No Fireworks…

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In previous years, we would all be at a park a few blocks from here to watch fireworks.  It was far from the action, but we could see it all and who needs to fight the crowds?

This year?  Well, as we just discovered barely more than an hour ago, those fireworks have been cancelled this year.  There’s still another display, but it’s across town, and being carless, we could never get there in time–not even the buses can run quickly enough.

Fireworks on TV this year (which is fine by me, since I’m not that enthusiastic about them).  My wife and son are terrible disappointed.

A question of vital importance

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Can a healthy spider survive being flushed down a toilet?

Items of (dubious) interest

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From a former book publicist: What should air on C-SPAN’s “Book TV” this weekend. Well, I thought it was funny.

Twenty Best Cthulhu Tales–I’ve only read a fraction of the stories on this list, but I’m copying it here so I can reference it later. Mythos! I love it.

Man writes book that will take a thousand years to read. Embarrassingly, after 750 years, readers will discover that he used “it’s” when he should have written “its.”

This next one is off the (accidental) book theme of this post, but I do hope you’ll all read it: Urban Farmer finds success. So cool.

As for items of a non-linking variety: Tomorrow I get one of my birthday gifts–reading time. Just like Father’s Day, I’m going to spend a significant amount of time sacked out in bed with a book. I still have Spirit Gate by Kate Elliott on deck, and I hope to make a sizable dent in it.

Also, I’m told that Child of Fire will have the opening chapter of book 2 at the very back. Now, this is cool news, but I should come right out and say that I never read preview excerpts in books.  Invariably, I buy the excerpted book, put it on my shelf for a couple months (or years) and when I finally start it, I get a disturbing reader’s deja vu.  “Have I read this already?”  Since I’m terrible with titles, I can never be sure. 

Eventually, I just swore off the practice. 

And book 2, Everyone Loves Blue Dog, will soon have a new title.  There’s a current front runner, but I don’t want to talk about it until things are settled.  The happiest part for me is that I like this title and it doesn’t turn up in a Google search. 

With that, I’ll sign off to enjoy the holiday.

In which I link to things

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Because I am boring and can not spare the attention it takes to express a coherent opinion, here are some links:

1) [Deleted]

2) “Call me an ignorant Swede, but the last thing I thought possible in the U.S. was that you banned books.”

3) The NY Times on my favorite food. I’m almost afraid to read it.

4) This makes me want to hide under my desk, and it’s just a couple of pictures on a website. NB: that link is not for people who have issues with high places.

5) Gay sex decriminalized in New Delhi. Change may be slow, but it’s coming (so to speak).

HNBD

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Today was my not-birthday. As I mentioned earlier, my wife and I have the same birthday, and that sucks–somebody ends up doing the dishes on their special day. So I moved my day back a month.

I don’t much like cake, so I had my traditional (melon-free) fruit salad. My son bought me a new baster and my wife gave me the same gift I got for Christmas–permission to buy a rilly rilly nice computer when the G4 Mac Mini on my desk gives up the ghost.

At this point, I’m starting to hate my old computer. I glare at it when iPhoto lags or I can’t upload video from my camera–someday it will be dead, and with Apple Care expired I will get new very very soon.

I hope.

I also had market fresh nectarines for my snack breaks at work, and a beautiful steak with sauteed mushrooms for dinner. Nice. All I need to do to make this a perfect day would be to get to bed early.

Phew!

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Laptop seems fine. The book is ruined, though.

No writing today

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Shit. I went to the Starbucks across the street from day job, sat down with my laptop and coffee, and promptly spilled the whole thing over the table. Spirit Gate by Kate Elliott is soaked through and my computer kept flashing to a white screen.

I say again: Shit.

Now I’m sitting at my desk at the day job, with computer and book resting on the air conditioning vent beside me, drying out. ::fingers crossed:: Instead, I guess I’ll work on some of the publicity stuff I’m supposed to whip up by the end of the month, and thinkerate on the characters and plot.

Ever hear of those 48 hour film events…

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Filmmakers are given a prop, a line of dialog, and whatever else and have to write, shoot and edit a film in 48 hours.

Here’s one written by a funny writer I know:

A question to consider

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I was idly reading through Jim Butcher’s message boards when I came across a statement I hadn’t heard before. He said that epic fantasy, as a genre, has very good legs. That is, compared to other genres, it continues to sell fairly well long after publication date.

True? Not? What do you think?

In which I ask for a favor

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I’m uncomfortable asking for favors, and when I’m uncomfortable, I preamble.

I don’t have an RSS feed. Every blog I follow is on my LiveJournal friends list. A couple years back, I had an author on there with a strong, interesting voice and outspoken opinions. We probably wouldn’t have gotten along in real life, but I enjoyed her LJ.

Then she made a post that (paraphrasing) suggested she expected people who were reading her LiveJournal (“for free”) should also buy her novels. I dropped her from my list immediately. See, I’d already read one or two of her books, and I didn’t care for them, but I was very interested in the way she talked about current events.

Anyway, I would never ask anyone reading this to buy my book. If it seems like the kind of thing you’d be interested in and you have the eight bucks, then cool. *I* certainly think it’s worth it, in my completely and thoroughly unbiased opinion, but what else would you expect me to say?

However, I would like to ask a favor (he said, 170-some words later): Today, June 29th, is exactly three months before the publish date of the Child of Fire. I just went over to my public library web site, clicked on the “Purchase Suggestion” link at the bottom of the page and asked them to order the book.

Would you please do the same at your local library?

Many of them have a way for you to do it online, and if you need to find the ISBN or other information, you can get it off Amazon.com at this link.

Every library in the country is scaling back their acquisition budgets, I know, but money is tight for readers, too. I’d love for my book to be available to them. And, of course, I’m a big fan of libraries in general.

Anyway, if you can take a few minutes to put in this request, I’d be grateful. Thanks.