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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.
Last week was difficult with the death of friends, news of the serious illness of others, and the inability to “write through” the bad news. It was “wading in glue” where limbering the mind was concerned, and toward the end we were preparing our son for his dental surgery on Monday. (Which went very well, and he’s now minus four wisdom teeth and recovering up here rather than in the city.)
This week started with the dental surgery and more bad news from/about friends, more idiocy from politicians, and what first seemed to be a cold and turned into a gut thing. We have had rain (too late for some things, just in time for others) which is good, but has raised the mosquito count higher than the toads, frogs, and dragonflies can immediately deal with, and we’re in an area with rising cases of West Nile (not as bad as up near Dallas, but it’s killed someone in this county recently.)
I seem to be OK today, and certainly intend to write like a fiend all day…but you never know.
Next week I leave for ChiCon7 (AKA WorldCon) on the train on Tuesday and won’t return until the foll0wing Wednesday. (For those not familiar, it’s an overnight trip. Better than flying.) If I can persuade the netbook to work, I’ll have (maybe) internet capability. If I can’t, then…no. I have a fairly busy schedule at WorldCon, and discovered yesterday that they’ve added something to the schedule they sent me before. Eeep. Writers’ schedules at a major convention include not only what’s on official programming but the business stuff they’re there for: meetings with agent, editor(s), podcasters, writer groups they’re in, etc. If, like me, they’re associated with the next worldcon committee, and want to help out there, then another several hours are taken up with that.
Anyway…hens’ teeth will be more prominent here than I will for awhile, and I want you all to know it’s not through lack of interest in you, and your conversations (I love many of your conversations!!) but LifeStuff both personal and professional.
Now to clear a space on the floor of the study to put a chair so I can change the light bulbs in here (yes, CFL, and wish it were LEDs!) so writing at night doesn’t mean stumbling over the various messes on the floor as I get from door to desk and back. And then the usual round of chores plus finding you some nice juicy snippets. If possible, I’ll squeeze in a post on craft of writing as well.
Comment by tuppence — August 22, 2012 @ 9:27 am
Please take care of yourself. Life stuff sounds horribly draining. Stay well, both to you and yours.
Comment by Abigail Miller — August 22, 2012 @ 9:30 am
But does the light bulb WANT to change?
(sorry!)
Comment by elizabeth — August 22, 2012 @ 9:36 am
The light bulb has been forced to change. Now there’s light in here (it’s a dark cloudy day and light does make it easier to find specific things in the mess.)
Comment by Jenn — August 22, 2012 @ 10:15 am
Poor light bulb. that was rather oppressive of you.
Sending you prayers for life messes and all.
Comment by Annabel (Mrs Redboots) — August 22, 2012 @ 11:56 am
Sorry Real Life has been hitting you so hard – I hope the Con will be a great antidote. I have never been to a con, and do feel I am lacking something, but I’m not sure that they have them around here.
Comment by Ed Bunyan — August 22, 2012 @ 12:13 pm
Get done what needs to get done, take care of what needs to take care of (that includes taking care of yourself) and we will all be here patiently waiting (without complaint) for when you can get back to snippets and sharing moments with the community.
Take care, recover.
Comment by Kerry aka Trouble — August 22, 2012 @ 12:59 pm
Whilst packing for Chicon, I thought to pack books to have signed by some of the authors who are coming from places I’m not likely to get to very soon. I have an entire box (the kind printer paper comes in)of Elizabeth Moon books – eep!
Comment by patrick — August 22, 2012 @ 3:32 pm
I first met our dear author at a convention where she was the guest of honor about a five years after I had discovered Paks (many years ago).
For all those readers who might never have been to a SF con and wondering how to find them, google can be your friend. Search “fantasy convention ” and you will likely find several possibles. Cons come in all flavors and some may not be to your taste while others will fit very well. They tend to spring up everywhere there is a sizable body of fandom and vary in size from a couple hundred attendees with a handful of organizers to the mammoth cons such as DragonCon or WorldCon which are truly massive and a wonder of logistics.
Next year’s Worldcon is LoneStarCon3 in San Antonio, TX and all of Texas fandom is encouraged to come and volunteer to show our Texas hospitality to our guests. You might guess I’ve already volunteered. From Elizabeth’s comment, I’m guessing she’s also involved in some way.
