"Be thine own palace, or the world's thy jail." - John Donne

As I seem to be trending blog posts on Tuesday, here we are, although I forgot to upload my pictures as I couldn't get up early enough for the gym - the goslings and the weekend trip will have to wait.

Another 1k words on the SF short today including a lot of deleting. Currently, it sits at 4,148 words. Both good and ugly things are happening in it, writing-wise, and I'm trying to let the ugly alone until at least the second draft; so far, the smoothing out I've tried to do has resulted in even more awkward dialogue and choppy, unhappy women. But there's a lot of firsts for me in this one: a same-sex relationship, a Lovecraft/Kiernan-inspired monster, and a barely-oxygenated planet, so I'm cutting myself some slack. 

I started Barker's Books of Blood last night - I can't wait for more. Also, still working my way through the Datlow anthology, but spending the weekend in Houston took a good chunk of reading time away. The good news: more thyroid meds & progesterone, so hopefully that will help!

Yesterday I found a tick on my ribcage while I was changing for a run. I haven't had a tick on me since I was about twelve years old - us kids used to get at least one a summer, maybe more, from the woods, but I wasn't impressed at all, so I drove home as quickly as I could for John to remove it. As I tried to keep from panicking that there was a parasitic creature wedging its head inside me, I realized that I had plenty of blood. In fact, the little guy saw me as a warm, useful habitat that offered nutrition and safety (because if it had known what I intended for it, would it really have latched on?) What if I named it? It could be a fantastic story: the woman and her pet tick. (Although a more original title would be necessary.)

The story ended when John pulled it out with the tweezers and flushed it.

We watched the second season of Dollhouse : refreshing in that there were less "What is the Dollhouse?" and "Why does the Dollhouse exist?" questions, that drove me batshit crazy, and a few great oh shit moments that we didn't expect. The post-apocalyptic ending, though....meh. I felt a little let down.

Speaking of oh shit moments, I made the mistake (or was it?) of looking up what happens in Game of Thrones. Those are some big oh shit moments coming up.

I wish Clarion would get here faster.