A Bad Idea

Franchise knew it was a bad idea. It was a very bad idea. Probably.

He stared at his hands as memories flooded his mind, unbidden. Callie as a teenager, her hair pulled back and her face fresh and clean. They had spent hours together every day during the summer she had turned sixteen. It didn't matter what his friends thought - she was a lot cooler than they gave her credit for.

Years later, Callie in a white dress, walking down the aisle. Her hair and makeup were elaborately done, but it couldn't hide the glow she had. Franchise knew that it truly was the happiest day of her life, and he was happy, too.

Still later, the same girl a few years older, glowing again, but for a different reason. Her hands would rest on her abdomen all of the time, feeling the life growing inside her. The extra weight never looked bad on Callie, even after she gave birth to her beautiful little girl.

Franchise focused on the happy memories, trying to convince himself that it might not be such a bad idea after all.

"I'm gonna ask you one last time, Franchise," the officer said, slapping his hand down on the table. "Was Callie Abrams with you on the night of September 17?"

Franchise looked up at the other man, but he didn't see a police officer. Instead, he saw Callie again. This time, her beautiful face was marred by an angry purple bruise, and tears streamed down her face.

"My sister was with me," Franchise lied. "There's no way she could have killed her husband that night."

I write like
Margaret Atwood

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Update, as usual on Sunday

Not nearly as much done as I would have liked, but my mind has been elsewhere this week. I did manage to finish the bag for my cards. It's made of a yarn called "Panda Silk" and it's really soft. I think I'll use this yarn for other projects in the future.

I've finished another 10 or so squares for the picnic blanket, so it's progressing nicely. A few more weeks, and I'll be ready to start assembling it. That, of course, will take several more weeks. But it will get done. And, with any luck, it will be finished around the time that it starts to cool off enough to have picnics again. After all, 102 degree weather is not really picnic weather.

I'm also nearly done TL's MadHatter Dice Bag :) It will definitely be ready for delivery the next time I see you, buddy.

Just a reminder, if you want to get some goodies, all you have to do is comment on this post! You know you want it... I'll keep checking for comments for a few more weeks. Thanks again, everyone, for following my posting.

Writing. Wait, what?

Yeah, sorry folks, but I'll warn you up front - today's blog is short and will suck. My real life drama is still running around, and a good friend has now run into some of her own, so my brain is focused on other things at the moment.

However, since I love lists, and I promised I would do this, here's a list of writing-related projects that I'm working on:

• Editing Happily Ever After (broken down into little steps, but totally not done!)
• Brainstorming more ideas for Flash Fiction Chronicles
• Write a background for Jane Spencer.
• Write more about Jane Spencer, and why she's pregnant, and what she's going to do.
• Force myself to re-read "It's All About the Shoes" and try to salvage a story from it
• Outline a bit more for the next Thurman G. Woodfin story
• Keep up with weekly fiction on Tuesdays.

Sounds like enough for now, right?

25 Followers!

YAY!

That's right, I've now got 25 followers! Thanks to all of you for making me feel special. :) Even more fun, it happened on my dad's birthday, so double-yay!

As promised, I have a selection of fun stuff for all of you (or at least those who are interested).

All you have to do is comment on this post with your choice of stuff. If it's something that requires delivery, I'll contact you to figure out how to get it to you.

Your awesome options are:

1. A hamster bean! The most lovable little critters around, with feet that look like Cheerios.

2. A crocheted bag! Much like the dice bags that I've made before, the bags are about 3" in diameter, and about 5" tall. If you need something larger or smaller, I can accommodate it fairly easily.

3. Your name (or a name of your choice) featured in one of my Tuesday fiction pieces.

I hope to hear from lots of you! Yay!!

(Also, I'll check this post for a couple of weeks, in case you're off doing the summer thing and read it late!)

Tonight's fiction has been cancelled on account of real life drama.

All My Crafts

So it's been a busy week, which is good. And I've taken photos, which is better!

First, I made a pile of cards:

A baby card for Miss Tara, who's due on Wednesday!

A random card that seems to confuse some...

A pretty flower with stitching and a button (because I bought a huge vat of buttons!)

A birthday card for my Dad - Happy Birthday!

A card for my Donna! Hopefully, she's received it by the time this post shows up!

I also did a bunch of stuff with yarn:

This is the start of the blanket I'm making for Miss Tara's baby boy (again, due Wednesday). I'm totally not going to finish it in time for the due date, especially with postage to Canada, but it's started!

