Life of Pol

It's Christmas eve. Steve's still asleep. I on the other hand have been awake for a little over an hour. But that's okay, this is how it goes. I'm the early riser and he sleeps in a while. It gives me time to take care of the things I need to take care of, like my farm on Farmville. Also the more important things like finishing edits on Luthor , which I'm happy to say that I've done. I hope I will never have to read through it again (of course I will when it is published one day). Now I have to get it professionally edited and get it ready for when the agents/publishers start knocking down my door. 2010 will be the year that I kick some ass in trying to get things done. Not that I haven't really tried in the past, but I have a habit of getting very discouraged after so many rejections and quit for a while. But not this year. This year I'm gonna let those fuckers know what they're missing. This year the world will start seeing the name Pol...

You know, it's been a trying year, this 2009. The sale of the house, the slow career changes. The economy. Although you never really want it all to get to you, it somehow does. All those little things start to wear you down, if just a little. But then Christmas time comes along and things start to change. The weather turns colder, the lights start coming on and neighborhoods are transformed into colorful winter wonderlands. In some places, snow covers the ground, adding to the special Christmas extravaganza that encompasses everything around you. I've been in Texas for a while, but I remember my years in New York. I remember when the snow would come. You could smell it in the air before it arrived. Then the snow would start and it was the most magical thing to watch. Just sit there for hours watching it fall from the night sky. All in anticipation of the 25th. So this is Christmas . . . They say it's the happiest time of the year. I can see th...

On 360Gaynews- "It appears that NY has, once again, passed on gay marriage, though the govenor has promised a vote by the end of the year. A 360Gay reader, Steven , wrote this poignant, eloquent letter to Sen. Kenneth P. LaValle who represents the 1st district (Suffolk county, Long Island)." http//www.365gay.com/news/open-letter-to-an-anti-gay-ny-state-senator/

What can I say? New Moon was just terrific! I have to admit I was nervous that I was getting myself too hyped up for it. But ever the optimist, I told myself to avoid seeing any more commercials or movie clips because I wanted to be surprised (even though I read the book twice). Although there have been movies where I've done this and left the movie disappointed, this was not one of those times. We went to the 10 o'clock show Saturday morning, and it was packed. Steve and I had to sit on the side of the theater because it was so packed, but the seats were okay. We're gonna go back in a couple of weeks when the crowds die down and watch it again. But even with the seats being eh, not so great, we loved it! The director kept pretty much to the book, which we love when a movie does, and this one did it perfectly. And I'm even more of a Jacob Black fan than before!

Well, it's been a while since I've posted, yeah, yeah, I know. But I've been crazy busy with work and burning and other stuff. Anyway, here's my latest burn. I call it Tease .

Will wonders never cease? Over the past week, week and a half, I haven't been myself. I couldn't put my finger on what it was that was bothering me. But, this weekend seemed to be what I needed to cure what I had. I had some family in town that I hadn't seen in a while. One was my ex-sister in-law/step sister (don't ask). I hadn't seen her in almost fifteen years or something. But it all went well and I felt great this morning. By visiting family? Naaaa- So, what else is new? Not a damned thing. I haven't heard from the producer about the hell's going on with the movie. But she has a movie coming out pretty soon so she's busy, I understand and I'm trying to be patient. I am still going though Luthor (I will finish soon, I promise). I am waiting for a new burning pen to finish a project I was working on, so that is at a stand still right now. I'm counting down the days until New Moon comes out. I can't wait! Okay, I'm outt...

You know, I think I've figured out why I get so bored with posting blog enteries; it's because I only have two followers. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate you both (if you're still there), it's a blow to the old ego when no more join in. Who knows, maybe there are more reading who aren't listed as followers, but I doubt it. I guess you might be able to tell by now, I'm in a mood. I don't know why I'm in a mood, but I am. Actually, I know why I'm in a mood. I'm in a mood because things are just now happening right now and I hate that. I'm waiting for the movie to get going, I'm waiting to find a publisher for Luthor , I'm waiting to publish The Rise of the Son , I'm wating to finish a burning becuase I've had to order yet another new pen and I'm frustrared with it. I just feel ike I'm waiting for everything. I feel like too many things are out of my control right now, and I don't like it. When I feel l...

