Nadia Lee :: Romance Writer

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.

I got to watch it today since it just hit the big theaters here. (Yes, the price I pay for living in Japan...!)

Quantum of Solace is a fantastic Bond flick. I loved it. I know some people complained about Bond being too dark and/or the character development relying too much on what happened in Casino Royale. But I always thought the lack of continuity and Bond's development were weaknesses rather than strengths of the franchise; there's something very callous about him not caring about all those dead Bond girls, etc. So I didn't mind that Vesper's death played a significant role in Bond's character in Quantum of Solace. As a matter of fact, I thought it deepened the movie and Bond as a character. Besides, the kind of work he does is dirty and not supposed to be light and fun. Read Fleming's novels; Bond might be a playboy, but there are other, dark sides to him too.

BTW -- the theater had some technical difficulties, and the movie had to be stopped in the middle for about three minutes. For the inconvenience (for which they apologized in person four times), they gave everyone a voucher for a free movie ticket valid until April 30. We can choose any film we want. W00t! I think I'll save it for a reward day.

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*