Martha Wells's Blog, page 212

I had a mild scare with Tasha (the cat) the other day. S...

I had a mild scare with Tasha (the cat) the other day. She couldn't seem to settle down for the normal four hour or so morning nap, kept walking back and forth, lying down and getting up again. But she let me feel her tummy and didn't seem to be in any pain anywhere. I finally figured out she had been chewing the used teabags that had been left in a bowl on the counter. Yes, she had a caffeine and sugar high. It wore off by the evening and she slept like a log.


Another great link from Ric...

It snowed here yesterday, which is pretty unusual for thi...

It snowed here yesterday, which is pretty unusual for this time of year. Even more so since it was 70 on Sunday. It snowed for a few hours, big fat flakes, it got pretty good coverage. It's melting away today, but on the way to the doctor's office early this morning, I saw about fifty snowmen in various states of melt. Including one that was riding around on the toolbox of a pickup.


Writer Beware has two posts on Vanity Awards here and here. So after you pay $20,000 or more to a vanity pu...

One Hundred Years Hence, the Cushing Special Exhibit

The Cushing Memorial Library and Archives at Texas A&M University will be doing a special exhibit: One Hundred Years Hence: Science Fiction & Fantasy at Texas A&M

The exhibit will officially open to the public at 3:00 pm on March 12, with a short ceremony to follow at 3:30. Nebula Award-winning science fiction author Elizabeth Moon and writer and scholar James Gunn will be featured speakers, introduced by Cushing Library's Science Fiction Curator, Professor Hal Hall. Special giveaways and c...

I had a great weekend, except for the fact that I can't s...

I had a great weekend, except for the fact that I can't stop coughing. I think it's probably part cold-related, part stress-related. And while today it's been sunny and in the 70s, Tuesday it's supposed to be freezing with a chance of snow. It would be really nice if that didn't happen.


Walter Koenig's son, Andrew Koenig, is missing in Vancouver. Please pass the word along.

ETA: Link from Rick Klaw: Te Tohunga by Willhelm Ditmer Beautiful art from a 1907 collection of Maori legends.

A small plane crashed into an office building in Northwes...

A small plane crashed into an office building in Northwest Austin

Really hoping everyone I know in Austin is okay.

I've been sick for the past few days, but I think I'm fin...

I've been sick for the past few days, but I think I'm finally getting over it. Stuffed nose, stuffed ears, sore throat, coughing up lungs, but no fever, so I don't think it was flu. Anyway, it's finally better.


For people who like audiobooks, John O'Neill of Black Gate Magazine posted a review of Dark Adventure Radio: The Shadow Over Innsmouth But it's the audio drama itself that's the real draw, and it is marvelous. The source material – a period mystery that begins as a tightly plotted...

Publishing Questions

I've been fighting off a cold all last week, and this weekend it won. Though I'm still not sure if it's an actual cold or sinus issues, since we've been having a lot of fast fronts coming through, and my sinuses can detect a change in the weather as far as two states away.


stinabat had asked me several questions in a previous post, so I'm going to answer them here, at least the ones that I had answers for. :)


what is the typical acquisition process? is it different for every publisher? (i...

Passing this along, though it won't do much good as some ...

Passing this along, though it won't do much good as some people never seem to believe it, anymore than they believe that most writers don't control the cover image, the price, availability of ebook, foreign, or audio editions etc etc.

The myth of the rich writer.

I feel like the figure of $7500 for a first fantasy is kind of high. I got $3500 for The Element of Fire in 1992, and there was a survey a few years ago that I think listed $5000 - $5500 as still the average amount of the advance for ...

We didn't get snow that stuck, just the usual freezing ra...

We didn't get snow that stuck, just the usual freezing rain and sleet. Though apparently cars parked outside did still have a little snow this morning.


There's a new Lord of the Rings fan film: Born of Hope
This hour long original drama is set in the time before the War of the Ring and tells the story of the Dúnedain, the Rangers of the North, before the return of the King. Inspired by only a couple of paragraphs written by Tolkien in the appendices of the Lord of the Rings we follow Arathorn ...

Quickly passing on these links from eldritchhobbit, about...

Quickly passing on these links from eldritchhobbit , about the winter storm crisis on the Sioux reservations in South Dakota:

The USA Today article: Storm Disaster for Sioux Flies under Compassion Radar.

Daily Kos lists places to donate organized by the reservation.
The Native American Heritage Association (NAHA)