Okay, I really am going to work on my synopsis very, very soon, but I felt it would be irresponsible to pass up the opportunity to talk up the Australian National Public Toilet Map. That is, a conveniently searchable, browsable database for “Locating public toilet facilities in cities, towns, rural areas, and along major travel routes.” There’s even a trip planner function, so you can make sure your stops will be near appropriate facilities.

I mean really, how cool is that?

And it’s not fair! As a very insightful friend pointed out, the Aussies already have kangaroos, koalas, and amazing accents. And now a national public toilet map online? It never ends!

I’ve been thinking and talking about various aspects of decisions and commitment and expectations and guilt with several people today, and I’ve been reminded of one of my favorite quotes, by a woman named Anne Morriss, though I know nothing else about her:

The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating – in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life.

I have found it, so often, to be true.

I’ve made a decision about The Day Job.

It’s a big decision, because it’s confirming my intentions and solidifying how I use my time. Matt’s going to keep me accountable.

It will be hard, but good.

I find myself becoming friends with more and more people who wait for book releases like “normal” people wait for movies to come out. It gives me a giggle every time I think about it, because I think it’s fabulous. Tho, on a side note, I’m definitely looking forward to May 2, when Made of Honor comes out. But that’s not the point. The point is books!

It’s been a while since I talked about books here, and since I have managed to amass a whole shelf’s worth of books I’m waiting to read, I thought it might be time to list them out and get on with the actual reading of a few of them.

I spent a large part of my day today at the University of Denver’s library and the Tattered Cover, so I’ll start with my most recent acquisitions. The first three are purchases (I’ve been saving my money for these) and the other four are library books:

• Natural Born Charmer - I know, Aubrey, this isn’t one of your favorites, but it was my first Susan Elizabeth Phillips read, and I love it despite its flaws. A contemporary romance, for those of you who aren’t familiar with SEP.
• One Foot In The Grave – Jeaniene Frost’s sequel to Halfway To The Grave; a vampire romance. I’m not allowed to read this until I’m done with all my school work for the term, because I will get nothing else done while I’m reading.
• Ink Exchange – sequel to Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely, which was one of the best books I read all last year. Another that I can’t read until schoolwork is done.
• Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt by Lionel Casson – less than 150 pages, and the bits I read at the library were easy to follow and read rather quickly, which is very nice. My novel doesn’t have Egyptian-types in it directly, but I’m particularly interested in the chapter on ancient methods of travel and I like Egypt stuff, so I grabbed it.
• Other Worlds: The Fantasy Genre by John H Timmerman – I considered saving this for next term’s critical theory book, but it’s hardly 100 pages and extremely easy to read, so I thought I might as well go through it now. I’ve got another lined up for next term, anyway. Looks good, and will hopefully support my reading in From Homer to Harry Potter from a non-Christian scholar’s point of view, which would be great.
• A Better Country: The Worlds of Religious Fantasy and Science Fiction by Martha C. Sammons – this one’s my required thoery text for this term, and I chose it particularly because of its focus on religious fiction and its portrayal of fantastic worlds as parallel to paradise/heaven. This one is more scholarly, and I have a feeling I should dedicate myself to reading a chapter every day or two to process it well enough to really get any good out of it. But I’m not regretting my choice now that it’s in my hands.
• The Lebanon and Phoenicia by John Pairman Brown – I’ll admit that this choice is a bit out there when one takes into account all the other things I need and really want to read, but this has some great info about ancient Phoenicia, which is much closer to my novel’s setting, so I couldn’t resist pick it up, too. I very much doubt I’ll read all of it… in fact, I might not get to read much of it at all, but I just couldn’t pass it up.

So those are the latest acquisitions. I also have to read David Eddings’ Pawn of Prophecy and re-read (and pay attention to details of) Carol Berg’s Breath and Bone for school. In addition, I have the stack on my shelf that I have borrowed from the library and/or friends but haven’t read yet. Some highlights:

• The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett – borrowed from friends, along with the second one, and I still haven’t read it. Argh.
• Acacia by David Anthony Durham – part of the fantasy challenge Shara tossed out back in January, and no, I haven’t read a single one of them yet, drat it all.
• Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb – I finally saw this on the shelf at the library (rather than having to request it) and snatched it up because I’ve been meaning to read it for years. We shall see.

There are also two historical romances, a trilogy of inspirational romance recommended by a friend, and Lies of Locke Lamora, which I need to read before the June residency.

