Category Archives: Words Words Words

Moderation

You may be noticing that all comments are being held for moderation. One of the major issues I was having with MT was the amount of comment spam it was generating, and the poor methods of handling that spam the new version MT had. In WP, you have to have been approved at least once in order for your comments to be posted without moderation. So hang in there; if you’re a regular trusted commenter you’ll be on the approved list in no time once you leave a comment at some point.

Liam News

HRH finally saw Liam pull himself up to stand by the coffee table last night. And, of course, today was his first movement-related ouch: he pulled himself up, overbalanced reaching for (what else) a cat, and hit his head on the corner of that coffee table. It had to happen; both his parents did it at least once as babies too. Liam caught the edge of his eye socket, but other than a red mark that’s a bit swollen and injured pride, he’s fine.

I think I forgot to mention that the pacifier is a thing of the past. His original one was getting worn at the bottom of the bulb from those new little teeth chewing on it, so I took it away and tried to give him another one of the same design. He wouldn’t take it. Apparently to the other one was worked in just so, and he wasn’t going to accept any substitutes. So he cried a bit at bedtime for two nights, and then la la la, it’s like he’d never had a soother, ever.

We have a new car stroller courtesy of his paternal grandparents (thanks!), and it rides like a dream.

He loves playing in the sun that comes through the front living room windows in the morning, and he loves watching the shadows things make, too. Thank the gods for spring. Walks are ever so much more pleasant. And the sun that pours into the house at various times in various places makes me want to curl up in the sun puddles like a cat.

We’ve ascertained that Maggie actually plays with him. Now that he’s mobile, he galumphs after her wherever she goes. In the kitchen the other night she had him doing lengths of the room for half an hour, simply by strolling to the back door, sitting down and watching him galumph towards her, then sidestepping and walking past him to the kitchen table while Liam drags himself around and heads off towards her again, cackling with glee. He slept beautifully that night.

Okay, enough of an update. I don’t get online much any more thanks to the New Improved Mobile Baby, so when I do I throw a bunch of stuff down into the journal to keep at least somewhat up to date.

Author Crack

Seriously. I now understand how tracking sales can become obsessive for an author.

TitleZ.

Type in Solitary Wicca for Life and click the “title” box. Then click the green arrow next to the search result to see the graph of Amazon sales since the day it was released. My all-time best sales ranking on Amazon for this book was 17K-ish, on September 24, 2005. When you think that there are over 2.5 million titles listed on Amazon, to be in the 17Kth best-selling book is pretty nifty. I’m no Dan Brown (thank all the gods), but to be in the top 20K is fun.

WordPress, Live!

So yes, things look a bit different; I’m still tweaking. There are import issues with my old Moveable Type posts, of course (of course!), and the existing MT entries will be here by the end of the week. The thousand or so that were lost in the Great mySQL Disaster, well, I’ll code those one by one in all my copious spare time.

The sidebar’s still not complete; my pictures and links aren’t all there because WP handles the disparate parts of the template as, well, disparate parts. The old Reading, Listening, Rehearsing, and Performing lists on the sidebar have all been moved to a new blog page called “Currently Enjoying”.

In the meanwhile, things go on as usual.

Currently Reading, Writing, Hearing, & Playing

What am I doing in offline life? Take a look at what I’ve been reading, writing, listening to, rehearsing, and mark down when I’ll next be performing with one of the groups with which I play!

Last Updated: January 21, 2008

    READING:

Reading Now:

Striding Folly by Dorothy L Sayers
Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers

Vivaldi’s Virgins by Barbara Quick (stalled)

Recently Read:

Virgin Earth by Philippa Gregory
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
Earthly Joys by Philippa Gregory
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
The Druidry Handbook by John Michael Greer
Dust by Elizabeth Bear
Daughter of Venice by Donna Jo Napoli
Beatrix Potter: A Life In Nature by Linda Lear
You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop by John Scalzi
The Cipher by Diana Pharaoh Francis

  • Past Reading List
      • WRITING:

    Contracted:
    untitled hearth magic book: delivery April 2008, projected release date April 2009
    Pagan Pregnancy: A Spiritual Journey from Maiden to Mother: release date July 2008

    Uncontracted:

    Wings & Ashes: novelette in first draft (begun August 2007)
    The Moments of Being Pandora: YA urban fantasy novel, first rewrite, final four chapters in draft (begun November 2004)
    Swan Sister: adult novel, first draft (35% complete) (begun January 2006)
    Il Maestro e le Figlie di Coro: YA historical novel, first draft (75% complete) (begun November 2006)
    Creating the Muse (also referred to as ‘The Poppy Book’, or tongue-in-cheek as The Great Canadian Novel or GCN): adult novel, in rewrites (and the last four chapters may as well be a first draft, as the end has to be so drastically changed) (begun July 2002)

    Many Names: complete YA novel, submitted without representation December 2007 (written November 2002 – late 2003)
    Balsamic Moon: adult novel, on hold; requires final two chapters (written November 2003)

      LISTENING:

    A Distant Bell Caroline LaVelle
    Pride & Prejudice film score – Dario Marinelli

      RECENTLY SEEN:

    Shrek the Third – dir. Chris Miller et al, 2007
    The Golden Compass – dir. Chris Weitz, 2007
    The Cat Returns – dir. Hiroyuki Morita, 2002

      REHEARSING:

    Lakeshore Chamber Orchestra:

    Symphony no. 1 – Gounod
    Overture to The Caliph of Baghdad – Francois Adrien Boieldieu
    Pavane РFaur̩
    Pavane pour une infante defunct – Ravel
    Aires de danse dans le style ancien from Le roi s’amuse – Delibes

    Random Colour:

    Current Set List: covers of Leonard Cohen, Metallica, The Tragically Hip, Loreena McKennitt and more!

      PERFORMING:

    Lakeshore Chamber Orchestra:

    early April 2008
    details TBA

    Random Colour:
    ~ currently on hiatus ~