Turned in my last assignment tonight for Astronomy Lab and spent some time talking with Professor Haxton while he was monitoring the others who were making up missed labs. Now it's just a matter of waiting for the college to post the grades for the semester (sometime next week, I hope) and I'll have almost officially ended my time at Howard Community College.

I say "almost" because I'm not graduating this May. Nope. Somehow, either I forgot to turn in a piece of paper or they can't find it, but I have to re-petition for graduation again. So, I'll officially be graduating from HCC in August, although I'm not taking any more classes. (Unless they mysteriously decide I need another class to graduate, at which point, I could be certifiably homicidal. *grrrrrr!*

Still, it's nice to put this behind me. I'm going to lay out a bit to let wishweaver go after her Masters in Computer Science and then I'll get started on my Masters in Creative Writing. Yes, I've pretty much decided to go ahead and see if I *can* write "literary fiction". Just like my class last year in Creative Writing, it's not exactly what I would write given my druthers, but it's good to stretch one's limits.

So, I'll be retiring the college avatar for a while, but hopefully not forever.

On the writing front, I finished the review of the edits for Redshift yesterday, typed up my notes, retyped a few entries to make them semi-coherent and sent them off to Marco. Now, it's just a matter of waiting until the book comes out in October.

That's still a concept I'm wrapping my head around. I guess I'm still new enough at this business that the idea of a book coming out that has something in it I contributed still gets me excited. Actually, I hope thirty years from now or so, I still get that excited. *grin*

Now, I need to finish those edits to The Price of Conviction and get them to kradical by Friday.

Took my Stars and Constellations test in Astronomy Lab last night. This test required us to visually identify 10 stars and 10 constellations. Even though it was somewhat overcast, I was able to spot a couple of stars and that gave me the reference points I needed to get started. For the record, I identified:

Stars: Capella, Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Rigel, Saif, Merope, Alcyone, Atlas, Arcturus, Regulus, Spica, Pollux, Castor, Sirius, Procyon, Polaris, Aldebaran

Constellations: Auriga, Orion, Taurus, Virgo, Bootes, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Leo Major, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Gemini, Lepus

We're going to an observatory at Goddard Space Center tonight as an additional lab and then next week is simply a review for our finals in our regular Astronomy classes. I've really enjoyed the Astronomy labs and I hope I can get a chance to use some of this knowledge, not only in my writing, but also when I drag the daughter-unit's telescope out on a dark summer's evening.

Hmmm, maybe we could upgrade it to a . . . *grin*

Last night was one of the first times we've been able to go outside when it was warm enough to enjoy using the telescopes. We set up the 8" Dobsian scopes on the plaza outside the class area and waited for it to get dark enough to really see the stars.

At 20:11:13 though, we caught a really cool sight. Iridium Satellite 80 was in the perfect position as the sun was setting to flare. Looking up into the darkening sky, all of a sudden a huge bright light appeared, reminding me of the old star flares we used to use in the military. It only lasted for a few seconds before fading out of site, but it occurred almost exactly where Professor Haxton had predicted it to appear. He told us it had taken him quite a while to figure out the satellite's orbit, the angle of its mirrors, the angle of the sun and the location of the Parking garage to determine if the flare could even be seen from our location, much less when it would happen.

Once that was over, we set up the telescopes and rushed to get our observations in before a cloud front moved in. First thing my partner and I observed was the quarter moon. We were lined up perfectly with the terminus between day and night on the moon and the shadows in the craters were easily observed. I think if the moon had been full, the 8" scope might have been a bit too powerful, but with the quarter moon, it was just about right. They tried to take some digital photographs through my scope, but I'm not certain if any turned out. If they do, I'll post some here.

Then we found Saturn again. This time, the atmosphere was perfect for watching. The rings were clear and distinct and the Cassini line was easily observed in the rings. Also, Titan was orbiting close to Saturn as well as a few of the other moons. I would really have loved to have that picture also, but the clouds were moving in quickly.

We attempted to spot a few double stars but by then, the clouds were too thick, so Professor Haxton called off the lab. We'll be doing some of our "manual" observations (determining angles using a cross-stick or your hand) this weekend. We're down to three labs left this year, which is disappointing, since I've really enjoyed this class a lot more than I thought I would.

Now, time to study for tomorrow night's test. Bleah.

All right. Ravencon is coming up this weekend.

Unfortunately, a gazillion things are all converging on me at the same time, so if I'm going to the convention there's stuff to do. To quote an old song, "There's a long way to go and a short time to get there".

Tonight, I spent 4.5 hours filling out paperwork for work that had to be done by Thursday.

By Thursday COB, I have to finish the history project (around going to class on Wednesday night).

Before I leave for Richmond, I need to review my Anime slide show for Ravencon and ensure it's on the computer AND on the thumb drive. Also, I need to remember to take the floppy keyboard for the palmtop computer so I can finish the first edits on The Price of Conviction while I'm at the show.

Plus, I need to finish up my lab assignment for class on Monday and prepare for a test on Monday night.

Also, I need to finish some edits on Shattered Mirror by Friday next week.

And, getting started on Demons and Devils would be a good idea.

Not to mention, getting back to submitting Harbinger to agents, and The Demon's Head to the short story market.

Oh, yeah, spending some time with family would be good.

*sigh*

Well, I had my second test in Astronomy tonight. Tell the truth, I have no clue how I did. The test was strictly from the book. There was no reason for me to have taken notes the past few weeks, which is frustrating, since I tend to rely on my notes primarily. (My history professors never used the book. If you missed lecture, you were at sea when it came time for the test, so attendance was highly recommended.)

I may have done very well, I may have bombed. I think I did O.K., but I don't have a warm fuzzy right now.

