greygirlbeast: (white2)
A truly stunningly hideous dream this morning, even by my standards. So, just a tad dreamsick right now.

Yesterday, I wrote only 839 words on "The Colliers' Venus (1893)," which looks rather pathetic compared to Sunday's word count. I fear the story might have derailed, and I may have to spend today getting it back on track. This is another one set in my alternate-hitsory steampunk Colorado, in the city of Cherry Creek (known in this worldline as Denver), which was also the setting for "The Steam Dancer" (1896)," "The Melusine (1898)," and "Derma Sutra (1891)."

I should give some sort of historical context for the stuff I'm reposting at [livejournal.com profile] crk_blog_vault, for those who are following it. It's very strange for me, reading back over and reposting those old entries. At the time I began the blog, I'd just returned from my first (and bloody disastrous) move to Atlanta. I was once again living in Liberty House in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, in a loft (#304) next door to the loft (#303) I'd moved out of just a few months earlier. I adored Liberty House, though, sadly, it has since been devoured by the condo monster. Once upon a time, it was the Liberty Overall's factory, there on Morris Avenue, and Jada's grandmother worked there when she was young. The building was built in the 1920s. The ceilings in that second loft were, at their highest point, eighteen feet from the hardwood floors (there was a slope from the back of the loft to the front, with the ceiling becoming progressively higher). Threshold had just been released, and I was, obviously, trying to begin Low Red Moon. I was still doing research on mosasaurs and the Upper Cretaceous of Alabama, and would soon begin doing volunteer work at the McWane Science Center. I was thirty-seven years old, which seems very young now. Spooky had gone back to Rhode Island by the time I started the blog. Sophie (the cat) was getting old, but still had five years to live. I was scripting the last book I'd do for DC/Vertigo, Bast: Eternity Game. My office roof leaked when it rained. Anyway, I'm putting the entries up pretty much as written, making only spelling corrections and such.

Back to yesterday...

While I wrote, Spooky took the car to a mechanic down in Wakefield, to have fixed whatever went wrong with the windshield wipers back in September. She visited her mom, and they went to the Toy Vault (wicked cheap) in the Wakefield mall and found the Severus Snape action figure I've been coveting. Now, if I can just find Dumbledore. Anyway, Spooky drove her mother's van back to Providence, and tomorrow we should get our car. There was a big pot of chili for dinner. We made it through Chapter Two of The Red Tree. But I took a hot bath before we started reading and had a great deal of trouble staying awake for the first few pages. Later, when work was finally done, we played a little WoW. Shah and Suraa wandered from the Arathi Highlands all the way south to Booty Bay, where they drank cherry-flavoured grog in the company of goblins. Shaharrazad got a fancy new wand (35-66 arcane damage, 29 damage/second, speed 1.8) off a Dalaran summoner (human) that Suraa killed, which is pretty cool, considering there's only a 1% drop rate for that wand. Later still, we watched more Firefly.

Right. Coffee. Platypus. Deadlines. Here we go again....

And no, I do not celebrate Veteran's Day. I recognize Armistice Day (thank you, Mr. Vonnegut).
greygirlbeast: (Blood elf 2)
A cold, clear day here in Providence. The trees are quickly shedding their fall colors. Winter will be coming on, soon. Back in Atlanta, we'd be freezing, and I'd be bitching about the cryosphere in my office. Here in Rhode Island, ironically, we're quite toasty. And, before I forget, happy birthday to Neil, who turns -08 today, and also to Spooky's sister, Steph, in faraway Brooklyn.

I've begun a second LiveJournal account, as of yesterday. It's purpose is to serve as a more stable and accessible archive for the entries from my old Blogger journal, which was begun in November 2001, just before I started writing Low Red Moon (and which I'd originally intended to end when the book was done). As such, it bears the rather unimaginative title [livejournal.com profile] crk_blog_vault. Each day, I'll be reposting one to three entries from the old Blogger account, with the original date and time for the entries included as the subject line. Hence, the first entry is "November 24, 2001 (12:40 a.m.)." Anyway, have a look if you're interested. "Low Red Moon Journal" has been orphaned since December 2006, but mostly I'm interested in mirroring those hundreds of entries that were made before I began this LJ in April 2004. I've shut off the comments feature for the new journal, and I'm still fiddling about with the look of the thing.

Yesterday, I did 1,453 words on "The Colliers' Venus (1893)," previously titled "The Automatic Mastodon (1893)." The automatic mastodon still makes a cameo appearance in the story, but I realized yesterday it's not the centerpiece. So, a very good writing day.

And a lot of work besides the new short story. After the writing, while Spooky made a quick trip to the market to get dinner, I went through the ARC for A is for Alien, for the very last time before it goes to press, and found only four problems. I'll send the corrections to Bill at Subterranean Press as soon as I finish this entry. After dinner, Spooky and I began reading through The Red Tree, and managed all of the Preface and Chapter One. Lots of corrections. I think we finished with that just after 10 p.m. Oh, and this weekend Sonya ([livejournal.com profile] sovay) and Spooky dad, Richard, both read the ms. And they both loved it, and are helping with the proofreading. Hearing it aloud last night, I remembered again just how much this one means to me. Oh, and I think I'll repost the cover, for anyone who might have missed it on Saturday:

The Red Tree )


Also, we received the images for the artist interview for Sirenia Digest #36, the interview originally scheduled for #35. My thanks to both Heather Eve and Geoffrey ([livejournal.com profile] readingthedark). So, yes, a very busy day yesterday (but it made up for Saturday, which was a bit of a washout). And I fear that it's going to be this busy all the way to December.

