Good morning, Readers!

Yesterday was day one of writing The Third Prince full time.  It was a very productive day.  I managed to reach my daily word goal (three thousand words) fairly quickly.  It took me two hours.  I was in the zone, people!

This story is very dear to me.  It was the first books I ever wrote, and it has stayed with me all these years.  I was fourteen years old when the character of Cai first entered my life.  He hasn't really left, his story whispered in my ear at all hours of the night, his experiences tugging at the bag of my mind.  This story was the reason I became a writer.

So, of course, I'm revisiting it, using my now nine years of serious writing to make this story better than it was when I first put it to paper.  I have a lot more practice under my belt now, so the manuscript can only be better than the first time I attempted this story.  It will also be better than the second time I wrote this story.

This is a complete rewrite.  So far I have only copied and pasted once sentence from the old manuscript.  That means, for all intents and purposes, that this will be the same amount of work as any new novel.  If I manage to keep going at the pace I started, I should be finished within four months or so.

Then I must decide if I want to submit the manuscript, or if I want to self-publish.  That decision is yet to be made.  I will think on it more.

In other news, a review of Human has been posted to local e-zine Apt613.  You can read it here, if you like.  It's a lovely review, and, to my delight, the author of that review has also posted to Goodreads, offering Human a 4.5 out 5 star rating with a "strongly recommended."  I'm very thrilled!

Yay!

My painting, that is taking for frakkin' ever, is coming along.  Yesterday I made huge improvements to the floor.  The floor still needs work, though, so that is what I'll be doing this morning.

On that note, I'm off to paint, then write.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I must share with you something that is SO Australian, it hurts.  And by hurts, I mean it's the best thing ever.  First, watch this:

Now watch their interview:

It put such a smile on my face this morning!

It also gave me something to write about this morning.  There isn't much really to report.  I've started reading the next book for Nights at the Round Table (The Day of the Triffids), and I'm enjoying it very much so far.  It makes a good change from Battlefield Earth.  Granted, most things would make a welcome change from that!

Today is the first day writing The Third Prince full time.  So... yay?

Also, it's Bell Let's Talk Day today.  You can read more about it here.  It's a day designed to help end the stigma of mental health issues, and help those who need it with access and research.  It's a good cause.

Short story:

I was depressed for much of my childhood and more of my adulthood that I like to admit, and that depression manifested in self-harm and suicidal ideation.  I, thankfully, made it out (mostly.  There are relapses).  A lot of people don't.  A lot of people don't have the support that I had.  It's hard enough dealing with the illness without having to deal with all the baggage surrounding it.

Please, if you're in a rough place, talk to someone.  Here is a good place to start.

You can pull through this night.  Dawn will come.  I promise.

Now I'm going to watch that interview again to cheer myself up.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

It's Australia Day! Yay!

Actually, it's been Australia Day in Australia for the past thirteen or fourteen hours already.  But it's still only morning on the 26th here in Canada.  We're a little behind.

Just wanted to extend my wishes for a brilliant Australia Day for friends and family back home, as well as to every ex-pat no matter where in the world they find themselves.

I celebrated with some Vegemite on toast this morning.  Well, it was Vegemite on rice cakes, but it was still bloody delicious, and it made me do a happy dance in my seat as I ate.  There are no words to express the profundity of my love for Vegemite.

I'm also celebrating today because I have finally finished the second pass of edits on Daughters of Britain.  I have now officially shelved the manuscript.  It will stay put away until this time next month, when I'll drag it out for one last edit before sending it off the Beta Reader number one.

Now, I can concentrate on writing The Third Prince full time.  This is going to wreak hell on my emotional state (The Great Man series is very dark, and very sad), as I tend to sink into the moods of my characters a lot.  Luckily, I have martial arts to help me work it all out and return to a healthier emotional state.

Today, however, I'm giving myself a "do no work" day as a celebration.  I'm going to spend today reading.  It'll be nice to settle in with a book.  It's been too long since I've just had a chance to settle in and read for a day.

So, on that note, I'm off to do nothing important!

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

So, the weekend just passed was a very, very productive weekend.  Okay, Sunday was extremely productive.  It could be no other way.  I procrastinated a lot on Saturday.

