thrihyrne

I'm still rather in shock about all of this, but I have proof that I've earned my first non-fanfiction/non-fandom royalties. I have no idea how this (somewhat fluffy, especially for me) work will be received, both by people who are intimately familiar with my fanfic, and those who don't know me from Eve's housecat. Hopefully readers will fall for the characters as I did, but I just have no idea. I hope to have the sequel submitted to Dreamspinner within a few weeks, and I'll be very intrigued to see how sales for Surprised at Nothing go, given its genre. Urban fantasy works aren't the highest sales generators at Dreamspinner.

Rather than put in all of the links where you can go get a copy of my e-book, I'm pasting in a link to the post on my authorly blog made specifically for promoting my work at Dreamspinner. Surprised at Nothing is available in e-book form via a variety of websites and locations. Here's the post:

https://ramblingruadh.wordpress.com/2015/04/29/todays-the-big-day-d/

If you do buy it and read it, please let me know your thoughts! I want each successive work that I put out there that's original fiction to be of the caliber of my best fanfic. And if you don't buy it, that's totally okay too. I'm honestly worried that I will disappoint people who know my intense, sometimes bleak, angsty fanfic. But it's my first completed attempt at world building.

Current Mood: proud
Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/565034.html

So this was new: being sent digital files of marketing material for my e-book release, when I'm not even sure of the date! The whole thing is new, since I'm used to maybe making an honorary icon for a story, or way back, a kind of movie poster for a much longer work. So let me share!

A bookmark:

bookmark photo SurprisedAtNothing_bookmarkV_DSP.jpg

And the cover:

I'm not planning a book tour, nor is it likely I'll be going to conferences and the like to warrant printing swag, but still. Seems like this is really happening!! :D

Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/563307.html

I tend to write for about 30 minutes in the early morning with my first cup of coffee, just small sections of things before I can handle looking at a computer. I've been primarily working on my Dreamspinner novella sequel, the one that may not ever be contracted, I realize. But maybe the first one will sell enough and they'll want to support a sequel. Anyway, I was writing it yesterday and the protagonist and his lover were discussing how they'd get from their cottage to Dowth, maybe a mile or two away. The protagonist asked if they were driving, and the lover noted he doesn't know how to drive a car, so they had bicycles. To which the protagonist surprised me and his lover by saying that he doesn't know how to ride a bicycle. I love it when my characters surprise me with information about themselves I hadn't planned out!!

Since I finished my Yuletide story so quickly, I went to the 'Dear Yuletide Letter' spreadsheet and have selected an Orphan Black request that I'd love to write. Just a short vignette missing moment from an episode in season two we watched a couple of weeks ago. I've never written a pure gift fic before, but I'm really excited to write something in a fandom I've both never written for, and one that I'm currently enjoying myself. ♥

I'm about to have the most social couple of weeks than I've had in maybe a year or more! We'll be enjoying Thanksgiving with our dear friends

sanguinity and

grrlpup, a tradition I feel so fortunate to get to share with them, then Thursday the 4th Evan and I will attend the Portland office Airbnb holiday extravaganza. This is only the third ever local event where a +1 has been invited. :P Should be interesting since I'm still remote and don't know a good 5/6 of the people who work at the office now. We'll plan to go right at 7:00 and hang out for 2 hours or so before coming home and letting the younger set get crazy with an open bar. Saturday the 6th we have another holiday event with dear friends who've returned to the area from Utah, and then Tuesday the 9th one of the highlights of my month happens: one of my very dear colleagues who's also a remote employee is coming to Portland to visit the office again. She's gathered up a bunch of us who are now 'old timers' in Airbnb-parlance (nearly 2.5 years or longer) and mostly remote or only-recently-not-remote women to go out to dinner. It's a foretaste of how I'm now viewing next year's One Airbnb 2.0 to be held at HQ in SF. I didn't go last year; I was very conflicted in how I felt about my employer at that time, and was personally struggling with a lot of things that I'm not now. I'll be attending this year, and really looking forward to getting to see all of my remote buddies and talking about non-work things. :)

Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/559626.html

Since my last post, I realized that I have two stories that could be completed and submitted to this online press. One is the wholly unique monk story, but also an HP story I'd started in the summer for a fest, but didn't get very far in writing. I had most of it in my head, and I've recognized that I can change it up very easily in order to get it out of Rowling's version of magical and into something different. So I've begun revamping the first few thousand words and going in a more relationship-centric manner I'd shied away from when writing it for the fest because at that time, I'd decided to make it completely genfic. Now I can add some eroticism and make the new protagonist and his world unique enough that if there becomes a following, he can have other adventures in sequels. Not to project forward too much, lol.

