The past couple of weeks have been busy for me. I’ve been working on that King Arthur article for most of that time. It’s finally finished, and I can’t wait for it to come out, but in the meantime the weather has taken a cooler turn.

Except for today. Today it’s sunny. That’s springtime in the Northwest, I guess. We did take a trip up to Whidbey Island a few weeks ago. That was a good time. We hoped to see some whales, and I honestly believe we might have seen some, but they were hiding out from us that day. We did get to drive around Langley and visit some of the beaches. Oh, and Penn Cove mussels at Prima Bistro which is becoming a bit of a habit for us. It’s a pricey French bistro, but they’ve got a great happy hour menu.

Going back to the subject of whales. My article for Northwest Travel on whale watching came out. Here’s a link to the partial article. I have a copy of the magazine, but I still need to scan the full article and put it up in the clips section. In the meantime, enjoy!

I was really excited to hear that the San Juan Islands Visitor Center liked what I wrote. I don’t often hear from the people that read my work so this was a nice bit of validation.

I’m still plugging away at the Mystery Project. I figure I only have two or three thousand more words to go. The Shatterer audiobook is on temporary hold while I figure out the recording situation. I just picked up some Roxul to make bass traps though which should mean I’m back to work on that very shortly.

That’s about it here. Now I have to make some bass traps. And lament that I’m not outdoors. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe Whidbey.

The spring weather continues to call to me here at Casa di Arserio. It’s very distracting, especially when there are deadlines, like right now. This warm, dry weather won’t last, so all I want t do is spend every sunny, waking moment outdoors. As I type this, I’m sitting out back, looking at my blooming rhododendrons, clearly also delighted that the sun has returned to the PNW.

The trouble is where to go? Woods or water? Woods or water? That’s why I like Meadowdale Beach Park so much. It offers a little bit of both. We took Luna last week. It’s the first time she’s been. We couldn’t attempt the hike with Jory but Luna, though technically an 11 year old dog, doesn’t know it. I guess she liked it, though I think she’s figured out there’s a big temperature difference between Hawaii water and Washington water.

We’ve also spent plenty of time at the beach lately. We spotted a California Sea Lion the other day, with his head, tail and one flipper out of the water. Not sure what he was doing, just hanging out on the surface having a good ol’ time.

But alas, work is still keeping me busy. I am currently working on an article on Arthurian sites in Southern England for a client. All this King Arthur research makes me want to go back to Tintagel, or at the very least, break out Shadows Over Camelot again.

I got a new section of audio up for the Shatterer of Worlds audiobook. It’s coming along. There are still noises that I’m not happy about in the audio, but I have some ideas on how to make the next chapter sound better. Of course, with all this warm weather, I am going to have to figure out a plan to get some ventilation into the Big Blue Box.

I am also plugging away at my mystery project. It’s frustrating because all I want to do is sit down and finish it. I’m so close to the end I can taste it. At the same time, I hate going into editing mode. This story excites me so much. It’s like nothing I’ve ever written before, and I really want to share it with the world. But all in good time. I don’t want to share it until it is ready to be shared.

Well, that’s it from here. I guess I really ought to get back to work. Oh, to be out at the beach right now. Or camping! Told you the warm weather is calling to me…

Wow, is it the middle of April already? When did that happen. The weather is teasing me with warm dry days, even though I know it won’t last. Still it’s nice to explore the neighbourhood on foot, in a light jacket instead of being bundled up, head down, racing from storefront to car.

Rob and I celebrated our 16 year anniversary a few days ago. Sixteen years of knowing each other. Yikes. That’s a long time. We’re still best friends, we still miss each other like crazy when he’s out of town. I like that. We’ve had our ups and downs. Losing Jory being a major one, but we deal with it together.

I’ve been quite the busy beaver these past few weeks. Most of it I can’t share with you just yet, not until it comes into fruition. But some of it I can. A few days ago I got to interview Bill Mumy for Inter-Galaxy Portal. He’s the star of Babylon 5 and Lost in Space. I was a huge Babylon 5 fan, so when my friend Ron told me he was doing the art for a comic book by Bill Mumy, well, you can imagine how excited I was about it. I’m loving getting these opportunities to do interviews. It’s funny, because the celebrity interviews are really cool and get me the most hits. But I also really like doing ones for people like Bill Clark, who created a steampunk card game, because I know that might actually be helping someone just like me.

