Wow, was yesterday the day from Hell.

It could've been much, much worse. I know that. The whole thing was made less awful because a number of people stepped up to help. They deserve a lot of credit. It started the day before when my car was in the shop due to the slave cylinder on the clutch. Friday morning I woke with an awful headache, and before I had a chance to make coffee my husband called to tell me his car was having problems. He'd barely made it to work. Great. Okay. We'll work it out. I called the mechanic, made arrangements. I found out that my contacts didn't come in yet. I can't go to the eye doctor and get some temporaries. That's okay, I tell myself, I've a couple pairs of blue-tinted lenses left over from my old prescription. I can see to drive. Then Dane calls and tells me he's fixed his car and that he can come pick me up so we could get my car before the mechanic closed for the holiday weekend and long before my reading. No problem. We're on our way up to Round Rock when his car starts acting up again. We cross our fingers and hope to get to the mechanic before the car breaks down again. However, it's 5pm and traffic is stop and go the whole way. His car stretches its resources as far as just north of Pflugerville and dies. We barely made it to the break down lane. This is okay, I think. We've still got time. Automotive Specialists has a courtesy vehicle and a towing service they prefer. I've a phone. I can call the bookstore and warn them that I might be late. I can make this work. Dane and I laugh because sometimes there's nothing left to do but laugh. It'll work out one way or the other.

Except it's the holiday weekend. Everyone is slammed. There are wrecks up and down I-35 due to the sheer numbers of people heading up to DFW for the weekend. We end up waiting for over an hour. I finally pull the "I've got somewhere to be, y'all" card. And that's when things get pretty cool. The towing service sends one of their trucks which already has a wrecked vehicle on it. Tow truck driver says, "It's cool. I've got this." He pulls out some gear from the bumper and attaches Dane's car so that now the truck is pulling the Hyundai along behind. The driver then lets us crowd into the truck cab with him, and he takes us to my mechanic first. (Bless him. He certainly didn't have to.) The Automotive Specialist guys wait for us even though the shop has been closed since 6pm, and it's a holiday. We leave Dane's car, pay for mine and then haul ass to get back to the house, grab my stuff, brush my hair, get a jacket, and go to Bookwoman. I'm thirty minutes late, sweaty, windblown, I still feel like shit, and I can't see to read worth a damn because my old prescription is, in fact, bloody useless even with reading glasses. [sigh] I got through it as best I could. (People waited for me. I didn't want to let them down.) Dane said it wasn't bad. (I hope not.) I feel I've earned a new Professional Writer merit badge. LOL.

Thank goodness for the marvelous folks at Bookwoman and the wonderful, fabulous people who waited around for me. Seriously. Y'all freaking rock my world. (Kit and Sheilagh, we gotta have coffee soon.) Oh, and do drop by Bookwoman soon, if you're in Austin and have the chance. It's a marvelous little independent bookstore. I like it a lot. They deserve lots of business.

In other news: congratulations to the finalists of the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for short fiction and the Campbell Award for Best Novel! (Not to be confused with the Campbell Award for Best New Author. Yes. Confusing. I know.) Also, congrats to the Mythopoeic Awards finalists. (It's awards season. Can you tell? :))

Saw Dark Shadows with my sister and nephew last night. It was okay. The writing was terrible, but everything else about it was fun. Had a blast playing "spot the '70s bad ass muscle car" and "spot the '70s song in three notes" and "spot the crazy cool actor in the cameo role." The sets were gorgeous. The costumes were adequate. The makeup was... wrong for the '70s, but that's okay. Burton doesn't do 100% pure period pieces. He never did. All in all, I had a good time.

