they must need bears

Hi. This is an admin post, which theoretically is for the new people. With any luck, it will stay at the top of the blog this time.

Through your mastery of the backroads of the internet, you've found my weblog. I'm Elizabeth Bear; I write science fiction and fantasy, and I talk about that here. I also talk about my life, my hobbies, my elderly and presuming cat, and various other things, including TV shows and books I like, the ongoing saga of my recent car troubles, things I did this weekend, and so on.

This is a public blog, and I very, very rarely post anything friends-locked. You don't have to ask my permission to add me as a friend, to read or to comment. I often don't add people back, but that's because I'm swamped, not because I don't think you're interesting.

The only thing I ask is that you be polite, to me and to other commenters, and exercise the sort of common courtesy you would in someone else's living room. If you don't know what common courtesy is, ask your mother. If I think somebody is being rude, I generally explain it to them before I take drastic action, so don't fret too much.

Welcome in. There's drinks in the fridge, and if you get here early, you might score a spot in the hammock or on the futon. Feel free to introduce yourself, if you haven't before.

Watch out for the man-eating plants.

And, I think, revisions done. After a couple of long stern grovels through the prose, and some making the plot make sense, it's become a story I am actually quite proud of.

...and now I get to have a beer and watch the telly.

P.S. still in love with the new computer. I'm reasonably certain it makes me write better. Like new sneakers make you run better, you know? You know!

...YOU DON'T KNOW? Oh, I'm sorry.

I've avoided it for as long as I can. I have the revision notes, both mine and John's, for "The Red in the Sky is Our Blood," and today is devoted to making it not suck. Well, what's left of today, anyway. I successfully frittered the morning away on exercise and making a pot of supa improvisata (no, that's not supposed to be real Italian).

Now I have to fix this story.

And the first thing I have to do is find a first line that would not get it rejected by every self-respecting magazine editor in North America.

As all y'all know, one of the things--perhaps the primary thing--I try to do with this blog is demystify the sausage publishing industry.

Well, Michael Cisco is talking openly now about some problems he's been having with Prime Books. And I'm here to publicly back him up: I have now heard from four or five friends and at least three acquaintances that Prime doesn't pay, doesn't pay on time, or doesn't pay without regular dunning letters.

Ben Peek shares his own stories of deals with Prime here.

Leah Bobet comments on the issue.

Now, what I'm saying here is not "Don't buy Prime Books." They publish any number of amazing authors--Ben Peek, and Michael Cisco, obviously. Sarah Monette. Ekaterina Sedia. The list goes on.

What I'm saying is, it might behoove Prime Books to conduct their business in a professional manner. And until they do--it's damned courageous of Cisco to publicly identify the problem, for the benefit of other authors who may be entertaining an offer from this company.

Oh, look, a DVD extra...

Reposted from the comment threads...

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=tough-choices-how-making

Item the first: Tiny cute computer is tiny and cute. I have gotten all my habitual software (WinAmp, assorted Popcap timewasters, the Zune manager, Semagic, Electric Sheep, Eudora, etc.) and am halfway through the semi-endless process of moving my music and other files over. The hard drive is already groaning in anticipation of the 60+ gigs of music I plan on upholstering it with. Good thing I'm not a gamer.... 

(The new laptop, for those who are interested in the technical specs, is a 14.1" wide-aspect Dell Latitude D630 core 2 2.0 GHz with 160 gig hard drive--something like double the capacity of the previous machine at half the weight and energy costs. It has a nice big keyboard and it runs XP cheerfully. I had originally fallen in love with the XPS, which brings the shiny and has a bigger hard drive, but that one only allows for Vista and no.

Also, it's netcurmudgeon's experience--and mine--that the business laptops, though they have less chrome, are more durable. So I am now the proud owner of Daphne the Laptop, at about two hundred dollars more than I paid for Ethel the HP in 2003. God, I love Moore's Law as it applies to my personal electronics. (Yes, you do deduce correctly from these data that the desktop is named Phred and the Zune is named Ginger. Because dancy! Ahem.)

Item the second: my climbing is getting better. My strength/weight ratio still sucks, but it sucks less (not because I've lost any weight: rather, I continue to gain slowly, though perhaps I have topped out around 245, and maybe now that my body has built a completely unreasonable amount of muscle (I've gained twenty pounds in the last ten months while dropping a shirt size and half a jeans size) it will consent to giving up some of the dead weight. Anyway, it's on cereal, sandwiches, soup, and salads until further notice... and maybe the occasional cookie. Because dammit, I want to climb better still. (The good news is, I have been doing all this work in the equivalent of a sixty pound pack, so if that weight does come off and I get down to a nice sensible 170 or so, I will be flying up those overhangs.)

