C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 203

More progress: I am actually building e-books…

It's futzy. But I'm gaining on it, learning as I go. I'm going to blow up and erase a lot of copies until I get it to my liking, but my plan is to use one of my several processors to convert HTML to PDF, use Mobi Pocket Creator to create a mobi book, then use the mobi file in Calibre to get it to create the ePub file. Then I zip the lot into one packet and  we are ready to start getting serious.

Don't expect it this next week: Jane, who's been writing, had to switch to artist, then to...

Nothing like spotting a potential emergency outside when you first wake up…

I look out and all our koi are out swimming. This can be very bad. We lost Rukia to hypothermia, and random swimming is a symptom.

I got online and googled "koi premature waking", "koi wintering", and half a dozen other phrases and finally got one article that hinted they do sometimes get a little more active during a warmup, and still pointing out if certain bad co2 situations got started they could go up seeking oxygen.

Well…I ran out and tested water temp—42 degrees—incidentally scaring all ...

Progress on Hellburner scan…a convenient 'check-here' of what's been done.

Thank you in every case. You are keeping me sane. Dekker has nothing on me while simultaneously writing the ending of a book, handling a total file reorganization to find out what I DO have, decorating for the holidays, and trying to get the CC site online (we are soooo close!) plus get e-books in shape to go.

I have chapter one from Spence.

Chapter two from Eric F.

Have a good Thanksgiving…

Be it a hamburger at McDonalds, a mega-spread at gran's, you're cooking for 20, or just spending a cozy day doing nothing—have a very good Thanksgiving. And a special Thanksgiving to those dedicated police, fire, transportation, city services and medical folk who are snatching a hamburger while keeping civilization going: thanks to service people at home and abroad; thanks to teachers and healers and charity workers who don't get thanks often enough.

Thanksgiving is for counting the good...

Solar tsunamis: neat stuff.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/24nov_solartsunami.htm?list213621

Wouldn't want to be on Mercury when one of those hiccups goes off.

Coming, as e-books.

Rider at the Gate, Cloud's Rider. Rimrunners. Tripoint. Finity's End, Goblin Mirror, Rusalka, Chernevog, Yvgenie. They won't be the only ones. Don't expect them all to appear at once, and that's not the order in which they will appear. Remember it takes us some deal of time to get them into format, working late in the evenings AFTER doing our regular writing during the day, plus trying to get our electronic records into order AND trying to do editing, covers, and webmastering the blogs and...

The filk last night…

…went pretty well. And I played about 5-6 pieces and screwed up a bit, but my fingers have no blisters, thanks to several days of noodling around and getting my fingers used to the idea. Considering I only remembered F, G, A, E, and D, D7 yesterday morning, I did pretty well last night. What I didn't figure on was my breathing—Lord! I'm not that long-winded in the first place, and when going full out to an audience, I usually vamp a couple of measures when I have to catch my breath, if...

a progress report…102000 words, and I'm writing the ending…and CC…

If anything can go wrong, it will, according to Murphy. But we are making progress. We have taken all your input on CC, we put it in a bag, shook it, and came out with a set of recommendations. We were getting going—and then Lynn broke her finger, of all things, walking home after having her eyes dilated for a routine exam. So Jane, who has more graphics smarts than I do, by a mile, has settled down to work on the technicals. We have something just about ready, once Lynn shows us how to make ...

Great Western Fireball…

JCrowell sent me the link. Check out the security cam videos as well. Quite something. I'd thought it would be a larger Leonid (the current meteor shower) but NASA thinks otherwise. http://www.spaceweather.com/

After a nine year hiatus, Jane and I are tuning up the guitars…

Jane's found her string stash, the tuner still works, and I'm taking up the 12 a few times a day to get my fingers to re-form their calluses. It's amazing: if you've had good calluses in the past, you just need to insult your fingers a little to get the callus to start re-forming. And boy, are my fingers soft.

It's been so long I've forgotten all my fingerings, though am-em still comes back. I almost remember g. But this time I am going to try to learn to pick: I'm not too bad in waltz time...