Category: Pictures

Pictures pages.

Journal, Pictures, Writing

Brief Post-Baby Post

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Ryan_01Well, it’s official! I’m a mom. The Little Guy arrived a week and a day early (today was his due date, actually), and since then it’s been a whirlwind of getting accustomed to the new structure of life. Writing wise, haven’t done much of anything, which I’m fine with given the circumstances. I keep meaning to update my journal with all the details of the last week, but that hasn’t quite happened yet. Did manage to resubmit “Swallow,” having received a rejection three days after returning home from the hospital. But the Little Guy seems to take the sting out of the form-letter “no,” and the story’s back out in the world.

I’m glad I got at least two short stories wrapped up and doing their rounds before he got here, if only because resubmitting is pretty easy when you already have an itinerary of markets sorted out. It’s almost point-and-click, really. Even so, it can be a challenge to find that little bit of time between naps and feedings. Still, I’m actually kind of enjoying the time crunch. It keeps me from procrastinating too much, because really–I may only have twenty minutes to a couple of hours to get things done. There’s no time to dawdle (though often productivity stuff is pushed off in favor of getting some much needed shut-eye of my own!).

I suspect as the weeks go on, we’ll get into a more predictable routine, but until then, it’s all hands on deck and a whole lot of snuggling and cuddling with the Little Guy. ^_^

Journal, Pictures, Portland/Oregon

Apartment Hunting: Bring a Big Net

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It’s official: Andy and I are looking for a new place, and we just may have found one. We’ve been idly chatting about upgrading our living quarters at some point since we’ll be in the PDX area for at least another year, and the feral cats under the tub and loud, angry/virile neighbors upstairs are starting to get a little old. PLUS, there’s the added bonus of Andy having a job, and thus, bringing in a second income. For a small, two-parent furmly such as ours, we can now afford to live a little better than we’ve been required to in the past two years.

So a few weeks ago, we started seriously discussing the option of moving. We’ve looked at a few apartments, but the second one we saw really caught us, and I think we’ve made up our minds for sure. It’s a studio apartment down in the South Waterfront, which is a pretty swanky furmly area of Portland on the river. It’s still relatively new and much of it is still (quietly) under construction. After the developers discovered that condos weren’t going as fast as they’d hoped (they built these places right before the Mighty Recession), they converted a bunch of them into apartments, which means the deals are good. Which is great, because they’re awesome apartments, and Andy and I can’t afford a condo (nor do we need one, what with Andy’s plans for med-school)! ^_^

Let me be brief so you can get to the pictures of our “new place”: It’s in the Ardea. Inside the Ardea looks like a Hollister store without the heavily perfumed clothes and SoCal rock/pop in the background. Think: dim, edgy lighting; giant murals of attractive people living the high life; and the feeling of being a little out-classed by the young, unmarried, well-dressed, BMW/Audi/Jaguar/Aston Martin/Porsche/Ferrari-driving residents. Our place is on the 28th floor, right under the penthouse (where they hold yoga classes 3x a week). It’s nearly the same square-footage as our current apartment, but with higher ceilings and wide open spaces that make it feel bigger. Comes with a washer/dryer, gas stove (thank gooooooodness!), built-in microwave, walk-in closets, and–oh!–a really, really deep tub.

It’s swanky! And in our price-range, can you believe it?! :-D

Why can’t the move-in-date be tomorrow?

*For reference: “Furmly” = 2 parent families with no children and just adored, doted-upon pets.

Journal, Pictures, Writing

It’s HERE!

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My contributor’s copy of FANTASTICAL VISIONS IV arrived Monday! It’s a lovely little book. I’m so proud to be a part of it. ^_^

Writing Stuff:

Not much to report, at the moment. Still working on the edits for the “Dystopic SF” story, and trying to untangle the mental knots of the UNTITLED NOVEL. Actually, since Monday, I’ve banned myself from writing fiction until tomorrow at noon. I was getting so worked up and so frustrated with myself–the evil editor in me was throwing a royal tantrum about EVERYTHING–that my brain was set to self-destruct unless I pulled the plug for a while. So I banned myself from writing for three days.

It’s working brilliantly. I’m thinking, but my hands are tied, so I can’t rush into anything. The fact that I “can’t” write makes me want to, which is a nice change from earlier this week when I was banging my head into a wall.

Note to self: I need a spiral notebook and some index cards. I’m hoping that’ll be a little Rx for the mental wall I’ve built for myself.

Long story short, the number of chapters I peg this month is going to be much lower than I wanted. Next time, I’ll make sure I have a better idea of what I *actually* want to accomplish, and specifically *where* in the story I want to get to. Will do my best to untangle the knots thus far and hopefully that will put me on course for next month.

Apex Magazine, Pictures, Portland/Oregon, Writing

Day at the Beach

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So here are the afore-promised pictures from our trip to the beach on Sunday. Didn’t get a whole lot of writing done (which was the plan), or submissions done (which were finished up today), but it was a great trip and a lot of fun. 

Andy is not a daywalker, so he hung out in his tent most of the time. I think he got more work done that way, though. ^_^ 

Finished the latest batch of novel submissions today, which was good. That was something I was going to work on Sunday, also, but the beach beckoned, and how could I refuse to heed its call?

OH! Almost forgot: Apex’s Community Board is now up and running! I’m already making a general nuisance of myself, so do feel free to drop by. ^_^

Writing Stuff:

Two from-the-top attempts at Chapter 2 for the “UNTITLED NOVEL PROJECT”. Decided I need to go back to the drawing board in order to establish the kind of confidence in this sequence I need. Got some stuff in mind, will see how it goes. Changed the WTDL to reflect the need to spend some time planning.

Journal, Pictures, Writing

Making the Time

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So I’ve always heard that you’re supposed to exercise for at least an hour three times a week. For those of you who know me, you are likely to know that I’m a pretty sedentary person. It’s not always by choice: at work, I sit at the front desk and do computer work all day; during my lunch break, I write fiction (on my laptop, and therefore sitting down again); when I get home, I have submissions to do or email to check or general internet-based things to do; I play video games (sitting, no Wii yet); I blog; I read; I paint (at least this I do standing up); I cook (again, standing); and then I go to bed. There’s barely enough time in the day to get done everything I want to get done, much less make time to exercise. I’ve been at least temporarily blessed with a really high metabolism, so weight-loss/weight-control hasn’t really been a motivator. It embarrasses me when I go for a hike and realize how out of shape I am, but when do I have the time to be otherwise?

Well, at 5 in the morning, apparently. That’s when Andy and I haul our butts out of bed to go walk. Now, I recognize that some of you may scoff at “walking” as exercise, but my 80+ year old grandparents have always been dedicated walkers, not gym people, and they’re in great shape. My grandfather is a speed demon. It’s also a lot easier on my knees to do really brisk walking than to jog. Besides, I’m looking for some general stamina; I’m not planning on running any marathons, thanks very much. I’m talking about being in basic good shape.

So we’ve started walking bright and early, first thing in the morning. I’ll probably switch to something indoors when winter rolls around again, because it’s only due to the notable sunlight that I can even budge from bed this early. But I’ve already noticed a huge improvement. I feel more awake, more conscious, and more healthy overall. It may all be in my head, but I don’t particularly care. I’m getting more exercise now than I usually do. ^_^

 Writing Stuff: Continue reading “Making the Time” →