Things I Know I Know

Writing bits

I have finished 'How to Hide Your Heart' and sent it out to various people for feedback. It's the story that starts like:

She drives like a dream, like she is dreaming the road into existence as she drives

I also finished the edits on 'The Whale's Lover' and am planning to put it in the mail this weekend. It now begins:

They have come to Pretoria to hunt the leviathan (oh, wait, that's how it always started...)

I have a ton of unfinished stories I could choose to work on (plus 3 brand-new ideas this week) but I'm going to try and finally finish 'Waking Up Dead in Iowa' which begins:

Joe Crowley came back first, which didn’t seem all that strange at the time. He’d only been dead an hour and a half and nobody even knew it yet, except Joe himself.

which would be much easier if I knew what it was ultimately about, but I'm hoping that this time I finally do actually figure that out.

Other bits

For some unfathomable reason I seem to be getting a magazine called Lucky which bills itself as a magazine about shopping. And it's not even really a magazine about shopping. It's really a magazine about how to buy as much girly stuff as humanly possible. I've only flipped through one of them, but it has columns (I swear) on what stuff the editors would buy and wear if they had all the money in the world (or something, I didn't actually read the text). I could see some use in a magazine about how to shop for stuff you might actually want like storm windows or hiking boots or cookware with occasional bits on how to buy, say a winter coat.

But, really, this magazine? I am clearly not the audience. There are no circumstances in my present life when I will be buying three inch wedge-heeled shoes in a veritable rainbow of colors.

I was cold (in 9 degrees plus wind) last Sunday when I taught tracking. I frown upon being cold and the primary reason I was cold (since I'm all about the dressing in layers) was because I don't have a good windbreaking layer. So, I broke down and finally bought the expensive ultimate weather shell that I've been wanting and denying myself for the last ten years (yes, the time to buy these things is of course when you're paying two mortgages). If it's actually as good as it's supposed to be it will be a good investment because it will last me fifteen years, at least, but still--most expensive coat I've ever bought.

It came today in the mail and it is totally the awesome. It has zippers everywhere and it is waterproof and windproof and the inner lining is windproof on its own and if I am not warm in this jacket plus all my lovely layers then I am beyond hope and should just give up now and move to Florida.