Martha Wells's Blog, page 189
March 15, 2011
Okay, my email and web site are back up now.One of the ni...
Okay, my email and web site are back up now.
One of the nice things the contractor did while up on the roof was to clean out our gutters, which are normally choked with pine needles. This must have surprised the squirrels, because one just fell all the way down the drain pipe from the second story. (It sounded like the roof was coming off.) It's at the bottom now (with tail hanging out) but apparently thinks it has to climb up instead of just climbing out the hole at the bottom. Hopefully it will figure it out soon.
ETA: My Big Idea essay for The Cloud Roads is now posted on John Scalzi's Whatever blog.
Lots of links:
Ian Tregillis explains why his next book keeps getting rescheduled: MILKWEED UPDATE (or, What the Hell is Going on With The Coldest War?)
America.gov: A list of the large amount of aid and donations Japan sent us after Hurricane Katrina from the government, from corporations, and from private individuals.
One of the nice things the contractor did while up on the roof was to clean out our gutters, which are normally choked with pine needles. This must have surprised the squirrels, because one just fell all the way down the drain pipe from the second story. (It sounded like the roof was coming off.) It's at the bottom now (with tail hanging out) but apparently thinks it has to climb up instead of just climbing out the hole at the bottom. Hopefully it will figure it out soon.
ETA: My Big Idea essay for The Cloud Roads is now posted on John Scalzi's Whatever blog.
Lots of links:
Ian Tregillis explains why his next book keeps getting rescheduled: MILKWEED UPDATE (or, What the Hell is Going on With The Coldest War?)
America.gov: A list of the large amount of aid and donations Japan sent us after Hurricane Katrina from the government, from corporations, and from private individuals.
Published on March 15, 2011 06:37
March 14, 2011
First off, my email is down, so if you're talking to me i...
First off, my email is down, so if you're talking to me in email, I can't hear you.
We had a nice thunderstorm this morning, but it didn't last nearly as long as it needed to. (We're fifteen inches below our normal rainfall.) The contractor should be back today to put the bathroom back together (no toilet in the bathtub, yay!) and fix the ceiling where the roof leak was. He said he didn't think the chimney would fall off the house and if it did, it certainly wouldn't hit the neighbor's house. So I'm putting that in the plus category.
***
Here's a list of organizations taking donations for Japan: Interaction.org: Members Support Japan Tsunami Response
***
I thought this was a very neat building: Belly of the Beast Serpentine Residential Eco-Building
***
Two new posts on the Night Bazaar on secondary world fantasy (any fantasy that takes place in a made-up world): my post here and Courtney Schafer's here. If you comment on either of these posts or any other Night Bazaar post this week with the name of a secondary world fantasy you enjoyed, you'll be entered in a drawing to win one of four free copies of The Cloud Roads.
We had a nice thunderstorm this morning, but it didn't last nearly as long as it needed to. (We're fifteen inches below our normal rainfall.) The contractor should be back today to put the bathroom back together (no toilet in the bathtub, yay!) and fix the ceiling where the roof leak was. He said he didn't think the chimney would fall off the house and if it did, it certainly wouldn't hit the neighbor's house. So I'm putting that in the plus category.
***
Here's a list of organizations taking donations for Japan: Interaction.org: Members Support Japan Tsunami Response
***
I thought this was a very neat building: Belly of the Beast Serpentine Residential Eco-Building
***
Two new posts on the Night Bazaar on secondary world fantasy (any fantasy that takes place in a made-up world): my post here and Courtney Schafer's here. If you comment on either of these posts or any other Night Bazaar post this week with the name of a secondary world fantasy you enjoyed, you'll be entered in a drawing to win one of four free copies of The Cloud Roads.
Published on March 14, 2011 06:36
March 13, 2011
Ent Pictures
Published on March 13, 2011 15:35
New Night Bazaar Post and Book Giveaway
I've got a new post up at the Night Bazaar blog on Secondary World Fantasy. That's the topic there all this week.
