Lisa Rusczyk

Wendy Lawson Barnette

2011-11-16T11:02:00.000-08:00

My best and oldest friend Wendy passed away a couple of weeks ago, and I'm still reeling. That's a picture of her on her wedding day in June. She had a daughter who looks just like her.

Her death made me think about my beliefs on life after death. I do believe something carries on, just have no idea what. Life and work have been put on hold while I mourn.

Wendy was impossible to understand, giving, fun, interesting to talk to, and always answered my calls when I rang her. I know the hardest part of her dying will be those times when I need to talk to her in the months, even years to come.

I will always keep her in my thoughts and hope the best for the family she left behind.

Two Posts in One Day - Whooo!

2011-10-27T10:46:00.001-07:00

Authors, I found a cool thread on the Kindle discussion board. Check out this site called Book Club Discussion Guide. For some wondrous blogger reason, the site won't link, but here's the URL: http://bookclubcentral.wordpress.com/

You can suggest your book for book clubs. The site has instructions on how to do it. One thing you have to do is write eight discussion questions and post them on your Web site or blog. Here are mine for The Blue Pen:

1. How does the cat bring Cleo and Parker closer?

2. Cleo's experiences could be mental illness or genuine psychic explorations. Which do you think they are and why?

3. Do Parker's ambitions lead to Cleo's bathroom scene, or do you think this is something she's done before?

4. Barbie and Cleo share a bizarre family background. Who do you think takes after her mother?

5. Many of the characters in the book have more than one name. Do you think this works in the book?

6. Do you think a place like the Beacon could realistically exist and would you go there?

7. Does this book make you more interested in psychic phenomena?

8. Does this book make you more interested in mental illness?

Good luck, everyone! I think this is a neat opportunity.

The Message was released on Kindle!

2011-10-27T09:16:00.000-07:00

Yay!

Life is settling some, but everyone's been sick all week with something or other. Zinc is amazing stuff. Knocks what could be bed-ridden for a week to a day. I love ZINC. And no side effects.

I started working again on the third Night Person book today. I told the kids about it yesterday and now I'm excited about it again. I may try Nano with it, just start a lil early. I've never won a Nano.

I'm hoping Amazon will match the free price for Sam the Night Person soon. I check it every day. Who knows how they decide to do it?

Mikie wants to redo some of the covers. I think that'd be awesome. He spent all last weekend painting and did some amazing stuff. One was a poster of Jim Morrison's face and at the top he wrote, "One does not simply walk into Jim MorrDoor" with the Doors logo and the Great Eye in the background. So funny!

Morgana, Spooky's little girl has gotten big. She is the most darling thing in the world. Here's a pic of us together:

She follows me everywhere and sleeps with me. Pees with me, even. She's curled up on my chest right now, one of her favorite things to do. Kitty has me wrapped around her little paw. I adore her. She likes me to hold her like a baby and sing Elliott Smith songs to her. She looks deep into my eyes with love and then, when I'm done singing, I give her Eskimo kisses!

Another Interview with Artist Vanessa Rusczyk

2011-09-19T13:12:00.000-07:00

Hello, Vanessa, and thanks for giving us another interview. Your last interview is the most hit post on my blog. You have many lurking fans of your art work. Readers, if you’d like to see Vanessa Rusczyk’s first interview, click here.

You have been painting with oils, and in the past have been immersed in watercolors. What was the transition like?

Much easier than I thought it would be! For some reason I had this view of oil as a more difficult medium, but that was just because I didn’t understand it. Once I started using the materials, I kicked myself for waiting so long. There were some things that were hard to get used to, like painting whites and lights last, whereas with watercolors that is the first thing you need to think about. The best part is that oils are very forgiving - you can always let them dry and paint over. With watercolor, once a painting starts to go wrong, it can be very hard or impossible to recover.

What have you learned painting oils in comparison to watercolors?

Other than the differences highlighted above, I’ve found that I am more suited to oils than watercolors, personality-wise. I have a degree in engineering and have always been a fairly right-brained thinker. Watercolors lend themselves more to spontaneity than oils - a lot of watercolorists love letting the paint “do what it wants” on the paper. Well, oil will only do exactly what you tell it to do! I like being able to plan what I’m doing and not be surprised by the result. It is also much easier to paint larger canvases. The most common size I’m using now is 30”x40” (as opposed to 22x30 with watercolors) and I have two even larger canvases that are just sitting there, waiting!

