this machine will not communicate

Ugh, I've been so bad about posting and reading my flist in the past few months, which is to say, I basically have been doing neither.  I haven't been posting because I pretty much have nothing to post about - I work, and then I work, and then I write, and sometimes I do laundry and clean house.  I occasionally eat.  And it's not like I had been slacking off all year to find myself with my back against the wall come screenplay submission season; I have been writing steadily and consistently since September on the two scripts I'm submitting this year.  But this always happens anyway, and it's a particularly bad one this year.

I am really, really happy with the script I wrote this year, though.  Definitely the most polished first draft I've ever put together.  One of those where once I got the idea, the main plot was just there, ready to go.  There was some work on details and the nuts and bolts of scene building, but I didn't have to futz about with "oh how should this end" and "all right, I have a story, now what's the character arc and theme?"  So that was exciting.

I'm trying to get a revision done on a script I wrote last year; I didn't finish it in time for the first two competitions, and I'm very doubtful I'll get it done for Nicholl on May 1 (considering I'm on page 21, ahahaha).  But I should definitely have it done for AFF on June 1, and considering that's always been the competition I've done best at, that's what I'm primarily worried about.

So I'm going to start trying as best I can to catch up on like a three month backlog of flist; if you find a cascade of comments from me, that's why.  (And if you don't, that doesn't necessarily mean I didn't read, but just that I may have become overwhelmed in trying to comment on everything.)  I missssssss you guys, though.  I've felt very isolated lately, because obviously I haven't been really able to go out and do stuff with IRL friends, either.  Once a week I've been going out to eat with some friends from my writer's group, and that's kinda been my social lifeline.

(Sadly, one thing I've really, really missed is having the time to write fanfic.  I have all these stories in my head, but no time to write them down.  As soon as I'm past June 1, I'm definitely going to set aside a certain amount of time a week to write just for myself, just for fun, because whhaaaa.)

To add something of substance to this post: the first clip from the new season of Arrested Development!  I'm so excited I can hardly stand it.

I finished about 8pm on the 30th.  What with NaNo, work, and a big freelance project I finished this past weekend, I ended up taking a bit of a computer sabbatical.  (I was starting to have back pain from sitting at a computer for pretty much the entire day for two weeks, heh.)  I'm not even at my act one break point from my outline, so I'm not really sure what the structure of this novel is going to end up being, but I'm just going to keep writing and see where I end up. 

Have started working on a new screenplay idea that I'm very excited about.  Doing some research first because it's a period piece, and I like to let the story itself percolate for a bit before I get started; let my subconscious mind do some of the heavy-lifting.  And then I have two screenplays from last year to revise, and maybe a new TV pilot, if I have the time.  (Hahahaha.) 

Anyway, my life is terribly boring right now.  What with work, second work, and writing, my fandom presence is basically nonexistent these days.  I'm not in any active landcomms anymore, and I haven't written fic in months.  Which means this online social sphere is essentially dead.  This is something I'm very sad about, to be honest, but there's not much to be done about it.  Sometimes I think I'd like to drop the second job, but the money is very useful, especially as it's becoming clear that we're probably going to need to buy a new washing machine.  (Sigh.)  Ah well.

I had to take a bit of an internet sabbatical the last few weeks, for reasons that are pretty boring so I won't elaborate on the details - suffice it to say, I've been busy.  I started checking my flist for the first time in forever and became promptly overwhelmed, so.  I think I'm going to catch up by user/comm rather than try to do everything at once.

Some of you may remember my vampire screenplay The House of Bathory from last year.  Good news!  It made it to the semifinals of Austin Film Festival in both the drama and sci-fi categories.  I was absolutely flabbergasted when I got the call.  That means I was in the top 20-25 in drama and the top 10-12 in sci-fi.  I'm pretty excited.  I am nursing absolutely zero expectations I'll make it to the finals, so I'm just very happy with how it turned out.  I had also been reading scripts as a first-round judge this year for AFF, so my conference and festival badge is free.  So I'll be going down to Austin in October, and I'm very much looking forward to it.  I'm taking on some extra proofing jobs to be able to afford going out to eat and such while I'm down there.  (Last time we ate a lot of stolen hotel breakfast foods for lunch and dinner, and cheap dollar menu fast food stuff.  Which is fine, but I'd like to occasionally travel like a real grown-up.)