This is also the official release week for The Cloud Roads on the Night Bazaar site and we're doing a book giveaway for it over there. Just comment on my Night Bazaar post there, or on any other post at the Night Bazaar this week, with the title of a novel set in a secondary world, and you'll be entered in the drawing at the end of the week for one of at least four autographed and personalized copies of The Cloud Roads. (If you want to check the book out, there are reviews and sample chapters on my site here.)
If there's a bunch of entries, I'll probably add a couple more copies. If you know anybody who might be interested in entering the drawing, please pass this along.
***
Yesterday we took a break from everything and went to Sherwood Forest Faire near Austin, and had a fabulous time. It was kind of windy and dusty at times, but since the site is almost completely under tree cover, it wasn't too bad.
Couple of highlights: there was an ent out there this time, and I got pictures which I'll post as soon as I wake up enough to find the camera. Plus the Circa Paleo has a stage out there, with a coffee house and hookah bar. It was a very neat set up. They had a tent with a counter that sold all kinds of hot and iced tea and coffee drinks, with tables and floor cushions for the people using the hookahs. It's close enough to the stage to hear the music and see the band.
This is also the official release week for The Cloud Roads on the Night Bazaar site and we're doing a book giveaway for it over there. Just comment on my Night Bazaar post there, or on any other post at the Night Bazaar this week, with the title of a novel set in a secondary world, and you'll be entered in the drawing at the end of the week for one of at least four autographed and personalized copies of The Cloud Roads. (If you want to check the book out, there are reviews and sample chapters on my site here.)
If there's a bunch of entries, I'll probably add a couple more copies. If you know anybody who might be interested in entering the drawing, please pass this along.
***
Yesterday we took a break from everything and went to Sherwood Forest Faire near Austin, and had a fabulous time. It was kind of windy and dusty at times, but since the site is almost completely under tree cover, it wasn't too bad.
Couple of highlights: there was an ent out there this time, and I got pictures which I'll post as soon as I wake up enough to find the camera. Plus the Circa Paleo has a stage out there, with a coffee house and hookah bar. It was a very neat set up. They had a tent with a counter that sold all kinds of hot and iced tea and coffee drinks, with tables and floor cushions for the people using the hookahs. It's close enough to the stage to hear the music and see the band.
Published on March 13, 2011 07:33
March 11, 2011
Horrible news from Japan about the earth quake, horrible....
Horrible news from Japan about the earth quake, horrible. And the possible tsunami damage around the Pacific Rim and Hawaii.
***
Here's the post I was going to make before I saw the news this morning:
Writing news: I've been co-writing a middle grade fantasy novel with my friend, Aaron de Orive, and we're just about done with it. It should be finished up by this weekend. It's not sold to a publisher yet, so fingers crossed on that.
Also still working on the third book in The Cloud Roads series. It's not sold yet, either. The second book however, The Serpent Sea, was sold last year and is finished and has been turned in to the publisher, so hopefully it will be out next year. The Cloud Roads is basically standalone (no cliffhanger endings) and The Serpent Sea is set in the same world, same characters, and starts not long after The Cloud Roads ends.
The roofer should be here today to fix the roof leak, and the floor guy to put the bathroom floor back. I finished painting the bathroom, except for a part I can't reach due to the toilet currently being in the bathtub.
I had anxiety dreams all last night, including one involving zombies. I don't read zombie books, or watch zombie movies, yet I have brain-eating zombie anxiety dreams. I feel this is unfair. I had another anxiety dream that involved me being in charge of a lodge house at a national park. On my first day on the job, there was a bear attack and I had to call the park rangers for help. By the time they arrived (on horseback) it had evolved into a wizard attack. I told them the wizard attack resembled the plot of a Barbara Hambly novel, which had also taken place at a national park. They wanted to know more about the book, in case the person responsible for this attack was somehow imitating the book. I could remember every detail of the plot but not the title and went to look it up online. Then I woke up. No, that Hambly novel doesn't exist but I remember parts of the plot, the characters, everything.
