"Sometimes bad things happen to good people..."

It's the most dreaded week of college - finals week. For once, I'm glad. I'm exhausted and hungry and I want some decent TV. There's only so much Lifetime, USA, and TruTV a person can take. 

For once, I only have two finals to do. I had final projects, but those have been taken care of.

The best part of finishing the semester?

I finally, FINALLY get to be around animals again and work on my writing. The absolute worst part of living on campus is the no pets rule - I'm sorry but fish and hermit crabs ARE NOT pets! In the past two weeks I've been to the farm and gotten to hug my horses, cuddle with Cooper, and love on Jet, but it's not the same as being around them all the time.

Boo doesn't know it yet, but he's gonna be sleeping in my bed this summer. I miss the little cuddle bug Yorkie.

On another note, both SOLE SURVIVOR and the new novella AGAINST THE CLOCK are available on Smashwords and Amazon, and SOLE SURVIVOR is on Barnes & Noble, kobo, Sony, and more. Also, the script version of AGAINST THE CLOCK is free on my website - http://tmcarper.webs.com/Freebies/…

For more news on my original work, follow me on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/TMCarper - and Twitter @TMCarper. Or check out my website - http://www.tmcarper.webs.com 

With all the snow and rain, it's been pretty miserable around here. The snow is turning to ice, causing both people and horses to slip. It's a mucky mess in our lower paddock, the horses are wet, and my dog is eating snow.

But mucking stalls and carrying water buckets up and down in several inches of snow is worth it. I wouldn't trade my life for anything now. The other day, I rode Heidi in the snow. It was wonderful--until the wind kicked in--trotting through the drifts in the yard.

I'm even getting used to the chickens (still afraid of them, oh well) and fixing fences when horses escape. And I've gotten better at not getting hay in my hair every time I go in the loft or toss hay in the feeders. Today, we found and stopped a leak in the roof. It filled an entire bucket during the day with rain water and snow.

But for now, I'm gonna finish watching "Legend of the Guardians" with my boys, then catch up on "Primeval". My sister is taunting me now about (SPOILER) Danny coming back soon and Claudia/Jenny already coming back. I'm still on the episode with the creatures in the school. Slow, I know. That's what happens when class starts up again.

Hello 2011!

So 2010 was a mad year for me. Lots of moving, hospital stays, doctors, and school work. Now, I'm only moving back and forth between two places and hoping to stay out of hospital. But who knows?

So I'm doing what I call "New Year, New..." for each of my normal projects. Here's a look at what's to come.

New Year, New Vids

Some will be tie-ins for fanfics (like "Five Years Gone"), others will be standard "Red Eye" vids as well as ones using clips from: "Inception", "Sherlock Holmes", "Torchwood", the new series of "Primeval", "Private Practice" (mainly scenes with Caterina for "Alice" vids), "Notebook", and so on.

New Year, New Fics

That means new chapters for... *drumroll* "Five Years Gone", "Newfound Sanity", and "A Thousand Shards of Glass"! I also have some more one-shots in mind (yes, more holiday-themed ones and ones for other fandoms). I'm halving my time between original fic and fanfic this year, so there should be more recent updates. "Newfound Sanity" is really rolling, so that might be finished first. I will not (so far) be writing a sequel or a third part to the "Newfound" series. "Sanity" is end at the moment--but I might pick up a third part after I finish other projects. We'll see.

"Glass" will be shorter than previous parts and it will be the final piece in "Alice & What Came After". We've had Hatter and Alice's story, Sarah's story, and now we'll have Connor's. That's not to say there might not be one-shots with them, just no more long fics.

"5yrsG" is the trickest to plot and write, but I really do enjoy it. I do only plan for it to be a stand alone--no sequels.

New Year, New Extras

Be on the lookout for playlists and fanmixes for fanfics and fandoms (I'm working on a JxL one) and possibly new artwork.

That's all for now!

So I just finished one college and got my A.A. That was the beginning of this month.

Then I caught a sinus infection. It's been about three weeks now and one full course of anitbotics and the sucker's still strong. It's in my head, which means constant headaches and a runny nose. No fun at all.

Anyways, July is just around the corner and so is JulNoWriMo. It's NaNo only in July. This year's task is "Sole Survivor" - a college student gets wrapped up in a closed death investigation only to become the next target when she gets too close to the truth. I've also got plans for a few stand-alone romantic suspense novels (no titles yet).

I'm also trying desperately to finish up my long-running "Alice" fanfic's sequel before July 1st. It's called "Between the Glass" and it's a headache to write some--actually most of the time. There's going to be a third story, but it should be more of a thriller and less of a mind bender.

Netflix is a wonderful modern marvel as is the Blu-ray player. Especially when you can stream stuff to your player/TV. I might never watch cable again... at least until the fall.

Netflix has introduced me to the wonders of hit BBC TV shows "Doctor Who" and "Torchwood". I love them both. I think my favorite episodes of "Who" so far have Rose and the 10th Doctor in them. I didn't really like Martha. Donna's okay. I'm still in early series 4. I just finished the first series of "Torchwood". I'm kinda hoping that Gwen dumps her boyfriend. I just don't like him. I don't really know why... I just know I don't.