Anyway, as I was saying, strength, balance, and recovery time are all improving, and I think I'm actually back to what I consider a reasonable level of fitness for the first time since 2001. Yay! I've climbed three days this week--Sunday, Monday, and last night, and still managed to go out for a three mile run this morning, in the driving rain, getting soaked to the skin in my new ugly Prana stretchy shorts. I swear, I am 50% more physically competent in the rain. What's up with that?

I started a 5.8 on Monday--couldn't stick the transition over the lip, but I got up on it, which is more than I have ever done on a 5.8 before, and I'm getting to the point where there are a couple of 5.7s that I can send reliably, though I have to dog on the rope a bit on both of them. (There's another one I'm going to try on Monday--or Saturday, if it's still rainy/wet and we don't get to climb out doors.) Yesterday, I did six routes, if you count the bouldering route I made four tries at before I just said "fuckit" and cheated on the last pusbucketing move, which I cannot quite swing.

...Okay, I also rainbowed a bit on #6, but it has a big mantle move and I was le tired by then. Sewing machine legs and the whole deal. (Rainbowing is when you cheat on a route by using hand/footholds intended for other routes. Mantling is when you have to press down on something at chest level to get your feet up higher: it's hard. Sewing machine legs is.... well, self-explanatory if you have ever seen a sewing machine. *g*)

But that last route I'm still proud of, because I used to thrash terribly on the bottom part, and now I'm sailing up that bit. I think any other gym would call it a 5.8, but Prime Climb is special. Their 5.5s are like 5.6s or easy 5.7s I've climbed in other gyms...

Anyway, visible progress. Which makes me think I may someday attain my goal of being able to do 5.10s. And I have to remember to ice my left elbow and take the NSAIDs today, because I do not want the tendinitis getting worse, thanks.

It's nice having a sport again. It's been a long time. And my last sport did not have couches.

Item the third: Tomorrow I have to revise "The Red in the Sky is Our Blood." And do laundry.  Saturday is climbing and maybe late lunch at Tapas with The Jeff and Alisa and Tanya. Sunday, to Fall River for an AD&D game. Monday, nose to the grindstone again, as my post-Readercon recovery is pretty much over by then and I have Deadlines To Hit.

Today I am having a goof-off and play with computers day, and then I am going to archery. It has occurred to me that in other jobs, you get, you know, days off. And that maybe I should look into that idea.

Item the fourth: Lone Star Stories, the 'zine with the fastest turnaround time on the block, will be publishing my maudlin Tam Lin poem "Seven Steeds," which some of you may remember from when I posted the very rough draft to this blog last year.

Item the fifth: Dora Goss is smrt.


...I really love this little computer.

64 miles to Lothlorien.

I bring you Recorded Books versions of Carnival (available now) and Undertow (coming the day after my birthday. What a fine present!).

Dust will be along eventually, or so I hear, since I just had a phone call with a lovely man yesterday about the pronunciations of the names in the book.

Looking back at my to-do list (previous post) it occurs to me that the whole point of getting the dratted deadline for Chill moved (it looks now as if it will be published for Fall 2009, so never fear; it is not being pushed back a full year) was so I could take some time off from novels and let my brain regrow.

Yes, Bear. Your inner compulsive workaholic is fooling you again. Take a chill pill and actually let the fallow period be, yanno, kind of fallow. Writing is a self-exhaustive act, and you need to remember that you can't go full-bore all the time.

...besides, there are all these short things I need to finish, and I should finish them.

I am amusing myself by making to-do lists. This is generally a sign that I am not actually yet ready to begin work on any of these projects, but I have recovered enough from the post-novella ennui (the bits of brain I cut off to put in Seven for a Secret and "The Red in the Sky is Our Blood" have not yet grown back, green and bushy.) to feel as if I ought to be working. Still, yesterday was productively spent on book sale stuff, and today, so far, has been much the same. I suspect that probably counts as enough worklike stuff for thse days, though I am going to take a crack at fixing that poem tonight.

How weird, to be working on a poem again after all these years.

I wonder if it's catching.


2008

Revise the mopy Tam Lin poem. Hey, I could do that today and it would be like work.
Revise "The Red in the Sky is Our Blood"
Revise Bone and Jewel Creatures
Write "The Tricks of London"
Write "Mongoose" with truepenny (started)
Finish Chill
Write "Smile" (Bone Garden) (started)
Write "Snow Dragons"
Write "The Horrid Glory of its Wings"
Write S2 Shadow Unit episodes (looks like 2.5 right now, unless stuff changes.)


2009

Rewrite The Sea thy Mistress
Shadow Unit S3
Write Grail

Heads-up.

Janis Ian is going to be on All Things Considered on NPR tonight, for those of you who are fans.

Guys, when you send money, you really do need to put your identifying information and what book/s you ordered in the comment field, or (unless I can figure it out from the amount) I have no way of knowing who you are!!!