But it's been great to be writing again, and getting re-engaged in this story line that I'd been excited for since the summer, but lost steam on. I'm writing! It feels great to have the characters come to life for me, rather than me having to poke at them to do something. I'm very, very happy about this development of events. My thanks again to

snottygrrl for knowing how desperately unhappy I was in my prior work role and who volunteered me for this press in terms of being an able proofreader. I've done my quota and have let them know of my keen interest to do more in-depth editing, so we'll see about that in the future. :)

Current Mood: cheerful
Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/552305.html

So it wasn't my birthday, but

evannichols's 51^st on Saturday. There was very yummy breakfast-eating at Slappy Cakes, kilt wearing (him, not me), a wander around the beautiful campus of his alma mater, Lewis & Clark College, and then being taken out to birthday sushi by

sanguinity and

grrlpup. And that was just Saturday!! I worked my usual shifts of 1-10 on Sunday and yesterday, but Evan was around much of yesterday so I could enjoy his company. And then my friend Jen stopped by during my break yesterday on her return trip to Eugene, so that was an additional highlight. Just a really wonderful, delight-filled set of days.

So here's a link to the photos, for those who don't follow me on other social media!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/88838401@N03/sets/72157633011385798/

I'll be picking up my copy of Unfinished Tales this week and hope to get kick-started on some writing while on my business trip next week. :)

Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/546733.html

It's early (5:25) but a common time to be awake for me on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays when my work schedule and Evan's are in sync. I'm taking 2 days of PTO this weekend, which means this is our first 3 days together without working some of it since last October. WOOT! And I need it. I'm on the threshold of a work-free weekend (we're using 'koala' as a sort of reminder word if I find myself talking about work, and I absolutely will not even log in to see how many emails I may have), and it's much needed. :P

Yesterday was an absolutely delightful usual day off. It was unexpected in that I had company!

evannichols was home because he'd come home sick midday Tuesday, and was still not feeling well yesterday. I took the opportunity to sleep in as much as my body needed, which was a lot: didn't wake up for a final time until 9:30. So no ballet, but I was certainly rested. I enjoyed a leisurely morning, including writing a letter to Evan's mom, then ran a couple of errands with Evan before leaving him at the apartment to rest while I went out and did my own things. First on the list was a truly lovely hour visit at my former residence on 79th. I met up with Gail and Robin, had tea, shared some of my knitting projects, and just enjoyed their company and seeing Cooper, the boxer [dog] again. What made me particularly happy about that whole scenario is that they are the first people since my Years of Struggle (approx 2005-12) whose residence I've left as a tenant under positive circumstances. They have enthusiastic roses in their side yard, and Gail sent me home with a stunning bouquet of a dozen, which are gracing a table now.

Other adventures included going to Value Village in search of sandals. Instead, I bought a pair of flip-flops (o_O), and a unique pair of side-zip quasi-dress shoes in a kind of rich grey. They need a lot of love, and some thoughtfully-chosen shoelaces, but I bought then for $5.99 and 20% off. I've decided to invest up to $40 in them to bring them back to life, and I'm oddly attached to them already. I rounded out the day with a wonderfully long phone call with Jen in Eugene, then a few episodes of season 3 Project Runway Evan and I are watching (my second go-round, his first) before going to bed. All in all, just a splendid, enchantment-filled day. And it was overcast/some rain, the perfect Portland day for me. :)

So today is work, and then 3½ days off as my Monday schedule is 1-10. We're trying to keep much of our time unstructured and free for spontaneous activities, but there are a couple of planned events on our docket: I bought a Groupon for a 2-hour jewelery-making class for 2 at a studio in Newberg, so Evan and I will take a bezeling class tomorrow from 2-4. I'm taking a years-old pendant with 2 circular peridots and a teardrop citrine and will plan to convert it into a pair of earrings with the peridots. But we'll see! The other thing I really want to do and have brought up on occasion is for Evan to show me around the Lewis and Clark College campus, as it's his alma mater and I've never been out there. I applied to several jobs there during my time in Portland, but was never invited for an interview and consequently have never gone to see the campus. I think it will be insightful to go through the buildings and on the grounds where young!Evan spent some formative years. And, like my alma mater, it often shows up in top lists for beautiful campuses. Maybe there will even be a picnic. ♥

Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/545960.html

Or: why I don't post much anymore.

