Martha Wells's Blog, page 221

My email is down, I don't know for how long. So that's a...

My email is down, I don't know for how long. So that's a great start to the day.


eldritchhobbit 's new book: The Intersection of Fantasy and Native America: From H.P. Lovecraft to Leslie Marmon Silko Now an international, multi-ethnic, and cross-disciplinary group of scholars investigates the meaningful ways in which fantasy and Native America intersect, examining classics by American Indian authors such as Louise Erdrich, Gerald Vizenor, and Leslie Marmon Silko, as well as non-Native...

Today I had jury duty in municipal court. In the past, I...

Today I had jury duty in municipal court. In the past, I've served on one criminal jury (Assault with a deadly weapon -- a guy was trying to kill another guy and ended up accidentally shooting a baby. The baby survived because the top pediatric trauma surgeon in the state happened to be hanging out at the local hospital that night), got booted off a traffic court jury for cause (Go me), and apparently reacted so visibly to the charge in a criminal court voir dire that in the reshuffle, I go...

Here's one not to fall for: Virtual Author's AssistantIt ...

Here's one not to fall for: Virtual Author's Assistant

It only cost $597.00, which I guess is much cheaper than the $10,000 or so that people pay to vanity presses. Apparently virtual writers need virtual assistants for their virtual careers.

(If I had an assistant, I would have them doing things like painting the kitchen, cleaning the gutters, and giving the cat his arthritis medicine.)

From arcaedia : How Not to Get an Agent


I caught an episode of Destination Truth about Mexico's Island of the ...

thanate asked: What kind of research do you tend to do wh...

thanate asked: What kind of research do you tend to do when you're writing about things that take place in a notably different climate and ecology from the one you're used to?

If it's a real world climate and ecology, I'd try to find articles or biographies written by people who live there, or visited there. National Geographic can be very handy for this. If it's a created world ecology, you can do the same thing for its closest real-world equivalent. You basically need to know enough to gi...

Halloween Post-Mortem (hee)

Last night watched the Ghost Hunters marathon. My favorite episode is the one in Ireland at Leap Castle where Tango taunts The Thing until it punches Dustin in the face.

Also handed out a lot of candy to trick-or-treaters. The kids were very impressed with our decorations. Best comment was: "Is that a grave yard? Did somebody die there?" When you're under three feet tall, it's all pretty impressive.

I was also reading Alethea Kontis on Facebook, who was posting great pictures of Hallowee...

Halloween Decorations

The party last night turned out great. Here's some photos of the finished decorations:


These are the chocolate balls our friend Megan made. It's chocolate cake with a dipping chocolate coating, and they were so good. I just had a leftover one for lunch.


Vampire hunters' kit. (Later we added a bottle of Spice Island Garlic Salt.)






Finished bat cave


Other side of the bat cave


As you exit the bat cave










Partially dress bay window with Tasha forming a decorative tableau with a pumpkin.

While cooking and decorating for the Halloween party, I'v...

While cooking and decorating for the Halloween party, I've been watching TCM's Boris Karloff day (Now everybody think about Bill Murray's famous line from the baptism scene in Ed Wood) and it's weird how he made this whole string of movies which are basically the same movie. In each one, he plays a brilliant well-intentioned but doomed scientist who is working on a way to bring people back from the dead and is interrupted at the wrong moment, convicted of murder and thrown in prison or execu...

Bat Cave Stage II, Pretty Much Done

For Building a Bat Cave, Stage I, click here.

It still needs to be dressed with more lights, bats, etc, but the basic structure is there. It's very difficult to get pictures of, and the flash seems to highlight all the gaps. In the darkened hallway, it looks a lot better.


That orange glow is the light fixture shining through.

How to Build a Bat Cave, Stage 1

Or, The Art of Building a Bat Cave for the Servantless American Family. Not that Julia Child ever built a bat cave, that we know of, but if she had, it would have been awesome.


You will need thumbtacks, bats, sticks from the yard, and several rolls of brown packing paper, the kind used to wrap shipping boxes. Also scissors, brown thread, and lots of patience.

Cut the paper into varying lengths, probably none smaller than three feet or so, based on the size of the boulders you want to build. ...

Writing Questions and Nanomowrimomo

Okay, it's been a couple of months since we did this last, and since Nanomomo is about to start, let's do writing questions: If anyone has a question about writing and/or publishing in general, in particular, or about my writing, comment with it here and I'll answer it in a later post if I know what the answer is.