(Previous link redacted, as the poor eggs were getting overviewed!)

I am playing a silly game involving social networking and dragon eggs. Basically, the idea is for people to click on the images above, which helps keep the eggs and/or hatchlings warm and nourished until they can grow into adult dragons.

Yeah, I know. Humor me. *g*

Fine Print!

Books are sold signed and/or personalized, at cover price plus (for mass market paperbacks) $4.00 shipping and handling per each book within the US, $10.00 shipping and handling over international boundaries--for trade paperbacks and hardcovers, this will be $6.00/$11.00, respectively. This covers the cost of packaging as well as shipping, and paypal's cut of the proceeds, and seems roughly equitable with what used book retailers charge.

To purchase a book or set of books, please comment on this entry with your name and the books you would like to reserve. Because I have limited quantities of each title, this is strictly first come, first served.

I will reply to your comment to let you know how much money to paypal, and to what address. When paying, please include your real name, a list of what you have purchased, and your shipping address in the comments section of the paypal form.

Okay, here we go.

Currently on offer:

Twelve copies of the hardcover first edition, first printing of A Companion to Wolves, $30.95 shipped within the USA.

ARCs are "advance reading copies," which is to say bound galley proofs of the book, usually without cover art. They often contain errors that will be corrected in proof, and are not for sale--they're giveaway copies. However, several of my publishers either sent me more ARCs than I could get rid of, or unloaded a bunch of leftovers on me after the book was published, so I have some spares.

One ARC of A Companion to Wolves, which I will sell for cover price of the book, so $30.95 shipped within the USA

Three ARCs of Whiskey and Water, which I will sell for cover price of the book, so $20.95 shipped within the USA

Three ARCs of Carnival, which I will sell for cover price of the book, so $10.99 shipped within the USA


...and that's everybody.

Fine Print!

Books are sold signed and/or personalized, at cover price plus (for mass market paperbacks) $4.00 shipping and handling per each book within the US, $10.00 shipping and handling over international boundaries--for trade paperbacks and hardcovers, this will be $6.00/$11.00, respectively. This covers the cost of packaging as well as shipping, and paypal's cut of the proceeds, and seems roughly equitable with what used book retailers charge.

To purchase a book or set of books, please comment on this entry with your name and the books you would like to reserve. Because I have limited quantities of each title, this is strictly first come, first served.

I will reply to your comment to let you know how much money to paypal, and to what address. When paying, please include your real name, a list of what you have purchased, and your shipping address in the comments section of the paypal form.

Okay, here we go.

Currently on offer:

Five copies of the hardcover first edition of New Amsterdam (out of print!), $31.00 shipped within the USA.

Five copies of the sold-out, seriously out of print, limited-edition trade hardcover collector's edition of New Amsterdam (these are not numbered copies, being outside of the regular sequence of the edition, and I will figure out something to do on the title page to distinguish them from the regular run of the limited edition. Possibly a fingerprint or something) with associated chapbook of a related short story about Abby Irene before she met Sebastien. These will be shipped insured, so the shipping will cost a little more, but given the price of the edition, it doesn't seem like a significant chunk of change, somehow. $210.00 shipped within the USA.

(I am hanging on to a few copies of this against future need, or to give away as auction items for Worthy Causes.)

Nineteen copies of the first printing of the trade-paperback reprint of New Amsterdam, $20.95 shipped within the USA.

And, if we happen to run through those, 

Fourteen copies of the second printing of the trade-paperback reprint of New Amsterdam, $20.95 shipped within the USA.

Next post, A Companion to Wolves and some ARCs!...

Fine Print!

Books are sold signed and/or personalized, at cover price plus (for mass market paperbacks) $4.00 shipping and handling per each book within the US, $10.00 shipping and handling over international boundaries--for trade paperbacks and hardcovers, this will be $6.00/$11.00, respectively. This covers the cost of packaging as well as shipping, and paypal's cut of the proceeds, and seems roughly equitable with what used book retailers charge.

To purchase a book or set of books, please comment on this entry with your name and the books you would like to reserve. Because I have limited quantities of each title, this is strictly first come, first served.

I will reply to your comment to let you know how much money to paypal, and to what address. When paying, please include your real name, a list of what you have purchased, and your shipping address in the comments section of the paypal form.

Okay, here we go.

Currently on offer:

Two copies of the trade paperback first printing of Blood and Iron: A Novel of the Promethean Age, $20.00 shipped within the USA.

Twenty-five copies of the trade paperback first printing of Whiskey and Water: A Novel of the Promethean Age, $20.00 shipped within the USA.

Next post, New Amsterdam!...

Fine Print!

Books are sold signed and/or personalized, at cover price plus (for mass market paperbacks) $4.00 shipping and handling per each book within the US, $10.00 shipping and handling over international boundaries--for trade paperbacks and hardcovers, this will be $6.00/$11.00, respectively. This covers the cost of packaging as well as shipping, and paypal's cut of the proceeds, and seems roughly equitable with what used book retailers charge.

