Calissa

Sunset from May

As many of you know, September is rather a rough month for me. Remembering the good things always makes it easier (as kaberett frequently reminds me through example). So here is some of the awesome stuff that has been going on.

MY PROFESSIONAL BLOG IS LIVE!!. I'm super excited about this and love the way it is looking. It will eventually start being mirrored here, once I get that sorted out.

Speaking of which, lynnoconnacht has been a wonderful. She has shared some advice on getting the technical side organised. I really do have the most awesome friends.

Spring is well and truly underway here and I have been loving it. With the Vernal Equinox about a week and a half away, the days are noticeably lengthening and my body has been responding by waking up earlier. While I'm not entirely pleased to be losing sleep, it has meant that I've been up in time to witness some truly glorious sunrises.

The flowers are in full bloom. I spent a very lovely morning last weekend having tea with Sahaquiel's mum and then pottering around her extensive garden taking macro shots of the flowers. I'm thinking I might have to make a separate post just for that.

The trees also have leaves budding. I've been keeping a close eye on the introduced species--the ash trees along my walk, the mop-tops and the Japanese maple in the backyard. Even my ginkgo tree is starting to show the first subtle signs that it is more than just a stick in a pot.

I am utterly delighted that we have some Superb Fairy wrens living somewhere in the area. I hear them often and occasionally manage to catch a glimpse of the bright blue of the male in amongst the trees and bushes. It never fails to bring a smile to my face (and a wish that I had a decent camera for bird photography).

I've been spending a bit of time with my family recently. My nephew is nearing his first birthday and is rapidly growing from baby to little boy. He is such a cheerful kid, free with his smiles and giggles. He totally has me wrapped around his little finger. The other day for the very first time he reached out to me to pick him up, even though my sister already had hold of him. It was a true delight to see him playing with my grey-bearded dad, chasing each other at a crawl back and forth across the floor.

Perhaps best of all, September hasn't been quite as hectic as I was expecting. Next week will be especially busy, but that will have died down by the weekend (unless something else comes up in the meantime). And tomorrow is entirely free! I'll probably use the time to catch up on work, but perhaps I might be able to sneak in some time for reading. In the hammock, if the weather stays nice (it really has been very lovely recently). With a cup of tea.

(Carpobrotus rossii, commonly known as pig face)

I'm feeling a little swamped at the moment, so apologies if you find me a little sketchier than usual. I've got a cold I just can't quite shake and my pain levels have been up today (could be a weather change on the way?). However, on the whole, things have been going well and I have been surprisingly productive.

Editing has been the biggest thing on my plate--I've got a couple of jobs I'm wrapping up and a few business tasks that are going to keep me busy for a little while.

Last week I took another trip with my family out to the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, so I have more photos to post when I get the chance. I was especially pleased with this batch. The gorgeous weather may have played a part.

The neo-Pagan holiday of Imbolc falls on Friday in the southern hemisphere. I have been making preparations to celebrate on Saturday with a small group of friends. However, I will also be taking Friday off to celebrate on my own. How, I haven't quite decided. It might involve some serious writing or cleaning (or both). I also hope to get some photos of the wattle that's in bloom a couple of blocks away. Fingers crossed that the weather is nice!

This is more for my own reference than anything, though there may perhaps be a couple of others interested.

Today I saw an Australian native bee in my garden.

( Blue-banded bee )

In other news, editing on the Gold Coast anthology continues so well that tonight I have run out of editing and can now only wait until I've heard back from authors. However, I do still have some admin work to tackle for the project... though I think I will leave it until tomorrow.

There has hardly been a cloud in the sky for days, even though the temperature has dropped back from the scorching summer heat to something a little more comfortable. The claret ash trees are heavy with seed and the oaks have the first beginnings of acorns. As I write this, the sun is slowly setting and the evening is full of the long shadows and golden light that speak so eloquently of the season. The western horizon will still be a paler shade of blue when 9:30 PM rolls around.

Today was my first day fully back to my normal routine. Work--on the Gold Coast anthology, on Wolfwinter, on all the usual things--resumed in earnest. And yet, I still found myself spending the latter half of last week trying to conquer my To Do list. Much like my To Read list, it never seems to grow smaller but only longer, no matter how hard I work at it. In the back of my mind, I know this is the height of foolishness. Everyone dies with something left undone--I've seen the truth of this with my own eyes in recent years. Nevertheless, I find myself anxiously battling to get through everything, trying to "catch up"--to what, I don't know.

What I would like, instead, is to slow down. I'd like to pause, to breathe, to savour the cool breeze coming in through my study window. I'd like to appreciate the life that is passing me by while I worry about my To Do list. This isn't a New Year's resolution, but more a vague hope for the year.

My actual goals for the year are something quite different. Mostly they involve finishing things.

I have approximately ten weeks until my candidate year with the AODA is meant to be completed. I aim to have finished the requirements by then, though I anticipate it may actually take me a little longer (which is fine--a year is the minimum time in which to complete the requirements, not the maximum). Once that is completed, I will be taking some time to consider if I want to complete the next degree.

The Gold Coast anthology is due to be launched in early May. The edits need to be completed by the end of the month. This is my biggest focus at the moment.

