life is great!

Yay! Starred review in PW!

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Child of Fire just got a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly. Here it is, reprinted via them.

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STARRED REVIEW: Child of Fire Harry Connolly. Del Rey, $7.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-345-50889-8

Connolly’s gritty urban fantasy debut is not so urban: it takes place in Hammer Bay, Wash., where residents are thankful for the toy factory that stimulates their economy and are apparently oblivious to the frequent magical immolations of local children. Convicted felon Ray Lilly works for the mysterious Annalise Powliss and the Twenty Palace Society, hunting down people who use magic and the otherworldly predators whose power they channel. Callous Annalise and hard-nosed Ray have a complicated personal history that gradually comes to light as the Society faces off against factory employees, local law enforcement and other corrupt forces in the town. Unique magical concepts, a tough and pragmatic protagonist and a high casualty rate for innocent bystanders will enthrall readers who like explosive action and magic that comes at a serious cost. (Oct.)

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Holy crap, what a tremendous relief that is. Please do well, little book! Find lots of readers!

OMG

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I hate Microsoft Excel so much.

Mac Hate

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Before I left for L.A./San Diego, I was half-convinced I’d need to replace my desktop computer. It’s a refurbished Mac Mini G4 that I bought 4 years ago. It’s as slow as… well, me, and let’s just say that iPhoto 5 is not quite up to the task that I’ve set for it.

Worse, just before I left it stopped writing to DVDs.

That’s a deal-breaker right there. If my computer can’t save files to discs, it’s outta here.

And now we have the current heatwave (according to local news sites, we are in triple-digit temps right now, a new record) which is always great for computers. Mine is sitting on my desk in a poorly-ventilated corner of the apartment, and I’m sure it’s hotter inside than out. Luckily, I shut it off this morning before I left for work (where our a/c is a freaking joke).

Anyway, my Christmas present was half of a new computer, tbbl (to be bought later). My birthday present was the other half. I have a new machine coming, and it will have Time Machine, Boot Camp and a number of other sources of wonder (including the latest iPhoto), but I have to wait for my credit card to stop smoking from my trip, and I have to wait for the heatwave to break.

This is one bit of shopping I’m half-dreading, half-loving.

Just finished my panel and signing

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I did not puke, wet my pants with fear or soak through my shirt with flop sweat.

Actually, it went pretty well, considering. I didn’t manage to take my editor’s advice on the panel (which was “Be amusing, dammit”) but I didn’t stammer too much and I, you know, said things. Juliet Blackwell is a hero of the revolution for talking to me as though I was doing something completely normal–that really eased my nervousness. Everyone should go buy her new book.

Afterwards, I had a chance to chat briefly with Betsy Mitchell, my editor, as we walked to the signing. On the way, my buddy Jim came up behind us as said “Mr. Connolly! Mr. Connolly! Would you sign my girlfriend’s breasts?” Betsy laughed, thank Pikachu.

The signing went well, too. (It’s easy to get people to take free books, is all I’m sayin’.)

And the other authors were super-nice. I’m afraid I was a little nervous about the whole thing and didn’t talk all that well, but I survived.

Now I wander around the con until 1:30 when I go the the Lego panel I promised my son I’d attend.

Still not reading blogs and such.

Last week’s trip to the restaurant (with bonus furniture pix)

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We brought a camera to the Boat Street Cafe so we could take pictures of the food, but it looked so good we fell on it instantly. No pix for you of the food, but here’s the restaurant:

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I should have taken it facing the other way, so you can see the open air patio.

I had the lamb and my son ordered grilled octopus. Seven-years-old and he goes for the most adventurous food on the menu. He loved it, too. My boy.

Also, we have been talking for a long while about replacing our old dining table chairs. We got them when our upstairs neighbor died, and her sons–both in their sixties–unloaded gave us a bunch of her furniture rather than try to dispose of it. But the seats were torn, the padding hung out and some of the screws had stripped out of the wood.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to replace furniture when you don’t have a car, so we’ve been putting it off. Enter a multi-family garage sale up the road where my wife picked up six of these:

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I love my new chairs.

Much to do before I leave on my trip.

Hee!

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This morning, the Senate Health Committee passed its bill on a straight-party line vote. I hear it’s a pretty good plan, although I’d be surprised if it was as strong as the plan the House just passed.

The White House is calling it a bipartisan bill–not because Republicans voted for it. They didn’t. They’re calling it “bipartisan” because it contains Republican ideas. That matters, because they’re signalling to possible GOP moderates that they are not going to water down the final bill to win a few Repub votes.

Yay! Finally, some hopeful news.

And for bonus grins, ultra-conservative Republican senator Tom Coburn added an amendment to the bill requiring Congress to get their health care from the public plan. Rather than kill the amendment, Sens. Edward Kennedy (who voted by proxy) and Chris Dodd, both Democrats, called their bluff and voted for it.

Now, it seems pretty unlikely that the amendment would survive all the way to the final version of the law, but Kennedy likes the public plan, and really, why shouldn’t our elected leaders have a personal stake in public programs?

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?

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.