( for those that aren't interested )
I have been unable to arrange a book signing in Anchorage.
Instead, Ted and I decided that rather than try to make a dozen different meet-up arrangements, we would plonk ourselves down at the Kaladi Brothers coffee shop next to Title Wave Books on Northern Lights Blvd, and hope that people come to us. We’ll be there from about 1:30pm on Tuesday, December 1st up until the point where we decide to go somewhere else to eat dinner.
Our movements will be trackable via this blog, Twitter, and Facebook, and should be fairly up-to-the-minute, since I’ll be carrying my netbook with me on this trip. Hopefully we will see you there!
(x-posted from the essential kit)- Mood:
decisive
- Mood:
cranky
This has not been my week for posting, because I am distracted.
We're off on a cruise to Bermuda on Saturday, and I am excited. It's my 40th birthday present - my birthday isn't until December, but this is the last month the cruises run, so we're going.
Two days (well, one and two-thirds days) in Bermuda, two days at sea, and all the buffet we can eat.
One of my other choices was Vegas, but I thought cruise + gambling + food + sightseeing seemed even more awesome. Plus Karaoke. I always try to get Bob to do his (extremely awesome) Elvis impression, because it drives the women wild, and is highly entertaining. I suck at Karaoke, but I'm liable to get up and do it anyway, because it's not about being perfect, it's about
*excited*
- 15:04 Always check out the cache in your local library. Treasure awaits. bit.ly/kkpyT #
Just in time too, for I have reached the dreaded Boggy Middle. Still a lot to go from here.
- Mood:
contemplative
- Location:the usual
- Mood:
respectful - Music:humming heater
It is forecast to be at least 39 deg C til Sunday! We have had 5 days already!!
arrrrggghhh.
I have lost one potted rose already.
:(
Edited to add:
Back with more great news. TKA client Rachel Caine is at #7 on the New York Times Children's Series bestseller list for her Morganville Vampires and debuts at #105 on the USA Today bestseller list for the latest, FADE OUT.
In addition, clients Don Piper and Cecil Murphey have just passed the 3rd year mark on the New York Times list with 90 MINUTES IN HEAVEN.
Congratulations to everyone!
- Mood:
excited
Since we have 2 load balancers, the plan is to upgrade 1 at a time, and there really should be very little impact to our website. Hopefully you won't notice a thing and I'll get to go back to the hotel and watch some wonderful late night infomercials.
We've got a lot of exciting projects coming up for 2010 and we're hoping that we'll be able to deliver them all to you, that you will find it useful/cool/lovely and then you will use the site even more. Behind-the-scenes work like this will give us the capacity to handle the anticipated traffic, so expect a few more maintenance windows especially in the beginning of next year as we've got some neat ideas to improve performance around here! We had the recent 30-45 minute outage yesterday due to one of our logging databases filling up disk space -- not so great design coupled with my human error in handling the initial problem -- and it looks like we're going to finally have some resources to eliminate stuff like that. I can't wait!
As usual, I will be updating status.livejournal.org before and after, just in case you are not able to reach our main website during the work.

THANK YOU
- Location:kitchen
- Mood:
grateful
Since I mounted the body together and cut the slits at one time all of them line up beautifully. I'm still considering topstitching along those seams to sandwich the layers together further, but I'm not decided yet.
I tried it on as well, and it seems I did not add quite enough width in the back piece. Argh! This just goes to show that you should scribble notes on your patterns when you figure out alterations you need to make.
I should have just made a pattern for myself instead of using a commercial pattern. Ah well, I'm still fairly pleased with how it's looking, even if the back will end up a little tight on me. I may well toss the pattern pieces and start over, but it's always a bloody shame to throw away a pattern, though it's only almost-working.
Happy Armistice Day.
- Location:work
- Mood:
busy - Music:none
…by a reliable source (twitter) that several of the Walker Papers are at half price at Audible.com.
I went and got a flu shot today, because we’ll be spending 30+ hours in a metal tube with dry recycled air over the next few weeks. The nurse said, as they’re inclined to, “This will feel like a sharp pinch.” I dunno. I’ve pretty much always thought it didn’t feel anything like a pinch, but that it feels a lot like somebody sticking a needle into your arm. :)
I was beginning to think today was going to be another “you spent four hours working and are still 95 pages from the end of the book” day, but I seem to have finished the major revisions. I have to revise at least two scenes still (& go back and put something in that got cut in the last revision round, I’m pretty sure), but it’s not all new material, so it will go much much more quickly. And now I only have 82 pages to go to the end of the book!
And I finally reached 250K for the year today.
miles to Minas Tirith: 44.6
ytd wordcount: 250,500
- Mood:
okay
The Bad: Nearly EVERY software package I use daily is getting patched and updated at least once a week. On two different computers. ARGH.
It makes it frustrating to have to halt everything while the darn software updates and restarts the computer and ... grumble, mutter ...
- Mood:
slightly miffed
However, before the news of the closing hit the airwaves, we'd arranged for a holiday signing at the store. It's now become a "last hurrah!" signing, and we're hoping to make it a huge send-off not only for April but for all of the employees at the store who've helped push our books in the past. So if you're in the Binghamton area--or even within a reasonable driving distance--come by on December 5th from Noon-4pm and help us let April and the other employees know how much we appreciate all of their efforts over the years. We'd like this signing to be a huge success! In addition to having our books there to sign for either you OR as gifts for all of your friends, we'll be wrapping the books you intend to use as gifts as well. FREE GIFT WRAPPING!! By authors who may (or may not) know anything about gift wrapping!! That, in and of itself, will be a blast. *grin* I'm sure we'll also have some candy and other freebies to give away.
