Notes from the last week or so

[squeequeg]

- Either we have a very incontinent ghost, or our toilet is possessed. The damn thing starts to flush every ten or so minutes, then stops as if remembering that it's not supposed to do that. thomascantor is talking to the management folks; I'll stock up on holy water.

- It turns out the cure for the slow grinding pace of work on the new novel was to jump ahead half a chapter to the asskicking and to the scenes I'd envisioned when I began this book. I've finished a third of the first draft, and maybe a quarter of that will survive the second draft. Still, it's on paper, and now I'm writing the cool stuff and finding out a little more about the characters than I'd planned. (What do you mean, one of my two main characters is a total coward? Oh...I guess he is.)

- GORILLA DETECTOR! gorilla detector gorilla detector! This makes me happy in so many ways.

- I know this has been posted on several friends' pages, but if you're interested in either literary agents or internet legalities, take a look at what's going on with Barbara Bauer and Absolute Write. The gist of the story is this: she's a scammer, got added to the list of the Twenty Worst Agents, and when this was posted on Absolute Write, threatened their web host with legal action and got it to shut down. (If I have details wrong, please let me know.) The Absolute Write folks are doing their best to resurrect it, and Bauer's now got a lot of free publicity, all bad.

Comments

[orbitalmechanic.livejournal.com]

Our toilet was doing something very similar; turned out there was a problem with the seal at the bottom where the tank connects to the bowl. It sounds like you're renting so you may not want to get involved, but we just turned off the water, flushed it to drain, cleaned the seal, et voila.

Of course that particular toilet, in our case, probably IS possessed: we've replaced everything you can replace because it keeps breaking. Next time I'm just going to leave out a bowl of milk.

[stealthmuffin.livejournal.com]

The management guy replaced the seal, but it's still going. I'm reluctant to do any amateur plumbing until after we have friends over, just in case something goes Horribly Wrong.

Now that I think about it, why isn't there a kids' book series about Toilet Fairies? (Yes, rational thought will provide the answer to that question shortly.)