C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 179
July 20, 2010
Amazon's sales of e-books has just topped sales of hardbounds…
…on their site.
It's coming faster than anybody thought. Hardbounds are not necessarily overpriced, but it's costing hugely to produce them, and push is going to come to shove much faster than once expected.
Gettin' scary for the traditional publishing industry, guys.
July 18, 2010
ooh, ooh, a surprise is coming…
We are very close to the Cafe Press store, which is what Jane has been working on, thanks to a nudge from our friends, and a little swearing… We actually have a store site: we just haven't made it visible yet, as we refine it. We'll announce it here when we're ready to throw the doors open.
science fiction and the energy crisis…
SF fen have (I think because of the demise of the mags, as a market for short stories) gotten a bit wimpy about disasters. I don't hear the kind of dialogue that used to go on at cons, ie, how do we geeky guys save the world from—be it asteroid impact or fuel shortage or whatever.
Time for some positive thinking, people. The planet's got plenty of energy. But sf-dom has gotten seduced by the glitzy special effects of the movies into doing too much gosh-wow and not enough how-to.
Why do I say...
July 17, 2010
making progress on the book…
It takes me a while to recover my stride after a diversion. Thank goodness for outlines. We were, for one thing, diverted by a spate of really cool weather, making it foolish to wait to do certain outdoor jobs which would have to be done in potential 100 degree weather, when we had a run of 75 to 85 degrees. Not being fond of sunstroke, we got to it, and wore ourselves out. Plus the hot weather we had had plus the breakdown of the UV filter made the pond an unexpected tough job…
But we have...
July 15, 2010
The shopping trip of 10,000 items…
…unlike the journey of 10,000 miles, does not begin with one step, but with a List. One of those hanging-fire for months lists where, when the weather is too hot and nasty to do anything else, means you've got to get
1. wire staples for weedcloth (sold out at 2 stores so far)
2. 2 short real rubber hoses, not the sort that kink and cut you off (shortest we could find was 50 feet)
3. 2 papers to sign at the bank (one we could do, but the other (Italian tax forms) our bank does not understand: we ...
Swords and Dark Magic is out…
…that's the S&S anthology I have a short story in. Lou Anders is the editor, and it's from Harper. There's also a version that is signed by all the participants, for those of you who are into collections.
July 14, 2010
spammers are such pigs…
I've finally learned how to get Thunderbird to ban a whole site: highlight a piece of spam in the inbox, go to "message/create filter from message", choose not 'is', but 'contains', and get rid of everything but the part after the @.
Unfortunately if your e-mail is being hosted by a site that has sent me spam, you may find I am not getting your e-mails. Thus far I am not getting it from ordinary sites: these guys are mostly evident by sitenames containing 'click' and whatnot. Right now I am...
July 13, 2010
Cleaning wooden sash and storm windows…
Has been a poser, but the internet can solve anything.
Step one: if the sash won't lift easily, oil the track. We tried graphite. No go. What works: Peanut oil. Machine oil. Any fine oil. Lifts like a charm. Treat both upper and lower sash tracks. Move them until they move easily. Clean top sash.
Step two. lower the (outermost) sash. Clean.
Step three: removing the storm window screen. Raise the lower storm sash until you get past the little divot that lets you lift it out. Then lower the...
July 12, 2010
Exhausted. Flat exhausted…
We took yesterday off, pretty well, because both of us are so sore we can't walk.
July 11, 2010
Update: pond algae's on the retreat…
…I've tried every method known to man and I can definitively report that unless you have a bog garden at least half the size of your pond, if you live in a sunny clime, you will have algae.
Chemical remediation: bad, because the algae killers are copper. Copper is lethal to small organisms in general, including your processing bacteria, and to fish, once the level builds up. Since copper doesn't go anywhere or get used up, it builds up and up in your pond, and it's just not good.
Bog garden...
