Two cats have come to live at my house temporarily. They've been here before. In fact, they were born under our back porch. These two were adopted out to a guy who has had to board them here a few times since then. It's pretty much convinced me that I am not a cat person. Their entropy skills are beyond my tolerance level, and for some reason warm-n-fuzzy just isn't enough to make it up to me. We'll see how long I can stand to have them here.

Old friends are reminding me that I don't keep in touch. It's true. I don't. But it's nothing personal. I don't keep in touch with Sarah and she lives upstairs from me. I still like to hear how people are doing. I just don't want to pester people about their personal business. Maybe it's my mountain-west upbringing. Probably not. But I've got to blaim my personal failings on something, right?

In just under the wire again. I think it's kind of funny that I've been doing this blog for a month or two and yet I still forget that I even have it. Especially as I'm about to fall into bed after another long day. I only remembered tonight because my laptop was in the way of me falling in bed. My mother used to put things on our beds to remind us to do them before we slept - laundry, homework, whatever. The theory was that we would have to pick it up, whatever it was, before we went to bed, and once we've got it in our hands we'd fold the laundry and put it away, or we'd finish the homework or whatever. Not so. I quickly learned to just not care what was on my bed and go to sleep anyway.

So mom, I've finally found one thing that I will move off of my bed every time - my computer. I guess now you know what my priorities are.

And it worked, too. I picked it up to put it away and realized I hadn't blogged yet today. And aren't you all a better person for having read this? (My mother is embarassed and afraid that she was a bad mother. She wasn't. She's just knows that twenty-somethings frequently entertain each other with wild tales of parents gone wrong. So she's sure we're always telling people what a bad mother we had.)

So anyway, I answered a lot of e-mail at work today. I'm trying to get back on the warhorse and ride into battle with my sword swinging. No one's going to take me down that easily, just by wearing me out.

Books:I'm going to get the last chapters written this weekend, working all day Monday on this stuff. (Yay, Labor Day) Then it's time to start over at the beginning and tidy things up for company. I've got some threads that I need to make sure are woven through every chapter.

Well, I'm getting this post in under the wire.

Don't feel like I have much to say today. Got a lot of stuff done at work. Trying to keep a positive attitude there, even though I'm burning out. It's the busiest time of year and there's still a lot of work to do, but it can be done. I'll just keep telling myself that.

My sleep schedule is getting messed up. For a while there I was doing really well getting to bed by 11. But I'm sure you can tell by the time of my posts in the last few weeks that I haven't been doing a very good job of that lately. If I'm not careful, I easily creep into a later and later wake/sleep cycle. Ugh.

Trying to do some long-range planning while at work also. Yay.

Books: Found another two chapters I can consolidate. This is a trick, really. There won't be any fewer pages in the end, I'm just combining scenes so that I don't have to start another chapter. It makes me feel better anyway.

I added the mood indicator to my blog today. Just because it's funny. And of course it's a shortcut for those of you who don't actually want to read my long posts, you just want to see how I'm doing at a glance.

Saturday has been OK. I slept a lot. A lot. Sign of burnout at work. Not good.

Read the stack of comics. Wow. Why is it so hard to "break in" to comics? So much of what gets published is just... well, astonishingly mediocre.

Books: It's amazing how much housework I can get done when I have writer's block.

I'm so glad tomorrow is Saturday. I really need a day off. I'm cynical and bitter and just don't care at work. Someone had to remind me that I have a cool job. I really do. But today I just can't see the coolness for the crap. I spent a good twenty minutes with my yo-yo at work today, trying not to just start pummeling people.

I've been given a stack of comics to read. Apparently as I've ventured into the world of comic afficionados my view of the comic book industry has been skewed. I haven't actually read that many comics. I cut my teeth on Watchmen, and I've been enjoying a lovely water-color series of Daredevils along with a trade paperback of .... what's it called... Rising Stars? Anyway, the point is that apparently my view of comics has been skewed because people are only giving me the really good ones to read. I see tag lines and marketing copy and actually think there's a chance they'll pull off what they're bragging about. Apparently, this is not usually the case. So a friend gave me a stack of comics to read, just to get a better cross-section of what's out there.

Sounds like a fabulous Saturday activity.

Books: I have the basic blocking done on this chapter that's been giving me such problems. Now I need to go back in and fix the dialogue. I need to give it a rest, though. Tomorrow I try a fun chapter (and try to remember to have fun with it.) Then I'll try to bring that feeling of fun back to this chapter.

Just finished watching an episode of West Wing I missed during the regular TV season. It was a really good one; I'm glad I got to see it this time. West Wing is one of the few TV shows I make a point of watching. I don't get tapes sent to my office like certain other shows I really like. So I actually have to pay attention to what time it is and go sit myself down in front of a TV set. Wacky.

