I Entered A Contest...

...of sorts. It's called the Samhain Visions Cover Story Contest where you write a story, poem, or essay about the photo on the cover of Gaelsong's catalog. So I wrote a short story (the name of it is "Betty") and I think it's an okay little story. I need more votes though to win the big prize (hint hint) since the stories are voted on by your peers. Hence, it doesn't really matter how good the story is, or how well it's written, just as long as you can get enough people to vote for your story. Anyway, the voting runs until the 29th of October and you can vote on a story once a day every day until the the voting ends. I'm just looking to be somewhere near the top, I guess, and not dead last. I have ten votes as of writing this. Hope I get more.

In other news...

My progression on my Lake One Gothic romance novel, or novella, or whatever it'll be, is coming along slowly but surely. I have over 12k words written, some of which I'm sure I'll keep in the editing, but let's not talk about editing right now. Much too soon for that. I don't have much to say on this project until I have more written, other than I keep thinking about it more than I actually write it. Me thinks I need to set myself goals like I did with Draculești if I ever want to get the first draft done. Even if I don't reach them, at least I'll have something to work towards and get this thing rollin'.

The other day I had a friend of mine take some pictures of me all dressed up and looking Gothic while in the cemetery and quite a few of them turned out pretty nice. I needed some updated photos of me and the autumn season and the beautiful cemetery in my home town make for a nice back drop. One of the photos is my about me photo in the upper right of this blog. She's not a professional photographer, she's still learning to use her new camera so I thought since I needed some new pictures of myself for internet purposes, and she needed some practice, a little photo shoot would benefit the both of us. And we had fun doing it. A few for your viewing pleasure.

Photo by Anita McIlvain

Photo by Anita McIlvain

Photo by Anita McIlvain

Photo by Anita McIlvain

Aaand...

A few weeks ago my anxiety decided it wanted to fuck with me. I ended up having a bad panic attack when I went into work and cried uncontrollably. Not only that, the heart palpitations would not stop. I had to go home early from work twice which I did not want to do. I didn't want the points, and I didn't want to lose the time and money. I had no choice--I couldn't work the way I was. At the end of this month I finally get to see a doctor for this, but it isn't for an actual appointment, it's for a meet and greet, whatever that is. I guess doctors want to know you before they decide to take you on as a patient or something? I have no idea. I just want meds to make myself better again. The past week my anxiety has nearly vanished, but I know it'll return sooner or later. I still get the palpitations once in a while, though not nearly as bad as a few weeks ago. Anxiety sucks, big time. I don't wish it upon anybody.

So that concludes what I have to say for the time being. I really do need to update this blog more often, but what the hey. At least it gets updated, even if it takes a month or more between posts.

Now, click on the linky at the top of the post and cast your vote for me, even if you don't read the story (it's 488 words, it's not long at all) but please do. Let me know what you think. It's the first short story I've written in a long time. I don't think I did too badly considering, and that my word limit was 500. I even managed to keep it down below that. Ta ta for now!