Good morning, Readers!

Yesterday was quite a day for me.

Work ended ten minutes early, as the Amazing Flatmate was worried about traffic and getting to the interview on time.  As it turns out, we were well early, and she sat with me while my nerves played havoc with my everything.

The interview itself was lovely.  It was nice and brief, and the interviewer (Mitchell) was absolutely lovely.  If you want to listen to it, click here.  I believe it's the whole segment.  I'm trying to get it 

Then, the Amazing Flatmate whisked me away to The Pour Boy for the ChiSeries event.  The event itself was great.  I'm not happy with how I read, at all.  I stumbled over my words far too much.  It was not great, though most everyone told me I read well.  I will hopefully have some audio or something for you soon.  I simply haven't had time between last night and now to get that all together.

I have so many people to thank for making yesterday the best it could possibly be.

First, of course, must go to the Amazing Flatmate, who not only got me everywhere I needed to be on time and in good nick.  And, knowing I was nervous as hell, she wrote me the sweetest card and even bought me some bubbly for us to celebrate.  We'll be celebrating Friday... assuming I don't fall down exhausted.  Honestly, the name I've given her doesn't in any way do how wonderful and, well, amazing this girl is.  I heart her so much.

Thanks also goes to Mitchell Chaplan of CHOU, who reached out to me asking for the interview.  I could not have asked for a lovelier first ever radio interview.  I hope I was entertaining and sounded at least a little intelligent.

Many, many thanks to Matt Moore and Nicole Lavigne who organised a great first ChiSeries Ottawa reading for 2016.  They work incredibly hard to bring awesome authors to read for your auditory pleasure!

And lastly, thanks to everyone who came out in support of both readers last night.  You are the reason any of us do this and, at risk of getting as soppy as Matt was last night, you are all incredibly awesome folk.  Honestly, Ottawa has one of the best spec. fic. communities out there, and I am so proud and so privileged to be a part of it all.

So thank you.

And now I must write the eNewsletter for next month.  And also attempt to record the radio interview.  Wish me luck.  Tech and I don't get along!

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

So... today is the day!  Today I am being interviewed (tune in to Click Here Radios 89.1FM at 5:20 for my interview!), and then I'll be doing a reading for ChiSeries.

Please excuse me while I faint.

Okay, so maybe not faint.  I'm not really the fainting kind.  But there might be tears today.  Possibly some hyperventilating.  Considering my nausea, possibly some praying to the porcelain god...

I'm really nervous.

I'm excited.

Mostly nervous.

What if I'm uninteresting?  What if I send people to sleep?  What if...?  What if...?  What if...?

I didn't sleep well last night.  I probably look as exhausted as I feel.

With a little luck, it won't be all that bad.  It'll actually probably be good, and I'm just panicking because that's what I do.  All the time.  It's annoying being me.

Anywho, I'm going to take my silliness away by distracting myself... by watching M*A*S*H.  Yup.  I'm off to freak out quietly.

Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

So, though this was started last week, I didn't want to say anything until it was all finalised.  It was all finalised yesterday, so now I feel I can announce it!

​Drum roll please!

Ahem... I'm being interviewed!  Tomorrow!

This is incredibly short notice, so, uh, sorry.  But if you tune into Click Here Radio CHUO-FM89, at 5:20 tomorrow evening, I will be giving a short ten minute interview about my ChiSeries reading and my writing in general.

My first ever interview as a writer.  I'm excited!

And nervous.  So, so, so nervous!

I spoke with the interviewer on the phone for a little bit yesterday, and he seems really lovely, so I'm not worried he's going to be an ass.  I'm worried that I might lose my words, forget how to speak, babble incessantly, or otherwise be an idiot...

It's been known to happen.  I will refer you to last night's post about my dinner.

There is so much I want to gush about, but I'll spare you.  I'll only say that it finally feels like I'm on track, that my writing is starting to take me places, and I'm one step closer to supporting myself with my writing.

For a writer, that's pretty much the dream.

Anyway, I hope you'll tune in tomorrow, and I will see you at the reading. I can't believe it's tomorrow.  I'm so nervous!

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

​Here is a must watch vlog about how to handle self-doubt as a writer:

Yesterday, I read this blog post from wonderful Canadian author Renee Miller, written in response to yet another example of both genre and publishing style snobbery, all wrapped up in one.  Go read it.

Renee has said pretty much everything I want to say about it myself, and I would add to her closing plea.  Can we, for the love of all that is green and good, just stop it with the fucking snobbery, please?  It's so very infantile.  I'm so tired of it.

Alright, that's enough to be getting on with, really.  I have a lot of work to do.  I won't be in the office tomorrow or Monday.  It's Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!  I'm looking to my four day weekend... which will involve a lot of video editing...  So, still working.

Oh well! No rest for the wicked!

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I'm in a considerable amount of pain today.

It's my own fault.

You see, yesterday before training, I decided to test my chin up pull up abilities.  The chin up went without a hitch.  Yay!  The pull up, well, not so much.

I was attempting to engage my back more, as my trainer had suggested (I'm always trying to... It's just that those muscles aren't particularly strong, apparently.  To my credit, it went really well, until my back decided to stage a protest.

That protest took the form of a very sudden, very sharp, very strong pain on the left side of my beck between my scapula and my spine.  From then on, I was not able to move very well.

I still trained, of course, mostly because I was there, and most of the movements were not all that painful.  The fact that I can move at all probably means that I didn't tear a muscle.  I stopped training when it did hurt too much.

