HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE HUSBAND!

Happy birthday to Weston The Husband (Weston Ochse), who turns...

hmmm.

Should I lie?

Should I make myself look good by saying he's younger than me and I cradle-robbed? Should I tell everyone we should all celebrate that he has lived to see yet another birthday despite his wild ride through the Army and his adventures thereafter?

Should I tell them about the time a tribal chief in another country once offered him a woman as a gift and all he could think about was (because the Army won't let you have any gift worth over something like $65) ...

"Is she worth $65?"

And then, because anything over $65 has to go in a warehouse:

"If she's worth more than $65, will she be okay in the warehouse?"

Oh, the options of story telling do abound.

::hee hee::

Progress...

I have been working pretty hard on HIGHBORN for the past month. Most of that has not been on new writing, but on completing the outline. This was needed both for me-- I knew where I wanted the novel to go but I needed a sense of how it was going to get there-- and for an agent I'm hoping will take me on. So over last weekend, I finished the detailed outline, polished the first 60 pages of HIGHBORN to the highest shine I could, and finalized two one-page pitches for what could be books 2 and 3 if this was to be considered for a series. It all went out on Monday, said agent received it on Wednesday, and now we wait. My fingers are so tightly crossed they look like pretzels. I've brought the goal number down to something a little more realistic; anything above 100,000 is cream. Here's the progress meter:



On the not-good-news side, cancer has poked its despicable head out again. A couple of years ago a former coworker got married, had a baby and moved to the east coast. Yesterday I found out that the two-year-old baby, Jaina, was diagnosed with a Wilms tumor on her kidney. The tumor (a 2-pounder) has been removed and was a stage I malignancy; Jaina now faces 19 weeks of chemotherapy. She's in her first week, so even though you may not know this little girl, please keep her in your thoughts. By the way, it's not too late to add to the donation pool on my ACS page, which still exists here: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/yvonnenavarro.

Here's wishing everyone a great weekend and a fabulous Memorial Day. RIP to all the great men and women of the U.S. who have fought and died so that we can have the liberties and life we have today. We salute you, honor you, thank you, and remember you.

Middle of the Night Walk Report

So it was actually kind of fun, although I was rather taken aback by the poop-out-ness of my team mates. MK, who talked me into this to begin with, got up out of his lawn chair and walked with me for about 20 minutes, then bombed out and went home. EE walked with me for about a half hour after that, then collapsed with her husband and twins in an RV. Incredibly, I was actually kind of energized, so I walked the rest of it by myself, be-booping around the track and singing along with the music coming out of the Kareoke (I have no idea how to spell that) machine on the stage... and doing a better job matching the words than the teenagers there, if I do say so myself. I said I'd do two hours, and by gawds, that's what I did. I took a 5 minute break to eat potato chips (for some reason I got ravenously hungry at about 4:10 a.m.) and let myself go home when I saw the sun come up at 5 a.m.

I managed to raise $370.00 for the American Cancer Society. Thank you to all my wonderful contributors-- you know who you are. Also thank you to all the wonderful people who donated on your own, bought luminaries, or donate a few dollars throughout the year. It all counts, and you all rock.

:-)

Last Chance !!!

Yes, I am repeating myself: In only a few hours, I will get my sorry buns up in the middle of the night (2:30 ayam, to be exact) and go walk around Veterans' Memorial Park for two hours as part of the American Cancer Society Relay. If you can spare even a dollar or two, please sponsor me on my ACS Relay Page. Every dollar helps to fund research to conquer the cancer demon that wants to be in all of us. Thanks!

A Very important Thing: Cancer

In a bit under a week, on May 9th (technically May 10th, but let's not get lost in the details), I'm going to get up at 2:30 in the morning, go to the center of my little town, and walk with a bunch of other people as part of the American Cancer Society Relay.  I can't think of anyone who hasn't been touched by cancer, either by personal experience with the disease or by losing someone who has.  Over the course of my life, cancer has taken my Uncle Garlon, my LJ friend Richard, acquaintances Al and Cookie VanderSluis (husband and wife, who died from different types of cancer only a few years apart), and my very good friend from Rudnick & Wolfe, Dorothy Harrington.  My grandmother fought off cervical cancer before chemo was ever invented, and here and there in my family tree the disease pops its despicable head up before being, thankfully, beat down.  My beloved Chanci, a Great Dane/Lab mix I had for 10 years, succumbed in 1991, after being whittled down in a single month to little more than a bag of bones that I had to carry up and down the stairs.

