Jenna Glatzer, Ghostwriter

We're having a contest to design a new logo for Absolute Write. And I forgot to mention it in the newsletter today, because I'm an idiot. So here it is! Deadline is July 25th, and there are some great prizes.

I swore up and down I'd never sign up for MySpace. And I would have stuck to that promise, if not for Siobhan McCrudden . What happened was that I was searching around on iTunes again for that mysterious male vocal piano song that I will probably never find. Decided to just look up the word "acoustic" to see what popped up. Up came a podcast called Acoustic Long Island , which is recorded at a little coffee shop. I listened to a couple of shows, but stopped after I heard Siobhan. Had to track down this singer. Found her on MySpace. Wanted to contact her to ask if she has an album, and had no other choice but to sign up for MySpace. Grrr. So I did. And then I decided if I was signed up for it, I might as well take a look around. So I followed Siobhan's "friends" link and found Madeleine White . And then Antje Duvekot . Well, wow. Where have these gorgeous voices been hiding? (Note: if you click any of the women's links, you can listen to a few of their fu...

I can't smoke, am too worn out to scream, and I'm fresh out of heroin (a joke, just a joke). So I've decided to go for some music therapy on iTunes. I'm looking for a particular song, though, and can't figure it out. I heard it on the radio for the first time the other day, on a pop/soft rock station. I thought I'd remember the title, but of course I didn't. It has a gorgeous piano intro, beautiful male vocal, ballad. He goes into falsetto for just a note here and there. It's mostly just a guy and a piano. I know that's not much to go on, but do you know any new-ish songs on the radio that fit that description? I've been searching all over the web and can't figure it out. Barring that, similar suggestions would be appreciated. I'm in the mood for a male vocalist and a piano. Tell me about the beautiful songs you love...

Absolute Write has been down since about midnight. The hosting company tried to reboot our server, but that didn't work, and they said, "We have an issue that is being looked into. I apologize for the delay." So, yeah, I know it's down. I really don't know how quickly it'll be back up, but I hope soon!

We had a staring contest in my backyard. He totally won.

It's been about a month since this happened and I'm cool, so I'll tell you about it. During the Great AW Blackout, I was on the phone with supermod Lori (Birol) talking about life and stress and timing. I told her that it was just about time for me to take a pregnancy test, but that I didn't even know what to wish for this month because I felt like I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and that this would be "a miscarriage waiting to happen." It was while I was still trying to get back our databases and freaking out over how I was going to pay salaries and the new server costs and all that. And then I took the test... and it was positive. But with a qualifier: I was supposed to read it within ten minutes, and instead, I was in the shower and didn't get to it quite on time. I read it at about the 15-minute mark. Anthony was there with me, and I excitedly flung it at him, saying, "Do you see the line?" It was very, very light-- but he saw it, t...

Hi folks, Another quick update: Roger J. Carlson has set up a refugee camp for AWers, and there are a little more than a hundred of us there so far. Today's mission is to make sure we're all still writing. Toward that goal, Tri has revived the "Travel Edition" of the Weekend Progress Report (where AWers normally check in to report on what they've accomplished that week on their works in progress). He has Barb's taser on loan, and he isn't afraid to use it. I got six pages down this morning, which felt great. I didn't think I'd be able to concentrate that long on anything except... y'know. If you need an assignment, I've posted one here . Hurry up, because it's due tomorrow. No further word on the retrieval of our hostages (er... databases). This is the text of Barbara Bauer's fax to the ex-hosting company, for the curious: Here is the page on which my e-mail address has been unlawfully published without my consent. I am receiving S...

Sorry, folks. I hoped to have some news to report by now, but here's where it stands: What we were able to download of the forums before we were shut down is not usable. It's lacking vital components, and there's no way to fix that. Our storefront is also not functioning. The main site is set up with our new host, and you should be able to see it by now at www.absolutewrite.com ; it's been sort of up and down today and yesterday, but that's normal. I guess it takes a few days to fully "take" across the network. The e-mail addresses are functional again, too. JC-Hosting still has the databases, and I hope we'll be able to come to an agreement so I can restore them. I'd very much like to respond to the inaccurate story being told, but this is now a legal matter and I'm advised not to say anything. Hope you understand.

