Martha Wells's Blog, page 201

First Day of Halloween

It's the first day of Halloween month, the most important holiday of the year for my people, i.e. people who like Halloween a lot.

We won't be doing are usual destroy-the-house decoration frenzy this year, because I'm going to World Fantasy, which the weekend of the 28-31, and I won't be back until Halloween night. Since we won't be doing a party, we'll probably just do the outside decorations for the trick-or-treaters.





Past Halloween picture galleries here and here.

And eldritchhobbit is doing her month of Halloween posts starting here


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Alma Alexander posted this link on twitter: Terry Pratchett: 'I'm open to joy. But I'm also more cynical' Discworld's creator on his new novel, living with Alzheimer's – and why he should be allowed to decide when to end it all

"I've lost both parents in the last two years, so you pick up on that stuff," says Pratchett. "That's the most terrible thing about being an author – standing there at your mother's funeral, but you don't switch the author off. So your own innermost thoughts are grist for the mill. Who was it said – one of the famous lady novelists – 'unhappy is the family that contains an author'?"

I have to go to the dentist this morning, augh.A couple o...

I have to go to the dentist this morning, augh.


A couple of links:


Kate Elliott's post on prejudice: And Pharaoh's Heart Hardened


Katharine Kimbriel has released Fires of Nuala as an ebook through Book View Cafe. The description is here with free sample chapters.

Yesterday was a bad day that could have been so much wors...

Yesterday was a bad day that could have been so much worse: There was a shooter on the UT campus. I have way too many friends who were working there, on their way to work there, walking near there when this happened.

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In better news, I'll have one more Giliead and Ilias short story, called "Rites of Passage" coming out next year. It'll be in Black Gate issue 16 or 17.

These are prequel stories to the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy, and the earlier ones are on my web site, linked from the Excerpts and Short Stories page.


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RevolutionSF is doing a series on Uncanny Un-Collectibles : Missing Comic Book Trades 1940s to 1960s


Mindy Klasky: How to Support Authors You Like This is a good list, of the four simple things most people who buy books tend to do anyway.

I think the thing about people being angry for being asked to support authors was more about the trend that was talked about on Dear Author at one point, where some romance authors were recruiting readers for "street teams." Among other things that really weren't good ideas, they were telling people to take their books out of the stacks in the back of the bookstore and reshelve them on the tables up front. This is a bad, bad idea, and a bad, bad thing to do to the author and the store. Publishers pay to have certain books in that premium space, and if a sales rep checks up on the store and finds other books in their space, the store can get into a lot of trouble. Also, if stores find other books placed in that space, they're very likely to just return them to the publisher and not reorder.

And really, crazy stuff like that is never helpful. As someone points out in the comments of that post, the most helpful thing is word of mouth. If you liked a book, tell people that you liked it. In person, online, wherever. That's the best advertising (and often the only advertising) books get.

I was very sorry to hear that agent Ralph Vicinanza died ...

I was very sorry to hear that agent Ralph Vicinanza died suddenly. Coming so soon after bookseller David Thompson and writer Jennifer Rardin died suddenly. This has been a terrible month for the book community.

It dropped to nearly 50 degrees last night, and we slept ...

It dropped to nearly 50 degrees last night, and we slept with the windows open for the first time in quite a while. It's supposed to be in the upper 70s/low 80s this week, but I suspect it will be back up to the 90s in time for the Texas Renaissance Festival next month.

In the house continually falling apart category, our washing machine may be dying. It is about 16 years old, so this probably shouldn't be a surprise.

Currently reading Not Less Than Gods by Kage Baker, a steampunk-ish standal...

I think I cycled through every possible variety of anxiet...

I think I cycled through every possible variety of anxiety dream last night. Not fun. This included the one where I'm in a house or apartment alone at night and can't get the outside door to lock, or it keeps breaking, there are complicated locks that don't work right, etc.

I often have very elaborate house dreams, or dreams about very elaborate houses. Not always expensive or lavish ones, just houses I've never seen in a lot of detail. Some of them need renovations. (I know where that pa...

Was reminiscing with a friend the other day about the Sch...

Was reminiscing with a friend the other day about the Scholastic Book Club, and how much we liked Book Order day and Book Arrival day. One of my favorites types was always the ghost story/kid moves to scary old house/farm/castle whatever story. We realized that a lot of those books were probably derivative of The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton, but we didn't care, we liked them all.

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Link from Judith Tarr: Maureen Johnson Sell the Girls
When I was in college, I remember hearing...

I've been getting work done but not feeling all that well...

I've been getting work done but not feeling all that well. It's allergies and sinus issues from all the storm fronts coming up from the coast which storm and then don't rain. Anyway, to work!


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From sbisson : Star Warred Photos of a Star Wars Art Car

Huffington Post: World Alzheimer's Day: 10 Tips to Prevent Alzheimer's My mother had Alzheimer's for a few years before she died. A good friend from SF/F and media fandom also has it, and I have no idea what's happened to her, since after a whil...

Quick note to Twitter users: There's a serious problem. I...

Quick note to Twitter users: There's a serious problem. If you are on twitter.com and see a tweet covered in black, don't roll your mouse over it. It's a virus. They're recommending you not use the web interface. It doesn't seem to be affecting Tweetdeck so far.

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Has anybody read Les Cites Obscures? (warning, that site has music) It's a Belgian graphic novel series. In this imaginary world, humans live in independent city-states, each of which has developed a distinct civilization...

Yesterday we had an interesting discussion on facebook ab...

Yesterday we had an interesting discussion on facebook about Julie & Julia, the movie about Julie Powell and Julia Child. I come down on the side of wishing the entire movie was about Julia Child and My Life in France, instead of only half of it. And I do agree that Julie Powell in the movie did grow and change, though it's hard to separate that from the knowledge that not long after the events in the movie, she cheats on her husband and eventually they get divorced.

One of the many things...