Live in the Moment

I'm on a roll here!  Yes, I did another guest blog for Women in Horror Month, this one at the request of J.G. Faherty.  It's called Live in the Moment, and it's all about when not to write.  You can find it here.  I'm always interested in your thoughts, so feel free to let me know what you think of it!

A Woman's Time

February -- already -- and it's Women in Horror month.  Yep, I'm one of those.  I've written a couple of blogs to celebrate, and the first of those came out today, on the Grey Matter Press site.  It's called "A Woman's Time," but it really applies to everyone.

By the way, the fine folks at Grey Matter Press are publishing an anthology called PEEL BACK THE SKIN, which will be out in June of this year.  Included in the stellar lineup is a particularly nasty story I wrote for them, called "Superheated."  This is an anthology you don't want to miss.

On my list of Things to Do is "Blog Posts: Personal."  I'm going to get better at this, damn it!

Excuse Me, Who Are You Again?

Whoa -- October 25, 2013 was the last time I posted something?  You're kidding?  You're not kidding.

Jeez.

I blame The Husband.  Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket!

Honestly, I have to admit that I'm not that great at keeping this blog up to date, but you all knew that.  I really want to, but on the list of writing things to do, something has to give and all along, this has been it.  Still, never give up, right?

Lots has happened since that long-ago update, including Wes coming back from Afghanistan, spinal fusion surgery, even a new rescued Great Dane-- yes, our fourth.  And in keeping with our theme, we named him Grendel (yes, from Beowulf), which means we now have our own personal 4-G Network.  Ha!

Grendel and Yvonne - © Amy Breckenridge Smith 2014

Grendel, who's blind and has had a really rough life that includes being shot, attacked, and who knows what else, settled right in with Goblin, Ghost and Ghoulie.  Now that it's monsoon season in Arizona, however, the poor boy is having a pretty hard time with thunder and lightning. It's not surprising that booming noises terrify him, considering he's blind, he bumbled his way around the streets, and he's been shot. A bad storm is about the only thing that will distract him from eating his meals.  Oh, and spadefoot frogs.  They terrify him.  I am not kidding.

Our sweet, deaf Ghostie is in the end stages of renal failure, but we are fighting it with everything we have and are happy to say she's hanging in there.  Yes, she's thin, but she's happy, perky, eats (most of the time, anyway), plays, wags her tail, and generally still seems to enjoy life.  As long as the quality is there for her, we'll hang on.

Goblin is also still gracing us with his big-boy presence.  If you recall, we almost lost him three days before his tenth birthday last year (read below, if you haven't already).  Since then he's doing great, and this August 23 he will be a proud eleven years old.

Front-Back: Ghoulie, Ghostie, Goblin

Ghoulie, of course, remains our little Terrorist.  Now that she's comfortable with Grendel, she's decided that he, too, is fair game for her Troll at the Top of the Stairs Game.  She is always a Daddy's girl.

Although I haven't been updating here, I have been writing.  I've done some work for IDW in their V-Wars and Zombies vs. Robots universes, and also penned a long tale for the Rocketeer anthology.  A few other tales, too, here and there.

Where am I now, you ask?  (Of course you did.)  Why, I'm in Harrington, Maine, at the Golden Apple Studio.  Fate smiled on me and I ended up one of two writers-in-residence for their first session.  I've been hammering away at the universe and structure for a new series (nope, keeping it all a secret right now!).  Lots of writing and planning, lots of photo-taking.  I left The Husband with all the worldly chores and responsibilities, so he's getting a taste of what it's like to be me (bwahahahahhaha!).  I'll head back to Arizona this weekend, just in time to probably drive home through a monsoon downpour, collapse in the house and get lots of smooches from The Husband and pups alike, then fall into bed... so I can get up bright and early on Monday and head to work.

Don't want to think about that right now.

It's raining here, although I can see Harrington Bay from the window of the studio where I go to write every day.  The cottage where I sleep is even closer.  I arrived just after Tropical Storm Arthur hit the Maine coast pretty hard, but it hasn't done much more than drizzle and get breezy.  I was kind of hoping for a good thunderstorm or two, but who knows if that'll happen.  I'm enjoying my time here and the ability to focus on the new series, but I'm missing my home, S/O and puppy lovelies more than I had any idea I would.