I'm off to another nap and another chapter of "Glass". Grr.

I just found out yesterday that I got a job. I've been searching for one since December. It's not my dream job by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a job. It's close by as well and it will fit my schedule once I make it through training. I have to be at work at 8:30am most of this coming week, which I'm not happy about. Mornings aren't good for me, but I'll muddle through.

I get my car back on Wednesday, barring any further delays. It's been in the shop since I was hit in early February. I'm officially buying it this week, so I'll finally have wheels.

I officially started the latest rework of Coldest Degree last night. I'm doing a full rewrite so far and it's going to be more focused on Lisa and Jackson than on Kat, though her past will be more examined. Jackson's past will finally be straightened out as will the Redhead Killer's motivation. I might post excerpts on here. I haven't decided yet.

I'm back at home for a short, strange visit.

The original plan was for me to stay at Carter's, go to King's Dominion, then ride back to college with Emily. Well, I got sick, ended up staying at my house, sleeping most of the day, and now I'm struggling to try to get the rest of my stuff back from Carter's before I leave again tomorrow morning.

Not my brightest plan. Getting ill is what killed me.

It's great to be home though. My room is throughly trashed--it's become a storage area--and I have no sheets, but I got  to sleep in my real bed last night. With my thick comforter and music playing.

Plus I got  to see my dogs. I missed them so much.

I have a new computer montior as well and I love it. It's very pretty. My old one is playing the role of a TV in my dorm room. Plus I can finally get some work done without the internet cutting out on me very few minutes. Ahh, the joys of stable internet connections.

I also recently dyed my hair. I'm now a brunette.

Tomorrow I get to see Em for the first time since I moved. I've really missed her.

Anyways, I'm off to take a bath. Boy do I miss having my own bathroom!

I suffered a second-degree burn yesterday right before I left for work. It's got a nice pink blister now and has finally stopped burning. It's only the latest in a series of accidents stalking those of us who work in the EDG branch.

And who said being an librarian wasn't dangerous?

There's been a lot of smashed toes, I got a fat lip after being hit in the face with a box, my boss sprained her ankle, then sliced her hand open with an X-Acto knife and got seven stitches (someone put a sign on her desk saying "this is a no stab zone"), Emily cut her foot open, and so on. And we haven't even started the re-carpeting project yet.

It is a very strange, accident-prone place I work in. Not to mention the hazard of falling books, though that was mostly last week.

Anyways, I'm going to try and catch a few hours of sleep before my next shift. I love night shifts, but I hate working a night shift, then a day shift. So frickin' confusing to my body. The good news is tomorrow is my last Saturday ever.

I can finally sleep in! Yes! 

So, I finally finished yearbook on Friday. Now I'm moving into the supplement phase, which is a piece of cake compared to what I just did. Plus, my co-editor is back from Florida (she got back between 6th & 7th period today) so now I'm not the only one running the show.

My schedule's starting to free up, which is great. 

Tweaker's out of the shop now. It was just a wiring harness recall, thankfully. I just haven't had my car the last two weeks since I share with my dad. But that's cool since I already called it for Saturday's class.

I have a writing conference/seminar to go to up at AACC on Saturday. I thought my boss was gonna bite my head off when I put in to take off (there's some Star Wars convention type thing going on for about two hours that morning), but Dolly agreed to come and get paid. She's actually getting extra time while I'm losing a week's worth of pay. But the conference is more important. No matter what I'd lose the time anyways so that I could do the conference. Might as well do it now.

My parents and I are going up to Hood to visit on Monday and get all of our ducks in a row. They still haven't seen the college yet. We might also stop by and see my aunt while we're there, which would be great. She's very psyched about me going there.

I finished Fatal Target just before Spring Break a few weeks back. I'm doing a screenplay version for ScriptFrenzy and I've got nina_rippner doing ScriptFrenzy as well. It's gonna be great to do it with another writing buddy. I'm now working on the Obsession series for my class.

My carpal tunel's under control now (it flared up around the end of February, and I had to quit guitar and slow down on FT) and I rejoined the guitar class on Friday. We're doing concert prep, so Mr. Priddy's working our fingers to the bone. So far, no carpal tunel twinges yet.

I've taken up running now that it's starting to warm up. Sset and I go for a run at least once a day, every day. I cut out a lot of internet time to fit the runs in. I spent most of Sunday running. My leg muscles haven't yet forgiven me for working all day, then running, then getting up and running twice the next day. I love doing it though. So far--no asthma issues. :-D

Time to get back to the grind--I have another 30 pgs worth of Obsession changes to do and some fresh chapters to write for class. More later!

Whew, almost done with Yearbook! We're shooting for completion on Wednesday, which means life will go back to semi-normal by then.

Well, I gotta get back to the Yearbook! I'm just glad my car was in the shop this week, when I didn't need it. (Tweaker, the Suzuki Forenza I share with my dad, lost his headlights a few weeks ago. It turns out there was a headlight recall that's easily fixable--once the dealership has the part. It only took us a few weeks of no headlights and pulling the car apart to realize this.)

6 more days... 6 more days!