Now Playing -  Chelsea Dagger by The Fratellis

 

Life -  

 .... Once again, there's been a gap and much has happened! 

We are still living in Idaho, working on the shop and trying to get back to writing as well - I'm going to a lot of comic cons - about 1-2 a month and we are starting to get the house in order.

We lost Pooka to cancer just before Christmas, the rest of the furry kids are as crazy as ever.

Beyond that, it's just been us getting by, but we did take a great vacation with our new trailer and a few notable things that I'll try and get to on here in the coming weeks - writing in this blog had always been a great journal for our family and it often inspired me to write in my books too - I need to get back to that.

Also, I'm trying out a new format on the review site, and will start reviewing things on there again too. Yay!

The ROUS FAMILY -   

  

 

 

 

 

A Day Out And About In Maine

Life - 

Friday was a good day, in fact, it might have even been a great day! And this is on a Friday that we went shopping at Wal-Mart, something that we never enjoy.

We started out simple, a couple of bagels and some coffee, both of us finally off work. We hit a few stores nearby, the Target for an air conditioner, Goodwill for random stuff, Home Depot  had parts for a light table I was building, PetCo for cat food. (The cats have been eating dog food for the last few days and not really digging it.)

Then we grabbed Lindsay's check and headed to downtown Brunswick to cash it. This is one of the perils of moving cross-country. Back in Idaho, we had two accounts, a small one at US Bank, Lindsay's since she was young, and my credit union account at the university, which I'd had since I was twelve. Well, naturally, every auto bill pay we have and my direct deposit is still set up for that credit union account. Partly because the people there usually treat me really well and partly out of laziness.

When we arrived out here, we discovered that US Bank is a Western chain, so we started yet another account at Key Bank. This has been a hassle. They've always been polite and friendly, but their banks keep useless hours and if you want to cash a check, good luck, buddy. They will only give you as much cash as you have in your account, regardless of it being a payroll check. So we left a bit annoyed, unsure how we are going to get the cash into my credit union account before the car payment comes due...

So we decided to eat lunch. First, we hit the Dunkin' Doughnuts, where Linz got an iced Latte. DD is YOOOGE out here, like everywhere you turn and we had only tried a less than impressive muffin from one in a Wal-Mart. Turns out their coffee sucks too. She drank about half and tossed the rest.

Across the street from the bank and the DD is a park of sorts, kind of a long strip of grass between roads, and every so often along the way, there are brick cutouts designed for food wagons. We'd seen them before and been intrigued. After all, our favorite mexican food comes from a wagon. And there was a mexican one!

HUZZAH!!!

But, as I'm sure you can guess, it was run by white people and the food was overpriced and designed like Amerexican restaurant food. Bah.

So we hit up Danny's, a red wagon next to it that had a line along the block last time we'd been by. Oh, man. What a great choice.

Lindsay chose the crab roll, which was really great. Fresh and mixed just right. I, in my infinite wisdom, chose the Steak, Cheese, Mushroom and Onion sub. This is what I got -

 Look at that thing. Steaming hot, crispy grilled roll, melty cheese, tender steak chunks... This was the best sandwich I have ever had. Seriously. Especially for five dollars. Linz and I split it and I was so full I had to waddle back to Stormalong.

After eating our most satisfying and delightful lunch on a park bench in the sun, I got us lost. Pretty much just picked a road that I thought might head to Wal-Mart and drove. Eventually, it became clear that we were nowhere near it, but there was ocean on either side.

Clearly, the ocean is FAR better than Wal-Mart so we continued, devising a plan to finally get a bit of the Atlantic on our skin and also, find something for my mom for mother's day.

 

Then we got sidetracked by a beautiful old cemetery, where we wandered for twenty minutes or so.

Back on track, we ended up in.... A town whose name I've forgotten and will have to add once his wife wakes up and reminds me. It wasn't much, just a few houses on a finger of land, pointing at some islands, a far off lighthouse and, eventually, Europe. Once again, we were surprised at how anti-tourist everything was. Not that we wanted an amusement park, but there wasn't even public parking or a tiny gift shop, just a decent looking restaurant in a bit along the finger. So we parked there and walked to the beach.

I touched the Atlantic for the first time. It was cold, wet and presumably salty. It didn't change my life, but it felt like some sort of vague accomplishment all the same. We bought some ice cream in the restaurant, which had only been open for a day or two for the season. The girl that dished our treats did not have the forearm strength needed for hard ice cream dishing, especially if they get any kind of tourism in the summer. It was amazing though. Super-creamy, rich, flavorful, adjective, additional positive adjective.

