The contractor has been, the contractor has wrought, and the contractor has gone away again to that place where contractors go to rest from work well-done, and curses well-said. All hail, the contractor.
Today, there are chores in the morning, and travel in the afternoon. We have tickets for Varekai this evening, which I am looking forward to with much excitement — even, perhaps, excitement unseemly in a woman of my years. I’ve been wanting to see Cirque du Soleil live for YEARS.
Tomorrow, it’s back to writing and sorting. I think I may take an hour or two every morning for the next hundred years or so to go through shelves and drawers and closets and set aside those things that we don’t need, and simply have because we have them.
For those following our continuing adventures with the ACA, aka “Obamacare” — it transpires that the clearing authority needed not only proof of our IDs, but Proof of 2014’s income (yes, we are still in 2014; I checked several calendars, just in case mine was malfunctioning). So, I spent an evening when I should have been writing doing a Profit and Loss for the year thus far, and listing such projects as I hope to see payment far, going forward into the year.
Now, one of the more interesting things is to transpire on this front is that the royalty payment we received earlier in the week has put us very close to my estimated income for the entire year of 2014. So, in my abundant spare time I’m going to have to get with the ACA and figure out a new insurance premium. Which raises the question of how the ACA accounts income — by quarter or by full year. I fear it will be annually, and that we’ll find ourselves playing catchup for the subsidies we did not “deserve,” though we needed them, at the beginning of the year.
Well. It’ll be fun.
In other news, we had a ripping thunderstorm come through last night, all the flowers in the meadow next door are flattened right to the ground this morning, and fog is rising out of the trees.
Of greatest importance was, of course, our Determination from the Health Insurance Marketplace, which was to tell us whether or not we can have the insurance we’ve been enrolled in since January. We opened this document with trepidation, only to find that they need one more document from us before they can make a determination. They need. . .wait for it. . .
They need a copy of a document that proves our citizenship and our identity. Because, yanno, copies of our tax returns just didn’t cut it.
So, I guess I’m glad we renewed our passports earlier this year.
Of second greatest importance — royalty statements! And! royalty checks!
If you bought a copy of Necessity’s Child in signed or plain vanilla hardcover, or as an ebook? That bagpipe band you hear coming around the corner is FOR YOU!
. . .and now, I’m off to town to do errands. It’s a pretty day, and I’m looking forward to the drive.
Hope everyone is having as pleasant a Monday as it’s possible to have.
22. Cuckoo’s Egg, C.J. Cherryh (re-re-re-&c-read)
21. The Windflower, Laura London (Tom and Sharon Curtis) (re-read)
20. Sparrow Hill Road, Seanan McGuire (e)
19. Demon’s Lexicon, Sarah Rees Brennan
18. Refining Felicity, Marion Chesney
17. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury (re-read aloud w/Steve)
16. The Vanished Priestess, Meredith Blevins
15. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny (re-read aloud w/Steve)
14. Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein
13. Ghost Point, James A. Hetley, manuscript (read aloud w/Steve)
12. Peacemaker, C.J. Cherryh (read aloud w/Steve)
11. The Red Hot Empress, Meredith Blevins
10. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
9. Black Widow: The Name of the Rose, Marjorie Liu, Daniel Acuna
8. Agent of Change, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (e)
7. The Emperor’s Agent, Jo Graham (e)
6. Eternity and a Day, Aline Hunter (e)
5. Kindred Rites, Katharine Eliska Kimbriel (e)
4. Billy the Kid, the Endless Ride, Michael Wallis
3. The Steerswoman, Rosemary Kirstein (e)
2. Uncovered, Jordan Matter
1. Dancers Among Us, Jordan Matter
So, Trooper (and Mozart, and Sprite; and Socks, and Hexapuma before them) hates to Travel In the Box. Hates it. He doesn’t growl or bite or claw, but he does run around the house like a crazed box-avoider who weighs upwards of 16 pounds, all of it muscle, and when you do finally catch him, he extracts his Other Eight Legs(tm) and flails them all around while you’re trying to get him into the box (see 16 pounds, muscle, above). And then, once you do manage to get him into the box, and you’re exhausted and ready for nap, it takes two of you to carry the box out to the car (see 16 pounds &c…, above), whereupon Trooper commences in to moaning, and drooling, and asking in his quaint, quacky little voice what he’s done to deeeeesserrrrrrrrve tttttttttthhhissssssss. And by the time you get him where he’s going, which is, yes, usually the vet, he’s a mess and so are you.
What I do for Mozart (and did for Socks and Hexapuma) is wrap him in a towel, carry him out to the car and hold him in my lap while Steve drives. Even in his days as a young athlete, he was kind of a marshmallow, and I didn’t really worry about carrying him anywhere.
Trooper and Sprite are another matter. Trooper’s big and strong and forceful; Sprite is big, squirmy, and scratchy. So, I haven’t dared the towel. However, we did have several cats who used to walk on a cat string. Archie was the first (poor Archie had Much to endure, coming in as my first cat after I’d had a lifetime of dogs, but he actually liked to go outside in the grass and to visit his favorite flowers, and if the price of that was wearing the stupid blue string, and have Mom tag along, that was a bargain he was willing to strike). We therefore bought a harness and a leash, and have been trying to reach an accommodation with the two newbies.
Sprite wants Nothing to Do with the project, even though I bought a pink glittery leash especially with her in mind (also, it was on sale). She screams and rolls around and tries to kick the harness off, and, when that doesn’t work, she races around the house approximately three feet off the floor. I think the plan here is to run so fast that she runs out of the harness. This hasn’t worked so far, and I’ve needed to wait until she’s exhausted herself, then bribe her with cat treats so I can get close enough to take the harness off.
Trooper, however, allows me to put the harness on him, and will wear it for half-an-hour, 45 minutes at a time. He doesn’t particularly care for the fact that it jingles (the loop that the leash snaps into is metal). Granted, he clings to my side the entire time (so I know Exactly where he is when I get the notion to take the Stupid Thing off), and his demeanor is that of a cat Sorely Tried, but he doesn’t freak out, and he doesn’t hold a grudge. I guess my next step is to snap on the leash and walk with him around the house; carry him with the equipage on. And if that works, I’ll try to carry him outside and down to the car. I’m pretty sure he won’t willingly walk down the stairs to the driveway, but will just do the belly-down-I-weigh-five-thousand-pounds-and-you-can’t-move-me thing that cats do.
So, anyway, this is why Trooper has my nomination to the Cat Hall of Fame for Most Patient Cat EVER.
In other cat news, Trooper and Sprite have apparently decided that it would be Much Better for Grandpa Mozart to have company, rather than being a grumpy old cat in the corner, and they’ve been taking Active Steps to impose a more comfortable social order.
Sprite has already been cleaning Mozart’s ears for him from time to time, which he accepts with a certain attitude of bemusement. The other day, when I was working on the couch, he came up and snugged next to me. Usually, he will Not Allow another cat on the couch during such times; it’s Him and Me and nobody else.
But, Sprite came by, saw that there was half a couch untenanted, and jumped up. Mozart tensed, but she didn’t even look at him, just flopped over on her side, flipped her tail casually over his rump and stretched her back foot out until it touched his back foot. She went to sleep.
Mozart looked up at me as if to ask, “What just happened?” But he was already relaxing again, and finally sighed, put his chin on his front foot and went to sleep, toe-to-toe, and Sprite’s tail still covering him.
Trooper is also making an obvious effort to be with Mozart. Yesterday, for instance, it was cold and rainy, and Mozart wanted to sleep in his Special Warm Corner in my office. The problem being that it’s currently filled with books from the bedroom, which I moved in anticipation of the Return of the Contractor. Mozart threw a temper tantrum, by which I mean that he started to yell, stomped under the desk, and instead of lying down on the nice, comfy towel down there, started whaling the hell out of various wires, yelling all the while. Trooper, who had been sleeping in the red basket, jumped down, and went under the desk. The whaling and the yelling stopped, and, when I looked down a couple minutes later, Trooper was lying on the towel and Mozart was next to him, up against the UPS, which was probably a much warmer situation than he would have had, even in His Corner.
