New Freakin' Year!

New Year's Resolution #1:

Say "Gorramit" more frequently.*

And that works, because the Wheel of Time curse words (which I tend to use while reading the books) don't really have a satisfying replacement for "Goddammit"; there's "Light!", "Burn me!", "Blood and ashes!", "flaming", "burning" and "bloody", and of course, one of my favorites: "Sheep swallop and bloody buttered onions!"
But none of those fills the same meaning-slot as "Gorramit".

I've started reading The Happiness Project, a Christmas present from my mother.  Though I'm starting a little late for starting in January (not much time to think about what my goals for the year are, though I can make them up as I go, if necessary), I think I'm going to follow the guidelines/principles/whatevers in the book.  Starting with making my bed, getting dressed, brushing my teeth, and going to the gym.  You know, the important stuff.

---

* Which, of course, refers to Firefly.

Health Month!

Health Month is a great site--you set goals, which become rules in a game, but you're basically trying to build habits. And I love it so much that I went from 3 rules in May to 6 in June to 10 in July.
So, I decided that August would be a good month to pull back, avoid burn-out, and not work so hard. I only kept three of July's rules, and one (getting enough sleep) transformed into two rules: go to bed before midnight; wake up before 9am. I decided that making sure I took my meds was more important than making sure I took my vitamins (in terms of having rules for it). I decided that brushing my teeth nearly every day was pretty good as a habit, so I decided to switch that rule out for one about flossing more often.
But there were other rules--or rather, other types of rules--that I wanted to try. So, I'm going to go from not having touched my violin in (mmph) months to practicing twice a week. And I decided to make drawing my webcomic (that I also haven't touched in ... too long) a goal (three drawings a week).

All in all, I now have 12 rules for my "take a break" month ... Maybe I'm crazy. It still doesn't seem as bad. At the end of the month, when you're choosing rules for the next month, you can get suggestions based on that month's rules. HM suggested going from allowing processed food 4 days/week to avoiding processed food altogether! And while that is my eventual goal, I just wasn't ready for that right now.
For September, I'll either take a true rest month, or I'll go back to tweaking my diet:allow processed food 3 days/week, and no preservatives at all, maybe. Add an rule about avoiding white flour. But even though I have more rules this month than ever before, the lack of diet rules is a little liberating. (I figured eating vegetables every day was a no-brainer for me, now ... I also wanted to see if that was true, if this is an actual habit for me now.)

Challenge updates

Short Story Challenge
I've been writing every day since Sunday, for at least an hour. I have the beginning of a short story that will be one in a series of four--and I'm excited about that. And writing ties directly into:

Dvorak Challenge
On Sunday, I typed for an hour and a half, and I wrote 307 words. Today, I worked for an hour, and produced 500 words. Back in November, when I was writing like mad and using QWERTY, I could write about 400 words in a 15 minute sprint. So, I still have a ways to go, but I feel confident. I want to get back up to speed, and I want more 8-hour writing days (I never wrote for eight hours straight; I just did sprints, and took breaks, and sometimes took walks, and came back, ready to pound out more words.

Exercise Challenge
Not so great. I did walk around our block (uphill about half the time, and downhill and level-ish the rest of the time) for half an hour, and I only had to suck on my inhaler 2 or 3 times. My goal is to do that without the inhaler, of course.
But that's it. Well--I did walk to and from work a couple times this week (no buses over the holiday, including Monday, which I thought was extra rude).
But I also just finished a (completely delicious) grilled bacon-and-cheese sandwich, with a glass of orange juice, because I felt guilty. So, you know.
But I'm walking to work today, in just a few minutes (which is why I only wrote for an hour today).

Anyway, more later!

Challenges and goals

It's the last day of 2011, so I thought I'd post my challenges for 2012 ...

Short Story Challenge
I mentioned this earlier, so I'll be brief: my challenge for 2012 is to write and publish 50 stories in a year, based on a title. I will post them here, and then publish each story as the next is ready.

Comic Challenge
The Comic Challenge is to draw and publish three comic pages per week, for Grim Tales. My ideal situation would be to draw page 1 on Monday, and publish it on Wednesday, also drawing page 2. Etc.

