Interlude With Ornaments

Hope everyone had a happy holiday, and best of luck for 2013!

(I went with an Egyptian theme this year, in honor of the King Tut exhibition downtown. Clockwise from front: Scarab-themed painted wood ornament, cat, hummingbird, griffin, falcon, jackal, lion, and baboon. Paperclay with acrylic paint. Below: a slightly different angle. I ran out of time before I could manage individual detail shots. No shipped ornaments this year... life moves on and so do friends, leaving naught but memories.)

Waiting For The World To End

By some interpretations of an ancient Mayan calendar, that is... which, given that the Mayan calendar was evidently cyclical, would no more mean the end of the world than turning the calendar over from December to January, but it gives people something to panic about, which we haven't had since Y2K.

Anyway, it's been a month; I figured I ought to check in, for all none of you who give a dang. (Well, it's either that or risk ruining my ornaments by poking at them before the Paperclay's dry enough to handle...)

Fortunately, given the rest of the year, not much has happened since my last post. At least, not to me.

Grandpa's doing much better... better, in some ways, than he's been for a few years. He was even able to sign his own holiday cards this year - something he hasn't managed for a while. We're enjoying it while it lasts.

The salmon returned to the local stream this year. Not as many as I saw last time, but enough to be encouraging. We haven't destroyed every ecosystem... yet...

I continue to sling books at the local library, while seeking (and failing to find) a viable secondary income stream. I'm trying to whip a few stories into shape for possible submission - on the grounds that I couldn't be any less successful than I am right now, in writing and life in general - but it's going to have to wait until after the holidays. Xmas is only a week out (eek!) and I've still got a small mountain's worth of projects to finish before then. (Heck, I only got my holiday cards out in today's mail.) At least my shopping's done... I think...

Well, I suppose that's enough procrastination for now. Better get back to my work shed and see what I can do...

Interlude with Mushroom and Ivy

Because I saw these growing on a tree and thought they were cool.

Oh - speaking of rot and parasites, I finished my NaNoWriMo novel this evening. It was my fastest victory in four years, one I hope to beat next year.

Yep... knew ya cared...

Fall of the Fickle Muse

It's that time of year again... time to start holiday projects and begin a new novel while trying, against all odds, to finish up the other projects I'd hoped to have done long before now.

In other words, it's the time of year when one's muse, the inspiration and drive that enables one to even attempt the aforementioned activities, decides to hitch a ride to sunnier climes.

With the exception of a work shirt for Halloween (pictured above, made with iron-on holographic transfer stuff from the craft store), I've finished exactly nothing that I started out to do at the beginning of autumn. I believe the only reason I pulled off the shirt project was because doing so allowed me to procrastinate on those other things. But now I'm left with a bucketload of projects that need doing, some sooner than others, and no muse to inspire me to do them. My story revisions have sputtered out. My holiday projects are languishing in my workshop. My sketchbook hasn't seen a pencil nor a pen for months. My website still doesn't have the new graphics I promised myself I'd do when I topped 900 reviews. And it's eight hours until November 1 and I only have the vaguest sketch of a potential idea for NaNoWriMo, one so vaporous that it's liable to disperse the moment I fire up Writeway Pro to begin.

So, Muse, if you're reading this, please come home. I know you were with me all year, when I cranked out those half-baked story drafts when I should've been doing other things. I know you were still peeking over my shoulder when I decided to put off story revisions to design a holiday shirt for work for no earthly reason. Just because I have nothing left to procrastinate on doesn't mean I don't still need you in my life!