Just a week or so ago, my neighbor's daughter died, and I asked my Absolute Write friends what I should do-- I didn't know the girl, and have never really spoken with her parents, but felt awful and wanted to do something. They told me to bring over food, and a couple of them said something like, "They probably won't remember you were there, but they'll appreciate it anyway." The past couple of days have been a little like that for me. No one died, of course, but Absolute Write is very much my "daughter," and I've put my world on hold to try to get it back together after our hosting company suspended us. It's been a blur, complete with stereotypical stages of grief. It's not something I feel comfortable talking about at this point, and I've struggled with what to say, or whether or not to even say anything yet. (I should note: That's why comments are turned off on this post. I'm not ready for Q&A yet.) For two days, I was ...

Well, I've made it to day 5 this time. (Last time I gave in at day 3 and took a quarter of a pill.) I think this is progress. I'm back to having that I-can't-turn-my-head thing and some brain zaps and brownie cravings, but the rest of me isn't bad. And, okay, fine , I always have brownie cravings. I'm going to try to stay off it altogether now. Not sure if it'll work (I heard that antidepressant withdrawal actually gets worse around day 7), but I want to try. Time for me to find out who I am underneath this med that's been keeping me sane for the past several years. I'm praying that by now, my brain has straightened itself out and that the panic attacks aren't lurking in there, just suppressed all this time. But I really don't know what I'm going to find. I remember when the doctor first told me that I'd probably be on this medication my whole life, and I thought, "That's fine by me. Who cares, as long as it works?" I even v...

The Gay Zombie Penguins are on a blog tour, and this is stop #3. (Yippee!) Please welcome our penguin friends... Their next stop on the tour is MacAllister's place . Thank you, dear gay zombie penguins ! Come back anytime!

I'm not sure how many years I've been taking Lexapro to combat my panic attacks. Four, I think. And now I'm trying to come off it, which has been trippy. Don't ever let a doctor lie to you and say that SSRI withdrawal is no big deal. I've been tapering down for more than a month now, but I can't seem to take the final step-- down from a quarter of a pill to nothing. I made it three days, then couldn't take it anymore. I was in a bit of a manic state, feeling pretty good emotionally, but odd physically. Every time I turned my head, I felt like I was going to fall down (even from a sitting position). I couldn't move my head, or the dizziness and brain zaps would hit. I walked into Anthony's wall, at which point he said, "You're not doing so hot, huh?" The one time I tried to drive, I ran over a curb. And then came the nonsensical weeping. I started to cry while listening to Anwar Robinson's version of "What a Wonderful World,...

Dawno, the lovely lady who runs the Blogging board at Absolute Write, posts an AW Monday Meme every week, and because I've never figured out what this blog is supposed to be about, I haven't jumped in and done them. Well, how am I ever going to find out what my blog is supposed to be if I don't play with it a bit more? So here we have... The AW Hair Meme 1. What length do you currently keep your hair? Long-ish. See pic of me with iPod. But this is actually fairly short for me. 2. Is that different from 5 years ago? 10? How about when you were a teen? I've always had long hair, save for one embarrassing poodle perm chin-length bob when I was 12-14. At its longest, it's hit my butt. At its usual length, it's not quite halfway down my back. Here's a pic of my brother dancing with me at my engagement party almost 4 years ago... 3. What color is it naturally? 4. If you color your hair do you like to go for natural or colorful (like pink or blue, etc.) I really li...

I had a dream last night that I couldn't sleep because of a loud ticking noise. Eventually, I unzipped a zipper on my abdomen and pulled out a rather large clock and smashed it. Then I was able to sleep. Does my brain think I can't handle more subtle symbolism? I think I'm insulted.