Cons are great times to meet people with a shared interest and make new friends you can see year after year.
For our British readers, World Fantasy Convention will be in Brighton in Oct/Nov 2013. The one in Austin in 2006 was great and I expect this one to be just as good, but it can sell out early, so make plans in advance if it interests you.
Comment by patrick — August 22, 2012 @ 3:33 pm
Followup: that search “fantasy convention” above was supposed to read “fantasy convention (city near your)”, but html played tricks with my attempt to use angle brackets as a delimiter.
Comment by Iphinome — August 22, 2012 @ 4:09 pm
@Kerry aka Trouble please don’t wear out her ladyship’s hand, I might be in line behind you. 😛 In fact, it would be good if I were in line behind you at the signing session. We can call it Paksworldicon, Lady Moon can be the guest of honor, you can be the fan guest of honor and I’ll be the con member.
*looks at her plastic sword and whimpers* stupid no live steel rule.
@Lady Moon Be well, travel well, may your squires be helpful and may the gods protect you from con crud.
Comment by Ruth — August 22, 2012 @ 11:11 pm
I am going to ChiCon (WorldCon) and looking forward to seeing Elizabeth and getting some of my books autographed. There are a lot of fantasy con’s, many by geographic region, and all are fun, but my favorite is the WorldCon, the grandaddy of all Con’s run by the readers. This year it is in Chicago and next year it is in Austin. It is all volunteer run and it is always a blast. I am already a member for the Austin, TX WorldCon next year.
Comment by Karen — August 23, 2012 @ 4:32 am
Oh, how I envy those of you who are going!
Have a great Con! (but please don’t over-do, favorite authoress — we need you to finish the series and many more books besides!)
Comment by Rolv — August 23, 2012 @ 4:55 am
SAd to hear of the deths and illnessses of yuor friends. No excuses needed. We understand. Blessings and prayers.
Comment by KarenH — August 23, 2012 @ 12:38 pm
I would like to add my best wishes and prayers. Make some time to recharge. It sounds like you need it.
Don’t let political stupidity get to you. It will always be there. I will say that it has been exceedingly stupid this past few days. I am inclined to ask what century Todd Akin is living in. It isn’t the 21st or the 20th (the latter part at least). Maybe he is living in the the 17th century. I think i remember reading that in that time and in some parts of Europe, there was a law that a woman if a woman got pregnant she couldn’t have been raped. There was a belief at that time that a woman couldn’t get pregnant without an orgasm, so if she got pregnant, she had to have had an orgasm so she couldn’t have been raped. I’m sure the lawmakers never asked the women.
Not having lived in Missouri, it is easy to get the opinion that it is a split-personality state while driving on the interstate highways in it. We drove through it last year and aside from the usual motel and restaurant billboards on the interstate, half the billboards were Bible-thumping and rabidly anti-choice. The other half were for sex toy shops. Some times I could see both types together.
I’m not saying don’t pay attention to politics and act accordingly. Just that, if you are like me and tend to obsess about things, try not to. Staying angry is very wearing on the obsessing person and those around her. My mother (an obsessing person) is a good example of the wear and tear she dishes out. She’s on my mind again because I am planning a trip to visit her in a couple of months.
There I go, obsessing.
Comment by Jenn — August 23, 2012 @ 1:49 pm
Yep I second Karen stop listening to politicians it can all be boiled down (on both sides) to:
“I promise to do and say what ever it takes to stay in my office once I am elected.”
Comment by elizabeth — August 23, 2012 @ 3:14 pm
Guys–I’m uncomfortable with being given political advice, esp. when I don’t agree with all of it.
Comment by Richard — August 23, 2012 @ 4:21 pm
Commiserations (or should that be congratulations on a successful operation?) to your son. 4 in one go – ouch!
I have 16 teeth in my bottom jaw but only 14 in my upper – when I was a teenager, my dentist thought my upper teeth might not all fit comfortably so pulled out two perfectly good ones (I think the number 6s) so that the wisdom teeth when they came would emerge freely. Not my real dentist but the practice’s specialist orthodontist. The two teeth were pulled one at a time (a few weeks apart), in the dentist’s chair, and I was sent straight home (which was only 5 minutes walk; I think it was in the school hols). After the second one I woke the next morning with a mouthful of blood but sucking ice-cubes cured that. I then had, for months, a mouth full of hooks (cemented to teeth) and rubber bands to pull the no7s over into the gaps.