That's the bad news.  The good news is that we are constantly searching for and finding ways to combat all the forms of this horrible disease, and we will not stop.  Not now.  Not tomorrow.  Not ever.  So if you can spare a few dollars-- literally, ANY amount-- please sponsor me on my ACS Relay Page here:

http://main.acsevents.org/goto/yvonnenavarro

Thank you... and thank you, again, to the people who have already been so generous!

"The Fifth Season"

Walk with me a little while.

We will walk together in Spring, with new life bursting around us.

Summertime, side by side we will lie in the sun together, our hearts warm with the good company of best friends.

We will traverse fields in Autumn, with golden leaves soft under our feet, brisk wind at our backs.

Winter brings us to the cozy hearth, dozing by the fire, flickers of embers reflected in our eyes.

There is a fifth season, unnamed, unfathomable, when the leash must be hung on the wall, no longer making the visible connection we have to one another.

Yet the invisible one remains.

Always I will be a part of you as you are of me.

My friend, my heart, my Great Dane.

Author Unknown*

*If you know, tell me
so I can credit.

Lily
January 14, 2003 - May 1, 2006



Sleep well, my sweet Lily.
We still miss you so.

Fair is Good, but only for SOME People...

Equal Pay for Equal Work. It's Only Fair...?

On Wednesday, April 23rd, the Senate failed to pass the Fair Pay Act. What was almost worse than that defeat were the out-of-touch, old-fashioned-- and downright insulting-- statements about women. Senator John McCain (come ON, Arizona!), who didn’t even come to vote, said that instead of legislation allowing women to fight for equal pay, they simply need "education and training."

Lilly Ledbetter, whose Supreme Court case led to the creation of the Fair Pay Act, didn't need "training". She needed Fair Pay. Women today make up 56% of college graduates and nearly half of the labor force in this country. Yet women make only 73 cents to a man's dollar, and mothers only make 60 cents, for the exact same job.

Sign the petition below in support of the Fair Pay Act. And for good measure, send Senator McCain your resume. Our goal is to send him 100,000. Think he'll get the point?

We Need Equal Pay for Equal Work--it is good law, make it enforceable.

http://www.momsrising.org/fairpaymccain

The above is taken almost word for word from a Fair Pay Act website. What you'll read below, what I HOPE you read below, are my words, my story. An absolute, God's truth slice of my past:

When I was 18, I worked for a real estate firm in Chicago called Frank M. Whiston & Co. I was an accounting clerk, and I made $380.00 per month, BEFORE taxes. For this $380.00 per month, I opened, counted, and reconciled rent checks from various Chicago properties. Eight feet away from me sat a young man about the same age, and his name was Ray. He did the exact same job that I did. And for this job, Ray made $500.00 per month. He was single, so having a "family" wasn't even a flimsy excuse. He made more than me because he was a man. Period. And while I always found myself borrowing a few bucks from my coworkers every week so I could buy cigarettes (I was a smoker back then), the amount that Ray made more than me each and every month would have literally paid my entire rent.

That was in 1975. Come on, people of America. I really thought we were past that sh*t by now.

But thank you John McCain, who has informed me in no uncertain terms that I do not need equal pay for equal work. I need education and training. May I take this to mean I need more education and training than my male counterparts to do the same job so that I can earn the same amount of money? Perhaps, then, my male counterparts would like to PAY for that education? If being a woman means I am not entitled to equal pay, then being a man should mean men pay more taxes. Pardon me, but both make the same damned amount of sense.

