A little about RJ Astruc:
I'm an Irish/African speculative fiction writer currently based in Australia. Most of my writing concerns issues of race, gender, politics, and how freaking awesome it would be if the world worked exactly how I wanted it to. I have a long-suffering second husband and no pets.
17. What is the best writing or publishing advice you've ever received?
Stephen King did a great thing in his On Writing book where he cuts words out of sentences so that the end product is really short and snappy. I hate reading description, so the idea that you could just leave the bare bones of a story or a sentence was great.
18. Do you have a role model? Who?
I don't really have a writing role model, but if I could even have a pinch of Stanley Elkin's ability... wow. I'd like that.
Info:
Blurb: "The rules of the qverse don't apply when you're dicing with its queen...."
Felix "Gig" McGuiggen is having one hell of a week. Arnold Lee, a mid-level programmer and all-around nobody, stabbed himself to death while jacked in to the virtual reality known as the "qverse." Viger Singer, Lee's employer, has offered Gig a million dollars to prove it was a suicide and not the first-ever murder by brain hack.
From the moment Gig said yes, he's been harassed, stalked, bugged, lied to, kidnapped, and nearly blown to smithereens. And that's just outside the qverse.
On the upside, his partner in crime solving is his idol, the mysterious hack known only as "Harmonica." But when Gig meets the legend at last, he isn't the crusty old dinosaur Gig expectedóin fact, he's a she, and she's the woman of his most intricately detailed, impossible fantasies.
On the downside, Gig might not live long enough to do anything about it.
Tomorrow's Blog Tour Stop: Lilley Press's MySpace page: www.myspace.com/lilleypress
Talk to RJ Astruc! RJ Astruc will be chatting in the Lilley Press chat room on August 15th at 9pm EST! www.lilleypress.com/chat
A little bit about Lora: I was an extremely shy child. I found solace in books and daydreaming. Books were my most loyal friends and my imagination was my playground. Although I was always making up stories, it wasnít until my mid-thirties that I committed these stories to paper. Iíve always preferred to spend a great deal of time by myself. When asked what my dream job would be I would say, ìTo work in a cave making widgets.î Now I realize writing is a great deal more fun and infinitely more satisfying that widget production.
14. How do your personal experiences influence your writing?
My personal experiences have created who I am today and how I see the world so they invariably come out in my writing. Listening and people watching are great ways of collecting material for characters and inspiration for ideas.
15. What did you find most difficult when you were writing this book?
Revisions. The fun part, the magical part is writing the first draft. Spending time with the characters and watching the story unfold. The hard part is refining the story and sitting down at the computer when Iíd rather be out in the garden or hanging out with friends.
blurb:
"The longer you choose to play it safe, the more miserable your life will become. The universe rewards risk my dear; you know what you need to do."
Hannah Morganís life is at a standstill. Her dreams of becoming an artist vanished with the sudden death of her grandmother and mentor. To appease her distant and disapproving mother, Hannah gets a respectable job at a high-end day spa. Instead of painting masterpieces, Hannah spends her days painting nails and giving facials to wealthy women. Her dreams for the future have become a hideous nightmare. And it just keeps getting worse. She catches her boyfriend cheating, loses her job, and has to watch from the sidelines as her best friend, Jasmine Blue, goes after her own dreams of owning her own salon.
Then she meets Aaron, a working artist, and finds in him a kindred spirit. And, to her surprise, she finds the courage to follow her dreams. When circumstances beyond her control threaten to destroy both her relationship with Aaron and her dreams of a bright future, Hannah fears her mother was rightóthat some dreams arenít meant to come true.
Tomorrow's Blog Tour Stop: Rachel Astruc's Livejournal: http://zeemverse.livejournal.com
Talk to Lora Deeprose! Lora Deeprose will be chatting in the Lilley Press chat room on August 15th at 8pm EST! www.lilleypress.com/chat
A while ago I posted about the possibility of having an aneurysm. Well it appears as though I do, although it is not the cause of my headache a while ago.
Yesterday I had a angiography CT scan. This was perhaps one of the most uncomfortable test I have taken to date. Let me set the scene for you,my neurologist gave me no information on the test in any way. On Tuesday evening I got a panicked call from the secretary of my neurologist saying I had to get some blood work or risk having to reschedule my appointment. I got the blood work done.