To purchase a book or set of books, please comment on this entry with your name and the books you would like to reserve. Because I have limited quantities of each title, this is strictly first come, first served.

I will reply to your comment to let you know how much money to paypal, and to what address. When paying, please include your real name, a list of what you have purchased, and your shipping address in the comments section of the paypal form.

Okay, here we go.

Currently on offer:

Sixteen copies of the mass market paperback first printing of Undertow, $10.99 shipped within the USA.

Twenty-six copies of the mass market paperback first printing of  Dust, $10.99 shipped within the USA.

Twenty-seven copies of the mass market paperback reprint of  Blood and Iron: A Novel of the Promethean Age, $11.99 shipped within the USA.

One copy of the March 2008 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction, containing my story "Shoggoths in Bloom," classed for purposes of this sale as a MMPB. $8.99 shipped within the USA.

Three copies of Subterranean #5, containing my novella "Lucifugous," with totally! awesome! Tim Truman art, classed for purposes of this booksale as a hardcover, $12.00 shipped within the USA.</a>

Four copies of Subterranean #6, containing my novella "Limerent," classed for purposes of this booksale as a hardcover, $12.00 shipped within the USA.


Next post, trade paperbacks of the Promethean Age books...

For those of you who missed the previous announcement, I am selling books. Because I have a lot of books. I mean, a lot of books. Boxes of them. And I would like that bookshelf back.

Also, I just bought a new laptop to replace my five year old HP refurb, which has become unreliable, and selling books will help pay for that.

Fine Print!

Books are sold signed and/or personalized, at cover price plus (for mass market paperbacks) $4.00 shipping and handling per each book within the US, $10.00 shipping and handling over international boundaries--for trade paperbacks and hardcovers, this will be $6.00/$11.00, respectively. This covers the cost of packaging as well as shipping, and paypal's cut of the proceeds, and seems roughly equitable with what used book retailers charge.

To purchase a book or set of books, please comment on this entry with your name and the books you would like to reserve. Because I have limited quantities of each title, this is strictly first come, first served.

I will reply to your comment to let you know how much money to paypal, and to what address. When paying, please include your real name, a list of what you have purchased, and your shipping address in the comments section of the paypal form.

Okay, here we go.

Currently on offer:

Two sets of the Jenny Casey books in mass market paperback (the only edition that exists)--Hammered, Scardown, and Worldwired. The copies of Hammered I have are third printing; the other two books are first printing. Each set is $32.97 shipped in the USA.

One orphaned copy of Worldwired, first edition, $10.99 with shipping in the USA.

Fourteen copies of the mass market paperback first edition of Carnival. Each copy is $10.99 shipped within the USA.

Two copies of Realms: The First Year of Clarkesworld Magazine, which is a trade paperback anthology containing my story "Orm the Beautiful," along with many other fine works of fiction. $19.95 shipped within the USA.

Eleven copies of my first collection, The Chains that you Refuse, including twenty-odd early stories and a poem. $20.95 shipped within the USA

Next post, Undertow and Dust.

• You've probably already seen this elsewhere, but Tor.com, the new flagship internet presence of SFF's hippest-to-technology publisher, is live. It includes a gang blog by editors and others, short fiction by John Scalzi and Charles Stross (among others--eventually including yours truly). Total. Destination. Internets.
• Speaking of destination internets, there's new Shadow Unit this morning. While you sleep, the web ghouls are working.
• Also, if you haven't already, feel free to drop by the forums and join in the conversations. Many of them are good conversations.
• I am home from Readercon, where a grand time as had. stillnotbored is on the road, home to her cats. stillsostrange and truepenny are still sacked out, but I must start shaking people out of bed shortly because truepenny's flight leaves before lunchtime. Every flat surface in this tiny apartment was covered with sleeping monkeys last night. The Presumptuous Cat approves.
• After truepenny leaves, stillsostrange and I might go see a movie to kill time before her flight. I chauff! I am a chauffeur!
• Speaking of the PC, she has been to visit grandma and the dogs, and survived to tell the tale.
• The tiny lime tree in the kitchen has been divested of its ginormous limes, and seems much happier. Also, the limes were tasty. (Home-grown limes > supermarket limes.)
• Tomorrow, I have to start acting like I work for a living again. I'm actually looking forward to it, which is a good sign. Work! It beats the alternative!
• God, it is good to be home. My back is looking forward to sleeping in its own bed tonight.

 

Various conversations around the con, with booksellers and others, and a little online detective work have led me to believe that the reason that Ink & Steel isn't (a) appearing on bookstore shelves and (b) selling in reasonable quantities, despite fabulous reviews, is that it's not in the order system at a certain major industry distributor under my name or the title, though it can be located by ISBN.