If you are a woman, please go to the link above and sign the petition. If you are a man, before you blow this off and forget it, think about the women in your life. Your mother, your wife, sister, your daughter-- all of these women whom you claim to care so much about will be faced with this. It affects the woman in the next cubicle who struggles to make daycare payments and can't afford family medical insurance. It affects the friend from work you have lunch with in the plaza-- you know, the gal who brings her lunch most of the time and who can't afford to go out to lunch while coworkers of a certain gender eat out 4 or 5 times a week. The world would be a better place and politicians like McCain might actually wake the frack up if their male counterparts added their voices to the "THIS IS NOT FAIR!" scream.

Read it for yourselves:

What is the Fair Pay Act?

Republicans Defeat Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

McCain dismisses equal pay legislation, says women need more ‘training and education.’

McCONNELL AND SENATE REPUBLICAN EXTREMISTS KILL EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK BILL

Ledbetter Fair Pay Act Vote Fails In Senate: The Case For More And Better Democrats

McCain opposes equal pay bill in Senate

Harlan Shows His Teeth...

Whether you love or hate Harlan Ellison, he is the defender of all writers:





One of the FAQs on my website addresses folks who write me and ask me to contribute stories for free or for a contributor's copy. Sometimes, when I say "No. No. And no." I'm called snobbish, or unappreciative of the "plight of new writers." That "plight" will never change if you write for free (and come on-- a freakin' penny [or less!] per word might as well be free), and those folks who call me those things tend to run out of responses when I ask them if the grocery store will take that contributor's copy and give me a loaf of bread, or if I can mail that contributor's copy to the electric company to cover my monthly bill.

Yeah. Go Harlan.


(Thanks to my friend, Shira, on whose Blog I found the video.)

::Blub::

Yes, that's me, coming up for air... or at least catch-up. During my last news report (::ahem::), I was caught up in a myriad of WHC rescheduling. Our trip out there was loads of fun and activity-- more panels than I've been on in quite some time, plus the mass autograph signing and a reading. Busy busy busy. I unveiled a 1/2 hour chunk of HIGHBORN to about fifteen people during my reading slot (and I was really flattered that Melanie Tem, who is an absolutely fantastic writer, attended). There were parties and for a change I tried to socialize instead of being the early-to-bed petite desert flower that I am. Okay, I still couldn't keep up with The Husband ( ) but I managed to be a bit more social than at previous cons. While we've resisted for awhile, both The Husband and I seemed to cave this time and we really bought a lot of books. And when I got home, I'd finally had enough of the tired eyes, etc., and I went to the eye doctor, so now I'm eagerly awaiting a regular pair of everyday glasses, and an extra reading-only pair. I'm longing for the days of my teenagehood, where I'd sit down with a book on Friday evening and by Sunday night, I'd finished it... plus two more. At present I'm good for fifteen minutes at most.

Goblin and The Ghost are okay, Poe is fine. Weather is cold at night and chilly yesterday, but finally breaking. Festival of the Southwest tomorrow at the park, we'll be there with bells on. No movement on the job front, but hopes springs infernal and all that stuff. Writing goes slow but I feel inspired, this despite a little disappointment from a package I sent out. Such is life.

Rather than ramble on, I'll keep this reasonably short and end it by saying that The Husband has come up with the absolute bomb of a book trailer for Scarecrow Gods. Turn up the volume and check it out!

Of Course!

I put all the WHC2008 panel stuff on LJ, FB, MS and my Blog.

Then they changed the time for one of the panels.

3/29 (Saturday) - NOW 9:00 - 9::50 a.m.: Pacing is everything. Do you have ups and downs? One long, slow climb? How do you pace your story for maximum impact? (panel participant) (And no, I have no idea why the world is so cruel as to make me be on a panel at 9 on a Saturday morning. Gah.)

And I forgot to list my reading slot.

3/28 (Friday) - 1:30 p.m.: 1/2 hour Reading. I think I'll finally give the world a sneak peak at HIGHBORN. By the way, The Husband () is reading immediately afterward, at 2:00 p.m.

And I forgot to tell everyone about the fun Interview I had with a Transylvania journalist, which is now posted online. The newspaper is the Transilvania Expres, and Yours Truly is grinning at the Romanian world via a shot from, yes, last year's World Horror Con. No, I have no clue what it says. I can recognize a few words, like vampire, creature, and Buffy. Beyond that...

(please please don't let me remember something else the instant I hit "post")