Now we come to the day of the appointment. My mother came along, I told her it was just a CT scan an no need, but we all know how mothers can't be. We arrive and I get told by the secretary at radiology that I should have registered at outpatient registration, this was my first clue that things were not what I expected. The secretary told me not to worry she'd take care of the paper work and get me registered. I go back to sit down and the secretary takes one look at my mother and me and asks, "You are aware that this is an all day test aren't you?" I giver her a surprised look and she motions for us to come up to the counter. She then explains that the test will take anywhere from half an hour to two hours and that after that I would have to stay in the hospital not moving for six hours.
Needless to say I was a little shocked, and considering the fact I already was not overly impressed with my neurologist this as it was, this basically pushed me over the edge.
So back to the test. I get in and they feel it necessary shave my nether region. I get wheeled into the room and a doctor freezes my crotch then shoves a rather large needle into an aorta that while technically is in my thigh its a little too close to my family jewels for my tastes. Well as he is injecting this needle into my crotch it feels a little like the doctor is punching me in the crotch with a very small fist each time I groan the doctor asks if it feels like an electrical pulse running down my leg. Then I do feel an electrical shock running down my leg. I tell the doctor so and he says "Its in".
The doctor then explains that a tube is running through my veins up to my head. Then the doctors all leave and I hear one of the doctor's voice come from unseen speakers, "Jeff the right side of your face is going to feel warm, now breathe in then breathe out and hold it." Then the entire right side of my head feels like it is on fire,that's not exactly right, it feels like my blood is actually boiling. They repeat this a number of times then the doctor's reemerge from their hidden enclave and pull the tube back, I can feel it under my skin moving, but perhaps this is just my imagination. Then they disappear again and the voice returns, "Now your left side will feel warm, breathe in and breathe out then hold it," and it starts all over. This loops four times total each time a new area of my head is set fire from within. I'd like to tell you that this was the most unpleasant part of the whole day, alas it was not even close.
The doctor's reemerged then pulled the tube out of my veins, this was perhaps the most bizarre, feeling I have ever felt. Imagine, if you can, a small and skinny snake worming its way through your body, when it gets to your leg it is most easily detectable, wiggling and squirming as it escapes your body out of a small pin prick that it is stretching to the limits. I don't think that description even does it justice. Even with four rounds of freezing to my groin I can feel the nasty ink filled vermin leaving through the needle holes these demon doctor's have inflicted upon me.
Then when all is said and done the move me to the bed, or what would soon become my prison. As they are about to wheel me out to what some sadistic SOB named the recovery room the radiologist (sadist) tells me. "Well you do have an aneurysm, however it is in the tissue that surrounds the brain, and it is rarely treated. It is highly unlikely that this aneurysm caused the headache." And without further ado they wheel me to the BDSM junkie paradise called the recovery room.
Once there one nurse comes over grabs my groin and removes the vile device they used to inject me with the mechanical ink spouting beast that had so recently roamed the highways and byways of my vascular system. Then pressing down firmly on my groin she held it there for what seemed to be an eternity, but in actuality turned out to be a mere agonizingly painful 20 minutes.
After the twenty minutes were up came the most painful part of the whole day. Have you ever wanted to just lay in bed all day and not move all day? Well I discovered that this is not such a grand idea. You see when you lie in bed all day without moving pressure builds in your lower back, normally when this happens you shift your body weight and adjust yourself relieving the pressure. Now imagine you are told that if you do shift your weight you will rupture your blood vessel and you could bleed to death, you lay there and allow the pressure to build. For six agonizing hours I lay there not moving as the pain in my back grew and grew. They gave me tylenol 3's and that dulled the pain briefly, but not for long.
When six hours were finally up they raised the head of my bed so I was sitting. Never in my life have I found sitting to be such utter bliss.
That was my day.... a day I hope not to repeat again anytime soon.
Yesterday I had a angiography CT scan. This was perhaps one of the most uncomfortable test I have taken to date. Let me set the scene for you,my neurologist gave me no information on the test in any way. On Tuesday evening I got a panicked call from the secretary of my neurologist saying I had to get some blood work or risk having to reschedule my appointment. I got the blood work done.
Now we come to the day of the appointment. My mother came along, I told her it was just a CT scan an no need, but we all know how mothers can't be. We arrive and I get told by the secretary at radiology that I should have registered at outpatient registration, this was my first clue that things were not what I expected. The secretary told me not to worry she'd take care of the paper work and get me registered. I go back to sit down and the secretary takes one look at my mother and me and asks, "You are aware that this is an all day test aren't you?" I giver her a surprised look and she motions for us to come up to the counter. She then explains that the test will take anywhere from half an hour to two hours and that after that I would have to stay in the hospital not moving for six hours.
