the wife

Nice place you have here. Buy my book.

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I’d planned to drop a link to this article into a “Randomness” entry for later posting, but actually I want to talk about it.

Click through and check it out, please: Stephen Elliott did an unusual sort of book tour to promote The Adderall Diaries: A Memoir of Moods, Masochism, and Murder: he did readings in people’s homes. They were all complete strangers to him, but they agreed to pick him up at the airport and host a party for 20 people, minimun, in which he’d read from and talk about his book. At the end of the party, he slept on their couch.

It sounds like it worked out very well for him, mostly–so well, in fact, that he got himself an article in the New York Times (which I imagine will sell more books than the tour did). Personally, I think it’s a great idea for a non-fiction writer. I don’t think it would work for me.

For one thing, I don’t really like to talk about my book, especially with people who haven’t read it. For another, I’m uncomfortable visiting my friends at their homes. Traveling from one stranger’s house to another, unable to leave, sleeping on their couch… ::shudders:: It would be misery.

His lending library idea is simpler and more doable for me, but less interesting, too.

The reason I bring this up is that my wife attended a slightly unusual book tour event last night: She went to a “Words & Wine” event for Sir Ken Robinson, author of The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. For $25, she got a copy of the book (signed, ‘natch), a little wine and hors d’oeuvres, a front row seat while the author was interviewed, and a chance to talk to him later. Annoyingly, the interviewer seemed to think the book was about finding yourself or finding happiness, when the author and the audience kept turning it back to its actual subject: education reform.

Still, she had a great time. She also spoke with the woman who ran it, who told her they don’t do sf/f. They tried it once, but the crowd didn’t match the elegant/affluent tone. And that’s fine by me; my wife loves me and liked to promote my work to the people she meets, but she’s a socializer. I’m not. I find the idea of mingling in a hotel reception room with a bunch of strangers much less uncomfortable than doing in a home, but I’d still rather kick back at home with a book.

Me, I’m still doing email interviews. Just yesterday I had a request for another one. ::shrugs:: It’s not exactly revolutionary, but I’m not exactly brimming over with new ideas for meeting new people.

Giftmas

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This Christmas, my wife bought me a Wii Fit Plus and a huge (as in eight inch by five inch tin with a candy bar in it. At first, I was surprised by this. Wouldn’t the “Dark Chocolate Caramel & Sea Salt Bark” counteract the exercise games?

Apparently not, because I’m not the one who was supposed to be eating it. I had, in fact, been saving it, but when I opened it today, all but an inch-and-a-half was gone.

Now, I’ve certainly been guilty of giving people things I wanted. For years I gave books that I wanted to read to my friends, with a polite request to read it when I was done. Hey, I was poor.

But those were books. When you finish a book, you can hand it to a friend. Fancy candy, not so much. My wife, she’s a smart woman. Oh, and it’s really good candy.

Christmas wrap up.

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Get it? “Wrap?” Huh? Huh?

Okay. I’ll tell this one briefly, if I can even manage that any more: The boy received quite a bit of love from Santa this year, mostly in Lego form. My wife received the light-up bicycle safety vest she so subtly hinted at (“Ooo! Check out that guy’s vest! I’ve been seeing those around and they’re awesome!”) although it wasn’t the one I would have preferred. It was, however, the very last one in stock at REI, so I didn’t have a lot of options.

Her surprise gift was a down comforter. Our old one has worn thin and she was waking up in the middle of the night from the cold. The new comforter is fantastic. She sleeps much longer than she used to, and I’m happy to see how well it’s working for it.

Me, I received clothes (I explained to my son that he would know he was an adult when he was happy to get underwear and socks as gifts) and a Wii Fit Plus.

The Wii is actually pretty awesome. The interface is a little bit of a struggle, but that might be on me, not the machine. The exercises (I haven’t tried them all yet) seem like fun. Added bonus: we have to keep the living room organized to use it, which is nice.

The biggest problem is getting a turn with it.

Otherwise it was all quiet time at home with family, and a brief but welcome visit from an old friend. And that’s how I like it.

Three things:

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First: Child of Fire is on the bestseller list for Mysterious Galaxy. Yay! Dear Internet, please bring me more news like that.

Second: My wife had a sleep study appointment tonight. We hired a babysitter, went out to dinner, I dropped her off at the room, then headed out to the bus stop to put my son to bed. Ten minutes before I arrived, at 9:15, my wife called to say the technician had called in sick and the study was cancelled. She had to take two buses home and this is not the first fuck up in scheduling this study.

Third: I forget the third thing. I’m tired. Good night. Oh wait! No I don’t! For dinner, we went to a German pub/restaurant and had spaetzle, fried pickles, a big fresh pretzel with sinus-clearing sweet hot mustard, pork with mushroom sauce, and other delicious things. I had two German beers (Kostritzer, which is a black lager and Radeberger Pils)–typically, I’m not a fan of lagers, pilsners and such, but these were really, really good.

Now I’m tired. Good night.

Some catching up

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This will be a quick rundown, because it’s late and I want to sleep, but I also want to cover some things:

Yesterday, I got two flu shots, seasonal and H1N1. That evening I was coughing and by bedtime I was feverish and shivering. The fever broke around 4:30, and I went back to sleep. Right now I feel mostly okay, but damn, why didn’t I go to bed earlier.

My son had his eighth birthday party today. It went well.

I mailed Man Bites World to my agent. Only 15 minutes in line at the post office! I promised it to her by Giftmas, and she’ll have it. I just wish I’d had time to polish the prose more.

Tomorrow, I’m going to celebrate the mailing by spending a sizable portion of the day reading.

