Paksworld

I was very overdue for a visit to the eye doctor–Stuff keeps coming up–but since my husband needed to see one with some urgency, we made matching appointments and I had the full “do” today.  As I suspected, I’m getting cataracts, but they’re in the early stages.  Everything else is healthy.   I need new glasses (which I was pretty sure of, too.

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Two days with no posts to this blog…o woe.   But it’s been a busy two days for me, and I offer up the following excuses.   Finishing (through several drafts) the required annual wildlife management report for the county tax appraisal district and turning it in.  (For more details, see the 80 acres blog.)    Then there was son’s first week of college, with some unexpected bits that aren’t even given on my autism-related blog or LiveJournal account.   And the essay I’m working on for the Texas A&M SF exhibition based on their large collection.   And the blog entries my publishers would like me to do on their sites.  And prep for ConDFW.    And prep for the release date of the new book. Read the rest of this entry »

Though it’s not about Paksworld,  Graphic Audio is doing the audio books of the Vatta’s War series, and they’ve put up an interview with me as a podcast on their site.  It’s big–138 Mb, roughly–so don’t try this unless you have broadband.

On the Graphic Audio site, click on RSS Feeds (Podcasts), then on Radio Show, which presents you with a list of podcasts, each of which has a “play now” link.  My interview is the Jan. 2010 podcast.    If you’d rather have a direct link, one of my friends found this. I haven’t indulged yet (working on essay on tight deadline) and I don’t remember what I said…

When I did the chapter-by-chapter summary of Book 2, in order to produce a one-paragraph summary for Editor, I discovered that chapter 15 was missing.  Completely.  As if someone had cut it out.   I had a vague memory of what was in it, but it wasn’t there.  That suggested that I’d revised it separately at some point and then cut the old and failed to past in the new.  But…where was the new?   Had I lost it somewhere?  Read the rest of this entry »

Well, folks, it was 10F overnight, which is pretty chilly by any standard.  It’s been colder than that here, 25-30 years ago, but hasn’t been this cold for just about that long.  I didn’t sleep well, imagining more pipes going out…but did solve a minor writing problem while lying there wanting to sleep, so that’s all to the good.

The day has been thoroughly involved with the broken pipe and attempts at repair of same, hauling water to use in the toilets (from our son’s house), and caring for critters.   I also made it out to the near meadow this morning when it was dead still, quite cold, and beautiful.  There are some pictures–of the sawn-off pipe dribbling water,  some frost-flowers,   the horses–at the 80Acres blog.    Some of the shapes of the ice were odd and interesting on both the house ponds and the near meadow water, but between the temperature and the angle of light and not having put on boots…I didn’t get good ones.

There’s a lot of chilly weather around, including down here in the middle of Texas…before the front hit, early yesterday morning, we were having a fairly balmy 50-something-degree F. night.   By dawn, we were down some degrees, and by early afternoon, when I was trying to hang out laundry in a cold wind, the laundry was freezing to the clothesline with amazing speed.  (Smelled really good when I brought it in, though!)  Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, yes, I’m neglecting this blog.  Yes, I posted to the 80 Acres site in between posts to this one.   (I found cochineal scale all over one prickly pear–if you’ve ever wondered where the gorgeous natural red dye that once made the “redcoats” of the British Army came from, take a look.)   So Monday was basically a rest day, except for a little work on music–which “rest” involved not so much rest as catching up on non-book work.  Tuesday was voice lesson and choir rehearsal, plus a long chat with our lawyer about guardianship changes we might make for our son.    Wednesday was music work (the rehearsal Tuesday having shown up problems) for the evening’s Epiphany service, plus (in between) more non-book work.    Read the rest of this entry »

Today we had no choir duties, so we went out on the land and did stuff.   Transplanted water irises out to various wet spots, hoping they’ll naturalize and be beautiful and also provide a place for spread-wing damselflies to lay their eggs (they oviposit into emergent vegetation of the right kind.  Irises are ideal.)  Read the rest of this entry »

To all who celebrate, Merry Christmas.

At Wednesday’s rehearsal, when I found out a choir member was retiring after 34 years from the National Guard–and is a MSgt–I thought of how much I’ve enjoyed this woman in the years I’ve known her, and how well her character would fit into the book.   So I asked.  She’s delighted.

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Today I had three projects going…well, I had three projects I was supposed to be working on at once, but I really don’t have a three-track mind anymore.  Read the rest of this entry »