All Hallows Eve

Yep, it's already October 31st.
Not sure where the year has gone or how it's gone so fast but I'm a bit surprised to find it's November tomorrow.

Today is one of those days that's always been a good day. So, it's going to be a good day. That's just how it is.

Last night I started writing. I don't know what it is exactly. I have no idea what happened to cause the scene that unfolded in front of me, I'm going with it to see where it leads. I know eventually Ellie will tell me what happened to make her so very angry. I don't know if this is a new something or if it is part of the Byte novel I started recently or even if it belongs to Soundbyte. Such is the joy of only getting a little bit of information at a time - and from someone who is so furious she's barely speaking. :)

Ha - Matchbox Twenty "Unwell" just came on the radio. My phone used to play this to anyone who rang me, instead of a boring old ring tone.

Quite liking my new space. I was messing with the panorama setting on my camera - this is kinda what it looks like from my desk...

So I tried again and the end result was weird and kinda funny. I think this is a setting that takes a lot of fiddling with!!

It looks like the wall is three different colors - it's not, lol. Simply where I was standing in relation to the windows. Also - the light blue by my desk... that was my chair, not sure where it went but it took half my tower with it, also everything on my desk seems shrunken!

Must be magic. :)
Whatever, you get the idea.

I'll get all keen about panorama another day and figure it out. Meanwhile, it's All Hallows Eve - and not an orb in sight. They're slipping.

I'm going to go look at what I wrote last night and see if I can figure out what's going on.

Have a nice day.

Remember the dead - they haven't forgotten you.

Saturday in our house

This morning I looked around the living room and it just plain pissed me off. Welcome to spring.
It was pretty obvious I needed to move EVERYTHING and clean... and well, MOVE EVERYTHING.

So I started with the couches. Pulled them out, cleaned under them, cleaned under the cushions, you get the idea. And I put the couches back, exactly where they were... and it annoyed me.

At that point I decided my desk and the couches needed to swap places. This posed to problems that I could see - one was the Internet cable (which really wasn't that big a problem, if need be I could go wireless... but the connection via cable is faster...so...) the other small problem is that...
my desk is HUGE.
Seriously, it takes up an entire corner of the room. I can't actually reach across my desk while sitting and just for reference I ain't short. In fact my screen sits so far away from me that I almost don't need glasses to see what I'm working on.

At this point it seemed wise to enlist the help of Action Man. What I required was his six feet six frame and muscle.
He was reluctant... but had thankfully forgotten how it went last time I wanted to move EVERYTHING. So he came down stairs to help and now, because he's quite clever, I kinda have my own office space... right here in the living room. It fits me and my stuff. I can still see out the window, still watch TV (if I so desire), I can still interact with the kids... but it's MY space.

Romeo has been moved away from the window and in front of what used to be the fireplace. He ended up with more space! The coffee table is under the window... the couches are where my desk used to be, and I've kinda encroached on the floor space a bit with my giant desk... but its all good. :)
It's different and will probably keep me happy for a wee while.
And now I know the Internet cable reaches all the way around the room and if I grow to hate this I can put everything back...

There is one issue.
It could be a source of major annoyance.

It's kinda hard to draw the living room curtains now.

Tonight Action Man and I are going to the Fireworks at the park... we're taking the Squealer and the Breezy because they have never been, but we're actually working (kinda). Admin One has roped us in to help out. So we'll be wearing Fire Police jackets. Oh it should be fun!!

Meanwhile, I kinda need to finish this cleaning off... the dining room needs attention.
Wonder what I can move there??? Not the big hutch dresser... that's fixed to the wall. (We're earthquake conscious in our house)

Last night was fun - actually yesterday was fun. Admin One spent the afternoon/evening here... we had wine, we had fish and chips, we had Human Target. Really what more could a person need???
And there was an awful lot of laughter. Admittedly some of that was directed at me and due to an incident involving my elbow, a full glass of wine and a fruit bowl that was on the table. It ended with this: this photo was taken by Admin One using her phone.

Wonder what it is...

Do you ever get the feeling that something amazing is about to happen?
But you have no clue where it comes from or what the amazing thing is... it's simply a feeling. Almost like adrenaline flooding your system.

