Mercury Rising

Ahhhhhhhhhh.

For the first time in what seems like forever the temperature has moved to the happy side of zero.  It's 3 degrees Celsius right now and the forecast promises to hover around the freezing point for the next week or so.  You know it has been a long, cold winter when dancing around the freezing point is something to look forward to.

I gave Root of Evil a day to stew and have been going through it looking for typos and opportunities to make the flow and cadence run a little more naturally.  Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the result.  A little more clean-up and I'll send it out into the world.

I've now written two scary stories in the last little while and I have been looking toward the British markets.  Not only does the UK seem to grasp horror stories more readily but they tend to pay more.  Short horror stories in North America tend to get a price from anywhere from about 1/2 cent per word up to as high a 8 or 10 cents a word.  The UK pays about the same per word but here's the thing - their pennies are worth twice as much.  I haven't decided where I'll be sending Root of Evil but Britain certainly has its advantages.

Next up is rxpanding Patriot to novel length- to start, anyway.  I'll try alternating between The Witch and Patriot but I'm dubious how successful that will be.  We'll see.

Root of Evil

It is finished - well, the first draft is anyway.  Around 3:45 this afternoon I put the stake through the heart of Root of Evil.  I've forwarded it off to the usual suspects for a first reading and will look at it myself in about a week to edit.  For now I'm just glad to have it done.  At just over 12,300 words I'm not so sure it's a short story anymore but we'll see where it ends up after editing.

I'm thinking Patriot is next up, but The Witch is calling out to me too.  Maybe alternating days - work on one, next day the other?  I've never tried that before - might just work.

It is numbingly cold here again today.  Since we got the dog I am more aware of the cold (nightly 11:00pm walks will do that), but I must say my usual hatred of winter has lost its zest.  I guess having kids takes the edge off - I mean who can be too pissed off at the cold when the people you love most are hauling you out into it for tobaggoning and snowball fights.  

A little bit of news -  The Beynon family is heading to the UK in the spring.  At Christmas my aunt not so subtly hinted that she and my uncle are not getting any younger and that a visit was long overdue.  We agree and are making plans.

One last thing - that picture of me up there.  It's been two years and about fifteen pounds (I'm lighter now, thanks for asking) since that picture was taken and it's time for something new.  It'll change in the next few days, I'm sure.

That's all for now - kids are calling.

Strange Days, Indeed...

It's been a strange one here for me.

First of all, I had a very satisfying day at the key board.  Root of Evil keeps growing but I think tomorrow or the next day and the 1st draft will be finished.

Secondly - my birthday came and went and I was having a wee bit of a crisis.  I have been a little frustrated with rejections of late and after a disheartening Friday I gave myself a slap in the face and told myself to smarten up.

A wonderful thing spawned from my birthday.  In the fall we added the wonderful Willow to our family.  On Sunday my daughter gave me her big birthday secret that wasn't finished in time to share with me on my actual birthday.

My daughter found a pattern on-line and with some help from her mom cut out the material and sewed it together.

It's amazing.  It sits.  It stands and it lies down.  It has four points of articulation and it is entirely handmade.  It will live with me in the basement office.

The weather has been a roller-coaster.  Mostly we've been in the bitter grip of Arctic air but for a short, miraculous pair of days it was merely freezing.  Here are some shots of our river - normally this time of the year the flow is far less frozen.

The next thing I have truly mixed feelings about.  This morning I heard that my former employer - the one that canned me after 16 years without cause - filed for bankruptcy protection along with its US parent.  I am worried about the friends I have who still work there and the uncertainty of their futures but I predicted this three years ago and my timeline was pretty much spot on.  There's the satisfaction of "I told you so" but there's also a lot of folks not sleeping well tonight that deserved better governance of their company.  Oh, did I mention that the top five executives of the company took bonuses well in excess of one million dollars only a week before declaring bankruptcy.  Oh, there's bankruptcy all right and not all of it is fiscal.

The last thing I'll share is one of those moment you have when inspiration hits you from out of the blue.  I was washing the dishes a little while ago and my mind drifted to The Witch.  The Witch has been shelved for a while - fermenting, I guess - and as I was scrubbing something stubborn off a pan, a huge portion of the story gelled in my mind.  I now have a very good idea how to proceed with The Witch.  

I should wash the dishes more often.