Anyway, I like the show because of the witty banter. It's very witty and it's delivered really well by great actors. I'll buy this when it's on DVD. It's really, really good television.

In a similar vein, a friend has insisted that I watch the most recent movie version of Romeo and Juliet because the lines are delivered in the original English, but in really convincing, believable ways. And I'm told the scenes with Romeo and Mercutio (sp?) will help me with this difficult chapter I'm working on. We'll see.

In other news, a friend of mine from college is trying to convince me to go work for him at his startup. What a wacky time to be doing an Internet startup.

It's this time of year that makes me wonder why I pay a mortgage and own a couch. I don't even eat at home anymore, really. I just come here to wash my face and sleep, then shower in the morning. Why do I own furniture? I never see it or use it. My bed isn't that much more comfortable than the floor in my cubicle. The health club in the building has a shower. I could spend mortgage money on something fun and useful - like a killer stereo for my cube.

Don't panic, Sarah. This time of year doesn't last forever. I will soon be relishing my large apartment and comfy couch again. And I will continue dutifully paying my part of the mortgage.

I forgot to mention that I went to a bar-b-que at my boss' house on Sunday. It was a lot of trying to socialize with people I didn't really have a lot in common with - except work. And of course, everyone was trying not to talk about work. At least directly.

I really like my boss, actually. She goes skydiving and takes vacations to New Zealand to go spelunking so they can see glow-worms. During my time in the midwest I have definitely crossed paths with some interesting people.

Books: Well, I tried to get that scene written. But found I would rather re-write the scene before it that had been giving me so much trouble. I am getting a lot of help from a male friend of mine on these conversations between guys. He laughs a lot at my dialogue. Then he shows me how to fix it. Now the real trick will be seeing if other guys think it's right or not....

It's 9:30. I'm still at work. Bah!

To be fair, I am walking out the door now. Spent all day in meetings. It is nice, though, to have a staff now. Work gets done, even though I'm sitting in meetings. Take a look at www.mutantx.net again. We launched a whole bunch of cool new content today. It's wacky hyperfiction stuff.

Best quote of the day, "Did I get that right? Did you just talk her out of all the changes she requested?"

Worst quote of the day, "Write me four business proposals for that, then we'll talk."

Books: Gotta get this scene written.

Right. So suddenly it's Saturday. I made a list of things to do. I've still got three things to do tonight, and technically only 15 minutes to get them done before it's no longer Saturday. Not gonna happen.

One good thing about August -- three paydays. Woo!

Went to the comics convention! I did have fun. Everyone behaved themselves fairly well. I was proud. I haven't been really "into" comics for very long. I've only recently found people who can educate me about the subject. (I grew up in the boonies, remember?) So in one of the panel discussions they discussed how the industry is looking for fresh, new voices and visions. (blah blah blah) and then I went for a walk down "artists alley" to see some portfolios of artists. I was shocked. But then I understood why they were talking about wanting new voices and visions. My word.... everything there was derivitive. No one was there with a completely new way of telling stories with pictures. One portfolio looked just like the next one. Sure, there was a row of manga and a few people doing water-color covers. But nothing was really original. I found one style I liked (my comic-resource friend tells me it's the "steampunk" style, so even that wasn't original). Too bad I can't draw. I'd try something really new and different.

Books: Sadly, writing my usual two chapters is still one of the things on my "todo" list today. Grr.

Wow, was that me writing just a few days ago that my client liked something right away and wanted only trivial changes? Well, they got back at me for it. With extreme prejudice. Ok, it wasn't really their fault. I won't go into detail why (on the advice of my legal council) but my team was asked to completely change the look of our web site at www.mutantx.net. What, you say, isn't that the site you just did a few weeks ago? Yeah. They guy who works it mainly just busted his butt to get this stuff done. I helped a little. I'm juggeling a lot of things all at once at work.

But tomorrow (that's Friday. Blogger is pointing out the fact that I didn't get home from work until midnight tonight) we're going on a field trip to the comic book convention. The really big one. I've determined to have fun, no matter what. I hope it works.

Did I mention I'm doing laundry?
Did you notice it's after midnight?
Grr.

Books: I've got two characters on stage at once that have never seen each other before (yeah, we're nearing the end of the book and they haven't met before. it works. trust me.). They don't quite know what to do with each other. There's a lot of standing around, doing the male posturing thing. I just wish they'd do it on the page instead of just in my head. That is how they're supposed to be acting, but I'm afraid I'm not writing it well, since I'm doing it from one of the guys' point of view. And I've never been in that situation myself before. Women are more vocal about figuring out who's the alpha bitch.

