Dear Facebook,

I’m sorry, but this just isn’t working out. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve been spending less and less time with you these days, and the fact is I think we need to break up. I’ve changed, you’ve changed…it’s just not the same.

I used to think it was loads of fun looking up all the people I went to school with, looking at all their pictures, their kids, their cats, and it’s true you helped me locate friends I thought I had forever lost touch with, but that’s not enough anymore. It’s not.

And then Scrabulous got taken away. I think maybe that was the beginning of the end right there. Zombies and vampires are awesome, but Scrabulous beat them all hands down.

My favorite thing to do was to look at all my “friends” (and I have to put that in quotes Facebook because you and I both know that there are friends, and then there are “friends”. C’mon, admit it) statuses and feel like I was kept up to date on what was going on in their lives. I felt a connection, however vague, it was there. You keep changing your appearance and layout so much I can’t do that, and I feel like I need to constantly decipher you.

Also, what’s with the mood swings? You seem to randomly decide what you’ll show me on my feed and what you won’t — no matter what settings I change or what I tell you to show or hide. I don’t get it, this game you’re playing, and I am not willing to be a part of it. If you want to play your little powergames, you can do it alone.

That’s right, Facebook, I’m going to set another page as my home page. I know, I know, but you had to have seen this coming, surely?

I’ll still come back once a day, Danica likes it when I play Pet Society with her, and I still sort of like the ‘Slots’ and ‘Pull Tabs’ apps, but that’s all. You are no longer going to be a place I spend much time, and I won’t try to count on you to keep up with my friend’s lives.

I have twitter now, my blog, and as always my faithful live journal. Plus, there’s email and *gasp* face-to-face meetings too. So I’m leaving you Facebook, I just need to make sure I tell all my friends there, so they’ll know where to find me.

I hope you find someone else, Facebook, and can be happy. I really do.

Best,

Rhonda

(Clicky Clicky if the pic no worky)

Have you ever wondered about the characters from WoW who steal so much of my time? Assuming the iframe works, the picture above is my main character, Obscenity. She doesn’t often look like this in game because she is a shadowpriest which means I go into shadowform to be all hurty and stuff…that leaves my silhouette but makes everything on me go all like blue-y purple-y. It’s tough to explain, but it’s pretty funky When I’m healing with her she has different gear on, so looks different then too.

Also, I can’t seem to hide her helmet by default, like I do in game because it hides her purdy face. You can hide it if you click on the gear icon though.

Anyway, this is my main character.

I <3 her.

Just thought I’d share in case anyone cared

I have a ticket for the World Horror Convention in Brighton this year…but I don’t think I’m going to be able to use it. I’m not known for making these sorts of decisions easily, and my mind isn’t completely set on this one, but really, I would say with 99% certainty, I won’t be going. You see, the thing is as much as I really want to go (and I do, I really do) I applied to Clarion West this year.

The odds are very much against my being accepted to Clarion West but if I get in, that would take priority for me over WHC.

While it’s actually possible for me to manage to go to both, I don’t want to. That’s a lot of money and a lot of time spent away from my family. Danica will have a tough enough time dealing with my being gone for six weeks if I get into Clarion West, adding another week for a trip to Brighton not long before that would be wrong.

The tricky thing is, Clarion West generally notifies people about whether or not they got in sometime in March, usually (I’m told) toward the end of it. Word Horror is in March, which means I’d need to have a plane ticket sometime before then. And so, and so…

I don’t think I’m going to Brighton. I suppose the deal is actually pretty much sealed, even if I try to deny it or pretend there is still a question about it. I want to go to Brighton but let’s face it, if I went it would be more pleasure than business (I haven’t got a horror novel to promote yet and Niteblade doesn’t make money so I can’t justify the trip on the grounds of promoting it) and Clarion West could do amazing things for my writing and thus, my writing future. So I’m not going to Brighton. It makes me sad, I will miss being able to see friends, and hang out and all the good stuff that comes with conventions (oh, and the bag ‘o books, I’ll -so- miss the books!) but in the end it’s the right thing to do. And if I don’t get into Clarion West? I guess I’ll just take that money and take my family on a beach vacation somewhere. That will help soothe my disappointment.

Also, if you could keep your fingers crossed for me that I get accepted into Clarion West that would be fabulous.

(The picture is of my cat, Indy, and is completely irrelevant to this post. I put it there because I couldn’t think of something relevant to put as a picture and I’m trying to include more of my photographs in entries…so…yeah.)

So, it’s a whole new year. That’s what the calendar says anyway.

I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions. There’s no clever reason for it, I just don’t. Perhaps it’s just to be contrary. In fact, when we quit smoking several years back my husband and I made a point of doing it on December 30th rather than waiting a day or two because we didn’t want people to mistakenly think it was a New Year’s thing. Yeup. We really are that ornery

Still, this year is looking like it might be better than its predecessor. I feel like I’m beginning to crawl out of the grip of the depression I’d been fighting with over recent months. That’s a good thing for so many reasons, the least of which is not that it means writing is easier for me, it’s less of a struggle to focus and things might actually get done. Might.

Also, I have some upcoming publications I’m excited about. Shades of Green is obviously near the top of that list, but there’s also the six word memoir book from Harper’s Perrenial and a lot of poetry. I love the work I did for the November poem-a-month challenge and while I’m still working on placing most of it, I’m ridiculously excited to share it with you all. Soon, I hope. Soon.

What about you? What are you excited about for this coming year?

I did a lot of writing on Saturday, and a whack of revision on Sunday. As often happens when I’ve spent a lot of time and emotional energy working on a story, I found that long after I’d stepped away from the computer physically, I was still very much there mentally. Jo noticed that I wasn’t quite myself and I tried to explain, but my mind and attention being divided I’m not sure I did a good job.

I was still crawling out of the story.

When I first step away from the computer I’m still very deliberately and consciously thinking about the story I’d been working on. Should I do this, or that? How would that character really react to the other thing? Making mental notes of things I need to remember to add, change or take out. Making physical notes in case my mental ones fail. However, even after I’m done that and I’m not deliberately thinking about the work, I am disconnected from reality.

Not completely. You don’t need to call me a shrink, but that part of me which is always sort of outside myself (really, don’t call a shrink) observing things and taking notes is bigger than usual. I feel like I’m wading through a thick mental fog, and it takes some time to clear.

It doesn’t always happen, and seems to be mostly after the more intense writing/revising sessions I have. It’s an interesting phenomena, one I need to consider more in order to describe better perhaps. Anyway, I thought I’d share

Writers, tell me sometimes this happens to you too. What about people with different occupations and hobbies, do you expirience something similar, or do writers have the market cornered on this one?