But, while so many of you poor folks were out killing brain cells watching AVATAR, I stayed home with the family to watch HOGFATHER. It’s a flawed show but it’s wonderful, and the end always puts tears in my eyes. My wife absolutely loves it. Go Christmas!

And now I collapse.

De-stressing

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After a touch day, you know what makes things better? Riding a carousel with my wife and son, visiting the Pacific Place mall shopping center to watch their indoor “snow” fall–really just a bunch of bubbles, but it looked great and the boy loved it, checking out this year’s gingerbread house displays at the Sheraton (very nice!) and dinner at the boy’s new favorite restaurant. Pictures will be forthcoming.

I also discovered that Barnes & Noble has sold six of the nine copies of Child of Fire they stocked. That’s nice, too.

That said, there’s one more note to be dealt with in my book. I’ll reproduce it here in full:

[these empty lines suggest I meant to expand this scene, but after a month and a half I can’t remember what it was supposed to be. Note to self: make notes to self.]

It’s been longer than a month and a half now, but for the life of me I can’t remember what I was supposed to put there. Must have been important, huh? I’ll just delete the note and call it done. Tonight I’ll prep it and send it to my agent; I’ll polish while she reads, and thank Pikachu that this think is nearly done.

Latest state of the self report:

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I was late to the day job this morning (second day in a row) because I got sucked into the revisions of Man Bites World again. Luckily, my supervisor was late, too. We rode up on the elevator together.

Yesterday at dinner, my wife started talking about our plans for this evening–we’ll be checking out the gingerbread house displays downtown, as well as having a nice dinner and maybe ride the Westlake holiday carrousel. I’d completely forgotten about those plans. This morning, when I called her from my desk to catch up with whatever, I’d completely forgotten about them again. Note to self: don’t take the usual bus home tonight.

Anyway, Newtonmas is next week. The boy’s birthday party is this weekend. Shopping is not finished. MBW is still not finished, although I expect to have a draft I can send to my agent very, very soon. Unfortunately, I can’t work on it this Saturday because of the party.

Did I mention my trip to the dentist? I had a cavity that needed filling, and while it was the best visit I’ve had in a long, long while (a new guy took over this practice and I think he’s great) it was still a lot of added stress and pain.

I’m also criminally behind on my sleep. What this all adds up to is that I’m stressed, exhausted, forgetful, and negligent of my own needs. I can’t keep more than three things in my head at once (and the health care reform bills insist on being one of them no matter how annoying the news gets), and I spend most of my time feeling slightly sick.

So you can imagine my state of mind this morning when I received an invitation to Norwescon. Actually, you don’t have to imagine it. It was Oh, hell no.

For those who don’t know, I’ve never been to a sf convention. I’ve been avoiding them partly because of cost and partly because they seem to be large social events full of people who already know each other. I don’t do well in crowds and I’m not comfortable with big groups of strangers.

Also, just yesterday I was reading Booklife by Jeff Vandermeer (btw: I’m reading Booklife and it’s interesting. More on that later) and he said it was best for authors to skip the types of promotion that make them uncomfortable.

“Perfect!” I didn’t say out loud on the bus. “I guess I don’t have to mingle with large crowds of strangers now!”

But then this email came today, and I’m currently over-fucking-whelmed with crap and you know what? I’m going to go anyway.

What the hell. It’s not until April, and considering my crazy schedule I will only be able to attend on Saturday, but the truth is that it scares me and makes me uncomfortable, and that’s reason enough to give it a go. The real downside is going to be the loss of my most productive writing day. Whatever. Once I do it, I can say I did it and never do it again.

They’re asking me to be on programming, which is a big huh? but okay. They’re also asking me to list people I don’t want to be on a panel with. I’m tempted to make up a name to two as a joke, but maybe they don’t have time for that. How am I supposed to know who to avoid?

Anyway, as grim as this post sounds, everything will be fine. I just have to buckle down a bit more and make sure I stick with sensible choices (for instance, going to bed when I’m stressed out instead of wandering my apartment like a ghost). But all this is doable and my wife has been very understanding. I just have to get through it.

Sorry this post is so long.

Date night

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Last night my wife and I went out to dinner for a date (we were celebrating the getting of a sitter) and dropped in at a place called Lola on the recommendation of a friend.

Wonderful. It was really amazing. It was mainly a high-end Greek place with North African and other influences. We had a targine of red wine braised goat with quince and chocolate, pita with a cauliflower/anchovy spread, fried chick peas, octopus, brussels sprouts, omg it was just so good.

And we had a chance to talk uninterrupted, which was nice. I don’t really see us going back, because it’s not in our budget (see special occasion above) but what a fantastic experience.

Long healthful walk? No!

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The plan to take a long, healthful walk to the library to work on Man Bites World went out the window when I looked out my window and saw freezing fog and black ice everywhere. The sidewalks were crazy slippery, and the walk I’d need to take has an 18% grade in some parts. Time for the bus.

But I have a question for the internet mind before I head off for lunch and more editing: What do you use for quality color printing (if at all)? My color printer is on its last legs, and my wife would like to be able to print high-quality photos for reference. Not just on photo paper, either.

Thanks.

SETI@home and recipe contest followup

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As a followup to the previous post about a guy fired for loading SETI@home, apparently, he’d done other things as well, such as “bring home” 18 computers, download pron at work, and claim to have done work he hadn’t done.

So, it’s not the wacky story the idiotic cnet writer made it out to be.

Also, we ate the T-Day leftover empanadas from the recipe contest for dinner on Monday. Verdict: we liked it! The next time I make them, I’ll cut the salt in half for the pastry–it was a little thirst-inducing. Least favorite for everyone was the bacon and cheddar mix. The favorite was different for each, with the boy liking the gravy best, and my wife and I favoring the cranberry.

Yeah, I’ll be making them again.