Got a new compilation CD yesterday. Been listening to it a lot. There are some great songs on it I've never heard before. That's one thing I love about compilations made by friends. The introduction to new music that really has something to recommend it. My favorites so far:

King of All the World -- Old's 975 (did I get that name right?)
Dissapointed -- Face to Face
Mad About You -- Mooverphonic

Day Job: At long last the client liked something right off that we showed them. It's been a while.

Books: Writer's block sucks.

Well, I just caught up with my reading on Sarah's Fiendish Plot and discovered that I have some things I need to respond to.

Now I have to go outside and tackle the runaway morning glory that has decided to take over our backyard (Tripp, a.k.a "The Yard Boy", was most disappointed with us.) If you don't hear from me, that means the morning glory won.

What is up with our yard boy being disapointed in us??? He's the yard boy! And yet, how often has he even been in our yard this year? Twice? Three times? Now, I don't mean to disparage (and certainly don't want to discourage him from doing it again) -- I really appreciate the hours he's spent back there making it pretty and bringing order to the chaos. BUT - I've spent a whole lot more time out there this summer than he has. I hurt my back for one week and couldn't go pull weeds. And what's his response? He's disapointed in us? Cut the guilt-trip, buddy. If you don't like the state of our yard, come fix it yourself. We're doing the best we can. (Sarah, I'm sorry I wasn't at the dinner party to deliver this rant in person. I'm done now. If he ever tries to pull that again just point him in my direction.)

And as someone who gets to eat the leftovers, I must concur. Sarah's a great cook.

Now Sarah, about feeling guilty/shamed about using WebVan.... You've got way too much guilt in your life, girl. How does it make you less of a woman to have someone deliver your groceries? It greatly increases your geek levels to order them online, which I thought was a good thing. And even if you ordered them by phone, that's what cool old European expats do. You just don't know how cool you are.

And finally, you really must tell us all how the Peapod ordering went, now that you've set it up as something requiring combat pay.

Books: Yay! chapter 53 is done! Ok, I cheated and skipped 52, but it'll be pretty fun to write when I have a few minutes to sit down and write it. Could be longish. Then on to other events on this one ... eventful... day. Lots of chapters all on this one day. Busy people finally get their turn on the set. And I think I've found a couple of chapters I can condense into one. I'm ready to be done with the first draft of this book.

I had a pretty good day today. There are never enough hours in a saturday, but I did ok. I went out to my sadly neglected garden with my vorpal sword and pruned some hedges. Coming from a high-altitude desert as I do, it's really strange for me to see deciduous trees springing up like weeds and growing six feet in two weeks. I find it quite shocking and inapropriate, really, but my garden doesn't share my views.

Had a long meeting with my first-draft reader. I've got one last edit to a chapter in the forties, and then I can forge ahead with chapters 52-59. Somehow they don't sound as close to 70 as they did a few weeks ago. Most of the chapters in the 50's all cover events happening in just one day. It's a very busy day for a lot of people. Hopefully it will be pretty fun to read. We'll see. I'm looking forward to getting some people to read this who haven't been prepped about the backstory. To see how well I've conveyed things. Fresh eyes. What a challenge.

Ok, to all those of you who wrote me and said, "Your first-draft reader is a meany, saying your writing has no soul. You need a new first-draft reader who won't say such nasty things to you. Why not me? I'll be your first-draft reader!" And you know who you are.

My writing is not the best thing to ever hit paper. Trust me. Just look through a few of these blog entries. I really need a first-draft reader who will tell me honestly when it sucks. One of the good things about my current one is that they can communicate well enough to say exactly how it sucks. That means I can make an attempt at fixing it. I think in this particular case the rewritten scene is much stronger -- tense even. Just because I went back thinking I needed to inject some more soul. (another good comment.... "It's chapter 50, Wendy. It's ok to let out a few secrets.")

So I had hoped to take the day off today. Instead, I was at work till 9pm and I'm now planning to go in tomorrow (that's a Saturday for those of you keeping track) in the afternoon. Not exactly how I had planned the weekend.

I didn't post last night because it was my birthday-eve and I didn't feel like it. So there.

Sarah was a total sweetie and got me a great birthday present. It contained several items, including chocolate, popping eyeballs and a fez. All of them intended to be used at work. Do we see a theme here? I didn't think that was how my life was supposed to turn out. Somebody needs to go set the seven-year-old Wendy straight. (I'm not living on a spacestation, being a backcountry guide, world-famous scientist, or even an elf queen. Where did it all go wrong?)