Writing Challenge
My Writing Challenge was originally stated to be "continuing with my normal writing stuff" ... so, that means: continuing to send the stories I wrote this year to magazines; finishing and publishing Lifechanger, and working on my school-girl demon-hunter novel; and participating in challenges like NaNoWriMo, NaPoWriMo, (possibly) Screnzy, etc.

Weight Challenge
I think this might be more properly called "The Exercise Challenge", but weight is an obvious thing to measure. Since starting my anti-depressant, I have been less depressed and gaining weight. I didn't really notice until two or three months ago that I was about 30 pounds heavier than I'd thought I was.
So, I want to exercise and try to lose those 30 pounds again. Starting weight is 200lbs. I'll attempt to post updates about exercise attempts and successes.

Dvorak Challenge
I recently  taped the Dvorak layout to my keyboard ... it's being a slow process, learning the layout. I'm somewhat worried about how this will affect my writing speed, so my challenge is to learn the layout, and possibly even learn to properly type it.

Okay, that's what I've got for now. I'll sign off now to enjoy my new year's eve.

Short Story Challenge!

Sort of like a New Years' resolution. Dean Wesley Smith inspired me to challenge myself in 2012. Paraphrasing his example (100 stories in one year), I will challenge myself to write 50 stories in one year. I will also take his example of writing them from titles, but instead of looking at books and short stories for my titles, I've got a huge list of adoptable titles from the NaNo forums.
I'm not sure yet how I'll choose--I might print out a list of titles and find some way (darts?) to choose at random; I might print out a list, cut it into bits, put them into a large bowl or something, and choose a new title out of the bowl; I might just pick a handful and make a poll on the blog for my readers to choose from. I may do a mix of all three ...
Regardless, I will strive to write, publish, and make a cover for 50 stories (that's about a story a week, which terrifies me), in addition to my regular writing (novels and novellas), NaNoWriMo, and attempting to do a blog post at least once per week.
So, there's that.

In other news, I finished NaNoWriMo, getting to 50,171 words before I went to bed last night--and I'm not planning on writing any fiction today--I'll do a little work, including this blog, and maybe working on some kind of system for my Challenge--lists of names, titles, etc., just so I don't have to think about names, etc., for too long and can hopefully have the next title stewing my brain before I have to jump into it.
Then it will be food and decompression time: an episode of Castle or Doctor Who, something warm to eat, (dark) chocolate (almond) milk ... yum.

NaNo is Saving My Life

I've been wanting to be a writer, an author for a very long time. In the last couple years, I've been very serious about that, trying to improve my writing through critique groups and reading about writing. The last few months, I've been getting serious about being published and being read, reading blogs about publishing, looking into self-publishing and e-readers--my writing group started a publishing company.
But through all that, I wondered. I wondered if the freelancing life was for me. Especially when I started reading about it. I wondered if I had the temperament, the drive, the love required to be a full-time writer, a full-time freelancer.
Then, for those not up on my personal life: I got married, which involved a fair amount of stress, and a lot of not doing anything but work, wedding planning, and trying to eat and sleep enough. The wedding was fabulous, and once I'd recovered (mostly, slept), and my husband (!) had gone back to work, I still had a few days of not-working. And NaNo was upon us! (We got weddinged on 11/5.)
So I started writing.
I started writing a lot, because I was about 6 days behind (and I've only gained one day on that). I did start work again recently, but my days off have become freelancing days, full-time writing days.
And you know what?
I love it. I absolutely love waking up, eating breakfast and then writing. I've been giving myself 1,000-word marathons: after 1,000 words, I am allowed to get up, refill my water bottle and/or tea mug, go to the bathroom, eat some food, stretch, etc. Sometimes I take walks or clean a small part of the house in between, just to do something physical.
Can I tell you how crazy that is for me? I hate doing physical stuff--but then, I'm usually exhausted from the whole work-day thing, and all I want when I'm home is to hole up and read or watch Dr. Who/Community/Castle/House/Bones/Dead Like Me/etc.
But now that I'm holed up in my office all day, writing, anything is possible. I finally cleaned the living room--not entirely, but a lot better than it had been--which I'd been avoiding all month. And I cleaned rather than go for a walk because the weather turned nasty yesterday, and I'm not sure my boots have dried from it yet.