*sigh*

I took advantage of a slow day at work to try and get some research in on my history project, (more to come on that subject at a later date) and also wrote on The Price of Conviction. The words seemed to flow for me when I had time to get a few paragraphs in here and there. Retyped everything into the master document tonight after class and I'm pretty happy with how it's coming together. The ending is not what I thought it would be when I initially envisioned this project, but I'm pleased.

Now, if only my editor will be . . . *nervously glances around*

Words for Today

1,284 / 1,000 (128.4%)

Progress on The Price of Conviction

9,809 / 12,000 (81.7%)

Words for the Year

34,966 / 365,000 (9.6%)

Got home from work tonight in time to get the call from my history project manager. We reviewed the changes she wants made to the chapter. She'd like me to get this to her by Saturday afternoon so she can take it with her to a business conference she's going to next week. However, some of the changes she's looking for are going to take some research, so it'll probably be down to the wire to see if I can get the information or not.

Course, I didn't get much done this evening because I was studying for tomorrow night's test in Astronomy. Yep, test the week we get back from Spring Break. Evil, evil man this professor is.

Received an e-mail from Howard Community College. Apparently one of the poems I submitted last year (too late) for the college's literary magazine was accepted for this year's issue. I've been invited to do a reading of the poem in May and told them I'd be happy to attend. I went to last year's and enjoyed myself. There was some very imaginative stuff last year and I hope it'll be as entertaining this year.

Also, been indulging myself in some numismatic fun. I received my Canadian Silver Wolf Dollars today. A very nice 1/2 ounce silver bullion coin made by our northern neighbors. Of course, the first one I opened and put in the display case was commandeered by the daughter-unit. Ce la guerre.

Cute little devil, isn't he?


Oh well, off to bed and to dream of Carthaginian armor and elephants.

Lots of time spent with family being lazy. Shopping, running around, eating out, just spending time together.

Made reservations for BEA and got a hotel closer and cheaper than the "official" BEA hotels (3 blocks beats the hell out of walking 2.5 miles). Need to check into cost of Train to NYC from Baltimore and see if flying or training would be better . . . leaning toward flying since I already have a credit with AirTran that has to be used left over from the Arisia fiasco.

Played some Final Fantasy XII this weekend.

Watched some of the Adam-12 and Dragnet that wishweaver downloaded from iTunes.

Preparing for a double class tonight (have to make up last week's lab due to illness) - 6pm to 1030pm. *yeah*

Finished first half of project for Writer Beware.

Outlined a story idea.

Finished my writing vacation. Time to finish the next project on my plate.

Will be posting my RavenCon schedule soon. Hopefully, I'll actually make that convention. . . . *aarrgghh!*

OK, I've always thought myself a little jaded when it comes to the realm of space. I am after all a child of the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo years and remember watching Neil Armstrong take those first steps on the moon a few days after my tenth birthday. I remember rovers when they weren't little computerized buggies running around on Mars and Skylab was the space station.

I've read about space, I've looked at photographs of space, I've seen artist's renderings of space and I've listened to professors discuss space.

But until I took my Astronomy class this semester, I'd never actually "seen" space. Until tonight.

We went out on the rooftop of the parking garage tonight and braving the rapidly dropping temperatures and a cloud front moving over the area to attempt to use the computers on the 8" telescopes to view three celestial objects. Between the computers acting up and the weather, we wound up only having time to find one object.

But what an object.

For the first time in my life, I saw Saturn and it's rings with my own two eyes. (OK, one eye, but let's not quibble.) It wasn't the best of conditions for observing (the concrete of the parking garage was releasing the heat it has stored up through the day, making the atmospherics wavery, like looking out toward a desert horizon), but there it was. I could vaguely make out the stripes on Saturn and the Cassini gap between the A and B ring. The instructor helped point out Titan also, a much fainter object near Saturn.

It was too cool. Sorry, but I'm really geeked right now about this. I am so looking forward to when the warmer weather gets here and we can spend more time out doing observations without everyone complaining about freezing.

*grins*

Since we last talked, let's just say, my life has been an emotional roller-coaster.

The incident at work a week-ago Thursday blew up into an out and out fight between two section heads in my office with the help desk caught in the middle. It made for a very uncomfortable day, but apparently they had a big meeting (called people in from their day off, etc.) to get it straightened out. Everything seemed still tense, but that was to be expected.

That was 3:30.

( Stupidity follows, read at your own peril )

I have dropped my Science Through Science Fiction class. It had great potential, but the instructor wasn't able to keep control of certain individuals in the classroom. This made it very uncomfortable for me since I'm sorta there to learn something, not listen to a few people twenty-five years younger than me pontificate on how life really is. I didn't need the class to graduate anyway, but it was too late to change it to an audit class because of the snow days last week. This should free up more time for writing anyway and I am certainly enjoying my Astronomy classes.

However, today was much more relaxed. I met with April to work on Shattered Mirror, our collaboration on a YA fantasy novel, and it went very well. We reviewed the latest two chapters she'd written in the morning after a light breakfast and some parenting exchanges (her step-daughter and our daughter are the same age). Then after lunch, I poured a nice white zinfandel and cut up some cheeses and we plotted out Chapter 5 and parts of Chapter 6.

It felt really good to be doing writing stuff again and between wishweaver's helpful commentary (she's not writing the book with us, but she's serving as first reader/fellow kibitzer), and April's good insight on the characters, we made a lot of progress. It's weird, we've got a rough idea of where we want to go with this story, but we're not plotting more than a few chapters at a time. It's a hybrid pantser/plotter book, for those who worry about which version works best.

We went out to see Ghost Rider with dzeytoun, mollymorrison and sorerutenshi. It's not going to win any major awards for dramatic storytelling, but it was a fun popcorn movie and one I may purchase when it comes out on DVD. Molly had never read any of the comics, so it was interesting to get her initial reaction to the movie as well as discussing it with her later. Her first comments were it was a darker movie than she was expecting for a "comic book movie", and I had to agree. She also thought the "fight scenes" were too cut and dry and I have to agree there also. I thought the homage to the 50's Ghost Rider comics was a great touch and Sam Elliot was a great choice to play Carter Slade.

