Category: Writing

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Very solid day of work, most pleased. The book is now one quarter done. I may actually make my April 1 deadline.  The whole point of the exercise is to demonstrate to any publisher wanting to reprint my books after I have a go at it that I am a production writer, and that I can crank out two books a year.

V. funny convo with mOm yesterday about how amateurish she feels her first family history books are.  “No title page, what was I thinking.”

And of course the answer is that she is bringing our ancestors to a place where we can see and honour them, and a title page won’t necessarily help.

As I said on FB:

First half of Downtown Abbey series finale/Christmas Special was superb. Second half was like falling through a time tunnel while being lectured about the ‘recreation of the couple’ by Slavoj Žižek. Jeff and I kept looking at each other and thinking “Where did the writing go?”

Hopefully this comment doesn’t constitute a spoiler. I still recommend it, and it will make the sentimental sniffle, as I did. I’m just wondering if anybody else gets the same reaction.

I am actually awake after falling asleep very early (like obscenely early, at sunset) yesterday.  I’m BACKWARDS.

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Hal was throat singing in the sauna tonight.  He asked first.  Most people lead lives in which it is not necessary to construct sentences like that.

Mike procured me an invitation to a Christmas leftovers Southern US edition feast at Hal and Cassidy’s.  I was honoured, and expectant, and what I got beside the company and the new acquaintanceship with their daughter Lil and a new title to buy Jeff for the xBox was a very subtle, day old green salad which I ate without dressing and which I got seconds for, a slowcooked ham in a molasses and brown sugar glaze, SWEET POTATO PIE my first WITH MERINGUE.  They maintained the structural integrity of the meringue by reheating it very gently in an oven. I went back for seconds of that, too, I felt I had a good four ounces of the ham and didn’t need more. Damn it was good I mean seriously.

Their leftovers make 90 percent of the restaurant meals I’ve ever paid for taste like hapless accidents from the kitchen of life.

After that we drove out to the wilds of fucking downtown Coquitlam, which is among the worst urban sprawl ever vomited by land office capitalism onto the lands of the Salish Sea, we found that JJ Spa was absolutely cheek by jowl, shoes stacked in the foyer like cordwood.  After a very long and languid time spent with the taking off and putting on of shoes and talking about where we’d go next in the search if anywhere for NO FUCKING GENDER BARRIER at the sauna, thanks, it wasn’t long before we were at the Hastings Sauna, (ah, once again, and thank you Mike) where I stayed in the sauna patiently until my turkey button popped out.

My turkey button was my feet being warm to the touch, because they aren’t normally that way especially in the wintertime.  I got out, dried myself off and lay down in the anteroom and lazed for the rest of the time.  It was wonderful to be all one temperature and very relaxed, and I got a snap out of my lower back which I needed.

Anyway during the twenty minutes I was in there (much longer than I can do normally), Hal asked if he could throat sing, and it was a very good sound to hear in that little wooden space.

I wonder if The Food do throat singing. I’m trending not, but I look forward to their explanation why that might be.

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Wonderful Christmas brunch at Peggy and Tom’s is keeping me warm. Supper with Mike at Desi Turka.  Back to his place for a couple of beers and the most hilarious Christmas radio station EVAR Frisko on Soma.  I damn near died laughing.

Very late start this morning, I overslept. Now I am contemplating a quick half hour of restoring the kitchen to order before I mess it up again to make meatballs.

I will write this afternoon, I’m feeling too antsy to settle right now.

Mike gave me a pornographic comic for Christmas.  He has no idea they play a role in my novel.  This one was published in 1988, so it’s perfect for me to just name drop it into the Rubber Tree Plant chapter.  Yay!

I name all the chapters. Because I suck at naming things, pace John Sheppard, the names come out before publication.  So the chapters have names like “Theo’s new wrinkle” “A Deformation of Sixers” “Update this you surly mofo” and “The nameless child” But once published the chapters will have Roman numerals, not titles.

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Gosh, only 68K to go.

Today: After a delicious cup of coffee and a tour around the internet, I’m going to make a list of things I’d like to accomplish today. Peggy and Tom are feeding me Christmas dinner, and glad I am of the opportunity to sit at their table for one of the high holy days.

All of the Christmas anxiety is past; I didn’t have to buy any presents (and in fact only did for myself, because I is greedy).  I have beer and rum by gum in the house (I usually buy one for hot buttered rum this time of year, so this is like the second bottle of hard liquor I’ve bought in the best part of a year) and cream for my coffee and sufficiency of food that I needn’t go anywhere.

The cats are alternately completely crazy and very subdued.  Their world goes terribly wrong when Jeff isn’t in it.  I did give them both wet food for dinner last night since they were both so obviously thrown by his absence.  Jeff of course will not be surprised that Buster tried to kill me on the stairs as I was bringing up the coffee, but I was expecting it, so all is well.