So, anyway--every day that I devote to writing is another day that confirms my desire to write full-time, to be a freelance writer. This last week or two (with occasional interruptions from the working world and other things) have been amazing.

And then, because I've been meaning to do this, I present pictures of my office:

Posters, left to right: Emilie Autumn's against animal cruelty "Rats aren't creepy. Experimenting on the IS."; Alice in Wonderland I won at the CONduit Art Auction; EA's painting that I got with VIP tickets to see her at her last show.
The black-and-white orbs adorned the reception, and they also fit the Feng Shui of the office (black is good for Career, White for Creativity--plus the good energy they got from being part of the wedding? Perfect!), so I added them.
The notes under the rat painting: my goal to make a living with my writing, and three quotes that give me good feelings.

The place where the magic happens: my padded chair, my desk lamp, my little paper-stand, great for typing in hand-written stories/scenes/notes, and, of course, my netbook (Elizabeth Bathory). Also a candle and my water bottle, and my mp3 player (Hathor), which has been a little under the weather lately.

Behind my chair, my printer, my Heterodyne Coffee "Spark Roast" poster (It's Perfection in every cup!), and below all that is the round black cushion (very good Feng Shui) where my cats sometimes sleep ... when they don't want to climb up on my lap, which, by the way, is where Elizabeth Bathory usually goes. Of course.

Anyway, this space is wonderful--though I'm thinking of expanding it enough for a bookshelf--to store my writing books. My journals, and a few low-circulation magazines that I've been published in (like my high school's art & literature magazines) are kept above the desk--you can see them at the top of the first picture. But I'd still like to keep my writing books nearby.

Anyway, I'm very close to being halfway through the challenge (though I'll probably save that for tomorrow, since it's getting a little late), and every day that I "sit down at the keyboard and give it everything I have" is a Really Good Day. (That's one of my quotes on my wall.)
Love you all! Time to eat, and watch Castle, or maybe House or Bones ...

Sewing Update

Today, I did not work, and I didn't have anywhere else to be. So I spent all day working on sewing. First thing: I decided to go with the "cool thing", which is three pieces instead of one or two. All my corsets so far have been one-piece, with one set of ties in the back. Theoretically, making a "pair of bodies" (lacing in back and front) shouldn't be that much harder, but I've never done it.
Cutting the "front" piece from the "side" pieces (and then adjusting them so that I could wear the whole thing) actually wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I didn't have to rip that many seams, because the stitch holders fit perfectly into the boning channels ...
I added an extra boning channel per side piece, and here we go:

Look: three pieces! With holes for ribbons (also spiral lacing ... )

I used to cut the zip-ties with tin snips. You'd think those would work well, being made for cutting metal, and I'm cutting plastic and all. But what really happened was that I had to close the tin snips as tight as I could around the plastic, hold that for a minute, then take the zip tie out and turn it around, and cut the other side. Usually, I could then bend the piece of zip-tie back and forth until it snapped, but sometimes I needed to go back over them with the tin snips.
I bought a PVC cutter, after borrowing a friend's, and holy gods, does it make my life so much easier. I figure out where I want to cut, put it in the cutter, and snip! I have two pieces. It's an amazing piece of equipment.

The PVC cutter that has made corsetry amazingly easy ... cutting bones the old way SUCKED.

And now we have the corset, bones in place (look at the shadows; they're made from the bones). Yay! It only took me one day (less than that, because I spent the morning reworking the corset and adding stitch markers) to cut and place all the bones. (I am nearly out of my zip-ties, too. I need another trip to Ace Hardware before my next project. I get the ridiculously long 48" zip-ties because I get more boning for less money.)  

Look! Bones! In channels! And cut to length!

Tomorrow, I will cut the pretty fabric. I'll probably use the sewing machine a little there, to just sew a couple straight lines along the side edges to hold the fabric in place, but after that, the sewing machine can go back to its storage shelf (it would be really nice if I actually had shelf space for the creature).
I envision going to gaming tomorrow night with corset-pieces, ribbon, a needle and some thread--placing the fabric and sewing the ribbon trim around the edges is all I have left to do. (Well, I'm going to have to figure out straps, but that's part of cutting the fabric--and, actually, I just had an idea that might make the strap-situation a LOT easier .... )

Sewing Project

I started working on the wedding corset last night after work, and continued this morning before work.
Before I left for work, I completed this:

The corset "shell"--the denim lining that will hold the boning. 

