Shameless Self-Promotion – Page 25

I bet you say that to all the boys

So, let’s see — Amazon is taking pre-orders of Alliance of Equals, which is kind of crazy, but there you have it.

For those who like autographed copies, we have spoken to Mr. Blyly at Uncle Hugo’s and he professes himself willing to do the not-inconsiderable amount of extra work to make signed copies available. However! He would (rationally, in my opinion) like to wait until next year to place Alliance in his catalog, so that he doesn’t have to do even more extra work, like calling people whose credit cards have expired during the nine months between now and the book’s publication date.

Bottom line: If you want a signed copy of Alliance of Equals, which is scheduled for publication on July 5, 2016, Uncle Hugo’s will be taking pre-orders. We’ll tell you when. Or: Watch the skies.

In other news, I made bread, yesterday.

This isn’t a particularly new thing; I like to make bread, and do so pretty often, but I have been on a Quest for a way to make sandwich bread for Steve. Sandwich bread being uniformly square, and easy to cut, and (this is me) tastes like something other than paper, and doesn’t become glue in your mouth.

This has been an Uphill Quest, and I was honestly despairing — my bread tends to…reject uniformity as a lifestyle choice, which, given the household, isn’t particularly surprising. I’d about given up, and then, entirely by accident, I found this. “This” being, in case the link expires at some point, a 13x4x4 inch Pullman Pan.

Here are pictures of my Pullman Pan:

Observant readers will note that this pan had a lid, which keeps the bread from rising into a weird humped shape unsuitable for sandwiches.

This is what my first finished loaf looked like:

Yes! It’s square(ish) and regularly shaped and altogether a Thing of Beauty. On top of that, it tastes great, and sliced (as you can see, above) thin. I think we’re on the road to having a winner, here.

I’ll note that the loaf did not rise quite as much as I thought it should. Next time I’ll add rise time, because (1) our house is chilly, in bread-risin’ terms, and (2) I’m using whole wheat flour (King Arthur’s White Whole Wheat, in this case, which tends to be heavy lifting for yeast).

Also (my besetting sin) I combined two Pullman (aka pain de mie) recipes to make My Own, and I probably should have made one of the canonical recipes, first, to see how it’s Supposed To Look.

(For those interested, here are the two recipes I combined. Honey-Oat Pain de Mie. Pain de Mie.)

(Also, for those who may be wondering, “Pullman” is a shout-out to the Pullman train cars of yore, which, among other things, provided meals for their passengers. Pullman bread was developed because it went together fast and always produced a uniform loaf that sliced thin, and was good for sandwiches and toast.)

Yesterday also included writing, as will today. With luck and a tailwind, we’ll break 45,000 today, and something came clear about the structure just this morning, as the caffeine kicked in, so that will be helpful when it comes time to braid the various threads.

And that’s all the news from the Confusion Factory today

I wish a Blessed Samhain to all who celebrate.

Today’s blog post brought to you by Meatloaf, “Hot Summer Night.” Here’s your link.

And for the Facebook peeps, here’s a picture of Belle, trying out the unmade bed:

In which you may now pre-mug

Offworld Designs has added pre-orders for the Brand! New! 11 oz Liaden mug to their Liaden Universe® Store!

Here’s your link.

Yes! You can have your very own tree-and-dragon ceramic mug in time for the winter holidays! I gotta tell you, hot chocolate tasted great in the previous iteration of mugs, and I’m betting? That it’ll taste even better in the new mugs!

You will also find in the Offworld Designs Liaden Universe® store the opportunity to order tree-and-dragon denim, polo, and t-shirts. Remember that these items are printed/embroidered in batches, so plan ahead for gift-giving.

* * *

In other news, we will tomorrow! entertain the Generator Guys. They plan to arrive at a Truly UnGhodly Hour — I believe Seven-Thirty A M was quoted — and go to it, making lots of noise and turning the electricity on and off. Steve mentioned that, all this being so, I might want to arrange to work Somewhere Else tomorrow, and so I shall do.

Today turned into a Day Off, by which I mean, no writing/editing/revision happened. Mundane errands — including a doctor’s visit, and grocery shopping — took place. We also snuck in a ride through the rapidly falling fall, and a pleasant lunch at the Flatlanda. I still need to clean out the cat fountain, while Steve preps the Engine Room for the arrival of the Generator Guys, and then this day is over. I’ll hit the couch with my book, and plan an early night, given the projected Moment of Arrival for our guests.

