Steven Harper's Blog, page 13

More Ice

 Ice day! No school again. We lost two days out of four last week, and now we're losing a day this week. We just can't get this semester off the ground.

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Surprise Cooking in the Cold

It's dangerously cold out there, and although the skies are clear, the streets are treacherous with ice and packed snow that won't melt, even with liberal applications of salt. Wherever Schools closed today, and then we got the announcement they're closed tomorrow, too. This was already a three-day weekend because the semester ended, and now it's stretching into a five-day! If I had known this was going to happen, I would have taken a trip somewhere warm.

During a normal week around here, Darwin gets home well after supper time two days in three, so I don't cook nearly as much I'd like. But the Village of Lake Orion has a policy that when the schools close, village hall also closes, and Darwin has been home, too. So I revved up the kitchen.

Yesterday I made chicken pot pie: hearty and hot and wonderful when it's freezing out.

Today I really went for it:

--Banana bread (to use up some overripe bananas)
--Regular bread (in the bread maker)
--Beef roast stuffed with bacon, onions, and carrots and covered in more bacon
--Mashed potatoes
--Butterscotch oatmeal cookies (made extra-crispy, the way Darwin likes them)

With schools closed again tomorrow, who knows what I'll come up with?



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My Birthday

I turned 57 this year. It was nice. I got birthday cards from several people. My work wife Michelle gave me a flowering plant and a small cake. And Darwin had a bouquet of flowers delivered. It was in shape of a birthday cake, complete with candles. And chocolates, too! 

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It was a nice birthday.



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Winter Arrived ... All at Once

 Last week was exams, and there was the usual begging to turn in assignments that were due weeks ago and asking if there was extra credit. ("Only if you have an IEP" and "no" are my answers, respectively.) 

But we were all keeping an eye on the weather. 

A big storm was heading our way, one that was engulfing the entire country. We've had a LOT of storms this winter in the USA, but they always somehow skirted Metro Detroit. Chicago, Buffalo, the entire east coast got socked with several bouts of awful weather, but Detroit just hummed and buffed its nails. It was the second week of January, and we still hadn't seen any snow, and temperatures were often in the 40s.

This storm, Detroit's first, was supposed to arrive some time on Friday, the last day of exams. For the first time ever, my students were hoping we WOULDN'T have a snow day. I agreed. A snow day would mean the exams would be tipped over onto the Tuesday after we got back from a three-day weekend, and no one wanted the specter of a set of exams hanging over them. 

But at last it became clear that the storm wouldn't hit until late Friday afternoon or early evening. No need to cancel school. As a precaution, I ordered groceries (we had little food in the house) and Darwin picked them up Friday morning.

I gave the last exam, graded everything, packed up my stuff, and fled. Darwin was already home. Not long after I arrived, the snow started, slow and heavy. It picked up steam, stopped, started up again, rushed into blizzard level. Later, the temperature rose and it switched to a rain that created a crisp coating on the snow, then went back to snow again. We watched from inside, glad we didn't have to outside.

The snow abruptly stopped Saturday morning. Then the deep freeze set in. Temperatures dropped and the wind climbed. Bone-cracking don't-go-out cold. This morning, the wind chill was -20F. If it hadn't been a holiday, we probably wouldn't have had school.

So today we're mewed up in the house. I'm making chicken pie and banana bread and not going anwyhere!



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Dora and the Evil Fireplace

 The living room was chilly this morning, so I headed for the fireplace. Dora ran ahead of me and flopped down on the hearth, demanding to be petted. I told her what was going to happen, but she ignored me. I flipped the switch to ignite the fireplace. It came on behind her with a BOOF! It was like watching a cartoon character. She shot to her feet to bolt away, but her claws got no joy on the stone, so she scrabbled in place for several seconds. Finally she got some purchase and rushed away, all outraged terror.Cats earn their keep through entertainment value.

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Death by Petting

 Darwin McClary was petting Dinah. Dorah was staring, jealous and unhappy because SHE wasn't being petted. I snapped my fingers at Dorah to get her attention and let her know I was willing to pet her. She was so intent on being jealous that she missed it completely. Finally Dinah noticed I was tapping my fingers. She left Darwin and trotted over to me. Dorah now realized that TWO humans had petted Dinah and NONE had petted her.

Darwin brought Dinah back over to him for petting, and Dorah at last realized I was willing to pet her fluffy fat butt. I petted her exactly the way she likes it, but her eyes remained focused on Darwin who was STILL PETTING DINAH!!

Eventually, she couldn't stand it. She stormed over to Darwin to demand that he pet her EVEN THOUGH SHE WAS BEING PETTED ALREADY. It wasn't enough that she was being petted. She needed to be the ONLY ONE who was petted.

Darwin refused to touch her. I turned back to my computer. Now Dorah realized NEITHER human was petting her. She came back to me, demanding that I return to petting duty.

"Nnnnope!" I said. "Buzz off."

Now she's sitting in the corner, looking confused and affronted, a victim of her own greed.

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New Year's Observations, 2024

--The new year has arrived safely. We got the text that it had been delivered and we got it into the house before the porch pirates found it.

--2023 had its nice points, but it was marred by the deaths of my sister-in-law and my brother. This was the first holiday season without Paul, and it was hard.

