Since last we spoke...

So, apparently, I have an avoidance issue with keeping this blog updated. (Least of which is my [admittedly tiresome and predictable] loathing of the "word" blog, but I should probably relax that schoolmarmish pursing of my lips and just go with the flow.) Honestly, in the craziness of my life and the maddening pace in which ideas and activities flow in and out of it, I had forgotten about this little corner of the internet that was all mine. I think that blogging fell out of favor with me originally because I was having problems posting, but it appears that I can again. I mean, how much more do I need to say on this topic? It wasn't you, it was me. Baby, I promise, I'll change. You'll see.

So, let's make with the update.

Since the last time I posted, I have written a novel, which felt a lot like I gave birth, though, thankfully, there are no diapers to change. (Though you might have to change mine when I start the publishing process, which you could interpret to mean that I'll be crying and behaving like an infant or I'll be so old, diapers will be necessary. I'll leave that interpretation up to you, but I am hoping for the former.)

What else? I am keeping up with the freelance writing and it looks like I'll be putting more of a concerted effort into that, especially in pursuing more of the Holy Grail: paying gigs! I am actually so haughty that I am seeking monetary compensation from my precious, painstaking prose. You bet your sweet patootie I am, and that is the latest gripe that's been putting the agitation in my swirling vegan feminist tempest: publishing bodies that don't pay but want to use your work to drive sales. (I'm not talking about websites, which for the most part do not pay. nor am I talking about any magaznes in which I've recently been published, which I adore.) What kind of effed-up voluntary serfdom is that? I mean, I understand and appreciate that we're all trying to get by after, lo, these last eight years of a glorious Republican economy that only smiles upon robber barons, but, still. There's something about the non-compensation of writers that strikes me as one-sided and quasi-abusive. Bah! (I swear, if you met me, you wouldn't believe that someone with such a sunny disposition could write such cranky posts.) Anyway, I can't pay the mortgage with free copies of magazines - I know because I have tried - in which I am published (which, seriously, is offered with a straight-face as compensation for publication) so I am seeking more paying jobs. Was it really necessary for me to be so verbose with that?

Also in the time between posts, we adopted a kitten my son named Clover. She is the cutest, sweetest little white-and-black bundle of feline goodness. I have never had a cat before. My mom, and all the females in her family, is petrified of cats, really, to the point of running in terror if a cat so much as licks a paw in her presence, so we were always a dog family. Later, I got hitched to this guy who has a raging cat allergy. Anyway, we're still hitched, ten years later, but now we've got a kid who desperately wanted an animal to love on. We do have a dog, Buster, a nearly twelve-year-old basset hound who, in defiance of all things basset, is aggressive and ornery and at a point in his life where he is not accepting applications for affection from a six-year-old boy. So we adopted a kitten named Clover and all is well. She is so darn lovable John's allergies were like, "We can't compete with this. Fine. Have a cat." Even Buster with his cold, dark charcoal briquette of a heart has to grudgingly admit that she's eminently lovable. (He just let me know that he's not admitting to anything and that I mistook his temporarily non-bilious behavior for acceptance. He's just laying low whilst he figures out next steps.) Anyway, yes, a cat named Clover.

Gosh, there's so much more. But I think that what I'll do is just update this more often so not as to flood my three readers (shout out to you, Jane!) with posts of Chaucer-like proportions. So stay tuned. There is much to say and comment on this world when you are a vegan, a feminist and an agitator.

Until next time...