*drive-by waves*

Where do these days go? The days are flying by at the speed of light!

Ten-second update:

Things are well, Saturday night went to ceremony for writing class in Chaguaramas (that's a mouthful). Many people did readings and I can just say that my co-writers are very talented people! However, I was starving the whole time and trying to figure out a way to subtly unpeel the banana that was in my purse and sneak it into my mouth while people were reading. *sigh* I suck at subterfuge. All and all, a delightful night!

Stardust got her beak trimmed by me last night. I was scared to get her tongue, but I did get the beak trimmed successfully! Go me!

Today must run some errands but I'm looking outside and see one of two outcomes. Either I will roast because it is hot or I will get poured on because the clouds are gathering. Most likely both.

*waves*

Hi!

Still here. Not feeling very bloggy!

Lots of writing, lots of reading, lots of going about on a day to day basis. I'm sort of boring myself so I wonder what I might start talking about that isn't just "Hey, I did some writing today."

Places I went today:

1. UWI bookstore
2. pet store to pick up some cockatiel food because they were out of it at Hi Lo. Poor Stardust!
3. Used book store. There will be a sale next week on all books there! Whee! Picked up 3 junky suspense-romance books. Reason? Yes, they're a guilty pleasure but also they do a fine job at teaching the art of story crafting (transitions, story arc, etc.). As I was discussing with Elspeth yesterday, even if a book sucks, you have to have some admiration for the author. Writing is darned hard work. The fact that they finished a story from A to Z, went through the arduous publishing process, and got it out there? Two thumbs up to them.
4. Hi Lo. Yay, food!

Hi, all! Sorry, Hayley, no insects yet! My house is shockingly free from them!

Knocking, knocking

Word for today:

Jugular

M is away in Toco for a retreat. Predictably, he's not terribly happy about having his routine disrupted. I am blissfully happy about getting the house and television and internetz to myself. Although I sure didn't realize how high-maintenance Stardust is with only ONE person to pay constant attention to her. Spoiled brat of a bird! Well, I sipped some wine and watched The Stand on sci fi channel last night (which really is a wretched mini-series...Stephen King does not translate well to film hardly ever). I was going to put an announcement on my blog to take advantage of empty house to ask if local people wanted to stop by for a lime yesterday -- but Flow was out a good deal of the day for me both Saturday and Sunday! Ah, well.

My writing muse has done something incredible. Um...I can't talk about it, I really can't, because well, talking up a project = death of project all too often, but wow. When the muse comes knocking at the door, she does break down the door. *looks mysterious*

deadlines

If I'm silent more often than not this week, it's because I'm suuuuuper busy. Deadlines and writing angst and all...

Feel free to say hi, though!

*waves at everyone*

sleeeeeeepy

It's a rainy Saturday. I have been very busy the last few days and female issues have made me even more tired than I normally would be. I just want to curl up in bed and sleep the day away. As it is, I'm sprawled on my internet chair with Stardust on my shoulder sort of in a dozing/sleepy mode.

I'm craving yummies. Hayley, let's do sushi soon! I want that wasabi and ginger and yumminess.

My list of shoulds is far outweighing my lists of wants.

Shoulds: clean house, laundry, finish these two mini writing projects, help with this one online project, novel-work, revisions, etc. etc. etc.

Wants: lie in bed, watch mindless t.v., eat yummies, sleep

Good morning

I am going to ban myself from internetz for as much of today as possible! I have a lot of writing-related things to do and then I have my one-on-one session with Dr. Nunez this afternoon which I am very nervous and excited about at the same time.

Two of my favorite writing books arrived in my boxes yesterday. One is called Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. I got this book probably over 10 years ago, but I read parts of it yesterday and it was like I was reading it for the first time! She is so good at getting inside the psyche of us writers, all our neuroses, fears, insecurities, special worlds, etc.

