I Like a Good Scar. Also, a contest!

Seriously, I do!
I know, it's weird. Maybe even a little icky. But as soon as I see an interesting scar on a person, my head is filled with scenarios to explain how it got there. It must be the writer in me, finding inspiration everywhere....

And now, I've got a lovely little piece of inspiration permanently etched onto...ME.

That's right. See the date of my last post? That was exactly one day before...gasp...the accident. Oh OK, it wasn't that dramatic. Like most scars, it was caused by the silliest, most mundane thing you can imagine, and not by an exciting encounter with a bear. I cut the holy crap out of my first finger when I was (drumroll please) washing dishes.

A word of caution now goes out to my dear readers: don't ever, ever, wash a glass by shoving your hand and the sponge down into the glass and twisting. What happens, I learned, is that a giant chunk of the glass breaks off, and your whole hand runs into the sharp edge. YUK.

The funniest thing was trying to explain to well-meaning people with vitamin E oil that I didn't really care if the cut left a scar. "But, it will make for interesting stories!" I said to blank stares. Then they would give me the oil and I'd mumble thanks. Really, the only thing I cared about was that it didn't cripple the finger, since I make my living with my hands. I discovered pretty quickly it's hard to set diamonds with that finger out of commission!

Fortunately, the finger is fine, I just missed the tendon, and all I have left now is a nice, curving scar.... which I am thinking up good stories about, because the glass thing just isn't cool enough. ;-P

For those of you with weak stomachs, look at the big picture below of our new puppy, Ebi, and think happy happy thoughts. For those of you with a high gore tolerance, scroll a little farther for a photo just after I got my 6 stitches.




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I know, yuck, right? But man do I look tough now! Yah, just ask those muggers who's tough, after I wrestled the knife away from them and-- what? Story not believable? Alright, I'll come up with another one. Or better yet, why don't you guys come up with a good story for my new scar, and the one I end up using gets a fancy little silver pendant made by my pitifully scarred hands :-)

UPDATE: I always forget these things.... I suppose I need to put an end date on the contest, huh? So how about Tuesday the 28th at 9AM. Get your stories about my scar in by then, and I'll announce the winner on Wednesday evening, after I've had a chance to try out each story!

Slutty New Idea......

Yep. The dreaded (but seductive) Slutty New Idea. I've got one, and it's driving me completely, totally batty. So batty, in fact, that I had to put down my tools at work last week and spend 2 hours scribbling it all out in pencil on a series of post-it notes.

I know, it's been ages since I've been here, and you probably think, "She's ignored her blog for so long that she must have gotten a huge amount of editing done in the meantime... a few hours on a Slutty New Idea can't hurt!" Ummm............no? In fact, I haven't edited a single word in the last month thanks to a sniveling little voice in my head telling me that the editing is just too much-- too much of a tangle, too much work, too overwhelming, too difficult. Yet that same little voice is telling me that this lovely little new idea would be sooo easy. I should just quit agonizing over every word of Old WIP, it tells me, and work on New Idea for a while.

Sigh......

I really want to work on the new one because it's fun and it's a good, fully-formed idea, but then I feel guilty, horribly horribly guilty. Oh, my poor Old WIP, bandaged and sitting in the corner, wondering why I don't love it anymore. Oh, my poor readers who have stuck with me and Old WIP over so many incarnations...don't they deserve some resolution? Don't they deserve a complete story with a proper ending after reading my revisions a million times? Hell, don't I deserve a complete story with a proper ending after writing a million revisions?

Sigh...... but Slutty New Idea is just so pretty....

OK. The guilt level has just bested the appeal of the slutty new idea.
I'm gonna go try to change the bandages on Old WIP again. Maybe this time it will quit festering!

No, really! I have an excuse this time!

Seriously! I got a really great commission to do a jewelry piece for a talented celebrity that I love, I had Japanese houseguests for two-and-a-half weeks, and then I got diagnosed with asthma! Yah, see, Matt and I were going on this short bike ride, and when I coughed and wheezed for 8 hours afterwards, I decided it was time to talk to the doctor, and... wait, you're not listening anymore, are you?
Your eyes glazed over after the first excuse? Really? All these years, I thought the excuses were working... turns out you're just thinking about texting your other friend who wants to go out for drinks later.
OK, fine, so I don't really have a good excuse, other than the fact that I am easily distracted at times. It has been a good month since I really focused on my blog, and at least two weeks since I really dug in on my WIP.
I defer to Laini Taylor's great post on this subject. Also my sister's post, which proves that we are eerily identical despite being 3 years (and several thousand miles) apart. Turns out I'm not the only one struggling with keeping my focus, and the fact that I'm not alone in this... thank goodness.
And thank goodness for my inhaler, which will allow me to contemplate a more active lifestyle for the first time in my life. (Notice I said 'contemplate'-- we're not committing to anything here!) Still, it will be nice to be able to actually complete a bike ride!

I just have one question: where can I get an inhaler for writing? You know, so I can finally complete this manuscript?

Lazy Sunday

I know... I didn't get a chance to put up a Saturday Art post this week, but I promise to make up for it by having another art contest next week!

Until then, I am trying to stop cruising the internet and get some actual writing done today.

As you may have read, I am easily distracted by the internet.

What distractions get to you when you're trying to write? Are they legitimate distractions, or like me is it just a way to procrastinate when you're at a tough spot in the writing?

Light at the end of the tunnel!

Just wanted to report that I am about three days away from freedom...
I will have five days off starting X-mas eve, so I can finally get in some quality writing time, hooray!!! Then an easy few days of normal hours, and another few days off for New Years (which means even more writing time!)

Whew. I can't quite believe I'm running ahead of my deadlines, but it appears everyone will get their Christmas gifts on time, and at last I will be able to get back to the thing I love, the thing I have been bottling up more and more over the last 8 weeks.

It is strange how much I notice it bottling up. My dreams are more story-like instead of the usual disconnected random mishmash, I keep thinking of new ideas for novels ( I have scribbled them out on scraps of paper at work as best as I can!), and when I lay down to go to sleep my brain won't stop going over scenes in the current novel. That last part, I have to admit, is kind of fun... it's like I have it on a dvd and I'm skipping around to my favorite scenes, which reminds me how much I really love this story!
In that way, this forced writing hiatus is probably good for me, because I am not only dying to get back to writing, but I'm dying to get back to writing this story :-)

Or maybe I'm just trying to look on the bright side because I've finally seen the light at the end of this very long tunnel...

Either way.

Five Ways To Distract Ann From Writing:

One: Let her near an internet connection. She can't stop herself from checking everyone's blogs, then checking political news, then-- oh my, she can't forget her email! And before you know it, it is 10PM, when Ann turns into a pumpkin and heads for the nearest pillow.

Two: Tell her she never goes out, and it is so-and-so's birthday or this person is leaving town, or that person just got back into town. She is always feeling guilty about these sorts of things, so this is a good tactic, and one her husband employs regularly.

Three: Start watching a so-so new TV show, then shout, "Ann, get down here! The guy on this so-so new TV show who used to be on Firefly just dressed up for Halloween as his Firefly character-- it's AWESOME!!" Actually, just mention Firefly and she'll come peeking around the corner to see what you're talking about.

Four: Take her to Japan. Oh sure, she'll lug that laptop all the way there every time, but she'll never type a word. She'll check her email once if she's lucky.

Five: The Internet. Did I say that already? That's because it counts twice, it distracts her so much.