Tomorrow, I finish the edits to Redshift and get them en route to Marco. kradical has also given us a tentative deadline for the Doctor Who stories, so I'll be getting back to it very shortly. Once I have that done, then I have to make the big decision whether to return to Chronicles or start working on Nightingale's Path, the tentative title for my Historical Japanese Fantasy.

It's good to feel like writing again.

The place where I work as a contractor was closed today due to the weather. After calling in to my work and informing them I was staying home myself, I looked forward to a nice day of putzing around and getting some writing done. (Classes were canceled Tuesday evening and Wednesday all day at the college also.)

Well, my initial thoughts failed to take into account some honey-do's and other projects (like shoveling the driveway/sidewalks), but I made it through the first edits on Redshift and now I'm waiting for wishweaver to do her magic with the "Red Pen of Doom". I think it's easily going to fit into the 8-10K range after we get done with it.

Oh, and speaking of Redshift, DHL managed to recognize things like Maryland on the shipping label and delivered my contracts for the story, which I need to get out to Marco tomorrow or Friday. You know, I could get used to signing contracts for writing. *grin*

Still, I took advantage of the opportunity to also get some writing done on The Price of Conviction. It's starting to come together well, but I've got a ways to go yet before it's finished.

Probably should go to bed soon since I have the distinct feeling I'll have LOTS of fun at work tomorrow. *bleah*

Well, the word meter site seems to be having problems, so I'll just post numbers tonight and get the meter later.

Words for Today
1495 words

Progress on The Price of Conviction
4816 words

Words for the Year
28,973 words

Things are a little chaotic at Casa Blanco right now.

Holding up on The Price of Conviction for a bit to try and finish the edits on Redshift and I need to get some work done on Shattered Mirror since April is coming up on the Monday after Farpoint to work on the story.

Plus, I have to catch up a bit on some homework that got pushed back to deal with daughter-unit's school stuff.

At least, I'm healthier than I've been the past month, so I should be able to concentrate when I get home from school.

Oh, and work sucks.

That's all.

The day started out weirdly enough. We were getting school cancellations and workplaces asking people not to come in before a certain time (due to the two inches of snow we got). Got to love Maryland. So, since the place I work as a contractor had specifically said, Do NOT come to work before 9:00am (presumably so they could plow the powder-dry snow off the parking lots), I arrived at work at 9:10 am. Took a little longer, but there was quite the traffic jam as everyone who normally arrives between 5:30 and 9 were all showing up at the same time.

As soon as I walk in, my partner tells me our supervisor called all upset that I hadn't shown up for work yet and that the 9:00am report wasn't ready to be delivered. Tom explained to her that "we were told not to show up until 9" and her reply was "But we're all at work here."

(Note: Here is an off-site place, not the client site.)

She was quite upset and went to her boss to discuss it with him. A half-hour later she calls back and says that her supervisor said it was O.K., since the client site was closed and to get the report done as soon as we could. (Course, we had it done by then.)

Where's Miss Snark's clue gun when you REALLY need it.

As you can imagine the rest of the day was about as humorous as the initial events. Made it to my Astronomy class tonight and my instructor, bless his heart, is obviously a scientist. He's got a lot of good information, but he's just a bit scattershot in his lectures. I'm following him and some of the others are, but several people in the class have a poleaxed look every time we take a break. I can't say I blame them. I am so glad I've always had an interest in astronomy because the stuff I've learned outside of class is keeping me straight in class.

I think the first test is going to be brutal for the class average.

Got some more work done on the Doctor Who story tonight. Added another 1125 words, and while I'm dreadfully behind for the year, I'm at least making my 1000+ words a night the nights I do write. With any luck, I'll catch up by the end of the month, Farpoint not withstanding. We've just introduced the villain's muscle in the story and we're moving toward the first encounter with the main antagonist in the piece and the main protagonist. I think what I have planned for this will be enjoyable, but then I always think that. *grin*

All right. Wrap this up and off to bed we go.

Words for Today

1,125 / 1,000 (112.5%)

Progress on The Price of Conviction

3,331 / 10,000 (33.3%)

Words for the year

27,498 / 365,000 (7.5%)

My Science through Science Fiction class is off to an interesting start. We're discussing Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress right now and it's generating a lot of discussion. Unfortunately, we've got a few people who keep dragging the discussion OFF of the topic of science or even the book to discuss politics, religion, philosophy, how corporations are good or bad for America, etc.

*sigh*

It's an energetic class. I just wish some of my classmates were a tad more focused. But the book was fascinating to me. I read it on Sunday, even though we only had to read half of it for class this week. It was an easy enough read, which I appreciated.

And speaking of science fiction, I added 1173 words to The Price of Conviction. I was able to do a little writing at lunch and it paid off today. It's coming along nicely, but I think my initial estimate of 8000 words was a tad small. I have a max of 15000, so I'll assume I'm going to use 10000 of them and then edit down from there, (or 11, or 12, or whatever).

Oh, and since I'm telling the story from Susan's POV, I thought I'd add her to my avatar collection. I cropped her from an absolutely wonderful piece of art done by an artist known as Mimi-na. If she ever makes this piece available for purchase, or ever thinks of selling the original, I'll be one of the first people in line. I'd love to have this framed and hung over my desk.

Words for Today

1,173 / 1,000 (117.3%)

Progress on The Price of Conviction

2,216 / 10,000 (22.2%)

Words for the Year

26,373 / 365,000 (7.2%)

Had my second session of the Astronomy Lab. The professor did a great job of explaining how to find the constellations with the naked eye tonight. However, being in the classroom wasn't all he had in mind. So, the class trundled outside this evening and took the elevator to the top of the campus parking garage.