Yeah?

Me too.

Wonder what causes it.

It's Wednesday night. TVs fun night. Comedy after comedy and then Harry's Law. I should probably do some baking for the kids for tomorrow (and the rest of the week). I don't see it happening tonight. I want to bake. I just can't be bothered. It's the cleaning up... oh who am I kidding... it's the going into the kitchen and actually baking that's causing this lack of productivity. I'd sooner hang out on the sofa tonight but then, on the other hand, I'd kinda like some ginger crunch too. Oh well, can't have everything.

It's cold tonight. Spring has fucked off, and was not replaced by summer. We seem to have slipped back to winter again. It's not pleasant.
And that concludes the weather report.

In other news... I may have gotten a bit carried away with my re-writing of sentences that irked me in Flashbyte. I say that because I can see how much red is now splattered across the first few pages... kinda a lot. I should probably finish the tweaking of sentences-that-irk and send this off to Jayne before she has time to get back to the next round of edits.... it's a pain-in-the-ass to have to merge the documents. Which is what will happen if I don't get it to her before she starts on the file she has.

Well, that feeling is still there.

Wonder what it is?

Maybe something cool is going to happen...

If I figure it out, I'll let you know.  :)

It's possible that the email I received this morning is part of this odd internal excitement. I got an email from RedInk who are Rebele's online marketing people - a book club is about to be launched and everyone has decided that killerbyte should be the first title. Squeeee!!!!
Details to follow, all I know so far is that it will happen Nov 1 and stem from Rebele. You all ready to debate topics from killerbyte? Is there anything you want to know about anything that happens in the book?
Any suggestions?

You're kidding, right?

This morning, Tuesday morning, after two weeks holiday and a long weekend (during which NZ won the world cup) I was so looking forward to silence. SILENCE.
I was up early. Kids were up early. Everyone was ready to leave the house at ten past eight. And leave we did.
On the way to Breezy's school I thought it was odd that there were no kids walking. But then, we were early.

We arrived at school at eight twenty-five. Walked through the open gates and saw a car parked in the grounds.
That ain't right.
Then someone called out, "There is no school today. It's a teacher only day."
Seriously... DIDN'T WE JUST HAVE TWO FULL WEEKS AND ONE DAY OF NO SCHOOL?!!

So, we came home.

Squealer does have school.

Breezy is here annoying the bejesus out of me. Of course she was looking forward to spending the day with her friends as much as I was looking forward to a childless day.

She was busy for a little while -playing with fabric from my sewing box while I made her a sunhat. And singing along to Mama Mia (the movie) while I made her sunhat. And helping me by painting gold paint onto the fabric I painted over the weekend while I tried to do some work but she kept insisting I help her, even though it's quite possible to paint alone... but now she's pretty much just annoying me.

It's a really really good thing that she's so damn cute.
Just sayin'.

Now I have a whiny dog too.

Such is my life at the moment.

Very shortly I shall be reinstating the Interrogation Series - but this time it will be run over on Ellie Conway's blog. Bounce  
(If you don't know who Ellie is, I suggest you read killerbyte, terrorbyte and exacerbyte... she's my main character and the most fun special agent ever.)
The interrogation series will begin later this week... I'll let you know.

I would start today  - but with this non-stop chattering, it's difficult to concentrate plus I still have migraine hangover which makes it hard to think and also makes my eyes blurry. (Stupid mind fog)

The first interrogation was mine.

The second will be a self-published author ULHarper - who I don't know much about, so quite looking forward to that.

I'll round a few more people up later in the week. Pretty sure I can come up with a few fun folk we haven't interrogated before and then let Ellie loose on them. (That's not too mean, right?)
You know me, I like to mix it up a bit. So there will be people you know and people you don't and they won't all be authors.

Now, I'm off to see what the Breezy one is up to....

Labour weekend and (we won the WORLD CUP!)

It's Sunday morning. I woke with a migraine - which I suspect means my meds won't work that well, because it was already well entrenched before I woke up. Bugger. While they decide whether or not they'll work - I'm having a coffee and figured I'd tell you about Saturday.

