Lyda Morehouse's Blog, page 82

Signings and Such

Okay, so I hear LJ has been slow, though I haven't had any problems myself yet. Perhaps I missed the crisis?

I apologize for the commerical interruption, but I feel as though I need to do a little advertisment here for tomorrow's big event --

If you can, PLEASE stop by Uncle Hugo's tomorrow from 1:00 - 2:00 pm. I will be signing copies of RESURRECTION CODE. You can find Uncle's at 2864 Chicago Avenue South, Minneapolis MN 55407. If you would like directions or any other information about the signing or the store, you can call (612) 824-6347. Also, if you are out of town and would like to still get a signed copy, Uncles will fill mail orders. For information contact Don Byly at UncleHugo@aol.com or check out:
http://www.unclehugo.com/prod/

Plus, this is a *New and Improved Signing* -- Now with 50% more author! I will be sharing my signing with Neve Maslakovic. I already want to love her book REGARDING DUCKS AND UNIVERSES, for this line in the product description: "On a foggy Monday in 1986, the universe suddenly, without warning, bifurcated."

Think of Neve if not me! This is her first book. Let's all pitch in to give her an awesome signing, shall we??

/advertisement

Then again, maybe it would be better, ultimately, to let poor Neve sit there with the crickets. I mean, that is the typical book signing experience us non-super-star-Steven-King-/-J.K.-Rowlings-/-Neil-Gaiman types have. Some how I doubt there will be such clamouring for either of our books that Uncles will need to pass out numbers or anything.

*Longing sigh*

I tell you that's still a dream of mine (see previous comment of my hobby.) I'd love to come into a crowded bookstore to the flash of a thousand cameras and get that whole author as rockstar experience.

In other news, I have not made it to kuk sool wan this entire week. Mason's been sick and I've been... lazy. Speaking of Saturday, if you do come to the signing you will see me fresh from the fight, as it were, since Mason and I will be going to the Saturday class.



What else can I tell you? I have a wedding reception tonight that I'm not looking forward to, though thinking about going tonight inspired a conversation with Shawn that I don't think I've ever had. We've been together for twenty-five plus years, but we have NEVER talked about "what if we had a wedding...?" (Plus neither of us is really interested unless the Federal government actually recognized our marriage. Otherwise it just seems like a big expense for no benefits.) At any rate, I asked Shawn today where she'd want to have a reception of our own and we actually did that sort of wedding fantazing that teenage girls supposedly do (though I never did.) It was fun. Mostly, we seem to be outdoors garden sorts. There was much talk of Harriet Island and Como Park/Conservatory. Sounds lovely, no?

lyda222 @ 2011-03-24T10:56:00

In my reoccuring role as Dolly Domestic, I am making muffins for Shawn's staff meeting tomorrow.

I'm trying something new (and if the batter is any indication SUPER tasty) in 1001 CUPCAKES, COOKIES & OTHER TEMPTING TREATS called "#31 Frosted Peanut Butter Cupcakes." I have to tell you, I'm not usually a big peanut butter fan. I like the ocassional peanut butter cookie, especially if it has a chocolate star in the center, but I don't go out of my way to make/eat peanut butter. So I can't really explain how it happened that, in flipping through this book, my eye lit on this particular recipie. It has a big picture, though not a terribly colorful one, but something told my brain, like poor Alice in Wonderland: "Try me!"

Whatever strange spell grabbed me, I'm trying them. I even decided to make half of them "#32 Peanut Butter & Jam Cupcakes," wherein I put a drop of jam in the center of the muffin.

Today is my busy day. There's fish tanks to change, recycling to take out (though I may have already missed the pick-up guy), volunteering to do at Mason's school, and Wyrdsmiths tonight (as well as trying to squeeze in a kuk sool wan, since Mason's cold has prevented us from going earlier this week.) If my cupcakes are going to be frosted I need to hit the grocery store too, since I'm in need of cream cheese for that and we're out of some of the basics like milk and eggs (seriously. I TOLD you I was Dolly Domestic today.)

The person I really need to channel, however, is Tate Hallaway. Her/my Ana #3 is due on April 15 at the publisher... and I have been just pulling TEETH to get words out for some reason. Usually looming deadlines are the best motivator I can ask for. I'm a dark sider. I'm highly motivated by fear, hatred and jealousy (though jealousy more in its guise as competition.)

(Wow, I just ran downstairs to pull the cupcakes out of the oven and they look _just like_ the picture in the book. Is that supposed to happen?)

