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new winter LJ layout, got the christmas music playing, and probably putting up the tree tonight. haven't really felt in the mood for some reason.
which is odd since i'm usually a nutcase about christmas. |
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Heartily enjoyed Orycon this weekend, and not just because I got to spend an extended amount of time at the big Powell's downtown. Went to lots of panels, talked with many folks, met a few new ones. Didn't end up going to any of the parties Saturday night because I was getting tired by that time. In retrospect, I wish I had, but as I said, I was getting tired.
Attended Ken Scholes's workshop and that was very productive. Enjoyable to sit through and I picked up some pointers that may lead my writing life in a different direction. We'll see about that before I talk more on that.
Went to several military SF panels, a couple of which were good, a couple of which were so-so. The so-so ones were that way because they went off-topic for the most part, or in one case because the egos of a couple of the people got in the way. Ah well. Other panels as well, on getting out of the slush pile, writing for the RPG industry, and other things. Several of the panels yielded unexpected and positive ideas/results, which was quite nice. Went to a couple of readings, including the reading of Jay Lake's stuff, at which everyone wore REALLY LOUD Hawaiian shirts and narrowly escaped being rained on. (Water leaking into the ceiling, and eventually leaking from that same ceiling). Got to see a number of folks, some of whom I've only known previously online, including ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kenscholes , camillealexa , winneganfake , newroticgirl (and her SO, whose name escapes me at the moment, despite having chatted with them for awhile), jennifer_brozek , astartes_girdle and some others. Missed jaylake and calendula_witch because of J's surgery of course. It's really good to get out and see folks. Have to do it more often. Can't do RadCon because T will be in Arizona, but I'd like to get to RustyCon and certainly Norwescon.
And a special thank you to newroticgirl for helping introduce me to a few folks.
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- the new StorytellersUnplugged essay went live yesterday. There were glitches with comments - but as far as I know they have now been enabled, so if you feel so inclined you can add your own here or here. Another essay suggested by folks here at LJ coming up at the end of December - or possibly at the end of January if I choose to use December for a look back over the year that was...
Either way, enjoy.
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Saturday was busy. Sunday we went to Alexander James Adams' concert in the morning (ALWAYS a joy, that) and then hung around for a bit until it was time to meet [Unknown LJ tag] who had generously offered to give us a lift to the Beaverton Powells for the book signing event that afternoon.
When we arrived at the store it was to find a gratifying melee of shoppers carrying shopping baskets *FULL OF BOOKS*. I cannot tell you how glad that made my heart. That there are people out there still willing to go out and buy book piles by all these fabulous authors sitting around the signing area, people who love to read, people who are simply there for the sake of the Written Word. I myself sold more than a dozen books on the night, and signed far more than that when people brought their own copies in for me to autograph; it was a very good night. After, we went for dinner at a nice local pasta restaurant, where we enjoyed good food and excellent company, and then we were dropped off back at the hotel where we picked up friends in the lobby and sat chatting with them ("We are the dead dog party", we were told, and we saw no reason to doubt them) until reasonably late, and retired to bed.
We were woken the next morning - WOKEN UP - by an insistent knocking on the door and an attempt to use a key card on it, accompanied by a refrain of "housekeeping!"
Given that on the first day of our arrival our room had STILL not been serviced by mid-afternoon - say 4 PM - the fact that it was suddenly essential to do this before 9 AM - on the day of departure! - was a little annoying. I didn't put up a "do not disturb" sign on the door - never, in the history of my staying at hotels, had it been necessary in this context. I personally don't care when the cleaning staff start their duties on any given work day - but I would personally assume that potentially disturbing hotel guests before 9 in the morning (and it doesn't matter in the least if said guests have been out of the room at 6 AM) is a definite no-no.
Well, either way, I had been woken up suddenly and I had woken up annoyed so I was grumpy as all get go. The thing that I was holding out for, which would have improved my mood no end, was a nice meal at Wilf's, that little railway station restaurant in Portland which serves such damned good food. We'd fallen foul of them once before when we had counted on them to be open, and they had decided to close up shop on a major holiday - okay, I could make a case for that, even though I feel strongly that this is a restaurant AT A RAILWAY STATION and its clientele are the railway passengers and they are STILL travelling on a holiday so you don't get to take it off - run the place with a skeleton crew if you have to! But this time the holiday was over (Thanksgiving was long past) and there was no reason to suppose that the place would be closed. So I had a cup of coffee at the restaurant, and nothing to eat, seeing as we would be having a nice meal at Wilf's.
We get to the station, and hellllo! It's 11:38, the place says it's open at 11:30, but it's locked up tight - and then I see a nice little note in the door. "Closed for holiday decorating."
