C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 124

I shall finish the new book today…

One weaves one's own life into a book, and this one, begun in 2010, has all Jane's illness in it, the loss of both our kittehs, and her recovery, and the arrival of Eushu and Seishi, who are so very different. It has been a year of struggle, of exhaustion, of self-doubt, midway, as I knew Jane was too sick to write, and I had no choice if we were going to pay the bills…

I honestly, for the first time since I was ten years old, thought I couldn't write any longer—worse, I was no longer sure I wanted to. It became daily discipline, getting to work, writing ten lines, at least ten lines. I tried to impose self-discipline. I edited Chernevog on days when the current writing just couldn't make sense to me. Crises interrupted me. I couldn't remember what I'd written, where I was, who was whom—thank goodness for my little book of general notes.

I was happy when, after everything, Jane started decorating, first for Halloween, and then for Christmas. Our silly kittehs got into the act. Writing began to move again, but all that mess lay behind it…and I began to realize this is, for the series, an important book…

For Christmas, Jane got me—yes—a medicine cabinet. Two huge medicine cabinets. I got her two saws, from the Thanksgiving sales. And we had nowhere left to put anything and the house was a mess. We had been looking for tile—sort of—since last Christmas, in 2010. We started looking for tile in earnest.  We found it. And we found not only the hole in the bathroom wall which started in 2008, became a hole in 2009, and a monster hole with plastic sheeting in 2010—we found a hole in the bathroom floor, where more water had gotten out.

Well, you know the rest. Jane started in on the job and we couldn't afford to have it done: we could barely afford the parts. I wrote. I struggled with it. I helped Jane where she had to have help, commiserated with her when she tried to learn new skills—mudding, floor repair, plumbing which three professional plumbers and a parts shop had declared couldn't be done differently—and had to be. My particular talent is destruction, so I smashed and stripped old tile; Jane mudded the wall. We began to think bathroom design, obsessively, and I began to lose my way again. Hell with it—we just devoted ourselves to getting that room finished. The kitchen flooded, which permanently damaged the kitchen floor. It was almost the last straw, and insurance wouldn't pay for it. But—the insurance guy recommended a guy who was reliable for tiling. And we hired him. It was the last thing, the last learning curve, and we opted not to take it. We had him and his partner do the cut and fit—and the new countertop, and the lighting sofit. We grouted the job. Did the electrical work. And did a good job of it. Jane painted. And decorated. And her site shows the result.

Then a wonderful thing happened. If you've read the Russian novels, you know what a bannik is—a vodka-loving Russian bath spirit that gives you ideas and inspiration as you sit in the bath house…ideally with a jug of vodka. We swore our old house in Oklahoma City, our first house, had a class one bannik in the upstairs shower. The subsequent one wasn't as good. And our bannik didn't move with us up north. They don't, really: they're kind of homebodies.

Well, after the first bath in the new bathroom—Jane deserved the honor—she came out inspired to write, and started having ideas. She told me, and we went and got a bottle of vodka and poured a healthy dose down the bathtub drain.

I tried it. A wonderful shower. And for sure, a very good bannik.

I went back to my keyboard and threw out everything I'd done on the current book—or most of it. I treated it all as a general outline of the book, but not the book, and I began writing like crazy. For the first time since Oklahoma I wrote all out. I couldn't leave it. I'd open it up after dinner, not to do puzzles and such while I watched television, but to keep going. And going. Same with Jane. We had a little glitch with the site upgrade, postponed since fall, and renaming her site, but we're at it again full tilt.

I tore through that outline at the speed I can use when the bannik is in good form, and today—I have one small scene to write. And I already have half the outline of the book that follows it. And I am proud of what I'm writing. This is the book it needed to be. And I'm still doing writing and editing in the evening, both on the current book, and on the final Russian novel…featuring, yes, in a sense, a bannik.

So it's all good news today. We're back in good form. The kitchen floor is going to wait. More yard work is going to wait. Even the accounting looks surmountable. We're not going to agonize over it in the annual fit of lost papers. We're going to take one day, and get our personal accounts shipped off to the accountant—and then get back to writing; and then take another day and get the corporate accounts shipped off. And back to writing.

Life is good. And I think you'll like this book.

