Sad News (Sort of)

I got some bad news from my agent yesterday afternoon. It seems that Peguin is _not_ interested in more stories about Ana Parker, alas. So, ALMOST EVERYTHING will be the final installment.

Luckily, I've been down this road before with the Garnet Lacey series, and I actually wrote ALMOST EVERYTHING as a possible ender for the series. I had HOPED to write another set of books in which Ana is the Queen of the Vampires, and then another triology where she's the Empress, etc., etc. all the way up to Goddess, perhaps!

But, I guess she'll always just be a princess. :-)

The silver lining is that I'm still hard at work on PRECINCT 13, so you can look for more things by me in the near future. I'm planning to propose a sequel to PRECINCT 13, as well as something, as the Monty Python folks would say, completely different. So... fingers crossed.

Lunch Date with Adam

MinnSpec Meetup will be hosting a lunch with the newest Wyrdsmith, Adam Stemple, at the Lund's in Uptown next Sunday, September 18 at noon. Adam Stemple, author of Singer of Souls, Stewart of Song, and other pieces, will speak with the group. Bring your writing related questions for a relaxed Q&A session over lunch. The Meetup page can be found here.

Adam Stemple's website: http://www.adamstemple.com/.

Lund's "Uptown" can be found at 1450 West lake Street, Minneapolis, MN 55408.

How Awesome is He?

Normally, I try to keep the "my son is SOOOOOOOOOO awesome" (how awesome is he!?)" blogs to a minimum, but I have a couple of stories about Mason I just really, really want to share.

In the first story, however, the awesome rightly belongs to Mason's new teacher, Mr. G--. When I picked up Mason at school the other day we had this conversation:

Mason: "Do we have any books at home that contain a lot of information?"

Me: "Sure. We've got the Encycolpedia Britannica." (Brief explaination that we actually have several copies of the 11th edition.) Then, "Why?"

Mason: "So I can get a scholarship to Yale, of course."

This prompted a whole discussion during the rest of the ride about what undergraduate degrees are, graduate school, and Ph.D. programs. I reminded Mason that his grandpa has a Ph.D. and this got Mason even more excited. Plus, he was just about jumping out of his seat at the idea that he could actually get a degree in READING (like me, I told him, as I got a BA in English). He decided that he would get his docorate in "fantasy literature," just like one of his favorite authors J. R. R. Tolkien.

Turns out, Mr. G. had been talking about how a friend of his got a full-ride to Yale and really stressed to the kids that if they wanted to, they could go to one of the best colleges in the world and not pay a dime in tuition.

I LOVE this man.

Then, when I stopped by Mason's class yesterday to talk to Mr. G. about what time he wanted me to come in on Thursdays to do my volunteering, Mr. G. had a couple other funny stories to tell. He had an introduction excercise where he had kids write down "Three things you might not know about me...." He collected everyone's answers and read them in front of the class and had the students try to guess who the answers belonged to. When he got to Mason's he started reading, "I have an EXTENSIVE..." and hands shot up instantly. Just the use of the word "extensive" caused the entire class to guess Mason. (Full answer, even bigger clue: "extensive library at home.")

The second introduction excercise he had them do was bring in pictures of their families doing something they enjoy. Mason brought in a picture of the three of us up at a friend's cabin. But when we were going through pictures with him, he decided that, for fun, he'd bring in this one as well:

Mason, ever the showman, set the picture up by saying, "As you know, one of my favorite things is reading. I also like swimming. But how about combining them?"

One of the other personality plus boys in the class, our friend from kindergarden, yelled out, "That's IMPOSSIBLE!!" (unwittingly playing the perfect straight man.)

Mason said, "Ha! I have photographic evidence!" and showed off the picture. Mr. G. was utterly delighted and has asked permission to put the extra picture up on their board in class.

Awesome.

And it's only the first week... of THIRD GRADE!

Polish Edition

My editor sent me a couple of copies of ALMOST TO DIE FOR's Polish edition. Probably the coolest part of foregin language versions is seeing the acknowledgement page translated, because everyone's names stand out. Normally, they don't get translated or changed at all, but in Polish Shawn became "Shawnowi."

Cool.

Mars!

Discovery News reports that Mars rover "Opportunity" has arrived at Endeavor Crater!