The day started with less then stellar weather and a Tsunami advisory! Luckily the advisory was cancelled because we had beach plans. Screw the cold wind and grey day! We grabbed jackets and a blanket and towel for Romeo and off we went.
We met the usual suspects in the car parking area, muzzled the dogs - and they were off. Romeo was so damn excited to see his Cleo that he barely gave us humans a backward glance. They didn't even stop to sniff the beach or investigate anything. They had a couple of long conversations and raced along the sand and back, and raced along the sand and back, and raced along the sand and back - you get the idea. Our boy's tail wagged and wagged.
He was with Cleo and all was right in his world.

Meanwhile, the stragglers - we call them children, were finding treasure. Long stemmed roses to be precise that had washed up on the shore. They got a little close to the water for our liking. Anna went to deliver instructions and I got to cuddle baby Em. Poor Em wasn't feeling well and was not her usual smiley chatty self. Still it was nice carrying a little person for a while. Ours are way too big for carrying now!!

The dogs raced around like mad buggers. In and out of the water. Up and down the beach. Showing off for all they're worth. It's very hard not to stop and watch two such impressive animals racing and playing with each other. It was a game. A pretty rough game at times but still a game and hilarious to watch.
I think we have as much fun as they do - just watching the joy they exude when together.

So, our morning was fabulous. Dogs and kids - having fun. (And us big people had a blast as well!)

Then it was home to drop off tired Romeo and the mail had come:

It was very cool and fun cobbling together the Byte short stories and having them available in as many eFormats as possible over at Smashwords but then I got to thinking. It would be awesome to see those stories in print.

This is the proof copy of the print version.

Last night I tweaked it a bit and now I'm waiting for the new proofs to arrive.
They should be here in a few weeks, then I'll let you know where you can get your own copy, if you'd like one.

So, with Torrent in my handbag - we went up to Admin One's for pizza lunch and new deck viewing. Admin One has a marvelous outdoor pizza oven that she made a while ago. Admin Bubbles perused the print copy of Torrent and declared it awesome.
We made pizza, the kids made pizza and played with Admin One's dog Queenie and the multitude of cats. A jolly fun time was had by all.

After lunch we came back home to get ready for dinner. I put the finishing touches on the pumpkin soup and made pumpkin pie. And the Admins joined us for dinner and shooting.
Turns out I'm not a shit shot with my left hand any more. I can shoot with either hand with much success. Good to know.
Action Man was quite proud of my marksmanship.

It was a fun Saturday!

And everyone is tired this morning!!










Edited to include: The All Blacks won the Rugby World Cup last night. We won!!! We bet the French!!! Hooray!!! (Not that I had any doubt that we would!)
Well done boys. Well done indeed!  :)

The Interrogation of Cat Connor?

What's it like to be interrogated by your own main character? Well let me tell you - it's a little strange. Especially when she turns my own interrogation questions on me!

And I cheated I missed two questions because I got lazy - but don't tell her... don't think Ellie noticed!!

So if you want to know what coffee I drink and other juicy tidbits then pop through the link...

The Interrogation of Cat Connor by SSA Ellie Conway.

:)

DNS server, The Boy Wonder, exacerbyte... Wednesday!

Last night The Boy Wonder was given some men's clothing stores to check out by his current boss - in preparation for his interview in Auckland today. (Which will take his current job and very quickly turn it into a career if it goes well, which it will.) Checking out other companies stores online presence - dead easy, yes?

Should have been.

TelstraClear had a big fail. The DNS server fell over. Which meant no international sites would load. That's when you discover just how many of our 'local' sites aren't!
Big deal - we still had Trademe. Also still had Geonet. (Nice that no matter what happens in the world we can keep tabs on the current ground shaking events here and bid on crap that no one really needs but it's cheap and who can resist bidding on cheap crap?)

On the plus side - he'd thankfully just printed his boarding pass. Because without international sites there ain't no Gmail, or Hotmail or Yahoo... you get the picture.

This morning - The Boy Wonder was picked up by Admins One and Bubbles at 6:30AM - they are delivering him to Wellington Airport before going to work themselves. (Talk about handy dandy Admins.)

