C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 173
August 25, 2010
I've improved (I think) the Links List on the left sidebar…
…and recovered some features that had gone dormant when a blank got unchecked. Now if you want to go to one of our other Closed Circle sites, including to the store, you have convenient links over there. Easier still: bookmark us when you arrive, and you'll never lose your way.
August 24, 2010
Jane's started the file conversions for her book.
The book is edited, and in good shape. What comes now is that messy business of composing the 'mini' and the 'full' downloads, which is close to arcane—not so, since I know what she's doing, but suffice it to say she's only gotten to the TOC (table of contents) and she's nursing a splitting headache.
Plus we had a neighbor come over and fuss about the two Canadian hemlocks in Jane's very carefully planted side yard, the one 'done' part of our landscaping project: seems the neighbors are all...
Another writer doing what we're doing:
My old friend Diane Duane. DianeDuane e-books
August 23, 2010
New book from Dragon Moon Press
we try to keep you apprised of some of the other presses out there: Dragon Moon is paper. You'll find the link under our "small presses of note" tab above.
August 21, 2010
How are we getting on? Swimmingly…
…or…do you know what happens when the hose clamp on a 2000 gallons per hour marine tank pump rusts and snaps?
A basement full of salt water.
Fortunately only a thin layer, because there are failsafe bulkheads that prevent a) the tank from draining below the top drainholes, about 10 gallons; and b) a bulkhead that prevents the sump from draining more than 15 gallons. And the bulkhead connector to the Iwaki pump, that is set 3″ from the bottom of the last of five chambers of the sump?
Jane, from t...
Now here's a trickier take on the historical novel thread:
which books are really good for understanding the history of what period? Ie, if someone wanted to innoculate himself with history painlessly, even pleasantly, what would be the best novels for what period, and how reliable? And you don't have to get as technical as I do—it just happens to be kind of a borderline period.
I'll start with:
BRONZE AGE GREECE:
Mary Renault: *The King Must Die.* Covers pre-Greeks (Minoan era) and proto-Greeks (early invasion of Minoan-held territory by northern...
life gets in the way…and sometimes you have to do 52 card pickup…
When that happens, re writing, it's useful to start over. Not completely over; but to do what writers call a 'rolling rewrite', going back to the start the book and editing forward in rapid motion.
So the page count has started over, and will follow the re-write.
Don't panic: this is ordinary.
August 19, 2010
heh-heh…I have SEEN the rough for the cover of Jane's next Ring book…
Jane's close to having it done. She just brought it in to show me, on the computer.
Like. Yes.
St. Murphy says: if any installation went smoothly, be suspicious…
The fridge.
Here's a new word for your vocabulary. (No, it's PG-rated.) The word is 'saddle valve', sometimes called a 'tee-valve.'
This kind of valve is the quick way to tap a larger line for a trickle flow, say, of water. This kind of valve was invented in ancient Rome, when people near public waterpipes and aquaducts saw all that nice water going overhead and, well, got inventive. In places where the aediles (public works commissioners) only visited during election week, it looked like...
