What's that? I have a blog, you say...?

Did you know that even when I don't write posts here about what I'm doing, things still continue to happen in my life? I know, it's as flabbergasting to me as it is to you... So I thought I'd write a bit of a catch-up post to, you know... catch you up...

The biggest news is that I sent the final edits of Zomburbia off to the printer. Preparing the manuscript for printing basically meant I had to read the novel again and mark any typos or errors I found. Despite having been read many times by many people, I still found a number of both. Typos and errors, I mean. I apparently have a habit of switching from the past to the present tense every so often, and I found errors of continuity that I can't believe were still present this late in the game. Now that those are off, I can devote myself to writing the draft of the sequel, right? Right?

My oldest, Oscar, turned six a few days ago. Do you realize what this means? It means I am the father of a human being who is six years old! I used to write about him (and the rest of my family) more often than I have recently. I might get back to that. For now, here's a photo of one of the cutest creatures on Earth.

Do you think he gave me a bite? No, he did not.

I joined the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) recently. If you aren't a part of the SF community, you may still be aware of the organization because it's going through some growing pains and a lot of its dirty laundry is being exposed. I thought this was a perfect time to join, actually, because I want to be a part of the rising tide which sweeps a lot of bigoted old men out to sea. There, I said it. It felt good.

I am also a member of the HWA (Horror Writers Association. This years's World Horror Con is this coming weekend in Portland, Oregon. I'll be attending, and I'll be taking part in a panel on using Social Media Marketing. The panel will be Friday from 2-3. If you're around, you should come by and watch me struggle to understand what Twitter and Facebook mean...

Finally, a couple of buddies and I are making a short film in a couple of weeks. It's set in the same world as Zomburbia and it should be a blast. I'll write more in a bit about how it all came together and what we've done on it so far. Let me just say here, in case you are my editor or my agent and you're reading this, it's stolen very little time from my writing the next book. I promise.

Trouble, and a moment of self-discovery

It was a rough week over at Casa Kreutz Gallardo. My youngest developed a high fever that lasted a week and culminated in two-night hospital stay. On top of that, there was worry that the fever might have affected his heart. Thankfully, two cardiographs show everything is normal in that department -- we all hope that future follow-ups will continue to be positive. He's all better, too, thanks for asking. Just as frisky and ornery as ever. The sense of relief of everyone in our circle is palpable.

And while that was happening, my agent was asking me to get material to her so that she can start shopping my novel to publishers. Nothing like rewrites, which are all done, thank God. She needed a synopsis, a bio, and a few other things. I know I could have told her about my circumstances and begged a few more days from her, but I decided not to do that. I wanted to do my best to give her what she needed in a timely manner.

And it occurred to me that after I'd got everything to her that will probably be what life as a freelance writer. Not the hospital visits, but trying to fit work in among the life moments that tear at me constantly. And it made me realize that I am probably up to the task. Which is reassuring to me. I know that if the situation is ever very dire, I'll bow out, but for now, I was happy to get that shit done. Off the plate and to my agent. In the past, I've looked for excuses to not work. That's done with. Now it's time to be serious about this writing thing.

Expecting

Melissa and I found out she was pregnant quite a while ago and we've been sitting on the news. We've been told it's a good idea to wait until at least the eighth week of pregnancy to spread the news. Given Melissa's age, we wanted to wait even longer and get the results of some non-invasive genetics testing before we let the cat out of the bag. Well, the results were positive enough that we're letting the world know. Sometime in Late June or early July we'll be welcoming baby #2, whom we are calling Blossom (we called Oscar The Sprout). This is an interesting date just because on July fifth I am expecting to board a plane bound for Ireland for a little more than a week as part of my MFA program. We'll see how all of that goes.

This pregnancy has been a little rough. Melissa has been nauseated, sometimes to the point of incapacity, nearly the entire time. On top of everything else I've got going on, I've picked up the slack around the house and helped to ease her suffering -- and that's exactly what it looked like to me. It seems to be letting up, and I'm glad of that for a few reasons.

So, come the Summer, things will once again be pretty interesting. Melissa and I are trying to prepare ourselves to have a newborn in the house again, but I feel like we can't really. One of the reason I think people have more children is that they can't remember exactly what the experience was like. We're also trying to prepare Oscar. We'll see how that goes. Some days he seems excited, or at least interested, by the prospect. Some days he flat out says he doesn't want a little brother or sister.