Strangely enough about five minutes after they left the DNS servers were back up and running.

So - nice to see you Internet... without you I wouldn't have seen this...

And this is EXACERBYTE's first foray into the top 5. Which is exciting for me!
Prior to today it had slipped into 9th spot recently and dallied in the top 15 for a few days.

The joy of having this book in the top 5 - priceless!

I know I've always said Terrorbyte is my favorite... just don't tell it that I'm favoring its younger sibling these days. Best not to let books know they're slowly being replaced in your affections by a younger stronger more exciting volume. There is no telling what they'll do next.
Although I suspect next time I take a copy of terrorbyte of the shelf I'll be in for a wicked paper cut.
I don't even want to think what will happen if I grab a copy of killerbyte!!
Probably a sharp reminder that killerbyte came first and is not to be trifled with. There may not be enough sticking plasters in the first aid kit for that.

See how I did that? To try and appease the book Gods I added two links each for terrorbyte and killerbyte but only one for exacerbyte. (Okay it was a big one, all caps... and it got a picture... what's your point?)

If you haven't read exacerbyte... now's good.
Just a heads up.... it's new sibling will hit the stores Feb/March 2012. Guess I should stock up on sticking plasters before then.

On that note... I shall bid you farewell, and go get some work done... and more coffee dammit!!

PS.
Just slipping this in trying not to upset the big books... Torrent. I don't dare add a picture today. The pages of the Byte books rustling on the shelf on my desk.... it's just like Ernie's ghostly gold tops a-rattling in their crate.

Be afraid.

Dear Monday.

Dear Monday,

You started out with so much promise but that all went out the window when you allowed the children to infect me with their germs.
That's not playing as a good friend is it?
I have to say I am quite disappointed. I expected more from my favorite day of the week.

It may take a few days before I can face you again.

Disappointingly yours,
Cat

PS. I can think of a few ways you could make this up to me.
You could encourage people to buy my books, and also to go buy Torrent. Which is really pretty with it's new cover and it has an extra story now.

(So not only did Monday take a perfectly good day and screw it up - Blogger was a dick too and screwed the links in this post and Bounce! They're now fixed!!)
Here's the cover:

Seeing Double?

I think the guy across the other side of Trentham Memorial Park may have thought he was seeing double this afternoon... as Romeo and Troy raced across the width of the park to say hello to him and his retriever. (I figure it was a retriever - cos from where we were it looked a decent size... not like the random balls of fluff that people walk on those running leads - which (little heads up to you people will balls of fluff on running leads walking miles in front of you) to Greyhounds look like a lure on a wire.

The boys can really move.

It's quite fabulous seeing them run like that.

Romeo first ran around and played with Oscar (Troy's huntaway house mate) then Troy was let free of his leash... and it was game on.

First run Romeo has had in a week... and he LOVED it.

I liked seeing the boys together - it's a different dynamic to Romeo and Cleo. Romeo and Cleo are family.
(More about that shortly)
Romeo and Troy are ex-racing hounds, the same weight, same height, big and strong (- almost identical markings.) There is no pulling back.
There was a run, a short conversation, and then it was on, baby.

Good ol' Oscar was doing a pretty good job of trying to keep up. I don't think he really cares that he can't keep up, he just likes running!

So anyway - back to the beginning of the walk.
I'd spent almost all day learning how to format a manuscript for Smashwords and then creating a cover. It's here in case you're interested.
I was busy. Romeo was whiny. Really, whiny - pacing, whining, wanting to go for a walk.

By half past four he'd almost forgotten about it - I told him to get his gear... boy, did he remember fast!

We walked across the park, over the stop bank - Mr. Whiny Pants wanted to head down the river trail. Fair enough. It's a nice walk. The girls wanted to go toss stones in the river - so we walked. We walked so far he picked up Cleo's scent!
If he wasn't crying before then he sure as hell was by the time he smelt her.
He wanted to follow the scent all the way to the usual place.
We went half way - then I headed him back toward home.
Ohhh the whining.