Anyway, so that’s big news number one. Big news number two is that the prologue for Shatterer of Worlds the audiobook is finally out. It look longer than I wanted it to. I’ve got to stop being so picky. I’ve been doing voice over for a while, but audiobooks are hard work. So of course it’s the area of voice over I most want to work in. Call me a glutton for punishment! Anyway, the prologue is here. Chapter two should be online next Wednesday!

And that’s about all I can share with you. I have the mystery novel, but I’m still working on that. I have other things that may or may not be in the works, but I don’t want to jinx anything. Oh wait, there is one last thing I can show you guys! I have a new cover for The Huntsman’s Tale. I really like it. It’s not up yet, because I want to make a few tweaks to the text first but here it is, in all its glory.

Today marks the four-month anniversary since we lost Jory. I am sad. Not so devastated as I was around Valentines Day, but miss him. He’s never far from my thoughts. With the story (novella? Novel?) I’m writing now, he’s on my mind quite a bit. It’s turned from a process I was doing for catharsis, which began when he was diagnosed over a year ago, and changed into something else. I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to jinx the project, but I am quite proud of it. I imagine Jory would rather have liked laying up next to me in bed, listening to me read this story.

As I look out the window now, there are blue skies outside. We’re in that wonderful weird time when the temperatures are warmer and sunny, right before the late Spring/early Summer rainy period. I must say, I like it.

We had hoped to go to Whidbey Island last Monday because all we keep hearing is about all the grey whales around Whidbey. But since that particular day was mostly cloudy, we decided to stay on our side, and got lucky enough to spot several grey whales hanging about near Hat Island. There was even a bald eagle flying around. Not a bad show. Of course grey whales are a little harder to spot. They’re not nearly so playful as humpbacks or orca. But it’s nice to know they’re out there. It was a large part of the reason we moved up from Portland.

I’ve been a busy beaver these past few weeks. Today was my last post of Shatterer of Worlds. It’s hard to believe I’m done with it. What happens next is anyone’s guess. I had planned to do a sequel. Well, let’s face it, Shatterer is based on The Mahabharata and I’m barely a quarter of the way through retelling it. However, I’m still not sure how I feel about it. I’ll give it a few weeks and re-read it. If I still like it, I’ll jump into editing and see about getting it published. If not. Well, it will depend on the readers if I finish it.

Of course my Shatterer obligations are by no means done. I still need to record the audiobook. I had recorded a few chapters a few weeks back. But since I added a gooseneck boom, I decided to do this properly and re-record what I have so that everything is uniform. Some people even stick a bit of wire at the end of the mic so they know how far from the mic they were in their last session. Hopefully I shall put the first post of the audiobook up next week assuming I’m not disturbed by lawnmowers, etc.

I’ve also been busy with Inter-Galaxy Portal. Earlier, I got to try out a new steampunk card game, called Sky Thieves, and I even interviewed the creator, Bill Clark. You can check out the interview over at IGP. I also did some more guest posting which I’ve wanted to do more of. I approached Nix, the editor over at Beyond Hollywood and did a review of one of my favourite movies growing up, The Labyrinth. I swear I loved that movie. I remember I had a plastic baby dolly. Not being particularly motherly, I would happily re-enact scenes, wishing my baby brother dolly away only so I could rescue him from Jareth. Yep, even as a child I was a total geek. The movie still continues to influence me today. I’m a big collector of Froud art, and even got to meet Brian, Wendy and Toby Froud at Powells in Portland. It’s one of those movies that is so very 80s and cheesy, and yet timeless. I hope you enjoy my review.

It’s been a crazy few weeks here. I had thought to write an update earlier, but alas things got busy. I’m very close to wrapping up Shatterer of Worlds, which is weird. And I have also begun recording an audiobook version of Shatterer, which I plan to have up for free both at the Shatterer website and (hopefully) on podiobooks.

In fact, I’ve slowly been working more on the voice acting side. I recorded a scifi project that I’m pretty excited about, and have still been working on the “mystery project.” Sadly, it still isn’t finished. The interior is almost done, but the exterior, not so much.

