Public Service Announcement:

I’m going dark this week in an effort to facilitate the finishing of my manuscript. I won’t be chatting at all… I’m actually thinking of taking that icon off my dock for the week so I’m not even tempted during my breaks.

I’ll probably keep up with my LJ friends list and the blogs I usually frequent, and I’ll check email a few times a day, but not all that often. If there’s something urgent I’m sure you’ll find a way to let me know about it.

Shiloh will probably find a way to post something almost every day for your entertainment in the meanwhile.

But while I’m writing, the airport will be disabled. And there will be a lot of writing this week.

You’ve been warned.

Hi guys. Shiloh here again. I know I didn’t put anything up over the weekend, but Matt and I were helping our friends move into their new house and I was a little bit busy playing in their big back yard and exploring under their deck. You know how it is.

A few months ago, Betsy put up a video of me chasing my tail. Although I can appreciate my youthful enthusiasm there, I’d like everyone to know that I have since refined my tail-chasing technique:

Okay, so maybe I haven’t progressed as much as I might like. That pesky back leg keeps getting in my way.

Here comes Betsy, ready for a day of writing, so that means it’s time for another nap!

Here’s the updated list:

Deadline: 4.5 days
Books to read: 3 (I’m halfway done with two of them, though)
Book journals to write: 3
Pages to write: 23
8-Page Synopsis: Done
Days at the Day Job: 2
Girls’ Night: Done
Trip to the Zoo: Done

I woke up at 4am last night, wide awake with the words for a scene I figured out yesterday afternoon just running through my head. After 15 minutes of thinking I should go back to sleep, I was no less wakeful, so I came to the office and worked for an hour and a half. I think it’s good stuff. Great stuff, though I still have a bit of work to do before the scene is done.

Then I went back to bed and slept in a bit, which has thrown off my whole schedule. But it’s worth it to get that scene right. Today I’ll finish that scene and keep moving, ad tonight I’ll get back to focusing on finishing those required books.

So far, working standing up is going surprisingly well.

I’m beginning to get worried about the lack of panic, actually. Odd, I know. But I have a Plan For The Day that involves getting panic-inducing things done and out of the way, so maybe I won’t hit the threshold this time around. We shall see.

Also, I’m trying out my brother’s latest Amazingly Fabulous Scheme, which is working at a stand-up desk. It allegedly helps with productivity, reduces fatigue, and generally makes you a very cool person. I’m going to be standing most of the day today, with intermittent stints on my stool because my muscles really aren’t used to standing for all that long at a stretch. I’m experimenting with the stand-up work with a folding table I used to use for Pampered Chef parties, and I didn’t realize until last night that the dog has never seen it unfold. She was properly freaked.

Lately, we’ve been seeing a lot of rottweiler in her movements and expressions, but apparently she didn’t get their ferocity. This is the dog hiding under Matt’s desk, cowering in fear of my table:

Do you ever sit down for a day at work and wish with everything in you that you could be doing something else? Do you ever feel like you’ve hit a long, slow uphill and even though you know you need to get to the top, you’re starting to wonder if the hill ever ends?

One of my writer friends was talking the other day about some of the ways being a writer is different from being a rock star. You know, rock stars pretty much always get private jets and enough money to buy a house or seven, and people stop them in public and ask for autographs. All of that is pretty much not a part of the writer’s life–unless you’re someone like J. K. Rowling, and let’s face it: when you’ve got more money than Britain’s royal family, it’s like being named an honorary rock star.

But one of the biggest differences is that rock stars get instant feedback on their work. Fantastic guitar solo? The crowd goes wild! Opening bars of a fan favorite song? Crazy screaming and whistling! I’ve gotta tell you, nobody over at my local coffee haunts has ever jumped up and cheered when I typed the period on a particularly fine bit of timeless prose.

And sometimes that lack really screws with my mind. Not that I want crowds of cheering people following me around, per se, but it’s amazing how a little bit of encouragement fuels my desire to jump back in and keep moving up this hill.

