No actual writing type of work got done this weekend. But it wasn’t my fault! I was tired!
It was a show weekend — the second of, let’s see, eight this fall, I think. Last year I wasn’t showing, but this year I am. The points are good, there are many more majors available, and I would love to finish championships on some of my girls quick before the points are recalculated next May. My friend Deb is entering some of the same shows so we can boost the entry numbers and help each other at ringside. We each showed three girls at the previous show — it was MAD and we will never show that many again without lining up [A LOT] more help. In advance. There are all these exciting moments where you suddenly need to take three dogs in to compete for winners and you’re grabbing just anybody from ringside and handing them a leash and an armband and saying “Just keep her pointed in the right direction! Try to get her to look happy! You need to be second in the line! Run!”
And then off the bewildered dog goes, spinning in circles to keep her real owner in sight, wondering who this total stranger is who’s trying to feed her liver. This does not make a dog look her best! So, a little too exciting.
In general no one wants to hear the point system explained, so I won’t explain it, but! Kenya won her first major this past Saturday! Yay! Hurrah! Go Kenya! There were ten girls entered and all but one were quite nice and several were VERY nice and my Kenya won! (Someone else won on Sunday.)
This is Kenya’s first win photo; I haven’t got her current win photo yet but this one from last year will give you an idea:
This picture was at a small show and she only got one point. Saturday’s win was much more important! She is now for all intents and purposes halfway to her championship! Because you can pick up single points anywhere, but majors are not easy to come by.
Anyway, it’s not just a matter of showing up in time for your class. Even after bathing the girls on Friday, all morning Saturday AND Sunday was taken up by touching up feet and ears and tails and flattening coats and trying this volumizing cream on Kenya’s ears and that perfumed oil on Adora’s back (yes, really, it makes the ruby’s coat shiny, a very nice effect, not artificial looking at all). So what with one thing and another, I just didn’t even turn on the computer. But I felt bad about it!
Well, sort of bad about it. Actually, I was listening to SNUFF by Terry Pratchett while driving, and I must admit that this led me to re-read bits of NIGHT WATCH when I got home, and I was not very inclined to work on anything. And I really was too tired anyway.
I’m going to join Audible this week and download a lot of Pratchett’s books for the rest of the show season driving. Starting with the rest of the Sam Vimes ones. Almost makes me look forward to those long drives! There are lots I’ve never read because I’ve honestly been saving them for this exact purpose, and now with Audible I don’t think it will be too expensive.
So, anyway, the only part of the revision left is the hard part. I mean deciding whether there needs to be a touch more romance (yes) and putting it in; and deepening the character arcs and all that sort of thing. So you see why I am not keen on doing it while in a partial coma. I would LIKE to put it off till this weekend, when I will actually be home because I’m not showing this weekend, and I can do one marathon session and get done with it. But I may tackle it tonight if I feel too guilty to take a whole week off.
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It wasn’t moroccan oil, by chance, was it? It makes human hair very shiny without adding much weight. And smells highly perfumed, although the package claims it has no added scent. The daughter likes it for un-volumizing her hair.
congrats to Kenya on her major!
I think of the Guards sub series NIGHT WATCH is my favorite. But all Pratchett is hard to put down once I’ve picked it up.
It wasn’t called “moroccan oil”, but who knows? It’s sold by a Chris Christensen grooming products company that had a booth at the last specialty I attended. My ruby’s coat is pretty wavy, and it needs to lie flat for the show ring, so I use a drying coat and then the oil as a finishing touch. She is lovely and I hope she wins HER majors in the next few shows!
It’s hard to beat NIGHT WATCH, but I really enjoyed SNUFF. I’m looking forward to filling in the rest of Vimes’ early history, because really I have no idea how he got from an ordinary cop to a duke and ‘blackboard monitor’ and all that. And I find Pratchett just perfect for audio in the car!
By Dunnett’s second series, do you mean the Lymond ones? Because I agree that the touch of precognition etc that was in the last books was totally unnecessary and actually detrimental. But I loved the series overall.
Liaden — yes. I think their first couple were their best. I think the problem is, they now want to include ALL the neat stuff in EVERY book, and they really need to smooth out the story lines and tell ONE story per book. The Theo ones are certainly the worst for darting from character to character so fast you can’t get involved in the story. I’m aware the latest one is out, but I can’t say I’m in a huge rush to get it, though I’ll read it eventually.
Whereas I just got the new McKillip collection, even though it’s short stories and I’m not that keen on short stories. Glad you mentioned it! I wasn’t aware of it till you did. It should arrive tomorrow.
I’d rather have a McKillip novel, but any McKillip is better than no new McKillip. Also, I can now dump a few very large anthologies I only bought because of McKillip stories: more shelf space! Whee!
On Dunnett, no, I meant the Niccolos, which she wrote later, but are chronologically set earlier as well as being sort of the backstory to the Lymonds and had more paranormal stuff than the Lymonds. In the Lymonds, while the last book or so had some precog/clairvoyance stuff (which actually went back farther, but was much less noticeable earlier), the Niccolos have it rather more on stage, plus forked stick divining. … I wish they didn’t. [restraining incipient rant.]
The divining totally threw me out of the story as I associate it with Appalachia, not early Renaissance Europe. Although I dug around and discovered it was first recorded in Germany at approximately that era. (Agricola, De Res Metallica, which is full of fascinating stuff.) Yes, this is one of those ‘things people don’t know but think they do.’ I was wrong.
Still. She didn’t handle it well, in my very not so humble opinion. I still love the Lymond books, but never took so much to the others.