I'm still around

I've gotten a couple of emails from folks concerned that I haven't been online or posting much. I AM still here, just working a lot and pretty quiet otherwise. It's very much a day to day thing with my grandmother, so I'm trying to keep busy since I'll be going away pretty soon.

FDon't worry...outside of being pretty tired, everything is okay.

A light in the darkness

This has been a very tough week for me. The back has been in agony for much of it. Even more troubling, my grandmother is definitely declining quickly and between the back, Mark's heavy work schedule and other issues, getting home in a timely manner may prove to be impossible. All of this is weighing very heavily on me.

Something happened today that was such a bright light in this darker period and I found myself smiling and laughing, REALLY laughing for the first time in more than a week.

As you may know...I don't remember if I posted it here in my blog...I had a bunch of books go missing from my hotel room at RT. A dear friend asked me for a list of what was missing earlier this week and I sent it to her. No problem, she's just pointed me to a book trading mailing list and I've been incredibly slow making my want list. This dear friend also popped a box of books in the mail and I have some intriguing new reads to check out.

Anyway...today the mail came and with it an envelope addressed to my 'pen name'. Yes, I know, it seems strange for an editor to have a pen name, but due to a family member's job it became necessary. When I opened the envelope I was both thrilled andmoved to find a copy of one of the books that had been stolen.

My dear friend had contacted the author, asking her to send a signed bookplate for me. Instead of that already generous gesture, the author sent me a signed copy of her book. This absolutely made my day.

Thanks so much to Angie W. Angie initiated this and her sparkling prsonality and wit complement a heart of gold. Thanks also to Marjorie M. Liu for sending me her wonderful book Tiger Eye. You ladies are the best! Thanks for shining a ray of brightness into a dark week.

Oh my aching...

I've been having back problems that are getting worse and worse. Part of the problem is the terrible ergonamics at my desk. I need to get a new one...soon! Part of it is that I hold all my tensionin my shoulder and back. It is catching up with me in a big way. I've been on medication for a day and a half now and am STARTING to be able to turn my neck, though turning from the hips is just a pipe-dream for now!

I'd like to say thatI've been reading while resting, but I've been way too spacy for that! I haven't even finished a book yet!

The moral of this little tale of pain? Walk around once an hour to stretch those muscles!

What goes around...

My husband used to work for an audio visual company that shall not be named. When he started there he was THRILLED to have the job, even though he felt that they took advantage of him some six months earlier. They had interviewed him and had liked him enough to ask him to come in for a week-long hands on interview, where they tasked him with building a very complex computer cluster. At the end of the week, they told him they had decided not to hire him, that they were in a hiring freeze. He was OBVIOUSLY brought in to do this project since nobody else had the professional chops to handle it.

Fast foreward six VERy lean months where Mark was forced to deliver food and make a few dollars a day after expenses and being a courier. Times were tough, VERY tough. He went back to that company and asked and lo and behold they hired him that day!

It didn't take long before Mark discovered that his Garden of Eden was really a teeming cesspool. The company was not fiulfilling contracts, was replacing new gear with gear bought on Ebay....the list went on and on. Mark managed to stay there and gained a new career--programming audio visual systems. He felt obligated because they had given him a chance but when they started pressuring him to lie to clients, which made HIM leagally liable, he decided to find a new company.

After Mark left, he found out some very disturbing facts. Among them, the CEO and her husband had declared bankruptcy THREE times in the past and had closed the doors on THREE businesses. It was just a matter of time...

The invitable happened and the company closed its doors. They didn't pay any of their 26 employees the last month's wages. Disgusting...

We JUST found out that a court REJECTED their bankruptcy claim and someone had to assume their debts (INCLUDING unemployment), so the CEO and her husband are working for the person who assumed their debts and will be for a good long time.

It's good to see them finally having to take responsibility. This has been a LONG time coming!

It seems that my grandmother is definitely going downhill

My mother called today and confided that she thinks my grandmother has maybe 2 weeks left to live. She's no longer eating and is sleeping all the time. I thought I'd dealt with this but I'm very distracted and weepy this afternoon. I guess I haven't come to terms with it as I'd thought.

Can you continue to keep Margaret in your thoughts?

Discovery and rediscovery

I have a private blog where I chronicle all the books I've read this year and if they were work projects or just reads for fun. I've noticed some trends in my reading for this year.

I've read 60 books this year, and half of these were work projects. The others were quite a mixed bag.

Since I work in the romance indstry, I had expected that the majority of pleasure books read would be romances, but that isn't the case at all. The majority of my reads are urban fantasy/alternate history. I've managed to discover Rachel Caine and Kelley Armstrong this year and rediscover Jim Butcher and Harry Turtledove.

I'm also starting to devour the Silhouette Bombshells. I have a few read and even more on my bookshelves. I went on a chick lit jag but that appears to be over for now. I've also been picking up EC paperbacks and reading authors who are new to me.

This year appears to be about discovering new authors and rediscovering old favorites. I credit Booksfree for allowing me to take chances on some authors I hadn't tried yet. Somehow it seems more like a lending library even though it isn't free.