greygirlbeast | Entries tagged with hair

Truly nothing much to yesterday. No writing, though at least the weather was nice. It was almost summer.

My hair is black again for the first time since the summer of 2006. Thus continues the ongoing cycle of black, stripped blonde/sunburst, various reds, neglectful grey, and back to black. It's a cycle my hair's been in since sometime in the 90s. I went to a new stylist (new for me) at Hairspray over on Wickenden Street, and I'm very pleased with the results. This is me trying to make myself presentable for ReaderCon 20, which is almost upon me. And someone has already asked for hair photos, which I might get around to in the next day or two. But, really, it's just black hair (with a faint hint of blue in direct sunlight).

Very little else to yesterday.

Only 37 days remaining until the release of The Red Tree, and there's so much to be done between now and then. We're behind on our shooting/editing schedule for the book trailer, thanks to lousy weather and my very heavy writing load. I still hope to have a rough cut of "The Basement" (trailer one) before the con, and to have "Constance" (trailer two) finished before the official release date.

Today, the sun has gone, and it's chilly (high of 69F), and my mood is down again. I'm some sort of emotional barometer.

I did read yesterday, binging on the latest issue of JVP, all papers on fossil crocodylomorphs: "Reconstruction of the Bracing System of the Trunk and Tail in Hyposaurine Dyrosaurids (Crocodylomorpha; Mesoeucrocodylia)," Kambara taraina sp. nov. (Crocodylia, Crocodyloidea), a New Eocene Mekosuchine from Queensland, Australia, and a Revision of the Genus," and "New Material of "Trematochampsa” oblita" (Crocodyliformes,Trematochampsidae) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar."

Today, it's back to work on "The Sea Troll's Daughter," which is presently 4,850 words long. It has to be finished by July 5th. That's only eight days, and I know one will be given over to getting Sirenia Digest #43 out, and I'll be losing another, so, truthfully, best-case scenario, I have only six days to completely finish the story.

Please have a look at the current eBay auctions. All proceeds go to offset the expense of attending ReaderCon. Thanks. Also, a reminder that I'm doing the micro-excerpt thing for The Red Tree at greygirlbeast, and you can now pre-order the book.

And here's today's Concrete Blonde video:

Current Mood: glummish
Current Location: Pasithea Dorsum
Current Music: David Bowie, "Slow Burn"

I'm blonde again. We'll, no, I'm partly blonde again, and partly still black, and all sorts of shades in between. I'll post a photo later. Bleach rules.

Night before last, I slept less than five hours. Verily, I am insomnia's tralk. Last night, I was determined to get some sleep, so I stayed up as long as I could stand to (2:30 a.m.), and when I woke at 5:30, I took an Ambien and that kept me asleep until about 10:20 a.m. So, I feel somewhat more rested and less out of sorts today. Somewhat. I think I'm still about forty hours behind on sleep.

Yesterday, I wrote 1,003 words on the new "Yellow House" story for Sirenia Digest #17. I begin to comprehend how it will end, but only just. Spent some time rereading Blake yesterday, "The Everlasting Gospel" (ca 1810), suspecting some relevance to the new story.

Wednesday, after my lit agent and I had closed the deal with Roc, I got the news that my editor had resigned to take a job elsewhere. So, for the third time in four years, I'm being handed over to a new editor. Honestly, I hope this one sticks around for a while. I can do without this sort of chaos.

Anything else about yesterday? Well, like I said, new hair. I had a 5 p.m. appointment with my colorist at Sweetgrass, and as I didn't finish writing until 4:29, it was a crazy rush getting from here to there in time. Then I was in the chair until seven, and afterwards, Spooky and I got Thai for dinner. Back home, we watched Ace of Cakes, which I suspect was responsible for the midnight doughnut run to the Krispy Kreme on Ponce. Yes, I blame Duff and Mary Alice and Geof for those damned doughnuts. Back home, I put on Revenge of the Creature (1955), as few things have the power to lull and soothe me towards sleep like black-and-white monster films. And that was yesterday, mostly. Well, except for that nasty business with Hubero and the tweezers, but let's not go there.

By the way, I have been given delivery dates on the next two novels, April 2008 (Joey LaFaye) and April 2009 for the Daughter of Hounds sequel. Originally, the books were to be due in January or February of those years, but I simply cannot write novels that fast. I don't want to know how to write novels that fast. I like this pokey (but highly productive) me just fine.

My thanks to

corucia for a lovely literary care package, including several volumes of Wil Eisner and a Philip Jose Farmer collection. Books are always welcome. Which reminds me, the dreaded -03 bday looms nigh, and there's this wishlist thingy over at Amazon.com to help alleviate the sting...

Okay. THE END awaits somewhere out there in the antediluvian murk. Wish me luck. Luck and caffeine.

Postscript (5:56 p.m.): Speaking of birthdays, today just happens to be Andy Serkis' -03 birthday.

Current Mood: productive
Current Location: Pindus Mons
Current Music: Nirvana, "Dumb"

So, two Lost Days in a row. Two days I shall never get back. But I do feel considerably better this morning, so I have hope that today I will be writing again.

It occurs to me, as it often does, that I don't know many other writers who do this whole writer thing the way that I do it. I rarely attend conventions and book expos and such these days (who can afford it?) and have very little contact with other writers, except by phone and e-mail. I don't do workshops or anything of the sort. I do not dwell on "craft." I just write. That's it. I just write. I get up in the morning, and if it's a good day, well, then I write. I don't write about writing or about books the way that many writers I know do. I simply have no interest in doing so. I just write. I don't know what, if anything, this might mean. But sometimes it seems strange to me. Like all the other writers with whom I'm friends or with whom I'm acquainted are part of some club that I dropped out of years ago. And now, well, I just write.

