naomi_jay: (stewie)
So we're eating our dinner and watching Castle and otherwise minding our own business, when there's this knock on the door. Kyle answers and there's a couple there with a spaniel that we've never seen before (we'd never seen the couple or the spaniel, just to clarify). And when ensued was a conversation a bit like this:

Couple: Hello, we're from Number 15. Are you missing a snake?

Us: YES! YES WE ARE! WE ARE MISSING A SNAKE! DO YOU HAVE OUR SNAKE? YOU HAVE OUR SNAKE!!!

And then the spaniel started barking and there was a conversation about anime, but the upshot was... These people had Ket. They had our snake. OMG. What are the chances? It's been six months since he escaped, yet a group of kids found him today on our front lawn. They called an adult who took Ket in, put him in a nice tank, and started asking around. What are the odds of any of that happening? I can only think that Ket's been in the house somewhere all winter, and the recent warmer weather got him moving. I am so unbelievably grateful that those kids did the sensible, kind thing instead of ignoring or tormenting Ket, as they could easily have done.

So he's home! My Number One Snake is home. He's bigger. He seems quite sluggish, but I guess he's had a busy day. We've bathed him, we're going to feed him tomorrow, and get him to the vet on Friday. And on Saturday we are damn well buying some snake locks for his tank.

It's so weird... I dreamed on Sunday night that we found him. And I was thinking today that all these nice, small things keep happening to me at the moment. Nothing life-changing, but just little things that make me pause and feel thankful. And this, this is incredible. Of all the things I excepted when we got that knock at the door, Ket coming home was the last of them.



But I am very, very grateful to my neighbours and their spaniel.
naomi_jay: (dragon girl)
I wrote 2k yesterday and passed the 50k mark on BLOOD HUNT. Look at me go! I was going to push ahead for 51k since I only needed 300 more words, but then Ket rather unceremoniously shed his skin, and we had to marvel over him. It was pretty cool - we knew he was due to shed, but I didn't realise he would literally just peel out of his skin in a couple of minutes. He seemed very proud of himself afterwards, as well he should be, I suppose. And that got me all excited about writing about snake shape-shifters and how they could shift by just shedding, and after that I was over-stimulated and had to go to bed. Because, you know, I'm five.


 
50703 / 70000 words. 72% done!

Anyway, I'm really hoping to get this first draft wrapped up in the next week or so. I know I'm not giving myself a massive amount of time, and I certainly won't rush if I can't do it, but I have a three-day-weekend this weekend, so that's one extra day of nothing but writing. It can happen!

In other news, I've got an old short story I'm thinking of submitting to a Static Movement anthology. I'm vascillating because it's very much a paranormal romance and not in my usual vein, and I'm considering a pseudonym? I don't know if having a pseudonym makes me a pretentious wanker though. It's something I've been toying with for a while, especially the past week or so, since I have some ideas that are outside the usual "Naomi Clark" stuff (even there even us a "Naomi Clark vein" yet; I don't think I have enough published work out there to have a recognisable voice and style yet). I'm not sure it's really that worthwhile though. I'm pretty sure you at least have to be world-famous before you start having multiple-pen names. Thoughts? Suggestions? Insults?
naomi_jay: (ZP - yay)
So! I have completely worn out my arm this weekend. I wrote about 4k on BLOOD HUNT and started a short story, as well as doing some brain storming for a sekrit projekt, and woke up this morning very achey and stiff all down my right arm and across my shoulders. I'm at a point with the arm injury where it doesn't really hurt at the time anymore, so I have no warning bell telling me to stop, but the next day I always suffer. Still, since I'm edging ever closer to finishing that mythical first draft, I'm not going to complain. Another 20k to go and I'm there!


 
48000 / 70000 words. 69% done!

In other news, we have acquired* a corn snake!



There he is, along with my hand. Not the best picture, but he's not feeling too sociable at the moment because he's shedding his skin. We'd been talking about getting either a bearded dragon or some leopard geckos for a while, and then a guy we know in the village mentioned he needed to rehome his snake because he was getting a puppy. Or something. So anyway, we picked him up on Saturday. He's six months old and we've named him Ket. He hasn't really been handled very much yet and is a bit tense whenever he thinks we're going to touch him, so we let him just settle in and burrow around the vivarium all day yesterday, and today we're going to spend some time getting him used to being handled. Stay tuned for my adventures with Ket, in which I will undoubtedly be bitten a lot!

*I've been thinking about the word "acquired" and how it makes it sound like we stole Ket or found him roaming the streets or something. Is that just me? It seems like a word you generally follow with "by illegal means." For the record, we did actually pay for him and didn't rob him from an unsuspecting passer-by or anything.

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Dirty Little Whirlwind

February 2018

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