Zhadi’s Den

As my friends and family know, I’ve been buried in work the last few months. Work work and writing work.  I’ve been plowing through the WiP That Wouldn’t Die and have watched two self-imposed deadlines pass by at a speed that’s frightening.  My only social life has been Thursday night wine tastings at Vin Debut and the occasional quick hello to friends, the social equivalent of hit and runs.  And I’m STILL not done with the WiP.  Oh, I can see the light at the end of the zombie-infested tunnel … but there is still work to be completed. 

In August, however, I plan on being back in the blogging habit. Not only here at the Den, but the bi-weekly Ravenous Wednesdays on UnBound, my Monday posts at Fatal Foodies and my bi-weekly Sunday posts on Make Mine Mystery (if the latter two haven’t replaced me in disgust by now). 

I’m hoping to have good news to share in a few weeks, but in the meantime… I write.  I walk on the beach. I play with kitties… and I write some more.  

I miss you, world!!!  See ya soon!

If you’ve been following me on Facebook, you’ll know I’ve been running into roadblocks on my current WIP. This is the same book that started out with such promise (I wrote the first fifty pages in a week, wheee!!!!). I love, love, loved it, knew it was the best thing I’d ever written and was gonna finish it in record time.

Well, the honeymoon period has been over for a couple of months.  My WIP won’t take out the trash, doesn’t tell me I’m pretty any more, and the relationship has just been stagnating, the two of us sitting on the couch together, but not really communicating. I’ve tried sneaking around the road blocks in the story, but keep running into new ones.  I’ve questioned myself (Is it me?  What am I doing wrong?); my WIP (Why are you such a cold-hearted bastard?!  Talk to me!!); and life in general (Maybe I’m not meant to be a writer. Maybe I should just resign myself to admin work the rest of my life).

So this morning I open this book, THE WAR OF ART by Steven Pressfield, on the Muni and read this:

“Like a magnetized needle floating on a surface of oil, Resistance will unfailingly point to true North - meaning that calling or action it most wants to stop us from doing.

We can use this. We can use it as a compass. We can navigate by Resistance, letting it guide us to that calling or action that we must follow before all others.

Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we will feel towards pursuing it.”

Talk about a cosmic wake-up smack on the back of the head (which kind of hurt ’cause I’m on my second week of serial migraines).  I love moments like these when you read, see or hear exactly the right thing to flip a stubborn switch from ‘off’ to ‘on’ and help you move forward. 

In other words, my WIP and I may be going through a shaky period, but it’s worth the time and effort to make this relationship work. I have a damn good book in the making and I’m gonna finish it even if I have to take out the trash every night.

Come on, WIP.  Tell me I’m sexy.  You know you want to.  

…I’m on a grueling (yet exhilarating) deadline and have been writing my butt off (yup, looks like it’s shrunk a bit!) all last week into my lovely long weekend.  Can’t say much more right now other than zombies are involved.  So you KNOW I’m having a blast!  The kitties have been a great help by keeping their rampaging down to a minimum, so I’m posting the picture below in their honor. 

See you all later, and definitely look for Ravenous Wednesday at Un:Bound this week!

Link originally posted at the Paper Tiger (giving credit where it’s due!) this is the best post on writing a novel EVER.  It made me laugh and I haven’t been laughing a lot lately!

Come join the beautiful, sexy and talented Sèphera Girón at Unbound today for a fascinating glimpse into one writer’s way of chasing down her muse!  

Thanks to everyone who donated to the feline cause and a lucky break with one of our local humane societies, we will be able to get all five cutie kittens spayed/neutered the end of July, which means they’ll be able to go to their adoption center up in Santa Rosa (if they’re not adopted out first, of course!).  Moxie, the mom-cat, was spayed July 2nd and is enjoying a kitten-free convalescence with M, while the five rug-rats are currently skittering around Dave’s and my guest room.  Fun to have them, but I’ll be relieved when they’re gone.  So far our permanent feline residents are handling the invasion with good humor and grace (in other words, no random peeing or destruction of clothing/books/other property).  I just don’t wanna push our luck or their patience.

So thanks, everyone!  And thanks, MY momcat for sending a check ’cause she doesn’t do that Paypal thing. 

In other news, I have just been too damn tired to do much of anything in the way of posting. I believe it’s called ‘Total Burnout.’  Either that or ‘Insidious Depression.’  If the latter, I’m sure it was caused by the former.  So I’ve been taking it easy on myself, catching up on emails, and lying in the middle of the guest room bed letting kittens swarm me.  Ever been swarmed by five purring kittens, all looking for dangly bits on your clothing to attack?  I highly recommend it as a pick-me-up.  I hope to be back in full on writing mode after this weekend and just a few more nights of letting my brain rest and not forcing it to think or do anything it doesn’t feel like doing at the moment.  And lots of sleep.

I did have a flying dream last night, where everytime I started to lose the power to fly, I’d just tell myself I could do it, and WHOOSH, back up in the air I went with more control than I’ve ever had in one of my flying dreams.  Pretty sweet!

It’s GORGEOUS outside today.  Sunny, warm and quite Southern Californian in its balmy breeze.  Definitely a change from San Francisco’s usual June Gloom and fog shrouded hills.  Not that I’m complaining about the fog.  It is one of the reasons I moved up here.  But I do admit a little sun now and again is welcome.  It’s nice to get some color and remember what it was like when I had my perpetual golden tan.  Ah, the blissful ignorance of youth…

I had a great weekend.  Twilight Tour at EFBC/FCC (to read more about it, go here for my post at Fatal Foodies); wine and snackage (Seeduction bread, olive oil, uber rich cheese and wine) with my sister; a gorgeous drive back up the coast early Sunday morning; and then a full afternoon at home, including beach walkies, writing and getting the laundry done.  I honestly can’t (and won’t) complain!  

Ooh, and thanks to my relentless walking and new love affair with my pedometer (I’m average 12,000 steps a day), I have lost enough weight to fit into some really nice summer pants my sister gave me.  And…yes…I do believe…yes, my waist is slowly but surely returning!  

I am in a very good mood, especially for a Monday. 

Please visit the wonderful new mystery author blog, Pens Fatales, for a: my post about character in film and books, and just because it’s a really cool new blog with a bunch of great dames and authors! 

I’ve mentioned my skill at walking and reading…so this is obviously the next step in Dana’s evolution as a multi-tasker!

 ”Walk and type at the same time! Walking upright is a sure sign that you’re evolved, but we think you should take it one step further and walk upright while computing. The Connect-A-Desk is a new product that gives you the ability to use your laptop with both hands free, to type while walking or standing. Includes the laptop harness & desk, everything you need to use your laptop computer while standing. Works with any size laptop, notebook, or tablet computer. Adjustable to fit any size person. Quick and easy to put on and take off and ergonomically designed for comfort. It’s truly mobile and portable, no need for a laptop cart or stand. Connect-A-Desk makes any laptop truly mobile. Taking notes with a full size keyboard while having the ability to move around can be of great value to almost any laptop user.”

I really really really want this… 

Tuesday night I participated in a mystery writer panel along with fellow authors Ann Parker (Silver Rush mysteries), Mark Coggins (August Riordan series) and Camille Minichino (Periodic Table mystery series) at the Castro Valley Library.

To the right are me and Ann, while below Ann and I listen in evident fascination to Mark.  And below that you can see throngs (yes, that’s right!  Throngs!) of audience members coming up after the talk to buy copies of our books.  That’s Camille at the far end of the table, btw.  All in all a very satisfying event!