Okay, this is just not defensible. And I was not the only one who thought so - another woman who was there when we were was as outraged as I was and later I overheard people talking about it on the train - that's at least half a dozen disgruntled customers that you lost that day, Wilf's, and they may or may not trust you again. Holiday decorating should be done on your own time, if you choose to do it. SOrry, but these were people who were travelling and who would have paid good money for a good meal - you don't turn them away because you want to hang up Christmas lights. You guys don't open until 11:30 anyway - how about you haul in staff or friends or family or whatever it takes at 9 AM - and maybe open at 12 instead of 11:30 - there's a heap you can do with a few pairs of willing hands in three hours' time, you aren't decorating the Rockefeller Center, just a small restaurant, and HONESTLY I could have lived without the doily snowflakes if I could have had food. As it was - well, we've eaten worse, but our substitute meal (canned chicken noodle soup, hot dogs, french fries) was neither healthy nor all that filling and it was twice as unsatisfactory when we thought of the alternative that we COULD have had.
Sorry, folks. You run a service industry. If you want to run a hobby restaurant which opens when you feel like it you might consider relocating to a site somewhere other than a place where you're the only good game in town and people are counting on you. None of us were asking you to do it for free - we were all ready to pay for the privilege of eating there - but you have to be OPEN for that to happen.
Do I sound peeved? I was. Mightily.
ANYWAY. We get onto the train, which usually runs straight through to Bellingham with a layover in Seattle. Not this time. This time we all had to pick up sticks and transfer to another train - much chaos and milling about ensued, particularly since we were supposed to transfer from seats assigned in Portland to a situation of "just find a seat and sit where you like". And it was another full train. And then we had to wait out south-bound trains in sidings in the dark. Suffice it to say we were more than half an hour late into Bellingham, and it was 10 PM by the time we got home.
Grumpy.
I think I hate travelling. I like BEING in nice places doing interesting things - the convention was great, and very enjoyable and useful - but the getting there is increasingly becoming a massive chore. Hates it, my precioussss. Maybe I'm just getting old and cranky (and any snarky commentary on that will get snarklily answered, thank you very much).
Home now.
On with real life.
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Right here.
I just have to point out that those back-to-back slipjig quotes are, yes, about me.
Why do I have to point that out? Because it amuses me to do so.
Text NSFW, so if you're prone to giggling, pull up that video of the surprised kitten for cover.
(And yes, this is all normal for my house.) |
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The new year draws near, and there are several things I'd like to do to finish on a good note.
First, continue with the exercise and diet. So far, I'm pleased by the results. I broke out a new notebook today for my food journal; I filled the last pages on the initial one over Thanksgiving break. Ideally, I hope to see some more losses. Even though I didn't get a chance to exercise with the Jillian Michaels Wii program during vacation, I still recorded a pound or two lost. If I follow the routine without a skipped day I can count on 23 workouts. The diet is becoming easier, so I think weight loss will require more and stronger workouts.
Second, December is a long month and, holidays notwithstanding, that means 31 days to write. So, I want to come close to breaking 100 pages. I've got a week off mid-month, so I hope to rack up good numbers then. Best-case scenario, that will compensate for any writing time I lose to the holidays when merriment matters more than work. :-)
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I'd heard of some (but not all) of these, being one who is fascinated with mysterious sea stories (though, curiously, not at all interested in the Bermuda Triangle). This is a interesting and fun article—including the comments, which are...yes, interesting.
I'm already thinking to incorporate some of these in that pirate epic of mine which somehow never gets written.
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Why, she's posting at the Deadline Dames...
Come and read all about it! First Times: Editorial Letters
 Current Mood:  okay |
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Good news! You can now read my story "Knight in the Kingdom of Rain" at Crossed Genres!
http://crossedgenres.com/archives/013/knight-in-the-kingdom-of-rain-by-jason-s-ridler/
It's a pretty short piece, around a thousand words, so why not give it a whirl and see a my own favorite monstrous creation: THE MUD SHARK!
Thanks to Bart and KT for buying the story. Hope you all enjoy it.
Huzzah!
JSR |
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Dec. 1st, 2009 @ 12:00 pm
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Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter |
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Wow! I'm honoured to report that the cover* for The Cold Kiss of Death has been nominated in the 1st Annual Urban Fantasy Cover Art Awards in the 'Best Floating Head Cover' category! Yay!
Now *bats eyelashes pleadingly* anyone who wants to vote for my book can go here, or you know, if you want to vote for any of the books, that's cool too . . . there are some fab, fab covers: this one below is possibly my favourite. I loved, loved, loved the book, and now Fade Out is currently sitting on top of my TBR pile as my treat for finishing writing The Bitter Seed of Magic [I'm days away from typing 'THE END' so watch this space . . .]
