Breaking News

The low-budget news team reports on a disturbance at the home of Aspiring Author.

Yes, it’s true. This round of revisions is done. But, you say, how is that possible? You were on vacation! Indeed I was, but it turns out sunshine and sand and family time and good books are all fine fuel for revising. Who knew? And now, the manuscript is off to my trusty crit partner and then should be winging its way to Brilliant Agent’s desk sometime next week (eek!) (um, unless trusty crit partner has devastating news for me after reading the manuscript… time will tell).

(Vacation pics under the cut.)

Bliss

(See you in two weeks.)

Life is good

Cooked supper over a beachfire last night, then spent a couple hours exploring the reef with my daughter today. Life is good.

(Posted a few new reef pics on my flickr page if you want to see.)

A surprise on the beach

This morning I saw something unusual on the beach — a critter not often found in the intertidal zone:

Yup! A deer — a young buck, very much like the one in this not-taken-at-the-beach photo. I’ve no idea why he wandered down to the beach, but I sure hope he manages to find his way safely back across town to the forest.

The beach, good books, and detox time

Les cinq choses de vendredi… Hmm, un peu de French there. My brain is fried. French fried, apparently. Regardless, here’s another Friday Five for you….

1. I’ve had a great start to the day – earlier, a run in the misty rain, and now, chai latté and writing time. Yay!
2. And speaking of writing time (okay, not a very original segue, but a segue nonetheless, and y’all know how I like my Friday Fives to sparkle with segueness)… where was I? Speaking of writing time, I don’t work my day job again until Tuesday, so I’ve got writing time galore, during which I shall be sending my novel out into the world in search of a home. Send good vibes, people.
3. When I was at the beach this morning, I saw a salmon that was definitely not sending out good vibes (oh, I have to stop this! hello, my name is Shari and I’m a segue-a-holic… sigh). The fish in question was not sending out any vibes at all. It was dead. A decent size – three running-shoe lengths – but dead. The funny thing was, there were no birds dining upon it. I often see remnants of ocean critters that have become lunch for gulls or eagles, but not today. It seemed a little strange. Less disgusting that way, but strange.
4. Hmmm… my tea is gone. I may have to make some more. Of course, what I really want is diet Coke, but I unfortunately remember that I said I was going to do a diet Coke detox when I finished revising my novel. So, um, that would be now. Rats.
5. It’s supposed to rain forty days and nights. Or all weekend, at least. But I have books! And tea! So I shall read…. Up first, Getting the Girl, by Susan Juby, then My One Hundred Adventures, by Polly Horvath. I also have an abundance of hockey games to attend because it’s tournament weekend. Should be good! I hope your weekend is great, too.

Peace…. (à bientôt)

Delinquency and Holiday Heaven

What a delinquent blogger I am. And, yes, I’m unrepentant. It’ll be at least another week before I get back to a regular writing and blogging schedule, because tomorrow morning I’m heading out for a week of camping by the beach. Yay! Sleeping outside and reading in lawnchairs and cooking over campfires and playing in the ocean… heaven, I tell you. Pure heaven.

On Thursday, I’ll be sneaking away from my holiday heaven briefly, so that I can get online and register for the Surrey International Writers’ Conference. I’m so excited to be going to this conference again. I went in 2006 and it was fantastic! (One great thing that came out of my conference experience that year was meeting another writer from my very own small town and then founding the River Writers critique group with her.)

And now, it’s time to pack. Wishing you all some lazy hazy crazy days. See you in a week or two!

Peace.

Willow Point Reef

My daughter and I spent two wonderful hours exploring the reef this afternoon. Wanna see some pictures?

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign…

Yesterday, the dh, sons, and I went on a short road trip from our home on the east coast of the island to visit my daughter on the west coast of the island. Along the way, we saw a couple black bears, a bunch of deer, and a ton of these:

If you like crazy nausea-inducing rides at amusement parks, you’ll like the road we traveled on.

The closer we got to my daughter’s home on the west coast, the more of these we saw:

They were all pointing away from my daughter’s place. Hmm…. I suppose living in the shadow of a potential natural disaster is a small price to pay to have a front yard like this.

We also passed a “wave hazard” sign, like a forest fire hazard rating sign but for wave height (it was moderate), but I didn’t get a picture of it. Cuz, you know, you can only yell “pull over” to take a picture of a sign so many times before your family thinks you’re a wee bit crazy.

We had a great day and a nice visit and dinner with our daughter. Then we loaded into the minivan again for the 3 1/4 hour drive back home. And thanks to the cute little guy on the plentiful signage, I will never forget to head for high ground in the event of a tsunami… but it doesn’t really look like the poor guy’s gonna make it. Climb, little man, climb!

Today there were Orcas!

Today there were Orcas… and I MISSED THEM! My hubby saw them, right out from the beach where I saw the eagles yesterday. He zipped home to tell me, and I grabbed my youngest son and the binoculars and headed down there. We were too late. No action in the water at all. We hung out at the beach for a while anyway, cuz you know, it was the beach. I overheard a woman mention to someone that she’d heard there were killer whales down at Stories Beach (south of us). Coulda jumped in the van and raced down there, but I probably would’ve ended up chasing those whales all the way down Island and still never seen them. Oh well. Another time…. For now, this will do:

Good intentions and eagles

I had good intentions. I headed out this morning for a timed training run. When my route took me down by the beach, I intentionally stayed away from the ocean side of the road so I wouldn’t be tempted to stop and wander along the beach. Because I almost always stop and wander along the beach…. But (you knew there was a but, didn’t you?) from my across-the-road vantage point, I saw four bald eagles resting on the beach — three adults and a juvenile. So much for the timed run. Off I went to have a look.

There was a seal carcass on the shore, but it was quite a ways from where the great birds were. Maybe they’d eaten their fill and were just doing the post-dinner, loosen-your-belt-and-kick-back-a-while thing before flying away. I had my dog with me — he’s a bird dog, but was infinitely more interested in the seal than the eagles — so I kept back a good 25 meters or so. They just stayed put. Eyed my dog and me briefly, then ignored us. I watched for a while, then finished my run.

Doesn’t matter one bit that I blew my time today. After all, if I don’t stop to smell the roses — or watch the eagles — I’m kinda missing a really BIG point, don’t ya think?