I did make a discovery today in the doctor’s waiting room. Television is really irritating. So, OK; I knew that. But, honestly, three grown women going on and on about whether or not they would permit their husbands/SOs to have a “work wife?” Please. I wanted to read my book, obviously, but the volume was such that reading. . .was difficult.

So, I’ve added to my list of necessities when visiting doctors/hospitals/waiting rooms in general — earplugs.

As reported elsewhere, yesterday, The Gathering Edge now stands at 39,525 (which is to say it has gained about 4,590 words; I’ve Outright Removed about 500, and played fast and loose with a bunch of sentences and paragraphs, which is the nature of revision). I have another 20 pages of the Big Narrative Lump to go through and bring up to trim, and then I believe we may proceed in a forwarder direction with style and confidence.

. . .and I think that’s all the news that’s fit to print.

Trooper and Sprite, sharing the bookshelf in my office:

Say, there; wanna get mugged?

Some of you will remember those halcyon days of yesteryear, when, among the other Wild and Crazy Things that were coming out of the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory were — Tree-and-Dragon mugs, produced in support of the original publication of I Dare, in February 2002.

Thirteen years ago. Wow.

We never did another run of mugs because, boy, were they breakable — and whimsical, too. We’d ship four in a Special Mug Mailing Box; three would arrive in pristine condition, while the fourth was a little mound of cobalt blue rubble. We replaced the broken mugs, of course, so the whole experiment was. . .somewhat more stressful than was useful for anyone.

In the interest of History! Here is a picture, front and back, of one of those original mugs, still in use at the Confusion Factory as of. . .today, actually:

Old Mug TWO — Back of mug. You can see that the letters are chipping, though the mug itself has held up really well.

Front of mug, with my breakfast. The tree-and-dragon is chipping badly.

Well, after 13 years and many requests from mug owners, whose mugs are in similar straits, and from folks who never even got the chance to buy a mug — we’ve partnered with Offworld Designs, the same folks who brought you the Liaden Universe® tees, polos, and denims, to do a run of all new coffee mugs.

This is a mock-up of what the new mugs will look like:

NOTE: The mugs are not yet ready for prime time. You will be able to order them in time for Christmas. As soon as the ordering page is live, we’ll let y’all know.

Tea for the tillerman, steak for the sun, wine for the woman who made the rain come

Shameless self-promotion first! The interview we did with John Mierau is now Live! On the Internet! The first segment is Greg Miller talking about his adventures with Kinda Funny, then Lee and Miller describing our adventures in crowdfunding across the centuries. Here’s your link.

As I probably failed to mention here, I spent a good portion of last Saturday digging in the dirt. We did at last bury Mozart’s ashes in the Cat Garden, where he joins Socks and Hexapuma, Max!, Patia, Kodi, and Nicky.

After a brief Ceremony of Remembrance, and seeing as I had the shovel and the rake out in the middle of a sunny, if slightly chilly October day, I took it upon myself to thin the daffodils, which had been needing attention. Boy, had they. I transplanted some of the gathered bulbs into the cat garden, but still had over three pounds of bulbs left. I put out a call on Facebook, and a kind friend down-coast claimed all three pounds. Which of course meant that Steve and I had to drive to the beach yesterday, in order to hand over the goods.

It was a fine day for a drive. We made the delivery, then hit the beach, where it was. . .a little chilly. We took a walk, went out to Saco to have lunch at Salt Bay, and went back down to the beach for another walk, and to say hello to Googin’s Rock. On the way home, we stopped The Dairy Corner for ice cream — Steve had pumpkin ice cream in a cone; I had mint chocolate chip in a cup.

Today, having spoken yet again to the insurance company, I need to get to work.

Later.

Today’s blog title brought to you by Cat Stevens, “Tea for the Tillerman.” Here’s your link.

Here, have a picture of me, standing outside of Myst (which was closed), looking across the circle to the carousel.

Sharon at Old Orchard Beach, October 5 2015. Photo by Steve Miller

In which progress progresses

So, yesterday. . .

I had some bagels from the bakery down on Bay Street. Let me just say. . .Worst. Bagel. EVER. Steve asked me what was wrong with it. I said, “Christian bagel.” Seriously, bagels shouldn’t crumb like bread. Also? Ideally, they should taste like. . .bagels.