These are the four motifs for the picnic blanket.

GIR head cupcakes for the girls!

Dio's new [fuzzy orange] dice bag!

I've started a bag to keep my tarot cards in: it's made of "Panda Silk" yarn, a combination of bamboo, merino wool, and silk fibre. It's super-soft, and all-natural. Yay!

The Hufflepuff scarf! I just finished the first ball of yellow yarn, so I'm about halfway done... although, given how wide it is, I may go for a third ball. We'll see once I'm at that point.

In my cleaning, I discovered my box of paper cranes, so I folded a few more.

Finally, here's my sweater! The one that I've been working on since February! It's super-comfy, and so soft... I love it!


And that's what I've been working on!

For my own reference, these are my current projects:

- Tarot card bag

- Miss Tara's baby blanket

- Hufflepuff scarf

- Picnic blanket

- Modifications to Tanya's Mad Hatter dice bag

- Pink/white/purple wave blanket

- Yellow/white wave blanket

- Bajillions of hamster beans

The REAL Thursday post!

Because, of course, once I give up and post via my phone, the internet decides that it likes my computer after all. After half an hour of messing around. *sigh*

Thursday is supposed to be the day that I update my writing progress, right? Unfortunately, I feel like I've made very little. I have not touched HEA for edits in a week or two. I've written my Tuesday flash pieces, but not much else. If you missed it, I had a post up at Flash Fiction Chronicles on Monday.

But I've been reading! So in lieu of writing updates, I'm going to tell you what I'm reading, and what I plan to read for the rest of the summer!

I am currently in the middle of Temple of the Winds by Terry Goodkind, the fourth book in his Sword of Truth series. I've already finished Wizard's First Rule, Stone of Tears, and Blood of the Fold. Well, technically, I've finished the first ten books, but I'm re-reading them as I have finally acquired the last one. I may end up finishing Temple by the end of the week, depending on how driven I am to do housework.

My summer reading list is as follows:

• Soul of the Fire by Terry Goodkind
• Faith of the Fallen by Terry Goodkind
• The Pillars of Creation by Terry Goodkind
• Naked Empire by Terry Goodkind
• Chainfire by Terry Goodkind
• Phantom by Terry Goodkind
• Confessor by Terry Goodkind
• Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
• Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire
• A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire
• My Life Uncovered by Lynn Isenberg (my favourite book in a long time!)

If anyone out there has any other suggestions, I'll be happy to take them! It looks like my current list is running towards fantasy, but I do like other genres. I'll probably forget my book at home at least a few times, which means I'll be reading the mystery and YA novels that seem to be lying around the lunchroom at work. And when I'm just not up for something heavy, I've got a pile of romance and chick-lit to keep me entertained.

I've also recently downloaded the B&N Reader for my laptop, and I've been collecting free e-books of all genres. I liked Kait Nolan's Forsaken By Shadow, and I'll be watching for the sequels. If you haven't checked her out, you should! The top of her site links to all sorts of places to acquire her latest piece.

On the bright side, the more I read, the more I want to write! With any luck (and lots of effort), I'll get some more editing done on HEA (it's on my to-do list for the weekend!), and I think I might expand on Jane from my last flash post.

Internet appears borked. Hooray for storms! My real post will be up tomorrow, once the interwebz are back.

Always be prepared

Jane Spencer was nothing if not prepared.

When she was thinking about having sex with Brad, she made a list of pros and cons, and considered the list for weeks. When they finally went all the way, she made sure that she was on the pill and that he was using condoms with spermicidal lubricants. She was prepared.

Even now, she was prepared. On the bathroom counter, lined up in an orderly fashion, were four different pregnancy tests. Beside them, a stopwatch waited. Jane straightened the tests once more, then gave a satisfied sniff. It was time.

One by one, Jane used all four tests. It was awkward, to be honest, but there was something about the methodical use and replacement of each test on the counter that made Jane feel better. It was orderly. It made sense. And the repetition decreased the chances of a false reading.

The stopwatch continued merrily on its way, counting the seconds that passed. Jane busied herself with arranging her makeup on the bathroom counter, ignoring the tests that waited. Once the stopwatch reached the appropriate time, she reached for the first test with an inexplicably shaking hand.

Two purple lines. Two pink lines. A blue plus sign. A digital readout of 'Pregnant.'

Jane's hand shook more violently with each test.

