Life, The Universe, Everything (IV)

The floors are done!!!!

We're still living college-chic, with two armchairs (one which I salvaged in my college days from a pile of furniture beside the dumpster, of course) and a coffee table for our main seating, but all the gross 70s rugs are gone!

Construction isn't QUITE finished -- there's still a length of back-hallway that needs to be tiled -- but we're no longer getting up at 7 in the morning to hustle the cats into the basement in time to let the contractors in, and that alone is a glorious thing. We're also still in the process of setting up our new room, and the books are still in sad boxes, but we'll get there.

For now, a small preview of our fancy new area rug:

Because if you can't put a Millennium Falcon rug on your floor as an adult, when can you?

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Life, The Universe, Everything (III)

We're now entering week two of the New Floors of Doom project. One day I will once again sleep without waking up to an alarm, and that day will be sweet and beautiful. In the meantime, my brain appears to have reprogrammed itself to a roughly 8am wake-up, which I'll be honest, I kind of resent. Here at House Dillin, we keep a different schedule for practical reasons relating to non 9-5 work schedules, so these earlier mornings kind of mess everything up.

Writing-wise, I'm staring at a synopsis that I have no idea how to tackle. I thought Synopses were supposed to get easier to write as time goes by, but it turns out, while that might be true for a synopsis written after the book is done, it is still NOT true for the synopsis meant to PITCH the book to begin with, before the writing has happened. And if this weren't a book based on myth, I'd be TOTALLY screwed. As it happens, I at least have the mythic framework to help me get my bearings, but knowing in advance where I'll diverge is... challenging. Sometimes I don't know how I'm going to make something work until I get there. This is definitely one of those times.

I'm also still picking at this contemporary romance. A couple hundred words at a time, sometimes more, most often less. Just playing, really. And since I've been in vacation mode on the blog, I thought I'd give you guys a little peek. Meet Methuselah "Sully" O'Sullivan and Kate "don't call me Kay-Kay" Knight:

“It’s hilarious,” he said, grinning, now. “The look on your face when he said it, too, later on. It was the definition of glaring daggers, I swear.”

“Well at least nobody ever tried to nickname me Meth-head.”

“Mock all you want, Katelet, I know it’s only because it drives you crazy that I’m not bothered when someone messes with my name.”

“You know that just makes me sound like some kind of flapjack, don’t you? It doesn’t even make sense.”

“How does Katelet make you think of flapjacks?” he asked, his eyes crinkling at the corners, the way they always did when he was utterly at a loss. “For that matter, who even uses the word flapjack?”

“Plenty of people.”

“If you can find three right now who even know what a flapjack is, I’ll buy your first three drinks tomorrow night.”

“Game on, Sully-O.”

He snorted. “Sully-O? Is that really the best you can do?”

“Short notice,” I mumbled, setting my coffee down on the table. “If you’ll excuse me.”

“Of course, Kay-Kay, take all the time you need.”

I glared, mostly for effect, as I stood, and then climbed on my chair. “A hand?”

Sully put down his cup and rose, giving me a theatrical little bow, before offering his hand with a flourish. “Forgive me for leaving my gloves at home.”

“Shut up and don’t let me fall.”

But it was one of the things that I liked most about Sully – he never questioned. Never hesitated to participate, even when he really should. It was what won him the prize in the roommate awards, more than anything else. All those late night over-tired-and-possibly-one-too-many-drinks-drunk adventures that you could only have if the person you lived with was willing to indulge you in your obvious insanity. Sully had yet to so much as blink in the year and a half we’d lived together.

“Excuse me!” I called out, once I’d hauled myself up onto the tabletop – a high-top, no less, and it wobbled pretty disconcertingly, if I was being honest. “Just a moment of your time, please!”

All eyes in the coffee shop turned to me and I didn’t miss Eric’s groan from behind the counter, either. I’d apologize on my way out and make Sully tip him. He always had cash, though I could not for the life of me figure out why he bothered to carry it.

“This fine gentleman below me has agreed to buy me a whole night of drinks if I can find three other patrons who know what a flapjack is!” I went on, once I had their attention. “Who among you has the wit and wisdom to challenge his insulting assumption regarding the use and abuse of the expression in question?”

Tune in next week for *fingers crossed* the conclusion of the New Floors of Doom adventures, and um... I have no idea what else. I guess we'll all just have to wait and see.

