i’m putting things together to give real, honest-to-god freelancing a try. i’ve already got a price list and such, but i’ve got to re-design my portfolio site from the ground up. right now it’s got three disparate parts (portfolio, experiments, and blog) that are all differently designed. there’s no cohesive whole. the portfolio part is more of the job search style and i need to make it more freelance-oriented as well.

so once more i’m back to my age-old problem of not knowing what i want my sites to look like. the old blog is in stasis at the moment as well, who knows when i’ll get that done.

i’ve got ideas for samples and practice projects all lined up, so i can show the full range of my skills. i’m thinking of offering a few basic services for personal site work as well, things like blog header images and other basic photoshop work.

in other news, i reopened Luna Station Quarterly for submissions again. i was really pleased with how issue 1 went. we had 259 pageviews on the pdf version, so it seems that someone’s at least looking at it. huzzah!

i’m trying to find ways of advertising the site and besides talking about it in a couple of places, i’ve started sending my own work out. submitted a couple of stories last week and i have two more things to send out this week. they’re old things, but i’ve got one new thing in progress that i’m very excited about. first draft is done and i’ve put it away for now. it needs to rest before i try to edit it.

uhm. i think that’s about it from here. days keep passing on through and i’m doing my best to use them to their fullest. spring is springing around here and while i’m going to really miss winter, i was glad to take a walk in the sunshine today.

and now, i’ve decided how i’m going to start the evening: The Force Unleashed is calling my name. :D

huzzah.

more later.

kthxbye!

with all the adjusting, i’m trying to put myself back together. there’s been a lot of craziness in our house, even without monday’s shocking change. computers being shifted from room to room, with more to come tomorrow and most of the weekend, along with their associated technical challenges, and suddenly i find i’ve lost the last two weeks. where did they go?

i’m behind on my writing, i’m behind on my reading, i’ve been slacking off my programming/design studies and my spiritual studies. this is all not good on the surface, but i feel like it’s not really wrong. there’s a certain amount of foundation-building going on within my heart and mind, i can feel it. there’s going to be big shifts this spring, not sure in what areas of my life nor how they’ll manifest, but change is coming.

wish i had a bit more time to write and ponder here, but we’ve got company coming this evening, our wonderfully supportive friends, and i’ve got to get the bathroom clean!

*hugs* to all for your support. your kind words have meant so much to me.

the house is now full of pictures of him, and his warm presence is still floating around.

we love you, big man.

so excited that it’s making up for having a massive migraine yesterday on top of a cold!

been up since 4 am, after spending about 12 hours in bed. still feel like crap, but i’m too excited to really care right now.

got a nice spread of stories, 8 in total, which is only a few short of my desired 12.

i’ll write more later, when i get my health back in order. anything more i say will just get rambly and incoherent.

spent most of the day getting the first issue of Luna Station ready for launch. i’m really excited about it, and nervous, too. i like the print version, it was kind of just sitting there, but with a major redesign it feels much more punchy. just have to set up the posts on the site so that on monday i can just hit ‘publish’.

now i just need to write my editorial. no idea what that’s going to be about, but i know i don’t want to do the usual ‘welcome to our first issue’ thing. i’d like it to be a little different. well, at least i won’t start it out that way.

i’m also a week behind on my short story writing. last week was kind of crazy with all the computer stuff and i sort of hid in my Clone Wars book until the dust settled. i am caught up on my reading, though, and despite my attempt to read nothing but short fiction for the year, i broke down and snagged the first George R. R. Martin ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ book and i’ll be starting that within the next day or two. probably as a reward for getting all caught up.

did i mention we got a juicer? it rocks, much quieter than i thought it would be and works a dream. there’s a move towards healthier eating in my house and if juice is involved, i’m totally on board. the only reason i’m looking forward to spring (can’t get enough winter) is that i’ll be able to walk up and down our street with greater ease. i might even do the Eowyn Challenge.

okay. going to preserve my hands now, i’ve got lots to write yet tonight.