Reality Cooking

My family is very odd, indeed. One of our family traditions lately is to settle down on the couch together on Monday and Tuesday nights to tune into "Master Chef." Master Chef, if you don't watch network TV or reality shows, is about a group of ameteur chefs preparing various dishes, taking on culinary challenges (like cooking for 250 kids at a block party,) and generally attempting to impress three gourmet superstars: Chefs Ramses, Graham, and "Zod."

I can not explain my family's attraction to this show. It really ought to be quite boring, but, of course, the various chef superstars ham it up and, when the contestants's entries suck, they spit out food, gag, and throw things in the bin with much panache. There's a designated villian among the amatuer chefs -- this season, it's the arrogant, potty-mouthed Christian. Likewise, there are good guys to root for: Ben Starr is currently my favorite (because my gaydar goes ding), but there are others I like well enough that I wouldn't be disappointed if they won. It's all very melodramatic and manufactured, but we're hooked none-the-less.

The positive outcome of our obsession, however, is this:

On Saturday morning, before I headed off to the con, I pulled out one of my more favorite blueberry muffin recipies and let him read and follow the directions on his own (with only a few helpful hints from me about measuring and whatnot.) Afterwards, we played Master Chef by pretending to be the various chefs commenting on his offering.

Mason really wanted to wear the apron because one of the shticks in Master Chef is that if you get "voted off the island" you have to surrender your Master Chef apron. Theirs are, alas, notably less frilly, but Mason didn't care as long as it was an apron.

Also, please note the "M" shape of the muffins. Mason has learned that, on Master Chef, "plating" is sometimes as important as taste!

Tonight!

I'll be reading (or taking part in a discussion?) at Dreamhaven Books tonight from 6:30 - 7:30 pm as part of the Speculations Reading Series, along with fellow Diversicon honored guests David Hartwell and John Calvin Rezmerski. Hmmm... I hadn't really read that first bit very carefully. Perhaps I _don't_ need to figure out what I need to read tonight.... Either way, it's bound to be a good time. Please join us!

A better worded plug for Diversicon

It's been pointed out to me that sometimes the way I say things on this blog (and probably in Real Life TM,) come off differently than I intended. For instance when I say that Diversicon is a tiny con, that was NOT meant as a dis in anyway. Small is awesome for many reasons, not the least of which is that a person can have real, meaningful and in-depth conversations in a way that isn't always possible at the bigger cons where there's just so much to do and see.

Some of my fondest con experiences have happened at Diversicon, specifically, and smaller cons in general, and what I was trying to express was great enthusiasm. In all honesty, I absolutely do think MORE people should come to Diversicon because, when they don't, they're missing out.

I really hope you (you know who you are!) will consider coming this year and giving it a try. Eric Heideman is an EXCELLENT program director and I know he also has a very talented staff working with him this year, as every year. You may know some of his programming tracks from CONvergence and/or anywhere Kruschenko's is found. Diversicon, in fact, is kind of like a larger version of Kruschenko's, so if you've enjoyed that, you'll LOVE Diversicon.

I also heard that it's not too late to sign up to attend, and, possibly with some begging, get on a programming panel or two (although don't hold me to that last one, as Diversicon IS next weekend.)

Anyway, I just wanted to make sure that no one read my last post in the wrong light. I adore Diveriscon and I'm extremely honored and grateful to have been given an opportunity to be a guest there, especially when you look at the luminaries attending with me this year, and the caliber of people who have guested in the past. My only fault is that I think it's a shame that more people don't go. So, dang it, come this year! You'll be impressed.

Mark your Calendar!

I don't have my list of appearances yet, but I wanted to remind everyone that Diveriscon (guest of honor, includes among others, *moi*) is NEXT WEEKEND (July 29 - 31).

Also:

On Thursday, July 28, the Speculations Readings Series presents a discussion: “Dark Descents, Ascending Wonders: The Worlds of Speculative Fiction” featuring DAVID G. HARTWELL, LYDA MOREHOUSE, and JOHN CALVIN REZMERSKI. See the Diversicon 19 Guests page for more about these three authors. The event will take place 6:30-7:30pm at DreamHaven Books, 2301 E. 38th St., Minneapolis.

Please, please, please, PLEASE come to Diversicon. It's a tiny little con, and, in all honesty I'm a little worried about being stuck there without someone as cool as YOU to talk to.

