Effectively a Friday

[velvetpage]

And Thank God for that.

The cheese has been purchased. Ditto the wine. The kirsch, however, is now in pyat's hands. Wish him luck; I don't think he's ever set foot in an LCBO before.

There was no milk in the fridge at work this morning. I was forced to use a few drops of half-and-half instead, because I can't drink it black. It's not the best cup of tea I've made lately by any means. I'm glad I didn't spend a precious Chai teabag on it. I only have so many of those left, and they are not to be trifled with.

I had a very clear dream last night about people on my friends list who I've actually never met. Come to that, I've never seen pictures of either of them, not even on icons. So it was rather surprising that in my dream, I knew exactly who they were and was calling them by name. It'll be interesting to find out if the lady I dreamt about really is a blonde, or for that matter looks anything at all like her dream counterpart.

Plans for the dolphin book are proceeding apace. I have a partial outline done, which is more a description of the socio-political state of things in the dolphin seas than an outline. One job for this week is to begin to develop a clear outline with a list of scenes. I found that very helpful with the last book, though I added a whole bunch of stuff to it in the long run.

I realized this morning that I need to take a look at the pay scale in the last (expired) collective agreement. If memory serves, year six (that is, next September) comes with a large pay raise - like, 10% of my current salary. Now, about 40% of that would end up in the government's coffers, but it's still a substantial increase. I figure if the motivation of the job itself isn't working for me right now, perhaps the motivation of the salary will.

Gotta go prepare a spelling test. Oh, joy.

Comments

[stripedsocks.livejournal.com]

I've dreamt about people on my flist too. It's a little weird. ^_^

Cross-posted response to a question you left in my lj...

[mizheekay.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. Interesting.

No- not blond, but my hair is a lighter colour. People have argued for years over if it's red or not. It's kind of an auburn/reddish/copper colour... too dark to be strawberry blond- quite red in some lights, but it's got some brown undertones and it gets blond highlights in the summer. I certainly have the skin-tone of a redhead. I've got a head full of spiral curls, which is what most people comment on, and which can get frizzy on a humid day. If I brush it out it's twice the width of my shoulders. Mutual friends of ours can attest to that fact - they think it's quite funny.

So, was I just hanging about, or what? Dreams are so very interesting. I have a strong feeling we'll meet sometime soon. If you're ever at Flack's house lemme know- I live just a few blocks away.

Re: Cross-posted response to a question you left in my lj...

[mizheekay.livejournal.com]

Fleck... not Flack. Not usually, at least.

Re: Cross-posted response to a question you left in my lj...

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I've started needling Patrick about getting his two gaming groups together at some point. If you start needling from the other end, we'll make it happen. :)

Re: Cross-posted response to a question you left in my lj...

[mizheekay.livejournal.com]

Hey- I know what you mean about one side of your brain making a remark while the other side is busy creating the story. And yes- I kind of do have an 'Anne' quality (I LOVE HER!!!) but a big more curly than in most of the visuals of her.

Keep bugging Pat about getting us all together-I think it could be fun- but don't expect it to ever happen on a gaming night unless the gaming is cancelled- I'm surrounded by gamers and love them dearly but do not join in the organized chaos thereof. Once it gets nicer out we will likely have a crowd over here for an evening- I'll keep you posted - I expect it will be in about a month or so, and you and yours are certainly invited!

Re: Cross-posted response to a question you left in my lj...

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

You know, I spent several years as the SO/wife of a gamer before I got into it myself. It took time, but gradually the storytelling took over my brain and I desperately needed to join in. Now, my whole social life revolves around gaming. My non-gaming friends have kind of faded into the background over the last few years - they have other interests, I have gaming interests, and rarely do the two intersect.

Hmm. We could try for a Friday night at our place, though that would involve more people coming from Toronto than from Hamilton. Still, could be doable, if one person weren't able to make it for our regular game at that time anyway.

Do me a big favour, please - April 16th is one-hundred-percent unavailable. It's my daughter's second birthday. I have a feeling most gaming will be called off that weekend to accommodate my dad, my mom/stepdad, and my in-laws. (My dad won't enter the house if my stepdad is here. Last year he stood out on the porch in the rain ranting and swearing while my father-in-law tried to rein him in. If I'd known what he was saying while holding Elizabeth, I would have asked him to leave. I'm almost glad I didn't know. The result, though, is at least two family gatherings for that birthday. How can I avoid enabling him and still avoid the behaviour? It's nasty.)

If you, Fleck, and myself (and maybe Celine) all put our heads together and get after the men around us, we're sure to be able to pull this off sometime this spring. :)

Anne

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I love Anne! It was twenty years ago this past Christmas that I got Anne of Green Gables for Christmas from my grandmother, mixed in with a very nice sweater and the obligatory socks and underwear. I've never looked back. She and Emily have been my all-time favourite characters in fiction ever since.

The book says her hair was curly, but none of the movies showed it - she's always portrayed as having straight hair, probably because when you're braiding it, curly doesn't matter too much.

[jadecat.livejournal.com]

I don't think it odd to dream about people on LJ- given that we read a lot about their lives and so on, rather makes sense to me.

I actually started work on the Librarian book the other night, just trying to get a sense of the tone. This idea of a scene list in interesting- not completely new, but also not something I've tried before (well, once but it was a silly story. ;) ). Should look into this.

(Oh and thanks, you talking about your writing is inadvertantly giving me ideas for mine. ;) )

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I just checked, and realized you're not on my writing filter. Did you miss the posts advertising it? Shall I add you?

[jadecat.livejournal.com]

I must have missed the advert posts somehow. Yes yes, please add me!

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I liked using a list of scenes as an outline for the last book because it was based on a role-playing game. Setting them out in some kind of order, and even putting in phrases like "flesh out this scene with x info" or "needs a connecting scene here" helped me clarify my thoughts. The eventual book did indeed have all the scenes that were on the original list, plus half again as many as the characters developed beyond their role-played versions. (Or, more often, as their portrayers gave me hints as to what THEY would have done in such-and-such a situation.) I'm not really ready for a scene list yet - I'm still worldbuilding - but there's so much planning that has to go into this book, I'm ready to start writing a few scenes here and there.

I SOOOO want to read the Librarian stuff as you write it! Are you going to use Sashegray for that?

[jadecat.livejournal.com]

I feel like I'm trying to do everything at once with it= trying to worldbuild, pin down a 'personality' of sorts for Ama- and then there's the big thing- What is the main plot? Though some of the aside bits are working for me. One bit, a temple, was garnered from a very surrealistic dream involving X-Men and the characters from the tv show Angel.

And yes, sashegrey will be used for the postings. Likely I'll post on my main account that there's been an update. ;) If this new job comes through it looks like I'll have several Fridays off- and if I am a good writer I'll use that time to write.

[kesmun.livejournal.com]

John and I looked it up, and even if we got stationed at the closest base of any real size to you (Ft. Drumm), we'd still be clear across Lake Ontario. Bummer.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Google Map says 4 hour and 40 minute drive, yeah.

[momentrabbit.livejournal.com]

Call them to make sure it's there, first: I remember trying to get kirsch for a fondue, and striking out cold. They couldn't even recommend where I could find any...

Never had mead in stock, either. Foo.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I suspect I'll get confused come back with a big bottle of ketchup or something.