Category Archives: Diary

Nothing Last Year, And Now:

You would not believe the volume of email I have been receiving about the Anna Valerious costume I made for Hallowe’en 2004.

For public edification and reference, the corset pattern I kitbashed was Simplicity 9769. I can no longer find the pattern I used as a basis for the coat, but something easy like Simplicity 4323 would work very well as a basis, if you lengthened the body a bit and cut the ends of the sleeves wider.

You’re welcome.

PS: No, it’s not for sale. Didn’t you read the bits about the hot glue, and safety pins?

Schadenfreude Gathering

Someone described last night’s hangout here as a wake for people’s recently lost jobs, and I think it’s a good way to describe it. It’s been a dreadful week for a remarkably large number of people I know, and half a dozen of us kind of gravitated together to support friends. I made a huge pot of chili and garlic bread; Ceri made Schadenfreude Pie (schadenfreude being the German term for reveling in someone else’s misfortune, and to be perfectly clear we weren’t reveling in the misfortune of those who had been laid off, we were reveling in the misfortune of those who did the off-laying, because they lost excellent workers and will officially be up a creek without paddles or boats come Monday morning, but that’s their problem, isn’t it?); and Paze brought over some Bailey’s (both original and chocolate mint) and wings and Asian noodles. And for fourish hours we all sat on the floor and chatted and ate, and provided the right type of distraction for everyone, no matter what their week or job situation. The neighbours from upstairs drifted in. We actually got to see Scott, whose employer allowed him to leave the premises at a sane hour for once. The whiskey came out. We opened a bottle of Soave, courtesy of my FIL. We talked and talked and talked, in a companionable way that I haven’t enjoyed in, oh, ages. It’s good to be there for friends. That one has the opportunity to unwind at the same time — well, it was a really nice bonus.

It was a miserable day weather-wise yesterday afternoon as well, with the first official appearance of That White Stuff on top of nasty wind and cold cold rain, causing absolute havoc on the roads and forcing me to call my MIL to ask her to feed Liam dinner over there because I was stuck in Ville St-Laurent. When Liam eventually got home to see friends in the living room he took serious stock of the situation, then wandered around talking to cats and persons alike, sharing books and macaroni before going to bed (beautifully and calmly, hurrah, yes).

Mousme even managed to clip the claws of two cats while she was here. Nixie, The Deceptively Soft-Spoken Kitten From Hell, made it known in no uncertain terms that while Maggie and Cricket may have fallen to Mousme’s blade, she had no intention of going down until Mousme was lying in a pool of her own blood first. It was generally agreed that perhaps more Bailey’s ought to be enjoyed instead.

Despite the preponderance of badness in the lives of many this past while, we had something terribly, staggeringly nice happen to us this week. The people involved know how we feel, despite our sense of not being able to communicate just how thankful we are.

Oh, and the pie? Ye gods. I couldn’t even finish my slice. By this morning, the single piece left in the pie tin had begun bleeding a dark syrupy liquid. I fear it. But then, one really oughtn’t overly enjoy schadenfreude.

A Sort Of ESTC Update

The problem with the book at the moment isn’t coming up with 8K more words to put in the manuscript. No, that would be easy. It’s finishing it that’s the challenge.

Yes, those are two different things. One means you can just throw words into the file. The other means you have to bring every single small section to an intelligent conclusion, make sure all your interchapter references are correct (and that they actually exist — I found a reference to a set of breathing meditations that aren’t there yet), create the bits that are currently marked with [insert info here], and check that everything in the detailed outline you submitted is actually in the book in some form or another. Plus be brilliant while doing it all, making deep observations and providing a solid and inspiring structure to facilitate someone’s spiritual experience.

(And I wondered why I was having an anxiety attack on Wednesday? All this, plus no time to practice an astonishingly difficult Beethoven symphony that I really need to work on. I hate feeling unprepared and lame, and that’s exactly how I’m feeling at orchestra these days.)

I’ve just taken the time to go through the MS file and make a handwritten list in my notebook of each thing that has to be added, rewritten, polished, inserted, and so forth.

Five pages of notes later, I am grimly unamused. (Of course, I also discovered that I was further along in certain places than I thought I was. That’s a good thing.) So for the next week, I’ll be going through the list item by item. I’ll fix something, cross it off the list, go to the next thing that needs to be done, do it, and so on.

I’ve started by deleting a bunch of stuff that didn’t go anywhere. (Great ideas that sort of wandered into a corner and stood staring at the paint. And no, they’re not gone forever: they’ve gone into the Deleted Stuff file in the ESTC folder. I don’t throw anything away. You never know what will come in useful for an article or a future book.) Deleting after adding some writing earlier today means that the MS count currently stands at 41,584, which at least isn’t lower than it was when I closed up shop on Wednesday. And I still have an hour to work.

It’s no longer about the word count. (Well, to be honest, it’s never been about the word count; word count is just the only way I have to judge how much of the book exists.) Now it’s all about how much work I can get done in order to to make it the best book it can be before it leaves my hands on November 1.

On to item #2 to be handled.

Random Wednesday Things

Today for the first time, Liam is wearing a pair of blue leather size 7 Buster Brown ankle boots. They’re awesome boots, from the box of things my cousin sent up for me when Liam was born. But — size 7? Yikes. His feet have grown so much in the past three months. I’m hoping they slow down, like the rest of his growing has, because these are a seriously cool pair of shoes.

I had my annual checkup with the doctor today. Good news: I’m not dead. Remarkably far from it, actually.

And WHY has no one told me that Colm Feore did a guest spot on BSG? Did none of you think to do it, or were you all complicit in the plan to keep it a surprise until I saw that particular season 2 episode?

As you were.

ESTC Update

Total word count, ESTC: 41,207
Total words today and yesterday: 1,172

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
41,207 / 50,000
(82.4%)

You know that whole dramatic “how will I ever fit all the info that has to go into Chapter Two into Chapter Two!” thing I’ve been wibbling and worrying about?

Short. Very, very short. Three pages of point form notes, which will probably expand to six once I write it out. Which leaves me lots of room for all the other stuff I want to write, like rituals in the final chapter and another three or so pages of meta stuff on rites of passage that belong in Chapter Two as well; all the things I wanted to include but was afraid wouldn’t fit. Yay me.

Oh, and I made pretzels this morning. Next time I’ll use one cup less flour and cut the sugar in the dough by maybe half. Very excellent nonetheless. But then, I’m a salt devotee, and I adore big dough pretzels.

And there’s nothing like the Colonial theme from the BSG season 2 soundtrack to get me motivated. Of course, it also has other associations for me, but damn, it’s a fine, fine piece of music.

Happy Birthday!

Happiest of birthdays to Jan, who is always right there with support and congratulations as I work through a project, and also serves to remind me that just maybe I’m not as wretched a cellist as I sometimes think I am. I wish you sunlight in dark days, calm and balance in times of stress, and love of all sorts for the rest of your life.

I’m glad you’re my friend. :)