Happy Thursday, Aledan Merfolk! I’ve had a bit of time to recover from the end of Draft Four, and I’ve already heard back from a couple of friends that they loved it (the CPs have been curiously quiet…). I’ve been spending the week working on the synopsis and query, and although the synopsis is still very rough and makes the entire book sound stupid, the query is getting itself into shape.
I’ve also been reading a couple CP projects, and reading SABRIEL by Garth Nix. It took me a while to really get into it, but once I got to Touchstone, I’ve been devouring it. I’ll finish it today – probably at lunch. Then I have to decide what to read next.
And what to work on next. I really miss Fie Eoin, and I know fixing NAMELESS wouldn’t be too difficult, but I’ve already gone through a year of rejections on Nameless. Assuming StO goes anywhere, I don’t want the answer to the question “what are you working on next?” to be “something you already rejected.” And I don’t want to work on StO2 in case StO never sells. So I’m left with the option of fixing another already-written book (Phooka Tales, probably, since that would be in line with the paranormal fantasy thing going on in StO), or working on something completely new. I do have a “something completely new” rolling around in my brain, but so far there’s not much story, and the MC doesn’t even have a name yet. So we’ll see. I’m still quite fond of the monsters in PT, but this new story has enfields (a fox/hawk hybrid), and a mute MC, which would be a fun challenge to write since I rely so heavily on dialogue.
In super exciting awesome news: they found a bone marrow donor for my dad, so I’ll be flying home next month to see him when he goes into the hospital for the procedure. Expect my online presence (and especially the blog), to be sporadic for the next couple of months.
This weekend I have two awesome custom ponies for you, so be sure to come back on Sunday to see that. And until next time, I’ll leave you with a photo of my ladies, who are growing fast and almost ready to start laying eggs!
Glad they found a donor for your dad, that’s fantastic!
How old are your chickens now? The one on the left in this picture is looking an awful lot like a rooster, depending on how close they are to laying age. It’s got really thick legs, and a much larger and redder comb than the other, unless it’s literally going to start laying today/tomorrow. It also has more of a rooster posture/build, though some of that is dependent on breed. Do you happen to know what breed it is?
We’re a little bit worried that Max is a rooster – they were young when we got them. From what we were told, Max is probably around 5 months or so. Barred rock. Fury’s an Americauna mix, a little younger than Max, and stunted because she came to us sick 🙁
The vet did say that if you have all hens, one of them will take over as a sort of rooster, posturing and such, so I’m hoping that’s all Max is doing. We did get a guarantee from the guy we bought them from, so if Max is a rooster we can take him back and get a hen, but that guy also sold us Fury while she was really sick (we didn’t know any better), and then refused to pay for treatment once we took her to the vet. I wouldn’t even take Max back at this point.
*Sometimes* a hen will take over and be a surrogate roo, but I’ve rarely heard of it happening, and none of my hens have done it when they’ve been without a roo.
I’m sorry you had such a hard time with the seller, it’s never good when someone willingly sells sick birds. Do you know what Fury was sick with?
The vet said Psittacosis, ie: respiratory chlamydia, which is really contagious to humans! The guy’s whole flock was contaminated, so there’s no way I’m taking Max back there. Hopefully if she does end up being a rooster, my vet will trade me with his flock (we’re already getting another hen from him as soon as his chicks are old enough to sex). We definitely can’t have a rooster – the HOA doesn’t allow chickens at all, so we don’t need one that crows every morning to wake the neighborhood up!
Yikes! Poor girl. I’m glad you were able to get her taken care of!
I often am baffled by HOA/city codes regarding animals. There’s less noise and communicable diseases with chickens (barring a rooster, lol) than dogs, and sometimes even cats, but chickens are often the big no-no. It’s sad.
I really want a privacy fence on our yard. I’m totally going to smuggle a goat in one day. Fortunately, we don’t have an HOA, and we are allowed chickens in the city (within reason).
The city allows it as well, so I’m thinking it was put in place for the rooster noise. Since we have a privacy fence, and the hens are really quiet (unless we try to pick them up – then they scream bloody murder!), I don’t know how they’ll ever find out. Especially since we’ll be bribing our next door neighbor with eggs once they start laying 😉
Also: I want a goat too. But my yard is definitely too tiny for chickens and a goat.
And as soon as I got home, hubs said he thinks Maxina is actually a Max. As long as he stays quiet, he can stay here 🙂
You might look into one of these: http://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/No-Crow-Rooster-Collar-c89.aspx
That’s great news about your dad. I hope it goes well!
I was at that “What do I work on now” moment earlier last week. Betas had my stories and, for once, I didn’t have a new idea to write. I ended up taking the weekend off because I spent Friday doing nothing but editing and burned myself out.
Oh yeah, that burnout at the end of a draft leaves my brain noodley for a couple days, at least. But it’s been over a week, so time to get to work on something new.
And finish the damn synopsis 😛