Author Archives: Autumn

One Story: Check

[reposted from the Great mySQL Disaster of 2006)

HRH went out gaming tonight. I sat down at the computer once he was gone and I’d tidied up a bit: handled email, checked news, did a bit of research, and wished I could be working on Swan Sister, but I wasn’t in the mood to slog through the warmup only to be ready for bed when I reached the point where things flowed. Nor was I particularly keen on opening one of the other novels to work on one of those, because I wanted to do something finite.

So I pulled out the story postcards I had. Alas, I’d used all of them: they all have big orange checkmarks on them.

But I remembered one that I hadn’t used, one that’s somewhere in a manila envelope or a file of stuff that was on my bulletin board by my desk in the last apartment. Longtime readers will remember the story postcard Neil Gaiman sent me with a phrase about a never-ending line of people written on it with a fountain pen filled with green ink. I made rather a fuss about it at the time.

So I opened a new Word file and wrote a 1,143 word short story beginning with that image of a long line of people snaking off into the distance.

It doesn’t have a title yet. At the moment the file is called “Gaiman postcard”.

Whether I like it or not tomorrow is immaterial. I like it now, both for what I did with it (plain, simple) and how I wrote it (I just did it, in a single hour).

And HRH has just come home with ice cream, since I’d indicated a desire to have some earlier only to discover that he’d finished it last night.

No, wait, I think I have a title: Next. Oh, yes; that’s perfect. That makes it 1,144 words, thank you very much.

Now: ice cream, and bed.

~ Originally posted by Autumn at February 9, 2006 11:27 PM

Comments:

Way to go!
Posted by: Kino Kid at February 9, 2006 11:46 PM

Hey, I’m just reading your post on NaNoEdMo! How’s that for synchronicity?
Posted by: Owldaughter at February 9, 2006 11:47 PM

Er. What I ought to have said first is, Thank you!
Posted by: Owldaughter at February 9, 2006 11:50 PM

Woohoo! Go Arin!
Posted by: Ceri at February 10, 2006 09:09 AM

Full of awesome!
Posted by: Maia AP at February 11, 2006 02:35 AM

Sunday Music

Last night’s concert was excellent — very tight. Fantastic work from everyone, particularly our section of Cello-Playing Mice. When things go well, the evening always flys by and the two hours are over before I know it. Although my legs falling asleep from the wooden chair being just a smidge too high were a definite indication of time passing. Halfway through the symphony in the second half, I rearranged my legs so that they were stretched to the left and crossed at the ankles instead of feet flat on the floor, one knee on either side of the cello. Unorthodox, but it helped for a bit. Thanks again to everyone who came out — it always means a lot to me.

The Random Colour meeting was terrific as well, particularly since we ended up working out music not once but twice for one song, and acing the second (up until the part where we have to modulate at the bridge, that is; we decided to work on that at home since I had to flee to eat and change for the other concert). I’m impressed with how well we worked together, particularly for those who’d never played with others before (or played their instrument!). The girls have decided that bowing the cello sounds pretty darned cool in the second song we worked, so I’ll mess about with that in the other songs at home to see what happens.

Good thing we’d casually looked at amps and pick-ups earlier, because as soon as Ceri started tuning her sax both the stringed instruments realised that we’d need to amp simply in order to be heard. My inexpensive cello pick-up is already on order; I doubt it will be here for the next rehearsal this weekend, but then, I won’t have an amp either, so that’s fine. I won’t be able to get the baby amp, either, until HRH’s EI snarl gets worked out, which, gods willing, will be this week. The girls are meeting every weekend from now till Invisible’s mid-June concert in order to really ace a couple of songs; we have less time than they did for their first gig, and we’ve chosen harder songs (enthusiastic overacheivers that we are).

Today: errands; more edits; some green witch work.

Announcement!

Blade‘s in the process of doing that MT migration thing for the Court. Over the next few days things might go a bit wonky. Beaks and wingtips inside the blog at all times, please.

UPDATE: Owls’ Court is now officially hosted over at my own Owldaughter web site. If you have reached this old weblog through Blogger or thanks to the tenacious cache of Google, the owlies have since removed their place of habitation; the fun continues over at Owldaughter!

You are cordially invited to transfer over to the new

Owls’ Court

Come join the fun!

Proposal Done

It’s dark, it’s grey, it’s gloomy, and I have a vaguely nauseous feeling that’s probably directly connected to the amount of food I ate last night at my in-laws’ place. It’s now pouring and HRH probably still won’t come home early, just as he hasn’t the last rain days this month.

I finished the rewrite of the proposal and sent it off, so I’ve done some sort of Real Work today. Let’s see if the pub board is a bit more comfortable with a book which talks about using the seasons to support spellcasting.

Witches Weekly Questions

Witches Weekly August 28, 2004: Politics

1. Do you feel those with pagan beliefs should attempt to take more of a political stand?

I feel that religion and spirituality has nothing to do with how politically active an individual should or should not be. That’s up to the individual. I would never stand for a religion or spirituality dictating my political behaviour to me. Certainly, I tend to be more vocal concerning areas honoured by pagan paths, such as environmental issues, the right to expression, the freedom of religion, health care, and education; this, however, is a result of common interests, not due to my involvement as a pagan or my commitment to the Wiccan path.

2. Is paganism openly accepted where you are from? (city, town, state)

Sure. Here in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, we have a handful of metaphysical shops, there are outdoor rituals in public places, and the major anglophone newspaper does articles on the spirituality of pagans, not the sensational aspect. Canada in general tends to not get its knickers in a knot about alternative spirituality. (Don’t get us started on the archaic laws still on the books, however.)

3. Given your beliefs, what’s one thing that a political figure could promise to you about your path, that would convince you to vote for them?
No single promise would convince me to vote for anyone. I consider it my responsibility as a citizen to not be swayed by single issues, so I look at the entire platform. An individual could promise me a 100% increase in recycling investment, and if I didn’t look at the rest of the platform I might allow education cuts, a reduction in rights and freedoms to slip by. That’s irresponsible.

Come the restoration of the monarchy, however, things will be much improved. Hail to the king!

Another New Obsession

Pasley and I escaped to have cool sangria and nibbles yesterday afternoon when both of us were about to pop, and we also stopped in at a new tea shop I’d seen a few weeks ago as I drove past.

Un Amour des Thes is a smaller, more welcoming, better-staffed tea merchant than the tea emporium in Westmount ever was. I love it. I am currently drinking Petales de Rose, a blend of Ceylon tea, rose petals, and rose essence, and I fully intend to return for a sample of other kinds (such as the Ceylon cocoa essence mint, and Ceylon caramel, plus all the lovely expensive teas in tall tins behind the wooden counter), plus a tea press when I get my next cheque from the publisher. They’re all blended on-site, and I’m so delighted. The energy there is wonderful. And they do tea-tastings, and workshops too.

I know. Little things.

(Ed. note: Oh, look; Blogger finally put through the edits and spelling corrections I did yesterday. How kind of it.)