Fwapping away for a while

While half my cyber friends are in Reno at the RWA conference, and the other half are having left-behind parties, I'm misssing out on both as I'm going to Canberra today for 6 days.

I'd post something wildly scintillating to keep you amused while I'm gone, but.... hmm.... can't think of anything.

...other than the challenges of writing suspense type plots when technology is making the difficult situations my characters might find themselves in obsolete. I was discussing surveillance technology with the DH on the drive to work this morning. Because if my secret agent characters can be fitted with a small microchip that enables them to be located by satellite anywhere in the world, then how can I lock them up in a hole in the ground and have nobody find them for 4 months, huh???? I was counting on the fact that any such device would be sending a radio transmission that anti-surveillance scanning devices could easily locate (good reason for my guys not to have them), but no, DH says, they have devices now that only transmit on receipt of a signal.

Hmmmm. Now I have to work out why my two top agents in the depths of dark places of the world wouldn't have these.

Oh, well, I have five hours in plane travel this afternoon to contemplate this.

I may not get to post while I'm away. Not that anyone will miss me much, I'm sure.

The perfect response

Thanks to some inspiration from the RWAus email loop I'm on, I'm now waiting for the next time someone asks me (with a superior smirk) why I write romance. Because now I can reply with a smile,

"I write popular fiction because I think it's way more sensible than writing unpopular fiction."

Oops - again

Oh, shirt. I'm sure I must have posted something in the 12 days since 11th July. Not that I can remember it, but then my brain does resemble sludge right now.

Sludge filled with html. At work, I've been working with 7 academics to prepare their materials for the new semester's online units, due to go live on Monday. And running workshops on how to do it to the next batch.

At home, I've been developing this website for my critique group.

I'm going to write an article for writers on developing web sites. Some day. Probably not this week, as I'm going to Canberra for work on Thursday for 6 days - extra bonus that I get to see my family. And it's only a few more weeks before I go to Melbourne for the RWAus conference.

Tomorrow I need to do some sewing for that. Maybe that will dislodge the html from my brain.

And tomorrow I'm also going to do some writing. Yes. Really.

Brain Hibernation

Ooops - the days have slipped away without me posting. Sorry about that. I think my brain wants to go into hibernation - either that, or it's just overloaded and taking some time out. Although I've thought of a few things this past week or so I could blog about, I've just been too brain-tired to do it.

DH was away for four nights at a conference last week, which meant I had to get up early and walk our two energetic border collies each morning - plus do the other daily chores around the place that we normally share. I don't usually sleep all that well when he's away, either. Although I don't get worked up about being alone, miles from the nearest neighbour, I think my body or some part of my subconscious stays a bit more alert than normal. And it's winter and cold...

Okay, that's enough whingeing. I only have this week still working two half-time jobs, and I'll be really glad when that's over. From next week, I'll be working additional hours in my permanent half-time job, so while that means I'll be doing full-time for another 4 months, it will be so much easier only doing it in one job.

I may have some brain space left to write :-) I actually wrote about 1,000 words yesterday, and although it was on the 'wrong' book (the new idea I came up with a couple of weeks ago) it did finally get the creativity trickling again, so it felt good. And I'm using Mariane (pronounced with a French lilt) as the heroine's name, abbreviated to Mari.

And soon I'm going to start the countdown to the RWAus conference in Melbourne in August. I'm looking forward to it - it will be only my second ever conference, and first RWAus one. Not to mention my first 'holiday' trip away (other than visiting my folks in Canberra) for almost 3 years.

No wonder my brain gets tired.