So in reading over my last entry, I just realized that I typed "caste" when I meant "cast." I could go back and edit it, but I'm not going to. See, there's a caste system in a certain book I'm working on right now, and I guess my fingers assume that's the word I'm looking for, even though at my day job I work a lot with cast and definitely not castes. I guess you can tell where my mind really is.

So yeah, I missed a day of posting. I came home from dinner with my first-draft reader and went straight to bed. I didn't even remember I had a blog until one of those hazy pain-induced moments of clarity in the middle of the night as I was trying to get back to sleep. It's not that the meeting went badly. He just told me the chapter had no soul. No soul, I tell you! My writing is soul-less. I'm crushed. Not really. I'm not surprised he had that reaction. I'm actually glad it wasn't worse. I was writing through a lot of pain and frustration, so I'm just glad it was coherent at all. Now I just have to go back and inject some soul.

Also -- Happy Birthday Devin!

Day Job: I like having legal council available. That's definitely one of the perks of working for a big corporation. My brother-in-law is currently in law school, and when he's done, I'm afraid I'm going to be a pain -- always calling him up with questions that my work legal council won't touch. Another thing I've learned working here: somebody is going to absolutely hate what you do, no matter what you do. The show hasn't even gone on the air yet and there are already people pronouncing it terrible (just by looking at a caste photo). The people with the pleasant comments are always quieter somehow. Perhaps they are more refined and less prone to shouting.

Home: Yeah, I didn't get anything done over the weekend. I threw my back out and spent a lot of it on the floor wishing my pain pills would kick in. Here's hoping I have enough clean clothes to make it till my back is better and I have a few minutes to do laundry.

Books: My first draft reader tells me I didn't whine enough here about the character who got up on her soap-box. That doesn't bode well, does it? She did go on and on. I've only planned one chapter to be from her point of view. I hadn't really planned any chapters to be from her point of view, but I switched this one after attempting it with the other character. So now that this one has the stage, she really goes all-out. Kind of like the extra in the movie who's supposed to get shot and die, but spends half an hour knocking over tables and clutching at people in their death scene. This character of mine feels very strongly about a lot of social issues, and she wanted to take the opportunity to spout off. About all of them. Over and over. So now I'm editing down, and she argues every time I cut a sentence.

Sarah: The goal is to have it ready for reading by the end of August, just like I keep telling you. Not sure I'll make it, but I'm going to try.

Went to a party Saturday night. My friend Lydia had a party on the beach by her apartment. There were at least 30 people there, so plenty of new people to talk to. The food was awesome. The moon rose red and stayed orange till it was a quarter of the way into the sky. Lake Michigan was beautiful too.

I used to live in the apartment Lydia is in now. It has a balcony looking out over the lake and it's right on the beach. I used to go swimming every morning. That was the best.

I came home from the party to get some chapters written. Turned on the TV for company. There was a great old black and white movie on PBS. Didn't get the name of it, but there was tap dancing and singing. Mistaken identities, confusion about who's married to who. Everything you want from an old movie.

It was just what I needed for inspiration on that chapter, too.

Day Job: Finally having enough people on a project is so nice. I've been able to take two (related) items off my 'todo' list that have been on there for over two years. And all because I'm fully staffed now. I'm still doing two jobs, but partly because you'll have to pry creative out of my cold dead fingers.

Home: I have a filing cabinet now, and no more excuses. I'm going to try to tame the piles of paper covering my dining room table. Tomorrow.

Books: Yay! I get to rewrite the dialogue in chapter 48, re-organize chapter 46 (it's like writing a term paper. it needs to be organized and trimmed.) And then I get to do more than two paragraphs in chapter 50! It will be so nice to get out of the 40's. They've really been dragging on. (Kind of like middle-age?) I hope they're not this hard to get through when people read it.

It rained hard today. It was cool. Our basement didn't flood. That was cool. Our new office in the basement of a skyscraper didn't flood either. That was also cool.

Somebody at work asked me for a favor today, and for the first time in ages I cashed in on it the same day. You can now go watch a trailer of the show at www.mutantx.net.

I came home and flipped channels. I found PBS doing a documentary on the history of british punk music. That was weird. They grouped American grunge as punk and it made sense. Mostly it made me feel my musical ignorance. Though I do have a soft spot in my heart for grunge.

Speaking of wacky subcultures, take a look at wildfire fighters some time. They have their own language, their own myths and legends. And their own entry requirements. Apparently in order to do medium-level work on a fireline you have to be able to carry a 25 pound pack 2 miles in under half an hour. I hear my dad can do it in 28 minutes this summer. So I guess he's not retiring yet.

The books: I'm trying to convince myself I'm almost done. Just 20-some odd chapters to go. And that's really not bad when you consider that there are 74 chapters planned. Don't worry. A lot of them are very short.