Then he stopped whining. His tail dropped. His head dropped. Sad dog.
We walked back up the stop bank. He walked me into a giant pile of dog shit... guess that was payback for no Cleo this weekend?
It's really hard to explain to a dog (even a smart one) that Cleo is having a holiday she'll be back next weekend!
Ya see, Cleo and Romeo - they're a team. They're family. She holds a special place with Romeo.
Yeah, Troy is fun to race - but he's Troy. He's not Cleo. Cleo is his girl. He misses her dreadfully.

Anyway, I finally gave Colleen my number so she can text me - and we can get the boys together on a Sunday afternoon for a regular run.
I have a feeling Romeo likes Oscar more than Troy but he appreciates Troys athletic ability.
(And they both are capable of playing dirty.)

So, our half hour walk became two hours... and Romeo is knackered now. :D

The day after the night before and two authors you might like.

I have to admit to feeling just a tad hungover upon waking at 7:30 this morning. Just a tad.
Damn those new wine glasses and their capaciousness! But the Admins and I had some celebrating to do. And celebrate we did.

Today has been a day of nothing much.
Despite that I've done a lot of the usual things.

What I haven't done is write.

And I won't be working for the rest of the weekend.

Just lately I've been taking weekends off. And I like it. So much so, I'm going to keep on doing it. Makes the weekend a lot less stressful if I'm not trying to filter out unwanted noise so I can hear Ellie. (Trust me, that does make sense.)
Just a heads up on the release of Flashbyte - the 4th Byte it's looking like Feb/March 2012 - so you'll have time to re-read the first 3 and get reacquainted with Ellie and Delta A.

So today has been restful.
We took Dex out and bought him shoes for his birthday, then dropped Breezy at her friends for a play date, came home and shoved a large hunk of pig in the oven for dinner tonight.
I can smell it cooking. And it smells fantastic.

Meanwhile:
Just recently I've discovered a few new writers - namely, Jack Wallen and Jack Silkstone. (Two Jacks... what are the odds?)
I read Jack Wallen's I Zombie I a few weeks ago, and you know how I'm a sucker for a zombie story, right? Well, this one is a goodie! Gross but good. It's a fast and enjoyable read.
I enjoyed it so much I just bought My Zombie My  - yeah, a zombie sequel. Awesomeness!!
Jack Wallen writes a little like me - he's a smart ass who references pop culture, which makes it fun and makes the gross parts more bearable.
Give him try. :)

Now, moving on to Jack Silkstone.
I read Primal Origin right after I finished the other Jack's book ( two very different genres and both just as much fun as each other.) :)

From the opening paragraph I knew I'd enjoy it. I'm sucker for action - it's just how I am. The best way to describe Origin for me... It's like the A team on steroids but actually good.
(Chrissy, you'd like this one!)
I am awaiting the release of Primal Unleashed in a few days time.

Another really nice thing about both these authors is - they're on twitter and very approachable. I like that in an author. (It's something I try to be, so it's cool when I come across other authors kinda like me. To be fair, authors on a whole are pretty nice approachable people.)

Jack Wallen on Twitter

Jack Silkstone on Twitter


Right that's it from me for now.

Hope you all enjoy your weekend.

Thinking about running another series of interrogations through until Dec this year... thoughts? And who would you like me to put in the hot seat??

Ghostly goings on?

Ellie has an interesting question.

Hop over to her blog and see if you can answer it. I know I can't. Seems I don't know enough about ghosts to be of any help.

Hypothetically

Apart from Ellie's questions regarding things ghostly... not much going on this Friday.

The weather is no longer total crap.

Breezy is now officially asthmatic.
It was suspected but now we know for sure. Until today there hadn't been any wheezing from her - just coughing.
Well, now she wheezes and coughs. She is now on a preventer as well as Ventolin.
That should sort that out.

If I remember correctly Squealer was 5 almost 6 when she had her first bad asthma attack. Breezy is that now.
Odd.

It's quiet here at the moment - the kids are at the park. Don't imagine they'll get rained out this time, so it might be peaceful for a little while yet.

What plans do you have for the weekend?

Don't think we really have any... 
at this point.  :)

Change equals opportunity, right?

