Nadia Lee :: Author

mood: tired but feeling accomplished
currently working on: All the King’s Women
dreamed last night: that I won a $30 million jackpot (lottery) and spent over two months consulting lawyers and CPAs to figure out how to minimize my tax liability and to set up multiple trust funds and develop an investment strategy; I got nothing written during that time and felt extremely guilty and had to call Agent and apologize for the lack of progress on my WIPs; unfortunately the dream ended before Agent could say anything…anyway it was a weird dream

Got up very early this morning…(well…anything before 9:00 a.m. is early for me) and started working on the story. There’s nothing like blood and love and sex and pain…well, you get the point.

I think it went okay, but I could’ve done better by concentrating more on the story. Sometimes I get slightly distracted. Also I’m not sure if I can continue to write over 6k / day. Usually the opening chapters are the easiest for me to write, so I’m sure things will slow down when I reach the middle / ending. Today’s progress chart:

On the hamster front — Buttercup is ovulating today, and Kuro tried to hump her, and we had to separate the two. It’s so wrong since Kuro is her daddy. Oi. Shiro’s been very aggressive recently, and I’m wondering if she’s abusing Peanut. To be honest, I think Buttercup is a bit scared of Shiro. But then Shiro is the white specter of doom…er…mommy hamster.

I had my first workout of the year. I did some easy stuff with 22 lb dumbbells, but my right delt is feeling very tight. Must stretch before going to bed.

How’s everyone doing today?

mood: sleepy
watched last night: The Forbidden Kingdom
bought today: a small calendar from a ¥100 store

Tomorrow I start the first real day of writing after a long break plus brainstorming. I’m totally anxious to get going. This month has only nineteen working days due to various national holidays, etc. and so on. Knowing that of course makes me even more determined to make the best use of those days. I’m trying to figure out the point where marginal productivity diminishes because I feel like I’ve been working hard for a long time without sufficient return for all my effort. I spend so many months on something, but at the end I don’t have a whole lot to show for. So that’s something I really want to work on this year.

mood: upbeat
current workshop: Margie Lawson’s Defeating Self-Defeating Behaviors
bought yesterday: Philips Sonicare R732 HealthyWhite Power Toothbrush

Went to McD for a Big Mac. It was that or cooking. For whatever reason, McD in Japan tastes better than McD in America. I think it’s due to the fact that Japanese franchisees use fresher veggies, etc.

Yesterday, I bought Sonicare. I’ve been thinking about buying it for a long long time. It’s less than $150 in the States. In Japan, it’s $200. (For those of you who think protective tariffs are great, this is the result — paying 25-50% more for the same stuff, just because it’s made by a non-domestic firm.) Hero Material and I used it last night, and we decided that it is indeed excellent. My teeth feel extra clean.

This Christmas / New Years, I’ve mostly bought books, some stuff from VS and so on. For whatever reason, I’m not really interested in shopping. This month I’m also going to close my HELOC account the second I pay off the balance. I don’t see any point in keeping it since the bank won’t let me withdraw any money out of it. So yes, my bank did lose a customer, but I don’t think it cares. Oh the joy of modern banking.

mood: optimistic about the future
currently working on: All the King’s Women outline; I have it almost figured out…!
currently reading: Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs

2008 was long and difficult yet surprisingly interesting and rewarding as well.

On the writing front, the year started off with selling a book to Samhain so that’s always fantastic. But the biggest accomplishment is of course signing with an agent. I also left a critique group, but I think in a way it was inevitable. I do miss many of the writers I met there. Oh, and I have a new pretty website.

On to the financial matters — my mom lost a ton of money thank to subprime. I wish she’d listened to me when I asked her to sit tight for another year before investing in the funds she was interested in. When you hear about banks raking in record profit from issuing more and more subprime loans, which are by nature very risky, you know there’s something fishy going on, and that it’s going to fall when weaker real estate markets start to lose their value one by one. I started the year with a ton of debt, but my venture investment paid off right before Christmas, so I’m starting the year with no debt (except the mortgage I have on my house) and some extra cash.

Talk about strange since I never expected to get any payment from the investment, given what’s going on in the market.

My writing goals for 2009 are:

1. Complete two manuscripts. I think I figured out what’s wrong with All the King’s Women and Nine. W00t!
2. Read 52 books. Fiction, non-fiction, it doesn’t matter. I just need to read to get more ideas and to recharge. I noticed that I didn’t read all that much during the latter half of 2008, and it really affected my creativity.
3. Take time off! I’m absolutely terrible at taking time off and relaxing. I always feel like I have to work or else. Of course this is unsustainable, and I do burn out and can’t write for a month or two. Very unproductive. So I’m forcing myself to take two days a week off, along with major holidays, etc. Oh, I’m also making myself go to the gym three times a week at least.
4. Read 2 how-to books (this does not count toward my goal #2) or take two online classes. I already signed up for a January class on how to not sabotage myself. I’m also eying another class on line edits because I think I can benefit from it.
5. Write 2 blog posts a month. I’m terrible at blogging because I just forget at times. So I resolve to do better this year.
6. Stop looking for and/or seek crit partners / groups. It’s really not that I think I’m too good for feedback, but it takes a lot of time and energy to find a good crit group, and I’ve decided (after a long and careful consideration) that ROI would be better if I stick with the beta readers I have right now and spend the time I would’ve used to find good crit groups / partners on reading and taking classes. (BTW — this doesn’t mean I don’t want any CPs or anything if one happens to come my way, but I just won’t be actively looking for them either.)
7. Evaluate and identify all not-helpful-anymore loops, groups, etc. Resign from them by Jan 31. This is a must since I decided that I don’t have time for them. I stayed with most of them because you “have to network” but I had to wonder networking isn’t about being in a group that sucks up all your time but gives very little in return. I should know better (or else my management consulting professor would send me a stern note saying she taught me better than this).

How about everyone else? How was your 2008 and what are your goals for 2009?

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.