Works in Progress

     This past November I dallied with the idea of participating in national write a novel month (nanowrimo).  I started with an idea that I had my senior year of high school. Then life happened, my daughter learned how to walk and a few days later learned to run. At the time I was still involved with a couple of other project that devoured my time. November came and went and I kept writing. 8 months later and a grand total of 50000 words I finished my novel. Now in July I've done the first rough edit of the piece and I'll begin trying to find readers for feedback and editing.

     The last time I wrote anythng creative was my senior year of college and before that a badly written spy novel when I was 12. There are a few things that I've always wanted to be when I grow up. One of them was a writer. So I've started working on projects that fall in the realm of steampunk and fantasy and I'm going to start taking every opportunity to write and read as much as I can. So if you have something that needs reading or have any interest in reading what I've been working on let me know!

Works in Progress

The Clockwork Eye  

Synopsis; A pirate, socialite, escort and gypsy take on one of the major crime syndicates operating in London.

Current status; in Edit.

The Retriever 

Current storyline; Retriever's go and collect overdue library books by any means necessary.

Current Status; Writing first draft.

The Verbalist

Current Status; building the world. No longer holds my interest

The Prism Throne

Current Status; building the Mythos for the world.

The top ten songs played on my computer.

Recently I've been exposed to a lot of new music, Portland is a cradle for new musicians of the indie variety. Tends to welcome touring bands with open arms and evens allows for street performances of all varieties.
So The Tequila Mockingbird Orchestra is worth checking out, they were passing through Portland from Canada and were a blast to play with at the Backspace. TMO has a great on stage presence. For those of you familiar with Great Big Sea, TMO reminds me of them but not. If you are not familiar with Great Big Sea check out one of my all time favourite songs by them The Old Black Rum.
Started thinking about the different music I'm into and opened up itunes to see what I've been listening to recently, and what are the songs played the most often.
So following in the ways of High Fidelity,

The top 10 songs played on my computer;

1. Under Pressure - David Bowie & Queen

2. The Sound of Settling -Death Cab for Cutie

3. Still Alive -Jonathan Coulton

4. The Legionnaire's Lament -The Decemberists

5. Yellow Submarine -The Beatles 

6. Cranes  -Warsaw Village Band

7. Birthday Cake -Cibo Matto

8. My Hero -Foo Fighters

9. Start Wearing Purple -Gogo Bordello

10. The Chemical Worker's Song -Great Big Sea

This list excludes songs from All the Apparatus, I love our songs, and it goes without saying. Also I didn't put doubles on the list some of these artist had multiple songs, cough *The Beatles* cough, and doesn't include songs I listen to while I'm out and about.

Homesick? I've got an answer.

I've been homesick... Bad. One of the few remedies I've found is food from home. 

Last night Jon made Manapua, also known as Chinese Bao or steam buns. When we lived in Hawaii one of our pastimes was making 7-11 runs, Manapua and Spam Musubi were some of our favourites. So along with those classics he has also made Kailua pork, Chicken Katsu, and Shoyu Chicken. The amazing thing about Jon is it seems like every dish he tries to make turns out amazing. I can manage in the kitchen but Jon has it developed into an art. Home doesn't seem so far away when one of these dishes is in front of me.

We have a little japanese store not to far from us (Uwajimaya) We've found all sorts of goodies here. From li hing mui gummi apples, to Milo! Food from New Zealand is a little harder to come by hence my excitment over Milo which is a chocolate drink mix found throughout most of the south pacific. Also biscuits like Tim Tam's have started showing up on the mainland. They can only ship them to the U.S. during the winter cause they tend to melt in transit but it's great that they are available.  Also my little sisters live in Australia at the moment, and when they can they send me lollies and dark forest chocolate. 

I'd post pictures of all this, but it's normally gone by the time I think too.

I'm hoping in the near future Jon and I will be able to go back to Hawaii to at least visit, and I still need to take Jon to N.Z. 

Just thought I'd share.