Running Air

First of all, I'm typing this on my iPad and I'm tired. It's going to be full of typos. I don't care. Thats how tird I am. Oh look, two typos. Live with it.

Life: carries on. The house is what it is; I'm getting to feel more at home here, but still miss the old one terribly st times. I dream about it, especially th garden, just about every night. I assume this'll get better after, oh, another 20 years here. :)

Health: I seem to be having more vision issues; I have an appointment but it's not until Sept. I note my online record mentions "glaucoma." (!!!) if thats not a typo, thats the first I've heard of it, but would explain some of the issues I've been having. It does lead to th question: why am I not on meds for it?! I guess I'll find out in Sept.

Same for the arthritis/fibro/lupus -- been having flares, mostly due to sudden increased activity after literally being in bed almost all of the winter, up to 12 hrs a day. I hope it's going to get better, as I can't walk more than about 50 ft without having to stop nd sit down. Even standing maks my legs cramp. Ouch.

Jewelry: on the issue of the jewelry I make, YES, I'm planning to fulfill ALL the orders from earlier -- in fact, all but 2 are done and are only awaiting me getting them all packaged, labelled and to the post office. It's that that's been holding it up; for months I didn't have a car reliably, as Elric was at work ith one of them, and Juan was either driving to school 3 days a week plus Saturdays, or he'd go out with the remaining car until after the PO closed. It was driving me spare. He's off school for th e summer so I have my car again. Tomorrow I start on the pile of packages. It should take me several days to do them all, but I will get them all out. (I also need to reorder Priority packing from the PO online, as my local has none -- I used all they had! -- and th packing stuff I ordered online two weeks ago never arrived.

More jewelry news -- I put the first lot of my mother's fancy gold jewelry (gold, turquoise, diamond, mostly) with Skinner Auctioneers of Boston today (the guys behind Antiques Roadshow on tv), and I am not only very pleased with them, but feel quite confident in their appraisals given the research I'd already done myself and my own knowledge of what I had in hand. It should fetch a pretty penny and pay back some dear friends who've been helping me with a short-term loan to pay for health insurance.

Money: very very very tight. We took cold showers today: we're out propane. Which means no cooking either. I'm going to see if a delivery can be made but we owe $800 from the winter still. Skinner auction is Sept 10, catalog out in Aug. send your rich friends to buy my jewelry so I can have mony by Oct!!

Elric is up for another full-time position at th Big Box Store. Here's hoping this time he gets it.

If anyone wants to put out word re our need for propane & to pay our water bill($400, owed since we moved in last yr), please feel free. Will make more jewelry for water & the opportunity to wash my hair!

Sigh.

At least th cats seem to be fine without a shower. :)

Just got a long-needed back-up hard drive.  It's about the size of Harriet Vane's cigarette case and bright blue.  Two TB.  Heavens, I remember when megabytes were thrilling.  The box says the drive will hold up to 240 movies, 500,000 songs or 400,000 photos.  A little stack of these whirly-wheels could hold most books.  Ever.  The Library of Babel in little.

How big is the web (so far)?  Would it fit on a yottabyte?

Nine

ETA:  With fear and trembling, managed to reformat the thing for Mac and partition it (both halves bootable I hope).  I want to use one part as an archive for photos &c. and the other as a backup.  Any opinions on Time Machine?

The annual co-op board meeting has been survived, despite impossible temperatures and only one working fan.  Our management company rep was probably wondering why he got the short straw tonight, since nobody except him seemed interested in cutting the meeting short.  However, our CPA is a man of patience and humor, and does not talk down to women any more than he talks down to men. *g*  And after increasing acrimony in the building toward the existing board (for many valid reasons), there was much rowdiness and discussion resulting in a new board being elected.

(No, not me - as with SFWA, I serve, but I will not serve.)


Thank dog we only have to do this once a year.  I'm TIRED.


These are the entertainments of the sophisticated NYC lifestyle.... (hah)

Okay, class: what have I got in my pocketses do I most want, right now?

