It’s not something that normally I’d even think about, but I’ve done 22 rejections, and one ‘errr….Managing editor….how do I handle (X) please’. Editing erotica is easy, it has to be said - not because it’s smutty, but because in many ways, it’s less subjective than many other kinds of writing. And you can spot the really REALLY bad stuff a mile off. Guess what I was working through today?
I love editing, don’t get me wrong, but it’s hard to point at things without sounding like a pedantic git. More to the point, I’ve really had to fight my corner with freinds in the past over my editing, and it’s left me gunshy of saying ‘no thanks’ to a piece. I’m always left with lingering guilt when it’s not complete pants, cause, y’know, what makes ME right and the authors wrong?

I guess I’ll get used to it again, given we’re into editing season again ;). Feeling self concious tends to be transient till I’ve had agreements back from the managing editors, or adjustments from them. Either way, I have to just keep reminding myself, for the moment, that I’m not a bad writer, or editor (I’ve never been called an ediot to my face yet ;)) and stop panicking I guess.

Anyway guys, night!

I’m also getting ready for my second year of Uni. I’m not as up tight as I was this time last year (but we’re still in the same general level of financial oddness, with the budget being knocked a couple of miles sidewards, due to the stupidity of above. To counter this, next year, I’m going to do my level best to actually HAVE savings come the summer break. Or a regular income of some description. Freelancing is nice, right up until you get caught in a recession - I’ve done ok, but it’s not been easy this summer.

And, to ensure that I’m presenting my ‘best’ front, I’m also making over several of my sites - that way, when I stick something in my bio, it doesn’t look completely odd to refer people to sites that are half done. It’s going to be a LOT of work - but this place, semiskimmed and booksbyKai are first. From there, thewriters/wahmshost and a couple of other sites are going to cascade back onto static sites, and then I’m going to start tackling the books I’ve been threatening for the last six months. Because, simply - I can. To that end, though, I DO have a favor for everyone - over at http://semiskimmedcola.com - I’m wondering about my bios, basically. If you’ve got any thoughts, I’d REALLY appreciate them (it will be x-posted to Lj, just this once, from semiskimmed)

It’s important to note, at this point that though I have “writer’s block” or “burned out itis” it doesn’t - really - help me to use it as an excuse. I’ve got a huge, massive todo list that I can work through, and it’s important to me that I start doing so. I make my own choices - I choose my own path. Writing is a pleasure for me, but it’s about time I started treating it like a job.

Laters!

Wall-E is hilarously good. A bit sanctimonious in places, but at the same time, really important for children to see - both from the environmental and health perspective. If you never exercise, you’re going to get fat, basically.
The humour, like I’ve already said, is deeply funny - some visual, some audible, mostly 110% good clean fun. It’s also, ultimately, both feel good and a bit disheartening. It’s great that they (the protagonists) are going to make it work - it’s still hard to see how the one little plant really is all they’d hoped for.
All in all - 4/5.

The Dark Knight - my beloved and I went to the IMAX on Thursday, to go see the Dark Knight. I’d say it’s worth it, down the last half an hour. At that point, I think the movie could have been cut, and saved for the next movie. Heath Ledger was incredible as the Joker - I thought that his performance was brillaint, scary, mad, painful, demented - oscarworthy. The other actors weren’t quite *as* good, but I liked Harvey Dent. Alfred rocked. The Mayor was blah. I thought Gary Oldman was very good too, though I thought some of the twists in there were fairly trite. I would however, HIGHLY recommend it to anyone looking for a good movie. There are very few points you have to suspend much disbelief - it’s not difficult to see scenarios in today’s world where Batman could actually exsist.
My one gripe was that the location sucked. Might sound a bit odd, but Chicago didn’t have the ‘Gotham city’ feel. It was too light, too airy, and to be honest, too pretty to be Gotham. Having said that, I really liked that we’re back to the Mikael Keaton kind of Batman - the slightly crazy, all vigilante kind of Batman who was more interested in how to take down the bad guys than he was in posing.