My life is superb. The only drama I have (though at times it can be mighty and crosses over into my non-work life, of which I don't approve) is work-related. I have renewed and newly-meaningful relationships with some key people, including my sister, mother, and Eugene-friend-Jen. I still write letters and have phone calls maintaining other long-time friendships. I even see some people locally who are also friends— and colleagues! I'm financially in a far better place than I've been since 2005. I'm comfortable in my own skin, with a distinct lack of chemicals. My deep-seated anxieties about the irony of the universe lashing out at me personally in unique and traumatizing ways is near-banished. I'm exercising and even going to ballet once a week. Creatively, I knit more than anything else, but I've also revived work on my Wraeththu novel book contract and will be having a First Pass Major Re-Read/Edit with my editor at the end of July. I'm living and sharing every day with the life partner I didn't dare to dream actually existed. I'm 130 days into giving a full years' experiment of seeing what it's like to choose not to drink.

So I think I get a bit wary of sounding like I'm vomiting rainbows. Of course there's some shitty stuff. I've had several bouts of sinus/throat issues, which haven't been fun. While I thoroughly enjoy my particular role at work, I'm ambivalent about the ever-changing landscape outside of that realm. I'll need to do a major exorcism of preconceptions about headquarters in general before going there in June, though perhaps the very act of going will provide some clarity I haven't had before. My left pinky toe is apparently going to hurt for the rest of my life, and I've screwed up my right shoulder somehow, as well as done something to my upper left hip flexor… all of which makes the ballet more painful than necessary. I need to keep constant vigilance not to succumb to hedonic adaptation, and to be very, very aware of any inklings of creating drama simply because my life is so stable.

But in general, I'm fully engaged in my life and content in ways I've not been for a very long time. So that's why I don't post all that often. Still, here's an update! ♥

Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/545406.html

So I posted my Finduilas' POV fic and it's been quietly received. And that's really okay. I'm thinking I'll re-read the story of Aldarion and Erendis in UT and see about going back into the fic graveyard to dig up my Numenorean story long-ago abandoned, but not forgotten. :)

And ( I'm wearing armwarmers!! )

More about my newest project, but here's a link to the WIP on Ravelry:
http://ravel.me/Thevina/sts

I'm back to my 'regular' schedule, so back to work tomorrow afternoon. But I'm so, so excited by my new specialization and position. :D

Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/544294.html

But first, a little bit about my promotion, since I'd noted I'd write a bit about that. I am now in Resolutions which, as you may expect, means coming up with resolutions for users on our site who are unhappy or have asked us to intervene. I'll admit that I was leery of applying, but they seemed to really need the people, and key colleagues kept pushing me in that direction. So I did, and I was brought on. A couple of things have made me realize that actually I think I'm really going to groove on this team, despite it having a lot of pressure and much more real-time communication with people: I was one of 6 people from email/chat who were promoted, and of the 5 of us in the North American group (thankfully there is a small batch in the EU also promoted), 2 are colleagues whom I've adored for a while and am thrilled to be still on their team, and the other 2 are from my own training batch who went straight into chat (I was in email until December) and so I'm getting to know them now. So I'm already feeling supported and among friends, which is great. But also, now that I've completed 2 weeks of training, I'm understanding that much of my role is that I get to be the person acting like an adult, no matter how the users are behaving. I get to educate, to decide to give money or to hold on to it, to surprise a user with an unexpected gesture or to stand my ground and say that my final decision is final. No supervisor is going to come along behind me and undercut what I've decided. The overarching lead for this team has said his motto for us is "You are the CEO of your own inbox." Ah, sipping the delicious nectar of autonomy. :)

( And now, pictures! )

I hadn't posted any pictures of the apartment in a while, so here are a few. Hope you all are having a lovely weekend!

Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/543669.html

This happened yesterday:
Evan, beaming: "Kristi's given Evan a sock! Evan is free!"

This after I found a rogue sock of his hidden at the end of the bed under the covers- and handed it to him. We're definitely a multi-fandom household. ♥

And something absolutely lovely that greeted me in my Thevina33 email this morning: a comment about my first Lord John Grey fanfic story from just about 18 months ago, a review from a fan who apparently has read it a dozen times and is reading it again and wanted to let me know how much she loves it. ♥ ♥ ♥

Tomorrow morning I work for another colleague but my shift is 11-8, so tomorrow morning is officially "Thev gets back into the habit of writing in the mornings" day. Time to get back to that R/D due at the end of next month!

