In which the author checks in

[rolanni]

What on earth has the woman been doing? you ask.

Well, in-between getting thrown out of our house on a semi-regular basis in order to allow strangers to come through and upset the cats, and compiling a list of houses that we think might be possible to shift to, when the Time for Shifting is upon us. . .

Allow me to digress for a moment -- we have a list of houses from low-cost to what we consider to be the highest mortgage payment we can afford (which is still manymanyMANY dollar$ below what the bank, in its financial wisdom, says it believes we can afford).  Houses keep coming onto and being voted off of the island, with the exception of. . .two, I believe, which have been there from the beginning.  Sadly, both are at the top of what we can afford.

The low-cost houses are generally in edgy neighborhoods and tend, as a class, to be ugly.  The high-end houses sure are pretty, but there is perhaps something to be said for not buying a house that our furniture will embarrass.  One of the things in common with all the houses, however, is the presence, in the kitchen, of a dishwasher.   This is particularly poignant as one of my early morning tasks today was to wash the dishes I didn't do yesterday because I was writing.  I have never in my life owned, or used, a dishwasher, and I do wonder how I'll know that I'm working without the validation of that sink full of dishes.

Well. . .changes.

So -- back on topic -- mostly what I've been doing is writing.  Dragon in Exile is due at Baen on September 15.  We sent a partial -- about 71,000 words -- to the cover artist, and I'm pleased to let you know that David Mattingly will be doing the cover.  We're now up to, oh, 76-ish,000 words in the "final" pile.  I still have some stuff to write, in addition to having about 15,000 pre-written words in the bag, so we're on track, even though the hood's still up, there are pieces strewn all over the floor, and it all looks a fright.

I took a break yesterday to watch the stream of the Hugo Awards Ceremony from LonCon 3.  The stream was flawless (there was some crankiness because the film clips were not available to the stream, but, given last year's bot-driven fiasco, I think the LonCon committee made the right choice).  For those who did not attend, or watch the ceremony, the final Hugo Award List is here.  Congratulations to all the winners!

And, now, having caught y'all up; I need to go Serve Feline Kind by cleaning the cat fountain, and then?  I need to do some writing.

What've you been doing that's fun and interesting?

* * *

Progress on Dragon in Exile:  GOOD/Author satisfied

"I must sleep more often," Val Con said.  "Only see what prodigies I inspire."

Comments

[6-penny.livejournal.com]

I put a dishwasher in for the house resale challenge. It sure makes a nice drying rack. To use it efficiently I would have to fill it up, and as I am a tiny household, the washer would be fermenting and evolving new civilizations before it was filled - and yes I do like to cook.
As a dish drying rack it works, and saves counter space.
It also is handy for sterilizing jam jars in canning season!

[amm-me.livejournal.com]

There are dishwashers and dishwashers. Some (many) require you to rinse off every particle of food before you load the dish, or it is still there stuck on at the end. Those that handle this problem better tend to have very long cycle times. I live by myself. and prefer a daily hand-washing. But if I have let the sink accumulate into a ziggurat, or had a dinner party, then I'm very glad to load it up and push the button.

[ariaflame.livejournal.com]

I'm a volunteer at our local Observatory (astronomical, not ornithological) and we had a training meeting tonight where a local IT guy gave us a talk on the Antikythera mechanism and showed us the one that he made of Lego inspired by an Apple employee who did one a few years back.

(The original was a cog based mechanism built oh about 100BC to predict solar and lunar eclipses)

[attilathepbnun.livejournal.com]

Aaah! So they're *finally* figured it out?! HOW?!?

[ariaflame.livejournal.com]

X-ray tomography. Apparently it allowed them to read some of the script engraved on parts of the mechanisms. Back in 2006. http://archaeology.about.com/od/bronzeage/ss/antikythera.htm seems to have a history of the process.

Of course the Lego ones aren't exactly the same because Lego cogs don't come with the precise number of teeth that the Antikythera device had, so he had to use some gear drivers.

There's a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLPVCJjTNgk) of the Apple dude's version on youtube.

[attilathepbnun.livejournal.com]

Oohh, that is so cool!!
And I am so terribly behind on this sort of thing!

Thank you so much for that link!!! *follows link*

[melita66.livejournal.com]

Courting Magic by Stephanie Burgis. It's a new novella in the Kat, Incorrigible series. Previously, I was trudging through Dark Lightning by Varley. Thirty percent in, and most of it has been info dump. Ugh.

[ebartley.livejournal.com]

Over the past month or so, I've discovered Overdrive now works and plays nicely with Kindle and applied for library cards from the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library, and the Queens Public Library, all free for everyone who lives or works in New York State. I have the first two and need to go to a Queens library branch in person to present my NY state driver's license and pick up my card. (I work full-time and have two kids, which is why it may take a couple weeks and why being able to just download ebooks from the library is so exciting.)

I'm not overly interested in Kindle Unlimited, simply because most of what I want to read is unavailable, but I'm very glad it was loudly announced and prompted me into checking out online libraries; last time I checked was years ago and library ebooks didn't work well with the Kindle. (If anyone else is interested, it looks to me as though the best deal for SF&F is the Philadelphia Free Library non-resident library card for $50/year, with the Brooklyn Public Library non-resident card not quite as good for the same cost.)

[sb-moof.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip about non resident cards. I'm a member of San Francisco public and Sacramento public. Both also open to any person in the state as long as you pick up your card in person. Next time I visit LA, I'll try to get a card there too

[amm-me.livejournal.com]

Overdrive and also Hoopla (another library service) also have lots of audiobooks (free!) These play well on my computer, though the Hoopla app on the android phone is a bit buggy. I haven't checked to see if either has the Books of Liad, since I already own *them*.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

When I was house shopping, my criteria was One level, natural gas heating, 3 bedrooms, two bathrooms, a double car garage, and a dishwasher... the garbage disposal was nice to have ...

fingers crossed on the house hunting and the house selling.

[rdmasters.livejournal.com]

What interesting stuff have I been up to?

Baking and photography. Sometimes the two have been related!

The photography has been for the 2014 Weekly Photo Challenge over on Google+. We get a new theme each week, and try to provide a new photo for that theme. I've been a little behind, so I played catch-up over the weekend, which resulted in a shot of some almond blossom, and a very weirdly SFish migraine-inspired long exposure as I travelled down a traffic tunnel. (I was the passenger!)

The baking was for a baking contest at work, with the results sold off to raise money for the RSPCA. We ended up with dozens of cakes to sell, but only four entrants: A strawberry tart, a white-chocolate mud cake, a stunning four-tier chocolate torte, and my mini Persian Love Cakes. Naturally I took photos there, too.

I am very proud to say that my gluten-free cakes not only held up against three professional-grade entries, but actually won. Now I go up against twenty more entrants for the state finals!

[pedanther]

On Saturday, I strapped on roller skates for the first time in years to go skating with friends. That was both fun and interesting, though there were points when some of my leg muscles were of the opinion that it was just a bit too interesting for their taste. And I only really fell over once, right at the end.

Then we had dinner and watched a Robin Williams movie on my friends' home cinema set up. (It's definitely a home cinema, not a TV: I'm pretty sure the screen is taller than I am.)

[catherine ives (from livejournal.com)]

Need to find a house sometime soon I hope so the cats will have their new home.
I don't understand dishwashers. Everyone seems to have one but they also seem to carefully wash all the dishes before putting them in the machine. Doesn't make any sense to me. I don't have one and so only have to wash the dishes once and put them in dryer rack instead of then having to load them in a machine after washing and then haul them out again when finished.