We realize that not everyone is within even an unreasonable driving distance of Binghamton, NY. If you can't make it for whatever reason, you can still help us celebrate and thank April and the other bookstore employees by buying the books through the store and having them shipped to you (or someone else). April has graciously agreed to handle ordered copies in two different ways: you can either have the signed books shipped to a local Waldenbooks in your area so you can pick them up there, or April can ship them directly to you. For the second option, there will be no shipping cost (for shipments in the US), April will simply charge you for the books. For either of these options, send an email to fireun3@gmail.com with either the name of the town or city where the local Waldenbooks is located OR with where you'd like the books shipped. You should include what books you'd like by what author, how you want them signed, and (if they're shipping directly to you) if you want them wrapped.
Here are the details of the signing if you think you can make it. Keep in mind that Christmas is inching ever closer. Ask yourself who on your gift list might enjoy some great fantasy novels! Signed even!
The "Last Hurrah!" Signing
Waldenbooks @ The Oakdale Mall
Reynolds Rd., Binghamton, NY
December 5th, 2009
Noon-4pm
Gift-wrapping available!
Featuring:
Patricia Bray; S.C. Butler
Barbara Campbell; Laura Anne Gilman
Jackie Kessler; Joshua Palmatier
Anton Strout
And if you aren't certain what books are up for grabs, here's a list of all of our books in print and available through the store:
Patricia Bray: The Sword of Change series: Devlin's Luck, Devlin's Honor, Devlin's Justice; The Chronicles of Josan series: The First Betrayal, The Sea Change, The Final Sacrifice
S.C. Butler: The Stoneways Trilogy: Reiffen's Choice, Queen Ferris, The Magicians' Daughter
Barbara Campbell: The Trickster's Game series: Heartwood, Bloodstone, Foxfire
Laura Anne Gilman: The Retrievers series: Staying Dead, Curse the Dark, Bring It On, Burning Bridges, Free Fall, Blood From Stone; The Vineart War series: Flesh and Fire
Jackie Kessler: Hell on Earth series: Hell's Belles, The Road to Hell, Hotter Than Hell; Black and White (with Caitlin Kittredge)
Joshua Palmatier: The Throne of Amenkor Trilogy: The Skewed Throne, The Cracked Throne, The Vacant Throne
Anton Strout: The Simon Canderous series: Dead To Me, Deader Still
And there you go! A long list of great books to browse from. I hope to see you at the signing, but if you can't make it, definitely send April a message with what books you'd be interested in. Help support good booksellers! Us authors can't survive without them!
1. Birka Merchants Spreadsheet.
2. 1 load of laundry (pants, or we'll be bare-butted for work tomorrow and that would be BAD.)
3. Update TPC words
That's it. If I try for more, I'll go insane.
Essay can wait until tomorrow, unless I write it during lunch today.
BTW, anyone got any ideas for a narrative, 2-pg essay? I need one for class.
- Location:work
- Mood:
sore - Music:none
That war is horrible?
People, young men traditionally,
get marched off to die,
in ugly futility
or destined glory
Rupert Brooke
on a naval expedition to Constantinople
or Wilfrid Owen
slogging across years of broken bodies.
Parade them out sadly,
the ghosts of the Great War
who have not grown old
and would be dead anyway.
Shall we remember the real forgotten
who left us no poetry
who fell in the morass they did not make
so very young, saluting,
going one more time over the top
to face the carnage, the guns, the bombs,
far from their homes,
their email, their iPods,
in far Iraq, Afghanistan,
the ghastly crop of this year's dead?
In other news, we went to Cologne Thursday morning for the Ph.D. defense of our friend and erstwhile office mate, Stefan. He and I had the same supervisor (though Stefan was actually writing about set theory, unlike me), which means that upon the successful completion of his defense Thursday afternoon, I acquired my first academic younger sibling. His thesis presentation was in English, though the questioning period afterwards was in German. I didn't understand all the questions, but Stefan is a deliberative enough speaker in both English and German that I found I could understand almost all of his answers -- so, yes, I understand set theory in German as well as I do in English, and it's because I actually understand some set theory, not because I understand much German!
Friday Joel and I slept insanely late which he certainly needed and I wasn't going to complain about; Stefan pointed out a cafe which does fantastic breakfasts (we both had French toast over fruit with maple syrup and bacon), so we had breakfast and hit the sight-seeing road around 2pm. I'd been to Cologne three years previously, but this was Joel's first time, so we went straight for the cathedral, where we took lots of pictures (they start on page 4), including some pictures of women with rosaries for
After we got back, cooking was in full-swing for the party Saturday; Joel kept Stefan company (or kept out of his way) while he made two types of curry in the one kitchen, and I hung out with Eva while she baked three cakes in the other kitchen. Afterwards, we ordered pizza for dinner and settled down to watch a movie--Stefan has a beamer and a roll-down screen set up in his livingroom, so it's awesome for watching movies. We watched the new "Star Trek", and now I can totally understand all the good things everyone said about it. It was exactly what I want from a movie: Good fun, and good characters. I was amazed and impressed at how well they were all cast, though I have to say my favorite was Bones (and Chekhov! How cute!). I'm hoping if we have a spare night or two in the right city when we're back in the US, we can rent it and watch it with mom and dad, since they'd enjoy it.
Saturday I got up before anyone else was awake and took the train to Bonn where
Saturday night was Stefan's party, which included Tikitu and Olga from Amsterdam, so Joel and I weren't the only people who didn't speak German. It was a good night hanging out with interesting people and eating good food, but I was whiped out by the entire weekend and ended up calling it a night around 12:30. I don't know when Joel came to bed, I slept so soundly. We were again up before everyone else, since our train left at 10:45 and we wanted to get breakfast and Joel wanted to show me something he'd seen Saturday before we boarded. Uneventful trip home, two happy (and starving, according to Widget) kitties to see us. A nice weekend.
