In which Seanan pleads forebearance, and bullet-points the week.

[seanan_mcguire]

1. I have been blazingly ill since Sunday afternoon, and spent most of yesterday and Monday in a cold medication haze. I am thus behind on LJ comments, email, snail mail, passenger pigeon mail, Facebook mail (well, I'm always behind on Facebook mail), sending out the mail, opening the mail, and anything else that required actual effort on my part. If you're waiting for a response from me, please, be patient. If your request is urgent, please, mail again. If I do not consider your request to be actually urgent, like you're asking for kitten pictures or something, I reserve the right to delete your email and scowl in your general direction.

2. Despite being blazingly ill, I managed to make my word counts on Blackout both days, and am on track to hit 100,000 words on April 23rd. This is good, since it means I may actually finish the book, you know, on time. I love finishing things on time. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and slightly less completely deranged.

3. Saturday night was GP's birthday party! I did not come home that night, as it was late and we were all exhausted and sort of drunk (and yes, this may have dealt my immune system the fatal blow). Thomas showed his disapproval by climbing onto my computer desk, gently nudging aside the dolls on the second shelf, pulling down the jar in which I store my earplugs, opening the jar, dumping out the earplugs, and eating half of them. I do not know why he is so obsessed with eating the damn things, but he's why I bought that jar in the first place. Now he shits little pink bullets, and looks smug.

4. My vet has confirmed that this won't hurt him, but is also sub-optimal. I have moved my earplugs.

5. The first draft of "Crystal Halloway, Girl Wonder, and the Terror of the Truth Fairy" is finished and being hacked at by the Machete Squad. This is seriously the most depressing, nihilistic story I think I've ever written. Which makes it appropriate that I wrote it while I was sick even unto death. This thing reads like the prologue to a Vertigo comic series.

6. I am not writing a Vertigo comic series. Unless, of course, DC asks me to.

7. I also got started on the first draft of "Rat-Catcher," a Tobyverse story set in London, in 1662 (yes, only a few years before the Great Fire, and the Great Plague). In it, a young Prince of Cats named Rand must stop playing theater cat at the Duke's Theater long enough to find a way to deal with his father, keep his sister from doing something monumentally stupid, and oh, right, maybe save the Cait Sidhe of London from a fate worse than death. Is this Tybalt's origin story? Why yes. Yes, it is.

8. Things already pulled from my research shelf in service of "Rat-Catcher": The Writer's Digest Guide to Character Naming (second edition), London: A Biography, Sex and Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, and The Wordsworth Dictionary of Shakespeare. Make of this what you will.

9. Being sick did allow me to catch up on some of my cache of SyFy Original Movies, including the second half of Meteor with Marla Sokoloff. This was a disturbingly good, surprisingly high-budget feature, especially for a SyFy Saturday. Also, not only were women competent and realistic characters, they didn't all die. Well done, SyFy. Keep up the good work.

10. Zombies are still love.

What's up with you?

Comments

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

I have the aigh-my-nose-won't-stop-running that seemed to be the main feature of GP's cold. I'm attacking it with zinc and C and other things, as I need to be able to sing this Saturday. (For which rehearsal went *great*!)

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

Wishing you a complete recovery ASAP.

Re Thomas eating your pink earplugs: If they're the same ones I use, he may have been trying to get you to go shop for replacements, & thus discover that they also come in orange. See, he did it for you!

Regarding the new story, I admit it gave me a nice warm glow to see you used my rather uncommon first name. Then I remembered that, according to my grandmother, my English ancestors were named either Hallowell or... Halloway.

Exactly when did your minions kidnap & brain scan me?

[caerwynx.livejournal.com]

Wishing you speedy healing, plenty of tea, and less clever cat antics.

[loki-dip.livejournal.com]

I think the cold thing has stormed the planet, or at least the internet right now. *sighs* Feel better soon! I have so much work to do but have to nap every afternoon to feel in vaguely human right now.

Can't imagine the earplugs are particularly tasty. Has he not discovered chocolate yet?

Currently I'm trying not to get my hopes up about yet another job. But this one I have a shot at and it's part of the bioresponse team that researches (and in case of an emergency acts) against bioterrorism. Hopefully I have all the right microbiology experience because it sounds fascinating. Though the sheer volume of security checks is a little nerve wracking!

[deakat]

Life is pretty good, unemployment notwithstanding. Had a fun evening with friends watching the first three episodes of Wonderfalls. I had forgotten that it was a Tim Minear production, and how very much I loved it.

[jenrose]

It's somewhat terrifying that I can tell an almost identical earplug story.

Only it stars my younger daughter, rather than a cat. Crazy kid. *looks askance* I guess they're like really disgusting gum?

I've still got tears in my eyes from laughing so hard at Now he shits little pink bullets, and looks smug.

[bercilakslady.livejournal.com]

I hope you feel better soon.

I'm knitting a Dalek, which is entertaining, but involves way too many bobbles.

[textileowl.livejournal.com]

Feel better, though your productivity while sick amazes me. The Toby- verse story sounds brilliant and just the sort of tidbit I needed while waiting for Jeff to get out of a successful sinus surgery.

[wyldlingspirit.livejournal.com]

#1 gives me a sad. I hope you get better soon! <3

#3 made me laugh ruefully. Serena eats earphone cords and cardboard boxes. And, when she's vexed at me, paperback books.

#7 made me bounce in my chair and squee!

[ceitfianna]

The Tybalt story sounds amazing and Vertigo clearly needs to hire you. I'm almost done with my semester and after a summer class will have an MLIS.

[antinomic.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward to the Puddy Tats in London. I had a cat there when I was a child, actually named it Puddy Tat. My wife is allergic to cats, so I've been a dog guy for 38 years. I had to make a choice, picked the wife. So far, it was a good choice. I'll render a final judgement in another 38 years. Symmetry!

[mariadkins.livejournal.com]

Now he shits little pink bullets, and looks smug.

:snicker:

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Yay rehearsal!

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I do not know. But if what happens to my Crystal happened to you, I'm sorry.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Thankfully, no chocolate. Chocolate is bad for kittens.

Dude, get a job in counter-bioterrorism, please! I want to pick your brain.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

It's a good, good show.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

...I guess.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Hee!

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Glad the surgery went well!

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

It's going to be awesome! I hope.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Yay!

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Good call. :)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

It's awful.

[mariadkins.livejournal.com]

i'm sure it is, poor guy. i'm with you - i have to wonder what he finds so fascinating and so tasty about your headphones!