I woke up this morning knowing full well that I needed to write. Really, it would be ideal if I could punch out 25 pages today. And here it is, 11:30, and I’m only just now about to get started on that. And I’ve gotta say, I’m about 50 times more excited about the coming afternoon now than I was 45 minutes ago. Want to know why? Because I got an email this morning from my mentor, and in it he said this about my novel:

There have been, in fact, too many times that I’ve gotten so caught up in the story that I forget I’m supposed to be critiquing it. :)

Ha! Whee! Imagine me clapping my hands and bouncing up and down in my chair like a five-year-old who just got her very own pony. One sentence, and it changes my whole outlook on what I’m doing. All of a sudden I’m looking forward to jumping back in and laying down more of this story that has my mentor forgetting his job.

And isn’t that just the best mental place to be when you sit down to work?

Unfortunately, my brain isn’t interested in cooperating. I’ll be taking drastic measures soon.

Mutter.

Yesterday was very productive. Today, so far, is looking good. It’s only 9am and I’m already almost done with my morning fiddle-faddling online, which might be considered a miracle, given my recent sleeping patterns.

And I’m feeling good about making more progress on the novel today, so I’m going to leave you all to amuse yourselves by laughing at my poor dog. It’s been almost a week since the spaying, but Shiloh still looks pitiful, because she’s not a big shedder, which means her hair doesn’t grow back all that fast.

Here’s a side view:

Yeah, the other side looks like that too. They say they shave all that area to be sure they have a sterile surface, and you do have to admit that skin is easier to sterilize than fur. But still. Just so you have the whole effect, here’s the belly view:

Okay, so I’ll admit that I got her to lie down like that because she thought I was about to rub her belly. And I did, right after I took the picture. She’s a sucker for belly rubs. See that little dark mark right smack in the middle of all the shaving? That’s the incision – it’s shorter than the middle joint of my index finger. Amazing how far things have come, isn’t it?

Anyway, she doesn’t seem to mind being shaved all that much, even if she does look ridiculous. Ah, to be free of image issues.

And for those of you who aren’t entertained by my dog’s pitiful state, I keep forgetting to post a link to my friend Steve’s photos from the lunar eclipse a few weeks ago. He had a beautiful view in South Carolina, and posted some of his pictures here. Go check them out. Now! Go!

Random thought for the day: I find that I’m turning into something of a Taylor Swift fan. Hard to believe she’s so young, with that voice.

Now, it’s off to save the world! No really. I’m writing a fantasy novel. It’s what I do.

I just realized that Kerris and Devlin have to save the world.

Now, I imagine some of you are looking at me as if I were particularly slow (my husband did). After all, I’m writing epic fantasy which, by its very definition, involves the heroes saving their world in some manner or another.

But there are a lot of ways to depict the world, any number of scales on which a person’s world might be endangered, and I just realized that, yes, the whole world and all the people in it are in grave danger. And not everyone will survive destruction.

You have no idea how much difference this makes. So much makes sense now. Funny how so much is already in place to make this a perfect fit.

Today’s shaping up to be another very good day of work done.

Writing Day today.

Wrote more today than I have in a single day since the end of October. That’s a nice feeling.

With any luck, tomorrow will be even more ground-breakingly fantastic.

Woohoo!

Writing Day today.

And yet again, I’m sitting here like a wingding, not getting anything done. This is not good.

My brother agreed that if it would help me get pages written, I could kill him off (which would mean I’d have to introduce a character based moderately on Nathan and then find a way for him to die). His only requirement is that it be a tragic death, and he suggested that it be trebuchet-related. Accidental death by trebuchet? I mean, sure, it’s possible in my world, but I’m not sure how I’d fit that in.

Oh, and in return for generously allowing me to off him, he wants to be portrayed as a supremely-powerful emperor in another book. He claims that he’ll share his glory around, but he needs some glory to share in the first place.

So there you have it. Instead of NaNo-style ninjas! to break my apparent inability to move forward, my official moving-forward mechanism for the day is that every time I get stuck, Nathan dies by trebuchet missile.

There’s nothing like brotherly love. :)