Sarah A. Hoyt's Blog, page 336

A Quick Note

I really hope to put a post later. The problem is I expected that yesterday too, but one trip to the old house turned into five, finishing at 9 pm.

The movers are making their second and might be last moving day on Wednesday. Before then we need to pack, sort, donate, etc. It’s not so much the stuff we unpacked (very little.) It’s the stuff that’s semi-sorted, as we’ve been sorting and culling possessions for two months.

And then (yeah, he won. With arguments. We won too, in a way. One year,...

Optimism and Despair

Some time ago some people did a study and decided that people who were mildly depressed had a better grip on their circumstances and chances than those who were optimistic.

Note two things there, the first being MILDLY depressed and the second being THEIR chances and circumstances. I.e. when you are evaluating your own life, you are, arguably, in possession of more facts than people looking in from the outside. You know your spouse, children, whoever is around your immediate surroundings, and...

Winter IS coming

I’m not stealing this from a series I neither read or watch. I am echoing it from many discussions recently in which the phrase is used like a short code for “things are gonna get rough.”

Yesterday I was at village inn (don’t judge me. Our very rare violation of no-carbs, no-sweets is in the minor form of no sugar apple pie about once every two months. On Wednesday, of course. Which is how I realized it was Wednesday. Sorry I didn’t do MGC guys. Things are still confusing.) and a group of wom...

Cats -Dave Freer

Cats -Dave Freer

“Like herding cats” (we approve of people who don’t herd).

I grew up on “The cat that walked by himself (and all places are alike to him – well not really, but that the cat’s story and he’s sticking to it.) We’re cat people and dog people – three cats and three dogs we moved through quarantine from South Africa to Australia, and it cost around $26K which, although I managed to raise 11K from selling SAVE THE DRAGONS for it, came close to bankrupting us. There were good reason...

In Between

The office is almost done. The bedroom is half unpacked. We have a fridge, but I need to go and remove all the protective plastic from everywhere. Village Inn will be disappointed. They quite counted us as breakfast regulars by now. (I don’t have milk for my coffee and if I drink it black, the acid tears up my stomach.)

The cats are still locked up. Will be dealing with them momentarily, after I set up the boxes. Havelock is sure there’s been some terrible mistake and keeps trying to explain....

Good Morning Blog

This post is coming at you from a new evil lair of evil, high up on the Rocky Mountains, so new that the dungeons still have that fresh paint smell and the only blood stains are where the carpenter hit himself with the hammer.

Okay, the house is not actually new, but it’s the first house we’ve lived in since 1989 that was built AFTER World War II, so it seems new to me.

We don’t have a fridge till tomorrow, only half of our stuff is here, the rest being still at the other house (that move is...

Worldbuilding: a question of depth – Sabrina Chase

*The resident blog owner is frantically packing her office, so she can frantically unpack her office at the other end and then frantically finish a book. How in h*ll this move feels “surprise” I don’t know, except we didn’t expect the deal to go through till last minute. And because it was a short sale, I’m on phone to contractors twenty four seven, even in my sleep, mostly trying to get estimates. It was hilarious to have the doctor come in late to her office, and I’m on the phone. I think s...

Measuring Men

When I was very young, 12 or so, I thought you could judge people only by the descendants they left behind.

In a way, that has a certain validity. I mean, if you don’t have children, your genetics aren’t going to show up in future humanity.

It took me years to realize that people like Shakespeare and Heinlein had left countless non-genetic descendants. For Shakespeare, arguably, most of western civ. For Heinlein, only the future will tell, but I’m sort of hoping he’ll be the father of many ne...

Guys I REALLY will post later

Right now I have eczema all over my body (not an exaggeration) and I’m going to see the doctor.

Switching Genres – Peter Grant

Switching Genres – Peter Grant

I’ve just had the fun of publishing my first Western novel. In the process, I’m learning a lot about marketing across different genres and categories, and its implications for success.

‘Brings The Lightning’ is a considerable departure from my earlier science fiction novels, plus one volume of memoir; but there are also similarities. Someone – I have no idea who – is alleged to have said that “Space opera is Westerns with rayguns”. Sounds reasonable to me, par...