Do you still focus on plant life, or have you branched out? Your flowers are as breath-taking as they are in real life. Does this carry over into oils?

Thanks! Yes, that is still my focus, and more specifically, native flora of the southwestern United States. So far my oils have featured flowers from California, New Mexico, and Colorado. I think the results are even better than the watercolors! One of the hardest challenges with watercolors was the backgrounds, especially around an intricately shaped flower. While working on my first oil painting, Chaparral Mallow, Santa Barbara, when I got to the background I couldn’t contain my excitement - I loved painting it! Now the backgrounds are really fun and I can even experiment. I put that right-side brain to rest and just play around.

Do you hate waiting for oils to dry, or do you like that you have time to change things?

The materials I use with oils allow the first layer to dry overnight, and each subsequent layer dries a little slower. I use liquin mixed with oil on the first layer, which causes the paint to dry much faster. The first layer of paint is an underpainting, so there is no need to take time to do a lot of detail work. It consists of blocking in color based on value primarily. I usually also take in to account what is going to be the next layer - for example if the sky has yellow tones, then I might use yellow as the underpainting for the sky area. Each complete layer of paint uses less liquin until the final one where I use almost pure oil paint. I do love the ability not only to change things, but also to smooth, blend, meld the colors, especially in flowers were you have these almost imperceptible changes in color or shade.

Do you still do watercolors?

I’ve maybe painted once in watercolors in the last year and a half. There are several that are mostly finished that I will finish and frame at some point, but I am having so much fun with the oils now, who knows when that will be!

What is your painting schedule like? Do you paint when you feel the urge, or are you strict with when you paint?

Funny that you ask this question because I just wrote a blog post about it!! Until last week I was trying to follow a regular schedule but not succeeding. I finally realized it was because I was spending too much time on the internet! Last week I started having Richard take the internet with him to work (this is possible because we use one of those Sprint dongles). I have been painting every day and making great progress on several paintings. I believe if I’m really to succeed as an artist I need to paint as often as possible.

Do you have anything in galleries or otherwise displayed?

I am taking a class/open studio at the Art Academy of San Diego, and I have one painting on display there. Right now I’m concentrating on getting together a good portfolio of at least 20 paintings, and then it will be time to start looking around for places to display. I did have two paintings accepted in to the San Diego Fair Fine Art Exhibit, where they were shown for a month.

Where can we find your work on the Internet?

You can visit my website, www.studiosoledad.com, and I have also started a blog at www.studio-soledad.com/blogspot. The website is exclusively about my art, and the blog focuses on art, but I also occasionally post about other subjects that interest me such as gardening and travel.

Oh yeah, and Sam the Night Person is Free on Smashwords

2011-09-02T14:58:00.001-07:00

You can find it here.

You need to take off the prude filter. I made it adult because of the smoking cigarettes in the book. Hope you enjoy!

Energy from Ginseng

2011-09-02T14:42:00.000-07:00

I've always loved the effects of ginseng, but it's hard to find the right kind and brand to make the ole body react with energy and well-being. It's why my email was inscrutableroot for 15 years, till it got spam-bombed. That's another term for ginseng. Mikie found some good ginseng for me at a GNC and it's helping with my anxiety and stress levels. The first time I took ginseng, over 15 years ago, I played my dad's accordion for the first time. Fun stuff!

On to cat news. Devlin has disappeared, but she had turned feral for the most part. We saw her once a day, if even. Devlin Imposter still comes in once in a while, and she's pretty sweet. We're keeping two of Spooky and Osho's babies, Morgana and Poof. We named Poof that because we didn't want to get attached, but his big, round eyes and over-sized ears, daddy body and mama eyes (Harry Potter is another name for him) made us love him too much.

Personal life's been crazy, but I'm dealing okay with it. I said, screw housekeeping, and it sure shows. I have a brace on my foot due to a torn tendon and it's a pain.