Speaking of scifi, we just had Emerald City ComiCon. It was a good show, but packed. They sold out of most of their passes before the show even began. I think they said they had 64,000 people attend this year. Thankfully, we didn’t have too much trouble with lines, mostly because we decided to forgo the major panels. Which is fine by me. All I wanted to see was Jennifer Hale, the voice of Commander Shepard from Mass Effect.That was a great panel. Got to meet her and everything.

We had a friend up for the weekend, so we decided to nerd up. I think we spent one day going boardgame crazy first at Card Kingdom and then Otherworlds. On Monday we went to the EMP Museum to see their latest scifi displays. I’ve written articles on both the con and the EMP over at Inter-Galaxy Portal. In a nutshell, I enjoyed the EMP but thought the Art of Video Games exhibit was a bit of a let down.

While the sun was shining we also got out to Pike Place Market which is still high on my list of places to visit if you come to Seattle. There’s so much to see and do, and lots of interesting little stores hidden away. Oh yes, and it’s also home to Golden Age Collectibles, which is probably my favourite comic store outside of Forbidden Planet in London.

I’m still working on an untitled writing project. I don’t know how long it’s going to be, or really where the story will take me, but it’s an interesting adventure. I don’t know what other adventures I have planned. I know I need to go to London some time soon. Aside from that, who knows. I would like to see some more blue sky weather here so I could go watch for whales, which are apparently teaming around Whidbey Island, but the weather doesn’t want to cooperate. So maybe I ought to huddle next to my Grate Wall of Fire instead. It is the coolest device ever for those with an open fireplace. It’s a grate that allows you to stack logs vertically, creating a deliciously warm ember bed at the bottom, and a slow burning, self-feeding fire above. Between the grate and the fireback it raises the temperature of our den at least eight degrees.

Okay, enough weird and unnecessary plugs, I just wanted to share our latest way to keep warm while wintering in Seattle. Until next time…

Taken from Deception Pass Bridge

I had thought I was doing pretty well with Jory’s passing, but the run up to Valentines Day was tough. I kept thinking about him. I even found myself crying again. We knew we didn’t want to be at home for Valentines Day. There were still too many bad memories for us, too many reminders of the trauma we had so recently faced.

So we decided to take a ferry to Whidbey Island and spend the day there. It wasn’t the best weather day for a ferry to Whidbey, I admit, but we had a good time. Whidbey is a wonderful place if you want to feel like you’re far away from the city. We spent the day in the southern part of the island since Luna was at home in her crate. This allowed us to explore the towns of Langley and Freeland.

Langley is a cute little tourist town, Freeland is a little bigger, more for the locals, but still interesting. Both towns boast book stores and antique shops, cute little coffee shops and chocolatiers.

I picked up a ridiculously cheap 1921 copy of Cyrano de Bergerac at a thrift store, as well as a couple of more recent scifi novels at a local book store. Since we were in Langley we decided to visit Act II Books and Puppets which is a store that sells, you guessed it, books and puppets. They have a remarkable range of puppets at all sorts of prices. Given that I still haven’t fully unpacked the puppets I already own, I refrained from buying any new ones, but if you like puppets and are in the Puget Sound area, it’s worth a visit.

Sweet Mona’s was quite busy given the holiday, but we were able to still try some of their chocolatey delights (I had an amaretto truffle), including their drinking chocolate which is basically four ounces of rich, smooth chocolate- the perfect thing for a chilly Valentines Day afternoon.

We tried to look for whales since the whale watching companies I subscribe to on Facebook have reported gray whale activity near Whidbey, but alas, no luck. I didn’t get to see any seals either, but Rob, who’s better at spotting them than I am, saw a few on the ferry ride.

Finally, we had dinner at Prima Bistro, a French-Northwest fusion restaurant. What can I say, I had to have my Penn Cove mussels. These have been off the menu at a lot of places after a boat fire last year meant they had to suspend the harvest. I was glad to see them back on the menu. It was really a late lunch for us, so we took advantage of the happy hour deals. It’s a little pricey otherwise, but the happy hour deal made it worth it. Plus it has some nice views looking over the water.

