random | Heart of the Dreaming

Tag Archives: random

Dec

Strong Women in UF

Posted in blog | Tagged allison needs to get more sleep, guest post, piggy banks, random, what am I even talking about | Leave a comment

I’m over at SF Signal’s Mind Meld today, weighing in on the whole “strong women in UF” trope that is fairly prevalent in much of today’s UF books. Heh – it’s actually sort of funny, because when I set out to write A Brush of Darkness, I deliberately tried to avoid the whole “kick-ass lady in leather” concept – which is why Abby isn’t a slayer of any sort and why she’s so physically damaged. Not that there’s anything wrong with the books that have kick-ass ladies in them – I’d just read so many of those book recently that I didn’t really want to write one, if that makes any sense. As to the picture? That’s a shot of my piggy bank from when I was a child. With my dad selling the old house, I’ve now got a plethora of Really Old Stuff hanging around my house (which I will… Read more

Dec

Meringue Mountain

Posted in blog | Tagged carniepunk, fox and willow, meringue, random | 2 Comments

I spent most of the weekend baking cookies. My yearly baking of meringues takes a very long time to complete – and this year I did a triple batch, plus a single batch of standard chocolate chip cookies. Some of these are being sent out as gifts, but most will probably end up in my belly. Because, duh. They are awesome. Especially with ice cream. I sorta suspect I have too many still, though – so I’ll be bringing in some to work to give out. I’m oddly stingy about that, though – as much as I like it when people enjoy the fruits of my labor – after you spend about 6 hours baking the things, (and 70 minutes of that is stirring in the sugar, thanks), I want to make sure they’re appreciated. Or something. (And meringues are an acquired taste, I think – too sweet for many,… Read more

Dec

Friday Updates & Sundry

Posted in blog | Tagged carniepunk, fox and willow, interview, random, updates | 4 Comments

First off, I want to give a shout out to the World’s Biggest Bookstore in Toronto (and specifically Jessica Strider) for setting me up with a very nice display! (And go here for the matching interview, which can also be read at the display.) And again, sorry for not blogging as much recently. Sorta taking this month as a bit of a break, but I’ll be back on the ball starting in January. By the way – I owe some contest winners their books – I should be getting all those out on Monday. Got a ton of stuff to mail out, just gotta put it all together. I was over at Word Whores yesterday talking about how you know when a story is “done.” (Ha ha – if only it were that easy. Sometimes it really is a gut thing.) Fox & Willow was updated yesterday as well –… Read more

Dec

Cleaning House

Posted in blog | Tagged cleaning stuff, mood swingy swing, random, updates | 2 Comments

I ended up doing a lot of house cleaning this weekend. I’m not close to being finished, but I’m an indifferent housekeeper at best, so there’s an awful lot to go through. (I can walk into my laundry room now, so yay for small victories.) I’ve had a lot on my mind anyway, but the holiday season always ends up stressing me out for various reasons. So, cleaning it is. Or really, throwing stuff away, which is just as cathartic in some ways. Though somewhat painful too, since I decided I was going to go through *everything* – and that includes a number of boxes that I haven’t touched since my mom died. So, yeah – cheery thought, I know, but I’ve been oscillating back and forth the last few days between something like relief and a mega shame-spiral over the book thing. (Which I realize is silly, but there it… Read more

Sep

Brimming

Posted in blog | Tagged random, updates | Leave a comment

Ever have one of those days where you’re just filled with ideas and yet you already know there’s just not enough time to get to them all? Certainly not within the normal day-to-day constraints of life, anyway. It’s a bit depressing. That’s me today, though that’s compounded a bit by having stayed up too late to watch Cabin in the Woods (eh – I was really hoping it would be better then it was after all the hype) and also attempting to go off caffeine. Or at least soda. It’s making me extremely cranky. And tired. Tired enough that I bailed from work for 15 minutes to go crash in my car at lunch and I *never* do that. But that’s okay. It’s more about an ever growing list of “crap that needs to get done” and trying to balance that with “crap I’d like to do.” Subtle difference, but… Read more