Anyhow, I gave Steve a ten dollar bill and asked him to please stop at Bagel Mania on his way home from getting his car’s oil changed and tires rotated to buy me some REAL bagels.

Ten bucks buys 15 bagels from Bagel Mania, most of which are now residing in the freezer, but of course I held some out for Immediate Consumption, and had one for breakfast this morning. Mmmmm, bagel.

After the Great Bagel Influx, and lunch, we went down to the contractor’s office, credit card in hand, and put half down on the generator. It has to be ordered in, so the installation date at this point is the ever-popular “couple of weeks.” Part of today’s excitement will be to call the propane company and get ourselves on their radar.

Then we went for a Plot Drive, up and aroundish, through Athens, Harmony, Canaan, and suchlike. Back home, I discovered Yet Another communication from the ACA, instructing me to immediately do something that it was impossible to do, even though meticulous following of their directions did not produce the described result (Honest to ghu, the ACA has gotten me to the point that I doubt my own sanity. I had Steve come into my office to read and follow the instructions, and — they didn’t work for him, either. What a relief.)

After that, we threw in the towel and watched Big Hero 6. The coon cats are big Baymax fans, while Scrabble’s hero is GoGo.

Today started with a phone call to the ACA to be Perfectly Sure that the urgent email could be ignored. Then, I called the local health insurance provider and had them go through my regular meds, and. . .today I will regretfully be moving my prescriptions to Hannaford, where the cost for all three will be $0, as opposed to $110.

I’m really ambivalent about this; I’ve been with CVS since we moved to Waterville — twenty years and counting — but money talks.

And I’m really ambivalent about that.

For those who may have an interest, the Seventh and Last Week of the Do It Like A Delm Challenge began yesterday! We have three entrants so far, but we’re waiting to see yours!

Here’s a link to the rules.

Here’s a link to this week’s entries thus far.

Speaking of Doing It Like A Delm, Offworld Designs is (again) taking orders for Liaden Universe® t-shirts, polos, and long-sleeve denim. In addition to looking positively delm-like on you, these shirts make fine presents. I hear there’s a Big, Present-Giving Holiday coming up in a few months — and here’s the thing you need to pay attention to: OffWorld Designs makes embroiders and screenprint these to order. That means that they wait until they have a Big Pile of orders before doing the printing and embroidery. So you want to order early (and often) if you want to be sure to have gifts for Christmas.

Here’s your link to Offworld Designs Liaden Universe® infopage. NOTE: you need to click the thumbnails for pricing and product details.

In Weather News, we here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory are at about a week of rain, starting this afternoon, so if I want to go into town, I’d better get moving.

Here, have a picture of Trooper waiting for the rain.

Trooper's not worried about no stinkin' rain. — Trooper’s not worried about no stinkin’ rain.

In which Rolanni ruminates while the laundry runs

As most of you know, Steve and I started a Patreon account back in the early part of the year (it’s here, if you’d like to take a look), and we’ve slowly been slipping a little into the community over there. As mentioned elsewhere, we did an interview with John Mierau for Patreon, and on Friday, we participated in a “Hang Time” in which the CEO of Patreon, Jack Conte, Happiness Team member Taryn Arnold, and creator Shayla Maddox discussed innovations, plans, and the whole idea of patronage as a income stream for artists.

Regarding the patron model — Shayla mentioned that she had “lost friends” when she set up her Patreon account, because some felt that it was unseemly for a creator to “beg” for money. Jack responded that, if the patronage model was good enough for Mozart, it was good enough for him, and launched into a riff regarding How It Had Been (a rich person would find an artist/creator, like what he was doing, and give him money to continue doing it), to how it is now (an artist/creator sells their work to a middleman, who then tidies it up, distributes it, and splits the take, with the artist/creator getting the lesser split, even though without the artist/creator the middleman would have nothing to distribute, and therefore no profit. Which is kind of a Yeah, But. . .).

They also touched on the phenomenon of artists feeling that they always need to “give” in order to receive — we talked about this in our interview, too. It was a fascinating discussion, and I’m glad we took the time to participate.

In line with that, Steve and I are thinking about something we might do, first for Patreon subscribers, and then into general circulation, so to be speak. We need to figure out if We Have The Technology, and/or Can We Easily Acquire and Learn to Use The Technology. Watch the skies.

