sandramcdonald

Locus Bestseller List

2008-07-02T13:22:58Z

Good news! The paperback version of THE OUTBACK STARS is on the Locus Top 10 Bestselling Paperbacks for February and April. I'm very happy. Thanks much to tobiasbuckell for the heads up. Robert Sawyer talks about the list and his book Rollback here.

Which reminds me that I redid one of my websites over the weekend, because the last version was driving me nuts. You can see blurbs and links for both novels from Rachel Caine, David Drake and others at the (newer! prettier!) www.theoutbackstars.com

Yay Locus Bestseller list!

What I'm reading

2008-06-25T14:41:48Z

Today's new icon is Kate Winslet, courtesy kellyrottenx. I love Kate W's acting and think she would be a great person to go to tea with.

What I'm reading: Joe Hill's collection, still, and Farah Mendohlson's Rhetorics of Fantasy. Mendohlson's academic jargon is sometimes a little over my head but I'm very much enjoying her breakdown of fantasy stories into magic portals, extrusive, intrusive, etc. I was also looking to thin out the shelves by donating Annie Lamott's Bird by Bird, but then I started leafing through the pages again, and there's so much great stuff that it's back on the shelf again.

I was reading someone's blog last night, and darn if I can find it again, but the upshot is if you found out the book business is tanking and short story market is spiraling downward, would you still write your novel or that short, or would you go to the park more, go to the beach, go "get a life?"

Google alerts sent me some nice reviews of The Stars Down Under yesterday, which is nice. I'm wrapping up the final revisions on book 3 (final on my end -- there will be more under the guidance of my editor's red pen) and looking forward to moving back to some shorts, some proposals, revising my KI novel, getting submissions out the door, getting to yoga class more, and going to Readercon in a few weeks. It's a fine summer indeed.

Friday pick me up

2008-06-20T19:38:48Z

For athenais and jordanwillow and anyone else who needs a pick me up today.

Well worth 4 minutes! Watch for the change at :54.

Professional Friday

2008-06-20T16:33:07Z

Although much fun was had at Blue Heaven, there was a lot of hard work and shop talk, too. One of the most useful things I learned has to do with authors who put out short story collections. Collections are not generally considered to be big sellers, but they can certainly satisfy an audience and are a nice ego boo for the author. That said, with the advent of Bookscan et al, it was my understanding that a writer didn't want chain buyers to look at sales history and see few or no sales on a collection that might have been put out in limited quantity or through a press with not-great distribution. Whether all that is true or not, it came up in conversation because someone at BH is going to be putting out a collection soon, and I wanted to know if he/she was worried about Bookscan.

And I learned 2 tricks:

- put "and Other Stories" in the title. This clues the buyers into the fact it was a collection. Our guy Paolo Bacigalupi put out a great collection this year: "Pump 6 and Other Stories."

- put out out through a small press, in a limited run, with no ISBN.

If anyone with more publishing savvy than me wants to weigh in and correct me, please do so. Otherwise, it sounded like great advice to me.

Also in the Professional Development Department: The latest SFWA Bulletin has an informative article about peak oil, which coincides this week with calls to open up offshore drilling. There's an interesting Resnick/Malzberg column about good advice/bad advice we give each other, and a market listing for Nocturne Bites novellas. You don't have to be a member of SFWA to subscribe; it's $21 bucks a year and I think it's well worth the money. Subscribe here.

Reading and rocks

2008-06-18T11:14:25Z

What I've been reading lately: short fiction at Fantasy, Clarkesworld, Lone Star and Weird Tales. Lots of pretty writing, if not a lot of drama. One of my litmus tests for drama is the question, "Do things get worse?" There weren't a lot of stories in which things got worse, alas. Things might have gotten stranger, or more incomprehensible, but rarely worse. I did enjoy Ramsey Shehadeh's "Creature" in Weird Tales #347, which was strange and interesting, and made me nostalgic for the ST: TNG episode in which the big oil slick kills Tasha Yar. In the same issue of WT, an interesting interview with China Mieville and an article about Lovecraft. I resist reading Lovecraft with all my might but there's an awesome Stargate/Supernatural/Lovecraft crossover (NC-17; read at your own risk) called And All the World Beneath by Jenn that makes me rethink my resistance. Things definitely get worse in Jenn's story, but read all the way through, won't you?