Also, my husband got up in the middle of the night to take something for indigestion, and when he was coming back out of the kitchen, ran into a wall in the dark hard enough to get a nosebleed. It was kind of a weird night.
***
Here's the post I was going to make before I saw the news this morning:
Writing news: I've been co-writing a middle grade fantasy novel with my friend, Aaron de Orive, and we're just about done with it. It should be finished up by this weekend. It's not sold to a publisher yet, so fingers crossed on that.
Also still working on the third book in The Cloud Roads series. It's not sold yet, either. The second book however, The Serpent Sea, was sold last year and is finished and has been turned in to the publisher, so hopefully it will be out next year. The Cloud Roads is basically standalone (no cliffhanger endings) and The Serpent Sea is set in the same world, same characters, and starts not long after The Cloud Roads ends.
The roofer should be here today to fix the roof leak, and the floor guy to put the bathroom floor back. I finished painting the bathroom, except for a part I can't reach due to the toilet currently being in the bathtub.
I had anxiety dreams all last night, including one involving zombies. I don't read zombie books, or watch zombie movies, yet I have brain-eating zombie anxiety dreams. I feel this is unfair. I had another anxiety dream that involved me being in charge of a lodge house at a national park. On my first day on the job, there was a bear attack and I had to call the park rangers for help. By the time they arrived (on horseback) it had evolved into a wizard attack. I told them the wizard attack resembled the plot of a Barbara Hambly novel, which had also taken place at a national park. They wanted to know more about the book, in case the person responsible for this attack was somehow imitating the book. I could remember every detail of the plot but not the title and went to look it up online. Then I woke up. No, that Hambly novel doesn't exist but I remember parts of the plot, the characters, everything.
Also, my husband got up in the middle of the night to take something for indigestion, and when he was coming back out of the kitchen, ran into a wall in the dark hard enough to get a nosebleed. It was kind of a weird night.
Published on March 11, 2011 07:40
March 10, 2011
I posted about our house issues back here, and yesterday ...
I posted about our house issues back here, and yesterday the contractor got started fixing them. So far the porch pillars are now reconnected to the porch at both top and bottom, the bathroom floor has been stripped off, a bad piece of the subfloor replaced and the water issue dealt with, and it's now waiting for Floor Guy to come and reinstall floor, then for the fixtures to be put back in place. I painted it last night, since it really needed it, and it's a lot easier to do when the toilet and sink aren't in it. The roof leak was judged to be more serious than they thought at first, so a roofer is coming to deal with that.
I actually got quite a lot of writing done while they were here. Having other people working in the house makes me want to work too, apparently.
This art at CoolVibe is just really neat: Hidden. Our house doesn't look like that, though. Well, sort of. We don't have a basement or a swamp.
I actually got quite a lot of writing done while they were here. Having other people working in the house makes me want to work too, apparently.
This art at CoolVibe is just really neat: Hidden. Our house doesn't look like that, though. Well, sort of. We don't have a basement or a swamp.
Published on March 10, 2011 06:13
March 9, 2011
Meme and Con Schedule
This is a meme I got from
lillian13
:
In 2011: I will turn 47. I live with my husband and two cats. (Bella and Tasha. Harry died the previous year.) We live in the house we bought that is very comfortable but intermittently falling apart. (It was built in 1967, possibly by amateurs.) My day job is being a professional writer, even when I don't do so well at it. (Quote from Galaxy Quest: "Look! I have one job on this lousy ship, it's *stupid*, but I'm gonna do it! Okay?")