I played a couple hours' worth of WoW last night. Back to Shaharrazad, my blood-elf warlock, after three nights playing Mithwen, my night-elf fighter. I fear Shah is much closer to my heart, but I've probably said that already. Spooky ("Suraa") and I did some questing in Hillsbrad and the Alterac Mountains north of Tallin Mills, then slaughtered trolls in the Arathi Highlands, just because. And after WoW, we watched an episode of Firefly (the marvelous "Objects in Space") because I was exhausted and needed "comfort food" before bed.

I'm doing some concerted magickal work for the first time since October, mostly protective spells and wards and such. Getting a little Enochian. Crowley meets Wicca meets the Greek pantheon. Something like that. Nothing I want to go into detail about, just making the walls a little stronger, you might say. Anyway, now the platypus and the coffee are waiting for me. The day lies ahead.
greygirlbeast: (Default)
So. It's 6:30 ayem (CaST; 5:30 EST), and I'm standing in our basement, in water up to my ankles. And yes, that's how Solstice began this year. Spooky woke me about half an hour before, as she'd been awakened by some peculiar roaring sound. As it turns out, that was the torrent pouring from the hot-water heater. By the time we got downstairs, there was a lake. A small lake, yes, but a lake, nonetheless. Wet and pissed off, I came back upstairs while Spooky found the correct valve and shut off the water. Our landlord arrived sometime afterwards, before dawn, I think. In some places, there was more than a foot of standing water. Right now, we're waiting on whoever's coming to pump out the basement. The heat's off, which means it's mostly freezing in here, since this couldn't have happened last week when it was warm. And the water's off. No heat. No water. No viewscreens, no surveillance, no freezers, no fuckin' ice cream, no guns, no rubbers, no women, all we got here is shit. Okay, well maybe it's not quite that bad. Yet. But after the theft of Tuesday, a minor basement deluge and the attendant chaos on Thursday morning is quite a bit more than enough crap for one week, thank you very frelling much. We've mostly canceled our Solstice plans.

Oh. Wait. There's a commotion directly below my office which sounds like the floor may collapse at any moment.

Now its stopped.

Spooky took some photos for the insurance people. I'd post them, only I'm too tired and annoyed to be bothered. Sadly they were all taken after the water was shut off, so the mighty cataract itself has not been recorded for posterity.

I did manage to finish "The Voyuer in the House of Glass" yesterday afternoon. The story came in at 4,858 words, and it's an odd story, a bit more disturbing than I'd expected it to be when I began.

I'm wondering if it would be possible for me to transfer the entirety of my journal at Blogger to Typepad? Does anyone know? LJ would remain the main journal, with Typepad replacing Blogger as a mirror. I looked around the site yesterday and liked what I saw, but could not find an answer to this question.

I've been getting e-mails from people asking if they can help out in the wake of the iBook theft. Truthfully, the best thing you can do right now is subscribe to Sirenia Digest, bid in the current eBay auctions, or pre-order Daughter of Hounds. Or all three. Or hey, just send cash. Cash is always good. At any rate, the kind words were much appreciated yesterday, especially by Spooky.

I'm not sure what's to become of today. There will be no writing, I fear. And today will get an L, though it won't be my fault. Perhaps we'll go to a movie. Perhaps I'll just go back to bed. Poor Spooky, I think she's had maybe six hours sleep spread over the last two nights.
greygirlbeast: (chi6)
Does it seem to anyone else that LJ has been kind of quiet lately? I've noticed it mainly in fewer comments to my entries. I hope this isn't a sign of some great exodus to MySpace. Right now, I'm mirroring the blog over there, but I'd truly hate to think it's actually The Shape of Things to Come. Between the seizure-inducing adverts and the general meat-market atmosphere, I can't imagine it ever becoming the main site for this journal. I just don't think I could make that switch. Anyway...for those reading this from Blogger or MySpace, here's a link to the elf pr0n photos I posted last night. I was entirely too tired to mirror the entry. Comments welcome. I mean, I do read them. Often, I reply. Some days, they even help me keep my head above the rising water.

Though this latest issue of Sirenia Digest was especially difficult to get out, it also seems to have had the fewest difficulties on the distribution end of things compared to past issues. By the way, next month — well, actually, this month — Sirenia Digest 12 (which may also be counted as issue #11 or #13, depending how one chooses to count these things) will include one solo piece by me and a new collaboration with Sonya Taaffe ([livejournal.com profile] sovay). I very much hope that it will be out by the 21st. By the way, Herr Platypus says that anytime November 2nd should happen to fall on a Thursday, it's very good luck to subscribe to Sirenia Digest.

I had no idea that Ray Bradbury's short story "The Homecoming," long a favorite of mine (and the basis for his 2001 novel, From the Dust Returned), had been released as a hardback illustrated by Dave McKean. I spotted it last night at Borders, and it's frelling gorgeous.

Still working at the second reading of House of Leaves. Chapter IX, in which Danielewski manages to construct a labyrinth from text and footnotes (and the footnotes that some footnotes require).

The weather, which had warmed up a bit, is turning cold again.

Not much to be said for yesterday. I grow tired of posting daily word counts, as I'm sure you've grown weary of reading them. There was a documentary on the sinking of the Andrea Doria. Dinner from the deli at Whole Foods. Too much candy I shouldn't have eaten. Fun with Hubero. A perfectly humdrum sort of day.

If you've not yet pre-ordered Daughter of Hounds, Amazon.com is still offering it bundled with Alabaster for a mere $27.70.

That's it for now. I need more candy...

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Caitlín R. Kiernan

February 2012

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