After arriving home, I complained like a child to the Amazing Flatmate.  She has these wonderful things called Miracle Balls.  Feeling badly that I was an idiot and thus in pain, she lent them to me.  It hurt a lot, but it helped enough to permit me to fall asleep.

For the record, searing back pain makes for a terrible sleep.

I tried the ball thingies again in the morning, just after the Amazing Flatmate left for work.  I placed the balls under my back and laid down on the floor, trying to let my own bodyweight do its thing.  It hurt less than last night, so that's improvement.

That said, I'm still in a fair amount of pain, and my range of motion when turning my head isn't spectacular.  I feel like Michael Keaton's Batman; you know, with the hard plastic cowl that prevented him from turning his head at all.  I won't be at training tonight obviously.  I'll be at home, lying on the ground, hoping my back sorts itself out soon.

Only me.

Honestly, if I'm not injured in some way, it wasn't a training session.

Ugh!

In other news, the Kickstarter for my friend's really awesome game Blush is ongoing.  Please contribute.  Even a dollar helps.  Even better, they're running a contest on their blog.  Contribute to the Kickstarter, and you could win a $50.00 gift certificate for JenEric Designs.  Sounds awesome, right?  Click here to view the competition.

And please contribute.  Knowledge is power, and especially so when it comes to personal and reproductive health.

Alright, that's all from me.  I'm going to go look up cheap massage parlours...

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

Well, this morning was a bust.  My bus failed to show.  As a result, I failed to make my connection, which would have gotten me to work on time.  Early even.  Instead, I was very late.  I hate being late.

I was furious this morning.

I've since been told that there was a fire at the garage, which probably screwed up the times.  It helps a bit to know why the bus screwed me over this morning, though OC Transpo has successfully screwed me over for no reason before this.  I'm less inclined to be furious with them this morning that I otherwise would.

Strangely... or not, for those who know me well... I'm still having issues coming out of my temper.  It may have something to do with my skin, which is, as of right now, stinging and itching like crazy.

Why?

Well, I started using a new moisturiser and it gave me chemical burns.  Yup.  My arms, my legs and other places are red, painful and itchy as all get out.  It's better today.  I had a bath in baking soda water yesterday, on the doctor's orders.  It helped a little.

I've also, of course, stopped using the moisturising cream.  For the moment, I'm using coconut oil as a moisturiser.  It's odd, and I'm not sure it's effective.  I'll try it out for a while and see.  Things to note about using coconut oil:

It is so much fun to put on, oh my goodness!  You get a solid piece, apply it to your skin, and it just melts. Moisturising is not fun, but putting coconut oil on is actually kind of fun.

I can't tell if its working or not, so I can't speak to that yet.  That said, it doesn't absorb so easily.  It takes its time.  That said, it might just be because it's working against my burnt skin.  My hands, which thankfully didn't burn, don't feel slippery at all.

People with dry skin, does it take longer for really dry skin to absorb any kind of moisture?  It seems counter-intuitive, but that has always been my experience.

And one last thing I've noticed, which I can't tell if it's a good thing or not, is that I smell like a tasty, tasty coconut lolly.

I better not wear this during the apocalypse, as those horrible people who turn cannibalistic will probably want to eat me....

Has anyone else had experience with using coconut oil as a moisturiser?  Any tips?  How was your experience?

Now I must go do work.

Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

This weekend was great.

The meet up was this weekend.  Unfortunately I managed to hurt my foot on the walk home from teaching kickboxing Saturday afternoon... Not during kickboxing.  No.  That would make way more sense.  Nope.  This was on my walk home.

In any case, it meant that I was unable to play archery tag.  I still managed to hit the pub, though, so that was nice.  It's always nice to catch up!

Sunday, my kung fu brother Jon swung by and we played CoOpted for a while.  It was good.  We got stuff done!  It's always lovely to see Jon.  He has gotten a job in Kingston, and so we don't see him at training any more.

In between meeting friends and editing the videos for Silver Stag this week, I started rewatching M*A*S*H.  Binge-watching even.

When I was younger, I had the biggest crush on Alan Alda's Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce.  Nothing sexual, of course.  I didn't want to bed the guy.  But I did imagine myself married to him, or at least working with him and being very respected by him.  My idea of a crush, apparently, has less to do with copulation than mutual respect...  Any way, my brain decided that someone like Hawkeye Pierce would be an ideal partner in crime.

Watching now, I remember why I adored this show, and his character, so much.

It is genuinely the only show I have watched that can make me weep and laugh in the space of two minutes.  It is touching and sweet, awful and heartbreaking all at once.  It does a great job of showing the horror of war, without need for gore and screams.  The toll is, of course, on the human spirit, and the joy of the show is watching these wonderful, quirky, and sometimes idiotic people thrust together in unnatural and horrifying circumstances deal with their situations.

The setting of this story is massive - the Korean War - but yet it is also incredibly personal.  In my very humble opinion, this makes the best stories - seeing the personal struggles in a grand setting.

In any case, I am as enamoured with M*A*S*H watching it now as I was a very young girl, when it was airing on television (reruns, alas, but still).

This is what I want for my writing; for it to be as relevant and as touching thirty years from now as it is today.

Let's hope I can achieve that.  In the meantime, I'll continue to binge M*A*S*H.  If you see me red-eyed and weepy, you can safely assume it's one of two things - something I've written has made me cry... or I've been watching M*A*S*H.

Right, I have a tonne of work to do.

Ciao!