You may think that, since I've been on vacation since the Friday before last, I'd have so much time on my hands that I'd post every day. That's what I would think, too. But as it stands, I've been on a burning frenzy. Over the course of the last ten days, I've completed two wood burnings, each of which would have normally taken two weeks to finish. One obviously being the koala bear above. It was done mostly by stippling. My hand hurt after that one. I finished a grist mill, also. Don't worry, I'll post it tomorrow, for all of you eager readers who will not be able to sleep tonight for the suspense of it all. Other than that, I've just been enjoying my time off. I've been going to the gym in the morning (they have a great gym at the apartments), get done with that about seven, seven-thirty (yeah, I'm still getting up really early). Then I start burning for a few hours, until I need a break and go to the pool. Ahhh, I wish life was alw...

Well, I've been on vacation since Friday. It's been nice, pretty much just like a weekend up until today, but still, just knowing I didn't have to go back to work for two more weeks, made it a great weekend. The unfortunate part-Steve worked Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Now he's in Amarillo for two days visiting his folks. I haven't seen my husband a lot during my vacation but I've gotten a lot of burning done. I started this gristmill on Friday night. I spent three hours on it that night and for the next three days spent about seven hours a day. I only just finished a little while ago. I was fun doing a building, instead of my usual animal image, I thought I would give it a shot. But I think I'll stick with animals. The next one I'm going to do is a koala bear done completely by stippling (thousands of tiny dots repeated layer upon layer to create a picture). It will be a real test of my patience. Okay, I have something c...

"Ben & Jerry have temporarily renamed a popular ice cream flavor Chubby Hubby to ”Hubby Hubby ” in order to celebrate equal marriage in Vermont. Gay couples are able to marry in the state as of today. They say: In partnership with Freedom to Marry we are gathered here to celebrate Vermont and all the other great states where loving couples of all kinds are free to marry legally. We have ceremoniously dubbed our iconic flavor, Chubby Hubby to Hubby Hubby in support, and to raise awareness of the importance of marriage equality."

It's been a little over a week that we've been in the new place. We officially got completely moved in yesterday, when Steve emptied the last box from the garage. We're starting to get into a fixed schedule of doing new things, while trying to keep a similar routine for Buster. But we're getting there. The picture above is going to be my next wood burning project. I think it will be a daunting task, but I also purchased a new burner, a really good one, so it should be great. I'm going to get back to working on Luthor , but my head's not into it just yet. I'm going to give myself a few more days to chill out and settle down. The office in the apartment is actually larger than the one we had at the house (go figure), so that's cool. The Rise of the Son will be out in a few months. I'm waiting for the cover to get done now, then I'll send it off to the publisher. I can't wait to see was Anj does with the cover. She's done such a...

It's done. It's completely done! We closed on the house yesterday. The new people, a mother and daughter, seemed really nice and like they're gonna take care of our house. We'll miss it a lot, but we're glad it'll be in good hands. So, we're just about all settled in the new apartment. I feel kind of weird calling it our new home, but I guess that's what it is. Home is where the heart is and where ever Steve and Buster are. So, for the next 13 months, this is home. It feels a bit better in here today since they finally came in and turned on the phone, TV and Internet service. We were going crazy! You never know how much you rely on some things until they're not there. Buster seems to be adapting pretty well. He's still a bit nervous about things, but he's panting less and starting to fall back into old habits. I hope he doesn't miss his backyard too much. Honestly, he didn't go back there a lot unless we were there with h...

I sit here now on the last Sunday morning in our house. Tomorrow we begin the big move. I'm not looking forward to moving, but then, who ever is. I'll miss this house, tremendously. As I've said in earlier posts, we've had a lot of good times here. But I suppose, in a way, I'm making it harder on myself thinking about all the good times we've had, as we're about to leave. But then again, this is the perfect time to think about them. I don't know, what the hell. Anyway, yesterday I took all the stuff out of the attic. It was a big job, but as attics go, there wasn't that much stuff in there. It was mostly Halloween and Christmas decorations. We've always been big on decking the house out the max each holiday season. We enjoyed making the front yard a huge graveyard for Halloween. We had all the headstones and skeletons and fencing. The works. And for Christmas we were the house in the neighborhood that everyone talked about. The lig...