Woke up at 3:30am this morning with a terrible headache -- one of those that lodges itself behind an eyeball and stabs and stabs. I slept like crap. Wasn't coherent enough to think of taking something for it until 5am. I overslept, naturally. Didn't get out of bed until almost 10am. (I still feel like ass.) Then husband tells me (via chat) that his car limped to work this morning. He barely made it. We'll have to have his car towed to the Fabulous Mechanic too. This is not the best way to start the day of a signing event. LOL. Called Fabulous Mechanic. Fabulous Mechanic tells me that the part that failed on Locksley is the cheapest part possible -- the slave cylinder. Total bill is $100 cheaper than I thought it'd be, including the towing and the extra things that needed doing.* Not only that, it'll be ready this afternoon. Then Dane gets back to me. Gearhead friend at work helped him fix the problem with his car. Turned out, the issue was with his battery cables. The Viking earned his first experience points in Parking Lot Mechanic. (Ha! I'm so proud of him. There was a time when he'd never have lifted the hood to see what was wrong.) His car is now fixed. Mine will be fixed soon. All I need now, is to get my tail to the pharmacy and get my asthma drugs sorted. I've a hunch the feeling bad is all allergy/asthma related.

And now you see why I tend to remain calm during the crazy these days. I feel that things will turn around. They generally do, of late. Sometimes it happens so fast that I barely have time to mention that anything unfortunate happened -- so fast I worry it's going to give me whiplash. :) I'll take it. I really, really will.

Anyway, signing tonight at 7pm BookWoman on Lamar. Be there or be square. Or something. :) 
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* Oil change and state inspection.

First, I've a signing tomorrow night at Bookwoman off of North Lamar in Austin tomorrow night at 7pm. It'd be great to see folks there. You know, if you're going to be around and stuff. We'll take a vote and see which book I'll read from. I'm giving away a soundtrack mix cd too.

Andddd... work on the new project has been going so much more smoothly lately. Seriously so. I'm so very, very happy about this. Very happy.

Lastly, I had to go with Plan B on the car. Locksley's clutch wouldn't engage when I tried to leave for Kung fu class this morning. On the up side: my good friend Sondra the Fantastic loaned me her Honda S2000 so I could make a run to the auto parts store. Since I knew the problem was probably in the hydraulics (either the master or slave cylinders) and the fluid was low, I thought I'd try topping that off in order to get it to last until I arrived at the mechanic. No such luck, I'm afraid. Ended up towing Locksley. Oh, well. My mechanic thinks it's only the slave cylinder that's gone. I hope he's right. That'd be a lot cheaper than the other alternatives. All in all, everything will be all right. Locksley is in good hands, and a working plan is in place. Hopefully, it shouldn't take too long. Unfortunately, this is a holiday weekend. If I can't get my car back tomorrow, I won't be going anywhere until Tuesday afternoon. That's a lot of Kung fu to miss. Also, I've that signing. I could walk, I guess, but it's already too hot for that. (We hit the 90s this week.) We'll see. Meanwhile, Sondra's Sexy Beast is in my driveway. Wow, that thing is fine. It's like driving a Miata with four times the engine power. There may have been a short burst of speed on the highway with loud music. Maybe. Bless Sondra for the above and beyond friend favor. Seriously. Just wow.

Today didn't start out too well. Had to make a trip to grocery store first thing sans breakfast and the hallowed beverage of alertness. (No milk in the house. I can't drink coffee without milk. It's hard core enough that I drink it without sugar. LOL.) While I was driving to the grocer I discovered the clutch is going out on Locksley. I know what the problem is. The clutch master cylinder is going out. The nice part is, I think I caught it early enough that the slave cylinder won't have gone out as well. [crosses fingers] These things happen. Still, I don't like springing them upon Dane. I do like how we discuss these things. I did all the research first. Then I presented him with the problem. We worked out the logistics in fifteen minutes. No fuss. Back when I was much younger this sort of thing would've resulted in anger, frustration, fear, and a lot of cursing. Of course, that was before I married Dane. We make a great team, he and I. We've been through tougher stuff than this, and we both know it. Not only does this feeling make me happy, it makes me proud. Not every couple can handle stressful situations this well -- even after seventeen years of being together. For the record, I'm also happy to report that things are far better than they once were. This isn't ideal, but it isn't the end of the world either. We've a plan in affect, and it isn't even plan Z or even plan D. It's plan A for fuck's sake.