Somehow, she wasn't prepared for this.

I write like
James Joyce

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Flash Fiction Chronicles

I've got another post up at Flash Fiction Chronicles! You should go and check it out!

Dude! I've got 20 followers!

I just checked my followers box, and there are twenty of you! Yay!

It feels like I should celebrate...

Since it's Sunday, my day of crafty updating, I have an idea.

When I hit 25 followers, I will put up a post with the exciting news. If you comment on that post, you will get a piece of crafty-goodness for yourself! I'll have two or three items to choose from. There will likely be hamster beans (since I can't get enough of them!), those awesome knit dishclothes, maybe a hat, maybe a gift bag... if you have any suggestions, let me know!

So recommend my blog to your friends, and let's get 25 people following me, so I can give you stuff! Yay!

Yes, I made more stuff!

And no, I don't have photos.

I haven't actually finished a lot of stuff, just worked on it. The picnic blanket is coming along: I've got 55% of the squares done, so that's good!

I started and finished a dice bag for a gamer friend, and if I remember to get her permission, I've got a photo that I can post here later.

A few more rows of the Hufflepuff scarf got finished, but again, I'm not rushing on that one.

I found the knit pattern for hamster beans, although I'm not sure if I really want to knit them. It's much easier to crochet them. I also found a big-ass ball of sock yarn that I'm going to use to make piles of hamster beans for NaNo this year. Watch out, Mooselings! You're all getting hamster beans! Although, if I get adventurous (and find brown pipecleaners), I may adapt them into moosebeans.

In addition to the ongoing projects, I completely frogged a baby blanket that I had started months ago and put away. It was knit, and my gauge changed noticeably, and I just wasn't happy with it. So I've restarted it as a granny-square-style blanket. It's baby alpaca, and it's a soft periwinkle blue, with navy accents. I'm looking forward to finishing it and sending it off to my friend, Miss Tara, who is due any day now!

Finally, I have decided that I'm going to make crocheted cupcakes for a pair of fun girls who just got GIR backpacks. Because GIR needs to have a cupcake in his head. But shhhhh... it's a surprise!

I am a writer, damn it.

If you didn't check out my post on Flash Fiction Chronicles, you should! The gist of it is that I consider myself a writer, because I write. I need to write.

Unfortunately, I have not been writing as much as I would like to lately. Part of that is this fear of rejection that I'm dealing with. There's a part of me that completely regrets having submitted "Into the Fog," because it means that I'm going to have to deal with someone rejecting my work. If I didn't submit it, no one could tell me that it wasn't good enough. (There's a little part of my mind that's struggling to remind me that I just might be accepted, but even though I try to be an optimist, I am, at best, a realist. It is much more realistic to think that my first submission ever will be rejected. MUCH more realistic.)

The other major reason that I haven't been writing as much is that inspiration keeps striking me while I am at work. In the middle of the day, while doing data entry, I get the urge to write. I am writing down the gist of the ideas, but I can't really justify writing full stories while I'm at work. I can justify using Google Reader, because I get 40-60 articles a day from ophthalmic and medical sites, so technically it's work-related... but I can't write without feeling guilty. Unfortunately, by the time I get home, I'm tired of being at a computer. I want to spend time with Zoe. I get pounced on by Mia. And then it's bedtime, because I'm getting old and I have to be in bed by 10 or so if I'm going to get up by 7 the next morning.

However. This weekend, I do not have to work. I actually had leftover vacation days, and they have to be used up by July, so I'm taking a long weekend. I'll sleep in. A lot. I'll probably clean house. We'll likely go visit Zoe's family. And I'm going to force myself to work on editing HEA, and if inspiration strikes me in the middle of the afternoon, I'm going to let myself write.

And I'm going to try really hard not to worry about "Into the Fog."

The bar

"Here ya go, doll." The bartender set the glass down in front of Bethany with a thump. "Six bucks. You want to start a tab?"

"Sure," Bethany mumbled, reaching for her wallet and pulling out a credit card and ID. The bartender looked at the ID, looked at her, and took the credit card from her. As he headed away from her, Bethany sighed and picked up the glass. Spiced rum and coke; not the classiest drink, but a good starting place. It tasted good, at least, she thought as she drained half the glass in one go. A few more, and she'd go for something cheaper. After all, once she was good and drunk, it wouldn't matter how things tasted.

