Well, two weeks, at this point. I’m such a slacker.

In lieu of actual blog content, let me show you what I’ve been up to…

… witnessed my dad and stepmom’s new Thai restaurant being blessed by a Buddhist monk. (My stepmom is the lady in blue–my dad’s not in these photos. All the elderly people are family, though. The man setting next to me is my granddad.)

… revised BLINK and sent it back out to betas. Here’s a comparison of different versions of the first few chapters. I… very badly want to be done with this book.

… started “The Tales of Sigma City”–a pulpy ’50s superhero novella–from scratch. This is how I envision my main character, Joan. She needs a hug.

… biked into town so I could work on the above novella in the Central Library. On the way there, I encountered this bike parking boat, which is the coolest thing ever. It is out-Dutched only by our habit of pointing at a significant body of water and going, “That. That right there is where I’m going to build a house.”

(The floating flower market visible in this picture is also high up there, though.)

Well, the Christmas Eve dinner is over. Tomorrow: visiting the relatives. (The ones that live alllll the way across the country. You know, a one-hour drive from here.)

So to those who celebrate Christmas: I hope you have a wonderful few days.

I’m going to keep this short and leave you with a few more photos of all the white stuff outside — or rather, the fuzzy creatures who run around in it. I took these photos today, which means that, yes, we’ve got a white Christmas! This is very rare here, and this is the first time in over a century that we’ve had more than one white Christmas in a row. Pretty epic!

Yes, his head was *that* big. And yes, I was *that* close.

We’ve had a good nine or ten inches of snow in the past few days, and it’s awesome.

Aside from it being all cold and wet. (I’m a summer kinda girl.)

But still, it’s pretty enough that I felt compelled to take some pictures and spam the blog. You can’t blame me for that, can you?

I actually went outside the other day. Shocker!

Amsterdam means bikes. There is no way around it.

Teeny snowman and snow-kitty!

Ice on the bus window.

Amsterdam being, er, Amsterdam-y.

Lastly, I absolutely must share a dog video. Because, well. Dogs. And snow. It’s a match made in heaven. (This video was actually made a few weeks ago, which is why the snow isn’t as thick as it is now.)

Beware. Here there be photos.

I could show you a few hundred photos of interesting landmarks and gorgeous views, but, well, you can probably find higher-quality photos on Google. So, instead, have some photos of me-with-interesting-landmarks and me-with-gorgeous-views, with some random animals thrown in here and there.

Mmm, narcissism.

(It’s probably wise to skip this post. At some point, I’ll get back to actually writing-related posts again.)

So this is just about the only photo I have of me in Singapore – and it’s a totally charming one, at that. Look at that face.

But seriously, I made a ridiculously dumb decision in only stopping by there for two days. It wasn’t nearly enough to see everything there was to see. I’d love to go back there some time and explore further.

This was lunch on my first day in Australia, with my great uncle (who was kind enough to extend the invitation there in the first place) and his wife. They were exceptionally generous hosts, and they have an exceptionally lovely house. As in, they’re a few feet away from the ocean. And occasionally see sharks and dolphins and whales.

I am not joking. Check this out:

I could spend FOREVER there. It was gorgeous.

For most of the time, I actually stayed at my aunt’s house – which didn’t have the same view,  but did have excellent spots to sit in the sun and read. Which, obviously, is everyone’s number #1 priority when on the other side of the world.

Not that there was much sun available. The first few days it RAINED. I am not joking. I felt deeply, deeply betrayed. It meant I had to walk around like this on vacation: 

And that is just wrong.

(Also, say hi to my aunt’s back.)

I’m skipping over some pictures of the Opera House and Circular Quay here, mainly because, well, it’s just me in front of the Opera House and Circular Quay, but also because of KANGAROO AND KOALA and I think I might’ve just lost my train of thought a little.

I had no idea kangaroos could be that snuggly. It was glorious.

Then there were epic hikes, awesome big band performances in Manly…

As a gift to my hosts, I also did some art during my time there; a portrait of my great uncle, and a nude drawing for my aunt.

This one is the nude. (Just for the record.)

I took a lot of WIP pictures of this one, so I’ll probably spam y’all with those in the future.

To those who know me, it will come as no surprise that I was all about the animals here. I mean – this is a country where ibises are so common they’re pests, where you can drive past emus in fields, and also KANGAROOS.

Um, yeah.

 

On the way back from this little excursion to kangaroo-land, I may or may not have taken about 140 photos of the sky. In my defense, it was really, really pretty.

I’ll spare you and just post a teeny selection:

Also! There were boat trips! And this post is getting more and more incoherent, so I’ll just leave you with this photo of me at my most be-oo-ti-ful. (There was sun, okay?)

And now, to settle back into Amsterdam life.

I’m only mildly terrified by my to-do list…

This:

… is essential in the making of this:

(Especially the cookies.)

The good news is that Milla is responding to the medication (which is intended to keep more fluid from building up in her lungs) excellently. Looking at her now, you’d barely notice anything was wrong. She’s eating well, she’s begging for attention, and rolling around in the backyard in the cutest possible ways.

No, seriously:

Not bad for a cat whose lungs, just a few days ago, looked like this:

All that white stuff on the left is fluid. The black triangle in the middle was all she had left to breathe with.

Poor kitten.