Haven't been writing, but posted three of my old books as indies on Kindle. I got my rights back from CLP and Terrie was wonderful about it. She really is great, and if you're thinking of going with an ebook company, look up Club Lighthouse Publishing.

The Message is due out 10/11/11. Yay!

I had to stop doing Hazard Cat, much to my sad heart, but I couldn't afford it. Didn't get any editing jobs in August except for a few shorts and now need to cut corners/rub pennies together/steal mail out of the neighbors' mailboxes looking for checks. (Just kidding. I make the kiddos do that.)

Raven and the Writing Desk has ended our year and a half run, but we're putting out a book on Kindle of the stories we liked best.

Long Timey, No Writey

2011-07-13T14:30:00.000-07:00

It's a day, the day after the day after personal life exploded. Oh well, it's calm now and my Sam Adams Cherry Wheat knows what I mean. My friend Jewels got me into this particular brew and it's fabulous, sip-all-day and yummyish. I recommend.

That's the cover for The Message, coming out with Passionate Writer Publishing in a few months, I think. Sent the edits back, shout out to Cherie Reich for her wonderful editing job!

I'm so sorry, faithful readers, to have not regaled (bored) you with kitten day-to-day. We gave Zowie Bowie, the girl tabby, to a couple we know. Here's a pic Rita made with her:

Isn't that an awesome pic?

We gave Panthor, black tabby, to my stepsons' mom. He lives with us again now, long story. I think eventually he'll go home again.

Poof, AKA Mr. Goforth, AKA Harry Potter (he looks like his dad, but has his mother's eyes), AKA Elliott (we had to stop calling him that cause we were getting too attached) is the short-hair orange boy going to my friends the Goforths. I'm waiting till they move into their new house before they take him. He'll be a great family cat and they have four little girls.

Morgana, long, luxurious orange fur...Spitfire. She's the one we're keeping. She's so fun and beautiful. But she's a bad kitty sometimes! When I made coffee yesterday, she climbed my velvet-clad legs three times, all the while I'm screaming her name as her claws anchor in my soft flesh.

She's sitting next to me now. Say hi to Morgana!

Hazard Editing is going great. I'm booked pretty far ahead, made some great friends, met some amazing, understanding and talented writers. I've had a rough year between multiple sinus infections and family dramas.

Hazard Cat not going as well. We've been s broke I can't pay my contributors, but I've gotten some great donations. Soon, in the next week or so, finances will be back to normal.

Haven't done any writing except for Raven and the Writing Desk. That's always fun!

My ex-mother-in-law's book came out, Gaia Dreams by Pamela Davis. Wonderful book I had the pleasure of editing. Go read it! Now!!!

Alabama Heat

2011-06-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

Alabama's hot early this year. It's been in the 90s all week and will continue this way.

My garden seems okay with it. Only the cucumbers aren't making it, and the basil's fighting.

Spooky insisted I brought the kittens out to the living room today. Then she left. She returned thirty minutes later with a dead chipmunk to show her babies. *sigh* She was quite disappointed that I got it from her and disposed of it. She brought one in a few days ago and sat outside the kittens' room, waiting for us to open the door so she could show them. Instincts, what do you do. I think it's sweet of her to want to show them fresh food from hunting.

The editing service is doing well. My books are not. Aubrie Dionne sent me an encouraging email making me want to write books again. I need to find the time.

I'm down to about 2 months of posting Hazard Cat submissions. I'm hoping to reopen paying submissions starting August or September.

Mother and Daughter

2011-05-17T13:20:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite pic I've gotten so far. Never can get a good one of Spooky. Pictures don't do her beauty justice. The orange girl with her mouth open is the one we're keeping. Still no name.

We've given away one definite and one most likely. The fourth, the boy tabby with white face and feet, might just stay with us, too!

I continue to have health problems, but they aren't as bad as through the winter and spring. I've been able to work more and read some damn fine books.

I added three new editors to Hazard Editing. Writers are wonderful to work with. The talent continues to astound me.

Demand Studios article titles have changed a lot since the company went public. Instead of 50 billion car fixing titles, there are ones like, Fun Things to Talk to a Seven-Year-Old About. I claimed that one. There are many more pop culture articles and I likes it vewy muches.

