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Monthly.

Heather — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:19:55 +0000

It’s raining today. Outside the air is lost in the heavy weight of coastal fog. The sky broken and gray, bruised from yesterday. December is fleeting. The onslaught of holiday festivities and laced up boots press down on the fast forward button of the day. In another blink I’ll be residing in Colorado Springs. I’ve already signed the lease and received my brass key.

I’ve made a decision. I’m officially a Monthly Blogger. Updating by the month is what is most intuitively right for me at this time. I’ll probably bump up the blogging again after I’m settled from my move, but right now I’m focusing on FIY revision #2 and enjoying my last weeks in soggy southern California with my family.

Writing is always such a learning experience. Every draft is different, every revision an entirely new process, like hiking in the mountains for the first time. My mind is a lot more soothed and steady since I last blogged. Remember? I wasn’t working on FIY, only writing prose and poetry. I wasn’t blocked. I simply wasn’t ready to dip into the revision. It took another week of scribbling in my mole skinned journal before I was. But then the gun went off and the mad frenzy began.

Now I’ve combined the two: my novel writing and the tilted “mind’s dribble” (as dear Shola called it.) Breathing is such an easier task when I’m the midst of a revision. Life is good. I don’t snap at my family as much, and that is always a beautiful thing. The occasional rain is also very calming to me. I’m not a sun girl. I like wearing layers, seeing my breath when I walk outside, and hearing the curse of winter’s wind. Storms are realer, so raw, compared to blue skies and happy weather.

The next time I blog I’ll be writing from Colorado. I hope everyone has a lovely holiday! Stay warm. Drink lots of tea and gingerbread coffee, spend sometime with your family. Hug a tree.

I’ll leave you with a quote. In all honesty, autumn was rather rough and jagged. But this quote reminded me that it’s okay. It’s all a part of the grand journey. I made it through the different pains and I’ll make it through whatever else in store for me.

“When we can accept all of life’s contradictions, when we can comfortably flow between the banks of pleasure and pain, experiencing them both and getting caught in neither, then we are free.” – Deepak Chopra

Until next time.

Tilted Muttering.

Heather — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:46:47 +0000

Wow. Is it really September 21? Time is so relative, so weird. Some days drag on for years, while others spin down the drain in a single minute. I’m still sitting here. Typing away at this dining room table, sipping my tea, gulping my coffee. I’ve become a master of eating noddles with chop sticks. I’m ridiculously proud of my new skill.

The A FEAR OF TEARS revision is going fabulously. Even more so now that I have a real deadline. October 25th. I spent all of the summer skipping around the country and doing close to no work, so getting back to the real grind of ten hour writing days (give or take) feels so good. Like jumping into that chilled pool on a blistering hot day.

My move to the Rockies is just around the corner. It’s 41 degrees in Colorado Springs today (in September!). It’s 102 here. I think I may be in for a bit of shock come January. Snow? What’s snow? Is it something you eat? Hm. I guess I’ll have to see.

I wonder how The Agent is liking FALLING INTO YESTERDAY. I should be hearing some feedback in the next month. Scary, but exhilarating. I really adore life right now. Writing, revising, reading, moving so soon, all with some vegan baking in between.

I want to fly to Alaska tomorrow morning. Who’s with me?

Oh. No one? Well, I guess I should go make some more ginger jasmine tea and get back to writing.

Until next time!

A Letter of Random.

Heather — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:15:13 +0000

To Whom It May Concern:

It’s September. The month of school, Santa Ana winds, an abundance of coffee, and wildfires. Outside the air is gray, murky, and toxic. It’s not clouds sitting above my head but a thick layer of smoke. They say southern California is paradise, but is it really a trap? The vain and the rich get the pleasure of watching their world burn up every year. Oh, yes, it sounds like a fabulous life to me.

Life is kind of fast. It’s kind of absurd, too.
In a week I’ve concluded that:

I’m moving to Colorado Springs this January.
Yes, COLORADO SPRINGS! Finally.
Until then, I’ll be working at Comic Quest, the comic bookstore I slaved at when I was fifteen. I’m thrilled to be employed there again.
I WILL be published someday. I don’t care how long it takes, what it takes, or how many No’s I’ll have to read. It’s not something I’m ever going to back down on.
I don’t care what people say, revisions are extremely fun. I enjoy them almost as much as the actual writing process.
I’M MOVING TO COLORADO SPRINGS!
I’m going to major in psychology, though it make take me ten years to actually get my Bachelor’s. Whatever.
No. I still haven’t heard back from The Agent. I welcome any response: “Yes.” “No.” “You suck.” “I love Vincent!” “Learn to spell.” I just want an answer. Preferably an answer with, “You’re magnificent, Heather. Be my client and lets make pretty hardbacks.” But you know, beggars can’t be choosers.
The idea of driving in the snow is absurdly terrifying. I hardly know how to drive in the rain!
Hi. I’m going to be living in Colorado soon.

