The New Floodgates of the Mind

I’ve been having an interesting few weeks recently in regards to my writing. I’ve been chatting with an editor who had been interested in some of my Fast Fiction pieces (and who actually impressed me with his own skills!). It’s very rare that I “click” with someone who’s suggestions on my work are bang-on all the time. At any rate, the important and happy thing is that yesterday I got confirmation from him that he had accepted 3 of the 7 FF pieces I submitted. 🙂

Yes, I was very happy and immediately called Chantale to tell her that he had also accepted the third one under discussion (he had already confirmed for two this past weekend). She was happy but we took it in stride. I can’t explain it – it was as though we knew it was coming, just a matter of time.

Yesterday, I met with some creative friends (one, a writer/artist self-publisher, the other, a successful artist) and we discussed our various projects. When I mentioned the fact that I had confirmed those 3 pieces, they basically “smiled and nodded” in congrats/ good news. But, again, it was as though we all took it in stride. It is exciting and happy news but I guess we’ve been in the business for so long that it’s not as mind-shattering as a “first” sale 🙂

Today, however, I emailed Warren Ellis and told him that although I had already thanked him TWICE at the Paradise Comics Toronto Comicon recently (once at his panel, once at his table), I needed to thank him AGAIN for having “introduced” the Fast Fiction challenges on his LJ – especially because I did get those 3 pieces accepted. In other words, I made a sale because of him.

This was not the first time I’ve emailed him, but it WAS the first time he ever replied. 3 words: “Oh, excellent. Congratulations.” And now I’m BEAMING with pride and happiness 🙂 You’ll all have to wait, unfortunately, before I can give you more details about the pieces and where they’ll appear 🙂

Considering the amount of things that have already been added to the Baby’s room, it seems a little strange to be posting this picture, taken when there was only ONE item in it – the bed! 🙂 Still, with more pictures to follow in the coming days, it gives everyone a starting point (following from Chantale’s posts of her dad and I painting and prepping the room)

Casey Testing Baby Bed After the Baby bed was setup, Casey made sure it was sturdy 🙂

It took 8 hours, but the sucker’s done with! Holy Moley but I didn’t think I had SO much left to do! With all the mailing comments already done, I thought the Paradise Comics Toronto Comicon review and associated news bits would have taken maybe 3 hours at most. But 8?! Yow! But, with all the photographs I’ve added to the reviews, it comes out to a pretty big/intense section. Include the second-to-last chapters of the Mysterious Minute-Men serialization, and you get a section size the likes of which I haven’t put together in quite the number of years. (just the MCs are 24 pages, to give you an indication).

And yet, even after 8 straight hours here, I didn’t even get the twinge of a headache I normally do at work. Quite a difference, hm? Yes, considerably. Well, once everyone else starts sending in their work, I’ll be all set for putting Comicopia #89 together and shipped out next weekend. Yup, I’m feeling very excited and anxious about this 🙂

While my lovely wife is at her mother’s enjoying a baby-shower, I’m at home trying to clear out my backlog of personal writing duties. It’s going rather well and it feels great to have my desk re-energized. It’s not 100% ready, but there’s enough of a good vibe to help me put those finishing touches on my Comicopia zine, on Comicopia-related activities, and maybe even some other items.

I must admit that I’m thoroughly enjoying sitting here surrounded by comics, papers, tim horton coffee (love the fact you can bring home the blend and put it in your own maker!), and chocolate! mmm chocolate! 🙂 I’ve been at this for over 4 hours already and I can hardly believe it. Still have a few hours left to go and I’m hoping to have it all done before the party’s over 🙂

One sad realization has been the fact that I have no Fast Fiction to contribute! In over 2 months now! wow. If that doesn’t prove that too much of my energy has gone into my daily work duties, nothing does. Well, nothing outside of the fact that way too often I’ve had my employees come to my desk and before they can ask me something will blurt out how much I look tired/bushed/like shit/need sleep/need coffee. Hm. As I promised Chantale this week, I’m coming out of my loop on this. Nothing like the realizations I posted about previously to drive home the point that a change is needed. Trust me, I know that waking up anywhere between 3am and 5am and being unable to fall back to sleep due to images of work and the meetings I have to set up, attend, or run is a definite “Clear and Present Danger” to my health.

Now, I think I’ve spent too much time online and should get back to deciphering my notes so I can move ahead in my plans 🙂

Avanti!

All right, it’s time for another one of those Famous Friday Frazzled Rambles.

I’m feeling very restless tonight.

Chantale went off to her final pre-natal swimming class of the season and I figured I’d be able to use the alone time to work on putting the finishing touches on my Comicopia submission as well as putting down some character-notes for a possible next-Nano-novel.

Instead, I’m sitting here fidgeting, jumping from site to site, listening to music and just feeling… restless and agitated! Not exactly a happy moment… just edgy.

sigh. may as well get offline and try to see if changing my scenery can change my mind…

“There must… be more… to life… than this… more to life…”
– Alien Sex Fiend

Yup. There is.

Chantale’s dog-sitting tonight. In a way it’s good because the heat at home is really unbearable. Whatever cool breeze was coming in earlier is gone now and I’m actually sitting in the basement – coolest place in the house – at 84 degrees. Even being practically naked doesn’t help.

