So I wake up at 3:30 in the morning and think Ginsie is throwing up, again. She threw up a couple of days ago right on to the comforter. That was an instant strip-the-bed and throw it all into the washing machine night. So, preparing for that, I sat up and noticed the sounds changed. She was in a full blown seizure.

( 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)

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 causing extreme aural pain to everyone who has to listen because they're waiting for their turn having fun.

*excited*

• 15:04 Always check out the cache in your local library. Treasure awaits. bit.ly/kkpyT #

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Sven hits the nail on the head in today's Things Wrong With Me.

Someone in chat tonight said they had finally reached the point where they had given themselves permission to write crap.  And you know, that's kind of the point.   I do Nano to get rid of that awful internal editor, at just such a pace that I have to keep moving. Standing still, ruminating, second guessing only leaves me lagging.  So I write.

Just in time too, for I have reached the dreaded Boggy Middle. Still a lot to go from here.

My father and uncle were both vets of WWII, although my father never saw active duty (something about too high of an IQ). My brother is active duty as a generator mechanic and has seen tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq. I have nothing but deep and abiding respect for any military person, whether in a volunteer or a drafting military.

Big praise and three cheers for Nalini Singh, whose BLAZE OF MEMORY, which I mentioned last week will be debuting on the New York Times mass market bestseller list at #8! This is the first time Nalini's cracked the top ten, so needless to say, we're very excited. This list will print 11/22. In addition, she's at #77 on the USA Today bestseller list, which covers all books, not just mass market ppbk.

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!

On Saturday the 14th at 4AM UTC/GMT we will be upgrading the operating system of our network load balancers to a newer version, one that will allow us to use both CPUs! Nifty, because multiprocessing is nice.

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.

So, the jacket progresses. I only made three gores to begin with, but found I had to cut out two more, so all five are now installed. Actually ten, as there's a shell and lining.

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.

To all those who served. And to those who continue to serve.

Happy Armistice Day.

…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

(x-posted from the essential kit)

The Good: Security patches and bug fixes being "pushed" to computers by Microsoft and other software vendors. This is really a good idea, and it does work.

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 ...

It's my sad news to report that the local Waldenbooks, in the Oakdale Mall, is on the list of stores to be closed at the beginning of the new year. This is sad in more than one way--everyone hates to see a bookstore close--because this particular bookstore manager, April, has treated me and many other fellow authors with both respect and fan-glee. She has supported us by making certain that our books are on the shelf at the store AND, perhaps more importantly, talking the books up to her customers and making certain that they are in the hands of potential readers out there. I honestly can't believe the bookstore is closing.

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!

Out of work at 5 pm. Once home, do the following:

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.

And what shall we remember?
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?

For some reason, the things that worry me don't tend to worry Joel, which means that when I'm worked up about something he can calm me down and convince me everything will be OK. But when he's worried about something, I'm generally worried about it to, which means I'm utterly ineffective at providing him strength and support to get him through the worry. Instead, all I want to do is escape, hide out some place where I have only my worry to deal with, and not his too. It makes me feel like a bad wife.

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 xrian (like I said, I'm not sure if you have them already, but it certainly didn't cost us anything to take them in case you didn't! If you'd like higher-res versions, let me know). We then walked across the bridge to the other side of the Rhine, and then wandered around the Altstadt for awhile until it got dark. We had lunch at a sausage stand in the central station. Gosh, I love German sausages. Why can't the Dutch make good sausages?

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 wortschmiedin took time out of preparing to move to spend the day with me. The goal was to get me fitted for a dress, and to start sewing it, but that didn't really happen; my awful sewing-fu came to the fore and I miscut the lining. Oh well, that meant that instead we just hung out and gabbed for most of the day, which was really wonderful. I'm sorry she's going to be leaving us, and very glad we had a chance to do this before she did! And since I needed to get new linen for the lining, she helped me find a Dutch seller (linen for 5.95EUR/meter, not bad at all), and Sunday I ordered some green linen for the lining; it arrived today, and it's a lovely bright lime green. Can't wait to wash it and cut into it so I can hopefully put at least some of the dress together before Uni this weekend.

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.