I'm also reading Joe Hill's second collection, and Tobias Wolff's latest collection. On Woff, page 181, related to above: "Because it's true. Everything gets worse. One day you're sitting in front of your house poking sticks into an anthill, hearing the chink of silverware and the voices of your mother and father in the kitchen; then, at some moment you can't even remember, one of those voices is gone, and you never hear it again. When you go from today to tomorrow, you're walking into an ambush."

Meanwhile, here's one of my favorite photos from Blue Heaven last week. It's not everyone in our group, but instead those of us who went fossil hunting in the old East Quarry on our last day. Some of us are holding up our million-year-old finds, which were scattered across the site. From left to right: Daryl Gregory, Paolo Bacigalupi, Jenn Reese, Sarah Castle, Paul Melko, Charlie Finlay, me, and Greg van Eekhout. Sarah is a geologist and seriously (joyfully!) got her rock geek on; I learned a lot, and there now a bunch of fossils on my desk.

United sucks

2008-06-16T00:12:38Z

Ohio loves me so much it never wants to let me go. My flight out of Columbus moved from a 3:45 departure to 4:30 to 4:20. Cue 5 p.m. and we were still sitting on the tarmac; it's always a bad sign when the flight attendants offer to start a movie *before* takeoff. To get around alleged bad weather outside of Chicago our plane headed south to St. Louis, then hooked a turn to circle over Washington D.C., then zipped upward to Quebec City, and then simply transmogrified into the Flying Dutchman of the Midwest. The pilot would never admit to the albatross but every half hour he clicked on the intercom to assure us that circumventing the globe was the only way to get to Chicago and our connections would probably wait for us (ha!) and that yes, we had enough fuel to fly for days, if not weeks, in our endless quest to find a landing strip, as long as the winds stayed favorable.

Wry flight attendant Cheryl gave us a choice of movies: Fool's Gold, which she admitted to never having seen, or 27 Dresses, which she told us was a chick flick. It would be a gross understatement to say that Fool's Gold is a bad movie; it is so revoltingly bad, in so many ways, that it seems less like a movie and more like an act of vengeance by a deranged Hollywood director. Every time I looked up, Kate Hudson was wearing a constipated look and Matthew McConaughey was doing something humorlessly slapstick, like getting run over by boats or punched in the face or missing his own divorce hearing. It just doesn't get any nuttier that that. United does, at least, offer free headsets and had XM radio channels; New Age schmaltz wasn't much of a solace, however, when the rocky coast of Maine appeared under the wings, followed by the harbor of St. John's, Newfoundland and then icebergs floating south from the Arctic Circle.

Eventually our cockpit crew died of starvation and a hardy band of passengers who'd survived only through the grace of cannibalism stormed the cabin to force the plane into a descent. Now I'm stuck in O'Hare, which looks like Saigon right before the last chopper left. Hundreds of people are waiting at gates with only the thin promise of flights to come. The United "Customer Care" line is about 2 hours long, there are women giving birth on the concourse, and my departure to Florida is scheduled for at least 2.5 hours from now, possibly never. When we do make it aloft, on whatever shining day that may be, I expect to be routed to Florida via Hawaii and Saigon

Do yourself a favor. If you have a reservation on United Airlines, cancel it. Drive your car, hitchhike, ride a camel -- but for the love of all the travel gods, do not trust them to get you anywhere near your destination anywhere on time. If you are on the 2016 Olympic committee, do the entire world a favor and vote no for Chicago.

update

$9 for a basic sandwich from Starbucks? I think not!

Things you don't want to see from down the concourse: everyone from your flight getting up and leaving. Luckily it was just to a new gate.

It's now 10:08 pm Eastern time, and there is a plane! It is supposed to leave in 20 minutes but we haven't even started boarding, and I'm not sure there is a flight crew.

I left Kelleys Island on the ferry 12 hours ago.

update 2

Plane actually lifted off from runway at 11:11 pm Eastern time.

Plane landed in Jacksonville at 1:30 a.m at the furthest gate possible from the terminal.

Luggage did not appear until 2:05 a.m.

2:48 a.m. now home at my parents house! Thanks to my wonderful brother who came and picked me up :-) Sleep now.

Life on the net

2008-06-12T23:16:36Z

Sharp eyed reader kryianna noted it in comments below and other friends sent it along too: the nice mention in Mind Meld: Who are Tomorrow's Big Genre Stars? Special thanks to Paula Guran for her kind words. It's great to be mentioned in such august company.

