Look! 2 in 1 day!

I love making the best of what I’ve got…or taking a nothing and adding elbow grease until that nothing sure is something.

On Christmas Eve, I’d gone thrift shopping and picked up a handmade tent of a dress for about $2. Hell, it might’ve even been the one I got free in the buy-one-get-one-free deal. Anyhow, over the weekend, I dove into it. The lady who’d made it–probably some time in the late 70s-early 80s judging by the fabric and the cut of the collar and cuffs–had thought she was making a dress.

Well, me being itty-bitty, I often buy big $2 dresses to make them smaller or salvage the cool fabric or whatever. In this case, when I pulled out the dress to really look at it, my first thought was “The lady who made this got it all wrong. It’s not a dress. It’s a jacket!”

Roughly 5 hours over three days later, I have a damn kickass jacket which I was going to post a picture of because it turned out a million times better than I’d expected, but darn-it-all straight to hell and then some, I can’t find my camera! I have no idea what I did with it.

Ugh.

But on Saturday, I’ll be at the BookLadies, signing as half of Ashleigh Raine and I’m gonna wear it there…so someone’s bound to get a picture of it somehow.

Good golly, I hope so at least!

Getting louder, I hope

Yes, this is going to start as an apology post because I’ve been so quiet lately. I assure you much has been happening…

For starters, as of January 13th [yes, that was a Friday the 13th!] I have an agent. Deidre Knight of the Knight Agency.

I have no idea why I didn’t announce it sooner…even in a two line post. Perhaps, I wanted to spend more time on it. I dunno.

Anyhow, she picked up Ashleigh Raine and by default, me, too. Pretty nifty stuff. We really dug in and the ride is full of excitement so far.

I’ve picked up a project I’d dropped for awhile. Y’know…having an agent now, I feel like my hope has been somewhat renewed. See, there are only so many rejection letters plus comments that I can get before the “almost there”–as the pros excitedly say–turns into “that’s nice, but it still means no.” I was starting to reach that point…and that’s doggone sad.

But this blog has never been about ranting and grumping and various icky stuff like that. I’ve tried to keep it about nifty life-happenings…things I’ve learned, etc.

So, that being said, let me get back to having hope and picking up that project I’d dropped. Oh. My. God. Lots of fun. I hope I can keep up the pace!

Just Breathe

In an effort to fix my posture (sitting hours on end hunched over a keyboard does not do wonders for my back) I’ve started to do more yoga. I suppose part of that is because lately as I do more in class, I discover more about myself, the way I operate and in some cases how stupid I am.

In class, I never question whether or not I can do a pose. If the teacher says it, I give it a try. Sometimes I pay the next day, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I discover new fun and amazing tricks to astound my friends at parties, sometimes I learn just how incredibly close my head is in relation to my ass.

And then there are times when it seems everything is right in the world. Somehow, bending upside down on my pink-with-purple-paisley yoga mat while staring at my ugly feet just really brings out the best in my life. I don’t know how, but it does.

After those classes, I go home physically taller, more relaxed than ever…and very thirsty after having dehydrated myself all day by drinking tea.

And then there are times when everything is wrong in the world. Those days where I can’t balance on one foot to save my life. Or I go into a lunge and swear I tore something. I don’t know why this happens, but I’ve found that it correlates to writing, too.

No matter what, everything shall pass. The show must go on. I just gotta remember to keep breathing. Believe me, pushing up, over and backward in order to climb down a wall is not a moment when breathing is quite as near the forefront as trying not to land on my head!

But hey, a couple classes ago, I climbed down the wall and right back up–without any help.

All I did was breathe.

The show does go on.

Locus Anyone?

Sorry, I’ve been quiet lately. I’ve been so busy that I’m already this far in to 2006 and I haven’t found the time to have a cup of tea at Peet’s coffee. I’ve written at least a chunk of all of my books there. Jen and I have plotted several, but yet this year has started off with such a loud and crazy bang, I haven’t had a cup of tea there.

I’m hoping that’ll change…but not until tomorrow. I’ve got waaaaay too much stuff I gotta get done today.

Over the weekend, Jason had a signing at our local Barnes & Noble. That was good. I was too busy to do more than drop by for a little while, but I did drop by. It’s showing support, and hey I get to check out the bargain racks.

But what I was most interested in, they didn’t have. The latest Locus Magazine. I’ve heard that there’s a picture of Jason and I in it, but I haven’t seen it yet and I’m dying to! I think it might be in one of my loud get-ups and I wanna post it to my website.

Then again, with the amount of time I don’t have lately, perhaps it won’t get posted until the end of the year!

I’m actually looking forward to some free time just so I can update my website. I’ve got lots more stuff that can go up.

Hopefully, my Locus Magazine will arrive in my mailbox today. If not, guess I’ll sigh and pout some more.