I haven't been doing a scrap of writing other than stories for Raven and the Writing Desk. I'm tossing around the idea of a memoir about playing FFXI or my experiences with schizoaffective disorder. I think I could help people by writing about how I cope with the illness and how it impacts everyday life. Plus, it'd be cathartic. People I know say I shouldn't talk about it. I think it needs to be talked about. To be proven that one can overcome it and lead a semi-normal life and be productive, creative, and have a family. And cats. Lots of cats.

Made it Through the Storms with Kittens

2011-05-04T11:00:00.001-07:00

I live in North Alabama and we had severe tornado-y storms last Wednesday. Power was out forever, it felt. On my birthday, April 30th, 2011, we had four new additions to the family. Spook went into labor around 3, and popped out an orange kitten at 4. Next came another orange kitten, breached. Third was a tabby, and I had to show it to Spooky. She was so exhausted, she gave birth and laid down. I scooted her head to the tabby wrapped in a sack and she immediately went to freeing the baby and cleaning him. The fourth sneaked out as she was cleaning the third and we didn't know there was a fourth until she started eating.

So we have two orange and two tabby, boys and girls in each color. My stepson was with us and I am thrilled he got to see the birth. Even Mikie watched.

I'm having a hard time getting back in the groove of things. Power outage for this long is crazy. And my wallet feels the pain. Mikie and I both went into survival mode during the outage, and we hardly ate. We had a ton of food and had to grill all the meat on Thursday. Our friends and family came over and we ate and drank and were merry until everyone had to go home because of curfew. Everyone made it safely through the storm. One friend had a tree go through his house, but otherwise everyone was okay.

At night we played word association games. We tried Uno the first night with Spencer, but we couldn't tell blue from green in the candlelight. So the rest of the nights, we played Nouns and Verbs and Adverbs. It was pretty fun.

I had been having sinus problems, then the pollen alert went to severe after the storms. After the power went out, with no air circulation, I got a sinus infection. Had to wait until Monday to take antibiotics. I'm starting to feel a little better.

We closed on our house yesterday, so now we own a house! I never thought I'd own a house. It's exciting. And this house is perfect. It needs a good cleaning after this last week. The gutters are filled with storm stuffs. The yard is not tameable. My brother and his wife gave us a gift card to Home Depot, so we're going to go there soon and fix up a lot of things.

Coraline has been missing for 3 weeks now. I don't think anything bad happened to her. She never liked the other cats, so maybe someone took her in. She had a collar, though. I went to the pound and they didn't have her. I miss her. Keep having dreams where I find her.

That's her as a kitten.

Aubrie Dionne got a three-book deal! Isn't that neat? She blogs about them in the linked post and tells you what the publisher is looking for if you want to submit.

Cherie Reich helped me out with some editing work over the weekend and now she's editing for Hazard Editing. I have two freelancers to pick up work I can't take on now. With the power problems, I haven't been able to get any work done, so I'm way behind. Wayyyyy. And now all I want to do is sleep.

But I have these to take care of.

Nest Box

2011-04-19T14:42:00.000-07:00

Oh, such a happy day! Woke up at nine, made coffee, sat on the couch.............Woke up at eleven, Oops! Groggily did some work, been feeling altered by my new med and not as functional as usual.

Then I looked at this fat cat crashed out on Spencer's blanket. Man, she was fat. Really, really fat. When did she go into heat?

I pulled up my blog because I remembered blogging about it. Feb. 25th! Oh shite! Any day now, Spooky's gonna be poppin' those kitties out!

I got the nest box out of the shed and put my softest blanket in in. I put the lump of cat in it. She sniffed. She made biscuits on the soft blanket. She settled in and crashed for four hours. Just now she hopped out with a low trill on the hunt for some cat food.

I think she knows what it's for! Suddenly, after I put her in it, I got so friggin' excited. Kittens! They are going to be here any time now. Cats carry for approx. 64 days, and I think she's going to go into labor early. Her belly is bare and her nipples are like cow udders.

Daddy Osho checked her out in the nest box twice. He seems to approve.