 

 

 

 

Allergies and air filters that work…

We have yet to have the Cedar Pollination Event, but the molds are waking up—we've got the air purifiers working full tilt, and those are the difference between falling on our noses asleep from allergies (one of those medically unrecognized symptoms, but a major one for both of us and half of Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas—)—and being able to function with some writerly ability. [Actually, it really is a known symptom: when I called my allergist after my first shot saying I couldn't wake up, (a symptom I had had after the tests in his office) he cut my initial dosages in half---and put me on the slow, slow track---7 years on those shots.] Itchy eyes, runny nose—not us. We fall face down in the bean dip.

This is our model. http://www.amazon.com/Oreck-XL-Profes... We've bought air purifiers of all sorts, and this, outside of one Hepa that makes so much noise you can't think and requires filters that cost more than the unit—this is the best. One of those in your bedroom, running full tilt when you're awake and out of there, and life is liveable. We have one in each bedroom, and one in the living room, and you DO need the cleaning fluid. The Truman Cells coat up with a film of zapped particulate as they work, and soap and water won't cut it. The cleaning fluid will make an apparently-cleaned cell run blackened water when rinsed. And a big difference in the efficiency. You need a new carbon (anti-vapor/volatile) filter once a year or so, or after any really heavy use, like painting the whole house—but the Truman Cells last forever, are your real collector, and clean with either soap and water or the spray they sell for it (recommended). I pass this along for any of you thinking you need a filter. WE can sure tell the difference in our three bad seasons: the Christmas tree (mold grows on the artificial ones, too, and gets on the ornaments.) Spring: cedar pollen. And July-August: fire season—when a forest fire has the sky turning grey, and the smoke comes flowing down the river-channels and mountain passes, these are a really great idea. Most of the time we have wonderful air. But there are these times that really get to us.

Jane's blog is now Harmonies of the Net.

Jane's 'The Captain and Lime' has changed addys and changed its name.

 

You need to update your bookmarks. The new addy is:……….wait for it. The original post abhors links….

Jane's been tinkering with WWAS—

Getting a more readable headline font.

She was going to work today. Then her new computer came.

I'll let her tell you the wonderfulness of it.

This is for the one of us that uses the art programs. I'll slog along with my old faithful Latitude…not blinding fast. SLow but steady.

 

Whoa! Changes in Jane's Captain & Lime….you'll soon need a new bookmark.

She's changing the underlying theme, changing the artwork, changing (soon) the name of the site, though your old bookmark will still get you there—and has some new stuff up. She's making progress on her book—I mean, we are rolling!

Go take a look. Link under the Closed Circle sites on the left sidebar.

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Toad-strangler

Spokanites are pretty good with ice and snow.

Yesterday, however, we had one of those Oklahoma toad-stranglers, aka, a tropical style rain, greys out the distance, comes down hard, and fills streets to the curbs because it's too much for the drains to handle. We live on a 30 mph arterial on which speeding is not too unusual.

Yep, no slow-down—even delivery vans and box trucks were running into one of the really good puddles, about 10 cars long, at about 40, in a downpour that's going to blind them for significant moments, as their windshield wipers can't keep up at that speed. Sedans, yep. This is, oddly enough, at the top of a winding mile long hill. I wouldn't give much for their brakes when they reach the stoplight at the bottom. They were raising rooster tails two and three times the height of a sedan roof.

You'd think the 'unusual' would signal people to be cautious. Nope.

Really amazing wildlife footage.

This is from a security camera in Wichita KS.

Closed Circle is 'sold out' of Intruder

Those who are sending physical checks on manual orders, we have set your books aside and they are waiting for you.

For those who missed this sale, alas, don't count on us getting more of this title: these are just what we have and when these are gone they are gone, so you need to find another source for your copy. Very, very occasionally, DAW ends up with a spare box of a title that it doesn't want to have sitting around at inventory, so more could come after a year—but nobody can predict what title.

We are mailing out the orders now.

If you would like your books from other sources signed—remember we do offer signed bookplates on CC.

We have other physical books for sale on CC, as well as our e-books.

My Chernevog, which follows Rusalka, is in final reading before it goes up as an e-book.

Lynn Abbey has a book ready to go up.

Thank all of you for your support!

Encyclopaedia Britannica goes to e-pub only.

244 years they've been at this—and the next edition will be the last physical edition.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/13/techn...

Wiki, the internet and the need for constant updating have taken their toll.

And what did we get last night?

Another hailstorm, and a cold snap. The bridge in the garden is coated in ice granules and the pond is thinly skinned with ice….