Needless to say I was a little shocked, and considering the fact I already was not overly impressed with my neurologist this as it was, this basically pushed me over the edge.
So back to the test. I get in and they feel it necessary shave my nether region. I get wheeled into the room and a doctor freezes my crotch then shoves a rather large needle into an aorta that while technically is in my thigh its a little too close to my family jewels for my tastes. Well as he is injecting this needle into my crotch it feels a little like the doctor is punching me in the crotch with a very small fist each time I groan the doctor asks if it feels like an electrical pulse running down my leg. Then I do feel an electrical shock running down my leg. I tell the doctor so and he says "Its in".
The doctor then explains that a tube is running through my veins up to my head. Then the doctors all leave and I hear one of the doctor's voice come from unseen speakers, "Jeff the right side of your face is going to feel warm, now breathe in then breathe out and hold it." Then the entire right side of my head feels like it is on fire,that's not exactly right, it feels like my blood is actually boiling. They repeat this a number of times then the doctor's reemerge from their hidden enclave and pull the tube back, I can feel it under my skin moving, but perhaps this is just my imagination. Then they disappear again and the voice returns, "Now your left side will feel warm, breathe in and breathe out then hold it," and it starts all over. This loops four times total each time a new area of my head is set fire from within. I'd like to tell you that this was the most unpleasant part of the whole day, alas it was not even close.
The doctor's reemerged then pulled the tube out of my veins, this was perhaps the most bizarre, feeling I have ever felt. Imagine, if you can, a small and skinny snake worming its way through your body, when it gets to your leg it is most easily detectable, wiggling and squirming as it escapes your body out of a small pin prick that it is stretching to the limits. I don't think that description even does it justice. Even with four rounds of freezing to my groin I can feel the nasty ink filled vermin leaving through the needle holes these demon doctor's have inflicted upon me.
Then when all is said and done the move me to the bed, or what would soon become my prison. As they are about to wheel me out to what some sadistic SOB named the recovery room the radiologist (sadist) tells me. "Well you do have an aneurysm, however it is in the tissue that surrounds the brain, and it is rarely treated. It is highly unlikely that this aneurysm caused the headache." And without further ado they wheel me to the BDSM junkie paradise called the recovery room.
Once there one nurse comes over grabs my groin and removes the vile device they used to inject me with the mechanical ink spouting beast that had so recently roamed the highways and byways of my vascular system. Then pressing down firmly on my groin she held it there for what seemed to be an eternity, but in actuality turned out to be a mere agonizingly painful 20 minutes.
After the twenty minutes were up came the most painful part of the whole day. Have you ever wanted to just lay in bed all day and not move all day? Well I discovered that this is not such a grand idea. You see when you lie in bed all day without moving pressure builds in your lower back, normally when this happens you shift your body weight and adjust yourself relieving the pressure. Now imagine you are told that if you do shift your weight you will rupture your blood vessel and you could bleed to death, you lay there and allow the pressure to build. For six agonizing hours I lay there not moving as the pain in my back grew and grew. They gave me tylenol 3's and that dulled the pain briefly, but not for long.
When six hours were finally up they raised the head of my bed so I was sitting. Never in my life have I found sitting to be such utter bliss.
That was my day.... a day I hope not to repeat again anytime soon.
- Mood:
sore
So I have been looking into an annulment, I think that perhaps my doing so might help assure Cheryl that I am indeed fine with her religious beliefs, since I really and truly am. It looks to me like my marriage to Ursula should qualify as one in which "One or both parties may have entered the marriage with good will, but lacked the openness, honesty, maturity, fully free choice, right motivation, emotional stability, or capacity to establish a community of life and love with another person." So I believe getting one shouldn't be all that difficult,and I wouldn't even need Urs' consent, the Church would contact her and interview her, but she wouldn't have to agree to it or sign anything. Of course it would have absolutely no legal binding, and it means nothing to the government, but it means everything to a Catholic.
Of course I am not at all ready to marry Cheryl, there is much that needs to be worked out first, in my personal life and in hers, plus there is the whole her living in Barrie and me in London. Also we've only been seeing each other for a few months. At the same time though both of us are in our mid thirties and neither of us want waste time on a relationship that has no future.
