Back to the Scene of the Crime

Tomorrow we leave for another trip to Las Vegas, this time to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We got married in Vegas..in a helicopter..flying over the strip at night, so it seems appropriate for us to head back there to celebrate the fact we're still together and both of us are still in one piece. We're planning to go out for dinner, catch a show (this time we're going to go to the Penn and Teller show at the Rio) and while Ross enters a big poker tournament at the Venetian, I'll be visiting the spa. Yes, indeed, we are looking forward to this trip. Happy Anniversary to us! :)

Friday Five - Oct 7th, 2011

Last week's Friday Five was fun, so I'm going to do it again. This is also kind of like the flash round I do at the end of my Sound Bites podcast episodes for Bitten By Books. Always a lot of fun and informative! 

1. Coffee or tea?

2. Morning person or night person?

3. Favourite TV show when you were a kid. A teenager/twenty something? Now? (ok, that's kind of more than one question)

4. What movie did you see when you were young, before you should have? (content or fear factor)

5. Weirdest thing sitting on your desk? (or around it)

My Answers:

1. Coffee or tea?
Tea!
2. Morning person or night person?
I used to be a morning person, till I turned into a Vampire, I guess. Now I seem to be a night person.

3. Favourite TV show when you were a kid. A teenager/twenty something? Now? (ok, that's kind of more than one question)

Ack, why do I ask these tough questions? I really should think about having to answer them when I write them down..When I was little I really liked normal kid shows but I think Mr Dressup was my favourite. Let's see, I watched Xena, young hercules (yeah, I did), then later, Friends, and for some reason in university we watched the Price is Right a lot. Now, I am into the Amazing Race, Law and Order SVU, the Deadliest Catch, Supernatural, Fringe..wow. I watch too much TV. I'm also catching up on shows I missed because I either didn't get the channels or I was too busy partying and travelling. (ahem)

4. What movie did you see when you were young, before you should have? (content or fear factor)
WATERSHIP DOWN! I'm still traumatized. I don't want to say how old I was because that will hint my age, but, I saw it in the THEATER on the huge screen when I was just a wee one. Had nightmares forEVER. Watched it again several years ago, it still creeps me out.

5. Weirdest thing sitting on your desk? (or around it)
Hunh. What a weird question to ask. :P Might be the spray bottle I have for shooting at boy cat when he scratches my writing chair.

I'm Supposed to Blog Today

It's a workout day, which means I'm also supposed to blog. (to stick to my blogging goals!) I got nothing. However, I do have this adorable, hilarious picture of our boy cat. Or, at least I think it's great. He's doing his best impression of an LOLcat photo. So, here you go. My blog today is purely to solicit smiles. I hope it works and this entry gets categorized under Random Wickhamness, with credit to Spooky, the wacko cat. (get it, CATegorized)

Dental Surgery Day

Need I say more? This has been a nightmare. I had a root canal on this tooth in May. It took TWO sessions, (4 needles, 2 hours long, drilling, scrapping, removing roots each time..) plus of course the temporary filling and then crown. But I still had pain. I went back, he shaved down the crown, just in case. I went back. He did it again, then told me, we'd have to do the root canal again. My reaction, of course, was to freak out. He said, it's no big deal. Apparently to him, no big deal was another 4 needles and over an hour of drilling and scrapping. After, still pain. Let's try antiobiotics. Did that, went back, still pain.

So, now I'm going to an Endodontist today. This is what I'm having done. YES, I am sharing these photos so that you too can cringe and experience a bit of my pain. You're welcome.



With so many dentist appointments, I do have my coping mechanisms well set in place.

While at the dentist:

1. I have a book in my hands at all times to disappear into at any opportunity, and probably clutch throughout the procedure. (I usually take The Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle)

2. I have my ipod with relaxing music on it.

3. I'll be wearing my own sunglasses to cut down the blaring light in my face.

I also have a plan that helps me by having something to look forward to and to make myself better when I get home.

1. I'm taking the rest of the day off.

2. I have my latest crochet project by the bed.

3. My Buffy discs are cued and ready to go.

4. I have protein shakes and bendy straws at the ready.

5. I'm blogging about it so lots of people will send their wishes and sympathy. ;)

IF you don't hear from me again, please, remember me fondly. Then track down these *bleeping* dentists and kill them.

Thank you.

