Where Personal and Professional Life Collide...

And my next installment of Westbound is up, over at Book View Cafe!

In which I discuss time, weather, and the difference between NYC and Seattle street crossings...

A week ago, I arrived in Seattle for the long stay.  Woke up this morning to a cat's nose in my face. Life is back to what passes for normal.... (except they let me sleep until 6:30! A West Coast Miracle!).  The apartment's still a work in progress, but we're getting there.  It feels like home now, anyway.

Today's schedule: testing out Instacart's delivery system (I already know I'm not impressed by their website), editorial work, and trying to make a short story of my own behave. Oh, and checking out the building's gym, since I have no plans to walk several miles anywhere, today...

I'm also going to be setting up 2015's client schedule, so if you think you might want to work with me next year, now's the time to mention it, so we can discuss.... (I only work with one client at a time, so slots do fill up).

Meanwhile, An Amusement:

In the NYC apartment, the only mirrors were a) a full-length one on the inside of the coat closet, b) a decorative one hung on the wall, and c) the medicine cabinet.

None of them ever seemed to catch the cats' attention.

However, in the Seattle apartment, the bathroom mirror is an oversized wall-mounted one, backing the entire length of the vanity. And Castiel is fascinated with it, up to and including jumping into the tub, then stretching up to stare at the mirror from a safe distance, and then leaping forward over the tub ledge, up onto the counter, to get a better look.

I'm not sure what he thinks is going on, or who that handsome devil he keeps spotting might be, but it's pretty damn funny to watch....

So yeah, I'm here.  I feel like I'm here, too, although there are some things I need to sort out intellectually and emotionally, and will be dealing with them in my next Westward Bound post for Book View Cafe.

And I need a Seattle icon.  That's NOT the Needle.  Hrm.

I'm still figuring out where the furniture goes (there are limited options in a small studio, but that makes the choices even MORE important), and trying to get things unpacked and in the right places (see above aside), and trying to determine what's gotten broken or gone AWOL in the move (so far, only things emotionally valuable more than essential or 'orribly expensive).

The apartment is nicely sectioned off into "sleep" and "awake" areas, but I haven't sorted ot the working space yet.  That's something that has to come organically, not "okay, I'll work here."  But it will come.

And the cats are still en-route (last I heard, they were in Kansas, so probably Colorado today).  Keep your fingers crossed for no major storms in the next few days!  It's not a proper home without cats.

Tomorrow is Monday.  A new editorial client's incoming, a short story needs to be polished, and a book needs working on.  That's the state of me....

The last day of November. The last day of my official tenancy at this address (at least until 2016). I feel like I should have one more "last" to put there, but I don't leave the city itself until Wednesday....

Three more sleeps until we go.

I've been - slowly, cautiously - saying goodbye to NYC this week. Every sidewalk and neon sign, every sweep of the rivers along the shores, every bridge and intersection, steel, brick, and concrete.

I admit: I love this city more than the sum of individual people in it, with the full knowledge that people are part of what makes this city. Place of my heart.  Leaving it, at least for a while, is the right thing to do - and I maintain my residence here, so the ties are not completely cut - but there's already an aching space in my soul....


The plan is to be liveblogging the next year at Book View Cafe. starting on Wednesday, continuing once a month.  I hope you'll follow along on the adventure....

Two weeks before the move, and I'm living a weird kind of half-life.  Ideally, this makes me focus more on the work.  Ideally.

Lunch with my agent this week, to discuss projects pending, and new.  Which means I really need to get the existing stuff off my desk and onto someone else's (editor and/or formatters).  See second sentence of this post.

To that end, am revising and revising.... which is kind of like spending all day on a swing between "hey that bit was pretty good" and "oh shit, this bit sucks." And then the rope breaks.


From the "lines I'm keeping" file:
“The moment you say something’s not possible, someone will do it. But it’s not probable.”

My only comments about the election are that with democracy, sometimes we get the government other people deserved.  Also, that not giving up/not losing faith is the best fuck you we can give to those who want to haul us back to the 1950's (or 1850's).


I'm off to World Fantasy today. Over the weekend, Subtenant will be cat-minding, as she starts to move into the space and make it her own.

(the advantage of subletting to a good friend is that this sort of thing can happen)

Westward Ho! Updatery: Lease, confirmed. Movers, confirmed. Cat moving, confirmed. Insurance coverage for both locations, pending but pretty much confirmed. Self-moving, confirmed. Offsite storage, done.  Pretty much in work-and-wait mode.  Which leads us into....

Writing Updatery: Novels are with their respective editors. The two Sylvan Investigations novellas are being revised. Short stories are being plotted. WillWrite2FeedOthers is going to launch RSN. Maybe even tomorrow, if I get bandwidth while traveling. And next week I get to put my head down and focus on DEVIL'S WEST #2. Am I psyched about that? You have no idea.

Feline Updatery:  Two people now who've seen the Kitten in recent days have literally leaned back in surprise and said "he's gotten big!"  Yeah, I guess he has - his tail now looks normal compared to his body length, rather than extra-long, and I'm pretty sure his tail didn't shrink....  18 months old, and he's a lean, clean purring machine, who has gotten into the habit of sleeping with me at night, although he's still not much of a cuddler, otherwise.  That's all right, there's really only room for CatofSize on my lap, anyway.  And he's showing no signs of giving that space up, even when he's cranky from being ill...

(we're still waiting on his most recent bloodwork before panic/relief)

And that's all the news I'm allowed to print....

Yesterday was spent vising my cousin's new house, out in the semi-wilds of west-central Jersey.  It's a lovely house, a two-bedroom with a sunroom and a converted garage-turned-lounge, and a firepit in the garden, and I'd envy her except west-central Jersey is a need-a-car-to-do-anything place, and yeah, no.

Westward Ho! Updatery:  Feline transport, arranged. Storage locker, rented (but not yet occupied). Movers, in negotiations. acquired. More packing supplies, en route and expected today.

Work update:  SILVER ON THE ROAD revisions, finished (for the moment) and sent off to my second-pass betareaders (including my uncle, American history geek and former editor-in-chief of the BOMC history club, eek).   I can write new words now? I can!


*gets whiplash trying to shift from 1800' to 2020's....*