Paksworld

Yes, it’s true…faced with the need to dig through paper and computer records (or face the IRS later)  I slacked off on the writing yesterday to try to wrestle my credit card records into printable form.

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Diana Wynne Jones died (of lung cancer, the stories say.)    For reasons that aren’t really that important, she’s another YA author whose work I first ran into as an over-40s adult, and immediately fell for, and sought after, and read and re-read.   Her books made me laugh, scowl, worry…I don’t remember if I ever actually cried while reading one, but my breath came short and I had to turn pages really fast sometimes.    That, to me, is one of the signs of a good book–as being re-readable many times is another.   Her books were certainly re-readable.

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As mentioned, I’m incredibly busy right now, and do not have time to answer many questions or all comments.    I must spend at least two hours a day on the music.   More if I’m still having problems by Saturday.   Orchestra rehearsals start next week and I will have rehearsals Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and then the performance Saturday and two services to sing Sunday.  Plus the rest of the things that must be done, including writing-business stuff, home stuff, and work on the new book.

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Where I am, that is, it’s two minutes past midnight.   (And now I’m supposed to go to sleep…!!!  Like that’s going to happen before I get past the it’s here, it’s here!! buzz.)

Outside, the leopard frogs in the water garden are making their low-pitched mating calls, and a cool breeze is blowing in the window beside me.   There’s a gecko on the  window-screen hoping some moth will come to the light and become dinner.    The wind in the trees is has changed its sound because the trees are beginning to leaf out and also have seeds (oak pollen’s high right now but doesn’t bother me.)   The frogs just stopped calling…I suspect something’s out there near the pond (most likely cat or raccoon–we have both around at night.)

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The first arrivals I heard of were actually last week, in Sweden and then in The Netherlands.   But several more showed up today, including one in my state, Texas (S.Z.  in Houston emailed  that he’d bought one in a bookstore.)   By authorial decree (picture me holding up a fancy scroll and reading from it)  I hereby declare that arrival notices are not spoilers, even though they may add to the frustration of those who haven’t yet received their copy.

That’s selfish, by the way, because I want to hear more about where the books are, and report the distribution stuff to my agent.  So if you don’t want to, don’t, but if you do, you’ll be contributing to the knowledge base.

Yes, I’m having one today.  It’s a double-digit, divisible by 2 and 3 and 11 and 22 and 33, which makes it a very fun number.   Rather playful.   Twice the age at which hobbits become adults (I should ask the friend who reminded me, on my 33rd, that if I were a hobbit I’d now be an adult.  “Am I?” I asked.  “No,” she said after looking me over carefully.  “You must be an elf.”   Needless to say, she and I are still friends.   I think I’ll ask her again today.)

However, that’s not the point of this, exactly.  The point of this is to consider character birthdays, name-days, etc. and hear what your ideas are about the best (or most interesting) birthday celebrations in books.   Right off the bat there’s Bilbo’s (I know, you were all leaning toward that one, but the birthday girl has one prerogative…)  But what other literary book-birthdays have struck you as being done right.   No restrictions on genre or age-range or anything…let’s enlarge the celebration.

What do you read when you’re sick in bed?    I had some long illnesses as a child, and since I started reading very early,  reading while confined to bed was always part of the day.   My mother could chart my fever by how fast I read, whether I put the book down and closed my eyes, etc.  (She preferred a thermometer, though, having trained as a nurse.)   Among the signs I learned to watch for in myself was reading the same page over and over. Read the rest of this entry »

You were supposed to get another blog post yesterday, but I was flat in bed for the second day with a high fever.   Today I’m well  enough to spend a little time at the computer (how much will depend on whether the fever comes back.)    I’ll try to answer comments today in all my online locales but not sure I’ll get to them all, and you’re probably going to be short a blog post or two.

However, my UK editor confirmed that today is release day for Kings of the North in the UK.    Would love to hear where it’s spotted first!

The morning began with the discovery (not unexpected by me!) that the dozen or so ants on the counter yesterday had become a superhighway of ants along the edge of the counter, up the wall, and into one of the cabinets.  They had also constructed a network of smaller routes on the counter itself.  Some of them had crossed the Great Chasm between counter and stove top, with the result that the sugar bowl (these are sugar ants, much to be preferred if you must have ants) had ants in it.

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It took longer than it should have, thanks to getting sick (at which point my brain goes duuhhhhhhh… and can’t see the sense in a sentence) but Editor Revisions are second-run done.  Now to see if Editor agrees with what I’ve done with what she did.

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