It's almost the weekend, which means it's almost Monday, which means it's almost time for us to be moving out. It's been a bit tough at times, but we're being strong. You can't move forward if you don't have change, and change is what's about to happen. I hope Buster will be okay with it. Our other baby, Luthor, got so depressed when we moved from our first house to an apartment for a while. He was just out of it for almost two weeks, maybe three. It broke my heart that he didn't live long enough to get back to another house. He died only a couple of months before we were to move in here. But, things happen for a reason. Luthor had to go so Buster would be brought into our lives. Now I fear for his happiness as we leave this house. But, the place we're going is great and he'll have a lots of friends to play with. The house is all but packed. We've been living with two plates and a few glasses for about a week now. It's ki...

Hello, what's up? Let me start off by saying that I realize the picture is more of a winter scene but I'm so sick of the freaking summer I'm just fantasizing. We are now in like the 54th straight day of above 100 degree heat. What the fuck?! Anyway, things have been busy around here. As you know we sold the house. It's been bitter-sweet. Sweet because we know it's the start of something new. Bitter because we've had so many wonderful memories in the four years that we've lived here. But now someone else will create wonderful memories here, just as people have done in the first house we built and moved from. What can I say? It's what we do. So, last weekend we had a huge garage sale and got rid of so much freaking stuff, you would not believe. We made a ton of money, and on top of that, we don't have to move that crap. The last few days have been a bit stressful, though. You see, as with any sale of a house, there are things that are fou...

That thing that may be happening that I mentioned the other day, but I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want to jinx it--Well, it happened. We got an offer on the house, went through a couple rounds of changing offers and countering each other, but we did it. We finally have a contract on the house. Thank you God! As long as the people don't pull out (knock wood) which they probably won't, we'll be moving by August 28th. But, of course, aside from all the relief I/we feel, I can't help but feel a little sad. We've been here four four years. I was looking for a picture of the house to post and I found some from when we first moved in. The yard's empty, the bushes are tiny, it looked so bare. It's come a long way. But we knew we weren't going to stay in this house forever. We've got bigger plans. Still, it's been a great house, and we've had a lot of good times here ( really good times, if you know what I mean ;)). S...

Hey, what's up? It's Thursday and here I sit again . . . alone. Steve has been working his adorable little ass off for the past few weeks. But it's okay, it gives me time to do the things I would otherwise put off if he were here. Like writing in my blog. The next time there's a large time gap between updates, you should know that Steve's probably home and we're hanging out. That's what's cool about Steve and I-We've been together for 18 years now, known each other for 19, been married for more than a year, and our best times are spent with each other. (I'll tell ya' a secret. The characters Johnny and Joey in my children's series. They're brothers and they're the best of friends, and have the best times when they're together. Sound familiar? It's the way I feel about Steve, so I put it in the books.) You like the picture? I took it on our honeymoon in Canada. Obviously at Niagara Falls. Steve got me a bad-a...

Okay, so it took a little more than three weeks and who knows how many hours, but the black panther is done! Or the panther as black as I could get him. It took hours of shading and then shading over again to get the dept of the black I managed to get. I always seem to choose projects that are more difficult than most others. I don't know why. Anyway, there it is. Tada! Later-

What's up? As you can see, I've been busy on my latest wood burning project. I'm taking a break right now. It's going to be my favorite, I can tell. It's been hard, but I've worked on it every day and I'm finally at the stage that I call "fun-shading". The initial shading of this piece was hard and laborious because I was just getting all the black parts black, and that was a lot of fucking shading. Now, the shading is the kind where I can add different levels of shade, and that gives the picture all kinds of realism. I still have a long way to go, as you can see by the cat's blank expression. I haven't even gotten to the hair on the face, and that's done one hair at a time. I'm saving the eyes for last because I'm gonna try something different with this one. I'm going to color the eyes they are in the original photo, which is a really deep gold. I have to get some oil-based colored pencils to do that. I can't...

