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A Labyrinth of Pear Trees

Last night, I had a culinary experience.  My brother-in-law and husband arranged a dinner for four as a birthday present for our bff (my bro’s beau, if you will), and I was the fourth.  We went to Pear Tree, an award winning gourmet restaurant.

We had five courses over two and a half hours, and it was spectacular.  I had something happen that’s never happened before.  When I had the bite of creme brûlée with the bit of pear with it, tears, actual tears, came to my eyes.  I love pear.  And this was a taste of heaven, elevated to the highest of heights.  It was wonderful, and to share it with three of my favourite people in the world, well, it was just incredible.

I’ve been checking in with my writing friends, and I was so pleased to see that one of them, a screenwriter, has obtained representation in LA.  Big time!  This is incredible.  The novelists equivalent would be scoring an agent in New York, which I hope to do soon.  It’s really nice seeing other writers have some success.

Meanwhile, I read my past works.  My first book has held up surprisingly well, even though I’ve evolved as a writer quite a bit since its completion.

And for some reason, this comic came to mind, and made me chuckle.  Oglaf, often NSFW, is hilarious, and this is my favourite one:  http://oglaf.com/labyrinth/

That’s all for now, folks.

Heidi out.

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Checking in, Space, Baby Cakes

I have spent the morning reading over past short stories, seeing if can do any work on them, or perhaps adapt them for the screen.  Seems as though I’ve been infected with the screenwriting bug, and it’s addling my brain into wanting to write more scripts.

Good?  Bad?  I never wanted to write short stories; they were supposed to be a stepping stone for larger projects.  And now that I’ve had some success getting them published, what do?  :O

While I’m bandying that about in my head, I will see if any of my fellow writers need a second set of eyes on anything.  I’ve contacted a few of my writing-exchange peeps, and maybe I can help them out with whatever they’re working on.

Oh hey, did you ever want to know how many people are in space right now?

Heh.  Spoiler: it’s 6.  I can’t wait until we’re in the tripple digits for this.  I am ever excited to see how space exploration progresses in my short window of observation (another what, seventy years?).  🙂

And now, BABY CAKES!  Teeny, tiny cakes.  They were fun.  My friend and I made them before games day, and then the group feasted on the fruits of our labour.

Getting the components all laid out:

Cutting the mini-cupcakes to size:

Taking up the whole table:

Some of the finished products: (d20 for scale!)

So tiny!

The two-layer cakes were amazing.

Each one more adorable than the last!


Tiny LAYER cake you say?

Heh.  Sure was fun.

Bonus pic: our SUPER close game of Lords of Waterderp (this was before we scored our Lords mind you, but WOW!):

Good thing I’m back at the gym again!  Nice to be able to indulge every now and then.

Cheers guys.  Hope you’re feeling as good as I do right now.  😀

Heidi out.

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Victory Hot Chocolate: The Melting of Kings

So I made those marshmallows, and they turned out great!

Making Marshmallows.

Cut them into cubes with scissors.

Melting into the hot chocolate…

One for Aaron too.  🙂

*Gloop!*

Perfect

A great way to end the week.  It was brain intensive; I didn’t anticipate that big of an edit before my Nicholl Fellowship deadline, but, well, the script is way better for it.

And now, I’m off to Bon’s to meet a friend for breakfast, and then another friend I are are continuing down the ‘tiny-food-making’ path, and decorating *tiny* cakes.  Of course, pics to follow.

If you’re looking for a short story to read, I suggest “All Quiet on the Temporal Front” by Bennett R. Coles.  His Sci-Fi fu is fantastic.  Now that I’m not in the thick of editing, I’m going back to read his “Virtues of War“, which is incredible so far.

Cheers guys.

Heidi out.

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Deadline in mere hours? Time to learn how to make marshmallows!

But seriously, the script is almost completely done.  I just have a few things to check, using the intertubes.  I’ve spent three days reading it over and making final adjustments, minor tweaks, and even a few major ones.  I’ve shaved pages off of it to try and get it down to a more acceptable length (145 pages currently).

So, in a few hours, I will be submitting it to The Academy.  I will hear back from them in October, I think.  In the mean time, I’ll be shopping it around.  And writing, always writing!  I’ll keep you guys posted.  In a few days I’ll have another story in print.

But yeah, I’m totally making marshmallows.  They’re setting in a pan right now.  And then I will have the most glorious Victory Hot Chocolate you’ve ever seen.  🙂

{Behold, my standard hot chocolate}

Later crocodiles.

Heidi out.

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Cut cut cut, think think think

I have two scenes that need to be cut from the script, I know it.  I just… have to figure out how.  There’s some pertinenent information in them that I’ll have to move elsewhere.

Today went well.  Cleaved off a few parts that were superfluous.  Hopefully my sleeping brain can help me find a way to do the rest tomorrow morning.

Big thanks to the VPD who answered my 911 call about a guy screaming at 5AM… they came by and picked him up and I got to go back to sleep.  I wasn’t even sure where he was, but they found him.  I phoned later to followup and thank them.  🙂

…Did I say something about posting more food pictures?  Well these ones are of TINY food, made of candy.  They were all really fun to make!  Enjoy.



Link to the album!

Cheers guys.

Heidi out.

