Elizabeth Moon's Blog, page 121

Novelists, Inc

Though I've been a member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (thankfully shortened for everyday use to SFWA) for over 20 years now, I'm a newish member of Novelists, Inc (Ninc) as of last year.  So this year, I went to the Ninc annual conference for the first time, which is where I've been for the last few days.  

It's been a lovely experience.  Ninc is an organization for novelists in any genre, though it was founded by, and its membership is still dominated by, romance...

Book-bannings, brain-burnings

The notion that a book is inherently so bad that it should be banned started a long time ago (check out Plato's view of bad stories)  but to find the idea of book banning alive and well in a country that has long prided itself on allowing individual freedom is shocking.

And yet...over and over school and public librarians find themselves being asked to take certain books off the shelves.   Furious parents speak up at school board meetings, demanding that their children not have access to any b...

80 Acres and Paksworld posts

New posts are up at the 80 Acres blog (with pictures taken after the rains) and also on the Paksworld blog (no pictures.  Running late packing.  Again.)

I'm leaving today, but will be online some of the time during the long and complicated trip.

80 Acres: After 10 inches of rain

I've posted some pictures of the land on the 80 acres blog--after 10 inches of rain over 2 and a half weeks (most of it fell in a three day period, but the gentle following rains have done a lot of good.)  

Home, with Wetness

Yesterday I drove home through rain--a pleasant drive, all things considered, as traffic was light and drivers were being careful.    Better than the hot, muggy drive out on Sunday.

Now I'm dealing with the Stuff that always comes with a trip.   Back into revision on Book Two, planning the packing for the next trip (next week), etc. 

Schreiner University is a lovely campus and I enjoyed my day there, meeting faculty and students and talking too much (nearly lost my voice by the end of the...

Going, going, go....

Leaving shortly--be back late Tuesday.   I will have internet connectivity, but very VERY little time to make use of it, as I'll be in five classes Monday daytime, lunching with students, and then giving a program in the evening. 

And this evening, I'll be working on the second book of the new group.

Page Proofs Done

I mailed the page proofs off today, and to celebrate bought a program to make business cards with, since I'd left it too late to get them made by the next trip (er...tomorrow.)

Then I spent hours playing with the new toy, and my own images.  What I wanted, and had mocked up, was a faded version of the Paksworld map-strip (the map that will be in the new book, a north-south stripe) in brown and cream, but faded enough that the necessary date would show over it.  It looked good on the monitor...

80 Acres: a week after rain

I managed to get a few pictures of the place greening up quickly this past week.   They're online over at the 80acres blog.    Couldn't get out to do more because I had page proofs...which always take me longer than they should because I know I don't catch everything the first time through.

Storm aftermath

Total over three days: 8.5 inches.

The creek is not running on our land.  It has some puddles in it, obviously dirty floodwater puddles.  So 8.5 inches produced a flash-flood pulse of water, but no real flow.  This was also true of creeks crossed on the way home Sunday--signs of the flash floods, but no current in them.   Creekbeds here need to be wet to hold water, and the springs that feed them are probably still short of water...8.5 inches of rain (or even the 10 or 12 inches that some...

The Rain News

I came home from church and found that last night's "late rain" had added yet more, as I thought.   

So the total for Friday and Saturday was 8.2 inches.    Driving to and front church, and looking at the creeks and rivers, it looked like everything flooded some, but it was all or nearly all runoff:  the North and South San Gabriel rivers are running brown, the creeks all show evidence of a flood pulse yesteday but no clear trickles today.  Springs often take a few days to 'come up' even if...