I miss being with her but we’ve chatted on the phone off and on for the last couple of hours so I can still feel her near 🙂 In the meantime, though, I’ve used this time to do some serious catching up on Comicopia. I’ve had my stuff rough-printed in my scrapbook for weeks now, but never got around to typing it up. Add to that the various news pieces I need to include (as well as my report on the Paradise Comics Toronto Comicon and Shuster Awards) and I feel like I’m paddling just to stay afloat. I should be able to wrap this all up during the coming week as I’ve got other work waiting for me. I have a couple of pieces under consideration and need to rework an older piece before attempting submission on it. The urge/ bug is there with a vengeance this time so it’s time to get my ass in gear. I realize how much I’m missing it.

As an example, Thursday night, wiped and burnt-out from a really tough day at work, I’m desperately trying to calm down long enough to fall asleep. Chantale is by my side trying to soothe my nerves and calm me down to no avail. Too much on my mind and not all of it good. She leaves for a while to take care of a whining dog and I start to think about the particular pieces I had submitted and the ones that were requested changes on and I begin to feel a change come over me. As I’m lying there contemplating this and future work, Chantale comes back to bed and breathes a sigh of relief. “Now this is the energy I love!” she says. “Your aura has completely changed!” I just smile because I feel it as well. A renewed sense of energy that comes over me during the creation process. So tangible it’s almost visible.

My goal is to ride this through as much as possible and get back in stride. I made a good start tonight but have to keep the momentum going. There will be a shift in the work I’ll be producing in the coming weeks, but it’s more a focus shift than anything else. We’ll see what comes out of it. As of right now, though, I do believe I’ll be doing NaNo again this year, but in my own way. What that means… time will tell.

For now, I need a quick, cold shower, and then to calm down enough to sleep. Tomorrow is another long, busy, and filled work day. I’ve got another new consultant joining my new team and a large number of other administrative things to do. … oh joy. like I really have the urge to sleep now… sigh.

Back to dreaming up new worlds and adventures…

Chantale, the kids, and I are lounging around at my in-laws. Considering the infernal heatwave that’s hit us, there was no way for any of us (dog included!) of surviving. Since there’s air conditioning here, we decided to come over and regain our strength. They’re currently in Calgary but told us we could come over since we knew what weather to expect. With Melyssa and Chantale both asthma sufferers, it made sense.

After I picked up the kids yesterday, we went home and did some last-minute chores around the house along with making supper. Drenched in sweat we took a quick shower and then packed our stuff and came over. Within 20 minutes, everyone woke up again. The dog, who looked like an old dish rag just spread on the floor suddenly came back to life with high energy 🙂 We all got cozy downstairs and settled in to watch Chicken Run on CBC (Saturday Night at the Movies which I’m going to miss when/if Hockey returns to the airwaves next year). Chantale and I had never seen it and we really got a kick out of it 🙂

Kids in bed, Chantale and I went upstairs and got some more munchies. I had brought along Risky Business since she’d never seen it and we relaxed watching that. When it was over, we ended up with a little Frisky Business ourselves 🙂 I must admit (and cover your eyes if you’re under 18!) making love to a pregnant woman is an incredibly tender and emotional experience. Of course it helps if you’re as madly in love with her as I am with Chantale 🙂

Thelma and Louise was the late movie and since Chantale couldn’t remember Brad Pitt being in it, we stayed up until after his scene and then called it a night. This morning, she had to get out of bed and go sleep on the couch at 7am due to the baby’s constant hiccupping. The kids stayed in bed until I got them at 8:45am. I made them and myself breakfast while Chantale continued (and continues!) to catch up on her sleep 🙂 They’re now building Legos on the bed while I decided to come online and see if anyone posted about last night’s concert 🙂

I have to look into what installing an A/C system into our current central air would cost. This heat is just way too dangerous. And as much as I enjoy being here (it’s like going away to a cottage for the weekend 🙂 ) I would just as much enjoy being at home and at least being able to continue working on some of my on-going writing projects and submissions…

Spoke with my mom last night to get news on my dad. Turns out they had spent the whole previous day back at the laser specialist with no good news to report. The retina in my dad’s right eye is torn and is effectively half-blind in that eye. Laser surgery could be done but nothing guarantees it’ll do anything. He’s now on Vitalux and will have to be for the rest of his life. This should give him the appropriate vitamins to prevent the same trouble attacking his left eye. He has to go back next week to see what they can do to stop the spread of the damage to the right eye.

Basically, if he were to cover his left eye and look at you with his right, he would only be able to see you from the chest down. That’s his field of vision. I can only imagine how much more strain this will put on his left eye. Add those daily vitamins to the daily pills he takes for his thyroid and I begin to see how it is that we start our lives crying and looking for warmth and nourishment, to ending it spending what seems like hours every day ingesting man-made products, chemicals, etc. The older you get, the more pills you have to take. Kind of makes me think long and hard about how I want to live my life when I’m old, worn-down, and broken.

It hurts to know how he’s feeling and what he’s got to cope with… but at least he can still see and will be able to see his new grandson next month. I don’t know how we would have been able to handle the alternative…

As for myself… I still don’t want to talk about it. Although I got the all-clear signal, the test I went through was the most violating, painful, and emotionally shattering thing I have ever experienced in my physical life. A 2 minute test that had me blubbering in pain and shock, locked in the bathroom for 20 minutes at the hospital before I was able to go home… to lock myself away again and spend several hours in complete agony. I couldn’t believe the documentation they gave me ahead of time casually stated that I could “return to work without difficulty” afterwards. Barbarians.