Also, and this is especially fun, over at My Book, the Movie, Marshal Zeringue lets me go on about my casting choices if my novels were transformed into movies -- and how Jensen Ackles would make an excellent Terry Myell.

In other news, the mayflies are beginning to show here on Kelleys Island, and soon will be here by the millions. We're still having lots of fun and no new natural calamities have happened in the last twenty-four hours (knock on wood). I'm reading and critting some great fiction and priming the pump for revisions and writing to come. And today there was butter pecan ice cream. Any day with butter pecan ice cream is a good day.

Be affirmed

2008-06-10T20:39:16Z

I'm here on Kelleys Island in Ohio for the week, at the Blue Heaven writer's conference. So far we've had falling trees, more falling trees, quarry explosions, spectacular thunderstorms, and torrential downpours to accompany the thunderstorms. My fellow writers are teaching me amazing new ways to ego surf (amazing but not necessarily healthy) and we're having a lot of time dissecting the craft and business of writing. Phone access is a little iffy but here's a shout out to the Village Pump, where the ice tea and Brandy Alexanders are plentiful and the internet access is free. I'm online every day for my students and because, come on, I need my fix.

This is a youtube video I wanted to post last week. Feeling blue? Need someone to vent to? Click play, tell Steve your problems, be affirmed.

sandramcdonald @ 2008-06-06T15:18:00

2008-06-06T19:25:15Z

Came home from a morning out to discover a gecko had made its way through the pet veranda and was running around the office trying to escape the claws of Princess Leia, who can be quite lethal when she wants to be. I put her out of the office, beseeched the gecko to make its escape while it could, and sat down with Leia to reiterate the Buddhist tenets of the household, basically, that every little creature has a right to live, and we are all fellow travelers on this great green earth, and could she please not kill the gecko.

Woke up from my nap a half hour ago to find a headless gecko on my bedroom floor, sprawled in its death agony. I am waiting in vain for Jensen Ackles to come over and take care of the poor little corpse, but his agent isn't returning my calls.

Another tenet of the household is that we are big fans of Ira Glass and This American Life. I was intrigued therefore when burger_eater recently linked to this video of Ira talking about how long it can take for creative people to bridge the gap between where they are with their art and where they want to be with it. Or, more specifically, how long it took him to become a great broadcaster - decades. I enjoyed him pointing out all the flaws in a piece of his work made when he'd already been on the job for eight years.

On youtube there are other Ira Glass clips, including a funny one of him on Letterman talking about how he became a vegetarian. Or you can read about it here. I tried to get Princess Leia to pay attention, but she's too busy being on the alert for more unfortunate geckos.

The spinning girl

2008-06-03T14:55:05Z

I've done this with my students before, and think she's a lot of fun. Supposedly whether you see her going clockwise or counter-clockwise indicates whether you are left brained or right brained.

It's very freaky when she changes direction.

Back to the sequel

2008-06-02T13:15:38Z

From the reader mailbag, KJ had some problems with way Tor packaged Aussie paperback 1. She writes, "One of my pet peeves with the genre is that everything is a trilogy or a series- there are no longer standalone books . . . I read covers to determine if the book is a part of a series, I look at the author's bio to see what the author is working on for future release, I turn to the end of the book to see if there are any previews, I look at the inside covers to see if there are any advertisements for upcoming releases. I did all of that with The Outback Stars and there was no indication that it was part of a series. I bought the book on Saturday and started reading it at lunch yesterday. Today at lunch I put my bookmark at the back of the book and there was a page announcing a preview of The Stars Down Under (on page 379)."

I assured KJ that I too am leery of series, and aside from Rachel Caine's excellent Weather Warden books, rarely start them. THE OUTBACK STARS is completely designed to be read as a stand-alone. The next book is a sequel that continues the adventure, but it's not like a bigger book was chopped in half, as sometimes happens in publishing. Book 2 resolves itself as well, though not as tightly. Book 3 wraps up a rather large loose thread from 2 and sends the characters off again in a different direction. As always, I hope people can jump wherever they want.

In other news, I was sad to see news of the big fire at Universal. Just last week we were taking pictures of the backlot from the City Walk parking garage. New York Street and the Back to the Future clock tower were easy to spot.

What with the burning of the clock tower and the closing of the Back to the Future rides at both Universal parks, it's like . . . it's like . . . it's like Marty McFly and his siblings disappearing from a photograph! Very sad.