Vampires A-Z

B&N sent me this via Twitter: A is for Arterial Spray: Vampires A-Z.

It's illustrated.

Sick Kids and Conventions

Since I was feeling so sick yesterday, I took the day off as a day of rest. I may do the same today because sleeping seems to have done wonders. My nose is still drippy, but I feel quite a bit recovered. Mason is still low energy, which is very disconcerting for a boy who usually talks a mile a minute while dancing the entire time. He's in the other room streaming episodes of "Shaun the Sheep" from Netflix, and he seems to be giggling a bit more like normal, thank goodness.

One thing I managed to do yesterday is talk to the CONvergence folks. I had thought I was going to be out of town this weekend, so I cancelled all my appearances some time ago. I emailed them asking about day passes, and, they very kindly (as I am a confirmed guest for next year) offered to print out a badge for me to pick up at registration any time. They also, quite AMAZINGLY, even said they could find programming for me, if I'd like, but I declined. I mean, CONvergence is seriously imminent and that seemed a bit too demanding diva, even for me. Besides, I'd like the freedom to just come and go as I please. I can't remember the last time I just attended a con, so it might make a nice change.

So maybe I'll see some of you there?

With any luck, I will be a yellow belt when next you see me -- although the test is later in the evening on Saturday, so maybe not.

Stuff to Do!

Just a little self-promotion today. Check out SF Signal's Mind Meld. My alter ego is part of a group discussing "What cultures are neglected by SF/F?" today.

Otherwise, it being Wednesday, is my day to write with Eleanor over at the Coffee Grounds. I've got a ton of things on my plate. I'm super behind on the new Tate novel (the cow mutilation one), I've got a short story that's popping out despite the bigger deadline, AND my agent needs some proposals for new books ASAP.

As Shawn and I like to say: STUFF TO DO!

My only other news is that I submitted a reprint to Fantasy Magazine. I still can not find even a paper copy of "Twelve Traditions" in the basement (did it go to the archive??) so I was forced to send fantasy instead. (The horror!) Anyway, fingers crossed.

Oh, and I almost forgot! I just approved the cover copy to the paperback edition of TALL, DARK & DEAD which will be coming out from Berkley Sensation in April 2012. No word yet if they plan to update the cover. I'm of two minds about this. I think the cartoon image is a little dated, but I've always thought it was very striking, so I can't decide what I'd prefer: new or old? I guess it would depend on what they offer up for new, eh?

Okay, got to go!

Blinded By My Own Awesome

At ten o'clock last night, I sent off my revisions for Ana #3. Despite feeling like my editor was a moron for at least a week, I'm happy to say I'm over that. Her suggestions, I'm forced to admit, very likely made this a much better book.

Now, I SHOULD be working on the book that's due in a matter of weeks. I'm so far behind on that one, though, that I'm going to spend the remainder of the week working on a NEW short story idea that's been kicking around in my head.

The other thing I did last night was throw myself around like a rag doll at the kuk sool wan super seminar, or, as I like to call it, Jedi Academy. We did the MOST awesome thing where we did what I call a flying roll (really just a front roll from a dead run) over a staff, which we picked up on the way over and defended against an instructor weilding a lightsaber, er, I mean, bamboo practice sword.

It was f**king AWESOME.

I have never had so much fun in my life, while in so much pain. (Oh, and Dr. Arugala, my asthma medicine totally works! I took it beforehand and, for the first time since developing exercise induced asthma I had a stitch in my side without a corresponding coughing fit.) Also, I'm ridiculously proud of myself for learning the "flying roll" since at my level (still white belt, yellow stripe) I'm only supposed to know how to do it from a kneeling position. Additionally, I'm pleased that I only managed to screw up on my the very last of my last roll when I forgot to go over my shoulder and totally crunched my neck. I've been stretching the sore muscle and slathering on muscle stuff, and this morning it's stiff but not unbearably messed up. Yay!

I am a Jedi!!!

(Apprentice... but still!)

Dummmy dumb from Dumbville

I need to get to work on my revisions, but first I have to rant about my own stupidity. I was looking at fiction markets for a friend, and I noticed that there were a few that will take reprints and I started thinking, "What do I have that I could consider sending in?" My mind went back to my very first published science fiction story, "Twelve Traditions" which appeared in the May issue of SF AGE (now defunct.) I have about two zillion paper copies of the magazine because, as I mentioned, it was my first EVA professionally published short story (technically I'd sold "Irish Dreams" to Dreams of Decadance, but at the time that mag was considered semi-pro.)

