Okay, there's a bug

Le sigh. If I needed any more reminders that this is a Monday, I have them. Didn't mean to arrange for *all* the Unusual Historicals blog entries to end up on my page, only mine. Working on fixing that now. Wish I could take credit for all the interesting things on the UH site, but alas, no, only my own.

Other than that, I'm spending today climbing out of a funk. I'm not depressed, I'm in a funk. That's a temporary thing and I can tell where it's coming from. I'm a people person, and spent the last week in the company of felines, coming home when the DH is snoozy, and there were days where the most human contact I'd get (aside from the Internet) was the clerk at the convenience store where I'd snag my Cherry Coke Zero. Plus there was the book that contained an element that would have caused me to pass on the book had I known, but I didn't, so there I go, happily reading until whambang. No thanks. UBS bag. Someone else will enjoy in the future.

Having the right input to defunk is crucial. Reading is high up there. I do know some romance novelists who can't read in genre while writing, but that's never been my problem. Okay, my tastes aren't in current vogue, but that doesn't bother me. There are still gems to be mined, and all things go in cycles. Picked up Shannon Drake's The Queen's Lady this morning, and things look promising so far. Good historical atmosphere, and while the real life historical figures are on stage, this does look like the h/h's story, and I love starting the book with a prologue from the middle (does that make sense?) and then going back to the beginning. Valerie Sherwood (whose books I sorely miss) did that a lot once upon a time, and I always found it a way to get sucked into the story in no time flat.

May indulge myself in a little Hugh Grant movie therapy after I mae a few baby steps in the work direction. Possibly Music and Lyrics, though a nibble of Love Actually never fails.

In the midst of decluttering two out of the three abodes , I'm gathering older copies of Romantic Times and Romance Writers Report (the RWA monthly magazine) which are always good for a shot of encouragement. This does, however, mean I'll have to organize them (oh darn -- heheh...I love organizing books and magazines) which serves as a rather useful timeline of how the genre has grown and where it might be headed next. I definetly plan on being along for the ride.

Trying something new

The wee hours of the morning on the last day of a two-catsitting-gig week is probably not the best time to start fiddling around with new webthingies, but I'm giving this a shot, as my friend Kady (hi, Puds) told me about multiply.com. So far I've managed to upload pictures of the furry members of my family, including Vlad the bat, and somehow managed to post some of my Unusual Historicals blog entries here, but not the personal ones. Still working on that.

Not a lot of actual writing work in the last couple of weeks, as we've dealt with the passing of my Aunt Lola, my dad's sister, and that throws a new wrinkle into estate stuff. We're getting through it, though, and I'm looking forward to my RWA chapter's Book in Six Weeks program again this year. Also looking at some interesting promotional opportunities, so things are coming along.

Fall always seems to give me an extra burst of energy, which is especially helpful when organizing the office -- yikes, am I really writing on all these projects? Umm, yes, I am. Which is a very good thing. Writing is still the best job in the world.

New/used laptop arrived last night; we're calling him Harvey (full name Harvey the Wonder Hamster, which was my dad's "code name" during his last year.) Harvey is a reconditioned senior gent of a laptop, a Dell Latitude, going all retro with his Windows Millenium. (extra points for anyone else who now has the Robbie Wiliams song stuck in their heads) Still trying to figure out how his internet card works and if there really is an A drive like the puter says there is, but it has Word, which is my one essential-essential, so I theoretically can take my act on the road when needed/wanted. Huzzah.

Which may have to happen, as real life has smacked me another one. Another elderly relative in hospital, sent from nursing home, so we're putting in a good deal of hospital time in the evenings until thing settle. Hopefully in the good direction.