I read a lot of stuff before starting to work, and contrary to what I read, corset-making isn't difficult, but a lot of it is time-consuming. It took me all "morning" (I woke up at 1pm) to get the boning channels sewn. Three hours, then, since I showered at 4pm before eating and heading to work.
Oh, and please note the lacing--spiral lacing, and it's period. (I'm not actually a period Nazi (denim interior, plastic bones), but I take pleasure in doing things in the period way, when I can--for instance, I won't be using grommets. I buy plastic (not-period) stitch markers (for knitting and crocheting), and set those between the two denim layers, and hold them in place with a few stitches until it's basically done. Then I do the period thing and stitch buttonhole style around them to hold them in place. It's sturdy (grommets pull out sometimes) and it looks good (and period!).)

A close-up of the shell, an example "bone" (zip-tie) and the yummy fabric I bought as a remnant and didn't realize was so yummy until after I brought it home and opened it ...

Tomorrow, I will begin cutting the two outer fabrics--ever since coming upon the theory (at my first real CONduit) of reversible corsets, I haven't seen the point of a non-reversible one. So, instead of the pretty fabric and the lining, I'll be doing two outer fabrics. The purple pictured above is for the wedding. The black-and-red not pictured will just be for whenever.
AND, I have an idea for something that would look cool, but require more work ... so, we'll see.

Anyway, it's late, and I should go to bed.

Script Frenzy Begins!

Apologies to anyone who reads my blog: March was full of editing (National Novel Editing Month, 50 hours of editing in 31 days), and I just never got around to writing a new blog post.
So, even though it's April, and April is not only Script Frenzy (100 pages in 30 days), but also National Poetry Writing Month (30 poems in 30 days), and I've decided to do both, I will also attempt to write more blog posts. At least one per week.

Some brief updates:
Screnzy: 6 pages of 100, and I'm on track so far. (I'm doing a stage-play adaptation of my story the Taking, which is about how horrifying Faerie is.)
NaPoWriMo: 2 poems so far, neither of them emotion-based (they both have to do with fairy tales), and one of them is composed of rhyming couplets!
(And there's a Rapunzel contest going on over at Enchanted Conversation, so that's gonna occupy my poetry for the next couple days ... )
EdMo: though it's over, I figured I'd mention that I did get 50 hours of editing done, and I think I have two hours left (on the thirty-first, I got five chapters in five hours, so I figure the last two chapters in two hours is a reasonable guess--and no, I don't have fifty-two chapters, but I did do multiple drafts) before I have a presentable version of my novel, Lifechanger. When that happens, I'll start sending it to CALLIHOO (the writing group) for critique. But I'm pleased with it.
Bellydancing: Monday was my first bellydancing class, yay! It was lots of fun!

And that might be it for updates. See you in a few days, hopefully.

Hello, Saturday. I have a day off today. DP does too, of course.
Probably we'll do housely things that haven't otherwise been getting done, like cleaning out the fridge, and making soup. We might also watch a movie, though.

I'm trying to write, but my brain is mostly not cooperating. There's the fairy tale magazine, a Crimson Pact anthology, and I'd just love to submit something to Realms of Fantasy ... (Strange Horizons has already seen most of my basically done stories.)
I have a couple stories that I've written and have gone through the critique process a couple times, and maybe I could continue to look at them, but they're basically ready, so I guess I can try to send them out as often as possible.
But the fairy tale and the Crimson Pact story have to be new, because I've never written a story involving the Crimson Pact before, and I can't anticipate what the next fairy tale theme will be ... and I can't really smoosh them together (though I did come up with an idea for a story that would do that ... ) because their reading periods are similar, and at least one of them doesn't want to be reading the same thing as someone else at the same time. I guess that's polite.