Do I have an electronic copy of that story anywhere?

Oh, sure, one of those little square disk-thingies probably has a version of it, but do I have one on any media I can ACTUALLY READ!!!????

No.

The ironic part of this? I should know better. My partner can laugh right into my face when she reads this. Shawn, if you don't know, is an electronic records specalist (among her many duties at the Minnesota Historical Society) and I've listened to her practice her talks about migration and all the things you need to do in order to keep your files readable in the future.

I should also note that my made-of-awesome archivist partner DOES, in point of fact, have CDs which we can still read on our tower computer that have back-ups of all my writing files from as far back as September 2001. Given that the short story I'm looking for was published in 1999, I had hope that I would have kept an electronic copy of it... but no. So all the blame falls squarely on my shoulder. In fact, I can very easily see me saying to myself, "Well, this is in print now. Why would I ever need another copy of it?"

I have a partial of it on my lyda morehouse website, but not the whole thing. I think one of my weekend projects after I finish my revisions and do some more work on the NEW short story I've been plotting, is to sit down with the magazine and re-key the damn thing.

*sigh*

Skype and the Life

I may have fixed Skype. I need to test it on a real person, however, so I'll wait and see when my dad comes online again today. Of course, I mostly ignored all the wonderful advice everyone gave, and, instead, followed their on-line help instructions. Weirdly, it did seem as though my microphone may have been turned way down (in the control board of my laptop, not, as I had been looking on Skype), or, possibly even completely muted. This does NOT explain why this happened on Shawn's computer, unless somehow her setting got changed, too. So, I may still have to do all the things you folks suggested so I've saved them all in my inbox.

I'll let you all know how it goes.

In the meantime, I've nearly finished my revisions for Ana #3. I just have a bit more to do today, though, of course, what remains are actually the critical final scenes. I probably could have pushed through them last night, but I was tired after a full kuk sul wan class AND Mason's honest to goodness class _assignment_ to go outside and play for at least 20 minutes. We played bat and ball for twice as long as was required, though that was interrupted by meeting our across-the-alley neighbor Ken. He seems nice, though it's always awkward to meet someone for the first time when they're literally half-naked. He's a middle aged white guy with a paunch who was gardening shirtless. :-)

At any rate, I should probably get to it, though, with this weather (cool and breezy) all I really want to do is curl up next to a warm kitty and nap. Ah, the life of writer!

Science and Vampires

Vampire myths debunked.

Gryffindor, You Tease!

I love this summer so far. I managed to miss the 103 degree day, and have been shamelessly enjoying the cool breeze which, for me at least, makes for a good night's sleep. Last night, I opened the window and snuggled under a comforter. It was awesome. Of course, I also dreamed I was Ron Weasley, so that might have contributed to the joy.

I think, btw, that my subconscious is trying to tell me to stop ignoring the truth: I'm probably a Gryffindor, deep in my heart. I'll deny it, you know. Slytherin House needs someone like me. Someone gregarious and likable, heroic, yet deeply ambitious and a little dark. As my astrological chart says of my Mercury in Scorpio, "Your mind is deep, but rarely charitable."

Anyway, today is the day that, hopefully, I finish the revisions on Ana #3 (aka ALMOST EVERYTHING). Once I got over my inital reaction of, "Gah! My editor hates me! She's gutted the book!" (which, I should try to remember, happens to me every time, it's sort of like how I feel every time I get a rejection for a short story,) I discovered that the revisions aren't nearly as major as I feared. Luckily, my family was a bunch of duds last night and went to bed at 8:30 pm, which left me several hours to plow through pages. I got to about 175 or so, which is half way or nearly so. There is going to be more to do the closer I get to "THE END," but I'm hopeful the next several chapters will be as smooth saling as the previous ones.