Voting is open from now until 30th December '09. Plus there are prizes for voting too - check them out here :-).
Back to the writing cave now . . .
* Kudos goes to Gollancz' art department! :-)Current Mood:  bouncy |
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 One of the most common pieces of advice for new writers is “Keep your seat in the chair.” The downside is that it becomes all too easy to sit at the desk for hours without moving. This can lead to stiffness and circulation issues even with an ergonomically correct desk and chair.
Ergocise.com is a program which pops up a reminder to stretch at pre-set intervals. The reminder shows a very simple animated gif with an ergonomically correct stretch designed for someone at a desk. Most of the stretches take thirty seconds and none take more than a minute.
So if you find yourself getting stiff after a day in the chair, check out ergocise.com
Mirrored from SFWA | Comment at SFWA
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Since it's December 1st, I thought I'd give you the BIG REMINDER that this month's challenge is the following:
The Last Unicorn (1968)
Written by: Peter S. Beagle
I adored the movie when I was a child, and I'm thrilled to finally be reading the source material. Especially since I loved the sequel, "Two Hearts," to pieces. :)
Anyone who'd like to participate, just read the book! I'll post my review on December 31st for you to comment, or at least, fill out a poll saying whether you participated or not.
If you're looking for links to buy the book or want more challenge details (and next month's theme!) just click here.
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Random quote of the day:
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: The only proof he needed for the existence of God was music."
—Kurt Vonnegut, Man Without a Country
( Illustrated version. )
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
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Two years ago I did it, so this year, considering how awesome a year I'm having, I decided to revive it. First song really isn't a Christmas song, but the holidays don't begin for me until I hear "Linus and Lucy." Enjoy:
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I also took a video the other day, and forgot to post it here yesterday. This was taken on the path next to the river, very close to where I took my first video a few weeks ago.
Things look quite different now! I really like the way the shadows from the trees carpet the path. It's such a pretty spot; I've taken many photos in that area.
The iPod is so little, it's hard to keep it steady as I pan around, and even just holding it still. I need more practice. *g*
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i think its absolutely disgusting. people who smoke don't realize they stink to high heaven and just getting into an elevator after a smoker makes me want to hurl being in an enclosed space. (not to mention those who smoke pot - you aren't being sneaky at all. the fact that you reek like a skunk hit you full blast gives you away.) mints and perfume don't work, btw. the smell permeates every pore of a smokers being.
rights? well i suppose as long as they smoke far from the building (and don't consider the legal 5m away being just outside the door) where i have NO CHANCE of sucking in their cancer causing second hand smoke, i'm okay. i can just not be with or near them after they finish. if smokers want to give themselves lung cancer its their perogative.
as a total aside, my sister has quit smoking and has made her house smoker free. i can't tell you how happy that makes me. not only has she rediscovered her tastebuds, and the power of scent, but i am now able to go and visit on holidays and not spend the next 3 days sick as a dog and with a sinus infection. :D i actually look forward to the big turkey meals now that i don't have to confront a smokers haven and taking so many antihistamines i feel nauseous. :P
EDIT: was talking to the hubby about this question this morning and his immediate reaction was "BAN THEM!" (the smokes that is, not the smokers hehe.) that or tax the shit out of them. make them pay for the health care costs that they do/will generate.
i got to thinking and mentioned that its amazing that something so lethal is allowed to exist. hubby commented that its like alcohol.
me: "but say.. one drink a day won't kill you"
hub: "well technically neither would one cigarette..."
me butting in: "but cigarettes are a hell of a lot more toxic!"
hub continuing on anyways: "BUT... the problem is NOONE smokes just ONE smoke a day anyways. they smoke 1 or 2 packs a day, or half a pack. never 1 single."
and how true is that. we discussed friends that couldn't go a couple hours without smoking about 3 cigarettes. if they have to interrupt meals and evenings out to smoke that much, consider over a whole day.
how is something so addicting and so filled with tar, arsenic, etc. allowed to be on the market when its proven they give you cancer. that the smoke can cause cancer in others who don't smoke!??
of course this is all MY opinion. i'm sure smokers out there will disagree and whatnot. just want to put that disclaimer up hehe
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The December issue of Clarkesworld Magazine is now live. If you enjoy this issue, please consider participating in our citizenship drive by making a a donation, book purchase, or just spread the word.
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Thanksgiving vacation is over and I'm back to work and looking forward to a December without interruptions. Technically -- we still need to put the house back into order after yesterday's carpet cleaning. That will probably take a good week or so as we do early (extremely early) spring cleaning.
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