TQC and beyond.

I'm officially taking a break from "The Queen's Courtesan" to give myself more freedom to work on other material. I'd originally planned the piece as a short story, but it just kept growing and growing. I was starting to feel I was getting bogged down, and it was keeping me from developing other ideas. I definitely plan to come back to TQC when I'm refreshed and have had some time to develop other stuff.

I've got a much clearer idea of the Gilkesh universe now than I did when I started, and I want to explore other stories set in the Gilkesh universe but not in the space/time setting of TQC. Also I want to work on some non-Gilkesh-related ideas. So I expect the coming calendar year to be a good time to commit to writing on a regular (edit: DAILY!) basis, and to grow both the quantity and the variety of my work.

Also, if I do post more of TQC in the near future, it may be in the form of excerpts, which will not necessarily be in sequence as the prceding 40 chapters have been. I can put it all together later when I'm revising and editing.

http://gilkesh.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
http://asher813.typepad.com/gilkesh_language/
http://asher813.typepad.com/gilkesh/
http://gilkesh.blogspot.com/
http://asher813.typepad.com/fiction/

Is it Saturday yet?

G is away (with the little one) visiting relatives in Connecticut for two weeks. She gets back this Friday night.

I miss her terribly.

Happy new year ...

... from Michael.
http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2007/12/happy_new_year_1.html

Change 1 to Change 2.

I'm now re-evaluating my housing options. At the rate I'm normally able to earn, I can just barely make my current rent plus utilities if I work full-time 28 days a month. So, having scraped together January's rent, I'm looking at moving in with a friend.

My first choice, obviously, would be to move in with G, but she's currently sharing her space with a baby, a roommate, and two dogs, and isn't in a position to start the cohabiting thing right at this moment. So I'll probably accept my old friend B's offer and move in with her until my annuity check shows up in April. (And no, G doesn't have a problem with that.)

I will NOT be sorry to see the last of this ghastly place. As I've said, it does have its redeeming points (courtyard + swimming pool) but overall it's perfectly horrid. It's rumored that the building may be torn down in the coming year, and good riddance to it!

Meanwhile, I'm now registered with a couple more agencies and have got a couple of promising gigs on the horizon. Also, work will likely pick up after the New Year holiday; it tends to get slow in December due to the end of the fiscal year.

B's place is snug but we've shared even tighter quarters (platonically) without getting on each other's nerves, so I expect it will be a good roommate match. Also I'll be able to help her get stuff done - she is getting her costuming/sewing business off the ground, and is struggling with arthritis while doing it, so I'll be happy for the chance to help out.

It's funny, as much as I enjoy having my own space, I'm finding it more and more important to be "plugged in" to a community of friends and extended family. A friend's recent LJ post captured the idea of "I can be alone at home with you". I think that about says it. I'm still going to need to have times when I'm actually ALONE alone, but the regular human contact is really a big deal. And I've been missing it.

New Year's post ...

... will probably be up tomorrow. 2007 in retrospect, memes, synopses of LJ entries, all that fun stuff.

Still trying to wrap my head around LJ now being owned in Russia. What. EV. Er.