850 words on a new story “The Invoice”

Mike invited me to the beach today and I can’t go because I have a housefilk to go to this afternoon.  I’m a bit choked candidly.  I’m thinking of my social life of late (“Ten percent of nothin’ is, let me do the math here… nothin’ and a nothin’, carry the nothin’… ” comes to mind) and of course two big events in one day. One involves carrying Otto down the Numberless Stairs of Ts’ats’lhm (like holy fuck, if that isn’t a fantasy story title of great white entitlement, since that is as far as I have determined to date the Skwomish name for Wreck) while I ask my guardian spirits to prevent me from having a) a dizzy spell b) leg cramps c) oopsydaisy trip and destroy Otto d) an encounter with a profoundly altered and antisocial half naked man when I’m finally RELAXED and who doesn’t know that I’ve promised myself that the next half naked fucked up guy who bugs me is going to get clownsprayed (see my twitter feed for what that’s all about) e) you get the idea

OR

I can get a ride to Tom and Peggy’s and commune with a cheering proportion of my favourite filkers, although I’ll have to take my own beer.

 

Hafalda is Kima’s ‘approved name’ in Iceland. Half an hour of research yielded nothing closer to Benthesikyma, and now I’m rolling around in glosses of translations.

Saw Keith and Paul yesterday and went for a little walk in the neighbourhood.

 

later… found the reference.

xwayxway = Mask place = Lumbermans Arch. Elksn = Point of land = Point Grey. Ts’ats’lhm = cold place = Wreck Beach. P’e’kwcha = Flat back = Spanish Banks. kwekw7u’pay’ = Lots of wild crab apple trees = Locarno Beach. Uy’a’l’mexw = Good Land = Jericho Beach. i7iy’al’mexw = Good Camping Ground = Eastern Jericho Beach. xepxpay’em = Having red Cedar = Kits Beach.

 

One of my facebook friends may lose her house to a wildfire in Gold Bar WA. That’s a two hour drive away.  The future is yellow skies and ash.

It got bigger

I edited and added an interview with Michel to book III.

Yesterday was almost entirely taken up with helping Paul.  I also unplugged a restaurant toilet (it came pre-plugged) and helped a bunch of hard working nurses and techs avoid dealing with the mentally ill husband of one of the cataract patients (“Does your husband wear a hat? May I take you to him?” after I’d heard him screaming at the caregivers. They were abjectly grateful. srsly.).  My day-sign told me to be kind to everybody today and I really tried hard to do that, including being kind to me.

Paul on Ativan.  He’s basically a very cheerful fella, yanno? I could hear him chaffing with the doc and he unsterilized the sterile field and got a right talking to.

Then we couldn’t leave for 45 minutes because his BP was ludicrous. Calmed down nicely after a while.

He took me to LA Sushi for lunch, which happened around 4 pm. Then I walked home since, er, he couldn’t exactly drive. Although he offered to. Blind in one eye and cheerfully inflated with Ativan, no thanks I’ll walk.

—

I am disappointed on his behalf that brO is not getting his gaming weekend with his buddies and hope that the reason his friend bowed out is resolved soon.

I’m desperate to start writing again but I can’t find the chapter précis for the Midnight Moving book although I know it’s in my room, probably in one of these here boxes. I think I could probably reconstruct it and I probably should.

All those hand lettered brush fonts that look so cool now are going to be ghastly and sucky in five years.

I am TOTALLY IN WRITING WITHDRAWAL. And I want to work on XENOLEGUM instead of editing or working on what Jeff asked me to work on.  BANG HEAD HERE SUFFERING BASTARD.

Progress: cheat sheet slash glossary

I’ve made a start on the glossary Diane suggested I do. I am only just reading her comments on Sweep off those waves and I am somewhat downcast.

This morning I’m driving Paul to where he’s going to have his first cataract surgery. Stooging about hospitals, yay!!! All things being equal and this being the land of polite lineups we’ll probably be 5 hours total in transit and stooging. We did a dry run yesterday, and I’m glad we did, since we combined it with a visit to Al and Katie which was exceedingly pleasant and included visiting with all the furbabies (Toes & Tigger the kitties, who are sleek and Lizzie the dog, who is getting very old and itchy) and talking about canoeing.

After we went to Planet Bachelor, where Keith greeted us and we ate a very pleasant lunch.

I wrote another 200 words, but they don’t belong here, because they were essentially hate speech against someone who’s not capable of defending himself.

Ah, to be an ally and white is to learn to stop finding excuses to interrupt.

 

 

Day 1 post writing

Now that I’m not trying to grind out something to edit I have to do the following:

Get everything copy edited that hasn’t been.

Make final drafts of the edited manuscripts.

Make PDF versions of the final drafts for comments by beta readers.

Learn how to prepare e-books and turn all the books into e-books and test them quite thoroughly.

Prep the cover art in accordance with the requirements. (ISBN number etc etc.)

Figure out how to make a instant print file.

Continue to try to find an agent.

Yeah I’m going to be busy.

 

 

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Damn, we’re done with Call the Midwife until it comes back in 8 months.