Over the last two days I've messed around a good deal with this blog and Ellie's blog and my website. (and yeah, Twitter was not beyond my scope either... I changed the background there too)

I've been trying to find something I'm happy with.

The website is a win.

At first it was so-so, but now I actually like it. As for the rest - I don't like Ellie's blog so much, but this one is okay. It's easy to read and that's kinda important. :)
I doubt I'm done with Ellie's - I just need to come up with the perfect background picture and that might take awhile.

Things are in the process of changing elsewhere too.
More irritating changes than anything - apart from the exciting changes ahead for The Boy Wonder. Life just got a little bit harder but I'm sure we'll all manage. A huge increase in book sales would help!

Meanwhile - how do you all like the re-vamped blog?

I'm quite excited that the share buttons have finally shown up!! They were apparently there (according to blogger) but they really weren't.
Now you can all go nuts sharing the craziness all over the web. (Too subtle?)

Time for me to go start making dinner - children require feeding. Who knew?

Romeo might be a bit hungry too now he's been for a nice long walk around the park and half way to the usual place. Only half way, because I didn't want him picking up Cleo's scent.

Pretty sure it's Wednesday...

Remember how I was looking forward to the school holidays  - sleeping in past 6AM?
It's really not happening!

Sleep ended last night/early this morning at about 1AM.
This is what happens if I work late!
It becomes impossible to shut my brain off to get a decent sleep. Bit of a catch 22 really... if I hadn't written the scene, I would've been awake because I hadn't written it - as it was, I was awake because I had.

I was thinking the whole time I was writing - that it wasn't even that big a deal - this new scene. So very wrong. I'm not sure I like where this scene is headed and I don't know that I can stop it. It seems to take Ellie's haunting/craziness to a whole new level - even I don't know what to make of it!
I know Ellie is not insane.
That much I do know.
She is not her mother. She does not need medicating.
There is quite possibly a need for an exorcism  extended vacation.

Then there is the knowledge that the new scene is not isolated... it carries through the entire novel but is there ever an answer? And what if that answer is something from the Twilight Zone or X Files? Then what?
Toss my toys out of the playpen and start again?
Cathartic thought... but I know that if this scene is meant to be there, then it will stick with me no matter how many times I try to set it free. It's looking like I will have to accept what ever answer turns up and just go with it.

I live in fear of one-day writing myself into a corner... this could be the corner! I may need an eraser.

On a much lighter note,
my editor just asked me if I'd read and review a book.
I have never written a proper book review - I have no clue how. Guess I'm about to learn something new!

Oh what fun!

And a quick word about our long walk yesterday:
I walked Romeo about 7km into town and back. He made a lot of new friends. On the way home a gentleman saw us coming and waited for us. (Once again my Greyhound is attracting elderly gentlemen.) He simply wanted to talk about dogs - because he couldn't bring his dogs back from Australia with him. Romeo enjoyed the pats and attention. Before we left, he asked if he could hug him. Romeo loves hugs and was only too happy to oblige.

It's always nice to make someone smile.

Romeo has quite the talent for making people happy.

First day of the spring holidays.

Okay so - today was quietish.

Monday, first day of the spring holidays... quiet.

I'm lying.

It's not been quiet at all.

This morning I wrote an email that took more guts than I thought I had - this afternoon I got a reply. A positive reply. A yes.

Holy fucn shit.

I can't tell you any more than that.

Just know, it's to do with Flashbyte - and it's something I wanted. (No, not movie, not TV, the book is still being edited and waiting on a release date. No, not the cover... which I know will be too awesome for words, because Jacques rocks!)

Admins and my family are fully aware how awesome this is and nobody else knows anything about it.
And that folks is how it will stay until nearer publication day. :D

Now, I'm going to go and pretend that I'm perfectly calm... when the reality is I'm a complete wreck but a delighted one!!

Think I might grab Romeo and go for a walk - a long walk.

In case you didn't see his gorgeous new bandanna:

Romeo and Cleo

Yesterday the weather turned to utter shite - it looked as though the weekend play date for Romeo and Cleo would be a wash. But no - the rain stopped just in time (leaving behind a wicked cold wind!).