In the Real World, and still on the general subject of Patreon, the contractor’s estimate for installing the generator has arrived. It’s looking like right around $6,000 to purchase and install the generator itself, including the pad, and the wiring, and the switch, and etcetera. Now that we have this in-hand, along with an estimated date of installation, we can call Dead River and find out how much it will cost to install the propane tanks, and fill them.

At This Point In Time, given the Total Craziness and Complete Uncertainty surrounding my health insurance costs and what will have to be “paid back” to the Federal Government with our 2015 taxes, we are putting 50% of all income received into the tax account. Hopefully, this will prove to be an over-reaction, but we really, really don’t want to be caught short of tax money, given the depleted condition of the general treasury.

We do again want to thank everyone who pitched in to help get us through this (hopefully brief) period of financial disarray, and give us the freedom to move forward with the installation of the generator. PayPal, Patreon, checks in the mail, cheerleading — it all helps immensely and is very much appreciated.

In other news — InstaGram tells me that there is a way for me to convert my WordPress blog into a “beautiful and compliant” epub or mobi file. While I’m willing to believe that of course any such conversion will be beautiful, I’m pretty sure that it won’t be compliant. Just a feeling. . .

In Exciting News, we have a winner for Week Six of the Do It Like A Delm Challenge — Elaine Walker! See the winning photograph, with links to All the Challengers, from Week One forward, right here.

Tomorrow, Monday, September 28, starts the Final Challenge Week. If you were thinking about enlisting in the Challenge — this is your last chance!

Also! Wednesday is September 30. Do you know where your copy of A Night In The Lonesome October is?

And, for the curious, a cameo shot of the Pink Robe:

The pink robe, modeled by Sharon Lee. Photo by Steve Miller

Cons, Coon Cats, and Boring Health Stuff

This is in the nature of a catch-up post.

For those who have been following along with the numbers game at home, the latest information garnered from the latest blood test is that the 1 mg dose of thyroid medicine is a winner. The poor pituitary has stopped with overtime manufacturing of kick-me hormones for the thyroid, and the thyroid is producing numbers in the normal range without being kicked, and — this being the important part — I am fully awake and at optimum crankiness and sarcasm levels for the first time in. . .years.

Come to think of it, that should serve as a Public Service Announcement.

Also — this repeats news shared on Facebook yesterday evening — I have successfully concluded a project years in the making — a ceiling fan in my office. I’m so happy — I can’t tell you. Here’s a picture:

. . .isn’t it BEAUtiful?

I have been reminded to remind y’all that! Registration for BaltiCon 50, held over Memorial Day Weekend, May 27-30, 2016, at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel, is now open. Here’s the direct link.

In addition to Guests of Honor George RR Martin, John Picacio, Bill and Gretchen Roper, and Martin Deutsch and Shirley Avery, BaltiCon 50 aims to welcome back as many of the con’s previous Guests of Honors as are interested and able to come. So far, 21 Alumni GoHs have agreed to return for BaltiCon’s 50th anniversary, including Steve and me (Writer GoHs, BaltiCon 37, 2003).

This is a big, big project, and BaltiCon is asking for your help in funding the travel for the returning GoHs. There’s a donation page here, where you may donate to your favorite GoHs. (Yes, I know that Steve and I are listed separately; I don’t know what’s up with that, but at the bottom line, I don’t think it actually matters.)

BaltiCon 50 is also selling a limited edition promotional tshirt in order to raise funds. You can view and/or purchase a tshirt here.

Finally, for all the latest news about BaltiCon 50, you can sign up for the Twitter feed: @balticon50

This is a Hard Writing Weekend, which means I’ll be somewhat scarce on the web. The beginning of next week includes an interview, and a visit from the generator guy, as well as Yet Another Phone Call to the health insurance company, which seems stuck in an Endless Loop of sending me a form I’ve now filled out and returned three times, while at the same time being unable to generate a monthly invoice. Sigh. Also, the Colby Art Museum is hosting an Open House on Thursday evening. I always like to go to the Art Open House. So, not an insanely busy week, but busy enough with mundane things — and writing, too.

Extra credit paragraph: From the Department of Anthropomorphism, Cats Are Not Social Committee, we have the following Observer Report.

