It’s a dog’s year and hopefully, this will mean that 2006 will be grand for me, as I was born in the year of the Dog.

Of Mondays and many things:
* I found out that my publisher is having money issues again. This time more serious. Recent e-mails are going without response, not only mine but several others. I have no idea where this is leading, but my gut feeling: he’s going under, despite what he and his wife think. I still haven’t heard about my royalty check from 3rd quarter (due in December), nor has he answered questions about tax forms. Advice to me from several friends: get a lawyer.
(this post is f’locked, b/c I’m not sure if my publisher reads this journal)

* Work was insanely busy as has been the case for several months. I have a giganto project in full gear, due to the client on 2/10. It’s going to be tight. Looks like February will be another month of long work days.

* Ann_Tara reported that NBC is streaming The Book of Daniel episodes. Too bad they’re not acknowledging those of us who (a) don’t use Internet Explorer and (b) don’t use PCs at home. Sigh. Maybe the eps will be released to DVD.

* I’ll be heading to San Diego in early March to ConDor, appearing as a guest author. Looking forward to this, my first SF/F con as a published author. Will be rooming with allaboutm_e and untamed_sylph, which should be a blast.

* I updated my Web site with this year’s events.

Tuesday thoughts
* It’s raining.
* It’s dreary.
* It’s way the hell too warm for January 31.

I woke up bizarrely early, with random thoughts floating through my brain, including the following snippet. Don’t know where I’m going to use it yet, whether a Blood Lines book (yes, that’s my new series name…depending on the whole publisher issue), or whether I’ll use it for a short story that’s banging around in my brain. I like the imagery though.

Writing snippet

This is what I said after the teaser:

It’s all a dream.

spoiler cut

Diana Ossana’s letter was written in response “It’s Very Brave of Them,” an Advocate.com exclusive commentary: My time on Brokeback Mountain.

Just read on 365gay.com that NBC’s dropped the Book of Daniel – effective immediately.

Too damn bad. This was a brilliantly funny show – all 4 episodes of it. I loved the characters, the twisty fun story lines and the idea that you could have humans in the clergy – with all the faults, the angst and silliness that accompanies humanity.

I knew it was too good to last.

ETA: To add insult to injury. WB/UPN merges to form CW – WTF? Sigh. What happens to Veronica Mars?

…but I sure am sick like she is.

No, not in the whole “I’m twisted” way, just in the sneezing, hacking, OMG how can one human cough so much kind of way.

I thought it was just a cold, but after 6 days of this, I went to the doc this a.m.

I’m just going to say: you piss me off once, I’ll write it off as you having a bad day.

Do it twice, (and I’ve ONLY ever been there twice), you LOSE.

This doc, whom I call Doogie, b/c he’s way younger than me, proceeds to get all pissy because I never came back to see him after my 1st visit 2 years ago, when I had flu. He wanted to do a physical, because hey, guess what, I’m a big woman, and god forbid I might actually be healthy (except for the flu).

He mentioned this today, when doing the thumping of the chest thing. I told him I’d had a full workup in October by my gyn. He’s all, I didn’t mean a female checkup. I kindly corrected him, explaining I had a full physical/blood workup, etc. prior to my day surgery. He then grumbled that it takes an internist to interpret that, not a gyn. So – WTF? He’s implying that my gyn (who is in his early 60s) is less of a doctor? And dude, interpret what? All my bloodwork is NORMAL – as in, I’m not diabetic. I have normal blood pressure, normal cholesterol and am not at risk for heart disease because I’m NORMAL. Yes, I fall in the obese category in modern (and IMHO incorrect tables), but that alone doesn’t mean I’m a candidate for death.

And since when do docs get grumpy at a patient for this kind of thing? My take is a good doctor is a good doctor, and if gyn saw something funky, he’d have told me to see a primary care doc. (which he did not, because I saw the test results and he explained them quite carefully)

So today, I got a cursory exam and scrips for amoxicillin and codeine cough syrup because I have a sinus infection (which I’d figured). Just a few minutes ago, I went to take a dose of the syrup, because codeine puts me out like a light. The dosage on the label: 5 ccs every 12 hours – which is what in teaspoons – because although I may agree the metric system is much more logical, I don’t have a handy-dandy metric measuring item around. ARRGH.

I managed to look it up online (after some false starts) and figured out it’s about 1 teaspoon. Why the hell didn’t he just write the scrip that way?

Why yes, I’m grumpy. And yes, a new goal for me is to find a new primary care doc – one that respects his patients.

ETA: OMG – In my foggy haze of coughing/congestion, I *totally* forgot to thank all of you that posted such nice things about my recent book review. Mea culpa!! Thanks so much – I’m still kvelling.

