C.E. Murphy's Blog, page 61

I got words this week.

I got quite a few words this week, actually. Twelve or so thousand, which is a whole lot more than I’ve done in a long time. I even had a 5K day yesterday, which lent some faint hope that I’m actually getting back into the habit, swing of things, and stride. I reached 30K on REDEEMER, which is probably the 25% mark (it could be the 1/3rd mark, but probably not).

It feels like that’s about all I’ve been doing, though. I’m trying to figure out how to store more frozen apples, because I have re...

Kitsnaps: Frosty Cross

A rimfrosted Celtic cross glows in the sunrise.

A rimfrosted Celtic cross glows in the sunrise.

This photo is basically why I’m slow and reluctant to throw out old digital images. When I first looked at this, I didn’t think much of it, and put it away into a folder of things I wasn’t going to do any post-process on. Years and years later I opened it up again for some reason and went “Holy crap, that’s amazing,” and it’s ended up one of my favourite pictures.

It also ended up as the cover for...

fruits of the garden

There’s been an unexpected benefit to having gone out and chopped my way through the nettles and brambles in search of blackberries, which is that I tromped quite a path out there and unintentionally exposed the plants to quite a lot more sunlight than they’d been getting. That, combined with a couple of weeks of unseasonably sunny, warm weather (which is due to continue for another week!) netted a startling bounty of extra berries! I got about four more cups today!

I need about two more cup...

apple picking party!

We have, as I may have mentioned, several apple trees in the garden. The apples aren’t really ripe yet, but a lot of them are cooking apples that aren’t going to be any good to eat straight off the tree anyway, so yesterday we had an apple picking party and the family came out to play in the garden and pick apples and eat apple pie (made, yes, from garden apples. I forgot to take a picture but it was lovely and tasty!).

Hail, hail, the gang’s all here!

Indy gets in on the action, with Grandm...

Picoreview: NCIS Season 10

Picoreview: NCIS Season 10 (and the first 2 eps of s11): …that was actually really, really good.

I mean, NCIS is a solid show. It’s generally of reasonably high quality and consistency, with very few actively bad episodes and correspondingly few really *good* ones. The actors are all appealing and their interactions are terrific, and the whole thing lends itself to the sense of family that it’s supposed to. The season started out with plenty of AUGH, between the bombing and (much more alarmin...

Kitsnaps: Godslight, Athy

Godslight, Athy

Sunlight breaks through the clouds in streams above Athy, Co Kildare, Ireland

The post Kitsnaps: Godslight, Athy appeared first on The Essential Kit.

funny things with houseguests

Woe, our guest has had to return home, but she has left us with many smiles and funny memories. The other night she cleared her plate from the table, then returned to the dining room, where she picked up a napkin and wrung it as she gazed indecisively at our plates.

Ted said, in the driest and most certain tone ever, “You’re procrastinating. Go work on your thesis.”

She said, “I’m NOT! I’m trying to be a good guest!”

Ted said, “I’m married to a writer and you’re procrastinating. Go work.” And...

Throwback Thursday: Well-Loved Books

A hash tag popped up on Twitter yesterday, #WellLovedBooks, and I immediately went and took pictures of several of mine. I thought they’d make a kind of nice different Throwback Thursday post idea, too, so I present to you a handful of my well-loved books. :)

My 8th birthday prsent: ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, which I read to pieces.

I love these books so very much. It is so mind-bogglingly cool to me that I can now count Lawrence Watt-Evans among my friends.

I want to re-read these, as they’re s...

Writing Wednesday: Putting Handles on the Cups

There’s a Writing Rule that says “Write every day, no matter what.” You hear people tout this rule, just like every other Writing Rule, and since I’m dragging myself back into the swing of things after what amounts to a five month hiatus, I thought I’d address it.

Obviously it’s terrible advice.

I mean, yes, if you can write every day, that’s awesome. That’s great! Go for it! Have fun! Write every day! God knows I do when I can. But the idea that you must is as crippling as any other Writing...

Guest Post: Chaz Brenchley & the Crater School!

It is my delight and honor to host my friend Chaz Brenchley on the blog today. I met Chaz online, and then through the Irish/UK con circuit, oh, several-many years ago now. Most lately he’s been working on a project that I’m utterly in love with, both in concept and execution, and he’s here to talk about it–and its crowdfunding support system–today!

One of the joys of living in the heart of Silicon Valley is that NASA Ames is just over there, and SETI HQ is even closer. We live among the cool...