Five Things on the Summer Solstice

1. It's cloudy, windy and damp, highs predicted around 65F/18C. Summer in Maine; you gotta love it.

2. Yesterday, we built one bookshelf, today we build another. Who would have thought that a folding bookshelf needs two people (with optional coon cat) to assemble it? I can't wait for the chest of drawers.

3. A late-reporting beta reader noticed a discrepancy in Mouse and Dragon that got past everybody else, most notably the authors. Will fix this morning and send in Amended Manuscript. Embarrassing, but not as embarrassing as having the Wrong Thing get into print.

4. I got a raise at the day-job! Something under ten bucks a week. Before taxes.

5. Remember! Tuesday is Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Day.

Books Read in 2009

Narbonic Six, Shaenon K. Garrity
Conspirator, C.J. Cherryh
Thirteenth Child, Patricia C. Wrede
Nine Years Among the Indians, Herman Lehmann, J. Marvin Hunter, and Dale F. Giese
The True Meaning of Smekday, Adam Rex
Edison's Eve:  A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life, Gaby Wood
Undone, Rachel Caine
From Dead to Worse, Charlaine Harris
Shambling Towards Hiroshima, James Morrow
Codespell, Kelly McCullough
Cybermancy, Kelly McCullough
Carousel Tides, Sharon Lee (manuscript)
Fine Prey, Scott Westerfield  (re-read)
Web Mage, Kelly McCullough
Uhura's Song, Janet Kagan

Progress, in a sidewise direction

The second bookshelf, it is built. The coon cat, having shown us how the first one went together, left us on our own.

We, were, of course, Humbled By His Trust.

Not only is the second bookshelf built, it is now in place and has books on it. It's downright amazing how much floor space is in this office when half of it isn't covered with knee-high piles of books. Mind you, I have only one (short) shelf empty, so there are more knee-high piles of books in my very near future, but for the moment, I can dance.

Metaphorically speaking.

Tomorrow, perhaps, the chest of drawers will be built and the Stuff from the hutch of the old desk can be stowed in it, opening up Even More Floor Space. I have alas, given up hope that Hexapuma and I can build the chest of drawers all by our onesies. We'll need Steve for this, you betcha. Lucky Steve.

The building marathon has illuminated how my brain works, though not necessarily in any useful way. I mean, I know, intellectually, that I'm a Converted Lefty and thereby have Severe (and Comical) Spatial Issues. However, it's rarely given me to know that the reason I can't put together the drawer that is exactly like the drawer I just put together with no problem is because, as I said to Steve, "It's in the wrong direction." Interesting insight, but not ultimately useful, since it was, yanno, in the wrong direction and I couldn't even Begin to think about how to orient it, or me, so I could actually understand what I was seeing. Argh. And a tip of the hat to the Sisters of Mercy.

For those playing along at home, the amended manuscript went in to our long-suffering editor this morning. The Fix added about 600 words, meaning that Mouse and Dragon now weighs in at 115,000 words.

And, now, back to untangling my office.

Edited to ask: Does anybody know how to get the address label off the front of the New Yorker without doing violence to the illustration? I love, love, LOVE the space-guy reading among the litter of the planet, and want to be able to hang it up and love it forever.