But still, if I can write a bunch of new short stories, even if they don't get published right away, that's more stories to polish, then send out to non-themed magazines. Because, as it turns out, I think I do better with longer stuff than shorter. Not necessarily novel-length: my Changeling stories are all about 12,500 words (give or take a thousand), which is at least 2,500 more words than the maximum accepted submission I've seen so far ... so I'm not sure what I'll do with those ... And the story I'm trying to write for the writing group's Quarterly Challenge is quickly turning into ... probably novel-length.

Anyway, maybe I'll have breakfast now.

On the intersection of sprite comics and fairy tales

So, I was talking with some friends the other day about fairy tales. The writing group found a new writing magazine called "Enchanted Conversation: a fairy tale magazine", which asks for submissions on the topic of the fairy tale they have chosen for that particular issue.

The magazine also listed some guidelines which caused us to discuss fairy tales in general, and I was relating to my friends what I took away from a book I read while doing research for the changeling stories. The book is [enter book here], and it was highly interesting. If you have any interest in fairy tales, I recommend reading it.

What's relevant to this post, however, is what the author said about symbolism in fairy tales, and how, I realized today, that relates to the sprite comic format.

You see, in fairy tales, it's nearly all symbols. A fairy tale is a story told in symbols: the "true love's kiss" is a symbol for falling in love, the period of near-death (enchanted sleep, a period of working and waiting) the female protagonist goes through is a symbol for the transformation or period of personal growth she's going through during that period.

There are no thought processes in fairy tales, very few descriptions of anyone or anything, there are only the characters' words and their actions.

And that brings us to the sprite comic format. When I first started planning a webcomic (to the point of starting a script for Script Frenzy), I was aware of the differences in approach that existed between a script and a piece of prose, like a story. But I'd encountered that the year before when writing a screenplay, and so it seemed very easy to write out the character's dialog, and then just sort of imagine I had an artist who would read my notes on what everything was supposed to look like, and so I could describe it that way.

But when I started thinking that a sprite comic would be the way to get this thing actually done, that's when I had to think a little bit harder. Because, you see, the thing about the sprite comic is that it's not about the art. It's about symbols. In this case, it's about visual symbols, rather than words describing symbols, but still: it's much like a fairy tale.

Regardless of how many poses and facial expressions I have for my characters, they are still symbols. And that's a much different way of approaching a story than I have been so far.

So, now I'm even more excited ... also, my sister is going to be drawing my characters' paper dolls for me (and maybe even backgrounds ... ), so I officially have art that won't suck. (Well, it's not official yet. I have to get her the character descriptions, which I am working on feverishly. And should now get back to.)

A New Idea!

Wow, they're just all over, aren't they? (New ideas.)

Well, I was reading dither's blog (again, you can follow this elegant and finely crafted link), wherein his comic got fan art! (Which is totally cool.)
Well, he has mentioned sprites before, but here he says the magic phrase: sprite comic format. I had to look it up. (See the other Wiki to see what I read.) And then DP clarified it for me.
Basically, you take static elements, and then put them together. Computer graphics, tiny pixellated blobs of color, and static backgrounds. You tell a story basically with props, instead of with amazing artwork.
Well, it takes me way too long to draw anything (I have, I can, but not in any sustained way, not really), and I don't have a video gaming or computer-related background. So here's how the idea morphed in my head:
Paper dolls!

I'm going to draw the backgrounds and dolls myself, including clothes and other props. I haven't decided yet how I'll put the whole thing together, but I have some options. The end product will be something basically comic-book-like, but I'll actually be able to produce it, and keep updating it.
This is exciting!

Trying Something New

Actually, trying a few new things. Let's see if I can enumerate them all:

First: I'd like to try updating at least once per week. That feels really weak, but I know myself, and I know that when I'm manic it's totally easy for me to believe that I can update every day, and write three novels, and get back into deviantART and start planning my cooking show, etc. So, I'm starting small.

Second: To encourage myself to update more than once per week, I'm going to try to limit my updates. I have a tendency to write really long blog posts every three months, and I think that deters me from writing more often. I believe my friend dither (of the blog mentioned in the last update--and yes, I'm starting to actually think of you as dither, even though I first met you in real life ... ) has a minimum word requirement for his blogs: I might make a maximum requirement. No more than ... I don't know yet. I also don't want to say it, because this update will probably go (way) past it ...