Mama Mia
I’d like to say, for the record, that I’m really not an Abba fan. I like music in general, but Abba doesn’t actually ring any bells for me.
And I’m going to handle this review slightly differently, because, I don’t want to make it sound like I didn’t enjoy myself. I think that enjoying myself and ‘liking the movie’ overall, need to be seperated.
So Mama mia, as a pastiche of scenes, was great. As a fluffy piece of utter nonsense - again, it hits all the right spots.
As an actual movie that makes sense, has a good plot, has an interesting and credible plot.
No. I’m sorry to say that there’s no way that some of that would have flown.
But to be honest, I didn’t care. I laughed my butt off, and though I wasn’t impressed with Pierce Brosnan’s singing, I thought Merryl Streep was amazing, and to be honest, his slightly off key enthusiastic belting out was kinda funny.
I think, though Julie Walters, Colin Firth (at the end at least), and Christine Baranski (though, to be honest, I was expecting Cybill to charge round the corner any minute) really stole the show. The humour was incredibly risque, for a PG, but I’m not sure if it really *is* too close to the bone or I’ve just got an incredibly dirty mind for that sort of thing.
As a feel good movie though, it really can’t go wrong.

Technorati : entertainiment, movies, op ed, reviews, viewing

*spoilers*

Anyway, happier news. I’ve been to see ‘the Dark Knight’ - it was brilliant. Heath Ledger was amazing, the fight scenes were gritty, hyper real and highly satisfying, but, my one niggle was that it should have been about a half hour shorter. I didn’t like the ‘two face’ resolution. I thought it was too neat - too pat - and too sermonised. I don’t do well with the ‘feel good and justify our actions because, ultimately we’re right’ - it doesn’t sit well with me. Other than that, I really enjoyed the movie. It made me feel the same ’scared’ way in places that I used to as a child with Dr Who - y’know, the ‘oh dear lord, I have to hide behind the couch now please!’
I’ve got more observations to post onto my writing blog, later though. I’m tired tonight.

Tomorrow night I’m going to the cinema with a freind to see either Mama Mia! or The X-Files. It’s the last day before the kids come back, which is why I’m also cleaning a lot - I wanted to do the kids rooms before they returned, plus get rid of the junk in the cuboard. I’m two for three so far - got L’s room to finish, and the new curtains to put up ‘etc’. T’s room isn’t nearly as difficult - then all over hoover and we’re set for the kids to come home. The cuboard was thouroughly dejunked - once the kids go back to school, I’m also dejunking the attic, including sorting out my art materials, my knitting stuff and my stationary - so I can return to Uni with a clear concience, knowing I have the stuff I need, and have passed the stuff that I don’t need to other people.

Monday: more house stuff - silly games in the evening
Tuesday: More house stuff - Twilight spa in the evening (my beloved and I are going)
Wednesday (free) - Agone in the evening
Thursday - (free) - Dark Knight at the IMAX
Friday - (free?) - Mama Mia!(or something else) with Sara
Satuday - Collect the kids near Leeds.

It’ll be good to have them back, of course, but we’re fitting in a lot between now and then, which is also cool. Most of it involves cleaning, decluttering, and more - we’ve got boxes of linens that we’re going to donate to the local charity shop, books and some other stuff - I’m guessing that I’ll have much more to donate over the next couple of days as I clean out cuboards and more. We’ve been here two years so anything still in boxes will be going in the bin/on ebay/to the charity shop - depending on how it looks, and how useful I think it is to other people. I don’t ebay much, so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes.

I’m also going to fit lots of writing in, where I can. I’ve got some stories that need finished, and I’m determined to finish at least two 30 day outlines. Which means less Sins, unfortunatly. It’s such a fun game, but once you get playing, time just kinda slips away. We’ve finished three 5 hour+ games this weekend.

We dropped the kids off - we spent time with lots of freinds - we spent more time with lots of freinds (waves to everyone!) went to a great meal, a brilliant show (Otis Lee Crenshaw) and spent time just chilling. The drive home was surprisingly easy - Kushie only yowled cause her mat in her cage was wet and slept most of the way back.