Electric Velocipede

At the World Fantasy convention, I grabbed a free t-shirt from John Klima of Electric Velocipede (Hugo Award winning magazine.) They like it when you take a picture in their shirt and then send it to them. So I did. Little did I know I'd end up the "EV T-shirt girl," and of course, I'm loving it. I just saw today that they even gave me a shout out and link to my site on their home page, so I'm returning the favour and blogging about them today. :)

If you too want to own a cool "Short Fiction is dead, Long live short fiction," you can visit their site for a shirt HERE. Support short fiction! ;)

New Client-Blatant Plugs for Writing Excuses, Twitter and My Training

Do you listen to the INCREDIBLY GREAT podcast, Writing Excuses? "15 minutes long, cuz you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart." Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler and Dan Wells host this snappy, informative podcast that never fails to inspire me and make me laugh. I follow all of them on Twitter (here comes another endorsement for the network..) and noticed that Howard Tayler, author of the comic space opera, Schlock Mercenary, tweets quite often about working out. I think we'd exchanged a few tweets (because that's how it works, folks, you can actually talk to famous people...) and then just last week he tweeted something about workouts or diet and I replied to ask him if he wanted help. Fast forward a week or so, and I'm now training wecartoonist and podcaster, Howard Tayler, in exchange for his help in promoting myself as an author. You know, for that day when I have more than two stories published. ;) 

He's included his decision to train with me on his blog HERE which is a great way to keep accountable, not to mention, give me a big promo shout out.

What's the point of my blog? Sheer self-promotion, really. And to say, hey, if you have a skill that you can exchange for help with your writing or promotion for your writing career, don't be afraid to ask!! (caveat-pg 13 rated skills only, please)

Good luck, Howard, we'll be watching...

The Blogging Habit

I'm afraid to even look at the date of my last blog post. (don't look!!) I seem to have fallen off the blogging wagon. It seems for me, blogging is like exercising for other people. I set goals to blog three times a week, I get very excited and keep it up for a short time, then it starts to be harder to stick to, my blogging becomes a little irregular. But I don't give up, I tell myself I'm going to make up for it. Then, all of a sudden, life gets busy and I haven't blogged for a week. Then I feel like I've lost momentum and soon another week has gone by without blogging. Well, by then I've thrown my goals out the window, feel like a terrible failure and can't bring myself to dive back in to do a single blog. Am I right?

For me, exercise is second nature. It's not a matter of "sticking to it" because it's just a constant part of my life. Now, if I could only figure out a way to make that happen with my blogging..because I do enjoy it! I like the creativity of it, reading other people's blogs, receiving comments on my blog..I just need to stick to it!

For those of you who blog on a regular basis and have done so for a long time, do you have any tips for me?!!!

VCON 2010

Last weekend I attended VCON, Vancouver's local fantasy, sci fi and gaming convention for the third year in a row. The first year, I'd barely started writing and followed the two author guests of honour, Kelley Armstrong and Patrick Rothfuss around to every panel about writing and publishing. Then I started taking my writing seriously. The second year at VCON, I had my story accepted for Evolve and went to the Book Launch as an author to help promote it, even though the book wasn't out yet. This year, Evolve is out and I signed copies at the Book launch. I also did a reading and sat on four panels, two of which were with the amazing author guest of honour this year, Cherie Priest. It's been a great couple of years.

I can't say enough in support of VCON, local conventions and of course the bigger ones if you're interested in writing or becoming a writer. You can learn so much from other authors, publishers, editors and agents. When I first started competing in fitness, it was so new, there were no coaches, no one to tell me what to do. I had to learn by trial and error for YEARS. Once I made it to the top 5 at the National level, I began passing on what I'd learned by training others. I constantly joke with my clients that I wish there'd been a "me" when I first started competing. Now I'm making the leap into the writing world, I'm taking full advantage of learning from those who've been down the many roads to publication, using their experiences to seek out my own path.

Next up is the World Fantasy Convention in Columbus, Ohio and I can't wait. :)

Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures at VCON. I'm hoping the official photographer for the event got at least one of me sitting on a panel, so I can prove I really did it. ;)

I did get a shot of some of us hanging in my room having drinks on the Saturday night, and on the last day I got a picture with this lady, I don't know her name, but she sat in some of the writing sessions when I was on the panel and she was just so darn cute I wanted to get a pic.

Secret Project

I've always wanted to say that.

I have a joint project with several of my writing friends in the works. It's not going to be a secret very long..we're letting the cat out of the bag (so to speak) on Oct 1st. I'll be blogging about it, so please stay tuned!!!

I'm excited. I know you are too. I can tell. ;)