Got notes from the agent re: All the King's Women synopsis. As usual, she was totally right to ask the questions she did. I have a bad habit of assuming that people know what I'm talking about. So I tend to skip explaining the basic background, etc. Must correct this flaw. (And she was also right to question the main aspects of my world building. I find WB to be one of the most difficult things to do well.)

Yesterday was superb. Hero Material and I went out to lunch with his students. Most of them are retired and/or in their late 50s or so, but they're absolutely hilarious. There's a male student in the otherwise all female group, and he told me that he was jealous of James Bond because “Bond gets a new girlfriend in every movie.” LOL.

Afterward, I came home and realized why Nine wasn't working. At all. It was one of those “OMG” moments, and I think the reason why it took me this long to figure it out is that I was way way too in love with the initial setup of Eve retrieving an old dude in a space station. I also think it'd be much more interesting to pit her against the archvillain much sooner. I'm also considering making POV changes.

Hero Material and I've been watching The Closer recently, and who would've thought it would manifest in my subconscious?

A couple of nights ago, I had this weird dream that Kuro committed some kind of crime. I don't even know what he did, but that's not the point of my dream. The poor hamster was arrested, complete with teeny handcuffs. Shiro, with her litter, came to the police station to defend him. I was playing the Brenda Leigh Johnson character (the investigator, if you're not familiar with the series), so of course I asked her lots of difficult questions. The poor hamster squeaked in distress, hopping around on the table, but I didn't believe that she was telling me the truth. Meanwhile the infant hamsters were writhing on the table, blind, deaf and hairless. It was just really surreal. Kuro told Shiro he loved her, and the dream more or less ended.

On the non-weird-dream / hamster front, the weather's been odd. The temperature plunged suddenly, and it's freezing here. The big news here is the “massive” layoffs of maybe 2,000 workers or so by several local corporations. In Japan, there are two tiers of employment: seishain (full-time regular company workers) and contract / temporary workers. The latter category is broken down into two categories: shokutaku shain and hakken shain. Shokutaku shain is someone employed directly by the company on a short-term contractual basis, usually for a year. Hakken shain is what most Americans consider temp workers, meaning the company got them through temp agencies. When companies decide to cut costs, they usually let go of their contract / temp workers first. Currently Japan still clings to lifetime employment, and companies have certain obligations to their seishain. That includes not firing them first, paying for their health and pension insurance premiums, giving perks, bonuses, etc. (Contract / temp workers do not receive any bonuses or pay raises, etc.) Due to all this inequity in employment, a lot of non-seishain have been protesting the recent layoffs, etc. Furthermore, IBM Japan laid off its seishain (gasp!), which created even more drama. Oi.

BTW — The Big Three bailout is a huge conversation topic in Japan. After all, it does affect Japanese firms. Auto suppliers hope for the bailout since many of them have contracts with the Big Three. I enjoy reading financial analyses, etc. but if I read another person write that Japanese firms have a huge cost advantage because they get free health insurance and pension, I'm going to scream. I've been in two countries with nationalized health care. It is not free. Everyone must pay. People pay about $400 or so per month, and if they're seishain, companies pay a big chunk of it. Companies also pay for their pensions. If that's not bad enough, Japanese companies must ensure that their workers aren't overweight or overly rotund around the middle or pay an enormous fine to the Health Ministry for overburdening the national health insurance system. Furthermore, the government had a huge screwup with its pension funds, and since Japan has too many retirees and not enough young workers, it's planning to double the sales tax. So please, stop with all this “free” stuff.

…her babies!

O.M.G. Hero Material and I were expecting on Dec 10. But she ended up delivering after seventeen days.

I was quite traumatized at first because I heard a lot of long squeals from Shiro and I saw blood on her. Ack!!!! She even refused her favorite treats. I was about to tear all my hair out when she returned to her nest, squealed some more then came out all svelte, minus the blood.

:wub:

Hero Material and I have no idea how many she delivered or anything. She made a super nest inside a heated house, and we can't see. I guess we have to wait at least a couple of weeks.

I can't believe I went over a week without blogging. I try to post more regularly.

Happy belated Thanksgiving. I hope everyone ate a lot of turkey. We didn't celebrate it since Thursday is a regular weekday here. Shiro is getting very rotund these days. Not only is she getting bigger, but she's also quite squeaky. She squeaks at Kuro all the time and kicks him out of the nest. Maybe he bought her a vacuum cleaner?

Furthermore, Shiro sometimes sits on Kuro. In Japan, there's a saying that goes something like “the wife's butt is bearing down upon the husband”. It means the husband is the wife's b*tch. Here's a example of what she does to that poor boy. Sorry the picture quality is poor, but they were squirming the entire time.

This is Shiro eating her veggies. She loves to nibble on them.

This is Kuro and Shiro fighting (or something). They sometimes paw each other and squeak. The picture looks yellow because of the reflection from their cage top, which is orange.

This is Kuro debating between a bath and a nap.

On the writing side: All the King's Women as my NaNo project…it was a failure in that I didn't get to write 50k words. But I also figured out what was wrong with it. So it's not all bad.

How's everyone else doing?

It snowed in Japan. Burr. My city was saved from the horrible white stuff (I really don't like snow), but the temperature's falling rapidly. :( It's going to be colder tomorrow.

On the writing front, I realized that I set up the entire fourth chapter incorrectly. It's a shopping / planning / conflict sharpening chapter, and I know that part is right. It's the setting and how the heroine chooses to shop that are wrong.

BTW — This is something that came up on one of the online forums I lurk. One member questioned my integrity, alluding that I'd blindly defend professional associates I have relationships with (such as literary agents, etc.).

I have no patience for incompetence. If I find someone's performance less than satisfactory, I won't defend them just because. So if you see me say something nice about some industry professional, it means I really think that person's nice.

Finally — since the Big Three begging for $25 billion from the government is a big discussion topic among many (it's huge in Japan too), I'll leave you with something to consider.

The total compensation pool (that includes salaries plus bonuses) for Honda's twenty-seven top executives, including its CEO, is $13 million dollars. That's $13 million for ALL of them, not $13 million per person.

Toyota just announced that it had reduced its directors' salaries. The company stated that it is important for Toyota executives to set good examples for its workers and that the executives must sacrifice first.

On the other hand, Rick Wagoner (GM CEO) gave himself a pay raise in March 2008. He is currently receiving $2.2 million dollars a year in salary alone. Furthermore, all Big Three executives flew in their private jets to beg for $25 billion from the Senate. ABC news reported that the round trip for Wagoner alone probably cost GM $20,000.

Kuro is a male hamster. 8O I'm going to have a billion baby hamsters. Anyone wants some?

Today's progress = meh. I'm thinking about writing a synopsis for the story actually. I think I have the basic outline and the story arc all figured out.

How's everyone doing?