Saturday - Kushie was really unhappy travelling, but we think it was because we left too early and she didn’t get to use her litter box - once she’d made a mess in her carry case (which, of course, we changed) she went to sleep. We travelled really well - she yowls a bit, but it’s fairly understandable given I don’t think she’s ever travelled somewhere without being dumped there, so we’ve had to keep reassuring her . On arriving, we went and dropped off the cat, and went to see family, before my beloved dropped me off at moms, and I took the kids to see Wall-e. It was worth it. It was also great to see my uncle. Mom wasn’t back from Egypt yet, so sleep was achieved, around midnight.
Sunday - We got up, the small was a nightmare - she continued to be awful the whole day. We went for lunch, we hung out and did stuff. We went to see mom when she got back from Egypt, and dropped the kids off, (they are spending 13 days with thier father, all going well) before going to freinds for Pizza and hanging out.

Monday - went into town with the camera in the morning. I got a lot of nice snaps (which I’ll post in about a week, once I’ve fixed my gallery page) and one stunning one, before going to meet my other half’s mom for lunch. Lunch achieved, we headed off to have coffee with Edith, and then went to Black Lion to buy some games (I was thwarted in picking up both Cold City and 3:16 which lead me to sulk) then back to my other half’s dad for tea. And then we went to Keith’s for games.

Tuesday - more photos, more coffee (with Gregor this time), then we went home to get ready for tea. We went for said meal, then laughed our asses off at Otis Lee Crenshaw before going home. Sleep, once again achieved.

Wednesday - we got everything packed, took everything out to the car, took the cat to mom’s - mom liked the cat, the cat didn’t like the dog but it was ok, they didn’t fight. We got into the car - drove to Grenta Green (NOT MARRIED!), got lunch and some chocolate from the outloet shop and achieved much misshapes. We got home, curled up and will - soon - fall asleep. Kushie is just delighted to be home and has given every edge tonnes of love.

The rest of our ‘holiday’ contains things like going to chapel Spa together to relax - going to the I-max in Brum to see the Dark Knight (and wander around) - Judder for a birthday celebration and just - generally - spending lots of time in calm, quiet chilling ways. I don’t know what the nitty gritty of it is going to be other than tomorrow we’re staying home. I’ll probably spend it cleaning the kids rooms to be honest. Though I might wait till next week

Writing should also be happenening once I finish letting it percolate.

It was before my tattoo (which came up in conversation today too), it was before my other half, but only just. And my world slid about eight inches sidewards weekend.
A lot of good came out of it, but I spent a lot of the drive up thinking about what I’ve done in the last 12 years. Most of it, not good, or at the very least, unremarkable.

I’m slowly coming to terms with that though too. It’s not as if everything needs to be perfect - it’s more important that the things I do at least give me room to grow.

The next two weeks, from tomorrow, are going to be the longest time I haven’t seen my kids. I’m getting photos before they leave, so I’ve got nice images of them on my laptop, and then, I’m going to drop them off with their dad, probably have a little cry, and then go visit with freinds, go see some shows at the festival, and generally decompress as best I can.

There are two theories as to why I’m not writing - one is I’m HORRIBLY sick over everything that’s gone on this year - my youngest’s problems - adopting the perfect cat, only to discover how sick she is (she’s sick, not dying) - losing my grandfather, and my great aunt this year. Other stuff that sounds really bad when I talk about it in veiled ways, and I know it isn’t, but the other stuff I’ve put behind me - that’s been long overdue for settling down, and is at last something I can stop paying attention to as much. I’ll never let my guard down, but at least I know things are sorted out now. Sorta.

The other is I’m burned out.

Both technically relate to one another, and both are solved by taking this time to do all of the things I enjoy. So.

Lots of photography. Botanical gardens one day this week, perhaps. Festival stuff. Photos. Seeing as many of my close freinds as I can (though, I’m more than aware that there are some that we just can’t see, cause of thier plans, or cause of their work). Spending time doing things that’s just me and my other half. We’re doing everything from going to the spa together for an evening, to going to see The Dark Knight at a ‘local’ IMAX.