The second book is more practical. It's called The Writer's Journey. I call it my "plot bible". I loved it so much that I got it for two of my other writer friends years ago, too. It basically talks about the mythic story arc and about character archetypes that have been around since cavemen were telling tales around the campfires and how most good stories follow a basic outline and why it works. It's written mostly for screenwriters, I suspect, but it's just as helpful for a novel-writer. Anyway, I find it an EXCELLENT way to get past blockages in plot. And it's written in a very simplistic unassuming style.

yay

I know you were all just waiting, riveted, on the edge of your seats for the shocking conclusion to my boxes situation.

So...today I went back to the place that was holding my packages. I had my rolling suitcase, all prepared to make a botch job of tying at least one of the boxes to it. It got to my turn and the lady behind the desk was having a panic attack because the man in front of me had accidentally taken the official sheet with him that she was supposed to keep. She was muttering under her breath and calling out to other coworkers and fretting and wailing. Poor thing. But she was barely paying attention to my stuff. So she took my i.d.s and then suddenly looked at the boxes and decided that they were too heavy and that I couldn't take them without a car. huh? Perhaps let me be the judge of that?

I sat there looking angsty and feeling sorry for myself when the very kind lady behind me offered to take me home since my street was right on the way home for her. Yay! So one of the boxes was WAY lighter and smaller than I remembered. The other was books and was quite heavy.

But yay yay yay, I have my books! And with a minimum of effort! And yay for the kindness of strangers!

And what is with all this spam hitting my blog? Hint: If I don't know your name and you only write a message that says "See here" and "here" leads to an advertisement or porn site, then I'm deleting you -- immediately!

One can only laugh...

Brain fried.

Elspeth came by and she kindly went with me to the post office so I could pick up my boxes. I had my passport, M's passport, a note from M authorizing me to pick up the boxes (since they were in his name). I got inside and I could even SEE my boxes just waiting for me.

And then the lady said that the postal employee wasn't there today and wouldn't be there today at all. It was so anti-climactic. We merely had to turn around and leave. And still my boxes are so close and yet so far away. I'm so being taught a lesson in patience, me thinks. *weeps*

But then we went on to Mount St. Benedict and sat outside on the veranda in front of the art gallery where you could see forever, including the distant sea. We brainstormed and worked out of an exercise book. We tried to write our "three sentence pitch". The premise being that what if we ended up in an elevator with (the example says Steven Spielberg because the exercises come from something for screenwriters, but I changed that to Stephen King's editor or something, lol) that we would have this three sentence pitch that could intrigue someone into looking at your book further. So yeah, we worked on that nearly all day (those three sentences were HARD and they're still not quite right!) But what it also does is keep your focus. This is what your book is truly about, the heart of it. But it's hard not to make it sound cheesy or boring, too.

So now I'm home just now and my brain is fried. And I overslept this morning and didn't go running.

tired

Well, I have my work cut out for me and what can I say? I'm overwhelmed. I'm a little reluctant to write the following because it might sound like my mood is worse than it really is, if that makes any sense, and I don't want anyone to think that.

The last few days have been crushingly tiring. And I haven't even been doing much. At all. Like yesterday. Yesterday was going to be this glorious writing day with no obligations. I spent the day doing exactly what I shouldn't be doing (aimlessly wandering online) and not doing what I should be doing and feeling awful that I wasn't doing what I should be doing.

And then there are all these things that I know I need to take care of. I know I need to stand in line at the bank for 50 hours so that I can transfer some money to my US account so I can finally go ahead and buy my ticket for this summer. Don't want to go. I know I need to jump through some hoops to get my boxes tomorrow (E, I hope it's still okay if we can stop by there before we go write??? I will definitely treat you for lunch! :-)), I know I need to somehow deal with getting my driver's license here (*big dread and confusion*), but I feel like I'm swimming in muddy water. Like all my sense of intuition is skewered and nothing is familiar and I'm too tired to deal with it.

I suppose it's just a phase of moving somewhere brand new. Don't get me wrong, I've really had no issues with homesickness aside from missing the odd thing here or there or missing people (although I lived far away from most of my people anyway while I was in the US). And believe me, when I have dreams that I'm leaving here, I actually consider those anxiety dreams. I don't want to leave. I like my lifestyle here. But I think that the exhaustion comes from being in a new environment, how it takes more energy to go through the day to day regular routine. Like I have to strain more to understand, to walk down the street, to deal with the mundane, to deal with bureaucracy. And then it all builds up to a climax of exhaustion and I-don't-want-to-deal attitude.