Adobe Photoshop Cook from Lait Noir on Vimeo.

the last couple days have left my head all swimmy. been setting up a new Mac (not mine), and reformatting my own machine. while there were lots of trips back and forth to Microcenter and that bastion of pretty futurism known as the Apple store, things went relatively smoothly. in fact, i didn’t have a single problem with my hard drive reformat. everything just worked! it was rather miraculous.

now that i’m back up and running, i’ve got to get caught up on my reading and writing (thankfully didn’t fall too far behind), and my dad needs helps with his boy scout troop’s website and his aviation group’s site. we’ve got them on blogger and some other google apps, so all i really need to do his help him sort the domain name and do a bit of design.

i also have to write my editorial and get to work designing the first issue of Luna Station Quarterly! so excited to get to work! i’ve got a nice batch of stories, quite a few from folks i don’t know, which i’m thrilled about! somehow i’ve got to build on this and get some momentum going. i am still falling a wee bit short of my 12 story goal for each issue, but i’m close!

also a wee bit nervous about the design of the thing. part of me wants to do something really wacky, but i’m most likely going to play it pretty tame. dunno how many people are actually going to bother with the pdf version and the story is really the focal point of the thing, i don’t want the design to get in the way of that. still, packaging is important or i wouldn’t have spent so much time working on the site itself, right?

in other news (because i said this was going to be quick), i broke down and read a novel, my first in months and months. been reading nothing but short stories and enjoying it, but when i got my hands on “Clone Wars: Wild Space” i just couldn’t stop reading. it was extremely Obi-Wan and Bail Organa focused, so you can see why i couldn’t resist. great, fast read, highly recommended, just like the show. :D

i also got a couple other fun things lately (tax money came in and i deserved a treat for all the craziness of the last year). i got a TARDIS usb hub that makes noises when you plug stuff into it. huzzah Doctor Who paraphernalia! and i also got “The Force Unleashed” and learned quite quickly that i have a propensity for turning to the Dark side of the Force, especially if it involves the Wii and being able to throw around a lightsaber.

all this Star Wars stuff is really getting my creative juices flowing again. Doctor Who is on hiatus until easter, and SW has come in to fill the void. for whatever reason, i just love watching Who, but never get inspired in that way about it. SW always makes me want to go create something. it makes me want to play with my worldbuilding stuff and write stories. not fanfic, not anymore, but my own stuff. i think it’s good that i have a touchstone, someplace i can go back to and go ‘yeah, i love stories, i like to experience them, to read them, to write them’ and then sit down and actually get it out on paper.

okay, that’s some random snippets from my life. more later when i get this machine and my backlog a little more settled.

i’ve got just about all my submissions ready for the Luna Station first issue!!! so exciting! i’ve actually got three entries by people i don’t even know!!! smartest thing i did was whore myself out and put a link up on Warren Ellis’ discussion board looking for entries. i know i need to at least get a little used to pimping my stuff because no one is going to do it for me. perhaps not using words like ‘whore’ and ‘pimp’ would be a good place to start?

in further writing news, i’m editing friends’ stuff again and it feels awesome! i love being able to help and give perspective. it’s one of the things i’ve really missed in the last few years since leaving fanfic, i always got a lot of satisfaction out of beta’ing, and learned a hell of a lot at the same time.

my own writing is trucking along. fairy tales keep popping out with some regularity, and i don’t detest the things that come out of my fingers that are not channeled directly from my writing muse. i’ll tell you right now, folks. you want to become a better writer, there is a strict diet. it’s guaranteed to work. it goes as follows:

for one year, read a short story, an essay, and a poem every single day.
every week for that year, write a short story.
in your free time, read stuff that just grabs you.
whatever time is left? write drabbles. they will make your writing better.

in other news, there’s all kinds of stuff going on. i don’t have time to write about it all at the moment, and none of it is of earth-shattering importance, so i’m off to run to Microcenter to swap out hard drive cases, of which i bought the wrong variety this afternoon in my tax-money spending spree. i got a new hard drive. i’m such a wild child.

otherwise, today was quiet. spent a ton of time trying to sort out installers and file backups and ways to prevent losing my entire iTunes library settings in the great reinstall of 2010.

yes, it’s that time again. the computer is running slow, i’ll be getting a new hard drive with the tax money, and Vista is begging to be reinstalled after a few years of working quite well in spite of everyone’s bitching and moaning about this operating system. knock on wood, but i’ve not had the same trials and tribulations that some have had. i think the clean install, as opposed to upgrade, had a lot to do with it. or maybe i’ve just been lucky.

okay. tired now. gonna go crawl into bed with a few Norse myths and some Clone Wars stories.

deep breaths and lots of perspective, people, that’s what it takes to get through this.