In 2001: I was 37. Lived with same husband in the same house, which we had recently bought and it was somewhat uglier than it is now. We had our dog Spike, who we'd just gotten the previous year (He got a cancerous throat tumor and died in 2008), and two cats, Harry and Bella. Wheel of the Infinite came out in paperback and tanked. My mother had Alzheimer's. I was working at a job in a small private online software company that had started out wonderful, and that I would later come to passionately hate. (I would quit it early in 2004, when a friend of mine died and I realized that life was too short.)
In 1991: I was 27. I was living in a fourplex with two cats, Harry and Kate. Harry I found as a kitten stuck in a tree during a Christmas ice storm. Kate had been given to me by a former roommate when she was thirteen years old. The roommate expected her to die soon. Kate lived to be twenty-two. I worked on the A&M campus in computer support, for a project that did ocean floor drilling for research. I had been trying to sell short stories for several years but hadn't had any success. I finished writing The Element of Fire, and got an agent who sold it to Tor Books.
In 1981: I was 17, living at home. I had been reading SF/F since I could read and was a huge Star Wars fan. I'd found fanfiction and fanzines, and the next year I'd go to my first SF convention, ArmadilloCon in Austin. I had a Shetland Sheepdog named Pepper and a cat named Rudy.
In 1971: I don't have any specific memories of being 7.
***
My next two conventions are:
AggieCon 42, March 25-27, in College Station, Texas.
ApolloCon 2011, June 24-26, in Houston, Texas, where I am guest of honor, yay!
Book Signing:
Murder by the Book Saturday April 30, 4:30 pm, in Houston, Texas.
![[info]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380449247i/1833871.gif)
In 2011: I will turn 47. I live with my husband and two cats. (Bella and Tasha. Harry died the previous year.) We live in the house we bought that is very comfortable but intermittently falling apart. (It was built in 1967, possibly by amateurs.) My day job is being a professional writer, even when I don't do so well at it. (Quote from Galaxy Quest: "Look! I have one job on this lousy ship, it's *stupid*, but I'm gonna do it! Okay?")
In 2001: I was 37. Lived with same husband in the same house, which we had recently bought and it was somewhat uglier than it is now. We had our dog Spike, who we'd just gotten the previous year (He got a cancerous throat tumor and died in 2008), and two cats, Harry and Bella. Wheel of the Infinite came out in paperback and tanked. My mother had Alzheimer's. I was working at a job in a small private online software company that had started out wonderful, and that I would later come to passionately hate. (I would quit it early in 2004, when a friend of mine died and I realized that life was too short.)
In 1991: I was 27. I was living in a fourplex with two cats, Harry and Kate. Harry I found as a kitten stuck in a tree during a Christmas ice storm. Kate had been given to me by a former roommate when she was thirteen years old. The roommate expected her to die soon. Kate lived to be twenty-two. I worked on the A&M campus in computer support, for a project that did ocean floor drilling for research. I had been trying to sell short stories for several years but hadn't had any success. I finished writing The Element of Fire, and got an agent who sold it to Tor Books.
In 1981: I was 17, living at home. I had been reading SF/F since I could read and was a huge Star Wars fan. I'd found fanfiction and fanzines, and the next year I'd go to my first SF convention, ArmadilloCon in Austin. I had a Shetland Sheepdog named Pepper and a cat named Rudy.
In 1971: I don't have any specific memories of being 7.
***
My next two conventions are:
AggieCon 42, March 25-27, in College Station, Texas.
ApolloCon 2011, June 24-26, in Houston, Texas, where I am guest of honor, yay!
Book Signing:
Murder by the Book Saturday April 30, 4:30 pm, in Houston, Texas.
Published on March 09, 2011 05:46
March 8, 2011
After feeling better over the weekend, the sick staged a ...
After feeling better over the weekend, the sick staged a comeback yesterday. It would be nice if this went away someday.
Weird cat problem: Bella went to the vet fourteen days ago to get her distended fang removed. It had been significantly longer than her other one for quite a while, and you could actually see it extending below her lip when her mouth was closed. It had been there so long I thought it was a genetic anomaly (she has weird things going on with her claws, too) until it actually started to look longer and the vet noticed and said it was caused by an infected tooth root. Since Bella got back from the vet, Tasha has refused to get near her, growls and hisses, and basically treats her like we brought a strange adult cat into the house. My question is, what the hell?
