I shall clasp my hands together and bow to the corners of the world

[rolanni]

Yes, I'm re-reading Bridge of Birds for the mumblety-leventh time.

The weatherbeans have reinstated snowpocalypse, in anticipation of which, The Leewit is even now taking on electrons.

Here at the Cat Farm, we've had a leisurely start to the day. Steve created breakfast, and we drank coffee sweetened with the last of the whipped cream while watching the snow. I chopped onions and put them in the freezer, and took down the 2009 kitchen calendar, which I retire with real regret. Many thanks to the Semites on Bikes for a. . .decorative. . .year.

Hexapuma has decided that the bottom shelf of my bookcase is being underutilized as a place to stack magazines, and has repurposed it into a cat cubby by the simple but effective expedient of pushing all of the magazines onto the floor.

Our plans for this Friday include some work, and some play. Mozart's already started on the work part, and is snoring gently on the rocking chair.

I hope everyone has a lovely day.

Comments

[brock-tn.livejournal.com]

Somehow I'm unable to think of reading about Master Li and Number Ten Ox as anything other than a useful way to spend some time.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Cat cubbies, like a motion to adjourn, take precedence over all other business.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for the brief glimps into your psyche for having the SOB calendar, and mine for being tickled by the thought.

Happy New Year.

Judy

[alicebentley]

It's almost exactly 10 years since I sold out of the omnibus volume I published of the three Hughart books. Did you nab one back then?

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what I have, signed by Mr. Hughart and by Kaja Foglio. I don't think I ever thanked you for doing this edition; I had managed to miss the books when they first came out from St. Martin's.

[alicebentley]

The second and third volumes were published by Doubleday-Foundation, in a hard/trade deal that had a much better advance than Del Rey or St. Martin's offered. Unknown (at the time) drawback - they printed barely enough to cover initial bookstore orders, and so of course now the computers think that sales were terrible. I've heard that less than 1,000 copies were printed of The Story of the Stone, in a time when a normal midlist HC run was 10K to 20K.

"Disappointing sales numbers" meant that not only was Doubleday not interested in a fourth book, but no one else was either. He hasn't written anything else (that I know of) since.

My primary motivation for taking on the project was to have something else to offer fans of Bridge of Birds (still in print from Del Rey) other than "Yes, there are two other books. No, you can't have them."

Recently Subterranean Press did a very nice production of the three books as well.

[otterb.livejournal.com]

Thank you for mentioning that! I checked a stack of the Retrieval Artist books - which I've somehow never read - out of the library, but moved too slowly; my husband is now halfway through the first one, and I'm forbearing to steal it from him. But I bought the Subterranean Hughart omnibus some time ago, set it aside for later reading, and I think I even know where it is. Marvelous.

By the way, a connection of sorts: I first heard of the Hughart books back in the late 90s. They were recommended to me by the Alexlit website, which also recommended Hellspark, and a series of books I'd never heard of from these folks named Lee and Miller. Excellent choices, all of them.

[brock-tn.livejournal.com]

Ah, I wondered what had happened with the books, and why there were never more than the three. I managed to get all three in paperback, then jumped all over the signed omnibus edition when it came out.