Anyway, I have no idea what's been up with me and writing Tate's stuff lately. I'm sure I'll make my deadline. I have too much pride (fear, hatred, etc.) to miss it. But, man, I wish it were easier this time around.

OMG! I Already Need A Do-Over!

It's snowing and people are stupid.

This may not seem related, but it actually is. I'm not one of those Minnesotans who complains about snow (usually.) I was actually muttering yesterday that I was a lot less fond of the cold, damp rain of Spring than the unseasonable white stuff. So the Powers the Be decided to remind me what I despise about winter, and that is: OTHER DRIVERS!!

It took me until about a half hour ago to get home. My commute is usually only about twenty minutes of driving, tops -- and that's there and back again, as Bilbo might say.

I leave with my family to take them to work/school at about 7:30/7:45 am every day. Today we did start out a little late because I had to uncover about an inch of ice and slush from the car. I also kind of tried to shovel the sidewalk, but you can't tell any more because it's been snowing nonstop.

Anyway, I got Mason to school on time, but it turned out that today was their big 100 day celebration and Mason was supposed to have stuff for "reading camp." (One of the coolest things Mason's school does, IMHO. A day of reading! With pillows and sleeping bags and hot chocolate.) I headed back into the slush and stupid to get everything. I got back to school by 10 am (in the meantime I had to dodge the stupid in the form of a skidded/off-the-road city bus and a bunch of yahoos trying to rush the construction of University Avenue). I got back in time to discover my boy in the bathroom, sick. So, I retreived our stuff from the teacher and we headed back home.

All this before my first real cup of coffee.

The good news/bad news is that I canceled the Wednesday Women of Wyrdsmiths gathering with Eleanor, and now we have nowhere else to go until 4:00 pm when we have to venture back out to collect Shawn.

I plan to hide under blankets and write (and drink coffee).

In other news, I watched my Amazon.com sales ranking after my debute on the "Big Idea." Some time after lunch it crested at about 30,000 (for all five books, actually, even the ones which have been out-of-print and sitting in the zillions for years). For a science ficiton book(s) as weird as mine, I feel this is really a very good showing. It certainly attests to the power of Scalzi's popularity.

Plus, I have found a few more readers. I'm always happy about that, since one of my long standing hobbies is world domination.

Cats and Nerves

My cat is so weird.

Ms. Piggy has this thing where she hunts socks. We're the sort who roll up pairs of socks into cylindrical tubes. She apparently thinks that THESE look more like something to hunt than, say, all the fake-but-real-seeming fur-covered mice toys that are in abundance all over our house. Ms. Piggy will stalk the wild sock tubes and then sit at the bottom of the stairs and make that "I just killed something awesome you've just GOT to check out" insistant meow.

This is she:



I should note that we did not name her. When Mason was very little, only barely verbal, we would go to the pet shelters to look at all the puppies and kitties. A bunch of our cats had all died of different things in the same year (it was a VERY bad year, we also lost two cars.) At any rate, Mason saw Ms. Piggy and fell in love. I'd read the "adopt this pet sheet" that informed us of Ms. Piggy's name and personality traits. It mentioned she was good with kids and other animals, and then, in a very strange (though accurate) afterthought the foster parents had written, "She's friendly and always ready for attention. She drools."

At any rate, both Shawn and I were kind of resistant of getting her not because of the drooling, but because she was declawed (and the rest of our cats aren't). But what finally dissolved my hardened heart was Mason's little head sticking through the bars of the equipment at the playground we used to frequent desperatly telling me: "Piggy love! Piggy home!"

What could I do against such an onslaught of cuteness??? We went and got her. But the name stuck. It's turned out to be fairly appropriate, as she really is a bit of an attention hog, and, despite having been declawed, has a pretty serious temper when she's bugged by the other cats. You can almost hear the "keeeeeee-YAH!" when she takes a swipe.

In other news, I'm nervous because today is the day that my Big Idea goes live on John Scalzi's Whatever Blog.

Barf.

Health and Weekend Report

Mason caught a cold over the weekend. He's home sick today.

So far, knocking on wood, I'm staying pretty healthy, though I did have a sneezing fit this morning (allergies?) followed by a lot of coughing (asthma?) Shawn goes to a neurolgoist this afternoon to hopefully begin to unravel the mystery of her random numbness.

The weekend was busy for me. A long time ago, I agreed to run an hour long workshop at the Bloomington Art Center's "Writers' Festival." Truthfully, I wasn't looking forward to it. I'd planned to do my usual song and dance routine, as I like to call it -- a workshop I've entitled "Mars Needs Writers." It's loosely based on all the zillions of classes I used to teach at the Loft, and I can do it with minimal prep.

There were only about a dozen people signed up and I didn't really think it was going to be my target audience.

Yet, I had an *awesome* class.

I don't know if you've had ocassion to visit the Bloomington Art Center, but it's surprisingly MASSIVE. I was following the directions the coordinator had sent and I was looking around for a building I thought might be the Center. I see this huge building -- like three blocks big, with a big public sculpture -- all glass and brick and I thought, "must be the civic center or city hall." I glanced down at my directions and saw "turn left and into the parking lot." I was like, "Wow, these people are big on the arts!"

Inside it was equally as impressive. The organizers had all sorts of venders lined up hawking their various publishing and book-related wares. After getting my instructor packet, I wandered around a little. I'd heard that some folks from the Midwest Fiction Writers (our local RWA chapter) were going to be there, but I never did find them if they were. Sisters in Crime had a nice display, complete with "do not cross" police tape.

The room I was meant to be in was called Auditorium 1 or something daunting, but the interior was less auditorium than basic meeting room (thank God). They had gotten me the white board I requested, which is good because I can't lecture if I can't jot down notes.

Anyway, when everyone settled in, they seemed pretty receptive. And, sure enough, we were all laughing and discussing by the end. It was a surprising success. A couple of people came up to me afterwards to express regret that the class wasn't longer and that I wasn't currently teaching at the Loft. They would have signed up for more on the spot.

That makes a girl feel pretty loved.

Sunday was Ostara, so I got up super-early (okay, only 7:00 am, but it was DARK out) to start the hot cross buns. I used the same reicipe that I used last year, and they turned out awesome. I helped the Ostara bunny hide a few colored eggs around the house and set out Mason's Ostara basket. Mason always really enjoys the egg hunt. (I was the same at Easter when I was a kid.) Then, just as we put the buns in the oven about 9:00 or so, the family trooped outside to do our usual Ostara ritual.

It's nice and simple and, frankly, one of my favorites. We go out to the back yard and find a spot in the herb garden to stick a couple of candles. Some years we actually put them in mud, but this year, we dug a small hole in the snow. There are melty parts all over our yard where you can actually see grass and bits of green beginning to push through, but thanks to the record snowfall the back yard is still one big pile of snow. So I shoveled out a spot and we lit the candles and said a little poem to gently wake Mother Earth. We breathe into our hands to warm them and place them as close to the earth as we can. Then we leave the candles going (as long as they're some place safe.) This year, I watched a curious squirrel run off with one after it had burned out (the candle, not the squirrel).

Then we feast on sticky buns. It's a really nice tradition.

Sunday night we had nephew Jonathan over for lasagna, which Shawn made. We ended up having to buy a brand-new noodle pot because I'd *cough* left ours outside next to the compost pile for almost a year *cough*. I don't want to talk about it, but suffice to say that no amount of scrubbing could convince Shawn that it was safe to use. Luckily, Target is only a few blocks down University from us.

Jon stayed and chatted well after midnight, so I'm a bit fried this morning. Still it was really great to get to hang out with him.

All and all a good weekend (except for the Mason getting sick part.) You?

Gray, Gloomy Friday

Mason is off from school today for "teacher appreication day." Right now the TV room is full of the sound of Pokemon battles (Mason wants you all to know he just beat the Elite Four in Black.) Later, despite the gloomy overcast sky, I'm going to try to coax him out to get his hair cut. Mama thinks it's crazy-long, but I sort of like it. Shawn is a big fan of the 1950s flat-top look on little boys. I like the way his bangs look, but I don't care nearly enough one way or the other to make much of a fuss about it.

Speaking of hair, I hate my current style. I don't know what the stylist did, but for some reason all the hairs on the back of my head stick straight up while the rest lays flat. I look a bit like a cockatoo. It's not my best.

I was thinking this morning, like I often do, that I should get a camera to carry around with me in the car. I have this idea to improve Tate's blog with pictures of houses around St. Paul that I imagine belong to various characters in her Ana books. Given how little I say over there, I have a surprising number of "subscribers" or whatever it is that blogspot tracks. More to the point, I just think it would be fun to feature some of the cool things about St. Paul on my blog.

I've decided that even though there wasn't a massive response (20+ people on Facebook and 1 here), I'm going to continue Free Mouse Tuesdays. As my friend Frank pointed out, I kind of left Mouse stranded in a car, and I've gotten invested in the story myself. I find the best writing I've done is the stuff I write to amuse myself, so what the heck. I might not be as dilligent, especially as I continue to race toward the deadline for Ana #3, but I will continue the story. Besides, now that there's an AngeLINK book in print I like to have lots of extra fic floating around for fans. I always try to give myself what I'd want.

Mason has gotten it into his head that he'd like to taste lobster, so we're all going out to Red Lobster tonight so he can try it. It should be fun. We don't usually take Mason out to eat with us (he doesn't have a lot of patience for the whole sit down experience yet), so this will be a BIG deal for him on a lot of levels.

Anyway, I should try to sneak some writing in while he's distracted.

Settling Down... A Little

First off, I would be remiss if I didn't say sláinte to all of y'all celebrating St. Patrick's day today. I plan to have cornbeef left overs for lunch, but otherwise, despite living in St. Paul, I won't be doing too much this year. Perhaps I'll put on some Irish music later to write by, but in the past I've found going to the parade kind of sad on my own. As the famous Irishman Piglet has said, "It's friendlier with two." So, if there's someone out there who either traditionally takes the day off or who might do it to hang out with me next year, let's make a date. (Looks like next year it will be on a Saturday. Maybe I can coax my family into doing a few events.)

Last night, I tossed in turned FREAKING OUT about my upcoming "Whatever" gig (March 22). I think, though, to be fair, part of my trouble sleeping last night had to do with the fact that my muscles are *wicked* sore after going to the adult KSW class on Tuesday night. (I knew I should have fled when I saw I was the only white belt.) The funny story goes like this: we had to do several stations around the room of various excercises including kettle ball swinging and chin-ups and other such torturous affairs. One of them required me to "plank" with my knees on an excercise ball (like the kind Shawn sat on when she was pregnant) and my hands on a balance beam. I mostly just wobbled there, but as everyone else had completed these tasks the head instructor came over to try to help. He kept saying, "bend your hips." That made no sense to me, so he attempted to show me by lifting me by the belt. I freaked out and let go of the balance beam, which resulted in me hanging in the air suspended by SBN's powerful kung fu grip. A good excercise for him, perhaps. :-)

Anyway, in order to calm my nerves I contacted Scalzi to ask him if he needed anything extra, and he responded within an hour or so that we were all set. To which I must also assume this means he has read it and doesn't think it completely sucks. Now whether or not he thinks I'm going to get crucified by his audience he didn't mention....

Eep.

My swelling popularity continues. I was contacted last night by KFAI radio to do another in-studio gig with the folks at "Write on Radio" on Tuesday, April 5 from 7:00 - 8:00 pm. I really love doing radio shows. It's all the rush of being on stage without any of the pressures to have to look cool/remember blocking. Anyway, I'll get together all the details including the link to the archive/streaming bits so all of you folks who are in other cities/countries/galaxies can tune in (or listen at your lesuire afterwards.)

Then I just got contacted by the Gaylaxicon folks about the possiblity of being a special guest/one of the guests of honor for their convention in 2012. That's not officially official yet, though, so I'll keep y'all posted. But don't forget! I will be one of the special guests at Diversicon this year! Diversicon will be held at the Best Western Bandana Square (in St. Paul) from July 29 - 31st. My family is probably going to stay at the hotel, even though it's less than a mile from our house. Mason is super-psyched about getting to play in a swimming pool. So there may be a chance for a VERY RARE Shawn sighting.

Shawn, btw, continues to have weird numbness that floats around her body. She's talked to her doctor about moving up her scheduled appointment with the nuerologist, because, even though we now know it's likely not something life threatening, it's still really disconcerting.

Oh, and in other news, thanks to Facebook I finally got a replacement cord for my Dell. Yay! Battery is charging again!! Whoot. This is especially cool since the universal worked OK, but the plug into the laptop didn't quite fit so it would sometimes slip out when I didn't realize it and drain the battery. It got to the point that if I twitched it might pop out and the screen would go black. I changed my setting so I was constantly making back-ups, but it was still a pain in the butt. A friend from Romance Writer's of America saw my FB status where I complained about this and her husband is an IT guy whose department recently got rid of a bunch of Dells. They had the ubiquitious box of spare cords and he found a PERFECT replacement that my laptop accepts enough to charge the battery again (and it doesn't slid out either.) Super awesome.

Today is my busy day, so I should get to fish changing and other errands. Happy St. Patrick's!

Quick Update

While you wait for Amazon.com to ship your book, feel free to read the first chapter of RESURRECTION CODE, which I posted at my website.

This would be the "uncorrected proof" version, so any typos you find are very likely NOT in the printed book. Despite myself, I continually check the Amazon.com site to see if they've got books back in stock yet and how my sales rank is fairing. I seemed to have hit a high somewhere in the 20,000 range yesterday, which is awesome. Thank y'all so much for putting in your pre-orders and orders!

Also, Bookscan seems to be tracking my ISBN despite the fact that my publisher is small press. I'll be curious to watch the numbers change (if they do) when the "Big Idea" goes live next Tuesday. I haven't heard anything from Scalzi, so I presume my draft is acceptable.

Gork. (The sound of nervousness catching in my throat.)

I was wondering if I should continue my free Mouse Tuesdays. Obviously, I didn't publish anything last week, but what do you all think? I got sort of invested in my not-supposed-to-be-a-story-story, and it doesn't take that much time for me to push out a 500 word bit once a week.

I also have a funny story I should relate sometime about kuk sool wan. I went to the adult class again last night, and was the only white belt there. The next lowest was a red belt. I felt a little like Po in Kung Fu Panda when he's first at the Jade Temple and facing the Furious Five. Remember the scene with the punching bag? That was me. "Uh, I'm... level zero." :-)

Got to go hit Tate's deadline!

Jealousy

I think all authors do this to some extent, but I just depressed myself by checking Resurrection Code's Amazon.com sales rank this morning. You'd think, by this point in my life, I'd know better than to compare myself to others. Thing is, I have another book coming out today in a way, from the same publisher. An essay of mine is included in WHEDONISTAS, which is fricking flying off the shelves. They're already temporarily out of stock.

So I'm kind of happy, but also totally crushed.

I'm going to go write on my Tate book which is due in 30 days and hide from the universe.

And, now my book is temporarily out of stock too!!  Okay, now I'm going to flip from deep depressive jealousy to the Snoopy dance of joy.

Tomorrow is the 15th!

RESURRECTION CODE comes out tomorrow! Gah!

I spent a good portion of yesterday writing my "Big Idea" blog for Scalzi's WHATEVER. As I posted on FB, I'm not entirely sure how "Satan's quest for justice from an unfair God, and the transgendered identity of the universe" is going to play in Peoria. (The above was the phrase I used when describing it to Scalzi in my query e-mail.) On the flip side, I also decided that I have nothing to loose by being out there and bold. Sometimes making a few waves can be good publicity.

We'll see what he has to say about it. I handed it in a week early because I wanted Scalzi to have a chance to comment on it and have me revise it, if I'm too scattered (totally possible) or he doesn't really want me to hang all the way out in public, as it were (less likely).

So... fingers crossed.

I think I managed to be provocative, yet funny as well as "big idea"-y, yet personal. I looked back at some of the recent "big idea" essays and didn't find them quite as, shall we say, controversial as what I planned to talk about. But I think I got the general TONE of their peices into mine, which is to say, kind of chatty and informal without blathering. I managed to keep it relatively short -- about 700 words -- almost right in between the required 500 - 1,000 word length.

Can you tell I'm deeply nervous about this???

And, btw, thanks to all of you who pushed me to query "Big Idea." Even if this is a complete bust, it's been a challenging experience, and, as my Dark Side Sith Master always told me, "If you're not just a little scared, you're not really living up to your potential."

And, my other freak out about tomorrow's date is that it also means I have EXACTLY one month to finish Tate's #3 vampire princess book. Technically, I'm somewhere in the late middle, but I find I write the majority of the book in this crunch time.

Fingers crossed. Again.

Otherwise, the weekend was a lot of fun. Mason had his last swim class. He did not pass up to level 3, but, as this is a Red Cross certified deal, I'm not terribly surprised. He's a good swimmer with a lot of strokes, but not entirely confident with others. But now we're going to have all spring and summer to practice. We could sign him up for the next session, but we've discovered that his big swimming break-throughs tend to be when he's on his own (not literally, of course, but as in outside of class.)

I also attended a St. Patrick's day party on Sunday. That was fun, though I didn't stay terribly long because I'd left Mason and Shawn at home this time. I got to see some people whose company I really enjoy and met/re-met some people I don't see on a regular basis. There was corned beef and fixins' (nom. nom.) and probably some excellent beer and such, but I'm such a lightweight when it comes to alcohol that I stuck to pop.

Well, I should go have a little lunch, as we say here in Minnesota, and get head down over my keyboard.