mood: slightly sleep deprived
currently reading: Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
Shiro's status: hanging in there; gained 2 grams :)

I can't believe Margie Lawson's Defeat Self-Defeating Behaviors workshop is over. For those of you who know me well probably know that I'm not the one to get all spiritual and frou-frou, and Defeat Self-Defeating Behaviors doesn't sound like something that would tempt me to sign up. You're right. It's not. But I'm glad I did. She teaches it once a year in January, and I encourage everyone to take it if they can. It's worth every penny and more.

Margie also teaches Empowering Character's Emotions (ECE) and EDITS workshops. I bought her lecture packets for ECE and EDITS, and already went through ECE and took tons of notes. Again, I encourage people to take the class. (She's teaching ECE in March.) The only reason why I decided not to sign up is because I'm planning to outline and draft a new project in March, and I honestly can't take a revision class while drafting a project. My internal editor will go crazy.

For All the King's Women 1st round of revision, I plan to do something a bit different. I'm going to revise backward.

What does that mean?

Instead of starting from the first chapter (my standard M.O.), I'm going to start from the last chapter. I tend to rush the ending, and I want to devote the most time and energy on making the ending very strong. Of course, I'll do a read-through from Chapter One to make sure everything flows correctly before sending the revised draft to my beta-readers.

mood: neutral (that's the only way to describe it)
Shiro's current weight: 25g
why Kuro's bad: he bit Peanut's scent gland so hard it bled
why I'm hopeful about Shiro's recovery: Shiro fought Buttercup (51g) and was able to hold her own
why my hamsters fight: I have no idea
how much I spent on stationary today: $20

Sorry I'm been terribly remiss with my blog. I've been very blue about Shiro's weight loss and just didn't want to blog about anything.

I've been continuing to work on All the King's Women. The 1st draft is rough, but it has all the main points. :) I also came up with more ideas for the setting that I like.

Also I got the Devil Falls galley. I can't believe it's coming out in print in August. It seems so soon! :)

mood: very worried
Shiro's current state: barely visible

Hero Material weighed Shiro today. Since Friday, she lost two more grams. I held her very gently and felt her tiny bone moving against my hand. She's incredibly thin now; I'm afraid she's wasting away.

I bought some of her favorite nuts — cashews and pistachios — and put them in a bowl with all her other treats (bits of walnuts, whole-grain European bread, sunflower seeds, hard biscuits, some nutri-blocks). She had little yogurt, but that's about it. She totally ignored the stuff in her bowl, and I almost cried since I have no idea what to do. I'm hoping she gets up later tonight and eats all those high calorie food.

P.S. I'm keeping her away from other hamsters so they don't steal all the nuts! Peanut's quite chubby (and incredibly active) and I know he'll eat all the treats from Shiro's food bowl if he can reach it.

mood: feeling uber-sad
what just happened: Hero Material came back from the vet

Around Wednesday or so, I noticed that Shiro looked noticeably thinner and less energetic. I was worried, although Hero Material thought maybe it was all right.

It is not all right.

According to the vet, Shiro lost 25% of her body weight in one week. (The vet weighed her last week, in case anyone's wondering how he knew.) I'm so anxious and sad. Shiro is my first real pet, so it's really heartbreaking to see her look so thin. I'm so afraid that she may not make it, yet I don't know what to do. She doesn't seem to want to eat anything she used to love. *cry*

mood: a lil sleepy
currently dreaming of: a nice back rub

I got started late today. I was very sleepy this morning. Hamsters went wild in all three wheels last night, and one of them was so loud I could hear it from the bedroom, and it kinda woke me up a couple of times. But I still got some good amount of writing done. The part I wrote today is the dark moment: the good guy v. bad guy, blood, fire and the heroine getting stabbed, etc. I wrote the section very fast — basically only getting down the action and dialogue — then went back and added the POV character's thoughts and emotions. I think that when people face a life-and-death situation, they get some kind of epiphany a.k.a. they can cut through the bull and realize what really matters in life, and I wanted to clarify some of those things for my characters since it is critical for demonstrating their growth.

Today I finally won my battle with phpList. I've been planning to install it for the longest time, but kept putting it off since I didn't want to deal with learning how to use a new tool. But after about 4 hours from start to finish, it's up and running.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present (drum roll please…)

my first newsletter!

Feel free to subscribe. I only send out very big and important announcements, so don't worry about the volume of emails you may get from me. Also you can unsubscribe anytime you want.

So…what are you waiting for? :)

mood: upbeat
workout: lower body; very tiring
treat for the day: a long soak (the gym has a big hot tub) and exfoliation

Today went better than yesterday on the writing front. Don't be shocked at the word count. I've been able to use stuff from my old pre-writing drafts, and I'm not editing as I write, so it's not as super-polished as drafts of people who revise as they go.

I'm fairly happy with the progress and what I have so far. I think the character motivation, etc. is better explained. I may need to write a couple of new scenes to clarify villain GMC, but I'm going to wait until I'm done with this draft before I make the final determination.

Now on to the life stuff —

Last night, Kuro escaped. Hero Material realized that he was gone when he saw a hamster running around in the living room. (Other hamsters stayed in the cage like good lil rodents!) Kuro found the sunflower seed stash, so he went hog-wild and left piles of empty husks behind him. Furthermore, he managed to climb up the couch and took a bunch of tissue papers to make a nest behind the couch. I know I'm supposed to get mad at him for being a naughty boy, but he's absolutely precious. Besides how can you scold a hamster who looks at you with such big sparkly eyes? *sigh*

Hero Material and I know how Kuro managed to get out of the cage, so he can't repeat the experience. I guess that's punishment enough.