Because Christmas time is the time for weeping uncontrollably.
Avatar = Battle for Terra
StandardAs I suspected, Avatar is crazy similar to Battle For Terra, not to mention a few other films.
Skipping it. I’d rather watch BfT again.
Busy today. My son’s birthday party starts as soon as the first kid arrives, and I have to sneak out later to mail off the completed agent-draft of Man Bites World (Yay!).
Oh, crap!
StandardMe am forgetful.
Chapter one of Man Bites World starts on page one, as expected.
Chapter two starts on page 163. Three: 181. Four: 209
At which point I forgot what number I was on and started labeling them “Chapter Next”: 215 (! Four pages?) 231, 249, and so on until the end, every 15-25 pages, the way they should be.
Ummm, maybe I should standardize those before I send it.
Randomness for 12/18 (this is a funny one)
Standard1) iBox 2.0 God, how I laughed at this, and I never even saw the movie.
2) A Christmas webcomic by Chris Sims. Also with the laughing.
3) This would have been better as a single shot, but it’s still pretty cool. via TNH’s Particles.
4) EpicWin wins epically. Also via TNH’s Particles.
AVATAR
StandardIs anyone else as deeply uninterested in James Cameron’s AVATAR as I am? It’s exactly the sort of thing I should like (space ships, aliens, action scenes) but everything I see leaves me feeling meh.
De-stressing
StandardAfter 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.
“Religious symbols don’t give you superpowers.”
StandardIn a weird quirk of fate, two audio interviews I’ve done has gone live on the same day.
One is an interview I did with Author Magazine associate editor Jeff Ayers. It’s the longer of the two interviews, but since I’m the only interviewee, it’s a shorter listen. Hear the advice I give to aspiring professional writers! Long-time readers of the blog will not be surprised to discover that it involves self-recrimination.
The other is the interview I did with Seattle Geekly. I’m the first of four authors interviewed (the others are Ben Thompson, Ken McConnell and Caitlin Kittredge,) and they cover other geeky topics, too, including the Jet City Improv Christmas Show. The world, it is small.
You always wondered what my voice sounds like, yeah? Well, it’s no great shakes, but you can hear it at either place.
Latest state of the self report:
StandardI 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.
Recently purchased books
Standard
As an unrelated question, when is the December issue of Locus supposed to reach bookstores?
Randomness for 12/16
Standard1) Library book overdue by 99 and a half years.
2) Humans vs. Zombies, the live game. Photos of the event. (Humans won! Yay humans!)
3) Connecting fructose and childhood diabetes.
4) And, for a different sort of unhealthy ingestion: Blood drinking 101
5) A wooden castle–built from 396,000 popsicle sticks.
6) Lawsuit seeks to remove atheist from public office. It seems North Carolina’s state constitution bars atheists from holding public office. It’s an unenforceable law, thanks to a decades-old Supreme Court decision, but it’s the basis of a suit seeking to have Cecil Bothwell removed from a city council seat.
7) In contrast to my Author’s Big Mistake post from earlier today, a hilarious book review with a very smart author response.