Where Personal and Professional Life Collide...

 The reading at KGB went very well, I think (the rapt silence meant either people were listening, or they've learned to snore quietly), although it was depressing to note that many (most) of my NYC friends did not show up for my first local appearance in three years.  Those who did, I <3 you and appreciate your support.

/not-subtle grump.

But it was a good crowd, and good feedback, and then there was drinking later and a Brilliant Idea hatched over whisky that still seemed like a Brilliant Idea when we woke up the next morning, so call the entire evening a win.  :-)

And since then I've been running about doing family things, meeting with my editor, and possibly meeting with my lawyer (nothing bad, don't worry).  Mainly, a lot of running about.  I'm averaging 5 miles of walking every day.  I've missed that about living in NYC....

But now I have to go do a few more hours of work, because as much as I'd like this to be, it's not a vacation....

How goes your weekend?

Spent the weekend split between sorting and storing, and revising the novella. And poking my brain at the short story that due next month. Semi-productive, in small ways that don't really have impressive-to-report markers.  :-(

But we're at 9 donations confirmed, and 2 more promised for #willwrite2feedothers! Four more people stepping forward to do something kind, and you all get a new story! (19 more to get An Extra Bonus!) And yes, I've decided that hours-volunteered counts.  If you can document 1+ hour spent working for/with a food bank or other feed-in-need organization, that counts as your $10 donation.

And CatofSize fell ill - he is discovering a tendency to *ahem* become blocked. Much like old men everywhere, I'm told. So there was some unpleasant medical stuff for him, and some unpleasant financial stuff for me. *sighs* If anyone feels the impulse to buy some books of mine, either from Book View Cafe or elsewhere, my next month's credit card bills will thank you (and remember, now's the time to start buying for the holidays! Books make great gifts - and you don't even have to wrap ebooks!)

I wil say, tho, that I am left in awe at the trust and affection our animals place in us, that the pain-strike-flee brain is calmed by our presence...


Meanwhile, Subtenant has moved self and stuff into the apartment, prior to the 'official' 1 December hand-off.  We - the two of us and the two cats - are getting along well, although there have been times when I've felt the intense need for SOLITUDE. Introvert, me? Yep. :-)

9 days until departure.

One third of my belongings are currently wending their way across the continent. One third are in storage. And one third will be handed into the keeping of my sub-tenant in two weeks.

Right now, it's me, the cats, and a lot of quiet space where there used to be physical noise. I'm not sure if I like it or not. Either way, it's doing interesting things to my brain. I suspect there will be at least one new short story coming out of it....

Intentionally shaking up your life just to see what settles, and where. It's a good kind of crazy.

On this first morning of standard time winter 2014, I was woken up at 4:40 by the cats, who were understandably confused. Gave them half-rations and staggered back to sleep - only to be woken up at 5:20 by an unknown number on my cell. At 5:20am you assume it's an emergency, right? Nope. Radio station calling the wrong number.

(why?  I have no idea.  I honestly idn't ask - but the guy seemed to think that I knew why they'd be calling.)

So let's just say I'm going to be running on leftover adrenaline & sheer pissed-offedness for the rest of the day. And the asswipe didn't even apologize before hanging up on me (once I explained to them in slightly groggy tones that yeah maybe they DID have the wrong number).

Day, you had BETTER give me something better today to offset this, or I swear I'm just going back to bed until Monday.

Two years ago tonight, I had moved my bed away from the windows, had stocked up on candles, batteries, and jugs of water, and made sure all my tech was fully charged, watching the news and wondering how bad it was going to get.

We were lucky - all we lost here was a tree (I still miss that tree) and power only fluctuated. But there are areas of NJ and NYC that still haven't recovered entirely.

I like storms. But if I never see Sandy's like again, that'll be good.



flashbacks:
the eve of the storm
during
the day after

Y'know, I lead a relatively minimalist lifestyle. I don't impulse-buy, I clear out the clutter on a regular basis, and if something is neither useful nor personally relevant, I tend to not keep it. Plus, I have a 1 bedroom apartment that is not overcrowded.

So how the hell have I accumulated so much STUFF?

Meanwhile, last night my sub-tenant was approved* by the board (contrary to the horror stories you hear about co-op boards, they mostly spent the interview talking about cats and restaurants.  Which actually mirrors my experience with the previous board quite well).  The feline transport has been confirmed. And I have a line on movers who are both not-obviously-incompetent** and within my price range, so huzzah!

All I need to do now is finish packing, send things off to storage, and buy a plane ticket.  Oh, and finish this book revision and the novella revisions, yeah, that too....

currently under the knife:

The language lesson continued as they passed into the deep valley between two hills, and the trail curved and began to rise again, up into the mountains, until Bernardo, still holding his instrument in both hands, came to stand in front of them, forcing them to rein in the horses.