Wow! What a great view. Once we knew where Orion was, it was simple to find Canis Major and the star Sirius, Taurus with Aldeberan, Gemini with Castor and Pollux, Procryon in Canis Minor as well as Rigel and Betelgeuse in Orion Proper. Then turning around, we spotted Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Leo, vaguely made out Draco, and finished with Casseopeia. We also spotted Saturn and a few shooting stars as well as watching the waning gibbous moon rising a deep orange hue.

By then though, everyone was pretty well frozen. Did I happen to mention it was 12 degrees (not counting the slight breeze we were getting on top of the garage)? We were only out there for fifteen minutes and everyone was beginning to show signs of discomfort.

But, IMNSHO, it was well worth it. For the first time, I really saw the stars and understood what I was looking at. I've been an amateur astronomer since I was a little kid, but I'd never put in the effort to truly understand what I was seeing beyond the obvious constellations. Now, all of a sudden, they're easy to spot and being able to identify individual stars (and note their colors without the aid of binoculars or a telescope) was really cool.

OK, I'm a geek. Sue me.

On top of my geekhood, I got started on The Price of Conviction, the working title for my Doctor Who story. To my great surprise, for at least this draft, I'm writing it from Susan's point of view. I hadn't intended to do that, but when I looked up after finishing the first page, there it was. I think this will be fun. I'm not sure how many stories about the First Doctor were told from Susan's POV, but I don't have the feeling it's that common. Course, considering how many books/audio books/etc. that are out there, I don't dare claim I've read them all.

However, two cups of cocoa and I'm still a little chilled. I think it's time to crawl under the sheets and get warm. Night everyone.

Words for Today

1,043 / 1,000 (104.3%)

Progress on The Price of Conviction

1,043 / 8,000 (13.0%)

Words for the Year

25,200 / 365,000 (6.9%)

Had my first session of ENG-211 tonight. I think it's going to be a great class, as soon as a few people in class understand that not everyone in the class is as interested in their opinion as they are. I expect our instructor let the class run a bit tonight to see how people were going to react and to identify the "problem children" early. She mentioned that she'd noticed me biting back a few retorts and wondered why. I had to explain that being one of the oldest people in my classes, I tended to dominate class discussions and I was consciously trying to be more of a listener this semester, but not to worry. I would contribute when I thought it was appropriate.

We're going to be covering some very interesting books this semester. For the section on Biomedicine and Genetics, we're reading "Beggars in Spain" by Nancy Kress and "Fledgling" by Octavia Butler. For Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, we're reading "I, Robot" by Asimov and for Society and Politics, we're reading the Aeon Flux Graphic Novel, "Brave New World" by Huxley and . . .

(Insert depressing music here)

. . . "Dune" by Frank Herbert.

(Insert sound of head banging against desk)

My old nemesis rises from the library graveyard once again to mock me. The book I've attempted to read six times and have yet to get past the fourth chapter is now required reading. AAARRRGGHH!!!

O.K., got that out of my system. We'll also be watching some movies in class - Gattaca, A.I., Dune (second AARRGH!) and another to be announced. We're pushing for Blade Runner, but she isn't committing to anything yet.

Shouldn't be too much writing in class - a small reading journal (2 paragraphs), 6 prepared questions about the assigned reading and 3 essay papers. After last semester, that should be a piece of cake.

(internal editor, "Famous last words . . . ")

Hush, you. All righty, time to start writing and get some projects finished before the rest of semester catches up with me.

Grades were just posted on the college site. I must admit I'm pleased, but I'm annoyed I simply ran out of time and energy to get the honors portions of the classes done. Sigh

ENGL-207-150	Ethics in Literature	A	3.00
ENGL-205-150	The Short Story	A	3.00

Still, all in all, a successful semester. Still maintaining my 4.0 average for my second time through college.

It's amazing . . . I'm still convinced if I had gone to DLI in Monterey first and then gone to college, my GPA at CMSU would have been almost a point higher. There's nothing like knowing guys with helmets and billy clubs will show up at your door if you decide to skip a military school to install discipline and attendance ethics. Also, after studying Arabic or Czech for 6 hours a day, plus PT, plus military training and doing 2-4 hours of language homework a night, carrying 12 hours at a regular college would have been a piece of cake.

Now, on to spring and graduation!

Got my story outline sent off to Marco yesterday and got a confirmation letter back today. Which is a good thing. The last time I tried to send him something, he couldn't open the attachment and I wound up having to embed the pitches into the body of the letter. Well, that might work for a few paragraphs, but a three page outline wasn't going to be so easily dealt with. *sigh* So, now, it's sit back, wait and gnaw a few fingernails.

Finished my sequel story for The Short Story class and submitted it tonight along with the last of the story journals I have to do for the class. All that's left is to finish the short story for the honors credit and prepare the final assignment and I'm done. I still have to do my take home final and the 8-10 page research paper for my Ethics in Literature class, but I've just about finished the research I need to do and should have the full first draft done by Friday.

Still waiting to hear back from the agent about my partial.
Yoda - "Patience, young padawan. Move at own speed agents do. Worrying leads to the dark side."
Me - "Quiet you wrinkled little muppet. I want answers and I want them . . . Hey, put down that light sabre! Can't you take a joke . . . " runs off at high rate of speed.

Anyway, as soon as the semester is over, it's back to working on something I want to (Troubleshooters, Sea Dragon, Rouge and Noir . . . something other than class work!)

I'm working on my research paper for Ethics in Literature and we're studying In Cold Blood for our final project. I know, using the name Truman Capote and Ethics in the same sentence is just asking for lightning to strike me any second. Still, I'm torn. I really like the novel. I think it's well-written, I think Capote did a pretty good job keeping himself out of it, (although his friendship (or more) with Perry Smith is way too obvious), and I think he did a great job of making the characters believable.