I’m sorry to hear you’ve had so much bad news about friends.
Comment by Karen — August 23, 2012 @ 5:44 pm
Dearest Hostess,
I can more than understand how you would not want this space to interfere with your mindspace whence Paksworld originates. I hope Karen H will allow me to say for both of us (since we actually share the same second initial — what’s the chance of that, Karen H? :-D) believe that your politics belong to you, and that any stress we believe we, as readers feel, is part of the world we live in, where people, much like the elves in the current series, aren’t behaving logically, according to the norms we have grown to expect in our own world.
One of the reasons I read science fiction and fantasy (despite the fact that I come from a religious tradition that mistrusts anything but “faction” — my use of an already made-up word for books that seem to be built on reality but are, in fact, built on bias) exits in the levels of truths that are told.
I can clearly remember how old I was when I realized that the two kinds of books — “fiction” and “faction” were actually the same kind of book, only that the latter was less likely to be true.
I was reading an award-winning biography of Dolly Madison (not, necessarily, in all regards to be considered a simple person any more than she was a simpleton), and kept fighting against the idea that she couldn’t have been as pure as the author claimed (she had abandoned her first husband as quickly as she abandoned Quaker teachings in favor of being sufficiently popular that she could affect political policy at an early age — which is not to say that she was wrong to do so, at any stage, so much as to say that the author who adored her at every point in her development wasn’t being rigorous enough for even my 8-year-old self).
In short, despite a complete lack of Quaker belief to condemn her, I found myself doubting her, the author, and an entire genre — simply because she was praised even more as her principles became more fluid…).
As a result, I formed a life-long belief that “faction” (that particular book called itself a “biography”), can be dangerous.
Had she been a character in one of your novels, I have no doubt that you would both have been easier on her, in illuminating the society in which she lived, and harder on her, by showing the choices she had to make to maintain both her position and her part in our Nation’s development. The fact that she didn’t reside in Paksworld has, over time, and after reading your books, given me patience and understanding for someone “faction” almost ruined for me.
IOW, thanks for helping me understand politics, even when I agree, disagree, or despise the people involved by helping me understand just a few of the demands on a monarch.
I wouldn’t want to stand in Kieri’s shoes for a moment and that was before… (spoiler suppressed for everyone who’s waiting for the paperback).
Comment by Karen — August 23, 2012 @ 5:57 pm
KarenH,
I hope you don’t mind terribly what I said. I don’t know if you know the origin of our name, but it has weighed heavily on me over the years: Karen is the Danish name for Catherine, which mans, “Pure.”
I used to think it was corny, silly,… just a name.
I have come to terms with my name having defined my freedom and my character — in the best way possible (which is not to say I think I’m a goody-two-shoes at all).
Either way, you may have the truth of being recognized by our surname by our generous author, or we can fight at dawn for the extra letter (I have absolutely no idea under what terms I might win, so, if you wish, I will concede…).
Comment by KarenH — August 23, 2012 @ 6:08 pm
Thanks, Karen naming coincidences can happen like that. They are fun to discover.
Elizabeth,
I didn’t intend to start a political discussion. But I can see, after the fact, that I let one of my hot buttons, get into my comment when what I was really meant to say was that with everything going on in your life, was that we all need to take some time to working on staying in balance which it sounds like you are doing with your conditioning program.
Sorry. I hope your life stuff settles down. It sounds like this summer was one thing after another.
Comment by Mollie Marshall — August 26, 2012 @ 2:38 pm
The US political scene, at least as reported in the British press, almost makes one despair. The sanity of Ms Moon’s comments in MoonScape goes some way to redress this.
Enjoy your break at the Con, don’t overdo things, and return invigorated!
Comment by Richard — August 28, 2012 @ 1:33 am
I don’t suppose the politicians now in Tampa deliberately chose their venue so as to be as far away as possible from all the wonderful real people going to ChiCon?