Oh, and I haven't seen The Hobbit yet. I've been reading everybody's reviews of it and will definitely go see it, but during a matinee and not in 3-D and not at 48 fps. I'm really looking forward to all of the dwarves. But you all knew that!! ;)

Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/539806.html

Two new changes that will make a tremendous difference in my world:
❶ I bought an office chair! For $20! And it's purple! This is a tremendous step towards me having an ergonomically satisfactory working life. Evan brought it in when he dropped me off this morning and already I can tell how much happier I'm going to be.
❷ Evan and I are going to move in together. We have a place! Closer in in SE, very close to our original stomping grounds— for both of us, interestingly enough. It's a complex where he's lived before and really liked it, managed by the same people, and we can move in by December 1^st. OMGYAY. Not only of being with my beloved every day, which is huge, but also that really for the first time in my adult life, I will be in a space that I co-create and in which I have my own space. Even when married my stepchildren had their own rooms, and I had nowhere to go to retreat if needed or desired. This is an incredible psychological moment for me. We are engaging in a very conscious choice to blend our lives and days in a thoughtful, respectful and joyous manner.

I could just about explode from the happy. :D :D :D :D

Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/536585.html

For the first time since this time last year, this morning I retrieved one of my composition notebooks and began writing on a new fic. This is all thanks to my beloved

emansil_12. At the end of our conversation on Wednesday, she suggested that since I'd missed out on signing up for Yuletide, I just might consider looking at the prompts available for the

ron_draco_fest 2013. I said I would, and now, two days later, I've claimed a prompt and started writing on it. I'm quietly thrilled. Don't really know how the story will meander, but I have my ideas and I'm going to see where R/D will take me in this new story, unrelated to any 'verses I've created in the past. In looking at my own website, it appears that the last one-shot R/D I wrote was done in July of 2011. So not as long ago as I'd imagined. Still, yay. ::welcomes Muse with open arms::

In other news, this week has been particularly wonderful in that I've had several conversations with friends that have me feeling far less isolated than I did a few days ago. I'm realizing that that will be key once Evan and I are living together and I'm alone all day working, with no pets for company. I do have my follow-up about my trial period for work with my former team lead; my leads changed in the midst of this scrutiny, and all I can do is see how this plays out.

But I feel marvelous. Happy Friday, all. ♥

Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/536261.html

So happy. Today is a tremendously marvelous day. I've spoken with my mom, my sister, am enjoying coffee and a totally indulgent cinnamon roll thingie with cream cheese, finishing up one of my non-Etsy-shop reclaimed sweaters to send to said sister's daughter, and perhaps the best thing (aside from enjoying this gorgeous, windy day and knitting or writing or reading or doing whatever the hell I want)… when Evan comes to pick me up at the end of his workday, I'll go to his place for five days! FIVE DAYS. IN A ROW. This may not seem like a big deal, but it's a tremendous opportunity for us to have a trial run of living together while we're both working, in the kind of scenario we'd experience: him going off to BHFT, me staying there to work from home. Him coming home and me still being on the clock until 6:00, then a leisurely evening with dinner, chatting, digital entertainment, and bed. Repeat! I don't think I'll ever take for granted the joy of ending and starting my days literally at Evan's side. Do I oftentimes regret that we don't get to enjoy our 20s and 30s together? Yes. That said, we needed to learn what we did from our prior relationships and working through our own individual self-actualizing in order to be as at peace with ourselves as we are now.

::hand fluttering to express ineffable joy::

Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/533149.html

( under the cut )

Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/530495.html

I feel as though I've been going on and on about how much I love my job at Airbnb, so I won't gush more about it here. But I LOVE IT. For those who might wonder what my days and hours are, here's how they are through the end of September: 10-7, PST, Sunday-Monday, Wed-Fri. So I have Saturdays and Tuesdays off. We put in requests for new shifts each quarter, so there's a chance mine will change for Oct-December. I'll also begin working remotely (ie: from home, or Evan's house, or a coffee shop, or wherever I want where there's reliable internet!) in October. So, yay, no commute at all and working in whatever clothes I feel like, plus I can go out for a quick jog or run errands during my lunch and then come back home!