So, I guess Monday we get to see if this can be sorted out, or if we're going to lose the series over what amounts to a data entry error.

Yes, the life of a writer really is this perilous. (No, I'm not terribly frantic about this. Yet. There are a lot of ways this can break, and many of them might wind up proving beneficial to my career in the long run.)

In the mean time, what you can do--you know, if you are so moved--is if you want a copy of Ink & Steel, and you cannot find it at your local bookstore, write down the ISBN (978-0451462091), go in with it, and ask them to order that book. You might also point out that it's third in a series and there's a computer glitch at work, and thus the book is not being auto-ordered. If you felt like it, I mean.

I have the best job on Earth, baby.

Five things make a post, right?

1) There's new Shadow Unit content, as is traditional for Friday mornings.

2) I'm at Readercon, and have kind of a packed schedule today. Hope to see some of you here. I'll be doing a talk about Dust today, and a reading, and so on.

3) I went climbing at the Boston Rock Gym with truepenny, cristalia, stillsostrange, and kayselkiemoon last night. (Well, Amanda and I didn't get to climb all that much, as we are the ones who can belay, but still.) Fun was had, a new gym was checked out, nobody got dropped on their head. Success all around, I'd say! There are some wonderful tricky walls there, and the ratings aren't as hard as at my home gym. There's a 5.7+ that I would love to keep working on, and a 5.7 that I'm really sad I did not get to try.

4) It's looking more and more like Roc will not be picking up any more Promethean Age books, as apparently sales of the MMPB of Blood & Iron are not what they would like (though I've seen the Bookscan numbers and they looked reasonably healthy to me; but I'm not the guy with the checkbook), and Ink & Steel is also not looking to crack any best-seller lists. So if you want copies of the Stratford Man books, now would be a good time to buy/order/pre-order them, because I cannot guarantee there will ever be a mass market paperback edition, and they may get hard to find. (Book two, as you know, will be out August 5th, and may be appearing in brick and mortar stores a little in advance of that date.)

Well, it's not like I don't have enough other work to keep me busy.... and you never know, a miracle may occur (Oprah picks up Kit and Will for the book club? Nah....) or another publisher may take over the series, though that has the potential to create mad backlist confusion.

5) I am still reading Brasyl, which is a brilliant book. And which also teaches me why we put exposition and transitions and white space in books, because this thing is dense and totally written to the "run and try to keep up" standard. ianmcdonald's "You must be as tall as this sign to ride this ride" is somewhere up there, but I am stretching to reach it, because the book is totally worth the climb. (I read some of it in the hot tub this morning.)

5.5) Yay, hot tub!

We can has mass market pub dates! Yay!

If Amazon can be trusted (I always here these things from them first,) the mass-market paperback of A Companion to Wolves goes on sale July 29th. [Mysterious Galaxy order link] This means, if the pattern holds true, it might be turning up in brick and mortar stores any minute now.

Also, it appears that a MMPB edition of Whiskey & Water is in the works for January. Fantastical!

Me, I spent the morning cleaning my apartment and fussing with the under-desk wiring (which appears, dear me, to still need more duct tape). Also, did laundry in preparation for ReaderCon--where I will be doing a talk, a panel, a kaffeeklatch, and a trio of readings--one all me and two with anthologymates. Also hanging around in the bar, playing Mafia, attending the Kirk Poland, gorging myself on the annual pilgrimage to The Summer Shack, and going climbing.

I even subjected the poor cat to the Robot Monster, and have what passes for a clean floor around here. Somehow, I feel like I should have done more, but this is vacation, right? And there will be climbing tonight.

truepenny and I have been touring the wilds of Connecticut for the past week--we've been to the Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe Houses--apparently the Twain House is hurting for money, currently, if you are looking for a tax deduction--and Bushnell Park, for the carousel and stuff. Yesterday we did the Mystic thing, visiting the aquarium and seaport. Whaling ships! Steller sea lions! Clam rolls! Life is good.

If you think I'm studiously ignoring the latest idiocy from the Department of Health and (in)Human(e) Services... I sent a letter this morning. If you wanted to, you could send an email here.

Not that, you know, these guys listen.

In fannish news, the oh-so-awesome Mr. Wil Wheaton, noted writer and blogger, will be appearing on Criminal Minds. woot!

truepenny and I went climbing last night with the mighty Alisa and The Jeff. Mostly, I did fairly easy routes I have done before--though I was much less mighty than I was last Wednesday, probably in part because Sarah and I walked about eight miles on Sunday and then I went running yesterday morning because it was actually cool for a change (OK, it's also cool right now, but I promised the meat a day off today and anyway we will likely be hiking all over Mystic later this morning. Poor meat. It leads such a strenuous existence. Really, it would have preferred to have been issued to a couch potato).--but in addition, I've also started working on my gym's easiest bouldering route.*

Which has an overhang (bitch) and I am not yet strong enough to make the last move and also still scared of falling off the top of the wall, so I'm not yet very good at making myself try. Getting that right hand to unlatch from the hold it's clinging to desperately when the crash pad is twelve feet under your butt and the next hold requires a great big lunge on awkwardly-positioned feet to get to, and you're, you know, mostly upside-down... it's a little challenging to the lizard brain.

