I love this guy. I took this picture in San Francisco 2009. We were resting in the grass enjoying some soft pretzels at Pier 39. All the birds were very bold there, but this guy’s attitude especially makes me smile.

I actually spend a lot of time dodging cameras, but it was raining like crazy the other day so I was taking some pictures through my rain-streaked back door and thought I’d see if I couldn’t take a self-portrait I didn’t hate because my current avatars are a couple years old now. This is the result. Considering that it was completely unplanned and my current aversion to being on the wrong side of the camera lnes, I think it’s pretty good. Yay rainy reflections!

I took this shot sometime in 2009. that is not my cat, he’s my neighbour’s and his name is Tim. Tim is extremely friendly and I adore him, as does my family and pretty much our entire neighbourhood I think. I snapped this pic of him when he was hanging out on our front step.

I took this shot of Danica in our backyard May 2009. I remain quite fond of it.

I’m going to start posting some of my photos on this blog. My way-too-overthought plan is to post psuedo-random pics from my collection on Mondays and Fridays and then post something current on Wednesdays. I’m going to use the scheduled blog option to set these up ahead of time so that even on days when I’m far too busy to post, something will get posted. The hope then, is that I will be able to find time and motivation to post actual blogs containing thoughts, words and news on Tuesday and/or Thursdays. Keep your fingers crossed anyway.

The title, 1k Words For the Day is what I’m calling the photo posts. If a picture is worth a thousand words… yeah, cheesy, but I like it

I took this particular picture a year ago this month. It’s of a bloom on one of the crabapple trees in my backyard. I was just outside yesterday taking new pictures of those trees (as they are blooming again) so I may post one of those in the not-too-distant future, but then again, I may not

Book ratings are tricky things. I think the thing which contributes the most to their trickiness is time.

How much I (or you, I’m betting) enjoy a particular book has a lot to do with when I read it. How old I am, what’s going on in my life, what book I read just before it. These are all things that alter how I feel about a book. For example, when I set up my Goodreads account however long ago, I couldn’t stand having an empty virtual bookshelf but I certainly wasn’t about to go through and add every book I could remember reading. My compromise was for me to add the books from the shelf nearest to me (or maybe the two nearest me, I don’t remember). Adding the books was easy enough, but rating them was a little trickier.

Between about the ages of 11 and 13 I read a lot of VC Andrews. A LOT. I devoured them. Now, if I were to read them today I suspect I would like them only slightly more than I did Twilight, which is to say, not very freaking much. But I’d loved them then, so how should I rate them?

I think, in the end, I gave them 5 stars because when I read them, I loved them.

Thus, I say again, book ratings are tricky things…and if you look at my Goodreads bookshelf and the stars I gave a particular book make you scratch your head because it seems out of character? Remember that time totally has to play a part.

Book reviews are also tricky things. I am not very good at writing them but there are loads of people who are. One of those people is Fate, the blogger behind The Fickle Hand of Fate. Fate agreed to review Shades of Green.

Rhonda’s strength definitely looks to be in the area of plotting, (Twists! Reversals! A totally unexpected ending, but still a square peg in a square hole!) and worldbuilding…

Fate didn’t love it unconditionally, however. You should read her complete review here. She makes a lot of very good points, which I should totally address in another blog entry because this one is getting a bit long

Oh, and the picture? I took it. That flower is the result of some ‘blooming tea’. I like tea while I read…and um…yeah, that’s as strong as the connection gets to the content of the blog I’m afraid. It’s pretty though, no?

I took this picture last night from my back porch. I’m quite fond of it so I thought I’d share.

Now I need to go write something for Round 4 of the Whittaker Prize. I have a character and um…a character…

Frankly I’m kinda hoping if I just start writing a plot will come to me.

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What? It could happen.

For people who are subscribed to my newsletter this update post will have some news that you’ve read already. Bare with me (or is it bear with me?) though, there will be some stuff you’ve not read before too

First of all, Clarion West sent me their spiffy form rejection letter last week. I was disappointed, of course, but far less than I would have guessed. Truthfully, as much as I wanted to go to Clarion West (or Clarion), the idea of being away from my life and family for six weeks was a difficult one. It would have been tough on them, Danica especially, and I wasn’t sure I was actually willing to be that selfish, or what the cost for the people I love would be. Still, yes, disappointed. Maybe next year — Dani will be more independant then. We’ll see. We’ll see.