And right now I’m reading Archangel by Sharon Shinn, and loving it – it’s the first of five, I believe, and I don’t know when I’ll get to the rest, but this one’s fascinating and extremely well-done. Not that I’m surprised, having been a fan of Ms. Shinn’s for several years now. It reads like a fantasy, though I strongly suspect that it’s a science fantasy, not unlike Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books, but dealing with different issues. Really amazing thus far, but I’m only a little more than halfway through.

So that’s what’s on my reading shelf at the moment, and now it’s time for me to get back to reading some of these. . . .

It’s snowing pretty hard outside, and I don’t want to work on my synopsis. I do have reading that needs to get done, but I’d really like to curl up on this very comfy coffee house couch by the fire and fall asleep.

I’m picking up extra hours at work this week until they get a chance to hire a new Thursday-Friday person, and I forgot how quiet Fridays are around here. Luckily, I have other work to keep me occupied.

Of course, now I’m wondering if my first 20 pages is quite enough to pull the reader into the story… from the perspective of an epic fantasy, there’s at least a little bit of leeway there because readers expect the main conflict to develop over time, which translates to a bit more than 20 manuscript pages, but right now I’m thinking in terms of this contest. So I’m fiddling a bit with exactly how to present things.

Having worked for the last two days on the 20 pages, I think I might turn to the synopsis this afternoon and start updating and expanding that.

And then there’s a potluck at our house tonight, for which I’m making my famous strawberry shortcake. And as a special twist, I’m going to be making it lactose-free. We’ll see how that goes.

For those of you who were wishing I’d post a picture from my recent trip to Ohio, here’s one of my favorites, with my nephew William:

So the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers (a lovely organization of which I am a member) runs a contest every year in conjunction with their annual conference. $25 entry, first 20 pages of a manuscript plus an 8-page synopsis – entries open now through June 2. Despite the fact that I’m feeling slightly weenie-ish about entering, I think it will be worthwhile – the top six scoring entries in each genre will get into the hands of an agent or editor who will choose the category winners, and that sort of thing isn’t worth passing up.

Which means that after I write my journal entry for the required text I finished reading two days ago, I’m going to pull out the first two chapters of my novel and start with the polishing (and filling one major pothole).

My tidying this afternoon turned into a wholesale spring cleaning after Matt got home from class. I have a niggling feeling that there are some things still in the office closet that should have been taken out and gotten rid of or rearranged or something like that, but all things considered I’m extremely happy. I’ve got one medium-sized box of things–non-urgent mail, magazines, and other various things that have been hanging about the apartment (like the candy from my Christmas stocking)–that I’ll need to go through tomorrow, but otherwise everything has been cleaned and cleaned out.

Two weeks’ worth of laundry is done AND all put away, which verges on the miraculous all by itself. We also took out about six bags of trash and have three good sized bags, mostly of clothes, to take to Goodwill. The new shelves and TV cabinet have opened up a huge amount of space, so we’ve turned the old TV stand into a dining room buffet-type thing (it makes sense, I promise), which means we have more space in the kitchen cabinets and the pantry. Let the world rejoice. Okay, maybe not the world, but certainly this household.

I’ll tackle the box in the morning before my lunch meeting, then come home and spend some quality time with that novel I’m supposed to be writing. This was a great day for that “tangible evidence of accomplishment” I get so hung up on.

On some levels it’s nice to know that despite enforcing a spending hiatus during March and almost all of April, I haven’t lost the knack for tossing away large sums of money in one afternoon. Today’s spending wasn’t even frivolous – I browsed through two shoe stores AND my favorite bookstore and left all three places without having drawn my wallet. Shock! Okay, I’ll be honest – I went to the bookstore to see whether one or more of the books I’m waiting for had been shelved yet, even though their official release dates are all on the 29th. If any of the three had been there, I would have bought them. But alas, they weren’t, so I didn’t buy anything.

No, the $350 I spent today went toward one tank of gas, one car wash, one pair of shoes (to replace Matt’s pair that is sporting multiple holes), and one trip to Sam’s Club. Granted, several items at Sam’s are things we don’t have to stock up on often – like the box of 10 reams of printer paper. But it’s amazing how fast the tally adds up.

Also of note: I am now convinced that today, April 21, 2008, is National Bulk Toilet Paper Buying Day. I saw more people with super-giganto packages of toilet paper in their carts than I ever have before. Luckily, I was there to buy some too, so I didn’t miss out on the opportunity to honor this venerable holiday.

My schedule for this afternoon will continue with the happy trend of domesticity, including finishing the laundry I started last week (and doing this week’s too) and cleaning up the nuclear waste dump that used to be our living and dining room. If that doesn’t kill me, I’ll move on to the office and maybe, just maybe, the kitchen.