I miss conversing through comments with my affiliates. Being a writer hermit in a cave has its perks, but it also has its fall backs. I miss my friend’s blogs! Can I not have it all? Sleep is such a waste of time. I should invest in drinking more then my usual 5 mugs of coffee a day. Coffee is so good for the soul. I think I’d parish without coffee.

Keep your thoughts on southern California (specifically LA right now), friends. Fire Season has just begun, the Santa Ana’s haven’t even started, and we have a long autumn a head of us. I’m safe. I plan to hide under my dining room table with my laptop and write. The toxic smoke infused air can’t touch me here!

I mentioned I’m moving to Colorado, right?

Okay, back to AFOT and yummy Hayden Mason!

Sun, Sun, Sun.

Heather — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:06:53 +0000

I interrupt my frenzy of non-blog writing, to announce a little white treasure I found in the clearance section of CVS….

NEUTROGENA SPF 100+!

This is big, guys. BIG! As you can see in the photo*, I have super fair skin. And as you may know, I live in Orange County… AKA, the land above Mexico. The sun is strong here, intense and hot. It doesn’t matter how much sunblock you use, your skin still gets major exposure. In my old bedroom I’d get tan from simply lying in bed.

While I typically only buy all natural vegan skin products, I couldn’t hold back when I saw “SPF 100+”. I skipped around the store and called a fellow pale-skin friend of mine. She lives in San Diego, a bit further south, and was sickly jealous of my find.

I don’t care what the SPF-above-50-skeptics think, I’m thrilled to take the extra leap and use this stuff on my morning hikes and outdoor errands. Trust me, I’ll be thankful for these precautions fifty years from now.

Anyhow, I will now return to my dark cave of writing. New scenes and plot twists for FALLING INTO YESTERDAY are churning out at a rapid speed, which feels absolutely amazing. Do expect more site content on both of my books.

So tell me, what are your opinions on sunscreen?

* Sorry for the photo-fuzz, I was using Photo Booth and the lighting in my room is odd.

A Gift From Mother Nature.

Heather — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:30:44 +0000

Last Thursday I flew from the chilly coast of Northern California to the snow capped Rocky Mountains of Colorado. I’m here to spend some much needed time with my best friend, along with a few other lovely souls (emphasis on the word lovely). Also, the fact that I’m in absolute love with the state of Colorado and anything to do with mountains feeds the need to travel back again and again (literally – since 2006).

It’s been a refreshing and fulfilling three days so far, and I still have about six left, thank goodness. I can’t even begin to describe how much I adore being here. The city of Colorado Springs is my home, it’s where I feel most connected and at ease. I will be moving here sometime in the next two years.

Anyway, while I knew it’d be colder up here in the mountains, I never expected the gift I woke to this morning. Snow! On Easter! I shouldn’t have been surprised, as the last time I was in town on Easter it snowed then, too. Being a Southern California native, I don’t think I’ll ever get over my glee of snow. While it does become a pain in the ass rather quickly, there’s something so lovely and peaceful about it. It’s not rain, but snow beats the burn of the sun.

It made a perfect Easter present. I’m pretty sure it’ll be pleasantly mild the rest of the week, which is a good thing, but I’m certainly grateful for the random winter day. Colorado’s bipolar weather makes the state all the more charming.

Anyway, I hope everyone’s Sunday was beautiful. Whether you were celebrating Easter or just relaxing before Monday, hopefully something or another made you smirk and laugh.

Dancing Into the Hail.

Heather — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 19:26:54 +0000

Wow. I cannot believe it’s already been a week since I last wrote. In the whirlwind of my accident, I lost track of time and fell into a time warp. Spinning, spinning, spinning. I’ve been twirling and singing and falling. Flying, too.