So again, eighteen months after the fact, I want to thank all of you who read both drafts of that screenplay, who gave me advice and critiques and sometimes even told me what worked.  I know for a fact that screenplay would not have made it as far as it did without all of your help. ♥

I was baking last night, I had nothing else for my brain to do, so I had some epic imaginary fights in my head.  To quote the sages at ONTD, I was spilling tea and throwing shade, and it was marvelous.  Sometimes in imaginary fights, the other person bests you at every turn and nothing goes right; last night did not go like that.  I was brilliant and perfect, my stingers perfectly timed, everything escalating into the absolute perfect hissy-fit you never manage to actually have.

Both imaginary fights involved the same person, which I'm assuming is a hint from my subconscious.  Whom in this instance I must picture as James Callis from Bridget Jones's Diary, standing at the side of a boxing match, holding onto the ropes, screaming, "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

I wish.  I really do wish.

Busssssssy.  Continuing revision on the zombie screenplay, started revision on the TV pilot - I finished the rough draft on that months ago, but never went back to clean up/rewrite scenes from the first two acts that needed changing after I wrote the rest/etc.  Always do things when the ideas are fresh in your heads, kids!  I'm also pondering writing a Game of Thrones spec in the next week - TV specs always are much faster to hashout, so I think I can do it if I really sit down and write this weekend.  Last year, for instance, I wrote a Fringe spec over three days that turned out pretty good, I think.

But anyway, yeah.  Busy.  Haven't really checked my flist much lately, responded to comments as much as I would like, or done my usual internet things.  However, yesterday I found time to read a scary story over on reddit, and guys.  GUYS.  Like, I am an atheist and a skeptic and all that, but I scare myself so easily with paranormal stuff, it's dumb.  And I knew - I KNEW - while I was reading that I was going to have a fun night, and boy howdy.  This is the first chapter, and warning: there is some very graphic violence and imagery in the first two chapters (like, I read and write a lot of horror and I was taken aback), so if that's not your thing, then avoid.  But if you like scary stuff and creepypasta and the like, then I can't recommend this highly enough. 

'Cause last night?  I was rill scurred for rill.  You never hear more noises in your house than when it's late at night and you're staring bug-eyed into the dark, sheet up to your chin, trying to hear noises.  I eventually got up and turned my computer monitor back on at 3:30am after laying there forever just getting more and more freaked out.  UGH.  So I'm feeling okay now - sorta punchy - but I'm really going to feel it this afternoon, because I got like three hours of sleep.



AND I JUST OPENED UP A TAB TO KEEP READING THIS THING.  I AM THAT DUMB.   (It's so scarrrrrry though.)

(Someone else will end up reading it and be like, bzuh?  This isn't scary at all!)

Good morning, flist!  Getting ready to leave for work, having just had a delightful breakfast of crumpets and strawberry jam.  I wrote three pages yesterday, bringing me up to a total of 17/58 - so we're looking at around forty pages left.  I would like to knock off half of that at the very least over the next three days, but this weekend's pretty super busy - we're having an open house on Sunday, so tomorrow's going to be...

Delightful!  I'm going to go with delightful.  I will make it delightful.

Fridays are generally a quiet day at work, so I'm hoping to be très productive.  I hope everyone else has a great day!

Does anyone know of a good place to buy bedding that ISN'T comforters?  I don't like big comforters - they're too hot in the summer, and I have an electric blanket so I don't want one in the winter.  I just want something light and pretty to cover my bed with, but I'm having the damnedest time finding anything that isn't Floral Granny Country Barn Chic Quilt Time.

Also why are bed skirts so frakking expensive.  I mean really.

And curtains.  Forty dollars for a single panel?  Come on.

My reaction to Missouri and Duke both losing in the first round:



My reaction to hearing that my queen Fiona is releasing a new album this summer:



My reaction to my alarm going off this morning:

I survived today!  Today is over!  And I am alive!

So, let me catch you up.  I haven't posted about this particular RL thing much because I didn't want to jinx myself and also because it wasn't that interesting, I think?  But anyway - today my sister and I closed on our new house!  We are now first-time home owners, and it is very exciting.  Now, we won't be moving in for a bit yet - we need to paint, pull up carpets, buy, like, new beds and stuff - but still.  The awful icky part is over.  We also got all of our stuff out of our storage unit and just piled it in the basement to be taken care of later.  I didn't want to pay for another month of storage, and I also just plain hate having my stuff in storage in general.  I always worry about it. 

BUT IT'S DONE.  IT'S FINISHED. 

Seriously, my stress and anxiety level the last, hmm, three months or so as we've been going through this home-buying journey have just been absurd.  The other day I couldn't find my lunch in the freezer here at home and I had to go lay down in my bedroom and have an ugly-cry.

Now the fun part starts.  Of course, I really need to start finding time to work on screenplays.  I'm not going to have anything new to submit to competitions and festivals this year besides the TV pilot if I don't get my ass into gear.