I went to teach my classes as usual, but for some reason, I was so tired when I got home that I collapsed into bed (around 1:00pm) and slept right through until 6:00pm.  I got up, groggy, of course, and attempted to function before having a shower and collapsing back into bed.  What a waste of a day.  There was so much I needed to get done.

So I did them all Sunday.

Sunday morning, however, was reserved for fun with friends.  It was a brunch to celebrate the birthday of a dear friend, who is an awesome woman.  That was followed by a game of Archery Tag.  Originally, the birthday girl and her husband were coming, but a death in the family (WTF, January?!) meant that they had to cancel their reservations.  Those of us not connected with the family played in their honour.

Our team, by the by, won three to one.  Boom!  I, uh, also maybe might have shot some poor boy right in the nuts, dropping him like a stone.  I'm so sorry, dude!

I arrived home shortly before 4:00pm from the game, and gathered a few bags and went back out.  I desperately needed groceries.  Went grocery shopping, arrived home again, did a load of laundry and then settled in to play a couple of hours of Skyrim for Silver Stag's SMC Awkwardly Plays segment.

I then edited and uploaded an episode of SMC Awkwardly Plays, ran upstairs to edit together the next Nights at the Round Table episode (going up this afternoon on the channel), and while the raw videos were importing into the editing software, ran back downstairs to edit together the first episode of CoOpted.  While SMC Awkwardly Plays was uploading to YouTube, I ran back upstairs to begin the proper edit of Nights at the Round Table.  Halfway through, I ran downstairs to upload CoOpted (which had finished rendering), and while that was uploading, ran back upstairs to finish the edit of Nights at the Round Table.

Confused?  Don't worry too much.  All you need know is that I was editing three things at once, and continually running up and down the stairs to get it done.  I finished all the editing around 10:45pm or so.

Then I began the export of Nights at the Round Table.  I export first, because YouTube often gives me trouble on my slow little laptop if the video length is too long.  At roughly half an hour an episode, it's a bit long for YouTube.  So I have to export it first, and then upload the mp4 from YouTube (rather than exporting to YouTube directly from the software).

That export finished at precisely 2:25am.  How do I know?  Because I woke up at 2:24am, and it had one minute left.  I was still awake when the export finished.  So I hauled myself out of bed, and began the YouTube upload.

I hope I did it all correctly, or there'll be no episode today....

Anyway, I couldn't get back to sleep to save my life.  I refused to actually get up, though, and spent the next three odd hours willing myself to sleep.  I managed to doze some.  And then my alarm went off at 7:00am.

I am bloody exhausted today.  I tried to make up for my exhaustion by dressing prettily.  I'm not sure it worked, honestly.

Anyway, I'm tired and will probably be non-functioning the rest of the day.  Which bodes ill for my martial arts training this evening.  Le sigh.

On the bright side, though, I got it all done, and everything is queued up and ready for launch for this week.  Go me!

Now I off to finish editing Daughters of Britain.  Be it video or text, editing is just something I have to do.  Le sigh!

Ciao!

Good morning, Readers.

Yesterday was a frustrating day.

I expressed my frustration with the first month of the year in yesterday's post.  I figured, however, that training would help with the frustration.

Except it didn't.

I taught the "Advanced" crew at training this year.  There are some new additions to the "Advanced" people.  I put "Advanced" in quotation marks for a good reason.  There are a couple of people who would benefit from joining the beginners again, but I digress.  That's not the point, and was not the source of my frustration.  I have a lot of patience for people who are struggling with techniques.  I was once one of those people and I know how it feels.

No, the source of my frustration is the manner and frequency with which male students react negatively to me as an instructor.  This semester has been particularly bad.

My first Wednesday class teaching (as our Sifu was out of town on family business) I had a student argue about which foot to put in front when I instructed the class to put their left foot in front.  He's left-handed, you see, and fights south paw.  Never mind that we were going over techniques and not fighting.  Never mind that I was going to have the entire class switch feet (as it's a good idea to know how to throw techniques from both orthodox and south paw stances - you aren't always going to find yourself on optimal footing in a fight).

None of that should matter.  I, as the instructor, gave an instruction, and some rando dude decided to argue the point with me.  It irritated me, but I'm pretty used to it at this point.  There is one every semester, and they usually calm down after they've trained with me.

