Random Facts

I got tagged to do a meme similar to this not that long ago, but here I am again. There is a meme to share 25 random facts about yourself floating around Facebook and I posted this there as well, but really, I want to add some more content to this blog so I’m sharing it here too. Maybe someone will find some of it interesting 🙂

If you’ve done something similar to this on your blog please leave me a line in the comments (or via email). I’d love to pop over and see. I really do enjoy reading these ‘random facts’ blog entries.

25 Things About Me 🙂

1. I am flattered anytime someone tags me for a meme. This one or any other.

2. I used to love riding horses but I haven’t been on one in twenty years.

3. I am ridiculously competitive. Often about the silliest things. I -know- it’s crazy but somehow that doesn’t seem to make it stop. Once in a while I can harness this power for good, though not often enough.

4. The first time I got drunk I was 13 and in a graveyard.

5. I am an atheist.

6. I almost qualified #5 with ‘This does not make me a bad person or mean I don’t believe in anything.’ I am irritated at that impulse.

7. I am in my second year of my degree. I hope to finish the damn thing before I’m 40. I’m 32 now.

8. If I won any significant amount of money I would blow most of it traveling. I want to see as much of the world as I can before I die.

9. I’m unlikely to ever win any money because I don’t play the lotteries. I suppose that means I’ll just have to earn it.

10. Jo and I got married on October 31st. It was a very small ceremony and most of the people there (including ourselves and Danica) were wearing costumes. Jo and Danica were pirates, I was a wench.

11. I chew my nails.

12. Before World of Warcraft absconded with all my free time, I used to sew quilts and do cross stitch. I miss that sometimes and occasionally think I need to create a ‘Warcraft-free’ evening to get back to it. So far that hasn’t happened.

13. The only television shows I watch anymore are Doctor Who, Being Erica and Law and Order (repeats that are on while I use my stationary bike). I don’t have time for more…see #12 for details LOL

14. I like being in my thirties more than I ever liked being in my twenties.

15. I have more book and stories ideas than I will ever have time to write. This truly makes me sad, but I suspect it may be universal among writers.

16. I have a pretty big inferiority complex about my poetry.

17. Probably 80% of the time I am on my computer my cat, Absinthe, is sitting on me, purring. Sometimes she is on my lap, more often than not, however, she is on my shoulders. I love this beyond words, even if it does sometimes make typing (or playing World of Warcraft) difficult. It’s even better when she nudges me with her head 🙂

18. Once upon a time we ‘inherited’ five kittens which were tiny and had to be fed with syringes every four hours. It was worse than when Danica was a baby because there was only one of her, and she didn’t need to be stimulated to pee. I thought I was going to have a breakdown and then Jo made me lay on the floor and let the kittens out of the dog carrier we had them sleep in. They tumbled out and ran all over me. There is nothing like a ‘kitten massage’ to restore you.

19. Absinthe was one of those kittens and one of the reasons I chose to keep her is because she liked me as much as (or maybe even more than) she liked Jo. All our other cats had worshiped Jo, so this was a pretty big thing. It may also relate back to #3.

20. I don’t have a favorite color.

21. I love sushi.

22. I wish I could think of more interesting or clever things to put here. Alas, I cannot.

23. If I didn’t have a daughter in school and a husband with a day job I would totally be nocturnal — or at least a lot more than I am now. In bed at three or four and up at noon sounds blissful to me.

24. Insomnia and I are well-acquainted. I suspect this may in part be related to #23.

25. I love Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. I listen to the soundtrack when work is being particularly monotonous and threatening my sanity. It helps 🙂

I’m supposed to tag people now…but I’m not going to LOL

“Daddy” @ Every Day Poets

My poem, Daddy, is up at Every Day Poets. The comments have been very positive, which is, as you can imagine, wonderful. It’s especially nice in this case because the poem is (as you may have guessed from the title) quite personal and pulled out of my ‘real life’.

I was estranged from my father at the time of his death, in fact, I didn’t even know he had died until several years later when the public trustee contacted me about his estate. This poem, in part, came out of that.

If you’re looking for something a bit different, there is also a great haiku there by Steve Goble and several other great poems as well 🙂

Stoker Preliminary Ballot

The Bram Stoker Award preliminary ballot is out and Abominations edited by Tim Deal is nominated for Superior Achievement in an Anthology.

Abominations.

The very same anthology that includes my short story “Spoiled Picnic”. I’m excited for him because he has two anthologies nominated. Tim was a wonderful editor to work with, always friendly, professional and friendly. I am happy that good things are happening for him 🙂

While this is, very decidedly, Tim’s honor not mine I am also excited for myself. Why? Because I’m a fan girl at heart and the fact my story is in a book that is on the same nomination list as work by people like Stephen King, Bruce Boston, Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem is enough to make me go ‘squee’! I know it’s a pretty slim association, but it makes me happy just the same.

Good luck Tim.

Breathers

While I was at World Fantasy I was very intrigued by a certain set of postcards on the Freebie table. They were red and black and had a picture of two zombies kissing on them. How can you not be drawn to a book cover with a picture of two zombies kissing on it? I snagged one with the intention of looking up the book later, when I was at home.

The next day a friend of mine had a friend who was doing a reading from her book (lol ah, the ole friend-of-a-friend thing, but it’s true!), so we went to listen to her. We went a bit early though, figuring we’d listen to “S.G. Browne whoever that was” who was reading before her. I’m SO glad we did. The friend-of-a-friend read well and her story seemed like one my daughter might like. S.G. Browne read from his soon-to-be-released book “Breathers” and I was blown away.