Afterwards, we bit the bullet and entered the grocery store into our GPS and let Homer Simpson lead us to shopping hell. The place was extremely packed, but we grabbed our carload quickly, actually got everything on the list and by some miracle ended up with a cashier that was both friendly and fast. Which I had assumed was impossible.

The rest of the evening we spent at home. I installed the A/C, built my light box, drew a picture for R3's weekly jam and relaxed. I whipped up some dirty rice for dinner, which turned out overly salty, next time I need to compensate for the salt in the creole seasoning, but was still good, and we watched Pushing Daisies.

A pretty great day.

Oh yeah, I also got a pretty sweet set of drafting templates and a pencil at goodwill for $5 bucks. Awesome!   (Don't you hate it when you load all of your pictures at the start and at the end of the post, you realize there's still one down here that you forgot about?)

May 23, 2009 - Aw, Man!

Life -

Today started out pretty strong, actually, and while I can't really say it's gone downhill, I still somehow feel BLAH. I'm not really sure why.

Woke up early, around 7am and goofed around on the internet. Did you know you can drive past my house virtually on google maps? You can even see the makeshift fence we built for the dogs and Lindsay's Avocado Dreamboat parked out front! (Strontium is gone... I must have been at work.) Also missing sadly, is a forever present and digital shot of my delicate flower Ludo pooping. I didn't expect it... I just kind of secretly hoped it would be there. It's just as well though, something like that would traumatize him.

Went yard sale-ing, and was pretty happy with my results, I bought a couple of books (Though I was annoyed at people charging a buck at one yard sale... a buck? What happened to a freaking quarter??) I snagged an old bottle cutting kit for my mom... She wants to cut bottles, is that so wrong? I found a classic and completely spectacular board game, Masterpiece for a buck, and at my last stop, I snagged an old, but in pretty good shape, microwave stand that will be sweet for accessorizing my BBQ when we move it to the back patio we're going to build.

Did some dishes, did not walk the dogs... oops. Alphabetized some DVDs we bought at Budget Tapes and Records and that was about it. Apart from that, I spent most of the rest of the day ...

Writing -

By god, I'm a slow typist. I wish I'd learned to type with more than two fingers at some point. All the same, I got a good chunk done today, wrote chapter 9, started chapter 10 for a total of 4,200 words so far tonight. That'll probably be it though, I have to edit some of Lindsay's book, finish making the spectacular Turkey Chowder that I'm brewing for dinner and get a couple of last layers on a Bugaboo before taking the first official completed photos for the client. I also did some research online... I'm actually a bit nervous that if I do win the contest I'm entering the Whispering Ferns into, that I may be shooting myself in the foot a bit, as it is a very basic contract, and as it's being written as a series, I don't want to fuck up my chances of making a decent buck. (I apologize for the F-bomb, but after writing what I've discovered today is termed Middle Grade or MD fiction all day, my fingers are itching to cuss.) Of course, right now, I'm making zero dollars, so I'll take anything. I also learned that after hours of typing hunched over like a demon typing, my back will literally kill me.

That's about it. The rest of the night will likely be Turkey Chowder, Novel editing, some downloaded episodes of Penn and Teller, and cuddling with my lady.

Tomorrow we are taking Pooka in to get him groomed. This should be interesting.

The Last Sentence

Smith sat up to the table for a few minutes, his head in his hands.
From - "The Whispering Ferns - A Moonstone Bay Mystery"

May 22, 2009 - Blast you, plumbing!

Life -

My mother's hot water situation continues to be a threat to my already tenuous sanity. I think I may have figured out where I went wrong. With the bottom element useless, we had merely taped off the wires that previously led to the element, assuming it would be needed to prevent any kind of fire situation, but now, I think there's a possibility that the upper element is failing because the lower is still connected, but where it hooks to the element, there isn't a completed circuit. Either that or I blew the element. If that's the case, I can switch it. This morning I tried out the element wrench I bought for my previously mangled lower one and it worked like a charm. The element started unscrewing with a minimum of effort. Of course, in my early morning haze, I neglected to remember that the water heater was still pressurized and filled with water.... While I soaked myself, Lindsay rifled through the slightly creepy collection of preserves that my grandparents stored in the crawlspace/cellar. She eventually found one with a date: 1964.