I’m totally verklempt. I just got a great review in the Well-Red Coyote’s e-newsletter:

MATTERS OF THE BLOOD By Maria Y. Lima (paranormal fiction)
Reviewed by Kris Neri

I like magic realism — the blend of real world and fantasy elements that we often see in fiction today. I like it in theory anyway. In actuality, I usually find the supernatural elements so overshadow the realism that while I may enjoy the tale, I never buy into the idea that it could really happen.

Until now. I’ve just read — devoured, really — Maria Y. Lima’s MATTERS OF THE BLOOD, and it’s the first of its kind that felt real to me. At 37, protagonist Keira Kelly is starting to go through “the change.” No, not that change. The change Keira undergoes is the one that will turn her into the paranormal being she’s destined to become. In the course of the book, while Keira’s senses become heightened, her sexuality charged, and she experiences brutal prophetic visions, we don’t know what kind of being she’s going to become. Keira’s guess is that she’ll become a shape-shifter like her brother, which in MATTERS OF THE BLOOD translates into a werewolf. But there are a variety of entities represented by her family and we’ll learn whether her guess about her own evolution is correct in
future installments.

While Keira is a trust fund baby, she always has some kind of job. She used to work as an escort. That’s not a euphemism for a call girl — but the individual who helps the immortal beings in her clan, who tire of eternal life, to move onto their rest. Now all her family requires of her is that she watch over her noodgy cousin, Marty Nelson, a throwback in her supernatural clan, since he was born an ordinary moral. When Marty is brutally slain, and in a way foretold by Keira’s vision, the police pursue a pair of local, human, thugs. But the suspicious bite marks on his neck make Keira look to her own kind. In the course of her quest, she unearths unexpected, long-hidden secrets.

Lima’s MATTERS OF THE BLOOD is a seductive gem, with a soul of darkness that’s as soft and sensuous as black velvet. Her choices are more imaginative than many writers in the paranormal genre, yet readers will find themselves buying into all of it, from Keira’s evolution, to her 2000-year-old brother, to the dishy neighborhood vampire who is nothing like any blood-sucker you’ve ever read before. Her voice is mature and commanding, especially remarkable for a first novel, with just the slightest trace of “otherness,” evidence that this butt-kicking protagonist isn’t like you and me. Author Dana Cameron has written of it: “Maria Lima writes hot action and spicy romance with a biting sense of humor, all deep in the heart of Texas. You’ll be sucked in.” I sure was.

The Well Red Coyote – Books on the Rocks A Real Bookstore for Real Book Lovers
3190 W. Highway 89A, Sedona, Arizona 86336
(928) 282-2284

…or at least appeased for now.

I’m home – the trip back was as uneventful as the trip there was fraught.

V. tired – my flight left SA a bit after 5:30 (a little delay b/c we were missing part of the flight crew). Stop in ATL but no changing of the planes.

Quick cab ride home and it’s seriously time for a nap!

The visit was fabulous – more later!

I’d thought my bad streak o’travel luck was over. Really. I did. 2005 was notable only in that most of my travel was rather uneventful.

That changed drastically today.

Follow the cut for the sad details

If ever there was one, this totally wins.

I’m frantically trying to get packed and set for my SA trip (I leave in the a.m.)

Just got home from work after the 3rd 11-hour day to find a month-old UPS package on my door.

What was it? My friend S’s annual steak gift to me. Delivered on 12/13/05 to the valet downstairs.

Needless to say, the box went directly to the trash room. I salvaged the UPS label and promptly fired off an e-mail to UPS.

They never once left me a notice that there was a package waiting for me.

I also sent an e-mail to S, who probably thinks I’m an ungrateful wench, never once having thanked her for the (once-lovely) filet mignons.

I’m taking Blanche with me to SA, as the hotel has free broadband, so I may not be as disconnected as I once thought. In any case, you all play nice…if you can’t play nice, have a blast!

(I’m totally behind on LJ reading, as per usual…darn work!)

,,,OMFG, it’s ONLY Tuesday!!??!!

I have spent (of the last 48 hours); 24 of them AT WORK.

My brain is exhausted. I’m trying to stave off the creeping crud that is going around because I’m flying to San Antonio on Friday morning.

This morning, I felt so bad that I canceled my MWA dinner RSVP and planned to leave the office around 2ish, so I could go home and sleep.

I left at 7:30.

Tomorrow is all day meeting that I need/want to attend. I’m fracking exhausted – oh yeah, said that already.

Luckily, I had leftovers from beledibabe‘s birthday lunch, so at least I got a decent dinner. Lunch was cup o’ramen. Brekkie was half a muffin or something.

Universe…I need a break, please. kthxbye.

ETA:

Note to byob_kenobi I really haven’t forgotten about the icons, sweetie. It’s just been insane. I promise I will make some for you.