Martha Wells's Blog, page 190

Okay, last night, right as we were getting ready to make ...

Okay, last night, right as we were getting ready to make dinner, the oven portion of our drop-in gas range died. We're hoping we can get it fixed, but it's a fifteen year old Kenmore, so who knows.

It's like we have a problem migrating around the house, and as soon as it's fixed in one spot, it moves to another one. You'd think the toilet in the upstairs bathroom that's getting ready to plunge through the kitchen ceiling would be enough.

Other than that, I'm a lot less sick today again, so that's good.

links:

The posts on The Night Bazaar this week are all about world-building, and there's also a giveaway for Katy Stauber's new novel Revolution World.

Agent Jennifer Jackson's blog has moved from Live Journal to Wordpress: arcaedia.wordpress.com. There's also an LJ RSS feed: http://syndicated.livejournal.com/agent_j_jackson/profile

The con_or_bust auction ends this Sunday, March 6! A whole bunch of fabulous new items has been added, including many autographed books. My offer is here: an autographed copy of The Cloud Roads.

Okay, now The Cloud Roads is also available as an Amazon ...

Okay, now The Cloud Roads is also available as an Amazon Kindle Edition, as well as at the Baen Webscription site. It's cheaper at Baen.

Hopefully I am much less sick today. :knock on wood: I actually got some things done yesterday, which was a nice change.


This is a neat thing Brad Foster linked to on Facebook, probably only of interest to artists: athletic body diversity reference for artists This is a photoshoot of various Olympic athletes by Howard Schartz and Beverly Ornstein titled "The Athlete". Like many others I tend to fall into the trap of drawing the same body type over and over for athletic characters. This photoshoot serves as awesome reference reminding us artists that strong bodies come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and muscles show up in different ways. It also helps us keep in mind that not everyone who is fit is also lean.


Lucienne Diver talks about Self-Defeating Attitudes in writers. In a related link, Barbara Caridad Ferrer talks about revising in Time to Say Goodbye

The Cloud Roads at Baen ebook Site

Quickie post, because I am still sick. The cold isn't forming a troll in my chest anymore, but it is in my head, and it's giving me little moments of vertigo. If I could remember what day of the week it is for more than 15 minutes at a time, that would probably help. You don't know how long it took me to spell "baen" in the subject line up there.

The Cloud Roads is now available at the Baen webscription ebook site here. It should be available on Amazon kindle soon, and I'll post when I see it there.

Writing Income Poll Results

First off, the writing income poll results.

Everybody had a realistic selection, but only 15 people (on LJ) picked it correctly: My writing income for 2010 was Below $5000. Not too far below fortunately, but below. This year is a bit of an all-time low. Before 2010 it has been between $5000 - $10,000, which the majority chose, but not last year.


My cold got a lot worse over the weekend, and sat in my chest like a giant chest-troll, so I didn't get much of anything done over the weekend. It is better this morning (you can't hear me trying to breathe from across the room) so hopefully today will continue better.

links:

Podcastle Wants You PodCastle wants you! We're continually looking for volunteers of all backgrounds and ethnicities to read the cool stories we've bought. So if you're listening to this, and you've ever wanted to read for PodCastle, or any of the Escape Artists podcasts, and you have recording equipment, we'd love for you to send us an audition.

The Reader's Advisor: HarperCollins wants to limit libraries to only 26 ebook downloads. This is crazy and seems to be an idea conceived by someone who has never used a library before. The link has a round-up of discussion links and also the email address where you can complain to the publisher. (Note: readers/book consumers complaining to the publisher is the only thing that works in this situation. The authors have no control over it, and the publishers don't listen to author complaints.)

Locus: An overview of International Science Fiction and Fantasy compiled by Jeff VanderMeer.

Something pretty: Tane Mahuta at the Atlas Obscura.


ETA: forgot that I meant to answer this writing question that came in over the weekend here:

asked: Oooh, so "The Serpent Sea" must be a Cloud Roads sequel, right? I'm so relieved, you have no idea. Not that I've even finished the Cloud Roads yet--i've actually been reluctant to, fearing that it would just be a one-off like City of Bones (I'm still waiting for a sequel to that one). Oh, and while I'm here...I don't suppose you ever contemplated a prequel to Death of the Necromancer? Just a short story, maybe, on Nicholas' childhood and adoption by Edouard? I bet Nicholas was a truly appalling child :)

The Cloud Roads is a stand-alone story, and The Serpent Sea is the next book in the series. It's the same world, same characters, and starts not very long after The Cloud Roads ends. But The Cloud Roads was originally written to be read by itself.