Overall, it was a really nice day away from everything. Precisely the kind of distraction we needed after last year’s Valentines Day. Course eventually we had to catch our ferry back home. I’m kinda wishing we could go again this weekend, as Langley is having a murder mystery weekend. Being an actress and a writer, I lurrvvee murder mystery events. They do this every year and the entire town participates. It’s really cool, plus it’s a great way to pour more tourist dollars into the town. Sigh, maybe next year….

On other news, I’ve been keeping busy on a writing project that for right now I can’t say much about except that it’s for children and is a fantasy story.. Also working on another hush-shush project that scifi fans will appreciate, more to follow soon…

I won’t lie, 2012 was an unbelievably stressful year in the Arserio household. So when the idea of a vacation came up, we knew we wanted to go back to Hawaii. Sometimes, there’s nothing like going home again, and Oahu was home for a few years. It’s the perfect vacation. We didn’t need to run around seeing all the sites. Instead we could chill and do all the things we missed doing. And, for the most part, we got this vacation right. It wasn’t quite as chilled as I’d envisioned, but close enough.

We returned to Oahu since we’d spent the bulk of our years on Hawaii on the gathering isle, and frankly Maui is a little too expensive for those last minute vacations. We even stayed in the town we lived in, Kailua. Ah, what to say of Kailua. If you ever visit Oahu and don’t want to stay in Waikiki or all the way on the North Shore, Kailua is the perfect option. Dreamy beaches, stunning views, and easy access to town.

We stayed in Kailuana at a little B&B. The house was just a stone’s throw away from where the President spends his vacations (seriously, the owner rents out his house to the Navy Seals when the Obama’s are in town), but more importantly, it was just a stone’s throw away from where one of the heads of Pixar lives! It wasn’t a traditional B&B. No breakfast, but there’s a kitchenette and the hosts are very welcoming. We spent many an evening just hanging out with the owners, Doug and Bird, and their friends. The house sits on a canal that leads to the open water, and at night you can go down and see all the sea turtles sleeping in the canal. We counted 14, which is actually pretty low according to the owners. Still, we weren’t exactly complaining.

Our main hope was to do some whale watching from shore, and boy did we get lucky with that. On our first day, we visited a spot called Spitting Caves, and had two humpbacks pop up close to shore. We didn’t get to see them that close again, but we did get to see plenty of breaches and even watched a competition pod as they fought for the attention of female humpbacks. I miss whale watching. You can see whales from shore in Seattle, but it takes a bit more work.

Being winter we had to chase the sunshine a little bit. It’s always a little rainier on the windward side of the island. So we took trips up the North Shore and spent a lot of time near Spitting Caves and Lanai Lookout, both of which are excellent for whale watching. We caught up with some old friends, which was nice. But what was really cool was realising the owner of Agnes, our favourite Portugese bake shop in Kailua, actually remembered us after four years away.

Mmm, thinking of Agnes just makes me hungry for malasadas. If you’re on Oahu, definitely try Agnes or Leonards for malasadas, which are basically Portugese doughnuts. We also hit Waiola shave ice for the yummiest, finest shave ice on the island. Seriously, if anyone tells you that you have to go up to the North Shore to get good shave ice, don’t believe them, Waiola in Honolulu is where it’s at.

We saw so much wildlife on this trip. Part of it is that we’re pretty lucky that way, part of it is we know to keep our eyes open. We saw whales, of course, monk seals which are very rare on Oahu, and of course the sea turtles. We also got to see some mongoose, but I never could get them to stay still long enough to get a picture. And we spotted a wild boar which was pretty cool since I’d never seen one before.

We didn’t want to do a whole lot of “activities” per se. We’ve done places like the Arizona Memorial and Sea Life Park many times, so why bother. We did take a kayak out to the “Mokes” which is one of the bird islands located just off Kailua beach. And we did a sub scooter ride which was a unique experience. You ride around on this little scooter thing about ten feet under the water, with your head in a helmet. The only way I can describe it is like being in a fishbowl with the fish on the outside. It was different, and definitely worth doing, but having snorkeled and scuba’d in Maui, I would still say that that is hands down the better experience.

Speaking of Maui, we’re already plotting a trip there next winter. I love both islands. We lived on both islands. But for whale watching and swimming with turtles, it can only be Maui.