In the meantime, I keep writing. I entered the Whittaker Prize this year in an effort to give myself deadlines and also receive completely unbiased feedback on my work (since judging is anonymous and I don’t know the judges so they can’t recognise my style). I shared the story and poem I was submitting for the first round in my newsletter. The scores are in and I did better than I expected (74/100 on the poem and 85/100 on the story — surprising, I would have never guessed I’d score higher on the story than the poem.), now I’m looking forward to receiving my written feedback. I’m also working on my submissions for round two.

One of the prompts reminded me of a story I’d long wanted to write about Michael and Margaret. It’s set a long time before Sister Margaret but when it’s done I hope that you’ll be able to see the seeds of their future in its pages. It’s also meant to stand alone. Progress is going well on it, and it will make me happy to be able to submit an Aphanasian story for unbiased scoring and feedback. As for the poem…I’ve only a vague idea. We’ll see what comes of it. It is, of course, zombie related

Speaking of zombies, I will be doing the poem-a-day challenge in April. Sorta. My plan is to follow his prompts and write a poem a day, then after revision combine those poems (all zombie, of course) with the zombie poems I wrote based on Robert Brewer’s prompts in November and see if I can’t come up with a chapbook. I don’t know that I’ll do the ‘enter-the-contest’ part though. I doubt it.

Let me leave you with a short story about the kind of book I want to write. I was talking with my daughter about a book* she was reading and loving. We were discussing the storyline and one of the mysteries within. Danica said, “Well, that’s possible, but we think *insert spoilerific theory here*”. I said, “Oh, are some of your friends reading this series too?” she said no and asked why I’d think that. I said “Well, you said we think. That implies that you’ve been discussing this with other people.” Danica laughed and explained that no, when she said ‘we’ she meant she and the other characters in the book.

Think about that for a moment.

Those are the kinds of characters I want to write, the sorts of connections I want to make with my readers. Bravo Kelley.

*The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong. Danica loves what she’s read of the series so far. I, personally, enjoyed the first book in the series, The Summoning, until I realised there wasn’t going to be any resolution at all. I don’t like book series in which none of the books can stand alone.

Lastly, that picture? I just love it, and with the snow that has decided to return and cover my world with its beautiful but decidedly cold goodness I am truly longing for warmer weather and flowers.

It is not safe to be a paperclip around my house. I bend them, twist them, chew on them…I’m not easy on paperclips.

It’s becoming a bit of a problem, actually. Not only because I am running out and thus, don’t always have them handy for times when I want to actually clip paper, but for a couple other reasons too.

Firstly, they get everywhere. They are in my pockets, on the table, on the counter, beside my computer, on the floor. You name it, there is likely a mangled paperclip there.

Forgetting them in my pockets when I do laundry? Yeah, not so good for the clothes.

Forgetting I have one in my mouth (like some people do toothpicks?) and kissing Jo? Yeah. Also not so good.

I need to go to paperclips anonymous or something.

I think I’ll start using binder clips like these instead.

Or I could use a stapleless stapler like I Jo has ( http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/8b70/ ). The binder clips seem like a better idea though, because I have a whack of them kicking around here already.

Sure, mine aren’t pretty colors like these ones (How cool are they, by the way?), they are just straight up black, but they’ll do the trick. When I say I have oodles of them, I am not kidding. Jo tells me I always guess very high, but I’d guess there are 150 of em at my sewing table, because I use them when I’m quilting.

That’s right, they are multi-purpose and they won’t poke my loved ones when I try to kiss them. I think this realisation will help me kick the paperclip habit for good, actually. After all, the binder clips helped me make this quilt for my bedroom.

(sorry about the horrible picture, if you turn your head at just the right angle it’s almost okay)

Paperclips can’t do that, can they?

One last picture for the quilters I know visit my blog from time to time (hi mom!):

(Click for a bigger picture. Really, I fail at quilt pictures, especially king-sized quilts LOL)

Paperclips? Your days are numbered!