To make things even better, my beloved Mikie got The King's Speech from Red Box and bought me a bottle of Cabernet. He knows I can't watch a period piece without red wine. Is he a sweetie, or what? We're going to have movie night when he comes home.

And, and, and, work is going well and I hired a new freelancer for Hazard Editing Services. Now my authors won't have to wait two or three months if they don't want to. And Patricia La Barbera has a much more impressive resume than I do. She has a MFA, fer cryin' aloud.

Even better - I'm editing a great book.

Even better - I wrote seven articles this week so far.

Even better - Kittens soon! Did I mention that?

Saving the Cat by Mikie Hazard

2011-03-31T15:18:00.000-07:00

Big Spooky Belly and Some Radio Interviews

2011-03-29T12:53:00.000-07:00

Aww, my little preggers girl. I can't wait for kittens. Osho still adores her and follows her everywhere, cleaning her ears and spooning with her. I'm pretty sure he's the only daddy.

Cloud disappeared for 2 weeks! I was devastated by the end of week two, having a gut feeling I'd never see him again. But, alas, he came back! He yowled about his adventures for hours, skinny as a five-year-old cat. Ever since he came back, he's been with the people all the time.

I had three radio interviews. One with BK Walker, one with three other authors of Unloved with Cyrus Webb, and last night a solo act with Cyrus Webb. The interviews make me nervous, but I generally enjoy them. I just wish I didn't talk so fast. I need to think before I speak!

We're buying the house April 28th. Good news! I'm so excited. We have a lot of plans for this house.

Hazard Cat is doing well with over 70-100 hits a day. I hoped to open paying submissions by May or June, but it may be longer.

Hazard Editing is giving me lots to do. I love all these indie books I'm getting to edit and proofread and critique. I'm making money doing what I love! I still write content to keep things stable, but not nearly as much as I used to have to do.

All is well.

Spooky, Spooky, Spooky. It's Gross. Stop!

2011-02-25T13:15:00.000-08:00

I thought Spooky was in heat a couple of weeks ago and got pregnant because her belly was hard and boy cats were a'plenty.

I was wrong.

She's been coupling with cats since 8 this morning! It's pretty disgusting and painful on the ears. I woke up to her and Osho at it and watched in horrified fascination. Now there are three toms in the backyard stalking her. She lays down in the grass and stares at them. When they finally get up the nerve to approach her, she slaps them. Osho keeps trying to chase them off. Heck, I even tried to chase them away! Those toms are determined.

Devlin's quite excited by it all and is also following Spooky around. She wants to know what is going on, I think. I'm never going to have another litter until I'm breeding in my 50s. Then I can send my queen to a stud and not have to hear all this!

I think it's weird that she got pregnant the first time and there was no sign of her being in heat or coupling.

I've been so sick this winter and I'm tired of my sinuses going crazy. About to take a shower and get it all out of my head. It'll be gross, but it's a gross day.

Mikie Busted My Ovaries

2011-02-15T12:45:00.000-08:00

Because I haven't been blogging.

Spooky's pregnant again. All the males from the neighborhood have stopped coming in the house and Osho still follows her everywhere. Here's hoping he's the daddy! Or at least one of them. I'm wondering where we're going to put the babies. If she miscarries again, I'm going to have her spayed a week later. She may just not be able to carry kittens. I'm hoping for a litter of three or four, with at least one of them looking like a little Spooky or Osho. I hope they all have her long, beautiful, soft fur.

The editing service is going well. I've been working all the time and haven't had a chance to finish my edit of the Raven and the Writing Desk book. I'm hoping to do it on Saturday. Did I mention we're making a book of our first year? Cherie compiled it all, Aubrie did the cover art and I have to format it and do all that fun stuff to get it ready to publish. We're going to release a paperback and a Kindle version.

PWP has me scheduled for a virtual book tour and I have a lot of blog posts and interviews to do. It'll be going from next week until mid-April. Lots of work ahead of me. I have no idea what to blog about, but I'll figure it out. If any of you have any suggestions, that would be great.

I also have two radio interviews scheduled and another interview scheduled, but I'm not sure if it's a radio show or a chat-type thing. *Nervous*

So it goes...