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Party scene continues. A neighbour’s youngster is trying to negotiate with four Sixers and failing miserably.

Tomorrow Christmas Dinner at the Lundervilla.  I am a lucky goil.

And positively NO PRESENTS to buy, wrap, etc etc.  Me happy.

Wha happen?

Yesterday was the Solstice Feast, and it was wonderful.  Julie, Brandon, Baby K, Mike, Paul, Keith, me, Kate and Alex attended. Kate and Paul did all the heavy lifting for cooking. The one thing I made was gravy, not my best effort but still damned good.

We had turnots and carnots mushed, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, roast turkey with homemade stuffing, cranberry sauce, home made brown bread, steamed green beans, and OMGOMGOMG the brussels sprouts were so amazing I declare it a family standard festive dish.  Mike declared he was going to preempt the normal way of doing brussels for his family festive meal later this week.  You steam them, them pan fry them and then drown them in fresh parmesan and garlic. KEITH HAS NEVER EATEN BRUSSEL SPROUTS before last night.

People were getting seconds, it was unreal.

Alex was mostly fine but when he was hours overdue for a nap he was pretty fragile.

Then Mike drove me home and we stopped off at the one place in the lower mainland he knew for sure he could get Crown Royal Northern which the Whiskey Bible author says is the best whiskey in the world this year…. for less than 35 bucks a bottle.

It is really rather good, and for the price point it’s insanely wonderfully good.

The liquor stores are out but the Oliver Twist had two bottles left. Trouble was Mike had already blown through his 2 bottle limit, so there I go with my stupid hat and buy some more, and that’s it, it’s probably gone in the Lower Mainland.  Helping Mike with Christmas shopping was an awesome way to end the day.

Then home and after a contemplative couple of hours winding down I went upstairs to bed AND STARTED REVISING THE SECOND NOVEL which meant that I was actually writing. Four hundred words or so – since mOm will want to know it’s the longish chapter about the pregnancy close to the beginning of the novel. There were two particularly tangled and compostian sentences and I killed one and inverted and broke apart the other, so, yay me.

THEN Ulrika on Livejournal this morning SHARES THIS WITH ME. I am absolutely gobsmacked and will immediately implement some of her suggestions.

 

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Paul managed to ruin Solstice dinner. It didn’t happen.  I begged Katie to let me step in, and she decided to place her trust where it was not deserved. We’re going to try again today but if I said the prospect doesn’t please would you be surprised?

Baby Alex of course was very wonderful especially at whining around his mother’s ankles when she wouldn’t hold him continuously.  He smiled as soon as he saw me, which was pleasant. He also kicked me in the face, which was not, but which I richly deserved and didn’t leave a mark.

The worst thing about yesterday was that, although I was the only person at the c******f*** who thought about Keith long enough to text him and say dinner was off, he came home and his house was completely empty; the car was there with the car seat and Paul’s bike was gone.

He was so shook up he called me, as distressed as he’s ever been when I talked to him. I explained what had happened and his dad came home in the middle of the phone call so all was well.

Conflikt has me on the reg page, which is nice since I registered in August.

I’ll probably be going to Victoria after Christmas possibly with Alex; Jeff is going in a few days.

 

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Today the Family Christmas Feast, with added guests.  There will likely be a newborn at the table.  Squee.

And Alex of course.  I’m minding babby while Katie attempts to cook at Planet Bachelor.  At the time we made the plans Keith wasn’t working on Monday. Le sigh.

FINALLY started a new chapter.

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Not much to report.  Katie went out for an evening without her baby, so I think she really wanted a break; she certainly thanked Suzanne for childcare on FB this morning!  I’m not really a good candidate for care what with the going to bed super early thing….but I’ll look after him any day.

I keep making progress, but it can be very slow.

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Lovely day with Paul and Katie and Alex yesterday – Dax was home but didn’t interact with us much.  Hope he enjoys Black Sails, I dropped it off with Katie. Got the Kaossilator back – he quite enjoyed borrowing it.

Alex is beautiful, and although it sounds kind of creepy, I kept throwing my dress over his head to see what he’d do, and he’d stand perfectly still and make cooing noises, which was adorable.  He yells da da da when chasing after his dad, refers to the boob as babab which is hilarious, and in general seems to be a happy lad when his mum is in arm’s reach.

I didn’t write much, but today is another day !

 

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This is stupid.  I’m going to quit trying to write at all between now and Christmas.  I don’t know if it’s the weather, my mood or what the hell, but I’m just going to stop trying and do other stuff instead.

Hopefully Alex is coming today, we’ll see. Katie too, of course.

Saw Bad Santa yesterday and loved it. Looked it up on IMDB and there’s going to be a Bad Santa 2 Christmas 2016.