Oh, I finished reading the ARC of Roddy Doyle's A Greyhound of a Girl. I enjoyed it quite a bit. The first half was sheer awesome. The last half wasn't quite as fun, but still really, really good. Sweet and funny without being too sweet, even a touch sad. My favorite. The odd thing about it is it's an urban fantasy*/ghost story where all the characters are female. If you like the Irish stuff, I highly recommend it. The dialog sparkles.

One of the things I forgot to mention about the Flogging Molly show was that they ended everything with playing Monty Python's recording of "Always Look On the Bright Side of Life" from Life of Brian. That was too brilliant for words.
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*In the "myth placed in a modern urban setting" sense.

My very first post about Kung Fu is up over at the school's website. In case you're interested: http://txkungfu.blogspot.com/

It's been a long time coming, and admittedly, it's hit me in fits and starts, but I think I finally have it through my thick skull that writing is my day job. Finally. Some of you probably think that's funny, no doubt, and I have to admit that I never thought I'd have to struggle with the concept of writing full time. However, it's been rough going. I keep getting sucked back into thinking that my life can't be like this. I know better. One doesn't go full time as a fiction writer until one has double-digit numbers of novels on the shelves and even then one should have a part-time gig somewhere and a savings account stuffed to overflowing with cash, or possibly a trust fund. Having all three is best. You never know when one might give out. I know this. I've seen this. This is the reality of fiction writing, unfortunately. I've no parachute -- I've no alternative either. The day job business quit on me, not the other way around. So, panic sets in, but then I know that like Wendy from Peter Pan, I need happy thoughts to keep flying. (Stress is counter productive when one must be creative on demand.) Then my brain sorts itself out. I get my balance and glide again. Sometimes it feels like flying. This is what I've always wanted, after all. Unfortunately, a lot of the time it feels like falling. (No wonder so many authors drink.) But that's the gig. Falling is part of it. As Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say, "It's always something--if it ain't one thing, it's another." All in all, I think the kung fu is helping quite a bit. It keeps the panic in check. It took a while, but it's done the trick, and hey, it's way better than drinking.

That said, I'm all kinds of happy right now. Ironed out a plot wrinkle that had been causing things to slow down to what was starting to feel like a death march. A large part of that fix was once again giving myself permission to suck. With the pressure to be perfect gone, I was able to work out the problem. It was really fast too. You know what? Every writer should have "Dare to suck!" posted above their desk because it seems that's a lesson we need to be reminded of quite a lot. I'm pretty sure it isn't just me.

Mostly, pretty sure.

Yeah. Look over there! It's Elvis!

Dell Computer screws up in a big way and doesn't do such a great job of apologizing for it afterward: tech blogger Christiane Vejlø talks about Michael Dell's recent summit talk in Copenhagen. "Damn! I did not know the dress code was blue tie and male. I am at Dell’s big summit with Michael Dell in Copenhagen. Here we learn how to say “shut up bitch” and that women don’t belong in tech." I worked at Dell for two years. The first part of my experience there was wonderful. The last year and a half was -- to put it kindly -- miserable.* For the record, my first and second supervisors were both female and the department head at the time was also female. All the topmost positions were held by males. I worked for eight years at Motorola. There was some fuss during my last year there due to a company-wide photo of influential upper level managers. There wasn't a single female in the shot. Not one. When this was brought to the attention of those posing for the photo by the photographer, they rounded up an administrative assistant to stand in. An administrative assistant. Not a lesser manager from Motorola. The photographer's administrative assistant, no less. (Talk about not getting the freaking point. Wow.) A stink was raised when the photo was distributed. I don't believe anything came of it, however -- other than the company avoided such photos for the remainder of my stay.