She played with her straw, trying to forget why she was sitting in Billy's Bar at seven o'clock on a weeknight. Billy's wasn't really her sort of place, after all. Bethany liked to think of herself as a relatively classy gal – when she went out with the girls, they would usually hit one of the swankier dance clubs downtown. Today, though, she didn't want the pounding dance beat. Today, the sad country songs seemed a better fit.

Bethany finished her drink and motioned towards the bartender. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow, but poured her another drink and brought it over without a word. As she lifted the fresh glass to her lips, a man sat down beside Bethany.

"Hey."

Bethany glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes, but kept drinking. When she finally set down the empty glass, she turned to look at him. "Can I help you?"

"Beth." The name came out sounding more like a sigh than a word. "Let me drive you home."

"I'm not ready to go home." She turned her attention back to the bartender and lifted her glass up, rattling the ice cubes.

"You can't drive home." The man's voice was gentle.

"I know. I'll take a cab." Bethany rattled the ice cubes more forcefully.

"Beth."

"I said I'm not ready!" she yelled, slamming the glass down on the bar.

The man sighed again, and rose. Bethany made a point of ignoring him as he made his way to a table in the back of the bar.

"He's still here," the bartender pointed out as he set down another full glass.

"I know," Bethany mumbled.

"Need me to call the cops?" the bartender offered.

"No. He means well." A tear rolled down her cheek. "He just doesn't love me any more."

I write like
James Joyce

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Lots done, no photos.

I finished my sweater, finally. I suppose it didn't actually take all that long. I started it sometime in February, and it's barely June now. My first sweater took much longer than that.

I made another hamster bean. This one glows in the dark.

I've got all of motif A, C, and D of the picnic blanket done. And one square of B. At some point, this may actually get finished.

No more work on the Hufflepuff scarf, but I'm not feeling too bad about that.

I found another buried project - a blue baby blanket in baby alpaca. It's going to go in my purse, I think, because it's small, and easy to pick up/put down.

I made a birthday card for my dad, a father's day card for him, and three other cards, and a mini photo album.

I also made blueberry muffins and cinnamon streusel loaf, although they both came from box mixes and the loaf kinda burned.

So it's been busy.

Someone asked me recently how I manage to do so much. It's easy. I can't not do stuff. It's like, if I don't stay busy, bad things will happen. So I keep busy. Just watched the LOST episode where they found the computer, and it's kind of like Locke needing to press the button. I don't know what will happen if I don't do it, and I'm not sure I really want to find out. So that's why I do stuff. How's that for fucked up?

I did it.

I submitted "Into the Fog" to an e-zine. They sent back a message saying that they had received it, and will probably get to it next month.

So now I wait.

Have I mentioned I'm not good at waiting? I've been crafting like crazy in the last few days, trying to keep busy. By the time I get a rejection, I'll have seven sweaters, thirty-two hamster beans, and eight hundred twenty-four cards made. I probably won't be able to actually reach my computer because of all of the piles of stuff.

On the bright side, that means that this Sunday's post should be nice and full!

Also, still no further editing on HEA. Need to get on that. Perhaps this weekend, after I clean up my mounds of craft stuff.

On the other end

First, I want to apologize for not blogging on Sunday. I was busy - I've started watching LOST. I've spent the last two Sundays glued to the TV, occasionally yelling at it, as I've worked through the first season. On the bright side, it's so intense that I can't just sit and watch it, so I've been getting a lot of knitting and crochet done. I'll update for two weeks on this coming Sunday.

Now, to the fiction!

The man sat in his little office, the glow from the computer screen reflecting on his glasses. The rest of the room was dark, to help set the mood. The rest of the apartment was also dark - it was well after midnight, and there was no need for anything else to be on. After all, the man lived alone. Who cared if there was another light on?

He clicked a few times, and waited. He knew she would be there eventually. She always showed up. She had never missed a 'date.'

He waited a few minutes longer. Where was she? He clicked on another window and tried to surf around on the internet, hoping that she hadn't forgotten. Or made other plans.

Suddenly, the speakers snapped to life.

"Hey there, stud," came a low voice.

He closed the other windows within seconds. Her face filled most of the screen. He sighed happily as he watched her smile, then move away from the camera. Slowly, her neck came into view, then her shoulders... her chest... His breathing sped up and he reached for the keyboard.

'Missed you,' he typed. Beside her image, the chat window filled with more messages.

'U R beautiful.'

'i luv u'

'take it off'

The man sighed. He hated to share her.