Third: Without going into too much detail, my family attempted some open and honest communication this weekend ... the part that is pertinent to this is the part where I was told that I focus too much on the negative. Skipping over all the things I could say to that, even the ones I am remotely tempted to say in response to that, I'll just say that I started thinking about doing a gratitude journal again. Um, there's way too much there to sum up, so maybe that will be an extra update, but suffice it to say (for now) that I thought maybe it'd be a good idea to post ... not everything that I put in my paper gratitude journal, but some of it.

Fourth: I will go into my plan for this year (I make plans when manic) in another update, but I'd like to update you all on my various creative projects. I'll post pictures when that makes sense, or maybe snippets of writing that I'm doing, or whatever. I have ideas about what I'm going to do this coming year, and I'd like you all to be a part of it.

So, minimum number of posts per week + maximum number of words per post + at least two specific "topics" (which will go into different updates) = I think I'll update multiple times per week.
Okay, so this post is a little over four hundred and fifty words total. I think I might place the cap at five hundred. I'll have to look at what this post looks like to be certain, but I think that's it.

Love you all, thanks for reading.

broken girl

Hey, I'm writing!
It's crazy, I know. It's November, which means I'm busily working on a novel, and, as a rule, I only update Facebook in November, and that's mostly just word count.
Also, I'm sick, which means I should be drinking orange juice and sipping tea and eating soup all day long, from the comfort of my bed, right?
Well, I have had both orange juice and soup, I've got some tea right in front of me, and I've been in bed a lot of the day. But I also wrote over 2,250 words today, and I watched an episode of Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne (one of my favorite animes) with DP (before a short nap).
Now I'm up, because I'm drinking more tea, and I'm looking at--and being inspired by--a friend's blog. (See it through this elegant and finely-crafted link.)
So, I'm inspired to write in my blog. I don't think I can do multiple daily updates, but maybe I can do multiple weekly updates?
Maybe?

So, NaNo update, since I'm here:
Finished all the Changeling stories, yay! The last one's a bit short, but once I can slow down some, I'll be able to flesh it out.
I find that when I'm able to write slowly, my first drafts are not very rough, because I'm taking at least a year to write a long story. But when I'm writing a story in a matter of days, it's very rough, and I'm interested in finding out how long the first revision process will take.
I started Lifechanger today, or rather, I started finishing Lifechanger today. It's last year's NaNo, and I'm actually very proud of it, because I basically took MANY threads my brain was chewing on around that time and wove it together into a complex novel with an interesting storyline. (Especially once I figure out what role the mother plays ... )
And it's not proving that hard to get back into it, even with Changeling making my brain all twisted and dark and scary ... yes, just as though it weren't already.

Oh, and I've hit the halfway mark. Go me!

July is coming to a close. Thank you, July, you've been wonderful. A little hot, maybe, but it always happens that way, and out here in Utah, August cools down a bit. So that's alright.
In the past week and a half or so, I've started watching Avatar the Last Airbender again, I've continued work on a short story that I absolutely must present to my writing group in a week and a half if I want to retain my membership privileges, and I started playing Age of Empires, found my long-lost AoE2 disk (and managed to retrieve it from my non-functional laptop) and then discovered that it was really the Conqueror's Expansion that I remembered, and I have begun to read New Moon (I think it's worse than Twilight, and I think it's because we start with the whole Edward-is-so-perfect-I-just-want-to-barf stuff right off ... at least in the first one it took a little while ... ).
Also, yesterday while waiting for the bus in the drizzle for half an hour, I read the cover story of In This Week, and decided that what I want to do is to become a burlesque dancer. And in the slight mania I've been feeling lately, I came with a way to do everything I want to do, going slowly and adding in new things one at a time. We'll see how it works.

Anyway, I should eat lunch, and run an errand to ask for Sunday off and get an August bus pass ... love you all!!

Teen Romance + Selkies

This seems to be the start of an irregularly updated podcast. Listen and enjoy.