It's a new day and things seem a whole lot better. Not that things have changed much. The weather's still hot as all hell. Work still sucks. The house hasn't sold. But it seems a good night's sleep (and a big glass of wine) makes all the difference. Steve is working a double again today. That part of the day sucks, but we spoke a few times and he's doing okay. I worked on the burning I'm doing (the black panther) and it's coming along nicely. It's just taking a while because, well it's a black panther. Saturday we're going to see Harry Potter, I just got our tickets online. And, I found out some good news about the Twilight movie series. As you probably know New Moon comes out in November. Well, the third one, Eclipse , comes out the following June! They're gonna crank them out, which is great! Well, I'm gonna keep it short today because I have some things to do. I'll check back with you soon. Later-

Okay, I've had one of "those" days again, so I'm feeling a bit bitter about everything . So if you don't want to hear someone bitch and complain about the stupidest things, then just stop reading now. Go ahead, close the window, leave. Leave me here to wallow in my self-pity and bitterness. Okay, first off on the list- I don't know if it's just me, but I hate the feeling of being "put off". Allow me to explain. We live in the era of technology. We're so easily connected with one another if unfathomable. You want to send a letter to someone, just email them and they get it. You want to call someone, reach in your pocket and pull out your phone. You don't actually want to "talk" to someone but you want to converse (and please never use the word conversate around me. It's not a word.), then simply text them. This is what I'm getting to. Yesterday I, correction, Buster and I were thrown from our home so the realtor could hav...

Well, it's finally Friday. It's been a long week. I haven't posted a new entry since Michael Jackson died. That kind of threw a wrench in everything and got me off course. But I'm back. I got a new burning pen and a new workbook and have started burning again. The photo here is the only one of people that I've done, but I love the way it turned out and I plan on doing more. This photo and others I plan to do like it is the reason there is a disclaimer before you enter my blog. Oooooh, nudity. Right now I'm working on a black panther. I may have bitten off more than I can chew with it, but we'll see. Anyway, not much has been going on. Steve and I haven't sold the house yet, but we've had a lot of traffic. A lot of pain in the ass traffic. They call and give a little notice and then we have to get everything looking nice and take Buster out and wait for strangers to walk around our house. It's going on a month now and we're over i...

Well, Mr. & Mr. Undecided are at it again. Remember I just told you about the plan Steve and I made to take a two week driving trip to Portland? We've changed our minds. We started putting the whole trip together, figuring out how many hours a day we'd have to drive and all that crap, and we realized that it may be too much for the baby to be cramped in the jeep for so long. Of course we'd stop every few hours to rest and stuff, but still, to make it there and back and do what we wanted to do, we'd have to push ourselves and we don't think it would work out. We still want to go to Portland, but we think we'll just fly. That way, while we're there, we can do a day trip and drive into Canada and visit Vancouver. So now we're trying to figure out what else we want to do. We still want to take a trip with the three of us, but we can't figure out what to do. We thought about going to the Texas coast, but that seemed boring. We want to camp, ...

It was forty years ago today that the Stonewall riots took place. To be perfectly honest, I didn't know until today that the riots lasted for six days. I wonder if that makes me a bad gay person, not knowing my own history. Oh well, I try. I never did excel in History back in school. But the fact remains, that the riots were a pivotal turning point for the gay community. It almost makes me wish something similar would happen again to get people to allow us to marry who we're in love with. But I'm not a very violent person, so deep down I hope there's another way. But if those fuckers don't listen soon . . . I haven't done much today. It's been too hot to venture outside without the fear of my skin burning off my bones. I went to the gym this morning, then spent most of the day working on edits for The Rise of the Son . I could have finished all of them, but Steve's working again tomorrow night, so that will give me something to do. Speaking ...

Yesterday was pretty difficult for me, as was for most of the world, I'm sure. The passing of Michael Jackson was a shock. It was as painful as it was unexpected . One contributing to the other. I remember when I was in high school, I would do Michael impressions in the halls, and I still do them occasionally at work today, complete with leg kick and crotch tug. Yes, I'm strange that way. But, as they say, life goes on. While it is a terrible thing that happened, we must all deal with it and go on. Michael will be remembered by all in our own special ways. My day started off much better than it ended yesterday. I received an email from the producer of Blue Moon informing me that things are going well and they are already working on the second draft of the script. I couldn't have heard anything that would have made me happier (well, other than the fact that we won the lottery, but you get the drift). We also had some people come and look at the house again today...

We will miss you so much! Rest in peace. We love you!

Well, today was another day that really sucked. I've been having a lot of those lately, and I don't know why. It started out with an email from the IRS (or so I thought). It stated that, after reviewing their records, we are due a $1, 800 refund. It looked really official, the links to the treasury department and contacts and other crap. There was a separate page to be filled out to receive our refund. All we had to do was provide all of our information: social security number, credit card number where the money will go to, etc. Even though it was 6:30 in the morning, I thought, "Mmmm, shouldn't the IRS have our social security number?" and it didn't specify our names. So, I thought I would try the "contact" button to confirm the deal. No dice. Every button I hit, brought me back to the same page where I was to enter my info. Aaaaaaaaaah-bullshit! I copied the email address and sent a lovely reply. So, if anyone out there gets one of thos...

Today is gonna be a long day. You see, we're trying to sell our house, and today we're having an open house. That means that we have to take Buster and vacate for three hours. Which usually isn't that bad, but Steve's working today, so it's just Buster and I alone. And we could usually go to the park or something, but it's going to be another 100 degree day so that may be out. I have no idea what we're gonna do. Anyway, the picture on the right is one of my woodburnings I did for someone. Pryrography is something else I do on the side. Every once in a while I'll post my newest piece here for you to see. And, every once in a while they may be naked men. That's why there's a adult content warning before you open the blog. When I was blogging at Yahoo360 I posted a piece called The Embrace , it's a picture of two guys, naked, holding each other. I had never done people before, just landscapes and animals, and wanted to try it because ...

Hey, what's up? It's me again. Since I've just started this new blog, I feel as if I need to let those who have no idea who I am . . . know who I am. I'm a writer, living in Austin, Texas with his husband and their golden retriever, Buster. We (my husband and I, not Buster and I) have been together 18 years (Buster and I, 4 years). We were married in Canada last year (Steve and I). I am the author of five books currently out. My four-book children's series: The Magic Elevator -The Adventures of Johnny & Joey- Back to the Elevator -The Adventures of Johnny & Joe- Return to Animal Land -The Adventures of Johnny & Joey- The Button That Should Never, Ever, Ever Be Pushed -The Final Adventures of Johnny & Joey. (If I may plug myself , there's a great website, www.themagicelevator.com , that will give you a bunch more information about those books. And I have also, my first published book, Blue Moon . This one is not for the children. It'...

Another day is almost through. Another tick mark off the counter. Not much happened today. Same shit, different day. My good friend Anjela (she does the artwork for my books) and I are more than half way through Breaking Dawn , the final installment of the Twilight series. We've both read all the books once before on our own (mmm, Jacob), but we have been reading books to each other for almost two years now and started re-reading the Twilight books shortly after we finished them on our own. Needless to say, we're fans. Other than a very exciting reading hour with Anj, I spent the rest of the day in a frantic blur trying not to quit five years out of retirement (one problem after another). But that was about it. Whoopie! Now, I'm sitting here, waiting for the 101 degree day to cool down just a bit so I can go out and mow the front lawn. Loving Texas right about now. I did read something interesting today, though: "Obama signed a memorandum on Wednesday to exte...

Well, today I had a big let down. Of course it's my own fault. I do this to myself constantly. I get myself all hyped up about something that will take more work than I actually give it credit. But that's how things get done, right? Let me explain. You see, I'm sick of Texas. Nothing against the Lone Star state, but I've been here for half my life and I'm ready for a change (not to mention that it is 103 today, and it's June). Actually, when Steve and I got back from our wedding trip to Canada we were both ready for a change. For a while it was Canada, but there were too many hoops to jump through. Then, we found Portland, Oregon! We saw a show about it on Logo. They talked about how it was the most gay friendly city in the country. And that fit us just fine. Anywhere where we can feel more welcome, is right up our alley. Anyway, we've been dreaming of Portland for a while now, and I thought I had put together a plan. You see, we're selling ...

Okay, let's see how this works. This is my first blog entry in this blog site. I have about two years worth of posts on Yahoo360, but that's closing toward the end of July. I went to the new site they have and I don't really like it, so I went out looking for a new. Here I am. Who am I? My name is Pol McShane. I am writer living in Austin, Texas with my husband and our golden retriever. At the moment my writing career is a bit on the slow side. We're in the process of doing a movie based on one of my books. I've just finished the sequel to said book and now I've been working my ass off doing wood burnings. Yes, wood burnings. I've done quite a few so far and have been doing quite well with it lately. The picture above will be my next one. Well, that's all I want to say for now. Just testing the waters. Until next time. Later-