Cats' yard empire.

On 14-April, I finally succeeded in reaching the local Humane Society, and fetched home a cat trap.

Too late, apparently. :/

I'd thought I might catch Vee in time, but getting the trap on a Friday made that problematic. I didn't want to catch her Friday evening, not and leave her trapped for days! She'd be prey to coons who'd consider her a convenient snack.


Sweetpea had her kittens sometime during 15 or 16-April.  Maybe even on Easter; but we weren't here until evening. 8(

Then Sweetpea went rather feral for a few days. Wednesday [?] she turned back into her usual affectionate self, and was very happy to see me, to come inside and be petted more, and to keep telling me that she loved me. "Pet me MORE!" said my grey cat.

The sisters [Sweetie and Vee] now that they're both mothers [maybe] aren't on the greatest of speaking terms right now. I had to tell Vee to behave when she growled at Sweetpea... which is likely a Sign that Vee does indeed have a couple of live kittens stashed somewhere. The shed, probably.

Copyediting: 2008+...

Tom Lehrer talks about people advertising what they've done... and as y'know, I too can do that. 8)

Back when I was starting out, I did more pro bono work. Not only because it is what TNH recommended to me, it was also that I had more free time in 2008.

I'd done nonfiction proofreading since 1989. I was anxious to do fiction next.

What I didn't know... was that inside of two years, I'd be proofreading and/or copyediting two nonfiction magazines, and two fiction 'zines. I started working on fiction novels barely four months after becoming the freelancer who proofread Locus.

Lists and surviving ADHD...

Instead of blogging about the cats [alas!] or other things, like copyediting or rants... today I'm doing an informational blog post. This is for my reference as well as anyone else, of course. 8)

It's also so I can close more tabs. :b

Some c/e highlights...

I do work on a wide variety within genre. Horror, dark fiction, GLBTQ sf/f romances, fantasy, sf/f alternate universes, YA, urban fantasies, paranormal fantasies, and much more. Just because I enjoyed working on a project doesn't mean you'll automatically like reading it, of course.

So I highly recommend checking genre first -- unless you, like me, have widely catholic tastes in reading (catholic the adjective, not the religion). If you like being surprised, then just leap in. That's what I do. :D

=-=

In 2014, I was offered Tekken: The Dark History of Mishima. That was fun. Only time I've ever been allowed to use "cartoon physics" as a guideline.

Tekken was translated into English, by an editor I knew... and who'd recruited me for my first paying gig as a freelancer. I really enjoyed working again with her.

Temping in 2000, cont'd.

Just in 2000 (blog post here), I worked as a temp at:

• Multiple places as reception; several requested I return, and if I didn't have a conflict, I did so -- at least twice for two different clients  

• Two dealerships: Flannery Ford [one week] and the original Saturn dealership** in Michigan [several weeks] { Newsweek link for Saturn's demise }

• The OCC Chancellor's Office, where I once answered the phone with "Chancellor's Office speaking" -- as another university's chancellor's office was calling! 8) 

• Advanced Medical Metpath, doing data entry on lab work forms (O that horribly dull place, no one spoke to other employees or temps! as you can imagine, I couldn't stand that; it was like working in a mirage of other people.) 

• March '00: My first Kelly assignment was at a psych clinic, which amused me, since that was the first time I'd ever been on the other side of the glass.  Plus one of my previous shrinks was there, and greeted me with joy... ("Where have you been?" he exclaimed. "California!" said I.) 

• Handing out paychecks in California for Adecco. *** Cushiest temp assignment ever.  ;)  They were sweet and even paid me for a couple extra hours, since they needed someone just to do this one thing all day long.  I sorted people's time cards on the side to keep my hands busy; this may be the real reason they loved me that day.

2000-05 income: temping.

Back then, I temped constantly.  I enjoyed being able to leave a place I didn't like, or that had a rotten work environment... or was boring.

Most jobs never took me long to master.

(Unlike the coupon-book publisher I worked for in 2003.  That job, ahhh, that was nice and meaty, and took me weeks to learn what was what.  Involved filing, much proofreading, plus using both PCs and Macs.  Lovely workplace...)

In just 2000 I had 15-odd assignments.  I was really proud of that.  I remember people who were horrified by this, and I could not understand why.

C'mon, having companies who clamored for me to return, that's pretty neat!

Labor Day 2016: Writing fail.

{ Draft written 5-Sept-2016, primarily. }

Ooooh, let's discuss Idiot Ball, shall we?

One of the things making me crazy watching The Flash season 2... was the idiot ball plot breakdowns.  Sometimes it was so bad they were idiot plots too.  8(

Character acts out of character, i.e., irredeemably stupid?  Guess who's got the idiot ball tonight!

Worst is when said character had said in a past ep why s/he wouldn't do that thing, only to decide to do it in this ep.

Specifics follow.  Also SPOILERS.  

Skip this if you have not seen the The Flash s2.