Well, not lazy personally, but lazy about updating.

Balticon was fun. Not as busy as I've been some shows, but busy enough. Caught up with friends and made a few new ones. Need to get some paperwork done that I promised a few people at the show and hopefully that will be happening in the next few days. Really had fun doing the Edgar Allen Poe panel on his detective stories.

Fun thing happened at my reading. Had a couple of people stop by. Told them I was going to be reading the first couple of chapters from my new Stargate Novel. One got on the phone and called a friend announcing a Stargate reading and *boom*, I had more people at that reading then I've had at any other reading I've ever done. The good thing about it was they laughed when they were supposed to, groaned at the "bad" jokes and most said they'd definitely pick up the book when it came out. *Score!*

The reason I'm a little behind on my Balticon projects is while I was there, Writer Beware was officially offered part of the Mystery Writers of America's booth at Book Expo America. Which, of course, was the next weekend. So, between Monday and Thursday, I had to coordinate for a table display, create business cards, make lots of phone calls, coordinate with a good friend for crash space (hotels were all gone by then) and make train reservations.

Why the train? Because on Tuesday (after Balticon), I was going to drop off my new car at Mazda for it's 7500 tune-up and oil change. When I reached the end of the street, I was horrified to see approximately four inches of water roll out from beneath my passenger's seat and puddle on the floorboards. We'd had a huge thunderstorm on Monday and apparently the drains were clogged in my car, forcing the water into the passenger compartment. Oh, joy. So, Mazda fixed that (under warranty, thank goodness), but I didn't get my car back until after BEA was over.

Still, BEA was a blast. Writer Beware had a great experience and again a major tip of the hat to the MWA for hosting us! Victoria Strauss has already posted some of our experiences from there on the Writer Beware Blog and Ann and I are working on entries to go up there too. Also, it was good to see Steve Roman again. It'd been a few years since we'd actually visited (San Diego ComicCon 2005 to be exact), and we made up some lost time visiting as well as him playing tour guide for the big Midwestern kid. Can't believe I walked past the Empire State Building four times before I realized what I was seeing. *sigh*

I'm back on Childhood's Tears again. Finishing up the edits to Chapter Four. I've spent the past few nights rereading my Lovecraft and I think I've finally got the other plot I'd been needing for this book to start adding in. I'm hoping this will make the story a tad more creepy. I don't want to take away from the Action/Adventure parts, but a certain horror overtone would really set this book off. *keeping fingers crossed*

Also, I'm meeting with an actual web designer this weekend to get nightwolfgraphics.com/richardcwhite.com up and operational again. We're probably moving web hosts and definitely bringing the web site into the 21st century. When he started spouting .jsp vs .php and all the other acronyms that go with modern design, I just nodded and decided I'll let him worry about how it works. *grin*

Oh, work? Yeah, I'm playing one-armed paper-hanger right now there. Should be a very entertaining month.

So, given all this, I probably should go to bed.

It was a day of many ups and downs.

Our oldest cat had to go into the vet today. He'd been listless and we found bloody stools last night, which scared me to no end. wishweaver stayed home to take him to the vet, so I had to wait until late this afternoon to hear from her. Luckily, the big goofball was all right, the vet believes he was just constipated. They're going to run tests on the stools, but we've been giving him his medicine and Jim seems to be a lot perkier than he was.

Wish tells me he didn't hiss or growl at the vet like usual, so that tells me he didn't feel very good. Poor guy.

I was supposed to get my Miata back today. When 1300 came and no calls, I buzzed the auto body shop and the receptionist told me they'd get back to me as soon as the guy came back in from talking to a customer. So, of course he called me back about 1530. They had found a small other problem (tail light had a crack in it, so they fixed it also) and I could pick up the car before 1700. I had to wrap stuff up at work pretty quick after that and hustle over to the shop (mainly because I only had the rental for three days), but Alita is back home and she's looking as good as the day I got her. Huzzah!

Still haven't heard anything about my MFA application. They were supposed to send out acceptance letters at the end of February, but so far, nothing. I'm trying to be patient and not call them, but I'd love to get this over with one way or the other.

I finally got my contract from Fandemonium last night, but I had a few questions that I'd like to have answered before I sign it. I was hoping when I got home from work they would have responded, but no such luck. I did go ahead and work on the story though, adding 1681 words to Shadows. I do hope they respond soon as I'd like to get that worry off of my mind.

Oh, yeah, I have a project due at work on Monday and with all this other stuff on my mind, I got bumpkiss done on that. Like it or not, I'll have to put in some time this weekend to make up for all the personal stuff that's popped up this week. *bleah*

Just one of those days.
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Words for Today

1681 / 1000 words. 168%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

42689 / 80000 words. 53%

Words for 2009

34135 / 365000 words. 9%

Got the car to the repair shop and picked up the rental car. Minimal amount of pain involved there, although I have to take a bit of umbrage at the insurance company. They said I'd get an equivalent car for a rental. I'm afraid their concept of equivalent and mine are somewhat different. I have a Miata, and while I certainly wasn't expecting them to shell out for a Corvette or anything like that, I expected a sub-compact, maybe a compact.

I got a Chevy Malibu.

There's nothing wrong with the car, it's a 2008 and it's in great condition, but it's huge compared to what I've been driving the past year. I do not have a good feel for the right and left boundaries on the car and the sight patterns are all wrong.

Oh, by the way, it's an automatic. I haven't owned an automatic since 1984. Trying to remember to leave the left foot on the floor when braking is not easy. *grin*

Still, it's only for three days (hopefully) and I'm riding into work with wishweaver tomorrow. I suspect the car may not move until I have to go get my car from the shop. Still, it's good to have the spare in case something comes up.