But if I fall off it enough I will get unscared, right?

I wish I had discovered this sport when I was fourteen. Well, I mean, I did some bouldering when I was twelve, thirteen, but it was very informal stuff. I still like top rope better than bouldering; bouldering is all about the upper body strength and the explosive power, and I am (a) a girl and (b) stocky and (c) fat and (d) old, things which collectively make it all the more difficult (Guys like bouldering. Especially skinny guys). Also, bouldering is over too damned fast. You try, you fall, you lie there and pant for a while and you try again. Peak effort, very quickly.

I like the more extended effort of top roping, and I also like that you can keep coming back at a problem if you're not sticking it, because you know, you fall, you fall two or three feet, and then you just have to scramble back up to the hard bit.

But the whole rock-climbing thing in general, I would like to have been doing for many more years than I have been.

It's hard and it's rewarding in all the same ways writing is, in that it's a problem-solving activity and it's all about cowboying up and finishing things that sometimes seem much bigger than you. With the additional joy of hard sharp physical activity.

But both things are all about pushing your limits and developing technique, and it seems like an awful lot of what I learn in either field is applicable to the other. You get better through practice, and you get joy through getting better. It's a meditation.

*Dude, check out the elaborate punctuation on that baby

Another thing I have learned over the years is that sometimes you can't jump right in and write a story when you have the first inkling of what it's about.

Sometimes, it helps to write down some notes and then stick them in a file and wait until they set deep roots.

You can always add more notes, after all, as they occur. It's like fertilizing the plant.

Apparently, we have entered the phase of post-novel ennui where we do nothing but play Chuzzle and feel useless. I'm also trying to read Brasyl, but having a heck of a time focusing on anything that feels too much like work. This is, of course, a normal part of my cognitive process, and how the recovery thing works. The left brain, lazy slacker that it is, demands time to think about stuff. And since I am currently trying to rearrange my life to give it that sabbatical, I should probably take advantage of it and grab the break while I can.

It's hard for me to remember that the to-do list is never going to get any shorter, you see, and no matter how fast I run I am never going to be finished with it. (Well, I hope not, anyway, because if I am, I need to find a new career.)

So, like Travis McGee, I have to learn to take my retirement in pieces.

One thing about this while writing gig that's challenging is that it's all such intense work. It's self-exhaustive, and I also tend to find people kind of self-exhaustive (I'm used to being alone a lot of the time, and being around people tires me out) and there have been a lot of people this summer. Which is NOT a bad thing, by any means. But it does mean that I feel like I've boiled kind of low, and I probably need to top off again. No matter how good your work ethic, creative work isn't exactly always as amenable to the same kinds of push-through as some of the jobs I've had answering phones, digging ditvches, and so forth.

Which does not excuse one from applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair, mind you, and getting the damned work done.

However, I need to acknowledge to myself that some of this other stuff--conventions, nonfiction, blogging, page proofs, copy-edited manuscripts, research, the works--that's work, too. And it's work that needs to be done, and which can't always happen in the cracks around writing frantically for every waking moment of the day.

A little generosity to yourself, Bear. It doesn't hurt.

So I'm going to give myself a little time. I have got some revisions to get through after Readercon, on "The Red in the Sky is Our Blood," but other than that, we'll take it easy for a little while. I will probably start trying to do four pages or four hours a day again after Readercon, but we'll try for a sustainable pace raher than a huge crush.

In honor of that, my current to-do list.

2008

Revise "The Red in the Sky is Our Blood"
Write chapbook short for Bill.
Revise Bone and Jewel Creatures
Finish Chill
Revise One-Eyed Jack and the Suicide King
Write S2 Shadow Unit episodes (looks like 2.5 right now, unless stuff changes.)
Write "Mongoose" with truepenny (started)
Write "Smile" (started)
Write "Snow Dragons"

2009

Rewrite The Sea thy Mistress
Write Patience & Fortitude
Shadow Unit S3
Write Grail.

The KGB fantastic fiction reading series (in which I have in the past participated) is holding a raffle to support its continued existence. Tickets are available starting today through the 28th.

Complete rules here.

Purchase raffle tickets and view prizes here. 

The prizes, I have to say, are pretty darned cool, and include everything from Neil Gaiman's autographed keyboard to short story critiques to hand-made jewelry.

Really. This is awesome. Go look.