Usually every time a cat goes to the vet, even for a check-up, there's some hissing from the other one when she comes back. I always figured that was because the returning cat smelled of the vet and the office, but it never went on longer than a couple of hours. This has gone on for two weeks.
Tasha is only a couple years old and has known Bella since she was a kitten, and Bella had the distended fang the entire time. Could it be that Tasha doesn't recognize her without it? How much do cats rely on visual recognition as opposed to scent? Bella wasn't even at the vet overnight, just for six hours or so.
Couple of things:
chomiji
won my
con_or_bust
auction for an autographed copy of The Cloud Roads, yay!
If you missed it on Sunday, The Cloud Roads is also now available as a Barnes and Noble NookBook (as well as a Baen Webscription eBook and a Amazon Kindle Edition.)
Weird cat problem: Bella went to the vet fourteen days ago to get her distended fang removed. It had been significantly longer than her other one for quite a while, and you could actually see it extending below her lip when her mouth was closed. It had been there so long I thought it was a genetic anomaly (she has weird things going on with her claws, too) until it actually started to look longer and the vet noticed and said it was caused by an infected tooth root. Since Bella got back from the vet, Tasha has refused to get near her, growls and hisses, and basically treats her like we brought a strange adult cat into the house. My question is, what the hell?
Usually every time a cat goes to the vet, even for a check-up, there's some hissing from the other one when she comes back. I always figured that was because the returning cat smelled of the vet and the office, but it never went on longer than a couple of hours. This has gone on for two weeks.
Tasha is only a couple years old and has known Bella since she was a kitten, and Bella had the distended fang the entire time. Could it be that Tasha doesn't recognize her without it? How much do cats rely on visual recognition as opposed to scent? Bella wasn't even at the vet overnight, just for six hours or so.
Couple of things:
![[info]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380449247i/1833871.gif)
![[info]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380449326i/1840419.gif)
If you missed it on Sunday, The Cloud Roads is also now available as a Barnes and Noble NookBook (as well as a Baen Webscription eBook and a Amazon Kindle Edition.)
Published on March 08, 2011 06:35
March 6, 2011
We went to a really excellent wedding yesterday. The las...
We went to a really excellent wedding yesterday. The last couple of weddings we've been too have not been so great, so it was a really nice change of pace. It was an older couple, both people who previously had very long happy marriages but their spouses had died in the past few years. The officiant was a female Episcopalian priest, and she talked about how happy she was when they came to her to tell her they were getting married. She told them there was some church-mandated pre-marital counseling, and the man said, "Between the two of us we've been married for over a hundred years. What would you like to know?" And she said, "Yay, the counseling's finished!" and that was that.
There was also a hard rain squall that came through yesterday morning, and the grass and trees look a little less dead today.
Couple of things:
This is the last day for the
con_or_bust
fundraiser auction, and there are still tons of neat items to bid on. Jewelry, knitted goods, food, autographed books, other neat stuff. Here's the list of items that still have zero or one bid. I wish I had the spare money to bid on some of these things. (Like the Coraline Nike Dunks, but they are too big for even my enormous feet.) My offer is here, an autographed copy of The Cloud Roads.
The Cloud Roads is also now available as a Barnes and Noble NookBook (as well as a Baen Webscription eBooks and a Amazon Kindle Edition. The book also got a couple of great reviews at The Book Smugglers and School Library Journal in the adult books for teens category.
Sunday links:
Black Gate recommends Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London which will be released in the US as Midnight Riot. John O'Neill says Diana Gabaldon describes Rivers of London as "What would happen if Harry Potter grew up and joined the Fuzz," which so far is accurate, though it doesn't nearly reflect how very funny this book is.