We put Romeo in the truck and set off to the usual place.
What happens as we get close and he starts to see green out the window is usually a lot of excited whining. Really excited whining.
Yesterday he made no sound. He barely looked out the window.
We pulled into the usual spot to park - he stayed on his bed, not standing and whining, not watching for Cleo.
We were early so we stayed in the truck for about ten minutes. It was freaking cold down there. A lot colder than at home!
Greyhounds are very very intelligent dogs: Last weekend we went to the usual place - alone, no Cleo. It ended in with an unhappy Romeo searching for her, trying to follow the path we always take! I think yesterday he didn't want to get his hopes up!
Eventually Romeo stood up, ears alert and peered out the window. With him now more interested in the idea of a run - we let him out, locked up, and went for a walk.
The kids played.
Romeo wandered - pooped - wandered - kids played - rinse and repeat. Romeo started walking the way he always runs with Cleo. Looking, sniffing, following her two week old scent, staring into the horizon hopefully.
When the usual suspects arrived he was beside himself with joy.
He greeted Cleo with excited grumbling.
There was much "talking" - guess they had some catching up to do? Then a lot of pushing and shoving, and more talking.
And Romeo got cramp in his paw. And it was bad. He CRIED. We massaged it. It happened again when he tried to play. He CRIED. Cleo came to help with the massaging... she licked his foot. Romeo limped for a bit.
We walked him until he wanted to run.
Then it was game on.
Those two can really fly when they want too!

They chased, talked, chased, pushed, shoved, and had a great time.

Romeo is fast. Seriously fast. Cleo finally bet him though, in the last run. I don't know that she's ever beaten him like that before and this time I'm not sure that he pulled back.
Romeo has stridor - a left over from an injury where his trachea was broken - (before we gave him his forever home) - imagine how fast he'd be if he could breath properly?? It sounds awful when he's running hard but he doesn't stop. Kinda like a kid with bad croup. We used to stop him and walk him until the stridor stopped, now we leave him to sort it himself - he's learned how.
Even with his crap breathing he can beat her with ease. We usually all see him pull back a little to let her get ahead or hold back instead of beating her too quickly.

This time it looked like Cleo finally bet him fair and square! Go Cleo!!

Poor Romeo was having a pretty shit day. (He'd had a head tremor early in the day, then flea treatment that upset him so much he paced for half an hour, then his cramped paw, and his stridor kicked in pretty good during the fastest part of the run!) Next thing he did was run so hard he vomited - into his muzzle. (Our dog is a puker - he loves to run but then will take himself off for a drink - and then the vomit happens.)

So it was muzzle off, back on the leash, and walk.

Cleo cleaned up the puke. Nice!

I've started to notice things about Romeo and how he interacts with us all. At one point Anna went to gather the kids, Romeo had to go to. His pack.

(Last weekend we took him back to the truck while the kids went on to a play area - he walked looking back - watching them. Unhappy about the situation. He figured out we were taking the truck to meet them and as soon as he saw them he was fine!)

He watches where everyone is.
When he and Cleo were walking - they walked so close you couldn't get a piece of paper between them.

We had this really cool moment - nothing to do with dogs.
It was The Daughters.
They were walking in a line across the path... all four of them together.
Walking and talking. Just really sweet - the 12 yr old, 18 mth old, and both 5 yr olds... in a row.

One of those wish I'd had my camera moments... and yeah I forgot about my phone!

What I love about our doggie play dates - is how well the kids get on, and how much fun they have together. We have awesome kids.
Our dogs have an awesome pack.
We're very very lucky.

Anna told me about her idea for her Cleo and the Lion story. It's awesome. I hope she writes it!!!

Where am I today?

Well, now that you've asked... I'll tell you.

Only it's not me.

It's Ellie.

She's guest blogged. (Be afraid, be VERY afraid.)

She wrote a guest blog over at Brandon Fords blog. And we're also giving away copies of Torrent.

Pop over - say hi... no doubt Ellie will answer questions.

Let go tonight

Today was one of those odd days leading into a restless night - they've happened all too often lately. Lacking in focus, seemingly going nowhere days.
Well, that's how they feel... I don't think they actually pan out as total time wastes at all, they just feel that way.