I've never participated in a "meme" before, but my pals Lisa and MacAllister came up with one I can't refuse, so I'm doing it. Here are the rules... Gift-A-Song Meme 1. Pick one or more of your friends who listens to digital music; preferably someone who already has iTunes and an iTunes account, and who has a blog or Live Journal or something similar. Songs are .99 cents on iTunes; if people want to send MP3s directly, that's up to them, but post the song title, artist, and album anyway. You can use a credit card or PayPal to purchase songs. You must have installed a copy of iTunes to play or download the songs. I suspect it's possible give music with other music services, but I don't know. There are also lots of good sources for free music on the net; feel free to use those, or to publicize indie artists you like a lot. There are free songs at Amazon too . 2. Select the song you want to give. 3. Post this meme on your blog or Live Journal, and list yo...

I finished a book yesterday. God, I love those days! So now I'm not working on three books at once... just two. I try to find a way to reward myself when I finish a book-- usually, Anthony and I go out to dinner or something, but I finished this one at about 5:30 in the morning, and he went fishing, so I tried to think of how to 'reward' myself alone. Decided to get reaquainted with my own property. We have a pond in front that we dug and stocked with about 8 fish a few years ago. For the past two years, when the pond unfreezes in the early spring, we've found lots and lots of baby fish. So I got a breakfast sandwich from the deli, then sat on my front steps with my iPod and ate and watched the baby fish swim around. And, surprise! We have three frogs in there, too. We've never had frogs before. Then I went inside and got some bread to feed the ducks in the lake. Normally, I bring two slices, but yesterday I got generous and brought three. Took me a long time to get...

I'm not even kidding. You ever have someone you want to thank at work or school or something, so you get a bunch of people to pitch in and buy the person some flowers or a t-shirt or a restaurant gift certificate or something? Right, me too. But when that "bunch of people" are Absolute Writers, apparently they think bigger. They bought me an iPod. And not just any iPod, but the world's greatest iPod. With the extended warranty. And a big gift certificate to iTunes. I mean... seriously! I got the e-card today, which says: "Your friends and fans at the Absolute Write Water Cooler want to thank you for all your efforts on the behalf of other writers everywhere. With love and appreciation from..." and a list of 52 writers who are part of the forum, plus a few "anonymous"es. I've been staring at that list all day, trying to figure out how to say "thank you." I mean... they bought me an iPod ! I've never even seen an iPod in person befo...

So I'm sitting in a new OB/GYN's office, because I've recently gotten health insurance back, and my old OB/GYN doesn't take my new insurance. Anthony and I are TTC, so I want to make sure all my parts are in the right places. Picked this doctor out of the phone book. I'm skeeved right quick because of the women waiting in the waiting room with me. One 60ish woman with a romance novel sucks and slurps and clicks on her dentures about every three seconds. There's no Musak or anything, so every slurp sets off my inner gag reflex. Then there's the woman with moles all over her neck who is wearing a floral skirt... and pilled black socks and black sneakers. I wonder if she's been recently homeless. Then the woman with the knit cap that appears to have lasted at least two decades without a washing. I am in the wrong part of town. I begin thinking about the fact that these women are going to have their hoo-has all out in the same room I'm about to be in, an...

No, really, this is disturbing me now. Last month, I had a series of dreams involving Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie. I've no idea why. I think we were friends in the dreams. Since then, whenever I do remember my dreams, chances are good that they involve a celebrity-- and not a celebrity I particularly admire, but the ones who are more known for partying, being ditzy, etc. Last night's dream involved Leonardo DiCaprio, whose house I was considering buying. He had lived there with his mother and brothers, and it was kind of a small, crappy house. When I went to look around in the backyard, I took a jacket from Leo's wardrobe to keep me warm, which I explained to him later, when he showed up in the kitchen. I was being flirty with him, then his face morphed into a horrible human being I dated in high school. I don't ever remember having celebrity dreams before. Is there a dream interpreter in the house? (Me, being vapid)