News and stuff...

Been busy and I have lots of news, so if you're interested, then read on. Not sure how soon I'll be able to stop and do this again.

1) My poem, "In Passing," is up on Daily Love. You can find it here. There will be another one in August called, "That Night...". I'll give you a heads up when the link is available for that one.

2) Just signed a contract with Drollerie Press for another novella. Can't say anything else about it right now, but I'll let you know more when I know more.

3) Tyrannosaurus Press just came out with their third quarterly issue of The Illuminata, their free newsletter. In this issue there are a couple of short stories, some reviews and a few articles on things of a speculative fiction nature (including at least one of each written by me). You can download it in either ePub or PDF format.

4) I had a poem accepted by Aoife's Kiss, and rumor has it it will be in the September 2010 issue. I'll let you know when it's out and if I'll be having a blog contest for it.

5) Had my first InfiniChi Medical Qigong appointment on Friday and I highly recommend trying it out if you can find a practitioner near you. They use a combination of Reiki, massage, acupressure and other energy-type work. I was so present afterward that I think my business meeting went much better than it would have otherwise. I was much more helpful to my client and will probably give her a better product because I was more present. I'm moving slower today, but again, I'm also more present, and hopefully more productive.

6) This next week commences the Great Bathroom Make Over - basically gutting it and making it over almost brand new. What this means is that I have been moving everything out of the bathroom and have made up an overnight bag/kit to use in a functional bathroom elsewhere in the building for the next week. Monday morning will be the last time I really use the bathroom before it's gutted. It means I will lose the white tile with black trim wainscoting I love so much around the room. It's fairly old - vintage - which is why I like it so much, but it needs to be replaced (sigh).

It took much convincing on the part of the person doing the work as I kept wondering why he couldn't just patch up the ugly and leave the rest, but when you compare the new tile to the 30 some year old tile, there's just no way it would look good together. And redoing the entire thing exactly as it is now, but using 21st century materials, would be prohibitively expensive. It's sad and I hate change, but he explained to me this also means I will probably gain room because the wainscoting is like an inch thick all around and that will disappear to be dry walled and the tile around the tub to go up higher and around the window. Everything repainted. And they're going to try to stay with the black and white tile I like. It also means the ugly patch work tile around tub faucet will be replaced. And lots of other stuff either cleaned up or replaced. But, I'll also lose things like the tile towel holders and tile toilet paper holders. But, it's basically a brand new bathroom, too. And other than having to use another bathroom occasionally over the next week, free and easy to me.

I love that it's happening, but I'm just sad to see the old vintage stuff go. Some people like living in newness. I'm the person who doesn't see the cracks in the paint as much because I'm charmed by the oldness. But again - it's all good and being done by someone I trust (Pye doesn't hate him -- well not as much as he hates other people, anyway).

7) Because of the work on the bathroom I might not be hanging out on my usual cyber haunts as much. My home office is kinda near construction central so I'll probably be using my netbook elsewhere or working on other things in other places. We'll see how it goes. It will be good. But if you know me, you know how much I can grouse about change and things being "different". I like my routine. But my brain will enjoy the change, I'm sure.

When it's all done, however, I will make sure to post before and after pictures so you can say "oooh" and "ah" along with me.