Paksworld

I think–I hope–this won’t be a spoiler at all.  It’s from Book IV, not Echoes,  but it doesn’t reveal anything too…spoilerish.  I hope.  And after all, it might disappear in editing.

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A-Kon was interesting, fun, challenging, and huger than I’d expected, silly me.   I did not manage to get online even once, nor do any writing, so now I’m officially behind my own (sculpted for such occasions) schedule and must dive into work.    One five-day chunk of wiggle-room is gone.  (Four of those and a month of wiggle-room is gone.)

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This Thursday I take off again, this time on a shorter train trip to A-Kon in Dallas.  A-Kon is technically within driving distance, but driving up I-35 from here and then trying to negotiate Dallas traffic is no way to arrive at a convention with the energy left to engage.  Hence, the train.   I’m going up on Thursday, back on Monday.    My friend Lee Martindale (writer, editor, and several other hats, including–as of now–publisher)  is launching Ladies of Trade Town at A-Kon, an anthology of stories about, well, the trade.)   I wrote the introduction.   Many of the stories’ authors are coming to the launch, and so am I.  And some other people I’ve been wanting to see.   I’ve never been to A-Kon, so it’ll be a new experience for me.

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From the point of view of Paksworld, the trip produced some interesting pages, and once I’ve pulled them off the thumb drive and entered them into the main file, I’ll have an idea how much I accomplished.  Word 2010, which is on the netbook, is even more annoying than the version of Word on my main work computer, so I will have to undo a lot of unwanted formatting and use the magic four-letter Words of Word-Doom a lot to get it straightened out.

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This evening I’m struggling to dry (somehow) a shirt I meant to wash in the hotel room washbasin Saturday but forgot in a drawer…and now it’s a damp pink lump.  So far the hair dryer has made scant inroads on its dampness (yes, yes, it was rolled in towels before ever being hung up.)   I shouldn’t have washed it.  I should have carried it home dirty.  Sigh.   Nobody bugged Paks about putting a dirty shirt in her pack on the way back from a foray.

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It was an interesting trip, what with floods, weather and all the LifeStuff going on.   Mac-horse pooped abundantly overnight Monday to Tuesday morning,  but vet’s orders had him on a restricted diet for 48 hours after poopage, so my husband had to deal with that, as well as his own medical appointments.   I fell into my train compartment and knew we would have no contact until after his Wednesday appointment, when I’d be in Chicago between trains.   That call was a good news/bad news mix, from his doctors.

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Tuesday morning I board the train and Thursday evening I arrive in Baltimore.  I won’t be posting or emailing then–and will have scant time to do so while at Balticon, probably–and again no time on the way home.  So we’re looking at a ten day hiatus that might be relieved by a post or two somewhere in there–or not, as time often compresses during conventions.

If you’re planning to attend Balticon, I hope to see you there.

Some of you will remember a TV show called “That Was the Week That Was.”  Well, this was that week, only without the laughs.    My husband has a chronic condition, myasthenia gravis.    He has always been a very strong, very active person and not thrilled with the limitations the myasthenia has caused.   So he pushes himself.   Last week, while out on the land moving some boards around, he felt bad–had not felt well for several days–and he suddenly passed out.   He figured hot day, dehydration, maybe salt depletion, and came in and ate some salty stuff and drank a lot of water.

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Copy edits are on the way…and a family member is in the hospital.   So I will be busy elsewhere, probably for the rest of the week and maybe a bit beyond.   Please be patient, and understand that I’m not goofing off (I WISH!  The answer to “Do writers take vacations?” is a hollow laugh.)

Or therapy.    Excuse #1 for spending time with knitting after many years away is that my hands get very sore from typing, and knitting is completely different in the way you use your hands.    Excuse #2 is I wanted something that could be done indoors or out, and taken along when waiting somewhere (traveling, for instance.)  Excuse #3 is that I’d been feeling the need to do something with my hands for others.  Other than family, I mean.

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