The section he read was funny, it was poignant and it really pulled me in. When I saw him later at the autograph session, even though I am really quite shy in real life and not prone to approaching people I don’t know, I went over and talked to him. I found that not only is he a very talented writer, he’s a really nice guy too! When I came home I pre-ordered my copy of Breathers and then looked him up on livejournal and Facebook.

I’ve got an interview with him coming out on Niteblade about the same time his novel does (in March) and I intended to blog about all this then, but, he’s having a contest and the prize is a signed ARC of Breathers. I’m a sucker for ARCs and I would LOVE to not have to wait until March to read this novel, so I’m blogging now 🙂

If you like zombies, dark humor and good storytelling I really recommend you pop over to Undead Anonymous and find out more about this book and its author. There is loads of great content there including an absolutely hilarious commercial for Necrobufrin (the key to a better death) on the zombie community page.

Check it out, then pre-order your copy so you can be cool, like me :-p

January Newsletter

I mailed out the January edition of my newsletter today. It included a poem I’d written about a visit to the Residential School museum, an excerpt from my current work-in-progress “Truth or Dare” (which has Michael and Charmaine in it — two characters who should be familliar to anyone who has read “Sister Margaret”) and a bit of flash fiction called “Accidental Discharge”.

If you want to make sure you get the next version of the newsletter and don’t miss out on whatever I share next month, you should click here to sign up.

If you’re already subscribed, thank you. I hope you enjoy the reading 🙂

Eep!

Eep! Dude, it’s like the 14th already. How did that happen?

I’m working on my newsletter and I think I may pull it off on time this month (yay!). There’s still time to sign up if you haven’t already –> Newsletter <– . It’s pretty fun. I include one piece that hasn’t been published before, snippets of my works-in-progress and a poem as well as just updates and such. C’mon, all the cool kids are subscribed 😉

In other news, on the 11th my poem, Ballerina, was published on Every Day Poets. I’ve been published by their fiction site too and I have to say I really enjoy the format. I love the fact readers can comment and rate pieces — feedback from strangers is good. Good I say! 🙂

Right, I need to stop procrastinating and work on the newsletter or I won’t have anything to mail out tomorrow.

Interview With Jim C. Hines

I have a new interview up at Niteblade. This one is with Jim C. Hines. He’s got a brand new book out today called “The Stepsister Scheme” that I think is going to be awesome. I’ve got my copy pre-ordered from Amazon and I can’t wait for it to arrive.

Anywho, you should head on over to the Niteblade News blog and check out the interview. Please? 🙂

Interview with Jim C. Hines

One Day on Earth

Sometime last year I set out to prove that the idea of ‘stealing ideas’ was silly. I wasn’t talking about plagiarism, mind you, but ideas. My point was that even if you gave two different writers the same story synopsis and set them to writing they would come up with two different stories. To test my theory I created a NaNoLJers writing exercise where people swapped synopsis’ and wrote stories.

I participated and the resulting story, “One Day on Earth” is now available at Poor Mojo’s Almanac(k). I know the guy whose synopsis I received said this story was nothing like the one he’d originally envisioned. I found his synopsis very challenging to work with because it was totally not my style, thus this story is one I’m rather happy with. I hope you enjoy it.

Newsletter #1

I just sent my first newsletter out. I’m a bit nervous. I hope I’m not suddenly flooded by a bunch of people unsubscribing because it wasn’t what they thought it would be.

I wrote it like a letter to a friend and included a teaser from my current work-in-progress, a previously published poem and an unpublished piece of flash. I also listed what pieces I had which were published today and the acceptances I received this month. It sounds a little dry when I put it like that, but I think it was pretty good.

Actually, here, if you’d like to download a copy of the first issue you can download it here–> December Newsletter and take a look. If you like what you see, please consider subscribing to my mailing list. I’ll be sending out one letter a month 🙂

Appearances and Updates

How’s the weather where you’re at? Here it’s freaking freezing. It’s been about -30 (before wind chill) here for a few days now. That’s celcius, but I think celcius and farenheit meet up around -40 and it’s been that cold once you factor in wind chill. Brrr. I am not a fan of the cold. Especially when it seeps in around windows and makes it so I have to work with a blanket over my lap. My house is a bit old (not ancient, it was built in 1945) and it has lots of drafts. Brr I say again.

Back on the topic of writing, however, things are heating up. It’s the 15th today and thus is the day I was going to release my first newsletter, I’ve decided to put it off for one more day though because I’m making a couple ‘appearances’ (makes me sound all important when I say it like that doesn’t it? LOL) today and if anyone signs up for the newsletter after I’ve sent it, they have to wait a whole other month.

My first ‘appearance’ today is at Beth Wylde’s Yahoogroup. I will be hanging out there all day chatting about myself, Niteblade and my own writing and giving away some prizes. A couple Niteblade authors may also be popping in to say hello. I think it will be lots of fun. I’m ‘heading over there’ as soon as I post this entry.

I’m also guest-blogging at E-Read Indeed today. As I write this my post hasn’t gone up but I’ve sent it off to the proper authorities so I’m sure it will appear very shortly. I blog about holiday shopping and e-books over there 🙂

If you’re new to my site and coming from one of those places (or even coming from elsewhere), hello 🙂 Welcome to my world. I hope you will take a look around, join the mailing list and drop me a note to say hi. And if your part of the world is as chilly as my part is today, I also hope you stay warm.

I write, I edit and I take a lot of naps.

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