But again, this all makes it sound a lot worse than it really is. I have a goal and a purpose. My writing schedule could be spectacular (oh, if only these mundane obligations and irritations would just go awaaaaay). Dr. Nunez in our writing workshop talked about going to a writer's retreat where you do nothing but write, eat, and sleep for a period of weeks. Someone does your cooking, laundry, leaves you in absolute peace. That just sounds heavenly. Imagine just not having to deal with anything but getting the job done. It's going to be one of my goals to make it to one of those retreats one day...

I'll try to be more "uplifting" later!

Saga continues...

So I always like to think outside the box (pardon the pun in this case) and I was darned impatient to get to that box or boxes...and so I thought hey, I could take my rolling carry-on bag and then strap the box to it and roll it home that way. I'd look like a dork, but there are worse things...hee. Well, I got there and the lady handed me a tiny package (chocolate! yay! Thanks, mom if you're reading this) and a registered letter. huh? That was all? Rather anti-climactic. Well, I put the suitcase to good use in that I went to Hi Lo and bought more groceries than I normally would and packed them inside the bag and had a nice smooth walk home (dripping with sweat - is hot today!)

I opened the registered mail to find -- a notice from the post office that my two boxes were waiting for me at SAME post office. HUH? So the fact that I was picking several things up in the same name was not enough of a hint to realize that I was the same person?

Now, if I had been smart, I would have opened the registered mail right there and at least been able to take one box home...

My books -- only five minutes away...my WRITING books...

grrr

grr!

Okay so this is a tiny blip of an annoyance in the big scheme of the universe but...either taxi fares went up way way a lot in the last two months or I'm missing something obvious.

$70(TT) to go from Curepe post office to where I live? A five-minute drive? It was only $50(TT) to go to Trincity mall a few months ago, which was a far more elaborate affair involving sitting in lots of heavy traffic for nearly 30 minutes.

So I'm going to wait until the second box gets here at least and then cough it up, I guess. Small price for not having a car. It's just annoying because it's only a 20 minute walk, and a nice walk at that, a nice walk that passes by a used book store.

I am in a surly mood today. I think I need to go torture my characters or something.
*watches them shrink in terror*

1 Box!

At least one of my big boxes is here! Well, not here since apparently no packages get delivered to homes. That solves a mystical mystery that was bothering me since I would get these yellow postal slips and KNOW that I had been home all day so that there was no way I could have missed it if the postman rang. The mystery is solved.

These are relatively big boxes (especially the one with my books in it). I live about a 20-min. walk from the Curepe Post Office. So I guess I will find out what happens when I dial "phone-a-taxi" from the post office tomorrow. Will they come right away? Will I wait in the blazing sun for an hour? Does it really matter? Do I care? I know the suspense is killing you all mwahahahaha.

In other news, I have no idea what to make for dinner. I am totally bored with everything I usually make.

Brought to you by the letter "meh."

Today

For the most part, I absolutely fail at domestic. Seriously. I need to be so independently wealthy that an army of servants are always at hand to do the crap that my princess hands don't want to touch. Still, I'm almost done with a thorough spring cleaning of the first floor. I'm taking breaks in between each section to go upstairs and get some writing done.

I'm done with what I have to turn in on Saturday.

Now I'm at the cool stage of daydreaming about the next part. Also what's cool is that I've kept many of the same characters, themes, premises, plot points, etc. from previous versions. Those of you who have hard copies of previous versions...ah, well. They'll be worth millions one day! :D

All I can say is that being here, living here, being a part of a marvelous workshop full of talented Caribbean writers...it has made things so much different, so much more raw...and I have to write THAT story now.

Dr. Nunez's workshops have pretty good odds. In a previous workshop, out of 17 students, 4 got successfully published. What can I say? She wants us to have a draft that we can talk to an editor about by the end of the year. I think it's very possible.