Speaking of short stories, I've been continuing my podcast kick. I've listened to almost everything Lightspeed currently has on offer that seemed even remotely up my alley, and have moved into Fantasy (though I really prefer SF) as well, as checking out what's on offer over at PodCastle and EscapePod. I think I could listen a story a day for a thousand years, which is kind of nice. That's a bit of an exaggeration, of course, but I *am* seriously pleased how much stuff seems to be out there. Next time you see me at a convention, I'll be full of it. I mean I'll be full of knowledge of the short story field... yeah, that's it. ;-)

Speaking of science fiction, I just tried to Skype my dad. Any of you technically savvy people out there know why it is that my computer isn't transmitting sound?? I can see and hear my dad just great. He can see me, but not hear me. What's really, REALLY weird is that it doesn't seem to matter which computer I use. We have Skype set up on my computer and Shawn's and neither one wants to work, despite the fact that we've used it successfully in the past (I even talked to a friend who is in Korea!) I wonder if it isn't our 4G network. We've had to move it around to try to get a good signal, and maybe it no longer has the juice to connect us... anyway, if any of you folks know what might be up, I'd love a tutorial. It's so much fun to see my dad when I talk. It solves a problem I've always had with the phone, which is I'm not much of a chatter when I don't get visual cues.

Anyway, I should get back to work. I really want to finish up the revisions, because I've been kicking around a short story idea in my head. I've told myself, however, that I can't work on the short story unless I do some novel work first.

Revisions and Life

Now I'm freezing. WTF, Minnesota! Is this the welcome home I get?

Actually, it's perfect. Thank you. I'm enough of a Minnesotan that I'd much rather have cold than hot.

I'm starting _official_ revisions for ALMOST EVERYTHING (aka Ana #3) today. Official in this context means in accordance with the editorial letter sent by Penguin. Along with a letter I get an electronic copy of my manuscript with my editor's comments sprinkled throughout. This is a nice chance from the editorial letters back "in the day" when I got an eleven (or longer) page email with things like, "on page 127, in the sentence that begins 'blah, blah...' please add more information about your economic system" or whatever. I like the new system because there's a lot less hunting and pecking AND my editor will spontaneously also add a comment that says, "Ooh, love this!" or "Great line!" which I almost never saw before because of the effort it took to single those out.

This time I'm struggling a bit because a point I wanted to make about marriage isn't working for my editor. I had written a betrothal between two guy vampires that ends in a very cold, politically arranged marriage. This isn't a gay marriage, because these guys barely know each other. Love isn't a factor, as, I had wanted it pointed out, it rarely was before the modern era. The marriage in my novel was depicted very much as an exchange of property between two kings. Or rather, more accurately, the offer of a military captain's "hand in marriage" in exchange for a peace treaty. The sort of thing that, you know, happened all the time in the past (and probably still happens all around the world today), except with a gender blindness in this case because there's no need for heirs as the two parties are immortal vampires.

I think the problem is that this is a very ALIEN concept to modern readers. It also is really, really hard for romantic readers to even imagine the hero (who has been a love interest for our heroine) agreeing to a loveless union of any sort, even though I tried throughout the manuscript to hammer on his overactive sense of duty and loyal commitment to his king and kingdom.

So I may end up calling their arrangement something other than marriage. Of course, this is going to retrospectively shed some interesting light on the situation Ana thought she was in with the guy _she_ was previously betrothed to (since a futher entanglement is, of course, that this is book #3 and I can hardly go back and search and replace the word "betrothed" in books that have already come out.) It may be kind of interesting to write that scene where she discovers that "betrothal" means something else entirely to vampires and it wasn't nearly as romantic as she thought. Although, she became betrothed under unusual circumstances and I could probably write in a retrofit to explain why her's *is* that romantic and why this other one is not.

It's messy to say the least, and it kind of bums me out because I kind of enjoyed the simplicity of history -- that is to say, I liked the challenge I posed to modern readers having to deal with this cold, ugly marriage that is at the root of what marriage STILL is -- exchange of property and contractual obligations.

Ah well. That was probably too complicated for a teen novel anyway. (WINKING! Yes, I read the WSJ article and I totally agree with Jackie Kessler in this matter.)

Of course, it may just be that I didn't make my point clear enough, which is what my editor is LIKELY complaining about more than anything.

In a few minutes, I need to save my progress and get my haircut. It's gotten incredibly shaggy.

Your Brain On Love

An article about the science of love. It's actually mostly about antidepressents and what they do to people in love, but the _why_ is geekily interesting.

I Must Be Reading the Wrong Books

Now romance novels are, according to this, as addictive as porn. Seriously, kids?