The bad news is that her improvement doesn’t mean there’s no more room for concern. We’re just fighting the symptoms here, and whatever caused this is still there. She has an echocardiogram scheduled for tomorrow morning. Hopefully that’ll shed some light on what’s going on. (Even more hopefully, it’ll be fixable.)

The last few days have consisted of:
a) worrying over Milla
b) spoiling Milla silly
c) beta reading

With a hint of TV and FreeCell thrown in for good measure. And some messing around online. Check out the ladies who’ve been occupying my headspace of late:

From left to right, that’s Lillian, whose book I’m querying; Cally, whose book I just finished; Mona, whose story I ought to be working on; and Yunupaya, whose book I am working on. When I really shouldn’t be. How did she get so loud all of a sudden?

Anyhow, these cute avatar things were made with this Portrait Illustration Maker at Abi-Station. And yes, that’s absolutely an invitation for y’all to get distracted as well. I’m nothing if not a fan of procrastination. (Shh, don’t tell anyone.) 

Still reviewing what I have written so far. It’s a ridiculously slow process – in large part because it seems that every single sentence in this book is either a fragment or a run-on. I can’t resist fixing it up here or there.

Also, I need to check the details here, but someone may actually be justified in physically assaulting me for my offensive overuse of semicolons and em-dashes.

Sigh.

In cheerier news, my sister was kind enough to dye my hair yesterday:

I don’t seem to be very photogenic today. The fact that the picture where I’m biting my lip is the best out of the several I took should tell you that. Man.

Anyway, cool, huh? I’m now officially a Pale Brunette. For someone who grew up as a Tanned Blonde, that’s a weird, weird thing.

I leave you with another song from the Book in Desperate Need of a Name soundtrack: I’m Not Afraid, by Howling Bells. YouTube only has a short, live version…

… but you can listen to the full-length track here.

I love the dreamy-yet-powerful feel of this song. It’s just so pretty!

Ach-hem.

This morning, I had a mullet for five glorious, glorious minutes. As far as WIPs go, this has to be the best yet:

Truly: this is my favourite photo of myself to date. Even if I look 17, and barely that. (I always tell myself that by the time I’m 40, I’ll enjoy looking this young; it doesn’t always help.)

(Oh, right, here’s the end result. Much less interesting, though.)

Anyway, I finished incorporating those suggestions into Always Read the Fae Print, and came up with a solution for a problem that’d been plaguing me for a while.  Said solution involved permanently busting one character’s elbow.

Within hours of finishing that scene, I banged up my own. It still hurts. I’ll have to think twice about the kind of damage I do to her in book 2 :/

All joking aside, I do have a snippet to share–a longer one than usual, even. Here’s Lillian biking home in a crappy mood. (She has her reasons, believe me.) Said mood gets even crappier when she realises there’s a creepy guy stalking her.

      Something swung the handlebars left. The grip of my right hand slipped from the wet rubber as the bike skidded on rain-streaked asphalt. The bike—and me with it—slammed onto the street. Pain stabbed my already-aching elbow, and flared in my hip and shoulder a moment later.
      Biting it down, I rolled onto my back. One hand groped for the bike pump mounted on the frame and yanked it loose, ready to slam it into my attacker if he approached.
      The man stood by my feet, hands in his pockets. “Bridge trolls,” he said, morosely.
      For a few more moments, I stayed tense on the ground, bike pump at the ready. He didn’t actually look like he planned to attack. He seemed human, but from the way he’d been following me, that seemed dubious. Refusing to take my eyes off him, I pushed myself to a sitting position. My teeth dug into my lip at the pain in my elbow and hip.
      “Bridge trolls.” The man nodded at the motorway overhead, a couple dozen feet away. From this distance, I knew better than to look for bridge trolls. You couldn’t see them unless you were already under the bridge—and good luck getting away then.
      At least this guy wasn’t trying to kill me. (Yet.) These days, that earned him automatic bonus points.
      “Plural?” I asked. Grimacing, I rolled up my coat sleeve. The skin underneath was scraped open and bleeding, guaranteeing a week’s worth of pain. “After half a year here, I’ve only ever seen one.”
      “They take fae orders these days. I tried to warn you.”
      “Next time, shout ‘bridge trolls!’ or something. You could’ve ruined my bike.”
      His gaze flitted over to the bike, purposely defaced by Merel and myself all those months ago to make it less attractive to potential thieves. He didn’t say anything about it. I took it as a kindness.

(And no, this isn’t the elbow-busting scene. Different scene, different character. Apparently I just like damaging people’s elbows…)

/clears throat

The “done” pile.

The “currently working on” pile.

… and the “to do” pile, featuring my Terrified Face™.

I think that sums things up pretty well.

See you in 2010!

In news completely unrelated to the commission I just finished (see left): I heard from the exposition committee yesterday, and I’m ever-so-pleased to announce that my work was selected! (Unanimously, too. Gotta point that out…)

So, should you be in the neighbourhood at any point between 14 and 17 January 2010, make sure to drop by Realisme ’10 to see some of my artwork in the flesh/paper/charcoal/pastel. It’s the first exposition where I’ll be actually selling work. I am – as usual when something is new and shiny – ridiculously excited.

And slightly nervous, but, er, don’t tell anyone.

In equally important news, I bring updates on the WIP – The Cat Formerly Known As Romy, Currently Known As Milla:

I think that just about says it all.

(I’d post some writing updates too because it’s been so long, but I’ve been mostly caught up with beta reading, incessant plotting, and fretting over imminent Always Read the Fae Print edits. Such is life.)