Carolyn

The house is so quiet, with only the dogs to keep me company and right now both are asleep. Shelby is snoring on her pillow, and Maddox, having been worn out by getting brushed (blowing coat season) and playing ball (the husky who fetches!), is laying in the hallway, twitching.  Chasing rabbits? Squirrels, probably, as we have one that taunts him madly.

My son Kelly is in Florida with his sister.  Left last night, first class thanks to my sister.  I have no idea what they are doing right now, or did today, but that is okay - having a son and a daughter who actually adore each other and are having a good time together is really all I need.    But I miss my son aka The Noise Upstairs (days sometimes go by and I only hear him, or shout up to him and he down to me).  This is how it will be for me, soon enough.  Just me and the dogs and the house.  I need to get used to the idea, I know.  That is life after all... kids grow up and leave the parents behind.  There is only one parent in this house though, not two, so my 'empty nest' is TRULY empty.  Am mostly okay with that, but not always....

I need to figure that out. Or get Nick to move to the US.... :)

This past weekend I had a visitor!  That would be the lovely and talented and amazingly nice and awesome blue_fjords.  We had so much fun but had a relaxing time, too. Lots of talking, writing, hanging out in bars... coffee bars that is. LOL.  We had cupcakes, I did not make her make them we bought them, and generally just Enjoyed. Then Sunday I tossed her to her family who is nearby, went home and took a nice nap. :)

Writing-wise.... am waiting to hear about my novella. Should be hearing on Monday if that publisher wants it or not. If not, I am considering going ahead and instead of having a sequel, to expand the story into novel-length. I would be fine with that, then I'd kick it over to Amber Quill.  Magic is doing really well - #3 bestseller with AQP during February (whee!) and am quite excited to see just how well it does whenever I get the first royalties.

Other projects!  Working on a novella with my local writing group (for Christmas - we are self-pubbing that, which will be an interesting project), and also have two other projects.... one for an anthology that talekyn is headlining (mine will be a mystery, heavily influenced, I admit it, by my recent Castle marathon).  I have my characters, one of which has to be named after Anthony (a requirement of the anthology).  All proceeds will be donated to cancer research, and as Anthony is a cancer survivor (hell yeah!) I am very happy to take part and donate said profits.  Hopefully I can write something worthy of consideration!

The other is for this Crossed Genres (www.crossedgenres.com) Kickstarter-funded project, Long Hidden, wherein the main characters are to be from the marginalized population of history with a speculative twist tossed in. :)   I am so very very very VERY interested in this anthology! I am so excited it funded so fast and hope it gets up to $20k so they will add 50k words to the anthology..

My idea is based on an idea I came up with ages ago, from when I worked at BNSF Railway.  I bought a book called "She's Been Working on the Railway", stuffed into my shelves and when I heard about this anthology I knew immediately what I wanted to do.  The catch though? ONLY 7,000 WORDS ALLOWED!!! MEEEP!

Can I do it? I don't know but the idea is simple, and once I find the right voice for my character (I think she will be named Helen, as I love that name), I aim to give it a shot.

Otherwise, that's it.  Work is going well, calming down a bit, and my knee is finally healing.   It's not there yet though, and I dare not walk the dogs again...which makes me sad.  Am too afraid they will hurt me again.  Sigh.  I love them, but those two.....