We bring you more Shadow Unit over-hiatus extras!!

( Books read so far, 2008 )

Escape Pod offers a free audio reprint of my story "The Something-Dreaming Game," originally published in Fast Forward (Pyr Books 2007, Lou Anders, ed). This version is read by Mur Lafferty, which makes it twice as cool.

---

78.5 miles to Lothlorien. Made it past the cave troll. Lost Gandalf to Balrog. 1 mile to Durin's stone.

Shadow Unit over Hiatus, part the Fourth.

Green Man Review offers a complimentary (and spoilery! No, really really spoilery! review of Ink & Steel and Hell & Earth.

Go read David Moles' fine, fine story "Finisterra."

Because really. Just wow.

Well, after losing Wednesday and Monday's climbing, more or less, to menstrual incompetence (I don't get cranky and I don't get bad cramps, but I do lose 50% of my pain tolerance and upper body strength, and forget stamina, courage, and coordination. /TMI), I kind of kicked ass tonight. Only four walls, but I sailed up a long 5.6 which I've always had to pause on before, and kind of kicked ass on two 5.7s which I have in tha past struggled with. The other was a 5.5 which has a tricky bit I will someday get past without wiping out on. I like that climb; it's a 5.5, but it's a fun 5.5, not a boring straightaway.

In short, I did better on everything than I have before, and also, really good endorphins.

This improves the fact that I apparently have inflamed tendons in my left arm, and am on NSAIDs and icepacks until further notice.

Yay, icepacks.

Toby essentially says everything that I've been thinking about the current fuss over yet another bile-o-gram from the editor of Helix, this one sent in a "professional" capacity. When you have behaved in a contemptible fashion, it's beyond contemptible and into pathetic to claim that nobody should have called you on it. 

Also, just as a point of order? The question of the right to reprint the contents of letters, especially for purposes of comment or criticism, is an open one. The moral of the story? Don't say it if you don't want it heard.

Really, this kind of nonsense makes me embarrassed for my genre. Which is why I feel the need to comment on this issue, rather than shunning it, the way I tend to shun everything related to Mr. Sanders.

Because I feel it's important to make it plain that not everybody in the SFF community is willing to suffer hearing this kind of blatant racism in silence.

Okay. I've figured out how I'm going to handle the book sale*. Which will commence after Readercon, I think, because the next two weeks are just too damned busy.

Basically, what I will do is put up a post for each book or set of books announcing how many copies of each I have to get rid of send off to good homes. And they'll go to those who comment-and-paypal, first-come first-served. Cost will be cover price plus $5.00 shipping and handling anywhere in the world.

I think the only payment option I'm offering is paypal, right now, because really it's all I can swing without fussing, and the goal is not to fuss.

NB: I do not yet have any copies of Ink & Steel or Hell & Earth to unload, because large boxes of same have not yet turned up on my doorstep, but it's only a matter of time. I have at least a couple of copies of everything else, and even some leftover ARCs, for people who like those.

And then I will have an entire four foot bookcase back!

*(which may also be the buy-Bear-a-new-laptop sale, as the 5-year-old HP refurb I have been happily using since 2003 is reaching the end of its lifespan, and also is awfully heavy).

Good news all around!

(1) Since it's in the newspaper, I guess I am allowed to talk about this now. David Moles and I will be sharing the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best short science fiction work in 2007. I'm deeply honored by this, and very sad that I couldn't be there. (I wanted to, very much, but the travel and work schedule... was already topped out.)

(2) Blood & Iron ebook. Yay!

Or: Why Poul Anderson rocks my socks.

For most of its being, mankind did not know what things are made
of, but could only guess. With the growth of worldken, we began
to learn, and today we have a beholding of stuff and work that
watching bears out, both in the workstead and in daily life.

The underlying kinds of stuff are the *firststuffs*, which link
together in sundry ways to give rise to the rest. Formerly we
knew of ninety-two firststuffs, from waterstuff, the lightest and
barest, to ymirstuff, the heaviest. Now we have made more, such
as aegirstuff and helstuff....

(Yes, I know it's not new. But I just had reason to look it up, and I bet there are a bunch of people who read this who have not seen it, and some are language and/or science geeks. Though I am going to go out on a limb and guess that mrissa knew about it already.)

My Storytellers Unplugged column for today. "Think about what you're doing, not how you're doing it."

Shadow Unit: "Vigil"  Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. (more to follow)

---

Right. So that's done. What next?

2008
Revise "The Red in the Sky is Our Blood" (this week or next.)
Write chapbook short for Bill.
Revise Bone and Jewel Creatures
Finish Chill (real damned soonish, now, I hope)
Revise One-Eyed Jack and the Suicide King
Write S2 Shadow Unit episodes (looks like 2.5 right now, unless stuff changes.)
Write Boojumverse horror collab with truepenny
Write "Smile"
Write "Snow Dragons"

2009
Rewrite The Sea thy Mistress
Write Patience & Fortitude (if it sells.)
Shadow Unit S3

2016 words on Seven for a Secret today, for a completed submission draft, and I just sent it in.