This morning, I was sitting at the kitchen table finishing the wonderful tuna melt Steve had made for breakfast. I have a direct line of sight into the living room from my place at the kitchen table, and was able to see Trooper in the cat hammock, Belle stretched out on the rug close to the kitchen, near, but not on, the cat scratchers. Sprite walked into the living room, fell on Belle, cleaned her up, cleaned herself, up, cleaned Belle up and in due time, as frequently happens, the grooming morphed into a wrasslin’ match.

This morning’s match was. . .vigorous. Sprite broke twice, but came back, and Belle, seeming slightly put-upon, finally threw her Whole Being into the thing, grabbing Sprite around the waist and kicking her in the stomach. There were no growls, but Belle, at least, was clearly intent on teaching Sprite a lesson, rather than savoring the Joy of the Wrassle.

Sprite tried to break a third time — Belle wouldn’t let her. Sprite renewed her efforts to get free, Belle held her closer. I was on the edge of producing a loud, “Ahem!” when. . .

Trooper jumped down from the hammock and approached the melee.

Belle let go of Sprite and twisted to her feet to face him; Sprite escaped to the hall, where she sat down and began to groom her shoulder. Trooper walked directly up to Belle, tail slightly higher than straight behind, but not a full upward sweep, and put his nose against hers. She allowed this — then swatted him in the head.

Trooper went back a couple steps and walked carefully around her, as if he was going to go check on Sprite. In fact, he paused by the television stand, where he could see her in the hall, cleaning up, stroked his cheek against the wood a couple times, turned, and went back to the cat hammock.

Belle began to bathe.

I stood up and got myself another cup of coffee.

Everybody have a nice weekend.

In which it is Monday, but not quite the beginning of the work week

So we here in the US have an end-of-summer holiday which we call Labor Day, a day devoted to drinking beer, eating grilled food, ritually mowing the lawn, and in general striving to forget that tomorrow, Tuesday, will be the end of a nice three-day-weekend, that summer is, indeed, over, and the next work holiday is Thanksgiving Day. Unless one works retail, of course.

Steve and I took a strange, fragmented little vacation at Old Orchard Beach — we went down together for a night, so we could both see the Thursday fireworks; I went home on Friday, returning on Monday, when Steve went home, returning on Thursday so we could both see the Thursday fireworks, and then removing the whole encampment back to Central Maine on Friday. I read a lot, walked a lot, and in general vegged out. It was great.

Real work will recommence on the morrow, with such things on the roster as a visit to the vampyres (to determine if the new dosage of my thyroid meds has done the trick); a call to the town to determine its interests and necessities in the matter of siting generators — and, depending on what we learn there, subsequent phone calls to various contractor-type persons. We will also be taking up the writing reins again — at the moment, we have two short stories and a novel on our plates — and will be winding the week down with a small natal day celebration.

While we were away, Madame the Agent let us know that Dragon in Exile, the eighteenth novel set in the Liaden Universe® created by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, is Number 6 on the Locus Bestselling Hardcover List for June 2015 (reported in the September issue). Number 1 is Seveneves, by Neal Stephenson, and the funny thing about that is that Neal was in Boston doing a tour in support of his book the day before we were in Boston, doing a tour in support of our book.

Small world.

While I was on vacation, Eset decided to Protect Me from posting to my own blog. I am therefore reproducing here an account of one of my walks, which I would have posted here, but which instead went to Facebook (because Eset thinks Facebook is Totally Safe?). Anyhow, here’s that entry, for those of you who don’t Facebook, and for me, so that I actually have some hope of finding it again.

September 2, 2015, reporting from New Temp Headquarters, Old Orchard Beach, Maine

So, this morning’s walk. . .

I left New Temp Headquarters and walked up East Grand to Old Orchard Street, took the left at 1st Street and walked through Veteran’s Square Memorial Garden, up Heath Street to see if the A-Z Market (in the Old Orchard Beach timeline) had ever really come back after their “temporary” closing, three years ago. The answer to that is…sorta. There’s a kind of lunch counter/video rental/wine shop in a much, much smaller space than the old IGA occupied. Happily, in Archers Beach, Ahzie’s IGA is doing fine.