For the next little while you can expect the usual silliness on this blog to be peppered with news about The Blossom -- how it's developing, it's entrance into the world, etc. Hope no one minds.

Wish us luck.

It's like a Thanksgiving present to myself

My wife and I decided to stay home today rather than travel to see family for Thanksgiving. That meant it was going to fall to me to make a Turkey and all the trimmings. That's just how things go in the Kreutz Gallardo household. I'm fine with it. I like to cook, and I'm good at it, so I really don't mind. But I had made myself a little crazy over the last few days because I'd never made a turkey before. I think I devoted more time to researching roasting techniques than I have on any piece of homework so far this semester. (If my advisor is reading this, that's hyberbole!) I'd also never made stuffing or from-scratch giblet gravy. Even more time spent researching.

But you can all rest easy, everything (except the stuffing) came out fine. Great, in fact! Not to toot my own own horn, but I think that turkey ranked up there with the top five turkeys I've ever eaten. And, because it was just the three of us -- and one of us is a two-year-old -- we have tons of leftovers. Yes. And it may have gone well, and not been as difficult as I imagined it would be, but I was still confined to the kitchen all day. And the last hour was a mad dash to make sure everything came out at roughly the same time. The point I'm trying to make here is that I felt the need to indulge myself. I'd suggested renting a movie, but my wife didn't feel up to it.

So I wrote. I made a public statement on this forum two days ago that I would be taking Wednesday and Thursday off from writing. That, I can now tell you, was a lie. I am apparently in a place where writing is something I do when I want to treat myself. Who knew I'd ever get there? I feel like mI'm a long ways from the days when staring at the blank screen would just about reduce me to tears. And I may very well get back there again, but I'm enjoying it while I'm able.

I just wrote 1,000+ words on the short story I'm writing. I'd been experiencing some frustration with this story. I had a beginning I liked, and I was pretty sure I knew where I wanted it to end up. It was that pesky middle part that I couldn't figure out. Well, t seems to be coming together now. Hopefully I'll wrap it up the first draft over the weekend.

And now I'll give myself another Thanksgiving present and send myself to bed.

That photo, by the way, was taken by my wife and is of my son regarding the thing that kept his dad from playing with him all day long.

Here are today's numbers:

Daily word count: 1,073 (all on the short story)

Monthly word count: 26,508 (21,419 novel, 5,089 story)

Novel word count: 92,923 (unchanged)

O + AW 4EVER

I'm up late writing this evening because earlier, Melissa and I were irresponsible awesome parents and we drove Oscar an hour South to Eugene so we could all go watch Allison Weiss play live. Allison Weiss is a big deal in our house and Oscar often demands that we play her music. (Actually, given his two-year-old soft palate, he demands that we play "Al Wise.") Ms Weiss, who hails from Brooklyn, is touring the West coast with her friends Bess Rogers and Lelia Broussard, both of whom are very talented in their own rights.

We were also lucky because our friend, Eugene musician, Dan Jones, was able to join us for dinner and the show.

As we walked into the venue, Oscar started marching around, asking very loudly where Al Wise was. I had seen them on the sidewalk outside unloading their equipment. He wanted to go and see them. Who are we as parents to deny out son (read: I wanted to meet her, too)? Here's a tip to anyone who wants to introduce themselves to three lovely young ladies: have a cute-as-hell two-year-old with you. They thought he was very cute, indeed.

Especially when he was able to tell Ms Weiss the title of his favorite song. It's "Let Me Go" for the record.

The cuteness continued to build to dangerous levels once the show got under way. Oscar stood right in front of the stage, danced and sang along with her set. And then we got pictures and her signature on two of her CDs. Besides being crazy talented, she's also nice and gracious. I think it was well worth the travel and the fact that we kept Oscar up past his bed time. We'll remember it for a long time to come.

Unfortunately, we couldn't stay to see either Bess Rogers or Lelia Broussard perform. O had reached the end of his tether and we needed to leave before a screaming tantrum wiped away all those cute memories. All in all, an excellent night.

And now, here are the numbers.

Daily word count: 1,622 (1,082 novel, 540, story)

Monthly word count: 19,120 (16,339, 2,781 story)

Novel word count: 87,840

Boost

I work a part-time job Thursday through Saturday. It's those days when I knew reaching my daily writing goal would the most difficult. On Thursday and Friday, I watch my son all day long and only hand him off to my wife as I am on my way to work. After that I work until late and then come home to write. Sometimes I get some work done if he naps really well in the afternoon, but that's far from a given. And I also use my breaks at work to peck away at my writing, but, again, it's rare that I am able to get my daily goal that way.

Today I didn't get home until just before midnight. Beat from a full day with my son and a nearly full work day at the job. I really wondered how I'd have it in me to finish what I need to. Then my wife showed me something my son had wanted me to have. It's a business card-sized piece of paper. My son dictated a note to me for my wife to transcribe. He then ordered her to place it under my pillow for me to find.

In case you can't read the writing in the photo, it says:

"Daddy,

This is a

surprise for

Halloween.

Good morning!

Good night.

I love my

Daddy.

Oscar"

After seeing that, I felt like I could stay up as long as I needed to to make this happen.

And here's the daily word count:

Words for the day: 1,127

Words for the month: 5,660

If I am able to reach 7,000 words tomorrow (a not-unreasonable goal) then I'll be taking Sunday off from new writing to work on the revisions for a short story.

Photo parade

It has apparently been nearly two months since I last posted photos. This has now been remedied. More than 100 photos have been uploaded to our flickr page. No titles, descriptions or tags. The thought of doing that for more than 100 photos made me feel like weeping.

Sorry.

Videos

Apparently I have abdicated the chronicling of our son's young life to my wife. Over at her blog, post post partum, Melissa posted several recent videos of the Sprout. Go and watch, and be prepared for cuteness overload.

Photo parade

We let our flickr account lapse a while ago, but we've rectified that and I've just uploaded more than 100 photos there. These go all the way back to the beginning of May. Enjoy!

The points, they are bulleted...

• Today marks the last day of visitors at our home. More than a week of guests. For someone as hermit-like as myself, it was a little hard there at the end.

• One of these guests was my mother-in-law. She watched Oscar for a week and cleaned our house and made us dinners and generally made life very easy for us. Just so that you understand I am not complaining.

• She also paid a very nice young man to mow and weed our entire yard. Lord, there is no way we can repay her.

• The day today was capped off with a mad dash to the Portland airport because our friend TM left her wallet at our house and she would be unable to board her flight without it. It was a lot like every romance movie you've ever seen. Minus the romance.

• This week I did manage to letter the Dalton short story that Todd and I are doing for Myspace/DHP. I am happy with the results and hope the editor is as well.

• I realize that I need to get serious about writing. Is there a pill I can take to make this happen?

• I purchased much music this weekend via the Interwebs: albums or EPs by Arcade Fire, Jenny Owen Youngs, Au Revoir Simone, The Pixies, They Might be Giants, Bon Iver, Spinerette, and The New Pornographers. That's a lot of music I need to find the time to listen to.

• I can't stop thinking about new comics. This is a problem because I can't concentrate on already existing ideas.

• It is not, per se, a bad problem to have.

That is all for now.

Even more photos

Plenty of new photos, most of these centered around Melissa and Oscar's birthday open house, up on our flickr page.

Happy birthday, Oscar!

Today is Oscar's first birthday. We took him to a local bookstore, then spent some time at A. C. Gilbert's Discovery Village. A nice, relaxing birthday.

Many new photos, including lots from today, are up at our flickr page.

Happy birthday, mister, I love you like crazy.

New photos -- finally

Many new photos are up on our flickr page. There's so much Oscar cuteness there that you may want to ready an insulin shot.

You've been warned.

Happy birthday!

Today is The Wife's birthday. She took the day off and we spent a lazy day together. It's been a great day--just as it's been a great few years since I met her.

I am a lucky, lucky man.