As far as I can tell, we’re staying in Edi until Wednesday. And now…I’m off to play Guitar Hero on Tour on my DS.

And then I procrastinated some more and spent thirty minutes cleaning stuff that, in reality, didn’t need cleaned. I’m weak, really.
I’ve set myself a goal of two hours of writing a day - less than two hours in email, one hour of ‘professional’ blogging, and the rest for client/server work, so I’ll have to see how that goes.

Writing is going painfully slowly. Thanks to the people that have offered or expounded on thoughts - it has put everything on my todo list back (including installing and designing themes for freinds/blogs), but I’m slowly, but surely, getting there. one of you suggested that I’m on overload at the moment, because it’s been, effectively, two years since I had any meaningful time away from the kids, when before I had whole weekends, and that my brain is just having problems adjusting, and I tend to agree. I’ve been ‘forcing’ normality, because my newer set of freinds really don’t understand bipolars, and it’s painfully obvious when I say something that others recognise as a red flag and they just continue on thier way, and it’s hard work. I don’t like ‘normal’, even if it is just a setting on a washing machine. Between that, and Uni, and dealing with a couple of things that are lingering from the end of last year (I wish they’d just go away, already!)I’m completely, and utterly, knackered. I need headspace. I get it at the end of this week, hopefully.

I’m also still trying to decide if I really need to install a daily/weekly/monthly/project based wordcount. The question I’m currently asking myself is ‘who cares enough to watch that’. I guess it would answer questions like ‘when are you doing more celestaine’, and would, in the end, be a great fan selling point (she’s 3/4s of the way through the book….wooot!) but for the moment, I’m not sure anyone would want to see what I’m working on and where it’s going. I might be wrong. It’s probably worthwhile, if only so when I’m really down, I’ve got an archive of what I actually managed. RescueTime helps with that too.

(Disclosure - Rescuetime is free if you’re not using it in a group setting, it doesn’t have an affiliate link, and most importantly of all, though it can ’see’ what you’re doing, it can’t SEE what you’re doing. It can tell what you’re using, on the surface, but not what you’re using it for in other words. And you can tell it not to track certain things too).

Technorati : Rescue time, blogging, email, procrastination, time management, writing

What will probably happen is when I do my updates, depending on what sort of deadlines you’re interested in seeing (I tend towards horror and erotica, but if it’s a successful ‘thing’ I could be convinced to add others).

Oh and Heather, there are six (count em, SIX) zombie anthologies, story call outs, halloweeny things and more coming up. I’ll email you em later if you want. All around a month away, giving you (and me!) plenty of time to attack them if we so choose

For the moment I’ll be posting a plan static list on semiskimmedcola.com though, so feel free to head over and have a peek. And if you want to find your own deadlines to approach, check out duotrope - it’s got some really nice listings for some really cool stuff.

My beloved, the kids and I are commuting up to the Burgh on the 2nd of August (Saturday). We probably won’t be available to hang out till at least Sunday night/Monday as we’ve just gotten engaged and both of our families want to see us to do various family things.

We’re only up till Wednesday, when we commute back to Cheltenham (with no kids!) whilst they stay with thier dad. So we’ve got Sunday evening, Monday and Tuesday to see people. We don’t want to spend the night in a pub if at all possible, but if it’s the only way to see people en-masse, that’s ok.

I also have a priority list of people we want to see, so people might not get thier ‘first come, first served’ usual rules of arranging ’stuff’.
And yes, we’re bringing the cat with us. We bought her a bigger carry box, and we’re planning the commute carefully. We know that she can’t have catsan, so we’re using wood based litter - she’s hating how hot it is down here (we can’t let her out till after she’s been vaccinated, which is after we get back ) which means we’ve got to keep the doors closed to the back yard. She’s more than worth it but the weather down here is hot - hot - hot! I can’t deal with temperatures like this, to be honest, but I’ve got a nice tan now

Anyway - shout in our general direction if you wanna do coffee, meetups, or anything else. We’ll try and fit in seeing as many people we can, which means we might need to combine stuff, so hopefully we’ll get as many of us together in as many places as possible ;).