Back to life, back to reality

2008-05-29T11:48:10Z

From the mailbag, nice notes from Eileene and John. Eileene writes, "I just finished The Stars Down Under and can hardly wait for the next one," which is great to hear :-) John, a fellow veteran, writes, "I am a Robert Heinlein fan mostly and have pretty much disliked attempts by non-military to try and depict any semblance of military life and mindset. Your book was a complete joy in that respect." Thank you Eileene and John.

Back from L.A., unpacked, and repacking for next week's trip to Ohio for the Blue Heaven Writer's Retreat. Grant is still at grandma and grandpa's house. There, he's an angel. He lounges around the sunroom, behaves himself like a gentleman, and if he gets frisky with the dog, the dog snaps at him and puts him in his place. Meanwhile Leia, here at home with me, is the happiest cat who ever walked the planet. She's talking, eating up a storm, and fearlessly treading halls that she otherwise would have to warily creep down with ears and eyes on the scan for rambunctious Grant. Sigh.

This week I'm reading Tobias Wolff's latest collection and Kelly Link's first collection. With Link I"m hit or miss. Last night was a hit with "Travels with the Snow Queen," a reworking of an older tale with lovely language and a feminist twist. With Wolff I had a miss with "Next Door," which reminded me of Ray Carver's "Neighbors" in a superficial way, and a near-hit with "Say Yes." This is the second paragraph: "They talked about different things and somehow got on the subject of whether white people should marry black people. He said that all things considered, he thought it was a bad idea."

Overheard on the roller coaster on the Santa Monica Pier, from a teenage girl: "I will sit by myself here because I'm awesomely awesome and not afraid!"

Seen on the plane: someone reading an essay called "Why There is Probably No God." Way to hedge your bets, eh?

On Delta, the best flight attendent I've ever seen. Her name was Delba. And it's true, the flight attendent they use in the safety video is gorgeous. She had over 300,000 hits on youtube in 3 days. Here's the CNN feature about her and the video, which has a sense of humor.

Also: Diet Coke! It's been fun, we've had some laughs, I've enjoyed you a lot these last few months, but we're done now. It has to be that way. Go on, live your life, be happy. Please don't call.

Mystery Trip Day 4

2008-05-26T19:05:04Z

Congrats to anyanwubutler who guessed I was in Los Angeles! The casino is on the Chumash reservation about 100 miles from here, the beach was Leo C. state park, and day 3 was the Chinese theater, the Hollywood sign, and Universal Citywalk.

How I got to LA -- well, by plane. But first I was going to Oasis in Orlando, but then I was almost going to Balticon, and in the end I decided to ditch all things writing and con related and come to LA with my mom and brother to visit my other brother. So it all worked out well.

Yesterday we went off to the Santa Monica pier and Venice Beach. Here's me on the carousel at the pier.

Here's me and middle brother:

and here's my new apartment on Venice Beach, where I can compose the great American space novel while gazing down at the rockers, stoners, wannabes, tattoo artists, Chinese massage guys, Navy rock band, Navy recruiters, Muscle Beach preeners, bicyclists, skateboarders and all things wild and wonderful.

Today - Indiana Jones!! I hope.

Mystery Trip Day 3

2008-05-25T17:35:34Z

Did not get to do what I was looking forward to last night because we were all too beat to go back out after a day of sightseeing. Instead, watched Mission Impossible 3 in HD on a 60" television. Tom was in fine form as things exploded and thundered and dazzled on the screen. I like Michelle Monaghan a lot -- she's great in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Two thumbs up for HD even if it lost to Blu Ray.

Some more pix. No one's guessed where I am in America, though many have come close.

This is the guitar I play Guitar Hero on. Not.

Ancient Chinese gods watch over me.

As do sky-high elephants.

I met these two handsome guys on the mountain. Note the family resemblance.

Today we are off to visit one of the locations in Iron Man. Though not in cool metal suits. Maybe see some weightlifters. Maybe get a tat. It's a gorgeous day in ____ ________________!

Mystery Trip Day 2

2008-05-24T15:51:21Z

Day 2 of the mystery trip was spent here:

Which is a lot prettier when it's empty of people waving around their cigarettes, cigars and oxygen tank tubes. But there you go. I lost a total of $5 on a game called Maid of Atlantis, or something like that, hoping Stargate would bring me luck. Alas. Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun in CT are better, but this is a smaller tribe relatively new to the casino business.