Craig Kreutz 1923-2009

Melissa's grandfather, Craig, passed away Saturday morning. Here is the obituary written by Melissa's dad and aunt:

Craig Wheaton Kreutz died peacefully on March 28, 2009 in La Grande Oregon at the home of his oldest son, after a short battle with cancer. He was born on June 16, 1923 in White Salmon Wa. and after 4 months his family moved to Oregon where he resided for the rest of his life. Craig was a WWII veteran, serving in the 6th Army Division in the Phillipines and New Guinea. He married his childhood sweetheart, Pauline Weitzel at age 19 and they had 3 children, C.B., Barbara, and Rod. After Pauline died in 1981 he found companionship and love with a long-time friend, Alice Martin. In addition to his 3 children Craig is survived by 6 grandchildren, and 6 great grandchildren.

Craig retired from his woodworking business in 1980 and spent many happy times in Baja Mexico and on the Oregon and Washington coast with family and friends.

We don't know what our lives will be like without this gentle man, but when something breaks, we will hear him say, "everything wears out" and when we become impatient with another human being, we will hear him say, "he's doing the best he can with the tools he's got." And we will thank God for the time we had with him.

A celebration of his life will be held in the Portland area with the date and location to be announced at a later time. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his name to a charity of your choice.

I'm just going to reiterate what a sweet guy Craig was. He was quick to laugh, he loved to talk, and he wouldn't turn down a beer if offered one. And he'd probably put a shake or two of salt in, too, if any was available. There are a lot of reason I wish I'd met Melissa sooner; one of them was so I could have had a chance to get to know her grandpa better.

Good-bye, Craig, we'll miss you.

Beat to the punch

Oscar got his first haircut over the weekend. I was going to write about it here, but the better half of the Kreutz Gallardo team, better known as The Wife, got to it first. You should visit her blog for lots of photos and play-by-play.

Photo parade

Many new photos up on our flickr page. These bring us up through last weekend. None of this batch have captions or titles. I am sure that some day, perhaps after Oscar goes off to college, we'll get around to that.

Adventures in parenting

Oscar's development really seems to be accelerating at a pretty amazing clip. I think it's my job not not to be distracted by those changes from my main job. You know, making sure he doesn't hurt himself. Or, even better, actively hurting him.

Something Oscar started doing just today is sitting up with his legs folded underneath him. Please see the accompanying illustration. I decided I wanted to get a photo of Oscar doing thisd new thing and send it to Melissa. Documenting his development and sending the photographic evidence to Melissa at work. I was so concerned with lining up the shot that I didn't really notice Oscar tipping over backward until I heard the huge thump. I actually felt the shock wave travel through the floor. And then Oscar was wailing.

I picked him up and cradled him and did my best to comfort him, and I managed to curse myself while I did it. He stopped crying and struggling to get out of my arms-- a sure sign he was okay. I set him on the floor and picked up his favorite toy (a toy video camera that makes a whole plethora of electronic noises -- thanks, Stephanie!) intending to give it to Oscar. What I did, however, was drop the toy and hit Oscar square in the mouth. Renewed wailing ensued as did the self-recriminations.

It felt like forever before I could soothe Oscar again. So I had lots of time to kick myself over this. I know that I can't always stop every accident that Oscar has, but, man, it really killed me to be the cause of two of them in one day. In the space of ten minutes.

Not to worry, however. Oscar was just fine. As seen in photo #2: We played safely the rest of the day. Tomorrow, helmet shopping!

Why I gave up on "The Expectant Father"

I've read a few books about parenthood now that I have a little one and one thing that bugs me to varying degree about all of them is that they tell me what I'm feeling at any given point. Not that they tell me what I might be feeling or even what I should be feeling, no they all say things like, "Now that your wife is five months pregnant you are experiencing anxiety about such-and-such." My feelings almost never matched up with what the books said they were and it bugged me. Basically, I wanted instruction manuals and what I was getting was "Iron John" disguised as a baby book. "The Expectant Father" struck me at the time when I was just getting fed up with all this touchy feel-y nonsense. So I set it aside and never got around to picking it up again.

I'll get some sleep soon,right?

Oscar turned nine-months old today! Nine months he's been in our lives. Granted he was in our lives prior to that but, for me at least, in a sort of theoretical way.

I think I've said this before, but it bears repeating: I could not have imagined how much I am loving being a dad. The time I get to spend with Oscar is the best use of my time ever -- possibly excluding the time he was being made.

And that's all I have to say about that.