Took some time away from the house tonight. Ran a few errands and went out to dinner with Wish (daughter-unit decided her leftover pizza was good enough tonight) and just relaxed and talked about stuff. She's been very patient with my writing, but I thought it might be good for her to see I don't automatically gravitate to the computer as soon as I get home from work.

Still, I did get in some writing. (What? You thought I forgot about my deadline?) I added 1507 words to Shadows and I've now got the plot and the three subplots percolating nicely now. It'll be fun how things cascade to the finale from this point.

Have to go to a meeting with the daughter-unit's new school in the morning, so I better call it here.

Night, LJ-land.
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Words for Today

1507 / 1000 words. 151%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

41008 / 80000 words. 51%

Words for 2009

32454 / 365000 words. 9%

Actually, it's going to be a very busy next few weeks. I have four documents at work I need to have finished by 06 April and then the first draft of Shadows of the Heart is due at Fandemonium on 12 April. So, I predict a LOT OF WRITING in my future over the next six weeks. I am anticipating my stress level going through the roof during this time, but hey, the tech writing pays the bills so I can afford to actually write for myself.

At least, I have a new vice to go along with the stress. There's a store at the mall called Teavanna, and I found a very nice tea mixture that they were giving away samples of. It's a mixture of Samurai Chai Mate and White Ayurvedic Chai. It's a white tea with 100% the caffeine equivalent of coffee. So, now I can supplement the coffee IV with this stuff. Whoo hoo!!!!

Just got back from the auto body shop. The insurance adjuster agreed with the estimate so, in a week or so, my car goes into the shop for a few days. Here's hoping they don't spot any more damage while they're in there.

Of course, I nearly got creamed again today. I was turning left at a different intersection, but still two lanes go left here also. I was in the outside lane and as I made my turn, I noticed the car next to me was swinging INTO MY LANE from the interior lane. Luckily, there was a small shoulder, so I was able to duck and brake to get away from them. I caught up to them at the next light and the (insert curse word of choice) person was talking on her cell phone, completely oblivious to the fact she damn near took the front end off of my car.

GAAAAAHHH!!!!!

When I have the car in the shop, I'm going to ask them to see if they can find the idiot magnets in it and get rid of them.

We had company parts of the holiday weekend, so I didn't get as much writing done as I had hoped. The majority came in a trek to B&N on Sunday and then tonight. Still, I'm happy with the 5492 words and since there are no more three-day weekends between now and then, I'm hoping we can keep the distractions down to a minimum. The operative word is "hoping".

Oh, and if I didn't need another time sink, I've finally gone to the dark side and picked up a Twitter account. We'll see how long that lasts or if it becomes too much of a distraction. Still, if you're vaguely interested, you can either search for me or @nightwolfwriter.
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Words for Today (2 day total)

5492 / 2000 words. 275%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

21078 / 100000 words. 21%

Words for 2009

13524 / 365000 words. 4%

And no, I am not channeling Emeril.

Absolutely beautiful morning this morning. I'd enjoyed being able to ride home yesterday with the top down, taking advantage of 62 degree weather in February. While it was a little chillier this morning due to the winds (averaging 15 mph with gusts up to 50), I was still thinking it would be a fun drive in.

And it was, until I got almost all the way to work. I was on the service road that goes around BWI airport, getting ready to turn left toward the office. There are two lanes that turn left here and I was in the leftmost lane. As I turn, I see there's a repair truck in the right lane stopped. No flashers, no flares, just there. What I almost didn't see was the car in the right-hand lane swerving into my lane to avoid it, but I did and I tapped my brakes until I was sure what she was doing.

BAM

The car following me through the intersection didn't see me brake until it was too late. Needless to say, there was much blue language coming from me at that point and time. He followed me to the local McDonald's where we exchanged information. The lady who swerved into my lane? She took off and was nowhere to be found.

Luckily, his insurance should be paying for this (waiting to hear from the adjuster). The initial estimate of damages (a fist-sized dent in my rear bumper, thank goodness)is right at $1000. Apparently they have to pull the bumper, replace it with a new one and then repaint it to match the car.

This is highly annoying, especially since my MX-5 only has 4700 miles on it. The poor thing is barely broken in and already Maryland strikes again. (If you remember, I got rear-ended Halloween 2007 also.) In my driving career, I'd been involved in two accidents (well, four if you count kamakazi deer jumping into my car at night) between 1977 and 1999. Since moving to Maryland in 1999, I've been rear-ended twice, wishweaver's been hit once, and my old truck had it's bumpers bent back in parking lot hit and runs three times, plus we've lost two windshields due to debris on the roads. I think Wish may have been hit a couple of times in parking lots also, plus my truck had been broken into at least three times.

Have I mentioned I can't wait to move out of this state?

I guess I should be happy the damage wasn't any worse and no one got hurt, but right now I'm not feeling very charitable toward my fellow drivers.

I did get some writing done on Shadows tonight, adding 1092 words. Although I wasn't in the Air Force like the SG-1 team . . . o.k., half the team, I find writing some of the scenes really easy because I can think back to incidents and experiences I went through on exercises or in Desert Storm and express what I was thinking/feeling in those moments. Hopefully it'll help some of the scenes ring true when the readers get to those parts.

Getting ready for bed now, keeping the fingers crossed that the adjuster will call tomorrow.

P.S.: I have to admit I'm surprised I didn't get a single response to yesterday's post. Am I to assume no one on the friends list besides myself reads web comics? Hmmm . . . .
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Words for Today

1092 / 1000 words. 109%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

15586 / 100000 words. 16%

Words for 2009

8032 / 365000 words. 2%