Quite right: a beer. Go to the head of the class.

What's that you say? You all said that? Very well: everybody has won, and all must have prizes. You may all process to the head of the class. That's okay: this class is multi-headed. Like Cerberus, but more so. I privilege only that student who brings me a beer, for I have none, alas.

I have, mostly, had a lovely afternoon. Tonight is yogi night, for the first time in a long time, and I have been cooking. As it happens I cooked yesterday and the day before and the day before that, but phooey: a meal is only a meal, but a yogi dinner is a feast. And Jeannie sent me a recipe for whole roasted tandoori cauliflower, so there's that, plus a beef pilao and an urad dal and a fresh mint chutney to go with.

The beef pilao should of course have been lamb, but Lucky's let me down, can you believe it? They've had lamb in plenty for weeks. Today, when I wanted it? Nothing. Bah humbug.

But the nice thing about all these dishes is that they're time-demanding early on, so I really have been busy all afternoon; even browning the onions took half an hour's close attention*. And Karen was working from home, so I didn't want to play music; so basically my mind has been following its own tolerably arbitrary tracks all afternoon.

I mused awhile on my facility with quotation - which may be less limber than it used to be, may indeed be positively arthritic now but is still there, embedded in my patterns of thought as much as speech: little phrases, snatches, echoes everywhere - and what it actually means when consciously or not, deliberately or not, we express our thoughts in someone else's words. Individually or culturally. And was there perhaps a blog-post there, or was I just too stupid to write it? And like that.

And then I was thinking about Oxford, and wondering whether students these days still use the old slang - is Christ Church still the House? - the way we did when we were kids; but actually we weren't students at all, we were locals and we'd learned it all from books or from our parents, and I really don't know whether the students of my Oxford days followed the old ways themselves.

And then I thought how odd it was that I had come this far in my thinking without the word "Wimsey" crossing my mind at all, because honestly: quotation, and Oxford? And the university argot, when he has himself a nephew up at the House and is not afraid to say so in so many words?

And then I was thinking about Lewis Carroll, and how I never really liked Alice despite Oxford and Sunderland too, despite my family and Bryan Talbot also, despite days on the river and nights in the text; and how none of that keeps me from quoting her, and there we are again, back at the head of the maze, picking up that thread to follow it down...

So, yeah. I was having a lovely afternoon, until I poured boiling water all over my hand. (Stoopid recipe: did they not stop to think that if you demand measurements of boiling water, in cups, those cups are going to overspill...?)

Anyway. Now I really really want a beer, and I do believe I just might go and get one. Or two. Or...

[EtA: or maybe not. Maybe I'll just stay home and drink gin.]

*Mind you, in her detailed instructions on the browning of onions, the nice recipe-writer says "My research has turned up no equivalent process in French or other Western schools of cooking." Has she never come across French onion soup...?

The official publication date of COLD STEEL is June 25 for both e-book and print editions in English, worldwide (as far as I know; there may be some regions where it comes out later and if so, please let me know).

I’m always anxious when a new book comes out. That anxiety is amplified when the book in question is the final book of a trilogy because naturally, being the writer, I want people to like it and to feel satisfied with the ending. As always, some will love it, some like it, some will be disappointed, and a few will be puzzled, but mostly most readers will have no idea the book is out because they haven’t heard of it. That’s the nature of the business (especially when you aren’t a bestseller, as I’m not).

So I want to take a moment this week to say:

THANK YOU to my readers

Some of you love all my books. Some like one series more than the others. Some have only read one series or even just one book. One or two have thrown a book I wrote across the room in disgust. Some are trying out my novels for the first time. Some of you write to me or show up at my book events. Some I will never know are out there reading. Some are my friends; most are strangers. And you guys live all over the world.

It’s not that my writing doesn’t exist without readers. It does, and writing exists and lives and breathes even if what is written is only ever seen by the person who wrote it.

To me what happens between a written work and a reader is a creative act all on its own, an interaction that usually takes place in privacy and in silence while being no less vivid and powerful for that. In these days of social media the discussion can range farther afield and reach more people than ever, which is both really cool and kind of daunting and scary. But it always comes back to what I put on the page and what you, the reader, take away from the page.

Thank you for meeting me halfway.

Also, you all are the best.

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.

To support the release of the third and final volume of the Spiritwalker Trilogy I will be at the following bookstores/events:

Borderlands Books, San Francisco, CA: Thursday June 27 at 7 pm
866 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415-824-4008

with Katharine Kerr who will also have a new book out. Exciting!

 

Mysterious Galaxy San Diego, Saturday June 29 at 2 pm

7051 Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, Suite 302
San Diego, CA 92111
858-268-4747

with Nebula-Award-winning author Andy Duncan and Clarion students (should be fun AND educational).

 

New York CIty: NYRSF reading Tuesday July 2 at 7 p.m. (doors open 6:30 p.m.)
The Soho Gallery for Digital Art
138 Sullivan Street
New York, NY 10012

with E. C. Ambrose who has a debut novel!

 

University Bookstore, Seattle, WA: Monday July 8 at 7 pm

4326 University Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105
206-634-3400

JUST ME OH GOD PLEASE COME SO I”M NOT ALL ALONE

 

Powells Beaverton, Portland OR: Tuesday July 9 at 7 pm

3415 SW Cedar Hills Boulevard
Beaverton, OR 97005
503-228-4651

With Lilith Saintcrow! Trust me, you won’t want to miss this.

 

All events will include reading from Cold Steel, from my forthcoming YA fantasy, and maybe even from the epic fantasy trilogy I’m currently working on, or possibly I will read a short story.

PLUS Q&A (you have to bring the Qs).

If I do not yet have print copies of The Secret Journal of Beatrice Hassi Barahal available (art by the awesome Julie Dillon!!!!) I will have fliers with order information and a place to sign up with your email/address to get notification when the print and e-book versions are ready for purchase.

Please know that I would love to see you. Yes, you! Especially YOU!

(And your friends, family, or indeed any passers-by you can snag off the street.)

A note on bookstore events: I’m signing at four well-regarded and valued independent bookstores. You may bring personal books from home for me to sign. It is not required to buy (for example) Cold Steel or any book from the bookstore but it is always a strong show of support for independent bookstores if you can and do buy a copy of my newest book or, indeed, any book while you’re there (whether or not it is one of mine).

If you’re not able to make the event, I do always sign stock at each bookstore so you can order a signed copy afterward. If you contact any of the bookstores IN ADVANCE you can reserve a book and get it signed to you at the event (by me! not some random book signing gnome).

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.

Today in yoga class we were focusing on balance poses. One of the wonderful and challenging things about balance poses is that, when you’re focused on keeping your balance, you’re forced into the moment–forced to be fully present in the pose and in your life.

While in one of those poses, our yoga teacher said something very simple yet very useful: “Look up.”

I hadn’t realized I was looking down, but I very much was, instinctively following the bending of my body as I folded forward on one foot to get into the pose.

Both the pose and staying in the pose got easier, when I did that one thing: looked up.

I remember how when my very first short story sold, I discovered there were two ways I could respond, when someone asked, “what do you write?” The first involved looking down and saying, in a sort of mumble/apology, “Oh, it’s just one story, and it’s only in a shared world anthology anyway …”

Those conversations were pretty awkward. Both I and the person I was speaking to would try to get out of them as quickly as possible. And I realized there was another way I could answer.

I could look up. Meet the other person’s eyes. Speak without apology–and with honest pride–as I said, “I’m a new writer, and my first story just appeared in an anthology.” If I had the book with me I’d hold it up. With or without the book, I would definitely smile. And the other person would generally smile too, and congratulate me, and there’d be nothing awkward about it at all.

When we look down, my yoga teacher said today, we draw our energy down with us, which can make some poses harder.

I’ve learned and relearned this throughout my writing life, and throughout the rest of my life too. It’s remarkably easy to forget. Even when you remember, sometimes it’s harder than it sounds.

But things go better if you just look up.

Mirrored from Janni Lee Simner / Desert Dispatches.

Originally published at Con or Bust by Kate Nepveu. Please comment there ( comment(s)).

Thank you to everyone who donated to Con or Bust last week! On Thursday and Friday, we raised $3,623, which will allow Con or Bust to help many more fans of color/non-white fans attend SFF cons in the future.

Thanks again to Arachne Jericho for kicking things off by matching donations to Con or Bust, to all the individual donors, and to everyone who passed the word. Thanks, too, to those who donated to the Carl Brandon Society; among other excellent things, the Carl Brandon Society acts as Con or Bust’s fiscal agent, and so your support of the CBS also benefits Con or Bust.

And even if you missed getting your donation matched, it’s never too late! Besides money, you can donate con memberships (I am especially looking for memberships to this year’s World Fantasy Con) or buy adorable T-shirts with the dinocorn logo. Check out the support page for more information. And thanks again to everyone!

Writer and lipizzan horse-wrangler Judith Tarr has been coming out with interesting stuff this past couple weeks.

First there was the League of Shattered Authors, which opened up discussions all over the net, and here is an unflinching look at the personal fallout.

But there are good times, too, as this interview makes clear.

What makes a writer write? I wonder sometimes if the urge to commit communication to paper is inborn. When I come across diaries by people who had no claim to fame--and knew they had no claim to fame--unpublished during the writers' lifetime, like the almost unremittingly grim diaries of Miss Weeton, a governess for a large part of her life, it convinces me that some people just have to.

Fiction writing is another remove from committing one's life to paper; many think it entirely frivolous, and it certainly belongs to those in comfortable enough circumstances to be able to do it, yet story is so tightly bound into the human condition. So many motivations for doing it, especially over the long haul, as janni has been exploring of late.

I got up this morning and went for an 11 mile run. It was supposed to be 13, but the sun caught me and I ran out of Gatorade. Sometimes, discretion is the better part of valor--and I decided two more miles was not worth puking.

Now I am drinking Vietnamese coffee and sitting on the sofa, like somebody who has used up all her virtupitude for the day.

My stepcat was just in the corner suspiciously sniffing an old signing poster of Scott's that's been there for a month. Only now does it become a potentially threatening object. Cats. Or maybe he's just now figured out what Dad does for a living?

In other Scott-related news, this.

In writer-related news, non-Scott-related, the UK/Australian publication of John Joseph Adams' Wastelands anthology has occurred! 

And Publishers Weekly has given Book of Iron an absolutely bang-up review. (linky) (text follows) 

Book of Iron

Elizabeth Bear. Subterranean (www.subterraneanpress.com), $20 (128p) ISBN 978-1-59606-474-4

Friends are the family we choose, a maxim that lies at the heart of this short but sharp novella, which ties in to Bear’s Eternal Sky novel series. Bijou the Artificer (first met in 2010’s Bone and Jewel Creatures, here young and eager for adventure) joins the immortal Maledysaunte on a quest to the abandoned city of Ancient Erem to stop Dr. Liebelos, a precisian (wizard of orderliness), from summoning the Iron Book. With them go a crew of allies with mixed motives, including Kaulas the Necromancer, who is Bijou’s lover and rival, and the wizard Salamander, Maledysaunte’s companion and daughter to Dr. Liebelos. Under skies whose moons and suns vary in number, they must confront the threats of legendary beasts and betrayal. Bear injects the fizz of the Roaring ’20s (including travel by roadster, automatic pistols , aeroplanes, and silent movies) into a thoughtful exploration of dealing with loss. Agent: Jennifer Jackson, Donald Maass Agency. (Oct.)

Reviewed on: 06/17/2013
Release date: 09/01/2013