The evening was spent playing Guitar Hero and Rock Star. Each has its own advantages. I think Rock Star is harder but Guitar Hero gives you more feedback (annoying feedback!) when you miss a note. I did score 82% with Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" and did just as good on one of the Coldplay songs whose name I can't remember.

Tonight we're doing something I've been looking forward to for weeks!

Today's new icon is Shania Twain, who I really like, and boo on Mutt Lange.

Wish I'd brought more sweaters. Figure out where I am yet? Paul's answer was very funny but no, I'm not millions of years ago in Kansas. Some of you were really close, though.

(also - what an idiot - Principal plagiarizes speech by ex-student. Who is also now a teacher at his school, and was in the audience when he delivered part of her speech from 11 years ago. He says he meant to ask her for permission but "never got around" to it.)

Mystery trip Day 1

2008-05-23T16:35:35Z

I don't think United will ever be my favorite airline. We landed 15 minutes early and then had to wait 45 minutes on the tarmac for a "gate to open up." Then it was a 3 mile hike from the end of the terminal to the baggage claim. But they got us to our destination safely and the luggage arrived too, so all's well.

Here's a picture from yesterday's excursions. Today we are hitting a casino. Can you guess where in America I am?

Away for Mystery Trip

2008-05-21T12:07:56Z

I'm packed (sorta) and ready (sorta) and will be off to the airport at noon for the Memorial Day Mystery Trip. My resolve not to take the iBook is wavering. I feel like Gollum considering separation from the ring.

After 5 phone calls, 2 modems, an outdated installation guide, an installation program that doesn't like my Mac mini, and problems configuring outgoing smtp mail that I figured out on my own, I now have DSL at home. It's much faster than Clearwire though not as fast as broadband. I can actually watch youtube if I want. Last night I played Sarah Hughes winning the gold in Salt Lake. And then I played it again. It is one of the most amazing feats I've ever seen in figure skating. A long time ago I wrote a Sentinel fanfic about Blair, career depression and Tara Lipinski. I'm not sure if that's even on the web anymore.

And I can watch trailers! The Happening looks very creepy and I'm looking forward to it.

Wish me good luck in the nightmare we call modern air travel . . . and as the twins say, catch you later alligator.

Banned by Scribd!!

2008-05-21T00:56:36Z

Got the following notice today:

Dear Sandra McDonald,

This notification is to inform you that we have removed one or more documents that meet our criteria for an "adult document."

As we announced in May, Scribd no longer allows adult documents and images on the site. We have begun the process of removing documents that were not removed voluntarily after the announcement. We cannot provide copies of documents once they've been deleted.

If you feel your document was removed in error, please contact us at contact@scribd.com.

Thanks for your understanding, and we hope that you continue to use Scribd for document publishing and sharing!

First off, they didn't notify me of any policy changes "in May," which we still seem to be in. Nice of them to delete it anyway. Second, the document in question is perhaps a soft R, but since there was a 5 year old in "Iron Man" this past weekend, I don't think there's anything in it teenagers haven't likely heard about yet. The document in question is the sexy fireman story "Fir Na Tine" which ran in Realms of Fantasy two or three years ago.

As far as continuing to use Scribd for document sharing and publishing? Not very likely! See ya later scribd.

Iron Man and AT&T

2008-05-19T14:37:21Z

Iron Man rocks! But you knew that. Or you should know it. I enjoyed it lots, though please, please, someone give Gwynneth Paltrow some food. Structurally, it definitely does what a teacher of mine once recommended.

Mike Kimball, who lives in Maine and writes very funny, very gritty mysteries, once said that when you introduce a character's flaws first, the reader focuses on them no matter what else the character does. One of his characters was shown in chapter one to be an alcoholic. Despite the fact he later saves a child, the readers still fixated on the alcoholism and saw the character as a weak person. Conversely, if you introduce the strengths first, the character will put up with a bunch of weaknesses later.

In Iron Man, by opening up in the Humvee, we see Tony is a bit of a cad, maybe, but he's charming with the soldiers, poses for pictures, has a sense of humor. He freaks out under fire, but no more than most of us would. He's brave enough to at least take action. Only then does the movie cut back to scenes that show Tony in a poorer light -- ducking the ceremony, giving away the trophy, being irresponsible around Pepper and Rhodes, the pole-dancing stewardesses, etc. If the movie had started with the immature and irresponsible Tony, we wouldn't like him so much. Instead we get charming and brave Tony, so we'll put up with a lot from him. That structure works brilliantly.