2011-02-03T14:45:00.000-08:00

The editing service is picking up work. I'm booked through a week from Tuesday. I love the work so much. The writers are all really good! I can't believe I'm getting to read all day, every day for a job. Fiction! Genres I love! These authors took a chance on me and that feels good. I told my editor at PWP that I was doing this and she said I could use their name. So I may update the Editing Services page to reflect that.

A dog came in the house through the cat door today. Much drama ensued. It was a little yappy dog, and it was more scared than the cats once it saw me. "Dog! Whatchoodoininhere? Out! Out! Dun scare my babies!" It ran to the back door and I let it out.

It came right back in, yapping away. "Out! Doggoneitdogoutofmyhousenow!" Scooted him back out. *sigh*

My niece spent the night last night because her dad was in the hospital. She reminds me so much of myself at her age. This morning, she couldn't get enough cat. This cat, that cat, pet cat, hold cat, put cat on cat bed, put cat on blanket. Cat, cat, cat. So cute. Girl has taste.

New Opportunity and Invaders from the Great Outdoors

2011-01-26T14:40:00.000-08:00

On my on-going quest to be a full-time editor and get away from writing content to pay the bills, I started Hazard Editing Services this week. The small press I work for couldn't offer a full-time position because of economical reasons, so I decided to offer services for all those Kindle authors out there. I've gotten four jobs so far, and completed two. I have two more to do in the next couple of days. Oh, wow, I love it so. I hope it continues to go well. I actually hopped out of bed today excited to work. Did a full 8 hours of editing and critiquing.

So we have invaders. Cat invaders. There's the Big, Fuzzy Orange With White Face, the Not-Quite-As-Big, Fuzzy Solid Orange, and the Tabby with Spots. Tabby with Spots came into the kitchen last night and we cooed him. He eventually let me pet him and he has the cutest, high-pitched meow and the saddest face you've ever seen on a cat. Fuzzy Solid Orange, Mikie said, was curled up on our bedroom floor with Cloud and Coraline. Hm. It was cold and rainy last night and we just couldn't turn them out. But seriously, nine cats? Sure, six are roommates, but do they need to have their friends over?

How can I say no?

E-cigs, Faulty Brain, and Spooky's Butt

2011-01-20T12:15:00.000-08:00

I love them, e-cigs. My first one broke and the company finally wrote and said they'd send another starter kit. But what I'm really excited about is the other company, E-Health. Their e-cig is great, and I was looking at their Web site and noticed some editing errors. I wrote them and asked if I could edit the site in exchange for a starter kit. They said yes, I edited the pages, and they wrote back saying the would send me a Deluxe Starter Kit and an extra pack of cartridges. Isn't that neat? There are opportunities everywhere.

Brain isn't functioning too well. I'm trying to gear up for next week. I want to write ten articles a day, Monday through Friday. That will make me $750. I know I can do it if my brain cooperates. Then I can pay rent and some other bills. And buy more e-cig cartridges.

All the kitties are doing well. Oddly, there aren't any in the room with me right now. They must know it's going to snow again tonight, so they are taking advantage of getting some outdoors time. Osho will *not* get his face out of Spooky's butt! He's checking every few hours or so to see if she's "ready." That is gross, but it makes me happy that he'll be the first kitty on that when she goes into heat. They will have such wonderful kittens. I can't wait to have kittens. I count the days till March when she goes into heat again. But maybe with Osho sniffing around, it will kick in some primal cat heat thing.

And she certainly doesn't mind his attentions. Unless she's eating.

Raven and the Writing Desk is putting together a book of all our stories and poems to release on Kindle and CreateSpace in paperback on Amazon. Cherie's worked her butt off getting the book in one piece, and Aubrie shined with a gorgeous cover and back. It's exciting. We're also going to start having guest bloggers post stories. We have two writers already for Feb. and March.

Mr. Big, Fuzzy Orange Cat, from the neighborhood, still keeps breaking into our house. Cloud's the only one who chases him out. Who does he think he is? Just waltzing in here, eating cat food and being, well, big.

Osho Licking His Nose in the Snow

2011-01-19T11:27:00.001-08:00

Party Time!