So, that’s the State of the Cats here at the Cat Farm, as of Saturday, June 14.
Here, have some cat spam:
Mozart, June 13, 2014 Photo by Sharon LeeMozart and Trooper: two cats on a box Photo by Sharon Lee
21. The Windflower, Laura London (Tom and Sharon Curtis) (re-read)
20. Sparrow Hill Road, Seanan McGuire (e)
19. Demon’s Lexicon, Sarah Rees Brennan
18. Refining Felicity, Marion Chesney
17. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury (re-read aloud w/Steve)
16. The Vanished Priestess, Meredith Blevins
15. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny (re-read aloud w/Steve)
14. Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein
13. Ghost Point, James A. Hetley, manuscript (read aloud w/Steve)
12. Peacemaker, C.J. Cherryh (read aloud w/Steve)
11. The Red Hot Empress, Meredith Blevins
10. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
9. Black Widow: The Name of the Rose, Marjorie Liu, Daniel Acuna
8. Agent of Change, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (e)
7. The Emperor’s Agent, Jo Graham (e)
6. Eternity and a Day, Aline Hunter (e)
5. Kindred Rites, Katharine Eliska Kimbriel (e)
4. Billy the Kid, the Endless Ride, Michael Wallis
3. The Steerswoman, Rosemary Kirstein (e)
2. Uncovered, Jordan Matter
1. Dancers Among Us, Jordan Matter
When our second ever “novel” was “done,” we pushed all of the furniture in the living room to one side. I sat down on the floor with the “novel,” a pair of scissors, a roll of tape, a lined yellow pad, and pens in three colors. And I proceeded to cut the scenes apart and tape them back together in the correct order, numbering character scenes with their own color ink. I noted down where bridges needed to be inserted, and the whole process took me about eight hours of non-stop concentration, as the book shifted and took its proper shape in my head.
That was in 1985 and I swore I’d never, ever do that again.
Ahem.
I spent today breaking the novel-without-a-name into its various narrative threads. Because? It turns out, upon rereading, that all of the action in this novel happens?
In one afternoon.
That’s one looooooong day.
Sigh.
Tomorrow, I will decide whether or not I’m going to do the sit on the floor with scissors &c thing, or try to noodle this out in my head. Because my head has been totally on the case with this project.
In Archers Beach news, I’ve heard from Audible that Carousel Sun is in production, and a narrator will soon be chosen. Watch this space for more news.
Also! Splinter Universe readers should note that Welcome to Welton, by Marie Brennan, is now online, as well as a brand! new! chapter of Steve Miller’s novel-in-progress, Quicksliver. We have also turned in the manuscript for Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume THREE, which means that we have removed the following stories from Splinter Universe: “The Rifle’s First Wife,” “Roving Gambler,” “Code of Honor.”
Most of my work yesterday was done on the corner of the couch next to the cat tree. Below, is the view from my office:
The view from below
This is a picture of Trooper as three pink feet and an ear.
. . .a long, long time ago, my grandmother asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I said that I wanted a pair of embroidery scissors shaped like a crane that I’d seen in a magazine. My grandmother approved of the fact that I embroidered, so we got on the bus and went downtown to a certain cutlery shop known to her, and there, in the case, were my scissors.
The proprietor got them out of the case so that I could see if they fit my hand — they did — and my grandmother looked them over and allowed as how they were very nice, indeed, and told the proprietor that we would take them. He went down the counter to wrap them up, and my grandmother handed me a twenty dollar bill.
“You pay for it,” she told me, “since they’re your scissors. If I gave them to you, they would cut our relationship.”
So, I bought my scissors, and gave the change from the transaction back to my grandmother, and we proceeded downtown to McCrory’s, where we had ice cream sundaes in celebration of my twelfth birthday.
Here’s what the scissors look like now:
Embroidery scissors
This evening, I needed to sew buttons on a shirt, so I got out the sewing box and rummaged through until I found a spool of matching thread. It was only after I had threaded the needle that I realized the spool was wooden. Here it is:
In other news, it was hot today, for Maine values of hot, which meant windows filled with coon cats.
. . .actually, that’s history at the boat landing.
Yesterday afternoon, for reasons too convoluted to go into here in full, save they included an exploration of the town of Gardiner, and the local grocery facilities, as well as a lightning tour of downtown, where I am pleased to report the Blue Sky Bakery bakes on. Years ago, I thought they’d last five minutes. Shows what I know.
From Gardiner, it being a gorgeous day, we drove down to Bowdoin, and came to rest, as one does, at the public boat launch. There we found large placards on easels, and large swaths of grass and parking lot marked out in orange paint.
We got out to inspect one of the placards and found it be a history of a large sailing vessel, the name of which escapes me now, which was built at Bowdoin in the 1800s, when Bowdoin had been a notable ship-building town. About that time, a gentlemen came up to us and introduced himself as being from the Bowdoin History House, and explained that the display was to illustrate Bowdoin’s history in the shipbuilding industry; the orange lines were there to demonstrate the size of each of the ships described on the placards. So, we spent a pleasant half-hour with the gentleman, learning about the ships, and how the need for ships knees had just about deforested Bowdoin and the surrounding countryside by the end of the 1800s. . .and how, yes, Maine has always survived by selling pieces of itself until there are no more pieces to sell — forests grow back eventually, and the ice industry was perfectly sustainable, but they ain’t growing any more granite on those islands we took down to the tideline. . .
Anyhow, a pleasant afternoon, and I’m glad we played hookey, even though that means doing some Serious Catch Up today.
On another topic: It transpires that we have Too Much Stuff. This isn’t actually a surprise; writers as a breed tend to accumulate books and papers at a rate that regular people find. . .rather horrifying. But we also have things. Things that people gave us; things we brought for ourselves because Reasons; stones and shells and pinecones, because I’m One of Those People who pick up rocks and pinecones and seashells and then become attached to them, and. . .long story short, we’re going to have to reduce the things.
Back in the Dark Ages, before I met Steve, I moved every year. Every. Year. And it transpires that may have been a Coping Mechanism, because you really don’t tend to accumulate much when you know you’re going to have to box it all up and shift it in 12 months. Living 23 years in one place gives one the illusion of permanence and we take on more than we need.
So, how-to questions:
I know some of my friends have had to weed their books — and of you I ask: How did you go about it? Had you a system? I also know that some of my friends have had to cull their Stuff, in some cases very quickly. I’d be interested in hearing how you decided what to keep and what to let go.
1. The contract for Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume Three arrived, was read, signed and put on the bus to Madame the Agent’s office in New York.
2. Last night, we turned in the manuscript for A Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume Three (I adore email submissions). Here is the table of contents, as turned in and bearing in mind that the order may change:
Authors’ Foreword
Code of Honor
Guaranteed Delivery
Intelligent Design
Out of True
Roving Gambler
King of the Cats
Kin Ties
The Rifle’s First Wife
The Space at Tinsori Light
Landed Alien
Moon’s Honor
Quick Working Glossary
3. Return word from Madame the Editor is that the book may be available as soon as Summer 2015.
4. Because of the events above, “Code of Honor,” “Roving Gambler,” and “The Rifle’s First Wife” will be vanishing from Splinter Universe realsoonnow.
5. But! There’s still plenty to read on Splinter Universe, including Steve’s new novel project, Quicksliver, and several guest stories, including: “Leaving Via Callia” by Alma Alexander; “2 Pi to Live,” and “Riverweave,” by EC Ambrose.
5a. The first three chapters of Quicksliver are up now, for your reading pleasure:
6. This morning, we have entertained the contractor, who was very taken with Trooper (Sprite hid; Scrabble hid; Mozart was napping in my his rocker and didn’t even wake up). This afternoon, Mozart has an appointment with the hairdresser, for a modified lion cut, which he will hate, but for which he has only himself to blame.
7. This evening, I’ll return to working on the novel. Nope, no title yet. When one breaks, you’ll hear about it here.
Today’s blog title comes to you from Tracy Chapman, “Mountains of Things.” Here’s your link.
