Carnival of Harlequin, Joan Miro

So, today’s post is by my very good friend who shall remain nameless, guest posting incognito, who discovered that starting up her new iMac meant more than plugging it into the wall and hitting the ON button. There were issues…

ISSUE NUMBER 01:  The Mac power cable is only about 6 feet long which was about 2 feet shorter than how I wanted to configure it.  So I went to Target, fought my way through their parking lot, hunted down their surge protector power bars (why it needed to be next to shampoo, I’m still puzzling over), and, between the two models they had, chose the one with the 6 foot power cable, because You Never Know.  Fought my way out of the parking lot and went home.  Hooked everything up.  Took me 30 minutes to find the iMac ON button; okay, I had to resort to the manual as everything on the computer is designed to be transparent visually and tactilely.  And it didn’t turn on.  Brief meltdown while I thought that I had to repack the computer and get it to the Apple store.  Since I bought the power bar model without the ON button and light, I hooked up Boeing PC and it didn’t turn on either.  Time out for some cussing.  I returned to Target, fought my way through the parking lot, after a brief skirmish with someone unhelpful nabbed a 2 foot bus with light and ON switch, took it to Returns and made the clerk test it although she wouldn’t till the exchange was made, fought my way out of the parking lot and returned home.  iMac powered on immediately and joyously took me through a few profiling procedures, and then we arrived at the next snag.

ISSUE NUMBER 02:  A video screen appeared and showed an unflattering video of a woman who had ‘tired from Fantasy Con and November Novel’ bags under her eyes, hair in all directions from trying to tear it out over the power bus, and a wild look in her eyes from skirmishing with Target personnel and bad parking lot drivers.  Took me a minute before I realized it was Me.  Then iMac told me brightly it wanted to take my picture.  After four very bad takes, I allowed it to take a picture of the back of my head and we were finished.

Other than these two major issues, the installation was a breeze.

A Pompeian Beauty, Raffaele Giannetti

Doing the Nano two-step with a jig or two in between. It’s early days yet, but I’ve passed the 8,000 word count mark.

Have decided to send out Auno’s Widow again to a new market since I’ve not heard at all from the last place, and it’s been many months since it winged its way through cyberspace.

I think that room outshines her!

Just a quickie post, as I’ve got to get to the writing. Back from the World Fantasy Convention in San Jose–it was fabulous. The panels were excellent. I took many notes and walked out of each one with much food for thought. I got to speak to Chelsea Quinn Yarbro who writes the Saint-Germain vampire series and she kindly autographed my copy of A Dangerous Climate. I was so delighted to see her I couldn’t raise my voice above a whisper! I attended a panel where Ellen Kushner was one of the speakers, but I had not brought my hardback copy of Swordspoint, unfortunately. It was great to put faces to the names of the movers, shakers, and lights of the fantasy genre–Ellen Datlow, Ellen Kushner, Peter Straub, Michael Swanwick, Anne and Jeff VanderMeer, Guy Gavriel Kay (whose intricate historical fantasies are wonderful reads), Jane Lindskold, Tim Powers, and so many others. I’ll post a bit more later, and I’ve got a couple photos too.

San Jose is a charming city with a more artistic than business air about it, and Michelle and I had fun getting slightly lost in the streets while looking for this or that restaurant, but everything was relatively close so it was just a matter of turning in the right direction–a bit of a problem for the direction dyslexic.

Congratulations to the winners of the World Fantasy Award.

Today is Day 2 of Nano, and the last day of my vacation, and I’ve got to get busy with the November novel–soon as I have another cup of coffee and rustle up some sort of breakfast.

Day 1 count: 2,059.

The Green Lizard, Charles Perugini

One day to go! I’m mostly packed, must print my boarding pass tonight, set up Levi’s food and water, and oh yeah, get directions to the overnight parking lot ’cause I’m leaving Junior there–usually I take a shuttle to the airport but since I’m leaving from Long Beach’s, my little Yaris can wait for me to come home. For some reason, I don’t mind leaving the car at LB’s airport but I won’t leave it at LAX’s overnight parking.

Spent the past couple days editing A HAUNTING OF ROSES and getting it ready for fresh writing in December–that’s going to be my end of the year project after NaNo. I’ve got 2010 partially planned out, already thinking about the GDR’s for next year.

Yesterday the winds gusted strongly through the Westside, sending rough billows through the building garage, strong enough to ruffle and buffle the potted palms.

Five days, zombie run free–yay!!  Hope the weather’s nice in San Jose.

Knave of Hearts, Maxwell Parrish

Short time for me at work this week! Vacation–going to the World Fantasy Convention in San Jose, so looking forward to that. It’s been many years since I last went to one. Three more days and I’m winging my way to San Jose. Michelle’s coming with. It’s going to be fun celebrating Edgar Allan Poe’s 200th birthday!

Yesterday, on a visit to Office Depot, found a dvd of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, and watched it last night for the 3rd or 4th time. It’s got one of the best horror movie endings in the history of horror movie endings. Definitely tops my list of favorite horror films. That movie makes me tense no matter that I’ve viewed it at least 3 times before. Its mood, setting, the savage vampires, the heroic sheriff of the snowbound Alaska town caged in night for 30 days, and the nihilistic crucible in which the people are trapped waiting for the sun to rise again makes it impossible to watch without a chill in the gut.

Let’s see, what are my favorite horror films, in no particular order:

30 DAYS OF NIGHT

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN

ALIEN

ALIENS

THE SIXTH SENSE

STIR OF ECHOES

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE

BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA

And that’s it so far. Oh yeah–I hate zombie films and will not watch them. Don’t read zombie books either. I’m fond of the undead, not the walking dead.

Met with Janet yesterday for our monthly lunch, brainstormed a short story that she’s trying to write about one of her book characters. Her latest novel is out from Whiskey Creek Press–Wanted: True Love, a humorous tale about a young witch searching for true love with no luck thanks to an amorous, dastardly warlock who placed a curse on her.

I’ve got my NaNo novel idea sketched in story notes. Created a journal for it yesterday–I like to give all my novels their own journal–and I always pick a particular artist or artistic movement to use to ornament the entries. For Castle in the Air, I’m using Maxwell Parrish’s paintings. While I wait for November, I’m back at work on A Lamentation of Swans. Sweet Taboo is in a holding pattern somewhere in the creative ether. I’m so close to the end, but can’t find the words to get me there.

Judging by the luminous fall of light through the window, looks like it’s going to be a beautifully sunny day, but don’t know if I’ll make it outside at all today. I’m weeding my overgrown garden of manuscripts and story files stuffed in copy paper boxes. I really wish I’d stop creating duplicate, triplicate, quadruplicate versions of everything!

The Afterglow in Egypt, William Holman Hunt

Can’t bring myself to look at Loose Daddy. That poor novel has been languishing for months–completed, final, done, and still I can’t do the final read-through so I can compose the synopsis. I’m afraid of my own words. I’m afraid I’ll only see the flaws, i.e., the flaws I create, discreditng all my effort.

Too much to do writing-wise in this final quarter of the year so Loose Daddy will have to wait until 2010.

Meanwhile, I’m preparing for NANO. Castle in the Air is the working title for this year’s November Novel.

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery – when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

This is fantastic…and it’s all about a watch!