My writing goal for the year is to straighten out Wolfwinter. This chiefly involves working out what happens in the second book to a reasonable level of detail and fixing up the pacing issue in the first.

And lastly, I will be participating in a self portrait course called Be Your Own Beloved. I have a few body image issues and so I expect this is going to be a huge challenge for me. I still don't know whether I'm going to be brave enough to share my photos.

Trying to strike a balance between these projects and the stillness I'm craving is going to be yet another challenge... though perhaps one that relates to those self esteem issues.

The wind has been blowing in from the south, carrying a chill straight from Antarctica. Although I'm not a fan of the cold, I haven't minded today. When I woke up there was a heavy smoke haze hanging over the city and I was sure I was in for a bad day with my hay fever. Then the wind started up and pushed the haze back north. The sun was warm enough to take the worst of the edge off the chill.

The restless wind suits my mood this evening because I'm feeling a bit out of sorts. After spending the last couple of months working hard to meet deadlines, I suddenly find myself between projects. I've finished off all my editing jobs, except for one that is waiting for me to collect my final thoughts. A tentative table of contents has been put together for the Gold Coast anthology; my co-editor and I are preparing to send out notifications and are about to embark on the early stages of editing. I'm not currently writing anything and can't seem to settle down enough to start my November Project early. I finished reading A Room of One's Own last night and have started in on The Complete Book of Incense, Oils and Brews (on loan from sidheblessed and darakat) but I'm not really feeling all that into it.

There's plenty of stuff I could be doing, I just can't settle.

Hour 15 begins (1 PM)
I skipped most of Hour 14 to have lunch and watch an episode of Person of Interest. I'm feeling much better for the break and am looking forward to diving back into it. I have about 8.5 stories left to read. I think I should be able to get through them before bed time.

Hour 16 begins (2 PM)
I have made quicker progress than expected and now have only 4 stories left to read. I should easily make it through these today, which means I shall have to decide on a decent book to read once I'm done. Not another collection of short stories, though--I'll have had enough of those for one day.

Hour 17 begins (3 PM)
I've made it through all the short stories and have moved onto books. Most of the books I'd picked out for the readathon are all short story collections, so I have ditched them in favour of reading The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski. This is one of the books that The Witcher computer games are based off. I thought an epic adventure would make a nice change of pace. I had thought that I might read out in the hammock, but the wind has come up and the sky is grey. I expect we may get a brief shower or two.

Hour 18 begins (4 PM)
Hilariously, I discover that The Last Wish is actually a series of short stories. Having the same protagonist is helping, however. I'm also enjoying the fight sequences and will have to have a closer look at them later. I wrote some of my own fight sequences recently for Children of the Crown Wars and felt incredibly rusty. I'm feeling pretty tired at the moment and am contemplating making some green tea.

Hour 19 begins (5 PM)
The green tea has helped and I am feeling a little more awake. I'll likely stop for dinner in an hour. I continue to enjoy The Last Wish and am amused to find it contains a kind of retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Today feels like it has flown past.

Hour 20 begins (6 PM)
Dinner is still cooking, but will be ready shortly. I'll probably take a break while eating and watch another episode of Person of Interest. There are some similarities between the protagonist in the show and the protagonist in the book I'm reading. I'm also amused to discover that I've gone from a retelling of Beauty and the Beast into a retelling of Snow White. I'm sensing a theme.

Today was a public holiday in Australia and it has been just what I've needed. I had a couple of social commitments this weekend (a birthday party and a game of D&D). Finishing Children of the Crown Wars on Friday morning meant I could fully relax into those things.

Over the last few weeks--and particularly in the last week--my focus had really become narrowed down to just finishing the story. I wasn't even worried about finishing it well, just finishing it. I was sick of seeing That Damn Story (and every story becomes That Damn Story in the end). So when I finished it, I felt like I had been given my life back. There was suddenly space for other things in my head--like poetry, gardening and seeing friends.

This sense of space is deceptive, however. In order to finish CotCW I had cleared everything that wasn't absolutely essential off my calendar and to-do list. Now I need to catch up on those things. Particularly editing deadlines. I have a week to have CotCW edited into proper shape. I've recovered enough from writing it that I'm not too concerned about it (at this stage, anyway). I'm more preoccupied with needing to finish reading the submissions for the Gold Coast anthology in short order and another job from one of my regular clients. Guess I know what I'll be busy with this week.

At some stage I hope to take some time to reflect on the process of writing CotCW. I think there are some lessons to be learned. My word count massively increased--to the point where I wrote more in one day than I did for the entirety of August. I had not thought that physically possible. I know it's not sustainable. I can't afford to permanently set aside that much time in my schedule. Also, my body just wouldn't be able to handle that level of strain. In fact, I was surprised that it coped as well as it did--practically no high pain days and just some increased pain levels for 48 hours after finishing the story (I'm feeling good tonight). This leads me to think that I could push a little harder than I had been doing prior to my deadline rush, both physically and in terms of word count. However, I need to be smart about how I do it.

I'm considering posting CotCW up here once I'm done with it. If you're interested in being included on my writing filter, please let me know :)

The official website for my editing business, Earl Grey Editing Services, has finally gone live. This makes me equal parts thrilled and terrified. Nevertheless, it must be said that Fine Lime Designs have done a great job with putting it together.