Back to work with me!  

::sound of whip cracking in the background::

To Me or Not To Me...

To Me or Not To Me... What the heck is that?

Why, it's the title of a guest blog over at Book'd Out.  Zip over to http://bookdout.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/giveaway-guest-post-yvonne-navarro-author-of-dark-redemption-series/ and check it out.  There's also a review of HIGHBORN and a (::gasp!::) book giveaway!

FINISHED!!!

CONCRETE SAVIOR is officially finished and has been emailed to both my editor and my agent!

Now to catch up on all this other stuff.

Er... where to begin? ::ulp!::

Ghost Hunting Awaits!

Tomorrow The Husband (Weston Ochse) and I go slinking off to a bit north of San Francisco to The Haunted Mansion Writers' Retreat. Honestly, I can't wait! Ghosts, friends and writing-- what could be more fun? It's been way too long-- around 1989 to be exact-- since I went on a strictly speaking writer's retreat. Although technology has stuck its electronic fingers into everything since then (email, Internet, cell phones) to the point where I can't quite get away from it, I'm still looking forward to it. I plan to finish the final read-through of CONCRETE SAVIOR, work on two guest blogs I have upcoming, and bang around some ideas for the next novel or ten in the DARK REDEMPTION series. After all, the place is haunted, right? What better inspiration than that?!

I've Been Quoted!

And right smackity at the beginning, too!

http://bit.ly/oW8c4

Question: Anyone reading this? There've been zip for comments, and frankly, I'm considering letting this blog go dead. If no one's reading it anyway, why waste time that I could spend writing?

Muhahahahahaha!!!

And at page 296 of HIGHBORN, I present you with:



(Nope, I am not kidding.)

Revelation!

revelation -- noun: ...something that is revealed;
especially : an enlightening or astonishing
disclosure revelations (from www.merriam-webster.com).

Curious? Then, please, read all about it on HorrorWorld.org, where my story, "Revelation," will be available for free during the month of September. Enjoy!

Output!

Yes! The first post on Blogger! Actually, I've had this for a loooong time but never posted to it. As part of the New And Improved Me, I'm desperately going to try to remember to post in all the places I'm supposed to, all of the time. Hey, I'm trying.

So:

Okay, so I haven't managed that one hour a day thing, but I did manage an almost all day writing stint today. That pile-o-hours got me 6 pages, and it's been since October that I wrote more than 2 or 3 pages at a time, so I'm pretty pleased. The story is finally starting to move on its on, the characters are starting to think outside my box, and I think I mentioned before that I've finally decided on HIGHBORN as the title. Sweet.

Here, at last, is a current word count, which is pretty good improvement over the last posting of 22,457:



Lots going on. Tomorrow we're (finally) going to take down the Christmas decorations. Theoretically we'll actually put them where they belong in the garage as opposed to leaving stacks of boxes on the garage floor and wads of wrapping paper and empty tubes in the drawing room. Time will tell. The wall (see my LiveJournal post of December 30th) is still not fixed; already there are issues with the driver's insurance company, which after promising the adjuster would make an appointment when we could be here, had an adjuster come out for an appraisal when no one was home. I have yet to speak to said adjuster. I can see this has the potential to be an unpleasant thing.

I got a bunch of great books for Christmas, the last of which just came in because of a lost shipment. Good stuff, and I'm looking forward to reading... after I get some new reading glasses. I think the glasses being out of date (and that stupid dry eye thing) really contribute to me not reading as much for pleasure anymore. I miss it, and I have way too many great books waiting.

Dawgs are fine, The Husband (Weston Ochse) is okay. Occasionally I have to pound on him to keep him straight. Family is as okay as they're going to be. Still working on the job thing. Some potentially interesting stuff there, but we'll see. In the meantime, plesae keep invisible fingers crossed on my behalf.

I'm working, very slowly, on a long overdue complete new web page for myself. Only have a few pages done so far, but it's coming along.

Alex got her report card, which was pretty doggone good. We're all happy, and so sometime soon we're going out for steak to celebrate.

We have six dead or nearly dead plants to dig up and return to Home Depot and Lowe's for refunds. One would think these stores would learn not to sell (and guarantee) outdoor plants here that cannot survive the high desert (i.e., COLD) winter climate.

Guess that's about it. Happy New Year, all!