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Cover Art Reveal for Fractured Days by Rebecca Roland

My fellow WWP author, Rebecca Roland is releasing the sequel to her fantastically atmospheric fantasy novel Shards of History, and today she's revealing the Cover Art! Check it out below, along with the blurb! And if you haven't read Shards of History, and love fantasy, definitely grab your copy and give it a read, so you're ready for FRACTURED DAYS, available June 9th!

Malia returns home the hero of a war she can’t remember. The valley burning under the Maddion's invasion, the fate of her late husband, the way she resolved the long-time distrust between the Taakwa people and the wolfish, winged Jegudun creatures—all of it has been erased from her memory. Malia hopes to resume training as her village’s next clan mother, but when the symbiotic magic that she and the Jeguduns used to repair the valley’s protective barrier starts to consume more and more of her mind, she's faced with the threat of losing herself completely.

A powerful being known as “the changer” might hold the solution to her vanishing memories. But the Maddion’s new leader, Muvumo, also seeks the changer, hoping the being will cure them of the mysterious illness killing off his people. Meanwhile, Muvumo’s bride hopes the changer can bring about a new era, one in which she and the other Maddion women no longer need to hold onto their greatest secret.

Pre-order on Amazon Kindle.

Pre-order on Kobo.

Pre-order trade paperback.

Add it on Goodreads.

And it looks like there's a Goodreads Giveaway, too!

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Life, The Universe, Everything (II)

This year, we seem to have missed spring.

Apple Blossoms
(photo by El Husband!)

All through April, we waited for it -- waited for the snow to stop threatening, for it to finish MELTING to begin with, for the nights to get above freezing no matter how warm the day got -- but instead of getting spring, May came, and it was suddenly summer. The days became 70s and 80s+, the nights practically just as warm, and the grass is shooting up before we've even had enough dry days to finish raking up the winter's deadfall.

And it was a long, cold winter. Not North Dakota Cold, but cold enough that by the time it should have been ending, we were looking forward to the warmth of spring. Those days in the high 40s and low 50s where you're so eager for the sun, you break out the flip-flops and shorts long before it's actually warm enough to wear them, and you bask in the bright light streaming through the windows, watching rainbows bounce on the walls without breaking a sweat.

We had maybe a week of those days before the heat became oppressive and the house hit 80 degrees inside. The sun bakes us, now, all morning and well into the afternoon, through the overlarge windows of the living room. The back porch, so pleasant at the end of winter for its green-house like warmth in the mornings, is now a sauna, too warm to even open up until the sun crawls to the other side of the house and begins to fall.

Summer is here. Summer is here, too soon, too sudden, and I am longing for spring.

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Life, The Universe, Everything!

I'm taking a little writing vacation right now, so you're going to have to suffer through some non-writing, non-mythology updates for the short term! My brain is pretty much just fried, and I don't have the research in me. But I *am* reading, of course (the annual reread of Cordelia's Honor is happening now, and I'm looking forward to my pre-ordered copy of The Heir arriving), and catching up on some other media -- Age of Ultron, last night, at last, with el husband (it felt a little Thor-light, but I enjoyed it! not as much as the first one, but still not a disappointment at all), and Age of Adaline with La Prima, which I'm looking forward to seeing very soon.

But the biggest event -- the most exhausting event -- has been the clearing out and packing up of the majority of our belongings, so the 70's green carpets can be torn out and replaced, and thank goodness for the kindness of family and friends or we'd never have managed to get everything done. Right now, our living room looks like this:

Which unfortunately means, we're not finished yet, because there are still all the leftover bits of things to be picked up and thrown out around the edges -- but at least all the two-man lifts have been tackled! And when all the carpet-tearing is done, we'll be moving into a different bedroom in the house, which currently looks like this (freshly painted by el husband and myself last summer!):

That staining on the carpet? Let's just say shampooing does not even begin to touch it. This carpet could run for president, it's so old! And we're so desperate to store things in places that are NOT the basement, that the bathroom behind that closed door is currently masquerading (and out of commission) as a storage space --

And yes, yes that is pepto-pink 70s tile and sink and tub. And those lime green curtains -- they're like some kind of tweed. Most of the stuff in this house is so out of style, it's coming BACK. (Except that horrendous gold paint on the vanity. That is never ever coming back.)

Those are my latest household adventures -- and they will be continuing over the coming weeks, so  I hope you'll hang in there with me, because it's taking up the entirely of my brainpower. Hopefully we'll be on the other side of all this before Memorial Day weekend, and I'll have some much less awful after pictures to share in June!

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