Tales from the Raven

With the umpteenth re-write of 13 Demon Days coming along, I’m once again updating my agent list.  And I’ve found the perfect way to keep myself energized while I search.

Listen to lots of Buffy music!

Now, I could go into the subconscious reasons as to why music to slay by is also great for agent hunting…but since an agent might (possibly) stop by the blog in some future to come, I’d better not.

But it makes for great hunting!

My YA novel The Popcorn Potion has been sent back to the kitchen with a request that the ingredients get a careful taste testing.  In its stead I’ve pulled my mid-grade, 13 Demon Days, back out and served it up.

Last summer I started the re-write before bootcamp, but was sidetracked by Popcorn and my write for hire work.  Now I’m really sinking my teeth into it, giving myself the kind of in-depth critique I really value from readers and writing friends.  I’ve also printed off all my various notes, rules on the magic system, character sketches, and the working synopsis in order to pull them into a cohesive whole.  Another week of this and I’ll be ready to begin the re-write in earnest.  And how do I like all this editing?

It tastes delicious!

One of my favorite things about living on the other side of nowhere is all the wildlife we see and the number of birds that drop by.  We’ve got one feeder in the garden that we recently loaded down with orange halves, a suet block, my homemade bread wreath, and of course, a traditional feeder full of seeds.

Three days later one of the oranges is still there and the suet block isn’t ALL gone, but the wreath has been pulled apart and we’ve refilled the seed feeder twice.  The upside of all this feasting is the birds are willing to come to the window feeder when they’ve cleaned out the one in the pasture.  This little chickadee was very bold and willing to sit for a picture.  Isn’t he cute?

Now if we could just train them to eat the bad bugs and the weed seeds in the garden while leaving alone any vegetable seeds we plant, we’d have a perfect army of assistant gardeners!

The snow is almost gone, and the Ice Pirates are panicking.  They thought they had a pretty good hideout, complete with a mean billy goat watch dog, but it’s melting fast.

Now they’re scrambling to move their stolen goods before the warm weather comes.

I’ve suggested they try one of our hollow trees, but they plan to move north.  I’m taking that as a good sign–North Carolina should never harbor Ice Pirates.  I still insist we haven’t the climate for it, despite this last winter’s vagaries.

In other news, my short story Hell Hath No Fury Like a Tiger’s Scorn is available on genre mall in the February issue of Sounds of the Night.  Read it, then pop a bag of popcorn and offer it to your friends.  After they’ve shoved a mouthful in, tell them what else has the delicious aroma of freshly buttered popcorn.

This is what happens when you make bread without paying close attention:

It may look like some kind of delicious bundt cake with a scrumptious icing (maybe if your prescription glasses need updating?) but it’s actually a loaf of bread that has at least one, perhaps two extra cups of flour.  When I was halfway through the mixing stage and realized my mistake, I decided that we’d start fresh in the morning for the people food, and turned my flop into a bird-food wreath.  Not sure yet what the sparrows will think of it, but at least the seeds should be edible.  And if the birds don’t want the bread, perhaps we can coax in a ‘possum?

Finally, it’s finished!  I’ve been working on my scarf–you remember, the one that was temporarily Mr. Top Hat Man?  And thanks to my beloved Scrape Exchange I got to weave in all kinds of fun colors.  I was having so much fun, it got longer…and longer…

It doesn’t quite reach the floor, but it’s a good thing I stopped when I did!  I think I’m going to call it my Patchwork Scarf, and try my hand at a kid-sized version.  A happy and warm winter to you all!

I know everyone else is posting pics of the snow, but I’ve been too busy dealing with the after effects of our basement flood from almost a week ago.

Here’s the laundry, or most of it:

And here are the books that now reside on our kitchen table.  They wave their pages gently in the breeze, and ask if this spa comes with the food bath.  Most annoying!

This last pic is me, in an old fashioned phone booth at the Cape Fear Museum in Wilmington.  I’ve recieved the red alert that our home is in danger, but instead of morphing into Super Woman and coming to the rescue, I’m chatting on the phone!

Perhaps tomorrow I’ll be up for the snow, but right now it’s time to sit in front of the fire and make sure I have no flooding-induced webbing growing between my toes.

Once again a late post–but, at least this time I have a good excuse!  We spent the weekend down at Wilmington and the beach…

We came back to a flooded basement.  I’m thinking this is our chance to go through our (damp) boxes and see which of the stuff really must be rescued, and which can be thrown out.  Pics of all and sundry adventures forthcoming.

Before descending into the weekend’s madness, we went to one of my all-time favorite restaurants–Firebirds!  We had a gift card from Christmas that was burning a hole in my pocket.  Salmon, steaks, shrimp, soups…my list of favorites from their menu is too long to list, and that’s before ordering desert.

Food so good, it inspires a powerful desire to eat the grilled lemon.  Anyone want to try it for me?

This is also a Wednesday post masquerading as a Thursday post.  Not sure why I keep missing the big W…I may need to bow to my caprice and make Thursday my post day, instead.  But then I’d be tempted to commit to Tuesday posts, as well, and the only thing you guys would see those nights would be, “Sword-fighting rocked tonight!”  So, we’ll give that some more thought.

And I’ll let that be my segue into tonight’s deep late night thought.  In the movies, shows and books about time travel, the idea that our lives hinge on a single moment is a common theme.  I suppose it’s fascinating to us.  What if we hadn’t taken that wrong turn, so we made it to our friend’s bridal shower?  Would we have met our new boss?  Fell in love with her neighbor out walking his dog?  Skipped the fight that led to avoiding said friend for the next ten years?  It’s especially easy to pinpoint certain moments that didn’t go our way, and fix on them as pivotal.  We all know that ‘if only’ isn’t a highly productive phrase, but most of us have felt the sentiment.

I’m no different, but tonight I’m wondering if life is really that simple.  Most of the consequences we end up living with later in life are the result of repetition, or habits.  Everything from our waistline to our income to the solidarity of our relationships with loved ones come about because of choices that we repeat over and over again.  Even the big zingers, like meeting that special person, are often the result of habit.

You met at the coffee shop/library/friends’ apartment because it was a place you frequented regularly.  There were probably many ‘misses’ that preceded the ‘hit’ in which you connected with that special someone.  Even seemingly random meetings–like bumping into each other at the Atlanta airport–probably have some backing in the probability books.  Do you both travel a lot?  Does one of you frequently visit Atlanta for work and the other has always wanted to visit?  Chances are there are plenty of ‘hits’ that fade into background noise and slip from memory because they were only a momentary encounter in the usual boring way, and never took on the significance of a turning point to the individuals involved.

Not sure that last sentence made sense.

So, am I saying life is all in the fateful cards?  That where we end up in life is a product of our subconscious programing?  Probably not, but if you get your hands on the cards which predict which of my tiny habits I’ll end up regretting, I’d give them a second look.

Friday night we tried to get out.  Might’ve worked, too, but someone slipped word to the world so it went and hid.  Tomorrow we’re going to try again, so mum’s the word.  We’re going to see one of the big exotic films of the season–

The Frog and the Princess.

What were you thinking?  Surely not a really cool action show on an epic scale with reportedly stunning graphics?

Naaaw.

Wish us luck getting in to see the royal amphibian flick!