Tuesday, June 26, 2012

The Fun Stuff in June

Unfortunately, there hasn't been as much leisure time as I crave. But I am determined not to let the balance of my life get completely out of whack.

Movies
We saw Men in Black III and it was awesome! Very poignant at the end, surprisingly so, but well set up. Also very funny. Josh Brolin was PERFECT as a young K. I also saw Brave yesterday with Number One. That was good, too. It was nice to see a mother/daughter story and I suppose it's good that it wasn't all about falling for a prince. I missed the romance, though. :)


Books

My reading has been all over the place. Again, not much time, so I've spread it out. I was reading a library hardcover, a paperback, a short story on the Kindle, and a book on my iPod Touch all at the same time. I liked it! It allowed me to read many things I like all at the same time, instead of feeling bad for all the stuff sitting and waiting for me.


I didn't think I'd like reading on the iPod. Backlighting=eyestrain, especially with my dry eye issues from the LASIK, and it's small. But I started reading Megan Hart's The Resurrected on our trip and liked it better than I expected. The iPod reading, not the story. That I literally could not put down, even when it made me nauseous. That woman has a sick mind for horror, let me tell you. Wait until you read Part 8! This is a serial novel, and Part One is currently FREE so if you like horror, go get it now!


Anyway, yesterday I finally rejoined the health club and found that the iPod is perfect. I can listen to podcasts while I work the machines, then switch to reading on the treadmill, instead of carrying around the Kindle or a book or having to go back to the locker room to get it.

My reading time is mostly stolen time. Occasionally while I eat a meal, always right before I go to bed (though when that's usually midnight or later, it's short!), while I brush my  teeth, and once in a while, a stolen chapter in the parking lot at the grocery store.


TV

Ah, TV. *sigh* Not much of it on right now. We're in that hateful between stage when most of the summer shows I love (Leverage, Covert Affairs, Alphas) haven't started yet. Some have, but they're few so I watch them quickly and then have nothing to watch for a while. Falling Skies has my full craving now (on tonight, YAY!). Enjoying Bunheads so far. More serious a storyline than expected/than ever on Gilmore Girls, but the humor and dialogue are the same. Royal Pains is better than I expected, with the rift between the brothers. I thought that was improving, then they had to make it front and center again.

We are still loving Franklin & Bash. Mark Paul Gosselaar and Breckin Meyer are effortlessly entertaining, and the surrounding cast, always awesome, has had more focus so far this season. They've also had some spectacular guest stars. Cybill Sheppard, Seth Green, Kevin Nealon...it's neverending! My theory is that they can tell it's a fun show and they get to play fun characters. So glad they do! :)

So what entertainment have you been enjoying so far this summer?

(Speaking of entertainment, I have a post up today at Everybody Needs a Little Romance about the evolution of entertainment delivery, and there's a giveaway involved. Check it out, tell me what you think!)

Monday, June 25, 2012

It's Not All Deadlines and Work

Here's more of what I've been up to all month:


View from library's third floor
College Visit
We went up to Burlington, VT, at the beginning of this month. MAN that's a long drive. It was much easier coming back, when we broke it over two days. Also more beautiful because we took the ferry across Lake Champlain.


Champlain College is tops on her list at the moment, but we have two more visits planned and then probably two more to do in the fall.


We got lucky and had gorgeous weather for the tours and stuff. The college and town are beautiful, and the program there very unique.


City Islanders Soccer
The season really got front-loaded with home games, so we were going a couple of times a week, with the Open Cup games, regular games, and friendly match against our MLS affiliate, the Philadelphia Union. Our backups beat their backups 3-1, which was great, but it also makes me nervous because they were a little unhappy about that and we have to play them in the Open Cup Quarterfinals on Tuesday. If we win and Dayton upsets the team they're playing, we get to host the semifinal. That would be AWESOME! This is the furthest the team has ever gotten in the Cup, and we always lose to an MLS team at this point, so it should be a good game. Even if the Union play hard because we pissed them off.


For regular season games now, they've got a heavier away schedule, and the few home games hit while we're out of town. So I'm glad we got to do as much as we did.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

So Exciting to Finally Learn What Deadline Hell Feels Like!

GEEZ I've been away for a long time.

Very nice to see that while I've been not posting, people have still been visiting. "Ryan Reynolds in his Underwear" is still getting the top hits. Go figure!

So what have I been up to all these many weeks? Stay tuned...

No cover yet for Heavy Metal
Deadlines
First, the second-pass edits for Heavy Metal. Some of them were extensive, though not has hard as I expected them to be, so I was head-in-the-book as constantly as possible for a couple of weeks. I was really happy to make word count, because even though I originally came in 4,000 words short of the target on my initial submission, and then I learned it was okay to go 4,000 words over that original target, every revision my editor gives me seems to require more words rather than fewer. I was pretty happy with the changes, but haven't heard what she thinks yet.

Then was a Christmas short story I submitted cold. Very different from what I've been writing lately, because it's straight contemporary romance and features a lot of the tropes of category romance (though it's just a short story). Haven't heard about that one yet, either. I'm doing a lot of nail-biting this summer! That one I targeted about 12k and hit just under 15k, the upper limit. Could have gone longer, too. I don't think I can say that I write short anymore.

Now it's Sunroper, which is due August 1 and I can finally concentrate on exclusively. Until I get the final pass on Heavy Metal and the short story and the other short story I submitted a while ago.

Work
I won't say much about that. Lots of freelance work, which is paying for LASIK so that's good, and extra hours at the day job to help cover vacations. Fun!

More to come tomorrow. Tell me what you've been up to!