Rewatching the Expanse.  They took extraordinary care with the casting; now that I’ve read the first 4 books in the series I can confirm that Chrisjen is like the hole in one of casting, and the crew of the Rocinante is of a piece with that.  Did I mention I love Wes Chatham as Amos? GUESS WHAT HE GETS EVEN BETTER IN THE NOVELS. He has a couple of lines (usually with Holden) that are excruciatingly funny.  Think Jayne with even better tactical sense and a truly wicked sense of humour. The Texan-talking subcontinent dude (Alex the pilot) is straight from the book as well, and he’s a great character.

Jeff took me to breakfast. I ate from the over 55 menu. Do you hear that mOm… the over 55 menu. (dun dun.)

I bought myself a Mother’s Day treat but the more I thought about it the less I felt like hiding in my room and eating it so I’ll be sharing it with Jeff tomorrow. Why yes it has chocolate in it, whyjja ask?

Miss Margot is still coming into my room every day for scritches even though I still do all the life maintenance on her. Either she’s jealous of Buster or she’s finally figured out I scritch okay.

 

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Lovely day yesterday pre-mother’s daying.  Alex had a wonderful time in the beautiful kiddy park next to the as yet unopened petty zoo. The New Westminster parks officials have their heads screwed on straight. Given a choice between turning the water in the spray park on before May 24 weekend and turning it on when it was a blistering hot day, THEY TURNED IT ON. If we get freezing weather I’m sure they’ll turn it off again.

Feeling so unhappy about #YMMfire. The fact nobody died is a testament to the strength of character of the emergency workers and the survival instincts of the evacuees. One thousand square kilometres burned or burning. Eighty-five thousand evacuees. If we drop that patch over Vancouver, that means EVERYTHING FROM UBC TO BOUNDARY ROAD, FROM STANLEY PARK TO YVR is burned or burning. And if that was the case we’d have a million evacuees.

The chances are good more fires will start this weekend. The firefighters will have work all summer.

Anyway between our very lazy and affectionate day yesterday and simply not feeling like writing, I haven’t done much. I will finish it.

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Carl Beijer, “This is what I see in liberal journalists who call themselves feminists, but who only care about the problems of rich women: a toxic blend of apathy for their comrades and ambition for themselves. If America, as Steinbeck supposedly put it, is a land of “temporarily embarrassed millionaires”, liberal journalism is an industry of temporarily embarrassed executive editors, would-be Jill Abramsons who are fine with laying off hundreds of women as long as they’re the ones who get to do it.“

Above is from Avedon Carol’s website, which I highly recommend if you’re into fantasy, feminism and awesome writing.

I had a slack day yesterday. Started on the Expanse novel Cibola Burn. I LOVE AMOS, HIS ATTITUDE IS THE BEST.  “I am a killer but I will stay with people who have moral agency and they will point me at the right people when the killin’ starts.” Also he’s funny.

If I thought I could even get close to this restaurant today I’d go, but oh well, happy Cinco de Mayo Taqueria Playa Tropical, you make the best Mexican food I ever et north of the 49th.

Instead, I’ll be having a pre mother’s day meal at Planet Bachelor with the immediate fam and Jeff if he feels like coming.

Family sayings and terms

Ingredaments

Never shoplift when you’re hungry. John

Heroes and heroines drive convertibles. the folks, updated for sexism

Never blame mean for dumb. (Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately accounted for by stupidity.)

I’m glad you showed up, I only had one bus ticket. John again.

Thirty, officer, m a y b e thirty-one. Ron Mahadeo, after making a London ON police officer chase him about ten miles and being asked how fast he was going.

I bet you don’t know something that I don’t know that I’m not going to tell you. Katie aged 7

We’re going to Mars????? Katie aged 4, She asked me where we were going, and I said TAMAR’S and that was her response.

What’s left of him is very dead indeed. (from Wrong Box.)

We used to suck, but now we blow. (from a memorable customer service interaction back in the day regarding what kind of exhaust fan the inverters have.)

“Sir I understand your disappointment with the product but I can’t rearrange the laws of physics or remove the warnings from the user guide!” same same

The earth gravities my mind system, and I forget things. (Keith, aged 6).

They’re cooking their dinner in a garbage can! (Keith, aged 4).

Egbwa! Keith aged less than one year.

It’s a wonderful day for pie! (Family Guy)

“It is most uncomfortable.” Keith aged 8 having fallen asleep with gum in his mouth, only to have it sneak out of his gob and wind itself around his entire body including (that’s enough – ed.)

A low standard to be sure – one of John’s faves.

 

 

 

 

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Que l’on continue.

This is what Lucien Bouchard wrote to his well wishers when he got flesh-eating disease.

Like many French idioms it doesn’t translate well. It is a well bred way to say Keep on Trucking. It literally means ‘which is continous’ so it has echoes of ‘I’m still standing’ as well.  Anyway, it’s one of my favourite franco-canadian idioms and I think it applies during the writing process as well.

Paul and I went walking at Burnaby Fraser Foreshore Park yesterday and it was so frikkin hot I was a cheese melt by the time I got back. Thank you Paul it was necessary to get out!

Jeff and I have already shopped, glad not to do it in the heat of the day.  I think this rain is going to burn off, you can feel it.