I had to work tonight too, an odd day in the middle of my days off because we're still short managers. We had an excellent dude in today that I can only describe as a 55 year old hillbilly Matthew Mcconaughey. He was wandering aimlessly around the store until my cashier asked the gentleman if she could help him. He explained that he'd been locked in the car while his mother shopped, but he wasn't a dog, and he could leave if he wanted, dammit! Then he saw his mom and said that he'd better get back in the car before she saw him. My favorite parts were his leather vest and his laid back vibes, man.

Writing -

I have a sudden and looming deadline for my novel. After checking out a pretty good pile of YA and 3-6 grade novels from the library, I decided that I should start looking into publishers. As I browsed, I stumbled across a yearly contest from a fairly large publishing company for a Young Adult/Children's novel publishing contract.

The prize is $1500 and a $7500 advance against royalties as well as a standard publishing contract for both a hardcover and softback novel. The main criteria is that it is written for a 3-6 grade reading level and that it falls between 96 and 160 pages double spaced.

Now, I don't really have any illusions that I'll win the contest; most of the previous winners have been more traditional and they've largely contained an ethnic element, such as an African American boy growing a garden in an inner city community garden, not a bookworm boy being haunted by ghosts in a spooky northwest fishing village, but entering in the contest will do one major thing for me. It will force me to write with a certain goal in mind, not just randomly when I feel like it. The other definite upside is that while they wont provide feedback, at least there's a pretty high likelihood of my manuscript being read, and they have chosen honorable mentions in the past to print as well.

Of course, my main hurdles at this point are time and consistency. I currently have around 27,400 words written, and I estimate the total book at 45,000 so I'm progressing well, but I have 39 days to complete a first draft, make at least two full edits and draw a few of the accompanying illustrations, as well as work at my graves job full time.... could be tight! I'm also worried that as I read it back after I finish that the tone and writing of the book will vary between a children's fiction, one meant for an older crowd, like high school age, and an adult novel. I've found that I pick up influences from what I read quite strongly.

I completed 733 words on Wednesday, 3637 on Thursday, and 1379 today. I'm off the next three, so I hope to really bust out the chapters. Besides, I'm at the fun part to write, the dramatic part!

At any rate, wish me luck, I'm really going to need it!

The Last Sentence -

He missed his parents terribly.

From "The Whispering Ferns - A Moonstone Bay Mystery"

May 8, 2009

Writing-

Wrote a bit today, managed to put down around 2,500 words so far. I started writing this novel on 04/26, and based off of other similar novels, I figure it should be around 40,000 to 70,000 words. Right now, I'm at 13,258, which isn't too bad. Next stop is writing a slightly more detailed outline and deciding how long I need to make the rest of the story. I also need to start designing the characters on paper, deciding what art style to use, and create a rough map of the village that the story takes place in.

Life-

Unpacked a few more boxes today, it's a strange kind of bittersweet to see all of the boxes that we'd packed with the confidence that we were moving to start a new life get slowly unloaded back into the house. At the same time though, we are starting to be stricter about what we keep, and we threw away 2 bags full of crap we don't need or never use, and filled a box with yard sale stuff. We also started unpacking my masks for the front room, which is thrilling. I've missed their wooden gazes.

We also walked the dogs, and decided to start training them to walk a different way. Until now, we'd just let them walk ahead of us, and tugged on them when they got to pulling to hard. This has been a problem, as both dogs are over a hundred pounds and can really strain your arms when they tug. Today, after a hilarious sequence where Lindsay, attempting to punish Ludo for tugging too much caught him by surprise and pulled him off of his feet, then tried to force him to go back home with her while I walked Pooka, we decided to try and make them heel at our sides while we walk. We've always heeled them across streets and when we needed them close, like when there's infants about. (Ludo likes to steal their crackers.) So we decided to try having them heel to us full time. We've decided to use a looser heel, which we have been calling Heel Close as we walk, soon to be shortened to Close as they get better at it. It keeps them next to us, leashes loose, but they can have a bit of leeway, as long as their bodies are even with us. It worked pretty good for the last leg of our walk today... we'll see if it still works tomorrow.

We also went to Mama Inez for our weekly Fajita Friday date, and had a splendid Cheese Crisp, then bought 3 books at the Thrift store.

All in all a pretty good day, and its only 6pm!

The Last Sentence I Wrote Today -
Eventually, Uncle Cannon came up and knocked on their door.