I just finished the first book!

Now I just have to wait the 2 to 10 days for them to ship me the proof so I can make sure it is all good before I buy the ones I need to buy.

I’m excited, and yet sad at the same time. I’ve put so much work into finishing it, it’s hard to believe it is finally done. What will I do with my evenings and weekends now that all the endless hours of font fondling and graphic tweaking are done?!?

Oh, right. There’s that pesky second book to finish up.*

*Actually the cover for that one is done already, so as soon as I see the proof for the first book, I can do any adjustments that are required. And then, who knows, maybe some day I’ll even start writing again 😉

The airline tickets are purchased, the hotel arrangements are almost set, we have tickets to a fancy show, and my dreams are being filled with images of glitz, gambling, gondolas … and gaudy weddings.

We’re going to Vegas baby!

Okay, this is just disgusting.

I leave the ceiling fan on in my bedroom all year round, but I must have knocked it off balance a bit yesterday when I was painting because it was making a rattling sound in the middle of the night and I turned it off. This morning, I noticed what I could have never noticed while it was spinning above me: the unbelievable collection of dust that had accumulated on the blades. I’m pretty good about vacuuming up all dust balls in the corners of my apartment but I never thought to look at the ceiling for dust collections.

I don’t think anyone can ever accuse me of being afraid of colour.

First there was the living room, a nice bright red.

And now, as part of my “get rid of the February blahs” plan, I’ve brightened (and I do mean brightened) my bedroom.

I’m hoping that once I have everything back in there and some curtains up, the green will be toned down a little. I mean, I knew it wasn’t going to be a dull green, I just didn’t expect it to be quite so .. primary green. But green is actually recommended as a bedroom colour since it is a calming colour and can help you sleep. And I think it worked. I slept like a log last night.

Of course it could have also been the paint fumes.

I seem to be stuck in the winter “blahs”.

In an attempt to break away from them, I have booked a massage for myself, bought paint for both my kitchen and my bedroom, rearranged my living room (sort of), and I am thisclose to finishing the first book of my stories.

I think I am most excited about the book, though. The front cover is designed, the inside just needs a final quick edit, the back cover is almost there and the spine .. well, the spine has to wait until I finish the inside so they can tell me how thick the book is going to be. But the spine really won’t be anything too fancy, so I just might make it in time for my birthday after all, which was my original goal.

But as much as I am excited about it, I also have some mixed feelings about it. I started doing it entirely for myself. And I still want to do it for myself. But now that I’m nearing the end and not keeping it as much of a secret, I’m getting the response “Well, I want a copy too!” Which is cool (very cool, don’t get me wrong) but also kind of … scary. You want to spend money on my stories? You do know you can read them for free, right? It has led me to re-evaluate some of the content (should I really put this in? Is it “worth” putting in?) It’s an easy question to answer when I am thinking only for myself, but slightly harder when I am no longer just putting it together for me.

But then again, who really has their own book? 😉

Did I miss something?

Ottawa unveils influenza plan:
Vaccine shortages likely in first wave of a pandemic

The way the article it written, it makes me think that this “pandemic” is looming on the horizon, just waiting to strike down the citizens of the world.

It actually kinda makes me think of The Stand.

I’m almost convinced that I really am losing my mind. I can’t find things that I *know* should be there. No matter how hard I look or where I look, I still cannot find them. And I know I would not have thrown them out so they must exist *somewhere*. And since I can see the conversation in my mind, and see the pages in my mind, I’m pretty sure I’m not making it up, unless I really am losing my mind in which case I hope I can get long-term disability because I’m pretty sure that I didn’t have quite so many holes in my head before I started here.

Or I just really need a vacation again 😉

In the spirit of laying blame (because it’s much more fun to share the blame than to suck it up and admit that it’s your fault), I shall lay the responsibility for my lack of posts squarely at the feet of Andrew and Brad (because it’s also much more fun when you can blame two people instead of one), the former for providing me with the inspiration to publish my stories, and the latter for accidentally steering me towards an easy (relatively so at least) way of publishing my stories.

But it’s still a hell of a lot of work to transfer one hundred and twenty-five stories from HTML to FrameMaker.

And that’s my excuse reason for the lack of posts.