people's query letters for their novels and then posts a revised version. Maybe you have to be in the process to appreciate it, but I think he's hilarious. His blog today includes a query for a book about Canadian civil war.

Why do I have so much free time to browse the Internet at my leisure?
a) because I've finished all my freelance work
b) because my book is done
c) because my world will stop spinning without Miss Snark and Evil Editor
d) because I'm supposed to be packing and I'm avoiding it

Those of you familiar with our main character Karen know that the answer is d, although c is also acceptable.

Packing. Again. This story is getting old - I know.

This time I'll be in Plainfield for 3 weeks, then it's back to Parrot Island officially. It isn't easy leaving E this time and it's going to be incredibly difficult to leave the 'trattons. I can't think about it, not sure how I'm going to do it.

For now, procrastination....

Scam Agents

As if it's not hard enough to write a book, then you have to be careful not to end up with someone listed on the Writers Beware 20 Worst Agencies List like Barbara Bauer who managed to cause the Absolute Write Site to be shut down.

Doing lots of freelance work, little book work, but money is coming in. The last thing I need to worry about is scam agents. grrrrr. Bad, bad people.

No, I have not abandoned the book writing 'thing'

However, I am broke and I do need to earn some money doing freelance corporate writing right now. I have work lined up solidly through the end of August, and I'm incredibly, ridiculously busy from now until June 30 with a big contract. Freelancing is supposed to be feast or famine so right now I'm feasting. I blocked off most of September for vacation - 1 week with E and 2 weeks to drive to OH and then IL for the Midwest Lit Fest.

My original plan was to take a year off to write a book and I did that. The book isn't quite ready to be sent out but it is in good enough condition that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Did I plan on the whole E/move back to Mtl thing? No. Do I feel incredibly lucky about the whole E situation? Yes : ) Once I figure out how to balance freelance feast/famine with bookwriting progress I will be 100% on track career-wise. As for personal-life wise, I'm happy, sooo happy : ) : )

The only (BIG) downside is living so far from the Strattons again. That's why I'm blocking time off for long visits. Lack of family-visit vacation time was one of my major complaints when I was a 9-5'er, so if I don't solve that problem when I'm my own boss, then I'm really not ahead of the game, am I?

It's a holiday in Canada: Victoria Day, but my boss says I have so much work to get done between now and June 30 that I better do some of it today. There will be nicer days to take off later.

: )

Internet for Hire?

If I'm understanding the situation correctly, there's a possibility that corporations will be able to pay to have some sort of control over how we find sites on the Internet. I'm not sure I understand how it's possible, but it sounds bad. Go here to get the scoop and sign the petititon. Moveon.org is in line with my political views so I tend to trust them.

Helping E Appreciate the Fine Art of Slacking

Spent the weekend at E's cottage 'up north'. We already live further north than any of my friends or family, but we went further 'up north' to relax. Thanks to the rain and bugs there was nothing to do but lounge around reading and watching movies.

I was concerned about E's ability to take advantage of the slacker opportunity when he put rain boots on Saturday morning to go retrieve his dock that had floated away. He redeemed himself by sleeping all afternoon and helping me make dinner by telling me to 'put on my boots, go outside under the deck and turn on the tank' in order to use the gas stove. I did it even though a true slacker would have just made popcorn instead of cooking a meal. My thai beef pasta was delicious, BTW.

Apart from an unfortunate hornet sting incident, the weekend was perfect. I did some work on my book, read a few chapters in Villette and de-stressed.

On a side note: if Wolverine were bitten by a hornet do you think he would complain? I'm pretty sure he WOULD because it really freakin' hurts.

Another side note: got my new monitor and printer set up. Nice.

Fun While it Lasted

I now have more freelance work than I know what to do with. I'm sitting in a bicycling outfit waiting for my turn on e's road bike, trying to muster the enegy to walk to the dep (Montrealspeak for convenience store) to buy milk, avoiding the extra work I need to do tonight, also avoiding the additional LCD monitor research I have to do and not-so-secretly wishing I could just curl up with Villette.

The book? My book? Zero progress. None. Nada. All blame belongs to me. I suck at balancing more than one thing at a time. I never could juggle. I'm so tired and cranky that I shouldn't have too many friends or people wanting to work with me for much longer so my free time might open up again.

Off to get milk because we know that having no milk for my morning coffee gets extremely ugly.

definitely bookless....

Energy levels

I do not consider myself to be a lazy person. I work, I work out, I take the stairs instead of the elevator. I almost never laze in front of the television. In general, I usually feel like I accomplish a decent amount every day.

That being said, I cannot keep up with e. In the time it took me to make coffee and read Evil Editor, he installed an FM transmittor on the laptop in the kitchen so we can play music on speakers in the living room and the porch, and then he carried in the pieces (IKEA) of the second book shelf for my office. As he lugged the pieces up the stairs, I was sitting in my office sipping coffee.

I am not done with my 'downtime' but I feel a little guilty while he runs around work-work-working. He's even humming a happy tune. This is completely foreign behavior to me. He claims he isn't annoyed by my need for a little more 'downtime' but I am suspicious, happy tune notwithstanding.

Ok, I have to at least go clear space for this book shelf. My coffee will definitely get cold in the process. Must find a balance here....

Going for the Green

I've had to spend the last couple of days chasing down freelance work. boooo. That means little to no book writing is getting done. I have some time this morning, but unfortunately I have to prepare a quote and see if I packed more than one pair of presentable pants. Hopefully after this afternoon, this project will be able to be done off-site.

I'm wasting all my post-conference motivation. :(

On the plus side, it looks like some green will be coming my way so at least I can afford a faster printer and some ink. :)