Curiosity satisfied, I continued up Heath Street to Portland Avenue, to Walnut Street, took a left on Leavitt Street and walked to the end, to see how far I could walk along the old road to the ustabe Kite Track. Answer — about 500 feet before the trenvay who cares for that land noticed me and obscured the path with bushes and leaves. I can take a hint, so I turned around and headed back the way I’d come. Just before I hit the asphalt of Leavitt Street, an acorn flew out from one of the surrounding trees and struck the path at my feet. I know a gift when I see one, too. I murmured, “thank you,” put the acorn in my pocket and moved on.

Leavitt to Walnut, Walnut to Grande, and so again to New Temp Headquarters, 4,671 steps, or 1.7 miles on the odometer.

I do believe I’ll have that third cup of coffee.

Labor Day or no Labor Day, today is the beginning of Week Four in the Do It Like A Delm Challenge! You can view the challengers — and the winners! — for the previous three weeks here (the drop-down link in the menu is your friend).

Want to join in the fun? Of course you do! Rules to enter the challenge may be found here.

Sprite being Quietly Pleased that we’re home.

Don’t be afraid; it’s only Johnny Dhu

I shall sum up.

1. Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume 3 (in paper) is temporarily out of stock. There are still books in the distribution stream, though Amazon is presently only offering it for sale through third-party vendors, and Baen has said that they will be reprinting. In the meantime, if you need a book now, remember those third party vendors — especially Uncle Hugo’s, where there are still at least a dozen signed copies available. Here’s your link.

2. On Monday, we put out a call for help in spreading the word regarding our effort to increase the monthly pledge level at our Patreon account to $2,000, so that we can get a generator in here before winter falls on our heads. At this moment, we have $2,004.50 in monthly pledges. You guys. . .You’re just awesome.

3. Pursuant to #2, above, we yesterday had Mike the Master Electrician in to scope out the place and make recommendations for generators. This is going to be complicated, involving site prep, a visit from Central Maine Power, from the propane company, and Mike himself. Still, barring a stupidly early winter, we ought to be able to get this thing done in good time.

4. We are into Week Two of the Do It Like a Delm Challenge — you may view the current entries here. Remember! Each week’s winner will be awarded a coupon good for a free Baen ebook of their choice. Plus, yanno, we’d really like to see what y’all are up to. Here are the contest rules.

5. Trying to get your friends and acquaintances “hooked” on the Liaden Universe®? Of course, you are! Remember that Agent of Change (the Very First Liaden book ever written) and Fledging (the book that starts the Theo arc) are free! from Amazon and from the Baen Free Library.

6. Belle and Trooper have been helping me write:

Today’s blog title brought to you by Gaelic Storm, “Beggerman.” Here’s your link.

Words could never explain, I just wish it would rain

So, let’s see. . .

It’s hot, for Maine values of hot, and it’s gonna get hotter. Next week, in fact, is looking to be a scorcher from edge to edge. Well. . .it is August.

Let’s see, today started with the arrival in the mail of the eroyalty checks. Steve and I will therefore be having a week at the ocean, for a much-needed ohmighodwillthisyearjustSTOPalready break. We have Planned this excursion so that we will have two viewings of fireworks over the sea. Clever, no?

Today also encompassed Cleaning, which meant a strategic deployment of the Cat Eating Machine, which did not find favor with the Feline Contingent, as Per Usual, though they seem to have forgiven me, now. I suspect it may be too hot for even a cat to hold a grudge.

I’m taking a blog-writing break from cleaning off my desk, which has become cluttered with notes that had been sitting on the kitchen table, Awaiting Attention. Sigh. We really need a House Desk. And a House Secretary, why not, while we’re at it.

In other news, the Alien Artifacts and Were anthology Kickstarter campaign has passed the $9,000 mark, which means that! Two new anchor authors have been added: C.S. Friedman, and David Farland/Dave Wolverton.

Though the goal of this campaign is $10,000; I would just like to point out a stretch goal to those who may be on the fence. If funding reaches $15,000? All the authors in both anthologies will receive a penny a word raise! Lest you scoff at the power of a mere penny — for a 5,000 word story, that’s an extra $50, which is more than enough to buy a lobster dinner where I live.

Here’s the link to the Alien Artifacts/Were Kickstarter.

Also! Monday, August 17 — that’s the day after tomorrow! — we will begin receiving and posting your photographs in the Do It Like a Delm challenge. Rules and general information may be found at this link.

Today’s blog title brought to you by The Temptations, “I Wish It Would Rain.”

And — there are three cats in my office. Photographic proof: