Lyda Morehouse's Blog, page 93

Not much... You?

This fall has been snuggly for me. Sometimes when the weather turns chilly and such, I get super-energized and get a ton of projects done... this year has been much more about hiding under the blankets with a cat on my lap. Luckily, the thing I need to get done the most (editorial revisions for ALMOST FINAL CURTAIN) can be done in such a position. I've been working slowly on that, though, which I think may be a good thing. Usually, I rush through editorial changes and only re-read the part of the book that the editor has specifically pointed to as needing work. This time I'm re-reading the whole thing and re-working things I normally don't even pause to look at. Consequentally, I think this will be a much stronger revision than I've done for a long time (on a book, coincidentally, that I like a lot.... which probably means it will be the first to go out of print.)

Speaking of out of print, I went looking to buy a copy of Archangel Protocol from my Japanese Publishe because one of my Facebook penpals is learning Japanese and I thought it would be a nice surprise to send her a copy. To my dismay I discovered that my book seems to be out-of-print from them as well.



This discovery made me unaccountably sad. I mean, as Tate Hallaway, I have a plethora of books in print in a handfull of other languages (granted many of the foregin sales have actually been for the anthology MANY BLOODY RETURNS,) but there was just something depressing about the fact that as me, Lyda Morehouse, I completely failed to stay in print anywhere in the world.

Okay, okay, I know that's silly, especially with a new book coming out from Mad Norwegian in March 2011, but, I think it's about all the shiny hope you have as a new writer. Archangel Protocol was my baby, and I had a lot of hope that it would be the kind of book that would, well, okay, in my wildest fantasies (and everyone has them, admit it,) that would make me the next J. K. Rowling, you know? Or at least land me a spot on the NYTimes bestseller list. And, the book did REALLY WELL, but it just didn't become that smash hit me (or my publisher) wanted.

I should be happy, and I am, that I'm still managing to make a living (mostly) as a writer. Tate Hallaway continues to do really well. In fact, I just heard from my publisher that her newest, ALMOST TO DIE FOR, has been picked up by a Russian publisher, which is super-cool, because I have a very small hope of actually being able to parse out my name on the cover as I took exactly one semester of Russian in college twenty-odd years ago.

I guess I'm just feeling jealous of my psuedonym again. This happens every once and a while and it's an incredibly odd sensation. I totally hate that b*tch. ;-)

What I Love About My Community...

What I love about the SF/F community is that even when things like "Race: Fail" and "the Moon situation" happen, someone does something really cool.

Apex is having an all Muslim/Arab issue in November.

Since I'm not qualified to contribute, I did the next best thing, I subscribed.

The dinosaur of the autumnal equinox...

Cold weather makes me feel like baking. As a happy coincidence, Shawn has a meeting where she's expected to bring treats. So I've been making cut-out, sugar cookies and having WAY too much fun decorating them. I had leaf patterns, so I made a bunch of yellow, orange, red, brown and green leaves. I had some pumpkin shapes so I had a blast making them into jack-o-lanterns with silly frosting expressions. And, I had a moose, so I made moose.

And of course nothing says autumnal equinox like a...

Putting My House in Order

This morning, it seems, is about putting my house in order -- in all senses of that phrase. In the literal sense, I took a broken porch window to the hardware store to get it repaired. Our porch windows are rickity, and the other day I slammed the door too hard and down came the storm window and shattered into bits. Luckily, the S&S Hardware store on Fairview still repairs screens and windows, so I took it there and paid a whopping $40 to get it fixed (in about six days. Our porch windows...

Unfocused Thoughts, Despite Coffee

I'm sure that LJ people who are friends with me are already on top of this, but, I'd like to point you to a very thoughtful response this morning from Jim C. Hines.

Honestly, there have actually been a lot of thoughtful and measured responses. I have resisted weighing in for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is that I don't think that I would be able to as tactfully stay on topic as Jim does. I think the best way to deal with issues like this is to respond only to what was _actua...

Fighting Oil with Ink

I donated a story to BREAKING WAVES: AN ANTHOLOGY FOR GULF RELIEF which is available as an e-book in a multitude of formats from Book View Cafe. The list of people involved in this project is impressive, and I'm honored to be counted among them. 100% of the proceeds will go to help victims (human and animal) of the BP disaster.

The theme of the anthology is "hopeful apocalypse." They were looking, specifically, for stories that involved ocean apocalypses, but all I had was my story "Indig...

Vampires Suck

I finally saw both "Twilight" (the movie) and the first couple episodes of "True Blood."

Huh. So, this is my alter ego's competition? Why am I not filthy rich?

To be fair, I've read Charlaine Harris's original books (at least a few of them,) and they're twenty times better than the show. She's a very good writer and a really, really nice person. Also, I've NEVER read Stephanie Meyer's original, so for all I know, her book is similarly better than the Hollywood product bearing the same name.

I...

Writing as Telepathy (and the Holy Qur'an)

In Stephen King's ON WRITING, he has this great little bit about how writing is awesome because it's like time-traveling telepathy. I read his example, and I thought, yeah. He's nailed it, that's pretty much how it is. I'm thinking it now; you're reading it later. Cool.

Except, when I get my revisions from my editor, it hits me. You can only read my mind if I actually tell you what I'm thinking. And, depending on who you are, I might even have to spell out things that I don't bother think...

Overheard at the Sleepover

This is a conversation that Shawn overheard at the sleepover tonight:

Mason: (Brings in the autographed picture of Mark Hamill) Is this the guy who plays Luke?
Mama: Yes.

Mason: (Goes into the other room to show it to his friend) This is Mark Hamill the guy who plays Luke.
Friend: Wow. He looks just like Luke.
Mason: I know! That must be why he played him.

My Dance Card...

My dance card is filling up. Here's what's on the docket for me in the future (some of it is scheduled two years out.)

This Year (2010):

October 8 - 10
Wyrdsmiths is going to have a booth in the lobby of the Cosmopolitan in downtown St. Paul for the St. Paul art crawl. Though details are still sketchy, it appears we will probably be selling copies of our two chapbooks and possibly doing some kind of reading on one of the days of the crawl.

October 21 (7 pm)
My alter-ego has been invited to attend...