Eagles Over the Kennebec

So, one of the very many details which combined to create the Perfect Moment for Lee and Miller to purchase a long-desired city house was the willingness of our lender to accept a down-payment in two parts.  We were required to put 10% down when we closed, and, when we sold the country house, we could put however much more seemed good to us as a second down-payment, which would not only immediately reduce the principle, but also our monthly mortgage payment, without incurring any additional points or fees.  Essentially, it's a free re-finance, which you may invoke Exactly Once.

Avid readers of this blog will recall that we closed on the country house on Tuesday.  The check representing our piece of the action cleared yesterday, and I contacted our mortgage lender to take advantage of the second down-payment.

Now, my mantra throughout this entire project has been "Sooner is better than later."

I said this to our broker and she said, "Absolutely! Of course, there's paperwork to be done, and recalculations to be made, and. . ."

Long and short of it, we will be meeting to take care of this business at the Very First Opportunity -- that being next Friday.  At 8:30 am, making it the first item of business on the day.

After my initial sigh of disappointment that Monday had apparently been off the board even before I called, I realized that this date?  Is actually Perfect.

Not only is it a full moon in these parts, but, it is also the third monthiversary of our moving into the city house.

So, it's actually all fallen into place neatly, and, as a bonus, we can still go see the Viking ship at Rockland on Monday.

And!  Since I do want to see the Viking ship at Rockland on Monday, I need to take this gift of three whole days with, ahem, "nothing to do" to write like the wind.

I hope everybody has a terrific weekend, and I'll see you on the flip-side.

For those who are curious, here's a pic of some of the pottery we bought at Georgetown Pottery.  The pattern is called hamada and cobalt.

My thanks to everyone who put eyes on the Amazon situation.  Many noted that the links to Steve's author page are missing/broken/go somewhere else -- that will be my next Amazon-related project, whereupon I will once again ask for your assistance.  Thank you so very much being here, and being willing and able to assist us as we navigate the Silly Waters of Freelance.

This morning, lest I forget, there was a reprint contract in the mail.  Totally unexpected, but of course Delightful To Behold.

I am in the meantime, making a story from an outtake from Neogenesis.  The title is "Street Cred," and it is destined for a new eChapbook, which I hope to have on-sale before we leave for MarsCon.  This morning, it weighs in at about 7,500 words, out of what I estimate to be about 10,000 words, finished.  With luck I can finish the draft this evening.

Today, Steve is wanted at the dentist, and I'll do some errands in town while that work is being done.  Sunday is forecast to be sunny and warm; our goal at This Point in Time is to take a nice long drive on Sunday, partly in order to assuage cabin fever, and partly to see if I can do a nice long drive all in one go, in prep for driving to Albany, and getting on a train for Minneapolis.

Let's see, what else?  Oh, our mailbox here at the house fell victim to Winter, the first time in many winters, so All Mail must presently be picked up at the post office in Waterville.  Today, I expect to pick up a sweatshirt, and a DVD, along with the usual handful of bills and sales flyers.  I've really been looking forward to the sweatshirt, and honestly didn't expect the DVD to make it to us so quickly, which just goes to show that when you order something called "Arrival," it'll try to live up to its name.

. . .and I think that's all I've got.

Everybody stay safe, and warm.

Have I mentioned here that I Had A Better Idea re: Neogenesis?

Well, I did.  And for a brief, halcyon moment, I was relieved, because it only meant I would have to add words! (yay! adding words!), and maybe shift a scene from Here to There.

This is how writers fool themselves into doing crazy difficult things, like, oh, writing novels.  They say to themselves, "Oh, it won't be so bad!  In fact, it'll be fun!  And know That Scene you've been wanting to write?  It'll fit inside of this project just as slick as..."

You get the idea.  But what we say to convince ourselves to do these crazy things?  That's not the worst part.

The worst part is that we believe it!  Over and over and over again.  And we never, ever learn.

Which brings us back to Neogenesis: the Adding of One Scene and the Moving of Another.

If I had been honest with myself, I would have said something like, "This is going to be a massive pain in the hat; you're going to have to take the book apart by narrative lines, reshuffle the scenes so that the action in That Line doesn't all happen on Tuesday afternoon, which is another thing you'd think I'd learn, but. . .no -- and also! write bridge scenes so that the new order will Make Sense.

So, that's what I've been doing.  With luck and a tailwind, I'll finish that nonsense tonight, and get with advancing the storylines tomorrow.

In other news. . .Since both WorldCon and NASFiC are out of our reach next year, being held respectively in Finland and Puerto Rico -- and! since Steve and I will be Guests of Honor at Confluence, in Pittsburgh in August, and! since my 65th birthday is in September (hey, proximity is where you declare it), I have formed a Plan, which is that we will visit Niagara Falls for one of those whatchamacallits -- vacations -- on our way home (geography being also subject to declaration).

Now, because we take so few vacations, and mostly travel when there's a scifi convention in it for us, I'm asking you world travelers -- yes, you! -- for suggestions on what (besides the Falls, natch) we should absolutely not miss doing in Niagara Falls.  Best place to stay, best restaurants, tourist traps, walks, excursions -- the sky's the limit (well, not literally, because I don't do airplanes, though I might do a hot air balloon).

Thanks very much for your consideration and help, and now?

I gotta go build some more bridges.

Today's blog post brought to you by Guns 'N Roses, provided courtesy of the gym, which apparently has located the "All 1980s MTV All The Time" station on their satellite service.

"Paradise City" -- here's your link.

Here at the Cat Farm, it has been a Week of Parts.

We had the exploding computer part, and the going to the dentist part, and the Steve's eye exam has been rescheduled for the third time since January part, and the delivery of various boxes of used books from geographically distant parts of the country part, and the arrival this morning of a bitchy headache, of which I Do Not Approve, and the arrival of the Win7 machine, of which I Do Approve, at least in theory, since I'm not going to undertake to transfer programs and files from one computer to another computer while I have a headache.

Into this week of Parts have come emails -- two, one from Kimpton Hotels, and one from Starwood -- tempting me to take a winter break.  Surprisingly, I find myself most tempted by Kimpton, which offers me a quirky Kimpton-y room in a hotel built inside of an historic building in downtown Philly, walking distance to museums and The Shopping.  It's been a long, long time since I just hung out at a museum for a day, never mind a couple of museums over three days.  It would, my brain says, Be Nice.

Mind you, it's still winter in Philadelphia, too -- in fact, at last report, Philadelphia was having more winter than we here in Central Maine are currently enjoying -- and I'm not a fan of walking in the slush and the wind, be it city or country -- but the idea of a little museum-touring mini-vacation is. . .awfully attractive.

So, if you could drop everything and take a winter break -- where would you go, and what would you do?