Cheryl was worried about asking if I'd annulled because she thought it would mean that Lilley would be illegitimate, however from my research it would not mean that at all. "The legitimacy of the children is NOT affected in any way. There was an assumption of marriage at the time; therefore the standing of children is never affected by an annulment". That is only from one site so far, I plan on looking into it further, though I wish I knew some Catholics so I could discuss it with a priest.
Of course I am not at all ready to marry Cheryl, there is much that needs to be worked out first, in my personal life and in hers, plus there is the whole her living in Barrie and me in London. Also we've only been seeing each other for a few months. At the same time though both of us are in our mid thirties and neither of us want waste time on a relationship that has no future.
Cheryl was worried about asking if I'd annulled because she thought it would mean that Lilley would be illegitimate, however from my research it would not mean that at all. "The legitimacy of the children is NOT affected in any way. There was an assumption of marriage at the time; therefore the standing of children is never affected by an annulment". That is only from one site so far, I plan on looking into it further, though I wish I knew some Catholics so I could discuss it with a priest.
- Mood:
contemplative
Not a very eloquent title today, but that's how I am feeling.
Last night I got home to a letter with the results of my MRI... apparently they did find something which may be an aneurysm, now I have to go for more tests, and they suggest... wait for it, a Angioplast (angiogram? angiosomethingorother) CT scan. For those of you not up to date, this is the same test which they could not give me due to a shell fish allergy. Apparently there may be issues with my jugular.
In addition to that I had a Parent Teacher interview today for Lilley. The interview was ok, there is some concerns about her hearing and speech, but nothing major, however the fifteen minute meeting took an hour and a half because the teacher and my ex gabbed on about other kids in the class while I was running late for work.
On top of that I get into work and the guy int the cubicle next to me goes, "You're dating a girl from Barrie right?" I said yes and he said, "So was she affected by the explosion?" I just about fell out of my chair. Upon looking it up I find out that the explosion happened about a block and a half, maybe two blocks from Cheryl's house, I have heard nothing from her since last night well before the explosion. Now I am on edge wondering if everything is ok, the entire neighbourhood is shut down apparently.
So again I say, GAHHHHH!
Last night I got home to a letter with the results of my MRI... apparently they did find something which may be an aneurysm, now I have to go for more tests, and they suggest... wait for it, a Angioplast (angiogram? angiosomethingorother) CT scan. For those of you not up to date, this is the same test which they could not give me due to a shell fish allergy. Apparently there may be issues with my jugular.
In addition to that I had a Parent Teacher interview today for Lilley. The interview was ok, there is some concerns about her hearing and speech, but nothing major, however the fifteen minute meeting took an hour and a half because the teacher and my ex gabbed on about other kids in the class while I was running late for work.
On top of that I get into work and the guy int the cubicle next to me goes, "You're dating a girl from Barrie right?" I said yes and he said, "So was she affected by the explosion?" I just about fell out of my chair. Upon looking it up I find out that the explosion happened about a block and a half, maybe two blocks from Cheryl's house, I have heard nothing from her since last night well before the explosion. Now I am on edge wondering if everything is ok, the entire neighbourhood is shut down apparently.
So again I say, GAHHHHH!
- Mood:
anxious
I told my boss about my spill down the stairs, he talked to his boss, I called the Mac repair place and got estimates. It will cost my employer between $400 and $1000 (nice range eh) to fix it. The reason for the price variance is that if they have a dead MacBook they can Frankenstein the monitor from they can replace mine for $400 if not with labour it will be close to $1000. My employer has agreed to pay it with the caveat that if it happens again I get stuck with a desktop and no more laptops for me. This is an understandable position given my current record with these things. My boss was quite cool about it over all though.
 Dear Santa...Dear Santa, This year I've been busy! Last Friday I caught a purse-snatcher who stole ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} dontkickmycane's purse (30 points). In September I saved a busload of nuns in Angola (326 points). In August I gave ilyanme a Dutch Oven (-10 points). Last week I helped domynoe across the street (6 points). In February I bought porn for shade53 (10 points). Overall, I've been nice (362 points). For Christmas I deserve a shiny red ball! Sincerely, |
I have to say I am in a foul mood. Yesterday was a terrible day and today is not looking up. The day before yesterday all my Pay Per View Channels and Movie channels were blacked out on my Satellite dish, no big deal really I could live with that. Lastnight channel by channel I began losing channels I am down to less then I would get off basic cable. That in itself is not a big deal.