Many of you know that I recently went on a 3-day trip to go camping with Evan, attending an annual Nichols family get-together. In recent years they've met at Spicer Meadow Reservoir campground, and that's where we were this year. So I met his parents and older brother and spouse and couple of other friends who were there. I'd Skyped with them once before, but this was my first time to get to meet them in person. The setting was gorgeous, the weather sublime, the starry night sky phenomenal, and the sleeping on a thin mat on the ground something I didn't miss so much once we returned home. But here are a couple of pictures:
( two photos )

Earlier that week, as noted, my dear friend

emansil_12 was in Portland for a couple of days before going off to Lubricus. She and I spent an absolutely marvelous day together, and here's the visual proof. This picture was taken at the building where Evan's work is located, in a large and sunny atrium that features someone playing piano every day during lunch hours!
( together in PDX )

So I'm settling into my work schedule, at least for the next month. Even with that, since I'm working Labor Day, I'll have the subsequent Friday off. In other words, I haven't really been able to settle into an actual routine yet. That may not really happen until October when I'm working at home. We'll see. This week I am so looking forward to my Tuesday off. I'm starting out the day with a massage from my friend Karla, and then getting my eyes checked at 4:00. My eyesight has been funky and not in a good way. Now that I finally have health/dental/vision insurance again, for the first time in 3 or so years I'll get my eyes checked and will probably end up with new lenses. Maybe even new frames!

Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/529128.html

evannichols has this theory that everyone has a Superpower. It's a good theory; he definitely has one and he's happy to reveal what it is. Go on, go ask him. ;) After struggling, I realized what mine was: I am a free (or waaaaaaaaaaay underpriced) clothing magnet. I attract free/close to free clothes and accessories and the like. It's been happening my entire adult life, perhaps as a reward from the Universe from the years of wearing nothing but hand me downs that I really didn't like in the years post my parents' divorce and there wasn't much money going around. Anyway, recent items of late that fit into this category are a fabulous purple plaid, purple plushy lined, London Fog raincoat with detachable hood- found at Costco, of all places. It's a girl's size, so costing a little over $20. Heee!! In the free category, whilst our Airbnb team was working at the Collective Agency workspace, there was a box on a table that said, "FREE!" Much as I'd been wanting a maple iced doughnut and the Universe provided, I'd also been keeping an eye out for a belt. Well. In this box? A lovely brown leather belt. That fits perfectly. And a pair of brown sandals. My size. And, of all things, a 'Knit Stitch A Day' calendar that isn't tied to any year, it's a stand up, flip-over one with, as you might think, a knit stitch for each day of the year. :D

What's your Superpower?

Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/527754.html

YAY!! Very exciting, and thankfully not yet nerve-wracking! I'll keep this short and sweet for now as I don't have much to go on yet, but I'm super chuffed to be starting my first day of training with Airbnb. I'm even happier that our training location(s) are very close to a Max line and not far across the river, so I'll have something much closer to an hour commute, rather than the two-hour one I had before. This pleases me greatly.

My 3-day weekend with

evannichols was sublime. I took him out to breakfast, we lounged around and watched all three episodes of Sherlock from season one, I recolored my hair, there were insightful and emotional conversations, more yummy food, Boggle, crosswords, and he even fit in Dude Golf yesterday morning. We don't know what my schedule will be after training, so these last few 'regular' weekends of having whole Saturdays and Sundays together are especially precious.

I'll post in the next day or so to report in on how everything's going.

Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/526289.html

And perhaps a wee bit of text. ;)
( it's been a really frakking fabulous few days )

So!! I am so very, very happy and feeling validated and cherished and thrilled about my present and where I'm headed. I am indeed a beloved child of the Universe. ♥

Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/524756.html

This entry may get a bit long, so feel free to pick and choose topics or just skim. But I wanted to post an update.
( knitting stuff )

( job stuff )

( life and relationship stuff )

So, yay. It feels pretty amazing to be able to post something like this.

Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/524243.html

( the highlights, in three sections )

And now, to finish beta'ing a story for a friend. :D :D :D

Current Music: Life's Been Good, Joe Walsh
Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/522696.html

My novella is released!!

Pre-made marketing for my novella

Writing fun and other things to look forward to

Why yes, I am writing again!

Fun and festive birthay weekend

A liminal day

The awesomeness that is my life

Posted story and completed armwarmers

Photos!!

Life is good.

True change is afoot

She's back! My Muse, she's back!!

I ♥ having a weekday off. Every week.

Hair pictures!

Camping, friends, and pics

Of Superpowers and free stuff

New day! Training! New job!

Myriad ways the Universe loves me-- in pictures!

A non-expiring pass on the "Life is Good!" bus

Another upbeat post about work, running and entertainment

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January 2023

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