Checking in After a Long Weekend

Good morning everyone!

It is still morning, correct? *checks computer clock.

Yup, still morning. Though this computer is so slow it wouldn't surprise me if it was afternoon by the time it decided to load this page.

So, the Labour Day long weekend went by much too quickly. In it, I achieved very little. I managed, in one marathon sitting, to finish watching season 2 of Rush (an Australian cop drama that happily replaces Blue Heelers). It's a great show, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes cop dramas.

Also, I might be slightly in love with the character Lawson Blake. Just sayin'.

I also managed to clean house a little bit this weekend. That was nice. The house feels 1 000 times better now. However, while cleaning, I neglected the cat (Persephone) who desperately wanted cuddles and was, therefore, in disfavour when I did finish cleaning. So much in disfavour was I, that she spent the whole night in the living room where usually she cuddles up to me while I sleep. Le sigh.

Some exciting news - I've signed up for violin lessons! Finally! I think I've told the story of always wanting to learn only, the very year I was old enough to learn, the only string violin teacher in the town upped and moved away. I was very disappointed.

Well, fairly recently, I'd been given a violin and I swore I'd learn. Only, every time I went to pay for lessons some sort of financial crisis occurred. It was vexing. Well, this last pay, I took the plunge (I hope there will not be any financial emergencies coming up, or I'm screwed) and lessons begin this Friday. Eep! I'm very excited. I just adore music.

Writing wise, I'm so far behind target I don't even want to think about it. I have to write 8 000 words today to catch up. Obviously it's not going to happen. Worse still, I neglected to factor the long weekend into my estimated word count, so to keep from falling further behind, I'll have to write Friday. Looks like I'll be writing for a few Friday's actually - just to catch up.

I'll already well behind schedule for the day, as well, so I'll leave you alone now. I hope you all had a marvellous long weekend!

Flutter the Dovecots

To cause mild excitement in society. Shakespeare, Coriolanus.

- Albert Hyamson's Dictionary of English Phrases, 1922

Manurement

Cultivation; improvement; [asin] the manurement of wits.

- Joseph Worcester's Dictionary of the English Language, 1881

Manure your heart with diligence, and in it sow good seed.

- Zachary Boyd's Zion's Flowers, 1645

Lethean

Pertaining to the river Lethe; hence, pertaining to or causing oblivion or forgetfulness of the past.

- Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1908

Oblivious; [from] Lethe, one of the rivers of hell. From Greek letho, old form of lanthano, to forget.

- Daniel Lyons's American Dictionary of the English Language, 1897

Deadly, mortal, pestiferous.

- Thomas Blount's Glossographia, 1656

A Bad, Bad Start to the Day

So... I woke up extremely late. Rushed around like a mad woman. Raced out the door... to find that I didn't have my house keys with me.

Or my purse.

Swearing like a sailor, I broke back into my own house, scared the heck out of the cats, grabbed my purse.

Couldn't find my keys.

I turned the house upside-down looking for them. Only to find that they were, in fact, in my purse.

By this time, it was far too late to catch the bus. But I tried anyway, only to discover I don't have any bus tickets. I raced to buy bus tickets, raced back across the road, only to have the bus roar past me at a hundred miles an hour.

The next one stopped, though, and was moving fast enough to get me to a transfer point for the one that previously refused my existence.

Until a minor collision before us stopped traffic on Bank St. for a while. Just missed my connection. Had to wait for the other bus that drove all over God's green pastures.

Arrived to work ten minutes late.

I'm also 2 000 words behind at the moment. The good news that The Dying God & Other Stories is now available in paperback had me working the rounds, getting the word out, and starting a competition. See on the right hand side of the screen there? I'm giving away two free copies on Goodreads.com. Follow the link and enter!

Spread the word, as well, if you want. The more people who at least look at the book, the greater chance of success I have. Though, honestly, the way today's going, I'm really not expecting much at all.

Ugh!

I'm frustrated, I'm homesick, and I'm behind. I don't care. I'm going to watch Aussie telly for a while. Rush here I come!

Have a great long weekend everyone! I'll be back Tuesday... hopefully in a better mood.

Eatenest

I have... noticed some of our rather curious superlatives... Walking over a ploughed field, a rustic, noticing some spear-grass, said, "It is the eatenest thing that grow" - that is, the most exhausting or devouring of the soil.

- Edward moor's Suffolk Words and Phrases, 1823

Mind Bend, or, Trouble at the Halfway Mark

I'm not yet at 50 000 words, but I'm over the halfway mark.

My mind is having great difficulty wrapping around this idea. Perhaps it's really anal, and requires wonderful round numbers for halfway marks, and can't handle all the messy fractions of 75 000.

Yesterday, something happened in the story that was supposed to happen ( my apologies to the Elgin Street Police Headquarters. You're all dead. Sorry), but I kept thinking that this book was going to be crap because it wasn't the halfway mark yet. Except that it was.

I was confused. Even now I'm having difficulty dealing with this relatively simple concept. In short, I'm a twit.

Oh, a lovely note this morning - two rejections in my inbox. Oh goodie. Le sigh. Oh well. I guess.

UGH!

On a happier note, just ten more writing days and I'm done Ethan Cadfael: The Battle Prince. Yay!

Also on a happier note, I managed to fix up The Dying God & Other Stories (for the last time, I swear!). I only found two typos and had one change of mind. Thus, only three corrections. All the eBook versions have been changed AND, this time, Lebrary.com accepted the update! Yay! You can now buy it there again if you so wish. Hopefully I'll get the confirmation email from Createspace.com today that The Dying God & Other Stories is all good to go for the paperback edition. Then I can press that 'publish' button. It that happens today, I'd have met my self-imposed deadline. Just.

Damn, I'm good.

Right, I really have to get on with it now. Have a great Thursday all!

Algerining

The act of prowling about with intent to steal... Probably from Algerine, an inhabitant of Algiers. The greatest commerce of the Algerines consists in the merchandize which they obtain by the piratical plunder of Christians over the whole Mediterranean.

- Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary, 1898-1905