First, a disclaimer: This worked for me, but I am in no way guaranteeing that it will work for you. Proceed at your own risk.

When Dustin and I decided, back in 2009, to upgrade to the iPhone 3GS, we also decided to consolidate into a family plan. Unfortunately, AT&T does not let a family plan contain phones with two different area codes, which meant my old MO number had to go. I’d kept it around to let my family call me without long distance, and I was reluctant to part with it.

At the time, it seemed like Google Voice support for number porting was right around the corner, so I needed a cheap way to park my number until that happened. Phone.com was exactly what I needed. Cheap and easy, it forwarded calls from the old number to my new number. Piece of cake.

Fast forward nearly two years and–finally!–Google Voice supports number porting. But there’s a catch. It only supports porting from a mobile provider, and Phone.com definitely doesn’t count. ARGH!

Here’s how I got around the limitation for $15, plus the Google Voice porting fee.

Step 1: Buy a prepaid TMobile phone. I got my lovely Nokia from Walmart for $14.95. It had $3 in prepaid credit. Do not use the phone! You don’t want to use up your credit or you’ll have to add more. I got a terrible number that rang all hours of the day and night. I just muted the phone and ignored it. If you must check the voicemail, use a different phone.

Step 2: Activate the phone. There was no way to port when I activated online, but you may be able to combine steps two and three if you call.

Step 3: Call TMobile and ask for the Landline Transfer Department. Just asking to port your number is not good enough, at least it wasn’t for me, as I found out after a three day wait. Ask to port your Phone.com number to TMobile.

Step 4: Wait. It took two days to transfer from Phone.com to TMobile. I waited an extra day after the transfer was complete, just to be sure. If it takes longer than two days, contact Phone.com about the status of the port.

Step 5: Log in to Google Voice and start the transfer process. They didn’t ask for my TMobile PIN when I was entering the form, but they sent an email as soon as I submitted it that required me to update the information. Kind of a weird process, but whatever.

Step 6: Wait again. The port to Google Voice took almost exactly twenty-four hours.

Step 7: Cancel your Phone.com account. Porting the number does not automatically cancel the account. Donate or sell the TMobile phone, because it was deactivated when the port happened.

I finally finished the first two chapters of the book I’m working on.  Counting the time I wasn’t writing but should have been, the time I was procrastinating, the time I had writer’s block, and the time I have actually written, I believe it’s taken me about six months to write two chapters.  At this rate, I’ll finish the novel sometime in 2025.  Maybe.

The good news is that unlike NaNo, I’m editing as I go.  This means I have two fairly quality chapters.  I’m sure they’ll still change, but I’m pretty happy with them.  The novel is based on the short story I wrote for ArmadilloCon.  I received some positive feedback about it, and I really like the world I’m building.  Of course, I’d like it a whole lot more if the plot would fall nicely into place.

Here’s a little snippet from chapter two:

Ethan didn’t move.  I could move him, but that would very likely start a war, and I already had enough drama in my life.  Maybe just a little push.  Magic welled up inside me, drawn by my thoughts, eager to please.

“Fae!” Gabe barked at me.  He appeared behind Ethan.  I shrugged a shoulder at him and tried to look innocent.

“Ethan, are you going to stand there all night?” Gabe asked.

As sovereign, Ethan could deny me entrance.  As a witch, I could make him very sorry for that decision.  My smile was full of teeth.  Bring it.

Us and Teller

Originally uploaded by jessie.mihalik

As I mentioned in my previous post, this past weekend was ArmadilloCon here in Austin.  After three days of hanging out with published authors, not-yet-published authors, and fans, I can definitely say this:  These are my people and my people are weird.  Falling into both the software engineering and writing worlds myself, I am somewhat of an authority on weird, so take my word for it.  :)

Friday was the Writers’ Workshop.  Before the workshop started, I sat and talked to Rachel Caine for probably ten minutes before I introduced myself.  When she said her name was Rachel, it finally clicked on why she looked familiar–she was the guest of honor.  I then had that “I’m sitting next to someone famous” moment, but she was very cool when I turned all fangirl on her for a couple minutes.  I’ve read the first two books in her YA Morganville Vampire series and they were fun, fast reads.

The writers’ workshop was awesome.  There were four other aspiring authors in my group, and the group was led by Gordon and Ilona Andrews.  Gordon and Ilona are very nice, very cool people.  They gave me great feedback on the story I submitted.  Some of it was critical, but it’s what I needed to hear to be able to see the story through their eyes.  They also said some very, very nice things about my ability, so that was awesome.  I even got a mini shout-out on their blog.  The Jessie in the second paragraph… totally me.  ::dies::

Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday were mostly panels.  I took a bunch of notes but haven’t even started to process everything yet.  All I know is that my To Be Read list just got a whole lot longer.  The con was smallish, but it was a nice size because it felt intimate, like a group of friends getting together to talk books.  I guess I was basing my perspective on A-Kon, which is freaking huge, but I was expecting more people.

Sunday afternoon, thanks to the urging of the greatest husband on the planet, we got to hang out and have a drink with Gordon, Ilona, their friend Reece, and Stina Leicht (who also organized the workshop).  I totally wouldn’t have went over to talk to Gordon without Dustin’s urging, because I never want to be “that girl” that bothers people.  That fear coupled with my seriously introverted nature almost guarantees I avoid talking to strangers, almost-strangers, and especially almost-strangers-that-I-really-admire.   However, Dustin talked me into it, and I compromised by saying I’d just go say thank you and then leave.  A couple hours of chatting later, I realized it was getting late and we really should leave this time.  It was amazing!

After several stops and starts, rewrites and revisions, I think I’ve finally hit on the true beginning of my book.  Here it is, in all of its rough draft glory:

I ducked under the police tape, Isa right behind me.  The moon provided enough light to barely see the empty yard stretching to the house.  We hadn’t seen any policemen patrolling the area, but we weren’t taking any chances.  We’d left the car at Mark and Emma’s and hiked over.

Isa touched my shoulder.  I turned and she tapped her nose and pointed to a piece of darkness off to the left.  As a werewolf, her senses were better than mine.  She had smelled someone lurking in the shadows.

We circled to the right and crept up to the patio door that led to my parents’ bedroom.  I pulled the key from my pocket and slipped it into the lock.  The door swung open silently and we stepped inside, glad to be out of sight.

Isa took a deep breath and barely suppressed the coughing fit that followed.

“What do you smell?” I whispered.

“Blood, old, but lots of it.  Your family and other humans, probably the police, but the scent is old so I don’t think anyone is inside.  And…”  She paused and took another sniff.

“What?”

“Vampires.”  She spat the world with a slight curl of her lip, as if it tasted bitter on her tongue.

“Vampires?  Like ‘I vant to suck your blood’?” I asked in my best fake Dracula accent.  I scoffed.  “Vampires don’t exist.”

She raised an eyebrow.  “Neither do werewolves.”

She had a point.