My finger accident was much more serious then I realized. I woke up the morning after my last blog, to the bandage soaked through and my sheets stained with fresh blood. Thanks to my several different blood disorders, the cut couldn’t form platelets fast enough and therefore the blood kept flowing. It took about two… three days to finally get the small gash to stop bleeding and by then, I was anemic and weak. I hadn”t felt that weak and sick since I was 13, before my spleen was removed.

It was frightening, to say the least. At one point, I was sure my parents needed to call for a helicopter to transport me back to CHOC. I was ready to resign my healthy, vibrant life for one with an IV attached to me at all times once more. Now that I’m okay and dancing through my days again, I decided that once I’m back in Orange County, I’m seeing my hematologist and getting retested FOR EVERYTHING. I’m taking my giant horse pills of medicine, so this should NOT have happened.

On a happier note, a lovely Canadian slept on my couch for a few days this week. Dalia is a good friend of mine that I know thanks to a certain vampire series (*cough*Twilight*cough*). Anyway, I didn’t realize how much I LOVE Berkeley and San Francisco until I got to show it off to her. I was so proud and enthused to share my city with her. Plus, she’s vegan, too. So we ate up all the wonderful Bay Area cruelty free food. No animals were harmed in our epic journeys!

I’ll probably write more on our experiences later, but for now, I’ll leave you with a video. It’s pretty much self explanatory. But, um, do be warned that the language I use would make it rated R in theaters. I was rather frazzled and cold, so the F bomb was exploded a few good times.

Oh, and this was filmed on March 3rd of 2009. Like I said, I was kind of loopy – from lack of blood AND defeating hell’s fury! I swear, I’m not usually THIS annoying.

Fires.

Heather — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:33:21 +0000

Despite my love for the Santa Ana Winds, they are absolutely terrible and dangerous in severe drought conditions.

The senile winds combined with a lack of rain and endless amounts of brown, brittle land has resulted in many brush fires to alight across southern California. Once again.

The closest fire to my own home is luckily, a 20 minute drive away (last year’s was a mere ten). So I am safe. My only personal concern is the great deal of brush and (dead, dry) national forest surrounding my house. I’m living in the middle of a field awaiting a fire. One match and BAM. But I’m not thinking of that. Positive thoughts bring positive actions.

In all honesty though, my thoughts are only on those effected by the current blazes.

I pray for the families victimized by the raging fires, the many souls who have lost their homes. God bless this land, this community. Every year it seems another part of it goes up in flames.

California needs more rain, and less heat.

90 degrees in late November? So NOT okay.

The Wind.

Heather — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 14:36:03 +0000

In Southern California, the weather doesn’t change much. It’s hard to tell the difference between winter and summer, spring and fall. Sure, we’ll have random rain and a month of so-hot-you-feel-the-Earth-will-weather, but for the most part the weather is warm and mild. Sunny and blue. Supposedly this is what people consider “paradise”, but I don’t see why.

It’s so boring.

There is one exception to our weather though – the exception that caused the great fires that stretched from San Diego to Malibu last year, that threw my family’s trampoline over the backyard fence and into the neighbor’’s yard, and keeps me tossing and turning at night.

The Santa Ana Winds. They roar and dance through Southern California’s hills and valley’s with no mercy. They kick trees to the ground and toss trash through the street. They spark wild brush fires that destroy beautiful land and homes. The winds will cause your skin to peel and your hair to become brittle, but despite all the shortcomings, I must admit, I love the Santa Ana Winds.

I believe the winds are innocent. Late fall is their one time to shine, their one time to let loose and cause havoc. Through January until October, these winds are silenced – shut down to mere whispers of ocean breeze.

So it’s only natural that come October, they let loose all their steam.

There is something absurdly mystical and elating about the screams of the winds. It’s a sensation that has my fingers punching my keyboard, drawing up plot twists like my life depends on it. When the Santa Ana Winds begin their siren, it feels as if anything can occur.

In this moment, my window is shaking in its frame. My head is heavy from having trees slam across my window all through the night. My eyes burn from the dry scattering air. But in this moment, I feel absolutely alive.

Now, this doesn’t mean that a month from now, when the winds are still screaming their song, that I’ll still be all loveydoveyooohhhahhh. When Christmas morning comes around, and I wake up to the trampoline in the neighbor’s yard AGAIN, I’m sure I’ll be quite… tired of the wind’s playfulness.

Nothing lasts forever, you know – love for destructive winds included.