This morning, near the end of the dreams, I was on a pier, or something like a pier, at the edge of a great body of brackish water, some sort of back-barrier lagoonal sort of thing. I could see the beach and the sea on my right, beyond a line of trees and underbrush growing on the barrier islands. There were a number of old pilings sticking up from the lagoon. And in the sky there was an enormous blue-grey bird. Enormous. Something as big, perhaps, as the azhdarchid pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus. Huge. And I realized it was some sort of giant egret, soaring overhead. And then I thought of Poppy, that I wished she were there to see it. That she would truly appreciate this great bird. It landed on one of the pilings. And I realised, then, that there was a second giant bird, also perched on a piling. I hadn't noticed it before. It was much nearer to me than the egret, and it looked more like a stork than anything else. A Marabou Stork, only many times larger. It turned its head and looked at me. Its eyes were surprisingly intelligent, and it looked angry. At this point, I was afraid of the two birds for the first time. Then the egret spread its wings and took off again, flapping away towards the sea. And I thought, Good. Now Poppy will see it.

"Pink Houses II: Invasion of the Ho Bags" was definitely the high point of yesterday. At least in terms of weird. Byron came over about six thirty. I'd accidentally taken two of something I should only have taken one of, so I was a little goofy. We went to The Vortex at L5P for dinner. Then we came back to the house and watched the "new" ep of Doctor Who, "Bad Wolf," which I thought was really particularly exquisite. I'm so going to miss Christopher Eccleston. Afterwards, Byron hung around awhile, and we talked, and slowly my head cleared. When he'd gone, Spooky and I watched The Day of the Triffids, an all-time favourite of mine, and that got me sleepy enough for bed. And that, kiddos, was yesterday.

I'm 89% certain that I'm going to have my hair dreadlocked in June.

Okay. I should have breakfast and coffee and wake up the platypus. Oh, and Tony Curtis turned 81 today.

Current Mood: better
Current Location: Gulf of Lune
Current Music: VNV Nation, "Arena"

I'm not sure how I'm supposed to follow the whole nude photo thing (thanks for all the kind comments), but here goes...

I am so very not awake. I'm not asleep, either. Forever, I'm in some twilight of consciousness. At 4 a.m., Spooky and I were still awake, which wasn't such a good thing, as I have a lot of writing today that has to be done before my hair appointment at 5:30 (Caitlín Standard Time). It's been a long time since anyone but Spooky did anything to my hair. But it's time for general maintainence. I'm going back to red. My hair's been black since late 2002, except for those few blonde w/black months in '04. Of course, since I don't want the black stripped out, I'll be red w/black for a while as the black continues to grow out. I miss red. Anyway, yeah. Up too, too late, awake too early. You know the tune. Hum along with me.

Another good writing day yesterday. I did a damn respectable 1,810 words on the second vignette for Sirenia Digest #2, a piece which I think will be titled simply "Pony." So far, it's much quieter than the vignette I wrote on Wednesday (which has been retitled "Orpheus at Mount Pangaeum"), and I'm trying to maintain that quiet throughout. After the violence of the first piece, I thought maybe the second should be a bit more...tame isn't the right word...a bit quieter, that's all. My nerves seemed to need it. Also, the second piece may work more as an actual short story. I'm not sure I can fairly call it a vignette, as it will include at least three distinct scenes and possibly four. I'd intended for it to be very short, only about a thousand words, but "Pony" seems to have a mind of it's own. It might go past 3K words at this rate. Which means this months digest should be close to six thousand words, which ought to help make up for the delay (I hope). I got an e-mail from Vince late last night (well, actually early this morning) which included a really fantastic study for his "Orpheus at Mount Pangaeum" illustration. Trust me. It's going to be drad. Subscribe today and get a free copy of the Silk trade paperback.

By the time I was done writing yesterday, the headache was a raging tempest trapped in my cranium. Spooky gave me some medicine and made me lie done on the sofa. I spent the evening watching Hayao Miyazaki films on TCM — My Neighbor Totoro, Porco Rosso, and Whisper of the Heart. I was also nursed with Cadbury chocolate eggs and Hello Kitty Meow-berry Pop-Tarts. And more potent medicine. By the time I went to bed, the pain had subsided, and I just wanted to sleep.

Never in all my years as a writer (and, sadly, they are starting to pile up) have I had so many half-edited mss. surrounding me at once. My office is a sea of typescript awaiting red marks and corrections. There's all of Alabaster. There's Daughter of Hounds. And there's "Orpheus at Mount Pangaeum," which needs at least one good going over. Better not to think about it. Better just to keep moving. Typescript can smell fear.

The auction for letter Z of Frog Toes and Tentacles continues, including the handmade book "cozy" (black crushed velvet lined in red silk and hand embroidered with a crimson Z). There's also a copy of The Five of Cups. I shall now entice your bidding finger with a photo of letter Z:

And now for something completely different: A rodent-eating snake and a hamster have developed an unusual bond at a zoo in the Japanese capital, Tokyo. True love does not respect species boundaries...and I wonder if all the other snakes call it a "furry." Or if all the other hamsters call this hamster a "scaly." The mind does wonder. Either way, this sort of thing's illegal in Georgia.

Current Mood: groggy
Current Music: Poe, "Hey Pretty" (Drive-By mix)