Martha Wells's Blog, page 223

I put the first of the Halloween pumpkins out today. The...

I put the first of the Halloween pumpkins out today. The big one goes in the bay window for now (we don't do most of the big outdoor decorations until closer to Halloween) and I was a little worried Tasha might be afraid of the giant orange thing next to her favorite basket. But not so much.

Passing this along from jess_ka:Wheatland Press is having...

Passing this along from jess_ka :

Wheatland Press is having a special sale to benefit a friend and indie bookstore owner whose house burned down. Buy any book from now until the end of October and she will donate $5.00 to the friend, or there's a link where you can donate directly.

I took a stress relief day and went with friends to the Japanese Garden and the Houston zoo, and it was a long cold wet drive back, but very worth it. It was a cool overcast day, and the zoo was not crowded at all. ...

Troyce has a job interview today; everyone please cross y...

Troyce has a job interview today; everyone please cross your fingers for him. He's applied for a bunch of jobs since hearing about the lay-off but this is the first interview he's gotten.


There's a review of Quatrain by Sharon Shinn at DearAuthor.

I know some of you have been waiting for this one: Merma...

I know some of you have been waiting for this one: Mermaid's Madness by jimhines is now available. He also has some links on that posts to other new SF/F releases this week.

It's a gray day, though no rain and not all that cool. Very depressing. I'm making the second pot roast from the grocery store's two-for-one sale tonight, so I hope it turns out as good as the first one did.

The Texas Renaissance Festival starts this weekend.

ETA: Keep forgetting to post this: the breast cancer click...

An article from DearAuthor: New FTC rules for Bloggers: T...

An article from DearAuthor: New FTC rules for Bloggers: The FTC and the Case of Unreasonable Disclosure. Not sure how this will affect me, as I don't generally get books for free. I either buy them or get them from the library or borrow them from friends.

book rec: An Old Chaos by Sheila Simonson, author of Bar Sinister, Lady Elizabeth's Comet, the Lark Dodge mysteries. Really enjoyed this, though it's the characters that make this book rather than the mystery. (disclosure: I did not get thi...

Question for the hive mind: I have a very long document ...

Question for the hive mind: I have a very long document in Word 2004 for the Mac (version 11.2) (I know, but I can't upgrade Word right now). It's passed through several different hands, and at least one of them has done something to it so it's inserting an extra blank line between paragraphs. Any suggestions has to how I get it to stop doing it? I've checked what feels like every style and format setting in the program, and nothing works.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Some links:Victoria Strauss -- The Perils of Searching fo...

Some links:

Victoria Strauss -- The Perils of Searching for Publishers on the Internet: For new writers, however, it can pose substantial hazards, since there's at least as much bad information as good--not to mention all the people who want to sell you something that may not be good for you. Even so-called professional resources aren't always reliable--the writing and editing question forums at LinkedIn, supposedly a place for business and professional networking, are absolute pits of bad...

We're still having our Halloween party this year despite ...

We're still having our Halloween party this year despite impending joblessness, we just won't be going out to the Halloween store to buy a bunch of new crap to tart up the house. This is probably a good thing, as we already have so much Halloween stuff we're at full capacity for storing it.

Some previous Halloween photos. They really don't do justice to how the place looks at night, with the lights and the fog machine.












Also check out eldritchhobbit's Halloween Countdown with spooky texts an...

Book Recs

planetalyx: the B.C. government has reduced its arts funding for the upcoming year, and hundreds of cultural groups, large and small, are suddenly scraping to pay basic expenses. One of those groups is my beloved choir, The Vancouver Lesbian and Gay Choir. We're entering our twentieth season with big dreams... and almost-empty coffers. Please spread the word.


Let's do another book recs post. Comment with your favorite SF/F books that have GLBT characters, human or alien or humanoid aliens.

S...

book_wench (Cassandra Chan) has an interesting post on th...

book_wench (Cassandra Chan) has an interesting post on the problems she had writing her most recent novel. (which I'm really looking forward to reading.)

I've had similar problems with books, where I got so far down the wrong track I couldn't see daylight. It's a very frustrating feeling, when you know you've gone wrong somewhere, something in the plot is just not working, your vision of the book is not meshing with what you seem to be doing now, but you can't put your finger on what went wro...