CD Recycling Center Compacts Discs, when recycled properly, will stop unnecessary pollution, conserve natural resources, and help slow global warming.
Carol Valdez Miller: If it Doesn't Almost Kill You, It's Just Coke Zero
Well, no. It's just life. But in losing (giving up) that dream, I discovered something miraculous: you don't get just one dream. Except, okay, publishing? It's right up there with trying to become an actress. The only difference is I can look like a toadstool in pajamas and still do it. Oh, also, I can do it in Squatsville, Indiana. SCORE. But the work? The luck? The same, I think. This business is hard. It's filled with ups and downs. FOREVER. Those rough times don't stop until you stop publishing.
mahoni
linked to Re-Nest: Famous Writers' Small Writing Sheds and Off-the-Grid Huts My writing shed is also called the master bedroom, but I love to look at these. If I could have one, it would be a treehouse.
There was also a hard rain squall that came through yesterday morning, and the grass and trees look a little less dead today.
Couple of things:
This is the last day for the
![[info]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380449326i/1840419.gif)
The Cloud Roads is also now available as a Barnes and Noble NookBook (as well as a Baen Webscription eBooks and a Amazon Kindle Edition. The book also got a couple of great reviews at The Book Smugglers and School Library Journal in the adult books for teens category.
Sunday links:
Black Gate recommends Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London which will be released in the US as Midnight Riot. John O'Neill says Diana Gabaldon describes Rivers of London as "What would happen if Harry Potter grew up and joined the Fuzz," which so far is accurate, though it doesn't nearly reflect how very funny this book is.
CD Recycling Center Compacts Discs, when recycled properly, will stop unnecessary pollution, conserve natural resources, and help slow global warming.
Carol Valdez Miller: If it Doesn't Almost Kill You, It's Just Coke Zero
Well, no. It's just life. But in losing (giving up) that dream, I discovered something miraculous: you don't get just one dream. Except, okay, publishing? It's right up there with trying to become an actress. The only difference is I can look like a toadstool in pajamas and still do it. Oh, also, I can do it in Squatsville, Indiana. SCORE. But the work? The luck? The same, I think. This business is hard. It's filled with ups and downs. FOREVER. Those rough times don't stop until you stop publishing.
![[info]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380449247i/1833871.gif)
Published on March 06, 2011 07:02
March 4, 2011
The oven is fixed! And there was much rejoicing. We cal...
The oven is fixed! And there was much rejoicing. We called the local appliance place (because the last time we tried to get Sears to repair anything it was an extended technicolor nightmare) and they originally scheduled for today, then were able to fit us in late yesterday. It was a bad igniter and cost much less than a new range, so that was a relief.
The guy took the door off, turned the oven on, and climbed inside it. It freaked me out a little.
Now I have to take a small angry cat to the vet for a check-up after the dental surgery/distended fang removal she had last week. Wish me luck.
Books I'm reading/want to read:
I've been reading: The Desert of Souls by Howard Andrew Jones, Arabian Nights style fantasy, set in 8th Baghdad but with magical mysteries. Excellent book.
Want to Read: The Winds of Khalakovo by Bradley P. Beaulieu. It had me at the flying boats on the cover.
Art site: Rekonesans. Found this gorgeous piece linked at SF Signal.
The guy took the door off, turned the oven on, and climbed inside it. It freaked me out a little.
Now I have to take a small angry cat to the vet for a check-up after the dental surgery/distended fang removal she had last week. Wish me luck.
Books I'm reading/want to read:
I've been reading: The Desert of Souls by Howard Andrew Jones, Arabian Nights style fantasy, set in 8th Baghdad but with magical mysteries. Excellent book.
Want to Read: The Winds of Khalakovo by Bradley P. Beaulieu. It had me at the flying boats on the cover.
Art site: Rekonesans. Found this gorgeous piece linked at SF Signal.
Published on March 04, 2011 06:13