Not much to say in other news really. I had thought I might do some writing while on Oahu but I didn’t. What can I say, too busy taking sunrise strolls on the beach. I am excited to say that Shatterer book one is complete, and will be almost finished on the website in another couple of months. February I’m going to take a breather and work on something else, before working on getting Shatterer of Worlds published. Don’t know what I’ll be writing about except that it won’t be science fiction.

Thank goodness for vacations….

It’s been over six months since my last post. A month after, we finally moved into our new house. During those weeks we had drama that ranged from not knowing if the deal would fall through to discovering that our landlady hadn’t paid our mortgage the entire time we lived there. Even once we moved in, we had a couple of weeks without internet service. We also spent days having to clean up, because apparently the Wellons believe since they lost money on the house, they can leave it in a pigsty. Grime, old food in the refrigerator, seriously disgusting stuff. But that wasn’t even the worst of it. The worst was the Jory cancer drama.

I’ve had challenging years before, but none so heartbreaking as 2012. I started the year sad because we hadn’t found a place to live, but still relatively optimistic and excited about our first real vacation in four years. But on Valentines Day, everything changed with Jory’s diagnosis of oral malignant melanoma.

Words can’t describe my relationship with Jory. He was my rock. My guardian Angel. He was one of my bestest friends. My doggie soulmate. He was in my life almost every day for over 11 years. He relied on me to take care of him, and I relied on him to take care of me too. We would have conversations together. I would stare into his soulful eyes and tell him about my day. Or he would lay with his head on my stomach while I read a book to him. Jory wasn’t just a dog to us, he was our child. So of course we went ahead and began treatment.

The thing is, cancer isn’t like other illnesses. Even though you follow the protocols, it doesn’t mean you will be cured. We tried the melanoma vaccine, and eventually metronomic chemotherapy. Eight thousand dollars later, the cancer had spread to his brain, though it took until Thanksgiving night for us to realise this. I won’t go into what happened next because it’s just too painful, still.

That’s the thing too…. while I’ve been blessed to find some really supportive friends during this past year who understood what Jory means to us, there are plenty of people who think “he’s just a dog.” He’s just a dog therefore why spend that money? He’s just a dog therefore you should be over your grieving period.

It simply isn’t that simple. Everywhere I look I see a reminder of him. Most the time it makes me smile, but a lot of times I remember the bad, the days after Thanksgiving, before he passed away. My house that I spent over a year trying to buy now reminds me of all the places where he was in pain. I even find it difficult to communicate with good friends because while no, I’m not a blubbering mess, I still go to the movies, and go out, I’m not in the mood to talk about Skyfall or the latest episode of Doctor Who. Rob and I still feel wounded. We march on but we’re not ready to put our child away in a little box of memories that we take out only on special occasions.

When I think about the future, I feel some trepidation. Last year felt like a TKO. But it wasn’t. I’m still standing here, albeit bruised and weary. Despite the awfulness that was last year, I still managed to do some work that I’m proud of. I conducted two interviews with heroes of mine, for Inter-Galaxy Portal. I networked at GeekGirlCon and even ran some contests. Oh yes, and I got to meet more heroes of mine. I also recorded my first voice over demo which I believe now makes me legit. And book one of Shatterer is over halfway to completion online. I even started archery and we bought a beautiful bow. So it wasn’t all bad.

The future feels a little more empty for me without Jory. How could it feel otherwise? But I have hopes still. Plans to write new work, and publish some work that I’ve been promising to release for a while. I’ll also be posting here more often though I can’t make any promises because such is life. I’m mostly optimistic about the future but reminders of the past keep pulling me back. I feel the magical whispering voices of the Gathering Isle calling to me, offering me a reprieve, a place to heal my wounded heart and that gives me something to look forward to.

Am I ready for 2013? No. But I’m sure as hell glad 2012 is over with.

Another few weeks go by and I seemingly have nothing to say. Not so. Actually, I’ve had quite a bit going on, just little time to say it. For one thing, new events have arisen on the housing front. I do want to talk about it, but it’s such a long, messy story that it’s best left for a post, or several, of its own. We also took a trip to Victoria, B.C. for a couple of days, which was thoroughly fun and frankly I’d love to move to Victoria, it’s such a nice little city.

