Elizabeth Moon's Blog, page 124

Health Care: Exposing the Lies

It's not just "confusion" about health care...it's deliberate bald-faced lies spread by those who profit from the status quo...and that includes too many Congresscritters, all for-profit health insurance companies, and a slew of right-wing radio and TV commentators.

I live in a state where both US Senators, many US Congresscritters, the governor, and the state legislators in mass are lying like wall-to-wall carpets about this (and other things, but for the moment, let's go with health care.)  I'v

Red Crossbows and Paks books updates

At ArmadilloCon, I was playing with a pretty little toy crossbow and some goldfish crackers.   Now there's a picture of the bow up at the Paksworld blog.    These bows are available from New World Arbalest.   I think they come in red and green both.  Or plain wood.

Oath of Fealty is now well into the production schedule, and I will be getting page proofs in another few weeks.  More details on that and cover art at the blog.

The Trip

I came home from ArmadilloCon fairly wiped out, but got myself unpacked, the laundry done, and repacked by midnight (more or less) Sunday night.   Also did the online check-in and printing out of boarding pass thing.  And woke before the alarm Monday (because that's what I do when worried that I'll oversleep.  I undersleep...)  

I was flying out of Killeen, not Austin, which I thought would save transfer time at DFW, since both flights were American Eagle and thus (usually, but not always as I fo

Home Again

Back from South Carolina, which was cooler, vastly greener, with gorgeous big trees and green grass--and very friendly people whose company I enjoyed.

The trip home took longer than planned (weather and delays) but I'm home.  About to hit the sack (THUD!)

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Literally.  I'm back from ArmadilloCon (a few hours ago--the laundry from that excursion has just been taken in from the clothesline smelling of very hot sunshine) and tomorrow morning I leave for South Carolina, to speak at Clemson University.

ArmadilloCon was fun as usual.   There was the crossbow (small, red, throws goldfish crackers a nice distance--also throws M&Ms but you don't want to use those in a room with a carpet in case someone steps on the ammo before you can retrieve it.)    There

Writer's Block: The Right to Privacy

Should some parts of celebrities' lives be off-limits to the public, or is giving up privacy a fair price for being famous?

View other answers

<!-- end .appwidget-qotd -->Everybody needs some privacy.   Celebrities have a right to be human--and humans don't need to be squashed every second of every day.  Trespassing and obstructing should be illegal anywhere they're not, and the hordes of pushy, noisy "news media" should be run out of town.    And the rest of us need to mind our own business and not give a flip if some cel

Travel, Crowds, etc.

Today I'm trying to get out of the house for ArmadilloCon.  Should be at the hotel by now.  I'm not, obviously.

I did get my hair washed.  But then I ran into Other Stuff.   Had I remembered to wash the right clothes?  Despite loads of laundry this week?   Of course not.   I suddenly realized I needed to print out what I'm going to read.  Had I done that?  Are you kidding?   I needed to print out the gorgeous, heart-stoppingly beautiful cover to the new book...which meant finding the good printer

Cover Art for UK edition of Deed

My editor at Orbit UK has let me post the cover of their edition of The Deed of Paksenarrion on the Paksworld blog.

I'll give y'all the same reminder I gave the blog denizens: the purpose of the cover art is to attract the right readers for that book--people who will enjoy it.   Accuracy is not the point:  selling books is the point.   This is a very striking cover, eye-catching and evocative.  Does the figure in the foreground look like Paks?  Not really.  So what?   Is the armor exactly right? 

Bread Yet Again

Today I made the challah--having finally pulled my act together--to thank our neighbors who gave us the eggs.  A loaf for them.  A loaf for us.  Guess how much of our loaf is left....

Well, it's not quite all gone, but it probably will be, by bedtime. 

I need to go back to making "daily bread" (whole wheat) because it's not quite as enticing.   Then again, it's ArmadilloCon this weekend, and I should take some really good homemade bread down with me to share.

Then again I need to not wear myself o

The Writing Life: Revising Book Two

There's a post on the Paksworld blog about the work I'm doing on Book Two of the current group, but I've done more work since then, too.  Still, you might be interested in what's there, as it deals with some technical bits about backfilling the underpinnings.

As some of you may recall from a year ago,  I was working frantically on Book One, now Oath of Fealty, which had a December deadline.   At this point, book one had already started to balloon, and I was only a couple of weeks away from going