Author: Sharon

Books read in 2013

Fair Coin, E.C. Myers (e)
Frost Burned, Patricia Briggs (e)
Through a Brazen Mirror, Delia Sherman
Protector, C.J. Cherryh (read aloud with Steve)
Eight Million Gods, Wen Spencer (e)
Promises to Keep, Laura Anne Gilman (e)
Miles to Go, Laura Anne Gilman (e)
Even Money, Dick Francis & Felix Francis
Magic Bites, Ilona Andrews
Sandman Slim, Richard Kadrey
The Diviners, Libba Bray (e)
The Eighth Succession, Don Sakers
You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, Tom Gauld
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Lois McMaster Bujold (e)
Hellspark, Janet Kagan (re-re-re-re-re-re-&c-read)
The Year of the Dog, Grace Lin
The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi (e)
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (a mostly true memoir), Jenny Lawson
How Dark the World Becomes, Frank Chadwick (e)
Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal
French Fried, Chris Dolley (e)
My Father’s Dragon, Ruth Stiles Gannett (read aloud w/Steve)
Fair Game, Patricia Briggs (e)
Nymph, Francesca Lia Block (read aloud w/Steve)
Oh, Myyy, George Takei (e)
Hunting Ground, Patricia Briggs (e)
Cry Wolf, Patriacia Briggs (e)
Alpha and Omega, Patricia Briggs (e)
Miss Buncle, Married, D.E. Stevenson (read aloud w/Steve)
Agatha Heterodyne and the Hammerless Bell, Phil & Kaja Foglio
Moonrise Kingdom screenplay, Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola (e)

She swears the moon don’t hang quite as high as it used to

So!  Saturday afternoon we had a thunderstorm, a really gully-washing thunder-cracker — a weather-changer, too, thank goddess.  Knocked the temps down 12 degrees F, and cleaned out all the gunk.  Yesterday was in the mid-70sF/20sC and beautifully dry, and today,  we have more of the same.  So, yay! liveable weather.

Sadly, we did lose power during the storm — lost it, in fact, in two stages. The first snap-off/snap-back took out my mouse, so I had to shut my computer down by pushing the button on the front of the case.  And, when the storm was over?  You know where this is going, right?  Right.  Exactly nothing happened when I pushed the ‘on’ button, and nothing continued to happen during a series of restorative techniques ably applied by Steve.

This morning we took ol’ Jack into the shop, and have just now received a call from Stephanie-the-tech, who tells me, yep, it was the power supply gone south, all right, and the DVD player is toast (which it has been; I just didn’t want to unplug and schlepp (actually, Steve does the schlepping) an old and Very! Heavy! box down to the shop just for a DVD player when we had a USB player that I could plug in.), and did I want her to go ahead and do the replacements for an estimated two bills, parts and labor?

I did, and said so, at which point she confessed that her hesitation had to do with the age of the harddrive, which she makes to be on the order of  five years.  How time flies.  I guess there’s a new harddrive/data transfer in my future, sigh.

But, not today.  Today, we will have the new power supply and DVD player.  Then, after I make thorough back-ups, I’ll take it down again for the new harddrive.  Or perhaps I’ll think upon making Number Ten Ox the desktop, and live out of one, easy-to-transport, but hard to fix machine. This digital age we live in sure does make all the decisions nice and easy.

In the meanwhile, I did find Ox the laptop, which had become Lost To Me.  Turns out I’d set it (in its case) beside the couch and when Someone (looks at Trooper) initiated an indoor relay race from the top of the cat tree, over the couch and back again, knocking all the couch cushions and pillows to the floor in a glorious catsplosion, the sofa cover had also become disturbed and was half-covering the computer case and I did not recognize it for what it was, because heat rots my brain.  And, also, Coon cats assisting the search tend to like to take the lead.

So, that’s all the news that was and is — oh, wait.  I cleaned the bathroom yesterday.  The things we find time for when the computer doesn’t work…

 

Books read in 2013

Frost Burned, Patricia Briggs (e)
Through a Brazen Mirror, Delia Sherman
Protector, C.J. Cherryh (read aloud with Steve)
Eight Million Gods, Wen Spencer (e)
Promises to Keep, Laura Anne Gilman (e)
Miles to Go, Laura Anne Gilman (e)
Even Money, Dick Francis & Felix Francis
Magic Bites, Ilona Andrews
Sandman Slim, Richard Kadrey
The Diviners, Libba Bray (e)
The Eighth Succession, Don Sakers
You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, Tom Gauld
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Lois McMaster Bujold (e)
Hellspark, Janet Kagan (re-re-re-re-re-re-&c-read)
The Year of the Dog, Grace Lin
The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi (e)
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (a mostly true memoir), Jenny Lawson
How Dark the World Becomes, Frank Chadwick (e)
Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal
French Fried, Chris Dolley (e)
My Father’s Dragon, Ruth Stiles Gannett (read aloud w/Steve)
Fair Game, Patricia Briggs (e)
Nymph, Francesca Lia Block (read aloud w/Steve)
Oh, Myyy, George Takei (e)
Hunting Ground, Patricia Briggs (e)
Cry Wolf, Patriacia Briggs (e)
Alpha and Omega, Patricia Briggs (e)
Miss Buncle, Married, D.E. Stevenson (read aloud w/Steve)
Agatha Heterodyne and the Hammerless Bell, Phil & Kaja Foglio
Moonrise Kingdom screenplay, Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola (e)

Books read in 2013

Through a Brazen Mirror, Delia Sherman
Protector, C.J. Cherryh (read aloud with Steve)
Eight Million Gods, Wen Spencer (e)
Promises to Keep, Laura Anne Gilman (e)
Miles to Go, Laura Anne Gilman (e)
Even Money, Dick Francis & Felix Francis
Magic Bites, Ilona Andrews
Sandman Slim, Richard Kadrey
The Diviners, Libba Bray (e)
The Eighth Succession, Don Sakers
You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, Tom Gauld
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Lois McMaster Bujold (e)
Hellspark, Janet Kagan (re-re-re-re-re-re-&c-read)
The Year of the Dog, Grace Lin
The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi (e)
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (a mostly true memoir), Jenny Lawson
How Dark the World Becomes, Frank Chadwick (e)
Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal
French Fried, Chris Dolley (e)
My Father’s Dragon, Ruth Stiles Gannett (read aloud w/Steve)
Fair Game, Patricia Briggs (e)
Nymph, Francesca Lia Block (read aloud w/Steve)
Oh, Myyy, George Takei (e)
Hunting Ground, Patricia Briggs (e)
Cry Wolf, Patriacia Briggs (e)
Alpha and Omega, Patricia Briggs (e)
Miss Buncle, Married, D.E. Stevenson (read aloud w/Steve)
Agatha Heterodyne and the Hammerless Bell, Phil & Kaja Foglio
Moonrise Kingdom screenplay, Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola (e)

An entry of parts

This will be a blog entry of parts.

Part the First: Shameless Self-Promotion

1.  Back in May/June, when Steve and I attended Book Expo America, one of the fun things we did was spend some time with Jim Freund, long-time host of Hour of the Wolf, on WBAI, doing an interview.   That interview aired early (early, early) this morning.  It is now archived, and you may download and listen to it at your leisure.  Here’s the link to the archive page.  Right now, our interview is the first two entries at the top.  I should also mention during the interview Steve and I read an excerpt from Trade Secrets.  Now!  There is a time limit on archive access; after 13 days our interview will roll off the bottom and Be Lost Forever.

2.  In an embarrassment of riches, Baen will be airing a podcast interview of Steve and me, tomorrow.  It should be up by noon, Eastern.  And here’s the link to the Baen podcast page (do note the Very Wide Top Margin on the page, just scroll down until you hit the podcast information).

Part the Second:  Thank you!

3.  Thank you to those very kind and generous people who have supported me in the Clarion West Write-a-Thon.  So far, we’ve raised $297 toward the organization’s operating costs.  Donations to Clarion West are tax deductible.  More information about the Write-a-Thon and Clarion West here, and here.  My personal participating author page is here.

Part the Third: To Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street

4.  I went in to town today, which was Just Insane, but. . .Necessity.  While I was in the very sad enterprise that used to be J. C. Penney — one of two customers in the store — I had the opportunity to watch an example of Master Class Shopping.  My fellow customer had, so she told the store at large, decided to embark upon a trip, immediately, and she needed clothes.  In short order — by which I mean, in under five minutes — she had put together three coordinating outfits off of the racks, threw them on the counter, paid for them, requested that everything be left on the hangers, and was gone, leaving me in sole possession of the store.

Part the Fourth:  The Weather Outside is Frightful

5.  What it says

Part the Fourth:  Lazy Writer is Lazy

6.  If anybody needs me, I’ll be on the couch, reading a book.

#SFWApro

Raised underfoot

I see that I’m going to have to be Veeeerrrrrryyyyy Careful getting out of my chair…

Trooper at work
Trooper at work

Yes, that is Trooper with his head against my chair roller.  Earlier today, I looked down and he was in essentially the same position, but his front leg was under the roller bar.  If I’d Just Gotten Up (as I often Just Do), I’d’ve broken his leg.

In other news, progress has been made on the list I published this morning, to wit:

1.  A podcast interview (with Steve), rescheduled from yesterday RESCHEDULED TO TOMORROW
2.  Cleaning up All The Stuff Trooper threw down from those High Places that he has made his own, and deciding where in ghod’s name to put it
3.  Doing the laundry STARTED
4. Waiting for the electrician to manifest, sometime after noon
5. Paying the bills and balancing the checkbook
6.  I’m also considering vacuuming the house — but that might make for too heady a celebration I OPT OUT — and opt in for a nap, instead.  Holy freaking cow, it’s hot…

What writers do

Last evening I finished what I’m calling the “last draft” of Carousel Seas.  It’s a slightly more tentative last draft than my “last drafts” usually are, but! unless the beta readers (who now have the manuscript in hand) find something Irrevocably Broken, this is the draft that will go to Madame the Editor, who will, in the fullness of time, request such revisions and/or clarifications as seem Good to her.

For those playing along at home, the final score is 106,715 words.  This was more than I expected, but as explained elsewhere, the villain was chewing up the scenery and I let her have her head.

Or, yanno, she would’ve had mine.

So! What this writer is doing today, as a reward for having been a Good Writer and finished a book (the third book completed this year here at the Confusion Factory) is:

1.  A podcast interview (with Steve), rescheduled from yesterday
2.  Cleaning up All The Stuff Trooper threw down from those High Places that he has made his own, and deciding where in ghod’s name to put it
3.  Doing the laundry
4. Waiting for the electrician to manifest, sometime after noon
5. Paying the bills and balancing the checkbook
6.  I’m also considering vacuuming the house — but that might make for too heady a celebration

The next book (the first of the five interlaced Liaden books that will comprise the end of the Agent of Change/Theo Waitley story line) is due on May 15, 2014.  We have a short story due in September, and I ought to write an Archers Beach short story — actually two, per character request — but, in essence, for today at least. . .

I never have to write again!

. . .and that feels swell.

#SFWApro