IWS: The vampire halfthird three-sevenths (the distribution is complicated, okay?) is finished. The werewolf halfthird three-sevenths is in progress (that’s the part I started with because it interested me more, actually—those pesky bloodsuckers always seduce me over to their side, though), as is that odd unassigned one-seventh that’s left over.
And to take up some space because that doesn’t sound like the impressive amount of work it really is, here’s the warning label I made for it.
Thanks to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you are entitled to your absolutely free, no-strings-attached credit report from The Big Three credit bureaus once a year. It is very important that you check these for errors (everything from closed accounts that are still marked as open to $50,000 in outstanding QVC debt that you didn’t rack up) because these reports affect everything from bank loan applications to job opportunities.
All those “free credit report” sites you see advertised on TV? You have to enroll in a $25-a-month “credit protection program” to get your “free” credit report. Avoid these like the plague.
The official site (http://www.annualcreditreport.com/) will take you to Transunion, Experian, and Equifax in turns. Transunion, Experian, and Equifax will each offer you the fabulous opportunity to purchase your credit score (usually $5.95, and I always buy one just out of curiosity) and enroll in their credit protection program, but you are under no obligation to do so. You get your credit report without spending a cent, which is the whole point of this exercise.
PLEASE NOTE: If you’re one of the dozens trying to comment with a list of all the fabulous third-party sites that don’t charge you to pull your credit report, Akismet identifies you as spam. Since I really can’t recommend providing a third party access to your credit report and all the beautiful opportunities for identity theft therein, especially when I’ve just provided a secure, no-cost, direct-to-the-credit-bureaus link sanctioned by the very Fair Credit Reporting Act that makes it all possible, I’m not motivated to pull your comment out of the filter.
I heard this song (”I Kissed a Girl”) on the radio a while ago and thought it was kind of weird. Because I thought it was one of those guys-who-sound-like-girls singing it (oh, come on, am I the only one sick of the boys’ choir? gimme a growly dude any day), which would have made it a “tee-hee, I strayed from being gay” song, which was… odd.
But through the miracle of VH1, I have learned that it’s Katy Perry, an actual girl!
She’s so glam. Man-fan though I am, I’d totally kiss her.
I had another trip to the post office yesterday, which wasn’t the nightmare it was last time.
However, I awoke from a sound sleep in the middle of the night, sitting up with a gasp and all that, having belatedly recognized an error in the thing I mailed.
It’s not a huge thing. It has no bearing whatsoever on the plot. It’s just one of those sneaky little inconsistencies that someone a little more observant than I could use to unravel all my world building.
Which is why I was up at 1:20 a.m. changing four words in a manuscript and contemplating breaking into the post office to see if my package was still there so I could replace this one page…
KERRY ALLEN (if that is her real name) is a woman of mystery who resides in an ominous movable fortress, defended by a pack of rabid cocker spaniels with laser beams attached to their heads and, it's rumored, a lethal tax deduction who at some point in the past may or may not have killed the president of a landlocked South American nation with an eating utensil.
C.J. Redwine: Ah, now *that's* a tagline I can wholeheartedly support! (As proof that I need one, I had to type "support" three times before I finally got it right.)
C.J. Redwine: That *would* be hilarious. You could film it and market it as some sort of modern artistic statement about the state of humanity...or something. People make money doing dumber things than that, why shouldn't we?
Kerry Allen: Hon, if Britney can do it, ain't no reason we can't. 'Cept, yanno... sanity. And wig collecting gets expensive. Especially when you get the compulsion to take a scissors to them. (That'd be hilarious: shave my head, then shave the wig.)
C.J. Redwine: Ooh, shave it! I've been threatening to shave mine off for years. Nearly lost it all when I had cancer but alas, I was denied to opportunity to try my hand at wigs to match my daily mood.
Kerry Allen: I think it needs to be still shorter to achieve the proper degree of stick-outiness, but this is the point at which I chicken out because WOW that's a lotta hair in the trash. It's kinda cute (dare I say "gamine"?), provided I use copious amounts of hair gunk to make it "piecy," so it's not like hair stylists will be coming for you with pitchforks and torches. This time, anyway. Ima gonna shave it one of these days, swear to gawd.