2011-01-14T14:13:00.000-08:00

Got a busy night planned. Going to see Green Hornet, then to a No Age show in Huntsville. Having been stuck inside with the snowstorm all week, it'll be nice, but I don't really like going to clubs anymore. Mikie played me some of their music and I like it, so it should be okay.

Osho caught a mouse in the house yesterday. I chased him and he chased the mouse all over the house. I gave up and figured it would surface sooner or later. I wanted to save it, but that sucker was fast and going under things I couldn't possibly reach under. It did resurface today, via Coraline picking at a bloody pulp of mouse. It was truly morbid and disgusting. How can such sweet, cute things kill like that? I mean, Osho tore the fur off this sucker and ate its tail. It was barely recognizable as a mouse. Gross, eh? I still love them. But I don't fool myself into thinking if I shrunk I wouldn't be a pulp, too. However, I don't think I'm ever going to shrink, so I'll go on loving the furry beasties.

I haven't blogged about Hazard Cat in a while. Things are still going good. I'm getting a tremendous amount of donations, and all are so very much appreciated. It keeps the blog alive when I'm broke, and I'm pretty broke these days. I've been doing a lot more articles at DS and that helps, but moving into a new house and having to pay monthly payments for the first time in 2 years has set me back some. I'm hoping to have all my paying and donated pieces up by May and reopen paying submissions in May or June. I'm still amazed at how many good writers, poets and artists there are and am quite fascinated with the stats on the blog. I like to see who gets a lot of hits and where they come from. Most of the hits come from Duotrope, but a surprising amount come from google searches.

I haven't done any writing and yet again, have nothing for Flash Fiction Fridays. The only fiction I've been writing is for Raven and the Writing Desk. Cherie put Raven on Twitter and taught me some things about Twitter, so I'm considering trying to learn about it for Hazard Cat. Might be a good way to get people's work noticed if I can get followers. I'm posting more HC stuff on Facebook, which I had slacked off of.

Unloved: The Author Project was released a few days ago. It's an anthology of stories about bullying and suicide. I wrote mine about suicide. All the proceeds go to charity and it was published by Passionate Writer Publishing. I really enjoyed all the stories and think mine kinda sucks comparatively.

The ongoing quest to quit smoking was cut short when my electronic cigarette broke. I have to blow into the tip and then I can get about two drags off it. That made me mad. I love the ecig. Like it better than smoking, actually. I have another coming in the mail soon, and I hope it leads me off the tobacco.

Flash Fiction Fridays - I Got Nothing

2011-01-07T11:02:00.000-08:00

I'm all writ out. I wrote about 40 articles this week and did countless revisions. I need to figure a way to do it so I don't burn out and stop writing altogether. I think I'll start taking Wednesdays off.

We're going to eat Mexican tonight! Yayayayayay! I love Mexican. There's a place in Decatur called Mi Hacienda and one called La Hacienda and they are both delicious.

I'm not getting far with the MG cat book. I just don't feel it. I think I'm going to scratch that goal for January and work on the thriller. I have some ideas for it and the main character is bugging me to write him some more. He's so tortured! And someone has threatened to kill him on Saturday. And I'm on Tuesday. He's being stalked and hunted. He needs closure. Will he survive? It's written in first person, so he probably will. But maybe not. I can end the book with, "I run screaming, then feel a sharp pain in my chest. I fall over and..." Yeah, my second book writing in first person, present tense. I think it's a fun format to write in.

What formats do you, fellow writers, like to write in best? I don't know what my favorite is, but I do love present tense.

2011 - Off to a Good Start

2011-01-03T14:27:00.000-08:00

Wrote seven articles today - that's my goal Monday-Friday for the month of January. Had quite a few distractions. Kids woke up after I hammered out two, then Dad came over to fix stuff in the house. Then the phone rang, then I had to make lunch for the kiddo. He's playing Scott Pilgrim on PS3 right now. I'm hoping to keep the momentum throughout the month, then get back to editing for the small press.