Boys and girls, it's time for a nice glass of something bad for my liver. And a couple naproxen, because my back has just announced its feelings about me being in this chair since 7 am this morning.

Whew.

Here's a spoiler page in which you can talk about (or ask me questions about) Ink & Steel.

All right, novella. Tonight, either you go down, or I do.

*rolls up sleeves and makes a pot of tea*

( Books read so far, 2008 )

Due to an embarrassment of riches caused by seriously underestimating the size of the internet, we're stepping up the release schedule for the over-hiatus Shadow Unit content. Rather than twice a month, we will be posting new content twice a week, because it seemed like making everybody (including us) wait through December for the last of the content was silly and mean (in both senses of the word).

So from tonight through the middle of August, we'll be posting new content twice a week: a new scene every Thursday night and Sunday night.

As Emma says, Are we crazy? Crazy like a platypus, baby.

from cmpriest:

Students in the Clarion West writers’ workshop are not having a particularly joyful Independence Day, I fear. Someone broke into the house where they’re staying (a sorority house in the U-district, I believe) and stole four laptops, some clothes, and possibly some other items; the damage is still being tallied.

Her post continues with a request for assistance and some other information. Please read it, and make any comments there.

For anybody who wants to read them in August, Fantasy Book Critic is doing a giveaway for three sets of Ink & Steel and Hell & Earth.

Go forth, and register!

( The unfinished novel meme... with bonus list of books that may never get written at all, and two bonus novellas )

The restlessness has hit, though alas the brain has obviously not fully regenerated yet. Which is to say, I really would like to be working--I'm fretful and bored and want to be creating things--but right now I have a first draft of "The Red in the Sky is Our Blood" and a second draft of Seven for a Secret and I have two-thirds of the first draft of Chill written, and they should really all be being worked on... but the inside of my skull is itching in that way that tells me that I need to let them sit and grow a little bit longer, until they present me with the answers to the dilemmas I've built into them.

This is the left-brain/right brain portion of the process.

Right now, what I'm doing ("I" in this case means that portion of my brain, the tippy top of the left neocortex, which thinks of itself as I and uses language and manipulates linear deductive logic) is waiting while all the other bits of my brain--which are also I, but do not think of themselves that way, and do not communicate in the kind of symbols that the portion of me that calls itself I finds congenial and easy to comprehend--sort out how the tricky bit of the story--the part that is currently represented by "And then a miracle occurs"--goes. When they've done that, they'll communicate the answer to me, and I'll sit down and write the last few bits of prose and be amazed at how simple that was, once I thought of it.

Hopefully maybe something back there is working on Chill, too, because I'd like it in the last part of the book grew soon, as I have to (you see) write it. And stuff. Right now, it's really waiting for it to ripen, so I can write something I can be proud of instead of barely-competent hackwork. 

You know, it's true. You can't wait for inspiration to strike. You have to be able to get down there in the trenches and slog through the words even when it's not flying along, because that's part of what being a professional means. But you also need to know when to give yourself a little time and room, to let things cook. Because it's possible to outrun your creativity, and at that point, you just have to wait until the fruit is ripe before you can eat it and not get sick. Sometimes this means setting limits on what the industry will demand from you. And sometimes it means setting limits on what you yourself will demand from you.

And the funny thing is, sometimes one fruit will ripen before another, even though both seem to be getting the same amount of sun. You can never really tell. It's just poking them until they smell right.

In the meantime, though, maybe what I need is a nap. Or a map. Or both.

( Books read so far, 2008 )

---

Walked 4.5 miles this morning, so I am 90.5 miles from Lothlorien.

SF Mind Meld joins the gender equity in short fiction slapfight, including some comments from me.

Mr. Brust is watching reruns of Shadow Unit.

And Penguin's SFF website features The Iron Hunt, Saturn's Children, Lord of Bones, and Ink & Steel this week. And also hosts my essay on the writing of the book and its sequel.

The internets are full of things. Like an article on proposed giant Kelpie sculptures by Andy Scott, the artist of The Heavy Horse, which would form a fully functional part of the Scottish canal network.

Now this is civil engineering.

Although the Kelpie legend does talk of the mythical creatures luring seafarers into the water, British Waterways is quick to point out that anyone travelling through the boat lift will be given a small bridle which according to legend would tame the creature and allow safe passage.

(original tip from kelliem)

So about that secrit projekt I've been working on--the one for which I am writing "The Red in the Sky is Your Blood."

Now it can be told.

Or, to steal a little of Scalzi's writeup:

Right now the project has the working title of Metatropolis, although that’s likely to change before it makes its