Author Archives: Autumn

And Onward, Part 2

– read and give feedback on a short story (yet another one I’ve had for too long)
– finish reading book for review, and write the review

All the review needs is another quick read-through before I mail it off tonight.

I don’t think I’m going to get to restring the cello, either, because I still have other mom-type stuff that has to be done before we leave to pick up Liam.

And Onward

– read and give feedback on a short story (yet another one I’ve had for too long)

And it was a pleasure doing it, too.

You know, I could listen to Invisible’s covers of Folsom Prison Blues and Holiday In Cambodia over and over and over… ah, the magic of playlists.

To Do

While we were out dropping Liam off at his grandma’s, naturally the parcel postperson came by with a parcel for me. It’s probably one of the secondhand books I ordered for research, and I’ll have to go pick it up after five.

BUT! When the regular postperson came by, I got my consultant check! Now I can schedule a trip out to the bank, to deposit it and put my bond in the safe deposit box along with some CDs of Liam photos and a computer backup. The mail also brought me a set of coupons for the office supply shop, for insane amounts of mailing labels and sticky notes. I love sticky notes, but I’m still working with the package my father in law gave me a year and a half ago, and after that I have the package from this past Christmas to use up. And really, would I ever use 3700 mailing labels in my life?

As of this morning, all Important Papers have been filed at the Palais de Justice and/or mailed to the respective correct governmental offices to put the final touches on t! and Janice’s wedding. There’s a significant weight off my chest. The entire time I had the papers I was sure something was going to go wrong. I’m still vaguely suspicious; it all seems to have been much too easy.

To do this afternoon:

– read and give feedback on a short story (yet another one I’ve had for too long)
– finish reading book for review, and write the review
– completely restring the cello with the snazzy new Evah Pirazzi strings (yes, I finally got to the luthier this morning to buy the new A)

Last Friday I got 312 words written in Swan Sister while Liam napped, but it looks like I’m not even going to get a chance to open it this afternoon.

To The Batcave!

So many people I know will appreciate this comment made by Kino Kid about the Da Vinci Code movie:

It’s a hoot to see a film, and watch the hero say, “Quick! We need to get to a library!”

Because you know, that’s the first thing I say in pretty much any situation. Hey, let’s look that up! or, Ooh, I have a book on that!

(Somewhere out there, Blade and Scarlet are killing themselves laughing…)

Weekend Recap Number One: Mother’s Day

Let’s start with the day that will require less introspection and time expended in actual writing of the post: Mother’s Day.

It began just after nine o’clock, which was positively the best present I could have been given. We got to bed at around two AM after the wedding, and that whole insomnia thing that’s been hitting me hard for the past while has really been giving me a beating. To wake up and realise that I’d slept almost six hours was wonderful. HRH got up as soon as he heard the baby early in the morning, and they let me sleep in. When I did wake up they came in to say hi, and Liam gave me a painting he’d made for me while I was asleep. He was mildly reluctant to give it up, but eventually it was all mine.

We had brunch, then we left to get flowers and head over to my in-laws’ place for the afternoon. And a lovely afternoon it was, too. We spent some time with neighbours, then ate Alaskan crab legs while Liam napped a very short nap, then we had steak and vegetables and salad. Liam joined us for the main course, and had his first taste of steak. He polished an awful lot of it off, along with zucchini and manadarin oranges from the salad. And he ate it all with his fingers, too. I’ve been mildly concerned about how he hasn’t been interested in eating any non-bread product with his fingers, but it’s like a switch was thrown on Sunday: the only way he’s really happy eating now is by picking things up by himself and putting them into his mouth. Of course, his patience runs out long before he’s eaten the amount that he usually eats when we feed him with a spoon, so we have to be careful.

Sunday night I went out to a concert with Pasley. L’Ensemble Sinfonia was playing the final concert of their season at the Oscar Peterson auditorium in NDG, and since I’ve been starved for live classical music played by someone other than myself, I really wanted to go. I’m so glad we did, because it was simply wonderful. The soloists for Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante were phenomenal, and the orchestra was impressively precise in ther performance of Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony, a notoriously challenging piece. We were so impressed that we’ve decided to subscribe to next year’s season together, which also solves the problem of missing out on live music.

So all in all, it was a lovely day. I’m lucky to have wonderful family and friends with whom to share days like this.

More Truisms

Something else to engrave on my cerebral tissue:

It’s important to keep writing even if you think you’re writing crap because writers are crappy judges of their own writing.

Matociquala, of course. (I do read lots of other author journals, I do; it’s just that she has a knack for coming up with Punchy Truisms That Resonate.)