I've contemplated a prequel to The Death of the Necromancer, but not so much about Nicholas' childhood but more a short story about an early adventure with him and Reynard. Not sure if it's ever going to get written.

Writing Income Poll

Oh, I remembered what I was going to post today. (sick with cold brain no like think.) jimhines has been posting his writing income for the past few years as a reality check on the idea that writing is an easy way to get rich, etc.

Since I just recently figured out my writing income this year for taxes, I thought I would do the same. But to make it more fun, I'll do a poll, and then post the results with the actual answer next week.


View Poll: Martha's 2010 Writing Income

I desperately want to go to Sherwood Forest Faire outside...

I desperately want to go to Sherwood Forest Faire outside Austin, but I am sick and miserable. (See the tag for my pictures from last year.)


Good bookstore news:

Mysterious Galaxy to open second location in Redondo Beach

25 ABA Member Stores Opened in 2010

Got Bella back from the vet late yesterday afternoon. He...

Got Bella back from the vet late yesterday afternoon. Her distended fang has been removed, and it was an infected root that was pushing it out. She had a shot for pain before she left the vet, so she was very stoned last night. I have to give her antibiotic drops and take her back in ten days for a check-up.

My allergies are either crazy bad or I have a cold in my nose. Fortunately I think I got pretty much all the dirt moved yesterday. There's still some on the front yard, but not so much as to be horrifying for the neighbors. I was thinking about going out to the co-op today to see if they had cheap vegetable seedlings, but I may not, as I've got some other stuff I want to take care of.


***

Remember the con_or_bust fund-raising auction is going on until March 6. You can bid on jewelry, autographed books, and other great items, like blog posts, knitted caps, limited edition Coraline shoes, yarn, home made cookies or pie or a spice blend. My item, an autographed copy of The Cloud Roads is here.

Woke up this morning a little congested and sore-throaty;...

Woke up this morning a little congested and sore-throaty; hopefully it's allergies and not a cold.

If it's allergies, I suspect it's caused by the big pile of dirt.

This morning I need to drop Bella off at the vet to have her distended fang dealt with, and then move a bunch of poo-filled dirt into the raised garden bed before it rains. I don't think the neighbors would appreciate it ending up in the street.

So I'll be kind of pressed for time today.


Been reading the BBC news about Libya and New Zealand, and worrying a lot. When I went to NZ several years ago, Christchurch was one of the cities we spent time in. The NZ site for the Red Cross is here though it wasn't coming up earlier. Here's the international site for the Red Cross/Red Crescent.

A while back we decided we wanted to try planting a veget...

A while back we decided we wanted to try planting a vegetable garden and a couple of weekends ago Troyce built a raised bed for it. This morning we had the bulk dirt and rock place deliver a load a dirt for it. Dirt from the bulk dirt place is ridiculously cheap compared to a home garden place like Lowe's, but you have to get kind of a lot of it. I have been moving dirt via wheelbarrow and shovel all morning, and I fear we have...a lot of dirt.

I'm taking a break now, but...that's a lot of dirt.

The Nebula Nominations are posted! Congrats to all the nominees, especially J. Kathleen Cheney j_cheney and Christopher Kastensmidt ckastens !


John Scalzi on the Borders' Bankruptcy and Writers So basically, if you're worried that the Borders bankruptcy is going to screw writers, you're using the incorrect tense. That screwing has already happened, and now we just have to wait for the effects to catch up to us. We may be additionally screwed from here, of course. We'll have to see what happens.


The Shared Worlds Teen SF/Fantasy Writing Camp–Register Soon! Now open to applicants: Shared Worlds 2011 will be held at Wofford College (Spartanburg, SC) the last two weeks of July, marking the camp's fourth year of operation. Guest instructors will include Carl Brandon Parallax Award winner and YA novelist Nnedi Okorafor, World Fantasy Award winner Jeff VanderMeer, Hugo Award winning editor Ann VanderMeer, Philip K. Dick Award finalist Minister Faust, World Fantasy Award winner Ekaterina Sedia, and trend-setting game designer Will Hindmarch.

Con or Bust Auction Bidding Now Open

Making this a separate post, because the previous one got a little long:

Bidding is now open at the Con or Bust Online Auction
Welcome to [info]con_or_bust, which helps fans of color to attend SFF conventions, principally WisCon.

There are many wonderful items up for bid, like homemade cookies and signed books. My item is here: an autographed copy of The Cloud Roads.