Okay, obviously I probably shouldn’t be blogging right now. But it’s quiet and I’m a little bored, so here I am.

I’ve upgraded my WordPress here to Version 2.5 — and all I can say is, wow, it’s different! It’s taking a lot of getting used to. I’ve also changed out my layout, which looks really nice, I have to say. I haven’t quite graduated to making my own layouts, but I’m getting good at finding nice ones.

So, after years of saying I was going to, I finally started The Dresden Files series. Actually, I started two weeks ago. Now I’m on Book 5: Death Masks. The last two have been a bit on the slow side to me. I’m hoping after this one, the series will pick the pace back up.

In the same amount of time I’ve been reading Grave Danger, I’ve finished One Good Knight by Mercedes Lackey and A Breath of Magic by Teresa Medeiros, and I’ve almost finished Fortune’s Fool by Mercedes Lackey. Now, if this sounds terrible, bear in mind that I’ve finished those two, plus Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and four entire The Dresden Files books in the time that it’s taken me to get a quarter of the way through For a Few Demons More by Kim Harrison. Now, that, that’s terrible.

And work is almost over, so I go now to get ready to run a few errands… then return home and finish Fortune’s Fool.

I try not to listen to rumors. Rather, I try not to listen to rumors that I think have no basis in fact… which means I have to listen to the rumors, but then filter out the baseless ones. It’s an imperfect system, but in a way, it works for me. And some rumors turn out to be true. The State of Florida budget cut rumors, as an example: fact. The Florida State University layoffs rumor: partially true, excepting the bits about the numbers of people to be let go.

And now rumors that the fantasy market is turning away from urban fantasy… I can’t say anything yet. I can say that I’m not exactly being flooded with book deal offers.

It’s time for more shopping around, I suppose. And no giving up.

My browser is lagging like a sonuvabitch. Seriously, I type something and I see it about two or three minutes later. Very annoying, that.

I’m debating on moving my main journal either here or my InsaneJournal. The sheer amount of vitriol on the friends page of my main journal makes me want to either abandon it and start over or completely dump all the “friends” I have on there and start over. Of course, all the business changes there make me lean more towards the former than the latter.

I’ve gotten a little written here and there on Verdant. Not as much as I would like to have, but I think it might be wise to hold off on it till I hear something positive about Amaranth and any changes that might need to be done to it. I think, if nothing else, I’m going to try to finish it for April Novel Writing Month or July Novel Writing Month. JulNoWriMo is more likely. It gives more time to hear back from all those agents and publishers I sent off to.

At least my kitties love me. Today, especially Aya. She gets into these moods where all she wants to do is love, love, love. Today, that’s quite okay. Some days, that’s exactly what I need.

In the meanwhile, I’m going to start scribbling on some of the fanfiction novellas I started a few years ago. I also have an original idea that I might start on soon. I’m tentatively calling it “Arcana“, thought all I have is a blurb:

I don’t know which is weirder: getting turned into a creature that I thought was myth — or really bad Hollywood — till a week ago, or getting stuck in the middle of nowhere with a redneck wannabe Ghostbuster, or the fact that there may or may not be someone out to kill us…

Now to deal with great heaping tons of kitty affection and maybe make dinner.

Also, I am proud of my new layout.

Out of 13 queries I have out there, I’ve heard back from four. Nothing yet, but it takes a lot of luck, hope, and fish hooks to catch the perfect fish (or so my grandfather tells me) — and I imagine that’s true for trying to get published as well. Well, the more I try, the more likely I am to succeed, so I’m not giving up trying.

In the last one I received, the agent in question said the nicest thing: “Just because it isn’t right for me, doesn’t mean the right agent isn’t just around the corner for you — keep at it.” Of course, this is a bit paraphrased, but it still made my (rather sleepy) morning.

Well, there’s no giving up hope here. I have nine more queries out there, and should they exhaust themselves… Well, those are just the e-queries. I will waste a tree or fifty if I have to.

And now… to the job for the day — and perhaps some work on Verdant.

As of tonight, I’ve sent Amaranth to three agents and a publisher. As of tonight, I’ve heard back from one of them — and it was a “no” from the second one. Not quite a resounding “no”, but a “no” nonetheless.

Paranoia has yet to set in, but I’m debating on starting to set the money back to self-publish……Like all the other hacks on the internet.

I did manage to finish the transliteration project on time and with a minimum of missed sleep. I’m caught up typing on Verdant and Gods and Other Creatures. I find myself strangely ambivalent, though perhaps it’s not odd: first rejection letter.