Just when I think Texas is rock bottom in dealing with the gender gap, Tennessee steps up to take the crown. Apparently, they've actually realised that their teen pregnancy prevention 'abstinence only' policy isn't working so well. To quote from The Maddow blog article: "According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly all of the states with the highest rates for teen pregnancies are in the Deep South (a.k.a., the "Bible Belt"), where abstinence-only policies are the norm." Rather than do the logical thing and go back to supporting birth control and sexual education (which worked very, very well by comparison), Tennessee decided it was time to ban what they consider to be "gateway sexual activities." Apparently, they aren't even clear on what "gateway sexual activities" are, let alone what they mean by the word "condone." Typical of such ill-considered state laws, the wording manages to risk punishing educators as well as health care professionals. Oh, and hand holding might also be considered a gateway activity. You know, if you support this kind of bullshit you really don't get to point any fingers about how other communities -- say middle eastern communities for example -- treat women. Be honest, you're doing the same damned thing. Way to go Tennessee.

And now something slightly off-topic. An open letter to the people who hate Obama more than they love America. For me, the best point is this: "If you hate the Government then you are unqualified to manage it." Also, I'd like to add that if placing businessmen in governmental roles was the answer to all our ills, then why the hell is it after more than twenty years of voting businessmen into governmental positions,** that all America's problems haven't gone up in a glittery swish of the Magical Capitalism Fairy's(tm) magic wand?*** Can it be that [gasp] that belief is a myth? Repeat after me: government is not a business. The purpose of government is for managing a country, for the creation of laws which support the nation as a whole. The purpose for business is for selfish profit-making. They are not the same thing.

EDIT: I forgot to include John Scalzi's follow-up post on Straight White Male the Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is. Bless him for trying so hard to get the point across. I'm not saying that anything he says is absolutely perfect. (Who is? Not me, that's for sure.) Frankly, I appreciate that he's made the attempt. Alas, the usual warning for this type of discussion stands: What ever you do, don't read the comments. They'll only piss you off. (The ones on his website aren't as bad as the unfiltered variety on the gaming site, Kotaku.)
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* This had less to do with the corporation's culture and more to do with my direct supervisor not being terribly good at managing people.
** The truth is, the position "business can run government better than government" has been around since Ronald Reagan. You do the math.
*** The fact is, the recession happened on big business' watch.

Dane and I went down to Houston with my father in law to visit Dane's side of the extended family. They're nice people, and we get along great for the most part -- except when it comes to politics. They're largely extremist conservatives which I'd be mostly okay with if it weren't for the outright Fox Newsisms they tend to spout off as if they were facts. The fear mongering really gets to me. That, and the utter lack of perspective, logic, concept of checks and balances, familiarity with history, and/or acceptance of difference whether that be opinion or religion. [sigh] The Republican attack ads on television and radio didn't help. I spent the entire weekend checking my urge to throw something and/or speak. I was mostly successful. Mostly.

Honestly, I can't wait until this cycle of McCarthyism dies a final death.

On the upside? I got a lot of writing done. :)

The Flogging Molly show was a hoot. I had a great time. Lots of men in kilts. Alas, I didn't pinch a single one. (Dane wasn't there with me. So, it wouldn't have been as much fun.) But lots of eye candy to be had. The music was great. Got to meet a friend of a friend who was really nice. The venue was fantastic. The only downer was when a drunk guy grabbed my hair. Three times. This, after I'd already voiced my displeasure the first time. Okay, bozo. I get that you like long hair. Yes, my hair is thick and wavy. Still, not yours. Do not touch. Geez. Other than that, it was one of the best experiences I've had at a live show in a long time.

Am going to see Flogging Molly tonight. Can't wait. I think this will be my first concert in three years. It'll be the first time I've seen them, although they've played Austin at least four or five times. Like many of the bands I like, they keep waiting until I'm flat broke to show up and/or selling out. Obviously, music shows aren't a huge priority for me. (Mostly I'd rather not deal with the crowds.) But Celtic music is a lot of fun live and this is Celtic punk/rock. So, I'm in. Dane isn't going. So, I'll be on my own for the most part. Hopefully, a few of you will be there too. Maybe? :)