--Darwin wanted to throw a New Year's Eve card party of the kind his mother had. I let him. :) By this, I mean I let him arrange everything. I planned and pulled off Thanksgiving and Christmas (with a second Christmas at my mother's, which required a fair amount of planning and pulling off of its own). By New Year's, I was done! Darwin ordered pizza and made party potatoes.

--The party went very nicely. Lots of food, lots of lively card playing. My great-niece Lorelei, who is two and up way, way past her usual bedtime, was a little sweetie all evening and didn't throw a single "I'm TIRED" tantrum. We were all mightily impressed.

--In the morning, I remembered to say "Rabbit, rabbit" when I woke up. So 2024 has to be better. Right?

--On New Year's Day afternoon, Darwin and I de-holidayed the house. The tree came down, the decorations went into their packing, and the boxes went into the storage room until next year. I always insist we do it this way--on New Year's Day, everyone is home (even if "everyone" is just the two of us), and if we put it off further, it won't get done until Valentines Day. It didn't take long, really. We've cut back on the amount of decorating we do, which makes many things easier!

--It was a smooth, if bittersweet, holiday season.



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Holiday Climate Change

 This year, the day before Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve itself, and now Christmas Day have all been socked in my fog. The grass is green, and it smells like April outside.

Climate change has turned Michigan into South Carolina.


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The Holidays 2023

The holidays were a bit strange this year. My brother Paul is gone, and this is the first season without him. Additionally, my sister Bethany lives out of state now, and holiday travel is always difficult, stressful, and expensive. With all that in mind, we decided to have a combined Thanksgiving and Christmas/Yule in mid-December at my mother's. There would be light present-giving (i.e., a few presents, and no major extravaganza--we're all fairly well-off adults who buy what we need or want when we need or want it, which makes gift-giving tricky) and food and people.

Because of the non-Christmas date, we had people come who wouldn't normally be there. My cousins David and Mark, with their spouses Suzelle and Tamara came. So did Anja, Mark and Tamara's daughter. And cousins Iris and Susie and Aunt Sue from my father's side of the family happened to be passing through the area, so they stopped in as well. I think Paul's death had an impact here. It reminded everyone that any time we see each other, it could be the last. There's no more, "Well, I'll just see him next time" for Paul, and any of us could be next. So this year, everyone made a special effort to visit. It was bittersweet, both missing Paul and seeing everyone else.

After all the extended family left, it was me, Darwin, Bethany, Mom, and her husband Gene. We cleaned up and then played euchre, a long-standing Michigan tradition. Euchre is for four people and there were five of us, but we compensated by having the extra person take over the seat of anyone who got up to go to the bathroom or get a nibble from the kitchen. We all can play so well that it's easy enough to pick up where someone else left off. It was immediate family bonding time, a continuation of processing Paul's absence. 

And then home.

We also planned a winter celebration at our house for the younger generation. Max and Aran and Sasha and Shane and his fiancée Britney (and incubating baby Ben) all came over for food and gifts and socializing. The gift hit of the day was a video I gave to Aran. It was Tara Strong, his favorite actress, in a video she had recorded just for him, using the voices of Harley Quinn and Raven, Aran's favorite characters of hers. I got it through the site Cameo.com , which is an enormously fun site, I have to say. I bought Sasha and Maksim a cartload of groceries, the stuff that's annoying and expensive to buy but must be done, like laundry detergent and dishwasher soap and cleaning fluids and such. And also lots of easy-to-make foods. They were appreciative.

Today Darwin and I are popping over to say hello to Noah, our grandson, who is really sick today and couldn't come yesterday. Maybe a visit from Grandpas with Gifts will cheer him up!

And so winds up a rather odd holiday.



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The Origin of My Pen Name

Authors take pen names for a variety of reasons. Some because they write in different genres and want to keep their readerships separate. Some because they just don't want their real name out there. Some because they're men who write romance, and romances are supposed to be written by women.

Authors choose pen names in kinds of ways. They want to honor a particular person. They use their middle name instead of their last name. They use a name likely to land at eye-level on an alphabetized bookshelf.

I came to my pen name in a roundabout kind of way.

I sold my first novel back in the 90s. The publisher (Baen) liked my book but got mad at me because I dared to hire an agent. It was a two-book contract, and they deliberately tanked my second book. They also had an option on my third book. I struck back by writing a proposal for a book I knew Baen wouldn't want. They rejected it, ending my relationship with Baen.

My agent sold the book (series) to Penguin (now Penguin Random House), but they said that since my real name was tied to low sales of my second novel, they wanted me under a pen name so the bookstore computers would see me as a new author, and order books accordingly. I begrudgingly started writing as Steven Harper, and have used that name for nearly all my novels.

At first, I didn't like this. I wanted MY NAME on my books. Since then, I've realized my pen name is probably for the better--few people can reliably spell or pronounce "Piziks," (it rhymes with "physics," for the record), and it's easier for readers to find Steven Harper than it is for them to find Steven Piziks.

I started using Harper as my unofficial middle name when I appeared at conventions or conferences, introducing myself as Steven Harper Piziks so people would know Steven Harper and Steven Piziks are the same person. Eventually--in no small part because I hate my birth middle name but also because I got married--I legally changed my name to Steven Harper McClary-Piziks.

So instead of my middle name becoming my pen name, my pen name became my legal middle name! Life takes us into strange places.

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