However, today I am going to talk about Shatterer of Worlds.I’ve talked a lot about Shatterer these past few months, and my direction for it has changed during that time. I had at one point thought about just publishing it as a straight novel. But that would be the sane, easy thing to do, and I am rarely known for choosing the easy option.

Instead, I’ve decided to post it on the Shatterer of Worlds website as a serial novel.

For those that don’t know, Shatterer of Worlds is a science fiction re-telling of The Mahabharata. It follows two warring families as they vie for control of the powerful Boentu Star System.

Shatterer of Worlds comes out every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Each post is roughly 300-800 words long. It is absolutely free since it’s an early draft, just go to the site and read it. If you want to stay up to date with the story, simply use the email sign up and have it delivered to your inbox. However, if you decide to donate, I will use all or part of your name in my story. If that wasn’t enough, whenever the tip jar hits $10, I will also do a bonus post on Saturdays.

So if you haven’t already, go check it out and tell people about it. The writing world is changing and the only way writers can make themselves heard is through you guys, the readers!

You’re probably wondering where I’ve been these past few months. Well, I’m in the same place I was two months ago and that has been really difficult for me to accept. We’ve been in this short sale buying nightmare. I somewhat naively believed that we’d at least be in the process of moving by now, but that hasn’t been the case.

I’ll be honest, between that stress and my poor puppy and his cancer treatment, it sent me into a bit of a funk. I’m behind on my own personal deadlines. Shatterer has gone nowhere. I’ve listlessly bounced from story to story trying to find something that engages me. It’s been tough. However, I’m trying to pull myself out of it and not let it take over my life. Little by little I’m forcing myself to write and I do have some news in the coming weeks about Shatterer, so stay posted.

It’s helped that the weather has been stunning lately. Gorgeous shorts and t-shirt weather. Which has meant that we’ve gone out exploring a lot. We visited Meadowdale Park again. We hung out at one of Edmonds beaches. We visited Gasworks Park, and even hit the flea market at the centre of the universe, AKA Fremont. I think we may even get to break out the kayak soon. I’ll of course let you guys know about my adventures.

In the meantime, I did promise more tales from Vancouver. To be honest it’s been a long few months since our trip which was before the short sale and doggie cancer nightmares. However, I did begin these two reviews a few months back, so I’m leaving it here for your edification. I did want to tell you all about the Basil Pasta Bar, a super cheap joint to get freshly cooked, made to order pasta. It’s yummy and the perfect Yaletown cheap eat. I also wanted to tell you about the Mink chocolate cafe, which has a Spanish-style hot chocolate, as well as chocolate fondue. Another time perhaps….

More Vancouver Eats

Another great place for breakfast was the Bellagio Cafe on Hornby. It’s an Italian restaurant however, they do also serve a delicious breakfast. The restaurant itself has an interesting ambience. It’s classy but fun. Customers are seated next to stacks of books. Then on one wall is a display of comic book art with the words “Which Came First? Avatar or Terra Incognita?” Being the editor of a scifi website, I had to check it out. It turns out that the owner of the restaurant had created a comic book series which he was also hoping to develop into a TV show, that bears some resemblance to James Cameron’s blockbuster. Add to the fact that he actually sent a treatment to Cameron’s company, Lightstorm Entertainment, it made for some interesting reading. Going back to the food, we got a yummy and surprisingly cheap breakfast of eggs, hashbrowns, toast and sausage. Not bad for ten dollars at a nice restaurant. We didn’t get to try them out for lunch or dinner, but the menu looked superb.

Sophie’s Cosmic Cafe was yet another breakfast place we tried. It’s off the beaten track, located in Kitsalano, and it’s super tiny, but well worth it. Plus, with a name like that, I couldn’t resist! You’ll almost certainly have a wait, especially if you choose to go on the weekend. However, there is plenty to look at as your queque. For one thing, the cafe is surrounded with kitsch toys and memorabilia. You won’t be bored! While the menu seemed kinda pricey for a small cafe, the serving sizes at Sophie’s is humongous. They always talk about America when it comes to serving sizes, but speaking as a well-travelled European, I can confirm that Canada is pretty up there when it comes to portions. I’m not sure what else to say. The food is delicious (perhaps not the healthiest of food), service is fast considering how busy they are, and the portions are generous. What more can a traveller ask for?