Sarah A. Hoyt's Blog, page 101

Ask

If you need it, ask!

So, now you’re looking at me like I have three heads and all of them are made of Spanish Crystal. And somewhere one of you is looking at the ceiling, which we all know is where G-d resides, and asking “She’s saying that? SHE? When her family went through times from heck because for years she refused to put up a donation button? The woman who refused to have a blog fundraiser for twelve years, despite Jerry Pournelle himself telling her to do it? Is this a joke?”

Ch...

Slacker

Sorry guys, I feel like I’ve been really bad this week, and like I’m a complete slacker.

It’s just been hard to concentrate, partly because the autoimmune is really bad, partly because there’s a lot of family/home stuff going on. All good, but distracting, you know?

So the writing is coming back, but always comes back “fun stuff first.”

I did send Barbarella out, but I haven’t finished the short story. Probably tomorrow, but by the time I gave up because

It was too late to wr...

BLAH

So it occurs to me I should let you know I’m alive.

It’s just Cheese! Penguins! Wife!

Which in our house is the way to say “I’m going nuts.”

I’m really late on all deadlines. The pred prescription is held up, and benadryl messes me up. (Is held up. We changed insurance. Things are being weird, yo.) So I can take benadryl and not work because I feel drunk, or not take benadryl and itch all night and not sleep.

BUT I’m finishing the refargain Barbarella script before my editor trusses me l...

I Wanna Be Loved By You

This is not going to be a long post. Look, we had to go to the doctor because my back is blowing up with eczema, and I’m picking up a prescription for prednisone later.

I’m not as bad as most people on prednisone. Or perhaps I’m just naturally nicer or something. I don’t get “raging *sshole syndrome.” It just removes my governor, so if you get on my nerves I will be what Heinlein called a fool or a sadist. (Only a fool or a racist tells the unvarnished truth in social settings – RAH.) Bu...

Blurbs, Covers, expectations and Rumors

Yesterday, while I was in the middle of an overdue short story (no, not that one, another one. Look, when you’re sick for a solid two months, you end up being late on a lot of things) one of the regulars (Janglionpress) left a comment on my blog which was jaw droppingly stupid.

Part of the reason it was jaw-droppingly stupid is that it amounted to “tell me you never read the book you’re complaining about without telling me you never read the book you’re complaining about.” The other part ...

Grown Up Matters

There is a saying “Personal isn’t the same thing as important” which goes with a certain type of character. It’s not right, but it illustrates the type of character who is utterly devoted to something to the exclusion of self beautifully.

In the same way, there should be a saying that “important isn’t the same thing as political” because it’s true, and because thinking it is drives me bonkers and also prevents any grown up conversations which actually do need to happen, in favor of shout...

This Is A Post

Okay, I lied. It’s just some memes and links.

I am better, but I’m slammed under deadlines. Also woke up with massive headache. Ibuprofen has it at manageable levels, but still annoying. Yeah, I might have messed up my sinuses by being an idiot. (Long story.) Anyway, that’s probably the headache. Or it could be the fact I’m under crisscrossing deadlines and desperately want to write the thing that doesn’t need to be written. Because….

Because I’m going to have to take my muse in the back l...

This Is Not A Post

So once the coughening was done, and with deadlines looming, my body did what? Well, it caught something else, apparently consisting of sore throat, aching head, fever and nausea.

Contrary to popular belief my immune system is not weak. My immune system is very strong, but it attacks only me, while extending the welcome mat to everything that tries to invade. (Um…. my immune system is Brandon. Great.)

Anyway, remember the hula-baloo about “long covid”? It’s not just covid — which I ha...

The Weight of History a blast from the past from February 2018

The Weight of History a blast from the past from February 2018

I realized the other day that I was born the same distance from the end of World War II as we are now from 9/11.

It seems like a weird idea.  After all, 9/11 happened yesterday, just about.  I remember the shock, and worrying about Dan (he was working in DC at the time) and bringing out the bourbon and frying doughnuts.  I remember months of not being able to think straight.

But WWII was ancient history when I was bo...

Parsing Words

Important issues should be discussed in language we understand the meaning of.

The recent trend of dictionaries changing meanings according to the howling of the crazy people is wrong, but frankly, so is the howling which gets in sane people’s heads and replaces the meaning of some words with a howling sound of outrage and the sense of “DON’T”. After that the howling-word starts getting applied to everything vaguely adjacent whether benign, malign, indifferent, or simply something a polit...