I was doing laundry last night carrying a load down the stairs I tripped over my daughters transformer toy that she left on the stairs, I fell about half a flight of stairs landing on the laundry basket. Again that in itself not too big a deal, I pulled a muscle in my leg I think ,but I am ok. The problem was the laptop was there too, and smack the laundry landed on the laptop, I landed on the laundry and CRACK there goes the LCD display. It still works i can still use it but there are cracks all over the display. and a few black spots.
If it were my personal laptop it wouldn't be a huge deal, I'd live with it, but the fact is its company property, so I had to report it to my boss. That in itself would not be a huge deal either. The fact is however this is laptop number three in two years. First laptop was a dud, second one I dropped and it never operated the same again. Now I fall on one.... I doubt they will ever buy me a laptop again.
I was doing laundry last night carrying a load down the stairs I tripped over my daughters transformer toy that she left on the stairs, I fell about half a flight of stairs landing on the laundry basket. Again that in itself not too big a deal, I pulled a muscle in my leg I think ,but I am ok. The problem was the laptop was there too, and smack the laundry landed on the laptop, I landed on the laundry and CRACK there goes the LCD display. It still works i can still use it but there are cracks all over the display. and a few black spots.
If it were my personal laptop it wouldn't be a huge deal, I'd live with it, but the fact is its company property, so I had to report it to my boss. That in itself would not be a huge deal either. The fact is however this is laptop number three in two years. First laptop was a dud, second one I dropped and it never operated the same again. Now I fall on one.... I doubt they will ever buy me a laptop again.
A while ago I had a sudden and severe headache. It was probably nothing but a variety of people harassed me until I went to the doctor, and I am glad I did. The doctor was worried it might be an aneurism, and if i left it it could burst and I'd be in serious trouble.
A few weeks ago I saw a neurologist and the neurologist said the symptoms were similar to an aneurism but it is unlikely that it actually was one, there were several key symptoms did not occur during my episode, but he wanted to have me take a CT scan to be sure. The CT scan was scheduled for late morning on this past Friday. I showed up only to be told that people with shellfish allergies cannot be given CT scan's with dye like was needed to see the blood vessels in my brain, so I could not receive a CT scan, I could instead get an MRI. The only time available was 4:30am today.
I had the scan today, so now I just have to wait for the results.
A few weeks ago I saw a neurologist and the neurologist said the symptoms were similar to an aneurism but it is unlikely that it actually was one, there were several key symptoms did not occur during my episode, but he wanted to have me take a CT scan to be sure. The CT scan was scheduled for late morning on this past Friday. I showed up only to be told that people with shellfish allergies cannot be given CT scan's with dye like was needed to see the blood vessels in my brain, so I could not receive a CT scan, I could instead get an MRI. The only time available was 4:30am today.
I had the scan today, so now I just have to wait for the results.
So I have had a satellite dish for a while now donated by a friend at work, but I have not bothered to put it up as Rogers was kind enough to continue my cable service past when I canceled it. They finally disconnected me so I went out and picked up a Veiwsat Ultra and proceeded to hook it up. Now I have more channels then I know what to do with and no time to watch TV LOL. At least my daughter can stop bothering me about their only being one TV station.
Ok so I am no good at keeping LJ up to date, but I am going to try to post here more often.
So I've started a new venture which has been keeping me fairly busy. Most of my friends know about it, but I thought I'd mention it on here anyways. I started a small press, Lilley Press. Things are moving at light speed at Lilley Press, I have five employees, and we have two authors we are working on getting signed and getting their novels ready for production. So far it has been an interesting learning experience and overall fun time, I'd love it if I could start working on Lilley Press full time and leave my "day job" behind.
In addition to the five employees I have already signed up there is a list of others looking to join on, but for now five is enough. The five are:
So I've started a new venture which has been keeping me fairly busy. Most of my friends know about it, but I thought I'd mention it on here anyways. I started a small press, Lilley Press. Things are moving at light speed at Lilley Press, I have five employees, and we have two authors we are working on getting signed and getting their novels ready for production. So far it has been an interesting learning experience and overall fun time, I'd love it if I could start working on Lilley Press full time and leave my "day job" behind.
In addition to the five employees I have already signed up there is a list of others looking to join on, but for now five is enough. The five are:
- Sharon Partington, the acquisitions editor
- Sarah Wagner, the marketing director
- Denyse Loeb. the senior editor
- Jessica D., editor
- Val Griswold-Ford, editor
- Mood:
cheerful
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