For example: About seven this morning I got this tweet:

Awesome! It was followed by this one:

Gotta love a horror author who gives me free range, right?
Oh hell yes!
So, I sat down to write the post. Ellie took over and it didn't take too long before it was done. (Few hours maybe.)

I'll put a link up here when it's live.
Last week I guest posted about writing over at Lee Pletzers blog.
So, today's guest post is the second in a week. Not too shabby.

I've also been blogging here regularly, and Ellie's been blogging as well. Neither write themselves.
So, a re-cap:
Good news for kiwis who like paperbacks
And Ellie's blog:
Minding my own business is dangerous
Captain Crash
It's a Glock - get over it.

Ya see, I haven't been as slack as I think I have.

Between posting various blogs and writing guest blogs, I've also been writing, and spent four hours yesterday trying to figure out CreateSpace... not sure that I have. I did however have a screaming slight fit moment when it crashed my laptop.
The thing is - you know how I pulled all The _byte shorts together and called them Torrent, and it's available on Kindle (for 99 cents or free if you ask me nicely.) - well, I thought it'd be cool if it was in paperback too. I know, right?
I'm not sure I'll ever really sell it - but maybe as giveaways or something, it'd be cool. We'll see. I'm waiting on the proof now. If it's rubbish, well, I'll scrap it - if it turns out decent then... I'll decide what to do with it.
I doubt the proof will arrive until late November, so plenty of time to forget about it and be stunned and surprised at my own cleverness (or lack of) when it gets here!! lol

Oh, yeah and there was quite a bit of time spent trying to purchase (as a download) Kevin Costner and Modern West's new album! Which is pretty much impossible from New Zealand at the moment... no matter how clever you think you are. :)
Took a long time for the last two albums to be available on iTunes down here... I'm sure I can wait. (Modern West became work music for me, when Kurt become a main character - if you've read exacerbyte you'll know why... it gets worse/better - depending on your point of view - in Flashbyte.)
Diving through the Kurt link up there somewhere ^^ will also give you access to the play list/chapter titles for all 4 Byte novels. They're fun.

I have also made some new Twitter friends: and they're all kinds of awesome.

I haven't been slacking off at all - by the looks of it - so why do I feel like I have?

Please excuse the fucky formating. Blogger is having some major issues!!!

Of course it's research...

I wouldn't be watching DVD's of rock concerts on a Tuesday morning if it wasn't work. (Would I? Of course not! Goodness me... as if I'd be sitting around having a good time when I should be working. Shows how much you know.)

Yesterday afternoon was all about IEMs.

Today - I'm not quite sure... but it certainly involves a LOT of research. Which involves The Crush Tour and Bon Jovi Live at Madison Square Garden.
Not an easy job... but someone has to do it.

There was scene that needed tweaking in Soundbyte - but I've done that already. It wasn't difficult, I'd simply been lazy when I wrote it. A little Ketamine incident that needed work. (Everyone remember the rainbow people from killerbyte? - yeah, nothing like that.)

I'd rather like to be getting on with the edits for Flashbyte so I can move on and get back into this kiwi novel... yep, still no news. Limbo is not my favorite place... makes me stabby and I don't like knives. Perhaps it makes me shooty then?

I could be trying to finish this fuc'n song.
I can hear you whispering you know... "What song?" Well, the song in Soundbyte of course. Silly! Actually I mention a few songs that only exist in my head, so maybe they should also find their way to paper? (But let's not get carried away here, bad poetry is easy - but songs... not so much.)
Or I could take out the entire rock concert scene and that would solve that?
Yeah, nah. It really wouldn't. It's not like it's removable... it's important. Considering Ellie has been saying for sometime that she'd never ever go to another rock concert - it was quite the magic act just getting her to willingly attend. (Rowan must have something going for him.)
Had a thought then that made me laugh and no I'm not sharing - suffice to say, it's an age thing. Rowan Grange hasn't been around as long as Jon Bon Jovi. That is all.

It's raining. It's gotten cold again.
Very hard to be enthusiastic about anything on dripping cold days.
So I will leave you with this: