Okay, let me just start out by saying that I still can't get past the news story I just read about the college kid who was found dead in his dorm room. His room was filled with helium but the article said - twice - that his death isn't suspicious. I'm suspicious. Unless he was blowing up balloons and the tank leaked, how the hell did the helium get into his dorm room?? I could see it if he was found dead in the science building. Hubs says I am suspicious of this because I am a writer.
Speaking of Hubs, he's about 30 pages from being finished reading Accidental Death for the first time. He has been amused, surprised, and enthralled. (I say enthralled because he's inhaling this and he completely ignored the Log Cabin Living marathon I was watching last night. He loves log cabins and he didn't even look up when I said something about how beautiful this one was. I'm taking that as a win.)
Yes, I know. I don't usually have Hubs read until AFTER the final edits, but I needed him to vet some things and I didn't want to have all the edits done only to find I messed something up royally. Good news - he hasn't found anything wrong with what I wrote.
So, Accidental Death is out with the editor. And I've contacted a cover artist for Djinnocide (Wish in One Hand). AND I'm reading through Bloodflow for content and clarity. Busy busy. But it's all good.
In non-writerly news, I took the garden shears and the limb saw out yesterday and whacked holy-hell out of the vines that are prevalent around here. You see, we were looking into the back of the property and noticed that the two oaks off the sunporch were looking peaked, and the three trees just off the yard are lagging behind in the leaf-generation stage. I assume the culprits were the damn vines. So I killed them. As I headed out the door, I was amusing myself by chanting "Some must die so that others may live." The back yard is now covered with dead vines and the stuff still up in the trees is all wilty, so life is good. I know killing the Virginia Creeper last year seemed to help the small oak off the driveway. And killing the Virginia Creeper in the side yard the year before has done wonders for the black walnut trees there. I also got rid of some grape vines and some thorny viney crap I haven't identified yet. The latter whipped around and got me in the back of the leg. One scratch. Die!
I also planted two mint plants. I shall name them Thing One and Thing Two.
What happened in your world last week? What on tap for this week?
Ooh! Love the location of the mint. It'll smell good there by the door.
ReplyDeleteNot surprised Hubs is enthralled. AD is that good!
As for the suspicious death, yeah, I'd be a little leery until I saw the full investigative report. PD/ME doesn't release all facts to the media. The kid may have had a history of huffing, a helium tank was probably present, etc. I would suspect he got high and forgot to turn off the tank, passed out and ran out of oxygen in the room. And FYI, it would have been labeled a homicide by PD, until ME determined cause of death and they closed their investigation. Technical definition of homicide is "any unattended death until cause is established." I always went, along with at least one homicide detective, to the scene of any unattended death, even when it looked like natural causes.
Have a great Sunday and enjoy the weather! Gonna get cold and wet again. At least no AC bills!
I didn't even think of someone huffing helium. Then again, huffing anything is stupid in general. You're probably right and he accidentally killed himself. Tragic and stupid.
DeleteI think it's so cool that you have all this experience with crime scenes and stuff, Silver. I hope I got it mostly right in AD (and some is wrong on purpose because of who we're dealing with there.)
It was kinda overcast and chilly here today until late afternoon - which was nice - but yesterday was freakin' awesome. Yay for no AC bills yet, and yay for the furnace not turning on very often.
Huffing helium is just plain weird. It's sad he died of it.
ReplyDeleteYeah for Hubs loving AD!!! What great experience you have, Silver. I've had trouble using my experience sewing in my fiction. Needles just aren't that scary. :-)
I need to get a limb saw out, too. I always tell myself it's the wrong time of year, so it never gets done.
I have only five chapter left to rewrite to finish this draft of 2C. And we have company coming for most of this week. Sigh. I love my family, but I'm getting frantic to get finished. Unfortunately, at the moment the words are dribbling out one by one. My goal of May 1st is more realistically May 15th. I'm still aiming for it, though. Chug, chug, said the little engine. ;-)
I'm with you - suspicious. But then, I'm a writer too :)
ReplyDeleteAs for Dying Embers, I am still enjoying the heck out of it! I bet your hubs will be extremely well behaved forever more (or else!). BTW, have you checked out Steven Novak Illustrations for cover art? That's who I'm going with. Great work and VERY reasonably priced. And that leads into what's happening with me... moving ahead with self pubbing, dreaming (literally all night) of my book covers, writing a couple novelettes I'll be using to kick-start marketing for my full length novel.