In other words, and much shorter too, first impressions count.

Packing today for the Memorial Day Mystery Trip. I've got lots to read, including guide book. Still debating whether or not to bring laptop. How nice it would be, to not drag it around airports and lounges and through Security checkpoints. It's not as if there aren't computers where I'm going. I've got new movies loaded on the video iPod: I Am Legend, Black Dahlia, Pan's Labryinth and Talladega Nights. So I don't need the laptop for that. I'd like to think I could write a short story on the way out or coming back, but I can do that with paper and a pen, too.

I thought I'd give AT & T a try with DSL. Ordered it last week, was promised the modem by Saturday. Saturday came, no modem. Guess whose customer service isn't open on Saturday evenings or Sunday? So I call today to find out what's going on and Miss Thomas tells me the order was canceled. By whom? For what? Oh, you know. "One of those computer glitches." She said she'll overnight me a modem to arrive by tomorrow but I have my doubts.

Meanwhile, here's a nice review of Aussie book 2: "The Down Under is gritty but often poetic, with a fast-moving, extremely engaging plot and well-fleshed characters . . . " Curled Up With a Good Book. Thanks muchly to them and to Greg for sending it along.

As I've said before, I don't read reviews. I do appreciate the kind ones, though :-) And I'm delighted to find out that Harrison Ford doesn't read reviews either.

sandramcdonald @ 2008-05-16T10:09:00

2008-05-16T14:09:36Z

What I've been reading this week: the Asimov's anthology (continued). Read Connie Willis's story "Cibola" at the car wash and enjoyed it. A Hawaiian Reader, with a forward by James Michener, for research, first published in 1959. The entirety of Judy Blume's Deenie, about a teenager with scoliosis. Written in 1973 and didn't quite work for me, though I love her other work. Also the New Yorker, Real Simple magazine, Jacksonville's Folio Weekly, Blue Heaven submissions, some Sandra Brown, Heather Sellers's Page by Page, and Robert Masello's Writer Tells All.

Speaking of submisisons, sent off a bunch. Current points: 15. (1 short story out there = 1 point, one partial ms on an agent or editor's desk = 3 points, 1 full ms on an agent's or editors desk = 8 points). I have 1 full out there and 7 short stories.

Must write faster! Must read faster! All those words out there.

Customer Service Wednesday

2008-05-14T12:58:07Z

Two thumbs up for the federal government! My new passport arrived 10 days after I sent off the old one. 10 days! I was expecting months of anxious wringing of hands. Of course, I generally expect that of anything. The new passport is thicker than the other, because of the electronics in the front cover. I hear those can be hacked. No worrying. Now that I am free to leave America and see the world, I feel so much better.

Two thumbs down for Comcast. In a fit of weakness the other night, I tried to order broadband. I had to enter my address four times, went through the set-up, and got sent to Jonel the customer service guy as the final stage in the ordering process. Jonel was a problem, however. He lost my order, then told me the promo didn't apply to me, then said he'd look at another fee, and in between all this he would disappear for 3-4 minutes on end. I think he was stuck in a cubicle somewhere witih a hundred customer chat windows open. I said "forget it" and closed the chat, and now I've ordered DSL.

Went to the Cummer Museum yesterday during free hours. The Cummer is Jacksonville's main art musuem. It's smaller than the parking lot at the Golden Corral all-you-can-eat-buffet, but it has an interesting collection and this month has a photo exhibit of Cuba in the 1930's by Walker Evans. The museum has some very lovely gardens that were even lovelier before a bridge for 1-95 was erected practically on top of it. Very nice oaks and a commanding view of the river. Come to Jacksonville and we'll go visit.

Everyone needs a knee

2008-05-12T13:21:53Z

Somehow I managed to twist my knee while sleeping the other night. Ouch.

Happy Day-After-Mom's Day! My mom and I went shopping and Wii'ing and out to eat on Saturday, and yesterday we ordered in pizza. Lots of casual fun. My mom is one of my best friends and I love her lots. Even if she did whip my butt at Wii bowling with 7 strikes in a row . . .

Today is all about writing. 3,000 is a good goal. Word by word.