The kitties have been especially cute lately. Micah ALWAYS wants love, Spooky's hair has grown back in around her neck, making her look like a tortie lion. Osho is so in love with her. Will she accept him as a mate come Spring? I hope so. I can't wait to have kittens. She prolly won't go into heat again until around March, and Osho is pining away for her. When he's sleeping on the couch and she enters the room, his eyes pop open with adoration and he watches her until she settles somewhere. He's often sniffing her behind to see if... Well, that's probably too much information. They snuggle a lot, Osho's head in her belly. It's so romantic. But there are plenty of neighborhood cats who are in love with Spooky, too. Will she pick him? I soooooo hope so!

So Wednesday will be my first day without chillins to worry about and I hope to write my seven articles and get to working on a novel. Finish Catopia! That's the goal.

End of the Year

2010-12-30T09:33:00.000-08:00

I'm inspired by Cherie Reich's writing goal list for 2011. But before I go making big plans and scheduling time to write, I want to think how I spent my writing time in the last year.

Fiction writing went by the wayside with work. I've consistently had two jobs since May, one writing articles for Demand Media Studios, and the other editing for a small press. I work about 2-8 hours a day, depending on how good my concentration is. I haven't set time aside for fiction this whole past year except for spurts on novels and writing stories for Raven and the Writing Desk. I want to get back to it, and the only way to do that is to Just Sit My Arse Down and Do It.

In the past, a couple glasses of red wine accompanied my writing time. Now that Mikie is home at night, that's when I have my wine and I would rather snuggle with him and watch a movie than write.

This year has been a great one personally. I had two books published and contracted for another to be published. I married SuperDuperHusband and now have two stepsons. I adopted two kitties, rounding out the cat number to six. I found awesome freelance work that not only pays, but has taught me a ton about writing - fiction and non-fiction. So while I may not have cranked out a novel, I feel like I've increased my skills by writing something every day or reading something every day.

Now I feel like it's time to put what I've learned on the page in novel format. I hope to finish Catopia, middle grade about cats, by the end of January, and Do Not Go Quietly, thriller, by the end of the year. If I were to be truly ambitious, I'd aim to get The Other World, scifi, done by the end of the year, too. That one only has about 30k words left to it, but I got stuck. Waiting for my imagination to catch up and my motivation to take over.

Sleep - Finally!

2010-12-19T16:25:00.000-08:00

I slept from Thursday night/Friday morning at 6:30 till Saturday at 11. Must've really needed a crash. Then slept about 12 hours last night! This flu is just about gone, and I think all the extra sleep may have done it.

I think I've made a decision as to which book I'm going to work on next. I want to finish the middle grade book about cats I started about two years ago. It's so close. All I need is a good week of writing every day, then I can put it aside and let it collect problems. Then maybe I can query out to middle grade agents after I get some feedback from friends and family. Seems like everyone in my family has a Kindle, so I can send digital copies to them for advice. It's been hard getting back to that one because the main cat was Liver, and Liver was taken away from us. I still miss that Lilac-point kitty. She really knew how to keep the other cats in line.

Played a bit of FFXI, not the massive hours I used to put in, though. Need to buy the expansion areas tomorrow. I'm going to try to get some work done tonight writing articles and editing so I'll have time to play tomorrow. Tomorrow is going to be one crazy-busy day. Have to run all over town and hopefully, finally, get those books out to all the people I need to send them to. They are packaged up and ready to go, just haven't gone!

FFXI

2010-12-09T14:49:00.000-08:00

So I'm doing it. Downloading the latest patches for FFXI. Yayme. Mikie got Epic Mickey for Wii and I watched the first night he got and it was bored. He hasn't played it since and I can tell he wants to , just doesn't want to bore me. So I'm going to play my old drug FFXI again for a while. Can't wait to see Lisara (my main character) again in her yinyang robe that I fought so hard to get. I found out one of my best friends from the game is playing again, so that should be a lot of fun. Playing FFXI is really a lifestyle, so I have to be careful to balance it with my freelance editing and writing for DS. Must Get Up Earlier In The Morning!

For those of you who don't know what an MMORPG is, it's a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. FFXI (Final Fantasy XI) is my game of choice. I play on the server Valefor. It's a hard game, and in my earlier years, I clocked in about 12 hours a day playing it. In the last few years, it's been more like 2-3 hours. I don't have the stamina or time anymore. But I'm ready for action! I can't wait to see Carbuncle again.