Paksworld

There’s this maintenance thing with older bodies.   And one thing my mother told me years ago that’s both true and useful (only one? I hear a mutter from overhead.)   It’s about feet.  Unhappy feet make for unhappy cranky people.   I’ve now been to three conventions wearing only handknit socks.   For A-Kon I had only three pair.   For ArmadilloCon I had four pair.  For WorldCon I had five pair.   It made a huge difference.  Even though my feet swelled badly on a couple of days (hard floors, lots of standing, etc.)  the socks didn’t dig in and make things worse.   I’m hoping to get the sixth pair finished by NYCC, as that will be a longer trip, with fewer opportunities to wash & dry wool socks.  (These are not machine-washable wool socks.)

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Home from ChiCon7 last night, and this morning only a slight residual case of “train legs” (room still feels like it’s swaying slightly).   First load of laundry’s in the machine; second is ready to go.   And right there on the kitchen table is a big box of copy edits for me to go over.    Production has its hooks into Limits of Power now, and when I send the copy edits back, it will be on to the next stage.  But as always, there are deadlines–Production’s deadlines are hard deadlines, the kind that cause a lot of trouble if you miss them, because the next stages of the process have Limits on several other peoples’ schedules–it has a slot, and it has to fall into that slot when it’s supposed to.

Which is why, until the copy edits go back, I will be busier than ever.    Book V did make some progress while I was gone and will get some work even during copy-edit-time,  but the big deal at the moment is getting the copy edits back as quickly as possible.

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A brief post bout why there haven’t been other posts (in other words, an “excuses” post)  and why next week will be blank too–but I promise to prepare a snippet or two and get them off before the next wholly blank week.

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Last Friday, I picked up my gift mountain bike from the bike shop where it had undergone repairs and a severe shortening of the seat post (because my legs are a lot shorter than the legs of the previous owner) and began learning how to ride it.   Since the last time I was on a bike at all was roughly twenty years ago–and only for a few months before that bike needed repairs I couldn’t afford–and before that another 25 year gap to the bike I had in college (much like the bike I’d had as a kid and teenager) there was already a learning curve.    Even if it had been the same kind of bike, there’d have been some wobbly moments early on.  But it wasn’t.

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Sometimes, in the past year, having some knitting to work on has helped me past story tangles.   (So far, writing has not helped me past knitting tangles at all.  Unfair!)   There are similarities.   To make progress on either knitting or writing requires putting one little thing after another: a knit stitch or a purl stitch, a word or a punctuation mark.   Untangling yarn from a badly wound ball (I wish yarn manufacturers would either make good balls or sell it in skeins) is like diving into a story that’s gone immobile and refuses to “come out.”  Read the rest of this entry »

Some persons will be getting emails shortly.

Kindly hold all comments until the Author announces end of Pause.

If you’re not involved, don’t get involved.

If you are involved, you’ll know it.   The flaming owl will drop one on your head.

That is all until later.

Yesterday Jim’s friends gathered to remember his life and spread some of his ashes on a meadow in central Texas.    Jim was a multi-talented man with many interests, generous with his time and skills in helping others, including me.   Jim solved computer glitches.  Jim helped my husband finish building Cloud Pavilion, one of our rain barns that collects water for wildlife on our (dry) property.   Jim designed jigs to help New World Arbalest produce better bolts for their crossbows.   And I heard of many more things Jim did to help others, in the years that I knew him.

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https://youtube.com/watch?v=KgoapkOo4vg%3Frel%3D0

A flash mob performing to “Puttin’ on the Ritz” in Moscow, as it snows slightly.  This is your feel-good moment for the day, and maybe the month.  I could not resist sharing it with you, though I can’t think of anything (other than “It snows in Paksworld”) that connects.

A good friend sent it to me as I switched from work to email, I watched and…enchantment.

Those of you in the romper room…er…spoiler space for speculation…should probably know that all the comments show up in my email and also–when I come here to answer comments in other threads–the main comments display as viewed by the Admin (the hat I was given by having this place.)

So, although I try not to pay any attention to that thread’s comments (and mostly I don’t) sometimes a phrase catches my eye.   And so, without any intent to peek, I’ve peeked here and there (by no means the whole thing.)   My only real concern, folks, is that something might happen to make people unhappy with not just that playroom but the whole space and (worst case) Paksworld itself.    On other threads, we’ve hit on some serious topics as well as fun ones, and occasionally it’s seemed (to me, but being a writer I may be hypersensitive to this) that one or another person is getting upset.   Feelings hurt.  Anger roused.  That sort of thing.

Here, where I’m not reading every comment every day, that could happen and turn into a storm before I’m aware there’s a cloud in the sky.   Was there a cloud in one of the comments that flashed a phrase in my eye before I turned away?   I’m not sure.   I hope not.   Among other things I have a long hard rehearsal for which I should be leaving two minutes ago,  to sing music I don’t like, and I really don’t want to deal with other problems.   So I would ask you all to refrain from painting the playroom walls with…any bodily fluids.    No name-calling, no hair-pulling, no kicking of shins.    Take deep breaths.  Recognize potential friends, not enemies.  If it’s not being fun for you, take a break outside in some fresh air.

Given the music schedule and the work schedule for the next two weeks (extra rehearsals, long hours) I won’t be able to do any more than glance at this place, cross my fingers, and hope to find it all in order when I come back.    However, if one of you has a complaint to file with Admin, please email me directly (link on my website, if you don’t have the email addy already) and I’ll try to resolve the situation.  I value all of you, and your participation, and want it to be a good experience.    And if I’m overreacting to that briefly seen phrase or two,  my apologies for thinking, even for a moment, that you fine adult people might be experiencing any unpleasantness.

(I’m now 7 minutes behind schedule and still don’t have shoes and socks on.  Bye, now.)

Just in case you’re wondering where I am, I’m digging through the computer file line by line, while changing things in accordance with (or similarly to, or in a related way to) Editor’s comments.    I don’t always do *exactly* what Editor advised, because in some cases the exact phrase Editor wanted to change isn’t there now (having been expunged in my own editing earlier) and in other cases I see what I (no doubt arrogantly) think is a better fix to the problem Editor pointed out.   (I’m nearly always agreeing that what Editor points out is indeed something to be pondered and then fixed.)

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