9 days until the Memorial Day Mystery Trip! Okay, it's not a mystery to me. I know where I'm going. It's going to be a blast, but I'll blog more when I get there.

Here's the prologue from THE STARS DOWN UNDER, illustrated by the wonderful Paul Abbamondi pabba. I think he did an outstanding job with the colors and conflict. Paul's done the first 3 chapters for me, and they'll be appearing here this summer. The first three illustrated chapters of THE OUTBACK STARS are over at theoutbackstars. Enjoy.

Wednesday pix

2008-05-07T15:48:45Z

Aussie book 2, spied by gregvaneekhout at Barnes and Noble in La Mesa, CA.
I'm surrounded by Lois McMaster Bujold and Elizabeth Moon. Woo hoo! I love this job.

Steve, Doris, Al, Me & Mom, at the booksigning last weekend: Yes, I often wear red at signings. I don't know why.

Grant, who is not nearly is as small as he looks here, playing with one of his favorite toys, a pipecleaner.
He looks innocent here, but he is the most demanding and mischevious cat I've ever met. My little devil.

Cinco de Mayo!

2008-05-05T14:16:15Z

New lj icons for May. New goals, new plans. Shaking the dust off. Not that I procrastinate much, but after a solid year of dithering about I finally got my passport renewal off into the mail; let's see if they can get the darn thing back to me before World Fantasy Con in October. I also cleaned out the tupperware that's been kinda moldy for 2 months and I may tackle the bathroom floor today, though let's not go crazy.

Today's icon is for Cliff, who was kind enough to show up at my booksigning Saturday. He likes these icons :-) The signing was a blast and I want to also thank Norman, Deborah, Joan (with cookies!) Kristin, Katherine, Al, Steve and Doris, Rebecca who organized it and of course my mom, who was a trooper.

Meanwhile stephanieburgis posted a nice review of THE OUTBACK STARS in her blog - thanks, Stephanie! I'm glad you enjoyed it. And boy do you read quickly :-)

Watched "Primer," which is a smart odd indy film about time travel. Lost me three-quarters through, though. Also watched "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," which I've never read or seen before, and which ABC interrupted only seven hundred times for commercial breaks. Watching network television is a sucker's deal. Against all odds, my favorite character is Edmund. Susan only has to loosen up a little, Lucy remains the starry-eyed child of wonder, Peter swings his sword around impressively, but Edmund screws up a lot and is all the more interesting for it. Now I'm looking forward to the big screen sequel.

And looking forward to Iron Man! And Indy IV. Any others I'm forgetting?

Novik Without Dragons

2008-05-02T13:57:16Z

John Joseph Adams emailed to say his brief interview with me is live at SCI FI Wire. Thanks, JJA!

Steve Nagy reviewed THE STARS DOWN UNDER here and THE OUTBACK STARS here, with the tagline "Naomi Novik Without Dragons." I love that! Thank you, Steve.

otterevil reviews THE STARS DOWN UNDER here, with a user icon I adore. Thanks, Evil!

This week's reading includes THE TRAVELER'S GIFT, one of those uplifting shmaltzy New Age books that you buy in airport gift shops for the business people in your life, or give to your business boss at Christmas because you can't think of anything better. (I once gave one of my Hollywood bosses "Leadership Secrets of Atilla the Hun." He's now one of the producers of Desperate Housewives.) The only part I really liked was about having a "decided heart," which I think every author needs when scrabbling to hang in there in the publishing world. Or every slightly out-of-shape sorta-past-thirty-five (I only celebrate anniveraries now) needs when her trainer makes her do mountain climbers, which should be banned by the Geneva convention.

Also reading the Asimov's 30th Anniversary Anthology, which I picked up in the bookroom at ICFA and made Jim Kelly and Sheila WIlliams autograph. I'm a huge fan of Jonathan Lethem and was properly creeped out by the first half of "The Happy Man," though the last half not so much. It only took a few lines for me to recognize John Varley's "Air Raid" as the basis for the Kris Kristofferson/Cheryl Ladd movie "Millenium," which is the best Kristofferson/Ladd movie ever made. Varley's story is brilliant. Stephen Baxter's "The Children of Time" was good if not exactly my cup of tea; I'm in the middle of Lucius Sheppard's "Only Partly Here" and adoring it, but had to stop to put Grant in time-out for jumping on and try to wrestle Leia. He thinks that by meowing his little feline heart out he'll cut his sentence halved, but he's wrong.