"Isobel."  Her name in his mouth had an almost-familiar lilt to it, the way her father or mother might have said it. "Ready yourself, bruja. It comes."


* we assume, anyway, since they were talking about move-in dates and whatnot, but the Official Word will come on Monday
**really all you can hope for with movers, until they prove otherwise by the actual move

Where "this" is a leave of absence from NYC.

In December, I'm packing up self, cats, and a limited (!) number of books, and hauling cross-country to Seattle, where I will take up residence for a year (or two).

No, I'm not abandoning NYC. I still own my apartment - a friend is subletting, a time-honored NYC tradition, and I can only do that for two years before the co-op board starts making unhappy noises at me. I'll be back.

But then why? various people have been asking since I first mentioned this scheme.

Well.... mainly because I never intended to be a person who lived her entire life in the same place. And for the past 4 decades, although I've moved about, it's always been within the NY-CT-NJ axis. Mind, I love this area, and my soul belongs to NYC (I can show you the paperwork), but.... I'm not a person for sameness-all-my-life. It makes me itch. And travel only scratches so far.  So it felt like it was time for a (temporary) shakeup.

And why Seattle? I like it. I like the Pacific Northwest. I like the combination of city life and waterfront and easy access to mountains, and the sense of flipping everything I know about being on one coast and looking at it from another. I like the fact that new states will now be within driving/exploring distance. And, yep, I like the people there. Well, most of them. Okay, a lot of them.

And there are work-relevant reasons for this location, too.  But more on that later, maybe.

So that's what's been in the planning for the past few months, and this week I signed a lease for my apartment there.  I'm kinda excited, more than a little stressed, and probably more freaked out than I'm realizing.

But I'm really looking forward to seeing the sun rise and set from a slightly different angle, and hanging with the west coast for a while.

But I'm still not going to root for the Seahawks*.

Related New Household Rule: If I haven’t used a reference book in 5+ years, I really didn’t need it.  No, really.  No, don’t put it back on the shelf….

*I may be not be on speaking terms with the NFL like whoa right now, but Jersey Blue forevah.

Writerly Stuff:

Revisions on many things continue.   I am very boring on social media during revisions, unless you're privy to the maniacal cackling and frustrated sobbing....

For those of you following the progress of SILVER ON THE ROAD, I just sent the following character references off to our art director:

Kasun

Izzy

I have no idea what the cover will look like, but they will know what our main characters look like, at least, and no excuses.  :-)

Random Feel-Good Link:

Defining a mensch (the woman who posted the ad, not the people she was addressing, for clarity)

Kickstarter reminders:

We still have a week left in the (now fully funded but pulling for awesome stretch goals) TEMPORALLY OUT OF ORDER anthology

Word-warroom-mate Chrysoula Tzavelas's WOLF INTERVAL kickstarter has also fully funded, with a little under two weeks to go and some nifty bonus offerings, so you should totally be checking this one out, too.


In other news, I am off to Seattle in a few hours, for five days of Chaos, Plotting and Inevitable Hjinks.  I should go pack, or something, right?

The following two gifs are probably terribly apt for the coming week/ten days or so...





Also, unrelatedly but importantly, the TEMPORALLY OUT OF ORDER kickstarter is $305 $195 away from funding!  A Tuckerization in my story for that anthology is still available, and will make you the hero who pushes us over to 100%.  I'm just putting that out there....

Saturday was...well, a basic Saturday. Went to the Greenmarket. Wrote some words. Wrote some more words. Hung out on the sofa with cats and a book someone else wrote. Generally counted and polished spoons, because Sunday....

Well, Sunday.  Sunday was the People's Climate March.  In NYC, in Amsterdam, in London, in Paris, in Istanbul, in Melbourne, in Bogota, in Rio, in Delhi...

In NYC, we were 310,000 strong, according to the official count. [I just saw an updated count of 400K!] Six hours and about six miles, start to finish, and they had to cut the march short by a mile, because otherwise we'd still be marching, there were THAT many people filling the streets.

I marched with the faith-based group section, joining my sister and her fellow Buddhists -and a lot of Jews, Quakers, Pagans, UUers, Episcopalians, Baha'i-ers, and other groups who weren't actually cheek-and-jowl with us.  And there were drummers and bell-ringers, and at least one saxophone and two flutes, and maracas, and a lot of dancing...

And now, having refilled myself with water and protein and not-low-fat carbs, Imma gonna collapse until Monday knocks on the door.
( Photos of our corner of the march behind the jump )


If you couldn’t take part in one of the People’s Climate Marches today, but want your voice to be heard…speak up now.