C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 187

Ran into an old friend who's doing what CC is doing…meet Stephen Goldin.

He has the same backlist problems as everybody is having, and has e-books. I'll be putting his link on the sidebar, but meanwhile I've invited him to introduce himself and say something about how he's going about the same kind of operation—different, but the same as far as getting readers books they might not otherwise have access to.

Back on the ice today, on steadier feet…New weight loss program.

Didn't fall down today. Not too sore, considering.

But Jane and I are both tired of starving ourselves and still not losing weight. So we are undertaking a new weight loss push. I hate walking. I hate walking with a passion. But Jane loses weight best when she walks. So I've agreed I'll walk to support her. Twice a day. Sigh. And—we have resolved to pick the far backside of every parking lot, park there, and walk to whatever store, give or take the presence of shopping cart repositories to...

I finally have mastered the art of falling—

—boomf.

I tossed the current pair of jeans-that-fit into the wash, and substituted the light rayon baggy track pants that look like hell.

Worse, I tried to skate in them. Funny thing. You wear tight jeans on the ice, you get a sense of support for your muscles. You wear light stuff, no support, and I, yes, dragged a toe as I tried to recover from stepping onto my heel.

Backward. Boomf.

On the other hand—I rotated as I went down, landed on the flat of the hip between tailbone and hipbone, and m...

After catching 43 of our innocent members, our spamblocker has finally…

…detected one scummy spammer. Got 'er. Deleted. Dead 'un.

I'm not sure I wouldn't have figured it out from her initial post, eh? So much for the efficacy of the spamfilter.

April finally brings spring weather: 50 degree days and 34 degree nights…

But the Muck Vac I got for the pool doesn't work. Serious disappointment. I don't know if I can get them to take it back but it's a POS. It's like trying to clean a beach with a toothbrush, re the power that thing doesn't have.
We skated for a while—then took out to Costco to get food and needful stuff, weedcloth, printer ink, cat litter, tp and paper towels…the usual stuff. NW Seed didn't have the pond filter material I need: in on Thursday they think; and last years filters are so clogged...

At 20 pages, the outline is nearly complete: next phase…

Is to go through and slice out bits and put them where they need to be. This is the 52-card-pickup phase.

Young writers are frequently stunned to know that WHEN things happen is not really the plot. The plot is why things happen. And you can actually move events around without affecting the plot…to get a better explanation of that why.

So it's moving day. Paragraphs are floating hither and thither.

I was amid this process when the computer meltdown began. I am going to go sort mediaeval...

Jane's going to fling herself off, well, the front porch: it's all we've got…

You may know that she's been working from 5 am literally until 11pm for the last week to make fonts behave in the e-books, and to be legal and proper with the copyrights of the font designers and marketers and not pirate them, by their definitions: ie, you can't use them in a way that 'distributes' them. I mean, we try to walk the walk as well as talk it.
So one of these delightful sites offered, as a side bennie, a font viewer that promised some advantages—stay tuned—it didn't work. It not...

Jane's got another beta trial going over on her blog…

She thinks she's found the problem…

Fashion in footwear…and broken ankles. Or necks.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/09/fashion.shoes.heels/index.html?hpt=C2

Yep, hotel stairs, uneven tiles, you name it. Teens, perpetually curious and anxious to be 'in', will try it…some of them novices to high heels. Sigh. I routinely balance on ice on a quarter inch of steel, and I think this fashion is risky to the max.

To paraphrase P.T. Barnum, you will never go broke underestimating public taste.

Ventilating the kitchen…

We have a low attic. Neither of us is up to shinnying up through the access in the top of a closet and ploughing through the insulation and dust to cut a hole in the kitchen ceiling. We have a fan up there, which doesn't do much of a job.

And broiling requires good ventilation. I managed to half kill myself. Note to self: cumin when incinerated produces a nasty smoke that kills your eyes. And the smoke kept coming.

That did it. I swore no more grilling until it's warm enough outside to fire u...