Some things mentioned in the podcast:
The Wikipedia article about Selkies
The Mabinogion Tetralogy by Evangeline Walton
The named characters of the Celtic myth: Blodeuwedd, Lugh (really it's Lleu Llaw Gyffes, but I figured this alternate would work)

Thank you for listening. I really do have plans for a novel about selkies, though how much teen romance will be in it I can't yet say for sure. However, I have one or two other little projects demanding my attention first. Stay tuned for the next podcast update: the Twilight Review!

If I Fall (chorus)

This is (probably) the chorus of the song I'm working on. Give it a listen, let me know what you think ...



P.S. MAJOR thanks to this video tutorial for being the only person I could find who knew how to do this. Woot.

If I Fall

I started writing some music yesterday ... and by writing music, I definitely don't mean actually writing anything down (though I did jot down some proto-lyrics just hoping the little note would help me actually remember the tune of what is probably the chorus long enough to sing it all the way through).
I was at work, and I started humming, and I started recording the bits of tune into my phone, just so I'd remember it. When I got home, I downloaded Audacity onto my computer, and started recording on my computer. I've come up with some words along the way, and I have a full chorus, and maybe even a real verse ... though no more than one.
I would love to post the chorus as a .WAV file here, but I'm not sure how yet. (Help?)
I also have no idea how to do anything but come up with the vox. I don't really play any instruments (sorta know how to play the piano, right hand only; I'm trying to teach myself the violin but I've been neglecting it--though not for long, I have a friend who will at least help me tune it; etc.), really I'm just a vocalist.
I was thinking the song might go on my CD of poetry that I've been working on for a couple years now (off and on--and now it's on, baby, since I have a way to record myself again). The idea for that was to record some of my poetry and give the CD to my friends and family. We'll see.
Anyway, as soon as I figure out how to share the music, I'll do that. Love you all.

Summer Solstice

And since I mentioned it in an earlier blog, I'd like to note:
Summer Solstice was wonderful. I went camping with a whole bunch of heathens (that's Celtic/Germanic pagans) and my boyfriend, and it was a good time. There was some form of ritual/worship every day, there was singing (DP and I sang a couple songs ... note to self, find the lyrics to the entirety of 'Blue Boat Home' for next time), and there was general enjoyment of each other's company.
DP and I roasted marshmallows, which fed my soul, because the last time we camped (in March), I failed to remember marshmallows. (Note to self, look for gluten-free graham crackers for s'mores.)
I even wrote a tiny bit--I brought my little computer with me because it has about 7 hours' worth of battery, and I figured it would be useful if I found myself really wanting to write. And I did, a little bit.

Also, since we got back, Steven has given me how-tos for medieval-ish Celtic women's dress, and I'm pretty excited about it. At some point in time, I will go to a fabric store and get some fabric for it, and hopefully have most of an outfit by early August, which is the next Holy Day (Lughnasadh), and the next camping-with-heathens opportunity. (I'll need penannular brooches to hold the thing together, though ... hmmm .... must work on that ... on the other hand, my birthday's in July ... )

Changes are starting ...

Because, you know, it's impossible for me to wait once I've basically decided on a course of action. Which is ridiculous, because of how difficult it is for me to make decisions in the first place. Or maybe it makes sense: Oh! I just made a decision! Better act on it, quick, before I change my mind again!

The only thing that's bothering me is I don't see a way to simply "hide" certain posts, making them not visible to the public. If I don't want it up, I have to delete it. I guess.
I'll keep looking, because I don't want to entirely delete something I have written, but I may have to do something drastic, or at least time-consuming ...

Life is happening again, slowly. I did laundry today (I have at least three more loads to do--I wash all my clothes by hand, now--not counting towels and bedding and stuff) and I've gotten most of the way through updating my budgeting project (now all I have to do is go through the times when the money had to come out my checking account but was supposed to come out my savings account, so I can be sure my money's all where it's supposed to be). I did not clean the kitchen today, but my roommate promised to do dishes tonight, so I think I'll wait till morning to clean the kitchen, so there are fewer dirty dishes in my way, and I don't have to wash all the dishes just to get at my counter space.

I'm leaving very soon for my boyfriend's house, where we will eat dinner and watch a documentary that he got from Netflix ... we have to return it so we can get a new movie, but he's had it for over a month and is pretty sure that the only way he'll watch it is if I watch it with him ... *sigh*

Anyway, gotta go! Love you all!