I'm a heavy hitter.

Last night, another student decided to talk back to me.  His situational awareness was next to nothing, and I had to remind him three times to pay attention to those training around him.  On the second reminder, he had fully run into a beginner.  I told him to watch it.  He talked back.

I was not in the mood for dealing with that shit.

This never happens when any of my fellow lead students are teaching.  All of my peers are male.  I'm convinced that gender bias is at play.  The sheer volume of guys who feel that it's alright to talk back to me, and the respectful deference these same loud mouths show to my male peers has me fuming.

I'm so tired of it.  It happens at least once at the beginning of every semester.  Normally I can handle it, but yesterday was not the day to cross me.  I'm still quite angry about it.  Luckily, I'll be training with the Thursday crew, and I'll be able to punch it out, since I won't be teaching.

Word to the wise, gentlemen, when you're instructed by a woman who is built like a bull and has been training martial arts for ten years, show some fucking respect.  You don't know better than she does, and if you don't listen to the lessons she can teach you, you will be missing out on a wealth of experience and knowledge that might just save your arse in a fight.

All because she's a girl?

Smarten up.

Shut up.

Do as you're told.

Good morning, Readers.

Otis Clay.

Lemmy Kilmister.

David Bowie.

Brian Bedford.

Réné Angelil.

Alan Rickman.

Glenn Frey.

Today I've received news of the illness of Tor Books editor David Hartwell, who is very ill and not expected to recover.  I've never sat and had a chat with him, but he did often visit Can-Con, and seemed a genuinely lovely human being.

And I have friends struggling with the long, slow death of a parent with a terminal diagnosis.

January can go die in a fire.

I'm taking my frustrated self off to do work.

Ciao.

Good morning, Readers!

Things are going well so far this week.  I'm back to working on my painting.  I'm still working on getting the window correct.  At this rate, I should just trim everything down to the window and sell prints of that.  For the record, I'm pretty damned proud of this window.  Hopefully the rest of the painting will turn out half as well.

Last night, my Sifu returned from his adventures overseas, and I got to actually train, instead of teach.  It was so nice to be able to concentrate (mostly) on working instead of having to worry about what everyone else was doing.  Sometimes, you just need to punch it out.

Last night I was called "fierce" by one of the new Kung Fu students.  I'm pretty sure my plethora of bruises on my arms (thanks arm conditioning and archery tag!) certainly helped give that impression.  Still, I consider that quite the compliment.  It made me happy.  Oh newbies, if only you knew what a twit I am!

Human continues to surprise me with its reception.  The Amazing Flatmate really liked it, if the hilarious stick-figure cartoons she has been making are anything to go by.  I really should collect all the non-spoilery ones and put them up here for you.  They make me laugh so much.

Also, instead of chasing people, begging for book reviews as I have been doing of late, someone solicited me, asking if they could review one of my books (Human).  It took me aback a moment.  I mean, people chase up bigger authors, better authors.  They don't chase after little unknowns like me, asking permission to review one of my books.  Except that someone did.  And Human will be getting reviewed in a local online magazine.  I'm excited and nervous and I hope the reviewer likes it.  I'll be posting a link to that review when I get it.

As if that wasn't flattery enough, a former student of mine had ordered a copy, and then asked if I would mind if he put it into the website tvtropes.com.  I had never heard of this website, but friends of mine have.  Of course I granted it.  People are welcome to do pretty much anything with my stories, so long as they're not ripping it off and selling it.

That's plagiarism, people.  Don't do that.

Anyway, I believe the entering into the website is ongoing.  I will provide a link to it when it arrives.

From what I can tell, entering this in the website is a fairly work-intensive project.  I'm incredibly flattered that anyone thinks that the book was worth putting in all that time and effort into doing it.  I mean... wow!  That's such an awesome thing!

It's not that I don't Human is good.  I do.  But I think all of my books are good, and they haven't been privy to the same reception that Human has.  I'm very flattered, of course.  I'm giddy with happiness!

To think, in a scene absolutely saturated with vampire stories, people are really liking the one I wrote.

Now I have a bunch of editing to get through.  I'll be done soon, I think.

​Ciao!