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Nicholl Fellowship Deadline Looms! …and food is delicious.

I am going to be doing the last of the final edit tomorrow, then sending in the screenplay adaptation to the Academy’s Nicholl Fellowship.  (See my previous post here!)  I’m way excited!

My husband and I have been going to the gym every other day.  Some health problems have rendered me pretty inactive for several months, but they have largely been controlled.  …hurry up, orthodics, I apparently DO need you to walk now :<  Feels better to be getting fitter again.  Rowing machine to strengthen up my back.  Elliptical to burn calories.  …so I can eat delicious things.

I do love food.  I have a rather unhealthy relationship with it, but I’m working on that too.  Counting calories is great; I still eat whatever I want, just, less.  🙂  PS MELONA BARS ARE AMAZING

OK!  So I wanted to share some pictures.  Pictures of food.  Oh wait, am I one of *those*? Hah, apparently yes, yes I am.  But the crux of it is that I cook for my friends a lot, and I love it, and sometimes I take pictures!

So here are some.  🙂

D’OH!

Pomello Seeds look like Teeth!

Mediterranean Pizza is Great

And so is Hawaiian with Mushrooms!

I do not think this pizza is big enough…

Because anything less than a four-layer cake would have been… illogical.

Let’s BEE friends!

Heh.  Thanks for letting me share.  That’s all for now with the random food.

Up next, much more specific food!   …Including, tiny, miniature, candy sushi.

Cheers.

Heidi out.

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Testing Testing- XFlare Coming Our Way?

I’ve been interested in solar flare activity recently.  Solar flares, and solar radiation, actually have a much bigger effect on people than most realize.  I’m starting to notice patterns about my creative process and solar flares.  *Puts on tinfoil hat.*  *Considers getting more cats, a rocking chair, and a shotgun.*

Just thought I’d attempt to add a little monitor here and see how it works…  seeing as there’s a 10% chance of an xflare coming our way (from a mega-huge sunspot!).

Discussion here: http://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/190z68/giant_sunspot_thats_six_times_the_diameter_of/

Solar X-rays:

Geomagnetic Field:

 >

Status
Status

From n3kl.org

One of the projects on my back-burner(s) is about solar flares.  😀

Heh.

Also, got a full manuscript request today!  I am elated.  Just when I get a bit down in the dumps, something great like this happens.  I hope they like it enough to represent it, and then maybe we can really get this show on the road.

And, just to leave you with a couple of pictures:


…larger version here…

…and BOOBIES!

Heh.  That’s all for now folks.

Thanks for reading.

Heidi out.

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The Nicholl Fellowship, Google Glass

I was really pleased to see sci-fi becoming a reality, as it tends to do.  In my latest novel and screenplay, I take Google Glass to limits, exploring such a devices purposes and practical uses.  Today they showed off the preliminary interface.  I’ll be interested to see, as the years tick on, if I got it right in my work.

Also, one of my test readers got back to me (with some very good feedback, useful edits, and much welcomed praise) about my screenplay.  He suggested I submit it to the Academy Awards Nicholl Fellowship.  Apparently they actually *pay* five writers for a year to write a screenplay!  This would be a dream.  Getting paid to write, and exposure for my work?  Maybe it would get “Luka and Iso” picked up for production.

If you’re interested, you can check out the Nicholl Fellowship here.

I am ensconced in the Quintaglio Ascension Trilogy by Robert J. Sawyer.  As ever, he strings me along at a good clip, with wonderful characters and a great hook.  Sentient dinosaurs advancing their culture from the bronze age onwards?  What’s not to love!  I can hardly put it down.

Also recently, my friend Brie and I have teamed up; she asked me to write something for a comic she was making, and I did.  I’m excited to see the inks next week.  Hopefully we can have further collaborations in the future; her art is mega, mega cool, and being on a writer-artist team with her would just kick so much butt.

That’s all for now, folks!  I’ll keep on tightening up my script, and let you know how the process goes with applying for the Nicholl Fellowship.

…And if you know of anyone looking for a sci-fi screenplay/novel combo about the first genetically engineered dragon, would you point me in their direction?

Cheers.

Heidi out.

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Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Lunar New Year everyone!

I am sad to see year of the Dragon pass; it was nice to be writing about Iso, a man-made dragon, during this particular year.

We’ll see what year of the Snake has to bring!

恭喜發財,利是逗來!

大展鴻圖  (Dàzhǎnhóngtú)  “May you realize your ambitions”

🙂

Heidi out.

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Hero Artists

There’s a new tallent agency in town: Hero Artists. They’ve got a presence in Vancouver, and I’m looking into connecting with them re: sci-fi screenplay.

To be honest, I’m floundering around like some sort of aquatic animal out of its element; writing is what I do best, and this whole “trying to sell it” is just not my gig. …Hence my quest for an agent.

I wanted to share my log line with y’all. I’m not too sure about the second part, but it’s getting close to that brief hook I’ll need to get people interested.

When pets are engineered to order, of COURSE we would make a dragon. Only problem is, it’s intelligent, and it wants out.

🙂

Sorry the news hasn’t been terribly exciting lately; I’m sure once I can get some competent help to actually represent my prolific writing habit I will have lots more to say. Until then, more editing!

Cheers guys.
Heidi out.