However, it's just not a "Non-fiction novel".

It's a good novelization of a historical fact. Not a damn thing wrong with that. I also don't object to his creative recreation of conversations and events that he couldn't possibly have been at. Cornelius Ryan did that in "The Longest Day" and no one pillories him over that.

It's just that Truman fudged the facts when he had them available because it made for a better story and THEN bragged to George Plimpton and anyone else who'd listen to him that his novel was "immaculately factual".

Dear Truman . . . in a pig's eye.

Maybe it's the historian in me, but to have 8000 pages of notes (that he refused to ever show anyone since "the novel stands on its own"), and to still make blatant mistakes or even faking facts to make certain points just rubs me the wrong way. Paying Donald Cullivan to stand in for Capote in the jail scenes with Perry Smith is so unethical it's painful. It was wrong to try and pay Herbert Nye to not say anything about the book when Nye complained about how he and other Kansas Bureau of Investigation members were given short shrift by Capote. Now, there's nothing wrong with the fact that Capote and Albert Dewey became friends during the investigation. Dewey, according to everything I've researched was a good cop in his own right, but some of the stories attributed to him by Capote were actually other men on his staff.

And this just starts to scrape the surface of the errors, inaccuracies or blatant mistellings of the facts in the book.

As I said, it's a great novel, but its just barely more accurate than your average Wikipedia entry. There's a lot of story that Capote left out and let's just say, some people weren't quite as sympathetic as Capote made them out to be. It's probably a good thing people were a lot less litigious back in 1965 than they are today or Capote might have been passing out a lot of that $2,000,000 he made on the book to a bunch of people in Holcomb, Kansas.

*sigh*

We did our peer reviews for The Short Story class last night. We had to read our first two pages out loud to the group for initial feedback and then we exchanged papers and read two of the stories in their entirety and filled out critique forms that have to be turned in with the final drafts. Also, we made some small editing/critiques on the papers if/when we saw something that might need to be addressed.

The initial responses for my sequel were positive. Also, we found out we can go beyond the four pages (but not excessively so). This is good because I thought my ending was a little weak since I ran up against the page limit and had to wrap up the story rather quickly. I'm waiting to get a response this weekend from the professor, who took copies home to give an in-depth critique.

After class, I put in the first season DVD of Doctor Who and watched "An Unearthly Child" as well as the pilot episode. There were quite a few changes in the way Hartnell played the Doctor in the the pilot than in the series. He was even more of a curmudgeon in the pilot and while I think it would have been harder to keep up that intensity throughout a series, I found myself liking that version better than the way he was portrayed in the first four episodes.

I'll be watching "The Daleks" and "The Edge of Destruction" over the next week (in between rewriting my sequel The Long Night After and doing the first draft of my research paper on In Cold Blood, which is due on Monday.

This semester can not end soon enough.

Well, I knocked out the first draft of the first of two short stories due for ENGL-205, The Short Story. For our project, we have to do a sequel to one of the short stories we've read in class. My story is called The Long Night After, which is a continuation of Jack London's story To Build a Fire. I'm picking it up from the dog's point of view (ala White Fang), and I think it turned out pretty well.

We're going to be peer reviewing each others work tonight in class, (yes, tonight, since it's after midnight again). I'm curious to see which of the other stories people chose to write about. I almost did mine on The Purloined Letter since I'm a huge fan of both Sherlock Holmes and C. Auguste Dupin, but I wasn't certain I'd have time to really do the research it would take to do a good detective story. I think the London homage was the way to go this time.

Plus, I think, after we finished reading Tim O'Brein's short story, The Things They Carried, I'm scrapping the other short story I had in mind for my honors credit and instead I think I'm going to capture one of my tales from Desert Storm and put it down on paper. Admittedly, what I saw and experience in DS/DS was much tamer than what my fellow soldiers faced in Vietnam or even in Afghanistan/Iraq today, a war is a war. My life is definitely divided pre- and post-Saudi and there are some stories (some funny, some not-so funny) that bear repeating.

Oh, and I received my invitation to the Phi Kappa Theta induction ceremony on 01 Dec 2006. Yes, I'll be getting my little gold sash to go with my graduation gown and cap this May (go me!).

. . . just probably about stuff you're not interested in reading.

Since September, I've written 4 research papers, two position papers, 27 critical responses to short stories, 3 letters for my short story class (re: the Tolstoy rejection letter for one), and read 19 essays on ethics.

Additionally, I've written seven tie-in story proposals, received rejections for five of them (sigh) and sent out a synopsis and a partial of Harbinger to an agent. I'm still waiting to hear back on a possible Corps of Engineers story that was accepted by the editor back in October, 2005, to see if and when it will be slotted.

Upcoming, I have a 8-10 page research paper, two short stories (one about 1200 words and the other between 2-3000 words) and a paper on how to write essays for one of my professors for honors credit by 11 December.

So, no, I haven't been writing on new fiction lately, but it's more from a lack of hours in the day than from lack of interest. As soon as I get this last splurge of writing out of my way this semester, I'm going to devote some time to getting my earlier projects (Shattered Mirror, Chronicles of the Sea Dragon, Troubleshooters Incorporated and Rouge and Noir) back out from under wraps and see which one will be competing with Shattered Mirror (since I'm co-writing that one with April, it gets some priority) for my writing time.

So, don't take a lack of blog activity to mean a lack of writing activity. It's just not really bloggable activity.

As I said before, it's just an opportunity to stretch writing muscles I might not have otherwise.

Turned in my Fahrenheit 451 paper this evening. Got back my Animal Farm paper with an A.

Time to start studying for my midterm Thursday.

My Catcher in the Rye paper is due next Monday.

Picked up the paperwork to petition for graduation in May, 2007.

That is all.

;)

Been a busy week, both at work and at home. Luckily, I think I've gotten some good stuff done over the past few days.

Been going back over the last few chapters of Harbinger again. Just some minor tweaks, but I'm going to go over the last two chapters with a fine tooth comb once again. I'm happy with it, but not satisfied with it. Not quite certain if that makes sense, but it's how I'm feeling right now. Hopefully, I'll finally get to the point that I can just set it down and walk away from it for a bit. At least, until I hear from the Agent yea, nay or maybe. . .

Spent some time talking to April tonight about Shattered Mirror. She's revising the prologue and Chapters 1 & 3 again. We discussed where we want the story to go for the next few chapters and decided we're going to rearrange the story a bit. We're swapping Chapters 1 & 2 and adding in another chapter to be #3. The current Chapter 3 will become #4 and we've plotted out #5 and #6. We also came up with an intriguing idea why the fae and cold iron get along so poorly as well as working some more on the mythology and the ground rules for both the realm of mortals and the realm of fey (some of it is based on mythology and legends, some of it is definitely out of our own imaginations). April suggested some ways to take it darker, but we're not going "quite" as dark as some people's YA Urban Fantasy stories. There's nothing wrong with their stories (Can't argue with a Nebula winner, now can we?), but that's just not our style of writing.

Finished the draft of my Fahrenheit 451 paper for class tomorrow night. Hopefully, wishweaver will have time to take a look at it tomorrow before class to catch any errors in syntax or logic before I turn this one in. Need to jump on my Catcher in the Rye paper since it's due next Monday night. Plus I have my mid-term exam coming up for the Short Story class next Thursday.

Did manage to take some time to go to the Maryland Renaissance Fair yesterday. Wasn't feeling all that well, but we'd been putting it off all season and since this was the last weekend, I couldn't exactly beg off now. Picked up new book from Page After Page called Codex Wallerstein, subtitled "A Medieval Fighting Book from the Fifteenth Century on the Longsword, Falchion, Dagger and Wrestling" by Grzegorz Zabinski. I haven't had time to peruse it in depth, but the few pages I've seen look quite interesting and there are copies of the original illustrations accompanying each different maneuver or technique.

Also, there was a group called Fight School demonstrating Broadsword, Bastard Sword, Sword and Shield, Rapier, Rapier and Main Gauche, Florentine with Rapier, Rapier and Target, Shortsword and Quarterstaff. While obviously choreographed, it was educational to see how the fighting techniques morphed from one to the other as they moved forward in time until the seventeenth century. I'd love to spend some more time visiting with them and seeing where they get their training and information from, but the next-to-last day of the Faire is probably a bad time to do so. I'm definitely making plans to try and spend some time with them next year though.

Oh yeah. The Chiefs won, so all is right with the world for another week. ;)

Was very busy this weekend and got a number of things accomplished. Not necessarily very consequential things, but things anyway.

wishweaver had been down with a cold most of the week, but started feeling better on Friday afternoon. (Good timing, eh wot?) We hung around the house and did a little visiting with our Writing Group on line, but it was more of a meet and greet session than actually critiquing anything new. Right now, most of us are busy revising things rather than working on new stuff, so there's less impetus to post. Hopefully, we'll have some new stuff for the next time.

Saturday was mainly a shopping and visiting day. Wish took me to one of the local yarn stores where we picked out some yarn for a scarf she wants to make for me. She thought since I was going to be wearing it, I probably should get a say in what colors went into it. The yarn we picked out has a lot of black, red and dark blues in it. I could have chosen some more colorful yarn, but I wanted something that would go with the majority of the jackets I wear to work in the winter. Hard to go wrong with darker colors.

After having lunch, we hit the infamous Costco. Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately,) their selection of office supplies was dismal. However, I did find a WD 500GB external hard drive for a bit over $200. While it's possible I could beat that price on-line somewhere, it was nice to know the cost of external hard drives are coming down. I want to move all my music an pictures off of my laptop's HD. Sure, I know the laptop has a pretty big hard drive itself, but still, after the disaster of 2005 when my hard drive was corrupted, I don't want to take any chances. All my writing is backed-up on flash drives, but I'd be happier if all my music and pictures were backed up somewhere too.

That evening, Wish and I went to the mall to do a little preliminary Christmas shopping. We gave each other some ideas about what we'd be interested in and also spotted some really cool things for the daughter-unit. As we were going past the Bose store, we laughed remembering when they used to have a 36" flat screen TV that they sold for $15,000. Now, we could pick up a 35" flat screen at Costco for under $1000 and a 65" for less than $3,000. There are advantages to not being an early-adopter.

Today was pretty much a hang around the house day. Our roommate, mollymorrison and her boyfriend were around most of the weekend. Watched some football . . . sigh . . . and then spent the evening doing my homework for Tuesday night. I'll be working on my Fahrenheit 451 paper in class tomorrow night, so I didn't see a point in rushing through a draft tonight. I know pretty much what I want to talk about and will slam out the rough draft in class.

I have been working on Harbinger most of this weekend. I've thought about the last few chapters and am revising them once again while I wait to hear back from the agent I submitted my synopsis and three to a few weeks ago. I like the minor changes I've made to the story here and now just need to finish polishing it and get back to work on something new. I'll probably spend about an hour working on some edits before I call it a night.

All right, back to work.

Actually, the last day of the convention was the most relaxing for me. I packed out of the room, stored my stuff at the front desk and headed to the convention center. Ran into Haley Garwood and visited with her in the Dealer's room for a while before going around to find the were-guild . . . I mean, the presents for wishweaver and the daughter-unit. I picked up some nice tee-shirts (A Dragon reading books for Wish, a Cowthulu tee for my daughter and a "Girl Genius" shirt for myself). There was another tee I'm going to have to order from them (they were out of my size by Sunday). It's like those I (heart) something shirts except this one is black with red letters that says "I (Godzilla) Tokyo". What can I say, I'm a sucker for the big guy.

After a while, I ran into Les Haven, the pro coordinator, and he hooked me up with a ride out to the airport. Unfortunately, they were leaving at 2:30, so I had to cancel out of my only panel on Sunday. Probably just as well, I was starting to feel pretty brain-dead by that time after all the Saturday panels. Caught up with some friends and just hung around the con until about noon. Then it was back to the hotel to get my stuff, wait for my ride and watch some football.

Arrived at the airport so early that they wouldn't check my bags at the self-serve counter (no more than 5 hours ahead of your flight, in case you're wondering). So, after getting my boarding pass, I had to go stand in the regular line and they had to contact their supervisors to see if they'd let me check my bags that early. Luckily, they agreed to take it. My gate was only four from the security checkpoint and there was a sports bar next to it, so I hopped up on the bar stool and immediately wondered what the hell was going on . . . Arizona 14, KC 0? That had to be a misprint. No . . . once again, the Chiefs have decided that I need to die of a heart attack well before I reach 50. I must say, the final score made me very happy (Chiefs 23, Cardinals 20), but as wishweaver will tell you, I take my football a little too seriously for her taste.

After the game, found a place near an electrical plug and finished up my college homework while we were waiting for the plane to arrive. Once we reached altitude, I turned on the iPod and listened to Boston Blackie solving crimes and telling bad puns all the way back to D.C.
.....................................................................

I probably should have taken Monday off too. I went into work and since we couldn't go to the client spaces to work, one of the people thought I should read the project requirements documents and the System Architecture Document (there's a reason it's called the SAD, people). OH, MY, GOODNESS. I was reading through these and I had to keep wondering "And this has WHAT to do with my position on the project?" It was a painful day and I wound up taking off early just to save my sanity.

At least class went well Monday night and I turned my Animal Farm paper in. I don't know what kind of grade I'm going to get on it, but at least the teacher liked the title of my paper.

Now, I'm doing some minor tweaks to the finished Harbinger manuscript and hoping to hear back from the Agent. Well, I'm really hoping the Agent will reply asking for the rest of the manuscript. Heck, I'm hoping I'll get positive request from all my currently submitted proposals and such, but that might be a tad optimistic.

Back to the grindstone.

Well . . . I didn't get as much work done on my college papers as I probably should have today. It was just hard to get into the mood to write. I'm about halfway through though and if I can finish one paper today (since it's well past midnight) and then finish my reading and typing at the airport on Sunday, I should be good to go.

The two panels I had today I think went pretty successfully. At 9:00pm, I moderated the "State of Comics" panel. We had six panelists, myself and about twenty in the audience. We had two artists, three writers and a gentleman who works for CCG and is a long time comic fan. We discussed Infinite Crisis/Civil War, Where are all these non-comic writers coming from and why?, Are independents pulling back on edgy stuff? Web comics - passing fad or wave of the future?, and various other topics. The audience was energetic and we had two comic retailers in the audience who chimed in with good information from time to time.

The 10:00pm panel was a LOT of fun. It was "Arming Your Characters" and the skill set of the panelist was amazing. Now, realizing we only had four panelist there's going to be some overlap here, we had - 3 SCA fighters (two heavies and one fencer), two Army veterans, a current police officer, a kendoka, three marksmen, a semi-pro football player and a wrestler. We discussed where to find information about weapons (both past and present), how to choreograph a fight scene, why left-handed swordsmen were such a pain to run into, what the "kill zone" was when trying to face a knife-fighter with a pistol, the effects of adrenaline on accuracy and fighting technique, realistic wounds, and the ultimate rule of dealing with combat . . . don't bore the reader. We had some very good questions from the audience (probably 15 people which isn't bad considering the number of parties going on at the Holiday Inn at 10pm on a Friday night).

I've really enjoyed my fellow panelist so far. Very intelligent people and very articulate. If you're close enough to come to Archon next year (esp. since it's the NASFIC site for 2007), I highly, highly recommend the show.

Oh, and the dance tonight was a Logan's Run theme with the ballroom mocked up to look like Carousel and the Con Suite across the hall designated as Sanctuary. They had several Carousel riders hanging from the ceiling in a circle overhead. It was close enough to the movie to be impressive if not just a tad unnerving. Sandmen, anyone?

Now, time for bed. 4 panels and a signing tomorrow - to include my two new panels. I have Star Trek at 40 at 10:00am; Autograph session at noon; Collecting Anime Cels at 5:00pm; Old Wives Tales and Urban Legends at 7:00pm; and Breathing New Life into Vampires at 11:00pm. (Italics indicate new panels.) I have a feeling it's going to be a LONG day tomorrow.

Wow.

Just wow.

I'm going to be a very busy person this weekend. Not just because of Archon (more on that in a moment), but also with all the work I'm doing in class right now. I'll be honest, I didn't realize I was taking the two most writing intensive courses offered by the English Department in the same semester. And, it's not like I can't do the work (I'm carrying A's in both classes right now), but it's becoming a bit of a struggle to coordinate the classwork, family time, writing time and, OH YEAH, that little thing called a job, which sucks up between 8.5 and 9.5 hours of my life Monday through Friday.

(I know, I know, I set myself up for this. No one to blame but myself. Quiet back there, I'm on a roll. Damn Peanut Gallery.)

So, anyway, with the obligatory whining out of the way, for those attending Archon in Collinsville, IL this weekend, (just east of St. Louis, MO, for the geographically challenged), here is my current schedule. As always, anything posted is subject to change at the last moment:

Date	Time	Panel/Event	Location	Fellow Panelists
Thursday	5:00pm	GC-Illini	Developing Memorable Characters	Robin Wayne Bailey, M.R. Sellars, Joy Ward, Mark Tiedemann
Thursday	6:30pm	GC-LaSalle Lobby	Autograph Session (1/2 hour)	John Sies, Elizabeth Donald, Thomas M.K. Stratman, Elonka Dunin
Thursday	11:00pm	GC-Ballroom D-6	Vampires and Werewolves and Things that go Bump in the Night	Lee Martindale, Judi Cook, Elizabeth Donald, Cheryl Medley
Friday	9:00pm	GC-Marquette A	The State of Comics Today	Dev Hanke, Mike Oliveri, Van Plexico, Mitch Foust
Friday	10:00pm	GC-Ballroom D-6	Arming Your Characters Writing Realistic Weaponry	Shane Moore, Mike Oliveri, Lee Martindale, Dev Hanke
Saturday	10:00am	GC-Marquette A	Star Trek at 40?!! (1.5 hours)	Tom Meserole, Margene Bahm, John Novak, Doug Ferguson, Judi Cook
Saturday	12:00pm	GC-LaSalle Lobby	Autograph Session (1/2 hour)	Allison Stein, Luke Ski, Alan Gutierrez, Brent Chumley
Saturday	5:00pm	GC-Mississippian	Collecting Anime Cels
Sunday	2:00pm	GC-Ballroom D-6	Japanese Cultural References in Anime	Alan Gutierrez, Brian Lan, Jen Schumacker

Yes, it appears the Dragon*Con programming committee and the Archon programming committee swapped notes. (Please notice the back to back panels on Friday Night.) Also, I'm going to be moderating the Vampire and Werewolf, The State of Comics and the Collecting Anime Cels panel. Well the last is a bit of a misnomer since I am the Collecting Anime Cels panel.

Woof.

Now, with that in mind, please also note, I have to finish my Animal Farm Critical Essay, read two chapters for my Ethics in Literature class, as well as reading Welty's Why I live at the P.O., Lawrence's The Rocking Horse Winner, and Faulkner's A Rose for Emily, (which thank God I read last semester for another class), write response papers for them as well as another letter for my Short Story class.

Now, individually, none of this is that traumatic. If I put my mind to it, I can probably knock out a lot of this in the airport going to and coming from the show as well as on Friday (since all of my panels are at night). I was just hoping to use the convention to unwind a bit after the last couple of weeks around here. I don't think it's going to quite work out that way.

At least last weekend was pretty nice. I'll talk more about that tomorrow night. Now, I think it's time for bed.

Well, got everything done on my list of things to do except finishing the scanning for Archon. I'll try to get that done Tuesday/Wednesday night and then have everything transferred to disc.

I'm having fun with the Animal Farm paper. Drawing in my earlier degree in History, my paper is tentatively titled "Some Are More Equal Than Others: A Look How Animal Farm Mirrors the Soviet Union of 1927-36". Yeah, I know it needs some work, but that tells you what the paper's about, at least. It's interesting seeing just how much of the book is from Orwell's imagination and how close to reality it really hit. The sad part is, when I tried to discuss my idea with the others in class, they had never heard of "The Five Year Plan", Trotsky or the Communist Manifesto. (shakes head sadly)
What do they teach kids in school these days. Even though I don't agree with the Manifesto (gee, that's a big surprise, White), I still feel it's an important document to read and study. Its influence on the Twentieth Century, and beyond, should not be overlooked or just written off.

I also knocked out my four response papers for The Short Story class on Tuesday/Thursday. We covered Twain's The Celebrated Frog of Calaveras County, Chekov's The Lady with the Dog, Jewett's The White Heron, and Maupassant's The Necklace. I enjoyed most of them. (Still not digging on the Russian Literature . . . but Chekov's writing was better than the first two.)

Time to do a quick scan of a couple of boards and call it an early night for once.

To do Saturday evening:

1) Read two chapters in The Moral Life
2) Write 2-3 page paper on Utilitarianism
3) Rough out first draft of essay on Animal Farm
4) Finish reading Fahrenheit 451
5) Go find my book for my Short Story and syllabus and figure out what I have to do in that class for Tuesday.

Sunday:
1) Re-write first draft of Animal Farm essay
2) Review and revise paper on Utilitarianism
3) Finish reading four short stories for Tuesday night
4) Write Response papers for the four short stories
5) Work on Harbinger in spare time (hah!)
6) Finish scanning anime cels for Archon

You know, I always considered myself a very confident person . . . cocky at times.

Now that I'm getting ready to send in my synopsis and three chapters to an agent, I'm definitely getting a case of nerves.

The synopsis is out with my last two beta readers. Once I hear back from them and review their suggestions and correct any errors they find then it's going to be bundled up and shipped off just as quick as I can get it out the door.

I think I'll be less nervous once it's gone. Then, there's nothing else I can do to it. It either sinks or swims and either way, it's time to work on the other proposals/stories/classwork I have staring me in the face.

Still, I'm probably more nervous now than I was standing on the berm in February 1990, knowing that less than three kilometers away was Iraq and a whole bunch of people with weapons pointed my direction and that in less than 24 hours, I'd be going over the berm into Iraq with the rest of the 101st. Maybe it was a little too surreal, or maybe I was just younger and more invincible then.

Now, I'm nervous.

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Speaking of classwork, it was rather bloody in my Ethics in Literature class tonight. We got the first batch of papers handed back and well, the class average was a 2.2 out of 4 for a class of 22 people. (1 A, 2 Bs, 16 Cs, 2 Ds and 1 F) Based on some of my classmates' body language, I have a feeling there'll be some empty seats next class period.

Class discussion was good though, even if Aristotle and Frankna did kick my butt in the reading over the weekend. There were a lot of interesting points brought up in class, talking about morals and virtues and utilitarianism. Now, I just need to get the rough draft of my essay on Animal Farm done before Monday. (sigh)